Sorry it took a bit, I've been bouncing from one vacation to another and attempting to make a dent in summer reading. But here is chapter two! Enjoy!

I own no rights to the ACE ATTORNEY series nor the characters in this story. Those belong to CAPCOM. Oh yeah, and Title credits goes to the Mumford and Sons song 'Little Lion Man' I don't own that either.

~LITTLE LION MAN~

Edgeworth turned the television off and tossed the remote somewhere behind him on his hotel room bed. He, surprisingly, had nothing to do today and had spent the hours sitting in his bed catching up on his favorite show, and his biggest guilty pleasure, Steel Samurai. Doing nothing had actually felt good. He had woken up late, hadn't changed from his pajamas… He was kind of proud of himself for doing something rather out of the ordinary.

The only thing disturbing him was his incessantly ringing cellphone. Wright had been calling every thirty minutes for the past day. Edgeworth had eventually silenced it after the fifteenth call and resorted to shutting it off all together after finding no one had contacted him but that obnoxious defense attorney. His lack of productivity finally hit him after the seventh hour of nothingness.

Tea. Tea is productive. Yes, I'll make some tea.

That settled it. Edgeworth rose from his bed in his decidedly not-pink pajamas and made his way to the kitchenette to make himself a piping hot, delicious, wonderful pot of tea. He put the water on to boil and added the teabag and he was so looking forward to the result… when someone had the audacity to disturb him by knocking on his door.

Cursing under his breath about 'the nerve to ruin the scared act of tea making', Edgeworth yanked open his door. His rapidly declining mood took a steep descent. A certain spikey-haired man was standing on his doorstep, rubbing the back of his neck with an awkward grin plastered across his face. Edgeworth was not pleased.

"Wright? Care to inform me as to why you're here?" he growled through gritted teeth.

"You weren't answering my calls," he said.

"I'm fairly certain that you made it more than abundantly clear that I repulse you and you have no desire to hold a civil conversation with me. And I thought I made it clear that I have no desire to have you yell at me anymore, as demonstrated by the fact I haven't answered my phone any of the fifty five times that you have called in the past twenty four hours."

"I asked for your hotel from Gumshoe. Listen, Edgeworth, I'm sorry about the other day."

With each word coming from the man's mouth Edgeworth steadily closed the door inch by inch. "I know you were mad, but do you think having me spend three hours in a holding cell an appropriate course of action?"

"Three hours is nothing compared to a year," Phoenix fired back.

Edgeworth turned away to walk back into his room after raising a groomed eyebrow as if to say 'touché'. Phoenix's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, causing the sleeve to rise slightly above its previous resting place. The prosecutor tensed at the touch and yanked his arm from the spiky haired attorney's grasp, tugging the cloth back down the few inches.

"Miles... please."

"Come in and sit down, Wright."

Phoenix complied with the harshly given command. He watched his friend enter the kitchen, tracing every move, almost afraid that if he took his eyes off the prosecutor he would disappear into thin air again. The defense attorney took a quick glance away to seat himself on a beige loveseat across from an equally plush armchair.

"Would you like any tea?" Edgeworth called while pouring himself a cup.

"No." Phoenix instinctively shook his head, even though he realized that his friend couldn't see him. When Edgeworth turned back around to walk to the seating area, Phoenix heard all of his thoughts spilling from his mouth without his brain agreeing to such. "I'm sorry for what I did the other day but I just couldn't stand to look at some poor excuse for the Miles Edgeworth I knew. Do you know how worried I was the entire time? Do you know how much you took up my thoughts? Every time there was an earthquake I wanted to call you and tell you it as okay until I realized you weren't around to be scared."

"Wright, I-"

"Each time I walked into the courtroom I wanted to see your silly pink suit, and have you correct me by saying magenta, and your stupid cravat. I was so pissed off! I didn't want to believe that you would do something so stupid and selfish! And the Miles I knew wouldn't have, but I just figured that Miles was dead and had been taken over by a completely different person. You know, revenge of the body snatchers or something like that."

