March 2, 3:46 PM
Wright Anything Agency
Apollo had never felt so relieved to walk into the door of the agency in his life, where he knew wonderfully boring, perfectly emotionless paperwork awaited him in piles. As of this morning, he was experiencing way more emotions than he currently knew what to do with, and running away from them in an admittedly unhealthy manner sounded like paradise.
But when all four members of the agency were doing paperwork at the same time, there was only so much paperwork for Apollo to bury his feelings in until it was gone.
"We're finally done," Trucy said, slapping the last piece of paper onto Apollo's desk.
"Isn't being a lawyer fun?" Mr. Wright asked.
"...No. This is exactly why I'm becoming a magician." Trucy crossed her arms and grinned. "So, Daddy! Ready to uphold your end of the deal?"
"What end of what deal?" Apollo asked, sorting the papers everyone had haphazardly tossed in his general direction.
"Oh, Daddy promised that I could take him shopping if I helped with paperwork."
Apollo felt a bit of relief that this didn't involve him because most of Trucy's "deals" involved absolutely no negotiating on his end.
"Shopping for what?" Athena asked, suddenly excited.
Mr. Wright laughed nervously. "Well-"
"Daddy's going on a date," Trucy said proudly.
"What?! No way! With who?!" Athena exclaimed.
He adjusted the lapels of his suit coat and smiled. "Edgeworth."
Apollo flinched, nearly dropping his papers. "The Chief Prosecutor?!"
Mr. Wright nodded. "We dated a long time ago, but he moved to Europe for work, and it's hard to keep up a long distance relationship like that when you're disbarred and you have a daughter." He turned to Trucy. "Not that I have any regrets."
Trucy smiled. "I know you don't." Her faith in him was kind of charming.
"But I figured that if I'm still not over him after nearly a decade, I never will be. So, now that the dark age of the law is over and he doesn't know what to do with himself besides fire people, I asked him out... And he said yes." He still looked sort of sheepish, but his eyes glittered.
"You sound so happy!" Athena said, sniffling.
"Which is exactly why he can't show up to this date in his court suit," Trucy said, balling her fists.
"I still don't see what's wrong with my court suit," Mr. Wright argued.
"It's all about associations," Athena told him. "If you show up in your work clothes, he'll subconsciously act more formal, and I'm guessing that's not what you want."
"...I think Edgeworth's going to be formal no matter what, but a promise is a promise. At the very least, it'll show him I tried."
"That's the spirit!" Trucy tapped her hat. "We should hurry up and go, the mall closes at nine."
"...It's 4 pm."
"You don't know anything about clothes shopping, do you?" Trucy asked, looking somewhat disappointed in him.
Mr. Wright seemed to have accepted his fate. "Well, looks like I'm being dragged to the mall for the next five hours. You two can head out now too if you want."
"Have fun, boss!" Athena clasped her hands together, looking all-around delighted.
As soon as the door closed, Apollo sunk onto the couch and kicked his feet up onto the armrest with a slight complaint from his abdomen.
"Aren't you going to go home?" Athena asked.
"No. Prosecutor Gavin doesn't get out of work until 6," he replied. Athena snickered. "What?"
"Oh, nothing."
Apollo crossed his arms. "Yeah, right."
"I mean, if you want me to make fun of you out loud, I can. I just figured you would appreciate a little self-restraint."
"Make fun of me for what?" Apollo hadn't said anything particularly cringe-worthy, had he?
Athena smirked. "Your crush on Prosecutor Gavin."
"I do NOT ha-!" Apollo began to cough viciously, burying his face in his sleeve.
"Are you okay?" Athena asked, suddenly worried.
"I'm fine, and I do not have a crush on anyone," Apollo retorted after regaining his breath. "Especially not Prosecutor Gavin!"
"...You mean to tell me that the strong happy emotions you get when you talk about him are platonic?"
"I…" Apollo really couldn't deny that being with Klavier was affecting his mood because he'd said as much yesterday. He felt a blush creeping up his cheeks as realization struck him. "Shit. Is that what this is?!" He buried his face in his hands and moaned.
"Are you really only just realizing this?" Athena asked disbelievingly.
"I haven't actually stopped to think about it. I started feeling like this last night and ignored it because it seemed inconvenient."
