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The sound of fingernails tapping the wooden desk top and the rattling of the oscillating fan were the only sounds in the air of the Wright Anything Agency. Maya could see the tension in Phoenix’s shoulders get tighter with every rap of her fingers against the desk, and yet he continued to ignore her obvious attempt at getting his attention. He was sitting on the couch across from the desk, leaning over the coffee table and writing some notes about his last trial. Maya sighed and turned her attention instead to the drawers in the desk. Phoenix didn’t mind her sitting at his desk when he wasn’t using it, but she knew he wasn’t a fan of her going through the drawers, if only because it meant she would try to organize them despite his insistence that he knew where everything was amongst the mess.
He only gave her a quick glance over his shoulder when she pulled the first drawer open. Inside there were general office type supplies. Extra pens, sticky notes, some errant paper clips. Maya huffed and pushed it closed again; there was nothing interesting in there.
She moved to the other side and yanked open the top drawer there. This one had random pieces of scrap paper and old business cards, but sitting on top of the mess of paper was something that did catch Maya’s eye. The emerald green magatama that she had given Phoenix all those years ago. She was surprised it was laying there in his desk drawer and wasn’t in his pocket. She picked it up and turned it over in her hands, bringing it up close to her eye to inspect it.
Phoenix had yet to notice that she had it, and she smiled to herself. She knew what the magatama could do, and it was the perfect opportunity to mess with him.
“Hey, Nick,” she said.
He turned his head a fraction towards her, noticing the magatama in her hand but saying nothing. “Hm?”
She held it out in front of her. “You love the burgers from the restaurant down the road, don’t you?”
“No,” he deadpanned.
Maya waited for a second or two, then sighed. “Nothing. I guess you’re telling the truth.” Phoenix couldn’t help the snort of laughter he let out. Maya continued. “You liked doing waterfall training with me, didn’t you?”
“Not at all,” he said, smirking at her. There was still no reaction from the magatama. Maya sat back in her chair with a pout.
“Done already?” Phoenix asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
Maya turned the stone over in her hands, examining it as if she had never seen one up close before, despite wearing one right around her own neck. “Heck no,” she said, closing her fist around it and getting up to walk over to the couch where she sat down beside him. “You know, even though this magatama was originally mine, and even though I have another one here,” she said, touching the purple stone on her necklace, “I’ve never used my magatamas the way you can, Nick.”
Phoenix listened to her, watching the emerald bead as she turned it over yet again in her hand. “So?” he asked.
“So, I don’t know what it’s like. You know, how you can see people’s secrets or whatever.”
“I can’t see their secrets, Maya,” Phoenix stated. “I wish it worked like that, it would make things a lot easier for me. All it does is let me know they have a secret, not what it is or how I can get them to tell me. All that is complete guess work on my end.”
Maya looked away from him and back down to the magatama. “Well, whatever, I’m gonna keep trying. I want to experience it!” She was quiet for a moment while she thought, then leaned forward to squint suspiciously at him. “You secretly love watching Steel Samurai reruns with me, right?”
Phoenix looked back blankly. “No.”
Maya squeezed the magatama in her fist and waited a few seconds, staring him down, expecting something to happen. Then she let out a breath. “Nothing. No locks.” Phoenix snorted as she sat back and crossed her arms. “I’ll think of something that’ll get you, Nick.”
Phoenix just shook his head at her and leaned back over the notes in front of him. They were quiet for a few minutes while Maya watched him work, then she had a thought. She smiled to herself. “Hey, Nick?”
He turned his head slightly, but didn’t look at her. “Hm?”
“What do you really think about me?”
Phoenix’s pen stopped, and he was still for a moment, but Maya could see the way his lips curved downwards, and how his shoulders tensed. He set his pen down and turned to look at her, a blank expression on his face. “You’re just… Maya. I feel the same way I always feel about you.”
It took a moment for Maya to notice the way the edges of her vision darkened when he said that, but as that darkness closed in on her it became obvious. She blinked when the heavy chains criss-crossed over Phoenix, right in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t help letting out an almost imperceptible gasp when the heavy red lock slammed itself over his chest. The world around them blacked out; the only clear objects in her line of sight being him, the chains, and the locks.
“Nick,” Maya breathed.
He looked suddenly panicked when he glanced down and saw her hand still wrapped around the magatama. “Maya! Give that to me!”
She snatched her hand back when he reached forward. “No! Why do you have Psyche-Locks now?” He just stared at her, unsure of what to say. She furrowed her eyebrows. “Well? Do you have some sort of problem with me?”
“No! Of course not!”
The one single lock stayed put, but at least there were no others. So that, at least, wasn’t a lie. “Why won’t you tell me, then?” she asked.
He looked away from her, and in the jumble of thoughts she was having she failed to see the way he flushed, redness rising from beneath the collar of his shirt all the way to his cheeks. “It’s nothing,” he insisted. “Now give me the magatama. I don’t like it being used on me.”
Maya narrowed her eyes at him, but relented and shoved it into his hand. The chains and locks disappeared as soon as her skin left contact with it, and the darkness encroaching her vision lightened back to the regular view of the office around them. Phoenix shoved the magatama into his pocket and looked at her apologetically. “Really, t’s nothing,” he said, trying his best to sound sincere.
She only nodded as she got up from the couch. Clearly it wasn’t nothing or the lock wouldn’t have appeared in the first place. “Whatever you say, Nick. I’m going upstairs to take a nap.”
He tried to say more to her, but she was already up the stairs before he could open his mouth.
