Notes – Written for joshuaorrizonte for the January 2011 round at gyaku_flash. Set at least a year post-AJ. I'm not sure why I went for the Phoenix/Pearl option when Phoenix/Apollo is one of my favourite pairings to write, but this idea just came to mind straight away and I wanted to go with it.

One of the constants that Apollo found himself faced with after working for the Wright Talent Agency for several months was that Phoenix Wright knew a lot of people.

He was the sort of guy who you could walk down the street with and he'd always meet someone who'd want to say hello to him and after they'd left he would say 'that was so-and-so from the grocers' or something to that effect. You never really questioned how he knew so many people, he just did. Maybe it came with being a lawyer.

Among the people he knew a lot of them were, well, a bit weird. Apollo was certain that aspect did come with being a lawyer, after having met a fair few strange individuals himself.

One such person was the seemingly inoffensive Pearl Fey.

When Pearl first turned up at the office she looked like a very kind, friendly young lady. Probably the sort of person who Trucy would hang around with. Everything about her just came across as so nice. When Phoenix introduced her as the cousin of his friend Maya she smiled and said she was pleased to meet him.

Then her attention was drawn back to Phoenix.

"Mr. Nick, I wanted to bring you these from Mystic Maya," she said, taking out a batch of cupcakes with inexpertly but lovingly applied icing, "When I say from her she didn't actually make them herself, she's very busy with her work as the master you see, but I made them on her behalf and brought them to you from her."

"Thanks Pearls," Phoenix replied, eyes lighting up at the sight of food and taking one from the top, "I really appreciate them and you can tell Maya the same."

"You must be pretty good at baking," Apollo agreed, reaching over to take one.

His hand was quickly slapped away by Pearl.

"Those are to Mr. Nick from Mystic Maya. With love. You aren't allowed them," she said, eyes narrowing harshly.

For the rest of the day Apollo tried his best to stay out of the way of Phoenix and Pearl, certainly not daring to touch any cupcakes.

After she'd left he asked Phoenix, "So what's up with you and that Maya girl she talked about? You never mentioned having a girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," Phoenix answered casually; "You probably know already that she worked as my assistant on most of my old cases. Pearls worked with us a lot too and really got it into her head that Maya and me are a couple. She comes here every now and then, you'd be best not to touch anything she gives me on Maya's behalf."

Over the next year Pearl became a semi-regular face in the office and Apollo was never surprised to see her coming in with her usually edible gifts for Phoenix. Outside of that first encounter she was easy enough to get along with.

There was one such time that things went differently from usual, however.

It was Trucy who had answered the phone and after a brief conversation with someone hung up and made her excuses to leave. She advised Apollo that he should do the same, but he had too much paperwork to catch up on to leave it all for a whole day.

A while after she'd left there was a loud knock on the door and Phoenix yelled for Apollo to get it. No change from usual there. He opened the door and was faced with a very cheerful, very purple young girl.

"Hi!" she called, "You must be that Apollo guy. Is Nick there? I came all this way to see him."

With that she had rushed past him and over to Phoenix on the sofa, both of them chatting like old friends. Which he soon found out that they were.

"She's so wonderful, isn't she?" came another voice from the door. He started and looked back to where Pearl was standing, looking at the other two, "This is Mystic Maya, she's finally had time to come and visit Mr. Nick."

"That's nice," he mumbled, "I guess this'll be what you wanted for them."

"Y-yes," she stammered, enough for his perceive abilities to pick up something off about her.

From the other side of the room, Maya said, "Oh yeah, Pearly made these for you."

She pulled out a tray of cherry bakewells.

"I'm no stranger to her presents from you," Phoenix said, smiling and taking hold of them.

Looking confused, Maya replied, "But I didn't make them, Pearly did."

"On your behalf though," he added.

Shaking her head, Maya said, "She really said that? I thought she'd got over that idea years ago."

There was the sound of hurried footsteps and by the time Apollo looked back across at Pearl for the second time she was no longer there. He made to go after her but Phoenix called him off.

