#athena would probably pull blackquill there too

[brodorokihousuke]

Dual Destinies ends five days before Christmas. Nearly four, given that 5-5 ends at 9PM.

What is it like at the office, then? At such a normally-comforting time of the year? I mean hell, given the handful of holiday-themed art that exists, I'd even make the assumption that there's always a Christmas/general holiday party at the agency. And not doing that, after making it such a big thing, it... it would just feel wrong.

So they still do it. Everyone's invited, as usual. Optional attendance, no need to show up.

But there's one person they'll drag to the party, no matter if he wants to or not.

I think Apollo was used to spending the holidays with Clay, especially before he got established at the agency. His only friend, his introduction to American holidays, the only person he was fine truly being himself around. Of course, that's all gone, now. And based on how much he talked about his activities with the near-astronaut last year, Phoenix knew.

Maybe he didn't know how exactly to talk to Apollo, but he knew one thing- and that one thing was, he couldn't let the younger man spend the holiday alone.

[heaven-s-black-box]

Wright Anything Agency + Prosecutors Office= Chaos chpt.2

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Recovery date: May 26th, 2020

Description: The WAA's air conditioner breaks during an LA summer, so they go to the only place they can think of... the prosecutors office. Chaos ensues led by the youngest members of the Wright and Edgeworth families.

Notes: A entry series involving a descendant of a traveler, following the death of her mother it was determined Sky would be better off staying with Miles Edgeworth. This is an OC insert, the fantastical technobabble is just for looks

Related works: Miles adopts Sky, Trucy meets Sky

Chapters: 1 2 2.5 3 4 5 5.5

Word count: 2 083

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Apollo stepped out of the courtroom and spotted Klavier waiting for him. The first day of the trial had gone fine. No verdict yet, but only barely. Apollo had a feeling the case would end tomorrow, he also had a feeling it would be a guilty verdict. If his client wasn’t guilty, today should have gone much smoother, but too much came out that he hadn’t known. So just to be sure, him and Klavier were going back to the crime scene. After all, two pairs of eyes were better than one. Plus maybe Klavier would pick up on something he’d missed last night after he finally got to the crime scene. 

Moving the tables back hadn’t been a problem, and Mr. Wright had only scolded them right after the fact. Along with the scolding, Trucy wasn’t allowed to do any magic for the rest of the week, Apollo had to watch Trucy because the sword fight wouldn’t have started if he’d stepped in, and Athena had to do the Wright Anything agency chores for a week by herself. So overall, not too bad. When asked about their punishment, Klavier and Simon just changed the subject. 

The crime scene was an employee area at the LA zoo. It wasn’t too far from the court house, a fifteen or so minute drive. Of course that meant that Klavier insisted they took his bike, or as Apollo called it, the death trap. 

“So, what was your punishment?” Apollo decided to ask again as they approached the crime scene.

“What about yours? Shouldn’t you be watching Fraulein Trucy?” Klavier smiled as he held the door to the employee area open for him.

“She’s with Mr.Wright, something about not wanting to fan the flame of craziness.” Although he couldn’t think of who he was talking about. The only person that came to mind was out of the country until later, they probably wouldn’t even see her until tomorrow.

“Hm, well herr Edgeworth gave us more paperwork and took away herr Blackquill’s swords for the week.”

“Well that doesn’t sound too bad,” Apollo thought aloud. Honestly he kind of expected worse.

“Well no damage was caused, and no one was hurt. Besides, herr Edgeworth has let more chaotic things slide,” he muttered the last part and Apollo didn’t catch it.

They searched the entire scene together and even asked around again. Nothing new came up and Apollo was slowly resigning himself to the fact his client was guilty. He hadn’t been entirely certain of their innocence to begin with but as long as there was doubt, he’d look for the truth. Apollo would still fight with everything he had tomorrow and maybe something would come up last minute, that seemed to happen a lot with their trials. By their, he meant any trial involving the Wright Anything agency. They always got the strangest cases.

“Find anything to use pal?” Detective Gumshoe asked as they left the employee’s area.

“No,” he sighed, “ Tomorrow’s going to be pretty interesting.”

Klavier decided that before they left they should get ice cream. Apollo didn’t see any harm, it was pretty hot today, and let Klavier lead him to one of the carts. Normally when Apollo came here with Trucy and Athena, it took them a while to find the carts. They weren’t exactly hard to find, they just weren’t particularly easy to find. Klavier pulled him to the nearest enclosure after they got their treats.

“How’d you find it so easily?” Apollo asked, unwrapping his popsicle.

“Ah, fraulein Sky enjoys coming here on the weekends. She normally comes with herr Edgeworth or herr Blackquill, but sometimes she asks me to join as well.”

Apollo laughed at the idea of Simon Blackquill being dragged along by an overly excited teenage girl. Although, that sounded a lot like him and Athena, so he guessed it wasn’t that crazy. Maybe he could see if Sky wanted to have a day out with both the prosecutor’s office and the Wright Anything agency. It could be a thank you for letting them work in their office for the week, he’d have to talk to Mr. Wright about that. For now, he turned back to the hyena enclosure. 

“Have you ever heard a hyena laugh?” A voice asked from behind them.

They jumped and turned around. Klavier’s ice cream popsicle fell off the stick and into his hand. He frowned at the girl now standing in front of them and quickly ate the last of the popsicle before accepting a wipe from the girl.

“Why do you have wet wipes with you?” Apollo asked her.

“Never hurts to be prepared,” she smiled.

“Ich dachte nicht, dass du bis später zurück sein würdest,” (I didn't think you'd be back until later)Klavier said, wiping his hands off.

“Papa glaubt, wir fliegen später rein.” (Dad thinks we'll fly in later) She turned to Apollo, “Hello Mr. Justice! It’s been a while hasn’t it?”

“I guess. Did Mr. Wright know you’d be here?”

“Why? He didn’t tell papa did he? It’s supposed to be a surprise,” she frowned. Now what Mr. Wright said earlier made sense. Putting Trucy and her together usually made for a chaotic time.

“No, but why are you here?” Klavier asked. If Mr. Edgeworth had known he would have said something.

“A little birdy told me you’d be here and I need help with something,” she clapped her hands together and there was a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“Fraulein I feel we should warn you that herr Edgeworth and herr Wright are somewhat displeased with us right now.”

“I know! Kay and Trucy told me what happened yesterday. Trucy also told me you guys would be at the prosecutor’s office all week,” she was swaying now from side to side. Something horrible was about to transpire and they were helpless to stop it.

---

As the clock neared seven P.M., Edgeworth began to clean up his desk and finish up his work. At six thirty, an alarm had reminded him to leave in half an hour. Sky and Franziska’s plane would be getting in around seven thirty and he couldn’t be late. The last time he lost track of time and forgot to pick up his daughter, Franziska helped her rearrange his home office. It seemed his sister had no problem causing chaos with her niece if it caused problems for him. And today had been rather pleasant so he would prefer to avoid annoying his sister. Klavier and Apollo had been off on their trial, and Wright had picked up another case and brought Trucy along. Kay and prosecutor Debeste were putting together the prosecution's case for that trial and Athena and prosecutor Blackquill had gone to visit prosecutor Blackquill’s sister. That left Edgeworth to his own devices for the day which didn’t happen often.

His phone rang suddenly. Not his desk phone though, his personal cell. The caller ID was Franziska.

“Hello Franziska. I thought you weren’t landing for another half hour or so?” He double checked his clock to make sure he had the right time. Six forty-eight, he should still have time. “What do you mean you’ve been back for almost five hours, what have you been doing in that time?” Why had she given him a different time? Something wasn’t right. “Franziska… what did you do? More to the point, where is my daughter.”

He packed up his stuff and locked his office on the way out. Instead of answering his question, Franziska told him to meet her down stairs. Although he hoped that meant they were just waiting for him downstairs, things were never that simple with Sky. Ever since he’d adopted her eleven years ago, he found himself falling victim to her childish ideas and experiments. The results varied from messes to accidental food poisoning. However there were also the occasional pleasant results, like the two of them coming up with a new recipe that actually worked or a once a month office game night.

At the bottom of the stairs, he could see Franziska waiting for him, whip in hand. His daughter was nowhere in sight and if Franziska was in on whatever was going on, she wasn’t showing it. Instead she said that Sky was talking with some of the prosecutors in the cafeteria and that she had wanted to surprise him by getting in earlier than planned. Apparently the case in Berlin had ended sooner than anticipated and the only reason they hadn’t come back days ago was because Sky wasn’t in a rush to return to the heat of LA. 

She bid him farewell and left. She had some business to attend to here after all before returning to Berlin herself. It did not go unnoticed that she seemed to come by as frequently as possible. Everyone was quite sure it had something to do with her nieces niece. No matter how hard she tried, she visibly softened around both Trucy and Sky. Although Trucy wasn’t technically her niece… yet. Edgeworth made his way to the cafeteria.

He could hear joyfull conversation from the otherside. It actually sounded quite busy, usually it started quieting down by seven as people started leaving to work from home. He started to relax, perhaps the only surprise was getting back early.

“Edgeworth!” He turned to see Wright running up to him. Trucy was lagging slightly behind him on her phone. Really that and the sudden slow of noise on the other side should have been a warning.

“Wright? What are you doing here?”

“Kay said she wanted to talk about the case I took. Apparently her and prosecutor Debeste found something they wanted to share.” Edgeworth shrugged and opened the door with Wright by his side.

They stepped inside together and scanned the area for the people they were looking for. The second the door closed, everyone turned around and the room got very loud. It was a mix of laughter, screams of “FIRE!” and what Edgeworth knew to be the sound of nerf guns. On instinct, he moved his arms in front of his face, Wright was not so lucky. There was a barrage of darts for a little over ten seconds. Once it fell silent, minus a few giggles, Edgeworth and Wright straightened out and looked around. The area around them was covered in nerf darts and the Cafeteria seemed to be filled with everyone from the prosecutor's office plus the Wright Anything agency and a few detectives.

Edgeworth let out a sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose, Wright slowly started catching up. He frowned once he processed the ambush. Where they had gotten enough nerf guns neither had a clue. They did however know exactly who was behind it. Letting out a long sigh, Edgeworth sighed.

“Where are they?” He noticed that Trucy hadn’t followed them in, however she had a tendency to appear wherever.

All at once, the whole room pointed behind them. They hadn’t heard the door open, although they had been a little preoccupied. Turning around, they both received a flurry of shots to the chest. They barely had enough time to turn their heads so the shots didn’t rebound into their faces. The shots were accompanied by giggles from the two masterminds. Edgeworth had to fight a smile and he noticed Wright was having the same problem.

“At least you didn’t disturb the work day,” Wright sighed. “But you still made a mess. I hope you plan on picking this up.”

“Nope!” Trucy cheered, “We drew sticks to see who had to pick up.”

“Yep! Which means Papa and I-,” Sky yawned, "can get to our movie night.”

“I’m not so sure,” Edgeworth said, “This level of misbehavior warrants a punishment I believe. I think a fair punishment would be no movie night and instead EVERYONE has to pick up.”

Sky looked her father dead in the eye and said, “Overruled. You have insufficient evidence that we planned it. In fact you have no evidence regarding who planned it.” She put her hands on her hips. “All that’s been admitted is that we drew sticks to see who cleans up. Therefore a just verdict cannot be obtained.”

“Oh really?” Edgeworth challenged. People had started leaving the guns in a pile and leaving. A few people, the ones who had drawn the short sticks, stayed to cleanup. “Do tell me, who’s nerf guns are these? I know for a fact we only own a few.”

Sky smiled up at him, “I plead the fifth.”

[synnefo-nefeli]

Working on a WIP scene for Heard Your Heart Beating, my Klapollo friends to lovers post AA5, slow-burn fic

___

//Come fix your prosecutor// read Athena’s text. Apollo groaned wondering what Klavier could have done in the hour Klavier had spent at the WAA.

He adjusted his tie in the mirror of his locker, checked to make sure that he no longer looked sweaty from his ride over from court, and shoved his cycling outfit into his locker along with his helmet.

He could hear laughing on the other side of the office’s front door so that was a good sign, he hoped, as he swiped his keycard through the lock.

“Herr Forehead has finally arrived from his battle with the courts!” Klavier beamed at him with the smile that Apollo was now coming to call “on-stage-mode”. Klavier was sitting on the sofa next to Athena, coffee cups and tea biscuits between them on the table.

He could hear Mr. Wright bustling in the office kitchenette.

“I am back,” Apollo announced, “...and I survived Blackquill-“

“Oh, is that the reason you biked back? Simon didn’t offer to give you a lift?” Athena laughed, “how mean. He needs to learn to leave it in the courtroom.”

Apollo rolled his eyes, “Probably, but I am sure it has more to do with him needing to go down to the precinct and yell at the poor detective who sent him into court with an outdated autopsy report...also, what would I have done with my bike? I don’t want to ruin the guy’s new car by stashing it in the back seat.”

Mr. Wright arrived from the kitchen, fresh pot of coffee in hand, “Wow. A defense attorney having an updated report instead of the prosecution? Never thought I’d see the day...”

Apollo flopped on the couch opposite Athena and Klavier, “Hey. Miracles do happen...and considering all of our court win-streak, we shouldn’t be too surprised that they exist.”

“Here. Here.” Klavier said amiably into his coffee looking as if he was about to attempt to change the subject. Oh, Klavier wasn’t getting away from whatever occurred before Apollo arrived so easily,

“So... what’s this about me needing to fix ‘my prosecutor’?”

Klavier made an amused expression, “Ah, is that what I am called? Well I am honored to be Herr Justice’s”

Athena rolled her eyes, “Oh stop with the charm-“ she looked at Apollo, “he doesn’t want you to know that he’s never been to the Tragic Kingdom”

Apollo stared at Klavier, “Seriously?” which earned Klavier a playful elbow to the ribs from Athena, “Told you he would react like that”

Klavier sighed, “Is it really that big of a deal? Not going to a children’s amuse-“

“HOLD IT!” Apollo didn’t care that everyone about him flinched (“Indoor voice, Polly, jeeze”, Mr. Wright muttered”), “Disneyland is for everyone,” Apollo breathed, “you seriously haven’t gone? Ever? I mean...it’s only in Anaheim. That’s less than an hour without traffic from here-“

Mr. Wright handed Apollo a cup of coffee, “It’s been a while since ‘Mr. Disney Adult’’s shown his face at the office.”

“You say that as if you don’t have an annual pass too, Mr. Wright.”

Klavier appeared lost in the conversation; it was refreshing to see Mr. Tall, Blonde and Unflappable looking out of his depth, “Is it really a big deal that I haven’t?”

“Mm...not so much,” Mr. Wright said before Apollo could object, “well it wouldn’t be a big deal if you were hanging out with someone else, but I mean considering that you two have been spending a lot of time outside of court together, I think it’s more shocking that Apollo *hasn’t* dragged you down there already.

“You act like I go there all the time-“

“Says the person who has scheduled himself to come in late on days where there are morning annual passholder events,” Athena mused, “or how about the time you, Clay and Trucy, just decided to go to Disneyland after work because you wanted corndogs for dinner”

Across from him Klavier made a face, as if silently saying “Corndogs for dinner? Really? What are you, five?”.

Apollo met ‘his prosecutor’s’ eyes, “Those corndogs are legendary, and the only ones I’ll eat,” he rebutted, not caring that Klavier hadn’t actually said anything.

“He has a point there,” agreed Mr. Wright, “so I guess the big question is- how long before Klavier gets pulled into driving Apollo down to Anaheim?”

Klavier looked around the room at all of the other attorneys as if expecting for someone to tell him suddenly that this was all an act. Apollo meanwhile was mentally running through his calendar to figure out when he would have time to properly take Klavier to the park. There was so much to do at work-not to mention, he would have to prep Klavier for his first park visit.

“Do you like amusement parks?” Apollo asked Klavier.

The blonde man simply shrugged, “I’ve only been to a few in my life. Mein family wasn’t really into things like theme parks; didn’t see the value in them as entertainment. And when I moved here, I just didn’t go-“

“Not even grad-night?” Athena asked, “Junie told me that’s what the student council is setting up for the seniors. It’s tradition. Heck, every high school in Southern California does a school trip there at least once.”

Klavier shrugged, “I graduated early, remember? I guess I could have gone to the ceremony with the class that was graduating that year, but I wanted to get mein badge so I went home as soon as I could to pass the bar in Germany.”

“There’s one in France!”

Klavier sighed, “If I asked to do anything outside of museums and cultural experiences while we were in France, I would have been left in Germany.”

“Anyway,” Athena said, “If you’re going to hang with Polly, you’re going to have to go to the parks eventually-“

Apollo felt his cheeks heat, “I mean if that’s not what you like to do for fun, you don’t have to-“

“Oh please,” Mr. Wright interrupted, “I can confidently bet that you’ve been sitting here this entire time planning a trip for him.”

Apollo crossed his arms and sat back in defeat as Athena continued to regale Klavier with anecdotes of the WAA’s trips to the parks as well as Apollo’s impromptu visits,

“Has he shown you his pin collection yet?” Athena said in a tone that was too close to the tone she liked to use whenever she teased Apollo about his and Klavier relationship not being as platonic as Apollo made them seem.

//As if she doesn’t know the actual truth// Apollo grumbled, “Okay enough. Klavier already knows I am a nerd- he doesn’t need any more evidence about it”

“Ach you’re always cool, Herr Forehead,” Klavier smiled again in “on-stage mode”, which made Apollo decide that he needed to show Klavier what he was missing.

“When’s your birthday?” Apollo blurted.

Athena groaned, “Oh my god, Apollo, haven’t you heard of Wikipedia?”

“I like that Herr Forehead doesn’t feel the need to research me, it makes a rock god like me feel practically human,” Klavier teased and then with an amiable grin, “May 23rd.

However-I told you that on Valentine’s Day, don’t you remember?” He said a little too suggestively for Apollo’s comfort,

“I’m hurt that you don’t remember… and here I thought things that were shared during sleepovers were sacred,” he added a pout for good measure.

Out of the corner of his eye, Apollo saw Athena not-so-subtly pull out of her phone to text something, most certainly to Trucy.

Great, he was not going to know peace from either of them for the foreseeable future.

Although, Apollo appreciated that Athena had the grace to attempt to hide her grin.

Whether or not Klavier was aware of what was happening next to him, Klavier only sipped at his coffee.

“So in three weeks. Great, guess what we’re doing to celebrate your 26th birthday,” Apollo announced.

“It’s on a workday.”

“Take off.”

“Don’t you have to work?” Klavier asked

Apollo turned to Mr. Wright, “Mr. Wright, may I have the 23rd off?”

“Of course. Just put it on the calendar.”

Apollo, having won the debate, smiled smugly at Klavier, “Get ready, we have a lot to do before then.”

Klavier looked genuinely confused, “Like what?!”

He was about to ask what Klavier’s favorite Disney movie was, but then Athena’s phone buzzed, “Simon’s here- he needs help bringing up the food...and Trucy says she wants to also go to Disneyland for Klavier’s birthday, I think that’s a good idea; what do you think, boss?,”

Before Apollo could say anything about Athena or Trucy inviting themselves, Mr. Wright smiled and said,

“You know what- unless something pressing comes up and Trucy doesn’t have any projects or tests at school, I think the agency needs a mental health day. Maybe Miles and Prosecutor Blackquill need one too,” he remarked walking towards his office in order to most likely call his fiancé.

Finally alone- sort of. At least until Athena and Prosecutor Blackquill came upstairs with the food. But still, alone enough to enjoy Klavier silently trying to figure out what the hell just happened...or Apollo would have enjoyed Klavier’s genuinely flummoxed expression, except that he remembered how Klavier, despite his celebrity status, didn’t like to draw attention too himself unless it was in court or on stage- and especially not in public.

It was the reason Klavier hadn’t shown up to Clay’s funeral after all. He looked at Klavier feeling guilty for putting his friend on the spot,

“Sorry, if you don’t want to- we don’t have to-“

“Nein, nein,” Klavier said with his genuine smile, “you all are so passionate about it, now I have to experience it”

“Are you sure? I didn’t even ask if that’s how you wanted to spend your birthday-I just kinda got caught up in it.”

Klavier shrugged, “Honestly, considering that I usually spent the last few dragged to stuffy VIP lounges of clubs I wasn’t interested in, with people who, as it turned out, cared less about me- I think this may be a gut change of pace.”

Well that made him feel better...and a bit sad for Klavier, “I’ll make sure you have a good time and we won’t be overwhelmed. A lot of celebrities go to Disneyland, and they don’t get mobbed- people are pretty respectful of celebrities having their time in the parks.”

“You sound as if you are familiar.”

“Clay...worked there for a summer, celebrities would come all the time as park guests. And aside from maybe helping a celebrity escape a crowd, they don’t give anyone special treatment unless they’ve paid for a guided tour-“

“Oh- are we not doing that, Herr Forehead?”

Apollo snorted,“Hell no, you’re going to stand in line for Space Mountain like the rest of us plebes.” Also I’m not about to suggest we spend $800 an hour for a theme park tour...

Klavier’s laugh was enough to make Apollo feel better and better about commandeering Klavier’s birthday. He was going to look forward to these next few weeks in getting Klavier ready for his first time at the park. The thought of movie nights made Apollo feel a bit warm inside. Warm in a way that he hadn’t felt since Klavier had comforted him during his own birthday.

The office door opened, Athena holding it open so that Simon could come through with the large box that contained their takeout dinners. Apollo braced himself for any barbed words from Athena’s prosecutor; considering how the day’s court proceedings had gone, Apollo expected some amount of sour grapes. Instead Simon ignore Apollo and incredulously regarded his co-worker with,

“You’ve seriously never been to Disneyland, Gavin-dono?”

***

[swansstuff]

So uh, I've been thinking about a hypothetical Trucy Wright: Act Attorney and here is the very poorly written outline for it because yeah. No spoilers except the Apollo Trucy thing. Tw death, murder, blood and grieving so yeah.

Trucy's first case is literally her first ever case. This is a flashback case. We follow her as she wakes up, slightly stressed about today, Phoenix gives her cereal and a pep talk and a cryptic message. Trucy asks where Papa is, it is Miles, they are married. Phoenix is cryptic about that too. He stays behind as he "has to buy groceries" so Trucy heads into the office. Apollo greets her, it's clear they know they're siblings, and he hands her a case. Miles is prosecuting. She is fucking terrified. She goes to the crime scene, Gumshoe is the detective and he's educating his teenage sons, constant confusion of who's who, because they are twins and they look very like Gumshoe, it'll be kinda funny. Its a simple investigation. During the investigation, the player can check Trucy's profile and the profile system shows character's middle names now. We get some gems such as Klavier Hyacintha Gavin later on, the reasoning behind this is coz Trucy is nosy. The important one here is Trucy Mia Wright. She says something about how she chose her own middle name when Phoenix adopted her and she chose Mia after learning about her. Yada yada. Trucy wins the case. Edgeworth is very proud, Phoenix is in the gallery and there's a flash of him crying proud tears, Apollo hugs her afterwards, Athena congrats her.

Next case, flash forward three years later, we do not see Phoenix and nobody really mentions him. Thats because he's fucking dead but we don't know that yet. This case is a Fey case, we meet Maya who is married to Franziska and they're technically on honeymoon in Kurain and Pearl becomes the Maya to Trucy's Phoenix. Its another fey murder case. There are a few mentions of Trucy's admiration of Mia, mainly just a mirror of a few lines she's said and a conversation where her and Maya talk about her, Trucy says she would have loved to meet her and Maya explains how her spirit has been dormant for ages now and how she assumes she's moved on.

"If you want I can try and channel-"

"No no no no NO. Its ok!"

This is our first hint that Phoenix is no longer with us, but we don't know until later thats what she means. Sebastian is the prosecutor, the player finds out that Miles is taking a break from prosecuting work, Trucy already knew of course, and Sebastian is dubbed Chief until he comes back, Fran says

"It would've been me were I not on my literal honeymoon right now." We are not told why yet, but it is because of Phoenix. Kay Faraday is the detective, somebody murders someone and frames Maya, no-one is shocked by this. We also get an update on Iris, she's thriving. She wins yada yada.

Next case, a couple of months later, Trucy gets a call from a friend that the player can't identify at first. Its Katrielle Layton. She needs Trucy's legal knowledge because someone is sueing her detective agency because have you seen how they practice. This, of course, turns to murder and we get another surprise when we meet the prosecutor. Who probably has a licence to practise law in England? Simon Blackquill, he is British ok. Yeah, Trucy wins with Kat's help, we meet Ernest and Sherl and Alfendi and Flora if we have time. I miss them. Trucy and Kat have a conversation that cryptically addresses their fathers and their "whereabouts" and living up to their legacy. We see Trucy cry, but only a similar flash to AJ:AA and we do not know why. Yet.

