Work Text:
Miles Edgeworth was innocent. It was impossible for him to have committed the murder. I could prove it, too. If only Edgeworth would let me. And maybe he would have, if Franziska wasn’t on the case… As soon as Edgeworth had heard she would be prosecutor he made me promise, that if I wanted to defend him, I couldn’t say anything about “it”. I had agreed. But it sure made things difficult. Things were not looking good. There was a witness but… I had a feeling the man who claimed to have see the murder was actually the murderer himself, but I couldn’t prove he was guilty until I had proven Edgeworth innocent. But the hole in his alibi… Like I said, things were not looking good.
The murder had taken place a few days ago, on Friday, at 10:43 at night. The victim, an ex policeman. The witness who claimed to see Edgeworth stab the poor man, was from a previous case. A case the Edgeworth closed, resulting in the witnesses arrest. It was too much of a coincidence. As the witness had described, Edgeworth had been in a parking lot, pacing around near a red Alfa Romeo GTV, like he had been waiting for someone. Then the victim had arrived. They appeared to argue for a few minutes before Edgeworth had pulled a knife, stabbing the former policeman three times in the chest.
By the time police had arrived, Edgeworth and his car were gone. It was all very fishy. And I knew Edgeworth couldn’t have been in that parking lot at the time! But he had known what he was getting himself into when he made me promise…
“Mr. Edgeworth. I will ask again, where were you on Friday at 10:43 pm?”
“I will tell you again, von Karma, I was at home.”
“Can you prove that?”
“How am I supposed to prove it? I live alone. Unless you want to have my dog come in and testify.” Not good. Not good at all.
“Your honor…” I began, ignoring the fact that Edgeworth was glaring daggers at me. “I. I think I can prove that Mr. Edgeworth was at home that night.”
“You think, Mr. Wright?” The judge seemed hopefully… He probably didn’t want Edgeworth to be guilty either.
“No I, I know I can. See, Miles Edgeworth couldn’t have killed the victim becau-”
“Objection!” All eyes went to Edgeworth. He did not look happy, to say the least.
“Fool!” He recoiled slightly at Franziska’s cry. “You can’t object, you're the defendant! Please continue Mr. Wright. How can you prove that Mr. Edgeworth was home.”
“Well. Because, I saw him at home. I was with him at the time.” The courtroom buzzed with whispers. Edgeworth had turned his head away from me. He was pissed. Great. But I could deal with that later, I had to prove he wasn’t a murderer.
“Order! Order! Mr. Wright, why were you with the defendant that night?”
“W-well uh, your honor… I don’t think that’s relevant! What is relevant is that he couldn’t have committed a murder that night, because I was with him at the time!” Von Karma crossed her arms.
“A likely story. Why should we believe you? If you were with him, why did Mr. Edgeworth not tell us that earlier?”
“He requested that that, piece of the story... be left out.”
“And why would he request that? What are you trying to hide, Mr. Wright?”
“Well uh…”
“And further more, if you can’t prove that you were really with Mr. Edgeworth, I don’t see any reason to believe you.”
“But I can prove it!” Miles snapped his head toward me, fire in his eyes. He was going to hate me for this. But I couldn’t just let him to prison for this, not when I knew he didn’t do anything. “I can prove it. I have a picture. A selfie."
“A selfie?” The judge asked, peering down at me from the podium. Right, he didn’t know what a selfie was.
“A selfie is a photo you have taken of yourself, usually with the use of a phone camera, your honor.” Well, at least Franziska knew.
“Ah, very well… show me this, selfie, Mr. Wright.” His eyes wandered to Edgeworth. His was trembling... With anger, sure. But he also just seemed… afraid, maybe?
“Yes, your honor.” I took out my phone, locating the photo from Friday. It was even better than I had hoped. The angle at which I had taken the photo had caught Edgeworth’s digital clock in the shot. Not only did it show the time, 22:44, but it also showed the date. There was no way Edgeworth could have been there, it was undeniable.
