Chapter Text
“Guilty!” “She did it! She’s a thief!”
Emily Wright couldn’t fight back the tears anymore. Her class had put her on trial for the theft of a classmate’s lunch money. She was, unfortunately, the only one without an alibi. She couldn’t help but feel riddled with shame, despite her innocence.
“Now Emily, it’s wrong to steal things,” the teacher chided.
“B-but, I d-didn’t do it,” she sobbed. There was nothing she wouldn’t give in that moment to disappear.
“Objection!” The classroom fell silent as all eyes turned to the source of the interjection. It was Miles Edgeworth. Emily hadn’t really spoken to him much. He was cute, sure, but kind of intimidating. It was strange for a grade-schooler to be so impeccably dressed. And it’s not like he put much effort into socializing.
“A trial is nothing without evidence, and there is no evidence that she took the money!” he declared.
“But Miles,” began the teacher, “it was your money that was stolen.”
“If she says she didn’t do it, then she didn’t do it,” another student chimed in. It was Larry Butz, the resident class trouble maker. “It’s not worth making a girl cry.”
The teacher sighed. “I’ll just replace the money myself then.”
After the trial, Emily approached her saviors. “Th-thank you so much!” She bowed before them, still crying.
“It was nothing.” Edgeworth averted his eyes, blushing slightly.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it!” said Larry. “Just think of us as your princes!”
“Or you could not do that,” Edgeworth added quickly.
“My princes!” Emily smiled, taking both of their hands in her own. “Let’s be friends forever, ok?”
The boys agreed, but their time together as a trio was short-lived, as Edgeworth transferred schools suddenly without saying goodbye.
“How could he just leave?!” Emily was fighting back tears.
Larry placed his hand in her head, rubbing it gently. “Don’t cry, Em. You’re too pretty for tears. And besides, you’ve still got me.”
……
Larry and Emily were practically inseparable during their schooling years. She missed Edgeworth a lot, but Larry was a really good friend to her. They saw less and less of each other around high school, however.
Larry spent most of his time dating a lot of women. Not at the same time, of course. He was very loyal to whoever he was with at the time. But once one relationship ended, it didn’t take him long to dive head-first into a new one.
Emily, meanwhile, had been very unsure of herself as of late. Something felt wrong. And it was getting harder to talk to Larry about her feelings, what with him tunnel-visioning on other ladies.
Other ladies… Yes, that was part of the problem, she thought.
“Em, you are not going to believe this!” Larry exclaimed. “I asked Bonquisha out, and she said yes!”
“What happened to Danae?” Emily asked.
“Oh, yeah, she broke up with me this morning, but it’s all good.” He flashed her a thumbs up.
“You and your women…” she rolled her eyes.
“You’re one to talk,” he retorted. “You had the biggest crush on old Edgy back in the day. I almost felt like a third wheel sometimes.”
“I did not! Shut up!” She crossed her arms, feeling an intense heat in her face.
He chuckled at her and a silence fell between them. Perhaps this is the time, she thought.
“Um, Larry?” She began nervously. She kept her eyes to her lap and twiddled her thumbs. “Do you ever think you would make a pass at me?”
“Oh, um, well,” he scratched the back of his head. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t really see you as a girl.”
“Really?!” Emily’s eyes went wide as she locked them with his. “For real?!”
“Uh, yeah?” Larry was taken aback. “You’ve like one of the guys to me. I mean, we’ve been friends for so long…”
Next thing he knew, he was enveloped in a hug. When she pulled back, she was beaming.
“The truth is, I don’t think I see me as a girl, either,” she explained. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I think I might be a boy. But like, in a girl’s body.”
Oh, like a transformer?” Larry asked.
“Transgender,” Emily corrected, very happy that he was making an effort. “I’ve even picked a new name for myself - Phoenix!”
“Phoenix?”
“Yeah, like the mythological bird! Cool, right?
Larry put his hand to his chin, contemplating the new information. “Phoenix...Phoe-nix… Fee-nick-x… What about ‘Nick’ for short? I could totally see you as a Nick!”
She frowned. “What’s the point of picking a cool, rare name if we’re just gonna use a normal name for short?”
“I mean, what matters is that you know you are, right?” he pointed out.
She mulled over what he said. “I suppose you’re right. So can we try this out for a bit and see how it goes? From now on, we’ll use he/him pronouns for me, and my name will be Phoenix Wright.”
“Sounds like a plan, my dude!”
……
The experiment worked brilliantly. Phoenix loved being Phoenix. He eventually started hormone replacement therapy, and Larry was with him every step of the way. After graduation, they had even begun planning his legal name change and looking into top surgery options.
