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The first three months of their relationship were quiet. Klavier chose where they went together, using what time of day it was as his primary metric. If there was a chance that a single ray of sunlight could touch them, they just didn't go out. If the moon was too bright to provide an easy escape, that didn't work either.
For the most part, Apollo trusted Klavier's judgement. In addition to being a celebrity, he was also an alpha, which had the potential to be a recipe for scandal. What if someone got too close to his beta, and his protective instincts had a flare up? It'd circle the gossip rags for weeks. Klavier hadn't said that was the reason for doing what he did, but it was a foregone conclusion to anyone who'd done any research on alpha behavior...which Apollo definitely had.
Apollo didn't question his motives, although it did limit their date options to movie nights and Monopoly sessions at Klavier's house. Their nights spent together were looking more and more like children's slumber parties all the time.
"And after all that, I'm still filing unpaid invoices," Apollo said as he dealt out wads of play money into the center of the table. In truth, they paid so little attention to what was happening on the Monopoly board that the game might as well have not existed at all.
"Does anybody ever actually pay for you for legal representation?" Klavier said. He barely glanced at his game piece as he rolled his dice and knocked over a hotel. He owed Apollo money, but since they'd lost track of who owned what, who cared?
"Occasionally. I got to pay my rent on time this month."
"You should come to the dark side. You could have the office next to mine."
"Didn't the last guy who worked there go insane?" Apollo skipped his turn without noticing.
"'Insane' is such a strong word. He just wanted a change of pace."
"He jumped out the window."
"Haven't you ever wanted to fly? Shame we're only on the second floor; that thorn bush really put a damper on his grand escape. But now he gets to be in that neat power wheelchair for the next few months, so it all worked out."
"Anybody ever told you that you have a morbid sense of humor?" Apollo said, laughing in spite of himself. "It was only last week. Wait until the man is out of the hospital before you joke like that."
"Hey. I signed his 'get well soon' card, which last I saw was doing gangbusters on eBay. I've done my part. I'm allowed to make fun of him now."
"You're terrible, Klav," Apollo said as he looked down at his cards for the first time in nearly half an hour. He'd bought houses for properties that he didn't own, and he'd hoarded every Community Chest card that'd found its way into his hands, regardless of if it got him out of jail free or not. If their board was a civilization, it'd be in anarchy, with two apathetic Gods hovering over the populous.
Klavier went quiet, looking at Apollo like he was lost in thought.
"What?"
"You've never called me that before," Klavier said.
"…I haven't?"
"No. I haven't heard that nickname since the band broke up. They were the only ones who shortened my name like that."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I won't do that anymore," Apollo said as he shuffled the cards in his hands. Klavier didn't hold grudges. Apollo was beginning to suspect that he lacked the mental capability to, given that he was still willing to date him even after all they'd been through in court.
"It's ok. I'd like you too. I miss it." There was something sad lurking behind Klavier's gentle smile, which didn't help Apollo any.
"Klavier, I-" Apollo was going to apologize more, but was interrupted.
"There's something I need to tell you. Please. It's important."
Klavier reached across the table and took his hand, and Apollo stopped breathing. Was this it? Was this where they were going to say they loved each other? Apollo had thought about it. With everything going on in Klavier's world, from his brother to his bandmate, it hardly seemed right. They'd agreed to take it slow, but if Klavier was ready to say it, who was Apollo to get in his way?
"Of course, you can tell me anything." Apollo was sure the thrumming in his chest was audible. He held it together, even as adrenaline in his blood was threatening to make him shake. Was Klavier going to expect him to bare his throat when he said it back? Dear god, was this going to be the night they…
"I should've told you this before. Apollo, I'm gay."
Apollo stared, waiting for the second half of that confession to drop. When it became clear that that was all Klavier had to say, he felt his head tilt on its own accord.
"Yeah…after three months, I really hope you are."
"No, no, you don't get it," Klavier released Apollo's hand to gesture at himself. "I'm gay."
"…I know. So am I. That's why this works."
"You're bi."
"I mean, yes, but I'm dating you. That's pretty gay, isn't it?" Apollo was attempting not to show his confusion, but it was getting harder.
"Ugh. This isn't coming out right. I'm trying to tell you I'm gay."
