All of the Ace Attorney characters belong to Capcom, not me. I only own Rebecca and a few others

Chapter 3

A/N: Hi, I had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out what to write for this chapter but luckily enough, inspiration finally struck so, here I am with the 3rd chapter. Enjoy!

For work the next day, I arrived especially early since I had gotten a sudden burst of inspiration for a new prank to play on Mia. In order to carry it out, I had to get there before she did in order to set it up for her before she could come in and ruin my master plan.

With an evil smirk overtaking my face, I quickly grabbed my office chair from behind my desk and wheeled it over to the ajar doorway. I then hoisted up the bucket of rubber spiders (which I knew the Chief was scared of) that I had prepared previously, carefully placing them on the tiny gap I had left between the door and it's frame. It needed to be as small as possible so that Mia wouldn't notice anything suspicious. After making sure that the bucket was secure, I clambered off the chair and stood back with my hands on my hips to admire my handiwork.

(Now I just need to put my chair back so everything looks normal then wait for the Chief to come in and...the bucket will do the rest. Hehehe, I'm so evil..)

I rubbed my hands together in a villainous fashion and let out a little evil cackle to myself. I was so pleased with my little scheme and Mia's reaction to it was bound to be good. I just couldn't wait for her to arrive so that I could see her face when those spiders fall on her; it would be so funny!

I quickly replaced my chair in its rightful place behind my office desk and sat at it, patiently staring at the door in front of me. I rested my hand on my chin with the desk supporting my elbow, and waited.

And waited...and waited.

Fifteen minutes went by and I felt myself getting more frustrated with each second that ticked by, my arm was starting to ache and I had begun drumming my long, green painted fingernails in an irregular rhythm on the white painted wood beneath them.

(Right, that's it. I can't take this anymore!)

Rapidly losing my patience, I swiftly lifted myself up and began to approach the door to take the bucket back down, soon realising that I had forgotten my chair.

(Goddammit! Why can't I be just a little bit taller? My high heels add a few inches but not enough to reach this stupid door! Argh!)

Breathing a large and long drawn out sigh of frustration, I plodded back to my desk to retrieve my chair once again. But just as I laid my hands on it, I heard footsteps coming towards the office door from the outside.

(Mia! Finally, you're here! About bloody time too..)

I hurriedly returned to my previous position at my desk and acted as I normally could, filing cases like it was just another ordinary day at work while occasionally glancing up at the door to look out for the Chief entering.

Within a few seconds after I had sat back down again, the door was opening, dislodging the bucket from its secure position at the top of the doorframe. A split second passed before it had tumbled down and landed on the head of the person who had just entered the office with fake spiders surrounding them. Their cries of terror and surprise tickled my insides and I actually started to laugh quite heartily at them.

I couldn't actually see their reactions properly because of the door overshadowing them but the light entering the room kept getting intersected by their flailing arms. That coupled with their high pitched screams were hilarious. I'll be honest, I couldn't control myself. As soon as the person hidden in the doorway had recognised my uniquely manical retarded hyena-like laughter, they immediately froze in place, their arms stuck in the air as if they were surrendering to me.

"Becs, is that...you?"

I immediately reined in my uncontrolled giggles in complete shock upon hearing a second voice emanating from the door. The person's voice was familiar but not in the way that I had expected. I had been expecting to hear Mia's feminine voice tinted with a hint of anger as she usually had when I played pranks on her. However, instead this voice was deeper and was genuinely confused as to what had just happened, the complete opposite of how Mia would have reacted. And it took me mere moments to put the pieces together and decipher who it was that the voice belonged to.

"Ph-Phoenix?"

I stood up from my desk for a second time and approached the door of the office just as the figure finally emerged from the shadows of the doorframe and into the open, lit office. Although his face and iconic hairstyle were covered, the striking blue suit was unmistakable.

(Oh god, I've pranked the wrong colleague. Crap!)

I ran one hand through my auburn sea of hair in frustration and let out a sigh that I realised I had been holding in for a while. I was such a dumbass, how could I have pulled a practical joke on the wrong person?!

"Um...Becs?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you mind, um, getting this...bucket off my head?"

"Oh yeah! Hehe, sorry about that."

