Hello, all!
This first chapter is cheesy, I know. But bear with me-- I think you'll like the upcoming chapters.
This is told from Phoenix's POV... obviously.
Had it been another day, I might've looked the other way, and I'd have never been aware-- but as it is, I'll dream of her tonight...
Being in love with your best friend is terrifying.
I'm not sure what it was that intensified my feelings for Maya Fey that night.
Maybe it was the dim lighting in that fancy restaurant we went to, or that sparkling black mini-dress she had gotten specifically to wear to that restaurant-- well, more specifically, the way she looked in it. It could've been the poised way in which she carried herself that night (after all, it was her twentieth birthday). Or maybe it was the playful way she somehow got me to chase her through a rainstorm...
The reason is irrelevant. As soon as Maya stepped out her bedroom door and exclaimed, "I'm ready to go, Nick!", I knew it would be the night that I'd finally get the chance to tell her what I'd been dying to for months: the small, insignificant fact that I was in love with her.
It all started when I was sitting across from her at that small, daintily-decorated table, in the corner of some Italian bistro that Pearls had made reservations at-- of course, she'd only reserved two seats. From the moment I sat down, I was sweating bullets-- wondering, with the passing of every minute, when the time would be right.
"This place is pretty nice, huh? Pearls did a good job picking out a restaurant," I made small talk as I looked through the menu. Somewhat discreetly under the table, I felt for the box I'd put under my chair, making sure nothing had happened to it. It was a present for Maya that I was dying to give her.
"She sure did," Maya replied. "This place is so cute! And romantic..."
"Hah, yeah."
"Aw, Nick! Look around. This place is full of lovey-dovey couples. I feel left out."
"And?" I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "You're not suggesting we--"
"I am."
Objection...?
Maya took on this flirtatious persona as she grabbed my hand from across the table. My heart melted as I felt her tiny fingers inbetween mine. My heart had a way of making me feel overwhelmingly lovesick-- especially when Maya held my hand. It was the only time that I ever felt completely secure. "It was awfully sweet of you to take me out to such a romantic place, Nick."
Although my face was turning a shade of embarrassed pink (I had become very familiar with this shade lately), I played along. She'd only start yelling at me if I didn't. "Well... my dear deserves the very best, doesn't she? After all, she turns twenty tonight."
Maya smirked, "You're perfect, darling."
"As are you. And might I add that you look simply stunning, my love."
After realizing that I'd just referred to Maya as 'my love', I grimaced and pulled my hand from the center of the table, covering my face with the menu.
Maya lowered the menu to the table with her index finger. After uncovering my face, she laughed, "Turn around. Look at the reaction we're getting, Nick!"
I turned around. A man, who looked like he was having a miserable time with his date (who was chattering incessantly on her cell phone), glared over at us, envious of our seemingly-perfect relationship.
"That's so awkward. He's staring at us," I muttered, turning to face Maya again.
"That's so FUNNY," she cackled before the waiter walked over to our table.
The guy spoke somewhat-snobbishly, as he told us his name and asked us what we would be ordering.
Assuming her flirty alter-ego again, Maya cooed, "Why don't you order something for us to share, Nick?"
"...Uh, of course, dear." I looked up, and said, "We'll be having the chicken fettuccine alfredo tonight, please."
The waiter walked away without a word.
"It's kinda cute when you call me pet names, Nick!" Maya exclaimed softly after a minute of silence. "Your face gets all red, but you say it with such a smile!"
My mind was screaming at me. I couldn't even hear Maya over my brain's obnoxious chatter...
"Yeah, well, I've been waiting to call you my love for some time now, Maya..." Just say it, Phoenix! Stop being such a wimp!
I felt my face turning red again. "Yeah... well... if we practice long enough, maybe I won't blush when I call you my... hm, angel?"
Wimp.
"Pfft. Angel? Now that's kinda cheesy... But if it comes from your heart, my dear Nick, I guess it'll do."
She thought I was just kidding around. I wish I could say I was. I changed the subject before she could say anything else. "Speaking of cheesy... are you ready to open your present?"
"YES! Aww, Nick!" Maya cheered as I took out the box from under the table.
My stomach turned as she ripped off the wrapping paper, revealing a plain-looking box. She ripped that open, as well... to find a big book.
"What is it...?" Maya asked.
"Look inside!"
I'd made her a scrapbook.
The first five pages of a scrapbook, actually-- five pages on which I'd spent the entire previous night working. I'd put little frames around the pictures of us, captions... the whole deal. I felt embarrassed at my work as Maya marveled.
"This is... oh my gosh, Nick!" She looked up at me affectionately. "You spent all that time working on this... for me...?"
