The past month has practically decimated me, so I'm glad it's all over now! And with that, we finally have our monthly update!

Kiloude takoyaki for DaX0315, StRAngE ToASt, and darkwolf0909, of course. Hope you like it.

And let's see... QUEENSPELLER67! You've been missing out on a lot! And it's still going.

So yeah, the past chapter was entertaining, wasn't it? Cynthia - or rather, Cindy - actually kissed Steven! Where will we go from here?

Chapter sixty-four: Accolade Reincarnated

Cindy had been very much on Steven's thoughts from the time he left Lumiose Station to the boutique hotel where he was staying. Thinking back to the whole day, Steven had to admit that it was the most relieving day he had had in many days. As he about to enter the boutique hotel where he was staying, his phone rang. "Bonsoir." He had an idea already who was calling him.

"STEVEN! Where have you been? I try calling you, and you never picked up. At all!" Of course. Who else other than Wallace to break news to him. "You might not have time to prepare for your round tomorrow if you don't know the theme! Chef Bordeaux wants you to know."

"And I thought you were supporting me." Steven rolled his eyes. "Much appreciated…"

"Anyway. You're working with pastries! Now, you're not limited to things like deserts. It can extend to savoury stuff too." Wallace explained. "Also, Cilan is back on his feet, and he suggests that there has to be an accompanying drink that should complement the pastry."

At a grocery store, Steven was looking through certain ingredients as he thought of his strategy. Pastry, huh? At first, he had a thought that Cynthia would have the upper hand, but he didn't need to remind himself that there were alternatives to pastries too. Besides, it was possible to cause an upset to her specialisation.

Up ahead, he noticed a group of three people looking at a selection of breads and cheeses. As he got closer, he noticed one of them was a redhead – oh, of course, it was Martine. Beside Martine were Sophie and Laurent. They apparently didn't notice him, because they were too busy with something relatively more important.

"Come on, Sophie! You'll be super happy with baguette and de Cyllage!" Martine smiled. "Oh, what to do, what to do with you."

"Hey! You can't pin this all on me!" Sophie twirled her long black hair a little. Then she pointed at her brown-haired co-receptionist. "It's this guy! Laurent is so reluctant. It's like he doesn't like anything!"

"I like you." Laurent smoothly replied.

A dead silence followed.

"Oooooh!" Martine politely clapped her hands.

Sophie blushed and she couldn't stop her mouth from falling open. Laurent's words were so smooth, that she felt like she could have fallen over if she could. While Sophie was smarter than that, she still couldn't find the words to answer Laurent's.

"I – I, uh…" Sophie's voice grew quiet.

"She got you there." Steven's voice broke the awkward air between the co-workers. Unfortunately, it did not make Sophie feel any better because of the corner that Laurent had pushed her into. It was plausibly worse than Wallace's efforts (at most, for this one time, since Wallace could think of more devious ways of mayhem that could make Sophie cry), and nonetheless made Sophie very, very, embarrassed.

"Steven?!" she said. "What are you doing here?!" Now Sophie's voice had become a whisper.

But before Steven could say anything, Martine had already cut in. "Aw, Sophie, don't tell me you didn't like Laurent's words! You should take them proudly! After all, he basically said he likes you more than cheese!"

In a way, Steven wondered if Sophie should have taken that as an insult – that Martine was putting Sophie at level with cheese. If Martine was going to do that, then did that mean Laurent should be thought of as no higher than bread? Sometimes, Steven wondered what ever went through his red-haired waitress' head. Then Steven mentally slapped himself: now was not the time to think about that.

"So, I'm guessing you can't deny that, eh, Sophie?" Steven smiled a little. "It makes anyone wonder why the two of you are inseparable. So when's the wedding?"

Sophie blushed again as she tried to hide her face.

"Oh, stop it, Mr. Stone – I mean, uh, Steven," Sophie stuttered. "You're starting to sound like Wallace."

"So that would make Steven another Wallace! Say, it makes sense that he and Wallace are 'best friends'." Martine grinned. "Wow, Steven. I never knew you could make jokes like that!"