Edgeworth stood stunned for a moment. He slowly sat down, terrified that one wrong move could spark another verbal onslaught. "I'm sorry too... about that incident." He took a sip from his steaming cup. "It was childish of me to run away from my problems like that; I simply assumed I would not be missed."

"You were. You weren't yourself after everything that happened. I really thought you had killed yourself. Not just because of the petty case record, but because of what started in the two weeks or so before your disappearance."

Edgeworth inhaled sharply, muscles tensing, eyes darkening. "You mean the 'us' thing."

"Yes, the 'us' thing. I've accepted that I like guys and chicks. I was worried that because of this whole 'perfection' stigma you've got in your head, you thought it made you less than perfect and you couldn't take that."

Edgeworth sighed, putting his tea down on the table between Phoenix and him. He began to roll up the sleeve that his guest had grabbed earlier. "I tried once when I was younger because of that. I knew that He wouldn't accept it and for a while I thought there was no way I could ever attain the stature He expected me to like this. Luckily for me, though I didn't think of it that way at the time, Franziska showed a rare moment of kindness. She called an ambulance and stopped the bleeding long enough for me to make it to the hospital and then lied to her father about how it happened. She said a bird got into the house and as she and I were trying to shoo it out, a vase fell over and broke. She told Him I tripped and got a larger chunk of it embedded in my wrist."

"Are you sure that was the same Franziska I met?"

Miles chuckled lightly. "That Franziska rarely appears. After that I had a brief flirtation with the idea of self mutilation. I mainly cut around my pelvic area and further up my arm as to keep it hidden. I also reasoned if I made myself look repulsive… down there... that if I ever did end up getting that far with a man, they'd see it and not want to touch me."

"Oh my God, Miles! You... You stopped right? You haven't cut yourself anymore... Right? Right?" Miles couldn't bear the look he saw in his friend's eyes. He could imagine that same look, only tenfold, when he found out about that wretched note.

"I contemplated it after He got wind of my first loss."

"You didn't, right?" There was that look again.

Miles shook his head. "No. I got disgustingly drunk that evening though. An only slightly better alternative. I'd prefer not to turn myself into an alcoholic."

"Oh thank lord," Phoenix released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. "I would've blamed myself if you had." He paused and looked at the teacup, smirking. "Teaholic maybe. I don't think you'd let yourself become someone like that. And I can't believe someone who acts as haughty as you…"

"I do not act haughty!" He glared before holding his arm out for Phoenix to see. "I'm better now. I lived as one of those self-deprecating homosexuals for a long time before I actually came to terms with it."

Phoenix gently held the wrist presented to him. A large, slightly raised and discolored patch of skin sat diagonally atop the prosecutor's wrist. Phoenix lightly ran his thumb over it, feeling the difference between the scar and the skin. "How... How deep did you cut and with what? This looks so horrible."

"A knife from the kitchen." Miles swallowed, forcing himself to remain composed. He had never spoken of that horrible event to anyone, and had never planned on doing so. "I think it was used for cutting meat. After the initial slice I just went over it again with more force and pressure and I think at one point I actually had it inside the cut, carving it wider. I don't remember too much due to rapid blood loss. Wright... Wright? W-why are you crying?"

"Because," Phoenix sniffed, "I can't imagine how horrible it must have been to lead you to this and how you wanted to die and that you almost did and I just feel the pain when I look at it and my skin hurts and" he took a breath to keep himself from choking on tears. "I wish I had found you so you could've talked to me about it and maybe I could've helped."

"You're helping now," Miles reassured. "I'll have to live with the memory of what I've done, but it helps me focus on where I must never return." Withdrawing his arm and covering the scar back up with the sleeve of his pajama shirt, Edgeworth picked up his cup of tea again. "So, did you find me to yell some more? Just know that you can't pull the same trespassing trick."

Phoenix let out a soft laugh. "Does this seem like I came to yell at you? I said I came to apologize. I was just really, really, angry yesterday. I have been since you rose from the dead. I was just slightly more forgiving due to the aide you provided."

"Understandable. I don't blame you."

