Work Text:
What could have happened is this:
There is only so long that celebration can go on, and work must start. They have a backlog of twenty years and an entire judicial system to overhaul, and enough time has been wasted. Apollo dives into the mountains of case files with all the burning passion he has in his heart.
Datz, of course, does not understand the concept of leaving someone to work in peace, not until Apollo tells him to leave for the umpteenth time. He still drops by every now and then, but makes sure not to interfere in Apollo's work, and usually leaves soon. Apollo has few enough visitors who aren't clients; Nahyuta is busy with ruling the country, which would be hard enough even without the recent turmoil, and everyone else who cares for him is an ocean and half a continent away.
Klavier Gavin keeps calling him, but the calls grow shorter and further apart, the time differences and Apollo's busy days eating away at the opportunities. Apollo finds himself rejecting the calls more and more, too busy to take the time from his day to speak to someone half a world away.
Klavier calls him less and less.
*
What did happen is this:
There is only so long that celebration can go on, and work must start. They have a backlog of twenty years and an entire judicial system to overhaul, and enough time has been wasted. Apollo dives into the mountains of case files with all the burning passion he has in his heart.
Datz, of course, does not understand the concept of leaving someone to work in peace, and eventually Apollo becomes resigned to the fact. If Datz is going to be hanging around, he reasons, he can at least help with filing things and running around on investigations with him. Sometimes Ahlbi shows up as well, Shah-Do in tow, bringing noise and life into the office in a way that rather reminds Apollo of Trucy.
Nahyuta does not visit often, he is rather busy with this whole ruling the country thing after all, but he does invite Apollo to the palace instead. This leads to Rayfa attaching herself to him, accompanying him on his investigations when she can, claiming she is just keeping an eye on the lawyer even though Apollo knows she is looking for opportunities to ask him about Dhurke. He answers where he can, and tells her to ask Nahyuta when he can't, and while he did work hard to get her to call Nahyuta her brother instead of Braid Head he is still surprised when she calls him the same.
Klavier Gavin keeps calling him, persistent as ever, and while the time difference and Apollo's busy schedule make things harder he doesn't seem to be giving up. Apollo finds himself rejecting the calls sometimes, but Klavier always calls again, so really there isn't much of a point.
Sometimes he falls asleep to the sound of Klavier's voice on the phone.
*
Apollo is the only lawyer left in all of Khura'in.
There are some who have gone underground, taken up other careers to hide from the persecution, but even if finding them was easy when they have spent decades covering up their tracks they haven't stood in courts of law in years and years. Others have fled the country, but even those who have continued practicing are reluctant to return, unsure whether this promised amnesty will stand against years of prejudice.
The prejudice is still not gone even from the regular people, those who stood up to Ga'ran and demanded a change. Apollo still sees people side-eyeing him in the street, hears children shout after him and adults murmur dirty words. He has deceived everyone, they decide, that must be the truth of the matter, because no lawyer could truly be good. People do come to him when they are desperate, because they have nobody else to turn to, but it's hard to keep going when even those who ask for his help don't always trust him.
He can't always trust himself, either. The Agency has always made a policy of only accepting innocent clients, Apollo's bracelet and Phoenix's magatama and Athena's ears giving them absolute certainty of the truth in their clients' words. However, while back in the States Apollo could always trust that anyone he turns away will find another lawyer, will be appointed one if they don't, here there is nobody else for the clients to fall back on. If he turns anyone away, they are left without defense in the face of the law, and for all that he aches at the thought of accepting clients he cannot wholeheartedly trust to be innocent he also cannot bear the thought of someone not receiving an impartial trial because he turned them away.
At some point Apollo stops wearing his bracelet when he first meets his clients. It's getting too painful, and if he wears an eyepatch again Nahyuta will ask him about it.
*
Apollo is the only lawyer left in all of Khura'in.
Of course, this can't be the case for long, and the newly appointed Justice Minister Inmee agrees when it becomes painfully clear there is no way Apollo can do the job on his own for long. Together with Nahyuta they arrange a schedule for all old cases to be heard again, one that won't drive Apollo quite so deep into exhaustion, while efforts for finding more lawyers are started. Datz manages to be useful for once, revitalizing all the old Dragon contacts. Not many of the old guard are still around, most have gone underground or fled the country or simply passed away in the intervening years, but those who hear the message all answer. They all owe much to Dhurke, often their lives and those of their families, and while not everyone is willing to take up their old career they all do something to help at least.
