Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Alright, Phoenix,” my dad said, glancing at me from the side. “You know why we’re here, right?”

I nodded eagerly. “We’re here to sell the turnips!” I told him. I was only nine at the time, so I was pretty proud of myself for remembering. “Am I allowed to go explore dad? Please?”

Dad chuckled and drove the cart up to the castle gate, fishing around in his pocket for a copper he could give to the guard. Every week, there was a market held in the castle bailey, and every week, traders and farmers and performers and thieves all gathered inside the castle walls to scrounge up some money. It was my first time going to the marketplace with Dad, and I was super excited. There wasn’t exactly much to do on the farm except, well, farm obviously, and since we were poor and I didn’t have any siblings, I had to help out as much as I could.

Which I didn’t mind, really, since my parents did it too. It’s just that farming isn’t exactly the most adventurous kind of work.

Dad managed to find a copper and gave it to the guard, but before he waved us through, the guard grabbed a few turnips for himself. I opened my mouth to say something, but Dad shook his head quickly and drove us under the gate.

Once we were inside the walls, I turned to him in outrage.

“Why’d you let him take those turnips without paying, Dad? How are we supposed to make money like that?”

Dad sighed, his shoulders heavy, and just shook his head.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” he answered, and we left it at that.

I tended to be hearing a lot of that phrase these days, and it really annoyed me, but I knew better than to argue. Besides, I had better things to worry about, like getting completely lost inside the castle walls while my dad sold turnips.

Okay, I wasn’t exactly worried about that. More like I was hoping for it. Dad didn’t need to know that though.

“Can I explore Dad? Please?” I asked again, begging. My dad started smiling again and laughed.

“Yes, Nick, you’re allowed to explore,” he said, stopping the cart near a wall. “But only after you help me set up. Got it?”

“Got it, Dad!”

The two of us hopped off the cart, a few people already walking up with sacks to be filled, and my dad told me to take care of the oxen while he took care of the customers. I got them some water from the nearby well and fed them a few turnips before running up to my dad and asking him if I could go explore now.

“Sure, kiddo,” he said, rubbing my hair. “Just don’t get into trouble, you hear me?”

“Yes sir!”

“And don’t tell your mother!”

“I won’t!”

I waved goodbye and ran into the crowd, letting the people sweep me away to a different part of the market. It was incredible – so many people were selling so many different things or doing so much cool stuff. At one point, I stopped to watch a man that could breathe fire! And soon after that, I found another man selling books. Real books! I’d never even seen a real book in my life before. It was incredible.

I mean, then again, I couldn’t exactly read. Being descended from a long line of peasants tended to throw a hitch in that kind of thing. But I’d always wanted to learn how to read – books told stories and taught you things you couldn’t learn being a peasant. And god knows I wanted to be anything but a peasant forever.

I walked up to the cart and stared at the book in front of me, a small, simple one with a dark blue spine and plain parchment paper. I could see writing burned into the leather cover, but I had no idea what it said. There were other books with golden paper and gilded covers, but I knew the seller would let me near them. I was a scruffy-looking peasant kid. People probably thought I was a pickpocket.

This book though, this one kind of captivated me. It was about as thick as three of my fingers and the length of my dad’s hand. Plus the blue spine was awesome. Blue was kind of my favorite color, although blue was a pretty hard color to find. Maybe that’s why I liked it. Actually, that’s definitely why I liked it.

Slowly, I reached my hand forward so I could open the book. Maybe if I saw what was inside-

“Hey!”

I jumped and pulled my hand back, catching sight of the book seller storming up to me with a face as red as a beet. Oh no.

“What do you think you’re doing, you little rat?” he snapped, grabbing my arm and yanking me away from his bookstand. “Were you trying to steal my books? Huh?”

“No!” I said quickly, panic in my voice. “I just wanted to-”

“Shut up, you little thief!” he interrupted.

“I’m not a thief!”

“Oh yeah? I’m willing to bet a kid like you can’t even read. Why else would you be hanging around my cart?”

“I, I’m not, I just-”

The man scoffed before shoving me towards the ground, and I hit the dirt hard. Luckily, I managed to scramble up before he kicked me and ran into the crowd.

“Yeah that’s right, you better run!” the man called from behind.

Shut up, I didn’t even do anything! I thought, but I knew better than to say anything. I quickly dodged out of the crowd near the stonewall surrounding the castle and held my arm, trying not to cry. That guy was a jerk, and the grip he’d had on my arm probably left bruises. Great. So much for not getting into trouble.

This is what happens when peasant kids try to look at books, Phoenix, I thought to myself. They think you’re a thief and throw you out.

“Hey look, I found the kid!”

My head shot up, and I caught sight of three terrifying men wearing battered armor all heading towards me. They had swords on their hips and the crowds parted for them, and they were staring at me like they wanted to run their swords through my chest.

Apparently, they also send the guards after you. Typical.

There was nowhere to run, so I just pressed myself into the wall and clutched my arm as the three guards ran up to me. One of them snagged my shirt shoulder and pulled me away from the wall, and the other two surrounded me.

Oh god, oh god, oh god. I could feel myself shaking as the guards examined me, hands on their swords. First time I ever got to go to the market and it took me about twenty minutes to find serious trouble. Fantastic. Honestly, I had to have set some kind of record.

One of the guards laughed, but it was an evil kind of laugh and it made my stomach twist. “Look,” he gasped, pointing to my head, “look at how spikey his hair is.”

I felt my face burn and looked at the ground while the other two guards guffawed with their buddy. Yeah, I had weird hair. I didn’t need a bunch of metal-wearing goons to remind me.

“So spikey here’s the one that tried to steal from the book seller?” asked the guard holding me. He shook me with one hand and I lost my footing, but he kept his hold on me, letting me scramble back to my feet on my own.

“I wasn’t gonna steal anything!” I yelled, angry.

“Yeah right, kid. Quit lying,” the third guard replied.

“I’m not lying! Why would I steal a book anyway? I can’t even read!”

“Shut up!” The guard holding me threw me onto the ground and put his foot on my chest, pushing me into the dirt. I gasped and tried to get up, but he was so heavy, it was like trying to get up with an entire ox lying on my chest.

“L-let me up!” I stammered, panicking. Oh no, oh no. I didn’t want to die; I was only nine! “Stop, p-please!”

The sound of a sword being unsheathed made my heart stop beating, and a second later I found the tip of a sword in between my eyes.

My entire body was shaking, and all I could think was how my dad would feel after finding out his son got killed by the castle guards because they thought he was trying to steal a book.

“Kid, you’re really starting to bother me,” the guard said, holding me down with his foot while he pointed his sword at my face. The other two seemed to be watching with smug grins on their faces. What was wrong with these guys? Why wouldn’t they listen to me?

Oh yeah, because they were guards and I was a nine-year-old kid wearing rags and dirt. That’s probably why.

“Taking this kid all the way to the castle seems like such a hassle,” he continued, looking up at his friends. “I think killing him here is a better idea.”

“It’s not like anyone is gonna miss him,” the first guard said with a smirk.

I stared in terror as the first guard grinned and pulled back his sword, and then his arm moved and I cried out and threw my hands up in my face to stop the sword but-

“Stop!”

I felt the guard above me freeze, his sword a few inches from my throat, and I slowly turned my head to see who’d saved my life.

It was… a kid?

He seemed to be the same size as me, so he was probably the same age, but he looked a lot older. Maybe because of the fancy, expensive clothes he seemed to wear with ease, or the way his hair was styled, or the way he let off a kind of commanding presence, even though he was probably only nine or ten. He had on a fancy maroon jacket and was staring at the guards with such hatred I was surprised their heads hadn’t burst into flames.

The guards stared at the kid with me, but it wasn’t out of curiosity – the guards seemed shocked, almost afraid. Why would they be afraid of a kid?

“M-Master Edgeworth,” stuttered the guard holding me down. “What… what are you-”

“Release that boy immediately, guardsman,” the boy commanded. To my surprise, the guard complied. As soon as he got off my chest, I scrambled backwards to escape, but instead I ended up ramming into another guard’s shin. Before I could stand, the guard snatched me up by my hair and pulled me to my feet.

“Ow, hey!” I shouted.

“Release him!” the boy ordered again.

“But…” The guard who’d been holding me down seemed nervous, glancing between me and the other boy – Master Edgeworth, apparently. “Young master, the boy here was seen trying to steal a book from one of the merchants. We’re required to bring him in for punishment.”

I stared at the guard, terrified. Punishment? I hadn’t even done anything!

“I believe you’re mistaken, guardsman,” the Edgeworth boy replied. His eyes were set and he looked… intimidating. “I saw the whole thing, and this boy didn’t steal anything, or try to for that matter. That merchant just sent you after him to get rid of him.”

The guard’s mouth dropped open. Wow, I thought, you somehow look even more idiotic like that.

“But, w-we were just-” the guard attempted to say, but Edgeworth cut him off.

“No,” he said firmly, “you were mistaken. This boy has done nothing, and you will leave him be, understood?”

“Master Edgeworth, w-we can’t just-”

“Would you rather me tell your superior how you almost killed an innocent child today in the middle of the market?”

The guard opened his mouth, but nothing came out. After trying a few more times, I suppose he finally gave up and waved for his fellow guards to follow him off. The one holding me released my hair and the three bumbled off, leaving me alone near the wall with a strange, high-class boy wearing a maroon jacket.

I didn’t really know what to say, so I stared at the ground and rubbed my arm. When I glanced up, the boy seemed to be watching me in concern – it was so different from the way he’d been staring at those guards I almost thought it was someone else entirely.

“Are you alright?” he asked, walking towards me. I took a step back, afraid he might try to hurt me, but he put his hand on my shoulder and just looked into my eyes. He was genuinely worried about me; why would someone like him be worried about me? Why would someone like him even look at me?

His eyes were steel gray too. They were… kind of nice.

I nodded, finally finding my voice. “Yeah I’m, I… I’m okay,” I answered, glancing away nervously. “Who… who are you?”

The boy smiled, and I felt my stomach do a cartwheel inside me. His smile was really nice too.

“My name is Miles,” he told me. His hand was still on my shoulder and he was still looking into my eyes. “What’s your name?”

“Phoenix,” I managed to say. “Phoenix Wright.”

“Phoenix. You mean like the mythical bird?” he asked curiously. I blinked and nodded vigorously.

“You know about it?” I asked, surprised. I didn’t realize other people knew about phoenixes.

“Of course I know! My dad tells me stories about them all the time,” Miles answered. “Magical birds that burst into flames when they die, but they rise anew from the ashes and begin life again. They’re one of the most amazing mythical creatures I’ve ever learned about.”

“Wow I… I’ve never heard someone say the story like that before,” I said in awe. It sounded so magical when he said it. Like he actually believed phoenixes were real.

Miles grinned at me. “Your eyes are really cool too, by the way,” he added.

“Oh, um…” I glanced away, my cheeks flushing. I had two different colored eyes, one brown and one blue. Most people who saw me thought I was cursed or a witch or something – no one had ever called my eyes cool before.

Miles bit his lip and furrowed his brow, like he was trying to remember something, and then his face lit up.

“Oh, right!” he said, reaching into his jacket to pull something out. “I uh, I saw you looking at this, so I bought it for you,” he explained.

“Wait, you bought me…” My sentence trailed off as Miles pulled out the blue-spine book I’d been ogling at the merchant’s store, placing it in my hand.

“I, you… you bought it for me?” I asked, turning the book over in my hands. I flipped through the pages – it was mostly scribbled writing, none of which I understood, but it was beautiful. He bought this for me? He didn’t even know me!

Miles grinned even wider and nodded.

“But…” I looked up at him. “You don’t even know me. How do you know I wasn’t actually trying to steal it?”

“Well…” Miles shrugged. “You didn’t look like you wanted to steal it. You weren’t looking at it greedily, you were staring at it. Like it was captivating you.”

“Oh. Um…”

“Besides, were you trying to steal it?”

“What? No! Of course I wasn’t!”

“Well then, there you go.”

I blinked, staring at Miles’s dumb grin, before looking down at the book. I rubbed my hand over the cover.

“I don’t even know how to read,” I mumbled.

“You don’t know how to read?” Miles asked, like it was the worst thing in the world. I felt my face go hot and looked away.

“Oh, no wait, I didn’t mean it like that, I just…” Miles sighed and chewed his lip. “Sorry. I love reading a lot and sometimes I forget there are a lot of people who can’t do it.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I wish I could read.”

Miles opened his mouth to reply, but then a voice boomed out, “Miles! We’re leaving! Where are you?”

Miles sighed and scratched the top of his head sheepishly. “That’s my dad,” he explained. “I should go.”

“Oh. Okay.” I felt kind of sad, but I wasn’t sure why. Miles was really nice – I wanted to talk to him a little more.

“Hey, wait a minute.” Miles grinned again and placed both hands on my shoulders. “If we ever meet up again, I’ll teach you how to read, okay?”

“You’d… you’d do that for me?” I asked, staring at him. His eyes were silver and so happy they made me melt.

“Yeah, of course!” Miles answered. Then he pulled away. “I really have to go, but I hope I see you again, Phoenix!” he said, and began running away.

“Wait!” I called out after him. He stopped and turned. “Why did you help me? I’m just… and you’re a... I mean-”

Miles laughed and shook his head, and I swear I could feel my heart swell three times its size in my chest.

“People always have to stand up for each other, Phoenix,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you know them or not. You defend someone that can’t defend themself. That’s what makes us human.”

Before I could reply, Miles waved one last time and slipped into the crowd, leaving me with a leather book I couldn’t read and a swollen heart I didn’t understand. 

Chapter Text

“Hey Phoenix, catch!”

I turned around just in time to see an apple soaring through the air towards my face. Thankfully, I’d had a lot of practice with this type of situation; I caught the apple with ease and tossed it up into the air, catching it with my other hand and making me look much more talented than I actually was.

“Thanks Maya,” I said, taking a bite of the apple. My best friend Maya grinned and grabbed an apple for herself out of the giant barrel in the kitchen before heading over to me.

“So,” she said, sliding up next to me with a smirk on her face, “ready to start your new position as the Demon Prince’s personal handmaiden?”

I glared at her and took another bite of my apple. “I’m a manservant, for your information,” I answered, chewing up the apple as obnoxiously as I could. “And no, I’m not ready. I literally grew up as a farmer and a street urchin. I’m not exactly experienced.”

“Why are they even making you do it then?” Maya asked.

“Well, according to Gumshoe, Prince Miles specifically requested a servant that was around his age.”

“Were old sots the only other candidates?”

“Yeah. Well, kinda. There wasn’t exactly anyone else who wanted the job.”

“Gee,” Maya said, rolling her eyes, “I wonder why no one would want to be the Demon Prince’s personal servant.”

“I dunno,” I said with a shrug. “It probably has something to do with his dazzling personality.”

Maya snorted took another bite of her apple, letting me stew in my own thoughts for a minute. She and I had been friends for about four years, and a few months ago we’d finally managed to get ourselves off the streets and find jobs working at the castle. Maya, being the lucky little bugger she is, got assigned to be Princess Franziska’s personal handmaiden – apparently they’d hit it off pretty well too, although I still wasn´t quite sure how.

Me? While Maya got to flirt with the king’s daughter on a daily basis, I got to be a stable boy for two months. As if I hadn’t shoveled enough shit in my life already.

But when Dick Gumshoe, captain of the castle guard, found out that Prince Miles von Karma needed a personal servant, he suggested me right away. Gumshoe was a pretty loveable guy, although how he managed to be friends with lowly servants like me and Maya as well as an evil prince astounded me. Was he just not aware of the kind of person Prince Miles was?

I mean, technically, I’d never met Prince Miles, so it’s not like I could vouch for him either, but the rumors I’d heard from the rest of the castle staff was enough to make my stomach twist. The Demon Prince, adopted by the king after a man killed his father in cold blood, who had sworn to punish the man who killed his father by treating peasants as literal dirtbags…

Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly excited about my promotion.

I mean, anything was better than shoveling horse poop for nine hours a day, and life in the castle was a lot better than it’d been on the streets, but still. Prince Miles von Karma. His reputation wasn’t exactly a great one.

Then again, at least he wasn’t his sister, who carried a whip around and had somehow developed a grudge against me after interacting with me exactly twice in my entire life. I tended to stay as far away from her as possible.

“When do you have to meet Gumshoe?” Maya asked casually, nibbling at her apple core. How had she managed to eat an entire apple already?

“Like, now probably,” I told her. “Do you want the rest of my apple?”

“Yes.”

I grinned and tossed her what remained of my lunch before running towards the door. Maya gave me a thumbs up before biting into my apple, and I ran through the kitchen door into the hall.

Gumshoe had told me to meet him near the northeast spiral staircase around midday this morning so he could take me to Prince Miles’s chambers. Since I’d never really been anywhere in the castle before, my friend Larry – who was essentially the castle’s errand boy – showed me around with Maya before we all snuck into the kitchen to snag food. Thankfully, I managed not to get lost on my way to the northeast tower, which I was fairly sure would be a one-time-only occurrence.

“Hey there, Nick!” I caught sight of captain Gumshoe by the spiral stairs, giving me a huge grin and waving me over. I returned the grin and ran up to him.

“Hi, Gumshoe,” I replied, rubbing my hair. It was dry now, thankfully, but it still stuck up in the back and made me look like a hedgehog. “I’m uh… I’m here.”

He nodded and started walking up the stairs, gesturing for me to follow. The clanking of his metal boots sounded pretty different from my rag-wrapped feet slapping on the stones. For some reason, I hadn’t gotten around to buying shoes quite yet, a fact I was constantly reminded of when walking through the colder parts of the castle.

“So, Nick,” Gumshoe began, turning to give me another wide grin, “ready to work for Prince Miles?”

“People have been asking me that all day,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Well, it’s an important job,” he continued, reaching the top of the stairs and leading me down a hall. “The Prince has needed a servant for a while – the king was getting concerned. You’re pretty lucky I managed to land you the position in the first place!”

“Were there other servants hoping to get the job?” I asked curiously, trying my best to keep up with captain Gumshoe’s long strides. The last I knew, no one else had been vying for this “prestigious position,” but I was curious to see if anyone else actually wanted the job.

“Well… no, not exactly.” The captain’s shoulders shrugged slightly under the weight of his breastplate. “I mean… yeah, alright, there weren’t any others. But Prince Miles was very specific. He wanted someone close to his age, you know.”

It’s not like he had much of a choice, I thought. The only reason I’d agreed to this was so I wouldn’t be stuck as a stable boy for the rest of my life. After Maya brushed me up on all the castle gossip, I’d started to doubt my decision, but I realized pretty soon that Prince Miles didn’t scare me. I’d gone through a lot worse than anything he could put me through.

Besides, princes and kings shouldn’t rule out of fear. And until he gave me a reason to fear him, Prince Miles didn’t scare me at all.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself as Gumshoe knocked on the door to his chambers, rubbing my hands together to keep them from shaking.

This was gonna go great, wasn’t it.

We heard a faint, “Come in,” on the other side of the door, and Gumshoe pushed the door open and walked inside, letting me follow at his heels as my stomach attempted to do cartwheels.

“Afternoon, your Highness!” Gumshoe said with his signature dopey grin. I could hear the sound of scribbling on paper, but Gumshoe’s girth blocked me from seeing the Prince. “I brought your new manservant, Phoenix Wright.”

The scribbling stopped.

“Wait,” the Prince said. A chair scraped across the floor as I walked around the other side of Gumshoe to actually see the man I’d be serving. “Did you-”

Prince Miles stopped short when his eyes landed on me, and my entire body froze when I saw him.

Oh my god.

I stared at the prince, my eyes wide, soaking in everything about him. His steel gray eyes, his dark gray hair with the weird bangs, his pale skin, the maroon vest he was wearing…

I felt something tighten in my chest, but I didn’t know what it was. I was too busy staring at Miles Edgeworth.

Miles Edgeworth.

Prince Miles von Karma is Miles Edgeworth.

What… what the hell?!

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one surprised by this, because Prince Miles – Miles Edgeworth – was also staring at me in complete and utter shock. His eyebrows were raised ridiculously far above his head, and his eyes were about as wide as they could physically go. He’d changed a lot in ten years – well, obviously. It’d been ten years. But certain things about him hadn’t changed at all.

How on earth was this happening?

I blinked in surprise and opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, Miles’s face changed. His eyes grew cold and his slightly opened mouth shut into a tightly clenched jaw. There wasn’t any shock on his face anymore, he was just… analyzing me. Like a scholar reading a sheet of paper.

Something was horribly wrong.

“Captain Gumshoe, you are dismissed,” the prince said decisively. I saw the captain glance warily between the prince and me.

“Is…” Gumshoe swallowed. “Is something wrong, your highne-”

“I said you are dismissed,” Prince Miles hissed, his eyes flicking towards the captain. “Go through the door and shut it behind you. I require no more of your services for today.”

Gumshoe quickly swallowed and nodded, hurrying out the door and snapping it shut behind him. It wasn’t until the door was completely closed that Miles Edgeworth turned his gaze back to me.

I desperately wanted to say something, but nothing seemed to come out of my mouth.

This can’t be happening, I kept thinking to myself. It can’t be. This can’t be him.

Except it was him. I hadn’t forgotten him once. And from the look on his face, Miles Edgeworth hadn’t forgotten me either.

Half of me was ecstatic. I’d been hoping to meet Miles Edgeworth again for the past ten years of my life; he was the reason I’d come to the city when I had nowhere else to go. But the Miles Edgeworth I’d known hadn’t… hadn’t looked like this. He hadn’t been whatever monster people thought Prince Miles von Karma was. His eyes weren’t icy and his face wasn’t gaunt. The one I met ten years ago was… happy.

“Customarily,” the prince said, his voice cutting through the silence like ice, “a servant bows to his liege as a sign of respect. Or do you happen to be a special case?”

I swallowed, my stomach twisting like a piece of rope. Something is wrong, I kept thinking. Something is horribly, horribly wrong.

But I bowed. There wasn’t much else for me to do.

“I apologize,” I said quietly, straightening back up.

“I apologize, your highness,” he corrected.

My eyes flashed up to him, and defiance burned in my chest.

“I apologize, your highness,” I said tersely. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything about my tone.

His eyes continued to scan me, cold and calculated, completely unlike the joyful silver ones I remembered. What the hell had happened to him in ten years to cause such a drastic change? It took me a moment to remember what the other servants had told me; that he was adopted, and that his father had been killed by a thief. Considering how eager he’d been to help me that day we met, that act must’ve shattered any hope he’d ever had in anyone like me.

And now I was his personal manservant, forced to follow his every order.

After a moment, Prince Miles rolled his eyes and scoffed. “You haven’t been a personal servant ever before in your life, have you?” he stated.

Technically, I have, I thought to myself, but those five years didn’t exactly count. I’d spent more time locked in a cellar than I had actually serving anyone.

So I clenched my jaw and said nothing. The prince already knew the answer anyway.

Prince Miles shook his head, sighing in annoyance as he rubbed his temples. “Typical,” he muttered. “The one suitable boy in this entire castle is completely incompetent.”

“Hey,” I began, “I’m not useless–”

“You will not speak to me unless spoken to, servant boy,” the prince snapped, giving me a glare. His eyes glinted like steel. “You seem to have trouble remembering your place.”

I felt my hands curl into fists, and my mind moved before my mouth.

“What happened to you, Miles Edgeworth?” I asked.

The second the words left my mouth, I wished I could’ve sewn my lips shut. Prince Miles’s gaze turned into pure hatred and his eyes locked onto mine like lasers.

“You never have permission to call me that, Phoenix Wright,” he hissed, his voice practically shaking in anger. My hands began to tremble as he closed the distance between us, his face suddenly inches from mine. “Do not presume anything of me simply because we happened across each other a decade ago. I am your crowned prince, a von Karma, and if you ever call me by that name again, I’ll have you thrown out of this city. Am I clear?”

I felt tears well up in my eyes, and my heart felt like it’d been torn in two. This wasn’t Miles Edgeworth. Any hope I’d had left of that fact had just been shattered.

“Crystal,” I answered, my voice weak.

Prince Miles von Karma glanced over me again before turning around and walking back to his desk.

“As my personal servant,” he said, “you will need to be around me as much as possible in order to keep my needs satiated. You will sleep in this room on the cot in the corner, and you will learn the full extent of your duties by the end of the week.”

He sat at his desk and turned to me, his glare still icy. “Get your things from the servants quarters and return. I expect you back within the hour.”

Then he turned back to the desk and picked up his quill. It didn’t take a genius to realize I was dismissed.

I took a shaky breath through my nose, trying to control whatever emotions had decided to nest inside me, and bowed my head to the prince before walking to the door and slipping out into the hall. The door snapped shut behind me and I began walking down the cold corridor to the servants quarters.

Prince Miles von Karma is Miles Edgeworth, a part of me said, still in shock at the discovery.

No, I thought, Prince Miles von Karma isn’t Miles Edgeworth. He’s Prince Miles von Karma.

Miles Edgeworth is dead.

Chapter Text

Ten years.

I shook my head, trying to dispel the thoughts that kept floating around my head and focus on the task at hand. There were more important matters to attend to than my distracted thoughts. Despite my protests, my father the king and my absolute villain of a little sister had organized a “coming-of-age event” for my birthday in three months. This, of course, meant putting me in a constant state of stress and loading me down with much more work than should be required of a crowned prince, especially one so far from coronation.

Nevertheless, the king had ordered me to write invitations to those I wished to see at the… party, so that’s what I had to do. The king also chose to ignore the fact that I had very few friends outside the castle, let alone outside the kingdom, and writing heartfelt invitation letters to foreign dignitaries I barely knew was proving rather difficult.

“Can’t I have someone to do this for me?” I muttered angrily, scratching out half the lines I’d written on my invitation to… Kristoph Gavin? Who even was this? With a groan, I crumpled up the sheet of paper and threw it into the fireplace. It would’ve been much more satisfying if there’d been a roaring fire in said fireplace, but the fire had gone out this morning and the fireplace held nothing but charred logs and dust. All the paper did was bounce off a blackened piece of wood and sink pathetically into the gray ash behind it.

I grumbled something about incompetent servants and pulled another sheet of parchment off the stack in front of me, but I couldn’t focus on writing pointless letters. Not when a pair of defiant blue and brown eyes remained burned into my mind.

Oh, to hell with writing letters. It wasn’t as if I’d be accomplishing anything else worthwhile today anyway.

I sighed and place my head in my hands, elbows resting on the table, and let my mind wander down the course it wished to go. Unsurprisingly, all my mind wanted to focus on was quite possibly the worst personal servant anyone had ever suggested for me, ever.

Phoenix Wright, I thought. You are quite literally the last person I want to see right now.

And yet, here he was. How bloody typical.

I remembered our first meeting ten years ago as clearly as if it were yesterday, but until Gumshoe had bumbled in with Wright in tow, I’d completely forgotten that the event had happened at all. Anything I’d done before the death of my father I considered a mistake, and I’d done my best to block out the first half of my life from my memory. Phoenix Wright, however, was a part of that first half of memories, and my emotional reaction to seeing him for the first time in ten years had been… peculiar.

Alright, fine, I’d been a complete and utter jerk, but that didn’t matter. I was the prince, son of King von Karma and next in line for the throne, and I could act in whatever manner I pleased. Phoenix Wright needed to earn some respect for me if he had any hope of holding his current position.

Ten years, Miles, something whispered in the back of my brain.

I closed my eyes and sighed, wishing I could focus, but Wright’s arrival had thrown me completely off my game. That day ten years ago had been one giant mistake. Saving Wright from those guards, buying him a book with my own money that he couldn’t even read, making a promise I hadn’t been able to keep… All these were things the king would’ve scorned if he knew I’d done them. Trust the city guards and pay no attention to the plights of peasants, he would say. Helping those of a lower statute than you makes you no better than a common swineherd.

And I believed every word of it. What was the use of helping peasants if all they did was turn around and stab you in the back?

But Wright… I shook my head. No. Wright was no exception. He’d been accused of thievery, and instead of letting the guards do their jobs, I’d stepped in and saved him. I’d bought him a book that he couldn’t read and then never saw him again. What was it I had said to him that day?

“People always have to stand up for each other, Phoenix. It doesn’t matter if you know them or not. You defend someone that can’t defend themself. That’s what makes us human.”

I scoffed at the naivety of my words. Defending those you had no relation to didn’t make one human – it made one weak. That’s all Phoenix Wright was. A moment of weakness. Nothing more.

His blue and brown eyes burned into my consciousness, defiant even in the face of their future king, and my conviction wavered.

Was fate was testing or torturing me? I eventually decided it was both.

“Your highness?”

I lifted my head and glanced at the door, recognizing the voice outside. It was Ema Skye, Lana Skye’s younger sister. Lana was captain of the King’s Guard and a good friend, often looking out for me when I needed it most. Her loyalty to my father and her skill in combat had brought her much respect from those who knew her, and I was incredibly grateful to have her as a friend. She did a good job of keeping me focused and advised strict adherence to the rules, both of which I found admirable and greatly appreciated.

Ema, on the other hand, was an over-observant girl that served as the castle’s herbalist and medic. She wasn’t nearly as direct and militaristic as her sister, but the respect I had for Lana carried over somewhat to her. Unlike most of the other help in the castle, Ema was intelligent and competent (especially for her young age), and I usually enjoyed her company to at least a small degree. True, she could be annoying at times, but then again, she was a teenage girl. She wasn’t nearly as bad as Franziska.

I sighed and stood up from my desk, walking over to the door. If Ema didn’t let herself in, she probably had her hands full, which meant I had to open the door for her. Normally, a servant would do it for me, but I hated having people I didn’t know just hovering around me. In my opinion, one personal servant was better than many exchangeable ones.

I quickly realized that this path of thought would lead me back to Phoenix Wright and stifled it. He was a distraction, and until he returned, I needed to focus on more important things.

I opened the door and held it open for Ema, who bowed her head at me and walked inside, arms filled with a large box of miscellaneous items.

“Evening, your highness!” Ema said, giving me a smile as she walked into the center of the room.

“Good evening, Ema,” I said, raising and eyebrow and shutting the door behind her. “That seems like more than your usual delivery.”

“Oh! Well…” Ema placed the box down gently on the floor and knelt down next to it, gesturing to its contents. “Larry the delivery guy heard I was going up to your room for something, and he asked me if I could bring this stuff up too. It’s mostly books and parchment, I think, nothing special.”

I smiled slightly and looked into the box, noting that it was in fact, mostly books and parchment. Yesterday, I’d asked for a few more books for personal reading, and apparently they’d finally gotten here. The parchment paper was probably for writing more invitations.

“What about your delivery?” I asked, glancing at Ema.

“Oh! Right, sorry.” Ema dug around in the crate and pulled out a small, thin box and handed it to me. “Ten vials of sleeping tonic, just like always. Is it still helping?”

I nodded and opened the box, checking to make sure all ten vials were there and filled with the amber liquid. Every ten days, Ema would deliver me vials of what she called “sleeping tonic,” which, as the name implies, helped me go to sleep. Despite everything I’d tried to do to get rid of them, I still had trouble with nightmares, and unless I was exceptionally high strung or anxious, the tonic helped me get through the night peacefully. Ema was the only person in the castle that I’d told about my nightmares, mainly because she was the only one that could brew up the tonic in the first place, and I knew she wouldn’t tell anyone else.

“Thank you again, Ema,” I said, shutting the box and walking over to my bedside table. I pulled open the drawer and took out the old box, which held ten empty vials, and replaced it with the new one. Then I shut the drawer and walked back over to Ema, handing her the old box.

“It’s no problem Miles, you know that,” she replied, tucking the box under her arm. “Are, uh, are you all set?”

“I believe so, yes. Do you have somewhere to be?” I inquired.

“Actually, no. I… I kinda want to talk to you about something.”

That’s strange, I thought. Ema was usually either all business or constantly badgering me with her “investigation skills.” She hardly ever brought up serious issues, at least not with me.

“Do you, now?” I replied, giving her a smile and crossing my arms. “About what?”

“Phoenix Wright.”

I hadn’t known a smile could slide off someone’s face at the speed mine did. Ema immediately looked nervous, knowing she’d hit on something sensitive, but she didn’t look wary enough to back down.

Why was the universe so insistent on me thinking about that god awful spikey-haired peasant boy?

I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to mentally prepare myself for the conversation. It didn’t work.

“What about Phoenix Wright?” I asked, opening my eyes.

Ema chewed her lip and glanced to the side, nervous.

“I…” She inhaled shakily and then exhaled, and I could see the determination build in her eyes. “I saw him before I came up here, talking to Maya. He was… he’s really upset, Miles.”

Something pulled at my emotions, but I pushed it down and ignored it. Von Karmas didn’t need emotions. Von Karmas were perfect.

“And this is my concern?” I asked, my voice cold. I’d intended for the tone to push Ema into retreating, but all it did was make her eyes flare in anger.

Damn it.

“You’re the one who made him upset,” she said, her voice rising. “He’s the one that’s gonna be watching over you and helping you every day. You should at least care about how he feels about you!”

“Why? Because I’m stuck with him until I find a suitable replacement?” I glowered at Ema, and the anger in her eyes wavered. “I am the prince, Ema Skye. I don’t have time to be troubled with the emotions of my inferiors.”

Hurt blossomed in Ema’s eyes, and I realized too late the implications of my words. Technically speaking, Ema was my inferior. What’s to say I didn’t care about her emotions either?

It’s what Father would want you to say, I realized. He never approved of my friendship with Ema in the first place.

But this… this was Ema, not some faceless servant. I’d known her since I was fourteen. And Lana had been more of a mentor to me than anyone. If she ever found out that I’d done this to her sister…

“Ema,” I began, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“I know what you meant,” she said quietly, but the way she stared at me was a clear sign she did not accept the apology. It would take a while for her to accept anything from me again.

Just how many more bridges would I be burning today?

Ema sighed, evidently not finished with her end of the discussion. “Look,” she said, “your highness, you don’t have to care about my feelings. I mean, all I do is bring you medicine-”

“Ema,” I started to say, but she cut me off.

“But Phoenix Wright is going to be by your side every second of the day. Even from a purely analytical perspective, his opinion of you and your trust of him are important. You need to care about him, prince.”

I was aware on some level that she had stopped calling me Miles. Not relevant, I chided myself, and ignored the information.

“If he is going to be by my side every second of the day, he needs to respect me as his prince,” I answered, matching Ema’s gaze with my own. “And one cannot respect someone unless one fears them.”

“Do you really believe that?” she asked quietly.

I opened my mouth to reply that of course I did, why wouldn’t I, and found that I couldn’t.

