In actuality, this chapter took me only ten days to write (despite this new update in under two weeks!). But it was a little difficult to upload since I have the conclusion to consider! Here's another fun fact: I thought of this chapter title before I even started writing the first chapter.

Now, how about some fish stew, Kelpsy berry soup, and matcha-flavoured chocolates for reviewers? DaX0315 (your patronage is greatly appreciated), Ou7X (uh... Caitlin won't be appearing; I just can't do it), and the other honoured guests? Yes, it was a pleasure to write about their lives away from cooking indeed.


Chapter eighty-seven: Casual Cooking

It was a Sunday morning, and it had been practically nine weeks since Cynthia and Steven met on that fateful day in Cyllage City, when Vue sur la Lune opened. How far their relationship had come since then! The past nine weeks had to have been the most turbulent and dynamic weeks of their lives. It felt highly unlikely that they would experience this ever again. Nine weeks!

But for what it was worth, they had a well-functioning relationship that came out of it, which was enough.

And Cynthia did not need reminding that she wasn't dreaming either, because she woke up slowly to find Steven sleeping by her side. He looked really adorable while he slept. Smiling, she brought herself closer to his shoulder, despite her usually long platinum blonde hair being kind of in the way. Good thing Cynthia made it a habit to never sleep on top of her own hair.

But hadn't she slept on the sofa last night? It occurred to her that Steven might have carried her to bed. Might have.

Then at some point, Steven tilted his head and his nose brushed Cynthia's, which caused him to wake up. Cynthia then saw his dreary eyes look into hers.

"Bon matin," he mumbled.

"Bon matin," she said back. She wanted to enjoy this moment a little longer. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes…" Steven replied softly. Though something else was on his mind. "Cynthia, I was wondering… How could you ever be attracted to me? I did plenty of… harsh things to you before. How and why?"

Rolling her eyes a little, Cynthia edged a little closer to his face. "Isn't it obvious? You and I have similar interests, we connect well over history, rocks, and battles, and you're my extremely handsome culinary rival. I love you, and isn't that enough?" she said. And to surprise Steven, she went up and kissed him, and he returned the kiss. After their lips separated, Cynthia suggested that they try one of the local restaurants for breakfast.


They had soon gotten changed and were wearing their disguises. Cynthia was wearing her 'Cindy' appearance again, wearing her sunhat, sunglasses, and a set of dark clothes, with her hair tied up in a ponytail once more. Steven had also donned his fedora again and wore a set of dark clothes. Granted, they both wore short sleeves, but one would wonder why wearing dark clothes was necessary in Undella Town. At least someone could conclude that they were of a type. And for the record, Cynthia decided to call Steven "Stevie" for the sake of disguise. Steven supposed he was fine with that.

And it felt necessary too, given their feat in achieving three stars together in the Richissime Guide meant their profiles would be under intense scrutiny. It was best to lie low for now, stay in disguise, and stay out of public attention. Even going to somewhere for breakfast here in Undella Town how to be treated with suspicion. Who could tell if the media might be close by, waiting to pounce on them whenever the chance came?

The local restaurants were located in a block of commercial buildings near the Pokémon Centre. Given that Undella Town was fundamentally a resort town, many of its buildings were vacation homes or villas located around the entire bay. Only in the midst of the town, which was the middle point of the bay, were the commercial buildings located. Aside from the clinic, there was a grocery store, a handful of restaurants, a post office, and a hotel. There was even a bakery. The commercial block was quite small, but Undella Town itself wasn't densely populated either.

The restaurant they had chosen for breakfast specialised in omelettes with some views overlooking Undella Bay. Then again, almost every building in Undella Town could see the bay, so it was just a matter of how close they were. For a restaurant located in the commercial block, the bay wasn't exactly in plain sight but was well within the commercial block. But it was still a local favourite. Steven had a seafood Kelpsy omelette, with slightly blue hues, and Cynthia had a mushroom omelette seasoned with Chesto berries. Neither omelette was exactly Richissime star-quality, but it still tasted phenomenal.

"Do you think you've rested well enough?" Cynthia asked Steven.

Steven was midway sipping a cup of hot lemon and honey water when Cynthia asked. "You and I definitely earned a vacation like this, but we obviously can't stay like this forever. Even if I wanted to. But since we're here, let's make the most of it." He put down his cup and then went to eat his omelette. Seafood flavour and the saltiness from the Kelpsy berries added a fragrant, ocean-like, air to his meal. "You know, I would like to spend some more time analysing those fossils we found. Who knows how long they have been around for?"

