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Klavier fell in love first.
Love at first sight, he called it, but really it was like attraction at first sight. He saw Apollo, and it instantly solidified his bisexuality. He had said as much.
“This is the first time I’ve felt this way with a man.”
Apollo was handsome. He had big brown eyes and his face was covered in freckles. The way his hair stuck up in the front and kinda looked like rabbit ears was cute. He was much smaller than Klavier but the way his arms looked even under his dress shirt showed he was most likely stronger than Klavier. He had high cheekbones and dimples. He could be a model, Klavier thought.
It was inevitable that Klavier would flirt with him. Klavier was a flirty guy, it was part of his brand. He was charismatic and charming and attractive and the people loved it, Apollo was just another face in the line of beautiful people that Klavier Gavin had hit on. Flirting with Apollo came naturally, he just did what he did with the ladies he was used to. Apollo never noticed, or he didn’t seem to care if he did.
His flirting was lost on Apollo, who’s only focus was the law. That was fine. Klavier didn’t care that much, he barely knew the man after all. He had a job to do anyway.
His attraction to Apollo only grew as they worked together more.
The way he looked in court, when he crossed his arms (unintentionally showing them off) and smiled cockily because he knew he had won… well needless to say, Klavier liked that. The way he stared down the people on the stand, somehow catching them in every lie, that impressed Klavier. He was confident in court, and that was always attractive.
Klavier was physically attracted to Apollo. It didn’t stay purely physical.
Apollo was cute. He was loud and short and determined. He always fought for the right thing, even if it was hard. He was strong-willed and kind and he had a big heart and the way he pressed his index finger into his forehead when thinking was adorable. He didn’t treat Klavier like he was some big star, he was just another co-worker. That’s what really got Klavier.
Klavier was used to people walking on eggshells around him, afraid to upset a celebrity. Apollo didn’t care. Apollo told him his music sucked and his office was terrible to his face directly. Klavier liked that Apollo saw him as just a guy, not an untouchable idol. To the rest of the world, he was a famous rockstar with lots of money and he was larger than life. To Apollo, he was just another prosecutor. To Apollo, he was human.
Klavier had a little crush. It didn’t stay little.
After a while, he was head over heels for Apollo. Apollo was amazing . Everything he did in court was impressive, he was easily the best defense attorney that Klavier had ever met. He was passionate about everything. He whooped and cheered for Trucy’s magic and it was so sweet watching him get excited over her. His laugh was like music to Klavier’s ears and his smile lit up the room.
Klavier blushed when their hands brushed while exchanging evidence. He stuttered when Apollo’s eyes met his. Every time Apollo came over to the prosecutor’s office, Sebastian would tease him.
“Hey Klavier, your boyfriend’s here~”
And Klavier would tell him to shut up Seb oh mein Gott are we still in high school- but he would still have to take a minute to compose himself because, yeah, Apollo as his boyfriend sounds really fucking nice.
When Klavier found out that Apollo had been in courtroom #4, that he had been hit by the blast, he was… devastated? Terrified? He didn’t even know. He rushed to the hospital, almost demanding to see Apollo, only to compose himself outside the hospital room door. He was just here because Apollo was an acquaintance and co-worker who had been in a traumatic event and it was the nice thing to do- to come see him and offer support and converse. Not because he was afraid of Apollo being hurt. Not because he was scared to lose another person he cared about. Not because he was in love with him.
When he saw on the news what went down in Khura’in, he felt… proud? Is that what this is? Proud that the scrawny little intern Kris had complained about- Can you believe he misplaced my files? He’s lucky I found them right before the trial - was now a bigshot attorney, good enough to change entire governments. Proud that he could help Apollo in his journey, even if he was just a minor role.
When Apollo left, he was heartbroken. Yes, he knew it was inevitable. Apollo was building a whole legal system from the ground up- that was kinda hard to do when you’re not in the country you’re rebuilding. Plus, Apollo was reunited with his family- or at least his brother and uncle- and now he had a mother who had accepted him with open arms and a little sister who was confused but still wished to keep him around. Who was Klavier to keep him from that?
It was selfish, really, that Klavier wanted him to stay. That he wanted to keep fighting Apollo in the court (“ Why? You always lose.” “That’s the point, Frau Detective, with him I always know that it’s the truth.”) that he wanted to keep brushing hands with Apollo as they exchanged documents, wanted to keep teasing him about his height by bending over to talk to him, wanted to just look at him.
