It had been one hell of a day. Early in the morning, Maya had made a bet with Phoenix to see if he'd get a new case by noon since he was an "unstoppable famous lawyer hero" now. Or something like that. Point is, they didn't get any new cases, and Maya won the bet.

At first, Maya had begged to be fed fancy meals for a week. Phoenix had ended up refusing that one (his funds were slowly dying…) and agreed to clean the office's floor instead.

He didn't mind too much. It was oddly therapeutic.

So when Edgeworth appeared at his door, wearing something other than his prosecutor's suit for once, he'd been immediately taken off guard. Since his face was already flushed from scrubbing so hard, he'd hoped that he wouldn't notice him blushing. He thinks he got away with that one.

He never saw the reveal coming. Again, he felt like an idiot for not even suspecting it a bit, but he should've taken the news a bit better. Thinking back, he might've sacred Edgeworth off with the way he reacted.

That luckily didn't happen though, and that's how he'd ended up sitting opposite the man at a small table in a café known as "Sugar & Spice".

Since Edgeworth had offered to get the drinks, and judging by the way he had begun to sip it almost desperately, Phoenix had a suspicion that he'd ordered tea after all.

They'd walked from Wright & Co. Law Offices, barely talking to one another as he led the way. Phoenix had noticed that Edgeworth looked slightly confused when they passed more local coffee shops, which would have saved half the walking time, but he had his reasons for going the extra distance.

"Mia used to come here a lot." He said, snapping Edgeworth out of his window-gazing trance.

"She'd bring me along often enough but I'd see her in here almost every day." He continued wistfully. He missed her.

Edgeworth took another (more gentle) sip of his cup. "It would make sense." He muttered. "She used to work at Grossberg's, correct? It's probably a habit from then."

Ah, trust Edgeworth to always think one step ahead of him.

Now Phoenix was a bit stuck. When he'd offered to get coffee what felt like ages ago, he wasn't sure what he was expecting. To get to know each other better? To spend some time together? Maybe he was just being polite. It was just… seeing him appear out of nowhere like that…

"You look good." He blurted out suddenly. Edgeworth raised an eyebrow.

"N-No, I mean," he gestured in the prosecutor's general direction, "It's nice to see you wearing something other than a suit for a change. You look great like that."

And he did. His white shirt surprisingly didn't clash against his pale skin, and his pants complimented it perfectly. And he still managed to look so professional. Honestly, he never understood work casual before now.

"Believe it or not, Wright, but I am a human being as well as a lawyer." Edgeworth said in a dry tone that betrayed how tired he actually was.

"Really?" Phoenix replied sarcastically. "I never would've guessed."

Despite his attempt to lighten the mood, Edgeworth didn't smile. In fact, his frown only deepened.

"You know Maya, don't you?"

The only problem with Miles always being ahead of him, is that Phoenix had no idea where their conversations would go.

"Um, yeah? You know her too, though."

Edgeworth shook his head. "No, I mean… you know her well. You're the living person that's closest to her." He paused and sighed quietly. "What are her interests? Her favorite foods?"

Those were probably rhetorical questions, but Phoenix felt like it would be too awkward if he didn't answer anyway.

"Well she's way too obsessed with Steel Samurai and will eat literally anything that's edible. But she does pester me for burgers most of the time."

He could've sworn Edgeworth smiled, just for a second, but it disappeared so quickly that it was hard to tell.

"See?" He said as if proving a point that was obvious to only him. "I should know these things! Being a brother comes with responsibilities, and I've neglected those for what, 19 years?" He groaned in frustration. "I wish this had never happened…"

Phoenix looked at him with determined but soft eyes. "You can't neglect something if you didn't know it existed." He stated firmly. "Don't bring yourself down over something you can't control."

The man just sipped his probably-tea.

"When did you find out?" He asked eventually, once Miles was reaching the end of his… British-beverage.

He just frowned, then let out a small sigh. "It was only yesterday evening, but it feels like a year ago. But no, it still hasn't settled."

"You told Gumshoe before me?" Phoenix teased, half-joking.

Edgeworth scoffed. "He's the one who found out first, believe it or not. I'm…" He paused for a moment, not meeting his rival in the eyes. "I'm rather glad that it was him first."

"Yeah, he's good at that sort of thing. Breaking news, I mean."

"If not for anything else."

For the first time since leaving the office, both men laughed. Phoenix felt a stab of guilt for making fun of Gumshoe, but if Miles was even slightly happy then he was happy. He was still playing host after all, even if he wasn't the one paying for the drinks.

"I'm sorry, I'm not the best person to talk to about sibling stuff." He admitted. "I think he has a sister? Gumshoe. You could always talk to him."

There, he felt a bit better now. He could sleep peacefully.

"N-No, that's alright." Miles answered, though still sounding quite unsure. "He's done enough already."

"Hey, speaking of Gumshoe…" Phoenix had been meaning to bring this up since the moment it was mentioned, but knew that Edgeworth would be too prickly to answer. Hopefully the definitely-not-coffee had softened him up.

Miles waited for him to continue, but Phoenix noticed that he looked nervous. And he knew when Edgeworth was nervous, from all the time they spent as kids- not to mention in court.

