Chapter Text
Simon couldn’t help but wonder how exactly he got in this position.
How he was in a hotel room with one Prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, who had fallen asleep in the bed next to his own at least two hours ago with absolutely no issues. The monk’s long hair was splayed across his pillows as gracefully as the man himself slept. It was kind of irritating, Simon couldn’t help but think. It would have been somewhat nice to see Nahyuta’s sleeping state to be the exact opposite of his conscious persona: perhaps some drooling, hair in knots and tangled everywhere…it would have been excellent material for Simon’s phone. But no, Prosecutor Sahdmadhi was as…ethereal in his sleep as he was at any other time.
And perhaps, most frustrating, was the fact that Nahyuta fell asleep with no problems whatsoever.
He didn’t toss and turn like Simon did. He didn’t find the soft beds uncomfortable due to being too used to – even after more than a year of freedom – a hard prison cot. He didn’t see figures of his past every time he closed his eyes. He didn’t worry about dreams that would cause him to awaken with panic attacks in the middle of the night.
He just fell asleep.
As much as Simon knew he owed Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth, he hated the fact that his boss requested that he go on this assignment. Since the incident was international, involving the kingdom of Khura’in, one prosecutor from each area should investigate, he had claimed. When Simon tried to pass on this task, the Chief Prosecutor remarked that he was the only one available. Apparently, Gavin-dono was already assigned to a few other cases, and Debeste-dono was out of the country, apparently assisting Franziska von Karma and Interpol with tracking down a worldwide smuggling ring, or something like that. Simon wondered why one of Edgeworth’s prosecutors was off helping Interpol – especially considering the fact that they were severely understaffed – but from what he gathered, von Karma had asked for Debeste herself, and if she requested something, she got it no matter who protested.
The other prosecutors were too green to handle this sort of case, and Edgeworth himself couldn’t take it because of all the administrative tasks he had to deal with (even though Simon knew that if Wright-dono was involved, the Chief Prosecutor would have dropped everything to take the case), so that left Simon Blackquill. And at that rate, Simon couldn’t exactly refuse…after all, he owed Edgeworth his life. Literally.
But then of course there would be a lack of hotel rooms at their rendezvous point, which was too far away from the Khura’inese palace for them to stay there; Simon had hoped for two separate places to sleep, but they were apparently lucky to even get the one room. At least it had two beds.
They didn’t exactly get off on the best foot, either. Despite Nahyuta’s new position in his country’s reformed government, and the fact that his foster brother was helping him transform the justice system for the better, the sad monk was no less high-and-mighty than he was when Simon met him in the courtroom with Athena. He kept going on about the “Holy Mother,” and how Simon should embrace her judgements and move on, yadda yadda yadda. Simon tuned him out at some point, earning him a calm lecture which he again did not listen to. Every insult Nahyuta lobbed at him was swiftly parried with a snarky comeback and a smirk; Simon felt no small amount of satisfaction when Prosecutor Sad Monk’s calm demeanor seemed to slip a little bit due to his frustration with the “reverse panda.”
To put it simply, they were not the best pair to work together, and the first day in the small town was not at all productive except in making them even more exasperated and tired with each other.
So, perhaps Simon should have been grateful for the fact that Nahyuta passed out almost immediately after they settled into their hotel room.
But then he started thinking about the implications behind Nahyuta’s seemingly easy sleep, and saw how the other prosecutor looked, and Simon couldn’t stop himself from grinding his teeth in some semblance of anger and misplaced jealousy.
He didn’t bother looking at the clock after the third hour passed.
Eventually, Simon got tired of constantly fidgeting; despite being exhausted from traveling and having to deal with His Lordship over there, he still couldn’t fall asleep on this damned bed. It was far too…cushiony. How the hell did people sleep on these things? With a huff, he grabbed a pillow and the comforter off the mattress and threw them and himself onto the floor. Sure, it was colder on the carpet, but even that was a weird comfort – his cell was always quite chilly, so it felt more familiar to him.