I made my way back over to the office entrance and gently removed the bucket from my coworker's spiky head. As his face was revealed, he grimaced and shuddered in a dissatisfied fashion, causing the one remaining rubber spider still perched on his head to shuffle slightly. Upon feeling the unfamiliar and unexpected movement, he cautiously raised his right hand up to meet the source of it. As soon as he realised what it was, he squirmed in fright and shook his head frantically in a desperate attempt to get the toy arachnid to fall out of his hair.

"AHHHHHHHHH, GETITOFF GETITOFF GETITOOOOOFFFF!"

(Okay okay, bloody hell. No need to deafen me when you ask though!)

I covered my ears as Phoenix's voice suddenly changed dramatically in pitch and volume. The way he had reacted sounded like his voice box had been replaced with one from an eight year old girl. It was nothing like I would have expected from a 23 year old man of his stature anyway.

In the midst of the chaos that he was causing, I swiftly reached up so that I was touching his head and knocked the spider off with a flick of my wrist. As soon as Phoenix realised that the 'danger' had vanished, his eyes flew open and he regained his regular posture, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

"Phew, thanks Becs. You really saved me there."

"Don't mention it."

He wiped the sweat that had been building up on his forehead away with his hands and started to stumble towards his desk. Even though it was a very amusing sight, I did feel a bit guilty for giving him such as shock at such an early time of day.

(I know I wouldn't be particularly pleased if it was the opposite way around but then, I am very moody on a morning so, that's to be expected, I guess. Either way, I think I should apologise to him.)

"Hey, sorry for giving you such a fright. I thought that the Chief would be the first in today; I didn't even consider the possibility that you would be here before she was." I called out to him as I returned to my own desk, positioning myself on my cozy office chair once again.

"It's ok, I know that you didn't mean to hurt me. It was just a harmless prank, right?" I heard a small chuckle from around the corner before he continued. "Heh, thinking back on it now, I did overreact a bit, didn't I?"

I felt myself start to giggle again too. "Umm, yeah just a little bit, haha! You squealed like a little girl!"

"Yeah, I guess I did, ha!"

We both laughed to ourselves from our respective desks, the joyful sound echoing off the office walls. I restarted my job from a bit earlier and continued filing cases from the past few weeks and I heard Phoenix's fingers tapping away on his desktop computer. Our giggles died down after a few minutes and soon, the only noises in the room were the rustling of papers as they were shoved into files, the clicking of a computer mouse and keyboard and the steady, continuous ticking of the clock on the wall. Everything was quiet and peaceful like this for a while until Phoenix eventually broke the calming atmosphere.

"Hey Becs?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh...thanks a lot for being so friendly and welcoming. You've really made me feel like a part of the office over the past few days and...it means a lot to me, so thank you."

I felt a warming feeling inside my chest as my heart swelled up in pride.

(I-I can't believe that he just said that to me. Me, welcoming? All I did was show him around, ask him some questions and play a prank on the poor guy! How can that be considered 'friendly'? Either way, he seems to have appreciated it.)

"I-It's not a problem. I was happy to. Except, how can that prank earlier be considered 'welcoming', may I ask?" I called back to him, finding it strange that he found my actions that morning to be a friendly gesture.

"Well yeah, that part did scare the life out of me at the time but thinking back on it now, it was pretty hilarious and did make me laugh. Little tricks like that crack me up."

As he spoke, an idea suddenly made itself known inside my head. "Hey, why don't you join me?"

"Huh?" Even though I couldn't directly see him, I could sense the confusion on his face from the tone of his voice.

"You know, pranking and stuff. We could pull a load of pranks on the Chief. C'mon, what do you say?"

He hesitated for a moment before replying. "Well, I don't know. I mean, she IS my new boss; I can't start pranking her now otherwise she might fire me."

(Hmm, he has a good point)

"Well...why don't you just help me come up with new ways to prank Mia? Then you don't have to be directly involved but can still be a part of the fun. How about that?"

Another silent moment while he thought over my offer. "Umm, yeah that sounds like a better idea."

I smiled. "Ok cool. Well, welcome to the squad Phoenix!"

"Huh? What squad?"

"The Office Prank Squad, silly! You're now the second member!"

"Yeah, heh. I guess I am."

A/N: Yay, update! Sorry this has taken soooooo long to update, mock exams and schoolwork have been taking over my life recently and I haven't been having time to do much else. I'll try to get my update schedule back in order as soon as I can. See you in the next chapter (whenever that may be) !

Gaby :)