Chapter Text
It was a horrid day already.
Athena had been too damn loud on the way to her morning class, so Simon Blackquill woke up far earlier than he intended to. His darling, dear, despicable best friend would pay dearly for her transgressions. Sleepy and annoyed, he trudged out of his bedroom to find her furiously packing up her bag.
“You’re going to be late,” he teased, ensuring his tone was menacing.
“Go back to sleep!” she snapped, darting past him to grab her jacket from her own bedroom. “I have two tests today, so I am not in the mood for this.”
“Spikey Phoenix Wright practically has a desk for you at his office. What more studying must you do?” Taka, his beloved hawk, squawked from her corner perch, as if to agree with him.
“That’s not what an encouraging big brother and uncle figure should say, Simon.” She stuffed her feet into her shoes and threw her blindingly yellow backpack over her shoulders. “How do I look?”
“Like a bum.”
“The perfect, two tests in one day look!” She waved him off with a happy little peace sign, bolted for the door, and slammed it shut behind her. Simon sighed and shuffled towards it, waiting for her timid knock. He cracked open the apartment door just a fraction, shoving her keys in her face when it came. She thanked him and tore down the hallway. Her big brother and uncle figure moved to the window to greet Taka, as well as watch her run down the sidewalk on the way to campus.
Yet now that his darling, dear, despicable best friend was gone, he could get some peace around their tiny little apartment. He gave Taka some extra food to ensure she would leave him be, and he collapsed back into bed. It was blessedly Friday, and he blessedly didn’t have to go into work tomorrow. Which was strange, as Bucky Whet normally needed him on Saturdays, but Simon would not argue with this.
Unless his loser best friend suddenly had plans, he anticipated spending some time with her on Saturday. Simon always worked the later shifts at the Whet Noodle, because he couldn’t be arsed to get up too early in the morning to be there when it opened at eleven in the morning. The other reason was that nightmares and insomnia kept him up, but no one besides Athena needed to know about that. He might not see Athena again until the next day, as he did work incredibly late on this Friday.
As much as he loved having his best friend back, it hurt to remember they lost seven years. Hearing the stories of her young teenage years brought a thin smile to his face; she deserved to mostly enjoy them. She always said that not a day went by, though, where she didn’t think of him and her mother. But they were together again, happily sharing their little apartment and yelling at each other about whose turn it was to clean the dishes. Simon initially feared how this arrangement would work out, but he had limited options when he was freed from prison approximately two hours before a scheduled death. Living with his sister was out of the question, both because she took his place in prison and because of what she had done to Athena to get her brother’s freedom.
But enough about that.
He fell back into bed, content to sleep for a few more hours. Except he couldn’t fucking fall back asleep and decided to send a grumpy text to Athena about it. She responded with a little yellow crying face that Simon wasn’t sure how to recreate on his own phone, so he let it be. Taka was squawking for attention out in the other room, as she obviously knew he was awake and fully capable of providing pets. He trudged from bed like a new parent to take care of their screaming infant, coaxing her onto his forearm and scratching at her neck. Athena had left the television on some weird show about aliens, so Simon was rather stuck on the couch now, as Taka had migrated to perch on his lap as soon as he sat down.
At times like this, he wished he were still a prosecutor.
He wished his beloved Metis has never met her end and that his Fool Br –
Simon shook his head, knowing that thinking about that man and the past years was a spectacularly poor decision. It was a miracle that he and Athena always managed to circumvent the topic.
Even if he did want to go return as a prosecutor, it seemed unlikely that Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth would have an office all ready for him. Simon was still technically just a rookie with an abundance of psychology knowledge taught to him by the most intelligent woman who ever lived. He had only prosecuted a handful of cases before his arrest. And with such damning evidence that wicked bitch of a prosecutor had against him, the death sentence meant he would prosecute no more.
