Work Text:
Apollo sighed, rubbing his hand over his bracelet. Trucy glanced over at him with a concerned expression, one Phoenix was quick to mirror.
Like father, like daughter, I suppose.
“Are you okay?” Trucy asked, watching Apollo's wrist.
“Fine.”
“You don’t look fine, Apollo,” Phoenix said, leaning over the back of the couch to look at Apollo. “You seem worried about something. It doesn’t have to do with the trial yesterday, does it?”
Apollo sighed. The truth was he was worried about Prosecutor Gavin. He looked like he was in physical pain the second Kristoph was brought out to testify. Apollo still struggled from time to time with the fact he’d gotten his mentor arrested, with forged evidence no less; he couldn’t imagine what Klavier was going through.
“You’re worried about Klav,” Trucy said, staring at Apollo.
“Excuse me?”
“Klavier’s brother is in prison and was proven to have plotted multiple murders and forged evidence that got Daddy disbarred,” Trucy explained. “He’s gotta be reeling from that.”
Apollo paused, then got up with a sigh.
“I wouldn’t be upset if you went to the prosecutor’s office to check on him and I actually think you should,” Phoenix said. “Trucy and I can handle ourselves.”
“Alright,” Apollo said quietly. “You’re sure you’ll be okay?”
“Apollo, you’ve only been here for four months, what do you think we did before then?”
“Fair point, I don’t know what I’ll find when I get there so I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“You don’t think he —”
“I think he’s probably physically fine. What I’m worried about is how he’s doing emotionally.”
“Tell him we said hi!” Trucy said as Apollo left.
Apollo ran into Ema right outside the prosecutor’s building.
“Hey, Apollo,” she greeted. “What are you doing here?”
“The trial took some … turns, yesterday,” Apollo said quietly. “Not sure if you saw it. Anyway, stuff came out about Kristoph Gavin having had forged evidence and gotten it to Phoenix Wright, then told Klavier about it. That’s what got Phoenix disbarred. Then there’s the evidence that he was behind the atroquinine poisonings —”
“Kristoph Gavin what?” Ema said, nearly dropping the bag of Snackoos she was holding.
“Was behind the poisonings,” Apollo repeated. “The whole thing has me worried about Prosecutor Gavin.”
“He should be here today,” Ema said, looking back at the building she and Apollo were in front of.
“Alright, I’ve been to his office before so I think I should be able to get there fine.”
“Good, because I refuse to come with you. Good luck.”
Apollo thanked her and walked into the building. It didn’t take him long to get to Klavier’s office, and once he got there his concern only grew. He knocked on Klavier’s office door; it creaked open and Apollo heard … hyperventilation?
He scanned the room desperately and quickly ran over to Klavier when his eyes fell on him sitting in a corner of the office.
“Prosecutor Gavin!”
Apollo reached a hand toward Klavier, immediately flinching back when Klavier flinched.
“Prosecutor Gavin, it’s Apollo Justice,” Apollo said quietly. “I … was worried after yesterday’s trial.”
Klavier visibly tried to calm himself down enough to be coherent, then put on his usual smug, sorta-flirty expression.
“And just what are you doing in my office, Herr Forehead?” Klavier said smugly.
He was just having some kind of breakdown, how is he able to flip from that to his usual behavior so easily?
“I told you. I got worried after yesterday’s trial and came to check on you. I have a hard time believing you’re not affected by what we found out about Kristoph yesterday.”
Apollo sat down next to Klavier, keeping his distance for now.
“Not too often you get defense attorneys stressing over the prosecutor’s mental health,” Klavier commented, visibly relaxing a little.
“When that prosecutor had to deal with his brother admitting to forgery, two murders, and an attempted murder, it’d be weird for a defense attorney to not get worried about the prosecutor. Are you doing okay?”
“You came in here to find me in the midst of a mental breakdown, Justice, I don’t know why you’re asking me that,” Klavier said, his smugness melting away a bit.
“Good point,” Apollo said, messing with his bracelet again. “I’m here to talk if you need it.”
“Well, for starters, I’d like to apologize to Herr Wright,” Klavier said quietly. Any hint of smugness that had remained in his tone or body language disappeared. “I can’t help but blame myself for his disbarment.”
“We both know that’s not your fault, it was Kristoph’s,” Apollo said quietly. “He’s the one that forged the evidence and Mr. Wright didn’t even know about it.”
“Unfortunately the law is more complicated. I remember him not knowing the evidence was forged but what mattered wasn’t whether he knew it was forged or not, all anyone seemed to care about was that ace attorney Phoenix Wright had presented forged evidence to the court, thus, committed a serious crime. Even as a rookie prosecutor, my goal was to find the truth, I didn’t care about a conviction. I didn’t even have the full truth though. All I knew was that my brother had told me Herr Wright was going to present forged evidence.”
“On the bright side, despite being disbarred, he seems to have done pretty well for himself for the past seven years,” Apollo said a little nervously.
“That’s not the point, he lost his job because I didn’t follow my gut and look further into how or why Kristoph knew the evidence Herr Wright would present was forged,” Klavier said, not looking at Apollo.
