Enemy Territory

by Lucathia

Disclaimer: I do not own Phoenix Wright/Gyakuten Saiban.

Nine-year-old Phoenix clutched his teacher's hand tightly as she led him down the hallway towards the classroom where 'Kid's Club' was held. His eyes wandered around the foreign hallway, having never gone down this way before since his classroom wasn't on this side of the school. Here and there were odd, mask-like, clay sculptures laying out on the blue benches in front of the classrooms. Phoenix imagined them to be the skin shed by those from this side of the school. He tightened his hold on his teacher's hand.

Coming here was like entering enemy territory!

The teacher came to a halt in front of a door. Phoenix was a little disappointed that the door looked just like any other door--plain white. Only the number on the door made it different from the other doors. This one said "Room 1228."

The teacher knelt down and placed an arm on his shoulder.

"Now, I know that it's your first time here, but your parents called me and said that they won't be able to pick you up until later today. I'm sure you'll fit right in. Some of your classmates are here too." The teacher smiled at him, hoping to be reassuring.

He nodded, shuffling his toe as he did so. He could hear loud chatter from inside the room. The teacher opened that plain, white door, revealing a room full of kids.

Phoenix let the teacher lead him into that room full of kids that he didn't know. The comfort from his teacher's hand soon left him as the teacher let go.

The teacher gave him a small pat, pushing him forward towards a group of kids that were drawing.

Phoenix quickly glanced back, noticing that his teacher had wandered away to talk to who was probably the leader of this Kid's Club thing. He turned back glumly.

He stood slightly apart from the rest of the kids, watching them draw and play games. He barely knew anyone outside of those in his small class. He was hoping to see someone he knew. Having an ally while in enemy territory was always a good thing!

Phoenix's eyes wandered around, much like how they wandered around in the hallway outside. There on the left sat a thin boy with glasses eagerly flipping through some kind of picture book. He flipped the book around now and then to show others some of the funny pictures. To that boy's right sat a girl with pigtails, who was chatting avidly with another girl. Another boy with light brown hair and a bright orange vest was folding paper airplanes and shooting them through the air. Phoenix was very good at taking things in visually, and so here he took in the images of all those in the room, etching a picture of all these strangers in his mind.

His eyes wandered over towards a boy in the far corner. Phoenix's eyes had wandered past all those he glanced at, but somehow, his eyes refused to wander past this particular boy. Phoenix squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look. Before he knew it, his feet had taken him up to the boy.

The boy in the corner sat very straight and still. His clothes were very neat--pressed with an iron would be Phoenix's guess. The boy's hair was equally as neat--neatly combed and styled. Phoenix's hair, on the other hand, was always a mess to handle. Some of his classmates had started calling him 'porcupine head.' Phoenix really hoped that the nickname wouldn't stick.

Phoenix noticed that the boy sat apart from all the other kids, as if for some reason there was this wall surrounding him. The boy had this presence, this "leave me alone" type of presence.

And yet, the more someone gave off this kind of presence, the more curious Phoenix became.

Up close, Phoenix was surprised to find that this boy was someone he knew! It was someone from his class, though he hadn't talked to him much before.

"Uh..." began Phoenix when he stood right in front of the neatly-dressed boy. He thought and thought and thought, but for some reason, he couldn't place this kid's name!

The boy looked up from his book, which Phoenix was somewhat alarmed to see was full of tiny words. How in the world could he not get a headache from reading all those tiny little words?

Phoenix stuck out his hand. "I'm Phoenix."

The boy gave him a look that made Phoenix feel very dumb.

"We're in the same class, you know," replied the boy as he stuck a feather in his book as a bookmark. Phoenix had never seen anyone use feathers as bookmarks before.

Phoenix grinned sheepishly at the other boy's statement.

"But whatever," continued the boy after he stared Phoenix down. "You probably forgot my name and just want me to introduce myself."

Phoenix's jaws dropped. "How'd you know that?"

The boy looked at him again, and now Phoenix really felt dumb. Phoenix almost thought that the boy wasn't going to answer.

"There are two reasons," said the boy finally, as if struggling to decide whether or not to tell Phoenix just what these reasons were. He held up one finger. "One, you're introducing yourself even though we're in the same class. It's only polite that I introduce myself in return. Knowing this, you probably introduced yourself hoping that I'd do so too."

Phoenix nodded, feeling very in awe of this boy's reasoning powers at the moment...even though the boy totally sounded like a know-it-all.

The boy held up another finger. "Two, you really sucked at those ice breakers game that we played last week. You almost got everyone's name wrong! So, I think you're really bad at with remembering people."

