Not my first PW fanfiction ever, but the first one I'm going to post.
Thanks to Rob (Sebastian Stark on Court Records) for beta-reading this!
This isn't technically Miego. ...Yet.
"Miss… Fey, was it?"
Mia stiffened as the man at the other desk spoke to her. Hammond—a man whose name she knew well. She would have preferred to ignore him, but if he was going to challenge her…
She looked over at him coolly. "That's right."
"I haven't heard that name for years." There was a lazy look to his wrinkled, sagging face, an uncaring superiority. His eyes were only half-open as he looked at Mia. "You're not, by chance, related to the infamous Misty Fey?"
Infamous?! Mia took a deep breath, refusing to let the man rile her up. "She's my mother," she told him in the same disinterested tone as before.
"Ah, I see. Your mother. Tell me, how is she doing these days?"
He was trying to anger her, wasn't he? He wouldn't have asked that if he didn't already know of Misty Fey's disappearance. "I wouldn't know. I haven't seen her in ten years, ever since a certain crooked lawyer's crooked defense of a guilty man ruined her."
Either he was wholly unbothered by the comment, or he assumed that Mia didn't know that that "crooked lawyer" was sitting right in front of her. Either way, he went on in his snide tone, "I suppose you must have been quite young at the time, so it would have seemed that way to you, but I assure you, your mother was the one in the wrong."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not saying that she was a fraud, per se, only that perhaps her 'powers' were not at their peak that day, or perhaps Gregory Edgeworth was particularly difficult to reach. If only she hadn't chosen to compound the problem by giving the police a name…"
Mia stood abruptly, red splotches of anger in her cheeks. "If you're going to insult my mother, Mr. Hammond, do not patronize me by pretending to believe in her! You're a coward now, too, just like you were back then—"
Suddenly there was a firm hand on her shoulder, restraining her. "Easy there, Kitten."
Mia whipped her head around and found herself staring into the face of a brown-skinned man with wild black hair. He was smirking widely at her, his eyes confident, mocking, and intrigued all at once. Mia could feel a flush creeping into her cheeks, and she let herself believe it was because she was embarrassed at being caught bickering, not because of the dangerous, irresistible charisma of the man's smile.
"Who are you?" she demanded, twitching her shoulder as if to shrug the man's hand away. The man's hand did not move.
"Diego Armando," he answered, his smirk widening even further. "Best lawyer at the Grossberg Law Offices. Nice to meet you, Kitten."
Mia shoved his hand off her shoulder and glared at the man—the lawyer? He had to be kidding. A lawyer wouldn't flirt like this, wouldn't smile at her like she was his favorite meal—lawyers just didn't act like that! "My name is Mia Fey," she informed him.
As if he hadn't heard, Armando asked, "Do you drink coffee, Kitten?"
He—was he hitting on her? "N-no, I don't!" Mia answered, cursing the fluster that came through in her voice.
"We'll have to remedy that, then, won't we?" He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and steered her down the hallway. "Step into my office."
"Said the spider to the fly," Mia finished, pushing the man's hand away again and refusing to take another step.
"Ha…!" Armando held his hands up in surrender, but his eyes didn't seem to have gotten the memo—they still had that charismatic and overwhelming light to them. "That's 'parlor,' Kitten, and it's nothing as sinister as that. I just want to have a chat with the office newbie and treat her to some of the best coffee she's ever tasted… that's all."
He waved towards one of the doors—the one with his name on a plaque—and as Mia breathed in to retort, she caught the scent coming from that office. It was the scent of coffee, so rich and aromatic it practically had color. She'd lied earlier. She did like a good cup of coffee… on occasion.
Armando sensed her hesitation, and he flashed her one of his smiles again. "Well? How about it, Kitten?"
Glaring boldly up into his eyes, Mia demanded, "What do you want from me?"
"Ha…!" The man's whole face lit up as he let out that laugh. "Just what I said, Kitten. A friendly chat over coffee, nothing more."
"That's not what your eyes say," Mia pointed out flatly.