Cynthia nodded, midway through a bite of her omelette. "Maybe we could make some meals here, just for fun! We're living together for the time being, so how about making up some new dishes on the spot? It's like… a game."

Steven rolled his eyes. "Are you asking for another cook-off, Cindy? Because we know who the winner will be."

Cynthia lowered her sunglasses. Her eyes were a glare. "You're asking for trouble, Stevie." Then her face softened and she went back to her omelette, after putting her sunglasses back on. It was apparent that she was annoyed a little, but that could pass. She did not need reminding how much stress the cook-off gave her and she didn't even win. In a way, she did want some payback after losing out to him. But as far as she was concerned, Steven was as personally damaged as she was afterward. Guess that made him and her even, and he confessed to her after!

But she had other ideas, still.

In the next ten minutes, the two of them – still in disguises – engaged in a friendly one-on-one Pokémon battle on the beach. It was a somewhat explosive battle, with Steven opting to square off Aggron with her Roserade, with the rest of their Pokémon deciding to rest on the beach and watch the battle from the back. Out of respect for Undella Town's properties, Steven agreed not to use any Earthquake attacks. Even though the most the Pokémon did was to slam their fists or legs on the ground to release the shock wave, it might lead to complaints. And as former Champions, they knew that well enough.

It didn't seem like an exactly fair math as Roserade was much more mobile than Aggron could be, but there were other drawbacks too. Aggron was heavily armoured and could easily brush off Roserade's attacks. And since Aggron was resistant to poison-type attacks, that left Roserade with one less weapon in her arsenal.

And Steven's observation, Roserade was extremely dependant on special attacks. There was Extrasensory and Shadow Ball, and Roserade often ran circles around Aggron as she did that. It wasn't exactly easy for Aggron to track her movements, but at least Roserade's attacks did minimal harm.

But on the other hand, he had a problem of his own. Aggron only specialised in physical attacks and was considerably less mobile than Roserade, that and was handicapped in not using Earthquake. If he was going to have a chance of winning, he would have to find a way to bring Roserade closer. Come on, Steven, he thought to himself. He was a former Champion. He knew how to get out of situations like these, even if his opponent was a former Champion like himself.

He commanded Aggron to use Head Smash on the sand in an effort to change Roserade's location a little. The timing wasn't perfect, but the Head Smash was enough to intimidate Roserade to run in the direction of the water. Still, despite that, Roserade went forward and launched a direct hit with Energy Ball into Aggron's chest. Cynthia meanwhile wondered how much longer Aggron or Roserade could stand.

Could Aggron run out of stamina from the barrage of Roserade's attacks before falling over? Or would Roserade run out of energy before long? If nothing else, the battle had drawn attention from the people and Pokémon around them. Since it wasn't summer season, the beach was not busy, so this battle was probably the biggest form of entertainment that Undella Town had seen in days.

Aggron swiped at Roserade with another Head Smash as Roserade came close to use a direct Energy Ball attack. His attack missed and Roserade managed to score a direct hit on Aggron with Energy Ball instead.

Thankfully, Steven thought, Aggron had the endurance to stay standing. And that was when he saw an opportunity to land a direct hit of his own. He called Aggron to use Avalanche, so Aggron followed up by creating a shroud of mist in the space above his head. Moments later, Cynthia and Roserade realised too late what was going on when huge chunks of ice and snow – like an avalanche – came tumbling down on Roserade. Roserade, face full of terror, reacted too late when she took the chunks of ice and snow full force that she was practically left buried.

"You're getting rusty, Cynth- I mean, Cindy!" Steven joked.

Cynthia made an annoyed face. "Who would have expected your Aggron to know Avalanche?! You're hiding too many surprises!"

Soon enough, Roserade dug herself out of her snowy coffin and was back on her feet. She was shivering but had the energy to fight still. Quickly, she made her move by firing a Shadow Ball, which Aggron narrowly dodged by stepping aside. But what Aggron hadn't counted on was Roserade immediately rush forward with another Energy Ball, and given how she had escaped from a pile of ice, it was surprising how quickly she moved forward to get the Energy Ball forward. Had it increased her reflexes somehow? Or was it just a reaction?

