Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

     Another day, another murder.

    At least, that’s how things usually seemed to be with the Wright & Co. Law Offices, and it also seemed to be that murderers didn’t particularly care to take breaks when the weather began to turn cold and the birds flew south.

    So here she was; on her way to a murder scene with Nick once again.

    This time, it was an Ivy University biology lab. From what preliminary information they’d managed to squeeze out of Gumshoe, the victim was one of a pair of researchers, and the murderer was believed to be the other member of the pair.

    Of course, whether or not that was true was for Nick and Maya to find out.

    Normally, their modus operandi would’ve had them go to the Detention Centre to see the defendant and decide then and there if they were going to take on their case, but apparently they’d been taken to the crime scene to assist the police with the investigation since they and their partner were the only ones privy to the information of their experiments; their Ph.D supervisors had been largely left in the dark.

    “Wow, it’s been a while since you were here, huh Nick?” Maya asked as the two made their way to the entrance to the science building of the university, taking in the unfamiliar scenery.

    “Yeah, no kidding,” he confirmed. “Been a few years. I never looked back after law school.”

    “You’re not gonna come back and get your doctorate?”

    “Not if people going to get said doctorates tend to get murdered around here.”

    Maya chuckled. “Fair enough.”

    Two sets of glass doors and Wright and ‘& co.’ entered the building. Dead ahead was an elevator set in the centre of the room next to the stairs. The building was square at the base with the elevator shaft and stairwell in the very middle. The hallways were continuous around each floor that went in a square around the centre, with the offices and labs set around them by the outside walls. In that way, the whole structure could be compared to a square stack of donuts, but rather than the hole being in the middle and the rest being solid, it was the other way around, with walls surrounding it.

    Donuts… food… one of only two things that Maya generally thought about regularly when they didn’t have a case (though burgers were usually her thoughts of choice when contemplating the wonders of food, not donuts).

    The other was standing next to the elevator, speaking to a police officer.

    “Oh boy,” Nick huffed, though Maya detected more nervousness than frustration in his voice, despite his best efforts to conceal it.

    “Come on, Nick,” Maya chided, elbowing her legal partner in the arm. “You’re such a drama queen. She’s not that bad.”

    “That’s what you say,” Nick fired back. “You didn’t get knocked out by her whip in court trying to defend you.” His eyes narrowed, voice lowering to a mutter. “And I’m not head over heel-”

    “What are you two doing here?” The most beautiful woman in the world asked, brow in a firm line, now only a few feet away from them.

    “Nothing!” Maya blurted.

    Franziska raised an eyebrow. “Nothing? You came all the way out here for absolutely nothing? You don’t have to be a genius comparable to one like von Savigny to know that’s not true.” The prosecutor, evidently unimpressed, crossed her arms, her whip sinking into her thick coat a little. “Now, please tell me that you aren’t here to take on this case.”

    “We might. We want to talk to the defendant and decide from there,” Nick explained. “What do you think of him?”

    “I haven’t met him yet,” Franziska stated entirely flatly. “But I fully believe he is the guilty party; there was not a single other person who could possibly have committed the crime as the defendant was the only one who was even in this building at the time of the murder. That’s all you need to know; he is guilty.”

    Silence for a few moments.

    “…You’re still here?”

    “We’ll make that call for ourselves,” Nick said.

    Franziska seemed rather unamused, which was a shame; Maya couldn’t remember a single instance where the austere prosecutor had ever lightened up even a little, and she wanted to see such a thing even just once.

    Well, more than once would be nice too, but even just once.

    “…Fine,” Franziska caved in a puff of displeased breath. She then turned around, beckoning the others to follow as she made for the elevator.

    “Well, let’s get to it!” Maya grabbed Nick’s shoulder, pulling him towards the elevator.

    “Yep,” he concurred. “You will try to stay focused though, right?”

    Maya giggled, looking over at Franziska as the elevator doors opened and she stepped in. “Can’t make any promises.”

    The defence team entered the elevator just after the prosecution, and the ride up to the 7th floor was silent, though not necessarily unpleasant; Maya had managed to put herself between Nick and Franziska, which was nice. Maybe a silly thing to do, but nice.

    With the opening of the doors and a brief feeling of lightness, the trio poured out into the hallway.

    “This way.” Franziska motioned for the others to follow once again, and they did so around to the opposite side of the building where an open door led into one of the laboratories, around which was clustered a number of police officers and a thin, worried-looking young man in a white lab coat.

    “You are Stanley Cell?” Franziska asked as they approached the man.

    Upon spotting the prosecutor, the young man made a sound a little like a small dog barking a ‘yipe!’. “Y-yes, I’m Stan Cell.” His eyes darted back and forth to each of the three. “W-who are you?”

    “I am Franziska von Karma. I will be prosecuting the case against you,” she announced like it was the biggest and best thing that had ever happened in history. “These two,” she pointed vaguely to her two cohorts. “Are representatives of the Wright & Co. Law Offices.” Her voice dripped with a little disdain as she gave the name of their law firm, much to Maya’s sad dismay.

    “A-are you guys going to defend me?!” Cell asked, a glimmer of hope shining in his eyes as he brought his hands together in a gesture that almost looked as though he was praying.

    “We’d like to take a look around the crime scene and ask you a few questions before we make any decisions,” Nick replied. Maya was actually impressed by how businesslike his response was. She’d have to knock him off his guard somehow with some silly comment at some point to get him all flustered. Nick was always more fun when he was flustered.

    “Okay…At least that’s a start,” Cell said, a little sheepish. “Come on inside, I’ll show you around and answer your questions.”

    “Good. First question; what were you and your partner doing in this laboratory?” 

    Ah, there was Franziska; right on the ball and right down to business. She was so cool. She was also walking off with Nick and the biologist into the lab and Maya had fallen behind because Franziska’s hair was just so darned cool-looking and she couldn’t help staring at it. There were other things of Franziska’s that she couldn’t help staring at too, but nobody needed to know about that.

    She caught up with the others.

    “We were working on some technology that could revolutionise the medical industry,” Cell answered, a little bit of pride singing in his voice. “This apparatus, right here.”

    Cell gestured to a large, cannon-looking machine on their right upon entering the lab. Most of the space was empty, with a big lab table that went all the way to the floor at the front of the room, which the cannon-thing seemed to be roughly pointing towards. Other than that, most of the equipment was crowded around the cannon itself. Probably for managing it and adjusting it and for other science that Maya didn’t really care enough to try and understand.

    “I see,” said Nick, looking down at the floor. Maya followed his gaze to some black tape outlining a body; white tape would have been nearly invisible on the white, tile flooring. “This is where you found the body?”

    “Y-yes.” Any colour that had come back to Cell’s face had drained upon answering Nick’s question.

    If there was anything that Maya had learned in her time in the legal world, it was that clammy defendants tended to clam up, so to speak. Thus, to alleviate the problem, she decided the best course of action would be to try and get his spirits back up, and she had a good idea as to how to do it; entertain his passion a little.

    “So what does this thing do?!” She asked excitedly, stepping over the tape to get closer to the machine. “How is it gonna revolutionise the medical world?”

