Disclaimer: Still don't own Pheonix Wright. Still owe alot to Garnet!7th for being my awesome beta-reader.
The rest of the work day had not blazed by as fast as Mia had hoped it would, having every spare moment available diligently devoted to double-checking the time and triple-checking the bus route schedule. She finally let out a heavy sigh at the realization that barely a minute and a half had gone by since the last inspection. Somehow, Mia knew that it was only going to get worse.
Miraculously enough, the clock struck five, signaling the end of the law firm's office hours. Hastily, Mia started picking up her things only to abruptly stop at the sight of a tall shadow covering her office plant Charlie. Had it not been by the way Diego Armando was standing over her desk with his coat hung over his shoulder, the idea of a vague time lapse would have seemed absurd. This, however, proved to be the only explanation Mia could muster up since Diego clearly had a very expectant gaze plastered upon his face that meant she had, perhaps, missed something important.
"All set, Kitten?" he had initially asked her, to which she just looked at him a little blankly out of confusion.
"Um... I guess? Why the sudden interest?"
"You're an interesting person, what can I say?" was his reply, not surprisingly accompanied by a sip of coffee. Wasn't he done drinking the stuff yet?! Seriously, the end of the day on Friday and he was just standing there drinking his cup of Joe!
"No... I meant in this particular moment..." Mia corrected him while rubbing her temples. You'd think now that she actually had places to be for once he'd just let her go. But no! This whole ambiguous flirting thing couldn't be timed any more poorly...
Diego laughed with a very slight hint of nervousness,which was most likly not by choice. "You... you forgot, didn't you?"
"Forget what?!" Mia had to contain herself to not yell that as she rose to his feet. "The last time we talked was when you handed me that file to look over-"
"Exactly!" Diego interjected with a daring smile as he sat at the corner of her desk as if it would help him in the upcoming debate. "The folder containing the dinner invitation you were more than happy to accept!"
"WHAAAAAT?!" Mia was literally shocked back into sitting as she heard the man's outrageous claim. "I didn't accept any invitation to any dinner and you know it!" she countered while slamming both hands on top of her desk, her courtroom habits now jump starting for an odd reason.
"Y-yes you did." Diego's reply came, his confidence faulturing. "I put a little Post-It note in the file I handed you while you were on the phone..."
Mia could feel a bead of sweat begin to crawl down the side of her head as she listened to his claims. "Post-It...?" she echoed awkwardly.
"Yes, a Post-It! You remember now, don't you?" His face lit right back up again, cocky grin and all. "Just say you forgot, Kitten. I won't be mad at-"
"Diego, there... there was no Post-It in the file you handed me." Mia told as comfortingly as she could, but somehow, she just knew there was no avoiding what was to come.
Ah yes, the common 'awkward moment' silence. Oh, and how painful it was! Until, finally, after what felt like an eternity of awkward glances...
Diego's head tipped a bit to the left as he asked her: "Really?! Then why were you smiling all happy and-"
"I was smiling at something my sister said. You know, because I was on the phone?" Mia asked him with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Did you really hand me that file just to ask me out to diner with a Post-It?!" she then dared to ask, but Diego clearly was no longer paying attention by the way he was stroking his chin, eyes darting about in thought.
"How is that possible...?" he mumbled to himself so low Mia almost had to lean closer to properly hear him. "I distinctly remember putting it in that file before I gave the other one to...oh sh--"
"I'm ready for our 'date', Diego! Ohoho..." Grossberg's cheery, booming voice could be heard somewhere behind Diego, which caused one of the most horrifying things Mia had ever seen: the face of the Hispanic lawyer before her was that of death itself. His normally rich brown eyes now seemed hollow, without any willingness to live while his mouth was wide open in shock as if to better let all his life force escape into the atmosphere!
"Oh, god…" Diego's face twitched frantically as he slammed his face against Mia's desk. "Not Grossberg…"
"Diego?" Grossberg walked into the doorway of Mia's office to find Diego just resting his head there, the younger man begin a slowly building laugh until he finally raised his head to turn towards his boss.
"I'm really sorry, Marvin," he managed to stop laughing long enough to say. "But that note was actually meant for Mia here…" he said sheepishly, which caused Grossberg's expression to become quite serious, almost angry. And here Mia thought the jolly ball of a man was incapable of any negative emotion.
"Really now?" came Grossberg's stern reply as he furrowed his eyebrows further, the fact that his womanizing employee was chasing after his newest star employee at the law firm obviously displeasing him.
"It's not what you think, Marvin!" Diego reassuringly raised his hands as if trying to coax a wild animal to not attack. "It's purely for business!"
"Why wasn't I invited then?" Grossberg challenged with a raised eyebrow, his eyes betraying the fact he thought Diego was covering his plot up now that he had him under the spotlight.
"We… we just thought you had plans with the misses, didn't we Kit-"
"Diego, no!" Mia hissed in a low voice at him. "Mr. Grossberg's wife filed for divorce last week."
"….ah?" was Diego could muster as he sheepishly looked back towards Grossberg, who's mustache was wiggling in a 'not impressed' fashion.
