Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the Professor Layton or Ace attorney franchises, the rights to both of them belong to Capcom and Level-5.

A gentleman's pearl

Luke had been rendered completely gobsmacked when he saw the Professor stood right in front of him, his jaw almost hit the snowy ground below whilst his mouth hung wide open and his eyes had become extremely wide. He had not expected to see the Professor until after all of this, whenever he returned back to the little house that both Layton and himself shared sometimes -he hadn't even considered that the Professor would come to find him!

It was when the Professor appeared that Pearl retreated behind Luke for protection. She had been gripping his shoulders nice and tightly for reassurance whilst shrinking back with huge eyes full with fear, she even let out a frightened whimper as she hid behind him. Poor Pearl looked so terrified that it was quite gut-wrenching for the Professor's apprentice and he could actually feel his heart churn with sympathy inside of his chest. He even managed a comforting glance as he reached up to his left shoulder and patted one of the soft peachy-pink hands that tightly gripped it.

In the meantime, Professor Layton simply glared with an arched eyebrow at the boy.

"You didn't answer my question."

Luke lowered his gaze ashamedly, a frown forcing itself on his lips. He hadn't meant to stay out so late and he had a feeling that the Professor would be a tad displeased with that choice he had made. He stared down at his own shadow that stretched across the snowy ground below him. Despite about thirty percent of his body being numbed by exposure to the ice and snow he felt a slight nervous sweat sweep through him. The boy found the snow better to look at than the disappointment on his mentor and idol's face.

"Well P-Professor, I...I found this girl all by herself so I stayed out t-to help her a-and I just l-l-lost track of time so—"

Luke was abruptly cut off from his explanation when the Professor held up his hand to silence him, a patient and wise expression on his face as he closed his dot-like eyes and rearranged the umbrella beneath his arm so he held it a bit higher and a bit more upright. He then used his free hand to readjust his top hat on his head, gripping the rim and tipping it slightly at the young girl that was now hiding timidly behind Luke for protection.

Quite honestly, it was an adorable display.

Professor Layton smiled softly and humbly at his young apprentice.

"It is alright, my boy. You did the right thing and for that I am proud; why don't little miss Pearl and yourself come back to the house and warm up?"

Luke found the courage to look into the Professor's eyes and he broke into a huge smile. To hear the professor say those words made his heart soar with glee and he felt the over whelming urge to jump up and down with joy like a 4-year-old. Thankfully he managed to hold it in and kept his own two feet in place. He couldn't afford to look like a complete idiot in front of the professor nor could he swallow it down if he were to make himself look like a child...or much more of a child then he already was.

However that was when something struck him as odd; his gleeful smile faltered slightly. His striking onyx eyes were now shimmering with this growing dread and confusion as he tilted his head to one side and stared up at the puzzle-solving gentleman.

"Hold on a second. How did you know Pearl's name? I don't think I introduced her yet..."

A so very long silence —except for the gusts of icy slivers of wind that blew by— was the boy's only reply and it left a rather unnerving atmosphere in its wake. Luke felt his heart start to sink whilst the implications of this rushed through his mind and he actually could physically feel his throat tighten up whenever he started to get a sneaking suspicion.

Professor Layton flinched as though struck, then he started to fumble around for answers for the contradiction that he had just pointed out. He smiled nervously and started to fidget on the spot while he stumbled and tripped over his words to try and fish for a plausible excuse.

"Um...Uhhh...you see, my boy..."

The Professor then broke off into a stuttered explanation, an explanation that was so full of holes that it would put swiss cheese to shame, and an explanation that sounded so false that it was falling on deaf ears.

In the meantime, Luke rubbed at his own chin with a finger and hummed thoughtfully.

He had found it quite strange that Professor Layton already knew Pearl's name despite never meeting her until now, and on sight too, plus there wasn't much reason for it at all...then there's the fact that the Professor arrived so casually out of nowhere and knew exactly where to find him despite him never taking this route. He had imagined that the Professor would have waited a bit before coming out to find him, he couldn't have been that late to come back from his walk. Luke frowned to himself with a troubled frown stretching itself into a downwards curl on his lips. He started to think to himself about what could possibly be the reason for all of this, in the form of an internal monologue.

"Hmmm...this is very strange. But maybe it would be a bit less tricky if I turned my thinking around and thought of this as a puzzle! After all, every puzzle has an answer!"

The young apprentice gentleman closed his eyes and started to think of this conundrum as a puzzle.

