KICKIN' AWESOME AWESOME thumbnail artwork is by nimpnawakproduction-from a livestream she did that I attended; I requested Emperor Miles. THANKS! ^)^
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Dedicated, with much love, to studiokawaii, akunochi2480, metaphoricalmelodies and adventuresofsarahjane1975.
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A/N: Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright do not belong to me; they belong to CAPCOM. The plot however, is mine as are other incidental characters that appear! ^)^
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Prequel to Caged Heart. Where it all began.
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My 110th fic! *confetti* Enjoy! ^)^
Rated K+, Drama/Fantasy, Fairy Tale AU, male/male relationships, Phoenix x Edgeworth
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Once upon a time there was a kingdom in a far away land in the days of long, long ago. It was age when people and magical creatures, big and small, all lived together and were ruled over all by Emperor Miles in his great city in the heart of the kingdom.
The Emperor, although having once been a kind and gentle boy, was now a hard, distant and cold man, his heart encased behind a wall of ice. He had been this way for many a long year and no one in his kingdom was ever really certain as to the reason. Some postulated that he'd been hurt by a woman who had jilted him and he had therefore retreated within himself; others thought that it resulted from the sadness at the passing of his father, the Old Emperor and there were others who thought that he had always been this way.
The truth of the matter was quite simple: his heart was encased in ice due to the betrayal of his most trusted councilor. The young Emperor, bereft and mourning his father's passing, had thought that he had loved him; when he discovered the terrible that this man had not only never had any loving feelings toward him at all but he also had been plotting to overthrow him, take his throne and kingdom and rule in his place.
Heartbroken, the young Emperor had retreated within himself, ice forming around his heart after his councilor's betrayal, burying his feelings so deeply within him that it appeared-to those who did not know him from his youth-that he was ruthless, hard and cold, predictably shunning him.
This suited the young man and he retreated even further within himself as the years passed, becoming ever more distant. He lived alone in his great palace, playing his lyre in his solar to pass the lonely hours; some of his servants-excepting the ones who were devoted to him despite his cold nature-wanted nothing to do with him and only stayed long enough to see to his needs before they left to go to their own homes, leaving him to himself.
In the early evenings, no matter what the season, the Emperor would stroll over to the double French windows in his solar and open them wide, gazing over his magnificent garden that surrounded the palace, his hand resting on the windowsill and looking over the garden as twilight slowly spread over the land in soft shades of orange and red, brilliant stars twinkling brightly in the sky.
He stood there for hours, looking at the night sky, thinking his own private thoughts, listening to the sweet music of the song birds that lived in his garden's trees, his face a grim mask. There was one song that seemed to flow most sweetly out of the darkness and he couldn't help but be drawn to it, tilting his head slightly to the right in order to hear it better. The melody was so sweet that he felt his heart spasm; he grimaced and turned away from the window, his hand clenching into a fist.
The song reminded him of his own lost past of the happy days with his father before his untimely death and the betrayal of the man he thought had loved him; he didn't understand why the man had taken him under his wing in the first place but it hurt too much to remember and he thrust that memory as far away from him as he could, burying it deep in his mind.
He felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes and he willed himself not to feel, pushing it away until it stayed buried, the tears a distant memory as he closed himself further behind an impenetrable wall of ice.
He sighed, lowered his head for a moment and then lifted it again, squaring his jaw and his hand clenching into a fist. What was past was past and he knew that there was no point in going over it again; his beloved father was gone, he had been betrayed and he promised himself that he would never let himself feel, that no one could ever touch him again. The trusting, loving boy he'd once been had died within him and the man was hard, distant and cold; untouchable and unfeeling.
He stood for awhile longer staring out into the darkness in silence before he slowly turned away, pulling the shutters closed behind him and locking them. So far as he knew, no one was watching him as he retired for the evening to his exquisite bedchamber but that was where the Emperor was wrong; he did have an observer and one that was much closer to him than he thought.
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The young male phoenix watched him with interest as he perched in the tree near the Emperor's bedchamber window, his cerulean blue eyes locked onto him as he spread his wings, fluffing his damp, rainbow colored feathers before tucking in his wings close to his side.
