I'm sure everyone had waited too long for that last chapter! So, here's a glass each to DaX0315, the three honoured Guests, and StRAngE ToASt. You all deserve some! And yes, they finally kissed...! After 71 chapters and 5 years indeed.

Chapter seventy-two: After that Kiss

She had half-expected him to resist or pull back quickly. However Cynthia felt, she felt she had poured all of it into one long kiss. Thinking back to the times she cried at night, she didn't deserve him, so what was the point of doing this? At the very least, Cynthia felt like all her feelings – having been described in words already – were put into action. Ironically, she wanted him to push her away to ultimately reject her. There was no turning back.

So why hadn't he pushed her away already? He should have been disgusted. This was a situation that was so unreal that it should have only existed in fiction, storybooks, TV, or, dare she say it, fanfiction.

Opening her eyes, Cynthia looked into Steven's eyes. Her lips were still pressed against his. He looked positively cute when his cheeks were red. Oh, and he was blinking too!

Finally, she parted her lips from him. She could hear her heartbeat pounding as she did.

"Um… I'm sorry if that was too much…" she said quietly. In her bones, she was as embarrassed to have done that in front of her staff as she was scared. Steven looked stunned, as he didn't know how to react or what to say. Cynthia understood that.

To her surprise, Steven had instead taken hold her shoulders and then hugged her tightly. As he did, Cynthia could hear he was on the verge of sniffles. If anything, Cynthia's heart was about to break for him. She hugged him back.

Steven took a deep breath before speaking, and he still hadn't let her go. "Even if I didn't buy out this property, would you consider coming back?" he whispered. His throat was hindered by tears, so Steven was choking a little.

Cynthia still hugged him tightly, and she could feel Steven was holding onto her like a safe world. She could question less that he genuinely wanted to her to return to Cyllage City.

"But… I have a lot of debts to pay," she said. "I can't come back even if I wanted."

"Then we'll pay your debts back together," Steven replied. "I'll do what I can, and it's more than you deserve. Can I do that for you? I just… If it makes up for breaking your heart, and mine." He paused for moment. "You're special to me, Cynthia, because I… I love you."

Cynthia covered her mouth with her hand like she was about to hold back her own tears. Was Steven serious? He couldn't be. After all he had put her through, he had to be joking. His proposal was such that it was unbelievable to Cynthia that he would even go through all this trouble to tell her this. He did search the entire city for her to tell her this, right when she was trying her best to stay away from him. She had enough troubles of her own too, like her financial situation regarding this restaurant.

He was giving her a gift, and his love.

"I'm sorry. Am I being too dense?" Steven added. "Or too cliché?"

Forcing a scoff, Cynthia said, "No" instantly.

Eventually, the two chefs let go of their embrace and looked at each other directly.

"Um… Steven, I need a moment to think about this…" she whispered.

"Chef!" A voice had broken their tender moment, which caused Cynthia to jolt as if she had come to her senses. She had momentarily forgotten that she was still in her restaurant! Blushing, she looked at her fellow employee – the waitress who had served Steven's table. "I… ah… Not just me. We're all wondering what's going on."

Cynthia only realised how many eyes were on her. Thankfully Steven was the only customer, but she then noticed how many people must have seen her kiss him just now. With all that coverage from the media, there couldn't be one face in all of Kalos who did not recognise him, let alone herself.

"So the truth comes out, huh?" she said. "You and him. You had feelings for him!"

"Is something the matter?" another one, a cook, said.

"The boss just kissed this man!" The same server pointed at Steven accusingly, albeit in a playful manner. "I think she has found her love."

"Nononono!" Someone, another server, said. "Rather, her love found her! That's more romantic! And it's Steven of all people!"

Cynthia could feel the number of eyes piercing her and was glad there were no customers in the restaurant right now.

"That is very romantic! Boss, you should feel lucky that someone would come all the way here for you, especially when he knocked you out of that competition," the cook said. "Don't they call this stuff like… love-hate relationships?"

"Come on, have you not seen that 'Apples and Oranges' article? But we get to see it!"

"Why isn't anyone taking any pictures?!"

Knowing what could happen next and could probably become a field day for the media in the entire Kalos region, Steven let go of Cynthia's hands. He left a handful of Poké on the table and then began heading for the door. The less exposure he had from photography, the better. He probably had enough of it during the cook-off.

