*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

"Mh… Yeah?"

"Niiiiick!"

…?...

"Nick! Get up already!"

"…What?" Phoenix mumbled barely lifting his head from the pillow. Who could possibly call at these hours?

"You told me that we were going to Gourd Lake!" Besides, there's going to be a Steel Samurai Show to advertise the new movie, and we shall not miss it for anything in the world. The Steel Samurai, Nick!

Well, at least now he knows who was on the other line.

"Listen Maya… its 8 am."

"And I bet they're going to be signing autographs!" She exclaimed with such excitement that she almost manage to throw him out of the bed.

"That doesn't change the fact that still 8 am." Phoenix protested rubbing his eye. "And today is Saturday. I don't understand…"

"But you promised it!" She interrupted, angry.

"I did?" Phoenix tried to remember the moment in which he could possibly have agreed to something like that.

"Yes, you told me that one day you would come with me to get an autograph of the Steel Samurai."

"Wait… That wasn't a promise! And even less at 8 am!"

"Fine, whatever. I'll be waiting for you in 20 minutes in the bus stop, because I don't think you have the budget to go on a cab, alright?"

"W-wait, I haven't said that…"

"See ya!"

*Click*

Phoenix remained still with the phone on his hand with a concerned look on his face. His exited assistant believed that he would take her to the lake to… get the autograph of an actor disguised as a tv hero?

He sighed. Sometimes she was so childish… but the worst part was that he had to go along with all of her cravings. But the truth was (and he would never say this in front of her) that he was willing to do anything she asked for. Even if that meant going on a Saturday at 8 am, to swallow a kid show.

So, yawning, he jumps out of the bed to change his clothes and get ready for something that promised to be a very long day with Maya Fey.

"You're late." She scolded Phoenix.

"Well is not like I can change my clothes any faster. Besides…" The lawyer interrupted himself when he saw his partner closely, forgetting completely what he was going to say.

"What?" She asked completely clueless.

"You're clothes…" He pointed out. "Are… different."

Almost all the time he saw her, she always wore her trademark medium robes, but now she was wearing something completely different. She was wearing a blouse with short jeans and Phoenix couldn't believe how well it suited her.

"Oh, that. Well, I'm not going to a Steel Samurai show wearing my training clothes, isn't it?" She smiled, spinning on herself. "Do you like it?"

"It suits you… very well." He mumbled, noticing that he was starting to blush. What was happening to him that he got so nervous?

"Thanks, now, we're leaving?"

He nodded and they both get into the bus that just came. The travel wasn't very long, Maya spend the time commenting to Phoenix how it was going to be the show, what characters were going to appear and she told him about the most recent episodes of the series. Phoenix nodded, not paying much attention. He didn't care much if the Pink Princess was going was going to appear with her sword slash or if the Samurai was going execute his ultimate deadly attack that finishes off all of the bad guys in front of him.

Phoenix looked to the window absentmindedly. Surely it was going to be the most boring thing ever.

"Well, Nick… What do you think now?"

Phoenix looked at the scenery in front of him frowning. How it was possible that there were so many people waiting to see this? It was one of the terraces of the park, next to the picnic area, they put some sort of theater in the outside, curtain included, and people were piling up around it. Aside from that, they put chairs for the people.

"Come on, Nick, let's get a place before it's too late."

"Oh… well…"

"We're going to have the opportunity of seeing the Steel Samurai on live." Maya clapped with her hands with stars on her eyes. "Aren't you exited?"

"Well… I don't think that's the word I would use."

"There's going to be a play first." She interrupted, not paying attention to her partner. "According to this pamphlet, the Samurai is going to act on live and then he is going to sign autographs. Great!"

"R-right, there's no need to get like that" Phoenix mumbled trying to calm her down since she was practically jumping on her chair. Then he shrugged. "Hey… Maya… You know that the Steel Samurai that's going to perform today is not the real one, right?" He asked carefully. "I mean that is just an actor, and that he's not real."

