Chapter Text
“—I think the hardest part to figure out is the mask,” Athena argued. “I mean. If the Alderman was the Nine-Tailed Fox then it would back up the prosecution's claim even more, and the people in the village will be royally pis—er,” Act professional, Athena! You’re a lawyer, and you’re with your boss’s kid! “ really mad.”
“Royally pissed!”
So much for being professional, Widget!
“I don’t think that has too much to do with the case though,” Apollo opened the main door of the agency. “It could just be a coincidence that the mask washed up near the crime scene! Not to mention, and it wasn’t even found at the scene of the crime!”
“But Apollo!” Trucy followed Athena, who was following Apollo inside, “Remember our old cases! There’s lots of evidence to be found outside of the crime scenes, and they’re all just as vital as the last!”
“But evidence isn’t always…” Apollo’s shoulders slumped. “…Never mind.” Athena heard him mutter something else. “With the way things are, he’s still right…” The next thing Apollo said was loud enough for Trucy to hear too. “Whatever, right now, I don’t think it’s that important, anyway!”
There was a throat clearing, startling all three of them when they turned around. “…Sounds like you could use a little scientific help.”
“Ema!?” Apollo and Trucy both cried out, and Trucy ran over to give the woman in the lab coat a hug, which she awkwardly returned.
“Detective Skye! I feel like it’s been forever!”
“First, it’s no longer ‘Detective Skye,’ second, I missed you too, kiddo.” And to show that, she took Trucy’s hat off and started ruffling her hair.
“What do you mean, you’re no longer a detective?” Apollo, who was apparently familiar with Ema, seemed surprised. “You weren’t sacked, were you!?”
“Tone it down, Apollo! Geez, I almost forgot how loud you are. I’ll explain in a little bit; first I wanna meet this new kid.” She pulled out a bag of snackoos and started munching on them, “Name’s Ema, Ema Skye. you’re Mister Wright’s new kid, Athena, right?”
“Yep! Athena Cykes, Attorney at law!” Athena stuck out a hand, and Ema wiped the hand she used to eat off of on her pants to shake it. “It’s good to meet you, Trucy and Apollo were talking about you earlier!”
“What!?” Ema glared daggers at Apollo, but her voice told Athena she was more embarrassed than angry. “I come here, out of the goodness of my heart, as a favor to some old friends, possibly risking my new job, and you talk about me behind my back!? See if I ever help you out again!”
“H-Hey! It’s not like that, besides, Trucy talked about you too!”
“All good things, I promise!” Trucy swore, grinning up at her.
“…Hmph.” It seemed the woman had a soft spot for the young magician, “Fine, I believe you, but it’s still rude to talk about people behind their backs! Let people make their first impression on their own next time, got it?”
“Yes ma’am!” Trucy chirped.
“…You make me feel old when you call me that. Stop it.” Ema rolled her eyes, but put the snacks away in her bag for a moment.
“Anyway, I’m here to help you guys out. Mister Wright said there were some issues with the case, so I’m using my new position to help out.” She looked and sounded pretty smug when she added, “And in case you haven’t figured it out, I’m no longer a detective. I’m a forensic scientist.” Ema pointed to her armband, and Athena thought Apollo and Trucy would be slapping their foreheads for not realizing sooner, but instead she could hear genuine joy in their hearts, accompanied by their wide smiles.
“That’s great, Ema! Congratulations!” Trucy hugged her again, and Apollo held his hand out for her to shake, but Ema rolled her eyes again with a fond smile and pulled him into her hug with Trucy.
“Okay, okay, enough hugging. Let’s get down to business.”
“Whaaaaat! But I wanna know when this happened! I haven’t seen you in forever! Do you have presents?! Can I have some of your food?!”
“I got the results from the exam two months ago, I missed you too, like I said before, I have the gift of information and myself, and you can have a handful if you’re that hungry.” Trucy eagerly watched as Ema pulled out the bag once again, then quickly scooped up so many treats that some fell onto the carpet.
