December 24, 8:50 pm
14 hours in an airplane was a tiring flight, no matter how excited you were to watch your rockstar bestie film a commercial, and by the time Trucy and the gang shuffled out to go pick up their luggage, even she and Pearl were dragging.
Pearl stumbled, and caught herself on Trucy’s shoulder, giving her an exhausted smile. “Oops! sorry about that.”
“Oop!” Trucy caught herself from stumbling too, flashing a bright smile at her as she managed to keep them both from toppling over. She yawned. “Don’t worry about it! I’ve never been on a plane like that before. It felt like we were flying forever.”
“Right? And Mr. Nick and Mr. Miles were like, mostly asleep the whole time,” Pearl giggled, straightening up a bit in Trucy’s arms. “I’m glad we at least got to chat with Kay! Do you think she’ll be too busy to go see Klavier with us?”
Trucy put a gloved hand to her lips, her arms around Pearl’s shoulders as they shuffled along. “It was nice to talk to Kay. I’d been wanting to get that pickpocketing secret from her for like, years. Maybe we can ask her? I hope not, I think she’d be over the moon to see it instead of whatever Mr. Edgeworth wants her to do.”
“Same,” Pearl nodded. She chewed on her thumb as they waited by the baggage claim for their suitcases to appear. She dropped her voice low. “Whatever it is, they sure aren’t excited to tell us about it, huh?”
“Nope…I tried asking Daddy and he went white as a sheet and told me it wasn’t something to worry about.” She sniffed in quiet frustration as she watched the baggage belt roll past “which usually means it really is.”
“For real!” Pearl nodded. “Mr. Nick always tries to handle all his problems himself. That’s why we always have to butt in and help him, right?”
“Exactly! Just like always, yeah? Because who’s gonna help him if we don’t?” She shook her head. “He really should have learned by now that the more he tries to leave us out, the more we get involved, right?”
“He really should have,” Pearl nodded, and continued to chew thoughtfully on her nail. “But um, we’ll do that after we go see Klavier, right?”
“Well yeah!” Trucy gave her a squeeze, her hat slipping down her forehead. “Like heck I’m gonna miss his show after he invited us all the way out here! He’d probably cry from a lack of Trucy and Pearl gracing his stage.”
“I bet he would! And that would be awful!”
“Hey ladies!” A voice greeted them from behind. “Need a hand with your suitcases?”
“EEEK!” Trucy jumped, her had leaping a full inch over her head before plopping back down on her brow
“Whoa, whoa, sorry!” Apollo Justice held out his hands apologetically as they both turned around to see him. “I didn’t mean to scare you!”
“Well, um, you did!” Pearl pouted. “Gosh make some noise next time…”
Trucy stuck her tongue out.
“Polly, you usually boom everywhere with that voice of yours!” She pointed to him with a grin. “for that you get to carry my bag for me! And Pearly’s too!”
Apollo blinked at her, and pushed his hair back.
“Trucy, I just offered to.— you know what, never mind. You got it.” He laughed and grabbed both their suitcases as they came down the track. “I don’t have one to carry right now anyway.”
“Really?” Trucy gasped in surprise. “…why didn’t you pack anything, Polly? You’re gonna worry Klavier!”
“No, no, I packed,” he explained, hauling the cases across the airport floor as he looked around for Trucy’s dad and the rest. “Well– okay technically Athena packed for me. I didn’t have any time, so, she’s got my suitcase… I hope.”
Pearl giggled behind her hands, but Trucy noticed she was watching Apollo carefully. “Gosh, Apollo! Kind of scatterbrained, aren’t you?”
“Sorry to disappoint you Miss Pearl.”
Pearl meanwhile, glanced significantly over at Trucy, and Trucy remembered what they’d talked about the night before.
Trucy nodded seriously at her, before she put on her best and brightest smile.
“Hey, Apollo…I wanted to ask you something when you got a moment for your favorite little employer.”
“Huh?” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Um, sure, of course Trucy. Maybe when we’re settled at the hotel?”
As Trucy looked at him, she thought, maybe it was a trick of the light but his eyes, and his hair looked darker than usual.
“Hmm…” Trucy’s strange eyes stared him down for a long moment before she broke into a bright smile. “yeah that sounds great!”
