Categories > Games > Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney > Bittersweet Reunion
Chapter 4
Phoenix sat on the couch for at least thirty minutes after Edgeworth left, mulling over the situation.
This whole thing has to be some sort of crazy dream…First Miles kissing me, then me shooting him down, followed by me asking him to come to my wedding! That had to have been the most selfish thing I’ve done, but I couldn’t just let him leave because if I had, I’m sure I’d never see him again…Phoenix thought, feeling a little ache in his heart, regretting that he had to put Edgeworth through even more pain just to get him to stay.
He suddenly realized he was still holding the card that Edgeworth gave him where he had written his hotel information on. Phoenix examined the front of the card, finding most of it in French, but he did pick out Edgeworth’s name on it and Edgeworth’s picture. He stared at the picture on the card some more, noticing that although Edgeworth had his usual cold look of steel, his eyes seemed very sad.
Miles…you didn’t have to face everything alone…Phoenix thought, wishing he had tried harder to convince Edgeworth to stay three years ago.
Suddenly he realized that he hadn’t even gotten ready to leave and Maya was coming for him in just a few minutes. He rushed to get a small bag packed for the weekend at his parents and he carefully put the card Edgeworth gave him in his coat pocket.
*
Finally, after the hour long drive, Phoenix saw his house come into view. The one story house’s roof was still old and aging, the paint on the crème colored house was slightly peeling, and the grass in the front looked like it was starting to dry out, but Phoenix smiled at the fact that the house was exactly the way he remembered it.
It really has been too long. Phoenix thought as they pulled up along the sidewalk in front of his parent’s house, feeling great to be home.
Phoenix and Maya got their bags out of the trunk of her car and they walked to the door. A few seconds after they rang the doorbell, a older woman with dark black hair and brown eyes answered the door.
“Phoenix, Maya, you finally made it!” she said, smiling and welcoming them inside.
“Hi, mom.” Phoenix said, stepping forward and giving her a hug.
“Hi, Lisa!” Maya said cheerfully.
Lisa Wright smiled and said, “Well, why don’t you two get settled in? I’m almost done with dinner.”
“Oh, I want to help! Here, Nick, you take our bags in.” Maya said, tossing Phoenix her bag and joining Lisa in the kitchen.
Phoenix caught the bag with a surprised little ‘oof’. He smiled and shook his head, knowing how much Maya liked her food. He walked into the house and noticed his father, Bill Wright, sitting like usual in the living room, perusing the newspaper. As he looked at his father now, he was amazed at how much like his father he looked. Except for his father’s dirty blonde hair, he felt like he was almost a carbon copy.
“Hey, dad.” Phoenix said, attracting his father’s attention.
“Phoenix!” Bill said, folding his newspaper and putting down on the table next to his chair.
“So how’s that site you’re overseeing in Mexico? That Mayan temple?” Phoenix asked, interested in what his father was up to lately.
“The Temple of Lost Inscriptions in Palenque you mean? From what I’ve heard, everything is going fine. I was supposed to be there in person a week ago, but I’m not going to miss my son’s wedding, now am I?” Bill said playfully.
Phoenix smiled shyly in response, trying to balance the bags in his hands.
“Well, I’d better get our bags inside. If we don’t hurry, I bet Maya will eat everything and leave nothing for us.” Phoenix said in a teasing tone of voice.
His father laughed and replied, “I guess I better get to the kitchen then, huh?”
Phoenix quickly made his way down the hall to the bedrooms and laid the bags down in the guest room. Then he walked across the hall to his room when he lived with his parents. Everything was the same as when he lived here. His twin bed was neatly made with the same dark blue sheets he always had, his desk was still vaguely messy with a few different picture frames on it, and some expensive curtains framed his window. His mother had purchased them and insisted they hung in his room even if they definitely did not look like they belonged in a teenage boy’s room. He walked over to the desk and picked up one of the frames. It was a photo of Edgeworth, Larry Butz, and Phoenix when they were nine years old. Phoenix smiled as he remembered when the picture was taken.
