Chapter Text
When Kay gets into his car with two bouquets, "One each for Trucy and That Man," Miles is struck by the absurd thought that maybe he should have gotten the Wrights flowers again now that he's actually seeing the show, and for a moment he considers finding a florist on the way to the theatre. But then, Trucy had sent him photos of both her bouquet and Phoenix's at their respective bases backstage, and Phoenix's looked like it was already taking up a lot of his space.
Still, the thought persists in the back of his mind until they reach the theatre and Kay's hands are too full for a program. He takes one for the both of them, plus an "ocean blue" slushie (so the front of house staffer calls it) for Kay, and they find their seats. They have surprisingly good seats for having only rebooked on Thursday night, but they're between two families with small children. While he doesn't mind children from about eight or so (unless Pearl and Trucy had just been very well behaved and clever eight-year-olds), he does wish this theatre group sold wine.
Unfortunately, this is the matinée of a family show, so he buries himself in the program: several ads for the local businesses who sponsored the show, a synopsis, a list of songs and the characters who sing them, a cast list in order of appearance--
"Oh," says Kay, reading over his shoulder. "I didn't know Mr. Wright had a middle name."
"I've only ever seen it on his passport," he admits. "I didn't know he was using it here."
He turns the page and finds headshots for the actors playing Ariel, Eric, Sebastian, and Ursula, smiling forward and wearing shades of blue, and accompanying bios. Finding Phoenix becomes more important than reading up on the leads: there he is on the next page, in a sky blue Henley that matches one of his eyes and contrasts delightfully with the other. He looks so good that Miles almost forgets to read his bio until Kay says, "Legally Blonde," and snickers.
Phoenix Ryūichi Wright (he/him) - King Triton
Phoenix Ryūichi Wright has not been onstage since his days as an art student at Ivy University, where he played Doody in Grease, Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Carlos in Legally Blonde before switching degrees. He'd like to thank the production team for giving him a chance on his community theatre debut, the cast for making him feel welcome despite coming in so late, and his parents and daughter for always supporting him. Phoenix is represented by the Wright Anything Agency.
"Objection," he says. "Phoenix played SparkleStar onstage at Sparkle Land after college."
"Sparkle Land, that theme park with the weird blob mascots that closed after one of the character performers murdered another one and he died onstage?"
"I didn't realize it had closed," he admits. He doesn't pay a lot of attention to theme parks when he's not being actively dragged to one.
"I watched a Defunctland video about it! I'm so sad I never went," she says. "I didn't know Mr. Wright worked there."
"He didn't," he says. "We were doing the hostess a favor after the murder trial until they hired replacement performers."
He only realizes his slip up in pronouns when glee lights up Kay's face.
"You played a blob mascot too?!" she exclaims. "Which one?"
"Urk," he says eloquently, flicking through the pages in search of a distraction.
"That's not a Star mascot," Kay says with a sharp grin.
"I invoke my Miranda right to stay silent," he says, turning over to the crew page, and on it, Trucy. Eureka.
Kay is suitably distracted. "Ooh, I can't believe they got a photo of her without her hat!"
Trucy Wright (she/her) - Special Effects
Trucy Wright was born to a magician troupe and spent her early childhood assisting on national magic tours with her family, before performing her first solo magic show at age nine. Now seventeen years old, Trucy has grown up performing street magic shows throughout Europe on family vacations and now headlines regular magic shows at the Wonder Bar. She is developing her first major show, Trucy in Gramarye-Land, which will be performed at the Penrose Theater in late April. The Little Mermaid is her first time using magic for special effects in theater. Trucy is represented by the Wright Anything Agency and is a youth member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
"'The International Brotherhood of Magicians'," Kay reads aloud. "Is that a union for magicians?"
"No, it's more like a professional organization; they don't advocate for magicians' working rights as unions do," he says, his Miranda right forgotten in the need to explain. She stares at him. "Trucy told me about it when she was younger. I paid for her first year's membership for Christmas one year." He thinks a lifetime membership will be a nice birthday present when she turns eighteen and will finally be eligible for it. "Besides, she's too young to join a union."
"Oh, that's why she's not in Apollo's union," she says. Miles boggles. "She was texting me a couple months ago saying Apollo was trying to unionize the WAA. At first she and Athena laughed him off but then she decided he had some points."
He has so many questions. For Phoenix. For now, he makes a mental note to bring IFPTE brochures the next time he visits his office, goes back to read the rest of the program, and keeps Kay from dripping her slushie onto the pages. When she texts Trucy to break a leg, he asks her to add a good luck message from him as well, which she does only by adding an old man emoji to her text. He sighs. Really, he should have known better.
