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Phoenix circled the date on the calendar with a heart and a grin on his face, turning back to his husband
“Happy anniversary, Miles.”
His husband pulled him closer, sleepily caressing his cheek
“Happy anniversary, my dear.”
This was it. It was the day. Both men had managed to get the day off at the same time from their very busy schedules so that they could spend their wedding anniversary together, just them, for the whole day.
“Sooo… day to ourselves. Truce is busy, Pess is with her and we’re both off work, what do we do?” Phoenix giggled, leaning his head back as he passed his husband a cup of tea
“Oh, I don’t know dear. We could go out, just the two of u-“ Edgeworth paused as his phone began to ring on the counter beside them. He picked it up and held it to his ear, before having to hold it away as he winced in pain
“Slow down, Sebastian! Now explain to me, what is going on?”Edgeworth said, concerned as he listened intently to the voice over the phone. As the phone call progressed, he spared some guilty glances over to Phoenix, who had now occupied himself with reading messages on his phone
“… I understand, I’ll be there shortly.” Edgeworth hung up with an annoyed sigh. “Phoenix, I think I’m desperately needed at the prosecutor’s office, there’s an emergency.”
Phoenix was furiously typing away on his ancient little flip phone
“No worries! I think I am similarly needed in the office anyway. Meet up for lunch?” Phoenix planted a kiss on his husband’s cheek, moving away to get ready
“Certainly, lunch sounds lovely.”
***
“What was so important that I needed to be called on my day…” Edgeworth stormed into his office, pausing as he looked down at the floor to see a boy with brown hair sprawled across the floor, face first, like a rug
“…off. Sebastian?” Edgeworth kneeled down next to the boy on the floor, listening as he sobbed lightly.
“I-I-I can’t do it, i-it makes no s-s-s-sense!” Sebastian wailed as he rolled onto his back, his face red and scrunched as tears flowed from his eyes
“Maybe you’re just really bad at this.” A girl’s voice chimed from behind his desk, Edgeworth didn’t need to look up to recognise who it was
“Kay, are you going to be helping with this or are you just going to mock him?.”
Kay paused, stretching and spinning in the chair, feigning actually thinking about her answer with dramatic “hmm”s and “ahh”s
“The second one, the mockery.” She grinned as Edgeworth helped a snivelling Sebastian to his feet. Edgeworth made his way over to his guest, dropping Sebastian onto his couch as he passed. He shot an annoyed look at Kay as he rummaged through his top drawer, pulling out a box of tissues he had for emergencies. He placed himself next to Sebastian on the couch, putting the box in front of him and handing him a tissue
“Talk me through what’s troubling you.”
***
“I-I don’t know how it happened, boss!” Athena said apologetically
“We’re so sorry!” Apollo boomed with his chords of steel
Phoenix was stood in his office, which had now turned into a crime scene. The victim was lay on the floor, surrounded by shards of pottery and spilled soil
“I just want to know how you knocked Charley over.” Phoenix made his way over to the potted plant, who was slightly yellow at the tip of his leaves, he lifted them up gently and began to gather the soil spread across the carpet
“Well, we both needed the stapler and Apollo was taking too long with it and I’m way quicker at stapling stuff so I decided to just take it off of him.” Athena said
“Mhmm, and then what happened?”
“Oh, I don’t really know boss.” Athena lied as she became surrounded by red locks. Phoenix sighed and turned to Apollo
“She tried to wrestle the stapler out of my hand, so I tried to keep a hold of it and we accidentally slammed into the plant, and um… we’re really sorry Mr. Wright!” Apollo gestures wildly to the limp plant lay lifeless lay on the floor. Phoenix inspected the pot, the dirt and the roots before sighing
“Not the first time Charley’s been a victim like this, he’ll be fine. We just need to replace his pot, his dirt, get him some nutrients and clean up all of… this.” Phoenix waved vaguely at the massacre behind him as he had turned back to face his subordinates. “There should be a spare pot around here somewhere and some soil…” Phoenix trailed off as he began wandering around the office, searching the cupboard for the materials to revive Charley. “You seen them around at all, Apollo?”
