Apollo sat alone in the dimly lit office, staring silently at the phone in front of him. His mind was a bit hazy, making it difficult to focus on anything around him. He replayed the conversation in his head, trying to cement it into his mind through repetition because he was having a hard time believing it was true. But the words had come from Mr. Wright; they were true, no matter how hard they were to believe.

Athena had agreed to take the job. She would soon be moving to Khura'in to work with him.

He had no idea how long he'd been sitting here. He'd lost perception of time after he hung up the phone. He just stared without really seeing, the rhythmic pounding in his ears making it difficult to hear anything else as he tried and failed to calm the hammering of his heart. He hadn't realized how much he needed this, how much it would mean to him to have her around again. After the string of problems he'd faced on a daily basis since he arrived here, it was exactly the kind of good news he needed so much.

And yet, one of the feelings at the forefront of his mind was uncertainty. He'd already decided to put his own fears aside and have faith in Athena. He had no doubts that she was fit for the job; she'd already proven herself to be a dependable lawyer, and her abilities would be welcome tools for the trials ahead. But the one thing he couldn't be certain of was how much thought she'd put into how it would affect her. Did she choose to do this because she believed it was best for her and everyone around her, or had she decided that it was her duty to take the job since no one else would take it? How hard would it be on her to leave everything she knew behind? It hadn't been easy for him at all, so he could only imagine how difficult the transition would be for her. The move had been difficult for Apollo, but he had an attachment to this place. It wasn't just the former office of his late foster father, a man he still thought of as his real father, but he'd spent a big part of his childhood here. He didn't just move here to help reform the country because it was his duty; he cared about this country and wanted to make it a better place.

But what about Athena? She had no attachments to this place at all. He could only imagine she'd brought this responsibility on herself because there was no one else willing to do the job. Was that really enough reason to keep her here? Would she eventually decide that it was all too much and go back home? If that was what she eventually decided, he would respect her wishes and wouldn't try to stop her. But he couldn't deny that, if that was what she eventually decided, he didn't think there would be any way to move past how hollow it would make him feel inside.

With how quiet it had been in the office, the sound of the front door flying open and slamming against the wall was so startling that Apollo almost fell out of his chair. He leaned against his desk to catch himself as he turned his stunned, bugged-out eyes towards the door. Standing in the doorway, holding the door open with one hand and carrying a large sack over his shoulder with the other, was Datz.

"Hey, AJ! I'm back!" he said with a big, toothy grin. Apollo let out a tired sigh, partially out of relief but mostly because he was suddenly reminded how exhausted he was. "Stop throwing the door open like that. You'll scratch the wall paint."

Datz threw the door closed and approached Apollo's desk. "Nah! That's what the door stopper is for."

Apollo straightened up in his chair and narrowed his eyes at Datz, wondering when relaying obvious information had become a part of his daily routine. "It would if it was still there. The door stopper isn't there anymore since you broke it. And you broke it by throwing the door open like that too many times. You were supposed have it fixed it by now." He knew he shouldn't have been surprised by this. He knew Datz by now, but that didn't make dealing with his antics any less tiring.

Datz continued to look at Apollo with a big, carefree grin. "Oh, really? I'm pretty sure I fixed it already."

"… No. You didn't." Part of Datz's responsibilities around the office was to keep everything up and running, maintaining the remodel and repairing anything that might break down. But he wasn't proving himself to be the best handyman if he couldn't even remember what he did and didn't fix, especially when he was the one who broke it in the first place.

"Oh." Datz only paused for a moment, not seeming very affected by being told he wasn't doing his job. "Well, I'll fix it tomorrow." He brought the sack he was carrying around, letting it land heavily on Apollo's desk. "Got more apples!"

