Volkner shaded his eyes from the harsh sunlight, and wandered towards the Poke Center. He tried to keep a low profile, avoiding as many interactions as possible, but yet again, fate had already made other plans. He felt a hand on his shoulder, jerking him away from his destination.

"What the-" He fell silent when he saw who's hand it was.

"What do you want?" Flint glared at him.

"An explaination." He dragged him along a path that Volkner knew all too well, the path to his apartment. He walked along with him, knowing from doing it too many times, that by now he was too late to escape. Now, he was forced to actually deal with the problems he (hadn't) caused.

"What do you want me to explain? Why the Board doesn't trust me?"

"Don't bullshit me, Volkner. I'm sick of it."

Silence followed them to the small apartment, Flint mumbling a small "sorry" when he fumbled for his keys outside the door. Once they were inside, Volkner took a seat on the massive couch occupying most of the room, while Flint walked over to the small kitchen.

"I made tea. You want any?" Volkner threw his head back to make eye contact with his friend.

"I want to go home." Flint walked back into the main room, setting mugs in front of both of them.

"Well, the rest of us want you to be a responsible adult, but look where we are." They glared at each other and sipped their tea.

"If you're just going to tell me for the thousandth time that I'm killing myself, save your breath."

"If you listened, maybe I wouldn't have to." Volkner rolled his eyes.

"You know, I'm getting a bit of déjà vu."

"When are you going to start taking this seriously? When they stop pitying you and you're finally permanently removed from being a gym leader? When you end up in the hospital? Or are you going to keep making snide comments until you're six feet under and the rest of us have to bury you there?" Volkner swallowed the lump in his throat, staring down at his tea. He started to get nauseous.

"There's nothing that will put me there." Flint stood up.

"When are you going to take a look at your life and realize that you have a fucking problem?!" Volkner stood up, locking angry eyes with Flint.

"My problem is you people trying to help when I don't want or need help." He turned around, walking towards the door.

"Volkner, hold up- c'mon, just talk to me!" He followed Volkner out into the hallway, but Volkner didn't acknowledge him, and before he could do anything, he had already slipped through his fingers yet again.