October 10th, 2028, 7:14 PM
Wright Anything Agency

Trucy poked her index finger into her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut, willing ideas to come to her. School essays and procrastination didn't really mix, but with her magic show becoming more and more popular lately, she was spending more time on that than her school work. That wasn't something her dad would like to hear, but all she had to do was remind him that her magic shows were bringing a lot of money to the agency, and that usually got her off the hook.

Despite the time of night, she knew her dad was probably still working in the office downstairs. Maya had gone back to Kurain Village a few days ago, and Trucy could tell he was feeling a little sad lately, even though he tried to hide it. Working kept his mind off of it.

Phoenix and Maya had both given Trucy the good news that they were going to all move in together soon before Maya left, which Trucy was ecstatic about. She really did love Maya, but more importantly, Maya made her dad happy, and Trucy would have put up with any type of woman as long as her dad was happy. Luckily for her she got Maya, who was just about the best unofficial mom she could have asked for. Plus her and Pearl were almost like sisters already, and moving in with Maya meant she would get to see Pearl even more often than she already did.

Unfortunately there was a lot more to it than just going out and finding a new house. They had to go through banks to get approved for a mortgage, find a good real estate agent, and find something they all liked within an okay distance from both Los Angeles and Kurain Village. Not to mention all of them were busy, with Phoenix taking on more and more clients due to Apollo's absence, Maya being needed in Kurain to do channellings, and Trucy putting on multiple magic shows a week. So here she sat, still in her bedroom in the small apartment above the office of the Wright Anything Agency, attempting to finish an informative essay about the current court system.

She thought this topic was going to be easy, seeing as she had more experience with the court system than most regular 17 year olds did, but she couldn't seem to get her ideas onto the page. She didn't want to bother Phoenix if he was working, but it was about time to enlist an expert's help.

Taking her paper with her, Trucy made her way downstairs into the office. All of the lights were on still, and she spotted her dad across the room hunched over his desk, writing something. He was focused so intently on the notebook in front of him that he didn't even hear her enter the room, and she approached the desk slowly. She watched as his hand moved back and forth across the page in wide arcs, then move into tighter circular motions.

She realized when she was only a step or two away from the desk that he wasn't writing at all. The paper he had wasn't lined, and it was covered in black pencil markings. He had his other arm wrapped around the front of the page as he leaned over, so it was hard for her to tell what it was.

"What's that, Daddy?"

Phoenix jumped in fright and slammed his hand down over top of the paper, looking up wide eyed at Trucy. "Trucy! I didn't hear you come in."

She eyed the paper underneath of his hand. Most of it was obscured at the moment, but it was clearly a drawing of some sort. "Aw, let me see, please! What are you drawing?"

"It's nothing…" he said, looking back down at the sheet. Trucy watched as her normally unabashed father blushed furiously, face getting redder the longer she looked at him.

She knitted her eyebrows together. "I'm sure it looks good, Daddy! What's wrong?"

"Nngh…"

"Pleaaase?" She willed him to look at her, and when he finally did meet her eyes, she made a sad face and batted her eyelashes, knowing he couldn't say no to her.

He sighed. "Alright, fine." He slid his hand off of the page, smudging its contents in the process.

"Ah, be careful!" Trucy said, putting down her essay paper and lifting the sketchbook. "You'll ruin it." The pencil had smudged across the page a little, but it didn't ruin the likeness of Trucy herself sketched on the page. Trucy raised her eyebrows. It was a just a rough pencil sketch, but it was surprisingly well done.

"It's terrible, right?" Phoenix asked, resting his chin on his hand. "Sorry for making you look horrible."

"Daddy, no!" she exclaimed. "This looks beautiful! I didn't know you could draw!"

He shrugged. Beautiful was a bit of a stretch. "It's just a hobby, really. Didn't I ever tell you I was originally an art major in college, only taking law classes on the side? Once I decided solely on law I kind of stopped focusing on my art skills, but I've never really lost the urge to doodle when I'm bored."

