Title: Of B-Chords and Bunnies
Characters/Pairings: Apollo and Klavier; very light undertones.
Rating: PG-13 for language and innuendo.
Warnings/Spoilers: Nothing too concerning; minor details from Cases 4:1 – 4:3.
Disclaimer: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (or any part of the Ace Attorney franchise) is not mine. If it did, we would have every single attorney in a glam rock band and it will be amazing.
Notes: Done for the 30 Day Creative Writing Challenge on Tumblr before I realized this would not constitute "20. A Short Fanfic" because it was too long.

Also, if you liked this kind of fic plot, I highly recommend All the Right Notes by KingMobUK on the Phoenix Wright Fanfic Archive – which was one of the few fics I found after writing this (just to make sure I had something a little different from the rest)of an AA character giving another character a musical lesson. Justice Doesn't Rock by Symmetrical on this site follows a similar plot, which has more than just undertones for those looking for more.

Of B-Chords and Bunnies

"And this, Herr Forehead," the blond man with bright blue eyes proudly announced to his guest, with a grin akin to a boy in a toy store. "Is what I like to call the Gavin Grinder."

Apollo did not look as enthusiastic as Klavier (or as impressed as Klavier had wanted him to be) as he just stared at the attention-wailing electric guitar, body shaped as and emblazoned with a glitter-textured Gavinner "G" on its sleek violet body. "It's..." Apollo began uncertainly, unsure of what to really say about it without offending the other man. He cleared his throat and ran his hand through his two protruding bangs. "Uh. Very...fancy?"

Klavier could see right through him as he gave his court rival a smirk. "Your discomfort is as painfully obvious as your forehead is obvious," the prosecutor chuckled, causing Apollo to narrow his eyes as the blond walked over to one of the amps in the guitar room - the biggest one, Apollo noted swiftly with increasing nervousness - and plugged in the gaudy instrument.

Apollo folded his arms. "If you want honesty, then, it looks like something I wouldn't be caught dead with," he retorted bluntly, fixing his red waistcoat lapels as Klavier flipped a switch. Feedback emerged from the amp immediately, and Apollo shook his head, surveying the area he had been invited to by his rival in court (of all things; after coffee as well to add onto how weird the notion was) and the numerous amount of guitars hanging on the walls - acoustics, electrics, classical, all different shapes and sizes and designs.

It was like being in the guitar section of a music store. Bet he'd save more money collecting bottle caps and stamps like everyone else, Apollo thought dryly as his eyes continued to glaze over the strings. "That one has to be the most ridiculous-looking out of all of these," he added, looking back briefly at Klavier.

Klavier's smirk simply grew wider as he sat down on top of a black bench. "Ja, I suppose you have a point," he replied, turning a few knobs on the amp and strumming the guitar lightly, his ear craned towards the instrument. "That's why she has also earned the fan-name Gavin Gimmick." Satisfied with the sound, he did not hesitate sliding his left hand up and down the strings to emit a scratchy cry before he let out three loud, strong, and incredibly distorted notes, causing Apollo to jump and wince.

The former rockstar ignored him, though, as his left fingers moved quickly across the strings, playing all sorts of reverberating wails as his right hand strummed just as fast, making it a more impressive sight than his air-guitaring (actually, Apollo was pretty damn sure that this was the song this guy mocked him with in the court room). He stopped shortly after the riff, looking up at Apollo with the smuggest expression he could muster, much to the defense attorney's annoyance. "However, judging things simply from appearance, though...one should not judge unless they are qualified - ja, Herr Häschen?"

"Ha – ...what?" Apollo questioned, confused at the lack of "Forehead" after the "Herr".

"Häschen," Klavier simply repeated, looking away nonchalantly and turning a few more knobs on the amp and his guitar. "It means 'baby rabbit' – bunny!"