Mom was about to take a picture of Miles and me when Larry ran up and hooked us around the necks as the picture was snapped. Both Miles and I ended up looking at him and laughing, while Larry ended up being the only person actually looking at the camera. Phoenix thought to himself.
He looked at Edgeworth’s happy and carefree face in the picture and he suddenly wondered where the person in the picture went. He hoped that somewhere, deep down, the child in this picture was still in Edgeworth today. Unconsciously, Phoenix ran his fingers lightly over Edgeworth in the picture, wishing that he didn’t lose touch with Edgeworth when they were growing up. Suddenly a voice brought him out of his thoughts.
“Phoenix!!”
Phoenix looked up from the picture in his hands toward the voice.
“Anka!” he replied, happy to see his younger sister after such a long time.
Anka Wright ran up to Phoenix and gave him a big hug, which he gladly returned. Taking a look at his sister, Phoenix decided that the older she got, the more she looked like their mother.
“So how many elephants have you carried off today?” Phoenix asked playfully, referring to the mythical bird that her name was based on.
“Nine. But I do have to get up to fifteen by the end of the week.” Anka replied in a mock serious tone, used to this inside joke between Phoenix and herself.
“So why weren’t you here to welcome me home, huh?” Phoenix asked, pretending to be annoyed.
“Of course I wanted to be here, but my journalism meeting just got out a few minutes ago. And if you thought I would miss dinner, you’re dead wrong.” Anka replied with a little smirk.
Phoenix just laughed in response.
“I just can’t believe it…in a week you’ll be married. Poor Maya…” Anka teased.
“Yeah…huh?” Phoenix replied softly, giving her a half hearted smile, thoughts of Edgeworth and his situation with him never leaving his mind.
Anka noted Phoenix’s sudden change in mood over this topic. She personally liked Maya very much, but she felt like Maya just didn’t go well with her brother. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but she always felt like something was off about Phoenix’s relationship with Maya. Before they started dating, he always treated her more like a sister rather than someone he’d want to date. Him starting to date her and then even proposing to her seemed completely out of the blue. There had to be some reason for this, and Anka knew she had to get to the bottom of it to help prevent her brother from making the worst mistake of his life.
“Hey, Phoenix…” Anka started asking gently, “Do you love her?”
Phoenix seemed to be distracted with other thoughts when Anka first mentioned Maya, and he suddenly shook his head when he realized Anka asked him a question.
“Huh, what? Oh, I mean…yeah…” Phoenix said, not very convincingly.
“Are you sure? Before, it always seemed like you treated her more like you treat me. You know, like a sister.” Anka said, pushing the point.
Phoenix took a moment longer than really was necessary for him to reply to the question, and he seemed to unconsciously clutch the picture he was holding more tightly in his hands, which set more warning bells off in Anka’s head.
“O-of course I…love…her. Feelings change, you know…” Phoenix replied softly, stumbling slightly over the part where he said he loved Maya.
Anka looked at him with a suspicious look and Phoenix hoped this line of questioning wouldn’t continue much longer.
“Well…okay. Anyways, let’s go see if dinner is ready.” Anka said, deciding to pursue this more later, since Phoenix looked like he was getting uncomfortable.
This conversation made Anka certain that Phoenix did not love Maya in this way, so she decided to stop pushing him right now. She also decided she also needed to find out that if he did not love Maya, who did he really love and why did he ask her to marry him? She felt the answer lay in the picture that he was holding so tightly in his hands, even now.
“Yes. You go on. I’ll be there in a minute.” Phoenix said.
“Okay.” Anka replied, slowly leaving the room.
When Anka left the room, Phoenix realized that he was still holding on to the picture of Edgeworth, Larry, and himself. He looked at the picture a moment longer.
I think my sister is on to me about Maya. But Anka is right, I don’t love Maya like that. I love… Phoenix started thinking sadly, but he abruptly stopped the thought to save himself the pain of admitting it to himself.
He closed his eyes, sighed, and put the picture back on his desk in its place. Then he went to join everyone at dinner.
