Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2026-01-02 04:03 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2026-01-02 04:03 pm
Entry tags:
Fanfiction: Bad Timing (Ace Attorney, Apollo/Trucy)
My first fic of the new year!
Iiiiiit's incest!
Title: Bad Timing
Fandom: Ace Attorney
Rating: 14
Pairing: Apollo/Trucy
Wordcount: 2,500
Summary: Phoenix tells Apollo about his connection to Trucy, much too late.
Warnings: Accidental incest.
It’s just Phoenix and Apollo in the office this morning, and the atmosphere feels... strange. Apollo keeps catching Phoenix looking at him, or thinking he does, at least.
Maybe Apollo’s just on edge, maybe it’s the natural paranoia of dating the boss’s daughter, even though he’d thought it would have started to fade by now. But he can’t stop feeling that Phoenix might suspect something.
“There’s something I have to tell you,” Phoenix says at last, standing up from his desk. “I’ve known for a while, but... well, it’s just never been the right time.”
Apollo tenses up. But maybe it’s just something work-related, maybe he’s just worrying over nothing. “What is it?”
Phoenix draws in a deep breath. “It’s about the relationship between you and Trucy.”
Shit.
“You know about that?” Apollo asks, aghast. He thought he’d braced himself for this, but... no, no, it turns out he really hasn’t. “I – I don’t – I’m sorry, you’re her father, I know I should have said something to you, I just—”
“Wait, you know about this?” Phoenix asks.
“I’m—” What? “I’m... in the relationship. It seems like it would be hard for me not to know.”
“The relationship?” Phoenix echoes, frowning.
What’s going on? This conversation isn’t making any sense. “The relationship with Trucy. The one we were literally just talking about.”
They stare at each other, while Phoenix’s expression slowly shifts from bewilderment to something—
Something almost terrified, and the sight of that scares the hell out of Apollo, too.
“You’re in a relationship,” Phoenix says. “With Trucy.”
Apollo can only nod wordlessly. He thought – he thought Phoenix knew. He can’t make sense of any of this.
“A romantic relationship.” Phoenix scrubs a hand through his hair, takes a few restless paces back and forth; Apollo knows from experience that pacing this cluttered office isn’t easy. “A sexual relationship? God, no, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”
They’ve had this discussion countless times in Apollo’s head. He knew that Phoenix might react badly, obviously, his employee dating his daughter. Seeing Phoenix’s obvious distress still hurts, though, more than he’d braced himself for.
“I – I know she’s young,” Apollo says. “I can understand that you might be worried. There was a long time when I couldn’t have pictured seeing her the way I do now. But Trucy is an adult, and she’s...” Even in this situation, he can’t keep a small, fond laugh from escaping. “She’s very clear about what she wants.”
“Trucy is an adult now,” Phoenix mutters. He won’t look at Apollo. “You’re right. There was a long time when I could have stopped this.”
Apollo swallows. “Please don’t be angry with her.”
Phoenix meets Apollo’s eyes at that, his own gaze wide and startled. “I’m not angry. I’m not angry with either of you. This is – this is my fault; I let you both down by allowing this to happen.”
It makes Apollo bristle a little, the implication that Phoenix has that kind of authority over his private life, the implication that being with Trucy is somehow a bad thing for him. Yeah, getting involved with his boss’s daughter was never going to be a great idea, but she makes him happy; he’s not going to let anyone pretend that away.
Still, it’s a small scrap of hope. For a long time, he’s been terrified that Phoenix finding out might mean the loss of both Trucy and his work as a lawyer. They probably won’t be able to stay together, and that breaks his heart. But it sounds like he might be able to keep his job, at the very least.
“Mr Wright,” Apollo says, “I’m serious about—”
“You don’t want to say this to me, Apollo,” Phoenix says, urgently.
“I need to,” Apollo says. “I understand that you’re upset, and I know you’re probably going to ask me to break up with her. But I want you to know that I’m serious—”
“Apollo—”
“—about your daughter. If you’re willing to give me a chance, I promise I—”
“Apollo!” Phoenix snaps, in exactly the tone he uses to shout Objection! in court. Apollo cuts himself off, startled, and Phoenix’s next words feel ringingly loud in the suddenly silent room: “Trucy is your sister.”
