New Year means different things to different people. This is the tale of three very different New Year celebrations with three very different goals, all ultimately ending in the same thing – happiness.

These events take place on New Year's Eve and New Year's day...

Apollo Justice

New Year, means all sorts of different things to people. For me, it's a time to reflect on what I said I would achieve over the course of the year. I root through a box I packed when I left college in the hope I will stumble across the sealed metal lunch box I had when I was a kid. The beaten metal lunch box with the emblem of the Steel Samurai had been in my life since I was a little boy, every year, I would write my goals for the following year on a little slip of paper, date it, seal it in this box then the following year I reflect upon it.

I shuffle through the cards until I find the one I'm looking for. My goals were as follows when I made this last year:

1) Embark on my new law career with Kristoph

2) Make some new friends

3) Get a new apartment

4) Find someone to kiss at midnight on New Year

Well, I had a job with Kristoph...it might have fallen through but I had made an impact on the world of law. So I have achieved this. New friends, heh, lots of them: Klavier, who showed me that law isn't just about choosing a side, he reminded me it is fundamentally about the truth. Trucy, always there to brighten the darkest days, a good light at the end of the tunnel for me. Phoenix: he proved he is still the man he used to be, that the media makes him sound like scum, that you can bounce back from any bad, and then Ema: proof that if you love something so much, it doesn't matter if you don't get paid to do it, you'd do it anyway. A new apartment? Well, I live with the Wrights, so I left my college dorm and moved to a new place, technically that's correct. Find someone to kiss at midnight? Crap! How am I gonna find someone at this short notice?

Phoenix's New Year celebration is a close knit family thing! Where am I going to be able to find a midnight kiss at this time? Crap! Crap! Crap!

"Ah, Apollo." Phoenix stops me as I rush past. "Would you mind going to the store?"

"Uh...no, no. It's fine."

-x-x-

I keep watch of the clock all day. As eight o'clock in the evening draws near, I give up. There will be no New Year kiss for me, that much is clear. I sigh heavily and return to the apartment. The room I left, looks nothing like the one I return to. There are bright balloons and party food everywhere. There are new people too, one I recognise as Miles Edgeworth, the demon prosecutor, whose name was more feared today than in the time Phoenix was a lawyer. There is a blue haired woman carrying a long whip, similar to the one Indiana Jones would carry, I've met her before as well – she is Miss Von Karma, a girl I mistook as some kind of dominatrix when we met, and I was promptly punished by having the crap whipped out of me. There's a strange man dressed in a leather jacket whose hair looks to be styled to be akin to wolf ears, I've never met him before. In the far corner I also recognise the tall, slim figure wearing a red scarf – that is Lana Skye, a close acquaintance of Phoenix, and of course, Ema's sister. Then I spot Ema, at first I didn't believe it was her – I never saw her without her lab coat and rose glasses but I knew it was her.

There are other people as well. One by one, they are introduced to me by Phoenix. Last to be introduced is Wolf-man, he limps towards me in a rather peculiar way. He introduces himself as Shi-Long Lang, a member of Interpol who was invited here by Edgeworth.

"Um...can I ask why you're limping?" I whisper.

"Haha, I was fine. Until I took an arrow to the knee." I chuckle a little. A reference I've heard a lot recently. "I'm playing, I took a bullet. Protecting my pack."

"Alright."

I return to my room briefly. It was then I realise the fatal mistake I had made. I had left the card about my New Year plans out on the bed. It was no longer there. What an idiot...damn it!

-x-x-

"Hey Polly, I know you wanted a New Year kiss. I might not be what you wanted but..." Trucy sits beside me on the sofa as the night draws to a close. She kisses me lightly on the cheek. "Here's to a good New Year, ok?"

"Haha, thank you Trucy." I blush a little.

"Trucy. If you're going to do that, do it properly." The voice behind me giggles.

I feel my head pulled back roughly. As the chimes of the celebration toll midnight I feel someone's lips on my own.