*
The dinner with his family really helped bring up his spirits since he missed them very much when he moved to the main city to become a defense lawyer. His mother discussed the class she was teaching at the local university on mythological animals and his father discussed the archeological dig he was helping conduct in Palenque, Mexico. Soon dinner was over and everyone was getting ready to go to bed. Phoenix stepped out on the backyard patio and saw that the sky was clear and it was a really nice night. Suddenly Maya joined him.
“Everyone else had gone to bed, so I came to look for you.” Maya said, stepping up next to him on the patio.
She looked up at the sky and said in awe, “Wow, you can really see all the stars tonight!”
“Yeah, it really is nice.” Phoenix said, smiling.
Maya quickly realized that it was too cold to be out without a jacket so she wrapped her arms around her self as she started to shiver.
“Oh, you’re cold.” Phoenix said sympathetically.
“Yeah, I didn’t think to pack a jacket…” she replied through chattering teeth.
Phoenix put his arms around her to keep her warm, and he felt her slip her arms inside his coat and place them around his waist. She squeezed him lightly in a hug for a few moments and then she tilted her head up expectantly. Phoenix looked at her for a second and then bent his head down to meet her lips since he didn’t want to leave her hanging. Immediately his mind flashed to the kisses he shared with Edgeworth that same day. This definitely felt nice, but that was something else all together. When Edgeworth kissed him, it was so intense, he couldn’t think straight. He wanted to melt in his arms. He wanted to pull him even closer. This, in comparison, was just a kiss, and nothing more. In a few seconds, he slowly pulled back. She squeezed him again, and then she felt something poke her from a pocket in his coat.
She reached into his pocket, pulled out whatever was poking her, and said, “Hey, what’s this?”
Phoenix saw that she pulled out the card that Edgeworth had given him with his hotel information on it.
“Oh, when I ran into Edgeworth today I…invited him to our wedding. He just wrote down the hotel where he was staying at and such on there. ” Phoenix replied, feeling himself begin to blush.
He was glad that the moonlight was too dim for Maya to see his face very well.
“That’s good. Hopefully I’ll get to talk to him then since he didn’t want to today. Mr. Edgeworth did seem to be in a rather bad mood. He actually seemed more grouchy than he used to be, didn’t you think?” Maya asked, slightly concerned, hugging closer to Phoenix.
“I…suppose…” Phoenix replied, feeling a little guilty.
“I don’t know…I think Mr. Edgeworth just needs someone. You know, someone he can trust, someone he can go to? I think he tries to deal with an awful lot on his own.” Maya said, looking at him.
This comment struck a cord in Phoenix and he suddenly felt tears coming to his eyes. He quickly looked up at the sky so Maya wouldn’t see his face before he got control over himself. Phoenix cleared his throat and finally answered.
“Yes…that’s true.” he replied softly.
When he looked down at Maya, she saw his eyes were shining brightly in the moonlight.
“Nick…are you…okay?” she asked, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Something must have gotten in my eyes…” Phoenix replied, rubbing his eyes vigorously.
“Well, maybe you’re tired. Let’s go to bed.” Maya said, slowly pulling away from him, taking his hand, and leading him inside.
Phoenix followed, making sure to carefully hold on to Edgeworth’s card in his other hand. When Maya and Phoenix made their way to the hall with the bedrooms, Anka came out of hiding in the kitchen. She had heard the whole exchange between Phoenix and Maya outside. Now she knew enough.
“It’s him…Phoenix loves Miles Edgeworth!” Anka quietly said to herself, the way that Phoenix was behaving since he got her making much more sense.
It was obvious that Phoenix loved one of the other guys in the picture he was holding earlier, Miles Edgeworth or Larry Butz.
I didn’t really think it was Larry because Larry…is…well, Larry. Anka thought, reflecting on what she knew about Larry, and so immediately eliminating the possibility it was him, and Phoenix did try very hard to keep in touch with Miles when he was growing up.
She knew now she had to find a way to ask him why exactly he was marrying Maya if he so obviously loved someone else. One more thing she knew was true was that time was running out.
