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Eustace had no experience being in love with another person before.
Sure, he’d seen people in love before, and yes, he’d heard about people being in love before (both in the past and in the present), but he’d never actually experienced it for himself. And for the longest time, that didn’t bother him. He was focused solely on becoming a Winner – no more, no less. He always figured that he could just deal with stuff like that later.
The fact that his dad never said a word about love (or of Eustace’s mother after she “disappeared,” for that matter) played a role, as well. But given what Eustace learned during the Ringer case, there was likely a reason for that.
That was a year ago, though. And though he had gone through a lot (and gave him memories that tormented him even now), he got to meet new people – people that respected him, people that didn’t treat him like a bumbling moron – at least, not anymore, anyway – and he was thankful for the support they provided, no matter how small. It was thanks to the likes of Verity, Mr. Edgeworth, and Ms. von Karma that he was even able to pick up the pieces and stand on his own feet again.
And then there was Kay Faraday.
In the year Eustace had known her, his feelings had evolved tremendously. At first, they were rivals – Kay had sided with Mr. Edgeworth, who was deadset on tearing down his (incredibly faulty) arguments and exposing the truth Eustace had failed to find. Then she was a murder suspect he was working on convicting – an amnesiac murder suspect, yes, but still a murder suspect.
When they saw each other again after that case, she was again with Mr. Edgeworth – not as a rival, but as someone trying to help him. She had helped free him from captivity (in his own home), and she seemed genuinely concerned about him, as if he hadn’t tried to get her falsely charged with murder not even 24 hours before.
After Mr. Edgeworth had taken Eustace under his wing, he started seeing more of Kay. Apparently, she was living with Mr. Edgeworth (similar to his situation with Verity, he had noticed), and she was seemingly always around, regardless of whether Eustace was in Mr. Edgeworth’s office or his home. And the more Eustace hung around Kay, the easier he found it to call her his friend.
Given how she kept trying to drag him off to random hijinks (though she’d insist she was just trying to get him to live a semi-normal life for a change), it was clear she felt similar – which stunned Eustace, both then and now. All the same, though, he was grateful that he finally found someone to call not just a friend, but his best friend.
Perhaps that was why the feelings he was developing towards Kay were starting to scare him.
It had started small – stuff like his heart skipping a beat at the sound of her laughter, or the occasional stares that lingered for just a bit too long, or his cheeks flushing whenever she smiled at him. He could convince himself that they didn’t mean much, or even just outright ignore them.
That only worked until he was forced to face the fact that these new feelings wouldn’t go away – and Eustace had no idea what to do. On the one hand, he didn’t want to risk losing his newfound friendship with Kay, nor did he want to make it awkward. On the other hand, he couldn’t get through a conversation with Kay without blushing, and he was starting to suspect that she had noticed.
It was all new to him, and he didn’t know what to do. The only thing he could think to do was to ask someone that could give him some advice.
Verity wasn’t the worst person to pose such a question to – though the fact that it was either her or Mr. Edgeworth helped out a bit. So, after a good bit of convincing himself that he wasn’t asking a completely stupid question like he was wont to do in the past, he dropped the question one night when it was just the two of them in the Gavèlle household.
“Hey, Verity,” he started, before immediately second-guessing himself when she looked up from whatever file she was reading.
“Yes?” she asked, her voice as kind and motherly as ever. “What do you need, Eustace?”The “revelation” that she wasn’t mad at Eustace (as if she hadn’t showcased considerable patience towards him in the year he had known her) gave him the confidence boost he needed to go through with asking his question. What it didn’t do was allow him to convey his thoughts without stumbling over his words and fiddling with his baton.
“I… Have you ever… I don’t know, liked someone?”
I doubt Mr. Edgeworth would be happy with a question presented like that, Eustace thought.
Verity hummed, evidently deep in thought – he must’ve hit on something she didn’t like to talk about much. When she next spoke, though, she gave no indication that that was the case.
“I can’t say I have, no,” she said. She placed the file she was reading on the table. “At least, not for a while.” A knowing smile crept onto her face. “Would I be mistaken in thinking that there’s a reason for asking this?”
Eustace hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. There wasn’t any reason to lie about his reasoning for asking Verity a question like that, especially when he was going to follow up with his next question regardless of what her answer had been.
