Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the Phoenix Wright, ace attorney franchise. The characters and everything else belongs to Capcom and no one else! ESPECIALLY NOT ME!

Avian adoration

It was 10:45 by the time that Athena and Simon made it to their destination.

Fuelled by determination to locate his feathery cohort, Simon ran right towards the city courthouse with Athena tailing behind him; it was all she could do to keep up with him as she ran after her friend. She couldn't believe this, she almost didn't dare to believe that this was real—Simon never exhibited any frantic emotion (except when he gets verbally struck down in the courtroom) and it was somewhat shocking to see the twisted samurai so worried over the safety of his trusted hawk, or anything for that matter.

It was quite a rush.

The silence of the newly-refurbished courtroom number 3 had been broken when the two burst in through the large double doors, the doors swung open the instant the latter barrelled through them. Athena and Simon hastened into the empty courtroom as they both scanned the area and dashed straight into the middle of it with their eyes wildly searching the area around them, each pair of breaths erratic as they felt adrenaline pumping through their veins.

Still there was no sign of the missing hawk.

Thankfully, the courtroom was empty for the minute so neither Athena nor Simon were at risk of being held in contempt of court or anything.

"Taka! Taka, are you in here!?" The twisted samurai called out, occasionally jabbing two fingers into his mouth and producing an ear-piercingly high pitched whistle.

Athena covered her sensitive ears to drown out both the loud whistling and the terrible thumping of Simon's aching heart that was screeching with worry and discord for his feathered friend. She couldn't help but hate her special ability when things like this happen, it was a curse for her at a time like this to be able to hear both regular voices as well as the voices of people's hearts.

Both hands flew up to cover her ears as she grit her teeth to contain a low moan of discomfort.

The increasing concern building up inside of her friend/literal guardian's heart was torture enough on her poor ears but when it was coupled with high frequencies such as whistling it was tittering over the edge of unbearable, she was glad she was more mature because it would have been hell if she were a child due to the sensory overload —but, thankfully, she was able to handle it better.

Simon appeared to have finally noticed Athena's auditory discomfort.

"Oh. My apologies, is my whistling hurting your ears?" Blackquill cringed, "My sincerest apologies, Athena..."

Athena shook her head dizzily, her eyes spinning.

"N-No, it's okay, Prosecutor Blackquill..."

When the young red-haired girl regained her bearings and let herself settle on her feet, it took a minute or so. Thankfully her dazed state was quick to fade away and the screaming of the discord in Blackquill's heart started to dull a bit. She didn't want Simon to feel bad or anything and she knew that she needed to suck it up and stay focused on the task at hand so she continued to look around for any signs of the bandana-wearing hawk. She couldn't help but frown when she couldn't see any sort of clue to the missing bird of prey, let alone his whereabouts.

It made her stomach clench with both worry and upset when she quickly realised that she couldn't see Taka anywhere. Her gaze drifted over to prosecutor Blackquill and she felt her stomach clench even harder when she saw the look of disappointment written plain across Simon's ghostly pale face.

She decided to state the obvious as she sauntered up to Simon and placed a hand atop his shoulder.

"I don't think Taka's here..."

Simon Blackquill's shoulder flinched beneath Athena's hand and caused her to jerk her arm back in shock and surprise.

The prosecutor heaved a deep breath from the very bottom of his lungs. It was obvious that he was disappointed that his feathered friend had not been in the court, where he had really hoped he would be —just waiting for him to find him and sleeping in his nest in the court gallery with his yellow eyes would be piercing through darkness of the shadows with his black and white striped bandanna fluttering in the breeze.

It was disheartening.

The twisted samurai closed his eyes and felt his pulse stir as he felt determination spark inside of him. He wasn't going to give up on his search for his friend, Taka was always by his side and he wasn't about to give up searching for him. He'd search the ends of the earth for his bosom buzzard, after all. He reopened his eyes turned to face Athena with naught but determination flashing in his obsidian irises.

Athena seemed shocked when her friend turned to face her with such seriousness on his face.

A moment of silence passed the two by.

That was until prosecutor Blackquill turned on his heel, his coat swishing and then billowing in the wind, and he started to walk off towards the exit of the empty courtroom. There was an air of reignited hope in the air that Athena sensed easily as she heard him speak sharply yet snappily to her.

"Come. Let us continue our search."

Athena took off sprinting off after Simon after he said that and proceeded to follow him.

It was after leaving the courtroom that the attorney in yellow and the twisted samurai prosecutor had tried searching for the hawk in other areas of the town.

