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Apollo and Klavier have been dating for years, they met on an off chance during Apollo’s first year of college at a legal convention and found they just clicked . The pair were equally loud in completely opposite ways, and they simply couldn’t help but find their way back to each other. They had gotten engaged the day Apollo received the letter informing him he’d passed the bar, but their wedding plans were really more of wedding dreams. See the pair had an agreement, they wouldn’t get married until their shared abuser was officially and completely out of the picture. Given Klavier’s association with Kristoph was one of blood, and Apollo regrettably now worked for the man, talk of their wedding remained as quiet whispers in the late hours of the night. The bed in their apartment with Vongole and Mikeko curled up at their feet, the only place they felt safe to talk of dreams and a happy time when they didn’t have to watch their backs. The pair felt stagnant, waiting, hoping for something to come along and show them how to be free of the monster. Neither of them expected that something to be an ex defense attorney dressed like a starving artist who’d been accused of murder, but honestly when have either of their lives resembled any expectations? Klavier was one of the most successful musicians in the world, and Apollo was technically the secret prince of a foreign dictatorship he hadn’t seen since he was nine. Their lives were simply like that, completely chaotic and random with exactly zero sense of reason. Apollo hated to admit it, but he was actually really happy when Kristoph told him he’d finally be leading his first case. He’d been strictly deskwork and judicial assistance for so long that he had nearly forgotten that most defense attorneys actually get to defend clients. Then he met the man he was supposed to be defending, and he was immediately reminded why his usual reaction to Kristoph’s ideas is ‘How about I strangle you instead, and maybe feed you to my cat?’ Phoenix Wright was a disaster. Don’t get the wrong idea, the man was a legend , and Apollo knew through Klavier that he hadn’t actually commit the forgery that got his badge revoked. But to say the man looked like a sewer rat, was an offense to sewer rats. He wore a ratty threadbare hooded sweatshirt covered in suspicious stains, too loose joggers coming loose at the seams, and a beanie Apollo was ninety percent sure contained a hidden camera. He was telling the truth when he said that he didn’t kill the victim though, and that was enough for Apollo. The trial went about as expected for Apollo Justice’s first trial, which is to say that exactly nothing expected happened, and somehow by the end Apollo had gotten his boss convicted of murder. Apollo wasn’t even slightly ashamed to admit that his first thought upon realizing Kristoph had been sentenced to death was that he could finally actually plan his wedding with Klavier. Phoenix admitted after the trial that the card he’d passed Apollo was technically a forgery, though one of a card that should have been among the actual evidence had Kristoph not stolen it after committing the murder. Normally Apollo probably would have been enraged, but all he could think about was the fact that his fiancé would never have to double check that his brother hadn’t figured out how to break into their house again, and he didn’t even glare. Simply nodded politely and said he had to get home, he needed to feed his cat, but that he’d call about the job offer Mr. Wright had unexpectedly offered him. Working for someone who wasn’t actively trying to ruin his life would be a nice change of pace. When Klavier made it home that night he looked exhausted, and for a moment Apollo wondered if he’d already heard. Klavier was never one to leave Apollo questioning his thoughts for long and soon the blonde answered his fiancé’s unvoiced question with a tired groan.
“People were asking weird questions the whole way home, everyone kept questioning if I was okay but no one would tell me why they thought I might not be? Even Payne asked if I was feeling alright! Payne! Are there more rumors going around that my parents have died again? They died when I was fourteen, I can’t imagine they’ve found a way to do it a second time.” Klavier flopped carelessly onto their island, his face hitting the countertop with an undignified thunk. Instinctively Apollo reached over and brushed a hand through his partner's blonde hair, his urge to comfort Klavier simply a natural product of being in love with the man for going on seven years now. And wasn’t that a thought, seven whole years of being completely and utterly hopelessly in love with this overdramatic lump currently slumped three inches from the fruit bowl they really only kept for the days they woke up late and needed a quick breakfast.
“I guess I should apologize for that, it is technically my fault they’re asking. But in my defense I was tired of our wedding being an untouchable dream, and he did kill a man. It’s not my fault his go to methods of problem solving are usually knife to the heart, poisoned tea, and wine bottles over the head. If he didn’t want to go to jail maybe he should have tried not committing murder.” Apollo kept his voice light and casual, letting Klavier come to the realization on his own while Apollo gently stroked his hair. He watched as the cogs in his fiancés head turned and he slowly figured out what Apollo was hinting at, the way his eyes widened slowly but he didn’t push himself up off the counter until it had completely sunk in.
