Happy new year! The real trick of writing this story was to not make it too long that it would be intimidating to read, but that's unavoidable now. At least I've figured out how to end it! Also, to Key321, sorry about the wait! And I see you've caught onto the story on AO3 already...
Chapter seven: Cynthia's Plans
Even though Geosenge Town was located as close to the coast as Cyllage City was, there were no beaches or waterfronts as part of the landscape. Instead, Geosenge Town was located in a valley, surrounded by mountains and forests looming over it. It really did look like the cozy small town it was known for. It had buildings no taller than three stories high, and a single road ran through the town.
But the snow hadn't let up on the town either. Perhaps maybe because it was rural town that there was more snow? Or maybe because it was near the mountains? Nevertheless, Geosenge Town's snow clearing system was more efficient than the cities. Municipal workers were constantly clearing out the town's main road so people had access. Snow had accumulated to knee-height in most places, but the main road was well-cleared and shoveled.
When Cynthia and Steven walked into town in the morning, the sky was once again a foggy gray and snowflakes that were once invisible transformed into thick white dots of powder when they fell. The rooftops were lined with a only one layer of snow, so there was no risk of snow falling off yet. Upon walking on the main road, listening to the crunching of snow beneath their feet, they went to look for the Pokémon Centre.
Conveniently, it was located beside the landmark of Hotel Marine Snow, and in fact the final round of the fundraiser would occur on the hotel's grounds. It was only a short walk to the Pokémon Centre to deliver the meals next door anyway, even if it meant walking through the snow.
"So where were you yesterday?" Steven asked Cynthia.
"Training, you know. It's a shame you weren't there," Cynthia replied.
Steven sighed. "But you didn't let me join…"
"But you know, Astrid is a very attentive student. She really has that bubbly vibe, doesn't she?" Cynthia said. "No wonder you smile every time you see her."
Astrid. Of course. It had to be Astrid who had to get in his way, huh? For once, Steven frowned at the mention of his pupil's name. Although he knew Astrid well enough that Astrid wanted every chance to battle, Steven couldn't help feel annoyed that Cynthia prioritised Astrid over him…
And speaking of, he actually saw someone looking exactly like Astrid near the side road. The platinum blonde was wearing purple, of course, plus she was leading a small group of five schoolchildren. Now that Cynthia and Steven got closer, they could see it was exactly Astrid. When their eyes met Astrid's, Astrid smiled brightly and waved.
"Bon matin!" she said. Snow fell on her hair.
"Bon matin," Steven greeted. "Babysitting, are you?"
"Not at all! I'm just tutoring them in the skill of battling. It's like a part-time job, you know," Astrid explained. "Say… I have an idea!" She turned to the schoolchildren. "What do you say we grab lunch? My mentor knows how to cook! And he and his friend there are the best."
Steven blushed, not expecting his student to flatter him like that. Yet he smiled after with Cynthia when the schoolchildren nodded expectantly at Astrid. When he looked at Cynthia again, she looked back, seeming to have the same idea as he did.
But out of the blue, Cynthia added, "It makes me wonder if she has a teacher complex with you…"
In her bones, ever since she saw Steven and Astrid interacting with each other the past summer, she wondered if that was the case, which it actually wasn't. But despite her own misunderstanding about it last season, she wondered if Steven had such sentiment.
To Cynthia's amusement, Steven jolted. "Wh-what makes you say that?!" he said, quietly enough so that Astrid couldn't hear. His initial blush got redder, and worse yet, Astrid came up to him closely.
"You okay, Steven?" Astrid said, smiling brightly with that infectious smile.
Steven honestly had no idea what to say, causing Cynthia to snicker. If things went her way, he would never view Astrid the same again. His cheeks blushed pink, causing Astrid to smile again.
With Astrid's permission, the schoolchildren were allowed a ride on the backs of Togekiss and Skarmory. The Pokémon didn't seem to mind since the children were relatively small and there was plenty of room to carry them. Neither did they tire either.
They walked quietly to the hotel grounds, where no crowd had gathered yet. Wallace appeared to try appealing to hotel guests into buying into his fundraiser, having told guests about his event. Plus, it helped that some people recognised him as a Pokémon Champion. Winona was helping with organising the cooking stations.
Arranged on the grounds, courtesy of the hotel, were many tables and seats complete with heat lamps all around. The tables, seats, and lamps may have been placed on snow but the atmosphere (figuratively and literally) was warm and welcoming. When the children saw the arrangement, their eyes brightened. They were grinning from ear to ear, and the chefs hadn't even started cooking yet. After Togekiss and Skarmory had let them off to get seats, Astrid sat with the children and invited the two Pokémon to join her.
