Chapter Text
“Um...Nick? Can I talk to you about something?”
Pearl timidly approaches Phoenix’s desk in the WAA, well aware that her nervousness is likely patently obvious. He looks up from his work upon being addressed.
“Oh, ‘course Pearls, what’s up?” he smiles at her. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine!” Pearl hastily clarifies. “It’s just…there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
She hesitates. “Um, This isn’t a bad time, is it...?”
“No, no, not at all, I’m not doing anything so important I can’t be interrupted,” Phoenix emphatically shakes his head, setting down the stack of documents he’d been rifling through and turning his full attention towards Pearl. “I can always make time for you, Pearls. What’s on your mind?”
Pearl anxiously shifts her weight between her feet. “So, um...you know….I’ve been thinking….about, um….my future, and stuff….about who I always thought I would be versus who I really am...and, uh, the expectations...people have had of me, or whatever….”
Phoenix looks at her quizzically. “Pearls, if you’re trying to tell me you’re gay, I already know that.”
“WH-BHHE---N-NO!!” Pearl blanches. “I MEAN, Y-YES? BUT THAT’S N-NOT WHY I’M HERE--!!”
She takes a deep breath.
(Alright. Just gotta say it.)
“I, uh, applied to Ivy University’s law program,” she winces. “To...to become a defense attorney.”
Phoenix just blinks at her for a couple seconds, then an absolutely massive grin spreads across his face.
"Oh, PEARLS!!!!”
Phoenix quickly leaps up from behind his desk and envelops Pearl in a tight hug.
“WAAAGH--NICK!!!” she yelps.
“Ohhh my god, that’s INCREDIBLE!!” he gushes. “A defense attorney…!!”
Pearl looks away bashfully as Phoenix releases her from his embrace.
“I-I mean, I’m just gonna STUDY law, who knows if I’ll actually see it through to the end,” she says timidly. “I might end up switching majors a month in or something….”
“Ah, pulling a reverse Phoenix Wright.”
Pearl giggles. “I mean… I know I want to go to college, get out of the village more, immerse myself properly in the real world...but beyond that, I’m less certain.”
“I mean, you’re only 17, you don’t need your entire life figured out yet,” Phoenix shrugs. “Still though, I’m proud of you, Pearls.”
“Wh-what? Why?”
“What do you mean, why,” Phoenix laughs. “Because you’re my family and I’m always going to be proud of you no matter what. But….particularly, I know that….it can be hard to distance yourself from Fey clan stuff. There’s a lot of pressure on you. And choosing a different path for yourself in spite of all that takes a lot of resolve."
“Yeah...” Pearl dryly laughs.
“So you don’t want to be a medium anymore?” Phoenix asks, leaning up against his desk.
Pearl frowns. “It’s not that I don’t want to be a medium, just that...I don’t really think I want to do it for a living.”
“Gotcha…”
“That said, I do think there’s a lot of good that spirit channeling can accomplish in a legal setting,” she continues. “I know that there’s precedent for that going badly, but I don’t think it’s never worth trying again, in some form or another.”
Phoenix nods. “Yeah, I hear ya. Changing the system is never easy, but….if anyone can do it, I know it’s you, Pearls.”
“Y-you’re giving me WAY too much credit, Nick,” Pearl stammers. “I haven’t even gotten into law school yet, I’m not even sure if I’m GOING to.”
“You’ll get in,” Phoenix says confidently. “You’re one of the smartest people I know, Pearls, they’d be idiots to not let you in.”
“I mean, you’re biased, though….”
“Well, then make the admissions people biased, too,” Phoenix shoots back. “Not like it’s hard to get people to love you, Pearls.”
“Oh my god, Nick...”
Phoenix laughs. “So who else knows at this point?” he asks. “About you applying to law school, I mean. Have you told anyone else?”
“Y-yeah. Just Maya, Franziska and Trucy,” Pearl replies. “I wanted to keep it on the down-low for now, just because I still don’t know for sure if I’m gonna get in.”
“I understand that,” Phoenix nods. “...You’re GOING to get in, though.”
