A/N: Back to our regularly scheduled fic. Just a reminder that there was a smutty extra chapter in between chapters 15 and 16, so if you want to read that, it's on my AO3 (same username). It's not required reading, though.

Maya wakes up feeling happier and more refreshed than she has in a very long time, and the ache she feels between her legs is almost sweet in a way. Not painful at all, but still a reminder of the previous night. It's a feeling she wants to relish while she can.

She smiles to herself, propping herself up on her elbow to peer down at Phoenix beside her. He's sleeping on his side, one arm curled under his pillow. His face looks almost serene in his sleep, his eyelashes brushing cheekbones, his other arm on top of the blanket, where the black stitches are still holding together the wound on his arm. Even that doesn't make him any less attractive.

She shifts closer to him, running a hand over his bicep, stopping just above the stitches. He moves at the touch, rolling onto his back, but not waking.

Much like the night after their kiss at the restaurant, Maya can't seem to stop reliving the previous night in her head. His kisses were so gentle, his lips soft, and he smelled so good. His hands were gentle too as they touched her all over, and despite how much bigger he is than her, she was never once scared or in pain. She knows she's inexperienced too, but he didn't seem to mind that at all.

He even tasted good. He quite literally took her breath away, and even now after days of falling asleep together, she can hardly believe that this is Nick lying in bed beside her. Her dorky, sarcastic, adorable Nick.

She can feel butterflies in her stomach starting to flutter just at the memory of the night before. Knowing he had wanted her that badly had been enough to excite her; to cause a faint throbbing between her legs and a persistent need for friction that had her resisting the urge to grind against him at the beginning when she'd boldly crawled into his lap, and remembering it now is causing the same sort of feelings.

She'd been nervous, and despite his claims of nervousness as well, he was more confident than her. He'd taken the lead, and he had been gentle and slow and loving, so focused on her pleasure, asking her what was okay and if it felt good, to which she could usually only manage a moan or a gasp, indicating that what he was doing was indeed very pleasurable.

In the end she had clung to him, gasping through her pleasure, listening to him moan against her neck through his own, and afterwards they'd fallen asleep wrapped in each other's arms. Though she would have loved to have slept in his arms the whole night, she learned the first night he joined her in her bed that he's a bit of a restless sleeper, so they hadn't stayed that way for long. She doesn't mind that, though. If he needs space while he sleeps, that's just something she'll get used to, because now she can't imagine not sleeping beside him at night or waking up to him in the morning. And now that she's also gotten a taste of how good sex can be, she really doesn't know how she's going to handle spending time apart while she's still needed in Kurain and he in the city, but she supposes she'll figure that out when she has to.

She looks at him again as he moves, the blankets pulling down a bit in his sleep, and she smiles at how lucky she is to be with someone so beautiful. He's usually very modest, always dressed in a suit and tie or a baggy sweater, never showing anything off, but underneath everything he's actually rather muscular. Not lanky or simply toned but built, with broad shoulders and strong arms, and skin just slightly more tanned than her own.

She lays down again, moving her pillow over a bit so she can get closer to him. She rests her hand against his chest, tracing patterns into his skin with her fingers. This time he seems to feel her presence beside him, and he stirs gently, turning his head to squint at her.

She smiles. "Hey."

"Mm. Good morning."

"It is a good morning," she agrees. "Sorry for waking you."

"Nah, I was only half asleep. What time is it?"

Maya shrugs. She couldn't care less about the time right now. "Don't know. Why? Do you need to be somewhere?"

He smiles at her. "Nope. Just here."

"Good, because I don't think I'm going to let you leave this bed today."

He wraps an arm around her, pulling her closer so he can lean down to kiss the top of her head. "Two weeks ago I never would have imagined I'd be lying in bed with you like this, Maya," he murmurs.

She smiles. "Me neither. I mean I'd thought about it before, but I never thought it'd actually happen."

She watches a grin spread on his face. "How often would you say you fantasized about me?"

