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After the trial, Klavier had offered Apollo a ride, and they were exiting towards the parking structure exit when they saw them.
Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth conversing and exchanging files.
Already embroiled in what seemed to be a pleasant conversation, the chief prosecutor and senior attorney hadn’t noticed the two other men about to turn the corner. Apollo yelped as Klavier gripped his collar to hide behind some plants nearby an eavesdrop.
“Klavier!” Apollo hissed.
“Shh! I have to see this!” Klavier whispered. “It’s like when you see your teachers having lives outside of class! Or an animal with two heads…!”
“We are adults !”
“Shhhh!”
“Wright, I have to thank you again for these files,” Edgeworth started. “I’ve been meaning to get them myself, but I’ve been swamped with work lately… we’re supposed to be hosting an international prosecutor sometime in the coming months…”
“Oh boy, I can only imagine the headache…” Wright nervously chuckled. “Is it Franziska?”
“Oh no, she’s very satisfied working for Interpol,” Edgeworth said, shaking his head, “This is a prosecutor from a rather small country, I’m not entirely sure on the name at the moment, I’ll have to look through my memos for that…”
“Oh… maybe one of the juniors or I will face them at some point,” Wright retorted.
“That would be an interesting trial indeed, I might have to watch it if that ever happens,” Edgeworth smirked.
He looked through the files, examining everything closely before his face contorted in shock, nearly dropping the folder itself, exclaiming and shouting as his face turned white. He huffed and glared at Wright, who was clearly proud of himself and laughing.
“Phoenix Wright!” Edgeworth started to grit his teeth, he held up a cheap tabloid. “What the hell is this?!”
Apollo recognized that magazine, Gossip! Weekly, he had passed by it on his way to the Wright Anything Agency. It was prominently displayed on the news stand across from where Eldoon liked to park his noodle cart. Both his and Klavier’s bosses were displayed on the front cover exiting the courtroom together, close together and embroiled in conversation; Wright was caught in mid laughter, his hand on the prosecutor’s shoulder, and Edgeworth was smirking crookedly at him.
“‘Litigation in the streets, but embroiled debate in the sheets?’” Edgeworth recited. “I didn’t think you would stoop to this level of tripe!”
“ I didn’t buy it!” Wright snorted. “Pearls just ran into my office this morning to lecture me on how to treat my ‘special someone’ like a gentleman!”
Edgeworth groaned and covered his face, which was already starting to turn pink, with his hand, “Wright…”
“Besides, look at whose article it is!” Wright added. “Took me way back!”
“What…? Wait… Lotta Hart?!”
“I know! I was about to toss it before I saw it, I guess she’s still looking for that ‘scoop’ of hers…!” Wright cackled. “Besides, you looked like you needed a laugh!”
“Trust me, Wright, I am not laughing…”
“I can literally hear it in your voice!”
“That woman has been the cause of my headache for an inordinate amount of cases that I have found myself on…!”
“At least she makes it memorable…!” Wright said. “Maybe I should visit the heartland sometime, I have to see it now!”
“Oh heavens, an area full of Lotta Harts…” Edgeworth chuckled. “Perish the thought…”
They continued going at it as they walked down the hall, laughing and sharing inside jokes along the way, eventually disappearing through the door that led to the parking deck.
“Oh my god, they are so a thing!” Klavier laughed. “Did you see that! You have to be blind if you can’t see it!”
“Klavier! Those are our bosses ! I don’t want to think about that !” Apollo wrinkled his nose. “Besides, they’re old friends, right? They’re just joking around?”
“Oh my god, you can’t be serious! They didn’t even deny the article!”
“And? What is there to deny, it’s just a trashy tabloid?” Apollo asked. “They were just walking out of the courthouse together, we do that all the time…!”
“Apollo… Hase… Schatz…” Klavier replied. “We're walking out together to get lunch… on a date… a lunch date…”
“Okay, that was a bad example,” Apollo said. “But Blackquill and Athena walk out together too!”
“Well everyone already knows that isn’t ever going to be a thing!” Klavier rolled his eyes. “Fraulein Cykes is only there to spoil Taka, that’s different from Herr Wright and Herr Edgeworth!”
