Prompt: Wright still won't let Edgeworth live down that "updated autopsy report" ploy he pulled, even a decade later.
Phoenix stood at the window, staring up at the cloudy sky with a big grin on his face. Given that they were all missing out on the original barbeque plan because of that very weather, Apollo, Maya, and Trucy were busily shooting one another confused looks behind his back. Trucy kept trying to extend the perplexed eye contact to Pearl, but she was fully engaged in pulling out her Jenga piece and wouldn't take notice of anything until she succeeded. She'd lost the last seven games so that seemed unlikely, but Apollo wished her luck all the same.
"This is gonna be so great," Phoenix muttered, checking his watch. Again. For the fifth time.
"Uh… you do remember nothing's happening till tomorrow, right?" Apollo finally just came out and said it. "I mean, unless you like watching storms or something…?"
"Oh, no way, I hate lightning," Phoenix proclaimed, spinning around with a wide grin. "I'm just waiting on our guest."
"Um. Again, Daddy, no guests coming. I mean, except family sleeping over - but they're all already here?" Trucy pointed out, somewhat unnecessarily gesturing to Pearl, Maya, and Apollo. "Or did you invite somebody not on the list?"
"Please, Truce," Phoenix laughed and wandered over to plop on the couch. Pearl's bottom shot up just before he touched the cushions, her legs holding her in an awkward-looking bent crouch, but her hand still steady on her piece. An impressive feat given that she still hadn't so much as glanced his way once. And that she'd knocked over the last tower by breathing on it wrong. "That list is pretty much everyone I know! Well, who aren't in prison, or dead."
"Okay, but then what's goin' on, Nick?" Maya chimed in. "You're making yourself look a little crazy there, you know."
"I'm acting perfectly normal!" Phoenix insisted. His mad scientist grin, and the way he checked his watch again only to start practically vibrating in place, tended to belie his claim.
Apollo exercised his eyerolling muscles. They got a lot of use in Kurain, too - but never anything quite like at the Wright Anything Agency. He found himself smiling after, strangely nostalgic.
"HaHA!" Pearl yelled, rising to her feet and holding her Jenga piece aloft triumphantly. "I'm still in the game!"
She carefully placed it on the top of the stack, leaving a very tricky situation for Trucy to deal with next - then finally seemed to catch on to the weird atmosphere.
"What's-" she started, but at that point the doorbell rang and Phoenix became ecstatic.
"Yes, yes, yes, I knew it, yesssss," he whispered to himself as he scrambled over to the front door, shoving past everyone on the way. He skidded to a halt just before it, then appeared to do a quick go-over of himself with the apparent intention of gussying down: tugging his sweatpants down a little on his hips, rubbing a hand through his hair to scruff it up a little. He cracked his neck, then his hands, spun around to give them all a wild grin and meaningful eyebrows, then finally reached out and swung the door open.
Miles Edgeworth stood on the other side, finger poised to press the bell again.
"Hello, Phoenix," he said pleasantly.
"Miles?" Phoenix asked, in very apparent false confusion. "What're you doing here?"
"I'm here for the reunion party, of c-…" Edgeworth trailed off as he took in Phoenix's appearance. "You're not dressed."
Phoenix faked a yawn, scratching at the back of his head. Behind his head, he made a peace sign at the rest of them.
"Oh, yeah well, you know when it's just a quiet afternoon in with family, there's really no need to get fancy, you know? Hey, what's with the sudden visit anyway?"
Apollo exchanged another bewildered glance with Trucy. She shrugged, making a face. He resisted the urge to make the cuckoo gesture at her. It felt kind of undignified when the Chief Prosecutor could see.
"I - I don't understand," Edgeworth was stuttering as Phoenix let him inside. He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a postcard and glasses case, flipping it open and sliding them on in one swift movement before frowning down at the card. "I have the invitation right here, it clearly says today at 3pm."
"Ooh, Edgeworth." Phoenix bit at his lip. "Um, sorry to interrupt, but when exactly did you get that invitation?"
"W-when?" The prosecutor looked up at his old friend, still frowning thoughtfully. "Er, I believe it was the Wednesday before last…"
Phoenix smirked and affected an… unusual expression, closing his eyes and tapping at his forehead meaningfully as he made a tsk-tsk noise. After a moment, he shrugged smugly and spread his hands out open in front of himself.