He thought his ragged hopes and dreams of prosecuting again would come true when the newly instated Chief Prosecutor approached him in prison to request his help with prosecution. Simon agreed, itching to be useful and to begin work again on tracking down Metis’ murderer seriously.
Until Edgeworth returned a few weeks later to tell him that…no, that wouldn’t be happening after all. Simon was crushed beyond belief, though he hid it well. Yet he was determined to find out who had barred him from prosecuting while still behind these damn bars. Perhaps the Chief faced too much push back and chose to drop the idea, or perhaps he’d found someone better to take Simon’s place. Either way, poor Blackquill continued to wither away in his jail cell, accompanied occasionally by…
Simon sighed.
This was getting to be too much, so he finally forced Taka off his lap and turned off the episode of this bizarre alien show to finally do something with his day before work. He showered and dressed, slipping his long sleeve shirt on first, followed by his Whet Noodle shirt. He tugged the cuffs down past his wrists, satisfied when no scarring could be seen.
Though he still had quite some time before even thinking about leaving for his shift, Simon cleaned up the dishes his foul roommate left sitting out, as well as gather his things together. Bucky was a great person but not the best manager to have. He enjoyed his alcohol too fucking much, so he was often fairly drunk at work. When he would manage to sober up, he was a kind individual who truly cared about his noodles. Simon had frequented the Whet Noodle before he was imprisoned, so Bucky knew his true, rather intense, character and had no issues with hiring him after he was released.
Still, it was fairly terrible when one’s manager was constantly drunk, as it mostly left the work up to Simon. He did not particularly mind, it was just often difficult to both deal with drunk Bucky and drunk customers.
The clock finally told him it was finally time to leave, so he started the foot journey down to the Whet Noodle.
What had he been saying about Bucky? That he deserved nothing but an intense, burning slap on the face with Simon’s bare hands? The drunkard had barely done anything for the whole two hours they had been open already, so Simon was left to deal with it all. Just fucking fantastic.
They luckily had a rather slow afternoon, as the weather was bad, but the dreariness of the outside world actually helped to sober up Bucky rather quickly. He apologized, speech still a little slurred, for having put so much pressure on Simon. Simon didn’t give a shit. As long as the customers didn’t give him shit for anything, things would remain balanced and peaceful. This was a doubtful scenario, as people were assholes, but he made it through the rest of his shift fairly unscathed.
Mid-way through, he felt his phone vibrate, but things were too busy, which made it impossible to check the message. It was from Athena, and her text requested he come and walk her home from the library. After the place had finally been cleaned and the doors had been locked, Simon quickly called her.
“Are you still at the library?” he asked. “It’s very late.”
“Yeah, I am. Can you come and get me, please?” She sounded so small, like the innocent little girl he used to know.
The weather was still fairly dreary, with fog settling in comfortably as Simon trudged all the way back up the dirty streets to reach Athena’s campus library. She was waiting for him by the doors, looking ragged and downtrodden.
“I’m exhausted. My tests killed me,” she said once they started walking back home. He let her talk about them for a while, describing the multiple questions on her tests that she was positive they had not even remotely touched on in class.
When they finally reached home, Athena made a beeline for the refrigerator to pull out the highly inappropriate gift of wine that her part-time boss, Phoenix Wright, had given her. Simon did not particularly like her drinking, but as she time and time again reminded him that she was not the innocent little girl he used to know, he learned to keep those thoughts to himself. Besides, he could still act like an annoying older brother to her. He didn’t like the drink of choice and preferred something a lot harder when he drank, but he would take what he could get for free.
So they found themselves sprawled on the sofa at 11:15 pm on a Friday night, drinking old wine, and trying not to fall asleep already.
Athena’s phone suddenly buzzed between them both, and she dove behind Simon to get it before it was lost in the couch. When she looked at the notification on her screen, she shrieked. Simon sighed.
“Oh my god, Junie asked me if I want to study tomorrow for our law test,” she breathed.
