Chapter Text
Phoenix was sitting around at the dinner table, waiting. He hadn't done much of anything on that day, other than some shopping. No upcoming cases, no nothing… And he was alone in the apartment!
As summer drew to a close and leaves began falling from the trees, the renovation of Miles's childhood home was finally coming to a close. It was stable and would be for years to come, meaning it was safe from earthquakes… Of course, some things still needed to be done, such as parts of the heating system, the electricity and what have you… But the hard part was behind them. As for painting the walls, it can't be that hard to do it on your own, right? All you need is a paint roller and dedication!
The plan, as explained by his boyfriend, was that they would take over the master bedroom, Maya taking his old room, Franziska the guest room and Pearl what used to be the study. This meant there wouldn’t be a designated work area for a five person, three lawyer household. Actually, do spirit mediums even need desk space? Whatever, that’s what the law offices are for! And it’s not like the two girls didn’t regularly go back to Kurain Village anyway, even as they all lived together.
Phoenix heard the sound of a key turning in the lock, meaning someone got home from whatever activity they were doing. Miles stepped through the front door, locking it behind himself.
“Hello, how was your day so far?”
“Oh, hey! I did some shopping, stuff like that! How about you?”
“Thankfully, the construction process is coming to a close. Could you be a dear and look up the contact information for an electrician on your laptop?”
“Wha— uh, yeah, sure!” He blushed furiously. Somehow, any kind of compliment had him acting like a giggly idiot, no matter how many times he heard it. Same with terms of endearment.
Phoenix grabbed his laptop from the bedroom, booting it up and dragging the ethernet cable to the table. He wasn't the most tech savvy guy on the block but finding this out was what the household demanded!
Launching the search engine, he looked up a forum for locals to advertise on, navigating to the tab for contractors. From the corner of his eye, he watched Miles almost trip over the cable on the ground and then sit down right next to him, though he wasn't saying a word, only smiling slightly. Phoenix went in for a kiss, continuing his search afterwards.
Sometimes, he still found it strange just how casual it became for them to show affection like this, and how quickly something novel and strange could become the new norm in one's life. After all, it’d been a few months since they got together. It was weird, really. To come home from errands, work or whatever else, to an apartment brimming with life. No matter what, someone would either be present or arrive shortly after him. In a way, Phoenix used to be bothered by just how lonely he felt half the time.
While Maya did sleep on his couch for a certain period, the months after her leaving and Miles’s imprisonment were spent with him waking up in an empty apartment, eating alone, and working on his case like he was Sisyphus and DL-6 was his boulder.
“That one seems promising.” Miles pointed at one of the posts. “What do you say, should I talk to them?”
“Yeah, you should. Just maybe not today, it’s already getting a little late.”
“I suppose so. I will note down their number.” By then, he was jotting down the phone number into a notepad. “However, I can’t say I’m excited for when we will have to pack our things for the move.”
“I’m mostly worried about the lease, honestly…Since we don’t wanna renew it, but that means we’re gonna have nowhere to go if the construction drags on.”
“We could always sleep at the office.”
“Huh… I mean, I guess we’d make do somehow, you’re right!”
“I said that ironically. Besides, we’re still fairly early into September and the lease agreement lasts until the beginning of November, doesn’t it? According to my calculations, we can expect for the electricity, tiling and heating to be done by the end of this month. Miraculously, the plumbing wasn’t damaged given that the bathrooms and kitchen were far enough from the—” Wow, sometimes Phoenix takes Miles’s beauty for granted. Seriously though, the man rolls out of bed looking like a fashion model. Or maybe he’s just in love, but really, who wouldn’t be? Who wouldn’t be shouting from the rooftops if they got to be with him?! “Phoenix Wright, are you even listening to what I’m saying? You have been ogling at me for a good minute.”
“Yeah, totally!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I figure Maya is currently using the majority of your shared IQ to avoid ending up under a road roller with Pearl.”
“Excuse me?! What do you mean??”
“You know exactly what I mean. In any event, here’s the important part. If we strain ourselves, we will be able to move in comfortably by the time the lease is up.”
“Are you sure?”
“We would be able to paint the bedrooms, at the very least. The hallways aren’t nearly as urgent.”
“Ah, uh…uh-huh!”
The sound of jingling keys snapped them out of their conversation, so they looked at the door to see the Fey girls step through it. They’d just gotten back from Kurain Village, where Maya had gone to take a channeling job because she needed that supplementary income for reasons (many of which started with bur- and ended with -gers.)
