Chapter Sixty-One: Never Gonna Give You Up

Two months ago...

Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey
Edgeworth Master Bedroom (aka Love Shack)
October 26, 2024 7:30 am

Edgeworth's curt reminder of the Band-Aid solution Phoenix had been settling for a fortnight ago had been the exact kick in the pants the former defense attorney had needed. However painful the knowledge was that he had indeed, gotten overly lax and complacent due to the happy bubble he'd been living in with Maya, and his mostly low-stress gig at the bar, the execrable, inescapable reality of his situation had needed to be addressed.

So, since that fateful phone call, Phoenix had sprung into action, taking the bull by the horns, resuming investigations, trying to get to the bottom of the events surrounding Trucy's grandfather's death and the forged diary page and his disbarring with such grim, determined gusto that this time, try as he might, he hadn't been able to hide things from Maya, who was most deeply disturbed.

A few weeks after that initial phone call in October, she'd awoken from her satiated slumber the next morning and had been concerned about the haunted look on her boyfriend's face as he'd lain there on the bed, arms behind his head, gazing sightlessly at the busy, sunken rectangular panels on the coffered ceiling.

Sidling over to his side of the bed, she rubbed her bare form against his and placed a soft kiss on his exposed, muscled chest, then rested her shining head there, looking up at him expectantly.

No response from Phoenix.

Maya lay there staring, unnoticed, up at his set jaw and vacant gaze for a few moments before she had no choice but to wave her hand in front of his face.

"Earth to Nick!" She teased, snapping her fingers when it appeared he didn't appear to be reacting to her palm resting inches from his nose. "Come in, Nick!"

Phoenix started, as though he literally hadn't noticed that there was a warm naked female pressing her curves up against his own bare flesh and was now looking at him with an expression of combined love and concern. Looking down, he met his girlfriend's troubled gaze and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, guess I was spacing out there for a sec." He lifted his head and pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "What's up, Maya?"

"Every guy that looks at me!" She quipped, momentarily ignoring her misgivings about his troubled state and flashing a sassy wink. "But I'm not complaining!"

Phoenix stared at her for a moment, then gave a throaty chuckle at her naughty punny wit.

"While not at all untrue, especially in the case with this guy here," he drawled, a slow smile of appreciation tugging at his lips as he ran his fingers through her long tresses and then let them fall back in a satiny curtain over his bare torso. "I also see there's nothing lacking with your self-confidence, Miss Fey."

"Should there be?" She derided, arching an eyebrow and taking a peek under the sheets to assess just how true his statement was before looking back up at him with a sultry expression that made his blood pressure, among other things, even further rise.

"Never with me, wanton vixen," he growled, quickly flipping over so he had her pinned beneath him on the mattress. He flashed her a wicked grin. "Allow me to prove to you just how confident you should be in your ability to make things go up in thine presence…and what will always happen whenever it does…"

With that, he proceeded to give her a thorough demonstration of just exactly what the end result was when such matters did arise!

Sometime later, the sated Maya drowsily lifted her head up from his chest again and poked him playfully in the chest.

"While that was a most toe-curling way to prove the validity of my glib words, don't think I don't know what you were trying to do, Phoenix Wright! I'm onto you!"

"I am most wounded by your insinuations that I was motivated by anything but the desire of having a glorious morning romp with the most gorgeous, sexy woman on the planet!" Phoenix looked at her with feigned innocence. "I wasn't trying to do anything! Well, besides you, anyway…"

"Listen, Nick, while I may have allowed myself to willingly succumb to such sinful distraction this one time…" Maya giggled and lifted her head up to look at him sternly. "Rest assured, I'm not always going to let you get away with trying to make love to me just because you don't want to discuss what's going on in that overly complex noggin of yours!"

"Tried?" He asked mock-indignantly, lazily twirling a lock of raven hair around his finger and smiling smugly. "I think we can both attest that I was most successful in my endeavors, was I not?"