Next case, flashback case. Trucy is the assistant on this case but we still play as her, even in the court sections since Phoenix is prepping her for the bar and getting her to give him the answers. The bar exam is only in three days. Klavier is prosecuting. The case somehow relates to Kristoph and there's the whole mirror dynamic thing of when Phoenix lost his badge. Kristoph is dead by now, but the whole thing is there was a plot inside prison to make Phoenix pay for putting a bunch of them in, Kristoph was the assumed ring leader until he died and the cops now dont know who's running it. Somebody (Godot? That would hurt big time) was their inside man, sent to figure that out, so when whoever it was turned up dead, the whole thing got exposed. We get a bit of a Mia moment in the trial where Trucy tells Phoenix to flip over the receipt (thats evidence for some reason). Phoenix says "I feel like that shouldn't be the second time someone has said that to me". The killer is found, by Phoenix, and put into isolation, as have most of the other participants. We then see Trucy get her badge. They have a conversation and Trucy says Phoenix basically forgot about it for a couple of months. The case closes with a foreboding "and I forgot about it too, until..."

Next case. Phoenix is fucking murdered. Trucy gets a phone call late at night, she hears laboured breathing on the other end and a "don't forget I love you" from Phoenix. Trucy pulls a simba and goes "dad? Dad?!!" And the line goes dead. The player is presented with a choice of who to call. They have two phone calls. Who they choose first makes no difference, but the second time they are forced to choose Ema who will trace Phoenix's phone call. They could call Apollo and he would comfort her, Miles would panic, Maya would say he was just messing around, Athena would sense her distress and say she's coming over etc. You could attempt to call Phoenix back but he would not answer and you would be allowed to call someone else. Ema then traces the phone call and we follow Trucy to the crime scene. We get a truly haunting cutscene where everything kinda goes blurry except Phoenix's face and the blood. Trucy doesn't cry. She stands there in shock. The WAA is there in various states of shock and upset. Return of grieving Apollo I guess. Miles turns up and the look on his face is haunting. Trucy and him make eye contact and they share the thought of something has to be done. And then. "The bar association took me off the case and Papa too, they said we were too close to it. As a result, we never found out who did it... Until now." And we see a determined Trucy face. We jump forward to where we last saw Trucy, she and Pearl are coming back from England and its a bit more cheery. Trucy sends Pearl on a train back to Kurain and heads on home. She enters the house and we see Miles pouring over Phoenix's case. He jumps up and runs towards her.

"Trucy! I think I have a lead, I-"

"Papa, you're tired, go to bed." (Or better dialogue along those lines)

Its clear he's been doing this sort of thing a lot.

"But I do! At least...I think I do..."

He trails off and rests his head in his hands.

"Do I? Or am I just a mess?"

Trucy gives him a sad smile.

"C'mon let's go to bed."

Miles returns the sad smile and fades out like all ace attorney characters do. The player is given the option to look around. There's probably some emotional dialogue and bits that give clues to how she and Miles have been fairing the past 3 years. Answer is, not very well. Examine the pile of papers on the table. Trucy will take a look and then realise her papa may have actually been onto something. Its a diagram of which prisoners knew each other, with an arrow from each leading to a defense attorney we have never met. Trucy is confused, but she calls for Miles anyway. He comes back downstairs and Trucy asks him about this lead he found.

"Well I realised all those prisoners would know this defense attorney (insert name?)"

"Why? And why would they be suspicious?'

"They (pronouns?) Were always the defense attorney who would take on the cases of those Wright had already accused. They gained a reputation of being the doomed defense attorney."

"So... They knew all the prisoners in the plot and they had a grudge against daddy... Papa I think you're onto something!"

And the case continues, since we already know who's been accused, it plays out more like an investigations game, Trucy has to prove it, with Miles' help of course, literally every other character we know and love plays a part in making sure this guy gets a guilty verdict. There is still a courtroom bit and a moment when all is looking dark, Trucy literally has a full on breakdown as the Judge threatens to remove her from the case again. Miles is by her side, they're both technically prosecution here i guess. Miles, however, is too deep in his own mental breakdown to help. Everyone else is in the gallery besides Pearl. Pearl channels Phoenix as a last hope sort of thing. Phoenix comforts her and tells her to keep fighting, he touches her badge and probably says some sort of bullshit about it. The Judge is about to bang the gavel when Trucy and Phoenix object at the same time. Miles looks up and realises whats going on and he objects too, a little later. The battle goes on until it finishes and the other attorney has a breakdown that steals little bits from every other murderer Phoenix has put behind bars.This is the one time seeing the word guilty on your screen feels good. There's a whole heartwarming celebration at the end, Phoenix sticks around for a little bit and everyone gets a bit of closure. Its assumed he's gone since Pearl passes out and Trucy dips out for a sec. She's away from the festivities, staring at the badge in her hand and we see someone coming up behind her. Maya is channelling Phoenix now. He gives Trucy a hug and utters the words "the only time a lawyer can cry is when its all over and, Trucy darling, my light, its over." Echoing both Diego and Mia.

And the screen fades to black with a final hug between father and daughter.

:)

[cherrysweather]

Omg if u wanna do a black quill one shot 😳... ill request one of a date pre UR1.. BUT IF YOU DONT DO HIM its ok

Of course I’m going to write for Blackquill!! I missed writing for him uwu I tried to write something the least boring possible but I need to thank you for giving me an opportunity to write for pre-UR1 Simon because I found interesting how he matured, he changed from how we imagine him pre-prison to how he is after it and I really enjoyed writing about it So thank you so much again and I hope you’ll like this >-< (I’m so sorry for the long wait, I hope you’re reading this even after all these days Anon, I’m sorry :( --------------------------------------

Laugh with me [Simon Blackquill x Reader]

"He’s coming!" as they heard an acute voice coming towards them, they turned their head and saw an orange ponytail moving as a little girl approached them

"Hey sweet orange" they knelt down to meet Athena’s height "How are you?" they hugged her as soon as she was enough close

"I’m feeling good today!" she moved the hair from their face to place a kiss on their cheek

"I’m happy to hear it" they passed a hand on Athena’s thin back

"Where are you and Simon going today?" she asked curiously as she dragged them to sit to a table

"I found two tickets for a traditional show at the theater near the seafront and then he offered to choose where to dine" they smiled while speaking "Don’t worry, tomorrow I’ll completely leave him to you" they softly patted her hair, laughing at her face

"It’s ok if you spend time with him too! The hearts of you both sing songs of happiness whenever you two are together; even now I can hear that you’re happy!" Athena smiled in such a pure way that the blush on their cheeks could only increase

"Don’t say these things loudly!" they tried to keep Athena’s mouth closed

"Why? Did I say something bad?"

"Just don’t" they looked around to be sure that no one heard Athena, and luckily no one was close enough "…H-His heart too- He’s happy when he’s with me?" they asked after a moment of silence that seemed endless, not looking Athena in the eyes for the embarrassment

"Yes! Every time he speaks about you to my mom or me he seems like he drunk two liters of energy drinks" she kept that smile on her lips as she spoke

"Thanks" they poked her nose and sighed softly, thinking about what that meant, sensing a feeling of satisfaction, happiness, knowing that Simon was happy with them; not that they doubted it, but hearing it so directly, has its effect. They began to tap their fingers on the table, waiting for “His Holiness” to come down from heaven. And, he actually arrived!  

"Did I kept you waiting too long?" when that deep and calm voice came to their ear and a heavy hand rested on their shoulder, they turned towards him and pulled his body toward them from his wrist into a hug

"Oh no no, it just seemed that I was waiting for you to finish an interrogation" they smiled and kissed his cheek

"At least appreciate that I asked Athena to warn you"

"You’re always overworking this poor girl" they pushed him to get up, sticking their nose to his but moving the moment he leaned over to kiss them "Say sorry to Athena first" they looked in his eyes, teasing him but receiving a sigh as an answer.

"See you tomorrow Athena, go to your mother and eat something" he caressed her cheek with his finger and giving her a smile before turning toward the exit. "Where are you going!" they stopped before going after him, kissing Athena’s forehead and waving at her while running to reach Simon. "Stop right here!" She jumped on his back, holding him tight

"Do you want to arrest me?" he grabbed their thighs and took them on his back

"I’ll probably lose against you, so I won’t even try" they hugged his neck and kissed the back of his head

"A good choice indeed" once they were out the space center, he let them down his back, wrapping their shoulders with his arm to hold them close

"How were your lessons today?" they took his hand and looked up at him

"Pretty good, I always manage to learn something new"

"I’ll wait for this samurai to master the emotions and psyche of others patiently" they leaned on him on purpose with all the weight

"Do you want me to become a psychological manipulator?" he held their weight, amused by their childish behavior

"I’m saying it for you too! It could be useful for you as a prosecutor; like when they put you in charge of questioning suspects and you take ages to finish" they tried to convince him of what they were saying

"You have a point on that but, my teacher isn’t a manipulator herself"

"You’ll learn from yourself, you’re intelligent so you can do it" when he didn’t reply for nearly a minute, they turned to his face and laughed softly seeing the contrasting blush on his pale face, hugging his arm but avoiding teasing him.

"You still haven’t told me where we’re going" he said as they stopped to check the shortest way to get to the theater

"I’ll tell you once we’ll be there" they looked up from the phone and smiled at him "You also have to tell me where are we going tonight" they returned to search on the phone

"You’ll see" he answered with their own coin, accepting their challenge when they placed their gaze on his eyes, staring into theirs and nearly into their soul, forcing them to look away

"Stop it"

"You started" he smirked and looked around them, getting closer to them when too many people started to walk near

"There’s no need to protect me" they smiled seeing a shadow in front of them, resting their head on his chest

"Too many people" he wrapped their hips with his arms and tried to see something on the screen of the phone

"Don’t worry, I found it" they tried to reach his lips "You still have to give me a kiss"

"You’re the one who walked away when I tried to give you one"

"Stop being a douchebag" they tried to pull him down by his jacket

"But that’s how I am" He stayed where he was, not giving them victory even when they tried with all their strength

"I’ll climb on you if you don’t bend over" they pouted at him sighing but when they pulled one last time, he “softened” and his forehead slammed against theirs, and when they bent on their knees holding their forehead, it seemed that they were stuck to the ground

"I’m sorry" he reached down to help, trying to contain his laughter

"You could have just told me you didn’t want to instead of head-butting me" they tried to hit his arm with the same strength as his head, not being able to hold their laughter too as she looked at him

"I didn’t want to" he pulled them up, pressing his lips on their head "Do you need some ice?" he passed softly his hand on their head

"I need new neurons, and perhaps a new skull" they squeezed their jacket to avoid beating him, waiting for the pain to pass

"Oh? Did you have any neurons in there?" he pretended to be shocked, putting a finger under their chin when she looked up

"I think I had at least two healthy" they punched his shoulder and looked in his eyes, offended

"They’re still there, don’t worry" he pinched their nose with that amused smirk still on his lips, leaning towards them to try to make amends by resting his lips on theirs "Will you forgive me?"

"I’ll see" they didn’t even give him time to finish the question, pulling him to walk again.

He took that one gesture as an answer that only strengthened the provocative smile on his face.

"Ok, are we going to the park, that bar, or do you want to make a new building appear from the ground?" he asked when they sat on the edge of a fountain

"You called them all except the one where we’re going" they patted the spot beside them, taking the two tickets from their pocket as he sat down "Guess what’s this" they covered the name of the show, leaving uncovered only the Japanese print that was on them

"That’s a print of Meguro since there’s the Fuji in the background, so probably it’s a show set in Meguro? Or?"

"Better, a Rakugo show of which one of the many stories is set in Meguro" they handed him one of the two tickets to show him "I remembered you once said that a friend of yours knew a Rakugo crew and that you would like to go see one, so I searched for the first show that would be held nearby; happy?" they slipped under his arm and looked up at him, seeing an expression full of surprise and happiness

"You don’t forget anything uh? I think I told you that thing at least one year ago" he pulled them to him, kissing their head repeatedly, suddenly moving his lips to theirs "Thank you" he held their hand in his, cuddling it with his finger

"It’s nothiing" they laughed at his reaction, squeezing his hand and getting closer to him "But we have to wait about fifteen minutes before we can enter" they took their small bag, searching something in it

"We can talk or do something in the meanwhile"

"Yeah, about that; did you have lunch?" they pulled out of the bag a box covered with a colorful cloth "I brought you something to eat if you haven’t yet"

"You didn’t have to" "Knowing that someone uses the excuse of working until night to eat nothing all day, I definitely had to" they hit his arm weakly "So eat, I did it with all my love".

He sighed and opened the box, finding in it three onigiri, some vegetables, and other side dishes

"There are both the chopsticks and a fork in the box" they waited for him to taste something and get his opinion "How’s that?"

"Mh, it’s edible, nothing special" he waited to see their sad face before laughing "I’m joking, this is delicious" he hit them with his shoulder "Thanks again" he passed them something with his chopsticks, taking his hand away when they tried to bite his finger too "Beast"

"Rude. And evil".

When the minutes passed, the two of them entered the theater and they gave the two tickets to the staff to certify them before entering the hall "Wait wait! I know how these kinds of stages are called!" They sat down in their seats as they thought about it "They’re called yose, right? Or koza?"

"The yose is the traditional rakugo theater, the koza is the stage" he corrected them "Study better next time" he laughed softly at their face

"At least I try"

"And I couldn’t be happier, I’m glad you try to share my interests" If Athena were here, she would only jump all over the place from how Simon’s heart is full of happiness and relief from all the busy days before this, grateful to be able to spend it with them.

Since they were seeing a Rakugo show, some Japanese Rakugo-ka took turns to tell a different story both in English and in Japanese, that then an interpreter translated, sometimes interrupted by the laughter of the audience.

- “When the Lord saw the dish in front of him he was very surprised As far as he knows fish is supposed to be red and flat like sea breeze, he's never seen anything like sanma before. At first, he can't believe that these long black things are really fish; what's more, they're still covered with smoking cinders, which make a sizzling sound "They're crying" "No Master, they're not. Please try some" - "Delicious! Sanma is the best. Farmers are lucky, they eat better food than I do! From now on I'm going to eat sanma at every meal" - - One day, the lord is invited to the home of his cousin "Thank you for coming to my home, I'd like to serve your favorite dish so, what can I ask my cook to prepare for you?" "I'd like the sanma" "Huh? Sanma? You want Anma?" "No no, you can't eat Anma, I said Sanma; it's long and black, and smokes and sizzles. You can't stop eating it, I'm dying for Sanma!" "Oh okay, I'll go talk to the cook" "Huh? A cheap common fish?" - "Oh okay, I'll rush out to the nearest market and get some" "Wait wait wait! Don't go to our usual place, buying it there will give us a bad name, you better go to Nihombashi" "Ok, I'll go" - - After he buys the fish, he thinks how to prepare it in the best way for the Lord; he knows the best way to cook the Sanma is to grill it and serve it with grated radish and soy sauce but, he thinks he'd better remove the fat by steaming the fish so that the lord doesn't get indigestion and that he'd better remove the bones so they don't scratch the lord's throat. So the freshest Sanma in all of Edo is served to the lord as soup; without fat and bones and in a very fancy bowl with a lid on it. - "What's this? Sanma should be long and black; are you sure this is Sanma?" "Yes yes, it's Sanma" The Rakugo-ka mimed the moment to eat that soup, spitting it out immediately afterwards "Yuck! Where did you get this- this Sanma?" "My cook went to the fish market in Nihombashi that has the best Sanma in all of Edo" "Huh? This isn't the best Sanma, everyone know that the best Sanma comes from Meguro!"” - "This was my first time at a Rakugo show, but I’m already waiting to go to another one"

"I'm happy you liked it" he took their arm and walked away with them.                                                                       He took them toward one of the great streets of the city, keeping them close as they walked

"So? So? Where are we going?" they asked, pulling his shirt like a child

"You’ll see" he didn’t even look down the face they were making for him to change his mind "I'll say just that a friend of mine runs it, so you'll eat well"

"So you're bringing me at a romantic dinner"

"Not in a super fancy and expensive restaurant, so I hope you'll like it anyway"

"If you like it so much you want to take me, I’m sure it will be one of the best I’ve ever tried; today I understood that your tastes are very reliable" they followed him, arriving at some point on a road near the river that was empty "This place is pretty isolated" they looked around them, noticing also that the sky darkened as the sun went down

"That’s one of the things that makes me love this place" he stopped for a second, looking up to the sky and moving away from them for a moment "What time is it?" he looked at them"

"Um, it’s almost eight o’clock; why?"

"Someone has to eat too, you know" he then whistled into the air, making as much noise as possible to be sure of an answer "We can go in the meantime"

"What did you do?" they asked looking back

"Wait some seconds and you’ll see" they pouted at him, tired of always being kept on the edge, understanding what-, or better, who Simon called when she heard a scream, a screech, approaching them but stopped once that two sharp “paws” landed on Simon’s shoulder

"Taka!" they smiled but took a few steps away from him as they know he still doesn’t really like them "You gave him a new bandana! He’s so cute" they greeted him with her hand

"I thought he deserved a change of style" he scratched the back of his head and under his beak, taking then a packet of pieces of dried meat from his jacket’s pocket

"Can I try to feed him?" they said hesitantly

"If you want to try it’s ok, he’s still a chick, so he should stay calm" he patted his head with his finger, passing the packet to them and stopping from walking

"If he bites me, I’ll cry" they said laughing, taking a piece of meat and bringing it close to him, trembling with their hand, breathing a sigh of relief when he took the dried meat and not their skin.

"See? It’s easy" he let him fly free again moving his shoulder suddenly, noting that the sky was now only a single cloud

"You do it every day, easy to say that" fortunately they arrived shortly after it started to rain. They remained behind his back, looking around and waiting for him to lead the way

"Heyo Simey!" a short boy approached them and Simon walked to greet him

"Hey pillock" he patted him on the back as a greeting

"Stop calling me like that" he punched his arm and his eyes fell on the other person with him "Oh, you're that friend of his? Nice to meet you! I’m Bucky!" he took their hand and shook it

"It’s nice to meet you too" they approached as if pulled by him

"Every time Simey comes here to eat, he always talks about you. He’s completely in l- Ouch!" he stopped when Simon’s hand hit his head

"Silence, that’s enough." He sighed and didn’t even look at them

"You can use your words instead of your hands; they’re harsher but lighter" Bucky looked at him badly and passed before him "Take a seat and let him eat so maybe he calms down" he said in a low voice, looking at them

"I can hear you, you know"  he made Bucky run straight into the kitchen as he spoke

"You’re unbearable" they pinched his hand looking at him

"He’s used to it" he laughed softly at their face, moving his eyes to the window after a thunder

"Shouldn’t you call Taka back? It’s dangerous for him to fly around with thunders"

"I was thinking about it" he got up and went out, whistling immediately after a thunder to prevent Taka from not hearing him, coming back inside with a soaked chick in his arms

"Aww wait a second" they took a jacket from their bag, opening it and wrapping Taka in it

"Is he alright?" Bucky returned with two menus and some water, looking at Taka

"He’s just wet, nothing hurt him" Simon answered, patting Taka’s wing

"He’s strong" they adjusted her jacket like a nest to keep Taka warm as soon as the orders, kindly advised by Simon, arrived "Anyway, thank you for bringing me here" they smiled at him, separating the two chopsticks

"If it hadn’t started raining, it would have been a perfect day, but we have to settle" he moved the soba in the broth, adding some soy sauce to it

"But I enjoyed it and I’m still doing it! Hearing you laugh at the theatre was the best part of course" they smiled and imitated him in mixing the soba

"That’s why you chose a Rakugo show instead of any other kind of show?"

"I chose it because you wanted to go see one, and because it was comic, so I could hear you laugh" they blew on the soba to cool it and make it edible before tasting it.

He just smiled as an answer, having some blush in his cheeks, trying to hide it eating. When Taka recovered, he started to hop around their table, searching for food "He can eat this meat right?" they took a piece of meat from their bowl, blowing on it so as not to burn Taka’s mouth

"He prefers it raw, but even if boiled it shouldn’t disgust him" they gave it to him with the chopsticks once it was cool, happy that Taka ate it willingly, like the rest of their leftover

"And with that, he dined too" Simon said as he stretched himself, hitting his belly "Did you enjoy?" he looked for a second outside the window, seeing the rain still falling

"Yes! We should come here more often now that I know how good this food is" they stood up to stretch too "Now we need a good run in the rain to digest" they took Taka and put him back in their jacket, going then to pay with Simon

"I can’t pay for myself right?"

"You paid for both the theatre tickets, so no, you can’t" he patted Taka’s head, thinking about how to go back home without drowning in the rain "This rain isn’t going to stop soon, so we’ll have to get wet" he took off his jacket and covered them when they approached him

"And you?" they looked at him, trying to cover at least his head too

"Don’t worry about me, think about Taka" he patted their head laughing, saying goodbye to Bucky before going out.

After nearly half an hour, they found repair at Simon’s house, running inside at the speed of light "Go take a hot shower or you’ll get a cold"

"Can you please stop worrying about me as if I’m a kid?" they released Taka from their chest, placing their jacket on a chair

"Because you are a kid to me; or at least, a kid definitely dressed lighter than me and who might freeze faster than me" he touched their forehead, sighing and going toward his bedroom

"Go in the shower, I’ll bring you some clothes". He returned then in the bathroom with some of his clothes "These clothes should fit you, tell me if you want something else"

"They're ok, thanks" they smiled, but in the meantime, they pushed him out of the bathroom

"As if there’s a problem with seeing you undress" he rested his back on a wall next to the door "I already seen everything there’s to see; you thin back and every detail of your thighs. Oh and, I already saw also your-" he was interrupted when they suddenly opened the door, red like a tomato "-Embarrassed face as I admired it all" they were so close to punching him, but all they could do was lock themself into the bathroom to ignore him. When they came out, they kept their gaze away from him, still embarrassed by his words

"A tiny lion entered the room" he passed a hand on their still warm hair, kissing them quickly before taking his turn in the shower.

They just sat on the carpet, sighing and trying to get Taka’s attention from where he was. They patted him slowly, still scared, since they knew they weren’t too appreciated by the raptor, but strangely he was accepting their attention; he started it. They were interrupted by the sound of the entrance door opening, and Aura entering "Hello Ms. Aura!"

"Now I’m a miss? What are you doing here? And where’s that weeb?" she threw her stuff on the table, hugging them as if they were her younger sibiling

"I’m here because we were out together and since it started raining I took refuge here; he’s under the shower now"

"Oh great, I hope he made you eat" she went to her room, slamming her hand on the bathroom door in the meantime "Don’t even think about letting them sleep with you tonight, I forbid it; and hurry up in there!" He actually came out minutes after, still drying his hair with a towel "Aura came back?" he sat on the sofa, keeping a hand on his head

"Oh yes, you heard her?" they laughed, showing in the meanwhile Taka to Simon

"W-What have you done to him?" he laughed as soon as he saw him

"He trusted me so I made him beautiful! I dried all of his feathers, I combed them and I changed his bandana with a dried one; you like him?" they laughed too when Taka flew on Simon’s leg

"He’s handsome, like his owner"

"Oh please" they took a pillow from the sofa and threw it to him

"You’re saying I’m not handsome?" he threw it back to them

"Probably" they approached him and rested their chin on his knee, smiling innocently, managing to receive a kiss from him like that, a gentle and slow one, which was however interrupted when he hit their forehead with his finger

"Rude"

"Me?! You’re the one who just hit me!"

"Revenge" he was so calm, but deep inside he was laughing like a devil

"Treat them well you emo weeb!" Aura’s voice thundered from the hallway, scaring both of them that then ended up laughing like two idiots.

  "Choose; Samurai or Ninja?" he looked at them, taking the remote control in hand

"For?"

"Choose." They saw the remote in his hand, so they understood

"Samurai I guess"

"And samurai it is" he grabbed their arm and pulled her on the sofa with him, putting an episode of the Steel Samurai "We can do the entire rewatch of it if you want"

"I already like the theme, so I’m completely ok!" they nestled in his arms and after a while, Taka joined them, as if he too, was interested

"Don’t turn them in a weeb too, please" Aura sighed before that scene, shaking her head

"At least they try to look into what I like, ignorant’ Simon looked into her eyes as if to challenge her, but it took Aura less than a second to turn her heels and walk away, surrendered. 

------------------------------- Just here for a useless thought but, the UR-1 Incident will take place on the 7th of October this year! Probably someone at Nasa will be killed or something OwO In doubt, I’ll mark it on the calendar XD Maybe an irl Simon will appear, who knows ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯

[youngbounty]

Why Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is Uninteresting

I want to talk about my issues with Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. There’s a reason I consider him to be the most uninteresting prosecutor in Ace Attorney. It’s disappointing, because I do see a lot of potential in his character. The things that make him uninteresting will boil down to the fact he is boring, until the very end of the game. With other prosecutors, while we are never given backstory of them until the end, there was still something about them that grabs our attention. Miles Edgeworth was a smug, but genius prosecutor that only cared for Guilty verdicts. Franziska Von Karma was a vengeful prosecutor with a whip and the daughter of Manfred Von Karma, who was the villain of the first game. Godot was a coffee addict prosecutor that often used coffee metaphors, seemed wise and had a vendetta against Phoenix that we continued to question. Even Klavier and Blackquill had something interesting to them that made them stand out, whether it would be a rock star prosecutor that became the reason for Phoenix losing his job or an inmate prosecutor that used psychology and samurai skills against his opponents. Aside from being a monk prosecutor and throwing beads, there isn’t anything about Nahyuta Sahdmadhi that makes him different from the typical asshole prosecutor we meet in every game. Though, at least we never had to question why they were assholes. 