While that happened, Ema pulled out some more things from her bag: two reports, two… seemingly empty bags, and a bag containing the mask they presented at the trial. “I feel kinda bad for you guys, working on a case with Detective Fulbright… I never liked him that much, even before he got… weird.”
“…Weird?”
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s always been obnoxiously cheerful, but… about a month ago, he started acting weirder. It was like if you combined several versions of himself and stuffed him into one person… but that isn’t all. He… got weirdly nosy. Even more so than before.” She sounded uncomfortable, “He freaked me out one day when he asked me about my older sister. I know for a fact I never told him about her.”
“Or us!” Trucy and Apollo yelled at the same time, nearly making Athena’s poor ears bleed.
“Hey, indoor voices, please!” Ema was just as surprised. “I thought Mister Wright would have told you two already! It’s a long story, my sister got arrested, lots of blackmailing done against her, he saved her and proved she didn’t kill the victim, but she had to go to jail anyway for stuff she was blackmailed into…” Ema readjusted her bag, “But enough about the past, okay? Let’s just… focus on this case.
“We analyzed the mask you guys presented to the court… the one belonging to the Amazing Nine-Tails… but specifically the hair found inside it.”
“It was the Alderman’s, right?”
Ema shook her head. “We couldn’t find any traces of his hair, but we couldn’t exactly… figure out who’s white hair it belonged to.”
“Why not?” Trucy asked, “Don’t tell me, it belonged to some kinda animal!?”
“Nah, it’s too damaged for us to really tell,” Ema explained, “I think it’s probably from hair dye; but that’s not all… we found some black hair in the mask as well…” Ema became serious. “And that belongs to none other than your client, Mayor Tenma.”
“ WHAT !?” Everyone yelled, making Ema drop the bag of Snackoos she was in the middle of pulling out.
“H-hey, don’t look at me!” Ema grabbed her snacks again, frowning. “It isn’t my job to figure out what’s going on!! Not anymore! I’m here just for the facts of the case, nothing more!”
“Ema… you don’t have any ideas? Any at all?”
“Well…” She munched thoughtfully, eyes closed in concentration. “…Maybe the mask belongs to the mayor…? Who’s to say that the mask isn’t your client’s? Maybe he’s a fan of the Amazing Nine-Tails!”
Athena hummed in thought. “That wouldn’t work, though, the Amazing Nine-Tails was completely against the merger between Nine-Tails Vale and Tenma Town, remember?”
“I don’t know!! That’s your job to figure it all out!” Ema huffed, gripping her bag. “Whatever, anyway… I better get going, soon. I only had time to stop by because I was waiting for something else to get analyzed.”
“For our case?”
“Nah,” Ema rolled up her snacks again, and Athena couldn’t help but wonder how the hell her bag still had anything in it. “It’s for an unrelated case—there was a recent discovery of an unidentified corpse somewhere in the area… we can’t find a shred of evidence about their identity, and from what we’ve been able to tell so far, the body has been dead for a while.”
Athena shuddered, and Widget voiced her thoughts perfectly, “Scary!”
“I’ll say,” Ema didn’t seem to realize that it wasn’t really Athena who said that, “I just hope it’s not some kind of serial murderer; I’ve had enough of those for a lifetime.”
“You’ve dealt with a real serial killer!?” Trucy sounded excited, “Possibly more than once!?” Why would a young teenager be so enthralled at the idea—wait, no, Athena remembered being that young once, too, it wasn’t even that long ago!
“…It’s a long story, like most things are, actually.” Ema replied, as if it wasn’t a huge deal. “Alright, I’m off you three, keep your noses clean, try not to get into any trouble, save your client, and remember, all cops are bastards.”
“Wait, weren’t you a de—”
“Don’t finish that,” Ema interrupted, walking over to the door. “Oh, say hi to Mister Wright for me, will you?”