"Keep the change… You still haven't given me an answer, you know, so feel free to call me. I'll be waiting for you. Just don't' take too long for me, okay?" Then Steven seemed to remember something and walked over to whisper something to her. "By the way, I think not even Cindy would be as daring to kiss like you did," Steven remarked. "She was a very timid girl."

Cynthia flushed pink. "H-hey, that's not fair. She was just nervous."

Smiling, genuinely for the first time in like forever, Steven walked out of the café. Just as he was about to make way for the hotel, he heard Cynthia call out his name from behind, which made him turn around and look back. She had her head peeking out from the door.

"Um… If you're not busy tomorrow, would you like to talk over breakfast?" she said.

Steven looked away to think about that. "I leave for Cyllage City tomorrow, but I'd love to have breakfast with you. Let's say… 8 AM?"

"Sure. Let's eat at somewhere quiet too," Cynthia added. "There's a place called Café Pokémon-Amie in the north boulevard. It should be less busy there."

Steven nodded. "À bientôt." When Cynthia smiled back (had she always looked this pretty when she smiled?), he also smiled. Cynthia then closed the door and walked back into her café. Somehow, she was feeling a little lighter.

Her expression was that obvious.

"Something tells me you want to tell the whole world what happened," the cook said. "Now, if you're feeling better, I'm sure you can manage our restaurant better, oui? You haven't smiled like this ever since you came here!"

Cynthia blinked like she hadn't processed what had happed in the past five minutes. Instead of answering, she walked away and shut herself in the back with her fists clenched. Was this real? It sure didn't feel like it, for her! Once she was alone, she buried her hands on her head. This was not happening! Her heart was pounding, her breathing was short, and she didn't know what to do. She wished she could have just stayed in this pantry.

Plus, Steven – him – had just asked her out for breakfast, and she ended up suggesting where to go. Oh gosh, she couldn't have felt stranger. Not that she experienced having crushes as a teenager, but she sure felt like a teenager now. She had these feelings but didn't know what to do with them.

Still trying to process her thoughts in this dimly lit pantry, Cynthia felt more nervous at the thought of tomorrow. Tomorrow, she would be meeting Steven informally at his own will for once. Even the thought of that made her nervous. As Cindy, she would have always looked forward to it, but as Cynthia, it was quite different.

Plus, the words "I love you" stuck in her head. He had bluntly just confessed to her, but it must have been a pain for him to say it. At least, she could have gave the same reply, but a kiss might have sufficed. It may have been more than enough.

Her mind still drawing blanks, Cynthia looked around aimlessly until a knocking on the pantry door caught her attention.

"Cynthia. Are you okay?" said one of the cooks.

Cynthia walked out of the pantry after.

"I'm fine. Seriously!" she said.

Even Steven's feelings, like Cynthia, were a mess the moment he stepped out of the restaurant. It was a quiet, but warm, evening in Lumiose. With this kind of welcoming air, Steven went for a walk to clear his thoughts and think about what had just happened.

He supposed that buying out her property for her sake must have been a shock for her. But it wasn't just that, but he was willing to help her out of that hellhole that he had thrown her into. Would that be enough, perhaps? No, he just wanted to know her better. In fact, it was something that had been nagging at his heart from the start, and he tried to bury it.

The thought of her lips on his sent chills throughout his body. Her kiss was genuine, and although Steven hadn't had a lot of kisses (if any, as Wallace would say) from girls, Cynthia's was special. Oh gosh, was he thinking this way about her already? Maybe he was being too jumpy or wasn't thinking straight after all that had happened…

"Boss?"

That familiar voice of a nineteen-year-old redhead snapped his dazed mind to his senses. He turned around to face her.

And when did she stand so close to him already? Martine's eyes were looking right into his from an inch away. She must have snuck up on him.

"Oh. Bonjour, Martine," Steven replied.

"Bonsoir," Martine replied. She couldn't help smiling right at him, in the light of the Lumiose streetlamps. "So… I'm guessing you found her?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Steven said suddenly. The knee-jerk response caused Martine to snicker, but she relaxed and smiled warmly after.

"I can tell, seeing your reaction," she replied. "I promise not to tell anyone, except Lisia maybe (Steven was forced to give Martine another of those death glares that seemed to not work on her at all). But anyway, you look more awake than ever." Martine tugged on Steven's arm as if leading him to follow her. "Come now, what happened? You don't look the least depressed since we left Cyllage City!"

