Chapter 4

Edgeworth knew exactly what Phoenix's intention was. Or at least what it seemed like Phoenix was trying to do. Ever since he was young he had held Phoenix dear to him. These feelings becoming much stronger after Phoenix defended him in court. That year he was all alone his mind had kept wandering back to Phoenix. He had spent a lot of that year musing what he had been doing, always getting a strange feeling when he thought that Phoenix must have gotten together with some lovely girl. He had slowly started leaning towards Phoenix when he remembered about that girl he was with. He quickly turned away. He needed to find out who that girl was first and why she was important to Phoenix.

"W-Wait, what about that girl?" He looked at Phoenix, confusion etched onto his tear stained face. He was definitely missing something.

At first when Miles turned his face away at the last second, Phoenix felt extremely hurt and stupid, thinking that he must have just taken things too far. But the hurt expression was quickly replaced by confusion.

"Girl? What girl?" Phoenix asked, now also noticing that Miles looked confused as well.

"The girl at the police department?" His brow furrowed, becoming more confused by the second. "I saw you hugging her earlier. I mean, who is she?" There had to be something about her that made her important enough to be hugged after all.

Phoenix furrowed his brow in thought as he tried to figure out who Miles was talking about.

"At the police department...?" he started asking, but then it hit him who Miles was talking about, "What, you mean Mai?"

Phoenix thought a little more and he realized what was going on here.

"You thought...Mai?!" Phoenix said in surprise.

Edgeworth felt his face go hot again. Was it really that surprising to think they might have been together? He looked away his face becoming red again. He was pretty sure he didn't need to answer that question, his facial reaction giving away what he thought, but he answered it anyway.

"Well...yes. If you guys aren't together then who exactly is she...?" He felt a little foolish asking that.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Phoenix cracked a small smile, saying, "Mai's my cousin. She just got hired at the police department as a detective."

"Y-Your cousin?" He felt extremely foolish now. This whole fiasco started from a big misunderstanding. "H-How dare you smile! I'm serious!" He felt his face becoming redder, but at the same time, his heart had that fluttering feeling from earlier.

In spite of himself and the situation, Phoenix felt his smile getting larger. He put both of his hands on Miles's face, now bringing him in for an intense kiss.

Miles was about to say something else when he felt Phoenix's hands bring his face closer to him.

"W-Wright?" If his face could get any redder, it did. He really wasn't used to such closeness. It was also shocking to realize that neither had said 'I love you' either.

Phoenix thought he heard Miles say something, but he was too focused on reaching Miles's lips to hear it. When he felt their lips finally connect, Phoenix felt himself almost immediately get slightly weak in the knees, it was so intense.

Before Edgeworth realized it, he had wrapped his arms around Phoenix's neck. One reason was because he felt that if he didn't he'd fall. The second reason was to deepen the kiss. The kiss felt wonderful. His mind was having trouble catching up with everything. Everything had moved so fast. One second they were at the police department fighting, then he was here at Phoenix's office explaining and then suddenly crying, now they were engaged in a passionate kiss! All of these events were making Edgeworth's head spin.

Phoenix finally pulled back slightly to breathe, feeling like the kiss was just much too short. That kiss made him see exactly what he was missing for all the years he felt this way about Miles. He only wished that he had the guts to come to terms with all the feelings sooner.

Edgeworth was out of breath and extremely flustered. He suddenly was at a loss of what to say.

"I love Phoenix..." Miles said without thinking, the words just tumbling out of his mouth.

Miles suddenly covered his mouth, eyes wide in shock. He had so many thoughts going through his head, he didn't realize he had said one until it was too late. And of all the ones he had to say, it was one of the most important ones! "I-I..."

Phoenix heard Miles say it, but he could hardly believe it was true.

"You...what?" Phoenix whispered, a touch of hope obvious in his voice.

"I-I..." It was hard enough saying it the first time. "I said I love you!" It was lucky Pess had fallen asleep because Edgeworth made his way for the door. "I think I need to take a walk."

However, Edgeworth was quite a sight with dry tears staining his face and red and puffy eyes. He was surely in no state to go out. But Edgeworth felt too embarrassed to care.

Phoenix would not let Miles escape after saying that to him, feeling his heart fluttering at those very words, having wanted so desperately to hear those words from Miles's lips for such a long time.

