Disclaimer: I am no scientist. I know nothing. I do know however, that while carbon dating doesn't really work on metal, I've heard it's possible with certain irons. Of course, if I heard wrong, feel free to shoot me, because again, I'm no scientist.

And bless Klavier and his law-themed, punny song titles.

That's all I have to say.

Apollo figured things were pretty bad when it got to the point where he was asking a fifteen year old girl for relationship advice. To Trucy's credit though, she was at least eager and optimistic—at least she was trying.

She had found him in his office, face down on the couch, and all together emitting a gloomy sort of energy into the room. He had told her he'd be fine, but after ten minutes of her insisting she could help, he decided it would be easier to just give in and not argue.

"A few days ago, Klavier kissed me."

Trucy looked at him incredulously, "That's it?" then looked utterly beside herself with giddiness, "Did you kiss him back?"

Apollo groaned, "No. For the last time, we are not going out."

She frowned, "But…I see you guys hugging all the time…"

"You see Klavier hugging me."

Trucy was tapping her chin softly at this point, "Polly, I don't understand. If you don't want to date him, why do you let him do all that stuff to you?"

Apollo thought very carefully about how to word what he wanted to say, which was a rare feat, considering his usual forward style.

"…I don't want him to feel like he can't be honest with me—I don't want to ignore the fact that he actually has these feelings. He shouldn't have to censor himself around me."

He could see gears turning in Trucy's head, but slowly, and quite possibly in the wrong direction.

"But it's just…certain things. I made it very clear that we're just friends," he added for clarity.

She crossed her arms and looked at him in a way that made him very uncomfortable, like he was being scrutinized under a magnifying lens. This went on for a good few seconds, with Trucy tapping her foot and biting her lip as she worked out the details in her head.

Finally, she verbalized her thoughts, "So let me get this straight—you don't want to cut Klavier out completely from your life?"

Apollo nodded.

"And you don't want to be all cold and unfeeling and completely squash his feelings either?"

"That sounds about right."

"But you also only want to be just friends?"

"Yes! That's it! That's exactly it!"

Trucy paused, as if for dramatic effect, then puffed her cheeks and blew out the excess air, "Polly, I'm not sure you can have all those things."

He buried his head into the couch cushions, "I can try."

Trucy bent down and folded her arms on the couch beside Apollo's head, then placed her own head on top of them, "I know you're trying. You're a good guy, one of the best I know—I know you're trying your best not to hurt anyone. But—"

And here Apollo turned his head, still lying on his stomach, and noted a concentrated seriousness in Trucy's eyes, a fortitude he recognized from the one time he'd seen Phoenix in court.

She continued, "Everybody gets hurt, and sometimes it's nobody's fault. And sometimes it's not our fault, but we always inevitably hurt someone. Sometimes all we can do is make the choices that hurt the least."

He lifted himself, eyes wide with surprise, "Trucy. That's depressing."

He didn't deny that it made sense—what shocked him was that it was Trucy who said it, cute, cheerful Trucy, who never said anything that wasn't nonsensical.

"But it's true—I don't blame my Daddies for some of the things they've had to do. Things just happen sometimes."

Apollo found himself suddenly feeling very small as he looked at Trucy, saw the full eyes of what wasn't sorrow, but understanding—certainly not happy, but a sort of peace that was only highlighted by the young features of her face. Fifteen and so young—and already so grown up. He silently told himself that he really should've appreciated her more, considering the things she'd been through.

He said quietly, "Well what else am I supposed to do? I thought I was being as considerate as possible."

Trucy's head tilted and her eyes shifted up to the ceiling in thought, "…you could try dating him."

"I'm not a liar Trucy. That's worse than flat out ignoring him," he stretched out on the couch and covered his face with his hands, "It'd be different if I actually felt anything for him, but I don't."

Trucy dared a small smile, "Not even a little bit?"

To Apollo's complete surprise, he felt a pinch at his wrist. He sat up, glanced at his bracelet, then glanced at Trucy—mischievous smile, yes, but dishonest? Not that he could see.

(Ok, weird...but whatever.)

He dismissed it, "...No. Not even a little bit."

The smile grew bigger, and Trucy's eyebrows raised teasingly, "The teensiest, eesiest bit?"

He rolled his eyes, "Nothing, not even an inkling."

Again, there was the vibration, the feeling of metal lightly squeezing against his skin. He looked at Trucy, really looked at her, trying to perceive something out of place, but something felt off and strange, as if he knew what he was looking for, but was looking in all the wrong places. Trucy hadn't said anything weird, just asked questions, and questions were hardly truths or lies, just inquiries.

She gave him a funny look, obviously unnerved, "Are you okay? You're doing that...thing."

