Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favs. Dayton's name is most certainly what it is for a reason, so think on it for a bit! I honestly don't think I could ever think of something as crazy as Pees'lubn Andistan'dhin, though...

Titration by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 2

You Need More Than Two Bags of Snackoos

"You should have some company over sometimes. I never understand how you don't get lonely," her sister's voice came through the phone.

"I just like it quiet," Ema said defensively. It was quarter to five in the evening and she was truly on her couch in her pajamas, which was exactly what she had been anticipating for her lazy Saturday. Knowing she had to leave in a little while didn't fill her with as much dread as it should've. "Who would I invite over anyway? Athena? Mr. Wright?"

"Well, you could," Lana replied.

"No, Lana. My lair is sacred," the detective outright denied the suggestions. "Nobody gets in here without a good reason."

"Alright, then why don't I come visit you tonight? Do I have a good enough reason to be let into your 'sacred lair'?"

"You're always welcome in my lair. Tonight's not good though," Ema explained, glancing at the clock again. "I'm working tonight."

"Working? I thought today was your day off," her sister said in a puzzled tone.

"It is. I took a security job on the side to help take care of some of my bills. It pays well," Ema noted casually. The last thing she wanted was to let her sister know she had taken yet another job from Klavier Gavin, who Lana thought was an upstanding prosecutor despite his dumb rock star reputation.

"Ema, you know if you're struggling, I can always lend you some money."

"I think you've done enough for me, sis," she replied, brushing off the offer. "Anyway, I need to get changed for work. I'll call again soon."

"Good. Take care of yourself, okay?"

"You know I will. Talk to you soon."

Ema clicked the received of the phone down and took her time getting off the couch. She still wasn't sure if accepting this job had been the right thing to do, but if Klavier was being honest in his explanation of why he wanted to hire her, then doing this probably wasn't the worst decision she'd ever made. Nope. That one was still accepting free coffee from Dayton Feller.

She donned her work clothes, seeing no reason to drag out the process, then strapped on her gun holster before she put on her favourite lab coat. Now that she did more forensics in the field, she didn't bring her firearm around as often since it tended to get in the way at crime scenes. She let the other officers take care of that aspect of being there while she processed evidence. Regardless, she was fairly comfortable with her gun since she was still an officer of the law and had to take part in training drills all the time.

Ema double-checked the safety on her gun before putting it into the holster. She doubted she would need it tonight, but of course she had to bring it if she was doing security. If it was anything like the Gavinners' infamous last concert, she had better luck beating off fangirls with a stick.

The drive to the theater took fifteen minutes and some of the officers were already standing there socializing. She walked past them, not wanting to put them on the clock early, and headed straight to where the dressing room was located. She hadn't been to this theater before, but it was pretty much the same as the Sunshine Coliseum in the backstage area and the dressing rooms were easy to locate.

Klavier's name was printed plain as day on one of the doors, she assumed the biggest dressing room, and she knocked to report in to him. She heard him call for her to come in amongst the twang of strings in the background, so she opened the door.

The dressing room was much more minimalist than the one he'd been staying in last time, no posters along the wall or numerous products lining the vanity. Instead, Klavier's navy jacket—not purple for once—was draped over the arm of the grey sofa where he sat tuning his guitar.

"Gavin," she greeted him briefly. "Looks like you've got setup underway."

He nodded, still not looking at her as he turned the knob at the head of his instrument delicately. "Everything is indeed running smoothly, I believe. You're a little early though, Fräulein Detective."

"Well, you aren't exactly paying me pennies. I think it'd probably be considerate to do a good job," Ema replied dryly as she took the list of officers he'd sent her a few days ago out of her bag. He continued to pluck strings even as she went full into business mode. "So I've got three people stationed backstage, two at the entrance, three for the actual stage, and four on the floor. How does that sound to you?"

"It sounds like you did your homework, Fräulein Detective. I have no reason to be worried with you here," he responded absently, more focused on his instrument than anything.

"Shouldn't you be a little more concerned after what happened at your last concert?" she asked in annoyance at being neglected when she felt like his security should be a big deal to him.

Finally, he looked away from his guitar and grinned at her. "Do not worry; this guitar has not been recently shipped from any foreign location," he joked, trying to soothe her irritability. However, his face fell into a weary expression. "Honestly, fräulein, I'm trying not to think about it. That's why I hired you. I trust you, and therefore I am focusing all my energy into that trust. I would not be able to play tonight otherwise."

She appreciated the honesty in his answer and dropped the tropic. Clearly he was as anxious about this whole thing as she was. Still, the only thing she could do was do a good job tonight and ensure everything went smoothly. There were only competent officers on the job tonight, and knowing she could count on them would certainly take some of the pressure off her shoulders. Hell, as long as nobody got shot today, she'd count the job as a success.

