Rating: General Audience
Warnings: none
Genre: expanded timeline, angst
Pairing: none
The family secret comes out.
September 29, 2028– 1:30 pm
It would have been a typical lazy Saturday at the Wright Anything Agency, except that everyone was getting ready for a wedding tomorrow that Trucy, sadly, didn’t have an invitation to. Athena was out with Maya and Ema shopping for dresses, and Trucy had the run of the office with her daddy.
“I can’t believe I wasn’t invited to that wedding, daddy.” Trucy was complaining for the fourth time that morning as she flipped through the office mail. She’d pouted when she slumped in for breakfast. She’d sniffled when Maya, Athena and Ema headed out. She’d stomped through her practice routine.
She was understandably, in her own opinion, pretty upset that she was the only one getting left out of the stupid Sprocket Airship Wedding part three.
“Sorry, kiddo,” Phoenix murmured as he looked over he shoulder at the letters in the inbox. “I tried, but all I got was the invite and the plus one. It’s gonna be a boring party anyway– they’re on the third one after all.”
“But this is the first one where they don’t got an evil butler stinking the whole thing up!” Trucy flopped onto her back with a whine. “It’s got an airship, daddy! An Airship! They coulda had me an’ the bunnies do a show a mile in the air or something!”
“I already gave them your card, Trucy,” he chuckled, patting her on the shoulder. “Who knows, maybe they’ll call you for wedding number four. Hey– any mail from Apollo, today?”
“How many weddings can she possibly have? Save some for the rest of us, jeeze.” Trucy grumbled. She flipped through the last of the mail hopefully, and she bit her lip. “I dunno…nothin’ yet…“he’s been sending less and less lately.”
Phoenix sighed. “He sure has, huh? Starting to feel like he’s on the moon…”
Trucy’s sour feelings about not being invited to the wedding were small in comparison to the turmoil that roiled inside her when Apollo Justice was brought up. It’d been months now that he’d been gone, had promised to write, and that he’d still be a part of their lives even if he was staying in the mountains far away.
It’d been several weeks since she’d even gotten a letter. It was like he was vanishing before her eyes, and eventually it’d be months or even years, or long enough that she couldn’t remember his face. Just like with her original daddy, or her mother.
“…he might as well be,” she muttered as her shoulders started to shake.
Phoenix put his arms around her daughter’s shaking shoulders. “Hey… hey, Trucy, it’s alright. He’s not going to be gone forever.”
Trucy sniffed, and wiped at her eyes, surprised to find that she’d already started to cry. “He’s gonna forget about us, daddy.”
“No way, Trucy,” Phoenix shook his head. “There’s no way he could, you know?”
His hand searched for the tissue box on the desk, and pulled a few out, offering them to her.
Trucy snatched the tissues and pressed the whole bundle to her face.
“He super could, daddy! I mean…I mean…he’s got a whole new life there with family an’ everything.” She sniffed. “Why’d he wanna think about us? We messed up his law career…made him clean toilets…I shoulda been nicer and not dragged into my sh-shows!”
He stood there with his hand on her back for a long moment, and took a deep breath. “It’s not like that, Trucy. Apollo… has family here too.”
“N-nuh uh, daddy!” Trucy wiped her eyes with a loud sniffle. “we woulda known if he did!”
He passed her another tissue and hesitated. “Trucy, there’s something I need to tell you. I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, but I didn’t have permission.”
Trucy took the tissue with a puzzled frown as she tried to wipe her eyes and nose.
“W…what kinda thing, Daddy?” She tilted her head to the side , and her eyes focused instinctively. Whatever this was…she didn’t want to have to catch her adopted father in a lie.
“When I say Apollo has family here…” He began slowly. She could see how tense he’d become. “I mean you, Trucy.”
Her eyes traced over him…she didn’t see any nervous twitch or tell aside from the tension, and she felt her own body tense in surprise as she took a sharp intake of breath.
“W-w-w…what?” He had to have still been joking, even if she didn’t register a single lie. Sure, there’d been clues…they’d always been so much alike, after all. They even had the same funny little cowlicks…but, lots of people did.
