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Phoenix ran a hand down his face as he tried to focus on the words in front of him. He leaned back in the desk chair, running a hand through his hair and placing a highlighter in his mouth. He spared a glance to the figure on the bed across the room. Miles had fallen asleep, curled up at the top of the bed. It was a rare event, and Phoenix kept being distracted by it. He barely noticed the furry bundle that jumped up on his other side until she spoke.
“It’s like you’ve switched.” She nodded in the direction of the bed. She spoke low, like any louder would cause Miles to jump into action. Phoenix took the marker out and followed suit, worried about the same.
“He barely rests, Veda. I’m not sure how you stand it.” Phoenix shook his head. "Why are you awake?"
“We don’t always need to sleep at the same time. I like someone watching over him while he rests.”
Phoenix wasn’t sure how to take that, given he was right there and yet she was awake.
“Thank you for taking care of him.” Was what he settled on. Veda's ear twitched, but she said nothing.
He had never gotten the hang of talking to someone's daemon alone, not many were keen on talking with humans. Veda should have been different he supposed, being Miles'. But he always felt intimidated by her in a different way than the others, he could never put his finger on it. She had never been particularly unkind to him, but it was like she watched him more calculatingly than even Miles had. Waiting for him to mess up, maybe.
He looked back down at the folder open on the desk. With pencil in hand he underlined a statement in the affidavit he was given hours prior. The train of thought went nowhere, and he dropped everything with a sigh.
“Everything alright?” She had been silently watching it unfold. Phoenix wasn't sure if he was thankful for the company since Miles was asleep.
“I’m just stuck right now. I might take a break for a while."
“Would you like me to look over it?” She tilted her head to read the paper in front of him. She went so far as to reach a paw out to drag the file closer.
He looked over at her, bewildered. Then it dawned on him.
“Oh yeah, you’re with Miles all the time. I bet you’re pretty legal savvy too.”
She leveled him with a cool gaze. Phoenix knew he would never be able to get over seeing Edgeworth’s expression replicated in a cat so smoothly. It was a bit unnatural to him still, but he couldn’t help but think she was beautiful and graceful in the way she carried herself. In the way they both carried themselves. “What exactly do you think I am?”
“You can just tell me it’s a stupid thing to say, you don’t have to insinuate it.”
She laughed, the sound so like Edgeworth’s own but heightened by the absurdity in the visual.
"He watches you too sometimes. I would try and make him focus again but it's so uncommon to see him distracted. It's a bit humorous." He watches her tail swish behind her, avoiding the many items on it with practiced ease. “He’s much more open with you.”
He blinks at her. “It doesn’t feel that way sometimes… I won’t push him.”
She laughed again. Like with Miles, it was rare to see her so relaxed. Approachable might be the better word to describe her in the moment.
He lifted a hand towards her almost without thinking about it.
She stilled as she watched him, and his hand ended up hovering in the air awkwardly. He got the weirdest impression that he was under observation once again. He was about to put it down when she pressed her head into it.
He took a breath. Her fur was extremely soft, his fingers sliding through it with ease. He watched her eyes close in contentment and she moved closer. She’d never done this to him before. He didn't speak, worried the moment would pass without an acknowledgement. He pushed the chair back a bit and she climbed down into his lap.
“You’re a ridiculous man. But a very good one.”
He was touched. He had always been under the impression that Veda only tolerated him, as reserved as she always was. What he and Miles had was new. They were still working around each other and finding their flow. With Veda’s approval, relief bubbled in his chest letting him know they were doing something right.
"Thank you."
He rubbed behind her ears and she dissolved into purrs, pressing against his stomach. He started reading the file again with a new sense of comfort in his arms.
Miles woke from his doze to feel hands running down his back. No, not down his back. In his back. Reaching into the core of him and stroking down. Surprisingly, it didn’t fill him with a wave of nausea as it had all those times before. He felt warm, secure. A pleasurable wave oozing from throughout him, filling and encasing him. He felt drunk, the closest he could get to a true descriptor. He couldn’t speak at first, for the feeling was so overwhelming.