“Shut UP, you don't KNOW that!” Pearl huffs, balling her hand up into a fist and rolling up the sleeve of her hoodie.
“Don’t I?”
“NO!! Stop, you’re gonna jinx me!!”
Phoenix laughs again.
“Right now whether or not I get in is largely gonna be dependent on my results on this admissions test they make you take,” Pearl explains. “I still don’t have to take it for another couple of months, but….I’ve heard it’s a bit of a nightmare. I’ll definitely need to start studying for it ASAP if I want any chance of getting in for the fall. That’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about, actually…”
“Ah, I see...you wanted my help with preparing for this exam?”
“...Sort of, yeah.”
“Hmm….” Phoenix hums, stroking his chin in thought.
“I mean-- just stuff to help me study,” Pearl squeaks. “I don’t want you to pull any strings for me, or anything like that...”
Phoenix pauses, then lets out a laugh. “Oh, god, no, I’m flattered you think I have the sort of influence to do that. That’s Miles territory, Nick-level help is more in the neighborhood of, like. Giving you full access to the office’s legal resources, no questions asked. If that’d work for you.”
Pearl blinks. “You...you’d do that?”
“Yeah, of course,” Phoenix says, eyes scanning over one of the many bookshelves lining the walls of the office. “If it'd help, then Anything in the office is yours for the perusal. Case files, law books, textbooks, whatever you need, it’s yours. I mean, half of these've just been sitting on shelves collecting dust, some of them from since Mia owned the office. It’ll be nice for someone to finally get some use out of ‘em, at least.”
Phoenix rubs the back of his head sheepishly. “It isn’t much, but...it’s probably the best I can offer.”
“Wh—no, are you kidding, Nick, that’d be INCREDIBLE!!” Pearl beams, her eyes fully sparkling. “Thank you so much! This is going to be a HUGE help, I just know it!”
Phoenix laughs. “Of course.”
“I promise, I won’t let you down! This isn’t going to be easy, but...I know I can do it now!”
SEVERAL DAYS LATER - WRIGHT ANYTHING AGENCY
(I canNOT fucking do this.)
Pearl sits on the floor of the WAA, her back to the sofa, leaning face-down onto the coffee table, groaning dejectedly.
She’s almost always made it a point to stop by the office whenever she’s in town, and ever since she started studying for her entrance exams, she’s been there more often than ever.
Having access to the agency’s resources has been a massive boon, there’s no question; but the problem is, there’s so MUCH of it that she can’t help but feel massively overwhelmed by it. Haphazardly spread across the table she's currently laying her face on is a plethora of books and documents she'd retrieved from the agency's vast library, but even beginning to tuck into it all feels like nothing short of a Herculean task.
"Mrrrnngghhh…." she groans.
Trucy leans over at Pearl’s side and pokes her in the cheek a couple of times. “Pearls? ….You still alive?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Studying not going well, I take it?”
“This is absolutely NIGHTMARISH, Truce,” Pearl laments, sitting back up and peeling off an errant sheet of paper that had stuck itself to her forehead. “I knew this test would be hard, but I didn’t know it’d be like, HARD hard.”
Pearl sighs as she idly flits through the pages of the practice test and study guides she’d obtained for her entrance exam, which are each thick enough to easily qualify as novel-length.
Trucy leans over and rests her chin on Pearl's shoulder, perceptive eyes darting over them as well. Pearl catches Trucy’s expression almost immediately curling into a wince out of the corner of her eye.
“Geez, I thought legalese was just a figure of speech…this is like a totally different language.”
“Tell me about it...” Pearl sighs.
Pearl stretches her arms above her head with a grunt, then leans her head back onto the sofa, making upside-down eye contact with Trucy.
“My brain hurts…” Pearl mumbles.
“You should rest it, then!” Trucy says cheerily, hopping onto the sofa next to where Pearl is resting her head. “C’mon, Pearls, don’t overwork yourself, you’ve been studying here practically NONSTOP the past few days. Not to mention that I know you well enough to know you’re probably studying when you get home, too.”
“Rrmmm...guilty as charged….”