“You bet, thanks a lot, Ema.”
“Bye Ema!”
“Nice meeting you!”
There was a wave, and then the noisy old door creaked shut.
“…How about we say hi to Mister Wright for her right now?” Apollo asked, pulling out his phone.
“I know it wasn’t that much help, but I’m glad Ema was able to stop by and help out a little.”
There was a cacophony of agreement and thanks from the younger members of the agency on the other end of the call, Phoenix couldn’t help but smile.
“Any ideas who the killer is?”
“I think it’s our client’s assistant—Mr. L’Belle.”
If he wasn’t at work, Phoenix would have scrunched up his face in disgust. “Never been a fan of that guy, to be honest. When we did have a rare encounter, he was always spraying stuff at me like I was a cockroach, or something.”
“...Mr. Wright. He probably killed a man.”
“But he probably killed a lot of the planet too, with all that aerosol spray!” Trucy chimed in.
“Says the performer!”
“Hey! I don’t use aerosol hair spray!”
“Way to go, Trucy!” That one was Athena.
“Okay, okay, we get it, Florent L’Belle is a mass murderer and worse than any yokai,” Phoenix idly pressed a few keys on the piano in front of him, garnering a glare from the co-worker who liked him the least. “I’m assuming you have a plan?”
“We drag him out to court and give him a solid beating!” Phoenix could picture it now, Athena marching right up to the witness stand and giving him a swift kick to the jaw.
“Not a literal one, I hope!”
“Says the lawyer who punched his client, once.”
There was a strangled noise, followed by a faint “Apollo, you punched a client?! I don’t remember that!”
“A-Anyway, we think the caretaker is supposed to testify again tomorrow, and then L’Belle.
“Oh! And I have some theories about how someone else could have gotten in the room and secret chamber.”
“Yeah? Wh—”
“Hey, Wright!” Olga was calling, “Ken’s here!”
“Sorry, looks like I’ve got a customer. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, Trucy, I’ll be home earlier than usual, but remember to call Miles if there’s an emergency; Athena, Apollo, I’ll see you two tomorrow at the trial. Get some sleep, eat something somewhat decent, maybe shower… probably shower… you guys know the drill. Good work you three, I love you, Trucy, see you three tomorrow!”
Three voices all spoke at once, saying goodbyes and thank yous, and he hung up with a small smile.
“If it isn’t Mister Wright!” There he was, wearing a green flannel shirt and a t-shirt with the new Phony Phanty mascot on it.
“Hey, Mr. Vincing. Here for yet another r—.” He was cut off when the man, who by all accounts was much larger than him, suddenly lifted him into a hug.
The man had always been… one to ignore personal boundaries, but Phoenix couldn’t remember ever being hugged by him, let alone lifted. “It’s been a while since our last match, eh? But this time, I’m sure to win! Hahaha!”
“We’ll see about that, Ken.” He looked at him closely, there was something… off about him. “...Did you shrink?”
He laughed again, big and boisterous. “Flattery won’t help you this time, Nicky! If anything, I gained more weight since we last saw each other!”
Not what I meant… Well, if there was something going on, Phoenix was just going to play along. With a shrug, Phoenix replied, “Well, it was worth a shot, can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“I can and will!” The man laughed again, “Ready to play?”
“Ready to win .” There was something else Phoenix noticed then, usually, when he’d say something along those lines, there was a mischievous glint in his large grey eyes (Trucy called him “Santa” when she first met him), but this time, they seemed almost blank.
“Well, if you say so, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.”
Olga was already heading over to the Hydeout, grumbling something about having to deal with both of them again, but to Phoenix’s surprise, Ken followed her without even an attempt at idle chatter, and he never missed an opportunity to talk with anyone.
Normally, Mister Ken Vincing was fairly easy to read without trying, the man was incapable of having a poker face, but this round…
Everything he was doing was much more exaggerated than usual, and if Phoenix hadn’t been so… close to him earlier, he’d guess the man had been drinking earlier.