"Now then...how could he know Pearl's name even though he had never met her? I guess there is the possibility that Maya had told him back in Labyrinthia during that period of time when we had become separated but then the Professor wouldn't have known her straight away by appearance. There is another possibility that the Professor could have been spying on us but that's not very likely either since gentlemen don't spy on others...maybe unless the situation calls for it, but still..."

Luke knew that there is something about the Professor that just seemed...off, and that was when an idea popped into Luke's head. It was far fetched and honestly he had been wrong about something like this before.

"As far as I know, the Professor hasn't spoken to Mr. Wright nor Maya over the phone in awhile considering that they were probably busy battling in courtrooms back in the US...Hmmm; there's something really wrong here, there's something in my gut that tells me that somethings not right."

Luke thought long and hard for a few moments, his head spinning a bit...but then one single possibility popped into his head. It would explain everything yet he was very certain that he didn't like it one bit. He took a few steps back from the "professor" and then gave him the hardest glare as he pointed an accusing finger at him.

"You are not the Professor, are you? You're an impostor!"

Another very uncomfortable silence greeted the scene, it felt like he was causing time itself to freeze into one harrowing second. Luke stared at the "gentleman" stood over him and then, suddenly, a sudden nasty cackle filled the air.

That laugh...it sounded so familiar.

The gears in the young gentleman's head turned and an icy cold dread had suddenly enveloped him while the pieces of this puzzle fell together in his head with a sickening crack. He could only stare numbly as the Professor removed his hat from his head and his face peeled off along with it. Now, normally this would terrify most children...and that's exactly what it was doing to both Luke and Pearl.

All they could do was observe as "Professor Layton" removed his jacket, jumper, trousers and shoes until it revealed a man with a gigantic moustache wearing purple trousers and a very thick winter coat...with all the fluffiness you could imagine. It turned out that the umbrella he had been holding was actually some kind of device that was basically a stick with a bunch of gyrating propellers. The man held on to the stick-part of his contraction for dear life with one hand, it lifted him up into the air and while it was doing so, the moustached copy-cat evil genius cackled evilly as he seized Pearl by the wrist and then he plucked her off the ground letting her dangle in midair.

Pearl had tears in her eyes as she squeaked with fear.

Luke was absolutely stupefied beyond belief.

Blimey!

All of his thoughts had froze in his mind, his complexion paled, his eyes were so wide in their sockets that they were practically looking as though they were about to pop out. His jaw dropped to the ground and his throat tightened.

He hadn't expected this!

"D-D-Don Paolo?!"

The evil inventor latched on to the hover umbrella device, still letting Pearl hang by the wrist. The small spirit medium squirmed around in his tight hold in a desperate attempt to free herself; she even forgot the laws of gravity for a second since if (by some sheer miracle) she did manage to break away from the moustache-man's grip then she would have quite the fall to deal with when she dropped straight down. Luke quickly shook off his initial shock and surprise before fearlessly stomping right towards the airborne evil inventor/imposter and demanded angrily whilst clenching his hands into very tight fists at his sides, "What do you want? Let her go!"

Paolo simply cast a cruel grin down towards the boy with a menacingly sinister gleam in his eyes. The bridge of his comically large nose wrinkled up with to mirror the scrunching of his eyebrows and he decided to make a comment right before answering the young boy's question, "Well I didn't expect to see you out here, boy! And all by your lonesome as well!" Don chuckled and glanced over to the terrified little girl he was holding on to. Poor Pearl looked as though she was about to throw up and then die from fright as she hung in midair by her wrist, shakily swinging her body weight back and forth in hopes of either loosening her captors grip or making him let go completely.

"And sorry kid! I need this squeaker for my own purposes!"

Luke twisted his face into the darkness scowl he could possibly make. He tried to hide the terror he could behind his glaring face, yet he could feel his stomach do flips inside as he could feel himself start to break out into a sweat despite the frigid cold outdoor temperature.

He couldn't even move, he was so scared, not to mention confused.

Why did he need Pearls? What could possibly be his motivation to kidnap a little girl? And how could he even hope to process what was going on here when he could hardly hear and comprehend whatever was being said?

Don looked down at Luke with a never-leaving grim smirk whilst he hoisted the girl up, wrapping his arm securely around her waist and held her to his side so he could stop her from trying to slip out of his grasp and from falling. Pearls let a petrified expression plaster itself on his face and she couldn't stop a strained whimper from slipping out of her tightening throat.