Phoenix was dumbstruck and even more in awe than before. "It's uh...a little embarrassing that you remember all that...but wow, I didn't think anyone would pay me so much attention." Phoenix looked sheepish again as he exclaimed, "Now I feel ireally/i bad for not remembering your name..."

The other boy shrugged. "I'm probably not all that memorable anyway."

Phoenix shook his head hard. "No! Not at all! I mean, you've just said that I was really bad at remembering people, right? It's not that I don't remember you or anything, I'm just really bad with names! I mean, I totally remember your face!

The boy didn't answer, but he grasped Phoenix's outstretched hand (which Phoenix had dumbly held in the air the entire time they were talking) lightly, shaking it once and only once.

"Miles Edgeworth."

Phoenix grinned, taking that as a sign that he was welcomed. The boy's hand had been cold, but Phoenix clasped Miles's hand again exuberantly, shaking it up and down before he swung his leg over the bench, taking a seat right next to Miles...who was currently frowning at him.

Miles tried to return to his book, but Phoenix still had a whole lot more he wanted to talk about. He wanted to talk about how it felt to be stuck in enemy territory on a daily basis...among other things, but Phoenix's attention wandered a lot and his current curiosity was none other than Miles's book.

"Hey Miles, what are you reading?"

Miles looked back up from his book once again. He pursed his lips, but he showed Phoenix the cover anyway.

Phoenix blinked as he read the title.

"Laws of the Court...?" read Phoenix uncertainly. "Uh...that doesn't sound very fun."

The other boy merely rolled his eyes. "It's not for fun."

Phoenix blinked again. "Then why are you reading it?"

"Because I'm interested in it."

"Oh, okay."

If Phoenix had been unsure that Miles was letting off a "leave me alone" kind of presence, now Phoenix was entirely sure. Miles was kind of reluctant to talk, and he made Phoenix feel a bit stupid sometimes. But, Phoenix also knew that Miles could get really talkative, like when he had been explaining stuff to Phoenix.

All in all, Phoenix was impressed. Miles was all grown-up-like. And, he read stuff that wasn't fun. He read stuff that was interesting.

Miles was cool.

Phoenix's eyes darted around the place once again, roaming across all those faces of strangers. He leaned in towards Miles, counting him as an ally in enemy territory. A very smart, grown-up-like ally.

He lowered his voice and whispered, "So how is it like being here?"

"Here?" asked Miles.

Phoenix gestured. "You know, here? In enemy territory?"

Although Miles looked at him like he was crazy, he answered anyway. "It's fine. Normally, I can read a lot of pages because no one bothers me."

He looked pointedly at Phoenix.

"Oh, how boring," said Phoenix offhandedly.

Miles stared at him. Phoenix just grinned.

"Miles, your father is here to pick you up!" announced the leader of the club.

Phoenix had been drawing for the past hour when Miles's father arrived. It had been really, really hard to get Miles to talk, though Phoenix couldn't be faulted for not trying. Phoenix talked enough for two people, but Miles still replied very little, seeming disinterested in anything Phoenix had to say.

Did Miles really want to be left alone after all?

But at the mention of his father, Miles's entire face lit up. Phoenix saw an old guy in a dark suit (who looked a lot like an older Miles) poke his head into the room, coming in once he noticed where Miles was. The person must be none other than Miles's dad.

Miles shut his book close and ran up to his father.

"Father!"

Miles's dad smiled at Miles.

"How's my boy today?" he asked.

Miles eagerly held up the book that he had been reading. "I read..." His face fell when he remembered that he hadn't read a lot that day. "Only three pages. I got distracted...sorry."

Miles's dad chuckled.

"Nothing to be sorry for! Did you have fun while you were distracted?" he asked.

Miles glanced back at where he had been sitting and where Phoenix was still sitting.

"Is that your friend over there?" asked Miles's dad, following Miles's gaze.

At the word 'friend,' Phoenix felt oddly warm and fuzzy. He even started sweating! How was Miles going to answer?

"Um..." Miles looked down, shuffling his foot. His voice was really hard to hear. And...was he blushing?

Phoenix strained his ears (though he tried not to look too eager).

Miles hugged his book to him.

"Um...maybe? I'm not sure."

And it was then that Phoenix understood.

Miles was, above being a know-it-all, way too cool, hard-to-approach, grown-up-like, and all that...

Miles was shy.

Phoenix finished drawing his picture with a large grin on his face. Being stuck here in enemy territory wasn't so bad after all.

the end

Written for Yuletide 2006 for Croik