Things will be progressing from this point on. Please to be providing any and all feedback please, since some of the upcoming stuff is my first try at writing certain themes. ;D

"I'm dating a German rock star prosecutor."

Klavier looked up bemusedly from the files he had been reading. Apollo was currently sitting over at the other end of the office, the side of his face laid atop the various papers strewn about the desk, clearly not focusing on his work.

He chuckled, "You're not realizing this for the first time, I hope?"

Apollo chewed on the end of his pencil thoughtfully, "I just wanted to see if it sounded as surreal out loud as it did in my head."

A sly look overtook the prosecutor's face, "Maybe I could…make it seem more real for you, ja?"

Apollo either didn't catch his drift or pretended not to; instead, he took to bobbing the pencil up and down in his mouth, detached from his immediate surroundings. It made a faint tapping noise each time it descended and hit the desk. Klavier watched it with an intense interest—up…down…up…down…

He swallowed.

"Our first kiss was in a prison," Apollo mused, legitimately regarding this as something particularly noteworthy and impressive.

Klavier expressed some amusement at this, "I believe I have kissed you plenty of times beforehand."

Apollo sat up and tapped the eraser-end of the pencil against his forehead, looking quite business-like, and said matter-of-factly, "Our first kiss—as in we—as in, mutually consensual."

Klavier rose out of his chair, with an expression quite full of intent, "Let's not think about our first kiss, hmm?"

He quickly crossed over to the other table, flipped the empty chair sitting across from Apollo's side, and promptly straddled it. He crossed his arms and settled them on the edge of the seat's top and flashed the defense attorney his most charming smile. Few had ever been able to resist this one.

Few, including Apollo, it seemed.

Klavier nearly cried out in frustration when the man across from him started see-sawing the pencil between his index and middle finger, unmistakably distracted by his train of thought, "Seriously, is this real? Shit like this just doesn't happen."

Klavier tried, one more time, "Anything could happen, Justice."

Apollo sighed and slumped back down onto the desk, "I suppose you're right."

The prosecutor stared. What in heaven's—why wasn't this working?!

He cleared his throat, "Apollo."

The defense attorney straightened, quite possibly faster than he intended to, if the blush on his face was anything to go by, "Y-yes?"

Klavier was authentically surprised by the light red dusting over the bridge of Apollo's nose, but quickly chalked this up to an unexpectant, minor victory.

(Slight innuendo—nothing. Intimate first-name basis, however…)

He leaned in over the edge of the chair, "I am trying to be seductive," he found it hard not to be captivated by the way Apollo blinked rapidly in surprise, "but you are making it damn near impossible."

Apollo sat still for a moment as Klavier grinned at him, trying to process that, yes, Klavier was currently propositioning him for…something. He still wasn't quite sure what.

"I…" he began, clumsily, "…wait, what?"

He yelped when he felt a foot brush up against the inside of his calf.

The smile on Klavier's face was completely unapologetic, "Blunt it is, then."

He then proceed to lean all the way across and grab the back of Apollo's head before the latter had a chance to let it sink in and object, table between them be damned.

At one point, the door to Klavier's office opened, but then quickly and loudly shut again, making Apollo squeak in protest, but Klavier soon made him forget the fact.

Mysteriously, no one else bothered them for the rest of the day.

They really hadn't been doing anything remotely scandalous when Trucy knocked on the door.

"Polly! Daddy needs those files on the FR-7 case! Open up!"

Really, all that had happened was an embarrassed Apollo opening a drawer to show off his mediocre store of paper clips and sticky note pads, because Klavier had for some reason insisted on a tour, and there wasn't really anything else in the room to show off. It barely qualified as an office, but on his salary he preferred being able to eat over stocking more than the necessary amount of pens at work.

The situation was as innocuous as it could've possibly been.

This did not stop Apollo from panicking as soon as he heard his assistant knocking.

"Shitshitshit. She can't know you're here," he whispered.

Klavier laughed, but played along and dropped his voice as well, "And why not? It's not like we're doing anything wrong in here."

"Because I will never hear the end of it. She will harass you for every single detail about our relationship, especially the ones that don't exist."

Klavier leaned in suggestively and traced a finger across Apollo's chin, "So why not just give her what she wants?"

"Get under the desk, now," said Apollo, undeterred.

Outside, the pounding resumed, "Polly!! I know Klavier's in there! Just tell him to put his pants back on!"

Without thinking, Apollo screeched, "He never took them off!"

Immediately, he clapped his hands over his mouth, face going red.

Klavier laughed again, loudly and freely this time, "Looks like the jig is up, eh, Justice?"

"And this is Mr. Charley!"

"Oh please don't show him that," Apollo groaned.

To his horror, Klavier gently took one of the plant's outstretched stems and sincerely shook it, "It's nice to meet you, Charley."

Apollo gaped, "Don't encourage her."

