Chapter 10 - Pap

"Edgeworth, I really don't feel like talking about my genitals right now," Phoenix hissed into the phone. This caused his daughter and employees to look up at him, all three with an incredulous expression on their face.

"Wright, I know it is not my business, but I can't help it if red flags are raised when you tell me that you haven't had a screening for five years," the Chief Prosecutor huffed. Phoenix could practically see his partner's cravat puff up, as if he was an animal who felt threatened.

"Aw come on, I've been to clinics...I'm fine!"

"Wright, being admitted to a clinic because you got hit by a car and cervical screening are two different things entirely. You have to go as soon as possible."

"Fine, I'll go if you drive me," Phoenix teases. Miles Edgeworth was a prosecutor, the Chief Prosecutor. Someone who was obviously too busy to drive a friend to a gynocologist.

"Fine, get ready, I'll be there," and the magenta prosecutor hung up. Phoenix stared at Charley the plant in silent disbelief. Did the thing that just happened...just happen?

"Daddy, what's wrong?" Trucy asked her father. Phoenix in return just shook his head.

"Heh, it looks like I have to go to an impromptu appointment...you two can take the day off if you want," Phoenix nodded towards Apollo and Athena, whom were both practically neck deep in paperwork.

"Don't worry boss, I'll take care of any case that comes up," Athen assured him. Apollo nodded in agreement.

"You can go, Mr. Wright. We'll hold the fort down."

"And I'll be in charge!" Trucy chirped.

"Thanks, guys. Apollo, you're in charge," Phoenix ordered, ignoring Trucy's moan. That's what you get for trying to practice dangerous tricks the last time you were in charge! Widget chirped. Athena laughed nervously. "Wait...what dangerous trick? Hold on, I don't think I even want to know. Trucy, you're not allowed to perform that trick again until you're older."

"If you don't me me asking, Mr. Wright, but what type of appointment is it? I know it's personal, but we couldn't help but worry it might be related to your health."

"It is guys, don't fret too much. I'll come out of that screening as clean as a whistle so I can rub it in Edgeworth's face for being such a worrywart."

"But it's nice to have such a caring partner, Mr. Wright! You can never be too careful when it comes to cancer!" Athena said with a determined posture and serious face.

"Heh, guess you're right. So, who wants to play a game of poker while I wait for Edgeworth to come?" Everyone groaned, knowing full well how complicated and long winded these type of games become because of certain...abilities all three lawyers had.

A while later, Edgeworth had called the blue attorney's phone to notify his arrival. Phoenix got up right away, full of confidence and cockiness, having won the round. Trucy cheered at her father's victory as the other two attorneys groaned, throwing the cards back on the table.

"Hey, Edgeworth! How about you come in for some tea and crackers before we leave," Phoenix asked brightly.

"You and I both know fully well that you have no such things in your office. You're simply trying to prolong the inevitable," the prosecutor pointed at his partner, wagging the finger in an as-a-matter-of-factly manner rather than an accusingly one.

"Ooh, you got me. What else is new?"

"Sarcasm will not stop me. Now come on, get your jacket and let's go," it was at this time that he noticed the other three individuals behind his partner. De acknowledges them with a curt nod before turning his attention back to the attorney before him. His current focus was on Phoenix Wright, a stubborn man that hasn't gotten a pap test in the last five years.

"Fine, fine," Phoenix muttered, gathering his coat and waved goodbye to the trio. Miles waited for his partner to close the door asking the question.

"So where's your OB/GYN's office?"

"I...kinda don't have one right now?" Phoenix answered sheepishly.

"You what?" Edgeworth took off his glasses and pinched his nose. "Come on Wright, I'll take you to Franziska's."

"Wow, she has one in America? Isn't she fancy."

"There was a false alarm, and we thought it was something gravely serious when it was not. Either way, this doctor is highly recommended," Edgeworth started to walk away, with Phoenix having to skip a few steps to catch up with his partner.

