We'll find us those pirates! / And stop them with violence! / To make the ocean safe once again!

[mentis_reae]

Who: Miles Edgeworth. Yuffie Kisaragi. Tea.
When: May 16th GOD I'M REALLY RACKIN EM UP HERE
Where: Once again, Edgeworth's threshold is graced by a beautiful lady. Prowr prowr.
Summary: ...Said beautiful lady is bringing intel. Prowr...prowr....?
Warnings: It's Yuffie, so, you know. Incomprehensible slang.

Comments

[wutaisrosegirl]

She had a few, what she would call, pet projects. Things that really she was doing on her own and didn't feel the need to talk to too many people about. It was basically the state of things at the WRO about half of her work were pet projects of hers or Reeve's, or even Shalua's, or evolved versions of those, so it was completely normal to occupy herself with a lot of the same.

Work wasn't something she needed to pay a lot of attention to, it was fun and got her money but the actual work part of it wasn't that tough.

So that was how she ended up trying to follow loose ends for Near or whoever else. Hey, a girl needed SOMETHING to entertain herself, a number one ninja like herself needed to keep up using those skills.

No way she wanted to get rusty.

Anyway, she'd been listening to this guy gripe at the bar (One of the only times it wasn't same old, same old. Really.) and after tailing him around for a few days, she'd found a few really really interesting things.

That's where talking to Edgeworth had come in to the plan.

"Sure! That'd be great." Yuffie said brightly, ignoring any annoyance at her sudden appearence. She was cross-legged on his couch, hands propping up her head and watching him as he entered. "You're late, ya know."

[mentis_reae]

"Imagine my embarrassment as I realize that I've completely missed our appointed meeting time," Edgeworth replied dryly, beginning to cross the room and then hesitating as he noticed a pair of shoes propped nicely upon the windowsill. An honor indeed, that she had taken off her shoes before entering the room. Why she had not entered the room via the door was a question that only she could answer, though a qualified psychoanalyst might have had intriguing insight into the situation as well.

"It's rather difficult," he said, filling the teakettle with water, "to criticize me for being 'late' when I did not even know you were going to be here." Then, with a weighty sigh: "How do you take your tea?"

[wutaisrosegirl]

"Just the tea's good" Yuffie hopped up and followed him across the room, socked feet silent on the floor as she went.

"You're normally home a bit sooner than this. Did you stop for dinner or somethin'?" She entered the kitchen behind him and leaned against the wall, watching him go about his business. She'd noticed the last time, and still was able to notice this time how clean the place was. Sure, Tifa kept her place clean but this was ridiculous. It didn't look like the guy actually lived here.

"I tried to stop here when you'd be here and then you go and change your routine, just like that!" She said, snapping her fingers on 'that' with a grin. "Hm. Should'a just tailed you today, huh?"

[mentis_reae]

Edgeworth hesitated in the preparation of the tea, then turned to Kisaragi with an expression which was hovering somewhere in between dumbfounded and irritated. "I was working," he said, reminding himself that if he simply left the lid on the strainer open then the tea leaves would fall out so that he would reach out and close it.

"Ms. Kisaragi, are you implying that you've been following me?" he said, feeling as though a headache was building just behind his left eye.

[wutaisrosegirl]

"Yuffie. The name's Yuffie. Nobody calls me 'Ms. Kisaragi'" She said, sticking out her tongue at the idea. Even the people who worked for her didn't call her that.

"Course, how else would I know when to find ya where?" Yuffie stared at him because this was both plainly obvious and silly if he didn't understand it. He was likely to get himself in trouble. It'd be irresponsible to not keep an eye on the guy. Seriously, what kinda ninja did he take her for?

[mentis_reae]

"If no one calls you 'Ms. Kisaragi,' then from now on you're merely 'Kisaragi,'" he muttered, stalling for time as he tried to press back the tide of that headache which was indeed most certainly starting in the vicinity of his eye - just a bit above and behind, indeed, and it looked to be a throbbing one. He added more tea leaves.

"And may I suggest calling me? Sending me a message of some sort? It is far from the most efficient use of time to follow me about for days on end merely to familiarize yourself with my schedule when five words - 'Edgeworth, when are you free' - would do just as well."

[wutaisrosegirl]

"I said call me Yuffie, Edgeworth. It's just nice to call me what I wanna be called. I could go around calling you lawyer guy, or Miles, or whatever. You wanna be called Edgeworth, you should call me Yuffie. Or I'll be forced to get creative." She teased. "And it's not like you're the only person I watch, it's not that big a deal."

She shrugged and walked up beside him, still smiling and utterly missing, or very likely ignoring, the point.

"Well, I just got this stuff today and I wasn't sure if you were gonna pick up. You were pretty unhappy with me." There was a bit of a nod from the ninja before continuing. "So, I thought this would be the best way."

[mentis_reae]

"It's not the same thing," Edgeworth said irritably. "I'm reverting to a higher level of formality. My insistence on greater formality does not give you leave to turn that around altogether and demand a lower level." He turned and glared as she came right over to the counter to stand by him, evidently failing to understand the unspoken rule that while he was in here, making tea, guests were to stay out there in the living room. This was the time during which he braced and prepared himself for company. It was a necessary ritual.

So, irritably, he covered his two points quickly: "You should not be 'watching' anyone, least of all me, and what is this 'stuff.'"

[wutaisrosegirl]

"It's not formality. It's just weird having people call me that. People who work for me don't even." She said with a shrug, ignoring the fact that he was radiating signals that she wasn't welcome where she was. If she'd ever listened to that, where would she be with anyone, hm?