Steven brought his hand to his forehead. Oh, how was he going to answer this?! Of course, the last person he wanted to know what had happened was Wallace, but should he let Martine know? This was an important decision, and he must choose carefully.

Martine patted his shoulder. "Okay, I can tell you did well. Then tell me at least, did you find her?" She clasped her hands together and looked closely at Steven's eyes. "Pleeeeaaase? Did you? Did you?" Then the faintest of a blush appeared on Steven's cheeks. Martine squealed. "Ooh! Something did happen! So… What was it like?"

In all brutal honesty, Martine had no idea what happened. She guessed that because her boss was blushing, just like that time he saw Cynthia at her restaurant the day she set up shop, he had something going on. Martine, in this case, was gambling on a guess that something had happened between her boss and his attractive rival. After what he had told Martine that night, at À la Mer, Martine guessed Steven had went through a lot more just now.

"It's very hard to explain," Steven replied.

Martine paused, not expecting something anything, but she smiled again. "Did she kiss you?" Steven's mouth opened when she asked, but no noise came out. That was more than enough for Martine. "Oh, so I was right! She did! Come on, I'll buy you a muffin. Let's talk about it!" she added, dragging her boss along.

As it happened, Martine had insisted on eating at a bakery in front of the Prism Tower. About ten minutes later since they had met up, Martine and Steven were sitting at a bakery that was overshadowed by the awesome grandeur of the tower.

And for the entire time, Steven noticed, the redhead was all smiles. Even as she sat down and had ordered a Custap berry muffin for him and one for herself, her eyes were ablaze with interest. She really wanted to know what had happened.

By the time the muffin arrived, which frankly didn't take long considering how hot it was, Martine was staring at him expectedly. She was begging for answers. "You know you have to tell me everything!" she said. "You're not depressed, and that matters."

Steven sighed. Now he was really feeling the old times' vibe from Martine. "If you didn't know," he said, "I arranged with James to buy out the property of Vue sur la Lune. Don't ask me what the price was," Steven added, noticing Martine's eyes widen. "It was horribly expensive and I'm not sure if it was a smart business decision. Actually, it was foolish."

He picked up the muffin and started to eat. "The thing is, I'm crazy to think it might bring her back, and I offered to give her control of that property again. Like you, Sophie, and Laurent, I tried my best to look for her and now I happened to run into her again. She…" Steven's voice trailed away and he bit into the muffin again. He did not say anything afterward.

But Martine guessed what happened.

"Cynthia kissed you." She giggled. "If Wallace hears of this, he'd probably say, "About time" or something. She kissed you, right? Right?"

Steven slowly nodded, a small smile appearing on his lips. In response, Martine clapped her hands excitedly. She continued, "Glad you worked it out with her! But you know, you should take more initiative. Next time, you should be the one who makes the kiss, not her."

"I'm not that bold."

"She's not bold either! But she has feelings for you. You could at least return the favour!"

"Eat your muffin, Martine."

The night was oddly warm for some reason, but despite that, Steven could feel chills run down his spine when he returned to the hotel. He now had a secret that he had to keep away from everyone, save for Martine, who was the only one he trusted to keep quiet. If anything, Martine would probably leak things to Lisia, who would leak that to Wallace, and then Wallace would proudly and publicly declare something Steven wanted to keep secret. Darker thoughts began to fill Steven's thoughts. Would there be a fallout in his image after that? What if the worst came to be? He might have to ask for isolation so that no one would ever seek him out. With this kind of secret, things had to be taken carefully, and Steven thought about how he would keep Martine quiet –

"Monsieur Stone?"

Steven snapped back to reality and didn't realise that Laurent had been looking right at him. They were at the hotel lobby, ready to turn in for the night.

"Salut, Laurent," he said. "Um, qu'est-ce que tu fais?" he asked.

"I thought we had lost you. Did something happen?" Laurent asked. "I'm more worried about you! You were spacing out for a while. Are you okay?"

"I'm alright. I'm just tired." Steven knew deep down that he was exhausted after all this. "I just can't wait until this is over. I want to rest."

He would have wanted to go straight to his room right away and get as much sleep as he could. Stay away from Wallace, Steven told himself. That way, he would avoid suspicion and steer away from any further discussion over what had happened. On the plus side, Wallace would never know, since this was supposed to be everyone's last night in Lumiose before they returned home.

Avoiding the subject was not to be.

