I'll officially blame this on Silverpony and the review left by Silverpony, but only because I'm angry at myself that it never, ever occurred to me to do something like this as a follow up. So instead of a one-shot, this now has three parts. Rejoice!
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It was awkward, to say the least. Seeing Edgeworth again after all that time, and all the while having Nick's confession in the back of her mind made for hard-to-explain blushing. But whenever she had a moment to herself (though it was hard with everyone fussing over her after her kidnapping), she watched the two of them, and realized Nick was unexpectedly good at hiding his feelings.
And if Nick was that good, then Edgeworth must be better. Maya knew she had to be good to do this. She had little time to prepare; who knew when Edgeworth would run out of the country again? But she had been itching to do this since she had reached out to find Edgeworth's spirit in the afterlife and found nothing. Now or never - that was becoming her personal motto.
Stealing the Magatama again was child's play. She thought Nick might have guarded it better after last time, but she also thought he hoped she was done with it. Not a chance, she thought to herself. It's his fault, she reasoned, for leaving it in the office, and giving Maya a key.
The hard part would be cornering Edgeworth. He had little reason to want to see her, after all, but she convinced Gumshoe to get her to his house. All he had to hear was that it was in Mr. Edgeworth's best interest, and he nearly tripped over himself getting her to him. Nick, I think you have some competition! she thought on the way there, stifling giggles behind her hand as Gumshoe smiled with her absentmindedly.
And so she found herself at the suprisingly modest home of Miles Edgeworth, feeling apprehensive but determined. If they were both too daft to admit to themselves that they're crazy for each other, then it would be up to Maya to make them see sense. Phase One of three was completed; all she had to do next was get a confession out of Edgeworth, and then get them together. A daunting task indeed, but not impossible.
Upon opening the door, Edgeworth looked at first suprised, then as if he was debating whether or not to slam the door in her face. She took the fact that he had to debate about it as a good sign and pushed her way in.
"Hey, Mr. Edgeworth! I hope you don't mind me dropping by," she said, full of a strange, bubbly glee. Or maybe it was fear. "I just wanted to ask you something."
"Ask me something?" he repeated, recovering admirably quickly. "Is there any reason you felt the need to burst into my home in order to do this?"
"I figured you might want some privacy." She was finding it hard to keep the grin off of her face. It might have been nerves. "No need to embarrass you in front of anybody but me, huh?"
"What exactly is this about?" he asked, sounding tired of her already and shutting the door and leading her into the living room to sit. Thinking about it again, she decided he sounded not tired - or maybe not only tired - but resigned. Good, that means he's gonna answer me whether or not he actually wants to!
"We-ell... I wanted to ask... to ask..." Rifling around in her dress, she trailed off as she realized the Magatama is missing. Oh no, not good, not good.
"If this is about the last case," he began, but Maya found the small green gem with a celebratory noise and cut him off.
"No, no, not at all. Nothing like that. Couldn't be further from the truth."
"So?" Edgewoth glanced at the Magatama. "Does it have something to do with that?"
"Sorta. Don't mind this," she said, waving it around dismissively. "I wanted to ask you about Nick."
"Wright? What about him?" Oh, he's good. Nick turns into a bundle of nerves as soon as I bring Edgeworth here up, but he's as cool as ever.
"I wanted to know, um." Again, she started to get the feeling this was a bad idea. Writing it off as the prosecutor's natural fridigity, she continued. "I wanted to know what you think... about him."
For a moment he merely regarded her. "If that's all you've come to ask, you've wasted your time. I believe this should be obvious. He is my rival. Nothing more."
"Nothing?" she repeated, seeing the expected Psyche Locks wrap around him. "That's it?" She counted the locks. Five, she thinks incredulously. Why five? Why? Last time I had enough trouble with four!
"That is all," he said more firmly.
"So you only think of him as a rival. Interesting." She hoped this made him uncomfortable, like she knew things he didn't, when all she was doing was trying to organize her thoughts and try to decide where to go from there. "That's strange. You have a strange habit of helping your rivals, then."
He looked at her oddly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," she began, "you helped him against Dee Vasquez." Feeling like she was repeating herself - she was; she had said the same thing to Nick - she wracked her brain for another instance. "You helped him that time I was gone. You helped him in the last case. For a prosecutor who prides himself on his record and ability, it seems a strange thing to aid the defense."
"I've since learned that there are more important things than perfect records," he said stiffly, completely unaware of the lock floating near his right ear shattering.
"Really? That's good," Maya said, surprised at this new information. "Anyway, that's great and all, but not my point. My point is," she added in a rush, not leaving an opening for him to force her hand like last time, "I don't think that's it."
"And why do you care so much as to come here and tell me this?"
"Well. That's, um." I didn't expect him to ask that so early... "If you let me get through these questions, you'll understand," she ended up saying, proud of her quick thinking. Edgeworth looked for a moment like he would protest, but settled back into his chair. "So if he's not 'just' your rival, what is he?"
