au yeah autumn challenge

[sunrises]

Soulmates - Riku / Namine (Kingdom Hearts)
College - Lloyd Irving / Colette Brunel
Single parent - Tyler Lockwood / Caroline Forbes
Enemy - Ochaco Uraraka / Izuku Midoriya
Laundromat - Peyton Leverett / Maxine Hunkel
Hogwarts - Stefan Salvatore / Misty Day
Famous - Tom Bronson / Sharpay Evans
Kwami swap (Power Swap) - Yato / Hiyori Iki
Summer Camp - Evan Tildrum / Tani (Ni No Kuni II)
Secret agent - Izuku Midoriya + Bakugou Katsuki
Mermaid - Senel Coolidge / Shirley Fennes
Royalty - Stefan Salvatore / Jesse Wells
Fake dating - Stefan Salvatore / Freya Mikaelson
Reincarnation - Jason Grace / Piper McLean
Life Swap - Stefan Salvatore + Eugene Woods
Neighbors - Roxas / Olette (Kingdom Hearts)
Sidekick - Iris West + Ashley Williams
Circus - Shizuku Mizutani / Haru Yoshida
Reverse Crush - Katsuki Bakugou (MHA) / Leila (Riordan-verse)
Coffee shop - Ryuji Sakamato / Makoto Niijima
Childhood Friends - Stefan Salvatore / Elena Gilbert
Crime - Tenko Midoriya + Hana Midoriya + Izuku Midoriya
Historical - Barry Allen / Iris West
Office / workplace - Sebastian Debeste / Kay Faraday
Friends with Benefits - Goro Akechi / Haru Okumura
bff swap - Sean Diaz / Ally Parker
Internet - Masayuki Hori / Yuu Kashima
Gym - Eijiro Kirishima / Katsuki Bakugou
Time travel - Max Carson / Lester Papadopoulos
Roommates - Jeremy Gilbert / Kol Mikaelson
"Dealer's Choice" - Roland Crane + Evan Tildrum

PROGRESS: 31/31

Comments

office / workplace - Sebastian Debeste / Kay Faraday | wordcount: 1,787

[sunrises]

After Simon Blackquill had been exonerated of murder, the State Prosecutor’s Offices had been gutted like inventory on Black Friday. The once-brimming hallways now creaked with every footstep, and the old wood paneling seemed to peel faster. The chilly air nipped at everyone’s blazers and sweaters; the curtains dimmed every light; and cardboard boxes lined the walls, piled high with diplomas, trophies, photo frames, and tarnished certificates of honor.

As Sebastian walked through the halls, his stomach twisted with guilt. These halls had once housed hundreds of Prosecutors. Hundreds of colleagues, each working on a couple of cases, or at the very least - supposedly bettering the legal system and ensuring their clients’ guilt. Nowadays, these halls only housed four or five prosecutors, including him. The light reflecting off those glittering trophies meant nothing, now that the names on those plaques had been tarnished with collusion and corruption.

(Sebastian knew that better than perhaps anyone in these paper thin offices; he had discarded his awards and medals the day after Pops had told him the bitter truth.)

The paralegals had christened this “the purge”, after one of their favorite horror movies. Sebastian likened it more to a mass execution – Mr. Edgeworth had shown the office, and the country by extension, no mercy.

His phone was buzzing with texts and messages, and as Sebastian entered his office, he supposed he should’ve been happy to see endless stacks of case files upon his desk. Yet his heart sank as a paralegal swooped in with another manila folder for that mountainous pile. As if his current cases weren't enough, the state government had asked their remaining prosecutors to uncover the truth, to restore what little faith the people held for their courts.

Their numbers were dwindling, and he could only rely on himself, Gavin, or the infamous Blackquill. Everyone else had either retired, or their reputations had been besmirched with white-collar crime. Sebastian couldn’t rely on anyone else to help, lest he drown in the cases that called his name. Mr. Edgeworth had mentioned a famous prosecutor from the Asian country of Khurain would lighten the workload, but Sebastian doubt it. Why would someone with that much fame and authority want to step foot into crime ridden Los Angeles?

“Just one more minute,” he told himself as he settled into his leather armchair and rested his elbows on what little space remained. God, he was Exhausted, and he wasn’t needed in any meetings. He could afford a cat nap - just five minutes to recharge his batteries. “I’ll get right back to work.”





The white noise of the air conditioner woke him up first. Or perhaps it was the pounding on his locked door? Sebastian wasn’t too sure. He jolted up with a start –

“You only took forever.”

A young woman rested on the door frame as she peered back at him. Her expression was too fond to hold disdain, however, as she waltzed in and sat across from him in one of the visitor’s chairs.

“Kay.” Sebastian swallowed his embarrassment, forcing himself to sit straighter. She must've unlocked the door again (not that he was in a position to care). “What’re you doing here?”

“Checking up on you.” Kay's expression softened as she reached for the nearest case file and skimmed its contents. “Good thing too, or else you might’ve slept here the whole day.”

He groaned. Kay would never let him live this down, either – with their numbers down, everyone in the office was pulling some serious overtime, and his 50-hour work weeks had become 80-hour weeks when he wasn’t looking. Sure, his paychecks were impressive, but he sure wouldn’t have the opportunity to spend some of that hard-earned cash in the near or far-flung future.

“Would not,” he retorted, wincing at the immaturity as soon as it left his lips.

Kay laughed, leaning forward and pulling another file down. “I can’t blame you. Edgeworth gave you a ton of cases again, and it’s not like any of us can call in sick until he hires some more people, or at least finds people to help pick up the slack.”