"I'll make sure everyone knows what they're doing. Sorry to interrupt your warm up," she said dutifully.

"It's no interruption," he called after her as she headed for the door. He was doing well in pretending to be easygoing for now and she had to make sure that didn't change. She didn't want a difficult night herself, and as long as no one got shot or there weren't any issues with the sound equipment, everything would be peachy. After all, Klavier was nothing short of a perfectionist when it came to music.

Ema perused the stage for a few minutes after she left the dressing room, mostly to make sure that everyone was doing what they looked like they were doing. Klavier's manager had handled the whole setup crew, who had to be trustworthy if he hadn't asked her to look in on them before they were let into the venue, but it didn't hurt to be extra cautious. Luckily, she didn't see anything that looked to be out of the ordinary and instead moved on.

She arrived back outside to have the officers working security tonight to sign in with her as she distributed duties and earpieces along with that. Setup was always kind of boring, but she wasn't sure if it was better or worse when the music started blaring on all the speaker. Things were slow as she walked up and down the hallways, waiting for the show to start.

One hour later, she gave in and started eating her first bag of emergency Snackoos. Guests for the show were starting to arrive and she was watching over the officers looking through bags for booze and drugs. That also meant listening to a hell of a lot of females giggling over Gavin and grating on her nerves. The one earpiece she had did little to block it out.

Sighing, everything looked under control, so Ema headed backstage again. She paused, eyes narrowing when she saw a middle-aged woman standing near the entrance to the back hallway.

"Excuse me, you can't be here," Ema called to the woman, who turned in surprise. Her eyes were wide, as though she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't be...which really was what just happened.

The female had long, brown hair that was sticking to her sweating face and Ema figured that this lady must want to meet Klavier really badly if she looked this crazed trying to get backstage. Definitely not good for her boss' self-important ego.

"Right... Sorry..." the woman apologized, hands wringing at the bottom of her shirt nervously.

Swiftly, she moved past Ema back into the lounge, the detective watching her carefully. The woman continued to play with her shirt as she left. Ema glanced at the bag at the woman's side which wasn't big enough to fit anything else except a wallet or a phone. She most certainly didn't seem like a threat, and Ema concluded that her initial assessment of the middle-aged lady just being another fan was probably right.

There was nothing else interesting that occurred until the start of the show besides Ema resisting the urge to open her second and last bag of emergency Snackoos. For the most part, she didn't see her boss at all until he came out to prepare to go on stage. She stood to the side, inspecting the stage, which only had a stool and some speakers on it. It was oddly plain for Klavier's flashy taste.

"Any problems, Miss Skye?" Klavier's manager, Argin Ayzed, asked Ema. "Mr. Gavin is on in sixty seconds otherwise."

She shook her head. "No. All clear."

With that, Argin muttered the go-ahead into her walkie-talkie and a second later, Klavier walked onto the stage with his guitar. The screams started immediately and Ema groaned inwardly. It was going to be a long night.

"Last song of the set," Argin's voice crackled through her earpiece.

"Roger that. Hallway's clear," Ema relayed back into her walkie-talkie.

It looked entirely unprofessional, but Ema was sitting on one of the wooden crates in the backstage corridor while she supervised the area. The visibility was good and since the box was back against the wall, nobody could sneak up on her. The night had been very uneventful, though on the bright side, she hadn't found the music to be nearly as irritating as she'd originally anticipated. Klavier hadn't been kidding when he'd said this would be a small concert. The theater allowed 300 people at capacity, which it was, and the entire performance had been acoustic. There wasn't any overly loud rock music—just the strum of steel strings and Klavier's (admittedly) smooth, melodic voice.

She waited for the song to finish, the tune drifting overhead from the hallway speakers.

"Justice meets the heart, the lies begin to fall apart and suddenly you're asking me to choose. And what is there to choose, between the truth and you when everything I knew was just a lie?

"Betray myself for you, why did you ask me to? Guess all's fair in love and justice... Act as if you cared and use me for your schemes. Guess all's fair in love and justice..."

Ema winced listening to the lyrics. Gavin was known for writing songs about love and the legal system—which was so nerdy that she couldn't believe that his music sold so well—but his songs were never quite that depressing. The tune was a bit sad and regretful, but beautiful at the same time. It was much better than the Gavinners' "Guilty Love," which was so popular that it had topped the billboard for fourteen weeks straight. She actually knew what this was about though, and it was better than any other song she'd heard from him other than "The Guitar's Serenade."

"He's on his way," the manager stated from stage side.

Ema saw Klavier round the corner into the hall, handing off his guitar to one of the sound staff, and she fell into step with him as he headed back to the dressing room. "Got 'im," she relayed back.