Apollo got up from their hiding spot and started towards the parking structure, “Okay! I want to get lunch! I’m hungry!” Apollo huffed. “ You can gossip all you’d like about your boss’ personal life, but I’m getting noodles!”
“Ach! Scatz, wait for me!”
Athena had nothing better to do than mindlessly surfing the web through Widget; She didn’t have any other cases, she was putting off her paperwork, and frankly, the attorney was just bored out of her mind.
She looked over the arm of the sofa to catch a glance at Apollo, who was steadfastly working at an ancient blocky computer monitor, and wearing blocky red headphones listening to whatever someone like Apollo would listen to.
What kind of music would you like? Athena wondered. You seem really indie… maybe ska? I don’t think you’d be much of a rock ‘n roll guy…
“Maybe it’s the Gavineers!” Widget chimed in.
“Hush!” Athena hissed.
Apollo looked over, raising an eyebrow, “Athena…? Did you say something?”
“Oh! Nothing! Don’t mind me!” Athena chuckled, mindlessly clicking on an article to look less suspicious before screeching when she realized what popped up.
Right in front of her was the latest edition of Gossip! Weekly, her boss and the chief prosecutor right in front of her peppered with speculation and rumors.
“Old people doing it!” Widget screamed.
“Widget! Why?! ”
“Ugh! Oh my god, Athena, what the hell ?!” Apollo groaned. “They’re not even old , I’m pretty sure Mr. Wright’s only… like ten… ? -ish… ? Years older than me!”
The nineteen year old huffed and crossed her arms, “Well they seem old to me !”
“And I do not want to think about Mr. Wright’s personal life!” Apollo retched. “Why’d you even have to pull that up? I got enough of Klav’s speculation yesterday…”
“I didn’t mean to click it! It ju--”
A knock at the agency’s door interrupted Athena. Both of the junior attorneys jumped at the chance to open it, hoping that it was a client to pull them out of their boredom.
Instead, they were face-to-face with the chief prosecutor himself, in all his crimson clad glory, holding a lunch tin.
“P-Prosecutor Edgeworth?!” Apollo sputtered.
“What are you doing here ?” Athena asked, preemptively covering Widget
“Oh… hello, I trust I’m not disturbing anything?” Edgeworth said. “I came to drop this off… Wright forgot it… again…”
“Oh… Mr. Wright’s out right now,” Apollo replied, taking the lunch tin. “I guess we can keep it here?”
Edgeworth chuckled, taking off his glasses and cleaning the lenses, much to the junior attorney’s shock.
He laughs ?! Athena thought.
Apollo was slack jawed and his eyes bulged, but it seemed that the prosecutor didn’t notice.
Or if he did, thought their shock was amusing.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he was at Eldoon’s again because he realized he forgot it,” Edgeworth sighed, a permanent smirk present on his face. “That’s Wright for you, especially with that tunnel vision of his, can only see straight ahead… well, I’m sure this will be a lesson for him to actually answer that fossil he calls a phone…”
They talk outside of court? On their phones? Outside of court? Athena wondered. Edgeworth is outside of the prosecutor’s office?!
“Anyway, I’ll leave you both to whatever work needs to be done,” Edgeworth said, turning to leave. “Good day, Mr. Justice, Miss Cykes…”
Before he made it to the stairwell, he turned to the junior attorneys one last time and pushed his glasses.
“Oh, I almost forgot, if you see Trucy today,” He added. “Do tell her that she can watch Pess this weekend, thank you.”
And just like that, he was gone, leaving Athena and Apollo in stunned silence, mouths agape and eyes wide.
“Who’s Pess?!” Widget shouted, breaking the silence.
“Oh my god he brought Mr. Wright lunch…”
“Athena! Not you too !”
Despite moving up on the food chain and graduating from fieldwork to more administrative work, Gumshoe still missed the old days of going to the crime scene himself and heckling an attorney or two while he was at it.
Don’t get the Chief of Police wrong, he loved his work, and he was honored when he was recommended for the position when the old boss retired, but he couldn’t help but feel nostalgic when he saw the newbies rearing to fight crime in their own way.
Gumshoe closed the reports he was working on and took off his glasses, feeling the sting of staring at a screen for far too long. His muscles were sore as they stretched when he reached over to pet Missile, who was happily napping at the foot of his desk.