"...he said something about a letter." He finished, before hastily adding: "It sounded important." when Miles almost broke his cup in surprise.

"I-It was nothing!" Miles spluttered.

"Yeah, sure." Phoenix said. "And I guess this is the part where you forget that I have a magic stone that tells me when you're hiding something?"

Sure enough, ever since Gumshoe's… dramatic arrival back at the office, a large red psyche-lock had encased itself around Edgeworth. It wasn't the first (when he'd used his magatama on others, he'd always notice the large number of locks surrounding his friend but never knew how to bring it up), however, it was the first time he'd watch one form right before his eyes. Which meant it was purposely being hidden from him specifically, and not one of the many things that Edgeworth bottled inside of him.

He almost felt horrible after he saw the horror flash across Edgeworth's face at that moment, and his posture suddenly became defensive.

...Again, he knew too well what that looked like.

"Damned spiritual nonsense."

"It's not nonsense, and you know it." Phoenix countered before draining the remains of his actual-coffee.

"I mean, you literally used it the other week, didn't you?"

Edgeworth said nothing, which he took as a confirmation.

"It's weird, right? Sometimes I wonder if Mia ever used it. I mean, she wore one around her neck, and mine had to be charged for me to be able to use it because I'm not a Fey or anything-"

"Hold on," Miles interrupted, suddenly alert. "For you to be able to use it?"

Now Phoenix was confused. "Yeah? I think? Pearl taught me how to use it, but even then it kinda took some practice." He smiled fondly at the memory. "Even now I still have to remind Maya that not everyone was born with spiritual powers, y'know?"

Edgeworth waited.

"Oh, you mean-"

"Just another reason I should have realized the obvious sooner." Miles said, his tone dripping with exhaustion. "I was shocked when they appeared out of nowhere." He scoffed. "Thought I was finally going mad."

The excuse that Edgeworth had been working late came to Phoenix's mind, and he felt a pang of guilt. The guy had gone through a lot and had probably not slept, and now he was interrogating him.

"I'm sorry for asking." He sighed, trying his best to sound genuine. Because he was.

"No, no, it's okay." Said Miles, before putting down his cup and sitting up straight.

"The letter was in the box that Detective Gumshoe found, along with those photographs. It was addressed to me, and-"

"To you?"

"Don't interrupt, Wright. Judging by the tone of the letter and some of the specifics mentioned, it seems like it was written by Misty Fey quite soon after DL-6. It was a vaguely detailed account of her expressing her sympathies and telling me the truth about who she was, though by the way it was stored it appears she had no intention of ever sending it."

That wasn't what Phoenix had been expecting. Alright, so he didn't know exactly what he was expecting, but it was not this.

"So…" He said, trying to stop his new grin from spreading, "...no forbidden love letters from your parents? Romeo And Juliet style?"

He regretted that comparison as soon as it came out of his mouth since he had no doubt that Edgeworth would have read Shakespeare at some point. But fortunately any deeper meaning flew over his head for now, since his frown had gone. Miles still wasn't smiling, but it was a start.

"Ever the optimist, aren't you Wright?"

"When's the last time you called me Phoenix?"

"I'm going to go home." He said, avoiding the question completely. Or maybe just choosing to ignore it. Probably both.

"Oh, okay. Get some rest." Was Phoenix's slightly dejected reply.

"Thanks for the coffee-"

"Thank you for the co-"

They'd both spoken at the same time. Phoenix felt the heat rushing up the back of his neck as Edgeworth's eyes widened and he stood up from his chair and turned to leave, obviously quite embarrassed too.

"HOLD IT!"

...and he turned again to face Phoenix, who had found a sudden determination.

He was going to expose this faker once and for all.

"You think you can fool me that easily, Miles?"

Miles looked dazed.

"Well, I know the truth. You just said 'Thank you for the coffee' which is polite, and I appreciate it, but you got the coffee for both of us. You're a tea person! You're freakin' British! The way you sipped at it with the same look on your face, the way you carefully kept your hand on the cup until it was finished so I couldn't see properly, the way you tried to disguise it with the amount of milk added… you ordered tea. It's the only explanation. So TAKE THAT!"

Edgeworth was stunned, his face blank as he presumably processed the demise of his deception.

And then he smiled. Then the smile cracked open, and Edgeworth laughed.

It had been so long since Phoenix had heard him genuinely laugh. Sure, he'd had his fair share of smug/maniacal laughs in court, but this was a soft, dorky-yet-still-classy, laugh. One so rare that Phoenix wished he could record the sound.

And it was perfect.

Once the laughter died down, Miles exhaled. "Guilty. You should really think about becoming a prosecutor, Phoenix." He said, still smiling, as he turned on his heel and walked away.

Phoenix felt warm inside as he leaned back in his chair and watched him go. He was so happy with his win, that he completely missed exactly what Edgeworth had said to him.

...It was only when he stood up to leave himself did he notice the remains sitting inconspicuously at the bottom of Edgeworth's cup.

A thick, dark sludge of coffee grounds.

"Motherf-"