Apollo's eye twitched - as did one of his bangs, much to Klavier's amusement when he looked back at him. I think I'd rather prefer 'forehead' than being compared with some animal, Herr Blondie, the brown-haired man conveyed irritably through his facial expression, wanting to object rather harshly, but decided not to say anything as he took a deep breath in and turned back to Klavier's wall of guitars. "It doesn't change the fact that it looks ridiculous," he muttered.

"Pardon my objection, but you are overlooking the truth here, rabbit-hair,"Klavier replied (much to Apollo's continued annoyance) as he played a few more loud, long-lasting chords to taunt his rival. "The Gavin Grinder - yes, she is a very bold guitar, but underneath her boldness is a beautiful voice."

He flipped a switch directly on the guitar, and instead of blasting some more noisy chords, began playing a much cleaner, softer, mellow tune – a pleasant surprise and a familiar one at that for the younger lawyer's ears. "Hold it!" Apollo exclaimed, all previous irritation forgotten as he turned towards Klavier picking the strings of the Gavin Grinder, pointing straight at him. "That's...that's Kansas! I know that song!"

Klavier scoffed lightly. "Of course you do. Everyone knows this song."

"Well, yeah! But...but from you and..." He nodded at the instrument, letting his arm fall back to his side. "That guitar, that electric guitar..." Apollo's eyes widened. "It's a classic from a long time ago – like in the 70's! It's something not loud or...loud!"

Klavier couldn't help but laugh lightly at this. Apollo blinked as he took a few steps forward, watching the delicate movements of Klavier's right fingers on the metal strings in awe and curiosity. Although it didn't sound too right on an electric guitar - well, it certainly was the song, it sounded better without that distorted rock-metal sound from before, and it was being played with the same amount of feeling as the original. A cathartic wave settled within Apollo as he observed and listened intently.

The song seemed to be played in a certain pattern, almost repetitive. And the way Klavier played it, plucking two strings and then moving up and down along the strings with his thumb, index, middle and ring digits...why, he played this song on this guitar like it was the easiest thing in the world...

There was a pause after the chorus, and Klavier finally acknowledged Apollo as he set his hand down and looked up at the astonished man, his eyes mixed with all sorts of emotions - one of them envy. Klavier raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever tried to learn, Herr Häschen?" he asked.

Apollo, shaken from becoming lost to his observations, blinked momentarily again before the question settled in. His eyebrows furrowed. "Well, I always thought it would be cool to play…" he murmured earnestly. He eyed one of the acoustics on the wall, and the slightest tint of pink crept onto his cheeks. "Th - there was this girl I really liked back in high school, in my Legal Studies class. She knew how to play; was part of my school's band and posted online videos of herself covering songs and stuff. She had a really nice singing voice." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "She tried to get me interested..."

Klavier's eyes practically twinkled in amusement. Apollo coughed, avoiding snapping at him. "Anyway, I tried it out but...well, it didn't work. Fingers weren't too good at reaching some places."

"Is that also how it worked with the fräulein?"

"Don't even go there, Prosecutor Gavin," Apollo retorted, not hesitating to hold back this time as he glared at the grinning German with a redder face. He rubbed two fingers against his forehead. "It's not your concern anyway. Anyway, are you going to keep showing off and lowering my self-esteem? Trucy wants me and Mr. Wright to come with her to the zoo later."

"Is my company that unsettling, bunny?"

"If you keep calling me that, it's sure gonna be."

Another taunting laugh. "I don't intend on holding bunnies caged here as a prisoner forever," Klavier replied, further rousing Apollo. His smirk vanished replaced with a more earnest smile as he stood up, setting down the Gavin Grinder against the bench he had sat on. "However, even prisoners should be allowed to be treated with the gift of music."

With that he walked back over to the wall and reached for an acoustic guitar - decorated as tacky as possible with a heart blazing in flames on the body. Klavier beamed, and picked each string, craning his ear towards it. The last two strings prompted him to reach for the silver knobs the strings were tied to and turn them slightly. Plucking them again to see if they were tuned correctly this time, he nodded in satisfaction before he walked towards Apollo. "Ja, I think this baby will suit you well."