"Isn't this funny? Your sister and I are going to have the same gynecologist. Doesn't that weird you out?"

"Hardly."

"Come on, Edgeworth. I know for sure I don't have anything. Not even HPV, I'm fine," he tried to reassure his partner. The prosecutor however, was having none of that. Phoenix then shut his mouth, might as well get it done and over with, or else he might be the cause of the Chief Prosecutor's permanent face paralysis. If it wasn't stuck like that before, it would surely be now if Phoenix continued this any longer.

"You should bring your daughter to the gynocologist in the near future too."

"All right, all right!" Phoenix threw his hands in the air.

"God, that was so embarrassing," Phoenix stretched his arms as he walked out of the reception room.

"It is normal for cis women and transgendered males to get cervical screening every few years. And certainly not five, " Miles followed his partner.

"Everyone was looking at me like I was a pervert," the defense attorney pouted.

"Maybe they recognized you," the other man said.

"Ha, maybe. Maybe they recognized you too."

"That is also another possibility. A lot of the women in the facility kept staring at me."

"You know you could have waited in the car after you signed me in."

"Wright please, you'd get lost in the parking lot. Besides, I had to be there in case something happened. Like you making an escape or such."

"So that's what you think of me," Phoenix smiled at his partner, who returned the gesture with an upturned corner of his lips. It's not like it's hard to find his car, Phoenix thought. It was a freaking red sports car afterall.

Phoenix Wright soon arrived back to the office, with Miles in tow. It was getting pretty late in the day, and with no sign of anyone coming soon, Phoenix deemed it a reasonable time to close up the office. If anyone was in an immediate need of a lawyer, they can phone him. For some reason, everyone agreed that it would be a good day to eat at Eldoon's. The salty broth was not good for their health at all, and there were always a lot of leftovers. Hard to break tradition, Miles guessed.

Their conversations varied that evening. Simon Blackquill had dropped by to visit. Lately, along with visiting his sister every Tuesday, he had been trying to catch up on his relationship with Athena. She had looked up to him like an older brother since she was young, and now Simon finally had a chance to reprise that role. Not to mention he was trying to build a relationship with Apollo and Trucy too. But alas, seven years in prison had left his social skills..rusty. After a few months out of prison, the bags under his eyes had lessened and color was returning back to his complexion. Athena was proud to announce that Simon is currently the epitome of health. Freedom makes a huge impact on one's life, afterall.

After slight pestering from Athena and the others, Phoenix was forced to tell a tale or two of the times he helped Miles in Europe. As expected, shenanigans ensued that even Miles couldn't help but let out a low chuckle at the memories. What they didn't talk about all night was where Phoenix went that evening with Miles. Everyone was dying to know about the results, but everyone also knew that it was a private matter. There were times where someone was dangerously close to ask, but they held themselves back. Trucy almost bit her tongue even.

After the agonizingly salty ramen was devoured, everyone went their separate ways. Trucy had an inkling in the pit of her stomach on just what had transpired during her father's absence at the office. And she was sure that it wasn't the noodles talking.

"Daddy, you went to get a cervical test, didn't you?" Trucy asked her father the moment she knew that they were alone in their own home. He nodded at the question. "...Does that mean you have cervical cancer?" she questioned. Tears were welling up in her eyes and she began to sniffle.

"No...honey, no. It was just a screening. A test to see if I do have cervical cancer. I'm 100% sure I don't, but the result won't come until a few days. It's just a procedure most should take every few years and Uncle Miles was just worried that since I missed a screening once or twice something could have shown up during that time," he rested a hand on her shoulder, and she began to sob tears of relief into his chest. After she quieted down, her reddened nose and puffy eyes were the only evidence that she had recently cried.

"Don't miss another one, okay Daddy?" she asked him. He couldn't help but nod, promising his daughter he'll make sure to keep his vagina in check.

"Now let's get you ready, you've got a show tonight, don' you?" Trucy gasped.