Maya gasped.
"That invitation is outdated, Edgeworth," Phoenix said, with a certain emphasis.
"Get, get outta my way," Maya whispered in what appeared to be pure giddy abandon. She tried to squirm past Pearl, but her cousin stood firm, protecting the Jenga stack with open arms and a frown. Maya gave up quickly, choosing to just scramble straight over the back of the couch instead, falling to the ground with a thump.
She paid the impact no mind, leaping up and running over to collide roughly with Phoenix's arm. He gave her a quick squeeze around the shoulders, and she straightened so they stood facing Edgeworth together.
"A second invitation was sent out yesterday," Phoenix was saying, "at my request!"
Maya whipped her phone out of her pocket and read from the group text with a wide grin: "'We're looking forward to seeing you all at the 10-year anniversary of my badge being returned! …...But, there is a chance of heavy rain tomorrow, so we'll have to push it back a day. Same time Sunday, everyone!'"
"The chat filled up with everyone's confirmations this morning." Phoenix shook his head pityingly.
"N-no, I never got… Wait. Wait a moment," Edgeworth's jaw clenched. "Wright, are you-"
"Maya!" Phoenix turned to his best friend, pointing a surprisingly aggressive finger into her face. "It's quite easy to imagine that Miles was accidentally left off such a large group text, isn't it?"
"Yes, it was a lot of people to keep track of," She gave an exaggerated nod, rubbing thoughtfully at her chin. "I accept that explanation!"
Phoenix turned back to Edgeworth, spread his arms, and gave the most pretentious half-bow Apollo had seen in his life. Still, it seemed somehow familiar…
Trucy and Pearl were paying attention too, now, kneeling to peer over the back of the couch with wide eyes. At this latest gesture, they elbowed one another simultaneously and started mumbling excitedly what sounded like "I can't believe he did that" and "well done Daddy!" and at least one "he's gonna die."
In the doorway, Edgeworth was clearly seething. His fist clenched around the invitation, crumpling it in his hand, before he crossed his arms tensely. His glare would have made a lesser man quail, and often had (as well as one account of a very embarrassing pants-wetting incident in the courtroom), but it did nothing but seem to feed Phoenix's evil joy.
Apollo, who had often experienced that evil joy directed his way, began to feel a twinge of pity for Edgeworth. Even with all his experience as de-facto office dogsbody, he'd never been ganged up on quite so eagerly as all this.
Phoenix shook his head again and smarmily spread out his hands once more.
"Why, Edgeworth, you look upset!" he exclaimed, one eyebrow raised cruelly high. "Something you want to say?"
"Wright… " Edgeworth gritted, hunching into himself slightly in what appeared to be an effort to restrain himself from smacking Phoenix's hands out of the air. (Apollo had to tip his hat to that self-control. He'd been there.) "That was nearly two decades ago… Why on earth would you ruin your own party for such a PETTY-"
At this exact moment, there was a tremendous BOOM of thunder. Mere seconds later, heavy sheets of rain began to pour down from the sky, near-instantly obscuring the view out any window.
Phoenix and Maya spun to look at one another with equal looks of manic glee. He turned back to Edgeworth right afterward, the corners of his lips trembling nearly as much as his voice.
"As you can see, the evidence is clear-"
"Wright, you had best stop already -"
"Mia thank you I know this was you, thank you-"
All three by the door spoke at once, talking over one another in a confused jumble. Finally, Edgeworth raised his voice to be heard over the rest.
"ENOUGH! I'll take my leave then, and see you all tomorrow!"
He turned to the door. Apollo waited as he opened it, but no one appeared to be saying anything, and - well, Edgeworth needed someone on his side, clearly.
"Um, Mr. Edgeworth, what weather report did you see for today?" he called out.
Edgeworth paused in the entryway, where he had been frowning at the downpour awaiting him.
"Well, I've just been told to expect heavy rain," he said wryly. "Why, Mr. Justice?"
"No, just," Apollo winced at the heavy sarcasm, but soldiered on. He opened his own weather app and held his phone up so everyone could see. "It's just, that's not the most recent report. There's a heavy winds warning along with the lightning storm, and a flood watch - they're saying for everyone to stay off the road if at all possible for the next few hours."