Apollo laughs. It’s almost a reflex; he hasn’t really grasped the meaning of the words yet, but he knows in an instant that they’re ludicrous. “What?”
Phoenix just looks desperately back at him.
He doesn’t look like he’s joking. But it has to be a joke, it’s obviously not – “No, she isn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Phoenix says. “I should have told you earlier. I made a... a terrible mistake.”
“My father—” It’s ridiculous that Apollo even has to do these calculations. His sister? No. “My father died years before she was born.”
He and Trucy have the same hair colour.
That means nothing; he has the same hair colour as a lot of people. Why is it even crossing his mind?
“Years,” Phoenix agrees. “Long enough for your mother to develop a relationship with Zak Gramarye.”
“My mother? What the hell do you know about my mother? What—” He can’t breathe. “What are you saying? Trucy’s my half-sister? You can’t be serious.”
“We were waiting for the right moment to tell you—”
“We?” Apollo echoes. He feels lightheaded; he feels like all the gravity is draining out of the room, somehow, like it’s all he can do to keep his feet on the floor. “You and Trucy?”
Trucy knew? Trucy knew about this? For how long? Did she let him kiss her, knowing? This morning, when they—
Did she know?
“No.” Phoenix shakes his head. “She doesn’t know. I’m talking about—”
She doesn’t know. It’s almost a relief, for an instant, before it hits him: that might be worse. She was innocent in this, and now he’s going to have to tell her. She’s going to learn that Apollo – that her half-brother—
He’s going to throw up. Phoenix is saying something, but he can’t take it in, he can’t think.
This isn’t being asked to choose between his career and his relationship; it’s worse than that, somehow. This is a poison working its way through the veins of his memories, tainting every moment he and Trucy have ever had. Siblings.
He wants to claw the skin off every part of him that’s ever touched her.
A hand on his shoulder. He jerks away. He’s disgusting; why would someone want to...?
“I know—” Phoenix pauses, for a long moment. “I know it must be... a shock.”
God. That’s one way to put it. Apollo almost laughs.
They’re both quiet for a while. Apollo can’t bring himself to meet Phoenix’s eyes; he wants to get out of here, he wants to be alone. But, if he leaves the conversation here, he’ll never be able to reopen it.
“How long have you known?” Apollo asks, eventually.
Phoenix shakes his head. “Please don’t ask me that. It won’t help.”
He’s probably right; Apollo probably doesn’t want to know. But he still finds himself picking apart everything Phoenix has said in his head, poring over it in the way he’d examine a witness’s statement in court. Trucy is an adult now. You’re right. There was a long time when I could have stopped this.
Phoenix has known for years, probably. Since before Trucy hit adulthood. Since well before that night Apollo and Trucy stayed late at the office, and their long conversation eventually turned into Trucy backing Apollo against the wall to kiss him.
It hurts to remember how he’d felt heading home that night, nervous and giddy and excited. If Phoenix had just said something earlier—
He’s said something now. It’s too late.
“Do we have to tell Trucy?” Apollo asks.
Phoenix looks horrified. “You still want to...?”
“No!” Maybe a part of him wishes he hadn’t learnt the truth; maybe a part of him wishes they could still be together. He might as well wish to sprout wings. “I’ll end it. I just... this is really going to hurt her.”
She has a right to know; he knows that. He wants Phoenix to say it, Don’t you think she has a right to know?, so he can scream back at him: Didn’t I have a right to know? Didn’t both of us have a right to know, before any of this happened? You could have stopped this!
“Are you sure?” Phoenix asks, instead.
Apollo groans. “Urgh. No. She needs to know, doesn’t she?”
-
Phoenix calls Trucy into the office.
The wait for her to arrive is agonising. Apollo sits uncomfortably on the couch, picking at his increasingly shredded fingernails. Trying not to picture all the moments they’ve shared right here.
“You can go home if it’d be easier, you know,” Phoenix says, quietly.