“Your highness,” Ema continued, “I’ve only known Phoenix for three years, but I know this much about him. Phoenix Wright never respects anyone that rules out of fear. If you want him to respect you, you’ll have to find a different way to do it. Otherwise, all you’ll do is make him hate you.”

But that makes no sense, I immediately thought. The King has ruled through fear since his rule began. Fear keeps people in line. Through making someone fear you his how you earn their respect. That’s what my father taught me, and he’s never been wrong.

Has he?

“Thank you for the delivery, Miss Skye,” I said, staring at the wall behind Ema’s head. “I believe I have all I need. You are dismissed.”

Ema’s gaze turned stony from the view in my peripherals, and she turned and walked to the door. I continued staring at the wall, wishing I could heal whatever had just happened.

The door creaked as Ema opened it, but she didn’t leave. 

“Phoenix doesn’t want to see Miles the Prince,” she said. “And neither do I. Phoenix would rather see you as a man.”

“And what would you rather see me as?” I asked, glaring at her.

“Not a jerk,” she snapped. The door slammed before I could reply, which was probably for the best. If she hadn’t left, I would’ve ended up yelling at her.

Not a jerk, I thought, sighing. The only reason I let Ema get away with treating me as her equal was because I’d known her for six years and deeply respected her sister. Servants didn’t speak to royalty like that. For me to allow something like that was undignified. It was shameful.

But I’d let Ema do it to me for years. My father hated me for it, and Franziska did nothing but ridicule me about it, but I’d let Ema treat me like that anyway. But she was special, though. Ema was kind and intelligent and a friend. Ema was an exception.

A moment of weakness.

I sighed and sat on the edge of my bed, my face in my hands. Fate was most definitely testing me with Phoenix Wright.

Chapter Text

Wright finally returned about an hour later, two hours past when I expected him. He really had no excuse, either; all the boy’s belongings were stuffed into a burlap sack, barely filled enough to make it seem like he owned anything at all. I opened my mouth to chastise him, but then… something stopped me.

Maybe it was the way Wright’s shoulders were slumped, or how his jaw was set, or the hurt in his eyes. Maybe it was all three of those combined.

You need to care about him, prince.

“Wright.”

The servant stopped in his tracks, his back to me and obviously not planning to turn. It struck me then that he was shorter than me, at least three inches shorter, and his frame was so skinny it seemed like he was made of wire.

“I…” I inhaled, the apology trapped in my throat, and tried again. “I realize I acted rather brashly earlier and I… I apologize.”

Wright still didn’t turn around, but his head tilted slightly, like he was surprised. At least he was listening.

“Do not presume this means I forgive you for what you did,” I continued. “Calling me by my past name will not be tolerated.”

“Why not?” he asked suddenly.

I stopped, startled that he’d actually spoken to me, but I recovered quickly.

“Because I don’t wish to dwell on the mistakes in my past,” I answered.

Wright’s shoulders tensed, and the grip around his burlap sack tightened. “I presume I’m one of those mistakes?” he asked, glancing back towards me.

When I didn’t answer, Wright looked away and walked towards his cot in the corner. My stomach felt as if someone was wringing it dry, and I stayed where I was near my bed.

Wright ignored me and reached into his sack, pulling out the few things he decided to bring with him. A change of clothes, a candle and some matches, a pouch of what looked like seeds, and a book. The sack went under the bed and everything else stayed on the table.

I stared at the book, realizing I recognized it. The blue spine, I thought. That’s the same book I bought Phoenix when we were children. How did he still have it?

“You still have that book?” I asked, walking over. Wright immediately tensed and reached for the book, no doubt intending to hide it away immediately.

“It’s nothing,” he muttered, but I placed my hand on the book before he could reach it. His eyes flashed towards me with warning.

“The Death of King Arthur,” I read, staring at the title. Wright pulled the book out from under my hand and reached down for the burlap sack, but he paused and glanced at the book cover.

There was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite place, but I knew well enough what it meant. Wright hadn’t known what the title was. But he’d had this book for ten years, how had he…

“You still haven’t learned how to read?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

Wright’s cheeks flushed pink, and the grip he had on the book tightened.

“No, I haven’t,” he said, staring at bed. “I was a little too busy trying to survive. Learning to read doesn’t seem too important when you’re starving, but I guess you wouldn’t know that.”

The jab irked me, but I refused to let myself rise to his taunts. Goading me wouldn’t work, not this time.

“Were you?” I said with a smirk. “And yet you kept the book this whole time?”

His eyes flashed up again, angry and defiant. Part of me wanted to stifle that defiance and replace it with fear.

But another part of me pulled away from that. He’s a person too, Ema seemed to say in my mind. He’s allowed to feel however he wants.

I eventually decided to go with the latter.

“The reason why is pointless now,” Wright grumbled, kneeling down to retrieve the burlap sack from beneath the bed. “It’s not like it’s of any use to me anyway.”

“Wait,” I said. Wright stopped and looked up at me, his brown and blue eyes curious but wary. My stomach flipped as I considered something impossible, then dismissed it, then realized it wasn't very impossible after all.

You need to care about him, prince.

“I can teach you,” I said.

Wright's brow furrowed. “Teach me to what?”

“To read, you idiot,” I snapped, but I pulled back when Wright raised an eyebrow. “I mean… if you want to of course.”

The servant narrowed his eyes and stood back up, crossing his arms. “Why so generous all of a sudden?” he inquired, apprehensive. “I’m just a stupid servant. Why do you care if I can read?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why-”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you, Wright,” I snapped, my right hand curling into a fist. “I want you to learn how to read, so you will learn how to read. End of story. With… with your consent. Of course. If you don’t want to I… well I just… Never mind, the point is-”

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” Wright said with a smirk on his face.

I spluttered to a halt, staring at him in annoyance and shock. “Good at what?” I asked.

“Apologizing.”

“But…” I glowered at him. “I already apologized to you.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t accept it. And now you’re trying to be nice to me so I’ll accept the apology and you can feel less guilty. Right?”

“That is not why I’m doing this,” I immediately growled.

“Oh really?” Phoenix Wright’s eyes seemed transfixed on mine. “Then why help me at all? What do you want from me?”

“I want you to respect me, you overgrown hedgehog,” I spat without thinking.

Phoenix’s eyebrows seemed to ascend from his forehead. “Overgrown hedgehog?” he asked.

Of all the statements he could’ve focused on, he chose to point out that?

“Well,” I grumbled, trying to at least regain my footing, “your hairstyle certainly seems to imply that you wish to impersonate one.”

“My hair is naturally like this, thank you very much,” he replied. “And just so you know, bribery and insults aren’t the most sound ways to get someone to respect you.”

“I know that, I just…” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and refusing to look Phoenix in the eye. “I need you to respect me.”

“Well-”

“I want you to respect me, Wright.” I lifted my head and stared at him. “As a person. I’m your prince and you should respect me. But you and I both know that fear doesn’t breed respect in you. And I’m not exactly experienced in gaining respect through… other means.”

Wright’s face was hard to read, but he was studying me, trying to determine if what I said was true. Thankfully, it didn’t take him long to realize it was, and when he did he shook his head and smiled.

“You’re ridiculous,” he muttered, but it didn’t sound like an insult.

“I can have you beheaded with a single word, you realize that,” I replied, but Wright just chuckled.

“You’ve changed quite a lot in ten years,” he said.

“Yes I have, we’ve established this. Now are you going to take the deal or not?”

Wright tilted his head, confused. “What deal?” he asked.

“The one I’ve been referring to for the past several minutes. You start respecting me, and I teach you how to read.”

“Whoa, whoa.” Phoenix held up his hands, the blue-spined book still clutched in one. “That’s not how it works. Respect is something you earn, not buy.”

“Well then, will teaching you to read earn your respect, or do I have to try something more effective?”

Wright just shook his head again, and I began feeling a bit patronized.

“Why teach me to read anyway?” he asked. “Why is reading so important to you?”

“Well, I did promise, didn’t I?”

As soon as I spoke the words, my stomach felt like it was twisting inside me. It was the first time in a long time I’d ever acknowledged a part of my life before my father’s death, and it was definitely the first I’d ever acknowledged it in a positive light. But although it was a little uncomfortable, it didn’t feel… wrong. It didn’t feel as if I’d committed a crime.

Wright, on the other hand, had blinked in surprise, his confident expression slipping off his face. When he realized I wasn’t toying with him, the boy looked at the book with an expression I recognized from ten years ago: longing.

“You’ll…” He paused, glancing up at me. “You’ll actually do it. Teach me to read.”

I nodded.

“And in return…”

“All I ask is that you respect me,” I finished, “and that you do your job, which means helping me and doing what I tell you. And preferably not assassinating me in my sleep, although you would probably end up worse in that situation.”

“True.” Wright stared at the book, lost in thought for a moment, then sighed and looked up with a smile. “Alright your highness, I guess we have a deal.”

I blinked in surprise. “Just like that?” I asked.

“Well, if you’d rather we take a blood oath, I’m sure I could go grab a knife from the kitchen-”

“Wright.” I glowered at him, unamused. Wright just grinned in response and began flipping through the book.

“So,” he said, “first thing’s first, what do all these scribbles mean?”

It took all the strength I had not to murder him on the spot.

Chapter Text

“Do you own anything that isn’t pink?”

Prince Miles glared at me as I looked through his wardrobe, trying to find the jacket he needed for the day. He’d been very specific: “I need the rose colored jacket with the gold trim and white ruffles on the sleeves.” Problem? That basically described every single article of clothing he owned.

“My clothes are not pink, Wright,” he grumbled, pushing me out of the way to find the jacket himself. “They are magenta.”

“Which is a fancy royal word for pink, right?”

He glowered at me and pulled out his jacket, which to me looked identical to all the other jackets in his wardrobe. “I can and will have you fired, Wright,” he reminded me. “Your life quite literally lies in my hands.”

“Yeah, but then your highness will be stuck with Wendy Oldbag,” I replied, taking the jacket from him so he could put it on. Prince Miles cringed and turned around, slipping his arms into the jacket sleeves while looking vaguely uncomfortable. Maya had told me about Wendy the other day, an old crone that seemed to be far too infatuated with young Prince Miles. Apparently, Miles was very aware of this, and any mention of her name sent disgusted shivers down his spine.

I smirked. Phoenix one, Miles zero.

“You truly are insufferable,” he muttered, turning around and straightening out his jacket. I stepped back and put my hands on my hips, fighting to keep my smirk from showing. I apparently didn’t do a good enough job, because one look at my face and Miles’s brow furrowed in even more annoyance. “Alright, next task – find my cravat.”

“Your… what?”

Now it was Miles’s turn to smirk. Great job, idiot, I thought, you gave him an opening.

“A cravat, Wright. Surely you know what it is.”

I glared at him and walked over to his wardrobe, then rubbed the back of my neck nervously. A cravat? That didn’t even sound like a real word. Wait, was it? I wouldn’t put it past this guy to make up words just to screw with me.

“Um…” I said, reaching in at random and pulling out… a sock. Damn it.

I heard Miles snort behind me, and my face burned as I threw the sock back inside.

“It’s the frilly thing I wear around my neck,” he said, taking pity on me.

“Oh,” I replied. “Is it pink?”

“Wright.”

I snickered and looked around for the cravat thing, eventually finding it lying on the prince’s bedside table and bringing it to him. He snatched it from me and put it around his neck, haughtily sticking his nose up while he did.

God, what a stuck-up jerk.

I watched the prince tie on his stupid cravat, and without meaning to, my eyes drifted to Miles’s neck. It was… a really nice neck, actually. Really pale and angled. I could see him swallow as he tied on the cravat–

Miles looked down and saw me staring at his neck like a creep, and he raised an eyebrow.

I turned away quickly and rubbed the back of my neck again, hoping my face wasn’t as red as it felt. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell was that?

“Are… you-” Miles started to say.

“I’M FINE,” I said quickly, my voice rising half an octave. God damn it. “Let’s uh, let’s just go. Let’s go. Yeah.”

I could practically feel Miles’s suspicious glare burning a hole in my back, but I ignored it and rushed forward to open the door for him. Miles walked through and I followed close behind.

Ugh. I really did not need this right now.

Thankfully, the cravat stayed secure on Miles’s strangely distracting neck for the rest of the day, so I didn’t have to worry about that again. Unfortunately, the rest of my morning was pretty boring. Prince Miles had to negotiate with the clerks about the kingdom’s finances while his father was off hunting with Princess Franziska, which meant I was expected to stand there by the wall and rush forward if his Highness Prince Cravat needed anything.

Which he didn’t, by the way. Five hours of my life wasted standing next to a wall. Honestly, I’m surprised I didn’t implode.

By the time the prince wrapped everything up, it was around lunchtime, and King von Karma and the princess had returned from their little hunting trip. So while the royal family had a “casual dinner” in the great hall, I got to sneak into the kitchen and grab some grub with Maya and Larry, who I hadn’t seen in like three days. Now that I was Prince Miles’s personal servant, I didn’t exactly have a lot of time on my hands, which meant seeing my friends at far fewer intervals than I was used to.

“Hey Nick!” Maya said, her mouth full of what was probably turkey meat. She had a turkey leg in each hand, and both were already about halfway finished. Larry, on the other hand, had somehow managed to snag an entire loaf of bread and was stuffing it in his face.

“Hey guys,” I said, still tired from this morning. I’m not sure how standing around for five hours doing absolutely nothing tired me out, but it did.

Larry gave me a look. “You alright, buddy?” he asked, breaking off a piece of bread and holding it out. “Here, this’ll cheer you up.”

“Thanks.” I took the bread and ate some of it before yawning. Maya raised an eyebrow.

“Nick, are you not sleeping again?” she asked, concerned.

“What? No! I’m fine.”

“Haha! Yeah right.” Larry grinned at me and crammed some more bread into his mouth. “What, is the Demon Prince keeping you up all night making you clean out the garderobes?”

“No, he’s not,” I answered, taking another bite of my lunch. “He’s… actually, he’s not that bad. At least not to me. He was bad that first day, but it’s been a week. He’s kinda warming up to me. Or, well, at least I think he is.”

I put the rest of the bread in my mouth and glanced at Maya and Larry, who were both staring at me in disbelief.

“What?” I asked, my mouth full.

“The Demon Prince is warming up to you?” Maya asked, incredulous. “As in Prince Miles von Karma, the crowned prince of the land, that literally hates peasants with every ounce of his being?”

“He doesn’t hate peasants, Maya,” I said, swallowing my bread. “He just… has this really obnoxious sense of superiority that makes you want to punch him in the face. But he doesn’t hate peasants, at least not from what I’ve seen.”

“Maybe we’re not talking about the same Demon Prince,” Maya grumbled, eating more of her turkey legs. Obviously she didn’t believe me. “Literally all Princess Franny does is complain about him.”

“Don’t they kinda hate each other, though?” Larry asked, leaning back against the table. “She may not be the best source.”

Maya glared at him.

“Whose side are you on, fleabag?” she demanded.

“Well, that depends. Wanna share some of that turkey leg?”

Maya whapped him across the head with it in response and continued eating while Larry did his best to look utterly betrayed. I snorted and sat on a stool, watching the cooks bustle around trying to feed half the castle.

“Seriously though,” Maya continued, watching me, “he’s actually treating you okay?”

“Well, yeah I guess,” I shrugged. “I mean, he hasn’t yelled at me since that first day, and he’s teaching me how to read, so–”

“Whoa, whoa, what? He’s teaching you how to read?” she spluttered.

I nodded, a smile slipping onto my face.

I was learning how to read.

Maya shook her head. “I can’t believe this,” she grumbled. “This is literally unheard of. What’d you do, brainwash him?”

I chuckled and replied, “Sounds like someone’s jealous.”

“I am not jealous, Phoenix.” Maya glared at me again. “Fran and I have a great relationship.”

“Mmhm. Can I have some turkey?”

Maya groaned in annoyance and lobbed one of her turkey bones at my head while Larry cackled on the other side of the table. I ducked under the bone and slipped out the door, laughing. It was about time I got back to the prince anyway.

I reached the great hall about a minute later, and by that time Miles was walking out of the room. He looked kind of upset; his face was gaunt and emotionless, and his eyes were cold. Was he alright? What had happened in there?

“Uh, your highness?” I asked quietly, coming up beside him.

Miles turned his head abruptly towards me, and his eyes softened a little. I felt something flutter in my stomach and ignored it.

“Oh, hello Wright,” he said quietly and continued walking. I followed him down the hallway. “Where were you?”

“In the kitchen,” I replied. “It’s where all the servants eat. Well, me and my friends, mostly.”

“Is it now.”

“Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s mostly just us sneaking food that no one else wants to eat, nothing fancy or anything.” I shrugged and rubbed the back of my neck, grinning at the memory of Maya chucking a turkey bone at my head. “Plus, it gives us a chance to hang out every day. Kinda nice, you know?”

“Sounds nice.”

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye and saw Prince Miles staring straight ahead, his face just as upset as before. He only seemed to be half paying attention to me. His mind was somewhere else.

And here I was, rambling about eating in the goddamn kitchen. Phoenix, you idiot.

“How, uh…” I swallowed and tried again. “How was your meal?”

“The usual,” Miles replied unenthusiastically.

I raised an eyebrow. Miles hadn’t acted this way after any of the other meals he’d had over the past week. And he’d had dinner with his sister and father once, so it couldn’t be that.

Well, unless the one he’d had before was the unusual one. Which… kind of concerned me, if that was true.

I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, Lana and Ema Skye walked out of a hallway in front of us and Miles stopped. The two girls caught sight of us and walked over, Lana smiling and Ema… not smiling.

“Hello, Prince Miles,” Lana said, crossing her arms. “How are you?”

“Fine, Lana, thank you.” Miles sounded relieved when he spoke. When I glanced at his face, he seemed more relaxed and less upset than before. “Just had my midday meal with the king and my sister.”

“And how did that go?” Ema asked. There was an edge to her voice I didn’t really understand, but Miles glanced at her for a moment.

“As it usually does,” he replied.

“Meaning horribly?”

“Ema.” Lana glared at her sister, giving her a warning, and Ema cast her eyes to the ground.

“No, she’s right,” the prince said, waving his hand flippantly. “I rather dread spending time with them while eating. I always have, you know this Lana.”

“Yes, but it’s not our place to say anything about it,” Lana replied, glaring at Ema again. Ema just glared back and crossed her arms too.

“Lana, at this point, I hardly think it matters,” Miles said tiredly. Then he glanced back at me and said, “By the way, have you met Wright? He’s my new personal servant.”

“Hi, Lana,” I said, waving. She gave me a smile and nodded.

“Yes, I’ve met him,” she responded, turning to Miles. “Ema helped him and his two friends get jobs in the castle a few months ago.”

“She did?” Miles’s eyes widened slightly and he glanced at Ema, who was busy staring at the floor. What was going on with them?

Lana nodded and glanced back at me. “How are you, Phoenix?” she asked.

“I’ve been great, thanks Lana.”

“Is the prince treating you well?”

“Oh yeah, he’s really great. He’s teaching me how to read, actually.”

Ema’s eyes shot up to mine almost instantly.

“He is?” she asked, glancing between Miles and me. “You… you are?”

Miles nodded, a faint smile forming on his mouth.

“Yes, Ema,” he said, “I am. I decided to take your advice for once. I’m… sorry I didn’t realize its value sooner.”

Okay, something was definitely going on; Miles had just apologized to Ema Skye in the middle of a hallway. When he’d apologized to me, he’d barely even been able to get the words out. But from the way Ema was looking at Miles, I had a feeling the apology had changed things between them for the better. Lana also seemed pretty happy, watching Miles with a look of approval as Ema’s grin grew.

“It’s no problemo, Miles,” Ema said cheerfully. Her entire demeanor had just changed within two seconds – what was going on? “Glad you finally got some sense into you.”

“Ema,” Lana threatened.

Prince Miles just shook his head and smiled. Wait, since when did Prince Miles smile? What was I missing here?

Lana and Ema said goodbye and left, and Miles and I continued down the hallway towards his chambers. I glanced at him and raised an eyebrow, wondering if he’d clarify, but he just stared straight ahead and continued walking down the corridor, ignoring me. I decided to ask a few subtle questions and get some answers.

“What was that all about?” I asked.

I was the master of subtlety, obviously.

Prince Miles sighed. “Ema came and talked to me after I yelled at you that first day.”

“Oh.” I stared at him, hoping I’d get more out of it than just that.

The Prince sighed. “She essentially told me I’d acted rudely and I kicked her out because I hadn’t wanted to hear it,” Miles continued. “But… I’d heard what she said. Hence the reason-”

“You started acting nice to me, right?” I finished. The prince glanced at me and nodded, smiling.

“You and Ema must go back a long way,” I said absently.

“Yes, well, I’ve known her for a good seven years.”

“So, I should really be thanking her for you teaching me to read, right?”

Miles sighed. “In a sense, yes,” he said.

I nodded, then said, “Speaking of which-”

“Yes, Wright, we’re going back to my room so I can tutor you’re hopeless head some more. Now please shut up.”

I grinned and followed the prince up the spiral stairs to his chambers, barely able to contain my excitement. It’s time to read, Phoenix! It’s time to learn how to read!

I was living my dream, and I didn’t even own shoes. Life is amazing.

The last half of the day was about as eventful as first. We spent a few hours sitting at Miles’s desk while he taught me more complicated words that we found by hunting around The Death of King Arthur. I’d mastered the alphabet in a day, but the way words were spelled threw me off. Sometimes they matched the same exact sounds every letter made, and sometimes letters did that weird thing where consonants – no, vowels, my bad – sounded different if there was an “e” somewhere, or when “t” and “h” were together and made a totally different sound. It was irritating, but Miles told me I’d get it eventually.

After that, I had actual chores to do, and after that I had to go grab the prince some dinner from the kitchens. Maya, Larry, and Ema weren’t there when I came down, so I didn’t get to stall or talk to them. Once I returned, the prince and I ate our food while I tried to read some of my book, and Miles… well, Miles was always reading anyway.

That night, after I’d climbed under my blanket and moved a candle onto the table next to me so I could read more, I glanced up and saw Prince Miles pop open a glass vial and drink the amber liquid inside of it.

My stomach twisted uncomfortably, but Miles didn’t look at me after he drank the vial and got into bed. He’d done it every night, and I still had no idea why.

I didn’t want to ask though. I had a feeling if I asked about his vials, he would ask about why I never blew out the candle at night before I went to bed. And that… that wasn’t a conversation I ever wanted to have. Not with anyone, and especially not with Miles. He may have been treating me better, but he was still the prince, and he still didn’t treat me completely as his equal. I had a feeling he never really would.

So I didn’t ask about his tonics, and he didn’t ask about my candle; Miles fell into a deep sleep like he did every night, and I stayed up trying to read until sleep finally took me over. Every day ended like this, and every day I wondered if I should change it.

But I didn’t. Not yet.

Not yet.

Chapter Text

I must say, once he got the hang of all his duties, Phoenix Wright was most likely the best servant I’d ever had in my life. He was helpful and did what he was told (usually), hardworking, and most definitely intelligent. That boy had picked up the alphabet faster than I would’ve imagined, especially coming from a peasant background. It was rather refreshing, actually; finally, an intellectual equal that wasn’t my father or sister I could speak freely with.

His sass, however, left something to be desired.

Take this morning, for example. I had no duties to attend to until the afternoon aside from writing those blasted invitations, so I woke up after the sun had risen while Wright was still asleep. Like he had every morning, Wright was lying face up with his book on his chest, completely dead to the world, a mostly-melted candle burning near his head. He’d never woken me with nightmares, but his face was always tense when he was asleep. At least he could sleep. Without my tonic, I couldn’t even do that.

I was surprised Wright hadn’t asked me about my tonic yet, but I wasn’t about to encourage him. Ema was the only person in the castle that knew about my nightmares. The first thing the king had ever taught me about ruling was to never show weakness, lest people believe you’re unfit for power. If anyone else found out about my nightmares, especially my father…

I had a suspicion about Wright’s neglect to question my nightly routine, and it had something to do with his. Every night, he left a candle burning on his bedside table. At first, I thought he’d just forget to blow it out after reading. When I told him to blow it out one night, he did as he was told, but a few minutes later I heard him strike a match and light it again. He wasn’t forgetting to blow it out; he was choosing not to.

I wanted to ask, but I knew asking him about it would allow him to ask me about my tonic, and he probably felt the same vice versa. So we kept silent, and instead our conversations involved snark and intense bickering.

Which brings me back to my first point.

“Wright, it’s morning,” I said, climbing out of bed. “Wake up.”

He mumbled something about swords stuck in stone and turned over, ignoring me.

I sighed.

In slight annoyance, I walked around my bed and came to his in the corner. He was curled up in a ball, hugging the book to his chest, mumbling about the names Arthur and Uther and how stupidly alike they were. I had a feeling we’d be having a riveting conversation about that topic later in the day, but for now, my servant needed to wake the hell up.

“WRIGHT.”

The boy squawked in surprise and threw his book into the air, somehow managing to scramble out of bed in three seconds while his limbs flailed haphazardly in shock. The Death of King Arthur landed on the ground next to the bed and Wright stood up straight, rubbing the back of his neck and blinking the sunlight out of his eyes.

For some reason, I realized for the first time that even with his disheveled hair and cringing face and absolute mess of a wardrobe, Phoenix Wright was a very attractive man.

Focus, Miles.

“Good morning, Wright,” I said smoothly, smirking at his disheveled stance. “You seem to be making sleeping in late a habit.”

“Morning to you too, Prince Cravat,” he mumbled with a smile.

See? He was barely awake and already insufferable.

I narrowed my eyes. “Would it kill you to stop calling me that?” I asked.

“Probably.”

“Why do I even put up with you?” I shook my head and turned around, heading for my dresser.

“Well,” Phoenix began to say, “if you don’t put up with me, Wendy-”

“It was rhetorical, Wright.”

I gritted my teeth and focused on finding a pair of trousers while my insolent servant chuckled behind me. He was lucky I didn’t call Franziska in here to whip him half to death – although, considering how much she used that whip and how little she liked me, I’d probably end up getting beaten worse than him.

Once Wright straightened himself out, he made my bed and helped me get into something at least somewhat respectable. There really wasn’t any need since I didn’t have to be anywhere today, but if someone of importance decided to visit me, it would do everyone well for me to at least wear a tunic. After I was fully dressed, I told Wright to go get himself some breakfast and sat down at my desk, preparing to write more blasted party invitations.

“Want me to get you something?” he asked, his hand on the door handle.

I shook my head. “No, I’m fine,” I told him. “I’m not hungry.”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, your highness,” Wright replied with a smirk.

“Oh really?” I asked. “Says who?”

“Says, um… uh…”

“Just go eat some bread, Wright.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes, but I saw him smiling as he left the room. Good, I thought. At least one of us is happy.

Since when am I concerned whether or not Phoenix Wright is happy?

I groaned and pushed the thought out of my head. That boy was far too distracting at the moment. These invitations had to be finished in three days, and I still had about fifty names left on the list my father had given me. Thinking about Phoenix Wright was not getting me anywhere.

Unsurprisingly, Wright didn’t return for another two hours, probably distracted by the food in the kitchen and his friends, which allowed me to get through a decent chunk of my invitations. When he did return, however, he brought a plate of… well, it appeared to be ham drizzled with honey on a slab of bread. What was that, his lunch for later?

“I brought his royal highness some peasant breakfast,” Wright said, placing the plate next to my hand.

“What…” I stared at the food in apprehension. “What is that?”

“It’s exactly what it looks like. Honey, ham, and bread.”

“You call this breakfast?”

Phoenix scowled. “Yes, I do,” he grumbled. “The chefs were on break so I made it for you.”

“I can tell.”

“Hey!” Oh god, he was actually upset about this. Wright’s face was bright red, embarrassed and angry. “I know it isn’t fancy or anything, but it’s tasty and it’s edible, and maybe that isn’t enough for you but it is for me. So, just…”

He scowled and looked away, obviously upset, and I didn’t understand why. The last time I’d made Wright this upset was when Gumshoe brought him in. Why was he so upset over some food he’d thrown together just for me?

He’d made this for me, I realized, he’d thought about me and put effort into something, and now I was looking down my nose at it like some kind of… spoiled prince. I was a spoiled prince, I suppose, but I never acted like one. At least, well, I never meant to.

I glanced at Wright, who had his back turned to me and his shoulders hunched, my emotions torn. Why should I even care how he feels? He was a servant. A strong prince cared for nothing and presented his status above all others. That’s what I’d been taught.

That’s also what hurt your initial relationship with Wright, Miles, I thought. You should care about how he feels.

I sighed. I may have had more knowledge than Ema about many things, but in this case… she was right.

With some apprehension, I picked up the food (how did one even hold this without getting honey all over one’s fingers?), glanced at Wright’s back again, and took a bite.

Holy shit this was fucking delicious.

“Oh my god,” I said, not even caring that speaking with a mouthful of food was completely improper. “This is amazing!”

“You don’t have to lie to me, prince,” Wright grumbled.

“I’m not! Is this really just meat and honey?”

Wright turned around, and I could see some hope in his eyes. “You’re…” he began, “not lying?”

“No, I’m not. How did you make this?”

A grin began forming on his face, and I felt my confidence grow. It’s working, I thought, he’s cheering up.

“It’s just this thing my mom made once,” he said, shrugging. “It was the only time we’d had bread, ham, and honey all at the same time, so she made something special with it before it went bad. I’ve… only had it once or twice. It’s just a peasant thing, is it really-”

“Yes,” I interrupted. “It’s delicious. Thank you for making it for me. I’m… grateful you thought of me.”

Phoenix Wright’s face seemed to glow with happiness, and I felt something swell in my chest.

You know, caring about him isn’t as hard as I’d thought it would be.

I gobbled up the rest of Wright’s culinary masterpiece and glanced around for a napkin on instinct – my fingers were too sticky to write letters at the moment. Wright glanced at me with a confused look on his face.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“A napkin,” I replied. “My hands are sticky.”

The boy snickered and shook his head. “The best part of the whole thing is licking the honey off your fingers, Prince Miles,” he informed me. “You don’t just wipe perfectly good honey away on a napkin.”

“Well excuse me, but I’ve been taught proper etiquette for eating meals, and one of the first rules is not to lick your fingers. It’s considered rude.”

“Really? You’re sticking to fancy rules while eating a slab of meat with your fingers? It’s not like you’re having dinner with the king, prince. I won’t tell anyone you broke a few eta… eti, uh, eta-ki, um, rules.”

I smirked and replied, “It’s pronounced etiquette.”

“Whatever.”

Wright huffed and crossed his arms while I sighed and stared at my finger.

I am a proper gentleman and crowned prince of the land, I thought. Licking fingers is an insulting practice, and no one should ever do it.

I licked some honey off my finger anyway.

Damn it, there should be laws against food being this sweet.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wright smirk at his little victory, looking off to the side in a sly show of pride.

“You’re insufferable,” I informed him. I then proceeded to lick up the rest of the honey and clean my fingers off with a handkerchief in my breast pocket.

Wright just grinned and sat down at the table next to me, grabbing the plate and putting on the corner of the table near where his elbow rested. Once I picked up my quill again, he immediately leaned in over my arm.

“Do you mind?” I asked, hoping I sounded irritated enough to get him off my arm. I didn’t, apparently.

“Whatcha writing?”

“Invitation letters, Wright. And by the way, you should really get into the habit of asking whether or not you’re allowed to sit in my presence. Since for some reason you seem to forget that I am, in fact, royalty.”

“Mmhmm. Are you still pulling names off that long list the king gave you?”

I rolled my eyes. This boy was incorrigible.

“Yes, I am,” I replied, dipping my quill in ink. I’d already written out the title and the address – all I had left was the heartfelt invitation paragraph, which was typically the most difficult part.

“And who’s this one too?” Wright asked, a slight smirk in his voice. His eyes narrowed on the page as he began deciphering the letters. “Let’s see… Jon… Jon-a-than. Jonathan Haw… Hawthor-”

Wright’s voice stopped and his body froze. When I glanced at him, he was staring at the page in shock, his face pale his eyes wide. He looked… afraid, more afraid than I’d ever seen him before.

He’d been happy just moments before. What had I done wrong?

“Wright?” I asked, watching him. He didn’t respond, continuing to stare at the page, so I glanced down at it as well.

Jonathan Hawthorne. I read. Isn’t he some wealthy landlord that owns much of the land near the castle? What does Wright have to do with him?

“Wright?” I said again, more forcefully. “What’s wrong?”

Phoenix’s eyes snapped back into focus and he jerked backwards like he’d been shocked. The plate near his elbow was knocked off the table and landed on the floor with aloud clang, his chair scraping against the wood as he scrambled to stand up.

“I, I just…” Wright was panicked, his voice breaking. He quickly snatched up the plate and stood up, backing away towards the door and glancing everywhere from the floor to the ceiling. “I’m sorry, I just, I, I’ll leave, I’m not-”

“Wait,” I said, standing up. “Hold on -”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to-” He turned for the door, and I could see his hands shaking as he held onto the metal plate. “I have to, I -”

“Phoenix.”

I grabbed Wright’s arm before he could get any further and he stopped, but he kept his face away from mine. His eyes were shifting all over the place except to me, and his arm alone was shaking enough to concern me.

I’d never seen Wright this terrified before. I’d never seen anyone this terrified before.

“Wright, tell me what’s wrong,” I said, gripping his arm tight. Phoenix still refused to look at me, staring instead at the floor.

“It- it’s nothing.” He swallowed. “I was just, having a moment, I’m fine, I’ll-”

“Wright.” I pulled him closer, determined. “Who’s Jonathan Hawthorne?”

Phoenix stayed silent for a long moment, staring at the ground and clutching that silver plate in his other hand. I could feel him trembling, his face slowly forming into a mask I could barely see.

“He’s just someone from my past, Miles,” he whispered, his gaze locked on the ground. “You of all people should know not to bring up someone’s past.”

The words hit hard, my stomach twisting as I realized Wright was just as stubborn as me; now wasn’t the time to ask him about his past. My grip on his arm loosened enough for him to slip away, and I continued to stare after him even after he’d left the room and shut the door.

I wasn’t the only one with demons, I knew that. But mine were known throughout the kingdom, through rumor and gossip and the chattering of maids. Everyone knew what I’d gone through, and everyone knew my story. But Phoenix… his story was known to none but him.

What on earth could make Phoenix Wright so afraid?

Chapter Text

“I finished it!”

Prince Miles glanced over his book and raised any eyebrow at me as I walked into his room, shutting the door behind me. “Finished what?” he asked.

I grinned and held up The Death of King Arthur, and the prince’s eyes grew wide as saucers.

“You…” He stared at me. “You finished the book?”