Japanifornia was vast and Taka could have flown anywhere but Simon knew the flyaways hotspots better then anybody and the two ventured to every place —Athena and prosecutor Blackquill searched relentlessly all over the town to search for the hawk. They went to the local menagerie, searched around the outside of Japanifornia prison, they searched the skies around the Wright anything agency as well as the Prosecutors office encase he decided to go to those places and they even journeyed to some places where some rats and mice were commonly found in the city.

But Taka was nowhere to be found anywhere...

It was later in the afternoon, a couple of hours later, by the time that Athena and Simon Blackquill had started to grow weary of the search.

The younger attorney dressed yellow's shoulders sunk slow and she had a tired, droopy-eyed look on her face as her mouth formed into a frown so big that it could have become the main feature on her face, even her bright ginger hair had become frizzy and hung down limply from her scalp as she lumbered along behind Simon. She had found her legs felt heavy and she could hardly keep walking like this for much longer.

"Huuuuuh, huuuuh, auuuugh..." Athena groaned, "...How much...ngggh...longer?"

Simon didn't show any signs of tiring or faltering from his desire to find Taka, he kept himself upright and didn't appear even the slightest bit fatigued. He just kept right on walking as he was a few steps ahead of the stumbling younger adult and he had a persistent scowl on his pale face and his darkened eyes were narrowed determinedly.

"Until we find Taka." He snipped.

Athena moaned in response.

She understood Simon's blazing love for his hawk but even she was getting tired of walking all day and with absolutely no sign of the hawk. Her heart squeezed hard inside her chest and her breaths came out as sharp wheezes as she huffed and puffed, sounding like a train as she stumbled along behind her friend. Her legs slatted to feel numb and due to her being so tired and she started to become annoyed.

She really hoped they'd find Taka soon...!

The silence between the two was broken when the phone started to ring.

The two stopped dead in their tracks as Simon glanced at the lawyer in yellow in confusion.

Clearly that was her phone ringing but why? It was her day off so she had no work and, unless he was mistaken, she had no other friends aside from the people at her workplace and her childhood friend Juniper Woods along with himself and she didn't indicate that she had any plans when he met up with her earlier...unless she forgot or something.

Athena seemed to try and straighten herself out as she wiped the sweat off of her brow with the back of her hand and she sighed to recompose herself. She was still exhausted and she had her bright ginger hair sticking like glue to her sweaty forehead, her eyes had huge bags sagging beneath her cerulean blue eyes. She huffed and puffed hard as she tried to re-inflate her lungs but she managed to cool herself down enough to regain some of her energy and used one of her arms, which flopped about like a noodle when she tried to move it, and tried to get herself used to moving herself.

Her phone rang all the while.

It took a mere minute for Athena to regain the sensation in her arms and she grabbed the phone out of her pocket and looked down at the screen to see who it was calling her, the name made her eyes widen into saucers but she quickly got over it and pressed a few buttons followed by pressing the phone right up to her ear.

Why was this person calling her...?

"Sasha? Hey, it's been awhile! What's up?"

The voice on the other end spoke, a rather confused tone leaking into her voice.

"Err...Athena, could you please come to the Shipshape aquarium when you get a minute?"

Athena sighed.

"I'm a little busy right now, Sasha."

The voice belonged to Sasha Buckler, she was an Orca trainer at the local aquarium. She had met the young woman during a case when Orla the killer whale had been accused of murdering the aquarium's owner, "Captain" Jack Shipley, and then even she ended up being accused eventually but she was off the hook eventually. She was quite the character and very energetic, especially after she was cured of her heart condition.

Simon Blackquill glared at Athena from in front of her, arms crossed in a huff. His face was tighter then a corkscrew and his atmosphere was growing broodier...whatever this was could wait until Taka was found, surely...

Athena closed her eyes and tried not to show how tired she was; she figured that she could hear Sasha out though, who knows? It could be very helpful to calm the situation or something. She decided to ask about what Sasha about what she wanted.

"But I think I can spare a minute or two..."

Athena cringed when she could practically feel Simon's demonic scowl fall upon her, burning holes into the back of her and she could feel her insides grow as cold as ice as the atmosphere became tense. She may not have seen Simon's face but she had a feeling that he was glaring evilly right at her.

"Okay. Athena, please be sure to bring your creepy samurai friend with you."

The red haired lawyer in yellow frowned when she heard that. Did she mean Prosecutor Blackquill? Her mind turned with confusion and her face twisted with even more confusion; what could she have meant by that? She decided to ask her friend about this.

"Why?"

Sasha's voice replied, "I think I found something that belongs to you. Something small and feathery."

That was when she hung up.

Simon questioned aloud "What would my feathered friend be doing at Shipshape aquarium?"

A/N: Heres the second chapter for Avian adoration.

I hope you enjoy it, everyone, and merry christmas!

Don't forget to review and fave!

-Chloemcg