Apollo shakes his head. He needs to be here for this. Not out of any moral obligation; he just knows that, if he doesn’t face Trucy now, he’ll never be able to.
When she bounds into the room, Apollo forgets how to think. She looks just like she always does, she moves just like she always does. She’s as beautiful as ever. She’s his sister.
“Daddy!” she greets them. “And Polly! Good morning!”
Apollo’s on his feet, he vaguely registers. He doesn’t even remember standing up.
He thought he might not even be able to look at Trucy, let alone approach her. But he finds himself pulling her into a hug.
“Oh!” Trucy laughs in his arms, and then drops her voice to whisper into his ear; it makes him shiver and then wish he hadn’t. “Polly, Daddy can see us!”
Apollo really wishes that could be their biggest problem. He doesn’t want to look at Phoenix right now; he doesn’t want to see his expression.
I love you, he wants to say, or I’m sorry. But anything he could say would probably just scare her.
He takes a seat next to her on the couch, as Phoenix draws breath to start explaining things. He needs Trucy to know that he’s still prepared to be in the same room as her; he needs her to know he still wants her in his life, he needs—
“Uh,” Phoenix says, shifting uncomfortably. “I was really hoping to do this under better circumstances. But I’ve become aware of, um... I know you and Apollo are – this is completely my fault, I should have told you this a long time ago, but—”
What is Apollo doing? He can’t sit here while Trucy listens to this.
He stumbles to his feet and near-runs through the nearest door and pulls it shut behind him.
The nearest door is, unfortunately, the door to the storage closet. But he can’t possibly go back out into the office now, so he guesses he’s just going to have to live in the storage closet for the rest of his life.
He can’t make out exactly what’s being said from here. But he can hear Trucy go from talking to yelling to sobbing, and Apollo leans his head back against the door in the darkness and hates himself for his own cowardice.
-
There’s a long silence, eventually: long enough for Apollo to start to wonder if it’s safe to go back out into the office. And then there’s a knock on the closet door, and his heart nearly stops.
“Polly?” Trucy calls through the door, after a moment.
Maybe he should just stay quiet and pretend he’s died in here.
“I’m sorry,” he calls back.
Trucy says something he doesn’t catch, the door between them blurring her words into an indistinct mass. Apollo has to brace himself before taking hold of the handle.
“What was that?” he asks, opening the door.
She gives him a sheepish smile. She’s still willing to smile at him. “I was just saying it might be easier to talk without the door in the way.”
Apollo takes in a breath to speak. It turns out all he can do is let it out again, slowly. How can they talk about this; what can they say?
Trucy seems as lost as he does, shifting uncomfortably on her feet.
“I, um, always wanted a sibling,” she offers at last, awkwardly.
It startles Apollo into bursting out laughing, as awful as this situation is. He guesses she’s always been good at seeing the bright side of things.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better sister,” he manages to say, once he’s got himself back under control. It feels uncomfortable to say sister; he wishes he’d said half-sister, emphasised the ways in which they’re not related, but perhaps that wouldn’t actually help. “I wouldn’t have minded better circumstances, though.”
Trucy nods, fervently. “I – I think we’re going to have to break up. Sorry.”
He’d assumed that that went without saying. But, in a weird way, it’s a kind of relief to hear it. Maybe some part of him was still in suspense, afraid that they might somehow still be together. “It’s okay. I understand. I’m not sure it’s actually possible to understand anything more than I understand right now.”
“It’s really not your fault,” Trucy says. “You’ve been a great boyfriend. If we could stay together, I swear—”
Apollo holds up both palms in a frantic stop talking gesture.
Trucy laughs, embarrassed. “Yeah, okay.”
-
It’s an adjustment, to put it mildly. It’s awkward between him and Trucy, between him and Phoenix; it’s hard to envision a time when it won’t be. But they’re still in each other’s lives, at least, so maybe that time will come.
Phoenix has asked Apollo if he wants to meet his mother. He doesn’t, not yet. He knows Trucy’s spoken to her, but...
Well. Apparently she was the main one pushing to keep their relationship hidden all these years. Maybe one day Apollo will be able to forgive her for that, but he’s not there yet.