Even Olga seemed to notice the man’s odd behavior, at some point she raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Phoenix, her expression reading “Are you seeing this shit?”
At some point, during the game, he spoke up, “So… how’s Trucy doing? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her.”
...Something was definitely wrong. The man before Phoenix never called her that in the past eight years. He usually used some kind of cute nickname, like the little Wright or squirt , but never by her first name only.
“She’s doing pretty well.” Phoenix answered as though nothing were wrong, though. “I think she grew last night.”
“No longer ‘Daddy’s little girl’ then, eh?”
“ That will never change,” Phoenix replied, “Trucy’s always gonna be my little girl, even if she ends up becoming a giant.”
“Were both of her parents tall? The biological ones, I mean?”
Phoenix stared at him. He wasn’t sure that he should say much else on the subject.
“Actually, I don’t remember. It’s possible.”
The man laughed, and for the first time since Phoenix knew the man, it made him feel uneasy; the hair at the back of his neck stood up, and he could feel the restaurant's chill more prominently in his sweats than ever.
“Well you know the old saying! Girls usually end up looking more like their fathers, boys end up looking like their mothers.”
“Mmhmm.” Phoenix didn’t say much else, even if Trucy barely looked like her biological father, the only similarity was their dark skin, and possible height advantage.
“Ah, and how’s the rest of your agency doing? I think I saw them in the papers? Sounds like an interesting case!”
“...Justice is fine. We have a new recruit, Cykes. Cykes just started working the other day.” Phoenix paused. “Ever meet someone by that name before?”
“Can’t say I have, no.”
Something happened.
As he expected, the room became dark, there was the heavy sound of metal clinking against metal…
The locks appeared… but there was something wrong with them.
All six of them were fading in and out, in a way Phoenix had never seen before.
It was more disconcerting than his discovery of black psyche-locks half a year ago.
“Something wrong, Nicky?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it. Anyway, I suspected as much, it’s a unique name, isn’t it? Like something out of a kid’s show.”
“You can talk to me about weird names after your last name has been Vincing for fifty some years!” He laughed, and the two of them resumed their game of cards.
Several more minutes later, Ken spoke again. “So… Are you planning on becoming a lawyer again?”
Phoenix shrugged, like it wasn’t something on his mind often, like he wasn’t constantly being (“gently”) encouraged by his partner, daughter, Apollo, sister figures, and the occasional enthusiastic reporter to become a lawyer again. He shrugged like he was being asked to hold onto a feather instead of the whole world on his too small shoulders.
“Eh, I don’t think they’d want me back there anytime soon. Besides, I get to sit when I work here, before I had to stand up for hours on end—and it’s better for my heart.”
The man laughed, “That’s a relief! I’d hate to lose my favorite poker opponent, especially if it happened before I could finally trump you in a game of wits!”
Phoenix laughed too, “Don’t worry, you won’t lose me anytime soon, though Olga’s pretty good too.”
“I’m damn good, thank you very much.” She finally spoke up from sulking in her corner.
“I dunno, you still haven’t beaten me,” Phoenix answered flatly, “Or Trucy for that matter, the one time she played against you.”
Olga scowled, turning away to brood some more.
As always, the man lost. But his reaction, as he had been acting all day, was far more exaggerated than usual. He was slightly louder, his fist shaking more aggressive, and his face not quite as red as usual.
Something was definitely off.
Still, Phoenix shook his hand as always, smiled, and wished him better luck next time.
He acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Next time, I’ll beat you next time, I swear it to you!!”
“I look forward to it.” Phoenix gave his usual lazy, empty smile, up until the man lifted him in the air again.
He attempted to hug Olga, too, but she gave him her signature glare and an empty “Do that, and your arms will never work again,” threat, instead he patted her back, and she nearly throttled him.
