This chapter was supposed to be released eight days ago, but school is annihilating me. I'm in my fourth year and taking a very hard course that qualifies me to take fourth year courses, and that is why I've been set back writing "Culinary Rivals"! Next update probably won't be until... the middle to end of this month (November). So sorry! I know it's November 2...

DaX0315, StRaNgE ToASt, WildFire354, and QUEENSPELLER67, please enjoy a slice of Slateport Cake dorée and coffee! And WildFire354, I'm glad to see you're enjoying yourself!

QUEENSPELLER67: You're right. Vulpix! On ICE is a parody indeed, and the golden portion of the cake is the honey.

Chapter forty-five: Moon's Reprise (Shopping)

With 70,000 Poké from Steven's bank account that had been exchanged from cheque to cash, Sophie and Laurent were, for lack of better word, on a date. They were at Cyllage City's boutique to shop for whatever clothes they wanted. With Martine's help, the two receptionists persuaded James to let them off early so they could go shopping.

Unfortunately for Laurent, more than half of the money was in Sophie's power. 60,000 Poké, to be exact. There was only one simple reason for it.

"You need better taste in clothes, Laurent," Sophie complained, "and I want more for me."

"What? No, no, I'm pretty sure they're fine… I mean, you can always buy what you want first and I'll spend what's leftover," Laurent said. He poked Sophie's nose, which earned Sophie a blush at first, and then she tugged his ear.

They browsed through a huge selection of clothes at the boutique, and taking a look at specials and premium brands alike. Even while they were looking around, news of Cynthia's victory over Steven spread filled their thoughts. At some point, while Sophie was trying out new clothes in the change room, Laurent patiently sat just outside and thinking.

Just what was he thinking, getting into a competition with Cynthia AGAIN? Laurent thought. Sure, he had heard the rumour that it was the result of Steven challenging Cynthia over who had a better cake or bread or something. Was that necessary though?

The curtain in front of him opened and he looked up. Instantly, his eyes widened. There was Sophie, wearing a button-up shirt with a cardigan. Plus, she was wearing a knee-level skirt with a pair of flat shoes and no socks. Simply put, Laurent looked slightly dumbstruck.

"Well? Well?! Comment puis-je regarder?" Sophie asked expectantly. Her eyes looked serious at first, but she really wanted to know what Laurent thought of her appearance. It was like she was trying to coerce Laurent into saying something she wanted to hear. He looked at Sophie from top to bottom and top again in awe, which earned Sophie a blush.

Unfortunately for Sophie, this was Laurent.

"You're a… a girl?" he said.

"Wait, what?! Quel homme! Of course I'm a girl!" she replied, and lost for words. She placed a hand over her chest out to steady herself. "L-Laurent, don't say stuff like that! How could you not know? Oh…"

But Laurent smiled back innocently, and Sophie realised what an idiot she had made herself. Soon, she buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Laurent! You shouldn't say stuff like that!"

"Your reaction was worthwhile," Laurent said. His smile still stayed on his face. "You looked really, really, cute in these clothes when you did that."

That made Sophie even more flustered and she buried her face in her hands again. Her face burned red and a second later, she slapped Laurent in the cheek.

"Agh! I have no idea what to with you!" Sophie shouted.

"You look even more adorable in those clothes when you're angry," Laurent added as he rubbed his cheek. To be honest, he was blushing because Sophie did look that attractive in those clothes. That being said, Sophie was blushing so hard that an assistant had to stop by to check on them.

"Are you alright?" she asked Sophie.

"She's fine," Laurent answered. "I'm just commenting on how adorable she looks."

The assistant giggled, saying, "She does look smart in that attire."

Seeing that Sophie was blushing hard and probably unconvinced, Laurent brushed his bangs away before bringing a comforting hand on Sophie shoulder. He added, "Alright, Sophie, hear me out. You look gorgeous in that outfit. The cardigan really matches the skirt too, and… well, your legs look fine with the skirt and shoes."

Sophie had relaxed at first and only to gasp a second later. Her blushes became an unsurpassable deeper red and once more, she was lost for words. Now that Laurent just had to mention her legs and how genuinely 'gorgeous' she looked, Sophie's deep blushing had rocketed to record-breaking levels!

The assistant chuckled. "You are so lucky to have a boyfriend like him," she said. "I bet you'll buy it now, eh?"

Sophie was still in a state of shock no thanks to Laurent's comments, and especially when he mentioned her legs! She couldn't even deny that Laurent was her boyfriend at all! Still, she mustered the courage to stare into Laurent's eyes through tears.

