It was 11 o'clock in the morning on a Thursday in the middle of January. Trucy and Pearl were at school, Apollo and Athena were investigating a new case, and I was stuck in the office doing all of the legal mumbo-jumbo that accompanied said case.
To be honest, I was bored. I wished that I could do more investigating, but as the attorney in our office with the most legal experience, I often got stuck with the boring piles of paperwork that preceded and followed the brief moments of excitement in the courtroom. Back in the day, I'd have Maya to keep me company and distract me while I toiled at the files between cases.
And speak of the devil, Maya came running into the office just then.
"Heya, Nick!" She was all smiles as she bounded through the doorway, not even bothering to knock.
"G'morning, Maya," I replied. I swiveled in my office chair to face her and smiled back at her. "I didn't know you were coming today."
She shrugged and wandered around the office. "Meh, the Elders let me have the rest of the week off, so I decided to come and hang out over here!" She flopped on the couch and grabbed the nearest Steel Samurai DVD from the floor. "You don't mind, do you?"
I turned back to my desk and picked up my pen. "Nah, I don't mind, but I've got a lot of paperwork waiting for me to fill it out."
"That's okay, I'll just wait for you to finish it!"
I sighed. "It's twice the size of a normal pile of paperwork, so I don't think I'm gonna be done anytime soon."
Her head popped up from its place on the sofa. "What? Nick, how'd you get stuck wi-"
"-I've gotta help Athena and Apollo sort out some stuff for their case, and I need to finish this pre-trial motion for a case I'm handling solo."
"Aw, Nick, when'd you become such an old stick-in-the-mud like Edgey who actually LIKES boring old paperwork?"
"I never said I enjoyed paperwork, I said it had to be done. And it does." I could practically hear her rolling her eyes at me. "And besides, I warned you when I got my badge back that there would be more paperwork than poker from now on, didn't I?"
She got up from the couch and shuffled over to my desk. "Ugh, I know... But do you have to do paperwork NOW?!"
"Maya, my trial's tomorrow, and Apollo and Athena are counting on me to get this done."
"Oh, come on! Apollo and Athena can fend for themselves, and you don't need to prepare any pre-trial crap to totally destroy the prosecution in court."
"Once again, my trial's tomorrow-"
"Yeah, and I'm here today. Nick, you need to get your priorities straight.
"My priorities are straight. That's why I'm working on this now."
"Please, Nick? Just a break? We haven't done anything fun together since Christmas. And that was a month ago."
"I shouldn't take a break now, because I've literally just started and-"
"-You can afford to procrastinate a bit! I do it all the time."
"There's no time to procrastinate. It's tomorrow."
"All you have to do is briefly review the facts of the case and talk to your client tomorrow morning before the trial starts. You've gone into trials with less than even that in the past, and you've won almost all of them."
"Yeah, by bluffing."
"Well, that's how you win trials anyway, even if you do prepare for them, right? So it won't matter if you procrastinate on this pre-trial whatchamacallit, right?"
"...You're not going to leave me alone unless you get your way, are you?"
"You know me too, too well."
I sighed in resignation and looked up at her. "Well, Ms. Fey, what do you want to do?"
She thought for a moment, before looking at me mischievously and answering, "Well, we could, y'know, 'mess around'-"
"Really, Maya?" Now it was my turn to roll my eyes at her.
She grinned widely. "Oh, I'm sure the Elders wouldn't mind if I spent the night in the city, and you could tell Polly and Athena that you have a very important meeting going on and to stay out of the office at all costs for the next few hours-"
"Can you at least pretend to be mature enough to make a less suggestive suggestion?"
She crossed her arms. "For your information, Nick, I am being mature. That's what grown-ups do in their free time, isn't it?"
I glared at her. "I think you need more time to get used to being a 'grown up' before you can judge what they're supposed to do with any 'free time'."
She frowned indignantly at me. "Geez, Nick! Have a sense of humor, will you?! If you think I'm so immature, I guess I'll just take my not-grown-up-self out to gorge myself on burgers and see the latest Steel Samurai movie. Without any stuck-up attorneys to accompany me."
I turned back to my paperwork. "Have fun," I said nonchalantly. "I'm gonna finish my pre-trial stuff."
She gave me one last glare before storming out the door. "I WILL!"
I counted the seconds in my head.
One, two, three, four, five, six-
The door creaked open six seconds after it had been slammed shut.
I didn't even have to turn my chair to see who it was. "Yes, Maya?"
"Will you come with me?"
"Miss me, huh?"
She grabbed my chair and swung it around so that I faced her. "Shut up. I just hate walking around the dark and dangerous streets alone."
"It's 11 AM."
"It doesn't matter if it's in the middle of the day, creepers are still creepers and I'd rather have someone with me to fight for me if a creeper comes anywhere near me on the dark and dangerous city streets."
"I'm so flattered to have been promoted from doormat to bodyguard."
"Yeah, you better be. And not just any bodyguard, but the bodyguard of the Master of Kurain!" She paused expectantly. "So... Will you come with me?"
"Let me get my coat."