"Klavier, what exactly do you think we've been doing for three months? I thought all the kissing and flirting made it clear, but apparently-"
"Just don't bring any girls over. I can't give you both, I'm sorry," Klavier finally said, and Apollo hadn't been ready for the air to eject out of his lungs all at once. He doubled over like he'd been struck.
"Woah, wait! I didn't know we…I thought…huh?"
"If I'm not enough, I get it. It's not the first time. I really like you, Apollo. That's the only reason why I kept you so long. I can't force you to stay mine forever."
"Just wait," Apollo said. The room was spinning and he reclaimed Klavier's hand in his for some stability. "Let me catch up. You think I want someone else?"
"I wouldn't blame you for growing restless. Like you said, it's been three months. I'm just me."
"Just you? Klavier, if anything, you're settling for me. If either of us as a right to cheat, it's you."
"Why would I want anybody else?" Klavier said, narrowing his eyes. The hypocrisy in that statement was thoroughly lost on him. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm a wreck. I can't offer you much."
"You can't offer me…" Apollo said, mumbling in disbelief. "Of course you're enough. You're always enough."
"I'm gay, though."
Apollo resisted the urge to scream. Not at Klavier; his only crime was a severe lack of confidence in himself that Apollo was already well aware of. Who he really wanted to let loose on was whatever idiot (or series of idiots) had engrained this self-loathing behavior into him.
"That's exactly how I like you," Apollo said, after a few deep breaths and a metric crap-ton of self-control. "I like you a lot, too. I'll be exclusive to you as long as you do the same."
"That's not a fair trade on your end."
Don't talk about the person I love like that, Apollo thought, and had to clamp down on his tongue to keep from saying. Perhaps it was best to ignore the "L" word for now. If it'd taken three months of courage for Klavier to admit to his own boyfriend that he was gay, it was safe to assume that all other milestones were lightyears away.
"Well, your side isn't looking too hot either, Klav. I guess we'll just have to deal with each other."
A corner of Klavier's mouth perked up, and Apollo made the decision right then and there not to call him anything else. If all it took to make a little happier was to shave three letters off his name, Apollo didn't see any reason not to.
"You can't tell anybody else," Klavier said, looking down at the forgotten hotels that they'd plunked on random spaces across the board. "I don't want to disappoint anybody."
"Your teenage fans might love you more if they knew. Most of the Gavinners fanfiction writers portray you like an extreme pansexual anyway."
"Exactly. It's not erotic enough just to be…" Klavier trailed off as the implications of that sentence visibly clicked into place.
"What? I got bored at the Agency one day and surfed your tags. Don't you ever check your Kink Meme?"
"No. That place scares me," Klavier said. Apollo had meant it as a joke, but Klavier was so genuinely shaken that it turned his stomach.
"I'm being a prick. You're trying to come out to me and I'm not taking it seriously."
"Do you still want this? I'm nothing like how I'm written. I don't want to imagine how graphic those stories have gotten. The kids who started that website must have matured by now and gotten more ideas…"
"Klav, stop, I'm sorry. I didn't know it bothered you so much," Apollo tightened his grip on Klavier's hand, as if he were trying to physically yank Klavier out of the spiral his thoughts were going down.
"It's complicated. That place just gives people so many expectations… I've slept with people who'd used it like a menu. 'Oh, he's into this, he's into that,' that sort of thing. It stings when I can't even live up to some fifteen-year-old girl's text interpretation of me."
"If it helps, I don't expect anything," Apollo said. "And I won't go back. It's all trash written by virgins who've never held a cock in their entire lives. Anybody who expects to build a real sexual relationship based on stories they've read on the internet is an idiot that's not worth your time."
Klavier eased a bit. Not entirely. He slid his hand back to his side of the table and fiddled with the game pieces until they were lined up in a pattern. Hotel, house, metal figurine. Hotel, house, metal figurine. The pause in conversation had unnerved Apollo when he'd first seen it, months ago, but he'd come to understand that that was just how Klavier's brain worked. He needed that lull to get his words in order, otherwise they'd all spill out nonsensical and in the wrong language.
"No, they weren't worth my time. But I was worth theirs, and that's a difference that had me stuck for a while," Klavier said.
