I really trust this chapter to be entertaining! I'm glad to have even gotten this up since the last update. Yes, I have more time for the summer, so hopefully chapters can come quickly. I did manage three weeks to write this, didn't I? That's faster than 'usual'. Alas, it has been basically a 'month'.
I've been getting feedback from my peers at how I manage to persist in university studies (I'm in my fourth year! But I might take two more) while writing at the same time. I guess it just helps to have a hobby.
Meanwhile, I've been drawing comparisons between "Culinary Rivals" and K-dramas and I'm thinking the slow burn romance is suffocating. I must try to be careful.
DaX0315, darkwolf0909, and StRAngE ToASt, you'll be in for a treat this chapter (even though you'll have no food served this time).
Chapter fifty-four: That Night in Lumiose
Incredibly, both the meals were completed at the same time. At least twice did Steven and Cynthia bump into each other in the kitchen, which trigged some annoyance between them. Nevertheless, they were seated together at the same table, with their food. Of course, a strip of red tape and blue tape separated them.
Steven's quiche by itself looked mouth-watering, and the aroma of Chevroum cheese and mushrooms told a different story. Cynthia's LaBrie puff pastry was decorated with sliced Tamato berries, spicy to the core, spinach, and vinegar. It looked like a salad, if anything. However, Cynthia also had a Leppa berry puff pastry for dessert, whereas Steven had no dessert.
They ate quietly. There was no point in having a conversation between them, since they had basically sworn hatred to each other. However, that didn't keep them from eyeing each other's food. But rather than ask for a sample, which they knew in their bones would result in a "no", they simply studied each other's plate. Like they were test subjects in a laboratory.
Then Steven remembered that his quiche needed a little bit of seasoning, so he got up from the table and back to the kitchen. As usual, he walked only on flooring with red tape, or between red and blue tape, but never within blue taped floor. Cynthia seized the moment to look closely at the quiche for a few moments, while not crossing onto Steven's half of the table. Was this his best efforts, or was it half-hearted? Even though Cynthia had faced off against Steven many times, her problem was that she never had enough of Steven's cooking. She wished she had snuck into his restaurant more often.
Now that Steven had come back and seasoned his quiche with thyme and basil, he sat down and began to eat. Cynthia grimaced. She would have started a conversation under normal circumstances, if only it wasn't him of all people. She had to be careful too. Whatever she did, Steven would surely be monitoring her like a spy. Decisions she made could make her lose the competition. The wrong decision would spell her doom.
"Would you care if I had some of that basil?" Cynthia coolly asked.
"I would care," Steven replied. "Doing that would mean we'll have to cross the lines, and we don't want to break the rules. Otherwise, you'll be in for something worse."
Cynthia scoffed, and continued to eat her food. It seemed that Steven wouldn't even bother asking for her puff pastry. Then again, she was fighting for survival, after all. More than once, her eyes shifted from her puff pastry, to Steven's quiche, and then to Steven's face. Whenever she made eye contact with him, she would look outside instead.
Yet she had a window of opportunity when Steven left for the kitchen. In seconds, Cynthia sprinkled a bit of basil onto her puff pastry and stirred so the flavour would hide within the dish. She took a bite too. The flavour was improved, that was for sure, but she could certainly go further.
She felt slightly guilty, but the flavour was too tasty to resist. Basil paired nicely with the puff pastry, so what was there to argue? If only he asked for a sample. If only!
Steven came back with a glass of water, and raised an eyebrow at the smile Cynthia wore. However, he had to fixate his attention on the floor, so that he wouldn't cross Cynthia's lines.
"Tell me, did you poison my quiche?" he said.
"What?! What am I to you, a psychopath?" Cynthia shot back.
"Not quite," Steven sipped his water and continued eating. He sliced another piece of quiche off and savoured its meat-free flavours.
However, there had been no more conversation after that. After gazing outside the windows for the next while, the two chefs had their respective sides of the table wiped and cleaned before returning to the kitchen. Even so, when it came to washing dishes, the sink was separated in half by a strip of tape. As usual, the tape extended to the floor so that Steven and Cynthia were standing in squares as they did their dishes. A blue square for Steven, and a red square for Cynthia.
