Trails - Chapter 22

Hi guys, sorry it's 1 day late - I thought I hit publish last night before I passed ou-went to bed at a reasonable time, but I did not. Apologies and I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again!

Also, if you haven't already, please give my Honeyfeed x MAL 2023 entry, The Comfy Life of Retired Heroes, a read.

Thank you and enjoy!

********************************************************************************

Even though Ace had gone on a date with Alexis before, this time, he was more nervous and had ended up coming overdressed.

He was wearing a smart grey suit and trousers with a white shirt, the jacket open and the top button undone, and he had spent ten minutes alone combing his hair.

Ace was ashamed and embarrassed by his own appearance, which was much, much worse when he saw and heard people walking by mocking and laughing at him.

“Why did I come dressed like this?” He mumbled.

Unfortunately, it was far, far too late for him to change into something more casual and he would just have to endure the embarrassment.

“Sorry for the wait,” A gentle voice called and Ace’s jaw dropped upon seeing her.

Alexis had never looked as beautiful as she did now.

She was wearing a light blue dress and ballet shoes with a matching handbag as well as a silver ring and bracelet. The pendant that Ace had bought her hung from her neck and she had done her hair nicely in curls unlike normal. Ace could even tell that she was wearing a little bit of makeup which looked like it had been skilfully applied.

“Um, please don’t stare so much,” Alexis shyly said, her cheeks slightly red. “If I look weird, then say so.”

“No, you look great!” Ace quickly denied, before covering his mouth.

Alexis’s embarrassment faded in an instant and she slyly grinned at him. “Eh, do I look that good?” She giggled. “Thank you.”

Ace blushed and turned away from her.

“So, shall we get going?”

***

Ace threw the bowling ball with all of his might and it curved right into the gutter, making Alexis giggle behind him.

“You suck at this,” She teased, leaping up off the seats.

“It was a one off,” Ace mumbled, sitting back down. “Everyone has at least one bad throw during a game of bowling.”

Alexis smiled and picked up a bowling ball. She moved over to the edge of the line and began lining up her shot. “Yeah, most people do. But.” She grinned and threw the ball down the line and landed a clean strike, before spinning on her heel to face Ace. “I don’t.”

Ace frowned and folded his arms, making her laugh again, and he let out a sigh of resignation.

“That was a lucky shot,” He grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” She said dismissively. She leapt back into her seat and nudged him in the side. “Your turn.”

Ace smiled smugly and stood back up. “Watch this.”

He picked up a much heavier bowling ball that the one he had used before, then walked to the line and begun carefully lining up his shot, determined not to make a fool of himself once again. Ace took a deep breath, closed his eyes and then they flew wide open as he made his throw.

The ball curved along the lane and knocked down a single pin in the right corner.

“Wow. Amazing,” Alexis called in a monotone voice.

Ace scowled and picked up another ball as the pins were reset. “I can still come back from this!”

Alexis smiled wryly, looked up at the scores, and shook her head.

She had two hundred and thirteen points.

Ace had fifty and he was on his second to last throw.

“Yeah, I believe in you, Ace,” Alexis mused, stifling a small laugh.

***

Ace was, to put it simply, upset.

“Hey, a lot of people aren’t good at bowling,” Alexis said somewhat sarcastically. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“There is when you get beaten that easily by your only opponent,” Ace moaned, before sighing. “I didn’t know you were so good at bowling.”

“Ajax and I went bowling often and I got quite good at it.”

“So, I had no chance right from the beginning?”

“Yeah.”

Ace slumped his shoulders. “Dammit.”

He perked up again as they passed the arcade and a chance for redemption presented itself.

“Hey, Alexis, what do you say about having a rematch?” He asked, stopping his march and thrusting his thumb into the arcade.

“Sure, sounds good,” She replied. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, um…” He trailed off and then said, “I’ll decide in a moment.”

The two of them went into the arcade and it was largely devoid of other students at the moment, practically giving them the entire place to use. Ace lead Alexis around the room as he quickly tried to find a game where either he would have an advantage in playing it, or Alexis would have a disadvantage in playing it.

He inadvertently smiled upon seeing the air hockey tables.

“How about a game of that?” He suggested, pointing at the table.

“Air hockey, huh?” Alexis asked, before smiling. “I haven’t played this in so long.”

Perfect! Ace cheered in his head.

***

Ace slumped onto the table as Alexis cheered and thrust her fist into the air.

“Yay! I won!” She screamed, smiling brightly.

Not only had she won yet again, but Ace had lost even more spectacularly than when he had lost to her at bowling.

In bowling he had at least scored a point.