December 24, 9:20 pm
At the hotel, Trucy and Pearl hurriedly got comfortable in their room together. They laid out their things, brushed their teeth, checked the channels on the hotel’s tv, and giggled with excitement about going to see Klavier the next day.
Soon, Pearl said, “I’m gonna take a shower if you don’t mind, Trucy. Are you still planning to talk to Apollo tonight?”
“Of course!” Trucy replied as she leaned up and stretched, using the motion to ease herself to her feet. “I think I’m gonna ask him about the ghost thing…when you channel someone you can see it, right? At least a little.”
“With the Kurain technique of channeling your whole body transforms,” she murmured thoughtfully. “I don’t know exactly how it works for other types of channeling or possession, but i think you can see it at least a little..”
“I think I saw some of it. Apollo didn’t look…exactly himself.” she murmured to Pearl. “I think it was his friend.”
“I thought that might be the case. Um, Trucy?”
Trucy leaned in with a tilt of her hat as she placed it upon her head .“Yeah Pearly?”
“Be careful, okay? If Apollo doesn’t want to talk about it, maybe don’t push too much? Um, I don’t know him too well, and I didn’t know the ghost that’s hanging on to him at all– I’m sure he was a nice person, but…” Pearl trailed off nervously.
“But you don’t want me to be ghost murdered?” Trucy said with a serious nod “…I get it. Ghosts can be kinda touchy, right?”
She nodded seriously. “Exactly. Ghosts don’t always react like living people, especially if they’re not being channeled by someone with experience, or if they don’t know they’re dead and you make them think about it. They can get um, I think the word I’ve heard used is ‘erratic’.”
Trucy shivered as the ‘worst case scenarios’ flashed through her mind. Still, she bonked herself atop the head with a broad grin.
“I promise, Pearly. The minute he starts getting too weird or makes a sudden move, I’ll bonk him with Mr. Hat and make a run for it.”
December 24, 9:30 pm
Apollo was staying in the same room as her Daddy, but she was pretty sure that Daddy was with Mr. Edgeworth in his room, talking about whatever it was she wasn’t supposed to know about. Probably a murder. It was usually murder.
Anyway, that meant she was reasonably confident that Apollo would be alone– or as alone as possible given the circumstances– when she knocked on the door, and as luck would have it, she was right.
He popped his head out the door, wisps of unruly hair flopping over his face.
“Hey, Truce!”
“Hel-lo Apo-llo” she sounded out the words with a playful grin, leaning in with a flutter of her cape. “Got some time for your favorite boss?”
“Did my favorite boss send you to ask that?” he teased. “Assuming you mean you– come on in.”
“Uh huh.” She stuck her tongue out at him, before she slipped inside. “You haven’t been around as much lately. I’ve missed you!”
Apollo’s hotel room was already a mess with Trucy’s daddy’s things– she saw one of his blue suits laid out over the chair. Apollo stood awkwardly by the desk, and smiled over at her.
“I’ve missed you too. But it’s been quite a week, huh?”
“It’s been crazy.” Trucy agreed, tucking her dark hair over her ear as she shut the door behind her. “I didn’t expect to be traveling halfway across the world so soon!”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Apollo said. He shook his head. “I didn’t know until this morning. Feel like I’ve hardly had a chance to catch my breath.”
“Yeah? I know I’m coming to see Klavier~” she mused as she plopped herself up on the table beside him. “Daddy’s also here but he won’t tell me why. Typical. Like he thinks he can actually keep secrets from me.”
“He didn’t tell you?” Apollo raised his eyebrows. “So, wait– you didn’t think I was coming to see Klavier too, did you?”
Trucy leaned towards him with a shake of her head.
“I’d kinda hoped! But I figured you were here with Daddy…which means you know what’s goin’ on.” She pointed her finger at him. “I wanna know, a secret for a secret, okay?”
He crossed his arms, leaning against the desk. “What do you mean, a secret for a secret?”
“I mean I’ll tell you a secret we noticed in exchange for what Daddy’s doing here, Apollo!”
“I mean, your dad’s not going to be happy with me if I tell on him– although I can’t imagine it staying a secret for too long with everybody here,” he muttered. “…is your secret a good one?”
