Primary: ! #$.
The Trade:
Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh, 12 pm…
Diamond crouched in front of the oven, peering inside to see how the cookies were coming along. So far so good! And they smelled so good, he wanted to eat them right now. But no. These cookies were not for him, so he could only taste one or two at most.
He stood up straight and stepped towards the kitchen sink to begin preparing the next items on the list. He rinsed the pile of strawberries and apples and set them on the cutting board. He picked the knife best suited for slicing fruits and began to handle the strawberries first. Cutting and handling the fruits didn't take much time, so within a couple of minutes, they were nicely diced and piled up, ready for the next step.
Diamond rinsed the knife clean and put it away just as he heard a knock on the door. He tilted his head, wondering who it could be. Based on the knock, it wasn't Pearl. It was soft and quiet enough that it sounded like a girl knocking on the door. But Platinum and Moon were both quite busy at the lab, so it wouldn't be them either. But then… who would be visiting him?
He walked over towards the front door and opened it up. And to his surprise, he could see White standing on the porch, looking around the peaceful town of Twinleaf. The girl heard the door opening and quickly turned to face him.
"Oh hey, White," Diamond said with a wave.
"Hi, Diamond," White said with a bright smile.
"I'm surprised to see you here," he said as he let her inside. "If you were here in Sinnoh, I would've figured that you'd be with the Lady."
"Well, I wanted to go see her, but her secretary kicked me out," White said with a short sigh. "Apparently Lady Platinum is quite busy today so she won't have any time for me."
"So what brings you here?" Diamond asked, heading back towards the kitchen.
"I'm here in Sinnoh to see if I can arrange some sort of Pokémon Musical promotion in Hearthome City, which won't be done within a single day, of course. But I really don't want to stay at a hotel this time around, so I wanted to crash with Lady Platinum but then her secretary-wannabe kicked me out…" She suddenly sniffed at the air, noticing the delicious smell of baked goods. "Huh… What smells so good?"
"Oh, I'm baking some cookies for the Lady and Moon," Diamond answered. "They've been busy for all week, really, and not just today. So I figured, they could use some tasty snacks to enjoy. I'll be baking a couple of pies for them afterwards too."
"I see," White said with a nod. "… But… for Moon too? That's… new."
"They're working together, so it's not like I can give just the Lady her snack while ignoring Moon, you know?"
"So what exactly are you making, then?"
"A batch of chocolate chip cookies and some peanut butter cookies for everyone, strawberry pie for the Lady, and an apple pie for Moon since she loves apples."
"You're even going to match her preferences too?"
"Of course. I don't want her left out, after all. The Lady gets her favorite pie, and Moon gets her favorite pie too. I don't want to give her a random pie that she might not enjoy all that much."
"Wow… you're so thoughtful and considerate…" White said with a low whistle, sounding a bit… wistful. "… They're so lucky…"
"Want me to make one for you too?" Diamond offered as he began to work on the pies again. "I can certainly do that for you, if you tell me what flavor of pie you want."
"Oh you will?" White asked, beaming in joy. "Well, I'd… um… I'd really like a cherry pie, if you have the time…"
"Cherry pie, huh? Certainly. I don't have any cherries on hand, but I'll just pick them up from the store on the way back after I deliver the pies to the Lady. But hey, you didn't answer my question, exactly. What brings you to my house?"
"Oh. Well… um… I was wondering if I could stay with you at your place for a few days, or until Lady Platinum isn't as busy," White said nervously. "I mean, I really don't want to go to a hotel again. I wanted to stay somewhere a lot more… homey? And with someone I know. So that means either you or Pearl, but… I don't want an earache as I already get enough of those in Unova."
Diamond paused for a bit. "Staying at my place, huh?"
"I mean… I'd imagine Lady Platinum has done this a few times too, so it wouldn't really be that different, would it?" White asked, sounding as if she was babbling a bit.
Diamond shrugged. "Well, I suppose. Sure, you can stay at my place." He pointed towards the living room. "The Lady insists on sleeping on the couch when she chooses to spend the night here. So I guess you can sleep there too."
White glanced at the small couch and raised an eyebrow. "Really? Lady Platinum sleeps on the couch?"
"She said there's no point in spending the night here if she was going to sleep on a comfortable bed."
White set her bag down next to the couch and shrugged. "I guess if it's fine for Lady Platinum, it's fine for me too." She looked towards the kitchen once more and could see Diamond moving on to the next stage of making a strawberry pie. She quickly walked back towards him. "Do you mind if I watch?"
