tampered | [ ongoing ] Maya & Edgeworth

When; Before the official opening of the café.
Rating; G
Characters; Maya Fey [

turnaboutspirit] & Miles Edgeworth [

objectedly]
Summary; Training time for Turnabout Café! Edgeworth teaches Maya how to make cute little tea sandwiches! Yes, this is a summary.
Log;

It was possibly one of the most pleasant ventures he'd undertaken outside of that one time that he'd allowed himself to go to a premiere of the Steel Samurai movie those years back. A café that not only served as a meeting place but also as a comfortable little getaway to relax in-- he remembered a place like this from when he was in college, and with the way Godot and him had taken to decorating it, it became a moment of nostalgia.

Training for the other employees had been done rather commendably and he was pleased with the turnout. He was lucky to have been able to hire some rather competent staff, and as he moved through to the tea parlor to examine it, he glanced down at his wristwatch, his brow furrowing. It was almost time... and with that, he adjusted his sleeve, moving to the central area of the café where the hostess met with their customers. No one was here today, which was why he was here, making sure things were in order. He didn't want the person he'd invited to suffer any more distractions than she would have, after all, and knowing her, that was far more likely than her doing anything else.

Another glance at his watch, and he narrowed his eyes, sighing and folding his arms as he leaned against the counter. He was half-tempted to make a phonecall when he realized the girl might have not even gotten herself one, and she probably wouldn't be at his place anyway...

Guess that was another thing to add to the list of things he would have to provide to make her and Pearl's stay here a lot more easier. But he was happy to be able to do anything at all-- it kept his mind off other things. Not allowing himself to think any further on that, he shook his head. No, he had more important things to worry about...

Like making sure a certain someone wouldn't make a habit out of being late to work.

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It was no real secret that Maya ran on her own system of time. Nick could surely vouch that Maya tended to pick some of the worst times to spring into action, and then couldn’t be found on the off-chance once needed her. Maya Time sometimes just happened to collude with more conventional standards of minutes and hours, but most often had to do with her own simple system of convenience. It wasn’t her intention to leave Edgeworth waiting for her for her for one minute, let alone ten, but she was busy bustling about with business she felt she had to take care of beforehand. And it certainly didn’t help that she didn’t think too much of watches.

Maya rushed to Edgeworth’s office building not with the sense of urgency owed when one was late but with a sort of proud giddiness—like a ten year old who got an A on their test and was racing home to show Mommy so she’d put it up on the fridge. Actually, even though she knew her way fairly well (after Nick and Edgeworth had carefully shown Maya and Pearly the way there three times, probably for Maya’s sake), it was sort of a miracle she didn’t get lost. She had a basket loaded with all kinds of things piled so high they practically blocked her view.

It was in this condition that Maya pushed the doors to the Turnabout Café open, going at it backwards to give herself a good, firm push in. “Mister Edgeworth,” she called, straining to look over her shoulder and between her basket to see him. “I made it, Mister Edgeworth! I told you and Nick I wouldn’t get lost! And I even did it without Pearly!” There was no small amount of pride in her voice; Maya sort of suspected that people thought maybe she was a little flaky, but Maya could be very detail oriented when she wanted to be (she just seemed to always come to different conclusions anyway; she had the numbers, but maybe she was using multiplication instead of long-division).

Hearing the sound of the door, Edgeworth turned-- only to have his eyes widen at the sight he saw before him. What on earth was she doing? The enthusiasm in her voice, however, was enough for him to wave off the irritation he may have felt at the delay in her arrival, and he quickly approached her to help take the contents from her hand. It was quite a good thing that no one was here, or this would have been quite an embarrassing sight indeed!

"Maya, what is all this?", he asked, wondering what had triggered the girl's urge to bring all of this along with her. And more importantly, how exactly did she manage to make her way here without having dropped any of it? She really was an enigma, it seemed, and he quickly settled on helping her balance her items until they could be set down on a nearby table. Once that was done, he looked curiously at the basket, and then back at Maya.

"I expected you fifteen minutes ago." He told her, a hint of reprimand in his tone as he dusted his hands off. "Was this what kept you?"

“Oh—I’m late?” Maya glanced at the clock on the wall, blinked a few times, and at least had the grace to look surprised. “Whoops!” Maya laughed. “Must have lost track of time,” she said, pressing her hands together in front of her. “But, it was worth it, absolutely! Just wait till you see what I brought,” she said, clapping her hands together before sifting through the giant basket.