His tossing and turning did stop, and after some time, Simon finally found himself drifting off into sleep.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as restful as Nahyuta’s.
----
Simon stood alone, with nothing but blackness surrounding him. When he tried to step forward, he tripped and landed on his stomach; his feet were in shackles. His hands were in a similarly bound state, and the chain that was attached to the steel collar around his neck stretched into the darkness. He brought himself to his knees slowly, eyes scanning the area and finding nothing.
He could hear a boisterous laugh, one that sounded very familiar, and his head whipped around to try and see if any sort of image would appear to him. But when he did, whatever force held his chain yanked hard, and jerked his head forward again. Still though, he could see no one.
Simon opened his mouth to speak, but once he did, he felt an electric shock pierce through his entire body. Once it stopped, he keeled over, panting hard as footsteps approached him.
“You have to behave, Prosecutor Blackquill. Remember?”
Simon looked up to see the face of Bobby Fulbright, no…the mask of the Phantom. Even though he had just electrocuted Simon, and held his chain, he appeared joyful. Not in the twisted, villainous way that Simon would have expected, though. No, it was sincerely happy…or at least that was how it appeared. Simon knew the Phantom’s profile well enough to know that his face hid his true nature. Still, though, the contrast between the Phantom’s actions and Fulbright’s smile caused a knot to form and twist in Simon’s stomach.
The spy yanked on the chain once again, causing Simon to once again fall so that his stomach was flat on the ground. Despite wanting to retort, he found no energy to do so, and so did not move to even get up again.
The Phantom dropped down to one knee, and grabbed a fist full of Simon’s hair. He lifted the prosecutor’s head so they were facing each other, noses close to touching. Despite Simon’s discomfort and inability to properly react, the mask of Bobby Fulbright remained cheerful, as the detective always seemed to be.
Perhaps it was because of fixating on that smile for a few moments that Simon finally found his voice.
“Fool Bright…” He had wanted to say something cruel, sarcastic…something, but instead only whispered his nickname for the detective with a sad inflection in his tone. The Phantom’s mask changed expressions only slightly; his mouth was still curved upward, but his eyes lost any light in them. He moved his lips closer, barely brushing them against the prosecutor’s, before he spoke.
“I’ll never give up on you, Prosecutor Blackquill…”
“Prosecutor Blackquill!”
Fulbright’s voice speaking his name had combined with another’s, jolting Simon awake and upright. He would have accidentally slammed his head against Nahyuta’s if the monk hadn’t moved out of the way just in time. Simon didn’t turn to look at him for a moment; he had to catch his breath first. He was also shaking, and silently cursed his vulnerability in front of Prosecutor Sad Monk, but the image of Fulbright’s face so close to his own, with his freedom in the detective’s hands…it slightly mitigated his feelings of shame.
“You were murmuring and tossing about like you were in pain…” When Simon finally turned his gaze to Nahyuta, he could have sworn that Sahdmadhi actually looked…concerned. But Simon knew better than to just accept something like that…after all, Fool Bright – no, the Phantom – had seemed concerned for him at all times, and that turned out to be nothing but lies just to get closer to him.
“It’s nothing to worry yourself about. Just go back to sleep, I know you need your beauty rest,” Simon replied after a few short moments of hesitation. His tone was sarcastic, and he even smirked, hoping that Nahyuta would see that as an insult and take the suggestion. When the foreign man did nothing of the sort, he continued with further attempts to get Nahyuta to do what he wanted. “Don’t you want tomorrow’s investigation to go smoother than today’s? We can’t have you jeopardizing that by not getting enough sleep, no?”
But Nahyuta didn’t take the bait.
“Prosecutor Blackquill. We both need to be well-rested in order to pursue this case adequately,” Nahyuta retorted, not missing a beat. Simon just made a ‘tch’ sound and turned his head while closing his eyes.
