Chapter Text
June 3rd, 2019 – Wright Talent Agency
For Phoenix, loss was something he had come to terms with. He was an adult and as he got older, its existence was something he got used to. It became familiar – comforting occasionally. Its companionship was a reminder that nothing was truly permanent, the good as well as the bad.
Thus, Phoenix had learned to grieve. It came easily to him now, so much so that it nearly became a habit, whether he experienced the loss of his childhood, his relationships, or even the absence of some of his closest friends. Even so, he would be lying if he didn’t admit that sometimes his heart still ached when he thought back on all the people he lost. Dahlia. Mia. Miles for a while. His badge. Those times, the pain was similar to the feeling of a missing limb – a part of him gone forever yet a pain still all too present at times, reminding him what he had lost. Phantom pain it was called if he remembered well.
However, the little girl living with him – his daughter, he reminded himself – had welcomed loss in its entirety, without hesitation, in a way that was entirely unnatural for an eight-year-old. She took it in as if it was an acquaintance from a long date – someone you’d put at the back of your mind after not seeing them for a while, only to meet them at an event and invite them home to catch up.
Phoenix worried about her – of course he did, he wouldn’t be Phoenix otherwise – but he didn’t know how to branch the subject without making her feel like he was being invasive. And even though Trucy was the sun personified and a cheerful kid all around, something told him that she wasn’t ready to open up just yet. So, he shut up. He’d wait for her to come to him when she deemed it safe enough. It felt like the right choice. And if it wasn’t, well, he’d been a dad for like, a month. Sue him.
It struck him like a lightning bolt then.
It had been exactly one month since Phoenix had “adopted” Trucy.
Meaning, it has been exactly 45 days since Phoenix lost his attorney badge – not that he was counting. He had accepted it – really.
Somehow it felt like an eternity.
Phoenix sighed as he stepped into the living room and looked around slowly as he carefully assessed the wreck his place had become. He’d never imagined something as tiny as a child could be this destructive. Many of Trucy’s clothes and magic props were dispersed around the room like a storm had passed, and even some of Phoenix’s parenting books were sitting on the floor. Phoenix didn’t even bother to check the kitchen and bathroom, that was a problem for future him.
He walked around each item, careful not to step on it and trigger an international accident if he broke it and saw his reflection in the mirror. His beanie – a gift from Trucy she made at school - proudly sat on his head, the beginning of a stubble, and of course, eye bags.
Yeah, he’d let himself go these past few weeks but he was so, so tired. Taking care of Trucy wasn’t even the main issue – she was awfully independent already – no, he’d been taking care of Zak Gramarye’s paperwork and belongings, organizing them, and selecting which item to keep. He mostly kept everything related to Trucy for himself and sent everything else to a storage unit with Larry’s help – Mr. Gramarye had a severe hoarding disorder, and it had taken them two weeks to put it all away.
Phoenix flopped down on the couch with a groan, propped his feet up on the coffee table, and stretched, every joint popping in a satisfying sound.
God, he was getting old.
He briefly wondered if he had the time for a short nap but quickly disregarded the thought – he’d need to pick Trucy up from school in an hour anyway.
At the very least, Phoenix supposed he could clean up the living room. He glanced around to assess the situation and felt what was left of his energy promptly leaving him. He was NOT getting into that mess. Most of it was Trucy’s and the girl was pretty particular about how she needed to organize her magic props – he tried to surprise her by tidying up her room once, never again. He felt chills running down his spine as he thought about that experience once again.
He went for the dishes instead and busied himself cleaning them for a good thirty minutes – there might or might not have been a mountain of dishes in the sink waiting for him – and rapidly left the apartment to pick up Trucy.
June 3rd, 2019 – Trucy’s school
Phoenix was waiting in front of the school, bored out of his mind playing snake on his phone while trying to carefully avoid some parents’ eyes on him.
It’s been a few weeks now since he took in Trucy and started picking her up from school, but somehow Phoenix couldn’t shake off the feeling that he wasn’t supposed to be there, that he was an imposter.