“You’re serious? He’s really? We’re talking about the same person right? Is Kristoph really? Holy shit we can get married. Holy shit , Apollo, we can get married!” Klavier’s eyes sparkle in the artificial light of their kitchen, and Apollo doesn’t even have it in himself to tease him.
“Yeah, Klav, we can get married.” And Apollo knows he isn’t shouting like Klavier is, but Klavier’s known him long enough to see his smile and know Apollo can’t process how happy he is right now. Has known him long enough to know that Apollo doesn’t shout when he’s happy, he shouts when he’s scared or shocked. They’ve always been opposites that way, both considered loud by their peers, but Apollo had always been quiet in his joy and loud in his terror, while Klavier had always been loud in his joy and quiet in his terror.
When Apollo calls the Wright Anything Agency the next morning, he informs Trucy that he’ll need a bit of time before he can actually begin. He doesn’t tell her that he’ll be spending this time preparing to marry the love of his life, but she still happily gives him a month before she expects a serious answer from him on whether or not he’d like to join the agency. Apollo and Klavier don’t have a big wedding, a small courthouse wedding with the only guests being Clay Terran because they’d promised him he could come six years ago and going back on that now would just be cruel, and Daryan Crescend because it was only fair Klavier got to bring his best friend as well. Neither of them had ever wanted a big wedding, Klavier got enough spotlight on stage and Apollo didn’t want a celebration his older brother couldn’t attend. Klavier happily agreed to a small vow renewal if Nahyuta ever made his way back into their lives because he knew how much his husband loved his own older brother.
By the time Apollo’s first day at the agency arrived they’d officially been Apollo and Klavier Justice for two days. They had no real expectations of seeing each other at work for a while now, Apollo was the first attorney the agency had in seven years, he expected if he got any cases at all they would be little ones. He hadn’t expected his boss to get hit by a car on his first day, hadn’t expected his boss to send him on a wild goose chase around town with only Trucy as a guide, and he certainly hadn’t expected that goose chase to turn up a murder. Initially the officers didn’t want to let Apollo and Trucy in, having determined they must be teenagers skipping school without so much as a glance at Apollo’s Very Real Attorney's Badge. Luckily his final wild surprise of the day appeared just in time, Klavier had laughed brightly and told the officers that it was fine to let the duo in at any time. Klavier being the prosecutor on the case made Apollo’s life so much easier, no explaining to the prosecution that he was just short, not a child. Klavier had pulled the two aside before grinning right at Apollo, leaned right up into his husband's face and pulled one of the worst pick up lines Klavier had ever subjected Apollo to.
“I must say I'm used to being inspected by the ladies... But this is the first time I've felt this way with a man.” Klavier’s flirting had never been good, but this was a level of cheesy strong enough that Apollo knew his husband was fucking with him. Of course Apollo had had years to get used to his husband's antics and had simply rolled his eyes.
“Gavin, ” Apollo chastised fondly, stepping back before he kissed his husband in front of his boss’ daughter. Trucy’s eyes sparkled as she excitedly talked to Klavier and Apollo subtly texted his husband that they should get Trucy a ticket to the Gavinners disbandment concert that was slowly creeping up on them. Court with Klavier quickly proved to be exactly as exciting as Apollo had expected, and he was glad to say that by the time it was over he had no worries that they were condemning the wrong person. Klavier was the force of nature he’d always been, seeking out the truth like a hurricane seeks out destruction. Apollo smiled gently when his husband took his advice and invited Trucy to join him and Apollo at the final Gavinners concert. Trucy’s smile was not gentle, it was huge and ear splitting and sweet enough to give anyone cavities.
The concert went about as well as one could expect a concert attended by both of the Justice’s and Trucy Wright to go. Which is to say that it was an absolute disaster, and there was another murder, and Apollo had to prove his husbands best friend had killed someone during their final concert. When it was all over and they were heading home, Apollo wasn’t surprised at all to find Klavier gripping Apollo’s hand like it was his only lifeline, not so much as a goodbye whispered to Trucy when they dropped her off at the agency. Klavier always had been uncharacteristically quiet when he was upset. Apollo held his husband through his sobs that night, silently comforting him with the help of Mikeko and Vongole’s cuddles.