"Not at all. Go ahead," Diamond said, making the pie shell and carefully adding the strawberry fillings. "But first… can you take the cookies out of the oven and place them on top of the stove?"
"Sure thing." White fetched the insulating oven gloves and pulled out the tray from the oven. She breathed in the delightful smell of the cookies and set the tray on the stovetop. "Oh, these cookies smell and look so good!"
"You can have one," Diamond said with a chuckle. "But… wait until they've cooled down a bit." He finished building the strawberry pie and moved on to work on the apple pie. "… And I guess I'll have one too. We can't eat too many of them."
…
An hour later, Sandgem Town, 1 pm…
…
Moon finished typing up a sentence and let out a long, quiet groan as she slumped over the keyboard. She was feeling so tired already… and hungry too.
"Is something wrong?" Platinum asked from behind, having heard the quiet groan.
Moon quickly sat up straight. "N – No. … I guess I'm just… really hungry."
"Yes, I am quite famished as well," Platinum said with a short sigh. "But we will be able to take a break soon and we can eat something then."
"But what are we going to eat?" Moon asked, sounding a bit grumpy. "The lab doesn't really have anything good…"
"Hmm… maybe we shall go to a nearby café," Platinum suggested. "But we shall decide that during the break."
Moon sighed and proceeded to resume working when there was a knock on the door. She frowned as she turned to look at the door, and let out another sigh of frustration when there was another knock. "Ugh. Is that White again? I thought I told her to scram hours ago…" She walked up towards the door and opened the door, looking quite annoyed. "Look, I told you already-"
"Hi, Moon," Diamond said with a warm smile, holding three boxes in his arms.
Moon simply blinked. "… Diamond?"
"Diamond?" Platinum said in surprise as well, quickly walking over towards the door. "This is certainly a pleasant surprise!"
"Hi, Lady!" Diamond said happily. "I came to deliver you some snacks!"
Platinum clasped her hands, beaming in joy. "Oh? What perfect timing! We were getting quite famished, and our break is coming soon!"
Moon's eyes sparkled as she excitedly looked up at him. "What'd you bring?"
Diamond walked towards the nearest table and set the boxes down. He took the first box and opened it up, revealing the chocolate and peanut butter cookies. "Here are some cookies for you to enjoy," he said, turning the box so that the two girls could see clearly. "Freshly baked cookies!"
"Oh, that smells so good!" Moon said, starting to drool just a little bit.
Platinum smiled happily as well, but waited patiently for her true snack as she eyed the other two boxes. Diamond quickly caught on and pushed the cookie box to the side and opened the second box. "Here you go, Lady! A freshly baked strawberry pie!"
Platinum clasped her hands together. "Ah, yes! Thank you so much, Diamond!" She smiled brightly at him. "You are so considerate as usual!"
Diamond smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, it's nothing, Lady."
Moon looked at the strawberry pie and a thought occurred. She glanced at the third box and looked up at Diamond expectantly, hoping that it was what she thought it was. Diamond gave her a nod and opened the last box. "And a freshly baked apple pie for you, Moon!"
Moon clasped her hands together for a brief moment as well just as Platinum had, before quickly separating them. She smiled happily and watched in awe as Diamond moved the box so that she could fully see its contents.
"Thank you!" she said, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the delicious looking apple pie.
"Please join us, Diamond," Platinum offered as she opened the boxes wide for easy access to their contents. "You brought so much for us. We should all eat together!"
"I'd love to, but I'm afraid I can't," Diamond said. "White's staying at my place and she wants me to make her a cherry pie. So I have to return home and do that."
"White is staying at your house?" Platinum asked, surprised. "I thought she would be staying at a hotel."
"She said she wanted to be somewhere homey. I guess if you stay at a hotel so many times, you kind of get tired of it." Diamond checked the time. "Well, I guess I should be going now. I don't want to interrupt your work, and I have to make that cherry pie, so… off I go!"
Platinum grabbed his hands to show her gratitude once more. "Thank you so much for the cookies and pies, Diamond. I wish you could stay and enjoy them with us, since you brought so much. We will not be able to eat all these."
"You could always share with Prof. Rowan," Diamond suggested, holding her hands as well.
Moon let out a sigh. "He should really cut down on the sweets…"
"Who should what, now?" came Prof. Rowan's voice from around the corner, as the professor came over to see what the commotion was about. His eyes widened immediately upon spotting (and smelling) the cookies and pies. "Oh, what's this?"
"Diamond has brought snacks for us," Platinum said, quickly letting go of Diamond's hands.
The professor quickly sat down at a chair by the table. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's eat!"
Platinum headed towards the kitchen area and returned with plates and utensils and Diamond sliced the pies to distribute them.
