A/N: 2013 Secret Santa gift on Tumblr
A Little Break.
Harsh artificial light flicked on to brighten the unlit office, such light streamed underneath the lawyer's door asking for attention. Phoenix Wright, whose head had found an unorthodox pillow made of courtroom applications and witness testimonies, groaned from the intruding light. It was laughing at the paperwork that had yet to be signed and filed. When his own door swung open and he thanked he did not have to deal with harsh lighting, he greeted his partner with a lazy nod.
"Nick?"
"Don't," Phoenix held his rubbing his forehead.
With a moment of watching the lawyer wake from a nap, he really didn't deserve, Maya laughed. She leaned over the desk to pull a sticky note stuck to his cheek. Phoenix frowned at the papers he had given up on then to the clock reading five past five.
"Does this really need to be done for tomorrow," Phoenix sighed.
"Yeah, but that's why your most fantastic, and might I add beautiful, assistant is here!" Maya grinned trying to brighten the lawyer's mood. Phoenix rolled his eyes which let a breath of relief out of the medium. "Seriously, Nick, I'll help you on your last minute filing."
"Thanks, Maya."
Maya retreated into the next room to spin into the room on her chair, pushing herself to sit in front of the desk. Phoenix handed her an unopened envelope – though she ignored the angry letters of 'due' stamped in blood red. Mentally straining were the papers for the two that was in their habitual state of powering through a deadline that had already passed.
"Want to go out for dinner?" Maya asked after scrawling dates in their diary for the new year.
"After," Phoenix did not bother to look up as his eyes bore into the fine print.
"You can't even read. No, tell me what the past five sentences were talking about." When Phoenix lost all his memory of the past minute he had been reading, Maya gave a shrug as though her point was proven. It was.
"Fine," Phoenix desisted his work dropping the biro. "But we have to be quick. We still have all of this to do." He slapped the top of a large pile of bulked envelopes, letters, bills, and other documents. Although they should have taken note that over the past two hours they had ridden half of the original pile; in fact the completed filing that needed to be done was waiting eagerly in the other room.
Phoenix stood up first but Maya was dressed in her long drape coat whilst Phoenix slipped into his trench coat. The two of them wrapped up in scarves and gloves ready to bare the icy wind that was outside the door. Maya chuckled at the many layers upon the spiky haired lawyer making him look more ridiculous in an old red scarf.
"Three hamburger meals, a cheeseburger meal, and two colas." The cashier called out to the small group of people waiting for their processed food.
"Yep!" Maya shouted more enthusiastically than was socially accepted as far as food enthusiasm went. Maya grabbed the tray before leading Phoenix to an empty table by one of the radiators. Internally, Maya blessed Phoenix's luck for nabbing them such a place as something about the pair had made the table's previous owners leave – more importantly with haste as their rubbish still laid on the table.
Table cleared and brushing the crumbs off the chair, the two sat down. Maya picked a hamburger meal and gave it to her colleague before digging into her own meal with the brightest of smiles. Phoenix sighed at the amount of food the teenager had ordered but he could hardly blame her; she had travelled to and from Kurain to make sure Pearl would arrive safely in the village.
"Is Pearls alright?" Phoenix asked.
"Yeah, though she wanted to be with us a bit longer," Maya shoved a couple of fries into her mouth. "Especially now it's a week 'til Christmas."
"Ha, yeah but we could always spend Christmas together, again," Phoenix recalled his last Christmas with Maya. Although that Christmas period had mainly been focused on Edgeworth's case the ignorant time him and Maya had shared in the office eating leftovers had been peaceful.
"Pearly would love that," Maya brightened, the light topic of speaking of her cousin was well received. "I bought some cool Steel Samurai Christmas merchandise. They were limited offer so we could hang them around the office!"
"I have an apartment of my own you can plant bombs in," Phoenix suggested a more appropriate place to hang the childish decorations. He would rather not wait for clients to turn up at the office with decorations not pulled down and it looking as though it was run by children. It would probably look cute if the girls were to do up the drab office.
Conversation seemed to flow easily between the two. The days where they could simply become gluttonous (more often than not in Maya's case) and swindle by lazy talks of anything that was of interest, were relaxing. It was no wonder that when a case did appear they were thrown into a hectic three days of investigation that they could hardly breathe.
Phoenix groaned however at the remembering of what lay back in the office for the two of them. How many times had he seen Mia go through the same amount of work in a six hours whilst he would take three days on half the amount was beyond him: maybe it was due to lack of experience. Either way there was no way the legal documents would be ready for the next day let alone for them to be in a period of calm for Christmas…
"I think we should head back and finish the paperwork waiting for us," Phoenix voiced his annoyance.
Maya nodded but they didn't leave her favourite burger restaurant until she ordered another milkshake.
Exiting the franchise restaurant, the two headed straight to their office. Their pace increasing as to warm themselves with the science of movement for after all each step was that bit closer to their slightly warmer office.
With their mouths distracting them with another subject of another popular superhero shown on a channel Phoenix had never heard of, their legs quickened. It was almost a match to Maya's love of fictional characters that they walked to. Clearly absorbed, or more like distracted, with the stories Phoenix stumbled on a crack in the pavement. Instinct only told him to grab the closest support. Albeit his instinct to save himself was strong grabbing Maya who was not the best support he could have used. In hindsight, however, he probably would not have chosen to grab onto the slim arm that only slowed the time it took to hit the ground.
"Nick, look!" Maya ragged her arm away from Phoenix, letting him stumble back in an attempt to stand, and pointed at the many posters plastered on the fence. Phoenix did as was told and looked at the bright posters mainly of a pink magician with long weird hair. The man on the gaudy poster was unfamiliar to the lawyer but as he looked at the bright eyes of the teen next to him, he was sure this man was a new buzz in the shifting trends.
"This is?"
"Maximillion Galatica: winner of the Entertainment World's Grand Prix!" Maya's eyes sparkled it almost blinded him. If the posters were not two dimensional, Phoenix would bet on the fact she would want to be sucked into the world of the magician and would never leave.
Maya stared at him eagerly her finger ever so subtly pointing to the dates of the Berry Big Circus. "Why don't we ask Pearls to come and the three of us can watch his last show?" Phoenix suggested though it was more the uncomfortable stare Maya was giving him.
"Oh yes!" Maya clapped her hands with excitement. "Pearly would love that!"
"We won't be going though, if we don't finish the work…"
"Let's get going then!" Maya grabbed Phoenix's gloved hand leading them in the direction of the office.