I nodded.

“The whole thing?”

“Yep!” I could feel my grin spreading even further. I’d actually finished the book. The whole damn book. Finished. I mean the ending was pretty sad – surprise, King Arthur dies in The Death of King Arthur. But I was more happy about actually finishing the thing. It meant I was an honest-to-god reader, one that read actual stories in actual books; it was something I’d wanted to be since… well, since forever.

Not to mention the shock on Miles’s face was enough to make my entire week.

“How…” Miles seemed at a loss for words. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t last for very long. “I taught you to read less than a month ago! How have you even had the time to-”

“I don’t sleep.”

“What…” The prince stared at me for a few more seconds before sighing and shaking his head. “I can’t believe this. You’re ridiculous.”

“Yes I am, and guess what I did? I finished the book!”

I could see the beginning of a smile forming on Miles’s lips as he kept his eyes on his book. “I bought that for you ten years ago,” he said.

“Yeah, and I finally read the whole thing!”

“I taught you how to read it.”

“Yes, you did. Aren’t you proud of me?” I said, half-joking.

Miles looked up, finally meeting my eyes.

“Yes, Wright,” he said, “I’m very proud of you.”

I could tell he meant it; there was pride in his eyes. Real, actual pride. But it wasn’t condescending or belittling, like I would’ve expected. He was legitimately happy for me. He’d bought me this stupid book ten years ago, spent a week teaching me how to read, and now… now I’d actually come through on everything he’d done for me. Of course he was proud. I was proud too. I couldn’t even remember the last time someone had been proud of me.

Prince Miles finally let himself smile, and for one breath of a moment, it felt like I was glowing.

“You know,” he said, breaking the silence, “I really think we should celebrate this in some way.”

“Celebrate?” I asked, a little wary. “Like… a party?”

 “Wright, please,” he said, giving me a dull look. “Do you really think, after complaining to you every day about my hellacious birthday festival in two months, that I’ll be throwing you a party?”

“Oh yeah, right.” I laughed nervously and rubbed the back of my neck, book still in hand. Yeah, a party probably wouldn’t be best for me, especially considering I only had like three and a half friends. But then again, how exactly was Miles planning on “celebrating” me finishing a book? I mean, I know I thought it was a big deal, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Was it?

“I have an idea,” the prince said suddenly, his face brightening. “How about I make you something?”

“What… would the ‘something’ be exactly?” I asked warily.

“Well.” Miles shrugged. “You and your friends have been making me breakfast for three weeks. I believe it’s about time I return the favor.”

Wait, I’m sorry. Had he just offered to cook my friends and me breakfast?

Him?

For us?

“You…” I stared at him, not sure what to say. “But… you’re a prince! How do you even know how to cook?”

“I wasn’t always a prince, Wright,” Miles answered with a smirk. But as soon as the words left his lips, his smirk slipped away; his eyes unfocused and eventually fell towards the ground, his expression conflicted.

He was still having trouble talking about his past. I knew that. I mean, I wasn’t exactly one to talk. But Miles had been getting so much better over these past few weeks, being kinder and more considerate and less of a stuck-up jerk – or, well, as little of a stuck-up jerk that was physically possible for him. Cooking something for a bunch of servants with recipes that he’d learned as a child… I knew that would bring up memories for him. Memories and rules the king had pushed onto him. And I didn’t want those things turning him back into what he’d been.

“Well, hey,” I began, hoping to bring Prince Miles back from his train of thought, “we uh, we don’t have to do that if you aren’t totally comfortable with it, I mean we really don’t have to do anything at all-”

“No.” Miles looked up, his steel gray eyes focused and determined. “I want to do it. Let’s do it.”

My heart swelled in my chest as Miles gave me a tentative smile. I could see in his eyes that he’d made a choice in his head, a big one, and even though I didn’t know what it had been about, I could tell that he’d chosen me.

For some reason, that made me really happy.

The prince stood up and slipped on his jacket, walking out the door with me on his heels. We didn’t speak on the way down, but I didn’t mind. I’d learned that our conversations were either pain-filled arguments about the past or constant playful bickering, and after he saw the way I reacted to his letter three weeks ago, well. Let’s just say I’d kept the tone at “playful bickering” since then. Miles didn’t want to talk about his past, so I was under no obligation to tell him any of mine. End of story.

Why did it have to be ‘Hawthorne’ I saw? I thought to myself. Why couldn’t I have stumbled across him inviting Wendy Oldbag to his party? Why did it have to be her name?

Fate was no doubt being exceptionally cruel to me that day. Not that I was surprised, considering how the rest of my life had gone.

Miles had thrown the Hawthorne invitation away though. He hadn’t said anything about it, but I saw the crumpled paper sitting in the fireplace ashes when I returned to the room. That was the first night since I’d been there that his fireplace had been used for an actual fire. I will say it was a hell of a lot warmer.

There were four kitchens in the castle, the main kitchen being the biggest and most used, but Miles brought me down to the smallest kitchen that was closest to his room. My friends and I didn’t really like this kitchen as much. There was only one chef who ran it, Helga, and she tended to beat people with spoons and tell them off to the guards if they tried to steal food. Which… is essentially the only reason my friends and I ever went to the kitchens in the first place. The only times we ever dropped by were when Helga wasn’t around.

“Are you sure we want to use this kitchen?” I whispered, looking around cautiously. “I uh… my friends and I aren’t exactly on good relations with the chef.”

“Wright, please,” Miles said, his hand on the door. “This is a rather clandestine celebration. I’d rather not let my father know I’m making food for my servant, and this is the only kitchen without a gossiping staff constantly bustling about. Besides, Helga lets me use her kitchen all the time. She’ll leave if I ask her.”

“Wait,” I said, “‘all the time?’ Since when–”

I was interrupted by the door swinging open, and Helga – dear god I forgot how much she resembled a toad – poked her head out. As soon as she saw Miles, her smile widened so far across her face it was almost disturbing.

“Why, Prince Miles!” she crooned, crossing her arms. She had her wooden spoon in one hand – I made a mental note to watch out for it. “Nice to see you again. I’m guessing you’re here to bake?”

Miles nodded and glanced back at me with a smirk. I stared at him.

“Bake?” I asked.

The prince glared at me as Helga’s eyes squinted at me suspiciously. “I see you brought your servant,” she said, her mouth twisting into a sneer. “What’s your name again, Wrong, is it?”

“Wright,” I grumbled.

“Ah, yes, Wrong. Well, Prince Miles, I’ll keep my eyes on him – he and his friends like to steal food from the kitchens.”

“Really?” Miles gave me a glance (oh don’t give me that look you sot, you know exactly how much they’re paying me) and turned back to the chef. “Actually, Helga, I was wondering if I could have the kitchen to myself today.”

“Oh?” I saw Helga glance at me suspiciously again, but she couldn’t exactly deny the prince. “Why, of course, your highness. Teaching your servant how to bake?”

“Something like that,” the prince answered. “Thank you, Helga. We’ll clean up after ourselves, don’t worry.”

Helga nodded and stepped out of the room to let Miles and I pass. Just before I stepped inside, I saw her spoon whip up and smack the back of my head.

“Ow!” I said, whipping around to tell her off, but she just shut the door in my face.

Stupid Helga.

“Having problems, Wright?” I heard Miles say behind me.

“No, I’m fine,” I said sarcastically. I flipped off the door and walked over to Miles, who’d taken off his jacket and was busy putting on an apron.

Okay, everything about this image was weird to me.

“You bake?” I asked, watching him with apprehension. This wasn’t Prince Miles – this was a doppelganger that had replaced Prince Miles. Except this time the doppelganger was the one with the soul.

“Correction,” Miles answered, turning away to grab a cutting board, “I stress bake. It’s a productive skill, and the results are rather rewarding.”

“You stress bake?” Okay, this was a side of Prince Miles I definitely had never seen before. “But, she said you bake all the time. Are you constantly stre- oh.”

The prince smirked at me before walking into the pantry to grab some food. “Yes, Wright. I am constantly stressed. I believe, ‘in a perpetual state of stressed’ would be a better term.”

“Dear god.”

Miles walked out of the pantry holding various baking ingredients and a rolling pin, and I followed him to the big wooden table where he dumped it all down.

“Where did you even learn how to bake?” I asked, watching him diligently scoop flour into a large bowl. “Your dad? But I thought he–”

“I learned from both one of my father’s old friends and Helga, before and after his death.” Miles didn’t look up at me, instead focusing on his task, but his voice had an edge to it. “Helga was my first servant when the king first brought me to the castle. I’d blocked out everything from my former life already, but baking seemed to bridge the gap between my old life and my new. So I focused on it, and eventually it just became a habit.”

“Oh.” I bit my lip, feeling a little guilty. “I uh… Are you–”

“If all you’re going to do is ask me questions and not help me, I can call Helga back–”

“What? No!” I said frantically. “No, no it’s fine, it’s fine, I’ll help.”

He didn’t even look at me when he smirked this time. God, what a jerk. A stuck-up, cravat-wearing, master-baking, annoyingly attractive jerk.

Damn it.

“Well,” Miles said, finally looking up from his dough mixing, “I believe I’ve earned the right to ask a few of my own questions, after that escapade.”

“Oh, uh… sure, I guess.” I glanced away, my stomach doing somersaults. He’s gonna ask about the Hawthornes, isn’t he, I thought, walking away from the table to grab an apron. He’s gonna ask about the Hawthornes, and I won’t answer, and then he’ll get mad and-

“Why did you want to learn how to read?” he asked.

I turned and stared at him, apron halfway on. That… wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

“Well…” I finished putting on the apron and walked over to the table, my nerves slowly calming themselves. “I mean, everyone wants to learn how to read, right?”

“No, not really,” the prince answered, watching me as he stirred eggs into the flour.

“Oh, well, it’s a handy skill, I guess, and it’s getting more and more important, so like–”

“Wright.”

I glanced up, meeting his eyes, and suddenly found myself unable to look away. They’re silver again, I thought, like they were when he was young. He knows I’m dodging the question. He’s not going to let me get away with a half answer. But why does he even care?

That didn’t really matter at this point. I couldn’t lie to those eyes, not even partially. It was like he’d put me under a spell.

“I just…” I looked away and shrugged, focusing on a knot in the wood of the tabletop. “My mom and dad used to tell me stories. These incredible, amazing stories. They’d make them up off the tops of their heads every night and tell them to me before I went to sleep. And I always wanted to save those stories somewhere, but I didn’t know how to read or write, so I just tried to save them in my mind. But I mean, it only takes so long before you start to forget things. So I promised myself that one day I would learn how to read, and then I’d make mom and dad tell me all their stories so I could write them down and keep them forever. But… I mean now, it’s more because of the book you got me. I’ve made it my goal to read that whole book one day, and now, well, I did it.”

When I glanced back at the prince, he was staring at me intently, his silver eyes locked onto my face.

“Your parents…” He looked hesitant, like he wasn’t sure how to phrase his next question. “Are they–”

“They’re dead,” I said, rubbing my thumb against the smooth tabletop. “The last time I saw them was actually pretty soon after I met you the first time. It’s fine. Larry and Maya are orphans too. It’s not like I’m special or anything.”

“Ubiquity doesn’t make it hurt any less,” Miles answered.

I glanced up, recognizing pain in Miles’s voice, and remembered that he was an orphan too. True, he’d been adopted by the king and lived in a castle while the rest of us lived in ditches, but his real parents were gone too. And no matter how much he tried to ignore it, it still hurt that they were gone. Gone and never coming back.

We stayed silent for a few seconds, until finally I sighed and walked over next to him. “What are you even making?” I asked.

Miles raised an eyebrow. “I believe it’s my turn for asking questions,” he replied.

“Pretty sure those two questions alone balanced us out. What are you baking?”

The prince sighed and shook his head. “Pie,” he answered.

“Pie?!” I asked incredulously.

“Yes, Wright, pie. Now help me and light the oven or you aren’t getting any of it. Understood?”

I rolled my eyes and grinned, hunting around for some matches as Prince Miles sprinkled flour on the table behind me.

Apparently, Maya and Ema have this inhuman instinct when it comes to food, because the second Miles pulled his giant meat pie out of the oven an hour later, the two of them materialized at Helga’s door.

“Hey Helga…” Maya said sweetly, pushing open the door and starling Miles so much he nearly dropped his pie on the floor. “You wouldn’t happen to have any scraps or nothin’ for me and–”

Maya stopped dead as soon as she saw me and Prince Miles, the latter of which holding a pie, both of us wearing aprons and covered in flour. Ema peeked over her shoulder to see why she’d stopped and her jaw dropped open.

Oh god.

“Uh… hi guys!” I said, grinning and trying not to look awkward. “We um, uh… I finished reading The Death of King Arthur!”

Neither of them looked any less confused. Ema was busy staring at Miles, her face pink, and Miles… he was staring at both of them, completely frozen, a hot pie in his hands.

 Was I the only one with a functioning brain in this room? Apparently.

“I uh…” Ema and Maya turned back to me, Maya’s eyebrows raised so high they looked like they might ascend straight up into the sun. “I finished my book. And Miles – the prince, here, he uh, he figured we could maybe celebrate. Because, you know, I can read now. And um, he can bake.”

Ema nodded with an expression that clearly said, I already knew that last part, but Maya still seemed kind of off. She was, however, glancing towards Miles and the hopefully delicious pie in his hands, which didn’t surprise me at all.

“He made us all a pie,” I finally said, staring at Maya. Her confusion immediately lifted.

“Oh, sweet!” Maya grinned and bounded inside, Ema hot on her heels. If there’s one thing that could snap Maya out of any stupor, it was food. Ema was basically the same, although she seemed more interested with Miles than the food itself.

“You two are covered in flour,” Ema remarked, staring at us as Maya hunted around for a fork. Miles finally snapped out of his frozen stance and placed the pie on the table, nodding at Ema.

“Yes, well,” he said, “Wright here decided it would be a good idea to throw flour at me twenty minutes after we put the pie in the oven. I retaliated in kind. And won.”

“Yeah right,” I snorted. “The only reason you won is because you had to check the pie every five minutes and I didn’t want to make you drop it.”

“So, you lost because you didn’t use an opportunity to attack me?”

“Well I…” Alright, I’d seen enough of that man’s smug smirk today. “I lost with honor. So there.”

“Implying that I won without honor?”

“You threw an egg at my head! An egg! You get to clean that one up, your highness.”

“Well, since you started the fight and lost it, you get to clean up the flour.”

“Oh come on! Half this mess is yours!”

“Oi!” Maya shouted, her mouth full of – oh my god had she eaten that much pie already? How did she even do that?!

“I’m trying to eat here, Nick. Your highness. I’d appreciate it if you two didn’t bicker.”

“Hmph.” I could see Miles’s irritation rise, but he didn’t say anything to Maya. I just glared at her as Ema dug into the pie with a spoon.

“Hey, save some for us!” I said, reaching towards the counter and grabbing a pair of forks. I handed Miles one and walked over to the pie, taking a bite before it was completely gone.

Oh dear god it was fucking delicious.

“Hey, wait a second,” I said, taking another bite as Miles scooped up some pie too. “Where’s Larry?”

“Oh,” Ema said with a shrug, “Gumshoe put him in the stocks for being obnoxious.”

“Again?” I asked. “That’s like the eighth time this month!”

“It’s Larry, Nick,” Maya said, her mouth full of food. “I don’t know why you’re still surprised.”

“Okay, true.”

Miles swallowed a bite of pie and glanced at me. “Gumshoe has put your friend in the stocks eight times?” he asked. “That… seems a little excessive.”

“Oh yeah, Gumshoe hates Larry,” Maya said before I had a chance to respond. “Well, I mean, he doesn’t hate Larry. Gumshoe doesn’t hate anybody. But he thinks Larry’s really annoying. Then again, everyone thinks Larry’s annoying. It’s just kinda funny, you know?”

“Uh huh…” Miles seemed at a loss for words. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to run out of the room, tell off Maya for acting so casually around her prince, or just flat out scream, but any one of those would be bad for everyone. So I reached under the table and grabbed his hand.

He took it and squeezed, giving me a grateful glance, and I smiled and took another bite of pie. I thought I saw Ema glance between us for a second, but when I blinked, she was digging back into Miles’s pie, so I figured I must’ve just imagined it.

By the time we finished his delicious pastry, Prince Miles had relaxed enough to argue with Maya over whether magpie pigeon or turkey tasted better in pies. But even then, he didn’t let go of my hand until we had to stand up and clean the kitchen. Between the four of us, it took barely any time at all, and soon we were all walking out of the kitchen, Miles and I trying to rub the flour out of our hair.

“I’ll see you guys later, I guess,” I said to Maya and Ema as we reached the staircase. The prince and I had to go up, and they had to go right. “Did you like the pie?”

“Oh yeah, it was fantastic!” Maya said eagerly. “You’re an amazing chef, your highness. I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned to me before!”

“Yes well…” Miles shrugged sheepishly. “I’d prefer if you kept this particular skill quiet. I did this as a favor, and–”

“No problemo, Prince,” Maya interrupted, nodding furiously. “I won’t tell a soul. Swear on my life!”

Miles blinked, staring at Maya, but he eventually smiled a little and nodded.

“I thank you for that, Maya,” he said. “It was nice to finally meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you too! You know, I thought Nick was lying when he told me you were actually nice, but you are! Honestly, I just thought Nick–”

“Okay!” I interrupted, sending Maya a death glare. “I think it’s about time the prince and I go upstairs.”

“Yeah,” Ema said, glancing between the two of us. “And actually, Maya and I need to have a little chat. Like now.”

“Wait, we do?” Maya asked. “About what?”

“Bye Nick!” Ema said, grabbing Maya’s arm and pulling her away. “Bye Miles!”

“Bye… Ema,” Miles said, staring in confusion as Ema and Maya walked away. I probably wasn’t any better.

“That was… kind of weird,” I said, after a moment.

“Yes, it was.” Miles blinked again before turning and heading up the stairs. “So.”

“So,” I answered, not sure where to take the conversation.

“Your friends call you Nick?”

I glanced up at Miles, who didn’t seem to be joking, and shrugged. “Just Maya and Larry, really,” I said. “Well, and Ema. And Gumshoe. And… okay, yeah.”

“I suppose I’m the only one that calls you ‘Wright’ then.”

“Well, I mean, that’s alright,” I said. Miles turned his head, raising an eyebrow. “Really, I kinda like it. It’s… different.”

“Oh.” Prince Miles turned his head back and stepped onto the next floor, waiting for me before setting off down the hall.

“It feels strange,” he said after a moment.

“What?” I asked.

“Me calling you by your last name, but you calling me by my first. I’m not sure why.”

“Oh, well…” I tried to think of something to say, but it was difficult now for some reason. “I mean, I can call you von Karma if you like, it just… I don’t think it fits you.”

The prince stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, staring straight ahead, and I realized that I’d just crossed the one line Prince Miles had told me not to cross. Miles was a von Karma. That was the first rule he gave me. Miles Edgeworth was dead, replaced by a von Karma with no life and no soul.

Except Miles today… he’d acted more alive than I’d ever seen him. He could bake. He threw flour at me from across the kitchen. He argued with Maya about bird meat pie and held my hand under the table. Those weren’t things Miles von Karma did.

I was afraid what I said might’ve taken all that away again.

My stomach felt like it was collapsing in on itself when the prince opened his mouth.

“You’re right,” he whispered. He wasn’t angry, he wasn’t hurt or upset, he was just… quiet. “You’re right, it doesn’t. Von Karma isn’t my true name. I…”

I stayed silent, wishing I knew what to say, but Miles was able to find the words himself.

“You can call me Edgeworth,” he said, his voice soft. “If… if you like.”

I blinked, staring at him, the shadows long in the hallway from the setting sun. The Prince didn’t turn to look at me, but I could feel him waiting, wondering what I would do.

Miles Edgeworth isn’t dead, I realized. He’s just buried deep down there somewhere, waiting for someone to bring him back.

That’s what I’m doing, isn’t it? I’m bringing him back.

“Okay,” I said, walking up to him and putting my hand on his shoulder. The prince jumped a little, but when he turned to look at me, his eyes were so grateful it made my heart swell. “I’ll call you Edgeworth.”

As soon as the words rolled off my tongue, I knew I’d made the right choice. Edgeworth just felt right. It felt like him.

I smiled, and Edgeworth’s eyes nearly made me melt.

“Thank you, Wright,” he said. And he meant it.

Chapter Text

For some reason, Wright’s friend Maya seemed to be much more keen on befriending me after I’d made that pie. According to Wright, that was mainly due to her obsession with meat pies – or really any meat-related foods – but for some reason I doubted that. As far as I could tell, our brief conversations didn’t actually include much talk of bribery or food. Actually, most of them concerned Wright himself.

Which is why, once I felt comfortable enough, I decided to ask Maya about Wright’s supposed fear of the dark instead of just asking him myself.

“Maya?” I said, knocking on my Franziska’s chamber door. Maya was her handmaiden, and like myself, my sister kept her personal servants close at all times. And as it wasn’t close to mealtime, I had no doubt Maya would be here.

Wright, thankfully, wasn’t with me. He was busy cleaning my room, which, might I add, was impeccable until he arrived. He was a good friend and very considerate, but Wright was quite possible the one of the messiest people I’d ever met. And that included Gumshoe.

“Prince Miles?” I heard Maya say. A second later the door opened, revealing Maya and Franziska’s perfect room. She always had to one-up me in everything she did, including neatness, and it tended to get on my nerves. I, however, was inheriting the throne, not her, so I tried not to get too irritated with her over trivial matters such as this.

“Hello Maya,” I said, giving her a small smile.

“Hi,” she said, curtsying a little. “Are you looking for Franziska? Sorry, she just left.”

“Actually, no,” I replied. “I was looking for you. I wish to ask you something.”

“Oh, uh, alright. Come right in.”

Maya stepped aside and let me into Franziska’s room, shutting the door behind me. The princess’s room and mine had similar layouts, but hers had a light teal coloring in the drapes and bedcovers, whereas mine were mostly magenta. Her bed was neatly made, the fireplace was clean, and the rugs weren’t dusty or dirty. A wide assortment of whips hung on the wall over the mantle, no doubt put on display to intimidate everyone who dared step foot in her quarters.

“What do you want to ask me?” Maya asked, her expression curious as she walked away from the door.

“I, uh…” I wrung my hands together behind my back, trying to put what I wished to ask into words. “I came to ask about Wright. He always sleeps with a candle lit at night, and I haven’t wanted to ask about it for… certain reasons. You… wouldn’t happen to know why, would you?”

Maya raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You came to ask me about that?” she asked.

“Well, yes.” I shrugged and glanced away, towards the fireplace. “You’re one of his oldest friends. And I assumed that, well, if anyone would know why Wright is afraid of the dark, it’d be you.”

Maya continued to stare at me, and I was starting to get rather uncomfortable.

“You… do know,” I asked, “right?”

“Why do you care?”

Now it was my turn to stare. Maya was always so blunt and outspoken while around me; it was always a shock in every conversation we had. During that first day, I’d been so… appalled I nearly called her out on it. But I knew that would immediately set Wright off, and I didn’t want him to think I was acting like my old self again. I didn’t want to lose him over some small talk with Maya Fey.

So I swallowed the instincts my father had bred in me and treated her like I treated Wright: as a friend. And it worked.

That was when I realized maybe all those lessons Manfred von Karma had taught me weren’t the best lessons after all. He’d taken me in and given me a home, even after my father had been plotting against him all those years ago, but the king… the king wasn’t always right.

Letting Wright call me Edgeworth had been a test. I’d let myself hate the name Edgeworth for ten years, believing it to be corrupt, but when Wright called me by that name, it felt true, much truer than the name von Karma had ever felt to me. And yet… I still had no idea why.

I focused myself and found Maya still watching me, waiting for my answer. What had she asked: ‘Why did I care?’ Why did I care? When had I ever started caring?

“I…” I continued to wring my hands, feeling more nervous by the second. “I’m not entirely sure. He just worries me sometimes. There are things he refuses to tell me, dangerous things, and I value his privacy, but sometimes… sometimes I think keeping everything locked away does him more harm than good.”

Maya nodded, understanding. “Yeah,” she said, “I think that about him too. He likes hiding stuff so he doesn’t burden other people. It’s always a problem with him.”

“It is?” At least I wasn’t the only one Wright was doing this to. “So… do you know?”

Maya shook her head.

“Nick’s never told anyone why he’s afraid of the dark,” she said. “I’ve known him for five years, and he’s never told a soul. It’s probably the only thing he’s scared of, really. He hasn’t even told me yet.”

Maya shrugged and looked up sympathetically, and my hopes fell. If Wright hadn’t told Maya, he certainly wouldn’t tell me.

“I think you should ask him yourself, though,” Maya added, smiling. “He’ll probably tell you.”

“Me?” I stared at her incredulously. “Why would he tell me? He barely even knows me, let alone trusts me.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Maya’s expression seemed shy and coaxing, but I couldn’t understand why. She thought Wright would tell me the reason for his greatest fear? Why?

I shook my head and glanced away, but when I looked towards Franziska’s closet, I saw a small head peeking out, staring at me with big, curious gray eyes.

“Wha–” I spluttered, “who’s that?”

Maya’s eyes widened and she spun around, panicked.

“Pearl!” she hissed. “I told you to hide!”

“But, Maya I was just–”

“Pearl! No one can know you’re here, remember? Just…” Maya took a shaky breath and glanced between me and the small girl – she only looked about six years old. Who was she?

“Y-your highness,” Maya said, her voice frantic, “I am so sorry, I just, please don’t tell anyone, Franziska and Phoenix are the only ones who know, and I’m scared if anyone else finds out–”

“It’s alright, Maya,” I interrupted, smiling reassuredly. “I won’t tell anyone. You’re keeping my secret too, aren’t you?”

Maya’s shoulders relaxed, and she stared at me gratefully.

“Thank you, Prince,” she said. “I, she’s my cousin, Pearl Fey. She ran away from home, and we have to hide her or her mother will–”

“Wait, Pearl Fey? Morgan Fey’s daughter?”

Maya and Pearl, who had crept out of the closet, both stared at me in surprise.

“You know her?” Maya asked.

“Only because the king asked me to invite her to my party,” I answered. “She said she couldn’t attend because her daughter had been kidnapped. Isn’t she the head of the weaver’s guild in the city?”

Maya nodded. “She’s my aunt,” she said. “My mom used to head the guild, but Morgan came to live with my mother after she left her husband. When my mom died, Morgan took over and kicked me and my sister Mia out. Then she had Pearl.”

Pearl nodded earnestly, glancing up at Maya every few seconds. Even though I didn’t know her, I could tell Pearl admired her cousin. Maya wrapped her arm around Pearl’s shoulders and hugged her to her side.

“Aunt Morgan wasn’t… I mean even before Pearl, she was a pretty awful mother,” Maya continued. “She abandoned her two daughters with her husband, and she was always treating Mia and me badly because she didn’t like our mother much. With Pearl, she…”

Maya glanced at her cousin, who was shaking her head. “I don’t like my mother,” Pearl said. “She’s… mean. That’s why I ran away.”

“You ran away?” I said in surprise. “But… how old are you?”

Pearl gave me an insolent look. “I’m six,” she answered. “Plenty old enough to run away. I would’ve gotten away a year ago if mother hadn’t pushed Maya’s friend into the river!”

“Wait, what?” Who’d pushed who into a river?

“Oh, yeah, that’s a thing that happened.” Maya shrugged and grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, Nick and I got into a ton of trouble while we were on the streets. Mia had this dingy room over a pub where she stayed, but the guy who owned the place didn’t let her keep anyone with her unless she paid extra. So we kinda had to fend for ourselves. I got to know Pearl pretty well whenever I snuck by Aunt Morgan’s house, and this one time she ran away, so Nick and I tried to help her. Except, well, Morgan shoved him off a bridge.”

“She… did?” I asked weakly. Wright hadn’t mentioned that to me before.

“It was pretty bad. The river was full of ice and Morgan brought Pearl back, so Larry and I had to drag him out. Mia had to hide him in her room so he could get better. Honestly, I’m kind of surprised he even survived.”

“That’s because Mr. Nick is invincible!” Pearl said excitedly, her eyes glinting with pride as she looked up at me.

“Is he now,” I replied, unable to keep from smiling a little. She was a rather adorable little girl. How on earth could anyone be mean to her?

“I… wasn’t aware you had a sister,” I said, turning back to Maya. She nodded, but her expression became more upset.

“Yeah, Mia,” she answered. “She died not too long ago, actually.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright.” Maya looked up again, her face brightening. “She’s honestly the reason the three of us even survived living on the streets. She had a home and a job, and she’d always try to help me and Nick and Larry out. When she died, we all knew we’d have to get real jobs, so we asked Ema and Lana if they could get us some in the castle.

“Actually, she and Lana knew each other pretty well. They’d been friends since we were kids – I knew Ema just as well. When Lana joined the king’s guard, Mia was so proud of her. And when Mia died, Lana and Ema went out of their way to help us. Lana lets Ema take all the credit for that, but I know she helped.”

“She did?” I had no idea Lana knew Maya’s sister – I didn’t even know Maya had a sister. I was certainly learning a lot today. “Why doesn’t she want anyone to know?”

“Well, she serves your father, right?” Maya answered. Ah, yes, that explained a lot. Lana had worked her way up the ranks and earned her place as Captain on the King’s Guard. The only reason the king had allowed a woman to head his guard was because he thought Lana and I should marry – which both of us agreed was never going to happen, for several different reasons. If the King ever discovered she’d stuck her neck out for a bunch of “useless” peasants, I had no doubt he would toss Lana out in an instant.

Something felt fundamentally wrong with that, but I didn’t want to say anything about it. Not yet.

“Plus,” Maya continued, apparently not finished, “she and Mia had a… pretty special relationship. The kind you don’t exactly want broadcasted.”

I raised an eyebrow, confused for a moment, and then it hit me.

“Ah.” I cleared my throat and pulled at my cravat. “Right. I understand.”

Maya smiled at me. “I knew you would,” she answered.

What did she mean by that?

“Well…” I trailed off, trying to find something to say. “What your aunt has done to you is unjust. You two are of noble blood, correct?”

“Well, yeah,” Maya shrugged. “Not that it matters much.”

“Still, your aunt shouldn’t have kicked you out like that, nor should she treat Pearl in the way she did. When I’m king, I’ll set this right.”

Maya blinked in surprise. “You’d… do that? But, you barely even know us.”

“I think I’m beginning to know you rather well,” I answered, smiling. “And any friend of Wright is a friend of mine, Maya.”

Maya’s smile didn’t make me as giddy as Wright’s did, but it was pretty close. And Pearls’ happy face was just adorable.

“You’re really nice, Prince Miles!” Pearl said. “No wonder Ema–”

“Pearl,” Maya interrupted.

“Ema?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “What about Ema?”

“Oh, nothing,” Maya said, giving me a huge grin. “Pearl just get’s overexcited sometimes.”

I gave her a suspicious look, but Maya just kept grinning, so I said, “Hmph,” and dropped it. Fine. I was bound to find out later anyway.

“Well,” I decided, “I should get back to my room. Wright is probably wondering where I am.”

“Yeah, he probably is,” Maya agreed. “Thanks for dropping by! And also for keeping Pearl a secret. I’m really grateful for that. We both are.”

“Thanks for not telling, Prince Miles!” Pearl called out. “You’re really nice!”

I nodded and pushed open the door, smiling and saying goodbye before going out into the hall. Well, that had been an informative visit. I hadn’t learned what I’d originally came to ask for, but if Maya didn’t know that, then the only person who did was Wright. Not to mention all of Maya’s past, and Pearl hiding in my sister’s room… There were a lot more secrets in this castle than I’d even imagined.

For some reason, that made me wonder if the king had any.

I didn’t get far down that train of thought before I reached my chamber door, but as I reached for the handle, I heard a whip crack and Wright yell, “Cut it out!” from inside.

My hand froze on the handle.

Franziska, I immediately thought. This is where she went? My room? Why is she bothering Wright?

“I’ll ‘cut it out,’ you foolish boy,” Franziska snapped, “when you’ve learned what I came here to teach you. My useless fool of a little brother does not need you filling his head with foolish ideas.”

“But, I’m not trying to do anything! He just–”

“Silence!”

Franziska’s whip cracked again, and Wright gave an angry, “OW,” in response. My hand curled into a fist around the door handle.

“You are an incompetent fool, Phoenix Wright,” Franziska berated. “You treat my and my idiot brother’s royal authority with complete disrespect, and from what I can tell, you can’t even keep his room clean. A prince has no place serving food to peasants, do you understand? That is a fool’s errand, and I’ll not have my little brother undertake it.”

“Little brother?” Wright asked. “But isn’t he–”

“Don’t change the subject!”

Franziska whipped him again, but this time, I could hear pain instead of anger in Wright’s voice. She was hurting him.

I drew the line there. No one hurt Phoenix Wright except me, not even my brat of a sister.

“Franziska, stop!” I shouted, pushing the door open. My sister, standing in the middle of the room with her whip raised, spun around in shock. Wright, on the other hand, was standing behind a chair with his arm raised as a shield, two or three gashes on his body and looking ready to duck under the table.

I felt white hot rage boil in my stomach.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I yelled, pointing accusingly at Franziska. “This is my room! Who gave you the right to come and whip my servant?”

For a moment, Franziska simply stared at me, speechless. That, however, didn’t stay the case for long.

“I’m having a discussion with your foolish servant, brother,” she seethed, the grip on her whip white-knuckled. “Helga told me that you seemed to be getting a little too close to him and his peasant friends.”

“What I do in my time is none of your concern, Franziska,” I spat in return. “And Helga had no right to tell any of that to you.”

“That bloated fool had every right to tell me,” she replied, her face contorted into a withering glare. “You’re losing your grip, little brother. Serving food to peasants? Forming attachments to servants? Our father should toss you into the moat himself for such foolish behavior.”

“Oh please,” I said, “as if you aren’t guilty of that yourself. Wright and I are nothing compared to you and Maya, little sister.”

“Wha–” Franziska spluttered, outraged. “That’s- she- there is nothing between us, you foolish fool of a prince!”

“Really? Then why are you hiding her cousin in your closet?”

Franziska stopped mid-sentence, her eyes bulging in anger and shock. Wright looked just as surprised.

“You… know about Pearl?” he asked. I nodded.

“Just found out, actually,” I said. “I must say, she’s a rather adorable little girl.”

“You…” Franziska’s voice seemed to have returned. “You foolish fooling fool of a – you wouldn’t dare tell–”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” I interrupted, staring Franziska down. “But you have absolutely no right to lecture me on forming attachments when the evidence of yours is clear.”

