Work Text:
"A 'Wright Anything Agency Family Reunion', Mr. Wright?" Asked Apollo
"Yeah," Mr. Wright said on the other side of the phone "look, Apollo, you're going to be visiting from Khura'in next week, Maya and Pearls want to come over too, and Trucy thought we could make it into an event."
"What sort of event?"
Phoenix made a small uncertain noise "some snacks, some drinks, maybe board games. Trucy wants to put on a show," he said "it'll be fun! Just the seven of us! Trucy and Athena miss you."
That did sound pretty fun, and he did miss Athena and the Wrights "Wait, hold on, seven?" Two Wrights, two Feys, him and Athena would make six "who else is coming?"
"Oh yeah, I invited Edgeworth too." Mr. Wright said as a matter-of-fact, as if he didn't just off-handedly mention he invited the highest-ranking prosecutor in the district to his casual family hang out.
"Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth?!" Apollo asked, still disbelieving.
"Well, yeah," Mr. Wright simply said, "he's my boyfriend, and we helped each other on a bunch of cases, he's family."
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Apollo said. Everyone with an interest in the legal world knew about Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth: lifelong friends and rivals, and everyone in their circle of friends knew to also add "lovers" to that list. But just because Apollo knew it intellectually, doesn't mean he understood it in the slightest. As far as he could tell, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth was this super serious, highly revered genius prosecutor guy, and Mr. Wright was...well...Mr. Wright. What did the Chief Prosecutor see in him? And the one time he got to personally see them face off in court, he had bigger things to worry about then that apparently obvious romantic courtroom tension that everyone keeps talking about (whatever that even means).
"So, is that a yes or a no?" Mr. Wright said, "we just need to know for the preparations" Phoenix didn't want Apollo to feel like he's pressuring him to come.
"This isn't just a trick to make me clean your toilet again, right?"
"Apollo, you don't even work for me anymore!" Mr. Wright chuckled.
Like that would even stop Mr. Wright, Apollo thought, but decided not to say out loud.
"Anyway, you don't need to worry about that," Mr. Wright said, "unless someone eats something really bad!"
"Mr. Wright!"
"I'm just kidding, Apollo!" Mr. Wright said, adding a small laugh "I'm the host, so that sort of thing falls on me, you don't have to do a thing."
In the end, that ended being somewhat inaccurate. Apollo found himself helping to refill the snack bowls and bringing more wine glasses and cleaning up after Trucy's performance, not necessarily because the Wrights asked him to, just out of a force a habit. Still, it was fun to catch up with people, especially Trucy - who was very curious about how things are going in Khura'in.
"...yeah, that case was a headache and a half," Apollo told her "but at least it's finally over." He sighed and took another drink from his Coke.
"That sounded fun, Polly!" Trucy said enthusiastically, lightly bouncing.
"You know, I have read about this case, Mr. Justice." Apollo heard a voice behind him, and turned around to see the Chief Prosecutor standing behind him, a wine glass in hand "I was quite impressed with your resolution, you're doing an admirable job handling the Khura'inese Justice System, all things considered."
Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth then simply went away, seems like he had something he wanted to discuss with Maya Fey.
"Polly! Uncle Miles just complimented you!" Trucy said excitedly "Uncle Miles never compliments anyone unless he really means it! You must have seriously impressed him!"
"Am I the only one here who thinks it's weird?" Apollo said, mostly to himself.
"What's weird, Polly?"
"The Chief Prosecutor just... hanging out here!" Apollo looked over, seems like Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth and Miss Maya Fey were in the middle of some passionate debate, although he had no idea what sort of subject those two can debate about. Something about the legal ramifications of Spirit Channeling maybe?
"Well, yeah. Uncle Miles is Daddy's boyfriend, Apollo!" Trucy said, pouting "he's basically like another daddy for me!"
"And why is he 'Uncle' Miles if he's dating your dad?" Apollo added "Isn't that kinda gross?"
"Well, when Uncle Miles finally marries Daddy he could be 'Daddy' too." Trucy frowned. "Until then, he has to be something, right?"
"Yeah, but-"
"HEY EVERYONE!" Athena shouted excitedly from the other room, running in with a pile of board games in her arms "It's game time!"
