KitchenMaidShipping: Brock x Autumn

"Oh man, it's so busy today!"

Autumn fretted as the café was bustling with visitors today. There must have been some kind of festival or big event going on in the next town over in order for them to be getting so many passerby today in the restaurant.

She and her sisters, Spring and Summer, were swapping off on duties. Right now, Spring was handling the food and desserts, Summer was in charge of register and taking orders, and Autumn took care of the drinks and serving. Autumn was doing all right by herself, but she had only wished that she had some extra help.

Man, I don't think we've ever been so busy before, Autumn thought as she grabbed a tray of two banana splits. She rushed to bring them to the back table, but she caught her foot in the welcome mat near the door and stumbled forward.

"Oh no!" she yelped out, having no way to catch herself. She tried to hold onto the tray as best as she could, but it was no use as it flung from her grip into the air. She closed her eyes bracing for impact, but ended up slamming into someone instead of hitting the ground.

"O-oh," she didn't even hear the tray crash into the floor or the shatter of the glass bowls. She peeked around the person she had bumped into to spot a familiar face catch the tray of desserts.

"A-Ash!" she gasped.

"Whoa, that was a close one!" Ash chuckled as he held out the tray to her. "Hello, Autumn."

"Then…" she glanced up to meet eyes with the person she had just collided with. "B-Brock!"

"Hey, Autumn!" the tall, dark-skinned boy she had feelings for was now standing before her with a huge smile on his face. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I am," she felt her cheeks heat up. "T-thank you."

"Autumn, what are you doing?" Summer called out to her. "We're running behind!"

"S-sorry!" Autumn snatched the tray from Ash and ran it to the designated table, apologizing to the patrons for the wait. She ran back by Ash and Brock, now noticing Dawn standing behind them. "We're really busy today."

"I can see that," Brock glanced around the crowded restaurant. "You guys look like you could you some help."

"What?" Autumn raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I mean, yes, that would be great, but you don't have to…"

"Don't worry about it!" Brock waved his hands. "We just stopped in for some dessert, but we don't have anything else going on. We can offer a hand." He turned around to face his friends. "Are you guys okay with that?"

"As long as I don't have to dress up in something embarrassing again," Ash muttered.

"It's fine, we don't have time for that!" Autumn said. "Just grab an apron and I'll assign you somewhere."

The group of four headed to the back, where Summer was about to hand a tray of food to Autumn. Her eyes widened when she spotted the three people behind her. "Ah, Brock, Ash, Dawn! What are you guys doing here?"

"No time!" Autumn said. "They're here to help. Where are the extra aprons?"

"Um," Summer reached under the counter beneath the register and pulled out three aprons. "Here you go," she handed them to the trio. "Well it's great that they're here. Let's switch off again. And the dishes are starting to pile up, so we need to get started on those as well."

"I can do those," Dawn raised her hand.

"Great!" Summer clapped her hands. "Spring can take care of register, Ash and I can serve food, and Autumn and Brock can handle preparing the food. Sound good?"

"Yes," everyone agreed. They spent the next minute getting into their assigned locations.

Autumn and Brock agreed on their tasks in order to get things running smoothly; he would handle the desserts and cooking the meat for the burgers while she would cut up the lettuce, tomatoes and other fruits.

She wanted to talk to Brock and catch up on how he had been since they had last seen each other, but with the rush she didn't want to fall behind so she kept silent and stayed focused.

There wasn't any time for breaks, either. They hadn't even gotten another chance to switch off and Autumn was beginning to tire of cutting the fruit.

My arm's starting to hurt… she thought, her cutting speed starting to slow down as her arm grew heavy.

And then in an unfortunate mishap, Autumn missed the tomato and sliced her finger.

"Oww!" she winced and dropped the knife.

"Autumn!" Brock spun around and rushed to her side. "Are you okay?"

"I-I cut my finger…" she teared up as her finger began spewing blood.

"Oh my gosh, that's a bad cut!" he grabbed a clean towel from the end of the counter and threw it over her finger. "Do you have any bandages?"