Lisia smiled at the sight. Speaking to Steven, she said, "How did you bring that audience here? You trying to show off your love life to the young?"
Steven shot Lisia an irritated glare with wide eyes. Lisia was making herself seem as crazy as her uncle. "You're one to talk, my friend. But my student knows what's up." He saw Astrid wave at Cynthia. Now that he thought of it, wasn't Astrid being unusually supportive of Cynthia? Either way, he didn't mind Astrid especially when she came forth to put a few thousand Poké into the donation bucket. But… if she had a teacher complex, that might mean the end of him.
And soon enough he went to the cooking station to help Cynthia. "I was wondering if… well, you'd like to visit this town's historic landmark. You know, the ultimate weapon? It might look different in wintertime." He had hoped Cynthia might have time now. She went training with Astrid earlier, so she couldn't possibly be busy now!
Cynthia looked lost in thought. "Hmm… Should I accept, or not? You're making it hard for me. You see, Steven, I might have plans."
Cynthia sounded unusually playful. She must have something on her mind, Steven thought. Was it Astrid again? "Don't tell me…"
"I said I might," Cynthia grinned at Steven. "Hmm… I'll let you know what my plans are if you win. If we tie, then I won't tell you."
Now that sounded unusually playful. Was Astrid's bright personality rubbing on Cynthia now? Either way, Steven was annoyed if not irritated that Cynthia wasn't taking his question seriously! It occurred to him that maybe Astrid might be occupying Cynthia's time.
It appeared that Wallace had reverted to his original plan to have Cynthia and Steven fight it out on two different cooking stations but sharing the same floor space. It appeared that the media attention was focused on this being the final round of the fundraiser too. To save time, Cynthia started preparing a giant pot of Leppa berry stock for the both of them. Just like they did with the Razz, Wiki, and Tamato berries before, so did they do the same for the Leppa berries.
Leppa berries were known to have a finely balanced flavour like an Oran berry, except it was a little sweeter despite its well-rounded spicy, bitter, and sour qualities. Cynthia knew well that the smaller the berries, the tastier. So it was only fair that everyone gets the same taste of the stock. She added some salt and pepper to enhance the taste, plus a dash of Kelpsy berry extract. Meanwhile, Steven got started on making rice. There would be a lot of rice to go around, so he prepared multiple pots and cookers to do so. He expected there to be enough anyway, but it wouldn't hurt.
Because of the amount of time it would take to prepare the ingredients, they set about chopping onions together. Usually, chopping onions would sting the eyes and bring tears, but not to the chefs. They were used to chopping them, and there were a lot of onions to cut. After the first batch was chopped, Cynthia took over the process of cooking the onions, adding sugar and oil where she needed so they would cook well so they would turn brown, plus garlic for extra flavour. Then as she cooked them, Steven passed her more onions and chopped a whole batch more to be cooked.
Even though the air felt cold and crisp, such that it caused noses to sniffle and throats dry, no one could fail to notice the warm aroma surrounding the hotel like Sweet Scent. Skarmory, for one, perked up when he too could smell the Leppa berry stock filling the air, which Steven was making a lot more of. The snow may have been falling but it did nothing to stop the aroma from spreading. Along with Togekiss and also Roserade, Garchomp, and Metagross, he wondered how this round would end.
Yet Skarmory wasn't the only one to notice Steven had a sort of unusual look on his face. He either looked annoyed, jealous, or a bit of both. Would that hamper his cooking skills? Skarmory could already imagine what could go wrong.
And on top of all that, Wallace had made it almost impossible to cook and compete at the same time. He had not only fixed mistletoe at the service area again, but over every spot possible to cook and cut at the cooking stations. If desperation for romance could every be materialised, this was it. And it seemed almost forced.
Even so, while the two chefs were busily preparing for the upcoming lunch, Wallace wasn't concerned with the mistletoe at the moment. He was instead making a public announcement to anyone who gathered nearby. The media were filming him too, which helped.
"Bon matin, my friends! Glad you could join the final round of my fundraiser! You probably guessed this is a stunt to promote the love story between these two chefs, but you've all probably heard about it in the Richissime Guide, anyway!" he started. "Rest assured, you'll get plenty of that later…"
He didn't notice it, but Martine, Sophie, and Laurent did. Steven and Cynthia shot glares at Wallace. Was that really the best speech he could come up with? It was terrible.
"…but for now, please enjoy this competition as we prepare delicious meals for the Pokémon Centre first," Wallace added. "Either way, the score now is Steven is leading Cynthia by one. So either he wins, or Cynthia ties."
But mentioning that reminded Steven of his chat with Cynthia earlier. If he tied, Cynthia wouldn't tell him of her plans later. So in a way, there was something to lose out of this for him.