“Somehow I feel like you’re more upset about the evidence forgery than the fact your brother killed two people and poisoned another,” Apollo said.
Klavier sighed.
“I already knew he’d killed someone, I found out he was in prison pretty soon after your first trial,” Klavier said. “Finding out he killed two people and poisoned another by giving her nail polish as a ‘good luck charm’ to cover up what he’d done is something that’s going to mess me up for years. What if I had done further investigation into how he knew the evidence was forged and found out he forged it? What would’ve happened to me? I was 17 at the time, and the idea that he would’ve killed me without a second thought just to cover his tracks scares me.”
Klavier and Apollo sat in silence for a few minutes, time Apollo took to fully register everything Klavier had said.
“Well, you’re still here and Kristoph can’t hurt anyone anymore,” Apollo said. “I’d assume his mail is getting checked regularly now that there’s evidence he was behind the poisoning of two people.”
“Don’t underestimate prisoners, Herr Forehead,” Klavier said with his usual smugness, though said smugness didn’t seem entirely genuine. “If someone, especially Kristoph, wants to do something, they’ll find a way to do it.”
“… my forehead is not that prominent,” Apollo commented.
“Your hair certainly makes it more pronounced,” Klavier teased, messing with Apollo’s hair. Apollo rolled his eyes, although he couldn’t help smiling a bit. There was the Klavier Gavin he knew.
“By the way, Trucy and Mr. Wright said hi,” Apollo said after wrestling Klavier’s hand out of his hair.
“Oh? Are you living with them?”
“I mean, if I didn’t I’d be stuck with my own company, and I kind of like their company. Being alone just kinda sucks.”
“That is something I can agree with.”
“So what are you gonna do now?” Apollo asked. “The Gavinners broke up, right?”
“Yeah,” Klavier said quietly. “I guess I’ll just keep being a prosecutor. The Gavinners was just a hobby thing anyway.”
The pair drifted into silence again. Apollo glanced at Klavier, and decided to test the waters, resting his head on the prosecutor’s shoulder. Klavier almost immediately looked down at him, smiling.
“Comfortable?”
“Yeah.”
After a few more minutes Klavier spoke up again.
“I wanted to believe he hadn’t manipulated me.”
“Kristoph?”
“I wanted to believe in my brother, I’m sure that was obvious yesterday.”
“It was, I got really worried a few times actually.”
“Why?” Klavier asked with a smirk. “It’s not like I can’t handle myself.”
“That’s not what it looked like from the defense bench,” Apollo said sternly. “I mean, you do remember he manipulated you to the point of not being able to function normally for several minutes right?”
“I forgot how perceptive you are,” Klavier mumbled.
“It’s a little hard to not notice when the prosecutor looks on the verge of breaking down,” Apollo responded. “I promise I’m not trying to upset you or interrogate you or anything, I’m just worried.”
“I don’t really want to discuss this more than we already have, Apollo,” Klavier said quietly. Apollo felt blood rush to his face.
He called me by my first name for once.
“Then we won’t,” Apollo said, doing his best to at least pretend he hadn’t been affected by Klavier calling him by his first name. He closed his eyes, head still resting on Klavier’s shoulder.
“I’ve had a question since we first met,” Klavier said, resting his head against the wall.
“Do not tease me about ‘inspecting’ you, you’re a mirror image of Kristoph, and he was my boss. Can you blame me?”
“Under most circumstances, I would agree,” Klavier said with a chuckle. “You seemed a bit flustered, however.”
“Ah.”
Apollo hesitated, causing an awkward silence to fall between him and Klavier.
“Yeah, I guess you could probably tease me about ‘inspecting’ you and you wouldn’t be wrong,” Apollo said a little nervously. “I think part of me knew you were a different person though, and that’s the part that got flustered.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, you were a lot more relaxed than I’ve ever seen Kristoph, for starters. I also don’t think he’d wear what you’re wearing.”
Klavier laughed.
“I keep underestimating how observant you are,” he said.
Apollo looked outside.
“It’s getting pretty late,” he said; the sky’s colors indicated a sunset, and it was gorgeous from this high above the city.
“Leaving already?” Klavier asked.
“Not if you don’t want me to,” Apollo replied. “I’m 22 and Mr. Wright is the one who told me to come anyway, I think it’ll be fine if I’m not back at the agency until later.”
“Herr Wright told you to come?”
“Technically, I was already planning to come. He told me he wouldn’t be upset if I did visit you then told me he thought I should.”
“So I take it he was worried about me too.” Klavier’s voice was barely audible.
“Your brother did tell me, on the witness stand, ‘You’ve upset my poor brother to the point of uselessness,’” Apollo said. “Anyone who heard that would’ve had their attention drawn to you, unfortunately.”
Klavier sighed but otherwise went silent. Apollo glanced out the window again.
“You have a really nice view of the sunset from here,” he said adjusting his position to watch outside.
“I do, don’t I?”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how often do you stay here overnight?”
Klavier looked at Apollo, studying him.
