Chapter 3

Miles unlocked the doors to his car before going inside through the driver's door. He inserted the key and turned on his car, so that he could also turn on the heater. He buckled his seat belt and waited for Phoenix to do the same.

Phoenix quickly shut his door and buckled his belt and quietly said, "At least it's warm in here."

Miles nodded quietly, before concentrating on driving home. All the homes around his house had bright, cheerful, colorful lights and other Holiday decorations. His, however, had none. He never gave a though of buying ornaments of any kind since he was home alone most of the time. Compared to everyone else's, his seemed a lot gloomier.

When Miles finally parked and stopped the car, Phoenix got out, waiting to follow Miles to the door of Miles's home. Phoenix had also made note of the lack of decoration and light on Miles's house, and usually he would have cracked a joke about it, but now he felt that this ironically fit his mood.

Miles got out of his car, locking it after. He went to his front door to unlock it. Right when the door made a click noise, signaling it was unlock, Pess's loud barks could be heard. He opened the door and Pess scrambled out barking loudly. He first went for Miles, but after seeing Phoenix, he bounded towards him, tail wagging viciously.

Phoenix saw Pess coming toward him, so he bent down and gave Pess a few half hearted pets. Pess stopped wagging his tail and seemed to regard Phoenix curiously for a moment before letting out a little whine, as if he was asking Phoenix what was wrong. Phoenix just let out a little sigh, pet Pess a few more times, and then stood up to join Miles inside.

Miles had already disappeared into the living room. The house was chillier than he thought it would be.

"Phoenix, close the door once Pess comes back in." He was starting a fire in his fireplace. He probably would have to turn on the heater too. The fireplace only warmed the living room and the heater only seemed to warm up the bedrooms.

Phoenix called to Pess to get him back in the house, and then he shut the door, also feeling cold. When he entered the living room, he was glad to see Miles starting a fire, feeling like sitting in front of a fire was a nice idea in this sort of weather. Phoenix just took a seat on a couch in the living room, watching Miles.

Once the fire started, Miles stood up.

"I'm going to get spare blankets and pillows." He walked out of the living room, also turning on the heater since the girls would be occupying one of the rooms to watch their movies, than he proceeded to retrieve what he was intentionally getting. Pess had followed Phoenix and was now sitting at Phoenix's feet pawing at him. Although that seemed quickly to bore the dog too. Pess left to find a toy of some kind, hitting the small tablet next to the couch, one of the picture frames falling onto it next to Phoenix.

Phoenix reached over, picking up the fallen picture to see if the glass in the frame had cracked. When he determined the frame was alright, he examined the picture. He realized it was the picture everyone had taken together after the trial where Phoenix had defended Miles.

How did he get a copy of this picture...? Phoenix thought, surprised he'd never noticed it's presence in the living room before.

The rest of the small table seemed to be lined with pictures from when they were still in the same school together. Unlike the Edgeworth now, the child in the pictures was smiling happily, his eyes shining with that of a carefree child in those frames. A loud thud and barking was heard in the hallway, which was soon followed by shouts.

"Pess!!" Anyone would find this current scene hilarious. It seemed that Pess had been able to get his master down and was now seated on top of the many blankets and pillows that were on top of Miles.

Phoenix rushed over when he heard the thud and shouts to find Pess pinning Miles down under all the blankets, frantically licking his face. Phoenix couldn't help but be amused.

"Need a little help?" Phoenix asked softly, a half smile on his face.

"Must you ask?" Miles couldn't help but smile slightly. Pess barked happily, seeming to be much happier now that they were smiling a little more.

Phoenix called Pess over to get him off of Miles, and then he simultaneously pet Pess and held out a hand to help Miles up.

Miles took his hand. "T-Thanks." It seemed he still had trouble saying his thanks to others. Pess barked happily, enjoying the petting.