"Treat the fräuleins and their friends with respect," Klavier smoothly brushed a few strands out of his face, "That's my philosophy."

"You could learn something from Klavier about being a gentleman, Polly!" Trucy puffed her cheeks.

Apollo rolled his eyes, "Alright, alright, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Mr. Charley!"

"And how am I supposed to apologize to a plant?"

Trucy rocked back and forth on her hells, "I don't know. Just say sorry like a normal person…?"

She then lightly smacked a curled up fist down onto her palm, an idea striking her, "If you really want to show you're sorry, you should sing him a song! He likes that!"

Apollo noticed the sudden glint in Klavier's eye and immediately objected, waving his hands in front of his face, "Trust me, you don't want to hear me sing."

"Oh, I think I do," Klavier put his hands on his hips and learned forward, "Time to show off these so called Chords of Steel."

"That's not…they're not really suited for…" but Klavier was already clearing the junk off the piano.

He pressed a key experimentally, "My goodness, this needs a good tuning."

"Daddy doesn't really use it all that much," she hopped a bit, excited, "Can you play?"

"Enough to know which key is which," he pressed another key a little further down, "Middle C. That should be easy enough to hit."

Klaiver looked at him expectantly and Apollo flushed, "I don't think you'll like what you hear."

The prosecutor leaned in even closer and Trucy made a sound that sounded like a giggle being suppressed, "Any sound you make, Apollo—I guarantee I won't hate it."

If Apollo had been red before, the blush that graced his features now definitely put it to shame. He looked back and forth between Trucy and the prosecutor, hesitant. Klavier smiled at him patiently, pressing the key once more.

Apollo took a deep breath, letting the note sink in.

Then he opened his mouth and belted.

To be fair, he had expected this sort of reaction, but it still stung a bit when Trucy immediately clapped her hands on her ears, "Geez, Polly! You're supposed to sing the note, not screech it."

Apollo looked at his feet, suddenly quiet, "I told you—they're chords of steel, not velvet."

His eyes shifted nervously towards Klavier, but he otherwise remained silent. The prosecutor looked thoughtful, but not at all displeased.

He scratched his chin, "Could certainly use some fine-tuning in regards to tone," Apollo wilted a little, "But excellent breath control and volume."

Apollo felt his chest swell up, "Really?!"

"Hey!" Trucy interjected, "Maybe Klavier can teach you! Then you guys could do a duet, or something!"

"I would certainly like that," Klavier said softly, glancing at Apollo in a way that made the defense attorney's stomach flip.

"W-what would I need to do to get better?" he stammered, perhaps a little too loudly, perhaps showing a little more enthusiasm than would have been embarrassing for most people.

His straightforward eagerness only made Klavier all the more enamored with him.

He began, placing a hand on the keys again, "For starters, try singing the note less…forcefully. More finesse, less stress."

Apollo cleared his throat, still markedly nervous, but less so than previously. He breathed in and then exhaled, trying to carry the note as gracefully as he could. It was overall a much more subdued effort than the first.

Klavier sighed, "Justice, what happened to your volume? That was one of the finer points of your last attempt."

Apollo looked sheepishly at the ceiling, "But you said to sing it softer…?"

Klavier shook his head, "Softer, yes, not quieter. You are confusing force and volume as the same thing."

When Apollo merely fiddled with the lowest button on his vest, looking like he wanted clarification but was too afraid to ask at the risk of sounding like an idiot, Klavier chuckled softly to himself. It made him want to take Apollo's hands into his own until they stopped fidgeting.

Hell, Apollo in general, no matter what he did, made it hard for Klavier to keep his hands off of the defense attorney.

"You are creating the sound in your throat—this results in a harsh sound, one that will also tire and hurt your voice," he looked at Apollo with a discerning, reflective expression, "When you do your Chords of Steel exercises, do you often have a sore throat by the end of them?"

Apollo attentively nodded.

"This would be why. You need to sing elsewhere, from a place that doesn't hurt."

"I…wait, what?"

"Singing is a full-body art—you sculpt the sound with your whole body, not just your throat. Try to produce the note from further back."

The defense attorney let out an exasperated sigh and scratched at the back of his neck, "Klavier, let's face it—I'm clearly a lawyer, not a singer. I have no idea what you're talking about."

When Klavier brought both his hands to rest lightly on either side of his jawline, Apollo yelped and nearly jumped back from the touch.

Klavier looked at him seriously, "Here. Try one more time—the sound should vibrate here, under my fingertips."

Apollo had trouble issuing anything coherent from his mouth, let alone something musical, "I…just…um."

He was vaguely aware of a pounding in his chest, and (Oh god, oh god, he's so close).

