It's been a while, I guess, since the last chapter. Well, it's only been two weeks, but I'm glad I got this chapter done in a hurry. Unfortunately, I think the story has been underperforming as of last chapter. Ugh... the future of Darksteelshipping looks dark. I'm glad to hit the milestone of forty chapters though - and to commemorate this, I've updated the book cover so it's got more hue to it.

I also can't believe it's been almost three years since I started published "Culinary Rivals"... Well, I'm also still in my third year of university, after all. It's taking a while.

Plus, I can't believe I'm the only Darksteelshipper and Gracefulshipper out there. Ugh... "122 Generation: The Last Darksteelshipper". I don't like the sound of that!

For the record, here's a glass of crushed ice and Nomel for DaX0315 and Dev1ce (glad you changed your name). Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter forty: Not a Fever

"You…" Steven said, still lost for words. "What… What are you doing here?"

He wore a huge expression of shock the moment he looked up from the shore. There she was, and he had not been expecting her of all people to be here; least of all alone. Not only that, but she was wearing no more than a black two-piece swimsuit which complemented her slender figure almost perfectly, let alone her hair. Steven had absolutely no clue what to say.

She didn't give an immediate response, and neither was Steven expecting her to say anything. Instead, he found himself dropping his jaw. It was Cynthia. Cynthia! Still in shock, the only thing Steven could do was look at her from top to bottom, and he mentally slapped himself for it.

This woman was his enemy.

But she looked outstanding. Her figure, her platinum-blond hair… She had it all, and despite her figure, she had an attractive slenderness that matched her beauty. But in spite of all that, she was his enemy. He had to put that thought aside.

For Cynthia, her mind briefly went back to the memory of the fondue cook-off with Steven. But when it snapped back to reality, she just couldn't compare the Steven from yesterday to the Steven before her now. In the end, the present Steven was too much for her.

She hated this man. So why was it so hard to do so now? Or did she ever hate him? Encountering him was the last thing she expected.

"I…" she whispered, still mesmerised by his appearance. Her breathing was short.

It was like they were sitting together at the dining table that night, at the Stone Restaurant and Bistro, where the two of them would do nothing but stare at each other. However, the circumstances were quite different back then. Whereas they were in full dress at the time, right now this was nothing like that. Plus, hostility was lower back then. Between them now, though, they were enemies.

So why did Cynthia find his physique hot? He obviously didn't have the body like those bodybuilder Trainers she would see from time to time, and yet his physique and muscles showed that he obviously had enough workouts (probably from digging for stones or climbing mountains). Was it the water, maybe? It didn't matter, because it ended up making Cynthia collapse to the sand on her knees.

Steven was confused at first, and his instinctive reaction was to check if she was okay. But upon taking a step toward her, he was reminded that this was Cynthia he was dealing with. Why should he in any case help her? She had been doing enough damage to him as it was!

There was no reason to help her. So why was it the case that he was already approaching her? Maybe it was because of moral duty. Yes, that must be it. Within half a minute, he was looking at Cynthia up close and, aside from her appearance, he could tell she looked very tense.

"Well?" he said as he got to one knee. "Is there something wrong? Something on your mind? You don't look very well."

Cynthia felt like choking. In all honesty, she was. She felt like gasping for air when Steven was looking at her directly. It was unclear whether this was pleasant to her or unpleasant. For the moment, her worries of work were forgotten as she stared at Steven.

"No, no… hah," she gasped. "I'm fine… I'm just feeling hot… huuuh…"

Steven raised an eyebrow. "Well, it is a hot day," he cautiously said, as he was aware of the short breaths and gasps Cynthia was giving off. Her face was all red! "Are you sure you're okay? Your cheeks look red. Oh, let me guess. You have a fever! Cynthia?"

The next moment, Cynthia almost fell backward, but Steven stretched his arm out and caught her back. Her breathing was short. Her gasping had deteriorated to wheezing. For all what Steven cared, if Cynthia wasn't a former Champion and colleague, he would have had a second thought whether to catch her. For him, he wasn't that dirty, but it was still awkward.