"It has a burning heart painted on it," Apollo deadpanned, not impressed with this choice either. He blinked. "Wait, what do you mean 'suits me'?"

"Thus explaining the burning heart," Klavier said, pushing the guitar into the hands of the now confused defense attorney. He pointed at the bench. "Now, sit."

Apollo blinked. "Don't give me the dumb look, Herr Häschen," the musician guffawed, picking up his own guitar. "Surely you have enough time for Lesson Number Eins before you spend family time with Fräu Trucy and Herr Wright. You know exactly what you are about to do, ja?"

"Wait, well, I - uh, well, yeah, I have a pretty good idea, but..." Apollo stuttered. "I don't want to try this again!"

"Ha, objection! The look in your awe-struck eyes when I played Kansas does not convince me that you are telling the truth here."

"Hold it! In that case, I don't want to be taught by you!"

"Ach, that hurts my feelings, Herr Forehead! You should feel privileged that a former musician would be willing to show you some things for free, rabbit-hair. As I see it, I'm the best thing you've got for a teacher, unless you're going to learn piano from Herr Wright anytime soon."

"Well, I could if I wanted to!" Combined with my Chords of Steel, surely that would go down well! "Just...guitar is difficult!" Apollo waggled his right hand fingers, staring at them in doubt. "Especially if you're gonna teach me that song!"

This prompted an immediate scoff out of Klavier. "You're thinking far too ahead of yourself, even further than the diameters of your forehead," the prosecutor scolded, prompting another one of Apollo's glares. "You are far from ready to learn how we are all dust in the wind. Now..." His smirk had returned in full determination. "Once again, sit."

Giving a very childish, defeated, well I don't have shit all to lose anyway sigh, Apollo plopped himself down on the bench reluctantly. Klavier sat next to him, reaching into his purple blazer pocket and pulling out a pick of the same colour, with the trademark Gavinner "G" on it. "You will need this," he said, holding out the pick to Apollo between his thumb and forefinger. "Try to hold it like this - firm, but steady. It is the basic grip, you will get a good sound, and you will not drop the pick as much when you start."

Apollo took it from his fingers, imitating the grip. Hesitantly, he strummed the guitar, rewarded with a nice-enough sounding resonance. "Good," Klavier approved. Then the blond propped up the Gavin Grinder properly in his hands. Apollo followed suit, holding up the guitar. "Did your high school sweetheart teach you any music theory at all, Herr Häschen?"

The defense attorney narrowed his eyes. Klavier's expression suddenly switched from smug to no seriously, did she, prompting Apollo's own expression to change to one of confusion. "Er, such as...?"

"Notes, basic things. C, D, E...?"

The letters sounded familiar as Apollo rubbed his fingers against his forehead again, trying to think back. Klavier sighed, shaking his head and brushing his bangs away from his face. "Do, re, mi...?"

"Oh, yeah, I know those!" Apollo answered energetically.

Klavier just looked at him. "We have a long, long way to go," the man concluded, his eyes settling on Apollo's forehead as the temptation to make another joke about it rose. He let it slide, though (helped by Apollo's rather stern gaze quickly after), as he quickly explained the relation between the letter chords and "do, re, mi".

Apollo managed to link C to "do" and D to "mi" and every letter to each note pretty fast, however - under five minutes. This more than satisfied Klavier, who was eager to begin teaching. "Awesome," he smiled. "Now, let us start at the top of her neck - open chords."

He saw the confidence in the fellow lawyer's face suddenly drain. Klavier blinked. "Why the objection, Herr Häschen?"

Apollo said nothing as horror crossed his expression. It then dawned on Klavier what was wrong as the smug, all-knowing smirk returned back on his lips. "Ahhh, I see. So you do remember some things that the fräulein taught you then!"

