I don't think anyone could understand just how packed my life is. I'm grateful for omar7812 for sympathising with me. Being a second year student is tough! Plus, I'm trying to write... THREE fanfics at once, on top of that! That is impossible. Really!
Ahem...
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
I'm glad I could upload this chapter in... just under a month. So to SelfiesWithSprinkles, who makes the 99th order, have a cup of coffee from Cynthia's cafe! dawnleaf1234, being the 100th order (and the loyal customer since the beginning!), have a cup of coffee from Cynthia's cafe too! LEGAL-EAGLE53, you will have a cold coffee from Cynthia's cafe to your preference! omar7812, enjoy a cup a tea!
3 coffees to 1 tea.
...
One would think Cynthia is profiting too much from this business. She seems to be too popular.
Chapter twenty-two: Never Trust the Media
The only response Steven would get was not a bunch of questions, but a number of flashing cameras.
"This is NOT what it looks like!" Steven repeated whilst raised his hands up in resignation. His heart was torn between wanting to help Diantha, and wanting to preserve his image. But he knew deep down that it was impossible to keep these people from taking pictures.
Martine Grenadine's first impulse was to help her boss, but there was no chance of that happening. The twenty people had formed a barrier around the table and weren't willing to let anyone in or out. Still, she put the glass of water aside and tried to force her way through, but to no avail.
"Mr. Stone! Can you explain what's going on here?!" a reporter shouted.
"I can explain –" Steven started.
"Steven! Why is Diantha on the table, knocked out as she is?"
"Is this because of this lovely beauty you call Cynthia that you chose to knock her out?"
Steven glared at that comment.
"I have no comment now!" he shouted. "Please! Leave this floor, NOW!"
"Oh! Oh! Steven! Did you do this have a moment with Cynthia alone?"
"Or maybe you're trying to show the world that people like Diantha aren't welcome here?"
"Or maybe she's just not your type?!"
Now Steven's face flushed for a split second, but whatever feeling he had was quickly replaced by anger. He let go of Diantha to approach the reporters, in an effort to push them away, but many of them took advantage of his absence to get closer to the table to photograph Diantha. Diantha, completely unconscious, was victim to the paparazzi.
In Cynthia's eyes, it was hard to tell if she should feel sorry for Diantha more, or Steven. If she could reserve some sympathies for Steven, she would, but she sort of enjoyed the scene. Casually, she lifted her glass to sip some wine.
"How dare you!" another reporter shouted. "You've poisoned Diantha!"
Rather than deny it, Steven said, "No comment! No comment!" As he tried his best to push the people away, it was apparent that he – one man – could not fight back against a crowd of twenty. He fruitlessly tried to block all the camera lenses, but it was pointless. There were too many of them. While the onslaught of flashing continued, Cynthia didn't seem to mind what was going on, but she did grin at some of their comments.
"Steven!" Alexa shouted. "Give us an explanation! Was this a plot to reinforce your relationship?"
"That's not true!" he shot back, and forgetting he did not want to comment on that issue.
"You just said you didn't want to comment on that! Tell us why Diantha – oh, she's a rival isn't she? Does she have your eye now?"
Helpless, Steven looked to his best friend Wallace for support. Help me, he pleaded, hoping his best friend would do so. Instead, Wallace gave Steven a thumbs-up, to Steven's horror. Lisia looked as if she wanted to feel sorry for him.
Out of the blue, somehow past the barrier of people with cameras, Martine showed up beside him. To Steven's mild surprise, Martine was helping him keep the paparazzi at bay, and together they gradually pushed half of the paparazzi away. His youngest employee, who seemed so keen on seeing the relationship between him and Cynthia come to fruition, was actually helping him with something serious for once.
Yet the other half stampeded over to take more and more pictures of the table, and such that they eventually overran Steven and Martine. Martine desperately tried to stay her ground, but was pushed aside. Steven… had the same treatment. It didn't help that Viola was taking pictures of him especially.
With a resigned face, he faced the mob.
"Okay. So in short, I was having dinner with Diantha since she's my guest," he said, whilst enduring the camera flashes. "For a moment she coughed, and now she's knocked out. Now can you please leave us ALONE?"
"So you did poison her!" someone declared, as if it was true.
"Please!" Steven begged. "Leave us in peace! Otherwise, we'll never be able to help her! And what you saw isn't what it looked like!"
"Sure it was!"
He kept an eye on the drone that was still hovering outside the window, and in his bones he would shoot it down if he could. Steven felt Viola pass something into his hands in the midst of the chaos, and try as Steven might, he dared to look down.
A phone number. With. A. Heart.
Why would Viola give him a phone number at this time? She must be trying to flirt with him, just like the many other women who did that throughout the night. In Steven's mind, he accepted that the only one exception was Cynthia herself, but that was a different matter. Absentmindedly, he slipped the paper into his pocket and tried to repel the constant camera flashes.