"Your fever must be serious…" he muttered. "You sound like you can't breathe anymore! Plus, your face is burning and so is your back…"

Idiot… Cynthia thought. I don't have a fever!

But instead she whispered, "I'm feeling hot, yeah, but it's nothing to do with the weather…"

"Then it is a fever!" Steven interrupted. "Look, as bad as it may be, you're not staying here until you get some place cool to rest. I think I'll have to carry you to my friends, and see how they can help."

If Cynthia wasn't embarrassed enough already, it already got worse. Her eyes widened at Steven's offer of carrying her and maybe that was when he dropped the ball. "No…" she gasped. "If you do that… that will be the death of me…" she coughed out.

"You'll die?! That fever must be serious! Don't close your eyes! Stay away from the light!" Steven demanded. Immediately, he used his other arm to pick up Cynthia's knees. Once he did exactly that, however, Cynthia passed out in his arms, which caused him to panic.

"Cynthia? Cynthia!" Steven shouted.

A sudden thought came over Steven's mind. Why should he help her? Wouldn't he be much better off if he just left her to die? He looked at Cynthia again, whose body was limp in his arms. The next moment, Steven grew nervous that Cynthia just had to be wearing this.

He should have gone that way… Martine Grenadine thought. But he probably went a long way! Quel homme! I don't even see any footprints, and this and that… But the view is nice, I'll admit, but it's pretty hot!

Although Martine could count on her boss to take care of himself, she was slightly worried that he might have disappeared altogether. However, she probably knew him well enough that he wouldn't walk in public without a shirt.

She had been walking along the shore for some time and was greatly thankful for the sea breeze that blew against her hair. The sun was burning down on her and there was no hint of shade. All Martine could see was a stretch of endless sand, and nothing more.

This was such that she really didn't see her boss in the distance, and only when Martine walked closer did she finally notice him on the ground. But before Martine said anything, she also took into account that Steven was holding a very pretty girl, in a black bikini no less, in his arms.

"Tiens, boss!" Martine called out enthusiastically. "Que fais-tu?"

Suddenly Steven looked up to stare at Martine, and his face showed shock that she was even here! In contrast, though, Martine's face showed a huge expression of amusement and smugness. She noticed

"Oh… I see," she said in a playful tone. "You know, I wouldn't have thought you of all people would set up private beach dates, and of all girls, is that Cynthia I see –?"

"This is NOT what it looks like!" Steven yelled. Even so, his yelling did absolutely nothing to wipe off Martine's smile.

"Okay, so let me get this straight…" Martine said. "After all that talk of being mortal enemies, you still would want to come for her anyway. So that's what you meant!"

Steven groaned for a second, and then said, "I was just thinking of leaving her to die right here. It seems like she has a fever or some kind of heat stroke. Do you see this? Her face is burning."

"Yup, she's burning alright," Martine replied, not really caring (which annoyed Steven). "Okay, then. Then what do you suppose you do? I could still leave you to your private date still. I can leave you and…"

She trailed off, as a wider smile spread across her lips and Steven knew exactly what she was thinking.

"You wouldn't tell them, would you?!" he said, horrified.

Happy that her boss caught on, Martine replied, "Well, this is your time, right? But you said it's not what it looks like, so what's the harm in telling everyone else? It's not a date, so you're fine, and… I can keep things quiet – if you're willing to negotiate."

Steven took a deep breath like he wasn't going to give in easily.

"How about you don't walk away and help me bring her to some shade?" Steven said finally. However, his question was a demand, not an offer, yet Martine was happy to oblige. She knew Steven was probably too flustered to even think properly at the moment.

"You were going to carry her by yourself, weren't you?" she said.

"Martine. I am going to leave her to die here," Steven replied whilst shooting the familiar death glare Martine was too used to. "Maybe I will do exactly that." The redhead rolled her eyes and held Cynthia's ankles, while Steven attended to Cynthia's arms.