Trucy persistently shakes her friend’s shoulder. “C’mooooonn, take a little breather, I insist! You can help me practice one of my new tricks if you want!”
“I AM always a fan of being your guinea pig….”
“Hee hee.”
“UGGHHHH….” Pearl rubs her eyes with the palms of her hands. “Like, I get that I need to take breaks, but there’s SO much that I need to learn, and only a finite amount of time before I have to take the test. At the rate I’m going now, there's no WAY I'll be able to learn all of this in time, meaning that I can kiss the prospect of getting into law school goodbye.”
“MRRPH--?!”
Suddenly, a muffled shout comes from the kitchenette on the other side of the office, followed almost immediately by a crash and the sound of someone swearing.
Pearl and Trucy exchange a confused look.
The subsequent second of stilness that settles over the office is almost immediately cut through by the sound of a door slamming open, then the pitter-patter of frantic footsteps against carpet (rapidly getting closer, by the sound of it) and, finally, the door to the agency’s main room swinging open, with a wide-eyed Athena Cykes looking in at Pearl and Trucy, leaning against the doorjamb, a hot pocket halfway in her mouth.
“HRRMNG RMN!!” Realizing her speech is less than intelligible, Athena quickly shoves the rest of the hot pocket into her mouth then tries again. “H-hang on!! Pearly, you’re going to LAW SCHOOL?”
Pearl’s heart leaps slightly in her chest.
“How did you overhear us all the way from the other end of the office?” Trucy looks over at Athena with a frown.
“Hearing things is like, my THING, Truce, get with the program,” Athena rolls her eyes as she makes her way fully into the room, Pearl panicking slightly as she walks over by her side.
“I had no IDEA that’s what you were here studying for, Pearly, that’s AMAZING!!!” Athena effuses, the enthusiasm in her voice utterly infectious even without super-hearing. Pearl feels heat rise into her cheeks.
There are several downsides for Pearl to studying at the WAA. One of them is that it’s extremely noisy and hectic there, even at the best of times; the Wrights are both almost always getting into some variety of shenanigans, and Apollo, even at his quietest, is still orders of magnitude louder than a normal person. Even on slow days, there’s ALWAYS something happening at the agency, which can make focusing difficult.
But that’s the LEAST of Pearl’s concerns with regards to studying at the office, the most consistently pressing by far being the fact that Athena is there. Not because Pearl dislikes her or anything—quite the opposite, actually.
It's primarily due to the fact that Pearl developed a crush on her shortly after they'd first met during the case at Shipshape Aquarium, and said crush has been consistently annoying her ever since. Because like, of COURSE Pearl had started crushing on the person who had the ability to hear emotions in people’s voices. Because things could never be easy for her, apparently.
Still though, it’s not hard for her to understand why she'd started crushing on Athena. She was strong, both emotionally and physically, not to mention pretty, wildly intelligent, and EXTREMELY friendly.
This, combined with Pearl’s timid nature, means that she practically has a heart attack whenever Athena even walks into the room, let alone talks to her.
Living in Kurain Village means that Pearl’s interactions with her thus far have been somewhat sporadic (to her simultaneous relief and chagrin), though given that she’ll (hopefully) be going to college in the city come fall, that likely won’t last forever.
Pearl’s been silently hoping that her crush will go away of its own volition before that point. With Athena's sensitive hearing in play, Pearl's saddled with the nagging fear that she'll notice something in her voice that'll cue her into the fact that she likes her, and make things VERY awkward between them.
The mostly baseless nagging fear, mind you. Athena’s quite good about controlling her hearing nowadays, and though she can't turn it off entirely, she generally tends not to intentionally scrutinize the emotions of people she trusts.
Pearl being aware that her worries are irrational doesn't make them go away, though.
All that to say, Athena can PROBABLY tell Pearl is anxious, but unless she breaks out the Mood Matrix, she likely won’t know why.
Still, though, Pearl quickly jumps to discreetly offer her an explanation as to why she might be hearing anxiety in her voice.
Pearl rubs the back of her head sheepishly. “Ah, th-thanks….I mean, I’m just studying for entrance exams right now, I still don’t know for sure if I’m even going to get in…I'm a little nervous, to be honest…"
“Oh, you’re ABSOLUTELY going to get in, are you kidding?” Athena exclaims disbelievingly.