Apollo finished with his drink with a sigh. Athena's competitiveness has gotten fired up over things much sillier then board games, this might get ugly.
Apollo eyed the table with the alcoholic drinks on it. Mr. Wright is a bad influence.
The partygoers went through their board game options: "Clue" was written out right off the bat, too close to their everyday lives (although the Chief Prosecutor was interested), "Monopoly" was thrown out because "nobody actually likes Monopoly" (Note: Apollo actually likes Monopoly), the "Risk" box seems to be missing most of the pieces, and Trucy isn't gonna play "Cards Against Humanity" with her dad. Eventually they settled on Scrabble.
"Hmmm... I think we have too many people for Scrabble," Athena said, examining the box and the people in the room.
"We'll do it in teams of two,." Mr. Wright suggested "it'll be... Edgeworth and me" He smiled gently at the man next to him "and-"
"Na-ah, Nick!" Maya Fey said, suddenly cutting him off "I'm your best friend, so we should be a team!" She grabbed him by the arm "we've always been a team!" Maya smiled a big, mischievous grin.
Phoenix and Edgeworth glanced at each other briefly. "She makes a good point, Wright," Edgeworth said, "you two work well together."
"What about Pearls?" Phoenix asked, thinking the two Feys would want to be on the same team.
"Mr. Nick? Um..." Pearl said sheepishly "if it's okay, I would like to just watch the game." She held up Maya's phone "Mystic Maya asked that I'll take some pictures."
"Okay, sure..." Phoenix sounded slightly unassured "if you'd like, after that game, we could play a different game you'd like." He said in a fatherly tone.
Pearl perked up and nodded, quickly taking her place on the couch, above the game board.
"So, it's me and Maya..." Phoenix considered "eh, Edgeworth, would you like to team up with Trucy?"
"YAY! I'm on Uncle Miles' team!" Trucy jumped and glomped the Prosecutor.
"I don't think I have much choice on the matter, Wright," Edgeworth said, amused "but I would love to." He looked fondly at his partner's daughter.
"So that just leaves the kids," Phoenix said, and turned to Athena and Apollo "it's okay with you two, right?"
"Yeah!" Athena said excitedly, pumping her fists.
"Yeah!" Shouted Apollo, he and Athena worked well together, plus if things are gonna get ugly and competitive like he suspects, he'd rather work with Athena rather than against her.
"But why are we still 'the kids'?" Apollo asked Athena while Mr. Wright was trying to explain the game rules to the Chief Prosecutor "Trucy and Miss Pearl Fey are younger than we are!"
"We're still the Junior Partners." Athena smiled while fiddling with the letters.
"I don't even work here anymore!" Apollo shouted in frustration.
"Okay, kids!" Mr. Wright said and sat by the game board "I think we're all set."
Athena and Apollo were already sitting down on the floor, so it was just a matter of the other players sitting down before the game could start.
The game started more or less how Apollo expected, including Athena and the Chief Prosecutor repeatedly arguing on what foreign words count and which don't.
"Miss Cykes, you can't possibly expect schrecklich to count a valid word in English Scrabble." he said dryly.
"Well, you just used Schadenfreude last round!" Athena retorted angrily "What's the difference?!"
"There's plenty of difference, Miss Cykes," Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth said, scanning the rules booklet and his phone. "Foreign words are only allowed if they were loaned into English, which Schadenfreude is, but schrecklich is clearly not."
Athena growled at Mr. Edgeworth.
"Athena! Please don't punch my boyfriend in the face," Mr. Wright said, sounding honestly worried.
"Fine, boss, but he's not making it easy for me," Athena said, grumpy.
"I need him in one piece, please," Mr. Wright said in a more amused tone. He put him his arm around Mr. Edgeworth, who blushed and pouted in response.
"...schrecklich..." mumbled Athena.
But as the game went on, Mr. Wright and Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth started getting more and more... passionate about the game.
"'Infinitesimal'? Seriously, Edgeworth?" Mr. Wright said with a teasing smile.
"Hmph, laugh all you want, Wright. But it is a legitimate word." He handed Wright his phone, which was already open on the Infinitesimal dictionary definition.