"You really think so?" Apollo growled, his bangs drooping. "Those were all at the top of the guitar, but they were hard to memorize and stretching your fingers wasn't easy either!" He nodded at the Gavin Grinder. "Can't we just learn whatever kind of chords you were playing on the electric? You know, where you just put two fingers on the first two strings?"

"Power chords?"

"Yes, those!"

"Nein."

"What? Why not?"

Klavier shook his head. "You will thank me for teaching you open chords first thing, Herr Justice," he simply responded, and it surprised Apollo that he'd actually referred to him other than "Forehead" or that stupid German word for rabbit. "A true guitarist cannot survive alone with power and bar chords. You would be surprised how many rock guitarists who will shred so proudly on their Gibsons and their Ibanezes have difficulties with such basic, necessary chords and are denied the beauty of what great ballads have to offer."

He took his index finger and rested it in the middle of Apollo's forehead with a rather solemn smile. "Also, it does you no good to try and learn power chords when you want to make an acoustic sing," Klavier teased, his finger ending up pointing at the instrument in Apollo's hands.

Apollo was beginning to get impatient. "Just teach the chords then," he muttered, strumming randomly as his fingers moved wherever, trying to see if he could get any sort of familiar note.

In that instance, Klavier's hand suddenly shot up to grab Apollo's left wrist, stopping him from his poor attempts. Apollo was slightly taken aback. He gulped nervously, shifting his eyes towards Klavier's own, and the smile had faded from the man's face. Oh, crap. Did he do something wrong? Was Prosecutor Gavin some kind of strict German music lehrer?

Klavier did not say anything though - not yet then anyway as his hand slid over Apollo's own, prompting Apollo to squirm a bit in surprise as the older man moved each of his fingers deftly, setting them onto certain strings. "This," Klavier explained as he finished stretching Apollo's index finger on the second last string. "Is the open C-chord. The 'do'." He then let go of Apollo's hand. "Now, press down your fingers – make sure not to move them, but do not press down super hard – and strum."

Apollo nodded, struggling to keep his fingers in position, and – very delicately – strummed the pick against the strings. A pleasant note emerged from it, and it definitely sounded like 'do'. Apollo's eyes lit up, and he strummed the pick back and forth curiously, emitting that note. Holy guacamole and sour cream on tacos, Apollo marvelled. I have officially played the guitar! Haha, take THAT, high school crush!

Klavier lifted up the Gavin Grinder again, and placed three of his fingers near the right edge of the top of the guitar's neck. "Now, open D-chord, the 're'." Klavier strummed, emitting a sound one note higher than that of what Apollo played. "Place your fingers like this."

Apollo squinted at his fingers, trying to mimic them as best as he could. When his strum did not sound correct, Klavier did not hesitate to move his hand back to Apollo's, briefly startling the other lawyer again, moving the fingers where they should go. The strum sounded correct, and Apollo began strumming harder in his own marvel. "Gently now, you are forcing sound out of her," Klavier remarked, causing Apollo to double-take and fix his strumming pattern. He picked up his own guitar and played the same note with Apollo, both of them resonating together with the same note.

The practice continued on for a good hour and more, Klavier repeating the teaching process of teaching each chord to Apollo, pointing at strings and moving fingers, teaching him fret and finger numbers, chiding him if Apollo complained about the reach (particularly for the F-chord, which Apollo had much trouble with, protesting he knew very well what the "F" stood for, and which they had finally skipped after much objection from him). However, the younger man did not hesitate to hide how thrilled he was once he had learned the open C, D, E, and A-chords.

At one point, during learning the open B-chord, Apollo had cursed as he had tried to stretch his fingers, much to Klavier's entertainment - and unfortunate chagrin. "The open B-chord will be tricky," he warned as Apollo tried to get the right sound out. Klavier groaned and cringed at Apollo's next forced strum, a hand shooting up near his ear. "Achtung, Herr Forehead, bitte, please! Do not force the guitar to magically play the chord either, you are making her cry!"