The man laughed again. "Can I help it, when what they see is so attractive?" he asked, moving his face towards hers. Mia blushed, incredulous that this man would say that so brazenly. All the time, he stared insistently into her eyes, as if to show off that he wasn't looking… elsewhere. "I'm better-behaved than my eyes are, Kitten. What, do I come off as untrustworthy?"
No, he didn't. Despite everything—despite the way he looked at her, the way he harassed her—she felt more embarrassed by this man than actually wary of him. Of course, that could just be his charisma…
He opened the door to his office, and again Mia was hit by the aroma of fine coffee. She glanced from the office—probably the best in the building, with an oak desk and a window as long as the far wall—back to Armando, who was smirking at her still.
"Up to you, Kitten."
Common sense told her not to, but she was feeling—daring. Just daring, she told herself, not curious, certainly not attracted. So she stepped into the office, not looking at Armando because she knew he'd just smirk in triumph. In any case he followed her in, leaving the door open, and went to the coffee maker on his desk. Pulling two mugs from a rack on the wall, he filled both and offered one to Mia. "Enjoy. It's blend #102—my favorite."
"I usually take cream and sugar…" she said, accepting the mug hesitantly.
Armando sighed and shook his head at her patronizingly. "Do me a favor, Kitten?"
"What?"
"Try it first, before you strangle the flavor with those… condiments."
Obediently, Mia ventured a sip—and blinked in surprise. "I-It's good," she commented. The flavor was rich and strong, almost with a hint of walnut to it. "…But still," she added after a moment, "I'd like some cream and sugar, if you have any. I'm not good with the aftertaste."
Sighing again, Armando reached into his desk and handed her the "condiments," as he'd called them. "You're ruining a perfectly good blend, you know."
Mia stirred the cream in first, then the sugar. Armando clicked his tongue at her disapprovingly and said nothing else.
After a moment, Mia said warily, "You wanted to… chat?"
"I was kind of expecting you to start, Kitten," Armando replied. "After all, you got Sour-face out there to talk. That's no mean feat."
Mia turned bright red, both with embarrassment and with renewed anger at Hammond. "H-he started that!"
Armando's eyebrows went up. "Well, well…" he commented slowly. "That's even more intriguing. And just what did he want to talk to you about, Kitten?"
Mia scowled and didn't answer.
"Something about… your mother, was it?" Armando pressed.
Mia tried to make her scowl fiercer, but she had a feeling Armando wasn't impressed. "You're awfully nosy," she accused.
Armando shrugged unconcernedly. "It's a good trait for a lawyer."
"Not if that lawyer means to make friends," Mia shot back. Ugh, why had she let him drag her into here? He was just a prying flirt with apparently no respect for other people. She set the mug down on his desk, still half-full, and turned sharply to leave.
He laughed. Again. "Hey, Kitten, wait. Wait."
"My name is Mia Fey!" Mia snapped, whipping around to glare at him.
He was unbothered, still; on the contrary, he seemed just as amused by her outburst as he did by everything else. "All right. Miss Fey… I hope we can be 'friends.'"
His eyes were mocking and overconfident, but—as Mia found herself looking deeper, almost against her will—there was warmth and joy in them too. Genuineness. It was almost impossible to keep from smiling back at him when he smiled like that, and despite her best efforts, she felt her glare reduce in intensity as a flush crept up the back of her neck.
No! She wouldn't let herself be charmed by this man. She gave a huff. "That depends on your attitude, doesn't it?"
"Ha…! I suppose it does. See you later… Kitten."
Refusing to let her blush spread to her face, Mia turned her back on Armando again and strode out of his office. He was infuriating. The way he smiled… it was like he thought he could own her. Like it was only a matter of time before she fell for him. Well, he may have been able to charm other girls, but she'd never let herself fall for this man, for his smirk, for his overconfident laughter that was still ringing in her ears as she returned to her own office and sat down rather vehemently. He was just an arrogant flirt, and she would never fall for him.