madimpossibledreamer

Main Points:
Ace Attorney AU
Summary: Now Edgeworth's getting some evidence for his theory.
Rating: G?
Word Count: 500

Edgeworth prides himself on his observational skills. It’s helped him solve many cases, kept him alive. He has other traits that he likes less, but in general it’s very difficult to keep a secret from Miles Edgeworth.

That’s why he’s shocked it took him this long, and pleasantly surprised at how motivated Wright must have been to bring it this far.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t Gumshoe who let the secret slip, despite his clumsiness potentially serving as a clue that something was going on in the first place. (Edgeworth still isn’t sure whether that was a partial truth Phoenix offered or if it just served as an excuse. It is highly plausible if nothing else.)

Honestly, it’s Larry that serves as the biggest clue. Despite his atrocious taste in garments, the man didn’t usually make a habit of ugly Christmas sweaters, yet here he was, more often than normal, tracking in mud and almost everything else, nearly breaking through Edgeworth’s apathy by his presence. In the end, though, Edgeworth remains in place on the couch. Maya takes Pess for the necessary walks, with none of her usual complaints in sight. After a little while, Phoenix had begun to fall asleep, utterly exhausted, when he joins Edgeworth, a silent pillar of support, late in the night. Of course, dealing with Larry is exhausting in itself, never mind taking on multiple cases (which Edgeworth suspects, though the man never talks about them), but it’s hardly the only thing that’s weighing on Phoenix’s mind. Normally, the man is extremely chatty about his problems, to the point of good-naturedly complaining, but none of that is obvious here. Of course, he could just be reading his friend’s mood, but when Larry of all people is suddenly uncommunicative, even when he’s there all the time—that speaks of conspiracy.

Christmas decorations appear, seemingly overnight. A catalogue had been left, seemingly by accident, but when Phoenix had seen him actually reading it suddenly it became a rather common mistake. The one day he could drag himself upright to make the Christmas cookies, he’d noticed that some of the baking sheets and cake pans hadn’t been put back properly, but given that the house hadn’t been burned down and they’d actually been cleaned properly (or very nearly), he decided not to say anything.

He suspected the truth, that Phoenix had taken it into his heart to give him a Christmas to remember, and to that end had recruited everyone he could think of to do so. Given Wright’s tendency to pick up strays, it’s not especially surprising, that he’d managed to get what amounts to a small army for such a silly cause, that man capable of turning a silly, lost cause into the latest win. The last evidence for the court would be a confession from the man himself, but for the first time in a long while, Miles finds himself feeling just the slightest bit…alive, this month. It’s worth the price of his silence, this time.