“Well Wright, I’ll be back for more later!”
“I’m sure you will. Say hi to your husband for me.”
The man stared at him blankly for a split second, like he had no clue who Phoenix was talking about, and then raised a hand saying “Of course I will! Say hello to Trucy!”
“Of course.” I won’t.
Phoenix went back to the piano, pretending to play some old Christmas song in the middle of May…
...Until Olga called out, “Ken’s back!”
She sounded confused.
Phoenix turned, ready to ask if he forgot something downstairs, before he saw the source of her confusion.
Ken Vincing was wearing different clothes, with a blue flannel rather than the earlier green, and a t-shirt with the new mascot, Bum Rap Rhiny.
“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Wright!”
“Oh, hey Ken.” Phoenix acted casual, like it was just the same old same old.
The man gave him a firm handshake. Same as always. “It’s been a while since our last match, huh? But this time, I’m sure to win! Har har har!”
“Really? I thought I just saw you.”
“What?” The man’s face fell. “I haven’t been here for a few weeks. First I got sick and then my husband got sick… Oh, wait, I get it now!” He grinned again, like he was in on a big joke, “I get it! You’re trying to confuse me! Trying to get a leg up on me!” He shook his finger, “I can’t believe you’d try something like that, I guess you must be really nervous this time, eh?”
“You got me!” Phoenix smiled. The man wasn’t lying. It was definitely Ken Vincing. “Hey Olga! We have another match!”
“ WHAT!? ” Olga seemed furious, like she was ready to spend the rest of her night not doing any other work (unless Borschevic made her carry crates later, which was pretty likely), “You guys already played—!”
Phoenix gave her a look. Thankfully, the same glare he used to tell the agency members to knock it off worked on her too, and she ended up grumbling as she headed down.
“Something wrong with her?” Ken looked concerned, “I mean, she’s never been the most chipper, but—”
“She’s fine,” Phoenix guided him down stairs. “She’s just had a rough day, it’s best not to ask.”
“Well, if you say so, Nicky!”
The game went on… as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, Phoenix told him Trucy was getting taller, and the older man sighed fondly, “Little squirt… soon she’ll be too big for me to call her that, huh.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t think she’ll ever outgrow that nickname if it came from you.”
He looked a little weepy, “I still remember when I first saw the little tyke look up at me and ask me if I was Santa Claus… I thought I’d scare her away, and now—”
“She’s in high school and almost as tall as the second oldest member of the Agency,” Phoenix sighed, “Time sure does fly.”
Ken nodded. “It sure does, Nicky…”
They played in relative silence then, but Ken looked over at him, worry swimming in his big grey eyes. "You feeling alright, Nicky? You're acting like you used to."
"Used to?"
"Yeah… Recently, you've been much more chipper, y'know? Even if you're mostly unreadable…" He shrugged, "I was worried something was wrong… Especially with Trucy…"
"Everything's fine, Ken," Phoenix lied through his teeth, "My day was just slow."
"Oh!" Ken grinned, "Well, can't blame 'ya for that! I was just like that the other day!" And that ended that.
The game ended as it usually did. Phoenix won, Ken had a big reaction, but it seemed much more subdued than the Ken from before was.
“Better luck next time, Mr. Vincing!”
“Yes, I suppose so…” he pouted, before wiping it away with another grin. “And I thought for sure I was going to finally get you!”
“Maybe one day you will, Ken.” Phoenix shook his hand while they walked up the stairs.
“I know I will! It’s become my new goal in life!”
The piano player laughed, “Everyone needs a good rival, huh?”
Ken winked, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Well, I’m off then, have a good night, Nicky, say hi to the Littlest Wright for me, will ya?”
“Only if you tell your husband I said hi!”
“Goodnight, Miss Orly!”
Olga said nothing, too busy having some sort of disagreement with their boss… which Olga lost, causing her to roll up her sleeves and start picking up crates.