It wasn't as though he was purposefully trying to mislead his girlfriend. It was just that Phoenix had gotten so used to the fine art of bluffing at this point in his life; at masking his true emotions behind an empty or polite smile. At work, he smiled for eight hours a day, and then well into the evenings, for the sake of his daughter. It was a requirement of both his jobs, fake Pianist and real Papa. It was only when he was alone, that he would let his face fall into neutral, let his mouth lie in a thin morbid line and his cheeks rest.

But once in a while, he would turn on the faux grin, without thinking, for his girlfriend, like he was now, and she would just stare at him, aghast. Maya didn't want to see the smile with his mouth, she wanted the smile with his eyes. She would take just a soft look of contentment over that façade of a grin. She'd tell him, quite firmly, "Phoenix Wright, I'd rather an honest scowl to that!"

Such was her disposition on that matter at that very moment.

"Cut it out, Nick." Maya sat up then and fixed him with her best don't-mess-with-me stare. "You were mentally in another dimension earlier when I first woke up. Don't deny it. I know when something's on your mind. What's going on? Is it your investigations? Have you finally gotten any solid leads?"

Before Phoenix could reply, they heard the tell-tale sound of the dining bell Hendricks had discreetly rung, to let them know that despite his ninja-like stealth, he was not only present (and more than likely had heard their recent mid-morning canoodling!) he'd come in and had prepared them breakfast.

"I don't know about you Maya, but I'm starved!" Phoenix grinned excitedly and rolled out of bed, looking way too relieved for the impromptu reprieve for Maya's liking, and reached for his jeans. "You sure made me work up quite the appetite, you temptress! I'm going to wash up later. See you at the breakfast table!"

Maya sat there, fuming, yet again at the butler's timing as she threw on her nightie. Sure, Hendricks hadn't c-blocked them this time, but somehow, this was almost worse! Getting information out of the tight-lipped Phoenix was like pulling teeth, and she knew when her boyfriend was up to something, and hiding things from her, and she hated it! Weren't there already enough secrets and hidden factors going on?!

Like the fact that his daughter, for reasons she could no longer fathom…still knew nothing of her existence?!

Maya truly loved hearing Phoenix talk about Trucy. He always beamed with such love, especially when he told her how he'd survived some of the most mortifying moments of parenthood – from the dueling cyclones PMS incident to the sexy DILF scenario (she'd been the one smirking with pride at that one – her man was a total hottie but he was all hers!) to the side-splitting anecdote of the bra-shopping excursion.

In all the time she'd known him, Phoenix had never been like that about anything else, so happy and completely full of joyful pride, not even when he'd performed those miraculous, Baron of Bluffing courtroom turnabouts. The more she heard about the little girl, the more her insides wept with sadness that she hadn't met her future (she hoped, anyway!) daughter. Just listening to the anecdotes from the Gumshoes, Pearly, and especially her boyfriend, Maya fell a little bit more in love with the girl each day.

It gutted her more and more daily that after nearly six years, despite Pearly, the Gumshoes, Franziska, Miles, and Larry knowing they were together, she was still a dirty little secret from Trucy, and she didn't understand why!

Sadly, they both knew it wouldn't be long until Trucy had to move on to pursue her predestined magician's path or head to college, and she knew Phoenix dreaded the day he would be all by his lonesome once more. Maya desperately wanted to ensure they were together before Trucy moved out. No matter what her boyfriend claimed to the contrary, Maya knew, from witnessing his self-destructive path post-disbarring, that Phoenix would not be able to handle being alone again.

Aside from feeling like the forlorn girlfriend forced to watch her loved ones lives silently from the sidelines, Maya's life had of course gotten easier and slightly better since they'd found a way to extinguish the flames of The Dragon Lady. However, she knew, instinctively, that it wouldn't be for good, and that the wretched village elder was probably still steaming – if only as a means to keep warm since her banishment to the colder outskirts of the village to help Bikini with the cabin rentals!

Improved, yes. But it didn't mean that things were perfect by any means! Maya still sometimes felt as trapped as ever at times due to the albatross around her neck, otherwise known as her life of Kurain Master, where the moral obligatory duty to the village and its people belied all else. Including her own happiness.

