Phoenix Wright's heart felt unusually heavy for that of a fourth grader. Maybe it was puberty coming early. Or maybe it was the fact that almost no one had spoken to him for four days after the mock trial held in class. All around him were wary glances and the occasional whisper that his classmates thought he hadn't noticed.

Perhaps Miles' word hadn't been enough for them. Or perhaps they'd been waiting to pick on him from the start and now they had a reason to. Whatever it was, he was uneasy. He had a feeling that things wouldn't be the same again for awhile. The words still resounded in his ears (we won't play with you anymore) like an alarm he couldn't turn off (give him what he deserves punish him punish him PUNISH HIM.)

Phoenix let out a long sigh, kicking a rock off into the road with one dirty sneaker. It hadn't stopped raining ever since the fateful event. Maybe it was a sign from above that he was doomed. At least he had an umbrella, albeit an ugly, bright pink one.

He was rudely jolted out of his train of thought by the loud splash of a car going by and a wave of dirty water that his umbrella was very little defense against.

"Watch who you're driving past!" The comment didn't have much contempt in it. To be honest, Phoenix's mind felt too weighed down to feel much contempt for anything as of late.

"Do you really expect the driver to hear you?" a flat voice said from behind him. Phoenix spun around, only to face a soaking wet, irritated-looking Miles Edgeworth. "They're most likely listening to the radio and focusing on the road."

Phoenix stared at him blankly. His far-too-formal clothes were sticking to his body and he looked as though he was trying to seem as though he wasn't shivering when he quite obviously was. "Don't you have an umbrella? What kind of idiot goes out in the rain without an umbrella?"

"Someone stole mine, I believe." Phoenix could hear Miles' teeth chattering as he spoke. "No matter. I can get one when I get home."
"What good will it do you there? Here, take mine!" Phoenix was thrusting his bright pink umbrella into Miles' hands before he had a chance to think twice about it. "I don't live far away, you can just give it back to me tomorrow!" In a softer tone, he added. "I-it's the least I can do after...what happened…"

"Ridiculous. It doesn't do us any good if one of us freezes to death. I propose that we share. I am as much in debt to you as you are to me."

"What's that supposed to mean?! You saved my butt back there!"

Miles stepped under Phoenix's umbrella, and Phoenix had to lift it up a little higher to accommodate the taller boy. "You gave me a chance to practice skills that will one day be useful in court. I'm going to become a defense attorney, you know." His voice had taken on a somewhat dreamy tone.

"Yeah, I know. You were...you were really cool! You seemed totally professional!"

"Thank you, Phoenix. You know, you've got a fascinating name." Phoenix looked puzzled, so Miles kept talking. "A phoenix dies and then rises from the ashes its previous body died in and is born again, you know? I believe that you are as much a phoenix as the mythical bird. You are perfectly capable of rising above the trial a few days ago."

Phoenix opened his mouth, then closed it again, unsure of what to say. "O-oh...t-thank you...Miles…"

"You're welcome."

Phoenix found himself smiling all of the sudden. There were very few people who actually said 'you're welcome' at all, let alone in such a serious tone of voice. "Miles?"
"Yes?"

"You sit all alone at lunch all the time...d-d'you wanna sit with me and Larry? He's not a bad guy, I promise, I mean, he's kinda dumb sometimes but he makes good jokes and if you're nice to him he'll give you the crackers his mom gives him every day for lunch 'cause he doesn't like them, and he's not really all that smelly. I mean, what I'm really asking is...do you want to be my friend?"

"That's...fairly blunt of you." But Miles was smiling now too. It was out of character for him, Phoenix didn't think he'd ever seen him smile before. Let alone the huge grin said smile was turning into.

"So is that a yes?" Phoenix couldn't stop himself from beaming.

"I don't think friendship can just be created that easily...but after what happened, I believe I'm inclined to accept."

"So you mean you'll sit with me and we can be partners for our science project?! Y...you don't have a partner yet, do you?"

Miles laughed. "No, I don't. I accept that, too. You're not doing that well in science, are you, Phoenix?"

"N-no." Phoenix looked down, feeling color creep into his cheeks. "You could help me! I'll help you with history too if you want! You can come over to my house and we can study together sometime maybe! Larry can come too if that's alright and we can all study together!"

Phoenix had a habit of his words running into each other and not making much sense when he got excited, and now he was particularly aware of this habit. "Y-yes, I'd like that." Miles' grin had faded to an almost shy smile that for some reason he couldn't place made Phoenix's heart speed up.

"U-uh, I just remembered something."

"Yes?"

"I...take the bus home. What was I doing walking?" Phoenix put his face in his hands, suddenly swept with a wave of embarrassment. "I missed the bus. Darn." Miles looked puzzled for a moment, then burst into hysterical laughter. That was another thing Phoenix had never seen him do-laugh. "H-hey, it's not funny!"

Miles wiped his eyes, his speech scattered with occasional giggles. "I-I'm sorry...but….that is…really, really funny." He cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter, looking embarrassed at having lost his cool.

Something about the way his expression looked made Phoenix start laughing equally hard. "What's so funny, Wright?!" But Miles was laughing too, and pretty soon both of them had fallen over into one of the puddles on the ground and even though they were both even colder and wetter, Phoenix had forgotten that a few days ago had ever even happened.

i'm only on the first game and this is my first time writing for this fandom i'm a little scared,,haha,, writing this made me sad bc of how close they probably were as kids and then how they ended up as adults,,