Chapter 1: Barrier (Day 1: Getting Together)
Chapter Text
Trucy eased out a breath. Predictably, even this slight noise caught the attention of the only other person in the room. On the couch near the chair Trucy was curled up on, a certain redheaded defence lawyer perked up, looking in her direction.
Athena set her phone aside. It didn’t look like she’d really been paying much attention to it; Trucy guessed she’d been flicking through pages solely to give her hands something to do while she sat in silence.
“Uh...”
It wasn’t supposed to feel like this, right? There was supposed to be a sort of... fade-out into pink, or some other warm colour. Whatever the real-world equivalent of that was, it was supposed to have happened after...
Both of them going so quiet like this was killing her. The moment had been perfect, and she hadn’t even tried to set it up; a girls’ pizza night at Athena’s cramped apartment, some foreign movie Athena loved from when she’d been living with her relatives overseas, an artfully light drizzle of rain coming down - when Athena kissed her, it had felt like a locked door in some ancient, unmapped catacomb of her heart had been smashed open to reveal the most incredible store of treasures and history the world had ever seen.
... So why did that same place now feel like nothing more than a dingy, crumbled dead end tunnel?
There had finally been a conclusive answer to all of those dubious flashes of warmth she remembered feeling from Athena when they worked, talked, and laughed together in the last three years. Yes, Athena liked her too - funny, weird, smart, clumsy, unpredictable, hardheaded, tough, short-tempered, beautiful Athena, her best friend and the most infectiously positive person she’d ever met, had made the move to kiss her, and it was like for once in her life, the locked safe she kept her pain and her messy feelings inside had been left open for perusal.
Trucy didn’t really know what she was doing when it came to kissing, but it had seemed enthusiasm was enough, going by the warm, joyous laughter Athena let out when she got her hands onto the redhead’s broad, sturdy shoulders and leaned right back into her.
So they had kissed. Actually, it had very quickly graduated to what Trucy supposed was typically called “making out”. Athena’s ridiculous quantity of hair had quickly started to become tangled everywhere it could reach as she practically fell on top of Trucy, pinning her to the couch and only detaching their bodies whenever it became strictly necessary to breathe.
It couldn’t have been even ten minutes now. Why weren’t they talking? Why had she decided to just... get off the couch and move to the uneven chair across the tiny living room? Why didn’t she feel as warm, as content, as good as she was supposed to?
“Trucy.”
She jerked, finally registering that Athena was still staring at her, her phone entirely forgotten. She bit her lip, trying to respond.
“Trucy, I’m... do you want me to give you a ride home? Your dad’s probably-”
“No!”
... Had that really been her voice? She hadn’t meant to yell... Athena’s neighbours probably had a raised eyebrow or two around all of a sudden.
“Um... A-Athena, please don’t... you were about to apologize, and that’s...” She groaned, hating how difficult it suddenly was to get simple words out. It hurt even more to see and hear Athena looking so much like she regretted what had happened just a few minutes ago.
This was all going to go to hell if she didn’t right this ship right this minute. Trucy got up, her socked feet settling on the cheap carpet, and strode over to Athena, stopping in front of her.
“Athena,” she said, “I really, really like you, and right now, I’m...”
(I’m what?)
Scared? Scared of what, exactly? Scared that Athena was about to stammer an apology, hustle to get out the door to bring her home, and then come back here to sob into her pillow and hate herself for doing exactly what Trucy had been wanting her to do for over a year?
Cursing under her breath, Trucy dropped onto the couch again, her heart an awful, twisting mass inside of her. She spotted Athena’s left hand resting on the cushion and grabbed it with both of hers, wrenching it upward a bit.
“Can we be... Look, I’m being stupid and difficult because this is terrifying, but... can we be dating now, please?”
...
The worst pause of the evening ensued, but like a geyser of relief exploding forth, Athena began to laugh. The dull-eyed, lost expression of regret she’d had up until now faded, and she let her tense shoulders go as she giggled that wonderful giggle of hers. Her other hand, with its flashy glove, settled on top of Trucy’s hands, calloused fingers running over softer ones.
