Chapter Text
He was hungover, slumping on the couch like an ice cream cone melting in the sidewalk. He was glad his past self had the foresight to buy only beer, so he wouldn't get wasted beyond saving. He remembered what had happened last night, how Miles had gotten up for water, how he interrogated him while gripping a rag to his face. He didn't know what he would tell him and Trucy when they woke up. They could tell he was hiding something, both of them were prodigies in their own ways, but didn't want to burden them with the truth more than he already had. It wasn't fair to them. None of this was.
He sat down with bile stirring in his stomach and needles bouncing around inside his skull. His lower back ached like it hadn't in weeks, and more than anything, he wanted to die.
But Phoenix couldn't die. His daughter depended on him. She would be left alone with no one to turn to, and no matter how loud that voice in his head got, he wouldn't do that to her. She couldn't lose another daddy. He thought about how sad Maya would get if something happened to him, how she would have to explain it to little Pearls.
Maybe he should give them a call.
“Hi Maya,” he said on the phone with a groggy voice, after a glass of water and an ibuprofen pill. Even though he was feeling terrible, he couldn't stop the joy from bubbling up inside him when he was talking to the most notable member of his adopted family. “How's it going?”
“Nick! What the heck? You haven't called in forever!”
“A month is not forever.”
“You're cruel to me!” she chastised him, and while it was undoubtedly a true statement, it didn't have any heat behind me. “You're so evil Nick. Since you lost your badge you're having your corruption arc.”
That made him snort. “My corruption arc?”
“Yeah, like in Steel Samurai? You know, during the third season, right after they close the redemption arc of the Evil Magistrate, and he's not quite a good guy but he's not a bad guy either. Steel makes a deal with a trickster spirit and loses his powers. And he has to go the rest of the season trying to get them back, growing increasingly desperate and ruthless, and then it's up to the Magistrate and the Pink Princess to save him from himself.”
“Maya, I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“If you watched Steel Samurai, you would!”
“I am rolling my eyes as we speak,” he said, even though he was smiling, and looking at the tapes tucked away in the bookshelf fondly. “Sorry, Maya. I've been having a rough time lately.”
“Dude, you've been having ‘a rough time lately’ since the day we met.”
“Come on, you know what I mean.” He took a pause. Did she really, though? He did not call as often as he knew he should, and even when he did call, he rarely updated her about his own issues, choosing instead to ask about her life as Master of Kurain and about Pearls. But what was he supposed to tell her? That there was a creepy guy following his every move? That he was struggling to stay sober for the sake of his daughter? That he had just found international prosecutor Miles Edgeworth turned into a kid when he went to visit him in his office? Who would even believe that? Then again, he was talking to the leader of a clan of spirit mediums. She could literally talk to dead people. “Actually, you know what? Something insane just happened to me.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, like. For starters, Miles is staying home with me right now.”
“Miles?” She sounded genuinely confused. Then, a gasp. “As in Edgeworth?”
“Do you know of any other–?”
“No way! Did you actually get around to it? Did you confess your feelings?”
“Maya, wait–”
“I knew it! I knew he was down bad for you as well! It's so obvious–”
Phoenix groaned. “Maya, no. He's a child . He's sleeping on my daughter’s bed. ”
He could almost see the interrogation marks floating around Maya's head as she tried to figure out what he meant by that, even if she was nowhere near his sight. “Huh?” Was all she managed to say. “What?”
“Okay, so. I went to visit him at his office on Friday, since he invited me, and as you so eloquently put it, I'm down bad. But when I went in Edgeworth wasn't there, it was Miles. Like, the nine year old kid I met in grade school. He doesn't remember anything past the start of winter break, he doesn't know anything about his adult life, he doesn't even–” He lowered his voice until it was just a whisper. “He doesn't know about DL-6.”
There was an uncomfortably long silence. Phoenix was starting to think the connection had actually failed him, as it so often did in Kurain.
“Yeah, no. That is pretty insane. Like, wow. Okay. Okay.”
Silence again. Phoenix sighed. “Are you done processing it?”
“I'm going to be real with you Nick, I don't think I'll ever be done processing that.”
“Do you really know nothing about it? Aren't you, like, magic?”
“Channeling is not magic!” She said, “Your daughter is the magician!”
“Trucy didn't turn Miles into a child, Maya. She can't do that.”