Trucy wouldn't exactly call the picture a doodle. It was better than that. As she studied it, she noticed that the sketchbook was in pretty rough shape, and the picture she was looking at was on a page almost halfway through the book. She flipped backwards through the other pages to find more drawings.

"Oh wow! You've drawn Maya a lot of times," she said, looking slyly at her father. He just rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, happy Trucy hadn't found the other sketchbook in the back of his closet with a few of the more risqué pictures that Maya insisted on posing for after they watched The Titanic. Most of those drawings ended up only half finished.

"You even have pictures of Pearl and Polly in here… and Athena, and even Mr. Edgeworth!" Trucy continued, giggling at the Edgeworth pictures. A few of them did capture Edgeworth's dignified manner, but there were others drawn in a more cartoonish style that made him look pretty silly.

"Don't you dare mention those to Edgeworth," Phoenix warned.

She smirked. "I'll try not to."

She continued to flip, passing by sketches of some of her magic props right there in the office, one of Charley which took up almost the whole page, and a mysterious woman with a beauty mark on her cheek and a similar necklace to the ones Maya and Pearl wore. Then there was one that made her stop, tilting her head as she looked.

"Which one do you have there?" Phoenix asked, noticing how his daughter had stopped abruptly. One of the pictures caught her eye, but he was sure there wasn't anything too embarrassing in this book, besides his subpar artistic abilities.

She turned the sketchbook towards him. "Lamiroir really is a beautiful woman, isn't she, Daddy? Speaking in aesthetic terms, at least."

Phoenix froze. He'd forgotten about that particular drawing. It was almost a year old, much closer to the beginning of the sketchbook than the others. Unlike most of the other drawings which were portrait style from the neck up, this one depicted "Lamiroir" full body, including her face covering. He had drawn Apollo and Trucy together beside her, but was glad he hadn't made it look like they were supposed to be a part of the Lamiroir drawing. Instead it looked more like he was only using leftover space on the page.

After speaking with her once when they returned from Khura'in Kingdom, Thalassa Gramarye still had yet to talk with Phoenix again about actually telling Apollo and Trucy about her. He was starting to get impatient, but he could give her a little more time. They deserved to know, but it had to be done right, he couldn't just drop that bomb on them himself.

Trucy turned the sketchbook back around to study the picture a bit more. "Lamiroir kind of reminds me of someone, but I don't know who. When we met her, we didn't really see her face much, but there's just something about her."

He swallowed. "You're probably just thinking about some time you saw her on TV before meeting her during that case. She's a pretty big celebrity." Trucy was young when Thalassa had her accident and disappeared from her life, but surely she still had some memory of her mother. He felt awful lying to her.

Trucy looked at it a few seconds longer. "Yeah, probably. Anyway, Daddy, thank you for drawing me." She came around the desk to give him a hug. "Can I take this picture of Polly and I?"

"Of course." Trucy missed Apollo more than anyone else. He watched her carefully tear the whole page out.

"I'm going to frame it," she said.

"Really? It's not that good."

"It is good. Besides, it's Polly."

Phoenix smiled, making a mental note to get in touch with Thalassa again as soon as possible. "Hey, Truce, was there an actual reason you came down here earlier?" He nodded towards her essay paper, still sitting on the corner of the desk.

Trucy smacked her palm into her forehead. "I totally forgot. I need some help with my essay. I figured you're the best person to ask, since it's all about the court system."

"And when is this essay due?"

"Er… tomorrow."

"Trucy…"

"Sorry, Daddy! I've been so busy with my magic shows, I forgot about it."

Phoenix sighed. "It's a good thing your shows are doing so well or I probably wouldn't be so forgiving. Pull up a seat. We'll get it done."


A/N: I like to think Phoenix has some sort of artistic ability, seeing as he was originally an art student.