I'm probably having too much fun with this. I've managed to write this in under three weeks, in spite of how life has been for me. I really really like this chapter too. This chapter was inspired by a certain action movie...
Does anyone like the new cover art, by the way?
So for DaX0315 and TheOrdinaryCes, have a bowl of onion soup with de Cyllage cheese! Enjoy!
Chapter sixty-eight: What's Keeping You Awake?
Whatever Steven had hoped for that things would settle down after a week, he was badly wrong.
Each passing day, it seemed, was like adding an extra heavyweight on his back. From the feedback he was getting from not only his staff, but also Astrid, he was looking more tired every day. To add more weight to his heart and mind, Cynthia seemed to have had withdrawn from public life altogether.
Things got so bad that by the end of the week, James d'Arc had sent him home as he deemed Steven unfit to work for the time being. He would not let Steven work until Steven had rested up for the sake of the business and the staff.
Furthermore, Steven heard a rumour that Vue sur la Lune was going under new ownership. That is, word on the street was that Cynthia was deliberating on selling Vue sur la Lune.
It was a Sunday today; five days since that night.
There were so many things on his mind that he didn't know where to start. For one, of all the things, he had so many things to ask Cynthia that it seemed overwhelming to him. Cynthia? Cindy? And now there was no chance of getting them answered, since Cynthia had practically disappeared. It had been around three days since he got back to Cyllage City, and for each of those days, Cynthia had not been seen in public since.
Martine, Sophie, and Laurent were carrying business as usual, but they, like the rest of the entire staff at the Stone Bistro, grew worried for Steven's sanity.
"I'm told by Wallace that Cynthia can't be found at Vue sur la Lune anymore," Laurent remarked.
"And I bet it's because Steven misses her." Sophie added.
"Well, I told him way earlier that this was a love-hate relationship he had gotten into." Martine said while shaking her head. "Did something happen in Lumiose that is making him behave this way? He has been quiet on the topic. Actually, he has been quiet every day!" She sighed.
Laurent and Sophie looked at each other. They, too, wondered what exactly had happened in Lumiose that had caused this to happen; whatever it was. Whatever it was, it seemed to have torn apart Steven's sanity on one hand and forced Cynthia into de facto exile on the other.
"Would it be because of the results of that cook-off?" Laurent suggested. "In Cynthia's case, I would understand why she would go. But Steven? He doesn't seem happy that he won, and I thought he would've been satisfied."
Sophie poked Laurent's cheek playfully. "Is it not obvious? My guess is that Steven broke her heart, but that's just me!"
"Oh, come on, how could he have broken her heart over a friendly competition?" Laurent poked back at Sophie's head. "We have friendly competitions all the time, and I haven't broken your heart yet."
Martine could have interpreted Laurent's words as a form of flirting, and it helped that Sophie got the idea.
"What? No no no no! I mean, never mind, that's true that you haven't broken my heart, but still… I mean, you've kind of captured my heart over our competitions–" But as soon as those words left Sophie's lips, she realised that she was saying a lot more than what was on her mind. "I mean, what I'm saying is that Steven might have captured Cynthia's heart the entire time–"
But it was no good. Martine caught onto Sophie's words quickly.
"I think Laurent's good looks might have captured your heart in the first place," Martine joked, which made Sophie blush madly. Laurent, in response, kept quiet and looked down, so Martine waved at the two receptionists to get their attention. "Let's face it. Whatever Steven is feeling right now, his relationship with Cynthia isn't turning out as good as yours. You know, your relationship ought to be a model for him!"
Sophie could not speak. She was too embarrassed and her cheeks were flushing shades of pink and red. If Laurent could hazard a guess, he would have thought Sophie's cheeks were as red as Martine's hair.
"In all seriousness, where is Steven now?" Sophie said.
"Probably still at home. I asked James, and he won't let Steven come back." Martine replied.
He watched those days go by. Same old scene. Even so, each night he was plagued by memories of his interactions with Cynthia – including those times that he interacted with Cindy. Why, the last genuine time he wanted to know Cindy better was when he asked her out for dinner. Why. Why did she have to reveal herself as Cynthia at the very last minute? It was not fair. Not to him, or to Cynthia.
For each day, he tried looking for Cynthia at Vue sur la Lune to no avail. Henri, who at this point gave Steven a free coffee every time he dropped by, said that the change in ownership seemed closer than ever.
Plus, Steven even tried calling Cynthia's number. There were no answers, to no surprise. On the contrary, the call didn't even go through.
He could feel a weight continue to burden his chest, his lungs, and his breathing overall.
Unable to think straight, Steven opted to go for a walk around Cyllage City. Yet there was little he could or wanted to do because of the media following him every step of the day, so he would have to go at night, so that was exactly what he did.
