Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the Phoenix Wright, ace attorney franchise. The characters and everything else belongs to Capcom and no one else! ESPECIALLY NOT ME!

Raining teardrops

The raindrops came down in pellets as the stormy clouds rolled in from the eastern direction of Japanifornia Los Angeles.

The skies became darkened and gloomy —filled with massive and pronounced grey puffs of cumulus that had decided to just casually pop up out of completely nowhere. Those storm clouds, which had been coloured in such a dark hue that it was pretty close to being titled as ebony or even charcoal black. The downpour was harsh and unrelenting, it created naught but a dank and dreary atmosphere outside.

Alas there was one particular soul whom was particularly affected by this depressing weather...or, so he had originally thought.

Apollo Justice felt his heart pound in his chest whilst he strode down the ivory staircase of the courthouse.

He felt his heart soar and he couldn't keep himself from feeling all giddy on the inside as a big smile of triumph and pride fixed itself on his lips and his head held high when he thought back on the court case that he'd just won minutes ago. It was a hard case to deal with, especially since he did it all on his own, like some other cases he'd do lately. There were contradictions he had to sort through, nervous tics he had to perceive, comment and insults about his twin thorns of hair that he had to let roll over his shoulder. Yet he had got an innocent person a not-guilty verdict in the end of it all and now he felt like nothing in the whole world could hold him back now!

It was just a huge shame that it was raining, though...

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he glanced up to look at the stormy skies overhead, he couldn't help but seriously wish he'd brought an umbrella with him because the rain was coming down harder than a million liquid hammers falling and hitting the ground with such forceful impact. The lawyer in red started to wander towards the nice flat concrete pavement that awaited him and started to make his way home to relax at his apartment.

He couldn't wait to put his feet up and relax and sip a mug of hot chocolate to warm himself from the cold storm that was certainly on its way.

But, as he started his walk home, he brusquely stopped when he suddenly heard something. His eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly open so it was agape and he had to stay both still and silent to see whether his mind was playing tricks on him.

He could definitely hear the sounds of...crying?

Curiosity was but a harsh mistress, sometimes it could be dangerous to follow it but other times it was sort of like following a rainbow to find a cauldron of countless money waiting at the end of it.

Apollo decided almost instantly to follow his curiosity but he also decided to air with caution, just encase it turned out to be someone trying to lure him somewhere so they could rob him or something. The spiky-fringed lawyer turned neatly on his heel and slowly followed the sounds that he could easily find was sniffling and sobbing, maybe with a touch of whimpering too.

It took a minute until he eventually found himself walking towards a woodland of some sort, there were tall pine trees as far as the eye could see just beyond the boarder of this wood.

Apollo frowned and hummed in confusion, a look of thoughtful perplexity on his face.

He could tell that the crying was definitely coming from somewhere in there but he also couldn't help but feel just a tad nervous. Maybe this was some sort of trap or something; this definitely was extremely suspicious and he almost turned around and walked away...but he couldn't, he needed to satisfy that curiosity or else he would always wonder about this.

So, gathering his courage, he pushed passed a gap in the middle of some tall, thick tree trunks and soon enough he was in the dark. The sobs grew louder and louder the closer he followed them and he could feel his heartbeats increase in speed for some reason —he placed a hand over his chest to calm his racing heart and he kept on his trek.

He could hear his own two feet walking on the dirt road below so he could tell where he was going.

The sounds of rain pouring started to intermingle with the crying sounds and Apollo's face dropped into the most poutiest frown and his thorns of hair withered and hung limply over his forehead when drops of rain started to come through the canopy above and hit him.

"Great...just what I need." He muttered grumpily.

The lawyer in red's face lightened up when he turned his head to peer over his shoulder and he found the source of the crying from before.

Loud sobs permeated the rainy but otherwise quiet atmosphere and he found a big willow tree with its branches giving shelter from the rain that fell. Seeing it, he made a few steps towards it and realised that there was someone under the big, weepy, leafy shelter and he couldn't help but start to notice that the sobs sounded...feminine.

It was a woman crying.

Apollo wordlessly bent down and crept under the big sheltering tree and then proceeded to sink to the ground and lean his back heavily against the tree trunk. The person didn't seem to notice him at first as he settled himself right next to her and he looked to his left and he furrowed his brow at the crying young lady with concern and with disbelief.

He knew exactly who this was but his brain just didn't allow him to completely realise it yet, and he even had to blink several times to completely let the view sink in. His knotted throat tightened when he tried forcing the words out of his mouth.

Sweeping his bangs out of his eyes, Apollo called out gently.

"Miss Woods?"

Jumping slightly at the man's voice, Juniper Woods whirled around to face the new voice and discovered that the owner of it was actually Apollo Justice...a man she kind of had a crush on...but, instead of going into a knitting spree like she normally did whenever she saw him, the young maiden simply rubbed away at her bloodshot eyes to conceal any evidence that she was crying. She didn't want to look weak and pallid again.

