Certain Demolitions: Play a Fantasia

Summary: Drabbles that did not become full one-shots or make it into a chapter of the main story.

Chapter 13: The First Eclectic Session

I. Beauty is a Pain

"You said it wouldn't hurt!"

"I never said it wasn't going to hurt," Klavier replied. "I said, Liebchen, that I thought it would hurt less because the lady who did your ear piercing put ice on your earlobe first to try and make it numb. That is not how it happened for me."

Ema set her bag down in the living room as Klavier closed the front door of their house behind them. It had been Ema and Lana's house, but Lana had moved in with Edgeworth after their marriage and left it for Ema and Klavier, who had made it their own. Ema touched her ears very gingerly, expecting them to still be sore, but it wasn't as bad as she expected.

"You should move the earrings around so that the piercing will heal quicker," Klavier advised, having caught her touching her ears.

"Move them around?"

"Twist them. But don't take them out."

Ema did, twisting the small sapphire earrings very gingerly, as though she was afraid they would start to hurt again if she wasn't gentle enough. "How did you get your ear piercing?"

"Oh, I met some Gypsies in Czechoslovakia and one of the women in the camp agreed to pierce my ear for me, for a price, of course. But all she did was pinch my earlobe very hard before she put the needle through." Klavier told her.

Ema made a face. "Sounds wonderful."

"It wasn't that bad, really. Kristoph wasn't happy when he found out, though, and that is probably why he never let me go back to school there."

II. Childless

Miles Edgeworth watched as his nephew Kristopher toddled across the living room floor towards him. He and Lana were watching Krissy tonight while Ema and Klavier were out of town. There were more then enough family members, legal, related and otherwise, who were willing to watch Krissy while his parents were away. He held out his arms. The little boy toddled over and Miles picked him up, setting him on his lap.

It's times like that that Miles almost, almost wants to re-think not having children. But he never acted on that feeling. Lana was willing to not have children, either, having had to raise Ema. Not, she had told him, that Ema had really been a problem, but motherhood had been thrust upon her before she felt ready for it.

Miles knows that Krissy's life will never be like his. If something were to happen to Ema and Klavier, there would be enough family to take Krissy in. If Miles and Lana didn't, then Kristoph certainly would, and then there was Wright and Trucy, Apollo and Kay. There were a lot of people to watch out for Krissy.

But the fear, of having a child left without parents as he himself had been left without parents, did not leave Miles easily even now. And so he would dote on Krissy and any other children Ema and Klavier might have, but that was as close to children as he wanted to be.

Because he couldn't bear it if he had a child that was someday left to the mercy of strangers.

III. Translator Needed

The phone was ringing.

Kristoph looked up from the legal document he was drafting on the tablet in front of him and listened. It was either the phone in the front room of the office or it was the phone in Phoenix's office. He couldn't tell. He gave a half shrug and went back to his writing.

The phone kept ringing though, and a moment later Apollo went sprinting down the hall, calling as he did, "I thought you were watching the phone, Trucy."

There was no answer, but a moment later the phone stopped ringing and Kristoph knew that Apollo had answered it.

He reappeared in front of Kristoph's door a moment later. "Are you busy?"

"Doing some paperwork," Kristoph replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Because that was Phoenix on the phone. It seems that one of the witnesses in the trial he's in speaks only French, and he needs a translator."

"Isn't Klavier still at the courthouse?"

"He is in another trial right now. I guess they tried to find him when they realized what had happened, but Uncle Miles didn't want to interrupt the trial that Klavier was prosecuting."

Kristoph considered it for a moment, then got to his feet and reached for his cane which was hanging on the edge of the desk. "Very well. I'll go. Will you finish the first pleading for the Shreer case?"

"Sure. It'll be good practice." Apollo replied. "You have the file?"

"It's on my desk. Feel free to work in here, if you want." Kristoph said, walking towards the door.

Apollo nodded and entered the office as Kritoph left, heading for the door, and the trial.

IV. Guess Who He learned It From

America, Fall 1943

Apollo slipped into the house, glad for the break from the noise of the factory, even if it was just for the duration of the lunch hour.

He found Klavier at the sink. washing his hands. The German looked tired and dirty. "Still digging potatoes out of the garden?" Apollo guessed.

"Ja," Klavier replied, reaching for the towel to dry his hands. "I take it you are on lunch break."

"Yes," Apollo replied, pulling open the fridge door and looking through it. There was some pot roast left from dinner from the night before, and the ever-present dish of boiled eggs. Apollo reached for an egg and took the roast out. He peeled the egg quickly; he'd had plenty of experience with them before, and began to eat it.

Klavier was slicing the meat. Apollo finished his egg, then took the bread from the breadbox and set about making himself a sandwich.

Klavier got back into the fridge and pulled out a small bowl of sauerkraut.

"Please tell me you're not going to ruin good beef with that stuff."

The German looked insulted. "I am not ruining it." He took a fork out of the drawer and spread a layer of sauerkraut over the meat. "It tastes better this way."

"Blasphemy," Apollo muttered.

"This is how I prefer it, Herr Forehead," Klavier replied, taking a bite of his food to prove his point. "Besides, even you will admit that the sauerkraut I make is better than what you have eaten in the past."

"I will admit that, but that doesn't mean I like to see you put it on good roast beef."

America, Fall, 1945

"It just seems strange that's all."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. We usually come home at lunch and eat leftovers from the night before anyway." Apollo reassured Kristoph as he opened the passenger door and stepped out of the other man's car, which was parked in front of Phoenix's house. Kristoph was slowly starting to adjust to life in America, but some things, like the invitation to raid Phoenix's fridge during lunch hour, still threw him off.

"Very well," Kristoph said, following Apollo into the house.

There was some pot roast left in the refrigerator. Apollo pulled it put and set it on the counter, then went to the breadbox to find the half loaf bread he knew was there. Behind him, Kristoph searched through the kitchen drawers until he found a knife to cut the meat with.

"Klavier always used to have such a weird way of eating beef." Apollo mentioned as he dug past the cookies Trucy had baked the other day and put in the breadbox, looking for the bread.

"Oh, really?" Kristoph asked absently as he looked through the refrigerator. He found what he was looking for after a moment of searching and pulled out a bowl of sauerkraut.

"Yeah, he used to take beef and layer it with..." Apollo trailed off as he turned around to see Kristoph taking a bite of roast spread generously with sauerkraut. "You know, on second thought, never mind."

[A/N:] Guess who's back?

So you may have been wondering where I was all summer. That's a fair question. I was busier than I planned to be this summer. First, I got involved at the Summer Reading Program at the local library, but it was during this program that I discovered the Great American Read challenge. I can't believe some of the books that ended up on that list, but to participate in the challenge at my library, you didn't have to red all 100, just 20 of them. So I have been working on that for a long time now, but I'm halfway through both of the last two books on my list. (It sounded like a good idea when I started it back in May, but for this whole month, I've just wanted it to be over.)

I did some travelling this summer. Towards the end of summer, I also decided to try out to be published in a local journal, so I had to write something entirely new for that. That particular problem was what made me stop working on CD and my other writing project because this story I wrote for publication suffered several schedule slips. However, it did get turned in last night, so here I am tonight!

I don't have a huge amount of stuff to say about this chapter. These are, as the summary says, just things that I wanted to include in CD that I couldn't fit anywhere in the main story and couldn't get long enough to be stand alone stories here, so have some drabbles. All of them, except the last one, take place around Chapter 59-60 of the main story. If you have any questions, please let me know, and please review!