He opened his eyes with difficulty. He saw Phoenix sitting at his desk, unassuming except for the tail of his daemon hanging off the side of the chair. It was curled around the back.
“Ph-Phoenix.”
Phoenix turned in the chair, revealing the position Miles already knew. Veda was curled in his lap as he pet her almost absentmindedly. Hands trailed down her head to tail. Miles shivered as he watched.
“What’s wrong?” Phoenix stood, holding Veda to his chest as he would a regular cat, although she was bigger.
She melted into the mattress when he placed her at the end of the bed.
“I…”
“Take your time. You can tell me what’s wrong.” Phoenix sat at the edge, next to Veda. She reached out to Phoenix when he sat. Miles saw Phoenix’s hand twitch to move. He sat up quickly to grab her and pull her to his chest as he laid back down, panting.
“That.” He said, running his fingers through her fur.
Phoenix cocked his head.
“You-You touching her.”
“She wanted me to…” Phoenix muttered before his eyes widened, “Oh, I’m sorry! Was I not supposed to? Is it like a service animal thing where they’re on duty?” He looked between both of them.
“No, it’s…”
“Is it like a bird thing?”
“A..bird thing?”
“Where you can’t touch their wings or they get…you know.”
“No…I don’t.”
“You can’t touch their wings or they get…frustrated.”
Miles blinked at him. “I…no. It’s not quite like that. It’s…you’re aware that daemons are extensions of oneself.”
Phoenix nodded.
“They are not merely animal companions. We feel what happens to each other. So it is…extremely intimate…to touch another’s daemon. A taboo to many and forbidden in daily life. It is considered an utmost violation of the self to be manhandled by another.”
Phoenix, to his credit, looked horrified. He backed up, putting space between them.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll never touch her again. Do you want me to leave? I’ll leave.”
Veda whined and left Miles’ grasp to sit between them. “We want you to stay.”
Phoenix’s gaze softened as he looked at her, offering her a small smile before he looked worryingly back at Miles. He was a bit slower to answer.
“No. No, you don’t have to leave. It wasn’t…unpleasant.” It had been more than pleasant, as a matter of fact. “It was just…overwhelming. I wasn’t expecting it.”
Phoenix swallowed, opening his mouth again. Miles held up a hand.
“I didn’t think you’d done it with ill-intent. I’m just…a bit surprised the issue hasn’t come up before.”
“I haven’t had someone else’s daemon be so close to me like that. I never thought about it.” He whispered. “I’m sorry.”
It had filled Miles with an odd sense of relief that Phoenix had not willfully touched another’s daemon. Did not have another’s daemon touch him. He realized with embarrassment he had been more concerned with that possibility than Phoenix touching his own. He in fact had no problems with that, Veda would not have gone to Phoenix if he did. Too many thoughts, implications, ran through his mind and he shook his head to clear it.
“Regardless, someone in that scenario did know about it.” He looked to Veda, who stared back unblinking. “Perhaps I’ll need to have a talk with you. ”
She tutted and looked back at Phoenix. “I was under the impression you knew what it meant. I apologize for the assumption.”
He nodded, looking down at the floor. The silence overtook them for a few moments.
“What did it…what did it feel like?”
Miles turned to the ceiling, closing his eyes and letting it wash back over him. Welcoming the reflection this time.
“Like…being caressed all over. Inside and out. With all of your nerves alight. It would be like if someone reached into you and held your heart in their hands within your chest. Your soul. Your very being.”
“Ah…” Phoenix shifted. Miles didn’t know how to continue, but he did.
“It all depends on how it’s done of course… Harm results in an overwhelming pain and sense of wrongness that does not end. Gentleness can create something I’ve been told is quite…euphoric.”
Veda had inched closer to Phoenix as they spoke. Phoenix pointedly kept his hands in his lap.
Her tail swished and he shrunk back from it. “For all your talk, Miles, you never said what we wanted. Or asked Phoenix what he thinks.”
Phoenix piped up, “I don’t really think I’m in a position to say anything.”
“Miles.” She cocked her head expectantly.
