As everything I write is just my own personal headcanon collection, this follows up from my earlier fic At Small Parties There Isn't Any Privacy (the second section in particular)

Phoenix had talked about so many things with Maya these last few years. Sometimes it felt like everything in the world. The number of times a day he had an experience and found himself remembering what Maya Fey had once had to say about it was really getting up there. But this? This was breaking new ground. They'd discussed fictional romance, of course. At length. They'd shared thoughts on Detective Gumshoe's romantic endeavors, and even during one bizarre late-night conversation, Franziska von Karma's. But not their own.

Maya had tried, of course, recently. Iris was the closest either of them had come to having a love life to speak of. But frankly, she hadn't been too helpful or sensitive about it, and Phoenix found himself feeling rather more protective of this soft spot for Edgeworth. So he hadn't been meaning to bring this up. It had always been a matter of time, though. Anytime he did anything these days it was a given that Maya would hear about it.

(Better these days than the old days, at least? Thankfully most of his cringeworthy youthful behavior hadn't been enshrined in court record. Small mercies.)

They'd been taking it easy since Maya's trial. After Pearl's return home she'd sobered up a little, but still not enough to seem consistent with the trauma she'd endured. Phoenix hadn't been sure how to take it. She was being so insistent that she was okay, though, that prodding her about it gave them both more grief than it was worth. He'd just been letting her do whatever she wanted. Surely there was no psychological harm in that.

Today they were going to the movies. She'd mapped it all out with a precision that somehow had never made it into their business ventures. "The matinée is at noon, and after that there's a new Italian place where I think we should get lunch—pretty close to the Prosecutor's Building, actually." She nudged him with her toe. "Maybe we can see if Edgeworth's free? Since we're friends now and all—"

Phoenix, who had been lying down on the couch nodding along as he skimmed a magazine, squirmed at the touch of her foot. He grimaced. "Do we have to go see Edgeworth today?"

"But he's leaving again soon, isn't he?" Usually Phoenix missed him, and he knew Maya could tell. But right now, some time on separate continents felt like a useful buffer for self-reflection.

It occurred to him that she might be looking for something in Edgeworth that he couldn't give her himself. The perspective of someone who'd lost a parent so brutally, perhaps. Phoenix knew it: there was no way he was helping her here. "If you really want to see him before he leaves, you should go," he said earnestly. Had that meant anything special to her? He couldn't tell. It bothered him that he could never tell. "But I dunno, I don't feel like hanging out with him."

"Why not? You were getting along so well just the other day."

There were plenty of reasons for anyone not to want to spend their valuable socializing time with Miles Edgeworth, but under interrogation, Phoenix forgot all of them. "No reason! I just don't feel like it."

Maya rolled her eyes. "You know I know you're lying, Nick."

Ugh. For someone with that power himself, he really did forget about it surprisingly often.

"Okay, alright, alright." He dropped his magazine and heaved a sigh. "You remember at his house the other day, when I went to bring him his phone?"

"Yeah?"

He looked over at her, then back up at the ceiling again, then closed his eyes entirely. Maybe that way it would be less agonizing. "Well, obviously we'd been drinking, and I dunno, I was probably still sick and—loopy or whatever—"

She cackled. "You embarrassed yourself, didn't you?"

Uh, yeah, royally.

"I—kissed him."

Maya launched herself upright, leaning over the coffee table. "You kissed him? Edgeworth!?"

Phoenix groaned. "On the mouth."

"Nick!" Though he was still too embarrassed to look at her, he could picture her wide-eyed, gaping face. "Is…is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

He laughed shortly. "Don't ask me."

"Then…did…" Her voice was breathy, on the edge of a gasp. "Did he kiss you back?"

Face burning, he rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes. "Nope."

She made a frustrated noise—surely just on account of the anticlimax rather than sympathy.

"Tensed up like I'd tased him or something." Phoenix chuckled uncomfortably. Just remembering that awkward little backward leap felt like a punch in the ribs. "And then he tried to let me down gently, I think—"

"You think?"

