Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the Ace attorney universe, I just own the plot.
A kittens turnabout
Phoenix Wright, Ace attorney, slept soundly on the sofa of the Wright anything agency; his eyes were shut and he was deeply entranced in his slumber.
It had been two months since he had regained his Attorneys badge and he had been spending a lot of time trying to make up for seven long years of being practically jobless and that meant him working long hours at night trying to catch up on sorting out any potential client that comes his way. At the end of the day, all that working left him so tired that he had not only resorted to sleeping on the sofa but had been falling asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.
His fatigue also brought on a bout of moodiness during the daytime.
He tried not to make a habit of snapping at Apollo or Athena, especially not Trucy; he couldn't bare the thought of hurting the feelings of his darling magician daughter or getting on Apollo nor Athena.
Just the thought of seeing those upset faces broke his heart in two.
Thus, he had tried to just get as much sleep as he could possibly get.
He had the place for himself right now as Trucy was having a late-night magician show at the Wonder bar, Apollo had decided to turn in early for the night after both himself and Athena had to deal with a particularly difficult case together while Athena went out to go and have a bit of a late evening rendezvous with Simon Blackquill.
Never the less, the ace attorney in blue relished in the peace and quiet.
He was more than happy to catch up on some much-needed rest. He loved the quiet ambience of the main room, the soft and soothing scents permeating through the room, how comfortable the leather/velvet sofa was —he loved it all and didn't want to be anywhere else right now. He just wanted complete sleep to carry him off into the realm of dreams.
He couldn't help but smile softly.
Then the door started banging.
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
Phoenix's peaceful smile dropped faster than the most manly of man's vocal chords.
He felt it as his ocean blue eyes snapped open when he heard those agonisingly loud knocks on the door. He whipped his head about with his mind in turmoil and chaos for a split few seconds until he regained his bearings. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and his vision spun slightly from a huge lack of sleep and his power nap being disturbed.
He couldn't help but squeeze a displeased moan through his vocal chords.
"Maybe that's Trucy back..." He thought to himself, glancing over at the mantelpiece clock to look over at the time and his brow furrowed when he saw that it was 11:30 at night. "No, that can't be her. She's not normally back from the Wonder bar until around midnight."
This was quite the enigma indeed.
It couldn't be Apollo nor Athena and he knew that for sure because neither of them sent him any emails or anything to give him a warning of a late night visit. It couldn't have been Trucy because, as he had just mentioned, she wasn't due back until 12 o'clock and that was half an hour away.
The currently unruly yet spiky-haired lawyer sighed exasperatedly.
Why did this have to happen now of all times?
Who would even be here at this hour?
Phoenix huffed while he reluctantly peeled himself from beneath his blankets like a snake shedding its skin and he scowled into open air while he made an effort to awaken the rest of his sleeping body since he had clearly been unsuccessful in awakening anything other than his mind. He sluggishly got to his feet but he made sure to wrap his blanket around his shoulders and himself while he slouched so heavily that it looked like gravity itself was trying to drag him to the floor.
He heavily lumbered over to the front door, rubbing the crust of sleep out of his heavily-lidded eyeballs.
It felt like an eternity before Phoenix finally finished his slow striding and reached the door. The aggressive knocking had ceased and there was this eerie silence left in its wake. It was so quiet that it sent shudders down the attorney-at-law's spine; he had learned through years of cases (the first one especially) that someone aggressively trying to break into your house and then going quiet was a horrible sign.
What if someone had broken in!?
Granted, there wasn't much worth stealing (maybe except for Charlie the potted plant) but that didn't quell any of the Ace attorneys fears. Regardless, he decided to be brave. He didn't know whether or not his paranoia came from his current state of fatigue but he decided to shake it off and just open the door to put this conundrum to rest once and for all.
He released a hand from the blanket draped over him and then used that very same hand to twist the doorknob and open the door.
It was upon opening it that he was overcome with surprise as he was shocked beyond words when he couldn't see anybody there. The ace attorney in blue immediately felt rather sheepish that the first thing he thought of was "burglary" and "attempted murder" when someone came to his door so late at night. He hummed thoughtfully as he looked to his left and then to his right, trying to see if anyone was running away or anything.
He looked right.