Eventually, the lights go down and music starts playing. The stage has no curtains, only set pieces of large rocks and an LED screen showing the ocean. From behind the center rock emerges the young Khura'inese woman playing Ariel, her costume and wig clearly more inspired by the original movie than the live action, her gestures more cartoonish than naturalistic. When she starts singing, her voice is stunning. Amusingly, Kay looks just as taken in by her as the young children on either side of them.
Ariel makes way for a ship full of sailors, some of whom are definitely women dressed as men, and Kay bursts into giggles, ignoring his attempt to shush her.
"Look, it's you!"
"Just because he's wearing a cravat--" he starts.
"He even talks like you too," she adds, as Prince Eric's - royal guard? - Grimsby, apparently - starts saying lines.
Other people in the audience are starting to look at her, and luckily she quiets down. In his opinion Grimsby's costume looks much more like what Manfred von Karma wore than his own clothing, but he's not about to tell her that.
The sailors' song about King Triton makes him impatient to see Phoenix, or at least one of Trucy's effects. It's likely rude to be watching only for two people, one of whom is in a minor role and the other of whom is in the crew, but then he's hardly the target audience for this. At least Kay is getting invested enough in the story for both of them as Ariel coos over a fork left in the ship's wake, laughing at the seagull as hard as any child.
"Music?" Ariel repeats after Scuttle, alarmed. "Oh no, the concert! Oh my gosh, my father's going to kill me!"
He perks up at the mention of Ariel's father, in a way his spine recognizes as familiar from when Trucy mentions hers. Kay smirks at him in a way that says she noticed, but he ignores her.
People dressed as sea creatures and merpeople come on holding fake sea flora, and, flanked by two probably seahorses, a man in a crown and a blue skirt and little else enters--
No. Phoenix in a crown and a blue skirt and little else - oh, okay, some golden shoulder armor and cuffs, an amulet, and scales of blue and white body paint along his décolletage - enters, carrying a golden trident. Even his hair is in waves with blue at the tips of his spikes. Miles' mouth is suddenly dry. He misses Phoenix's first line for staring at him, taking in the blue and white scales painted along his hair line as well as making a V down his chest, his broad, broad shoulders, the trail of hair leading down to--
"You're drooling," Kay whispers, and he blanches.
"I am most definitely not."
"If you had your mouth open any longer, you would have been," she says with a grin, and he sighs and returns his attention to the stage, where Sebastian the crab is entering.
The proud smile on Phoenix's face as Sebastian tells him about his daughters' singing reminds Miles of when people praise Trucy in front of him. It makes him smile in return even though Phoenix isn't looking at the audience, the fourth wall firmly in place for him.
And then six more mermaids come onstage, blocking Miles' view of Phoenix. These must be Triton's other daughters, then. He squints at them as they sing: none of them look a day over their mid-twenties. Still, despite what the review had said about Phoenix looking too young to be their father, it's all too easy to believe him as the single father to these seven girls instead of just one, trying not to play favorites but still doting on and worrying about the baby of the family.
Miles' memories of The animated Little Mermaid are vague. He only remembers watching the animated version twice in his childhood, and doesn't remember the plot: once with Franziska, in German without English subtitles, soon after he'd arrived at the von Karma household, not nearly fluent enough yet to understand it; once with Phoenix and Larry, and Phoenix had cried and Larry had laughed at him.
In neither of these languages, nor the live action remake, does he remember King Triton singing. It doesn't come completely out of nowhere because Phoenix has mentioned learning songs, and he'd known Phoenix can at least somewhat carry a tune from singing along to his car radio or to movies Trucy or Kay put on, but it still takes his breath away. Though the melody's simple, Phoenix brings in emotion which Miles would swear was real: he must have, some time in the years since adopting Trucy, wished for someone who would know how much to allow and how much to restrict her.
Finally seeing Phoenix onstage turns out to help get him into the plot. He's surprised to learn that Ursula is Triton's older sister here; he doesn't remember that from the movies, and nor does he remember this song of hers. She reminds him of some criminals on the stand in her utter lack of remorse and outright glee in explaining her crimes, although he's certainly never tried a defendant who killed their six sisters and then their father, and a confession in song is definitely more entertaining than anything in court. 'Part of Your World' is sung prettily and is soon followed by Trucy's first special effects in the show, her illusions adding plenty of drama to a storm at sea even before the ship breaks apart (how???) and Prince Eric falls overboard and has to get rescued by Ariel.
When Triton's other daughters come back on to gossip about Ariel, Miles decides to enlist co-counsel.
"Which one do you think is the oldest?" he whispers to Kay. "Phoenix thought I wouldn't be able to guess."
"The character?"
"The actor."
They scrutinize the sisters together, though Kay nods her head to the song.
"Not the purple one, she looks like she's in middle school," she says.
