Wow. Great. Again.

Cress could feel himself numbing in frustration. There he was, lounging around in that same exact shaded off corner. This was the first time Grimsley had shown up two days in a row. The League must've gotten really annoyed at the lack of results from their monitoring scheme. If only he could just march up to them and tell them to their faces that he was getting just as antsy as they were over the lack of activity.

Deep breaths, Cress. Deep breaths. He normally had at least a few days to mentally prepare himself for another visit. Who knew if he could make it this time around without making an ass out of himself in front of the other guests. With his eyes narrowed into a firm look and his chin held high, he made his way over.

"Are you ready to order, s—"

"Those cookies were surprisingly really tart."

Cress's jaw stopped mid-sentence. So he did eat them.

"You could clearly taste the berries, but it didn't have the same kind of flavor you'd get from any other fruit-based cookies. What's up with that?"

"Those things were actually part of our health menu," Cress answered. Despite being taken aback, his voice still held that same flat and grumbly flavor. "A lot of the typical ingredients, like sugar, were substituted with natural berry and plant based ingredients." He scrunched his nose. "You actually ate them?"

"Eh, kind of. Not really. Gave it to my Pokemon mostly. Just had a small nibble."

"Then why are you complaining?"

"Who said I was?" Grimsley gestured his hand into a faint swatting movement, perhaps visibly annoyed for once by Cress's open displeasure. "I was just curious about the flavor. My Pokemon liked it. Does that make you happy?"

Did it? The goal was to try to get Grimsley to cave and try anything from the cafe that wasn't generic tea. Did what sounded like a single, possibly unfinished, cookie even count?

"Anyway," Grimsley sighed. "I'd like oolong today."

"We have a special store exclusive spicy oolong that mixes the leaves with hints of spelon and liechi berries. Would you like to give that a shot?"

"No thanks," Grimsley waved the suggestion off. "Not a huge fan of spicy things in general."

"Well in that case, we also have a seasonal sweet tea that mixes five of the most popular regional berries together into one soothing blend."

"Might as well be drinking a smoothie at that point. No thank you."

"If that's too much, we also have our version of the classic oran berry sweet tea made with our special family recipe."

"You really want me to order a menu item, huh?"

Cress and Grimsley's eyes were locked dead on. For as artificial as the Elite Four member's smiles were, his scowls were authentic as could be.

"Come on, it's your tenth visit. I don't care if you're supposed to be playing gym inspector or whatever. Any business owner would get annoyed at this point."

"The generic flavors are the cheapest. How do you expect me to not choose them?"

"You're an Elite Four member!" Cress's aggravation heightened. "Aren't you loaded? You could definitely buy our entire menu if you wanted to!"

"Well that's quite an assumption."

"I've seen the kind of salaries you guys make. Don't try to lie your way out of this."

"And that's another assumption," he sighed with a tense brow. "I'm not saying I don't get paid a lot, but you have to understand, that money does go somewhere."

"Somewhere?" He scoffed. "What? You've got a side gig?"

"More like a hobby."

…Wait.

What if…?

Uh…

Among all the pile of shady things that made Grimsley a natural Unova League outcast was his compulsive gambling addiction.

Is this idiot actually broke?!

Cress could do nothing but silently grind his teeth in shock. He stood there waiting for a response, waiting for any kind of inkling that this was just a joke. Even with Grimsley's completely stoic stare, he couldn't tell if this naturally feigning man was giving him a subtle confirmation or simply egging on the bit.

His teetering agitation was interrupted by a light shoulder tap. Off the corner of his eye, Cilan had snuck on over and carefully cupped his hand over his mouth to whisper into his brother's ear. "We've got trainers."

Really? Cress mouthed.

Cilan pointed over to a table near the entrance where a pair of teens, a girl and a boy, had made themselves comfortable. With their loud boasts about the winning strategies they had already mapped out, they proved to be quite a rowdy duo. Judging by their Galarian accents, it was obvious they had come from outside the region and were unaware of this particular gym's reputation. It was a stark contrast from the few flippant trainers they did manage to fight in the past three months who had shown up expecting a freebie.

The corner of Cress's mouth curled into a faint smile. If they were really going to rebuild this gym from the ground up, getting the chance to show kids like these what the Striaton City Gym of today was like was exactly what they needed. And even better…

"Hey," he returned his attention to Grimsley with a cocky grin. "Looks like you got here just in time. Two battles for you."

…They could finally rid themselves of this lousy loiterer.

Grimsley blinked. For once, it was pretty easy to tell exactly what he was thinking. He had truly not expected to witness the brothers in action anytime soon. He clicked his tongue and stood up as if this were the most inconvenient thing that could happen to him. "Very well," he let out a small hint of a groan. "Take me over to wherever you hold these things. And…" he waved over a lazy glare at Cress. "I'm still expecting my oolong tea."

Seriously?

"Hey," Cilan tapped Cress's shoulder once more. "Um, Chili and I can take them. You go handle the tea. That way you can take a small break."

Take a break from what? He gave the sighing equivalent of a side eye. It was a nice thought in theory, but he'd still be serving him in the end. After seeing the two off to the gym area of the building, the loudmouth trio of Chili and the two challengers trailing behind, he promptly headed back to the kitchen to prepare their guest's little theater refreshment.

"Hey, Panpour," he greeted his partner Pokemon who had been lazing around on the kitchen floor with a kind smile. "Mind grabbing an extra tray? Our 'V.I.P.'s having a dinner and show today."

"Pour pour!" The cerulean simian nodded excitedly as it trudged off and away from the pastry stacks.

Each morning, a few extra batches of the more popular sweets would typically be kept on standby just in case their display stocks ran out midday. The brothers' three monkey-esque Pokemon typically took turns guarding the trays just in case any nosy customers had the idea to try to sneak in while the boys were away. As the treats were mostly just treated as emergency backup, they were plain in sight and would have to be decorated in the middle of the work day as needed.

Cress smirked. An idea came to him. With the gym challenge under way, there was a good chance they'd finally be ridding themselves of their pesky Elite Four spy. Part of his thoughts were sheer pettiness, knowing this would likely be his last real chance to force feed some of his food on him.

And part of his thoughts were out of, well, pity. Did he seriously gamble himself dry? Uh, wow.

"Sorry, could you grab me one of the cake layers too while you're at it?" He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed out a small vat of blue frosting from the freezer. "Might as well give our guest a farewell gift…"

XO

He did it. He finally got Grimsley down to a level where he was just as annoyed at him as the other way around. The way he just stood there near the cafe entrance, his eyes narrowed and aiming at him like he was a mile away. Cress tried his best to remain professional, but the corners of his mouth twisted naturally into an immature grin, and his hand was halted in the air, dangling around the to-go bag like he was a self congratulatory brat waving around a winning test score.

"So," he smiled. "How were the battles?"

"Fine," Grimsley sighed. "Your brothers lost, but I suppose they've improved." His eyes narrowed further, and he pointed at the bag in a defeated manner. "What's this?"

Cress's cheshire grin grew wider. He for sure knew what this was. "Just a little thank you gift for being a great customer these past few weeks. On the house."

Grimsley shook his head. "You're so hung up on this."

"Come on," Cress softened his voice slightly and nudged the bag closer to the man's face. "Just take it. It's free."

"..."

"You took the cookies, didn't you?"

"..."

… A pause fell between the two before Grimsely finally snatched the bag out of the waiter's hand and marched rigidly out the door. Cress could hear one last retort before the man was gone for good. "I didn't lose all my money gambling for your information ."