Athena spent far less time with work or other activities related to her qualifications as a psychologist than with her work as a defence lawyer, but she never let the former get rusty.
Being empathetic almost to excess, she couldn't help herself whenever she wanted to really understand a person.
Understanding Aura Blackquill as a person was an effort that kept had her curious for quite some time, and she thought it would likely continue that way for a while yet to come. She doubted that Aura would ever consider her a friend; the animosity for her that the roboticist had spent so many years bottling up and stewing on made for a very sturdy barrier. Still, visiting Aura during her eight months in prison - something Aura needed three visits to become accepting of - had gone a long way to patching over the many holes that the UR-1 incident and its eventual retrial had carved into their strained relationship.
Aura was no longer in prison these days. The sentence that the Wright Anything Agency had secured for her was drastically lessened from its original proposal. Eight months in prison, followed by two years of house arrest. Aura had given her small one-bedroom house to her brother when she was arrested, and rather than returning after her release, she was allowed to take a room in the living quarters of the space centre. The conditions of her sentencing even allowed her to return to her work there, albeit with roughly two thirds of her working hours acting as unpaid community service.
Athena thought that Aura was happy about her situation. It was hard to tell with her. The sessions she had semi-frequently spent with her late mother's colleague, helping her to work through her resentment over the UR-1 incident had seen a gradual decline in Aura's overall rudeness and the occasional hint of unconcealed gratefulness, at least. There was still a long way to go, and Athena wasn't about to back down.
A Friday afternoon found Athena only halfway focused on her most recent collection of assorted paperwork at the law office. Her pen traced lightly through the air an inch away from her page, her idle thoughts occupied by her plans to drop by the space centre in the evening for another brief visit with Aura. She wasn't certain of what she'd do afterward. She'd learned fairly quickly that Aura liked to have most of her Friday evenings to herself, but Athena had insisted on at least a short visit all the same.
Thinking her other plans over, she spun her chair around. The familiar sound drew Apollo's attention off his own work. He looked up.
"What's up?" he asked, quite used to the telltale signs of Athena's boredom or other various distractions.
"I'm just thinking," Athena replied, slack in her chair, her legs sprawled out across the carpeted floor, "Are you gonna be doing anything later on tonight? I think I'm gonna end up being kinda bored most of the evening."
Apollo smirked, and Athena gave him a questioning look. "Actually," he said, a hint of smugness audible in his voice, "I've got a date tonight."
Athena nearly fell from her chair. She spent a few seconds awkwardly fumbling her way back into it with just her arms.
"W-What-!?" she sputtered as she went. "A date!? You, Apollo Justice, have a date!?"
"OK, ouch." Apollo started by remarking. "Just because I don't buy into Trucy's plans for getting my love life going, doesn't mean I can't go out and try for myself."
"W-Well, sure, but-..." Athena felt blindsided by this. Apollo was such an oblivious kind of guy that, for all the time she'd spent gossiping with Trucy and Pearl, Athena had always had a hard time really imagining him in an actual relationship with anyone. "That's just-... Uhh, wow, that's news." She still couldn't find a proper reply.
"Who'd you rope into it?" a digitized voice chirped from her necklace. Athena groaned quietly at Widget's blunt outburst.
Apollo's smirk returned. "Sorry, Athena. I'm not telling you or Widget."
Athena flinched with surprise and sat up straight. "Hey, that's not fair!" she said indignantly. She kicked off to roll her chair forward and closer to his desk. "If I had a date, I'd be all over telling you who it was!"
"That might be true," Apollo conceded, "But d'you really think I wanna give Trucy that kind of ammo? There's no way you'd ever stay quiet if I told you."
Athena opened her mouth for another pleading response, but the words didn't form. Apollo had a point, even if she didn't like it. She fumbled for words for a few more seconds, but had to give up.
"Ugh..." she grumbled, spinning her chair back around and returning to her own desk. She could practically hear Apollo's look of smugness from behind her.
Well, she definitely wasn't going to be focused on her work now.
Athena hopped from the raised platform at the exit of the bus and waved over her shoulder to the driver.
Just the sight of the space centre had once caused her an awful sense of disquiet, but she was past that part of her life. Thanks to her close friends, she'd overcome the lingering trauma of what had happened there years ago.
She strolled into the lobby, finding it near empty. Making a straight line for the living quarters, she took the two minute walk as a chance to quickly run through everything she wanted to discuss with Aura this evening.