……
It was shortly after high school that Phoenix read the first of the articles. “Miles Edgeworth - The Demon Prosecutor.” He couldn’t believe what he was reading. This sounded nothing like the Edgeworth he knew as a child. There was no way that the Edgeworth who had saved him in the class trial could be the same Edgeworth in this article. He needed answers.
Getting the phone number to the prosecutor’s office was easy. Getting in touch with Edgeworth himself would be the tricky part.
“Prosecutor’s office, how may I direct your call?”
“I would like to speak to Miles Edgeworth, please,” Phoenix requested nervously.
“Can I get a name, please?”
“Phoe-” He stopped himself. Of course Edgeworth wouldn’t know him by that name. “Emily Wright.” Speaking his old (but still legal) name left a bitter taste in his mouth, but it was necessary. Anything to get to Edgeworth.
“You don’t sound much like an Emily.” The voice on the phone was laced with suspicion. It was understandable. Because of the hormones, he didn’t sound very feminine.
“I’m an old friend of his,” Phoenix added. This elicited a hearty laugh from the receptionist.
“Now I know you’re lying. There’s no way that Edgeworth has friends.”
“Ma’am, please,” he begged.
The receptionist was silent for a moment. “I let him know he has a caller. It’s up to him to answer it.”
Phoenix sighed, grateful he had somehow gotten through to her. “Thank you very much.”
But Edgeworth never picked up the phone. Phoenix tried again many times but to no avail. “Just give up,” the receptionist would say. “There are more important uses for this phone line.”
Despite his failures, his resolve didn’t waver. “If he won’t answer my calls, I’ll face him in court! He’ll have to talk to me then!”
……
As Phoenix was in his third year of college, he was finally getting his name legally changed from “Emily Wright” to “Phoenix Wright.” It had taken him a while to get to it because college, as it turned out, was quite expensive. As much as he wanted to prioritize his trans-formation into his ideal self, he needed to make sure he could see Edgeworth again.
Larry was planning on accompanying him to the district courthouse, but something came up with his latest girlfriend. Phoenix said he was ok with this. It was part of the package deal of being Larry’s friend, after all. But deep down, he really wanted to share this special moment with someone.
The deed was done nonetheless. Being that everyone had already been calling him by chosen name for years now, it felt a little hollow making it official, like he was just crossing another task off the to-do list.
As he was getting ready to leave, he was suddenly bumped into by a young woman. “Whoa, are you o… k…?” His words drifted off as he noticed the jaw-dropping beauty of the woman standing before him.
“Yes, I’m quite alright. What a handsome young man you are. Who might you be?” she asked.
He felt himself blush. “Phoenix. Phoenix Wright.”
“That’s quite a majestic name you’ve got,” she giggled girlishly.
“Thanks, I picked it myself. That’s actually why I’m at the courthouse today,” he explained. The words more or less just babbled out of him.
“My name is Dahlia Hawthorne. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” she smiled. “I have this feeling that you’re going to be very important to me. Please, take this necklace as a token of my affections.” She handed him a crystal bottle necklace.
Now he was blushing like crazy. “I, uh, um, thank you so much!” His hand stroked the back of his neck, a nervous tick of his.
“We should spend time together another day. Make sure to call me later, Feenie.” She slipped him her phone number and walked away, leaving behind a flustered Phoenix.
……
“Woohoo! My man Nick’s finally got himself a girlfriend!” Larry cheered. “Bro, we gotta celebrate!”
“Come on, it’s not that big of a deal,” Phoenix replied.
“It’s a huge deal, my dude!” Larry asserted. “Girlfriends are amazing! And you landed a total hottie!”
Phoenix looked down at the crystal necklace he was wearing and smiled. “She’s not just beautiful, but one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. Maybe we could celebrate a little…”
“Yes! Atta boy, Nick! Let the festivities commence!”
……
How had it gotten to this point? Honestly, how? Phoenix was on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and his sweet Dollie wasn’t who he thought she was. He sat in the courtroom and watched in disbelief as his attorney, Mia Fey, exposed Dahlia for who she truly was.
“Hmpf, like I’d actually be interested in that tranny.” Dahlia’s words cut Phoenix deep.
He felt like his stomach was upside down and his head wasn’t on straight. He wasn’t paying attention anymore. He couldn’t. Every word spoken after Dollie’s betrayal just sounded like a garbled mess.
Everyone in his life had been so supportive up until this point. Of course the fear of transphobia was always there in the back of his mind, but he had never expected it to come from someone so close to him. This brought up the ultimate question -
How would Edgeworth feel about the new Phoenix?