“Works for me...!”
Chapter 2: Selfish (Day 2: Love Languages)
Notes:
this is super late but whatever I haven't gone to bed yet I'm counting it as still the same day
Chapter Text
Communication was important in a relationship. Critical, Athena was sure. Not that she was sitting on a mountain of experience with romance, of course - she’d been on one single date back in university, and it had been a boring mess both she and the guy (Martin? Had that been his name...?) had apologized for afterwards. Still, if she and Trucy were dating now, and as much as she wanted to just sit here and just melt into the wonderful feeling of knowing those words were true, she was confident there were some routine things she needed to get into the habit of doing. Telling Trucy her outfit looked good, maybe. Or her hair - compliments went a long way, as long as they were sincere. Of course, at the same time, Trucy definitely didn’t need to be told she was cute or had great taste in stage costumes. So maybe that wasn’t something Athena needed to worry too much about.
She changed mental tracks; maybe just telling Trucy how much she cared about her was better. Sure, Trucy definitely knew that already too, but couples repeated “I love you” so often it was practically just punctuation attached to “see you later”.
... Was she ready to say “I love you” to Trucy Wright?
With a groan, Athena let herself tip over onto her side on her bed.
She was right back to the original point. Trucy was... well, Trucy was hilarious, terrifyingly smart, and all around pretty much Athena’s favourite person in the world, but that was beside the point.
Trucy had questionable habits when it came to her emotions. Extremely questionable, in fact. Actually, screw “questionable”; they were harmful. It had taken a lot of extremely careful questions and advice from Apollo and Mr. Wright before Athena could pin down the full picture of who Trucy was inside onto her mental board of crisscrossing notes, and that picture was a scary one to mess with.
Ever since Trucy was a little kid, she had been through the kinds of pain and loss that no kid ever should. Her mother died in a terrible accident when she was five, her deadbeat asshole of a biological dad had ditched her while making an escape from a criminal charge, leaving her to be cared for by the lawyer who had tried to help him, she’d been bullied in school, had only a scant handful of friends as she grew up, needed to spin her remarkable skill as an illusionist into work to help her adoptive dad make ends meet for their little household, and...
Well, the list went on, frankly. The point was that Trucy had suffered, and every time some new, awful layer of pain crashed itself down on top of her, she responded the same way: Trucy wrapped up all of her tumultuous emotions in a neat bow, buried them in some dusty corner of her mind, and just... pretended they weren’t there. Athena’s heart ached at just the thought. Those feelings didn’t just go away because the person they belonged to wanted them to stop existing. Trucy had to be dealing with them every single day, and every single day the seemingly-invincible magician just smiled her way through life as if she wanted to convince herself she was fine as much as convince anyone else of the same.
Three years Athena had known Trucy, and she’d seen her best friend (girlfriend, she reminded herself) cry once. One time Trucy had let the tapestry of barriers she concealed her emotions behind fall away, and never again since. God, it was enough to make Athena want to scream. Scream at the world and its people for hurting someone like Trucy so much, scream at herself for just taking Trucy’s companionship for granted like there was no need to pry deeper into why she so often seemed to bounce back from things in barely a minute.
(And then there’s me.)
Selfish. Kissing Trucy had been selfish, there was no way around it. Athena had wanted to for so long, and it wasn’t even uncertainty about whether her best friend felt the same about her that had stopped her, really. It had been her knowledge of all the pain in Trucy’s life alone that had kept her back.
She wasn’t so oblivious, so naive as to think that just being shown or told that someone cared about her would instantly lift that impossible, horrible weight off of Trucy’s shoulders. Trucy could act bubbly and friendly all she liked, but she was terrified of sincerely letting anyone past that outside layer of herself. Athena didn’t have a list of every person Trucy knew, but she felt sure the category of people Trucy had ever truly opened up toward ran fewer than ten. Probably enough to count on one single hand.
So what was the most probable result if loud, brash Athena Cykes decided to rush in, sweep Trucy off her feet, and finally have a proper try at this whole “love” thing?
