Ha ha... I think I spent too much time making this filler chapter, but I was having too much fun writing it as well as featuring extra content with Laurent and Sophie. It makes me wonder what I'll write next!
I'm studying part-time now, but with two massive projects occupying my time, I wonder how much time I'll get to write! And I thought my summer was supposed to be for resting! I'm still happy that I managed to get this chapter up in under two weeks, so that's a treat!
So yeah, to Thatoneguythatshipseveryone and DaX0315, please enjoy an ice cream waffle sandwich for this chapter! I'm sure you'll need one with all the sun out there.
Chapter thirty-nine: Lines in the Sand
To ensure 'fair play', teams were in threes, and for some reason Wallace insisted he join Sophie and Laurent. Within minutes, a game was underway between the six players. Martine, who was in a sundress, probably had a disadvantage, but that wasn't stopping her from serving the ball (to keep things simple, she did an underhand serve).
The ball went over to the other side – at the end – where Wallace bumped the ball towards Sophie, who set the ball to centre, and then Laurent jumped and spiked the ball. Neither Steven nor Winona had a chance.
"Huh. Okay, okay, encore," Martine muttered as she picked up the ball to throw it to Wallace. The ball flew to the end again and Wallace caught it, where he did a jump serve after. But Winona didn't set but chose to spike the ball instead. Sophie's trilby hat fell to the sand as the ball shot to the other side, because she jumped to block the ball. What Sophie hadn't counted on, though, was that Steven jumped to counter-block. The ball bounced back onto Sophie's head and she fell on the sand.
This is too easy, Wallace thought while throwing the ball to the other side and watching Laurent help pull Sophie back up. Meanwhile, Martine's team rotated to have a new server in Steven. Steven was already feeling the heat of battle and, to the amusement of everyone but Laurent and Winona, removed his orange button-down shirt before serving.
He looks pretty good, Martine thought.
Who knew he had physique like that? Sophie thought.
The ball was served by underhand such that Wallace could perform the basic bump to Sophie, who set the ball, and for Laurent to spike. The spike looked good as Steven dived to bump the ball up but was unable to direct it. As a result, Winona had to run back to bump the ball to the net where Martine could bump the ball to the other side, but it went way off. Clearly, there were at a disadvantage! It only got worse when Laurent and Sophie both got their Pokémon (who were still playing in the sand) to join them. Hawlucha and Clancher looked more than ready to play.
"Well that's not fair, isn't it?" Steven remarked. "Claydol! Want to play a game?"
"I bet you'll want to play too, Altaria," Winona added as she went to her back to pick up the respective Poké Ball and sent her out. "You are free to jump and play how you want, but it has to be fair. No flying!"
The humming dragon, Altaria, looked back into Winona's eyes and nodded. Given she had no arms, Altaria had to use her head (literally). Claydol was in position, but like Altaria it had to follow Steven's demand to stay to the ground, which was not helpful given its large head and small arms. Nevertheless, Claydol freely move its arms around at least.
So now it came to Wallace's side regaining the serve. Hawlucha was beside him at the back while Clauncher took centre, with Sophie and Laurent taking the sides. However, it really wasn't Wallace's turn to serve since he had to rotate with the others; so he passed the ball to Laurent. Likewise, Steven and Claydol were at the back while Altaria joined Martine and Winona at the net.
"Okay! Here we go!" Laurent called out and served the ball. The ball went in Steven's direction so that he had to bump the ball to the front. This time, Altaria set the ball for Winona by bumping the ball to the centre, and Winona jumped for the spike.
The ball was blocked by a high-jumping Clauncher who jumped high in the air to rebound the ball back with her claws. Thankfully, a fast-acting Claydol extended its arms to bump the ball to Martine who set it, and that left Winona to spike again. The advantage had shifted to Martine's side once more, because the served had returned there. Upon receiving the ball, she passed it to Claydol while rotation began. Steven was now at the front with Altaria and Winona, while Martine moved to the back.
As far as the human players were concerned, they were all sweating. Claydol opened by tossing the ball high in the air before giving it a supercharged jump serve which rocketed to the other side. It was extremely fortunate a fast-acting Hawlucha, with his reflexes, slowed the ball with a block. But that meant someone had to make the recovery (which wasn't Laurent, who was also at the back); so it fell to Wallace to dive and recover. Lastly, Sophie jumped and punched the ball to the other end.
