The sky was just beginning to lighten — that pale, uncertain grey before the sun had properly committed to rising.
Cynthia moved down the hallway in her grey-blue trench coat, the wide sleeves falling to her elbows, her steps careful and deliberate. She reached the guest room door and eased it open, inch by inch.
Metagross was already awake. It sat in the corner in quiet meditation, eyes closed, perfectly still — until the door opened, at which point it opened all four of its eyes and looked at Cynthia with an expression that communicated very little, which was standard for Metagross.
"Shh."
Cynthia pressed one finger to her lips and tilted her head at it in a slow wink.
Metagross closed its eyes again. Whatever was happening, it had decided it was not its concern.
Cynthia turned to the bed.
Steven was lying on his side, breathing evenly. He had not moved.
She observed this for a moment.
"...He's exactly the same asleep as he is awake," she muttered under her breath, sounding genuinely put out. She had been hoping for something to work with — a strange posture, a funny expression, anything. She had even considered bringing her Pokégear.
Reality had declined to cooperate.
She pushed her hair back over one shoulder and leaned in for a closer look, resting her free hand on the edge of the mattress.
Her eyes landed on Steven's eyelashes.
She frowned.
"Those are longer than mine."
She straightened up slightly, looking at them again from a different angle to confirm. They were. Definitively.
"That's not fair," she said, to no one in particular.
She reached out and poked his cheek once, lightly.
He did not stir. His face in sleep looked — and she would only admit this to herself, in the privacy of her own thoughts — quite peaceful. Somewhat younger. The habitual calm he wore while awake somehow settled into something softer.
He looks rather cute like this, she thought, which was information she immediately filed away under things she would not be saying aloud.
She pulled her hand back and sat down on the edge of the bed, tucking one leg under herself. Her thoughts drifted — running through the practicalities that had been building in the back of her mind since last night.
Staying at her grandmother's home was fine for a visit. But she couldn't be here indefinitely. Carolina's schedule revolved around her research, and having two people underfoot for an extended period would disrupt the household rhythm. Cynthia began to think through options — somewhere with enough space for the Pokémon, close enough to Sinnoh to be convenient, quiet enough to actually be useful as a base.
A villa somewhere, perhaps. A proper one, with a garden. Somewhere that wouldn't feel like an imposition on anyone.
She was deep into mentally cataloguing the general requirements when something warm wrapped around her from behind.
Both arms. Her waist. Very suddenly.
"Ah!"
She startled hard enough to press back against the source of it — which turned out to be Steven's chin, which was now resting on her right shoulder.
"You're up early," he said. His voice still had the unhurried quality of someone who had woken five minutes ago and had no complaints about the world.
Cynthia's face went immediately warm. Her hands found each other in her lap.
"I — went to bed early last night," she said. "So I woke up early. That's all."
A pause.
"Go wash up." She disentangled herself and stood, moving for the door with the composure of someone who had not just been surprised while thinking about real estate. "It's morning."
She left. The door clicked shut behind her.
Steven sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, considering whether he had misjudged the approach. He concluded it had probably been fine. Probably.
He stood, opened the wardrobe, and pulled out a grey plaid jacket, shrugging into it and turning up the collar.
He turned around.
Metagross was reading a book. A thin one — densely printed, not particularly long.
"What are you reading?" Steven asked, adjusting his collar.
Metagross held the cover up without comment.
Steven read the title.
Making My Childhood Friend Fall in Love with Me.
He stood very still for a moment.
"...Where did you get that?"
Metagross considered the question. After a moment, the memory appeared to surface. The conclusion it arrived at — communicated through a series of deliberate glances — was that Cynthia had brought it a stack of reading material some weeks ago, during a period when Steven had been occupied in the kitchen. The majority of the stack had been archaeology texts and mythology collections. This particular volume had been tucked in among them.
Metagross had not read it until this morning.
The timing, it seemed to feel, was appropriate.
"Metagross." — I will finish it soon. Then I will help.
