This is it! I hope you all enjoyed my li'l story, here. I guess I don't hate it as much as I say I do. If you want to, check out the sequel to this story (yeah, it was written before I even thought about this story... sue me), YESTERDAY. It's sad. But I kind of like it.

Thanks for sticking with me, everybody! See you on the flip side... a brand new comedy, coming out sometime soon!

I woke up late. I opened my eyes and couldn't help but feel disoriented.

It was the first time I had slept in my new bedroom.

The walls were a pasty ivory, not the gray-blue I was used to seeing first thing in the morning. The floor was cleaner, but that would change fairly quickly, once I became unmotivated to keep our new apartment looking new.

Our new apartment. Maya and I were officially residents of Chicago, living in a tiny apartment that cost much more than it was worth, but I couldn't have been happier with the result.

Two months had passed since Maya's unexpected recovery, and we were now halfway across the country, in our new midwest apartment. It was a little smaller than what we had before, but neither of us seemed to mind.

I stumbled groggily through the door that separated our bedroom (our bedroom) from the rest of the apartment.

"And that's the last of 'em!" Maya chirped as she saw me enter the room, placing a pewter frame on the end table by our new couch. "So how do you like it?"

Our new living room was really shaping up. Maya took it upon herself to decorate the place and make it look like a well-loved home.

To Maya, though, "interior decorating" meant that every table had to have a frame displaying an old picture of one of our family members or friends.

"Do you think that's overkill?" I asked, pointing to one corner of the room that featured a collage of crooked, mismatched frames and embarrassing pictures of our separate childhoods.

She turned around, eyeing me as if there was something wrong with my logic, "Nick, it's in style. It looks good." She studied the wall of frames, suddenly laughing, "At least, the magazines said it was supposed to look good..."

"It's a little busy," I mentioned quietly. Her face fell. I saved myself, adding, "But it might just take some getting used to!"

"Nah, I'm kind of with you on that one. It might be overkill."

She held my gaze for a moment, then looked back at the scrambled array of pictures, and shook her head. "I don't know, Nick. We'll figure it out later. You're up super-late today!"

"Yeah, I know," I ran my fingers through my hair, half-yawning. "How long have you been awake? You could have woken me up, you know..."

Maya took a step closer, wrapping her arms around me casually, "But you looked so cute!"

"Really?" I cocked my head to the side. I thought about kissing her, but her cheek was busy nuzzling itself into my chest. I asked instead, "Hey, what time is it?"

"It's one fifteen."

"What!?" I panicked, jumping out of my skin.

Maya, in turn, jumped halfway across the room. She gave me a mixed look of shock and confusion, sighing with exasperation.

I justified myself; "We were supposed to meet Gumshoe down at the airport an hour ago... oh, damn!"

Maya, still recovering from the fact that I flung her away from me in panic, exclaimed, "Well, Nick, what are you doing?! Go get ready! You have two minutes! Starting now!"

One of my favorite personality traits of Maya's: the ability to turn any situation into a game.

I was already running back into the bedroom. If I lost the game, I would have to grovel and beg before she'd kiss me good night. Though she was fairly quick to give in, I would rather not embarrass myself with a minute's worth of pleas just for a kiss.

Now that Maya and I were both very open about our feelings, living together was even more enjoyable. It was a perfect balance of every day life and fun side adventures-- and the side adventures were always a perfect balance of play and intimacy.

The idea of spending the remainder of my years with her seemed like a better idea with each passing day.

I pulled on a pair of pants and barely buttoned my shirt before I came back outside, ready to leave. Maya held my hand as we flew down the complex stairs, and even as we began our high-paced trek down the street to the subway.

The autumn wind set motion to the red leaves fluttering down the sidewalks. The strong current of the wind pushed us, reminding us that we had better move quickly if we wanted to avoid a sticky situation with the detective. He was probably meandering around the bag check, or waiting patiently in the lobby. Having a drink.

"And when we greet him, he probably won't even seem annoyed by the fact that we're so late," I thought out loud. Curse Gumshoe for being such a decent guy.

"You're really feeling guilty about this, aren't you?" Maya knew I hadn't meant to say that out loud. "But it's just like you said. He won't care. He'll probably be more worried about your well-being than your lateness."

"I guess that's true," I agreed, letting her step through the subway door first.

At that point, being late was not a matter of how fast we could run. The subway's speed could be used as an excuse. We could finally take a breather.

She chose two seats in the corner of the car. As soon as we sat down, she brushed out her hair with her fingers.

"It is so windy this afternoon!"