“This game sucks,” He muttered, slowly pushing himself back up.

“Hmm, I wonder?” Alexis purred, smiling smugly at him. “Maybe it’s just because you suck at it.”

“N-No, it’s just a dumb game that doesn’t take any skill to win.”

“If that was true, then how comes you didn’t manage to get a single point?”

“Because…that’s right! You cheated!”

She looked at him doubtfully. “Cheated? At a game that doesn’t have any skill to it?”

“Your speed! You must’ve used it and that’s why you were much quicker to react to what was happening than I was.”

“So?”

“You really were using it?”

Alexis nodded and grinned. “Even without it, I’d beat the shit out of you.”

Ace smiled angrily back and inserted more coins into the machine. “I highly doubt that!”

***

After Ace had lost the second game without getting a single point, again, the two of them had gone to get lunch at a nice restaurant, before going window shopping at one of the larger clothing stores in the centre.

“Thank God we weren’t betting,” Ace whispered, letting out a sigh of relief.

“I’m not sure how much of a comfort that is for someone who’s pride has been wounded this much in a single day,” Alexis teased.

“It would take more than losing to you in some silly games to hurt my pride.”

“If you say so.”

Even though the shop had hundreds of different types of clothes, Ace hadn’t found a single piece that he liked the look of and, as Alexis hadn’t stopped once to look at any outfits, she must have been thinking the same thing.

“Ah.” Alexis stopped and stared at a cream knitted jumper.

She smiled sadly and slowly walked over to it, gently running the fabric through her fingers.

“I didn’t know you liked things like this,” Ace said.

“I don’t,” Alexis replied. “Stephanie did.”

Ace’s expression twisted and he turned away from her.

While Alexis had long since recovered from her friend’s death, there were times when Alexis’s mind would wander back to Stephanie and, in those moments, Ace never knew what to say to her. Even though he had been by her side as she’d recovered, Ace had only ever talked about himself and asked ‘Are you okay?’ ever so often so not to upset her, so he didn’t know what kind of person Stephanie was.

Ace’s eyes quickly shot around the shop, trying to find something to change the subject to and he smiled.

“Hey, come with me for a second.”

He took her hand and lead her over to a row of shirts and pulled off a nice pink shirt and held it against her.

“Yeah, looks good,” Ace said with a bright smile.

“You think?” Alexis asked. She took the shirt and eyed it up and down, a doubtful look on her face.

“Try it on and you’ll see.”

Alexis sighed and nodded.

She went over to the changing room, drew the curtain and, a minute later, stepped out, blushing a little.

“How does it look?” She asked nervously.

Ace smiled. “Great.”

Alexis became redder and she smiled bashfully. “Then, I’ll go buy it.”

“Okay.”

She went back into the changing room to change, a bright and grateful expression on her face.

***

The sun had begun to set as Alexis and Ace’s date drew to a close.

After Alexis bought the shirt that Ace had picked for her, they had spent the rest of the day window shopping, before hitting the arcade one last time and playing for a few hours.

Now, they were walking home along the path beside the lake which only had a few other students and guards walking along it.

“Ace, have you ever thought about giving up competing with me?” Alexis jokingly asked, a smug grin on her face.

“I was just having an off day, that’s all,” Ace replied, making Alexis laugh. “It’s not my fault when the game glitches and prevents me from winning.”

“Yeah.” She stifled a laugh. “Who knew air hockey had glitches?”

“That was just pure luck!”

The two then walked in silence for a few moments and Alexis’s eyes shifted to the lake.

“Hey, do you know the story of the girl on the lake?” Alexis asked and Ace shook his head. “People say that if you come to the lake’s shore in the middle of the night when the moon is out, you can see the image of a young girl standing on the water, looking lonely and staring at the passers-by with envy. Some people think that she died with some regrets and so was bound to the water until that was fulfilled.” She winced, a sad smile on her lips. “That would be pretty sad if that was true, right?”

Ace stopped walking and stared off to the lake, a stern look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Alexis asked, spinning to look at him.

“Alexis, I love you.”

She turned bright red in an instant.

“Huh?” She screamed, inadvertently stepping backwards. Then, she laughed nervously. “A-Ah, I get it! You were just trying to cheer me up or something, right? Because I asked something so-”

“That’s not it,” Ace said. He stared into her eyes, his cheeks slightly red and his hands shaking. “I really do…like you, and…I want you to be my girlfriend.”

Alexis was too stunned to reply right away.

As the words slowly sunk in, Alexis let out a sigh of relief, smiled and gazed back at Ace.

“I love you, too, Ace,” She said.