"You are showing signs of being anything but suspicious, Steven!" Sophie said cheerfully (suspiciously cheerfully, Steven thought). "Okay, stop right there!" Sophie pointed at Steven accusingly. "Tell me! What happened tonight?!"

Even Laurent was surprised at Sophie's sudden outburst.

"Sophie…" Laurent started.

"He is hiding something! My intuition tells me something happened tonight and that is why he looks less sad!" Sophie said, her voice starting to attract the attention of people nearby. By 'nearby', that meant none other than Diantha, Grant, Viola, and Korrina. Thankfully, Wallace, Winona, and Lisia were nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, Sophie's voice was not only attracting the Gym Leaders, but also the hotel staff who stopped to check what was going on.

If having Wallace around was bad, Steven was starting to consider Sophie to be the unsung equivalent. True, Martine was bad enough (Steven secretly though) but he had never considered Sophie before. Would things turn out really bad? Judging from Sophie's manner of speech, it would.

He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice how close Sophie's face was to his.

"See? I'm totally serious! I can tell! These are the eyes of a serious receptionist."

Steven's face paled.

"These are the eyes that can see the truth!" Sophie kept pointing at her eyes. "These are… SERIOUS EYES!"

From the way things looked, Sophie's eyes were serious. Was he, being her boss, going to cave into her demands so easily?

He sighed. "Nothing special happened. I just went out for a walk and that was that. I stopped for a cocktail somewhere, so that helped to lighten my mood a little." Steven had hoped that would be enough to drive Sophie away, but Laurent was having none of it. Worse yet, Sophie's rant had drawn Diantha nearby.

"You look less sad than before, so I can assume the best," Laurent said.

"I guess you finally found her?" Diantha asked. Oh, she just had to say it, didn't she?

"He did! He must have!" Sophie said, still staring into Steven's eyes.

Steven kept quiet and started to make his way to his room. He was tired, but in a good way. He just wanted to get some rest for the night because he needed to wake up earlier tomorrow. He needed to pack his belongings, and he wanted to meet up with her soon. But Sophie, Laurent, and Diantha followed him to his room.

"What happened out there, Steven? You're smiling, you know," Diantha remarked.

"Am I smiling? I didn't notice," he said. By the time he opened his room door, Sophie stepped in to keep him from walking forward. Steven noticed her eyes looked very serious, but at the same time they looked like they were going to burst in tears.

"Pleeeease, Steven? What happened?" Sophie said.

Steven sighed deeply, but he flashed a smile afterward. "I found Cynthia. Let's leave it at that, and please don't tell Wallace." Sophie sure had a way with her eyes, Steven thought, but he was too tired to think about that. Plus, unlike Martine, he could count on Sophie and Laurent not talking to Wallace about this little secret of his.

But a dark thought crossed his mind. What if Wallace pressed Sophie for answers instead? Now that was a disaster waiting to happen. Steven trusted Martine to keep quiet, but when it came to Sophie, Laurent, and Diantha all at once – Steven found it would be very difficult to keep them from spilling the truth.

So there was one thing for it: leave Lumiose at quickly as he could tomorrow morning before Wallace caught up to him. As he went to bed, his thoughts dwelled on Cynthia's lips on his.

In some undisclosed apartment, Cynthia was also lying on her bed and staring only at the ceiling. In her mind, she couldn't comprehend all the events that had happened today, and they happened so suddenly too. She suspected Steven found her café by accident, but he took his time to look for her. Now that he did, she confessed to him, and through a deep kiss no less.

Idiot, she thought to herself. Why? Couldn't I have had a better way of sharing how I really felt about him? It feels so… out of character! It's his fault! I would never be so bold as to kiss him like that. I've never felt that way, ever. But perhaps it was because her feelings for him were that strong that she had done so.

Cynthia turned over and tried fruitlessly to sleep. She was going to meet him tomorrow over breakfast because he was going back to Cyllage City. She couldn't risk spoiling that over not getting enough sleep. But then again, she couldn't blame herself either. There was too much to think about.

But at the very least, this should be the start of something very different.

Still unable to sleep, Cynthia picked up her phone and searched her contacts. This was no dream, because she could clearly see Steven's name and number neatly printed on her screen. At least he had given her this!

Cynthia smiled. She felt it was too good to be true, but after all that had happened, it had to be. Sure, there were still burdens weighing down on her mind, like her enormous debt, but she could forget about them for just one night. He promised to help her with those debts, after all.

A Custap berry muffin is on the line! Review, and you may get one.