Sure, she imagined dates both fun and awkward, quiet moments just sitting with one another, and of course the... physical side of things.
(Kissing! I just mean kissing!)
On the other hand, she also found it frighteningly easy to imagine tears, panic, hurt, regret - everything Trucy Wright absolutely did not need more of in her life. If Trucy let her in, what was there to stop her just finding some way to make herself the latest thing to hurt the magician? Just another fragment of who she was that Trucy would have to break off and hide away deep in her subconscious?
Maybe she-
Athena’s phone buzzed. Currently staring at her bedroom wall, she grabbed the phone from her pocket.
Trucy W.
- bought some microwave stuff
- it’s ok to hypothetically tell ur GF she’s an awful cook, right
- no reason
Athena read the message over twice. Her lower lip was puffing out a little in protest.
Yes, there was that other side to Trucy Wright, of course. Maybe she didn’t need to focus completely on the “terrible coping mechanisms” side.
Maybe Trucy also knew all these things about herself just as well as Athena could hope to, and maybe she’d already looked inside herself long enough to know she was ready to take these steps with her, even if she was terrified. Maybe Trucy didn't always need to be treated like she was made of glass. Maybe, with care, someone could be beside Trucy to make sure that however all this went, she at least had a second path open to her, leading away to somewhere else her feelings could go – somewhere that they wouldn’t stew in the back of her mind, ready to pounce in any moment of weakness.
Athena’s thumb tapped on her phone just below the keypad.
Maybe someone just needed to try.
And maybe that someone was her.
Chapter 3: Stage (Day 3: AU)
Notes:
I've had a large-scale AU idea in mind for a long time, and I hope to write a lot more for it in the future. Consider this a small preview for my hopefully-upcoming "Prosecutor Mia Fey" AU, not that she factors in here.
Chapter Text
“Daaaad...”
Athena flopped dramatically over the side of the couch, the voluminous ponytail on the back of her head practically seeming to explode over the space before her.
She stared at the floor through a frame of her drooping red hair. She could hear her adoptive father circling the couch to stop in front of her. Ever since Athena had been a kid, he had favoured a particular way of crouching in front of her to drop himself to her level to talk. Of course, considering he was barely any taller than she was today, he didn’t get near as many opportunities.
Having taken the chance Athena’s current position on the couch provided, he waited for her to look up.
“Wouldn’t work, huh? What makes you say that?” he asked after a few seconds of silence.
Athena groaned, still staring at the carpet. “No offence, Dad, but have you ever tried being a college girl with the world’s biggest crush on her best friend?”
Her father feigned thinking it over. “... Nah, don’t think I’ve ever given it a shot. Tell ya what - I ever get the urge, I'll know who to ask for help. You must have a few pointers for your old man.”
Another groan.
Bracing her hands on the couch’s armrest, Athena Fender pushed down with enough force to practically launch herself the opposite way. She flopped softly onto her back. Life had been easier when she was her high school’s star athlete. Back then, romance was something she only ever thought about in the context of fiction - bad rom-coms she and her friends could laugh at, sappy love stories in novels, and the many, many love scenes her best friend Trucy Wright always seemed to end up playing out with the Drama department.
(Oh God, was she hinting at me? Am I stupid? Am I the stupid, oblivious childhood friend who never realizes the spunky leading girl is totally in love with them?)
She clasped her hands to her face, suppressing a frustrated yell. Her father clapped a supportive hand on her shoulder.
“You wanna talk about it, lemme know, pumpkin. Back in a sec’, gotta make a call.”
-
In his study, Eddie Fender spun his worn chair around to settle down in it. He winced at the soreness in his knees; years of slouching posture were catching up with him in his early forties.
Taking his phone off his desk, he flipped it open. The battery was dipping into the sub-20 percent range, but that was still enough for a call.
...
“Boss? Something wrong?” a familiar voice inquired.
“Hm? Nahh, nothing like that,” Eddie replied, “but we’ve gotta talk.”
“Uhh, okay.”
There was a short pause.
“So what’s going on?”
Eddie clicked his tongue, easing his chair back. “OK, I’m gonna level with you here, Nicky - Athena is extremely gay for your kid.”
