Phoenix paused, fell completely silent, and briskly continued onward without another word, keeping his head down as he felt his heart fall into a panicked rhythm of thudding. The posh block of apartments was soon filling the pair's vision, as if under a transparent magnifying glass.

Edgeworth unlocked the door to his swish apartment with a simple-yet-flamboyant (and rather showy, in an unrefined person's opinion) gesture, discreetly glancing at his astounded boyfriend with lips drawn into a tight smirk in order to check if his display of elegance had taken effect. The prosecutor could barely contain his smugness as he processed Phoenix's astounded expression, pretending to act in a so-called 'casual' manner, lazily striding in and gently nudging the blushing defence attorney in with him as he flicked his foot back at the door so that it softly clicked shut with a quiet moan.

Was he trying to impress Phoenix at this point, or was he just trying to clear the awkward silence that had arisen ever since he'd asked his boyfriend that question about trusting Clementine?

The behemoth thought which was preventing the silvery-haired man from finding out whatever the answer to those questions was - which was still an ongoing debate within Edgeworth's plethora of questions swimming within his mind - appeared to be something far, far, lewder.

... To do with Phoenix.

The defence attorney silently slipped off his polished (thanks to the prosecutor's constant desire for everything to be pristine), jet-black shoes, blissfully ignorant toward what the door's soft groan and his bent over physique was doing to Edgeworth's, positively perverted, mind. In fact, the moment that the spiky-haired man finally became enlightened to the fact arrived far, far, later - when he felt his eyes bulging at the sight of the prosecutor's downcast glare, stalling his movements only to mirror the silvery-haired man's eyes' point of view. Where Phoenix's ocean-blue pools - which somehow allowed the man to see despite how many damned times they caught the light - landed appeared to look completely different to how the defence attorney had expected, judging by his highly flammable cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

There seemed to be a makeshift tent where Edgeworth's-

"What's with the awkward silence?" The prosecutor looked away in a surprising feat of stamina, quite obviously trying to contain whatever was going on in his vivid imagination from spilling over.
"U-Um, I'm g-going to have a w-wash, if that's o-ok with you?" Phoenix hastily blurted, not particularly keen on the way things may play out if he remained in the room, alone, with the prosecutor.

It wasn't that the defence attorney didn't love Edgeworth - of course he loved and trusted the man more than anyone in the Universe (they were boyfriends, after all) - it was just that they hadn't done anything like that in a very long time. Not since that whole incident had occurred; Ever since that, Phoenix just felt uncomfortable about the whole idea - no matter how much guilt he felt whenever he saw the prosecutor's wistful looks or when the silvery-haired man insisted that they shouldn't go out of the spiky-haired man's comfort zone despite his evident desires which he was forced to contain.

"Sure. Actually, I've been meaning to as well... Would you mind if I took one with you? For old time's sake?" The defence attorney curtly nodded, grateful for the chance to change the topic of conversation, a wavering - yet completely sincere - smile flickering on his lips as he felt the warm buzz of nine months ago's luke-warm memories returning to him in a flurry of emotions, unknowingly allowing his eyelids to shut as the images enveloped him in their alluring golden hues and smiling faces.

"I'll wash you - but only if you promise to stop splashing me, dirty boy,"
"Ahh! No! D-Don't tickle m- Haha-stop-hahah-or I'll-hahahahah-" Phoenix squealed in a fit of delightful laughter, struggling against the prosecutor's firm, teasing, grip on his nude body as he attempted to continue clothing Edgeworth in the soapy suds (and failing miserably, to his personal dismay). The silvery-haired man softly chuckled along, eventually pausing their play-fighting to proceed in stopping and staring at his boyfriend with a look of... Satisfaction. Was that satisfaction? Or was that happiness? Perhaps it was both. Perhaps he was simply satisfied with his boyfriend to the point that he was unbelievably happy. Whatever it was, the electric feeling made Edgeworth's eyes glitter, highlighting his lust-filled pupils, and the defence attorney's heart inflate with joy in being looked at in that way. No one else could - or ever had - look so genuinely smitten with Phoenix before, despite how many 'relationships' he'd been in, and it made him feel wanted for once. That was something the defence attorney had not felt before the prosecutor had returned; the spiky-haired man felt unbelievably fortuitous.

Edgeworth wanted him, and he wanted Edgeworth.

Phoenix's eyes slowly reopened again, his vision filled with a blurred view of the prosecutor's stunningly-featured face, and he couldn't help but feel tears welling at the corners of his eyes, pricking his eyelashes with their sticky liquids.

Would things ever be the same again?

Then came the brutal truth.

No.