Summary: Inspired by some lines in Walking on Eggshells by icecreamlova. Phoenix and Edgeworth talk about Phoenix's relationship with Iris. Spoilers for T&T and AJ. Phoenix/Iris, and P/E as good friends.
Disclaimer: Don't own Ace Attorney.
Y'know, 'cause on hindsight, it's really all Edgey's fault that Iris told the truth to Phoenix anyway. :P This is a story where Phoenix finds out about that, and near the end, the effects of it into the AJ arc.
I don't actually know where I got this idea. I was playing Turnabout Succession. But this is more on Bridge to the Turnabout. Oh well.
~ Saguru 3
Phoenix panted as he made his way up to the twelfth floor of the Prosecutor's Office, cursing. The elevator had broken due to a particularly heavy piece of evidence falling through the hole and piercing a large hole in the elevator floor, and it was causing quite the commotion downstairs.
A day after Iris's final day of trial, Edgeworth had called him up to ask him for Iris's hood. It had been an evidence of sorts, and had to be filed. In some way. It was all blurry, but Phoenix knew it had to be done.
He didn't want to give up the hood. It was, after all, Iris's, and she had given it to him out of…
He'd shaken his head vigorously. He still couldn't think it.
So he handed over the hood without complaint when Detective Gumshoe drove by later that day.
Edgeworth had called again earlier today, and said that it didn't have to be kept. Phoenix had fired up, and he struggled not to let it show, even through his voice.
"Wright?" Edgeworth had prompted. Phoenix realized in horror that he hadn't spoken since he'd said it.
"Oh—ah, yes. I'll come over. What time shall I, and where the hell is your office again?"
"Two o'clock should be fine. Just go to the twelfth floor and look for 1202. I'll be seeing you later, Wright."
"Wait—twelfth floor? Edgeworth, that building better have an elevator."
"Of course it does."
He hung up.
And so we find Phoenix, sarcastically laughing at the irony of it. He paused for a while outside Edgeworth's door, double-checking the office number and trying to catch his breath.
Edgeworth's muffled voice bade him to enter as he knocked. The first thing that Phoenix noticed was Iris's hood on his desk, neatly folded.
"Have a seat, Wright."
Surprised, but not wanting to be rude, Phoenix sunk onto one chair in front of Edgeworth's desk.
As Edgeworth took his seat, Phoenix said, "Why did they suddenly change their mind about keeping the hood? It is evidence." He thought it over. "Of sorts."
"I don't really know," Edgeworth said, gazing at the hood absentmindedly. "Perhaps it's too irrelevant…"
Phoenix sat in anticipation, waiting for whatever Edgeworth wanted to talk to him about. When none came, he said, "Er… and why did you ask me to sit down…?"
"Did Iris tell you the truth?"
Completely taken aback, Phoenix said, a bit loudly, "She did. In court. And you saw that, Edgeworth, didn't you? I would kill myself now if you weren't in the gallery or something."
"I was," the prosecutor said. "But, aside from that, have you gone down to jail, to talk more about it?"
Phoenix shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and summarized the facts. It all boiled down to one: why was Edgeworth suddenly so curious about his personal life?
"Why are you asking me this?" Phoenix said in a low voice. "Not that I mean to be rude, but you're… unrelated."
Edgeworth gazed off to the side, trying to find the right words. "Before I defended her, I… we… made a deal."
"A deal?"
"In the Detention Center, yes." Edgeworth was hesitant.
"Edgeworth, if it's a deal that includes me in some way, I think I have a right—"
"I told her I would defend her if only she would tell you the truth."
Phoenix stared at him dumbfoundedly, eyes wide, his mouth slightly open.
"Breathe, Wright."
Phoenix blinked. "So, er—" He was, weirdly, near laughing. "Oh, wow."
"Think of it as a childhood friend thing. It works that way, no?"
Phoenix collapsed back in his seat. "You know, of all the people I would have thought I'd be discussing my lovelife with, you are at the very bottom of the list."
"Below Larry?"
Phoenix and Edgeworth both laughed. "Well, okay, maybe not. Above Larry, most certainly."
"Oh, by the way, Wright, you said 'lovelife'."
That shut Phoenix up.
"You know it's awkward, Miles. I can call you that, right?"
"Yes. Anyway, if you must know, I too am clueless as to why I am curious about your… personal life."
Phoenix managed not to roll his eyes.
"She told me you'd be better off not knowing about her."
The defense attorney looked up at Edgeworth's voice, surprised. "I—"
"And that she could never help you. Just hurt you."
Phoenix had no reply. He absentmindedly touched his attorney's badge, that little golden piece of metal… It must have been there, when Edgeworth wore it on his lapel, when he'd asked him to defend her for him… when she said that, all that.
"Now I wish I'd installed a recorder or something in here."
"Trust me. I had to break through several of those Psycholock things you mentioned."
Phoenix always knew she'd never tell Edgeworth outright. "I knew you would. The Magatama is extremely useful in defense."