The two of them slowly, and awkwardly, walked towards one another and took each other’s hands.

“Your hands are sweaty,” Alexis whispered.

“So are yours,” Ace mumbled.

“Hey.” She poked his cheek. “That’s a rude thing to say to your girlfriend.”

“I never said it was a bad thing.”

She giggled and brought her face closer to his. “Thank you.”

The two of them pushed their lips together and shared a long, romantic kiss together, their happiness overpowering their embarrassment.

They broke apart and started into each other’s eyes lovingly.

“You know, you could’ve picked a more romantic way to confess,” Alexis said.

Ace laughed nervously. “Sorry, but…I didn’t want the day to end without saying how I felt.”

“Well, I’ll forgive you.” She pressed herself against his chest. “Because it’s what I wanted to do today as well.”

***

With a heavy sigh, Jasmine pushed the front door open and carried in four heavy shopping bags with her.

It had been her turn to buy all of the food shopping for the week and, rather than do it in small, manageable chunks or ask someone else to help her with it, Jasmine had been determined to get it all at once and bring it home by herself.

She kicked the door closed behind her and heaved the bags into the kitchen, placing them on top of the counter.

“Welcome back,” Eric called, walking over to the kitchen, a thin paperback book in his hands. “Do you need some help with that?”

“Sure. Thanks,” Jasmine replied.

The two of them sorted through and put away the shopping together in silence, with neither of them sure how to break the awkward atmosphere between them.

“Um, Eric,” Jasmine stammered.

“What?” Eric asked back.

“Would you, um…” She turned away from him, took a deep breath, and then blurted out, “Would you go on a date with me?”

Eric dropped the bread loaf he was holding.

“Huh?”

***

Kasmine tapped impatiently on her desk, an angry look on her face, as she stared at the door, waiting for her ‘guest’ to show up.

When she had arrived, she didn’t even bother knocking on the door.

“I’m honestly surprised that you’ve shown up, given how you know how this will go,” Kasmine said coldly.

Kiara laughed nervously and gently closed the door behind her. “I mean, it would’ve been rude to ignore the summons of the Headmistress.” Kiara smiled sadly and walked over to Kasmine’s desk, taking a seat. “I also know that I deserve this.”

Kasmine let out a heavy sigh upon seeing Kiara’s upset face and leant back in her chair. “You promised me that you wouldn’t go out of control and then you lost control. Twice.” She spat that last word. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to cover up for you all of the time, not to mention how dangerous it is for you and those around you?”

Kiara meekly nodded. “I…know.”

“Then why didn’t you drop out?” Kasmine demanded, slamming her hand on the desk. “You knew that you couldn’t control it in the Single’s and yet you kept going. Then, after that, you transformed into your True Form in the Team Tournament and almost completely lost yourself to it. I shouldn’t have to remind you that if you’d done that in a real fight, you’d have lost your mind.”

“…I know.”

“I don’t think you do.” Kasmine stood up and walked around behind Kiara, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know that it’s difficult for you to handle it, given how recently you got your Vampirism, but if you end up getting someone else or one of your friends killed, that will be entirely your fault.”

“…Hey, Kas…”

“What?”

“…Is there…any better way that I can…control it…?” Kasmine shook her head. “I see.”

“Kiara, I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it is for you to control your powers,” Kasmine whispered, hugging her from behind. “I know that it scares you when you lose control of yourself and I know you’re scared that you’ll end up hurting someone you care for as a result. I’ve tried my best to accommodate for you and will continue to do so, but, should you lose control for real and hurt or kill another student, you will be faced with far, far harsher punishments than a stern telling off. Okay?”

Kiara nodded and leant back into Kasmine’s hug. “Thank you, Kas.”

Kasmine closed her eyes. “You’re very welcome. Now.” She broke away from her and slapped her shoulders. “I’ll have to cut this short because I have a lot of work to do, so I’ll leave it there for today.” Kasmine sat back down into her seat and smiled softly. “I hope that you don’t push yourself too much and slowly use more of your power instead of just jumping into the deep end.”

“I will!”

Kiara leapt up from her seat and flew all the way home.

Once there, she flew back up to her room and found Kaida sitting on her bed, browsing on her phone.

“Kaida!” She yelled, leaping at the other girl and wrapping her arms around her.

“Huh? W-What?” Kaida cried out, confused and taken back by Kiara’s sudden hug. “W-What’s wrong?”

“Kaida, can I ask you for a favour?”

“What?”

“Would you please let me continue to drink your blood and help me get more used to my powers?”

Kaida smiled and held her back. “Of course.”

Kiara smiled and nuzzled herself against Kaida’s chest. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”