    “Well, you see,” Cell began to explain, pushing his glasses a little further up his nose. “Behind it on the other side here are hoppers full of different types of cells and tissues.” He gestured to some big metal bins that Maya hadn’t been able to see before she’d gotten closer to the machine.

    “Ew! So there’s, like, all kinds of flesh and stuff in there?!” Maya recoiled in horror from the machine, bringing her hands to her biceps as she did so.

    “No, no, no!” Cell quickly corrected, bringing up his hands as he seemed worried Maya would be too freaked out by whatever he had going on with this thing for him to be able to talk about it to her more. “The cells are fairly simple and largely undifferentiated. Not quite stem cells, but as close as we can get. There’s also one designated empty hopper next to the others.”

    Maya relaxed a bit. “So… what do you do with them?”

    “Anything,” Cell answered, excitement returning to him. “This machine will allow us to sculpt a human being down to the cellular level. Think of the possibilities in medical treatments! We could remove tumours down to the very last cell without damaging any healthy tissue! We could grow back limbs, or organs, or even brain matter! We could help people with severe obesity on their journey of weight loss, or give patients with paralysis the ability to feel and move back! Muscular dystrophy, Crohn’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, you name it, we could cure it!”

    “Oh wow.” Maya was genuinely impressed, but also still curious. “But how does this thing do all that?”

    “Using technology designed by my partner, the machine acts like a laser that can add and remove cells from an organism. The amount, type, and in what direction of which is determined by a built-in computer with an interface right over here.” Cell pointed to a screen inlaid onto the side of the apparatus. “Most of the specifications for the modifications that the machine will make are done on this touch screen, but the basic controls for starting and stopping it can be done with the buttons below it.” Indeed, half a dozen or so grey buttons protruded out below the screen.

    “Oh that’s cool! ” Maya exclaimed, stepping over to the panel. It seemed that Cell’s enthusiasm was contagious, or maybe Maya was just easily excitable. Either way, she was already quite worked up.

    Upon looking over the screen, however, something quickly registered as odd. “Um, Mr. Cell?” She asked, turning to face him. “Do you realise that the screen is busted?”

    “Unfortunately, I do,” he confirmed, running his hands through his hair. “I think either it was broken during the murderer’s struggle with my partner, or they did it as an act of industrial sabotage.” He looked over from the machine to face Maya. “I think the murderer was an assassin sent by a pharmaceutical company to try and stop our research from progressing, since it would hurt their bottom line.”

    “A tall tale, to be sure.”

    Maya’s attention was drawn behind her by the sound of Franziska’s unconvinced-sounding comment. The prosecutor appeared to be examining the lab table, and hadn’t even paused her task to make her dismissive remark. “If you kept everyone in the dark about your research, as evidenced by the fact that we’ve hitherto found no one who can testify about it, how do you expect us to believe that a pharmaceutical company not only knew about your research, but well enough that they found it to be a significant enough threat to send an assassin after you?”

    Didn’t even look up from the table.

    “W-well, uh…” Cell’s response didn’t exactly speak volumes about his believability. “…I don’t know?”

    Franziska huffed. “Your trial will not last one day, if I have anything to say about it, and I will.”

    Cell just gulped.

    Silence pervaded the room then, and Maya decided to go back to looking at the screen on the cannon-thing to distract herself from the awkwardness that accompanied it. When she did, she noticed yet another abnormality:

    “Mr. Cell, what language is written on these buttons?” She asked, looking over at him again.

    “Portuguese, I think,” was his answer. “I think her first language was Portuguese, and since I have no idea how the actual technology of this thing works and I never actually operated it, she made everything Portuguese, including the buttons.”

    “An American biologist working with a Portuguese engineer. Quite the duo,” Maya commented with a little smirk.

    “Well, I don’t think she was actually Portuguese herself, she just spoke it in her home, if I remember right,” Cell corrected. “Her name was Tiala Knowledgy, and she told me that she grew up in…”

    Cell started to go on about his partner, but Maya soon found herself distracted by the buttons on the machine, and the biologist’s voice soon faded away into the background as her mind became solely preoccupied by a most transfixing dilemma.

    If the screen was broken, and the cannon-thing wasn’t running, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to… give one of them a push? It’d be a kinda stupid thing to do, but curiosity is an incredibly powerful thing. So powerful that it occasionally ends the lives of cats.

    Then, Maya shook her head violently. It wasn’t just a kinda stupid thing to do, it was a really stupid thing to do. 

    Or maybe… it wasn’t? No , it was.

    Maybe Nick had been a much too good influence on her, but Maya finally made up her mind that she’d do the smart thing and not press the oh-so-tantalising buttons on the big magic science cannon machine thingy.

    “Maya,” she said to herself quietly, throwing her hands up to her face to hyper-focus on what her inner-monologue was telling her, blocking out external stimuli. “Don’t be dumb. I know you want to touch it, but don’t do it . If that thing goes off, who knows what kind of horrible monster-thing it’ll create; the thing’s broken, after all.”

    Eyes closed, and with a deep breath, she removed her hands from her face and held them palms-forward just in front of her shoulders. It was taking all her willpower to fight the temptation, but it seemed to be working.

    “Okay; not gonna-”

    Maya began to state her resolve to avoid doing what the primitive side of her brain was telling her so loudly to do, but cut herself off as she threw her hands down in a dramatic gesture and smacked the side of the machine in the process.

    Her eyes shot open and looked down at the screen and surrounding buttons, dread flooding through her. Had she touched one of them? She couldn’t tell; the impact had been so quick and staccato-like that she hadn’t had time to discern what part of the machine she’d touched; the side, screen, or buttons.

    Seconds passed in pounding heartbeats in her ears. She looked to her right and left frantically; nobody seemed to have heard or seen it. Franziska was still doing her thing and Nick was talking to Mr. Cell, so it didn’t seem like anyone had noticed.

    But they inevitably would, though.

    Because the machine started to whir to life.

    Maya’s immediate instinct was to hit the ‘stop’ button, whatever it may be, but she couldn’t; Maya didn’t understand a word of Portuguese, and they weren’t colour-coded either.

    “Nononononononono,” Maya breathed in a panicked rush. “Ohhhhhhhh no. How do you stop this thing?!”

    “What happened? What’s-” Cell and Nick turned over to face Maya as they heard the sound of her trembling voice, and when the former registered the sound of the machine starting up, his face went pale. “What… what did you do?” He asked in a near-whisper, looking over at Maya. 

    “I don’t know! I just-”

    Maya began to explain in a hurried rush, but reflexively cut herself off as the sound the machine was making began to rise in pitch. Not in volume though, strangely enough; it was actually relatively quiet.

    Not loud enough to alert anyone else in the room who hadn’t already noticed what was happening.

    “Oh no; it’s gonna go off!” Cell shouted “Quick! Everyone, get ba-”

    Everything happened in a split second.

    Cell began to shout a warning to everyone, backing away from the machine in the process, but couldn’t get it all out before a blinding flash of light appeared from in front of the machine that forced Maya to shut and cover her eyes. Only a moment before that happened, though, she looked over towards the lab desk where the cannon-barrel was pointed at to see if anyone was in the line of fire who could get hit by the machine’s laser.

    And her stomach dropped as she again caught sight of Franziska, who had only just noticed the commotion going on in front of her.