"I've ruled out the pink one for the same reason." Though he wouldn't have said a middle schooler: the mermaids in the pink and purple costumes look around Trucy's age, certainly more like teenagers than Ariel.
"Did the red one's bio in the program have all school shows?"
"I can't remember," he admits.
At length, Kay contributes, "This song is a jam though! Wish I had sisters I could make a girl group with. And that I could sing."
He times his huff of amusement with a pun in the lyrics. The 60's girl group sound of this song, another one he doesn't remember from the movies, is not what he'd call a favorite genre, but the Mersisters have had some of the most complex harmonies in the show so far, which is fun.
Once Sebastian, Flounder, and Ariel's sisters all realize Ariel has fallen in love with a human, the story diverts to the land, where Prince Eric sings a solo about falling in love with a voice. Miles finds himself distracted by the mental image of a young Phoenix as a romantic leading man like this: he claims to never have had a main role, but Miles could see him pulling it off, and is fairly certain this is because of his voice and acting, not because Miles has cast him as the love interest in his own life.
'Under the Sea' is familiar from the movies, and he catches Kay dancing in her seat, which makes him laugh aloud. But then Phoenix is back onstage, first angry then furious, and Miles is spellbound. Phoenix has snapped at him before (and apologized, in the case of him saying Miles shouldn't have come back from the dead, but it still makes the occasional appearance in Miles' nightmares when he's feeling low), he's seen him fired up in court, but never like this. No, this is Phoenix acting, and despite the context of Triton yelling at his youngest daughter over her love for someone of a species who killed his wife, it's somehow, alarmingly, attractive. Miles blames the passion in his voice combined with the lack of shirt.
It is less attractive when Triton destroys Ariel's shrine to humanity, the idea of danger more alluring than actual magical violence, but Trucy's effects here distract him - surely they're not actually breaking that large statue and other set pieces every night and twice on Saturdays? Miles puzzles over how she created those illusions through the next two songs.
Kay murmurs, "Finally!" at Ursula's next song, another one from the movies, but while she's delighted and mouthing along with the lyrics, Miles finds himself trying to read the text on the contract produced by one of the eels. The show has so far provided no clues about where in the sea they are beyond the General American accents used by most of the cast except Grimsby and Sebastian, so Japanifornia law may or may not apply, and maybe talk of souls in legal contracts is more common under the sea. Maybe merpeople can delegate their power younger than humans can; the show's only indication of Ariel's age has been that she's the youngest, which doesn't mean a lot when a few of her 'older' sisters look younger than her. Did Ursula draft this contract herself and this is why the procedural clause about getting a kiss from the prince in three days is so very bespoke?
His attention is drawn by Ursula transforming Ariel into a human with more effects from Trucy, and he's not sure how she managed to make it actually look like Ariel's mermaid tail is turning into human legs but she's done it, Ariel swimming her way to the surface with all too human legs before taking a breath.
The house lights come up, and Kay looks over at him and asks, "Are you overthinking the contract or the illusion?"
At length, he admits, "Both."
"Nerd," she says fondly. "Can you get me another slushie? I need the restroom."
They head out to the foyer and their respective lines. Once he has her second slushie in hand, he checks his phones and, finding no work emergencies, contemplates texting Phoenix. Anything he can think of to say feels inadequate for the depth of feeling Phoenix's performance has stirred in him, and he also doesn't want to alarm him with that depth of feeling, so he eventually resorts to, "Kay and I are thoroughly enjoying the production."
"Understatement," says Kay, suddenly at his elbow reading his phone, and he jumps. He hadn't realized he'd overthought his message for so long that she actually made it into and out of the restroom.
"What if this had been confidential?"
"It was just to That Man," she waves him off, and she relieves him of the slushie. "Speaking of, Mr. Wright is good. I had no idea he could sing like that, or act."
"Nor did I," he admits. Phoenix isn't the most polished actor in the cast, likely owing to his limited rehearsal time and lack of recent training or experience, but nor is he among the worst, and he is definitely Miles' favorite.
"And I love Trucy's effects! I can't wait to see what she does in the second act."
He's only half listening, because Phoenix has replied, "glad you're having fun! see you in costume after"
Not if he has a heart attack from seeing Phoenix in that costume up close. "Phoenix will be doing meet and greets in costume after the show," he reports to Kay, who has thankfully stopped reading over his shoulder.
"Oh, fun, let's get a photo with him and Trucy!"
"We'd already planned on it," he says, and to Phoenix he sends, "Speaking of costumes, Kay says Grimsby is me."
"Old men and their phones," Kay says with a sigh.
"I'm only nine years older than you," he points out, not for the first time.
"And yet we're a whole generation apart!"
