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Trucy likes her new Daddy.
He isn’t like her other Daddy, though, that’s for sure. For example, her other Daddy always laughed happily whenever he talked to her. He always showed her new tricks and often let her play pranks on any passerby if she felt bored. Always loud and in a good mood and would treat her like the big girl she is.
While her new Daddy... Well, he isn’t really that great compared to him. He fake smiles every day, she can see right through his emotions. He doesn’t have a lot of money so she can’t get the new magic props she’s been dreaming of lately. He’s so busy, trying to read through all of this complicated lawyerly stuff... He always insists on how she absolutely has to eat her gross vegetables while he gets to eat junk food. He always forces her to go sleep early when he stays up through most of the night. She frowns.
Eating her cereals silently, Trucy looks around her. The apartment they’re living in is really... small. Her magic props have invaded most of what can barely be called a living room. Her Daddy hasn’t moved from the spot he’s been sitting on for almost two hours now. He looks so focused that Trucy was almost sure that if she were to disappear right now, he wouldn’t notice. However, almost is the key word since it’s pretty impressive how he manages to know about her whereabouts, even when she thinks that he wasn’t paying attention. When she finishes, she puts her bowl in the sink –she’ll later help Daddy do the dishes (it’s actually quite fun!).
She then gets off from her chair and tells him that she’ll try and do her homework. He looks up at her and smiles tiredly, encouraging her to do her best and offering her his help if her work is too hard to understand. She grins, and stares at him for a bit. Her old Daddy didn’t help her with homework. In fact, he didn’t think homework or school were a big deal, so even if she wanted to give back a decent work, she couldn’t. He always advised her to practice her magic tricks instead –which was fine! She loved doing so. Her new Daddy stares right back at her, winks and gestures that she should go to her room.
And she does.
Right, so original Daddy was great and new Daddy is a little less, but is still cool. He feeds her, alright. And he didn’t have to take her in, like at all. But he did. He doesn’t have a job anymore but he takes care of her the best he can, and she knows that. He’s all fake smiles, but only to be reassuring, and she noticed too. She also noticed how he tries to give her healthy food and sacrifices his meals to eat instant noodles. She’s not a kid, after all! Of course she knows all that. All of his flaws are explained, maybe even transformed into qualities.
So then... What was the matter, huh ? Why doesn’t she feel like her new Daddy is family ? She wants him to be, she really does ! He’s not always so serious, to be honest. He lets her stay up late some nights to watch some movies or cartoons with him, he always lets her talk and play with Pearly and Aunt Maya. She always sees him smile whenever she hangs out with Aunt Franziska or Uncle Mi– Mr. Edgeworth. Daddy told her not to call him Uncle, it would bother him. She knows it wouldn’t, but she does as he says, because she’s a good big girl who listens to her new father.
She does her best, her absolute best, her maximum. So why? Why can’t they be a family?
They live together, he looks after her, takes her to school, laughs with her, reads her some stories before going to bed but...
They’re not family, and that’s a fact.
She makes sure the door is closed behind her and sits on her bed instead of her desk, thinking. What’s... the difference?
Her old Daddy was always chipper and brought joy wherever he went. His job was to make people smile and he did his job very well! She wanted to be just like him.
She heard of Aunt Maya and Mr. Edgeworth that her other Daddy was much the same. She hasn’t seen it for herself but, apparently he saved lives and made people smile and laugh. He believed in people, that was his job. Trucy finds this fact amazing and also inspires to be like him.
But Daddy doesn’t have his job anymore and he stopped smiling for good.
The worst part ? It’s her fault. It’s all her fault that Daddy isn’t happy anymore. She gave him something she shouldn’t have given, she helped her other Daddy disappear and now, her new Daddy is all sad. And he hasn’t told anyone. No one, except him and her, knew who gave him the paper. Not even Mr. Edgeworth nor Aunt Maya and he told them everything.
Trucy wants to cry. But she won’t. Because her Daddy doesn’t cry, and that’s impressive. And she feels a more important need to become like him. She wants to be like him and she wants him to be family. But he isn’t. Why is that ?
She wants to talk about it to someone, but she doesn’t know who. Her most precious confident, Mr. Hat can’t be of much help: he looks too much like old Daddy. She doesn’t want to feel like she’s complaining about her new father to her old one. That wouldn’t be fair.
She hugs herself, looking at the window. If Mr. Hat can’t help her, who could ?
“Stupid Mr. Hat.”
She frowns again. She remembers when her new Daddy told everyone the news, everyone she didn’t know yet at the time. And every single one of these new people came home to visit him, ask him what happened, wondering what could be done and who could “forge evidence on his behalf”. After their talk, everyone rushed to hug Daddy and she felt so small, so alone, hiding behind one of the doors of the agency. Somehow, about ten people were hugging her Daddy, from small little Pearly to big Mr. Gumshoe. Even Aunt Franziska and Mr. Edgeworth were part of the hug and later, she learned for a fact that Aunt Franziska barely hugged anyone.