“It involves you?” Trucy offered with a bright smile.
“It involves me,” he repeated, narrowing his eyes. He sighed heavily, and Trucy watched him fidget with his tie, loosening it. “Alright. Fine.”
Trucy snuck closer to him, inching over the top of the table with a huge grin. “you first.”
“Okay,” he pulled his tie open, leaving it hanging over his vest. Trucy thought she saw his appearance seem to shimmer strangely as he stood there, a far away expression in his face. “You probably guessed it’s for a case. Some interpol agents were killed, and Edgeworth wants us to look into it.”
Trucy nodded sagely. She took off her hat, and left it on her lap as she hummed.
“Yikes. Sounds like it’s kinda a big deal if Mr. Edgy is getting involved too. So that’s why Daddy’s being secretive about it.” She tilted her head at him. “…Innnteresting. Alright, as payment…about the thing I wanted to tell you…”
“I’m listening,” he nodded, his dark gaze flicked toward her.
“We’re secretly brother and sister,” she lied with a wicked grin.
He snorted, and she watched his shoulders jerk in surprise.
“What?” He rubbed his bracelet–it must have pinched him– and looked at her with one eye open, “Trucy, it’s not funny to lie about that kind of thing.”
She laughed, kicking her feet with an innocent grin on her face before she bopped the top of her head with her tongue out.
“Sorrrryyyy. I was just kidding around! Sorry…but the real thing is ah..” she bit her lip. “Pearly said she saw a ghost in you. Like…you’re possessed.”
His chin jerked up, and his dark gaze fixed on her again. She watched him rub his bracelet again, this time with a different frown written across his face.
“Can you say that again?”
“Pearl says she can see another spirit in you.” Trucy tilted her head to the side, as her hand reached back to rest on Mr. Hat’s mechanism, just in case. “She’s a spirit medium, you know? And I’ll be honest…I’ve kinda noticed too. Sometimes you look just a little different…and act different too.”
He looked away still rubbing his bracelet. He had to know that she wasn’t lying.
“Pearl shouldn’t make jokes like that.”
“It’s not a lie,” Trucy said slowly, “or a joke. Pearl wouldn’t joke about that kinda thing, Polly. I know I can joke around a lot, but I’m being serious when I say I noticed it too…and Pearl super did.”
“I don’t want to say anything unkind about Pearl, but I think maybe she’s just got an active imagination, and wrapped you up in it, Trucy.” Apollo had crossed his arms tightly and protectively over his chest. “I know Pearl was raised to believe in ghosts, but is that something you really believe in, Trucy?”
She stared at him incredulously. “I’ve got eyes that can tell when someone’s lying, and a family of magicians. Plus, Daddy says his old legal assistant Maya used to summon her dead sister into her body all the time to give him pep talks and stuff.”
“Trucy, not to be negative, but ‘eyes that see someone lying’ is more like weaponized anxiety than anything else. And I know what Mr. Wright says but– I’m serious, Trucy, do you really actually believe in ghosts? You’re not 12 you know.”
Trucy felt a sting of irritation, causing her to pout as she leaned back on the table.
“Yeah, no shit, Polly. But I’m saying stranger things happen every day…and Pearly says she can see and channel ghosts and I believe her. Did you know?” She pointed to him. “You’re a lawyer, so you super should. The existence of ghosts is a legal fact, dummy. It was proven in court like, 8 or so years ago. They had an exorcism on live tv! Daddy’s nasty ex girlfriend, everyone saw it!”
Trucy knew that Apollo must have seen it too– after all, Apollo had hero worshiped her daddy for a long time. That was what he had said, that Phoenix Wright had helped him want to become a lawyer.
“Just because it was accepted as evidence in court doesn’t mean it must have been real,” he murmured bitterly. “Trucy– I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want to make you upset but I– I lost someone really close to me recently, you know? You can’t just say things to me like ghosts are real and not expect me to be upset.”
Trucy grimaced, looking down with a slight flush of guilt. She gripped her wrist, glancing up at him with her focused eyes.
