The Manny Named Miles

❥ chapter four: i accidentally fell for you

"It's been a whole year," she breathed quietly. Miles smiled.

"A bit more than that, but yes, it has." It had been, perhaps, the shortest year Miles had ever experienced. And truthfully it had been well over a year, but it had happened so fast that no one had noticed it.

"Are we gonna celebrate?"

"Hmm... Maybe. We could do something, I suppose."

They walked hand in hand and talked about fancy dinner or party ideas until they made it to the bus stop, and once they got home, Miles helped Trucy remove her boots and her coat and her mittens and sent her to her room. Phoenix wouldn't be back for another hour or so, and so Miles made them a snack to munch on as they worked on her math homework together.

She finished it early, as she'd greatly improved at math over the last few months. Trucy seemed a bit tired, and said it had been a long and difficult school day. At some point they got to talking, as they always did when this happened. Trucy may have been a small child, but that didn't mean Miles couldn't have a meaningful conversation with her. Quite the opposite, in fact. Her mind wasn't yet tainted with the cold cynicism of an adult, and unlike most adults, she was open to new ideas.

"So you said you lost your daddy, right?" Trucy asked eventually, her voice small and sad. It was something they talked about from time to time, and she had a different question about it each time she asked.

"I did, yes. Did you... Did you ever know your biological father? The person people would have called your daddy before your new daddy came along, that is," Miles clarified. Trucy looked up as she thought.

"Nope! But that's okay. Daddy is a much better daddy, I know it."

"Hmm. I was always told my mother died not long after I was born. I don't remember her. My father used to say that I have her sense of humor, though. I'm not sure what that means."

"It means that she was sassy!"

Miles laughed at that. He hadn't expected it, but perhaps she wasn't wrong. Perhaps he had been referring to the distinctive Edgeworth attitude.

Miles talked to Trucy for another half hour or so before her father returned, and as always, she practically tackled him by leaping off the bottom stair and wrapping her arms around him. By now, Phoenix expected it. Once he'd put Trucy down, Phoenix grinned in his nanny's direction. As always, Miles found some excuse to look away— it was hard to feign disinterest in the wake of that bright smile.

Hours later, after Miles had gone to bed, Phoenix trudged down the hall and heard Trucy whisper at him through her cracked door.

"Trucy, you should be sleeping!" he hissed at her as he pulled her door closed behind him. She hopped softly up and down on socked feet.

"It has to be a secret!" she replied, and Phoenix bent down to her height so she could share her secret plan.

— · ✦ · —

A year. A year and nearly three months— it was amazing how no one had noticed the first year had passed until they were well into the second. A lot of things happened in a year. Birthdays (for all three of them), a first Christmas (the second of which was coming up), and many parent-teacher conferences and talent shows and playdates.

Christmas. It was only a few weeks away now.

Miles' first Christmas with the Wright family had been somewhat awkward and uneventful. As quickly as Miles had bonded with Trucy, the nanny had still insisted on calling Phoenix Mr. Wright back then. He had hung in the back, as he'd been uncomfortable taking the spotlight. This year, his own presents were included beneath the tree.