Receipts

"Niiiick!"

Maya sprung up behind the defence attorney while he was hard at work; losing at solitaire He wouldn't have minded, but the surprise made him jump and click on the 'reshuffle' button when there was a seven of hearts that he could have put on his black eight of clubs, and the six of hearts was on another huge pile of cards. It could have been his winning move!

Maya didn't seem to care about this. She thought that he really should put more focus into getting a case instead of trying to perfect solitaire.

"Can you lend me some money?" She wheedled. Phoenix huffed, already irritated with his loss.

"Why?" He said, even though he knew the answer already.

"Do you even have to ask?" She said, cheerfully clapping her hands together, "It's burger time!"

Phoenix glanced at the clock on the bottom right corner of his computer, "It's not even twelve yet. Can't it wait until lunch?"

"I didn't say it's lunch time," She pointed out slyly, "I said it's burger time! C'mon Nick, dish up the goods!"

"Isn't every time for you burger time?" Phoenix argued, "No. Go scrounge off of someone else."

"Hey c'mon, Nick... and after I helped you shred all that paperwork the other day, too." Maya pouted.

"Isn't that your job as my assistant?" Phoenix replied in an exasperated tone. Maya pondered this, and wondered why defence attorney's felt the need to argue through everything. Could he just lend her – well, give – her the money and be done with it?

"Pleeeease?" Maya pleaded, "C'mon Nick, just one insey winsey burger?

Phoenix turned to her, giving her a compromise, "If I give you the money for a burger, will you stop hassling me for Steel Samurai cards?"

Now this was tricky. Maya wasn't anywhere near a full set, Penny had given her all her spare cards (she had completed it a long time ago, after Phoenix's third case) but the magpie collector streak in her didn't want to admit defeat. But what should she sacrifice? In the long term, the cards would stay, but she needed instant gratification from a burger, and what about if she didn't get any new cards in her next pack, she would be thinking about that burger she missed out on...

And if she was honest, she would never have the attention span and motivation to complete a whole set, anyway. No kids ever did.

"Fine, fine." Maya agreed hastily, "No more cards."

Phoenix pulled out his wallet from his trouser pocket and slid it across the desk. Maya picked it up greedily and instantly rooted in the pocket where Phoenix's notes were kept, (she knew Phoenix's wallet well) but when there was nothing in there but stuffed receipts, she looked in the change section. Nothing in there either, but some scrunched up slips of paper. She tipped out the wallet, and pulled out his credit cards for good measure, but there was no money in there at all.

"There's nothing in here!" Maya exclaimed, throwing the empty wallet at Phoenix's head. Unfortunately this distracted him again, and he clicked the 'reshuffle' button again, this time missing a five of diamonds that could have gone on his six of clubs.

"Really? There's nothing?" Phoenix said bewildered, "I must be more broke then I thought."

"Don't say it so matter of factly!" Maya barked, "Get a case! Now! Gimmie some money!" She whacked him over the head a couple of times with a swift karate chop, and Phoenix held up his hands in protest, attempting to save his spikes.

"Hey! Hey! I don't see you earning at all!" He said.

"What have you even bought anyway..." Maya said, picking up the first of the receipts

This turned out to be more interesting than Maya had expected. The first few were from Burger Boy's, and she looked at the dates to see when he had bought them. The earliest was a couple of days ago, and Maya looked back with a wistful nostalgia at that burger that she hadn't even made the most of. If she could relive that moment, she would relish that burger... The latest was a receipt from over a year ago, how could he have a receipt that old? And instead of the cheeseburger it was a double deluxe hamburger. Nick must have been feeling generous that day, but looking at the date, there wasn't any reason why he should have. It wasn't like he had won a case.

Going past the burger receipts, there were receipts for supermarket shopping – the items weren't that interesting, nothing scandalous that she could have used as potential blackmail material, and she went on to the fancier receipts that were different colours apart from white. The orange was a cinema ticket, which was strange because he hadn't taken her out to the cinema recently, and - no way - it was to see the latest Copper Samurai movie. Maya flared up in indignation, how dare he see it without her!

"Why did you see the Copper Samurai without me?" Maya directed at Phoenix, instantly on the attack.

"H-huh?" Phoenix blanched. Maya gave him an odd look as he stuttered, flushing slightly.

"Look, here." Maya said, growing more suspicious, "A ticket! You didn't even ask me if I wanted to go!"

"You were probably busy - " Phoenix started. Maya burst into outrage at this obviously flawed reasoning.

"I would have dumped everything – anything – to watch the Copper Samurai!" She exclaimed, showing her true Samurai fan-girl colours. Phoenix stared at her, she could see the cogs in his mind whirling on how he was going to get out of this.

"Even if it was free burger hour at Burger Boys?" Phoenix queried. Maya stared at him like he was an idiot.

"Well, duh, Nick!" Maya said, "Anyway, there was no free burger hour at Burger Boys, so don't try and change the subject! Why did you see it without me?"

"Well..." Phoenix broke off. Maya looked at him.

"Or should the question be, why did you see it by yourself?" She asked. Phoenix's head shot up, blinking as he looked at the teenager.

"Aha!" Maya said triumphantly, "I've got you! You were so embarrassed that you like the Samurai stuff, that you didn't want to admit to it!"

"O-oh, yeah... you got me." Phoenix admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "I kinda wanted to check it out, so..."

Maya grinned a smug grin. It wasn't very often that she got one up on Nick.

"Well, geez." She gave a dramatic long suffering sigh, "You should have told me anyway Nick. It's a bit sad that you went to watch a kid's movie by yourself."

