"I don't love you."

I love you so much that it physically hurts.

Apollo couldn't look Klavier in the eyes, too worried that his resolve would crumble down before he had the chance to make a clean break. He should never have visited Kristoph, much less without Klavier there, but the man was always right.

Just like he right was about this.

"It's never going to work out and I don't want to be unhappy."

Your career is going to tank if anyone finds out about us. Kristoph is right, your audience is women who want you and none of them will support you if you have a male lover.

"I'm sorry, Prosecutor Gavin, but it's for the best."

You deserve better than me. You deserve someone who can stand proudly beside you.

Chancing a glance up at Klavier, Apollo flinched when he saw the open, vulnerable pain written all over Klavier's face. Long fingers were clenched tight around the sharp corners of the tacky necklace he wore, and Apollo wanted nothing more than to take his hand and unwind it from the pointy jewellery.

"Apollo, what..." Klavier said, his usual charm long gone and his voice sounding raw and pained. "Did I do something wrong? I can fix it, baby, I'll do anything you want me to, just don't do this."

Looking down at the floor to hide the wetness of his eyes, Apollo violently shook his head. "There's nothing you can do, Prosecutor Gavin. I just don't want this any more."

I'm a substandard lawyer at a bottom of the barrel company. If you don't start taking bigger cases against better defence teams, you'll never get promoted and I can't keep dragging you down with me .

Kristoph's words beat into Apollo's brain like the worst kind of catchy music, snide comments about his looks being too plain for a rock star lover and his intelligence being too low for a prosecutor partner. Pointed jabs about how Apollo would drag Klavier down to his level, until he was working three minimum wage jobs just to survive and his natural beauty faded into overworked tiredness.

"Apollo, please!"

"This is for the best, Kl-..Gavin."

Like he said, if I don't leave now you'll get tired of me soon anyway, but you won't have the heart to leave.

Apollo knew that Kristoph was a liar and a murderer and the worst kind of person, but his words were nothing more than echoes of what Apollo should have admitted to himself all those months ago, when Klavier had stepped up before him in a burst of glimmerous beauty and first asked him out. It was like Kristoph had been able to read each and every one of Apollo's insecurities, and that was how he knew that this was the right thing to do.

Another quick glance up and Klavier was openly crying now, the privacy of his own apartment making him show a face that Apollo had never seen from his eternally camera-ready and composed boyfriend. He looked unfairly gorgeous even with tears leaving wet trails down his cheeks, and Apollo's hand twitched with the urge to wipe the wetness away.

"I can't stop you if this is what you really want," Klavier said, his voice shaking just a little. "I never wanted to hurt you, and I'm sorry that I have."

More than anything else, it was those words that almost had Apollo breaking down and begging for forgiveness. Klavier hadn't hurt him, he'd been the one hurting Klavier.

Even if the man himself hadn't realised it.

"I have to go."

If I don't leave now, I never will, and then you'll never be free to grow. I'll kill you from the inside out before you even notice that you should be hurting.

Hitching his bag over his shoulder, glad he'd managed to collect all of his important things before Klavier had come home and ruined his clean escape, Apollo turned towards the door and walked as fast as he could, wanting to leave before he could break down.

"Wait!" Klavier yelled, the sound so heartbreakingly sad that Apollo paused before he could open the front door. He couldn't turn back to look at Klavier, but that didn't seem to matter.

"If...if you can, one day...I'd like it if you could tell me why. Why this, why now...I thought we were good, even great together, Apollo. I'm sorry that I couldn't make you happy."

Walking away without another word, Apollo managed to make it to the outside of the building before he broke down, slumping against the back wall away from prying eyes and letting himself shake and sob.

He'd made the correct choice.

Right?