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Mossdeep City.
"Is this Steven's house?"
Diancie stood at the front gate, looking up at the detached villa. It had a tidy garden and a wide backyard, and compared to where she was used to living — the vast underground halls of the Diamond Kingdom — it was, objectively speaking, quite modest.
"It feels... small."
"..."
Steven gave a quiet laugh. "Compare it to a hotel room, and you might feel differently."
Diancie considered this. "Oh — that's true!"
No house above ground could really be held to the standard of an underground kingdom. That wasn't a fair comparison at all.
She followed Steven inside and immediately found the sofa, climbing up onto it and settling in.
"So soft~"
"I'll go tidy up the room upstairs for you in a moment," Steven said, reaching over to switch on the television and placing the remote on the cushion beside her. "You can watch TV here while you wait."
"Okay!"
Steven went out to the backyard first and released all his Pokémon to let them stretch after the long journey. Then he headed upstairs to sort out Diancie's room.
After a quiet evening at home, Steven left for the Hoenn League first thing the next morning.
Larvitar, Honedge, and Sandslash stayed behind to keep Diancie company.
Creak —
Steven pushed open the office door. Inside, Sidney and Phoebe were working through stacks of documents at their desks. Drake's and the fourth workstation were both empty. The trip from Mossdeep City to Ever Grande City by Metagross took about three hours, which put Steven's arrival close to noon.
"Ha! Done!" Sidney slapped his finished stack of papers onto the table with great satisfaction. "Phoebe! Lunch is on you today!"
"Ah~"
Phoebe deflated visibly, slumping forward onto her desk like a slowly flattening balloon.
"I suppose... I'll treat...?"
"Actually," said a voice from the doorway, "lunch is on me."
Steven stood leaning against the doorframe, arms folded, with a faint smile.
"Champion Steven?!"
Phoebe shot upright as if she'd been revived on the spot.
"We couldn't possibly say no to that!" Sidney grinned, glancing with some satisfaction at the two empty desks on the other side of the room.
Ha. Someone was going to miss out.
"Where are we eating?" he asked.
"The cafeteria," Steven said simply. "I haven't actually tried the League's cafeteria yet."
"..."
Sidney: Fine. I'll admit I celebrated too early.
Phoebe, however, looked completely unbothered. Free food was free food, wherever it came from.
"Phoebe," Steven said, studying her cheerful expression with mild curiosity as the three of them made their way down the corridor. "Are you short on money? An Elite Four salary should be more than enough, shouldn't it?"
"Well..." Phoebe scratched the back of her head, a little sheepish. "My grandparents have always lived in a small wooden house on top of Mt. Pyre. I've been saving up to build them something a bit more comfortable up there."
Steven nodded slowly.
"Then I'll cover dinner tonight as well."
"Thank you, Champion Steven~" Phoebe's face lit up immediately.
She was that sort of person — easy to please, quick to smile. It reminded Steven of how different she was from Agatha, Kanto's Ghost-type Elite Four member, who carried herself with a much harder edge. Then again, growing up on Mt. Pyre, raised by her grandparents among the quiet and the graves, had shaped Phoebe into someone gentle and grateful for small things. Her love of Ghost-type Pokémon came from the same place.
Steven smiled to himself.
He wouldn't offer her money directly. That would only make things awkward. And besides, he wasn't sure how long she'd stay on as part of the Elite Four — offering a direct gift now might complicate things unnecessarily. This was simpler.
"What about me?" Sidney pointed at himself.
"You're covered too," Steven said. "Though I may have something to ask of you afterward."
Sidney raised an eyebrow. "Of course — but the 'compensation' for tonight had better reflect that."
"You won't be short-changed," Steven said with a light laugh.
The Hoenn League cafeteria was, all things considered, decent. Nothing extravagant, but well-priced, and the meal subsidies were the same across the board — Elite Four, Champions, and regular staff all received the same allowance. Go over the limit and you paid the difference yourself. It wasn't stinginess on the League's part. Gym maintenance cost money. Pokémon Center equipment across the region cost money. Keeping things running for everyone in Hoenn meant making careful choices.
On the way back, every staff member they passed greeted the three of them. Steven nodded and returned each greeting with a quiet smile.
"So, Champion — what did you want to see me about?" Sidney asked, glancing sideways at Steven as they walked.
Steven smiled in a way that gave nothing away. "Follow me."
He led them to one of the training rooms — a reinforced space reserved specifically for Elite Four members and Champions to practise without risking structural damage to the rest of the building.
"This is for..." Sidney trailed off. He had a guess, but he wasn't ready to say it out loud. He was hoping very hard that he was wrong.
Surely the Champion just wants to share some training tips. That must be it.
Steven took a Poké Ball from his belt and smiled. "Sidney. Let's battle."
Sidney exhaled quietly.
He had guessed right.
He really hadn't wanted to guess right.
He gave a resigned smile, one hand absently smoothing back the small tuft of hair over the back of his head, and walked to the far side of the room.
"No helping it, then. Come on, Champion — one-on-one? Two-on-two?"
Steven's grin widened.
"Just a little after-meal exercise."
"Sure, so—"
"Six-on-six, full battle."
"Good! Six-on—"
Sidney stopped.
Wait.
How many?
"...Six-on-six?!"
"I want to make dinner worth it," Sidney said through gritted teeth.
"It's still on me," Steven said cheerfully, and the Poké Ball opened.
In a flash of white light, Skarmory burst onto the field, wings spread, immediately filling the room with presence.
Sidney's eye twitched. "That's not going to be Stealth Rock again, is it?"
Steven shook his head. "Not this time."
"Good."
"This time, we're going all out on offense."
"...Right then." Sidney squared himself. "Go, Mandibuzz!"
The two bird Pokémon locked eyes across the training room.
Steven let Skarmory go first. After everything the Armor Bird Pokémon had endured in Snowpoint — holding Iron Defense for what felt like forever without once getting to strike — it had earned the right to cut loose. Sidney just happened to be the available target.
"Skarmory, Steel Wing!"
Back at the workstations.
Sidney sat completely motionless in his chair, staring at nothing. The expression on his face could most generously be described as vacant.
Phoebe, returning from an errand, stopped in the doorway and looked between Sidney and the Phoebe sitting at the other desk.
"What happened to him?"
"Sidney? Oh, he just got absolutely thrashed," Phoebe said pleasantly.
A beat.
"The Champion came by today, didn't he?"
"He did! He said to pass his greetings along when he left."
"Got it." Phoebe nodded with a soft laugh.
Thump thump —
The office door swung open. A young man in a yellow courier uniform stood frozen in the doorway, eyes darting between the three people in the room.
Three members of the Hoenn Elite Four.
All at once.
"Um — P-Pikachu Express Delivery," he managed, voice coming out a little higher than intended. "Someone placed an order — the boss said to bring it straight here, but I didn't think I'd actually — I mean —"
Sidney sat bolt upright.
"What did you order?!"
The courier blinked. "It looks like... the signature dish from that five-star restaurant in Ever Grande City—"
Sidney's eyes lit up.
Now that was more like it.
The beating had absolutely been worth it.