Chapter Text
Ok, stay cool Phoenix. Don't scare him. Don't do anything stupid. Don't for the love of all things holy fall over and break something else while you're at it!
Edgeworth was facing him now at least, but his entire pose screamed discomfort. Phoenix approached him as though he were trying to sneak up on a particularly jumpy witness. The new glasses were slightly disarming. Their lenses weren't highly reflective, but the overhead light was still making it slightly difficult to see the Chief Prosecutor's expression clearly. Phoenix needed all the advantages he could get.
"Don't get me wrong, I adopted Trucy because she needed someone," he said as he slowly crossed the room. "She's a great daughter. I couldn't ask for better. That was the first thing on my mind when I offered her a home. I haven't ever regretted it."
For all his eloquence, Edgeworth was still doing a remarkable impression of someone who couldn't speak. The closer Phoenix came, the more careful that expression seemed to be.
"But at the same time, it was kind of perfect in other ways. Didn't you ever at least suspect, Edgeworth?"
A small, tight nod. "It was a fleeting thought, Wright. It didn't persist. You have always been surrounded by people who cared about you, many of them female. The Fey family, your daughter, your... previous relationships." Phoenix winced at the memory of his somewhat murderous former girlfriend.
"I think you can safely say that Dahlia made the error of my ways much clearer." He snickered, pausing his approach to fold his arms. "That was back when I was still a student, juggling art and law and wondering what you were up to. Not great days for us, back then."
The shadow that crossed Edgeworth's eyes didn't linger for as long as Phoenix would have feared. Time had been something of a balm for the memories of being the "Demon Prosecutor."
"I tried to contact you back then, you know. Don't know if you ever got those letters. I even tried calling your new office. I think my calls got screened out by your secretary." He laughed roughly. "Can't say I blamed him! I swear you could hear the confusion and youthful clingy-ness on me even through the phone."
Edgeworth blinked, almost looking abashed. "I did receive your letters, Wright."
"Didn't want to contact me back? Can't say I blame you either."
"It's not... quite like that." Now this was interesting. The little pink flush was back on the pale man's cheeks and Phoenix knew that he should really be keeping a tally. After all, it would be nice to have a recorded reason for his untimely demise. "I considered replying to your letters, but I wasn't in the best position either at the time. I didn't need any distractions."
"Yep, that's me. Distracting. You can join the club. Pretty sure they have badges now and everything."
"That's not precisely what I meant."
"Me neither. Like you're one to talk."
The look he was receiving now was a complex blend of confusion, contempt, and strange intensity. Phoenix had been considering taking another step towards his possibly-friend, but changed his mind. Confusion aside, that look was almost predatory. Could it be that Edgeworth was starting to recover? It would be kind of nice to hear that old Edgeworth-brand disdain again. This flustered version was oddly endearing, but it wasn't familiar territory at all.
"You continue to surprise me at every turn, Wright. Inside the courtroom and even stuck in my office." Was Edgeworth smiling?
"It's mostly intentional. I think." He risked taking another step forwards, hitching a smile onto his face as a show of good will. Hey, if Edgeworth was cheering up, then he was sure as hell going to bask in every miniscule moment of it.
"Do you reckon we could start this again?" Phoenix offered. "I mean, another introduction, with a few less bits of dodgy and misinterpreted evidence?"
Edgeworth's lips twitched, as though he wanted to say something, but he settled for a sharp nod instead.
Phoenix took a deep breath, released it, and signed his checkout papers from sanity.
"Hi. I'm Phoenix Wright. I'm a kid you defended in school and who hero-worshipped you all the way to law school and the courtroom. I dated a girl who tried to kill me, and who also answered a couple of important questions about myself. I tried to get in contact with you when I found out these answers, as young and stupid people are wont to do, but thankfully you didn't answer. I stewed over it for years, made a bunch of friends and built a little family, but never filled in a gap in that family. That gap is for you, if you want it."
The look on Edgeworth's face was absolutely priceless.
"That... came out kind of mushy. Sorry."
"Yes, it did."
"I said I was sorry."
"So am I."
Phoenix didn't have time to react. Edgeworth crossed the room in one long stride and he was suddenly pulled into the other man's arms. The long magenta jacket swished around Phoenix's knees and he drew a shuddery breath. He's hugging me. I didn't even think he knew how to do that! Had he read about it in a book somewhere, perhaps? It wasn't a very expert hug. Edgeworth seemed torn between the desire to break Phoenix's ribs, but also not touch his head too much, based on how much he was leaning to one side.
