July 8, 3:37 PM
Aura's Household
As he felt her embrace with his arms pinned, the space around him started to feel tighter and tighter. "Why are you here!? H-How did you even get in here?! How do you even know how to get here?! I didn't even tell you about this place here!"
Mercifully, Athena let Simon go and giggled at the look of distraught on his face. "Oh, a little birdie told me after I paid a visit to the detention center and gave me her duplicate key."
In that moment, his anger for his older sister smoldered so much that he could almost feel steam coming out of his ears. "Aura… I will really try to sentence you to death now." "Doesn't my sister disdain you!? She just can't keep her trap shut when I want her to the most!"
Athena stuck her tongue out at him as she dangled her keys in front of him. "She said that you weren't being yourself lately and she's worried about you. I told her about your shabby performance in court and then basically told me to help you out, although she hated to admit it. Then, she gave me the instructions to get here from the detention center and here I am! I finished your chores ahead of time and now, we'll be able to spend some time together!"
Now this was going too far for Simon. He wasn't prepared to deal with Athena the moment he stepped into his sister's house. Now it turns out that Athena and Aura were in cahoots to make his life miserable. He thought that Aura must be giggling in her cell right now, thinking about the torment he's experiencing. He was definitely going to give her a piece of his mind once another obligatory visitation came.
Simon took a deep breath and… "Haaaaaaarrrrruuuuggghhhhh…"
Athena's left eye twitched at him. "Hey! I did all your chores for today! You mind at least saying 'thank you' or something? And you sound like Mr. Starbuck! Don't even remind me about his long sigh! What's with you, by the way? You've been angry the moment you saw me."
The black-clad man squinted contemptuously at her, "Athena… You talk too much. I've had a long day at the office being chewed apart by Mr. Edgeworth." He made sure to leave out the part where he told him to just tell Athena the truth.
Athena crossed her arms at him and gave a smirk. "It's your fault for not doing your job!"
He sighed again at her. He thought that he's going to run out of breath soon if she keeps annoying him like this. "Alright, thank you, Athena," he forced out, "Will you mind leaving, now? You did a good job."
Athena put both hands to her hips as she gave out a haughty laughter, "Can't get rid of me this time, Simon! I'm sleeping over here!"
It took a moment for him to register that. Athena? Sleeping in the same house as him? Madness! Pure madness! He felt like screaming at the top of his lungs by now! "…For how long…?"
"A week!"
Great! A week! No! Not great! It's a week! The same amount of time that he had to fix this on his "vacation" period, go figure. "I'm tired of just standing here. If you're going to be here, just try not to touch anything. You can go sleep in my sister's room or something. I'll take the guest room. Speaking of sleeping, I'm going to get forty winks before I have dinner. Carry on, Athena."
He started going up the stairs but…
"Hold it!"
"What?"
Athena looked at him with eyes of concern that pierced right through him. "Simon, it's plain that you're avoiding me. Just… Tell me what's wrong. Please. You wouldn't answer your phone, you made the bailiffs interrogate me, and now you're not even happy that I've done all your chores."
Edgeworth's words suddenly echoed in Simon's head that she deserves an answer. He silently cursed at the echoing words. "If I tell you, will you stop bothering me for the day?"
Athena nodded. "I promise."
They sat next to each other on the base of the stairs that was looking straight ahead at the door.
Simon started, "…I…I, erm… I've been dealing with an addiction to collecting Japanese comics." He had to be very careful with how he chose his words. However, knowing Athena, she probably would sense some discord in him. That girl can be quite inquisitive to people's feelings sometimes. "I'm a bit embarrassed about it."
Athena blinked a few times in surprise. "Why?"
Subconsciously, he moved his legs together while scratching the back of his head with his right hand. "Well, there's a negative stigma going around that people who love comic books should be only kids and not adults. I haven't told anyone about this hobby of mine."
She frowned at him. "Simon, you were reading something in Japanese in court yesterday. I think if you were self-conscious, you wouldn't have that out at all. Simon, I'm more than confident you were lying to me. I think that you were really distracted because you've been all play and no work, right?"
He groaned at her. "Yes, Athena… You caught me. I was distracted."
Athena giggled at him as she gave a light tap. "Oh Simon, you're probably not used to all this free time you have. It's understandable. Like, I have some shows that I have to miss because of work but I remember to record them so I can watch it when I have time! Your hobby is reading so it's much simpler! You can always open it up to read as long as you have light! Just…try disciplining yourself a bit more, okay?"
Huh. That was pretty simple for someone who can read into the hearts of people. Pretty simple to convince, that is. But for Simon, as long as she was convinced that nothing fishy was going on, it was a fairly simple affair with her.