When I have to question why Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is an asshole prosecutor, despite being built up as the opposite at the beginning, that’s already a bad sign. Yes, we didn’t know much about the other prosecutors, but as I stated before, there was never a question why they had to be assholes. Edgeworth was an asshole, because he only believed in winning and Guilty verdicts. Franziska was an asshole, because Phoenix placed her father in jail. Yes, she did correct it was because of Edgeworth, but even that made sense. Godot had a vendetta against Phoenix and, while we didn’t know what that vendetta was, at least we could make sense that it was the reason he was being an asshole. Blackquill being an inmate and the Dark Age of Law already speaks for itself of why he’s an asshole. Why is Nahyuta an asshole and does he have to be? Klavier certainly wasn’t an asshole prosecutor, so why do we have to accept that every prosecutor we meet has to be an asshole of some kind. If we had something concrete, it would be enough to pull us in. Claiming that he’s an asshole, because he and his country hate defense attorneys is not a reason when he prosecutes internationally and has a father, who is also a defense attorney. Speaking of prosecutors with fathers as defense attorneys, Edgeworth didn’t like Defense Attorney’s either, but he at least had a concrete reason for it that wasn’t just Guilty Verdicts. I’m still questioning why Nahyuta treated Apollo and Athena so horribly, it isn’t like they’re in his own country where all eyes are on him. Even if he did have eyes on him, he could just say, “I need to be respectful to these people and their beliefs or our country will be at war with theirs and there will be no peace.” 

What makes even less sense is why Nahyuta avoids Apollo. For Edgeworth, it made sense, because he didn’t want those he loved to be involved with something that traumatized him as a child and Phoenix was already too deeply involved and with those involved in it. For Blackquill, it made sense, because he was protecting his dead master’s child from being arrested for a murder she may or may not have committed as a child. For Nahyuta, you could argue that there was a reason, being that Apollo is his brother and did not want him to be anywhere in his country or defending those of said country. But, the thing is, Apollo isn’t involved with Khura’in and neither is Athena. It’s possible Nahyuta may’ve predicted their involvement, since the game mentions of him predicting someone’s karma, but we never get into detail with that sort of power or understand it. If Nahyuta didn’t want Apollo getting involved, wouldn’t being a complete asshole do the opposite? It isn’t like Apollo knew what was going on, except through Phoenix, and even when he did, he made no plans in going to Khura’in. Considering Trucy’s situation in The Magical Turnabout, Nahyuta’s actions make less sense, if he was intending on protecting his loved ones from his kingdom’s tyranny. Had Trucy been found Guilty, all the money from the agency would be milked dry, Phoenix would be stuck in Khura’in and Apollo will be without a job. Wouldn’t it make better sense if Nahyuta was sweeter and nicer to Apollo to give him the false sense of security that everything was doing fine in Khura’in, so that he won’t worry? Wouldn’t it make more sense if Nahyuta was more livid and unforgiving toward Roger Retinz, after finding out about him conning Trucy and that almost putting the Agency in jeopardy, because it would have done harm to his brother? At least Turnabout Sisters made it clear that Redd White had blackmailed prosecutors and everyone involved with DL-6 to give the players a hint that Edgeworth was probably blackmailed into indicting Phoenix for murder. 

Speaking of reading people’s Karma, what kind of power is that? We know Nahyuta has that power, but we don’t know what it is or how it’s used. It’s not to say that magic has never been used in Phoenix Wright, but there’s always context or rules to it. What are the rules for Nahyuta using his karma-reading abilities? Can he predict the future? If he can, how is he able to do so? We are never given anything and this is sad, considering I was expecting something like the Divination Séance or Spirit Channeling where we can see some supernatural stuff. What we get instead is guesses and “duh magic” being the answer. One of Nahyuta’s magical abilities is using some magic item like beads or Apollo’s bracelet to constrict, but are never told how it works. At least with Apollo and Athena, we are shown and told how their powers work and if they’re passed down. There are rules and limitations. What rules or limitations does Nahyuta have? Are they from his mother, who is a spirit medium? Are male offspring of spirit mediums given certain abilities different from spirit mediums as a symbolism of their royalty? If so, what are they? Do the males in the Kurain Village where Maya lives have those abilities? Throw me a bone here! If I can’t understand how Nahyuta’s powers work, I’m not going to care or feel threatened by them. 

There are others that don’t make sense, but these are the main parts of Nahyuta that stood out to me. The sad part is that these could be fixed to where his character can stand out a little bit more without changes to his backstory. For instance, perhaps instead of introducing Nahyuta during the trial of The Magical Turnabout, introduce him as Apollo’s brother paying a visit and joining with him to watch Trucy’s show. Have him be very kind and sweet at the beginning, excited about seeing Apollo and wanting to spend time with him. Then, when it’s revealed that he will be prosecuting against Trucy, his asshole personality will be taken as him trying to protect Apollo from someone he thinks is trying to hurt him and thinking Trucy to be that person. This will introduce him as an overprotective brother using his ruthlessness to protect his family and those close to them. Nahyuta telling Phoenix, Apollo and Athena to “let it go and move on” will make sense as someone trying to protect the only good defense attorneys and those close to his brother in his own way, because he doesn’t want them to suffer or have to run like his father is. Instead of avoiding Apollo, perhaps he is more social with him in trying to give him a false sense of security that everything is going good at his home when it is not. 

I would especially go into detail about Nahyuta’s ability to read people’s karma. Perhaps it is something like fortune telling where he can see the fate of someone through their eyes in the form of a vision. His limitations are that he can only see the vision, but not touch, taste, smell or hear what is going on. He also cannot predict when they will happen and only lasts for maybe a minute to five seconds. Also, the longer he sees these visions, the more taxing it will be on his energy level, much like with spirit mediums summoning spirits. Perhaps his abilities to use beads or Apollo’s bracelet to constrict whatever it is wrapped around is how he’s able to gain these visions. He has to use the beads to wrap around his opponent’s source of strength, then as it tightens around the opponent’s body part, Nahyuta gains clear visions of their karma or fate. He can do this with any jewelry that has a source of magic. As for how Nahyuta gained these powers, they can be from his mother and be considered magic passed down among royalty through the males. This can make it to where even males with these kinds of magic have some sort of hierarchy. 

While this would risk having Nahyuta being revealed to being Apollo’s brother, it will not spoil any backstory he has. It won’t even spoil who their father is. If anything, it adds mystery to who this new opponent is and Nahyuta would be considered the first prosecutor openly related to one of the main characters, even if it’s as a foster brother. Having Apollo’s brother be the opponent to Spirit of Justice would give his character that uniqueness he needs, especially if his motive for facing against the main characters are to protect them against a tyrannical dictatorship in his country. There is an attractiveness towards characters that are willing to make sacrifices and make themselves evil in order to protect their loved ones. So then, by the time  you get to Turnabout Revolution and Nahyuta realizes his father is dead and Apollo might be next, there is this sense of dread that he feels he’s failed to protect those he loved, after doing so much and giving up everything he stands for, for their sake. 

Of course, these are my thoughts. Now, I don’t think Nahyuta is a terrible character, just poorly executed. To be honest, I think Rayfa should’ve been the Prosecuting Attorney, because I felt she was a much more interesting character. It would also be interesting to see a young spirit medium as a prosecutor. If there ever becomes an AA7 with Apollo Justice, I would like to see the main prosecutor of that game be a spirit medium. Though, what do you guys think?

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Witches, Chapter 25: back at Themis and like, everything about this place is increasingly awful and Professor Means is a shady motherfucker but we knew that already.

Thank you all for your patience as I took a month off from updates to try and build up a buffer that’s less than I like because Ch 27 is still being a bastard to me. These things happen. I’ll figure it out. 

[Seelie of Kurain Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

[Witches Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

----

Blackquill skips the damn opening statement, as though he intends to see how much he can get away with before he’s held in contempt of court, which he won’t ever be because the judge is terrified of him. Fulbright’s explanation of the crime is a list of indisputable facts, with nothing to even cross-examine. Myriam Scuttlebutt testifies from beneath her cardboard box and had a tape recorder hidden in the art room that allegedly picked up audio from the murder. Robin Newman is secretly a girl; her parents come from a tiny superstitious village that believes girl children are more likely to be stolen and replaced by changelings, so to fool the fae they raised Robin as a boy in her early years and then decided they’d rather have a son and didn’t end the charade. Hugh O’Conner had a private meeting with the victim that evening, but Juniper was with her after. 

The day ends with the judge about to name Juniper guilty, Apollo desperately wracking his brain for anything he can take issue with to stall for more time, and Robin and Hugh rushing up to the stand and both announcing themselves to be the actual killer, before Juniper tries to counter-confess over their confessions. And because no verdict is possible with this mess, the judge tells everyone to get out investigating and ends this session of court with Blackquill looking ready to earn his murder conviction another three times over. 

Dumb high schoolers committing perjury saved the case today, and this feels even worse than the time Apollo’s case was saved by Trucy faking her own kidnapping by the mafia. 

Athena is still shaking when they get out to the car. Understandable - they had a narrow escape, and as she was the lead defense, she was the one that Blackquill was going after with everything he had. Barb after barb flew off the samurai’s sharp tongue, finding every way to hit her that would hurt. For her age, her inexperience, with every new fact he saved to present until the defense thought they had the upper hand. He sat on damning evidence the entire trial, like it wasn’t even about proving Juniper’s guilt as much as it was tormenting Athena, letting her run up a case only to turn all her efforts futile with a single photograph he could have presented an hour ago. He told Athena as much, that this is futile, that she’ll never change the truth no matter how much she wants to save someone; he told her that he was sure anyone she wants to save so badly wouldn’t even want her defense, that she’d better give up and go home, and grow up, before the failure breaks her.

There’s the way that Blackquill mocked Apollo, and tore into Phoenix, and then there’s the way he strikes at Athena. Wasn’t it her, and not Apollo, that he directed that same advice of give up at during Mayor Tenma’s trial? And today, Apollo would swear, by the cruel gleam in Blackquill’s eyes, and the certain edge that his smirk held, that the man has some kind of personal vendetta against Athena. But that’s also an absurd thought - why her? What’s so twisted up inside the Twisted Samurai that it’s Athena he’s sunk his claws into? The simple fact that it’s this kid who has always been at the opposite bench on these cases he’s lost? Apollo and Phoenix there and not, but Athena, the constant, and for the first time, the lead.

The only silver lining Apollo sees for Athena - and he’s not about to actually say this to her when she looks this miserable - is that she didn’t ever get Taka’s talons in her face. The murderbird took pity on her, even if its owner didn’t. Small mercies.

Phoenix told them he would be going to the office and might be headed back to Themis at some point, don’t wait up, but Athena wanted to go to the detention center to talk immediately with Juniper. Odds are that she won’t be in interrogation yet, especially with Hugh and Robin’s confessions that Blackquill will also have to question. 

But even with how quickly they make it to see Juniper, when they are escorted in, Professor Means is already there, speaking with her. “I’m sorry, Athena,” she says, sounding colder and more standoffish than she did yesterday. “But I was thinking of asking Professor Means to defend me, instead.”

“B-but—” Athena looks helplessly between Juniper and the professor. “But why?”

She’s sure her friends are innocent, is why, and she’s afraid that, because Athena won’t rule out one of them being the killer, that either Hugh or Robin is going to be indicted tomorrow. Or she claims she’s sure; she doesn’t meet their eyes, and she’s shy, certainly, but she keeps toying with the edge of her sleeve and her eyes dart back and forth looking at nothing, and Apollo’s eyes tag each of those fidgets red. 

She’s lying. She doesn’t wholly believe her friends are innocent.  

And if - if that’s the truth, that one of them killed Courte, then that’s what has to happen, doesn’t it? Someone has to be convicted. Professor Means can’t promise acquittals for all three of them at this time, when nobody knows who the killer is because there’s no one piece of irrefutable evidence - unless he either is the killer and thus knows by default that Robin, Hugh, and Juniper are all innocent, or is planning on creating a piece of irrefutable evidence to exonerate the trio.

Neither of those are good, but they also can’t force Juniper to keep them as her defense, so Apollo elbows Athena and says, “If that’s how you feel, Juniper, then we’ll respect that” - Athena opens her mouth, probably about to say, no, she fucking won’t, she intends to defend Juniper come hell or high water, and Apollo elbows her again - “but we’d like to continue our investigation anyway, and ask you a few questions. Is that all right?”

Means remains present during their conversation, so they can’t explain to Juniper about Athena’s misgivings (and Apollo can’t tell Athena that he agrees, doesn’t want to tip their hand like this in front of Means, and now he feels like Phoenix surely does). Of course, Athena being Athena, she blurts out at the end of their meeting that she - and Apollo - are going to find the truth, with solid evidence of it, by sundown, and if they bring that to Juniper then she should accept Athena’s defense. Whether Athena’s force of will convinces Juniper, or just leaves her weary enough to agree, Apollo doesn’t know. All he knows is that they have a deadline now, and a far closer one than the trial tomorrow morning. 

And one where Means has set the stakes, blithely telling them that he has “considerable preparations” to make. His deliberate phrasing, his tone, everything: he’s telling them what he is and he doesn’t care if they know. And Juniper is desperate enough to not care what he is. 

-

“I don’t know what to do.” Back on the road, Athena lets Widget yell at the other drivers for her and launches straight into one of the many, many problems that have stacked up today. “I mean, I know what to do! We have to prove Junie innocent and find out who really murdered Professor Courte! But I don’t want to save her at the cost of her friends - but what if one of them really did it? They’re the only likely suspects. If it’s not Hugh or Robin then it’s something really complicated.”

“Which is also possible,” Apollo says. “Likely, even, considering past cases.”

“Yeah,” Athena agrees glumly, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. Widget yelps at someone to “Hey buddy, signal before you turn!”, and Athena continues, “But the thing is, I understand completely where Junie’s coming from. She said that! That she’s believing in her friends the way I believe in her! And I believe in her because she’s my friend, not because I’m a defense attorney and she’s my client and it’s my job to believe her! But - I can’t believe in Hugh and Robin the same way, because I’m a defense attorney. But I don’t want to break Junie’s heart either. I know, I know” - she holds up a finger, forestalling a response - “that we need to find the truth, and whatever the real truth is, that’s the truth. We can’t cover it up. But I don’t - can I be both Junie’s defense attorney, and her friend who wants to believe in her friends because I believe in her and she believes in them?”

Apollo takes a moment to follow that winding thread. “I don’t necessarily think you can’t be both,” he says. “It’s - of course Juniper doesn’t want to consider it, but when the evidence points that way, you have to at least consider it. You might think you know someone, but you also can’t just write off—”

“But evidence can be faked!” Athena interrupts. “And people framed, and false confessions pressured out of them. And—” She glances up in the rearview mirror, loses her train of thought for a moment as she pulls into another lane, and then she adds, “We’re defense attorneys! We have to believe in our clients to the bitter end.”

“We’re defense attorneys,” Apollo repeats. “If a friend of yours, or mine, is accused of murder, we’re probably going to be defending them. So of course we’re believing in them to the end. But Juniper’s friends aren’t our clients.”

“But what if you were my client but then the only other person around at the time was Trucy,” Athena says. “It’s like Sasha and Orla! Sasha believed it wasn’t Orla, and Mr Wright saved them both, so aren’t we - shouldn’t we believe in what our client believes?”

“I—” Should they? Is that part of the job too? “I don’t think there’s one answer. I think you’ve gotta take it on a case-by-case, every time. What the evidence is, what it seems to be saying.” His first case saw him proving his client’s innocence by indicting his boss on murder charges. After that - what the hell is he supposed to say after that? Putting faith in his client means that suspicion might fall instead on someone else he thinks he knows, and he has to follow it to the end, because who ever really knows someone? 

If he told Athena about Kristoph, she would understand much better where he’s coming from, what he actually means, but there is so much packed into that one surface-level simple story, and they need to focus on Juniper’s case, and the Themis investigation, instead. 

“And,” he adds, as something else occurs to him, “if you really do believe in someone, even if the evidence looks really bad - you have to keep pulling at it, and digging deeper, and if your client really is innocent then the truth that you finally dig up should exonerate them, right? You can’t say you believe in someone and then try to cover up the truth.”

“That makes a lot of sense, actually!” Athena chirps. (Apollo thinks he should protest that. Actually? He makes sense most of the time! Why does she sound so surprised?) “If Professor Means forges evidence to get them all off the hook, then that means that he doesn’t believe that there’s real evidence that will - which means he believes one of them did it. But then - then that almost sounds like Junie doesn’t fully believe that Hugh or Robin didn’t do it, either.” She glances at Apollo for confirmation.

“Yeah,” he says. “She doesn’t. But they’re her friends, so she’s trying to be in denial and insist she believes in them, and I understand the impulse, but at some point - even no matter how well you know someone, you never know.” 

Athena lifts one of her hands to Widget, like she’s about to start psychoanalyzing Apollo’s speech right now, in a moving vehicle that she is driving. Then she grabs the steering wheel again, forcing aside that unconscious gesture, and Apollo is glad that she doesn’t have the time to interrogate him on all the emotions that must be in his statement. To figure out that while he’s thinking mostly of Klavier, and Kristoph and Daryan, murder isn’t the only crime, and there was a time that no matter what the Bar Association said and did, Apollo still believed, truly, wholly, that Phoenix Wright never in his life would forge evidence.

-

Despite the yellow sun beaming down from a cloudless blue sky, a chill has taken hold through the air when they arrive at Themis. Apollo shudders against the bitterly cold wind that passes, seemingly unobstructed, through him, funneled around the buildings in an inadvertent wind tunnel. “Come on, Apollo!” Athena calls, her voice and hair carried about by the wind as she rushes headlong into it without a seeming care, too fixated on her case and her defense to let anything distract her. “Fretta!”

Their conversation led Apollo to some other thoughts that he hasn’t mentioned. They nearly lost the case this morning, Athena’s first time leading the defense, the defendant a dear friend, and the sun arcing its way across the sky is a deadline sinking closer and closer toward them. She’s stressed enough, and she doesn’t need to be burdened with Apollo’s suppositions. 

(That Professor Means has already begun to prepare his defense, and who’s to say he’ll abandon all those preparations should Juniper keep Athena on as her defense attorney? That they can’t discount the possibility that he might try to feed falsified evidence to them, pass it to someone else to pass to Apollo and Athena, to trick them into coming to the wrong conclusion. That he might try and rig it so that even if he doesn’t stand as defense tomorrow, all three suspected students will be exonerated, rightly or not.)

(Or worse, what if he is angry if Juniper asks Athena and Apollo to remain her defense team? He might be angry that he loses out on the defense, angry that his preparations came to nothing - he might be angry and turn his falsified preparations into tools for revenge. What if he decides to bury them, trick them into presenting evidence he falsified, trick them into being caught with it, trick them into losing everything they have, badges and reputations and Juniper’s freedom?)

He doesn’t need to mention this. Not now, not unless someone tries to hand them new evidence of uncertain origin. Like a page of Courte’s planner, or another possible murder weapon, or something else with blood on it that points to a different original crime scene. But otherwise, Athena already knows Means is a threat to the truth, and she’s already concerned about what will happen if she can’t find enough decisive evidence this afternoon. There’s no reason to get her more worked up over hypothetical problems that Means could cause, when she already knows the problems he certainly has admitted he intends to cause. 

“Oi! Apollo! Allons-y! Vamanos!”

On the way in through campus, they don’t run into anyone else or see any police presence. Non-essential personnel and everyone unrelated to the case were told to stay away and remarkably, seem to have abided by such. Klavier mentioned once that some students dorm on campus, and Apollo wonders if they’ve been forcibly turned into shut-ins by officers planting themselves at the doors. 

Though, despite the emptiness of campus and the fact that no one should have been around, along the main path to the quad, beneath a tree, someone set up a framed photo of Professor Courte. Tributes have already begun to gather. A few flowers lie at the base of the picture, while some shrine amulets hang from the tree’s lowest branches, and both the frame and the tree bear a number of scribbled sticky note messages that the wind doesn’t seem to touch. They stop before it, and while Apollo doesn’t know what Athena is thinking, he imagines it might be something similar: I swear, Professor, we will find the truth of who did this and won’t allow it to be covered up.

The scaffolding in front of the stage that holds up several large speakers sways slightly in the wind. Apollo shudders at the thought of it all crashing down. What a horrible mess that would all be, and dangerous for anyone in the vicinity. Like him and Athena, intending to investigate the stage again. He didn’t get a chance to get a good look at anything but the body, before the police arrived and ushered everyone away, but there’s any number of clues that might still lie here if they take some time.

If we have time to take, he thinks, glancing up at the sky. He has difficulty forcing himself to look at the stage for long, though he can’t say why. He’s dealt with a lot of tape outlines in the past; he’s stood in the same places as several people have died. There’s no reason for this to be the one that trips him up.

Unless - unless - there is someone making that a problem. 

No sooner has Apollo thought this than he watches the hunched white form of Vongole slink out from around the side of the stage. She sits down right beside the partition meant to rope off the crowd, nose pointed straight at Apollo. If he needed to know for sure that Athena can’t see her, now he does.

“Afternoon, you two.”

And even knowing that Klavier is here, lurking the same as his hellhound, Apollo still flinches when the man appears in front of him. “Uh, hiya. What are you doing, sneaking around here?” Investigating, no doubt. Apollo doesn’t know why he asked that question. To be polite, maybe. “Aren’t you worried that someone’s going to think it’s a little suspicious that you just keep creeping back onto campus like this?”

“And who’s going to catch me here, Herr Forehead?” Klavier winks. He looks as radiant as ever today, perfectly composed and golden, with the sun glinting off of all of his silver accessories. And yet, Apollo knows the cracks beneath the surface, knows that he and Klavier are both waiting for Klavier to slip and pieces of the facade to momentarily collapse to reveal what’s truly going on. “You? Or perhaps the slithering sneak reporter clothed in cardboard I have reached both understanding and impasse with.”

Ignoring the stairs just a few feet over to the left, around the side of the stage, Klavier hoists himself up over the edge of the stage, his shirt riding up his stomach as he does, and he sits there for a moment before he swings his legs up. This is the opposite of when he’s using glamour to hide - Apollo has to forcibly turn his eyes away. Is it consciously showing off that Klavier’s trying to do, or has he taken the path of most resistance that looks coolest for so long that he just does without thinking? “I’ve no doubt she’s hardly used to anyone seeing through her, but for the moment, I would watch what you say, ja? Nothing that you don’t want known by an unscrupulous paparazzi with no understanding of the terms ‘journalistic integrity’ or ‘off the record’.”

And even if that wasn’t the game plan by necessity of Myriam’s presence, Apollo still wouldn’t ask the questions he has. About what Klavier meant by saying “seeing through her”, if it’s about

the way that Myriam’s eyes glow, and the way Klavier’s own dart around wide and wild enough that not even glamour masks it. Apollo knows Klavier well enough not to bring it up. And to hope that if something like this were directly relevant to the case, to Professor Courte, then he would say it. That the fear and paranoia the Court left him with would come second to seeking justice for his old professor.

Athena follows Klavier’s lead by taking the shortcut of hopping right up onto the stage. “So that weird box there,” she says, gesturing to the one conspicuously out of place on the stage, by one of the white model benches. Apollo passes right next to it as he comes up the stairs. “That’s—”

“Sss! Sss, sss!” The hissing voice that emerges from beneath the cardboard is a familiar one from the trial today, but the actual box itself differs from the one they saw yesterday, and in court today. Blackquill had threatened her by way of threating to chop up her box when she was up on the witness stand - maybe he made good on that. “But I’ll bet they can’t see through me!”

“Boxes don’t usually talk, Myriam,” Athena says. “And by ‘usually’ I kind of mean, ever?”

“Oh.” She doesn’t, as Apollo had hoped she would, beat a hasty retreat after saying something as silly as that. But she does go quiet, even though the conversation - Athena now imploring Klavier for help investigating, and him assuring her that he was ready to before she ever asked - is something - a prosecutor helping out Juniper’s defense - that she would have remarks on. Maybe Athena gave enough punches to her pride this morning that it still leaves her subdued now.

The German Language Social Club - if Apollo ever has to defend a case against Gavin with Athena has co-counsel, he’s going to break his nose beating his face into the bench because of the way these two have hit it off - are discussing the stage plans and the broken statues. Apollo joins their conversation too late to stop Athena from telling Klavier that the Gavinner’s logo looks like the number six if it was contorted in pain.

-

The police investigation is centered in the art room, Fulbright still in charge. A wire running down from the art room across the back of the stage would have hoisted two banners for the school festival concert, and at Athena’s request, Fulbright sends down the one banner still attached to the wire, and then he tosses her some kind of cement sculpture glue. 

In the mock-up stage plans that Klavier still has, there should have been statues of both him and Phoenix, that Robin made, that both were destroyed some time around when the body was found. Athena determined that reassembling the large purple plaster-of-paris chunks that once made up Prosecutor Gavin might yield them case information. They don’t have time to kill, certainly, with their deadline, but Robin and Hugh, if they’re planning to come back to campus, are probably still in questioning, Fulbright is busy, the art room off-limits, and Myriam reticent. What else would they be investigating now, anyway?

Apollo unravels the knotted school banner sent down along the wire, listening to the pidgin German-English chatter happening over the statue. Funny, he didn’t know that either of them actually knew more than a few scant phrases in the language, but maybe that’s by virtue of having no one to speak with, because together they’re sounding like a semi-fluent conversation is happening. A strange loneliness wells up inside Apollo’s chest - not for feeling left out from the discussion happening right next to him, but something he can’t quite place.