“It wasn’t…didn’t feel like an intrusion truthfully.” Phoenix’s eyes widened again. Miles pushed himself forward.
“I didn’t mind it. I…I wouldn’t mind it...if you ever felt so inclined in the future.”
“Are you sure?” Phoenix’s fingers twitched. The action filled Miles with ease, a confidence in his decision. Phoenix touched him and Miles liked it and they both wanted it again. He nodded.
“I would certainly be more prepared from now on.”
“Could I...” He lifted his hand again. “Now?”
Veda had already started to move when Miles spoke. “Please.”
She moved back into Phoenix’s lap, both of them breathing a sigh.
Phoenix tucked his arms under her to shift up onto the bed, lying next to Miles so their sides touched.
“You’ll let me know when it’s a lot, right? Either of you?”
“Okay… Maybe right now.” His words slurred. Phoenix’s arms were still wrapped around her, it seemed too much.
Phoenix eased until only his fingertips touched Veda’s fur. Miles still shook, but it seemed more contained, manageable.
“That’s good.” Miles sighed, watching Veda curl up on Phoenix’s chest. He leaned his head against Phoenix’s shoulder, seeming to let the feelings he talked about envelope him again.
Phoenix turned and pressed a kiss to his hair. They laid in comfortable silence.
“Lucien pecks me sometimes while giving me evidence.” He doesn’t explain his reasoning for saying that. Miles answers him perfectly anyway.
“Khurain has always had different rules regarding daemons. I wouldn’t be surprised if it just slipped Maya’s mind.”
“That is not a kind thing to say of the next Master.” Veda chided him.
Phoenix laughs. “Nah, it’s probably true. I don’t remember her or Mia ever saying anything about it.” He feels a weight in his throat, years old sorrow threatening to choke him still.
He’s nudged from his thoughts by Veda’s paw on his cheek, her looking down at him. Phoenix realized all at once, finally, that this is Miles. Miles wanting to be touched, held, to love and be loved in ways Phoenix only wished he could reciprocate.
He looked between them, and there was no doubt they could read his trail of thoughts.
It was funny to him that while Miles was the one with a physical representation of his emotions, Phoenix felt like the one constantly on display.
“You have all of me, Miles. Mind, body, spirit, soul. All of it.”
“Phoenix, I have never suffered from you not having a physical daemon.”
“I just feel like there’s things I can’t give you that you deserve.”
Veda perked up. “That’s nonsense.” She nudged against his chest, “I feel yours. It’s right here, bright and shining.”
Phoenix felt tears in his eyes. They fell when Miles leaned over, pressing a hand over where Veda nudged.
Phoenix knew he felt only a fraction of what Miles did with that gesture. But he understood the intimacy, the significance. That was enough.
“I love you.”
Miles smiled, wiped the tears from his cheeks. “And I love you, Phoenix Wright.”
He settled back down, letting his arm lay loosely over Phoenix.
“Thank you. For trusting me with you.”
“There’s no one else I would rather.”
Phoenix hummed. “You know…If I knew petting Veda would make you so sappy I would have done it ages ago.”
He earned the Edgeworth glare from two sets of eyes.
“Kidding! I’m kidding… Bad joke.”
Veda huffed at the same time Miles rolled his eyes. Phoenix thought it was adorable. The portrayed annoyance lessened even more by Veda shifting further into his hold.
As he pet her, he focused on how it affected Miles. He watched the tension leave his shoulders and his eyes on the verge of closing.
Phoenix made a mental note to get him to relax more often, it was a good look on him.
Veda eventually moved off of him to curl into Miles’ side. She kept her tail wrapped loosely around Phoenix’s wrist.
The hand on his chest had gone lax, human and daemon falling asleep.
Phoenix raised a hand to Miles’ face, pushing back the hair that had fallen forward. His hand trailed down Miles’ cheek, tracing his jaw before following his arm down to intertwine their hands.
Looking up at the ceiling, he liked to think he could sense four heartbeats in sync. He closed his eyes to the thought, not quite falling asleep. He had someone to watch over after all.