Phoenix's grin faltered for a moment when he read the entry, but it quickly returned to his face.
"Pfft, that's just like you, Edgeworth," Phoenix said.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Edgeworth raised an eyebrow.
"You keep using biggest words you can just to impress." Phoenix fiddled with his own letters "and you still end behind me."
"You are only three points ahead of me," Edgeworth said in quite anger.
"This was mostly Trucy and you know it," Phoenix said smugly.
"Says the man whose move was to turn her 'Trick' into 'Tricks' and claim this is an entirely new word he should be scored on!" Edgeworth glared at him.
"That was three rounds ago." Phoenix rolled his eyes "Will you ever let it go?"
"It's a totally legitimate move, Mr. Edgeworth!" Maya interjected. "It's in the rules!"
"Yeah!" Phoenix said, "and all is fair in love and Scrabble."
"This is clearly untrue!" Edgeworth slammed his hand on the floor out of habit "it's a game with very clearly defined rules!"
"Yeah, and 'Tricks' counts according to them, Edgeworth," Phoenix said.
"I would have destroyed you at chess," Edgeworth whispered coldly
"This again?" Phoenix sighed "I don't know how to play chess." He shrugged with a light smile "it wouldn't be much of a victory."
"I could teach you, you know," Edgeworth said.
"We made a deal, Edgeworth," Phoenix said calmly "if I learn and play chess, you have to learn and play poker too."
Edgeworth crossed his arms and grumbled.
"So, when are they going to remember this is supposed to be our turn now?" Apollo said to Athena.
"Mr. Wright and his boyfriend sure are competitive with each other..." Athena said, lost in thoughts, then she suddenly perked up "but I bet I can be more competitive than them! Being competitive is my thing after all! Apollo, do you think Mr. Wright and the Chief Prosecutor would want to do a 'who's the most competitive-'"
"Athena, please don't," Apollo said flatly.
Athena stopped, although she wasn't very happy with that. It kinda felt like her boss was stealing her thunder.
Apollo and Athena, demoted from "Team Kids" to "Team Third Wheel" scanned the faces of the other players around the board who weren't over thirty and throwing increasingly childish insults at each other. Maya Fey looked positively beaming in a very ominous way, Trucy seemed entertained too, but offered Apollo and Athena a sympathetic smile.
"Uncle Miles, Daddy," she said after a moment, nudging Edgeworth by his sleeve "It's Apollo and Athena's turn now."
Mr. Wright and Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth snapped out of their argument, and after some chattering of "oh yeah" and "but of course", finally moved their attention to the younger lawyers in the room.
And after all that mess, it turns out the only thing Apollo and Athena had to do in their turn was to trade some of their letters. That was anticlimactic, now back to watching two grown men argue like children over Scrabble.
"Wright, are you seriously going to use 'Waifu' this turn?" Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth said in disgust.
"Well, it was Maya's idea," Phoenix replied "and why not? It is in the dictionary."
Miles immediately pulled out his phone to check and -oh god, it was there. "I knew we shouldn't have used an online dictionary."
"You would seriously rather waste time thumbing through an actual paper dictionary" Phoenix said with a wide smile "then let me and Maya have our Waifu points?"
"Please stop using that word, Wright." Miles was 95% sure Wright didn't even know what it meant. Sadly, he has spent enough time on Steel Samurai blogs.
"I don't think I even own an actual dictionary," Phoenix added.
"You know, Apollo, the sad part is that we're actually in the lead," Athena said over the sound of the arguing lawyer couple "they're fighting over who's gonna be second place to us."
Apollo didn't say anything, he just looked at the board.
"Hey! I bet you five bucks that this is gonna end with either a punch in the face or they're gonna start making out in front of everyone!" Athena added, trying to grab his attention.
"Athena, please don't!" Apollo buried his head in his hands "Hey, Trucy." he turned to the young magician "this sort of...um, martial spat happens a lot?"
"Pretty much every time they play a game with some sort of competitive element," Trucy said, thinking "and a few that don't."
"Well, at least the game can't last too long," Apollo said, sinking into the sofa behind him.