He doesn’t know if his mother knows what happened between him and Trucy. He doesn’t really want to find out.
He’d like to say he’s stopped looking at Trucy romantically, that he’s successfully flipped that no, she’s your half-sister switch in his brain. He’s getting there, maybe. Sometimes they’ll chat about something innocuous – a case, or one of Trucy’s upcoming shows – and it’ll seem almost normal, although Apollo still twitches uncomfortably whenever she mentions her magic panties.
Sometimes he catches himself fantasising about her and spends the next forty minutes scrubbing himself raw in the shower.
It’s a work in progress.
It’s even awkward between him and Athena. She knew he and Trucy were dating, and she’s perceptive; she’s clearly picked up on the fact that something’s changed between them. He cannot possibly bring himself to tell her what that something is.
It’ll probably come to light eventually. Apollo’s not looking forward to that conversation.
But, if he’s survived all of this so far, he can survive anything.
Iiiiiit's incest!
Title: Bad Timing
Fandom: Ace Attorney
Rating: 14
Pairing: Apollo/Trucy
Wordcount: 2,500
Summary: Phoenix tells Apollo about his connection to Trucy, much too late.
Warnings: Accidental incest.
It’s just Phoenix and Apollo in the office this morning, and the atmosphere feels... strange. Apollo keeps catching Phoenix looking at him, or thinking he does, at least.
Maybe Apollo’s just on edge, maybe it’s the natural paranoia of dating the boss’s daughter, even though he’d thought it would have started to fade by now. But he can’t stop feeling that Phoenix might suspect something.
“There’s something I have to tell you,” Phoenix says at last, standing up from his desk. “I’ve known for a while, but... well, it’s just never been the right time.”
Apollo tenses up. But maybe it’s just something work-related, maybe he’s just worrying over nothing. “What is it?”
Phoenix draws in a deep breath. “It’s about the relationship between you and Trucy.”
Shit.
“You know about that?” Apollo asks, aghast. He thought he’d braced himself for this, but... no, no, it turns out he really hasn’t. “I – I don’t – I’m sorry, you’re her father, I know I should have said something to you, I just—”
“Wait, you know about this?” Phoenix asks.
“I’m—” What? “I’m... in the relationship. It seems like it would be hard for me not to know.”
“The relationship?” Phoenix echoes, frowning.
What’s going on? This conversation isn’t making any sense. “The relationship with Trucy. The one we were literally just talking about.”
They stare at each other, while Phoenix’s expression slowly shifts from bewilderment to something—
Something almost terrified, and the sight of that scares the hell out of Apollo, too.
“You’re in a relationship,” Phoenix says. “With Trucy.”
Apollo can only nod wordlessly. He thought – he thought Phoenix knew. He can’t make sense of any of this.
“A romantic relationship.” Phoenix scrubs a hand through his hair, takes a few restless paces back and forth; Apollo knows from experience that pacing this cluttered office isn’t easy. “A sexual relationship? God, no, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”
They’ve had this discussion countless times in Apollo’s head. He knew that Phoenix might react badly, obviously, his employee dating his daughter. Seeing Phoenix’s obvious distress still hurts, though, more than he’d braced himself for.
“I – I know she’s young,” Apollo says. “I can understand that you might be worried. There was a long time when I couldn’t have pictured seeing her the way I do now. But Trucy is an adult, and she’s...” Even in this situation, he can’t keep a small, fond laugh from escaping. “She’s very clear about what she wants.”
“Trucy is an adult now,” Phoenix mutters. He won’t look at Apollo. “You’re right. There was a long time when I could have stopped this.”
Apollo swallows. “Please don’t be angry with her.”
Phoenix meets Apollo’s eyes at that, his own gaze wide and startled. “I’m not angry. I’m not angry with either of you. This is – this is my fault; I let you both down by allowing this to happen.”
It makes Apollo bristle a little, the implication that Phoenix has that kind of authority over his private life, the implication that being with Trucy is somehow a bad thing for him. Yeah, getting involved with his boss’s daughter was never going to be a great idea, but she makes him happy; he’s not going to let anyone pretend that away.
