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“I can’t BELIEVE I made such a stupid mistake!” Athena groaned, crashing into the office of the Wright Anything Agency with her coworker in tow.
“It was just one blunder, Athena! We’ve still got a strong case for tomorrow!” insisted Apollo, closing the door behind them.
Athena sighed, dropping onto the sofa with her head in her hands. “How could I get it so wrong? I was so sure…”
Then she leapt back to her feet with a loud gasp, making Apollo jump. “Widget! It was Widget! Do you think he’s broken? What can I even do if he’s broken? My mother was the one who made him…” Athena clutched her little robot necklace, tears forming in her eyes. He turned a deep shade of purple. “I don’t know…”
“T-take a deep breath, Athena! We all make mistakes, y‘know?” said Apollo, not quite managing a calming tone. “And it might not have been Widget’s fault, right?”
Athena deflated even more. “So you think it was me? It was my fault?”
“Would it matter if it was? We’re lawyers! We make wrong assumptions all the time! And you still managed to get an extra day! We’ve just got to pick ourselves up, and…”
Athena started to tune him out, flicking her earring as she thought.
(Wrong assumptions? Apollo’s right. It’s our job to assume things. It makes sense to be wrong sometimes…)
She closed her eyes.
(So why… Why am I so annoyed about THIS time?)
“Athena?”
“Y-yeah! Pick ourselves up!” Athena punched her hand with her opposite fist, grinning. “Tomorrow can be a reset! Allons-y!”
“Yeah!” shouted Apollo, “We’ll be fine!”
“So, the wrong assumption was the secret romance between that witness – Mr Change – and the victim…” muttered Apollo.
The two of them were now sat on opposite sofas with the coffee table between them, and were puzzling through details of the case. Apollo had decided to scribble down some kind of relationship chart to help. It wasn’t helping.
Athena glanced at the court record to remind herself how simple this was supposed to be:
[Victim: Paige Holder]
[Defendant: Stan Dean]
[Defendant accused of stabbing the victim to death at 8:50pm, just before library closing hours. One eyewitness.]
One eyewitness – Will Change.
In other words, one person to point the finger at, if not her client.
She groaned.
“Our whole accusation hinged on that romance thing – that Mr Change saw the victim with Mr Dean, and was sent into a rage from the betrayal. But Simon managed to prove there was nothing romantic there.” She reached over with her own pen and scribbled out the line drawn between the two names. “Change didn’t even bring her flowers, either! They were complete strangers…”
“It was obvious that Dean was crazy about her, but the romance thing always seemed a little strange from Change, I guess,” sighed Apollo. “I know that other librarian said it, but…”
Athena frowned. “What? Are you saying you were never convinced either?”
“Well… It’s your case, Athena. And you said you were sure, so–”
“Couldn’t you have mentioned something, at least?”
“You could hear it in his voice!” Apollo retorted, “That’s what you told me!”
“But you didn’t believe it?” She jumped to her feet, fists still clenched on the table. “You just let me make a fool of myself up there?” She tried not to let tears into her eyes, but she knew without looking that Widget was performing a light show right now.
Apollo stared up at her for a second, then put down his pen. “Athena… Are you okay?”
“Of course not!” she snapped. “I’m annoyed that I made a stupid mistake! I’m annoyed that my mistake made me look like an idiot, and cost us a day, and–”
Apollo pointed at her chest. “I’ve never seen Widget like–”
“Widget is broken! He isn’t working properly!” Athena covered the stupid robot with her hand. “I’m not working properly! My whole thing is reading emotions, and yet, when it matters–”
“Hold it!” interrupted Apollo, “You’re not blaming Widget anymore! You’re blaming yourself!”
“But that’s– But–” Athena deflated a little. There wasn’t any hint of anger or annoyance in Apollo’s voice – only concern. She removed her hand from Widget, who had turned purple again, and held her other arm, staring at the floor. “I just don’t understand…”
“You’re a good lawyer, Athena. You don’t need a robot for that. And you don’t need a robot to make a mistake, either.” He held up his wrist with his bracelet. “Besides, I can’t tell you how many embarrassing mistakes have come out of this thing.”
Athena took a deep breath, and sighed. “I guess… It just feels bad to make the same mistake again.”
Apollo’s brow furrowed slightly. “…Again?”