"Happy New Year Apollo." Ema winks at me as she pulls away.

One midnight new year kiss, hell yeah!

Phoenix Wright

I've had every kind of New Year. I've had the drunken nights which you share with strangers and friends alike, and somehow wake up in either your best female friend's bed, or a complete stranger is in yours. I've had the dark depressing New Year where you feel you won't make another year of life. Now I get the family ones, ones to share with Trucy, one to share with Apollo, with the man I consider my brother – Edgeworth. As well as the people who have proved to be invaluable friends along the way.

"Ah, Apollo." I stop him as he rushes past. "Would you mind going to the store?"

"Uh...no, no. It's fine."

With Apollo gone and Trucy still in bed, I set to work on the apartment.

-x-x-

It was about midday when I began to furiously tear apart the apartment looking for the pump to inflate the balloons I had purchased. As I begin to tug on the drawers in my room in the hope that a pump will be hidden amongst all my clothes I had yet to throw away I stumble across a black book.

I blow the dust away from it, inside is the final gift from Edgeworth. Just after I lost my job and was disbarred, I was disowned by many of the people I considered my friends. That included him. This was the last gift he gave to me before he left to Germany along with Franziska and Shi-Long Lang. I had once thought of throwing it into the fire, removing all evidence of my past life and starting anew.

The first few pages were of things Edgeworth had kept from the brief time we were friends as kids. To my surprise, there were pictures of us doing things like playing football, hanging out with each other, being...normal. Further on are newspaper articles on me and him, the court cases we fought so hard to win, the ones I faced against Franny and Godot. Then, at the very back was something very special, it was the picture of when I got Edgeworth free. Then below, was the picture of Edgeworth defending me when we were kids and I was accused of stealing money during the p.e. lesson.

It brings a smile to my face. It prompts me into thinking about what has been on my mind for a while. I soon snap out of it, track down that elusive pump and begin to pump balloons. It is strangely therapeutic.

-x-x-

Edgeworth arrives first, just like I asked him to. Trucy was busy locked in the bathroom, trying on outfits for tonight, Apollo still out lord-knows where.

"Wright, what's this?" Edgeworth asks as he scoops the book from the coffee table.

"The book you threw at me before you turned your back on me." I hadn't meant for it to sound harsh, but that was what had happened. I pour Edgeworth his wine and we sit.

It's silent.

Not the sort of silent that's awkward. The sort where we have a mutual understanding on something.

"Is New Year really the time to discuss what happened that day?"

"I'm not trying to discuss what happened when you gave me that book." I sighed heavily and rub the bridge of my nose.

"So what are you trying to do?"

"To restore my honour."

"What?" Edgeworth coughed and spluttered, spitting the fine red wine into his glass.

"I need to know you're at my side when I say this..."

"Wright you idiot." Edgeworth smirks with that all-knowing smile. "I never stopped being by your side, no matter what had happened. Now spit it out man."

"I'm going to re-take the bar exam."

"Ha, Wright, I'm proud of you."

"Was that...Edgeworth being nice and supportive?" I smirked.

"It's called being a good friend Wright, try it some time." I chuckle, pick up the cheaply labelled brown beer bottle and clink it on the side of his wine glass.

"Do me a favour Edgeworth." I watch as Trucy rushes across to her room. "Don't tell anyone. Not yet, I don't want them to know."

-x-x-

As the chimes toll midnight for me, I watch the kiss that Apollo and Ema share. I glance across at Edgeworth, who smiles a genuine smile, like I remember as a kid and raises his glass. This New Year wasn't about love, like it was for Apollo, nor was it about family as such, it was about good friends, and the joy and support they bring.

Klavier Gavin

Been invited to plenty of parties, declined them all. This year, I am not my normal self. I don't want to go and get blind drunk with my so called 'friends', those name droppers and B-grade celebrities.