Yet, somehow, she beat him to the punch.
“I see,” she said, that knowing smile still etched onto her face. “I can only assume, then, based on your question, that you’ve taken a liking to someone.” She leaned forward, causing Eustace to take a reflexive half-step back. “And I think I might know who.”
“Y-you do…?” Eustace said, bending his baton.
“I do,” Verity said. “You’ve spent quite a bit of time with Ms. Faraday, after all.”
She was right – Eustace knew she was right, and denying it would serve no purpose. He’d be lying to himself at that point. Yet the fact that her only reasoning was that he and Kay had hung out a bunch made him stubbornly stand his ground.
“Th…that doesn’t mean anything!” he argued. “We’re just… we’re just friends, is all. And friends hang out a lot. There’s not… anything else to it.”
“I don’t know how many friends hang out with each other while one’s at work, at least to the extent you two do,” Verity countered. “When she’s not with Mr. Edgeworth, Ms. Faraday’s in your office a fair amount, or so I hear.”
“You go to Mr. Edgeworth’s office too!”
“But I’m not lounging around like Ms. Faraday does,” Verity again countered. “I’m there for reasons pertaining to either my work or his. Nothing else.”
He hated that he knew she was right.
“It’s okay if you’ve developed feelings for her, Eustace,” she continued. “Just be honest with me – with yourself.”
He lowered his head, his eyes burning a hole into the table. She was right – of course she was. He did spend a lot of time with Kay, and she did lounge about in his office when she wasn’t with Mr. Edgeworth; she did it to such a degree that Eustace saw Mr. Edgeworth nearly every day, even when he wasn’t helping Eustace with something. To deny it any further would just be a pointless exercise, especially when she could shoot down any one of his arguments with little to no effort.
Plus, he needed to do what he originally set out to do in the first place.
“Okay… y-you’re right,” Eustace conceded. “I… I like Kay – really like her. A-and I…” He paused for a moment, willing the right words to come to him. “She’s… she’s my best friend, a-and I’m worried what might happen if I tell her, but at the same time I’ve never felt this way and I don’t know what to do…!”
Hot tears streamed down his cheeks, though Eustace didn’t notice them at first. He took a shaky deep breath and rubbed the tears off his cheeks, trying to ignore the part of him that was scolding him for crying over something as minor as this.
He tried even harder to ignore the image of his dad yelling at him, saying that he was going to give Eustace something to actually cry over, just as he had done time and time and time and time–
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of Verity’s chair scraping against the floor. And Verity wasn’t Excelsius. She would never be, not with the genuinely worried look on her face that Eustace had never once seen on his dad’s.
Verity regarded him for a moment longer before making her way to the counter. She grabbed a box of tissues and handed them to Eustace.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice so quiet that the only reason he knew Verity had heard it was from the smile she gave him.
“You’re welcome, Eustace,” she said, before motioning to the table. “I think it’d be best if we sit down for this, wouldn’t you?”
Eustace nodded and took his seat across from Verity. A few seconds passed after Verity retook her seat before she spoke again.
“Like I said before,” she began, “I haven’t dated anyone in some time. But I have held feelings for others in the past – colleagues, classmates, friends. And yet, oftentimes I… lacked the courage to tell them how I felt.”
Eustace couldn’t believe that. The idea that Judge Verity Gavèlle, of all people, had a case of not being able to spit it out was unfathomable. But, he supposed, she was still human – she had proven that with how she acted in the Laguarde trial (though he heard a good bit about that from Mr. Edgeworth and Kay after the fact), and in the apology she gave him later that day.
“Over time, the regret I felt from moments like that faded away,” she continued. “But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still think about those moments, about what might’ve happened if I had been able to say something. So, Eustace, don’t repeat my mistakes – tell Ms. Faraday how you feel about her. The worst thing she can do is say no, as cliché as that sounds.”
Eustace nodded as he wiped what little water had remained in his eyes. Kay’s reaction was part of what he was afraid of – and that was assuming he even mustered up the courage to confess in the first place – but Verity did have a point. Kay isn’t a cruel person, nor does she act like Mr. Edgeworth or Ms. von Karma do around friendly company. Worst case, she’d just let him down easy. Hopefully it wouldn’t go that way, but it was always nice to have that reassurance.