"I will buy it, but he will get clothes himself that I will approve of!" she shouted, as if that could rid her of all the frustration she was bearing. "These are the eyes of a serious fashion star."

Laurent blinked once. Sophie just looked too cute with that red face.

"These are the eyes of a girl who is just fed up with her friend's opinion of her appearance!"

Okay, now those eyes were piercing into Laurent's soul.

"These are the eyes of a girl who knows what her boyfriend should wear!"

Boyfriend? Wait, what?! Since when did Laurent feel that way?

"These are… SERIOUS EYES!"

Even so, he had to hand it to Sophie that those clothes really looked good on her.

"I'm not – gonna – blink!"

Laurent facepalmed.

Ten minutes later, Sophie and Laurent were at the cashier till to pay for the clothes they amassed. Laurent had clothes, and Sophie was more than eager to wear her new ones. They had the money for them, thanks to Steven! As well, Sophie insisted she and Laurent wear their new clothes together.

So she was wearing exactly what she wore earlier. Meanwhile, Laurent was wearing something along the same lines; in the form of a white crewneck under a blue blazer. With that done, they were ready to buy their clothes.

Oddly, the customer in front of them was taking a long time with her purchase. They then realised that the woman was having trouble storing a ton of clothes she had amassed herself. What struck Sophie and Laurent more was that the woman was in fact Cynthia, accompanied by a Roserade.

"She… doesn't look good," Sophie whispered. "What's she doing here? Didn't she win the competition?"

"She looks pretty sad," Laurent whispered. "How can you win and still feel sad?"

The fact was that Cynthia had barely noticed them and after paying for her clothes, she was stuffing whatever she could into something like ten shopping bags. That was excessive! What was going on? Even so, before either Sophie or Laurent could investigate, Cynthia had picked up her purchases and… did not leave the boutique. Instead, she simply went back and started looking for more clothes. Roserade, who was relegated to carrying eight of the bags, followed her.

Laurent and Sophie looked at each other with confused expressions, so they followed Cynthia around for a bit. They hid behind a row of dresses and kept watching what Cynthia was doing. She was picking out other kinds of dresses and placing them in front of her to evaluate the sizes, before going to a mirror and looking at it again.

It was also that the two receptionists noticed in the mirror that Cynthia's face looked bitter as she looked at herself. "How do I look, Roserade?" she asked.

"Ro-serade!" Roserade said, shaking her head. "Rooooooose!"

"Oh come on, I'm doing just fine," Cynthia said. "I… You know, you're right. No dresses. Let's try tank tops. That'll probably do it in this weather."

What the two observing receptionists didn't count on was that as Cynthia picked out several choices of tank tops, they also noticed she grew sadder by the minute. Tears were starting to stream down her face.

"I c-can't believe I still lost," Cynthia sobbed. "I lost to h-h… I lost to him! Why can't I win?!"

"Rose, rose," Roserade said comfortingly, as she gently pat Cynthia's shaky hands. Very soon, Cynthia had made up her mind and went to purchase the clothes she had. She also opted to pick out a pair of strap sandals to go with her picks, which were expensive.

Sophie and Laurent stared at each other in confusion.

"So let me get this straight," Martine Grenadine said. "So Cynthia was crying after all that mess with Steven today? That might prove something…"

The only private and public place Martine, Sophie, and Laurent could really find was at the Stone Restaurant and Bistro's bar, À la Mer. While the barman was cleaning glasses, the three of them were at a table to discuss what was going on. Martine was on her break.

"It's really weird," Sophie said. "On one hand, we know that Cynthia was just fresh from winning a competition with Monsieur Stone. Oddly, she kept saying she lost! How does that make sense?"

"I don't get it either," Laurent added. "Diantha said it, so I don't see why she's complaining."

They kept sitting in silence wondering what to make of the situation. Martine gave a big sigh. The Stone Bakery had a ton of sales of the new Slateport cake dorée and as it happened, Martine was eating one. She had no coffee, though.

"So maybe… maybe… Cynthia just wants to get her point across to Steven," Martine suggested. "It's just a hunch, but she might be buying clothes just as some sort of therapy."

"You mean like shopping therapy?" Sophie said.

"It sometimes works if you're depressed, AND you have to be a girl," Martine quickly added when Laurent gave her a strange look. "Laurent. If Sophie does something like that, you should heed her warning! After that, you have to take her out for ice cream! Besides, didn't you go shopping just now?"