…
For the next few days, Maya tried to act normal, but they had known each other for over twelve years now, and Phoenix knew when she was secretly annoyed or angry. He knew he had messed up. He knew it the second he realized Maya was still holding the magatama after she asked him that ridiculous question. What did he think about her? How was he supposed to answer that without admitting what he had been trying to tell himself wasn’t true ever since Maya got back from Khura’in? That he felt differently about her lately, but not in a bad way.
He could only imagine what she thought, though. She probably thought he secretly hated her, that he only kept her around even after all these years because of Mia. Or maybe she had an inkling of the real reason. He wasn’t sure which was worse.
Maya was out picking up their dinner one night when Phoenix decided to make a quick phone call to the one friend that he knew had a lot of experience trying to make things up to girls that were mad at him.
“Hey, man!” Larry Butz answered his phone after only one ring. “What’s up? It’s been a while.”
Phoenix grimaced. He wouldn’t normally go to Larry for advice of any kind, but he figured this was one thing Larry might actually know a little bit about.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Phoenix said, not feeling sorry at all, “I just wanted to ask you something quickly.”
“Oh?” Larry sounded intrigued. “What’s that?”
Phoenix glanced towards the door to make sure Maya wasn’t already on her way back, then sighed, and went on to describe the other night’s events.
“Wow, trouble in paradise?” Larry said when Phoenix was finished his story. “I don’t think you’ve ever called me for relationship advice before.”
“Because we’re not in a relationship, Larry,” Phoenix said. “But still, I figured you probably have a lot of experience trying to make girls feel better after you make them mad.”
“Somehow that doesn’t feel like a compliment,” Larry said. “Anyways, you said she could tell you were lying, so what were you lying about? Has she been annoying you or something and you don’t want to tell her?”
“No, not at all.”
“Ooh, I see,” Larry said. “Heh.”
“What are you laughing about?”
Larry sighed as if the answer was obvious. “Nick, you gotta tell her how you really feel. And I do mean how you really feel.”
Phoenix closed his eyes and sighed. Somehow he’d already known the answer, he just needed to hear it from someone else. There was no point in arguing. “I guess you’re right. Thanks, Larry.”
“Any time.”
…
When Maya got back with the food she seemed in a slightly better mood, probably due to said food. She set the bags down on the coffee table and plopped onto the couch next to Phoenix, grabbing her bag to begin unpacking her burgers. Phoenix reached out to place a hand on her wrist, stopping her short.
She looked over at him questioningly. “What’s wrong, Nick? I’m hungry.”
“I wanted to talk to you about the other day,” he said.
Maya raised an eyebrow. “Oh, now you want to talk about it? Great.” She set her food back down and turned to him. She watched as he dug in his pocket for the magatama, and held it out to her.
“Take it, and ask me the same question.”
She hesitated, but took it from him. She didn’t look like she wanted to ask, afraid she’d get the same reaction. “I want to ask you something else, instead.” Before Phoenix could reply, she blurted it out. “Do you hate me, Nick?”
He felt awful for making Maya think that for the past few days. He leaned towards her, looking into her eyes. “No. Never.”
Maya watched, expecting the locks and chains to appear again, but they didn’t. She sighed in relief. “Oh. I’m glad.”
He smiled. “I could never hate you, Maya.”
“Then why? The Psyche-Locks–”
“Because I have been feeling differently about you lately. But not in the way you think.” He took a deep breath. “It’s fine if you don’t feel the same way, but ever since you got back from Khura’in, I’ve realized how much I missed you before you got back. I mean, I knew that I missed you before, but now that you’re finally here I’m realizing that if you told me tomorrow that you have to go back there again for any amount of time, and that I couldn’t go with you, I wouldn’t know what to do. I don’t think I’d be able to let you go. I mean, I would, it’s not like I would force you to stay or anything but–”
He stopped talking when Maya snickered a bit. “Nick. You’re funny.”
He frowned. “I’m not trying to be funny.”
She reached forward to place the magatama back in his hand, using her own fingers to wrap his around it. “I know what you mean,” she said. “I was so worried that you hated me, because lately I’ve also been feeling differently about you, and the last thing I would want is for you to hate me.”
She swiped at her eyes, and Phoenix realized she was tearing up, trying her best not to let any fall. At that he couldn’t help himself, he pulled her forwards and into him, wrapping her in a tight hug. Maya’s arms reached around his waist and squeezed.
“I’m so sorry, Maya,” he said. “I never wanted to make you feel like that. It’s the exact opposite, really,” he said. He paused for a moment, but for once Larry’s advice was sound. He had to say how he really felt.
“I love you, Maya,” he said softly. “That’s why the magatama reacted the way it did the other day.”
Maya hiccupped against his shoulder when she heard that, and he felt her squeeze him even tighter. He held her just as tight, her head tucked under his chin. Then he felt her pull back, and when he looked down at her, she was smiling. “I love you, too, Nick. And I’m never leaving here without you again.”
He smiled right back, using a finger to move an errant piece of hair back over her shoulder. “Good,” he said.
Maya smirked, her tears gone, and before he knew what was happening, she’d placed her hand on the back of his neck, and had pulled him forward into a soft kiss. When she pulled back from him, she was still smiling. “I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time.”
Phoenix just continued to smile at her, until Maya turned away and clapped her hands together. “Now!” she said, “let’s eat. I’m still starving.”
Phoenix blinked at the sudden change in mood, and watched Maya begin to inhale her burger as if they hadn’t just confessed their love to one another. But that was just Maya being Maya, and he loved her for it.