"Well obviously I was kind of losing it at the time, so forgive me if my memory isn't up to par."

With a businesslike slap to his arm, Maya leaned further across the table—nearly on her stomach now. "Tell me what he said, exactly."

"God. Okay…" It had all kind of blurred into a continuous cringe. "Something nice about how I wasn't totally nuts, and he does like me a lot, but then, the but…" Phoenix shook his head with a grimace. "And I tried to play it off, but he was trying to apologize too, and then he leaned on me in this really weird, mixed-signalsy way—"

"Show me," ordered Maya.

"What? Ugh." He pushed himself up and tilted his forehead against the side of Maya's. "Like a…kind of headbutt."

"You're sure he wasn't trying to kiss you again?"

"Well, I wasn't stopping him, so I don't think so."

She gestured for him to move on. "So you touched heads, and then…"

"And we sort of…stood there for a while? I don't know. It was excruciating. And eventually I—patted his arm and said goodnight and went back downstairs."

Maya's brow was knit seriously, but she also looked like she was trying to suppress laughter, so Phoenix didn't know what to think right now. Given the subject, he felt a bit prickly. Was a little clarity really that big of an ask? "I don't blame him," he mumbled. "I knew it was stupid the second I did it. I'll be normal eventually; I just don't want him to look at me for—maybe a month?"

There was a tentative silence.

"…I don't think it was that stupid," said Maya. "Planting one on him out of nowhere, maybe—but you guys have history, you know?"

Well, that was true. If he and Edgeworth had anything, it was history.

"Come on!" she continued. It sounded like she was getting properly enthused now, which made Phoenix wish he hadn't said any of it at all. "It'd be a way better love story than some of the crap they put on TV these days. Heck, I probably would have asked you about it before if I knew you liked men—"

Phoenix straightened up, startled. "I'm not like—I don't like men—"

Maya skeptically arched her eyebrows. "Hate to break it to you, Nick—"

"No, I know he's a man, it's just, I mean—" He'd barely even thought about this himself; explaining it to Maya might be impossible. "I figure he is a good-looking guy. But not in a way I like, think about." Phoenix cringed as he said so. The stuff he thought about was absolutely none of her business.

"So what did you kiss him for?"

"I don't know! I was drunk, and I was feeling, y'know, a lot, and I guess I just…didn't know what else to do with it." Phoenix dropped his head over the back of the sofa. "We were having a good conversation, and I touched his neck, and it was like…" Helplessly, he trailed off. "Ugh."

Maya's eyes glinted in mischievous delight. "God! Nick! You're head over heels!"

He flopped forward again to bury his face in the pillow with a moan.

"I'm proud of you!" She swatted his shoulder. "If you were going to fall for a guy, I think you picked a good one! I mean, he's no Max Galactica—"

Phoenix snorted loudly.

"—But Edgeworth is a catch! Loads of girls are crushing on him. Of course…" She paused, eyes drifting as she considered. "I do have a hard time imagining him being romantic, to be honest."

Thoughtfully, Phoenix chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Yeah, I guess I do too."

They both took the time to attempt it: muffled snickers echoed around the office.

"Do you think he's a virgin?"

"Maya!" Phoenix spluttered, as if he hadn't devoted a humiliating amount of time to that question himself.

"There's nothing wrong with it, obviously; I mean, so am I—"

The I damn well hope so rushed through his gut before he remembered Maya was technically an adult. A baffling thought. Maybe he shouldn't have opened up kissing for discussion if it meant he'd have to hear about this in the future.

"Anyway, what I mean is, maybe he just needs time to think it over."

The man sure did like to take his time thinking things over. At least he had decided against death this time. (After their talk Phoenix had wanted to stop harping on that, but god—it was just too easy.)

"Get past the weirdness, you know? 'Cause like, it…kinda sounds like he might be into you, Nick."

He lifted his head to squint at her. "What?"

"In Edgeworth-speak? Totally." This was the guy she'd once had to coach through a 'thank you.' It made sense Maya wouldn't think much of his emotional vocabulary. "Have you ever seen him even hug somebody? That weird forehead stuff has 'repressed feelings' written all over it."