While Laurent remained remarkably calm, Sophie's cheeks flushed.

"L-Let's stay on topic," she quickly said. "Okay, so if Cynthia is really unhappy to the point of crying, then she has something going on, right? If she does have a point to get to Steven, I wonder exactly what that might be."

"It's hard to tell since Steven gave an open declaration of war against her," Martine said. She bit into her Slateport cake dorée. "No wonder Cynthia is feeling so bad!"

"I would think it's obvious," Laurent said. "She loves him but she can't bring herself to say it in his face. Then again, I don't speak for her, but that's my guess."

Martine grinned only just slightly. "I think all she needs is a little push, you know? Something to get her going. But then again, I don't get why Steven is just blasting away at her. He needs a push too. You know what mean? Right? Right?! Sophie?! I'm talking about lips here."

Sophie's face paled as she thought about her accidental kiss with Laurent the day before. That was exactly what Martine was getting at, and she just had to say it, didn't she?

"Besides, I'm sure you're going along well, oui, Sophie? With all that cash from Steven, you and Laurent had some quality time, right? You lovebirds sure know where to pick your dates!" Martine added, hoping to poke some fun and making her crack. In Sophie's eyes, this was bad enough. First Lisia made her crack at her club meeting, and then Martine did the same thing at the beach, and now Martine was intending to do the same!

Thus, Sophie's face soured and she buried her face on the table.

Roserade was first to arrive at Cynthia's villa and opened the door for her, even though she was already carrying eight bags. After walking in, Cynthia immediately followed and dropped her shopping bags on the floor. Roserade looked nonetheless concerned when Cynthia didn't bother putting her bags away properly and instead went to the kitchen. She was fortunate that Garchomp was around to help.

"Gar, Garhomp?" Garchomp asked as she picked up the bags what was going on. Roserade explained briefly about Cynthia's shopping trip and that was that. The two Pokémon sighed together and went to bring Cynthia's bags to her room.

Meanwhile, Cynthia left her kitchen for her with a few tubs of ice cream, a box of waffle cones, and an ice cream scoop. Pistachio, chocolate, and vanilla were her flavours of choice this time.

He was to blame.

Him.

It was his fault that she was in this mess now. Her cake was simply the best, and was much better than his. Sure, he fought valiantly, but he just didn't get it.

The tears started rolling from her eyes and Cynthia was then watching her anime minutes later. 'Vulpix On ICE' was airing the much-anticipated 'Episode 6' and she didn't want to miss that. While the episode loaded, Cynthia scooped one of each ice cream onto her cone as the show started.

Elsewhere, Roserade and Garchomp had finished sorting out the bags and were back in time to see Cynthia eat her ice cream through tears. It did not help that as Cynthia watched her show, she was crying tears of joy over the story. Roserade shook her head and set about putting away Cynthia's new sandals, which looked quite expensive.

Cynthia continued to enjoy her ice cream and anime as much as she could. For now, things were going well with 'Episode 6' being as good as other viewers had promised. She ate her ice cream more furiously as she watched her show, and yet still dwelled her thoughts on Steven again.

More tears started rolling down her cheeks. She thought watching 'Episode 6' was good, and truthfully to her it was, and ice cream made her feel better. But when Steven's face appeared in her mind, she was back to where she started.

As a result, she stopped watching 'Episode 6' and continued to slowly finish her ice cream. Ice cream to her was one of the best comfort foods she had, so was it doing its job? Her heart felt heavy afterward. By then, her ice cream was finished, and she was left to bury her head in a pillow. The thing was that the pillow was starting to soak up with tears very quickly.

After breathing for a bit, Cynthia regained her cool and went to watch the news. Her anime could wait, and the news would do her a little bit of good. Garchomp decided to serve her a glass of water before joining her on the sofa. Clearly, Cynthia was in a bad mood.

"Hello! It's time for Gym Freaks, your source for the hottest news about hot Gym Leaders in Kalos!" the broadcast said.

Great. Just what Cynthia needed.

"I'm reporting from a square plaza the community has dubbed "Plaza Median" where apparently the Shalour City's Gym Leader Korrina is judging the taste of two cakes from – you guessed it – TWO former Pokémon Champions! Cynthia and Steven! We may be reporting for Gym Freaks, but you're in for a treat! Not only are these three here, but Champion Diantha and Hearthome City Gym Leader Fantina – from Sinnoh, mind you – are also here to judge! This fight should be epic as we see Cynthia and Steven square off for the best cake!"