Then Franziska walked through the door, firstly questioning which idiot had come in without locking it. She also took on a job of her own from the prosecutor’s office, though it wasn’t anything particularly flashy, no murder involved for once. Handing out the takeout she’d gotten everyone for lunch (or maybe dinner), they all began eating.
“What are you foolish fools’ plans for tomorrow?” She questioned between two bites.
Phoenix shrugged as he looked at her. “I don’t have anything planned right now, no cases up at the moment.”
“I haven’t accepted a single case since I’d gotten my badge, I admit that it makes me feel quite bad.” Miles sighed. “I will have to speak to the contractor about rewiring. If all goes according to plan, we will be ready by the time our lease expires.”
“You’re handling the renovation, though. I’d say that’s hard enough as is.”
“Imagine I get accused again,” Maya mused. “And then you can defend me, Mr. Edgeworth! I’d be your first case! Or, or…Imagine Franziska gets accuse– OW!” She subsequently got food thrown at her.
“Shut up, Maya Fey!”
“No! You can’t take a joke!”
“Yes I can! Matter of fact, I can tell you a joke that I have just come up with! I took my grandmother to the type of spa where fish eat your dead skin. It was cheaper than a funeral. Now laugh.”
Shock of all shocks, Maya did actually laugh, knocking her food off the table in her amusement and then dropping to her hands and knees to scoop it back into the container. Pearl just stared at Franziska with big, beady eyes.
“I don’t get it…”
“I will explain it to you, Pearl Fey. You see, you would think that the fish are going to eat the dead skin cells. However–!”
“Can you not?” Phoenix buried his face into his hands. “Can we have lunch one time without you throwing things at people, Maya eating her food off the floor and Pearl being scarred for life!?? CAN WE?!! Miles, a little help here…?”
“We probably can not, if I’m being honest.”
“Damn it…”
Suddenly, Pearl called out to everyone with a huge smile on her face.
“Today, I was actually working on a surprise I wanted to show you while waiting for Mystic Maya to finish her channeling!”
“Okay, take it away!” Phoenix smiled. In a way, the constant chaos was bearable only because they all seemed happy in it. And he’d be a liar if he said that straying from this routine now would feel good. Anyway, she ran off from the table, returning with her backpack, pulling out a folded up piece of cardboard that appeared to have been colored on using pencils and crayons. The lines resembled some kind of poor, misshapen snake that was cut into a bunch of pieces and…
“Is this a board game you made?!” He blinked at her.
“Yeah! It’s based on the Steel Samurai since we all like him so much!”
Miles took it into his hands, an appreciative smile making its way onto his face.
“How wonderfully designed…I’m sure it would sell well if it were to go public. You did great, Pearl.”
“Thank you, Mr. Edgeworth! I worked really hard on it!” She beamed.
“So…you expect us to play this?” Franziska raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I made it so that we could have fun, yes!”
“I don’t know…”
“Says the girl who won like, over 300 matches of solitaire against her laptop!” Maya jabbed a finger at her.
“I’ll have you know it’s exactly 375 matches and counting!” A pause, then another handful of food thrown at the spirit medium. “Why do you know how many matches I have played?!”
“I went into your laptop, is that a crime?!”
“Yes!”
“Yes.”
“Uh…yes?” Came the responses from Franziska, Miles and Phoenix respectively.
“Show me the law!”
“Well, this could constitute a breach of privacy, and I could press charges. Though I wouldn’t be the one to prosecute you if I did.”
“Please don’t press charges, the last thing I need right now is to have to pay Maya’s fines.” Phoenix grimaced.
“I can pay my own fines, Nick, thanks a lot!”
“Oh. Then feel free to, I guess!”
“WAIT, CRAP!” She crawled over to Franziska, grabbing onto her skirt. “Please Franny, I need this! I have one good outfit and it’s the one I’m wearing! I sleep on a couch with an 8 year old, I wanna get a beeeed!”
“I’m not actually going to file a suit. Even I don’t have the heart to take what little money you manage to scrape together from your clients. It would be like stealing an infant’s candy.”
“Thanks! Or wait…”
“Let’s just see what Pearl managed to put together.” Miles attempted to diffuse the situation before they’d be cleaning food from the walls.
“Okay, thank you! So, you have to roll the dice and move on the board. And if you step on the space with the sword on it, you have to draw a card. I can’t really write yet, for which I’m very sorry…But I did draw the cards so you’ll be able to play anyway!”
