Side Quests #7: Confiding

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Ace Attorney AU (where they all play innocent sin online) iso//sq
1, 2, 3, and 5 are v1 (jjba). 4 is v2 (Bleach).  6 is also in this line (AA).
Summary: Tonasaman and Firebird have become acquaintances if not friends in iso.
Word Count: 305
Rating: Gen
warning: some self-hatred (Edgeworth)

         “Why did you imply I shouldn’t want to know your life story?” Edgeworth sighs. As if his own self-hatred wasn’t already apparent.
         Perhaps the easiest method is a confession. Some private messages, he knows, can be shared with law enforcement following a subpoena, a measure against online harassment. If he were truly as intelligent as everyone thinks, he would not give this kind of evidence. Perhaps part of him wants to be caught, to be punished as he deserves. Still, the selfish part of him seeking self-preservation even at the cost of others (as if he never learned that lesson) won’t allow him to give details or be too candid. “I believe…I may have committed a crime. When I was a child.”
         Part of Edgeworth hopes that’s enough to scare off the player behind the username Firebird, even as he’d miss the company. The response takes a long time, Firebird not rushing to reply in worry that lack of a quick response might be taken incorrectly. The only sign that the person behind the screen is actually taking this seriously, for once, not writing it off as a joke. “…Well, I just happen to be studying to be a defense attorney! I don’t believe you’re remembering that right, but I’d happily defend you!”
         Miles sneers at the screen, putting the full weight behind one of his infamous glares behind the expression even though there’s no way the feeling could translate to the hopeless fool. “What, and be like all the other defense attorneys, protecting a truly guilty person?”
         This response is quick, like it’s close to Firebird’s heart. “I don’t believe that.”
         Edgeworth shakes his head. That kind of determination will serve him well in the tedium of law school, but reality will break through such optimism before long. “Then you’re naïve. Well-meaning, but naïve.”