It looked like Martine was going to hit the ball, but Claydol did it instead. This time, instead of a supercharged blast, it bumped the ball in Steven's direction where he set the ball for Altaria. Altaria, who was not allowed to fly, helplessly tried to spike the ball and did so by jumping – despite her size – and knocked the ball with her head straight to the sand in front of Hawlucha. After that, Steven gave a sigh of exhaustion.
"I think I've had it for now," he said as he wiped off the sweat from his forehead and shoulders.
"Having too much fun, eh, boss? Don't worry, I need a break too," Martine remarked.
"Clay…" Claydol said hollowly.
It appeared that Claydol wasn't done with volleyball just yet, and neither were the other Pokémon. After all that had happened, Winona and Martine wanted a break, and so did Laurent and Sophie. Wallace decided to follow the others out while the remaining four Pokémon tried to get a game going. As it happened, Wallace's Ludicolo and Steven's Cradily joined the game.
Meanwhile, Sophie had picked up her trilby hat and put it back on her head. She wasn't sure what to do for the time being, so she went over to her co-receptionist, who was looking away at the ocean.
"Tiens, Laurent," she said. "I was wondering… Want to grab – WHOA!"
She felt a sudden shove on her back and she slammed into Laurent right as he turned his face towards her. They collided and then Laurent fall on his back on the sand with Sophie on top of him – and upon falling, Sophie's lips were pressed firmly against Laurent's as her trilby hat fell to the sand again.
Sophie's lips against Laurent's.
It took a few seconds for Sophie to get over the shock of what was going on, and when she realised it, as she also realised she was pressed against his chest, her face burned bright red. Laurent's eyes also widened as he felt Sophie's lips touching his, and it was clear his was shocked and bewildered at what was going on.
Slowly, and very, very, slowly, Sophie pressed on the sand to lift herself up, but her eyes only stared into Laurent's. Laurent stared back up at her as if mesmerised by just how pretty Sophie looked in this light – and it mostly had to do with her black hair falling on his face and those not-so-serious eyes. Also, as he realised his co-receptionist was still in a swimsuit, it made him feel hot.
"Oh. My. Gosh," Martine remarked loudly.
As if this didn't receive enough attention, Martine's wide smile should have made it worse for the two receptionists. But it didn't matter to Laurent or Sophie. What was going on here and now was too much for them as they stared into each other's eyes, and they were still in shock.
"D – D – Désolé…" Sophie apologised quietly. The tears started to form in her not-so-serious eyes.
"Don't be. Come now, you must have enjoyed that, am I right?" Laurent whispered. He brought a hand to wipe her tears away.
However, this action led to Sophie to blush hard, nevertheless. "Um… I'll be… uh…" she stammered. "I'm feeling pretty hot. Want to grab some refreshments?"
"Bonne idée, mais plus tard," Laurent agreed, albeit he had chosen to remain on the sand because his mind was still registering what had just happened. He kept staring into the sky. Sophie, on the other hand, walked away with a very, very, flustered face. It did not help that the commotion attracted enough attention from everyone else – and Sophie wondered if she would ever show up to work again.
A few paces away, Martine was almost close to laughing at the scene that had unfolded before her. What had happened? Too much. Afterwards, she met up with Wallace, Winona, and Lisia, who were staring at Laurent's limp body in the sand.
"That was golden, uncle!" Lisia remarked.
"You see?" Wallace said. "That was what was supposed to happen yesterday between Steven and Cynthia! I can't believe they missed, but I'm glad it worked for Sophie there! Look how well it turned out! You see…" He looked over at Sophie who was hastily drinking as much ice water as she could. "…and you know, they're of the right age too! This is a sign that they belong to each other! How old are they? Slightly older than you, but younger than Steven, I bet!"
Martine raised her eyebrows. It was true both Laurent and Sophie were 22-years old, but that seemed hardly relevant.
"Wait, so you're saying that because it didn't work on Steven and Cynthia, they don't belong to each other? You know, I just might be convinced, Wallace!" she said.
It appeared that Martine had caught Wallace in his words, which led to Lisia laughing.
"She got you there, uncle," Lisia said.
Wallace shook his head. Hoping to change the topic of his 'failure', he said, "ANYWAY, where is that boss of yours, Martine?"
