Title: Zoo time!
Author: Once again risking giving out my identity elsewhere, yes, me =p
Rating: All ages
Genre: Family
Status: Completed (one shot)
Pairing: Mild Phoenix/Maya
Summary: Not having gotten an actually lucrative case in a while, Phoenix starts getting cranky and ill-tempered, so the girls decide to ask him out on a family-like outing. Hijinks, hilarity, and general family love ensues.



It had been several weeks since the Wright & Co. Law Offices had gotten a profitable case, since after so many... "charity" cases, Phoenix had grown a little miffed that his clients were always the kind of people that for one reason or another, would somehow not pay him for his services (nor he'd had the guts to actually request payment after the cases were done). This was constantly keeping him on edge, as Maya and Pearl quickly noticed, for as much as he tried to hide it from them, he was becoming increasingly short-tempered. The girls were getting more and more worried about this, since a few days ago he had finally exploded, to the point that both Maya and Pearl had been reduced to tears. Afterward, he had apologized to heaven and back, with the addition of a fully paid trip from his pocket to the nearby donuts place, and although the girls fully forgave him, they knew the situation was getting considerably uncomfortable, spending all day stuck in the office with nothing to really work on, except the occassional scrub of the toilet and Steel Samurai marathons -- and even these were starting to bore him more than usual.

One day, though, the little spirit medium had come to her cousin with what she thought was a great idea.

"Mystic Maya! Mystic Maya!", called young Pearl, as she chanced a look around the office while Phoenix was stuck in the restroom with his favorite sponge, apparently trying to redefine the word "shine". The older girl poked her head out of one of the back rooms.

"What is it, Pearly?"

"I thought of something to help Mr. Nick out of his bad mood! What do you say if we ask him out?"

At this very raw request, Maya widened her eyes, averted her gaze, and felt her cheeks getting steadily warmer and her pulse rise. It wasn't until she noticed her little cousin looking at her with a face of "is something wrong?" that she fully understood, and regaining her composure, evaluated the idea. Concluding it was good took her less than a few instants, and thus, with a huge grin plastered over her face, she grabbed the little girl's hand and immediately zoomed towards the bathroom.

"Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick! Oh Niiiiiiiiiiiiiick!"

The young man with the spiked hair answered with a slightly bored voice, as the ladies' heads showed through the restroom entrance. "What, Maya?"

"Wanna drop that and come with us? We're heading to the zoo!"

This was decided entirely on a whim on Maya's part, but Pearl did not disagree with the idea, and her eyes shined even brighter than the already dazzling toilet they were competing against, for she'd never visited a zoo before.

Phoenix narrowed his eyes and looked at the girls. Somehow sensing they weren't actually up to something, and thinking that it might just prove to be a little bit more interesting than making this thing shine, he said, "...Yeah, okay. You girls go on ahead while I wash my hands, and meet me at the door", which was met with general applause, lots of yelling, jumping, clatter of sandals, and overall excitement.







As they got off the bus, the overwhelming emotion was already showing on the little girl with the pretzel hairdo, and her eyes were sparkling. "Waaaaaaah! So this is a zoo!" Somehow, her excitement seemed to spread with her words, and while Maya had kept a gleeful smirk during the entire time since they'd stepped out of the office, Phoenix couldn't restrain a small smile. Well, if they enjoy it, it'll have been worth it, he thought.

"So Nick, where do you think we should start? I mean, it's still a couple of hours until noon, so we have some time before lunch..."

"Hm..." Having already been talked into this, and seeing the absolutely irreplaceable expression on Pearl's face (who was right now staring at him with these HUGE, extra-bright puppy-dog eyes, like those you see on cartoons), he had decided to try and make the trip as enjoyable for her as he could. "How about we hit the mini-train tour for now? By the time it's done, it'll probably be noon, so we can have lunch afterward, and then fool around on foot for a while."

Before Maya could answer, Pearl's smile had grown even wider (if that was even humanly possible) and was already grabbing them both by their hands and pulling them towards the train, at the yells of "That is GREAT, Mr. Nick! Let's go, let's go! Hurry up, Mystic Maya!", to which they couldn't avoid looking at each other and grinning.

The train trip was very enjoyable, and during the short stops in which they'd get off and look closely at the specimens, little Pearl was unrelenting with questions about the animals. At more than one of these, both Phoenix and Maya were positively clueless, so having the tour guide near them was certainly helpful in dealing with the little girl's barrage. Both she and Maya looked like they were enjoying themselves immensely, so Phoenix felt a bit relieved, relaxed himself, and tried do the same (which wasn't exactly hard to do, since their excitement and general cheeriness proved to be very contagious). By the time they had gone back to the starting point of the tour, it was a little before noon, so Maya (unsurprisingly) suggested they stop at the burger stand located nearby.

Lunch time passed between many laughs and random chit-chat, Maya twice dropping her drink, and Pearl blushing at Phoenix's reaction of telling Maya to stay seated and buying the drinks again both times ("ohmygod, Mr. Nick is such a gentleman!"), to both adults' slight embarrassment. After they were done eating, they agreed on taking another round through the zoo, this time stopping on their favorite animals to see them more closely, and at their leisure.