Maya knew she should be grateful and honor her ancestors by fulfilling her destined path, but, frankly, she still hated it. While having the X-Men mutant ability to channel spirits was fun at times and was sort of like having a superpower, the onuses that dictated that she thus needed to behave a certain way and project an image that just wasn't her was aggravating.

She was just…Maya. Forget Master Maya – she even hated being called Mystic Maya. She wasn't some sophisticate, spiritual, or super talented leader – she refused to eat forfeit burgers and fulfill a vegan diet and got more stoked about the airing of the latest upcoming TV series adapted from the Steel Samurai ongoing series than she did about the ceremonies and rituals associated with the order! (The latest was the one where Pink Princess married the Steel Samurai and had given birth to the Bronze Baby. Phoenix completely enjoyed ribbing her about her addiction to the children's show – she in turn had laughingly told him he was getting the full DVD set for Christmas and she wanted detailed reports on each episode henceforth because it was important to her that he proved he was becoming familiarized with something so important to her).

Her only solace from it all was her bi-weekly visits with her boyfriend, where she could enjoy the almost-paradise experience and try to forget that despite the tenure of it, theirs was still essentially a clandestine affair.

For reasons she just didn't get anymore!

Why couldn't they just tell the elders that she'd decided to blatantly disregard their orders about cutting ties with Phoenix and was still with him? While Maya had no idea what the elders would do to her, in the end, did it really matter? They could just get through it together, shrug, and say, 'what's done is done.'

Honestly, if Maya had to choose something that would cause her to be totally disgraced and potentially excommunicated, it was her love for Phoenix Wright. Traditions and her prestigious title be damned! Lately, she'd been giving him hints that she was ready to just say to hell with it all, Pearly could soon take over as Master in her stead, and that they should just come out of hiding.

And yet Phoenix continued to go along with the status quo!

It made her so frustrated at times she could have screamed!

Maya had a biological clock that was ticking, goddammit! She'd be pushing 30 soon enough! Her eggs had an expiry date even if his sperm didn't! Many times she wanted to grab him by his hooded shirt, shake him mercilessly and scream: We're losing valuable time here, Old Man!

The darkness of her brooding thoughts resulted in breakfast that morning being a solemn affair. It was mostly eaten in such terse silence that the normally jovial Hendricks had quickly excused himself from the premises shortly after serving them, not even bothering to make his usual humorous quips about reminding them not to be 'waking up the neighbors and making their hairs stand on end' like last time or 'don't try to take any Steel Samurai memorabilia – just because it wasn't nailed or locked away didn't mean there wasn't a silent alarm attached to it!'

The butler, as if sensing the unfamiliar tension between the couple, post serving and cleanup, had politely made his excuses, bowed, and hastily bid them adieu.

Without the clatterings and sounds of the Englishman in the kitchen, the daunting silence at the table was all the more glaring.

Maya just sat there, fuming, idly pushing her spoon around in her remaining pool of homemade Greek yogurt and berry parfait Hendricks had served them as part of their delicious breakfast. She could feel Phoenix's eyes on her from across the table, but she was so upset, she didn't trust herself to speak just yet.

Just a few moments ago, Trucy had called Phoenix's cell to ask him something, and he'd actually shushed her to keep quiet in the background while he spoke with his daughter. Such had been par for the course over the years, but this time, for some reason, it was eating her up inside. She was worried she'd say something she'd regret.

"Maya…" Phoenix's voice was gentle, pleading. "Maya, look at me."

She didn't respond, just focused on making designs and patterns in the vanilla-flavored pool on her plate with her cutlery. She idly drew a heart shape, then scowled at it and vehemently crossed it out, breaking the image into two, because suddenly, that was exactly how broken up she was feeling about the entire crappy situation!

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. After all, she only saw the man she loved two weekends of the month. Neither of them worked that day, so she may as well make the most of their time together and make nice, despite her misery, as per usual.

Think happy thoughts, Maya. Smile through the tears. It's who you are. It's what you do.