"really? klavier thought so too," texts Phoenix. Gavin was wise to not mention this at work the other day. "i thought he looked more like von karma"
He had never expected the thought of von Karma to be a relief to him, but it's nice that Phoenix is on his side on this. He'd hate to bring this up to Franziska when she sees the show. "I thought the same thing," he replies.
"thought he was back from the dead the first time i saw grimsby's costume" Phoenix adds.
A moment later, he receives a selfie of Phoenix, still in costume, and Trucy in all black with a headset on, clearly taken by Trucy in Phoenix's dressing room mirror. Oh, he is absolutely going to die seeing Phoenix in costume up close. When was the last time he updated his will?
"tee hee (ˉ▽￣～)" he receives from Phoenix's phone, quickly followed by, "trucy says hi btw" as if he couldn't guess who had sent both the selfie and the giggle.
"Kay, please take a selfie of us for me," he says, handing his phone over. As with Trucy and Phoenix, Kay is better at selfies than he is.
"Sure thing," she says, and proceeds to take at least three before he's ready, and a further four once he's actually smiling, before returning his phone. "Is this for Mr. Wright?"
"Yes, he sent me one with Trucy," he says, showing her the picture.
"You two are cute," she says. "Do you finally 'just know' yet?"
Luckily the bell to return to their seats saves him from answering, and he hurries her back in so they hopefully won't have to squeeze past either of the families they're sitting between. He sends Phoenix the most tolerable of the selfies once they're seated, then tucks his phone away.
The first musical number of the second act is a tap number from Scuttle backed up by a flock of seagulls that makes him feel suddenly nine years old again, snuggled into his father's side, watching Singin' in the Rain. His father had loved classic musical films with tap performances- he'd forgotten until now. He doesn't realize the thought is making him a little misty eyed until Kay elbows him and gives him a raised eyebrow during the encore.
And then Phoenix is briefly back onstage, anxious about his missing daughter. One time after one of Trucy's shows, he'd mentioned there was a short scene where he hadn't told the director that his inspiration was what he was "really feeling" when Trucy was taken hostage by Aura Blackquill. This must be what he was talking about. He'd seemed a little on edge during the UR-1 retrial and investigation, but Miles hadn't wanted to pry, not with the urgency of lives on the line, and then Phoenix hadn't wanted to talk about it afterwards, moving on quickly as he always seems to. Miles aches to think he'd been bottling this worry up inside, and wonders at the fact that he's now using it as acting inspiration for a scene so short it barely seems worth the set change.
The thing about Triton being played by his best friend whom he's been in love with for years is that Miles finds himself relating to perhaps the wrong character. As Ariel swans about on land trying to court the Prince, he gets annoyed at her lack of care for those at home worrying about her, and then at her friends who are enabling her and also not passing on her whereabouts. Sebastian is excused from his wrath on account of trying to avoid being cooked. It helps that said avoidance of getting cooked makes Kay laugh and makes him feel vindicated in his choice of restaurant for dinner: Trucy's cited Chef Louis' songs as her favorite scenes neither she nor Phoenix are involved in.
By contrast, Phoenix favors this Ariel and Eric dance number sung by Prince Eric; more recently Trucy mentioned he's starting to try and learn the dance himself from the side of the stage with anyone who'll join him. It's sweet, Miles supposes, but he'd never found ballroom dance particularly like language when von Karma had put him and Franziska in classes, and there's a section of this performance that sweeps around the stage in what is probably meant to be a waltz but gets the most basic step wrong. Perhaps he's simply too familiar with the subject matter to enjoy this song.
"Ooh, goodie," Kay says when the story returns to Ursula and her eels. "I wonder if this is when she'll turn into Vanessa."
Trucy has not mentioned a transformation for Ursula, but Miles holds his tongue rather than give Kay spoilers. He suspects he would find this reprise of Ursula's more amusing if not for the mention of Triton and Ursula's plan to kill him as well as Ariel, because now he's worried for Triton. He'd rather not watch Phoenix play a death scene, no matter how shirtless he is for it, not when Phoenix has gone through so much in real life that could have killed him.
Ariel and Eric come on in a tiny half-rowboat, and Miles stares. There are no tracks on the stage, there's been too much dancing and movement of set pieces for that; no stage hands are moving the rowboat; yet neither Ariel nor Eric are touching the ground to move the rowboat along: Eric is 'rowing'; Ariel has her hands in her lap. At first he wonders if it might be on a pre-programmed route, but then the ensemble comes on in black with string lights and the rowboat is avoiding them too neatly, even when one dancer clearly makes a mistake (judging by the look on his face). Trucy has a talent for moving things without showing how, but not with two people both bigger than she is on them. He does remember this musical number from the movie, and it has some unusually polyphonic texture compared to the rest of the songs so far, but this marvelous set piece is very distracting, even when Kay shrieks with laughter at Scuttle squawking over Sebastian and the ensemble.
