The scenery outside passed by in a quiet blur, trees and rock dimly lit by headlights as the lights of the city were far in the distance. Though it didn't make much difference for the Latino who leaned against the window of the taxi as he was seeing more of a red glare than what was out there. It had been some hours since he and Maya had left the festivities from Edgeworth's house as the trip back to Kurain village was not a short one, but it had been a necessary one even if it had just been for a few hours out.

It had been some time since he had heard from Lana Skye, only a few times after he had been released after his trial at least. Of the old college crew that had been been apart of nearly half their numbers were dead as it was only he, Jake, and Lana left and none of them had done well with keeping in touch since he had woken from his coma.

No, that was a lie, he knew deep down he had been the problem all this time. He had woken up from that hellish slumber, and despite their predicament given their own crimes, Lana and Jake had tried to reach out to him only to have their hands slapped away as he wallowed in his own grief and rage. His friends had tried to be there for him and he had pushed them all away. Perhaps that was why he had been so shocked when Lana had personally invited him to the party.

The car jumped and shook as it went up the rocky road, keeping him in this lulled state where he drifted between his own troubled thoughts and a near dreamlike state. He probably would have drifted off entirely had it not been for the wet finger being jabbed into his ear and wiggled about.

"Earth to Diego! Have you been listening to me at all?"

Aside from the grumpy frown and rubbing at his ear (he had grown up with enough brothers to not be phased by a wet willy), he turned to her with nothing more than a grunt in response. He put on the hardened old man look very well despite feeling himself soften at how Maya pouted at him, her cheeks slightly puffed out in frustration. Despite her being older than when he had started dating her sister, he couldn't help but see her as a child still.

"Sorry, Kitten. I guess I'm still absorbed in what all happened tonight," he confessed to her. Despite his best efforts his mind had been going back, replaying the announcement Land and Edgeworth had given. He had clapped with the best of them, congratulating them on the engagement, and yet he had been so melancholy since then.

The look of concern didn't melt away from Maya's face as she watched him. He knew quickly he had to put on a smirk to try and put her at ease.

"I'm fine. It's just been a long evening and I had a lot of fun. Can you blame me for being tired?" he tried once more to ease her concerns. How could he tell her what was really bugging him, that something had been bugging him since dinner? He had sat in that dining room with everyone else and had put on a happy face, yet when the festivities had started he wanted to be nowhere near there. The thought that Lana was going to be getting married bugged him for reasons he hadn't thought on in ages.

"It has been a long day," Maya finally started to admit, "and you are an old man."

"Ha!" he scoffed loudly, watching that teasing grin cross her face. She was so young, and yet she looked so much like her sister in the face. It was the subtle way her lips turned up and the care that reflected in her eyes. Even after his trial, after Maya had learned what he had done to her mother out of grief and selfishness, she had been looking after him, claiming it was what her sister would have wanted. Even after what had been a brief romance in the grand scheme of things with Mia, the Feys were still there for him in his darkest days.

"Diego," that note of concern rose into her voice once again, folding her hands in her lap. It seemed that perhaps his smirk hadn't been enough to fully distract her. "You would tell me if you were upset, right? I know Lana was an old friend of sis' and I imagine something like tonight probably stirred up some old feelings-" she trailed, looking to him as she expected him to fill in some of the blanks there. He said nothing though, giving her that silent stare that had pressured more people into answering their own questions simply because the mask of metal and lights was more intimidating than people liked to let on.

"I'm just meaning, if you start thinking of sis because of what happened tonight, you know you can talk to me, right?"

"Kitten," his voice was gentle but firm. He was touched by her concern but there was no way he could confess what was really running through his mind "I tried to move heaven and earth for Mia, I acted out because of the news I got about her that I thought I was unjust, but tonight I am fine. If anything you should be more concerned the fact that you didn't get Pearl an autograph from her favorite band."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Diego watched as a mischievous grin crossed Maya's face, knowing from the look alone she had done something perhaps she shouldn't have.