“I try not to stay here overnight if I can help it. Sometimes I feel better doing it though, usually if I’m stressed,” Klavier explained. “I stayed here when my brother was convicted, I stayed here after Daryan was convicted, and now my brother has been proven to have murdered two people and poisoned another and I’m planning on staying here overnight again.”
“Doesn’t it get lonely?”
“Not usually, but now I usually feel alone no matter what. I don’t have my brother around anymore and I wouldn’t want to talk to him after yesterday anyway, and my band’s broken up.”
Apollo looked at Klavier. His face was brightly lit by the sunset, which was now at its peak, and he looked depressed.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” Apollo said, sighing.
“What for?”
“I’m the reason your brother’s in prison, I’m the reason Daryan’s in prison, I’m the reason you got so stressed at the trial yesterday —”
“No, don’t be sorry for any of that,” Klavier said quickly. “I prefer my brother and Daryan be in prison if they’re murderers. It wasn’t your fault I was stressed at the trial yesterday either, that’s entirely on Kristoph for having manipulated me in the first place. I’m actually happy about how the trial went, it gave me closure to something I’ve been wondering for seven years.”
“Closure?”
“For how Kristoph knew about forged evidence. Thank you.”
“Phoenix Wright gathered most of the evidence and has been for seven years, I think you should thank him to be honest. All I did was present everything he’d gathered.”
“That’s quite the revenge plan.”
Apollo nodded, yawning.
“Where do you sleep when you’re here overnight?” he asked, looking around Klavier’s office.
“The massage chair, usually,” Klavier replied, standing up and stretching.
“It does seem comfortable to sleep in, I guess,” Apollo said.
“You can sleep on me if you want,” Klavier said, his slighty flirty smugness returning at full force.
“E-excuse me?”
“I don’t really have anywhere for you to sleep unless you want to sleep on the floor, but that seems uncomfortable.”
“Alright….”
Apollo let Klavier get comfortable in the massage chair, then got in the chair himself and laid down on top of Klavier.
“Your face is bright red,” Klavier teased, laughing. Apollo rolled his eyes, burying his face in Klavier’s chest and closing his eyes, only to immediately open them again when Klavier wrapped his arms around him.
“What —”
“I needed a hug and it’s easy to pass that off as making sure you don’t fall off the chair or something.”
“… but the chair has armrests, it’d be kinda hard for me to fall off of it.”
Apollo returned the hug anyway, closing his eyes again.
“I think I like seeing you this relaxed, Herr Forehead,” Klavier said, flustering Apollo more.
Apollo did his best to ignore him, and was quick to fall asleep.
“Justice.”
Apollo heard someone. He wasn’t awake enough to identify who, but they didn’t sound like Trucy or Phoenix.
“Justice — Apollo.”
Apollo opened his eyes, trying to wake himself up.
“Good morning, Herr Forehead.”
That shocked Apollo awake.
“Whoa, hey, relax,” Klavier said quickly, putting his hands out in front him like he was confronting a frightened cat.
“Sorry, I forgot I was here,” Apollo said, relaxing against Klavier’s chest again. “I can’t believe I spent all night in your dumb office.”
“Asleep, at that,” Klavier said with that stupid smug smile.
“There’s a non-zero chance the Wrights are worried about me,” Apollo said, burying his face in Klavier’s neck.
“You seem pretty content to cuddle despite that,” Klavier commented with a laugh.
“Yeah, well —”
“I do have things to do though, I’m not a lawyer-by-hire like you are,” Klavier said, although he didn’t move to get up.
Apollo huffed but got up anyway, stretching. Klavier followed.
“There will be other opportunities,” Klavier said.
“What?”
Klavier ignored Apollo’s confusion.
“I have work to do and I can’t have you distracting me,” Klavier said as he ushered Apollo out the door.
“Hold on, Prosecutor Gavin, don’t you think we should have a discussion —”
“Please, call me Klavier. If you’re so worried about concerning the Wrights, I should think it’d benefit you to go home, right?”
I’m not winning this.
“Alright, but I’ll drop by later to check on you,” Apollo said with a confused look.
“Fine by me.”
Apollo sighed and left, heading straight for the Wright Anything Agency building and was greeted by Trucy.
“Polly, why were you out all night?!”
“Good morning, Trucy,” Apollo said a little irritably.
“You look like you just woke up,” Phoenix said with a laugh.
“I pretty much did just wake up,” Apollo mumbled, running a hand through his hair. “Fell asleep on Gavin and woke up, then he kicked me out of his office, for some reason.”
Trucy and Phoenix started snickering, and at that point Apollo realized what he’d just said and felt his face heat up.
“Went to see if he was okay, ended up falling asleep on top of him,” Phoenix said.
“Look —”
“You’re not quiet or subtle about how you feel about him honestly,” Trucy chimed in, giggling.
“I do not want to talk about this,” Apollo said, annoyed.
“Okay,” Phoenix said, still laughing a little.
“Any new cases or anything I can take?”
As the Wright Anything Agency eased into its morning routine, Apollo found his mind wandering to every stupid interaction he’d had with Klavier.
He concluded that yeah, maybe he’d been a bit oblivious to his responses to every interaction they’d ever had.
Not that he’d ever admit that, of course.