Author's Note: Hiya, readers! Welcome to chapter seven of this moderately not-too-bad fic! (: Again, this is a chapter you haven't seen before... kind of! (Exciting stuff...) Erm, there's not much to say about it, so... yeah.

Thanks so much for all of your lovely reviews. You guys are honestly brilliant. :P I'm glad that you're enjoying it so much!

~Rainbow Fruit Loop xx

~Irresistible Love and the Turnabout~

Chapter Seven.

When Phoenix awoke the next morning, it was surprisingly early. Sunlight was making a half-hearted effort to burst through the thick pink curtains; pathetically attempting to light up the dark room.

Phoenix stretched out in the large, comfortable bed, forgetting where he was for a second.

Huh. I forgot; I stayed the night with Edgeworth.

Phoenix glanced at the clock on his right, and stifled a groan.

Urgh, it's only six o'clock. I wonder what time Edgeworth usually wakes up?

Phoenix turned his head, and looked down at his friend. Miles' usually tense face was relaxed with sleep; the usually deep lines on his forehead gone. His pale arms were snaked around his pillow, face buried in the white cotton.

Aw. He looks… happy. I wonder what he's dreaming about?

Phoenix debated staying in bed a little longer and watching his friend sleep, but after deciding that would be slightly creepy, he got out of the bed as silently as he could.

As he crept out of the bedroom and into the living room, Phoenix noticed that his head was feeling a lot less sore. The dull, endless throbbing had, instead, been replaced with a quick, sharp pain - the sort of pain that was easily suppressed with a few painkillers.

The doctor said that I needed to take the painkillers with food. Hm. I wonder what breakfast food Edgeworth's got hanging around?

With a quiet yawn, Phoenix padded into the large kitchen, and started rummaging around in his friend's cupboards. As he looked for food that he understood the name of - really, that man bought too much German food - he pondered over the last twenty four hours.

I can't believe I managed to get a concussion. That's so embarrassing. I wonder if Edgeworth hates me now - he's never really liked spending time with me, so he must be absolutely sick of me by now.

Though, saying that, he did open up to me last night. I can't believe he's so worried that he's going to turn out like von Karma. He's such a brilliant prosecutor, and such an… inspiring man. I can't believe that he would ever think that he's not amazing.

We've had fun, though, now that we're possibly becoming friends again. I enjoyed talking with him yesterday, even though we weren't really talking about anything. Idle chatter has never really been Edgeworth's thing, so I'm glad he made an effort.

Phoenix pulled a box of cereal out of the cupboard, and tried to locate a bowl.

I wonder what he meant yesterday, though, about how he would 'willingly' meet me if I was important to him. Hm. I don't think he meant it as an insult, because he kept trying to apologize. Maybe… maybe he's just trying to let me down gently - trying to tell me that he doesn't think I'm important, and that I should quit while I'm ahead.

Or… Could it be that he was telling me that he wants me to become an important part of his life? Somehow, I highly doubt it.

Nonetheless, the small idea that, perhaps, Miles actually wanted to be close friends again made Phoenix smile.

Triumphantly, he pulled a small bowl out of another cupboard, and sat down, alone, at Edgeworth's table and ate.

After eating his breakfast and washing up, Phoenix crept back into the bedroom. It surprised him to see that his friend was still fast asleep; completely and utterly knocked out.

It's good that he can sleep so much. He's been so tired and stressed recently. He needs to learn how to just stop. Maybe I can teach him that too.

Though, as nice as it was to allow Miles some well-earned sleep, Phoenix knew he was going to get bored very quickly.

Maybe I can use Edgeworth's laptop and check my emails?

He wondered back into the living room, located Miles' scarily expensive laptop, and turned it on. After opening the internet and typing in the name of his email server, Phoenix logged in and smiled when he noticed an email from Maya.

Since when did Maya have an actual email address? And I thought she said there wasn't an internet connection in Kurain?

He clicked on the email with an amused expression on his face; taking in all of the exclamation marks and capital letters that screamed of Maya's endless excitement.

'Hey, Nick!

You're probably wondering how I got an email, right? And probably how I managed to get internet connection in Kurain! Well, as Master of the village, I decided that the most important thing I could do was give us all internet! We had to call in some technological guy and all that (he really charged too much!) but it's okay, because NOW WE HAVE INTERNET! I managed to make myself an email account, so now we can email! Exciting, right? Also, I tried calling you a ton of times, but you didn't answer. Are you ignoring me, Nick? Well, I'll try calling you again at some point, so, until then, take care!

Lots of love, Maya xx'

Phoenix rolled his eyes to himself, though he wasn't particularly surprised that the first major change that Maya had made for her village was getting them internet.

