Chapter Text
“Surprise!” Pearls echoed, popping up right next to Trucy, even while Apollo was still trying to make sure she wasn’t hurt anywhere.
Miles just blinked, wide-eyed and wildly confused. Behind him, Phoenix raised an eyebrow, glancing from Trucy to Maya (The most likely candidates for something like this) and internally questioned their motives.
Maya didn’t jump onto the later surprise train, but she was now beaming while Apollo tore himself from the floor with a scowl and brief red coloring his cheeks as he muttered something that sounded like a deflated version of Trucy and Pearls’ great exclamation.
“Wh-what is this? What is the surprise for?!” Edgeworth nearly yelped, but he kept his voice tame even while he stared at them like they had just committed a crime in front of him.
Once Phoenix understood it though, he felt his heart squeeze in his chest. An almost overpowering urge to run up and gather the whole group in his arms and kiss every one of them on their foreheads. His expression melted into a soft smile and he quietly chuckled behind Miles.
“Nearly gave him a heart attack,” he laughed lightly.
Miles glanced briefly behind him at Phoenix’s softened smile, a feeling of some kind of mix between betrayal and additional confusion written on his face, wondering how Phoenix understood more than he did currently. Then, when he gave his attention back to the children, both Trucy and Pearl were skipping forwards and suddenly launching themselves in his direction. Again, he was so insanely lost.
Once they latched onto each of his sides, Miles tried again, “Children, please--someone tell me what exactly--”
“Mr. Eji-werth, we don’t want you to leave! You can’t go away!”
“Please, Uncle Miles! You don’t have to move! You can stay here with us!”
He was stunned completely still at their words, eyes lingering on them for a moment, then finding Apollo and Maya’s eyes. Maya was grinning, nodding, and Apollo only gave an exasperated sigh, and looked away to hide an obvious smile.
Then he looked back at Phoenix. At his lover.
Phoenix was still smiling that gentle smile, and he shrugged his shoulders to attest to knowing nothing about this little plan of theirs. He just looked so happy, and that hefty, suffocating pressure of being surrounded by so much love reserved to the others around him was let in. It washed over him in the tight squeezes they gave him and the blushing or the grinning or the eyes that showed him so much love he nearly cried.
“I--I…What am I supposed to say?” He exclaimed into a relieved laughter, leaning in and hugging both of the girls attached to him closer without a second thought.
“Promise you’ll stay! You can move in instead of going far away, Mr. Eji-werth!” Pearls exclaimed, and both Trucy and Maya nodded their heads in agreement.
Edgeworth let the girls pull themselves away only for them to deploy their most adorable tactic, a protruding lip and looking up at him like a pair of small puppies, as if everything else leading up to his decision wasn’t enough.
He was sort of overwhelmed, and while he was glancing around from person to person with no words to escape him, Phoenix finally stepped in and rested a palm on his shoulder to reaffirm him while he spoke.
Miles took a deep breath and occasionally found one of the children’s eyes every now and then as he spoke timidly. “I...I suppose it would be cruel to decline an offer like that, wouldn’t it?”
Phoenix was beaming, Maya cheered while Apollo and Trucy each shared a grin that replicated Phoenix’s, and Pearl made another attack on Miles’ person.
“Okay, alright, either way he has to get home tonight to get his stuff so quit blocking the door everyone—“
“HOORAYY!!!!”
Pearl certainly had a voice that could carry and a round of giggles exploded from all three girls at the startled Edgeworth.
For a short while, that was the only sound in the officenow.; Phoenix couldn’t stop smiling, not even while they waved off Edgeworth as he started his trek back to his own office.
His heart was so full he thought it could burst any moment.
-----
Miles couldn’t help it either, just one fleeting thought about how the past few hours had been going and he was grinning like an idiot at all of nothing in front of him as he closed the door to the office behind him.
For a few moments, he let everything sink in, taking in the most of the silence in his office as a small victory for him now, the bigger rewards coming later when he would be waking up next to rough hands, messy spikes and long, pretty eyelashes right beside him first thing in the morning.