Either way, Aggron had run out of stamina and had collapsed on the sand. Steven smiled, though, and recalled Aggron back to the Poké Ball. It had been a long time since Aggron had seen combat, and with a little more training perhaps he might get back to the level he once was. But Steven knew he was well past that time. Still, there was no harm in the occasional battle.

He walked up to Cynthia. "Well played, but you really wanted to get back at me from the last battle, didn't you?" he said. When Cynthia responded with a shrug, he knelt down to Roserade's level. "And you battled really well, Roserade. I see time hasn't had too much effect on your skills. So what do you say I make lunch for you?"

The prospect of lunch brought a smile to Roserade, which in turn caused Cynthia giggle.

As it happened, they had not much farther to walk to their villa. But in light of the possible media attention they might get, they dispersed quietly and met up there after.

Cynthia and Steven, now out of their disguises, decided on preparing a simple meal for lunch. Nothing too fancy or complex, they agreed, but they ended up buying a few more ingredients than they actually needed. Nevertheless, Steven settled on creating a soup with a base of salt, seaweed, green onion, and barley with a hearty mix of vegetables. And because the recipe was so simple, Steven could prepare a large pot and it could serve just about everyone.

While he was stirring the pot, Cynthia set about making what she called a 'spring salad', presumably named after the season. A mix of green salad, crumbled Bleu de Sud-Est cheese, olives, sliced beets, pepper, and cherry tomatoes was the basis of the salad. That was all mixed with adding a sweet-and-spicy vinaigrette made from Pomeg berries (store-bought, of course). Easy!

With ample time leftover, Cynthia set about making some treats. Using the same choux pastry as she did for croquembouche, she started making a serving of profiteroles – choux pastry balls filled with vanilla ice cream and served with chocolate sauce. It looked like she and Steven were about to compete over who got to make more food, but they restrained themselves. To make up for the space in the oven that Cynthia didn't use, Steven also prepared some buns – a throwback snack from his days in Hoenn. They were regular buns, but once baking was done, they would be seasoned with the leftover seaweed and green onion for flavour. He left Cynthia to put the buns in while he finished the soup.

It seemed like they couldn't have enough of cooking, so they made more, and they had the ingredients to do it.

Rolling up his sleeves, Steven kneaded a mix of rice flour and water with his bare hands several times in a bowl. The rice flour absorbed the water almost instantly so occasionally he added more. Cynthia meanwhile was in the middle of making another set of pastries but was using lotus paste as the main ingredient. It was a wonder they could find these two ingredients in the store in the first place! Ten minutes later, the smell of home cooking was evident in the villa again. Steven had molded his rice flour mix into miniature balls and had them cooking in a sweet soup while Cynthia's pastries were baking in the oven.

And shortly afterward, there was enough food for Cynthia, Steven, and their Pokémon to have one serving of just about everything. Never mind the many ingredients they had left over, Roserade and Aggron were happily eating their salads and soup with the other Pokémon. The soup tasted of flavours back home, whether Hoenn or Sinnoh. As for Cynthia and Steven themselves, they sat at the table facing each other. The soup and salad were ready to eat, along with the desserts they both made.

"Bon appétit," they said together, and then started eating. The food they were eating was relatively casual, and compared to their usual jobs it might have even appeared lacklustre. But this wasn't cooked to impress. It was only a casual meal made with simple ingredients just for homestyle enjoyment.

Then the two of them took out the fossils they extracted yesterday, spending time examining both. Cynthia at some point expressed her wishes to know how old these fossils had been around for, and Steven offered to analyse it on her behalf. They even talked about restoring the fossils to Pokémon if there was a chance! That was when Steven mentioned he had contacts at his father's corporation who might be willing to network him with local scientists here, whenever there was time. And Cynthia gratefully accepted that offer as she was eating her bun.

Watching from a short distance away, Metagross and Garchomp smiled. The two Richissime star-winning chefs, with similar interests in history, archaeology, and geology could go on and on in talking. Perhaps they were a good match after all. And on a further plus side, the food – as simple as it was – was comforting, like a mother's warm embrace.

After Steven had finished eating, he started on one of Cynthia's lotus cakes. It only took the first bite for him to realise it was not as he expected.

"It smells so sweet, but it's so salty inside!" he exclaimed. "You put egg yolk in here."