Slowly Apollo helped Klavier build himself back up, and by the time Athena joined the agency even Apollo could say Klavier was almost completely back to himself. Before long they set into a rhythm, Mr. Wright even got his badge back, everything seemed to be going well. Nothing can ever go well for long in their lives. When Clay died Apollo broke, even Klavier had never seen anything like it, Clay was the only one who had been in Apollo’s life at the right time to recognize it and he was dead now. Apollo had to avoid Athena, couldn’t bear the feeling of his tightening bracelet every time he came anywhere near her. Apollo doesn’t take care of himself, doesn’t even remotely attempt to, but Klavier makes sure his husband eats and sleeps, he holds him when the nightmares wake him with screams, and he kisses away his tears whenever he catches them. Eventually the cases conclude and Apollo forces himself to discard Clay’s jacket, and apologizes to Athena, Mr. Wright, and Mr. Blackquill for his behavior. None of them blame him of course, and he openly weeps when he’s pulled into a hug and told he’ll always be a member of their family. No matter how ‘emo and sulky’ he’s being.
Apollo honestly thinks that’s the end of the chaos for a while, and then suddenly his little sister is his defendant and his older brother is the prosecution. Worst of all, Nahyuta doesn’t seem to care in the slightest that his little brother is still alive after all these years. They survive the trial, but Apollo feels himself sinking into depression once again at the sudden and painful reminder that his family left him. Left him alone in a foreign country, not knowing a word of the language, with nothing but a false promise to come back for him when things are ‘safe.’ Apollo hates himself for thinking it would have been easier if he never learned that his brother was still alive. When Dhurke appears at Apollo and Klavier’s house unannounced Apollo almost just shuts the door in his face. But Apollo is weak, and he’s spent so many years missing his adoptive father, and in the end he flies to Khurai’n and makes himself an enemy of his aunt the Queen. When it’s all over Nahyuta asks Apollo to help rebuild the system, and in another life maybe Apollo would have agreed. Goddess knows he’s missed his older brother, knows he wants to get to know the mother he never met, the little sister he never knew he had (the little sister his mind oh so helpfully tells him his father had replaced him with) But that life isn’t this one, and Apollo thinks of his husband sitting home alone, and he smiles apologetically.
“I’m sorry Yuta, you know I want to help, of course I do, but I have a life in Japanifornia, a family. I’ve been missing you for years, I want to get to know mom and Rayfa, but I can’t just leave the rest of my family alone to fix the legal system of a country I don’t live in. I’ll help however I can, I’ll ask Mr. Wright and He- I mean, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth for their notes from the Dark Age of the Law, but I can’t drop everything and move here. I’m not nine years old, unable to control it while dad drops me in a different country leaving behind everything I know anymore. I’m twenty seven Yuta, I have a job, a home, I have people waiting for me in Japanifornia. Hell if what Klav’s told me is even half true you have people waiting for you in Japanifornia too. You know I’ll visit, you know I’ll answer a call from you at any hour for any reason, but my life isn’t just mine anymore, it hasn’t been for over a decade.” Apollo felt terrible saying it, felt like he was letting down the person he’d looked up to most for his entire life, but Nahyuta was just happy his little brother finally had the family he’d always wanted. Was just happy that his little brother was happy.
Slowly Nahyuta patched up the broken legal system in Khurai’n, a process that went by so much faster with the Japanifornian legal team happily assisting in any way they could whenever they could. It wasn’t an uncommon sight in either country to see a lone Japanifornian attorney training a small horde of Khurai’nese attorneys. One of Nahyuta’s first priorities had actually been getting dual citizenship for himself and Apollo, and Apollo quickly convinced Nahyuta to include Apollo’s Japanifornian family and the rest of their Khurai’nese family into the arrangement. Klavier started joking that he and the rest of the German members of the Japanifornian legal team were collecting citizenships like they were pokemon cards. It took Nahyuta a grand total of three minutes of watching Apollo and Klavier interact to determine that they were together, to which Klavier laughed heartily and replied
“Of course we’re together, we’re married.” And if the rest of their friends had been around that would have cleared things up so much earlier. Alas the coffee shop trip had been attended only by the trio, and Nahyuta still wasn’t sure where he stood in regards to the Japanifornians, so Apollo and Klavier’s marriage remained an accidental secret.
When Nahyuta finally announced he was moving to Japanifornia permanently to be with Simon exactly no one was surprised. The pair had got on like oil and water at first, but after Apollo had gently explained to Simon that when he’d met Nahyuta the other man was being actively abused by his dictator aunt, their relationship turned around almost immediately. Honestly the only part of the experience that shocked anyone was when Nahyuta appeared at the airport with his hair neatly cut just above his shoulders, with soft side bangs held away from his face by a little white ribbon bow.
