Chapter Text
The Day Phoenix Wright Loses His Badge, District Courthouse, 3:13 P.M.
“Mr. Wright, regardless of the whereabouts of your client, Mr. Enigmar, I have to suspend your attorney’s license pending an investigation by the bar association. I must say…I am quite disheartened by these allegations. I hope I’m wrong about you, Mr. Wright, for your sake.”
“Are you okay, old boy? I promise my Daddy’s still alive and stuff, he didn’t REALLY disappear for forever. I can’t tell you how he did it, but he said he’ll be back soon. Or, soon-ish? I’m not sure how many days that is. Polly, do you know how many days ‘soon’ is?”
“Trucy, I think you should leave Mr. Wright alone for a bit…wait, Zak told you about this? This was planned? Th-that’s insane!”
“Um, he said he would need his assistant to help pull off a really big trick. But only if the Judge said ‘guilty’ really loud. If he put the word ‘not’ in front of the ‘guilty’, then we wouldn’t need to do it. To be honest, it was hard to sit through all the yelling and stuff before he got to the ‘guilty’ part. I really hope court isn’t always this long if I get Judge Duty when I’m older.”
“It’s jury duty, Truce.”
“But I thought that you get to say the ‘guilty’ or-“
The ringing in Phoenix Wright’s ears starts going again. He thought he had gotten rid of it. But here he is, sitting on a bench outside of the courthouse, staring at the concrete until it turns from concrete into a gray canvas that moves like kinetic sand just a little bit if he focuses on it long enough.
Breathe. Just breathe. In, out. In, out. In, out. Shit.
“-you okay Mr. Wright? I-I know you’re probably, um, confused and stressed and all. I’m sorry to bother you about it, but…um…Zak had our bus passes, so we can’t really go anywhere right now. I haven’t gotten my driver’s permit yet, and I would need an adult in the car with me anyway, and, uh, also a car-“
“It’s ok, Apollo. I’ll take you guys home. We’ll have to take the bus-I usually bike here,” Phoenix takes a deep breathe in and holds that tension in his chest until the words tumble out of his mouth on the exhale, “…are you guys okay?”.
Asks the lawyer who just lost everything.
Maybe not everything. His livelihood and long-term plans for employment? Yes. Financial stability? Not sure he had that to begin with. But he’s still got people! Friends. Maya, Pearls, Larry…Miles, etc. Larry is probably not the most uplifting example right now. Maya and Pearls kind of belong in the “spiritually adopted sisters” category. Franziska is…someone he knows. Gumshoe? Sure, Gumshoe. Although he’s probably closer to the “Larry” category of (lovable) idiots. The Skye sister he can actually keep in contact with sits somewhere next to Maya and Pearls. These are all people that would believe him, right? They know he wouldn’t-he would never forge evidence. They’d believe him.
And what about more casual associates-people who may owe him a favor? Well. A lot of his age-appropriate acquaintances have perjured themselves in front of him (and he was most likely the one to point it out). So some toss-ups.
But he has Miles. And Miles is…Miles. Miles-he’s in love with Miles. And Miles loves him.
…But would he love him without the badge?
Of course he would! Miles isn’t shallow like that. Miles has saved him countless times at this point. And he likes to think that he’s at least been a positive influence in Miles’ life. He loves Miles, has never not loved Miles.
But their entire relationship has been written in a courtroom, hasn’t it? The courtroom is where they let themselves fall towards the truth, trusting that the other will catch him if he falls too far. The courtroom is where he got that first glimpse of the Miles Edgeworth he knew who was still somewhere trapped inside a cocoon of perfection and competition and terror and grief. The courtroom was, in a funny and kind of stupid way, the first place he really told Miles he loved him. Maybe not as directly as most couples do. Not as many parrots involved, usually.
So…what are Phoenix and Miles without his badge?
Okay, Phoenix, time to stop the anxiety spiral there. Can’t afford to work himself up like this. He’d like to keep his lunch in his stomach and not on the courthouse concrete, thank you very much.
“I think we’ll be okay. I really didn’t see Zak running…but maybe I should have. I’m s-sorry, Mr. Wright. Obviously, the judge will realize he’s wrong soon and you’ll get your badge back, I’m sure of it! There’s no way someone like Phoenix Wright forges evidence! I-the problem is that without Zak and Valant, we don’t really have a place to stay.”
Phoenix focuses back in on the kids in front of him. And god, they are just kids. Trucy has taken some crayons and a couple pages of computer paper out of her little backpack and she sits on the courthouse steps, coloring a picture of what looks like a giraffe with butterfly wings on the step above her. She is still wearing her red magician’s outfit, the one that matches her dad’s. Her dad, who made his 8-year-old daughter an accomplice to his escape from police custody. She futzes with her cape, frustrated with the way the wind is blowing it and her drawing papers. Not a tear in sight.
Apollo, who is quite a bit older than his little sister, seems to grasp the gravity of Zak’s conviction and escape too well. When he initially met Phoenix, he stuttered about how cool Phoenix is for a full minute, turning red as a tomato. He wants to be lawyer when he grows up; a lawyer like him. As embarrassing (and flattering, let’s be honest) as it was to have a “fan” watching him in court today, Phoenix wishes that Apollo saw him in any other trial but this one. His face, when Phoenix has been able to look at it without everything turning into static snow, has been stuck in a state of panic since the smoke in Courtroom #2 cleared and Zak was gone. Phoenix gets the sense that Apollo is mature for his age, but in a way that burdens him with an excess amount of anxiety (the way Miles was sometimes when they were kids). He’s been checking every hour or so to make sure that all of Trucy’s stuff is still in her backpack. He stopped to fill up their water bottles before they exited the courthouse. And he’s not crying when he tells Phoenix that they don’t have any other relatives to go to; that they are, for all intents and purposes, now homeless. Phoenix would almost prefer it if the kid would cry.
Nowhere to go. Phoenix Wright and two kids that were brought to the courthouse this morning by a professional magician. They are the same, right now. Phoenix wanted to cry as soon as he walked outside this afternoon. It gets harder to stop himself every time he glances over at Trucy’s little giraffe, who knows nothing of whatever the hell happened in Courtroom #2 today.
He’s not letting these kids sleep on the ground.
“You guys can stay with me for now. We’ll look up any relatives or friends of relatives tomorrow and see if they could take care of you for a bit. You may not have any immediate family, but maybe you’ve got some distant cousins or something,” Very comforting words, Phoenix. Phoenix looks directly at Apollo, addressing him in a quieter tone, “I’m not going kick you guys out onto the street, okay? We’ll figure something out.”
Apollo’s shoulders relax a bit, and he lets out a shaky sigh. His eyes betray his exhaustion.
“Thank you Mr. Wright. We’re really grateful. We’ll do what we can to stay out of your way, I guess. Truce, you should put that back in your bag for now-we’re going to get on the bus with Mr. Wright, okay? And you should tell him thank you for letting us stay with him tonight.”
“Hmm? Okie dokie. Thank you Mr. Lawyer! I’m sure my daddy will come get us when he can.”