Title: So Emotional

Author: Soshite on FFnet / CykesQuillismyTherapy on Tumblr

Summary: CykesQuill. A series of drabbles about Simon Blackquill, Athena Cykes, and their special bond that spans years. Set all over the timeline of Dual Destinies. ==Spoilers==

Rated: T

Beta'd: Nope

Diclaimer: I do not own any part of the Ace Attrney series. I just write fanfic for it. :D

EMOTION: KNIFE

⊰ ✰ ⊱▬▬ ;Love is like handing someone a knife and making them hold it straight at your heart, allowing them to stab you whenever they felt like it. Yes, that was exactly right. No matter what form it took, love was all about trusting another person with something as mortally fragile as the human heart. Unknowingly bringing about his own emotional ruin, Simon Blackquill had placed the proverbial knife in Athena Cykes' shaking little hands.

✰✰✰ How could anyone have predicted that what he had taught her would be used so soon, or at all? What the young prosecutor had done had merely been a precaution; a thought for the child's uncertain future. At least, something to distract her from the pain in her head.

✰✰✰ The headphones were a necessary pain he could never hope to remove without causing Athena great harm.

✰✰✰ The day before everything had been lost to the samurai prosecutor, he had taken the little girl in hand and instructed her to the best of his ability in the skill of wielding a sword. In the case of the child, just a wooden tanto. Athena had been awkward, clumsy and kept shooting him defeated looks whenever she did a swing wrong or knocked something over. However, instead of raising his voice or growing impatient, he just kept at it, he kept working with her. He stayed by her side. He'd encouraged her. 'Keep fighting, Athena. You can do it.' Over and over, as earnestly as he could make himself sound.

✰✰✰ Athena was enthusiastic in learning though, because there was something she wanted to do when she grew up.

✯"And what would that be, Athena?"

✯"Easy. I want to be a proper samurai bride when I grow up!"

✰✰✰ The things that came out of the mouth of babes! But for one reason or another the prosecuting samurai's cheeks flushed a soft pink at her words. Muttering to himself Simon just told her to study hard and maybe she could, but any wandering ronin that came for her hand would have to go through him first.

✰✰✰ Athena had laughed then, a sweet and wonderful sound that rarely filled the Space Centre's halls. Somehow, in the current context of their conversation, he felt further embarrassment and blushed more. "And you, young mistress, should not even be contemplating of breaking any hearts either when you become a proper lady of the house."

✯"Why would I want to break hearts?" The tanto was held loosely in her hands. "I just want to become a beautiful bride for my one and only samurai. The perfect samurai bride with perfect samurai bride skills like being able to fight and know everything there is to know about psychology!" A weird and odd set of skills there, to be honest, but Simon didn't have the heart to correct her vision of what a true samurai's bride should be like. At least she had the fighting spirit of a noble shogun's wife, at least.

✯"Do you have a samurai in mind already?"

✯"I do," Athena replied adorably. Just enough that Simon could not help the urge to hug the girl tightly to himself. He didn't even care that the tanto had jabbed into his chest and glanced off to smack into his face. He did not care one whit.

✰✰✰ And one day later, he would find when she did it again, only this time, with her mother's katana…he did not care. Because he loved and cherished this girl beyond all reason or sanity.

✰✰✰ Love was handing someone else a knife and hoping they don't stab you with it, but feeling that pain twisting in your chest anyways.