"They don't call it 'The Windy City' for nothing, Maya."

"I always thought it was all a myth... y'know, The Legend Of The Windy City. Or just an exaggeration of reality. But this place is crazy!"

I turned into her, raising my eyebrows. "You don't like it?"

"Oh, no, Nick! It's perfect. Well, not perfect-- nowhere is perfect. But this is sufficiently... sufficient."

I resisted to make a comment about her redundancy sounding like Franziska.

Before I put away the thought, she blurted, "I just sounded like Franziska, right there."

"Eh, yeah, I was going to say that, but... sensitive subject?"

"Not as sensitive as other things I could think of."

I wasn't about to ask what she was referring to.

"I just mean, especially now that we're so far away from all of that, it's so much easier to joke about it," Maya continued. "That's another thing that makes this place perfect... for us, anyway."

Us. I still felt a surge of excitement every time I heard that word.

Maya and I sat for a few minutes, making meaningless observations and listing the various ways in which our new city of residence was perfect.

"I'll tell you one way it's not perfect," I interjected. "It's far away."

"Isn't that why we're staying here in the first place?"

"I mean that my mother is making me pay for her plane ticket to come visit us in a few weeks."

"Mrs. Wright!" Maya chirped jokingly, "How could she?"

"I know, right?" I rolled my eyes.

"I was kidding, Nick! I'm so excited!"

She took my hand, holding it between both of her hands in her lap as we exchanged a blissful glance.

As normal of a thing it had become, I still couldn't shake the fluttering feeling in my heart every time she took my hand.

"Wow, Nick, you're vibrating," Maya blushed.

Is she talking about the fluttering!? I blushed back.

"You should answer your cell phone," she clarified.

Oh. I answered.

"Hey, Mr. Wright!" Gumshoe roared before I could even say hello. "How's the weather on that side of the country?"

"It's a windy fall day. I never knew seasons like this existed. But aren't you in town already? We're running late to pick you up!"

"Flight's been delayed over here, pal. It turns out I'm not going to get to you guys until later tonight or tomorrow morning."

"That's too bad," I grumbled after hearing the news, a little annoyed that I almost had a heart attack trying to get ready that morning only to be told that he wasn't at the airport yet. I covered the receiver with my hand, repeating to Maya what Gumshoe had just told me. Maya seemed excited about this for some reason. To Gumshoe, I said, "Just let me know when you really get here, and we'll make our way over to the airport then. How does that sound?"

"Grade-A plan, pal!"

"Alright, see you soon. Bye."

I hid the phone in my pocket and turned back to Maya. "So, why did you just get that look on your face?"

"Because! Now we have time to roam the city!"

I hesitated. "But... we don't know where we're going. We could always rent a movie--"

"That's the point of aimlessly wandering around the city, Nick. It's supposed to be spontaneous. And there's always a risk of getting lost."

"Well," I looked around, "I guess we do have some time to waste. But where do we start?"

As soon as I finished that sentence, the subway made a stop. Maya stood up, demanding that I follow her.

Hand outstretched, she answered, "Here!"

I couldn't refuse.

"We're about to go on an extremely informative tour of the city, and I will be your tourguide," Maya announced, guiding me through the dirty station. "This subway has been around for many years."

"That's your idea of informative?"

"Hey!" She hit my arm, laughing. "It's a start!"

We passed a book store and an empty office building, idly mentioning the grave importance of each one on our journey to nowhere.

"The first cup of coffee was invented here, and was sold in the coffee shop next door," Maya informed me as we stood in front of the vacant building, making up lies as she continued her speech. "It only makes sense that the coffee shop would get more business than a business that didn't do anything but let another company sell its product."

"I wonder if that really happened," I said while we began walking again.

We turned to each other, bursting in laughter. I loved how Maya always had a way of getting me caught up in her innocent games...

We passed by a building that looked as though it had been there since the city was founded. It was a restaurant. A diner, to be exact, with many empty tables.

"You think they have burgers in there?" Maya asked. I could hear her mouth watering.

"I'm sure they do. Want to eat there later?"

"You read my mind!"

She walked slowly front of the window, eyeing the clientele.

"Wait," Maya paused, suddenly turning to me secretively, "Do you see the guy in that window?"

I looked, only half-interested.

There was a man in the window reading his newspaper. My heart skipped a beat.

Oh, my God.

The first thing I noticed was his brown hair, which was graying slightly in the front. The man repeatedly brushed his hair away from his face, making it clear that he wasn't used to looking so unkempt.

He had a cup of tea waiting for him at the edge of the table he was sitting at.

