Cynthia looked over the list of ice cream flavors and toppings, quickly checking off mentally what she had already tried. They were relatively the same as back in Celestic Town, so why not just have her favorite?
"Chocolate-strawberry Swirl, please," she turned to Steven, knowing well in advance what he was going to order, Rocky Road.
Normally they went to either Rustborro City or Sootopolis City for their Hoenn dates, both locations of course having specialty ice cream and, Steven's favorite, rock candy. This time he had insisted Mossdeep City, saying the ice cream was much better than other places in the region.
Steven paid for the ice cream and gave Cynthia her Styrofoam bowl. They ate as they walked back to his house. "They make it with rock salt. That's what makes it taste different." It was the second time he said it, the first time he had spoken too quickly. The taste was subtle, but made it comparably different from the other ice cream Cynthia had had, and the texture was so much smoother and creamier.
Cynthia gave him a side-hug, his head barely coming up to her shoulder, "Thank you for bringing me here."
Steven's house wasn't hard to tell apart from the others, it had several rock gardens in the front, each in the pattern of the dots of Regice, Registeel, Regirock, and Regigigas. That, and Aggron and Garchomp were napping together in the backyard.
Steven opened the door for her and followed her in. Nothing had changed much aside from new additions to the rock collection, the newest being the unusually pale Dawn Stone and the very dark Dusk Stone Cynthia had given to Steven for his last birthday. She would have given him a full set of birthstones, but was planning that for Christmas instead. Steven's Aron dozed in its small bed in the corner. It lifted its head, blinking sleepily.
Steven cleared two spots on the couch so they could sit down, the mess consisting of research papers of Mega Stones from the Kalos region.
"Have you been to Kalos yet?" Steven asked, once again speaking a little fast.
Cynthia shook her head, "Not yet, but I have a few friends that live there. Garchomp's sister lives at the Pokemon Lab to help with the research of Mega Evolution." She petted Aron when it came up and tapped her foot. "You're going to go back soon?"
"I plan to," he said, "There are some Mega Stones I'd like to find." He laughed lightly, sounding nervous. Aron stared at him, blinking a few times and sighed, shaking its head. "It's a beautiful region, and…" his voice trailed off. Aron hit his foot and grunted. "I was wondering if you would like to come along, because…." He trailed off again, looking away from her.
"Steven," Cynthia said, getting him to glance at her, "You've been nervous all evening."
"No I haven't." He looked back at Aron, desperate. Aron sighed, rolling its eyes and walked back to its bed.
"Yes you have. You've never been this nervous for as long as I've known you." He twitched in response, "Steven," she had to stop this before he gave himself an anxiety attack, "The answer is 'yes'."
He sat there, not noticing when Aron set a small box on his foot, "You knew?"
"You can still ask if you want to."
Steven picked up the box and moved to the floor on one knee, "Cynthia, will you marry me?" He opened the box, revealing a Mega Stone that he had shown her a picture of, one that would allow Garchomp to Mega Evolve.
She smiled, "Yes."