#happy disbarment day though

[threesacult]

happy maya mwednesday everyone

[dirtbra1n]

you ever wake up at two in the morning with ace attorney thinker glasses on and then suffer consequences for days after. Ha ha

so we’re all on the same page that maya was only so comfortable being such—and I do say this so so so lovingly—a complete leach and pest, leaving phoenix exhausted and harried and dirt poor, because she trusted him not to run away. not to abandon her. not to leave her behind.

because mia did. run away and abandon her and leave her behind. maya LOVED mia and still does, absolutely. ABSOLUTELY. but mia left the village and left maya there alone to bear a burden that wasn’t supposed to be hers. left maya to handle their aunt morgan alone.

like a critical part of their relationship is that mia kind of sucks. this is such high praise for her as a character and a statement of love for her as a person Mia Fey kind of really sucks. she doesn’t not love her little sister, but she had to leave. she had to. leaving the village on one of the old motorcycles they kept in a garage-turned-shack, one that used to make grocery trips before a staff shortage shut down the store fifteen minutes away, and giving maya a long kiss on the forehead, holding her face in her hands, and getting on the bike with underclothes on, the only clothes she has that cover her legs and let her stretch them at the same time. and driving away, leaving maya standing there, alone. so little.

so life goes on. holding onto evidence. blunt force trauma. maya ends up with phoenix in the city—meets him, reserved, convinced she’s going to die in prison. is given the light of his unwavering faith in her innocence. sees the look in his eyes that says, I’m not going to leave you alone. cracks.

the maya fey that we get the privilege of loving, and getting to know, was born in criminal detention. a younger sister that gets to act like it for a while.

until she leaves first, because she can’t abandon pearl the way mia abandoned her. she goes back to the village to train.

have to say that maya’s grief of mia’s death was solely about never getting to really know her as a person. she’s never going to really know her older sister. but it’s solely about THAT because she’s had years to come to terms with the fact that the title and burden of being head of the family was going to be hers. years to practice ignoring the way aunt morgan’s eyes burned at her.

mia was a violent nervous person, by the way. we know this. punches under pressure.

redd white gets back to the gatewater with bleeding teeth marks on his arm.

anyway though. maya goes back to kurain to commit herself to her training, goes back to ignoring the burning in aunt morgan’s eyes. she doesn’t feel good about the way that seven year old pearly is mothering her. not that it’s pearl’s fault.

a mother that doesn’t really care about her happiness so much as her future success. because if morgan really cared about what pearly wanted she’d never DREAM of hurting maya. but that’s neither here nor there.

but phoenix. the three of them a family unit, eventually, when they’ve essentially just got each other. phoenix gets disbarred. trucy comes into their lives. their family unit, plus one.

maya doesn’t feel GOOD, exactly, with watching phoenix go the way he goes (drinking problem, mostly) but damn if she wasn’t born to help run a grift. (pearl does their finances.)

maya DEFINITELY doesn’t feel good about watching phoenix go the way he goes with kristoph, though. not necessarily that maya doesn’t trust kristoph. but those two… maya looks up from where she’s elbow-deep in dish water, turns around to look into the living room where pearl and trucy are passed out on the pullout sofa, past them. looks at the front door phoenix walked out an hour and a half ago to head out to dinner. he promised to bring some shitty too-expensive food back.

he might not be back til morning.

it’s probably not that she doesn’t trust kristoph as a person, but that she knows that those two… really aren’t…… good for each other. like it’s none of her damn business, but geez, nick.

saw a thread on twitter once about how maybe kristoph defended maya once, when phoenix was obviously unable to. I should go and find that again. because that’s kind of what I think happened here.

You didn’t just brain a guy with a juice bottle for no reason. Tell me why you did it.

phoenix wright and his unfailing bone deep trust in people. phoenix who absolutely did not trust kristoph with his life but didn’t really care about that so long as he could trust him to take care of loved ones. phoenix who did, also, fully trust kristoph with his life.

a contradiction. big surprise.

[kitamars]

in reply to your recent post about the pirate au asks: i mean, what is there to say except for "tell us everything"? you mentioned coming up with a storyline in the tags, so im obviously wondering about how the characters met, esp phoenix and miles and phoenix and maya. also, the angst?? did you implement the dl-6 incident/disbarment/any other canon angst into this somehow? so yeah, whatever you can tell us, i'm happy with it. also my god is your art good, i'm endlessly fascinated by the sketches

hehe well EVERYTHING is definitely a lot to tell but i can answer specific things like how miles and phoenix meet (and meet. and meet again) and the beginning of phoenix and maya's friendship, but half the credit also goes to my beloved wonderful friend @/rendevok for allowing me to scream in her dms ^^

so! maya and phoenix :) they meet after the disaster that is the Hawthorne affair, where dahlia accuses phoenix of murdering another man, and he's saved by the wits of one mia fey, a clever blacksmith who's looking for a way to restore her family name after... less than pleasant events in the past. she later takes on phoenix as an apprentice, bc no one else would want to deal with a commoner who's made an enemy of nobles, even if they were at fault in the end, bc the social game is dangerous

obviously, mia's efforts end about as well as they do for her in canon, and she's murdered for her snooping. phoenix then meets maya, and after helping her keep the family smith in the aftermath of the suspicions over her sister's death, they both get into shenanigans over the next couple of years, out of their incessant need to help, and their talent of literally not being able to stay out of the center of attention (unintentionally), maya is essentially phoenix's partner in arms, all through the days of the smith, up until they're forced to skip town on a stolen ship with one trucy and one pearl in tow

miles and phoenix are far more complicated than they ever need to be, but that's like, half the fun yk? they've vaguely met when they were kids, and miles obviously still inspired phoenix's general moral code. But, gregory still dies, miles is still taken in by the von karmas and all of a sudden he's just a ghost in phoenix's memory.

fast-forward years later, and miles has definitely heard phoenix's name around, especially since the mia's death. how phoenix makes a habit of taking on strays and giving them the help they need to not end up alone, and his sheer blind faith in people, and it's almost too uncomfortably close to home for miles. still, he somehow manages to actually meet phoenix! a very limited number of times though.

Miles still has a high position as an advocate, and phoenix still is only a very busy blacksmith, and travel isn't as fast as it is in the modern day. But nevertheless, phoenix's words and conversations do enough to spark the need to truly understand what went on during his father's death, it's just only unfortunate that he decides to go about it on his own (but like. Think him solving this mystery with the help of his aai buddies so he's not completely alone :))

He still leaves, and phoenix watches him go, and as happy as he is that miles is trying to figure these things out, he wishes he could help, or make him stay. what's worse is that the world's worst game of telephone ensues and now phoenix hears news of the "miles edgeworth chooses death" bit, so fun times for everyone orz

but then the gramarye affair occurs, and all of a sudden there's a bounty on phoenix's life for hiding a murderer and possessing (faked) evidence linking him to it all. it's not a situation he can talk himself out of, so he runs with his family in tow and disappears onto the sea. And miles isn't there.

So his canon disbarment era is essentially his piracy era, and the changes are obvious. He's more jaded and cynical, and painfully efficient to a fault. You wouldn't be able to recognise the humble blacksmith anywhere in those eyes, and he knows it. whatever was left of him was buried onshore before they set sail, and he hasn't looked back since.

Miles only hears brief hearsay about the events of the gramarye affair and he's absolutely stunned because there is no way the phoenix he remembers could ever be the same as the criminal they're describing who's disappeared, but it's been long enough that he hesitates at the thought of searching for the man himself, he's not sure his presence would be warmly received either. However he doesn't have to wonder anymore, bc his latest voyage is interrupted by a pirates ambush, and it's led by the ghost of a man he never thought he'd see again.

From then on its only a matter of miles being taken as hostage, and as a bargain, receiving phoenix's word that if miles can beat the captain at a duel, he'll let him off scot free. But obviously it can't be that easy, where else would 90% of the tension in the story come from then?

and that's pretty much part of the set up for the au hehe, i wrote a whole heck of a lot and i hope you enjoy reading it holy hell fnkskf

also thank you so much!!! I'm very glad you enjoy my crazed doodles of this au it means a lot to me :3 💖

[daddywright]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

tagged by @samioli ! (late getting to it, happy holidays!)

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

44... so far :)) (not-so-secret: i actually have a second pseud for one-shots in very small, random fandoms, but i don't use it often.)

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

ah hah. 682,262. i didn't really publish much before the pandemic, but then suddenly all i ever wanted to do was write, and i found such a community online in different fandoms that i haven't really stopped since!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've published (written is a different story, haha) fic for a few fandoms: namely ace attorney, different sherlock holmes properties, witcher, dragon age, good omens (before the show), and most recently, metal gear!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

a badge of honor [ace attorney]

plumeria (new beginnings) [enola holmes]

pressure (pushing down on me) [ace attorney]

your heart is cold (but we will warm you) [the hobbit - the first Real Fic i ever published, when i was a kid]

if i woke up (next to you) [ace attorney]

flattering but not surprising that ace attorney is near the top, as far as kudoses go; i joined this fandom in 2020 and it's just EXPLODED since then. it's so cool getting into an older game series and being able to connect with a thriving online community <3

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I absolutely do! I miss one here and there, on occasion, but i try to say thanks as often as i can. i often return to the comment sections of my more popular fics on rough days when i'm convinced i'm the worst writer in existence kasd;jfalskfjf

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hm... while i tend to avoid endings that leave readers in pieces, i do enjoy some angst now and then. i wrote a one-shot about john watson reacting to holmes's death in OG sherlock holmes titled 'when good men go to war' that definitely deserved the 'major character death' tag, even if it's one of the most famous fake-out deaths in literature LMAO. i've also written canon compliant lanamia, which just hurts. and a miles edgeworth christmas fic, which is self-explanatory. i also wrote a fic for the animated film Klaus a while back that made me cry writing it, which i don't often do HAHA

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmm. 'if i woke up (next to you)' is the epitome of cheesy fix-it for narumitsu, but i think the end of 'pressure (pushing down on me)' was written at a time, for me, when i most desperately wanted to read about a happy ending-- the whole series is a fix-it, but pressure in particular dismantled phoenix's disbarment and brought back characters i missed/wanted more of in a way that was utterly self-indulgent, so for me, that's probably the happiest ending i've ever written. :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, thankfully. but i've gotten enough of unsolicited crit type comments to piss me off eternally-- though i've gotten better at deleting the ones that hurt rather than engaging. (I stopped writing a witcher fic i really liked because i got a comment that a chapter was boring, and it totally shattered me :///)

9. Do you write smut?

Sure! I have been known to enjoy and write explicit fics. I have an academic interest in sex and education about it, and I think some of the best character study fics in the entire universe are explicit. i also think the saddest fics i've ever read have also included explicit scenes, too.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have! I love a good, clever crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. (knocks on wood)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, several!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Most recently (published, that is), for pacific rim.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

OOF. well. i have several, of course. i'll always be attached to classic sherlock holmes x john watson. for fandoms i fell into recently, the bangers are narumitsu, taibani (tiger&bunny, aka narumitsu lite), and newly, otasune (metal gear solid) is THE Moment. the MOMENT, damn it, PLAY METAL GEAR SOLID. and then DM me @solid-snaked because i want to TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT.