He was slightly disappointed when the response was a chuckle. One of Phoenix’s startled yelps might have been more fun.
“Ah, tell me about it,” Phoenix said, “Trucy’ll be happy. She’s almost started thinking sometimes it’s a lost cause.”
“Alright, alright, to brass tacks: bottom line is we need a plan. I dunno if I'd survive finding out my patented combo of parenting and teaching Athena defence has totally failed to make her understand how important just being open with people is. Even if she never does decide to get behind the ol' defence bench herself, the bigger lesson's what matters.”
Phoenix spent a moment formulating a reply. “... I’ll talk with Trucy. And no, I don’t mean I’ll just tell her the whole thing straight, don’t get nervous. We’ll just come up with--”
Smirking, Eddie interrupted. “Nicky, I dunno if you were listening, but 'straight' isn't something that factors into this. But OK, we’ll try your way, whatever your way is. I don't have to tell you how much the girls are already dealing with, between Trucy’s grad and... I don’t even know how many classes Athena’s enrolled in.”
Chapter 4: Dateless Date Diary (Day 4: Dates)
Chapter Text
Arcane Journal of Ms. Trucy Wright
Entry (the number is illegible)
Date 1
Athena and I (note to self: brainstorm cute nickname for Athena) went to eat at Serial Griller. ... Is what I’d like to say, except it was closed. Kinda rude. We wandered around a while until Athena spotted this Cohdopian takeout place, which was amazing. So have to go back there sometime.
I think I had to remind myself four separate times that this was a date date. We’ve gone out for food so many times before, and honestly it didn’t feel different at all. Is that a good thing? Have to research.
-
Entry (illegible)
Date with Athena: Revenge of Date with Athena
New discovery: holding hands with Athena is nice, 10/10. Random people passing us probably just think it’s a girly friendship thing, but that doesn’t bother me. This way we aren’t actually hiding anything, but at the same time it’s kinda like we have a cool secret.
We went to the park, and there wasn’t even a murder there! Athena fell asleep while I went to get snacks from a stand. She freaked out when I pointed to the chewed gum someone graciously left in the grass like four inches from getting stuck in her hair while she was napping. People are jerks.
When we were leaving, Athena noticed something loud happening back at the other end of the park, but we passed on checking it out.
-
Entry (somehow even less readable than previous numbers)
The Thrilling Conclusion to the Date with Athena Trilogy
Rain. Almost an hour on the bus, and then rain. So much rain.
It turns out that Athenas like rain. Trucys don’t.
After the bus driver ditched us (note: investigate feasibility of making Polly sue the bus service), we had to run for ten minutes to make it to the “cool hideout spot” Athena talked about. She said it was a spot her friend Juniper used to spend a lot of time at, but that she forgot her old photos of it.
My theory is that Athena actually had a fantasy about kissing a pretty girl in a secluded clearing with birds flapping all around. Not gonna lie, I feel used.
I mean, kissing Athena is pretty much the best thing the human race has ever invented, but I should probably establish a ground rule against being a mile out of the city in pouring rain when it happens.
-
Entry (number vaguely resembles an abstract rendering of a hamster)
Date with Athena: the Bad One
Emergency services were called. Records have been scrubbed for Wright Anything Agency security reasons.
Chapter 5: Together (Day 5: Traditions)
Notes:
Due to unforeseen and very annoying technical problems, this chapter is kinda late.
Chapter Text
Truthfully, the Wright Anything Agency didn’t particularly need either Athena or Apollo to stay late to close up shop. Considering the Wrights lived in the apartment on the small building’s top floor directly above, it was pretty uncommon for them to be sufficiently “away” as to be unable to close up for themselves.
This evening, however, was unusual.
Athena reclined on one of the office’s couches with her laptop, not looking at anything in particular as she waited for Trucy and her father to come back down from upstairs. As Athena vaguely remembered from the past few years at the Agency, on this particular day every year, Trucy and Mr. Wright attended some kind of father-daughter competition down at Gourd Lake. A boat race, or something. Or maybe it wasn’t anything to do with boats? She didn’t really remember. In any case, she just needed to hang around a little longer until they left, and afterwards she could lock up the office and head home.