“My situation is different, fool,” my sister sniped back. “I’m not the one inheriting the throne. Weakness in a king is never tolerated by the masses.”

“Oh, so you’re watching out for me now? Should I feel appreciative or suspicious?”

“Idiot!” Franziska snapped. “I came here to warn you! Have all father’s lessons flown out of your foolish head? This boy is a bad influence on you, brother – he’s making you forget everything the king taught you! That foolish toad Helga already picked up on it, and it hasn’t taken me long to realize it either. How long until father notices? A week? And what happens then? If he believes you to be weak, you’ll lose the throne!”

“And you’ll inherit it instead,” I replied.

“Fool! Do you truly believe father will allow me to take the throne? He’s been grooming you for that role since the day he scooped you out of your foolish house’s rubble, and all he speaks of in our conversations is the weakness of women compared to men. Even if I were to prove my perfection over yours a hundred fold, he would never choose me while you still lived!”

“Then…” I stared at her, confused. “Then why–”

“This conversation is not about me, little brother,” Franziska interrupted, glaring at me. “I came here to punish your servant for weakening our future king.”

I glowered at her. “Punishing my servant is my duty and mine alone,” I answered. “And as far as I’m concerned, Wright hasn’t weakened me at all. If father’s lessons can be wiped away so easily by a simple servant, then perhaps those are the weaknesses, not me.”

Franziska opened her mouth to respond, but she was so shocked nothing came out, and she shut it again.

“You foolish prince,” she eventually said. “Pray the king doesn’t hear you say that.”

“I don’t need you babysitting me, Franziska.”

“Oh, I believe I do,” she replied. “He will discover your weaknesses, little brother. If not through this incident, then through another. Von Karmas are above the masses, above the guards, above emotion. If this boy is making you forget that, then he is your weakness.”

The reply formed in my head, but I didn’t dare speak it aloud.

I was never truly a von Karma, little sister.

And even if I was, I’m not sure if I’d still wish to be one.

As soon as I thought it, ten years of instinct twisted in my stomach, telling me I was wrong, that von Karmas were the epitome of perfection and that all should strive to be like them. But my heart and my mind were clear, guiding me towards the truth. And Wright had helped me clear them.

Miles von Karma was never supposed to exist.

Franziska, in all her self-awarded perfection, took my silence as victory and walked past me towards the door. She shut it behind her with a snap, leaving me alone with Wright.

He didn’t even offer a sarcastic comment; he just stared at me.

“What?” I finally asked.

“I just…” He seemed to be having trouble speaking. This was a first. “I… that was slightly terrifying.”

I blinked, surprised, and then smiled and shook my head.

“That was about the normal tone of Franziska and I’s conversations, Wright,” I informed him. “We aren’t exactly on the best of terms.”

“Oh, well…” he said, “That’s, um, kind of concerning.”

I shook my head again before realizing that there was blood sliding down Wright’s arm – and onto my carpet.

“You’re bleeding,” I observed, gesturing towards his arm and shoulders. Wright looked down and raised his eyebrows, as if he’d forgotten he was even hurt while watching Franziska and I spar.

“Oh,” he said, shrugging. “It’s fine. I’ve had worse.”

There was something heavy behind his voice, but I knew better than to ask about it.

“Come on,” I said, beckoning him towards the door, “let’s find Ema. She can patch you up.”

“Seriously, I’m fine,” he insisted. “I just need a bandage or two.”

“I don’t care if you’re fine, I’m not letting you bleed all over my carpet. Now come on.”

Wright grinned and followed me out, trying not to drip blood along the way. Somehow, even after he’d been whipped and berated by my psychotic sister, and even after he’d watched the two of us fight over him while he stood by silently, I had still managed to make Wright smile.

For some reason, that thought is what carried me through the rest of the day.

Chapter Text

I had a problem.

I mean, I had several problems, most of which stemmed from traumatic childhood experiences and malnourishment, but of all the previous problems I’d faced, this one was the worst. I hadn’t even realized I had a problem until Maya pointed it out to me one day while we were standing around in the throne room. The king had retired for the day and left Miles and Franziska to manage whatever else popped up; typically, the second after he walked into his room, about ten trillion different problems magically appeared and swamped the royal siblings. And that, of course, meant their servants had to stick around too.

I didn’t really mind, honestly. At least I wasn’t dragging Larry out of trouble or cleaning Edgeworth’s room (he’d gotten a lot touchier about that for some reason after that fight he and Franziska had and it was really starting to annoy me). Besides, not being able to talk with Edgeworth wasn’t the worst thing in the world. As nice as he was starting to get, the guy still had the tendency to talk like a conceited twat. A conceited twat who also happened to be rather nice to look at. Really nice. Especially without a jacket on.

“You’re staring, Nick.”

I felt my face burn as I turned away and elbowed Maya, who had slid up next to me while the prince and princess argued over water supplies.

“Shut up,” I muttered through gritted teeth, “I was not.”

“Sure you weren’t. Your face is red, by the way.”

“Maya.”

She just smirked and shrugged, turning away. “Oh please,” she said, “quit trying to hide it, Nick. It’s obvious you like him.”

“W-what?!” I spluttered, glancing around and keeping my voice low. “No I don’t!”

“Yes you do.”

“Oh come on, Maya, him? Seriously? Yeah, like that’d work out. He’s the crowned prince and heir to the throne, and the king is setting him up to marry Lana, and the king hates peasants. I am literally at the bottom of the class stepladder. Like, the epitome of poor peasants. He wouldn’t even let me look at his son if I weren’t serving him. And, like, Franziska was right, he’s the heir to the throne, he can’t have someone like me dragging him down and making this huge weakness for him, that’d be awful, that’d be–”

I caught sight of Maya giving me a smug, mischievous look and stopped in the middle of my rant.

“What?” I asked.

“Well,” Maya said, “for someone who absolutely positively one hundred percent doesn’t like the prince, you sure seem to have put a lot of time into thinking about it.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but all that came out was spluttering and angry stutters. God damn it, Maya, I don’t need you doing this to me.

“I don’t…” Maya raised an eyebrow, and I glared at her. “I don’t like him, okay? Why would I like him anyway? He’s a stuck-up, obnoxious, privileged dweeb that’s obsessed with tea and the color pink and he wears a stupid cravat and he can apparently bake and he is annoyingly attractive and it’s distracting and–”

Oh god damn it.

Maya just smirked at me and flipped her hair, turning so she could walk away. “Tell me when you’re ready to admit it, Nick,” she said smugly. “I’m always here to talk about your feelings.”

See? Serious problem.

Okay, so maybe I was a little enamored with Prince Miles Edgeworth. Just a bit. But I mean, what did you expect? He rescued me when I was a kid and bought me an entire book I couldn’t even read, and then we met ten years later and he started warming up to me, and he had a really great neck and he was smart and nice and we held hands under the table that one time and he hadn’t pulled away, and then he defended me again from Franziska and…

Alright, fine. I was a lot enamored with Prince Miles Edgeworth. Sue me.

I hadn’t really realized it until after that discussion we’d had in the hallway, the one about allowing me to call him Edgeworth. It was then I realized that he’d changed, truly, actually changed, and I knew it was because of me. The thought of him had kept me alive for the five darkest years of my life, and now I could see I was helping him out of the dark too. It was almost like I was repaying a debt the prince didn’t even know I owed him.

I just… hadn’t been able to admit it. Because admitting it would mean it was real. And if it was real, then it could never, ever happen, not in a million years, and that thought would hurt me every day until I died.

I didn’t want to admit that until I had to.

“Why are you doing this again?”

Edgeworth glared at me and tossed his jacket over the chair before walking behind the screen that served as his dressing room. “Because,” he explained in annoyance, “ballroom dancing is all the rage, and my father wants my party to be the most popular social event of the year. And also because Franziska refused to teach anyone how to dance, so helping you, Maya, and Ema learn was dumped on me instead.”

“No, I got that part,” I said, waving the box of matches in my hand around for emphasis until I realized he couldn’t see me. “What I’m confused about it why you have to change your clothes just so you can dance. It’s just practice, it’s not like there’s anyone watching.”

“On the contrary,” Edgeworth replied, tossing a few articles of clothing over the screen, “practice is exactly the reason I need to change. My formalwear for the festival is rather difficult to move in, and I need to grow accustomed to it lest I make a fool of myself at my own party.”

“You’ll probably do that anyway,” I grumbled.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!”

An exasperated sigh came from behind the wooden screen. “Just light the damn candles, Wright. I don’t want to walk into a dark room after dancing for an hour.”

I rolled my eyes and lit a match, walking over to one of the candles on the fireplace mantle.

“Oh, yeah sure,” I muttered, lighting some of the candles before blowing the match out and striking another one. “He has to change into fancy clothes just so he can dance and all I get to do is light the damn candles. It won’t even be dark when we come back, it’s not like–”

“Are you talking to yourself?” I heard Edgeworth say, walking out from behind the screen.

“No,” I said immediately, lighting another match and glancing at him, “I’m not, shut–”

My sentence was cut short as Miles Edgeworth appeared in my view, dressed in the most handsome clothes I’d ever seen in my life. It wasn’t much different from what he usually wore, and most of it was (surprise) pink, but the fabrics were made of silk and had gold trims and were much more fitted than his normal tunic and vest. He had a majestic black cape that brushed the floor, black gloves, and a golden circlet on his head shaped to look like a laurel wreath. The circlet stood out against his silver hair, making him look more regal and princely than I’d ever seen him. His head was tilted just enough to make the angles in his face stand out, and his silver eyes glinted in the candlelight as they stared at me in confusion.

“What?” he asked.

You’re staring, Nick.

I didn’t even get a chance to preserve my dignity. The match I’d lit beforehand had burned down, and suddenly the flames licked my fingers and oh my god my fingers were on fire. With a ridiculously high-pitched shriek, I flailed my hand to snuff out the match before dropping it to the ground, blowing on my fingers to ease the burning.

I heard Edgeworth chuckling as he walked for the door, and my face felt more on fire than my fingers had.

This was getting out of hand.

I mentally cursed that one match in particular and followed Edgeworth out the door to the Great Hall, which would be unused at this time of the evening and would be perfect for teaching three servants how to dance. The only reason any of us even had to learn was because personal royal servants were expected to be just as refined as their masters, at least according to the elitist social circles. Because of this, Maya and I, as the servants of the royal children, had to wear stuffy clothes at the party and learn how to dance, even if all we’d be doing the entire party was waiting on our respective royal heir. Ema was mainly here because Lana, and I quote, “fully supported Ema’s interest in the medicinal field, but she was learning how to be a proper lady or so help her Lana would dunk Ema into a pit of eels,” so that didn’t give Ema much of a choice in the matter.

When we arrived, Maya and Ema were already waiting for us, whispering about something while sitting on one of the large benches that had been pushed over to the side of the room. As soon as we entered, they both looked up and grinned.

For some reason, that didn't make me feel any better.

"Hiya boys!" Maya said as she and Ema hopped up off the bench. "Ready to dance?"

Edgeworth and I glanced at each other.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” the prince grumbled, walking into the middle of the room. He gestured for us to follow and turned around, facing the three of us.

“So, first thing’s first,” he began, looking hilariously unamused. “Do any of you even vaguely know how to dance?”

Ema and I shook our heads, but Maya grinned. “Actually,” she said, “Franziska taught me how to dance this morning.”

“Wait, she did?” I asked, turning to her in surprise.

Maya nodded, glancing towards Prince Miles.

“But…” Edgeworth stared at Maya in borderline outrage. “Wait, Franziska told me she refused to teach anyone how to dance!”

“Eh, it’s Franziska,” Maya said with a shrug. “She wants everything about her to be perfect, which includes me. So she gave me a lesson to jumpstart me and put me ahead of Phoenix over here.”

“Hey!” I glared at her, but Maya just flashed me another obnoxious smile and tilted her head towards Edgeworth again.

Why was I even friends with her at this point, I mean really.

The prince stared at Maya for a good five seconds before sighing and shaking his head. “Alright,” he muttered, “fine. I can work with this. Maya, pair up with Phoenix and teach him the basics. Ema, I’m teaching you. There’s no music, but I want everyone to do the best they can. Understood?”

“Yes, your highness,” the three of us droned.

We paired up as ordered and began learning how to dance, but Maya and I both learned pretty quick that I was not a fast learner when it came to this. Every time I looked up, I ended up stepping on Maya’s feet, and every time I looked down, I tried to pull us in the wrong direction. Maya honestly didn’t seem any better, but at least she knew a few of the steps, or at least she thought she did. The two of us eventually gave up and walked over to the benches, watching Miles tutor Ema with ease.

He was doing really well, too, at least as far as I could tell. Ema still had some choppiness to her movements, but at least she had the movements themselves down. In fact, she had them down so well that she and Edgeworth were talking while they danced, whispering too softly for Maya and I to hear. At one point, Edgeworth glanced over to me, his brows furrowed, and I felt my cheeks grow hot and looked away.

When I brought my eyes back up, Miles and Ema were still talking, candlelight glinting off the gold circlet the prince had on his head. He looked so graceful while he was dancing, like he was gliding straight across the stone floor, his black cape swaying with his movements and his eyes focused, reflecting the candlelight like silver medallions–

“Nick.”

I blinked and turned away, Maya sitting next to me with a sympathetic smirk on her face. Damn it. She’d caught me staring again.

“You really need to get a better at hiding how completely and utterly infatuated you are with the prince,” Maya whispered to me, crossing her arms.

I glared at her, but my face felt hot with embarrassment. “Shut up, Maya,” I grumbled.

“I mean, then again, it’s not like you’ve had much practice. I don’t think I can remember you flirting with anyone in the past five years I’ve met you.”

“Maya I swear to god.”

She just smiled and squeezed my shoulder, but her smirk was gone. “You should ask him, Nick,” she said, putting her hand on my arm. “See what happens.”

“Maya, he doesn’t like me. He probably doesn’t even like men.”

“Hmm.”

Maya didn’t expand any further, but it was obvious she had her own thoughts. Before I could ask her what they were though, Ema and Edgeworth stopped dancing and broke apart, heading over towards us.

“How’d you do, Ema?” Maya asked, hopping up off the bench. I followed her, albeit somewhat less enthusiastically.

“I did alright, I guess,” Ema said with a shrug, responding to Maya’s question. “I mean, it’s kinda hard, you know? It gets easier after a while though.”

“Ema, please, you did very well,” Edgeworth said, giving her a proud smile. She blushed and glanced away. “Especially for your first time. You’ve got the basics down, and there isn’t much else I need to teach you.”

“But…” She looked kind of crestfallen. “I… there isn’t?”

“Oh come on, Ema,” Maya said, wrapping her arm around Ema’s shoulders, “it’s not like you’ll be doing much dancing anyway. All you’re gonna do the whole party is eat the food.”

“Wha–” Ema stared at Maya, her mouth open in outrage, but she eventually closed it and huffed. “Okay, true,” she grumbled.

I snickered, hands stuffed in my pockets, and the edge of Miles’s mouth curled up in a smile.

“Well, Maya,” Edgeworth said, “were you as successful in teaching Wright how to dance as I was with Ema?”

“Pfft, not in the slightest,” Maya said, waving her hand dismissively. “He’s hopeless.”

“Hey!” I shouted.

“Hmm, can’t say I’m surprised,” the prince replied, giving me a smirk. “The only thing he’s good for is complaining.”

“Wha– Edgeworth!”

Miles just snickered as I glared at him in annoyance, Maya and Ema glancing at each other and grinning.

“Well, hey,” Ema said, “since Maya can’t teach him, how about you try, Miles?”

Edgeworth stopped snickering and glanced at Ema, narrowing his eyes. Ema, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow and titled her head, like she was issuing him a challenge.

What was this about?

“Alright, fine,” Edgeworth said, turning towards me and lifting up his arm. “Wright, if you will.”

I took his arm and smirked. “My liege,” I said dramatically, pretending to curtsey. Miles rolled his eyes and began walking into the center of the room, obviously regretting his decision already.

Once we reached the center, the prince and I positioned ourselves accordingly – Edgeworth placed his left hand on my waist, I placed mine on his shoulder, and we clasped our right hands together.

“Did Maya teach you the box step?” he asked, watching me.

It was difficult for me to look him in the eyes for some reason, but I answered, “Uh, vaguely?”

He sighed. “Alright,” he said, “let’s go over basics again.”

It took about five minutes, but I finally managed to get the basic footwork down and learned how to let Edgeworth lead. Even after I knew the steps, though, I kept glancing down at my feet, avoiding his eyes. Every time I looked in his eyes, I felt like I was entranced, and I didn’t want him to see me staring at him again. Maya, it was fine, I’d known her for a while and knew she wouldn’t tell anyone. But Miles…

“You seem to have developed an interest in my shoes, Wright.”

Oh shit. I guess I was pretty obvious, huh.

I shrugged and looked up, glancing up at the ceiling and trying to stay nonchalant. “Well, you know,” I said, “they’re um… pretty great shoes, I uh, I guess.”

“Hmm.” I could hear in Edgeworth’s voice that he could see right through whatever act I was trying to pull, but he didn’t push it. “Well, I see you still don’t seem to have any shoes of your own.”

“Who, me?” I laughed nervously and shrugged, watching the room spin behind Edgeworth’s head as his hand pressed against my side. “Eh, it’s fine. I think the last time I had shoes I was seventeen. They’re just really expensive, and I kind of need my money for other stuff, you know?”

“You haven’t worn shoes in almost three years?” Edgeworth asked incredulously.

“Yeah, but I mean it’s not like I need them. I grew up without shoes, Edgeworth, and that was on a farm. My feet are pretty tough. Besides, I kinda like not wearing shoes. Actually, that helped me get away from some of the city guards this one time. Larry had pickpocketed one of them and they thought it’d been me, so I ended up getting chased through like half the city, and I finally got stuck at this dead end, right? Except the walls were all cobblestone and I managed to climb up them because my toes could grip the wall, and when all the soldiers tried to follow me they just kept sliding down. Honestly it was pretty hilarious. And I managed to get away that time. That was a while ago, actually, back when I first met Larry. He ended up tracking me down and apologized, and then he brought me back to his little lair and gave me some food. Maya I met a few days later, when Larry tried to pickpocket her and she nearly beat him into the ground…”

I finally glanced back at Edgeworth, wondering how he was reacting to my story, and found him staring at me with his silver eyes wide as saucers.

“Edgeworth?” I asked. He didn’t respond. “Edgeworth?”

“What?” His eyes snapped into focus and he blinked rapidly, his grip on my waist going slack. Color rose to his pale cheeks and he immediately looked away, stuttering out a sentence that made no sense.

“Edge, you okay?” I asked, concerned, but the prince just pulled away in a stupor, stumbling slightly.

“I, I’m sorry I have to go, I’ll…” The prince didn’t finish his sentence before turning and walking towards the door faster than I’d ever seen him move. Maya and Ema, who I’d completely forgotten about, glanced at each other worriedly and stood up, watching him leave.

“Edgeworth?” I asked after him, “wait, I, what’s…”

He ignored me and slipped out the door, shutting it behind him with a snap. Maya and Ema glanced at each other as I stood in the middle of the room, staring at the door and wondering what I’d done wrong.

Chapter Text

“Phoenix Wright, Miles. You like him.”

“Ema, don’t be preposterous. He’s a silly servant boy with a ridiculous hairdo and a penchant for annoying me at any possible moment. I don’t like him.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Oh really? And what exactly led you to this conclusion?”

“Miles, please, it’s obvious. You act differently around him, you’re always watching out for him, even if he doesn’t know it, you watch his every move and react to everything he does, and every time you talk it’s like your face lights up. You treat him with more respect and dignity than you ever have for any other servant. And you held hands with him under the table a few days ago, didn’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Oh come on, Miles.”

“Oh come on, what, Ema? Wright is my friend, and that’s it. Trying to believe that he could be anything more than that is… foolish. It’s a waste of time.”

“Why? He likes you back, you know.”

“Well, I don’t like him. And even if I did, it’s not as if anything could actually happen between us. He’s a peasant Ema. He’s a peasant and a servant and far too self-assured to win the favor of any royal official in this castle aside from me. And even if he weren’t a peasant, even if he were the richest, most powerful prince in all the world, my father would never allow it. He wouldn’t. And the kingdom may not either.”

“But you like him, Miles.”

“No, I don’t, Ema, and that’s the end of it.”

“But why not?”

“Because I can’t Ema. I just… I can’t.”

The nightmare woke me in the middle of the storm, a crack of thunder exploding in my ears as I gasped and sat up in my bed. It’d been just like every other nightmare, waves rolling beneath my feet as the roof fell onto me and crushed my body, everyone screaming except me because I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t…

It took me a moment to realize it’d been a dream, that I hadn’t been slowly suffocating under the weight of my house, entrenched in darkness as the ground rolled like a sea beneath me. There was nothing on top of me. There was no earthquake. And I wasn’t in darkness. Wright’s candle was still flickering at the edge of my sight, casting shadows on the walls.

“Edgeworth?”

My breath caught in my chest and I glanced to the side, where Phoenix Wright was leaning forward in his bed, watching me with concern. I quickly looked away and forced myself to calm down, trying and failing to pace my breathing. Wright still had his candle lit, but the window over his head was open and wind from the storm tore through the curtains, causing it to splutter every once in a while and the shadows to dance on the walls.

“Edge, are you okay?” he asked. I could hear his bed creaking as he stood up, ready to walk over to me.

No, I thought, he can’t find out. Nobody can find out.

“I’m fine, Wright,” I snapped, turning my back to him and pulling the covers up. “It was just a nightmare. Go back to sleep.”

“A nightmare? But you never…” Wright stopped short, like he was remembering something. “You didn’t drink your tonic last night.”

I froze, my mind racing. I hadn’t? But I was sure I… No, I hadn’t. I’d been so startled last night after running out on the dance that I’d forgotten to drink it.

My stomach dropped. That’s why I’d had my nightmare. And now Wright knew about them too.

“You drink that stuff to help with your nightmares,” he said, his voice quiet. A distant clash of thunder rolled from a ways away, drowned out by the beating rain and wind, but Wright’s voice cut through it all. “You… have nightmares–”

“Go back to sleep, Wright,” I hissed, gritting my teeth. Go back to sleep. Pretend you saw nothing. If anyone finds out about this, anyone at all–

“You’re shaking.”

I paused, taking notice of my body for the first time, and realized that I was, in fact, shaking. My hands were clenching my bed sheets and trembling so much I could barely control them.

Had I always been like this after having nightmares? I couldn’t even remember.

“I’m fine, Phoenix,” I said, my voice softer. “I can deal with this on my own. Go back to bed.”

The room was silent for a moment, save the sounds of the storm, but then I felt my bed sink slightly and the wood creak under extra weight.

“What–” I twisted around, staring as Wright climbed into my bed and under the covers. “What the hell are you–”

“You aren’t dealing with this on your own, you idiot,” he said. Before I could even process what was happening, Wright pulled me in and wrapped his arms around me, my head resting against his chest.

This… was unexpected.

For a moment, I was at a loss for words. No one had ever done this kind of thing for me before. The king ridiculed me for my nightmares, calling them weaknesses, and Franziska followed his example. Ema made the tonic, but that was really all she could do, and no one else knew about them in the first place. Before I’d known Ema, the nightmares would wake me in the middle of the night, completely alone in a dark, unfamiliar room, and I’d have to coax myself back to sleep all on my own. No one had ever tried to comfort me before, not after my father had died. It’d been so long the very act felt alien to me.

The realization that Phoenix Wright was lying next to me in my bed didn’t help anything either.

After a moment, I eventually brought my hands up and wrapped them around Wright, hoping that returning the gesture would make the situation less awkward. It was somewhat successful; Wright relaxed a little after I did, at least. There was nothing I could bring myself to say, so I just lied in Wright’s arms and listened to his heartbeat beneath his shirt, my shaky breathing matching the steady rhythm. I felt myself calm down, my trembling lessen and my breathing slow. It was working. Wright was… he was helping.

“You alright?” he asked softly, his voice barely audible. I felt myself nod against his chest.

“Yes,” I whispered, “I… thank you. I don’t believe anyone’s ever… I can’t remember the last time someone did this for me.”

“You mean hug you?”

“Comfort me, you dimwit.”

“Oh.” Wright’s voice didn’t sound like a joking tone. He was serious, concerned, and it was strange. “I, um. How long have you dealt with this?”

“Since…” I paused, instinct telling me to stop sharing. This wasn’t information one should pass around freely. This was something dangerous, a weakness I’d spent much of my life hiding. No one, not even Ema, knew the full extent of these nightmares. And no one could ever know if I wished to keep this secret hidden.

But Wright was different, wasn’t he? He could keep secrets. He wasn’t judgmental or scornful like von Karma. He hadn’t even asked if he could help me, he’d just climbed in and pulled me close like he’d done it all his life. He cared about me, and I trusted him.

I’d never felt this kind of bond with anyone else before. The least I owed Wright for it was the truth.

“I… I’ve had these nightmares for a long time,” I answered, staring at the fabric of Wright’s shirt. “Since my father died.”

Wright stayed silent, his arms still wrapped tightly around me, and for some reason that silence pressed me to continue.

“They aren’t about my father, the nightmares. They’re about what happened before. When… the night he died, there was an earthquake that destroyed our house. I was on the top floor and the roof caved in and fell on top of me, and it felt like the world wanted to push all the air out of my lungs at once. It felt like I was dying.

“But… I didn’t die. By some miracle I didn’t die that night. When they finally pulled me out of the rubble, I was hurt and scared but still alive. But my father… wasn’t.”

I paused, waiting for Wright to say something, anything, but he just stayed silent, listening to me. It was strange, Wright not responding to every word I said with some sarcastic quip. He was actually listening, letting me speak how I wished. That was almost as alien as the comfort had been.

“My father,” I continued, quieter than before, “had been stabbed by a thief, his money and documents stolen. When I finally emerged from my house, he was lying in the middle of the road, a knife in his heart. It… I didn’t know what to do. And the king, he… he rode up on his horse, saw me sitting there crying and…”

I realized then that my grip on Wright had tightened to the point where it must’ve been uncomfortable, and I loosened it, but Wright didn’t complain. He just pulled me in closer and stayed silent, seemingly mulling over all that I’d told him. There was nothing left for me to say, so I let myself slip into silence.

“I’m sorry,” Wright finally whispered. “I… had no idea.”

“No one is supposed to,” I replied. “The king doesn’t sympathize well and if he were to ever discover this, it’d… I’m the crowned prince, I’m not allowed to have weaknesses, I can’t–”

“I won’t tell anyone, Miles.”

I looked up at Phoenix, his blue and brown eyes so concerned and caring, and I found myself entranced again, just like I’d been during our dance. Wright’s eyes, his laugh, his smile, they were like a spell. A spell I wanted more deeply than anything but knew I had to resist.

Resist it, Miles.

I looked away and pressed my head against his chest again, listening to his heartbeat and wishing that everything could’ve been simpler. But it never was for him and me, it never had been and it probably never would be. And until I had control of my own future, I couldn’t allow myself to be swept up in anything like this. Not with the risks and the fear, not now.

Wright sighed, his body tense under my arms, and a nervous knot formed in my chest.

“Edgeworth,” he said, “I–”

“No.”

He froze, and the candle spluttered slightly from the wind behind him.

“No?” he asked. He was confused, but he knew what I’d been referring to. We both knew.

And it hurt.

“It can’t happen,” I said, my voice soft. “It can’t. I’m sorry.”

“But…” The pain in Wright’s voice pulled at my heart, but I didn’t change my decision. “Why?”

I swallowed and focused on his heartbeat, trying to find the words I wished to say, but his heart rate was rapid and erratic. Desperate and uncertain, just like mine. My heart was probably the same.

“Because,” I whispered, “I don’t want you taken away from me.”

Wright paused, and I could feel his confusion mounting. “But, Edgeworth,” he began, “why would I– ”

“The king,” I cut him off. “You know as well as me how he feels about people like you. And you know how he feels about attachments, no matter the nature. He has eyes and ears throughout the castle, Wright. Even if we hid it, he’d find out somehow. And if he did, he would… he’d never… It can’t happen. It’ll never happen while he’s still alive. And if we let it happen… he’ll take you away. He’s done it before, to others. I can’t let it happen to you.”

Wright stayed silent for a long time, and I knew what I’d said had sunk in. None of this was fair, absolutely none of it, and it was so painfully obvious for the both of us. But there was nothing we could do about it. Nothing we could do to stop the aching in our hearts.

It can’t happen, I thought. It can’t. I can’t. I can’t let myself love him.

And there were so many reasons why. Dangerous, obvious reasons, reasons I’d grown up knowing about and had never considered a threat. But now they were. Because despite everything, I did love Phoenix Wright. And that alone put him in danger.

I can barely admit that I love him, and yet I can’t bear the thought of him being taken away, I thought. What’s wrong with me?

I felt Wright take a breath, about to say something, when a large howl of wind tore through the window, snuffed out the candle, and plunged the room into darkness. Wright’s heart began to race and his grip around me tightened, his hands starting to tremble just as mine had.

“Wright?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’m sorry, I’ll…” His voice was weak and terrified, shaking as badly as his hands. The last time I’d seen him like this, he’d been staring at a name on a sheet of paper. “I’ll be fine, I just… I need to…”

“Wright, why are you afraid of the dark?”

It sounded like such a simple question when I said it aloud, but what lay behind it was what made Wright freeze. For a long time, much longer than I’d taken, he was silent – he barely even moved. It was like he was trapped in his mind, to terrified to speak. When a minute had passed and he was still frozen in my arms, I began to think he would never reply.

When he finally did, it wasn’t what I expected.

“I can’t tell you Miles,” he whispered, barely audible above the passing storm.

I blinked, surprised. “You… can’t?” I asked.

“I can’t. Not… not yet. I’m sorry, you told me about your past and you deserve to know mine but… I just can’t. Not now. I don’t… I don’t want this part of me to exist.”

Wright’s entire body was shaking, terrified, and it struck me then that a month ago, I would’ve been put off by this statement. I’d told Wright about my past, so I deserved to know his. A fair trade, in words instead of goods. That’s how it should’ve been.

But words weren’t the kind of thing you traded. A person’s trust, their past, their story… those all had to be earned. And if Wright wasn’t ready to tell me his, then I hadn’t earned it yet. And that worried me. Something that took this long to earn was something Wright shouldn’t tell anyone until he was ready.

What had Wright gone through that could make him this terrified of a name and the dark?

“It’s alright, Phoenix,” I told him, “you don’t have to tell me. Not until you’re ready. I’ll wait for you.”

The tension in Phoenix’s body seemed to melt away after that, his heart slowing and his grip loosening. As he relaxed, I relaxed as well, until the two of us were wrapped in each other’s arms, drifting off into sleep.

“Thank you,” Phoenix whispered. It was almost like he’d breathed it, not meant for me to hear, but I did hear it.

Don’t get attached to Phoenix Wright.

Just another disappointment, I guess.

Chapter Text

“I literally cannot believe you two.”

I glared at Maya and huffed, turning away from her and glancing into the kitchen. The two of us were huddled in the corner near the door, away from the ears of anyone else who might be interested in our conversation, but I was still worried about someone overhearing. Miles had been right, the king did have eyes and ears everywhere. If they weren’t officially his, they belonged to his staff, the people who gossiped behind his back and spread rumors all throughout the castle. I’d never really noticed it before, but now that I had an idea…

I sighed again and tried to ignore the dread building in my stomach. We’d had the conversation last night, and after waking up in each others’ arms, the whole morning had just been… awkward. We’d avoided eye contact and barely even spoken. Edgeworth eventually left to go do something – probably talk with Ema – leaving me alone in his room with nothing to do. After about an hour, he came back and reminded me I had to pick up his tea from the kitchen, so I promptly ran out to do that. We’d barely spoken more than ten words to each other the whole day.

This entire situation was bullshit.

“Maya, it’s not his fault,” I mumbled, watching one of the kitchen maids prepare Edgeworth’s tea. “He’s terrified of the king and what he’ll do to me if he finds out, and he will find out if anything happens, so…”

“It’s still bullshit,” Maya replied, continuing to glare at me. I huffed again and silently agreed.

“I don’t know, Maya,” I said, rubbing my thumb across the back of my left hand. “He may not even care about me. I mean, if he really did, he wouldn’t let something like this get in his way, would he? Maybe he just, what if he just said that to hide that he doesn’t actually like me at all, what if–”

“Nick, seriously?” Maya interrupted. “Quit thinking like that. You’re just upset.”

“I… yeah, I know. I am. He… he really does care about me, huh?”

Maya smiled, her eyes shining. “Hell yeah he does,” she said. “He can’t even bear to think about losing you. I’d honestly go so far to say he’s in love with you.”

“Eh…”

“Are you kidding me? Dude, if the king weren’t a threat to you two, hugging would not have been the only thing going on in that bed last night.”

“Maya.”

My face turned bright red and burned like the sun, but Maya just snickered and winked at me. On second thought, maybe telling her about last night wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Eventually, I rolled my eyes and smiled and stared at the ground, a warm feeling filling up my body as I thought about what Maya had said.

Miles Edgeworth is in love with me.

I hadn’t even wanted to believe it could happen, but…

“Hey,” Maya said, glancing up at me, “why aren’t we telling Larry about this?”

“Are you kidding me, Maya? He’s a blabbermouth.”

“I’m a blabbermouth!” she insisted.

“Yeah, but you have a brain too.”

“Well…” She paused, closed her mouth, and then begrudgingly shrugged. “Okay, yeah.”

“Hey spikey!” Maya and I turned towards the kitchen, were the maid who’d been preparing Edgeworth’s tea was staring at us with her arms crossed. “The prince’s tea is ready to be taken up, unless you’re too busy to care.”

“I’m coming, give me a minute,” I replied, turning back to Maya and rolling my eyes.

“You’d think,” Maya began, “that after a while, the people around here would come up with something better than ‘spikey.’”

“Yeah, well. Whatever.”

Maya and I emerged from our corner and walked over to the table, where the obnoxious kitchen maid – I think her name was April May – stuck up her nose and walked away as soon as we got there. Jerk. Tea may have been a delicacy from the East, but knowing how to prepare it didn’t make her any better than anyone else.

“I can’t believe the prince is this obsessed with Eastern stuff,” I said, picking the tray up and balancing it carefully.

“Wait,” Maya said, “Prince Miles likes Eastern culture?”

“Maya, he literally drinks tea daily has a big shiny figurine of a Japanese warrior on his mantle.”

“It’s called a samurai, Nick.”

“Whatever! It’s weird.”