some more well-known ships i haven't published fic for over the years but still love: leopika (hxh), kakairu (naruto... YEAH. NARUTO.), kaishin (dmck), and superbat (dc). also, i tend to really gravitate towards platonic/gen fic for different fandoms as well, almost if not more strongly than shipfic.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

ooooh. toss up between 'call me through thunder' (dragon age), because honestly while i loved writing it, i liked the original writing ideas that came from it more than the actual fic elements and 'when the way is dark' (witcher), because of reasons listed above.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i would like to say my dialogue?? i suppose? i really like writing dialogue and specifically, the framing around dialogue-- i like writing body language and trying to describe facial expressions and tone shifts so that people can hear and see the scene i'm trying to write.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

ahh, i'm definitely guilty of writing intimate/emotional scenes at the cost of pacing, and of favoring tone accomplished by dialogue rather than immersion via setting (i'm bad at like. window dressing and connective tissue between scenes, i think)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

beyond my skillset, I'm afraid

19. First fandom you wrote for?

supernatural. mmhmm. i was a high school sam girlie. the first fic i ever read, also, was supernatural. destiel at age 13. life-ruiner. but i recovered.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

aaaa. overall, i'd say 'pressure' is a fic i'm quite proud of but it's the series overall that makes it my favorite as a writing and a community experience, one that got me through a really tough time in life. however, as far as my writing skill goes, i'm pretty proud of a fic i wrote on a time crunch for Holmestice, a sherlock holmes exchange, called 'the emerald circle', because i got to reference queer history in a way i really enjoyed while writing it.

feel free to pass along this prompt to yourself, fellow writers <3

[mariusperkins]

December Fic Round Up

A big month!! A fun month!! Before we get to the "big" part though:

The monthly update to my ongoing HectorHeard fic, Fiction is for Fools, as we take a look at one of Hector's undercover assignments (25k, wip, sfw, 24/34)

As an extra Christmas treat, we see how the Masks kids are spending part of their holidays, and Franklin has an encounter while on a mission that makes him consider his position as a non-powered person in a superpowered superhero team in Merry Mundane Christmas (sfw, gen, chanti & franklin, 3.7k)

And now, the Big part!! I love Christmas and my favourite Christmas song is 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' (any cover is, to me, great but obviously the Judy Garland one hold a special place in my heart - she just hits the melancholy, yearning tone of it perfectly imo), and so I decided to do a little 12 days of christmas type of thing using the song lyrics as titles: Let Your Heart Be Light (34k total, multifandom)

Have yourself a merry little Christmas (Fantasy High, Sklonda/Gilear): Sklonda helps Gilear work out what to do with his first post-divorce Christmas

Let your heart be light (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris/Cameron/Sloane): Ferris and Sloane find an excuse to be with Cameron over the holidays, and find a way to get his romantic attention

Next year all our troubles will be out of sight (The Vast of Night, Fay/Everett): Everett and Fay spend their first Christmas in space

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yuletide gay (Bram Stroker's Dracula, MIna/Lucy): Mina visits Lucy on Christmas eve, Lucy is an excellent undead host

Next year all our troubles will be miles away (Ace Attorney, Miles/Phoenix, Phoenix & Trucy): post-disbarment era Phoenix attempts at Christmas for his daughter (or, Trucy helps her new father with their first Christmas together, depending on how you look at it)

Once again, as in olden days (It, Ben/Bev, Ben & Richie): Richie "helps" Ben with Bev

Happy golden days of yore (It, post movie, Eddie/Richie, Ben/Bev, Ben & Richie): Ben replays the "favour" and helps Richie with Eddie

Faithful friends who were near to us, Will be dear to us once more (Friends at the Table, gen, post-seasons of hieron): Hadrian waits for everyone to arrive for a solstice party

Someday soon, we all will be together (MASH, gen): Radar works to get everyone's Christmas calls through but the war has other plans

If the fates allow (Psych, Shawn/Gus): Shawn and Gus hide their relationship from everyone while at a resort

Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow (Vibes, Sylvia/Nick): Sylvia and Nick's first holiday

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now (Friends at the Table, Fero & Everyone): Fero, who doesn't see the point of making such a fuss over Christmas, ends up having to host everyone for Christmas

Happy new year everyone!

[lucreziaq2001]

•TV show: "Criminal minds".

•Content warnings: Mentions of cirrhosis of the liver and hemorrhages, a doctor being disbarred because he caused eight of his patients to die in childbirth, the institute those patients lived in covering up that situation, the fact that that doctor was an alcoholic too and a girl getting pregnant at 17 and being abandoned by her boyfriend, then raising her son as a single mom.

•I was the one who decided for Sister Margaret's last name to be Collins and for her to be 77 years old in 2005. Neither of these things was ever said in "The goodbye room".

•I changed the number of girls who died from six to eight and Doctor Finnegan's year of death from 1975 to 1979 to make the story more believable in the first case and to follow the eleven-years age up between Jennifer's passing and the doctor's one that there was in "The goodbye room" in the second one.

•Yes, I obviously know Spencer is a genius, but here I put that there's something he didn't know, simply because it's normal. No one can know everything, not even him.

•Yes, I know things like the one that happened to Emily in this story (I'm not counting JJ in this because she died so soon after her baby's birth) still happened in the 1970s, but people's mentality was definitely a bit different than the ones they had in the 1960s.

•Some of the lines are almost the same that are in a scene of the "Cold case" episode this story is inspired by. I did modify them a bit, though. I didn't just copy and paste them.

•Tags: @lex13cm, @golden1u5t, @rynwritesreid, @reidmeister, @justalesbianwithsomegayshit, @thatonewritersstuff, @marril96, @c-m-stuff, @criminal-addict.

Between their two hearts

Chapter 9: A new baby and a new witness

Had it been up to them, Jacqueline and Scarlett would have immediately started looking for Doctor Finnegan to ask him about Jennifer, but life chose for things to go differently that time.

That's because in the morning of August 7, Jacqueline went into labor and that evening her first baby, a boy she and her husband named Hudson, came into this world.

Three days later, Spencer went to visit his daughter and grandson and in order to see her best friend and meet her baby, Scarlett accompanied him.

Melissa was away with her son, since it was her turn to go on vacation with Tyler, so she would have met Hudson upon her return home.

So, just like his daughter had done a few days prior, Spencer took advantage of the woman's absence to ask about the case, on which Scarlett and Jacqueline had continued to keep him and Aaron updated.

"So, have you managed to find Finnegan by now?" he questioned a little over half an hour after he had arrived at Jacqueline's house, after having seen and held his grandson for the first time, moved as any grandfather would have been in that kind of situation.

"More or less" Scarlett replied with a sigh "That butcher died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1979".

"Oh. Was he an alcoholic?" Spencer asked.

"Yes" his daughter's friend confirmed "Eight girls died of hemorrhages during childbirth because of him between '61 and '68, and then he was finally disbarred".

"Did eight deaths really have to happen before they decided to do that?" Jacqueline exclaimed, shocked by what her friend had just told her.

"Unfortunately, that's how things were done back then. I'm happy Jackson's mom was a single mother in the mid-Seventies, not in the Sixties" Scarlett said referring to Cheryl, her husband's mother, who just like Jennifer, had gotten pregnant at 17 and been left alone by her boyfriend, but had had the support of her family in that situation and had been able to keep and raise her son.

"Who was the director of Saint Bridget's in 1968?" Jacqueline then asked her, gently rocking Hudson as she spoke.

"Sister Margaret Collins" Scarlett replied "Now she is 77 years old and spending her retirement in a religious community near New York City".

"I didn't know nuns retired too" Spencer responded, clearly surprised.

"Me neither" his daughter's friend told him "She's the only one who can tell us what happened at Saint Bridget's, though".

"And she's also one of the people who had the most reasons not to talk about it at that time" Jacqueline added, and at that moment, even though a part of her wished she could have stayed home with her baby forever, she hoped to get better as soon as possible to go with Scarlett to talk to that woman.

Unlike her friend, after all, she had firmly believed from the beginning that the solution to that case could have only been found thanks to the people who used to work at Saint Bridget's.

[rivalsforlife]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I saw this going around a little while ago and wanted to do it myself mostly because it doesn't involve me having to answer about anything I did this year.

1. How many works do you have on A03?

20

2. What's your total A03 word count?

262,994, apparently

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Ace Attorney! I have to admit I've been writing persona 5 fanfic for most of this year but am still undecided on if I actually want to publish that. if I ever finish it.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

A Rose By Any Name (by a margin of like 1000 kudos), Deep Dark Secrets, Childswap, The Catch-Up Game, Love Languages.

I am eternally going to feel a bit bitter that the first one is that high.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to respond to them all the time because I love the interactions, but then I started getting burnt out by school and now have such a massive backlog..... so I pretty much never do these days. I'm very sorry and I still read and really appreciate all the comments I get!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write a lot of angst... and I definitely don't have a tendency to leave things on an angsty note. Maybe Need Not to Need which was in early disbarment era, or Left Behind, Looking Ahead because it's a missing scene in the middle of aai2, and Franziska ends it on the conclusion that she should prepare to not have Edgeworth in her life anymore.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Since I don't write a lot of angsty endings most of them are happy lol. Maybe The Opposing Council's Proposal because it ends on a proposal, which is a pretty happy event.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! Everyone's been really nice.

9. Do you write smut?

Definitely not. It takes me like five minutes to work myself up to writing a kiss. I'm too squeamish about that kind of thing.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, and I feel like that's not something I'd be very good at doing. There's so much work involved and I haven't had any situations where I feel like characters from different franchises have to meet in order to express some aspect of characterization that they couldn't do otherwise, which would be my main motivation for writing one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! Plenty of my fics have been translated into Chinese. I had one person write an entire rec list for my works in Chinese before and was so happy about it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, I feel like I wouldn't be good at this either, I've always been the kind of person who isn't good at playing with others and would want to take control of the whole thing lol.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Narumitsu without question. It takes a lot to get me to actively care about romance, much less write it.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a PLvsAA canon divergence fic where everyone stays brainwashed for a much longer time (and Edgeworth also gets brainwashed) that I wish I could finish, but I feel like it's a lost cause at this point. I have an earlier version of that fic which went in a completely different direction and is less than one chapter away from being complete. There's also One Good Narumitsu Story left in me that I've had in my head since 2018, never been able to bring myself to write it, and am not sure if I ever will. I hope I do someday, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think one of my favorite comments I've ever gotten talked about putting effort into developing relationships and characters outside of the main focuses of the fic - Catch-Up Game being an example, even though narumitsu is the focus, I spent some time paying attention to Phoenix's relationships with Trucy, Maya, Iris, and generally tried to make it seem like the characters had their own lives outside of what Phoenix and Edgeworth had going on. That's something I still feel pretty proud of and try to keep up when I can.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

DESCRIPTIONS. I can't describe people very well at all, probably at least partially because my facial recognition skills are atrocious. I can't describe locations or settings, either. I sometimes feel like it becomes far too obvious that I rarely leave the house.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think it's fine on a one-off but not extensively. Like with Klavier as an example, the occasional Achtung or pet name or whatever is fine, but when it starts to be longer sentences or full conversations I draw the line.

Overall I think the best way to handle it (in a hypothetical conversation between Franziska and Edgeworth, depending on if the POV character is Edgeworth or Phoenix):

a) If the POV character speaks the language (like Edgeworth), doing something like "Franziska switched to German, so Phoenix couldn't overhear. "I am speaking in German, but you are reading it in English.""

b) If the POV character does not speak the language (like Phoenix), saying "Franziska switched to German and started yelling at Edgeworth" makes more sense - when I hear a foreign language, at least, I wouldn't be able to repeat it afterwards, because my brain does not process the words like it would English words, so I don't think it should stay in writing either.

