A/N: I'll say I'm sorry in advance. This chapter is a little shorter than usual, too.

Phoenix almost feels hungover when he wakes up the next morning. Of course he's not, Trucy is still underage and even if she was 21, he doesn't think he'd feel too comfortable getting drunk with his daughter and complaining about his relationship problems to her. All they'd done was watch comedy movies and eat their Chinese food and talk about things like Trucy's schoolwork and her upcoming magic shows. They hadn't spent quality time together for a long time, and it was a nice way to take his mind off of Maya. It worked for a time, at least until the food was gone and the last movie was over and Trucy finally bid him goodnight, as she had to wake up for school in the morning.

He knows she'll already be gone by now, and when he turns his head to peer at his alarm clock, he knows Athena will be showing up at the office for work soon too. She's going to have a field day with his emotions, he just knows it. Hopefully she doesn't try to force him into one of her therapy sessions to find out what's wrong.

Well, she has a key to the office anyway. He's in no hurry to get out of bed. He grabs his phone off his nightstand and looks at the screen, hoping for a message from Maya. There's nothing, just that stupid stock background again. If there's any reason for him to go to the police station to get his old phone back, it's to salvage the pictures on it.

He rolls over, pulling the covers up over his head. A few more minutes of sleep won't hurt. Athena can handle the office by herself in that time. Besides, even if a client does come in, he's not sure he's in the mood to take on any cases right now. He doesn't think he'd be able to focus on an investigation while knowing that Maya is mad at him, but not knowing why.

He groans into his pillow. Why won't she just tell him what's wrong?

When Phoenix wakes up again it's because his cell phone, still laying on the bed beside his pillow, is vibrating and cheeping every few seconds. He grabs it, again hoping to see a message from Maya, only to see Athena's name on the screen over and over again. He'd texted her last night with his new number, along with anyone else he could think of who would need it.

Her messages range from calm, "hey Boss, I'm here. You making it down today?" all the way to desperate, "please Boss, I can't handle the clients who're coming in, we're really busy today! Where are you?!"

When he checks the time he's surprised to see that he's been asleep for almost two extra hours. He shoots Athena a quick text to let her know he'll be down in a few minutes, and gets up.

He gets dressed in record time. Thankfully he has a spare suit that's almost exactly the same as the one that was ruined at the bank. No shower or shave, but oh well, wouldn't be the first time. He brushes his teeth and heads downstairs in less than ten minutes, and when Athena sees him coming down the hall she looks absolutely relieved.

He disappoints a few people, letting them know he's not currently taking any cases but that Athena is available. He feels a little bad when none of them seem to want her help, but when he's adamant that he won't be taking any of the cases on, a few of them relent. Athena will be busy for the next few weeks, but at least she'll be earning more experience. She seems happy about it too.

Soon enough Athena is fully booked, and he locks the office door before it's even lunchtime. Athena sits down at her desk and starts going over notes for her now upcoming case. Phoenix heads to his own desk to take a breather, and to yet again check his phone for any sign of a message from Maya.

"Hey, Boss?"

He looks up from his phone. Athena is looking across the room at him, tapping the tip of her pen against the desktop. "Do you want to come to the crime scene with me to look around, and then maybe head to the Detention Centre in time for visiting hours?"

It's something to take his mind off of Maya, so he nods, and they head out together to the crime scene to get Athena started on her newest case.

Athena doesn't really need his help when it comes to investigations. She's got that part down pat, so Phoenix spends most of the day following her around while she excitedly interviews witnesses at the scene and searches out evidence the detectives might have missed.

Despite his best attempts, he's not in the greatest of moods, and he's sure Athena can tell, even without her special hearing. He doesn't mean to appear so disinterested in her case, but his thoughts are constantly wandering back to Maya, wondering what on earth he did to offend her so much that she doesn't even want to talk to him about it. She's usually quite happy to voice her displeasure, but this time she's blocking him out completely.

His mood alternates between frustrated and angry at her for not communicating with him, and sad that she won't. By the time they make it back to the office, he's back to feeling sad and hurt that she won't talk to him.

As soon as he sits, or rather slumps, into his office chair behind his desk, Athena stands up and huffs.

"Okay, that's it, Mr. Wright," she says.

He raises an eyebrow at her. Athena calling him 'Mr. Wright' feels similarly to when his mother would say his full name as a child and he would know he was in trouble for something. "What's wrong?"

She rolls her eyes. "You've been in a terrible mood all day. Your emotions are all over the place! What is going on?"

He sits up and picks up a pen that's sitting on his desk. He fiddles with it a bit before answering her. "I don't need a therapy session, Athena."

"This isn't a therapy session, Boss," she says. "I just want to know what's wrong, as a friend. I couldn't help but notice that Miss Fey isn't here anymore… and the other night Mr. Edgeworth shut her party down pretty quickly. If there's anything I can do…"

"There's nothing you can do."