“I know! It's just. What are you going to do about it? I mean, we have to find a way to get him back to normal. He can't stay a little kid forever.”
“And I was kind of hoping you could help me with that.” Phoenix groaned. This was getting nowhere fast. There was still hope that Edgeworth's condition would go away on its own, but what if it didn't? What if they couldn't fix it quickly enough? He would probably start asking questions, more than he already had, and Phoenix would be forced to answer. He was not ready for that.
“Look, Nick. I'm getting to Los Kyoto as soon as I can, alright?”
“Maya, you don't have to–”
“Listen, you wanted my help and you're getting it. Give me a minute, I'll be there in no time. And before you object again! I also just want to see you, I'm not so selfless, you know? So take that.”
He wanted to lie. To tell her that truly, it wasn't necessary, that he would figure things out by himself, and that everything would be fine in the end. But he also knew that Maya was of Fey blood, too stubborn to listen to him, and that she would make her way to his office whether he liked the idea or not.
Luckily for Maya, deep down, he did like it. He liked it very much.
“Thanks, Maya.” He said with a smile in his voice. “You're amazing.”
“Pfft. I know I am. See you, old man."
“See you. Bye.”
He hung up.
-.-.-.-.-
Miles was, once again, the first one to wake up. But instead of greeting Phoenix, like he had done the day before, he went straight to the shelf and picked up a book, only to go back to Trucy’s room. It was a reasonable reaction, and he knew it was better to leave it alone, but he found himself knocking on the door anyway.
“Miles,” He said, opening the door just a sliver. He was curled up under the fluffy pink blanket with the book on his lap. He didn't look up. “Do you want pancakes for breakfast?”
It was a cheap tactic, to bribe a child with the promise of food, but what else was he meant to do? Miles nodded slightly, but said nothing. Phoenix closed the door again and sighed.
“Daddy? What happened?”
Trucy latched on his leg fiercely like a very big, very sweet tick.
“Good morning, Truce. I'm making pancakes.”
“Ooooh, can I help you?”
“Sure.” His kid always enjoyed helping around the kitchen, even if for now she was relegated to small tasks only, and wasn't allowed near the stove. She would usually beat the batter with a fork, since they didn't own a whisk, and let his father actually cook it on a small pan. Since adopting Trucy, his pancake flipping game had significantly improved. He sent her to fetch the ingredients, which she already knew by memory, but which he repeated anyway just in case she forgot. She was on her way to throw away the eggshells when she noticed something was wrong.
“Daddy? There's beer cans in the trash.”
“I– well,”
“You did drink,” her betrayal was evident. Phoenix covered his face with his hands. There was no point in trying to hide it.
“I did,” he admitted. “I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry.”
“It's not fair. Why do you get to break the rules and I don't? You promised! We had a contract and everything!”
Phoenix sometimes wished he could be an authoritative father, and tell Trucy to just shut up and do as he said, that he was the adult and could do whatever the heck he wanted because he knew better, or because he had earned it, or some of the other excuses his mother used to tell him every time she came home late from work, too tired to feed him or play with him or help him with his homework. He wished he could yell at her until she cried, until both of them cried. Anything to make her stop asking reasonable questions he didn't want to answer.
But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how drunk he got, he never did it. He pulled his own hair instead, until his scalp burned, he bit his own cheek until his mouth tasted of warm iron. Because if anyone there deserved to be punished it was him, not his daughter. Not ever his daughter.
“I know. You're right, it's unfair. But your daddy can be an idiot sometimes, when there's no one around to keep him grounded.”
“How about me? I can keep you grounded!”
“I know you mean well, Trucy, but you shouldn't have to. You shouldn't have to be worrying about me. That's my job, okay?”
“Sometimes you do a pretty bad job, daddy...”
She was right, of course. She was always right.
“Come on. Just help me with breakfast. Please, sweetie.”
She didn't seem too convinced, but she let it go, at least for the time being, taking the milk out of the fridge and pouring it on a bowl.
It's not like he wasn't making any progress, unlike a few years ago. Back when he thought Edgeworth had killed himself he wasn't able to get through a single day sober. It took Maya getting framed for murder and the arrival of little Pearls to his life for him to actually make the choice to try to get better. By the time Edgeworth came back, he had sworn off alcohol completely.
But then he was disbarred, and his life crumbled once again. He found himself falling back into the same harmful habits, this time around without Maya to drag him to the detention center to pick out clients, without a badge to defend his clients with.