There are practical purposes too: I wouldn't trust google translate to capture any nuance, and don't speak any other languages, so I'd want to find someone who knows the language to translate for me, which can be annoying and inconvenient for them. Also, readability. I don't think a reader should have to open up a new tab to understand your fic, is the point.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior cats!! Way back in 2012 or so.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

The Catch-Up Game is still my favorite, at least partially because I got so much engagement while posting it that it was a lot of fun to go through comments on it. The narumitsu server talked about it a lot, and I'll forever be bitter that a rogue mod wiped those channels, because it's a really good feeling when something you write can inspire discussion like that. Also, I'm still satisfied with most aspects of that fic on its own - I reread a couple of chapters just the other day and was enjoying myself, which is always a win.

[synnefo-nefeli]

It's me, the anon looking for parental edgeworth headcanons! :D I think I'm more interested in a/b/o for all the neat extra social complexities the dynamics add. Though if you want to throw in a couple more general headcanons I won't say no X3!

(If it wasn't obvious, it was Edgeworth being soft for Apollo in SD that inspired this ask. Chapter 5 and beyond made me melt while reading. I probably re-read chapters 6 and 7 a dozen times to just enjoy the 1 on 1 found family hurt/comfort. You are a really good writer!)

Hi! Thank you for your patience, I’m just getting through a lot of work and RL stuff.

I’m glad you like the Momma Eggworth/Apollo dynamic! It’s my favorite part of the story too, and there’s more to come :)

Sooo Edgeworth parent headcanons via Strange Days/a/b/o AUs:

Despite him being an omega, he never felt the “parenting urge” /“baby fever” until after Trucy came around. Prior to this, having a child with his mate was something he felt was inevitable due to him being an omega; he never had much of an opinion on having kids until he came back from Europe in the wake of Phoenix’s disbarment and found out that his mate had adopted a whole child while he was gone

While he can be a bit of a pushover (on the inside) when it come to little kids, Miles is the strict parent. He won’t abide his child being a brat. Anytime Trucy is petulant or bratty Miles blames her behavior on Phoenix’s parenting lol. However, Trucy knows how to work Miles to get what she wants XD

Despite him being strict, Miles does spoil Trucy with pretty dresses and the like- he’s happy someone in the house appreciates good tailored fashion.

As Miles doesn’t have a nest in the traditional sense (officially, it’s the office that Apollo slept in) he mostly spends more time in the bed he shares with Wright, when his omega nesting habits kick in. Trucy will come and hang out with him- working on homework while Miles types away on his laptop. Trucy will also sometimes sleep in bed with her dads- Phoenix often gets kicked out of the bed and sleeps on the floor

Since he is an heir to his house and the omega, he’s in charge of instructing his children to introduce them to the Alpha/Omega society. He’s making sure that they instruction is free of the archaic and abusive rules he was forced to learn when he was coming of age

Miles is a “stage parent” if there ever was one, though. He’s worse than Phoenix.

He tries to see Trucy’s shows in person as much as possible - when he’s traveling or having a late night he has someone record them or he’ll watch a live stream while working. Now that he’s essentially adopted Apollo- he tries to watch his trials from the gallery

Because he’s the Omega, he’s in charge of granting courtship permission to any suitors interested in his children. Sooo interested parties would do well to be on Miles’ good side.

[abluescarfonwaston]

Trucy and Maya sign Phoenix up for Queer eye after his name is cleared. By the time filming starts he’s decided to study for the bar again and is honestly excited to have some help putting his life back together.

They tear apart his house and drag him for the fact he is wearing socks with sandles and his closet is nothing but sweatshirts and beach clothes. He Does have an old like shakespeare costume in the depths of his closet that Johnathan puts on as well as the Furio Tigre shirt. They check out the magic equipment and Phoenix goes on his proud dad rant about how she’s the light of his life and so talented and he loves her-

Jonathan takes him to the salon for a hair cutting. Under the Beanie his hair got kinda long and gnarly. He didn’t want people to recognize him and even know the idea of it’s still a little anxiety provoking. But he also Wants to look good again and feel confident. Jonathan gives him a scruff trim too and they stop at a goatee. They laugh and Phoenix sends a picture to someone. Oooh your boyfriend? Haha not exactly. They end up going clean shaven tho. As they’re walking out Phoenix stares at his phone and goes. Huh. Maybe we should have kept the goatee.

Antoni asks him what he can cook. He proudly announces he makes the best pancakes. And that he can make a few other things that aren’t blatant depression meals. That what he knows he learned cause he wanted to take care of Trucy but he’s a little ashamed at how often the priority was ‘just make sure she eats something’ because he was too exhausted for more. That he Wants to have this big family dinner with all the people who helped and supported him while he was disbarred. Antoni teaches him how to make a big roast for special occasions and some easier healthy meals for normal days.

Bobby helps him reestablish his house, reducing the clutter that Phoenix has been too tired to clean himself along with making the space more usable to the big groups of family Phoenix wants to be able to host here without embarrassment. 

Tan takes him out to get new clothes. Before he does Trucy actually pulls Tan aside and says her uncle already got Daddy a new suit and can we arrange it so Daddy finds it because it’s perfect but Uncle Miles is worried he’s putting the pressure on too hard since Daddy’s already taking the bar exam for him again (again?) and-

Tan gets him a wardrobe that is more presentable and upscale for court/everyday. They ‘find’ a blue suit with a red tie. Phoenix breaks down crying and Tan is Very concerned but - No... I just... I know who made this suit. That jerk. Of course he already had a suit made for me. I love it. It’s perfect.

And Karamo and him talk about how he has all these people he owes so much to now because he couldn’t have done this without them and he doesn’t know how to even start paying them all back and honestly he was such a bastard these last few years and he’s not even sure how to stop being that person sometimes even though he Wants to. He wants to be that trusting person that Believes in people again. And maybe they all expect him to go back to being that person and he doesn’t want to disappoint them because he loves them so fucking much especially after they went and did this for him too-

And Karamo stops him and asks him if he saw the video that his family submitted asking them to come help Phoenix. Which he hasn’t.

Daddy gave up everything for me. To make sure I grew up happy and loved and he did. He’s the best Daddy in the world. And I want him to be happy. Just as happy as he’s made me.

Nick’s been there for me, when no one else was. Just. Over and over again. Believed in me when no one else did. Pearl give Trucy the camera and come tell everyone how awesome Nick is. He just needs a little help remembering that. Cause he’s a idiot sometimes.

Wright is... he’s my oldest and dearest friend. He’s brilliant and kind and he saved me. And if there is anything I can do to help him reclaim his proper place in the courtroom I would do it, without hesitation. Once you see him in court you’ll understand exactly why I- Kay. Kay why do you have a camera?!

You said you’d do anything Mr. Edgeworth!

I- what is this about?!

“You know you’re friends better than we do but I don’t think they’re keeping score. And if you really want to show your gratitude, beating yourself up over it isn’t the way to do it. You could start by saying thank you instead.”

“Heh. I told Edgeworth that same thing.”

And they invite the whole Wright family over to the big thank you feast. He’s cleaned up and wearing a nice Dad sweater. He gets dog piled in hugs and then Maya yells at him for not making hamburgers instead. Edgeworth shows up a hour late with a bottle of wine and a faint smile.

“Wright I was lead to believe you purchased a suit recently? If you’re done covering yourself in flour,” I’m gonna cover you in flour. “Would you like to show us.”

“Don’t expose the kids to your suit fetish Edgeworth.”

“That’s not! Wright just-. Put the damn suit on Wright.”

“Hahah yeah okay.”

He does and everyone tells him how great he looks and damn is that a waistcoat? Someone’s grown up. And not just out. 

And Edgeworth just watches him with quiet tender eyes as everyone else talks.

“Wright?” Hm? “You’re missing a part.”

“Huh? I got everything! I double- no - Triple checked!”

“You forgot this.” He opens his palm. A shiny golden badge in it. “Congrats on passing the bar exam.”

The episode is a fan favorite.

[cluescorner]

It’s Disbarment Day come get y’all’s comfort.

- Trucy was truly Phoenix’s light in every conceivable way. She can make him smile like nobody else and uses Mr. Hat to give double hugs to her Daddy. Whenever Phoenix can’t bring himself to leave his home, Trucy pesters him into taking her out for ramen or ice cream. She was the sole thread that kept him hanging during the first few days of his disbarment, the only thing really keeping him tethered to the world around him. She was what kept him going even during his darkest times. 

- After Miles heard what happened, he nearly broke international laws trying to make his way back to Phoenix as soon as possible. And the moment he arrived, he held Phoenix and refused to let go. He made sure that Phoenix knew just how wonderful he was and how much Miles appreciated him. Phoenix figuratively and literally saved Miles’s life several times, and Miles repeats one of those incidents every time that he can tell Phoenix’s thoughts are getting the better of him. Afterwards, he becomes the foundation of his family’s financial state. As a prosecutor, he makes enough money to support his family in every way they need and more. He moves in with Phoenix and Trucy, bringing Kay and Sebastian along with him, until Phoenix has a part-time job that affords him enough money to make rent. 

- Sebastian teaches Phoenix how to play piano. Though Phoenix may be woefully inadequate, Sebastian is patient and a better teacher than many would expect. While they practice, they talk about everything. Sebastian tells Phoenix about the time he nearly caused a mistrial for a dangerous criminal and tried to help his father get out of murdering someone, Phoenix regales Sebastian with tales of his courtroom antics and the Matt Engarde situation. They have heart-to-heart talks with each other about everything from relationship drama to feeling inadequate to whether it’s a ladder or a step-ladder. The bond Phoenix forms with Sebastian helps him remember that he’s not alone in feeling set up for failure or betrayed, giving him a person who genuinely understands how Phoenix feels. 

- Kay keeps Phoenix moving. She gets him out of bed, takes him to ‘stakeouts’ (secretly an excuse to get free help on heists), and brings him to whatever local events interest her. Kay knows that constant activity and stimulation help her get out of depressive slumps, so she figures that the same would help her new dad(?) keep himself going. Though Phoenix isn’t quite cut out for tree-climbing and running through the mall after Kay commits felony theft, her antics certainly make sure that Phoenix is never left with nothing to do. Her joy from the most minor things (seeing a cool looking rock on the beach, learning how to use a pottery wheel, or even just walking through town) helps Phoenix see that there are little things in life that are worth living for, even if it’s only a dog on a skateboard. 

- Franziska VonKarma is pissed. She is pissed because Phoenix Wright is a fool for not checking that his evidence was authentic and she is SUPER FREAKING pissed that someone would frame him for this. Franziska drops everything she is working on and flies to that foolish country to give every fool within a 100 mile radius a piece of her mind. She is the first to actually tell Phoenix that she knows for a fact that he would never submit forged evidence, that she would stake her life and her name on it. Franziska tears through the bar association and the prosecutors’ office alike. Once she has calmed down, she helps Phoenix prepare to retake the bar exam, even before he was found to be innocent of forgery. Seeing even Franziska support him, Phoenix began the fight to prove his innocence. And after the truth behind the Enigmar trial was exposed, Franziska was the first person to begin procedures to have Phoenix reinstated. 