"Wright, I can tell what you're thinking. Stop it." Edgeworth's voice rumbled through him, chest warm against his. The burns on his stomach smarted, but Phoenix furiously quashed them, wrapping his arms around the other man. For someone who spent every waking (and probably most sleeping) hours at his desk, Edgeworth was remarkably fit. Based on Phoenix's inexpert prodding, of course. He unrepentantly sought out the other mans' cheek, leaning into the contact. He could feel the small intake of breath all throughout the Chief Prosecutor's body, possibly contemplating violence. Worth it.
"So, why are you sorry? Is this an apology hug? I'm not complaining, but still..."
"It's..." Edgeworth didn't seem to know what to do with the word 'hug', so opted to avoid it entirely. He attempted to pull away, but Phoenix locked his hands, permitting the prosecutor to recover only a few inches of distance. Now they were trapped almost nose-to-nose. I thought I didn't like those glasses... I have never been more wrong.
"It can just be an apology, Edgeworth." Phoenix offered quietly. "It's completely up to you."
The flushed look was being replaced with the usual Edgeworth countenance, and Phoenix let his vague, unspecified and yet oddly specific hope slip back to the aether. He couldn't complain. After all, it's not like anyone else could say that Miles Edgeworth ever let their guard down for them quite like this. It was an apology and a promise all in one. Definitely nothing to complain about.
"Not entirely an apology, Phoenix."
Something in his brain just broke. "What... do you mean, exactly?" It was somehow harder to hold eye contact at this distance. It seemed inappropriate. Probably because it was. Oh well.
"I'm not the only one who has been disregarding evidence."
He wanted to call him Miles. Wanted to slip his name out there, just to see what happened. Didn't quite have the nerve for it yet. Ironic, considering the fact that Edgeworth appeared to have discovered all of the nerve and then some.
"Not my intention. Sorry. What did I miss?"
Silver hair over grey eyes, peering over the top of his glasses at him. Not fair at all, you bastard! "I don't keep company with many people, Wright. You could say that I formed all of the relationships that I ever needed early in life. I haven't needed anything else to sustain me. But in truth, I have not been completely honest with you."
Oh, to hell with it. Might as well die for a good cause. Phoenix leaned in and kissed the startled lawyer soundly. It had been a long time, but he was confident in his technique, if not in his ability to survive the process. To his shock and no small delight, he was not brutally murdered. The stiffness of surprise yielded. Miles was kissing him back. It was chaste, careful, and pretty uncertain. Phoenix pulled back not long afterwards, heart hammering.
"... sorry?"
"Stop apologising, Phoenix," Edgeworth hissed. He was shaking and the tone in his voice was certainly not his usual timbre, but everything else about the setting radiated agreement. He could feel Edgeworth's hands knotting into the back of his jacket, pulling him nose-to-nose.
"Miles, are you sure?" He snuck the name out there, thrilled by the sound of it and the flicker in the other man's eyes as he did so.
"I have been since I was seventeen years old, Phoenix. Don't start asking me to second guess it now. You know I don't take kindly to having my judgements challenged."
Phoenix chuckled, head spinning. "This is going to be hard to explain to Trucy and the others. I'm kind of looking forward to it."
Edgeworth was giving him a slightly mortified look. Phoenix touched his forehead to his by way of reassurance. "Too soon?"
"No." He felt rather than saw Miles swallow. "It's just... something of a surprise, is all. I will take some time to adjust, I fear."
"Story of our lives, I suspect. No matter. We've still plenty of time to figure it out." He couldn't keep the stupid grin off his face. "That is, of course, if we ever get out of here and don't starve to death."
"We can call a locksmith."
Phoenix pulled back. "What?"
Edgeworth gave him a look entirely too sly, and entirely too damnably fascinating.
"You had a phone this whole time? Did you seriously just withhold evidence from me?"
"We're in my office, not a courtroom. I found the phone while you were getting changed."
"You utter...! Damn, I can't even get angry at that properly! I promise I'll make it up to you some way or another."
"I completely anticipate it, Phoenix."
So, things had changed, but also managed to completely not change. Phoenix could count that as a victory.