“That’s what I’ve been tellin’ her!” Trucy rolls her eyes.
Pearl wilts under the embarrassment of people being nice to her.
“OOH, hey, y’know, when you manage to graduate you could join the WAA! We could be coworkers!” Athena bubbles.
(Wow….getting to work with Athena and Trucy and Nick [and Mr. Justice too, I guess] would be like a dream come true….)
“Yeah...I mean, college graduation is sorta the last thing I'm worried about right now," Pearl laughs weakly.
“What makes you think you’re not going to get in, Pearly?" Athena cocks her head to the side as she leans up against the back of the sofa opposite Pearl. "I’ve met tons of lawyers who are way stupider than you."
“I know, but...studying for this test is a different skillset than raw intelligence,” Pearl frowns. “A lot of it is just memorizing information….which I’m REALLY not great at.”
“She’s floundering!” Trucy chirps.
“I am not…!” Pearl protests, then realizes she has nothing to dispute. “Alright, MAYBE I am floundering a little bit.”
“Just a little bit?”
“Trucy, must you?”
“Hee hee,” Trucy sticks out her tongue and bonks her head.
"Ooh, hey, y’know, I might be able to help with that, Pearly, if you want,” Athena offers, leaning down to glance at the various documents Pearl has scattered over the WAA’s coffee table. “I’ve got my fair share of experience with law school. I mean, I haven’t taken THIS test specifically, since I got my badge in Europe, but I’d imagine there’s a decent amount of applicable overlap. I’m not sure how much help I’d be, but if you want, I could give you some pointers, or whatever.”
“Uh--ah, I couldn’t make you do that, Athena…” Pearl says, even though the thought of Athena helping her study makes something inside her scream. “You’re probably really busy, I’d hate for you to keep you from that on my account ...”
“C’mon, don’t be silly Pearly, it’s no trouble at all,” Athena waves a hand dismissively. “I can just shove off all my work onto Apollo, I do it all the time, he hates me for it. Here, lemme see,” she says, plopping herself down on the sofa across from Pearl and looking over the resources she's gathered.
Pearl bites her lip anxiously. “If you're sure, then…thank you, that’d be a huge help.”
“Yeah, for sure!” Athena chirps. “So like, is there anything that’s giving you trouble, specifically?”
“Um...sort of everything.” Pearl sighs, picking her phonebook of a practice test back up. “I don’t understand how they expect anyone to know all this BEFORE they even get into law school.”
“They really put you through the wringer,” Athena chuckles, sifting through the veritable mountain of documents Pearl scavenged from the WAA's collection. “I mean, if you’re just tryin’ to get into pre-law, you probably don’t need to know a ton of the nitty-gritty. They’re mainly just trying to make sure that, y’know. You have a basic level of competence.” A pause. “And I’ve faced off against prosecutors that don’t even have THAT much, so honestly, you’ll probably be fine.”
Athena picks up a textbook from Pearl’s dragon-esque hoard of study aides and holds it up, shooting her a quizzical look.
“Point is, you don’t need this book on the history of Borginian property law yet. Or...likely ever.”
“Ah….I thought it’d be good to cover my bases….” Pearl says sheepishly.
“I mean, that’s good, but like. Cover them lightly. Just a thin little coat of varnish," Athena smirks, plopping the book down on the sofa next to her.
It’s at this point that Trucy wanders off, likely bored by the change in topic, but equally likely, knowing how perceptive she is, that she’s intentionally leaving Pearl alone with Athena.
Pearl desperately bores her eyes into the back of her head as she bounces off.
(Trucy, you scheming bastard….thank you, but also-- die.)
“I get the impression that the test stateside is similar to regular college apps but with a little bit of legal-y zest on top,” Athena continues, now fully engrossed in her task. “I think you’ll be able to skate by just knowing the surface level of what you need to know.”
“Wait, really…? Are you sure?” Pearl ventures timidly. “Doesn’t that seem a bit...risky?”