“Hah… you might be retired, but I’m nowhere near that, pal,” Gumshoe mumbled. “I’ve still got long days ahead of me…”
Missile, whose face was now almost entirely white, didn’t even crack an eye open as he stretched, exposing his furry neck for more scratches.
Then, just as Gumshoe was about to get up for lunch, his computer chimed, his partner was calling all the way from Borginia. Due to his excitement, Gumshoe almost knocked over an old cup of ramen and pressed the answer button to be face to face with Shi-Long Lang.
The agent looked just like he did last time they were able to talk at a reasonable time for the both of them, but he was more exhausted, definitely ready to close this latest case.
“Shi! Hey! Isn’t it the middle of the night for you? Here… one sec…!” Gumshoe greeted, leaning over to pick up Missile so that Lang could see him. “Someone missed you!”
“Aww! How’s my favorite boy? There he is! It’s Missile, yes it is!” Lang laughed on the other side. “But it’s around one in the morning here… besides, we don’t believe in sleep at Interpol…”
“Still! You can’t get the perp if you fall flat on your face and pass out!”
“Don’t worry, Big Guy, I’ll be fine, hopefully I can actually tell you about the case soon…” He yawned. “I swear, if I hear ‘Wolf-Man’ one more time, I’m changing my family name to some other animal…!”
“Like what, bear ?” Gumshoe snorted.
Lang laughed loudly before winking and cheekily baring his teeth, “You say that like it’s a bad thing…
“Anyway, I wanted to check up, it’s been way too long since I was able to call,” Lang said. “And I had to tell you what’s been driving Sis up the wall for the last few days…!”
“Oh no, I can already hear the whip!” Gumshoe groaned.
“She actually sprained her wrist because it’s been driving her that crazy…!”
“It’s that bad?” Gumshoe asked. “What is it?!”
“Here, let me send you the article, apparently her girlfriend sent it to her first…”
Suddenly, an article from Gossip! Weekly popped up, Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth were on the front cover, surrounded by speculations regarding their relationship behind closed doors.
“Well, it’s not that often someone gets a picture of Mr. Edgeworth smiling like that…!” Gumshoe noted. “So this is what drove Ms. von Karma crazy?”
“Oh yeah, you should have seen her face!” Lang howled. “She turned red and pulled out her phone, probably calling ol’ Pretty Boy himself, and screamed in German for three hours…!”
Gumshoe shuddered, “No way it was that long…!”
“I think she was just pissed that she didn’t know sooner,”
“That definitely sounds like her…” Gumshoe chuckled. “Hmm…”
“Oh? What’s on your mind?”
Gumshoe scratched the back of his head and thought for a moment, “I had a bet with some of the guys back at the precinct,” he said. “You think I might make a good case and win the fifty?”
“Oh hell yeah!”
To say that Kay and Trucy were proud of their scheme would be an understatement. It was the one thing they were both proud of, ever since Trucy dared Kay to send the photo she managed to snap to Lotta Hart in the first place.
“So tell me what Maya’s face looked like again?” Kay snorted, putting the change in the tip jar for the ice cream vendor.
“Mmph, it was the greatest !” Trucy replied after biting into her ice cream (much to Kay’s horror). “She was all like, ‘Bwaaaaaaaah?! ’, and then said she had to get Auntie Fran on the phone that instant!”
“Hah, sending it to Wolfy was pretty funny too, I bet all of Interpol’s seen it like five times!” Kay snorted. “This is the greatest heist ever!”
The teenager snickered and struck a pose, “Even in the depths of night, when no other bird dares take flight?” Trucy giggled.
Kay cackled and lifted the young magician’s hat to ruffle her hair, “Ah yes, you’ve learned well, my padawan…!” Kay lowered her voice and made it gravelly. “‘Operation: Dorky Dads’ is complete!”
“How grounded do you think we’re gonna be when they figure it out?” Trucy mused.
Kay snickered and pulled out her camera, “Probably very , but there’s plenty more where that came from!”
Both of them laughed, nearly buckling over and dropping their ice cream, ready to plot their next scheme as soon as possible.
The Yatagarasu may have been officially retired a long time ago, but this was worth polishing the old wings for.