He told himself that this was just because he was a nervous performer, it was just stage fright, not because Klavier was practically close enough to do something about the little distance between them that still remained. It was not because the prosecutor was looking at him with such faith in his eyes, not because Klavier's mouth turning up slightly seemed to be the most fixating thing he'd ever seen, not because he could unmistakably sense the faint scent of Klavier's aftershave, which was actually quite nice, and shit, this was not where this thought was supposed to go.

A taunting voice in the back of his head circled back to the original point, (This isn't stage fright—you've always performed best under pressure).

Klavier felt muscles under his fingers move as Apollo gulped. Slowly, the attorney's mouth opened, emitting a low, shaky tone. It was still quieter than Klavier would've liked, but he graciously accounted for Apollo's nervousness and concluded that it was at a good level. Cautiously, his hands left the sides of Apollo's face; one came to rest on his throat instead, where he could feel the bulk of the tone's vibrations.

As smooth as a conductor's movements, his fingers traced their way back up the sides of Apollo's neck, making their way back to his jawline. Apollo instinctively lifted the soft pallet at the back of his throat (he hadn't even known this was possible up until now), following the movements with his voice. His heart beat even faster as he could feel his skin buzzing under Klavier's fingers from the vibrations, almost like a tickle, but it certainly didn't make Apollo want to laugh.

The note died out as he ran out of breath, and he found himself taking short, heavy breathes afterwards, "…Like that?"

Klavier hummed affirmatively, sliding arms smoothly around Apollo's neck and leaning in for what was obviously a kiss, "Mmm, you deserve an award for that, I think, no?"

Apollo timidly pushed at the prosecutor's chest, "Wait, not in front of Truc—"

He stopped when he realized that Trucy was nowhere to be seen, and that it was very much just him and Klavier in the room.

(…that explains why she's been mysteriously silent this whole time.)

His attention shifted back as Klavier smiled and said, "You were saying?"

"Stop peeking Trucy."

Trucy blatantly disregarded this command and continued to watch through the crack in her father's office door, fists held excitedly close to her chest.

"Daddyyyy, why'd you have to go and drag me in here? Why can't I go out and watch them be cute together?"

Phoenix absentmindedly moved a stack of files from one tray to the next as he casually answered his daughter, "Because as fun as it is to tease Apollo, I'm not cruel. He's a defense attorney—Klavier's a prosecutor. Speaking from experience, they should make the most of moments like these, because their schedules will make it hard to find more of them."

"Ooooh," Trucy cooed dramatically, "It's like Romeo and Juliet!"

Phoenix laughed heartily, "Not…exactly. For one, Romeo and Juliet's relationship boiled down to a three day fling and ended in pointless death."

Trucy's eyebrows furrowed, "I don't remember the play being quite that cynical…"

He smiled, "I studied the arts in college," he continued shuffling papers, "Besides, if anything, those two are more like…um, Truce, are you listening?"

"Oh! Oh, they're kissing!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Apollo couldn't help but hear a small voice note how he was probably in the hands of an expert. The man had rock star on his resume, and had most likely kissed more than his fair share of girls—at least, it certainly felt like Klavier knew what he was doing. It made Apollo, who suffice to say had never so much as even properly asked a girl out, feel inexperienced and vulnerable.

The way Klavier's fingers brushed at the nape of his neck, the way they slightly rustled the hairs at the base of his head, the way he nipped gently at his lower lip—all of it happening simultaneously sent a shiver through Apollo. Despite himself, he let out a little whimper.

Klavier grinned against the defense attorney's mouth, "I was right. Any sound you make—I like it."

Apollo turned crimson and straightened against Klavier's hold, "That's—! That's not fair!"

Klavier looked at him teasingly, "How so?"

He only managed to sputter in response, "You just—! You can't—!"

The prosecutor tilted his head inquisitively, taking interest in this sudden change of response, "I can't what, Justice?"

Apollo bit his lip in an attempt to not say anything until he was sure he wouldn't trip over his own mouth this time, "You can't be the only one who gets to be all smooth and cool like that."

Klavier's eyes widened a bit in surprise, as did his amusement. A short burst of laughter indicated he hadn't been expecting this, but was still enjoying himself nonetheless. He took a step back and leaned forward, crossing his arms. Apollo felt a sense of foreboding at the way Klavier arched an eyebrow in his direction.

"Alright then," he said, a hint of enticement in his voice, "Give me your best line."

When Apollo merely stared at him for a while longer than was comfortable, Klavier's smile only widened, "Do you…perhaps need a little help?"

"No! I'm…I'm FINE. I can do this."

"You know you don't have to though, ja?"

Apollo breathed in, still very set and determined to prove he could be just as suave and charming as the former rock star. In its own way, Klavier found that this was sort of charming.

He shook his head softly, "Justice, I am already completely captivated by you. What else could you do to impress me?"

Apollo gave it some thought.

He thought hard and pondered on this for a good five seconds before he decided to stop thinking so critically and just go with the first thing that came to mind, no matter how stupid it might be.

