Apollo was having a terrible horrible no good day.

It started with his client, Phoenix Wright being creepy as all shit. Then he got some weird vibes from this witness and managed to 'perceive' her lies? Somehow? Which wasn't so bad but then he somehow ended up accusing his teacher of murder using forged evidence. And his cryptic ass client told him some stuff about his supposed 'special ability' due to being a— You know what? No. He's not going to even repeat what he said. He wouldn't grace that ridiculous thought.

So after that mess of a trial, Apollo naturally went to lie down for a while. He deserved some rest, didn't he? But then he got a massive headache, then he started having those weird intrusive thoughts and now he was starting to smell people.

He knew he wasn't normal after his latest (and first!) trial, but this was another level of fucked up.

Well, as he mentioned before, he started smelling people.

Not like, sniffing them, that would be creepy. He just started noticing they had distinct smells. Sure he could smell cologne before, but now he knew what their skin smelled like and it was horrible.

Because it smelled good. Not only good, mouthwatering was a better word for it.

He had no idea what was happening but it was really starting to freak him out!

And the meeting with Phoenix Wright earlier? The smug bastard had the gall to ask him to come to his agency sooner or later or "something horrible would happen". Yeah, sure buddy. Certainly.

He had a sneaking suspicion that Mr Wright was somehow responsible for his newest 'ability' but he lacked any evidence to back up his theory, besides that one slip up Wright had about his 'perceiving' ability, the one that made him all tunnel-focused and weird.

Ugh.

It felt like he was turning into something non-human!

The thought gave him a stop.

It certainly wasn't human to smell other people. It wasn't human to perceive the smallest details and be able to discern lies with just a glance. As if he were a fae.

Wright's words came back to him and he was finally willing to consider the possibility. A vampire. The man called him a vampire. An awakening vampire to be exact.

But that was nonsense. He was a human! He was very human. Humane. He uh, he… He didn't have a garlic allergy. Probably. Not that he had any allergies, or health issues or… But! He has been checked by doctors before and they didn't find anything wrong with him.

His teeth were itching. Why were his teeth itching.

Continuing on his small tirade, he was not afraid of crosses. At least in his mind, he didn't remember seeing any in his life… or stepping onto holy ground, or any of the other things that stereotypical vampires couldn't do.

But he could enter houses without an invite! Yeah! What else, what else…

Why were his fucking teeth itching!?

He touched the offending bones (teeth are bones, right?) with his tongue, then touched his gums. They didn't hurt but they were so itchy, and he couldn't exactly scratch them or he'd bleed.

He pushed onto the tooth with a finger and… it gave. He startled and immediately tried to fix his mistake but the tooth fell off instead.

What. The fuck.

And then he felt it, pain, unimaginable pain that made him yelp and kneel on the ground as something pushed through his gums and replaced the tooth that just fell out.

It passed after a few seconds and he reached into his mouth to feel… a sharp fang.

And then he spit out another tooth and the pain cycle repeated until he had a brand new pair of sharp fangs.

He sincerely hoped he wasn't gonna have to deal with the bottom ones.

Okay, okay, he is… he's a vampire. What the fuck. What the fuck.

Wait! He's got it! He had to be dreaming! That would be the only explanation for… This entire clusterfuck.

He pinched himself and… nothing. He pinched harder. It hurt more. Nothing. Nothing changed.

He tilted his head up and screamed and screamed and only stopped screaming when he heard a knocking on the ceiling and realised that yes, his house didn't magically become soundproofed and his neighbours could hear him.

An hour later he was knocking on the Wright & Co office door.

"He better has a fucking explanation for this," he muttered angrily.

A girl opened the door. The same girl who handed him forged evidence. He wanted to snap at her but there were more important things to do right now. Not that she gave him the chance to say anything before turning back inside and yelling "Dad! The short lawyer guy is here!"

"I'm not that short." Apollo grumbled to himself as his (former) client approached the door. "What the fuck did you do to me?!" he demanded, using a language he would never dream to use in court. Phoenix neither seemed surprised to see him here or phased by his tone. Which was pretty weird considering how Apollo's brand new fangs must have been visible.

"Oh, so you finally started teething," he stated in a bored tone. "I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. How old did you say you are? 21? Are you a late bloomer?"

