A/N: Written for the kink meme! I just needed some more Gumshoe love in the world... :D
Gumshoe's Birthday
Gumshoe woke up to the sound of his alarm clock whining at him, the noise sounded strangled instead of the usual alarm tone. The battery must have been running out. He got out of bed, shivered when he noticed how cold it was with no heating, and got changed, shrugging on his oversized green trench coat.
He plodded down the stairs, the wooden steps creaking as he walked, and he looked blearily at the beige wallpaper that was curling off in the corners. He had wanted to paint it for a while, but he couldn't afford it. Even a splash of colour would have made his house a little less bleak.
Opening the cupboards, he noticed he had four pot noodles left. That would mean... either one for breakfast for the next four days, or three meals today or one tomorrow... or two meals over two days. His stomach rumbled, and he picked up the nearest one, going through the automatic task of making a pot noodle.
Gumshoe didn't like to complain, but as he shivered, looking around his depressing home with a pot noodle for breakfast, and no guarantee of food to last him the whole week, he wondered why he continued his job. He loved it, of course, like he loved to work with Mr. Edgeworth, and everything else – if he could work all day, all day everyday, he probably would. He hated going home.
Still, mornings were good, because it reminded him how much he enjoyed his work, and it was something to get him out of bed in the morning. He hummed to himself with this thought as the microwave beeped, and he pulled out the pot noodle, ripping off the lid and pouring in the soy sauce, stabbing the noodles with a bent fork so they unstuck themselves.
An hour later, and he had driven to work, parking in one of the furthest away spots to the precinct. He wondered if Maggey would smile at him today like she had yesterday, and wished he had taken longer to comb his hair that morning...
"Hey Dick! Hope you have a good one!"
Gumshoe turned to see an officer wave at him, giving him a big smile. Gumshoe replied that 'I will, pal!' not really understanding what he was talking about. He continued to walk towards the precinct doors, nearly dropping his wallet in the process.
"Yow! Look at that! Bam! Sharp reflexes, huh Jim?"
Gumshoe blinked as a guy dressed in pink with a white lab coat slung over his shoulder caught his wallet before it hit the ground. He looked around for someone else who could have been called 'Jim' but didn't see anyone.
"Oh, um, thanks pal!" Gumshoe said hurriedly when the mystery guy stood up and handed him the wallet.
"Don't sweat it. Here." The guy threw him a basket ball, which Gumshoe caught in surprise.
"W-what are you throwing things at me for, pal - "
"Me and you should play a bit of basketball sometime, yeah?" He said, "In celebration! We could have a two on one match! Or a two on two, if your boss doesn't mind. We're next door neighbours, after all."
"But - " Gumshoe said, looking at the basketball then back to the guy. The guy shrugged.
"Just keep it. See it as a gift from me to you." He said, with a smile, throwing on his white jacket, then off, then back on again, "Well, duty calls! See you later, yeah?"
"Uh, sure, OK pal..." Gumshoe mumbled, still not knowing who the guy even was. He walked off, and despite himself, Gumshoe bounced the basketball on the ground with a goofy grin on his face.
He walked into the precinct with the basketball in both of his hands, and as he stepped inside, the place roared at him and confetti blasted out from the ceiling.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DICK!" Everyone yelled, then laughed as a couple of party poppers went off. Gumshoe thought he heard Franziska's whip in the commotion, shouting at a few people to 'get a grip!' and to 'stop acting like complete and utter fools!'
A manly tear leaked from the corner of his right eye, as he used one finger to wipe it away.
"I...I forgot it was my birthday pal..." He said to everyone, and a few laughed while some others shouted out something like, 'Haha, to be expected of Dick! Such a hard worker!'
The officers came up to him with cards, a few gave him crushing man-hugs. Eventually it died down, something that was hurried along by the attacking lash of Franziska's whip.
"Fools! Get back to work!" She ordered, "Someone clean up this mess!" She continued, gesturing to the confetti that was scattered all over the floor and on the desks. A young officer quickly ran off, mostly because he was scared, and Franziska strode over to Gumshoe.