Phoenix sat on the couch for at least thirty minutes after Edgeworth left, mulling over the situation.
This whole thing has to be some sort of crazy dream…First Miles kissing me, then me shooting him down, followed by me asking him to come to my wedding! That had to have been the most selfish thing I’ve done, but I couldn’t just let him leave because if I had, I’m sure I’d never see him again…Phoenix thought, feeling a little ache in his heart, regretting that he had to put Edgeworth through even more pain just to get him to stay.
He suddenly realized he was still holding the card that Edgeworth gave him where he had written his hotel information on. Phoenix examined the front of the card, finding most of it in French, but he did pick out Edgeworth’s name on it and Edgeworth’s picture. He stared at the picture on the card some more, noticing that although Edgeworth had his usual cold look of steel, his eyes seemed very sad.
Miles…you didn’t have to face everything alone…Phoenix thought, wishing he had tried harder to convince Edgeworth to stay three years ago.
Suddenly he realized that he hadn’t even gotten ready to leave and Maya was coming for him in just a few minutes. He rushed to get a small bag packed for the weekend at his parents and he carefully put the card Edgeworth gave him in his coat pocket.
*
Finally, after the hour long drive, Phoenix saw his house come into view. The one story house’s roof was still old and aging, the paint on the crème colored house was slightly peeling, and the grass in the front looked like it was starting to dry out, but Phoenix smiled at the fact that the house was exactly the way he remembered it.
It really has been too long. Phoenix thought as they pulled up along the sidewalk in front of his parent’s house, feeling great to be home.
Phoenix and Maya got their bags out of the trunk of her car and they walked to the door. A few seconds after they rang the doorbell, a older woman with dark black hair and brown eyes answered the door.
“Phoenix, Maya, you finally made it!” she said, smiling and welcoming them inside.
“Hi, mom.” Phoenix said, stepping forward and giving her a hug.
“Hi, Lisa!” Maya said cheerfully.
Lisa Wright smiled and said, “Well, why don’t you two get settled in? I’m almost done with dinner.”
“Oh, I want to help! Here, Nick, you take our bags in.” Maya said, tossing Phoenix her bag and joining Lisa in the kitchen.
Phoenix caught the bag with a surprised little ‘oof’. He smiled and shook his head, knowing how much Maya liked her food. He walked into the house and noticed his father, Bill Wright, sitting like usual in the living room, perusing the newspaper. As he looked at his father now, he was amazed at how much like his father he looked. Except for his father’s dirty blonde hair, he felt like he was almost a carbon copy.
“Hey, dad.” Phoenix said, attracting his father’s attention.
“Phoenix!” Bill said, folding his newspaper and putting down on the table next to his chair.
“So how’s that site you’re overseeing in Mexico? That Mayan temple?” Phoenix asked, interested in what his father was up to lately.
“The Temple of Lost Inscriptions in Palenque you mean? From what I’ve heard, everything is going fine. I was supposed to be there in person a week ago, but I’m not going to miss my son’s wedding, now am I?” Bill said playfully.
Phoenix smiled shyly in response, trying to balance the bags in his hands.
“Well, I’d better get our bags inside. If we don’t hurry, I bet Maya will eat everything and leave nothing for us.” Phoenix said in a teasing tone of voice.
His father laughed and replied, “I guess I better get to the kitchen then, huh?”
Phoenix quickly made his way down the hall to the bedrooms and laid the bags down in the guest room. Then he walked across the hall to his room when he lived with his parents. Everything was the same as when he lived here. His twin bed was neatly made with the same dark blue sheets he always had, his desk was still vaguely messy with a few different picture frames on it, and some expensive curtains framed his window. His mother had purchased them and insisted they hung in his room even if they definitely did not look like they belonged in a teenage boy’s room. He walked over to the desk and picked up one of the frames. It was a photo of Edgeworth, Larry Butz, and Phoenix when they were nine years old. Phoenix smiled as he remembered when the picture was taken.