    Franziska had gotten so engrossed in the task of examining the lab bench that she hadn’t noticed what was going on until it was far too late.

    After a fraction of a second where a bright light obscured her entire vision, she felt a strange sensation all around. Actually, not a sensation per se , but the lack thereof; everything felt numb. Only after a number of seconds was she able to even feel her clothing correctly, the nerve endings recalibrating themselves. She’d shut her eyes tight in reflex, so she couldn’t tell whether or not her vision had been affected.. Her ears, on the other hand, rang and any sound she was able to make out was muffled and indistinct; the effects there were clear.

    But when her hearing eventually did come back, it wasn’t the same as before.

    Rather, it seemed oddly… better?

    More precise, at least. She heard the voices of Mr. Cell, Phoenix Wright, and Ms. Fey speaking to each other, but all so distinctly that she could have pinpointed the exact spot where they were standing without even looking; Ms. Fey was standing near the front of the machine that Cell had been working on, while Wright and Cell were standing about 30 cm apart from each other and were closer to the centre of the room. It felt so unusual how exactly she could tell where each one stood, and with how much clarity and precision she heard each voice, especially since it had been some time since she’d looked at them to get a benchmark of their positions.

    Something was different. Something was wrong.

    Slowly, Franziska opened her eyes, and immediately realised something else; her vision was very poor. Anything more than 5-6 metres away was completely indistinct, and colours and hues that were once vibrant and bright were now dull and muted.

    She couldn’t help but lament the fact that she couldn’t see the colour of Ms. Fey’s robes as well anymore; they’d been a most delightful shade of purple before. Though, whether or not that was just because of the robes themselves or the fact that it was Maya Fey who wore them was another matter entirely.

    “Alright,” Franziska said lowly, breaking the silence that had followed the end of the discussion taking place in front of her. “What happened?”

    "I, um, uh,” Ms. Fey began, stuttering incoherently in an attempt to say something. She  also sounded rather loud, which was unusual, because it didn’t seem like she was actually speaking very loudly.

    Instinctively, Franziska threw her hands to her ears in an effort to muffle the noise. Normally, this would imply that she brought them to the side of her head to cover her ears.

    But that’s not what she did.

    She reached for the top of her head.

    Time stood still for a fraction of a second as Franziska’s hands came into contact with two triangular objects on the top of her head.

    She could feel her gloves through them.

    “W- wh- what…” Her voice trembled with dread and shock. “What… what is this?” She felt all around and over the objects, noting that she could hear her hands rustling over them in the same way one does when they run their hands over the side of their head.

    …

    Ears.

    She had ears on the top of her head.

    Franziska’s eyes went wide and she sucked in a breath in a shuddery gasp. She turned over to what she hoped was the scientist, though it was difficult given her poor vision. “Cell!” She barked, but the intimidation her voice usually carried was dampened by the panic that now shook it. “Wh- what happened?!”

    But it wasn’t Cell who answered her question.

    “I- I’m so sorry!”

    Franziska immediately recognised not the voice of the feeble little biologist, but of the spirit medium; Maya Fey. Her voice was strained. Was she crying?

    “I… I hit the machine by accident and I set it off!” She confessed in a teary burst of voice, stepping towards a bit as she wiped her face; a sight Franziska could only make out as she got closer. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to! I- I’m sorry…”

    Ms. Fey bowed her head in shame as she got within a half of a metre from the bench behind which Franziska stood. “I… I think I turned you into a cat.”

    A pause.

    “…What?” Franziska asked, nonplussed.

    “Is there…” Maya sniffled. “Is there anything else different besides your ears?”

    It was all beginning to make sense, and the pit in Franziska’s stomach deepened with each realisation that came to her. Her vision, her hearing, it was all because they’d been modified when the machine went off.

    But Ms. Fey’s question was a valid one; had anything else changed?

    Franziska looked straight down and brought her hands up to inspect them. Nothing unusual from the head down, it seemed. “No, it doesn’t seem like-”

    Her response was cut off as she caught a glimpse of a blue blur brush over her leg for a moment before disappearing behind her.

    “Wh- what was that?” Franziska asked rhetorically, more fear creeping into her. She turned around to try and see if it had moved behind her feet, but detected nothing.

    “Um… you have a-”

    “Shh! I saw something!” Franziska shouted, cutting off Ms. Fey. Another little flash of blue saw Franziska turn around again to chase it. And again. And again. And again. Then, it appeared by her other leg, and she began to spin around in the other direction over and over and over again. As she began to get dizzy, and in a desperate bid to find out what on earth this little blue thing was, Franziska lifted up her foot and slammed her heel onto it, successfully pinning it to the floor.

    That was a mistake.

    “ Ahhhhhh! ” 

    Franziska screamed in pain, quickly lifting her foot from the thing in a reactionary motion.

    Her screams stopped abruptly, though, when she realised what it meant for her to have felt pain upon stepping on the thing she’d been chasing.

    Slowly and reluctantly, she brought a hand to her lower back.

    She confirmed the worst, bringing it in front of her to look at it.

    “I… I have a tail ,” Franziska said, her despondency showing in her voice. She let go of it and leaned forward over the bench, bracing her head in her hands. “I’m… not a human being anymore.”

    A few beats of silence occupied the room for a few moments, with only the sound of the ventilation to accompany Franziska’s newfound despair.

    “We, uh-” Cell began to speak, pausing to clear his throat before continuing. “We were in the process of doing animal trials when the murder happened, so a wide number and variety of different animal profiles were stored in the machine. When it went off, it probably just picked a random one.”

    “What… what am I going to do?!” Franziska asked, hands digging into her hair. “I’ll be a laughing stock! I’ll never be able to appear in court again, or even find any form of work like this. No one will take me seriously! I’m-”

    Franziska’s words cut themselves off as her lower lip began to tremble. She shut her eyes tight. “…I’m a monster .”

    Franziska distinctly heard a sharp intake of breath on the part of Maya Fey, as if she was going to say something, but she was interrupted by Mr. Cell before she could say even a word: 

    “Don’t worry! It won’t be permanent! I’ll get to work right away to get the machine fixed so we can reverse the transformation!”

    “Yes… Yes, do that!” Franziska ordered, a tiny glimmer of hope coming to her. She looked over at the police officers and investigators in the room. “You will ensure that Mr. Cell has your full and complete cooperation in his efforts! He will not be interrupted or impeded in his work! He is to have all resources and aid he needs made available to him at his request at a moment’s notice and without delay! Do I make myself clear?!”

    A variety of slightly terrified ‘yes, m’am!’s and other similar responses left Franziska satisfied that the work would be done unmolested. A brief thought flashed through her mind reminding her that Cell wasn’t the one who understood all the technology of the machine, and that the only person who did was dead, but she quickly dismissed it; he was likely the best person still alive who could fix this, and she just wanted it to go away.

    “In the meantime, though, I think it would be best if someone kept an eye on you,” Cell picked up. “We don’t know the extent of the effects; I’m worried that some may be psychological, or may not be apparent until time has passed, like if your metabolism has changed.”

    Franziska considered his words for a moment, then breathed a sigh. “As much as it pains me to say this, I think you’re right. It would be wise for someone to accompany me everywhere I go for the time being so they can report any developments in my condition, or any emergencies.” She winced as another thought came to her, and her voice cracked a bit as she voiced it; “after all, no one would leave their new cat alone for an extended period of time, would they?”