"I asked," Apollo got up close in his personal space and held him by the front of his jumper. "What the fuck did you do to me!?"

"Me? Nothing," the man acted calm for someone who was about to be punched, for the second time the same day too. "You're just finally awakening. By the way, if you're going to punch me again, remember the tip I gave you."

Apollo narrowly held off from growling at the man. Wait. Growling? …oh god it was getting worse.

"Awakening, yeah, sure, you seem to be really knowledgeable about this whole vampire bullshit, so you better tell me how to reverse it!"

"There's no reversing it once you start maturing. It's like human puberty," Wright stated matter-of-factly. "Vampirism is only curable before that happens or through death."

Apollo flinched like he'd been touched by white-hot iron.

"And… and you knew? That it would… happen to me?"

"Yyyep." Wright popped the 'p' and finally looked him in the eyes. "Your eyes started flashing red during cross-examination, I figured I was right and that you had supernatural abilities. Also you wouldn't be in Gavin's office if you weren't some kind of a supernatural and since my… apparatus… didn't pick up on you being supernatural, it either meant you were a pup were-person or an immature vampire."

"And you didn't think to tell me!?" Apollo's Chords of Steel did a great job of putting out the words out of his throat at maximal volume. In fact they did a little too good of a job and he flinched hearing an echo and seeing things tremble on Wright's desk.

"Ah, so it's going fast," the man dodged the question and instead pointed out the unusuality in Apollo's scream. "You're probably going to go into bloodlust soon then."

"Bloodlust…?" Apollo couldn't believe his ears. Bloodlust. He hoped it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

"Yeah, the ever-growing desire for blood all vampires deal with. It should kick in within a few hours from teething…" Wright narrowed his eyes. "When did it happen?" he gestured towards his bared teeth. Apollo only realised he had barred them when it was pointed out.

What was happening to him—?

"Like half an hour ago," he replied to Wright's question. "Why?"

Phoenix narrowed his lips. "You don't have much time." Before Apollo could ask what he meant by that, Phoenix rolled up his sleeve of his black hoodie and sat on the couch. "We should probably be sitting down, that's how you're supposed to do this when you go donate blood, right?"

Apollo's mind went blank as he looked at the man's arm, then his face, then his arm again.

"Hey Trucy could you please fetch your old man some grape juice?" Mr. Wright asks his daughter.

"On it!" she yelled, already on her way to the closet.

"Thank you sweetie!" the man replied, then looked back at Apollo who was still frozen in place.

"I shower regularly, if that's what worries you. And I've also done it before so I know I can take it. I don't think it'll come to this but Trucy will be able to pull you back if you'll lose control, she's stronger than she looks." Mr. Wright reassured, looking awfully casual for someone offering to have his blood drunk.

Apollo was… repulsed. He was stunned. He was still half convinced he was dreaming, or at least really really hoping he was. He desperately wanted to get out of this house and never look back. But the worst of all, he knew for a fact that there was a part of him that urged him to take Mr Wright's offer. A part of him that wanted… that craved…

"Kid? You okay? I'm starting to get tired of holding my arm in the air like this."

Apollo blinked, he managed to snap out of whatever trance he was in and ran like his life depended on it.

"Apollo, wait!" Trucy cried back after him, but to no avail.

Apollo finally stopped once he was sure he was far enough from that office and that no one was chasing him. He was breathing heavily, his pulse roaring in his ears. Human. Human, human, human. He's… he was a human being. He was breathing, he had a pulse. Apollo focused on those two facts until he slowly calmed down.

Okay, so, what rational explanation could there be to this madness? Perhaps Mr. Wright put something in his drink during the trial and he's been hallucinating this entire time? Or maybe he just had a strange genetic defect that made his teeth all weird, but that wasn't so bad, was it? Nothing a little cosmetic surgery couldn't fix.

Yes, yes, that was it. Apollo started to go back to his home and collect his thoughts. He'd look for a new job and hope other lawyer agencies would focus on the fact that he won his first trial as a defence attorney, more than on the fact that he threw his mentor and a trusty attorney under the bus for it.
He'd also find a good teeth doctor to smooth his… sharper than usual canines and everything would go back to normal!
And most of all, he'd never have to meet or even think about… this man ever again!