Maya rolls her eyes, turning onto her back. This time he's the one who turns onto his side to wrap his arm around her waist, burying his face in the crook of her neck. "Come on, Maya. Tell me." He kisses her neck then, and she sighs, turning her head a bit to give him more room.

"Don't get a big head. I wasn't constantly thinking about you naked, you know," she says. "But it did cross my mind every so often. Like, what does he look like now that he's almost forty? Does he still work out? Does he have a dad bod? I wouldn't have cared either way, but I was pleasantly surprised the other day before we went out to dinner when you came out of the shower. Whew." She fans her face with her hand comically.

He chuckles, his voice low in her ear. "You've given me a real confidence boost, Maya. But please, don't say the 'f' word." She turns to him, giving him a questioning look, and he sighs. "Forty."

Maya giggles. "Aw, Nick. You don't want to turn the big 4-0? Don't most people usually worry about fifty?"

He shrugs. "What about you? You're about ready to hit thirty."

"I'm surprisingly okay with it. I spent so much time wanting to grow up when I was younger, now that I finally am, it doesn't really feel like a big thing. Besides, I'll always feel young so long as you're around."

"Ha ha."

She's quiet for a few seconds, her hand roaming up the back of his neck to tangle her fingers in his hair. He's always insisted that his spikes are natural, but she's still rather surprised at how soft his hair is. There's definitely not a hint of gel in there.

"You know what I just realized?" she asks suddenly.

"Hm?"

"We broke our no butt touching rule."

He laughs. "You're right, we did."

She grins. "It wasn't a good rule anyway."

"It really wasn't."

She sighs. "Hey, Nick?"

"Yeah?" His voice rumbles against her throat, his face still pressed into the crook of her neck.

"Was last night… good, for you?"

He lifts his head to peer down at her, and smiles softly. "Maya, it was great. Then again, it usually is great for the guy. I should be the one asking you if it was okay…"

"Yeah, it was pretty great, like you said."

He grins. "Well, that's good to hear."

"But…"

"But?"

"I kind of think we need lots and lots of practice. You know, so we can make it even better," she says, looking away from him, trying to hide her smile.

When she looks back at his face, his smile is gone, replaced by a noticeably more intense gaze. It sets her stomach to fluttering all over again.

"I can think of a few things we can try that we didn't do last night," he murmurs, brushing some of her hair out of her face.

She runs a finger over his jaw, feeling the scratchy beginning of morning stubble. "Like what?"

He smiles, kisses her lips once, and starts to slink his way down, leaving a trail of kisses between her breasts and down her belly, pausing only to pull the covers over his head. Maya grins when she realizes where he's heading, and lets her head fall back onto her pillow to enjoy herself. This side of him is really going to take some getting used to, but she's most certainly not going to complain.

They spend most of the morning in bed until they're both too tired and sweaty to move anymore. They fall asleep for another hour, in which Maya revels in the fact that Phoenix doesn't toss and turn, so when she wakes up later, she's still safe and warm in his arms. She wakes him gently, and they get up to take a shower together. They manage to finish without anything more happening, but it's still intimate and quiet, and Maya is able to relax as his fingers thread their way through her hair to rinse it of shampoo, before she does the same for him. And to her surprise, his hair does flatten when it's soaked. It makes her giggle, but when they get out and get dressed in her room, Phoenix runs his hands through his hair a few times as it dries, and by the time they've entered the kitchen to make breakfast, his trademark spikes have risen back into place.

Maya's not as good a cook as Phoenix or Pearl are, and she's almost embarrassed to admit that she's always had a personal cook make meals for her when Pearl hasn't been around to do it, while Phoenix has learned on his own due to having to feed Trucy. But for that they would need to go to the training temple found further within the village, and she still has no intention of leaving the house today. Pearl will be gone for a while still, and she wants to make the most of their alone time, so she decides to make breakfast herself.

She smiles when she feels Phoenix's arms circle around her waist from behind. "Nick, I'm trying to make this good."

"You need help?"