Steven's smile faded. How dare Martine put him at the same level as Wallace! Thankfully, to put an end to Sophie's misery, Laurent cleared his throat.

"We were wondering about what sorts of cheese to eat for dinner," Laurent admitted. "But as you can see, Sophie and I are disagreeing on everything. I want de Cyllage, but Sophie complains it's too oily, and so is LaBrie. Got any input?"

Steven nodded. "You can go for Chevroum. That tastes nice with a salad. Or you can go for Bleu de Sud-Est, which is naturally stronger, but if you're really worried about your weight, Sophie… I can't help you. Now, if you're going to have baguette for dinner, I suggest you go with de Cyllage. Top that with a bit of diced Tamato berry, and you'll have a spicy-savoury treat – and it's relatively light to eat, if that helps."

Sophie looked to Laurent, who shrugged.

Martine had other ideas. "Say, why don't you cook for us? It's not every day that you can do that! And when was the last time? With all that effort you've been pouring into this competition, and then going on dates with Astrid–"

Steven quickly clamped his hand over Martine's mouth. Despite that, Martine was doing her best to talk behind closed lips.

"Um… those aren't dates. Need you say any more?" Now, Sophie and Laurent didn't notice it, but Steven was glaring daggers into Martine's eyes. It made Martine's eyes all the more twinkle with delight as she pried Steven's hand off her mouth.

"Aw… Am I getting through to you too quickly? It's a wonder how you haven't been caught by the media, you know?" Martine continued smiling, but then it faded afterward. "Um… You really are taking this competition a bit seriously, you know? And we all thought Wallace had a point putting you and Cynthia in the same room."

Steven sighed. That reminded him – he would have to spend another night with her again. But after all that had happened with Cindy today, shouldn't he be in higher spirits? Besides, after this was all over, he might have a chance to spend more time with Cindy. He just had to get Cynthia out of the way first.

"I don't think you or Wallace should get your hopes up, if at all," he said. "There just might be some girl out there who has the same interests as me. One who likes to battle, cook, and talk about history. I bet Cynthia has none of that, and meanwhile, I've met someone recently who fits."

Martine raised an eyebrow.

Steven continued. "You probably don't need to worry about my love life for now. Wallace has blown this all out of proportion. In case if you're wondering who I met, she's a mystery girl."

"And it's not Cynthia?"

"Not at all."

Martine sighed and then took one more look at the cheeses. The strong smell of Bleu de Sud-Est was overwhelming, but it was welcome. It might be the best candidate for Sophie right now, yet it seemed like Laurent and Sophie were at a stalemate deciding over what to eat.

"You know, blue cheese does remind me of that Stone Accolade, you know? It reminds me of Cyllage City… Man, how long has it been since we left?" Martine said. She nudged Sophie. "I haven't had one of those for a long time… Maybe we should ask the boss to make us one tonight!"

"Martine… You know I have little time to make such things at this time." Steven shook his head.

Martine looked indifferent, unsurprisingly. "Come on! Let's just call it a treat! Besides, you can make it in my room, and I'll invite–"

"Not Wallace." Steven shook his head. "Okay, okay, fine. I'll make you dinner tonight. For you, and Laurent, and Sophie."

"Yay!" Martine clapped her hands. "I'll leave you to buying the stuff then, because obviously we don't know the recipe. At all. I do remember there's a bit of blue cheese in there. Maybe you'll really buy a whole slab of Bleu de Sud-Est after all."

Steven rolled his eyes. However, Martine had a point. He wondered, that if he was going to buy ingredients for tonight, he might as well make the most of the time to buy things for tomorrow too. He needed to make homemade pastry, of course, and then there was the problem of what to do about it for tomorrow. He mulled the thought over as he went to pick up plenty of ingredients to assemble his Stone Accolade recipe.

As he did, he picked up ingredients for making pastries too, along with the regular rice flour and onions for making the exterior and au jus, respectively. In the moment when he did, Steven briefly confused stuffing the pastry with the Accolade instead.