"Well this kids cousin is a spirit medium and head of her village. Certainly holding on to the little pipsqueak brat should probably get me some several thousand pounds or so. Besides, since the she is also a spirit medium, I could also converse with the dead and fulfil a personal goal of mine."

Pearl gasped in surprise and then started to squirm wildly to get away from him.

"N-No! I am not going to channel anyone for you! Spirit channelling is supposed to be used to help people a-and let others speak when th-th-they can't speak for th-themselves anymore!"

Luke's mind was twisting like a knot in a tricky shoe lace as the conversation was exchanged between captor and kidnapper, what they were talking about was so foreign to him that he could hardly keep himself from asking several questions at the very same time and it even gave him a slight oncoming migraine: What on earth were spirit mediums? How could that have anything to do with Pearl? What was spirit channelling? What did Pearl mean by "letting others speak when they can't speak for themselves anymore"?

Confused was an understatement to how Luke was feeling.

Don smirked wickedly, his long and over-exaggerated moustache curling just a little when that evil smile appeared on his lips, looking a trembling-with-fear Pearl right in the eyes. "Don't worry your pretty little head, little girl, you will be helping someone: me!"

Pearl couldn't help but stop struggling when she heard that and tears started to swell up inside her eyes. She didn't want to be used like this because she just wanted to see her cousin again, she didn't want to cause her any grief but now it seemed that it was out of her hands. The little spirit medium looked down at the blue clad young gentleman with a petrified glance, silently pleading for him to help her like he had done a mere few minutes ago.

But Luke was frozen in place. Whether it was from the frigid outdoor temperature or from disbelief with what was happening right now, not even he could say. He didn't know what to do, he knew he had to do something but he just had no clue what he could do. Don Paolo, with his flying umbrella thingie, started to drift away from Luke and towards a totally different direction as they started to vanish from the boy's sight.

Pearl let out a harrowing cry and both her kidnapper and herself drifted away and vanished into the night quickly.

"HELP MEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Luke couldn't help but feel frightened at this whole entire situation. His knees trembled, threatening to cave in, his palms became sweaty, his whole body just wouldn't stop shaking, his throat had tightened so he had trouble saying anything to respond to this as well as having trouble controlling his now erratic breathing and he was pretty sure that his eyes were welling up with full-on frightened tears.

Paolo had just taken Pearl away and no one was around to help. There was no professor, no Scotland Yard police, nobody whom he could turn to in order to get help. A dark and bitter cold realization struck as the boy felt his knees buckle right out from underneath of him so he dropped to the ground: there was absolutely nothing.

He was all alone.

Despite feeling afraid, the young boy knew that he couldn't just stand around and be a scaredy-cat. He had to go and rescue Pearl and if he had to do this all on his own then so be it! The duty of every gentleman is to always help young ladies in distress and where would the honour be if he could not come to the rescue of a beautiful young lady such as Pearly? He knew that there was no honour in abandoning her and so he knew that just running off to call an adult to the scene just wasn't an option right now. Plus he had to prove himself to her. He didn't know why, but he knew he had to.

He quickly reached up to touch his cap, shifted it around a bit, and quickly blinked away the tears that were pooling inside his rich obsidian eyes and threatening to spill over and trickle down his face. He had to be strong because he was not going to allow anyone to harm a beautiful hair on that lovely girl's head.

But what could he do about it?

But that was when he noticed something gleaming brightly in the thick blanket of snow. From what he could tell, it looked priceless and interesting. He had to wonder whether this...thing (whatever it is) was what the girl who had just been taken away by one of his and the Professor's enemies?

Curious, the young gent fell to his knees and searched through the deep snow, shoveling and sifting it with his own two hands in hopes to unearth the sparkling thing. Luke dug around in the snow, alas it didn't take too long until he found out what it was: he came across a sky blue nine-shaped gem that had been buried there. His eyes widened in amazement upon seeing the wonderful glowing teal nine-shaped jewel and he realized that this was probably that special thing that Pearl had been looking for.

Now that he held it, he noticed that it looked a lot like that thing that Maya wore around her neck when he and the Professor met both her and Mr. Wright in Labyrinthia.

The comma shaped gem glowed brightly as he clutched it in his hand, minding not to crush it beneath his fingertips.

After finding the thing that Pearl long sought for, it filled the boy with a strong desire to return it to her. He could feel some sort of instant burst of bravery, this sudden passion burn inside of him.