“That makes sense,” Eustace finally said. “Th-thank you!”
Verity smiled. “Thank you for coming to me. It’s not easy talking about this kind of thing – I would know.” She grabbed the file she was reading earlier and slid it in front of Eustace. “Now, while I have you here, there’s something I need to ask you about.”
Ever since becoming Mr. Edgeworth’s assistant, Kay had amassed quite the circle of friends. From Mr. Edgeworth himself, Ms. von Karma, Gummy, and Ema, she went from not having much in the way of friends to a group she considered family. Her father would be proud of her, she knew that much.
Yet, of the new friends she had amassed, one stood out like a sore thumb. Perhaps it was because, unlike most of her friends, she hadn’t started off on good terms with him. Being Mr. Edgeworth’s assistant only made that natural.
When she first met Eustace, her initial impressions mirrored those of Mr. Edgeworth’s – that is to say, she didn’t think highly of him. Even someone who wasn’t a prosecutor like her could see that his reasoning was… flawed. Heavily, heavily flawed. It didn’t help that he was so cocky, so egotistical for someone who got the most basic of things wrong.
Yet when his father yelled at him, berated him, revealed that everything that Eustace thought he had earned through his own means to have actually been because of his father’s connections, Kay couldn’t help but feel pity for him. He had accused her of murder – while she was suffering from amnesia – only a few hours ago, and yet to see his world visibly come crumbling down and him run off in tears broke her heart.
Then she and Mr. Edgeworth found Eustace kidnapped in his own home, and whatever distaste she still held towards Eustace at that point evaporated.
Mr. Edgeworth took Eustace under his wing after that, to help mold him into a proper prosecutor. Kay was always around whenever Edgeworth was mentoring Eustace, whether that be in his home or in his office. She didn’t directly participate in his lessons, but she always offered Eustace support if he needed it.
Perhaps it was that general proximity that eventually allowed her to think of Eustace as her friend, to embolden her to drag him along to places she enjoyed hanging out – like the store, or the park. And weirdly, he didn’t seem to protest much – at least, not after the first few times. In fact, it almost seemed like he enjoyed it, and Kay would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that seeing Eustace happy made her happy, too.
In hindsight, that should’ve been the first sign that she was developing new feelings towards Eustace – feelings she had never felt before.
But it was easy to ignore them, at first. She’d eagerly watch Eustace work with Mr. Edgeworth, lightly tease him, and hang out with him outside of Mr. Edgeworth’s mentorship, all while pretending her relationship with Eustace was just friendship. Close friendship, yes, but friendship nevertheless.
Eventually, though, a year had passed, and she couldn’t ignore her feelings for Eustace any longer. She couldn’t deny the fact that she liked Eustace, more so than she liked anyone else.
If only she had any idea as to what to do from there.
Was she supposed to just confess to him outright and risk ruining their friendship? Was she supposed to just keep their friendship going like nothing changed and pray he’d get the hint? Was she supposed to talk to someone other than Eustace?
These questions circled in her head for days on end, begging to be answered – or, at the very least, addressed. She was a Great Thief, one dedicated to stealing the truth, a fact she had – sometimes loudly – proclaimed time and time again. So why could she not bring herself to steal the truths pertaining to her new feelings?
That thought kept gnawing at her, until one day she couldn’t hold it in anymore. At that moment, she knew she had to tell someone – and who better than the man she appointed herself as an assistant for a year ago?
She was sitting on the couch in Mr. Edgeworth’s office. Mr. Edgeworth himself was at his desk, reading a file on an incident that had occurred some time ago. He hadn’t specified what, exactly, just that it was an important incident – and one that he had no influence on the outcome of, much to his evident annoyance.
At first, it was that annoyance that made Kay hesitate in saying what had finally bubbled to the surface, what she could no longer ignore. But she reassured herself with the knowledge that Mr. Edgeworth was calm, rational, and rarely got truly upset with her. Plus, she’d been living with him for a year now; he had to have been used to her antics by now. The fear didn’t completely go away, however.
There was also the worry as to how she’d word what she was going to say – a worry that resolved itself when Kay opened her mouth and just let the words tumble out.
“I think I have a crush on Eustace.”