The moment he was home, he locked his door thoroughly and collapsed on the sofa.

Fuck. What had his life come to?

So, it's been a few days and his plan wasn't going so well. He found some dentists who could take care of his problem but it was way above his current budget, and no law office he contacted came back to him.

Apollo only left the house with a mask nowadays, when he felt well enough. It wasn't often that he did.

But the worst thing had to be how often he wondered about the ethical consequences of stealing blood vials from a lab. Because, after the people in the lab finish running their tests they probably just dispose of the vials, didn't they? So surely no one would mind if some would disappear before getting to the trash…

Apollo knew that those thoughts weren't normal. Nothing about whatever he was going through was normal. But what was he supposed to do? He just wanted to be a lawyer, how was he supposed to handle all of this?

He played with the bracelet on his arm, seeing the metal reflecting the light in the room.
He had to believe that things would work out in the end. Maybe after a little nap…

Apollo barely started to doze off when his door got slammed open. He jumped in alarm. He was certain that he had locked the door.

In the entrance stood a too familiar girl with a serious look on her face. "You're coming with me right now, Apollo."

"How the hell did you get through the door?!" he blurted, probably looking way too frightened of a teenage girl. "How did you find me?"

"A magician never tells her secrets. Now, get up, Polly. Daddy said that if you wouldn't come in peace I'm allowed to use force." She crossed her arms and put her chin forward a little.

"So… are you kidnapping me? Is that what's going on here?" Apollo sighed over the fact that this was far from the weirdest thing that had happened to him the last few days.

The girl, who he supposed he should be calling Trucy, touched her cheek with a wondering expression, "Yeah, I guess you can think of it that way."

"Y-you're aware that's illegal, right? I'll— I'll sue you. I'm a lawyer. Or I'll bite you" he warned, despite his current weakened state.

Trucy had the nerve to giggle, "Leave the biting for when we get home, Polly."

"I am home and I am not leaving it!" His exclamation was met with a flat gaze from the girl. And then she took a step forward. "Don't come any closer! I'm warning you!" She took another step, she was close enough he could smell her, and his mouth watered. He felt weird, as if he could hear two heartbeats in his ears, both his and her. He focused on this fact so much that he didn't notice when she came even closer and was only shaken out of it when his worldview shifted rapidly and he found himself in a bridal hold. "WHAT."

"Haha! The look on your face! It's like a confused puppy! Why are you surprised? Daddy told you already, I am stronger than I look!" He felt the vibrations of her voice as she held him way too easily and way too closely. She radiated warmth and life and her pulse was loud like a drum. It was too much.

Apollo started to struggle like a fish on a hook. "I'll walk, I'll walk! Just put me down already!"

Trucy shrugged and got him back on his feet, but the moment she stopped supporting him his knees buckled.

"Hey!" the magician caught him before he hit the floor. "It's okay, I got you. I'll help you walk." She wrapped his arm around her shoulder and supported his weight. The sound of her pulse was a little more tolerable at this distance.

Apollo admitted to himself that maybe he did need help.

"It's good to see you again, Apollo." Mr. Wright said as they entered his office and Apollo's rage spiked. He then decided that whatever help he needed, he refused to get it from this man.

"Good to see me again, huh? You disgraceful, moronic, fucking imbeci—" before he could finish the sentence Trucy shrugged him off and he dropped on the floor like a sack of potatoes. That hurt.

"Don't insult my Daddy like that!"

"I may deserve that," Wright said with a sigh, "But you need help. I did some reading and while vampire blood would do you the most good at the moment, we don't have time to find one willing to give you some so mine will have to do."

Apollo cringed deeply, but his brain started chanting happily at the mention of blood. He sighed, now somewhat more ready to accept what was happening to him.

"How do you even know so much about… all this?" he murmured, dragging himself off the floor and onto the sofa. Trucy was still staring daggers at him and made no move to help.

Mr Wright sat opposite to him on the sofa and rolled up his sleeve methodically as he spoke: "You may not believe this but my… ah, long time friend is a vampire. Fruit-bat vampire, but a vampire nonetheless."

"Fruit— Fruit-bat vampire?" Apollo squints. "That's not a thing."

