"Hey, I'm sorry again about training yesterday."

"Oh, it was all right! Y-you really didn't have to do this, you know…"

I shrugged at my companion. "I know. This is fun for me, too, though. Remember, I get to take a longer break from my studies this way."

In a small, fairly new café in Kurain Village, at precisely 1:00 pm, I sat with Pearl at a wooden table looking over the menu. She'd already done her daily training (as the weather was still chilly but the wind had died down considerably), but I'd offered to take her someplace to eat afterwards, partially because I wanted to make up for the failed training session the day before and partially because I enjoyed her company. It was a little awkward being there without Ms. Fey (everyone kept asking where she was), but we were adjusting all right.

"Alright, I've decided what I'm getting," I said after a few moments of silence. I slid the menu to the middle of the table, which wasn't that far away because everything in the café looked undersized. Then again, the entire village was rather quaint, so it was a fitting atmosphere.

"Same here," Pearl replied, then paused and looked around for a waiter. One of them noticed her and came over quickly. I was pretty sure he was the only waiter in the entire place.

"What can I get for you today?" he asked, with an accent I couldn't place. I wondered if he was one of those people who put on a fake accent to make himself look cooler. Pearl pointed to something on the menu in response, and I placed my order.

Once he'd left, I turned back to her and asked, "So, about that little boy yesterday—"

*Do do do DO, do do do…* My cellphone went off, interrupting my train of thought.

"Augh, sorry," I said, picking up the phone and checking the number. It looked familiar, and I realized I'd probably forgotten to add Ms. Fey into my contacts when she'd called me previously. "Hello?"

"Hi, Apollo." I almost jumped a little at expecting to hear Ms. Fey's voice and instead hearing Mr. Wright's. "Sorry I wasn't able to get in touch with you earlier, seems I left my cell phone at home, so I'm borrowing Maya's for the time being… I hope you're doing well?"

"Is that Mr. Phoenix?" Pearl whispered, leaning forward to hear the voice on the other end of the phone better. I nodded.

"H-hi, Mr. Wright! I'm fine. I've been helping Pearl Fey with her training," I said quickly.

"So Maya told me. Sorry we didn't have time to warn you we were leaving, but we weren't exactly expecting a new client," he replied.

"Of course," I said, partially in politeness and partially because it really was the truth. Of course they weren't expecting a new client; we only ever got clients when we weren't prepared. "Um… how long do you think you'll be away?"

"That's why I called you. Unfortunately, the trial isn't going so well," he sighed. Pearl and I looked at each other in alarm.

"The trial's already started?" Pearl asked in a hushed voice. There weren't many other people in the café to disturb, but she was always wary of those around her.

"What IS good," Mr. Wright continued, "is that we bought a lot of time with a bluff about this gold mine's safety conditions, so we have anywhere from three days to a full week to continue our investigation."

"Wow," I said, impressed. "Wait, does that mean you'll be staying in Texas, then?"

"For at least a while, yes," he responded. "I wanted to make sure you knew."

From across the table, Pearl raised one eyebrow and shot a small smile at me. I glared back, then remembered I was still on the phone.

"Huh? Oh, th-thanks. Yea, I'll be fine."

"…I know you will be. Still, if anything happens, give me a call, okay? I can arrange for Athena to be sent down to your aid, should you need assistance."

Pearl's smile only got more smug. I tried to ignore her.

"Th-thank you, I will. I don't intend on getting wrapped up in a trial right now, though," I laughed nervously.

"We never do," I heard Mr. Wright sigh on the other end. Pearl failed to contain a loud giggle at his statement. There was a lull in the conversation and for a minute I thought he'd hung up.

"Apollo, was that Pearl?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, yea, it was. Say hi, Pearl," I said, holding out the phone to her.

"Hi, Mr. Nick," she said cheerfully into the transmitter. She sounded a bit like she was trying to imitate Maya.

"…Um, shouldn't you be concentrating?" he asked her.

"Hm? Oh, w-we're not training right now," Pearl laughed in embarrassment.

"Then where…?" he started. I took the phone back quickly.

"There was a mishap with training yesterday, so I took her out to lunch to apologize." I desperately hoped he didn't catch on that I was also kind of procrastinating my work.

After a pause, he replied, "Glad to hear it. Spoken like a true gentleman." There was a noise I couldn't pinpoint in the background, and then some yelling from voices I didn't know.

"I've got to go," Mr. Wright said. "Take care." Then he hung up. I put my phone back into my pocket while Pearl folded her hands on the table and set her chin down on them, smiling.

"It was very kind of him to make sure you were doing okay," she said in a you-know-what-I-mean tone of voice.

"Sh-shut up," I mumbled, and looked around to see if the waiter had our food ready yet.

"'Shut up?' Wow, spoken like a true gentleman," she retorted, grinning bigger than ever. I couldn't decide if I liked her more or less since she'd started to come out of her shell.

"Oh, look, our food's finally ready," I said as I spotted the waiter approaching us from the kitchen. We both nodded politely to him as he set our food down and left to take care of another table. I turned back to Pearl.

"Well, in a dramatic turn of events, it looks like I'm stuck with you for at least another three days," I sighed. She grinned.

"Looks like it."

—

(A/N: Okay, first off, the normal A/N for this chapter: I HADN'T YET PLAYED PROFESSOR LAYTON VS PHOENIX WRIGHT WHEN I WROTE THIS CHAPTER BUT JUST NOW AS I WAS EDITING IT I CAME ACROSS THE "GENTLEMAN" LINE AND DIED LAUGHING. Layton definitely rubbed off on Phoenix at least a little, headcanon fully and violently accepted. XD)

((Response A/N: Dear person that left me TWO reviews yesterday: I love you. Those were legitimately the best possibly reviews I ever could've hoped for on this story. And TWO of them?! "Probably not the best idea to review twice but" NO LISTEN. DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I LOVE REVIEWS FRIEND THAT IS ONE OF THE NICEST THINGS YOU COULD EVER DO. I HAVE SOME FOLLOWERS ON A DIFFERENT STORY THAT COMMENT EVERY CHAPTER AND I NEVER GET TIRED OF THEIR REVIEWS. I'd reply to you in a PM but I'll have to wait until you have an account to do that. "^^ Anyway, thank you so, so much. You made my entire week and I'm thrilled that I was able to make you feel a little more at home. Hope you liked this chapter and the ones to come :D!)) (P.S. I am on Team Stepladder, but mostly just to annoy my cousins who don't know what AA is, haha XD) (P.P.S. I noticed you use "Red" as your guest username. It's probably just a coincidence, but that wouldn't happen to have anything to do with Pokemon, would it? Because Red is heckin' awesome.)