A contented sigh escaped him for what must’ve been at least the 5th time that evening when slow, heavy steps withdrew him from his stupor.
“Mr. Edgeworth! You’re back! How’d it go with Mr. Wright, Sir?”
His assistant’s steps came down with more haste once he saw Miles, and a wide, crooked grin appeared as soon as he caught sight of him. The earnesty brought a now more-easily-than-ever smile to Miles’ own face.
“It would appear I now have a place to stay, Gumshoe. A more than satisfactory home and office, to say the least.” He slid off his shoes and moved further into what he could just barely call his office.
“Really?! That’s great, Sir!” The man came to a stop at the bottom step, and while his elation was evident, he also seemed distracted, his arm reaching up behind his head busily.
Blinking, and stepping further inside, Edgeworth observed his actions. “Gumshoe…Is there something on your mind?”
“Huh?” That jolted him right out of whatever thoughtful state he was in. “Oh! Yeah, actually, I’ve got a couple things on my mind right now!”
Edgeworth felt the urge to sigh dramatically pass by him. “What is it, then? Spit it out,” he meant to bite, though none of his usual sting was behind it.
“Uh, well, I don’t wanna intrude or anything, but uh, do ya think your pal would be willing to offer me a job? I uh, don’t have much else to do without this place, so… I mean, I figured I’d ask…”
He hesitated to reply, the gears in his head turning and eventually deciding that…this was something he’d be happy to encourage. After all, even if he was a bit clumsy and awkward, Gumshoe has always been genuinely useful around the office. Plus, the poor guy deserved a steady source of income.
“...Perhaps. Come with me tomorrow morning to help me move my things in, then talk to the man himself while you’re there. Sound fair? Now, what else is there?”
Miles felt a small, relieved sigh escape him while his assistant worked up a grateful grin.
“Thank you so much, Sir!” He saluted for some reason, though by now Miles was already used to it, then he moved on, his expression falling back to a somewhat neutral position. “The other thing is, someone tried to contact you through the mirror while you were away. Any idea who that could be?”
He was asking him? Between the two of them it was a thousand times more likely to be a friend of Gumshoe’s rather than his own. Who could have called?
“I’ll go try and contact them right now, so will you do me a favor and start filing away important things like my notes and charms?”
“Of course! I’m on it. Good luck, p--Sir!”
He kept a quiet smile to himself as they began to move, Gumshoe off the stairs towards the organized shelves on the bottom floor, and Miles himself to the top of the steps and towards the bathroom mirror to attempt to call this person back.
Every step was lighter, the edges of his grin hurt—his face obviously wasn’t used to this much giddiness, this much good fortune and openness—but he didn’t mind it at all.
Soon
Is all he could think about.
Soon he’d be waking up to croaking floorboards and distant early chatter past the doorway of their room.
With those thoughts pushing him forward, wrapping up little tasks became an easy thought. A business call, perhaps? It’d be done in minutes. His belongings would be packed and ready to go soon. Miles was ready.
Though, not for the face etched into the reflection on the mirror. He felt the airiness in his heart freeze over and drop to his stomach with the weight of a boulder at a face both familiar and a reminder. The smile on his face withered away in mere moments and dread crept up from behind all of the release he’d finally been feeling recently.
He thought he’d have been free of this face by now.
“Miles Edgeworth.” The voice, gruff and low; demanding something already with just his name.
Miles swallowed, and without even meaning to he felt the conditions placed on him work their course. His back straightened, he didn’t break eye contact, he held his chin higher, his feet together, and he wasn’t even completely in the bathroom yet.
“Von Karma. Hello, is there something—?”
“Are you stupid, boy? You should know what I am wasting my time for. What do you think?”
His throat was dry, but he swallowed yet again. “I-I’m not exactly sure…could you, er, explain?”
His contact spell was strong enough to paint his visage in three dimensions, like the man was really there looking down on Miles again.