Apollo just stared at the bag, no longer really affected by the constant abuse his desk seemed to receive. "Great. What about the documents?" One of Datz's other responsibilities was delivering and receiving documents from the courthouse. Having someone do the back and forth trips saved Apollo the time he needed to organize the office and focus on defending in trials. The entire reason Datz had left earlier in the day was to pick up some new documents pertaining to the new cases Apollo was working on. He only hoped that Datz hadn't decided to come back with a giant bag of apples and no documents. It wouldn't have been the first time.

"Yep! Got them right here." Without missing a beat, Datz turned the bag upside down, spilling the entirety of its contents onto Apollo's desk. Apples poured all over the desk, falling over the edge and rolling across the floor. On top of the pile that managed to stay atop Apollo's desk was a manila folder full of papers.

Apollo just stared at the folder, the sound of apples rolling along the floor echoing through the otherwise quiet office. He was just thankful the folder was bound by two clips at the top. It kept the contents from spilling out like the apples had. "… Thanks," he said as he picked the folder out of the pile. Datz immediately started pushing the pile of fruit back into the bag. "Sorry about that. The documents were at the bottom of the bag, so I figured that was the quickest way to get them out."

"… Yeah," Apollo agreed, laying the folder on his desk as he watched Datz start walking around the room and lean down to pick up the remainder of the fruit. 'Now you're gonna spend the time you saved picking up a bunch of bruised apples.' Though he'd known Datz for a long time, he still wasn't sure if he did things like that because he was truly completely unaware of the consequences or if that was his way of trying to bring energy into the office.

Apollo opened the folder and started sifting through the papers inside. Datz had finished retrieving the apples at some point and returned to his spot in front of the desk. "They said that was the last of the documents on the new cases." He raised his hands and gave Apollo a double thumbs-up. "You should be all set and ready to go now!"

"Okay. Thanks." Apollo was just happy there was more evidence to work with. When the cases were first sent to him, there wasn't much to go on. Even after he went through all the information he currently had in order to start familiarizing himself with the cases as much as possible, he was having trouble finding the right starting point. He hoped the new evidence would give him more to work with.

"Oh, and…" Apollo looked up when Datz spoke again. There was still a smile on his face, but his expression seemed a little apologetic. "They also said they were done looking for new defense attorneys. It took a lot to get the ones they have working with them now to retry the old cases, so they said getting new help was up to us."

On any other day, that news would have been another thing keeping Apollo from getting a good night's rest. But instead, he was reminded of how that was one of the few things right now that was no longer a problem. "Well… that's fine. That's not really a problem anymore."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Apollo put the paper he was reading down to give Datz his full attention. "Mr. Wright talked to Athena. She's... going to come here to work with us." Even now, after saying it out loud for the first time, he still couldn't believe it.

"Athena?" Datz questioned. After a moment, a sudden look of familiarity appeared on his face. "Oh! You mean that cheery, lawyer girl you used to work with?"

"Yeah, that's her." In spite of himself, Apollo couldn't help but grin. He was happy to see that Athena's reputation clearly preceded her.

"Wow, that's great AJ!" Datz said, giving another thumbs up. "That'll really take the work load off ya! So, when's she gonna be here?"

"Next week."

"Alright. So I guess I have until then to finish the repairs in the spare room."

When Apollo first moved to Khura'in, he had a lot to consider, and one of those things included his living situation. He could have rented an apartment out somewhere but, after a lot of thought and budget planning, he realized it made more sense to re-purpose the office into a partial apartment. Even when it was in disrepair, the Defiant Dragons had made it their home for over twenty years. And with a little cleaning and restoration, it would make a suitable place to live. Not only did it have a full bathroom, but it had a small kitchen, as if the building had been designed to house workers back when it was first built. And since Apollo was the only lawyer employed here, they didn't need the office rooms. Instead, the main room was set up to be a meeting area where they would meet with clients, leaving the offices to be repurposed into bedrooms. Not only would it be easier to meet with clients when they were always here but, seeing as the only type of transportation he currently owned was his bike, he wouldn't have to worry about depending on some type of public transportation to make a daily commute. He figured it wouldn't be that different from how Mr. Wright lived at the Wright Anything Agency. True that there was a second floor apartment above the agency where his old boss actually lived, but he was confident that it would work out the same way. At this point, only two of the offices had been completely repurposed into bedrooms, seeing as the only ones living here were Apollo himself and Datz. The other room had been cleaned and repainted, but it was put down on the list of priorities since it was just being used as temporary storage space.