- Gumshoe may not be the smartest guy, but he knows how to help people find part time jobs. He helps Phoenix with his search for jobs and offers to write personal recommendations for him, though Phoenix rejects this offer. Gumshoe and Maggy also help Phoenix work through how it feels to get fired, with Maggie being especially helpful by teaching him how to joke about it. 

- Ema knew from the very beginning that Phoenix was innocent. So when he started asking for weird devices, she never asked why. When he asked for her help developing a camera for the Mason System, she quickly made it her top priority. She’s not great at offering comfort or emotional support, but she’s an excellent problem-solver. It was her idea to have Phoenix wear the camera in his beanie and she helped develop the Mason System from a technical perspective. 

- Maya and Mia had a fight over who got to talk to Phoenix first. In the end, Maya won out. She was crying before even he was and kept repeating that he would never do something like this. She had half a mind to channel the spirit of Magnifi or Zak or anyone in order to prove Phoenix’s innocence, but he convinced her not to. So instead she finally paid him back for all of the times he took her out for burgers, taking him out for them instead. She would talk about whatever they usually talked about, trying to make everything seem as normal as possible. And it worked. Maya was one of the very few constants in Phoenix’s life, so having her by his side made everything feel just a little more normal. 

- Mia dropped her ‘an attorney always smiles’ act and lets Phoenix cry to her about everything. She reminded him that she was always there for him, just a channeling away, and that her belief in him was set in stone. She believed that he would get through this and come out better for it, and thus Phoenix believed it. 

- The people in Phoenix’s life are what give him hope and happiness and light every single time. Every time that he felt pushed to the brink, someone would  keep him from falling. But in the end, he was the one who decided to keep going. To become a lawyer again and keep facilitating justice, regardless of what had happened in the past. Everyone else helped him along his way, but Phoenix was the one who chose to keep going every single time. And he’s proud of that. 

[anthonyravencrow]

No disbarment au

Elaborating on no disbarment au because you guys seem to like the idea.

If you hadn't notice this contains major spoilers for AJ so you might want to skip this one if you haven't completed it.

I came up with it because I don't like sad time skips when the character is fine and then we come back few years later to see that their life was awful when we weren't looking. So Phoenix's life is a bit happier in this. :)

It's gonna be a long post so I'm putting rest under the cut

So back to the au

The starting difference from canon is that Zak Gramarye pulls his dissapearing act earlier so Phoenix doesn't have a chance to present forged evidence.

He doesn't get disbared but his reputation still sufferes becasuse of it and from this moment other attorneys start to consider him as kinda corrupted and theorize that he helped his client dissapear because he knew that he was loosing.

Because Zak is gone Phoenix still decides to adopt Trucy. <333 She still practices her magic acts but she also gets to be Phoenix's co-counsel (we all wanted this to happen)

So Phoenix doesn't have a good reputation but he still gets some cases and he's happy with his daughter

On the other hand Kristoph is pissed. He flunked all that money for nothing. He decides to keep a close eye on Phoenix as he plans revenge.

I really liked his character and his weird "friendship" with Phoenix in the game and I was kinda dissapointed that we've seen him in only two cases. Also Klavier deserves to have more scenes with him too.

So Phoenix still hangs out with Kristoph so he can financialy support Trucy and her magic hobby as a lawyer. But he's careful and tries to keep her away from Kristoph.

In this au Kristoph is more involved. He still becomes "friends" with Phoenix and he seems to be an only attorney around who trusts him after the Gramarye trial. It's still weird between them though and Phoenix senses that Kristoph is up to no good but he needs his support in court and Kristoph also helps him to actually get some cases and clients.

Phoenix still is a very good lawyer but he now has more obstacles to get through in court so he gets a little more jaded and has to always keep a few tricks up his sleeve. He kinda acts like Edgeworth in his demon prosecutor days.

Now enters Apollo - he's the main character in all of this <3

He starts working at Gavin's law office. He often sees Phoenix there because of his relationship with Kristoph. At this point Apollo already heard some rumors about Phoenix and his questionable cases, also Kristoph is really passive-agressive about him to the point where Apollo wonders why these two are still friends.

So Phoenix gets to be all ambiguous and mysterious as Apollo tries to form his opinion on him.

At some point Trucy in typical girl assistant fashion gets involved in a murder case she's a suspect and gets arrested. Phoenix doesn't have a good opinion in court and he doesn't want that to ruin his chances to prove his daughter's innocence. He also doesn't trust Kristoph with this at all. So Phoenix decides to request Apollos help.

Apollo agrees :). If it was a game this would be the first trial so Payne would be a prosecutor in this. Apollo with little help and pep-talk from Phoenix during recess obviously wins :)

Aftter that he hangs out around Wirght law offices more often and he gets to develop a friendship with Trucy. He also gets to talk to Phoenix and is really impressed by his previous cases. He tries to ask about what happened to his reputation but doesn't get obvious answers. Phoenix still is ambiguous and throws some off-hand comments about Kristoph from time to time.

So now Apollo is kinda thorn between two lawyers who constantly trash-talk each other. Except Kristoph is more ominous about this.

When Apollo is around Wright's office, Phoenix points his attention to cases he doesn't want to take because of his reputation so Apollo agrees to help and takes them himself.

And Trucy gets to be his assistant. <333

During this Apollo talks with his mentor Kristoph from time to time and also gets some helpful advices from him.

I'd like to see more of their relationship and more of Kristop being a mentor to Apollo. I think it would be cool and interesting to see this other side of him. The side which seems to be kind and understanding, the reason why Apollo has his opinions in good regard.

So Kristoph tries to act all supportive about Apollo taking cases from Wright but he lets Apollo notice that he's not too happy about it. Kristoph is this kind of ominous presence during those "filler" cases and he says things about Phoenix that make Apollo doubt him a little.

Also Klavier's here. He's a prosecutor in Apollo's cases. And he's just as sweet as in canon.

Apollo at first is suprised to learn that Kristoph even has a brother because Kristoph didn't even mention him much to Apollo. Apollo also gets to see Klavier when he goes to talk with Kristop. So we can see more of Klavier's relationship with his brother.

Klavier If asked, I think would say some nice stuff about his bro and he kinda looks up to him a litte as an attorney. Kristop on the other hand, not so much. He ridicules Klavier's rock star persona when Apollo talks to him about his bro.

Ema is still a detective in this. <333. Because Phoenix didn't get disbared she got to work on some cases with him in the past <33

She's nicer to Klavier because he didn't ruin her friend's career in this. But they constantly get into a playful banter. She also knows Trucy really well because of her being Phoenix's co-counsel in the past cases.

Ema is great and she seems happier in this even thou she didn't want to be detective that much.

Now I'm getting closer to the finish line.

For the last case I envision something similar to Turnabout Goodbyes and Rise from the ashes.

OH NO! Phoenix get's framed for murder! I think Drew Misham would be a good victim in this to tie this nicely to the Zak Gramarye case.

Obviously Kristoph's behind all of this and Phoenix knows this. But he still remains ambiguous and doesn't tell the whole truth about his involvement. Kristoph is free to walk around and is very dangerous so Phoenix worries about Trucy's safety and doesn't want her to get involved in this. He is very careful about what he reveals to Apollo so he doesn't get Kristoph's attention. He is worried what Kristoph might do to Trucy if he puts to much focus on him.

So Apollo and Phoenix's friends try to save him. Apollo does really in depth research and he slowly finds out the truth behind this case and also the Gramarye case and unused forged evidence.

As he's closer to the truth he starts to suspect Kristoph more and more. It's really hard for him to accept because Kristoph was always a good mentor to him. During all of this he still talks with Kristoph who with every conversation seems more and more ominous.

Klavier was chosen as a prosecutor for this trial. He and Apollo face in court but Klavier was also present during investigation parts so he's also torn about his brothers presence in all of this.

Finally everything gets revealed. They confron't Kristoph in court. Apollo wins, Kristoph gets arrested and Phoenix is declared innocent. His reputation is also cleared beacuse everyone found out about what really happened behind the scenes of the Gramarye trial.

Apollo and Klavier are also happy but they both have mixed feelings about Kristoph. He was Apollo's mentor and Klavier's brother. They both held him in high regard and are both shocked that he was able to do something like this. They need some time to deal with it but they have each other and together they are going to work through this. (Yeah, Klapollo <3)

So everyone gets together. Apollo continues working as a lawyer under Phoenix with Trucy often accompanying him as his co-counsel.

And that is the end!

I'd like to thank @digitalstowaway because your response motivated me to write this down. <3

[insomniac-jay]

Villain File: [Queen Eclipse]

Birth Name: Lenora Santana Luisa Vasquez-De La Cruz

Villain Alias: Queen Eclipse

Age: 38

Gender: Female (Assigned Female at Birth)

Nationality: Mexican

Birthplace: Puebla, Mexico

Occupation: Lawyer (formerly), Villain

Quirk: Eclipse

Possibly one of the most powerful Quirks of all time, Eclipse gives her the ability to make Quirks go haywire and to absorb the life force of others until it completely overwhelms them, thus killing them. This is similar to how the moon covers the sun until it can no longer be seen during an actual eclipse.

It is almost unstoppable as not even the strongest of individuals can break it. No one has been able to survive Queen Eclipse's Quirk.

However, Eclipse does take a toll on her, especially mentally as it has created a "second brain" of sorts that takes over whenever she activates her Quirk.

Personality: Before her descent into villainy, Lenora used to be a confident and courageous woman who used her career as a lawyer to help those who were vulnerable. She had a habit of getting into heated arguments but was observant and attentive when it was needed. She was often described as a fighter and a woman with a heart of gold.

The thing that made her the most well-known as a lawyer was her ability to make the court feel emotions heavily. She often used this to convince them on whether someone was guilty or innocent.

She had a soft spot for children and specialized in cases involving children. This extended to her own two children that she would have later down the line. On her off days, she'd help take care of children at local orphanages.

It shocks many how someone who was so passionate and lively became a cold-hearted and stoic villain with one of the highest body counts anyone has ever seen.

After her descent into the darkness, she did a complete 180. She became cold, distant, and overall stoic. Some say she doesn't have the passion she used to while others say she stopped feeling emotion altogether. She is still as observant and attentive as she was in her lawyer days, but not when she needed to be; she always is. She displays no weakness and is almost always sporting a neutral expression.

However, she still retains a soft spot for children. She will never kill or hurt a child and has clear and set boundaries when it comes to anything that involves them.

History: Lenora is the younger sister of the Hero Solstice and was born in the city of Puebla in Mexico. She was the more passionate and vocal of the two and often got into fights with her sister's bullies as a result. Unlike her sister, she had no interest in being a hero.

During her college years, she met and fell in love with a fellow college student named Saul De La Cruz, who was studying to be a judge. After three years of dating, the two got married.

After graduating college, she opened up her own law firm and quickly gained success. She specialized in cases that involved children including child abuse, murders of children, and kidnappings of children. Her work would eventually bring her to the United States where she served as the lawyer of Pro Hero Crusader's children in the infamous Crusader vs Akirakami case and won. With such a win under her belt, her career skyrocketed.

At some point, her and Saul had two children named Carina and Nicolas. However, these would be the final years of happiness in her life.

One night, she was awakened by knocking at her door and the police arrested her for the murder of her husband. Confused, Lenora demanded to know the meaning of everything going on. The police refused to answer her and after a few days in jail, she was put on trial. She chose to represent herself.