    Nobody answered her question.

    “Well,” Franziska said, sighing as she did. “I should go home. I’m in no position to take this case on; I’ve been physically and possibly mentally compromised, and I have no intention of going anywhere in public until this is dealt with.” She looked over at the police once again. “See to it that another prosecutor is brought in.” Then, she turned to Phoenix Wright. “Feel free to take this case on. It’s not like I care anymore.”

    As Cell mumbled “now, first to translate everything from Portuguese” to himself, the mutilated prosecutor headed for the exit, trying to think of who she was going to get to watch over her for the time being. Miles? He was the one Franziska trusted more than anyone, but she would die of embarrassment before she could be cured. Scruffy? No; he was incompetent.

    Who would it be?

    “W-wait!”

    Franziska cringed as her extra pair of ears reflexively turned to better hear the sound that had come from behind. Not liking how that felt at all and wanting them to move back to their normal position, she turned around to see who she already knew to be the source; Maya Fey, who was now a metre or so in front of her.

    “L-look,” the spirit medium began, unable to make eye contact with Franziska as her head was bowed a little. “I’m really, really sorry for what I did back there. It was an accident, but I should have been more careful around equipment that wasn’t working properly, especially since there was someone in front of it.” She paused for a moment, dragging her right foot back and forth across the ground. “I know you’re probably really mad at me, and… you have every right to be…” Another pause, and she finally made eye contact; her glassy, blued-steel eyes boring into Franziska’s. “But… would you let me keep an eye on you for a while, like what Mr. Cell suggested? I’ll help you out with food and other stuff you might need.” She chuckled then, but it was hollow, joyless. “I’ll pamper you something fierce. You deserve it.” However, her little half-smile quickly faded. “If you don’t want me around, I understand, but I’d like to make it up to you as best I can. So… what do you think?”

    Several seconds passed as Franziska stared expressionless at Ms. Fey. One one hand, she was somewhat angry with her; anyone would be.

    But on the other hand…

    This was Maya Fey, and as such, the way Franziska reacted to anything she did, even something like this, was never what one would consider ‘normal’. It was as if the woman was capable of doing no wrong, or Franziska’s mercy and tolerance increased a hundredfold for one specific person.

    There was also the fact that she was undoubtedly, and very deeply, in love with her, but that was another matter.

    …

    “…Very well,” Franziska decided after some thought. She turned around, making for the elevator on the opposite side of the floor. “Come with me, Ms. Fey.”

    It didn’t take Franziska’s new super-hearing to know that Ms. Fey was quite excited. “Really?! Oh, thank you! You won’t regret it!” She quickly made up the ground that Franziska had gained and accompanied her alongside into the elevator.

    “First order of business,” Ms. Fey began. “You can just call me Maya.”

    Franziska looked over at her. Even despite her poor vision and sudden inability to see colours as brightly as before, that woman’s warm smile melted her icy heart just as strongly as on any occasion she chanced to see it.

    Well, Franziska had certainly hoped for the opportunity where she could call the object of all her affections by her first name, but these were not the ideal circumstances therefor. Still, it was not a chance she was going to pass up.

    “Very well, Maya,” Franziska said with a nod. “Now, if you’re so willing to prepare my food, especially given my new dietary needs, then tell me; what is your plan? Because I have a feeling that I’m going to be quite hungry before long.”

    Maya did something then that came to Franziska completely new and by surprise; she giggled mirthfully. By the time she’d finished, Franziska had come to realise what her favourite sound in the whole world was, and it took all her concentration to prevent herself from smiling indignantly in reaction to it. She hoped she’d be able to hear it again sometime, but Franziska didn’t have the same sense of humour as her whatsoever, so it was unlikely she’d be able to get another one out of her. Oh well; a passing joy.

    “Oh, don’t you worry; nothing for the best is in store for you!”

    “So what exactly do you have in store for me?” Franziska asked, quite a bit later than would have been appropriate.

    Indeed, they were now long past the elevator in which the subject had originally been discussed and travelling in Franziska’s chauffeured town-car, which looked and seemed out of place on the dirt country road it was now driving down.

    “Tourtière!” Maya replied, trying her best to pronounce the French word, though probably not doing so very well. Franziska would probably be able to tell, which made her try harder to get it right. “It’s a meat pie! A lady came through Kurain Village one time and told me about it, she even left us a recipe! I made it soon after; it’s really good, actually.”

    “I see. I’ll take your word for it,” Franziska said, not looking away from the window out of which she was staring.

    A few beats of silence passed. Maya wasn’t the world’s best at reading the room, but it wasn’t hard to tell that Franziska was in a pretty sour mood, which was understandable given the circumstances, but Maya didn’t like it when anyone she cared about was in a bad mood because it meant that something was bothering them, and that sucked.

    But Fran didn’t seem like the type who’d respond well to small talk, or who could be easily excited like Mr. Cell had been. Eventually, Maya concluded that the only way that she was going to get her to lighten up was to fix the problem at the source.

    And it was during that revelation that an idea came to her.

    “Hey, Fran?” She asked. “Besides the obvious, have you noticed any other differences after the… y’know, thing ?”

    “Well,” Franziska began. “As you can imagine, my hearing has been affected by the fact that I now own a second pair of ears, but my vision has also been affected; albeit in a more negative way.”

    Just as she thought. She was seeing like a cat too, but Maya knew a thing or two about cats, and she knew just what to do.

    “You can see stuff that’s close up but not far away, right?” She pried.

    “Yes, exactly,” Franziska confirmed, finally turning over to look at her temporary guardian. “Why do you ask?”

    “Well, if you’re shortsighted, what if we got you a pair of glasses for that?”

    Franziska’s eyes, which did look a little different than they did before (Maya would certainly be the one to know), looked past the spirit medium by a small margin as her face wrinkled in thought for a few moments. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. The system of optics should be at least mostly the same for a cat as with a human, no?” Deciding she was right, Franziska shook her head with conviction. “Very well. On our way back, we will stop to see an optometrist. I can hide my ears under my hat and my tail in my coat, so only my eyes will seem strange.” Franziska winced then. “Which I suppose doesn’t help a great deal; that’s the part they will be focusing on the most.”

    “You could just tell them that you had a medical condition if they asked, and it wouldn’t really be wrong,” Maya suggested, resting her chin in her palm as she tried to think of further ways to conceal the transformation.

    “Oh, yes, of course,” Franziska concurred sarcastically. “I’m sure they get plenty of patients who’ve had their eyes suddenly morphed into those of a cat,” the prosecutor muttered, leaning her head up against the window again.

    “You don’t have to get them if you don’t want to, but I imagine it’ll make things easier for you,” Maya reassured, trying to keep Franziska on the positive side of things. “Besides; I think you’d look good with glasses!”

    All at once, Franziska froze like a statue. Then, her head turned very slowly to look over at Maya once again. For a few seconds, she just stared at her; a look somewhere between confusion and surprise on her face, which Maya had no idea how to interpret, thus she said nothing. 

    “…You mean that?” Franziska eventually asked, her voice quiet.