In that moment, something clicked. She’d said it without realising, but now that she thought about it…
Could it be…?
Athena slammed both palms down onto the desk without warning, and yelled at the top of her lungs. “GOT IT!”
Apollo jumped again, scratching a line across his paper. “Huh? Got it? Got what?”
“Romance! The Mood Matrix doesn’t do romance! Every time romance is involved, that’s when it goes wrong!”
Apollo gave her a blank stare. “Romance? What are you talking about?”
Athena frowned in focus, placing her hands on her hips and pacing a few steps back and forth. “Think about it: I believed the love triangle thing in my first case at Themis Academy, but I should’ve been able to tell immediately that there was no romance between them, right? And before that, I got that victim’s boyfriend wrong in the orca case with Mr Wright. And with–” She had the good sense to bite her tongue there. She didn’t have proof either way of her reading of Junie’s crush, and Apollo certainly didn’t need to know. “Well, anyway, if you think of our cases since…”
“…There’s a pattern emerging,” Apollo agreed. “And in this case, it was romance again – you thought there was a romantic relationship that didn’t exist.”
Athena nodded. “Those emotions in the Mood Matrix must’ve been something else after all. So now…” She turned Widget to face her, and frowned. The robot frowned back. “The question is… why? Why doesn’t Widget understand? It feels like a weird oversight. Did my mother not think to include it?”
Apollo’s eyes widened a little. “Did she have to program every single emotion into that thing? I’m not surprised she missed one or two!”
“Well… No, actually.” Athena drew a circle with her gloved hand to bring up a blue hologram, and flicked through it. “It reflects my emotions. I can hear emotions, then Widget picks up on what I hear, and amplifies it. That’s what shows up on the Mood Matrix.”
“So it’s coming from you, really.” Apollo pressed a finger to his forehead. “If I was sad because my cat was sick, you’d hear that, and you’d feel sad too. Then Widget would reflect your sadness in the Mood Matrix?”
Athena grinned. “Molto bene! You got it!”
“So you’re like an emotional conductor, in a way. Or an echo. But that means your mother can’t have overlooked any specific emotion. You’d still hear it, so it’d still show up, right?”
“…Yeah, you’re right.” Athena closed the hologram, sank down back to the sofa, and sighed. “Back to square one…”
“Or…”
Apollo suddenly tensed up as he cut himself off.
There were a lot of emotions packed into that little “or”. Athena gave him a curious look, waiting for him to keep talking.
There was a long pause instead.
“Or?” said Athena impatiently, “Spit it out, Apollo!”
“It’s just… I’m not sure if I should–” He looked down at the paper again. “Hey, aren’t we meant to be working on–”
Athena slammed a hand down on the table. “Don’t change the subject!”
Apollo took a deep breath. “It just felt weird to ask, but I was wondering… Have you ever felt any romantic feelings?” He quickly held up his hands. “B-but you don’t have to answer! And of course you don’t have to mention who, or–”
“Of course I have! How old do you think I am?” Athena cut in. Apollo did rib her about her age occasionally, but this was oddly mean-spirited for him. It stung. “I’ve been too busy for relationships, but do you really think I’ve never had a crush before? Ever?”
Apollo winced, slipping his hand under the table. Not fast enough.
(Oh, right… The bracelet.)
Athena briefly wondered what had given it away, then abandoned that train of thought. Even if she covered up Widget, she struggled with a poker face, and it didn’t matter around Apollo anyway. He could pick up on tiny nervous twitches right across a courtroom. She didn’t stand a chance.
She sighed. “I forgot. This is an agency full of walking lie detectors.”
It was true. She, Apollo, Mr Wright, and Trucy certainly made an interesting team. Lying directly to any of them was near impossible. Athena had once thought it was something that would bring them all closer. It’d make it really easy to trust each other, right?
But she’d come to realise that it didn’t work like that. It didn’t make their relationships any stronger or weaker. Just different.
Apollo slowly brought his hand back up above the table, rubbing the bracelet. “It’s one of the reasons I was afraid to ask…” he muttered.
“Why…” Athena felt that a lot of fight had left her voice. “Why… did you think that? That I hadn’t felt it before?”