Phoenix went back to the piano, half playing, half scared out of his mind.
When there were only a few minutes left before the restaurant closed, Phoenix decided to talk with his coworker about what they just saw.
“Hey, Olga, you saw that too, right?”
The woman was carrying a large crate of... something, dropping it with a heavy thud (bottles, if he had to guess). “Listen here, Wright. I stopped trying to pay attention to your weird life a year ago, Wright.” She rubbed the back of her neck, “...Though even I have to admit... that was freaky.”
“What should we do about it?”
She scoffed, “We? There’s no ‘we,’ Wright. I hate your guts, remember? Besides, if I end up getting involved in your weird life, then I’ll probably end up in a ditch somewhere or in fucking jail. Instead, I’m just going to finish work for the day, go home, and drink until I forget about it. You like mysteries, don’tcha? Solve this one without me, I’m not interested at all.”
“...You’re pretty easy to scare, aren’t you, Olga?”
She scowled at him. “Oh, fuck off.” And, to drive her message of distaste home, she flipped him off before picking the crate back up again.
Trucy was still awake when he made it home, all curled up on the couch in her pajamas, clutching her first stuffed animal.
“Hi, Daddy,” she yawned.
“Hey, Sunshine…” Phoenix kissed her head and plopped right down next to her. Trucy scooted closer, leaning against him like he was a pillow. “Tired?” She nodded, yawned again. “Me too. It was a weird day at work. Either there’s two Mr. Vincings, or I think your old man’s getting senile, Trucy.”
“About time too,” There was a small smile on her precious face. “I thought it was gonna happen sooner.”
“Glad that doesn’t come as a surprise to you!” He chuckled. “I did get paid double tonight, though. I had two customers even if only one of them was Ken.”
“That's—” Trucy yawned, “—good. You can treat Polly and Athena to Eldoon’s tomorrow after they win trial.”
“Yeah?” absentmindedly, Phoenix toyed with her hair, making little curls and detangling it, Trucy sighed. “Think they’ll win by tomorrow?”
“‘Course they will.” Trucy’s eyes were closed. “Polly’s smart, and I can tell Athena is too. I know she’ll be able to help him more, since she’s a lawyer ‘nd all…”
“...’More’?”
“Mmhmm.” She cracked one eye open. “Magicians don’t know much about laws, Daddy.”
“Trucy… You’re important to Apollo. You know that, right?” Phoenix wrapped an arm around her, holding her close. “Without you, I think his trials wouldn’t have been half as successful as they were.”
Trucy didn’t respond, she only curled into him a bit more.
“...Hey, how about I let you skip school tomorrow?” Trucy opened one eye. “It’ll be fun! Then you can watch the trial, and watch after Jinxie… and join in on some post trial celebration. Whatcha think?”
Trucy closed her eye again, but nodded with a smile. “...Bed time?” One nod, and Trucy groggily moved to her room.
“G’night, Daddy.”
“Goodnight, lovebug.”
When her door shut, Phoenix sighed and walked over to the closet for an old gadget. He really, really didn’t want to do this. He truly thought at this point he and his daughter weren’t being targeted by anything, he was tired of being even remotely paranoid, and he wanted very much to sleep.
But after tonight, it was better safe than sorry.
The fob in his hand wasn’t new by any means. The thing was nearly ten years old, but he’d been using it for roughly seven years, and it was always able to pick up any sort of bugs in his home, agency, and once in a blue moon, hotel room.
Some part of him always remembers the anxiety of the Juan Corrida trial whenever he busts this old, dusty device out of the closet for a quick sweep around.
It’s all Phoenix can do but hope that Apollo and Athena never end up in a similar situation.
And pray that Trucy doesn’t end up in Maya’s. That thought alone could be enough to keep him away from the legal business.
Phoenix swept through the entire apartment, his room, the bathroom, the main room, leaving no stone besides Trucy’s room unturned.