Mom was about to take a picture of Miles and me when Larry ran up and hooked us around the necks as the picture was snapped. Both Miles and I ended up looking at him and laughing, while Larry ended up being the only person actually looking at the camera. Phoenix thought to himself.
He looked at Edgeworth’s happy and carefree face in the picture and he suddenly wondered where the person in the picture went. He hoped that somewhere, deep down, the child in this picture was still in Edgeworth today. Unconsciously, Phoenix ran his fingers lightly over Edgeworth in the picture, wishing that he didn’t lose touch with Edgeworth when they were growing up. Suddenly a voice brought him out of his thoughts.
“Phoenix!!”
Phoenix looked up from the picture in his hands toward the voice.
“Anka!” he replied, happy to see his younger sister after such a long time.
Anka Wright ran up to Phoenix and gave him a big hug, which he gladly returned. Taking a look at his sister, Phoenix decided that the older she got, the more she looked like their mother.
“So how many elephants have you carried off today?” Phoenix asked playfully, referring to the mythical bird that her name was based on.
“Nine. But I do have to get up to fifteen by the end of the week.” Anka replied in a mock serious tone, used to this inside joke between Phoenix and herself.
“So why weren’t you here to welcome me home, huh?” Phoenix asked, pretending to be annoyed.
“Of course I wanted to be here, but my journalism meeting just got out a few minutes ago. And if you thought I would miss dinner, you’re dead wrong.” Anka replied with a little smirk.
Phoenix just laughed in response.
“I just can’t believe it…in a week you’ll be married. Poor Maya…” Anka teased.
“Yeah…huh?” Phoenix replied softly, giving her a half hearted smile, thoughts of Edgeworth and his situation with him never leaving his mind.
Anka noted Phoenix’s sudden change in mood over this topic. She personally liked Maya very much, but she felt like Maya just didn’t go well with her brother. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but she always felt like something was off about Phoenix’s relationship with Maya. Before they started dating, he always treated her more like a sister rather than someone he’d want to date. Him starting to date her and then even proposing to her seemed completely out of the blue. There had to be some reason for this, and Anka knew she had to get to the bottom of it to help prevent her brother from making the worst mistake of his life.
“Hey, Phoenix…” Anka started asking gently, “Do you love her?”
Phoenix seemed to be distracted with other thoughts when Anka first mentioned Maya, and he suddenly shook his head when he realized Anka asked him a question.
“Huh, what? Oh, I mean…yeah…” Phoenix said, not very convincingly.
“Are you sure? Before, it always seemed like you treated her more like you treat me. You know, like a sister.” Anka said, pushing the point.
Phoenix took a moment longer than really was necessary for him to reply to the question, and he seemed to unconsciously clutch the picture he was holding more tightly in his hands, which set more warning bells off in Anka’s head.
“O-of course I…love…her. Feelings change, you know…” Phoenix replied softly, stumbling slightly over the part where he said he loved Maya.
Anka looked at him with a suspicious look and Phoenix hoped this line of questioning wouldn’t continue much longer.
“Well…okay. Anyways, let’s go see if dinner is ready.” Anka said, deciding to pursue this more later, since Phoenix looked like he was getting uncomfortable.
This conversation made Anka certain that Phoenix did not love Maya in this way, so she decided to stop pushing him right now. She also decided she also needed to find out that if he did not love Maya, who did he really love and why did he ask her to marry him? She felt the answer lay in the picture that he was holding so tightly in his hands, even now.
“Yes. You go on. I’ll be there in a minute.” Phoenix said.
“Okay.” Anka replied, slowly leaving the room.
When Anka left the room, Phoenix realized that he was still holding on to the picture of Edgeworth, Larry, and himself. He looked at the picture a moment longer.
I think my sister is on to me about Maya. But Anka is right, I don’t love Maya like that. I love… Phoenix started thinking sadly, but he abruptly stopped the thought to save himself the pain of admitting it to himself.
He closed his eyes, sighed, and put the picture back on his desk in its place. Then he went to join everyone at dinner.