Cynthia swallowed. She looked up from her pillow and saw herself and Steven hard at work.

"Oh, the smell of hazelnut from Cynthia's oven is making my mouth water! But that smell of honey… Oh… I can't decide which would taste better! You can see how the judges are anticipating their treats. Better yet, you can see that fiery passion in Cynthia's eyes and that love of cooking Steven has in his eyes. That's a sign, you know! A sign… of LOVE! Even though the way they fight each other doesn't make sense. You know?"

Was this REALLY what the media have been broadcasting?!

"And those cakes look stunning. My money really is on Cynthia's, but wait! Steven puts his cake on a coffee! No… Wait… Wow! Cynthia's cake is stunning! But look at Steven's! The judges are awestruck! Even so, the eventually winner… is Cynthia! That does it! Just look at the delight on the judges' faces! That really ought to leave an impression on Steven for sure. This is a SIGN, everyone!"

Cynthia blinked. Her ice cream was long finished.

"But look at Cynthia now. She looks shocked, maybe appalled! She sure looks like she's taking in this victory sweetly, because she is not smiling! But what do we have here? People are actually flocking to both sides now! These new cakes are all the rage! It looks like even Gym Leader Grant is also grabbing a cake too. Of course, he is always known for that sweet tooth of his, some say."

But Cynthia had enough and turned off the television. If anything, watching that made her feel worse. Why, she even dared to go for more ice cream after that.

It didn't help Steven either when Wallace popped by his restaurant with a slice of Cynthia's Crème de Lune Opéra just for him.

"You see, this is the STUFF that will help you think about things," he said, while giving Steven a pat on the back. Wow, he just had to ruin Steven's break, didn't he? To think Steven was in the clear after all that mess with Cynthia, and now this…

"I already had one, thanks," Steven said coldly. "It's all yours."

Wallace looked hurt. "You loved this cake, right? Look, you can't treat this cake like you do her!" he complained. "She is not a cake that you can look at and decide it's not good. You have to try the cake again to make up your mind!"

Steven sighed.

"You can't compare this cake with Cynthia," he said. "That doesn't make sense. It's like comparing apples and oranges."

"But they can be substitutes… or compliments?" Wallace teased. "They can be perfect for each other! You know, why must you always be living in denial like this?! You don't have to fracture your relationship with her, you know!"

Steven swallowed. Wallace making a reference to that old magazine article and Martine like this was enough. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Steven said hotly. "I'm not fracturing our relationship; because there isn't one! Haven't you seen our fights lately? You of all people know–"

"Now that's the point," Wallace interrupted. "Don't lose sight of the light, Steven! And her! It'll be just like this cake! The cake will go bad if you don't eat it immediately!"

Steven put a palm on his own forehead.

"If you don't do anything, I will make something happen in the future! That I promise!" Wallace said. "You better act fast! I am your moral support, after all!"

Now Steven had to look down in embarrassment.

"If you don't do it, the cake will go moldy! If she goes moldy, then you won't take her at all!" Wallace complained. "Why, if I treated this cake like I would Winona…"

But at that point Wallace had to trail off because Steven took away the cake. "If it means you won't talk anymore, I will gladly take this cake," he said. "Now, Wallace, I have business to attend to."

Wallace made a face. "I'm telling you, Steven! Heed my sage advice! Cynthia will slip from your fingers! And when that happens, she will go moldy!"

"I wouldn't mind that, actually," Steven replied. He ended up pushing Wallace out of the bakery just as tens of people were crowding outside in line for a Slateport cake dorée. Oddly, but unsurprisingly, Steven noticed they were all holding coffees from Le Café Sinnoh.

If it meant his business would benefit from this, then Steven couldn't complain. Who was he to complain? But it was perfectly possible that Cynthia was going to stab him in the back soon. The coffees were a start, but clearly Cynthia's cake was taking an equal market share of cakes versus his Slateport cakes. At the very least, the Slateport cake did sell for cheaper. Pay an extra 200 Poké, and you can have it served in the dorée style.

He placed the Crème de Lune Opéra at a table inside À la Mer where he could enjoy it slowly and privately. The chocolate ganache continued to ooze out of the layers of the cake when he cut into it.

Just what was Cynthia thinking?

No. He had to stop thinking about her. Something bad might happen if he did.

Apologies for the delayed update! Allow me to make it up to you with a slice of Crème de Lune Opéra or, if you really like, some of Cynthia's ice cream. It's chocolate ice cream with sea salt, if you must know! Available by review!