"You can't just decide to stop having feelings, Apollo."
"But I didn't feel like this until just last night!" Apollo ran his fingers through his hair. "Is this, like, Stockholm syndrome or something? Since I'm kinda trapped in his house?"
Athena snorted with suppressed laughter. "Not unless he's been threatening to kill you."
"...Oh." If anything, Apollo was usually the one threatening to kill Klavier. "But I've known him for two years! If this is some kind of attraction, I should've started having it a long time ago! Right?"
"Not necessarily. Some people don't feel attracted to anyone until they've formed an emotional bond with them. Did you two do any emotional bonding yesterday?"
"...You could say that." Apollo frowned. "But it's not like we haven't had a serious conversation before yesterday."
"And it's not like you haven't become happy when you've heard his name for at least a week now."
Apollo tried to think of a way to refute that, but there wasn't much to deny there, so he just groaned. "So, this is it, then. The end of my short, sad life…"
"Aren't you being a little bit dramatic?"
"I'm living in his house. It's not going to be long until he realizes that I have a… that I'm feeling… feelings."
"What do you think will happen if he does? It can't be that bad."
"Best case scenario? He makes fun of me for it every time he sees me for the next ten years. Worst case scenario? He feels guilty for putting me in an awkward situation and can't look me in the eyes ever again."
"Personally, I'd think the best case scenario would be 'You fall in love and get married and live happily ever after.'"
Apollo crossed his arms. "If we're including scenarios that aren't going to happen, I should probably correct the worst case scenario to, 'Los Angeles gets destroyed by a nuclear bomb right after he decides he never wants to see me again.'"
"What makes the two of you getting together so impossible?" Athena asked, disappointed.
"I don't think he wants a relationship with anyone. Especially not with me."
"...Have you heard how much he flirts?"
"I have. But…" Apollo knew that Klavier hadn't brought anyone into his house in almost nine years who wasn't aware of his contract. And Apollo guessed that wasn't a lot of people. "He has a hard time trusting people."
"He trusts you," Athena said. Something about that unleashed a swarm of butterflies in Apollo's chest. "Plus, you don't have an easy time trusting people either, and you want to date him."
"I do not."
Athena crossed her arms and smirked. "You're telling me that if he asked you out, you would say no?"
Apollo's face flushed red. "You say that like it's actually a possibility."
"Oh, it definitely-"
It was at that point the agency's phone rang, and Apollo was so eager for a distraction that he grabbed it as quickly as possible, to Athena's amusement. "Thank you for calling the Wright Anything Agency; this is Apollo Justice speaking."
"That may be the least awkward way you have ever greeted me," came a familiar voice, and probably the last one he was hoping to hear.
"Oh. Um. Hi." Apollo glared at Athena, who was laughing a bit too loudly at Apollo's current predicament. Honestly, Klavier would call while Apollo was blushing over him.
"That's more like it," Klavier said, probably grinning.
Apollo scowled. "Did you have an actual reason for calling?"
"Besides appreciating your social literacy? Ja. I need to know if your State vs. Schoeff paperwork is complete."
"Yeah, it is. Why, do you need it early?" Apollo was almost positive that it didn't need to be sent to the Prosecutor's office until Monday.
"...I don't legally require it early, but it would be very nice to have it. The sooner the case is closed, the sooner we can move some of the evidence in Herr Gumshoe's locker to the records room, because his locker is so full right now that the door will not shut."
Apollo burst out laughing, and consequently began to cough, and Klavier paused until Apollo caught his breath. "And this is after removing his fishing pole, metal detector, dog training equipment, painting supplies, and... whatever this is." There was some mumbling on the other side of the line. "My apologies, it was obviously a frequency detector."
Apollo snickered. "So do you need the paperwork tonight?"
"Nein, I merely need to know that the paperwork is done so Fraulein Skye will mercifully and graciously allow us to use her locker for no more than 24 hours."
There was some muttering in the background about fingerprints and smarmy glimmerous fops before Klavier was thanking her in a surprisingly serious tone. "Thank you too, Forehead. This day has been absolutely ridiculous."
"Sounds like it. Good luck."
"See you soon, ja?"
"Yeah, bye."
As soon as he hung up, he looked at Athena, who was smiling wider than she had any right to. "Oh, man. You should see the look on your face."