The school banner, made of dark red fabric, shows an even darker stain. Blood, from being up at the scene of the murder? Apollo calls the fake Germans over to examine this new evidence, and the scrap of paper that was crumpled up with it, and then like a lightning bolt from a cloudless blue sky he remembers being seven years old, learning to speak English, and chittering with Nahyuta in a mishmash of languages that would have sounded a lot like that. Like these two doofuses here with Apollo now sound. He steps away from the banner, wishing to return to being confused about why exactly this feeling of isolation just struck him. He wishes it was just something stupid, like envy that Athena and Klavier hit it off so well, so quick, or fear that they’re talking about him behind his back.

“There’s still a lot of these white plaster chunks around,” Athena says, holding up one, and squinting one eye shut to hold it up in front of the pedestal where the statue of Phoenix should have been. “Mr Wright’s statue was supposed to be blue, so this can’t be it.” She sets the piece down on the nearby imitation prosecutor’s bench. “I bet I can put these back together, too!”

“Is that - important?” Apollo asks. “For our investigation?”

“Can’t know until we try!” Athena says. “I’ve learned from you and Mr Wright that nothing is too irrelevant that we can’t use it!”

“The Fräuelin seems like a quick learner,” Klavier says. “It must not have taken her long to be able to imitate all your frantic bluffs and mad last-minute grasping at any desperate and stupid possibility as a ploy for more time.”

“I am going,” Apollo says, “to pick up that statue there” - he points at the purple bust of Klavier, some of the inner white showing through the cracks where it didn’t all fit perfectly back together - “and smash it over your head.”

“Don’t you dare!” Athena shouts from the other side of the stage. 

“And ruin all of the hard work she just put into fixing it?” Klavier asks. “This Fräulein has learned so much from you and you would treat her this way?”

Apollo rolls his eyes. When he glances over his shoulder he sees Athena back at work with plaster and glue, having apparently decided she can trust that Apollo won’t wreck her handiwork. She looks like she has her next puzzle well enough under control, and he turns back to examine this other statue. He’s more surprised that Klavier’s vanity didn’t make an appeal. You would really destroy this beautiful face, Herr Forehead, ja?

And it is - frustrating, really, that the statue is so genuinely well-done. None of the lumpy uncanniness that he expects from a high schooler’s work in plaster, not just a surface-level resemblance where they know it’s Klavier because they know it’s supposed to be Klavier. It looks like Klavier, down to the curve of his jaw and shape of his nose and casual, devil-may-care posture. And the frustration stemming from this, Apollo thinks, is that there’s no glamour to a statue, no charm of the real person, and assessing it he’s still forced to realize that yes, Klavier has a beautiful face, and there’s no magic bedazzling Apollo into thinking so. That’s just his stupid, pretty face. Infuriating. 

“Admiring the view?” Klavier asks. “You know the real thing is right here.” He grins, a forced, hollow one, and moves to prop an arm up on the pedestal that holds the statue, but his elbow knocks it off-balance and it wobbles dangerously. Both he and Apollo lunge, in unison, to grab it and steady it. “Ach, you threatened too but it then turns out the only one out to destroy me is me, ja?” He laughs. Apollo doesn’t like the sound of it. He releases the statue now that it’s still - Klavier’s eyes linger on Apollo’s hand, on the ring there, that Klavier gave him more than a year ago - and steps back, to look to Athena. With her hands on half of a white plaster statue already assembled, she has frozen, head cocked, like she heard Klavier’s laugh, too, and wanted to figure it out. Thought it notable enough to contemplate.

“I was admiring,” Apollo says, because he has nothing to say to Klavier’s last statement, nothing he’s going to risk saying with nosy Myriam right across the stage, “that Ms Newman is a hell of an artist.”

“That she is,” Klavier says darkly. Motion at the edge of Apollo’s vision catches his attention; Athena snapped her head around to stare at him. She might not have the background knowledge to understand it, but Apollo knows that he and Klavier are on the same page.

“I keep thinking,” Apollo says, lowering his voice, hoping to at least keep this out of Myriam’s ears even if now Athena will surely be listening more intently. “About what she said during the trial today, and her parents went about it the wrong way but they would’ve had plenty of reason to be afraid that she’d be stolen.”

“I suppose it’s an argument that destiny exists, in some form,” Klavier says quietly, “that they always seem to know who’s going to grow up with a talent and passion for the arts, to manage to snatch away the artist types when we’re only infants.” Him, and Vera or the original human who was supposed to be Vera, and he said once that he knew someone else too. Artists. And the most creative thinking Apollo ever does is keeping up with the twists and turns of a case, and he can only bring himself to sing in the shower if he knows for certain that no one else is home. He asked Klavier once if Apollo is anything like him and of course he isn’t, he knows now, because the fae steal artists so Apollo’s childhood was weird but wholly human. 

(Right. Of course it was. Case closed, end of story, no reason to think about it ever again.)

“Hey, Prosecutor Gavin!” Athena calls, hefting another large hunk of plaster over her head. The white statue has almost come together, a roughly as-tall-as-life, though the other proportions seem rather stylized, figure of a woman in an ancient Greek-looking dress, one arm at her side with a sword. Athena has another white statue arm in her hands, along with a head that was originally at least three pieces, and a white plastic scale and chains lying at her feet. “Can you help me finish this?”

“Why can’t I help?” Apollo asks. 

“Because you’re not any taller than me! I need someone who can get the head on straight!”

“I’m not good at doing things ‘straight’, Fräulein,” Klavier says, and Athena cackles, and Apollo chokes on an inhale and doubles over in a coughing fit. 

-

A chalk outline in the center of the stage marks where Courte’s body was. As they’ve traversed the area, they’ve all avoided stepping not just in the lines but near them, either. And while Athena’s got no way of knowing such a fact, another reason Apollo has skirted the lines is Vongole. She lies next to the imprint of Courte’s body, her head resting on the ground between two clearly-defined paws, but the back half of her body dissolves into a vaguely dog-shaped block of smoke. Every time Apollo has looked at her - and it hasn’t been often, she repels his eyes almost the way that Klavier can - her eyes have been closed.

He wonders if she would always be so drawn to the dead, or if it’s Courte, specifically, and Klavier’s own emotions influencing her.

Klavier doesn’t come with them when they leave the stage to continue investigating. Apollo almost doesn’t want to leave him, not when he sounds the way he does, but Juniper is their first priority. They’ve got to save her first, and then they’ll figure out how to help Klavier. 

Finding the truth of who killed Courte will help Klavier.

Myriam, who rushed off as soon as Klavier mentioned the other missing banner meant for stage decoration, is surprisingly helpful despite her mess of a testimony in court this morning. She gives them a few photos of festival setup from the night of the crime and a scrap of fabric from the incinerator out behind the dumpsters - a regular public high school could never have an incinerator anywhere within access of the student body, Apollo thinks - that definitely used to be a Gavineers-branded banner. Athena in return psychoanalyzes her to guess that she’s jealous of Juniper, Robin, and Hugh’s friendship, and bullies her into promising that she’ll swear to ask Juniper to hang out when this is over. 

Maybe that will balance the scales for the fact that Hugh claims he doesn’t care about Juniper at all anymore. As he speaks, he pops a book out from under his arm and sticks his nose in it, and the whole motion - his hand, his face, his eyes - thrums with red, the highlighted motions of a man trying with everything he has to lie, to them and maybe even to himself. If it’s the truth that they want, they’ll have to force it out of him tomorrow when he’s on the witness stand. 

(And Apollo still has no idea what Myriam’s deal is. Would the fae be able to write highly exaggerated not-reality-based gossipy tabloid-esque newspaper articles? Do those count as lies?)

Fulbright lets them examine the art room, with the police’s investigation finally completed. Athena sticks her head out the window and Apollo nearly grabs her to be certain that she isn’t going to try and jump or climb down the wire to try and attempt the corpse-moving possibilities herself. When she finally moves aside, feet still planted firmly on the art room floor, Apollo glances out after her, but for all the relevance this location has to the crime, his attention is drawn, more than anything, to the brown striped feather lying on the windowsill. 

The color and pattern of a certain hawk.

All the while, the sun sinks lower in the sky, its light bleeding across the horizon. 

Robin lurks about the main lecture hall, with a recording of the mock trial she begged off the cops at the crime scene. “Wanna watch?” she asks, and Athena, eager to see Juniper’s performance as the defendant, eagerly flings herself down into a seat next to Robin. “We’re def skipping Professor Means’ speech, though. All of his are so boooooring!” Apollo may have been physically present in this lecture hall at the time of Means’ speech, but he couldn’t say any more than Athena, who was not there, what it was about. “Let’s skip the opening statement too. It gets good when we all start yelling!”

In the video, Robin and Hugh both are understandably heated; this is a battle for prestige in front of all of their classmates, pride on the line, and they act like it. Juniper’s the one with least at stake, but the meek girl they’ve met can put on a hell of an acting performance when she wants. Athena in their mock mock trial was the litmus, in Apollo’s mind, and she had cheesier delivery than the worst made-for-tv sci-fi flicks that Clay likes to suffer through. But Juniper actually has some emotional delivery, and he’s not surprised that she’s a singer, given the way she projects her voice when she starts yelling. 

“Wait,” Athena says, jabbing not at the computer screen to pause it but instinctively at Widget’s screen, where she had drawn a floor plan of the lecture hall. “Stop, go back to that last bit.”

“Yeah, I’d kind of lost it at the time,” says the Juniper on screen, “and I shouted ‘You’re a goner!’ at her, but I didn’t mean it! I didn’t do it!”

He’s not quite convinced by her portrayal of a defendant in those lines - they might be worked up, sure, but they’d still probably say “you’re a goner” in the same tone as the rest of their protestations. Juniper screams it like she would have at the crime scene, with sudden desperate anger that doesn’t match the rest. But he’ll respect her for hamming it up, and more important—

“What?” Robin asks. “What are you both so excited about?”

“You remember the audio recording the prosecution had today?” Apollo asks. “The one from the art room, where we argued about what female voice was yelling?” And who was yelling, and they’d tried to implicate Robin then. 

“And about whether the voice was saying ‘you’re a goner’ or ‘Hugh O’Conner,” Athena adds. “Here, I’ve got it saved on Widget, I’ll play it—!”

The recording played in the trial today is distant and fuzzier, of course, they couldn’t have spent so long arguing about it otherwise, but having heard Juniper’s mock trial performance right before, the cadence and the voice sound alarmingly alike. “Then that evidence could be fabricated,” Athena says. “We’ve got to get that tape analyzed as soon as we can!”

“Perhaps I can help with that.”

Athena and Robin both yelp. Apollo flinches, evening knowing that this was likely to happen again today. “At least let us know you’re there!” Athena chides. “Do we have to put a cat bell collar on you?”

The chain necklace should be jangly enough, but it isn’t. “What’s a rock star without their dramatic entrances?” Klavier leans on the back of Apollo’s chair. “Go big or go home, Fräulein. But I can have that tape from today’s trial analyzed and get you the results as soon as I can. Catch you tomorrow morning at the latest.”

“That would be amazing!” Athena claps her hands together and twists around in her seat to face him. “But you’re not the prosecutor on this case. Are you sure you’ll be able to have someone take a look at it?”

“Never fear, Fräulein, I’ve got fans in Criminal Affairs who will take a strictly-above-board look at this if I ask.” He smiles with his lips pressed tightly together, a bit of a grim expression, like he thinks leveraging his fame and reputation to be a bit distasteful. It’s a bit ends-justifying, in a way, and he doesn’t doubt that Klavier is aware of it. What would Professor Courte think? They’ll never know, because she’s dead, and Klavier’s using what he has to solve her murder. “Nothing suspicious, through the proper channels only, should Herr Samurai want to verify the results.”

Blackquill. He’s tried to insinuate that defense attorneys can’t be trusted, and honed in on Phoenix specifically for it, and maybe Klavier feels safe crossing him because he’s not technically a coworker, certainly doesn’t have an office in the building with all the other prosecutors. “Does Prosecutor Blackquill know you’re helping us?” Apollo asks, and that abruptly shuts up both Athena and Robin.

Klavier, back on the stairs and heading for the doors at the top of the hall, stops. He brushes his hair back behind his shoulder. “Ja, we spoke about it this morning, before the trial. It will not surprise me if tomorrow he has another snide remark for me.”

“Snide?” Robin asks. “Nah man, he’s not snide! He’s S-C-A-R-Y. Even when I was just a witness, before my big confession.”

“Perjury, Fräulein,” Klavier calls back, snidely, the door closing on him a moment after, and Robin beams, either proud of it or just happy that people know she’s a girl now and doesn’t care what Klavier has to say to her besides the all-important “Fräulein”.

Fulbright has to know who Klavier is, right? Does he tell Blackquill that there’s another prosecutor back on the scene today? Or is it Taka? That’s a witch thing, right, the familiar at their shoulder, a black cat or a crow or a toad who can report back on goings-ons where the witch isn’t present. Could Blackquill be something as simple as a witch, unbothered by iron cuffs or bars because he’s merely a human? What of his uncanny ability to obstruct anyone else’s vision? Is that an ability unique to the creature he is, or is it unique to him, to the who rather than what. 

Either one makes Apollo uncomfortable - realizing that he can’t even rely on his eyes to tell him the Truth, because what if there’s someone or something else out there fooling him without his knowing? Without making as big of a show of it as Blackquill did that first time? He has to stay vigilant the old-fashioned way, the mundane way of an ordinary poker player watching for his opponent’s tells. 

“—then he pulled me in and grilled me until I recanted.” Robin is recounting the tale of her interrogation by Blackquill earlier in the afternoon. “And he didn’t even charge me with perjury yet! Said that his first priority was the professor’s murder, and once he solved that he’d take all the time he wanted on me and Hugh! He said he’d have all three of us convicted, man!”

“Ugh!” Widget cries, while Athena folds her arms and frowns and stares off absently. “Why’s he so mean?”

“Hey, Athena?” Apollo asks. The last time they were outside, he hadn’t liked how much colder it had gotten, and how long the shadows loomed. “If we’re still set on sundown for meeting with Juniper and Professor Means, we should probably get going, and tell her everything we’ve learned.”

-

“I don’t want to hear any more.” Juniper presses her hands over her ears. Her skin is bad again today, less green and more yellow, and probably accentuated by the sour fluorescent light. The only good thing about the speed with which trials occur is that it means less time Juniper has to spend in here, withering away. As long as they win, and if there wasn’t enough pressure in trying to save an innocent person, now Apollo wonders if Juniper, in her condition, could even survive prison. “I know what you’re going to say, Athena. I know that you’re—”

“Please listen to me!” Athena smacks the glass. “Please! Junie, you promised that you would hear out the truth!”

Professor Means stands silently along the wall, listening to their report to Juniper. He had come in about ten minutes after Apollo and Athena arrived. “The voice in the tape recording from the trial today is yours for sure, Junie,” Athena continues. “As Fulbright said. But we think it’s the same as something you said in the mock trial, and the only suspect who would benefit from faking a female voice as the culprit would be Hugh.” Juniper lets out a small sob, covering her mouth with her hand. “Since it would take all the suspicion off of him. We’re having the tape analyzed to know for sure if it’s fabricated or not.”

“Prosecutor Gavin was doing that, was he not?” Professor Means asks. “I ran into him as we were leaving campus.”

“Yeah,” Athena says. “He’s been amazing.”

“B-but Hugh confessed to protect me at the trial today!” Juniper argues, sounding perilously close to tears despite it. “Why would he—”

“You and Robin were already confessign and arguing that you’d done it,” Athena says. “Wouldn’t it look a bit weird if Hugh hadn’t also tried to confess to the murder? If you’re all as good of friends as you say.” Tension there is aside, and Hugh trying to claim that he doesn’t care about Juniper also aside - this is why Apollo only had one friend in high school. This kind of drama didn’t happen. Also neither he nor Clay ever got accused of murder in high school.

“I know what you think, Athena, but I don’t care.” Juniper’s voice trembles. She clutches her wrist. “None of us would kill anyone - not me, not Robin, not Hugh.” She closes her mouth on a cough, and her cheeks puff out and her nostrils flare with the air exhaled. “Hugh’s a great student and he gets good grades and he doesn’t cause trouble.” Her throat bobs as she swallows a second cough, and bright red blinks out on her skin. 

“Juniper,” Apollo says. Her eyes snap open wide. “Look me in the eyes and repeat what you just said.”

“Huh?” Athena asks. “Apollo, you saw something?”

“Hugh’s a - a—” She can’t hide her coughing now, can’t stifle it. “A gifted student and h-he never causes trouble—” The red flickers in and out, ceasing when she’s coughing too hard to speak, and resuming when she resumes her words.

“Juniper,” Apollo repeats firmly, and she seems to sense what’s coming, ducking her head and turning her eyes away. “You seem to cough a lot when you’re stressed, and you’re stressed because you’re lying.”

He wishes she hadn’t tried lying to them. It feels cruel to force it out of her, and she sounds pathetic, her coughing growing ever-weaker. “Robin told us that there was a rumor that someone in your class was spying and snitching on other students back to a professor,” Athena says. “I think that was Professor Courte. She had a note in her planner to receive a ‘routine report’, and then the next day she scheduled a meeting with Hugh. I think it’s you who was the snitch, and I think you found out something about Hugh. And you wish you hadn’t.”

Juniper’s body still shakes like she’s coughing, and she has a fist up to her mouth, but no sound comes out. “Forgive me, Thena, forgive me, but I - I suspected Hugh from the start!” Her final cough turns into a loud sob. She isn’t trying to hold anything in, now, and tears roll unfettered down her cheeks. “And I’ve talked so much about friendship when I’ve been a terrible friend and I - I—” Shuddering, sobbing gasps stop her from being able to say any more.

Poor girl. Not only is she accused of murder, and not only is the professor she was so close with dead, but she has to suspect one of her closest friends of doing the deed that put her here. “I can’t imagine how you must feel right now, Juniper, I’m sorry,” Apollo says. “But I don’t think you’re a bad friend. You must care about your friends a lot to be this upset.”

He thinks about her yesterday, sobbing that she wanted to tell Hugh and Robin about her fae ancestry, but she didn’t know how. He thinks about Klavier, telling him that he’d always meant to tell Daryan, and then he ran out of time. 

(He thinks about the time, a few weeks after Sasha Buckler’s trial, when Phoenix was organizing the files associated with it and said that sometimes being a lawyer felt like watching the same tragedies play out over and over. Apollo had glanced over at him, assessed the expression on his face, and decided not to ask what this reminded him of, and whether it was a fae thing in particular, the kinds of tragedies he saw repeated. Here’s one that is.)

Juniper rubs tears from her eyes but more well up a moment later. She does remind him some of Vera, the Vera they first met who barely spoke, when he was afraid that the world itself would break her. They saved Vera, and Vera saved herself, and they’re going to save Juniper too. For her sake, and for Athena’s sake. 

“Please, can you tell us why?” Athena asks. “That could be very important to the case.”

“It was Professor Courte who I reported too,” Juniper says. “She was - she told me that the Academy, and its alumni, haven’t always upheld the ideals of justice they’re supposed to.” She takes a deep breath and sits up straighter, squaring her shoulders. “That the corruption in our legal system gets to our students even before they graduate. She was worried that more of my classmates would be going astray, and she wanted to stop it if she could.”

“I’ve long admired the way she held to her ideals,” Means says. “If even, at times, I found it beautifully sad and unrealistic of her.”

Unrealistic to expect attorneys to not forge evidence? Is that what he means? The awkward conversation they had with him on first meeting, and the strange praise he had for Phoenix, returns to mind. Maybe that is exactly what he’s trying to say. 

 “I was supposed to talk with her once a month and report any wrongdoings I’d heard about. The other day, I went and told her about Hugh. I heard him talking on the phone, to his parents maybe, about paying money for good test scores.”

“What?” Athena yelps. “That’s bribery! Who was getting the money?”

“I don’t know,” Juniper says. “I could only hear half the conversation and he never said—”

“Wait!” Athena smacks her hand on the sill beneath the glass. “Hold it! That one weird sheet of paper we found, the—” She begins digging in her pockets, and when that proves unsuccessful, she, grumbling, activates Widget and brings up an image of the scrap of paper they found earlier in the afternoon on the stage. It’s a small sheet torn out of a notebook, with the faint print of a sword on the center of the page, like all the pages in Courte’s planner. Written on it are three words: October Hugh 120. “This! We couldn’t figure out what the number meant earlier, but now, it’s got to be—”

“—about the bribe,” Apollo finishes. “Like, a hundred-twenty grand for October.” It couldn’t be simply a hundred and twenty dollars for the month - no one would risk being caught for so little - but also damn is that a lot of money to throw away every month. What could Apollo do with a hundred-twenty grand in a year - in a lifetime. 

“And the marking on the paper!” Athena continues, jabbing her finger through Widget’s projection in an attempt to emphasize what’s there. “It’s the same as Courte’s planner!”

Which Apollo knew - Athena showed him pictures she took of Courte’s planner - but the actual meaning of it didn’t sink in as quickly as it did for her. “B-but how would Professor Courte have th - that information?” She sniffs and then coughs. “You can’t - can’t think she was the one who was - was…” Her unsteady words trail off into a stammer and then silence. The tears she managed to halt start flowing from her reddening eyes again - and her eyes are reddening in both the way of going bloodshot from sobbing, and the fae way of a vivid, unnatural red welling up around her pupils. 

“We can’t know for sure yet, but it’s a definite possibility,” Athena answers.

“That’s absurd!” Professor Means says. “I would think that Professor Courte would be the last person who would ever do such a thing!”

“Like I said, it’s a possibility.” Athena sounds a little irritated, like she’s confident in her own assessment of the situation and has no idea why no one else is with her on it. 

The paper it’s written on is solid evidence, but the logic of it doesn’t follow through. Professor Courte taught in and managed the course for aspiring judges. Hugh is a student of a different department, for defense attorneys. Sure, he doesn’t know exactly how Themis’ administration works, but how could a professor change the grades for a student they didn’t have? Someone else would have to have their eye on those grades to notice and realize what went in the computers was different than what was marked on the tests. It would make more sense to bribe the professor in charge of the student’s particular course, which in this case is—

“Professor Means?”

Apollo jumps. When did the door behind them open? There’s Phoenix, who he’s barely seen at all today, poking his head into the visiting room. “Can we talk for a moment?”

“Certainly,” Means says. “We’re in the midst of discussing our evidence and strategy for tomorrow, but any input you have would be most welcome.”

“Ah - no.” Phoenix straightens up and props the door open with his foot. “What I mean is, you” He points at Means with his forefinger, and then points over his shoulder, out the door, with his —thumb. “We need to talk.” Athena gasps, softly; Apollo doesn’t understand why. Phoenix sounds as level and polite as he ever does, casually tossing all his words out even though those actual words mean the statements could sound that much more dire. It’s his eyes that worry Apollo, cold and flinty and piercing, almost giving the impression he can See through people even when they aren’t blue. What’s he found out, and why won’t he share it with Apollo and Athena first?

“Of course,” Means says. “Ms Cykes, Mr Justice. I will be in the gallery tomorrow, and I look forward to seeing what your methods will result in. My greatest concern is that prosecutor. But I leave this task of Juniper’s defense to you. Good luck.”

He follows Phoenix out the door. Silence hangs on both side of the glass for several moments after they leave, until Apollo realizes that with Means gone he can voice the thought he had a minute ago. “I really doubt it was Professor Courte taking bribes,” he says.

Athena whirls on him. “You too?” she demands. “We know Courte had the planner with the paper like this!”

And it wouldn’t make sense for someone to have made this as evidence to frame her. The only definitive way to prove it came from her notebook, unless it’s a unique custom-made one with that sword marking, would be to look through the whole thing to find if there was a page torn out and see if it matched. And someone if framing her couldn’t count on her having ripped a page out herself, that they could then make their forged page’s torn edge match with. And it would be a difficult and risky venture to get a hold of a planner that she carried around with her. And the actual paper was found in a non-obvious spot. Someone with a forged notebook page would try to more obviously present it to get it circulating among the evidence, not count on the defense poking around in enough corners to stumble upon it.

Nothing about this matches how that other page played out.

“Hugh isn’t even one of her students,” Apollo says, and he quickly outlines the rest of his thoughts, including that Professor Means would be just as likely a suspect.

Juniper gasps. “Professor Means is - I know you don’t like his philosophies, but he’s a teacher who really cares about having his students being as smart and as skilled as they can be! He - he wouldn’t just let someone not - not properly learn and reach their full capacity for - for money! He wouldn’t, and Professor Courte wouldn’t either!”

Athena takes a much softer tone with Juniper than she does with Apollo. (Fair enough; Apollo also does that.) “I can hear how hard this is for you. But we have to consider the possibilities, even if it’s hard ot hear, because we can’t let the truth get away.” Juniper nods. “And there’s the evidence, and it would make a lot of sense with Hugh as the culprit.”

“I still don’t think it’s that likely to be her,” Apollo says. “Isn’t that the one thing everyone’s said about her when we’ve asked around? That she’s fair and honest?”

