It was a few weeks after that fateful day- the day that she came into their lives and touched all three of them. Phoenix, Edgeworth and Larry were walking to their History class, Edgeworth concentrating on his manga and Phoenix and Larry discussing the school prom.
“Nick! I know what you should do!” Larry exclaimed, startling Edgeworth and Phoenix so much that they nearly bumped into an incoming houseplant.
“What? We’ve thought of everything, though..” Phoenix mumbled, before Larry put his arm around him and skipped along the corridor, pulling the reluctant Phoenix beside him.
“Of course not! Right, you know the prom’s on Valentine’s Day?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, why don’t you send a letter to the one you love, asking her to go to the prom with you?”
Edgeworth pricked up his ears. ‘To the one he loves, huh?’ he thought to himself, listening intently to the conversation next to him.
“I-I don’t love anybody!” Phoenix pleaded desperately, blushing bright red, but it was no use. Larry had already seen Iris walking in front of them, hand-in-hand with Dahlia.
“Oh yeah? Then pray tell, Romeo, why you’re blushing at Juliet over there?” Larry asked in mock surprise, pointing at the sisters, but when Dahlia turned around casting her ‘I despise you all!’ look straight at him, he fell silent.
Edgeworth cleared his throat, and both Larry and Phoenix turned to listen to him; it was a regular thing that Edgeworth would do to get their attention while reading.
“You know, that’s actually a good idea, Larry. I might do that.”
“Seriously?! You’d take my advice?” Larry spluttered, over-reacting to a single comment; a regular thing of his. Phoenix put
his hand to his face and shook his head in shame while Larry pranced around in glee.
“Yes, Larry.” Edgeworth sighed, before he felt himself embraced in a full-on hug.
“THANKS, EDGEEEEY! I knew you were a great friend, I knew it, I just KNEW it…”
Heads turned as Larry rambled on with no sign of stopping. Phoenix took no notice of this; at least, he tried to, but in vain.
“Larry…?” Edgeworth asked, after a long period of silence.
“Yeah?”
“Let me go, please.”
It finally hit Larry that everyone was staring at them; some stifling their laughter and some grinning widely. Even Iris was smiling a bit at Larry’s act, but Dahlia had her arms crossed and brow furrowed just as normal.
“Iris, why are you smiling? This guy is stranger than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Iris laughed and beamed in her usual way, causing Dahlia to frown even more.
“He’s…a friend. You’ve got to admit, he’s cute.” Iris replied, which turned Dahlia a faint shade of pink.
“I’m not admitting to anything!” she retorted in anger, and quickly ran off, pushing people out of the way in her quick retreat.
Hastily, Larry let go of the now red-faced Edgeworth and hurried off to class. In his rush, he didn’t notice that he had dropped his bag and his books were now scattered across the floor.
“Poor Larry,” said Phoenix, pausing for a moment then picking up Larry’s things, “Always getting into stuff like this.”
Edgeworth nodded his head in agreement and stooped down to watch the crouched Phoenix reluctantly stuffing some new HB pencils into Larry’s bag.
“Need some help?”
“No, but it would be nice if you could.” Phoenix replied, looking Edgeworth in the eye and smiling, albeit faintly.
Edgeworth beamed.
The good old days were wonderful, when it was just Phoenix, Larry, Edgeworth and everyone else they didn’t know that well. It was almost like they were in a whole new dimension created just for them. Laughing, jumping, playing- everyone gave it their all.
But now - since she had come - there was nothing else to talk about. It was Iris, Iris, Iris all the time.
Edgeworth still didn’t know what he felt. After all, beauty comes from the inside; at least, that’s what his father had told him a very long time ago. And yet, whenever either of his best friends mentioned Iris he couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy deep inside him.
He remembered the day when he met them like it was merely last week.
“B-but...I didn’t do it! I didn’t steal his money!”
“Not good enough, Phoenix! We know you did it.”
Edgeworth remembered Phoenix’s reaction. It was like everything had ended, nothing was left, everything had disappeared before his very eyes.
“ Please…someone…believe me, please…I-I didn’t do it…”
“Liar, Phoenix Wright! You are such a-”
“OBJECTION!”
When Edgeworth finally shouted that, he knew it was what he had to do for the rest of his life. Defend people. Help them. Actually care for them when no-one else would.