All eyes were on Steven and Cynthia to start cooking, with Wallace ready to give the signal. As more people gathered, some journalists have come to even record and film the event. Viola and Alexa, like they did at Ambrette Town, were recording the events, hoping to broadcast them the next day or even by tonight. Still, out of their generosity on one part and the prospect of a meal on the other, the sisters donated some five hundred Poké each to the fundraiser.
"Without further, let's begin, vous deux!" Wallace said to the chefs. Turning to face them, he then said, "Ready? Allez."
The sound of frying fish was a welcome one to anyone's ears in addition to the aroma of Leppa stock in the air. The two chefs opted to shallow fry the fish once they had been cut and wrapped in a coating of batter made from beer, egg, flour, and seaweed. It really did have the scent of the sea.
Then while the fish was frying, Steven would supervise the fish while Cynthia added the Leppa berry stock to the onions to turn it into a giant pot of soup. She would also add more herbs and spices, plus cheese. It smelled amazing as the stock began to fuse with the onions for a sweet and savoury flavour. With some extra seasoning and a dash of Kelpsy berry extract, the intense aroma was starting to whet everyone's appetite.
But moreover, when they made this dish together, Cynthia and Steven knew their objective was not to only bring a tasty meal to patients in hospital at the Pokémon Centre. Their aim was to also bring comfort in a form that could be tasted.
Today, they hoped but were certain, this meal would embody comfort. It would be like a warm hug on a cold day.
From the way things were playing out in Laurent's view, Cynthia and Steven were trying their best to avoid standing under the mistletoe whenever possible. Now it was just a matter how quickly they could serve the meals within the allotted time.
And when the two of them brought the meals for service, moments later, the two of them were forced to kiss in front of Laurent. It amused Laurent that despite the two being in some kind of relationship, they always looked uncomfortable to kiss in public.
Nevertheless, the first of the orders going out made Laurent curious. They were small metal lunch jars, like the kinds that schoolchildren would use to bring hot meals around. Laurent hadn't seen one of these since he went on a trip to Sinnoh, and the time before that he was using them for school lunches.
But then again, these boxes consisted of three layers, each having a different component. When Laurent and Sophie went together to transport the miniature boxes to the Pokémon Centre, they couldn't help being curious as to what was inside them. For the first time in a while, they were serving something they couldn't see. It was like a cloche, in a way.
Interestingly, Sophie and Laurent could clearly see there were blue lunch jars and yellow lunch jars. It was heavily implied, and Laurent suspected that they were designed so that Wallace could keep score of how many orders had gone out and picked them based on Steven and Cynthia's hair colours. It wasn't a bad idea, actually. Some company, maybe a caterer, must be supplying Wallace somehow.
There were a great many lunch jars that could be transported in bulk and it was a good thing each box was small. It was just a matter of walking through the snow from the hotel grounds to the Pokémon Centre now. With Martine dealing with patrons on the hotel grounds, it seemed everyone had their hands full. So Sophie and Laurent took the boxes, loaded them on a sled, and hauled them toward the Pokémon Centre.
The soft crunching of snow beneath their feet somehow felt nostalgic, even though neither of them had ever grown up or lived in a snowy climate. Maybe it was because of the feel of Geosenge Town that made it feel so. With snow-covered trees on the mountainous background under the hazy sky, it felt appropriate.
"You wouldn't have thought you'd be doing this as part of the job eh?" Laurent remarked.
"I'll say the same for you! But tell me you're not having fun," Sophie replied, smiling at Laurent with her beautiful but serious eyes. She glanced at the stack of lunch jars, which were secured tightly and covered to trap heat. "It's fun," Sophie added, "and we don't go out to Geosenge Town a lot."
The two receptionists smiled at each other and then walked to the Pokémon Centre beside the hotel. It didn't look busy, but the building always had wards at least half-full. But for this time of year, hopefully it would be quiet enough. Sophie and Laurent counted on the quiet atmosphere of Geosenge Town to be just as quiet inside. When they arrived at the centre's doors, they carefully brought the enormous stack of lunch jars inside. Naturally, they had trained for this.
But what they hadn't trained for, or at least expected, was that every worker in the Pokémon Centre looked exhausted. It was only lunchtime, yet Sophie guessed they must have worked quite a lot. Even the greeting nurse at the front desk looked tired.
"Welcome. Bienvenue." The nurse greeted the pair with a weak smile. "Is that it?"
Perhaps the nurse was confused or at least mildly surprised that the lunch jars looked so simple, that the restaurant-grade meals expected would be in this form.
"Yes it is," Sophie replied, passing the metal blue jar to the nurse. Then she and Laurent went about passing blue jars and yellow jars to the other Pokémon Centre staff who came by for lunch too.