“No.” Apollo stated, becoming surrounded by chains and locks as he did. Phoenix sighed, looking at his watch in annoyance. “I’ll run to the local flower shop and grab some stuff for Charley and a second stapler, you two clear this up please.” Phoenix ran out of his office, slamming the door behind him. Apollo paused, listening to the footsteps fade away in the distance, before feverishly typing on his phone
***
“…ergo, the murderer could only have…?” Edgeworth began, gently guiding Sebastian to a specific conclusion
“… the murderer could only have left through the back door, making Mr. Smith the only possible suspect!” Sebastian said with conviction, his cheeks still a bit puffy from the crying earlier. Kay was still in Edgeworth’s chair, typing on her phone, spinning herself while making different vehicle noises. Sebastian had begun writing every word coming out of Edgeworth’s mouth onto a scrap piece of paper, slipping that into his case file
“Now I feel a lot better about the trial tomorrow, thanks dad.” Sebastian chirped, before stopping in his own tracks, Kay stopped spinning and typing, plunging the room into a deep silence as Sebastian began to go bright red.
“You called Edgeworth dad, haha!” Kay began to cackle at Sebastian, who stood up in anger
“Y-you can’t talk, you have him saved in your phone as ‘Pops’!” Sebastian pointed at Kay accusingly, Kay hiding her phone out of view as Sebastian strode over towards her, snatching it out of her hand and making his way back over to Edgeworth
“Hey! Give it- don’t you dare!” Kay had gone a bright red, trying to grab Sebastian by his hair. Sebastian showed the phone to Edgeworth, which was currently showing a contact indeed labelled ‘Pops’. While still wrestling a now feral Kay, Sebastian pressed the call button, causing Edgeworth’s phone to begin ringing from within his pocket. Kay collapsed to the ground, howling like a wounded animal
“You promised, you’d never tell anyone!” Kay scowled at Sebastian, who was straightening the jacket hung around his shoulders, taking out his baton to point it at her nose
“You laughed at me and mocked me all day, my patience wore thin, oh Great Yatagarasu!” Sebastian smirked mockingly at that last part.
“Alright, alright, both of you, enough.” Edgeworth cleared his throat and stood up, the other two turning to him. “As… amusing as this is, I personally find your dubbing of me as a sort of surrogate father endearing.” Edgeworth gave Sebastian a pat on the shoulder. “You should be prepared for the trial tomorrow, now of you’ll both excuse me I need to get back to my plans.” Kay’s face flashed with panic as she began typing rapidly on her phone, before yelling out:
“W-wait!”Kay yelled, as Edgeworth froze in place and turned back around to face a panicking Kay, who was trying to come up with a good excuse for her outburst
“I… may have done something illegal, I’m not sure.” Edgeworth stood, dumbfounded for a moment
“You’re… not sure?” Edgeworth said in shock, making his way back into the office. “Explain it to me.” Kay froze, looking at Sebastian as she realised she had to improvise
***
Phoenix looked at his watch again, then looked at the lengthy queue in front of him. He wouldn’t be able to meet Edgeworth for lunch and buy a stapler at this rate. He sighed, fishing his phone out of his jacket and called his husband. He picked up almost instantly
“Edgeworth speaking.”
“Hey Miles, it’s me.” Phoenix said, trying to hide his disappointment
“Oh, Phoenix, good timing, I don’t think I’ll be done over here by lunch.”
“Oh.” Phoenix said, surprised. “I- honestly I don’t think I’ll be done here either. Should we push our plans back a bit until we’re both free.”
“Certainly.” Miles let out a long sigh “we both took the day off expressly to avoid this, I can’t believe it.” He grumbled
Phoenix laughed lightly, “Miles, it’s okay, we’ll still get to spend our time together today, I promise.”
“I’ll have to hold you to that, Phoenix. Love you.”
“Love you too, bye.” Phoenix flipped his phone closed, slipping it back into his pocket as he moved forward slightly in the queue, this was going to be a long day
***
Edgeworth leaned his head back as Sebastian and Kay continued to bicker as they had been for hours. He had forgotten what they were actually fighting about by this point. Kay had taken Sebastian’s baton at some point and all hell had broke loose. He looked out of the large window in his office, taking in the warm orange sky as the sun began to sink under the horizon. He sighed, looking at the time. It was well into the afternoon by now, so it was safe to say lunch plans were out of the window. Suddenly, a text popped up at the top of his screen from Trucy:
Can you come pick me up please?????
Edgeworth smiled to himself, before calling Phoenix
“This is Phoenix Wright.”
“Good Evening, Phoenix. I just got a text off of Trucy asking me to pick her up and I’m just checking as to when you’ll be finished so I can pick you up as well.”
Phoenix hummed to himself in consideration before answering
“If you grab Trucy first, I should be ready to go by the time you get to my office, Charley should be sorted by then.”
“… the plant?” Edgeworth asked
Phoenix sighed “It’s a long story, I’ll see you soon?”