"Do you want to talk about…"
Klavier was already shaking his head before he could finish, and Apollo chose to leave it alone. Apollo wasn't so far removed from his childhood that he'd forgotten what it'd felt like to be poked and prodded and nagged. Everybody had wanted to know how he was holding up, being abandoned in a foreign country, when he wasn't yet able to process the emotions himself.
Apollo refused to become that person that wouldn't take no for an answer. Whatever secrets Klavier guarded, they'd all come out when he was ready to let them go. Not before.
"That's fine, Klav. Thank you for telling me, even if I already knew. De-closeting is a bitch no matter what."
"Never heard it called that before."
"Yeah, well, stick with me. I'll teach you shit," Apollo said, and Klavier was smiling again. It'd only been gone for a few minutes, but Apollo had missed it. How pathetic.
"So, it doesn't bother you at all?" Klavier said.
"Nope. Girls are gross. I'd rather have you."
"I thought you were bi."
"I am, but you're who I want to be with right now," Apollo said. "So there. Gayness accepted."
Klavier looked happy, like he couldn't believe his string of luck had led him to a boyfriend that didn't mind the gay stuff. What should've been common-fucking-sense had somehow gotten twisted into the most delightful surprise the world had to offer, and Apollo wondered. He didn't ask, but he wondered.
"There's something else, but I don't think you're going to like it as well," Klavier said.
"Try me. I've been told I'm pretty open-minded for a beta. You alphas aren't all that scary."
Klavier's face fell into a straight line, like that little tease had drained away some of his spirit, and Apollo came to the conclusion that he really needed to stop trying to flirt. He seemed to wreak havoc on Klavier's mental state whenever he dared to act cute.
"…I don't like Monopoly all that much," Klavier said, and Apollo could tell for a fact that that wasn't what he'd been wanting to say, but again, he let it be.
"I've gathered. Which begs the question, why is it the only game you own?"
"Because I can tolerate it more than Uno, and those were the only two choices they had at Val-U-Mart when we started dating."
"…Ok, forget the gay thing, I think the real revelation here is that you shop at Val-U-Mart," Apollo said, instantly forgetting about whatever Klavier had intended to tell him first. "Baby, I don't shop there, and I eat ramen noodles three nights a week."
"Perhaps that's why you eat ramen three times a week. Money goes farther when you're not so damn picky."
"You're a rock star."
"So I'm told," Klavier said, and Apollo didn't miss the way he flicked his wrist, like he was shooing that title away. "But I also live in a house that has three bedrooms instead of forty, with an internet connection that isn't strong enough to escape the office, and a TV that doesn't have an HDMI port. With all of that evidence in mind, does Val-U-Mart really seem like that much of a stretch?"
"Yes," Apollo didn't hesitate. "Klav, Baby, Honey, there's more to life than three brands of cereal and two types of bread. There's a better way! Here, let's get this crap cleaned up, and I'll take you grocery shopping."
Klavier peered over Apollo's shoulder and out the window. Apollo turned around and confirmed; the sky at 12:43 AM on a Friday night had reached its optimum darkness. Perfect for a trek to any upscale Californian grocery store. They'd all still be open at this hour, for reasons that Apollo couldn't fathom but was grateful for nonetheless.
"You're sounding more and more like my boss every day. Do you know that?" Klavier said. He wasn't objecting though as he helped scrape the remnants of a Monopoly night gone wrong into their cardboard box.
"Do you mean your manager or Mr. Edgeworth?"
"Ja. Nobody approves of Val-U-Mart. I don't get you people."
"It's only because we want what's best for you," Apollo said. "And what's best for you are brand-name Lunchables and snacks without the expiration dates filed off."
Klavier's resulting laughter was full-bodied and honest, which set Apollo's mind at ease. Zany late-night excursions had always been something he enjoyed, provided the moon wasn't too bright and they weren't going anywhere with a surplus of people in attendance. One of their best dates ever had been when they'd driven across the state border into Arizona, watched the sunrise, and then immediately driven home. There hadn't been a purpose, but damn, it'd been a good time.
"You're ridiculous," Klavier said, and he sort of snickered around it, like they up to something mischievous when all they were doing was going grocery shopping at 1 AM. "Ridiculous, Apollo."
I love you so much, you precious little dork, Apollo thought, and again, he bit his tongue.