Chapter Text
“Mr. Edgeworth! We did it!” Kay’s eyelids are heavy, but she’s trying to keep up her usual enthusiasm.
That was tiring, it’s four in the morning now, you feel exhausted. You really thought we had him two hours ago, but Quercus Alba continued to find ways out. This has all been quite a lot, even Kay appears to be losing steam, poor girl was accused of murder, found out the truth behind Mr. Faraday’s death, and was held at gun point. To go through these things at only fifteen…
“Yes, we did.”
It’s been an eventful week, she, and by extension, you, should get a good night's sleep.
“I’m going to finish up here, Mr. Edgeworth! You and Kay get on home!” Gumshoe looks tired too.
“Thank you, Gummy!” Kay keeps up her smile.
“No problem, pal!” He’s embarrassed, but happy about the gratitude.
Gumshoe hurries off to the rest of the police, who are currently getting statements from Larry.
“I’m going to go home, Mr. Edgeworth! Have a good night!” Kay goes to leave.
Something about that smile feels off.
“At this time of night? Absolutely not, it’s dangerous. I’ll drive you.” You can’t very well leave her to walk home alone.
“Oh- uh…” She looks tense all of the sudden.
“I assure you, it wouldn’t be an issue for me.” Why is she so concerned?
“Ah, okay!” That smile is still there, it doesn’t feel like her usual smiles… Is she hiding something?
You both walk over to my sports car, faint wisps of smoke are still rising from the embassy. No back seat… you suppose she’s joining you in the front. Gumshoe took her on the way here, she wanted to hang out with “Gummy” more, and your car was “funny looking.”
“Your car is still funny looking, Mr. Edgeworth.” Kay sends a mischievous smile your way.
“My car is sleek.” It’s a really nice car, you don’t regret its purchase.
You both enter the car's incredibly fine interior. You both are… a little dirty from all the ash, but you can’t find it in yourself to care right now.
“Where am I taking you?” You don’t know where Kay lives, maybe with family?
“Ah- umm…” Kay hides her face from you.
Hmm, why would she be uncomfortable with the question? Does she not want you knowing where she lives? Or maybe she forgot her address?
“Do you not know your address? Or is it that you would prefer it if I didn’t know where you lived?” You doubt that she cares about you knowing where she lives considering how much you’ve helped her, but it’s still worth asking.
“...It’s not either of those…” She mumbles the words, though you still caught them. If it’s not either of those, then what is the issue?
“I’m… not living anywhere…” Oh.
“What have you been doing then?” You really don’t like the sound of this, a girl her age should not be living nowhere.
“Uncle Badd has been trying to find a place for me to stay, he would take me in, but he can’t afford it, and foster homes haven’t worked out so well…” You may have to look at the detective's salaries.
“Do you have no family to take you?” She sags upon hearing the question.
“I… moved in with my grandma just after my dad was murdered, but she soon died too… and there’s no one else…” She seems to have lost all of that false energy and still won’t look you in the eye.
“You’ve been completely homeless this whole time!?” This is a shock to you, and… rather familiar, you didn’t end up with Von Karma at first, you were on my own in the foster care system for a little bit… You’re not even going to bother to ask about that, she probably ran away, you would have too if you were bolder.
“...Yeah…” She looks so… defeated. It doesn’t suit her very well.
“B-but I’ve managed just fine on my own!” Kay finally looks at you with a bravado that you can only describe as shoddily held together.
“What do you mean by that?” You feel like you’re starting to get the full picture, she’s well kept and it doesn’t seem like she has been lacking food too severely, so…
“Ah! Uh… promise not to tell anyone?” You feel like you know what she’s about to say. You need her to be honest, and you have no intention of punishing a child.
“Of course.” That hasn’t seemed to put her at ease, she hugs her legs to her chest. You can worry about the footprints on the seat later.
“I’m a great thief!” Her pride in her ability is clear, but this small relief ends just as quickly as it arrived.
“I had to get good at it somehow…” That’s the answer you were expecting… It wasn't exactly a difficult deduction.
“I see.” What now? You can’t let her keep living this way, not after she’s saved you so many times. You suppose there is a rather simple solution for the time being, at least for tonight.