"Believe me, it is. It's a rare mutation of a rare mutation of the genetic changes that happen when you are born a vampire," Wright continues talking as he pulls out a bottle of antiseptic and smears it on his arm, then dabs a wet wipe across the antiseptic. "Okay, I'm ready. Are you?"

"Wait, you're telling me that there are vampires who eat fruit and I'm stuck here with drinking blood?" he growled out, annoyed as all hell.

"Yep," Trucy poped out the 'p' and grinned, previous grievances easily forgotten. "At least you don't lose control of yourself every full moon." She said it so matter-of-factly that it took Apollo a few seconds to connect the dots.

"Wait. Wait—" He whipped his head around so hard he got dizzy. "You're a werewolf!?"

"Wifwolf actually. The term werewolf is for boys," she corrected him with a smile.

"And the difference is…?"

"Nothing, I'm just fucking with ya!"

"Trucy!" Mr Wright rubbed at his temples angrily, while looking at his daughter. "What did I say about saying the f-word?"

"That I'm not allowed to say it until I'm 18…"

"That's my girl. So, Apollo, ready?"

Was he ready? His mind was certain that he would never, ever be ready and much preferred to run away again (not that he was strong enough to). But his newfound… urges, said that he's been ready for a long time. Too ready even.

He nodded, and gulped, suddenly aware that he was salivating a lot more than usual. Just the mention of blood was enough to get him like that, apparently.

"Okay, bite away." Mr Wright brought his arm up a little closer to him, and Apollo felt his fangs lengthening subtly in his mouth. He ignored the weirdness of it in favour of opening his mouth and baring his teeth. He took in a deep breath, and finally, finally, he bit down.

Immediately, Mr Wright's blood rushed into his mouth and he nearly moaned at the taste. It was so… rich, so sweet, he wanted more, he needed more. He suddenly realised he felt warmer than he had in days. It was… Comforting. He released a sigh of relief from his nose, feeling tension he didn't know he had leaving his body.

He felt a warm, firm hand petting his back. "See? You could have had that days ago but you insisted on being stubborn. I know it must be a lot to process right now, but Trucy and I were just looking out for you." The scolding made him feel like a little kid, but not just in a bad way. He felt… Cared for.

Apollo blinked quickly, trying to prevent stubborn tears from forming in his eyes, but to no avail.

"Hey, what's wrong, buddy? One could almost think that you were the one getting his blood sucked here," Mr Wright joked, and Apollo only cried harder. He started to detach his mouth from Mr. Wright's arm out of embarrassment and hid his face away but the arm's owner protested "Come on now, this couldn't have possibly been enough." Despite Mr Wright's words he felt… sated, like the hunger gnawing on him before turned to nothing. He turned his face away and started whipping away his eyes and mouth with his sleeves. He felt… subdued.

"Thank you…" came out of his mouth in a purr and his eyes widened. "What is my throat doing?" he continued purring. "How do I make this stop?"

"Awww you're like a kitten!" Trucy cooed.

"This is a natural response to being sated. Like a newborn hiccuping after getting bottle-fed," Mr Wright said, casually cleaning his wound with a wet wipe, then reaching for the bottle of grape juice next to him.

"Please stop comparing me to a baby," Apollo whined.

"Well, you kinda are a baby, remember? You're a fledgling."

"A baby… Bird?"

"A baby vampire," Mr Wright said, ruffling his hair. Apollo started to feel even more patronised now. This man acted awfully fatherly for a stranger who was barely older than he was.

Apollo leaned back on the sofa with a soft humph, and looked at his sleeves. The ones he just used to wipe his mouth. They were covered in blood. God, he was a… He was really a vampire. He just drank blood. He just… He…

"Polly?" Trucy asked with concern. He could barely hear her. He was a monster.

"Apollo?" Mr Wright asked, gently touching his shoulder. "What's wrong pal?" Apollo tried to take in a breath to calm himself, but all he achieved was a broken wheeze. He was a monster, he was a freak. He just hurt Mr Wright. He made Trucy watch as he sucked blood from her father.

His view of the world got blurry, he couldn't see clearly.

He was horrible, a monster, truly a monster, that should be contained not freed, starved out not fed. He glanced towards the window and wondered briefly if he could maybe throw himself out of it straight on the street, under a car, but another thought came, that maybe invigorated by blood and unnatural as he was, he'd survive it anyway.