“Perhaps you might bring the engagement ring with you?” He winced when she slapped his broad shoulder, but he was still grinning when she repositioned herself to shove the phone up in his face.
“I’m going to tell her yes.”
“This is a monumental step. You haven’t even met her family.”
Another strike, this time to his side. She tapped back her response and held her phone tightly to her chest. It vibrated again, and she opened the message instantly.
“Ah! What time? And where?” She looked at Simon like he controlled where she went and when. Her eyes were wide and excited, and he loved his ridiculous best friend.
He shrugged. “How early are you willing to wake for Juniper Woods?” he asked. “If you will be too tired in the morning to appreciate her sunflower like qualities, you should consider-”
She shushed him as another text from Juniper came through. She very nearly squealed when Juniper apparently suggested meeting for breakfast and then holing up in the library for the rest of the day. He watched Athena detangle herself from her fuzzy blanket and hurtle down the hallway for something. When she returned a moment later, she was dragging her backpack, filled with heavy textbooks, behind her. She swung to sit on the ground, bumping into the coffee table as she did so. Simon swiped her drink from the corner of the table to move it somewhere safe.
She grabbed her laptop from the table and opened up several documents.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I have to fix my notes, because I just swear every other word, and I don’t want innocent Junie to see that.” She ignored Simon’s fatherly tutting, choosing to keep highlighting word after word and deleting it. When she had cleaned up her notes enough, she turned to her best friend and asked what he would be doing the next day while she was out.
“While you are out with your future wife?”
She jabbed him so hard in the knee that his reflex kicked in. When she had stopped whining about having been kicked, he finally answered, “Some atrocious fiend woke me particularly early, so I will be catching up on sleep tomorrow.” He truthfully considered heading to the library and picking up some books on the bar exam. Just to see. Athena didn’t need to know. And if she did find out, he could claim he was looking into it for her, when she took it in a few years.
Simon had always wondered if he would see her again in what few years remained in his life, yet he did not think it would be in a courtroom as his sister accused her of murdering her own mother. And she did not have the nerve to even do it in person – she had to remain hidden in her space center with her toys and robots and –
That was enough.
“You should really think about finding someone,” Athena announced.
“What?” he grunted. “Finding someone what?”
The nicest little grin broke out on her face as his best friend explained, “I mean find yourself a Junie. Someone to go to breakfast with and talk to all the time.”
“I…do that with you.”
She continued as she lumbered upright to join him back on the couch, “I mean someone to go to breakfast with and talk to all the time and make out with.”
“I will not speak to you about this subject,” he growled. “Drop it, now.” He wasn’t drunk enough to be having this conversation; he was existentially exhausted from the day at work, but it wasn’t enough to dull his senses and remove any embarrassment he might be feeling about the subject. “And,” he clarified, “I was not aware that was the kind of person you were getting at.”
He hoped the stern, direct, and angry approach would get this conversation over with.
Athena had stuffed herself back into her original position, practically flattening herself up against him. She reached for her wine glass and took a long drink and replied, “I’m trying to picture you with someone like that, and it’s…not working at all.” She laughed.
“Precisely.” He wasn’t even that offended, because Simon had to agree. It would not work well.
“You would probably just make fun of them and their family all the time,” she said, starting to laugh. “And constantly make them wonder if you really liked them or not.”
He had to laugh at that, too. She suddenly snorted with laughter and continued, “You’d try to call them weird fake British pet names – something stupid, like…like crumpety tadpole.”
“No one talks like that,” he insisted for the six thousandth time. His accent was barely there anymore, but oh, she loved to make fun of it.
“Yeah, but hopefully your date wouldn’t know that, and you can convince them that it’s a legitimate term of endearment! How funny would that be, oh my god.”
He shook his head as she reached for her computer and opened up another browser window.
“Also, how funny would it be to date someone, with your only purpose being to piss them off?”
“How would that even work?” That sounded ridiculous.
