AN: Uhh so this is my favorite pairing, ever. I just replayed JFA the other day and I remembered how much I want them to be together, so here's a bit of wishful thinking on my part. I hope you enjoy it! leave a review, please? :D

He couldn't stop looking at her. He was afraid that if he did, he might lose her again, and that terrified Phoenix more than anything else. But despite the mess of a trial Maya and Phoenix had been involved in over the last few days, Maya was being her usual self. Except something was off. Maya was trying a little too hard to act like everything was normal, and it was almost as if she was not only trying to convince Phoenix that she was okay, but herself as well. And now, as he was watching her trying to busy herself around the office, Phoenix had this urge to tell her, "It's okay to cry sometimes." Maya wasn't the only one trying to recover, though. A lack of sleep and huge amounts of stress from the whole Engarde disaster were starting to catch up with him and he'd been plagued with nightmares of experiencing the whole thing all over again, except he couldn't save her this time.

But what bothered Phoenix the most about this whole incident was that he was starting to see Maya...differently. She was his best friend, no doubt about that. But he wanted to keep it like that, and not act on these feelings. Every time he looked at her, he couldn't look away, and then she'd tease him for spacing out like that, and Phoenix would laugh and apologize, blush spreading into his cheeks for an entirely different reason than Maya thought.

"Nick, come on, lying on the couch all day is no way to be productive," Maya chided, sitting on the edge of a cushion.

"Oh?" he looked up at her with a smirk. "And what have you accomplished today, Maya?"

"I'll have you know, I've been cleaning the office," she said confidently, crossing her arms and jokingly turning her nose up at him. She opened one eye at him and he laughed as she giggled in return.

I've missed you so. Phoenix mentally slapped himself. It was things like that. Everything would be perfectly normal and platonic, but all of a sudden a thought like that could make things weird and he'd have this sudden urge to hold her close and he couldn't understand why.

"I hope you know I expect to be paid for my services."

SERVICES?! Phoenix nearly choked until he remembered that he was talking to Maya, and that she was talking about cleaning, but he still couldn't stop himself from coughing.

"What did you have in mind?" he asked, clearing his throat.

"Do you even have to ask, Nick?" she grinned. "Burgers!" Of course.

"Right," he laughed. She smiled down at him and he up at her. You're so beautiful, he wanted to say. But he didn't. However, he couldn't stop himself this time and he reached up, brushing her bangs out of her eyes before he realized what he was doing. It didn't take long for him to process what had happened when Maya blushed furiously, her lips parted in question and he quickly withdrew his hand.

"Ah, sorry." Now he felt his own face turning red. "I just...I missed you." Fantastic, Phoenix. You've made things incredibly awkward. As he sat up, Maya suddenly flung her arms around his neck and he wasn't sure how to react at first.

"I missed you too, Nick. I missed you so much." He could have sworn that her voice trembled, if only briefly. Hesitantly, he returned the embrace, encompassing her in his arms, tightening his hold. He buried his head in her shoulder, inhaling her sweet scent. He'd wanted to hold her like this when she was returned safely, but he'd held back, knowing that it only would have fueled Pearls' belief that they were "special someones". With the thoughts he'd been having lately though, she wasn't all that far off.

Suddenly, he felt her shoulders shaking against him. "M—Maya?"

"I was...I was so scared," she sobbed. "I wasn't scared of dying, I was scared that I wasn't going to see you or Pearly ever again. That was all I could think about when I was in that wine cellar." He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back so that he could look at her.

"Sorry," she sniffled.

"For what?" he cupped her face in his hands, gently wiping away her tears with his thumbs. "You don't always have to put on a brave face, Maya."

"Really?" Phoenix nodded and in that moment decided to take the risk he'd so desperately been avoiding for the past few days.

"N—Nick?" he felt Maya's face heat up as he neared her ever so slowly. But she didn't pull away as their lips brushed. As he went in again, Phoenix felt the small girl relax in his arms, gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly as he caressed her lips with his own. His mind had completely shut down, knowing that if it hadn't, it wouldn't have allowed him to kiss her the way he was now. He slowly tilted his head as she hesitantly returned the kiss. Only now did he remember that she was inexperienced and realized he should take the lead, drawing her closer, pressing his mouth against hers, entangling his fingers in her soft hair. They parted, neither one of them realizing they'd been holding their breath.

"Wow," Maya breathed.

"Yeah," Phoenix chuckled nervously. "Wow."