The trio walked around calmly (except for Pearl's sudden outbursts of excitement over a particular animal every now and then), the little girl skipping between the two adults, holding their hands. When they reached the parrots, Phoenix surprised the girls with a slightly long discourse about their history and their ability for human speech, sheepishly admitting that parrots were one of his favorite animals, so he'd researched them a bit. Walking on, they next hit the bobcats, from which Maya had to hurriedly pull her little cousin towards the rhinos with a slight face of shock, not wanting to explain the answer as to why two of said cats were joined at their butts (secretly, Phoenix was hardly in disagreement). Next, they went to watch the lions (to which Pearl had the sudden comment "Look! That one on the left looks a bit like Mr. Will Powers!" to general hilarity), then the tigers ("Does the Steel Samurai really ride one of these when he travels around Neo Olde Japan?"), then the hippos ("Whoa! What huge mouths! I bet at least three of me would fit in one of those!")...

As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun, so aside of Pearl being exceptionally tired and sleepy, they had not noticed it was almost closing time for the facilities. Walking towards the entrance, they stopped at a small ice cream stand to have one last treat for the day, and as they walked out of the place, the young little girl started yawning rather openly, which prompted Phoenix to offer her a piggyback ride back home.

"So did you enjoy it, Pearls?"

"Oh yes, Mr. Nick, it was fantastic! It was great..." Well, at least it paid off, thought Phoenix. What he didn't think was that he'd have to deal with the comment that followed.

"It was like... having a family..." Her voice trailed off, but this comment did not go unnoticed by the two young adults, who blushed furiously and averted their gaze from each other. Walking in an embarrased silence for a while, Phoenix tried to pick the mood back up.

"I-I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, Pearls! So what do you say we do this again next month, eh...?"

"..." No response.

"...Pearly?" "Pearls?" Without their notice, the young little girl had fallen soundly asleep on Phoenix's back. Smiling, Maya pointed this out to Phoenix, who smiled in turn and said "Better not wake her up... She's pretty tired, after all", to which Maya agreed with a nod.

Having decided not to take the bus for all the noise it implied, they walked towards the office, taking a road Phoenix knew to be considerably quiet at this time of the day. As they walked, Maya piped up, and her face went suddenly red.

"...Nick?"

"...Hm?"

"Umm... Can we... Hold hands?"

Phoenix felt his own cheeks going increasingly warmer as he flushed.

"O-okay... B-but you'll have to g-grab my arm, since I'm carrying Pearls like this..."

"Y-yeah..."

And as they locked their arms together, both beet red in their faces, a warm feeling spread through their bodies, and an enigmatic smile sprouted in the sleeping beauty's lips.







"...And... There..." Phoenix slowly crept out of the spare room of his little apartment over the office after leaving the small Pearl in one of the beds. Heading towards the living room, he saw Maya already there, sitting on the couch with the TV on, equipped with a bag of chips and the remote. He casually flopped on her right (the couch had made a slight creaking noise, as if complaining over the sudden weight), and sighed. They sat wordlessly for a good while, with only the television breaking the silence between them. Suddenly, Maya spoke.

"Umm... Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"...Did you enjoy it today?"

Phoenix recalled the day's experiences, and smiled warmly. "Yeah, it was quite fun." Maya smiled relieved.

"Oh man, I'm so glad... You know, it was Pearly that suggested that we all go out, she was very worried about you... And so was I", she sputtered, as she looked down, a pink tinge coloring her cheeks.

Without looking at her, but still smiling, Phoenix asked her, "And whose idea was it to go to the zoo exactly?"

"Well... It was... Mine..."

"Hmm..." Phoenix frowned in mock thoughtfulness. "I guess I should properly reward you for that..."

"I-it's not like you have to or anything--"

"--But I want to." And grinning, he pointed at a small table, opposite of his location, right next to the sofa, and asked, "Do you think you can turn off that lamp over there, so I can get you your reward...?"

"...O-okay..." And she turned around and shut the lamp. And turning back to her original position, she tried to say something, but the words died before being spoken, for her lips had suddenly encountered his and were being caressed in a soft, gentle kiss, which (although she would not admit it) she was only too happy to return, the disparaging sounds of the TV echoing in the background.

As their faces parted, a look at each other's eyes was all that was needed to understand each other, and seconds later, they were snuggled comfortably on the couch, Maya sitting under Phoenix's arm.

Several minutes later...

"...Nick?"

"...Hm?"

"Can we do this again sometime?"

And thinking how much fun he had had during a day that would otherwise have proven to be horribly boring and dull, he smiled and kissed her slightly on her forehead, whispering, "Sure, anytime..."






...While elsewhere, a girl with a pretzel hairdo was sleeping soundly, an ear-to-ear smile brightening the little face during her slumber.

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This is soooo cute! XD

bobcats LOL

Family <3

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I can totally imagine Pearl screaming as soon she spots another animal Cute story, well written!

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i love it!!

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Aww! That's amazing! I can really imagine Pearly doing something like that

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Thanks. I tried to keep her as in character as I could, and considering I have a 2yr old niece/cousin (for the spunkyness and general excess of energy and desire to tire adults out) and vast amounts of experience with 9-12yr old kids (cousins), it wasn't hard to imagine her reactions if it was her first time to a place like that. It was a bit tough to slip in references to her hardcore Nick/Maya fangirlism, though, but I like how it came out -- light, subdued, but definitely there. =p

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My god, that was such a great story. Anyone that reads this and isn't smiling by the end isn't human. Just the thought of Pearl squealing out in reaction to animals was too damn cute. Oh, and...

"It was like... having a family..."

The P/M shipper in me loved that line. XD;

Keep up the good work DZ.

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I think this can officially be declared "adorable". Oddly enough, the part which stood out to me was Pearl's comments on the animals (beginning with comparing the lions to Will). They all sounded very in-character to me.

Thanks for the comments, guys. I've been trying to write some new stuff here, but I've kind of hit a brick wall. I'll keep you guys updated on anything new. =p

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