"No. I want to make it for you, like you did for me that one night."

He kisses her cheek quickly and backs away. "Okay, fine. I'll just wait then."

She turns back to the stove. Now she feels like the domestic one, cooking breakfast for her boyfriend after a romantic night together. She blushes with pleasure. He really is her boyfriend now. She can say it out loud and it won't be a lie. She truly can't remember a time she's been happier.

Though her food is nowhere near as good as Phoenix or Pearl's, it's still not bad at all, and they enjoy the meal in peace and quiet, with the occasional chit chat between bites. It feels no different than any other time they've eaten together, and when she thinks about it, it's perfect that way. Why should it be different? Just because their relationship has finally progressed into physical intimacy doesn't mean anything else has to change. Phoenix may be her boyfriend now, but before that and through whatever comes after, he's her best friend.

She finishes her breakfast before him and finds herself simply watching him fondly from across the table as he piles eggs onto a piece of toast, a look of pure concentration on his face. She smiles, trying not to laugh as some of the eggs fall off the toast back onto his plate and he sighs in defeat.

He takes a bite of the toast eggless, and Maya can't help the giggle that escapes her this time. He raises his eyebrows at her as he chews. "What?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how cute you are."

"Hmph. You were calling me hot last night."

"Last night you weren't trying and failing to eat eggs and toast."

"Hey, this is your fault for making scrambled eggs. They're harder to balance."

She snorts in amusement. "Well, I'm so sorry."

He smiles at her and they fall into comfortable silence again while he finishes eating.

While she waits, Maya's mind once again goes to what will come next for them. Phoenix can't stay in Kurain forever, as much as she wishes he would. She's not worried about having a long distance relationship, since they've managed to stay friends over twelve years, even when they couldn't see each other for months or a year at a time, and she knows that's not going to change now. She is worried about how much she'll miss him when he's not around, though. Waking up alone in bed, without Phoenix beside her, is going to feel lonely when he finally decides he needs to go home. She also knows it's a bit early to start thinking about their futures, but what if they want to get married, or have kids at some point? One of them will have to compromise and move either into Kurain or into the city.

She finds herself wishing once again that she hadn't been saddled with the position of Kurain Master. She feels guilty not wanting it after everything she went through to get it, and after everything Mia, her mother, Pearl, and even Phoenix went through to ensure she would be alive and well to become the Master Kurain needs. It feels even worse when she thinks about the fact that she's only officially been the Master for less than a year. She should be happy she's finally managed to pass all the training required and has become a good enough spirit medium to warrant the title of Master, but she's not.

All it has ever done is make her unhappy. It tore her family apart, it caused the loss of her mother and sister, and now it's preventing her from doing the one thing she's always wished for. To be with Phoenix, always. Since she was seventeen years old, before romantic feelings ever came into it, his friendship and their partnership as lawyer and assistant have always been what have made her happy. Never this title she didn't ask for.

She looks up at him as he takes a sip of coffee, his plate finally empty, and finds herself opening her mouth to speak.

"What happens now, Nick?"

He looks across the table at her questioningly. "What do you mean?"

She shifts in her seat. "I mean… This week has been great. Some of the best days of my life, like I said last night. But… I'm needed here in Kurain, and you're needed in the city. We're going to be apart a lot, and I don't know how I'm going to handle that now."

He thinks for a moment, glancing around the room, eyes finally landing on his suit jacket, which is hanging off the back of the chair to his left. She watches him get up and go to it, where he unpins his badge from the lapel. He moves around the table to stand beside her chair.

"This is kind of stupid, Maya, but… I don't have anything better right now."

She looks up at him curiously. "Your badge?"

He nods. "You know how much this badge means to me, right? How important it is?"

She nods. "Of course. I can't even count the number of times you've shown it to me… and every other person you've ever met."

"And you remember when I got it back after my disbarment? How I said I would never, ever do anything to lose it again?"

She nods again. "Yeah. I remember."