Not in front of him.

"A-Apollo!"

She gasped, rubbing her eyes wearily and looking right at the 23-year-old with bleary vision. He looked pretty worried and that fact alone made poor Junie feel rotten and guilty for ruining his day and making everything bad. Sniffling, the young flower maiden curled up into a ball and turned to look away from him in an attempt to evade his gaze.

Apollo narrowed his eyes a bit.

This was quite bizarre, this wasn't how the young lady usually acted. He knew that fact well enough despite not knowing her until a couple of months ago (back when it was the Themis Legal academy case) and barely knowing her personality outside that case to discern that she was upset about something. He frowned even more and tried to touch her shoulder to get her attention, but she started to just turn her head to look out into the rainy meadows in front of her.

The young man followed her gaze and found that the shower drizzling over a nice woodlands actually looked sort of peaceful and he couldn't help but feel hypnotised by the enchantment of it all.

Watching how the raindrops fell on the trees, leaves and forest floor made Apollo feel like that it was something out of a fairy tale...

Juniper sniffled and closed her eyes as she sobbed quietly and allowed the tears to flow down her rosy cheeks. She hugged her knees to her chest as she hid her face in the hem of her dress whence her knees were up and she didn't care when her shoulder started to bounce up and down in sadness as her body convulsed and wracked with heavy sobs.

The spiky-banged attorney looked down, at a loss of what to do.

He hadn't been put in such a situation before, he didn't even know exactly how to handle this! What could he do!? He couldn't simply let the poor girl cry her eyes out when there was something —anything— he could do to handle it.

"H-Hey, hey, hey, hey, don't cry..."

Apollo handed her a white rag that he produced from his trouser pocket.

"Here. Blow."

Junie took the handkerchief and blew her nose hard into it, getting all that unwanted mucus out of her system and making her feel just a tad better. Each time she blinked her eyes stung with rawness from all the tears she cried. She tried to calm down and held back a few coughs, trying not to let her anxiety show itself, and then she sniffled when more tears threatened to flood her eye sockets.

Apollo had to wonder, what had made the young maiden so upset? What could have happened to make her cry so much? Whatever it was, he was utterly determined to try and make it better and so he gently wrapped a comforting arm around her, causing the young flower maiden to stiffen just a bit at the contact.

Juniper's whole face turned red as she blinked back the tears that threatened to moisten her face a third time.

"Care to tell me what's wrong?" Apollo asked with as much tenderness as possible.

He knew that he needed to be very delicate with the young woman, since she did appear to be a sensitive soul. He didn't want to make her cry again because that would make him feel as though he kicked a puppy or something just as horrendous...plus, Athena would probably demonstrate her self-defence technique on him should he upset her too much.

Juniper wiped her own lingering tears along her forearm, blinking her bloodshot eyes to try and fight back anymore tears that could threaten to fall and dampen her cheeks even more. She felt dreadful as she sniffed and she had a terrible headache that made her poor skull throb due to the pain of how much she had been weeping like this; she felt even worse now that she had dragged the young man she was crushing on into her affairs when he probably had better things to do with his time.

She forced a big smile on her face as she looked right at Apollo.

"N-No need to worry about me. I'm fine."

Juniper's smile faltered when she quickly realised that Apollo didn't seem to buy her fib and he just looked down at his arm with the bracelet on it and she noticed that it seemed to squeeze on his arm just a bit. A bothered look flashed across his face as he looked down at his golden bracelet for a moment and then looked back up at her, Junie started to feel quite unnerved when he focused his stare on her with wide and watchful eyes; his dark brown eyes turned an oh-so slight shade of and widened to the point where they were close to popping out of their sockets.

It was as though he was studying her.

After a moment, Apollo furrowed his brows and frowned gently at her. "Why are you lying to me?"

The young woman's eyes widened in stunned shock. This was just like the time she was in the detention centre! She knew that she was a terrible liar but she didn't know she was that bad. But she looked at him, trying her best not to let her nervousness show.

"Lying? I-I-I'm n-n-n-not lying!"

"Then why is your chest looking trembly? You cough when you get nervous, right? And why would you get nervous if something wasn't the matter?"

Junie frowned in shame.

He was right.

Even now, she could feel her own chest quiver as though a cough was just threatening to escape from deep within. She subconsciously clutched her wrist, where her beloved friendship bracelet was, and then she hung her head so her gray/chestnut brown hair covered her eyes. She just couldn't help but choke out a soft sob that was quickly followed by a series of sniffles.

Apollo panicked.

"Oh no! I made the poor girl cry again! I didn't mean-" He thought, before being cut off by Juniper herself.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Apollo, I didn't mean to drag you into my problems...I hope you can f-forgive me..."