With all that in mind, Datz's words had a sudden, nerve-wracking implication, one that made the heat rise in Apollo's face and his heart start racing. "W… what?"

"What's with the face?" Datz asked, seeming confused by his friend's reaction. "She's gonna be staying here isn't she? So I gotta get another bedroom ready to go, right?"

In this moment, Apollo was never more grateful that he wore a red vest. He only hoped that it was enough to hide how red his face surely was right now. In truth, where Athena would be staying never crossed his mind. He'd been so distracted by his concerns of her coming here at all that it hadn't even crossed his mind. Now that the question was brought to him, he realized that she might run into the same problems he had when he was looking for a place to live. If that happened, he might need to consider offering her a place to stay here. And the idea that they might be living together, no matter how much the entire situation would be professional, it made his heart pound so loudly in his ears that he was sure Datz could hear it as well.

"W-well… u-umm…" That was all Apollo could get out at the moment, feeling like he was having a hard time speaking as his shock was still at its peak.

"Hey, AJ. What's the matter with you?"

Datz's question brought Apollo to his senses. He shook his head and took a deep breath. He wouldn't get anywhere if he didn't put his personal feelings aside and think about this rationally. He cleared his throat before he spoke, hoping it would help him not to stutter. "I don't know where she's going to be staying."

"Oh. Well, did you at least tell her staying here was an option?"

"No…"

"Oh. Well…" Datz's brow furrowed as he seemed like he was becoming increasingly confused by his friend's lack of real answers. "Then what did you tell her?"

And that was what made Apollo realize, something that should have been so obvious, and yet it didn't even occur to him until the question was brought to him just now. "I… haven't talked to her yet."

Datz's mouth fell open and he stared at Apollo in wide-eyed shock. "What!? She's gonna move here to work for you and you haven't even talked to her yet!?"

"I haven't had a chance," Apollo tried to defend himself. And it was true; until now, the entire exchange had happened through conversations with Mr. Wright. Given that Apollo had only been told she'd accepted the job a short while ago, he hadn't had time to talk to her.

"Oh. Well…" Datz seemed to calm down, going back to his cheery demeanor. "Hurry up and ask her, then. Gotta know ahead of time if I need to make time in my busy schedule to prepare a room!"

That was when Apollo realized, yet another big decision would be up to him. Even though the ultimate decision would still be Athena's, he still had to decide whether to bring the idea to her in the first place. He was sure she wouldn't move here unprepared; without a doubt, she'd already began her preparations. She would look into housing herself before she came here. Anyone with sense would do that first. But what if she ran into the same trouble as he had? She might not find a place that was vacant, and even if she did, the rent might not be in her budget. She also didn't have a car; back home, she always made her commute to work by walking or running, one of the many things she did that made him question where in the world her energy came from. But if she wasn't able to secure a living space somewhere nearby, she might have to depend on public transportation for her commutes. Maybe that wouldn't bother her. But she'd agreed to pick up her entire life in order to come and work with him. Even though it had been her own decision, the least he could do was offer her a place to stay. He could certainly provide it, considering they had extra room.

The only question was, could his personal feelings handle it? It would all be professional and they would just be roommates. After all, Athena was his best friend; there was nothing strange about best friends sharing an apartment together. It shouldn't be any different than sharing an apartment with Datz.

Except that wasn't true at all. It wouldn't be the same at all. How would he handle having a professional living situation with the woman he was in love with?