I wanted that year to end, but at the same time I didn't. I wanted to begin anew, forget all that I have endured that last year, yet at the same time I wanted to cling to the memory of my brother, of Daryan, of the band and of the tours we shared, the laughs and the fun. The only thing that was good for me in that moment was a cold, refreshing, shower to drag myself up from the depths.

I couldn't help but cast my mind back to the New Year party where I met Daryan. I got myself involved in some pretty hardcore parties in my late teens. When I was eighteen I went to a party at my then girlfriend's house, I'm no angel. I loved to drink, I'd partaken in some drugs, I'd had my fun with the girls. This night, I'd taken ecstasy, I was a little...hyper. I loved the effects of Hallucinogens, I loved the fact I didn't need to sleep, I loved the raving. That night, something had gone a little wrong, I was feeling violently sick, it was Daryan who took care of me. It was after then that we struck a good frienship, and well, now, he's gone.

I look at the table before me. This was a true reflection of what my life had become this last year – there were various pictures of my family, of my band, of my friends, of the ghosts that once were. I look down at the wooden box by my feet, I pull out one of the bottles. I crack open the bottle cap on the edge of the table.

"Glückliches neues Jahr" I tip the glass towards the picture. I take a swig. "Yeah, happy New Year to you all." I glance at the clock, eight, only a few more hours.

It's about nine when I'm roused from my pleasant drinking session. The knock is insistent. I grumbled and rolled myself off the end of my couch.

"I'm coming!" I throw the bottle down onto the table.

I slam my front door open. I look straight ahead of me, there's nothing there. I sighed, and reach to shut the door.

"Mien Bruder! What are you doing!" The girlish voice cried.

"Huh?" I glanced down.

There before me was a girl I hadn't seen since I was seventeen and she was merely five. The girl stood before me, sneezing and sniffling in the cold, was my sister, my baby sister, Alex.

"A-Alexis? Why are you here!" I pull her indoors.

"I was worried for you, I came here all the way from Germany!" When I last saw her, I was seventeen and she was five. I'm now twenty four, so she'd be twelve now!

"How did you get here?" I asked shocked.

"I took a plane here, I saved up just enough money for the flight and the taxi."

"You took a cab here!" I knelt down and wrapped my arms around her. I wrapped my arms tighter around her than I should.

"You're hurting me Klavi!"

"Sorry, it's just, thank god you're safe!"

I ushered her into my house. I push her towards my living room, suddenly remembering the shrine I had built to my brother and incarcerated friend.

"Sit here." I rushed up the stairs to grab a duvet and things to keep her warm.

When I rushed downstairs she had gone into the living room. She was staring at the picture of me and Kristoph together, after I graduated law school.

"We all miss him big brother." She sneezed. "That's why I came to see you, to check you were ok."

"I'm fine." I assured her, even though I knew I was lying.

"Then why do you look so sad?" She asked as I pulled the duvet over her.

"I love them, I miss them."

-x-x-

As the night drew on, she and I just sat and talked. At ten thirty, she glanced over to the half empty beer bottle I had been drinking from.

"May I have some?" She asked.

"You're twelve. So no."

"It's not like you weren't drinking when you were twelve!" She yelled.

"Ah, touché sure have a sip."

"Thanks." She took a tiny sip then curled up in the duvet.

"Are ma and pa aware you're here?"

"Nien." She shook her head. "I didn't want them to stop me."

"We'll call them in the morning."

When the clock struck midnight, I realised that I hadn't thought of Kristoph or Daryan since Alex had arrived at my door. She was fast asleep, curled up in my duvet with her head against my chest. I smile, lean over her and kiss her cheek lightly.

"Happy New Year." I smile as I scoot from beneath her and carry her petite frame up the stairs towards my room to let her rest.

I sit back down on my couch. I gulp down the remainder of my beer. My sister had inadvertently restored my faith in my family. It was then I realised I'd wasted all my previous New Years, all I need is family.

"Happy New Year Alex, Happy New Year ma and pa." I pick up the pictures I had been staring at and throw them into the fire.

New Year, New life.