Maya jumped almost instantly.

"NIIIIIIIIIIIICK! How can you say that?!"

"I-I just saying that…"

"Mom…" Soon a Voice interrupted from behind. Phoenix turned around to look at a child, he was around 6 years old, and he was holding his mother's hand and was looking at her with watered eyes. "I-is it truth what the man said? I'm not going to see the real Steel Samurai? Is it a lie?" He sobbed. The woman glared at Phoenix before bending over and slowly clapping her son's back.

"Of course not, dear. This is the real Steel Samurai; you'll see how he beats up all of the bad guys. But let's get going now."

Phoenix didn't know where to hide.

"Nice going, Nick." Maya scolded him pointing her finger at him. "You just made a little kid cry. Real swell, don't you think?"

"I just…" Phoenix stammered rising his hands in the air. "It wasn't my intention…"

"Kids love the Steel Samurai. You can't go around destroying their dreams whenever you feel like it. For them, the Steel Samurai represents glory, their dreams, the hero they want to be." She exposited this with such solemnity that he didn't even consider laughing.

Wow. Who would think that Maya would give him a lesson?

But the show was about to begin.

After half an hour on the show, Maya was still clapping like if it just started. Phoenix, on the other hand, was having a hard time following the plot. It seems that, some thugs brake into the Neo Olde Tokyo's castle and they captured the Pink Princess, but the lawyer didn't care that much.

"Tell me, kids…" The Samurai started on top of the stage turning to the audience as he held his spear. "Do you know where the bad guys are?"

"Over there!" The kids answered pointing at the right. Phoenix rolled his eyes. This was ridiculous.

"Aaaaaaah… Thanks for your help!" The Steel Samurai yelled with an over the top expression. "But I won't be able to take them down alone… I need the help of one you!"

"YEAAAAAAAAH!"

"Let's see… Who could possibly help me rescue the Pink Princess" He asked with warrior's voice, glaring at the audience. Then he pointed with his finger. "You!"

"…"

"…"

"Nick!"

"Mh? What?"

"What do you mean 'what'!?" Maya give him a nudge and pointed at the stage. "He had chosen you!"

"What?"

Desperate Phoenix looked everywhere. No, that couldn't be happening, it couldn't. It had to be a nightmare. Then why wasn't he waking up?

"Come on, Nick… Everyone is waiting!"

"B-b-b-b-b-b-but I don't w-want to!" He stammered trying to find a way to escape.

"How jealous I am, Nick." Maya sighed before pushing him so hard that he almost crashes into the edge of the stage. Then, not knowing how, Phoenix found himself on the stage with lots of children faces looking at him.

Then the Samurai step closer to him and with a grandiloquent look he put his hand on his shoulder.

"T-this… What am I suppose to do?"

"You have to help me with those criminals. When they appear, you have to stop them while I save the Pink Princess. Now I have to grab my spear!"

"What? How a-am I suppose to do that?" Wait!"

But the Samurai disappeared behind the stage with a swirl of his cape.

Immediately after, a bunch of actors step out of the sides: It was a bunch of men dressed in black with masks covering their faces and in the middle of them there was a woman with a pink suit.

Everyone started yelling.

"They're the bad ones! They're the bad ones!"

"Stop them Nick!" He could hear her over the other voices. "They will escape with the Pink Princess"

Phoenix stood there completely clueless. So, because he had no idea of what to do, he said what he always says when he doesn't know what to do.

"OBJECTION!"

The criminals stood there. The Samurai entered the scene with a jump and brandishing his spear. Phoenix find himself trapped in a battle of people with customs. He raised his hands to cover himself and when he opened his eyes he was on the floor with Maya.

"WOW, that was incredible, Nick!"

"Ngh… Thanks, Maya"

"Oh, that was so much better that a trial." Maya laughed. "That was awesome!"

She then hugged him. Phoenix sighed but then he smiled. After all… it wasn't that bad.