Then again, he had never done that before. That gave him an idea! Would the Accolade taste any different were it served in a pastry instead? He made a mental note to give that a shot tonight. Hopefully, there was enough time to prepare the food too. Soon enough, he and his staff were out of the store and on their way back to the hotel. To be brutally honest, Steven was glad to be in the company of his staff again, since it made him stand out less.

"Honestly, Martine. I should thank you." He quietly told himself.

"For what?" Martine said. Apparently, Steven was not quiet enough.

"Never mind."

On the way, he picked up a bottle of red wine before heading back. He had used red wine into his Stone Accolade on many occasions and today would be no different. On the other hand, he also wondered just how it would taste if he incorporated it into the au jus as well as the Accolade itself. He had to be honest: unless Cynthia took this last match seriously, it seemed unlikely that she could counter his trademark recipe this round. Nevertheless, he knew not to underestimate her either.

As usual, Cindy was extra careful whenever she made a return to the boutique hotel. She entered the hotel under the pretext of a visitor to an already-staying guest here. Worse yet, or perhaps not at all, bringing an entire bag of groceries had to look not suspicious. Then there was the odd possibility of the media being aware of her and then – worst of all – the possibility of Winona in the lobby. If Winona was here, the only one who actually saw through Cindy's disguise, then it would be all over.

No wonder she took her sweet time entering the lobby. To be less suspicious, Cindy went into the washroom to quickly change out of her disguise. By the time she had walked out, she was no longer wearing her sun hat and her sunglasses, and her ponytail was undone to let her long platinum blonde hair flow down. Anyone would have recognised she was Cynthia in an instant.

And thankfully, no one Cynthia recognised was at the lobby at this time.

She returned to her room in almost no time. Her eyes were empty slits, though. Not even bothering with the boundaries taped out everywhere in the room, Cynthia went straight to the kitchen to unload her groceries. With no idea when Steven would return, she got to cooking straight away, with preparation work to start.

But on many instances, she had to slow down her pace to shed some tears. She seldom cried these days, in spite of the many times she had done before, and at one point she even brought her hands to her head.

Cynthia screamed, even though it was, and was not, fortunate no one could hear her.

What am I even doing?! She thought. All by her lonesome she had dragged herself into this conflict, and of course it was supposed to fend him off from ever bothering her again. Yet something in her chest continued to ache, and then her head was aching too. How was it possible that she should continue to defend herself against this man and still be open to him when she was using another identity?

It was like she was jealous of Cindy.

That didn't make sense. How could she be jealous of herself?

Cindy had no problems interacting with Steven. Steven had asked Cindy out for a date, which was enjoyed by the both of them. Steven shared his biscuits with Cindy, and then Cindy and Steven ate a serving each of takoyaki together. But as Cynthia thought about what it would look like if Cynthia was in Cindy's place… Inconceivable, it was.

And of course, when Steven would meet Cynthia again, Cynthia thought, there was the same open-ended hostility between them. Cynthia couldn't blame him or herself: she had agreed to get into this, and at the end of the day, she was just trying to survive.

Plus, she didn't even factor in Astrid yet – who seemed to be the only one who made Steven genuinely smile.

Ah, forget it. Cynthia thought to herself. She felt like her mind was going to break at this point, and the food would burn if she didn't do something. Then again, she was a professional chef – there was no way she allowed herself to mess up. Steven was an enigma – perhaps as Cynthia, she should just simply give up on him.

The thought of kissing his cheek burned in her mind, too. She remembered Steven's slight expression of shock when she did that, but he was smiling. Yet, she thought about what it would have been like if she hadn't worn those sunglasses. Could things have been very different? Cynthia supposed it would have, since she could tell Steven continued to have this burning drive to get that Richissime star and demolish her business. Did he even care?

Her breathing became short, as if she was angry. A small pulse was beating in her ears and she could even hear her heartbeat. In fact, Cynthia realised that at this rate, she wouldn't get anywhere with her cooking. It might be dangerous.

She lowered the temperatures of the ovens. She wouldn't mind.

Instead, out of her grocery bag, she pulled out a small tub of vanilla ice cream and placed it at her side of the table. Grabbing a spoon, she opened the container and began to wolf it down. She ate, and ate, and ate until her head started to hurt.