"You don't need to help with anything," Steven said, pleasantly but firmly.
"Metagross." — Understood.
It went back to reading with every appearance of someone who had taken that completely to heart.
Steven picked up the Poké Ball from the table and recalled it.
He would sort that book situation out later.
Breakfast was quiet. They sat side by side at the kitchen table — the shift in the shape of things between them, while not uncomfortable exactly, was something both of them were still finding the edges of.
They ate. They washed up. They said relatively little.
"It's still early," Steven said, setting the last bowl aside. "We could walk for a bit before we head out. Solaceon Town can wait another hour."
Cynthia's colour was still slightly higher than usual. "...All right."
They left the house as the morning was properly settling in, light falling clean and cold across the paths of Celestic Town. They walked at no particular pace.
The path was narrow enough that they were close — close enough that their hands brushed once, twice, without anything being made of it.
Steven took a breath that was somewhat deeper than necessary for a gentle morning walk.
It was a strange thing, he thought, that he had faced the Sinnoh Elite Four on Cynthia's behalf without finding it particularly daunting, and yet standing here on a quiet footpath in Celestic Town, he felt considerably less certain of himself.
"Are you all right?" Cynthia asked. She had noticed.
"Fine," he said.
His left hand moved — past the back of her hand, around to her palm, fingers settling carefully into the spaces between hers.
He held her hand.
Cynthia looked straight ahead. Then to the left. Then at a point in the middle distance that seemed to require her full attention. Her expression was doing several things at once.
"It's cold this morning," Steven said, watching the small cloud of white his breath made in the air.
"There's snow forecast for later in the week, apparently." Cynthia's voice came out mostly level.
He glanced down at the exposed stretch of leg below her coat. "Are you warm enough?"
"Stockings," she said. "They're warmer than they look."
"Ah." Steven processed this. He had assumed — incorrectly, as it turned out — that they were purely aesthetic. "That makes sense."
They walked a little further in companionable quiet.
"If you were going to buy a house," Cynthia said after a moment, tilting her head toward him, "where would you want it to be?"
Steven considered this with genuine thought, which took several seconds.
...We have arrived at the house conversation, he noted internally, without comment.
"Somewhere by the sea, I think," he said. "Empoleon, Milotic, and Gastrodon all need access to open water. It's more practical. And Larvitar would probably enjoy the beach."
"Just because of the Pokémon?" Cynthia looked at him with an expression that was doing very little to conceal what it was actually doing.
"...Mostly."
"Mm." She made a small sound of acknowledgement and filed this away visibly, in the manner of someone who intended to return to it at a more strategic time.
It was worth noting that Steven did actually own a seaside property — several, if he was being precise, in various regions. He had inherited a number of them and purchased others over the years of travel. He was not always entirely clear on their locations without checking.
This seemed like unnecessary information to volunteer at present.
"President Goodshow gave me a month of leave as well," Cynthia said. "When do you need to be back at the League?"
"I'm not sure anything's waiting for me yet," Steven said honestly. After passing his files to Phoebe before leaving, and with President Goodshow's proposal still pending a committee vote, there was genuinely very little pulling him back to Ever Grande in the immediate term.
Cynthia nodded slowly. "Then after we've helped Grandmother with the ruins — would you want to go somewhere? A proper trip. You spent your entire break coming to Sinnoh to watch my matches and train with me. That doesn't really count as a holiday."
"It felt like one," Steven said.
"It wasn't." Her tone was matter-of-fact, but not unkind. "You should get an actual one. So I'll take you somewhere."
Steven smiled. He thought about it — genuinely trying to identify a destination that had appealed to him without being work-adjacent.
Kalos didn't count. That had been a research trip — tracking down the Mega Evolution expert Gurkinn, investigating Stone sites, which was interesting but not restful.
He needed somewhere warm. Somewhere far enough from both League offices to make interruptions logistically unlikely.
"I have somewhere in mind, actually," he said.
"Where?"
"Alola."