“I’m used to not sleeping well, unlike you, Prince. So just-”
His sentence caught in his throat when Nahyuta knelt in front of him and took Simon’s hands in his own.
Immediately, Simon jerked his hands back and away, earning a slightly surprised expression from the monk. But it wasn’t the action that shocked Nahyuta so much as how violently Simon pulled away, and with such a fearful look in his eyes; the former prisoner looked almost like a cornered animal. His hair was wild and eyes widened, and Nahyuta could tell he was still shaking. Whatever he had seen in his nightmare had truly frightened him.
“I only wished to offer a prayer of protection.”
“That isn’t going to help,” Simon snapped, as if insulted. “I don’t believe in your Holy Mother, so-”
“It can be calming, even for those who do not believe. Perhaps it can at least sooth your mind for the night…?” The way Nahyuta inflected his tone at the end of his sentence made Simon believe that he was now asking for permission. After a moment of hesitation, Simon sighed in exasperation and held his hands out again, knowing that Prosecutor Sad Monk wouldn’t leave him alone if he didn’t at least do this.
He was surprised with how gentle Nahyuta took his hands that time, and he watched the monk’s emerald eyes close. As Nahyuta began softly speaking his prayer in his native tongue, Simon felt the other prosecutor’s fingers softly stroke his skin, as if soothing him. Nahyuta’s softness was a huge contrast to his own rough cracked skin, acquired from years of prison labor and his own personal training.
Even though Simon had originally wanted this to not work due to his own stubbornness, he found his breathing evening out, and his shaking eventually slowed and stopped. Although the images of the Phantom and Fulbright still plagued his mind, Simon found that at least focusing on Nahyuta’s mouth and his foreign words helped lessen the pain and panic for the time being.
Nahyuta’s prayer came to an end, and Simon could feel himself relax a little more. When the other man opened his eyes, he stared deeply at Prosecutor Blackquill’s face and actually smiled. The combination of that stare and that smile made Simon’s cheeks grow slightly warm in embarrassment – how did he get into this situation again?
“…Thank you, Sahdmadhi-dono.”
Nahyuta nodded and stood again, walking over to his bed. But instead of laying back down on it, he just grabbed two of his pillows and the blanket and returned to Simon’s position. When he started setting up a place to sleep next to Simon, the samurai prosecutor’s cheeks felt even warmer, and the redness could be seen through his normally pale complexion, even with only the slight light from the moon shining through the window.
“What in the devil do you think you’re doing?”
Nahyuta didn’t react to Simon’s harsh tone, instead responding calmly. “I can react quicker if you have another nightmare if I am closer to you. That way, if you start panicking again, I can wake you up before it gets worse, and we can do the prayer again, if you wish to.”
Simon had half a mind to protest, not wanting to be treated like a child, but the psychologist in him said that this might actually be a good idea. It would be better for him to be woken up than go through the nightmare… Taka had done so for him on multiple occasions, and it always seemed to help, at least for that night.
He carefully – almost suspiciously – watched as Nahyuta laid back down, his long lavender hair again splaying gracefully over his pillows. Only now it was much less frustrating to Simon than it was before.
“…Are you going to ask me why I have those?”
Simon asked the question after he also rested his back down on his pillows for a few minutes, staring up at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure if Nahyuta was even awake, so he wasn’t sure exactly why he asked that question.
“I did not want to pry into something so personal. If and when you ever wish to talk about it, I will listen,” Nahyuta replied softly, despite his eyes being closed. Sure, he knew about the general details of Blackquill’s situation, but there was obviously much more to it than whatever he could read about in the man’s work profile.
Simon couldn’t help himself – he laughed. But it was a good-natured laugh, and it again brought a smile to Nahyuta’s lips.
“I appreciate that, Prosecutor Sad Monk.”
Nahyuta chuckled. “Goodnight, reverse panda.”
Simon found that sleep came much easier to him after that.