That was longer than a week, sorry about that. I was busy with work and other things. Wrighter's block anyone? (Please someone stop me from making Badd puns) So let us return to the conversation about to take place between Phoenix and Maya.

Oh god! This is bad, really bad! She's right in front of me! She knows that I kissed her, even if it was only the forehead. Then again she did say something about foolproof to Pearls.

"Nick? Hello, are you in there?" Maya stood in front Phoenix as she knocked on his head.

Breaking from his own thought chain he shook his head. "Huh, what?"

"Hey, I just wanna talk about what you just did." Maya gave one of her signature smiles as she said this.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

The medium puffed out her cheeks. "Don't hide it; I know that you kissed my forehead."

Think about what to do… Eureka! Why did I just say that to myself? I'm not Edgeworth. "That doesn't mean anything. I kissed Pearls on her forehead; does that mean I have a thing for her?"

Maya's jaw dropped "NO! That would be disturbing and I would slap you in the face. It's different between us." A mischievous glint flashed in her eyes when she made a realization. "I never said you have a thing for me. Admit it now Nick! Get it all off your chest."

"I-I Don't have those kind of feelings for you." Stuttering on the words didn't help the attorney's case. In fact it called for even more drastic action.

A drawn out sigh was given by Maya. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way. Pearly grab his magatama!" Quicker than a flash of lightning the girl snatched the trinket from the suit's pocket.

"Mwahaha, I have you now Nick!" The young woman flashed the magatama after Pearl gave it to her.

Are you kidding me!?

"Last chance to do this the easy way."

"I don't have any unnecessary feelings." Those dreadful chains appeared as a single lock appeared.

"LIES! I see the lock right there."

"Prove it!"

Maya clapped her hands and her cousin ran under the bed and retrieved a book called, "Evedance that Mr. Nick and Mistik Maya r speshal somones." Maya proceeded to speak. "This scrapbook outlines the many times that…"

"FINE, I'M FINE!"

"If you keep doing that, people will look at you funny."

Phoenix's eyes darted around as he had to accept that he was caught. He spoke the three words he tried so hard to avoid. "I like you." He bowed his head in shame. "It's over, my law career is over. When word of this scandal breaks out the whole city will…"

Maya laughed a little, "Oooh, I'm scandalous. I think we can take this 'scandal' to the next level." She grabbed the attorney by the tie and smashed her lips against his in a sloppy fashion as she pulled him closer.

I don't care if she's forcing it, but it feels great. It's almost like a great burden has been lifted.

Finally after gasping for air she let go. *HUFF HUFF* "Who knew that kissing took that much energy?"

One cousin decided to speak up after some time of reflection. "Yaaaaay! Now make sure you take good care of Mystic Maya or else…" She rotated her arm as she grabbed it as well.

Yikes, this girl is almost like a mother. "Um, about this whole thing? Can we just keep it a secret amongst the three of us? I don't want anyone to laugh at us."

Pearl was winding up for the slap, "Mr. Nick, you have to say it loud and proud, 'I love her' or else…"

"It's fine Pearly, I really don't care as long he was able to admit his feelings." She turned her head right back to Wright. "Only on two conditions, first I want you to stop cleaning the toilet every day. You have yourself a new girlfriend so you should spend more time with her." She batted her eyelashes obviously suggesting herself. "Second, keep telling us the story tonight."

That's it? I would have thought she would demanded more food. That is more than doable. "I accept your terms, so let us continue our adventure in the north with our heroes."


The swordsman gave out a groan as he relaxed in a hot spring in a cave. The hot spring itself was somewhat small, but the cave was extensive. The spring had a foamy top and was extremely relaxing. No one knew of the gem hidden except Phoenix himself.

The thoughts as he let the warm water soak his body kept returning to a certain medium. It always seemed that some adventure had to be due to her. He closed his eyes to relax even further.

This journey is taking out a lot of energy. I just had to deal with a wendigo. Now I have to find the next courthouse, and I'm still in the dark about many things. He heard the drips of mineral enriched water drip from stalactites. One could say it could be maddening or extremely relaxing. In this case it was both.

Then there's Maya who is as mysterious as the moon. Seriously, how did she conjure that ball of fire? It takes years of training for any mage to even get the same amount in just wind. I better keep an eye on her in that manner.

The dripping water as it hit the floor of the cavern started to get to Phoenix. Ergh, this is all I can do for now. Now it's time to check up on Maya to make sure she's okay… Why am I worried about her? I was the only one who was injured. Besides, there is nothing going on between us. I need to stop lying to myself. I do have this feeling. I really don't know if it's right or not. I hate rejection. She has a thing for you. Remember after the battle? She hugged you for at least a few minutes before you returned to town. That means nothing; you can hug your best friend and not feel this way about them. She probably just pitied me.

This inner battle continued for at least 20 more minutes as he continued to let the warmth fill his body. Little did he know that one medium entered the cavern and found the hot spring he was rejuvenating in.

Ooooh, a hot spring I have not been in one of these for a while. I better change out to not get these robes wet. She disrobed and slowly entered the spring unaware of Phoenix on the other side of said spring. She also closed her eyes to let her worries melt away.