So she lifted her head and plastered on her best Master of Kurain grin for him. She had mastered her fake smile, right down to the wrinkles around her eyes. Had perfected it for many years. Right after she'd been kidnapped, and her mother had died, she had to be strong, for Pearl's sake. This aura of feigned cheer and smiles had become so convincing that no one ever questioned her.

Except for one person. He saw in her eyes, the windows to her soul, and held onto her gaze steadily, searchingly, as the facade crumbled into a real grimace. Discomfited that he'd seen through her veneer, she dropped her eyes down to her lap then.

Phoenix got up from his seat, walked around the table, and stood in front of her. When she still refused to look up at him, he crouched below her so she had no choice but to look down at his imploring visage.

"My love, please tell me what's wrong. I don't understand. It's like you're mad about something, and I don't get it. Talk to me. Please."

Maya exploded then as she clenched her hands into fists, squeezing them between her knees as she was overcome with the sudden urge to strike him. All her pent-up rage, resentment, and hurt, which she hadn't realized she'd been harboring came spewing out of her like an erupting volcano.

"Talk to you? What do you want to hear, Nick? About how shitty that phone call just made me feel? About how shitty this whole situation makes me feel, in general? Or about how I can't believe that I'm still sneaking around with you? How agonized I am that I have to be hidden in the closet like a filthy whore when it comes to the daughter of the boyfriend, whom I only see a couple of times a month, because of the same old, trite, bullshit excuses?"

Phoenix rocked back on his crouched heels, looking stunned and wounded by the verbal onslaught, but Maya didn't care. Red-hot tears ran down her face, each one carving furrows down her normally cheery features as she at long last poured it all out to her completely gobsmacked boyfriend.

"It was one thing when the Children's Services was breathing down your neck, Nick, but Trucy has been legally yours for ages now! Pearly sees you as her father! She knows about us –plus all our friends! Our girls are best friends – my little girl sees your daughter as her cousin! Yet I've never even met her! How do you think that makes me feel, knowing she doesn't even know I exist? Do you still tell her it's Santa giving her those mystery presents on Christmas and her birthday?"

Maya didn't wait for Phoenix to reply as she angrily brushed aside the unending streams from her cheeks and continued in her tirade.

"I just don't even understand why you won't just let me confess the truth to the elders and be done with it! When it comes to the elders, Nick, we both know there's no pleasing them…so I just don't get it!" She paused then because her voice was hoarse from shouting, and she buried her head in her palms. She felt so lost.

"Maya, I know you're mad, and I don't blame you…" Phoenix reached his hand out to draw her to him, but she smacked it away.

"Don't touch me!"

"I'm sorry." He sounded like he was choking, stifling his own tears.

That was something Maya just couldn't do any longer – fight away her tears no matter how hard they wanted to show. He reached for her again, and this time, she buried her head against his body for a second; it was so hard but warm and safe. It was her Nick. But she was absolutely furious with him right now. So she put her hands against the firm wall of his chest and pushed him away.

"I said don't touch me!" She was still crying, her cheeks wet with tears. But she didn't wipe them away. She didn't want to be like him, fighting away tears and hiding emotions.

He didn't try to get closer to her again. He sat down and tucked his knees to his chest, put his elbows on his knees, and covered his face with his hands, then started breathing slowly, much like she often did, when she didn't know what to do. It made her feel angrier. How could they both be so different, and yet so alike at the same time?

I love Nick more than my own life, but it's been six years! Six years, dammit! It's not like we have to shack up or get hitched right away, but I'm tired of sneaking around!

How she wished her big sister were still alive! Mia, she was certain, would have told her to throw in the towel ages ago, of that she was certain. Then she would harangue him as though he were one of her witnesses in the hot seat on the stand, and mercilessly point out incriminating evidence and every contradiction between his actions and his supposed "love" for her! Or else, she would have helped Maya make sense of this! Well, either that or beat Nick senseless with his beanie – or some other choice of weapon, on Maya's behalf!

The last image nearly made her laugh out loud. A slight titter escaped her lips.

