And here's DZ with another story from the deep bowels of his mind. And since I'm rather tired today, you don't get much else of an introduction. =p

Title: Because you're here, with me
Author: Hmm... I wonder if that's a mirror I'm looking at...
Rating: All ages
Genre: Familial bonding
Status: Completed (one shot)
Pairing: Traces of Phoenix/Maya left in
Summary: Trucy's father has disappeared, and forgot to take her along. What does Phoenix do with this girl, suddenly thrust upon him and his life?

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He was devastated. He couldn't believe it. Such a blunder...

Why, why oh why, why did he have to take that piece of paper from the little girl's hands?

But the deed was done already, and he had been called on it. He was given a summons for court two weeks from now, to investigate this incident regarding the fake evidence.

He felt dizzy. The world as he knew it spun in front of his eyes, and in his mind, everything he had held up for himself throughout all these years was crumbling down with deafening finality. And yet, when he attempted to walk away from the place where all this mess had occurred, he felt something stuck to his leg, preventing his movement. He looked down with an unfocused gaze.

There was the little girl, clinging to him with tears in her eyes, clinging to him with a desperate look, clinging to him for dear life.

His first desire was to roughly rip her away from him, and leave her after giving her his most practiced hateful look. But his heart couldn't muster the strength to pull this off, and he felt himself kneel beside the child, gently stroke her head, and ask her with his sweetest voice, "What's wrong?"

The girl was in shambles. Between sobs and jagged breaths, she managed to let out, "M-my d-daddy's gone...! A-and he d-didn't t-take me w-with h-him...!", before succumbing to uncontrolled cries.

Phoenix felt his heart twisting painfully. How could he ever, ever have thought of leaving this poor girl alone? He wouldn't be able to forgive himself for the rest of his life. Feeling the worst of the worst, he hugged her tightly, never stopping his careful caressing of her head, while she incontrollably sobbed harder and harder on his shoulder.

It was a while before she calmed down. When she did, her look of shattered desperation touched very deep inside his heart, and hoisting her up in his arms, he told her, "Well... If you want, you can spend a few days with me while we search for your daddy. How's that sound?" And to his surprise and immense relief, he found his words being met with a small smile, a nod of assentment, and her arms thrown around his neck in thanks.

He carried her the whole way back home. He had a shrewd idea how she must feel, and somehow, his instinct told him that holding her like this would give her a sense of security, of which she was most in need. Leaving her with some colored pencils and an old notebook in his small sitting room, he prowled the extra bedroom he used to keep for whenever Maya and Pearls were staying, and after fumbling here and there, he deemed it in good enough conditions for the girl to use. So, he was fully expecting the many tears and thank you's the girl gave him, but what he did not expect was her clinging to him surprisingly strongly, sobbing in his trousers at first, and his shoulders when he crouched beside her. She asked him how she should call him, now that she was going to live with him for a while, and in a rare stroke of inspiration, his mouth changed into a subtle grin and his mind flew towards a pair of big eyes, a pink kimono and a pretzel hairdo, and said in a low voice, "Mr. Nick will be okay". He could feel a small smile growing in the lips pressed against his shoulder, and a nod of acknowledgement. And that's how little Trucy came about to live with him.

While searching for the disappeared Zak Gramarye, the few days turned into a few weeks, and those few weeks turned into a few months. They shared many an experience — giggles and smiles over toast in the mornings, luminescent blushes when he had to buy underwear for her, sleepless nights when she fell down sick, truly joyful laughs when he'd play out in the park with her, stumping evenings helping her with tough-as-nails homework from the school she now attended, painful hours when he comforted her in his arms after a particularly scary nightmare.

Nowadays, their relationship was much closer. Oftentimes, he'd get approving looks from older ladies on the streets, and even every now and then a random comment on what good care he was taking of his daughter, and he'd be forced to whip out a long-winded explanation on how she wasn't his daughter at all... But this had gotten tiring, so he didn't care anymore.

Other times, he'd find himself looking proudly and with a hint of another feeling at the little girl, a feeling the name of which he couldn't quite put his finger on. This puzzled him greatly for a good while, but he never really got to find out what that feeling was, except that it made him warm in his heart, so upon deciding the feeling was good enough as it was, he stopped paying it too much mind.

Some other times, he'd meet his extended family, composed of his beloved Maya, her little cousin Pearl and his closest friend and confident, Edgeworth, and after having a hard time initially explaining how this adorable little girl had come into his life, he'd have to make conscious efforts to suppress the urge to, in the middle of a conversation, randomly call her his "daughter".

And yet some other times, he'd surprise and catch himself calling her pet names, like honey and sweetheart, and get even more surprised in return when she answered with a "Daddy" remark, directed at no one else but him.

Time together taught him her habits, her likes, her dislikes. Time together would find him comforting her after a nightmare. Time together would thrust him into giving her paternal advice against the bullies in her class. Time together would throw him on his couch, his face in his hands, wondering and pondering when and where exactly had things started to go downhill, and she'd invariably show up with a new magic trick to show him, or an interesting new adventure she'd experienced at school, or just to cuddle up beside him in silence and eventually fall asleep with her head on his thighs. Time together would find them both, after a while, defending each other, in their own situations (her bullies, his detractors), as fiercely as kin. Time together would, ultimately, find them saying to each other, timidly at first, and then with more conviction, "I love you".

