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Phoenix wrapped the bandages around his arm. He wasn't sure how long he had been hurting his skin, but it had been at least a month, maybe more. He had seen other kids his age do it, so he decided to try it too. Once he started, he couldn't stop.
He knew it was bad. He needed to tell someone. Who could he trust? What about Mr. Edgeworth? He was super cool! Well, he hadn't met him before, but from the way Miles talked about him, he could tell he was.
He was a super busy grown-up though. Maybe there was someone else then. Maybe... Mr. Shields! He was Mr. Edgeworth's assistant. Maybe he could help.
There was only one problem. He was at school, in the bathroom, and Mr. Shields was a law office, halfway across town. Plus, he had no idea where the law office was.
Phoenix sighed as he rolled his sleeve down. Maybe it was listed in the yellow pages. He taught himself how to use them and everything.
He waited until school was over and headed down to the library to use the yellow pages book they had down there.
E...
Ed...
Edg..
Edge...
Edgew..
Edgewo...
Edgewor..
Ah! There it was.
Edgeworth Law Office.
Phoenix looked at the number and called it. "Hi, yes, I'm Phoenix. No, Not Greg. Yeah, uh, can I come over there?" He hung up and put the yellow page book back where it belonged.
Ray was more than excited to meet another fellow kid. Well, Ray wasn't a kid, but he was still a teenager, so Ray would consider himself a kid still.
Phoenix slowly pushed the door to the office open. Why was everything so heavy lately? "Hi, I'm Pho-" The sight in front of him didn't seem professional in the slightest. Ray was snuggled under some blankets on the office's couch, watching some rom-com. Phoenix loved those.
Ray looked over at him. "Hey, you must be Phoenix." He made room for him. "I'm Ray, a fellow youth."
Phoenix laughed. "Nice to meet you, Ray. I heard about you through Miles and thought I could trust you with this, so here we go, I've been hurting my skin."
Ray looked at him confused, then, realized what he meant and hugged him. "I've done that before."
Phoenix looked at him, feeling like he was going to cry. Ray understood what he was going through? "You have? Why did you do it?"
Ray didn't like bringing it up, but he could break that, just this once. "I didn't like myself when I was younger."
Phoenix got comfortable under a blanket. "Why? You seem cool to me."
Ray smiled. "Thank you, but I was different than everyone else in my class."
Phoenix was starting to get invested. "Why?"
Ray knew he would have to say it. "Well, I'm transgender."
Phoenix blinked before going back to smiling. "That's cool. My friend Laurice is uh.. non-binocular? No, that doesn't sound right. Hm.. non-something, give me a sec, non.. binary! that's it. Yeah, Laurice is non-binary. He's pretty cool."
Ray laughed. He could see why Miles liked to hang out with him.