"MOVE! MOVE!" he yelled. Martine tried her best to create some space, so she managed to push away those who were crowding Diantha. But on the whole, she knew it was a fruitless effort when she was outnumbered by a ten-to-one margin.
Cynthia looked over at Diantha first, who still had plenty of the attention of the camera lenses, wearing a facial expression as if unconcerned by the mass number of cameras that were fixed on her beauty. Eventually, she did check to see if Diantha was okay by feeling her wrist and checking for a pulse. Of course there was one, but perhaps Diantha was feeling unwell because of him.
"Looking good tonight, Cynthia!" someone shouted. "Pose for us, oui?"
She chose to ignore that photographer, but all the same, Cynthia coolly flashed her dignified smile.
"Cynthia! Do you think you could pursue a relationship with Steven in light of this?" another asked. "You and him are looking sharp, so is it possible? Smile for us, s'il vous plait? What do you make of it?"
"I think we'll keep it cool for now." Cynthia's voice was as cool as her smile. When she turned to look at Steven, who was still struggling to keep the people away, their eyes met. As handsome as Steven was, and as beautiful as she was, Steven looked deeply into her eyes.
Help me. That was what Steven's eyes were begging.
But to his horror, a horror that went beyond his earlier horror to Wallace, Cynthia encouraged the people to keep taking more pictures. She… was also speaking!
"I suspect this may have something to do with the food," she told Alexa.
"Could it have been something Diantha ate?" Alexa asked. "Maybe you had something to do with this so you could have some quality time with Steven, right? Let's face it, he's the man of your dreams."
At that, Cynthia's voice became as hot as her face, in sharp contrast to her initial response. "That's only what the media wants! We – I don't follow!"
"We?" Alexa added questionably, as if she was entertained. "I'll just need a picture – Viola! Stop taking pictures of Steven! We need that camera!"
She said this especially because Viola was taking pictures of Steven non-stop. It helped that Steven was severely restrained by the very people he was trying to repel. Eventually, when the photographers closest to Diantha had their fill of photos, they turned their attention to Steven.
Steven realised that, without a doubt, the battle was lost. He knew he had to get reinforcements to get this situation under control. Oh, where was Metagross when he needed it most? Standing beside him, Martine listened closely to her boss.
"Come on, let's get Diantha to the lobby!" Steven ordered. "Make it fast!"
In fact, if he had any Pokémon with him at the moment, he would be extremely happy to use it. But as a retired Pokémon Champion who left his Pokémon at his villa, he was cut off from support, and Metagross was serving the guests below. Martine obeyed Steven without question and the two of them hustled to Diantha, whose head and arms were still flat on the table.
Steven, without needing to think, pulled Diantha up and carried her on his back. Martine hurried to clear a path for Steven to walk through. At the very least Gardevoir left the table to join Steven, seeing there was no reason to stay, and could support Steven in some way.
It was equally amusing for Cynthia to see that the twenty people that had come here paid no attention to her when Steven carried Diantha away from the table. The only exceptions were Viola and Alexa, who were standing still. Viola looked at her camera as if something was wrong with it, whereas Alexa appeared to be quite annoyed.
When the atmosphere had quietened just a little, and the crowd was at the other side of the floor, Cynthia waved to the sisters.
"Hey. Something wrong with your camera, Viola?" Cynthia called out.
"Uh… yeah. I've run out of memory," Viola replied.
"Well, yeah, if you hadn't spent all that precious time taking glorified pictures of Steven, we could've had a big scoop for Diantha here!" Alexa complained. "Well, since Cynthia's here, we might as well ask her a few more questions."
Viola pouted, but Alexa ignored her and readjusted her recorder, which had the appearance of a hybrid between a regular set of headphones and a camera, with a lens on one ear and a throat mic on the other. Truly, that was what Cynthia could remark as recording equipment.
"Right, so we're recording live on behalf of Lumiose Press," Alexa stated in front of Cynthia, to ensure Cynthia knew what she was wading into. "So, Cynthia, in light of what has happened, we all witnessed the great Diantha unconscious here… at the Stone Restaurant and Bistro. You were the only one here when it happened, so what's your take on it?"
Before Cynthia could say anything, a voice interrupted her thoughts. "Hey, you can't forget me! I need some limelight here!"
Instantly, Alexa turned to see Wallace join the table. Nevertheless, despite the interruption, Cynthia's mind was thinking pretty smoothly. She had her thoughts on only one person, and that person was Steven Stone.