Despite putting up a tough and compelling fight, she was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole or bail. As a result, Carina and Nicolas were taken from her even though they insisted their mother was innocent. She was disbarred and her career and name was disgraced.

Being put in solitary confinement, Lenora turned to using her Quirk as a means to cope. Over time, she began to master her Quirk more and more but her "second brain" was also developing as she kept pushing herself to the limit.

It was in prison that she learned the truth of her husband's death. One particular case she was on was one of child abuse and the victim was the daughter of a police chief. When the girl's father was found guilty, Saul ordered that the officers and the police department be searched and questioned. When it was found out that the other officers had known of the abuse, Saul had them all fired and the police station closed down. Upset, a few of the cops wanted revenge on both Saul and Lenora so they ambushed him when he was out one night and killed him. Then, they made it seem as though Lenora did it.

Enraged, Lenora broke out of solitary confinement and killed all those responsible for Saul's death. It was then that she decided that those who allowed this to happen needed to be punished and thus began her descent into villainy.

Family:

Unnamed parents

Isabela Vasquez | Solstice: Older sister

Saul De La Cruz: Husband; Deceased

Carina Vasquez-De La Cruz: Daughter

Nicolas Vasquez-De La Cruz: Son

@floof-ghostie @calciumcryptid @nevihiko @opalofoctober @pizzolisnacks @elflynns-horde-of-stuff @peachyblkdemonslayer

Note: I described her Quirk really bad. If anyone has any ways I could improve it, I'm all ears!

Edit: Fixed her Quirk

[queen-ofsunflowers]

DadWorth AU: Part 2 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney)

More DadWorth AU! And here we finally get into the details of the games, so the parts that remain the same will be briefly touched upon. This is gonna be longer than the last post, so here we go!

 < Part 1  | Part 3 >

Turnabout Sisters

Things actually start a bit before the game does, and its with Kay at age fourteen and ready to start high school. (to me her birthday is in December, so she would be fourteen by the time the school year begins). And she has a certain one in mind.

I’ve mentioned before that Kay ends up idolizing Mia and follows her cases. Being surrounded by law for the past couple of years and wanting to help people (because Kay has yet to learn about the true Yatagarasu), Kay decides that she wants to be a defense attorney like Mia as opposed to a prosecutor like her dad and Miles (I am one of few people that I think subscribe to the idea of Defense Attorney!Kay... but that’s where we’re going here.)

Miles hestiates when he learns that Kay “wants to be a lawyer”, but after pressure from both Franziska and Gumshoe, he agrees to the idea. After studying and working hard, Kay ends up getting accepted to Themis Legal Academy in the defense attorney course -- something she hides from Edgeworth because she’s afraid that he’ll disapprove. But this is something that she really wants to do. i have an idea, shhh--

So, Kay’s first day of school just happens to fall on September 6. If anyone recognizes this date, it means Edgeworth is going to be home late, as he almost always is when he’s working on a new case. Because this is where we hit Turnabout Sisters.

Kay’s first day of school goes pretty well. It’s all getting to know you stuff, so it’s gonna be easy. Everyone tries to keep Kay from finding out about the details of Edgeworth’s newest case throughout the course of the day, but this fails because Miles doesn’t know that Kay looks up to Mia. So he gets very much confused when she gets upset upon learning Mia Fey had been murdered when he goes about their usual conversation about his latest case the next morning.

So, she’s upset and Miles has no idea why. On his side, he finds out the defense attorney for this case is Phoenix Wright. So he’s not doing so well because the past is coming back to bite him in the butt, and Kay goes to school feeling like crap. And things only start to get worse from there when two students in the prosecutors’ course decide its a good idea to mess with one of the students in the defense attorney course.

Enter Sebastian Debeste and Klavier Gavin. (i know klavier’s a good guy, but he still needs the character development to happen) They are not the nicest of people when Kay first encounters them. She’s down, and they decide its a good time to kick her while she’s down.

She confides in this to Ema, who gets super mad about this. She knows that she needs to tell an adult about it, so she somehow manages to tell Gumshoe about this (how they know each other, i’m not sure, probably happened after she met Kay.) And then Gumshoe goes to Miles while they’re investigating the next day and tells him that Kay’s been having a tough time adjusting (Ema had left out the bullying bit, since Kay had made her promise not to tell, thinking it would make things worse.)

Miles takes things into consideration a little bit (he’s too focused on his case), and promises to pick Kay up from school the next day if Gumshoe drops her off (an idea that came up from Gumshoe mentioning it would be a good idea to have someone she trusts there after a bad day.)

The date is September 9, Gumshoe drops Kay off at school as planned while Edgeworth goes to trial. And everything for both of them goes downhill from there. Edgeworth gets his ass handed to him by Phoenix and gets his first loss. Kay’s bullying continues. Too absorbed in his loss and the repercussions of it, Miles forgets about Kay entirely. Kay’s left outside of Themis, heartbroken and her trust in Miles barely even remains. After about an hour or so, she calls Badd to come and get her since she knows he’ll always be there if she needs him.

Miles hears Kay come home, and gets confused when she runs past him and up to her room. Badd explains everything and how Miles is an idiot.

So, Badd’s pissed at Edgeworth. Gumshoe gets mad at Miles when he finds out about what happened with Kay. von Karma is pissed at Edgeworth for losing at case to a rookie of all things. Kay’s upset with him because of what happened. Franziska’s mad at him on both fronts. The media is having a field day with his record being broken. It’s the second worst day of his life.

Turnabout Samurai

So, time goes on since the horrible, no-good very bad day. Miles is trying to deal with everything and everyone being mad at him. He’s becoming emotionally unavailable and Kay’s not helping at all since she’s pulled away from him. Since he forgot about her, she thinks he doesn’t care about her anymore. She just stays out of his way.

Miles is emotionally out of the window and does just what he needs to do to keep Kay happy or so he thinks. He’s too absorbed in his work and stressed out from his previous loss to try and reverse the damage caused to his reputation. Meanwhile, Kay’s bullying at Klavier’s and Sebastian’s hands continues. She doesn’t know what to do about it (even though Ema continually tells her to tell someone, Kay doesn’t want to make things worse.)

Things come to a head for her right around the same time that Edgeworth gets assigned the Steel Samurai case against Phoenix Wright. Kay’s absolutely done with Sebastian’s and Klavier’s treatment of her and remembering Ema’s words, she acts.

Kay ends up punching Klavier in the face when he pushes her over the edge, much to everyone’s surprise. They both get dragged down to the office by a teacher after the fight escalates a little (if it even can be called that, only physical blows traded was Kay’s punch.)

They’re in trouble, they start arguing over who started it, etc. The teacher (who I should note is Courte) puts an end to it, believing that they are both to blame for what happened -- Kay for retaliating the way she did and Klavier for antagonizing her in the first place. With the principal’s agreement, both of them are sent home for the day after their guardians are called.

For Kay, she immediately gets called back by Edgeworth while waiting. Edgeworth is in the middle of the Steel Samurai case, so he can’t do anything. He actually grows irritated over what Kay did, not listening to her explanation over what happened and only saying that they’ll talk about it when he gets home. Kay tries to find someone else who 

Meanwhile, Courte takes Klavier aside and tries to find out what happened to cause the whole mess in the first place. Something got into his head that this was how it was supposed to be with defense attorneys and prosecutors (what this is or who that was that planted it is up for debate). He’s told that he’s wrong. They’re both on the same sides of the law, and they’re both there to find the truth -- not to fight about it until there’s a victor. They are allies. Not enemies.

And then Klavier comes back and overhears Kay’s conversation with Edgeworth with Courte’s words echoing in the back of his mind. Klavier’s just like... “okay, she may be a defense attorney, but i don’t think she’s that different from me at all”. Kristoph is a terrible guardian, but the only one that can take care of Klavier, and he understands a bit of what Kay is going through right now because of that.

And immediately feels like shit for how he treated her prior. So when Kay goes to apologize to him from ya know... punching him, it’s him that starts apologizing. And after a very, very long conversation, they decide to start over and Klavier invites Kay to eat lunch with him and Sebastian the next day and even offers to see if he can get her a ride home. Kay reluctantly agrees.

And so their friendship starts there.

It takes Sebastian a bit longer to warm up to Kay like Klavier has, but eventually takes to her when she doesn’t hesitate to point out the mistakes he makes. She corrects him without missing a beat. Kay’s not hesitant to call him out on bullshit when needed. As a result, Sebastian’s a bit smarter than compared to canon.

So, the chaotic duo of Ema and Kay grows to include Klavier and Sebastian. (ema has no reason to hate klavier yet, that’s not until phoenix is disbarred if my theory is right, but his attitude does tick her off sometimes).

Things are starting to get better for Kay, that’s for sure. Miles, on the other hand... not so much.

We all know what happens with him. Unnecessary feelings, questioning just about everything that you know and who you are, etc. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Kay, who wants to try and do something to help. What that is, though, she doesn’t know yet.

Turnabout Goodbyes

Winter break is coming up, and it’s pretty clear at this point that Sebastian and Klavier (the latter moreso than the former) are in tight with Kay and Ema. Kay wants to do something to fix her relationship with Edgeworth, leading to a suggestion of being honest with him about how she feels. If he listens (unlike their guardians), then that means things could turn around.

Kay declines this idea as the first thing they decide Kay should do is tell Edgeworth that she’s in the defense course. She’s still wary about what he might say or do if he finds out she’s going to be a defense attorney rather than the prosecutor he thinks. She does, eventually, agree to talk to him about how she feels. Confessing to being in defense does still linger in the back of her mind.

Christmas starts to draw nearer and nearer, and the two usually spend it together (a tradition born from the first one they had. As bad as that time of year is for Miles, he tries to not let it show for Kay’s sake. Kay doesn’t know about DL-6 and he wants to keep her as far away from it as possible.) So Kay is confused when he heads out Christmas Eve.

Kay has no idea who to turn to... except for one person. So, Christmas morning, while Gumshoe does his best when it comes to figuring out the truth with the investigation, Kay runs all the way down to Wright & Co. Law Offices. (Edgeworth had talked about Wright before in conversations that Kay overheard. That, and it was talked about that he was the only one who managed to take down Edgeworth at school.)

This is the first time that Kay meets Phoenix face-to-face, so he’s pretty confused about as to why a teenager is banging down his door on Christmas asking for help. But, he’s not someone whose going to say no, so he and Maya head down to the detention center with Kay.

Imagine their shock when they learn that the person Kay was talking about is Miles Edgeworth. Who immediately turns around and refuses their help. At all. Because he wants them as far away from this as possible.

Phoenix and Maya leave with Kay, and two out of three are not about to give up so easily. So, yeah. Kay’s finally part of the main storyline.

She helps Phoenix and Maya on their investigation and in the process does learn about DL-6. And her heart just breaks when she learns that her guardian went through all of this. Which is why Kay is relieved when Miles finally 

In the meantime, Phoenix and Maya are trying to figure out what Kay’s connection to Edgeworth is since neither of them explained. And all they can get Gumshoe to say is that Kay is someone that knows Miles rather well. (something that’s supported with Kay knowing about Edgeworth’s fear of earthquakes.)