“Just because of what you said, really. Widget echoes your emotions, because you feel them too. So if you heard something you’d never actually felt yourself…”
Athena cocked her head. She’d never considered it. An emotion she hadn’t felt? “…I’d still hear it, but it wouldn’t translate properly, I guess,” she said, slowly. “Widget would only reflect whatever I could interpret myself.”
“So… that lines up, doesn’t it? You can’t actually hear a difference, so you fill in the gaps based on any other information you know?”
Athena frowned thoughtfully. “I never thought I did that… But it would explain this case too, wouldn’t it?” She tapped the relationship chart with her pen. “I knew I sensed something the witness felt about the victim. I was sure that feeling of anger – betrayal – was romantic, but maybe that’s only because the idea was already planted in my head…”
There was another pause.
“Sorry,” said Apollo. He really meant it, too. He seemed troubled in a way Athena struggled to place.
“What for? We’re just figuring things out.” She smiled a little. “It’s not your fault you’re a lie detector.”
“Hah. I suppose not.” Apollo rubbed his bracelet again. “It’s just that… I didn’t mean to drag all that out of you. I guess it didn’t seem like you were ready to say it.”
“Oh… That I’ve never had a crush before?” Athena felt a slight lurch in her stomach. Oh. Maybe she hadn’t been ready to say it. “I guess I’m a little embarrassed about that. It makes me feel like a little kid.” She clenched her fists. “But like I said, I’ve just been really busy! Just you watch – one day, I’ll suddenly go boy-crazy! OR girl-crazy! Or anyone-crazy!”
“I think plain crazy already suits you fine,” Apollo quipped.
“Hey!”
“But really, you shouldn’t be embarrassed or anything.” Apollo shrugged. “It doesn’t make you a little kid. I wasn’t trying to say that. I mean, some people just never feel that stuff.”
“Wait… What do you mean… never?” Athena felt tears creeping into her eyes again as the weight of that word hit her. She quickly switched to anger instead, clenching her fists. “Hey! Are you saying that I’ll never date anyone? What’s up with that? You might not see it, but I’m a beautiful young lady!”
“I-I wasn’t saying that at all! Honest!” spluttered Apollo, voice increasing in both panic and volume with every word, “I didn’t even mean you! Just that some people are aromantic and stuff, so it’s–”
“Apollo…” Athena winced. She cupped a hand over her ear, feeling a little dizzy. High emotions and high volume were a bad mix – not that either were her friend’s fault right now. She frowned. “What… What was that last part? ‘Aromantic’?”
Apollo blinked in surprise. “Oh! You haven’t heard that before? It just means you don’t have romantic feelings.”
“Hm… That does sound familiar, actually.” She hesitated for a moment. “Like… you, right? What you said about yourself before?”
“Ah… Not quite. That’s asexual. Aromantic is a bit like that, but for romantic stuff.”
“Huh?” Athena jumped back to her feet, mind racing. “How have I never heard of that one before?!”
Apollo laughed, scratching the back of his head. “I guess I only know about it because of friends, come to think of it.” He paused for a second. “…One friend, really.”
There was a massive wave of sadness in that last statement, and Athena felt tears creeping into her eyes again.
(Oh, Apollo...)
“But it’s not just that you just do or don’t feel it – my friend said it’s all a big spectrum, just like being asexual. I guess I never thought about the spectrum part much, but...” He flipped over the paper with their scribbled relationship chart, and started sketching four hearts with different faces. “Here – it’s just like those thingies on the Mood Matrix!”
He held up the paper, and pointed to each with the pen. “Like, maybe someone only feels romantic feelings very rarely. Or under very specific circumstances. Or it’s something that isn’t quite romantic, but isn’t quite not romantic either? Or–” he pointed to the final heart “– maybe they just don’t feel those feelings at all! Ever!” He drew a circle connecting them all, and wrote the word “Aromantic” at the top.
The two of them stared at it for a few seconds.
“I’m not an artist,” Apollo confessed.
Despite that, it was all making an alarming amount of sense.
“So you think that’s what it is?” Athena gestured to the paper with her own pen. “I’m one of these hearts?”
“Well, I’m sure there are more than just four, but–” Apollo shook his head. “No! I’m not telling you you’re any of these things! Just that it’s normal!” He banged his fists on the table, making it Athena’s turn to jump. “Whatever happens! Whatever anyone says! And whatever you do or don't feel! You’re normal! And you shouldn’t worry, Athena! You shouldn’t be embarrassed!”
