Chapter Text
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So…this is how it ends, huh?
…
Silence filled the empty courtroom as the clacks and thumps of a herd of terrified people running echoed in the distance. Only the sharp beeps of a timer counting down struck through the hush, as quiet as the chirps of an early morning bird, yet they hurt Klavier’s ears like gunshots.
He had been caught up in the stampede of panicked bystanders escaping the gallery, when it was announced that soon, a bomb the size of a lunchbox would blow and along it, likely most of it’s surroundings. Klavier had been intensely following the trial up until that point until, understanding the danger of the explosive, he too had decided to make a run for his life.
A run that would end up being cut for short, when he tripped and probably twisted his ankle running up the stairs leading to the hallway. Damn those 4-inch platform boots.
Now, as he laid just meters away from the courtroom doors, he couldn’t help but feel his heart beating out of his chest, hear every single emotion in his head, all begging for him to get up and run before he would be faced with a painful demise. Yet it seemed like his body was actively trying to work against him, as the thought of his life ending so soon had completely paralyzed him. He felt his legs go numb and his hands shake violently and seemingly unable to physically lift himself off the floor, all he could do was resort to listening to the vile beeps emerging from just some meters away.
All he could do…was just listen. And think.
Life really does flash before your eyes. All the things he regretted doing and all the things he regretted not doing.
I wish he was here…I wish I didn’t have to die alone.
Die as he had lived.
Hmph.
…
………
……Gavin….
…………
What…?
“Klavier!”
Now he knew he must have already died and gone to heaven. Why else would he be hearing the voice of an angel calling out to him?
The beeping had faded out and everything sounded like he was underwater. Still, the voice was shouting almost like in pain. Klavier could hear the raspy cries even closer now. Once at the Gavinners European tour, he had gotten too into the performance and started singing with a similarly hoarse voice. His throat had been sore for a week afterwards.
Something is wrong. That voice…could it---?!
“KLAVIER!”
The sudden slash of a harsh yell cut through Klavier’s thoughts and startled him enough to force his eyes open. The beeping was back, slightly quicker in pace than a moment ago and the heavy breathing on top of him alerted Klavier to move his head and lift his gaze.
Kneeling in front of him was a man, smaller in stature yet bigger in every way else. Well…almost every way. His bright red suit had been covered with a small layer of dust and spots of grime stained it in some places. His turquoise tie had come slightly loose and his previously rolled up sleeve was now hanging off his arm like an unstuffed toy. The two spikes of brunette hair which had previously stood confidently with their owner were now hanging over his forehead and on his face laid a look of pure horror mixed with gentle relief. His face was covered in sweat and his eyes were wide and glossy, with small pupils twitching back and forth as he inspected the man lying beside him.
“Klavier?! What’s wrong? We need to go, now!”
Oh…it’s you. Sweet, beautiful Apollo. Of course. Of course he wouldn’t leave him behind. Apollo didn’t do that. Apollo was the kind of person who put everybody, even people he didn’t know, ahead of himself. He was the kind of person to take the grandma living in his neighbor to walks when she felt lonely and carry her groceries home. The kind of person to escape an exploding building and run back inside to help someone else get out, even when a bomb was about to detonate.
...Wait.
“Apo-“ cough “Apollo? What are you doing?”
“I’m getting you out of here, dumbass. Can you walk?”
“I don’t…”
Not waiting for an answer, Apollo grabbed his arm and lifted it around his neck, pulling Klavier’s body off the ground. Klavier had no other option but to hang on and try to stabilize himself on both feet. The pain in his ankle was antagonizing and as Apollo tried his best to drag him out of the courtroom, all he could do was try and use his healthy leg to slump behind him in a steady pace. They were only a foot away from the door when suddenly, he felt Apollo’s head swiftly turn to face the room, the beeping now ringing insanely fast.
“Oh…shit.”
All of a sudden he felt his hand being lifted off the shorter man’s shoulder and before he could realize that he was now relying on his own body to completely hold himself up, a pair of strong hands pushed him violently from his back, causing him to fall through the side of the door into the hallway, the wall blocking his view of the room the bomb was beeping in.
Then, without warning, a strong wave of heat emerged from it, smashing the windows of the hallway Klavier laid in and crumbling the foundations of the wall and the roof, followed by an ear bursting bang. Luckily for him, Klavier was not in the doorframe and was thus protected from the emerging heat by the concrete wall beside him. He could only feel small chips of the roof falling gently onto his face, before the force of the explosion caught up with his body and his mind fell into unconsciousness.
