Chapter Text
“Apollo, you’re gonna want to see this.”
Apollo huffed a sigh and got up from his desk, walking over to Mr. Wright’s office. Why did the man even have a separate office if all he did was leave the door open and shout ominous things across the room at him?
“Mr. Wright, what is it this time? You know you can email me YouTube links, right?”
It wasn’t that Apollo didn’t enjoy Mr. Wright’s cat videos. He just figured that he could watch them on his own time— but knowing Mr. Wright’s skill with computers, teaching him how to copy and paste something might take hours. However, his boss didn’t respond— just swallowed and gestured to Apollo to sit down.
“The Agency’s being sued, Apollo. Somebody out there thinks that you’ve been sexually harassed, and that we could have prevented it as your employer. I mean— when? If… if it was you,” Mr. Wright took a deep breath. His voice shook and his face was quickly going red, trying valiantly to catch up with Apollo’s at the news. “I don’t begrudge you it. I just… I wish you’d told me, Apollo. I could have helped.”
Apollo couldn’t really do anything except splutter for a good few moments, wracking his brain for when precisely this incident could have occurred. He thought back to the limited education he’d had on sexual harassment law— surely you had to be the victim to sue? Finally, he managed:
“Mr. Wright, I… I honestly have no idea. It wasn’t me, I promise. Seriously.”
Mr. Wright looked a little relieved then, leaning back in his chair and running his hand through his spikes. “I should probably take a look at the case then, huh? I mean, I guess I’ll have to defend us. You’re the victim and Athena’s our HR. I’d guess we’d need testimony from both of you guys before me.”
“Let me have a look, Mr. Wright. This has to be some kind of mistake.”
“Sure thing, Apollo. Look— I’ll email it to you. I’ll let you read over it first, it’s only fair— you can take the afternoon off and think about it. I mean, it’s an obvious conflict of interest. The Europeans would have a fit, but apparently that’s how we do it around here.” Apollo nodded silently, remembering the many cases he’d been involved in that probably wouldn’t have been legal anywhere other than LA or Khura’in. “But, you know… in the interest of not bringing another suit down on us, we should probably be careful.”
Apollo could only nod again, totally stunned, as he left the office, picked up his coat and left without saying goodbye to Athena or Trucy. On the bus, the email came through from Mr Wright with the necessary documents— Apollo genuinely had no clue what this could even be. None of his co-workers would even think about harassing him at work— not sexually at least. Assistance with magic tricks and regular psychoanalysis were just part of the job. He opened up the document and scanned it, searching frantically for some sentence that might explain what the hell had happened at the prosecutor’s office, which of those freaks had truly lost it this time. For all his weird attempts to spend more time with his husband, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth wasn’t the type to make up a charge as serious as this, and especially not against the agency. The entire situation made a lot more sense when Apollo found out who’d filed the suit.
Of fucking course it was Prosecutor Gavin. Apollo wasn’t sure how he hadn’t figured it out sooner, to be honest. The only part of the suit that didn’t make total sense, knowing the blond rockstar that seemed intent on getting into Apollo’s pants, was how on Earth he’d gotten wind of what had been said during the investigation into the UR-1 incident. Aura had barely said anything— sure, she’d been a little flirty, but it wasn’t unwelcome. Apollo was very, very gay, but he couldn’t deny that it had been a nice little self-esteem boost at the time. Apollo had, at least, processed the case now— being reminded of Clay’s death wasn’t enough to make him break down on public transport anymore, not when he’d recently moved back into the apartment they’d shared all those years ago.
He figured that he’d need to get in touch with Gavin ahead of the trial, if only to get as much information as possible to help Mr. Wright win the case. Clearly, Gavin had used his connections in the Prosecutor’s Office to rush the trial— Mr. Wright would have to work all night to win the case tomorrow morning. Once again, it was a classic conflict of interest of the type that could only be found in a court Apollo had the misfortune to work in, as Gavin was also prosecuting the case. He huffed a sigh as he opened Gavin’s near-abandoned contact in his phone— still saved as ‘the Fop’ from when Ema had typed it in, so long ago now.
Sure, he’d asked for it because he’d thought he had a chance back then, and Gavin was undeniably attractive— smart, if a little annoying, kind, strangely genuine at times and insanely, insanely hot. But he hadn’t spoken with him since he’d left for Khura’in, let alone worked with him since his return. Sure, Gavin had always been flirty with him, but Apollo wasn’t interested in anything casual. If Gavin shared that, then he’d have reached out after Apollo’s sudden move. So no, Apollo and Gavin weren’t exactly friends.
As he clicked on their chat history to type out the message, Apollo was reminded of that fact— the few texts him and Gavin had ever exchanged were stilted and honestly, weird. For all his swaggering up to him after court and asking him to dinner, Gavin really was a dry texter. So, it pissed Apollo off that Gavin felt like he had a say in his life, now that he’d had his chance and blown it. Apollo wondered if he was overreacting— they’d tried to find a time to meet up after work, but they were busy people. Neither had ever said anything that couldn’t be taken platonically, either, at a push— for Apollo’s part in that, he’d wanted plausible deniability if the first time meeting Gavin outside of work was a disaster. The opportunity had just never presented itself, even though both of them knew that there was some vague, nameless thing that was mutual there. Apollo breathed deep, muttered an ‘I’m fine’ that earned him some odd looks on the crowded bus, and pressed ‘send’ on the message.