She grabs a chair and pulls it up to his desk, sitting down across from him. "What happened?"

He sighs, almost immediately giving up his resistance, and tells her. "I'm not even sure myself, Athena. Maya's mad at me, and I have no idea what I did wrong. She won't tell me. Did you see her that night before she went home?"

She shakes her head. "No. Like I said, Mr. Edgeworth came in and told me and Mr. Butz to go home. I didn't even see Maya get out of his car while we were still there." She taps her chin. "It doesn't seem like her to just get mad at you for no reason."

"It's not. Normally she'd tell me if something was bothering her." Athena practically winces, and he looks up at her. "What's wrong?"

"Ah..." She rubs her head. "Sorry. This is really bugging you, isn't it?"

He nods meekly. Athena glances down and reaches forward to pick up the picture frame Trucy brought down last night. "This is new, isn't it?" she asks as she turns it around to look at it. She smiles in that same knowing way when she sees the photo.

"Trucy took that the other night," he explains. "I guess she thought it was nice because she framed it."

"It is nice, Mr. Wright," she says, observing the photo closely. She finally sets it back down and smiles across the desk at him. "Mr. Wright, if you love her, you should tell her."

He starts. "W-What?"

She lifts her hand to pull on her earlobe. "It's pretty obvious to me. You've always had a sort of... fondness to your voice whenever you talked about Ms. Fey, but when I came back from my trip you sounded noticeably different. Love isn't really an emotion but the combination of emotions you feel when thinking about the person you love makes it impossible for me to misinterpret."

"How do you know that?" he asks. Really, he's more curious than defensive.

"I've heard it before. Young couples, older married people… and people like you."

"Like me?"

"Unrequited love."

"Oh."

Athena smiles gently at him and nudges the picture frame forward a bit more. "Boss, I really think you should go to Kurain and talk to Ms. Fey in person."

He shakes his head. "No, I need to be here to keep the office open and help you with your cases."

Athena holds up a hand. "I can handle it, trust me. I think this is more important at the moment anyway."

He stares at her. "What if she won't speak to me?"

There's that knowing smile again. "You won't know until you try."

She's right, of course. But Maya has specifically told him to stay away until she's ready to talk to him again, and he doesn't know if he should disrespect that. Then again, he thinks he deserves to know what he did, and maybe it will be easier for her to talk to him if they're face to face. He won't force his way in, but perhaps if he shows up in Kurain… Maybe it will soften her resolve.

He sighs defeatedly. "Alright."

Athena grins. "Yes! Ah, it's so romantic. You running off to Kurain to confess your feelings!"

He rolls his eyes as he gets up. "Please, you're starting to sound like Trucy and Pearls. I have a few things I need to do first."

Athena jumps up. "What?! No, you have to go now! The sooner the better! It'll be more romantic that way!"

"Athena, this isn't a movie. I might get there and Maya might refuse to let me in. She's the one in charge there after all. I need to get some things together first."

Athena sighs. "Oh, okay. But you should go do it right now."

He nods. "Yeah. I'll let you know when I'm leaving."

He gets up and heads up the stairs to the apartment. He needs to shower, shave, change his clothes, and pack a small bag. He's not planning on staying there long, but it's a long train ride, and he hopes that even if Maya doesn't want to talk to him, she'll be nice enough to let him stay in Kurain for the night so he won't have to go home in the middle of the night.

When he's finished showering he pulls on a clean shirt and pants, but grabs the same suit jacket as before and slips it on. It looks a little strange, and he realizes that he isn't wearing his badge. He was in such a hurry to get downstairs earlier that he'd forgotten about it being in his pocket from the night at the bank. He can't believe he wasn't wearing it the whole time he was speaking to potential clients. He might as well have been naked in front of them.

He shakes his head. No, he doubts any of them even noticed. Athena hadn't even noticed, so it really doesn't matter. He goes to find his pants from the other night, thankful that by coincidence he'd put the badge in his pocket that night since his other suit jacket is now gone, and finds it in the pocket before dropping them back into the laundry basket. He pins it back onto his lapel and suddenly feels a lot better about going to confront Maya. There's just something about having it there on his chest that makes him more confident.

With newfound vigour, he throws together a bag with a change of clothes and some toiletries. Before he heads back down to the office, he texts Trucy.

Going to Kurain Village. Wish me luck.

It's simple, but he knows she'll get what he means. Sure enough, she texts back within a minute.

OMG good luck daddy! You can do it! Don't bother texting me if you're not coming home tonight. ;) I'll know where you are.

He rolls his eyes at her winky face and the implication behind it, but he does think he's going to need every ounce of luck he can get, so he thanks her and heads downstairs with his bag. Athena smiles and bids him good luck as well before he goes to call a taxi bound for the train station.

