Hard to believe I got this chapter written and finished - rapidly - in 12 days. When was the last time I had written a chapter in a short time? But hey, consider it an early Christmas gift. On the plus side, I have more time on my hands until the New Year.

DaX0315, StRAngE ToASt, and darkwolf0909, you are entitled to a serving of Lumiose breakfast from the previous chapter! Enjoy!

Unfortunately, I can't count Second Legion Scout's writing as a review. I'll have everyone know that I've had dealings with Farla in the past from around six years ago, and haven't had any problems.

darkwolf0909: Thanks for the feedback! You see, that's the benefit of Astrid being a generic character: I have lots more flexibility to make her character. I just worked off of what little details I could find, including how she talks, and now here we are.

Anyway, let's see how far Cynthia's jealousy really is taking her...

Chapter fifty-nine: Over Fresh Coffee

Steven hadn't felt so relieved by the time he returned to his boutique hotel room. Watching a battle like the one he had just seen an hour ago was one way to take his mind off cooking for a while. Before he could send Astrid off, Astrid made him promise to have another battle like the one today. If nothing else, he felt like he could cook better than before – it was like he had just taken a vacation and was ready to go back to work.

That was a little ironic, granted, since this trip to Lumiose City was technically a 'vacation' by employment standards. James d'Arc had been to see that: Steven was granted vacation pay while he was here. Steven didn't need to remind himself that Martine, Sophie, and Laurent had managed to sneak their way on board too.

Better yet, Cynthia wasn't back in the room. Where could she have gone?

He decided not to worry about her. For now, Steven was in a better mood, and what better than to treat himself to a quiet dinner?

His phone rang.

Ah, yes. The call for the competition tomorrow would never leave him. Steven decided it was best to prepare for tomorrow. At the end of the day, his purpose for coming to Lumiose City was really about the survival of his restaurant. But for some reason, he had to keep reminding himself of that.

"Bonjour," he said into his phone.

"Bonjour, friend!" Wallace's irritable voice blasted from phone. "You're doing okay, right? Just so you know: there are updates from the judges! So you better be prepared for what's coming."

"…" Steven briefly paused. "I'm listening."

"You'll be working with salads! Now I know that it's a little late to get you these news, but better late than never!" Wallace said cheerfully. "After that, it's a biscuit theme of your choice!"

"I see." Steven said shortly. "Merci, Wallace."

"De rien! See you tomorrow!" Wallace hung up right away.

Steven didn't feel like making dinner, but he had to get a battle plan down for tomorrow. The main problem was that he didn't have time to prepare for tomorrow either. Of course, he was used to the pressure of getting multiple food orders coming in at his restaurant and meeting each order one by one. But this was a competition he was in, and the margin of error was narrower.

To think there was an opportunity to relax after getting back here! But in his heart, Steven knew it had to be done. After all, he wasn't here on vacation – though he could tell that his staff certainly were. After pocketing his phone, he picked up his jacket and walked out of the hotel. Mercifully, it seemed that after a few days, the media had gotten tired of trying to follow him every hour. At most, there were one or two journalists waiting outside the doors to get an interview with him.

For the past while, Cynthia had mostly been spending time alone. Sure, the call from Diantha telling her about the theme ingredients for the competition tomorrow was a welcome one, but hardly comforting. Given Cynthia's mind was divided, she wasn't in good shape. She could barely focus.

From walking past cafés and markets to walking past gardens and flowers, the nightly atmosphere was somewhat comforting to her. Even at this hour, the markets were open for business, and cafés and restaurants continued to serve hearty meals. Meanwhile, Prism Tower had been cordoned off by the police until further notice, since someone had to protect the competition's venue.

But Cynthia was nowhere near Prism Tower. Instead, she had been exploring a market near the south Pokémon Centre to look for fresh ingredients. She would need them for tomorrow.

Standing alone in the market, Cynthia had also remembered to wear her sunglasses while out in public. Her cardigan and sunhat were neatly put away in her bag, but her sunglasses should be enough to make her unnoticed in public. Despite this effort, Cynthia tried her best to stay focused and think about how to approach the theme ingredients at this moment.