But he did have Trucy. Trucy, who he loved with all his heart, who would give his life for. Trucy, who was bright and warm and brave, who was alone in the world when he found her. And he might not have been a lawyer anymore, but hadn't he sworn to protect those who had no one on their side? Had he not dedicated his life to help people like her? He was not in a position to be a father, and yet, for better or for worse, he became one anyway.
“Aunt Maya is coming here in a few days,” he said, trying to cheer up. Trucy was almost done with the batter, beating it thoroughly, until there were almost no lumps left.
“Is she coming with Pearly?”
“I didn't ask, but I think she will.”
Miles was finally lured out of Trucy’s room by the smell of butter and maple syrup, still carrying the book with him. “Hi there, Miles.”
“Hi,” he replied uncomfortably, but nothing else.
“Wash your hands and put the book back on the shelf, will you? We don't want it to get dirty. Same with you, Trucy.”
“Okay daddy! Let's go, Miley!”
Breakfast was a quiet affair. Miles was not in the mood for talking, no matter how hard he poked at him, and Trucy was quick to ally herself with his silence. It was as though the both of them were conspiring to make him feel worse on purpose, as absurd as that sounded, and it's not like he could have really blamed them. He needed to find a way to make up for it, somehow.
The thing about being broke is that it gave you a knack for finding ways to get things for free. Using coupons and finding sales went from occasional curiosities to entire art forms, skills to be refined. When it came to child-friendly entertainment, going to the movies or the mall was more often than not out of the question.
“Kids, do you want to go out?”
“To do what?” Miles asked skeptically, with the book still open in his lap. Trucy was cuddled next to him, listening to him break down whatever he managed to understand. “Where? For how long?”
“How about the library?”
He picked that location because it was a quiet space, and because he knew for a fact both Miles and Trucy liked it. The kids eyed him suspiciously in unison, like they had managed to form a brain-to-brain form of communication in the little time they had spent with each other. It was a bit unsettling, to be honest.
Still, they agreed to his offer.
The way to the library was rather somber, and while the kids were finally speaking to him, they were nowhere near as chatty, and when they did speak, they did so only with each other.
“Alright,” he said to them, once they got to their destination. “A few ground rules, before I let you go. I don't want you to get lost, so stay together and don't separate. You can go anywhere you want as long as you stay in the library. Miles, if Trucy tries to sneak outside, please stop her.”
“Hey! I'm not going to sneak out!”
“Okay, okay, I'm reminding you just in case. Now, if you get bored of reading, you can ask one of the librarians to lend you a board game, but you have to play quietly. I'll be here in the computer area if you need me. You both know how to read clocks, so I want you to keep track of the time and seek me out by twelve.”
Having established these terms, he let the children go. He sat by the computer with a groan. Truth was, he had somewhat of an alternate motive to want to go to the library, other than to keep Miles and Trucy entertained so they would forget about last night's betrayal.
How do I know if someone is intercepting my calls, he typed into the search bar. While the old computer was still in his office, it had been good as dead ever since Trucy had accidentally spilled out a glass of grape juice on it while she was playing a game. He didn't even get the chance to get angry with her, before he even found out she was already whining and apologizing for her mistake. Phoenix could either get it fixed or buy a new one, and he didn't really have enough money to spare to do either. Having Miles around now did not help matters in the slightest.
God, I really need to get a second job, don't I?
Job listings in my area, was the thing he looked up next.
The morning flew as he took notes regarding employment opportunities at a local mall, how to deal with a stalker without calling the cops, and the best ways to apologize to a child. He was so absorbed in his ‘research’ he didn't realize it was well past twelve, and the kids were nowhere to be seen. That was until the familiar chords of the disaster alert and a shake of the floor beneath his feet struck.
It was an earthquake
He knew that the proper reaction was to either get under the desk or evacuate the building, but he didn't care. Trucy and Miles were alone, and while the earthquake hadn't been severe he still needed to know they were safe. He was glad to see that at least none of the books had fallen to the floor, because if an earthquake is strong enough to knock down the contents of a shelve it is ceirtainly strong enough to knock down buildings. He called their names in a volume inappropriate for a library, but only Trucy came to him. He was so relieved to see her he didn't notice there was another kid missing.
“Daddy!” He knelt to hug her, but his daughter got away. “Daddy, it's okay! I'm fine! Follow me!”