“It is not weird!” Oh dear god, Maya was in one of her obsessive moods again. “Pearl and I have wooden figurines of them Mia bought for us like years ago. We love that stuff!”

“I can’t believe this.”

“Hey, can you bring me up to talk to him about this stuff? I want to see what he thinks about samurai verses knights!”

“No, Maya.”

“But why not?”

“Because you’ll probably end up yelling at him about our nonexistent… thing, that’s why.”

“I will not! I’m legitimately interested in what he thinks about various Asian cultures. Hey, maybe he can convince his dad to buy some rice for the kitchens! Have you ever had rice, Phoenix? Oh my god, it’s so much better than bread–”

“Bye, Maya.”

I barely heard the beginning of her outraged sentence before I slipped through the kitchen door, rolling my eyes as I began my trek up to Prince Miles’s room. As big of a nerd Maya was about that stuff, Edgeworth was honestly ten times worse. How the hell had I managed to befriend both of them?

Well, hey, it could be worse. At least I was friends with Edgeworth. Well, hopefully. After last night, I still wasn’t quite sure. But maybe, if I made him talk about it a little when I got back to his room, we could figure out exactly where we stood on this whole “relationship” deal. We had to do it soon, otherwise I’d explode. And I was pretty sure Edgeworth would too.

It was just… hard trying to ignore these feelings, especially after learning Edgeworth felt the same. I wanted to scream at him and annoy him and kiss him all at the same time, and if I didn’t pick one to do soon, life would chose for me. Even if nothing could ever really happen, I still wanted to be with Edgeworth. He was my friend. I needed him. And honestly, I think he needed me too.

Alright, that was it. We had to talk about this. And if he wasn’t going to start it, I would, because honest to god that man–”

“–glad you finally found a solution to the Fey girl’s death, Gant.”

I stopped dead in the middle of a darkened hallway, next to a wooden door that was slightly open with dim candlelight filtering through the crack. That voice… that was the king’s voice. I knew it. And ‘the Fey girl’s death,’ that must mean Mia. Why was the king talking about Mia?

“Yes, well, it was a little difficult, but you know me! Thanks for the donation, by the way, your Majesty. You should really pay your guards a little less – makes them harder to bribe, you know.”

My blood froze in my veins. That voice belonged to Damon Gant, head of the city guard. Larry, Maya, and I – although especially Larry – had gotten on his bad side more than once while we lived on the streets. The guy was freakishly jovial and thought that anyone poor would eventually become a criminal. Or, well, at least that was his reasoning for killing and jailing homeless old men and street urchins with barely any evidence to suggest they’d committed a crime. His guards were corrupt and terrorized the city, and they’d come close to killing Larry, Maya, and I a few times. But we’d always managed to escape.

What the hell was Damon Gant doing here, talking to the king about bribing the king’s own guards? And why were they talking about Mia?

I knew this conversation wasn’t one I was meant to hear, but if Gant and the king were working together, bribing people and talking about my friends, I had to know why. Walking away wasn’t even an option.

So instead of being smart and walking away, I did the stupidest thing I’d ever done in my entire life.

I listened.

“I pay my guards the adequate amount to keep myself protected, Gant,” the king replied, his voice cold. “And my guards are only there in case you and that bumbling idiot Gumshoe fail at protecting my castle.”

“Majesty, don’t you worry, I’ve got my guards under control. Besides, killing a few people to keep everyone in line isn’t that hard for them. They’re all grateful to be serving their king.”

My stomach twisted painfully as my heart began to race. Gant… was killing people for the king? To keep everyone in line?

“Glad you’re holding up your part of the deal, Gant,” the king said. “Now, your solution to the Fey girl? Why did it involve bribing my guards?”

“Well, Majesty, I need people on the inside willing to kill Ema Skye.”

My heart skipped a beat. Kill… Ema? But why?

The king had paused for a moment, probably thinking, before chuckling darkly.

“Excellent plan, Gant,” King Manfred said. I could hear the smile in his voice. “I assume you used the Fey girl before because she was within your grasp?”

“Exactly. Mia Fey was a poor girl living over a pub. Killing her and convincing anyone curious that she was a harlot or a thief? Easy. Ema wasn’t. Skye is smart – she kept her sister in the castle while I threatened her little fling, keeping her out of my grasp. But Lana doesn’t know just how far the king’s purse can get me.”

“And Lana has no idea of my involvement in this?”

“Not that I know of, Majesty. She still thinks my threats are to keep her quiet about the killings. Skye has no idea that you’re the one ordering them.”

“Good. It should stay that way.”

I realized I was holding my breath and forced myself to exhale as quietly as possible. The king was ordering Gant to kill people… Lana knew about it, and Gant had threatened to kill Mia to keep her quiet, but now that Mia was gone he was threatening to kill Ema… King Manfred had ordered Gant to threaten Lana but Lana just thought it was Gant…

What the hell was going on?

“I must say, Majesty,” Gant continued, “killing people to ensure your rule? Are you sure that’s wise?”

“Don’t question my wisdom, Captain,” the king snapped, and Gant’s soft chuckles went quiet. “A king must rule through fear and power if he is to rule at all. Don’t doubt my methods.”

“Apologies, my king.”

“Pardoned.”

The two grew silent, and for a moment I worried they would come out into the hall and see me snooping, but then Gant gave a lighthearted chuckle.

“May I ask a question, Majesty?”

“Yes, Gant.”

“Why not just kill Lana? She knows about the city guard corruption, and she’s in a position to stop it. Why blackmail her?”

“I have plans for her, Gant,” the king said. “Lana is a capable captain and will be very useful for the continuation of my regime after my death.”

“I thought women in power were something you despised, Majesty.”

“I do. But the captain of the king’s guard is still beneath the king. And if the king and his captain were to be wed, well, his queen would be of more use than simply producing heirs.”

He’s talking about Edgeworth, I thought. My heart was beating so loud I was amazed the two inside couldn’t hear it. He wants Lana to marry Edgeworth. I mean, everyone already knew that but… that’s why?

Gant fell silent for a moment, and then I heard him laugh and clap his hands together, like he always did when he was impressed.

“Majesty, you truly are a clever king.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“It’s unfortunate the late queen only gave you a daughter. The next ruler won’t be of your blood.”

“Ah, but he’ll be of my mind, Gant. I’ve trained Miles to be the next von Karma, to continue my regime even after my death. All a king is after death is his kingdom and his legacy. Miles, as my heir, will continue both just the way I desire, and my ‘foolish’ daughter will never sit on the throne.”

“Convenient,” Gant said, “that Gregory Edgeworth would have such a malleable son, ey? That conspirator’s death killed two birds with one stone.”

“Of course, Gant. That is why I stabbed him in the heart.”

Time froze, and the tray of tea I was holding slipped from my fingers.

The king killed Gregory Edgeworth, I thought.

The king killed Miles’s father.

King Manfred von Karma killed Miles Edgeworth’s father to make Miles his heir.

The metal tray and glass tea set smashed into the floor at my feet, spilling boiling hot tea all over the floor and splashing onto my bare feet and pants. The sound of crashing glass and clanging metal echoed up and down the hallway, shocking me enough to snap me out of my trance.

Oh my god, I thought, they heard that, they had to have.

I have to tell Miles everything.

I have to tell him now.

My heart hammered in my chest and I moved, about to break into a sprint when I stepped on broken glass and cried out. As I stumbled past the crack in the door, a tanned hand shot out and grabbed my arm, pulling me into the room and throwing me onto the ground.

I heard the door snap shut and a hand, the same hand, grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me up onto my knees, pressing against my neck so much it hurt. My right foot stung from where the glass had cut it, and my feet and the bottom of my pants were soaked in boiling water, burning my skin.

But at the moment I didn’t even notice. I was too busy staring up into the face of King Manfred von Karma.

Oh no.

The room was silent for a long time, Gant squeezing the back of my neck with one hand as the king stared down at me with a cold, calculating face. It was the same face I remembered Miles making when I first met him, the one that convinced me something was horribly wrong.

The fact that I was about to die convinced me that the face itself was just a bad omen.

It took a full minute of silence, a minute that felt like hours, before the king finally spoke. I could feel every bone in my body shaking with fear as he opened his mouth.

“Phoenix Wright,” he said. His voice was sharp and cold. “You’re my son’s servant, are you not?”

He’s not your son, I thought, but I said nothing. That turned out to be the wrong move.

“Answer your king, Wrighto,” Gant said with a smirk, pressing his nails into my neck. I hissed in pain and tensed, glancing up at the king and then at the ground.

“Y-yes, your majesty,” I whispered, trying and failing to keep the fear from my voice. “I-I am.”

“How much of our conversation did you hear, boy?”

I swallowed, Gant’s grip on my neck forcing me to concentrate, and considered lying. But I knew they wouldn’t believe me.

“Enough,” I answered.

The king sighed and turned away, and Gant removed his hand from my neck so he could grab my arms instead. As Gant hoisted me up, I heard the king unsheathe the sword in his belt, and my stomach dropped into my shoes.

He’s going to kill me, I thought. He’s going to stab me through the chest and leave me to die, just like Edgeworth’s dad.

“I should kill you, boy,” the king said, lifting his sword and staring at it. “This was not a conversation you were meant to hear.”

I swallowed, my body trembling, and wished that I hadn’t chosen to listen at that door. I didn’t want to die like this. Not now. No one would even know why, or if they did, it wouldn’t be the truth.

And Miles… I couldn’t just leave him like this. I couldn’t.

Von Karma finally turned back around and pressed his sword under my chin, pushing my face up until I was staring him right in the eye. His eyes were dark green and emotionless, and for the first time I realized just how terrifying this man was. He was huge, imposing, and completely detached. Every action was calculated and prepared. And if it wasn’t… I had no doubt that the king’s lack of emotion hid a rage more terrible than anything I’d ever experienced.

No wonder Edgeworth was terrified of him. I was amazed he could even stand up to him at all.

I stared into his eyes and waited, waited for him to sweep his sword into my neck and slit my throat, but he didn’t move. He simply stood there, watching me, like he was waiting for me to do something. Maybe he wanted me to cry, or scream, or beg him to spare my life, but I didn’t do anything. I just stared and waited.

So when he brought his sword down and rested it on the floor like a cane, I wasn’t prepared.

“Majesty?” Gant asked behind me. “Aren’t… you going to kill him?”

I stared at the king in confusion as he studied me, still calculating and planning, until he finally opened his mouth to respond.

“No,” he said, “I’m not.”

Relief spread through my mind, but when he kept staring at me, I grew fearful. He wasn’t going to kill me, but would he do something worse? Would he kill my friends, or lock me up in the dungeons for the rest of my life?

“But, why not?” Gant asked, his grip on my arms tightening. “This kid is a troublemaker, I’ve known Wrighto for a good few years and if he overheard everything–”

“Gant, silence, or I’ll cut out your tongue. Understood?”

Damon Gant immediately shut up, but the king wasn’t finished. He walked towards me until he was a few inches away, looking down at me with an expression that chilled me to the bone.

“Franziska let it slip that my son has developed an attachment for you, has he not?” the king asked me.

My stomach twisted. He knows, I thought, how does he know? Franziska has no idea that–

Oh, he only knew what Franziska had known the last time she’d talked to Edgeworth. That’d been before… well. Everything else.

I clenched my jaw and nodded shakily. “Yes, your majesty,” I said quietly.

“And killing you now would make him suspicious, correct?”

My eyes flashed up to him, realizing what he’d been thinking about while he was staring at me.

He needs Miles to trust him, I realized. If the prince were to suspect his king of anything, von Karma’s legacy would disappear.

“Yes, it would,” I answered. My voice shook, but out of fear or anger I wasn’t sure.

The king exhaled through his nose, his theories confirmed, and leaned down until we were face to face.

“This is what you will do, servant boy,” the king said. “You will leave this room and clean up the mess you made. Then you will go on your merry way. If you tell anyone, anyone at all, what you’ve heard, I will kill you and whoever it is you told. Understood?”

“What if I tell the prince?” I asked, my fists shaking.

The king’s hand moved so fast I barely even registered it; one second, it was down by his side, the next it’d slapped me across the face so hard I saw stars. My face stung and my eyes watered, but I didn’t make a sound. Von Karma wouldn’t get that satisfaction from me.

I gritted my teeth and looked back at the king, but one look at my face and he grabbed my hair, pulling my head up to his. There was anger in his eyes now, the kind that if I pushed too far he’d stab me out of sheer spite.

“If you tell the prince any of what you heard,” the king hissed, “I’ll kill your friends, your family, and anyone you’ve ever cared about. And then, I’ll drag you down to the dungeons and torture you until you are begging for death. Do you understand?”

I had no doubt he would do it; Maya was protected by Franziska, and they still needed Ema, but Larry? Gumshoe? What if the king found out about Pearl? He’d kill every single one of them without mercy, and then… he’d come for me.

I hadn’t been this scared in almost ten years. But then, it’d just been me. Now, it was everyone else.

I swallowed, guilt pooling in my stomach, and nodded.

“I understand,” I whispered.

King von Karma’s smirk rivaled that of Franziska’s and Edgeworth’s combined. He released my hair and sheathed his sword, walking towards the door.

“Gant, I’ll see you soon,” the king said, his hand on the door handle. “Don’t let anyone see you.”

The captain of the city guard nodded in my peripherals, and the king opened the door and gingerly stepped over the spilled tea, strutting away down the corridor. As soon as he left, Gant grabbed the back of my neck again and dragged me over to a stack of chairs, over which he’d draped a black cloak.

“Tsk tsk, Wrighto,” Gant said, snatching up his cloak before dragging me towards the door. “You’re lucky the king let you live. If I’d had my way, I would’ve hung you in the town square for everyone to see.”

“I’m sure,” I retorted, unable to stop myself. Gant cast me a glare before pushing open the door and shoving me at the ground.

I landed in the middle of the broken tea set, glass digging into my hands and knees like pinpricks of fire as I choked down a scream of pain. Gant gave me his signature smirk, clapping his hands together before throwing on his cloak and walking down the hall.

I watched him leave until the darkness swallowed him up, cold tea soaking my knees and blood oozing from my hands. Dread and guilt pulled at my gut until it felt more twisted than a German pretzel. The last time I’d felt this helpless and out of control, I’d been locked in a cellar.

The king killed Edgeworth’s father so he’d have a male heir, I thought. The king pays the city guard to kill people so he can rule through fear. The king is blackmailing Lana through Gant so she doesn’t expose anything. The king is going to force Edgeworth and Lana to marry.

And I can’t tell anyone, or everyone I care about will die.

Chapter Text

“Took you long enough,” I said as the door to my room creaked open, no doubt revealing a very late Phoenix Wright carrying my tea. He’d been gone a while, much longer than usual, and I’d started to worry – but no, here he was, probably just having gotten carried away chatting with Maya in the kitchens.

My stomach twisted when I spoke, suddenly realizing he could’ve taken my words as hostile. It’d been rather awkward this morning, what with the… incident last night, and I wasn’t sure how to repair the situation. I couldn’t speak to Wright about it, so I went to Ema, and she suggested trying to bring things back to normal.

Which, of course, was the most difficult part. What was normal between Wright and I? For some reason, it didn’t strike me until he’d left for tea – bickering. Obviously, bickering was the norm. The two of us were always making snide remarks at one another, exchanging sarcasm and quips as easily as breathing. That’s why it’d felt so awkward this morning; whenever Wright and I were around each other, we were never silent. We’d fill up the space with pointless words and jest with each other until one of us cracked, and then we’d start all over again.

So, how would I bring things back to normal? Open with a snide remark, obviously. Which wasn’t exactly hard for me to do.

If I’d known Phoenix Wright would stumble into my room looking like he lost a fight with a glass cabinet, I probably would’ve tried a different approach.

“Honestly, Wright,” I continued, finding a stopping place in my book before marking the page, “you should really learn how to be more punctual–”

I glanced up, putting the book down beside me, and stopped short as I caught sight of Wright. His hands and knees were bleeding, sparkling bits of glass cutting his skin, and his feet were both bloodied and obviously painful to walk on. There were bruises forming on his neck that looked suspiciously like fingers, and a red mark covered part of his face.

“Oh my god,” I said, immediately climbing out of the bed and rushing for the door. Phoenix was swaying, pale as a ghost and his eyes unfocused. He looked like he was in shock, staring at the ground and hunched over in pain.

“Phoenix, what happened?” I asked, moving his arm over my shoulders to support him. I had to get him to Ema immediately. “Are you alright?”

“I…” His voice sounded hoarse and far away, and I began moving him outside my room and towards the stairs. He leaned heavily on me, and once again I was amazed at how light he was. How could he steal scraps from the kitchen every two hours and still weigh this little?

“Listen Wright, I’m bringing you to Ema’s,” I said, debating whether or not I should just outright pick him up. I decided against it – he wasn’t that light, and I certainly wasn’t that strong. His feet hurt every time he put pressure on them though, and I didn’t want him to be in pain.

“I tripped…” he said, his voice soft and shaking. “I… tripped carrying the tea, and it, it shattered all over the floor.”

“You tripped?” Well, that explained the glass and blood. Of all the tea sets he could’ve been carrying, it had to be the glass one. “Where, the stairs?”

Wright shook his head as we stepped into the stairs. “No, it… it was in a hallway,” he answered. “It was dark, and I didn’t see one of the stones and… I’m sorry, the tea set–”

“Damn the tea set,” I said, helping him down the stairs. We reached the first floor a few seconds later, and I began searching for Ema’s apothecary. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine, I guess, I just…”

Wright seemed to be thinking about something, his eyes unfocused again as we headed down the hall. He looked conflicted and scared, and he wasn’t meeting my eyes, just like he always did when…

When he was hiding something.

“What about the mark on your face?” I asked, watching him.

“It–” I felt Wright grow tense, his eyes panicked for a moment, and his voice froze. “It was– I hit the wall, on the way down. I, wasn’t watching where I was going–”

“And those bruises on your neck? Are they from the wall too?”

“They’re…” His hands began to tremble, and his eyes darted everywhere but my face. “They’re not, I, I wasn’t–”

“Wright, tell me what happened,” I demanded, stopping in front of Ema’s door.

“I-I told you, I tripped–”

“Don’t think I can’t tell when you’re lying to me. What happened?”

“Edgeworth please.” His voice was filled with pain, more than what should’ve come from the injuries he had. “Please I, I can’t–”

A loud creak came from the hinges on Ema’s door, and she opened it to reveal the two of us, Wright leaning in my arms and looking about ready to pass out.

“Oh my god, Nick!” Ema reached forward and grabbed his other arm, wrapping it around her shoulders. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“N-no…”

“Oh. Oh well obviously you aren’t, obviously, oh god I’m sorry. Miles, put him on the table. I’ll get some, some stuff…”

I did as Ema asked as she ran off to one of her shelves, searching for something or another. Her entire apothecary seemed to be nothing but shelves and hooks for hanging herbs and holding vials. There was a curtain in the corner, near a window, that divided her sleeping space from the rest of the room, and several pieces of mismatched furniture were scattered about the floor.

“Phoenix…” I glanced towards Ema, making sure she was far enough away to keep from hearing, and leaned in to his face, holding his hand in mine and feeling blood soak onto my skin. Wright still wouldn’t look me in the eyes, but I could see his face now – he looked like he’d been crying.

“Phoenix, why can’t you tell me?” I asked, keeping my voice at a whisper. If he hadn’t actually tripped, who’d done this to him? Why had he been crying? “What happened?”

“Miles, please.” Phoenix finally brought his eyes up, staring into mine with guilt and fear. “Please, I can’t. I just… you need to trust me. Just this once. Please.”

Something pulled at my heart like it wanted to tear my chest in two, but before I could respond, Ema pushed me aside and placed her supplies on the table. She then commanded me to get her a bowl and fill it with water from the bucket while she cut up bandages. There was no use trying to talk to Wright now; Ema was in full-on doctor mode. I did as she asked, Wright’s voice ringing in my ears.

You need to trust me.

I did trust him. I truly did. But why wouldn’t Wright tell me what had made him so afraid?

The question burned in my mind, but I couldn’t ask them. Wright trusted me not to ask them. And I trusted him. There had to be a reason he wasn’t telling me, and if he wouldn’t – or couldn’t – tell me, then I’d find out on my own.

So I filled a bowl with water and brought it back to Ema, ignoring the pit of dread in my stomach as Wright slipped into unconsciousness in front of me.

“Are you absolutely sure you’re alright?” I asked Wright for what must’ve been the tenth time. He cast me an unamused glare from the fireplace and continued blowing out the candles that lined the mantle.

“Edgeworth, seriously,” Wright replied, “I’m fine. Ema got all the glass out, and my feet barely even hurt. It’s not like someone cut off my leg.”

He was right, of course, but that didn’t ease my worry. Once Ema finished bandaging him up, she insisted that Wright sleep in her apothecary so he wouldn’t have to move. Apparently, Wright was a fast healer, and according to Ema, it would only take a day or two for him to start moving and talking like normal.

Well, once he returned to my room the next morning, he may have been moving a little more gingerly than usual, but his attitude was still unimaginably annoying. So yes, back to normal. For the most part.

I still hadn’t asked him about what had really happened yesterday evening. We’d finally gotten back to normal, the awkwardness between us mostly having dissolved, and I didn’t want to ruin whatever… this was by bringing that up. He’d tell me when he was able, just like his past.

I just wasn’t sure carrying around all those secrets was good for him. Hence my worry.

Wright was still turned away from me, but I continued to watch him in concern. I eventually found myself staring at him again, admiring the curve and shape of his body, the way he moved and carried himself even after having shards of glass imbedded into his skin. The man certainly was handsome, despite being malnourished and growing up in poverty, but that wasn’t what drew me to Phoenix Wright. He had this strange kind of quiet confidence, dimmed by sadness and hidden by his shell of jokes and smiles. Phoenix Wright was strong, much stronger than me, and stronger than most anyone I’d ever met. And he knew that. Yet all he wanted people to think of him was his sarcasm and his smile.

I realized I was still staring at him and mentally cursed myself. Friends, Miles, I thought. You’re just friends. Quit staring at him. Think about something else.

So instead, I began staring at his hair, wondering, again, how it managed to stick up like that after sleeping on a damn table.

“What?” Wright asked, turning and seeing me staring. “Don’t tell me you’re still worried.”

It was my turn to glare. “You’re hair defies the laws of nature, Wright.”

He stared at me, his mouth dropping open in shock and surprise, before spluttering out, “Well, your bangs are an assault on humanity.”

“My bangs are perfect,” I replied, “and nothing you say will ever convince me otherwise.”

“They look like moth eaten curtains.”

“I apparently underestimated the intensity of your death wish.”

Wright smirked, but then his face fell and he turned away. My heart sank; he’d been like this since this morning, poking fun for a few seconds before his eyes went dark and he grew quiet. Whether this was because of me or because of what had happened last evening, I wasn’t sure, but I wanted it to stop. Wright may have been annoying, but he wasn’t nearly annoying enough. I wanted him back. I wanted my friend back. I wanted…

Well, I wanted a lot of things. Not all of them were achievable at the moment.

After a minute, Wright turned around and opened his mouth, no doubt about to say something irritating, but an agitated knocking on my door stopped him. Before either of us could even glance at each other, Ema pushed open the door without asking if she could enter and stared at us, frantic.

“You guys need to get downstairs,” she said. “Now.”

“What? Why?” I asked, standing up. Wright and I ran out the door behind Ema and headed for the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Wright asked, limping slightly as we flew down the stairs two at a time. “Is someone hurt?”

“No, well, not yet,” Ema said in panic. “Larry kind of, well he stole something I think? Probably. And now the guards–”

“Ema!” I glanced up and saw Maya at the foot of the stairs, her eyes wide. “Oh good, you got ‘em. Guys, Larry is in deep shit, you need to help him!”

“Exactly how deep?” Wright asked, his voice concerned and beginning to grow panicked as well. “What did he even do?”

“He got caught pickpocketing a guard. And he gave the money back, but the guy and his friends are about ready to cart him off to the gallows and they’re really, really serious this time and–”

“Where’s Gumshoe?” Wright asked, still limping.

“Well, I tried to find him but I don’t know where he is!”

“Why do you want Gumshoe?” I asked, hurrying to keep up. Where were we even going in this god-forsaken castle? “Wouldn’t he just make matters worse?”

“No, actually,” Ema explained. “Gumshoe is nice. He’ll stick Larry in the stocks, but he won’t kill him. These guys actually want to chop his head off!”

“Larry does tend to make a lot of people want him dead,” Maya said absently.

“Yeah, well, we don’t want him dead!” Ema replied. “Miles, can you help us?”

“What?” I stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared at the three of them, finally realizing what I was doing. Wright’s friend Larry had stolen from a guard. Now those guards were punishing him for what he’d done, and Wright, Ema, and Maya wanted me to save his neck. But who was I to stop the guards? Larry was a thief! And the guards knew how to handle criminals, that was their job. Wasn’t it?

“You want me to help him?” I spluttered. “But, but he’s a thief! The guards–”

“The guards want to kill him, Miles!” Ema interrupted. “Over this! The guards don’t care about justice, they just want to keep everyone afraid!”

“Please, your highness, he’s our friend!” Maya continued. “He steals but he’s a good person, he doesn’t deserve to die! Gumshoe doesn’t let his soldiers do this but he’s not here and if we don’t do something they’ll…”

“Please, Edgeworth.” Wright stared at me, his eyes wide and frantic. “He’s our friend. You have to help him.”

I stared, lost for a moment in his eyes. Brown and blue, I thought, I never realized how intense those colors could be.

You need to trust me.

“Fine,” I said with a curt nod. “I will. Where is he?”

“This way!” Maya said, and the four of us took off down the corridor.

It took barely a minute for us to reach the large hallway where all the commotion was. A small crowd of servants, maids, and other guards had gathered around what seemed to be three guards and a tearful Larry. Two of the guards were holding him, and the third seemed to be swinging his sword around as if it were a cane.

“I think it’s about time someone dealt out some real punishment around here,” the guard said, his armor clanking as he swaggered about. “The captain is a little too lenient, if you ask me.”

“No, no, no, please don’t kill me!” Larry begged, tears streaming down his face; evidently, he wasn’t the type that kept his head under pressure. “I have a wife and family to feed!”

“… No you don’t.”

“Well, I have a family! A family of… one.”

“Ha! A family of one? That’s rich. You’re a street rat, idiot, street rats don’t have families. They don’t even have friends!”

“Hey!”

The soldier stopped and turned around just as Wright pushed himself into the middle of the circle, his fists curled and looking ready to fight. He squared his shoulders and stared down the guard, gritting his teeth in anger.

You idiot, I thought. What the hell do you think you’re doing?

“Larry’s my friend,” Wright yelled, his gaze locked onto the guard. “Let go of him!”

The guard seemed shocked for a moment, but the moment passed quickly and he cackled into Wright’s face. “You’re this idiot’s friend?” he asked. “God, you must have poor taste.”

“Hey, shut up! I told you to let him go!”

“Did you? And what if I say no, huh?” the guard raised his sword to Wright’s throat, and I felt something white hot and angry build in my chest. “You gonna fight me? Yeah right.”

“You have no right to kill him without your captain’s orders, and you know it!”

The guard sneered, pushing his sword closer to Phoenix and forcing him to back up. “Oh, and you know so much, huh?” he spat. “What are you trying to get out of defending him? You think it makes you a hero or some shit?”

“It makes me human, you pot-laden toadstool!”

The guard raised his sword, ready to slice Phoenix in two, and words from ages ago rang in my mind.

People always have to stand up for each other, Phoenix. It doesn’t matter if you know them or not. You defend someone that can’t defend themself. That’s what makes us human.

“ENOUGH!”

My voice rang out loud and clear, echoing off the stone walls, and everyone in the hall stopped dead and fell silent. One of the maids gasped, Ema and Maya stared at me from the corners of my eyes, and Wright… Wright had his eyes wide and was staring at me like he was seeing me for the first time. The guard with the sword had it poised above his head, ready to strike, but his eyes were transfixed on me and full of fear.

Good. They should be.

“What is going on here?” I asked, my voice ringing through the hall. My eyes zeroed in on the guard and I gave him the most withering glare I was capable of; he practically shrank under my gaze.

“We were… just…” The guard swallowed. “We were reprimanding a thief, your highness.”

“Were you?” I said, striding forward. The crowd parted before me, practically cowering away, and it felt like I was radiating power. I could do anything, to any of these people, and nothing would ever happen to me. I could kill everyone here, and I would lose nothing.

No, I immediately thought. I’d lose Wright.

“It didn’t look like you were reprimanding a thief, guardsman,” I remarked, my voice dangerously low. “More like making a spectacle.”

“Well…” The guard lowed his sword, stuttering. “I uh, th-this thief has been a problem for a while, your highness.”

“I don’t believe that gives you the right to execute the castle’s only delivery boy.”

“W-well, we…”

The man glanced between Larry and me, grasping for words, as his men holding Larry shifted uncomfortably behind him. In the back of my mind, I was aware of people gawking and whispering, but I ignored it. Let them gawk and whisper; I had to save Wright’s friend from the castle guards.

“We, our… our captain…” The guard still seemed to be quaking in his boots, but at least he’d found his tongue. “Your highness, we just assumed since, w-well we had to give out some kind of punishment and our captain isn’t here so–”

“Who said I wasn’t here? What’s goin’ on?”

I turned around with the group of guards and servants to see Captain Gumshoe walk out of a hallway, his armor clanking like it always did whenever one of the guards walked about. His helmet was tucked under his arm, but other than that he looked exactly the same as ever; large, intimidating, and completely and utterly confused.

Gumshoe, I wondered, since when do you have perfect timing? The one time you brought me tea you were an hour and a half late.

“Prince Miles?” Gumshoe raised an eyebrow when he caught sight of me, standing in the middle of a group of servants. “What are you doing here?”

“Keeping your guards from killing people while you were away, apparently,” I responded. “Where were you?”

“Eating lunch, your highness! Sorry. What’s that about my guards though?”

I stepped to the right, next to Wright, and revealed the three guards and Larry, all of whom seemed to be looking at each other, ready to blame everyone else. Larry just gave Gumshoe a weak grin.

“Oh.” Gumshoe’s usually cheerful voice suddenly became exasperated. “It’s Harry.”

“Captain! Sir!” The nervous guardsman immediately snapped to attention and sheathed his sword as Larry’s jaw dropped open, insulted. “We, we were just apprehending a thief, sir.”

“Really? What’d he steal this time?” Gumshoe asked, walking through the crowd to the center.

“My money, sir.”

“Did he give it back?”

“Well, yes.”

“Good.” Gumshoe walked up to Larry and picked him up by the back of his shirt, leaning down into his face.

“H-hey there, captain!” Larry said nervously, sticking both his thumbs up. “Pal buddy! How’s it going?”

“Pal buddy? You stole from one of my men!”

“Well, yeah, but hey! They pay me less than you, and that’s saying something.”

Gumshoe huffed and rolled his eyes. “Put him in the stocks,” he said, pushing Larry into the two guards. “No killing anyone.”

“But, sir!” The nervous guard from before stared at him in outrage. “He’s a thief!”

“Yeah, and I said no killing anyone. Follow orders.”

The guard spluttered, glancing between his captain and myself, before wisely deciding not to disobey and condemn himself. He bowed his head to both of us and turned around, his fisted clenched as he and his fellow guards pulled Larry down the corridor.

“Thanks, buddy!” Larry said, turning his head to give Gumshoe a wide grin. “Saved my neck!”

Gumshoe glared at him.

“Hey boys!” he called out to his guards. “Make sure those kids in the square get some rotten tomatoes while you’re locking him up.”

“Aw, come on!” Larry wailed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wright cover his eyes with his hands and shake his head. Maya and Ema looked just as embarrassed, and Gumshoe just rolled his eyes again and began to shoo people off.

“Has he always been like this?” I whispered to Wright, watching Larry as the crowd began melting away.

“Larry?” Wright grumbled. “Yes. Always.”

“Good lord.”

“Yeah, well. I better go make sure they don’t beat him up or anything.” Wright sighed and began walking away, but after a few steps he stopped and turned back to me.

“Thanks for helping,” he said with a small smile. “I… don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been here.”

“I do what I can, Wright.”

Wright grinned, and for a brief moment it felt as if part of me wanted to fly straight into the clouds. Then he turned back around and ran after Larry, gesturing for Ema and Maya to follow, and the three of them ran down the hall after the guards.

“You helped, your highness?” Gumshoe asked next to me, making me jump slightly. I’d forgotten he was there, I’d been so taken with… never mind.

“Yes, Gumshoe, I helped,” I replied. The hallway was mostly deserted now, the maids and servants already having wandered off, whispering and gesturing to each other. “Your guards wanted to string Larry’s neck.”

“Yeah, a lot of ‘em want to do that,” he said with a shrug. “Even I want to do that sometimes! Don’t tell Nick I said that, highness.”

I snorted. “Why do you keep Larry around anyway?” I asked. “If he’s that annoying, getting rid of him would be easier.”

“Well, he’s Nick’s buddy,” Gumshoe answered. “And he ain’t an awful person, so it’s not like I wanna get rid of him. Sure he’s a thief, but Nick and Maya’ll straighten him out.”

“Huh.”

“Actually,” Gumshoe continued, “I’m kinda surprised. Since when are you sticking your neck out for thieves, your highness?”

“Well, I…” I reached for an explanation to give, but I couldn’t find one that sounded logical. So I went with the truth. “He’s Wright’s friend. Wright asked me to help, so I did.”

“Really?” Gumshoe looked surprised. “That’s new.”

I glared at him. “I can always go back to being cold and unfeeling, captain,” I threatened.

“No, no, I mean it as a good thing!” Gumshoe corrected quickly. He grinned chuckled. “If I may say so, your highness, I kinda like this new you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?” I asked. “Why?”

“I dunno, your highness. Just feels right.”

I blinked and turned away, looking down the hall where Wright had disappeared moments earlier. Gumshoe may have been a bit of a doofus, but he wasn’t completely inept. He had a point.

It just feels right, I thought. Well, it does feel right. I feel more like myself than I ever did before. I wonder why.

In my heart, I knew why. But I wasn’t quite ready to admit it. Not yet.

Not yet.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe you’re rereading that book.”

I shot Edgeworth a glare and continued flipping through The Death of King Arthur, which I had decided to pick back up again instead of actually moving on to other books. Edgeworth and I were both sitting at his table, occasionally bickering and just enjoying being around each other.

“I am not rereading the whole thing,” I replied, turning a few pages. “I’m just rereading my favorite chapters.”

“How many favorite chapters do you have, exactly?” the prince asked.

“Forty-seven.”

“And how many chapters are there in the book?”

“… Fifty-three.”

