"Well, thank goodness neither one of you had to take the blame anymore after you caught that face-changing menace," Marcus now voiced his thoughts aloud. "You must have both been over the moon when you got out of court that night."
His son barked out a laugh. "It was more a matter of trying to process that this was real."
When Marcus looked at him, Simon was stunned by the amount of understanding he could see in his father's expression – not something he had ever expected to witness on the familiar, if by now more weathered, features of his old man.
"I bet. Hours away from the noose, and suddenly, you're free. In a way, it must've been a shock in its own right."
He inclined his head slightly. "Indeed. Not only that, I ended up being dragged to some itinerant noodle stand less than half an hour after the trial had concluded – you would probably enjoy their offerings, Mother, they reminded me of the small restaurant in Mitaka you always liked so much…"
Athena interrupted him by elbowing him in the ribs. "Hey, nobody dragged you, you insisted on inviting yourself after the boss was talked into paying for everybody!"
Simon snorted. "You have your version of the events, I have mine. And since Wright-dono isn't here to corroborate your story…"
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Jerk."
He smirked. "And proud of it."
"Now now, children…" Marcus was obviously amused by their little juvenile display. Next to him, Masako had a hand lifted to shield her mouth from Simon's eyes, and he knew she was smiling.
His father then demanded, "On with the story. What happened next?"
December 20, 2027, 11:30 PM
It had only been natural for Simon to volunteer to escort Athena home after the group at Eldoon's Noodles had dispersed. Justice had left relatively quickly, as he was still in some pain from his injuries, even if they had healed on the surface – and perhaps also due to his lack of opportunity to grieve for the friend he had lost in the HAT-2 incident. Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth had taken it upon himself to drive Wright, his daughter, the odd Fey girl, and Juniper Woods home, leaving no further space in his car.
"I don't need protection, you silly man," Athena groused even as she fell into step next to him, leading the way once they had left the park. "If anyone attacks me, they'll never know what hit them."
He laughed. "I'm all too ready to believe that, and yet, I would ask you to indulge me, for my own peace of mind."
Eventually, they arrived at a somewhat run-down apartment building in a side street, and she halted in her tracks, turning toward him. "Well, this is it. Thanks for walking me home."
"Think nothing of it."
He was just about to take his leave when her voice once again managed to freeze him in his tracks. "Simon…?"
"Yes?"
Suddenly, she pressed herself against him, her head on his chest, her arms wrapped tightly around his torso, her shoulders beginning to shake traitorously.
"I… I didn't know how to say it earlier… maybe because it just hadn't hit me yet that it's finally over… but I'm so glad that we're okay… and I've wanted to do this the whole time… ever since we started talking again… but there was always the glass between us, and the shackles, and all those people… and I'm so happy to have you back…"
At first, he did not know how to react to her holding on to him like that, to her beginning to sob into his suit jacket. It had been so long since he had given or received comfort. However, then his arms wrapped around her seemingly out of their own accord, and in a flash, he was crushing her to him, the contact and her warmth like a drug he had not sampled in years, and he did not even realize that tears of his own were now streaming from his eyes.
It is over. I am free. She is safe. Oh thank god…
Could a heart be crushed by sudden, unbearable lightness?
Simon had no idea how long they stood there, lost in each other's closeness. Then, she drew back slightly to look up at him, and one of her arms reached up, her fingers settling at the nape of his neck, and she stood on tiptoes…
"We shouldn't do this," he muttered even as he let her guide his head down towards her upturned face.
"Why not?" Athena asked in a whisper.
"Neither one of us is thinking straight. You will probably regret this." His fingers were running through her hair as he leaned over her, the distance between their mouths measuring mere inches.
"I sincerely doubt that." She smiled against his lips.
Simon crowded her against the wall of the building, kissing her as if his life depended on it, his hand cradling the back of her head to protect it from bumping against the concrete.
"This is still a terrible idea," he exhaled after coming up for air, just before diving into the kiss again.
"Oh, absolutely horrible," she agreed breathily during their next fraction-of-a-second break, after his hands had begun roaming over her body.
"We really should stop," he groaned as she squeezed him through his pants.
"God yes, what are we doing…?" Her lips were sucking a mark into the skin of his neck.
"What, indeed…?" He got his revenge by nipping at the upper rim of her ear.
"I believe we are just about to go upstairs and continue this in a more private setting…?" Athena answered her own question.
The blatant invitation managed to jar Simon momentarily out of the haze of arousal into which he had been rapidly descending.
"Athena, this… this is rather sudden. You do remember that I am ten years your senior, and that I do come with a reputation…?"
"Mhm, watch me care…" She reached for him again. "Stop protecting me already and put that mouth of yours to better use…"
He knew at that point that he had thoroughly lost this particular battle.
She proceeded to defeat him halfway up the stairs, right after they had finally closed the door of her apartment behind them once they had completed the slowest ascent known to mankind, and multiple times throughout the night.
"As you can probably tell from that little anecdote, she swooped in and never gave me a chance to get away from her clutches," Simon concluded dryly, although he was aware that the memory made his ears burn.
Marcus bellowed out a laugh that was surprisingly similar to his son's. "I'll say. Good for you, Ms. Cykes – getting this one to make out against a wall like a teenager is not something I thought possible before – not even when he was a teen…"
Athena seemed a bit taken aback by his father's amusement. "You mean, you aren't mad at me that I jumped him like that…?"
"Considering the circumstances, not in the least." Marcus was still chuckling as he glanced over at his wife, who had lowered her eyes in a display of shyness. "Oh, to be that young again, eh, Masako?"
Simon groaned. "Thank you very much for that mental image, Father."
Next to him, Athena giggled as she leaned over towards him, stage-whispering next to his ear, "Hey, I know it's a secret, but… your parents had sex at least twice in their lives!"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "How nice of you to clarify."
Masako daintily took another sip of her mocha before she turned to her husband.
"Anata, I believe we owe Cykes-san an apology."
"Oh yes, of course." Marcus cleared his throat. "The way we reacted earlier… we misjudged you severely. I'm sorry for us implying what we did."
He grinned. "I daresay you two lunatics thoroughly deserve each other."
Simon found himself mirroring the grin. Just like that, the barriers had fallen. He was no longer the inscrutable bookworm, the lost son, the lone rōnin, the criminal in the eyes of his parents, one to whom they either could no longer relate, or had never been able to relate to to begin with. Their conversation had managed to drive away the specters of the past standing between them, and his interactions with Athena had only served to further humanize him in the eyes of his father in particular, something which had always seemed impossible to accomplish.
He hugged his girlfriend to his side as he inquired, "Are you staying, or would you prefer to finish your run?"
She smiled up at him. "I've gotten my exercise in for the day, so I think I'll stick around for a while longer. It isn't every day that I meet your parents, you know – I'm expecting some embarrassing childhood stories at the very least!"
Simon snorted. "Now I suddenly find myself wanting to leave."
Athena feigned a stern expression. "No way, buster. You'll stay right there and let me make fun of you."
He raised his hands in defeat. "Have at it, then."
They remained at the café until it closed, sharing stories and celebrating the fact that, at last, seven years of enforced deceit and disconnection had finally been overcome.
~ THE END/OWARI ~
