Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the game. They belong to Capcom. And I've written this without permission… so sorry.

A/N: Well, here is the last instalment, I hoped you enjoyed everything. It's the longest chapter as I felt I needed to round things off nicely. (Plus, I've given Phoenix a name fetish)

Read, review, complain, praise, critique!

Thanks for putting up with the suspense all the way through to my repeated reviewers who came back for more, and to the single reviewers also, and to those who have added the story to their favourites. You have all made me very happy :)

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Chapter 8

April 2nd

2:40 pm

Miles Edgeworth's Hotel Room

"Whoa, Nick, I didn't know you swung that way mate," Larry seemed to back off a bit "and what about Maya? God, you've confused me dude." His face scrunched in thought and he scratched his head trying to get his head around this sudden turn of events. As always, about as observant and intelligent as an orange.

"Phoenix…" he was a bit startled at the use of his first name emitting from Miles' mouth, especially the way he made it sound so…nice. It sent a bit of a shiver down Phoenix's spine, not that he would ever admit that of course. "I don't get it. What are you suggesting, how can you come to such a conclusion?" They hadn't moved away, still challenging each other in the court-atmosphere to see who would back down first.

Maya spoke up, she was smiling at him "Nick, read it out. You've got me all fluttery!" Then she mouthed something that looked a lot like 'thank you', god was she relieved that he'd taken the whole thing so well, that stupid statement she said before… well, it was stupid.

"Oh right… that might help a bit. Here is a record of what happened last night provided by Miss Ema Skye," His hand dropped, had it really been pointing at Miles all that time? Phoenix cleared his throat and read out the lines that interested him and the rest of the room the most:

"Mr Wright seems to think Mr Edgeworth is hot. It actually seems rather nippy in here, (he has a) bad judgement of temperature. Mr Edgeworth doesn't mind this character flaw and seems rather happy with Mr Wright's statement. He likes to compliment Mr Wright. He sure is a nice guy as I can't see what's so nice about Mr Wright's lips, they're quite ordinary."

Larry stared blankly at Phoenix "Yea, so, what's your point? Edgey is a pretty civil guy, and you are pretty crap at telling the weather, what has that got to do with you and him? I guess it's you and not Edgey who's gay with frills seeing as though you imagined all that… man, you haven't thought about me in that way have you?" Larry looked genuinely startled at his reasoning.

"What the hell Larry?"

"Well, I mean with the stupid pink suit, the fluffy cravat, and the lack of interest in all those girls…and yet you're the bent one?" Phoenix shook his head in disbelief at Larry's logic and was about to reply until someone cut across him.

"As I stated before, Larry, I am still in the room." Miles looked indifferent. His emotions hadn't changed and this shook Phoenix slightly. Where's the disgusted looks? What I said hasn't affected him in the slightest…that's just weird. "He is right, Wright. This statement does not show any romantic inclination whatsoever." He sneered at Phoenix "Prove it. Prove that ridiculous assumption of yours with evidence, not someone else's stupid thoughts."

"So, you're not denying it Edgeworth?" Phoenix raised an eyebrow at him.

"How can I when I do not remember the events of last night?" They were standing close, neither of them wanting to move and finding it hard to look anywhere other then into the others eyes.

"Mr Edgeworth, does this mean you have no feelings for Nick?" Maya had spoken up and was looking at him curiously. He broke eye contact and stared into space for a second.

"That is correct. If anything did happen it was through no feelings of mine, and I blame the idiot sitting over there who effectively drugged me into high-heaven." Git.

"Haha, he got you good there dude, Edgey doesn't repay your feelings."

"Hey, since when did I even say I had feelings for him?" Gah, people always assume stuff about me before I even say it. "Look, all I want is to know the flaming truth. I woke up this morning to a banging headache and a blank space in my mind only to find a bruise on my neck that I couldn't have put there, I just want to know who did this and why!" Phoenix was getting really worked up with the whole situation, he'd finally solved the case and yet no one seemed to believe him. Miles just looked at him for what seemed the millionth time that day.

"So you're not gay then Nick?"

He turned round, pretty fed up with the homophobe in the corner "No, I'm not. Do you think I would have tried to chat up all those women last night if I was?" Larry seemed to relax and shrugged his shoulders.

"Fair point, just as long as you don't start to get your 'pleasures' from images of me doing stuff every night everything's ok with me man." I doubt anyone does that Larry. He got up from his seating position. "I've had enough of this, thanks for the entertainment guys, at least now I know what happened to me last night."

"Where are you going? Don't you want to hear the truth? I sure do!" Maya looked a bit dismayed at being left on her own.

"I'm off to find my poor little Maria; she'll want that new bouquet of lilies I bought her. Good luck with the case, I'm sure you'll find out who it is in the end." He winked and with that he opened the door and walked out of the room waving good bye and tapped his friends on the back to watch them turn round the wrong way to run down the staircase laughing.