*
The dinner with his family really helped bring up his spirits since he missed them very much when he moved to the main city to become a defense lawyer. His mother discussed the class she was teaching at the local university on mythological animals and his father discussed the archeological dig he was helping conduct in Palenque, Mexico. Soon dinner was over and everyone was getting ready to go to bed. Phoenix stepped out on the backyard patio and saw that the sky was clear and it was a really nice night. Suddenly Maya joined him.
“Everyone else had gone to bed, so I came to look for you.” Maya said, stepping up next to him on the patio.
She looked up at the sky and said in awe, “Wow, you can really see all the stars tonight!”
“Yeah, it really is nice.” Phoenix said, smiling.
Maya quickly realized that it was too cold to be out without a jacket so she wrapped her arms around her self as she started to shiver.
“Oh, you’re cold.” Phoenix said sympathetically.
“Yeah, I didn’t think to pack a jacket…” she replied through chattering teeth.
Phoenix put his arms around her to keep her warm, and he felt her slip her arms inside his coat and place them around his waist. She squeezed him lightly in a hug for a few moments and then she tilted her head up expectantly. Phoenix looked at her for a second and then bent his head down to meet her lips since he didn’t want to leave her hanging. Immediately his mind flashed to the kisses he shared with Edgeworth that same day. This definitely felt nice, but that was something else all together. When Edgeworth kissed him, it was so intense, he couldn’t think straight. He wanted to melt in his arms. He wanted to pull him even closer. This, in comparison, was just a kiss, and nothing more. In a few seconds, he slowly pulled back. She squeezed him again, and then she felt something poke her from a pocket in his coat.
She reached into his pocket, pulled out whatever was poking her, and said, “Hey, what’s this?”
Phoenix saw that she pulled out the card that Edgeworth had given him with his hotel information on it.
“Oh, when I ran into Edgeworth today I…invited him to our wedding. He just wrote down the hotel where he was staying at and such on there. ” Phoenix replied, feeling himself begin to blush.
He was glad that the moonlight was too dim for Maya to see his face very well.
“That’s good. Hopefully I’ll get to talk to him then since he didn’t want to today. Mr. Edgeworth did seem to be in a rather bad mood. He actually seemed more grouchy than he used to be, didn’t you think?” Maya asked, slightly concerned, hugging closer to Phoenix.
“I…suppose…” Phoenix replied, feeling a little guilty.
“I don’t know…I think Mr. Edgeworth just needs someone. You know, someone he can trust, someone he can go to? I think he tries to deal with an awful lot on his own.” Maya said, looking at him.
This comment struck a cord in Phoenix and he suddenly felt tears coming to his eyes. He quickly looked up at the sky so Maya wouldn’t see his face before he got control over himself. Phoenix cleared his throat and finally answered.
“Yes…that’s true.” he replied softly.
When he looked down at Maya, she saw his eyes were shining brightly in the moonlight.
“Nick…are you…okay?” she asked, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Something must have gotten in my eyes…” Phoenix replied, rubbing his eyes vigorously.
“Well, maybe you’re tired. Let’s go to bed.” Maya said, slowly pulling away from him, taking his hand, and leading him inside.
Phoenix followed, making sure to carefully hold on to Edgeworth’s card in his other hand. When Maya and Phoenix made their way to the hall with the bedrooms, Anka came out of hiding in the kitchen. She had heard the whole exchange between Phoenix and Maya outside. Now she knew enough.
“It’s him…Phoenix loves Miles Edgeworth!” Anka quietly said to herself, the way that Phoenix was behaving since he got her making much more sense.
It was obvious that Phoenix loved one of the other guys in the picture he was holding earlier, Miles Edgeworth or Larry Butz.
I didn’t really think it was Larry because Larry…is…well, Larry. Anka thought, reflecting on what she knew about Larry, and so immediately eliminating the possibility it was him, and Phoenix did try very hard to keep in touch with Miles when he was growing up.
She knew now she had to find a way to ask him why exactly he was marrying Maya if he so obviously loved someone else. One more thing she knew was true was that time was running out.
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