The blush was back in full force. "Can't I just suffer in peace?"
"Aww, Apollo! You don't have to be embarrassed! Prosecutor Gavin's very attractive, and-"
"I'm not embarrassed! I just have second-hand embarrassment for my future self!"
"Your future self?" she asked, laughing.
"The self that's going to have to see him later. The self that apparently can't even talk to him on the phone."
"Aww, you're in love with Prosecutor Gav-"
"I'm not in love! I just… crashed." Apollo flopped back down onto the couch and buried his face in a pillow. "You're a psychologist. Do something."
"Well, telling you to stop producing dopamine whenever you hear his name is about as effective as asking you to dilate your pupils on command," she reasoned.
Apollo stared at her for a couple of seconds before touching his bracelet and trying to perceive.
"Okay, bad example! Most people can't do that," she said, scowling. He hadn't actually expected that to work, and he snickered until he noticed Athena analyzing him with a small smile on her face.
"What's that look for?" he asked.
"Well… Regardless of how agonizing your love life is right now... it's good to hear you sound so happy. I can't tell you how much I've missed that smile of yours," she said unexpectedly seriously.
Apollo rolled over to face her, hugging the pillow to his chest. He wasn't entirely sure what to say in response to that, but if it was a chance to not talk about Klavier, he was going to take it. "I'm sorry it ever left."
Athena frowned. "You're allowed to be upset when something terrible happens to you, you know."
"...That's a nice concept in theory, but getting upset never makes anything better. It usually just leads to people getting hurt."
"Well, I hate to tell you this, but you can't stop yourself from getting upset through willpower. All you can really do is repress it until you can't control it anymore, and that's way more likely to hurt people."
"Why are we talking about this now, if I'm so happy?" Apollo asked, suddenly uncomfortable. He was getting very tired of these kinds of conversations, probably because she was right.
"...I guess we've all been worried about you. Trucy especially."
Apollo frowned. "I never wanted you guys to worry." Trucy especially.
"That's exactly why we were worried," Athena retorted. "It seemed like you were trying to suffer through your pain all on your own. And then you got sick, and you tried to deal with that all by yourself, too, until you were coughing up blood in the courthouse bathroom and still refusing to let anyone help you."
Apollo's eyes widened. "Did Prosecutor Gavin tell you about that?"
"Other way around. I asked him to go check on you... and then I eavesdropped," she sheepishly admitted.
"You mean you got him involved?" Apollo asked, feeling slightly betrayed.
"Hey, I asked him to check on you. I wasn't expecting him to shoulder the weight of all your life's burdens."
That was probably truer than she realized. "I'm kinda glad he did," Apollo said quietly.
"Wait. What?" Athena's jaw dropped.
It wasn't that surprising, was it? "I knew I needed help... And plenty of people told me that they were there to help if I needed it. But... I guess I was afraid that if I asked, I'd figure out that they didn't mean it."
Nahyuta, Apollo… Don't you ever hesitate to call when you need me. Understand?
It wasn't like that had never happened before, he thought bitterly.
"So I kept trying to do everything myself, in case the people around me weren't as good I hoped they were."
"So you could stay blissfully ignorant?" Athena asked.
"Yeah. But I think… I think I've found out the opposite. That the people close to me are much better than I gave them credit for."
Athena smiled, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I'm really glad you can see that."
"I just wish I'd had the courage to confront my doubts a long time ago." It sure would've helped his relationship with Mr. Wright.
"As long as you got there eventually, does it matter how long it took?"
"Why don't you ask a paramedic that question?" Apollo asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh, you know what I mean. Even if it took a while, you're the kind of person now that you wish you were a long time ago. And I don't think that's regret… that's growth."
He felt like he could've done a lot more growing with Mr. Wright's help, but she had a good point. "Even if you wish you'd done some things differently in the past… I think right now, from my viewpoint, you're the best person you've ever been," she continued.
"...Thanks."
She smiled. "It's good to finally hear you sounding so comfortable around all of us. Especially the boss."
"Ah ha ha… I wondered if you would notice. You can thank Klavier for that." One look at Athena made Apollo realize his mistake. " Prosecutor Gavin." He really had to stop doing that. Or at least stop blushing like an idiot every time he did.
She clasped her hands together. "You two are so cute."