"Maya, you're nuts."

"Ugh. You're such a boy." She shook her head dismissively. "I think you should talk about it. We'll go see him for lunch today, and I'll say I have to go to the bathroom, to give you guys some time to—"

"Nope!" Phoenix flailed an arm out to stop her. "No, no no no." If lunch with Edgeworth was something he'd politely decline, lunch with Edgeworth while a smug Maya tried to couple them up with the subtlety of the Steel Samurai was something he'd happily return to the hospital to get out of. "I'll—go talk to him on my own sometime. I promise."

Maya sat back up and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said. "We'll go to the movie and then have subpar non-Italian lunch and you won't get any boyfriends. Happy?"

Relieved, mostly. "If we get a burger will it be worth your while?"

"Can it be the fancy burger place?"

"I think we've gotta get paid first," Phoenix said with a laugh, as he stood and brushed off his suit. "Find us a rich client for our next case, and the we can go get your fancy burger."

Her face froze, and then fell.

He looked back at her in panic. For all he'd been worrying about how easy setting off her feelings might be, he couldn't figure out how he'd possibly done it now. "Maya?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm okay—"

"Maya, what is it?"

For a second she went to shake her head again, but she stopped short and sighed. There was no point in covering things up here. They were both aware of that now. "I've been thinking about it," she said, "but I hadn't figured out how to tell you. Nick…I think I have to go back home."

This didn't sound like it should be that big a deal. Phoenix scrunched his brow. "You don't mean…permanently?"

"Obviously I could visit," she replied quickly. "Or you could visit. But—I don't think I can keep working here."

He stared back at her.

She smiled, that awful sad way she'd smiled at him in the Training Hall at Hazakura. "It's embarrassing," she said, "but, you know, my whole life I hadn't been able to stop hoping that…my mom would come back. And when she did it would fix everything. No matter how much I told myself she wasn't, part of me couldn't listen. Like I was some kind of little kid."

Phoenix sat back down on the coffee table, knee to knee with her, helpless. "Maya…"

"But it's…official now. I'm going to be the Master." Maya shook her head more vigorously now. "I wanted to keep working for you while I did that! I thought I could! But…everything's so screwed up there, Nick. When the village is in my hands I need to make it better. And I'm not powerful enough. Instead of training, I've been working here."

He wanted to argue. That her time here had been important too, that she'd saved lives and made a difference. That she was already as accomplished a medium as he'd ever seen. That he didn't know if he could run the place without her. But Phoenix knew his opinion didn't mean much, not when it came to spirit stuff. Especially not when it came to this decision Maya had clearly been agonizing over.

"If you need to go, then of course I want you to," he said. "Go be the best Master Kurain's ever had. As long as there's phone service there, I'll be fine." It was his turn to shake his head now. "God, why would you let me go on about all the stupid kissing stuff when you were worrying about this?"

"I'm still your assistant today," she insisted. "I want to assist!"

"Maya; you're my friend!"

She threw herself off the couch and hugged him tightly around the neck.

"I wish I could take you with me," she said, cheek pressed to his shoulder. "Or maybe that there were two of me, and one could lead Kurain and the other could stay here…"

She trailed off. Phoenix laughed. "Got an idea for a comic book, huh?"

"Well—besides that." Pulling back, Maya looked up at him. "How are you going to get anything done without me around?"

"I'll manage," he said.

"Yeah right you'll manage," she replied. "You're not even going to see Edgeworth, are you?"

"Not this again—"

She straightened her back and cleared her throat. "As the soon-to-be Master of the Kurain School of Spirit Channeling, I hereby order you to follow your heart."

Fondly, Phoenix scoffed. "Yeah, well, as the head of Wright & Co. Law Offices, I hereby order you to mind your own business."

"Don't be stupid," said Maya. She was grinning, but her voice was thick with tears. "Everybody knows I'm in charge here too."