"Ahem," Cynthia said. "Well, I was only having dinner with the host of course. Diantha showed up much later. After Diantha was served her salad, she began to experience some… problems, I guess? The next thing you know, she's knocked out. I'm guessing it was the food that –"
"In addition," Wallace interjected, "this is without a doubt a way of how Steven does things. Come on, you've got to believe me. I'm his best friend! He knocked out Diantha so he could have some more alone time with Cynthia. It was the perfect set up, you know? The good-looking host with a good-looking guest – he just couldn't spoil it!"
Cynthia glared at him.
"I concur!" Lisia's voice added. "This is going to be the second chapter of his love story!"
Cynthia did not realise Lisia had been standing beside the table for an entire minute. Her face remained quite neutral, apart from the glare she reserved for Wallace, when Lisia struck a pose in front of them. Cynthia didn't realise the weight of what Lisia was saying, as if it didn't make sense.
"I don't get it," Cynthia replied. "What love story?"
Lisia and Wallace both turned their heads to stare at her. Their eyes round and their faces looking serious.
"Tell me, Cynthia. Do you have any idea what sort of relationship is going between you and Steven? Is there any chance that the two of you could…?" Wallace demanded.
This was the sort of question that still made Cynthia uncomfortable no less. However, Cynthia always had that one reputation for being cool and collected. Her glare still tried to pierce Wallace in an effort to shake him off.
"Not at the moment," she said shortly. "By the way, how are things going on between you and Winona? I'm sure your relationship is going smooth, right?"
"Nuh-uh, don't change the subject just yet," Wallace countered. "She's doing fine right now. What we're all concerned with is how you're going to get along with Steven! Every woman – including Winona – wants him now! I don't see how you're missing this!"
That comment was enough to make all the women around him shift around in discomfort. Viola shuddered, Alexa swallowed, and Lisia blinked. But Cynthia wasn't moved. Instead of answering, Cynthia snuck a glance and where Winona was, and she saw her – the Fortree Gym Leader – head on the table. It looked like she was crying.
"You know, I think you're the one who's 'missing this'," Cynthia countered back. "Just how could you leave Winona alone right now?! She needs someone."
It seemed that was enough to draw Viola and Alexa's attention away from Cynthia and towards the aforementioned. Though partly embarrassed, Wallace didn't show it. Unfortunately for Wallace, that tactic turned against him.
"So, the Champion of Hoenn doesn't have a heart," Alexa concluded.
"That's not true!" Wallace denied.
"Or so he thinks," Viola added. "You know, Wallace, if my camera hadn't run out of memory –"
"It's fine," Alexa cut in. "I have plenty of video. So Wallace, how many hearts have you broken besides hers? You know what I mean?"
"Aren't you from Lumiose Press? How could you be asking these –" Wallace paused. "No! That was a long time ago!"
"Sure," Alexa said, and nodded as if she didn't care either way. "It's okay if you don't care for her, Wallace. We understand."
"You do NOT!" Wallace had enough. He stood up and ran over to Winona, who was still crying.
From where they were sitting, Cynthia, Viola, and Alexa awkwardly watched Wallace try to comfort Winona. To Alexa, this was a bonus. She had managed to ask enough to make Wallace crack to the point where he just had to bring it to Winona. Smiling to herself, she stopped the recording.
"You know, I think we've got enough for today," Alexa said.
"And I think I've outstayed my welcome too. My work here is done," Cynthia added. She picked up her glass once more to finish what little wine there was in it. "I guess I'll head home now."
Cynthia stood up, taking her handbag with her, and motioned for Garchomp to follow her. Given the commotion outside, she guessed it was the safest time to quietly slip away.
Elsewhere, Steven and Martine where battling against the constant pushing and shoving of the wave of paparazzi reporters. The same twenty people of the paparazzi crowded around Steven and Martine and followed them wherever they went. Steven still had Diantha on his back.
To Steven's displeasure, he realised that this commotion had drawn the attention of nearby customers on the floor below (where they passed). If it weren't for the constant buzz of the paparazzi and the open doors of the second floor, this could have gone along a lot more quietly. Martine continued to clear the space in front, whereas Steven carried Diantha to the lobby where he intended to get some assistance.
"Nothing to see here," Steven assured the people who got up from their tables to look. "Everything will be fine. Return to your meals."
Some raised their eyebrows at him, as he had the Kalos champion on his back.
However, the commotion had drawn the attention of the other forty photographers, reporters, and journalists who were standing in the lobby below.
As a result, Steven could see the horde react to him by taking pictures and – to his horror – running up close to him to question what was going on. Although he wanted to answer, the vast number of people spilled a dreadful thought in his head.
Panic.
"Laurent! Help me!" he yelled, trying to fight against the sea of voices demanding answers from him.
It was too late. He was surrounded. Martine slowly tried to clear ground again, but the additional forty people – who had reinforced the initial twenty – had prevented her from moving any further. Steven's face started to sweat. He felt embarrassed enough already that he had to carry Diantha on his back, not to mention the paparazzi – sixty of them – were making a big deal about it.