"Miles, wait." Phoenix said, grabbing onto Miles's shoulders from behind to prevent him from retreating further.

Phoenix gently turned Miles around to face him, and he took Miles's face into his hands again, looking into his eyes.

"Miles...I love you, too." Phoenix said softly with intense emotion, a small smile coming to his lips.

Edgeworth kept his eyes from meeting with Phoenix's. He had the strange feeling that if he'd looked into them he'd lose the strength in his legs to stand.

"Do you mean it?" He couldn't help but be a little cautious. All his past events had made him a little less trusting of others. But than again it was Phoenix he was talking about. Although, the small fear that this was all fake or some type of weird dream made him wary. He knew in truth when it came to feelings such as these, he was the amateur for once.

"Yes. I don't think there's a truer fact in my life." Phoenix said confidently, still smiling.

Edgeworth studied Phoenix carefully for a moment before a small smile graced his lips. The smile was shy, but a sweet smile nonetheless.

Phoenix leaned forward to kiss Miles again, unable to get enough of him. This time, instead of shying away, Miles leaned forward to meet Phoenix in that kiss. The strange fluttering feeling in Edgeworth's stomach had came back, but he realized it was a good feeling in some way.

When Phoenix felt their lips touch, he pulled Miles closer, just wanting to get as close to him as he could, never wanting to let him go, causing Edgeworth to make a small sound of surprise. He wrapped his arms around Phoenix, as though if he let go, Phoenix would disappear.

Phoenix and Miles continued to kiss passionately, completely forgetting about the world around them, not even noticing when Mai and Maya burst into his office without knocking.

"Nick! We need your help!! There's been another --" Maya started saying in excitement, but cutting off abruptly as she witnessed the scene before her.

"Wow..." Mai commented, surprised that neither Phoenix nor Miles seemed to notice they were there, even with Maya talking as loudly as she was.

Mai realized that they could very well walk out at this point and Phoenix and Miles probably wouldn't have known they were there. But Maya talking loudly did have one effect: waking Pess up. The dog blinked sleepily for a moment, but then started barking excitedly when he noticed the new people in the room. This finally brought Phoenix and Miles's attention to Mai and Maya.

Upon hearing the excited barks coming from Pess, Miles realized who had walked in them. He felt his face grow extremely hot for the millionth time that day. He also realized how foolish it was to do something like kiss in an office. He definitely was at a loss of what to say as he stared at them, eyes wide. Pess happily bounced around them, obviously wanting attention from them. He also realized his face was still stained with dry tears and his eyes might still have been slightly red from crying which felt like it happened ages ago, which hopefully wouldn't arouse suspicion or questions of some sort. There was no way he could recover from something like this. Although on the bright side, it could have been worse.

Mai studied Miles's face and she quickly realized that she and Maya had obviously interrupted something important. Just when she was about to tell Maya that they should just come back in a little bit, Maya spoke.

"Wow, Mr. Edgeworth, I didn't know you were back. I can see Nick was in the middle of welcoming you back, isn't it?" Maya said in a teasing tone of voice.

This comment made Phoenix get even more red than he already was and he said, "Maya...it's not like --"

"Sure, sure." Maya said, cutting Phoenix off, giving him a knowing smile.

Miles immediately looked away, too embarrassed to make eye contact with anyone.

"Yes..I'm back..." Miles said quietly.

Today seems to be full of so many surprises. Some less pleasant than others. Miles thought in slight annoyance.

But the taste and feeling of Phoenix's lips still seemed to linger on his own, which for some reason, seemed to make up for this embarrassing scene he found himself in.

Mai decided that she should step in before Maya embarrassed either Phoenix or Miles further, even if she was finding this whole situation quite humorous.

"You know, Phoenix...I think we can come back later. Come on, Maya." Mai said, grabbing Maya's arm and tugging her toward the door of he office.

Maya tried resisting, but she decided to comply, letting herself get pulled away.

As Mai and Maya made their way out of the office, Phoenix and Miles heard Maya talking as she walked out, "You know, I totally knew something would happen eventually..."

A little smile came to Phoenix's face when he heard Maya's comment as he looked at Edgeworth. When Mai and Maya were gone, Edgeworth planted a small shy kiss on Phoenix's cheek before leaning on his shoulder contently.