“Did you also make the pieces?”
“There’s no pieces, I tried to make them out of cardboard but they kept falling over. Do you have any we can use, Mr. Nick?”
“Huh? Yeah, I have a few board games.” Phoenix nodded, walking to the cabinet-shelf hybrid and opening one of the doors on it to reveal a sizable collection of games. He then brought over a box, taking out the pieces and dice. “Alright. Now we can play!”
Pearl tried to explain the rest of the rules, only for the sound of a ringtone to fill the apartment. Now, all the phones of this household had the exact same ringtone at this point, so whose phone it could be was a mystery. That is to say, Maya, Franziska and Miles had theirs on their person, having just gotten home and all. It seemed to be coming from the bedroom, lending credibility to the idea that it was Phoenix’s. “I’ll get it, give me a sec.”
With that, he disappeared into the other room while everyone waited for him in awkward silence, since he needed to hear the rules too. Stepping back into the kitchen a minute or so later, a smile had found its way onto his face.
“Alright, it was my parents! They said they wanted to visit, and I said they could drop by!”
“I see, that’s nice. When do you plan to have them over?” Miles questioned.
“Tomorrow, for dinner!”
“Tomo— don't you think we should talk about this sort of thing?!”
“Why? You can easily talk to the contractor before they get here at 18:00!”
“I would need to make sure I give off a good impression, I don't want them to think I'm some kind of loser or something!”
“Hey, they won't, calm down!”
“Not to mention, you are going to kick me out of the house after a long day of work!” Franziska shot him a death glare. “So that you can show off my brother even though I'm still of the opinion that YOU are the boytoy of the relationship!”
“Wait, huh? You might be onto something!” Maya raised her finger. “Nick, is it true?!”
“What the heck?!” He was red as a tomato. “Why does it matter?! And no, I'm not a boytoy! Ugh, whatever! The point is, I'm not kicking you out, I want everyone to meet the family since you guys are kind of the closest thing they're gonna get to grandkids anyway!”
Maya turned to Pearl.
“He adopted us, Pearly! We are screwed!”
“And what does this make me?! Am I their aunt now?!” Franziska crossed her arms.
“You can't be my aunt, we're the same age!”
“I can!”
“Oh, you get the point!” Phoenix rolled his eyes. “I'm not kicking you out, alright?”
“What an explanation that will be… ‘Hm, yes, I'm Phoenix Wright, objection! And this is my boyfriend Miles Edgeworth, and his sister Franziska von Karma, and these are our children who we picked up off the side of the road after sending the younger one's mother to prison!’ Do you hear yourself?!”
“For the last time, I'm NOT adopting Maya and Pearl!”
“Pearly, we're not gonna be on the will, we are screwed!”
Miles stood up, pulling Phoenix to the side.
“Are you absolutely, one hundred percent sure about this?”
“Yeah! I mean, they've been asking me when I was gonna get another girlfriend after I got done with Dahlia! I'm sure they're gonna be happy, even if you're not a girl!”
“...Phoenix. Imagine you go over to your son's house expecting to meet the woman he'd been dating and see not only a man, but one that was his childhood friend and who you haven't seen since he was nine.”
“I wouldn't care. I mean, I'm gay, my son is gay…That's not too surprising.”
“You understand what I mean, though. I don't think it's wise to spring this on your parents before at least making sure that—!”
“Come on! You're acting like something’s gonna happen!”
“Something very well could! They are certain of your heterosexuality, aren't they?”
“Yeah, but they supported me all my life, no matter what I did! You're honestly such a worrywart…a worryworth, you could say!”
Miles smiled ever so slightly. “I suppose you're right. I have many doubts about this sort of thing, I've heard of many cases where people have been victimized and sent criminals to prison for this very thing.”
“Wait…” He paused, eyes searching his boyfriend’s face intently. “You sent people who were homophobic to jail?”
“I mean people that had committed hate crimes. Do you understand how horrific it was to face them, knowing they would have tried to kill me as well if given the chance?”
“I'm sorry that happened to you. But I don’t see the connection.”
“That's easy for you to say... I think we should just go back to the game with Pearl.”
“Huh? Yeah.” Looks like Phoenix upset him. Damn it.
They sat back down at the table and played the game, though it didn't make anything better. All Phoenix could think of was how much of a false equivalence this whole thing was. His parents weren't that kind of people, they always supported him and there was no way that'd change just cause of this. Miles was honestly acting paranoid.