The tears started to fall.

At heart, she knew she should be practising her recipe and prepare, but she just wasn't motivated now. It was hard to focus. Just eating ice cream was enough to drown her sorrows for now, but she still felt this feeling in her gut telling her to get to work. Is this what procrastination felt like? It sure felt familiar: sitting around and eating was making her anxious, and her mind was imprisoned by her thoughts about him.

Still crying on her own, Cynthia brought out Garchomp from her Poké Ball. Garchomp, who looked more confused as ever as to what was going on with Cynthia, lent Cynthia her shoulder. Cynthia sobbed. Garchomp continued to let Cynthia do so until the tears stopped.

"Thanks, Garchomp."

And then Cynthia went off to prepare her food, while Garchomp took a seat and wondered what exactly was going through Cynthia's mind.

Not far away, as it happened, Steven saw that Laurent and Sophie were sharing the same room. Well, it was fair they had to share, since rooms in Lumiose were expensive. He bet that things were probably more peaceful here than his case with Cynthia. At least there was no tape anyway! So there was plenty of space to move around and much less limiting.

And the bedroom! Apparently, they managed to get double beds so they were sleeping separately. That seemed to suit them fine. While Steven was happy for them, he felt a seething anger in his heart. Wallace had entrapped him to share the same bed with Cynthia, which was all part of his plan, of course. Well, nothing funny was going to happen between them for sure. On the contrary, it had been hectic.

He had not created this dish for so long, but his skills were not dull. After all, the Stone Accolade was a recipe of his own creation. If he forgot how to make it, then it was his loss.

Putting the ingredients together was no problem, and he poured a generous amount of red wine into the mix which caused flames to roar out of the pan. In effect, that caused the eyes of Martine, Laurent, and Sophie to widen as they were amazed. It was like putting on a show before them, and in a sense, it was. Live cooking was known as a way to whet peoples' appetites and this was no exception. By watching Steven put the dish together with speed, along with making a wine-infused onion au jus, it would have made anyone hungry. Soon enough, the fat rice parcels stuffed with garlic, onions, peppers, and lots of other savoury things were ready, not to mention the blue cheese core.

"I have not had this for a long time, and made by the chef no less!" Laurent remarked.

"Bon appétit," Martine said. She had to swallow as she said that, since she was just as hungry as Laurent and Sophie.

Martine cut one of the parcels in half and let the aroma waft in the air. Apart from its stuffing, the presence of blue cheese was evident. Would it be more empowering than before? Martine doubted it. As Steven's signature dish, Steven probably would have naturally achieved the right balance.

Sophie and Laurent simultaneously dipped their pieces into their au jus. Without a doubt, it would be full of flavour, just by looking.

Steven was first to eat though.

"Heh. It's as delicious as always," he remarked.

Sophie ate hers as well, and her immediate reaction was to take a deep breath. It was like she was trying to comprehend the flavour she was experiencing, as if she couldn't handle it. Was it overpowered?

"So much flavour…" she said. "You can really taste the wine in the au jus…"

"And it's soaked into the envelopes too. It almost bursts forth in your mouth." Laurent too looked like he was satisfied by just one bite. "I haven't tried blending blue cheese with the flavour of red wine, but I'll take this flavour tonight."

Seeing the smiles of his employees caused Steven to smile too. As well, he was amused that Martine wanted to have a second serving of the Accolade when her first serving hadn't even finished yet. That reminded Steven, he needed to have a serving too. He wouldn't survive this night on an empty stomach.

"Boss… You know, your Pokémon might like this!" Martine nudged Steven's side.

"Oh, right."

He allowed Metagross out onto the floor to try out the Accolade. Now, Steven had no clue whether Metagross had a sense of smell, but judging by its reaction to the dish by looking, it seemed just as satisfied as Martine. To be fair, the presentation of the food was almost as, but not quite level, important as the taste of the food itself. It made Steven wonder whether Pokémon actually had perceptions of tasty food, but he supposed so.

"How does it taste, friend?" he said.

Metagross looked up and gave what Steven knew was a warm smile.