I wondered where his cravat went.

"What do you know?" I said, astounded. "Is that...?"

"Edgey?" Maya looked directly at him.

He glanced at us from inside the restaurant, and once he and I made eye contact, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Startled, he buried his face in the paper he was reading.

I exclaimed, "That's Edgeworth! Do you think he's become a regular at a cheap diner?"

"I don't think he wanted us to find out his secret!"

"We have to go in there!" I demanded.

"No! Did you see the way he looked at us?" Maya argued, making it sound like his glance was a personal attack.

"We can't just ignore him! We came here to find him!"

"Clearly, now is not the time."

I asked, "Do you think I should try to find his number in the phonebook, and make it sound like we were casually in the area?"

Maya laughed, "Yeah, Nick, we were casually halfway across the country and decided to stalk your name in the phonebook..."

"Oh. Yeah, that doesn't really make sense... why do I always do that?"

"But that's what makes you so adorable, love."

Not this game again... in front of the whole street?

"... I have to tell Gumshoe about Edgeworth, at least!" I reiterated.

I pulled out my phone, but Maya snatched it away from my hand before I could call.

"Can't you call later?" she asked, sliding my phone into my back pocket in a way that made me shiver. She had her arms around my waist, gazing at me with doe eyes. She clearly wanted something.

"Well, since you put it that way..."

She beamed.

"It's funny," I laughed, "We came all this way to find him, and now that we found a guy who looks like, and probably is, Edgeworth, you're not letting me talk to him."

"It's just that I'm having such a good time right now," Maya admitted. "Is that selfish?"

Sort of. I couldn't hold that against her, though. I was having a great time as well.

I'd just have Gumshoe eat at that diner every day until he found Edgeworth again.

"Not at all, dearest," I sighed happily. She laughed. I scratched the back of my head awkwardly, wondering what it was about me that always had her laughing.

It seemed that we had reached the end of the sidewalk. We were stuck in the middle of a swarm of people, waiting at the pedestrian light to walk across the street.

I couldn't help but want to laugh at how perfectly everything had worked out, given our previous situation.

I was so indescribably happy with Maya, with starting over, with being unemployed for the time being in a brand new city...

"What are you smiling at?" Maya asked playfully, her hands making their way to my shoulders.

I wasn't even fazed by the fact that this was going on in public sight.

"Do I really have to answer that?" I half-whispered, my fingers giving away the answer as they brushed against her cheek.

I can't believe I just said that. I couldn't believe I meant it.

She really had me in the palm of her hand; I was entirely hers. And, for the first time in my entire life, I wasn't too shy to admit it.

She kissed me, lightly brushing her lips against mine. I knew I had to be blushing a deep red. I kissed her back, shyly, tenderly-- hoping that people weren't staring, but at the same time, not particularly caring. I pushed back her hair with my hand, letting my fingers rest at her neck. Each kiss lasted longer than the one preceding it, and Maya pulled herself in closer to me every time our lips reconnected.

A strange feeling came over me. I couldn't stop myself from laughing under my breath, from trying to fight the smile tugging at my lips as Maya tugged at them with her own. I pulled away, allowing myself a few seconds to take a deep breath and calm down before I locked lips with Maya again.

Maya was out of breath, too, and her cheeks were flushed when I took a moment to look at her. We must have been kissing for longer than I thought.

"So what was so hilarious a few seconds ago?" she asked rather casually, considering the steamy lip-lock we'd just shared. She let go of her tight grip around my shoulder and waist, but took my hand.

I don't know what it was that I found so funny. We had to start our lives from scratch. Actually, there wasn't anything even slightly comical about it. The thought of starting over was somewhat terrifying to me.

I'd been smiling widely ever since we'd arrived here, though, and that must've counted for something.

Our lives wouldn't be the same. We'd experienced what was a near-fatal blow to our chances of being together. Maya had been injured in a way that would probably affect her health in one way or another in the long run. I'd been hurt and betrayed enough to know not to trust any Von Karma again.

But, nobody ever said that starting over was so bad. Perhaps the humorous part of our plight is that we were able to find the supreme happiness, lifelong companionship, despite the hell we had to go through to get there.

That was exactly it. After ending that last chapter on such a rocky note, this new beginning seemed pretty promising.

"You make me happy, you know that?" was all I could manage to answer.

Judging by the look on Maya's face, that seemed to be enough.

The pedestrian signal blinked a white stick figure, indicating our turn to walk across the street. Maya's hand in mine, we continued walking -- our destination ultimately unknown. It was the happiest beginning I could have ever asked for.