AN: I wrote this almost two and a half years ago, but I'm cleaning out my drafts and thought I'd post more domestic wrightworth! It's my brand. I hope you like it, and please comment if you do!
Phoenix picked up the phone and dialed the number, his daily routine at around this time of day. He plunged right into speech.
"Miles, every day I wake up with you being in a different continent is one day closer to my death. I don't know how much longer I can take this."
He heard a scoff from the other end, and could only imagine his boyfriend's (boyfriend!) deadpan face.
"A simple 'good morning' would've sufficed. But then you always were overly dramatic."
Phoenix faked a gasp. "Miles Edgeworth, demon prosecutor who wrote a suicide note and disappeared for a year is calling me overdramatic? The world is surely ending!"
Edgeworth sighed. "Will you ever get over that? It was two and a half years ago."
"Never. It's the one thing I'll always have over your head. Also I'm not overly dramatic, I'm theatrical." Phoenix stretched out the word in mock-egotism. "I was a Shakespearean drama major when you were out shacking it up with the law, you know."
"I don't know why I put up with you."
Phoenix grinned. "Neither do I. But I sure am lucky I get you to. Except for those many months you're away overseas at a time, though. Miles, the law can't be that much more interesting over in Europe."
Miles laughed, a dry and hard kind of sound, and Phoenix melted all over again. "It's certainly much calmer over here. There's a distinct lack of circus people and the dead being resurrected over here."
"Well you can't have that!" Phoenix wailed. "Where's all the fun in it?"
"Wright, the law isn't supposed to be fun. Besides, any fun in it came from going up against you."
Phoenix felt his ears burning, and cursed Miles' charming bluntness. You win this time, Edgeworth. "And who said romance isn't dead?"
Miles sighed. "That wasn't romantic, it was just true." Phoenix could tell he was smiling though.
"Well, buddy you're gonna have to step up your game if you want to be with me! I'm an important guy in the law biz, now. A million people in Los Angeles would love the chance to romance the famed 'defender of justice'."
"When has anyone ever called you that?"
"It'll catch on." The two lulled in a comfortable silence for a minute.
"How are the young Miss Feys?"
Phoenix laughed. "Oh, the same as usual. Maya's busy with her spirit medium stuff a lot of the time but still manages to find a couple minutes to pickpocket my wallet for burger money. She's running me dry, Miles." Edgeworth chuckled in response. "And Pearls is very busy, too. She's obsessed with trying to help out Maya being the head of the family clan or whatever but ends up making a mess a lot of the time. Maya sends her up here a lot to get her off of her own hands, but I don't mind. Pearls is pretty quiet and strangely wise for a ten-year-old. She's actually given me some good insight into cases before."
"It makes so much sense that you'd take advice from a child," Edgeworth deadpanned.
"Hey, didn't you just say like five minutes ago that I was the only challenge in the law over here?"
"And it wasn't a lie. I, like some people I know, stick to being honest, especially in court," Miles teased.
Phoenix feigned outraged. "I never lie, Miles Edgeworth! What could possibly have given you that idea?"
"What about all those bluffs you tell? What do you call those, then?"
"Making accusations without quote-unquote having the proof to back it up at that moment in time."
"And that isn't a lie?" Phoenix knew Miles was smirking, knew he was falling into that same trap that he always did in the courtroom, but he took the bait anyway.
"A little tiny white lie for the great cause of Justice, then."
"Mhm." Phoenix laughed. "And it always works!"
"That it does. Unfortunately for every criminal and prosecutor within twenty-five miles of Los Angeles, your... unorthodox methods always do seem to work."
"Unfortunately for you?" Phoenix asked curiously.
"Every other prosecutor," smiled modified, and Phoenix smiled.
"Why do you have to be away so long?" he asked softly.
"Crime never sleeps, Phoenix. And it's only for six weeks." Miles' response was just as soft.
Phoenix heard shuffling noises and footsteps clacking in the background, and knew it was time to let go. "I'll call you at three? That'll be nine for you, right?"
"Ten for me. You know I don't sleep until late, though."
Phoenix vaguely realized that back-and-forth felt so normal, and he could barely imagine a time before his life was like this. "I'll call you, then?"
"Ten o'clock on the dot," Miles responded. There was a short pause.
"I love you. Come home soon."
"I love you too, Phoenix. And I'll be back before you know it."
The call ended, and Phoenix got up off the couch and readied himself for another day of fighting injustice in the star-studded city he called home.