"What thing?" he asked, still staring.

"That...that thing. The one you do in court, where you stare down the witness."

Apollo blinked, "Is it that obvious?"

Trucy nodded, "It's kind of scary, being on the receiving end. I mean, I didn't do anything!"

Apollo swallowed and unfurrowed his brow, "Nothing, it's...nothing," he tried to relax, "I don't have feelings for Klavier."

Two times was just an unnerving happenstance, but when he felt his bracelet tightening around his wrist for the third time, Apollo knew it wasn't just a coincidence.

Carefully, he slipped the bracelet off and examined it. The skin underneath felt cool and exposed in the air.

Trucy regarded it with a sparkle in her eye, "Can I try it on?"

Apollo held it up to the light, trying to discern anything out of place, "Not right now. I'm...," he paused, realizing how far-fetched a lie-detecting bracelet sounded, and said, "I'm looking for something."

"Like what? It's just a bracelet; I see you fiddling with it in court all the time."

Before he knew it, Trucy had snatched it from his hands and was holding it up to her face.

"Trucy, give that back!"

"Look at these markings! It's so intricate!"

"Trucy..."

She guided a hand through the opening, "I just want to see how it looks on me."

It was a little too big for her wrist, and hung delicately as she moved her arm into various positions, admiring it from different angles.

"It's beautiful on you. Now can I please have it back?" Apollo sounded a little testy.

He'd never really liked letting other people handle his bracelet.

Trucy's eyes grew wide, "Hold on, I think it's...I think it's shrinking."

"It's what?"

Apollo looked at her arm and saw, to his amazement, that she was correct—the bracelet was, slowly but surely, growing smaller and smaller.

"This is amazing Polly!" she exclaimed as the metal hugged gently against her skin, "It's like one-size-fits-all! Where'd you get this?!"

"I've had it since I was dropped off at the orphanage," he rubbed at his bare wrist, feeling almost naked without the familiar pressure.

"What else does it do?!"

He hesitated, but then thought, (Sure, why not?) because this was Trucy, and he had no reason to hide anything from her.

"...I can use it to tell when people are lying in court."

It really shouldn't have surprised him when she believed him whole-heartedly, "Really?! I wanna try it! Go ahead, tell me a lie!"

He sighed, "Like what?"

"Tell me you feel nothing for Klavier," she was bouncing with excitement.

"But I don't!"

To his horror, she began jumping up and down, yelling, "There it is! I feel it, I feel it!"

She then dramatically pointed a finger in his direction.

"Gotcha!"

He put a hand to his forehead, "Got what?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, that's what you always say."

Ema, in her enthusiasm, was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Literally, there was a flashing device strapped to her head—a spotlight shown down from it and illuminated the surface of Apollo's bracelet, which Ema was currently scrutinizing.

"This is like no material I've ever seen," she said, completely in her element.

Apollo looked on nervously, "Please be careful, Ema."

She gave no indication she'd heard him, "I want to do a carbon dating test."

She put the bracelet on and watched it carefully as it shrunk, glancing periodically at the timer on the desk.

"H-how does carbon dating work?"

Ema tapped at the metal thoughtfully.

"…Ema?" he tried again.

When she didn't respond, Trucy offered, "I think it involves melting a piece of the metal down."

Apollo did not take kindly to this, "Ema, you are not melting my bracelet."

If Ema heard him, she certainly didn't care—in fact, she got up, wrist still at eye level, and went to jot something on the white board—'Reacts to heat.'

At this point, Apollo began shifting from one foot to the other, restless. Ema had always been rather insular, paying attention only to anything in her immediate scope of interest—currently this exclusively contained the single connection he had to his past. Needless to say, it was frustrating being excluded from that sphere of awareness.

"Ema!!"

She underlined what she'd written, then turned to Apollo, face oblivious to the fact that he'd been trying to catch her attention for the past five minutes, "So what you're telling me is that you've been using this as a sort of lie detector?"

Apollo thrust his palm over his face and groaned.

Trucy was in a better mood to answer, "Did you figure out how it works?"

"I have a preliminary theory," she slid the device off her head, "The material is incredibly reactive to heat. The rate at which it shrinks suggests that even the slightest change will result in a reaction—like, say, the palpitations of someone telling a lie."

"So it is a lie detector!" Trucy exclaimed.

Ema waved her hand casually, "Indirectly, I suppose, yes."

Apollo rubbed at his chin, relieved to finally be getting somewhere, "Wait, that doesn't make sense. By those stipulations, shouldn't it—"

"Exactly," Ema pushed at the corner of her glasses, "this should really only work as a personal lie detector. So if I say, for example, that you have no feelings for Klavier…"

"Which I don't," Apollo insisted, but as always, it fell on deaf ears.

