It takes until his eighth case working with Trucy for Apollo to realize something's wrong.
It's a Tuesday afternoon, and he's pedaling his slightly rickety bike down the street with Trucy sitting sideways (in a very dangerous way) off the back when he sees a gaggle of laughing teenagers in uniforms, backpacks slung over their shoulders, walking across the street. He quickly glances back at Trucy, who seems oblivious. "Why aren't you in school?" he yells over the wind.
"Huh?" Trucy raises one eyebrow, looking at him curiously. "Why should I be?"
Apollo blanches. "What do you mean?" His pedaling slows; they should be close to where the witness' shop is.
"I only go to school sometimes," Trucy says absentmindedly. Apollo kicks the bicycle to a stop and his passenger hops off from her perch. He removes his bicycle helmet and wonders how Mr. Wright allows Trucy to go along without one. They start walking down the street.
"Won't you be like, truant or something?"
Trucy laughs. "Relax, Polly! It's not like that. I only go to school like half the time most people do. I get credit for this stuff-" she gestures to Apollo and their surroundings- "professional work experience."
Apollo puzzles over this. "So, it's like a vocational school?"
Trucy hums and halfway shrugs her shoulders, fluttering her flamboyant blue cape. "I guess so."
"Aren't those usually private, though?" Apollo asks her as they weave through the small crowds along the street. It's definitely busier than he thought a small market on a weekday afternoon would be.
"It is," Trucy replies, inspecting trinkets in the windows as she passes. He can't really blame her, the colorful spinning knickknacks, dusty old leather-bound books, and pungent soaps of various stalls on the streets were definitely distracting.
"But aren't those super expensive?" he asks. As a poor foster kid, Apollo never had any experience with private schools, but he'd heard the horror stories.
"I'm on a scholarship."
Apollo's brow furrows. "They accepted you on a scholarship?"
Trucy finally brings her attention back to him. "Why wouldn't they?" She doesn't look offended, at least, just curious.
"I mean, your dad definitely isn't the most popular person in professional circles," Apollo answers, and Trucy shrugs again.
"Uncle Miles pulled some strings. He's a very influential man."
Once again Apollo is astonished. Trucy has an uncle? Does that mean Mr. Wright has a brother?
"Who is that?" he asks, and Tracy's eyes widen.
"Oh, Uncle Miles? I guess most people know him as Mr. Edgeworth."
The blasé way she delivers this statement astonishes him. 'Uncle' Miles? What on earth?
"You call Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth of the sixth district 'Uncle Miles'? I once made eye contact with him and had nightmares for a week!"
Trucy snorts. "I can't believe you're such a wuss, Polly! Uncle Miles is really nice." She looks contemplative for a minute as they pass by a store with a strong smell that Apollo guesses is selling candles. "You know, I'm more surprised you didn't ask how we know him."
"No, I know that. I read about him and Mr. Wright a lot as a teenager, back when they were both battling in court. I didn't expect them to be such good friends, though." And he didn't- Mr. Wright was always so cryptic about the past, he never would have guessed it.
"Oh, yeah," Trucy affirms. "They've been best friends for, let's see, about 25 years now? Geez, they're kinda old."
"Wow." That's a lot to take in. "Guess it goes to show you that the papers can only tell you so much."
"I figured he would've told you some of this," Trucy remarks.
"Your dad?" Apollo snorts, and they shove their way through more people. "He never tells me anything. If I wasn't already knowledgeable on the fact, I wouldn't even know his first name."
"Wow," Trucy echoes. "I guess both of us have a lot to learn about him, huh? And each other, I guess. I mean, all this time I've kinda thought of you as a big brother but you had no idea I didn't go to normal school until just now?"
Apollo is genuinely stunned. "You think of me as a big brother?"
Trucy gives him one of her award-winning smiles. "I always wanted one, anyway! And with Prosecutor Gavin it kinda feels like I've got two."
"Prosecutor Gavin?" Apollo laughs. "No offense, Trucy, but don't think he's a very brotherly person."
Trucy rolls her eyes. "You're just jealous because he's a better lawyer than you." She gives him a sly smile, and Apollo narrows his eyes.
"As if!" Trucy giggles, and Apollo rolls his eyes back at her. "For the record, I've always thought of you as a kind of little sister, too," he says, and is almost blinded by the fond smile she flashes his way. She look like she's about to say something, but Apollo notices something. There's a massive crowd of people standing in front of a shop at the end of the street, shouting and murmuring and milling about, marked "Lox's Lunch Boxes," some asking what happened and others seeming to give wild answers. Apollo checks the slip of paper he wrote the address down on, and grimaces. Of course.
"Looks like we have our jobs cut out for us." Apollo sighs. "Come on Trucy," he says, nodding at his enthusiastic assistant, "we have an investigation to start."
AN: Cleaning out my drafts and I'm a huge sucker for some Trucy and Apollo sibling bonding! I love the idea of big brother Apollo and I wish the series would let me have some, but as of now they still don't even know. :/
Anyway, please let me know what you thought! I hope you enjoyed it!