At this moment, everything felt really... cold.
And now, she’s feeling the cold again.
Daddy hugged everyone and everyone hugged Daddy. But Daddy never... hugged her.
He’s never hugged her once. Nor kissed her, nor tucked her into bed. Her Daddy never told her he loved her.
Does he love her ?
It would be problematic if he didn’t.
Somehow, everyone but Daddy told her that they loved her. And she loves them right back. The first one to say these words was –unsurprisingly- aunt Maya. But even Mr. Edgeworth and Aunt Franziska told her so. They’ve never said these words to anyone else, but her. Daddy laughed and told her that she should feel special.
Maybe she is.
But is it any good when her own Daddy didn’t love her?
Trucy Enigmar didn’t cry, that’s not what an Enigmar or a Gramarye should do. Magicians smile. But here, all alone, far from both her Daddies... maybe, just maybe Trucy Wright could shed a tear or two.
She did just that.
Then, the calm silent sadness that weighed her shoulders and wet her cheeks transformed into something more intense and hurtful. And she sobbed.
She sobbed like a little girl and she hated it.
Her head hurt and memories of her old Daddy came back to haunt her. Daddy promised he’d come back as soon as possible but it’s been two months now. Where is he ?
New Daddy said that he took her in, in the meantime. Does that mean that if, one day, old Daddy came to get her back, New Daddy would be happy to let her go ?
Well, why wouldn’t he be? He doesn’t like her. But she likes him. And she hates it. She sniffles.
She doesn’t even know what she wants. She wants her old Daddy back. But he disappeared into nothingness like a true magician –without his assistant. She wants her new Daddy to stay with her. For days, months, maybe years. Maybe forever. Her new Daddy isn’t the greatest and that’s a fact. That’s a solid fact, alright. He sucks sometimes. But she likes him. She likes him and everyone else does. And he likes everyone back.
But her.
She cries even more.
She hears a knock on her door and the sound hurts her head, already pounding. She can barely open her eyes to witness new Daddy rushing to be next to her. He puts a knee on the ground to be at her level, asking her what’s wrong, wondering if she’s okay. He looks so distressed. He’s totally freaking out.
That thought snatched a one-second giggle from her. He really sucks. Stupid Daddy.
He looks so worried, though, that her little heart breaks even more. She feels like she should say something but doesn’t know what.
“I’m doing my best! I– I’m doing my...”
She sobs again. He stops moving his hands in panic and just lets them rest on his knee. He wears a sad smile and tilts his head kindly.
“You know, Trucy, you shouldn’t push yourself too hard. Sometimes, you should take a break and breathe for a bit. Try and do something that you like before going back to that homework of yours. I’ll help you with it, I promise.”
She looks up at him with teary eyes. Homework ? He... He just doesn’t get it does he?
But his advice sounds genuine. She might give it a try. She did her best to be a good obedient daughter but it didn’t bring her anything but sadness. So now, she should probably try to do what she wants.
Before her new Daddy gets up, she locks her little arms behind his neck and forces him to come closer. He immediately tenses up. His own arms hang in the air, freezed. However, she doesn’t get discouraged and continues to hug him, the best she can. No Trucy –Enigmar, Gramarye or Wright- does things halfway. So she sniffles but nests her head in his neck and waits.
Thankfully, she doesn’t have to wait that long before she feels her Daddy’s arms settle on her back. And he squeezes tightly, so tightly, it surprises her. She might cry even more. But she won’t, instead, she just enjoys the moment for once, because apparently reckless Trucy deserved this hug more than careful Trucy. She doesn’t know how long they stay like this, but it feels amazing and she could stay like this forever. Unlike her old Daddy, this one doesn’t crush her chest in hugs. She can breathe just fine and her head already feels less heavy.
She never knew how great it could feel to hug new Daddy. She doesn’t even know how she’s survived two months without a single one. But now she’s here, and he’s right next to her, and she wets his shirt with her tears but neither of them seems to care.
Everything’s so great. Everything’s so amazing.
“I love you, Daddy.” Trucy whispers, her lips barely moving in the fabric of his shirt.
For a second, she wonders if he heard her.
And in the next one, the hug is over and she then asks herself if she did something wrong. But her Daddy looks at her with a weird face, not a bad one, though. He isn’t smiling, but somehow, his eyes look softer than if he was. Opening his mouth, she notes that he can’t help but break into a beaming smile before actually replying.
“I love you too, Truce.”
She hugs him again, and for the first time in two months, she felt the warmth of a father –of family.