"I don't care if it's your birthday, you're still late." She said with narrowed eyes, "Nevertheless, many happy returns and whatever else it is you Americans say."
"Thank you sir." Gumshoe sniffed. Franziska softened, if it was possible for her to do that, and she grudgingly pulled something out from her bag.
"Here." She said, passing him something small in a plastic wrapper, "I was only going to throw it out anyway."
Gumshoe looked at the object, then his face lit up in pure happiness, "It's a Courthouse Swiss Roll! Sir? A-are you sure I can take this...?"
"I said I was only going to throw it out anyway." She repeated stubbornly, "It's squished, therefore it's not perfect enough for me to eat. Now take it and go away. Miles Edgeworth wants to see you. I believe he wants to discuss the case you two are on at the moment."
"Yessir!" Gumshoe saluted. Franziska shooed him away with an impatient hand gesture, then recalled something.
"Although, you might want to clean up that mess on your desk first. Sometimes Scruffy, I wonder if you ever know how much of a headache that eyesore causes me. I don't even frequent the precinct that much. If you don't sort it by today, I'm burning it."
"W-what my desk as well?" Gumshoe stuttered. Franziska shrugged, then gave him a sly look.
"I would clean it if I were you. Then you don't have to find out."
(Nice one minute, back to her evil self the next...)
Despite Franziska's threat/warning, Gumshoe decided that he would rather go visit Mr. Edgeworth than clean his desk. So he went back into his car, bouncing his basketball on the way. He unlocked the car, put the ball on the passenger seat, and opened up the swiss roll, savouring the taste of one as much as possible.
Mmmm...the chocolate...the cream...it's...it's...
Gumshoe hadn't had chocolate in a while. He closed his eyes as he savoured the taste, then carefully wrapped up the remaining roll to have later. He read through his cards, chuckling to himself at the messages the officers had put, then put them on the seat behind him, pulling out from his parking space and driving towards the prosectuor's office.
"Happy Birthday, Mr. Gumshoe!" Hannah said over the intercom, waving at him from behind her sound proofed booth. Gumshoe waved, with a shy grin, and Hannah wrote something down onto a piece of paper, planning to go unannounced to Mr. Edgeworth's office later, seeing if she could catch them celebrating a bit more intimately.
Gumshoe was blissfully ignorant of this however, he merely waited for the elevator to get to the ground floor, and giving another smile to Hannah, he stepped inside, pressing the button for the twelfth floor. He wondered if Mr. Edgeworth had remembered his birthday, then shook his head.
He probably wouldn't have even noticed. He's someone who probably doesn't even remember his own birthday! Gumshoe inwardly chuckled to himself, forgetting that he had done the same thing earlier on that morning.
With the work load Mr. Edgeworth piled on, Gumshoe quickly forget that today was any different than any other. The first moment of greeting, hoping that he had remembered had rapidly crushed when he merely stated: 'You're late.'
Still, he didn't mind, he didn't expect much different from Mr. Edgeworth. He was that kind of person, he didn't show any kind of emotion outwardly but he felt it inwardly. Gumshoe was sure inwardly he didn't mind that he was late, but then there was the outward side of Edgeworth that sure liked to dock his salary a lot.
"Gumshoe." Miles said, watching as Gumshoe came down from the stepladder after putting away a few files, "What time is it?"
"Uh..." Gumshoe looked at his watch, then realised it was broken and went for his cell phone, "Nearly four?"
"You should really go back and clean up your desk." Miles stated, "It really isn't good if Franziska decides to burn it on your birthday."
"Yeah I know – hey, wait, you remembered?" Gumshoe said, whipping around and looking at him with wide eyes.
"Of course I remembered." Miles said, restraining himself from the urge to roll his eyes, "I've been working with your for my entire career, I think it would behove me to know my subordinate's birthdays."
"I don't know what behove means, but thank you, Mr. Edgeworth!" He said, giving the other man a crushing hug.
"Oo-of!" Miles said, and glared as Hannah suddenly walked through the office, looking at the two and blushing.
"I- um, oh!" She said, looking away. Miles sighed to himself. These tended to be frequent occurrences.