Phoenix pondered on his friend's words as he watched him run wildly down the stairs "Uh… Edgeworth, you're not really 'gay with frills' are you?"

"…I don't think my sexuality is any of your business Wright." …is that a yes?

"Mr Edgeworth, do you believe us or not? I'm pretty sure it was you who gave Nick a love bite. You were drunk, it's understandable…"

"Hey, are you saying he'd have to be off his head to even consider kissing me?" Phoenix had interrupted without thinking and quickly shut up, biting his lip.

Maya laughed "All I'm saying is it could have been a drunken mistake if he did and, well, we wouldn't make any more of it." Speak for yourself... stuck up sod he is. Why won't he just accept it?

"Look Miss Fey, I appreciate you trying to reason with me but I'm going to keep denying it till you show me some dammed proof." Phoenix hoped he wouldn't have to bring up what he had been musing about before Maya had broken in, it was proof enough to him but the thought that Phoenix had come to Miles' hotel room scared him a bit.

"Edgeworth, look at your bookshelf over there. Does anything strike you as odd about it?" He didn't move a muscle. Phoenix grabbed his shoulders, with a lot of protest from Miles, to swing him to face the shelf.

"Wright, if you're talking about my re-arranging of the books then you're denser than I thought." Phoenix put his chin up slightly to Edgeworth's ear to whisper something, Miles could feel his warm breath on the back of his neck and it tickled him a bit.

"Look at the 'M' section, there's one missing isn't there?" He was right; there was a gap in the shelves… "The book that's gone, it was called 'Memories' wasn't it?" Miles lost whatever colour that was left in his pale cheeks "I'm betting that this room was in a bit of a mess this morning…" he pushed Phoenix away from him and turned round, his eyes narrowed.

"Alright. You two have proved your point, I was the one who gave you a nip on the neck last night Wright. Happy now?"

They were and they danced on the spot for a bit. "Yey, you've solved the case Nick!"

Phoenix stopped and saw Miles looking quite at a loss. "Hey, I'm sure we weren't stupid enough to go too far. It wasn't like I woke up in your bed or anything Edgeworth, cheer up a bit you miserable drunkard. Oooh, does this mean I get to call you pathetic for not remembering too?" he gave him a glare of distaste.

"Sorry that you two had a bit of a drunken mistake and it wasn't a special someone like I suggested, but it could happen to anyone. Don't worry we won't mention it, Nick has done stupider things in his time." Maya clasped her hands together and beamed up at Phoenix "It's been three hours since I last had anything to eat and I'm starving, let's meet back to the office and have a feast to celebrate!"

"Ok Maya, I'll stop by later with some food." He hugged her good bye and she cheerily waved to Miles who slightly nodded his head in acknowledgement. When she had gone, Phoenix turned to follow.

(A/N: For 'suggestive-Yaoi/Slash' haters who have enjoyed the fic stop reading here, halt, it was all a drunken mistake, no feelings involved and they all went to the pub to celebrate and lived happily ever after, apart from Larry who wasn't invited for pulling such a mean trick on Phoenix and Miles. Now the rest may continue…)

"Don't go…" he felt Miles grab him by the arm.

"What now Edgeworth? I think we've worked it all out by now." A sudden feeling of anger rode up inside Phoenix, why was Miles getting him to stay after all he'd done to deny it? He was irritated at how the other man had told Maya how he had no feelings for Phoenix, he was miffed about the fact he couldn't remember his night of passion, he felt hurt that he was just another drunken mistake, he was annoyed that Edgeworth had called it a 'nip on the neck' (that was such a stupid way of explaining it) but the one thing that really ticked him off was that it was Miles who had done it to him, why did all this bother him so much? No, he hadn't ever thought of him as more than a friend, but wouldn't a real friend face up to what they had done?

"Writing a novel in there Wright?" he smirked at him.

"…huh?" Phoenix stopped seething and relaxed, forgetting his anger.

"You weren't listening were you?" Phoenix looked at him, bewildered. "I just asked you if you could still accept me, after all that has happened, and whether or not we can still be… friends."

"S…sure, we can still be friends." He hesitated, what were all those thoughts before about? Ah well you only live once. Phoenix reached across to embrace Miles in a –manly- hug, he felt the man accept this gesture and they stood for a minute in the hotel room thinking about what could have happened the night before and if they had truly enjoyed it. He broke the –manly- hug.

Miles seemed to ponder a bit on his next thought "Phoenix," Ugh, there's the irresistible first-name-usage again. "You know you asked me about my sexuality before…"

"Mmmhuh." He didn't trust himself to speak after that batch of spine tingling goodness.

"Well… it is possible to like both you know." Who are you referring to here? "You did call me hot after all."

"Edgeworth, now is not the time to be taking the mick out of my temperature judging, I've just started to forgive you for being a stuck up jerk, unless of course you want to hire me to be your personal thermometer?" the other man nearly smiled, very nearly.