Phoenix just smiled and pulled Miles up. Phoenix gave Pess one last nuzzle behind the ears, and then he took some of the blankets that Miles was holding to help him carry them out to the living room. When they got there, Phoenix's eyes once again fell on that picture.

"Hey, Miles...how did you get that picture?" Phoenix asked after setting down the blankets he was carrying on the sofa near him.

"Urk!" Miles said in surprise to the question.

To tell the truth, getting that picture was harder than it seemed. It had taken him a good week to find the pointless information Lotta Hart wanted and he didn't even know why she needed it. He also was given very suspicious looks and was questioned by Lotta when he had asked for the photo. He quickly put the blankets and pillows down and proceeded to change the subject.

"I wonder when those two will arrive."

Phoenix wondered for a moment why Miles avoided his question, but then he remembered that it was Lotta who took the picture, and for Miles to get the picture, he must have had to dig up some rather strange information for her. Phoenix decided that maybe he was better off not knowing.

"I think it's taking them a while since Maya is horribly indecisive when she has a large amount of choices to see." Phoenix said in amusement as he remembered the last time he went to rent movies with Maya.

"I suppose she's coming with more than one movie." More like more than ten movies...He bet Phoenix was thinking the same thing. He was relieved Phoenix didn't question why he had avoided the question about the picture though. "Just what type of movies does she rent anyways?" That isn't the Steel Samurai or Pink Princess? He sat next to Pess who had ended up lying near the fireplace lazily.

"Well, she does like the Steel Samurai and Pink Princess movies a lot, but she sure loves those romantic comedies." Phoenix said with a small smile, walking to Miles and then taking a seat next to him in front of the fire place.

The closeness to Miles felt really nice, and it helped Phoenix feel slightly better. Phoenix lay his head lightly on Miles's shoulder, trying to get relaxed.

"I thought she was more for the action movies than romantic ones." Miles leaned so that his head was slightly resting on Phoenix's, looking into the fire. He wanted to ask him so many questions, but not yet. He didn't want to get interrupted so he would have to wait. He pulled Phoenix closer to him, enjoying his company immensely.

Phoenix wasn't much in the mood to talk, so he didn't really say anything. He just snuggled close to Miles and let out a little sigh, glad that he'd finally found a quiet moment with Miles.

That quiet moment was soon destroyed as a loud banging noise was heard on his door. Pess barked and ran for the door, knowing more people had come. Miles sighed and asked, "She does know there's such things as doorbells right?" Miles said dryly as he lightly pushed Phoenix off so he could get the door and let the two in before Maya broke down his currently abused door, as Pess was now pawing at it too.

When Miles opened the door, Maya and Mai came in quickly since it was pretty cold outside at this point, the light slowly fading.

"Sorry we took so long...Maya took forever to pick the movies she wanted to see." Mai said, rolling her eyes a little at how long it took.

"Hey! I wanted to make sure we had the perfect movies!" Maya said defensively, looking at Mai in slight annoyance.

"Exactly how many movies did you rent?" He closed the door after them, locking it. Pess ran around the two, wanting to be petted. "The heater is on so the rooms are warm and the fireplace in the living room is lit. There are also blankets on the couch." He was already heading back to the living room, already missing Phoenix's company.

Maya noticed Pess running around both of them, so she bent down and enthusiastically petted him and played with him a little. Mai looked into the living room and noticed Phoenix was sitting by the fire and Miles going back to join him. She decided that she and Maya had already ruined their date, so the least that they could do now was leave them alone for a while.

"Hey, Maya, maybe we should start on those movies inside." Mai said, making her way to the room in the back that had the tv.

"But what about Nick and Mr. Edgeworth? Wouldn't they want to see them too?" Maya said, starting to go to the living room to ask them to watch the movies too.

"I really think we should leave them alone. We already ruined their date, you know." Mai said in a firm tone, "Also...I think they should talk. Phoenix has seemed to be in a bad mood since we left Gourd Lake."

Maya pondered this momentarily and then said, "Yeah...I guess you're right."