“Trust me Pearly, I speak from experience here,” Athena says, flicking her crescent moon earring back and forth absentmindedly as she thinks. “I may be a bit rusty, but I assure you my studying methods work. Case in point--” Athena points to the badge pinned to her lapel-- “got this when I was 18. Most people don’t even catch a whiff of it till their mid-20’s.”
“That’s still so insanely impressive, Athena….”
Athena winks at her. Pearl turns her face away to try to hide how red her face is likely getting.
“Hah, thanks....I still have no fucking idea how I managed to pull it off," Athena says. “But like...I only became an attorney so young under massively extenuating circumstances, it was SOORTA...nightmarish, to put it lightly. Though I got my studying down to a science past a certain point, I would not recommend my experience to, y’know. Anyone, really.”
“Yeah…." Pearl nods. "Maya’s wife became a prosecutor at 13, and I know that wasn’t….ideal for her.”
Athena smirks. “Do you think I don’t know who Franziska von freakin’ Karma is? Did you really just call her 'Maya’s wife'?”
“AH--” Pearl blanches. “I--ah—um--just wanted to be sure??”
“Relax, Pearly, I'm just being a jerk,” Athena laughs. “*sigh* …But yeah, god, I can’t even IMAGINE that. It was awful enough trying to get my badge at the age I did. Saving Simon was really the only thing that kept me going through all that hellish studying,” she chuckles humorlessly.
“I see….” Pearl frowns.
"Anyway!!” Athena beams, her somber expression immediately vacating her face like someone had flipped a switch. “Speaking of hellish studying!! Let's start here....”
While still challenging, studying with Athena proves MASSIVELY helpful. Pearl has a hard time keeping herself focused and motivated when studying alone, so just having someone else there to help guide her along and keep her focused really helps get her on track.
The WAA’s massive stockpile of legal documents would be overwhelming to even the most competent of legal minds, so Athena’s contributions largely amounted to helping Pearl sift through it all to focus on what the examiners would likely be looking for in applicants.
Not to mention, Pearl genuinely enjoys Athena's company. It’s not like she didn’t KNOW that, like, they’d met before on multiple occasions, but until now they’d never really hung out much outside of extremely dire circumstances. So just getting to hang out doing something as mundane and low-stakes as studying for a test is a more than welcome change.
The hours seemingly melt away as the two continue to work, Athena a practically boundless source of energy eagerly tackling the new tasks put in front of her, Pearl’s heart threatening to beat out of her chest the entire time.
Throughout it all, she’s in somewhat a state of disbelief that ATHENA of all people is willing to devote so much time and effort to helping her. Still, though, she knows it’s not just about her-- she’d do this for anyone. Because that’s just the kind of person Athena is.
Endlessly compassionate, always eager to help and do the right thing. It’s one of many reasons why Pearl surmises her brain started crushing on her almost immediately after they met.
As much as Pearl appreciates Athena's help, though….there’s one thing that keeps itching at the back of her mind.
When Athena mentioned her own experience studying for law school…it sounded like she hated it. Like, REALLY hated it. So the fact that she was doing it again, for the sake of helping Pearl….
(...Is she okay to do this for me?)
===
After their initial impromptu study session, Athena urges Pearl to text her anytime if she ever needs advice (“Don’t be a stranger, alright Pearly?”), an offer which Pearl is hesitant to accept at first due to the anxiety inherent to texting her crush of all people for advice.
Still though, she doesn’t want to come off as rude, so she makes it a point to text Athena the next time she has a question to ask, which she eagerly answers, and subsequently strikes up a conversation. Pearl can’t help but wonder how Athena manages to be so insanely sociable.
This is how Athena and Pearl begin to sporadically exchange texts throughout the coming weeks, mostly Pearl asking for help, sometimes Athena offering advice out of the clear blue sky, but more often than Pearl would have expected, segueing into something completely unrelated. Athena is surprisingly easy to talk to, especially considering how intimidated Pearl is by her most of the time.
It’s definitely easier talking to Athena over text, for several reasons: number one being that Pearl doesn’t have the added stress of trying to stop her emotions from making their way into her voice, and number two being that without Athena physically present, it’s easier for Pearl to forget how pretty she is and how that makes her brain completely short-circuit.