Right before Ariel and Eric can kiss, Ursula calls for it to be blocked, and the eels slither onstage and strike the boat with lightning in a trick he recognizes from Trucy's shows, albeit not directed from a person. It's nice to see something familiar developed for a plot point and with an additional light show for the after effects - when he applauds with the rest of the audience, it's as much for Trucy's work here as it is for the musical number.
Phoenix looks so stressed when he returns onstage that for a moment, Miles nostalgically expects to see a Fey nearby for how much his expression reminds him of some trials before he'd been disbarred. Of course, instead of a spirit medium, it's Sebastian and Flounder, finally telling Triton about Ariel's whereabouts and the deal she made with Ursula. His determination to "settle things with her once and for all" reminds Miles not of his fire in court, but of his passion to develop the MASON system and his tenacity in investigating Kristoph Gavin and the evidence that got him disbarred. It's a good look on him in the shirtless costume and with the context of rescuing his daughter.
Though Miles expects to be unmoved when Ariel starts moping in song, the lyrics are about wanting to tell Eric she loves him, and okay, he can relate a little too much to having dreams she can't declare and needs she can't deny. (He does think she should simply write it down since she's proven literate.) The counterpoint with Eric is nice, and Sebastian's affection for Ariel is sweet, but it's all driven out of his head when the lights come up on Phoenix joining the song too, singing out Triton's guilt for pushing his daughter away. Miles' heart is in his throat as he follows Phoenix's melodic line in the resulting four part counterpoint. His three part harmony with Sebastian and Ariel is lovely, and his low "if only", more resigned than Ariel's or Sebastian's, finishing out the song breaks Miles' heart. The only reason he doesn't give a standing ovation for the song is because no one else does.
There's little time to dwell on it, though, as the singing contest Grimsby had promised Eric in the first act and the land storyline had kept hinting at throughout the second act finally takes place. It occurs to Miles that Eric had mentioned the day of the contest was his birthday: listening to some truly awful singers seems an terrible way to spend it. Kay just about cackles at his side, adding to the cacophony, especially as the singing contest quickly deteriorates into a near scrap onstage between the six foreign princesses.
Of course Eric chooses to marry Ariel regardless of her current inability to sing; Miles wonders who is going to tell her worried family. Of course Ursula chooses that moment to appear, now enormous (to Kay's delight), to take Ariel back to the sea, as per her contract stipulating the third day's sunset as the deadline for kissing him. Miles leans forward, anticipating Phoenix, and isn't disappointed when Phoenix just about roars "Ursula!" from offstage with a rage he's never heard before; who knew Phoenix had that in him? Heaven help anyone who might get that reaction out of him in real life.
Phoenix's growled argument with Ursula's song about her contract has Miles on the edge of his seat, until Miles blurts out "What?" at the same time as him when Ursula offers to trade Triton's soul for Ariel's. He assumes it's Phoenix's actual line, but Miles is thinking about adding another party and an amendment to the contract without consent from one of the original parties, of early termination under a condition which almost certainly was not in the original contract. Undersea contract law is a mess and he almost wishes the writers hadn't bothered calling this plot point a contract, had instead called it something else that wouldn't get his legal mind whirring.
His mind quiets at the sight of Phoenix powerless and imprisoned, sheer emotion taking over instead. Miles finds himself watching Phoenix even as Ariel apparently takes Ursula's magic shell and gets her voice back: his chest heaving with the sudden weakness of losing his magic, his eyes on Ariel and full of worry, then widening when Triton and Ariel finally learn that it was Ursula, not humans, who had killed Ariel's mother. Miles' attention is drawn from him only by what must be Trucy's special effects for Ursula's death, black and tentacles spilling like ink. How did she do it?
It's nice that Ariel finally apologizes for worrying Triton, but it's Triton telling her he's proud of her and then seeing Ariel's love for Eric that once again brings a tear to Miles' eye at how earnestly Phoenix plays the lines. Then Triton turns Ariel back into a human and though some of the basic shapes in Trucy's effects are the same as Ursula's had been, there's somehow a much warmer, lighter feeling to this spell; Trucy did well to keep them different but still related.
The sight of Triton listening to Eric ask for Ariel's hand in marriage makes Miles imagine Phoenix doing the same for Trucy one day, right down to pointing out his daughter can in fact speak for herself. He can't help but find Phoenix's truths in Triton's reprise of his first song as well: since Trucy hit her teenage years, Phoenix has occasionally lamented her "growing up so fast" and this year, realizing she's now a junior in high school, once wished he could make time stop.
"You're crying," murmurs Kay, fascinated.
Unlike the 'drooling' in the first act, this is not a lie: his glasses are starting to fog up. He fumbles in his pocket for a handkerchief.