"You did not answer my question Wright." He asked me a question? Phoenix raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm still very attracted to girls, but last night is not just going to go away is it? I suppose there might have been a reason why I let you give me a hickey, and I have a sneaking suspicion you don't want to leave everything as it is anyways."

Miles didn't. "Last night, we were pissed and I was probably attracted to you. I will admit that."

"What Edgeworth? You mean you weren't just being civil last night, as suggested by our highly intelligent friend, and you were in fact hitting on me?" He was amused by the other man but was also quite touched that he was telling him this. Miles closed his eyes to remain serious and continued.

"I think I still want to."

"…huh?" That was the second time Miles had made him speechless.

"Right here, this moment, I have been perfectly sober all this time and yet I still can not stop myself from admiring your unique hair, the way you smelt when you fell onto me, the feeling of your warm breath on my neck, the way those eyes stare right through me…"

"Wow, that's…err…deep."

"…the way you sweat bullets when you can't figure something out, and then you always manage to work it out in the end, then when you laugh at me or crack a joke and…oh Christ Phoenix," Ah, stop using my first name.

Stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopit

Why does it turn me on? Why, God, why? Damn that man and his sexy-Phoenix-speaking voice. "…your lips, Ema was wrong, they are not ordinary, they entice me..."

Phoenix panicked at this point and backed off holding his hands out in front of him "Whoa, hold it there Edgeworth, there is only so far you can go! Do you really think all this about me, seriously?" Miles didn't move a muscle as his eyes flickered open; he was rooted to the spot.

"Have you not noticed me trying to figure it out this whole time? I have certainly stared at you enough today, but these bloody feelings…"

"Hold it! You've just contradicted yourself; you told Maya before that you had no feelings for me. I thought I was just a drunken mistake." It was true, Miles had been staring at him, a lot, but he had dismissed the possibility of his attraction.

"I lied."

"You…lied?" Phoenix could feel his throat going dry, not a good sign. He licked his drying lips but then remembered what Miles had just said and stopped, surely that would just be rubbing it in to the poor man. He looked down at his watch, it was only three, and god had that gone slowly…

"I am sorry for lying, Phoenix," Phoenix let out a slight, little moan but then quickly raised his hands to his mouth in frustration, he couldn't show that effect Miles had on him, it was wrong. Thankfully, he hadn't noticed. "I honestly thought my mind was playing tricks on me, that I was not really jealous of your mystery lover, then I heard your accusation and I did not want to believe it, but then you proved it, as you always do…"

"Well, thank you for all this praise Miles," Edgeworth was a bit startled at the use of his first name (at least he wasn't weirdly turned on by it). "But I don't see where you're going with this."

"I do not know, I really do not know. I just thought you had a right to know what I have been feeling." His beautiful grey eyes reflected the light back into Phoenix's. …beautiful? You meant friendly, didn't you?

"I admit it, I think you're so bloody god damned hot!" He quickly held his hand up to his mouth. Gah, think before you speak you idiot! Take it back, quick! "…I mean, I think you're cold…no wait…" oh what a mess, he's just gone and told you all that and you cock it up. Phoenix had started to sweat "…umm, you have nice hair?" No wonder all those ladies rejected you. "You're sexy," Shut up, damn it! "I mean…I've never thought of you like that, we're just good mates…" I'm going to disown myself. "Ok, Ok, I've got it!" Bit too late for that isn't it? "You may be hot, but your cravat is stupid." Great, now you've insulted him, so much for taking it back.

Miles was highly amused at his ramblings. Phoenix gathered himself together and finally decided on what sounded best, there was no taking it back now he'd let it slip.

"I was hurt, Edgeworth, when I thought you only thought of me as a mistake, and it's taken me until now for me to realise why." Hmmm, good going Wright.

"Why were you hurt?" he didn't sound amused, how that man could hide his feelings so well was lost on Phoenix.

"Umm... I suppose I was hurt because I didn't want to be your mistake; I wanted you to actually, well you know, want me."

"I want you." He said simply.

"Good. Ok. That's great. Explains last night. Good. I'm not hurt. No, it's all good."

"Good." Miles quickly pulled Phoenix into him and pressed his lips against the other man's softly. When they broke apart Phoenix just looked at him in wonder.

"Did you just kiss me?"

"No, I just fell onto your enticing lips… of course I just kissed you!" Phoenix thought he heard him mutter something that sounded a lot like 'sodding defence attorneys', but he just ignored this and blinked at Miles. Hey, he's actually quite good… for a snobby prosecutor.

"Do you …err…want to kiss me again?"

"…I do," he admitted "I really do Phoenix" He couldn't help himself, he just had to let out a long groan and closed his eyes in pleasure to feel the intense spine-tingling sensation after Miles said his name like that. It was a good job he had always called him by his second name in court.

"Then take that stupid frilly thing off, it tickles."

Fin