She dragged him through the laberynth of bookshelves by the sleeve of his hoodie until they reached a table with a chessboard on top, interrupted midgame, and an unconscious child under it.
“Miles!”
“See, he fainted!”
“Did he hit his head?” He asked, picking him up in his arms. He was completely knocked out, but there was no blood, as far as he could see.
“I don't know, maybe when I helped him.”
“Helped him?”
“He was in the chair, but I couldn't leave him on the chair while the earthquake was happening, so I tried to get him under the table with me. When it was over I counted to twenty, like you told me I should do, and the I went looking for you.”
“That's good, Trucy, you did well, sweetie.”
“Do we have to take him to the hospital?”
“No, I don't think so,” He said, and he really hoped it was true. It would not be the first time Miles passed out during an earthquake, and he usually woke up in a few minutes. It was best to just stay there and wait until he recovered, but that was made impossible by one of the librarians, who urged them to leave the building while management assessed it for estructural damage. He had to carry Miles outside, despite his back’s protests. A stranger was kind enough to get up from the bench they were sitting in so he could lay the kid in there.
“Will he truly be alright?”
“Of course he will. He's strong, he's been through this before.”
“Really? Does he faint often? Is he sick?”
“No, dearie, he isn’t sick. It only happens when there's an earthquake.”
“Why, though?”
Phoenix sighed. “It's complicated. When he was your age, well, I mean, I guess he is your age right now. But more than fifteen years ago, when he and your daddy were still in school. There was a pretty big earthquake.”
“Was it the one from 2005?”
In 2005 there was one of the strongest earthquakes in the history of the country. Phoenix still could remember it, more vividly than most of his childhood.
“No, though that one was pretty bad, too. The one I'm talking about was in 2001. There was an… incident. And Miles, he…” he brushed the hair of the sleeping boys face, just to make sure he couldn't hear him. “He lost his father.”
“Oh…”
“He passes out because it hurts him too much to remember. So, please, Trucy, don't tell him. He can't know about it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Please. Just, don't bring up his dad.”
Trucy thought it over for a few seconds. “Fine.” She said, though she sounded displeased by her own answer.
“Thank you, a Trucy.”
The boy started to shift around a minute later, rubbing his eyes and looking at his surroundings, confused.
“Miles?”
“Phoenix? Trucy?” He slowly got up. “What happened?”
“There was a bit of an earthquake,” Phoenix explained, and he really hated the idea of having to lie to the kid, but he hated more the idea of telling the truth. “You slept through it.”
“I wasn’t asleep.”
“Yeah, you were.”
Trucy shook her head, disappointed, not necessarily because he was lying (though, it was some of that) but because of how lousy his lie was. It was the kind of bluff hat would usually fly in court with bad prosecutors, but unfortunately for Phoenix, Miles was no bad prosecutor himself.
“I assure you I was not. Trucy and I were playing chess.”
Phoenix looked at his daughter, and she shrugged. “We were playing chess,” she said, non-commitaly, the little traitor. “Maybe you hit your head?”
That was, in retrospect, a much better excuse. Miles still denied it, though. “My head doesn’t hurt.”
“Look, I know this is all very confusing, so why don’t we finish talking about it at home?” he said, making no plans to finish talking about it at home. Hopefully he could get Miles to forget about the earthquake through Steel Samurai and salty snacks.
“...Fine."
He repressed the urge to sigh with relief.
After getting themselves some Eldoon’s noodles (and skillfully evading questions about anything to do with Miles’ presence) they arrived home. Turns out resorting to a tokusatsu marathon wouldn’t be all that necessary, because Miles went directly into Trucy’s room and fell asleep without saying a word. Phoenix couldn’t tell if this was out of exhaustion or resentment. Trucy wasn’t looking much better, but instead of resting she decided to practice the new magic tricks she had prepared for her magic show, but not within her father’s sight. She wanted to be alone.
He really screwed up this time, hadn’t he? Gosh, he needed a drink, but he didn’t have any beer left, and he wasn’t about to get up to buy some, and while wallowing in his misery for the rest of the day seemed like a nice alternative, he instead decided to take the list of phone numbers he had gotten from the library and start dialing.
“Paws and Claws Pet Shop, how can I serve you?”
“Hi, uh, I’m Phoenix Wright. I was calling to ask about your job listings.”