He choked on another breath, getting dizzy.

"Shhh… calm down," Mr Wright clutched his hand tightly. It felt like the man knew exactly what was going through his head and was trying to stop him. "It's going to be alright. But talk to me, tell me what's going on."

"I-I-I— I'm a freak," he wheezed out, still fighting for breath. "A monster. You should kill me, not… feed me."

"No." Two voices spoke immediately. Apollo snapped his head up, startled. Both Mr Wright and Trucy were staring at him with determination in their eyes. "Just so you know, we're not letting you die," Trucy says.

"You can do whatever you want once you're stable, but as long as you're a fledgling and overly emotional I refuse to get you out of my sight," Mr Wright tells him, tightening his grip. Despite how harsh it was, it felt comforting.

Apollo sobbed, furiously rubbing at his eyes with a sleeve that wasn't covered in blood.

"I take away other people's life force to survive! Why… Why are you okay with this?"

"Not gonna lie, you act like you're special," Trucy said matter-of-factly. "There are hundreds if not more vampires out there in the world. Only about one in half a thousand is a fruit-bat vampire." She then cooed and made an adorable face at him. "Besides, you're pretty cute. You made tiny noises when feeding and then purred when you were full."

Apollo wasn't cute. He was a fully fledged lawyer with chords of steel…! And also a blood drinking vampire, apparently. The panic ebbed away a little, and he breathed in.

"So…" he sighed, "What do I do now?"

"You stay here, you get fed from time to time, you try to live your life normally."

"Normally? Normally how? I am out of a job and have vampire fangs now!"

"Maybe you should check a mirror," Trucy chuckled, and magicked one into her hand.

Apollo looked, and… his teeth appeared normal. Maybe sharper, but normal length. What the fuck? No, that was good, but what?

"Wha…?" he mumbled, with his mouth wide open to see.

"Your brand new incisors can hide anytime, and only will become a problem if you're hungry."

He… You know what. He wasn't even going to question it. Why look at a gift horse in the mouth? Also, it would explain why he had never met other vampires before (that he knew of). Now that he thought about it… "Wait, you said something about Mr Gavin only accepting supernaturals—?"

"He's a vampire," Mr Wright informed him.

"And he only took me in because I was also a vampire? He said I was a promising young attorney." Apollo felt betrayed, somehow even more than when he discovered that his old teacher was a murderer. He thought he cared. And if Mr Gavin never really wanted him for his skills, would anyone else?

"I'll never be a real lawyer, will I?" Apollo put his head in his hands.

"And why is that?" Mr. Wright asked.

"No law office will accept me. I ruined my chances when getting Mr. Gavin accused of murder."

"Well, our office could take you, if the boss will allow it."

"Wait, you have a law office? You're not even an attorney anymore. And who's the boss?"

"You're looking at her! We have a talent agency, and I'm the one in charge!" declared Trucy, "Do you think it has what it takes to be great? To be the best lawyer in the entire world?!"

"I... Uh… Maybe?"

"Then you're hired! I'll make us new posters tomorrow!"

Apollo had no idea how it would work but he wasn't able to be picky in his state. Everything changed so much and so quickly.

"I still can't believe that Mr. Gavin was a vampire and I didn't notice. What else, maybe you'll tell me that other attorneys are vampires too?"

"You know Edgeworth?" Mr Wright waits for him to nod. "Fruit-bat vampire."

"No way. Also didn't you just say they were super rare? But now you know two?"

"No, my friend is prosecutor Edgeworth."

Apollo's eye twitches. What else could Mr Wright be hiding?

"What else, next thing you'll tell me you're a vampire too!" he throws his hands in the air. Mr Wright has the gall to laugh.

"You're not listening. As I said before, I'm a human."

"Yeah, sure," Apollo grumbled.

"I mean, didn't you taste it in my blood? I'm pretty darn human."

"As if I had ever tasted anything else."

They continued bickering for hours, Trucy made tea at some point. Then showed them a few really cool magic tricks Apollo couldn't figure out how she did them no matter how much he tried. He felt… calmer, more grounded, and now that he was actually sated, strength came back into his limbs and intrusive thoughts went away.

That night, on one of the couches in the Wright Anything office, Apollo had his first real good sleep in days.