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Walking through the prison felt strange. Apollo knew there was a handful of people in the building who would quite like to see him dead, and although he knew none of them would actually be able to hurt him, it made him just a bit nervous. It made him more nervous to think that the person he was visiting might be one of those people.
In truth, Apollo didn’t know what Mr Gav— uh, that is, Kristoph, thought of him these days. Apollo was the one who put him in jail, but Mr Wright had a lot to do with that whole situation as well. Maybe Kristoph hated him. Maybe he always had. Or maybe he really had cared for Apollo all this time and still did today. The uncertainty was worse than just knowing someone way praying for his downfall.
But Apollo was going to be brave. He was going to face uncertainty, face his old mentor, face some of the memories he had been running away from. Because this was important.
Eventually, he arrived at Solitary Cell 13. Kristoph smiled at his approach. His smiles always seemed ominous these days.
“Justice,” Kristoph said.
“M— Kristoph,” Apollo replied, nearly cringing at himself for almost falling into old habit. He kept doing that.
“To what do I owe the… pleasure?” Kristoph asked, tilting his head slightly.
“I have a question for you.”
“Let me guess. ‘Why did I do it?’”
“No, actually. Although if you feel like answering that, I wouldn’t mind.”
“Well, if that isn’t your question, then what is?” Kristoph asked.
Apollo sighed, folded his arms, and leaned back against the wall across from the cell. “What do you think I should get Klavier for his birthday?”
Kristoph looked genuinely surprised. That was a rare way for him to look. Usually he had his expression very controlled, but apparently, Apollo had managed to catch him completely off guard. He opened his mouth and closed it a couple times, before settling on saying, “That’s it?”
“What do you mean ‘that’s it?’”
“Justice, you’ve never visited me in prison before and I believe you’ve made it very clear you aren’t particularly fond of me these days. I thought if you were visiting me for the first time ever, months after you got me convicted a second time, it would be for something actually important.”
“This is important!” Apollo insisted. “This is my first time having a boyfriend, and—”
“Boyfriend?” Kristoph grimaced. “Gross.”
“Hey!”
“What, am I not allowed to speak my mind? Pardon me if I find it disturbing to imagine my little brother and my protege in a romantic relationship.” Under his breath, but still loud enough for Apollo to hear, he added, “I do wonder which of you has lower standards here…”
Apollo rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Like it or not, I’m dating Klavier, and I don’t want the first proper gift I ever give him to be a lame one! What if he dumps me or something?”
“I sincerely doubt he would break up with you over one lackluster birthday present.”
“See, logically I know that’s true. All the evidence points to him loving me too much to do that. But somehow knowing that doesn’t stop me from worrying about it! Besides, even if it doesn’t affect his opinion of me, I just think he deserves a gift that’s as amazing as he is, and—”
Kristoph cut him off as his grimace grew. “Fine. I’ll help you on the condition that you refrain from saying corny things about how much you love my brother in my presence. Deal?”
“Deal! What ideas have you got?”
Kristoph thought silently for a while. “He likes music. You could get him some CDs or vinyls? Maybe a new guitar?”
“He already has a ridiculous number of CDs, vinyls, and guitars!”
“Yes, that is true, but I don’t think he would mind having more.”
Apollo sighed. “Yeah, I guess not, but I want to do something more special than that. Got any other ideas?”
“Well… Let’s see…”
Apollo waited patiently as Kristoph thought. But after about a minute, Apollo gave up.
“You’ve got nothing, huh?” Apollo said.
Kristoph huffed. “It’s not my fault. Klavier has a habit of impulsively buying everything that he wants! It makes him impossible to shop for!”
“Right!? What do you get for someone who has everything they want? But you’re his brother, you’ve gotten him gifts for years! What do you usually get him?”
“Honestly, I usually just gave him gift cards.”
“Gift cards!? You got the international rockstar with plenty of cash gift cards? Seriously!?”
“He wasn’t always that rich,” Kristoph pointed out. “Besides, even after his career took of, he always seemed happy to receive them. Honestly, Justice, you could get him almost anything and he would be delighted just to have been given something. You’re overthinking this far too much.”
“I am not overthinking! I’m just trying to be a good boyfriend!”
Kristoph rolled his eyes. “Fine then. You really want to impress him?”
“I think I’ve made that pretty clear.”
“Then get him something he can’t buy. Just make something for him.”
“Make something?” Apollo actually hadn’t thought of that. “Like what?”
“Baked goods, or a craft of some sort. Like cookies or a scrapbook of your time together,” Kristoph suggested.
“But I rarely ever bake anything, and I have done many art projects since I was a kid. I’m not good at making things.”
“Do you honestly think that matters? Klavier still sleeps with a hideous teddy bear a fan with no talent sewed for him. He adores homemade gifts, and that one was merely from a fan of his. I imagine he’d be even more excited to receive something created by someone he holds dear, no matter how much skill it was created with.”
“But I still want it to be impressive…”
“I’m telling you, you’re overthinking this. You hardly even have to do anything. Dip some strawberries in chocolate, put them in a box, and he’ll be over the moon. Trust me.”
Trusting Kristoph Gavin would usually be a tall order, but admittedly this would be a pretty weird thing to lie about. Unless he wanted Apollo to embarrass himself. But that probably wasn’t the case.
“I guess I can figure something out,” Apollo sighed. “Bye, Mr— I mean, Kristoph.
“Aren’t you going to thank me for my help?”
“You’re not the only one who can be petty,” Apollo said as he left the room.