"Enjoy the show, fräulein?"

"You really think I paid any sort of attention?"

He laughed as he casually placed his hands in his pockets. "Of course not."

When they reached the dressing room, Ema followed him inside to make sure nothing was amiss as he grabbed a water bottle from the table and lay back on the couch. The other officers she had assigned to the backstage area were at the entrance and covering the emergency exit. Argin was busy having everything put away, and she had been Klavier's manager for long enough that Ema trusted that the woman would notice if anyone not on her staff was there. That meant Ema was left to watch over her boss directly.

"I'll be outside," she told him, walking towards the door.

"Just stay in here, Fräulein Detective," Klavier said, waving a hand. "I think there is little difference in my security whether you're in here with me or standing outside."

She frowned. "And what if someone were trying to get into your room?"

"Then it will be good you're in here to protect me," he replied, grinning playfully.

Ema rolled her eye. "Gavin, why do you want me in here?" she asked in exasperation.

He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up and looking slightly uncomposed for once. "Ach, you have been forcing many truths from me recently, fräulein." He sighed loudly. "Frankly, I do not want to be alone in here. Silence leaves too much time to think about the past."

Oh great. Now she couldn't leave him. He trusted her and Ema was hardly some heartless bitch that would leave someone she sort of considered a friend by himself when he appeared so despondent. Besides, talking to Klavier when he wasn't in glimmerous fop mode certainly seemed better than standing outside by herself for another couple of hours.

She walked over to the couch across from him and sat down. "Alright then, Gavin. Then you wanna talk about how seriously depressing that last song in your set was?"

"Ah, caught onto that, did you?" he asked with a tired smile. "I wrote it in half an hour the day my brother was revealed to be a murderer for the second time. Today was the first time I have ever performed it."

"Well...at least it sounds alright," she admitted.

He beamed at that comment. "High praise from Fräulein Detective! I am flattered!"

"Don't let it go to your giant head," Ema drawled. She was trying to be civil, but she could hardly do that if it was just going to boost his ego more.

Klavier chuckled, taking another sip of his water. "Miss Skye, I've been meaning to ask..."

Ema shifted uncomfortably. Things had been very light-hearted since they got to his dressing room, but suddenly seemed as though the atmosphere had taken a turn for the serious. "Uh...what?"

"Why did you keep working for me?" he asked earnestly. "Once you passed your forensics exam, you could have transferred departments to be a lab technician, especially since you obviously dislike me. You could have been rid of me and been doing what you love, but you chose to stay in the Criminal Affairs Department when you came back from Khura'in and I can't say I understand why."

It was a good question, especially since when the department had been low on staff, she had been assigned to work with Prosecutor Sahdmadhi instead... Like that had been a walk in the park. She'd even found herself missing Klavier in some respects. After all, she had been forced to deal with far more personal dilemmas when it came to her friends with the foreign prosecutor than anything, and that'd been a highly stressful experience. However, overall, he had been pleasant to work with—especially after all his family issues had been worked out.

"Contrary to what you may believe, I don't actually hate you," she answered, digging for another bag of Snackoos, forgetting it had already been consumed. She was too focused on the fact that she was having a sober conversation with Klavier, and there was no telling how much snack support she might need. "You're just so showy about everything you do and it irritates the hell out of me."

He briefly glanced down at the thick chain necklace he was wearing and shrugged. "What can I say, fräulein? I am a performer at heart."

"And yet you disbanded the Gavinners to pursue law further. Maybe you went with the wrong career," Ema retorted as she gave up searching for the bag of munchies.

Klavier waved off the suggestion. "Law and music are both important parts of me, but there is only one that I would dedicate my life to. I still write music when inspiration strikes and that is adequate, but I would not be able to give up searching for the truth every day," he admitted, smiling fondly at the mention of his career.

She tried really, really hard not to let the snarkiness emerge from her mouth, but she just couldn't help it when she thought about her friends situation for seven years. "Sure didn't find the truth when you helped frame Mr. Wright."

He was silent for a moment, looking a little hurt, but like it or not, he had been involved in Phoenix's disbarment—something Ema continued to feel the injustice of.

"I suppose I deserve that. I will not make excuses. It was foolish on my part to have accepted my brother's lies so easily," Klavier replied and suddenly Ema did feel remorse sinking in for her comments. He clearly still felt guilty for letting Kristoph use him all those years ago.

"Look, Gavin, I didn't mean to be so harsh," she apologized, nervously chewing on her lip.

"No need for apologies, fräulein. Mistakes drive me to be better in my pursuit of the truth. Herr Forehead and Herr Wright made me see that I could be better," he responded dismissively.