Maya went into the living room to get some blankets for herself and Mai and then left quickly to not disturb Miles and Phoenix.

Miles grabbed one of the larger blankets and seated himself next to Phoenix, wrapping it around the both of them. Luckily, Pess had followed Maya and Mai to the room where they'd be watching the movies. He wanted to ask Phoenix, but he suddenly found himself afraid of bringing back painful memories to him. But he knew that if he didn't ask, Phoenix would keep acting this way.

"Phoenix...I want to ask you something."

"Hmmm?" Phoenix asked softly, putting his arms around Miles to snuggle with him.

Phoenix had a feeling about what Miles wanted to ask him. He took a deep breath to as if to give himself some strength and he waited for Miles to ask.

"I-I..." He paused trying to collect himself. "I want to know what happened to your parents." Miles wrapped his arms around Phoenix pulling him as close as he could.

Phoenix was silent for a long moment, feeling his eyes beginning to tear up.

"I really miss them, you know..." Phoenix whispered softly, trying not to break down so that he could keep talking.

Miles was quiet, but he was listening. He knew the feeling and it showed in his eyes, but he wasn't going to cry this time. He would be strong for Phoenix so he could get through this.

Phoenix took another deep breath so that he could keep talking.

"I was about 20 at the time and I'd just had my license for a few weeks. My parents and I had taken a trip up to the mountains for the holidays. On the way back, I wanted to drive since I finally had my license and all…by the time we left the mountain lodge, it was getting dark, and it was hard to see the road, so I was driving really slow."

Phoenix's voice began to quiver, but he willed himself on.

"…I suddenly saw headlights coming up really fast behind us from around the curve in the road, and before we even knew what was happening, we were hit hard and our car was spinning out of control."

Miles had started stroking Phoenix's head, but remained silent. He didn't want to stop Phoenix from talking while he still had the strength to. Many thoughts went through his head, that it became hard to tell what he was actually thinking or not. He kept Phoenix as close to himself as he could. So he had a license at one point... He could already tell that the outcome would be horrifying, but he didn't know at what level. He felt guilty for some reason. It seemed that his father's death was less traumatizing than what Phoenix had went through, although he had completely forgotten about the age differences at this time.

Phoenix could feel the tears welling up in his eyes now, but he ignored that and kept talking.

"Finally we hit the divider on the side of the road, and we teetered on the edge of the mountain cliff before falling off. As soon as we crashed to the ground, I passed out. When I woke up, I realized that I was still in the driver's seat, and that the car had crashed on the passenger side of the car where my dad was sitting. I tried to see if he was alright, but it was just so dark…I looked behind me and I saw my mom hanging limply from the seatbelt in the seat behind me."

Miles couldn't even bring himself to imagine the scene Phoenix had just described. To lose your parents...and actually see them dead like that... The thought made his whole body feel cold even though he was underneath a blanket near the fire. It scared him even more to think that Phoenix could have died with them. The thought of losing Phoenix sent a jolt of pain through his heart. It's selfish of me to think this way right now... He couldn't help it though. Phoenix had become too important to him. He kept his eyes on him though. Even though it hurt to see tears forming in his eyes. He couldn't turn away, it would be a cowardly thing to do. He wished he could do something to ease the pain, but he didn't know how to. At least not at the moment. Miles reached a hand forward to lightly touch Phoenix's face, as if to show him his support.

Now Phoenix's voice was cracking, and the tears started running freely down his cheeks.

"I…I pushed my door open…undid my seat belt and crawled out somehow. I…I wanted…to help them…but, God, everything hurt…I felt so weak…I passed out again when I was out of the car. When…I woke up…I was in the hospital. I kept asking them if my parents were alright…but finally they told me they were dead…"

By this point, having relived the entire horrible experience, he started choking on silent sobs.

"…God…I keep feeling like it was my fault…" Phoenix whispered between his sobs.