"I mean, I finally found you again and then you disappear after a few months. And I mean, it's not just that. We were in a kinda relationship and you leave me to think you killed yourself."

Miles raised an eyebrow and smirked at the term. "Kind of relationship?"

"I don't think we ever decided that we were technically together and I don't think we ever officially were 'dating' but whatever it was, it was nice. I thought that I should have noticed something, even in the short span of time."

"Wright, actually putting effort into forging a relationship with someone like myself and caring for the bastard that I am, is enough. I have no clue why you're so attached to me."

"A-attached!"

Phoenix's heart warmed at the rare laugh that escaped Edgeworth's lips. "You told me you became a lawyer to see me again. You wanted to see someone you hadn't known since you were nine. Then, on top of that, you try to befriend the 'demon prosecutor' I became. Next, you save my ass in court. And now you're at my hotel room, trying to figure out how I could do something as stupid as I did. If that's not attachment, I don't know what is, Wright." Edgeworth sighed, rubbing his forehead with the hand not holding his teacup. "I really fucked it up this time, didn't I, Wright?"

Phoenix grinned. "Just a little." He moved to sit on the arm of his friend's chair, draping an arm across broad shoulders. To slight protest, the attorney pried the tea from pale hands and returned it to the glass table. Before the prosecutor could open his mouth to disagree and demand his drink be returned, Phoenix bent down, meshing his lips with Edgeworth's. The prosecutor's mouth tasted strongly of tea, just like Phoenix remembered.

Drawing away, the dark-haired man looked uncharacteristically grim. "That was the last thing before you disappeared. You stayed the night at my apartment and I kissed you goodnight. When I woke up… you weren't there. A few hours later I discover that you had 'chosen death.' That's why I thought it might have been my fault."

Cupping Phoenix's face, Miles kissed his cheek and wiped away developing tears. "I remember and… I'm sorry. I feel that's not enough to express how much I hurt you, but it's all I have. Just know that nothing that I did was your fault."

"I know how sorry you are and I know you have issues expressing emotions other than anger…"

The prosecutor's brow furrowed and eyes narrowed at the statement.

"But I know what you're trying for. And I accept your apology." He kissed Miles once more, this time managing to worm his tongue into his partner's mouth. Miles curled his fingers around jet black hair allowing his tongue to slide over Phoenix's. The prosecutor was the one to break away this time. His eyes were half lidded and his lips slick and red. Phoenix hoped he hadn't audibly gasped at the sight. Miles stood and held his hand out to Phoenix who eagerly grasped it.

"It's late."

"Miles, it's only eight."

"I feel tired when I'm unproductive, lose track of time and all. I've done nothing today but sit in bed and watch a Steel Samurai marathon. It feels like eleven."

"So," Phoenix's voice dropped into a sultry tone, "you haven't done anything all day, can I be the first thing?"

"No." He let go of Phoenix for a brief second to close the bedroom door behind them. When he turned around, steely eyes rolled.

"Aww, why-y-y!" Phoenix whined, already fiddling with the button to his pants.

"You had me arrested, terribly unromantic, we still haven't said that this is an actual relationship, and you haven't taken me to dinner," the last statement was accented with a joking wink. Miles, already sitting back in his bed, saw the attorney begin to pull his jeans up and held up a hand. "So, you only want to be in bed with me if you're having sex with me? Or do you enjoy sleeping in jeans?"

"I object to both of those statements as they are blatant lies and defamations of my character!"

He rolled his eyes and said, "Just get in bed or I will leave for a decade next time."

Phoenix dropped his pants to his ankles and nearly flew over to the king sized bed. "That's not fair. You can't threaten that. Ever." He plastered himself atop the prosecutor. Seeing the less than amused look in his friend's eyes, the defense attorney grinned. "This way you can't leave without me knowing. You'll have to force me off of you."

Miles ran a hand through dark spiked hair, laughing. He lifted his head up a bit to kiss Phoenix. "You're a piece of work."

"You love me anyway, right?" The defense attorney smiled again and Miles couldn't help smiling back.

"Right…"