"As expected, the bracelet vibrates in reaction," she tapped it once again as indication, "Oh, this is just fascinating…"

This was clearly the most interest she'd expressed in anything in a long time.

She waited for the bracelet to quiet, "But see, if Trucy were to say a lie—"

"Apollo has no feelings for Klavier!" Trucy immediately piped up.

Apollo felt about ready to cry, "Could you please stop using that as the test?"

Ema continued, as self-focused as ever, "There, you see? No reaction."

"But Ema, that can't be right. I've used it several times before to catch people in lies. Are you telling me I just imagined it?"

Trucy added, "I felt it too!"

"Then logically there must be some external factors concerning you two, not the bracelet itself," she looked them both over slowly, suddenly very thoughtful, and muttered, "I wonder…"

Apollo, suddenly struck by the image of Ema hooking him up to a series of cables, went and manually pulled the bracelet off of her wrist, because just asking for it had obviously not worked for the past few hours, "Okay, that was interesting. Thanks for explaining that to us."

"I'm not done with that!" she pouted, upset at having her new toy taken away, "Oh, whatever, I can still ask you questions."

Apollo put his bracelet back on, happy to have the accustomed weight back, "Such as…?"

Ema pulled her notebook out of her bag, "For starters, you've only ever felt it react to others—you've never made it react yourself?"

It slowly dawned on Apollo all the implications this caused, "Not really, no…just the one time, recently."

"Guess that makes you a pretty honest guy—how nice for you," she mused as she wrote something down, "So what was it that finally made it react?"

Trucy suddenly looked very devious, "Klavier did something to him."

"…I didn't need to know that."

"It wasn't like that!" Apollo quickly amended.

"Okay," she began writing again, "so the bracelet reacted to a state of excitement—"

"No, no, no, no, no. I wasn't even with Klavier when it happened!"

If Apollo had to make a list of Trucy's more endearing traits, the way she was giggling like a gossiping school girl would definitely not have been on it.

He tried to calm down, "Trucy and I were just…talking about…stuff."

Ema's visage was buried beneath the top of her notebook as she scribbled whatever the hell it was she was writing. Apollo didn't want to think about it too much.

"And just what exactly did you lie about?"

"I—"Apollo quickly began, but the air in his lungs quickly evaporated, and the blood rushed to his face.

He tried again, but for all his Steel Chord exercises did to help him, he couldn't seem to reach a decibel level above meek, "I-it wasn't a lie…"

"Psh," Trucy rolled her eyes, "He won't admit his love for Klavier."

The pencil stopped moving, "…I thought we were just joking about that earlier."

"We were!" Apollo knew this sounded lame, but he couldn't help it.

Ema turned very seriously to face Apollo, and the look she gave him actually made him cringe a little inside, "Alright, you listen here. I don't care about the details—you don't have to update me on dates, or gifts, or any of that shit, because I honestly don't care. I don't even give a damn if you don't date him or not—just none of this in-between, maybe, maybe not crap. You either make it very, very clear that there is no hope for him romantically, or you suck it up and admit your big, gay crush on Klavier like a man."

Apollo stared, just a little fearful for his well-being, "…I didn't know you cared so much."

"You're damn right I care. That is my boss you're tiptoeing around, and if you screw things up and make him all depressed and mopey, then I am facing at least a month's worth of hell, and I refuse to come into work while he sulks around composing sad songs like 'Hot for Justice'—"

"What."

"—and re-covering 'Guilty Love' in a minor key. It will sound awful in a minor key."

"Come on Polly, you're an honest guy," Trucy pleaded with wide eyes, "Why can't you be honest about this?"

Apollo opened his mouth to object, to deny, to say something about how he was being perfectly honest with himself, when an all-together familiar shudder around his wrist made him stop.

And that's when the bomb dropped, because damn if anyone was going to call him a liar.

"I…might be a little…curious," he looked at the girls' smiling faces, and then quickly added, "Just a little!"

"So ask him out on a proper date already!" Trucy was just brimming from ear to ear.

"I can't just…" Apollo strained for the right words, "Look, I'll admit I've thought about it, alright? But that's just…just curiosity. What if we start dating and that's not enough? What if I don't like it and I get his hopes up for nothing?"

"Klavier's a big boy, Apollo, he can handle it," Ema teased a strand of hair absent-mindedly while Trucy nodded enthusiastically.

"I really, really don't want to hurt him, Ema."

"And that," she smiled wryly, crossing her arms, "sounds as good as any confession to me."

Apollo had nothing to say to this.

Trucy, however, did, "Five bucks Ema. Five bucks."