Archive of Our Own ^beta

By the time Miles had taken the spare boxes out of the trunk, closed the doors, and locked his car, Phoenix was gone. Miles knew where he would find him though. Miles shifted the heaviest box under his arm and resigned himself to carrying everything in alone.

Phoenix was exactly where he had expected. Skeletal, broken magic props cast unnatural shadows in the fading light, ruins of a bygone time.

Miles’ own gait stuttered.

I never realized how empty it would feel.

He forced himself to take the few short, clipped strides necessary to cross over to Trucy’s dresser, where he set down the boxes.

The prosecutor in Miles couldn’t help but see the clutter that remained as evidence of a struggle in the room. In reality, of course, it was merely from some last-minute, panic-stricken packing before they piled in the car. Despite Miles’ best efforts, the Wrights were incorrigible procrastinators.

The remaining Wright’s face was turned to the floor. Clothes were strewn around the room, forming a messy sort of halo around Phoenix.

Miles knelt to maybe get started on putting away some of this mess. He ran his hand lightly over the fabric of one of Trucy’s favorite dresses. She’d worn it to prom, he remembered. She’d looked radiant.

“Don’t touch that!”

Miles looked up suddenly, startled by the order, but Phoenix still refused to lift his head. Even still, Miles could tell at once that his shoulders were too tense. Slowly, Miles rose to his feet.

“Sorry,” Phoenix apologized after a beat. “I just… I want everything to stay how it is for a bit.”

His husband’s voice wobbled almost imperceptibly at the end. Miles’ eyes widened.

“Oh, Phoenix,” Miles said, and his voice was softer than anything he once could’ve imagined using for anyone.

He gently touched Phoenix’s cheek, lifting his face and pushing that stubborn stray hair of his back into place.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Phoenix’s eyes were glossy, confirming Miles’ suspicions.

I can’t believe she is either. His heart ached.

“She’s not my little girl anymore...”

Miles brushed a tear away with the pad of his thumb. As much as Phoenix had joked about how lonely he would be after she left, to Trucy’s face even, he never broke down on her. It was only after it was all over, when they were alone together that he cried.

The Phoenix he knew a decade ago would have no use for that kind of facade. He had recovered from his disbarment period, but he was unmistakably different now. There were dark circles under bright eyes. The perennial slump in his back met a chin held high. He was a crack in a wall: a little broken, but now letting light shine through.

Miles twined an arm around his husband’s waist. Phoenix sank gratefully into the touch, burying his face in Miles’ shoulder.

“She may be an adult now, but you’ll always be her father. She’ll still need you.”

Miles felt hot breath on his collar as Phoenix grumbled something back into the crook of his neck.

“Wright, I mean it.” Well, that got him to look up. It was a force of habit, it seemed, to even now call Phoenix by his surname whenever Miles was trying to argue a point. “Phoenix. She’s lucky to have such a loving father like you. I...”

He didn’t have to say anything more; he wasn’t sure if he even trusted himself to. Phoenix brushed his bangs back with a soothing touch, and Miles felt silly. He was supposed to be the one taking care of Phoenix now, and Phoenix just had to ruin it by the being the kind, giving person he always was.

Miles changed the subject back. “Trucy’s still in California.”

If Phoenix noticed the switch, he was also kind enough to not mention it. “Yeah, six hours away.”

Six hours too far. There was a sting in his heart, an unquenchable burning in the back of his throat that no matter, how many years it had been since von Karma, would never turn to tears.

A decade ago, Miles would have been utterly tongue-tangled at the thought of comforting anyone about something this intimate. He had changed too. Phoenix had changed him.

“She’ll come back in a few months. Until then, we can visit.”

“When? I can’t drive, and you’ve got enough on your plate managing the entire district and cleaning up everything!”

“I’ll make time for family.” Miles squeezed his husband’s hand. “We’ve endured this sort of separation before. Remember when I was in Europe?”

“You left for Europe, Maya left for Khura’in, and Trucy left for college. Why’s it that I’m always the one getting left behind?” Phoenix choked out, words falling thick and bitter.

What?

It seemed like Phoenix hadn’t meant to say that either because suddenly he was trying to shuffle backward. Miles wrapped his other arm around him, pulling him closer.

“Love, I had no idea you felt that way...”

“Yeah, well, it’s a pretty stupid way to feel,” Phoenix said to the floor, “Of course other people are going to move on and do things. But I’m just… here.”

Phoenix had been a constant throughout his life. It hadn’t occurred to him that he was not-so-constant in Phoenix’s.

Phoenix was the kind of man who built a nest. He stayed in one place and devoted himself to it. But instead of lining his nest with money or creature comforts, Phoenix lined it with people; adopting strays to form a family of most everyone who’d ever had the fortune to know him. Miles felt a fresh rush of warmth for his husband. Simply put, Phoenix made everyone he met better.

“I like you here,” Was what Miles managed to say instead, “We’re a family even if Trucy is gone at the moment. You have me.”

Am I enough? After all, what had he ever done to deserve a man as good as Phoenix Wright?

Miles rubbed his husband’s wedding band with his thumb, and there was an awful twinge of guilt as he added what maybe Phoenix needed to hear most. “I’m not going to leave you alone.”

I’m not sure how I ever managed to do so before. Though it would be hard for Miles to voice out loud, he wanted to by Phoenix’s side always.

They’d met first as children, then countless times after as countless different men. With every encounter, they were burdened with new scars: visible and invisible alike, and some the kind that would never heal.

Then Trucy came into the picture, scarred in her own right. She gave Phoenix light when he needed it most. She’d thoroughly charmed Miles too and soon wormed her way permanently into his heart. He’d thought of her as a daughter long before he and Phoenix finally started dating. He’d always had a soft spot for the wonderful, wonderful Wrights.

Phoenix sniffled. “...I’m glad. I couldn’t ask for a better husband.”

Miles felt an intense rush of relief.

Over time, Miles, Phoenix, and Trucy chipped away at each other’s masks until they found peace and happiness together. It had taken lifetimes of pain to cobble together their family; one forged in fire and cemented in trust.

Phoenix broke into a watery smile and pulled away just enough to look at him with the most gorgeous eyes Miles had ever seen. “I love you.”

It was loaded with the promise of a million more I love yous, a million more ways to fall in love with each other ‘til death did they part.

“I love you too.”