    “I do!” Maya confirmed, smiling a bit. She really did mean it, too. Not that Fran didn’t look good without glasses either, much the opposite, but Maya really did think Fran would look good in them. Though, to be fair, Franziska would look good in absolutely anything. Because she was Franziska, of course.

    Franziska’s gaze gradually drifted back towards the window by her side, her face an image of bewilderment. “Alright. I’ll do it.”

    “Sounds like a plan!” Maya exclaimed. “And look at that; we’re here!”

    Franziska looked up to see what Maya had noticed a moment earlier; the farm to which they had been driving towards was in sight. Before long, the chauffeur had parked the car in front of the house near the entrance to the whole property and the pair exited the vehicle.

    “We’ve been getting meat from these guys for as long as I can remember. They know me well; they’ll give us a good price,” Maya explained as they made way for the little farm-shop that she’d had been to many a time. They also sold at the local farmer’s market, but it seemed that enough business was generated at the farm itself that they’d built a little shop some years ago, so here they were.

    “Hello? Margaret?” Maya’s voice rang out as they entered, Franziska trailing just behind. The small, cement-floored, freezing-cold room was mostly open; the meat was stored in the back in freezers, since most customers ordered in advance and then came by to pick up their meat, which the farmers boxed and kept frozen until the time came. This was primarily because many of their customers were hunters who brought in game to be butchered, so everyone else had to follow along with the peculiar modus operandi .

    After a moment, a middle-aged woman came out from the back to meet the voice that had called from the entrance, smiling upon seeing her regular customer. “Hey, Maya! How have you been?”

    “Pretty good!” Was Maya’s response. Then, however, she saw Franziska who was now standing beside her, and was reminded of the circumstances which had brought them to the farm. “Well, actually, not great,” she corrected, scratching her head.

    “Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that,” Margaret sympathised, her smile fading. “Oh, who are you?” She asked, looking over at Franziska.

    “She’s a good friend of mine, and is going to have supper with me!” Maya quickly explained. Technically speaking, it wasn’t a lie. It would do; Franziska probably didn’t want everyone and their grandfather to know about what had happened, so Maya decided that a little discretion was in order.

    Franziska gave a shallow curtsy, but said nothing.

    “Nice to meet you, m’am,” Margaret greeted with a little bow of the head. “Now; what can I help you two with?”

    “I’m making a meat pie!” Maya replied. Her high spirits could never depart her for long, evidently.

    “Say no more,” the farmer said with a grin. “I’ll be right back.”

    Just as the woman turned to head to the back, a little girl came barreling through a side door, nearling impacting Margaret in the process. “Mom, have you seen Mike? I’ve been looking for him all over,” she asked.

    “I’m not sure. He might still be with your dad,” Margaret answered. She then turned to face her two customers. “This is my daughter, Mai,” she explained, more for Franziska’s benefit than anything; Maya had long since met all of Margaret’s children. “I’ll head in the back and get you your ground beef. Be back in a minute.” Evidently, Maya had been in a multitude of times to get supplies for making meat pie, enough that Margaret knew exactly what she needed.

    “Hi!” Mai greeted the pair as her mother disappeared into the back of the shop. “What’s your name?” She asked, looking up at the blue-haired woman before her.

    “My name is Franziska von Karma. I am a prosecutor,” was the response, as formal as it was with anyone she met for the first time.

    “Ooh, what’s that?” Mai asked, intrigue dancing on her face.

    “It is someone who brings criminals to justice in a court of law.” Whenever Franziska explained what it was she did for a living, she always somehow made it sound like it was the coolest thing in the entire world. Well, that’s what Maya deduced, anyway.

    Indeed, Mai seemed to think so. “Wow!” Then, however, her expression of excitement morphed into one of confusion. “Wait, isn’t that what police do?”

    “We work with them, but we are not part of the police force. Their place is on the streets, ours is in the courtroom.”

    “That’s pretty cool,” Mai began. “But I think I’d like to keep the farm going when I grow up.”

    “There’s nothing wrong with that. The world needs to be fed,” Franziska said with an approving nod.

    “Yup!” Mai concurred. “Well, I’d better get going to look for Mike. See you guys later!”

    With that, Mai turned around to make for the door from whence she’d come, though not in the sprint she’d first come through it in.

    “I don’t understand why it’s so cold in here,” Franziska said as she turned around to begin pacing the room. “I understand that the meat needs to be kept frozen, but why is the rest of the building so COLD-”

    Franziska yelped with surprise as she suddenly slipped on a slippery section of the concrete flooring. As she landed on her back, she quickly leapt up again with another cry of pain; she’d landed straight onto her tailbone and probably crushed her tail a little. Soon, she was back on her feet, her hat now on the floor and her hand over her lower back.

    “What happened?!” Mai shouted, running back over to see what had happened. When she noticed Franziska’s uncovered head, though; she took a gasp. “Are those… real?!” She asked excitedly.

    Franziska’s ears twitched and turned a bit in response to the unexpected voice, soon followed by her whole head shooting over in surprise to identify the source. A look of panic came over her face as she realised that yet another person had seen her the way she really was, and she quickly tried to deny it; “n-no, they’re not-”

    “They moved! They are real!” Franziska’s eyes hadn’t tipped her off, but the ears certainly had. Now that she’d realised what the deal was, a devious grin came over her face. “Wait a minute. Do I still have that thing…?”

    Mai’s hands began to dig around in the pockets of her clothes for a few seconds before grabbing hold of something satisfactory enough to warrant her to exclaim an “aha!”

    She pulled out a laser pointer.

    “Oh no,” Franziska breathed in a dread-filled whisper. “Please, don’t-”

    It was too late; the device was promptly turned on and pointed it at the ground. Immediately, Franziska’s eyes darted to it, her words cut off and her gaze transfixed as a feline instinct immediately kicked in. With a swish of Mai’s hand, Franziska’s head jerked over to follow it, and Mai giggled with delight.

    Maya giggled a little too.

    Mai pointed the laser at the wall opposite Franziska, and the latter leapt forward, hands outstretched, and smashed them against where the red dot was. Immediately, Mai moved it up a little, and after looking for it briefly, Franziska threw her hands up to cup it once again.

    Maya burst into laughter as Mai led Franziska all around the room; from wall to wall and all over the floor. Here, there, everywhere, Franziska chased the untouchable red dot, grunting and hissing with frustration as she failed to catch her electromagnetic prey.

    At some point, Maya was forced to wipe a laughter-induced tear from her eye to be able to better watch the spectacle, and caught a glimpse of yet another sight to behold; Franziska scurrying across the floor, chasing after the fleeing laser dot. By now, her tail had worked its way out from underneath her coat and her face burned red with exertion.

    But then, she saw the look on her face; intense frustration and focus on the task at hand. Maya began to laugh once again, but it trailed off as she saw something else appear, just for a fleeting moment, out from underneath Franziska’s previous expression; desperation.

    Maya felt her stomach drop. It wasn’t desperation for catching the dot; she was trying to wrest control of her own body and failing. It was as though she’d been put under a spell.

    This wasn’t right; Franziska wasn’t a cat, she was a human being. She shouldn’t have laughed; she cursed herself for having done so. Maya was laughing at someone else’s misfortune, and not the kind of fun, innocent tomfoolery that can be laughed at in hindsight; this was cruel. Franziska couldn’t help what she was doing; she was effectively being taken advantage of.