"That's the point." Cynthia grinned. "Something unexpected with a little twist. But you can't deny it tastes great too. It's fragrant, but tasty." She started on Steven's dessert too. The sweet soup tasted of ginger and Razz berries – a relatively spicy combination, but it tasted overall sweet. Cynthia suspected Steven must have added either sugar or honey to balance the spicy flavour, and it was refreshing.

And then the rice balls! That was the star of Steven's dessert. Thankfully Cynthia had a light lunch of soup and salad to begin with, because these miniature white rounds were filling enough on their own. They tasted like plain rice flour and were complimented by the sweet soup, but inside the balls were fillings of black sesame. It was then Cynthia realised the rice balls were thinner than she expected, because they were packed with fillings of sweet black sesame. It tasted amazing.

"It's so… sweet, but not sugary sweet," Cynthia remarked. "This is really good, Steven!"

"Aw, Cynthia. Thank you," Steven replied.


They decided to go for a walk while the Pokémon stayed around to get some rest. It was still a bright afternoon outside so spending time in the Undella outdoors sounded amazing.

The two chefs were walking along Undella Town's main avenue which stretched around the bay, allowing villas to be built around it. It was a quiet afternoon, with barely any people on the streets or the beaches, with the comforting sunlight surrounding the town and the sound only coming from crashing waves by the shore. It definitely felt similar to Cyllage City, though there was a lot more shoreline and the waves sounded louder.

Just like yesterday, they stayed quiet but simply enjoyed each other's presence. Just being in each other's company was great in itself, and they had no reason to complain for that. It was enjoyable for the both of them as they walked.

They could have kept on walking quietly all afternoon, until a young couple walked right by them from the opposite direction of the avenue. The young woman was quite pretty and her male companion had handsome looks that rivaled hers. "Salut, chef," she greeted.

"Salut," Steven and Cynthia replied automatically and then continued walking.

And then they paused abruptly.

First Cynthia made eye contact with Steven, who affirmed he was just as confused as she was. They recognised the voice but failed to connect the dots how that girl was even here. Wasn't their getaway to Undella Town supposed to be a secret? Or perhaps, were they in Cyllage City somehow or did Cyllage City come to them? Something wasn't right.

The two of them turned around and recognised the back of long black hair, under a trilby hat, that could only ever belong to Sophie. And then there was the back of brown hair that had to be Laurent's. Sophie and Laurent – here – in Undella Town? Something didn't make sense. And as if expecting them to do just that, Sophie and Laurent turned to face them with smiles on their faces. They waved to their bosses and invited them to come closer.

Both Cynthia and Steven still wore some expressions of surprise on their faces.

"How have you been, Steven?" Laurent said.

"L-Laurent?" Steven said, with his eyes darting to Sophie. "But how? I thought you and Sophie were back home in Kalos! What are you doing here in Unova?"

It was Sophie who answered. "Oh, it was Martine's idea. She thought that if you two are going on vacation, it might be a good idea that everyone else does too. The Richissime star has exhausted all of us, you know."

Cynthia made a face. "But we never told anyone about this. How did you know we were in Undella Town?"

And Sophie smiled again. "You can thank Martine for that. I thought you told her! Martine passed on this news to Lisia, who then told this to Wallace, and then Wallace invited us and a few others for vacation too. Except Monsieur James d'Arc, of course. He stayed behind to manage the restaurants."

Wallace. Of course. It was always Wallace.

And Cynthia, not just Steven, was afraid to ask the only question that made sense. "Where is Wallace now?"

Laurent smiled again too, whereas Sophie's eyes brightened. "Oh, venez avec nous. You'll want to see this," Laurent replied. "Especially you, Steven."

From the sound of Laurent's voice and the excitement in Sophie's beautiful, but serious, eyes, Cynthia and Steven guessed something big was happening. But if this was the case, just how many people came to Undella Town because of Wallace or Martine? Knowing either of them, there was bound to be a handful of people here. And not just because of Wallace's social circle.

So much for vacation time.

But as long as it was something that didn't involve them, there wasn't any harm in checking it out. What was Wallace doing here, anyway? Was there something he wanted them to see? Sophie and Laurent appeared to have the measure, and Steven guessed Martine must know too.


Leave a review, and enjoy the treats the chefs made here. Steven's seaweed and barley soup and Cynthia's spring salad for lunch, and Steven's ginger and Razz berry soup with black sesame rice balls and Cynthia's lotus cakes for dessert. This is first of the last courses here!

The conclusion of "Culinary Rivals" will come in... November, next month!