Kay’s in the audience during this case, primarily because Miles expresses that he doesn’t want her anywhere near von Karma (especially for something that would technically be her first trial). But she’s also not going to leave, so she just watches. Kay gets excited when Phoenix starts tearing von Karma’s case apart. (at this point, Kay only vaguely knows von Karma from Reminiscence. She knows that he’s Miles’s mentor and nothing more than that.) 

She helps with the DL-6 investigation. The one thing I should note  surprises her the most about it is the date which it takes place. Added angst for this whole case (primarily comes from my headcanon birthday for Kay) -- It’s revealed that Miles was careful on December 28th to not let Kay know what was going on with him since it was also her birthday.

Kay has only known Larry for two days, and he’s already giving her a headache (and making her question how Miles and Phoenix are friends with him a little bit). But she’s super excited that he was able to help in the end. She also finds the story about the class trial super sweet, remarking how it reminds her about how Edgeworth used to be like when they first met.

She ultimately is incredibly worried about Miles as the case goes on. Especially with how he thinks that he killed his father. The man Kay knows would never do that -- even on accident. She wants to help as much as possible, even if she can’t stand with the defense. She also wants to stick it to von Karma after everything he’s done. Especially after the confrontation in the evidence room, where Kay lets loose more information than she should, so von Karma (along with Maya and Phoenix) end up finding out about Kay’s relation to Miles.

Phoenix asks her about this later, and Kay explains everything. She begs him to get Miles a Not Guilty verdict since she doesn’t want to lose yet another father of hers. He promises her that he’ll try.

So we get to the final trial day. Kay thinks that Phoenix calling the parrot as a witness is one of the most hilarious things ever later on, but in the moment, she thinks he’s gone crazy, but it works. Miles is declared innocent and she couldn’t be happier... until he flips the switch and confesses to DL-6 after von Karma brings up

Kay gets so mad and upset about this. She corners him in the defendant’s lobby, which is not a pleasant conversation. She knows that Miles is innocent. They’ve been fighting this whole time and he’s just willing to give up that easily? Kay feels like she’s being left behind all over again. She doesn’t understand why Miles won’t “believe in me, who believe in you”. And she storms out. So there’s a bit more guilt on Miles’s shoulders, and a small bit of incentive for him to actually get a not guilty.

So, it cuts to Kay in the hallway making her way back to the gallery. She’s relaying to what’s going on to her friends over a text conversation (understandably, they’re all pissed) when she bumps into someone on her way back.

Yeah... Kay runs into von Karma again. And knowing what she does about him, Kay’s just fucking pissed. There’s a confrontation between the two where Kay comes to understand why Miles is so afraid of this man. He puts an immense amount of fear into her. She just wants to get away.

Kay hits his shoulder by accident in the process and notices the amount of pain it causes him after she runs off. So, long story short, Kay manages to figure out where the second bullet is before Phoenix does, and the trial concludes similar to how it does in canon, but with Kay’s intervention. She’s beyond relieved that Miles is free and von Karma is arrested.

She also feels horrible about yelling, and decides to take her friends’ advice to heart. She almost lost Miles once, and if that ever happens again, she wants him to know the whole truth.

The first thing Kay does after Miles is declared innocent is confess everything to Miles. She’s stammering and nervous and is barely through it when Miles cuts her off because he already knows Kay’s studying to be a defense attorney. She’s not as slick as she thinks, Gumshoe had mentioned multiple times that Phoenix could be someone Kay could learn a lot from, etc. That, and he is Kay’s guardian. He keeps in contact with the school.

He’s not disappointed in her either, which is the one fear that Kay had. He understands not following in your father’s footsteps. If it makes her happy, then that’s fine with him. He is surprised that she finally told him the truth, though. Kay promises not to keep anymore secrets from him. She wants to trust him again.

Things end well between them... as well as they could be after that whole mess, but their relationship is steadily on the mend and all is right with the world.

...until February.

Rise From the Ashes

IF YOU ALL REMEMBER SOMETHING THAT I MENTIONED IN PART 1, THEN YOU KNOW THAT THIS CASE IS GOING TO GET WORSE FOR ONE MILES EDGEWORTH THAN IT ALREADY IS. 

Kay gets dragged into this one by Ema when she comes by in tears over Lana getting arrested. Kay mentions what happened back in December and says that Phoenix might be able to help, so Ema drags her down there. Phoenix is responsible for two teenagers rather than one. Again.

let’s just pretend that they don’t have school for whatever reason

Not much changes other than Kay’s involvement in SL-9. People keep bringing up the fact that Ema was not alone. And Kay’s thief skills starting to show up a little bit. Again, she won’t discover the truth about the Yatagarasu until later down the line. 

She also wants to kick Gant in the shin more and more as the case progresses.

When it gets to the point where they find out that Miles is going to resign,

It’s only during the last day of the trial that Phoenix (and by extension, everyone else but Maya) finds out about Miles’s connection to Kay when he brings up the fact that there was another witness present when Ema was attacked. And Miles isn’t able to hide who it is any longer.

So, Kay has to testify. And it’s not fun. It all ends with her asking them to leave Edgeworth alone, since he didn’t do anything wrong (or he didn’t know that he was doing anything wrong -- something that is later provable.) So, this case is full of family feels, and Phoenix feels like shit for having to do this.

But in the end, Kay’s memory is a bit more clearer than Ema’s, which leads to Gant’s arrest being a bit easier. Ema still leaves the country to study forensics in Europe, and there’s a tearful goodbye and promises to stay in touch between her and her friends. But the impact that the case leaves on Edgeworth does not change. He feels like he isn’t fit anymore -- as a prosecutor or as a guardian for Kay since he couldn’t protect her.

So, the night of February 25, Kay’s woken up in the middle of the night by Miles. She’s half-asleep, and really doesn’t understand what he’s saying at the moment. He’s saying that he has to leave for a while, and tells her that he cares about her. She’s just like “okay” and ends up falling back asleep.

The next morning, Kay wakes up and the house is just about empty. She can’t find Miles anywhere. She just thinks that he’s busy with a new case that needed him in the office early, or they needed him to help clear up what happened yesterday or something, so she doesn’t think much of it.

That is until Gumshoe picks her up from school early. He never does this. No one really does this without warning, like if its a doctor’s or dentist appointment or something.

Her entire world falls apart when he tells her about the note that they found on Edgeworth’s desk that morning.

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death. 

And that ends Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Kay doesn’t interact with the story all that much, but we already have Egdeworth’s perspective on the game for the most part. A lot of this takes place from Kay’s POV... including Justice for All. Which I have some... interesting things in mind for.

[yamoksauceforsale]

Please tell me more abt all your aa fics I kinda forgot that you've also played the lawyer game (also miles to go is a brilliant title sdjfkljsdflksjdfl)

I am a CLOWN for the gay lawyers so please feel free to message me about them whenever especially on my main @ghoullian (happy disbarment day also ahah 🥲) More summaries/status/excerpts under the cut!

Since most of the fics on that WIP list were AA I’m gonna sort by whether they’re miles, franziska, or klav gav flavored

Miles flavored

1. On the Dichotomy of Colors in Neo Olde Tokyo and its Applications to Japanifornia, An Essay by Miles A. Edgeworth, Grade 4

Status: COMPLETE, Read here

A oneshot kid!fic set after the classroom trial but before DL-6. Miles confesses by way of steel samurai.

2. Cry for Absolution:

Status: This one is essentially done but I’m debating whether to publish it bc it’s personal. 

The miles goes to catholic school au i wrote about here! I added in some slight lang/edgeworth elements.

3. Miles to Go:

Status: Outlined, some chapters written. This is my only AA multi chapter fic. I haven’t worked on it in a bit bc i’ve been playing the games more (started outlining/writing mid game 3, and am now on the game 5 DLC), but I have a bunch of roadtrip stops planned!

Motivated by my desire to have more Miles & Trucy bonding moments, and to torture this poor stuffy man with a chaotic roadtrip. Miles is overworking himself so Phoenix & Trucy convince him to go on vacation with them. Most of his vacations (when he takes them) are spa days with Franziska, so he doesn’t realize until they’re pulling up to the bus terminal that Phoenix has booked a roadtrip across CA.

The parts I have written currently are: a narumitsu having to share a bed in a shitty motel that ran out of rooms chapter; trucy & miles making s’mores. I know I also want to write: supernatural themed roadside attraction chapter with Miles and Maya arguing about whether ghosts are real (possibly at the Mystery Spot or Winchester Mystery House); the opening of Larry’s art gallery as Laurice Deauxnim; supportive!Miles walking with Phoenix across the Golden Gate Bridge (Phoenix is scared shitless bc of Bridge to the Turnabout, but Trucy really wants to go); epilogue is Miles’ choice of vacation— the opening of steel samurai land at Gatewater Land

Excerpt from the s’mores scene:

Trucy looked up at him curiously. “Have you really never made a smore before Mr. Edgeworth?”

Miles shifted uncomfortably. “‘No, I... I haven’t ever been camping before either really.”Trucy’s mouth dropped open, “NEVER?” she said, awed that someone could miss out on something so fundamental to all her childhood vacations with her father.

“No. I mean,” Miles sighed, “My adopted father wasn’t much for camping.”

“Why?” said Trucy, chomping on another marshmallow straight from the bag.

“Well, for one, he dressed like... erm, me. Not me right now, of course,” he said, shifting awkwardly in the baggy matching pink Yellowstone T-shirt Trucy had picked out for them earlier.

“Who knows! maybe if he’d have been less of a stick in the mud, you could’ve had matching t-shirts with him too!” said Trucy, full of naive hopefulness. 

Miles knew she couldn’t possibly know the story behind von Karma’s atrocities and speak so lightly of it. Still, he found himself stifling a snicker at the thought of Manfried von Karma being caught in cargo shorts, sneakers, and a souvenir t shirt.

“Somehow I don’t think that would fly,” said Miles, in the understatement of the century.

“Eh, too bad for him I guess. 2 for 1 deals are just for us cool kids I guess,” she said, elbowing Miles on an affectionate joke.

Miles smiled, “Weren’t you just calling me elderly not 10 minutes ago? And now I’m a cool kid?”

“Objection!” yelled Trucy. “That was Auntie Maya!”

“Touché,” said Miles. “Your father was the one getting the most kick out of it though I think.”

“I think he just likes to see you so... flustered? Not that he wants to see you mad, but... you’re so much more fun when you’re not all geared up to use your pink suit like armor and be an ice man. It just makes us all happy to know you’re here having fun and wanting to spend time with us.”

Miles was glad for the darkness and the heat of the fire to cover up any possible embarrassment or other... frivolous emotions that might be flushing his cheeks from those remarks. He found himself oddly struck speechless.

Clearly noticing the awkward pause in the conversation, Trucy tried to redirect to safer subjects. “Anyway, I’m sorry your dad was a bummer. I love hearing everyone’s cool camping stories.”

4. Miles’ feather of truth nightmare:

Status: this is an outline for a scene I’ll probably stick into another fic at some point!

Egyptian mythology inspired. Miles has a nightmare where his heart is being weighed against the feather of truth, he looks up to find the judge to plead his case, but the judge’s stand has been replaced with a throne. Mvk sits on it, cackling madly before eating his heart

5. Miles Edgeworth & chess through the years:

Status: just an outline currently.

