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Ugh, Mr. Wright has me on cleaning duty again? Apollo let a groan escape his throat that he had intended to be internal, but turned out to be a little more audible than he expected. As he lifted his hands to cover his mouth, he realized he was too late, due to the sound of his boss chuckling mockingly, but not in an antagonistic way, not like Mr. Gavin would have…Holy mother, why was he still thinking about him after all these years…He thought he had grown past the days he had spent in that office…
Apollo was pulled out of fantasy land by the sudden perception of Mr. Wright looking at him expectantly, no doubt awaiting his response to the initial query regarding the bathrooms.
Apollo distractedly struggled for a response. “Umm, well…uh…Wasn’t it supposed to be Athena’s turn this week!?” Although clearly not very confident in his excuse, he pointed accusingly at Mr. Wright, knowing full well how easy it would be for the veteran lawyer to deflect his claims if he turned out to be incorrect.
Although he knew it wasn’t in Phoenix to yell at or lecture him, especially for being his argumentative self, he couldn’t shake the familiar feeling of dread after initiating the stand-off, a holdover from the time he had spent with the two-faced defense lawyer Kristoph Gavin.
Mr. Gavin had always put his complete focus and energy into maintaining appearances, but that was all it was, an appearance. Behind the scenes he had been cold, ruthless, and unforgiving, often verbally abusing his assistant and saddling him with impossible workloads. The worst part had been that there was no way out for Apollo, and Kristoph knew it. Mr. Gavin was the only one who would hire him, after all.
It had always been Apollo’s dream to be a defense attorney, ever since he was an orphan living in Khura’in with ex-lawyer turned rebel leader Dhurke Sadmahdi, who happened to be his foster parent. However, with the ever present dark age of the law, many firms had ceased hiring new representatives, instead preferring to stick with their more “experienced” veteran lawyers. And so Apollo put up with the abuse, almost beginning to respect the man, in a weird, twisted way, bewitched by his charms, although a part of him still wished to move on from Gavin Law Offices one day.
Looking back, he feels sick for it, but a part of him is glad that Shadi Smith was killed, because it had provided him a method of escape.
It sure hadn’t felt that way at first, though.
Apollo’s first months at the Wright Anything Agency had been similarly painful to his time at Gavin Law Offices, only in an entirely different way.
On a daily basis, he was faced with a shell of the man that had once been his idol, broken and scarred by memories of something that was just out of reach to Apollo. He couldn’t recall a single time in those early days that he had asked a question and gotten a straight answer out of the sardonic and patronizing old man.
There had been a time where Apollo had hated his new boss, even going so far as to uppercut him in the middle of the defendant lobby, after he had been tricked into presenting forged evidence in a court of law, leaving the threat of disbarment looming over his head. Despite the circumstances, maybe that wasn’t the best choice, in hindsight. Eventually, however, his feelings towards the agency began to change.
Perhaps it started with Trucy, Mr. Wright’s adopted daughter. Apollo and Trucy’s personalities seemed to conflict in more ways than one. Trucy was an energetic and bubbly performer, while Apollo was a lawyer, who was mostly rational and down-to-earth despite his dorky attitude. Over time, however, they found a common thread, the course of their lives had been drastically altered, for better or for worse, by the blond Devil.
In this shared experience, they developed a bond they had never expected they had the capacity to form, and Trucy began to open up. Within a few month’s time, they were inseparable, and, oddly enough, people began to mistake them for brother and sister, especially Klavier, although Apollo suspected these frequent “slip-ups” were at least somewhat purposeful. The prosecutor had a bizarre way of getting under his skin that no one else could even begin to match…
Whenever this happened, Mr. Wright would simply smirk as if he knew more than he was letting on, and turn away. Apollo had yet to discover the meaning behind this particular tic.
Eventually, although it took a lot of effort, and the reacquisition of his attorney’s badge after the truth came out about Mr. Gavin, Wright himself began to heal, leaving behind the broken man he had become, and, after enough time, Apollo had almost begun to see him as a father figure, something he was in desperate need of after what had happened back in Khura’in.
Something had changed in him, after Kristoph’s sentence had been extended. After 7 years, the proverbial Phoenix had seemingly risen from the ashes. The righteous attorney, dedicated to making the truth known, slowly returned, although it was an uphill battle.
In spite of all this, it was hard to break old habits, even habits that were nearly 4 years old. No matter what he did, he knew a part of Kristoph would always be with him, his malevolent observer, felt, but never seen or heard. The Devil over his shoulder.
Apollo was torn away from this deep self reflection that had happened over the course of seconds by Mr. Wright’s reassuringly calm and understanding response to his accusation. “Hmmm…I could’ve sworn she took her turn last week, but as an old man with chronic back pain and a failing memory, you never know.” Mr. Wright said in a warm and humorous tone of voice, scratching his chin and staring off at some distant object on the ceiling. “I’m fine!” Apollo accidentally blurted out as a result of the sudden derailment of his train of thoughts. “err--“ “I mean yeah!” “Yeah, you never know!” Apollo made a mental note of another habit he needed to work on breaking…
Phoenix graciously pretended as if he hadn’t heard the sudden outburst. “Why don’t we ask the woman herself?”
Athena swiftly whipped around to face the others, previously having taken a considerable interest in the floor on the other side of the room. “Boss, you’re only 36!” She shouted. “and yeah, I went last week, you were right!” The grin on her face looked sincere, and she may have gotten away with it if it weren’t for Widget’s betrayal.
“Oh yeah! No bathroom duty two weeks in a row!” It shouted, and Athena threw the palms of her hands over the speaker a moment too late, with a shocked expression on her face.
“GOTCHA!!” Shouted Apollo, feeling his energy returning to him after that brief introspective stint, which had the unfortunate side effect of giving everyone else in the room a near panic attack. “Heh, sorry…Sometimes it’s hard to control the chords of steel…” Apollo muttered sheepishly, running a hand though his spikes.