“I love you Phoenix” Edgeworth said in a hushed tone down the phone
“I love you too, Miles, talk soon.” Phoenix said before hanging up. Edgeworth turned his attention back to the two people still bickering in his office
“If there is nothing else you need me for, I have some errands to run, so I will bid you good day.” Kay furiously typed on her phone, before giving a nod to Sebastian
“I think we’re good here, we won’t be far behind you, to be fair.” Sebastian said, beginning to gather all of his papers spread across the table
Edgeworth pulled up outside of a theatre, sending Trucy a quick text to let her know he was here. He then sent Phoenix updating him on the situation. Trucy bounced towards his car, her cape flowing in the wind as she held onto her hat with both hands to prevent it from blowing away in the wind. She wedged the door open and collapsed into the backseat.
“Seatbelt, please. How was your day, dear?” Edgeworth asked
“Good, busy planning… stuff.” Trucy said inconspicuously
“Hmmm, ok.” Edgeworth shrugged. He’d had a long enough day already and just wanted to be with Phoenix as soon as possible. “We’ll be picking your dad up as well, he’s been in the office today.”
“Oh? I thought you both had the day off?” Trucy asked
“We did, unfortunately the rest of the world didn’t seem to get the notice, so we’ve both been running around like maniacs.” Edgeworth let out a tired sigh, gripping the leather of the steering wheel in frustration. “No matter, we can try to salvage the night anyways.”
“I’m sure your night will still be special, Papa.” Trucy said ominously, smiling at her Mr Hat who’d she popped out without warning
***
Phoenix collapsed into the front seat of Miles’ car, caked in soil and sweat. Miles went to open his mouth, receiving a tired look which made him slightly scared to ask. They drove in a comfortable silence, interrupted occasionally by small talk about what had happened that day
“I’ll have to get cleaned up when we get in, before we do anything.” Phoenix started, stopping as he met Trucy’s now wide eyes. “Truce… is there anything going on?”
“Nope! Nothing at all!” Trucy said, panicked. She became garbed in red locks with iron chains as she did, causing Phoenix to frown.
“Truce, what’s going on?”
“Nothing bad, I promise dads.” Trucy stuttered, faltering as Miles gazed at her from over his shoulder, before sighing and turning back to the road
“I’m guessing we’ll find out soon enough” Miles mused
***
Phoenix fumbled with his keys in the dim light of their apartment complex, Miles watching Trucy as she desperately texted someone, similar to how Kay had been earlier on
Wait a minute
Phoenix pushed the door open, before jumping back in shock as a chorus of voices yelled “Surprise!” From behind the couch and the counters jumped Apollo, Athena, Kay and Sebastian, Kay setting off party poppers and Apollo and Athena holding up a ‘Happy Anniversary’ homemade banner, bleeding through the fabric. From the walls hung colourful bunting, red and blue streamers and different party decorations were sprawled across the room. On the kitchen counter was a spread of different beige party food and the entire room looked cleaner than usual. Miles mentally thought about how long this must have taken.
“Aww, you guys remembered!” Phoenix fawned, before it clicked
“So today… knocking over Charley was planned?!”
“Not exactly…” Apollo replied sheepishly
“The fight and need for a second stapler was planned.” Athena butted in. “Charley was collateral damage.”
”When he fell over, I realised what a weirdly great opportunity this was and decided to hide the spare pot and soil so you were distracted for longer.” Apollo admitted
Phoenix sighed
“You kids will be the death of me” he moaned before excusing himself to get changed out of his dirt-covered clothes as Miles made his way towards the other two accomplices
“Is the case for tomorrow real then?” Miles asked
“Of course, I’m a productive person and the stars aligned.” Sebastian said, taken aback by the suggestion of trickery
“And the crying on the floor?” Kay asked teasingly as Sebastian’s cheeks warmed
“T-that was also planned!”
“And calling Edgeworth ‘dad’?”
“Also planned!” Sebastian lied as Kay and Miles couldn’t help but laugh at him. Phoenix came back out in a fresh white shirt, sneaking his way behind Miles as he snuggled into the crevices of his neck.
“We have the best kids, don’t we?” Phoenix whispered as he watched Trucy dancing around with Athena and Kay
“We do. We’re some lucky dads.” Miles whispered back, taking Phoenix’s hand and stroking his ring
“What are you two whispering about?” Trucy yelled from across the room
“Just how awesome our kids are!” Phoenix yelled back, grinning as Trucy came barrelling towards them, taking the two of them into a hug
“We have the best kids ever.” Phoenix whispered to himself as he held Trucy and Miles close