"All right, enjoy the cookies and pies, everyone!" Diamond said with a final wave, heading towards the door.
Platinum and Moon waved back at him and Prof. Rowan nodded at him while chewing a mouthful of cookies.
And now that the delivery to Sandgem was completed, all he had to do now was stop by the grocery store, pick up some stuff (most notably cherries), head on home and make a cherry pie for White. And after that, he was free to binge read some comics! … Unless White wanted to do something afterwards.
…
Twinleaf Town, 4 pm…
…
Diamond opened the door to his house and closed it shut with his foot, carrying a few shopping bags in his hands.
"White, I'm back," he announced, spotting his junior's short boots still by the front door.
But there was no response. He walked towards the kitchen to set the shopping bags down before heading towards the living room. He found her in the living room, lying on her side on the couch. He leaned over to look at her face, and noticed that she was fast asleep. Taking a nap, then? Maybe he should leave her alone then.
Diamond took off his thin coat and put it over her body so that she could use it as a makeshift blanket. He returned to the kitchen to store away the groceries that he bought, and took the cherries out towards the sink to rinse them. … Although… He checked the time. It was getting pretty close to dinner time. Eating a cherry pie would ruin the appetite! … No. He shouldn't make the pie now. He should make dinner first, and after that, the cherry pie as dessert.
Diamond took out a large pot and all the ingredients to make the planned dinner menu of rice cake soup. It would take about 45 minutes to finish, so by the time the soup was ready, it would be close enough to dinner time. And then before actually starting to eat dinner, he'd put the prepared cherry pie into the oven so by the time dinner was finished, the pie would be ready. Perfect timing!
In the living room, White turned over in her sleep, but she was blocked by the back of the couch. Seeing how her path was blocked, she tried to roll the other way… which unfortunately meant that she'd fall off the couch entirely. She felt her body in freefall and snapped open her eyes just in time as her left knee rammed into the small table in front of the couch.
White opened her mouth to scream from the sudden burst of pain but managed to keep quiet. Her lower half dropped to the floor so that she wound up on her knees while hugging the couch, one hand clutching at her knee while the other hand softly pounded at the cushions as she tried to fight off the pain.
"Ugh… who put that table there…" she groaned as she wiped away a couple of tears in her eyes. She climbed back onto the couch and checked over her knee. If she got a bruise from that… She gave her knee a gentle poke and winced at the pain. Yep. Definitely going to be bruised. Well, she could hope that it wasn't too noticeable, and that it would go away quickly.
She then noticed the blanket that was placed on top of her. She took it off to see what it was and softly gasped as she realized that it was a coat. Diamond's coat, no less, since… well, whose coat could it possibly be? For a moment, she sat there, as she couldn't think of what to do right now. This kind of thing was quite awkward, after all. … But… it was certainly warm… She slowly closed her eyes and pulled the coat closer to her heart.
"Hey, are you awake?" came Diamond's voice from the kitchen.
White gasped again and quickly dropped the coat. She spun around to glance backwards and to her relief, could see that Diamond was still working in the kitchen and so was not looking in her direction.
"Y – Yes, I'm awake," she stammered out quickly. She took her senior's coat again and carefully folded it and set it on the adjacent couch seat. She slapped her own cheeks to try to snap back into reality and rose to her feet. "How long was I asleep?" she asked as she approached Diamond.
"I don't know. You were asleep by the time I came back," Diamond answered. He looked at her and smiled once she was standing next to him. "How was your sleep?"
"Really good," White answered. "I haven't had a good nap in a long while." She blushed a bit and lowered her head embarrassedly. "Um… thank you for the coat…"
"Huh? Oh, don't mention it," Diamond said warmly. He returned his attention to the soup and stirred its contents once again. "It's almost done now."
White looked at the large pot on the stove. "That's our dinner? Oh, no!"
Diamond faced her in surprise. "What? What's wrong?"
White groaned and put a hand over her face. "Ohh… I wanted to watch you make it, and if possible, help out. I want to learn how to cook too, and I really wanted you to teach me starting with tonight's dinner…"
"Oh. Sorry about that. But you were fast asleep and I didn't want to wake you."
White noticed the pile of cherries still left untouched by the sink. "Huh. I don't see a cherry pie anywhere, so I assume you haven't started yet?"
"Yeah. We can't lose our dinner appetite because of that pie, so I'm saving that for dessert."
"In that case, can we make the pie together?" White asked.
"Sure thing. I'll be able to show you the basics of making pies, at least." He glanced at the ingredients already set up. "Hmm… I was going to start on making the pie now so that it'll be ready right as dinner finishes, but… I guess we'll start on it together after dinner."
