Embarrassment

The annual Pokémon League Gala: an event where champions, Elite Four members, and gym leaders from every region were invited for an evening of fine wine, food, and a chance to mingle with some of the most recognized trainers in the world. The event was always held in a different region and this year, it happened to be in Hoenn.

Steven Stone was never fond of events like these. Usually, he preferred to leave halfway through, or not even attend such events at all. Of the previous times that he did attend, his decision was only from the constant pestering and chronic persistence of his old friend, Wallace.

To his dismay, however, this year he knew that it would be his responsibility to attend and stay for the whole evening as the reigning Hoenn champion. And as champion of his home region, he would have to make the opening toast and welcome all the visitors.

Needless to say, he was not looking forward to it at all.

As his limo came to a halt in front of the grand hall where the event was to take place, Steven took in a deep breath to steel himself for the night's festivities. Upon stepping out, he was immediately met with an onslaught of flashes and chattering voices by reporters and fans lining the red carpet before him. The media was going to be buzzing with stories the next day, with the latest gossip of who wore what and who this person came with – it sounded like complete mayhem to him.

Steven sent polite smiles towards the many cameras as he walked down the carpet (these events were quite fancy) and into the building. Many guests and attendees were already inside, a few of them even stopping by to greet him when they recognized him.

"Steven Stone."

He felt a large hand suddenly clap him on the back. Steven turned around to see the two faces he recognized to be the father and son gym leaders of Sinnoh: Byron and Roark.

"Decided to come out of the cave for tonight, huh?" Byron asked with an easy-going grin.

Steven chuckled at the lighthearted jab. "Indeed," he replied. "Though, as much as I would like to be digging for rocks right now, it is my duty as champion to attend any important evens like these." He held out his hand. "It's good to see you again, Byron."

Byron nodded and shook his hand. Even through the tight material of his formal wear, Steven could see the gym leader's bulging muscles which most definitely did not suit him at all. Luckily he wasn't the only one feeling out of sorts to be attending the evening's gala.

Standing right next to him, Roark was craning his neck to see through the many faces passing through the main lobby. "Where is she…?"

"Son, if I didn't know any better, I think it would have been appropriate to have arrived with Gardenia as her plus-one," Byron told his son.

"She told me she'd meet me here and I didn't exactly want to argue back," Roark replied, still looking away. Suddenly his eyes widened, and a smile of relief came over him. "Ah, good, she's here!" He turned back to the other two. "Sorry, looks like my date's arrived. It's good to see you again, Steven, and good luck on your speech tonight."

Steven gave his best regards in return before watching Roark weave his way through the crowd, disappearing from sight in a matter of seconds.

Byron grinned. "Ah, that kid's head over heels for that girl," he mused as he crossed his arms. He then nudged the Hoenn champion with his elbow. "What about you, you got someone you're waiting for tonight?"

Steven shook his head. "Oh no, nothing of the sort," he replied. "To be honest, I'm just waiting for this night to be over with."

"Well, well, and here I thought someone like you would have already been caught up in a relationship," Byron commented. "Guess I shouldn't judge a book by its cover."

"The only love I have right now is my dedication to my hobby and being this region's champion."

"Speaking of hobbies, how goes that expedition of yours to finding a meteorite?" the gym leader asked with a hint of wide interest in the subject. "Any luck so far?"

The Hoenn champion could only sigh wistfully. "Truth be told, it's been difficult," he said. "I'd heard rumours of one somewhere in Meteor Falls but I have yet to find anything. Still, there are areas I haven't searched and –"

A sudden clearing of a throat behind them caught Steven's attention. "Excuse me, Mr. Stone?"

The champion turned around. "Yes?"

"The opening introductions are about to start, we need you on stage soon," a worker of the hall, judging by the headset and clipboard they were holding, informed him. Steven felt dismay but nodded in understanding.

"Of course, my apologies." He turned back to Byron. "I'm sorry, Byron, perhaps we can continue this conversation later?"

"Don't sweat it, kid." He patted Steven's shoulder. "And don't choke up there, y'hear?"

With that, he walked off to enter the main hall area as Steven followed after the worker.

Twenty minutes later, with a clapping audience marking a job well done, the Hoenn champion gave a toast to all the trainers in the room, and hastily stepped off the stage once his speech ended. With one task down, his next objective was to just make it through the rest of the night – a task that was easier said than done, in his eyes.

A series of congratulations were in order as he walked past many familiar faces, everyone giving them their praise over his smooth speech on the podium. He thanked them all and was about to head over to where Byron was speaking with Crasher Wake and Clay, when a woman happened to pass right by him. His only reaction was to suddenly stop and stare.

Though Steven did not catch her face, looking at her retreating figure brought about a swirl of Butterfree from within. The woman had back-length platinum blonde hair – but judging by how it was currently styled, it was probably much longer than that - where a series of curls cascaded down freely. She wore a flowing, black gown that seemingly accentuated her figure. And from what he could see, the back of her dress dipped low, revealing much of her back whenever her hair swayed to expose it.

He felt heat rise to his face as he continued to stare at the unknown woman, walking alongside one of the members of the Sinnoh Elite Four whom he recognized to be Bertha.

Unbeknownst to him, however, were the watchful eyes of his fellow colleagues who had been observing the entire scene in front of them.

Crasher Wake could only howl with laughter when he could not contain it any longer at the sight of Steven obviously star struck by the blonde who passed him by. And it was Wake's laughter that brought Steven out of his state of reverie, finally noticing all three men wearing amused expressions. His face instantly started to burn with colour from embarrassment at the display they very likely just witnessed.