“You know, you need to be an annoying significant other at a family wedding to get their family to leave them alone, since no one will want to talk to you. You’d be the perfect terrible boyfriend, Simon.” She burst out laughing again. “You could really make money with this. I’ll put an ad out online for you.” She winked.
“You will do no such thing,” Simon demanded. As much as he loved Athena, he would not allow her to do this to him. Who knows what horrible little demons she would attract with some bizarre ad like that?
She set her fingers down on the keyboard. She typed a few words.
Simon lunged to smack her hands away. The girl laughed, high pitched and loud, as she flung away at the last second to avoid him.
“I’ll stop, I swear!”
Simon was still suspicious, but he settled back into his original position. And then his phone started buzzing. It was Bucky, so begrudgingly, Simon hoisted himself up to grab his phone from the table and answer it.
“Siiimey.”
“Yes, Bucky?”
“I just – hic – want you t’know tha-at you, you’re juu-ust the best, Simey.”
“Drink some water, Bucky.”
“Nooo! Listen!” Simon tried to listen to him, but the menacing click-clack of his roommate’s laptop keyboard made his head turn to glare at her. She looked at him sheepishly but kept typing anyway. Balancing out listening to your drunk boss and grappling for a laptop from your terrible best friend turned out to be easy, as Simon could mostly ignore Bucky as he glared down Athena. Though he should have known by now, after living with her for a year that she did not crumble under his gaze like others did.
He ended up staying on the line with Bucky for another twenty minutes, during which Bucky declared his love for Simon no more than ten times. Athena breezed by him with her computer some time later, and she had already locked herself into the bathroom and started the shower water by the time Simon unglued the phone from his ear.
Still, he banged on the door. “I would start begging for mercy if you posted any of what you had written!” he shouted through the wood.
“I didn’t – stop shouting at me!” she shouted at him.
Athena was the person he trusted most in this world, but that did not stop him from being fairly suspicious of the little brat. Still, though, he would not go snooping around in her things just to confirm. He should…completely trust her. She had earned it.
Once the lazy girl had showered, she never managed to do anything else in the evening besides collapse into bed. Her school things were all packed up at this point, meaning she was totally ready for her studying/marriage to Juniper Woods.
Simon scoffed as he left the dirty dishes in the sink for her. Finding someone for him? That would be the day. He said goodnight to best friend and gracefully met a dreamless sleep, for once in a very long time.
It was a horrid day already.
Nahyuta was stuck at breakfast with the whole family, and the one family member he could tolerate well wasn’t even there. He remained mostly quiet, having cultivated the persona of a man too exhausted to exist before caffeine. Regrettably, Dhurke had just shoved the last bite of his breakfast in his mouth when his cell phone began ringing, so he held it out expectantly to his older son, Nahyuta. He gave his father a look, not in the mood to deal with his mother at the moment. The younger son, Apollo, had escaped agony for now.
“Good morning, Mother,” Nahyuta greeted as warmly as he could.
“Oh, you’re not my husband.”
“I should certainly hope not.” He drank from his dainty little coffee cup. “Did you call with something in mind?”
“Well, I called my husband,” Amara said, “in hopes of actually speaking to him.”
Dhurke made grabby hands, now that he had actually swallowed his massive bite. Nahyuta passed back the phone without saying another word. He sighed and pushed the flaky crust bits of his pastry around on his plate with a fork. Something pelted him in the forehead, and he was ready to strike down Rayfa for throwing more shit at him.
“Nahyuta!” Dhurke boomed, eyeing his raised fork. “Your mother wants to speak to you again.”
“If she had something to talk about with me, why did she not bring it up when I was already speaking with her?”
“Your mother is a lovely, creative woman.” The phone ended up in his hands again, so Nahyuta begrudgingly greeted her again.
“Are you looking forward to your father’s little party?” she asked.