…
"Ah, the dinner was so delicious," White said, sounding as if she was halfway to dreamland that wasn't the Dream World. "I haven't had a meal that good in so long…"
"I'm glad you liked it," Diamond said as he moved the empty bowls to the sink. "Now let's get started on that pie!"
White hopped up to her feet. "Yes! Let's do!" She jogged to the washroom to thoroughly wash her hands and returned quickly. "What do I do first?"
Diamond poured the batter ingredients into a large mixing bowl. "First… you have to mix this into a batter that we'll use as the pie shell. Here's the mixer, and… be careful. It has a strong recoil of sorts, so you'll have to hold it in place."
White took the mixer and noticed immediately that it was quite heavier than she thought. She turned it on and… the mixer spun out of control within a second, sending flour flying everywhere. She quickly shut it off and slowly turned to look at her senior nervously. "Um… oops?"
Despite the horrible mess made already, Diamond simply chuckled. "Don't worry about it. We'll clean all this up later." He poured in more ingredients to compensate for those sent flying all around and grabbed the mixer while White was still holding onto it, effectively holding her hands so that he could guide her. "Okay, so you have to hold it firmly, turn it on while it's in the air, and then once you have a feel for it, lower it into the batter and let it mix."
White gulped as the mixer went into the batter ingredients once more, but was relieved to know that it wouldn't compound the mess, and would actually do its job. She quickly eased up as Diamond's warm and gentle grip distracted her from the task at hand. At this rate, he would end up doing all the work without her, and… she was okay with that.
'Lady Platinum is so lucky…' she thought as she felt her eyes closing on their own. 'Diamond is so sweet, kind, considerate, and gentle… He doesn't run off to do his own thing while leaving you to clean up the mess… He's always so supportive and helpful…' "… You're so wonderful…" she mumbled inadvertently.
Diamond stopped. "You say something?"
White gasped and her eyes snapped open. And in panic, she tried to pull back and away from him. But since she was the one holding the batter mixer, she lost control of it immediately once more. In her desperate attempt to regain control, she accidentally hit the bowl with her hand, flipping it over towards her. With a loud shriek, she stumbled backwards from the batter mixture splashing onto her face and shirt, slipped on the flour spilled on the floor, and wound up knocking over the cherries and unplugging the mixer at the same time while falling into Diamond and knocking him over.
White shut her eyes and groaned as the physical pain and the pain to her pride hurt her, the latter hurting a lot more. 'Ugh… could this have gone any worse… Just because I'm with a comedian, I'm subjected to slapstick comedy level of chain of accidents?' She opened her eyes and through the batter mixture, could see Diamond's face inches away, half covered in the mixture as well. She gasped as she realized her predicament. She was now covered in moist and sticky batter mixture, lying on top of her senior, with her face just inches away from his. Oh boy.
"… Are you okay?" Diamond asked patiently while looking amused. He glanced at all the mess around him. "… I guess we're not having the cherry pie then, huh?"
White let out a nervous chuckle, but didn't move off of him, as this was… oddly comfortable. She looked to the side at the cherries that were now on the floor and took one. She dipped it into the more complete parts of the batter. "I guess this is as close as we're getting," she said as she took a bite out of the cherry, smearing the batter mixture over her lips. "… Good enough, I say."
"Well… sure," Diamond said with a chuckle. "But White, what were you saying before? I could've sworn you-"
White quickly stopped her senior by pressing a new cherry into his mouth. She kept it pressed onto his mouth until he stopped resisting and instead, began to nibble on it. And then without warning, she leaned in close and bit into the same cherry as well, biting deep enough so that her lips touched his. Diamond's eyes widened in surprise and tensed up, but White kept going, until she was effectively pressing her lips onto his while ignoring the cherry entirely. Diamond tried to push her off, but her batter covered arms were slippery and his hands ended up slipped just under her arms…
Just then, a familiar voice shouted from outside the house. "Diamond?! White?! Are you okay?!" And even as Diamond and White froze in terror at the fire that would inevitably befall on them for this inexplicable predicament, the front door burst open and Platinum and Moon quickly entered. "I heard a scream and the front door was unlocked, and-" Platinum's mouth gaped open as she stood frozen at the scene as well.
"What… what are you doing?" Moon asked, standing horrified, as Platinum's expression crumpled and a mix of distinct, recognizable emotions appeared on her face.
White groaned and clenched her eyes shut. "… Ugh… sh*t…"
To be continued…
Next up: Valentine's Day special! Mass fluff inbound!