“Hm.” Edgeworth gave me a smug look and turned back to writing, his point proven. God, he was such a stuck-up jerk. Why was I even friends with him, anyway?

Oh right, because sucking his dick was sort of out of the question at this point. That’s why.

I huffed and buried my face in my book, trying to keep myself from looking at Edgeworth. This entire situation was horrible. He was too damn smart and too damn attractive for me to stop thinking about. What the hell was I supposed to do? I was only human. Edgeworth and his stupid smug face and stupid bangs and stupid cravat were ruining my life. And I couldn’t even do anything about it. If only the king…

My blood ran cold. The king. The very thought of him made every inch of my body fill with guilt. The gash on the bottom of my foot started to sting too; all the other injuries I’d gotten that day had healed for the most part, except for that one. The cut was too deep, and it still hurt. Every time I walked, it reminded me of that hallway, of the things I’d heard and the things I couldn’t do.

If you tell the prince any of what you heard, I’ll kill your friends, your family, and anyone you’ve ever cared about. And then, I’ll drag you down to the dungeons and torture you until you are begging for death. Do you understand?

I understood alright. Understood the king was a murderer and a liar, and that the world would probably be better off without him.

The king wasn’t the worst part though. The worst part was knowing everything and not being able to tell Edgeworth. His father had been murdered by the king just so he could have a male heir; that was something Miles Edgeworth deserved to know.

But if I told him, I’d lose everyone I’d ever cared about. Including him. Being locked in a dungeon doesn’t exactly do wonders for any kind of relationship, romantic or not. And Miles… what would the king do to him if he ever found out?

“You alright, Phoenix?” Edgeworth asked suddenly, snapping me back to reality.

“Huh? Oh.” I glanced down at my hands, which were clutching the book so hard my knuckles were white. “Yeah,” I said, slowly relaxing my hands and placing the book down. “I’m fine.”

Edge raised an eyebrow, and for a moment I worried he would ask me what was wrong – lying to him made everything ten times worse. But before he could open his mouth, someone knocked on the door.

“Yes?” Edgeworth asked loudly.

“Open up, in the name of the king!”

Edgeworth’s eyes widened and my heart skipped a beat. The king? Why was he coming here? What did he want?

For a moment, I worried that the king could read minds and he was coming to take me away. But I realized that was stupid; he had to be here for some other reason. He must be here about Miles. Edge and I looked at each other, confused, before I stood up and moved towards the door, grabbing the handle and opening it before quickly stepping out of the way.

The first two people to enter were a pair of king’s guards, followed closely by King Manfred himself, sweeping into the room with an expression of pure rage. I bowed my head and practically hid behind the door, hoping to keep him from noticing me, but the king wasn’t looking for me. He only had eyes for the prince.

“Your Majesty,” Miles said, his chair scraping across the floor as he stood and bowed. “To what do I owe this honor?”

“Silence, boy,” the king snapped. Edgeworth’s face paled and he straightened up, watching the king with apprehension.

“I…” Edgeworth began to say. “What–”

“You seem to have forgotten your place as a prince, Miles,” the king interrupted. Even with his back to me, I could tell he was angry – angrier than I’d ever seen him. His guards were even keeping their distance, tucking themselves away near the walls of Miles’s room.

“Have the lessons I’ve taught you these past ten years been in vain? Are you truly that much of an imbecile?” King von Karma continued, his voice rising. “You are the heir to my throne, Miles von Karma, and I expect you to act as such.”

“But, father,” Miles asked, his voice uncertain, “what… what exactly have I done that–”

“Protecting a peasant from the guards, Miles!” the king shouted. “You have sunk to their level. Pathetic! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

It took me a moment to realize who he was talking about – Larry. Edgeworth had rescued Larry from the castle guards three days ago. It hadn’t felt like a big deal after it was all said and done, but that crowd, those guards… they must’ve sent rumors flying about the castle like wild crows. Sooner or later, the king would’ve heard some of them. And knowing the king…

“Have I taught you nothing, you ungrateful brat?” King von Karma’s voice was so loud it reverberated in my skull. “I brought you into my family after your father’s death, after he planned to betray me, and this is how you repay me? You ignore my teachings, throw your reputation and class away, simply to help a wretched thief?”

“He… the guards weren’t…” Edgeworth’s voice was weaker than I’d ever heard it. He looked terrified, his eyes locked onto the king’s face and his body straight and rigid, like a soldier standing at attention. “They… the punishment was unjust.”

“The punishment for lowly peasants is something for the guards to decide, not princes and kings,” von Karma responded. “You forget your place. You are above all that, Miles von Karma. Thieves will get what they deserve. Helping those beneath you makes you weak.”

“How… how can you say that?” Miles said suddenly. “Our entire purpose as rulers is to help those beneath us. They depend on us for everything! How can we simply turn our backs on the peasants when–”

“You dare question me?” King Manfred roared. “I am your king and your father! My word is law and you shall obey it!”

“You aren’t always right!” Miles returned, his voice rising to match the king’s.

“Yes I am!” The king stepped into Miles’s face, and I could see Miles shrink under his gaze. “I am always right, you insolent child! I am the king! You dare defy your king?”

Edgeworth’s hands were curled into shaking fists, and I saw a glint of defiance in his eyes.

“I did what I believed in my heart to be right!” he yelled. “It is my duty as prince to help the people of my kingdom, and it is my heart that will rule the throne in the years to come, not yours!”

“Your heart? Your heart?!” The king’s voice was so loud and high he sounded like a banshee. “A von Karma does not rule through petty sways in the heart, stupid boy! A von Karma rules with his mind, his logic. Not with emotions! A von Karma is perfect!”

“Well I’m not really a von Karma, am I?” Edgeworth yelled in return.

The king’s next words choked in his throat, and suddenly the room was very, very quiet. No one moved. The guards and I stared at the prince and the king, and I could hear my heart hammering in my chest as the tension grew. Miles kept his eyes locked on the king’s face, and the king… well, I couldn’t see his face. But the silence was enough. Miles had crossed a line.

It stayed silent for a few seconds more, until finally the king stood up to his full height, only a few inches taller than Edgeworth but holding himself in a way that made it seem impossible to defeat him. Edgeworth continued to stare at him with defiant, silver eyes.

“You disappoint me,” the king said.

Miles’s face changed the second the words left the king’s lips. His eyes were no longer defiant, his face and posture full of rage; it was as if the king had stabbed Miles Edgeworth through the heart. Hurt blossomed in his eyes. His fists shook and his knuckles were white. And even from my spot near the door, I could see tears begin to well in his eyes.

I wanted to tear the king apart with my bare hands. No one hurt Miles Edgeworth. No one.

No one except the king.

King Manfred von Karma turned away from his heir and swept out of the room, his head held high, his work here done. The guards shook themselves out of their stupor and quickly followed him out, one of them closing the door behind him – I’d accidentally been holding the thing open the entire time, clutching the door handle as if my life depended on it.

Edgeworth stared at the wall next to my head, seeing nothing, his eyes swimming with tears. He seemed frozen, unable even to breathe. I didn’t know what to say.

Eventually, he sucked in some air and shakily breathed it back out, closing his eyes and letting the tears stream down his face. They dropped off his jaw and fell to the floor.

“Edgeworth…” I began, taking a few steps towards him. He opened his eyes and focused on me, the silver softening slightly.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, Wright,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I didn’t… I had no idea…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I replied, reaching forward and taking his hands. They were trembling. “It’s not your fault.”

Edgeworth shook his head. “But it is,” he said, “it is. He’s right. I rescued Larry. I did it because you asked, and because I knew it was the right thing to do. But… but he doesn’t…”

Miles sniffed and sucked in another breath, trying to calm down. I squeezed his hands.

“The king,” he continued, “never listens to me. He doesn’t listen to anyone. He believes what he wants to believe and forces it onto other people. And I just… I hate him. He’s the king and my father and I despise him for that. Is that wrong?”

Miles stared at me, his eyes begging for an answer, and suddenly I felt all the guilt I’d been feeling these past few days rise within me like a tidal wave. The king wasn’t Miles’s father. The king had murdered Miles’s father. Edgeworth had every right to hate him. Every right.

But he could never know why.

I dropped my eyes to the floor, trying to ignore the tension building inside me, and Edgeworth sighed.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. His hands slipped out of mine, and he turned and walked a little ways away, his back to me. “It’s not fair to expect you to answer that. He’s the king. He… controls everything. It’s not fair. He’s awful and horrible and…”

Edgeworth sighed. “That’s not even the worst part,” he continued. “The worst part is I still want him to be proud of me. He’s the king. He’s my father. My real father was about to commit treason when that thief killed him, and the king took me in anyway. He gave me a home and protected me and taught me how to be his heir, and I owe him for the last ten years of my life. Even if he’s horrible, he did that for me. The least I can do for him is make him proud. And… I can’t even accomplish that.”

My stomach twisted, guilt pulling at my heart like marionette strings, and my mouth moved before I could stop it.

“The king isn’t someone you want being proud of you, Miles,” I whispered.

I stared at the floor, every organ in my body feeling like it was being tossed about on the ocean. I heard Miles turn around; I could practically feel his eyes on me. But I didn’t look up. I couldn’t.

“What did you say?” he asked. His voice had an edge to it, like he was only a few seconds away from snapping. I clenched my fists, trying to keep them from shaking.

“Wright.” I heard Miles’s footsteps approach until his shoes were directly in front of me, but I kept my head down. “If you have something to say, say it.”

It wasn’t a suggestion anymore; it was an order. I could feel Miles’s gaze burning into my skull, willing me to answer. But when I tried to speak, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

This wasn’t my story to tell. I didn’t have a right to tell Miles anything.

But Miles needed to know.

“I…” My hands were shaking. Even curled up into fists, I could feel them shaking. “I-I can’t, I…”

“Phoenix.” His voice wasn’t dangerous anymore; it was softer, no edge to it. I slowly raised my eyes and saw him staring at me in concern, his brows furrowed like they always did when he was worried.

“Phoenix, what are you trying to tell me?” he asked, and my stomach dropped into my toes.

Tell him, Phoenix, I thought. He deserves to know.

The king will kill you. He’ll kill everyone you love, and then he’ll kill you.

That doesn’t matter. Miles has to know. He deserves to know.

I swallowed, trying to say something, but I couldn’t get it out again and dropped my head, cringing. It was like my voice had disappeared. I shouldn’t be the one to tell him. I wasn’t important enough to him to tell him something like this.

“Phoenix Wright, look at me.” Miles put his hands on my arms, just below my shoulders, and I forced myself to do as he said, staring into his eyes. They were silver now, not steel. Just like when we were ten. Just like I remembered.

“Why shouldn’t I want the King to be proud of me?” he asked. His voice was firm, demanding an answer. I had to tell him. I couldn’t tell him.

Oh for god’s sake Phoenix just spit it out already!

“Ask…” My voice broke, so I inhaled and tried again. “A-ask the King about your father.”

Miles stared at me in confusion. “The King is my father,” he said.

I shook my head and said, “No, Miles, your real father. Ask him about your real father, Gregory Edgeworth. Ask him… ask him how he died.”

I could see the split second of confusion on Miles’s face before something clicked in his mind, and suddenly his eyes were miles away. He’d figured it out. He knew what I was trying to say. I felt the grip on my arms loosen as Miles stared off into the air behind me, shock and realization on his face.

And then his eyes snapped back into focus, hard and determined.

“Stay here,” he told me, squeezing my arms. “I’ll be back soon.”

His hands slipped away and he turned around, his footsteps leading him towards the door. I heard it creak open and Edgeworth’s footsteps pass over the threshold. And then the door snapped shut behind him and Miles Edgeworth left me alone, staring at he ground feeling sick to my stomach.

What the hell had I just done?

Chapter Text

Ask the king about your father.

My boots pounded on the floor as I ran down the hall, wind whipping through my hair like I was running through a hurricane. I’d checked the throne room for the king, but he wasn’t there; he must have returned to his private chambers. It was nearing the evening, and he no doubt wished to retire.

If I got to his room before he locked himself away, I doubted the king would be doing any retiring tonight.

Ask him about your real father, Gregory Edgeworth.

Millions of ideas spun around my head as I ran through the castle, theories I’d never dared think aloud and events that only now made sense. When would Wright have learned about this? It must’ve been the day he shattered the tea set. That explained the bruises he’d gotten on his face and neck. It explained why he’d been so distant, why he’d told me he couldn’t tell me what had actually happened. The King had probably threatened his life if he told me what he learned. But what Wright had learned…

Ask him how he died.

No. No, it couldn’t be possible. My father was killed by a peasant thief. The King had rescued me from an unknown fate. He couldn’t have had him killed. What would he stand to gain from that?

Me, I realized. He got me. But why…. Why would he want me?

I pushed the thoughts out of my head as I neared the king’s chambers. Thoughts and speculation meant nothing. I had to find out myself, to see if what Wright had been insinuating was true. My anger at the king from the conversation ten minutes ago still hadn’t dimmed – perhaps my hasty assumption had sprung from that. Perhaps he’d done nothing.

Or perhaps, the king I’d idolized for the past ten years of my life was a murderer and a liar. And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid to think that.

I can’t be afraid of the truth.

There was one guard at the door, a king’s guard who tried to tell me something before I pushed open the door and burst into the room. The door slammed against the stone wall, and I stood in the doorway panting, scanning the room for my father.

No, not my father. The king.

The king, it seemed, had been in the middle of a meeting with Lana and Franziska, all three of whom were now staring at me in shock. That shock, on the king’s face, quickly turned into anger.

“You insolent brat,” he spat. “How dare you interrupt a private meeting after the discussion we just had? I should have you–”

“I need to know the truth,” I growled. Franziska and Lana were staring at me as if I’d gone mad, but I held the king’s gaze. His eyes felt like shards of ice piercing my mind, but I held.

“The truth about what?” his majesty snapped in reply. “I have several secrets, boy, ones I keep for the betterment of the kingdom. You have to be more specific–”

“I want to know what happened to my father!” I yelled.

The king froze mid-sentence, staring at me in shock. For the briefest moment, I saw a flash of fear in his eyes, and then his face hardened into the stone mask of detachment I was so accustomed to seeing adorn his face. He was King Manfred von Karma. He had no emotions. He had no fear.

But I’d seen it. That had been enough.

“Leave us,” he said to Lana and Franziska. He didn’t even turn to them – he kept his eyes locked on me, scanning my face as if trying to pick out exactly how much I knew.

“Your…” Lana began, “your majesty–?”

“I said leave, you impudent woman!”

Lana swallowed and nodded curtly, turning and heading for the door, but Franziska didn’t leave – out of the corner of my eye, I saw her dart into the king’s closet, the door barely open with one eye peeking out. The king hadn’t seemed to notice; he was too busy glaring at me in utter rage.

Did I want her hearing this? I thought about it for a moment; Gregory Edgeworth was my father, and Franziska had no connection to him. But I had a theory as to why the king had taken me in after my father died, and that theory very much involved my sister. She deserved to hear this too.

“Guard!” King Manfred yelled, making the single guard outside his room jump. He scurried inside, large and imposing yet terrified under the gaze of his king.

“Yes, your majesty?” he asked weakly.

The king beckoned the guard towards him and whispered something in his ear, pushing him away and nodding once he finished. The guard nodded in return and left, shutting the door behind him. What was that about?

I didn’t get to think on it too deeply before King Manfred von Karma sighed.

“You need to understand something,” he began, his voice still cold and emotionless. “As king, I have made many difficult decisions in regard to ruling this kingdom. Decisions that some people believed to be wrong. And in order to keep this kingdom safe, those people had to be eliminated.”

“Those people,” I said, the words twisted in my dry mouth. “You mean my father.”

I remember the day the king rode up to my ruined house on his horse, high and regal with his emotionless mask intimidating everyone who saw him. The first thing he told me was that my father was a traitor, that he’d betrayed the kingdom, and that his death might be difficult for me, but it was necessary.

He did that intentionally, I realized. My whole life, I’ve been trying to prove to him that I would be better than my father. He made me dependent on his praise before I even realized I could be.

The king smirked and nodded, and something white-hot sparked inside me. This man had my father killed, I thought, and then he used his death against me. The king is a monster.

But why had he had him killed in the first place?

“Your father,” King Manfred continued, “had discovered one of my more clandestine decisions, one that if brought to light might ruin my reign forever. He wished to expose this secret to the public, and I couldn’t allow that.”

“So you had him killed,” I whispered.

The king shook his head. “No,” he said, “I killed him. I wanted to see the light drain out of that miserable traitor’s eyes. So I stabbed him in the chest with a thief’s knife. The earthquake was a convenient distraction.”

He stabbed him he stabbed him he stabbed him he stabbed him.

“You… killed my father,” I choked out. My father, my incredible, kind-hearted, justice-seeking father. Killed by his majesty the king’s own hand.

Von Karma smirked.

“Why?” I asked, keeping the pain out of my voice. I had a lot of practice with that, thanks to the king’s lessons. How ironic. “Why did you kill him? What had he discovered?”

“Ah, now that,” von Karma said, “is something I cannot share.”

“I deserve to know!” I shouted.

“You deserve to grovel at my feet for your father’s misdeeds, boy!” the king screamed, pointing his finger at my face. “You deserve nothing from me!”

“Then why take me in at all?” I yelled back, my fists shaking. “Why make the son of a traitor your heir?”

Von Karma paused before his face contorted into a wicked smirk. “Oh come now,” he said, “that’s an easy one. My wife gave me only a daughter to be my heir; I needed a son. I chose you.”

I stared at him in disbelief, my mind flashing to Franziska in the closet. I was right. My theory had been right.

“So you took me,” I said. “You took me just to keep your own daughter from inheriting the throne that is rightfully hers.”

“No woman has any right to hold power over men,” the king responded. “Women follow the whims of men. To do anything else would be blasphemous.”

“Why have Lana captain the king’s guard, then?” I asked. “Why have her be a guard at all?”

“The captain of the king’s guard is still below the king,” he said. “And I need her close, for… certain reasons. Besides, you and her will be betrothed, soon enough. And a queen must obey her king.”

I stared at him. “You’re sick,” I said.

“No, Miles,” the king said. “This kingdom is sick. I’m simply doing my best to heal it.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the door slammed open behind me and I spun around before I could answer. It was the guard again, along with two others, only now they held between them the struggling figure of–

“Wright!”

Oh my god. Wright stopped struggling to stare at me, his eyes filled with panic and fear, before the guards dragged him into the center of the room and pushed him onto his knees before the king. I wanted to run to him, to tell the guards to release him, but I knew it would do nothing – the king had ordered them to bring him, and now… now I didn’t know what to do.

He’s going to die, I thought. The king is going to kill him because he told me. The love of my life is going to die right in front of me.

“Nick!” I heard someone yell. A moment later, a struggling Maya was dragged in by another pair of guards, pulling against their grips, but she stopped as soon as she saw the king. An audible gasp came from behind me; Franziska was still hiding in the closet, no doubt terrified of what they might do to Maya.

I didn’t want things to go this way. I didn’t want anyone to die.

But now, Maya and Franziska were here, the king was here, the guards were here, and Phoenix…

The king hadn’t seemed to hear Franziska gasp; he glared at the first guard, who had Wright’s hair in his hand and was holding his head up. The guard shrank under his gaze.

“I thought I told you,” von Karma seethed, “to bring me Wright and Wright only.”

“S-sorry, your majesty,” the guard stuttered. “She saw us dragging him and started making a ruckus, so we had to bring her along too. You… said you wanted this quiet.”

Von Karma’s jaw twitched, but he eventually looked away from the guard and turned to Maya. Her eyes flashed up to him every once in a while, but for the most part she kept them locked on the ground, chewing her lip.

“You’re Franziska’s servant girl, are you not?” the king asked.

Maya nodded.

The king stared at her for a good five seconds before turning away and fixing his gaze on Wright.

My stomach leapt into my throat.

“I thought I made it exceedingly clear,” the king said, taking a step towards my friend, “what would happen if you told the prince anything.”

Phoenix’s entire body was shaking, and he glanced towards Maya and me in panic.

“Please,” he whispered, and the desperation in his voice made my heart shatter. “Don’t hurt anyone, they didn’t do anything wrong–”

“Ah, but you did,” the king smirked. “And that’s what matters, isn’t it?”

I saw the king grasp the handle of his sword, heard him unsheathe it slowly, and every muscle in my body grew tense.

He’s going to kill him, I thought. The king is going to kill Wright. And not just Wright – he must’ve threatened everyone he cares about too. He’s going to kill everyone. Miles, you have to stop him!

But I was frozen. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move.

Wright seemed to be just as frozen, staring at the sword as it moved through the air, until the king finally put the tip to rest at Phoenix’s throat. With the flick of his wrist, the king could kill the man I loved.

“Von Karma,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

The king turned to me, his eyes flashing with something dangerous.

“Emotions make you weak, boy,” he said. “Perhaps it’s time I teach you a real lesson.”

He raised his sword, ready to slice Phoenix in two, and my body moved before my mind.

“NO!” I screamed. I ran in between Wright and the king, ready for my life to end, ready to sacrifice my own for Phoenix’s. I wasn’t the true heir, I never was. Without Phoenix Wright… I had nothing.

I will die for him.

That thought gave me strength.

Von Karma’s sword stopped barely an inch away from my head, the blade frozen above my eyes like an icicle about to drop onto my face. He stared at me, his eyes wide with shock – it wouldn’t have surprised me to know that the king was unable to comprehend sacrificing one’s own life for another.

I heard Wright inhale behind me, as if he’d been holding his breath the entire time.

“What are you–” the king began, but I cut him off.

“You will never lay a finger on this man,” I said, my hands curling into fists. “You will not hurt him or any of his friends. No one will die. And if they do, or if you hurt them, I’ll tell the world of your secrets and never again be your heir. Understood?”

The king seemed to be having an existential crisis, at least according to his facial expression. He glanced between Wright and me, as if unable to understand what I’d just said. For a moment, I actually believed my improvised plan would work.

And then the king’s face contorted into a sneer, and my heart began to race with dread.

“You seem to forget who holds the most authority here, Prince Miles,” he said. “I can do anything I want.”

“Then you risk losing your precious male heir,” I responded. “Then your real daughter will have to take the throne in my place. How appalling.”

“Don’t patronize me, you impertinent slug!” he snapped. “You are a child. You have no power over me!”

“Yes I–”

“No, you don’t.” His voice grew quiet, terrifying me even more than if he had shouted. He had no power. He couldn’t do anything. I’d tell everyone, and he’d be ruined. Right?

Right?

“Listen to me, boy,” the king spat. “I’ll make the deals here. This servant belongs to me. His friends will not be harmed, but he is mine. And if you rebel, if you disobey me or tell anyone any of what you have learned, you are wishing upon your pathetic servant a fate worse than death. Do you understand?”

“You…” I stared at him. “You can’t just… No! I’ll tell Lana!”

“Will you? Guard, take the boy down to the dungeon and give him twenty lashes.”

I stopped, completely taken aback. I’d just… the king had just…

I stared at the king, shocked into silence. He couldn’t just turn the tables like that and expect me to answer! He couldn’t just do that to Wright!

Wright’s eyes widened in fear as the guard nodded, pulling him to his feet. I had to stop this. I had to.

“Stop! You can’t just–”

“Forty lashes.”

“Wha…!” The king smirked as the guards dragged Phoenix towards the door. Every word I said hurt Wright more. How could the king do this? How could he… why would he…

“Miles, Miles, Miles,” the king said, shaking his head. “You’ll never learn, will you? Making emotional attachments to useless servant boys makes you less of a man.”

Something caught aflame inside me, and my mouth moved of its own accord.

“That useless servant boy is more of a man than you’ll ever be,” I hissed.

The room seemed to freeze, and everyone stared at me like I’d just signed my own death wish. In a way, I had. But it wasn’t me getting punished, it was…

Oh god what had I done.

I stared at the king in fear as he sheathed his sword, pulling the whip off his belt instead. The look in his eyes was one of pure hatred.

“A hundred lashes,” he said, his eyes seeming to pierce my very soul. “Take him away, men.”

“No!” I yelled, springing forward. I didn’t know what for, but I wanted to do something. I wanted to kill the king, I wanted to save Phoenix, I wanted to stop everything that had happened and never put Phoenix’s life in danger again.

I wanted a lot of things. Not all of them were achievable at the moment.

“Restrain the prince,” the king said, turning around and following the guards and Phoenix out the door. I ran after him, but the two guards that had been holding Maya grabbed me in the hallway, their grips stronger than iron. I struggled and twisted as much as I could, but I couldn’t break free. I couldn’t save him.

“Phoenix!” I yelled, still trying to pull away. “Let go of me! Phoenix!”

“Miles!” he yelled back.

“Take the prince to his chambers and lock him in,” von Karma said, his back still to me. He wouldn’t even look at me. He didn’t even care. “No one is allowed to meet with him. Keep him there until I return.”

“How can you do this?” I screamed at the king’s back. “Please!”

“Miles, I’m sorry!” Phoenix choked out, and then a guard slammed his fist against the side of my friend’s head, and Phoenix fell silent.

“Phoenix!” I screamed, my feet scraping uselessly across the floor. “Phoenix please!”

“PHOENIX!”

 It’d been an hour.

The guards had thrown me into the room and placed a wooden beam across the outside of the door, and no matter how much I kicked it, the door wouldn’t budge. The windows were far too high for me to climb out, I had absolutely no idea how to climb a chimney, and negotiating with the guards had gotten nowhere. I was stuck, trapped in my room as Phoenix was tortured in the dungeons beneath the castle by my father’s murderer.

I felt sick to my stomach and wanted to punch everything. I wanted to throttle the king’s throat with my bare hands. I wanted to cry.

This is all my fault.

The scraping of stone against stone startled me, and I looked to my left, amazed to see the side of the fireplace sliding over the ground like a door.

What the–? I thought.

When Franziska and Maya’s heads popped into view, all it served to do was confuse me more.

“What…” I began, my voice hoarse, “how are you–”

“Quiet, fool!” Franziska interrupted. “Do you want the guards to hear us?”

Franziska climbed into my room, Maya quickly following suit, with Pearl slipping inside last. I stared at the three girls, covered in dust and grime, having obviously just climbed out of a secret passage behind my fireplace, and nearly fainted on the spot from pure mental exhaustion.

This was honestly too much for one man to handle in a day.

“How did you…” I began, but Pearl interrupted me excitedly.

“I figured out there are secret passages all over the castle!” she said, grinning widely. “And when Maya and the princess needed to get to your room without being seen, I showed them the way!”

“I…” I stared at Pearl, too dazed to function. She’d discovered secret passages in the castle? Well, considering how much time the child had on her hands, she had to be doing something.

“Little brother,” Franziska whispered, frantically bringing the topic back to the present, “I know we haven’t always been on the best of terms, but right now, we have a common enemy. Our father is a disgusting fool of a human being and not worthy of his throne. We need to get rid of him.”

“Get… rid of him?” I stared at her, my mind trying to catch up. “But… Franziska, he has me under his thumb. I can’t do anything.”

“I told you getting attached to that boy was a bad idea, foolish little brother,” Franny said. I would’ve yelled at her, but Maya elbowed the princess in the side and glared at her.

“Apologies,” my sister said. “I’m under no right to talk. But the point is, our foolish father must be gotten rid of.”

“How?” I asked, desperation rising in my voice. “How the hell are we supposed to accomplish that? I can’t do anything. This is all my fault, and now–”

“Prince Miles, pull yourself together!” Maya snapped, looking as angry as was physically possible for her. “Nick needs your help, and all you’re doing is moping around! Franziska and I have a plan to get rid of the king.”

“You… do? Already?” I asked, staring.

Franziska gave me an unamused glare. “Have you forgotten what it is I do with my free time, little brother?” she asked.

Ah, right. Franziska liked to spend her days perfecting whip techniques and planning how to theoretically overthrow anything from guilds to kingdoms. She had a bit of an uncanny knack for it too.

“You have a plan,” I said again, pulling myself together. Maya was right – Wright was trapped in the dungeon, and I was doing nothing. I had to focus.

Franziska nodded. “Yes, we do,” she said. “And you and your foolish boyfriend are a major component of said plan.”

“He’s not…” I trailed off, and eventually sighed in defeat. At this point, denying Wright and I’s romantic interest in each other was almost a crime in it of itself.

“We need you both for the plan to work, Prince Miles,” Maya said, bringing me back to the present. “Can you help?”

I stared at the girls before me; my sister Franziska, my friend Maya, and Pearl. All three of them were risking a lot just standing in my room. And they had a plan to get rid of the king, the king that had killed my father and threatened my friends’ lives and was torturing the only boy I’d ever loved.

Determination took root in my mind and I nodded.

“I’ll help,” I said, my voice low. “I’m not letting him hurt anyone else.

“Tell me the plan.”

Chapter Text

Phoenix

I woke up in the dark, soaked in sweat and shivering, my entire body aching with cold. My arms were chained above my head and I couldn’t feel a thing from my fingers to my shoulders. Everything hurt too; there were bloody, gaping lashes all over my body, probably a few broken ribs, my face had cuts and bruises strewn across it like a patchwork quilt, even my numb wrists stung where the chains had cut into them. My feet felt like blocks of ice, and I could feel the blood on my back sticking to the grimy cell wall. I didn’t even have a shirt anymore.

The pain and the cold weren’t what bothered me though. I mean it sucked, and it hurt, but I’d gone through worse, much worse to be incapacitated by a few whippings. No, what terrified me was the dark; I hated the dark. I hated being stranded in blackness, unable to see but able to hear, completely alone and helpless. It made me feel like I was ten years old again, alone and locked in that stone cellar, waiting for someone to remember me but too afraid to cry for help.

Stop it, Wright, I thought to myself. I didn’t want to remember this. I couldn’t remember this. If I dwelled on it too long the fear would consume me again and I’d break. And I couldn’t break. Not now. Edgeworth needed me to be strong.

It’s just the dark, Phoenix, I told myself, shivering. It’s just the dark. What’s there to be afraid of in the dark?

I knew perfectly well what, but I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. Pushed them back, buried them, and forgot about them. That’s what I always had to do. That’s how I coped with everything.

You know, maybe that’s why I was so messed up.

I heard the cell door open with a deafening screech, and flickering torchlight burned my eyes as the newcomer stepped into the room. Not wanting to temporarily blind myself right before being tortured again, I kept my eyes shut and my head tilted down, cringing as the torchlight grew brighter. The man who came in must’ve brought a torch in with him – what were they going to do to me now? Burn me?

“Phoenix?”

I slowly opened my eyes and glanced up, watching as Miles placed the torch in a holder on the wall before getting down on his knees so he was at the same level as me. One of his hands found my side and the other pushed my chin up so I could look him in the eyes.

Oh god, I didn’t want him seeing me like this.

“Oh my god,” he whispered, his eyes glancing over my split lip, my black eye, the cuts on my cheeks from King von Karma’s many rings. The hand he had on my side brushed against my ribs where on of the guards had kicked me and I gasped in pain, flinching away from him. He jerked his hand back in shock and looked over the rest of me, noticing the gashes and blood and all the other injuries too numerous to name.

“Wright, what did they do to you?” he asked, and I could hear his voice was close to breaking.

Don’t break down, Edgeworth, I thought. Not now. You’re stronger than this.

“I’m okay,” I rasped, realizing after I said it just how unconvincing that sounded. “I’ve gone through worse, believe me.”

“How…” Edgeworth placed his hand on my hip and used his other hand to tilt my head up again. His hands were actually warm compared to the cell, and gentle too. “Oh god, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.”

“Edgeworth, this isn’t your fault,” I told him, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I hadn’t even realized how much I was trembling until Miles put his hands on me; compared to him, I felt like a shivering mess, and he was shaking too.

“Yes it is,” Miles responded, his voice heavy. “This is all my fault, Wright. If I had just kept my mouth shut and not gone and, and confronted him about it-”

“Then you wouldn’t be Miles Edgeworth, would you?” I said, smiling. It was more of a grimace than a smile, but Miles got the hint.

“What are you even doing down here?” I asked, glancing towards the door. “You could get in serious trouble, the King-”

“He doesn’t matter,” Miles interrupted me. “I don’t care what he’ll do to us. It was worth it to see you.”

My heart skipped a beat and I stared at him, my eyes wide. Was he…? He wasn’t… No, there’s no way.

“Miles, I-” I tried to say, but my voice stopped when Miles’s hands cupped my face and he stared at me with eyes as silver as the moon, and then he brought his face to mine and suddenly we were kissing, sighing into each other like all the tension in our bodies was slipping away. I leaned forward and tilted my head and I could feel Miles do the same, his hand slipping to my back to push me closer, and I wanted to hold him so much except I was chained to a wall and I couldn’t feel my arms, and then Miles felt me wince when his thumb brushed against a gash on my back and I felt him pull away and lean his forehead into mine so we could stare at each other’s eyes.

I was shaking so much I could barely function, but I felt tears in my eyes and my smile grew until it was painful, and Miles was smiling too, staring at me like I was the only thing he loved in the entire world. I’d forgotten what that felt like. It felt like my heart wanted to burst and envelop Miles Edgeworth in every ounce of love I had.

“I love you,” I breathed. Hot tears slipped down my cheeks and stung the cuts on my face but I didn’t care.

“I love you too,” Miles said, and he said it so fast, like he was afraid if he didn’t tell me now it wouldn’t come out at all. He reached up and brushed his thumb under my eyes to wipe away the tears, and I realized again that I was chained to a wall, locked in a dungeon cell, with a million injuries and no shirt.

And Miles Edgeworth, crowned prince of the land, had just kissed me.

“You have horrible timing,” I informed him, smiling like an idiot.

Miles just rolled his eyes. “I’m not the one who got himself beaten and chained to a wall, Wright.”

“Oh yeah, I see how it is. Blame the injured guy.”

Miles chuckled, and I could feel the vibrations all the way to my toes. He was so beautiful when he smiled – why couldn’t he do that more often?

“Listen, Wright,” Miles said, but his voice had changed. It was serious now, his smile gone. “Franziska and Maya… they know about my father and the King, and about us. And they know about Ema, being used against Lana. They told me about it. And… they have a plan.”

I blinked, staring at him. I’d almost forgotten about Lana and Ema’s part in this grand scheme of evil King von Karma had cooked up. Lana must’ve figured out by this point that it was the king blackmailing her, not just Gant, but… she couldn’t do anything, not while Ema…

“They… already have a plan?” I asked, surprised at Franziska and Maya’s speed. It’d only been a few hours.

“Phoenix, Franziska quite literally spends most of her time plotting how to overthrow kingdoms,” Miles replied with a slight grin.

“… Okay true.”

