Friday night. Phoenix arrived way too early at the theater, while Trucy was still going through the final details with the other magicians in her dressing room. He left Trucy backstage with her bunny girls, and ventured into the front of house, to check if it was filling up yet.
Maya was supposed to be in Kurain village, ordering people around, so he was surprised to see her and Pearls standing near the rows of seats, talking. Pearl was looking worried and biting her thumb, while watching Maya speak. Maya looked uncharacteristically serious. Maybe he just thought it was uncharacteristic because he got to spend so little time with her any more, so every moment they had together had to be the most fun ever. She got pretty serious on the phone. She probably looked serious all the time, in secret.
He reached them in lightning speed. Maya saw him first and nudged Pearls in the shoulder.
"Hey, what's going on? What's wrong?" he asked.
Pearls turned at the sound of his voice. Her shoulders were hunched and she flicked her eyes to the side, instead of looking up at his face.
"Pearly has something to say to you," Maya said.
Pearls wrung her hands together. "I'm sorry, Mr Nick. I shouldn't have said those things to you on the phone. I'm a terrible person."
"Hey, no." He sat in the nearest available chair, so he could look up at her instead of looming. "You were surprised, that's all. It's fine if you took a little while to wrap your head around it."
Pearls shook her head. "It wasn't right. There's nothing wrong with who you choose to love, or even if it's not a choice. It's just who you are. I should have thought that at the beginning and said supportive things."
Phoenix put a hand on her shoulder and tapped her chin so she'd look up. "It really is okay. I knew you weren't going to be upset forever. It's fine if it took you a little time to accept it. If you think about it, it took me 35 years, so you're still ahead."
Maya laughed.
"Anyway," Phoenix said, "I'm the adult. It's not your job to support me, even if you think I'm so hopeless that I need it."
It had been a long time since Pearls had given him a proper hug. He'd definitely missed it.
After that, he decided the best thing to do was take her backstage so she could be Trucy's very own VIP guest. That would cheer her up quickly, otherwise she'd just stew in her own guilt needlessly until she got upset again.
When he got back to the seating area to talk to Maya she was engaged in a whispered conversation – looked more like an argument – with Edgeworth, who was suspiciously early. What was going on?
He got close enough to hear Edgeworth hiss, "Stop trying to push him at me. There isn't a chance it will work," before Edgeworth stomped off. Or the closest thing you can get to stomping in a man of Edgeworth's stature.
Phoenix smiled apologetically at Maya before zagging after Edgeworth instead. Edgeworth was heading in the wrong direction, backstage.
A stage hand said, "Nobody's supposed to be back there!"
Edgeworth turned where he stood, but didn't leave.
"Don't worry, I'll get him back to where he's supposed to be."
Edgeworth could pretend to be the more functional adult all he wanted; he still got stiff and awkward and obvious when he was nervous.
Phoenix marched right up to him. If he was right about what was happening between them, then great. And if he wasn't? If Edgeworth reacted so badly to what he was about to do that he panicked and moved to another country and tried to never speak to Phoenix again, well, Phoenix would just have to hunt him down and force him to be friends again. He wasn't worried any more.
Phoenix put one hand on Edgeworth's shoulder. He put the other shaking hand on Edgeworth's jaw. And after a deep breath to fortify himself, kissed him.
At first the moment of panic – did he really do that? what was he thinking? what if it all went horribly wrong? – but then he noticed Edgeworth's hand gripping his shoulder and the way Edgeworth's mouth parted smoothly against his. Edgeworth's mouth was as good as he'd imagined. He grazed his teeth against Edgeworth's lower lip like he'd been imagining for weeks. Phoenix could feel the way Edgeworth groaned against his mouth.
Was it relief that made his knees weak?
Edgeworth pulled away and his face was surprisingly flushed. Phoenix felt a little dazed. When Edgeworth removed his glasses, and tucked them neatly in a pocket, his eyelids were heavy, his gaze intense.
"Wright..." he spoke, his voice breathy and close. "Phoenix..."
Phoenix had never realised before that just the sound of his first name could feel so electric.
Then Edgeworth moved in for another kiss and it was smoother and sweeter than Phoenix could have imagined possible. Phoenix grabbed that stupid cravat to try to drag Edgeworth even closer. Just a little bit of tongue was enough to make him shiver all over like a school boy getting kissed for the first time.