Phoenix clicked on the 'reply' button, and typed out his reply with at a meticulous speed.

'Hey, Maya,

Of course I'm not ignoring you! I've just been busy! I stayed the night at Edgeworth's, but it was unintentional-'

Phoenix re-read what he had written, and wondered if Maya would get the wrong idea. The word 'unintentional' could mean a variety of things, and, Maya being Maya, would take it in the worse possible way.

He deleted everything he had typed, and started again.

'Hey, Maya,

Of course I'm not ignoring you! I've just been busy! I've been spending a bit of time with Edgeworth, and I've also got a concussion. So things are as normal as they ever get over here! I'm glad to hear that you've made such a beneficial change to the village (that was sarcasm), and I'm glad that you had a safe journey.

I'll be waiting for your call,

Love Phoenix xx'

After reading through his email to check for embarrassing typos or really bad grammar, Phoenix pushed 'send', and leant back against the white leather sofa.

What to do now…?

Phoenix closed the laptop with a slight 'click', and lay back against the sofa. A yawn escaped him, and he wondered what he could do to keep himself amused until Sleeping Beauty woke up.

Maybe I should think of a plan for tonight? He seems reluctant to continue the 'lessons', and, if I don't actually teach him anything tonight, then he'll stop meeting me altogether.

With a stealthiness surely worthy of any undercover spy, Phoenix snuck into Miles' office in search of a pen and some paper.

Surprisingly, the room wasn't painted magenta like Phoenix had been expecting, but rather a subtle brown.

Huh. He obviously hasn't redecorated this room yet.

Upon locating an appropriate piece of paper and a blue pen that looked like it cost more than Phoenix's entire apartment, Phoenix went to make his way out of the office.

However, he was distracted by the small silver picture frame that sat on Miles' desk.

Ooh, I wonder which picture Edgeworth keeps in his photo frame? A picture of his father, probably.

Phoenix picked up the photo frame, and smiled to himself; overcome with the type of emotion that made him want to grin from ear to ear.

Aw. I hadn't realised that he'd kept this photo for so long. It really must have meant a lot to him, our friendship.

The simple photo frame contained a photo of three grade school boys; Phoenix, Miles and Larry. Phoenix was in the middle of the group; his skinny arms entwined around both Miles' and Larry's shoulders. Miles had his arm around Phoenix's waist; the other hand grasping a book. Larry was bending down away from the camera, so only half of his face could be seen.

Trust Larry to ruin a nice photo.

Phoenix smiled to himself, before remembering when the picture had been taken. It had been taken the day before the DL-6 incident.

"Hey, Edgey!" a young Phoenix Wright enthused, "Come and get a photo!"

Though he was only nine years old, Phoenix's hair had fashioned itself into pointy spikes; refusing to be tamed with hair gel. Though it was a constant source of mockery from the children in his class, Phoenix was proud of his unique hair because Miles had once said that it suited him.

Miles was smart, so whatever he said was always right.

Miles - only a small child, though a terrifyingly intelligent one - glanced upwards from the book he was reading. "Please don't call me that name." he said, frowning at his spiky-haired friend.

"All right, I'm sorry, Miles. Can you come and have a photo with me and Larry? I'm making a scrapbook of all of my bestest friends."

"Phoenix, there is no such word as 'bestest'." Miles commented; always one to point out when something was wrong. "And you should say 'Larry and I', not 'me and Larry'."

"Oh." Phoenix's face dropped; evidently hurt that his friend had decided to point out all of his grammatical flaws.

Upon seeing the look on his best friend's face, Miles stood up from his seat in Phoenix's garden. "I will have a photo, though, if it is truly going in your scrapbook, like you say."

Phoenix smiled. "Thank you, Miles. Let's go!" He grabbed his best friend's arm, and started running.

Miles stumbled after him blindly, slightly worried by the fact that they were running away from Phoenix's house.

"Where are we going, Phoenix?" Miles asked.

"Larry and I," Phoenix beamed at his friend, silently thanking him for the impromptu grammar lesson, "found this really cool tree, so we thought the photo could be there." he explained.

The two boys eventually stopped running when they reached 'the tree'. To Miles, it looked like an ordinary tree - not one worthy of the praise Phoenix had thrown at it. Larry - an average-looking boy with low intelligence and scruffy sandy-coloured hair - was already waiting for the two, and his impatience soon kicked in.

"What took you guys so long? I'm so bored!" Larry whined, jumping off his perch in the tree.

"Sorry, Larry. It took me a while to convince Miles to come." Phoenix said, puffing slightly from the run.