Busily occupied by her thoughts, Athena realized a bit slower than normal that Aura was taking an unusually long time to answer the door. She tapped the digital interface on the panel beside the door which acted as a sort of doorbell once again.
For another twenty seconds, there was nothing. Athena dug into her shoulder-slung bag and retrieved her phone. She idly looked it over, wishing she could just text Apollo and see what he was up to. She scrolled through her other contacts. Trucy, Simon, Junie-
She looked up when the door abruptly opened.
"Hey-...!"
Her voice broke from its ordinary greeting and became a confused and inarticulate noise.
Apollo was standing in the doorway.
"Oh-... A-Athena, oh, God-... umm..."
The pair just looked at one another for a few seconds, Apollo looking horribly embarrassed and Athena just plain confused.
"Uhh... hi...?" she managed.
Apollo made a noise similar to an engine that wouldn't start. He was dressed in his favourite casual wear, and right now, his face was burning as red as his hoodie.
Athena caught footsteps from inside the room behind Apollo.
"Apollo, what's-... Oh. Hey, Athena."
The figure of Apollo became a blur in the corner of Athena's vision as her eyes fixated on the person approaching from behind him.
Without waiting for a response, Aura stepped into place directly behind Apollo. She seemed to surprise him by firmly pushing down on his shoulder with a hand, causing his knees to buckle partway. Apollo slumped forward before catching himself, and Aura took the chance to lean over him and plant her chest directly on his head, resting an arm there as well.
If it was possible, Apollo's face - already as red as a severe sunburn - managed to darken yet further. Athena, too, felt fairly sure that her own face was heating up at least a bit.
Aura was wearing a broad smirk as she leaned onto Apollo in just the same way that she did with her robots. Athena couldn't help but notice that Aura, wearing jeans and a somewhat revealing top, was rather obviously focusing the weight of her ample chest directly onto Apollo's head quite deliberately.
"Oh, sorry," she said with a distinct air of mocking plain in her voice, "Is this making you feel uncomfortable, Princess? I can't really help that - Apollo just makes such a good support."
Athena caught Apollo's eye before he could avert his gaze.
"What're you doing here?" she asked. "You said you were going on a da-... Wait, no. No, no no nononono."
Aura's smirk widened. She glanced downward at Apollo and said in a stage whisper, "I think she's caught up." Looking back up to Athena again, she added, "I can see the gears in your head turning from here."
Athena just stared back and forth between Apollo, still hunched beneath the weight of Aura's chest, and Aura herself, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.
"Come on, Athena. You and Simon weren't the only people who visited me back in prison."
"B-But-..."
Aura tilted her head and went on. "Of course, for the first while, Apollo wasn't so friendly. He wanted to ask me why I put so many people in danger just for Simon's sake, particularly your magician friend. We talked a lot, and he... warmed up, eventually. Still, this was a bit of a change for both of us."
Athena had a thousand replies swirling around in her head, but not a single one made it into words. She was surprised that she hadn't started dripping drool onto the floor, the way her mouth continued to hang open.
"Apollo asked me out, actually." Aura continued, clearly relishing every second of this. "He practically stuttered himself into silence first, mind you, but I still got the point. It seems like your friend's had a bit of a crush on me for a while now."
Apollo managed an indistinct mumble, which was the first thing he'd said since Aura's arrival.
"Yeah, I agree." Aura quipped in response. "Sorry, Athena, but I'm gonna have to cancel on our meet-up tonight. Me and Apollo here are gonna be busy."
Aura gave Athena a few seconds, but the girl still seemed too stunned to formulate any proper response. The older woman silently waved with her free hand and closed the door.
"... Aura..." Apollo grumbled once she took her weight off his head and let him stand up straight again.
"Oh, she'll be fine." Aura said with a smirk. "You saw her; her pretty little orange head is still intact, no matter how blown away she was."
Apollo rolled his eyes, stuffing his hands into his pockets and grazing his fingertips over his phone. He made a mental note to apologize to Athena later on.
"Now c'mon," Aura said, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a look that did nothing to help his reddened face cool off, "Where were we...?"
Apollo followed as Aura led him back to the couch a short ways into her living quarters. His phone buzzed, and he stopped to check it.
A message from Athena popped up on the screen, clearly typed in great haste.
-She's almost old enough to be your mom!-
He clamped a finger to the phone's power button and turned it off, stowing it back in his pocket.
Aurapollo, as I'm going to call it, is the kind of practically non-existent pairing that I'm genuinely interested in reading more of.
Next universe over, we'll find Apollo in something else I've written before.
