Written as a birthday present for a friend on y!Gal
Disclaimer is the obligatory I-don't-own-anything-but-love-to-use-it-without-getting-money-for-it-stuff, so yeah... you know, what i mean
I decided to upload this here, after I noticed that my first two stories here were actually read AND liked by someone. Threw me off, quite a bit.. so yeah... throwing in the third fluffy story for good measures...
Pairing: Try to guess
Rating: Ehm.. dunno the perfectly, but I'd say it's youth-save... or something along the lines, no swearing, no doing etchi-stuff, no violence, and so on... It's just... a hell lotta sugar... yeah, that's about it.
Though, it's written as a one-shot I decided to split it up into two chapters... dunno why... it's 23:19 over here and I start having wierd ideas, due to sleep deprivation... next chapter will be uploaded next week. So you lots dun need to wait to long...
Anything else?
Ah, yeah... actually... I'm German. So English is not my mouther tongue (who would have guessed!) So, if you find any glaring mistakes, keep them if you want, but inform me, which one it was, and that you're taking them home. So, that I at least now, they're in good care from now on.
Blabbered enough. Let's start woth the sotry...
(dun think, the me-is-spouting-unimportant-nonsense-part will be that long again in the next chapter. Except for I suddenly face the need, to answer reviews...if this will be neccessary of some kind...)
Long time, long journey
Chapter one (with has no name, so don't search for one)
Phoenix sighed.
He sat in his office (or rather Trucy's office, if all those magician tools scattered around were any indication) and took a sip from what seemed to be his fourth bottle of grape juice. While he was lazily slouching in the office sofa Trucy was busying herself with decorating the office and commanding poor Apollo around. From Phoenix' observation, it seemed as if, although he looked pretty exhausted, Apollo seemed to enjoy the cheery mood his little sister was in.
/Well. It is his first Christmas within a family after all./
Phoenix allowed himself another sip of grape juice, when suddenly Trucy appeared right behind him.
„Oh Daddy! Your still not dressed? Hurry! The guests will come soon!"
Phoenix sighed again. He almost were able to forget this matter. All this decorating and busying was for only one reason: Trucy's Christmas party. She had invited a lot of friends, even clients from Apollo and of course she expected him to be dressed properly. Wasn't it enough that she and Apollo were dressed „properly"?
Well, Apollo was wearing his usual red suit only a hand knitted red scarf was added from Trucy. She herself looked... well, sparkly. Phoenix and Apollo had scraped their last money together to buy her a new dress for the party. It was a beautiful violet dress with a (not too) short skirt and lots of blinking and glittering glass pearls. Only Phoenix himself was still wearing his usual hobo attire.
„I am dressed. I'm even wearing fresh underpants today."
„Ew, Daddy. Don't say gross things! And I don't mean THAT."
She regarded his „attire" with a displeased look on her face.
„I mean the suit. Come on, Daddy! We already talked about it. You can't walk around at the party looking like that. That just won't DO!"
„Alright, I got it. I will change right away."
Phoenix sighed once again and than practically flew into another room, their current bed room to be precise. He looked over to the bed and there it lay, perfectly ironed (probably by Apollo): His old suit. Phoenix shook his head in disbelieve. It wasn't as if he didn't want to dress properly for Trucy's party. Hell, if his daughter wished, he would even dress himself in a huge rooster-costume. But why does it have to be the suit. He didn't even knew, that he still had it. He thought, he already had thrown it away, together with all the other things which reminded him of his old career. But there it was, lying almost accusingly untouched on his bed. He sighed for the forth time this day and started to change his clothes.
-*-
Trucy almost jumped when her mobile phone (a birthday present from Wocky) vibrated on the table, where she had left it for the time being. Someone was calling her, but it rang only once. Hastily she grabbed it and looked warily on the display. When she looked up, she met Apollo's concerned look. She placed a finger on her lips, to order his silence.
„It is him.", she said in an almost reverent tone.
Apollo nodded, now a serious look on his face.
„I will give Klavier a call."
With these words he hurried of to the office phone.
-*-
Phoenix looked at his reflection in the mirror, a frown on his face. It was like he was seeing a ghost, a dusty memory from long ago, from a time long lost. The suit still fitted perfectly, although, thanks to the little paunch he was carefully cultivating, he didn't need the belt anymore. He looked just like eight years ago, shortly before he lost almost everything, he had believed in. There in front of him stood his old self, staring at him, the same frown directed to him. Still, the sight was a little off, like an old picture, where the colors weren't as bright anymore, as they used to be. His chin was unshaven and his eyes failed to give the passionate look his former clients used to believe in. Of course he was still wearing his hat. He snorted bitterly. A hobo in a suit. What a funny picture! But not only him, the suit was also out of its time. It's former bright blue, was lighter, more grey, washed a few times too often. When looking closely, Phoenix could even see a few carefully stitched seams, probably made from Trucy or Lamiroir - Thalassa, he corrected himself. Some were placed on the original seams, some were evident of the fact that moths found his suit before Trucy did. All in all it looked just like himself: old and worn-out.
A man not needed anymore in a suit not useful anymore.
A bitter smile cracked his lips, when he heard the faint memory of a certain ironic voice he last heard in his old times as a lawyer, too.
/That's what you would say, right? If you would still care, that is./
An impatient knock on the door interrupted his dark thoughts.
"Are you still not finished, Daddy? The guest'll arrive soon. Hurry up!"
Sighing again he pushed his hat deeper over his eyes. Brushing an imaginary piece of dust of his sleeve, he braced himself for what surely will be the most embarrassing four hours in his whole life.
/Well, it is just for today. You must forgive me for my lack of fashion sense, now, old friend./
He opened the door and stepped out into the now perfectly decorated office. Trucy whistled through her teeth.
"I knew the clothes would do the trick. But I didn't thought you would look that dashing."
Phoenix laughed, now heartily, and ruffled the hair of his daughter lovingly. Whatever happened, she would still love her "Daddy". Somehow that was a very reassuring thought. When he raised his head again, he met Apollo's gaze. The young man looked at him puzzled. His look was the spitting image of his own thoughts. He looked at a man, he used to look up to, and whom he has seen when he had fallen as deep as even possible. And now this man looked like, when he was the role-model, he was and still, it just didn't look right. Both men almost jumped as the doorbell rang.
~ end of chapter one (which still has no name)