Phoenix lifted his head hopefully at the sound of the laugh, and his despondent expression was replaced by one of compassion as he looked at her. His kind eyes showed gentle concern as he reached over and laid his hand lightly on her shoulder, and instead of flinching again, she was soothed by it. He left his hand there and spoke with such a soft voice she felt his words calming her more by the way they were said than the actual words. It felt as if she were wrapped in a blanket of his caring. How could she not consider her actions now, now that she could see how profoundly they affected him too?

"It'll be OK, my love. We will get through this, I swear it."

She released her hands from their clenched state and fell forward, off her chair, into his arms. As soon as she had cleared her tears away, a fresh torrent bust forth. Her body was wracked with great sobs and she shook like a leaf. The noisy sobs echoed throughout the high ceilings of the empty condo.

He pulled her to his chest where she stayed until her crying subsided. When she finally looked at him, her beautiful brown eyes were swollen and sore.

"I am so mad at you!" She wailed. "I- I'm just so sick of the lying and the sneaking around and the denial! This shouldn't be happening to me, to us! I love you. We should be together and I shouldn't have to be freaking out about this!"

"I know, Maya." There was no poker-face in the world that could have masked his regretful eyes, his sorrowful expression. "I'm so, so sorry."

"I am so sick and tired of you saying that! I'm done, Nick. I'm done. I'm tired of being your dirty little secret, you hear me?"

He looked stricken, but he took his hand to the back of her head and pulled her towards him.

"Why are you so ashamed of me, Nick?" She resumed sobbing, and Phoenix looked even more agonized, which just made her want to punch him again.

"Is that what you think? Maya, how can you think this isn't killing me, too? You think I've enjoyed having my clueless but well-meaning daughter trying to pimp me out to everyone from her teachers to lifeguards over the years, because she wants a new mommy?" His voice broke slightly. "You don't think I die a thousand deaths that I can't even tell her that I found her future mommy – years ago? Do you genuinely think I don't want to be with you, and have the world know? Shout it out on the rooftops that I'm the luckiest, happiest man on earth because you're mine?"

She looked at his anguished expression, wanting to believe him, yet still torn between wanting to hug and slug him!

"I don't know what to think, Nick. You keep me in the dark about everything. You won't explain to me why you think I'm in danger, or about your plans, and I'm starting to think that you're completely insane! You're obviously not ever going to move on with your life to the point where I will get to be with you!" Maya cried, glaring at him stormily through her tears. "I can't believe that I was so blinded by love that I honestly believed we would come out together at the end of all this! I've been listening to your ridiculous conspiracy theories all these years! God, I feel so naïve…so…so …stupid!"

"I know I must seem crazy, but Maya I know what I'm doing now," he pleaded. "Please, just give me just a little more time."

"Why does this matter? Why should your disbarment have anything to do with us?" She demanded. "Are you punishing me for not being there? I don't understand anymore!"

"Good God no!" Phoenix looked appalled at the notion. "Maya, please don't say that ever again…the one who's being punished here is me." He choked back a sob. "Know that I am naught but a dead man walking every single moment I'm not with you…there's not a minute of the day when I'm not thinking about you, wanting to just to lose myself in you, and bask in your every breath, in your very presence…"

"It's the same thing for me," Maya looked at him morosely. "I can't live without you either, Nick."

"So stop talking this way! You don't have to!" He swore, pulling her into his arms and raining frantic kisses all over her forehead and cheeks and chin. "Maya, just trust me. I have a game plan in motion now, and I will get to the bottom of this all…just have faith in me, my love, just a little bit longer, that's all I ask."

"I do trust you, Nick," Maya sniffled. "I have to. I love you too much not to. I don't want to let you go…I need you."

"I need you too Maya." He uttered a half moan, half groan as his urgent lips claimed hers. "I'll always need you. Want you. Crave you…"

Maya completely surrendered to the heated embrace then, to the ardor, to the meaningful words. To everything in that heated moment.

The kiss grew more fiery and passionate. They clawed at one another like a couple of wild animals ready to devour. Lips still fused together, they stumbled down the hallway into the bedroom.