“Look.” Miles’s eyes were serious, but behind the seriousness I could tell he was scared. “The plan is risky and it… it involves using you as a form of bait. We’d have to draw the King out into the public, outside the castle so he would be less well defended. And the only time that ever happens is-”

“Public executions.” My heart felt like it was in my throat. ‘Bait’ was definitely the appropriate term here.

Miles nodded, but it was like something was caught in his throat. He looked so guilty, like it was his fault they had to put me in a noose to get rid of the king.

“Wright, I don’t…” His voice was so full of guilt it tore at my chest. “I didn’t want to, I told them that putting you in danger was out of the question, but-”

“I’ll do it.”

Miles stopped mid-sentence and stared at me like I was insane.

“But, but you could-”

“It doesn’t matter what happens to me. If you have a chance at taking down von Karma, you take it.”

And I meant it too. I meant it with every ounce of my being. That man had lied and connived his way to the throne, and now he wanted to drag Miles into it by using me. If killing me would somehow get rid of him, I would do it.

Then again, I wasn’t as eager to die now than I had been a few years ago, but I was still willing to take the risk.

I just wasn’t sure Edgeworth was.

“Phoenix,” he said, his voice aching, “I can’t… I-I can’t lose you.”

“What happens to me doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me you idiot!”

I blinked, and then I gave Edgeworth a smile.

“You matter to me too,” I told him. “And that’s why I’m doing it.”

“But-”

“Edgeworth, you’ve done a lot for me. Just… just let me do this for you.”

Miles stared into my eyes – we were doing a lot of that – and sighed.

“I really wish you wouldn’t say that when your life is on the line,” he said.

“Yeah, well, fate has been incredibly rude to us. I’m not sure what you were expecting.”

Miles shook his head and kissed my forehead before standing up, reaching for the torch in the wall.

“I have to go,” he said. “Franziska was only able to get a small window of time for me down here, and I-”

“W-wait!”

There was panic in my voice and I immediately shut myself up. Why had I said that? He had to go. What Phoenix, were you expecting him to stay down in this god-forsaken cell with you forever?

Edgeworth paused, and I could tell by the look on his face that he’d heard the panic in my voice. Damn it. He had to go, didn’t he? He just… I wasn’t…

“What’s wrong?” Miles asked, raising an eyebrow. His hand was still outstretched towards the torch, but he was staring at me so intensely I had to look away.

“Nothing, sorry,” I told him. Mask your voice, Phoenix. He doesn’t need to know. “Sorry, you can go.”

“No, something is wrong.” Miles knelt down in front of me again, and I knew I wasn’t getting out of this. My heart was racing but I kept my head down, avoiding his eyes.

“Phoenix, why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?” he asked again. His voice was getting more persistent, and I knew it wouldn’t take long for him to get to the bottom of this. No one else could do this to me, break down my walls and find what I’d hidden inside. He’d done it to find out why I wanted to learn how to read, and he’d done it when I hadn’t told him about his father. Now he was going to do it again.

But I didn’t want him knowing this part of me. I didn’t want anyone knowing it. I didn’t want this part of me to exist.

“Phoenix.” Miles lifted my face up to his and our eyes met. I couldn’t lie to him when I stared at his eyes. I could do it to everyone else, but not to him.

“I…” My stomach twisted. Every part of me was shaking. But I couldn’t lie to Miles’s dumb, silver eyes. I couldn’t.

Miles’s hand was steady and gentle, and his eyes were calm. Tell me, they said. I love you. Tell me so I can help you.

“I don’t want to be alone,” I whispered.

I immediately cringed. It sounded so pathetic when I said it like that. Weak and pathetic and useless. Like I was ten years old again. Like I was ten years old and locked in a cellar, curled up in the dark and hoping that someone, anyone would rescue me and take me away, but no one ever did and I was alone. I was cold and hurting and trapped in the dark. Alone. Always, always alone.

But then Miles smiled in the most loving way imaginable and kissed me, and I felt everything melt away. He pulled back and gazed into my eyes.

“So long as I am alive, Phoenix Wright,” he told me, “you will never be alone. I swear that to you.”

And I believed him.

Someone banged on the door, making me jump, and Miles hastily stood up and grabbed the torch. He glanced at me again before running towards the door.

“Miles,” I said as he reached for the door handle. He stopped and turned.

“Yes?” he asked.

“You’ll… you’ll come back for me, right?”

He gave me one last little smile and said, “I swear on our love and my life that I will return for you, Phoenix Wright.”

And then he slipped through the door and shut it with a snap, and my light was gone.

Miles

“So, little brother,” Franziska said, giving me a grin as we followed Maya through the secret servant’s corridors, “ready to foolishly infuriate his Majesty the King?”

I nodded, my jaw set and my eyes focused. The sight of Phoenix in that dungeon, terrified and in pain and completely alone… it wasn’t until I’d seen him that I realized just how much I wanted von Karma destroyed.

Not just dead, not just dethroned.

Destroyed.

“I’m in, Franziska,” I said, “Let’s make him pay.”

Chapter Text

“Okay,” Franziska said, “let’s go through this foolish plan one more time, top to bottom, just so everyone is clear.”

Ema, Maya, and I nodded. The four of us were huddled around the table in the back of Ema’s apothecary, plans for betraying the king scattered about the tabletop, a few candles illuminating the meeting in the dead of night. It’d been four days since the king dragged Wright down to the dungeons, and ever since then, Franziska, Maya, Ema, and I had been refining our plan to take down the king. We used the passages to sneak about the castle unseen, Pearl usually leading us around (we had to introduce Pearl to Ema, which went over rather well considering the situation). Thus far, it was just the girls and I – Larry, Gumshoe, and Lana were kept in the dark about our betrayal to the king. We needed them, but they couldn’t be trusted just yet.

“This is what we know,” Franziska continued, spelling out the plan. “According to what Wright overheard the king say, King Manfred von Karma uses the city guards and Damon Gant to subdue the people through fear and slaughter. A foolish plan, might I add – fear only works for so long, if you take examples from history–”

“Franziska?” I interrupted. “Focus.”

“Right. Apologies, little brother.” My sister shook her head and continued:

“Also according to Phoenix Wright, the king has been blackmailing Lana Skye through Damon Gant by using Ema Skye as collateral. He does this to ensure her loyalty – if Ema Skye’s assumptions are correct, Lana Skye somehow discovered Damon Gant has been killing innocent people, after which she was promoted to Captain of the King’s Guard and began being blackmailed. Lana Skye has no knowledge that the king is involved in either the killings or her blackmail.”

“Even if she did, it’s not like she’d be able to do anything,” Ema muttered bitterly. Understandably, she was the most upset about being used to blackmail her sister – she’d learned this information from Wright, after she went down to the dungeons to heal him up and sneak him some food. Most of the information we knew from what Wright overheard came through Ema – aside from her, no one else but the king was allowed inside Wright’s cell. It was Ema’s job to keep Wright alive and deliver us information from him.

I placed my hand on Ema’s shoulder and squeezed, hoping to comfort her. Ema sighed, and Franziska took that as her cue to continue.

“In order to dethrone the king legally,” Franziska said, “we need him to admit to his crimes against the kingdom – this includes blackmailing the Captain of the King’s Guard, bribing the city guard into killing and imprisoning innocent people, and murder, among other things. Technically speaking, however, all we need to do to dethrone him is get the people on our side, which shouldn’t be hard, and then use the King’s Guard and Castle Guard to take out the City Guard as well as capture the king. To do this, we need the king to admit his guilt in a public place with lots of people present and very little protection. The only time this happens is during a public execution. And we conveniently have a fool lined up on death row just for this purpose.”

My stomach twisted at the thought of Wright on the gallows, his life dependent on whether or not our insane plan worked. This is too risky, I thought. He could die right in front of my eyes.

But this was about more than just Phoenix Wright now. It was about the kingdom. Wright knew that – he wasn’t afraid to die if it meant getting rid of my tyrannical father’s murderer. But I still wasn’t ready to let him go. I’d just gotten him back – ten years of waiting, brainwashed by a devil I thought was my father, and now I might lose him again. Forever. I didn’t know if I was ready for that.

Then you better make sure the plan works, I heard Wright say in my mind. Come on, Edgeworth, don’t let me die because you overlooked a detail or two. I’m counting on you.

“Our plan for this,” Franziska said, bringing me back to the present, “is as follows:

“First, get Phoenix Wright sentenced to death. My foolish little brother is in charge of that. The king will want Phoenix Wright’s death to be a grand public spectacle and force as many people as possible to watch.

“Second, spread rumors. Ema Skye and Maya Fey are responsible for this. Plant seeds of doubt and anger at the king using Phoenix Wright’s execution – considering my father’s foolish attempt at ruling through fear, this will be almost ridiculously easy.

“Third, once the king is outside and everyone is in place for the execution, we start a riot. This will distract the guards and Captain Skye enough for my brother and I to grab the king. Ema and Maya, this is also your job. Take Larry Butz with you if need be.”

“Larry has always been really great about getting caught in the middle of a riot,” Maya said thoughtfully. Franziska rolled her eyes.

“Fourth, we make the king confess. My brother and I will take care of that. Once they both have proof that the king is a traitor to his own people, Captains Gumshoe and Lana will both join forces with us – their troops will most likely do the same, as will some of the city guards.

“Fifth, we use the King’s and Castle Guards to take down the City Guard and capture the king. The people will also help if they see we’re winning – anyone who can’t fight, we help evacuate from the square. Miles, you’re in charge of saving your foolish servant before he gets hanged.

“In the end, the king should be dethroned and his power among the City Guards destroyed. We succeed.”

“Who becomes the ruler after that?” Ema asked suddenly, glancing between Franziska and me.

My sister and I looked at each other, and for a brief moment I was torn – Franziska was intelligent, resourceful, and had the blood of royalty in her veins. She deserved the throne much more than I did. But she hadn’t been taught how to lead like I had – since the moment I stepped foot in the castle, all I did was learn how to be a good ruler. Franziska had never learned that in her life. And she was only seventeen…

No, I thought, she’s the rightful heir. It’s her birthright.

“Franziska,” I said, answering Ema’s question. “She’s the true heir.”

My sister stared at me, shock clear on her face, before casting her eyes downward.

“We’ll decide that when we come to it,” she said quietly.

I blinked in surprise. Franziska never turned down an opportunity for power. Ever. Even when we were children, it was obvious how power hungry she was, the things she would do to gain the upper hand. She was a lot like her father in that respect, actually.

My stomach twisted at the thought of von Karma. Oh. Maybe that was why…

“Back to the point,” Franziska said sharply, bringing her gaze back up. “That’s the plan. Everyone understands their role, correct? Because I won’t repeat everything I just said.”

Three nodding heads were her answer. My sister took a deep breath and looked to me.

“We put the plan in motion tomorrow,” she said. “Are you ready?”

I nodded firmly. This was our chance to take down the king once and for all. You can damn well be sure I was ready.

“Good.” Franziska nodded and stood up, and everyone else followed suit. “Our fool’s errand begins tomorrow. If you aren’t prepared, deal with it.”

“What happens if we fail?” Ema asked.

Franziska stopped in mid-step and turned to her. “Then we are all fools,” she answered, “and we die.”

My sister turned back around and headed for the fireplace, where the entrance to the secret passages was hidden. Maya sighed and put her hand on Ema’s shoulder.

“She never does like sugarcoating anything,” Maya commented, giving Ema a smile. Ema just chewed her lip in response.

It didn’t strike me until then just how young we all were. I was barely twenty years old. Franziska was seventeen. Maya was sixteen, and Ema… she was only fourteen years old. What were we doing, risking our lives just to commit treason and hope our ridiculous plan actually came to fruition?

We’re the only ones who know, I thought, walking over to the fireplace. We’re the only ones who know about von Karma, about what he’s done and what he can do. If we don’t stop him now, everyone we love will die, and the kingdom will dissolve into ruin. We’re the only ones who can stop that from happening.

We’re the only ones who can stop him.

I awoke the next morning gasping for breath, the remnants of a nightmare being chased from my mind. Everything had been black, the weight of my house crushing my lungs, everyone screaming and crying like the world was coming to an end…

Calm down, Edgeworth, I thought to myself. Breathe in, and out. In. Out. It was just a dream. Just a dream. You’ll be okay, Wright is here–

I glanced to my left, not realizing until I saw his empty cot that no, Wright wasn’t here. He was busy rotting in the dungeon under my father’s whip. Right. Of course. He was gone.

So instead, I pulled my trembling knees into my chest and hugged them close, cursing my past self for forgetting to drink that damnable tonic again. I had to remember; Wright wasn’t around to comfort me anymore. And if the plan went wrong, he may never be there again. I had to get this right. The plan had to work. I couldn’t be alone again, not after meeting Wright. Not after everything that had happened. I wouldn’t be strong enough.

After a moment, I noticed two small rectangles of orange light splayed across the wall opposite mine. The sun was rising – it was morning. At least I hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night again.

My stomach twisted. Morning. I had to meet my father in a few hours to discuss details of my coronation. If the meeting went as planned, I’d have Wright sentenced to the gallows before lunch.

It’s up to me, I thought, my stomach doing somersaults as I stood up from my bed. Just anger the king enough to make him kill Wright. No pressure. It’s not as if our entire plan hinges on my success in this area, no no. That would be ridiculous.

I wasn’t very good at dealing with nerves this early in the morning.

Time passed like it was moving through honey – I had nothing to do, nothing to read, and Wright wasn’t here filling the space with his words. I washed up, got dressed, and made my own bed. I tried to read. When that failed, I tried to write. Breakfast eventually arrived from the kitchens, the food tasting bland even though I’d had the meal several times before.

Ham, honey, and bread would taste better than this, I thought, reminded once again of Wright. I couldn’t go five minutes without thinking about him, apparently. Even trapped in a dungeon, the boy still had the nerve to distract me from my focus.

A guard finally came and knocked on my door, ready to escort me to the throne room. I had to be escorted everywhere, watched constantly while outside my room, with guards posted at the door day and night. The king obviously didn’t trust me – although considering I was planning to overthrow his rule, he wasn’t exactly wrong to do so. Thank god Pearl had discovered those secret passages.

We arrived in the Great Hall a few minutes later, the king sitting at the head of the long table with several papers laid out before him. Guards and servants were scattered about the room, keeping watch or serving as scribes. My escort bowed to the king before stepping out of the room and closing the doors.

It was silent for far too long, the king and I simply staring at each other. I hadn’t come face-to-face with him since the day he’d dragged Phoenix to the dungeons; seeing his face again only made the emotions spinning around inside me grow.

He killed my father, I thought. He destroyed my life and the lives of everyone else in this kingdom. He took my love and tortured him in a cell. He’s a criminal and a murderer and a selfish, god-forsaken bastard and if he thinks he’s going to get away with that…

The king’s expression was unreadable, but after a moment, he sighed and looked back down at his papers.

“We have business to discuss,” he said. “Join me at the table, boy.”

I would’ve throttled him right there if the guards hadn’t been present. I clenched my fists, released them again, and walked down the length of the table to where he sat at the head. With almost robotic movements, I pulled out the chair to his right and sat down.

“Why are we even discussing my coronation?” I asked, my voice tinged with anger. “You aren’t planning on dying anytime soon, are you?”

The king’s eyes flashed to me. “That sounds like a threat, son.”

“I’m not your son.”

“Yes you are,” he hissed. “You are my son and you will obey me. Need I remind you of who’s chained to a wall in the dungeons if you misbehave?”

I gritted my teeth and felt my hands curl into fists on the tabletop; this man had no right to speak about Phoenix Wright. None.

“You truly expect me to carry on your legacy when you die?” I asked, shaking in rage. “After doing this? I’ll be lucky to even ascend to the throne, and even if I did–”

“Guard? Go down to the dungeons and give Phoenix Wright twenty lashes.”

I faltered in the middle of my sentence, my stomach twisting as a guard began walking towards the doors. I can’t let this happen, I thought. Phoenix won’t survive twenty lashes. I have to… I have to…

“Wait,” I said, standing up and staring at the king. I heard the guard stop in mid-step behind me. “I’m not finished yet.”

Von Karma’s eyes narrowed. “The boy I raised wasn’t nearly this reckless,” he told me.

“The boy you raised was terrified of you,” I spat back. “And I’m not. Not anymore.”

A flash of rage sparked behind the king’s eyes. “Thirty lashes,” he told the guard.

“Why do you think fear is the best way to get people to follow you?” I demanded, slamming my hands on the table. “Fear brings you nothing but hatred!”

“So, you hate your king now, do you?” Manfred asked, rising from his seat. He was taller than me, and more intimidating, but I held my ground. Anger had replaced my fear.

“I’ve hated you since the moment you brought me to this castle,” I answered, standing up straight. “I’ve just been too afraid to admit it until now.”

“Fifty lashes.”

“You will never be remembered as a great king!” I yelled. Push him further, Miles, you have to push him further. “Your legacy will be nothing but hatred and fear, and I will never allow it to continue once you’re gone!”

“Eighty lashes! Don’t test me, boy–”

“I am not afraid of you, Manfred von Karma!” I screamed, my voice echoing throughout the room “And nothing you do to us will ever change that!”

“One hundred lashes! Do you want your precious servant dead, you pitiful child?”

“Wright would rather die than see me turn into you!”

I spat in the king’s face.

A gasp of horror ripped through the room as people on all sides of the hall stared in shock. The prince had just spat in the king’s face. Prince Miles had just spat in King Manfred’s face. That wasn’t something anyone could let slide, especially the king.

Good, I thought. He deserves it.

The king raised his hand up and wiped the spit off from under his eye, staring at his hand in what seemed to be shock. When he turned his gaze to me, that shock became… murderous.

Terror struck me to the very core of my being.

“That,” the king said, “can be arranged.” His voice was barely above a whisper, but it broke through the silence in the stone hall like rock through glass.

“I sentence Phoenix Wright to death.”

My stomach felt like it was collapsing in on itself. I did it, I thought. He sentenced him to death. Our plan will work.

If it doesn’t, Phoenix is going to die tomorrow.

“He will be hanged tomorrow morning at dawn,” the king continued, staring at me so intensely it felt like I was staring at the sun. “His execution will be public, and everyone is required to attend.

“Including the prince.”

I sucked in some air, a part of me still panicking even though this was part of the plan. He’s going to die, he’s going to die, he’s going to die…

“Y-you can’t do this,” I managed to say, staring at him desperately. Act desperate, Miles. He can’t know you wanted this to happen. “You need him alive, you, you can’t control me if he’s dead–”

“I can’t control you right now, Miles, you said it yourself,” the king replied. “And if I can’t control you, I might as well hurt you as well as I can. How does it feel, boy, knowing your true love will die tomorrow because you couldn’t control your mouth?”

My eyes widened in shock. True love. He knows. He knows.

“How…” I stared at him. “How did you…”

“Miles, please. I’m not an idiot. The prince, falling in love with a servant boy? That’s blasphemous on more levels than I can name. Wright was never a good servant anyway. Perhaps I’m doing the world a favor.”

My vision turned red, and the sea roared in my ears.

“YOU BASTARD,” I screamed, swinging my arm to punch him in the face, but the king dodged easily. When I tried to hit him again, I felt hands grab my arms and shoulders and pull me away – guards.

I struggled and flailed, cursing the king in every way I could, but he simply turned away and sat back down at the table, continuing to sort through his papers. The guards eventually managed to drag me out of the Great Hall and close the doors, and I managed to pull myself together.

Alright, Franziska, I thought, the guards pulling me up the stairs to my room. Step one complete. Time for step two.

This better work.

Chapter Text

“I still don’t understand why they’re letting you do this.”

Ema shrugged and continued bandaging up my wounds, glancing at the door every once in a while to make sure the guard wasn’t paying attention. “Well,” she whispered, “I mean he does kind of need you alive.”

“He did,” I corrected. “I get fixing me up when I’m being tortured and everything to coerce Edgeworth, but I’m literally dying in like fifteen minutes. Do I really need to be bandaged up?”

“Maybe he wants you to look all pristine and perfect before he breaks your neck.”

“Ha, yeah.”

“Just don’t question it, Nick. You aren’t–” Ema dropped her voice to a whisper. “You aren’t actually dying today, remember?”

I sighed and nodded, giving Ema a small smile. Yeah, I remembered. The “Plan” was in effect. Ema had been brushing me up on it for the past few days while she snuck me food, and I had told her the rest of the information I knew from von Karma and Gant’s conversation. Using me as bait to draw the king out into the open, then forcing him to admit his guilt in front of everyone… yeah, it was a pretty good plan.

I just really hoped I would actually survive this. Otherwise, Miles would never forgive himself.

“Okay,” Ema said, tucking the last bandage into place and pinning it. “I think that did it. You’re ready to be executed.”

I smiled, but my stomach twisted at the word executed. “Thanks, Ema,” I said. “You really are a miracle worker.”

Ema nodded, not meeting my eyes as she put away her supplies. Then she sprang forward and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tight.

I gasped a little from surprise and pain – my ribs were still broken – but my heart swelled. “Oh,” I said, “hey, Ema…”

“If you die today, I’m going to murder you in the afterlife.”

I chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “You know, I’d have preferred it if you’d hugged me when I could actually hug you back.”

“I don’t care. Shut up.”

I closed my eyes and put my head on Ema’s shoulder, cursing my wrists for still being chained to the damn wall. This might be the last time I ever hugged anyone, and I couldn’t even hug back.

“Hey med girl!” a guard said from beyond the door. Ema pulled away and turned – I could see tears in her eyes. “It’s time to go. Kid’s getting hanged pretty soon.”

She bit her lip and nodded, packing up the rest of her back and swinging it over her shoulder. Then she leaned forward and placed a kiss on my forehead.

“Remember,” she said, her voice breaking. “Death and destruction in the afterlife. Don’t you dare do that to us.”

I smiled again, my heart aching. “Promise I won’t, Ema,” I said. “Getting skinned by you after I’m already dead sounds bad enough. I mean, imagine what Maya and Edgeworth will do to me.”

Ema laughed, a tear slipping down her cheek, before turning away and walking for the door. She looked back just as she reached the hall, smiling bravely as she walked out of view.

See you later, Ema, I thought as the guards walked into the room. I hope.

The guards unlocked my shackles and hoisted me up, pushing me towards the cell door until I regained control of my own feet. My wrists ached and my legs were weak from sitting in a cell for five days. They used rope to tie my hands together again, this time behind my back, and shoved me out into the torch lit hallway.

Thank god Ema brought me a shirt, I thought as they forced me down the hall. Walking out onto the gallows without a shirt on? God, that would’ve been embarrassing. Although, some shoes would’ve been nice too.

Eh, I’d gone through most of life shoeless. The shoes could wait.

I stayed kind of numb during our trip to the surface; it took ten minutes alone to actually get from the dungeons up to the ground floor of the castle. When I glanced out a window, I caught a glimpse of the sky brightening near the horizon – almost sunrise. Almost time to die.

You should really stop thinking like that, Phoenix, I thought to myself as the guards pulled me towards the castle entrance. Stay positive. Miles knows what he’s doing. You aren’t going to die.

Out a door, through a courtyard, out another door. We emerged into the square, where throngs of people had already arrived and were yelling about something or another. I was surprised to see a lot of them weren’t yelling at me – they were yelling at the guards and the executioner, and a few brave ones were even trying to yell at the king. They weren’t excited about my death – they were angry. Angry enough to start a riot.

Nice job, guys, I thought, praising Maya and Ema in my mind. Which one is it, step three? Step three is basically in the bag.

Guards from all three divisions were scattered about the crowd – city guards wore red tunics over their armor or chainmail, castle guards wore blue tunics, and the king’s guards wore white. The guards dragging me were castle guards, which made sense, but why were all the other divisions wandering about in the crowd? The king’s guards should be protecting the king, not milling about with the peasants. And there were so many city guards here…

Up ahead, poking her head out of the crowd, I could just make out Maya with a hood on, grinning at me like it was Christmas morning. I gave a small smile in return, and she put a thumbs up.

Then a pair of hands grabbed her and pulled her out of view, and my heart nearly stopped.

“Maya!” I said, pulling forward, but no one could hear me over the crowd. I tried to get a better glimpse of where she’d gone, but the guards just pushed my head down and made me keep walking.

Oh god, I thought, my heart racing. This is bad. This is really bad. Something has gone seriously wrong.

I have to warn Miles.

The guards shoved me up onto the gallows and pushed me towards the center, and it suddenly struck me that oh god, I might actually die up here. Oh shit. That was not a part of the plan. The noose went around my neck and I felt them tighten it. Now that I was over the crowd, I could hear drumbeats cutting through the yelling, signifying when my life would end. The ocean roared in my ears, and my hands began to shake.

Maya, I thought, what happened to you? Where are you?

Miles, I need to warn Miles. Where the hell is he anyway?

I glanced around, catching sight of a grand stand sitting almost directly in front of me, and on it I could see the royal family sitting in chairs, surrounded by guards and colored drapes. The king seemed to be surveying the crowd, his lip curled in distaste. Franziska was staring ahead, her eyes focused on something in the distance yet seeing nothing, wringing her hands on her whip like her life depended on it. Miles… Miles was staring right at me.

I locked eyes with him and shook my head as subtly as I could, chest rising and falling in panic. Something is wrong, I mouthed, continuing to shake my head. Something has gone wrong.

Edgeworth blinked, and then his eyes widened and he leaned over to Franziska, placing his hand on hers. I saw him mouth the same thing: Something is wrong. Franziska turned to him, her brow furrowed, and asked, what?

He didn’t get a chance to answer before someone near the royal stand screamed.

The crowd backed away from the front of the stand as if the plague had materialized there, pushed away by the red-clad city guards as people stumbled into one another in an attempt to back up quickly enough. Three pairs of king’s guards pushed through the crowd and into the small clearing, holding the struggling forms of–

Oh no.

Oh shit.

Maya, Ema, and Larry. The three of them were wearing dark cloaks, and Ema still had her bag on. They struggled and kicked until they got into the center of the clearing, and then they just stopped, staring up at the king in what I could only assume was fear.

Edgeworth and Franziska stared at the three of them, terrified, not rising from their seats. Lana, standing off to the side, stared at her sister in shock.

Oh god.

The king stood up and grinned down at my three friends, his smile more chilling than an icicle to the chest. At the rise of the king, the crowds fell silent, watching in anticipation, and the drummers stopped. The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach grew.

“People of my kingdom!” the king said, his voice booming throughout the square. “I’m afraid I haven’t been quite honest with you. You see, today wasn’t just an execution, although the execution is somewhat of a bonus.”

About half of the crowd glanced at me as I gave the king as withering a glare possible. He just smirked at me and continued.

“No, today is the day I expose a traitor to my crown in my own court. Someone I believed to be trustworthy, but who I obviously misread. Someone I even believed worthy of this throne.” The king turned around, his cane in hand, and turned his gaze to Edgeworth.

People in the crowd gasped, and Miles stared at the king with such hatred that for a moment, I almost thought he would take the sword on his hip and kill him right there. His knuckles were white as he clutched the arms of his chair, hands shaking in fury.

The world was crashing down around my ears.

“Prince Miles,” the king said smugly, staring at his adopted son. “I am rather disappointed in you. Seize him.”

Edgeworth sprang out of his chair, but three king’s guards grabbed him before he could get anywhere. Franziska tried to get up as well, but a pair grabbed her too. The royal children were dragged to the front of the stage and forced onto their knees. To the side, I could see Lana glancing between the scene before her and Ema, looking more lost than I’d ever seen her.

This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t how the plan was supposed to go.

How had the king figured out our plan?

“Release us!” Franziska demanded as she and Edgeworth struggled against the guards. “You foolish fool, you have no right to do this!”

“I have every right, my dear daughter,” the king answered, and Franziska flinched. “I’m the king. I can do whatever I want.”

“You’re not a king, you’re a monster,” Edgeworth spat, pulling against his guards. “Release our friends, now!”

“Oh, so you admit these useless servants are your friends?” the king replied, gesturing towards Maya, Ema, and Larry. I heard Maya yell something in protest, but one of the guards punched her in the gut and her yell was cut short. “Pity. I thought you had better taste. Then again, considering Wright, I really shouldn’t have expected much.”

Alright, dickhead, I thought. You crossed a line.

“You have no right to be our king!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the square just as much as the king’s had. “You’re a liar and a murderer, and–”

I gagged, the knot in the noose cutting off my air supply as someone pushed it into my neck. When I glanced behind me, I saw who it was.

“Ah, thank you Captain Gant,” the king said, nodding respectfully towards my assailant. “If he speaks again, choke him.”

“No!” Edgeworth yelled, watching me in horror. Gant released the noose just enough for me to gasp in some air, then tightened it again to make it a struggle just to breathe. My heart was racing in my chest – I couldn’t go out like this. I couldn’t let Miles see me die like this. We had to figure something out, we had to do something!

But all we had was the plan. And the plan… well.

“Tsk, tsk,” the king said to Edgeworth, tapping his cane on the wooden floor of the stand. “Emotional attachments. I warned you about them.”

“You have no right to speak, you murderer!” Edgeworth yelled, straining against his guards as he kneeled before the king. “You killed my father in cold blood!”

“Did I, now?” the king asked amusedly. “What other lies do you have tucked up those ridiculous pink sleeves of yours, hmm?”

“They aren’t lies!”

“People of the kingdom, listen!” Franziska suddenly said, turning towards the crowds. “My foolish father is a monster and a tyrant – he has committed unspeakable crimes in the name of his own rule, and he will do anything to continue his foolish regime of fear. He is the one that’s been paying these foolish city guards to kill your friends and family! He is the fool that has caused fear and suffering throughout the entire kingdom! The only crime we are guilty of is trying to put an end to his tyranny!”

The square was silent for a moment, with no one reacting. Then, the king laughed, and a ripple of fear spread through the crowd.

“Franziska, I’m surprised!” King Manfred said, smirking at his daughter. “You really believe the people of this kingdom will believe you, a woman, over their own king?”

“This woman,” Edgeworth responded, turning towards the crowd, “isn’t a murderer! The king killed my father in cold blood and brought me to the castle to continue his rule of fear. He has been paying off the city guard to keep everyone terrified! He’s even been blackmailing the captain of his own King’s Guard!”

Lana’s eyes widened in shock, and she glanced between Ema, Gant, and the King. “Is…” she began to say, “is this true?”

“Captain Skye, please,” the king said dismissively. “You really believe this? My son is trying to dethrone me so he can take the throne for himself, it’s obvious.”

“No, I’m not!” Edgeworth shouted.

The king kicked him in the face, eliciting a gasp from the crowd. I pulled against Gant, but he grabbed my arms and held me in place. This can’t be happening, I thought, this can’t be happening. It can’t be.

Edgeworth spat onto the ground – even from the gallows, I could see it was blood. I saw him glance at Ema, his eyes angry and desperate, and then… then his eyes widened.

He glanced at Lana, at Ema, and at me and Gant. I could see his mind working, calculating, solving the problem.

A glimmer of hope took root in my chest.

“None of this,” the king continued, waving his hand for the guards to hoist Edgeworth back up, “is actually true. You have no proof of anything. Saving the kingdom from my corrupt and tyrannical rule? Please, Miles, I expected something better from you. Don’t try to mask your senseless grab for power with an honorable crusade.”

“Quit trying to make this seem like something it isn’t, you foolish fool!” Franziska yelled, straining against her guards. “You have taken the people we love and slaughtered them, and you believe the people will foolishly fall in line after discovering your crimes?”

“The people we love? My, my…” The king turned his gaze on Maya, and Franziska visibly paled. “I had no idea my children were so weak when it came to servants. Perhaps Wright shouldn’t be the only one hanged today.”

No, not Maya, don’t you dare take Maya you slimy, two-faced bastard–

“How did you know?” Edgeworth suddenly asked.

The king turned to his adopted son in surprise. Edgeworth had straightened himself up and was glaring at the king, his hands curled into fists as the guards held his arms. He looked ready to kill someone – or ready to die.

“I’m sorry,” the king said, “what?”

“How did you even know about this?” Edgeworth demanded, watching the king intensely. “Who betrayed us?”

The king laughed again, his malicious grin so intimidating I saw the guards holding Edgeworth shift back slightly. But Edgeworth didn’t budge.

“Betray you? Really?” the king asked, placing both hands on his cane and leaning back. “You truly believe your operation was so clandestine that betrayal is the only way I could’ve discovered it? Please. I found out through the guard I posted on Ema Skye. You really shouldn’t have had as many meetings in her apothecary as you did.”

Miles cast his head down, but his eyes were on Lana. After a second, I realized why.

“You… posted a guard on my sister?” Lana asked suddenly. “Why?”

The king glanced up, and for a moment his face went slack. Behind me, I felt Gant shift, his grip on my arms tightening – like he was nervous. Edgeworth, you brilliant bastard, I thought. You figured out how to tell Lana.

Then, the king regained his composure almost as quickly as he’d lost it, and my hope was replaced with dread.

“Why, for… protection of course,” the king supplied, his voice smooth and calm. “Ema’s sister is the captain of my guard, it’s only logical there would be… enemies hoping to use her against you, does it not?”

Lana didn’t respond – she seemed to be thinking, working through the pieces in her brain.

Figure it out, Lana, I thought, please, we need you. Figure it out. I know you can do it.

“Now,” the king boomed, his voice rising again, “I’m sure the masses would like to see at least one execution take place today. Shall we continue?”

“No!” Edgeworth yelled, my heart racing as Gant released my arms and moved towards the trapdoor release. “You can’t do this!”

“Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do, boy.”

“You’ve taken my father from me, what more do you want? Please!”

The king’s face, which had been stoic while watching Gant, suddenly contorted into rage.

“My dear Miles,” he said, turning to the prince once again, “Your father was a traitor to this kingdom, just like you. He was the bane of my existence until he died. But when he did, I swore to him I would take the thing most precious to him, and I saw him break. Your father died a broken man, Miles.

“And now, it’s time for you to do the same.”

“Wait!”

The king froze, his hand raised to signal the executioner, as everyone turned to stare at the person who’d dared to command the king.

“Captain Skye,” the king said, his voice an inch from snapping, “you’re treading a very thin line.”

Lana didn’t grace the statement with an answer, her eyes watching the king with cold, calculated anger.

“You killed his father,” she said.

“I thought I told–” the king began, but then, like a miracle, his face went slack. For the first time, I saw fear in his eyes. A deep, cold fear that went down to his bones.

He knew he’d messed up. He’d let the one thing slip that would ruin his life forever. The king had admitted his guilt in front of half his castle.

And now, Lana was going to latch onto that guilt and pull until there was nothing left.