"It's alright, Mr. Grossberg, I already have plans this evening anyway." Mia decided to make her leave at this point, not wanting to be there if her boss did decide to blow his fuse. "I'll see you both Monday!" she tried sounding cheerful as she picked up her coat and walked past the two.
"If I survive this, that is…" Diego muttered just so she could hear as she politely asked Grossberg to let her through, seeing as he was congesting the entire doorway.
"Oh yes, of course. Take care, Ms. Fey." Grossberg told her as he moved aside, then fixed his evilest of glares on the now isolated Diego. "As for you-!"
Mia made sure she was out the building's door before she got to hear anymore. Did that scene she just witnessed mean that Grossberg was also having suspicions on Diego and herself?
Whatever the case, Mia was just glad to be away from that little bit of drama. Little did she know that only more drama would await her in the parking lot. She barely had time to fish out her car keys out of her purse when she saw a rebel looking teenage boy kneeling dangerously close to her car's rear tire.
"What's that boy doing to my car?!" she asked herself incredulously before adopting her best intimidating face. "HOLD IT!" she hollered at him despite the fact she was all the way at the other side of the parking lot. She couldn't help but recall even now how Diego taught her that her court room interruptions should be so loud and affirmative that people could practically see the words in bold red lettering inside a white speech bubble.
It sounded silly at first, but she had mastered her almost tangible exclamation bubbles and saw the difference it made at intimidating, even if she was now using it against a street ruffian instead of in a prosecutor.
Said ruffian was so shocked that he dropped an object (too small to identify from this distance) and just stared horrified at Mia. That was when she recognized his face; her current client's (the one who didn't kill his grandmother despite what everyone else thought) cousin.
"What exactly were you doing just now?!" Mia asked him authoritatively as she began marching towards him.
"Busting up yo' tires, what else?!" came his reply, initial shock already long gone. "Ain't no lawyer chick helpin' ma' cuz' get away wit' ma' Grandma's murder!"
"OBJECTION!" Mia retorted with another strike of her imaginary cartoon bubbles, reflexively pointing at him as well. "My client was nowhere near the victim's vicinity on the night of the murder as proven by the-"
A polite clearing of the throat was then heard a little ways behind her. Both attorney and crook looked in the sound's direction to see that Diego Armando had now joined the scene.
"Kitten… why are you yelling objections at this punk?" he asked her critically while taking his hands out of his coat's pockets.
"I don't know, it just… came out on it's own!" she replied worriedly as her entire posture deflated a bit. "Happens to everyone, right?" she then asked hopefully.
"Nope, just you." Diego replied off-handedly just as both adults noticed the boy was trying to make a run for it.
"I don't think so!" he growled before both of them dashed after him, Diego quickly tackling him to the floor, Mia helping him keep the boy down as she called the police.
"What you did was pretty stupid, kid!" Diego told the punk he held pinned against the gravel. "I'm sure the court will find you much less credible with this on your criminal record!"
He then tried flashing his expertly mastered grin in Mia's direction, what with him having the Knight in Shining Armor aura at the moment (perhaps he wasn't so unlucky today after all...) only to realize Mia was actually cursing under her breath at her watch. "What's the matter, Kitten?"
"What's the matter?!" Mia echoed angrily. "What's the 'matter' is that I was finally able to put this crazy week behind me just to have some PUNK-"
"Watch your words around the people involved in a case, Kitten." Diego interrupted to remind her, to which she just glared at him before resuming.
"-just to have… him bust my car tires when I was supposed to be pick up my sister at the bus station five minutes ago!"
"Thas' whut you git fer' defending criminals!" the boy squirming under Diego's much bigger frame allowed himself to say only to have Diego press even harder on his back.
"Right to remain silent, kid. Use it." Was he said before looking back at Mia, something he wished he hadn't been forced to stop doing because of the miscreant. "Relax, Kitten. You already called the cops, we can just bring this kid to Grossberg and have him handle the rest. You'll make it on time."
"I better call a taxi then…" Mia began dialing on her phone again.
"Oh no you don't!" Diego verbally forbade her. "I'll give you a lift, no worries."
"It's fine Diego, really…"
"Kitten, you're so cruel!" Diego made a scene as his head swiveled around as if in agony. "Not only do you turn down my dinner invitation, which gave me A LOT of shit with Grossberg, thank you very much, but you're turning down my offer for a lift too? That's just hurtful, Mia Fey."
"Um…" the punk hesitated only to stop in shock as Diego began to pet his head!
"She hates me, kid… she hates me…"
"Oh, alright! I'll go!" Mia caved in, the attempt at the guilt-trip not surprisingly working. After everything she had been through just this afternoon, she just didn't have the strength in her to deal with Diego's guilt-trip, no matter how childish it was.
Hopefully Maya would be on her best behavior today!
A/N: At long last Chapter 2! I've had this part in mind a really long time ago, I just for some reason had a very hard time getting it on the word proccessor. But it's finally here! Sorry to keep you all waiting, folks! I'll update more frequently from now on, promise.