Disclaimer: I DO own Phoenix Wright, I play it every day on my Nintendo DS. However, I don't own the rights to it, and because of that this piece of writing is intended as a tribute to the game and totally non-commercial (meaning I don't get paid to write this).
March 21, 9:30 AM
Herbal tea store
Maya walked along the aisles of the shop, browsing the shelves, trying to find something to give to Phoenix; she had been allowed to leave her training just for today, the Vernal Equinox vacation, and she wanted to surprise Nick by showing up at the offices. But she couldn't go empty-handed.
"This will do," she mumbled, picking up a cake from a shelf. "Hmmm... flour, butter, eggs... green tea leaves? I wonder what it tastes like..." she wondered, while walking towards the register.
As she was reading the cake's label, she didn't notice the man standing in the aisle, and bumped into him.
"Oh! Excuse me," she said, and looked up to the guy. Recognition was immediate. "Mr Edgeworth!"
Miles stared at the girl before him for a couple of seconds, then remembered where he had seen her. "...Maya, right? Wright's assistant?"
"Yes!" answered Maya, and smiled at him. "Long time no see, Mr. Edgeworth! How are you?"
He thought back to the events of forty days before. The Skye trial, him leaving the prosecutor's office... He shrugged. "Well, things could be better, but I'm not complaining. What about you?"
"I'm completing my spirit medium training, but today I'm on vacation, and I'm visiting Nick. I'm here to buy him something, I can't show up empty-handed after all."
While they talked they moved through checkout - Edgeworth bought a special blend of black tea, orange and cinnamon flavored - and out of the shop. When they reached the street in front of the store Maya was in a thoughtful mood. "You know, I don't think I ever thanked you properly."
Edgeworth was puzzled. "Thanked me? For what?"
"For bailing me out of jail last year, of course!"
"...Don't mention it."
"No," replied the girl. "I really want to find some way to tank you... Let me think..."
They were silent for a couple of minutes, then Maya clapped her hands, bowed her head slightly and smiled. "I know!" she said. "As a way of thanking you, I'm going to let you take me on a date!"
Miles blinked. "A date?"
"Yes, a date! Let's see... are you busy this afternoon?"
"No, I'm not, but..."
"Wonderful! Then why don't we meet at three o'clock in front of Gourd Lake?"
"Three o'clock, Gourd Lake?" repeated Edgeworth. He was about to refuse, but then thought twice about it: Maya had saved him from being sentenced to death, after all; what was a single date compared to that? "OK then."
"Great! I'm off to visit Nick's office, see you this afternoon!" called Maya, and walked away towards Wright & Co.
The former prosecutor shook his head in amazement. "What was that all about?"
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March 21, 3:06 PM
Gourd Lake entrance
Edgeworth walked towards Gourd Lake, still wondering how he had let Maya talk him into this date. He looked around the place. The all-too-familiar gravel path snaked out towards the water, flanked by trees and the occasional bench. He had last visited this place three months ago, and that visit almost cost him his life.
Maya was waiting for him sitting on a bench. She got up as he closed the distance between them, and called to him. "There you are! You're late, I was worried you wouldn't come!"
"Late?" he replied, and checked his watch. "Come on, only five minutes!"
Maya shook her head. "What matters is not if you are slightly late or very late, it's that you are late."
Miles looked her in the eyes, and saw she was serious. He sighed. "I'm sorry I'm late."
She smiled at him. "That's better. Now, let's go!" she said, and latched onto his left arm.
As he involuntarily flinched, she swatted him lightly behind his head with her hand and chastised him. "Don't squirm! It's a date, we're supposed to do this!"
Miles sighed again. This was going to be a long day.
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March 21, 5:10 PM
Gourd Lake
When was the last time I enjoyed myself this much?
Those words echoed in Edgeworth's mind, over and over again; a simple question, but a question he couldn't find an answer to without looking back four months to the celebration dinner they had when he was acquitted. And then, to find another truly happy moment, he had to skip at least fifteen years of his life, going back to when he hung out with Phoenix and Larry at school... before the death of his father.