“Look! Look, I brought you special blessed cleaning supplies!” Maya drew out a spray bottle of what appeared to be water and a homemade mini-broom—like you’d use for dusting—out of the basket. “You can never keep a place too clean,” Maya lectured. “Nick is so messy…! You can’t be like that, Mister Edgeworth,” she informed him, punctuating her words with a stern shake of the broom.

“Auntie showed me a technique for blessing mountain-spring water for good luck! And I made the broom out of pine—it’s the most spiritually pure plant, you know? We make pine needles into the incense we use for cleansing the Channeling Room—I would have made some of that, but, I really don’t know how.” Maya tapped the broom-bristles against her cheek thoughtfully. “Auntie still hasn’t taught me that. But maybe when I get back to Kurain,” she said, smiling brightly before delving back into the basket.

“And I made our super-special Kurain Thousand Magatama,” she said, drawing out a mass of colorful paper that went on and on and on—it was no wonder she’d hauled around such a huge basket! At first glance it didn’t appear to be much more than an angular rainbow, but closer inspection revealed that the repeating angles that looked so much like a weaving zig-zag were rows of interconnected magatamas intricately hung and connected to one another. “Actually, Pearly helped me lots—you should thank her, too when you see her! You have to hang them up,” she explained. “It’ll bring good luck, peace, prosperity, and it’ll ward off bad spirits! Guaranteed or your money back,” Maya assured him as she shoved the gargantuan paper heap into his arms.

“Aaand, last of all…” Maya reached into the bottom and pulled out a small kitten statue. “You have to have one of these!” Maya held it up to her face and made the kitten raise and lower its arm. “It invites the customers in to spend money! I specially blessed it so if they don’t come in, his spirit come to them in their dreams!” Maya flapped its arm a few more times. “You can’t go wrong with these,” Maya pronounced, smiling happily. It was clear that she quite pleased with herself.

In the entire time that Maya explained her treasures, Edgeworth found himself at a complete and utter loss for words. All of these things-- never mind the fact that they would make a terrible clutter around the place, but the fact that she made them at all was shocking him completely. He didn't have a single moment to get a word in edgewise, not that he thought he could with how Maya seemed to be continuing on, but he watched her, almost buckling under the size of what she just handed him, his eyes wide.

Alright, this was getting a little too out of hand, but once he was sure sure she was done, he attempted to relax himself.

She's just excited and there's no reason to get aggravated about this. This is just how Maya is. Any other time, he might have found himself very unamused-- but the fact that Maya had attempted her very best to be helpful in some way was not lost on him. In fact, it warmed him to think that she went through all this trouble just for him.

Even if it would look frightfully gaudy in the café.

Slowly moving the armful of colored paper back to the basket, he dusted off his hands and looked over at her, his expression a cross between skepticism and amusement, and folded his arms, watching her with a quiet gaze.

"Maya." He began, quite calmly. "While it was kind of you to do this... was it really necessary? Especially when I called you here for something that has no connection with any of this?"

If he was going to be her boss, he knew he'd have to be a little more firm with her. But with how things were going at home, he didn't have the heart to be so.

Maya gasped and half-covered her mouth with one hand. “Mister Edgeworth! What would you do if someone cursed your café? There are all kinds of spooky people here! If you didn’t have someone defending your business…” Maya raised her fists in front of her body in a defensive gesture, but her expression was clearly on the offense. “You would be open to all kinds of ghouls and ghosties and curses and all kinds of bad things!” She clapped her hands together. “It’s for good luck, of course, and good spirits, and…” She petered off; she was spacey, sure, but she’d seen that disapproving look enough in court to know what it meant.

No connection? What was he talking about? Maya rocked back on her heels and cupped her chin thoughtfully in one hand. “You really think it was unnecessary,” she wondered aloud, eyes a bit distant and troubled. “But…” Maya looked up at him from underneath her eyelashes, looking pitiful, like the dog that’d brought his master a dead squirrel as a gift and was totally unprepared to get a tongue-lashing. “Isn’t it important to start out on the right foot?” Maya only wanted Edgeworth’s business to be successful. He was her friend, and Pearly’s friend, and Nick’s friend after all.

[ ongoing ] Maya & Edgeworth - Treat Time

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