Even his ears felt like they were turning red. "...Anyway. Prosecutor Gavin forced me to confront a lot of my doubts this week, and despite some of the inconveniences it's caused me, I'm glad it happened. But I do have one favor to ask you, Athena."
"Yeah?"
"The next time you ask someone to check on me… Can they be less attractive?" he asked, playing with his hair.
Athena nearly fell over with how hard she laughed. Apollo probably should've expected that reaction, but he crossed his arms over his pillow and stared at her until she stopped. "That was one of the top five best decisions I've ever made," she said.
"Oh, I'm sure it's fun to watch me trip over myself from a distance," Apollo mumbled.
"If by 'trip over myself' you mean living in the same house as your crush, emotionally bonding with him, and fixing your relationships with the boss and Trucy while you're at it."
"...Trucy? There was nothing wrong with my relationship with Trucy."
Athena shot him a confused look for about half a second before looking at him more nonchalantly. "Huh. I guess I assumed that there was something wrong since you haven't really been talking to each other as much."
Had he been speaking to Trucy less than usual? He supposed that he'd been avoiding her on his bad days to avoid her perception, and he'd had a lot of bad days.
"That wasn't on purpose. I mean, Trucy's one of those people who's impossible not to love. If my opinion of her didn't suffer when I had to present her magic panties as evidence in court, I don't think it ever will." Even pretending to be kidnapped by gangsters was forgivable with her.
"...I can't even begin to imagine a situation where those would be evidence."
"Well, Prosecutor Gavin hasn't stopped making fun of me for it since, so you're bound to figure out about it eventually."
He started to explain the case to her, and she listened excitedly, asking about a million questions.
"You defended a member of the mob?!"
"Oh, is that why we get Eldoon's after we win?"
"Wait, why did he start calling you Herr Forehead?" she asked right as soon as someone started knocking at the door. Athena wiggled her eyebrows and smirked at him, and Apollo threw the pillow in his arms directly at her face as hard as he could.
She stood up and walked over to the door, and Apollo tilted his head over the back of the couch to see an upside-down Athena greeting an upside-down Klavier. Apollo tried to wave, only to realize that there was no good way to wave in that position.
"I wasn't expecting you to get here so soon," Apollo said, turning around to look at them normally.
"You underestimate how much I wanted to leave."
"It couldn't have been that bad, could it?" Apollo held out the paperwork Klavier had asked about earlier, and Klavier snatched it enthusiastically out of his hands.
"Not bad. But certainly exhausting. An unreasonable amount of cases require an unreasonable amount of evidence. Managing it all has become quite the hassle, especially with Herr Gumshoe involved," Klavier said, leafing through the documents. "Achtung, these are sorted." A small smile overtook his grumpy features that Apollo had to actively tell himself was not cute.
Athena snorted with laughter, and Apollo realized he'd been staring at Klavier's smile for about two seconds too many. "Oh, that was Apollo," she said, grinning.
Apollo had a strong hunch that Athena was trying to be his wingman, which he would kill her for later. But for now, Apollo was more curious to know why Klavier was flipping through the papers again with a confused expression. "Well, thank you. It certainly makes my job easier."
Klavier twisted his fingers in a familiar motion that took Apollo several seconds to place. "Are you tuning your air guitar?"
Apollo hoped it was just Klavier's subconscious hunger for music acting up again, but based on Klavier's smirk, that motion had been entirely intentional. "Is that a problem?"
"Yes. " It was almost enough for Apollo's crush to evaporate then and there. Almost being the key word. "It can't be out of tune if it doesn't make sound."
"But a guitar can be out of tune, and I am imitating a guitar. You wouldn't make a model plane without wings simply because you knew it couldn't fly, would you?"
"No, but I also wouldn't run regular safety checks on it to make sure it didn't crash," Apollo said, giving Klavier the best deadpan he could muster.
Athena looked like she'd never seen anything funnier than the two of them arguing in her entire life, and she seemed slightly disappointed when they stopped. "I guess I should be heading home now. I gotta catch up on the Bachelor before the finale."
"Athena, I don't know why you watch that show. You can hear how fake it is."
"Oh, I watch it because it's fake. You have no idea how satisfying it is to see all those manipulative brats get sent home in drunken tears." She clenched her fists and grinned.