Nahyuta is working too, calling on favors he had managed to gather during his years on the prosecution's side. There are a few people there he trusts to value truth above anything else, those who might be willing to switch sides now that it is actually an option, and Datz's old contacts are all too happy to nurture and guide these new lawyers. Apollo is still the first one people go to, he is the first one to have a newly made Khura'inese attorney badge as Mrs. Inmee hands it to him in a very grand ceremony that makes him blush and stutter, but he is not the only one for long. The others are still struggling, and more than once someone comes to him for help with a truly desperate case, but as weeks turn into months he is not taking on everything himself anymore. There are young ones too, children who come up to him and announce that they are going to become lawyers when they grow up, and Apollo is still reeling at the realization that he might be someone's idol the same way Mr. Wright was for him.
The new season of Plumed Punisher starts, and it dedicates an entire episode to celebrating the newly formed lawyer course at the one law school Khura'in boasts, introducing a fire-hearted lawyer as a new hero to join the line-up of the show. The Defiant Dragons have been revealed to be good guys all along, joining forces with the Plumed Punisher to bring down evil-doers, and the young lawyer is wearing red and the brand of the dragons.
Nahuyta comes by the next week and tells Apollo they have filled every last spot on the course.
*
The people of Khura'in may be changing their minds, but not everyone is so easily swayed.
It's inevitable, really. Not only have the police force been living through the same anti-lawyer propaganda as the rest of the population, but they have also been following Ga'ran on a more personal level. Not everyone is as fanatically devoted as her personal guard, but they have still followed the queen and her husband for years and are not always happy that things are changing. Nahyuta is weeding out the less trustworthy ones, but there are only so many he can remove while still getting the job done, so some bad seeds remain.
It's not that they aren't doing their jobs, of course, rather they are a bit too eager to hunt down any criminals. However, they also aren't terribly happy about letting a lawyer investigate the crime scenes, nor are they cooperative about sharing evidence. Ema does help Apollo where she can, but she is not even in Khura'in all the time, never mind working all the cases Apollo has saddled himself with.
Apollo does what he can, calling favors and making vague threats and sneaking about, but it's not easy. It's never going to be easy.
*
It takes Nahyuta approximately a month to decide he will have to include the police force in his efforts of rebuilding everything from scratch.
It should be impossible for him to remove everyone he even slightly suspects of being untrustworthy or sympathizing with Ga'ran, even a small kingdom like Khura'in needs a police force of some description, but thankfully he is not as alone as he could be. Apollo mentions their problems with the police to Klavier during a phone call, who passes on the word to Miles Edgeworth, and not two weeks later Shi-Long Lang arrives in Khura'in with a bright grin and a hundred pairs of feet who are loyal to nothing but him and the law.
Lang is excellent at leading and organizing people, perhaps even more so than he is as an investigator, and he is relentless in his pursuit of truth. Between him and Ema they have soon purged all the questionable parts of the Khura'inese police force and started nurturing those they have found redeemable, with Lang's men filling in where they lack people. It is a great relief to Nahyuta, too, giving him time to focus on the other problems of his new rule and occasionally even saving an evening or two for him to spend with his family. Apollo gets along with Lang surprisingly well, the two recognizing kindred spirits in each other, loud and rash and willing to chase their prey to the very end.
Apollo tells Klavier about his new ally over the phone, assures Rayfa that the scary wolf man is not being mean to him when the princess is ready to run off in defense of her new-found family, but he never mentions just how often Lang and Ema and Apollo himself end up complaining about all the unfairly pretty prosecutors in their lives.
*
Apollo is exhausted.
It is inevitable, really. There are more cases than he has physically time for, and nobody to ease his burdens. He barely remembers to eat, scarfing down snacks while perusing documents and letting cups of coffee go cold at his desk. Sleep is all but foreign to him now, alarm dragging him out of bed before dawn every day after a few hours of tossing and turning. The cases are invading his dreams now, every mistake he has made haunting his sleep, every case that was not resolved perfectly weighing on his thoughts even during the waking hours. And there are mistakes, more than he would like to admit, his tired mind growing forgetful and weighed down. Others are starting to notice, too, and they point this out to him, which only makes him all the more determined to work harder than ever.