Unbeknownst to Apollo and Klavier, Nahyuta and Simon finally settling down spurred something in the agency’s strange little family. It seemed this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and now the group was determined to get Apollo and Klavier to follow suit. Of course the problem with that was that Apollo and Klavier had been happily married for five years by that point, and none of their friends and coworkers had managed to catch on despite their interactions and the matching wedding rings they had worn for all of those years.
“That’s it! I’ve had it! I love Apollo but even Simon got his shit together with Prosecutor Sahdamdhi already. If Apollo can’t get his shit straight with Klavier on his own we will just have to help them.” Athena slammed her hands down on her desk, the rest of the gang nodding around her. She’d even gotten Edgeworth’s kids in on this. When even little Sebastian had responded to her ‘we need to get polly and gavin to just suck each others dicks already’ with a ‘yeah this is insane’ she knew that her wonderful coworker was clearly just completely inept when it came to relationships.
“Honestly, Polly’s obviously in love with Prosecutor Gavin, and the first thing Prosecutor Gavin said to Polly was a shitty pick up line. It was actually really bad, I’m not even surprised Polly didn’t pick up on it. You’d think a rockstar would be better at flirting.” Trucy had her arms and legs crossed while she balanced on a broom, no one dared ask her how she was doing it. The group all just nodded in agreement with Trucy, it was clear that these two could not be trusted to get this done on their own.
“But, how are we even gonna do this? Do we just lock them in here all night with the power off?” Kay honestly didn’t know Justice all that well, and though she was decently close with Gavin she really wasn’t sure how to convince him to admit his obvious feelings for his favorite attorney. Trucy sighed sadly and shook her head.
“We’ve already tried, at least twice a year, nothing changes, they just fall asleep on the couches and tell Daddy that the lock got stuck again. I think they’re both allergic to making first moves.” She waved about on her broom in thought, it swayed with her body but remained upright the whole time. They all sat in silence for a moment.
“What if we tell them the other does like them back? They’re bound to listen to human lie detectors right?” Kay spoke up again, trying to get the simple answers out of the way before she resorted to just shoving their faces together and telling them to kiss. Athena was the one to shake her head this time, an annoyed groan as she thought about the time she had tried to do exactly that.
“They just say they know, and then look confused when I tell them I mean romantically.” She froze at that, blinking for a moment before she whispered in horror “What if they haven’t realized they even like each other. Oh my god they’re so dense.” The gaggle of children all stared at each other with wide horrified eyes.
“It’s official, my big brother is the world's biggest idiot. He has a bracelet that tells him when people are lying and he hasn’t managed to figure out he’s in love with his best friend after five years. It’s almost as bad as Daddy and Papa.” Another horrified pause, this time all of them knew what was coming next. “We can not let them take two fucking decades to confess. We can’t. We’d be the worst family ever. We need a plan.”
Eventually they decided on a plan, Trucy would invite Klavier and Apollo to dinner with her and Pearl, without telling the boys about each other. Last minute Athena would call and say she needed Trucy and Pearl’s help ASAP, they would make sure to tell the boys to enjoy their date before leaving, and if they didn’t kiss by the time dinner was over Kay had permission to slam their faces against each other.
Of course the plan backfired spectacularly when the owner of the restaurant turned up dead before Athena could even call Trucy and Pearl. The gang tried their own individual plans, they really did, but every time the pair either completely ignored the romantic tension, or something came up to ruin all of their plans. They’d tried jealousy, Apollo just laughed at Klavier’s embarrassed flustering when waitresses flirted. They’d tried telling them, they just said they knew and moved on with their days. They’d tried setting them up on dates, they just hung out exactly like they usually did. Even Kay’s patented ‘Now Kiss!’ plan failed when they just happily pulled Kay into a group hug and told her how happy they were to have her as a friend and pseudo sister and she started crying like a little girl. In the end they gave up, coming to the horrified conclusion that maybe they’d been wrong and Apollo and Klavier didn’t like each other romantically at all.
State v Kays was honestly a rather boring case, the evidence against the agency's client was all circumstantial at best, and even the Payne brothers could probably tell that Sue’s sister Brook had probably been the one to kill Professor Travis Elle. The only reason it was even going to trial at this point was because Sue had bought the knife, though Apollo already had the photo prepared to show that she had bought it as a gift for her sister. The case was open shut, and the trial didn’t even last a full hour. The interesting part didn’t come until after the trial. The verdict had gone through and the confetti was settling when the judge had smiled at the attorneys in his courtroom.