Even without turning her head, Kay knew that Mr. Edgeworth was glaring right through her. And she couldn’t say she blamed him – she had just interrupted the quiet to drop that bombshell. He no doubt was struggling to process it.
Perhaps that was why she was content to stare into the opposite wall and not turn to face Mr. Edgeworth at all. Yes, she was just letting him process the shocking revelation she had just dropped on him. She definitely wasn’t trying to avoid looking at him for fear of how he’d react.
“…Kay. Can you look at me, please?”
Kay hesitated for a second before turning to face Mr. Edgeworth. Despite her fears, he didn’t seem to be mad. That was the best she could hope for.
“Heh… sorry,” she apologized, trying to force a grin. “I was, uh, worried that you’d be mad.”
Mr. Edgeworth crossed his arms. “And you thought that… why, exactly?”
Kay shrugged. She felt dumb for even being worried that he’d be mad – he wasn’t like that. Annoyed, maybe, but never genuinely mad. And even now, he didn’t seem too terribly annoyed.
“I mean… I did just kinda blurt out that I had a crush on Eustace,” she said. “And you were in the middle of work, and it was so quiet that I felt like you’d get upset at me for disturbing you.”
Mr. Edgeworth hummed. After a moment, he smirked. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time you randomly blurted something out while I was in the middle of work. Just yesterday, for example, you randomly shouted out that the Jammin’ Ninja was getting a new movie.”
Kay could only sheepishly grin at that. She had almost forgotten she did that, even if it was only the day before. And his reaction then had been… vague amusement, if she remembered correctly.
And then she realized what Mr. Edgeworth was driving at.
“…Oh!” Kay exclaimed.
Mr. Edgeworth nodded. “Exactly. I didn’t get mad at you then, did I?”
…Well, you did say something about how it was a shame the Steel Samurai hadn’t gotten another movie yet while the Jammin’ Ninja did, Kay thought, but it’s probably best if I keep that to myself.
“No,” Kay said, shaking her head, “you didn’t.”
“So I have little reason to get mad at you,” Mr. Edgeworth said. “Especially because – though you might not realize this – you do something like this rather often.”
Kay felt another sheepish grin coming on.
“Now,” Mr. Edgeworth continued, “what’s this about a crush on Eustace?”
Right, the reason she had opened her mouth to begin with – though, she quickly realized, said reason wasn’t exactly on her mind when she initially confessed. But like with that initial confession, she was able to fashion something to say.
“It’s like I said earlier,” she began. “I don’t know when it began, but it just… won’t go away. And I’m worried that he might not feel the same way and that I’ll ruin our friendship over this, and… I-I don’t know what to do.”
Mr. Edgeworth crossed his arms again and hummed. “You’ve been hanging around with Eustace a lot, correct?”
“Y-yeah?”
“And you’ve dragged him around to do… who knows what for a year now, correct?”
“I was – and still am – helping him have the life he never did!” Kay defended herself.
“That argument made more sense a year ago,” Mr. Edgeworth countered. “But moving on – did Eustace ever go against you? Did he try to run at all?”
Kay thought back to all the times she had taken Eustace out with her – how he protested at first but never ran away, and how he eventually admitted to having fun before dropping the protests and complaints all together.
“And does he throw you out of his office at all whenever you find your way in there?” Mr. Edgeworth continued.
“…No,” Kay said. “No, he doesn’t.”
“Well, there you have it,” Mr. Edgeworth said. “I’ll confess, I’m not too skilled in matters such as this–”
With all your talk of “that man,” that’s a lie.
“–but it’s clear to me that he likely feels similar. And while I’m not too sure how you should talk about this with him, I know that it will go better than you think it will.”
“You promise?”
“I promise,” Mr. Edgeworth said.
Kay let out a sigh of relief. If Mr. Edgeworth said things would go well, then they had to go well. And if Eustace felt the same way about her as she did about him, then things could go very well indeed.
When Kay and Eustace next saw each other a week later, it was in the latter’s office.
Eustace had been sitting at his desk, ostensibly going through some old cases Mr. Edgeworth had handled (more than a few of which had the same man representing the defense), but in reality was trying to work out in his head just how he was going to confess to Kay. He wasn’t sure if he should be upfront from the get-go, try and have a normal conversation before dropping his confession on her, or something else – all he was sure about was that he needed to talk to her sooner rather than later.