“We had that conversation in the car today!” Athena says. “You said it, that you can’t ever really know someone. Maybe we didn’t know Professor Courte. It’s sad, but it might be true.” She squints at him, leaning in a little, like he’s a particularly interesting specimen beneath some museum glass. “I understand Junie, but you shouldn’t have any real emotional investment in whether or not Courte was who people said she was. You didn’t know her. We’re just trying to solve her murder.”

“I—” It’s like she gave his head a light little push, but it’s started spinning wildly despite that. “Do I? Have emotional investment?” He glances at Juniper out of the corner of his eyes. She looks as confused as he feels. Maybe it’s better she be confused right now than upset about Courte, at least. 

“Uh-huh,” Athena says. “A lot of it. Hey, Widget’s ready to go” - “Sure am!” the machine chirps - “so if we want to—”

“No.” Emotional investment - Apollo doesn’t know what the hell those emotions are. But he knows the thought that’s birthed them. Klavier loved Courte; it was apparent and obvious, and didn’t take Athena’s ears to realize. Klavier loved his brother, Klavier loved his best friend. Apollo doesn’t want to again watch him find out that someone else he loved isn’t who he thought they were. Not for a third time. “We should probably just focus on Juniper’s case. What were you saying about motive?”

“Oh - well, Courte obviously wanted to meet with him about Junie’s report, one way or another, and whatever happened in their talk got out of hand.” Athena absently toys with her earring. 

“That would be reason for anyone to suspect Hugh,” Apollo says. “Of course you did, Juniper, knowing that.”

Juniper shakes her head. “No. I don’t think that alone - there was another reason I thought, that - that he—”

“Even more?” Widget exclaims, and Athena slaps her hand over it.

“The night before the mock trial, I went home around seven. And I saw Hugh in the hall and he - he--” Juniper tries to take a deep breath in and she chokes on the inhale and starts coughing like she’s going to hack up an entire lung. “He—”

“Take a sec, Junie.” Athena presses a hand up against the glass and leans in so that her forehead is nearly touching it, like she can force herself through to the other side and somehow help her friend from there. “Just try to relax and tell us what you saw.”

Juniper’s hands tremble even as she splays them out on the sill beneath the glass. Her whole body is trembling, actually, from the tips of her fingers - her fingernails look chalk-white and the rest of the skin on her hands sick pale yellow - to her head and her hair falling down around her face. “I didn’t want to see! But I can’t get it out of my head, that I - that he - he - his hands - h-his - hands were covered in blood!”

She pulls her arms back in around her, hugging herself tightly around the middle and buckling over, wracked with coughs and sobbing hiccups. Every sound from her lips comes out stuttered. “Wh-what do I do, Thena? He - I know - he can’t—” It’s a horrible, pitiful sound, to listen to her struggle to speak. “I know he c-can’t be the killer but my mind keeps t-telling me—!” Her voice hitches. She lifts her head to stare at them with bloodshot eyes. The pink hallmarks of heavy crying have begun to appear on her skin beneath her eyes and around her nose, the only human colors stark against sunless yellow-green and bone white. “No matter how hard I try to convince myself he i-isn’t. I don’t know what to do.”

The same thing that Athena said in the car this morning. About nearly the same subject. A friend suspected - what do you do?

“Junie, I’m so sorry,” Athena says. “I hope you feel even a little better now that you’re letting it all out. And I swear I’ll figure it out. As your friend, I promise you!”

“I should’ve trusted you from the start today.” Juniper’s voice sounds fainter than ever. “I know you’ll find the truth, Thena.”

It isn’t as though Athena wants to hurry them out of the detention center away from Juniper - she doesn’t, not by the way all of her body language has her tilting toward the glass, closer to her friend. But when there’s nothing else to say, she doesn’t linger. She tells Juniper that she needs to get some rest, to try her best to and gear up for the battle tomorrow, and then just like that the officer on the other side is taking Juniper back to her holding cell and Apollo is hurrying out into the hall after Athena.

“Did you hear how angry Mr Wright was?” She rounds on Apollo in the dim detention center hallway, Widget beaming the bright yellow of surprise. “When he was asking after Professor Means? Where did they go, maybe we can still eavesdrop—” She spins about in a circle, seeking an answer from anything nearby.

“No, I didn’t hear it,” Apollo says, “but I did see that he didn’t look—”

Athena scuttles down the corridor, waving for Apollo to follow her, stopping outside one of the other visitor rooms that has the door closed and light pouring out from under it. He expects that he’ll have to ask for a summary later, but then when the voices resume, he realizes it was just a lull, and this argument is audible to even Apollo’s normal ears. 

“—threaten him in an attempt to stop him from pursuing this investigation any further.” That’s Phoenix’s voice, level but clipped at the edges. He doesn’t sound angry, but he doesn’t sound angry in a very deliberate way that makes it clear he’s angry but forcing the casual tone. Apollo would think that to take more energy than just yelling.

“Threatened? My, that’s a bold accusation.” And that’s Professor Means, lacking all of his usual jovial nature. Apollo knew that the two of them were talking, knew Phoenix was bothered by something, and while he can’t quite understand what he’s hearing he barely believes it, either. Who are they talking about? What did Means do? “I did no such thing. I simply said—”

“—something irrelevant to the matter at hand—”

“It was hardly irrelevant to a murder case, you know.” 

“But it is to an investigation, and however relevant it helps nothing and is pointlessly cruel to bring up at all—”

“It was not a threat.” Means sounds unconcerned with anything Phoenix levels at him, his every word slowly and evenly enunciated, like he thinks he wins this argument by staying detached. 

“You tried to dishearten and manipulate him into giving up his investigation by bringing it up. Maybe that’s not a threat, I don’t care about the semantics - I’m curious about what you’re so concerned with hiding, and so afraid someone will find out.”

“You have a very creative kind of logic, Mr Wright, and I’ve always found that admirable, and your clients would not have survived without it either. But now I find myself confused. Perhaps you will explain to me how you came to this conclusion?”

“Fuck you.”

Athena gasps. Both of her hands lay clasped over Widget, to preemptively muffle any exclamations it might make, but for once in its electronic life it doesn’t yell out what Athena’s thinking. Maybe because she already expressed what she’s feeling with that gasp. 

“I didn’t come to talk to you to convince you to have a conscience.” Despite his words, Phoenix still doesn’t sound angry - curt, dry, and bitter, all layered over the anger that must be there. “You know what you did and I came here to tell you that I know what you did.”

“Your accusations and creative leaps of logic would be better put to use in helping your students win Ms Woods her acquittal, would they not? Good night, Mr Wright.”

The door opens. Apollo and Athena retreat into one of the unused rooms, ducking behind the open door. Athena leans her ear against the crack to listen; with her taking up all of the space next to the wall and the hinges, Apollo can’t see into the hall and simply has to wait, holding his breath, willing Means to pass by and leave. They remain there in the dark visiting room, with the big empty window behind them, for a minute that crawls past, every second a silent lifetime, until Athena steps back and lifts her hand off of Widget, which has returned to its neutral glow. “Clear,” she whispers.

Phoenix stands there in the hall, rubbing his eyes. “Hey, Boss,” Athena says. He jumps, clapping a hand over his chest to steady his breathing. “I - sorry. Did we scare you?”

“No shit you did,” Phoenix says, dropping his hand to his side. “So you’re done meeting with Juniper? What’ve you got? What’s the case look like?”

“What were you arguing with Professor Means about?” Athena asks. “That sounded important.”

Phoenix’s face darkens. He glances around; at this late hour, with visiting hours about to end, no one is left around but the guards, but that doesn’t seem to ease Phoenix’s concern. “How much did you hear?” he asks.

“He tried to threaten someone?” The trouble is that while they did hear a substantial amount, it was all a debate of minutiae, leaving none of the broader details for Apollo to understand. “To keep something a secret.”

“You don’t think he’s the murderer, do you?” Athena asks. “Our evidence points pretty substantially to it being Hugh.”

“How about this,” Phoenix says. “You—” He stops, staring a moment at Athena’s car, and that Apollo has already fallen into taking the front passenger’s side, as he has all day already, and Phoenix gives the back seat a judgmental look for several more seconds before he accepts it. “You catch me up on your investigation, and then I’ll tell you what I think is relevant.”

Not a promise to tell them everything - of course he isn’t suggesting that he would tell them everything. Just what he thinks is need-to-know. Always what he thinks is best for everyone else. Unsurprising - still disappointing.

-

“And that’s what we’ve got, and why we think it’s Hugh.” Athena’s eyes dart toward Apollo, waiting to see if he’ll put a qualifier on her suspect. He doesn’t. It was the bribery, not the murder, that he objected to, and he’s not going to keep making that objection as vehemently as he was. Athena is right - they can’t know for sure. 

“Hm.” Phoenix nods slowly. “All your evidence does point that way.”

Apollo sits forward. He’s been content to let Athena handle the explaining: this is, after all, her case, so he’s only interjected a few times when she thought she didn’t elaborate enough on a certain bit. But now that she’s finished their side of the story, it’s Phoenix’s turn to explain, and that’s the part Apollo needs to more carefully observe. 

“So what was it that Professor Means did?” Athena asks. “Who did he threaten? Wouldn’t trying to threaten the officers just get him into way more trouble than if he stayed quiet?”

“It wasn’t anything to do with the police,” Phoenix says. “He’s not stupid. The evidence you have about the bribes, the paper, can you show me that again?”

Athena swipes through a few different screens - a map of the lecture hall, a map of Themis campus, a photo of the extremely fat squirrel they saw running off with half a sandwich - to bring up the page in question. “It looks like Courte’s planner, see.” She pushes that projection off to the side and presents a scan of the planner in question. “I asked Junie, and she hasn’t seen any of the students have these.”

“What of other faculty, though?” Phoenix asks. “Maybe there’s some particular stationaries that are printed just for the professors, or the administration. Yes, it certainly looks like it could be a page that came out of Courte’s diary - planner.” He folds his hands together tightly and rests his forehead against them. “Her planner. Don’t know why I said—” It’s a little red lie. Athena glances to Apollo for confirmation that she isn’t the only one picking up weirdness off that aborted statement. “But we don’t even know if Hugh took any classes from Courte, and I mean, it’s certainly possible that there would be a way for an administrator in a different department to change his grades, but that - god, no matter what, I just keep thinking that they should’ve figured out a protocol to prevent this the last time it happened, and that we shouldn’t be here at all.”

“The last time?” Apollo echoes. “Themis has had problems with students buying grades before?”

Phoenix nods. “Yeah. They kept it hushed up despite firing just about every professor who taught the prosecutor students. Cleaned house and then scrubbed that stain off their name, and the fact that this wasn’t a huge scandal was - well, that should’ve been a scandal, that it wasn’t a big public scandal. Does that make sense?” Athena nods. “Anyway, with this evidence likely to come out in court tomorrow, on the record, I don’t think they’ll have as much luck burying it a second time.” He tilts his head to the side, resting his chin against his hands. “You didn’t know this? I figured Prosecutor Gavin would’ve mentioned it.”

“No,” Apollo says. “He didn’t - but we didn’t talk about our suspicions with him. It was just Juniper who told us when we were at the detention center.” He wonders what would have happened if Athena had theorized in front of him that Courte took bribes - if Klavier would have fought her like Juniper did, or if he would have looked at precedent and given in and accepted it as possible.

“Still,” Phoenix says, “I’m a little surprised he didn’t mention it, just as a fact about Themis. And he should know it happened - I mean, maybe no one at the Prosecutors Office is friends with each other but that seems unlikely, don’t you think?”

Athena coughs. “Does - does this have any relevance to Junie’s case, do you think?” 

Her very polite way of telling Phoenix that she only cares about one thing, which is Juniper, and this incident which happened years ago seems to have no relevance to Juniper and thus, as a conversational tangent, should have ended a minute ago.

“The actual technical process of changing grades!” Phoenix snaps his fingers. “This is why you keep paper records - bribing Courte would make much less sense than bribing the professor in charge of Hugh’s course, unless that person proved unbribable, but this is Professor End Justify surname Means we’re talking about, and he’d probably be impressed by the diabolical ruthlessness it takes to try and bribe someone for better grades.”

“You think that could be his and not Courte’s,” Athena says, pointing at the scrap of paper and the Hugh 120 scrawled on it. “If Hugh killed Professor Courte because she found out about the bribes, but then Means is also worried about hiding his role in the bribes, and that’s led to your argument with him - that would clarify everyone’s roles in the case, then!” She shifts so that she’s facing more toward Apollo, on the couch next to her, and Phoenix across the coffee table from them. “And then everyone believing that Professor Courte isn’t someone who could be corrupt like that isn’t wrong, either.”

Phoenix lifts his eyebrows questioningly. Apollo shrugs. If he doesn’t say anything, Athena can’t try to cross-examine or psychoanalyze him. And Phoenix won’t be able to either.

“Augh, I should’ve listened better to Means when he said that he couldn’t imagine Professor Courte taking bribes!” Athena puts her face in her hands and her next words come out muffled. “There’s too much going on!”

“Yeah,” Phoenix agrees. “That unfortunately tends to happen. Nobody’s going to blame you for missing something in hindsight like this. But you’ll have Hugh on the stand tomorrow, and that’s your chance. But don’t try and go in too hard on the bribery matter unless it’s relevant. Focus on the murder case - get Juniper exonerated, first.”

“Right!” Athena smacks her palms down decisively on her knees. “We’ve got a plan! And I think we should get home and get food and rest.” She springs to her feet and directs an imperious finger in Apollo’s face. “I need you in top shape for tomorrow! Protein tonight, carb-load in the morning.”

“If you’re bringing pasta to eat for breakfast tomorrow, please remember a fork this time,” Apollo says. “Whoever says appearances don’t matter has never watched you eat plain pasta with your bare hands.”

“The things I do in the private of this office are not the same things as I would do in a courthouse, thank you very much!”

Phoenix watches with bemusement; Apollo doesn’t recall him having been there that morning. “Save your energy for arguing with the other side tomorrow,” he says, and Athena’s face falls. 

“Right. See you both in the morning.” She stops short at the door. “Wait, Apollo, do you want a lift home?”

“No thanks. I’ve got a couple things to get done here before I leave.”

Apollo waits for a minute after she leaves before he says anything. Phoenix was reading some notes he took after they arrived back at the office, and after another few seconds, he glances up. “I guess by ‘something to get done’, you don’t mean cleaning up your desk.”

“I haven’t been at my desk for two days,” Apollo says. 

“Well, Trucy has, so there’s that.” Phoenix is doodling something in the top corner of the page. “Forgive me then for making this about me and assuming that you have something to ask me.”

Something to ask him. Yes, and that - there’s a lot of questions he could have. He starts broad. See if he can get Phoenix to confess first. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re hiding something?” 

“Maybe—” Phoenix taps the side of his face, next to his eye.

“Or maybe because the other times you’ve said something like, ‘I told you what was relevant to the case’, there was a whole lot of other important stuff that you didn’t tell me.” Like Kristoph. I didn’t want to scare you. Damn him, if he’s doing this again, to Athena now. “Who’s not human here? Myriam Scuttlebutt? Professor Means? Who was he trying to stop from investigating - you said it wasn’t the police, and you said ‘him’, so it’s not Robin or Myriam - considering Hugh was trying to insist that he doesn’t care at all about Juniper anymore, even if he was lying, I’m not sure that he would be going around obviously investigating.”

He watches Phoenix’s face, searching for a reaction, waiting for a tic that isn’t going to come. This is Phoenix, the man who started teaching him these tricks, who’s always been impossibly, frustratingly obtuse, dodging carefully around the truth to avoid tripping Apollo’s eyes. He’s not going to say anything until Apollo asks him directly, and even then he might not answer. “So then was it Hugh - he and Means had a falling out over bribery, maybe? Or the only other person independently investigating the case - were you and Means talking about Prosecutor Gavin?”

He hoped for even the barest response, a slight alertness in Phoenix’s eye on Klavier’s name, but Phoenix doesn’t grant him even that. His eyes are half-open, lazily fluttering, one lid drooped lower than the other. “Apollo,” he says. “You want to stay focused on the murder, not the bribery, but if anywhere in your cross-examination of Mr O’Conner, you see a good opportunity to get Professor Means on the stand - take it.”

“What?” Apollo asks. If he’s focused on the murder, then why does Means come into it - unless Phoenix thinks— “Do you - do you think that Professor Means is the killer, not Hugh?”

“All your evidence points to Hugh,” Phoenix says. “Even were I both leading this case and convinced that Means is the killer, my only strategy tomorrow would be to go in on Hugh as though I still suspected him to be the murderer, and hope that somewhere in the cross-examination he would give me the right piece of testimony to create an alibi for himself and some reasonable suspicion against Means.” He presses the heels of his hands to his eyes. “You know,” he adds bitterly, “much like that old strategy of mine that Means professed to so admire yesterday - making accusations you don’t believe to buy yourself more time.”

“So you do believe Means is the killer?”

“Apollo.” Phoenix lifts his head, folding his fingers together in front of his mouth. “I just said it. It literally doesn’t matter what I believe. The strategy doesn’t change. All that would change would be your, and Athena’s, perception of it - whether when you accuse Hugh O’Conner, you believe you’re accusing a guilty man or an innocent one. And there’s no room in tomorrow’s case for pulling punches.”

“And you don’t think Athena’s capable.”

“I think she’s very capable,” Phoenix says. “But there will be plenty of time and reasons for her to confront the moral quandaries of being a defense attorney without me putting her into the position of having to make an accusation that she’ll think is false. I’d rather not watch her have a crisis of faith this early in her career.”

It’s October. She joined the Agency in April. It’s been six months. A year and a half for Apollo. At six months, that early in his career, he was—

Bitter. Bitter at Phoenix, then and now and always.

“I made a mess of the first trial you stood as lead defense on,” Phoenix adds. He’s thinking of it too, of the differences then and now, of the first new young lawyer he brought to this office, and the second one. “I won’t do it again.”

“This all seriously implies that you believe Professor Means is Courte’s killer,” Apollo says. And that Phoenix doesn’t care if Apollo has to grapple with the morality of accusing Hugh. 

“Make of what I’ve said what you will,” Phoenix says. “Just remember that this trial is, ultimately, about Juniper, and her life on the line.”

Juniper - poor Juniper, half between worlds, accused of murder and shut away behind iron. If she has to stay in prison any longer she might not survive it. She’ll shrivel up and wither to dust like a plant never watered, locked in the dark. Whether or not Hugh is the killer, the only path for Juniper’s freedom goes through him. To save her, there’s no other strategy, and they have to save her. 

“I know,” Apollo says. “Though I’m not sure why you don’t just explain what went down with Means and whoever else. I’m capable of holding two thoughts in my head at the same time, you know, whether it’s directly relevant to Juniper’s trial or not.” Phoenix blinks, and his eyes don’t fully open after. His poker face, back again in full. “How are you to know it isn’t relevant? Lots of seemingly unimportant facts become relevant.”

“Good night, Apollo.”

Apollo grits his teeth and turns on his heel. If there was a falling out between Hugh and Means, if Means said or did something nasty enough that Phoenix was as pissed as he was, then how would that not be something case-relevant? Which leaves the possibility that Phoenix snarling, furious, fuck you, was in defense of Klavier, the man who disbarred him.

Last October, Phoenix kept asking Apollo how Klavier was doing. Worried after him, really. Couldn’t ever deflect his inquiries with a convincing facade of not actually caring. What could Means have said? Some jab about Kristoph or Daryan - or Courte? Could he know about Klavier’s glamours or history, try to throw those back in his face in a way meant to break him down, into giving up? Why would Means risk doing something that makes him look so much more suspicious, and do it obviously enough that Phoenix noticed? Klavier would have to be the only possibility; he’s the only person involved in this case, besides Juniper, who Apollo thinks would be so obviously easy to break, to push over the edge with some words.

Apollo leans his bike against his hip and fires off a text.

How’s that tape looking?

He doesn’t check his phone again until he gets home, shoes off and wandering towards the kitchen and walking into the doorframe instead. 

-Aren’t you impatient ;) -I barely dropped it off and it should take some time -I’ll come find you and Fräuelin before you hit the stage in the morning

“Earth to Apollo, hello, I repeat, ground control to Apollo One, do you copy? That wall has been here the whole time we’ve lived here, you know.”

Apollo corrects his course and on a second attempt makes it into the kitchen without running into anything. “Cut me a break. I’ve spent the day dealing with a perjurious high school love triangle.” Actually, is it still a love triangle? The trio clearly had some secrets that Myriam could have mistaken for the much-more-normal secret of having crushes on one another. But Robin could still be interested in Juniper - or Athena could be. And god only knows what’s going on with Hugh toward Juniper, to the point that it will probably come up in cross-examination. 

“I can’t decide if that’s something I want to hear about or not,” Clay says.

“Better not,” Apollo says, “and tomorrow I can tell you if it’s worth it.”

“I can’t imagine that Mr Prosecutor Samurai Birdman from hell and-or faeryland is very happy with it either.”

“He’ll be doing his best to get them all convicted of something,” Apollo says. And he’d go with and rather than or: Hell and the Twilight Realm are probably the same thing.

You’re certain there will be some results by then?

-Ja -I won’t leave you hanging :) -I said that I need some kind of result by 9:50 tomorrow morning -leaving myself just enough time to find and talk to you -so long as you haven’t gone in early to the courtroom, which you have never done, so I am not worried

Shut up.  I’m always early. I just always have to wait for Trucy or Athena or the defendant or whatever. 

“Who’re you texting?” Clay tried to lean his head in front of Apollo’s phone screen. Apollo shoves him away. “You’ve got that look on your face like you’re trying to decipher calculus. But fortunately for you, I’m good at math.”

“That’s a terrible metaphor to say you’re nosy and like micromanaging my texting.”

“Only with Gavin, but since you bring it up I presume then that this is him?”

“Ah.” Damn. Clay’s better at logical trial-type reasoning than Apollo gives him credit for. Usually because he’s being deliberately obtuse and annoying. 

“Ha! Self-incrimination! What kind of lawyer are you?”

“One who’s spent the day dealing with a perjurious high school love triangle,” Apollo repeats. “Again, cut me a break.”

“So. Klavier Gavin. What’s he say?”

“He’s helping with the investigation,” Apollo says. “We’re talking about evidence.”

Clay raises his eyebrows and lowers his chin. “Uh-huh,” he says. “You look worryingly confused about evidence for your own case, if that’s it.”

“It’s not about the evidence,” Apollo says. “It’s about, I know there’s something that Mr Wright definitely and Prosecutor Gavin maybe isn’t saying, and there’s no formula for you to help me figure that out.”

“The Fair Folk’s bullshit,” Clay says. “Very broad category, but that’s your answer.”

“I hope not,” Apollo says, knowing as he says it that it’s the only likely answer. Professor Means - is he lying? Is he human? “But you’re probably right.”

-oh blame the Fräuleins, very sweet of you - ;)

All of Klavier’s texting sounds - normal, unlike other occasions that gave him cause not to be. But without seeing him in-person, it’s impossible for Apollo to tell how forced the mask of normalcy is. He’ll have to wait for that answer the same as he’ll wait for the results of the audio tape analysis.

They know what they’ve done

No, he’s got to focus. Juniper is his first priority. There’s the deadline on her, an hourglass running down, running them out of time to save her. And he can’t help Klavier if he lets Professor Courte murder goes unsolved. No point to anything else if that wound is still bleeding.

He just has to trust that Phoenix is right when he says something isn’t case-relevant.

(As if he could easily give that trust on the best of days, let alone a case this important to this many people he knows.)

[turnaboutnerd]

Full Disclosure

Pairings: Cykesquill, Wrightworth, Klapollo (mentioned/implied)

Summary: Phoenix and Miles receive some surprising (and perhaps concerning) news from Athena and Simon. Set sometime after Spirit of Justice, but there are minimal spoilers.

Word Count: 2,960

A/N: If I have the opportunity to write married!Wrightworth being dads to their subordinates, then by God, I’m going to do it.

Athena’s been nervous around him for days now. Phoenix might not have the ability to read others’ emotions like she does, but he can tell that much. In fact, when he asked two days earlier if she was okay, she, apparently taking a page out of Apollo’s book, loudly replied “I’m fine!”—and a single red Psyche-Lock appeared.

He was surprised, but he didn’t push it then. Back when Apollo still regularly worked for the Agency, and they were quite literally an office full of human lie detectors, it had been an unofficial, unspoken rule that they weren’t allowed press each other over every single little white lie and secret they kept. Even in a company as tight-knit as theirs, they’re entitled to their privacy.

But Athena’s jumpiness, Phoenix thinks, is reaching a worrisome pitch. Even Trucy has noticed her odd behavior, though she hasn’t said anything. So Phoenix resolved last night to bring it up again before the end of today, and when Trucy announces she’s going to the corner store a block away to pick up a snack, he knows he has the perfect opportunity.

But Athena beats him to the punch.

“Boss!” Athena says a little too loudly, appearing in his office doorway the moment Trucy leaves. “Uh… there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

(What a coincidence. There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, too.)

“Sure, Athena,” he says. “Do you want to sit down?”

She sort of nods and sits in the chair opposite his desk quickly—too quickly. She’s incredibly nervous, more nervous than she’s been these past several days. It touches a nerve in Phoenix, making him feel a little anxious too. His magatama is in his desk, but he can see the faint outline of her red Psyche-Lock hovering near her face.

