While playing Phoenix Wright, I could never get over why Larry would only call Edgeworth 'Edgey'. Having known him only in childhood and not as a professional, it's logical to assume that the nickname carried over from their elementary school days, but if this were the case, what reason would 9-year-old Larry have to call Miles by a permutation of his last name? It was bugging me, so I wrote my own little fanon explanation.

It's not very long, not especially exciting, and I accidentally made them all sound British, but I'm too proud of getting over my fear of fanfiction not to post this. So without further ado:

Title: Edgey
Author: Marshmello
Rating: General/Everyone
Genre: General (kidfic)
Status: Complete (one-shot)
Pairing: None
Summary: Hanging out in the playground on day, Miles finds himself trying to explain the significance of surnames to his friend Larry, who doesn't quite understand.
Caveat: I ended up having to use block paragraphs because I couldn't use indents, so this fic may cause temporary blindness.

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Edgey
“You really look up to your dad, don’t you?” Phoenix asked, slowly twirling his swing around.

“Of course! I’m going to be a lawyer just like him when I grow up!” On the other side of the swing set, Miles’ eyes lit up. If there was one topic of conversation that made him smile, it was Gregory Edgeworth.

“What for?” This was from Larry, who was laying on his stomach atop the monkey bars. He waved his dangling arms. “Lawyering sounds super boring. You have to go to law school for a long time until you memorize all this useless stuff, and then all you get to do that’s worthwhile after is yell at people.”

“T-that’s not it at all!” Miles insisted. “Defence attorneys help people! They make sure that no one gets punished for stuff that they didn’t do!”

“Well your pop’s never helped me out,” Larry said flippantly. “I’ve gotten in trouble for loads of stuff that I didn’t do.”

“That’s because the stuff you get in trouble for isn’t important.”

“Hey—!”

“My father helps people who are accused of real stuff, like murder or armed robbery or whatever. He’s way too busy with the real stuff to help people who are accused of scribbling on someone else’s notebook paper.”

“Hmph. Well… well I betcha he’s no good at it,” the light-haired boy said, grasping for an argument. “You said his name was like Jeremy or Gregory or something, right? There aren’t any Jeremy’s on TV, and all the important stuff goes on TV.”

Phoenix sighed. Larry and Miles were friends, but one would never know by the way they bickered and picked on each other. He’d given up on trying to mediate. He turned around in his swing again.

“Well of course they’d never say his first name on TV. My dad’s way too important for people to call him by his first name. Everyone has to call him Edgeworth or Mister Edgeworth.”

“Calling people by their last names makes them important?”

“Exactly.”

“But that’s stupid! There’s probably a ton of Edgeworth’s out there; how do they know which one’s which? You’re one of them! What if people got you and your pop mixed up?”

Miles shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. There are a ton of Larry’s out there, too, but we don’t get you mixed up with anyone. Everyone knows who my father is, but it’s just that they’re only allowed to call him Edgeworth. It’s how you know he’s important. Calling him Gregory in court would be like an insult.”

“Oh.”

Miles had actually made that up, but no one knew enough about it to call him on it. Larry actually seemed to be mulling it over, which, aside from being uncharacteristic, would probably end badly.

“Okay then,” he said after a while, slipping through the bars and swinging down to the ground. “It’s settled: I can’t call you Miles any more.”

“What?”

“From now on I have to call you Mister Edgeworth.”

“If this is your idea of a joke—“

“Nah, that takes too long to say. Just Edgeworth? No… that doesn’t sound right either.”

“Larry—“

“Aha! I‘ve got it!” Larry proclaimed. “From now on I’m gonna call you Edgey!”

Miles didn't know what to think of this, much less how to respond to it. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

“So what do you think, Nick?” the nine-year-old asked, missing Miles’ blank stare. “You haven’t said anything yet.”

Caught off guard, Phoenix lifted his feet off the ground, and realized too late that this allowed the twisted chains of his swing to unwind. He let go on the final rotation, and a second later found himself enormously dizzy, hanging upside-down with his knees still hooked over the rubber seat. He let himself fall, deciding that he would feel much safer on the ground.

“I-I dunno,” he said when the world stopped spinning. Both of his friends were laughing, but he ignored them. “I don’t see why we can’t just call him Miles.”

“Sh! He said that first names are an insult!”

“But you just called me Nick,” Phoenix pointed out, shakily getting to his feet.

“That’s not your real name though, so it doesn’t count.”

“It’s only for important people that it’s offensive,” Miles clarified, finding his voice. “It doesn't matter what you call me now ‘cos I’m not important yet. You have to call me Edgeworth when I’m a lawyer, though. It’s for professionalism.”

“Well if it doesn’t matter then I can still call you Mist—Edgewor—uh… I can still call you whatever I want.” Larry said lamely. Phoenix laughed.

“See? You already forgot what you were gonna call him.”

“I did not! I was gonna call him Eh… Ed… um… Edgey. I was gonna call him Edgey! So there!”

“Miles is easier to say, anyways,” the spiky-haired boy continued. “The way I see it, it’s like you use last names when it’s important stuff—formal, that’s the word!—formal stuff, like in court or someplace. And then first names are for when it’s just friends or whatever.

“So I’m sticking with Miles, ‘cos we’re friends and not a bunch of stupid important grown-ups.”

“Well then calling him Edgey makes him like a stupid important friend, so I’m sticking with Edgey!” Larry finished, a tad triumphantly. He turned back to the boy still on his swing. “That okay, Edgey?”

“Mm-yeah I guess so…” Miles answered uncertainly, having failed to distance his friend from the idea. He still couldn’t decide if Larry was joking or not, but, he told himself, it's not like it'll do any harm, and he'll probably forget all about it before the weekend, anyway.

Probably.

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Feedback appreciated Thanks for reading!

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Oh this is brilliant, my dear. <33 This is so cute. Just watch for tenses, but this was a great concept, and you have their personalities NAILED.

<33 Keep it up!

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This is pretty good; you've got the characters pretty well, especially considering how they'd be as kids. There are a few problems with pacing and timing, but for the most part I approve of this fic. Good job!

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Thank you very much! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it, and I'm glad I 'nailed' their personalities (I was really worried about that). It was fun to write, but I do acknowledge that pacing is something that I really struggle with. I was hoping that that would be less obvious in such a short piece Oh well.

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I is bumping this for you since you deserve more reviews. <3 Still good job.

And it wasn't TERRIBLY obvious. Sometimes pacing is even worse in short stories, since you have to get everything out in just a brief scene.

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Lol thank you! For the bump, the review, and the hint

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Awww...that's so sweet and cute of the three.

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I really like the personalities in this. *gives thumbs up*