“I..I know, Apollo. I know you’re hurting, a lot. Trust me.” She shrugged her shoulders gently “I’ve lost a lot of people, too. But…you seem different. Really different, sometimes…maybe I’m a little worried that you don’t think you can trust me to talk about it….or I dunno. You’re going to start getting distant…or whoever’s in there with you will.”
“Trucy,” he repeated. He looked at her with absolutely heartbroken, exhausted eyes. “Trucy, I know the last time you lost someone you were really young. But I am grieving, okay? You have to understand that I am going to be different because I’m seriously– I’m seriously messed up about this.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her with a dark, haunted expression. “I’m not going to tell you I haven’t been different. I have– I know I have. Even after I made up with Athena. But grief does that, Trucy. Grief can make you somebody else for a while. I can’t– I have to– I have to work really hard to get over this big part of my life that’s just been torn out of the world forever.”
Apollo’s voice hitched and broke. His fingers dug into her shoulders. “I have to, okay? I have to work through this, and get over it. I have to. You can’t come in here and tell me that when I hear his voice in my head that’s real, that that’s really him. That’s not– that’s not healthy, Truce.”
His big, haunted dark eyes looked terrified, and were beaded with tears.
Trucy winced under his hands. It wasn’t exactly true that the last time she’d lost someone she cared for was when she was young. She’d seen pictures of her father’s corpse far more recently than that, and pushed herself to smile through the trial, forged evidence and all.
It wasn’t like she forgot what grief felt like, or how badly the gaping hole a loss left could sting.. But she couldn’t help but think that maybe knowing they were there, with you still, was a comfort rather than something unhealthy and hurtful. She liked to imagine Zak Gramarye there in the crowd at every show, clapping proudly as she performed quite literally in his name.
But it was clearly hurting Apollo to even imagine the possibility. She hiccuped, her shoulders shaking.
“S-sorry Polly,” she managed to say, “I just t-thought, you know…it’d be nice if you k-knew it wasn’t forever.”
His fingers dug into her shoulders for another moment, and then he pulled her into a tight hug. She heard him make a choked noise as he held her, and she felt his body shudder.
“Sor–sorry, Trucy,” he murmured, holding her tight. “Sorry to be such a bastard about it I just– I can’t. I don’t know how I’d– sorry.”
Trucy rubbed his back, feeling even guiltier.
“You’re not a bastard…Pearl was worried about me sayin’ something. I should have thought a little more before I …y-you know…said anything.”
If there was a ghost inside Apollo…it wasn’t erratic…it was hurting.
Apollo swallowed so thickly that Trucy could hear it, and he didn’t let go of her, just nodding against her shoulder.
“Can I… can I tell you something, Trucy? Without you thinking less of me?” he murmured.
Trucy nodded against him, holding him tight. “Of course..we both say all kinds of stuff all the time. Nothing you tell me’s gonna make me think less of you, okay?”
He took a breath, rough and raspy, still just holding her, face buried in her shoulder. “Clay wasn’t just– he wasn’t just my f-friend, Trucy. He was– we were– we were together romantically, y-you know what I mean? Like dating…”
Trucy’s eyes widened in sudden understanding.
That explained a lot, honestly.
“Oh. Oh Apollo…” she bit her lip “I’m sorry…I didn’t know you guys were dating, I didn’t…” She felt even guiltier. This had all been a big mistake. “He seemed like a really great guy.”
He squeezed her again, and she could hear his embarrassment when he said, “it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you talk about at work, you know.”
It wasn’t exactly something you talked about at work. Her daddy and Mr. Edgeworth didn’t talk about it. She hadn’t even known for sure that they were together until a little more than a year ago, when she’d been sat down for a ‘serious talk’.
It wasn’t that it was something illegal, or that it was wrong, per se, but it just… wasn’t talked about. It wasn’t respected. Certain people wouldn’t take you seriously if you ‘weren’t the marrying type’. It had just always been that way.
Trucy remembered that it had come up at the trial about Aura, and everyone got embarrassed and tried to dance around the subject.
It made sense why Apollo wouldn’t have told her, no matter how absolutely ridiculous she felt the social ‘norm’ was. She knew the way her own heart tended to lean, without heed to the arbitrary line of ‘gender’…and her own attractions.
It just wasn’t something talked about– and Apollo was suffering alone because of it.