However, part of her was distracted by the events today. How is it that Astrid got to be so much closer to Steven than she'll ever be? Or maybe Cynthia was just overthinking things… That reminded Cynthia, why bother with Steven at all? He was getting moral support from his student, and meanwhile, Cynthia wasn't faring better.

She continued to stare down at a basket of fresh Grepa berries.

"Cynthia?"

Cynthia's eyes shot up almost instantly. To her mild relief, it was Winona.

"Oh, salut, Winona." Cynthia had to blink a few times to get her mind refocused. Just how long had she been staring at the Grepa berries? "Um… How long have you been standing there?"

"Not that long. I'll give you that. I almost didn't recognise you!" Winona replied. "I had to look at you for like eight minutes before I could be confident!"

Cynthia smiled weakly. Winona's way of talking like this could have made anyone smile, and ironically Winona didn't try either. Her personality certainly contrasted with that of her colourful boyfriend. Speaking of that boyfriend…

"Is Wallace not with you? Did you break up, or something?" Cynthia teased. "Or… did you punch him in the face again?"

Winona puffed her cheeks. "Non. It's just that he's busy with the competition stuff, and talking with the chefs and all that. He had to release updates to Steven, after all, not unlike what Diantha is doing. And no, I did not punch him in the face. I only slapped him this time! I mean, you just ball your hand into a fist, right?"

If only you could tell the difference… Cynthia thought. For the first time a while, she was amused.

"I mean, he should be used to my punches by now!" Winona now shook her head in mock disbelief. "You would think that he is actually enjoying them!"

Still smiling, Cynthia turned her attention back to the groceries. Having Winona here was welcome company, and especially since Cynthia had been exhausted throughout the day.

"So, it's experimenting for now?" Winona said.

"Yeah. I haven't been given enough time to rest up." Cynthia picked up a handful of Grepa berries. "This feels like punishment."

"So… Do you have any feelings towards him?" Winona said.

The reaction wasn't what Winona was expecting, because Cynthia's eyes had narrowed. "No! Why would you even say that?! There's no way – NO WAY! Do you have any idea what he's been putting me through?!"

Being graceful by nature, Winona was largely unfazed by Cynthia's uncharacteristic outburst, but that didn't mean she wasn't surprised.

"I'm just asking for my boyfriend's sake…" Winona quietly said, as she was aware of the attention Cynthia was getting. "Besides, if you don't keep your mouth shut, I'm betting that it won't just be the public who are interested."

The media, of course, would catch on quickly. Plus, Cynthia was partly in disguise! Cynthia briefly looked at her surroundings and saw a few people giving her looks of different kinds, from those of confusion to those of disapproval. Then again, Cynthia had only herself to blame, because she agreed that this kind of outburst was out of character.

She kept quiet and picked out a handful of Razz berries. Eventually, the people continued going about their business.

"So what is it that's on your mind?" Winona finally asked.

At first, Cynthia really wanted to be honest, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to vent about Steven as much as she wanted, from how much he distress he was causing her to her past interactions with him. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen, because she didn't want to be more distracted from the competition than she was already.

"Well, you know, planning out my next move takes time. Salads aren't exactly my strongest points, but I can work my way around it," she said.

"Glad to see that you are. It makes me wonder if there's a salad that the judges would look favourably to." Winona scoffed. "To be honest, I'm surprised at the kind of firepower you and Steven still have. It's like an unending flood of surprises."

Cynthia sighed.

She picked out another choice of Razz berries and proceeded to think of what to pair her creation with. Since Grepa berries were sweet and sour, and the spiciness of Razz berries could compensate for that flavour, it seemed like her strategy for salad would be okay. As far as biscuits went, Poffins was her choice, but it had to be paired nicely with some kind of flavour that could counter what Steven had in store. If she had more time, she would have spied on him, but that wasn't productive.

Eventually, Cynthia, still wearing her sunglasses, proceeded to checkout, and Winona followed her.

"You really didn't have to, you know." Cynthia muttered. "I can take care of myself."

"It's not like I knew you were here, either." Winona had opted to buy a bottle of lemonade.

After she had paid for it, and Cynthia was now carrying a paper bag full of groceries, they walked out of the market and headed back to the boutique hotel. Cynthia wasn't surprised that Winona was staying there, but after all that had happened so far, it had been hard to interact with Winona at all.