"That expression makes me worry that I need to talk to Trite about getting you a plea deal."

"Oh come on, do you really think Klavier will really be upset that I took the napkins that he and the guys used tonight?"

"Ha!" his chuckle echoed through the mostly filled taxi, a smirk crossing his lips as he imagined Edgeworth counting his cloth napkins later and realizing some were missing. A silent justice for the man that he thought did not have the sensitivity for a woman like Lana who liked to harbor too many feelings inside and needed someone to pester them out of her.

"Actually, I think I'll keep your secret."

"You better, or I'm putting sugar in your coffee when you don't expect it." Maya continued to tease, the air in the bus lightening between them.

...

Diego had spent the rest of the ride back to the village keeping Maya company to hide his own troubling thoughts. He tried to not think about things until he got back to his room and slid the door into place. There was a switch just inside but he didn't even bother to flip it on as he was blind with or without the light. He just kicked off his shoes at the door and looked across the reasonably spaced quarters he had been given. It was simply furnished with a bed, desk and some other pieces, but nothing too fancy. The girls had tried to give him Mia's old room which was much nicer, but he had turned that down quickly as he didn't want the constant reminder. It was just nice to be in a house with people he knew cared for him.

As much as he didn't like to admit it he was screwed up pretty bad for the rest of his life. Nerves, organs, even pigmentation had been messed with from either the poison or just being comatose as long as he had. He knew the doctors had said it was a miracle he had pulled through at all, but he liked to believe it was just stubbornness on his side given how soon he had woken up after Mia's death and how the news had just consumed him as he went through rehabilitation. He was a broken man who was still capable of taking care of himself, but he had to admit having the Fey girls around helped him out on the mental side of things.

He walked across the red bathed room to the dresser that had been left in the room for him. He rifled through a few of the drawers before he found the one he had been looking for and pulled out an album. It was a fairly thick collection of photos and letters. He lowered himself on the floor, using the large piece of furniture as a back rest as he propped up the book in his lap and began to page through it.

The first few pages were filled with his college days. He paused on the first dozen or so pages, looking at the photos that were there. This had been how he had met Jake and Lana both. They had all gone to the same collage to start in their own careers though they had all started at separate times. He remembered how much Jake got under his skin at the start with his laid back behavior, but with time the two had became friends. There was no photos of that time as the photos had only really came into being because Lana came into their lives about a year later and had turned him from the hot shot in class to the laughing stock getting shown up by the freshman. He had been so frustrated at the time and yet looking back at those days he couldn't help but smile now.

His fingers ran over the surface of the photo, stroking Lana's cheek where she was chewing out him over something with Jake's finger covering the bottom half of the lense as the guy had always been such a hopeless case with technology.

He turned a few more pages, his eyes lingering on the photos that held Lana in them. Closing his eyes and leaning his head back he could practically go back to those days.

|January 10th 2007|

|Collage Campus|

|10:43 am|

"Come on Kitten, just give me a chance!" Diego laughed as he tried once more to put his arms around Lana. He had been chasing her all around campus since they had gotten back from the break, and each time he tried to hold her she lingered in his hold a little longer. The two of them had been flirting in and out of class all of last semester, and even over the holiday he and her had been texting non-stop. He had even stepped out of the house a few nights for some lengthy conversations with her on the phone. He knew their conversations were far past friends at this point, he just had to prove it to her now that he was serious. He had never felt this way about a girl and he wanted to try something new, he wanted to date.

"I'm not giving you that satisfaction, you lothario." Lana argued, though as he pulled her close she didn't make any moves this time to push him away. It was as he thought, she wanted persistence, for him to show he was putting forth an effort to engage her.

"What do I have to do to prove to you that I'm serious about you, Lana?"

Perhaps it was the rare moment that he had used her name, but his words made her stop and look into his eyes. The way she looked at him pierced him deeper than any argument they had in class and he had found himself dreaming about her. He had gone through the pictures in the photo album she had made for him as a Christmas present over and over and falling asleep with her photo laying beside him every night. He had fallen for her and he wanted this chance now to prove himself to her.