“I would hardly call it ‘little,’ Mother. He’s invited half of the state and the entire county prosecutor’s office. Everyone in this world must at least know one person attending it.”
“And yet you still haven’t found someone to bring along yourself?”
His inhale was controlled yet furious all the same. “O Holy Mother, give me strength.”
From across the table, both Apollo and Rayfa snorted at his outburst. They probably knew what their mother was asking about, as it had been seemingly the only question on her mind for some time.
“A simple yes or no will suffice, Yuty,” she scoffed. “I do not need this attitude from both you and Ga’ran.”
“Yes, when is Ga’ran returning? I had hoped to-”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Amara interrupted, voice dark. She was so impatient sometimes, and it really showed in Nahyuta far too often.
“I have not…I do not have a date to Father’s celebration.” He eyed Apollo, who was trying to disguise his smile. He spat at his younger brother, “We can’t all be dating rock star prosecutors like you!”
That shut up him, but it only made Rayfa laugh louder. Dhurke joined in, his whole body shaking with his well-timed laughter.
“I wish that you would put some more effort into it, dear,” Amara continued, giggling a little herself. “Obviously, I do not wish to pressure you, I just feel that you might have more fun with someone by your side that night. Especially since neither Ga’ran nor I will be there.”
“Yes, I have to wonder why it is so important to you when you will not be in attendance, Mother,” he hissed.
“Do not remind me!” Dhurke wailed. He straightened and elbowed Nahyuta a little adding, “I won’t have a date, either, son, so don’t worry.”
Nahyuta didn’t give a shit about whether his father had a date or not; he was Dhurke Sahdmadhi, the damn host of the whole affair. The issue currently was that he did not have one, and he was not sure where to get one, which was ridiculous.
Nahyuta Sahdmadhi was fucking gorgeous.
He had asked around with his old school friends and briefly considered asking Apollo to ask if his fancy German boyfriend knew anyone with nothing to do on a Saturday night three weeks from now, and if they wouldn’t mind spending it at an inane party for the crowd of rich, legal minds situated here in sunny Los Angeles.
Nahyuta loved the nightlife and general party scene here in LA, yet the Sahdmadhi Law Group did not station themselves here in the city for the glam of it all. Dhurke had worked hard as a defense attorney to be internationally recognized, and he was grooming Apollo Justice to be much the same. They adopted the boy when he was an infant, after his father had tragically died in a strange fire.
Nahyuta was being groomed, as well, but his Aunt Ga’ran had rather taken the reins for that. They worked as prosecutors, though Nahyuta had yet to actually…prosecute a case.
He truthfully had no desire to. Besides, life was far more fun when he got to pick and choose what things he did in a day, instead of spend it trapped behind a prosecutor’s bench in a stuffy courtroom. He had no worry for money, as his inheritance from both his mother’s side and father’s side was obscenely enormous. Amara and Ga’ran were from the oldest family in Khura’in, while Dhurke had just managed to squeak by with his intelligence most of the time. Nahyuta’s father gained recognition in Khura’in from taking on the strangest and most impossible cases out there, yet he would get a not guilty verdict for all his hard work.
Amara had worked briefly as a prosecutor, alongside her younger sister, but she chose to take a more managerial approach to the whole law business, as she handled most of the administrative issues at this point. Despite their Romeo and Juliet-esque love story, with one being a prosecutor and the other a defense attorney, Amara and Dhurke married quickly and almost immediately had Nahyuta. Then they waited an annoyingly long time to curse the world with his younger sister, Rayfa. He was lucky to have Apollo on his side.
Except his stupid defense attorney brother had gone off and fallen for his fancy courtroom rival, Klavier Gavin. He loved his little brother, but it made his stomach twist when he had to listen to Klavier talk about how much he loved Apollo. They had been going strong for some time now, and Amara had hinted no less than twenty thousand times when she could expect a wedding for her favorite middle child.