"What is it, Ms. Fright?" He said in a tired tone, pushing the other man off him. Hannah bit her lip.
"N-nothing sir. There was a message from the precinct. It was the chief officer and he asked permission for Gumshoe to come tidy his desk..."
Miles sighed, then gave a slightly amused smile, "You better go. I wouldn't take Franziska's word lightly."
"Ho-ho-ho, don't I know that, Mr. Edgeworth, sir!" Gumshoe chuckled. Hannah quickly said that she would 'leave them to it' (Gumshoe didn't really understand why she said that, he was just about to go anyway), and Miles hesitated before opening his top drawer.
"Gumshoe... before you go, I have this for you." He handed Gumshoe an magenta coloured envelope, "Don't open it until you're out of the office."
"Oh... thank you!" Gumshoe beamed. Miles sighed again, and rubbed his temples.
"You don't even know what it is... but your gratitude is noted."
Gumshoe made to leave, but then remembered something, "Hey, um, you know that prosecutor guy in the room next door? He said we should all play basketball later, and I was wondering..."
"No." Miles said bluntly. Gumshoe's shoulders drooped. Although, if he was honest, he didn't really expect a different answer than that.
As soon as he was out of the office, he ripped open the envelope, and found two slips of paper inside. One was a letter, and the other was what looked like a cheque.
Gumshoe looked at the cheque first, and his eyes bulged as he saw the figures.
"F-five hundred dollars, pal?" He stuttered to himself, and quickly opened up the letter, reading it in shock.
'Gumshoe,
Your salary cuts, while necessary, are not always just. In every case we have done together, we have found the truth, and I find it hard to punish that. Here is a token of my appreciation. Do not mention this to me, or to anyone else, otherwise I will find it even more necessary to cut your salary again. Happy returns on your birthday.
Yours sincerely,
Miles Edgeworth.'
Gumshoe eyes streamed with tears. He had never received a 'thank you' letter from anyone before.
"Hey, Dick you're back!" The chief officer greeted when Gumshoe walked through the main doors, "Clean up that mess of a desk, will ya?"
"Yessir!" Gumshoe said cheerfully, not really understanding what the big fuss was over cleaning his desk. It was always a mess, and cleaning it wouldn't prevent it from reverting back to it's natural disorganised state.
Sighing to himself that cleaning his desk was not going to be the highlight of his birthday, he nearly walked past it, as he didn't recognise it from it's usual mess. He did a double take as he noticed his desk was clean (Huh? Why did everyone tell me to clean it?), but apart from that, a parcel was sitting on top with a birthday tag. He flipped it over and read that it was from 'Maggey' with three kisses.
Gumshoe beamed, and ripped open the parcel, the red wrappings flying everywhere. Inside was a Blue Badger cuddly toy, which was holding a slip of paper in its sewn together hands. He pulled it out, and chuckled to himself.
"A free years supply of instant pot noodles, huh pal?" He said to himself, shaking his head.
"I won it in a competition sir!"
Gumshoe jumped, and turned to see Maggey smiling widely behind him. As he looked at her, she saluted, and Gumshoe reassured her (for the one hundredth time) that she didn't have to do that when they met.
"I, uh, what...?" Gumshoe stumbled, messing up his words and scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"It was the first time I've ever won something, ever!" Maggey said happily, "I thought I would share it with you, sir!"
"I, um, thanks a lot, Maggey!" Gumshoe said, finally finding the words in his mouth, "You don't know how much I appreciate it, I won't ever go hungry again!"
"Still, a diet of pot noodles is pretty unhealthy sir..." Maggey said, looking downcast, "I wasn't sure if it was the best thing, so I..."
"W-what...?" Gumshoe asked. Please don't take it away from me, food is food...
"I thought, maybe we could go out for dinner tonight, or something..." Maggey said, blushing and looking at the floor, "You know, if you wanted..."
"Y-yeah, pal! I really, really want that!" Gumshoe said eagerly. Maggey looked up into his eyes and smiled.
"OK, well, good then, sir!" Maggey said, "And, oh! I forgot to say, happy birthday!"
She beamed, and Gumshoe beamed back. This was definitely turning into the best birthday he ever had.