He was one of the rarest of his kind: a bird with the ability to take human form. When he did, he preferred to take on the shape of a young male with cerulean blue eyes and jet-black hair that stuck out from the back of his head in soft spikes, dressed in a blue suit.
He watched the Emperor curiously from his perch, wondering why he felt such an attraction to this cold man. He knew, from having watched him since he was a boy, that he wasn't always like this; he knew that he had once been kind, loving and caring but had barricaded himself behind a wall after he had been betrayed.
The young phoenix hurt for him, his heart also being pierced with sorrow at the young Emperor's pain and, hoping to cheer him, the phoenix sang his best and sweetest songs every morning and every evening. Spring, summer and autumn, no matter what the season, no matter the weather, the phoenix sang his sweet songs, putting his heart into them.
It happened over the course of five years that the phoenix suddenly realized that his heart was beating faster whenever he was in the tree outside of the Emperor's bedchamber window which was accompanied by a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever he saw the Emperor standing there and he was puzzled by these new, and decidedly strange, feelings.
He pondered for some months over just what manner of feelings that these might be; he also noticed that the Emperor was more often than not in his thoughts from the moment he awoke in early time before dawn until he went to sleep after his evening song.
The phoenix was more puzzled than ever over the strength of these confusing and confounding feelings and a little frightened of them, as well; he had never experienced something akin to this before and he had no idea what was causing them or even how to deal with them.
I wonder what this means?
To add to his confusion, there came another new feeling quick on the heels of those: he began to yearn after the Emperor, wanting to be with him and happy to be in close proximity to him. This surprised him even more for he did not understand what, exactly, these feelings represented in the human world.
He wished with all of his heart that he had had someone to talk to about this new, and very confusing, batch of feelings that were running through him. There was no other of his kind that he could go to for advice and surely, they would not have understood even if he had; these were human emotions and he knew that there was no other among them who was like him who would undertand the intricacies of the human heart.
During the long, cold winter months, he took human form and lived in the country on a small farm that had been given to him by a grateful farmer and pondered the mysteries of humanity and their very complex, and oft conflicting, emotions.
He had plenty to eat from the fruit trees that he cultivated from saplings he had brought with him from his homeland along with cheese that some kind neighbors had given to him in exchange for his help on their farms and bread that he baked himself so he wasn't in want from lack of food. There were plenty of opportunities to study humans when some troubled souls had come to see him, seeking a sympathetic ear and a kind heart, which he never failed to give them.
From this, he gleaned that these often odd-and very contradictory feelings-stemmed from romantic love, the love that one had for a beloved and not the ones that one had for a parent, child, friend or even for a respected teacher. It was often confusing, he noticed, that these kinds of loving feelings could be so inextricably linked and yet there were those who weren't certain that there were, indeed, loved by those whom they loved.
It certainly is mystifying, the phoenix mused to himself as he prepared his evening meal of bread, cheese and fruit seeds, since there are so many different kinds of love. From what I can see, sometimes those who hold these kinds of feelings aren't certain of what they mean or they aren't certain if the objects of their affections feel the same way toward them. He mulled it over as he ate,chewing thoughtfully. What is the kind I am feeling toward the Emperor?
It stayed at the forefront of his mind all through that long winter and into the spring and summer, too. The years passed and still he was no closer to an answer than he had been fifteen years earlier but the feelings persisted and he couldn't ignore the tugging on his heart whenever he saw the Emperor standing at his bedchamber window, looking out into the garden.
It was almost time to begin his evening songs and the phoenix's heart started to beat double time as he looked upon him, his beak parting slightly, his cerulean blue eyes widening. The first flush of youth was gone and the Emperor was now a man, and a most handsome one he was; the phoenix watched him as he flew into a tree that was closer to the Emperor's window, yearning filling him with almost unbearable desire.
There was the Emperor, dressed in his rich, royal robes with a golden crown on his head. His dark grey hair parted into sharp bangs on both sides of his face while his piercing grey eyes looked over the garden, the high cheekbones, his cupid lips turned down at the corners and the beauty of his chiseled face made him look like a statue and his manner made him as cold, and remote, as one.
The phoenix noticed that the expression on his face wasn't one to encourage anyone to come closer but this didn't matter to him at all as he couldn't tear his eyes away from him and felt his heart thudding hard against his chest, a throbbing pulse so loud that he was surprised that the Emperor couldn't hear it.