Bad fiction on the internet would have him believe that kissing a man had to be rough and hard and painful, mashing faces and bumping teeth, but Edgeworth's skin was soft and kissing him made Phoenix feel melty all over.
Edgeworth pushed away, with a rough gasp. "We should talk about this, uh, this turn of events."
"Or we could kiss again." Phoenix huffed out a giddy laugh. "I haven't been able to think of doing anything else for a while. It's kind of embarrassing, really."
Edgeworth looked away. "We've had a somewhat peculiar friendship. It's only natural you would get curious at some point."
"Curious." Phoenix dropped his arms by his side and stepped back. "You think I would risk a life-long friendship over curiosity."
Edgeworth was clutching at his arm, like he was still 24 and doubting and they hadn't been through everything since that point. "You have been known to make rash decisions."
"Rash decisions? I'm in love with you! And that means-" Phoenix breathed through the ache that was lodging itself deep in his chest "-that if you're refusing to believe that I could feel that way, it's because you don't want me to be, because you don't feel the same way. If you're going to break my heart, do it fast."
It didn't make sense to Phoenix that Edgeworth would kiss back out of nothing more than curiosity, either, but he'd been known to be wrong about things.
"But how could you feel that way for me? I was convinced that... There was so much evidence that you were heterosexual and that I..." Edgeworth was touching his own lips as if trying to feel the proof of what happened with his fingers.
"It turns out I've been bisexual all along." Phoenix tried to shrug, but he slumped instead.
"Looking back on things, that does make a lot more sense." Edgeworth stood rigidly straight, eyes forward. "Why now?"
"Does it matter why now? All I know is, by the time I realised I felt this way it was too late to back out of it."
It's possible that Edgeworth was smiling. "The way I feel for you, it started so very long ago. I was sure I would never get to have you."
"You love me. I was right all along. You definitely love me."
Edgeworth was leaning closer again. "Yes, I do."
"I'm so relieved."
Then they were kissing again, arms thrown around each other. Phoenix was pretty sure he would never get tired of it.
And then a stern-sounding whisper, "Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain." That was definitely Trucy's voice.
Edgeworth pulled away and patted down his outfit to neaten it, as if it would make it any less obvious they'd just been making out. Phoenix turned to see what he was squinting at.
They had an audience. Clearly in spite of Trucy's best efforts, as she tried to push away everyone looking at them. The stage hand looked panicked and annoyed. Pearls' eyes were almost perfectly round and her hands covered half her face. A smirking magician twirled an umbrella at them. Phoenix was just thankful Maya wasn't there to heckle them (that would inevitably come later).
Phoenix scratched at his neck. "Been there long?"
"Don't worry about that, daddy. As long as you stay quiet, you can stay back there as long as you like." Trucy punctuated her statement with a wink. "And make him come for dinner. I have to ask about his intentions."
Edgeworth fumbled through words of agreement until Trucy finally managed to drag their spectators away.
Phoenix turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. "So, what are your intentions?" He put his hand to one of Edgeworth's lapels just to watch him get distracted and lose his composure all over again.
"Ah, um. Well, of course I will take you out in a non-professional capacity."
"You want to date me." Phoenix smiled at the thought of it.
"That was poorly phrased on my part but, of course, that is what I meant. I would like to be your romantic partner, if you do not object."
"You want to be my boyfriend."
"I made that quite clear. There was no ambiguity in my statement." Edgeworth was getting huffy about it. Phoenix thought arguing with Edgeworth was fun before, but now it seemed to have raised even higher in entertainment value.
"My boyfriend, Miles Edgeworth."
"Do be quiet," Edgeworth said, and shut him up with his mouth.
When they parted from the kiss Phoenix was dizzy with it all over again.
"I still have no desire to get married," Edgeworth said. "It's a ridiculous institution that I see no purpose to in this day and age."
"Larry will be disappointed," Phoenix said, and watched Edgeworth squint in confusion. "I can learn to live with it, as long as you don't want to kiss anyone but me for the rest of your life."
"That's an acceptable condition." And another kiss, just as good as the last.
They did come up for air eventually. Edgeworth put his glasses back on and suggested they find their seats. And when Phoenix put out a hand to hold, he entwined their fingers with no hesitation.