"Look Nick! All the boats on the lake" Maya proclaimed with her finger pointed towards that direction, she was pulling Phoenix from his arm.

"Ah…"

"Nick… could we…?"

"Ride one of them? That's right; you never have been on a boat?" He asked remembering Maya confessing to him that she has never been on a boat and that he promised her that he would take her to one of them. "Well, if you want to, I have no problem."

"Awesome!" She claped her hands. "Let's go!"

And that's how, after renting a boat, they both get on the boat and started to row.

"Uuuuuh, how beautiful" She saw how they were sliding on the surface of the water. "Hey, Nick, is it hard to row?"

"Well, just a bit… you want to try?"

"Yes!" She nodded throwing herself forward to grab the oars.

Phoenix laughed hard when he saw her trying to control them, failing miserably. The only thing she was doing was going in circles and she wasn't going to arrange that by flailing the oars all over the place.

"N-no… It's no use!" She mumbled with anger after several minutes of trying, she crossed her arms irritated.

"Forget it. If you haven't been on a boat, then it's logical that you don't know how to row." Phoenix shrugged reassuring his position.

"Wow, look Nick. Fish!" Maya clapped forgetting her anger and pointing at the water. "I'm pretty sure that one looks like Mr. Edgeworth."

"Like… Edgeworth? A fish?" He asked skeptically, not believing what he was hearing. "Where did you get that?"

"Yes, it has the same look." She bited absentmindedly her hamburger.

Deciding that it was better not to go any further with the topic, he just looked somewhere else.

"Hey, speaking of him, do you remember the case of murder we investigated the last year?" She asked with a shine in her eyes.

"How could I forget?"

"Yeah, it was so exciting, especially when we interrogated the owner of the boats, and that he believed that he had a restaurant and that we we're his children!"

"Ah, right." He smiled. "And then I had to cross-examinate his parrot."

"I think it was a parry... female?" She smiled with superiority. Phoenix looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"I don't think that exist." He pointed out.

Maya was going to say something (Probably she was going to object) but a big red fish opened his mouth and bite her burger that was just a few inches from the water. She jumped in the boat but then she turned immediately to the fish and yelling.

"Hey you! Give me back my burger!" She yelled and trying to reach it with her hand.

*SPLASH*

A few minutes later…

"Of course…" He sighed shocking his head. "You're unbelievable, jumping after a fish that way!"

"I-I didn't jump after it." She shivered while sneezing. She was all wet and she was shivering while she was drying herself, seated together with Phoenix in the grass. "I-I just went for my burger and lost my balance… A-Acho!"

Phoenix decided to not continue with the discussion.

"And hey… Why didn't you jumped out to save me!?"Maya looked at him angry. "I could have drowned!"

Phoenix crossed his arms.

"First: You weren't drowning. Second: You didn't stop whining and moving all over the place, so if I tried to help you then I would ended on the bottom of the lake. Third and the most important… You were next to the edge of the lake! You could have stood up with no problem!"

"Yeah sure, don't try to fix it now." She grumbled while grimacing. Phoenix put his hands on his head, trying not fall in the desperation.

Maya remained silence for a few minutes. Then she turned to Phoenix.

"You know Nick… Today you did a lot of stupid things. You made a kid cry, you helped the Steel Samurai, and you didn't rescue me when I was about to drown." Phoenix opened his mouth to protest but she raised her finger to allow herself to continue. "But if I think about it… you did all of that because I asked you to come with me, so I can say that you did it for me."

Phoenix looked at her in awe not knowing what to say.

"Well Nick… thanks for this day." She smiled greatly before kissing him in the cheek softly.

Phoenix remained frozen, with the eyes looking at all places. He couldn't help but blushing he had to turn around so Maya didn't notice.

Why that reaction?

His heart was beating really hard.

He looked at Maya, she was looking at the lake absentminded. It was a crazy day… but if Maya was with him in that crazy day, he couldn't help but to think that it was worth it.