"Just wondering, Winona…" Cynthia said. "Are you and Wallace sharing the same room, by any chance?"

"Nope, I insisted on it! Besides, I thought it was better that Lisia shares the same room as me. Just keeping Wallace isolated on his own might do him a little good," Winona replied.

Cynthia scoffed.

It then occurred to Winona that even at this hour, Cynthia was wearing sunglasses. However, she kept quiet, because to Cynthia's credit, getting media coverage was the last thing she wanted. Winona didn't see Diantha too often in public, but she knew well enough that even Diantha – a celebrity – was smart to wear sunglasses to avoid the media. Cynthia was in the exact same boat.

They walked past cafés and bakeries.

"Have you had any opportunity to eat around here?" Winona asked. "I know you've been cooking a lot, but it's not a bad experience to eat out in Lumiose."

"I would want to, if I had more time, but I have to prepare for tomorrow. Plus, it would do me a little harm to eat out in public like this," Cynthia replied. "I'd have to keep wearing these sunglasses non-stop."

"I don't know about you, but I hear Diantha does that all the time, eating out with her sunglasses on," Winona said. "At least you're in Lumiose! Come on, Cynthia…"

As it happened, they did pass by a café that was relatively quiet compared to the other ones nearby. With fewer customers, there was an opportunity to have better conversations. Although Cynthia wasn't that hungry, she decided that talking with Winona could relieve her of a few things.

Soon enough, they were both seated at the café with cups of freshly made coffee and small bowls of spinach salad mixed with zucchini, thyme, and Iapapa berries. These dishes looked pretty appetising, albeit Cynthia didn't have much of an appetite, and Winona clearly noticed this.

"Hmm… Are you okay? You've barely smiled today, like you're in distress or something," Winona said. "I'm not one to emulate Wallace, of course, but something is up with you! If it doesn't have to be me, Wallace will get to you."

In Cynthia's bones, she would have told Winona about her battle earlier, but she knew better than to do that. It would completely blow her cover sky-high, and if Winona even mentioned it to Wallace – which Cynthia thought was very possible – Cynthia would rather take her secret to the grave. In effect, Cynthia shifted the weight to Winona.

"How are things in Fortree? You've never told me about that," she said.

Winona was in the middle of a mouthful of spinach when Cynthia asked this, and rather wait for Winona to finish chewing, Cynthia started on her salad too. The spinach and Iapapa berries were wonderfully fresh, served with a side of savoury pepper and parmesan vinaigrette to offset the sour taste of the berries. However, the spinach more or less tied all the flavours together, like weaving a mosaic artwork.

"You know, there have been fewer challengers since Wallace took up the Champion mantle. Mostly, I've only seen returning challengers who just want to train with me, to prepare for the Hoenn championship." Winona said as Cynthia kept eating. Watching her eat so ferociously, Winona could feel Cynthia was hiding something. "Anyways, the fact Wallace is Champion does cut our dates short. If it's not League meetings in Hoenn, he's travelling across the world for other meetings."

"And he didn't even bother bringing you along…" Cynthia muttered. "I can't blame you two. The Pokémon League business is punishing."

They both continued eating, and as it happened, Winona spotted a copy of Lumiose Press left over on a neighbouring table. It was mainly the cover that caught her eye, and if it wasn't for the picture, she wouldn't have been interested.

"You're getting pretty popular, you know?" she said, holding the page up to Cynthia.

Cynthia's eyes narrowed. It was unsurprising to see a picture of her and Steven in the paper, with a large text label. However, Cynthia wondered how this story, let alone the picture, made it onto the newspaper at all.

"How… is this 'news'?" She breathed a sigh of exasperation.

Granted, this was only the entertainment section of the paper, which made sense. But the way Lumiose Press had framed this was out of context. The headline read, 'Culinary Rivals: the romantic standoff!' On the front cover was a picture of Steven and herself. Of course, what happened was that she and Steven were waiting on a decision by the three judges.

"On the plus side, the photography is excellent." Winona giggled. "You would think Lumiose Press is doing you a favour by promoting your foods."