He’d felt the dubious glare the other parents sent him the first time he went to get the kid, possibly wondering what a stranger was doing so close to their precious kids. He saw the judging glare the teacher gave him with a forced smile when he explained that yeah, Zack Gramarye had fled from the courtroom and had abandoned his precious daughter at the same time, leaving Phoenix to take care of everything since every close relative of hers disappeared off the face of the earth or died – oh, they were doing fine, don’t worry about them, taking in a kid all of a sudden and changing their whole lives was not that bad.
He massaged his temples with one hand. Just thinking about the whole thing gave him a headache.
Well at the very least, Trucy didn’t mention anything wrong at school and how she still played with her friends like normal, so that was good, but he was still suspicious of the teacher. Call him paranoid but her vibe was off – he was pretty sure she had the child protective service on speed dial.
Whatever, the school year was nearly over, so he wouldn’t have to face the teacher’s weird stare anymore when Trucy switched schools.
He saw Trucy’s classmates coming out of the school slowly and spotted a little pink hat moving along energetically.
That made Phoenix snort a little. That was pretty cute. What Trucy lacked in height, she made up in enthusiasm, he couldn’t deny that.
“Truce!” he called out to get her attention.
She stopped dead in her tracks at her name being called, turned around, and looked everywhere to see where the voice had come from. She finally located him and Phoenix saw her raise her eyebrows in what seemed to be…shock – just like every other day he went to pick her up.
God, he always wondered what this kid had gone through.
He waved at her and Trucy seemed to snap out of her trance and ran full speed at him while shouting DADDY at the top of her lungs. He barely had time to put away his phone before she threw herself around him, making Phoenix stagger at the force of the impact.
Had he adopted a BULL?
Phoenix opened his mouth to tell her to calm down a little and as he looked down at the little girl hugging him tightly, he saw her gifting him the shiniest smile he’d ever seen on her. Phoenix immediately snapped his mouth shut – he was so weak.
“Hey kiddo,” He smiled back at her softly and started playing with her smooth hair, “Did you have fun today?”
Trucy's sunny smile dimmed – it was barely there, and while Phoenix wasn’t as proficient at reading body language as the kid, he definitely saw it.
“Sure,” she simply answered with a way too innocent smile.
Phoenix squinted his eyes at Trucy.
Trucy squinted her eyes at Phoenix.
Great. She knew he knew and he knew that she knew he knew she was hiding something.
Fine. If she wanted to play that game then he would entertain her. Very few people could out-stubborn Phoenix Wright.
They both stared at each other in solemn silence, not bothering with their surroundings, each waiting for one show of weakness from the other.
Trucy blinked first.
“I win.” He said with a smug smile.
“Not fair! I totally thought I could win this one!” She pouted at him as she rubbed her teary eyes.
“Guess you gotta train more kid, this one barely felt like a challenge.” He said as inspected his nails absentmindedly.
Trucy continued to pout, she crossed her arms for good measure and stared at the ground.
“Now, are you going to tell me what went wrong at school?” He asked.
“Nothing’s wrong.” She mumbled and didn’t add anything else as she kept staring at what must have been the world’s most interesting ground.
Phoenix huffed at that – Pearls was the same, kids really were open books. While he didn’t bring his magatama with him, he was pretty sure that if he had, he would have seen one or two locks materializing in front of Trucy at that moment.
Okay then.
First, he needed to gather some information about what happened so that he could at least try to narrow down what seemed to upset her.
Phoenix studied her attentively, she didn’t seem to sport any bruises so that was a good sign. And usually, when another child annoyed her, she’d take care of it herself, and then she would complain about it to him – so, it was unlikely that it had something to do with a kid teasing her.
That left the teacher then?
God, he hoped she didn’t say anything hurtful to Trucy otherwise he was ready to make several phone calls to make sure she never taught ever again.
Anyway, now he needed to coax it out of her. He supposed he would have to resort to that technique.
