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Trial was the same as ever. Somehow out of every prosecutor in the district, he managed to get the one that still held a grudge over some behaviour from a few years ago.
Like this court hadn’t seen light perjury before.
Hugh picked the loose feathers out of his hair. There wasn’t anything that he had done today that warranted Blackquill sicking his hawk on him. The trial was standard all things considered, he wasn’t doing any of that nonsense that he typically used that hawk for.
“My sincerest apologies. It seems Taka remembers you,” he had lied with a smirk.
As usual the judge had no problem with it. If it weren’t for his promise and the fact that he’d deal with this nonsense even more with him as a coworker, Hugh might consider changing careers and being a prosecutor.
There was also something to be said about the amount of times he’s been attacked by birds as a lawyer compared to when he was a crane operator.
All he could really do at this point was to hope that the old judge retired soon. He knew that Juniper would never tolerate this kind of behaviour.
Myriam, on the other hand, might. She might encourage it. Hell, she might even encourage him to retaliate . He could get some foam arrows to get the prosecution and witnesses with. That’d be a nice change of pace.
Hopefully in the next case he’d get a more tolerable prosecutor. Ideally it’d be him and Sebastian. It’s been a while since he’s been on a case with him, and he knows it can’t possibly be because they got together. If they’re purposefully being kept apart at work for dating, Hugh was more than ready to make a case for himself. Because he knew for a fact he wasn’t the only defense attorney in a relationship with a prosecutor.
He didn’t have any conclusive proof that that was the case. The moment he did he would take this directly to the Chief Prosecutor himself. Hugh had talked and gotten pointers from the Turnabout Terror himself, he could manage having a little chat with the Chief Prosecutor.
But he’d cross that bridge when he got to it. Like he said, there was no conclusive proof that was the case. A few cases without working with his boyfriend was reasonable. This was just a case of genius missing the challenge of facing off another genius in court.
“Mr. O’Conner, correct?” A calm and stern voice spoke up.
Hugh couldn’t place the voice as he quickly went through the list of voices he knew. He felt as though he knew it, but it also sounded considerably clearer than it normally did. His brow furrowed as he looked up and froze.
That was the Chief Prosecutor. What was he doing here, and why was he talking to Hugh of all people? He wasn’t Hugh’s boss, and by all accounts he had no reason to talk to him unless he was here to apologize for the actions of Prosecutor Blackquill.
“Yeah, that’d be me.”
Didn’t he have a reputation for not knowing defense attorneys? He was pretty sure he remembered his boss griping about facing him back when he was a regular prosecutor. This could be a bad sign, but Hugh was never one to pass up a perfectly good ego boost.
“I’m aware that you have paperwork to attend to, but might I trouble you for a few moments of your time? I have some matters I wish to discuss,” so far he’s given no details either way as to what kind of talk this was going to be. Hugh could still hold out for an apology.
“I suppose I can spare some time. What exactly do you wanna discuss?”
The Chief Prosecutor gestured for him to follow as he walked. Not really having much of a choice, Hugh followed.
“It has come to my attention that you have been getting close to a certain prosecutor.”
So his hunch was right this whole time. He did have a problem with them dating!
“With all due respect, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth, you yourself are in a relationship with a defense attorney who I know for a fact you still face off against in court whenever you get the chance,” Hugh had never gotten the chance to see one in person, but he was more than aware of those trials.
One day his schedule would be clear enough to watch. If they get as crazy as Athena’s then he couldn’t miss that.
The Chief Prosecutor furrowed his brow slightly, as if it weren’t furrowed enough. “I fail to see how that’s connected to anything, Mr. O’Conner, please elaborate.”
“I haven’t been put on a case with Prosecutor Debeste in a while. Coincidentally this was right after we started dating. It’s an unfair double standard to maintain, especially since Mr. Justice gets his court cases with Prosecutor Gavin and you face off against Mr. Wright,”
“I choose which prosecutor would be best suited for the case at hand. I pay little attention to the defense in charge of the case,” he briefly pauses. “That’s not to say that I haven’t had to reassign prosecutors because they refuse to deal with a certain ridiculous agency, however I trust my prosecutors to continue to maintain their professionalism no matter who they face.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” he sarcastically rolled his eyes, thinking of the feathers he was picking out of his hair moments before the Chief Prosecutor came to talk to him.
“Which brings me to the topic at hand. What are your intentions with Prosecutor Debeste?”
Not the question he was expecting to hear, nor one that he had really put much thought into. They’d only been dating for a few months, and he hadn’t really expected to even get this far.
“Uh… Like right now? Because I guess right now that’d be to get coffee later?” well Hugh would get coffee, Sebastian tended to get hot chocolates so he didn’t fall asleep.
“What is your reasoning for entering this relationship with him?”
“Well it’s only natural that two geniuses get together. We’re very like minded individuals burdened with intellect that most could never even come close to understanding.”
He could feel the gaze of the Chief Prosecutor cut him to his very core, as if he was evaluating him. “I see.”
“He was also the first one to make a move. I kinda thought he was out of my league. But, uh, luckily for both of us, we came to the realization that we were perfect for eachother, and were wildly out of everyone else’s league. Neither of us had to settle for anything less than first class.”
The echo of their shoes bounced off the walls and filled the silence. Hugh had a hard time figuring out whether this was better or worse.
“I see.”
“And we both know he’s a great guy. His career managed to make it through your mass firing you did a few years back. And given what I know now, means you know just as well as I do about how he seeks the truth rather than just a guilty verdict. I dunno how much you looked into him, but you probably found out that he’s as great of a guy outside of court as he is inside.”
The tapping of their shoes was starting to drive him insane. He was going to walk away if he said “I see” one more time.
“Well, Mr. O’Conner, consider yourself tolerated, but on probation. I expect you will not let me down,” his voice still even and stern.
“I… Okay?” he was aware that Hugh was a defense attorney and did not work for him, right? Had he gone mad with power and Hugh was going to have to keep an eye on him from now on?
The Chief Prosecutor stopped, and bowed. “Take care, Mr. O’Conner.
Unclear of what he was supposed to do, Hugh bowed back. “Uh… You too?”
And with that, the Chief Prosecutor took his leave.
Hugh was going to have to call Sebastian later to ask what that was about, but at least he seemed to...pass?