Since the date had started, Miles and Maya had wandered along the shore of Gourd Lake, aimlessly chatting about many things: Maya's training, Edgeworth's last case and, in general, how life had been since she went back to the mountain. While at first Miles hadn't been very talkative, he had soon been swept up by the girl's hyper behavior, and the chat had livened up.
They had circled the entire lake while talking; the walk had taken them almost two hours, and Edgeworth was shocked to realize that it was the first time in his entire life he had been able to do small talk for more than a couple minutes... without even noticing it.
They were now sitting silently in a boat out on the lake, far away from the shore, almost in the same spot where Yogi had attempted to frame him for murder only three months ago. Both had ice creams in their hands: hers was strawberry-flavored, while his tasted like green tea (not bad at all, but he still preferred a nice, hot cup of tea).
Edgeworth looked at Maya eating her ice cream, a slight smirk spreading on his lips. It didn't take long for Maya to notice it.
"Now, what are you smiling at?" she asked in a jokingly manner.
"You know it's not even April yet, don't you?" replied Miles.
"So?"
"That ice cream won't melt anytime soon. You don't need to eat it like a lion tearing through an antelope's carcass."
Maya raised her eyebrows slightly at the comparison, but grinned back. "Well, I was hoping I could have some of yours if I finished mine quickly!"
Against his better judgment, Edgeworth found himself snickering. "You're hopeless. You're just like..." he drifted off, not completing the sentence.
"Who?" asked a puzzled Maya. "I'm just like who?"
"Never mind," replied Edgeworth, the smile completely gone from his face.
"Oh, no, Mr. Edgeworth," said Maya, raising her voice slightly. "Now you tell me: who am I 'just like'?"
Edgeworth looked at her, then at the water the boat was floating in. No way out of this one, unless he dove into the water and tried to reach the shore before Maya could turn the boat around and chase after him... He discarded that possibility as soon as he had thought about it, he wasn't that desperate just yet. Out of options, he could only answer her question.
Well, here goes nothing.
"...Your mother."
"HEY!" shouted the girl. "Just because you don't want to tell me is no excuse to insult my family!"
"No, no, no, you got it wrong," stammered Edgeworth, quickly realizing his mistake. "What I meant was that you are just like your mother."
Maya looked at him with wide eyes, color draining from her face, her anger quickly subsiding. "You... you know my mother?" she managed to say, after a couple of minutes. "When? Where? How? Why?" she continued, picking up heat again, clenching her fists and leaning forward, so as to be right into Edgeworth's face.
Miles sighed. "Now you see why I didn't want to tell you?"
"So you REALLY know my mother!"
"I KNEW your mother, Maya. I haven't seen her in fifteen years."
"Fifteen years? But that's about when..."
"Yes. The DL-6 incident."
Everything clicked into place. How could Maya have forgotten? It was, after all, her mother who had been the medium the police turned to to question Edgeworth's father. It only made sense that Miles was there, too, and that explained how he met her mother.
Maya sat back down on the boat, folded her arms and stared at Edgeworth for a couple of minutes. Then she made up her mind.
"Tell me."
"'Tell me'? What?"
"About my mother!"
"Didn't you ever hear about her from your sister?"
Maya was growing impatient. "Of course I did! But... but I want to hear about her from somebody else!"
Edgeworth looked at her. He could see the flames in her eyes: she wasn't going to back down. He sighed. "All right."
He settled back in his seat, staring out at the lake.
"As you guessed, I met Misty Fey, your mother, some time after the DL-6 incident. I had been left an orphan; my mother died when I was so young I can't even remember her. I have no other relatives that I know of, so they put me in an orphanage until they could find a foster family.
"They kept me up to date with the investigation. When it became clear they had no suspect, and decided to contact my father's ghost through a spirit medium, they let me witness the ritual.