“I, um.” She stops and takes a breath. The Psyche-Lock quivers; whatever she’s been hiding, Phoenix knows he’s about to learn it. “I—I don’t really know how to start this, so I guess I’ll just come out and say it: I’m pregnant.”

The lock shatters. Phoenix doesn’t know what he was expecting, but he wasn’t expecting that. The confession briefly knocks him breathless, and it takes him a moment to process that, yes, she really did just say that.

(Calm down! Don’t freak out on her. She obviously had a really hard time telling you this, so just—God, say something! You’re just staring now!)

“A-And I’m going to keep it,” she belatedly adds, and it’s enough to shock Phoenix back into speaking.

“Okay,” he says, and he’s surprised by how even his voice is. “May I ask who the father is?”

Phoenix realizes she’s shivering, and his heart aches. She’s terrified—of him, or of her situation, he isn’t sure.

“It’s—Simon,” she manages.

(Prosecutor Blackquill?! They’re—?)

“Does he know?” It takes every ounce of self-control within him, but his voice is still calm.

“Yes. Um.” She shifts slightly in her seat and takes in a cleansing breath. “He’s supportive and everything. He wants to be involved.”

“Okay,” Phoenix repeats. “Well—okay. I’m glad to hear that.” He pauses, collecting his thoughts. “The Agency’ll support you through any decisions you want to make here. You can continue to defend clients for as long as it’s safe for you and the baby, and of course I’ll give you time off work when you need it and—” He realizes he might be getting ahead of himself here. “I mean, if you still want to work here.”

She sniffles, and Phoenix’s heart jumps into his throat.

(Did I say something wrong?!)

“Y-Yeah, I still want to work here.” She covers her face with her hands to hide her tears. “Sorry, I’m not crying because I’m upset. I’m actually really relieved! I was so scared to tell you…”

(Oh! … Oh…)

“Aw, kiddo…” Phoenix starts. He leaves his desk, circles around it, and pulls up an extra chair close to Athena, wrapping a comforting arm around her. “You know you can always talk to me.”

“Yeah,” she sniffles again. She uncovers her face, revealing a small, tear-stained smile. “I guess I was worried over nothing. I think the pregnancy hormones are already getting to me.”

Phoenix tightens his hold.

“We’re gonna get through this, okay?” he says. She nods and wipes her face with her hands. He briefly lets go just to reach for the tissue box on his desk; he keeps it there for his more distressed clients, and occasionally his distressed daughter and distressed junior partners—although, it’s usually Apollo who does the tear-shedding in his office, even if he’s in another country at the moment.

Athena gratefully accepts the tissues.

“Okay,” she says, and she sounds like she really believes him. Phoenix is relieved; somehow, he thinks, he managed to say the right things.

“Does anyone else know?” he asks.

“No. Well—” She hesitates. “Simon said he was going to tell the Chief Prosecutor today. And I was thinking of calling Polly later, too.”

“You don’t have to tell everyone all at once.”

“I know, but I think he’d want to know, and I also just kind of want to talk to him about it.”

He grins at her.

“He’ll probably rush back to the States tonight just to check on you,” he halfway jokes, because he knows there actually is a real possibility that Apollo will hop on the next flight to LA after hearing this kind of news.

Athena laughs.

“Probably.” She grins back.

“Hey everyone!” Athena and Phoenix jolt a little, hearing the unmistakable cheerful pitch of Trucy’s voice, and the sound of a door opening and closing. “I’m back, and I brought Skittles!” She walks into Phoenix’s office, and then her breath catches. “Thena, are you okay?!”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine now,” Athena says a little shakily, though she’s smiling as she rises to her feet.

Trucy looks doubtful. “Do you… want some Skittles?” she asks, holding out her bag.

Athena laughs again. “No, that’s okay.” She pauses, thinks. “I am hungry though.”

“Well, let’s go get some lunch!” Phoenix says, standing too. But his mind stutters, and he looks thoughtfully at Athena. “Er… maybe not at Eldoon’s though. Maybe something less salty? A little healthier? There’s a sandwich shop not too far from here.”

Trucy gapes at him. “No Eldoon’s? Something healthy? What happened while I was gone?!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain on the way,” Athena says, smiling weakly at her.

Trucy hums and pops a Skittle into her mouth. “Well, okay,” she says. “Not that I’m opposed to eating better. It’s just a little unexpected.”

They grab their coats—it’s late November, and it’s getting chilly—and Phoenix shuts off all the lights as they head out the door, carefully and comfortingly placing his hand on the small of Athena’s back as he guides her through.

...

Miles is in the middle of paperwork when there’s a knock on his door. He’s so engrossed in his work that he ignores it at first, but it comes again, and he sighs. The least favorable downside of being Chief Prosecutor is that when he has a visitor, he cannot simply turn them away because he’s working—people need to see him all the time now, and usually with good reason. But if it’s Winston here to complain again about some inane social crime Gavin has committed (Klavier may be charming and generally well-liked around the office, but the Paynes have begrudged his presence for years), then Miles swears he’ll—

“Edgeworth-dono?”

(Oh. It’s Blackquill. That’s much more preferable company.)

“Prosecutor Blackquill. Come in.”

He does, and immediately, Miles can sense tension in Simon’s demeanor. His expression is tight, and his shoulders are drawn taut. Simon’s always been a serious man, but now, there’s something almost—anxious, perhaps?—in the way he’s carrying himself. Miles knows he’s not the best at reading others’ body language, but still, he can tell something’s off.

“I need to disclose a conflict of interest that has recently arisen,” Simon says without preamble.

(Straight to the point, as usual.)

“All right,” Miles nods. He pulls out a blank notepad and clicks his pen once. He’s gotten into the habit of taking notes whenever he meets with others. He’s not a forgetful man, but he carries so many diverse conversations throughout the day that things tend to fall through the cracks if he doesn’t keep a log of it. “Why don’t you sit?”

He does.

“I believe it would no longer be appropriate for me to prosecute cases in which Athena Cykes is the lead defense attorney,” Simon continues bluntly.

Miles hums, holding his pen to the page but not yet writing.

(That’s odd. Blackquill and Ms. Cykes have always had a long and personal history, and neither he nor I have raised concerns about his impartiality in a trial for it. What’s changed?)

“Might I ask why?”

Simon inhales slowly, and there is a barely perceptible tremor in his breath. Miles is honestly surprised he catches it at all, and he draws his eyebrows together, starting to feel a little worried.

“She is with child,” he says. He falters as he clarifies, “My—child.”

The pen doesn’t move. In fact, Miles lets it drop from his hand. He isn’t going to forget this.

“I—I see,” he says. He pauses, takes in a slow, careful breath, and continues, “I’ll ensure you’re not assigned to any cases wherein Ms. Cykes is involved.”

“Thank you.” Simon quickly rises and turns to go. An unfamiliar emotion bubbles up in Miles’s throat, and he feels compelled to speak.

“Simon.”

He stops. Miles never calls him by his first name. He never calls anyone by their first name. He hardly even calls his own husband by his first name, but saying “Blackquill” now seems too impersonal, too cold, and—

(I’m not good at this.)

Miles removes his glasses and retrieves a microfiber cloth neatly tucked within his front breast pocket. He cleans the lenses, then sets them aside. It’s a nervous habit he has, something he does when he needs to buy himself time to speak. Simon is watching him warily from over his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Miles eventually manages.

Some of the tension in Simon’s shoulders visibly relaxes.

“Yes. I—” Simon faces him again. “This may be premature, but I would like to request some time off in April next year. She’ll be due around that time.”

“Of course,” Miles readily agrees. “But it is early now, so we’ll puzzle out the details closer to her delivery.”

Simon breathes something like a sigh. “Thank you again, Edgeworth-dono.”

Miles nods to him, and Simon is able to peacefully depart this time. Once he is gone, Miles picks up his pen a second time, writes the words “Cykes-Blackquill baby due: April” at the top of the blank page, circles it twice, and drops the pen again.

...

Phoenix impressed himself keeping it together as well as he did when Athena told him she was pregnant that afternoon. But after Trucy’s gone to bed, and he and Miles are winding down together in the privacy of their own room that evening, he starts to fall apart.

“She’s so young, Miles,” he says as he paces back and forth between the door and the entrance to the master bathroom. Miles is sitting on the bed, a book in front of him, though he’s most certainly not reading—no, his eyes are looking over the pages, watching his husband drive a ridge into the carpet, but he hasn’t stopped him yet. Phoenix needs to move when he’s thinking.

“20 years old, is it?” Miles asks.

“Barely 20 years old,” Phoenix emphasizes. “She’s a baby herself.”

“Blackquill is older. I believe he’ll be 30 in a month,” he tries reassuringly.

“Yeah, that doesn’t change that she’s 20 though.” Phoenix stops pacing and gathers a fistful of his own hair. “She can’t even legally drink yet!”

“Well. That doesn’t make much of a difference. She shouldn’t be drinking until after April anyway.”

“You’re missing the point.”

“I understand the point.”

Phoenix pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing. He starts to pace again. “I need to make sure the Agency starts picking up a steady stream of paying clients. We can’t keep doing stuff pro bono. She needs a consistent paycheck if she’s going to be raising a child.”

“I don’t think finances are going to be a concern,” Miles says. “Blackquill is involved, and he’s well-off. I know. I sign his paychecks. This is not a case of a single mother who’s going to struggle finding the means for her family’s next meal. And even if it was, you would never let her go without. You would have her over every night for dinner with Trucy and myself. You practically already do.” He pauses. “Although, you really should stop taking so many cases pro bono regardless.”

“Yeah, yeah…” He’s still pacing. Miles has finally had enough.

“Wright.” Phoenix stops, looks at him. Miles sets aside his book on the nightstand. “Come here.”

Phoenix briefly hesitates, but then he climbs into bed and lets Miles gather him into his arms.

“She’s going to be fine. It’s going to be hard, but she will be fine. They both will be,” Miles assures him. “Despite his appearances, Blackquill is an honorable man. He’ll be loyal to her and to their child.”

“I know,” Phoenix quietly agrees. He sighs and rests his face against the crook of Miles’s neck. “I didn’t even know they were together.”

“Neither did I.” He hesitates before adding, “They’ve always been close, but I have the sense their romance might be quite new.”

“Me too. I didn’t ask Athena about it today ‘cause I didn’t want to push, but…” Phoenix closes his eyes. “That’s why I was really conscious about not freaking out in front of her today. If I’m a wreck, then I can’t imagine how she—both of them—must feel, just starting to date and then suddenly winding up pregnant. It’s scary, you know?”

“Terrifying,” Miles agrees. “But, well… I knew someone who was too young, too much of a mess, to be a parent, and they turned out fine. They were single, unemployed, struggling to get by, and now—they’re happily married, nursing a successful career, their daughter having already been accepted to several universities across the U.S. in the first semester of her senior year.”

“Really?” Phoenix lifts his head. “Who—?” Miles stares, and the meaning clicks in Phoenix’s brain. “Aw, geez, Edgeworth.”

Miles smirks and presses his lips against his husband’s temple.

“It’s going to be okay, Phoenix.”

...

Mr. Wright was, well, right. The moment she called Polly and told him, he lost his mind and immediately started looking up flights to Los Angeles.

“Come on, come on! Ugh, stupid, slow Khura’inese Internet!” he curses over the phone.

“I-It’s okay, Polly,” she assures him with a touch of amusement. “You don’t need to come out right now. I’m going to see you next month at Christmas anyway.”

“No, I have to be there,” Apollo insists. “I just need to—agh, get this stupid dinosaur dial-up computer to bring up flight information!” She hears a mumbled string of expletives, and though Athena was serious when she said he didn’t need to see her right then, that they’d be together again at Christmas… she’s touched he’s so concerned and wants to be there for her. Even if she knows this is really more for him and his reassurance than her own.

Eventually, Apollo’s voice becomes clear again. “Look, I’ll call you later, okay? Just as soon as I get my flight information figured out.”

“Okay,” Athena agrees. “I’m only gonna be up for maybe another hour though, all right?”

“All right. Take care of yourself, okay?”

“I will. Thank you, Polly. I mean it.”

After hanging up, she leaves the privacy of her bedroom and heads back toward the kitchen, where Simon sits at the counter, a cup of tea in front of him. He looks up upon her arrival.

“Feeling better?” he asks.

“Yeah.” She pulls up a chair next to him. “I think we’re gonna see Apollo here real soon.”

“I’m sure Gavin-dono will be very happy to hear that Justice-dono is making an early trip back to the States.”

Athena smirks knowingly.

“I’m sure he will be,” she says. But then she sighs and drops her head sideways against Simon’s chest. Her hands rise below the counter to feel her stomach. It’s flat now, but it’s weird to think that soon it won’t be, and already that there’s a baby growing inside her—her and Simon’s baby.

Simon threads his hand through her hair, pulls her closer, kisses her forehead. “I love you,” he says gravely. “You do know that, right?”

It’s not the first time he’s said he’s loved her—she heard it from him as a child, platonically, and later, in private, after he was a freed man, again platonically. But this is the first time she’s heard it from him as her lover, as the father of her child.

“I do,” she says. “I love you too.”

His hand drops to her waist, then moves to cover hers—the ones that are placed carefully over her own stomach.

“We’re going to be fine,” he says, and she knows that we includes more than just herself and him.

“I know,” she says. And how could they not be? They have each other, and Mr. Wright and Edgeworth have turned out more supportive than either could have hoped for, and Trucy’s already asked to be the baby’s aunt, and Klavier’s already promised free guitar lessons for “the little fräulein, ja?”, and Apollo’s probably already on a red-eye flight back to Los Angeles.

Yes. They’re going to be fine.

[flight-of-the-sacred-eagle]

Trucy Wright, Gift Giver Extraordinaire

Trucy is best ban don’t @ me

“Okay,  I give up. Trucy, I need your help,” Apollo said as he sat down on the bench next to her, burying his face in his hands.

“Oh? With what?” Trucy asked, smirking as she took a drink of the slushee she had convinced him to buy her. Apollo groaned.

“I can’t figure out what to buy for anyone besides you and Clay,” he said. “Like. I have no ideas at all,” he said. Trucy giggled.

“Aw, did law sap your creativity too?” She asked.

“What? No!” Apollo exclaimed. “My creativity is fine- it’s just that my boyfriend is a fucking millionaire, Athena has no interests besides messing with me, your dad is... your dad, and everyone else either scares me or I know nothing about them,” he said.

“Aw, Papa isn’t scary, Polly!” Trucy exclaimed before she put a finger to her chin. “But I see what you’re getting at,” she said. “Especially when it comes to shopping for Klav- Daddy used to have the same problem when shopping for Papa,” she said before grinning. “You’ve come to the right place though!” She exclaimed as she stood up. Apollo chuckled.

“Have I?” He asked as he stood up. Trucy nodded as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

“Yep!” She said. “They don’t call me Trucy Wright, gift giver extraordinaire for nothing!” She said.

“No one calls you that,” Apollo said.

“Well, you better start calling me that if you want my help,” Trucy said with a smirk. Apollo snorted.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “What do you suggest we do, Trucy Wright, gift giver extraordinaire?” He said. Trucy beamed.

“I’m glad you asked!” She said as she grabbed her pseudo brother’s hand. “Obviously the most important person on your lift is Klavier, so we should shop for him first,” she said. “Plus, he’d be the hardest,” she said.

“You’ve got that right,” Apollo grumbled. “It’s been three years since we started dating and Christmas shopping for him is still hell,” he said.

“Well... what do you get him for his birthdays?” Trucy asked before her eyes widened as Apollo turned beet red. “Polly!” She exclaimed with a giggle. Apollo shook his head.

“I didn’t say anything!” He exclaimed. Trucy chuckled.

“You turned redder than your suit,” she said before smirking. “I’d suggest you give him the same thing this Christmas but considering you’ve got Clay there...” she trailed off.

“Oh for the love of- I already have Clay teasing me every two seconds, I don’t need you adding on to this!” Apollo exclaimed.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” Trucy said before humming. “Well... I’d suggest a new guitar but aren’t the ones he uses super expensive?” She asked. Apollo nodded.

“Yeah. I think the cheapest one he wants is five thousand,” he said. “Plus I know nothing about guitars,” he said. Trucy hummed.

“What else does he like?” She asked.

“Well, there’s the law stuff obviously,” Apollo said. “And...” he trailed off. “Okay, you have to promise not to tell anyone this,” he said. “Like. Seriously- you cannot tell anyone this,” he said.

“Polly, I’m a magician. I know how to keep secrets,” Trucy said. “But you’re making it sound like he’s got some super weird interest,” he said. Apollo snorted.

“Now weird. Just something you wouldn’t expect and I don’t know if he wants anyone to know,” he said. “He actually really loves cooking,” he said, grin on his face. “And he’s such a good cook,” he said as a dopey look formed on his face. “He can make a peanut butter sandwich taste like heaven,” he said. Trucy chuckled.

“Well, how about we try to combine all that?” She asked as she pulled up her phone. “The Gavviners fans make everything- I bet I can find some specialized cooking stuff or...” she trailed off as she stood off to the side to avoid the mall traffic. Then, her eyes went wide. “Polly. Polly, I think I found the best thing ever,” she said and she handed her phone to Apollo.

“What is this?” Apollo asked as he looked at the phone. “Holy shit,” he said. “Trucy- this is amazing!” He exclaimed. “‘I cook as good as Klavier Gavin looks,” he read. “And Gavviners purple and silver... this is awesome!” He exclaimed as he pulled his own phone out.

“I told you! I’m Trucy Wright! Gift giver extraordinaire!” Trucy exclaimed as Apollo handed her her phone back. “Now, who next?” She asked. “You’ve got Simon, Athena, Daddy, Papa, Ema, Auntie Frannie, Auntie Maya, and Pearls left, right?” She said. Apollo nodded.

“Yeah. Well, I need to get something for Nahyuta and Rayfa, but that’s not nearly as hard as everyone else- especially since they’re not coming here,” he said. “But I’m kind of split with Ema,” he admitted. Trucy cocked her head.

“How so?” She asked.

“Well, I don’t know if I should just buy her a few bulk bags of snackoos or if I should get her a stupid coffee mug or something,” he said. “I found a mug that I really like for her too- it says ‘I trained in forensics so yes I can murder you and get away with it’,” he said, causing Trucy to snort.

“Go with that,” Trucy said. “I think Klavier said he was going to buy her a years worth of snackoos since he heard you can’t find them in Khura’in,” she said.

“Well, mug it is then,” Apollo said. “And that’s the last one I had any ideas for,” he admitted. Trucy hummed.

“Well, Auntie Maya is easy- she’ll take anything Steel Samurai related,” she said. “Pearly likes pretty much everything,” she admitted. “But she does like to draw, so maybe a sketchbook?” She suggested. Apollo nodded as he started scrolling through his phone.

“Hm. I’ll probably look for a sketchbook or something here,” he said. “As for the Steel Samurai stuff... there is that game store here- they probably sell stuff there,” he said before frowning. “Actually, that may be something I can get for Rayfa too...” he mumbled.

“You could knock out three and get Papa something Steel Samurai related too!” Trucy exclaimed. “He and Auntie Maya can spend hours talking about it,” she said. “And I don’t think either of them have anything from the Nickel Samurai saga!” She exclaimed.

“Really?” Apollo asked as he quickly typed something. “Let’s see... Matt Engarde... where have I heard that name...” he mumbled. Trucy frowned.

“He sounds familiar,” she said before cocking her head as Apollo’s eyes went wide. “Polly?” She asked. Apollo shook his head.

“Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth got him convicted of murder,” he said. “And your father was his defense attorney,” he said.

“Oh,” Trucy said. “Well, I guess that would explain why no one has anything related to that,” she said before shaking her head. “Anyways, maybe you should get Daddy a funny law mug or something,” she said. “‘thena is getting him a ‘World’s Best Lawyer’ mug, and Papa is getting him a ‘World’s Most Interesting Lawyer’ mug,” she said.

“Is there a ‘World’s Okayest Lawyer’ mug?” Apollo asked with a snort. “Because that would finish the trifecta,” he said. Trucy nodded.

“There probably is,” she said. “Now. ‘thena mentioned something about how Simon is trying to find a toy for Taka that won’t break immediately,” she said. “And she mentioned how her jewelry was getting stale,” she said. Apollo rolled his eyes.

“Doesn’t she have like. Fifty different necklaces?” He asked.

“A girl can never have too much jewelry, Polly,” Trucy said. “But maybe get her a small ring or something?” She said.

“Maybe I’ll get her a book on the differences between white and brown sugar,” Apollo said with a snort. “And I can get Blackquill a chew toy or something for Taka,” he said before sighing. “This just leaves Prosecutor Von Karma...” he mumbled. Trucy grinned.

“Oh, she’s easy,” she said. “She collects whips,” she said. Apollo just looked at her.

“You want me to get her a whip?” He asked. She nodded. “Well... if you think it’s a good idea,” he said.

“I do!” Trucy said before beaming. “Now come on- let’s go get these things!” She exclaimed as she grabbed Apollo’s hand and pulled him back into the crowd.

“Okay, okay,” Apollo said with a laugh. “Thanks for your help,” he said. Trucy smiled.

“Anytime, Polly!” She said before smirking. “Now, about my payment...”

[apollo-justice-for-all]

Justicykes Fic - Scars

A/N: Alright, so as promised, here’s that cute little Justicykes prompt I said I’d post. It’s based on an OTP prompt which you can find here: https://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/170933905969/person-a-has-scars-on-their-backshoulders-can-be

Fair warning, the original prompt does contain trigger warnings for self-harm and injuries. This one only has injury warnings as well as major spoilers for Dual Destinies (specifically The Cosmic Turnabout, Turnabout Countdown and Turnabout for Tomorrow) and minor spoilers for Spirit of Justice. If you haven’t played either game, I recommend holding off on reading this until you’ve played through them both.

Anyways, without further ado, I hope you enjoy!

Every scar told a story.

That was what Apollo was led to believe as he glanced over his shoulder at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, taking in the numerous marks, scratches, cuts and bruises that adorned his back. Though some of the scars had faded over time, they were still a reminder of the hardships he had endured in his life.

First, there were the burn scars, standing out like large red continents over an olive ocean. While they didn’t hurt very much compared to when they did before, they served as a permanent reminder of the disaster that had struck when he was only a baby, crying for his father as the fire proceeded to consume them both. Of course, Dhurke had been able to save Apollo in the nick of time, but it left him with a trauma that would scar him for life, and a deathly fear of fire that would forever haunt his nightmares.

Next was a medium-sized tattoo, located right between his shoulder blades. The tattoo was shaped like a dragon, a ferocious beast that circled around to form the shape of a spirit - a mitama. It was a mark that Apollo knew all too well, one that he had been so determined to hide at all costs. It was a mark that told him that he was Dhurke’s adopted son...and a member of the Defiant Dragons, a rebel group located within Khura’in, fighting for a revolution to bring down a corrupt regime.

Apollo sighed, feeling the heavy burden weighing down heavily in his heart. He had always been self-conscious about his body, but whenever someone asked him about the tattoo on his back, he would tell them that it was simply for show and that it held no real meaning. It was his way of trying to forget about Dhurke, about the Dragons, about his entire childhood back in Khura’in (save for a few incidents). It was better that way, he believed.

Yet, the dragon tattoo had remained the only one unaffected by the newest residents of Apollo’s back: the scars from the courtroom bombing incident. Apollo winced as his eyes strained to glance over at every last wound he had received on that very day. The bluish-black bruises from where the debris had struck his spine (though it was a miracle that his spine didn’t break in two), the cuts that worsened some of the burn scars...and the stitches.

Oh God, the stitches!

There were only a few along his sides, and thankfully away from the sensitive areas of his body...yet, they still remained as a reminder of what had happened. Apollo remembered how he had shielded Juniper from the falling debris, his entire body screaming out as he took the blow that was meant for the young girl. He remembered being taken to the hospital, where the doctors had to restrain him while they dressed his wounds. The worst of them, they had to stitch together. He remembered shrieking in pain as the needle entered his wounds until his voice gave out, and even then he could only manage to choke out a sob. Apollo wasn’t afraid of needles, but they did tend to make him a little anxious, not to mention they were painful.

He remembered, when night fell, having to lie perfectly still so that his body could take the time to heal. He remembered quietly crying in his sleep until his pillows were soaked and his eyes turned red from the tears that ran down his cheeks. He remembered crying as he thought of Juniper, who had been arrested for supposedly being responsible for the courtroom bombing. Of Athena, whom he had to protect from his suspicions. And most of all, of Clay, his oldest and dearest friend whose death had planted a seed of grief in Apollo’s heart. He remembered hearing the nurses quietly murmuring to each other about whether or not he was trying to compete with Prosecutor Blackquill for having the darkest tear streaks. By morning, the doctors had bandaged him up and warned him not to push himself too hard. If he had listened then, he wouldn’t have been rushed to the hospital a second time for blunt force trauma to the head.

Yet, despite it all, Athena and Phoenix were able to clear Juniper’s name and indict the true culprit behind the bombing, and then of Clay’s murder. Apollo remembered Mr. Wright having to help clear up the doubt that lingered within him, and how the two of them - with help from Athena, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth, and even Prosecutor Blackquill - brought the true culprit to justice. While a part of Apollo was relieved that the nightmare had finally passed, another part of him would never be able to overcome the grief over Clay’s death. Even after Phoenix suggested that Athena spend the night with Apollo after the trial, Apollo wasn’t sure if he would ever fully recover as quickly as Athena did.

