Disclaimer: Ace Attorney belongs to Capcom and Ouran Host Club belongs to Hatori Bisco
A/N: man, this segment was so hard to write... I made many changes for things to make sense, so I hope I didn't forget to fix anything in there... so much working things around to get them to make sense ^^'
Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, and/or added! :3
Warning: many AJ spoilers and lotsss of artistic license... lol. After all, wouldn't things get dry if I didn't throw a new spin on them? ;D
"So, Mr. Justice, I hear you're the recent addition to the host club?" Miss Tiala conversed, delicately gazing into her tea as she stirred the beverage. "How do you find it so far?"
"It's nice, I think. It's relaxing, taking time out to sit with pleasant ladies, like you for instance," Apollo replied bashfully. His cheeks colored slightly. Miss Alita Tiala had a sweet and quiet disposition that was honestly a nice change from the hyper and bossy behavior of girls like Trucy, Maya, and Kay.
"Oh you charmer," she sang, weaving her fingers together and propping her chin up on them, while her face was lit up with an angelic smile.
"Um, err, just stating the facts, Miss Tiala," Apollo squeaked, grinning awkwardly and blushing hotly.
"But that is your job, isn't it? Entertain me, Mr. Justice, tell me something interesting about yourself," Alita insisted. Apollo leaned back on the sofa, looking at his hands.
"Well… there's nothing really special about me, really. My sister tells me I'm such a dull person every day," he admitted with a laugh. "Trucy on the other hand, has to be one of the most exciting people in my life. She is a talented magician, already doing her own shows. They're on small stages, but I'm proud to say that she knows how to draw a crowd," he told Alita, grinning to himself.
"Well aren't you a modest one? I'd love to meet your sister someday, does she come to this school?" Alita asked.
"Ah, no. She goes to Gyakuten Junior High. You see, I transferred over to this school just this year," Apollo explained. Alita raised her delicately formed eyebrow at him.
"I see, what kind of family do you come from, Mr. Justice?" Apollo winced a bit. He really hoped no one would investigate his background too much.
"Practically everyone in my family was in show business, actually. I seem to be the only one without any talent, haha," he admitted. Alita seemed to catch onto something that didn't bode well with her.
"What do you mean by 'was'?" she asked, but before Apollo had to give an answer, he was interrupted by a loud slam and shout from the door.
"You! Stay away from Alita!" a boy raced into the club room, yelling obscenities and headed straight towards Apollo's table.
"Excuse me, sir, I'm just in the middle of an appointment with her. What did I do wrong?" Apollo stated. He stood up in complete surprise and stared wide-eyed back at the advancing teen. Apollo was shocked partly by the hostile unannounced guest and by his strange choice of dress. The boy wore a shiny pink and yellow motorcycle jacket instead of the school uniform jacket, and a Bad Badger leered at him from the boy's shirt. The fox-ear hair failed to faze Apollo due to exposure to decidedly stranger styles.
"You must be some O.G.," he yelled, grabbing Apollo by the lapels, "to take a shot at stealing my fiancée. I'mma bust a cap in you for that, bizzoy!" Apollo tried to loosen the other boy's grip on him, wincing from the volume of the shouts.
"F-fiancée? W-what's an O.G.?" Apollo stuttered.
"Wocky! Stop it, leave him alone!" Alita screamed. The assailant dropped Apollo and shoved him away.
"Don't worry, Alita-baby, I'll protect you from this horned demon," Wocky called cockily, throwing an arm out to fend for her.
"Hey, it's not like I chose this ridiculous hairstyle," Apollo yelled back indignantly, bunching up his fists. Klavier had just come up to break up the fight, and he caught Apollo's last comment.
"Herr Forehead! What is the meaning of this? I picked out that cut because it's the latest in fashion, and I thought it'd look cute on you," he whined in a hurt voice.
"Ugh, that is the least of my problems right now. Mr. Wocky, what makes you think I was trying to steal your fiancée?" Apollo ranted. He was at the end of his fuse and didn't care whose nerves he rattled.
"Wocky, please, just go home!" urged Alita, tugging on the boy's arm.
"I ain't about to go nowhere. I've got proof that Apollo Justice over here has been sending secret love letters to my Alita!" Wocky crowed, whipping out a piece of stationery. Klavier snagged it and read the note aloud.
"Alita my angel, meet me at the Ace Host Club for a romantic rendezvous. –The Youngest and Brightest of Hosts? Herr Apollo, what is the meaning of this?" the two hosts looked at each other in shock.
"B-but I've never even met Miss Tiala until today just now," Apollo said defensively.
"Well the proof is in da pudding, so your days are numbered, yo!" Wocky called. "Expect a house call from the Kitaki family in the near future!"
"K-Kitaki family?" the youngest host quailed.
"That is an admittedly large gang around this area," Phoenix agreed solemnly, attracted by the noise. "Looks like you've dug yourself in deep on your first appointment, Rookie," he joked.
"This is completely unfunny, Mr. Wright, and I didn't write that note!" Apollo yelled, utilizing his Chords of Steel and stamping his foot.
