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"My brother taught me how to fasten all sorts of ties," Klavier says, and his hands are certain as they do up the black one he's settling around his collar. Though it's unusual on him, he looks sharp once he tucks it flat and does up his waistcoat. "Imagine how disgusted he'd be to know how I'm putting my skills to use! Ach, no offense, Fraülein."
"Oh, none taken. 'Magic is frivolous, grandstanding onstage is a waste of charisma,' yadda yadda." Trucy shrugs, stepping back to give him a critical once-over. The red shirt is a few shades darker than she'd initially wanted, but she has to agree that it's just the right level of warmth for him. Apollo-red isn't for everyone. It’s barely even for Apollo!
"I take it you heard his spiel a few times yourself," he muses, tugging his collar this way and that.
"Oh yeah. Never directly to me, though. It was always to Daddy, just within earshot. And then he'd turn around and – actually, believe it or not, he showed me how to tie some formal knots a few times." She hadn't particularly adored Kristoph Gavin, but he hadn't been awful… except, of course, he had turned out to be pretty awful. "Something about, ‘If you're going to do something so nonsensical –’"
"'At least do it well-dressed,'" Klavier finishes softly.
"Yup!"
"Many years ago, those were words of encouragement for me. I always took them to mean that he supported me even if he didn't understand some of the things I did. Now… I wonder if they were ever meant kindly."
Trucy stays quiet for a moment, allowing Klavier a chance to shake himself from his melancholy. He's almost as good at emotional quickchange as she is. "I think they were," she says eventually, shrugging. "Even when he said them to me. To him, the worst thing that could happen was getting ridiculed. That's why… that's why he hated Daddy so much, I think. Uh, both Daddies, that is."
Klavier scrunches up his eyes, and she knows he's trying not to laugh. He might be able to smile for the camera, but offscreen, he’s an open book – to Trucy, at least. Reading expressions is directly at the crossroads between magician's kid and poker-playing lawyer's kid.
"That's quite perceptive. I shouldn't be surprised, but I admit that I… I often forget you knew him. I kept myself quite away during those years."
She shrugs again. Klavier could have been a nice buffer for when things got tense, but what's done is done. Besides, she has her doubts that it would have worked out well. She's glad he's here now instead. "Probably for the best. Who knows what you might have gotten dragged into?"
Klavier gives a little shudder, undoubtedly played up to cover for the fact that the possibilities genuinely disturb him. He reaches up to mess with his fringe, but Trucy stops him with a shrill whistle.
"No fiddling with your hair! Yuri worked hard to get it to stay like that."
"Ja, ja, so they did." He sighs and drops his hand, finally turning to look her full in the face. "Well? Will I do?"
"Yep, you'll do! It's a good thing we practiced a lot, though. Still not quiiiiite used to having an assistant who's so much taller than I am!"
"Well, you are not alone in eagerly awaiting the return of your regular guy."
His small, sad smile tips her into her own melancholy. "You really think he'll come back?"
"Of course. His family is here, ja?"
"He's got family there, too. Real family."
The little smile turns into a severe frown. "Trucy," he says seriously, placing his hands on his hips, "you must know better than anyone that family comes in innumerable shapes. All of them are legitimate and all of them are real. I have it on good authority – straight from the horse's mouth, in fact – that one of the things Apollo is most proud of is having you as a sister."
Trucy… knows that. She does. Apollo's said it to her face before, more or less. It's just that he's been gone now for over a year. He’d disappeared with barely more warning than her Daddy – the first one – and she's been bracing herself for the possibility that, like Zak, Apollo might not come back. That his professions of pride and admiration might have been smoke and mirrors, just a trick to make her feel important while he planned his escape. Learning that he'd said the same things about her to other people hits hard. Something about Apollo talking her up to Klavier makes his words seem a little more genuine: something real instead of something designed just to influence a specific audience.
She lets herself sniff once to fight back her tears, but she refuses to touch her face; they have a show starting soon, after all. There's no time to touch up her makeup, because she can already hear Daddy and Athena and Auntie Maya whooping in the audience. She'll just have to hold her tears the way she'll ask the audience to hold their applause. A performer, like a lawyer, has to keep smiling to the bitter end.
"You know, you're way less nervous than Apollo was on his first night. Maybe I'll keep you around after all. You can fill out the application if the trial run goes well. Oh, but it'll take some time to read! And I'd definitely have a lawyer go over it."
"Ach, well, lucky that I know a few of those, then," Klavier says warmly, eyes sparkling. "Go on and do what you must to prepare. It's nearly time. But later, you absolutely must tell me about Herr Forehead's first show."
"Sorry! That's strictly reserved for your one-month bonus." She tips her hat and sticks out her tongue at him. "Can't go telling you company secrets before you sign the NDA. Promise you won't mess up your hair in the next five minutes?"
He laughs. "I promise. Go on, boss."
She wants to believe him, but Apollo had messed up his hair and makeup the second she'd turned her back. At least Klavier's familiar with the stage; he should at least be able to damage control if he does ruin his hair. "OK! I'll see you when I cue you!"
"Aye-aye." He throws her a lazy salute that she's sure doesn't conform to any formally recognized gesture. She likes it.
She returns the salute, grinning back when it makes him smile, and winds her way into the chaos outside his dressing room.