Athena felt overwhelmed by the feelings in her friend’s voice. It wasn’t just the volume – she’d never heard anything like it. So much desperation, concern, grief… and something closer. Something deep, and personal.
(Of course… He’s been here before, hasn’t he?)
Apollo had always been casual when coming out to Athena, whatever it had been about. He’d drop something into a conversation, then shrug, and mutter in a nonchalant tone that he thought he’d already mentioned it.
Then Athena would nod, try to say something reassuring, and ignore the mass of complex feelings bubbling beneath her friend’s words. She’d act like she believed it was all no big deal to him, and that she couldn’t hear how nervous he was when he shared those things out loud, or feel a fleeting sense of the turmoil he went through to even admit them to himself.
And Athena knew, of course, that as casual as Apollo pretended to be, he would never have uttered a single word of it to her a year ago. That case at the space centre had changed them both. She’d become someone Apollo could genuinely trust, and she could hear deep in his heart how important that was to him. She treasured the bond that had grown between them. She held it tight.
Today, Apollo had untangled discord deep in Athena’s heart before she’d grasped it herself. Because he understood it, of course, and he didn’t need a Mood Matrix for that. He’d felt every bit of her frustration, upset, and confusion before, over and over, and his empathy was a tidal wave.
“Thanks for your help, Apollo,” said Athena gently, sitting back down. “I… I know it isn’t easy.”
Apollo sighed, slumping his shoulders and sinking further into his own chair. His expression was the same as Athena’s after being read with the bracelet. He knew as well as she did that neither of them could hide things from each other.
…Not better, not worse. Just different. It always would be.
“Sorry, I just– I guess I worried it’d be weird,” said Apollo, finally, not meeting her eyes. “It’s a weird thing to bring up with a coworker...”
“But… We’re friends, too.”
Apollo’s expression softened, and he lifted his head to give her a bright smile. “Yeah, you’re right. We’re friends, too.”
The huge surge of joy in those simple words filled Athena’s heart with warmth.
To distract herself from bursting into tears again, she pulled up her hologram. “Oookay! Aromantic, right? Is that just written as ‘romantic’ with an ‘A’ in front?”
“A-Athena! That’s great, but, uh…” Apollo held up the relationship chart. “We’re working on a case right now, remember? Your case!”
“Ack! Sorry!” Athena closed the hologram. “Something to look into later!”
(Identity crisis later! Time to kick my brain back into gear!)
Athena grabbed the relationship chart and frowned at it, using her other hand to open up another hologram. She flicked through some pictures.
“Actually… What Prosecutor Blackquill said… I’m still not buying it.”
Apollo raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? Are you sticking with the romance theory, after all that?”
A determined look crossed Athena’s face. “No. That was wrong. But I didn’t get it from nowhere.” She closed the hologram, and pointed to her chest, where Widget was frowning with a thoughtful expression. “There were still strong emotions associated with the victim. I must’ve filled in the gaps myself because someone suggested romance, like you said, but there was something there. Mr Change definitely knew who she was.” She flicked her earring. “I was thrown by making that wrong assumption – the assumption that he was in love with Ms Holder. I was so sure that it threw me off everything else when it wasn’t true. It made me forget something else important: He brought her flowers.”
Apollo pressed a finger to his forehead. “But the flowers thing also wasn’t true. He denied anything to do with flowers, and it turned that he was never involved with the victim – romantically or otherwise. He didn’t even know her.”
“But that doesn’t make sense, does it? Earlier, you reminded me who planted the romance idea in the first place: That other librarian. She saw Change hand flowers to the victim last week, and made assumptions about it. We know those assumptions were wrong, but that doesn’t mean she was lying.”
“Well… She was convinced it was proof of a secret romance, but I suppose there are actually loads of reasons to give a bouquet of flowers to someone, aren’t there? You could even give them to someone because their cat was sick, or something. Those flowers could’ve been for anything, in that case.”
(Wait, that’s the second time he’s used that example. Do I need to worry about his cat..?)
Athena flicked her earring, trying to stay on track. “That’s exactly it, though. Those flowers really could’ve been for anything, and there was proof against the secret romance angle already. So why not just say they were for something else? Anything else? Why deny you ever brought flowers at all, when someone’s so adamant they saw you do it?” She put her hands on her hips, and grinned. “But there is something that could be strange about giving a person flowers, right?”
