a/n: Timelines? What on earth are those?

1 - a sentence

When Phoenix had dropped down onto one knee and asked, "Miles Edgeworth, will you marry me?", the man in question was stunned.

He wasn't the best of people, he knew. He'd...done things, before he was reunited with Phoenix, after he was reunited with Phoenix, that made that familiar feeling of guilt and self-pity swell in his chest whenever he happened to remember them. He was a cold, ruthless, stubborn, pompous, arrogant, selfish, socially-inept, conniving, perfectionist sonofabitch, as he'd heard Phoenix growl in frustration numerous times before after a particularly frustrating day in court, but even though he was aware of his faults, to others it appeared as if he simply didn't want to change. Truthfully, he didn't know how to better himself, his personality hammered in by his years studying under von Karma -- and even now, when he knew that it was his job as a prosecutor to find the truth, he still couldn't stop that feeling of bitter anger whenever he watched a guilty verdict slip between his fingers, even when Phoenix hotly defended his clients innocence...

He couldn't understand how someone like Phoenix, trusting, stubborn, honest Phoenix, could say those words to him, the man who was everything Phoenix had hated, the man who had spent the last year and a half constantly in denial that he had a boyfriend, a lover, someone that had chosen him, Miles Edgeworth, out of everyone else in the world, someone that actually cared that he breathed...

Why him? Him, of all people...

But at this point in time, it didn't really matter. He had so many things to say, so many words he couldn't break down his wall of pride enough to say, but that Phoenix seemed to somehow hear anyway, a happy, deliriously happy feeling making his head spin as he grabbed Phoenix by the shoulders and crushed him against his trademark magenta suit, fingers digging into the cheap blue fabric, smiling into the other man's shoulder as he whispered his response and his motion mimicked by Phoenix, feeling the vibrations as the other man laughed happily and hugged him back.

He didn't understand Phoenix at all.

But that was okay.