Kay, meanwhile, had nothing to keep her mind off of things. Not even an investigation sprung up to give her something to get her mind off of what she’d say to Eustace – though, in fairness, it had only been a week. But compared to the rapidfire investigations she used to go on with Mr. Edgeworth, it felt like an eternity.
Then again, maybe that was a taste of things to come when she became a detective in the future. Or maybe it wasn’t, and the universe just had it out for her.
Regardless, she knew she’d have to take initiative. And so, on a day as monotonous and boring as the last week had been, she paid a visit to Eustace’s office.
It was a low-risk, high-reward venture. If he wasn’t there, then no harm, no foul. She’d likely cross paths with him some other time – the main downside was she’d have to stew in her thoughts some more. And if he was there, then she could finally confess.
At least, that’s what she thought as she made her way to Eustace’s office – and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, the suspense was killing her.
It didn’t help that when she had arrived at Eustace’s office, the two promptly stared at each other for what felt like hours. It wasn’t until Eustace cleared his throat that the silence between the two finally broke.
“H-hi, Kay,” he said, a sheepish smile forming on his face. “It’s… it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” He awkwardly chuckled.
Kay crossed her arms, a smile working its way onto her face as well. “Come on, it hasn’t been that long.”
“I guess,” he conceded, before motioning for Kay to enter. He waited a moment after she entered before clearing his throat. “…So, uh, why are you here?”
The staring contest between the two resumed without delay, as Kay tried (and failed) to will the words she had been ruminating on for so long to come to her while Eustace tried to work out what was gnawing at him – like he knew what Kay had come to his office for, and that he had held similar intentions himself.
Then Kay blurted out, “I have something to tell you.”
Eustace couldn’t help the shocked expression on his face – but after a moment, he pulled himself together, took a deep breath, and said, “I need to tell you something as well.”
“Okay…” Kay trailed off. Then, after a moment, an almost uncharacteristically nervous grin made its way onto her face. “Do you… do you want to go first, or…?”
The nervousness in her voice would’ve been contagious – were it not for the fact that Eustace’s nerves were sky high. But he steeled himself regardless – he couldn’t let his nerves get the better of him.
“I-I’ll go first.”
Kay silently nodded. Eustace took a deep breath before continuing.
“I like you – really, really like you. You’re… you’re sweet, you’re funny, I enjoy hanging out with you, and you make me feel special.”
He paused for a moment, observing Kay’s reaction. She looked shocked – which was to be expected – but she also hadn’t reacted negatively, which was the most he could hope for. All he could do now was hope the words he wanted to say came to him.
Much to his dismay, they didn’t – and, try as he might, wouldn’t. So all he could do was awkwardly stand in front of Kay as he tried to will something into his mind, fidgeting all the while.
Thankfully, Kay broke the silence – with a relieved exhale, at that.
“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that,” she said. “I… I like you too.”
Eustace blinked. He couldn’t believe what he just heard. All his worrying over potentially ruining his friendship with Kay, and she just casually says that she liked him too? It was almost too good to be true.
Any remnants of that notion were thoroughly quashed when Kay wrapped Eustace in a crushing embrace.
“K-Kay!” he grunted.
Kay laughed and released her grip. “Sorry, sorry. Just got a little excited.”
“A little’s… under… under, uh…” Eustace stammered. He mentally cursed his persistent inability to come up with the right word at the worst moments. “Y-you were definitely more than a ‘little’ excited!”
He took a deep breath before continuing. “…A-anyway, you mean it? You… you really…?”
Kay grinned, even as her cheeks reddened. “Of course I do. I’ve felt this way for… a while, actually.”
Now it was Eustace’s turn to wrap Kay up in a hug. He wasn’t even bothered by the tears that streamed down his face as he did so.
It took a moment for Kay’s brain to realize what was happening, but once she did, she returned the hug; this time, with a much less crushing embrace.
They remained in each other’s embrace for what felt like hours. Part of that was neither one of them wanting to pull away, but it also helped that they both didn’t know what to do next – they hadn’t thought that far ahead.
But in the moment, that didn’t matter. The only thing that did matter was the warm embrace Eustace and Kay shared, and the relief that their feelings for the other were both finally out in the open and reciprocated.