It started burning away all huge amount of fear and cold he felt inside and giving him the willpower to make an attempt to get to his feet. It was tough since Luke's legs felt like stone after kneeling in the snow so much but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He managed to readjust his knees into a better position and he slowly used his own hands to push himself off of the ground and he had heaved himself to his own feet. His vision swayed a tad whenever he quickly gained his footing after climbing successfully to his feet and standing in a steadfast position. Luke tilted his head up slowly to look at the starry heavens above with a renewed determination burning in his narrowed eyes.

He clutched the jewel to his chest, pressing it right up against his beating heart.

Then, without much more hesitation, he took off like a dart.

He whirled around on the spot and made a frantic yet mad dash, running back from the direction in which he originally came, which also happened to have been the very same direction of where he saw Don take Pearly away.

Luke's feet drummed hard against the concrete, he was running so fast that he hardly had time to pick up his feet before his landing on the ground. His shoes kicked up snow and ice. There were occasions where he'd accidentally slip on some black ice but he quickly regained his footing and continued onwards, the young gentleman had to hold on to his special blue cap with one hand to keep it from blowing straight off of his head from the force of the blizzard that was just beginning to arise.

He felt his heart was pounding violently and his tummy clenched inward, and more then fifty thoughts dashed through his mind at once.

Those were the only things he could still sort of feel after his whole body had numbed due to the freezing outdoor temperatures. He was pretty sure that the tip of his nose was the one thing that he could still get any real sensation out of right now.

Where Don Paolo had taken Pearl, Luke didn't know but he knew that it was urgent that he found the young pretzel-haired girl.

And he would find her somehow.

Of course, the young apprentice gentleman still had no knowledge of where he was going so he just ran around blindly in extremely desperate hope of bumping into some sort of clue or stumbling by them by accident -or maybe even finding the police if he was lucky.

He could hear a voice in his head, Professor Layton's voice, reminding him in a calm tone of voice that a gentleman didn't run around like a headless chicken -especially one without a plan like this. But right now he was just throwing all he had learnt into the wind because it surprised him to realise that he was not even thinking about it much at all -being a gentleman wasn't on his list of priorities.

Pearl was.

The realisation was so shocking that he was forced to stop suddenly in his tracks.

Usually his head would almost always be in his mentor's teachings; apart from the regular thoughts of a normal eleven-year-old. There were those rare instances. But now the safety of a girl he had only just met was his top priority. He had to ask himself, why? Why go so far for someone who he just met? Of course, he knew the answer: it's what a true gentleman would do...but Luke felt that there was more to it then just that.

He released a long trembly breath he hadn't even been aware he had been withholding, the breath manifesting as smoke due to the freezing cold air around, he hugged his own arms and clenched his teeth as he tried not to shiver like a maraca. The young gentleman sighed again and made a small note to himself.

"After I find Pearl and get home, I'm making myself some tea and bundling myself up in the warmest blanket I can find."

Fighting to keep warm, and in an attempt to continue searching for Pearl, he started to run again.

Luke bounded across the roads, with his eyes squinted through the icy slivers of wind that whistled in his ears in high pitched whispers, threatening to blow him back when the gusts started to become powerful gale force winds. He tightly clutched the glowing gem inside his hand which was starting to go numb due to how long he had been outside in the harsh weather, being careful not to crush it but also being careful not to let it slip right through his very cold fingertips.

He let a small moan slip as soon as the bitter cold started to slowly eat away at his willpower and his energy. He closed his eyes and his teeth chattered, his footsteps started to become clumsy and stumbled.

But then, by some sort of miracle, his ears caught a distant sound being carried over to his sharp ears by the very same winds that constantly threatened to stall his urgent mission to rescue the beautiful young damsel in distress (he secretly hoped that Pearl wouldn't smack him for thinking that).

Thinking quickly, Luke changed his blind route and ran over to the direction of those sounds that got louder and louder the closest he had became. He hurried and ran as quick as his legs could carry him despite that he felt like he was a snowman with legs.

Skidding to a screeching halt, Luke looked up at a trio of gull that were perched on a lamppost above him. With his lungs begging for sweet oxygen, Luke knelt forwards to touch his shaking knees as he tried to catch his breath. He looked up from his knees and asked the small flock breathlessly, "Have...Have you...three seen a...girl and a man with a...huge moustache...a-anywhere?"

At first they looked at the human boy with great perplexity and confusion, their little beady eyes were quite telling of their emotions. Then they looked to each other as though looking for an answer to the question that was just asked of them and all Luke could do in the meantime was pray that they saw anything strange that could lead him to where he needed to go.

He feared that if they didn't help him then something terrible would happen.