For a moment that lasted far too long, his mentor simply glared at him, looked down on him like he was nothing. Then, he sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose with two fingers.
“Why is word of your failure there reaching me here, Miles? It’s not even minutely salvageable if it was able to reach me, you know. How does one studying under Manfred Von Karma manage to screw up so royally? How am I supposed to answer questions, many, many, towns away, about my failure of a student? What do you expect me to say to my neighbors and my acquaintances? Well?”
Miles’ jaw remained tightly fastened and unmoving. Any answer he gave would be wrong.
Again, his mentor just sighed and looked away from him. “Yes, I suppose there is nothing you could say to make up for this. I know all about how your shoddy little office is closing down thanks to the rumors; thanks to one loss. Since you have nowhere else to go, I’ll be taking you up again and hopefully exercising the failure out of you. This time, I will not be lenient. Hopefully—“
“Wait!”
Both parties were startled at the voice, something equally foreign to them. It was his own voice, and he found himself one step closer to the bathroom mirror than he had been before.
Still. They were both still, so he took advantage of his opening, regardless of his rapidly amping nerves.
He cleared his throat as a buffer before he elaborated. “I-I have a place to stay.”
He had more to say, more to use against him but a rising, darkened glare hung over him now and words died in his throat immediately.
“That is what you interrupted me to say?”
The room was eerily quiet, the answer in the form of a frightened nod. His mentor’s face twisted into some hateful expression he didn’t even bother to hide, and Miles must’ve shrunk.
“So you do have a place to run off to then?”
He waited for an answer and the only reply came with the unwavering look in Miles’ eyes.
“It doesn’t matter,” he dismissed easily with a simple wave. “Wherever it is, you clearly need to work on your skillset. You’re coming back, Miles.”
The tone shifted, Miles realized. Just slightly in his favor, but it was unfamiliar terrain already. The faintest uneasiness claimed his infamously rigid and notoriously controlling creature he called a mentor too many years ago, and despite his nerves, he had to push on that rare fault.
“I’m not. I… have a place to stay, I said. I’m--I’m not going back.”
For what felt like long, drawn out moments, the room was flooding and air was like a luxury to Miles. The silence was thick, and he felt like he was drowning in it.
“Miles Edgeworth.” He restrained himself to a low growl. Dread glued Miles’ feet to the ground. “After I rescue you. After I take you under me. After I guide you towards your dreams and give you the life of perfection and success that only mirrors a life like mine,” his voice grew in volume as the number of deeds he listed did too, then, when he was seemingly at his peak, he wound down again. His shoulders sagged in the image projected of him on the mirror and his eyes fell from Miles’ for a single moment.
When he looked up at Edgeworth again, his eyes were searing, filled with a hatred that Miles had no words or capacity to describe, but he knew he was petrified.
“You will come back to me, Miles Edgeworth, and if not, I will go to you. Do you want that? Do you want your associates to see you beneath me? Do you want to be made a fool in front of the people who are around you? I suggest you take to my teachings and use your brain for something.”
The man snarled hoarsely, panting at the end of each sentence like an animal after pouncing on its prey.
Miles could mostly only see and hear the deep resentment boiling beneath every word. Perhaps his mentor had better hopes for him. Perhaps it was because he was not enough like his father. Perhaps he deserved this.
Those were the kind of thoughts running circles around his mind, playing again and again like a broken record until he imagined Von Karma’s last threat: What would the people around him see if they were here right now?
Would they see something pathetic? Would Phoenix?
At some point he had tuned out Von Karma, something he’d never imagined he’d be able to do in a lifetime, and his mentor had looked like he imagined he talked himself into victory. A smile, crooked and haunting, was tacked on his face while he was leering over at Miles.
“It seems you understand now, Miles. The address is the same, you know where to--”
“It does not matter whether you come to get me or not,” His mentor stilled, the expression on his face remaining the same, save for his brow that twitched when Miles spoke. Miles paused to refresh himself with another image of Phoenix playing in his mind.
A simple one, only the man himself and a warm smile, creases in his eyes, messy hair and everything else about him.