It was common.
Her daddy held her shoulder gently, but firmly, and took a breath. “He’s your brother, Trucy. Your half brother.”
“……” Trucy’s brow furrowed, before she felt tears burning at the back of her eyes again. “he’s…he’s…he’s my half brother? W-whatta you mean? Daddy didn’t have any other kids!”
“Your mother did.”
“….” Trucy’s world was spinning around her as her tears brimmed in the corner of her eyes. “Mommy had another kid…and it was frickin’ APOLLO JUSTICE, Daddy??? And you KNEW?”
HIs hands flew up in defense. “Hey, hey, hey! I was sworn to secrecy, kiddo!”
“By WHO!!! Mommy’s DEAD and it’s not like Uncle Valant would care!” She pressed her hands to her face. “was it daddy? Before he got killed? Was it Apollo? Did Apollo know?? “
“Apollo doesn’t know,” Phoenix said. He rubbed his hands together anxiously for a moment, and then he slowly put his hands on her shoulders. “And it was your mother, Trucy. She isn’t dead.”
Trucy’s entire world was shaking around her. The fundamental truths of her life surrounding the many secrets and magic tricks that made up her past. ’Your mother was killed in a magic accident’ and ‘your father left you because he had to vanish after the trauma of her death and Magnifi’s grand inheritance scheme’ and ‘you have no family left except the family you made’…
They were all pulled away in one of the weirdest magic acts of her life.
“…..momma isn’t…dead…?”
“She’s not dead,” he repeated. “You’ve met her. She swore me to secrecy.”
Trucy sniffed again.
“You’re kidding me…it…it…” she rubbed at her eyes. “It’s someone I know??”
“Kind of,” Phoenix murmured. He squeezed her shoulders again, holding her close. “It’s Lamiroir, Trucy. She’s your and Apollo’s mother. It’s.. a long story.”
“….Lamiroir” Trucy repeated dully. “Famous songstress Lamiroir…who sent me flowers for my big show. And she swore you to secrecy because Justitia forbid me and Apollo know we’re brother and sister.”
She fell against her father with a squeaky, tear-muffled wail.
“Oh, kiddo…” Phoenix held her tightly, scooping her hat off her head, and leaning his cheek against her hair. “I wanted her to tell you both right away.”
Trucy tried to respond, but she hiccuped and choked on her tears and held him tighter.
“B-but…but if I’d known I…he…we..” she stammered out with a wail. “I joked about marrying him to Mr. Dhurke! We PROBABLY shoulda known before that, huh?? And n-now my only brother in the world is gonna forget about me in the m-mountains, thinking I’m just an an-an…annoying co-worker!!!”
Phoenix squeezed her. “Truce– honey, I don’t think Apollo thinks of you as just an annoying coworker. Not at all. I would have told him before he left, but I only just got permission to say anything. We’ll write him a letter, okay?”
“A letter??” Trucy thumped her fists against his shoulder, “daddy a letter’s not gonna cut it!!”
He winced, and ran his fingers through her hair. “A phone call, then. Okay? Next time we can get ahold of him.”
Trucy sobbed into his shoulder. “…Geeze…my brother. My-…my big brother Apollo…and momma too? I…I think I’m gonna pass out.”
“Try to stay conscious, okay, bug?” He held her tightly. “I know it’s a big shock. I’ll get ahold of your mom soon and you two can have a long talk. She owes you, big time.”
“Y-you can say that again!!!” Trucy sniffled. “every family I’ve ever had has vanished on me, daddy! And …and Momma owes me BIG TIME for this.”
“She sure does,” he nodded. “But hey– you know I’m not going to vanish on you, right, Trucy? Not ever.”
Trucy sobbed into his shoulder.
“Y-you better not, daddy.” Her heart sank just thinking about it, and she couldn’t stop the tears anymore. “Please don’t, ever. No matter what.”
Phoenix pulled her tight and held her while she cried. “I promise, kiddo. I promise.”