So here we were, beautiful, angelic Nahyuta: dateless and annoyed about it, while Apollo was no doubt secure in his future. Not that he did not deserve it, the fact of the matter just made Nahyuta’s blood boil. Klavier was great, and he was a phenomenal prosecutor who went through a lot in recent years. He had won the approval of the family early on, which was always rather difficult to do. Nahyuta chalked up the reason that he hadn’t found someone willing to date him long term was because of that fact – any mention of the Khura’in or Sahdmadhi name often sent shivers through spines.
It also didn’t help that Nahyuta had recently gotten the family into some trouble. Luckily, Ga’ran was there to assist him.
Either way, he would need to figure something out.
“I’d like to once again remind you,” Amara said, bringing him back to reality, “that even if you do not have someone to follow you around, I will still love you.”
“I…did not doubt that, Mother.”
“Your father and I must have done a good job of raising you and imparting nothing but unconditional love into you.”
“Yes, that must be it.”
“May I speak with Rayfa, now?” she asked. He said his goodbyes and tossed the phone to his sister. He also immediately excused himself. Sadly, there was still quite a lot of coffee left in his cup, but Nahyuta was not about to spend any more time with his family than he needed to. Family breakfast was commonplace, and now that the fast had been broken, he could go.
Apollo came around to find him shortly thereafter. Nahyuta was out on the veranda, happily sunning himself. He loved the great motherland of Khura’in, but the sun here suited him far better. He had also successfully obtained another cup of coffee.
“What are you up to today?” Apollo asked, setting himself down on the edge of Nahyuta’s reclining seat. “Any prosecuting?”
“Don’t make me laugh,” he scoffed. “I’ve some errands to run today, as well as apparently find a fucking date so Mother will stop asking about it.”
He smooshed his spikes down as he laughed. “Yeah, she’s not giving you any breaks here. Hope you find someone soon before she picks for you. I can ask around for you?”
Nahyuta reached out to pinch his cheek, hiding very well the fact that he did consider asking Apollo for assistance. “What a nice little brother you are. But I am sure I can find a date on my own, thank you, Polly. I’m not worried.” He didn’t miss Apollo tugging at his golden bracelet.
“I could talk to Ema? Mother probably wants someone with you, even if she’s not exactly your type.”
Ema Skye? Klavier’s poor put upon forensic investigator of a detective? Nahyuta did enjoy her company, but he did not fancy her for reasons that he was incredibly gay.
“I wouldn’t want to promise a night of amazing food, only to surprise ruin it with an appearance from your fop,” Nahyuta answered, laughing a little. Klavier had become less glimmerous over the years, but Ema still called him “fop.”
Apollo offered his help once more before responding to Dhurke’s call that they needed to get going. He and Father worked at the same Sahdmadhi Law Group office. Rayfa was left with her Nayna on most days, and Nahyuta was free usually to do as he wished.
He did normally go work with Ga’ran in her office, yet his aunt was off with her sister in the homeland. Nahyuta did have a few things to take care of, like he told Apollo. Ga’ran informed him of some important documents left in her office, and they needed to be given to her husband, Inga.
Who Nahyuta hated with almost everything in him.
Inga wasn’t funny or kind; there was almost nothing redeeming about him. It didn’t even seem like Ga’ran liked him that much, as they were not together often. Inga more or less permanently stayed in the Sahdmadhi home here in LA, despite owning his own home a few miles up the road. Perhaps having no children made him feel lonely, but Nahyuta was truly grateful that the man had not yet and probably would not reproduce. Nahyuta only ended up spending so much time with him, because he spent so much time around Ga’ran. So long as he stayed away from Nahyuta, he could tolerate his smoke and oily hair.
He heard the revving engine, signaling that his brother and father had left finally. He sat in warm, contented peace for some time, until he heard someone come out to bother him.
“Go away, Rayfa.”