In the distance, Togekiss watched the entire scene unfold before him and flew back to warn his fellow teammates about Cynthia being taken away. Panicking, Roserade and Lucario went to pack up the all the gear while Milotic swam in a new direction to follow Cynthia. Spiritomb had to be helped back into its keystone as Garchomp championed bringing everything else – bag and food and all.

She could hear the waves at first.

The next, she slowly opened her eyes only to look at an umbrella over her head. So what had happened earlier…? That was a dream. Nothing more. She only dreamed that she saw him without a shirt and that she had died in her dream after collapsing.

However, her thoughts were briefly stopped by an approaching girl in a red-and-green sundress. Her red hair looked pretty vibrant in the sunlight – Wait a minute, she looked awfully familiar.

Wasn't her hair auburn and shoulder-length before? The way she saw it, the girl's hair was longer – it was armpit-length.

"Bon après-midi!" Martine greeted. "I'm glad you're awake, finally! To think I actually woke up my boss in the same manner this morning! Except he was in the shed, though."

Martine Grenadine. A sudden realisation went over Cynthia's eyes. In the next second, Cynthia became aware that she was on a part of the beach unfamiliar to her. She saw other people playing around, including the two receptionists she had seen at the Stone Restaurant and Bistro, and Wallace and Winona. Wasn't her own time supposed to be private? Plus, she could make out her Pokémon playing around in the distance! Milotic was swimming alongside Wallace's Milotic, and Togekiss was playing with a Skarmory – Wait, she also knew that Steven had a Skarmory.

It got worse for her when she saw Steven approaching her direction. He was wearing an orange button-down shirt to match.

"Well, I was hoping to wake you up, but it seems Martine beat me to it," he remarked.

A sudden surge of anger flared in Cynthia's eyes. In spite of what she was wearing, she stood up to approach Steven and slapped him on the cheek (which obviously shocked him and Martine).

"You idiot!" Cynthia shouted. "I was supposed to be alone! This was my private getaway! Why did you bring me here?!"

Steven briefly brought a hand to where Cynthia had slapped him, but upon hearing her words he answered with equal fury. "What are you talking about?! I didn't have to bring you here! But you were going to die! So this is the thanks I get for carrying you to safety?!"

Cynthia stopped short upon hearing Steven saying he 'carried' her and had a vivid image, in her mind, of him carrying her body on his shoulder. Her face went red, and whether it was out of embarrassment or anger, it was hard to tell.

"You 'carried' me?" she said. "I didn't ask you to do that! And are you still stuck up over that 'fever' thing?! You are an idiot! I don't have a fever! Never had, and never will, thanks to you!"

Their eyes continued to glare at each other, like two opposing forces. Steven then shouted, "Then next time, don't ask me to carry you if you're suffering! I'll just leave you to die!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Everyone… Come on, get along!" a cheery voice, unmistakably Wallace's, sang out. "But you know, it'll be fine if we just talk about this over lunch, eh?"

Cynthia and Steven then shot their fierce glares at Wallace which then forced him to stop short. "Stay out of this!" Cynthia shouted. In the next second, she swung her arm in an effort to slap Steven on the face again, but this time, Steven was ready and caught her wrist.

"I am not going to welcome you for lunch… ever," Steven said through clenched teeth.

Cynthia's replied with a disheartened glare. But before Steven could press on, Martine grabbed his other hand and dragged him away (and Steven had to let go of Cynthia's wrist in the process). As he was being dragged, Cynthia looked at Wallace.

"What are you having for lunch, anyway?" she asked.

"Supposedly, I saw a barbecue grill, so that's what's on the menu, I guess," Wallace said. "Steven was about to cook for them, but I guess –"

Cynthia held up her hand for Wallace's silence.

"Allow me," she said angrily.

Ooh... What happens next? I hope a shorter chapter is enough to whet your appetite for the next chapter (no pun intended!). That being said, there isn't any food prepared for this chapter - that comes later!