Apollo couldn't find the words to say to her, he couldn't muster any comforting words and that made him feel as though he had done one of the worst things anyone could possibly do. All he could do was nod at her with sympathy shining in his eyes as he just decided to listen to what she had to say.

Juniper closed her tear-filled eyes.

She exhumed a huge sigh and she started to explain.

"I just...I got into a fight with my grandmother. We don't normally have arguments so we generally get along really well and...well..." She trailed off to take a deep breath, "...She wanted me to quit Themis legal academy and quit my dreams on being a judge...because she worried that it could wind up with me being accused of murder again and me being arrested."

Apollo listened to everything the young lady said with utmost patience.

Seeing him sat there spurred Juniper on to continue, although her voice started to tremble.

"We said some things to each other that eventually wound up with me..Koff!" she trailed off again and started to cough uncontrollably, she clutched her chest with one hand and started shaking all over like a cold maraca. It was a sorry sight to see, "Koff, koff! W-With me running all the way down here...! She w-wanted —Koff, Koff, Koff— wanted me to g-g-give up on my d-dream! Koff, Koff! Ack! Koff!"

Juniper broke off when she broke into a spontaneous coughing fit. Apollo was quick to jerk into action as he furled both his arms around her and pulled her close, one hand pressed itself against Juniper's back and started rubbing in soothing circles. He tried to not let the fear on his face show but he couldn't help but worry for Juniper. It sounded to him as though both Juniper and her grandmother just had a bit of a misunderstanding.

"Okay, okay, lets calm down for a minute...just take deep breaths. Come on, it's alright."

It took about five minutes for Juniper's coughs to subside as she seemed to also stop crying as she held on to the lawyer in red for dear life, trying to stabilise her breathing.

Juniper held on for awhile until she finally broke away from him and and started to try and dry her eyes once more, she cleared her throat softly and watched as Apollo simply sat back and slowly grabbed her hand in his, then the two stared off into the distance once again, looking out to watch the woodland wildlife skittering by to try and take shelter from the rain and living their lives.

"Look. I know you dream about becoming a judge and I think you'd be great, but your grandmother cares for you and doesn't want something like the Themis case to happen again. She's just worried for you."

Juniper glanced at him in silent thoughtfulness.

Apollo continued, heedless to the young woman's gaze. A hurt look flashed across his face as his thorns of hair fell slightly to mirror his downheartedness, he slouched and looked glumly at the ground below. "You've got someone to always stick by you and who will love you no matter what. You're grandmother...at least you've got her and she's got you, you are very lucky to have such a connection like that."

Silence followed, except for the pitter-patter of the raindrops hitting the ground.

Junie didn't know what to think after hearing that coming from the lawyer. Did this mean that he had no family? Was he an orphan? He had always seemed so strong when in the courtroom but now he seemed to have been on the verge of tears just like she was herself mere minutes ago. Hearing such words come out of Apollo struck her to her core, making her feel complete guilt. He was right again, she probably should have been more understanding towards her grandmother's views on things.

"J-Just...try not to be so mad at her, okay?"

Juniper looked into Apollo's face and she noticed that he had a few tears shimmering in his eyes and she felt her heart become heavy upon seeing that. He shut his eyes and shook his head and then he was back to his regular self within the blink of an eye.

"Come on. We can dry off at my house," Apollo said, climbing to his feet and standing.

Junie felt confused. His house? Why was he inviting her to his home? She stared up at the lawyer with the loud voice that made her feel as though she were a plant undergoing photosynthesis, who made her feel not as weak as she normally did.

"We?" She repeated.

Apollo nodded, his deep brown eyes softening and a huge smile making the corners of his lips curl. He reached his hand out towards her for her to take and what Junie found behind him made her mind spin and her heart grow warm. In spite of the rain, the sun was starting to shine radiantly behind the bangle-wearing, attorney-at-law and the beams of light streaked across him; his form was almost silhouetted against the strong and powerful sun like an eclipse, but he still retained that aura that she adored so much.

"Yeah, I really don't want you to catch a cold out here."

The flower maiden's cheeks flushed as she reached forward and took her hand in his, and Apollo pulled backwards to help her to her feet; the aspiring judge and the lawyer both grinned cheerily at one another with deep crimson blush lines appearing on their cheeks, lighting them up, and they both joined hands...which made their blush lines darken considerably as they glanced away from each other momentarily due to timid embarrassment.

The two started to make their exit out of the woodland and back into the city so they could get to the latter's house and hopefully dry themselves off from the rainwater that covered their bodies, even if they knew that they could likely catch themselves a cold after this.

But it was totally worth it.

A/N: Here's a Junipollo fic, and I had it stored away for about three years now but I only JUST decided to finish it.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out and I hope that you guys liked it too. :)

Please review and fave.

-Chloemcg