"I think there's some by the register," Autumn said, trying not to cry. She had cut her fingers many times before, but this may have been the worst of them all.

"I'll go get you one, just hold on!" Brock dashed off to go get a bandage. She held the towel tightly over her finger so as not to get blood everywhere.

"Ugh, Brock must think I'm pathetic…" she frowned. "Crying over a stupid cut. I should be tougher than this…"

Brock returned a minute later with Spring right behind him.

"Autumn!" Spring rushed to her younger sister's side and Brock began unwrapping the bandage. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'll be fine," she chuckled, trying to ignore the pain. "It hurts a bit, but I think I'll be all right."

"Let me see your finger," Brock said as Autumn removed the towel from her finger. "It's still bleeding pretty badly. Let's wrap this around it pretty tight." He carefully held Autumn's injured hand in one of his hands while slowly and skillfully wrapping the bandage around the wound with the other. Autumn held as still as possible for Brock to be able to apply the bandage correctly, but mostly because she couldn't believe he was holding onto her hand. His soft, caring hand…

"There, I think that's good," he finished. "Is it too tight?"

Autumn examined her finger. It was still in some pain, but it was wrapped perfectly and there wasn't any more blood running down her finger. "No, it's just right! Thank you so much."

"That's great," Brock smiled. Autumn wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and grinned in return.

"Autumn, are you going to be able to continue?" Spring asked. "Do you need to take a break?"

"No," she shook her head. "Everyone's working really hard, so I should, too."

"Don't overdo it, Autumn," Brock said. "It's okay if you need to take a break."

"It's all right!" she cheered. "I promise it's okay. Maybe I'll just switch with someone."

"Can you handle the desserts?" he asked. "I can probably handle the meat and the fruit."

"Yeah, that's fine," Autumn replied, walking over the ice cream machine. "I've got this covered!"


"Ah, finally closing time!"

Autumn leaned over in one of the booths in the dining room. "I'm so tired!"

"Everyone did a great job today!" Summer said. "We're really glad that we had Brock and his friends to help us!"

"No problem!" Brock said. "I'm glad we could be of assistance."

"Well, we all need to clean up, but it's been a long day and we need a break. Let's grab some food and chill out for a bit."

"I'll go whip some stuff up for everybody!" Autumn cheered, finally excited to get a break but wanting to make some food for everyone. Especially Brock. "What does everyone want?"

After taking everyone's orders, she rushed to the kitchen to get started on the burgers. Right when she was getting ready to set the meat on the stove—careful not to use her bandaged hand—she heard someone walk in.

"O-oh, Brock!" she gasped, not expecting him. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to check on you," he said. "You've been working really hard all day, and even after cutting your finger you still offered to cook food for everyone. You're really dedicated, aren't you?"

"Y-yeah," she smiled warmly. "I just didn't want to feel like I was helpless or useless just because I injured myself."

"That's not true, Autumn," Brock said, walking up to her and placing his hand on her shoulder. "What happened was just an accident. None of us would have blamed you if you wanted to chill out for awhile. But you carried on anyway, even though you almost sliced your finger in two! That's pretty awesome and I commend you for it."

"R-really?" Autumn beamed at Brock's kind words. "T-thank you."

"Does your finger still hurt?" he asked.

Autumn held her bandaged finger out. "It's better than it was earlier, but it still hurts a litt—"

Autumn paused when Brock suddenly leaned forward and kissed her finger. Her whole face turned beat red and she almost shrieked but her voice caught in her throat.

"There, maybe that will help?" Brock smiled and patted her on the head.

"U-um, uh…" Autumn couldn't think straight. "S-sure…"

"C'mon, let's make this food for everyone!" he exclaimed, rolling up his sleeves and washing his hands over the sink. "I'm sure everyone is starving!"

"Y-yes!" she said, returning to place the meat on the stove. Even though she was exhausted, she had enough strength left to make a meal for Brock and the crew.

Maybe later she could offer to eat the special Couple's Banana Split together with him.