The birds chattered amongst themselves, chirping and squawking to each other as though processing the young human's inquiry, for a moment before one of the three raised its little beady eyes and jerked its head towards the direction back towards a certain monument. To emphatically make its point, a gull even made a silent gesture with its left wing.

Luke tipped his blue cap to the bird trio in a gesture of gratitude and then shook himself to rid himself of the ice and snowflake remnants that had started to cloak him in its frigid grasp. It made him feel a bit lighter to have all the excess snow covering him. Of course there were still a few snowflakes that had become stuck to him, covering him like powder but he didn't have time to fret about that. Then, when all the heavier clumps of snow was off of him, his feet started to skitter before his brain had the time to officially give them permission to move.

Then he broke into yet another sprint in the direction of where the three gull had pointed him towards. He had hoped that the birds would be able to provide assistance in this time of need and he was happy that he was right! thus now he had a good idea where Don Paolo had taken Pearls.

The three gull had confirmed it whilst they were chatting to each other for confirmation earlier.

Thanks to them, he now had all the pieces to the answer of this puzzle: Where had Pearl been taken?

The young cap-wearing gentleman continued to hold on tight to the small blue accessory on his head with a strength he didn't know he even had. He hastened down a few streets, minding the very few people walking by whom shot him really weird looks, with his mouth hung open as he breathed deeply to get some more oxygen into his deflated and rather crystallised lungs. He ran so fast that he didn't even care if he slipped over some ice, each exhale he took ended up with a warm frosty fog manifesting from his breath.

Luke ran down the pathway and felt like the path in front of him stretched on and on right in front of his eyes, getting further and further with each step he took. It felt as though an eternity whirled right on by the time he had finally reached his destination.

The young apprentice gentleman eventually stopped right in front of its grand doors and he felt so tired that he very almost collapsed due to exhaustion. He panted heavily and tried to catch his breath so he could function properly in a minute. He breathed in heavily in wheezes, spluttering and coughing, his lungs heavy and chest tight.

As he tried to recover, he took in all the details of his surroundings.

The deep snow was now reaching up to his shins and, despite his coat, he felt so very cold otherwise the front gates where the first thing that greeted him and Luke shuddered even though he was panting and huffing to regain his bearings. The front gates were dark and big, the metal looked all twisted and black but with a few golden touches. They were some of the biggest gates he'd seen and they looked sort of spooky, especially at night.

Behind the gates was a familiar but very tall building, Luke felt so small and insignificant standing in front of it. He knew very well that Pearl and her kidnapper were at the very top. It was sort of intimidating, if he were to be perfectly honest with himself since he had been to this place with the Professor on a previous case and he couldn't help but feel so very...little.

one of the most famous London landmarks in all the world -the huge clock tower, known as Big Ben.

Luke shuddered inwardly while a small chill climbed up his spine, the muscles in his shoulders bunched up and his arms tingled with trepidation. A cold sweat started to soak through his palms and his forehead before he released one hand from his knee, raised an arm and then whipped some of the sheening sweat from his brow. He swept a bit of his dirty blonde fringe aside too. Admittedly, Luke sort of wanted to get this over with quickly so he could get Pearl and go home to the Professor and warm both himself and her by the fireplace.

It took a short minute until the young boy finally regained his breath (or at least enough to keep himself going) and he straightened out his own posture, especially his back, but he couldn't help but quake in his shoes because of the daunting atmosphere the huge and famous clock tower gave.

Luke closed his eyes. Now was not the time to be afraid, he needed to be brave. There was absolutely no way he was going to back down now and he wasn't going to let himself cry or show how frightened he was. He couldn't.

He made a solemn vow to himself right then and there, shoving the mystical nine-shaped blue jewel-thing into his pocket.

He looked up and stared up at Big Ben, hurting the back of his neck in the process, with a sharp sword-like glint in his eyes. Although he felt little intimidated by doing this by himself and he was at Big Ben without the Professor at his side, he refused to turn back now; especially as he had come so far. He had to get to Pearl and do whatever he could to rescue his new friend from the clutches of Don Paolo...and return her seemingly priceless gem to her.

"Hold on, Pearl, I'm coming."

A/N: Second chapter of this is up! Sorry this took a bit long, theres been stuff happening. This was originally supposed to be a two-shot but I changed my mind and decided to make it a bit longer. I hope that you guys like this chapter and hopefully Luke can be a hero of the beautiful young Pearly Fey from Don Paolo.

Please review and fave and tell me what you think.

-Chloemcg