It was a teasing jab at him, but something must have been wrong because he didn't pick up on it. Instead of giving a sarcastic reply, he simply nodded with an 'mmhm' and apologised, saying he would watch it again with her if she wanted.

"No, it's all right, I'll see it with Pearly when she comes down next week..." Maya said slowly. Phoenix nodded, not really listening, and clicked back onto solitaire.

Maya was a bit confused by his behaviour, but continued to rummage through the pile. With interest, she picked up some vouchers off – they were always good – and searched to see if there were any she could use. The only one that really applied to her was the free veggie burger at Burger Boys, but that had been in there for months. No one liked veggie burgers, apart from Pearls. Making a quick mental note to give that to Pearly when she came down next week, Maya flicked back to the more interesting ones, which were the discount vouchers for the fancy restaurants that she and Phoenix always dreamed about visiting.

But the key thing was, they were discount vouchers. Phoenix wouldn't even be able to afford salad there, even if it was on discount.

"How come you've got these, Nick?" Maya asked, waving the vouchers up in a fan. Phoenix looked over and quickly glanced back to his computer screen again, absent mindedly clicking on the 'reshuffle' button when he could have dragged the king onto an empty space.

"I don't know. I must have just picked them up somewhere." He said. Maya scoffed at him.

"These aren't places that just hand out vouchers, Nick." She said, "Bueno Italiano? I mean, seriously, who goes there?"

Phoenix shrugged, "Miles said that Franziska von Karma went there recently - "

"Miles?" Maya echoed, "Since when did you call Mr. Edgeworth, Miles?"

"Huh?" Phoenix blanked, "I did?"

"Yeah!" Maya squinted her eyes at him, trying to figure him out. Something was definitely up. Phoenix deliberately chose not to look at her.

"Just a slip of the tongue. I was thinking about our childhood earlier, so that's probably why." He said, "I used to call him Miles back then."

"Hmm..." Maya wasn't convinced. Phoenix's bluffing skills were quite good, so she was unsure of whether he was telling the truth or using a convenient lie. She looked through the receipts to see if she could find any more evidence.

"Hey, uh, can I have those back now?" Phoenix said anxiously. Maya gave him an odd look, picking up a handful of receipts and holding them out of his reach.

"Why?" She asked slowly.

"You're making a mess on my desk. I don't have any money for burgers so, it's kinda pointless..."

"I don't care about that any more." Maya said, "I'm on a mission!"

"A mission? For what?"

"To find out why you keep acting so shady." Maya replied, "You're trying to hide something from me and - "

The phone rang. Phoenix and Maya looked at each other, giving each other the I know you don't want me to get the phone stare, both waiting to see who would move first. It was Phoenix, darting out from his swivel chair to run into Maya's receptionist room, but he was too slow as Maya was closer, and she picked up the phone first, skidding on the slippery floor.

"Hello - !" Maya started, but Phoenix wrenched the phone out of her hand. In surprise she dropped it, and it clattered to the floor, pressing down on the speaker phone button as it did so.

"Phoenix? Phoenix, is that you?" Mr. Edgeworth's voice sounded throughout the room. Phoenix tried to grab the phone, but Maya pushed him out the way. He tackled her to the floor, and she whacked at it with her hand, like a cat does to a ball of string, so it slid across the floor.

Mr. Edgeworth chuckled, oblivious to the struggle going on, "You sound even more like a girl than usual. Or maybe, that's you trying to be kinky - "

Mortified, Phoenix suddenly yelled out, "Hey, Edgeworth you're on speaker phone – say hello to Maya."

"Oh!" Mr. Edgeworth's disembodied voice came from the phone that was a few feet away from them, "Good afternoon Ms. Fey."

"Hey, Mr. Edgeworth." Maya said, equally freaked out by what was going on. Since when did Edgeworth say things like 'kinky'. Especially when directed at Nick?

"So, I was calling to say..." Edgeworth continued, "Um, Wright you forgot your boxers – boxes of evidence, they're currently at my hous – office. I need you to come collect them right away. Although you might not need them for what you will be doing - "

"Speaker phone!" Phoenix yelled again, which didn't make much sense to Maya at all. Apparently it didn't make much sense to Edgeworth either, who tutted.

"Yes, I know. I just thought you wouldn't need those boxes because you always seem to win with the bare minimum. Of evidence, I mean."

"Yes, well." Phoenix was obviously embarrassed. Maya directed a bewildered look in his direction. He simply shook his head.

"I'm sure you have a lot of work to be doing, but when you need me – "

At this point, Maya slowly got up to rummage through the rest of the receipts, while Phoenix continued to listen, dumbstruck.

" - I'll be here waiting for you. With your boxes."

Maya found what she was looking for, realising with a faint shock that what she had just predicted was actually true.

"Haha, Edgeworth was acting strange, wasn't he?" Phoenix laughed awkwardly, putting the phone back in its socket, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned around to look at Maya. Maya simply held up the receipt that listed dinner at Bueno Italiano.

"Franziska von Karma, huh?" Maya said rhetorically, "Copper Samurai? Boxes?"

"Um..."

"Don't try and deny it, Nick!" Maya said, "Who else drinks grape juice at a restaurant?"

Phoenix knew he couldn't get out of this one. Especially seeing as Miles had written his phone number on the back with the message, 'call me, you handsome blue suited devil. M.E.'

He knew he shouldn't have got him drunk.

A/N: This was just going to be a simple friendship fic between Maya and Phoenix at first, but then it somehow morphed into this. R&R! :)