Emperor... Beloved... The thought raced through his mind before he had a chance to even breathe, accompanied by a longing that filled his entire being. The phoenix blinked in surprise, wondering where that thought had come from and why he'd referred to the Emperor as beloved. As far as he knew form his dealings in the human realm, one only used that title for someone who they were in love with, a romantic love, especially.
The phoenix mulled it over in his mind as he prepared himself to sing for the Emperor, his thoughts whirling over one another in a dizzying array. He sang as he always did but this time it was different and even he knew that it was; the song spoke of the yearning to love, the sweet surrender to the loved one, giving one's heart to another.
He sang of the mysteries of the human heart and, despite the sorrow that sometimes came along with it, love would always find a way to be reborn. He sang of the sorrows of parting but also of the joys that came with being reunited with the loved one, putting his heart into every one of his songs. He also noticed that the Emperor had a strange look on his face, a look of longing mixed with a desperate sadness that slowly faded to be replaced with the hard expression he always wore, the hand lying on the windowsill curling into a fist.
What could this be? the phoenix wondered as the first rays of dawn shone over the horizon and his song ended. He noticed that the Emperor hand't moved from his place by the window and the phoenix watched him, his head tilting slightly to the right, his eyes widening with surprise when he saw two tears trickling down the Emperor's face, shining on his cheeks.
The phoenix longed to go to him to comfort him but he didn't dare. Instead, he stayed where he was and watched in silence as the Emperor whirled suddenly, his robes swirling about him as he slammed the window shut, his face a mask of pain.
Beloved... The thought came again, unbidden and this time there was no mistaking it: the phoenix was in love with the Emperor and the desperate yearning he felt in his breast only confirmed it. The phoenix touched the tip of his rainbow-colored wing to his chest and looked back up at the closed window again, his heart going with the man who lay behind that stone wall.
He stayed in the garden over the rest of the summer and into late autumn until the winter when he retreated to his farm, his mind whirling with the possibilities. How could something like this work, let alone even happen? He was a phoenix and the Emperor was a mortal man. By all indications, there was no proof that the Emperor was capable of love, or even returning his affections but he knew, without a second thought, that there was always hope and he was willing to take the chance.
He had to meet the Emperor but how? The man wouldn't come to meet him, that much was certain, which meant that he would have to go to the Emperor. The phoenix mulled this over that winter and into the spring, his mind going over how he could meet the him. He couldn't go to him in his human form; since the Emperor's heart was still locked behind a wall of ice, he couldn't appear to him as a human but had to remain a bird until the ice around his heart melted.
The young phoenix dreamed of the Emperor often and it was in this wise that he was able to meet him in his garden, walking and talking with him in his human form. The Emperor wasn't at all happy with this-he could see this plainly in the irritation that appeared on his handsome face-but, over time, he came to grudgingly accept his presence.
The phoenix did this for quite some time until one day two years later. That winter was a very cruel one, the frost laying thick on the ground, the snow piling up six feet deep in some places, a bitterly cold wind along with a damp that chilled men to the bone. The phoenix, in his human form, looked out of the window of his small home, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth as he watched the snow drifting past. His longing for the Emperor had not ceased after all this time and his heart cried out in pain as the yearning for his beloved became overwhelming.
The sun had already set when he came to a decision: he would go to the Emperor. He couldn't stand it any longer; he had to be with his beloved although he knew that he was taking a terrible risk with the raging snowstorm outside. He hesitated only a moment before he stepped outside, taking a deep breath, closing and locking the door behind him, his fingertips trailing slowly, affectionately down the wood of the outside door frame. He didn't know at this juncture if he would ever come back to his peaceful cottage but had left in the care of others who would look after it so he was content.
With one last, lingering look at his home, he then gazed up at the sky for a moment and then lifted his arms and closed his eyes, murmuring soft words, feeling that familiar twist as he changed into a bird, his heart beating hard in his chest.
He waited a few moments more before he opened his eyes, blinking twice, spreading out his wings.
I'm coming, Beloved, he thought as he took wing, flying into the teeth of the storm with strong wing beats, his eyes narrowed in order to shield out some of the stinging snowflakes. All will be well; you'll see!
.:FIN:.