"Diego, are you serious? Why do you want to date me?"

"Do you really have to ask that, Lana?" He brushed her loose hair behind her ears, his nose leaning in closer to hers. "You've been all I've been thinking about these past few months, and over the break it was you I talked to the most over my family. This is an all new feeling for me, and I'm not going to screw up this chance. So please, Lana? Let's make this official."

"There is nothing to make official," Lana turned her head away, denying him the kiss he had been seeking, but she still didn't pull from his arms. Her feistiness couldn't help but put a smirk on his face.

"You don't sit on the phone talking to someone until the early hours of the morning unless there's something there, Lana. You feel something for me to." He paused for a moment, taking her silence as a yes before gently stroking her jawline with his pointer finger and thumb until she looked into his eyes again. He could see it in her eyes, she knew he was right, she felt a lot of the same things that he did, but there was something else in there.

"I'm scared too, Lana," he assured her softly, his finger stroking her lips as he pressed his brow to hers before inhaling sharply. "I have never done this before aside from the one time prom date thing that never even lasted the night. I'm asking for a serious committed relationship. I want to share that with you.

"Diego-" Lana's voice trailed off, showing less resistance than it had all morning.

Reading the look in her voice and how her lips gently pressed against his fingers he leaned in and kissed her as if they were silently sealing a deal

...

Diego felt the hot tear slide down his cheek which he wiped away. Why had he needed to see this? Why had Lana's engagement announcement bugged him this strongly?

No, it hadn't been the announcement, he had felt happy for her at that time. It had been that rock star prosecutor that had caught his attention. He remembered following Klavier outside after catching how he looked at Ema, that was when it had first hit him.

Perhaps he had been projecting some of his old feelings on the young prosecutor, after all he had watched Lana from afar for years after they had broken up. At least Klavier had a chance still. They were both still young and healthy, neither of them in a seriously committed relationship just yet (though he did know Ema was dating someone else currently). If that fop was really as crazy for her as he thought he was, then he could make it all work out and claim her for himself, and not make the same stupid mistakes he had made.

Wiping away the stray tear he looked back at the album and turned the page again to a photo of him holding Lana in his arms a kiss pressed to her brow. Lana had her eyes closed but you could see such a look of peace over her face. She had trusted him and he knew even back then how much he had screwed up.

He realized now why it had struck him tonight. It had been a perfect storm brewing. Lana's announcement and seeing that look on Klavier's face when he watched out Deston looked at Ema. He understood all too well, he had looked the same way when Lana had joined him in law school and yet wanted nothing to do with him romantically at that point.

He hadn't thought about those days since he had woken from his coma, his thoughts had been with Mia all those years. He had finally put that past behind him when he had found closure after HS-9, the case where Iris Hawthorn had nearly gone to jail because of him and his trial that followed afterwards shortly after.

The chapter in his life with Lana should have been long past him now as Mia was, but for some reason it felt like that wound had never properly healed and had just ruptured from the shock of tonight.

No, there was something off with this marriage announcement, something he couldn't quite accept. Lana was a good woman, but he knew her too well, she was a woman who bottle things up and kept it locked inside of her, and Ruffles- well he was a good guy but wrong for her. What he knew of the prosecutor was that he didn't know how to press when it came to emotions as from what he could tell he was quite good at suppressing his own.

He cared for Lana, she was an old friend of his, and he needed to bandage this old wound within himself by insuring she was properly taken care of. He needed to make sure Edgeworth was the right fit for her so he could rest easy knowing she was in the right hands.

Stripping off his binding clothing he got himself ready for bed, the simple futon that the acolytes here at the temple slept on when in training. It was hard on his back but he had refused the girls when they had tried to offer him something else as this was enough for him given they were already giving him a room here.

After blindly plugging in his visor to charge for the night he crawled into bed with one hand on the photo album that he had laid beside him, falling asleep with the photos as he had once done what felt like a lifetime ago.