"We're making… poffins?" Red asked blankly as he stared down at the sticky glop of dough in his bowl. "That's right! I'm glad at least ONE of us knows what we're doing!" Blue said critically, giving an obvious stare at Green who was looking with distaste at the table full with bowls, berries and cooking utensils. Green looked up at her angrily.

"For you information, pesky girl, not all of us have enough time to waste on cooking treats that make pokemon fat and useless," he replied bitingly, making Silver who was beside Blue at that time glare at him. "Don't you dare talk like that to Blue!" he growled furiously. How he wished he could just strangle Green right now- And he would make it worth it, for sure.

"Please, let's stop! After all, we're here to relax, aren't we?" asked Yellow who was desperately trying to pour oil onto troubled waters. Almost all the 10 dex holders stared at her, not counting Emerald who was fuming because he had to sit on a tall chair to reach the table and Ruby and Sapphire who were fighting over some berries.

"Yellow's right. We should be cooperating, now," Red said and Yellow heaved a sigh of relief as everyone's attention was off her. She blushed however, when she caught Red staring at her and she looked down at her bowl once again. Blue watched this exchange with interest. If things went her way, than they would end up a couple by today.

"Have you ever cooked a poffin before, Emerald?" Crystal asked, as she immediately began busying herself. "Yeah. But it was just a couple of times," Emerald replied nonchalantly, but still sulking with his height. Sensing that he was upset, Crystal proceeded to cheer him up. "Don't be sad, Emerald. It doesn't matter about size or age; you can still beat one of the best trainers around, no problem! So don't let that spoil your day," Crystal said sensibly towards the younger boy.

Seeing the logic in his, he began nodding enthusiastically. "You're right, Chris! Thanks for the pep-up!" he said before starting to reach out for some berries to begin his cooking. The female watched him fondly before a familiar voice said aloud in her ear. "Hey, super serious gal! Have you started on your poffin yet?"

Crystal jumped violently, accidentally bumping into a bowl of mixture which fell down to the floor with a crash. Thank god, it didn't break. "I didn't realize you were so clumsy, Chris," Gold snickered as most of the people in the Poffin House stared at her. "Grrrr…" Crystal snarled at him, before punching him hard on his arm.

"Ouch! Do you have to be so rough?" he yelped in pain as both of them began to squabble. Silver watched his two rivals bicker with raised eyebrows. Honestly, sometimes it's just a major embarrassment to him to be seen with them. Gold always started the fight, knowing full well that Crystal would retaliate. Silver rolled his eyebrows and continued his cooking. He knew Weavile especially liked sour poffins.

Ping. The sound that indicated the poffin was ready was heard and immediately, Ruby opened the oven and looked at his batch of fresh poffins. Beautiful, he thought to himself as he took in the smell. Another similar-sounding ping made him look around. "Guess there's someone else who's ready, too," Ruby muttered to himself. He loved contest and cooking and he was sure he was the first one to finish the poffins.

But who was the owner of the other ping? Ruby put down his tray on a nearby table. By his senses, he could tell that other person was just next door to his station and who else could it be if not one of the dex holders? But which one of them? Argh. He had to find out who it was before he died of curiosity.

Slowly like a spy, he peeped over to the next counter before-

"What are yer doin', Ruby?" came the all-together annoying and familiar feminine voice which was mixed with an accent. He jumped up and tried to look like he wasn't doing anything wrong. "Don't come up creeping like that, Sapphire! You scared me to death," he said, hoping she would forget this ever happened.

But of course, she didn't. "You looked like you were up to something, if I'm not mistaken," Sapphire said, walking to the other station on which he was spying seconds ago. "And why is it your business?" asked Ruby smugly as he pointed it out. He was so going to prove she was nothing but a nosy busy-body… who was pretty and whom he had a crush on, of course.

"Cos' it's MY poffins you're trying to look at, that's why!" Sapphire crowed, and sure enough when she opened her oven, freshly baked poffins cooked to perfection lay on the tray. Ruby stared at the poffins in surprise and horror. "Y-You can cook?" he asked incredulously.

'Yeah, well. I used to cook for Dad to, ya know. So it's not surprising I'm better at it than you," she said with a flourish, pointing to his tray of poffins which were, he hated to admit it, were not as perfect as hers. She seriously had outdone him this time.

"Are you saying I'm not as good at you in cooking?" Ruby demanded with fire in his eyes. "Well… YES!" she cackled, showing off her canine fangs. "I'll show you! I bet that I'm a better cook than you!" Ruby said, his tray of poffins lay forgotten. Sapphire went into battle stance, her excitement rekindled. "Oh yeah? Cos' obviously I'm better! And I'll beat you in this challenge like I did last time!" she said, busying herself with the next batter.

"That was a tie!" Ruby spluttered angrily, only to be ignored. He was going to win this contest no matter what… Not even if he got his clothes dirty.