And after a certain Christmas Eve, boy did Edgeworth know a lot about caring.
He accepted it when a man he had seen against his father in the courtroom offered it to him, and that very man shaped Edgeworth to who he was today. Instead of defending, he wanted to condemn. Instead of caring, he tried to force himself not to.
But something deep within him still longed for a love that was special- only someone who could protect him from harsh judgement, someone who would accept him as he was, someone who cared not for reputation but him could give.
Iris was the image of that person: friendly, nice, the apple of everyone’s eye- and Edgeworth needed her; but for now, just memories of his younger days would suffice.
Then he would try again, knowing exactly what he wanted.
“Hey, Edgeworth. It’s nearly time for class to start, but…could I ask you something first?” Phoenix queried. It was clear from his expression and a bead of sweat forming that it was quite a personal matter.
“OK. What is it?”
“Well…I don’t know whether to ask Iris to the prom or not. I really don’t know. I mean, Larry’s advice was good, but….should I?”
Edgeworth suddenly turned nervous. ‘But I still need to ask her myself…’ he thought, desperately trying to come up with some sort of logical solution. He completely forgot about everything he had thought about for the last ten minutes and turned his main focus to Iris.
‘What am I supposed to say in this situation…?!’
“Edgeworth, why are you sweating?” Indeed, a cold sweat was running down Edgeworth’s forehead; add that to his shocked facial expression and his trembling hands and you know something’s up.
“Oh! Sorry about that.” Edgeworth said quite quickly, almost as if he was trying to rush the conversation between them so that he could end it. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth to say the worst possible thing to him right now: “Sure! Go ahead! I bet she wants you to come with her, anyway.”
He had said it. It felt to Edgeworth as if he had just been stabbed by an extremely sharp knife that pierced his heart, leaving a hole and showing no mercy.
“Well, thanks, Edgey! I’ll do it soon, I promise.” In a flash, Phoenix was skipping to class, Larry’s bag around his shoulder while Edgeworth sat, head in hands.
‘Why did I do that?’ he tried to ask himself, but he was too shocked to figure out an answer. All he knew was that he didn’t have a chance at all now, thanks to what he had said.
Suddenly a voice rang out inside Edgeworth’s head. He didn’t know what caused it or why, but it didn’t really matter at the present time.
“Because you’re his friend.”
*
“Right, class. To recap, who was the Pope at the time of the Crusades?”
Edgeworth stuck his hand up, then immediately looked around the classroom. No-one else was answering, or even attempting to.
“Pope Urban II, sir.”
“Correct, Miles. Did everyone hear that?”
A fairly distinguishable nod came from every pupil in the class. It was the lesson before lunch, and the summer heat and overall hard work from the morning’s events had tired them out almost completely.
Looking down at his computer, the teacher’s calm expression turned, unexpectedly, to one of shock and his face turned pale.
“Alright.” he sighed, getting up from his desk and hastily shuffling papers. “I have to go to a brief meeting. I would like you to continue your work from the textbook- in silence, please.” he added, glancing over at two snickering boys at the back, each clad in scruffy clothes and laughing so hard they were almost keeling over.
“Yes, sir…” the class trailed off in the usual, dull answering voice; but in two minds, thoughts were buzzing.
‘Now’s my chance..’
With a slam, the classroom door shut closed and almost everyone started gossiping. It appeared (after some discussion and a sneaky glance at the computer) that the poor teacher was late, albeit prepared, for his meeting.
Phoenix could barely contain his nervousness. How on earth was he supposed to ask a girl he liked to prom in a letter? Looking around frantically, he caught Larry’s eyes and Larry beamed at him.
“Go for it.” he mouthed, suddenly remembering something and holding up his school bag. “Oh, and thanks for picking up my stuff earlier.”
“No problem, Larry.”
Phoenix smiled. As clumsy as Larry was he always stood by his friends, and it was one of his few yet positive traits. Phoenix considered himself extremely lucky to have met him that day.
“Listen, proof or not, he did it! We’re sure of it! He stole the money!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah-”
“Hold up a minute, guys! He said he didn’t do it…so he didn’t do it! Just lay off him, ‘kay?”
Turning to his desk, Phoenix brought out a piece of paper and a pen and began to write:
'Dear Iris,
Will you go to prom with me?’