Pearl continues to stop by the WAA whenever she’s in the city to take advantage of Nick’s repository of law tomes, and since Athena is usually at the office too and has a vested interest in Pearl’s endeavors at this point, they usually end up studying together.
Pearl eventually gets in the habit of bringing her study materials with her whenever she visits the agency, knowing full well that a study session with Athena is more of an inevitability than anything else. The duo studying together at the WAA’s sofas quickly becomes a common sight.
Of course, Athena isn’t the ONLY one who offers Pearl her help-- far from it. Often someone else will join in on their study sessions, usually Trucy, sometimes Phoenix, one time even Apollo stops in to help.
Phoenix in particular is extremely eager to help her, but running an entire agency and taking cases leaves him less available than he’d like. That doesn’t mean he never makes time for her; in fact, he probably takes more of an active interest in her studies than anyone else.
Though Franziska is certainly a close runner-up for that title. Pearl usually stays with her whenever she’s in the city, and she approaches the prospect of Pearl becoming an attorney with a rapt eagerness. Pearl can tell that she’s trying to not be too pushy about it, but like, she’s Franziska, after all. Pushiness is sort of in her nature. Still though, it’s hard not to appreciate how much she cares about her.
Pearl spends a lot of time studying by herself, too; whenever she’s in Kurain, Maya often has to pry her away from her books and force her to take a break.
“You’re gonna burn yourself out, Pearly!!” she chides her. “No one can fire on all cylinders 24/7. Make sure you’re getting enough rest, it's not worth making yourself sick over.”
“Rrmph...yes, ma’am.”
And throughout this all, Pearl finds her crush on Athena failing to subside. In fact, if anything, it’s getting more and more intense the more time she spends with her. To say Pearl is utterly and completely infatuated would be a severe understatement.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another - Pearl had managed to conquer the part of studying that was giving her trouble, trying to focus on too much at once -- now, her problem a lot of the time that she was usually too distracted by Athena to focus on studying.
The logical course of action, Pearl reckons, would be to not study with Athena in the same room anymore, but the problem is that she doesn’t WANT to do that, since she genuinely really enjoys spending time with her. The nagging fear that her crush will be found out is ever-present as always, but it’s not a significant enough deterrent to get her to distance herself from her.
After all...if she and Athena weren’t close friends before, they undoubtedly are at this point.
It’s really nice, Pearl having another friend around her age. It’s not that she had NONE before; Trucy’s been her ride-or-die best friend from practically the second they’d first met as little kids, and there are several classmates at school she considers herself friendly with, but aside from that, Pearl’s shyness has always made it hard for her to get close to people. Even throughout middle and high school, she'd mostly just stuck to herself.
Close friends, friends she genuinely clicked with, had always been few and far-between for her, but Athena was almost undoubtedly among them now, which Pearl wasn’t sure how she should feel about.
On the one hand, holy fucking SHIT she was close friends with ATHENA CYKES of all people.
But on the other, having a crush on a close friend is a far different beast than having a crush on an acquaintance. For one, sometimes getting to know someone better makes your crush on them go away. For Pearl, getting to know Athena better made her crush grow even stronger.
This is bad for a variety of reasons - namely the fact that this means any chance of Pearl’s crush fading away on its own is now all but nonexistent, and thusly all the little Pearls inside of her brain are running around with their hair on fire trying to figure out how to best deal with the situation.
For now, the little Pearls’ solution has mostly been to shove the issue under the rug and try to pretend it doesn’t exist, meanwhile the rug is beating like the telltale heart while all the little Pearls try to pretend that they don’t notice the beating even though they ABSOLUTELY do.
Pearl really needs to hire a new brain staff.
Still though, Athena-related matters notwithstanding, Pearl finds her studies progressing at a very satisfactory pace; while still somewhat ill-prepared, there’s no question that she’s feeling far more confident and capable than she had when she’d started, and better equipped to take on the admission test than ever.
Athena-related matters YESwithstanding, though….things had just gotten a LOT more difficult.