Wow, chapter four... I can't believe it! (x
I really want to thank you all for reading and reviewing! :]
Well, I should stop stalling you. Enjoy this chapter!
Apollo and Trucy entered the now dark offices with a bang. Apollo tripped into the room, and Trucy was laughing with her panties out. "Polly, don't be afraid! Just hold them for a little bit!" Trucy chirped.
Apollo shushed her.
"Hmm? Why are you shushing me?"
"Unh… Nick? Nick, where are you?"
Apollo facepalmed and Trucy covered her mouth.
"Oops," Trucy whispered. "Sorry, Maya, I don't think daddy's here. If he's not here, he's probably crying and drinking grape juice where no one can see him."
"Uh, I don't think Mr. Wright would be crying, Trucy…"Apollo looked over the couch to see Maya still wrapped in the blanket, but trying to wiggle out of it. Once free, she sat up. Apollo questioned, "Why is he emotionally drinking, anyways? What happened with you two while I was gone, hmm?"
Still half-asleep, Maya said, "I told him I was considering you or Larry to marry me." She sounded absentminded.
Apollo turned red, and covered his face. "W-why would you consider me? Mr. Wright is going to kill me the next time he sees me!"
Trucy backed him up, saying, "Maya, don't you know how much Daddy likes you? I never told him, but when I would watch him sleep on the couch, he'd chant, 'Maya, Maya' and he wouldn't wake up, even if I poked his face."
Maya stretched and said, "But, I think Nick doesn't have any feelings for me. You saw how concerned he was with Iris, didn't you?"
Apollo paused. "You have a point… Besides, he never tells Trucy or me about these kinds of things."
Maya looked at the clock, and gasped. "Oh no! I've got to call Pearly and tell her everything!" She ran up and out the room, only sticking her head back in to say, "If you need me for anything, I'll be back at the hotel I was staying at."
Trucy and Apollo looked at each other after they couldn't hear the clack of her slippers anymore.
"So, Trucy, what's your take on this?" He grazed his hand over his hair.
Trucy put away her panties and said, "I think there's a big misunderstanding behind all of this."
"What makes you think that?"
"I'm Daddy's daughter. I think he'd have to come to me with his girlfriend to see if I approve!"
Apollo looked at her skeptically. Are you his daughter, or his mother?
Trucy squished Apollo's cheeks together, saying, "That's not all, Polly. He carries that thing Maya wears around her neck."
Apollo's eyes widened a little. "He does?"
Trucy giggled, still squishing his cheeks. "Polly, you look like a fish."
Apollo facepalmed and groaned.
Trucy replied, "Anyways, he carries it everywhere! He even takes it out before playing poker. It's probably his good luck charm."
Apollo stroked his chin. "I think we should ask Mr. Wright directly, instead of just speculating. Where is he, Trucy? … Trucy?"
Trucy was already halfway down the hall and she yelled, "I'll race you there, Polly!"
Apollo started frantically, yelling back, "But I don't know where we're going, Trucy!"
Trucy just laughed.
The grape juice bottle fell on top of the other empty ones in the box as Phoenix leaned back and sighed heavily. "I think I'm actually getting sick of grape juice," he muttered. He felt for the remote beside him and clicked on the television.
"A new episode of Bronze Samurai will be airing this Saturday at 7:30 a.m.! Don't miss it!"
"Still coming up with spinoffs, I see," Phoenix commented.
Tired of the commercials on the television, Phoenix pulled out the Magatama. Huh, he thought, I wonder if keeping this would make me a spirit medium fetishist. He looked at it against the light, to see its silhouette, when Trucy slammed the door open, startling Phoenix.
"I win!" Trucy announced.
Apollo, following shortly behind, panted pitifully. "Gee, Trucy, how can you run in those boots?" After wallowing in his shameful loss, he looked up at Phoenix, who was paralyzed from shock. He was still holding the Magatama.
"Trucy, you were right. He's holding that thing in his hand. Look."
When Phoenix finally realized they were talking about the Magatama, he asked cautiously, "Trucy, what does Apollo mean by 'you were right'…?"
Trucy flashed a shy smile and flapped her cape around. "Daddy, do you like Maya?"
Phoenix started to sweat. Don't just throw a question like that at me! He pulled his cap down and smiled. "Now, why would you think that, Trucy?" he said nervously. When it came to Maya, keeping his composure was almost impossible.
Luckily for Apollo, who could see Mr. Wright's nervous habits without trying, the bracelet gave only a slight pulse.
"Heh, Mr. Wright, there's no use trying to hide it," Apollo said proudly, "I can see you getting nervous."
Mr. Wright gave Apollo a dirty look and sighed. "Trucy, who gave you the idea to ask me a question like that?"
"Why, Maya did, Daddy," Trucy said innocently, flashing a smile.
Phoenix started to sweat more. Oh, crap, he thought.
Apollo slammed his hands on a table, much similar to the lawyer Phoenix, to catch the attention of the two. "Mr. Wright," Apollo said, pointing a finger at Phoenix, "Is Maya your girlfriend?"
At first, Phoenix looked really angry, but since he then looked at Trucy, his face softened up and he sighed. "You can call her whatever you want, but I guess to me she's just a really special friend. That's it."
Trucy looked disappointed. "That's it? I was expecting some amazing love confession from you, Daddy," Trucy said, pulling a camera from behind her still flapping cape.
Apollo and Phoenix both dropped their jaws. How did she hide that all this time…? They both thought about it quietly.
