Chapter Text
“There are too many balloons,” Apollo complained.
“Nonsense!” His sister poked her head out from amongst the mountain of balloons they’d stuffed into Prosecutor Gavin’s office. “There’s no such thing as too many balloons !”
Apollo disagreed. He’d lost count of how many bunches of balloons they’d had to carry in here. Some with helium, some without. Blue, red, yellow, pink, purple.....it was a nearly dizzying display. “What if it annoys him?”
Trucy frowned. “Then…we’ll offer to remove it all for him!”
Great. More work.
A second later, the door to the office swung open to reveal the birthday prosecutor. He blinked a couple of times at the sight in front of him, a confused look flickering across his face.
“SURPRISE!” Trucy shouted, jumping out from the pile and hugging Prosecutor Gavin. She shot Apollo a look, and he sighed.
“Uh…surprise?”
“Polly! We talked about this! Use those Chords of Steel!” she hissed.
Prosecutor Gavin…well, Klavier, seemed to shake off his confusion in favor of amusement. Awesome. Cheeks flushing with embarrassment, Apollo took in a deep breath and yelled, “SURPRISE!!”
…Apollo wished he could vanish like the bunnies in Trucy’s magic tricks.
A chuckle broke into his flustered thoughts. Klavier was…laughing. Genuinely laughing. It was a sound that could wash over a room and make a smile blossom on anyone’s face.
…Wait, what?
“Thank you,” Klavier said with a grin. He poked at one of the red balloons, eyes crinkling with a happiness that Apollo hadn’t seen in a while, if ever. “You’ve made this day a hundred, nein, a thousand times better.” He hugged Trucy back, and she almost looked like she wanted to faint from joy.
“You’re, uh, welcome. I guess. Trucy dragged me here,” Apollo muttered. “Happy birthday.”
“Danke,” Klavier replied easily. “It’s hard to say no to the Fraulein, isn’t it?” He glanced around. “Although…I’m not quite sure what I will do with all of these balloons.”
“We didn’t think that far ahead,” Trucy said cheerfully.
“They’d probably be useful in your shows,” Klavier suggested. “How about I donate them to you? You have one tonight, ja?”
“Yes! You’re going to come, right? I’ll dedicate it to you!”
Klavier smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”