"No pun intended, I'm sure, but I can at least prove that the note isn't yours," Phoenix consoled him. He produced an identical page of stationery, decorated with playing card symbols and the same handwriting. "Mr. Crescend, I'm sure you have a convenient explanation for this beyond sheer coincidence," the host called out.
"What did you say…?" Daryan snarled dangerously, rising from his spectator seat with slow deliberation. "I don't have anything to do with the mess of a gangster family and your overly ambitious newbie host."
"I wouldn't be so sure…" Phoenix drawled as Wocky snatched the second note from his hand.
"Proceed with the host club sabotage this Thursday, new host. – The Hammerhead Shark," Wocky read. Phoenix tapped his chin and rhetorically asked, "Now I wonder who that could be?"
"This- Please tell me this is a joke, Herr Wright," Klavier hissed, grasping the sides of his head. Klavier slowly dropped his hands from his head and took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry, Herr Wright, but you must be mistaken," he objected quietly, looking down at the table his hands were braced on. "It's highly unlikely that he is the culprit. He has never been in the same class with Wocky or Alita, and he would never- there's just no reason that he would try to bring down the host club," Klavier declared, clenching his fists.
"That may be how it looks, but we also have these suspicious notes staring us in the face," Pheonix reminded. Klavier reluctantly took the second note from Wocky and looked at it sadly.
"Daryan, why is this the exact kind of note paper you use? The handwriting is yours too, I'd recognize it anywhere…" he pointed out bleakly. Daryan glowered at them all.
"I thought you'd have more faith in me. Look, a few days ago, I lent my notes to that Phoenix Wright! He must have stolen a note and copied my writing to forge a piece of evidence. Some best friend you are, choosing to believe someone you've only known for half a year over me, 'partner'," Daryan sneered. Klavier didn't say anything in reply, but looked emptily at everyone. No matter who was right, he was going to be betrayed by one of his friends.
"Don't accuse me of lying," Phoenix hissed through his teeth. Apollo reached around Phoenix between the death stare match between him and Daryan to slip the note from Klavier's loose fingers.
"Hey… hasn't anyone noticed that yesterday was Thursday? The day on this note is wrong," he pointed out.
"Yeah, that's right. Actually, Apollo, I wasn't keen on you joining because I thought someone wanted to use you to get at me," Phoenix admitted candidly. Apollo gawked at him angrily until the older host told him, "After the day passed, I realized that the real plot was only just beginning to rear its ugly head, and that you would have unwittingly become its target instead. That's why I took you aside to give you a warning, so you should be thanking me." He grinned at the indignant Apollo.
"Wait, wait, wait, why did you think I was going to do something to you?" Apollo demanded.
"I told you, I was the new host before you, and this note had been written well before you became a host," Phoenix shrugged. Apollo nodded and turned to Klavier seriously.
"Mr. Gavin, I think I can see what happened. Mr. Crescend and Ms. Tiala plotted to frame Phoenix for fiancée snatching, but two things went wrong. After Daryan wrote the note to coordinate details with Ms. Tiala, he accidentally left it in the notebook he lent to Mr. Wright, instead of getting it to her. She ended up missing the original appointed day, so Mr. Crescend changed the date to today, after I had unexpectedly become the 'new host' instead." Klavier's morose blue eyes never wavered from Apollo's determined stare once during the explanation.
As unbelievable as the entire tale sounded, it felt like he saw the truth reflected in Apollo's eyes as the boy stared it down. Little by little, it all started to… make sense.
"Nein…" he whispered, closing his eyes, "I just can't believe it…" Klavier looked away, afraid of where this 'truth' was taking him.
"Ahaha, no one possibly could! That was the biggest, fattest lie I've ever heard," Daryan snarled at them. His hair swung obnoxiously close to Phoenix and Apollo as he accused them in turn. "It's much more likely that Phoenix Wright was the one who set this all up to make me look bad. Then Spike here joined in to do anything for some money."
"How dare you, I haven't sunk to that level, and I never will," Apollo seethed. He glared at Daryan so hard that it looked like his eyes would bug out of his head. Apollo and Phoenix started talking aside in order to reform their crumbling defense.
"Mr. Wright, what should we do? Isn't there any more hard proof we can use?" Apollo asked urgently.
"Ha! There's none, 'cause I didn't do it," Daryan crowed at them. Alita smirked too at that moment. "Mr. Wright and Mr. Justice both threatened me into cooperating with them," she claimed in a victimized manner.
"If you can't come up with anything, both of you have to leave the Ace Host Club."
"No! This can't be over now, not with how things are," Phoenix said hoarsely. His mind was racing as he tried to find anything wrong with Daryan's accusation. "Apollo… we need to change our angle of attack."
"Wha?" the brunette asked blankly.
"Just give it up! There's no way you can weasel out of this one," Daryan cackled, pointing at the two hapless hosts.
"It's a bit hard to imagine framing myself on purpose…" Phoenix pointed out at length. "Had I been cooperating with Ms. Tiala, she would have known my face and name, yet she had made an appointment with Apollo well before I had any chance to leave club and inform her of a change. Now how do you explain that?" Their opponents gasped, caught.