Me, 2:07 PM: Hey, Prosecutor Gavin. It’s Apollo Justice. I know we haven’t been in contact for a while, but I’m confused about this lawsuit. Would you be able to explain a couple of things to me?
Gavin’s response was almost-instantaneous, even if it took a good ten minutes of Apollo agonisingly staring at his ‘typing’ bubble. By this time, Apollo had stepped off of the bus and gotten home, plopping himself down on the couch to fully digest whatever beast of a message Gavin was about to send him.
The Fop, 2:20 PM: hi herr forehead yeah its been a while. hope everythings good with you hopefully well be able to chat tomorrow in court. in regards to the suit i felt it was my duty to report the incident im sorry if i made you feel uncomfortable but frau blackquill was over the line. i only heard when speaking to mr edgeworth recently and retrieved the security footage and transcript from there
So, Gavin was obviously still the same infuriating man Apollo had known so long ago, now. Even the stupid fake (Apollo assumed?) German thing was still there, complete with a total lack of punctuation and the dumb nickname he’d given him during their first trial together. What was interesting, though, was that Apollo could tell he was hiding something, even over the phone. He’d almost certainly been talking to Mr. Edgeworth about him— how else would it have come up? Aura’s behaviour had been nothing, really— Apollo supposed her flirtation had something in common with Klavier’s, in that its only real purpose was to make him squirm. That was the answer he’d forced himself to come up with, thinking about why on Earth Gavin hadn’t reached out to him during many sleepless, lonely nights in Khura’in. As for Aura, Apollo knew that she had no interest. He’d defended her at her parole hearing, and gotten to know her pretty well. She enjoyed fucking with him almost as much as she enjoyed saying just how huge of a lesbian she was. It occurred to him then that he should give Ema a call.
Me, 2:22 PM: Gavin, Aura wasn’t sexually harassing me. I have absolutely no idea why you’re involving yourself in this, but even if it were your business, there isn’t a case here.
The Fop, 2:25 PM: i understand that you werent bothered by it forehead but i would feel terrible if the same happened to fräulein cykes or someone and the agency didnt stop it and i had done nothing to prevent it
The Fop, 2:26 PM: ill see you tomorrow. then you can tell me all about your adventures in khura’in :) coffee afterwards?
What on Earth was that fop playing at? Apollo didn’t have the energy to swerve yet another one of Gavin’s fake dates, so switched his phone off and flopped back on his couch in resignation. Maybe he kicked his legs angrily a little for dramatic effect, who knows? Apollo lived alone.
He swiped through his emails and found the summons for court tomorrow— it really was odd, having it addressed to him. Maybe as a witness, he’d be treated a little more nicely by his colleagues— a boy could dream. But then, maybe he didn’t want to be treated any more nicely by Prosecutor Gavin, not when his version of niceness landed him and his co-workers in a situation like this. But Apollo did have the evening off, and witnesses didn’t really have anything to do ahead of court, not compared to the lawyers, and Mr. Wright didn’t want him anywhere near his defense. Apollo supposed he’d have to find something to do.
It was still a shock, actually having any free time after law school, then the long hours of Mr. Gavin’s internship, then the hectic years with the Agency, culminating in a few years of being literally the only attorney in a small country. Now that Khura’in was safe in the capable hands of Nahyuta and the first generation to pass the new-and-improved bar exam, and LA’s legal system was far better for everybody involved, Apollo often found himself at a loose end.
The only thing on his to-do list was to call Ema, really. Apollo imagined she’d love to hear about the Fop’s most recent fuckup, so dialled her number. Even though it was about 7AM in Khura’in, Ema didn’t appear to need sleep anymore, not after years of splitting her time between two countries, so she picked up on the first ring. He didn’t intend on staying on the phone with her for as long as he did, but it wasn’t unwelcome. A good portion of that time was taken up by their shared ranting about Prosecutor Gavin, but it was also nice to hear how she’d been doing since his return to the US.
They had got closer since moving to Khura’in and she had become his best friend in the country, having similar pasts, enemies and senses of humour. Sure, Nahyuta was great, but he could be intense. He wasn’t exactly the kind of brother you went out for drinks with, so Ema filled that gap. They’d considered returning together, but training the existing detectives out of the Ga’ran Regime’s way of thinking was proving harder than starting completely from scratch, so Ema had put that on hold for now. Apollo didn’t realise how much he’d missed her, so it was late by the time he put down the phone, more than a little forlornly. As he went to bed, it occurred to him that Prosecutor Gavin was in for the ass-kicking of a lifetime when Ema next returned to the US. Apollo couldn’t wait.