"Don't even think of raiding my bags, and don't even think of going in while I'm still inside!" Cynthia demanded hotly as she walked into the bathroom. Her cheeks flushed red. "Especially when I'm showering!"
"What do you take me for?" Steven's teeth were clenched. "You know, you can lock the door!"
The bathroom door slammed shut, and later, Steven could hear the rushing of water from the shower. Feeling the need to vent, Steven sent out Metagross onto the floor.
"What am I going to do with her?! This is not sustainable!" Steven said through deep breaths. "Here I am, confined into this blank box with her until the end of the competition!"
Metagross laughed "Meta… gross!" as it prepared to endure a slew of remarks from Steven. It seemed Steven was on the verge of becoming insane due to this predicament. First, Steven criticised the living conditions of the hotel room, which would have been fine were it not covered top to bottom in tape. Next, he berated Wallace for setting up this arrangement with Cynthia and regretted not suspecting what Wallace had planned earlier. On more than one occasion, Metagross smiled. Steven was unleashing a payload of frustrations, as if he were an aerial bomber at war. In some sense, Metagross thought, Steven was at war with Cynthia.
After passing some time with Steven, Metagross poked at the Poké Ball Steven had used. Steven, in turn, widened his eyes. "What? No! I don't want to!"
But Metagross pushed Steven to do it anyway, and now Steven felt stabbed in the back. He had hoped Metagross would give him some company, but like Martine, Sophie, and Laurent, it wouldn't cut him slack. Within moments, Metagross was inside its Poké Ball and Steven was sitting on his own again. The sound of the shower had stopped, shortly after, and Steven dreaded what would happen next. The door opened and Cynthia stepped out wearing a gray nightgown under a bathrobe. Her hair was wet, which surprised Steven as he thought she would have dried it. Then again, with beautiful hair as long as that, it would take forever to dry. Wait, did he just compliment her hair?
"If you touched anything while I was showering…" Those were her first words, which were anything but welcome. "...you'll have had it. You hear me?"
"I heard you the first time." Steven had taken the hint. He picked up his nightclothes before walking into the very humid washroom. Just how hot was the water Cynthia used? In his opinion, warm-to-cool showers were enough for Steven.
"Even the mirrors are fogged, and you don't use ventilation?! Honestly!" Steven complained, which caused Cynthia to smirk. Serves him right. Not turning on ventilation was a simple parting gift.
As the door closed, Cynthia was left by herself. She took the opportunity to check her belongings anyway, and her food, to see whether Steven had tampered with anything. She found nothing whatsoever but wished she had sent out Garchomp to keep an eye on things. Then again, if she did, Steven would probably make her to be paranoid. In the end, she sat down on her side of the table with a slice of Leppa berry baked and wrapped in puff pastry. The sweet and slightly spicy taste never failed to surprise her, as the spice was pleasant for a dessert – like one would find for cinnamon. That reminded Cynthia, maybe a bit of cinnamon would work for this dessert!
Her thoughts dwelled on Steven and the kind of predicament she was placed in. It had only been one day since getting here, but time seemed even slower in this boutique hotel room. As she thought, her chest tightened. How did she even end up here in this situation?
To think it started back when she took up business in Cyllage City, she thought as she ate her pie. A lot had happened since. From Steven stealing her supplies, to that time she waltzed into the Stone Bistro to have dinner with him (Cynthia chuckled briefly at the thought), and now… Steven was bent on destroying her. Not to mention that his interactions with that Astrid girl were… envious. But that didn't matter as such emotions were getting in the way of her business. Who knows what could happen if she took control of the Stone Bistro? Or… what if Vue sur la Lune went under? Cynthia knew this cook-off could save herself, and might keep Steven away from her.
The Leppa berry puff pastry was delicious; Cynthia had to give herself that. It wasn't her best work, but it was enough. Was it her imagination, perhaps, that her dissatisfaction with her Leppa puff pastry was amplifying her jealousy somehow? She took a deep breath and tried to forget about it. Forget about Steven and Astrid, and focus on the food. She was a dessert maker, right?
Her phone ringed, and Cynthia answered the call without checking who.