Still, it’s a small scrap of hope. For a long time, he’s been terrified that Phoenix finding out might mean the loss of both Trucy and his work as a lawyer. They probably won’t be able to stay together, and that breaks his heart. But it sounds like he might be able to keep his job, at the very least.
“Mr Wright,” Apollo says, “I’m serious about—”
“You don’t want to say this to me, Apollo,” Phoenix says, urgently.
“I need to,” Apollo says. “I understand that you’re upset, and I know you’re probably going to ask me to break up with her. But I want you to know that I’m serious—”
“Apollo—”
“—about your daughter. If you’re willing to give me a chance, I promise I—”
“Apollo!” Phoenix snaps, in exactly the tone he uses to shout Objection! in court. Apollo cuts himself off, startled, and Phoenix’s next words feel ringingly loud in the suddenly silent room: “Trucy is your sister.”
Apollo laughs. It’s almost a reflex; he hasn’t really grasped the meaning of the words yet, but he knows in an instant that they’re ludicrous. “What?”
Phoenix just looks desperately back at him.
He doesn’t look like he’s joking. But it has to be a joke, it’s obviously not – “No, she isn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Phoenix says. “I should have told you earlier. I made a... a terrible mistake.”
“My father—” It’s ridiculous that Apollo even has to do these calculations. His sister? No. “My father died years before she was born.”
He and Trucy have the same hair colour.
That means nothing; he has the same hair colour as a lot of people. Why is it even crossing his mind?
“Years,” Phoenix agrees. “Long enough for your mother to develop a relationship with Zak Gramarye.”
“My mother? What the hell do you know about my mother? What—” He can’t breathe. “What are you saying? Trucy’s my half-sister? You can’t be serious.”
“We were waiting for the right moment to tell you—”
“We?” Apollo echoes. He feels lightheaded; he feels like all the gravity is draining out of the room, somehow, like it’s all he can do to keep his feet on the floor. “You and Trucy?”
Trucy knew? Trucy knew about this? For how long? Did she let him kiss her, knowing? This morning, when they—
Did she know?
“No.” Phoenix shakes his head. “She doesn’t know. I’m talking about—”
She doesn’t know. It’s almost a relief, for an instant, before it hits him: that might be worse. She was innocent in this, and now he’s going to have to tell her. She’s going to learn that Apollo – that her half-brother—
He’s going to throw up. Phoenix is saying something, but he can’t take it in, he can’t think.
This isn’t being asked to choose between his career and his relationship; it’s worse than that, somehow. This is a poison working its way through the veins of his memories, tainting every moment he and Trucy have ever had. Siblings.
He wants to claw the skin off every part of him that’s ever touched her.
A hand on his shoulder. He jerks away. He’s disgusting; why would someone want to...?
“I know—” Phoenix pauses, for a long moment. “I know it must be... a shock.”
God. That’s one way to put it. Apollo almost laughs.
They’re both quiet for a while. Apollo can’t bring himself to meet Phoenix’s eyes; he wants to get out of here, he wants to be alone. But, if he leaves the conversation here, he’ll never be able to reopen it.
“How long have you known?” Apollo asks, eventually.
Phoenix shakes his head. “Please don’t ask me that. It won’t help.”
He’s probably right; Apollo probably doesn’t want to know. But he still finds himself picking apart everything Phoenix has said in his head, poring over it in the way he’d examine a witness’s statement in court. Trucy is an adult now. You’re right. There was a long time when I could have stopped this.
Phoenix has known for years, probably. Since before Trucy hit adulthood. Since well before that night Apollo and Trucy stayed late at the office, and their long conversation eventually turned into Trucy backing Apollo against the wall to kiss him.
It hurts to remember how he’d felt heading home that night, nervous and giddy and excited. If Phoenix had just said something earlier—
He’s said something now. It’s too late.
“Do we have to tell Trucy?” Apollo asks.
Phoenix looks horrified. “You still want to...?”
“No!” Maybe a part of him wishes he hadn’t learnt the truth; maybe a part of him wishes they could still be together. He might as well wish to sprout wings. “I’ll end it. I just... this is really going to hurt her.”