This was well below expectations, and the confusion only spread when more metal jars were passed around. The two nurses and two doctors, plus the technician and the Poké Mart clerk, had gathered at the centre's lounge with the jars on the table before them.
Yet even Sophie and Laurent could tell that the staff had some kind of excitement in their eyes when they opened the jars to take out one miniature covered box.
Whatever weariness that had been on their faces evaporated when they lifted the lid off. The nurse who had smiled weakly earlier suddenly looked rejuvenated.
"Ooh!" the Poké Mart clerk said.
Beneath the lid were a few pieces of fried fish encrusted in beer batter and seasoned with Kelpsy berries. The savoury fragrance of the Kelpsy berry naturally was appetising and its slight bitterness only empowered the beer's flavour. Once the Pokémon Centre staff had their first bite, Laurent and Sophie could tell it tasted possibly better than what was expected of a restaurant. They used spoons to eat the meal.
"Laurent… I want one too," Sophie whined.
"Be patient, Sophie. We have more jars to give." Laurent took Sophie's hand and pulled her to the rest of the jars.
Outside, once the first piece of fish had been eaten, Wallace turned his attention to the second box and lifted the lid off. As expected, it was the Leppa onion soup that the chefs had been creating earlier. It had a deep orange colour to it.
It also appeared that the lunch jars were causing a stir among other locals who stopped by to see the food. That curiosity then grew to people putting more money in the donation bucket that Lisia was carrying around as they waited for their serving of the meal. Patrons who removed the lids off their soups were also greeted by the hearty sight of the savoury-looking Leppa onion soup.
A few seats away, Korrina and Grant were enjoying their soup while Viola went around snapping pictures of the food and then of Steven and Cynthia working hard in the back. The moment Korrina sipped the soup once, she felt as if a warm blanket had enveloped her despite the cold around her.
"Wow… This is really good!" she remarked, taking another sip.
"You're telling me," Grant added. He couldn't help smiling either, as if each box held a pleasant surprise. After that, he turned his attention to Steven and Cynthia. At the cooking station, the two of them were furiously cooking the food and assembling the lunch jars at the same time. Cynthia worked with the yellow jars, and Steven with the blue. And there were a lot of jars.
Grant wasn't the only one, of course. Even while patrons were happily enjoying lunch, they didn't mind their food cooling down a bit while watching the chefs battle it out. That's what the lids were for! As Steven carefully fried the fish, Cynthia was a few steps away ladling Leppa onion soup into the boxes. Occasionally, they had to taste the food to ensure it was cooked right. And there was the rice to consider.
"Steven!" Wallace shouted. "You must kiss!"
That caused Steven to jolt, as if alert that there was mistletoe above him. But as far as Wallace was concerned, whenever Steven and Cynthia stood close by, and he really meant whenever, they had to kiss. Sighing, Steven let go of the pan and went to kiss Cynthia directly, and Cynthia obliged. She looked just as reluctant.
"Come now, Steven. If only your kissing was as passionate as your cooking." Wallace shook his head. "You'd be the best lover in the world. And Cynthia! You must do better. Your passion for him must match your cooking."
Did Wallace really have to say that publicly? To think he was supposed to be a Pokémon Champion encouraging his colleagues, but this was different. But Grant figured Wallace had a sense of humour to say the least.
The two chefs were working mechanistically and swiftly. By now, it appeared they had a good grip on when to load the food into the lunch jars and as carefully possible. While Steven was careful to not break the fish as he served it, Cynthia was trying not to spill any Leppa onion soup.
Whenever a jar came back to the cooking station, it would be brought to the hotel's dishwasher. Then it would be brought to Wallace count the points. It was a terrible idea and inefficient, in Winona's honest opinion, but in the interests of the competition, Wallace said it had to be done.
Tens of lunch jars went out in small groupings. For Steven, he was trying his best given what was on the line. What sort of plan did Cynthia have in mind later? Surely not training with Astrid! A sudden tight feeling gripped his chest which caused him to grip his lunch jar tightly.
The problem was that points would only be awarded to how many they servings they could make even though they were sharing the same resources. Wallace was asking the impossible: they both had to compete, but working together was the most efficient way to make as many servings as time allowed.
I have to win, Steven thought. I have to win!
But before he could think further, he was interrupted by a surprise kiss from Cynthia on his lips.
"Come on, we have work to do…" she muttered. "And you know you have to win."
It was like Cynthia had read his mind and took words out of it, literally.
"Steven! You must be more passionate!" Wallace said.
Something snapped inside Steven.
Leave a review and try out the soup! In all seriousness, I actually made onion soup last month similar to what I wrote in this chapter. It's not that hard! You'll have to substitute the Leppa berry stock with beef stock though, and add the cheese at the end.