“Skye,” von Karma began, his voice dangerously low, “you have no authority–”

“I have all the authority I need, your majesty,” Lana said, her voice cold. “Everything your children said about you is true. You are a murderer, a thief, and a criminal. You used my sister to force me to be your captain, and you hid behind Damon Gant. You’ve admitted your guilt to the kingdom, in front of countless witnesses, and it is my duty to bring you to justice.”

The faces of my friends lit up with hope, and I felt something blossom in my chest.

Lana, you beautiful, beautiful genius, I thought. You’re doing it.

We can win.

“I am the king, Captain Skye!” Manfred replied, spitting his words out with a sneer. “Justice has no hold of me!”

“No king is above the law, Manfred von Karma.”

Von Karma’s face turned beet red, and he threw his cane aside and unsheathed his sword.

“I am the king!” he bellowed, pointing his sword at Lana. “And a pathetic woman like you will never–”

The king squawked in surprise as a guard with a white tunic shoved him off the stage and into the dirt below, right in front of Maya’s feet. His sword dropped to the ground with him and scattered away.

Everyone turned to look at the king’s guard that had just shoved the king off the stand. He seemed to be pretty sheepish and was looking at Lana nervously.

“Please tell me that was the right thing to do, Cap’n Lana,” he said with a thick southern accent. Lana just shook her head and smiled.

“Yes Jake,” she said, “that was the right thing to do.”

The guard, Jake, exhaled thankfully.

“King’s Guard, release the so-called traitors and arrest the king,” Lana commanded, standing proud and tall at the edge of the stand. “His despicable rule ends here.”

The white-clad guards immediately released my friends, and a few of them grabbed the king, hoisting him up. Several people in the crowd began clapping, and soon everyone was cheering happily. My chest swelled with pride, and I smiled so wide it hurt my face. We did it. We actually did it.

We won.

“GANT!”

Or maybe not.

I turned to see Gant, who was watching the entire scene play out with a smug grin. His hand was on his sword, and he was watching Lana with a smile that could only be described as… hungry.

“Yes, your majesty?” Gant asked, his voice still characteristically jovial. Lana’s eyes narrowed, and then flew wide with shock and realization.

“KILL THEM ALL!” Manfred screamed.

Gant’s evil grin could’ve matched the king’s own.

“CITY GUARD!” Gant boomed, and every red-clad soldier in the square turned to him. “You heard your king! We leave no survivors!”

Then Gant turned to me, and every bone in my body froze in fear.

“Guess I should start with you,” he said.

“KING’S GUARD, ATTACK!” Lana yelled, unsheathing her sword.

Gant shoved the executioner out of the way as people began to scream and run. “Bye, Wrighto!” he yelled over the din.

“Wait!” I screamed, but no one could hear over the chaos.

“NO!” Edgeworth yelled from across the square.

Then Gant shoved the lever forward, the ground disappeared beneath me, and the last thing I saw was Edgeworth’s terrified face before plunging into the abyss below me.

Chapter Text

Slice.

My heart nearly stopped as a sword seemingly appeared out of thin air and sliced clean through the rope, lodging itself in the wooden beam behind it and vibrating violently. I stared at it in shock, not breathing, as people screamed and ran around me. What had just happened? Where had the sword come from? Was Wright alive?

I noticed Gant a few feet away, staring at someone below him in shock, and follows his gaze to Captain Gumshoe, standing in the middle of screaming throngs of people with his arm bent as if he’d just thrown something.

Oh my god, I thought, I cannot believe Dick Gumshoe just saved my boyfriend.

It was the first coherent thought I’d had after Gant had pushed the lever, and to be honest I was rather disappointed in myself.

“Wright!” I yelled, leaping off the royal stand and into the mass of people. I was vaguely aware of Lana doing the same, commanding her white King’s Guards to attack the City Guards, and Franziska yelling at me to stop being a fool and get back on the stand. Gumshoe’s booming voice rang out over the crowds, commanding his troops to attack the City Guards as well, and I was amazed to see soldiers in blue tunics unsheathe theirs swords and follow his command. They seemed to be staring at their Captain in awe.

I can’t believe it took him throwing a sword at a piece of rope just to get a little respect, I thought, dodging between people in the dwindling crowds. Gumshoe really needs to work on his leadership skills.

“Miles!” someone screamed next to me. A second later, Ema Skye tackled me to the ground as a sword whizzed over my head, wielded by a guard in red. As he tried to stab me again, one of Lana’s guards blocked his blow and attacked him instead, giving Ema and I time to scramble away.

“Thank you, Ema!” I yelled, getting to my feet and pulling Ema up with me. She nodded and looked around, probably searching for her sister or Maya. I unsheathed the sword at my hip and raised my guard – no more running into a battlefield without being prepared. If I wanted to find out of Wright was still alive, I needed to be able to defend myself.

Oh god, he had to be alive. He had to be.

“Miles, do you see Lana?” Ema asked, her eyes frantic. I glanced around and shook my head.

“She’s Captain of the King’s Guard, Ema,” I replied, “I’m sure she’s fine–”

A recognizable scream cut me off, and Ema and I glanced at each other.

“Maya,” we said in unison.

The two of us turned towards the scream and ran, ducking under swords and around various obstacles along the way. When we finally caught sight of her, Maya was fending off a City Guard on her own, a broken bottle in her hand and an open gash on her arm.

Part of me wanted to ignore Maya and run straight to the gallows to find Wright. But then the guard knocked Maya’s bottle out of her hands and raised his sword, and I sprang forward without thinking.

Our swords clashed together as I saved Maya from decapitation, Ema yanking her out of the way. The guard looked young, younger than me, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw my face.

“Y-your highness, I–” he stuttered, pulling away. He backed up, trying to say something else, before turning and running across the square.

I let him go. He was only a boy following orders.

“Gee, thanks Edgeworth,” Maya said, her chest heaving as she scooped up her bottle again. It had somehow remained intact after being knocked out of her hand, and I had a feeling Maya could be just as dangerous with a bottle as any guard with a sword.

I turned to her and nodded. “You’re very welcome,” I answered.

Maya blinked, then rolled her eyes, muttering, “I can’t believe you still sound so proper when we’re fighting for our lives.”

“One being in battle doesn’t mean losing one’s class.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“Guys!” Ema interrupted, madly pointing at an injured castle guard surrounded by red soldiers. My grip tightened around my sword, and I took a step towards the men.

“No, wait,” Maya said, stopping me. Ema ran off ahead, reaching into her bag and pulling out a vial of black liquid. “You go get Nick. We can handle this!”

“Are you sure?” I asked, worried. Maya may have survived on the streets, but this square was full of guards and terrified people. And what about Ema? If anything happened to her, Lana would flay me alive.

Then Ema threw her vial of black liquid on the ground at the guards’ feet, and a cloud of smoke billowed up. The guards shrieked and ran away, yelling about witchcraft, and a second later, Ema pulled out the injured city guard and immediately began to heal him.

“Yeah, pretty sure,” Maya responded, flashing me a smile. Guess these girls were much more capable than I thought.

I nodded and ran in the direction of the gallows, trying not to think about Wright. Focus, Miles, I thought to myself. Don’t think about what you might find. Just get there. Get there and see for yourself.

It only took me a moment to reach the stand. I ran up to the gallows and turned to go up the steps, but a sword materialized out of thin air directly in front of my throat. I froze, my boots skidding slightly on the cobblestones.

When I glanced to the side, I saw Captain Damon Gant’s jovial face smiling down at me.

Excellent, I thought.

“Now, now, Princey,” Gant said, forcing me to back away from the steps with his sword, “I don’t think going up on those gallows is the best thing for you to do at the moment.”

“Really?” I asked, clutching my sword. This man had tried to kill Wright; he deserved nothing from me. “And why is that?”

“Well, you see, Wrighto happens to be pretty dead.”

My stomach seemed to drop right through the ground, and I stared at him in shock.

No, I immediately thought. No, he isn’t dead. He can’t be.

“You’re lying,” I said, my voice hoarse. I continued to back up, but rage began to build in the back of my mind – I tightened my grip on my sword, ready to plunge it into Gant’s heart. “You’re lying, Gumshoe cut him down.”

“Gummy wasn’t fast enough, I’m afraid.” Gant grinned widely, and I felt the sudden urge to drive my sword through his eye. “I just saw him in the pit, not even moving. Sorry prince, but your friend is dead.”

Everything turned red.

“You’re LYING,” I screamed, knocking his sword away with my own. He stared in surprise as I launched forward with an attack, but he blocked it just as fast. Part of me remembered that Gant was a captain of the guard, whereas I’d only taken the barest minimum of sword lessons, but I ignored it. He was lying. He was lying. Wright was alive, and Gant hadn’t killed him.

And if he had, well… he better hope to god that I killed him right now.

“Whoa there, Princey,” Gant taunted, blocking my blows with almost no effort. “You better calm down. Didn’t they teach you anything about fighting in that castle?”

“SILENCE,” I yelled, swinging towards his head. He knocked my sword away and nearly disarmed me, but I kicked him in the chest and sent him stumbling backwards. Gant regained his footing and blocked my next swing, his eyes no longer cheerful – they were murderous.

The part of me that had been screaming not to fight Gant for the past minute suddenly became very loud.

You know, perhaps this wasn’t wisest course of action to take.

Gant began to force me back, still grinning, but his eyes cold and deadly. His attacks were so strong and skilled I barely managed to escape them. I had to duck under his swing at one point, and at another he caught me on the arm. Gant’s assaults were relentless and calculated, and my dying rage and lackadaisical skill were nothing against them. He pushed me farther and farther away from the gallows, towards the center of the square, where other guards and even civilians seemed to be fighting against the City Guards.

Then, out of the blue, my heel caught on a cobblestone and I yelped, falling to the ground and bruising my elbows. My sword scattered away across the stones, and Gant’s was at my throat before I could go after it.

“Psh, pitiful,” Gant said dismissively, pressing his sword under my chin. “You’d think the prince would actually know how to handle a sword, but I guess I was wrong.”

I glared at him from the ground. “You’re a murderer,” I spat.

“Sorry, Princey, comes with the job.”

“Your nicknames are about as clever as a horse’s ass.”

Gant’s eye twitched, and I realized a moment too late that running my mouth was a very, very bad idea.

But before either of us could do a thing, someone came out of nowhere and cut right through Gant’s wrist with a sword, slicing his hand clean off. Gant screamed and pulled away as the hand dropped into my lap, and I scrambled back in horror as I stared at my savior.

“Lana!” I said in surprise.

Lana gave me a small smile before turning to Gant, her sword dripping with his blood. The Captain of the City Guard was still screaming about his hand, clutching the stump in utter agony.

“Try clapping now, you weasel,” Lana spat, moving between him and me. I realized that was my signal to get up and run away. In utter disgust, I brushed Gant’s still-warm hand off my now bloodied pants and scrambled up, sprinting away across the square through screaming crowds of guards and citizens.

Wright, was my first thought as I dodged between the ever-growing crowd. Find Wright. He can’t be dead. He can’t be. Go to the gallows and see. You have to find him, Edgeworth.

My boots flew over the pavement as I ran through the battlefield – the square really was a battlefield at this point, there were dead bodies and blood and screams everywhere. Steel flashed no matter where I looked. The square had descended into chaos, and I was stuck in the middle of it.

“Wright!” I yelled out, approaching the gallows once again. He can’t be dead, he can’t be dead. “Wright! Answer me!”

Something strange caught my eye – Gumshoe’s sword was gone, like it’d been pulled out of the wood. I didn’t get a chance to act on it before someone slammed their fist into my face.

I spun to the side and landed on the ground, yelling in surprise and pain. On the ground, again. If I survived this, I swore to myself that I would learn how to actually fight.

Then, when I turned to see my attacker, my blood ran cold.

It was Manfred von Karma, holding Gumshoe’s sword in my face with an expression of utter hatred. We were right in front of the gallows, at the edge of the shadow it made thanks to the rising morning sun, far enough away from the fighting to hear each other over the screams.

“Well,” he said, “isn’t this a fitting end?”

I gritted my teeth, crawling backwards on my already aching elbows as the king pushed his sword closer into my chest.

“A fitting end?” I replied, trying to find a way out of this. “How so, exactly?”

“This is almost exactly how your father died ten years ago,” von Karma answered, a malicious grin spreading across his face. “Although, that time I used a dagger instead of some imbecile’s sword. So a bit different, yes. But not enough to make this any less sweet.”

“Why did you even kill him?” I asked, my heart sinking. My father was gone, Wright was… And now I was going to die too.

Von Karma scoffed. “I killed him because he discovered my system,” the king replied, digging the sword into my chest. “You think your stupid servant was the first to find out? No, your father had discovered it long ago. And that night, he finally had proof, real, undeniable proof. And we just couldn’t have that.”

“His documents were gone,” I whispered, suddenly realizing. “He… my father realized you were killing innocent people and tried to stop you! And you just, you…”

Von Karma sighed, and his sword cut into my chest, stinging with pain. “Glad I could finally bring you closure,” the man said, slowly pushing his sword further into my skin. “But unfortunately for you, you’re still a traitor. And traitors only have one sentence.”

Manfred von Karma raised his weapon, the sunrise glinting off the metal sword, and then suddenly, the sunlight was gone, replaced with a shadow.

And… someone shouting?

I watched with wide eyes of shock as Phoenix Wright, complete and utter buffoon that he is, launched himself off the top of the gallows and essentially body slammed Manfred von Karma. The king screamed in rage as he and Wright fell to the ground, his sword twisting just enough to stab Wright through the side. Wright screamed, and von Karma’s head hit the stones with a sickening crack.

Manfred von Karma’s eyes rolled back as blood began to pool under his head.

Wright cried out in pain as he pushed himself off the king’s unconscious body, blood dripping out of his side.

He’s alive.

“Wright!” I yelled, pushing myself up and scrambling towards him. He grimaced and turned towards me, giving me a watery smile as I stripped off my jacket and pushed it against his side. The injury didn’t look bad – just a flesh wound. But blood was spurting out of it like a waterfall. I almost threw up at the sight, but I controlled myself. Wright was bleeding out, he didn’t need me getting sick over something like this.

“Hey, Edgeworth,” Wright managed to say, his brown and blue eyes shining with happiness as he stared up at me. “I think I just saved your life.”

“I think you’re a god damn idiot,” I replied, hoping the pressure of my jacket would stop the bleeding. “He was holding a sword! What were you thinking?!”

“Uhm… ‘oh no, Miles is gonna get killed. I better save him.’”

This boy was physically incapable of not annoying me, wasn’t he.

“Wright, you can’t just… I wasn’t… I thought you were dead!” I stammered out. “Gant told me you were dead, I didn’t…”

“He… did?” Wright asked, shifting slightly and wincing. “Well I, I think I hit my head on the way down, and I was kinda knocked out for a minute. That’s… that’s probably why.”

“You were?” I stared at him incredulously, noticing the bleeding gash on the side of his head. It wasn’t too deep or big, but it was noticeable. Hitting his head on the way down must’ve done that. No wonder Gant thought he was dead.

Well, Gant was wrong, and hopefully he was dead himself.

“Ah, ow,” Phoenix said, and I realized I was clutching his arm hard enough to leave bruises. “I don’t need more bruises, Edge.”

“Apologies, I just…” I released my hand and continued to put pressure on Wright’s wound – the blood was starting to seep through my jacket. Where was Ema? Wright needed her!

“Edge, uh, your… your face is spinning,” Wright mumbled, his eyes drooping. My heart began to race with panic; no, no, no, I’d just gotten him back, he was not dying like this. He couldn’t.

“Ema!” I yelled, my voice echoing over the sounds of battle. There was less noise now – the fight seemed to be winding down. I couldn’t even tell who’d won, and at this point, I didn’t care. “Ema! Please!”

“Miles!”

My head shot up in relief as Ema and Maya both ran towards me, Lana and Gumshoe following close behind. Ema was already digging around in her bag for something – Maya nearly dived to the ground to get to Phoenix’s side.

“Nick!” she said, tears in her eyes but a smile on her face. “Nick, we did it, the plan worked! We won!”

“We… did? Awesome…” Phoenix seemed to be losing focus. I clutched him tighter and squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

“Wright? Stay awake,” I said, barely away of Ema kneeling down next to us and pulling out a strip of bandages. “Stay awake, you’re going to be okay.”

“S’ just a flesh wound,” Wright mumbled.

Lana and Gumshoe focused on picking up the unconscious king, but they cast nervous glances towards Phoenix. Ema wrapped my jacket close to the wound with bandages, tightening it enough to hold the blood in temporarily.

“I need to get him to my apothecary,” Ema said, her voice and hands shaking. “If he loses too much blood, I don’t…”

“Nick!” Larry shouted behind me, making me jump in spite of myself. “Nick, you okay?”

“Larry, help us carry him to Ema’s!” Maya commanded, jumping up and picking up Phoenix’s feet. Larry didn’t seem to have moved. “Larry! Focus!”

“But… but he’s–”

“Larry, for god’s sake, be useful for once in your life!”

I kept clutching Wright’s hand, squeezing it like that action alone would keep him alive.

“Wright, stay with me,” I said, moving to help Maya pick him up. Larry finally got his head straight and picked him up by the shoulders. “You’re going to be okay. Wright? Wright, it’s me, please, it’s me, Edgeworth.”

“Edgeworth…” he whispered, his eyes glassy.

The four of us ran Wright into the castle, and I felt his hand go slack.

Chapter Text

Why is everything so bright?

I kept my eyes shut and tried going back to sleep, ignoring the bright light outside my eyelids. God, was the sun out already? Maybe I overslept. I must’ve stayed up late reading The Death of King Arthur again. But Edgeworth never let me oversleep – even if he didn’t wake me up, him moving around the room usually got me. I’d never really been a heavy sleeper. What if something was wrong?

I slowly strained my eyes open, trying to sit up, and a shock of pain rocketed up from my side, causing me to gasp. God, that hurt. What had I done this time?

“Wright?”

I opened my eyes, squinting in the bright sunlight, and realized I wasn’t in Edgeworth’s room – I was in Ema’s apothecary, lying on her table. And it was the middle of the day. There was a blanket over me and a pillow under my head. Then Miles’s face appeared in my vision, lines on his face creased in concern.

Oh right, I suddenly remembered. I got stabbed launching myself off a wooden platform and body slamming the king. That’s probably why I’m here.

“Wright?” Edgeworth asked again, laying his hands on my shoulders. They felt warm. “You’re… awake.”

I forced my face into a cracked smile.

“You’re cute when you’re worried,” I said, my voice hoarse from underuse. And he was – his brow furrowed, and his hair fell over his face while he was leaning down. His eyes were so silver.

Edgeworth blushed profusely and spluttered something incoherent, and I chuckled before my side started hurting again and I had to stop.

“Why,” Edgeworth breathed, staring off to the side in embarrassment, “must you always do this to me, Phoenix Wright.”

“Because I looooove you.”

“This is Ema’s pain potion talking.”

“No,” I answered, reaching up and grabbing his hands. “It isn’t.”

Edgeworth and I stared at each other, his face still blushing red, and then he leaned down and kissed me, so softly and gently it felt like heaven. I sighed into him, every tension and worry melting away. It was too sunny and bright to be sad. We’d won the battle, we’d won the kingdom, and Miles Edgeworth was kissing me with more love than I’d ever felt in my life.

Ema’s door flew open with a bang, making both of us jump and pull apart. Ema and Maya walked into the room laughing and holding baskets of herbs, but at soon as they saw us, they froze.

They stared at us, Ema’s face blushing bright pink and Maya’s eyes wide with joy.

“Uh…” Ema began to say, “I uh, I see Phoenix is awake–”

“YOU GAY PEASANTS!” Maya screamed at the top of her lungs, happier than I’d ever seen her. Ema jerked away and dropped her herb basket in shock, and Edgeworth and I weren’t much better.

“I…” Edgeworth spluttered, his face now about the shade of a tomato, “Wha- Excuse me?”

“This makes me so happy,” Maya said, ignoring Edgeworth. “Doesn’t this make you happy, Ema? I’m very happy. We should probably go. Let’s go, we can make more potions in Helga’s kitchen.”

“They’re…” Ema looked completely dazed. “They’re not potions, they’re tonics, and wait, I need to–”

“Nope, too late, we’re leaving.” Maya grabbed Ema’s hand and pulled her out the door, flashing me a grin. “Bye guys! Nice to see you aren’t dead, Nick. Oh, and try not to have sex on Ema’s table.”

“Wait, what?!” Ema asked.

“Wha- Maya!” Edgeworth managed, turning ten different shades of embarrassment.

Maya just flipped her hair and shut the door behind her, leaving us alone again. Edgeworth turned to me, embarrassed, and then realized I’d been laughing the entire time.

“Are you serious, Wright?” he asked, completely unamused. I had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard – well, some of the tears were from the pain, but most of them were happy tears. Probably.

“Oh my god,” I gasped, finally managing to calm myself down. “I love Maya so much.”

“Don’t laugh at my pain, Wright.”

“Aw come on Edge, that’s what I’m here for!”

“You underestimate just how tempted I am to let you bleed out on this table right now–”

I pulled Edgeworth down by his collar and cut him off with another kiss; it didn’t take him long to give in and just kiss back, pulling me up so he could reach me better. When we pulled apart, Edgeworth sighed and rolled his eyes.

“You should really stop doing that,” he grumbled, but a smile pulled at the edge of his mouth.

“Oh come on,” I answered, “you love it.”

“Hm.”

“Alright, fine.” I put my hands under my head and gave him a smile. “How about you tell me what happened while I was out. How long was I out?”

“Just over a day,” Edgeworth said, grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the table. “Ema was surprised how quickly you healed last night.”

“I’ve always been a fast healer.”

“So I’ve heard. Maya told me you were pushed off a bridge into a freezing river once.”

“She told you that? Oh god, not one of my finer moments. But hey, back to the point. What happened?”

Edgeworth chuckled and shook his head. “Well, a lot I suppose,” he answered. “We’ve barely had time to breathe since yesterday, with all the chaos and clean up and everything. I guess I should start with the battle. People are calling it the Battle of Guards…”

Edgeworth told me everything that happened during the battle, how he’d nearly been killed by Gant, how Ema and Maya were surprisingly able during a fight (he’d obviously never seen Maya wielding a broken bottle or a broom before), and how Lana and Gumshoe managed to gain control of the square. The battle hadn’t gone on for as long as they’d thought it would – many more City Guards turned to our side after fighting broke out.

After the battle, while most everyone else rushed me to Ema’s apothecary, Franziska took the lead and began directing the guards, ordering prisoners to be taken to the dungeons and the square to be cleaned. She organized the people, told them what to do, and they actually did it, following her orders as easily as if she were the king himself. She’d easily transferred her father’s power unto herself, proving to be a very capable and respectable leader. However, she still made Edgeworth promise to stay in the castle as her personal advisor – it made sense, considering he’d been the one that was actually trained to rule. But I could tell there was something else behind the reasoning, something Franziska wouldn’t share with anyone but her brother. Edgeworth, of course, couldn’t be more proud of her.

Manfred von Karma had been found dead in his dungeon cell this morning, a knife jammed into his heart by his own hand. He’d apparently committed suicide. We still had no idea which guard had slipped him the knife last night, and we probably never would.

But you know what? For once, I was actually okay with that.

Edgeworth had barely left my side, but Ema and Maya had been running around the castle, tending to the wounded guards and occasional civilians. Lana and Gumshoe were working tirelessly to bring order back to the city, still in need of a new Captain for the guard while Damon Gant rotted in the dungeons. Any City Guard that swore allegiance to the princess – soon to be queen – was pardoned, and all but a few had done so. Everything was still crazy, but it was a good kind of crazy. We’d won, we’d actually won. Now, we just had to deal with the aftermath.

Edgeworth eventually had to leave after Franziska burst into the apothecary and demanded he stop fawning over me and actually fulfill his new duties as the soon-to-be queen’s personal advisor. Once he was gone, there wasn’t really anything else to do, so I fell back asleep. When I woke up again, I’d been moved from Ema’s apothecary to Edgeworth’s bed, which was much nicer on my back and much comfier.

The prince – former prince? Advisor? I wasn’t sure at this point – eventually returned that night, and he climbed into the bed with me without a second thought. I couldn’t turn on my side and hug him, thanks to my inconvenient stab wound, but we held hands and laid in the dark together, listening to each other breathe. That was enough for me.

After a while, Edgeworth squeezed my hand and began to speak.

“Do you remember the last time we were in this bed together?” he asked, turning to look at me. I rolled my eyes, but my face turned beet red and… well.

“That’s a pretty loaded question there, Edge,” I answered.

“I did not mean it like that, Phoenix Wright. You have a stab wound.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Besides, Ema will roast me on a spit if I ruin her stitches.”

I snickered. “Yeah, that’s true,” I admitted.

“Apologies,” Edgeworth continued. “I was just… reminded of that night. It feels so long ago.”

“I know,” I replied with a nod. “It’s weird. But it’s only been what, a week?”

“Almost two, I believe.”

“Dang.”

We didn’t say anything else, our minds wandering down different paths. The last time we’d been here together hadn’t exactly been fun. Edgeworth had had a nightmare, I’d climbed into the bed, and he’d spilled out all his fears and regrets onto me. And then he’d asked me to do the same, and I’d refused.

I’d refused. Even then, I’d still been too terrified to tell him anything about my past. He’d given me everything from his past, and I’d given him nothing.

He deserves better than this, I thought, my stomach churning. He deserves to know.

This part of you can’t stay hidden forever, Phoenix.

“Miles, I…” My voice trailed off, suddenly going silent, and it felt more difficult to talk than it ever had in my life.

I felt Edgeworth shift onto his side, so he could see me better. “What?” he asked softly.

“I…” My throat felt like I’d swallowed a pinecone, but I pushed through it. My hand clutched Edgeworth’s to keep from shaking. “The last time we were here, you told me about your past. And I want… I don’t want to know your past without you knowing mine.”

Edgeworth stayed silent for a moment, obviously not expecting me to say that.

“Phoenix,” he eventually said, “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to–”

“No, I do,” I interrupted, my resolve solidifying. “I do. I just… I don’t know where to begin.”

Edgeworth stayed silent, patient, and I forced my terrified thoughts to organize themselves into words and sentences. I wasn’t in any danger – Edgeworth was here. He loved me. He had to love me. And telling him this would only make our love stronger.

Right?

I swallowed, every part of my body shaking, and began telling my story.

“When I was ten,” I began, “only a few weeks after I met you, the landlord and some of his guards came to our shack in the middle of some fields, looking for the money we owed him. He took all of it, our money, our food, everything, but it wasn’t enough. So he told us he’d come back tomorrow, and if we didn’t have what we owed him by then, he’d take the one thing we valued above all else. I thought he was talking about the book you got me. After he and his men left, I grabbed the book and put it in a box, and then I buried the box under the tree in the backyard. That way they’d never find it.

“Except… the next day, when they came back, they didn’t want the book. They didn’t want money or animals or all the valuables they could find. They wanted me.

“They took me away from my parents and brought me back to the landlord’s mansion, and they threw me into the cellar and it… I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified in my entire life. I had no idea what they’d do to me. I thought they would kill me. But what they did instead, it… it was worse.

“They’d keep me locked in that cellar, trapped in the dark and freezing cold. Sometimes they’d forget about me. Sometimes the servants would come down after a bad day and just beat me up, for no reason. There were times I wouldn’t eat for a whole week. I never stopped being cold. The dark felt like it wanted to suffocate me, and sometimes I wanted it too. I didn’t see the sun once while I was down there. And I… I was down there for five years.

“And… the landlord, he had two daughters. Twins. One was Dahlia. She’s the reason he brought me to that mansion instead of selling me off or something. She… I don’t know why she’d do it but she would just… She’d… She told me once that it was her way of being an adult. That I belonged to her. And afterwards she’d hurt me, she’d hurt me until I screamed and cried and she wouldn’t stop until I begged her, and then she’d laugh and leave me down there in the dark completely alone and I just couldn’t…

“I wanted to die. I was ten years old and I wanted to die. And every day I thought, ‘maybe today is when they’ll let me go. Maybe today is when someone will rescue me. Maybe my parents will come and take me away.’ But no one ever came. I was alone, and all I had was pain and darkness and cold and… and after a while I gave up, I just broke and let them do whatever they wanted because what was the point, I would never escape anyway. I thought I was going to die in that cellar.

“Except, Dahlia had a twin. Iris. She… she didn’t discover me until I was fifteen, because everyone knew that if she found out she wouldn’t stand for what they did to me. And one day she came down into the cellar and… and she was kind, and she fed me and helped me, and I thought it was a trick and I was terrified but… it wasn’t.

“Then her father found out. And he… he hated Iris. He thought she was worthless and pathetic and weak. She tried to get him to let me go, but he just forbade her from seeing me. Except… one night, she snuck down and gave me a box of matches and brought me upstairs, and she opened up the wall and shoved me inside and told me to run, so I lit a match and ran until the match burned out, and then I lit another and another until I pushed open a door and I was… I was outside. I was free.

“And it was dark and no one was around so I ran, I ran as fast as I could to my farm to see my parents, but when I got there it… they…

“The Hawthornes had burned the house down years ago. There were weeds growing in the ash and the wood was charred and cold, and my parents, I walked in the house and the first thing I saw was their… their skeletons, lying near the door like they’d been locked in and were trying to get out. Maybe they’d been killed right after I was taken away. Or maybe not, maybe it was later. I don’t know. But they were gone. They were gone, and I was fifteen and totally alone and I didn’t have any idea what to do, I just sat there in the dirt and ash and cried and cried until nothing else could come out…

“And then the sun rose, and… you forget how beautiful the sun is after you haven’t seen it in so long. It was amazing. It felt like it set fire to everything in the world, and it was so warm and bright and I just…

“I rose out of the ashes and dug up the box – it was still there, the only things I had left from my old life – and I fled into the city. That’s where I met Maya and Larry, and…

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I just… the things they did to me, the person I turned into when I was down there I didn’t… I don’t want this part of me to exist. The part that’s scared of the dark and cries if I’m alone. It’s not me. It’s what they wanted me to be. And I was so young and terrified that I had to be that. But that part of me still hasn’t gone away, and it probably never will, and I just hate it, I hate myself and how I feel and I can’t–”

I felt Miles’s lips on my own, my eyes so blurred with tears I could barely see, and I sobbed, because Miles was kissing me even after everything I said, holding me and telling me everything would be alright. And I melted, right into his arms like a child, and he kept holding me and loving me no matter how broken I was.

He loved me. He truly, deeply loved me, no matter who I was or what I did. That was something I hadn’t felt since I was ten years old.

So I cried and let him hold me, rocking back and forth like a ship on the ocean, and for the first time in my life I let my heart open completely to another person. Because Miles Edgeworth loved me with all his heart, and I loved him with all of mine, and for us, that’s all we really needed.

A few weeks later, it was Miles’s Edgeworth’s twentieth birthday party.

“I cannot believe,” I said, watching as people in fancy clothes danced about the Great Hall, “that you still threw this stupid party, after everything that’s happened.”

“Wright, this is not a stupid party, it is my birthday party,” Edgeworth corrected. His hand was wrapped around my hip and kept me close as he drank from a silver goblet. “And besides, I didn’t want to. Franziska made me.”

“We’d already spent months planning and sent out the invitations, little brother,” Franziska replied, appearing next to Edgeworth with her own goblet. “It’d be a shame to let all those people down, especially with a new ruler in charge, correct?”

Edgeworth rolled his eyes and didn’t respond, but he smiled. The crown sat on Franziska’s graceful head and sparkled in the light – she’d been crowned only a few days after the Battle of Guards, and so far, everyone thought her being queen was the best decision ever made in the kingdom.

“Hi, Fran!” Maya said, bounding up in a beautiful poufy dress with Ema in tow. She went up on her toes and kissed Franziska on the nose, earning a small smile from the queen – anyone else who’d try to do that would be whipped senseless. Then Maya turned to me, her face shining.

“Nick! Look at this dress!” she said excitedly, pulling Ema forward.

“Maya,” I groaned, “you’ve shown me your dress about a thousand times.”

“Not my dress, you idiot! Ema’s!” Maya stepped out of the way and revealed Ema in a… wow. A very stunning green poufy dress, which Ema was obviously not excited about wearing. Franziska had sent for several dresses from France when she heard about the party, intending to dress at the height of fashion – she just had to be perfect. She’d evidently bought some for Maya and Ema. I’d even seen Pearl wandering around the Great Hall bedecked in some kind of pink poof monstrosity – with her mother having fled the kingdom, Pearl could now go wherever she wanted without having to hide.

“Wow, Ema,” I said, smiling. “You look great!”

Ema muttered something and pulled her hat further down over her head. From what I could tell, Maya had obviously failed in getting her to give that up.

“See, Ema?” Maya said, punching her lightly on the arm. “You look beautiful!”

“He said ‘great,’ not beautiful,” Ema grumbled. “That’s Phoenix talk for, ‘you look like trash.’”

“What? Since when?” I asked, appalled, but Edge gave me a look and turned towards Ema.

“Ema Skye,” he said softly, and Ema looked up from under her hat. Edgeworth smiled. “You look absolutely stunning.”

Ema blushed, and a smile crept onto her face. Maya fist pumped in the background.

“Yes!” Maya said, grabbing Ema’s hand. “See? I told you! Beautiful! Come on, let’s go find you someone to dance with.”

“W-wait, what?” Ema’s face went from bashful to horrified in a second flat. She didn’t even have a chance to properly protest before Maya dragged her back into the crowd, searching for a suitable partner.

Franziska followed close behind, shaking her head and smiling, which just left Edgeworth and me alone near the edge of the room, laughing.

“Poor Ema,” I said, grinning as I watched Maya pull her up next to an obnoxious looking German boy with blond hair. “Maya won’t rest until she finds someone to dance with her.”

“Speaking of which…” Edgeworth raised an eyebrow and smirked, tilting his head just enough to look like a silver-eyed cat. “I don’t believe you and I have danced tonight, good sir.”

“Good sir?” I asked with a grin. “Since when am I a ‘good sir?’”

“Since you put on that blue waistcoat earlier today.”

“Oh my god, Miles.”

Edgeworth just winked and placed his goblet down on the table, walking towards the center of the room and slipping his hand into mine.

“May I have this dance, Phoenix Wright?” he asked, giving me a small bow with his words. God, he could be charming when he wanted to be. It was so irritating.

I sighed. I couldn’t resist his stupid smirk even if I wanted to.

And honestly? I didn’t.

“Why, Miles Edgeworth,” I replied, curtly bowing back, “I’d be delighted.”

Edgeworth’s smirk grew into a smile, and the two of us headed to the center of the floor, music and candlelight glittering as we danced into the night.