Green raised his eyebrows at both his hoenn juniors who were cooking like mad at the end of the table. Must be another bet. He looked at his own bowl that was still full of sticky dough and no matter how many times he tried to stir it; his batter would either overflow or burn up.

He was so sick of it. Even Gold had done at least three poffins which he had immediately given his pokemon. His thoughts turn to Blue. This was all her fault. After all, she was the one who suggested this AND convinced him to join in. And what were the results? He ended up looking like a fool who couldn't cook to save his life.

"Still can't cook, huh?" came a teasing voice from beside him. He looked around and sure enough, speaking of the devil, here she was with her arms folded and a stupid smirk on her face. Frustrated, he turned his back to her and ignored her comment.

Green folded his sleeves and started to stir furiously and angrily. Some of the batter spilled but he was beyond caring now. "Are you angry?" Blue asked, leaning against the table. Green chose not to answer. His arms were tired after the stirring and he felt dead on his feet. Even training was not as tiring as this, and that was saying something.

Blue studied his determined face and felt pity for him. She had played with him for long enough and she was tired of his ignoring her, anyway. "Oh, let me help," she said and nudged him. He looked at her. "I can do it myself," he muttered. "Yeah, you're as close to producing a poffin as you are to being best friends with Silver," she said nonchalantly. There was a silence before he stepped aside.

She quirked an eyebrow playfully at him. "Now you're not giving me all the work to do, are you?" she giggled with a gleam in her eyes. When he looked confused, she said. "Come here," She grabbed his hands, making him hold the wooden spoon. She held onto the spoon too and began to guide him on stirring it gently. Green blushed and tensed up at the close contact, but soon began to relax and concentrated on the clockwise stirring of the batter.

Blue silently giggled to herself when she saw the patient concentrated look on his face as he studied the hardening mixture. He was so cute when he blushed. She was contented, at least for now. Blue pushed all thoughts out of her head and concentrated with the present.

Red looked at both Blue and green with a grin on his face. He should have expected something like that to happen when Blue was around. He looked around his surroundings. Both Crystal and Gold seemed to stop fighting but Crystal looked like she was ignoring him furiously… And the male seemed to be trying to catch her attention desperately.

On the far end of the room, Ruby and Sapphire were both frenziedly cooking poffins and there lay about a dozen trays on the table. To his surprise though, Emerald was chatting quite companionably with Silver who was silent but listening to the younger males talking. Guess Blue's hard work of making sure everyone came to make poffins together did develop a good result to it.

But the bad results were his poffins. He looked at four of the treats he made lying on a tray. They did not even resemble a poffin; instead they looked like wonky and lumpy bits of dough with bits of berries inside them. He felt depressed and couldn't help thinking that his pokemon would appreciate them. Neither would he, in fact.

"Hi there, Red… Do you need some h-help?" A small shy voice nearby him asked. He looked up and saw Yellow standing next to him, smiling at him with her hands clad in oven-gloves holding a tray of tasty-looking poffins. Red felt his mouth drop open. A perfect sight indeed…

Suddenly realizing that she had asked him a question, he nodded hastily. "Y-yeah, sure! Why not?" he stepped aside as she began taking over and pointing out his mistakes. His liking for her increased when she tactfully left out 'mistakes' and replaced them with 'left out'. That was so like her, thinking before she said something as so not to hurt someone.

As he watched her quick deft hands began to need dough, he felt blissfully happy. Basically, Red was in seventh heaven by now.

"Aw, super serious gal… Are you still mad at me?" Gold moaned, sitting on a tall stool with his head in his hands. He looked up; half-hoping she would answer. But she ignored him again. He sighed desperately. He had tried every way possible to try to get around her, but Crystal still refused to even look at him. He looked at Emerald, who gave a helpless shrug.

"I was just kidding, you know that… It's what I do, Chris…" He continued lazily his head dropping onto the table once more. Crystal's back was turned to him and she was cooking a batter of poffin which was slowly hardening. He groaned loudly, causing other people to look at the male as he stayed slumped in his chair. What else haven't he done to woo her? That's when an idea flitted in his mind, and as the more he thought about it, the better it seemed.

Well, he had better start on it, before the shop was going to close. Gold looked at his watch. 4:35 p.m, exactly one hour and 25 minutes… He could do it, no problem, Gold thought as he left the table.

"Hah! I told ya I would win!" Sapphire said, pointing triumphantly at the sweating defeated Ruby who leant against the cooking table, panting. "Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, feeling his pride being ripped away from him. "What do I owe you know?" He muttered wiping flour of his face. They had finished cleaning up the place while Sapphire crowed over him. That was the worst.

"Now that ya mention it, I've come up with what I want," Sapphire grinned with arms folded and an evil look on her face. "Ya have to-"Ruby braced himself. Knowing Sapphire, she would probably tell him to do something that he hated. Maybe she would ask him to wallow in mud and get dirty… Ruby shuddered and cracked open an eye. He saw Sapphire looking nervous and wondered why. His question was answered when she continued. "To take me to the beach on Saturday for a picnic and treat me to an ice-cream,"

"W-what?" Ruby blanched. He looked at Sapphire suspiciously and saw she her face was red and she was looking at the ground, fidgeting. Well, it would be fun… And it would be ten times more fun because she was there. "Sure," he grinned. Sapphire looked delighted and seemed to realize it.