"Well… I promise that I'll treat you the same way I do this badge. I'll never do anything to lose you, or hurt you, or dull your shine. And if we're apart, no matter how long it is, I'll always come back to you eventually."

He holds it out to her and gently places it into the palm of her outstretched hand.

"That badge is a promise, Maya. I'll always love you and I'll always be here for you, no matter how far apart we happen to be. I swear on it."

She runs a finger over its small sunflower shape, feeling the ridges of the Scales of Justice engraved into it, then closes her fingers around it. She does know how much it means to him. To anyone else it might seem silly to swear over a little piece of metal that he'll always love her, but it's not silly at all. This badge is part of his identity, she knows he doesn't feel the same without it, he doesn't feel like Phoenix Wright without it. Knowing that she's as much a part of him as this badge is actually very meaningful.

She starts tearing up, and Phoenix immediately kneels in front of her to stroke her face, wiping her tears away as they come. "We'll get through it," he assures her. "Maybe the Kurain Master needs her own personal lawyer in Kurain Village…"

Maya's eyes widen, and she starts to shake her head at the implication. "No, Nick. You're needed in the city, as a regular defense lawyer."

"And you're needed here, Maya," he says. "Don't think I won't make sacrifices for us, and don't think you're less important than me somehow or that it's all up to you to make this work. I have more options than you do when it comes to my job anyway."

"I'm not, but imagine all the innocent people who'll go to jail or worse, because you weren't there to defend them."

"Maybe it'd be worth it," he murmurs, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "Besides, I'm sure there's plenty of legal stuff going on in the background of Kurain that needs an experienced lawyer that you trust to make sure things are being done properly."

She smiles. "I appreciate it, Nick, but you don't really mean that. You're meant to be helping real people, people who need you when they have no one else, not doing legal paperwork behind a desk all day. It's not you."

He starts to protest, but Maya holds a finger up. "That's one of the things I really love about you, Nick. How much you love helping people and how much you believe in your clients," she says. "I wouldn't want you to stop, because I know you wouldn't be truly happy."

"I could never be unhappy as long as I'm with you."

Maya sighs. "You say that now, when this is all new and wonderful and romantic, but as time passes, it'll happen. You need more in your life than just me. Besides, what about Trucy? You can't just uproot her from her friends and school and bring her here to live in this technologically challenged little village."

He stares at her for a few seconds longer, then sighs in defeat. "I guess you're right."

She touches his face, cradling his cheek in her hand. "But we will make this work, like you said. Somehow we'll figure it out."

He stands up finally, bending down to kiss her forehead. "Yeah, we will."

He looks up quickly when he hears the faint sound of his cell phone ringing. Maya smiles and gestures towards the bedroom. "Go answer. It might be Trucy."

"Yeah." He grins at her before he leaves. "By the way, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm so glad you changed my ringtone back to the Steel Samurai theme. I was actually starting to miss it."

Maya just laughs as she waves him away. She always knew he had a soft spot for that ringtone.

Phoenix enters Maya's bedroom, or what he now thinks of as their bedroom, and finds his phone on the nightstand. He's expecting Trucy, but when he picks it up and sees the name displayed, he's surprised to see Larry's name.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Nick!"

Phoenix sits down on the edge of the bed. "Hey. Uh… I hope you have a good reason for phoning. I'm kind of busy." He's actually anything but busy today, but talking to Larry takes less precedence than hanging out with Maya, especially after that conversation they just had. Unfortunately it's made him remember that he doesn't have all the time in the world, and that soon he'll need to be heading home, without her.

"Oh, I bet you're busy," Larry says. "Trucy told me something interesting and I wanted to ask you about it."

"Okay?"

"She said, and I quote, 'daddy is going to confess his love to Miss Maya!'" Larry says, pitching his voice higher to imitate Trucy. "What's this about confessing? I thought you and Maya were already together?"

Phoenix groans. This is what he gets for not being honest with everyone right off the bat. "Larry… we might not have told you the whole truth."

"What?! And I thought I was your friend. What have you been hiding? You didn't lie to me about sexy Molly did you?"