She has a right to know; he knows that. He wants Phoenix to say it, Don’t you think she has a right to know?, so he can scream back at him: Didn’t I have a right to know? Didn’t both of us have a right to know, before any of this happened? You could have stopped this!
“Are you sure?” Phoenix asks, instead.
Apollo groans. “Urgh. No. She needs to know, doesn’t she?”
Phoenix calls Trucy into the office.
The wait for her to arrive is agonising. Apollo sits uncomfortably on the couch, picking at his increasingly shredded fingernails. Trying not to picture all the moments they’ve shared right here.
“You can go home if it’d be easier, you know,” Phoenix says, quietly.
Apollo shakes his head. He needs to be here for this. Not out of any moral obligation; he just knows that, if he doesn’t face Trucy now, he’ll never be able to.
When she bounds into the room, Apollo forgets how to think. She looks just like she always does, she moves just like she always does. She’s as beautiful as ever. She’s his sister.
“Daddy!” she greets them. “And Polly! Good morning!”
Apollo’s on his feet, he vaguely registers. He doesn’t even remember standing up.
He thought he might not even be able to look at Trucy, let alone approach her. But he finds himself pulling her into a hug.
“Oh!” Trucy laughs in his arms, and then drops her voice to whisper into his ear; it makes him shiver and then wish he hadn’t. “Polly, Daddy can see us!”
Apollo really wishes that could be their biggest problem. He doesn’t want to look at Phoenix right now; he doesn’t want to see his expression.
I love you, he wants to say, or I’m sorry. But anything he could say would probably just scare her.
He takes a seat next to her on the couch, as Phoenix draws breath to start explaining things. He needs Trucy to know that he’s still prepared to be in the same room as her; he needs her to know he still wants her in his life, he needs—
“Uh,” Phoenix says, shifting uncomfortably. “I was really hoping to do this under better circumstances. But I’ve become aware of, um... I know you and Apollo are – this is completely my fault, I should have told you this a long time ago, but—”
What is Apollo doing? He can’t sit here while Trucy listens to this.
He stumbles to his feet and near-runs through the nearest door and pulls it shut behind him.
The nearest door is, unfortunately, the door to the storage closet. But he can’t possibly go back out into the office now, so he guesses he’s just going to have to live in the storage closet for the rest of his life.
He can’t make out exactly what’s being said from here. But he can hear Trucy go from talking to yelling to sobbing, and Apollo leans his head back against the door in the darkness and hates himself for his own cowardice.
There’s a long silence, eventually: long enough for Apollo to start to wonder if it’s safe to go back out into the office. And then there’s a knock on the closet door, and his heart nearly stops.
“Polly?” Trucy calls through the door, after a moment.
Maybe he should just stay quiet and pretend he’s died in here.
“I’m sorry,” he calls back.
Trucy says something he doesn’t catch, the door between them blurring her words into an indistinct mass. Apollo has to brace himself before taking hold of the handle.
“What was that?” he asks, opening the door.
She gives him a sheepish smile. She’s still willing to smile at him. “I was just saying it might be easier to talk without the door in the way.”
Apollo takes in a breath to speak. It turns out all he can do is let it out again, slowly. How can they talk about this; what can they say?
Trucy seems as lost as he does, shifting uncomfortably on her feet.
“I, um, always wanted a sibling,” she offers at last, awkwardly.
It startles Apollo into bursting out laughing, as awful as this situation is. He guesses she’s always been good at seeing the bright side of things.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better sister,” he manages to say, once he’s got himself back under control. It feels uncomfortable to say sister; he wishes he’d said half-sister, emphasised the ways in which they’re not related, but perhaps that wouldn’t actually help. “I wouldn’t have minded better circumstances, though.”
Trucy nods, fervently. “I – I think we’re going to have to break up. Sorry.”
He’d assumed that that went without saying. But, in a weird way, it’s a kind of relief to hear it. Maybe some part of him was still in suspense, afraid that they might somehow still be together. “It’s okay. I understand. I’m not sure it’s actually possible to understand anything more than I understand right now.”