"Well, ya had better be early to pick me up at eight in the mornin'… Cos' I don't like waiting, "Sapphire said gruffly at him as she pulled on her gloves.

Ruby nodded and watched her walk towards the door. Acting on an impulse, he ran towards her. "Wait, Sapphire! Lemme-"Ruby cut short his sentence when he slipped on some squelchy dough and fell on the floor face forward. He looked up, coughing a little. Why did that have to happen at all of the times? "Yeah?" Sapphire looked like she was trying not to laugh. Hot with embarrassment, he got up and brushed his pants.

"Take you home?" he asked awkwardly. "Well, it isn't any trouble cos' we live next door to each other, so okay," she agreed nonchalantly, but she was blooming flowers inside. Together, they disappeared through the door of the poffin house and what could be heard was Sapphire laughing and Ruby muttering 'not funny'.

"Okay, dearies! It's time to close down the poffin house! Pack up, now!" The poffin lady called out joyfully. She was a plump, friendly and always smiling lady.

By that time, there were only a few stragglers left in the Poffin House. Most of the people had gone home already, alongside their pokemon. Red and Yellow were clearing up their corner of the table, deep in conversation and to Blue's delight; Yellow was blushing with happiness. The blonde must be having such a nice time.

Not that she herself wasn't having one, of course. For once, Blue was silent through her poffin-cooking session with Green and he was silent too (which was no surprise, of course). But she had a feeling Green had enjoyed it, and she felt their bond had been forged more closely than ever. Now just to get him to call her his girlfriend and all would be complete…

Sapphire and Ruby had long gone home together. Minutes after they had gone, Emerald remembered that Ruby had promised to give him a ride home, and ran out along the Heart Home Road to catch up with the male. Crystal was worried wondering if he caught up or not, but she just hoped for the best. Emerald had left Silver in the middle of a rant about training which Blue was sure Silver wasn't even listening.

But Blue HAD watched Silver feeding some poffins to his pokemon outside and saw weavile snuggling up to him as he did so. Someone like maybe Gold would be having a fit of disbelief now, but Blue knew beneath that hostile interior was a caring brother and person. Now the problem was only to find him a sweet girlfriend… (Kotone)

Gold and Crystal were the other ones left.

Crystal put all her poffins inside the poffin case neatly. She counted her poffins leading to a total of 24 poffins altogether. Her hands were tired, but she knew it was worth it once she sees the look of pleasure on her pokemon's faces. Not to mention they were according to the special flavors her pokemon loved… But than her mind wandered unconsciously towards a certain male. Crystal was feeling a tad guilty at ignoring him, but, she told herself. He deserved it. But she did wonder where Gold went. He just disappeared.

After making her mess was clean, she was the last to leave the poffin house after watching out of the corner of her eye how here seniors left with each other. It wasn't a surprise Yellow ended up with Red… And Blue deserved Green after all her hard work for his attention. Crystal put on her bag and walked out of the poffin house, waving goodbye to the poffin lady who seemed happy that everyone was out.

Crystal was going to get home by getting on her natu, natee. But she wondered severely if Natee was up to the journey. Or maybe she could just rent a room in the centre and get back tomorrow. In the middle of her decision-making however, she was interrupted when her name was called.

"Chris! Hey, Chris!" The familiar male voice called out. "Gold! Will you-!" The female turned around abruptly, wanting to tell him off for yelling loudly and that she was still mad at him. But she stopped however when he held something under her nose, panting.

"H-here, super serious gal… I made it for you. Geez, will you forgive me now?" Gold asked a hopeful expression on his face. He was holding a poffin that was in the shape of a heart- and it was for her. Crystal's face softened. "It's not edible so you can't eat it. So you can keep it as an ornament instead! I sprayed that spray thing like what you do on gingerbread man you hang on trees," Gold said proudly.

"Thank you, Gold…" she replied hesitantly taking the gift from him and putting in her poffin case.

"Yeah, yeah. Glad you're not mad at me, anymore. Make sure, Mega doesn't get at it, though. All your pokemon must be greedy if you cooked that whole lot for 'em," Gold said, staring at her poffins. Crystal looked up at him angrily. "Gold! They are NOT greedy!" she said hitting him on the arm. "Ouch!" Gold clutched his arm. 'What was that for?"

Crystal didn't answer but walked ahead of him. Gold ran towards her and began talking at the top of his voice. "You're not mad at me, are you? I'm glad you're not. It took me ages to do it-"Crystal had a good mind to knock him unconscious but when she remembered the poffin he made, a smile played at her lips. Oh well, sometimes you lose and sometimes you win.