"I'll… uh…" Apollo started. He felt like everything was happening so fast, and all at the same time. He was having a hard time keeping his mind in check. "I'll talk to her."

"Great! Let me know when you do." Datz hoisted the bag of apples over his shoulder. "I'm hungry. I'm gonna get dinner then go to bed. Night, AJ!" He gave Apollo a toothy grin then walked around the desk toward the kitchen.

Apollo stared across the room, left in silence once again. His mind was still swirling from everything that was happening and all that was still left to consider. But he reminded himself that, after all was said and done, he just needed to have faith in Athena. She would choose what was best for her and, no matter how difficult her decision might be, he would do what he could to keep his personal feelings aside.

Athena put the neatly folded pile of clothes in the dresser drawer before she closed it, finally satisfied that it was properly organized. She was making sure to store her clothes separately from one another, keeping only a few select outfits available to wear in order to keep the rest put away so they would remain clean when she moved. She had no desire to bring dirty clothes with her and this was the best way to make sure everything was clean when the day came for her to move.

She'd spent all of her free time in the past two days performing little tasks like this. She had to decide what was important enough to bring and what could be left behind. It wasn't like she was taking a short trip; she was moving away. She didn't have a lot of things, but it suddenly felt like she had too much when she was trying to decide what to bring and what to leave. She'd already decided to leave all of the furniture, believing It wouldn't be worth the time or expense to move them. It would be easier to find a place in Khura'in that was already furnished. She'd already done some research and made a few calls, checking in with living spaces in Khura'in in her search for a place to live. Though she'd had no luck finding a vacancy, it at least confirmed that furnished housing was available. If it came to it, she would stay in a hotel for a while while she looked for a place.

Deciding she needed a breather, she lay down on her bed, leaning her back against the pillow and resting her head on the wall. She crossed her ankles and folded her hands on her waist, putting her head back and closing her eyes. It was so comfortable that she made a mental note to take her bed sheets with her. She could do without the bed, but bringing her own bedding would be fine. It might bring a bit of familiarity to a strange, new place.

She opened her eyes and looked toward the ceiling, letting out a deep sigh. She was prepared for all of this. Not only did she know it was the right thing to do, but she wanted to do it. She couldn't think of anything she wanted to do more than be there to help Apollo, both as a lawyer and as his best friend. But it didn't change the fact that she would be moving to a completely new and unfamiliar country. She hadn't been there long during her last visit, and the circumstances had been anything but normal. The idea of moving to a new country on short notice wasn't all that worrying to her by itself; she moved to Europe when she was a child after her mother passed away, so she at least had enough experience with that to feel prepared.

Still, she couldn't deny that the prospect of everything this decision entailed left her feeling a little bit afraid.

The sound of a ringing phone brought her attention to the other side of the room. Her eyes landed on her cellphone that she'd left on top of her dresser, the screen lighting up as it rang for a second time. She got up and walked over to it, looking at the caller ID to see who it was.

Heat rose in her chest and her ears pounded along with her heart when she saw Apollo's name on the screen.

When she reached for the phone, she did it slowly, as if she was afraid it would disappear if she reached out too quickly. It almost didn't feel real to see him calling her. It was the first time she would hear from him personally since he left. There were so many times when she wanted to call him herself to check in and see how he was doing, even if it was just to hear his voice. But she knew he was too busy to spend time on any personal calls; that was the point to scheduling the group calls in the first place. No matter how much she wanted to call him and speak with him one on one, she always resisted the temptation. He needed to focus on his responsibilities, and he couldn't do that if she was taking up his schedule with personal calls.

She carefully picked up the phone, staring at his name for another ring before she answered it and brought it up to her ear.

"Hello?" She was surprised with herself how quietly she was speaking. It was like she was in a trance, not really believing that he was really calling her. Maybe she was dreaming, and she feared if she moved too quickly or spoke too loudly then she would shatter the illusion and wake up.