    “Hey!” Maya shouted, turning over to Mai. “Stop that!”

    “What?” Mai shrugged. “It’s funny! You were laughing a second ago!”

    Maya felt her breath catch in her throat, looking over at Franziska. As Mai had stopped moving her hand, she’d caught up to the red dot, and was confused as to why it was appearing on top of her fingers instead of being under her hands. 

    “Yeah, well… Gimme that!”

    In a single, big step, Maya leapt over to Mai, and before the latter could move out of the way, Maya reached down and snatched the laser pointer out of her hand.

    “Hey! What gives?!” Mai protested, jumping up at the object that Maya had now lifted up above her reach. “Give it back!”

    “I’m not giving this back to you until you say you’re sorry, young lady!” Maya scolded, taking on the better part of a nanny of some sort, or something to that effect.

    Maya followed Mai’s gaze over to Franziska, who was staring down at her now dot-less hands. With a series of blinks, she seemed to snap out of the trance she’d been put in, and proceeded to quickly rush over to grab her hat, followed by stuffing her tail back under her coat.

    Mai opened her mouth to say something then, but was cut off before she could speak:

    “Hey, what’s all the commotion?”

    Maya recognised the voice of Margaret, who was now walking back into the room with a small cardboard box in her hands and one eyebrow raised.

    The spirit medium looked over at the prosecutor, then down at the little girl; a glare on her eyes as she reached the latter, who winced a little under her gaze. She then looked up at Margaret to offer an answer to her question; “nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

    In return, Margaret looked at Maya, then at Mai, then at Franziska, then back to Maya. “Alright, keep your secrets.” She put the box down. “I gotta get going, I know you know how much this’ll be. Take care now.”

    With that, the farmer made her way from the door, opening the cashbox of the register on her way out. A very trusting woman; sometimes Maya thought she was a little too much so. But regardless, the regular customer did as she should have and left the right amount of money therein, closing it and taking the box in her hands.

    “Don’t do anything like that again, Mai.” Maya’s voice rumbled at the little girl. “It’s not nice to take advantage of people’s… misfortunes for our own amusement.”

    She got most of the way to the door before Mai said something back:

    “Then why did you laugh?”

    Maya froze up and shut her eyes as regret washed over her. “Let’s go, Fran,” she whispered after a moment.

    Franziska closed the door behind them and the two walked to, and got in, the town-car without a word spoken.

    “I’m sorry, Franziska,” Maya murmured lowly once they were both seated. “I shouldn’t have laughed.”

    Franziska was silent for a few moments, staring straight forwards without expression. “Why did you not tell that farmer what had happened?” 

    Her voice was quiet but cutting. It reminded Maya of her courtroom demeanour, but with less pomposity and bombast. In that way, it was actually even more terrifying.

    “I-” Maya gulped. She probably should have told her, then Margaret could have had a talking-to with Mai, but she didn’t. “I know you’re not comfortable with what’s happened to you, so I figured that you wouldn’t want more people to know about it. I knew you’d already put your hat back on and whatnot, so I knew she wouldn’t know if I didn’t say anything.”

    Again, Franziska was silent for several, long seconds. Then, she turned to face Maya, and the latter felt herself seize up under the weight of the prosecutor’s killer gaze.

    “Thank you, Maya.”

    She didn’t smile, but her voice spoke with genuine appreciation.

    “Don’t.” Maya closed her eyes. “I laughed because I thought it was funny.”

    Another length of silence.

    “I imagine it was.” Franziska broke it at last. “Perhaps someday, when this is all gone, I’ll be able to laugh at it myself.”

    “Well, until then,” Maya responded, putting her hand on Franziska’s shoulder. “Let’s get you some glasses and something to eat.”

    “So, do they help?”

    Franziska adjusted her new glasses as they pulled into the driveway of her house. “They do, at least to some degree. They don’t help with the colour deficiencies, but that would require a very specialty type of eyeglass that would take a considerable amount of time to be made and to arrive.”

    She then felt Maya put a hand on her shoulder again, a sensation far more pleasant than it had any right to be. The smile she gave Franziska then, too, was much too beautiful. “I’m glad.” With that, the spirit medium unbuckled her seatbelt. “Well, let’s get your supper on the go!”

    Franziska followed Maya’s lead and exited the car, dismissing the chauffeur as she did so, who headed off for the night once the two were out of the car and the box of meat was in Maya’s arms.

    “I always thought you’d have a much bigger place, Fran,” Maya said as they walked up to the entrance by the side of the house.

    “I’ve no need for an enormous living space, and I feel no desire to live in one, especially not in my native land,” Franziska explained, the door lock clicking open from under her glove.

    “It’d be such a pain to clean,” Maya commented. “And I’d get lonely.”

    Franziska didn’t respond. Maya wasn’t wrong; Franziska had bought a smaller place because she felt that it would be more appropriate for one person. Even so, she felt lonely.

    But now that Maya was here, it was different. She felt like she was really coming home. It was foolish; Maya was there to watch over her for a few days and nothing more. Still, it felt like… an indulgence.

    “Oh wow, this place is nice!” Maya exclaimed as they walked in. “You really know how to decorate!”

    “Thank you.” Franziska hid her genuine appreciation behind as much courtesy as she could. “The kitchen is on the left down that hall and the parlour is just beyond it in the next room behind the door. My bedroom is down the hall to the right here, and the bathroom is connected to it.”

    “Seems kinda odd that the living room would be behind a door,” Maya pointed out as they entered the kitchen.

    “I had a wall and door put up to further compartmentalise the house. Every door here has a lock that can be both locked and unlocked from both sides by either a normal bolt or a key.”

    “Why’s that?”

    “In the event that an intruder breaks in, I want to make it easy to lock them in one room before the police arrive.”

    Maya’s eyes widened a little. “Oh.”

    Franziska raised an eyebrow. “I don’t intend to do that to you, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

    Maya blinked. “Oh, no, I wasn’t thinking that.” She chuckled a little. Franziska had a feeling she was going to miss that sound when the two inevitably had to part ways. “I just thought it was a little weird that you’d set up your house like Fort Knox.”

    “I think it’s perfectly normal. I’m surprised no one else does it.”

    There was a pause as neither party seemed sure as how to continue that line of discussion, so it was unanimously decided to change the subject to more pressing matters:

    “Well, make yourself at home, as they say. The kitchen, and all appliances and whatnot in the house, are yours to command,” the homeowner declared.

    “Sounds good!” Maya exclaimed. “I’ll get started on supper now, why don’t you go relax?”

    Relax.

    Franziska’s gaze drifted off into the distance as she thought about that word, that meaning. When was the last time she’d relaxed? Had she ever really done so? Even when she’d gone on summer vacation at 13, she’d ended up working on a murder case with Miles; in a way, her very first. One might have described her as a ‘workaholic’.

    “Franziska? Are you alright?”

    The prosecutor blinked as Maya’s voice snapped her out of her reverie. “Oh, I’m fine,” Franziska assured. “I just…” Her voice trailed off as it realised the meaning of what it was about to vocalise. It rendered it quiet, whisper-like. “I don’t know what to do.”