Cynthia brought her hands over her eyes, despite wearing sunglasses. "I think I need to rest."

"Aw… Cheer up," Winona said, and waved to the server, saying, "L'addition, s'il vous plait. If it helps, I'll treat you to this salad. You'll need all the energy you can get for tomorrow."

Getting back to the boutique hotel undetected wasn't a problem. Thanks to Winona and her Skarmory, Cynthia was able to fly into the hotel lobby – literally – before any media presence could get to her. While Winona dealt with Wallace (who almost spilled a coffee on her foot and thus was on the receiving end of her fist), Cynthia returned to her room and hoped Steven wasn't there, but that was unlikely.

It was almost the dead of night, after all.

The moment Cynthia walked into the room with her groceries, she could tell Steven had been busy. There was an aroma in the room which suggested he had made dinner for himself. Cynthia could smell pepper, seasoning, and lemongrass in the air.

She could also hear the shower running.

Great, so he's taking a shower already? Or has he been waiting for me this whole time? Cynthia thought to herself.

She had almost forgotten to hide her sunglasses the moment she stepped right in. That was the first thing Cynthia attended to, and then she set about storing her groceries safely where he wouldn't be able to rummage through. While she was at it, she could always peek at what he had been up to.

At the same time, Cynthia carefully stayed within her taped boundaries in the hotel room. Surprisingly, housekeeping didn't bother removing it, but given the mess Cynthia and Steven had made the room already, there was really no point. The unofficial rule was that she always stayed within only blue taped floor and never red. So far, it had been working.

Yes, the rule was ridiculous, but Cynthia agreed it had merits.

Now that she had eaten, she set about thinking about her strategy. She pretty much had all the ingredients she needed, and now what was left was to turn them into a masterpiece. But how was this going to be even possible now that Steven was here! In the shower! Improvise in five minutes, maybe? Meanwhile, Steven probably had all the time in the world to prepare, while Cynthia went out for dinner.

Then again, she could anticipate the outcome of her dish. After she had unloaded her groceries and sorted out what needed to be refrigerated right away, she opened the fridge to put stuff in. Unfortunately, it was packed with Steven's groceries!

And not to mention a bunch of them spilled out onto the floor the moment the door opened. Iapapa berries, Pinap berries, apples, oranges… they all rolled onto the floor and created a mess. But the mess was incomparable to the Chansey eggs, which had created a mess worse than all of this. Only a handful of them cracked, but they were still cracked nonetheless.

"Ugh! You serious?" Cynthia muttered.

The bathroom door opened before Cynthia could finish her thoughts.

Cynthia's eyes met with his; awkwardly too. Partly because he didn't count on her returning at this time, and that he was only wearing a bathrobe.

They simultaneously let out a deep breath before Steven walked right past Cynthia and into the kitchen, although he did keep to his side of taped floor.

"Are you sabotaging my work already?" he said, his voice cold.

"This is not what it looks like." Cynthia coolly said back. "It's not my fault that you bought too much food, that the fridge became full."

Steven's voice started to heat up. "You. Broke. My. Chansey eggs!"

Cynthia raised her voice too. "How should I know?! You were setting me up, weren't you?!"

"I don't believe that! And maybe I should have done that! You were probably gathering intelligence, anyway!" Steven shouted.

"Intelligence…?" Cynthia did need a moment to process what Steven was saying, and then she retaliated. "You are ridiculous! If anything, you were spying on me! You probably just stuffed the fridge so I couldn't use it, huh?!"

"No! You had the nerve to stuff it with your stuff from the first round!" Steven's face was very red. It didn't help that his anger was making him sweat underneath the bathrobe. He would have taken another shower, but that wasn't happening, not while Cynthia was in the room now.

On Cynthia's part, she grudgingly did her best to stuff her remaining ingredients into the fridge before cleaning up the mess she had made. However, the mess with the Chansey eggs she did last.

Wallace and Lisia were just outside the chefs' room, and had listened entirely to what had happened.

"They're like they're married already!" Wallace remarked.

"You are enjoying this too much." Lisia's smile almost equalled her uncle's. "Did you seriously make them share the same bed?"

Wallace nodded excitedly. "Of course! They've been at it for a day, so they should be used to it."