His nebulous sometime came after one trip abroad and two foiled conspiracies for Miles Edgeworth. Maya was living in Kurain Village full-time by then. Occasionally when she called she'd badger him to talk to Edgeworth on the phone, but Phoenix wanted to wait. He wasn't dumb enough to try and figure this shit out any way but face to face. That would just breed more trouble. Edgeworth was inscrutable enough in person already.

All the international scandal whatever-it-was was being kept pretty firmly under wraps (Larry and Gumshoe had been Phoenix's most reliable sources of information on it all), but it sounded like Edgeworth was making quite a name for himself. The spotlight was just about to fall on Phoenix as well: he had landed the case of a celebrity magician. (Two nickels!?) Though Zak Gramarye was no Max Galactica, his alleged crime was just as strange and complicated—if not more.

Phoenix was glad for it, truthfully. He relished excuses for procrastination.

He'd received the Gramarye case files for tomorrow's trial only this afternoon. They weren't even especially informative—he'd hoped he was just missing something, but now that he'd combed them three times it was clear they unambiguously sucked. Even so, it was the middle of the night before he decided to pack it in.

When was he ever prepared? He'd figure it out in cross-examination like always.

He'd been reading the files over pie and coffee at a late-night diner. Now that Maya was gone again, his office hadn't been feeling right. In the weeks since she left he'd started spending a lot of his working hours elsewhere. He'd admitted this to Maya in their last call, and she'd told him to look for a new assistant—but imagining anyone else in the job was impossible.

He tucked the files securely in his shoulder bag and unlocked his bicycle to ride home. Past the bank, past the post office. Past the Prosecutor's Building, where he looked up out of habit and noticed the light still on in Edgeworth's office.

Classic. It had always felt like neither of them got enough sleep. As he pulled over and looked up from the sidewalk, Phoenix found himself feeling sentimental about it.

He had the after-hours building keycard for emergencies, which this certainly was not. But he didn't think it was a crime worth prosecuting. Phoenix took the elevator to the twelfth floor. When he knocked on his friend's familiar door there was an alarmed grunt from behind it, and he was just realizing how boneheaded this move had been when it opened.

"Hi, Edgeworth," he said, like a dope.

"Wright, it is past midnight."

"I know, I know. I was out working for my trial tomorrow and on my way home when I saw you up here, and—" He made a stupid little waving gesture to emphasize how unimportant this was. "I've been wanting to talk to you for a bit, so do you think you can spare a minute? Just a minute."

Edgeworth breathed deeply in and out, then beckoned with one hand. "Come in."

Files were stacked on his desk in what looked like the process of being boxed and packing-taped. Unable to get down to brass tacks without a proper amount of casual blather, Phoenix asked, "Are these going somewhere?"

"With me," said Edgeworth. "To Zheng Fa, tomorrow morning."

Phoenix nodded. "Oh, wow, about your—politics stuff." God. Moving on. "Well, I'm glad I caught you before you left."

Edgeworth spread his hands out to his sides in an open gesture. "I'm caught," he said. "Go on."

There were no more bushes to beat around. "It's about the party at your house."

"…Ah."

Encouraging! Thanks, Edgeworth.

"Look," said Phoenix, "I just want us to get some clarity on what exactly happened. What I did—" He backtracked quickly. "—Or what I was trying to do, was tell you I'm in love with you." (It wasn't quite what he said at the time, that was true: that had been closer to 'I want to be in love with you.' But it felt like time to make a commitment.)

He hadn't said anything like this since he was a nutty kid drunk on Dahlia Hawthorne. His pulse pounded in his ears in the silence that followed.

"I apologize for any confusion," said Edgeworth, softly. His hands fell back to his sides, and he shook his head. "I didn't have the words then. I've been thinking about what to say to you."

"You…have?"

"Of course I have." He sounded a little offended by the surprise. "There have been…distractions lately, I'm sure you've heard. But it's been in the back of my mind since that night."

That it had needed this much thought didn't seem promising. Phoenix felt his stomach flip, but there was no taking it back now. "Here I am, then," he said, summoning courtroom confidence. "Tell me what you've been thinking."