“Congratulations on another job well done Mr. Justice, Prosecutor Gavin.” It was completely innocuous, something he said every trial. Apollo wasn’t even paying any attention to it, simply smiling warmly at Klavier, happy they had been able to make sure the right person got the charge yet again. And Klavier was distracted, Apollo’s smile had always made his stomach flutter and his brain stutter.
“Prosecutor Justice, actually” Klavier had corrected without thinking, his whole being focused on how damn cute his husband was. In that moment he completely forgot that he’d made a habit of letting people assume he was still a Gavin over the years. He was too drawn in by Apollo to do his usual ‘it’s not a big deal, they’ve always known me as Prosecutor Gavin’ internal spiel. The whole courtroom had frozen at Klavier’s words, silence flooding the room in seconds.
“Well then, I suppose congratulations are in order, Prosecutor Justice . May I ask when this development occurred?” The Judge smiled warmly like this wasn’t the biggest revelation between the pair since Athena had explained to everyone that Apollo didn’t actually hate Klavier and just showed affection in an adorably snarky manner. Klavier and Apollo finally registered what was happening, and both looked to the judge with obvious confusion.
“About, six years ago, your honor? This isn’t exactly something new.” Apollo was looking at the judge like he expected an obvious tell that the judge had been joking and had known they were married all along. The tell never came. Instead all they got was a cacophony of confused ‘WHAT?!’s from the various lawyers in the gallery and a Trucy jumping straight out of the gallery to land in front of Apollo with the perfect hurt sister face.
“But you only met six years ago Polly! I was there! Why wouldn’t you tell me you got together!” This only left Apollo more confused, met six years ago? He had met Klavier outside a heated discussion on retrials at a college law convention when he was eighteen?
“Trucy, I don’t know how to break it to you, but we were already married when I met you. Klavier and I have been dating since college, we were engaged for longer than we wanted to be but we definitely haven’t been pining for the last six years. We got our pining phase done and over with about a month after we met.” Apollo tried to be gentle, but he honestly didn’t know how his sister hadn’t noticed. He’d been living with Klavier since he was nineteen, and the matching rings weren’t exactly subtle. Sure he’d messed up and called Klavier ‘Gavin’ a couple times back in the early days, but he got used to his husband being Klavier Justice pretty quickly.
“That’s impossible, he tried to pick you up the day we met him Polly? You thought he was Kristoph! We’ve been trying to get you two together for years! I would have noticed if my big brother was married for six years right under my nose!” She was so insistent, her brows furrowed and her blue eyes pinched in a glare. Had they all really thought Apollo and Klavier were just friends all these years? He’d asked Trucy, Athena, Mr. Wright, and Sebastian whether they should adopt a kid and that’s just the people who’re in the room right now. They couldn’t honestly be that unobservant? Could they?
“Truce, you remember how when I first took the job at the agency I asked for a while to myself before I started working?” Trucy nodded, remembering how she thought it was silly that the attorney was worried about having too much work. She would never think like that again after they actually got Apollo, it was like murders just started falling into their laps. “I asked for that time off to prepare for the wedding Trucy. We had agreed not to actually plan anything until we didn’t have to worry about Kristoph anymore. We had a little courthouse wedding with Clay and Daryan just a couple days before my first day at the agency. Did you honestly think Klavier and I just happened to have matching rings on our ring fingers with ‘my love’ engraved on them in German and Khurai’nese. We, really weren’t subtle with it.” Apollo was honestly kind of worried about his little sister, she was usually so perceptive, for her to have missed this was really weird. Everyone else he could understand, he’d learned over the years that sometimes common sense was not his coworkers strong suit, but Trucy had been the voice of reason in the group since she was a little girl. Trucy just stared in horror and awe at her brother for another minute before whispering quietly.
“Holy shit, my brother got married before our dads managed to start dating.” and with that they all burst into laughter.
It really shouldn’t have surprised anyone when the headline on the next day's front page read “Prosecutor Justice, Actually” with a picture of Klavier and Apollo kissing against the door of their car, courtesy of one Lotta Hart. Just like the rings, just like living together for a decade, just like the way they’d always only ever had eyes for each other, Apollo and Klavier were far from subtle when they told their found family that they had in fact been happily married for years.