Pearls

Chapter 19

I hung my head low.

This is so unfair. This is just not fair on him.

Lying inside were more letters. Despite being a smaller box, it was crammed to make use of all its available space and a small note was place atop it all. There was no mistake in identifying who sent the box as the note read:

Dear Phoenix
This is just a tenth of all that I had written for you.
Please read them with the hope of understanding my feelings towards you better.
I cannot bring myself to show you in any other way right now so please, make do with these.
Sincerely yours, M. Edgeworth

I held the note carefully in my hands as if I was afraid of breaking it. Pearl walked in on me reading it and tugged on my arm.

"Mystic Maya, are you going to come out and speak with Miss Iris? Mr. Nick seems to be a little better than before but he looks like he's struggling."

"I'll come out soon, Pearly. Thank you for looking out for Nick." I covered the box back up and put it to the side, opposite Iris' box. "Right, let's go."

Taking her hand, we walked out of the office and into the lounge where Phoenix and Iris were having a conversation. Well, something like one anyway.

"........"

"........"

......Isn't anyone going to say anything?

".....! Welcome back, Mystic Maya. I trust everything is well?"

Phoenix spun around with an expression of relief. "Maya! Where have you been? You were gone for a while."

I smiled apologetically at him. "Sorry, I was just cleaning up your office. You always leave such a mess, Nick! You should learn to clean up after yourself."

He fixed me with a confused look. I couldn't tell him what I was actually doing and for good reasons too. Firstly, the sender of the first package was sitting right in front of us and it wouldn't be good for her to know that a second similar parcel was waiting for Phoenix to open. Secondly, Phoenix is under enough stress as it is having to sit opposite a past lover with whom he's unsure about revealing his current relationship status.

It'll have to wait until after she leaves. Hopefully Phoenix will have calmed down a little by then.

"My, my, you two are as close as ever. I'm glad to see that nothing has changed since we last met."

"Yep! Nothing has changed between us."

Although something has changed between him and Miles.

"Great. That's right, Sister Pearl was telling me all about what you three have been up to these days. I must say, it all sounds pretty exciting."

Phoenix and I froze. "Pearls?!"

Pearl was unfazed by our exclamation, simply nodding and smiling. "She's been gone all this time I thought she'd like to know what's been happening in the office."

"And I'm very thankful for that, Sister Pearl." Smiling, she turned her attention back to us. "I'm very happy for you, Phoenix. You've finally found someone to love again."

"You're taking this rather well, Iris. I would've expected you to be even a little dishearte—!"

Phoenix clamped his hand over my mouth. "I'm sorry for her rude behaviour, Iris! She tends to not think before speaking."

"Mr. Nick! Get your hand away from Mystic Maya's mouth this instant!"

*SLAP*

"OW!"

"....Ahahaha!" Iris giggled at our banter, "Things certainly haven't changed, hm?" She smiled before continuing, "but there's no need to worry about me. I accepted that you may have moved on, Feenie, and I'm glad that it's with someone who'll make you equally as happy as you make them."

She's too nice. WAY too nice.

I saw Phoenix fiddling with something in his pocket. He seemed kind of shocked but at the same time was kind of puzzled. It wasn't a good time to ask him what was wrong as Iris stood from her seat and bowed to us.

"I'm sorry, but it's about time that I left. There are still other places I need to visit before returning to the Hazakura Temple. Sister Bikini was kind enough to allow me to stay with her and continue in my training."

"Please say hi to Sister Bikini from us, Sister Iris!"

"I will, Sister Pearl. Thank you for having me, Phoenix, Mystic Maya, Sister Pearl. I'll be sure to visit you whenever I can."

"That's a promise, Iris! Here, I'll see you out."

I showed her to the front door, saying our final goodbyes before closing it. Sighing, I returned to the main room. "What was that, Nick? Why did you look so concerned?"

And what were you fiddling with in your pocket?

Phoenix reached into his pocket and pulled out his magatama. "When she said that she was happy I found someone, the psyche locks appeared. I didn't mean to grab it whilst she was talking but I couldn't help it. Along with the letters, this pretty much confirms that she still feels that way for me. What am I going to do?"

"It's okay, Nick," I rub his back in comfort, "you don't need to worry about anything. Yes, she still likes you and all but she did say that she has more or less accepted that you've moved on. Now you need to accept the fact that you have moved on from her."

"But how can I do that to her, Maya? How can I just leave her after all these years of still loving me whilst I forgot about her?"

"Pearl, can you get the small box from his desk, please?"

She nods and runs off. Phoenix quirks an eyebrow. "What are you doing? Did you open the box while we were talking to Iris?"

"I did." Pearl comes in with the box as I responded. I took it from her, thanking her, and place it in front of Phoenix. "And it's a good thing I did. Now open it and please stop worrying over all this. It's not good of you to think of someone else when you're with Miles. It's not fair on him at all."

Leaving it at that, I watched as he opened the already unsealed box. His eyes widened at the amount of letters inside before taking the note and reading it. Pearl came up from behind and looked at the card.

"Mr. Nick! Are these all love letters from Mr. Eh-ji-worth?"

I smiled as Phoenix's whole face went red. "Yes, they are, Pearly. Would you like to read one of his letters to Nick?"

"Can I?!"

"NO!!!"

He shut the box closed and briskly walked into his office. Pearl and I laughed at his unusual behaviour and sat down on the couch.

"Mystic Maya, can I really not read one of his letters?"

"I'm afraid so, Pearly." I patted her on the head. "But that's okay. I'm sure their contents aren't for our eyes anyway."

She looked at me, quizzically. "What do you mean by that?"

Uh.....

"It just means they're too, uh, embarrassing for Miles to share with others except Nick."

"Oh, okay."

...................

"Want to see what Nick is doing in his office?"

"Okay!"