"Hmm," Apollo said, stroking his chin, "And to Maya, are you just friends?"
Phoenix REALLY didn't want to keep answering, especially since Trucy's eyes were getting wider and wider behind the camera she was holding. He swallowed, and said pathetically, "Yes."
Apollo had a surprised look on his face. "He looks like he really hated that last answer," he muttered. He turned his attention on Trucy, and said, "Trucy, looks like you were right!"
Trucy hopped up and down, and squealed, "Yippee!"
Phoenix stared at them, very confused. "Um, Trucy, sweetie, what's Apollo talking about?"
Trucy laughed a very superior-sounding laugh. "Why," she said in the most obnoxious voice she could make, "there has been a misunderstanding between you and Ms. Fey."
There was a slight pause. Phoenix, realizing Trucy wasn't going to tell him what the misunderstanding was, asked, "Then what would this misunderstanding be?"
"About what else? It's about your hot, burning passion for one another!"
After these words were spoken, the room broke into an extremely awkward silence. Since no one was saying anything, Trucy put away her camera.
Phoenix was thinking about saying something along the lines of, "Trucy, don't mess with Daddy's heart", but that would only further their notion of them being madly in love with each other.
Trucy broke the silence with a sneeze. It seemed that prancing around the midnight air was not suited for a girl in Trucy's outfit.
Déjà vu, Phoenix said, shivering."Trucy, it looks like you're sick. Come grab a blanket."
As Trucy jumped into the safety and warmth of the blanket and Phoenix watched, Apollo took out his phone. It was 2:18 in the morning.
"Um, Mr. Wright, Trucy, I think I'll be heading home now. I need my sleep too, you know." Apollo then stood still waiting for a reply from one of them, but when the room was quiet, he just slipped out, then breathing in the very cold—but fresh—air.
Maya sat scribbling on a notepad labeled "GATEWATER HOTEL" at the top. When she stopped writing, she hit the pen against her head, creating a monotone. She was writing things to mention when she called Pearl in the afternoon.
There was a knock on her door. I wonder who that could be. It's 2 in the morning! Maya thought, walking to the door and dropping the notepad.
As she opened the door, a girl cried, "Mystic Mayaaaaaaa!" She jumped into Maya arms and was shivering.
"Pearly?" Maya said, shocked. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to be in charge of Kurain!"
"But, I thought Mystic Maya might have been kidnapped again because she never called me—" Pearl and Maya sneezed.
Maya laughed, and Pearl along with her. "Okay, okay, Pearly, just lie in the covers and tell me what happened."
The sixteen-year-old spirit medium leaped onto the bed and buried herself in the blanket. Her pale brown hair stood out against the bright red pillows and blanket.
"I was waiting all day for your call, Mystic Maya," Pearl said, her voice a bit muffled under the sheets.
"Sorry," Maya said, pulling out some snacks. "Truth is, I just found Nick today."
Pearl's face lit up. "Oh! Then you must have been doing—" Pearl started blushing a little, "—things that 'special ones' do with each other, right?" She was referring to kissing, of course.
Maya dropped her snacks, her face a little red. She quickly got down, picking them up. "No, Pearly, we've had it all wrong," Maya said, a laugh following. "Nick married Iris."
Pearl threw the sheets off her and stood up. "Mr. Nick DID WHAT?" Tears bubbled out of her eyes. "I'm disappointed in him!"
Maya put an arm around her and wiped her tears. "Now, now, don't cry. It's all right; I'll find someone else to marry." She offered her a juice box.
Pearl took it and started sipping it. "But does he not know how long you two were each other's 'special someone'? It infuriates me that he never bothered to mention it earlier when you came all the way out here just to see him…" Pearl pulled out a stack of letters from the small bag she had brought, all from Phoenix.
Maya grabbed the stack and wanted desperately to read them, but she asked Pearl for her permission first. "Um, Pearly, may I?"
Pearly smiled and said, "Go ahead, Mystic Maya. There's nothing to hide."
As she read the first letter, it seemed that Pearl had been keeping in touch with Phoenix through letters for the past seven years. The letter read:
Dear Pearls,
I know we might not see each other in a while, so I'm putting you in charge of watching Maya. You know how deep she can get into trouble, so I'll know you do just that.
Sincerely,
Mr. Nick
Each letter got more and more extensive, and only the last five letters were about Maya specifically. As she reached the end of the pile, she slowly read the last letter, which said:
Dear Pearls,
Maya's coming to visit me? That would be nice, but I think it's a bad time. Like I've said, I got disbarred and I don't want Maya to see me as I am now. When I planned on how I would approach her the next time I saw her, I couldn't think of anything. I bet she must have matured and grown into a woman I won't even recognize… So how about this, Pearls? Tell Maya to visit me in her old acolyte clothes so I can recognize her on the spot. Maybe by then, I'll know what to say. If not, let me play it out. Isn't if funny, Pearls, how Maya really is my 'special someone'? Don't tell her I said that… It would embarrass me if Maya ever heard me say that... Well, Pearls, I'm going to end this letter. Stay well, and I'll be expecting Maya now. Till next time!
Sincerely,
Mr. Nick
Maya blushed as she read "Maya really is my 'special someone'" over and over. She held the paper down, her eyes wide open. "Pearly," Maya managed to utter, "I'll talk to him tomorrow."
As she said these words, she crawled into bed and Pearl jumped in too.
"Of course," Pearl whispered to herself, "You and Mr. Nick will surely work everything out."
They both fell asleep right away, at exactly 3:01 a.m.