---
The first thing Klavier felt while emerging from the darkness was a pair of hands swiftly moving across his body and shaking him. The same underwater echo was playing in his ears as he tried but failed to recognize the different voices yelling his name. As he tried to ajar his eyes, he saw bright colors belonging to three people whose faces were fuzzy. He squinted his eyes, trying his best to actually see what he was looking at.
Next to him crouched a brown-haired woman in a long white coat. It was her hands travelling around his body checking for injuries and jerking him awake. Next to her stood a tangerine haired girl in a bright yellow…suit? Dress? Either way, another young girl leaned over his body, her large sunhat casting a shadow on his face, allowing him to finally see the three women clearly.
“Oh, thank god, you almost scared me there, fop.”
Stirring his eyes, Klavier could still feel the pain coming from his ankle as he tried to sit up. Around him was a hoard of firefighters and police walking around and inspecting the fallen rocks that had blocked the entrance to courtroom No. 4.
“Oh yeah, like you haven’t been about to burst into tears for, like, the past hour, Ema.”
“You keep your mouth shut, Athena. How you feeling? Hurt anywhere?”
Klavier couldn’t even properly respond as he gazed upon his detective’s actually kind of concerned face.
“Mr. Gavin?” a quiet voice said beside him. The girl with the giant sunhat looked at him with a worried look, teary eyed. “You didn’t happen to see Apollo, did you?”
“He ran back inside just before the bomb went off!” exclaimed Athena. “Ughhh, I tried to stop him, really, but I couldn’t hold him back.”
“It’s not your fault, Thena!” Said the girl with the hat, reaching out to stroke the now sulking Athena’s arm.
“Right, we should just focus on finding him for now. Maybe he wasn’t hurt? He could have found like a child-sized hole to hide in or something.” Ema suggested, although it probably did little to actually comfort Athena.
Just then the memories of what had happened came streaming back into Klavier’s brain. How he hadn’t actually seen the explosion but had felt the powerful force emitting from it. The heat, the falling rocks, the big, soft hands that had pushed him away from danger through the doorway that was now filled with fallen concrete…
…Oh my god.
“Apollo!”
It was as if a wind turbine had pumped a year’s worth of energy into him, when Klavier suddenly jumped off the ground and faced the collapsed door. Standing up, he now also remembered his hurt ankle, which he had accidentally placed his whole weight onto and bent over in pain, groaning. The hands of the detective were back, holding onto his arm and upper back.
“Hey, hey, take it easy. What’s wrong?” Ema consoled, probably the only time ever she had shown worry for the blonde prosecutor.
“Did you remember something?” asked Athena, with both her and the girl next to her looking at him with expecting eyes.
“I-…He…” Klavier stumbled his way to the door where multiple police officers were already taking the blockage apart stone by stone. Ema scuttled behind him and as he started hurriedly delving into the stone wall with his own hands, her blood turned cold as she realized what had happened.
“Oh god.”
Apollo was trapped. He had been trapped by falling concrete into the room that had a giant bomb inside it. He had been at the core of the explosion and now he was stuck in the debris. Athena held a horrified look on her face before she too pushed her way through the officers to help him. The girl with the sunhat was just frozen, hands over her mouth, she looked like she was about to faint.
As the barricade was taken apart by two pairs of determined hands, the view into the collapsed courtroom began to show. Where there used to be a roof was now a massive hole, where sunlight entered to light up the ruins. Two of the marble pillars had collapsed on the floor and the gallery seats as well as the witness’ bench had been smashed. Debris from the concrete was scattered everywhere and big chunks of stone laid on the floor.
As the hole in the door started to expand, Athena climbed through it and managed to enter the courtroom.
“You be careful!” yelled Ema as the yellow girl vanished from their point of view. “I don’t wanna be the one to tell Wright if both of his employees wind up dead.”
Klavier continued to take the blockage apart, desperate to make his way into the room. Desperate to see Apollo. The skin on his hands was getting rough.
“You see anything?” he shouted.
Please, please be okay.
“Nooo…I don’t see him,” Athena shouted. “The courtroom is in shambles though…I-I’m gonna have a look around.”
With the help of a few police officers, the pile in the doorway was starting to shrink and Klavier could see Athena scrambling around the ruins. As only a few sizable rocks laid in their way, he stepped over them into the courtroom, Ema following suit. As they looked around, Apollo was nowhere to be seen. The railing around the stairs had been completely blown off and the wood it was made of laid in pieces on the floor.
“Wow…that bomb packed quite the punch, huh.” said Ema, making her way further down the stairs as firefighters and officers entered behind her.
“Prosecutor Gavin, I don’t see him around here anywhere!” Athena cried out.