“I know what you mean ..but you can talk about that with me. I understand it.” She squeezed him tighter, “I’m sorry, Polly. I’m sorry you lost your boyfriend, and I’m sorry I pushed you on it.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath, and squeezed her again, sniffling. “Thanks, Trucy. I appreciate you understanding…”
“Of course I understand,” she murmured against him, doing all she could to hug him as comfortingly as she could manage. “You can talk about anything with me, okay Polly? Anything.”
He nodded against her, holding her for another minute. Then he took a breath and a step back, arms still on her shoulders.
“Thanks… I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’ve been barely holding it together this whole week…”
Trucy rubbed at her eyes with one hand, shaking her head. “It’s been a really hard week for you guys…don’t be sorry okay? I pushed a little too hard.”
Apollo squeezed her shoulders more gently this time. “It’s okay. I know you just wanted to help.”
She smiled at him , her big and bright showstopper of a smile that won hearts at the Wunder Bar. “Because you’re important to me, dork.”
He grabbed the rim of her top hat and pulled it down over her eyes gently. “You too, Truce. Even if I’m kinda shit at showing it right now.”
“Wah!!!” Trucy bopped the rim of her hat to knock it back up with a puff of her cheeks.
“You’ll get better. Just gotta retrain you on Trucy Wrangling, I guess. Just don’t let yourself fall too deep in your own head.”
She shrugged her shoulders gently.
“I’ll do my best,” he said, slipping his hands into his pockets and standing awkwardly in front of her. “So… h-hey…”
Trucy tilted her head to the side. “yeah Apollo?”
“If Pearls thinks I have a…” he shifted uncomfortably as he spoke, and she watched him clench his hands in his pockets, “ghost attached to me… what did she want me to do about it? Did she want to.. I don’t know, perform an exorcism?”
“No! Of course not!” Trucy put her hand to her lips with a gasp. “No way! She just noticed it and I thought it might…help. To know. You know?”
“So she just wanted to… bring it to my attention, then?” he asked, raising his chin curiously.
“I mean yeah? She didn’t exactly grab my shoulders and go TRUCY WE GOTTA EXORCISE THAT GUY. More like she just pointed it out and I had to agree?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and smiled, his face tearstained and rough. “Well, that’s a relief. Here I was worried I’d have to dodge her coming around the corner with spirit charms.”
Trucy leaned forward and wiped away some of his tears with her gloved fingers. “Nah, Pearly’s not that kinda girl. She’s nice.”
“Well yeah of course she is. But if she thinks I’m possessed or something she might be convinced the nice thing to do is help me whether i want it or not, right?” He rubbed his face again, and then started to root around the desk for a box of tissues.
“I think she’d probably ask first, Polly.” She wiggled her feet nervously. “Don’t worry. Nobody’s gonna try to kick whatever ghost you totally don’t have with you out. Promise.”
“Alright,” he nodded. She watched him wipe his teary face with a tissue. “Frankly, because I think the stress of it might kill me, not because I have a ghost possessing me, understand?”
He gave her a wry smile, but his voice was firm.
Still, Trucy wasn’t sure whether he believed it or not.
“Of course!” She flashed her smile again. “We wouldn’t want to add to the ‘are ghosts real’ question by having YOURS around too after you have a coronary.”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, rough and pained. “One ghost is too many, but two would be complete anarchy.”
December 24, 10:15 pm
Pearl was carefully combing out her long, long, long hair after her shower when Trucy returned to the room after talking to Apollo. She’d only seen it down a few times before– it had to be all the way to her knees, if not her ankles.
“How’d it go?” Pearl asked softly, looking up at her as the door closed.
“Preeeetty bad.” Trucy took off her top hat with the same weighty sigh as her father taking off his tie after a bad day in the courtroom.
“Oooooogh…” Pearl put a hand over her mouth as she frowned. “Nobody’s hurt, right?”
“No, nobody got hurt.” Trucy shook her head with a sigh as she plopped herself down next to her, before letting herself fall back against the bed with an ‘oof’. “But he got really upset…told me that it’s not real, and it can’t be…and then got really really nervous that you were gonna try to exorcize the ghost.”
She chewed on her thumb gently. “I was kinda worried about that… we’d better keep an eye on him.”