Then again, he was Apollo Justice, the Clarion of Revelations. Of course he’d recover. It would just take time, that’s all.

A knock on the door pulled Apollo out of his thoughts as the present engulfed him once more. “Apollo, are you done yet?” Athena’s voice sounded through the wood. Her tone carried an annoyed expression, making it clear that Apollo had already spent too much time in the bathroom. Whoops.

“Y-yeah, I’ll be right out,” he replied as he hastily threw his bathrobe back over his shoulders, covering up his back once more. There was no way he was letting Athena walk in on him while he was standing in the bathroom half-naked. No freakin' way!

* * *

Apollo found it incredibly hard to fall asleep that night. He knew that it wasn’t because of the fact that he was sharing the same bed as his female co-worker - in fact, if anything, he was grateful to have some form of company, especially if said company happened to be Athena. It also didn’t have to do anything with the fact that he had to be wearing a crop top. He hated wearing crop tops, since he always felt like he was being exposed, even if they did manage to cover up his tattoo. Yet, his decision to wear one was to try and let his back breathe a little while his body repaired itself.

No, the reason he couldn’t sleep...was simply because of the ordeal that had happened, all in the span of several days. The HAT-2 sabotage that led to Clay’s death, the bombing of Courtroom No. 4, Juniper’s trial, Mr. Starbuck’s trial, the re-trial of the UR-1 incident, and finally the phantom being brought to justice. Not to mention the seed of doubt towards Athena that got the better of him. It was all too much for him to bear, and he knew that he would forever bear the physical and psychological scars of those events for as long as he lived.

Apollo’s mind was so deep into the past that he didn’t notice a pair of arms wrapping themselves around him from behind. Nor was he aware of a warm presence pressing itself against him. It was only when he felt someone kissing his back did he jolt in surprise. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed a mound of orange hair brushing itself against him as Athena gently planted one kiss after another on the scars. He felt his heart racing beneath his chest as he found himself breathless for several minutes.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally found the guts to speak. “What are you doing?” he whispered, making sure his voice was loud enough for Athena to hear. Of course, she could already hear him fine, but just in case...

Athena stopped kissing his back to nuzzle her face against it, taking in his scent as she took several deep breaths. Apollo’s breath caught in his throat as his cheeks turned red like roses. He felt her trace her fingers along one particularly ugly stitch that stretched from his waistline to near the base of his spine, causing his face to turn even redder. Yet he found the touch soothing, and he unconsciously found himself relaxing.

“Nobody’s ever kissed them better before,” he heard Athena murmur. “So I’ve decided to take it upon myself to do it now.”

An awkward silence fell upon the two of them, a silence that only lasted for about half a minute before Athena piped up again. “Is...there something wrong, Apollo? Should I stop?”

Apollo hesitated. Throughout the time they’d spent together (which started on the day Athena threw a cop at Apollo), he had always considered Athena to be little more than just a friend, not once even trying to develop a crush on her. He had little to no experience with girls; his first, last, and only crush was back in high school, but she was a transfer student, and she had already flown back home before he could confess his feelings for her. Apollo wasn’t heartbroken by this, but he regretted ever trying to woo her. Although he pushed his lone crush to the back of his mind, it never stopped Clay from trying to get him to date another girl.

...At least, up until his death, that is.

Besides, Athena was his co-worker and his junior partner, not the love of his life. No matter how much he wanted to admit it, he would not make the same mistakes he did back then. Yet, deep in his heart, he partially regretted not listening to Clay's advice, and missed his teasing over Apollo’s lack of a love life.

Apollo took a deep breath, picking the right words to use carefully. “No,” he said, keeping his voice steady. “It’s fine.”

Athena simply responded with a light smooch over a bruise from the falling debris before nuzzling her cheek against his back. “You sound pretty hesitant,” she mumbled. “I can hear a bit of discord.”

“You’re...probably just imagining things,” Apollo whispered quickly and breathlessly, though it was only the half-truth. To be completely honest, this was really the first time he had shared a bed with a girl. But he didn’t want to admit it to Athena. Not yet, anyway.

To his relief, Athena didn’t respond as she continued kissing his back. This time, Apollo gently nestled himself between her arms, positioning himself in a way that she could get access to most of his scars. He felt the soft cotton of the golden-yellow tank top she wore brush against his back, causing his heart to fill with a warmth that he couldn’t exactly put into words. His breathing became steadier now as he found her touch welcoming.

Slowly, his eyes began to close as a murmur of thanks slipped out of his throat. Before long, he was fast asleep, allowing his mind to wander off into dream land at last.

[crackmadhi]

Every good Friendship starts with an Asshole and a Fight

Friday, 16 March 2029

“Can I truly confide you with this task?”, Edgeworth asked Klavier and Simon for the fifth time while they were walking down the corridor into the entrance hall of the prosecutor’s office.

Simon rolled his eyes but remained silent luckily enough. Klavier shot him a warning look to remind him that he better kept his mouth shut and let him deal with this. A stressed Herr Edgeworth was nothing he could not handle.

Shooting him his best smile Klavier reassured him: “Of course, you can trust us, Herr Edgeworth. We know of what importance the royal visit is for the prosecution’s office as well as for our country. We will act prudently and vigilantly to prevent any unplanned incidents. You can count on us, Herr Edgeworth!”

Edgeworth sighed and massaged his temple. He knew for a fact that Gavin and Blackquill were the most suitable men for this reception. They were his most trusted employees and also the most hardworking men in the office.

Other than that – He opened the door for the entrance hall – they also were the only ones that actually knew Your Graciousness, Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. At least indirectly.

Gavin knew him through the relationship he had with Apollo Justice and Blackquill had met him in court. The latter event had not gone down peacefully, and Edgeworth had to scold the man for the stupid stunt he pulled, as he acted as the defence’s co-council.

And still he was a better fit for this reception than any rookie that was working in the office right now. The stupidity of the situation did not fail to annoy him greatly but there was nothing to be done than work with what he had got now.

“I hope you will hold your promise, Gavin. But even if I wanted I could not do it myself, since my schedule is too tight. I’m not even pleased to take you out of your offices, since there is so much to do, but there is simply no other way. I’ll leave it to you them. Be considerate and try to look at it as a short break form the madness in the office. Or do not. At this point I don’t even care anymore”, Edgeworth mumbled and walked away.

“The chief surly is stressed as fuck”, Simon commented dryly as he looked after the man in maroon.

Klavier punched him in the arm and hissed: “Don’t talk like that about him. He could hear us.”

“As if it would surprise him that people would say such stuff about him. And I wasn’t even mean. I just stated the obvious.”

“Yeah, if you think that makes it better. Anyway, you remember that we have to greet him by his proper title and do the bow thing?”

“Yes, I know!”, Simon moaned and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I’ll do it, but I have to say it again; it is completely stupid and irrational. You’ve spoken with him when you video chatted with your ridiculous boyfriend, and then you called each other by your names! And I think the title is hilarious and completely unfitting for the brat.”

“Cool. You’ve ranted long enough?”, Klavier said unimpressed and put his hand on his hips. “As long as you are still angry at the man for being mean towards Athena -”

“And almost putting my friend innocently behind bars because of his petty arrogance!”

“- yeah sure that too, you will refrain from talking with him. Don’t forget that he asked Athena for forgiveness and also wrote a letter to Bucky. Give him at least some credit for trying, okay Herr Samurai?”

Simon did not respond but what was new about that? Klavier was used to have a conversation on his own when the samurai was around. The man just was not much of a talker.

Frustratedly he turned towards the door and awaited the arrival of the khura’inese visitor. Not a minute later he heard the distinguish jingling of the monk’s golden jewellery, whereupon the royal man shortly followed.

A tall, buff man in a black suit was accompanying Nahyuta, surely his bodyguard. Klavier shot Simon a short look, but the tall man had put on an emotionless face, completely unreadable for a stranger.

They waited for Nahyuta to come closer, before they bowed and Klavier greeted the man with: “It is an honour to welcome you officially in LA, Your Graciousness.”

Klavier could almost feel how the monk uncomfortably shifted on his feet. Yes, this man definitely disliked it to be treated as a nobleman. He did not blame him for it, being famous had its benefits but it was exhausting.

“We hope Your Graciousness will enjoy their visit”, Simon suddenly added and straightened up again.

Klavier followed suit and saw the monk visibly relax, as they finally were able to talk on the same eye level. Now he had a better look at the monk and quickly observed the man’s demeanour. A serene smile laid on the brown lips and his hands were intertwined behind his back. Uptight and distant but in the most tranquil and gracious way possible.

“Please, let us not bother with this formality. It is not necessary for you to call me by my royal title. I will be your colleague, not your regent in the following two weeks”, Nahyuta stated calmly and looked in Klavier’s direction.

The man nodded intently and responded: “Of course! Whatever suits you best. Just call me Klavier!”

“Very well. Please feel free to call me Nahyuta, then.”

Both men glanced over to Simon, who had crossed his arms demonstratively while they had been speaking. As Klavier dangerously raised his eyebrows and additionally stared daggers at him to what the man rolled his eyes, huffed deeply and stated: “It’s Simon.”

Nahyuta did not react to this unpassionate reaction and waited for Klavier to start with their tour through the prosecution’s office. Silently Klavier gave the monk credit for ignoring Simon’s rudeness and pointed at the door leading to the corridor.

“Well, let’s get right at it and stop wasting anymore precious time!”, the blond man exclaimed and lead them the way.

The morning went by in a snap. The prosecution’s archive, the different offices, the common areas, they managed to go through it all. While doing so, Nahyuta had his bodyguard leave them, so that it was only the three of them wandering through the building.

As Klavier had expected, he had been the one who did most of the talking, but then and when Simon added something small to the conversation. It was not much but more than the rock star had hoped for. The samurai had even managed to not sound passive-aggressive towards the prince, which was hopefully a sign of Simon’s forgiveness for Nahyuta’s past behaviour.

“Anyway, now that you’ve seen all of this we are heading towards the cafeteria for lunch. In the afternoon we will go and visit the courthouse and the police HQ”, Klavier explained as they passed some elder prosecutors in the hallway.

Nahyuta still seemed to be intrigued by all the information Klavier gave him. It was refreshing to see somebody with such a curious mind for a change, reminisced the rock star happily.

“That sounds wonderful. I’m thrilled to see and learn more about the courthouse and the HQ. On my last stay there was no time for a tour like this and I’m glad that I now get the chance to catch up”, Nahyuta responded, while thankfully lowering his head towards the blond man.

Klavier was about to laugh and reply something as one of the elder prosecutors began to speak. It was a slimy, arrogant man in a mouse grey suit. He was talking with an even slimier man in a black suit and had been watching the them closely.

Klavier knew them. They had lost several trials against his brother. Simon knew them as well. Both of them had almost lost their jobs during the reformation process of the law, which the chief prosecutor had initiated after he had been freed.

Therefore, they meant bad news.

“What a great new generation, right? The enforcement, the future of the law built on the shoulders of a convicted murderer, the former pawn of a dictator and a psychopath’s little brother. That will surly work out perfectly fine, won’t it?”, the grey one told his friend annoyed.

They had their backs turned towards the younger men and acted as if they were not there. Clearly, they knew that they were heard. Their words were meant to hurt, and they knew they would do the trick.

“It surely will”, the other one bawled and slapped his knee.

“And of course,” the grey one wickedly added, “they get along effortlessly. What else could you expect from three criminals like them? Ruthless, manipulating men with no respect for us, who worked in this field much longer. I still can’t believe that the chief prosecutor was stupid enough to fall for them. Then again, Gavin might be just as biasing as his brother? He probably deceived the oblivious fool, like all his stupid little fans.”

Klavier stood still like an ice statue. He had closed his eyes and tried to sustain an even breathing pattern. For outsiders it might have looked like the man was near to explode. To Simon it looked like his friend was about to break down and cry.

It was not the first time Simon had to listen to these dickheads’ accusations. He did not care what was told about him, as long as he could do his job properly. But saying this about Klavier, the one out of these three who had not done wrong anything in his hole life, that, he could not tolerate any longer.

He turned violently, made a step into their direction-

“I beg your pardon?”

Simon stared at the monk. What on earth was going on with his voice? I sounded so icy in a creepily friendly way that it made Simon’s hair stand up.

“What did you say, Your Graciousness?”, the man in grey replied innocently.

But Nahyuta had none of that. Determined he walked towards them, his head holding high and a defeating smile on his lips.

“My, my. I did not speak quieter than you two did just before. So, do not try to make a fool out of me. Tell me clearly, what did you just speak off?”

The elder man’s expression soured. He did not like the tone Nahyuta was using.

“It was a private conversation. It is none of your business.”

The prince kept his mouth shut and closed his eyes. Slowly he lifted his hand from behind his back and formed a prayer pose with his fingers.

With a furious flick of his tongue he opened his eyes again and shot them a piercing look with those energic, passionate eyes.

“You truly believe that you openly and violently insulting my highly appreciated and helpful guide, would be none of my business? I might have been the pawn of a tyrant, but I am no longer blind to the truth. Prosecutor Gavin is a hardworking man, who loves what he does and lives for it. Making him responsible for his brother’s foul crimes is defamation. It shows the pettiness and ugliness of your wrenched soul. Might you be reborn as a mole in the stony mountains, unable to dig yourself a home and stuck in the sun’s burning rays you cannot see nor enjoy.”

The man in grey had gone paler and paler. His lips were trembling and his palms sweating. His cowardly friend had already run off and he followed right away, unable to stand the monk’s intense presence for one more second.

This. This pleased Simon. This pleased him so much.

But before he could say that to the monk, the man had turned towards Klavier. Carefully he approached him and waited for him to notice him before he started to speak.

“I hope you are alright, Klavier. These men were inhumanly nasty, I had to speak up. But if I overstepped my boundaries I apologize and promise to not interfere again in the future”, Nahyuta stated sincerely and lowered his head humbly.

Klavier looked as if he had just died a little. The cool and usually composed mask he wore all the time had broken into pieces, and now he was jittering and looked small and vulnerable. Simon stepped to his side and discreetly drew circles on the other man’s back.

Klavier needed comfort. Uneasily Nahyuta tried to catch Simon’s attention with a guilty look. The other man got the message and shook his head. No, this was not Nahyuta’s fault, he seemed to say wordlessly.

For some longer they stood still and waited for the blond to calm down. When he appeared to be stable enough again, Simon stepped aside and gave the man room to breathe.

“I hope this is not going to end badly for you, Nahyuta. These two are manipulative, horrible men. I don’t even want to think of what they might be ready to do to you”, Klavier whispered worriedly and warily observed the prince’s behaviour.

Nahyuta did not seem to be bothered to much by the potential dread coming from those men.

“I don’t think”, Nahyuta stated with a smug smile on his delicate lips, “that they can say much against the prince of Khura’in. They are cowards and I cannot believe that they have enough guts to tell the chief prosecutor that they got into a fight with the very important international visitor.”

“He’s right. They are too scared to do anything, trust us, Klav”, Simon soothingly affirmed Nahyuta’s statement.

Klavier still looked troubled but said nothing else. Simon suppressed a sigh and decided that it was better to leave it at this.

Firmly he looked from one to the other and proposed: “Let’s continue this weird tour and go to the cafeteria. Food might be the right distraction right now.”

Both men nodded in union and followed Simon to the cafeteria.

Link

[dragonsaphirareads]

AA Secret Santa

@quoth-the-ravens I was your santa for the AA gift exchange! I wrote a little Klapollo for you, I hope you like it! Huge shoutout to @yoshimars for helping me proofread and getting me going on this! You’re the best!

Christmas at the Wright Anything Agency was a huge affair. Trucy was in charge of planning, which meant they went all out on decorations, food and every other part of the party. Athena had joined her on the official planning committee this year, which meant Apollo had to watch out. For nearly a year now, the duo had been trying to hook him up with Klavier, after Athena had heard his emotions during a heated court case and realized how far he’d fallen for the pretty blond prosecutor. He’d so far managed to avoid every attempt of theirs to make him confess his feelings - even when they somehow got locked into a closet together.

That was a fun hour.

The Christmas party was yet another opportunity for the girls to try again, thankfully Apollo was savvy enough to realize one item he would have to avoid at all costs. No doubt the girls would be putting up a ton of mistletoe, the enemy to him keeping his feelings under wraps. If he was caught under that, Apollo didn’t think he’d be able to resist spilling everything.

That was why, on the day of the party, he offered to help the girls set up. Trucy tried to argue with him that it would be more fun if he just stayed home to get ready instead, he proposed an agreement. If she could look him in the eye and tell him that she and Athena weren’t going to do anything to force him to confess his feelings, then he would leave. Needless to say, he was allowed to stay. He took the job of decorating the main area, figuring that if he stayed there during the entire party, he’d be safe from the dreaded mistletoe.

Hours later, and the WAA was completely decked out in red and green. Athena and Trucy changed into matching ugly sweaters with a disgusting amount of tinsel and lights covering  them. Athena shoved a headband with stuffed reindeer antlers on Apollo’s head, and as guests started arriving they offered equally cheesy headbands to anyone they deemed not dressed festive enough.

Prosecutor Edgeworth arrived promptly at 5pm, with Mr. Wright and Maya picked up from the train station. Trucy was not impressed with his attire, considering he was just wearing his work suit. She gave him a headband with a stuffed Christmas tree that lit up and allowed him to pass.

The rest of the guests steadily arrived over the next hour, but to the girl’s dismay and Apollo’s relief, Prosecutor Gavin was nowhere to be found. None of the other prosecutors knew where he was - Prosecutor Blackquill had seen him leaving around noon and nobody had seen him since then. When he heard that, Apollo felt his stomach drop a little. Sure, he was trying to avoid making things awkward between them. But everyone else who’d been invited had come - did he think he was too good to come to a party like this? Had he been invited to some big gala hosted by important people and decided to blow off this party?

No, Apollo thought, shaking his head. Prosecutor Gavin wasn’t like that. He wasn’t some stuck up brat - if he wasn’t coming, he would have let someone know. But that thought lead Apollo to dark places. If he wasn’t here yet, could something bad have happened? He did always drive around that obnoxious motorcycle. Was there an accident?

As if drawn to him by his dark thoughts, Athena sidled up next to him and handed him a cup with pink punch in it. “Apollo, you need to calm down. I’m sure he’s fine! Probably just taking forever to make himself pretty for you~” She hummed by his ear, teasing. Apollo swatted her away after taking the cup, sipping at it to calm his nerves.

“I’m not worried! I’m fine!” Apollo said loudly, causing a few heads to turn and his cheeks to heat up. Athena rolled her eyes with a grin.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Like the punch?” She changed the subject, noticing how fast he was going through his cup.

“It’s really good. Did you make it?”

She shook her head. “Nope, Trucy did. It’s a bunch of fruit juices mixed together with some soda. I think it’s a bit too sweet, honestly.”

That was odd. Athena had a raging sweet tooth, and Apollo didn’t find the drink overly sweet at all. “Really? I think it’s fine.”

She just shrugged. “More for you then! Want some more?” The girl asked, holding the punch spoon in her hand. Apollo nodded, handing her his cup and allowing her to fill it full.

It was once he’d finished his third cup that he realized something was off. Apollo felt... lighter. His head was pleasantly buzzing, and he felt like he had more confidence than normal. He went to find Trucy and ask her what she made the punch from, but he was intercepted before he made it. An arm snaked around his neck and he was pulled into the conversation of two women who laughing way too much.

“E-Ema?”

The detective grinned, cheersing her cup with his empty one. “Heya Apollo, like the punch? I’m so glad I brought the booze, you should never let underaged girls plan the party, they can’t get the good stuff!”

His eyes widened. “You spiked the punch?!”

“Yeah, ‘course I did! Don’tcha like it?”

“Ema, there are minors here!”

She waved at the air in front of her. “Ah, don’t worry about that! I told Mr. Wright, he knows! There’s a pitcher of plain stuff in the fridge for ‘em!”

He was about to lecture her about how this was Trucy and Athena’s party and she really shouldn’t have done that, or at least told people it was spiked. But before he could open his mouth, the front door of the office opened and in stepped a blond angel.

Apollo shook his head. Where did that thought come from?

Ema glanced over, then back at him and seemed to read his mind. She grinned and handed him her cup. “Here, you’re gonna need this big guy.”

Apollo was going to refuse it - he was not going to make this party the day he ruins his tentative relationship with the rockstar prosecutor.

Then he stopped. He was already tipsy, thanks to sneaky Ema. Klavier made his heart melt when he was completely sober - if he was approached like this, he might actually collapse into a puddle on the floor.

Making up his mind, he took the offered cup and chugged it down. Screw it, if he’s going down, he’s gonna make it memorable.

Apollo didn’t get the chance to actually talk to the prosecutor in private until about an hour later. By that point the guests had mostly sat down in various places, settled into their conversations. The punch had started to leave his system - his head was clearing up and he was starting to rethink his decision. To keep his resolve, Apollo headed to the kitchen area to get another drink. The punch wasn’t very strong, and he wasn’t trying to get drunk. Just enough to loosen himself up enough to finally spill his feelings.

Of course, who would be there but the man himself, opening a can of soda.

It’s now or never, Apollo... you’re doing this now!

“P-Prosecutor Gavin?” Damn it, he stuttered. It got his attention though - the blond turned and smiled at him with that perfect damn smile of his.

“Ja?”

Apollo took a deep breath. “Can I... um... can we, I mean...” Damn it, why did he have to be so pretty? This was so difficult! “I have something to tell you.”

He blinked. “Oh? Alright then, go for it.”

“Um, actually, it’s kinda... private.”

His mind was racing frantically. He really didn’t want to confess right here, where the rest of the party was going on right through a very thin wall. He considered asking them to step outside, but it was cold and they would have to walk past everyone to get there.

The only other choice would be very awkward if they were caught, but his mind was made up.

Apollo waved him into the only office with a door they could close. Once it was shut, Apollo stood in front of the prosecutor, eyes firmly locked on the ground and fists tight at his sides.

“Are... you alright, Herr Forehead?”

He didn’t let the nickname affect him. “I have something to tell you, and I don’t want you to interrupt me because if you do I don’t know if I’ll be able to start again.”

A silent nod gave him the final push.

“I... like you. Like, really, really like you. And I didn’t want to say anything for a long time because I thought I might remind you of bad things, but you’re too goddamn nice for me to keep lying to you anymore, so... I’m not, anymore. And if you don’t... feel the same, then... I... I just want to be friends. You’re... a really good person, and I want you to be happy.”

There were tears forming. This has been such a long time coming, and now it was all out there. Prosecutor Gavin was just standing there, with an unknown expression on his face - Apollo couldn’t bring himself to look up.

Then he saw his foot move, and he was stepping towards Apollo. One hand was on Apollo’s shoulder, and the other under his chin, tilting his head up to look at him.

Klavier was smiling, though it was slightly pained as well. God, was he about to be rejected? He wasn’t sure he could handle that.

“Have you been drinking?”

Apollo blinked. Did he think this was just a drunk confession?!

“Y-yes, but I’m not drunk! Just enough so I wasn’t too scared to talk to you. A-and I wasn’t planning on it! It was kinda Ema’s fault.”

The blond sighed, his smile widening. “Alright.”

“Is... that all you’re gonna say?”

“I like you too, Apollo. Dare I say it, I think I felt love at first sight with you. But I don’t want to do anything if you’re not completely sober.” He brushed his knuckles against Apollo’s cheek gently. “Is that alright with you?”

He nodded slowly. He’d done the hardest part - next time would be easier.

Klavier smiled and leaned down, pressing a chaste kiss to Apollo’s forehead. “Now let’s get back to the party, schatz. We can talk tomorrow.”

Apollo nodded, and they walked back to the party together. Soon enough the alcohol left his system and he got drowsy. The next morning, he awoke to find himself using Klavier’s chest as a pillow, with a giggling Athena and Trucy standing over him with a camera.

This was going to be a wild ride, he thought. But looking at Klavier’s peaceful sleeping face... he wouldn’t have had that night go any other way.

[aceprosecuties]

So, anon who was super kind and donated money for my dog’s bladder surgery requested a fun and humorous Simon and Athena friendship piece!  I hope you like it and thank you again so much! <3  Approx. 1400 words

Ah, what a lovely night this was.  A clear night sky, crisp chilly air…cold enough for Athena to snuggle warm under her blankets, happy that she could finally get to sleep somewhat early for a change.  She had just finished working on an intense case with several practically-sleepless nights; Mr. Wright had been running her harder than ever due to Apollo’s absence.  Sure, she welcomed the additional responsibility – it made her feel less like a novice and more like the full-fledged lawyer she knew she was, but the lack of sleep had caught up to her.  She hadn’t even had enough time in the mornings to go on her usual daily runs!

So yes, it was nice to be going to bed a little after nine rather than at three or four in the morning.  

Soft pillows, comfortable mattress, warm blankets…it was so easy to drift off to sleep…

“Athena.”

No, no it couldn’t possibly be morning yet.  She had to have been dreaming.  A grumbled and annoyed moan left her lips as she turned onto her other side, clutching her blankets tight against her body.  

“Athena!”

“Hmm, no-” Her protest was weak due to her sleepiness, and she let go of her blanket to swat at whoever was trying to interrupt her well-deserved rest.  