"But I swear my fingers are on the right strings!" Apollo groused, and accidentally released the pick at the next strum. His shoulders collapsed. "Can I say what the 'B' in this chord stands for too?"

"And then I suppose you will skip it as well? Nein, you are going to memorize this chord, including the F-chord which I will make you learn properly, and you will not break her strings doing so either."

Apollo shook his head, picking the pick back up, and began playing the A-chord instead, which had become his favourite to strum and sounded the best to him. Klavier simply rolled his eyes with a scoff and also strummed the A-chord on his own guitar. Apollo paused, glancing at Klavier's guitar. "Why doesn't mine sound as good as yours?" he had wondered.

The prosecutor stopped abruptly, turning back to look at the defense attorney with a stare that could disintegrate diamonds. Apollo flinched sharply, bangs drooping. Well, I guess I am just learning right now... the brown-haired lawyer noted meekly.

The condescending look on Klavier's face quickly dissolved, and he scoffed again, just under his breath. "Ja, of course it will not sound good at first," the other lawyer replied, setting down the Gavin Grinder on his lap again and reaching to move Apollo's fingers back to that blasted B-chord. It was then that Apollo had realized one of his fingers had been on the wrong string all along, and he frowned. "But I suppose I must give you some credit. For a beginner, Herr Justice, you pick up quickly."

The corner of Apollo's lips curved upward, and his eyes ignited again with enthusiasm as he nodded. "Ye – yeah!" he agreed, looking down with awe as he moved his left fingers from C to E to D and what he knew without strumming. Klavier was right. He couldn't believe it himself how – after years – he had finally managed to learn an instrument enough to play the romantic, sweet sounds of music from it. He was finally learning how to play the guitar!

Apollo looked up at Klavier, looking slightly bashful. "Uhm, Klavier - Prosecutor Gavin. Thank you for this. Oh, and the coffee earlier. I...I really do appreciate it."

Klavier's smile grew, and his eyes sparkled again. "Don't thank me yet. There is still a lot more for you to improve on and learn," he replied, placing his hand on Apollo's shoulder. He narrowed his gaze playfully. "But with more practice, mein häschen-harr student, perhaps one day you will thank me much more than the fräulein from Legal Studies?"

His smile transformed back into that damn smirk, and the man winked. Apollo immediately felt his face grow uncomfortably warm as he shifted his eyes around uneasily, before they glanced down at his watch. "Oh, crap!" Apollo gasped, his eyes widening as he bolted upwards, holding the guitar with one hand around its neck and dropping the pick. "Klavier, I gotta go. I have to meet up with Trucy and Mr. Wright at the zoo! God knows what that girl's gonna do near the tigers!"

Klavier stood up as well as Apollo thrust the acoustic, burning heart guitar into his hands, rushing outside of the guitar room and towards Klavier's house door. He snatched his jacket on the coat hanger near it and reached for the door handle, opening it and ready to bolt towards the nearest taxi, before he stopped and turned around to look at Klavier, standing right behind him. "Uh..." Apollo started, feeling like there was something he should say other than some generic "'kay thanks bye", but Klavier waved a hand dismissively.

Instead, he reached out and grabbed Apollo's hand again (much to the younger man's growing embarrassment), and moving the defense attorney's fingers apart, dropped the pick Apollo had used into his palm. "So, any objections to moving to Lesson Number Zwei the next time we are both free and not battling in court, Herr Häschen?" Klavier inquired as he let go and placed his hands on his hips.

Apollo froze, at a complete loss for words now. He inhaled sharply, unsure of how to respond and wondering why he was so unsure of how to respond, let alone come up with a proper thing to say. But as Apollo looked at Klavier, then back at the pick, he closed his hand around it, and smirked back at his court room rival. "Just one, Prosecutor Gavin."

"Hm? And what's that?"

"Stop calling me a bunny, damn it!"

Feedback, concrit, and responses are always welcome. Thank you for reading! :)