As the rest of the cast piles onstage for what must be the final song, Miles tears his gaze from Phoenix to look at the whole stage once more, minor characters from land and sea cheering on Ariel and Eric's wedding. There's a standing ovation from the audience as the stage lights dim and he gladly joins it, along with Kay. He takes his seat in the brief moment before the lights come back up and the bows start, and stands up again when Phoenix takes his bow, even unleashing a "Whoooooooooooooop!" Kay gasps beside him, but he doesn't bother to look at how astonished she must be because Phoenix's eyes find his and light up as Phoenix raises his trident, and Phoenix's gaze lingers on his for a couple more of his castmates' bows.
The house lights coming back on to the sound of Triton's daughters' girl band song as the cast dances offstage make Miles blink, the real world returning. Even if the story wasn't necessarily to his taste, he feels privileged to have seen another side of Phoenix, one which Phoenix clearly enjoys and is good at, tugging at Miles' heartstrings while being far too handsome and shirtless for Miles' good. God, he loves him, loves seeing him that happy.
"Where did you learn to whoop like that?" Kay demands as she scoops up her bouquets, leaving him to take her now empty slushie cup.
"Gumshoe," he admits, looking away. Even now he's usually too self conscious to whoop; truly Phoenix had temporarily unlocked something in him.
"Whaaaaaat?!"
"Kay, we need to go, these people are trying to leave--"
In the foyer and out of the way of any families, he and Kay debate Phoenix's oldest daughter ("Mersister," she corrects him, while checking the program for clues) once more. They've just decided on one when a mildly familiar voice says, "Is that the heinous prosecutor?"
They turn to see a woman with a large afro coming towards them. Ah, yes, the photographer who kept popping up in his cases several years ago.
"Lotta Hair?" asks Kay, which, honestly, was Miles' guess too.
"Aww heck naw, you're as bad as City Boy!" the woman grumbles. "It's Lotta Hart, missy."
"It's good to see you again," Miles lies, hoping to head off the rest of a scolding.
The redirection works. "I'd say the same, but every time I run into y'all, somethin's crazier than a dog in a hubcap factory."
"What," he says flatly.
Lotta rolls her eyes. "Alright, I'll say it Yank: Has someone been--" At the last second, she steps closer to both him and Kay and manages to loudly whisper, "-- murdered?"
"No!" Kay yelps. "No, we're not working."
"My best friend played King Triton," he says, trying to avoid causing alarm. "And his daughter did the special effects."
"Oh, I didn't realize you and City Boy were such good friends now," Lotta says. 'City Boy' must be Phoenix, then. "He did good as the mermaids' daddy!"
"Yes, he did," he agrees, and from Kay's sideways grin at him, he can tell it came out a little too fondly. "What brings you here?"
"My sister did the set," says Lotta. "And my baby niece played Flounder! Remember the name Olivia Beaton-Hart: that gal's gonna be a star one day, I reckon."
"Oh, she was so cute!" Kay gushes.
She and Lotta discuss young Olivia while Miles keeps an eye out for Trucy and Phoenix. At last there's a flash of sky blue in his peripheral vision, and he finds Trucy beelining for them. He excuses himself and Kay from Lotta, grateful for the escape.
Kay shoves the flowers at him so she can throw her arms around Trucy as soon as she's in range. "Trucy, you were amazing! That was such a fun show!"
"It was wonderful," he concurs. "I enjoyed your effects when Triton turned Ariel back into a human, did you use the--"
"Just because this isn't a magic show doesn't mean you get to try and figure out my tricks," Trucy says, withdrawing from Kay's hug with a wink at him. "But thank you!"
"These are for you," Kay says, taking the bouquets back to hand one to Trucy. "Seeing as Gramps already sent you some."
"Thanks! Good thing I'm taking all my flowers home today for the break: my workspace is getting so full," Trucy says, beaming.
"Deservedly so," he says.
"I liked the storm!" Kay enthuses. "And when Mr. Wright smashed Ariel's collection."
"Ooh, that's Daddy's favorite effect he cues," says Trucy. She correctly infers the meaning of his raised eyebrow at the mention of her father in his absence and adds, "He's just getting his mic pack off. He'll be out soon!"
Kay gives further commentary on the show, with Miles occasionally adding his own ("Grimsby did not look that much like me"), then mourns the loss of some of the movie plot points in the adaptation to stage ("I think if anyone could have made Vanessa transform into Ursula onstage, it would be you, Truce"), until Trucy's gaze suddenly catches in the distance.
"Hang on, I think I see Lamiroir...?"
"What's a famous singer like her doing at a community theatre show?" Kay wonders aloud for all of them.
"I dunno," says Tracey. "But I'll go ask."