"I completely forgot!" Phoenix chuckled at his daughter's antics. Poor girl, she must have thought of the worst case scenario all this time, resulting in her forgetting her job, something she enjoyed doing immensely. The teen was then quite sullen, almost nervous.

"...Daddy..." she began. Trucy was wringing the edge of her dress, her eyes darting between his own eyes and the ground.

"Hmm? What's wrong, Truce? This isn't like you. You of all people don't get pre-show jitters," Phoenix, now on full dad mode, rested both his hands on her shoulders and hunched over slightly, so he could meet eye to eye with his daughter.

"I-it's not that. It's just..." she bit her lip, doing her best to avoid eye contact with her father, "can-you-help-me-put-on-some-make-up-for-tonight's-show?"

"Didn't I tell you-"

"Come on daddy, you wore make up at a younger age than I did," Trucy huffed, regaining confidence.

"Point taken. Do you have any supplied or do you want me to buy you some right now?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, daddy. Can I use yours? Just for tonight, I'll only wear makeup tonight! Until I wear it again for another occasion of course!"

"Don't, that makeup has lived long past its expiration date. Uncle Larry was only keeping them for sentimental reasons, no matter how creepy it is to keep your ex's makeup. Granted, it's for me and him to remember a big part of our middle school days, but it's still a bit on the neurotic side. Come on Truce, it might not be the best brands, but I need you to be there to at least get makeup of your complexion."

"Yes, daddy!" Trucy chirped, gaining the bounce back in her feet. She gets to go out to buy make up with her father! She bet her friend Jinxie Tenma didn't get to do that.

They arrived at the closest drugstore. And even though the makeup selection there was small, it had some brands that Phoenix could recognize from his face paint days. Good ones, in fact. He whistled at some of the prices at the ones that were too expensive. Despite it's claim of being 10% off, Phoenix knew better than fall for its marketing ploy.

"What I don't get though, is why you didn't ask Athena to help you out," Phoenix said while he applied a sample onto his daughter's arm, comparing it with another blush that was already there.

"Because I want you to teach me!" Trucy said. Swinging her legs excitedly from the tall stool that was seated right next to the make up stand.

"Even though I am a man?" Phoenix asked, shaking his head and reaching out for a different palette.

"Especially since you're a man!" his daughter confirmed. Phoenix arched his eyebrows at that.

"Oh? How so?"

"Males tend to be more blunt, and if I make a mistake Athena would most likely say 'Oh it's okay, I'll fix it,' and I'll learn nothing from that. Besides, Widget will probably be all Bzzt! That's horrible! and it'll be twice as awkward because she'd be lying to me. Also, because you used to be an art major!"

Phoenix hummed an "'oh, I see' kind of hum before finalizing his choice in blush for his daughter. That was all the makeup accounted for, and it was time to head on over to the Borscht Bowl Club.

"I did not expect to see Mr. Wright to come back so soon," a thick Russian accent greeted Phoenix the moment he set foot into the freezing restaurant.

"I'm just here to drop off my daughter for the show, Olga," he managed a smile at the waitress. She was called over by another customer and was gone immediately.

"Okay, Truce. Hopefully, there's enough light for me to do your makeup in the back. Since it was so sudden I'm not going to be able to teach you anything this time around, but I can get the job done, okay?" Trucy nodded as she led her father backstage. Thankfully, muscle memory was able to guide his arms into gracefully adding the minor yet significant changes onto his daughter's face. She thanked him and since Phoenix was already there, stayed for the show.

Afterwards he saw her speaking to a boy about her age, something about coming to the show and telling him that magic tricks were cooler than he thought it was. So that's why she was so keen on makeup today.

"So...who was that boy?"

"J-just a guy in my class, daddy," she waved her hand around, as if dismissing the topic already. It would take more than that to shake him off.

"Do you like him?" Even though it was dark, he could see Trucy burn fifty shades redder. Knowing that she could not lie to her father, Trucy nodded, tipping the edge of her top hat to hide her face.