She huffed and noisily dragged up a chair to sit next to him. He wasn’t sure why she insisted on spending time with him, especially when he made it clear how much he disliked her. Young Nahyuta was not pleased with his new sister when Dhurke placed her in his arms carefully, so he cried until they took her back. He apparently asked his parents on multiple occasions if they were really sure about keeping her.
“I think it’s very funny that no one will date you, Yuty.”
His lip curled. “My dear little sister, that is absolutely not the case. I have merely not found someone I will date.”
Which was mostly true, excluding the fact that he had asked some people already, and they had all turned him down. His standards and requirements were high, as he was Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. In a brief fit of secret desperation, he downloaded some of those loathsome dating apps to his phone to try and find someone to just stand by him and so Amara would shut the hell up. Perhaps he would try that method again.
“You should just pay someone to do it,” Rayfa suggested.
He sputtered and glared her down. “That is ridiculous, Rayfa. I am not hiring someone for this. Mother will simply need to accept-”
“Accept the fact that you can’t get a date?”
Nahyuta flicked her forehead. “I so wish you would learn to stop disrespecting me so.” He turned away from her and asked, “Don’t you have your silly Khura’inese lessons now?”
“I spilled your leftover coffee and had Nayna clean it up,” she answered smugly, hands on her hands triumphantly.
“What a little brat.” Nahyuta still smirked, though, as her tricks and pranks on poor Nayna were impressive. He once locked her out of the house for a few hours to avoid his own lessons. She had grown on him in her fourteen years as his little sister, but he was still not the biggest fan. Didn’t necessarily hate her, in the end.
He finally stood from his comfortable chair and directed her to go assist poor Nayna, as the woman suffered enough for having to serve the family in general, let alone teaching Rayfa. She shot back in her broken Khura’inese that she would be asking Nayna later which one of the three children was her least favorite to care for. Nahyuta already know she would say it was him. They parted ways, and Nahyuta was dressed and more beautiful than he already was shortly thereafter.
He called a car to take him to the prosecutor’s office, and he ducked into Inga’s office as he waited for it to arrive.
“Good morning, Inga.” He stepped into the room and held out his hand expectantly. “Ga’ran has asked me to fetch something from her office today. For you. I’ll need her key.”
Inga grumbled and set down his cigar on the crystal ash tray, rooting around in the small drawer to his left. He produced the key, decorated ornately, of course. Nahyuta pocketed it and turned without saying a word. His uncle had already taken the cigar back between his lips, also ignoring Nahyuta.
So Nahyuta was off quickly to the prosecutor’s office. Almost immediately upon getting there, he ran into Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth.
He folded the letter in his hands and smiled for Nahyuta. It was so fake, Nahyuta wondered how he could produce such a shape on his face.
“What…brings you to the office?” he asked.
“My aunt requested I fetch some documents for her from her office.”
“Are they court documents? I am not particularly comfortable with you removing them, Mis – Prosecutor Sahdmadhi.”
Nahyuta stared at him a moment before just turning around and mashing the UP button on the elevator. He watched Edgeworth slowly approach him, looking rather unsure.
“As a grown adult, I can assure you that I am more than capable of taking care of a few measly papers, Chief Prosecutor.”
The elevator dinged, and Edgeworth had no choice but to purse his lips and watch Nahyuta enter it. He smiled as softly and warmly as he could as the doors slowly closed. Perhaps he shouldn’t be using Edgeworth’s phobia as a means to get away with anything he liked, but it did come in handy so often.
It was Edgeworth’s own fault for being so openly distasteful of Nahyuta. He mostly did not like poor Nahyuta for his familial relations, honestly; it was Aunt Ga’ran that Edgeworth hated the most, and he let that hatred extend to Nahyuta. His aunt apparently had quite a lot of dirt on the current Chief Prosecutor, so he was rather stuck with the Khura’in and Sahdmadhi family around. It also didn’t help that Ga’ran was admittedly an excellent international prosecutor, and Edgeworth needed her. She had prosecuted a case a few years ago in which a fellow prosecutor had been tried and convicted of first degree murder. He had just gotten rid of many of the corrupt prosecutors around the office, so he certainly needed one of the best to stay on as a part of his occasional staff.