“Well, at least for tonight, you could stay at my residence.” It’s not like you’re there all that often anyway.
Kay suddenly turns to you, she’s shocked.
“You really don’t need to do that, I’ll be fine!” You’re not letting her out of this one.
“We’ve had a rough day, the least I can do is offer you somewhere comfortable to rest after all of that.” That, and you need some time to figure out a permanent solution to her living situation.
“And I would feel more comfortable knowing you were somewhere safe for tonight.” You would prefer not to mention that, but it seems she needs convincing.
“I don’t want to be a drain on you…” That’s a flimsy argument and she knows it.
“I make, what is perhaps, too much money, letting you stay at my residence would not be an issue.” It really wouldn’t.
“Y-you mean it?” There’s a tentative hope present in her, the fact something so little is so uncertain to her invokes a pang of grief in your heart. After all, there was a time you felt much the same.
“Naturally, when have you known me to lie?” You stand for the truth, after all.
What you can only describe as a devious smirk paints Kay’s face, uh oh.
“Well… there was that time I found that letter on your desk…” She barely holds in her giggling.
“NGOOOH!” Kay can no longer hold it in and starts laughing. The tension that was so heavy before has now been completely dispelled. You suppose that… minor amount of embarrassment was worth seeing that smile again. You can’t help but smile too as you both bicker back and forth for a little while. Her laughter dies down and she yawns. With the tension gone, nothing is left keeping her awake, and she struggles to keep her eyes open.
“It’s okay, Kay, I’ll wake you up when we get there.” She could really use the sleep.
“M’kay… good night, Mr. Edgeworth…” You don’t think she’s completely out yet, but it doesn’t look far.
You suppose it’s time to actually drive now, you don’t find myself nearly as sleepy due to how many late cases you’ve done. You’ve never been so grateful that this car is quiet, there’s little chance you wake up Kay, it was well worth the money in this regard alone.
There’s very little traffic at this time, but your residence is quite far away. You suppose that gives you time to decompress for a while.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You finally pull into your driveway after that long drive. It’s fortunate you’re so used to this, you would hate to have endangered Kay. Speaking of Kay, she hasn’t stirred even once this whole time, and apparently she’s dead quiet while sleeping too. You wonder if that was out of necessity.
You know you said you would wake her up when you got here, but… you would hate to disturb her sleep, but what does that leave, carrying her?
…
On second thought, disturbing her sleep doesn’t sound so bad.
“Kay?” You speak at a normal volume, no reason to be loud.
…
…Except that she does not respond at all. Okay, no big deal, You’ll just be a little louder.
“Kay.”
…
Maybe if you shake her too?
“Kay.” You shake her shoulder.
…
That’s… impressive, or maybe she was just that exhausted. It’s… looking more and more like you will have to carry her inside. You really hope she doesn’t wake up… You exit the car and first open the front door, no need to make this any tougher. Then you open the passenger side door to a still very asleep Kay Faraday.
You quickly realize that you don’t know how to approach this. At all. You decide to just unbuckle her and attempt to lift her into your arms. You almost fall over, but it works, and she is still asleep, perfect. She’s… lighter than you expected, not too terribly light, but you feel like she should weigh a bit more… That’s something to think about later, you just need to get her into one of the spare bedrooms.
It’s when you walk into your residence with Kay in your arms that you realize how empty it feels, not really a home or a place that looks lived in. It strikes you now how lonely it all is, the most life this place ever gets is when Franziska is over…
You finally get out of your head and get to one of the guest bedrooms in this house. You carefully lay Kay down on the bed. You thankfully have half a mind to grab a blanket and put it over her. Before you quietly shut the door, you suddenly desired to have one last look at her.
She’s so peaceful right now, she looks like she feels safe. You’re not sure why, but you feel some sorrow at the sight, but not just that, some other feeling too… You can deal with this later, it’s six in the morning.
Despite everything in your body wishing to just pass out, you go through my night time routine, showering, brushing your teeth, and changing into plain pajamas. When you finally hit that bed, you drift off into sleep rather quickly.