Hurting (CHECK DESC)

Chapter 4: Sleepy

alright pardners the cutesy uwu movie night is over now

As the movie ended, Phoenix turned over to where Miles had been sitting, and where he was now fast asleep. His head had fallen onto Phoenix's shoulder. Phoenix sighed, a small smile on his face. It had been a tiring week, hadn't it? He got up carefully so he wouldn't wake him up, and walked over to the closet to grab a blanket. 

When he got back, Miles was curled up, his knees up to his chin and his head in his hands. He was muttering something. "Miles?" On hearing his name, the man flinched and turned to the speaker. He looked terrified. 

"Woah, what happened?" Phoenix ran over, putting the blanket over Miles's shoulders, who was still saying something, but he was too quiet for Phoenix to hear. Phoenix sat down and almost immediately Miles leaned into him. 

Phoenix could only make out two words, but that was what tipped him off to what had, most likely, caused all this. "I killed."

"They didn't go away, did they?" Miles just shook his head. "But you know they're just dreams now, right?" Phoenix asked. The only sound that answered him was a small sob. That wasn't good. "You know you didn't do it. You didn't kill anyone."  

"But what if I had?" The tone of his voice caught Phoenix off-guard. He sounded so scared and hurt. "What if I had? What if I had shot him, and it was all my doing?"  Phoenix wrapped his arms around him.

"Would the things that happened in court have happened if you had? Would von Karma have confessed if you were to blame?" Miles stayed silent for a moment. "I suppose not." He still sounded unconvinced. 

"What do you propose really happened? If you're sure you did it, you'll need to prove it." He felt bad making him talk about this more than he already had, but if he heard what Miles had to say, he could point out parts of it that didn't match up. Miles wiped his eyes.

"Well... Maybe von Karma had his own gun, and he shot at the same time as me. Maybe the bullet ricocheted off the elevator door and hit him in the shoulder, and the one that I shot really did it." Why did he want to blame himself so bad? What was going on?

But ignoring that, the reasoning of his story didn't match up with the facts.

"See, if the bullet ricocheted, why was there a hole in the door?" Miles went silent again. "And if that's really what happened, why did von Karma make up that whole story of the crime?"

"Maybe he didn't want to admit he had shot himself." Miles said. "Okay, that's way too petty." Phoenix replied. "This is von Karma we're talking about." Miles had a tiny smile on his face. 

"Fair." Phoenix said. "But what are the odds that you both shot at the exact same time?" 

"I guess they aren't high, but still." Phoenix made the verbal equivalent of a key smash and shook his fists."Aah, Miles, why can't you just accept that you didn't kill anyone? Is Go To Prison really that high on your bucket list?" Miles's grin was slightly wider. "No, I just.. I just want to have some explanation for this. That's all."

"Well, I'm no expert, but I'd say that you've gone through some serious shit in the past couple days, the past couple years really, and you're probably still recovering." Phoenix poked Miles on the nose, getting an annoyed noise from him in response. 

"Just cut yourself some slack, okay?" Miles sighed. "Hey. Promise me you won't keep blaming yourself. You didn't do anything, alright? Promise me." Miles laughed and leaned against Phoenix again.

"I promise."

help every time i write about these two delightful homos i end up sounding like i'm writing a fic of me and edgeworth and i don't like it