"She wouldn't be the first celebrity here," Miles muses, as she heads off. "Gavin's attended twice, and Phoenix said Will Powers saw the show the other night." If he had known Will Powers enjoys community theatre, he would have started watching local shows long before the Wrights got involved in this one.
"Did you scream, 'Nnnnnggghhhhoooooooooooh' when you found out it wasn't the same show you had tickets for?"
If Miles doesn't answer her, it's definitely not because he's ignoring her: Phoenix has just walked in, still playing King Triton. He leads the immediate horde of children off from the entranceway with a beatific smile Miles doesn't think he's ever seen before, and only then starts letting parents take photos of him with their children, kneeling down to them, posing with them, and gently pointing out their parents' phones so the kids stop looking at him for the photo.
And then he's looking at Miles, and he flashes him a smile quite unlike the one all these strangers are getting. Instinctively, Miles makes to come and join him, only for Phoenix to be drawn aside by another family.
"I can steal every last parent's phone," Kay offers. "Then they won't be able to take photos with him."
"Kay, you're a detective."
"I can non-consensually borrow all the phones," she amends. "I'd give them back once you've had your heartfelt reunion."
"What 'heartfelt reunion'?" he asks. "I worked a case with him last week."
"And you've been pining at work ever since." She gives him a guileless smile. "The Great Yatagaratsu is interested in emotional truths as well, you know."
"I'm not having this conversation with you," he says, and he catches Phoenix's eye. Phoenix makes a small gesture with his trident to a less crowded part of the foyer, and Miles takes the hint to follow, bundling Kay over with him; Trucy soon joins them, now with an additional bouquet of white flowers in hand.
"Congratulations, Mr. Wright!" Kay says, presenting him with her other bouquet. "You were so good! Gramps never told me That Man could sing."
"Thanks, Kay," says Phoenix, though his gaze soon slides onto Miles with warmth so open Miles doesn't know what to do. "To be fair, he's never heard me try until today."
"Oh, we have to get a photo while Daddy's in costume," says Trucy, and she flags down a passing mermaid to take a photo of "me and my family". Miles' heart swells.
The girls crowd in front of them, Kay giving Trucy two fingered bunny ears above her hat, and with a smile, Phoenix slides an arm around Miles to bring him in closer. His heart skips a beat before he returns the gesture, smiling tentatively back as he reaches around Phoenix's bare back.
"Everyone say 'Under the Sea'," says the mermaid, making the girls laugh.
"'Under the Sea'!"
"Okay, I got a few, hopefully one works. Trucy, how about you and your sister go on the sides so we can see Nick's costume?"
"Ooh, good idea."
Trucy immediately strikes one of her magician poses at Phoenix's side and Kay goes to Miles' side to play her assistant showing her and Phoenix off. Phoenix doesn't move, probably thinking being able to see his skirt? tail? is enough of a change, and in deference to Kay's pose, Miles lifts one hand in Phoenix's direction, but does not let go of him, because Phoenix hasn't let go either. The mermaid taps on Trucy's phone a few times before passing it back to her.
"There you go, hope you like 'em."
"Thanks, Tala!"
The only reason Miles lets go of Phoenix is because Phoenix lets go first, withdrawing to look at Trucy's flowers, barely contained in one hand as she tucks her phone away.
"Who are the white flowers from, Truce?"
"Lamiroir," she says, looking down at the bouquet as if just remembering she had it. "I was surprised she was here! She said she liked the show, and especially my magic. She's had an eye operation, so she could actually see it all! Then she asked for a photo, which was a little weird. Who gets photos with special effects people? But I said yes."
"Huh," says Phoenix, with an interested look in his eyes which Miles decides to ask him about later. "That was kind of you."
"I asked Lomasi to take a photo on my phone too, so I can show Polly and Klavier," she says. "Anyway, speaking of liking the show, I don't think we've heard from Uncle Miles yet."
"Nghurk--" Thrown by the sudden attention, Miles has less time to moderate his opinions. "Of course I liked the show. You were magnificent, Phoenix."
The blushing smile that blooms across Phoenix's face is surprised and lovely. "Thanks. That's high praise."
"It's entirely deserved," he says, folding his arms. "Which is not to say you were the only good part. I've already given Trucy my compliments. And I found myself intrigued by the rowboat in - Kay, what was the song with the fireflies?"
"'Kiss the Girl'," Kay supplies. "But I think the program said they were swans."
"I love that boat," says Phoenix. "I was sitting on it between scenes today."
"How'd you do it?" Kay asks Trucy.
"Oh, that's not one of mine," says Trucy.
"There's an engine in the bottom and Ariel steers it with a control under her skirt," Phoenix says helpfully.
"Daddy!"
"Not magic, and come on, Truce, Aaliyah - that's the set designer and builder, Miles - has been telling everyone who'll hold still long enough to listen. She's not keeping it a secret."