In the middle of stifling laughter at watching a video of a cat unsuccessfully trying to squeeze itself through a partially-opened window, she heard footsteps coming back down the stairs.
Trucy was the first through the door, sliding smoothly to a position next to it and bobbing on her feet as her father re-entered the office.
“Thanks, Athena,” Phoenix said, looking over in her direction. “You ready to go?”
“Yep!” She sat up, snapping her laptop shut and swinging her feet down to the floor. “I’ll clear out as soon as you guys are gone.”
Trucy giggled, which was obviously cute, but slightly strange. Athena got up, going to her desk to double-check that she hadn’t forgotten anything, and the Wrights headed toward the door.
Shuffling through her things for a minute, she eventually registered that she hadn’t heard the door yet.
To her surprise, both Trucy and Phoenix were simply standing there by the door, as if they were the ones waiting for something.
“Well?” Trucy prompted her.
“... What?” Something in the back of Athena’s mind suddenly flashed a warning that there must have been something obvious and extremely important she’d completely forgotten to do. Water Charley? No, Trucy did that earlier. File away some old paperwork? No, that was definitely done already. Apollo had spent the entire day with his head down working on it besides lunch.
Trucy tilted her head, still smiling. “You said you were ready to go, didn’t you?”
Athena blinked. “Uh, yeah, I’m all set to lock up for you guys...?”
“Perfect!” Trucy came over to her desk, offering a hand. “Then let’s get on the move!”
“W-wait, do you mean...? Um... sorry, Boss, it’s just that I just could’ve sworn you said this was just a father-daughter thing. You did, right?”
Phoenix paused, looking thoughtful. “Hm. You know, come to think of it, you’re right; I did say that.”
There was a pause. Athena didn’t feel any less confused. Trucy was still extending a hand toward her.
Phoenix smiled and gestured to the door. “C’mon, let’s get going, or the crowd’s gonna be too big before we even get there. I’m not about to have any daughter of mine miss out.”
Athena got her mouth open to reply, but suddenly had a feeling like the floor had fallen away under her feet. She froze. Her face felt warm as she ran Phoenix’s words through her mind a second time.
Trucy’s grin widened. “Alright, c’mon,” she said, moving to loop an arm under Athena’s and drag her into motion.
Chapter 6: Front (Day 6: Parallels)
Chapter Text
Trucy flinched, jolting awake in her bed. Outside, the distant rumble of thunder and the continuous drizzle of rain on her window remained the only sounds accompanying her, as they had when she’d fallen asleep.
She groaned, rolling to plant her face against her pillow.
She hadn’t even made it two weeks this time - same dream, same startled, uncomfortable wake-up.
It had been a year and a half now since her trial, and still her mind every so often drew her back to the experience as she slept. It always concluded at the same moment; her acquittal was finally secured, and she watched as the previously-famed magician Roger Retinz stood behind the witness stand, cornered at last. Retinz would produce masks mocking the appearance of each member of the long-defunct Troupe Gramarye, each one vanishing in a flash of flame in turn, but unlike in Trucy’s memory of the trial, the flames would spread rapidly to fill the courtroom, obscuring everything Trucy could see. She would call for Athena, Apollo, anyone - no one would answer her, and at last, just as everything around her was fully consumed by the choking, intense flames, she would shake awake in her bed.
The masks always stuck out in her mind. Masks - Trucy knew all about those. She wasn’t so keen on the physical kind, hiding her face from view, of course. There was no need when her face alone made an ideal shroud.
She had been like this for so long she couldn’t remember herself any other way. Push everything down, don’t let anyone know it hurts, how much you hurt, no matter what it takes. Maybe they mean well, maybe they don’t. Maybe they just don’t understand.
So many people, across so many years, and she just... treated them like any old audience. Flash a prize-winning grin, dazzle the crowd, and bow out without a word - she just let them see a magician, skilled but quirky. It was all they ever needed to see.