Then he swallowed. “I am no longer living under your care. Whether you arrive at my doorstep or not, I will be staying here. I… I have a duty to fulfill here. I will spare you the trouble of coming all the way here, and--”
In a dramatic fashion, his image was gone in an instant, replaced by a single crack and an empty mirror until Miles’ own face appeared in front of him again. For a while, he just stared back at the results of that call blankly. Though, as soon as he had any semblance of coherent thinking again, the only thought was one word: Phoenix.
-----
“What is it, Miles? Miss me already? Did you make it home safe?” His image sang out cheerily through the mirror, the crack making his brilliance no less prevalent.
Miles had scrambled to get contact with him as soon as he could, but the reason itself had escaped him. He was just panicked and…wanted to see him, difficult as it was to admit that. Though, now he’d gotten what he wanted but…what did he say? How much should he tell him? ‘Oh, my mentor says I’m a failure and wants me to train with him again--I have to leave.’
Could he really manage that?
“Miles?” His brow knit close together, just barely noticeable at first but becoming increasingly obvious with how worried Miles’ face must’ve made him.
“Um. I apologize. I need…a second or two to gather my thoughts, if you don’t mind.”
The expression of concern never left his face but he seemed to ease up a little, happy that he was willing to talk. “Okay, take your time.” He answered gently. Then, he did his best to explain.
-----
He took a deep breath, one box and a couple loose belongings cradled in his arms and two boxes strung up in both of his assistant’s arms.
“How can you be so nervous, Sir? This is your new home! You should be getting all cozy and comfortable up in there! I would be if I were you,” Gumshoe exclaimed with a wide smile and a hearty laugh.
He was right, of course, but Miles had a well-known habit of doubting the good possible outcomes, so for the few seconds after knocking that they stood there together, Gumshoe said nothing else to add onto his doubt.
Finally the door croaked, and the definition of cozy emerged with one hand on the doorknob, the other hand shielding his view from the morning light. “Hey, Miles,” An eventual and lazy grin grew slowly from ear to ear. “Good to see you bright and early on the weekend.”
He could do nothing but curse his rushing blood for not at least waiting until Gumshoe was no longer present, and the tips of his ears gave him away. “You as well, Phoenix.”
He smirked, very obviously enjoying himself already while he eyed the color that washed over Miles’ expression until he decided he’d taken in enough. “Is there anything I can help with? You can leave his boxes on the top of the stairs, Gumshoe, I’ll move them into the room when I get the chance.”
“Can do, pal. I’ll take these, and I’ll be right back!” Then he was off.
Phoenix nodded then turned to Edgeworth. “You need help?”
“No, I’m alright, thank you,” or so he said, yet he hadn’t made any sort of movement to head inside. Instead, his eyes fell below Phoenix’s, and he felt his expression start on a downward slope.
“Are you sure?” Phoenix asked, this time quieter, his smirk fading into a sad smile. “If you’re worried, you can go, you know. I know it’s not something you can control.”
His frown only deepened. “I, I don’t want to go though, even if I… even if I do need to start over, or learn from scratch. Besides… I’ve already been adapting your methods…”
He allowed Miles a moment to simmer in his thoughts before letting out a short sigh and stepping out through the doorway, bringing a hand up to carefully rest on his cheek like he could break at any moment.
“You can stay here. You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to. He can’t make you.” He left a chaste kiss on his lips, something that completely scrambled Miles’ thoughts. Then, with a growing smile, this time warm and welcoming like open arms, he beckoned Miles in to follow him. “C’mon, come inside. Did you have breakfast yet? I’ll make you something.”
For a moment, his breath hitched and suddenly the answer to his problems was the most obvious thing in the world. Miles watched the man turn and beckon him inside, felt his heart swell so much it ached watching. His head was clear and his mind was made up. There was nowhere else but here. He hoped that Phoenix would someday see the warmth and affection that he shared with his family reflected in Miles’ eyes one of these days; hoped that he would see how much he meant to him in just one look.