Miles glared at this friend; annoyed at having the blame shifted onto him, even if it was technically his fault.

"Oh, well, you're here now!" Larry grinned stupidly, and stuck his thumbs up. "We need your smartness to be able to work the camera!"

"Shouldn't you have figured out how it works before your photo idea?" Miles asked, worried that he wouldn't know how to work such a technical device.

"No! You're smart, so we thought you could do it." Phoenix nudged Miles in the back gently, as if to say 'please, we need you'.

"Fine." Miles sighed in defeat, and held out his hand.

Phoenix handed him the camera, and gave Miles his list of instructions.

"I want it to take a photo when we're all ready, because I want you to be in the photo too. Do you think you can make it do that?" Phoenix asked anxiously.

"Yes. I'll put it on an automatic timer." Miles said, secretly pleased that his father had a similar model.

"Are you done yet, Edgey?" Larry moaned. "I'm fed up of waiting."

"…Yes. Where would you like us to stand, Phoenix?" Miles asked.

Phoenix grabbed Miles' hand, and led him over to the base of the tree. "Here. Can I be in the middle?" he asked shyly.

"Yes. It is your photo." Miles smiled at his friend, and ignored Larry's protests at the group's positioning.

Miles put the camera on the automatic timer. "It will take the photo in ten seconds." he informed the two boys.

He got into place, wrapped one of his scrawny arms around Phoenix's waist, and held onto his book tightly with the other. The book had been a Christmas gift from his father, and Miles was very fond of it.

The three boys smiled at the camera; Miles smiling shyly, Phoenix beaming, and Larry making an idiotic face.

The photo was just about to be taken when Larry noticed a small green lizard at his feet.

"A lizard!" he yelled excitedly; already distracted.

He bent down, and the photo was taken.

A memory was captured.

Phoenix smiled to himself at the happy childhood memory. The three really had been good friends.

Just then, Phoenix heard Miles' slightly worried voice calling out from, presumably, the living room.

"Wright? Wright, where are you? Are you still here? Where are you?"

Heh. I guess Edgeworth's awake now.

"I'm in your office." Phoenix called out, amused at his friend's anxiousness.

In less than a second, Miles was in the office, a scowl on his once-upon-a-time peaceful face. His silver hair was mussed up from sleep; completely unlike his customary neat appearance. He was still wearing his light 'magenta' pyjamas, indicating that his first thought as soon as he awoke was Phoenix.

Aw.

Miles sighed. "Wright… What are you doing in my office? Why did you not wake me when you awoke? And… What are you holding?"

Phoenix grinned. "Hi, Edgeworth. Good morning to you too. I'm in here because I was looking for paper and a pen, I didn't wake you up because you've been so tired recently, and I'm holding a photo that was on your desk."

Caught off guard, Miles flinched lightly. "Er, which photo would that be…?"

Inwardly, Phoenix snickered; amused at Miles' entirely expected reaction.

Embarrassed that you've kept the photo all these years, Edgeworth?

"It's a photo of us three when we were kids." Phoenix explained, turning the frame around so that Miles could see the image inside. "Do you remember?"

Miles' face softened, and the corner of his lips turned upwards in a smile.

It's so strange to see Edgeworth smile. I have to admit it, though; he looks so much more handsome when he smiles. He really should do it more often.

…Yes, I love it when he smiles.

"Hm. It was the last day we all had together, wasn't it?" Miles mused, the lines on his forehead deepening. "December the twenty seventh."

Phoenix grinned. "Yeah. You guys were all at my house for some after-Christmas party or something. Hey, do you remember what happened with that lizard Larry picked up?"

Miles smirked. "Yes. He picked it up, and it bit him. He cried for the remainder of the day."

Phoenix started to laugh - it was nice sharing things with Miles. It had been so long since the two had spoken about life before the DL-6 incident, and it was… surprisingly touching to know that Miles hadn't forgotten the wonderful times they had shared.

"It's a pity you moved after that… incident. Who knows what would have happened to us, had you stayed."

Surprisingly, Miles flushed a dark crimson. "What do you mean? If we had been together during our teenage years…?"

Phoenix frowned. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Why? What possibly could have happened between us when we were teenagers?" Miles demanded heatedly. "What would have changed?"

Phoenix raised his hands defensively. "I don't know! I was only saying! Why are you getting so worked up about this? What's wrong?"

Miles glanced away. "Nothing. Just… forget it." And with that, he stormed out of the small office.

Huh. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Like a lost puppy, Phoenix followed Miles into the kitchen, where the prosecutor had started making his breakfast.