"It's my job to watch people" She said, waving the question away with a broad gesture. "And, the reason I'm here's on the table out there. See, I ran into some stuff I thought you'd be interested in. So I thought I'd bring it to you!"

Yuffie grinned before darting out into the living room and swiping the folder off the table, pulling out a few papers and reaching in further to grab a set of CDs as she walked back into the kitchen.

"Here." She said, holding out all of them in front of her where he could see.

[mentis_reae]

He tensed when he saw the compact discs. On more than one occasion, he'd had a female - usually a witness who was evidently impressed by his style of cross-examination - who had evidently wanted to become better-acquainted with his musical tastes make him one of these blasted "mix tapes." This would not have been so bad, of course, had they not expected him to listen to it in their presence - but no, Kisaragi was no one of the sort, thank God, and while he wasn't certain of the content of the discs the papers seemed to contain nothing that was not practical.

"Then I apologize for the 'weirdness,' which will continue," he muttered as he looked over the papers, which seemed to be a transcript of a conversation, "and it is not your job to watch me, so desist...With whom, precisely, were you speaking to have recorded this conversation?" Edgeworth asked, looking up.

[wutaisrosegirl]

"Richard Dunne." She said, tapping the top of the paper he was holding as she spoke. "Be glad I track ya or I wouldn't'a known what to look for when the guy kept popping in the bar last week."

"See," She began as she turned on her heel and walked to the counter before pulling herself up onto it. "He kept coming in, getting real drunk, and flirting like crazy with one of the girls that works with me. She didn't like the guy, thought he was total grossness. Which he was. But so she and I traded out cause I could totally kick his ass if he tried anything, no problem."

"Now, then this guy then started talkin' to me and that's-" She pointed in the directions of the papers and CDs, "what I got from two nights at the bar and a meet up for coffee."

"Turns out? The reason she thought he was creepy in the first place was he kept braggin' about this friend of his. This really freaky friend of his." Yuffie grinned and waited to see if Edgeworth was following her story.

[mentis_reae]

He was not entirely certain of the definition of "grossness," and he did not approve of her stated willingness to perpetrate violence upon someone if they displeased her, and he was incredibly irritated by the fact that she'd taken a seat upon the counter, but none of that mattered. - Well, all right, the seat on the counter rather mattered; he prepared his tea there, after all, so he did take a moment to order her, "Do not sit on my counter. Stand, bring in a chair, or sit on the floor, if you do not mind the dirt."

That said, he looked back to the papers and nodded. "All right. Go on."

[wutaisrosegirl]

"What're you talkin' about? There's no dirt on your floor."

Yuffie rolled her eyes, but so it wasn't a mood killer and someone might let her continue her story of her daring brush with a creep the likes of the worst of the Wall Market types, she hopped off the counter and went to pacing back and forth across the room instead as she spoke.

"Anyway. So this Dunne guy. First night he starts talking about this friend, and how this friend is a genius and how he's workin' for the guy so that makes him real special."

"And! Most importantly for you, Edgeworth." She stopped and put her hands on her hips, grinning broadly as she made sure to get her point across, her flare for the dramatic stopping her from just right out saying it. You had to build up to this kind of good stuff after all. "How this friend of his could get away with anything. Anything at all, even murder."

[mentis_reae]

He looked up briefly from his perusal of the page before him to raise an eyebrow at her sheer, unrestrained energy. From the way she was moving, one would think that the floor of his kitchen concealed springs - though even that would not account for her grand performance, the way she leaned into his personal space and grinned up at him, looking like the proverbial cat who has just finished a fine canary-based meal.

"You're aware," he said, at once hoping to cut through her good cheer and dreading the prospect that he ever might, "that hearsay is not admissible to court. If the fellow only stated that he heard his friend talking about murders he had committed, then it is not useful to us."

[wutaisrosegirl]

"I wouldn't'a brought you anything you couldn't use. Gimmie a liiiiiittle credit here!"

"Okay, okay. But here's the great part! He was there, Edgeworth. Full out admitted he was there for at least one of them. It's right there. The one he's talking his buddy dealing with after the bar fight? There's this whole bit where Dunne goes off about how this guy was-" She paused to make air quotations, "'Some kind of pussy' because he started screaming when his buddy Phillip broke the guy's knees in the alley, then he starts off about how he wouldn't just give up the ghost. It gets pretty graphic. I guess he bought the whole 'I'm super impressed by violence' thing."

"But, if I'm right, which I know I am," Yuffie quickly went from looking vaguely grossed out at having to relive the memory her conversations with the jackass, to once again grinning up a storm. All smiles and all show. "That's somethin' you're trying to get Phil Smitheson for. Isn't it?"

[mentis_reae]

Edgeworth looked up her a moment, and blinked, and said, "Please do not quote him; his mouth is quite foul," and then looked back down to the transcript and flipped forward a few pages in the transcript to find - yes, exactly what she'd been speaking of. The description was detailed, and vicious, and entirely in line with a murder they'd found three weeks prior - Michael McPhee had been the fellow's name, someone who, according to rumor they'd heard after finding his mangled corpse, had expressed a willingness to testify against the gang of which Smitheson was a part. Edgeworth shook his head, reading further, an excitement building in the pit of his stomach as he looked up at Kisaragi.

"And you'd be willing to testify to having been party to this conversation in court?" Not that it even mattered, particularly - the recording would be proof enough.