‘No, that won’t work.’ he thought. ‘Too short.’ Crumpling the piece of paper, he put it back in his bag and retrieved a new one; if anyone saw it in the bin he’d be dead meat. He put his pen to the new paper he’d got out and, trying desperately to suppress his hands from shaking, wrote his letter for the second time.
‘Dear Iris,
I have something to ask you.
Will you go to the prom with me?’
Phoenix nodded in Larry’s direction and handed the note over to him. Larry looked upset when first seeing the letter and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, but turned to Phoenix quickly after.
“It’s great! But can I suggest something?”
“Sure, Larry.”
“Well, why don’t you arrange for the both of you to meet up somewhere? Then you can ask her in person.”
Phoenix was amazed; it was a great idea, coming from Larry no less.
“Thanks, Larry!” he exclaimed, before quickly holding his tongue and falling silent. He was just about to tell Larry he’d do that when he remembered earlier; he didn’t want to relive that moment, especially if he was the one being hugged.
Without warning, a thought popped into his head. The balcony. Only people who had important things to discuss went there.
‘Dear Iris,
I have something to ask you.
Could you meet me at the balcony around 6 on Friday?
It would be great if you could come.
~ Phoenix’
As soon as he finished signing his name, the bell rung, signalling the end of the lesson. Phoenix felt pleased, if anything, when he walked out the classroom; however, an embrace from Larry dampened his spirits a little.
“So? Did you write it? How’d it go?”
Laughing, Phoenix turned to Larry and grinned as they walked outside.
“It was horrible.”
“Wait, WHAT?! Why? What happened? I mean-”
“I’m just joking! It went fine.”
*
Walking home was a lonely business nowadays; both Larry and Phoenix lived on different estates and- Edgeworth was sure of this- felt a bit awkward when visiting because Manfred von Karma, Edgeworth’s mentor and adoptive father, owned a house that was nearly double the size of their own.
Though today, it was different. Edgeworth almost felt like skipping but immediately felt foolish at the mere thought of it- surely he had been taught better?- and, instead, hummed the Steel Samurai theme song and grinned; something not many people had seen.
“Wow…’ Edgeworth muttered to himself walking home in almost a daze. ‘It’s pretty sunny today. It seems cliché to ask this but seriously…. what could go wrong now…?”
“Speak of the devil, Miles Edgeworth!” exclaimed a harsh voice from behind. Before Edgeworth could even think of turning around an all-too-familiar leather object lashed out at his back.
“OW! Franziska, don’t scare me like that!”
Franziska chuckled and readied her crop for another blow to her sibling.
“There’s a German word that describes my feelings right now: it’s called shadenfreude, Miles Edgeworth. Schadenfreude…”
“Says the girl whose love life is seriously messed up at the moment.” he retorted. “If anyone should be feeling shadenfreude it’s me.”
Franziska gasped and clenched her fists, but surprisingly didn’t hit him with her crop. In fact, she looked like she was pondering something for a second, then went back to her frustrated look as usual.
“..Touché, Miles Edgeworth. But, on the subject of romance…how’s it going with your crush?”
Edgeworth gasped in mock horror and pretended to faint.
“I don’t believe it! The perfect, ever-angry Miss von Karma is being friendly to me? How does she do that-”
“Miles Edgeworth,” Franziska shouted, “I have asked you a question. Now answer it!”
A blow from Franziska confirmed that Edgeworth would answer her. As young as she was, it seemed she would always reign supreme over Edgeworth- with or without the weapon.
“Alright, alright!” he groaned, seeing her icy glare. “It’s fine. I’m going to….”
“Yes?”
“Umm…”
“Yes?”
“I might ask her to the prom. MIGHT ask her.” he added, noticing the look of shock on Franziska’s face. Both falling silent, they walked slowly for most of the way home. Edgeworth noticed something halfway through his walk and just couldn’t get it out of his head.
‘Franziska’s….been staring at my pocket since I stopped talking…’
“Miles Edgeworth!” she suddenly exclaimed.
“AH! Don’t frighten me like that! Please! I beg of you!”
“What on earth is that piece of paper sticking out of your coat pocket?” and before Edgeworth could stop her, Franziska grabbed it and read it thoroughly.
‘Dear Iris,
Could you meet me in the courtyard on Friday sometime around 6?
I need to discuss something with you, and it would be great if we could meet up then.
Thank you and I hope you are well.
~ Miles’