Title:Surrender
Genre:Romance/Angst
Summary: Even for a moment, even if it’s sin, I want you to realize that I love you more than I should love you.
Pairing(s): Apollo x Trucy
Warning: This contains incest. If you cannot stand such themes, please turn away now. You have been warned.

Disclaimer:Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney Series belong to their respective, copyrighted owners.

Apollo wasn’t a drinker. That was clearly evident to him when in law school he could barely knock down a shot of vodka. The only thing he could knock back at the bar were the peanuts. And if that wasn’t humiliating enough, he had to be friends with those who could really drink, and when they drank, he was the object of ridicule of the drunks. The only bright side was that he never experienced a hangover.

But that was all going to change as Apollo began to knock back more and more scotch neats without even considering how far he was going to take it.

In the dead of the night, the only thing that kept him company in the Wright Anything Agency was the eerily glowing TV that was set on the 24-hour cartoon network. The scotch helped quite a bit, he had to admit. It kept him warm in the otherwise freezing, un-heated office.

He just hoped that Phoenix didn’t mind that Apollo was drowning his sorrows with Phoenix’s supply of untouched, aging scotch.

Trucy lay still in bed, engulfed in the sea of quilts. The shock had already dimmed into a slow and deadly anaesthesia that consumed her from head to toe. The only thing that kept her from reverting to another vegetable was the snow that fell past her window. The fluffy white snowflakes continued to drift downwards in a beautiful dance, sparkling in her dull eyes in her otherwise dingy room. Her magic props lay scattered on the carpet as did her clothes, stuffed animals, and school things. Even the food that sat outside her door had gone untouched, often receiving a fatherly-concerned sigh from Phoenix who said nothing to her recent attitude.

The only thing that kept Trucy sane was the falling snow that continued to clump outside her windowsill.

Two days. Never before had two days felt so long in each of their lives. Before, if two days had passed, neither one of them would’ve noticed. But now…time seemed to hate them. Every second felt like minutes, and every minute felt like hours. Everything was slowly being devoured by the fire set by Lamiroir, or their mother.

In the beginning, they didn’t suspect a thing. The two of them believed that Lamiroir had called them into her dressing room to say thanks for everything they’ve done, or something to that extent. But when they walked into that dressing room, and became reacquainted with the crime scene of Romein LeTouse, they knew the conversation was anything but that. Phoenix was there, standing and smiling as if he was waiting for them himself.

And then it happened.

“My real name isn’t Lamiroir. It is…Thalassa…Gramarye. Trucy…Apollo…I’m your mother.”

The bomb had been dropped and the fire had begun to spread with excited frenzy. Everything in its way, it charred to a crisp. Nothing was left standing.

Every thought and action was momentarily paralyzed as she explained further the proof that they were indeed blood-related, and the reason for the silence up to now. Her voice, once so heavenly and stunning, was now like poison to the two. Poison that couldn’t be cured.

“You two are half-siblings…”

With those words, Trucy had bolted out of the room while Apollo sat still and calm, his mind already dead from the shock. Everything that lay unspoken between the two, the possibilities, the mere chance, was gone in a flash where neither could even try to save it.

It existed for a lifetime, and yet it was taken away in an instant.

It was love.

Apollo remembered the first time it had snowed when he first came to work at the Wright Anything Agency. It was the last day of school for the week, he recalled, and Phoenix had “asked” Apollo to pick up Trucy from school. Something about how Phoenix didn’t like the idea of her walking home so late when the snow was piling up at an alarming rate while she wasn’t wearing the right type of clothing. So, he obeyed, bringing in a bag her winter jacket.

He could still remember her grin when she first greeted him at her school. She was dancing around in the snow then, collecting the large snowflakes on her tongue. He even remembered how her body shivered in her fall coat, her face blue in spite of the bright smile on her face.

She had hugged him then, when he came to pick her up- probably thankful for the coat. But the trip back to the office was anything but pleasant. The snow was high- a few inches higher than any meteorologist had predicted. And although he hated the cold, Trucy loved it. She continued to stare with wide eyes at the little pearls that fell from the sky as if magic. But her hands were bare. Every second, she would blow into them, giggling every time Apollo gave her a look. Even with her coat, she was still cold.

“A little cold never hurt anyone, Apollo!” she had said in reference to his concern. “If the price for snow is cold, then I say bring on the snow!”

But she continued to blow, and continued to shake with cold.

With a sigh, Apollo had meekly taken his warm hand into hers, holding onto it tightly before inserting the two hands into his coat pocket. He hadn’t forgotten the surprised look on her face, or even the grin afterwards as she stood closer to him.