“It’s really not your fault,” Trucy says. “You’ve been a great boyfriend. If we could stay together, I swear—”
Apollo holds up both palms in a frantic stop talking gesture.
Trucy laughs, embarrassed. “Yeah, okay.”
It’s an adjustment, to put it mildly. It’s awkward between him and Trucy, between him and Phoenix; it’s hard to envision a time when it won’t be. But they’re still in each other’s lives, at least, so maybe that time will come.
Phoenix has asked Apollo if he wants to meet his mother. He doesn’t, not yet. He knows Trucy’s spoken to her, but...
Well. Apparently she was the main one pushing to keep their relationship hidden all these years. Maybe one day Apollo will be able to forgive her for that, but he’s not there yet.
He doesn’t know if his mother knows what happened between him and Trucy. He doesn’t really want to find out.
He’d like to say he’s stopped looking at Trucy romantically, that he’s successfully flipped that no, she’s your half-sister switch in his brain. He’s getting there, maybe. Sometimes they’ll chat about something innocuous – a case, or one of Trucy’s upcoming shows – and it’ll seem almost normal, although Apollo still twitches uncomfortably whenever she mentions her magic panties.
Sometimes he catches himself fantasising about her and spends the next forty minutes scrubbing himself raw in the shower.
It’s a work in progress.
It’s even awkward between him and Athena. She knew he and Trucy were dating, and she’s perceptive; she’s clearly picked up on the fact that something’s changed between them. He cannot possibly bring himself to tell her what that something is.
It’ll probably come to light eventually. Apollo’s not looking forward to that conversation.
But, if he’s survived all of this so far, he can survive anything.
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She gives him a sheepish smile. She’s still willing to smile at him. “I was just saying it might be easier to talk without the door in the way.”
AGH their relationship... it's just all very sweet despite how horrifying the situation is.
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He wants to claw the skin off every part of him that’s ever touched her.
YAY THE SELF DISGUST
The nearest door is, unfortunately, the door to the storage closet.
Oh my god (also my theatre studies teacher told me he literally did that once when his class wound him up too much, early in his teaching career. he stayed in the cupboard for the whole lesson).
He’d like to say he’s stopped looking at Trucy romantically, that he’s successfully flipped that no, she’s your half-sister switch in his brain.
EHEHEHEHEH
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(also my theatre studies teacher told me he literally did that once when his class wound him up too much, early in his teaching career. he stayed in the cupboard for the whole lesson)
INCREDIBLE. I'm so glad to know this has actually happened.
Thank you so much!
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He wants Phoenix to say it, Don’t you think she has a right to know?, so he can scream back at him: Didn’t I have a right to know? Didn’t both of us have a right to know, before any of this happened? You could have stopped this!
Sometimes he catches himself fantasising about her and spends the next forty minutes scrubbing himself raw in the shower.
I’m obsessed. It’s impossible to not imagine what the fallout of Phoenix finally telling them would be, knowing that he waited so long - you’ve captured that fallout so well! Especially with the added layer of the accidental incest. I really love how you’ve written them all here it feels very in character (love Trucy’s little announcement that they’ll have to break up, even though they both know it’s obvious).
One of my favourite traits about Apollo is how much some people (Phoenix being one) can get under his skin and bring out either a vindictive or aggressive streak in him and I think you really understood that when he’s almost hoping that he can bait Phoenix into a shouting match.
Oh, another thing I really love is Apollo’s GUILT here, and all the ways he hates himself for being with/thinking about her. It’s so tasty. I love reading a character’s visceral self-hate and you got a great balance of that here. Like they’re all just a victim of circumstance here but also that’s his sister he’s thinking about!!
God, it’s such a shit situation for all of them.
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It’s impossible to not imagine what the fallout of Phoenix finally telling them would be
I can't believe we've been waiting eighteen years for them to find out! Please release a new Ace Attorney game; they need to know! Otherwise I'm just going to assume this fic is how things eventually play out. They've got great chemistry and no idea they're related; you're playing with fire, Phoenix!
I smiled all the way through this. Thank you again!