"Bonjour," she greeted.
"Bonjour, Cynthia," Diantha greeted. "How are things? I hope you've settled by now."
Cynthia's eyes widened. It wasn't helpful that Wallace had basically told everyone. That was typical of Wallace, so there was no surprise. Now Cynthia would just have to brace for the worst.
"Not to mention Steven has been looking rough today too," Diantha added. "What could you two have done? Don't tell me that you've been at each other's throats. You should be glad that Wallace has no right to talk with the media informally, otherwise things could have been worse."
"Living here is a nightmare, Diantha. I'll be honest," Cynthia replied. "Tomorrow should be interesting."
"Heh. Well, I'm calling to remind you that you shouldn't stress over what you'll be making for now, since we won't announce the themes yet. Tell that to Steven, alright? Just take the day off tomorrow, okay? I know you'll be disappointed – (this made Cynthia puff her cheeks) – but hey, it's all part of the process. Enjoy Lumiose City while you can!"
"It's harder than you think… But at least the cafés are world-class. Yeah, I'll do exactly that, Diantha. Good night." Cynthia was about to hang up, but was stopped short by a bunch of "Wait, wait, wait!" from Diantha. "Argh… What is it now?"
"I know your affinity for history, Cynthia, so I recommend paying Lumiose Museum a visit. There's plenty to see and it has its share about the history of Kalos too. The government funds the museum too, so you don't need to worry about paying."
That got Cynthia's attention.
Steven eventually stepped out of the bathroom wearing his nightclothes. His hair had just been dried and he looked refreshed. However, he faltered when he saw Cynthia sitting on the bed. Her eyes were a cold stare.
"We need to make an agreement on the bed," Cynthia said, "because last night was a disaster."
"I couldn't agree more, but let's honour our first agreement and keep the lines in place," Steven replied. He eyed the pieces of tape that still divided the bed and the area around it in two.
Cynthia examined the bed cover and flattened her end of it. Between her and Steven, they knew already that they couldn't just divide the cover in half, so they had to either leave it be or get rid of it. In the end, they decided to get rid of it. So they were left with a bed with no cover. As a result, Steven placed a new strip of blue tape to divide the bed in two again, while Cynthia did the same with the red.
Nevertheless, the most awkward part was they were going to share the same bed. At the end, Cynthia had set up a pillow wall, to further distance herself from Steven. As Steven climbed onto bed, he was slightly amused at Cynthia's effort at the pillow wall, and admitted that Cynthia did have good ideas. Now, things couldn't get too bad from here, right? They've done all they could to limit the damage – and the awkwardness – from sharing the same bed. Steven was first to lie down and sleep, whereas Cynthia stayed up just a little longer to make sure the pillow wall was up.
When it was up, she turned off the lights and went to bed. At the same time, she tried her best to not even think Steven was sleeping right beside her. Cynthia thought about how Steven was feeling right now. Would he do something drastic? Would he do something as she slept, when her guard was down?
The light breathing from his nose told her otherwise. Maybe they might get some moments of peace at last!
She turned her head to look at the clock on the side table: 11:30 PM, it read. Normally, she would either be sleeping later than that, but then again, these were not normal circumstances. She was sleeping beside Steven! At least it was more peaceful than the night before, but the thought of still sleeping beside him seemed scandalous, if not impossible. This was only the second night! But she almost always slept on her own, so why was she placed in this bed, right now? Then again, Wallace had blackmailed her and Steven into this.
Cynthia turned her head the other way, slowly like she was sleeping, just to peek at Steven through a gap in the pillow wall. He was clearly sleeping already, and he looked exhausted. Did he look more handsome like this in the dim light, or was it her imagination? His slow breathing did her some comfort, but perhaps she was overthinking things. She could never tell whether Steven had some sort of plan waiting to strike –
A muffled sound came from Steven's side. It sounded like he was just turning around in his sleep. It was an action that caused him to nudge the pillow wall and partially knock it over. That forced Cynthia to get up briefly to put the pillow wall in its place before lying down again.