The rest of the contents of the photo… Edgeworth was going to kill me. Like, actually, cold blood murder me. But at least with this photo I could keep him innocent in the current case. I gave the phone to the judge while Edgeworth burned holes in my suit with his glare. There was a silence while the judge looked over the photo, his face flushing a deep red. Edgeworth was turning red too, so much so that he started matching the color of his suit. Franziska spoke up after a moment of heavy tension between me, the judge, and Edgeworth.
“Well, your honor? I would like to see this photo as well, I doubt it proves anything.” He gave it to her without a word, refusing to make eye contact with any of us. She started at it just as silently as the judge had, confident expression fading. You know that face people make after they spill coffee on themselves in the morning? That’s kind of what she looked like at this point. Pure horror and regret. Slowly she turned her head to look at Edgeworth… Who was looking down at the ground, refusing to meet her gaze. “Miles, what is the meaning of this?”
The photo in question… Miles and I were in his bed together, half covered by the big maroon comforter. I was beaming, overflowing with joy. The cheeky smile on my face portrayed it well. Edgeworth’s face was a mix between annoyance and fondness. He was looking away from the camera slightly, a thin pink line across his face. It was obviously his room, with his classy (and all maroon) decor. And like I said, the clock in the photo proved the time and date was the same as the murder. He couldn’t have been in the park at 10:43 if he was in bed with me 10:44. Edgeworth spoke up, answering von Karma’s question.
“...Mr. Wright and I… We are, involved.”
The courtroom erupted in chatter. Franziska stared at him, dumbfounded. Her eyes then drifted to me, then back to Miles, like she was trying to figure out how the two of us could possibly be, “involved”, as Edgeworth had put it. I don’t think she was all that surprised by the fact that it was a male he was with, I think she was confused as to why it was me, of all people.
~~~
Miles Edgeworth was innocent. It was impossible for him to have committed the murder. And I had proved it. I figured a secret relationship with a defense attorney would do less damage to his life than a murder charge would. The witness was found guilty after another witness had turned up. They had seen our original witness that night from their office window. He confessed to framing Edgeworth in a revenge plot, and lamented the fact that they never thought Edgeworth would have had anyone with him that night. Franziska and Miles both disappeared right after court had let out. I figured Edgeworth didn’t want to speak with me after i outed him in from of his sister like that. But low and behold, a few days later he showed up at my office.
“Wright. We’re going to lunch.” He announced as soon as he entered.
“What? Lunch? Now?”
“Don’t try and tell me you're busy, I know you don’t have a case.” As usual, he was right about that. Cocky bastard… my cocky bastard. “Don’t think this means you’re off the hook, by the way. I’m still completely outraged that you showed that damn photo in court.”
“Hey, it kept you out of prison right?”
“For now it did. But seeing as I’m going to murder you tonight it didn’t do much good.” He stared at me very seriously for a moment, then cracked that small smile of his. “By the way… I want you to send me that photo.”
“What? Why? I thought you hated it…”
“I hated the fact that you felt the need to take it. And I hate that you showed it to the Judge and Franziska. But, like you said when you took it… it was a special moment right? Our first time?” Right. Our first time. Miles pretended he didn’t care about anything we did together but… This time I could see right through him. I smiled warmly, which apparently pissed Edgeworth off. “Wipe that smile off your face Wright. are you going to send me the photo or not?”
“Sure Miles, of course. But, lunch first. I’m starving.”
Edgeworth gave a curt nod before turning on his heel. I followed behind him, “forgetting” my wallet on my desk, just in case he was thinking of making me pay for my own food. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to be murdered by Miles Edgeworth that night. Instead, I had a feeling that our first time, was not the last time, and that night was going to be a lucky one.
~~~
I was right. Sorry, I don’t have evidence this time. You’ll just have to trust me.