    Maya blinked a couple times. “What do you mean?”

    “I mean I…” Franziska looked out the kitchen window as she tried to think of how to explain the confusion she was experiencing. “I’ve never had time off before, voluntary or otherwise, since I was a child. At least not since I started law school, and I was 9 years old at that time.” She caught a glimpse of Maya then, whose eyes were wide and mouth was agape, as everyone’s seemed to be when Franziska mentioned that she started law school at 9 for some odd reason. “I don’t know how to ‘relax’. I mean it.”

    “Oh,” Maya mumbled as she took in what Franziska was saying. She moved to put her chin in her hand to think, but didn’t get all the way as it seemed like she’d had an idea. “Oh! What if we set you up so you could binge-watch your favourite show, or series, or your favourite movies?”

    “I’ve only ever watched one film, that was The Room with Tommy Wiseau, and that was for a trial, believe it or not. I hated every second of it.” Just then, though, her mind blinked with an alternative. “There was a television program I watched when I was a child, but… never mind.” It was quickly dismissed. There was no way she was going to watch a children’s show with anyone around, even if it was Maya, let alone that show.

    “Yes? Kid’s show? What was it called?” The encouraging, excited look in Maya’s eyes was rather potent, but if Franziska admitted what it was, she’d die of embarrassment on the spot. She couldn’t do it.

    “Forget about it. I said nothing.”

    “Aw, come on! We all watched stuff when we were kids, and a lot if it was probably pretty stupid. Doesn’t mean you can’t go back and watch it again!” Maya huffed.

    “But… it’s a children’s show. I am not a child anymore,” Franziska pointed out, crossing her arms indignantly.

    “So what?” Maya asked rhetorically, shrugging her shoulders. “Doesn’t mean nothin’, if you ask me. Besides; I don’t think anyone’s really 100% a grown-up on the inside. We all have an inner child, and clearly yours wants to have a little nostalgia trip, so why not?”

    …

    …

    …

    “Well, you see,” Franziska began to explain, looking over at the wall, as the oncoming embarrassment made it a little too difficult to look Maya in the eye as she admitted her stupid little secret. “There was a television program I watched as a child that I was able to see because my father was somehow able to receive channels from all over the world; a technology I don’t understand even now for that time period, and at this point, I don’t care to.”

    “Uh huh, tell me more!” Maya said excitedly, clasping her hands together.

    “It was produced in Canada between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s, as far as I’m aware. It was called…” Franziska squeezed her eyes shut, swallowing hard. “… Mighty Machines .”

    “If it was Canadian, how did you understand it as a kid?”

    “Miles had been adopted by my father when I was only 2 years old, so by the time I was old enough to watch that show, I’d learned enough English from him that I could get by. It helped to teach me as well a little.”

    “So what was it about?”

    “It was… idiotic. All it was was where a camera crew would film some sort of workplace; like a construction or demolition site, mines, logging camps and sawmills, even an airport and harbour; and voice actors would dub over the machines to give them personalities, and would explain what they did. The acting was cringe-inducing, continuity was hardly there at all, and there was rarely any real plot, if ever.” 

    Franziska sighed, looking up at the ceiling, still unable to meet Maya’s gaze. “Yet, despite that, it was unbelievably captivating. I’d sit there as long as it was on and watch transfixed as the machines did their work. If my father hadn’t begun to discourage me from watching it, I may have wanted to become a heavy equipment operator as an adult.”

    “I can’t imagine you as that at all,” Maya chuckled.

    “Exactly, it’s ridiculous. I shouldn’t have brought it up at all.”

    “No, not at all.” 

    All it took was for Maya to speak in that soothing, genuine tone of voice she had to melt Franziska’s heart. It was rather pathetic to be rendered so… sentimental by something so easily, but Franziska just couldn’t help it. 

    “Come with me; I’ll get you all set up.”

    Before Franziska could question it, Maya was leading her down the hall to her bedroom, opening the door, and turning the light on.

    “Holy smokes, now that’s a bed!” She exclaimed, taking in the sight of the room. “Oh, you don’t have a TV in here?”

    “My only television is in the kitchen, as you saw. That’s so I can watch the news as I eat in the morning and again in the evening. I only come in here to sleep and dress.”

    “Welp, that’s about to change!”

    Once again, before Franziska could either protest or question what Maya’s plan was, the spirit medium had dashed out of her room and returned a minute or so later with the television, now unplugged.

    “Okay, clear some space on your bedside table and we’ll move it to the front of the room and put this on there.”

    Not seeing any point in protesting, since Maya would inevitably either do it herself or convince her to cooperate, Franziska complied, and soon the television was set up to be viewed from the bed.

    “Now, do we have any way of hooking this thing up to the internet? I imagine we can find the show on it that way.”

    “It’s a smart TV, so I imagine I can.”

    “Good!” The spirit medium exclaimed. “Now get yourself changed into your PJs or other comfy clothes and I’ll get your show all ready to go!”

    Franziska looked at the door to the bathroom, realising that, in her present condition, she really didn’t want to have to go in there.

    “Maya, there’s a mirror in my bathroom.”

    “Oh?” She puzzled, looking up from the remote. When the meaning of Franziska’s statement hit her, her expression dropped. “ Oh .” She put the remote down next to the television on the table. “I’ll wait out here. Just lemme know when you’re done.”

    It was a bit of a struggle getting changed, since she had to pull her tail through a hole in both her waistcoat and shirt, and then had to tear a hole into the top of her night-clothes so the same would be able to fit through (since it was more comfortable for the tail that way; it didn’t sit as a compressed lump underneath all her clothing). After some fighting and shimmying, including the effort to get her tops around her new ears, she was dressed.

    “Alright, you can come back in,” Franziska called, tying the housecoat she’d put on.

    “Okay, just get comf-”

    Maya began to speak, but something on or about Franziska caused her to stop, as demonstrated by her sudden wide-eyed staring.

    Franziska immediately began to worry. “What? Is there something on me? Was there a change that I haven’t noticed?” She began to look over herself to see if there had been anything she’d not noticed. “Oh no; has something new developed in the time since the accident?” Her voice dropped to a murmur as the possibility hit her.

    “N-no! No! It’s nothing like that at all!” Maya corrected nervously, shaking her hands in a pacifying gesture. “It’s just…” The corners of her mouth upturned a little. “It just took me by surprise how nice that robe looks on you,” Maya explained, looking at Franziska up and down.

    Every red blood cell in Franziska’s body migrated into her face at the unexpected compliment. “R-really?” She asked, unable to keep her voice entirely steady under Maya’s smiling gaze, and not least after that compliment. To combat the former, she looked down to inspect the garment. “It’s quite new, and I wasn’t sure I liked the shade of blue after I’d bought it.” She risked a look up at Maya again, which was not a wise idea. “Y-you really like it?”

    “Yeah,” Maya replied, her voice somewhat hazy as her mind was preoccupied. “The colour is perfect; it matches your hair really nicely.”

    Franziska couldn’t help but feel a little bit stunned. Any more of Maya’s compliments and she was liable to faint. “…Thank you.”

    Maya was silent for a few moments, continuing to gaze happily at Franziska’s housecoat, before suddenly snapping herself out of her reverie by blinking repeatedly. “Oh! Right! Your show!”