Now that Sebastian had a moment to breathe, and to look at Kay - really look at her, at her bright detective’s uniform and the badge pinned to her chest - he remembered how the Purge had affected her too. Prior to the office's evisceration, Kay’s partner had been a different prosecutor, one of the rookies from Themis. Then blood had fallen onto the prosecutor’s hands, and both Kay’s prosecutor and Sebastian’s detective had been stripped of their badges. The office, wringing their hands and wailing about fraternization, had deliberated on pairing them up - right until Mr. Edgeworth intervened, insisting on his proteges collaborating with each other.

Sebastian had never felt so proud of his mentor, even if he also knew he had to work that much harder to prove the city wrong: he could be a great prosecutor and he could maintain a professional relationship with Kay Faraday.

That said, if Sebastian was exhausted, he couldn’t imagine how Kay felt. Her make-up couldn’t hide the bags under her eyes, and even her usual ponytail looked more ragged, like she hadn’t bothered to untie her hair the night before. The wrinkles in her uniform only confirmed his nagging suspicions.

(Hell, he couldn't remember if he had even seen her change out of her clothes last night, which was terrible considering he lived with her.)

Yet Kay was beaming at him, glancing up from her file and teasing, “Well, if we can’t leave, we should make a date out of it.”

“A what now?” He blinked back surprise.

“You heard me.” Kay leaned forward, rising to her feet and holding onto the edge of the desk. “You, me, these sexy murder cases, and a couple orders from Eldoon’s Noodles?”

Sebastian coughed, sputtering what was left of his dignity in her face. His exhaustion, his guilt, his twisted insides had all left his body and died a dreadful, mortified death. He had work, and murders to solve, and stupid corrupted officials to drag down into the lowest depths of hell.

No matter how much he wanted to pull Kay out of the office and treat her to an actual romantic dinner, he couldn’t. Klavier and Blackquill hadn’t left (and knowing them, they wouldn’t leave until midnight, when most of LA had shut down for the evening).

Sebastian had to prove the office wrong. He could maintain proper, professional boundaries even with his girlfriend, and he could finish his work without those boundaries impacting his personal life, or what remained of it.

So he closed the distance between them, pressed his lips to hers, and pulled away to insist, “Absolutely not.”

“Why not?” Kay hadn’t pulled away - if anything, she was dangerously close to shoving those case files onto the floor. “We’re going to be here until midnight anyway, and I’m starving.”

He sighed, “You could’ve packed dinner like me…”

“Yeah, a sad, miserable little dinner. With equally sad, almost wilted vegetables.” She pouted at him, swaying from side to side and giving him those melancholy eyes he had long since learned to hate.

“Kayday…” His sigh only deepened as he walked around the desk to hold onto her. “Do you remember what the office said when they first paired us up?”

“Don’t make out in front of the corpse?”

“Before that,” he sputtered, staring at her in horror. “Before! That!!”

She cackled, “Boy, you’re easy to tease.”

Ignoring the taunt, and the blood rising to his cheeks, Sebastian settled for resting his head on her shoulder. He kept his voice level, focusing on his breath, and how it synced up with her heartbeat, “The DA cited rules about fraternization, Kayday. I want to prove them wrong, and show them that we can be partners both in love and in case-solving.”

She leaned into him, wrapping her wrists around his arms. They must’ve held each other close a thousand times before, yet every time felt like the first - special, fleeting, and full of warmth. Sebastian had long since memorized the little flicks of her fingers, and the static that rolled off her fingertips as their skin met.

“We’ll always prove them wrong,” she insisted, her voice growing soft. “We’re partners, Seb. I wouldn’t have chosen to work with you if I didn’t think we could handle the work, let alone how it would affect us.”

“Right. I trust you with everything.” He leaned down to brush his lips against hers. “I love you so damn much, which is also why I have to ask, why Eldoon’s? Are you trying to kill me?”

“You’re not on a low-sodium diet,” she insisted, whining a little. “I can get Whet’s Noodles, if that’s more your speed…”

“No, Blackquill gets Whet like every other week. What about Thai? Or that Chinese place down the road?”

“We got Thai last night, and Chinese is also equally likely to kill us.”

“This is going nowhere…” Sebastian sighed, dipping down for another kiss. “Let’s get some burgers and call it a night?”

“Sounds good, babe.” Kay pulled away, kneeling down to pick some stray case files. “I’ll find some we can solve pretty easily, and we can get the ball rolling from there.”

Typically, most detectives didn’t stay to tie up loose papers, let alone the necessary files that had to be sorted and checked before a big trial, but Kay had never fallen under most detectives. If Sebastian didn’t know better, he would’ve guessed that Kay wanted those sweet overtime paychecks - or a chance to see him more often.

Both were plausible, knowing her, and both warmed his heart all the same. So he shot her a smile as he pulled out his phone and dialed up their usual place -

He didn’t know what he had done to deserve a partner like her, but he sure wasn't letting go.






They stayed up until midnight, curled on the floor among case files, burgers, and sweet potato fries and hunched over with photos of evidence as they connected lines together and mounted an indestructible prosecution.

Sure, the Wright Agency always found a crack or two to slip through, but Sebastian had long since grown accustomed to Attorney Cykes' wiles. As long as Kay was curled up beside him, half-asleep and drifting into her own world, he could continue to work, and he would continue to prove the entire office wrong.

He had forgotten the most important piece of evidence: as long as he was with her, he wasn't alone, and even the quietest, creakiest office could feel full of life.