Hello~! I am a new fan of Ace Attorney and I found your blog and absolutely fell in love with ur fankids and au, aaaa!!!! It's all so cute!!! I was wondering if I could ask a few questions about it, if you don't mind?
My first question is regarding Maya and Phoenix! So is Phoenix like a sperm donor for their kids together and it's like an agreed upon thing they talked about alot beforehand and felt okay doing because they're dear friends and close or is it more like a comfortable romantic-leaning relationship they've got going on where they have sex sometimes but they're more like cozy partners?
My 2nd question is about Miles!! I wanted to know how he interacts with the girls! For them, he's more like an uncle right? (Or is he like another father figure for them too?) Does he find it more awkward/harder to interact with them or does he soften up and treat them the same as Gregory??
Anyway, thank you for enlightening me to this au!!! I just got through the 1st game and could definitely see the Phoenix×Miles ship but I hadn't considered how well all 3 of them could click together! I love that you're exploring that happiness for them and now it's one of my favorite au/headcanon's for AA!!! (^^)💕
Hello friend (and Happy Pride Month everyone 𔓘⭒๋࣭ )!! Thank you so much and I'm so glad you enjoy the au, it means a lot! The three of them deserve a happy and loving life together and it brings me joy to see that other people think so, too!
I always love answering questions about the au so I'll be happy to answer!
There's a lot here so I have it all under the cut. :)
(And here's another teaser from my illustration series I'm still working on. I haven't had much time to make new artwork for the au lately ahh ಥ‿ಥ )
Anyway, with your first question, it's funny because neither is exactly right. In the beginning, being a donor was something that both Edgeworth and Maya mentioned explicitly (Phoenix feels that there's maybe a "nicer way to put it") but that's essentially what they believed that they were getting themselves into.
They discussed it for nearly half a year while Maya still explored her options and met with other people in the mean time, and this was already after Maya was actively looking for a husband for more than a year and a half. Luckily, Phoenix already knew a bit about the matriarchy and history of Kurain Village, so Maya didn't need to explain much more about that to him. Regardless, the arrangements had to be discussed at length.
Maya didn't expect nor want Phoenix to drop his whole life to be her house-husband in Kurain, so they knew early on that they would spend their parenthood together on a visiting-basis. They visited each other often anyway, so it wouldn't disrupt their lives too much all things considering.
This obviously wasn't ideal on paper, and there was some lament that it was unreasonable for them to be full time parents together. However, with Maya finding herself feeling overwhelmed "in a bad way", as she puts it, whenever she met with potential spouses combined with Phoenix's anxiety with the history of unhappy marriages in Kurain Village and wanting nothing more than for Maya to be happy, they decided the "less than ideal" situation was the best option for them.
Then there was the matter of conceiving the kids, which I detailed in a previous ask.
Their journey to parenthood did push the boundaries of their friendship, and after exploring what those boundaries were, they often had to stop and ask themselves what they even were to each other anymore. They weren't attracted to each other, weren't super comfortable with being married for a long time (with Maya opting to label themselves as "hus-friend" and "wi-friend" in private). However, they still deeply loved each other, found some forms of intimacy pleasant with each other (eg, they enjoy cuddling and sleeping in the same bed but not making out nor having sex), and, obviously, had children together.
It wasn't until shortly before Mia (the eldest daughter) was born--nearly 4 years after Phoenix and Maya decided to have kids together--that they accepted that their relationship could not be defined and stopped caring. They knew what they were to each other and that's all that mattered. (Although, their relationship can be defined: it is queerplatonic, but they don't call themselves this because they are ignorant to the label.)
As for Edgeworth and the Fey girls, it's also a hard relationship to define. He doesn't see them as often as Phoenix does, because when Phoenix and Gregory visit Maya in Kurain, he opts to go to his house to rest and enjoy some time alone. He sees Pearl's daughters even less, since when Maya visits LA, Pearl rarely joins her since she takes over Maya's duties in Kurain.
While all four of the Fey girls call Edgeworth "Uncle Miles" or just "Miles", he’s considerably closer to Maya's daughters than Pearl's. Even before adopting Gregory, he found himself involved by counseling Phoenix and Maya throughout their journey to parenthood, was present when all three kids were born, and even named the youngest daughter (Melusina).
When the girls got a little older, Edgeworth isn't hesitant to discipline them (well, Mia--Melusina doesn't usually cause issues) if he needs to. He tries to give them equal attention but he can't help but be somewhat distant to them compared to his son. Sometimes he overcompensates and Mia takes full advantage of this--and Edgeworth knows it. All in all, he's somewhere in between a father to them and an uncle. Regardless of labels, he is very much part of their family.