"What? No! Molly really is a terrible person. The thing we didn't tell you was that Maya and I weren't really ever dating…"

"Huh? Even during our double date?"

"We were just faking it."

"But you seemed so genuine."

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, it was because of Molly. She was trying to ask me out the day I met her, and I didn't want to so I told her no. She would not take no for an answer, so I told her I had a girlfriend. She kept pushing me for details and eventually I just sort of said that Maya was my girlfriend because she was the only person I could think of on such short notice…"

Larry is quiet for a few seconds, then suddenly bursts out laughing. Phoenix sits and pouts, listening to Larry laugh and laugh, until finally he sniffs and manages to settle down.

"A-Are you serious, Nick?"

"Um… yes?"

Larry takes a deep breath, blowing it out straight into the phone, making Phoenix hold his own phone away from his ear for a second. "Well, alrighty then. And Maya just went along with it?"

"Yes, she did."

"Wow, that's crazy. Sounds like something out of a movie! So, what did Trucy mean by you were going to confess your love, huh?"

"That's the thing, Larry. We were pretending for a while, but eventually we both realized that we weren't really faking anymore. We really do love each other… Unfortunately when I was at the hospital, Molly was there, and she ended up kissing me. Maya saw it and got all upset, thinking I was choosing Molly over her, and came back here to Kurain without even talking to me first. So I had to come to Kurain to talk to her."

"And you confessed your feelings and she confessed hers and now you're going to live happily ever after?"

Phoenix can't help smiling. "I mean, hopefully."

"Really, Nick?"

"Really, Larry."

"Oh… That's awesome, Nick. I-I'm serious. That's so great. I-I'm really happy for you guys."

Phoenix pauses. "You're not… crying, are you?"

Larry sniffs. "No! Of course not! I just think it's really romantic and nice what happened, that's all."

Phoenix smiles. "Well, thank you. By the way, why were you talking to Trucy anyway?"

"Oh, right! I have to tell you something else. Something you're not going to like."

Phoenix sits forward. "What? Why didn't you start with that?! Is Trucy okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine, don't worry about her. She called me today asking me to go check on your office for her. Apparently she went there earlier to pick up some more stuff to bring to Athena's place and when she walked in she noticed the place was a mess. She was too scared to go any further inside in case someone was there, so she went back to Athena's and called me to ask if I would go. I guess she didn't want to bother you."

Phoenix can feel his hands starting to shake. "What did you find?"

"Man, I'm sorry Nick, but your office is messed up. The door was fine but someone found a way to get in, and they trashed the place. Went through your files, your desk, broke your picture frames, even tipped over poor Charley. It wasn't just the office though, I went upstairs to your apartment to check things out and someone was definitely up there, too. The apartment wasn't damaged as badly but it looks like they went through your room pretty thoroughly. Like, your dresser was rifled through, your closet was open and your clothes were all over the place. I took a peek into Trucy's room and it seemed fine, only yours was like that. Also, did you make your bed before you went to Kurain?"

Phoenix blinks, his shock preventing him from doing or saying much else. "I think so, why?"

Larry is quiet for a second. "Er, it wasn't made when I went up there. So… there's that. I didn't touch anything myself, just checked around. No one was there."

"Oh…"

"I'm sorry, Nick. Trucy didn't want me to ruin your 'romantic vacation' as she called it, but I figured this was something you definitely needed to know about."

For once, Larry is right, and apparently he can act like an adult when the situation calls for it. "Thanks for calling," Phoenix says. "You're right, I'm glad you did. I'll be back as soon as I can. Did you call the police yet?"

"Not yet. I wanted to let you know first."

"Okay. I'll give a call to Detective Gumshoe. I'd prefer if he works on this, and I should call Edgeworth too."

"Do you know who did it?"

Phoenix clenches his first. "Oh, I have a pretty good idea."

A/N: Time to get back to... the plot. :O We're nearing the end here, guys. I'm going to be so sad when it's over.