I answered, as my face turned a deeper shade of red, "Yeah... and, you know, it's not finished."
"It's not?"
"Of course not... I was thinking, as we spend more time with each other in the future, that we could finish it... together?"
"NICK!"
"I mean, um, only if you want to."
"Are you kidding?" Maya grinned. "Of course I want to! Wow, this is the sweetest thing anybody's done for me..."
Time to lay it all on the line!
After a while, I responded, "Well, we're best friends, right?"
Or not.
Unfortunately, that's all we were at the time-- friends.
The rest of dinner wasn't worth mentioning. I was dazed the entire time, ripping myself apart for being so afraid to tell her how I felt.
In my mind, the scene played out perfectly: she'd say something about how nice the night was, and I'd smile at her knowingly, before suavely professing my undying love for her.
... That would never happen. In reality, things would go as ungracefully as they possible could. I imagined the scene-- I'd choke on a piece of chicken sometime during dinner, and while the waiter was giving me the Heimlich, I would clumsily cough up an "I love you" before I passed out. Upon regaining consciousness, I'd see Maya standing over me, laughing.
I shuddered at the thought of something that embarrassing happening, and shuddered again when I realized that, with my luck, it was entirely possible.
The food was mediocre for its price, but we laughed about it (as we always did) and poked fun at our pretentious waiter. It was already ten o'clock, and, assuming my role as Maya's Romeo-esque lover, I took her hand delicately as we left the place.
It was pouring outside, much to my dismay. I'd never seen rain come down so fast.
Maya didn't even notice. She handed me the scrapbook for safe-keeping, and jumped onto the sidewalk and into the rain like a little girl. Her clothes and hair were already completely soaked after only a minute.
"Come on, Nick! Just cover my book with your jacket-- this rain is too great to miss!" Maya coaxed me to leave the shelter of the restaurant's doorway. As she said this, a car passed by... splashing her legs with muddy water. Even she was a little disgusted by this.
"There's no way I'm leaving this spot," I stated, my feet planted firmly in the restaurant's entrance.
"Fine," she yelled. "I'll just run home!"
With that, she sprinted off. Not having a choice but to chase after her, I rolled my eyes and prepared for the inevitable tidal wave that would hit me as soon as I stepped out the door.
At this rate, I was never going to be able to tell Maya what I'd been dying to tell her all night.
Hey, this isn't so bad--
As soon as this thought entered my brain, a crash of thunder and a sudden burst of intense rain poured down over my head.
I tried to catch up to Maya, bumping into every person and every thing possible as I did so. If I remember correctly, I might've flipped over a trash can. I wiped the rain from my eyes as I ran. When it comes to chasing someone as fast as Maya, one must be completely ruthless.
I managed to catch up to her as she waited for a cab. I snuck up behind her and, inconspicuously closing in on her from behind, whispered, "Maya?"
She screamed and jumped a foot in the air. She held out her hand as if to strike me. I yelled, terrified. Finally, she realized I was the one who had whispered in her ear, and we both sighed in relief. "Oh, Nick! You scared me..."
Without pause, Maya wrapped her arms around my waist. I said, "You know, one of these days, I'm not gonna come chasing after you. What'll you do then?"
"I don't think I have to worry about that. Nick, you've been chasing me around since the first day we met!" Maya joked back. I laughed, quietly acknowledging her completely-accurate statement. "But I don't mind. I'm glad you care enough to chase me."
I hailed a passing taxi, and told the man driving it to take us home. He was a little reluctant to let us in his back seat since we were so wet, but Maya hopped in before he could protest much.
We drove home in silence. I looked out the window, while Maya grabbed her scrapbook from me and looked through the pictures once again. I occasionally glanced over at her, and let overly-romantic thoughts enter my head. A bump in the road, or our taxi driver honking at another car, would bring me back to reality, though, and I looked away before she could notice me gawking at her.
It's now or never, Phoenix.
"What?" I asked myself aloud. I covered my mouth after I realized I'd just spoken. Maya looked up from the pages of her scrapbook and gave me a worried look, then slowly returned back to what she was looking at.
Tell her before it's too late!
"Maya," I spoke softly, placing my hand on her arm to get her attention. This was it-- the moment I'd long been waiting for. "I have something to tell you..."
"What is it?"
"Well, I've been thinking. And, I... I can't let this night pass without telling you that, umm--" I inhaled, wondering if then-- inside the taxi --was the best place to say it. What if she responded negatively? "Sorry... I'll tell you once we get back home."
