Author's Note/Background: This story takes place three months after Turnabout Serenade, in between Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies. SPOILERS for Apollo Justice. Machi is 14 and Trucy is 15. There was a lot left open about Machi, like why he needed money from smuggling a cocoon, and what happened to his parents so I wanted to tie them together, plus I just like the Machi and Trucy pairing and was disappointed by the lack of fanfiction for them. So enjoy
"Did you hear that they're closing that dollar store on the other side of the town?" the obese man asked his little brother, carrying a heavy plastic bag filled with garbage.
"No way!" his little brother exclaimed, struggling to carry the trash bag to the bin. "I love that place."
"Just seems like nothing ever lasts, does it? At least there's the other dollar store that we haven't been to in years."
"No, that one closed too!"
"Wait what…what?! That's…that's crazy!" Finally, the two brothers approached the trash bin in the alleyway. "Hey, just dump it out and keep the bags, Pauline's not gonna be able to get back to the store until tomorrow."
The two of them opened the bin and held the bags upside down, dumping grime and sludge into the bin, and slamming it shut. "That takes care of that," the little brother said as they walked off.
Machi Tobaye slowly opened the lid. After a long pause, he spit out a wad of old mashed potatoes and hopped out of the garbage bin. He walked out of the alleyway, looked both ways and ran across the road. He scurried across the sidewalk, hoping there would be nobody would see him. The good thing about the early hours of the morning was there were less people around. They'd pull him aside, ask him "Are you that pianist who plays with Lamiroir?" and "Aren't you blind?"
He'd pretend he didn't know what they were talking about. He had no other choice. Not if he wanted to see them again.
He was running so fast, so lost in thought that he didn't see what was ahead of him. "Oofh!" an old man cried after Machi ran through him like a truck.
Machi quickly came to a stop, attempting to catch his breath. He turned around and saw a large old man on the sidewalk, lying in pain. Shit! he thought to himself. "Are you ok?" he asked the old man, extending his arm.
The old man grabbed his hand, and they finally got a look at each other. Machi felt a tug in his stomach as he realized whom the old, bald man was.
"Hmm?" the judge scratched his white long beard. Before he could put a name to the familiar face, Machi sprinted off.
Machi continued his sprint all the way to the front of the local gym, where he stopped to catch his breath. He turned the handle to the door – damn, locked. They usually forget to lock it at night, this time he wouldn't be so lucky. He pulled a pick out of his pockets and pried it open, heading inside.
He took a shower and changed into clothes he found at the lost and found. It was then that he heard voices. Someone was entering the gym – this wasn't good at all.
"I'm telling you, Jim. That new movie was the best I've seen in twenty years," one man said.
"Uh…Frank. Did you forget to lock up last night?"
They didn't usually arrive for two more hours. This was certainly bad. They were coming closer…who knows what they were going to do when they found that he broke into the gym and stole clothes?
"Hey…hey…there's a kid on the floor!" Frank said, looking at the pianist out on the ground, dressed in a blue sweater and black sweatpants. He rubbed his hands on the back of his head, feeling his warm body.
Jim approached the boy and gasped in shock. "Oh…that's not good. Let's go call the cops."
The two of them walked off to find a telephone. When the coast was clear, Machi made a dash out of the gym. Now he was hungry. He ran to the nearest McBurgers and pulled out his wallet. As he approached the fast food joint, a black sudan with tinted windows pulled up from behind.
Two tall man rushed out of the building. "Money! Now!" one of them yelled. Machi looked at them and noticed they both had knives in their hands. As he began to open his wallet, one of them grabbed the wallet and the other one shoved him to the ground. Before he had time to react, they both hopped back in the vehicle and sped off.
He was still hungry. He had to eat, and he knew what to do. He walked in the restaurant and waited for someone to order. A black woman ordered an iced coffee and sausage biscuit with hashbrowns, as well as a breakfast kids meal for her young daughter. Machi waited for them to take their seat before he approached them.
Why couldn't he be honest? Why couldn't he tell her the truth? That he was a homeless orphan who had just gotten the only twenty dollars to his name stolen. It could have been his pride, but he wasn't at all prideful. Maybe he just had some sort of mental illness. He just could not tell the truth like a normal person could.
"There's someone outside look for you guys," he told the mother and daughter.
The mother scrunched her face, starting to open her bag of food. "Hm? Who would be looking for us?"
It wasn't working. Maybe he should wait and find somebody else…no. He would not give up. "I think he said something about wanting kid," Machi said.
The woman shut her bag and stormed up from her chair. "Albert! I told him again and again…stay here a minute, baby doll," she said to her daughter before storming out of the eatery. "Albert!"
Three minutes later, the mother returned to her table. "Albert's not out there, who was that little…baby doll, where did our food go?"
Machi sat against a brick wall at with the crumbled up McBurger's bag at his side. He pulled a locket out his pants pocket, and opened it up to gaze at her. She was a beautiful woman, with long, silky blonde hair and big blue eyes that looked like his. He couldn't stand that he could do nothing for her. He couldn't stand to not be near her.
That was it for him; nothing but feelings of helplessness and loneliness all the time. Nothing but sorry, nothing but remorse for feelings of what he had become.
But at night, those feelings would go away.