Unfortunately, that immediately proved to be a mistake.

The blanket was almost violently yanked off her, leaving her exposed to the colder air of the room.  She was in only a loose t-shirt and shorts, so her skin immediately prickled into goosebumps.  Clearly unhappy, she whined and opened one of her eyes; when her vision finally focused, she saw Simon fucking Blackquill standing over her, fully dressed like he was going somewhere.  Outside it was still very clearly dark.

“Simon?  What…what time is it?  Give me back my blanket,” she grumbled, though when she lazily reached for it, he threw it behind him so that it fell into a messy pile in the corner of the room. Athena felt an overwhelming urge to throw him, but Simon was more than skilled (and awake) enough to prevent any attack.  

“Almost midnight, so we’re already late,” he said, more serious than usual.  His tone had her suddenly concerned and she slowly lifted herself into a semi-sitting position.  Athena wiped at her eyes, trying to will the exhausted itchiness away.  She yawned and stretched, hair messily falling a bit into her eyes.  

“Late?  For what? What’s wrong?”  

“Athena is your mind always so dull in the morning?” Simon smirked when she stuck her tongue out at him.  

“It’s not morning, Simon!”

“Close enough,” he replied, pointing at the clock. She didn’t even bother looking at it, knowing he was just being an ass; midnight might mark “am” time, but it certainly was not morning.  

“Listen, just because you don’t go to sleep until after three doesn’t mean us normal people need to also.”

“The fact that you consider yourself ‘normal’ is hilarious,” Simon retaliated, earning him another stuck-out tongue. “Now, we’ve wasted enough time. Get dressed.”

“No, Simon, what is going on?”  Athena’s complaint was exasperated and tired, as she allowed herself to flop back into her pillow.  Though it wasn’t the same without her blankets…she looked over at them sadly. Maybe she could will them to just float right over to her…

“You promised you would accompany me,” Simon said, crossing his arms, annoyed that he was having this conversation.  “It’s one per person, so I can’t go alone to get both of ours.  We established this the other day.”

“Accompany you where?”  All Athena could remember from the last few days were case files and evidence and witness profiles and memories of court.  She knew she had several chats with Simon here and there – less than normal since their schedules had not synced up for once – but she couldn’t recall at all promising him something.

“Honestly Athena,” Simon said, smirking.  “If this is how you are after a few days of actual work from Wright-dono, I cannot imagine how you would be trying to function working for Edgeworth-dono.  You wouldn’t last two days.”

“I would take that as a challenge if I was not so damn tired right now,” Athena said, bristling from both the chill in the air and from annoyance.  She could not deny that Simon had more work than she did – Mr. Wright was famously picky about the cases that he chose to take, while prosecutors did not have the same luxury – but he was being aggravating nonetheless.  Which was probably what he was aiming for, especially considering that even that small amount of anger-induced adrenaline had her feeling just the tiniest bit more awake than ten seconds ago.

Damn him.

“Fine, if it will stop your whining, we’ll stop and get coffee on the way.”

At this point, Athena figured she should just shove a handful of the beans directly into her mouth and then pour some hot water in…would that make the caffeine hit sooner?  Since Simon was hellbent on not leaving her alone, she stretched and sat up again, swinging her legs around so they hung off the side of her bed.  

“You still haven’t told me where we’re going,” she said, taking a moment to rub her eyes and yawn.  It was uncanny how she could practically feel Simon’s eyeroll.  

“Comic-con tickets.  We need to get in line.  They go on sale tomorrow at nine.”

She blinked up at him.  

“…What?”

“Athena, I have been chained up in prison for seven years.  That is seven Comic-cons I have been unable to attend. I will not be absent this year.”  His serious (and scary to anyone who was not Athena, really) expression told Athena that he was not at all being facetious.  “And you promised you wanted to join me, which you will only be able to do if you get up right now and get in line for tickets.  You’re not going to back down on that promise now, are you?”

Honestly, going did sound fun at the time, but it was criminal how close Athena was to breaking that promise with a thrown pillow and a middle finger and flopping back down into her bed.  She hadn’t realized entirely just how early Simon would want to line up, either.  They seriously were going to wait in line on the street for nine hours?  Unfortunately, Simon was that oh-so loving and gentle type of friend who would flip her mattress completely over to get her out of it.

It would be a battle of wills.  And one she would not win, given her exhaustion and Simon’s stubbornness and determination.

She reached over to her nightstand to grab a hair tie, pulling her messy hair up into a ponytail without bothering to brush it. It would take too long and she was in no mood to fight the inevitable knots that formed during her almost three hours of sleep.  

“You should wear your prosecuting outfit,” she lazily remarked, noting that Simon was wearing just black jeans and a black sweatshirt now that her brain was better able to process the information her eyes were seeing.  “People will think you’re cosplaying and the dedication might win you sympathy points.”

“First of all, there is no such thing as sympathy points in obtaining Comic-con tickets, Athena.  This is a war where there are no rules and the only thing that matters is victory.”  Honestly, his flare for the dramatic was ridiculous, but Athena enjoyed it strangely enough (not that she would admit it to him).  “Secondly,” he smirked.  “That’s rich, coming from someone who dresses like an egg yolk.  If you dressed like how you do in court, people would inevitably tell you how much they enjoy your version of Gudetama.”

“I hate you so much right now,” Athena said, before pulling some clothes out of her drawer. Simon took that as the sign that he ought to leave the room so she could get dressed.  

“No, you don’t,” he said, his lips forming a victorious and cocky smile.  

Knowing deep down that he was right, she stuck her middle finger up at him and heard him laugh before shutting the door.  

“You’re paying for coffee, by the way!  And you better let me nap on your shoulder!”

[synnefo-nefeli]

The Fun Author Ask Thing, could you share a WIP of Heard Your Heart Beating with us?

Alrighty kiddos, buckle up for the setup for the most self indulgent plot-point I am ever going to write. Please keep in mind, this is still very, very, very rough

___

//Come fix your prosecutor// read Athena’s text. Apollo groaned wondering what Klavier could have done in the hour Klavier had spent at the WAA.

He adjusted his tie in the mirror of his locker, checked to make sure that he no longer looked sweaty from his ride over from court, and shoved his cycling outfit into his locker along with his helmet.

He could hear laughing on the other side of the office’s front door so that was a good sign, he hoped, as he swiped his keycard into the lock.

“Herr Forehead has finally arrived from his battle with the courts!” Klavier beamed at him with his the typical smile that Apollo was now coming to call “on-stage-mode”. Klavier was sitting on the sofa next to Athena, coffee cups and tea biscuits between them on the table. He could hear Mr. Wright bustling in the office kitchenette.

“I am back. I survived Blackquill-“

“Oh is that why you biked over here? Simon didn’t offer to drive you?” Athena laughed, “how mean. He needs to learn to leave it in the courtroom.”

Apollo rolled his eyes, “Probably, but I am sure it has more to do with him needing to go down to the precinct and yell at the poor detective who sent him into court with an outdated autopsy report.”

Mr. Wright arrived from the kitchen, fresh pot of coffee in hand, “Wow. A defense attorney having an updated report instead of the prosecution? Never thought I’d see the day...”

Apollo flopped on the couch opposite Athena and Klavier, “Hey. Miracles do happen...and considering all out our court wins, we shouldn’t be too surprised that they exist.”

“Here. Here.” Klavier said amiably into his coffee.

“So... what’s this about me needing to fix ‘my prosecutor’?”

Klavier made an amused expression, “Ah, is that what I am called? Well I am honored to be Herr Justice’s”

Athena rolled her eyes, “Oh stop with the charm-“ she looked at Apollo, “he doesn’t want you to know that he’s never been to the Tragic Kingdom”

Apollo stared at Klavier, “Seriously?” Athena elbowed Klavier playfully, “Told you he would react like that”

Klavier sighed, “Is it really that big of a deal? Not going to a children’s amuse-“

“HOLD IT!” Apollo didn’t care that everyone about him flinched (“Indoor voice, Polly, jeeze”, Mr. Wright muttered”), “Disneyland is for everyone,” Apollo breathed, “you seriously haven’t gone? Ever? I mean...it’s only in Anaheim. That’s less than an hour without traffic from here-“

Mr. Wright handed Apollo a cup of coffee, “It’s been a while since ‘Mr. Disney Adult’’s shown his face at the office.”

“You say that as if you don’t have an annual pass too, Mr. Wright.”

Klavier appeared lost in the conversation; it was refreshing to see Mr. Tall, Blonde and Unflappable looking out of his depth, “Is it really a big deal that I haven’t?”

“Mm...not so much,” Mr. Wright said before Apollo could object, “well it wouldn’t be a big deal if you were hanging out with someone else, but I mean considering that you two have been spending a lot of time outside of court together, I think it’s more shocking that Apollo *hasn’t* dragged you down there already.

“You act like I go there all the time-“

“Says the person who has scheduled himself to come in late on days where there are morning annual passholder events,” Athena mused, “or how about the time you, Clay and Tracy, just decided to go to Disneyland after work because you wanted corndogs for dinner”

Across from him Klavier made a face, as if silently saying “Corndogs for dinner? Really? What are you five?”.

Apollo met ‘his prosecutor’s’ eyes, “Those corndogs are legendary, and the only ones I’ll eat.”

“He has a point there,” agreed Mr. Wright, “so I guess the big question is- how long before Klavier gets pulled into driving Apollo down to Anaheim?”

Klavier looked around the room at all of the other attorneys as if expecting for someone to tell him suddenly that this was all an act. Apollo meanwhile was mentally running through his calendar to figure out when he would have time to properly take Klavier to the park. There was so much to do at work-not to mention, he would have to prep Klavier for his first park visit.

“Do you like amusement parks?” Apollo asked Klavier. The blonde man simply shrugged, “I’ve only been to a few in my life. My family wasn’t really into things like theme parks; didn’t see the value in them as entertainment. And when I moved here, I just didn’t go-“

“Not even grad-night?” Athena asked, “Junie told me that’s what the student council is setting up for the seniors. It’s tradition. Heck, every high school in Southern California does a school trip there at least once.”

Klavier shrugged, “I graduated early, remember? I guess I could have gone to the ceremony with the class that was graduating that year, but I wanted to get meine badge so I went home as soon as I could to pass the bar in Germany.”

“There’s one in France!”

Klavier sighed, “If I asked meine family to do anything outside of museums and cultural experiences while we were in France, they would have left me at home.”

“Anyway,” Athena said, “If you’re going to hang with Polly, you’re going to have to go to the parks-“

Apollo felt his cheeks heat, “I mean if that’s not what you like to do for fun, you don’t have to-“

“Oh please,” Mr. Wright interrupted, “I can bet that you’ve been sitting here this entire time planning a trip for him.”

Apollo crossed his arms and sat back in defeat. Athena continued to regale Klavier with anecdotes of the WAA’s trips to the parks as well as Apollo’s impromptu visits, “Has he shown you his pin collection yet?” Athena said in a tone that was too close to the tone she liked to accuse him about his and Klavier’s relationship not being as platonic as Apollo let on.

//As if she doesn’t know the actual truth// Apollo grumbled, “Okay enough. Klavier already knows I am a nerd- he doesn’t need any more evidence about it”

“Ach you’re always cool, Herr Forehead,” Klavier smiled again in “on-stage mode”, which made Apollo decide to put Klavier in his place and show him what he was missing.

“When’s your birthday?” Apollo blurted.

Athena groaned, “Oh my god Apollo, haven’t you heard of Wikipedia?”

“I like that Herr Forehead doesn’t feel the need to research me, it makes a rock god like me feel practically human,” Klavier teased and then with an amiable grin, “May 23rd. However-I told you that on Valentines, don’t you remember?” He said at little too suggestively for Apollo’s comfort, “I’m hurt you don’t remember. Here I thought things that were shared during sleepovers were sacred,” he added a pout for good measure.

Out of the corner of his eye, Apollo saw Athena not-so-subtly pull out of her phone to text something, most certainly to Trucy. Great, he was not going to know peace from either of them for the foreseeable future. Although, Apollo appreciated that Athena had the grace to attempt to hide her grin. Whether or not Klavier was aware of what was happening next to him, Klavier only sipped at his coffee.

“So in three weeks. Great, guess what we’re doing to celebrate your 26th birthday,” Apollo announced.

“It’s on a workday.”

“Take off.”

“Don’t you have to work?” Klavier asked

Apollo turned to Mr. Wright, “Mr. Wright, may I have the 23rd off?”

“Of course. Just put it on the calendar.”

Apollo, having won the debate, smiled smugly at Klavier, “Get ready, we have a lot to do before then.”

Klavier looked genuinely confused, “Like what?!”

He was about to ask what Klavier’s favorite Disney movie was, but then Athena’s phone buzzed, “Simon’s here- he needs help bringing up the food...and Trucy says she wants to also go to Disneyland for Klavier’s birthday, I think that’s a good idea; what do you think, boss?,” she asked as she practically skipped out of the office.

Before Apollo could say anything about Athena or Trucy inviting themselves, Mr. Wright smiled and said, “You know what- unless something pressing comes up and Trucy doesn’t have any projects or tests at school, I think the agency needs a mental health day. Maybe Miles and Simon need one too,” he remarked walking towards his office to, Apollo imagined, call his fiancé.

Apollo would have enjoyed Klavier’s genuinely flummoxed expression, except that he remembered how Klavier, despite his celebrity status, didn’t like to draw attention too himself unless it was in court or on stage- and especially not in public. It was the reason Klavier hadn’t shown up to Clay’s funeral after all. He looked at Klavier feeling guilty for putting his friend on the spot,

“Sorry, if you don’t want to- we don’t have to-“

“Nein, nein,” Klavier said with his genuine smile, “you all are so passionate about it, now I have to experience it”

“Are you sure? I didn’t even ask if that’s how you wanted to spend your birthday-I just kinda got caught up in it.”

Klavier shrugged, “Honestly, considering that I usually spent the last few dragged to stuffy VIP lounges of clubs I didn’t care about with people who as it turned out, cared less about me- I think this may be a gut change of pace.”

Well that made him feel better...and a bit sad for Klavier, “I’ll make sure you have a good time and we won’t be overwhelmed. A lot of celebrities go to Disneyland, and they don’t get mobbed- people are pretty respectful of celebrities having their time in the parks.”

“You sound as if you are familiar.”

“Clay...worked there for a summer, celebrities would come all the time as park guests. And aside from maybe helping a celebrity escape a crowd, they don’t give anyone special treatment unless they’ve paid for a guided tour-“

“Oh- are we not doing that, Herr Forehead?”

Apollo snorted,“Hell no, you’re going to stand in line for Space Mountain like the rest of us plebes.” Also I’m not about to suggest we spend $800 an hour for a theme park tour...

Klavier’s laugh was enough to make Apollo feel better and better about commandeering Klavier’s birthday. He was going to look forward these next few weeks in getting Klavier ready for his first time at the park. The thought of movie nights made Apollo feel a bit warm inside. Warm in a way that he hadn’t felt since Klavier had comforted him during his own birthday.

The office door opened, Athena holding it open so that Simon could come through with the large box that contained their dinner. Apollo braced himself for any barbed words from Athena’s prosecutor, considering how the day’s court proceedings had gone. Instead Simon just incredulously regarded his co-worker with,

“You’ve seriously never been to Disneyland, Gavin-dono?”

[combatjorts]

First to Know (Sneak-peak!)

Snippet of my WIP oneshot in which Simon Blackquill finds himself in the awkward position of always being the first to know when his colleagues begins a relationship, often through various unfortunate mishaps.

Eventual mentions of Narumitsu, Klapollo, Junithena, Blackmadhi, and others TBD!

(Contains AA5/AA6 spoilers!)

•x•x•

The only reason Simon would ever agree to socialize with any number of people would be when he owed Athena something. He did, in fact, owe her something, and had for some time. She’d only cashed in his debt tonight to snag the opportunity to drag him out of his apartment and to a social event for once. It was a dinner Wright-dono had organized at the drop of a hat in celebration of Apollo’s brief annual return to the U.S., asking those closest to him and having them ask others in turn to give Apollo a sizable welcome party. Athena was asked, and thus, Simon was forced—much to his chagrin— to tag along.

“Come /on/,” his friend whined, both hands clutching his arm as she tugged him down the sidewalk. He was having a rather enjoyable time walking at his own pace. “We’re gonna be late, and then it’ll be awkward because we’ll just walk in when everyone’s already got their drinks and snacks like, ‘hi, sorry, you’ll be waiting on us for the rest of the night because we couldn’t get our asses down the sidewalk’, and then I’ll get reminded of it for the rest of my life by Apollo and Mr. Wright, and—“

“Alright,” Simon sighed out, gingerly pulling his arm from Athena’s grip. “Fine. But I am perfectly capable of walking by myself.”

Athena smiled triumphantly, then skipped a few yards ahead of him. “It’s just a few more blocks,” she said, apparently assuring him. “Mr. Wright is there, of course. And Apollo said he’d come, but who knows. I mean, it’s for him, but you know. And if Apollo is coming, Klavier is probably coming, too.”

Simon raised a brow at this, a corner of his mouth quirking into a half smile. Athena either didn’t catch it, or ignored it completely. Probably the latter.

“Say,” Simon began, “you said Wright-dono was allowing you to bring anyone you wanted, correct? Why me, and not Juniper?”

Athena shrugged before a wicked smile played at her lips. “I guess I like torturing you with social situations. And she wasn’t free tonight. I asked.” Simon scoffed at this, but decided against retorting as his friend’s brow furrowed as it does when she realizes something. It must have been important, because those lines between her eyes were considerably deep. “Speaking of,” she muttered, her expression going sour. Simon had a feeling he knew where this was going, and thoroughly enjoyed what little bit of power he had over his friend for once in their lives. “Consider this blackmail for the /incident/. If you keep quiet, I won’t bring you to another outing for....” she paused, trailing off as she thought. “A year!” she finished, grinning.

Simon pretended to consider this deeply. “My, my, what a menace you are,” he said, smile dark and just this side of vile. Athena narrowed her eyes, all trace of an amiable grin gone and instead replaced with a gaze that could cut, should it have been tangible. Simon saw himself in that gaze, which is what truly scared him. “If I say nothing of that night, you’ll not drag me out with an hour’s notice to a dinner with people I know nothing of aside from work?”

“Not a peep,” Athena hissed. “If you do, I’ll... I’ll... you’ll wish you never saw anything!”

“Oh, do I wish I hadn’t.”

“But you totally like having something to hold over my head.”

It was true, he had to admit. Though Simon would jump at the chance to erase the image of that scene which had seemingly burned itself into his retinas, the idea that he had blackmail material against Athena at the ready was extremely tantalizing. In response, he merely hummed, folding his hands behind his back as he walked.

Athena sighed, worrying at her lip with her teeth. She was concerned about something, Simon noted. Before she could pull her thoughts together, her gaze was drawn to revolving doors before them. “Oh! Looks like we’re here.” She checked her watch, then her bright grin was back in place. “On time! Thanks for not being a complete stubborn grandpa.”

Simon rolled his eyes, but with fondness. A bit. “Oh, yes. I am the poster child of grandfather material.”

As Simon fought with the revolving door and lost, Athena left him in the dust in favor of taking off across the dingy room and squealing Apollo’s name as she tugged him into a headlock. Once Simon had freed his hair from the merciless clutches of that contraption, he followed the sound of Athena’s laughter and Apollo’s indignant squawks to join the party

*To be continued!*

[nerdyskeleton]

“Shit, are you bleeding?!” And I will take any pairing from any fandom because I owe you one.

You DO owe me one, as you outed my thirst for Sensei. @apxlllo also requested the same prompt so I’m killing two birds with one stone!!

–

There was no telling what sort of mood Simon Blackquill would be in after a visit with his older sister. Oh, it was always a foul mood, yet there were varying degrees to it, Nahyuta had come to notice. Simon might be furious after it; he might be cruel; he might overwork himself into the late hours; he might also be silent, refusing to speak about his conversation with Aura and about literally anything else. Try as Nahyuta might, there was no cure for the bad mood except a new day with no Aura.

Which was why he was vaguely apprehensive to knock on his closed office door and inquire about his progress on the psychological profile of a recent serial killer haunting LA. It was not that Nahyuta had no desire to be around Simon when he was in these moods. He (regrettably) loved him unconditionally - there was just no need to upset Simon further by asking for work from him.

He knocked at the door and cringed at how gruff Simon’s response was to enter. Slowly, he cracked the door open, shutting it behind him immediately. Nahyuta forced a very gentle smile so to appear as loving and approachable as possible, but it fell hard when he saw the bloodied tissues disgustingly sitting on his desk, the technicolor bruising by his nose and eye, and the scowl on Simon’s face.

In practically one step, Nahyuta crossed the office and began fretting over him. He gripped the man by his chin and moved his head about to ascertain any damage.

“Shit, are you bleeding?”

“Hands off, Sad Monk,” he growled. “I am not anymore.”

“What happened to you? It looks awful.”

“You cannot have forgotten my meeting with Aura already. This is her doing…she hit me square in the nose.”

“Why exactly?”

“How should I know?”

“As the punchee, I would assume you would know the reason your older sister is hitting you.”

“She seldom had reasons when we were children.” He sighed and pulled away from Nahyuta’s grip. “Do you need something? Her visit stole the day from me, and I am very busy.”

“I did come to ask if you have -” He stopped when he noticed another trickle of blood started to run from poor Simon’s face. Acting fast, he reached for more tissues and punched him in the face again to stop a bloody mess. Simon recoiled against the sudden touch and eventually got Nahyuta to let go so he could hold his own damn tissues.

“Simon? What was it about?”

The nasally tone would be amusing if Nahyuta did not feel so sorry for him. He answered, “I…berated her for her lack of action while in prison. She refuses to put in the effort to lessen her sentence or petition for better accommodations.”

“That is incredibly hypocritical of you.”

“She said as much with her fist raised. I disagree.” Carefully, he peeled away the bloody tissues and held out his hand for more. Nahyuta stuffed an entire wad in his hands. Simon, ever the moron, leaned back in his chair and tilted his head upwards.

“That is not how you stop a bloody nose.”

“It is what I was taught.”

“You were taught painfully wrong.” Nahyuta maneuvered himself to sit on a mostly clear spot on Simon’s desk. He coaxed him into leaning forward, with his head down. Then, without warning, he leaned forward himself and pinched the bridge of his nose. Simon complained like a cat with a flattened tail.

“In this position,” Nahyuta said triumphantly, “you are completely unable to defend yourself. You cannot say such things to Aura and expect a warm reception. From listening to both you and Athena, the hostage situation appeared to be her last resort. Because you did nothing.”

“I had to be guilty.”

“Not to the point of wrongful execution.”

“And she pushed and shoved for a retrial-”

“Only to free me and throw Athena in my place,” was the nasally defense.

“You acted out of pure love and bravery for your dear best friend when she needed it most. Your sister did the same thing.”

“I needed no help.”

Nahyuta blinked. He tried to search for the right words as he gathered up fresh tissues for Simon. All that came out in the end was, “You were going to be put to death.”

“I would have gladly gone.”

That was a bold faced lie. If Simon’s nightmares weren’t about the Phantom, then they were about his gruesome execution. Nahyuta had more tact and compassion in this moment than he did most other moments, so he chose to let it go.

“In fact, had I been executed instead, Aura would be free, Athena would not have been traumatized with the accusation and memories of her mother’s death, and…I would be none the wiser concerning Fool Bright.”

Nahyuta despised any mention of that foul name.

“But…you would be dead.”

“Finally.”

In a fit of childish annoyance, Nahyuta pinched at his nose that much harder. Simon tried to shake him off, and when he managed to look up at Nahyuta, his eyes were tired and angry.

“I will not allow you to say that when Athena informed me just last week that this Simon is the happiest Simon she has yet to see.”

“Happiness of the future does not heal the wounds of the present.”

“But it is a strong enough incentive to search for it.” He released his claw-like hold on Simon and had him pull away the tissues. His bleeding had stopped, though it was likely only temporary. Unexpectedly, Simon leaned forward and rested his head on Nahyuta’s thigh. Nahyuta stroked a hand through his white bangs.

“Perhaps ease up on your older sister. She may feel that she must live out her entire sentence.”

“Her entire sentence could have been avoided.”

“Not if it meant you were shocked dead, Panda.”

“But-”

“Trucy is safe. Apollo is safe. You are safe. Imagine what your sister’s state would be if she not only lost Dr. Cykes, but her own baby brother to the same fated incident, too. You know Athena would be beyond heart broken to know the hard work she endured to save her friend was all for naught.”

Simon inhaled. “That is cheap, Sad Monk. Hitting me with both Aura and Athena in the same breath.”

“Well, I know you would only tease if I mentioned how…lovely my life has become with you in it.”

He pulled his head up and smiled just barely; it probably hurt too much for anything else but a weak grin.

“Shall I get you some ice?”

“That might help.” Nahyuta swooped down to kiss his forehead. When he returned with the ice, Simon’s nose was bleeding again, though he was following Nahyuta’s proper care instructions this time. He sat back on his desk, and Simon, quietly, told a story about young Athena’s make believe games at the space center.

For having been decked in the face hours ago, this was the best mood Nahyuta had ever witnessed after a visit with Aura. He held onto Simon’s hand as he began another tale.