At everyone's wide-eyed silence, Apollo slowly tucked his phone back away. He felt strangely defensive; they just kept staring. Edgeworth, in particular, looked weirdly betrayed.
"...What? I like to stay informed on weather events, even when I'm traveling."
"A THIRD UPDATE," Phoenix and Maya said together. Well, more like shouted into each other's faces. They then turned to Edgeworth, who was already taking off his glasses and pinching at the bridge of his nose. "A THI-"
"Yes, yes, fine," Edgeworth groaned, waving a hand at the two of them. "Fine, I get it, I'll stick around for just a few hours-"
A flurry of beeps went off from everyone's pockets. Trucy, always quick-fingered, had her phone out before anyone else could react.
"Actually, Uncle Miles, it looks like the warning's going all night now," she said, sounding not at all upset by the news. "I think we're gonna have to all have a sleepover!"
"THIS IS A RECKONING, MILES," Phoenix roared, completely off his rocker apparently. Maya collapsed to the floor in a heap of giggles. For his part Edgeworth slammed his face into his hands and groaned.
"Hey!" Pearl interrupted, voice unusually stern. "You all probably didn't realize, but-"
"NNNNGGGGHOOH," Edgeworth yelled, whipping his face out of his hands and pointing with his whole arm across the room at Pearl. "Not you too, Pearls!"
Phoenix had joined Maya on the floor. He was howling; she had tears streaming down her face.
"No, not me too," Pearl snapped back, "but all of you guys knocked down the game with your shouting!"
Sure enough, the Jenga pieces were scattered across the coffee table, some on the floor. In all the confusion, no one had even heard them fall.
"It was your turn next, Trucy!" Pearl exclaimed triumphantly. "That means you lose! It means I WIN! It means I get to choose the next game!"
She seemed… oddly excited about that, but then again from what Apollo had seen so far in this visit, Pearl was a fairly clumsy person. For her to beat someone as nimble as Trucy at a game like Jenga must feel like quite an accomplishment, even for such a generally sweet -
"And I choose Uno!" Pearl proclaimed cheerfully, producing a pack somewhere from within her robes and smacking it down on the table. "C'mon, everybody!"
- okay, okay, so she clearly thrived on chaos just as much as the rest of them. Apollo had never known a game of Uno not to involve screaming. He sighed in exasperation at the same time as Edgeworth - and they both paused, looking at one another.
Then Edgeworth's lips turned up at the corner, and he shook his head slightly. He shrugged his coat off and hung it up on where Mr. Hat was propped against the wall, then began to pick his way over Maya and Phoenix, now clutching onto one another and snickering breathlessly.
"Yes, all right," he said fondly.
What a big softie, Apollo thought, amused. Then he got up to help clear the table for Uno, because obviously he'd be joining in too.
-xxx-
Ten minutes into the game, Edgeworth played a Reverse on Phoenix's Draw 4. Phoenix retaliated with his own Reverse, Edgeworth put down another, Phoenix had another, Edgeworth sighed sadly… then smirked and put down yet another Reverse. He looked up and met Phoenix's eyes sternly.
...The game had to be delayed another ten minutes while they and Maya tried and failed to stop laughing. Apollo would not have expected the Chief Prosecutor to gigglesnort, but there you had it. A strangely infectious sound; he still didn't really even get the joke but he found himself chuckling too.
(Trucy, he noticed, was taking advantage of everyone's distraction to subtly cheat, using sleight of hand to switch her own cards out for some of Maya's.
Pearl - she was blatantly cheating. He watched as she took all but two of her hand and just put it down on the pile under the Reverses. Trucy appeared too focused on her own sneakier attempts to notice, and the supposedly maturest of the little party were all still in near-hysterics and completely oblivious.
Apollo decided just to let her have the stolen win.)
Apollo, Trucy, and Maya are the family from out of town staying with Phoenix and Trucy rather than getting a hotel room or something. It's never mentioned but let's say that Phoenix has a new place with a yard or something for this to make sense.
Oh, also Pearl is intensely competitive about board/card games. That just... feels right to me. Jenga was probaby punishment for some other board game crime she committed; Apollo has no idea what he's in for with her.