Still groping and kissing.

Maya wished she could do a public service announcement to all the men of the world on her lover's behalf.

Hey fellas, the next time you see an infomercial for miracle manhood growth? Save your money. Buy the Kama Sutra instead!

He pulled her against his hard chest, making her gasp and arch her back. Maya raised her arms around his neck, hungrily bringing his mouth to hers.

She loved his mouth, his lips, his tongue. Kissing was an art form, and Phoenix Wright was Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello all rolled into one.

And then Phoenix was holding her face in his hands, his thumbs moving back and forth across her skin. Suddenly tender. Worshipful.

She pushed his hair back from his forehead.

Her voice was imploring, "Tell me you love me."

He couldn't say it often enough. He preferred to show her. But she'd never get tired of hearing it. Because every time he actually said the words, she was filled with the same wonderment as the first time.

"I love you, Maya."

His hands still held her face. Both of them panting with mutual want and need. She could see her desire mirrored in his expression. It felt almost spiritual. A holy communion.

"I'm never gonna give you up, my love." Phoenix's voice was hushed. Breathless. Beseeching. "Tell me you'll never leave me."

His eyes were soft now, liquid sapphire. Begging for reassurance.

Despite being together all these years, Maya knew there was a part of Phoenix that was still haunted by the fear that she would get fed up and walk away from him due to his circumstances…and because of their less than ideal situation. She often thought that was why he worked so hard to prove how much he always wanted her.

To show her that she'd chosen wisely.

She smiled softly and looked right into his eyes.

"Never. I'll never leave you, Nick."

The words felt like vows.

Their mouths opened, giving and taking each other's breaths.

"God, Maya . . ." His eyes closed.

His hands gripped her hips, lifting her off her feet so she could wrap her legs around his waist as they tumbled back onto the bed together…

SORRY FOLKS!

Due to FF site content restrictions, the rest of this scene has been cut. The full version, along with the entire uncut version of this story, can be found on THEJORDANPHOENIX DOT COM

See you there!

And for those of you still here, we now return to the family-friendly ending of this chapter:

Afterward, Phoenix's arms remained tightened around her. She touched his face and kissed him gently. He rolled backward on the bed, taking her with him, keeping her on top. They lay like that for a while until their heart rates come back down and their breathing slowed.

Trembling and still moaning with satisfaction, she melted against him, her legs still wrapped around his hips. Boneless and nerveless, she let her head roll to the side, and slowly, languidly, opened her eyes. She lay still, heart pounding, legs still locked in place.

Phoenix, meanwhile, had reached his own quietus as he lay back on the mattress, eyes blissfully closed, his lashes nearly sweeping down to his tanned cheeks.

Head hanging so that her long hair brushed his face like gossamer silk in the dark, she murmured, "God, that was incredible" and lowered herself, slowly and gently, against his damp chest.

Whereupon he breathed "Love you...God, I love you...Thank you," in her ear and lapsed into warm half-consciousness beneath her, breathing heavily.

"Oh, the pleasure was mine," she replied smugly, looking down at his peaceful, cherubic sleeping face with a knowing smirk. "Don't mention it."

Mood music from this chapter - full video and lyrics on thejordanphoenix dot com:

Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up

October 1, 2022:

A/N: I am in the process of re-uploading all my older works back onto the site, including this one which may look familiar to some of you, but also gives me a chance to edit my stuff to give it better polish and so far, get a new audience on my stories from days of yore!

The full version of this completed story, along with the entire, uncut scenes, can be found on thejordanphoenix dot com

In the meantime, as I go through the painstaking task of ensuring my new version complies with regulations per the admin's advice, the full version of this story along with the full uncut version of Filling The Void, (the other far too sexy for this site previous casualty, which I've since reposted in a less risqué format) plus all 100+ chapters of Singing In The Courtroom (apparently we aren't allowed to post public review replies, so reply to them on story's review board section, and can also reply to my wonderful readers on my own site), where all my uncut works can be found on THEJORDANPHOENIX DOT COM