"DAMN IT!" The taxi driver spat as he honked at a guy who cut him off. The car swerved dangerously close to a tree along the sidewalk. Maya screamed as she jerked towards me, grabbing onto my shirt for dear life. I clenched the side of the seat with as much force as I could, and prayed that I wouldn't go flying through the front window. The guy swerved back onto the road, and after a moment, said nonchalantly, "Sorry 'bout that."
"So you couldn't let the night pass without telling me that...?" Maya begged for me to finish what I started saying.
But I couldn't bring myself to say anything.
Nice one. I thought you were a man! This is the night, Phoenix!
I stopped myself from saying anything out loud.
What a strange mood I was in.
We arrived back to the apartment complex, and I opened the cab door for Maya. She took my hand, and didn't let it go until we reached the steps leading to our apartment door. My heart melted for the second time that night.
She shook her hair out before she stepped inside. She flung water into my eyes, but I didn't complain.
"Go in the kitchen-- I'm gonna go get you a towel," I told her.
"Mmkay," Maya responded casually. "I'm making hot chocolate!"
I ran to the bathroom and grabbed Maya's favorite towel-- the one with the Pink Samurai on it. I grabbed a plain blue towel for myself and headed back to the kitchen.
Maya already had two cups of cocoa on the table.
I held out the Pink Samurai towel for her. She ran into me, shivering as I wrapped it around her shoulders. I wrapped the other towel around myself, and we sat down.
"I'm freezing," Maya complained, taking the seat next to me.
"Yeah, I wonder why," I laughed quietly, gulping down the cocoa. "You're gonna be sick tomorrow."
"Oh, well..." Maya seemed preoccupied. "So tell me what you were gonna say in the taxi!"
I froze. Maya looked at me as if I were crazy. I probably was.
"It's... nothing," I mumbled.
"Nothing?" Maya seemed a little disappointed.
"Well, I... please don't laugh."
"Oh, I won't!"
"I, well... I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world." I wanted to slap myself for saying that, and for not saying what I really was going to say...
And it was too late to say anything else. Maya grinned, and hugged me. She pulled out her camera from her purse, which was sitting on the table. "Nick, you are too sweet. We need a picture of this night! Smile big!"
Without time for me to realize what she was doing, Maya leaned into me and kissed me on the cheek. She held out her arm, snapped a picture, and laughed.
"Look at this!" She pointed to the image on the screen. "It's adorable."
I leaned in to see the picture. Our faces were flushed, probably from all that running in the cold. My worried-looking eyebrows and my crooked smile made me look like a scared puppy. I'm horrible at hiding my fear-- when I realized what Maya was doing as she took the picture, my heart started pounding nervously.
"This will be the first picture we paste into the scrapbook," Maya concluded.
"It's a keeper."
Maya yawned, "I'm actually really tired."
"Why don't you go to bed?"
"I guess I will," Maya got up to go to her bedroom. I followed her.
"Hey, I have an idea!" I exclaimed. "I'll cook you breakfast tomorrow... you know, to make up for the crappy food we just had."
Hey, maybe you can squeeze a syrupy "I love you" onto one of the pancakes...
"Sounds good, Nick!" Maya said as she fell onto me for a hug. "This has been a great birthday... my love." She laughed mischeviously.
"Hey, don't make fun of me!" I defended myself, resting my chin on her head.
"I'm not... dearest," Maya replied inbetween yawns.
After a while, I reluctantly broke the hug, and said goodnight.
My least favorite part of every day had, over time, become saying good night-- the phrase only reminded me that another day had gone by without revealing what I really felt for the young woman who slept in the bedroom across from mine. With that thought, I shuffled across the hallway, slammed my bedroom door shut, and plopped down on my less-than-luxurious mattress.
I, Phoenix Wright, always seem to go running head-first into situations I don't know how I'm going to get out of-- in AND out of the courtroom. This situation was no different. I didn't know how I was going to confess to Maya that I'd been harboring feelings for her. But that night, there was this grinding feeling in the pit of my stomach-- like time was running out and I had to do something soon.
The syrup idea was looking pretty good.
I flipped open my cell phone for the hell of it. I was surprised to find out someone had actually left me a message.
"Hey, Mr. Wright! It's me, pal!"
Gumshoe. Dick Gumshoe. Arguably the biggest ignoramus in the police force, but one of the kindest guys I know.
"Hey! Hey! I was wondering if you knew where Mr. Edgeworth was. I don't. I thought you would be with him. Okay, bye, pal!"
I wasn't sure what that was all about.
At the time, I didn't know that what Gumshoe would tell me over the phone the next day would, in many different ways, change the course of my career.
I didn't even bother calling back. I was too busy picking apart every word I said to Maya that night, and vice versa.
Still wrapped in my soaking wet towel, I shivered until I finally fell into a light sleep.