The sun had set already, so it was a better time to go for a walk. Steven was tired, he didn't feel well (as his acquaintances had told him countless times already) and needed rest. Still, he felt as restless as ever. What was going on these days? He thought he would have enjoyed cooking again in the aftermath of the cook-off, but the mere thought of cooking at his restaurant brought him violent flashbacks to the cook-off.
It had to be her fault for making him feel this way, right?
Soon enough, Steven was at the doors of the Stone Restaurant and Bistro, but he didn't go in. Instead, he merely glanced at Laurent and Sophie who were helping the last of customers. From the looks of things, the restaurant was preparing to close for the night.
That left the bar, À la Mer, which closed later.
Steven sighed deeply and then walked into À la Mer. It was empty except for the barman who was attending the bar counter as usual. He noticed Steven walk in.
"Bonsoir, Monsieur Stone," he greeted.
"Bonsoir," Steven greeted back.
"You're looking worse than yesterday…" the barman added. "So, um, can I help you with anything?"
In response, Steven gave his request to the barman. Steven didn't quite know what kind of words he used (he was simply too tired to notice), but the barman understood well enough and didn't ask any more questions. Instead, the barman went to putting Steven's order together immediately.
It was almost like Steven didn't care what he ordered and he didn't watch what the barman was making. Whatever he ordered, he supposed it must taste good, since the barman went ahead with it without so much as raising an eyebrow. Steven heard the rattling of ice cubes hitting each other in a cocktail shaker. His eyes were as lifeless as ever.
The drink was completed and was placed on a slider in front of Steven. Steven looked at the drink, held it up before his eyes, and started sipping it. He had no idea how, but he had somehow finished the drink faster than he thought (even though it really taken some time to finish it anyway). Signalling the barman, Steven ordered a second round.
He noticed his breaths were longer now, as if he was relaxing. However, Steven wondered if this would be enough to get things out of his head.
Steven lost track of time on how long he had been in À la Mer; not that he actually looked at the clock since coming here. Neither did he keep track of how many cocktails he had since here, and it was always the same one. At some point, he forgot what he had been drinking and merely kept asking the barman for more.
On the bar table in front of him was a copy of the popular Kalos magazine – the one that had published the Apples and Oranges article some time ago. On the cover, this time, was an image of him and Cynthia cooking at Prism Tower. It was the cook-off, of course, but what Steven noticed on this particular magazine cover was Cynthia. While he looked determined to fight (he suspected because he wanted to impress Cindy at the time), Cynthia didn't look well. If he had to guess, he must be feeling the exact same way as she was then.
He must have had three, at least. With each glass, he seemed to drink at the pace of a Snorlax's effort to wake up from sleep. Steven was that slow.
He didn't notice that someone had sat on the bar stool beside him; at least until he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Steven?"
It was Astrid.
Steven turned to look at her. Yes, there she was with her platinum blonde locks, purple attire, and that trademark Mega Stone that she wore for an earring. For once, Astrid wasn't wearing her usual bubbly smile and instead looked genuinely worried for him. She wanted to know what her mentor was going through.
"Um…" For once, even Astrid was finding it hard to speak to Steven. "How many of those have you had?" She eyed Steven's cocktail for a moment and saw something familiar about it.
"I lost count." Steven muttered.
"Look, Steven. You shouldn't have too many of those." Astrid said. "You need to rest." She waved down the barman for a glass of water which was served to her within a minute. "Do you think you'll make it home like this?"
Steven didn't reply immediately and sipped more of his cocktail instead. He looked like he was enjoying it as best as he could, but there was a sad, sad, aura that surrounded him that made the atmosphere cold. As it happened, the drink he was sipping was ice-cold too. But whatever was on his mind, Astrid wanted to know, but couldn't think of how to make him say it.
She sipped her water and watched Steven carefully. He was drinking slower by the minute.
"Come on, Steven. I'm your student," Astrid said softly. "What's going on with you? You haven't been doing well since you got back here."
"Something's just aching at me…" Steven replied. "I'm sorry if I'm not being a good mentor right now. I mean, I've trained you, given you tips, and still can't make bring you wins…"
Astrid shook her head. "You're doing fine, Steven, and you're wrong: you've helped me lots! Here I am, practising all I can in the hopes of beating Diantha for the title. You've taught me a lot more than I've learned for the past couple years."
"But you still couldn't beat Cynthi- I mean, Cindy's Garchomp…"
But by just saying that, Steven's chest felt like wrenching. The girl he was talking about was Cindy, of course, and he had a flashback of the battle between Astrid and Cindy. Cindy, though, was actually Cynthia, and Steven was left to think about whether he would see Cynthia again.