"...And here I thought you were rooting for true love."
"Oh, I don't have to turn on the TV for real romantic drama. It usually unravels right in front of me," she said, smirking.
He was going to kill her for that comment. But he couldn't even give her a displeased glare without Klavier realizing she was making fun of him, so he tried to think about how his not-infatuated self would've reacted.
Fortunately, he didn't have to act on that, because Athena grabbed her purse from off of the floor. "Well, I'll see you two sooner or later. Probably you sooner, and you later," she said, pointing at Apollo and then Klavier.
"Tschüss, Fraulein. Well, Herr Forehead?" He held up his keys.
"Do I need to get a German to English dictionary?" Apollo asked, standing up off of the couch with an annoyed expression. At least, he hoped he looked annoyed. If he was screwed already, he didn't want to know how bad it would be if he started to find Klavier's German endearing. "Oh, that reminds me…"
"Ja?" Klavier asked when Apollo didn't finish that thought.
"Athena asked why you call me Herr Forehead."
Klavier raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Because you have a particularly large forehead?"
Apollo should've seen that one coming from about three miles away. "I assumed that much. But I was more curious why you call me anything at all."
As soon as Klavier's hand rose to his bangs, Apollo knew he needed to be ready to perceive. "I suppose 'Herr Justice' didn't have the same ring to it," he said, fingers rubbing together almost imperceptibly when he said 'Herr Justice.' Fortunately, "almost imperceptibly" was Apollo's specialty.
"Did my name make you uncomfortable?" Apollo asked deliberately casually, not wanting to sound even potentially accusatory.
Klavier's hand dropped to his side, hooking his thumb through his belt loop. He must've caught onto his own nervous tic. "How could Justice make me uncomfortable?" he asked with a curated smile.
"Well, if you thought the person who was named Justice wasn't particularly just…"
One look at Klavier told him that he'd hit the nail on the head. Klavier's hand raised about an inch to touch his hair again, only to get caught on his belt loop, and he relaxed it again. "I didn't think you were a bad person, per se."
Apollo looked at him disbelievingly. "You thought I forged evidence to get your brother convicted."
"Nein, I thought Herr Wright forged evidence. He was the only one who had access to the victim's blood. But you used Herr Wright's cross-examination tactics against me, which bothered me immensely, since I know the types of things my brother would have taught you."
Klavier released his thumb from belt loop prison so he could flip through the papers in his hand again, and Apollo suddenly remembered where he'd learned to organize documents. "I assumed Herr Wright was manipulating you and the fraulein all that time. So I was a bit torn between liking you as a person and despising who I thought you wanted to become."
Klavier was able to form surprisingly coherent sentences and nonchalant smiles despite being too anxious to make eye contact. Apollo reached out and gently touched his shoulder, and Klavier's eyes instantly locked on his.
"Woah, there. You don't have to feel bad about not having the best first impression of me. I mean, I met Athena when she threw a police officer at me," he said, hoping to lighten the mood.
"...You truly are remarkable at making poor first impressions," Klavier said, one eyebrow raised; he didn't know the half of it. Apollo felt the muscles in Klavier's shoulder relax under his fingers. "I suppose my primary concern is that I still call you Herr Forehead."
"Well, it doesn't mean the same thing now as it did back then, does it?"
"No," Klavier retorted, sounding almost indignant. "It's more of an inside joke now."
"Then I don't see much of a problem with it. Aside from the whole part where you're making fun of my forehead," Apollo said, narrowing his eyes.
Klavier laughed at that. "I'm sure it's more noticeable to me than it is to most people."
It took a moment for Apollo to realize what that meant. "Oh. I almost forgot about that," he said, looking up at the hair that covered Klavier's forehead. Klavier was probably fixated on Apollo's forehead because of the scar on his own. "Is that bruise I gave you still there?" Apollo asked sheepishly.
"Barely," Klavier said, raising his hand to his hair and hesitating before he brushed his bangs to the side. The line was still visible if you were looking for it, but it had faded to the point that it would be hard to see otherwise, especially not with those bangs in the way.
"Sorry about that…" Apollo said, ruffling his own hair out of embarrassment. Had he really done that less than a week ago?
Klavier shrugged. "Wounds heal."
Apollo smiled at that, and Klavier smiled back.