"I don't grasp your meaning." She resisted the urge to sigh. Would she have to walk him through the whole thing? She felt a new respect for Nick, doing this multiple times without at least having a vague goal like she did.
"What - is - he," she repeated in an exaggerated manner. "It's more complicated than a rivalry, I know that. But do you?"
"Indeed, it's hard to classify," he agreed. "But simple to explain. A long time ago, we were friends. Time passed. We went separate ways. He became a defense attorney, and I, a prosecutor. We became rivals, but when faced with the choice of my record or justice, I chose to aid him in search of justice. Is that satisfactory to you?"
"No," she said, though if she didn't have the Psyche Locks, it would have been. "That's not all. Don't lie to me."
"Then tell me, what exactly do you think it is, if I am so off base?"
Again!? Why do they do this to me? She wasn't quite prepared to make an accusation yet. "Let's continue for a moment before we go into that. He isn't a rival, he isn't a friend, is that what you're saying?" Edgeworth simply nodded. "So your feelings about him are... complicated."
He narrowed his eyes, understanding the implied meaning. "If you wish to state it that way, yes," he said, not rising to the bait. She could have hit him in frustration.
Maya decided to just come out with it. "I think you care about him a lot."
No, not 'care.' 'Love,' dang it! For some reason, associating Edgeworth with being in love did not compute within her mind. She took it as a bad sign.
"Do you?" was all he said.
"I do."
"Maya," he said with a slight sigh. "Let me tell you this way: there is no salvaging our friendship. Too much time has passed, we're too different from who we used to be."
"But you could make a new one," Maya pointed out. "Maybe your old friendship is dead. You can forge a new one. Besides, that's not what I said! I didn't say you wanted to be best buddies, I said you care about him. As in..." She took a breath and choked out the rest, "As in being in love with him."
Even as he said with the most bewildered look on his face, "I don't know where you'd get such an absurd idea," another lock was breaking into pieces.
"From you," she said with joy at being reassured of her assumptions.
"I am not in - in love with Wright," Edgeworth insisted.
"Do you need me to prove it?"
"Usually," he said, still looking disgruntled. Maya guessed it wasn't often that people were able to figure out his innermost emotions.
"Of course you do. Let's see... How do I know?" she asked herself more than Edgeworth. The only reason she had even thought as much was because of Nick; the object of Nick's affection had never given any sign of anything in return. She had to save that for the coup de grace. What could she say to unlock the other two Psyche Locks before the final strike? "Because of the way you... look at him?"
"I wasn't aware I looked at him in any peculiar way." Edgeworth crossed his arms and tapped the fingers of his right hand impatiently. "Try again."
"Okay, fine, I'll be honest. I didn't have any idea until last December," Maya admitted. "The reason I'm here is because of Nick."
Who said the killing blow had to be last? She wanted to stop that metaphor right there, as anything after would be considered as beating up his corpse. "Wright asked you to come here?" the prosecuted asked incredulously.
"No way! I went through this same thing with him. And he cracked pretty quickly," she lied. "Even if you won't admit it to yourself, I got him to. He said he's in love with you."
"I never would have guessed," Edgeworth mumbled amidst the sound of the last three locks breaking one after another. "I never would have guessed," he said again. "He seemed rather angry with me last week."
"Yeah, he told me about that," Maya said, explaining hurriedly. "He was just stressed, you know, trying to figure out a way to prove Engarde innocent and at the same time, um, not get me murdered. And everyone getting on his case in court about how he just wanted to protect his own record... He felt bad for going off on you about the same."
"Hmm."
"Is that it?" Maya asked after a moment.
"What is it you want me to do? I told you what I honestly believe: there is no hope for this... relationship. I will not fool myself with foolish daydreams."
"You sound like von Karma," Maya said with distaste. "Besides, are the both of you really that stupid? Look, he doesn't know that you know. Go talk to him. I command you!"
"... I will think about it."
"Fine," she said with exasperation. "That's all I'll get from you, isn't it?" No reply, which she took as an affirmative. "Okay, I'll go now. But do think about it, okay? There is a chance. Trust me."
"... All right," Edgeworth conceeded grudgingly, walking over to the door and opening it. Getting the message loud and clear, Maya exited his home less enthusiastically than she entered. "Do not tell Wright," he warned as she left.
"I won't," she said, biting down a grin. They're like teenagers, she thought.
It wasn't until after the door closed that she realized he had only told her what she wanted to hear; he would not think about it, and he would not go talk to Nick.
This would require a Phase Three.
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And, um, a random thought which which to amuse you, as is my purpose in life. What happened to the translation of PW2? It looks like they had some sort of comma-eating virus blast through the script.
Hit me again, random thoughts! Matt Engarde's Japanese name was Shingo Outorou, which lead to Japanese fangirls calling him Toro-toro. For some reason, I find this utterly adorable. But the fanart of him and his alter ego, um, getting it on? Not so adorable. Actually, it was kind of disturbing.
