AN: Back at it again with the Wrightworth family fluff.
It had been a hell of a day.
Phoenix Wright figured he would know what being put through the wringer felt like by now. This was at least ten times worse.
A seventeen-year-old getting him caught for evidence he didn't even know was forged. His client, guilty, vanishing. Being the sole caretaker of the child his client left behind, while now jobless, with a tainted reputation.
Phoenix imagined that there couldn't be anything that could make this situation worse. He was wrong. Again.
The doorbell to his apartment rings, followed by a curt knock. Phoenix looks at Trucy, who seems completely preoccupied in her own games, fiddling with her cape while Maya's Steel Samurai DVDs run on the tv. It seems safe to open the door.
When he does, he's greeted by a sense of fear and relief, rolled into one. His rival- now partner, if that was the right word for it- standing in the hallway, dressed down but with a stern look in his eye and papers in his hands. Phoenix isn't sure whether to be afraid or happy.
"Miles." It's all he can manage to get out. The words to describe this hellish day just don't exist in him.
"Wright." Edgeworth exhales deeply. "We need to talk."
Phoenix feels something grab his leg, and looks down. Trucy is hanging onto his pants, almost fully behind him, staring up at Edgeworth with large, fearful eyes. "Miles," he says slowly, "this is Trucy."
The other man's deep grey eyes widen, but he doesn't look shocked. Meaning, Phoenix thinks, that he either already knew about it, or that he knows how to control his emotions around kids. "Trucy, this is Miles. There's no need to be scared of him. We've been friends since we were your age."
Trucy visibly relaxes some, her grip on his pants slackening slightly. Phoenix notices, for the first time, the other thing in Miles' hands: a dog leash. He sees Miles' corgi Pess waiting obediently behind him.
"You can come in." Phoenix steps out of the door frame and Trucy releases her iron grip on his pants as Pess trots in behind Miles. Phoenix reaches down to detach Pess' leash and hang it on the coat rack, and the dog carefully sits on the floor next to the couch. He's suddenly keenly grateful that Pess is a well-trained dog.
Phoenix directs his attention to Trucy, making a slight nod to Miles to indicate for him to stay quiet a minute. "Hey, Trucy? Me and Miles have to talk about some things. You don't have to talk to him, but you're welcome to play with Pess. She's a sweet dog."
Trucy slowly, cautiously looks up at Miles, who nods, then back at Phoenix. "Okay."
Trucy sits down next to Pess with a flutter of her cape and lets Pess smell her hand. Pleased, Pess licks her and Trucy giggles, and begins petting the dog. Phoenix takes the chance to get Miles' attention, nodding towards the kitchen table.
Phoenix speaks first, quietly. "A lot has happened today, and I'm sorry we can't talk about it with Trucy around."
Miles sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I understand, and I've heard what happened, obviously." He sets the papers on the table with a soft thud. "We'll wait then?" Phoenix nods.
It takes an hour and a half for the two of them to get a chance to talk. Trucy slowly becomes more comfortable with the small dog, and glancing back at her new father every now and then, begins to play and run around with her. Eventually they tire themselves out, Trucy falling asleep curled up on the couch with a blanket over her and Pess curled up in her lap, snoozing.
Throughout this time, Phoenix and Miles exchange few words, mainly watching Trucy and Pess, watching the sun set outside. When he sees Trucy's asleep, he lets out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.
"So. I have a daughter now." He says it quietly enough that Miles can hear, but it won't wake Trucy.
"You've started filling out official documents, then?" Miles asks. Typical for Miles to be focused on paperwork and processes. Hopefully this means he isn't too angry.
"Finished and almost completed. There was too much chaos surrounding her father's disappearance for them to worry much about my being single and newly jobless. There's enough orphans in the city as-is."
Miles sighs, and closes his eyes. "If this had happened a mere six months ago, I would have been angry."
Phoenix winces. "And now?"
Miles opens his eyes to look at Phoenix, expression unreadable, beyond slight relief. "It took me all of five minutes to figure you must have been set up. You're too moralistic to do something like forge conclusive evidence, even in a high-stakes case. Bluffing is one thing, but breaking the law is another."
Phoenix feels his clammy hands release their tight grip on one another. Waiting for Trucy to fall asleep felt like it had taken years.