However, Martine acted a little more absentmindedly than usual and continued, "But anyway, Wallace, I'm impressed! I would never have thought Laurent and Sophie would be that close. Still, I don't know where my boss is, and… he left his shirt here." She kneeled down to pick up Steven's orange shirt which was a heap on the sand. To Martine's astonishment, the shirt was instantly snatched triumphantly by Wallace.
"This shirt is gratefully accepted!" he remarked, which caused Martine to slap her forehead and she snatched it back, which wiped Wallace's smile away.
"I'll go look for him," Martine said.
A minute later, Laurent had gotten up to join Sophie for a glass of crushed ice and Nomel.
The man who had been in Martine's and Wallace's thoughts was actually a fair distance away from the beach where the Stone Bistro's staff were attending.
To be more exact, he went swimming as a way to escape from the blazing heat; and ten minutes later, he swam back to shore feeling better. A sea breeze hit Steven's back which oddly made him feel cold, but still, the sun was warming him up already. He kept walking along the shore and enjoying his time away from the chaos he was dragged into, and away from Cynthia.
It was only a matter of time before he would grow hungry, so he better make this walk quick. Oddly enough, in addition to the cold breeze he was getting, he got the feeling that he wasn't alone here. Why, it looked as if there was one set of footprints in the sand.
Did they look like Pokémon footprints? Steven didn't bother checking. After a moment, he decided to go swimming in the water again. He could do with a little more cooling down.
Under a blue beach umbrella and resting on a long towel, Cynthia could finally relax. Just hearing the waves splashing against the shore was enough to sooth her, whereas meanwhile her Pokémon were trying to get as much fun as they could. Milotic was casually swimming about the water while Roserade was building a sand castle with Lucario.
As Cynthia, in her black two-piece swimsuit, continued resting on her back and closing her eyes; she thought about how fresh it seemed to be away from him. Whatever happened yesterday… it seemed to fuel her hatred for him – and that hurt. It hurt to think of his words, and what she felt after that cooking standoff.
I'll never be that person he thought, and I don't need Viola's judgement to know I lost, Cynthia thought. Thinking of Steven refusing to try her fondue was somewhere along the lines of that.
And with what she had been thinking for the past while, Cynthia found it difficult to rest or relax. Perhaps a walk around the shore, and watching the scenery by herself, would do her some good. So shortly after, she stood up to wipe whatever sand was on her hair before walking (the wiping was difficult, however, given the length of her hair that fell to the back of her knees).
"I'll be back," she told her Pokémon. Her Pokémon responded with curious glances, but they carried about with their business. Only Togekiss went about following Cynthia, but the former Sinnoh Champion insisted she would be fine on her own.
She hadn't walked that far, as her umbrella was in sight, albeit her walk was a silent one. The sea breeze was alive and whistling through the air which smelled of a salty fragrance. It was as if it would do Cynthia some good to be in its presence for the next while, and it calmed her somehow.
It was only a matter of time before lunch too, but honestly, Cynthia hadn't brought much. She hadn't counted on spending the whole day here and figured she would be eating once she was home. With all the publicity about her fondue fight with Steven yesterday, it was difficult walking in public. Oh, why was she thinking of him right now?! She was here at the beach to not think about him!
While watching the sunlight approaching midday, she watched the waves splash gently on the shore and the sound that accompanied them. Even so, she could see something was out of place. She saw… movement in the water. Was that a Pokémon? Not possible – more like a man, and he was swimming casually to shore.
Argh… she angrily, and sadly, thought. If only it was just the two of us, then maybe I can prove my skills to him. Then he would understand. Why is it so hard for him?
Uninterested, Cynthia turned her head and continued walking. Even so, she was left to wonder that she wasn't alone on this part of the beach. She brushed her hair aside, keeping one eye covered, and looked to the shore again.
And that's when she stopped suddenly and gasped. Wait. Hadn't she gasped like this before? It had been… something like three days ago. Her eyes widened.
His muscular arms… his lean form… and soaked in seawater… looked dazzling in this light. The fact that the morning sun was shining on him (but not behind, as that direction was west) made his appearance rather hot.
As if she thought his arms were enough to make him handsome enough, now she was seeing his body. Cynthia was stunned. Her eyes grew even wider when he raised an arm to wipe the sweat off his head and his chest. That sure showed off his physique ever more.
It was him.
And that was when she made eye contact with him.
Ha ha... I'll leave your thoughts at this cliffhanger then. Crushed ice and Nomel, anyone? Just leave a review, and have a glass!