Canon compliant AU with chess as a metaphor to track Miles’ character arc and recovery from his abuse at the hands of MVK. Basically him going from the dehumanizing WIN WIN WIN attitude to love & using chess to bond with loved ones. I wanna have him as a kid learn to play from Gregory as a way to bond, but then suddenly change to being coached to be the best under von karma (who hides a piece in his sleeve to get a win). Picks up in aa1 with him playing against phoenix (phoenix wins by pure luck, not strategy or underhanded tactics), him commissioning That Gay Ass Chess Set in his office, faking his death. Two scenes at the end of him playing against Kay (who cheats and briefly reminds him of MVK, but then laughing bc he knows MVK would HATE that comparison), and then married narumitsu laughing when Pess and Trucy accidentally knock over the chess board

Franziska flavored

1. Franziska’s having a bREAkdOwn! bReaKdOwn! (hospital franmaya):

Status: Scenes partially written, excerpt below.

Franziska and her father share many things: a name, a legacy of success, a destiny of greatness, and matching bullet holes to remind them of their greatest failures. What happens when Franziska wants to see more of herself not in her father, but in Maya Fey?

Excerpt:

“Maya Fey, your family was disgraced by my own father. How can you even look at me?” “You’re not the sins of your father, Franziska. And... to be honest... I relate to you.”

Of all the things she’d said that night, that finally caught Franziska’s attention. She turned her head up in a wide eyed perplexed gaze.

Maya rubbed her head self consciously, looking away from Franziska. “I mean... not to the prosecuting parts, or to putting people behind bars but... I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like destiny had laid out some grand path for me to follow, and I decided that, no thanks, that road isn’t for me, I’m just going to go tear up the map and make a pit stop at every burger joint in a hundred mile radius instead.”

She laughed, and Franziska let out a furious scowl. “How can you just JOKE about this, Maya Fey? About your future? About your family? About destiny?” Maya sighed. “Look, Fran, I get where you’re coming from. But we deserve more than that. The chance to set our own destinies. Maybe we’re the beginning of our own new family legacies.”

Klav Gav flavored

1. klav gav haircut fic:

Status: Scenes partially written, not outlined

Premise is Klavier visits Kristoph in his cell post aa4 and tries to get closure. Klav cuts off his braid, finds more of a sense of self, and klapollo hurt/comfort at the end

Excerpt:

“You are nothing without me Klavier. You never will be.” Klavier laughed coldly. “You think I don’t know that Kris? You’ve stained every part of my life. Every moment of joy and suffering somehow comes back to you. I can’t even look in the mirror without starting at myself, convinced that it’s the ghost of you and not myself looking back at me.”

“I should’ve thought the great rock star would fancy himself a narcissus. How touching this is not the case. Why, it almost seems you miss me.”

Klavier laughed ruefully. “Miss you?! Of course I miss you. I miss you teaching me how to braid my hair. I miss the person who held my hand at mother’s funeral and didn’t let me cry myself to sleep alone that night. I miss when I didn’t know what atroquinine was and I miss who I was when I could just blindly look past the way you’d just been grooming me this whole time to be a pawn in some sick revenge fantasy against phoenix wright. But I know that none of those memories—none of what i miss—were actually you. Or at least, not the you that you’ve chosen to become.”

Klavier paused and let out a long sigh. When he spoke next, his voice was small and strung out. “I’m tired Kris. I don’t want to see you in me anymore.”

That’s it for now! I genuinely am debating making an ace attorney side blog so I can talk about these more, but idk if there’s much engagement in the AA fandom compared to star trek. Anyway, thank you sm for your ask!!! <3 I’m down to ramble on more about these anytime!!

[sunnomnoms]

Hiiii I Found Your Blog In The Tags And I Never Thought I Would Enjoy Ace Attorney Imagines Before. I've Been Into It For Years And I Think This Idea Is So Adorable. I Hope Requests Are Open, And If I Can Ask For Relationship Headcanons For Hobo Phoenix Where There Is An Established Relationship Between You Two, And How It Continues Once He Gets Disbarred? I Always Wonder How Those Eight Years Would Have Been When He Had Some Light In His Life Besides Trucy. Btw I Love Your Aizawa Writing!

Aaaa ! A new anon that actually likes my AA stuff ! I’m so blessed :,) I’m truly flattered my writing is what got you interested aha, you’re too sweet ! Also, thank you!

I got SUPER CARRIED AWAY WITH THIS I AM SO SORRY

Fun fact: I actually cried while writing it 🥺🥺

Some warnings: this is female coded! Some angst, some fluff, family cuteness, family struggles, agh-! It has a happy ending though!!!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

You had known Phoenix for at least a year or so before you started dating. You were a witness to a crime he took, which is what brought you two together in the first place. If it’s important, yes, your testimony did help a good bit for solving the case!

While working on it, Phoenix found himself feeling a bit... fuzzy, around you. It wasn’t ever something he intended to happen, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to be in a relationship. But he couldn’t just deny the immense amount of chemistry going on between the both of you.

Oddly enough, the two of you didn’t lose contact after the case was over. Phoenix took it upon himself to go and see you sometimes when he wasn’t working on anything. This fuzzy feeling was starting to get worse, and the chemistry was slowly turning into tension...

... and within a year or so of knowing you, he took it upon himself to ask if you would be interested in something more. You happily accepted.

With you now at his side, Phoenix felt a bit more confident. You meant a lot to him, and he made sure to express it as much as he could to you. He really was a sweetheart, he made it his goal to let you know how much he loved and appreciate all you did for him. Whether it be helping him figure out a case or just making him dinner after a long day in the office, he never took any of it for granted.

The incident happened a few years later, and it wasn’t something you could have seen coming from a million miles away.

Your boyfriend, an attorney, came home without his beloved badge... and a few days later, was asked to care for a child.

Phoenix was reasonably shaken about losing his badge due to his fatal mistake, but he was more worried about someone else.

“[Y/N], she’s got no where to go...” He said as he held your hands, tears brimming his eyes. The little girl I’m question, Trucy, sat in your living room as the two of you spoke quietly in your bedroom. You felt Phoenix give your hands a gentle squeeze. “Why don’t we give it a try...?”

Truth be told, you and Phoenix had been trying for a baby for a good while now, but nothing seemed to be working. It had started to take a toll on you mentally, making you fear you would never have children at all. Trucy had appeared at a time when you were sure you were going to give up entirely. Perhaps... this could be what you needed all along...?

With tears in your eyes, you agreed happily to raising Trucy with Phoenix. He brought you into a tight embrace as you began to feel yourself cry. He quietly whispered about how good of a mother you were going to be to her, and how he’s going to do everything he could with you to give her a normal life.

Raising Trucy wasn’t a struggle at all. Though mischievous at times, she was a delight to deal with. Your stresses of how you were raising her was fading, because despite everything... she held on tight and was strong. She seemed just as determined to live a normal life as you were to give her one. That is, as normal as raising a little magician can be!

Phoenix, in the beginning, was also great with her. You had never felt so close to him until now. You felt like you had that family you always dreamed of. Granted, it wasn’t perfect, Phoenix was still struggling with coping over his lost badge. You did what you could to assure him that life would untangle itself with time, and that no matter what, you were sure things were going to end up okay. You were there on the countless nights he felt himself fall to apart, you always helped him put back the pieces.

For awhile, you were sure things were getting better. Trucy was doing great, and it seemed like Phoenix was...

Unfortunately, your beloved wasn’t always honest with his feelings. He had suppressed so much... and before you could help him, it’s as if he fell into disrepair.

The struggles came with Phoenix’s sudden and rapidly declining mental health. He had gained a habit to isolate, and you began to go days without seeing him. When he’d show up again, he was vague as to where he was, if he told you at all. It began to take a toll on you, you were beginning to practically raise Trucy alone at this point. Sometimes he’d disappear with Trucy, and that tortured your poor heart more than anything. You could only handle so much paranoia about where they were.

It got to a point in which you basically begged for Phoenix to get professional help. He seemed stubborn when it came to the topic, as if he didn’t want to better himself. You couldn’t even be mad at him, you were too busy sorting out your feelings of dispair and hopelessness. You just wanted a normal life, you wanted a lover, a child, a stable family... you were so close, why did everyone have to fall apart...?

You had ended up taking yourself to therapy to sort out your feelings. Your family and friends gave you conflicting answers as to what to do. Some said to leave him and take Trucy, some said to stay and try and talk to him more, some said to take legal action...

You couldn’t tell what was right at this point. With so many people saying so many things, you weren’t sure what you were supposed to believe. Part of you downplayed the situation, this was how all dads were supposed to be, right? Part of you felt hypersensitive to everything, part of your conscious screaming that you should have ran away the second the red flags began to appear. You didn’t know what to do... so you chose to endure. For Trucy.

It didn’t help that Phoenix picked up a habit for drinking.

The only thing you could ever thank him for was that he stayed away from Trucy when intoxicated. She didn’t need to see him like that. Besides that, he was insufferable to deal with when intoxicated. He was the “I’m not that drunk!!” type, even if he couldn’t stand up. If you had a dime for all the times you had to drag him to bed, you’d never have to worry about the bills ever again. When drunk, he wasn’t physically violent or anything, but he had a habit of saying things that really hurt. It was common for you to put him to bed and spend the rest of the night crying and wonder what went wrong between you two. It was awful that occasionally, Trucy had to come and console you. You felt safer with your daughter than you did you own boyfriend... was it truly supposed to be this way...?

When Apollo came into the picture, you were delighted to meet him. He reminded you of how Phoenix once was when he was a lawyer. Apollo often questioned the family life of the three of you, but you always responded with vague answers. Things like “it’s certainly not perfect, but when is life ever supposed to be perfect?” We’re common time hear from you. It satisfied him for awhile. You’d always hear a ton about Apollo through Trucy, and it was for the most part positive things. Whenever he and Trucy visited the house, you’d quietly thank him for looking over Trucy when Phoenix wasn’t around. He always said it was no issue or whatnot, but you knew deep down he wasn’t expecting to be lowkey babysitting as a lawyer.

As far as you were concerned, Apollo was an addition to the family. Trucy always spoke of him as if he was a big brother, and it warmed your heart to know Trucy had a positive male figure in her life now.

When Phoenix had gone away for longer than usual for his “secret mission”, you had only expected for him to be away to go get messed up in a town over or something. But when he came back, he... brang news.

It was so much to take in at once. Trucy participated in her fathers “disappearance”, her mother was still alive, and Apollo was her half sibling.... what were you to do with yourself? What was it all supposed to mean? Was Trucy going to stay with you? And Apollo, was he now... your son?

You saw Apollo a bit less for the next week or so, you knew that case took a toll on him mentally and you were sure he was up to his eyes in paperwork. You made sure to call him at least once a day to make sure he wasn’t overworking himself.

Trucy was home a bit more now. You were happy to see here in the midst of the storm passing over the whole lot of you. You could tell she was torn up inside, but she still beamed at you with that beautiful smile you adored the second she came into your life. She was so strong, you couldn’t help but tear up a little when you saw her smile in the face of it all.

And Phoenix...

He was still gone for a bit after the fact, but one night he had come home late without you realizing. You were about to go to bed when you heard him call your name from the porch.

You felt your heart drop hearing him, worrying he might be drunk again. You padded your way to the back door, opening it and walking out onto the porch. Phoenix stood from his previous position of leaning on the railing, gesturing to some of the chairs on the deck. “Come sit. I... I wanna talk.”

You sat in one of the chairs, Phoenix pulling up one right in front of you. He inhaled deeply, then letting out a sigh. You were about to ask what this was all about when he gently took both of your hands.