"Oh, Uncle Miles is probably gonna want a rematch or three once he loses to Daddy," Trucy whispered "it's going to take a couple hours before they're gonna burn out on this."
"A few hours?!" Athena shouted.
"Yeah, well... neither of them are getting any younger," Trucy said, shrugging "Aunt Maya told me once that when they were younger, she dragged them to an arcade and they-"
"Okay, okay! We get it!" Apollo said, "but I'm not gonna watch the Chief Prosecutor and my old boss embarrass themselves for a couple hours!"
"Are you sure, Polly?" Trucy smiled a playful smile "it's usually pretty funny."
"I don't know about Apollo, but I didn't come here to watch, I came here to WIN!" Athena said passionately "What if I slam Mr. Wright into the couch?" she suggested, perky "that might snap him back to his regular self!"
"You can't attack your own boss like that, Athena!" Apollo said.
"Do you want me to attack the Chief Prosecutor instead?!"
"No, look, I-" Apollo stopped talking, he had an idea.
Although he was trying to ignore it, Mr. Wright and Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth were still arguing passionately on what counts as a "cheap move" in Scrabble. Apollo took a deep breath and then shouted, "SHUT UP!!" as loud as he could.
The room went silent, including Mr. Wright and Mr. Edgeworth. Everyone looked at him with what he hoped was awe. Now nobody's gonna make fun of his chords of steel for...well…at least a couple days.
"This game is over!" He continued shouting, although he was aware nothing he's saying can be as cool as the first shout "we can't play if you two are gonna act like little kids!"
Both men looked sheepish, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth especially, he looked like he was about to die of embarrassment.
"Sorry about that, Apollo." Mr. Wright scratched the back of his head "me and Edgeworth get... carried away sometimes... with games."
"Games?!" Apollo groaned in frustration, even when Mr. Wright was in his most embarrassing, he never felt that much like he's the grownup scolding a child "You were acting like the fate of the world was at hand or something!!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Mr. Justice," Miles said as he gathered himself "the meaninglessness of these games is exactly why we react like that. Surely you don't expect us to act so petty in court, when people's lives and the truth is on the line?"
"Yeah, when it comes to actually important stuff we...eh... try and leave our competitive spirit behind," Mr. Wright said with a very thin smile "...keyword being 'try'"
Miles grumbled "I have no idea what you're talking about, Wright." He frowned, but when Wright put his arm around him, he drew himself closer.
"We were just having fun," Mr. Wright said in a friendly tone.
Apollo glared at his ridiculous former boss and his equally ridiculous boyfriend. At least that solved the question of what Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth saw in Mr. Wright.
"Yeah, that WAS pretty fun!" Maya said, everybody turned to look at her, she and Pearl were fiddling with...something on the older Fey's phone.
Phoenix and Edgeworth jumped at that sight.
"Maya! You recorded us playing...again!" Phoenix said, distressed.
"That's why you insisted on being on Wright's side instead of me." Edgeworth sounded angrier at himself for not figuring it out sooner than at Maya "You were counting on this to happen."
Pearl nodded earnestly, Maya grinned a mischievous grin again "Yep! Sorry Nick, sorry Mr. Edgeworth!" She said, although she didn't sound very sorry. "But videos of you playing games is the most popular thing on my YouTube channel!"
"One of Mystic Maya's videos has ten thousand views," Pearl said in amazement "that's a lot of people!"
"That would be the video where Nick and Mr. Edgeworth played Dance Dance Revolution." Maya laid on the living room couch. "That was great."
"Can I see it?" Athena asked excitedly, jumping to sit on the back rest of the sofa.
"Oh, that..." Phoenix rubbed the back of his head.
"That was a rather shameful video," Edgeworth said, "and this next one is sure to be as well." All he can hope for is that no one in the Prosecutor's Office subscribes to Miss Fey's channel (Which would usually be a shame, since she makes very insightful Pink Princess Analysis videos.)
Phoenix sighed in agreement, watching as the younger members and ex-members of the Wright Anything Agency gathered around to watch Maya's videos with a mix of amusement and judgementality. They were both quiet for a moment
"But I still totally beat you, Edgeworth."
"Nnnnngh!"