"Sorry if I said something to offend you." Phoenix said, sitting down on one of the bar stools at the bench. Idly, he remembered having a strangely similar conversation the day before in the Accident and Emergency waiting room. "I have a habit of offending people without realizing."

Miles glanced at him, and shook his head. "Don't apologise. It's just, sometimes I get the feeling that things are changing. Like… No, never mind. Forget it."

Phoenix tilted his head to the left slightly. "What? Like what? What's changing?"

What's going on in your head, Edgeworth?

"Nothing. Just drop it, Wright." Miles ordered, reaching for the cereal that Phoenix had also eaten.

"Okay, okay."

Maybe he'll tell me what's bothering him when he's ready. Though, I must admit it; I don't like thinking that he's concerned about something. What's changing in his life? Is he talking about Kay's challenge? Because it really shouldn't be affecting him this much. I mean, all he has to do is find someone he likes enough to date. It's really not that hard.

"There's not very much of that left." Phoenix murmured, watching as Miles frowned into the cereal box. "I ate most of what was left before."

"You've already had breakfast?" Miles asked, evidently surprised. "How long have you been up?"

"Er…" Phoenix scratched the back of his head. "An hour? I've eaten breakfast and taken my painkillers, and checked my emails on your laptop. Hope you don't mind."

"Only if you didn't break anything." Miles muttered.

"I didn't!" Phoenix chirped brightly. "I'm not a total klutz, you know."

Miles gave him a sideways glance. "Sure."

Phoenix smiled to himself, thankful that Miles seemed to have got over his bad mood.

There's the sarcastic Edgeworth I know and love.

"So, you're definitely coming tonight, right?" Phoenix asked a good three hours later. He was still not properly dressed; too lazy to get changed into appropriate clothing. Instead, he was lounging on Miles' sofa in his boxer shorts and a thin white t-shirt.

"What's happening tonight?" Miles asked from his position at the table. He was fully clothed; cravat and everything. Phoenix didn't know why he had tried so hard - who did he need to impress? It wasn't as though Phoenix was making any effort, what with his blue checked boxer shorts.

Miles was writing out his third report for the day, and didn't want to be disturbed. So, of course, it was Phoenix's job to be as irritating as possible.

"We're going out for dinner! Don't say you forgot." Phoenix tutted, shaking his head sadly.

Miles sighed, openly frustrated. "I suppose I could make it. Though, you're going to have to stop talking to me now, because I need to get some work done."

Phoenix opened his mouth to say something about the amount of work that surely Miles didn't need to do, when said man continued his sentence.

"I haven't done anything constructive for a few days, and I'm getting behind on the reports that I need to write up. As I was previously one of the highest-achieving prosecutors in the Prosecutor's Office, there have already been queries as to why I'm behind."

Phoenix was silent; finally understanding why Miles was so insistent about doing his work. If Phoenix didn't work, it didn't really matter. All he lost was the ability to pay his rent and buy actual food, but his landlady liked him and he could survive on cheap takeaways and Maya's cooking.

Miles, on the other hand, actually had people expect things of him; demanding explanations for when he fell slightly behind. If he felt like a day off to stay in bed and do nothing at all, he simply couldn't.

Wow. No wonder you're always so stressed, Edgeworth. I don't think I could cope without at least one day of nothingness a week.

"Well, should I go home, then?" Phoenix suggested, sitting up from his sprawled-out position on the sofa. "I can go and get changed and stuff like that, and meet you at the restaurant."

Miles glanced upwards; evidently surprised. "Really? You're going to do something mature at let me work for once?" He smirked, but Phoenix could tell that he was quietly thankful.

"Anything to keep on your good side." Phoenix teased, heaving himself off the sofa with his unused muscles.

There was a silence as Phoenix fiddled around in the bedroom; changing from his pyjamas and into clothes that wouldn't get him kicked off the bus for indecent exposure.

Eventually, he wandered back into the living room, and stood in front of Miles.

"Thank you for everything. I'm really grateful that you let me stay here." Phoenix smiled brightly at his friend. "It's been a lot of fun."

Miles smirked again. "Well, someone needed to keep an eye on you, you concussed fool. And, er, I guess it hasn't been to bad an experience. We've not had a sleepover since we were young." he mused.

"Yeah. Those sleepovers were fun." Phoenix grinned, and stood up a little straighter. "So, I'll see you at, what? Seven-ish at the Ricksha?"

"All right. I trust you don't need me to pick you up?"

"Nah, it's fine." Phoenix rolled his eyes playfully, and made his way to the door. "I love public transport. Well, thanks again, Edgeworth! I'll see you tonight!"

And, with a click of the door, Phoenix was gone, and, he had to admit, he was glad that it was only going to be a few hours until he could see Miles again.