Two hours is a long time by train already, but Phoenix swears the ride to the bus station that will take him the rest of the way to Kurain has doubled in length since the last time he visited. It's relatively quiet, on a weekday at this time of the day there aren't a lot of people travelling, and especially not so far away. He tries spending the time reading or playing games on his phone, but his mind continuously drifts back to Maya.

What if she refuses to see him? He doesn't think he could bear that. She can be mad at him, she can yell at him or cry, so long as she doesn't turn him away he'll take whatever she gives and then apologize for whatever it is that he's done to wrong her.

He still has no idea. Maybe she knows what he was trying to ask her on the balcony before being interrupted and she got scared. Maybe she knows that he wants more out of their fake relationship and she doesn't feel the same, so she's run back to Kurain rather than hurt his feelings by rejecting him.

Even if she does reject him, it'll be better than the cold shoulder she's giving him now. He would rather she just tell him no, so they can continue being friends like none of this ever happened. He refuses to lose her friendship over something like this, so if he has to beg for her forgiveness on hands and knees and tell her to forget about the past week, he will.

It seems that every time he exhausts himself thinking about what he did wrong, his mind immediately goes back to how he's going to tell her. As he'd told Athena, this isn't a movie. He can't expect to show up in Kurain Village, confess his love, and have Maya forgive him and accept him into her open arms. It would be nice if it ended up that way, but he knows it won't. Really, he should try to expect the worst, then maybe he won't be so disappointed when it happens.

Once off the train and on the bus for the last leg of the journey, he rests his forehead against the cool glass of the window and closes his eyes, trying to clear his head of any wayward thoughts. There's no way to prepare for something like this. No matter how much he rehearses what he wants to say in his head, he knows he'll forget it the moment he sees Maya. So he might as well just do what he's best at. Winging it.

When Phoenix feels the bus bounce to a stop at the last bus stop before the mountains, he opens his eyes. He's the last person left, and the driver is looking back at him, waiting for him to get off. He gets up and grabs his bag from the overhead compartment, and climbs off. He wishes the bus stop wasn't so close to Fey Manor. What if Maya is inside right now and notices him? What if she locks the doors before he even has a chance to knock?

His fears are slightly alleviated when he sees Pearl step outside the manor and close the door quietly behind her. She looks up and smiles, as if she was expecting him.

"Hi Mr. Nick," she says, taking the few steps to the ground and walking across the road to greet him. "Trucy told me you were coming."

Ah, so she was expecting him. He's surprised that Pearl isn't more excited. He assumes she knows the reason he's there, unless Trucy had been vague when she let Pearl know he was coming.

Pearl gestures to the bench at the bus stop and sits down. He takes a seat beside her, setting his bag on the ground.

"What's up, Pearls?" he asks. "How is Maya?"

"Mystic Maya is okay," she says, looking down at the ground as she swings her legs. She's eighteen but she's still so short she looks almost like a child sitting there, her feet unable to touch the ground.

"You didn't tell Maya I was coming, did you?" he asks.

Pearl shakes her head. "She seems really upset with you, Mr. Nick, so I didn't think it was a good idea. Last time I mentioned you, she got really mad at me and told me to stop talking about you." She lifts her head, and he's surprised to see she looks angry, not sad. "You didn't do something mean to Mystic Maya did you? You wouldn't, right?"

He looks down at the ground. "I honestly don't know, Pearls. She won't tell me. I don't think I did anything wrong and I definitely didn't do anything on purpose, but obviously I did something. Just do me a favour and save the slap until after I talk to Maya, okay?"

She purses her lips, but nods. "Alright. You know I love you, Mr. Nick," she says, "but if I find out you did something bad to Mystic Maya, I'll smack you into next week."

He chuckles and wraps an arm around her. "I know, Pearls." He takes a deep breath and blows it out. "Do you think Maya will see me if you tell her I'm here? Or should I surprise her?"

Pearl thinks for a moment. "She won't be happy either way, but surprise may be the only way she'll talk to you. The door is unlocked, and she's in the sitting room doing a puzzle or something weird like that. She says it takes her mind off of things. I'll stay out here and let you two talk."

He stands up, and Pearl looks up at him hopefully. "Good luck, Mr. Nick. Just so you know, I know Mystic Maya feels the same way about you."

He looks at her. "Wait, what—" He stops. Why deny it now? Pearl is right. She's always been right. She's the one person who has always known what he and Maya mean to each other; who has always seen past their friendship into the deeper part of their relationship. It just seems wrong to lie to her now.

He smiles instead. "Yeah, I hope so, Pearls."

She smiles at him, and it gives him the encouragement he needs to cross the road and enter Fey Manor.

A/N: I promise the next chapter will be worth the wait.