"I could do this."

To Klavier's surprise, Apollo placed his hands flat on the prosecutor's chest and pushed, causing him to stumble back and hit the arm of the couch. His back hit the cushions with a soft thump, and for the first time since he could remember, he was rendered speechless as Apollo followed suit over the couch arm and crawled on top of him.

"Apollo, this is—" was all he could manage to say before the aforementioned crushed their mouths together.

Not that he was complaining.

"Seriously, Trucy, come away from the door. This is bordering on intrusive."

"Ooooh, it's getting good!"

Phoenix's hand hovered over the paperwork he had been reaching for, "What?"

"Yes! Go, Apollo! You get him!"

Phoenix abruptly stood up, "Just what are they doing out there?"

Apollo wasn't going to lie—this felt really good.

Really, really good.

There were fingers roughly pushing through his carefully combed hair, and likewise, Apollo was threading his own upward from the hairline of Klavier's neck, letting long, soft strands of hair slide against his skin. This seemed to be to Klavier's liking, because he made an appreciative moan against Apollo's mouth. And then there were hands everywhere, and dear lord, Apollo couldn't even tell which were whose anymore.

Somewhere between the feeling of an arm wrapping around his lower back and pulling him closer, and Klavier's knee sliding up and between Apollo's legs, the attorney managed to eke out the thought, (Oh).

A second later, this was followed by, (Oh. Oh my—that's his tongue).

Apollo was already feeling flushed enough as it was—he could've done without the extra heat flooding into his cheeks. From here, Apollo's train of thought took off at a sprint.

(Holy shit, we're in the office.)

(Ooooooh, wow, that's—)

(!!!!)

Apollo felt the arm at his back shift, felt a hand slipping up and under the edge of his vest, gliding over the fabric of his work shirt. He vaguely wondered what would've happened had his shirt not been tucked in.

(This is—oh god oh god, what am I doing, thisistoofast, oh god, we need to stop.)

Accompanied by the deepest breath he'd ever taken in his life, Apollo somehow managed to separate himself from Klavier, fully intending to voice this last thought out loud.

What actually ended up leaving his mouth however, was, "OW!!"

This was because on the way up, something flat and heavy simultaneously came down upon the top of his head.

"Not in the office, boys."

Terrified and clutching at the crown of his head, Apollo glanced up to see Phoenix looming over them, an expert's guide to law clutched in his hand. He proceeded to balance the spine on his shoulder as he threw down a look that practically said, "Explain yourselves."

"Mr. Wright! This isn't what it—"

"On the contrary, Mein Forehead," Apollo's gaze shot down angrily to glare at a smirking Klavier, "It's exactly what it looks like."

Apollo sputtered indignantly, "You're no help at all."

Above them, Phoenix sighed, "I understand you want to make nice and be sickeningly passionate about it," Apollo made a sort of protesting, strangled noise at this, "But please keep your hands to yourselves while you're in the office."

Apollo would've thanked the heavens above if that had been the end of it, but then Phoenix suddenly smiled and winked at him, "At least when Trucy's around, anyway."

"Mr. Wright!"

Apollo about wanted to die to save him from the embarrassment.

Phoenix gave by way of explanation, "Well, it's only fair if I have you play by the same rules I do."

From somewhere underneath him, Apollo heard Klavier utter nonchalantly, "That seems fair."

Perhaps due to some defense mechanism against whatever might've been implicated by Phoenix's statement, Apollo's mind went completely blank at this point.

The two of them were sitting silently, side by side. Klavier was seemingly very pleased with himself, while Apollo's head hung low, still embarrassed at having gotten caught in the office by Phoenix of all people, and even more so knowing that the whole thing was kind of his fault.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, circling his thumbs around each other in his lap.

Klavier laughed loudly and swung an arm around Apollo's shoulders, "What's there to apologize for? That was the most exciting thing that's happened to me all week."

(Right. About that…)

Apollo found himself fidgeting uncomfortably, unable to bring up the fact that he'd maybe found it a little too exciting. In the ensuing silence, Klavier's eyes travelled unassumingly down to where Apollo's hands were pulling nervously at a loose thread, and something in his head clicked. A small smile tugged at his lips—Apollo wasn't the only who could spot a nervous tick.

Meaningfully, Klavier rubbed the hand resting on Apollo's shoulder in a comforting manner. The defense attorney meekly glanced up at him and Klavier took this opportunity to place a very soft, very chaste kiss on Apollo's cheek. The skin against his lips warmed.

He spoke gently near Apollo's ear, "Really, it's fine."

Apollo said nothing, just averted his eyes stubbornly before—after a few seconds of responding stiffly to Klavier's touches—gave in and leaned against the prosecutor.

The two remained blissfully unaware that a room over, Trucy was attempting to hold back the squeal of the century.