Phoenix forcibly cleared his throat.
“Well, since you’re in a bad mood, I think we might have to skip the ice cream I planned to get you and just go home instead…” He said in a desolate voice, pretending to be heartbroken.
Trucy quickly looked up from the ground, nearly snapping her neck. That seemed to have caught her attention.
“I’m in a good mood! Don’t worry daddy!” She had the biggest, most innocent smile on her face again, seeming to have all but forgotten what she had previously pouted about.
Phoenix raised his eyebrows, feigning shock, “Are you sure? You seemed to be really bummed when you lost our staring context just two minutes ago.”
“I didn’t lose! I just had something in my eyes.” She assured him with a confident grin.
He just hummed, playing along. He wondered who she took being a sore loser from.
“Sure. So, ice cream?”
Trucy let out an excited squeal and nodded energetically. She then grabbed Phoenix’s hand and pulled him toward the ice cream parlor as she began listing the different flavours she planned to get.
Phoenix just let himself be dragged away by Trucy, chuckling at her enthusiasm.
June 3rd, Ice cream parlor
Trucy held up three little fingers at him with a determined glare.
“Three scoops of ice cream.”
Phoenix gave her an appraising look and held up one of his fingers.
“One scoop of ice cream.”
She frowned at him, clearly unhappy with Phoenix’s proposal, and held up one less finger.
“Two scoops of ice cream.”
He tapped on his chin as he considered her suggestion and watched her squirm impatiently, waiting for his answer.
“I don’t know Trucy…That is a lot of sugar. What if you eat too much of it and can’t sleep tonight?” He said with a barely hidden smirk.
She gave him the biggest puppy eyes she could muster, “Please Daddy! I promise I’ll be extra nice and do anything you ask.”
“Anything?”
She nodded earnestly not noticing that she had fallen for Phoenix’s meticulous plan. Kids were so naïve sometimes.
“Sure then, go off kid.”
Phoenix handed her the cash needed for her ice cream, she took it eagerly with a quick Thanks Daddy! and what looked like – well, a smirk would be going too far, but it definitely looked like a cocky smile. He watched her run up to the vendor as he pondered what just happened.
Wait.
Did Trucy just trick Phoenix into getting her an ice cream by acting upset because she knew he would try to make her feel better with food?
He whistled lowly, impressed.
Damn. If this was what happened the kid was good.
Whatever, she deserved an ice cream once in a while.
He went to sit down on a bench near the parlor and kept an eye on Trucy as she talked to the vendor and pointed at the flavours she wanted. After a few minutes, she came back holding two ice creams, a vanilla-flavoured one for Phoenix – yeah, he was basic, he knew that – and another one for herself with some weird new flavours that he was probably too old for. She gave Phoenix his ice cream, sat down next to him, and began happily eating her ice cream.
They ate their food in comfortable silence until Phoenix glanced at Trucy and noticed a little shuriken on top of her ice cream.
“Hey Truce, what’s up with your ice cream? Why does it have a shuriken on it?”
“Oh! This is a Jammin’ Ninja ice cream!” She showed him excitedly.
He pushed back the flashbacks from that case years ago at the back of his mind and took a bite of his ice cream, “That’s pretty cool, I didn’t know they had that flavour.”
“Yup! They had a steel samurai one too but I prefer the Jammin’ Ninja.” She said as she imitated the pose of her hero and then immediately went back to eating her ice cream.
Phoenix snorted, “Can’t wait for you to meet Edgeworth and Maya, I’m sure they would love you already.”
Trucy looked up at him quizzically and tilted her head slightly, “Who’s Edgeworth and Maya? Are they your friends Daddy?”
Phoenix couldn’t keep the soft smile out of his face even if he tried at the mention of these two, “Yeah, they’re really good friends of mine. When school is over you’ll finally be able to meet them – if you want to of course.”
Trucy just nodded at him with a small smile and refocused on her food. He finished his ice cream swiftly and waited for Trucy to finish hers.