At a careful distance, Edgeworth met his eyes. "I've never had an interest in romance before," he said. "Not in engaging in one myself, at least. And much less—" He twitched his head awkwardly.

(Virgin confirmed!? Phoenix kicked himself for thinking about it.)

"I can't say I understand what it's meant to be like," he continued. "But it's—clear I feel differently for you than anyone I've ever known."

Phoenix wanted to say something in reply, a flattered aw shucks at least, but all he could get out was a heavy breath.

Edgeworth's lips tightened and he turned to look out the dark window. "I don't know if my expectations are failing me," he said, "or if I truly don't feel what I should. And I'm afraid of causing you even more trouble if it's the latter."

"Oh." Phoenix thought he got it now.

He nudged Edgeworth's arm, drawing his gaze back. "I wasn't just trying to be cool when I said I didn't know what I wanted," he said. "Yeah, maybe I love you." (It was getting much easier to say, almost disconcertingly so.) "But this is new to me too. It's weird, and it's not like anything else." He shook his head. "We're friends, Miles. Feeling what we should or no. There's nothing else I need from you." It didn't matter. How could it matter? "It seems like worrying about what we're supposed to feel is just getting in the way of enjoying what we do."

This time, it was Phoenix taken by surprise. Miles Edgeworth smoothly took his face in his hands and gently, chastely kissed him.

When they could go no longer without breath they drew apart. Phoenix tilted his head, wordlessly questioning.

"I don't know if I'd like to make a habit of that," said Edgeworth quietly. His fingertips were still warm on Phoenix's cheeks, the look in his eyes dazed and faraway. "But it's…not altogether objectionable a feeling."

Phoenix couldn't stop himself laughing. "Well," he replied. "You're welcome, I guess."

They looked at each other for a long minute. Edgeworth was a good-looking guy, Phoenix figured.

Maybe worth thinking about.

"At the risk of nagging," said Edgeworth, "if you really do have a trial tomorrow, you might want to get some sleep."

Phoenix glanced at his watch. It had passed one o'clock now. "You're probably right," he said, though ruefully. (As if he would be able to sleep!) "Hey, while I'm here—do you know anything about a prosecutor called Klavier Gavin? Apparently he's on my case tomorrow." Phoenix hesitated. "Or—she is?"

"He." Edgeworth shook his head. "I've met him only once; he's new. Quite a reputation, though. He's very young and very…German."

"So, just like every other prosecutor I know."

After making sure to give him a weary, disapproving look, Edgeworth shook his head again. "Moreso."

Phoenix chuckled. "Well, sounds fun," he said. "As long as I don't get physically attacked, I'll be fine."

Edgeworth scoffed lightly. "Here's hoping you don't provoke him."

With another laugh, Phoenix finally stepped away. "Alright," he said. "I'll let you keep packing." They shared a last warm gaze for a moment, and this time, patting his arm and saying goodnight felt rather more fulfilling.

But there was one more thing. "Oh! And, uh—When you get back, Maya wants to have lunch at some place near here." He shrugged. "Just let me know. I've been putting it off for two months already."

"La Rosa, you mean?" Edgeworth was getting back to work, slotting another file carefully in his half-packed box. "I finally got to try it last week. She has good instincts; the risotto was excellent."

Phoenix blinked. "She told you about that?"

"When she came to see me before I left."

"When she—what?"

"Only briefly. She thanked me for what I'd done for the trial." He paused. "And for you."

Phoenix cringed in expectation. "And?"

"Just told me to expect you soon," said Edgeworth. "And to decide what to tell you before you came."

"God." Phoenix sighed. She really had been in charge, and everyone knew it. It was too late to call her on the way home, but he'd have to after the trial tomorrow. "How am I going to get anything done without her around?"

Edgeworth's lips twitched in a flicker of a smile. "If only you were good at figuring things out as you go along."

One last time before he left, Phoenix grinned.

Am now crossposting Ace Attorney fic at Ao3 as oh_help if that matters to any of you

Thanks for reading