And that's why, when the first anniversary of the day when she was dropped into his care came around, as he prepared a small party with the people he treasured the most (Maya, Pearl, Edgeworth, Gumshoe, and Franziska), he apologized to her in front of everyone, mostly for himself than for her, for not being much help in finding her lost father. The sensation felt painful, very painful, against an already stressed heart, and while he said his words of apology and atonement, he felt the small, delicate hand and the silky, sapphire-colored hair of the girl he loved the most upon his shoulders, in an unspoken sign of support that he was thankful for all the same. And as he finished speaking, he felt his head naturally drop, unable to keep his gaze on the little girl in front of him, due to pain, shame and god knows what other feelings that were squeezing his heart right now.

But he could never have expected what happened next.

Because the girl took his saddened face in her small hands, and pulling him towards her, gave him a small kiss on his forehead, and in her sweet, bright voice, said to him, "You don't have to be sad, and you don't have to be sorry. Because we don't have to look for my daddy anymore."

"...Trucy?" He could not believe his ears. And swift as lightning, he finally understood the meaning of that feeling he could not recognize before...

A feeling of love, the love of a father, a love he didn't think he was capable of feeling.

And yet, it was there, certainly, undoubtedly, irrevocably there.

But before he could utter another word, he felt the thin finger of the slender, dark-haired girl now hugging him from behind on his lips, prohibiting him from talking. Instead, it was her who asked the little girl in front of them, "And why is it that you don't have to look for your daddy anymore, Trucy?"

And all of them saw as the girl climbed up on his legs, threw his arms around him as far as she could reach, and snuggling herself against his chest, said in her brightest voice...

"Because I've already found him."

The whooping, squeals and giggles of joy echoed through the small room, and the man with the spiked hair felt, for the first time in a long, long time, that maybe things weren't so bad after all, as his tears found their way to his cheeks and his arms found their way around the little girl sitting on his lap...

His little girl...

His daughter.

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Aww! So cute!

Nicky-poo is happeh.

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That was so precious! The feelings were captured so incredibly wonderfully, I can't describe them in the least! So, so beautiful; I love this to death!

Yes, the feelings of the characters and the descriptions were my favorite; they were written very well, which I must applaud!

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Well thank you, girls. It's always nice to know that people like what I write. =)

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I loved the way you wrote this. It was beautiful seriously.

I just want to say you should write more fanfics because this was great!

Keep up the good work.

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kyaaaaaaaaaaaa! this is so cute! and well-written too! ^^

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Hey DZ!


I followed your shameless plug advertisement advice and read some of your stories. You were right, our styles are indeed somewhat similar, but there are many differences, too. Let me go over the stories I've read and my opinions on them, eh?

Spoiler: Bundled Reviews:

I didn't like 'Empty Hands' too much, seeing as how I don't like its premise. The 'I love you, what can I offer you?' cliché is somewhat overrated in my opinion. It's good to be sure about your partner's motives and opinions about the relationship, but angsting over it is a little much, and there's three problems with it in your story:
- First, they are already married. If Phoenix wasn't sure about their relationship, it's repercussions or anything, he had no business saying 'I do'. I actually see Phoenix as the kind of guy who wouldn't take that step unless he's sure that it's what they both want and that it'll work.
- Second, self-esteem issues. I don't see Phoenix as someone who suffers from that, either. You can see playing AJ that losing his badge was a hard blow for him, but I never got the impression that it had shaken his confidence in himself.
- , Third, they already have assured each other of their love several times in the story already before the subject comes up. I see the progression of Phoenix's doubts coming up and then manifesting themselves in that dream until they finally talk it out at the end, but nevertheless there's a bit of a dissonance between the 'wedded bliss' parts and that scene.


The letter referenced in the story was actually pretty good. Phoenix waxing rhapsodic over Maya only feels slightly over the top at times... Other than that, it's a pretty good recapturing of Phoenix's history with Maya from his perspective.


The story with Phoenix painting Maya was also enjoyable, only the final bit with Maya formally declaring herself Trucy's mommy in front of the assembly felt somewhat over the top again.

When you do a similar thing with Trucy and Phoenix in your latest piece, it rings much truer. That story was very sweet and well written, and I have nothing bad to say about it. The progression of how they warm up to each other was enjoyable to read and well done! I also liked that bit of realism where Phoenix was tempted to push her away for a moment - that impulse makes sense, even though she was just used to engineer his downfall.


The 'Because it sounds sexy' story was very funny and slightly sexy, too. I laughed at Edgeworth and 'international affairs' at the end. And poor Pearls getting scarred like that. And Maya somehow broke her rib... though looking at the text, it doesn't appear possible to tell how exactly... But yeah, the genius of Hirano Aya... Haruhi would never have been as good without her.


I've also read the story where Phoenix goes 'demonic'. An interesting read - nice to see something action packed from you! Only the repeated demon references at the end of each paragraph detracted a little from the overall feeling of the story. Describing all the badass things Phoenix does should be enough - no need to keep reminding us in the narration that he's unstoppable. 'Show, not tell', you know? The surprise ending was well pulled off, though...

Well, that's all of the ones I read. Hope my feedback was helpful! Let me know what you think!


Quizer

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Awwww, I just love this X3

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omg what a totally adorable story! it was just so... so... cute!!
the young version of trucy is so cute in the game, i love reading fanfics about her. before AJ, i could never have imagined phoenix as a dad, but it turns out he's a natural!!
overall: i loved it!!
from kitty sneeze
xxx

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Aww! That was so cute! You did a great job!
BRAVO!

Aww, that was so sweet! Great job!