"You stay here, Apollo, I'll go talk to her," Phoenix said, heaving himself off the sofa and heading out to leave Apollo with a girl he barely knew.

It didn't take him long to locate her; Pearl had never really learned her way around the city that well for all the times she had visited it and had taken to a seat in the People's Park. She sat hunched over as Phoenix joined her.

"I really messed it up for you back there, huh?" he said, glancing across at her from under his beanie.

She shook her head violently in response.

"It's okay to be upset," he went on, "I honestly thought that Maya knew you were making those things for me from her. Or else I wouldn't have said anything. But it makes me wonder why you didn't tell her. You were always very… forward in letting her know how you felt about the two of us."

She bit back tears. Why did he have to ask something like that?

When the silence went on Phoenix sighed and said, "I never really wanted to ruin your dream but there's just nothing between Maya and myself like that. Some people are just meant to be friends."

"I… I know th-there's nothing between you," she sobbed, staring straight ahead, "To be honest… I've k-known that for years."

"Then why do you still try to set us up?" he asked, "You're a young adult now, you could be out there focusing on your own life instead of Maya's."

"But I don't want to focus on anyone else except you and Mystic Maya," Pearl assured quickly.

Phoenix wasn't entirely sure what was going on with her, but he said, "If you really want to, you can keep bringing me gifts. I don't mind."

She looked over at him for the first time, eyes red from crying.

"But won't that be a bit weird?" she asked.

"No, not really," he said, waving off the notion, "If it makes you feel better saying they're from Maya then you can say that, but I don't mind getting presents from you too."

She felt her cheeks flush in a way that had nothing to do with the crying and nodded. Mr. Nick could be so kind, no wonder she- …no wonder Mystic Maya liked him so much.

Stretching, Phoenix yawned and commented, "We should really get back now, Apollo's no good at making small talk so we wouldn't want to leave Maya with him too long."

She giggled a little, wondering which of the two to feel sorry for more and pulled herself up from the seat. It was at that moment she realized exactly how much taller she'd gotten over the years – she didn't have to look up at Phoenix nearly as much as she used to in order to meet his eyes.

The two of them returned to the office in much better spirits, as if nothing had happened at all.

The next time Pearl came to visit she was on her own again. And this time she told Apollo that he could have one of the cookies she'd made.

"I made these ones myself, as Mystic Maya is very busy right now, so since they're from me you're allowed one too," Pearl told him, "So is Trucy and anyone else, but just remember that they're mostly for Mr. Nick."

"Wouldn't dream of forgetting," Apollo replied, chewing away on the cookie with a little picture of the Steel Samurai on quite happily.

From that day onwards Apollo noticed a change in the visits from Pearl. They were still just as frequent but there was a lot less mentioning of Phoenix's relationship with Maya and she seemed generally less touchy about other people being around Phoenix. Marginally so, anyway. She still got a bit protective if a girl who wasn't Trucy was mentioned as having been around him.

Apollo had asked Phoenix if he knew what had caused the change but as usual he just laughed the question off and wasn't very forthcoming with information.

"Maybe when you're older you'll understand girls," Phoenix said, "But then you're getting old already, so maybe you'll never understand them."

"Mr. Wright!" Apollo said, offended.

"I kid, Apollo, I kid," he said, patting his shoulder, "Pearls just realized that sometimes it's better to do things for yourself then for other people."

"So… she's bringing the stuff to you, from her?" replied Apollo.

"The thought is equally there," Phoenix cryptically answered, "Plus her baking is a bit better than Maya's anyway. As much as my favourite food group is the burn, crispy bits. Maybe I could convince her to bring some noodles…"

"Noodles are not the sort of food for a young lady to give a man as a gift, Mr. Wright," Apollo scolded.

"And you'd know all about that, would you?" Phoenix teased.

Apollo protested to that and hit Phoenix with the closest available sofa cushion. All that did was make Phoenix fall back laughing.

Kids these days…

Part of Phoenix really didn't mind putting up with their crushes.