“I... I’m sorry I dumped a bunch of information and left for a few days.” He apologized softly. “... I’ve been getting help.”

You let out a soft gasp. Phoenix looked up at you, and you felt yourself get lost in those beautiful steal blue eyes the same way you did all those years ago. You knew he was being sincere when he said it, but part of you didn’t believe it, what was this supposed to mean...?

“N-Nick, what is this about...?” You said, your voice barely above a whisper as you felt yourself getting choked up.

“[Y/N], this is about us. I lost sight of everything all those years ago- this isn’t what I wanted. This isn’t what I want and I know it’s not what you want.” Phoenix said, his gentle gaze never leaving you. You searched his face for any sign of insincerity but it just wasn’t there.

“Nick...” you croaked, tears beginning to roll down your face. You watched the tears begin to well up in his own eyes, but he quickly blinked them away.

“[Y/N]... I want to be a family again. A real family, [Y/N], I don’t want to be a stranger in this house anymore. I don’t want you to be afraid of where I am anymore, or be afraid of how Trucy is gonna grow up. I want a real family. I want you, me, Trucy and even Apollo to function like a real family...” He said, bringing your hands to his lips, placing a gentle kiss to them.

“... I’m so sorry [Y/N].” He spoke against your fingers. “I understand if you don’t forgive me, but I regret these past years so much... I need you to know that I’m sorry [Y/N]....”

You tried to hold back so you could speak, but your frantic sniffling caught Phoenix’s attention immediately.

“Nick, I-I-!”

He wrapped his arms tightly around you as you fell to pieces in his arms. You sobbed harder than you probably ever had for those past seven years or so. You clutched onto him for dear life, terrified he might disappear again if you let go.

“N-Nick- I-Ive waited s-seven years to hear you say you’ll come back!!! I-I-I’ve waited so long for you to c-come back home again, I-I-!” You wailed, your sobs getting the better of you as you gasped for air between your tears. He whispered gentle apologies to you as he ran his fingers through your hair.

The two of you stayed like that for a good bit. You sooner or later leveled out, your sobs dying down to gentle sniffles. Phoenix gently released you from his embrace, taking your hands in his again.

“[Y/N]?”

“Y-Yeah?” You responded shakily. He looked you in the eyes again, a gentle smile on his face.

“I... I want you to be my wife.” He said gently, earning another gasp from you. “Y-You don’t have to say yes now, I understand, b-but I don’t want to just be a lover to you anymore, I-I want to be your husband, [Y/N].” He spoke gently. You felt the tears sting your eyes again. He watched your face for a second, waiting for any sign of an answer to his proposal. You brought a hand to your face as you wiped the fresh tears rolling down your face.

“Oh Nick, I... I’d love to be your wife, Nick. I-I truly thought you would never ask...” You said, smiling as you watched his eyes light up. He let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Y-You mean it? After everything I’ve done you... you still love me..?” He asked. You nodded. “Of course I do.” Letting out another laugh in disbelief, he cupped your face and brought you into a deep kiss.

You were basically smothered with kisses, the two of you giggling like idiots, as giddy as teenagers getting their first tastes of love.

“I’m gonna get better just for you, and I’m gonna go retake the bar exam and I’m gonna fix all of this [Y/N]. I’m gonna give you the life you want and the life you deserve. I’m never going to lose sight of you again. Not you, not Trucy, not even Apollo, we’re gonna be a family and I’m not gonna let anything ever destroy that again. Maybe we can try again for another kid, maybe we can adopt another, I’ll give you anything to make our life perfect again...”

“I love you so much [Y/N].”

[agoldengalaxy]

A Samurai’s Love

read on AO3

There’s a Steel Samurai marathon at the Wright Anything Agency, and Miles and Maya have a heart to heart.

--

“Justice will soon be served, evildoer! Your foul deeds will not be tolerated, for I, the Steel Samurai, shall strike you down!”

Miles does his best not to grin, though keeping it a secret that he is a fan from his companions has proved to be fruitless; it’s why he’s here in the first place, after all, at the Wright Anything Agency. Since Phoenix had gotten disbarred, he’d been rather distant - not returning many calls, only focusing on the little girl that his client had left behind. So Miles and Maya had to take it upon themselves to do anything they could to support him, and that included showing they cared.

“Oh, this is the best part!” Sitting on his left, a starry-eyed Maya is grinning ear to ear as she stares at the screen. Beside her, her head in her lap, is Pearl, curled up rather contently, having fallen asleep much earlier. She doesn’t really understand the appeal of the show, despite being a child herself.

Miles can’t hide his smile this time, and he nods. “I agree.” Of course, he’s seen this episode before. How would he not? The watch party was more of a distraction for Phoenix than anything else, even if the man didn’t particularly care very much for the show.

The Steel Samurai grunts in his struggle against the Evil Magistrate, though besides the TV, the room is very quiet. Just as Miles is wondering why they hadn’t been met by a sarcastic comment from Phoenix, he feels a soft weight press into his right shoulder.

He glances down and bites his tongue to keep from gasping, trying to comprehend the scene before him. Phoenix had slumped over, head resting against Miles’ arm - it seems he had been falling asleep and needed someplace to lay. Trucy is curled in her father’s lap, head against his chest, a hand grabbing a fistful of his hoodie loosely.

When the surprise wears off, Miles takes a moment to look at his old friend’s face, only illuminated by the flickering light of the TV. His brow is slightly furrowed, and his lips slightly parted. Relaxed like this, he looks more his age; the past few weeks, he’d been looking a little worse for wear. Miles frowns deeply at the dark circles underneath his eyes, unlike anything he’d ever seen. He wonders how long it has been since Phoenix had gotten a good night’s rest.

He sighs softly, shaking his head a little. He has half a mind to wake him and tell him to go home and get some real sleep, but...he has a feeling it won’t go well. He’d certainly fight him over it, so he might as well let him get some well-deserved rest. Without thinking much about it, he reaches over with his opposite hand and pushes some of Phoenix’s stray hairs out of his eyes. He doesn’t move.

“He hasn’t been sleeping.”

Blinking, Miles looks up, finding that Maya is now looking at him. Her expression is one of concern now, and he realizes she must have been watching for some time. “...Is that so?”

She nods, her eyes shifting to rest her gaze on the sleeping man beside them. “I haven’t been able to visit him as much as I’d like,” she admits softly, “but he told me...not that I couldn’t have figured that much out on my own.”

He closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Even he had come to that conclusion. “I can’t say I blame him,” he replies, opening his eyes to meet Maya’s. There’s so many unspoken things in just this one look - concern that doesn’t really need to be voiced, because they know. But there’s nothing they can do about it. Phoenix is disbarred, and that’s that. Although Miles will be doing everything in his power to help, he is not Chief Prosecutor, and he doesn’t have very much authority. So all they can do is support him.

“Um, Mr. Edgeworth?” Her voice is still soft, though she’s dropped her gaze to run her fingers through Pearl’s hair in a comforting way. For a moment, she looks like she might cry.

“Yes?” He’s not sure what it means, but he’s almost positive he won’t like it.

Maya swallows hard. “He won’t tell me anything about that day. About the case. He hasn’t even told me if the rumors are true.” Taking a shaky breath, she lifts her gaze back to the TV. “I don’t believe them, Mr. Edgeworth. Nick would never forge evidence. But I…” she closes her eyes, shaking her head. “I feel so useless. I sometimes wonder if things would have turned out differently if I was by his side like I should have been.”

He has to admit it catches him off guard, at first. Maya is such a positive force, it’s hard to remember she’s still young. She’s the one that forces a smile and does anything she can to get Phoenix laughing again. He hadn’t even thought about what kind of toll it must take on her.

Shaking his head, he tries to meet her eyes. “You cannot blame yourself for what happened. Even I don’t know all of the details, but…” he sighs. God, what can he even say? It hurts to think about, let alone talk about. “I have a feeling this was bound to happen, no matter what. This trial...it reeks of foul play. But not to worry, Ms. Fey. I will get to the bottom of it.” If it’s the last thing he does. He would do anything to see Phoenix Wright genuinely smile again.

Maya reaches up to wipe under one of her eyes, and she smiles a little. “Yeah, I’m sure you will. I guess there’s no use thinking about what might’ve happened, huh?” She sniffs, then looks back up at him, still smiling. “And geez, Edgeworth, how many times do I have to tell you to call me ‘Maya’? We’ve known each other for so long.”

Blinking, he stares at her for a moment, then smiles just a little, himself. “I apologize. It is just a habit.” He bows his head. “I’ll try to remember next time.” They both fall quiet again, turning their attention back to the screen, though he’s sure they’re both paying it only some attention. He allows himself to look back down at the man leaning against his shoulder, and for some reason, he smiles. He’ll chalk that up to relief, but...something about having him so close like this really warms his heart.

On his opposite shoulder, he feels a nudge. Looking up, he’s met with a smirking Maya. “You know, Nick may keep secrets, but I know he’s not the only one.”

“What on Earth are you talking about?” he asks carefully, not liking the way her smirk curls upward smugly.

“It is so painfully obvious that you love him, Edgeworth. Well, obvious to everyone except him, of course,” she answers nonchalantly. What…? His heart leaps into his throat, and he stares at her blankly. Any coherent thought leaves his mind, because...she’s right, of course, but he doesn’t want to admit that much.

However, he’s well aware that the longer he stays silent, the more suspicious he seems, so he clears his throat and looks away. He can’t look into her eyes. Not now. “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he notices her roll her eyes. “Right.” She draws out the word. “You may be a big bad prosecutor, but you happen to be a terrible liar.” A hand comes up to rest on his arm, and he brings himself to look back at her. Her smirk has softened into a smile now. “Look, I know it’s probably hard for you, but I just want to let you know that you have nothing to worry about. No matter what, through thick and thin, Nick has always been there for you. And I know...I know he feels the same.” She seems very confident. “He may not be in the right place right now, and you both may be too stubborn to admit it, but...I just want you two to be happy.”

For some reason, the words end up making his eyes burn. He has to drop his gaze, not wanting Maya to see. What can he even say to this? He closes his eyes for a moment, shaking his head a little. “I...don’t know what to say.”

Maya seems to understand, and she smiles again. “Just think about what I said, okay? I’m sure Nick could use some good news.” She yawns, stretching her arms above her head, then leans back against the couch, just barely resting her head against his other arm. She rests one hand over Pearl’s back comfortingly. “Guess we’re not going home tonight, huh?”

Miles pauses, staring down at her, then smiles a little, despite himself. “Hmph. I suppose not.” He looks back up at the TV, watching the credits roll.

“Good night, Mr. Edgeworth.”

“...Good night, Maya.” He feels her smile against his sleeve, and then relax.

And he is alone.

He lets himself look down at Phoenix again, his face still as handsome as ever, even shrouded under the cloud of exhaustion. He can’t help but wonder if he truly was as obvious as Maya claimed, or if she is just exceptionally perceptive. Perhaps it is a bit of both.

Letting out a quiet sigh, he leans his head against the back of the couch, noticing Phoenix’s hand by his lap. For a long moment, Miles considers taking it, but decides against it. No. Not yet.

But soon. Despite how out of the blue it had been, he supposes Maya has a point. And perhaps he will feel better when his deepest secret is no longer just a secret.

His eyes slip shut, and as he drifts off, Maya’s voice echoes in his mind.

I just want you two to be happy.

Perhaps they do deserve that much.