But when she heard his voice on the other end of the line, she knew it was real.

"Hey, Athena. How are you?"

She raised her closed hand and placed it against her chest, willing her hammering heart to slow. She hadn't realized how much hearing from him meant to her until just now. A heat rose in her face as she started feeling overwhelmed, and her vision blurred as tears formed in her eyes. She quickly blinked them away, not daring to shed tears now. Not only did she want to keep her head clear in order to carry on a normal conversation with him, but she didn't dare let him see how easily she would cry for him.

"Oh, I'm fine," she smiled to herself, happy that her normal volume had returned. "It's good to hear from you."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Yeah. You too. I figured we should talk before… you know, before you got here."

It was then that she noticed the patterns in his voice. He'd displayed a mix of different emotions during the group calls, but the one with the highest peak was always sadness. She had no idea what had changed to make this happen but, though the sadness was still there, it was no longer the strongest emotion. Its peak had lowered and the wave was slightly lower than his other emotions. Instead, there were two emotions with slightly higher peaks; happiness and… fear. The fear had a slight tilt, indicating he wasn't actually afraid, but rather nervous. She wished she had some kind of indication of why he was feeling this way or what had caused the change in the first place. "Yeah, sure," she agreed, making sure to use a cheery tone, hoping it might ease his nerves just a bit. "What did you want to talk about?" It seemed like a silly question. Considering what was about to happen, they should have no shortage of things to talk about. And yet, if asking the first question was up to her, she wasn't sure she would even know where to start.

Apollo must have been feeling the same way, since she heard nothing but silence on the line.

She remained quiet, waiting patiently for him to answer her. Her sense of time was off at the moment, so she wasn't sure how much time had passed in silence. When she began to grow worried, she decided to check if he was even still there. "Apollo?"

It was still a few moments later before he finally answered. "Are you sure about this?"

Because she had no way to even guess what he was going to ask, she shouldn't have been surprised. And yet, of all the things he could have asked, that was one of the last things she'd expected. "What?"

He answered more quickly this time, the tilt of nerves in his voice falling and giving way to actual fear. "Is this what you really want?"

Then it started to make sense. His shift in emotions, the cause of his nerves; it was because he feared she hadn't put enough thought into her decision. He must have been afraid that she was doing this because she thought she had to. He was afraid she was going against what she really wanted in order to do what was right. A warmth swelled in her chest and she smiled. Even if he was just concerned as a friend, it still meant a lot to her that he'd been so concerned for her.

She chuckled quietly. "Silly. Did you really think I didn't think about it first?"

"W-well… ummm…" The tilt returned in full force, pushing the fear out of his voice and giving way to full on nerves. "N-no, of course not."

She smiled brightly, suddenly feeling lighter than she had in a while. She put all of her new found cheer into her words, wanting nothing more than to ease his nerves. "Then what are you worried about? You know I would never do this just because I thought I had to. I want to. I can promise you that."

It was quiet for a few moments before he answered. "Good." The peak of joy had raised slightly above the peak of nerves, letting her know she had succeeded in easing his fears.

They spoke for a while after that, covering a few subjects that needed discussing. A sense of normalcy fell over her as the conversation went along. They might still be separated by distance and only speaking through the phone, but this was the most normal conversation she'd had with him since he left. She found herself speaking to him with the same silly energy she always had and, the longer the conversation went on, the more his emotions shifted until his voice sounded the same as it had back when he was here with her. It was amazing how easy it was to fall back into the same mood with him, almost as if they'd never been separated at all. It wasn't really a surprise; no matter how far apart they were, they were still best friends. It was feeling like the old times that she missed, and it raised her spirits higher than they had been in a while.

After they hung up, she looked at her phone, placing her closed hand back on her chest to still her racing heart. She might not have had any doubts about her decision to move, but hearing from him made her feel more prepared than she ever hoped to be.

Chapter Song – 'She is the Sunlight' – Trading Yesterday