Daryan glared, readying a comeback. Apollo bristled in anticipation as his partner stared coldly.
"Don't disgrace yourself further, Daryan…" Klavier suddenly interrupted. "Please, let's just… put this all behind us, and not antagonize my junior hosts anymore."
"I can't believe this, after our five year friendship, you're siding with people you barely know? You traitor!" Daryan yelled at him in response, as he bolted out of the room. This made Klavier enraged too, and he gave chase.
"No, Daryan, I don't know what's gotten into you, but you were the one attacking my other friends for some reason, and you know fully well that a club scandal would reflect badly on myself as well," Klavier yelled. He latched onto Daryan's arm, not allowing him to get away.
"Do you wanna know the truth you've been blind to until now?" the crooked student asked, turning to face Klavier sinisterly. "The whole time, I was only pretending to be your friend so that my dad could get in good with your dad. I hated every moment of being with you, you vain, selfish child." Klavier's grasp weakened and fell limply away. As he watched the man he had called his best friend walk away, he sank to his knees in despair.
There was a ginger touch on his shoulder that slowly sank into a slight amount of pressure.
"Mr. Gavin… I'm sorry about this…" Apollo said quietly.
"Never mind, Forehead…"
"Mr. Gavin, I," Apollo started, taking a deep breath, "I just wanted you to know that I'll stay with you, Klavier. Well, um, that's if you want that in the first place."
"Thank you," Klavier chuckled. He reached up to his left shoulder and placed his hand over Apollo's.
Back at the club, Wocky and Alita had sat back down at the abandoned table with each other.
"Alita-baby, why'd ya do it? That shark creep forced you to do it, didn't he? I'mma mess up his face the next time we meet!" Wocky ranted. Alita looked at him with exasperation and disdain.
"No, Wocky, I did it all of my own free will," she revealed.
"Wh-what? Why, Alita? There's no need to pretend, that mofo is gone now," Wocky went on, ignoring Alita's meaning completely.
"Get over yourself! I wanted to teach you a lesson, Wocky. You just come chasing after me all of the time and act like every boy I talk to is trying to steal me from you. Start acting your age already," she snapped at the boy.
"A-Alita… Is that really how you feel?" Wocky asked, shocked.
"Yes! …Wocky, all I want is some space and freedom. Let me live my life, and I'll stop brushing you off so much," the girl admitted. Wocky's eyes were cast downwards, but he was starting to understand.
"I'm sorry, Alita, I'll try hard to stop it," he apologized, reaching his hand across the table. It was met with his fiancée's, and they smiled quietly at each other.
At the other end of the club, however, things were getting rowdy with a group of hosts. Apollo found himself squashed in between the two oldest hosts. Lang had him in a headlock and was in the process of messing up his neatly done hair.
"The little pup has proven himself, chasing away a dog larger than himself," Lang complimented. "My great ancestor, Lang Zi, would be proud to have you in his family."
"That wasn't some roundabout way of saying that you're adopting me, was it?" Apollo gasped, feeling completely overwhelmed by the two surrounding him.
"Why not? We might even be 5th cousins, thrice removed from several centuries back," he suggested. Apollo didn't find it likely. Then again, the rest of his family was pretty nuts too.
Trianna and Anastasia were back from yesterday as well.
"Thank you, Mr. Justice, you really are a man of your word," Trianna said to Apollo gratefully.
"We saw the entire thing! You and Mr. Wright were very courageous," Anastasia informed the host.
"Well, it was either do it or lose our jobs, but thanks, Ladies," Apollo admitted, turning to them with a smile. As troublesome as the club was proving for him so far, Apollo still felt a little glad that he was able to stay, and deep down, he was slightly worried about the consequences of the trade off for Klavier…
"Let's celebrate the defeat of Jaws with a round of hot, black coffee!" Godot declared, shaking Apollo back into reality. "The next round is on me."
"Uhm, I'm not so sure that that's really something we should be celebrating, especially not right away…" Apollo tried to say.
"While I am of similar mind as you, Godot, I really doubt that everyone has the same taste in drinks as you," Edgeworth added in a bored tone. If he was happy that Daryan was gone, it didn't really show…
Phoenix and Klavier watched the (mostly) celebrating hosts' antics wordlessly.
"Apollo is going to go far, if he can gather people around himself this quickly," Phoenix remarked.
"Yeah…" Klavier sighed absently. Phoenix stretched like a lazy cat and brushed past the blond host, finally getting making his way back to his patiently waiting guests.
"Good luck with that one!" he teased. Klavier spun around and shouted "Hey!" at the wily host, but he smiled and shook his head, craftily answering, "We might all need it, Herr Wright."
Things were starting to get interesting.
End.
Next time: Sophisticated Host Miles Edgeworth seems to be at odds with Phoenix Wright. What could be the matter?
A/N: omg... did I just turn Alita and Wocky into reverse teacup couple from Ouran?! I-I have no idea... I don't really like her, but I think I gave them a happy ending because I felt bad for Wocky ^^'
Thank you for reading, everyone!