“Truce, I bought you two scoops of ice cream right?” he asked once she was done. She acquiesced, “And we agree that we had a deal that you’d do anything I asked you?”
“Technically Daddy, I was the one who gave the money to the ice cream vendor and bought the ice cream so…” She answered back with a cheeky smile.
Phoenix cackled at that and ruffled her hair with his hand, “You're a menace, I hope you know that.”
She giggled, pleased with herself, “So does that mean I can–”
He cut her off, “Nope, your little loophole doesn’t work since I was the one to give you the money.”
She rolled her eyes and pouted, once again.
“C’mon kid, tell me, did something happen at school or was this all a ploy to get ice cream?” He asked her with a raised eyebrow.
She seemed to hesitate, staring intensively at her lap. Phoenix kept quiet, hoping not to rush her and let her speak on her own accord. When she looked up at him with unsure eyes, he could only smile to encourage her to open up.
“I think it was a bit of both Daddy…” she mumbled so low he barely heard her. She looked so defeated, Phoenix wanted to take her in his arms to give her the biggest hug. He controlled himself though.
“What do you mean sweetheart?”
She took a deep breath and shut her eyes.
“School is boring Daddy…I don’t learn anything new and every time I don’t pay attention because I’d rather do magic, Ms. Tute yells at me that I should focus… That’s why I’m feeling bad and kinda tricked you into getting me an ice cream.” She said with teary eyes.
Phoenix raised both eyebrows in shock.
That was new, as far as he was aware, Trucy had great grades, and the teacher never complained to him about her.
He opened his mouth and closed it quickly. God, where to begin.
He glanced at her and saw Trucy having a hard time containing her tears and felt all his self-restraint crumble. He opened his arms, inviting her for a hug, and she barely hesitated before throwing herself in his arms. He could hear soft sobs coming from her and Phoenix held her tightly, hoping to take some of her sadness away.
He was going to kill that teacher. Before that though, he would have a talk about why she’d kept that sort of thing away from him about his daughter.
They stayed like this for a few minutes until Trucy eventually calmed down and extracted herself from Phoenix’s arms.
“You’re feeling better?” He asked with the gentlest voice he could muster. Trucy nodded with a sniff.
“You said that school was boring right?”
She mumbled a small yeah and rubbed her eyes.
“Did you know there was some stuff we could do at school so that you’re not as bored in class?”
She looked up at Phoenix with big expectant eyes, intrigued, “Really?”
“Yep, we could either make you skip a grade so that you’d learn new things or we could put in place a space so that you could practice your magic or something. What do you think?”
She frowned as she seemed to consider the idea and think about what Phoenix proposed.
“If I skip a grade, will I be with older kids in class?”
Phoenix nodded. That made her cross her arms in reflection.
“I-I don’t know Daddy…” She said with a small voice.
He put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, “Hey it’s okay Truce, you don’t have to decide right now. I’m just listing things we could do to help you at school. I’ll also talk with your current teacher so that she stops yelling at you so often. You don’t deserve that.”
She seemed comforted by that and she smiled one of her sunny smiles at him.
Okay, maybe he was not doing that bad of a job at being a dad. Not that he was worried about that.
“How about this, when you switch schools next year, we’ll meet your new teacher and we’ll try to set up some stuff to make it easier for you. Does that sound okay?”
She nodded energetically, having regained her energy. She quickly moved on from the subject and asked in an excited tone, “Thanks, Daddy! I’m feeling better now. Can I go play with the other kids now?”
He motioned her to go play with the other kids with an amused smile and reminded her as she got away and started running away that they’d need to leave the park in an hour for her show. Trucy barely acknowledged what he said and joined the other kids playing what seemed to be a spirited game of hide-and-seek.
He was proud of himself honestly. He really felt like he made some progress. Sure, he’d still need to talk to her about communicating with him when something affected her at school but still, progress. He would also need to go talk to a doctor about what she talked about being bored, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions but… something was off.
He watched his daughter show off her magic tricks to the other kids and felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips.