No phones were ringing. The sound of the city traffic was but a distant rumble, muted by closed windows. Trucy wasn't making anything explode or otherwise produce any kind of theatrical noise. Athena wasn't energetically speaking her mind, accompanied by the occasional outburst from Widget.
It wasn't to say that Apollo disliked most of those sounds - the office phone might indicate a potential new client, and Trucy and Athena were two of his closest friends. More often than not, he had as much fun as they did with their day-to-day antics at the office. Still, this afternoon's near-silence in the Wright Anything Agency was welcome to him.
The law office was helping a client today, as a matter of fact. Athena and Mr. Wright had made their way to the detention centre and out for a subsequent investigation about two hours earlier, and, most unusually, Apollo had asked to sit out the first day's field work. He would meet back up with them for a rundown of everything they'd learned at the end of the day, and join them for the trial the next, but for now, there was something else he wanted to attend to.
Trucy had some new magic trick she'd been working on and was being quite secretive about, and it was for the sake of her practice that she too was out of the office at the moment.
This arrangement might have left Apollo alone in the office, but there was one outlying factor.
Apollo crossed the room, preoccupied with the three thick folders in his arms.
"Hey," he said, glancing briefly toward the figure half-covered by the desk beside him. A familiar pair of sandaled feet was laid across the floor, most of their owner's body crouched beneath the desk. "These are from Mr. Wright's third year. D'you know where they ought to go?"
"Hmm…"
Apollo awaited an answer, but jolted in surprise when he instead heard a thump and a sudden squeak of pain.
"H-Hey-!" he stammered, stooping to the floor and setting the folders down. "You OK?"
"Oww…"
Pearl Fey shuffled out from beneath the desk, bringing up a hand to gingerly brush her fingers over the spot at which she'd apparently just struck her head. The pretzel-like loops she wore her hair in almost seemed to wilt on their own.
"That didn't sound good." Apollo remarked. "You didn't hit yourself too hard, did you?"
Pearl briefly clutched at the affected spot on her head, but relaxed a moment later, sitting back on the floor with a smile.
"Thanks, but I'm fine, Mr. Apollo." she said.
Apollo hesitantly grinned. Pearl didn't sound worried. She was an extremely polite girl, but he guessed that she'd have the sense to tell him if she really was badly hurt.
"Here, let me see those." Pearl said, scooping up the discarded folders.
As she pored over their contents, Apollo took a moment to glance over the top of her head, where she'd hit herself on the desk. Given Pearl's particular hairstyle, it was hard to see if there was a bump forming on her head. He couldn't bite down his slight worry, though she still seemed perfectly alright.
Apollo's reason for staying behind in the office today was quite a simple one: the Agency was an utter mess. Owing to an unusual amount of recent work for all the people there, minimal time had been available for organization or cleaning for nearly two weeks running. While Apollo's own desk was rarely a picture of cleanliness or organization, he wasn't especially fond of the idea that a potential client might walk through the office's door and see it in its state of disorder, so he'd elected to put in the effort to clean the place up.
To his immense good fortune, today had also seen Pearl drop in for a visit. She was a seasoned veteran of cleaning this office, as Apollo understood it.
Pearl was still looking intently through the files he'd handed to her. Apollo waited a moment, and lowered himself to the floor. He took a look at what she'd been working on beneath the desk. Pressed up against the wall to save space, the desk was backed by a shelf of boxes and similar file folders. He'd never taken the time to really dig through the more remotely located contents of the office's shelves, and most of what he could see here was new to him. He shuffled in beneath the desk in Pearl's place, bracing an elbow against the floor.
An open box filled with unremarkable scraps of paper was on the floor just before the shelf. He pushed it aside after briefly scanning over its contents. It looked as if Pearl had been organizing the contents of the lowest shelf. Apollo located what he best guessed to be the place Pearl had intended for the box and took another from the less-than organized space to its right.
The box he'd picked up had a smudged bit of writing in marker on its top. It was hard to make out what it said. He opened it and checked over its contents.
A series of photos met his observation. He immediately spotted the familiar sight of Mr. Wright on the first, though he guessed this particular photo to be somewhere around nine or ten years old, judging by how much younger his mentor looked. Mr. Wright had a mildly nervous grin on his face, and was flanked by a young woman with charcoal-black hair, who was doubling over with laughter. Apollo recognized the woman to be Mr. Wright's old assistant. Maya, he believed was her name. He hadn't met her personally, but going off the way Mr. Wright and Trucy spoke of her, she was very close to both of them.
It was strange, but Apollo felt fascinated, somehow, by the photo, and curious about the others in the box. He flipped past the first. The second caught his attention even more. Maya was plainly seen in the centre of the frame, but more notably, a young girl that appeared very familiar to Apollo was there as well. The pair had matching grins on their faces, the younger girl receiving a hug from behind by Maya.
It was Pearl. There was no mistaking her face, nor her distinctive hairstyle. Apollo gazed at the photo, wondering to himself. It looked about as old as the other, so Pearl would probably be somewhere around nine years old in this one. No older than ten, at the most, considering that she was now eighteen as of a few months ago. The younger Pearl wore the same kind of Kurain channeling robes as today, and aside from her hair now being long enough to style a touch differently, she looked much the same as she did now.
(Not even much taller, come to think of it…)
Apollo poked through a few more of the photos in the box. The trio of Mr. Wright, Maya, and Pearl were the most common sights in the lot, though a few other people made recurring appearances as well. Toward the second half of the set, another young girl began to appear. It took Apollo three photos to figure out why she looked so familiar as well. Once he saw the girl in a pink magician's outfit, Trucy's identity became glaringly obvious. He did a double-take shortly after at one photo of a person he was almost certain was the Chief Prosecutor. The man had a thin smile on his face, though he looked less than comfortable with his situation. The younger Trucy was perched on his shoulders, pointing excitedly at something out of the frame. Truth be told, it was always difficult for Apollo to reconcile the serious-faced man who led the Prosecutor's Office and the person Trucy often referred to as "Uncle Edgeworth". He flipped the photo out of his view, finding it too strange to keep looking at.
He had the sudden thought that Pearl might like to see all these pictures for herself. He made to stand up, having become so immersed in his viewing of the photo collection that he momentarily forgot just where he was.
-THUMP-
A sharp pain shot through Apollo's body, starting from the top of his head. He crumpled to the floor, feeling like something had just split his head open.
"A-Apollo-!"
He faintly registered a shocked voice before a firm grip on his shoulders dragged him out from beneath the desk. He was face-down with a cheek to the carpeted floor when Pearl's face swam into his blurred view.
"Are you alright…?" Pearl's voice was soft and filled with concern.
Truthfully, Apollo felt anything but alright. He groaned, not feeling brave enough to raise a hand and check on the bruise no doubt developing on his scalp.
"Here, let me help…"
Pearl's surprisingly strong arms lifted him up until he could roll into a sitting position. The girl crouched on the floor in front of him. She'd put aside her folders and was looking him over with an expression of concern.
Not feeling like saying very much between his embarrassment at doing exactly the thing that Pearl had accidentally done just a few minutes ago and the dull pain throbbing in his head, he just sat in silence while the girl examined his injury.
He realized that she'd just called him by his name a moment ago. Usually, it was "Mr. Apollo" to her. It was more of a nickname than anything, just like she called Mr. Wright "Mr. Nick".
Without saying anything, he fumbled behind himself for the box of photos and dragged it into Pearl's view.
"I thought you'd like to see these." he mumbled, wary of doing anything to make the pain in his head any worse.
Pearl glanced at the photos and paused. A smile tugged at her lips. Apollo gestured for her to pick them up, and after hesitating, she did.
"Oh…" her voice came out soft and nostalgic. She leafed through the photos, smiling and giggling at a few here or there.
It was a fair while before Apollo idly glanced at the clock hanging near his desk and jumped in place a bit out of surprise.
"It's that late already-!?"
Pearl looked up as well.
The pair had been looking through the collection of photos, it seemed, for nearly an hour already. Pearl had often pointed one out with a laugh and explained the circumstances behind it. Until now, Apollo hadn't known just how much of the girl's childhood had been spent here with her cousin, Mr. Wright, and later Trucy.
"Uhh…" he uttered, feeling a bit blindsided by the sudden realization of just how much time had already passed. "You wanna go and get some lunch, or something?" he inquired.
Pearl reacted rather strangely. As if he'd said something quite shocking, she raised a hand to her face, her fingertips ghosting over her lips in a look of bewilderment.
"Oh-… I…"
Apollo waited, wondering what was going through Pearl's head.
"S-Sure!" Pearl replied after a moment of floundering for words. "Where would you like to go?"
Apollo still wondered why Pearl was responding the way she was, but he put it aside for now. "I guess… You want noodles? Or a burger, maybe?"
Pearl got to her feet. "It's been a long time since Mr. Nick took us for burgers! I think Mystic Maya's favourite place is open today. Why don't we go there?"
"Sure." Apollo said, getting up as well.
He followed Pearl to the door, throwing on a jacket. As they stepped out and headed for the doors, Pearl spoke up again.
"I'd never tried city food until the first time Mystic Maya brought me here." she said, skipping down the short hallway to the office's entrance. "I can't eat as much as she does, but she showed me all kinds of great things."
Apollo held the door open for her, and Pearl stepped out, still talking cheerfully about her past visits to the city from Kurain Village.
She was just in the middle of one such remark when she and Apollo heard a rather shocked gasp from somewhere behind them. Pearl spun around, and in a flash of purple, something swung into Apollo's field of vision.
-WHAM-
Apollo let out a yelp as he was momentarily blinded by something striking him square in the face. He staggered, clutching at the vicinity of his eye.
A voice could be heard.
"P-Pearly-!? Y-You and Polly…!?"
Trucy. Apollo tried to open his eyes again, and felt dizzy. He nearly fell over before Pearl's arm caught beneath his chest.
"Oh my goodness - Apollo, I'm sorry!"
Pearl gently lifted his chin up to look over his face. Apollo felt as if he might be developing a black eye. He guessed that Pearl's sudden spin had caused the large bead dangling from her hair to swing into him like a thrown rock.
Finally, his dizziness cleared. He saw Trucy standing just a few steps away, a look of shock plain on her face.
"Hey, Trucy…" he muttered, hoping that his eye didn't look too bad. Pearl was still examining the spot.
"Y-You two are…!? Pearly, why didn't you tell me!?" Trucy squeaked, sounding more shocked by something than Apollo had ever heard her.
"Trucy," Pearl said, turning her attention to her other friend, "H-He only just asked me now."
"Well-…" Trucy stammered. "Y-You'd better tell me everything after you guys get back! And Polly, I'll never forgive you if you screw this up!"
Apollo didn't have the faintest idea of what the two girls were talking about. He almost wished that Trucy would just show concern for his possibly-injured eye, instead. That would make more sense.
He was about to inquire on the matter when Pearl surprised him by taking his hand in hers.
"Come on." she said, leading him onto the sidewalk and leaving Trucy where she was. "I will, Trucy! See you later!"
Apollo followed her, shaking his head. Whatever they were discussing, it was flying clear of his range of understanding.
(Pearl is practically Trucy's sister. I doubt I'll ever understand how their brains work.)
His thoughts ran beneath Pearl's continued speech.
"I'm sorry if I don't know what I'm doing…" she said, drawing Apollo's attention back to her words. "It's just… W-Well, no boys have ever a-asked me out before…"
Apollo froze in place. Pearl's fingertips tugged free of his hand.
(What.)
Pearl looked back at him with curious eyes. Thoughts clicked into place in Apollo's head slowly, all starting to become clear to him, and he felt his face beginning to heat up. If he was developing a black eye, he doubted it would be very visible now.
(Pearl is practically Trucy's sister. And I just asked her out, didn't I…?)
Slow going, but here we are. There's not all that much to the idea of pairing Apollo and Pearl. It's just cute, is all. Gives Maya something to tease Pearl right back for.
This is the last alternate universe we'll be taking a look at, but there's still one more chapter to come.