As soon as Laurent could comprehend the situation, which was surprisingly slow, he immediately left his desk to support his boss. James, however, picked up the phone. Given what he was seeing, there was no doubt he needed the gendarme here.
"Hawlucha! Vite!" Laurent said to his Pokémon.
But by the time Laurent and Hawlucha could get even close to Steven, Steven was barricaded and entombed by the people thus preventing his movement. If anything, they people were in position to push Diantha downward and crush Steven. Martine, who had been trying hard to make some space, had been trapped by the wave of people also, and soon she too became helpless.
Because Laurent and Hawlucha were limited to minimise harm to the customers, there wasn't too much they could do except remove a photographer or two one by one. In spite of this effort, this did little to hamper the crowd.
On the other hand, James had Sophie handle the call with the gendarme while he too went in to clear the area. As soon as James got close enough to Steven, he could understand that Diantha – the Kalos Champion – was in pretty bad shape. Like Martine and Laurent, there wasn't much he could do as the paparazzi were simply too power to break through.
"What are you plans with Diantha now?" asked someone.
"I have no comment!" Steven shot back. "She just needs rest!"
"So that was a comment!" the same someone added happily.
The only knee-jerk reaction Steven could do was to shoot a glare, but only to be repaid by a blinding camera flash. After the flash, Steven was blinded! He could not see, and when he opened his eyes his vision was partly blinded, and he kept trying to press forward.
He couldn't. The paparazzi were forcing him back!
"Go away!" he demanded.
He tried holding his ground, but eventually he realised that was a mistake. The paparazzi had him in stasis and Steven realised he would be stuck here for a while. He turned his head to see Martine isolated from him, helpless. Laurent and James… Steven could see them try to make a way between them.
"This way, Mr. Stone!" Laurent shouted over the noise.
Steven nodded and tried to walk through the gap Laurent, James, and Hawlucha had created for him. But Steven felt many hands try to rip Diantha off his back. He turned his head around, and saw the many curious people pull at Diantha – and in effect, preventing Steven from moving forward.
"No! Let her go!" Steven shouted.
"Steven, this opening won't last!" James shouted over the noise also. He was too distracted keeping the paparazzi at bay to notice Steven's immobility. "Why haven't you moved yet?!"
"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Steven yelled.
Eventually, it got to the worst, as James had fearfully anticipated from much earlier. The paparazzi, in the midst of the tension and chaos, had evolved into behaviour that was equivalent to a riot, and that was what had happened.
Steven felt the paparazzi rip Diantha off of his back and, when he turned around he saw some of the people pull Diantha onto the floor. They took advantage of the gap and took whatever pictures they could. Whoever else that wouldn't look at Diantha decided to hammer Steven with extra questions. Too many of them, perhaps.
"No! Leave her alone!" he shouted.
"Oh, so you do care about her, eh Steven?"
"Wait, could there be something going on between you and her?"
"What about Cynthia?! Isn't she supposed to be the special one?"
"I mean, you did just have dinner with her, right?"
"It was just you and Cynthia, dining alone!"
Steven froze. How was it possible they could know that?
"Oh, so it is true, right?"
"Right?"
With the crowd of sixty people on the little space of the second floor, with Steven surrounded, Diantha knocked out and mercilessly being taken advantage of by the paparazzi, and Laurent and James isolated just like Martine, it seemed all was lost.
Eventually, Steven noticed the many customers dining on the second floor gather outside of the dining area to see the huge commotion. If anything could describe it, it was very embarrassing for Steven. That was absolute.
Oh no… he thought. He could not allow his customers to see him like this! This would be terrible for his business, and not to mention everyone else who worked here.
There, amongst the customers, he saw Metagross watch the scene too. That was exactly what Steven needed.
In a desperate voice, Steven cried, "Metagross!"
Immediately, Metagross put down whatever plates it had in its grasp and hovered above the crowd to where Steven was. By then, the gathering of the paparazzi had turned into a riot. There was pushing and shoving, and the occasional fighting over top pics of Diantha and endless questions for Steven, but to Steven this was unacceptable.
I can't believe it's come to this, Steven thought, and then yelled, "Psychic! Just do it!"
And soon enough, everything on the floor, from every paparazzo's toes to, to Diantha's body, not to mention the employees present, was fully under the control of Metagross' grasp. Everything that was in grasp floated in the air. Time had frozen, or at least that was what it felt like.
"Everyone out!" Steven barked.
Unfortunately, due to the bustling chaos, it is not possible to serve food right now. Review, and you can take home one of Steven's wines...
I would like to inform that I will be temporarily discontinuing Culinary Rivals for April, as April marks my term's exams period. The delicious meals will resume in May.
But don't worry. You have yet to receive your bills...