"Oh, Trucy..." her father laughed, draping one arm over her shoulder and hugging her close to him. "Please don't grow up too fast and stay like this forever."

"You know I can't promise that, daddy."

"I know Truce, I know. But one more thing, sweetheart."

"What is that, daddy?" the teen looked up to her dad.

"If you want to wear makeup - I guess it's fine now for you to decide on that by yourself. But, you are only putting on make up for you and you only. Don't do it for someone else. Don't do it because you're pressured into doing so by the other girls. Wear it if you want to wear it," Phoenix gently told his daughter. Trucy soaked the information in before nodding her head.

"Understood, daddy," the magician said while taking a small leap in her step to emphasize her acknowledgement of the statement. Phoenix chuckled and gave a small pap on his daughter's upper back.

"Oh, yeah. Trucy, Uncle Miles reminded me to get you to a gynocologist. It doesn't have to involve a pelvic check, just a normal health exam and to get you acquainted with someone you'll most likely have to talk future vaginal problems to," Phoenix nonchalantly said over breakfast several days later. Trucy almost choked on her toast but was able to wash it down with the glass of milk that she had ready.

"But what if I don't want to talk to a stranger about it? What if I only want to talk to you about it?"

"Trucy, an OB/GYN is going to know more about your body than I do. You are definitely going to ask questions I don't know the answer to, and its more beneficial to your health."

"Fine..." the teen sighed.

"Hmm, hey Truce, where's yesterday's mail?"

"Daddy, it was your turn to get it."

"So it was..." Phoenix looked at the clock on the wall, "Well, it's time to go to the office. Remember to lock the door later, will you, sweetie?"

"Sure dad, I'll leave it wide open for all the neighborhood burglars to come in and steal our stuff."

"That's my girl," he called back. On his way out the door, Phoenix picked up the mail and stuffed it in with his other papers of his briefcase. It wouldn't be the first time he had done this, no matter how many times Apollo lectured him to take care of his bills and miscellaneous things at home.

As usual, he was the first to arrive at the office. Phoenix immediately threw his briefcase onto his messy desk, only slightly regretting about not cleaning it up the day prior. He shifted through the envelopes that were in his mail, dividing it from bills, to junk, to other things he'll look back to. One flew off his desk, but Phoenix was too lazy to go get it, instead the lawyer spent his energy making a mental note to himself to get it later. After bundling the piles together with rubber bands, he began to shift through his real work.

No cases this week either, huh he hummed to himself. Might as well organize the files from the lesser ones, then. Apollo arrived shortly afterwards, about five or ten minutes later in fact. The red lawyer was unfortunately given the task to clean the toilet...again. The moment Apollo finished up, Athena arrived. She too was made to clean the toilet, despite it already being taken care of by the other lawyer. Apollo was grateful to be going back to paperwork, no matter how tedious it may be - because who ever heard of a lawyer who cleaned the toilet daily? It was all normal routine for them, actually, and they fell into their schedule like clockwork.

When the toilet was cleaned yet again, Phoenix decided to stretch his legs for a bit, and actually throw out that stale coffee that's been mellowing in the pot for the last day or so. Unfortunately for him, the stains were persistent. Jesus, how thick was that stuff? While Phoenix was scrubbing away, Apollo noticed a stray envelope that was tucked underneath his boss's desk while he was moving files around?

"What's this?" Apollo said out loud to no one in particular as he picked up the letter. He turned it to the front and his eyes were drawn to the return address immediately. "...Athenaaaaa?"

"Yeeeees?" Miss Cykes replied, replicating the long vowels Mr. Justice had used to call her name.

"Is this yours?" Apollo asked while handing her the envelope. She gave him a curious look before accepting the letter. "You shouldn't bring personal items to work."

"Obstetrics-I didn't go to any OB/GYN clinic recently," she wondered, "Hey, look, it's Mr. Wright's address on here...Maybe it's Trucy's?"

There was a cough, and the two young attorneys turned around to find their boss, sleeves rolled up, hands crossed.