"Tastes like home, now that you mention it." Laurent added. "I feel like I'm back in the Stone Restaurant and Bistro again."

Eating each piece was like a work of art. The parcels were packed with so much flavour that eating just one was overwhelming for the senses. With the red wine and onion au jus, they could have figuratively knocked someone out in a good way.

In fact, Metagross had gone into a food coma and had to sleep, so Steven recalled it back into the ball.

"Well, I hope this is enough for you all." He nodded to Martine specifically, and then to Sophie. "Hey, Sophie, have you ever heard the saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach? You better start learning to cook like this if you really want to make Laurent happy."

Sophie cheeks and ears instantly went to a shade of reddish-pink.

"Ooh! Hear that, Sophie? The boss is giving you dating advice! Use it well." Martine nodded eagerly. "It would be much more useful than those serious eyes of yours. Maybe it's a step close to courting, you know."

"But I like her serious eyes. That's Sophie." Laurent said.

Now that Sophie really was embarrassed, she buried her face in her arms. Why? Why did it have to be her to suffer the torment? Wallace was bad enough, and then there was Martine, and then Laurent himself. Now that Steven was taking part, Sophie wondered how much her poor heart could take. On the other hand, Laurent seemed to have no problems.

"C-C-Courting? Don't be crazy!" Sophie's face was close to boiling over. "We're not there yet!"

"Not 'yet'?" Martine picked up the word quickly. She was all smiles. "If you're not there 'yet', then maybe you will get there eventually, then you know you will get there! Come on, you and Laurent will be married before you know it!"

"MARTINE! Please stop!" Sophie was in tears and she covered her ears.

Seeing and hearing his employees talk together had lifted Steven's spirits. It had been fun poking into Sophie's personal life, and with Martine doing most of the talking no less. He wondered how long it would take Sophie to get used to dating Laurent. Yes, professionalism in the workplace was important, but he knew that the receptionists were well-acquainted outside the workplace.

And his own advice to Sophie about cooking for whom she admired… Did that do any good?

His thoughts began to dry up as he got closer to his hotel room. Even with the door closed, he could hear something like screaming inside. As he pressed his ear to the door, he could definitely hear Cynthia's voice roaring inside.

"He will know! He will KNOW ME!" she screamed. "HE WILL NOTICE!"

Whatever that meant, Steven wondered if it was a threat. Should he go inside now?

Now, Cynthia was a mess. Not in a mess, but she was a mess.

Sitting alone on the sofa with Garchomp by her side, Cynthia was eating her dinner. She used the time well to make what she would present tomorrow. Yet she wasn't satisfied with the outcome. It was overcooked and it tasted dry.

So instead, she stared out the window with her tub of vanilla ice cream and continued reminiscing about her feelings. Her heart was wrenching, and Cynthia compared how she felt as Cindy when she talked with Steven. She could tell Steven's interactions with her were genuine.

And he didn't mind Cindy kissing him on the cheek.

That meant he possibly had feelings for Cindy too. What did that say about Cynthia, though? In Cynthia's opinion, Steven was making her out to be hostile. The decimation of Vue sur la Lune was what he strived for, but it seemed like he wanted to stay be Cindy's side.

Yet, Cindy and Cynthia (Cynthia knew this too well) both were the same woman.

Even throughout this cook-off, he wasn't noticing her cooking one bit. Okay, maybe he did that one time when she made the la pluie de chocolat, but since then it had been war.

'I'm coming for YOU' was what he had said way earlier, after she had sabotaged Diantha's visit to his restaurant.

Okay, maybe she was partly to blame for all this happening, but did it really have to come to this?

There was a saying that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. Yet, Cynthia accepted that this case was an exception. Why did it have to be Steven and not someone else? Why him? It didn't help that he had devilishly handsome looks, had a knack for battling, and could possibly be the better cook than her. He would not understand.

Her mental state was breaking down.

Have a serving of the Stone Accolade, as we wait for the final round of the cook-off in the next chapter! Also, I'm going on vacation for a couple weeks, so writing will have to wait. Sorry to leave you hanging!