But the continuous, albeit muffled, noise coming from the other side of the door suggested otherwise. Nevertheless, even if either of the former Champions wanted out, that wasn't possible. They didn't have to remind themselves that at this very specific boutique hotel, there was protection from the media. The lesser of the two evils, in other words, was to share the same room – but it was just barely the lesser.

Lisia figured the arguing probably wouldn't stop for the next while.

"Ooh! I've got an idea!" Lisia said. She scribbled on a sticky note she had borrowed from the receptionist. If Wallace didn't know better, Lisia had been planning this the moment she had set foot into this hotel. In Lisia's mind, it was about pushing Steven into his romantic tale again.

"Let's see… I'll call it…"

The Chansey eggs still made a mess of the floor.

"I would have cleaned this up for you, but that's not happening because it's on your side of the tape." She smirked. The eggs were indeed splattered on the side with red taped floor, which meant Steven was obligated to clean up his side.

"I'm telling you, you planned this!" Steven went to get some paper towel to start wiping off the floor, while Cynthia scoffed. Cynthia then went to store her Grepa and Razz berries, in addition to her other ingredients needed to make her creations. But with the limited space in the fridge, it was almost ridiculous to put the berries in there at all.

Why couldn't Steven have divided up the fridge, while he was at it? Was he that thoughtless?

Amongst the shouting in the room (thankfully, their room was isolated enough so no one nearby would be disturbed, apart from Wallace and Lisia), Cynthia and Steven both heard knocking on the door. With an opportunity to lower their voices, Steven turned his back as Cynthia went to answer the door. But instead of opening it, she kneeled to pick up a slip on paper on the floor. She had already raised her eyebrows before she even read it.

"What…? 'The fourth chapter of your love story: "Signs of Love Overshadowed by Dreams!"' What is this?" Cynthia read out.

Instantly realising what it meant, Steven had gotten up and rushed to seize the paper from Cynthia's hands, but he should have known better than to realise Cynthia wasn't obliging. Instead, Cynthia seized his wrist to prevent him from coming any closer.

"Aw…" Cynthia's lips curled into a smart-looking smile, and her voice remained cool. "Is the angry, angry, chef too embarrassed to receive a fan letter?"

Steven's cheeks went red, whether it was out of anger or embarrassment. Cynthia supposed it must be both, but probably the latter.

"Y-You wouldn't understand!" he said. Trying as he might to grab the paper, it wasn't doing him any good because Cynthia somehow managed to keep him at bay. Of course, Steven wasn't going to attack her – he was more civilised than that – but he had to get something done before something bad happened.

Cynthia pocketed the paper. "Alright, I'll let you have it… if you will clean up my section of splattered eggs," she said.

"Agh… No! Cleaning up your mess is not worth that slip of paper…" He turned around and left the kitchen. "I'm going to bed."

That caused Cynthia to smile a little more, as she enjoyed tormenting Steven even for this one minute. But the feeling soon went away, as what was in store for her tomorrow weighed on her mind. Plus, how could she forget what happened today with that standoff with Astrid?

Before she could prepare testing her foods, she took a shower.

Oddly, Steven was surprisingly quiet in bed. Was he really that tired? Cynthia was fine with that. This gave her enough opportunity to test out her foods in secret, so that Steven wouldn't notice. For absolutely good measure, Cynthia instructed Garchomp to guard the bedroom door after showering.

"I know you're thinking that I might be insane, but I'm not! I assure you." Cynthia nodded.

Garchomp shook her head at this. Had Cynthia and Steven really gone crazy? Many minutes later, she could hear the sound of Cynthia tirelessly working away in the kitchen, with the smell of Grepa berries hanging in the air. Moreover, Garchomp was surprised that the smell hadn't woken up Steven – but then again, the sense of smell was idle during sleep. In other words, Steven really was asleep.

What would happen tomorrow? Garchomp wasn't going to question Cynthia on this, but she wondered if this competition was pointless. There was a potential Richissime star on the line, but still.

Now we've seen another glimpse of Cynthia's character here! Next chapter: the next round of the cook-off!

Review, and please enjoy a serving of Lumiose-style spinach and Iapapa salad.