Nothing.
He looked left.
Still nothing.
He really couldn't see anyone.
But who was banging so hard on the door then?
That was when Phoenix peered down to look and see if there was a letter or something left for him...but what he saw made his heart skip a beat, his mouth fall wide open and his whole body freeze.
There was a basket on the doorstep.
It was a rich golden brown basket and whoever made it was a very good weaver, it was easy to tell that it wasn't a picnic basket but it was round in shape and had a thin blue woollen blanket covering whatever thing was supposed to be occupying it. Two handles were sticking out from either side of the basket. But there was a baby blue blanket in the basket that seemed to have been concealing a small bump about the size of an orange.
Phoenix felt his stomach twist with anxiety.
Clearly there was something inside the basket and it was more than likely either a delivery of snacks or something more alive —the lawyer with the jet black spiky hair very much hoped that it was the snack option. Usually a basket being left on somebody's doorstep meant one thing and one thing only.
Phoenix desperately hoped that he was wrong.
He bent down and deftly lifted the blanket up to expose the creature hiding beneath.
The spiky-haired attorney in blue felt his breath hitch in his throat while his eyeballs were just about ready to pop out of their sockets when he let the reality sink in properly when he finally figured out what was inside the blanket and, needless to say, it was nowhere near what he'd expected.
There was a kitten...in the basket...on the doorstep.
Phoenix could hardly believe his eyes.
He expected a baby to be in there, not a kitten!
Granted, he favoured this outcome a tad better but still...
He felt numb but his mind was bursting with a billion questions at once. Why was a little kitten left at the Wright anything agency of all places? Who would give up a kitten like this? Who could be as heartless as to leave such a poor little creature? Who could do this? Actually, this made him vaguely remember when himself, Larry Butz and Miles Edgeworth had all found Missle when they were just young boys.
He missed that little Pomeranian.
But that was besides the point!
Phoenix towered over the kitten in the basket with his face aghast.
He wasn't much of an animal person but he still felt a pang of sympathy hit him right in the heart so he decided to snap himself out of his stupor and stoop down so he could peer closer to examine the kit more closely.
He had to admit that this little kitty was adorable.
The kitten looked probably to be a solid week old. It had a splendid (albeit rather dirty) white fur coat that had some dark coffee brown swirly patterns around its body that looked very unique to any animal, let alone a cat. All four of its paws were a deep ebony colour while the tip of its tail and the ears was the same shade.
Phoenix's eyes softened at the baby kitten.
It had a sleek and slender frame and its paws were large —larger even than a regular kitten. The small ball of fur and fluff slept soundly as though completely unaware of where it was or what was happening. It's small triangular ears had flattened against its skull and it seemed to curl into one of the tightest balls of adorability in world history.
The tiny bundle of fluff woke up and peeled open it's eyes, it showed that this tiny fluff ball had beautiful sapphire blue pools for eyes that one could easily get lost in should they stare long enough.
It was difficult not to do just that.
Phoenix was at war with himself as he deliberated on what course of action he should take next, his heart wasn't made of stone. He knew that he couldn't throw the poor thing out and leave it on the cold streets outside and especially not at such a late hour. He didn't want to grow too attached to the creature but, at the same time, he didn't want to let the creature die out there either.
He started to grumble to himself.
"What am I gonna do? I made it clear that we aren't allowed to keep any pets up here...! But..."
He glanced down at the sleepy kitten long and hard.
A few lengthy seconds passed by until he had finally made up his mind on what to do and he heaved a sigh from the very depths of his throat. He hung his head and closed his eyes whilst he shook his head once in a way that asked "What am I going to do with you?".
He stood back up, gathering the basket and kitten into his arms before bringing the lot back inside.
He would figure out what to do tomorrow...
A/N: Here's a new Ace attorney story, everyone! I hope you enjoy it because I intend on putting as much fluffy goodness in this as humanly possible. So it seems that Phoenix has found a bit of a surprise outside the agency door.
How would Trucy, Athena and Apollo react?
Btw, in this story, this takes place before SOJ.
And it was my birthday a few days ago! :D
Unfortunately, though, I have been put into self isolation thanks to the corona virus so thats not fun.
I hope you enjoy the story!
-Chloemcg