When Apollo gave him his number, a week before he left, he was ecstatic.
“Was- why are you giving me this?”
“So we can stay in touch. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Apollo considered him a friend. He hadn’t really had anyone other than Sebastian before now- with his brother and his former best friend being terrible people and his bandmates being more co-workers and less friends - and even then, he hadn’t really been friends with Sebastian in high school, they had only just now became close.
He missed Apollo. He really did. Missed the intense courtroom battles and that cocky smirk and hearing his loud “GOTCHA!” ring through the room. Missed everything about him, really. The video calls were nice, though. Listening to Apollo gush about all the things he missed from his childhood that he got to re-experience now (“ I saw some kids outside the office playing a game Yuty and I used to play- none of the American foster kids knew it and I ended up convinced that I somehow made it up, I’m glad it’s actually a real game.”) , listening to him talk about how his Khura’inese was rusty and he embarrassed himself in front of the entire courtroom ( “Ach, I felt that. The amount of weird shit I said when I was learning English…”) , listening to him rave about the law and all the things he was doing was a wonderful experience. Klavier could listen to him talk for hours. He was content to just sit there, watching Apollo’s eyes light up and subtly turning his speaker volume down because that specific expression meant that Apollo was about to get loud.
Once, he got a text from Apollo in the middle of the day. A picture of an electric guitar hung up in a shop. A Kramer pacer classic, to be exact. It was purple.
Saw this in a shop and it reminded me of you lol. It’s nearly the exact color of your blazer. You probably already have one of these since you have so many but I just thought it was neat.
Apollo had thought of him. Apollo had seen a guitar in a shop and was not only reminded of Klavier but he took a picture for him because he thought he’d like it . Klavier didn’t leave his office until it was time to leave work altogether. His ears had turned bright red and he couldn’t stop smiling. He had it bad.
He wrote a song about Apollo. He hadn’t even meant to, he just couldn’t think about anything else. He couldn’t put that on his new solo album- he absolutely couldn’t. Musicians were supposed to write vague love songs that could be about literally anyone, but here he was describing mocha brown eyes and saying that he was buying things in shades of red because he knew it was the other’s favorite color. Gott, he had it bad.
This is the kind of love that makes you miserable. The kind of love where you’re content to just sit there and watch them live. The kind of love where never having them is okay because the thought of losing them is so much worse. If Apollo found someone, told Klavier he fell in love, and lived his life without Klavier in it, that would be fine. Klavier would wish them well. He would attend the wedding. He was okay with never telling Apollo his feelings. You lose 100% of the shots you don’t take, sure, but what if Apollo decides Klavier’s feelings were too much for him? What if he stopped talking to him completely? Klavier didn’t think he could handle that.
He didn’t think he could ever feel this way about another person.
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Apollo hadn’t thought much of Klavier when they first met. Sure, he was objectively attractive and kinda charismatic but he had a fucking job to do and he wasn’t gonna let some guy distract him from that. He had a murder to solve and a client to defend and he didn’t have time to flirt with some pretty popstar. He didn’t need a conflict of interest on top of putting his boss in jail and punching his client who also happened to be his former idol.
And yeah, it was nice that Klavier was nice to him. He was used to prosecutors being awful, spiteful and insulting, not caring about the truth as long as they won. Meeting a prosecutor that was not only a decent person but actually cared about the law beyond a superficial level- that was a rare occurrence. Klavier was genuinely passionate about his work, he didn’t care if he lost the trial as long as he did the right thing. He had a strong sense of right and wrong. He quickly became Apollo’s favourite prosecutor to work with.
Apollo liked Klavier well enough. He was a good prosecutor, and a good guy. Seeing Klavier’s face upon Kristoph’s guilty verdict- that nearly broke his heart. Apollo had always been an empathetic man. Watching Klavier step out of the courtroom, his once glimmering eyes devoid of light and on the verge of tears, that devastated him.
Watching Klavier on the stage was a weird experience. His music was absolutely shit, in Apollo’s opinion. But he was having so much fun and who was Apollo to hate on that? Even though he didn’t like the songs, he was still having a good time.
Until the boom of an explosion rang through the room, a flash of warm light taking over. Klavier’s guitar was engulfed in flames and Klavier was panicking, desperately trying to put it out. This was no stage effect- someone had intentionally done that.