"What'd you got there, kids?" he said, smiling. Apollo started sputtering at being called a kid while Athena gave Phoenix the envelope. The boss took a look at the address and started fanning himself slowly with the letter, his expressions in severe thought. With a swift moment, Phoenix opened the letter, much to his employee's confusion.

"Oh yeah," Apollo said quietly. "I forgot that Mr. Wright is transgender." Phoenix walked out of the room to read his diagnosis. It's a private matter, after all.

"He's what?" Athena's eyes grew wide. Her hair doing that impossible crooked thing whenever she was in shock.

"It was only a small part of his bio, and it wasn't mentioned in any of his cases. But yeah. It's not like being a transgender individual is all of his identity, so I didn't really pay attention to that. I admired him for being a good lawyer, my opinion of him never changed when I read about it, and I still admired him immensely when I was studying him." In the kitchen, Phoenix started whooping.

"Wow, that's amazing." Athena said, her eyes practically sparkling. "So, he's like an icon for lawyering, and a GSM icon!"

"GSM...?"

"Gender and Sexual Minorities," Athen replied knowingly. Phoenix was now calling Edgeworth. When the Chief Prosecutor picked up, Phoenix started chuckling into his phone. "Eat it, Edgey. I'm clean free!"

"What happened to LGBTQ*?"

"But that's not everyone," Athena pointed out.

"There's an asterisk," he said.

In the muffled distance, Phoenix replied to his partner, "Well, you still let Larry call you that."

"Not when you're speaking," she joked.

"Fine. What was the rest of it, uh...Q..P..A..A? IA? IAAP?" Apollo being to scrunch his eyebrows together. Too...many...acronyms. Widget oh so helpfully assisted Apollo, LGBTQIAAP...or something like that.

Athena snickered at her partner's attempted antics, "Exactly. But I hardly think the second A, which is "Allies" by the way - should be part of it. Sure, they get bugged too for supporting, but it's not like they are isolated in a way...they don't actually experience the fear themselves."

"Edgeyyyyy. Edgeyyyyyyyy," came a distanced voice. "Okay, okay. Christ, Edgeworth. Yes, I know you were worried too."

Apollo and Athena then started to have this long physiological conversation about humanity. Their hypocrisy and the actual weirdness of their bipedal species. I mean, they're probably the only species in the entire universe that goes camping. The two later of course remembered to ask about their boss's nether region's health and went to check on him. The spiky haired lawyer gave them the thumbs up and the okay.

"But seriously, joking left aside...thank you. For worrying about me," Phoenix smiled to his phone. Even though Miles was unable to see it, he was sure that the prosecutor could feel it.

"Not a problem. Although a bit of a bother, considering. And I may advise that you schedule and go to your own tests from now on." Phoenix could practically imagine Miles waving his finger at him.

"Sure," the lawyer laughed. "I love you, Miles Edgeworth."

There was no pause or hesitation, no sketchy timing that could have resulted from quick thinking or sudden stress. The flow and sync of their wavelengths were perfect as Miles's voice grew calmer, less nagging, more true to his emotions towards the lawyer on the other end. His lawyer.

"And I love you, Phoenix Wright."

Aaaand that's a wrap! For now. Although this fic is completed, I am thinking about a shorter bonus story that is on a lighter tone and for fun. It will be set in the same universe, with the appearance of Pearls and wacky Kurain magic.

So, do you think Capcom is going to continue the franchise in the Meiji era forever, or do you think Phoenix and the gang would come back (again)? Also, do you think the localization teams will set the story in Japanifornia or actually honest to God Japan? I am honestly fine with either, but imagine the localized Japanifornian names.

Edit: Okay I edited this last chapter to remove a really inappropriate/controversial conversation at the end. I apologize for the content. I will not ask for forgiveness because it was wrong of me to include it in the first place and I know better now. It was in part "inspired" by some real life drama that now seems really childless and meaningless. Once again I apologize for any discomfort it might have caused.