"Lotta's sister," Kay murmurs.
"I can't take you anywhere," Trucy tells her father. She grabs Kay's hand, says, "Let's go get photos with the leads," and tiptoes to kiss Miles on the cheek. "Thanks again for the flowers!"
Phoenix watches them skip off with a chuckle. "Because she doesn't have enough selfies with them backstage."
"Not with Kay, she doesn't," he points out. "And I wager not all in costume."
"Hm, I guess not," Phoenix concedes. He then flashes Miles a smile. "Okay, lay it on me: what did you really think of the show?"
"I suspect I was sympathizing with the wrong character," he admits, and Phoenix laughs. "All the time Ariel was on land, I was thinking of yo-- of Triton, and the Mersisters."
"Yeah, that's definitely an adult perspective," says Phoenix. "Our Ursula understudy was saying she loved the movie as a kid but when she rewatched it as an adult, she almost didn't want her daughter to come to the show because of the whole 'giving up your voice for a man' thing."
"Oh, that part could have been avoided with a lesson in how to read and negotiate the terms of a contract, surely."
"You nerd," says Phoenix, but he's grinning.
"That's not what you called me when we taught Trucy what to look out for in her entertainment contracts."
"No, it isn't," Phoenix agrees, something soft in his gaze that makes Miles hurry onward.
"In any case, I enjoyed the seagull's line about humans looking horrible for having two eyes the same color," he says, and because Phoenix is still looking at him like that with his mismatched eyes, he dares to add, "Rather fitting for your eyes, merman."
Phoenix turns a little pink beneath the stage makeup. "When the doctor told me the poison changed the color of one of my eyes, I never thought I'd be a merman about it," he quips. Miles is briefly horrified to realize that's how he developed heterochromia, but doesn't have time to dwell on it before Phoenix adds, "That was already in the script, they didn't change that for me or anything."
Huh. "But none of the other merfolk had heterochromia." At least not that he could see from the audience. "That's a clear contradiction--"
"You're spending too much time with me," Phoenix says affectionately, and Miles barely stops himself from replying, Not nearly enough.
"And yet I was still surprised by your performance: you were very moving," he says instead. Ngh, too much again, pull it back, Miles. "I wasn't aware you could do that after certain, ah... renditions of 'Uptown Girl'." Namely: sloppy in his car, somehow stuck forever in his memory for the look in Phoenix's eyes.
"What do you mean, 'renditions' plural, that was one time," Phoenix says, and then brightens. "Although if you'd like an encore--"
"No, thank you," he says quickly. "Even now knowing you can, in fact, actually sing."
"Some of those low notes were harder than they used to be. Don't eat glass if you want to be a singer!" At least some of how taken aback he is by this second casual reference to his first murder trial must show on Miles' face, because Phoenix goes sheepish. "Sorry, bad joke."
Without thinking, he puts two fingers on Phoenix's Adam's apple, and feels it when Phoenix swallows. "It still hurts?"
"No, they - the doctors got the scarring out," Phoenix says, though his breath's going unsteady now. "I just meant it's been that long since I've sung in public: not since before - before the trial. Doesn't help that I'm a tenor, and Triton's a little more baritone than I used to sing. I'm rusty."
He sounds rusty, in a way Miles is beginning to think has nothing to do with eating glass in his early twenties nor singing a wider range than he used to. "I see," he says, but it feels like his own voice is coming from very far away as his hand, suddenly gaining a mind of its own, drags down the line of Phoenix's throat, down, down, to trace along the scales painted on his chest. When he looks up, there's a blush spreading across Phoenix's suddenly very close face, and his eyes drop for a moment to Phoenix's mouth, shining with gold lipstick. Phoenix licks his lips. Miles' mouth has never been so dry.
"Miles," Phoenix breathes. Phoenix's hand finds his own, but astonishingly, doesn't push him away, just holds his hand where it is on his chest, and that has to mean something.
"Phoenix," he murmurs, leaning in impossibly closer, close enough to feel Phoenix's breath.
Phoenix is watching him so carefully, until his gaze flicks down to his mouth and he repeats, "Miles," and closes his eyes, and oh, gold eyeshadow shimmers on his eyelids like possibility.
"Hey, look, it's King Triton!"
Miles jolts backwards as if burnt by the woman behind Phoenix approaching with a child and a phone, and fleetingly regrets not taking Kay up on her offer to steal everyone's phones. Phoenix opens his eyes, looking stunned and bewildered.
"I'd better let you get back to your, ah, work," Miles says with great reluctance.
"Yeah," says Phoenix, punched out and breathless.
"I'll wait for you and the girls in the car."
At a loss, he pats Phoenix's shoulder (of all stupid moves), and flees the theatre.