Klavier didn’t treat his wounds properly until the case had been solved. Second degree burns on both his hands, hastily bandaged up and ignored. He was in pain the whole trial, Apollo could tell. And God, did his pain multiply when the verdict was announced. The wound of his brother was still fresh. He didn’t need his best friend to rub salt in it.
His hands ended up scarring. Apollo wished he could reach out and help, but he was afraid Klavier didn’t like him that much. He didn’t want to invade his space or come off as condescending.
And that was it. Apollo cared about Klavier, yeah, but he cared easily. Eventually, they became friends. But that was it. Purely platonic.
Until it wasn’t.
He was on video call with Klavier, it was late at night and he was tired but they were both laughing at something stupid and it was comfortable.
Then something broke. Apollo looked at the screen and something in his mind cracked and shattered and let the floodgates loose.
Klavier was gorgeous. He was tall and tanned and blonde. He had pretty steel blue eyes with long eyelashes. He had a sharp jaw and he was well built. His accent was attractive and he was essentially the pinnacle of the “sexy foreigner” trope.
He had a dorsal bump in his nose and his eyes were hooded. His bangs were cut roughly, like he did them himself. He had burn scars on his hands and worry lines on his forehead and he was so so beautiful.
And he was kind. He was so kind. He always treated people with respect unless they proved they didn’t deserve it. He was polite, the very picture of a gentleman. He was gentle when he needed to be and despite his softness he didn’t take any disrespect and he was never afraid to put people in their place. He was passionate, about the law, about music, about everything he did. He smiled so brightly and he always put on a brave face and kept on pushing no matter how hard it got.
And yeah, Apollo wasn’t a fan of the early 2000’s style pop rock sound of the Gavineers, but there was no denying that Klavier Gavin was a talented man. He could sing, he could play guitar and piano, he could write music. When he slowed down and sang something he genuinely felt instead of some mass produced love song then he actually sounded quite nice. His accent didn’t go away when he sung unlike others and it just added to his sound. He was lovely.
He was impeccable in court. He didn’t care if he won or lost, only if the verdict was truthful. He would rather lose everything than do so much as lead a witness. He knew everything there was to know about law. Not just criminal prosecution, everything. He could sit down and talk for hours about small claims court or family law. He could and would examine every small detail of a crime scene just to make sure he didn’t miss anything at all. He loved what he did, a refreshing thing to see in a world of lawyers who couldn’t care less about their jobs.
To put it in short, Apollo was in love with him. He realised this all in a single second, and from then on it was torture. Klavier posts a picture on Instagram and Apollo is right there alongside his fangirls, fawning over a beautiful man. Wanting to be with him.
It’s so much worse than a celebrity crush, because Apollo actually knows Klavier. He has video calls with him and sees him in his pajamas with his hair in a messy bun and wonders what it would be like to wake up next to him like that. He sees the exact way Klavier’s eyes crinkle up when he smiles. A real smile, not the one he does for pictures. He hears Klavier’s voice when he’s tired and it’s rough and not perfect but it’s lovely all the same. Klavier plays him an original song once, and maybe Apollo is just projecting but he swears the lyrics are describing him .
He saw Klavier in everything. The combination of purple and silver always brought his mind back to Klavier. He saw a guitar hanging in a shop and the first thing that came to mind was Klavier. Sitting in Nahyuta’s room while they did their makeup and they mention a certain colour of eyeshadow they never wear because it’s better on blue eyes? He thinks of Klavier. A leather jacket with a glittery inside? He thinks of Klavier. Anything relating to Germany? Klavier.
He didn’t think he had ever felt this way about another person.
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Neither Klavier nor Apollo really knew when it happened, but it did. There was no confession, no breaking point. No “are you free on Friday?” or roses or restaurant reservations. Just a video call and Apollo saying he had already booked a hotel room because his work in Khura’in was nearly done and he could go back to the states now. Just Klavier asking if he needed a ride at the airport. Apollo said yes without thinking.
Klavier picked him up and they got to his car and put Apollo’s things away and Klavier put the address of the hotel into his GPS but before they even got in the car they just stood there. Silence, comfortable silence. Smiling. Happy that Apollo was home.
Neither of them know who leaned in first, just that they bumped foreheads and then they laughed and tried again. Their first kiss was in the LAx airport parking lot with the fear of someone recognising Klavier hidden in the back of both of their minds. Neither of them cared.
They were in love.