“…Giving them to a total stranger!” Apollo realised.
“Bingo!” Athena punched her hand with her fist, a glint in her eye. “Our witness did know the victim somehow – and he used my mistake to cover it up!”
“Hey! You’re right! Because you drew such a strong connection between those flowers and the romance, he managed to discredit both at the same time!” Apollo grinned. “Good thinking, Athena!” He took the chart back, and triumphantly re-drew the line between Mr Change and Ms Holder.
“The emotions he felt in the Mood Matrix can’t be used as evidence, but if we find proof of those flowers tomorrow…” Athena leapt back to her feet, a glint in her eye. “Then we can figure out why he had to lie! What their relationship really was!” She put her hands on her hips and grinned. “And I bet it’s super incriminating, and Stan Dean’s name will be cleared, just like that!”
Apollo laughed. “I mean, let’s not get ahead of ourselves...” He clenched his fists with determination. “But yeah! We’ve got a plan of action now!”
Apollo glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was running slow, as always, but Mr Wright refused to fix it. After doing the maths in his head, he said “Yep. It might be a good time to call it a day and head home. Have we got enough to work with?”
Athena whistled. “Yeah. I’m spent for today, I think. And I’ve got some kind of identity crisis thing to look into later.”
“Sorry about that,” Apollo winced. “That’s the second one now, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah! I should probably get round to both.” Athena put her hands on her hips again with a smile. “But hey, no worries! It actually explains a lot! And I never would’ve got there without you!”
Apollo laughed a little. “Glad to be useful for something, I guess.” He gave her a thoughtful look. “Actually… You really should look up the aroace flag. For aromantic and asexual. I think you’ll like that one.”
Athena frowned. “What? Why?”
“Just a hunch,” said Apollo, with a small grin.
(Um… Sure, Apollo... Sure.)
“Anyway… Maybe the Mood Matrix won’t work on romance, but now I know it’s a blind spot!” She threw out her hand in a peace sign. “And I can work with that!”
“And that ‘blind spot’ didn’t matter. You made a mistake, but you still figured out something important to the case,” Apollo reminded her, picking up his bag. “It’s easy to forget that reading people’s emotions is a superpower, you know. Most people have to guess anyway.” He paused for thought. “I suppose that applies to my bracelet, too.”
“Speaking of… We’ve got some time while we walk to the station, right?”
“If you don’t sprint, then yeah.”
“Great! Because you know what’d make me feel better?” Athena’s grin widened. “Some of those embarrassing bracelet stories you mentioned!”
“Oh, man…” Apollo stopped to think about it for a few moments. “Well, to be honest, the bracelet can be a bit weird with romance, too. It works most of the time, but sometimes it misses stuff, sometimes there are false positives…”
“So your bracelet has a bit of a blind spot as well! But you said you’re not aromantic, right?”
“…Doesn’t seem likely.”
Athena sensed a great deal behind those three words, but decided to spare him by ignoring it. “Huh!” she exclaimed instead. “So, do you have any idea why?”
“Well, I can pick up tension in other people. Sometimes I notice it myself, but other times, it’s only subconscious.” He held the bracelet up. “This bracelet picks up on slight changes in my body, so it tightens if I pick up on anything – even without realising. Then I need to focus, and hone in on whatever I picked up on.”
“You’ve explained that before, but now that you’ve said it again…” Athena grinned. “It kinda sounds like my Mood Matrix, doesn’t it? It responds to stuff you’re picking up on.”
“Huh. I guess you’re right.” Apollo squinted at the bracelet. “Wait…”
“So if it’s picking up on false positives for romance, I guess you just subconsciously read the situation wrong and make assumptions sometimes, like I do!” Athena continued, scooping up her own bag.
“But why would that… Could it..?”
“Which also means that if you’re missing romance entirely, then that’s kinda like…” she trailed off. “Um… Apollo?”
Apollo had the relationship chart in his hands, and was staring at the little hearts he’d drawn on the back. “A spectrum, huh…” he muttered.
“Apollo?”
He snapped back to reality, and stuffed the paper into his bag. “Sorry!” He scratched the back of his head. “It’s, uh…”
“Something to look into later?” Athena suggested.
Apollo let out a small laugh. “Yeah. Something to look into later.”