"Don't push yourself so hard, Steven. You could tell Cindy has a lot more experience than me. All I need to do is keep training to best I can." Astrid was doing her best to reassure or comfort her mentor, but it seemed difficult to do so in this state.
"And that reminds me, Steven. We still haven't had a battle with Mega Stones," Astrid said in a manner that looked like she was faking anger. "But I'm not battling you again until you've sorted yourself out, okay? Do we have a deal? Plus, if you can, let's get Cindy to come along! It'll be fun."
Steven sipped his cocktail again and slowly nodded at his student.
"That's my mentor." Astrid smiled bitterly.
In Steven's bones, he wanted to tell Astrid the truth about Cindy, but he couldn't.
Astrid had stayed a while, but she eventually decided that it was getting late and had left. Steven, meanwhile, remained in À la Mer. He had definitely lost count of how many cocktails he had, but drinking them took forever.
He took a deep breath.
"Steven…" the barman said. "I'm closing the bar soon."
"No problem. I'll leave in a bit," Steven replied. "One more."
"Alright, but this is the last one. You'll burn through our supplies at this rate." The barman went ahead to make Steven one more serving of the cocktail (unlike Steven, the barman did keep count of how many servings Steven had so far: this was the fifth round). After much shaking of the cocktail, it was poured out into a glass on a slider in front of Steven.
Steven picked up the glass but didn't drink it yet. He looked at the clock and realised how late it was (it was well past closing time for the Stone Bistro). He felt tired, but at the same time incredibly restless, thanks to a heavy burden imprisoning his thoughts. The restaurants, the cook-off, the reveal by Cynthia back in Lumiose… It was a lot to think about.
He looked at the magazine cover again and stared at the picture of himself and Cynthia. Just by looking at the two of them, he was saddened. It was as if… as if he had harmed not only her, but also himself. Somewhere along the way, he had fallen for Cindy, but it had really been Cynthia in the first place – and it started from the day she had set up shop across the street.
Steven sighed again and brought the cocktail to his lips.
The door opened. Steven didn't see who it was, but the barman merely nodded to the newcomer as if he knew who it was. Curious, Steven briefly glanced at who it might be.
Martine Grenadine.
He turned away and put the magazine away, and by then, Martine sat beside him where Astrid had sat earlier. Steven looked into her eyes as he drank again.
"Boss…?" Martine whispered. "You can't sleep?"
Steven said nothing.
"Bonsoir, Martine." The barman said to get her attention. "Can I fix you a drink?"
Martine looked at what Steven was holding. It was a ch ocktail, but one she had never seen before. "What are you drinking, Steven?"
Steven lowered his glass and looked at the barman. "I don't know. What am I drinking?"
The barman's response was straightforward and without hesitation. "Three measures of Ambrette liquor and one of Razz berry liquor. Shaken over ice until it is ice-cold. And then served with a large thin slice of Pinap berry–"
"Pinap berry peel?" Martine interrupted.
"Oui, Pinap berry peel indeed, which gives it a shot of sour flavour to cope with the Razz berry liquor." The barman held up a fragment of what Pinap berry peel he had left over before looking at Martine again. "It's excellent."
Martine nodded.
"You should have one, Martine…" Steven said quietly.
"Nah, I'm okay." Martine replied quietly. "Half a glass of sirop de grenadine for me." To that, the barman nodded and went to fetch a bottle and pour a glass. "Besides, Steven, whatever you're drinking, it will keep me awake."
Steven said nothing and continued staring at nothing. By then, the barman got Martine's favourite fruit juice filled to half a glass, which Martine gratefully accepted.
She looked into Steven's eyes. "So, what's keeping you awake?"
Steven paused. He almost felt his eyes start to well with tears, which Martine noticed.
"I was wondering what you're doing here…" he muttered. "How could you know?"
Martine paused, but only for a couple seconds. "I wanted to check up on you, but you weren't home, and it so happened that Laurent saw you as he was closing the restaurant."
Steven looked away.
"It's Cynthia, isn't it?" Martine said, but not in her usual playful manner nor was it accusatory. She really wanted to know what her boss was thinking – but then again, she already had a good idea. As the red-haired waitress expected, Steven did not say anything.
"Steven… It takes something to admit you were wrong," Martine said softly to be careful. "We're all worried for you. Me, Sophie, Laurent, James, Lisia – even Wallace is worried. Please… Please tell me what happened." She gently held one of Steven's hands and tried to look into his lifeless eyes.
Steven returned the eye contact.
"I won't tell anyone. I promise!" Martine said, where for once, Steven could hear desperation in her voice.
Sorry if this chapter seemed draggy, but I tried to convey Steven's emotional side as I could here. Even Astrid is trying to be helpful! Have a sirop de grenadine, as we wait for the next chapter!