December 18th

2:19 PM

People Park

Apollo and Ema sat on an isolated bench near the middle of the park. Ema was glad to see that Apollo finally seemed to be relaxing. He wasn't quite into the state she usually saw him in during investigations or trials, but it was a start. At the very least, he was talking without needed to be asked questions first.

"Trucy's got another of her holiday shows tomorrow night." he said, still bravely pushing through a conversation. "Would you be interested in coming to it with me?" Ema nodded and responded,

"Sure. I haven't been able to get tickets for any of them recently, but you could work around that, couldn't you?"

"I think so. Trucy was really determined to get me to ask you out, so I doubt she'd say no to sparing a few extra tickets." Apollo said. Ema raised an eyebrow.

"So, it really wasn't just your decision to ask me, was it?" she asked. Apollo gave a nervous chuckle and shrugged. "It's OK, Apollo. You were the one who made the choice in the end." Apollo turned and looked out across the park.

"I guess this was where we met you, wasn't it?" he said. With a small laugh, Ema responded,

"More like where I first ignored you. Only came around once you brought out that fingerprint powder, didn't I?" Apollo laughed in turn.

"I guess so. Mr. Wright gave that to me, when I told him that you were heading the investigation here. He thought it might make you open up a bit." he explained.

"Sounds like Mr. Wright. That was the same old set that I gave him nine years ago, believe it or not." Ema said, staring fixedly into the sky.

"It's really unfortunate that you couldn't get into forensics. The more Mr. Wright talked about your enthusiasm for it, the harder it got to believe that you were in

Criminal Affairs." Apollo mused, turning back to Ema.

"Yeah," she mumbled, looking slightly bitter. "Let's not talk about that, 'kay?"

"Sure." Apollo stared into the ground for a moment. Even if Ema had been trying to reassure him back in the restaurant, he still felt uncomfortable with choosing conversation topics. In spite of Ema's promise that she wasn't judging him based on it, there was still a nagging doubt in the back of his mind. He turned and looked at her again. Without really thinking about it, he began to silently admire her profile. For some reason, he couldn't seem to stop staring at her face. The way her hair lightly swayed in the breeze, even the small strands that draped down the sides of her face, seemed to draw his attention unavoidably.

Several moments passed before Ema realized that Apollo was staring so intently at her. Without moving to face him, she spoke,

"Y'know, Apollo. There's something I'm wondering about." he twitched slightly. "Back in the restaurant, you said something about me that caught my interest." Even out of the corner of her eye, she could see his face turning its unique shade of red. "You know what I'm talking about. Something to do with me being 'so pretty', right?" Apollo dropped his gaze slightly and Ema finally turned to him. "Anything else you care to add about that, Polly?" he gave another twitch at her use of the nickname, but remained silent. Ema smirked.

"I might not have that shiny bracelet of yours, but it doesn't take a scientific genius to see that you're getting pretty twitchy." she said, unable to conceal her grin. Apollo blanched. Ema was like a totally different person in a casual conversation like this. She wasn't acting bitter and dismissive, like she would at work. There really wasn't much sense hiding his thoughts from her. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he finally spoke,

"I...really do think..." Ema leaned a bit closer, "that you're really...er...really beautiful, Ema."

At his words, a wider smile than Apollo had ever seen Ema wear appeared on her face.

"Twitching and stuttering, huh? I think I'm starting to see how you do that in court, now." she said, the smile holding firm on her face. Suddenly, she swung around on the bench to face him fully. Apollo looked into her face nervously. "One thing's missing, though." she said, leaning toward him. Apollo forgot about the chill in the air entirely as he felt Ema firmly press her lips against his forehead. If it was possible for his face to heat up any more than it did at that moment, he'd be beyond impressed.

Ema leaned back, her smile still intact.

With a playful look in her eye, she whispered,

"Gotcha."

Dear me, that was an impossibly cheesy ending, wasn't it? Eh, can't fault myself for trying, I guess.