Her father. Pearly. Aunt Maya. Jinxie. Apollo.
... Athena.
Maybe a few other people had seen through the cracks here and there, but Trucy had only ever deliberately opened up to so few. Some part of her would react every time like she was putting her hand too close to a fire.
But then, Athena. Athena knew all about masks, too. “Fake it ‘til you make it” seemed to be the Cykes way. It was a bit disturbing, the way Athena Cykes could seem to peer right into you and draw out whatever side you weren’t showing in whatever she got you to say. Maybe she stumbled here and there, took a wrong guess, but in the end she always seemed to work her way around to the heart of it.
And yet, she didn’t attack Trucy’s personal walls, she just... found them, studied them, and in time asked to be allowed through.
She knew Trucy was scared, and somehow she seemed scared herself. Athena understood the magnitude of the place she’d been allowed in Trucy’s heart - what she’d been allowed to see beneath the mask.
Trucy picked up her phone, a photo of herself and Athena at some little corner coffee shop flashing up on the screen. Athena was, as ever, grinning. In that brilliant smile, Trucy could see so many things, but in this moment, as the rain and distant thunder carried on, she knew one in particular: Athena wouldn’t make her regret her decision, letting the mask fall away like she did.
Chapter 7: Whole (Day 7: Free Day)
Notes:
So due to, get this, more technical problems on my end, I decided 'nope, this chapter's just going to be a day late'. Here it is, anyway!
Chapter Text
“Off we go, then! Catch you later, Boss!”
And they were out the door. Phoenix watched them go, continuing to look over at the office door for a few seconds after it closed.
It seemed like Trucy and Athena were unstoppable by now. A ways over three years since Athena had joined the Agency, months since she and Trucy had finally worked through their feelings for one another, and...
Phoenix checked his calendar, doing a double-take when he found what he was after.
Eleven weeks since he’d last taken a case for himself? It was suddenly hard to believe he’d managed to find enough to do around the office in the time since he’d last taken on a client.
Every time someone new called on the Wright Anything Agency’s legal services, Athena got so fired up there almost wasn’t any point in suggesting she sit the case out, and with Trucy over a year past her high school grad, she practically never missed the chance to tag along. Apollo accompanied Athena whenever Trucy couldn’t, but even that was a rarity these days. At the moment, Apollo had his own case, an in a more unusual turn was accompanied by Pearl. All of this left the office very quiet the moment Athena and Trucy departed.
Phoenix exhaled. Maybe another client would appear for him to meet with. Probably not. Maybe Maya would give him a call.
... Or maybe he would sit here and re-examine some paperwork for several hours.
He wouldn’t ever resent Athena and Trucy’s highly effective team-up, of course; they were more capable together than he ever would’ve anticipated years ago, when he met the teenage Athena overseas. The idea that she would fall head-over-heels for his daughter had come to be another surprise.
He felt a familiar swelling warmth in his chest, almost a relief, at the way Trucy lit up in Athena’s presence. Besides Trucy herself, there was no one who knew better the way his daughter tried to hide her response to the pain and struggles she’d been through as she grew up. Cultivating that bubbly, irreverent public image had taken Trucy years, and today it was a nearly ever-present shield she put between herself and the world, the situations in which she would willingly put it aside only becoming rarer year-by-year.
But then had come Athena. Even if she hadn’t realized straight away what she was doing, Athena Cykes had made her presence and her friendship a place of safety; a refuge for Trucy. Looking deeper into her words and feelings but never pushing harder than was comfortable, being a comfort when she needed it and trusting Trucy to do the same for her, understanding so well the magnitude of being one of the few people Trucy honestly believed in and trusted - that Phoenix could have managed to bring anyone like that into his daughter’s life was an accomplishment worth more than he could say.
They would never let each other go, he was certain. More than any two people Phoenix had ever met, Trucy and Athena were made for one another, and their newfound connection in work, life, and now love was as unbreakable as any he’d ever seen.
Phoenix shifted his chair back, its legs creaking a little.
(So let’s just hope their devastating combination doesn’t tear half the legal system apart...)