    She turned around and began fiddling with the television’s remote again. “Go on, Fran! Get comfy!” She commanded humorously, motioning towards the bed with one arm.

    Franziska waited until Maya had looked away, then quietly took her housecoat off (having only put it on in the first place to preserve her dignity) and slipped under the covers. Upon doing so, however, she immediately realised a rather significant problem.

    “I can’t lay on my back; it will crush my tail.”

    Maya turned around. “Oh shoot, that’s right.” Her chin sat in her palm for a few moments as she thought, then quickly was left bare again.

    “I know!” She exclaimed. “Don’t move!”

    “What are you doing?” Franziska asked as Maya put the remote down and moved over to the bedside.

    Without answering the question, Maya grabbed the covers and ripped them right off the bed, turned them 90° counterclockwise in the air, and let them settle back down. Then, she moved all the pillows over to the new head-end of the bed.

    “There you go! Come lay over here!” Maya quickly patted one of the pillows where she’d moved them. Fortunately, it seemed as though she hadn’t noticed or paid attention to Franziska in only her night-clothes as she’d carried out her task, as she’d made no mention of it nor seemed to have changed in demeanour. “Now you can lay on your side and see the TV!”

    Franziska looked over at where the pillows had been moved to and couldn’t help but grin a little. “Indeed I can.” She shifted herself under the blankets and moved over to the new spot, laying down and getting comfortable, leaving her glasses on the other bedside table. Her feet dangled off the bed a little in this arrangement, but if she sprawled them out as she often did, the problem was moot.

    “Uh, Fran?” Maya asked, turning to face her. “I’m not sure how to work this thing right; I’m no good with technology,” she admitted, giving a half-chuckle.

    “Here, let me see,” Franziska offered, reaching her hand out from under the blanket.

    “Wait! I got it!” Maya said, her confidence returning.

    Sure enough, she persevered and soon had managed to find the whole series on YouTube ready to go. “Alright! Which is your favourite episode?”

    “I… don’t have one.”

    “Oh, come on! There’s no way you don’t have a favourite episode!” Maya huffed, her hands on her hips.

    …

    …

    “… At the Quarry .”

    “ At the Quarry it is!”

    A few clicks later, and that old, familiar intro sequence and theme music was playing. At least that was one nice thing about having newly (and somewhat bizarre) enhanced hearing; she could hear it better.

    “Dang, this is a bop,” Maya noted, grinning wide. Soon, she’d broken out into a bit of a silly dance, and it took everything in her for Franziska to stop herself from laughing at it indignantly.

    “Well, I’m gonna go get to work on your supper. Here’s the remote, see you when the food’s ready!”

    With that, Maya exited the room and left Franziska to watch her show.

    It was just as she remembered it; as captivating as it had been all those years ago.

    Something like half a season’s worth of episodes of rich nostalgia later, and Franziska could smell something delightful wafting from the kitchen. A few more, and Maya had come back into the bedroom with a plate in her hands, a slice of meat pie thereon.

    “I thought you were going to let me know when it was finished.”

    “Oh, but you looked so snug and comfy in there that I just couldn’t disturb you,” Maya responded with a little grin. “Here, don’t make a mess.”

    Some more of Maya’s adorable giggles and a plate of hot meat pie was in Franziska’s hands. Sitting up, she took the provided fork and took her first bite.

    “What do you think?” Maya asked excitedly, clearly eager for an answer.

    “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is much better than that. This is incredible; you’re a very talented cook. Have you considered becoming a professional?” So enchanted by the meal was she that Franziska forwent proper manners to offer her comment and ask; her mouth full of tourtière.

    “Oh, how you flatter me,” Maya said in an exaggerated stereotypical southern American accent, laying a hand on her chest. “But I am glad you like it.” 

    Again with that switch from joking to genuine and Franziska’s heart got several degrees warmer. It may have been the smile, too. Probably both, actually.

    “Well, I know you probably appreciate your privacy, so I think I’ll head out now,” Maya announced, rubbing her hands together.

    “But you haven’t even had anything to eat yet,” Franziska pointed out.

    Maya chuckled. “That’s your supper, not mine.”

    “Ridiculous; you cooked it, you deserve to eat at least some of it. Besides; what are you going to eat if you leave now? Surely you’re not going to go back to Kurain Village and cook some more?”

    Maya giggled again. “I’m not gonna go all the way back there; I’m going to stay the night at the Wright & Co. office; we’ve got a pretty comfy couch. If you need anything, I’ll be close. I’ll give you my phone number, too.”

    Maya took their two phones and before long, their numbers had been exchanged. “Alright, I’ll leave you with your show.” 

    After putting the phones down, Maya gave a little wave and made for the door.

    “Please at least take a little bit with you before you go,” Franziska asked.

    “Nah, I’ll be fine,” Maya dismissed with a wave of her hand.

    “ Maya ,” Franziska tried again, putting some effort into an expression of pleading. It may have been undignified, but if it worked for Maya on her, maybe it would work for her on Maya. “ Please .”

    And it did work.

    “A-alright, I will. Don’t worry.” Maya held up her hands. “I’ll bring a couple slices with me, but the rest is for you.”

    “That’s fine, so long as you have something to eat. I don’t want you to go hungry.”

    Maya’s eyes widened a little, her eyebrows rising. “Y-you don’t?”

    Franziska was a little taken aback. “Of course I don’t. Why would I want you to go hungry? That would be cruel. I owe you a great deal already, after all.”

    For a moment or two, Maya’s expression remained the same, but fortunately, it soon broke into a smile, which was always a better sight than whatever came before. “Thank you.”

    The depth of gratitude in her voice shook Franziska a little, more so than she was prepared for when she replied with “y-you’re welcome. It’s nothing.”

    “Well, I’ll be here tomorrow to make you breakfast, but don’t expect me at the crack of dawn!” 

    Maya then giggled again, a lovely parting gift for the evening, and it left a little smile on Franziska’s face, as well as lowering her guard a bit more than it already had been. “I look forward to it.”

    Maya’s face reddened and her eyes widened again. “Y-you do?”

    “Of course.” Franziska's reply was as calm as a still pond and as smooth as glass; she hadn’t even thought about it. “Why wouldn’t I?”

    Maya blinked a couple times, her face reddening yet more. “Wow, thanks. That means a lot,” she said lowly, brushing a little bit of that beautiful, jet-black hair out of her eyes. Those equally beautiful, gunmetal-blue eyes.

    “You are most welcome.” Franziska briefly bowed her head. “Have a good rest of your evening. Sleep well.”

    “You too,” Maya said back, that lovely smile of hers dancing on her face.

    With a few slices of Tourtière in her hands, Maya was soon out the door and Franziska was alone with Mighty Machines .

    The slam of the door snapped her out of the reverie she didn’t know she’d fallen into and started her thinking about her last actions. Had she been a little too open and honest just then? Oh no; had Maya begun to suspect how Franziska really felt about her? Had she been staring at Maya too much?

    She shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. There was nothing she could do about any of that now; the deeds had been done. Now was not the time to worry.

    So she reached for her fork, reached for her remote, and cued up the old theme music once again.

    Franziska was starting to like watching TV in bed.