Time to get out. The vigilante opened his eyes. He thought he saw Maya for a few seconds. He blinked his eyes a couple of times to rid his mind of the image. It took him a few more moments to accept the fact that she was in the same spring as him. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Maya heard the cry as she quickly broke from her almost trance like state. She also saw Phoenix in the same spring as well. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!"

Then the awkward moment of coming to the conclusion that they both were in close proximity of each other, wearing their birthday suits occurred. Both of them burned red out of embarrassment.

Phoenix tried to step out of the pool of warm water. "Don't get out yet!" He heard his friend say.

"Why not? Someone has to get out first. Just, umm… turn around or close your eyes."

"Oh, okay." She closed her eyes trying not to open them. In the meantime Phoenix put back on his clothing and armor.

When the adventurer was done he communicated it to Maya. "I'm finished you can open your eyes now." She opened her eyes cautiously to make sure the coast was clear.

Phoenix had one thing on his mind though, How did she know where this place is? "Hey, Maya how did you find me? Only I know where this spring is."

"Well I decided to scout the area for the next courthouse and the map led me here, so I decided to take a quick dip."

"Get out."

"Why? Unless… Nick you pervert, I thought you were better than that." Her face started to turn red to show her anger and a variety of other feelings.

"That's not what I was thinking of. You were the one who thought of that. I was thinking more under the lines of going to the courthouse now." He made his way out of vision to hopefully find the courthouse. At the same time Maya got out to redress herself and tried to catch up to Wright.

She caught up after tripping over several stalagmites. "Hey I'm right here ready to assist you." She spied the swordsman talking to a robed figure. Is that Nicholas, naw it's too tall to be him. She approached to see that the face was hidden even to her friend.

The robed figure seemed kind of bored just with talking to Nick. "Yeah, yeah ,yeah, chosen hero… blah blah blah blah blah. Just hop into the cart so I can get you to the next courthouse." He pointed to a mine cart left on some rails.

"WAIT FOR ME!" Maya sprinted and jumped into the cart while Phoenix climbed into it.

The robed figure levitated. "Now that you two are situated, place all arms and legs outside the vehicle at all times and please do standup during your ride. Go!" The cart was launched at a ridiculous speed into a large cavern. It would have been completely dark if it was any other cavern. However this cavern had a pool of lava waiting at the bottom.

("Nick, is this in response of what happened at Gatewater Land?"

"You tricked me into getting onto that monster you call a ride!"

"Mystic Maya was so happy. I knew leaving you two alone on that scary ride was a good Idea. You were holding onto her and It's like a beautiful fairytale."

That wasn't the reason why I was holding onto her.)

Phoenix balled up in the cart as he saw how high they were. His eyes just barely poked above the side of the cart. "Get me off! I'm scarred of heights!"

"I think we have bigger problems!" She pointed at a few guillotines raining down from the ceiling of the cavern. Every single one they sped through was narrowly missing the vehicle they were riding in. Fortunately for them, they cleared them all.

The robed figure flew behind them as if watching for something terrible to happen. "This is so interesting!"

The cart then took a nose dive several hundred feet and into a completely circular loop. The crushing g-forces almost caused our heroes to pass out. Then, they finally reached the end of the line. A large almost mocking sign read, "Dead End." They saw a wall painted with a bulls-eye. With the mine cart showing no signs of slowing down, it would be inevitable that the cart itself would crash

"Nick, jump!"

"No!"

Maya grabbed his hand and yanked him out of the cart with herself. They tumbled a couple of feet and stopped. The cart hit the wall with a large crunch noise. Both bruised beyond belief they slowly used their hands and knees to stand. They looked to see what could have happened if they did not jump.

"Aww you two are no fun, averting your deaths at every turn. Thanks for riding my soooouuuuuuul train." The robed figure flew away to leave the two alone.

The sword on his back glowed as the Justice spoke. "I think we just ran into Domon the Justice of Death. I really don't like him. He's what would you call it?"

"Sadistic?" Phoenix adding onto the Justice's previous sentence replied.

"Yeah, but that's no problem for me the greatest... Well, that's not exactly true either…"

Maya looked and found the door to the courtroom. It was slightly different it was much paler than the almost yellow one before. That same white light came into the room. Phoenix threw the blade into the light and it glowed once again. "I thought this would be a lot harder."

"Me too."

"Well there's a staircase, shall we head up?"

"Yeah, just one more question though. What do you think of me?"

The adventurer was immediately caught off guard by this sudden inquiry. I could pull a really terrible cheesy line like, 'I love you and always have.' Though, that isn't true. Anyways… "Well, you hold a special place in my heart." There I go beating around the bush again. I wonder when the snake is going to come out and bite me.

"Oh." Maya's voice trailed a little as if she was disappointed. With that awkward moment fleeting the two returned to the surface to travel to the last courthouse.


"Mr. Nick, how could you not release all those feelings?"

Phoenix's "new" girlfriend tried to calm her cousin down. "Pearly you need to remember it's a story and doesn't mean anything in real life."

"Yeah, Maya is right, besides it is a point of conflict in the story."

*sigh* "When will you admit your feelings in the story Mr. Nick?"

"Just wait and see."

A/N There is the chapter. Hopefully I can get another couple of updates in the next week. Then maybe post a one-shot. You want to know? Well it's a secret. Other than that leave a comment by reviewing. Enjoy the rest of your day/night.