"I'm glad you believe me..." He trails off, weighing the conditions of going forward with this. "I think... I think there's probably more to this than just getting faked evidence. It seems... off somehow."
Edgeworth nods, and begins flipping through some of the papers he brought. "I thought so, too. I heard about what happened almost immediately. However, it seemed strange. I looked into some things, namely the defendant, and the prosecuting attorney. He's a prodigy, and even greener than you are. His brother, however, is a different story." Miles closes shut a folder he has been reading from, and sets in back down in the stack of papers. "But that can be dealt with tomorrow." He looks back up at Phoenix, with some discomfort. "How are you holding up? Provided these charges against you were set up purposefully, you've now wrongfully lost your job and had a child placed in your care. It can't have been easy."
Phoenix lets out a breathy, half-hearted laugh, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt. "That would be putting it mildly. But I can't help it, so there's no point in dwelling on how I feel." He looks at Edgeworth, then sighs. Might as well tell the truth. Even without a magatama, Miles is probably be able to tell that he's lying.
"Honestly... this day has been terrible. I can't imagine ever feeling worse. And that's something, considering everything that's happened in the past year. I just felt like- like everything was finally coming together. I had regular cases, settled everything from back in college... and there was an us. Finally." Phoenix's cheeks are red, no doubt, but Miles looks no better, blushing but silently wringing his hands on top of the table. "But now... there's more complications, and it's all going to fall apart again. I'm exhausted."
To his surprise, Miles just arches an eyebrow at him. "If you thought that... this... would come without complications, then you're a lot less smart than I give you credit for."
Phoenix chuckles, but checks himself until he sees that Trucy is still fast asleep on the sofa. "Since when have you given me credit for my intelligence?"
"Since you got me cleared of my father's murder. You have won nearly all of your cases, after all."
Phoenix rolls his eyes. "I don't think it counts when you're forced to defend a criminal under threat of killing a hostage."
Miles splays his hands out on the table. "Fair enough. But the point stands." The prosecutor averts his eyes, staring pointedly at the ground while he speaks. "I'm not willing to give up this easily."
Phoenix feels a weight release off his shoulders. "Oh." His hands slowly reach Miles' on the table, and their fingers intertwine.
"I had just hoped, you know, that it would be at least six months before something terrible happened," Phoenix admits, then backtracks. "Not that Trucy is terrible! She's really sweet, once you get her to talk to you. The kid has more talent than you could ever imagine. It's just that the circumstances are... less than ideal."
Miles chuckles softly. "A lawyer's way to phrase it." He follows Phoenix's lingering gaze to Trucy, her brown hair falling in her face and her little arms around Pess. "It seems like they're getting along well. I'm glad. They'll be seeing a lot more of each other in the future."
Phoenix smiles at his friend- partner? lover?- and squeezes his hand slightly. "Yeah?"
"And maybe Trucy will even speak to me then. We'll figure out what to do soon. I plan to investigate these charges against you, and Zac Gramarye. But for now..." Miles trails off, and Phoenix meets his eyes, filled with a million emotions he can't comprehend. He feels pretty much the same.
"For now I'll just get settled. I'm taking Trucy to my mom tomorrow. She'll be able to help more than I will. But after that, we can figure out what to do about all of, well, this." He gestures wildly at the papers at the child sleeping on his couch, and Miles gives him a half smile, and they sit in silence for a moment.
The last rays of daylight come down through the window and settle through Miles' hair and Phoenix feels, for a short moment, as though things might end up okay. It will be a long road, but...
"You know," Miles says softly. "There was one thing you were wrong about."
Phoenix cocks his head to the side, slightly. "What do you mean?"
Miles takes a deep breath, with one steadying glance at Trucy, then one back at Phoenix. "It would really be more accurate to say that we have a daughter, now."
Phoenix just stares at him in silence for a moment, then quickly surges to meet Miles' lips with his own, putting a hand on his cheek while he kisses his childhood friend softly.
They break apart and Phoenix rests his head on Miles' shoulder, who doesn't even flinch at the touch anymore, but instead just closes his eyes contentedly.
"Yeah," Phoenix admits. "I guess we have a daughter now."
AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment below!