Notes – Done for 15pairings. Set pre-AJ, when Apollo and Kristoph first met. This was actually the prompt that encouraged me to choose this theme-set – I knew what pairing I wanted to write for is as soon as I saw it.

When you grow up without having to deal with many other people you get used to your own company. People tend to not really understand this and pity you for being 'lonely'; it's very hard to explain to them that you're not without looking like you're seeking attention or, to the other extreme, them passing you off as being too modest to admit you didn't like being alone.

Coming from a background that lacked any sort of family, Apollo fell into this trap quite a lot. He didn't really have issues with talking to people, and didn't view himself as being reclusive, but at the same time if he had to be on his own for a long time it really didn't bother him.

That had made studying for a law degree easy to achieve, since he had no problems with shutting himself away to research for as long as he had wanted.

But on the negative side it had also made applying for an apprenticeship harder to manage.

The other students in his class, who had socialised more than he did, knew the right people and the right places, so they got snatched up be law firms almost as soon as they had graduated. Thus teaching Apollo something that a guy fresh out of university soon learns – it's not what you know, but who you know.

So, determined not to give up, he wrote to law firms, so many that he lost count, and sent off so many copies of his CV that he probably knew it by heart without even trying.

There had been one reply.

But when you were desperate for a chance at a job one reply was all you needed. He read through the letter like it was his last lifeline, and prepared as best he could for the fated day of his interview at Gavin & Co. Law Offices.

The interview went smoothly, he'd been so nervous but something about the calm smile of the blonde man interviewing him relaxed him and told him that there was nothing to worry about here.

He probably would have been more on edge if he'd realised at the time that he had been talking to Mr. Kristoph Gavin himself, the man behind the firm, but after he'd been accepted to work there the other employees assured him that whatever happened during the interview it had impressed Kristoph greatly.

Everything took a while to sink in. He had made it. He was an apprentice under Kristoph Gavin, the famed 'Coolest Defence Attorney in the West', and he would do everything he could to learn from this man and impress him.

Kristoph in turn just seemed to understand Apollo. He would let the boy get on with reading old case studies in silence for hours, and after establishing that Apollo lacked a family he rarely brought it up. Most of all he never made a fuss over Apollo being 'lonely' because of all this. He just seemed to accept that he enjoyed silence, and being around him for a while made Apollo think the reason could be because Kristoph himself enjoyed peace and quiet.

All in all he felt he'd found the perfect job and the perfect mentor.

Nothing Kristoph could do would ever hurt him, and in turn Apollo would do whatever he could to make the man happy. More and more he found himself wanting to impress him.

So much so that he completely failed to see Kristoph was becoming even more demanding in ways to be impressed with each passing day.

When, at the end of one working day, Kristoph requested for Apollo to stay behind with him there was no hesitation. It just had to mean that Kristoph saw him as being more than just an apprentice now, that he valued him.

As Kristoph rose from his seat and told Apollo to follow him, there was a little nagging voice in the back of his head saying something was wrong here, but what would Kristoph do to hurt him?

This man was clearly Heaven-sent.

The door clicked shut.

And that day Apollo learned how far away from Heaven Kristoph Gavin truly was.