After a few minutes in silence, Phoenix said in a quiet voice, still twitching his badge, "The day that Mia got Dahlia convicted… I knew she wasn't the woman I had loved. I held on to that belief strongly… for years. Somehow, I knew that Iris existed. But I had no proof. The years passed, and soon, that… belief faded into a curiosity. When Pearls showed me the magazine, I wondered. I was afraid of what I might find at Hakarazuka, but still I went. If she was Dahlia, then I was going to take her down once more. If she was the other, unverified woman I loved… then I could, finally, get to the bottom of this… of it."
Miles listened to every word. Not one to give emotional advice, he tried in vain to look for some words, but Phoenix simply said, "You don't have to say anything." Phoenix smiled slightly. "I did need someone to talk to, and you wanted to hear it, so there. Win-win."
"Thank you for talking to me."
"Thank you for listening."
"And… sorry for not being able to say anything," Edgeworth said stiffly.
Phoenix looked Edgeworth over with a smirk on his face. "I wonder why."
Edgeworth rolled his eyes, forced to stop the recollection of that conversation with Detective Gumshoe at the edge of the broken Dusky Bridge.
"Hey, I was just thinking!"
"I'm busy, Wright. I have no interest in such matters. Or, for that matter, time."
"Well, suit yourself." Phoenix stood to leave. "I'm sorry, but I have to go… Maya wants to go eat at the burger joint."
Edgeworth, surprising even himself, said, "Can I come…?"
Phoenix smirked. "I thought you had no time?"
Edgeworth bit back the retort. He'd been looking for an escape from one of the new detectives, who was apparenly a big fan of him and had been clamoring at his door for an autograph whenever time permitted him. This trip with Wright could be his escape.
"I was joking. Are you coming, or what?"
Out the door, Phoenix was obviously wondering why Edgeworth was tagging along, and he voiced this. Edgeworth explained to him the matter of the detective, and Phoenix muttered something that sounded like 'fanboy'.
"Shut it, Phoenix."
That night, Maya had roped over Detective Gumshoe, Larry, and Pearls, so they had a very loud but fun time in the burger joint, listening to Larry mope about 'moving on from Iris', which made Phoenix uncomfortable and forced Edgeworth to cover for him, even partially. Only Phoenix noticed this, of course, and marveled at how Edgeworth had changed toward people, not only him.
-xxxxx-
"Showdown time."
Flick, flick. Swish.
"Oh, I lose? Again?!"
Phoenix Wright avoided the awestruck stares of everyone in the Hydeout, and faced his sole challenger. "Thank you for the game, sir, but as I said before the game, I have a dinner date to go to," he said in a nonchalant voice.
The challenger growled a few words of approval, and Phoenix needed no more. He grabbed a bottle of grape juice and bolted upstairs to hail a taxi.
Fifteen minutes later, he stepped into the Wright Anything Agency, and saw a flash of blue bounce toward him.
"Daddy, you're early!"
"Hiya, Trucy." He looked around. Trucy answered the unasked question.
"Oh, Polly's in the kitchen."
"Dinner's ready if you want some now, Mr. Wright," Apollo Justice looked around the corner, wearing an apron.
"Thanks. Nice apron, by the way."
Apollo blushed, but Trucy chirped, "I told him I'd give him some of my pudding if he wore the apron. A deal, see?"
As Apollo and Trucy argued in the background, Phoenix sat down to eat and thought back to the day Miles had told him about his deal.
Miles Edgeworth was still a prosecutor, but most of his time he spend abroad, giving legal advice and studying foreign laws. He and Phoenix had kept contact through e-mail and phone, through all these years. Edgeworth still came back from time to time, though. They had, though not said directly, vowed to change the law so that the innocent would be released and the guilty convicted.
Phoenix had told him about the Jurist System, and Edgeworth had seemed amused when he said that he had an accomplice, and an adopted daughter. Edgeworth spoke of the abnormal laws in other places in the world—he had seen contradicting laws and laws that were obviously made to cover for bribing criminals.
Neither of them had to say anything about it. They had to change the law, to fulfill that unspoken vow.
Turning his thoughts to a lighter note, Phoenix reminisced about the times when they'd tease each other, sounding oddly formal yet teenager-ish at the same time, about their 'personal lives'. Edgeworth, from what he could discern, was still single.
Trucy's words broke into his thoughts.
"…a new mommy!"
Phoenix laughed, his usual, carefree laugh. He hadn't told Edgeworth about the part that his daughter had an endearing habit of asking him to look for a mommy.
He looked at Trucy's teasing face, and around her silk hat, part of Apollo's bemused smirk. He had taken off the apron. "Trucy, you can't hurry those kinds of things along," he said, bowing slightly, so that the beanie partially covered his eyes. "And while waiting, why don't you ask Apollo about his—"
Apollo blushed once more as Trucy rounded on him; Phoenix laughed. It's weird that his defendant in such a famous case is also his… interest. Also.
Because seriously! Vera was Apollo's last defendant (... so far) and Iris was Phoenix's (... in his arc, anyway). Hahaha. Maybe that's why Edgeworth doesn't.. y'know.
KIDDING. =))
Read and review please--
~ Saguru