But most of all, he would never forget her words to him: “Apollo, you’re so red in the face! Hee, hee!”

Trucy remembered cooking for Apollo’s birthday. She wasn’t much a cook. Even the home economics teacher made that clear when Trucy accidentally misread salt for sugar in her stew. However, she had overheard the girls at her school say that a home-cooked meal was the best present you could give any guy. So she had decided to bite the bullet and face fate head on.

It was something simple: homemade cookies. Her friend had even given her a recipe so simple that an idiot could even cook it. Although Trucy didn’t appreciate the idiot remark, it set her mind at ease as she set to work on the cookies. The ingredients and instructions weren’t too hard, but then she got carried away, and in the end, her cookies were oddly lumped and black-speckled with burns (the black smoke forcing the fire alarm to ring for three minutes long).

But Apollo, catching her at her worst when she was near tears, explaining to him everything she meant to do and how it failed, he just took a bite of her cookies before spitting it out in the sink from the god-awful taste. She even remembered how that one action forced the tears to come. But Apollo picked up her bowls and utensils, and began to follow the recipe, starting from scratch and teaching her all the way. He explained everything so simply yet so intricately, and in the end, the cookies came out perfect.

Trucy even recalled the grand feelings of accomplishment during that day as she took the first bite out of those delicious cookies, and the sheer jump of happiness at watching Apollo smile from the cookies they had made together.

But most of all, she remembered holding the last cookie in front of Apollo’s lips, and watching with a quickening heart at how he had eaten it right from her fingertips. She would never forget his words to her: “If you eat too many cookies, Trucy, you’ll get fat. Look, you’re already turning red in the face from consuming too much chocolate!”

Five days had passed before Trucy dared to even walk out of her room (minus the washroom breaks). She began to eat at the table, but her magic lay untouched and the office was closed for the time being. She didn’t even try to venture outside of her home. Phoenix tried to get her to talk, but she merely spoke a few necessary words such as “No thank you” and “Please pass the…” He never pushed her though, and whenever the meal was done and over with, she would retreat to her bedroom.

Time…that was all that she needed.

Apollo was different. He distracted his mind by watching old movies, or cleaning the house, or even writing up his reports for his cases. Anything to get his mind away from everything that plagued his world.

He was a busy bee that didn’t dare to stop. He wanted to keep going and going so he wouldn’t have to think about it. Thinking was bad. Thinking made everything worse. So he would forgo thinking and just concentrate on keeping busy.

Time would fix everything though. Time fixed everything.

It was a simple phone call. She just wanted to hear his voice, even if just for a moment. But tears came at the sound of his voice, and without rational thought, she followed the light of her feelings.

“Apollo…I want to see you…”

Her voice struck a chord within him. For so long, for this entire month of disconnection, he heard her beautiful voice, and it rumbled all the feelings he had for her in the beginning. Rationality was cast away as he took a step forward into the path laid out for him by his emotions.

“I’ll meet you in the park.”

A surge of emotions had controlled them then, overtaking every moral thought in their minds. The screams in their heads telling them that it was wrong to meet, that it was wrong to what they were going to do was silenced by the unstoppable feeling welling in their chests.

Ten minutes was all it took for them to stand before the other, panting and clutching their abdomens from the abrupt exercise in the winter air. The two stared at one another, forcing their bodies to catch their breaths. Neither chose to take a step forward. Neither chose to walk away. They were stuck in equilibrium where it was just enough. Enough just to stand there and watch the other, letting the moment sink into their memories.

“Apollo…”

And in a gust of cold air, he swept her into a warm, loving embrace, his emotions willing him to never let go. He could smell the faint scent of her hair and body, and everything…all the pain from the past month seemed to fade away into nothingness.

Trucy returned the painful embrace, willing herself not to shed tears of sadness. Her hands gripped him tightly, wishing, wanting for this moment to last forever. His smell, the feel of his body around hers, it fit. Everything fit. Everything was perfect.

“Trucy…” She could hear his loud, aching voice, and it hurt her heart even more.

“Apollo…” He could hear her reply to his call, and the mere sound forced him to hold her tighter.

“Trucy…I…”

She shook her head, holding on tighter and tighter. “We’re brother and sister…brother and sister!” she cried, almost as if saying it would make it untrue.

Holding back his tears, Apollo buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Even for a moment,” he whispered, “even if it’s sin, I want you to realize that I love you more than I should love you…”

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Surrender- Fin

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Word Count: 1894