He was never going to live this down.

"Someone caught your eye, Mr. Stone?" Clay teased the Hoenn champion, who slowly brought it in himself to walk up to them finally.

Steven's head was in total shambles at this point, unable to fight through the embarrassment of what had just occurred. "I-I…that is…"

"So, Cynthia's caught your eye, eh?" Byron's voice made Steven look his way.

"Cynthia?" he asked.

"Yeah, she's the new champ of Sinnoh," he replied but Steven only stared at him, confused. "She beat Rowan a few weeks ago, didn't you hear?"

That would explain why he did not actually see the pokémon professor among the sea of faces tonight.

"No, I'm afraid I didn't," Steven admitted. He never was one to pay much attention to what the tabloids and such had to say nowadays.

"She's a strong one, I tell ya'," Wake, who seemed to finally recover from his laughing fit, chimed into their conversation. "I remember it like it was just yesterday when she took my poor Floatzel out with that powerful Garchomp of hers – who was only a Gabite at the time. Completely annihilated my team when she won my badge."

Byron grunted in agreement. "It was no surprise to me that she would make it far," he said. "She's got a lot of talent."

Steven's gaze had roamed off to find the new champion once more, only to realize that he had lost sight of her through the crowd of people. He frowned slightly and turned back to find them all staring at him again.

"What is it?"

"What're you thinking, Champ?" Clay asked, crossing his arms. "'Love at first sight'?"

The champion blanched in bewilderment at the accusation. "No! Of course not, I haven't even officially met her," he retorted, not knowing his words would result in chaos – at least in his eyes, it was chaos.

Byron and Wake exchanged a conspiratorial look with one another and smirked knowingly.

"How about we go introduce you to her, right now?" Wake suggested, with a devilish grin.

Steven paled even more. "W-Wait, what?" he said. "No…no I assure you, that's not necessary –"

"Nonsense, the night's young, ain't it?" Wake interjected, clapping Steven on the back just as Byron flanked his other side and started to weave themselves through the crowd. "I've been meaning to congratulate her on the recent win anyway."

Steven's situation was terrible. Absolutely terrible. In no way was he prepared to introduce himself in his currently flustered state. "I think I hear Wallace calling me, actually –"

"Ah, I think I see her."

The Hoenn champion had never wanted to face palm himself as badly as he wanted to, in that moment.

Byron was already calling out to her when panic started to settle in. How could he have gotten himself into such a mess on a night like this?

The Sinnoh champion, Cynthia, turned around at the call of her name, and time seemed to stop for the Hoenn champion as he took in her features finally. Never had he witnessed such a stunningly attractive face as hers before. Her long fringe hid one side of her face, but she looked at him with eyes the colour of a storm that had him frozen in a trance-like state. Steven's face could not get any more red. She was the epitome of a goddess, in his eyes.

"Cynthia! Congratulations on becoming Sinnoh's new champion!" Wake applauded her with a high sense of recognition. Byron returned the sentiment just the same.

Steven only stared.

Cynthia smiled kindly at the them. "That's very sweet of you, Wake, thank you," she replied. Arceus, even her voice was captivating.

The Hoenn champion felt Byron nudge him forward. "By the way, Mr. Stone here was hoping to introduce himself to you this evening," he added.

Steven deadpanned at his words. When her gaze set on his own, he froze once more. He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

But thankfully, Cynthia's eyes lit up with recognition and she directed her warm smile to him. "Oh, Mr. Stone, that was an excellent speech you presented earlier. You certainly have a way with words."

"Ah, thank you." He cleared his throat to recover from his stupor. "Though, it wasn't all too impressive," he replied sheepishly.

"Nonsense, I think you did a wonderful job," she praised him. "It's an honour to finally make your acquaintance."

Behind Steven, Wake looked at Byron and jerked his head to the left, giving him a signal. Byron subtly nodded in understanding.

Wake cleared his throat loudly. "Oh my, is that Clay over there, drinking a little too much wine they're serving tonight?" he said in an all-too-obvious fake tone of surprise.

"Why, I think it is, Wake," Byron agreed in a similar fashion. He turned to the two regional champions and waved. "I think we need to help out our old friend back there. Pardon our interruption." His last action was to send Steven a wink before the two gym leaders left in a flash.

From there, Steven was unfortunately left to fend for himself in front of the Sinnoh Champion. Where was the smooth confidence he needed?

After a moment of silence passed, he turned back to Cynthia and smiled weakly. His thoughts were all over the place as to what he should say or do next. But he had the aching feeling that with each ticking second he stood there, he'd end up leaving a bad impression on her.

And so, he went and said the first thing that could only come to mind, to start a conversation – which he realized was a completely foolish decision only after he said it.

"So…do you like rocks?"

Steven used his rock obsession! It's not very effective…

Or is it? (I'm lame, I know…)

Hello to all! I've wanted to write something for these two for the longest time, and I think I've finally found the motivation to do it after finding a list of prompts. I won't say how many but it's A LOT. I may be crazy enough to have thought that I could do this, actually. Alas, I'm actually pretty excited to start this big project. I've got most of the chapters all planned out and sticking to the game plan is going to be my goal. Be warned though, there isn't really a definitive plot to this fic; not much conflict of good guy vs. bad guy or anything of the sort. It's more like a series of oneshots starting from the time they meet, so I apologize if you were expecting some full out adventure to occur between these two.

It's been quite a long time since I wrote anything that I posted for this site (this will be my first ever Pokémon contribution!). Let's hope this motivation lasts. Thanks for reading!