Nothing. Not even on him, other than the one he put on Ema’s old button, but he never used it anymore…
Phoenix sighed. Really, he wanted to go to sleep, he didn’t feel like talking, but something like this might blow up in his face somehow, and he needed someone to be able to back him up, if the worst were to happen.
But he knew Miles would get pissed if he didn’t tell him about his weird evening right away.
Phoenix pulled out his cell phone.
“Shouldn’t you be at work by now?”
“Hi to you too, Miles.” Phoenix smiled, “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“I don’t normally go to sleep at… ten fifteen.” There was a beat. “Are you safe? Did you feel like someone was watching you ag — ”
“I’m safe. I think. I already checked for anything suspicious on my clothes before I left work and—”
“So something did happen,” was the worried reply. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been arrested again , or that someone else did.”
“Got any bail money?” It was kind of a stupid joke, and Phoenix let himself grin.
“I’m hanging up. Have fun rotting behind bars.”
Right. Better be in business mode. “I saw two of the same person. Maybe.”
“...You saw what? ”
“There’s a regular who comes to challenge me often, Ken Vincing. He came in twice. The first one was weird, the second one was normal.”
“Well that’s vague.” But there was a slight panic in Miles’ voice.
“Because I’m trying not to freak you out,” Phoenix shifted. “The first one was like Mr. Vincing, if you amped up everything about him to a hundred… or like if he was suddenly a Looney Toons character.
“He was also weirdly invasive all of a sudden, asking weird questions… like about Trucy, the agency, and…” Phoenix hesitated.
“Phoenix?”
“He asked me if I was going to be a lawyer, again.”
The only sound after he said that was static in his ear and the sound of his partner’s breath.
“What did you say about it?”
“Just told him I wasn’t.” Phoenix rushed on ahead, “There was something else. Something weird. So, like usual, I have my Magatama with me at work, right? I’m no Gramarye, so my eyesight’s not gonna pick up every little shift.”
“He had Psyche-Locks?”
“He had several Psyche-Locks.” Phoenix told him. “I asked him if he ever met anyone with the last name Cykes.” He heard a sharp intake of breath. “And they weren’t red.”
“You mean they were black like Kristoph Gavin’s!?”
“...Not quite, no.” Even the name left a bad taste in Phoenix’s mouth. “Not like Gavin. They were… they kept fading in and out. And when they faded in… they were almost translucent.”
“...You should ask Pearls about that, Phoenix. Of course, don’t tell her why you need to know.”
“The last thing I want is to potentially put her in danger.” Phoenix sighed, “Or anyone else. And before you ask; no, I don’t want anyone to keep me safe, or whatever. If… if this has anything to do with that guy you’re after, I’d rather he didn’t have any inkling that we’re on to him. That just makes dangerous people more dangerous.” And he didn’t want to freak out Trucy.
“I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Phoe—”
“Don’t. It’s okay, Miles. I’m used to it, kind of.”
“Nobody should be. Especially not you, or Trucy.”
This silence was just as heavy as the last, laced with years and years of constant exposure to the worst humanity has to offer.
Liars, cheaters, killers, manipulators, abusers…
“Maybe you’re right, Edgeworth.”
“...God, you sound exhausted.” He heard a sigh. “I feel that way too, now. Go to bed, dear.”
Phoenix gave a tired smile, even if his boyfriend wouldn’t be able to see it. “Okay, Miles.”
“I love you, be safe.”
“I love you too, sleep tight.”
Phoenix ended the call there. He knew he wouldn’t be sleeping tight. His dreams would be plagued by old memories and feelings from ten years ago.
He made a quick stop at Trucy’s room before passing out on his bed. She was sleeping so soundly, barely gripping her old stuffed rabbit, quiet snores coming from her little mouth…
She scrunched her face up when he brushed her cheek, and he smiled.
“I’ll never let anyone hurt you, as long as I can help it.” He whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“I promise.”