Unfortunately, moments later, before she could drift off to sleep, Steven's minor shuffling had knocked down the pillow wall again. Groaning, she had to put it up again, but the moment she put the pillows up, Steven had turned and knocked the rest of the pillows down!
"Just what is with this guy?!" Cynthia whispered angrily. Still, there was nothing she could do, unless she wanted to risk not sleeping at all.
In the end, she set up the pillow wall once more and slept immediately after that, too tired to even do anything. It was better to plan out what to do tomorrow. Her world and her mind went dark.
The following morning saw lots of sunlight beaming on Lumiose City. It was a cool, crisp, morning, and the streets were quiet. Thankfully, for the staff of the boutique hotel where Steven and Cynthia were staying, they could be relieved from the media who were still trying to barge into the hotel. If the staff didn't know better, they would have gotten the police, or even the government, to protect the establishment.
That also meant that it was very unlikely that anyone would try to peer into Steven and Cynthia's room. Fortunately for Steven and Cynthia, Wallace had decided to keep that information private, or at least was forced to. However, in the room itself, was it peaceful?
Cynthia stretched on the bed tiredly. She was just waking up after a dreamless sleep and was ready to wash her face. Afterwards, she would grab a change of clothes and maybe, if she was motivated, cook breakfast. Otherwise, she would head out to grab breakfast, and see what a Lumiose-style meal would be like. Finally, she could check on Diantha and see when the theme ingredients would be announced.
But what she felt on the bed surprised her unpleasantly. Her arms were holding onto something… soft. It was also warm.
Cynthia opened her eyes.
She recognised that handsome face of Steven's. Did he somehow look better when he was sleeping? Cynthia had never looked at Steven like this up close – Wait a minute. This was Steven! Also, he had his arms wrapped around her!
Immediately flushing red, she released her grasp on him (how did that happen?) and pushed him away from her. Right after, Steven fell off the bed and landed on the floor with a thud.
"Ow!" Steven huffed, jolted awake.
Cynthia took a careful look at her surroundings. The pillow wall on the bed had evidently collapsed at it seemed like she herself had edged over to Steven's side of the bed. No, she had to keep this to herself.
"What was that?!" Steven shouted from below.
"That was for getting to my side of the bed! You collapsed the pillow wall! And you tried to pull a move on me, huh?!" Cynthia retaliated. Her breathing was short, and her cheeks were red. To add insult to injury, Steven got to glimpse at her face.
"Pull a move on you…? What do you mean?!" Steven demanded.
"Meaning you wrapped your arms around me last night! Don't even deny it!" Cynthia said. She got up and went to the bathroom quickly. The door slammed shut with a bang.
Meanwhile, Steven lifted himself up and sat on the bed. He was confused and tried to let Cynthia's words sink in. Questions kept popping in his mind. He wrapped his arms around her? Like hugging? And on the same bed? No. No way. That was impossible. Even the mere thought of it made his stomach twist and sent goosebumps across his skin.
Getting that close to Cynthia was inconceivable. He didn't notice his breathing was short.
After cooling down, he went to get himself changed. Cynthia probably wouldn't be coming out of the bathroom for a while, so he made the most of the opportunity. He picked out his favourite suit, the one he normally wore in his championship days, but opted not to wear a tie. Then, Steven looked at the window, thinking what he could do today.
He didn't expect to know the theme ingredients of the cook-off today, so he could wait. Then again, he could probably count on Diantha to let him know. If nothing else, he could go for a walk around Lumiose City and explore.
Cynthia walked out of the bathroom wearing her championship attire, save for her heels. She wasn't wearing her hair ornaments, which surprised Steven. He thought she wore those every day. Just seeing her, in light of this morning, did make him blush.
"I'll be heading out," Steven said.
"Diantha says the themes won't be known by at least tomorrow," Cynthia said.
"Good to know. I can take the day off then."
Steven walked out of the room and left Cynthia by herself.
Leave a review, and you can enjoy Cynthia's dinner or Steven's dinner (your pick). LaBrie cheese on puff pastry seasoned with Tamato berries, spinach, vinegar, and basil, or the Chevroum cheese and mushroom quiche seasoned with thyme, vinegar, and basil. Leppa berry puff pastry is served as dessert!