pocket-attorney

[pocket-attorney]

Tiny Feenie being extremely comfortable with Bratworth (who hasn’t had physical contact nor someone trust and care about him this much in the past eleven years, so he just short-circuits half the time not knowing how to handle it).

[pocket-attorney]

Do you guys wanna tell him, or should I?

[pocket-attorney]

Miles hurried into his office, slamming the door shut behind him and pressing himself against it. He panted, trying to catch his breath while his smartwatch beeped in warning. It was almost insulting, getting beeped at as if he didn’t know already what was going to happen whilst being incapable of doing anything about it.

The meeting had run incredibly, painfully late, and because he was Miles Edgeworth (who couldn’t afford to show that he had other things to worry about outside of work), he hadn’t left until it had officially ended. It was also for that reason that he’d put himself in this predicament, having had to scramble to his office instead of going home.

In past experiences, he’d be stuck there for the rest of the night, only able to interact with the few supplies he could bring into his office without getting any strange looks from visitors. Now though, he’d long since had someone to rely on.

(Wright. I need to call Wright...)

He reached into his pocket, fishing out his smartphone and unlocking it. Navigating to his contacts, he scrolled to Phoenix’s, aptly titled ‘Necessary Feelings’. He raised his thumb to tap the “call” button--

Then immediately felt an all-too-familiar sinking sensation, dropping his phone in shock. He cursed under his breath, feeling dizzy as the world slowly got bigger from his perspective. The door he’d been pressed against rubbed against his back, though he knew he wasn’t sliding to the floor.

He pushed away from the door and ran his hands through his hair. No matter how many times it happened, he was constantly frustrated by helplessness of the whole thing.

Just like every night, he shrunk down to about six inches tall. Also like every night, he wouldn’t be back to normal until morning.

At the very least, he supposed, six inches tall was still big enough to use his smartphone, albeit within limits. He walked over to it, thankful it hadn’t been damaged from the fall, and pressed the ‘call’ button with his full hand.

While it rang, he took the phone by one of the corners, dragging it to the nearest wall and propping it up against it. He may’ve been small, but he wasn’t going to let his phone simply lay on the floor.

Just as he stepped back, the ringing stopped with a ‘click,’ Phoenix’s voice coming through afterwards.

“Hello? Edgeworth?”

He let out a breath, feeling a bit of relief from hearing Phoenix talk and then feeling ridiculous for it. Crossing his arms, he got straight to the point and explained, “Wright, the meeting ran late, can you pick me up?”

“What? Are--are you okay?” Phoenix asked, voice raising slightly in pitch. “Are you in danger?”

Miles rolled his eyes at the unnecessary concern, but smiled. “Not at all. I made it back to my office.”

“Ah. Sit tight then. I’ll be there soon.”

He didn’t even get to say “thank you” before the call ended and the screen faded to black. Clearly, there was an urgency Phoenix felt in coming to get him.

He only had to wait.

~~~~~

For the most part, Miles spent his time pacing around the room, lingering near the desk just in case someone who wasn’t Phoenix tried to come in. It wasn’t as though he had nothing to do - for example, he’d gotten a miniature chess set a while back and the only thing stopping him from using it was that he’d already set up the tiny red knights around the tinier blue pawn - but his priority was to prevent situations like this from happening in the future. Doing anything would only serve as a distraction.

There was no clear way to stop his shrinking, which meant that he needed to come up with alternatives to fall back on; a safety net, as it were. What he did now simply wasn’t sustainable.

He knew that leaving with the excuse that he was busy wouldn’t work, not only because it seemed unprofessional but that his co-workers could look into his workload and confirm whether or not he was telling the truth. The easiest solution then would probably be to ask Phoenix for help and secretly send him some sort of symbol through text to indicate that Phoenix fake an emergency call to give him a reason to leave.

The thought made Miles feel vaguely queasy. Phoenix had already done enough for him, proven by how he was dropping whatever he was currently doing to come pick him up, so he wasn’t eager to ask for any more favors of him.

A knock on the door brought Miles back to reality, making him jump in place from surprise. He turned, waiting to hear the voice on the other side and getting ready to make a break for the desk if needed.

“Edgeworth?” Phoenix called. “Can I come in?”

His shoulders eased. Raising his voice, he replied, “Yes, come in.”

He watched the doorknob turn, the door opening partway as Phoenix peeked inside. They made eye contact, Phoenix glancing behind him to check for anyone nearby, then slipped into the room through the very little space he’d made between the door and door frame.

“No one’s there, Wright,” Miles commented with a raised brow.

“Can’t be too careful,” Phoenix dismissed, shutting the door behind him. His gaze then drifted about the room, eventually spotting the smartphone propped up against the wall. He knelt down to pick it up and stash it in his pocket, just as Miles began to approach. “I saw Gumshoe on the way here.”

Picking up on the idle conversation, Miles tilted his head. “Oh?”

“Yeah. He asked where I was going.” Phoenix cleared his throat, doing an impression of Gumshoe’s voice. “‘Did Mr. Edgeworth overwork himself again? You better take good care of him, pal!”

Miles scoffed, breaking eye contact with him and clutching his arm. “So you both worry too much over me.”

Phoenix unbuttoned his jacket, then shrugged while slipping it off. “Well, you’re someone worth worrying about.”

Miles’s fingers twitched against his sleeve, his heart clenching as he unconsciously glared at nothing in particular. There was a criticism on his tongue about Phoenix saying things like that when he was defenseless, but he refrained from voicing it. He didn’t want to give Phoenix the satisfaction of knowing how his words affected him.

“Here, climb in,” Phoenix instructed, opening his jacket and lowering it to the floor. A majority of the fabric was resting against the hardwood, allowing Miles easy access to the inner chest pocket that had been made specifically for him.

It was routine by this point. While Phoenix worried and fretted over him, he also took Miles’s concern for independence seriously, including but not limited to allowing Miles to climb into the pocket himself rather than picking him up and dropping him in.

Miles appreciated it even if he didn’t quite have the words for to say so.

Once he was inside, he felt the world move as Phoenix slowly put his jacket back on. Miles always knew that he was secure the moment Phoenix’s body heat registered with him, and he pressed against it like it were a reflex at this point. He felt it necessary to make sure that his body was as unnoticeable as possible from the outside.

“Comfortable?” Phoenix asked.

“Yes, just as I am every other time you ask,” Miles replied, feigning exasperation.

He felt the vibration of Phoenix’s chuckle, then movement as he started heading back for the door. Though Miles couldn’t see, years of being a prosecutor made him extremely aware of his surroundings, his mind drawing up a vague visual in his head based on the sounds around him.

The opening of the door, the flick of the light switch, footsteps, and then the door closing.

The only thing Miles couldn’t visualize - if only due to being completely unaware of it - was the bright smile on his childhood friend’s face, Phoenix in his usual state of bliss to be helping Miles and keeping him close.

ok actually i WILL post this here