He also had to be a little salty that Nahyuta was technically a part of the office but doing no actual prosecutorial work. And salty that Nahyuta was able to spend his time how he wished to. It was a rather good life.
He reached the top floor of the office, found Ga’ran’s office and entered. The papers for Inga were folded neatly in a sealed envelope, so he tucked it away in his jacket pocket. He left the office immediately, as Ga’ran did not appreciate him hanging around in there, even when she was in there with him. He took the stairs down a few floors to stop in to see Klavier Gavin.
He inquired after his weekend plans with his younger brother, joking about his intentions with Apollo. They were apparently off to the mountains, just a little past little Kurain Village, to the little mountain home the family maintained.
So that was how Nahyuta found himself bored and alone in his own separate apartment smack in the middle of Los Angeles. He debated briefly about going out when it was finally midnight, but he heard constant sirens outside, so that helped make his decision. Besides, he had plenty of alcohol here at home to entertain him.
So that was how Nahyuta found himself bored on the Los Angeles section of fucking Hottilist.org. It was a site meant for all types of communication, like selling furniture or offering job postings, but it had a reputation (and with a name like fucking Hotti List) for only being used for hook ups. Nahyuta couldn’t believe he was legitimately considering Rayfa’s suggestion of paying someone just for the one Saturday he needed them. But he could afford it, and he would really like for Mother to get off his back about this, despite her insistence that it wasn’t a big deal. He poked around in the “man seeking man” section before seeing too many unexpected dicks. (He should have expected them, to be honest.) He then wandered into “casual encounters,” and he also saw a lot of dicks there, too.
So fine, he snuck into “strictly platonic.” Most of the posts were fairly amusing, as these people must be really desperate to put these needs out on the Internet for all to see and probably judge harshly.
He came across one with a subject line that was bizarrely specific to his interests. It read, “Do you hate your family? I want to hate them too!!”
Curious, Nahyuta clicked on the post, scanning the few paragraphs there:
“I’m a 29 year old ex-convict (didn’t actually kill anyone, don’t worry) who probably hates your family and probably doesn’t have anything to do but terrorize them. I will be your platonic date to a stupid family dinner or gathering for one (1) night/event.
I work at a noodle place and will get buckwheat flour all over your family members, if you ask me too. I will also make fun of you and your family members, because that’s all I do in general anyway. Other services include telling scary prison stories, threatening to show any possible prison scars, pretending to get very drunk, hitting on a different family member, or hitting a family member. May be convinced to propose to you in front of your family members, too.
Feed me and maybe give me $30? Available past 8 pm on Saturdays. Call Simon @ 231-867-5309”
Below the horrible ad, there was a grainy photo; it rather looked like a mugshot. The front part of the man’s bangs were streaked a startling white, and the rest of his hair was shaggy and dark. His eyes were light, but the dark bags and lines outlining them made them so much more intense.
Nahyuta knocked back the rest of his drink. “He sounds terrifying enough. Fuck you, Mother.”
He was just tipsy enough that this definitely sounded like a good idea, so Nahyuta reached for his cell phone and dialed the number.
“You’ve reached Simon Blackquill. I will mostly likely not call you back.” His voice was deep and had a slightly British accent, it sounded like.
Nahyuta huffed aloud as the call beeped, prompting him to speak, “Hello, Simon. My name is Nahyuta. I hope your advertisement on…Hotti List is legitimate, as it sounds very absurd and exactly what I need. Are you free three weeks from now? Please call me back at this number at your earliest convenience.”
He hung up and must have accidentally hit a button on the website, as it took him to a new advertisement with a new dick pic on it. He closed out of that immediately, pouring himself another drink.