Klavier looked around, but he didn’t see anyone either. Not under the rubble, not out in the open. Had Apollo really managed to escape?
It was then when he heard a muffled sound coming from next to him. It resembled a groan of some sort and he immediately turned to face the benches of the gallery, which had been knocked over with one of the pillars having fallen over some of them. When Klavier realized what he saw he almost fainted.
A piece of red fabric was peeking out from underneath one of the fallen benches.
Apollo’s foot laid limp inside it.
Klavier’s blood ran cold.
Immediately he grabbed the edge of the bench and tried to pull it up, to no avail.
“He’s here!” He shouted. “Help me move this damn bench. Hurry!”
Athena sprinted across the room and climbed over the pillar to get to the other end of the bench and together they lifted it, revealing Apollo’s body laying in an uncomfortable position underneath. He laid like a plank on his stomach, with both of his arms underneath his chest and head turned to the side. The fabric of his vest and shirt had been ripped and tarnished with soot. Klavier quickly lifted him in his arms and pulled him out from the narrow space between the benches. He turned him so Apollo’s lower body was sitting on the floor and his torso laid in the lap of his courtroom rival.
Apollo looked like a mess. His hair which he had so precisely gelled down was tousled. Klavier hadn’t noticed it before, but it was also slightly longer, now resembling a short mullet of sorts. His face was covered in dust and he had an abrasion on his cheek. His face was pale and his eyes were closed, but his body was warm and after checking the underside of his jaw with his two fingers, Klavier could sigh in relief knowing that he had a pulse. Ema caught up to the two lawyers and sent one of the police officers to fend for a paramedic.
“Is he…you know.” She asked quietly. Her eyes wondered around his body, taking in the damage that had befallen her frie- acquaintance.
“No, Gott sei Dank, he’s alive.” Klavier couldn’t hold back a smile as he cradled his beloved in his arms.
“It’s a good thing that pillar didn’t decide to fall any closer or he would have been gone.” Athena chimed.
Just then, Klavier felt movement in his lap and watched as Apollo stirred his eyes open. He brought his fist to his mouth as he coughed and winced in pain afterwards.
“Apollo! You’re awake!” Athena exclaimed, smiling.
Apollo lifted his gaze to meet Klavier’s glossy eyes and his face formed a gentle smile once he saw him. He lifted his hand to brush a strand of Klavier’s long blonde hair behind his ear and Klavier couldn’t hold back the tear, which fell on Apollo’s healthy cheek.
“Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?” Ema asked cautiously. “They’re sending a paramedic, so just hang on for a minute, okay?”
Apollo’s face turned into stern confusion as he turned his head to face the detective.
“What? No, I’m fine.” he stated, beginning to lift himself up.
“Yeah, no. You were just caught up in an explosion.” Ema dismissed him, holding his arms out as if to catch Apollo if he fell.
“Take it easy, Schatz. Perhaps let them check you out just in case, ja?” Klavier pleaded from his partner. Apollo stood up and stifled a groan as to not prove anyone’s point.
“You want people to check me out? That’s a first…” he smirked. Klavier chuckled.
“Just this once, I’ll be fine with it. Bitte?”
Two paramedics ran inside the courtroom carrying large bags. They were followed by the brown-haired girl with the sunhat, who had been waiting in the hallway. When she saw Apollo, her lip started quivering and tears formed in her eyes.
“Apollo! Are you okay?” She called, running up to him and grabbing his hands. Apollo turned to her with a gentle look on his face.
“I’m fine! Really,” he turned to look at his friends, “just a couple of bruises here and there, but it’s not a big deal.”
All three of them glared at him.
“Can you even walk?” Athena questioned, to which Apollo took an exaggerated step while not breaking eye-contact and then almost fell over when his foot bent from underneath him. He steadied himself and looked around embarrassed.
“Yeah.”
Ema was not impressed but shrugged in resignation.
“Fine, I can’t force you.” She admitted and hands in her coat’s pockets walked out of the collapsed hall, although she did have to awkwardly climb over the rest of the rubble in the doorway. Apollo turned to face the blonde prosecutor and took his hands in his.
“Are you okay?” He asked in a quiet voice, to which Klavier nodded. “You weren’t hurt or anything?”
“I think something’s wrong with my foot. I twisted it when I tried to evacuate.” Klavier said, moving back to allow Apollo to glance at his injured foot, which was covered by a black leather platform boot. Apollo chuckled as they turned to leave.
“Yeah, with shoes like that, it was only a matter of time. Maybe you can sue the company?”
“Perhaps I should.” Klavier snickered and put his hand on Apollo’s upper back, trying so desperately but ultimately failing to not notice the way Apollo winced as he did so.