"I still remember her, standing before myself and the policemen, accusing Yanni Yogi in my father's voice. I remember her clothes, a slightly more elaborated version of what you're wearing right now. And I remember, as clear as if it was yesterday, that when the ritual was complete and my father's ghost was gone, she came over to me, smiled at me and said: 'Don't you worry, dear. Everything will turn out just fine'."
He stopped talking, feeling something cold dripping on his hand. Looking down he saw that he was still holding his ice cream; he had completely forgotten about it, and it was now almost completely melted. He quickly tossed it overboard, then whipped out a handkerchief and wiped his hand clean.
He took a deep breath, and resumed his tale.
"Back then, the law that limits trials to a three-day period hadn't been passed yet, so it took about four months before the case was 'solved'. During those four months, your mother looked after me, visiting me in the orphanage, taking me to the seaside, the mountains... I guess she was trying to take my mind off the death of my father. She was kind, warm and caring, but also had a thing for quickly eating large amounts of food... when we ate together at restaurants she would clean her plate in a couple of minutes, then pick at my food while chatting with me. You really take after her in this aspect, Maya.
"In a short while she became a sort of mother figure for me. You see, I never met my mother, I don't even know her name...
"But I digress. After a while I began hoping that, when the trial was over, she would take me home with her... but then Yogi was acquitted, word that your mother had helped the police was leaked out to the press, and she disappeared."
Edgeworth sighed. "I was in the orphanage for another two months, until von Karma returned from his vacation and took me in."
After Edgeworth finished his tale, there was a prolonged silence, broken only by the water sloshing around the sides of the boat.
"You know, I really envy you," said Maya after a while, her eyes low.
"You envy me? Why?"
Her voice was beginning to break, and she sobbed a couple of times. "Well, you were cared for for nine years by your father, before that incident... but I can't even remember my mother's face."
Those words hit Edgeworth like a fist in the guts. He hadn't realized it before, but he and Maya were very similar...
Maya now had tears streaming down her cheeks. "And no matter how many times I'm told about her, I can't remember anything about her. I wish... I just wish..." she mumbled, before breaking into a high-pitched scream and leaning into Edgeworth, throwing her arms around him. Before he realized it, Miles had the young woman embracing him, crying her eyes out into his chest.
He froze for a moment. Nothing, in his entire life, had prepared him for something like this. Then he realized the right course of action, and gently placed his arms around Maya's trembling form.
It took a while for her to stop crying, but not as long as it would have take without Edgeworth being there. She had to admit his embrace felt sort of nice. Breathing into his chest she could smell his scent, a strange but not unpleasant mixture of sweat and many different flavors of tea.
"Miles?" she whispered.
"Yes?" replied Edgeworth, slightly startled; it was the first time she had ever used his first name.
"Do... do you mind if we stay like this for a little longer?"
There was a slight pause while he carefully considered his answer.
"Not at all, Maya, not at all."
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March 21, 7:50 PM
Gourd Lake public beach
Edgeworth wasn't really paying attention while walking through the evening crowd, letting Maya steer him by his arm while reflecting on the events that had transpired that afternoon.
Things hadn't moved past the hug, but that had been meaningful enough: just being in each other's arms that way had strengthened their bond to a point where he couldn't believe he had almost refused that date, not even twelve hours before.
Maybe, he wondered. Maybe, in time, the feelings he had experienced could grow into something wonderful.
"Yay! Samurai Dogs!" shouted Maya, tugging on his arm and pointing towards Larry's stand. "Buy me some, Miles!"
Edgeworth smiled as they approached the kiosk, pulling out his wallet.
Where they would go from there was a mystery, but after everything that had happened that afternoon he was more than willing to find out.
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Author notes:
1. This story is canon as-of the first game in the Phoenix Wright series, since I haven't played the other games (yet).
2. Even though I used the translated name (from the non-japanese relase of the game, because I'm more familiar with the names), the story is set in Japan. March 21 is actually a public holiday in Japan.
3. As you may have noticed, this story contains a fair bit of speculation, especially regarding Edgeworth's past between the DL-6 incident and the time he was taken in by von Karma (a six months gap).
4. That's all I have to say. Hope you enjoyed the story :D