Ema stared at him for a moment, still confused at how he could say he was so passionate about the law and be sitting here after a concert. "I don't get it. If you gave up being a professional musician because you wanted to focus more on law, then why start holding concerts again after like a year and a half?"

He looked at her with a fatigued expression and sank back against the couch cushions. "You know all the right questions to ask, Miss Skye..."

For a moment, she thought that was where he was going to draw the line, but the sound of his voice surprised her.

"Dr. Rhinke recommended I play a few concerts this year."

Her mouth flapped in disbelief. "Wait, Dr. Sheldon Rhinke? As in the department's psychologist?"

"'A psychological evaluation is mandatory for all individuals involved in Criminal Affairs, including the prosecutor's office,'" he recited slightly robotically. "That is what Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth said to me when I asked to skip it."

She felt a twinge of empathy for him, knowing how much she dreaded her own yearly evaluations with the psychologist. She liked the guy well enough, but the idea of just candidly revealing her deepest feelings to a person she barely knew made her extremely uncomfortable.

"I am no more a fan of psych evaluations than you are," he said, addressing her obviously irked expression, "but Dr. Rhinke made valid points. That last Gavinner's concert is a reminder of Daryan's betrayal. I was informed of Kristoph's not long after. That concert was the beginning of a nightmare."

"So these concerts are to rid yourself of that association," she concluded.

"And to remind myself of why I enjoyed them in the first place," Klavier added. He let out a soft breath and smiled at her. "That being said, I'm glad I listened. And you are here, ensuring my thoughts do not become so dark, ja?"

"Choosing to spend your time with your head detective is a terrible idea," Ema replied with a snort. "It's like all you do is work."

"Perhaps, but you're here with me as well, aren't you?" He was grinning like he'd won a game they were playing, although there clearly wasn't one.

"Probably a terrible idea," she retorted, absent-mindedly digging into her bag again. If only there were another bag of Snackoos...

"Ah! And there is the dislike for me again! But you haven't answered why you stayed in the Criminal Affairs Department," he shot back, his tone playful.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek in annoyance. "Maybe because I like investigating crime scenes, Gavin. I mean, scientifically speaking, doing forensics in the field is the most endorphin-inducing activity possible. I can even tune out those ridiculous fans of yours screaming when I'm fingerprinting..." Ema rambled, her irritation turning to passion. "And luminol... Let's talk about luminol. Spraying it on all those surfaces, finding where blood's been wiped away... Don't even get me started on how amazing the chemical reaction between..."

Caught up in her passion for forensic science, she forgot who she was talking to as she went into an extraordinarily detailed explanation on how to identify the type of blade used in a stab wound. She was in the middle of talking about the advances of DNA testing between 2016 and 2026 when her earpiece buzzed to life.

"Detective Skye? Are you there?"

She paused in her slew of scientific commentary, eyes drifting over to her audience who was looking at her in bright amusement. Oh god, she had gone into full science mode right in front of Gavin.

Ema cleared her throat, desperately trying not to let her embarrassment show as she clicked on her microphone. "Yes, what is it?"

"Everything's been taken down and put in its proper place, and Klavier always insists on staying until everything's finished in case something comes up, so you can let him know we're done," Argin's voice came from the line.

Her brow crinkled up in confusion. "What? You guys are done already?"

"...Detective Skye, it's past midnight. It's wasn't that fast..."

"Midnight?" she gaped in outrage.

As if on cue, Klavier looked at his watch. "Oh, so it is past midnight! They must have finished cleaning up by now."

"Uh, yeah..." Ema trailed off, dumbfounded. "I'm...just going to make sure everything's good and I'll head home, I guess."

The prosecutor nodded, standing up to go pack his bags. "Sounds good, fräulein. I appreciate you keeping me company tonight. It was fun!"

"Sure, Gavin," she replied curtly, then spun on her heel and headed out the door.

Oh god, oh god, oh god. She'd spent two hours with the glimmerous fop and hadn't even noticed? The world had to be falling apart. Or she had to be losing her mind. And even worse, she couldn't even figure out how long she had been raving about forensics—and for how long Klavier had been sitting there listening, for that matter. This was the last thing she'd ever expected going to work tonight and the thought of the whole thing made her extremely uncomfortable.

What the hell, Ema? What the hell?

She let out a loud breath and smacked her cheeks gently to get herself focused on the task at hand. Despite having spent the last two hours decidedly not doing any sort of security, she still had a job to do. It was her duty to make sure the grounds were clear before she went home. She also had to get someone to escort her boss to his car safely. There was work to be done and that was what she would do.

She lifted the walkie-talkie to her mouth, pressing the transmit button. "Alright, guys, how's everything looking?"