Nahyuta mentions that he looks tired, once or twice, not that they have the time to chat these days. They are each buried in work, only truly meeting when they stand across from each other in the Hall of Justice, and even these times are growing scarce as Nahyuta grows too busy to stand as prosecutor. Apollo's most frequent meetings are with the judge and Rayfa, a state of affairs even he recognizes as sad, but at least he manages to force a smile on his face when Rayfa tracks him down in the lobby after yet another case and yells at him for not being as sharp as usual. He is bringing shame to his brother and the name of his father, Rayfa tells him, he is not worthy to claim the name of the dragon if he can't even do his job properly, and Apollo can't do anything but agree. He has no rebuttal to her, is too tired to even try, and in the end he just tells her he has other cases to investigate, if she wouldn't mind.
It's not like she is wrong, anyway. Apollo has spent too many sleepless nights berating himself to even try to argue.
*
Apollo is exhausted.
It's inevitable, really, with the amount of work there is to do, with his inability to refuse to help when he is needed. It's up to others to call him on it, then. Datz and Ahlbi take their role as caretakers extremely seriously after Nahyuta himself asks them to keep an eye on his brother for him, and don't hesitate to chase Apollo off for a nap or hand him a cup of coffee when he is looking especially tired. Nahyuta may not have the time to prosecute all his cases, but Rayfa is present for every murder trial, and is more than happy to let Nahyuta know if Apollo is looking more tired than usual. Such times are always followed shortly thereafter by an invite to the palace, where Apollo is treated to an evening of tea and good food and an absolute prohibition on work, and if he even thinks of refusing he will have to deal with the extremely disappointed eyes of Queen Amara herself, and he is not strong enough a man to refuse both her and Rayfa at once.
Such simple interventions are not always enough, of course, and sometimes he simply cannot set aside his work, not if he wants to change things for the better. While there are new lawyers popping up, Apollo still refuses to even think about adding some of them to his office, insisting that he is not experienced enough to act as a mentor to new lawyers, and with his nigh-legendary status there is no way he could find anyone in Khura'in who could stand next to him as an equal.
It's not Apollo himself who calls Klavier about this, this time, but rather Ema who has overheard yet another argument between the brothers before returning to the States yet again, and thus it's a complete surprise to Apollo when he opens the door of his office to an insistent knock only to find Klavier standing on the other side, a bright grin on his face and a heap of luggage at his feet. Apollo is shocked when he hears Klavier's plans, but he has never managed to change Klavier's mind before, and it's certainly not going to happen now.
Klavier is a prosecutor, has been one his whole adult life, but he is also a smart man and a true pursuer of truth. He never even hesitates when Mrs. Inmee offers him the badge of a dragon's eye, pushes aside Apollo's protests and insists he wishes to help, and besides perhaps the air of Khura'in will give him some much-needed inspiration for his music. He smiles at Amara and utterly charms Rayfa and gains Nahyuta's grudging acceptance, takes over Apollo's tiny guest room with a smile as wide as though he had actually accepted the luxurious apartment in the palace that he was offered and immediately turned down, snatches a pile of case files from Apollo's hands and never looks back.
Simon Blackquill shows up a few weeks later, intent on dragging Klavier back to where he belongs, seriously Gavin-dono it's not like we have an abundance of half-way competent prosecutors, but he is rather expertly distracted by the well-timed appearance of Nahyuta. Apollo isn't sure what the two talk about when they are alone, perhaps bonding over their foolishly selfless schemes of protecting those they see as their sisters with their own lives and reputations, but a few days later Blackquill is on his way back to the States with only a few ominous mentions of being back to see how things are going. Apollo isn't entirely sure what is happening anymore, can't quite believe this isn't just a strange dream that will soon fade and leave him standing all alone in the middle of his office with ever-growing mountains of work to do, but he falls asleep to the soft sound of Klavier's guitar dancing along the melodies of traditional Khura'inese songs and wakes up to the world-famous voice belting out a drinking song Datz taught him.
At some point, Apollo realizes he is actually getting a full night's sleep more often than not, that there is always someone around to make sure that he eats and drinks and breathes properly, that the attorney badge is the exact shade of Klavier's hair and shines as brightly as his smile.
Somehow, he feels this will give him more restless nights than his cases.
*
It is Nahyuta who makes the discovery, strangely enough, considering he has had very little time for visits as of late. He has come to the office to deliver some files regarding a recent case, important enough that he wants to make sure they make it into Apollo's hands directly. At some point he did such hand-offs in the Hall of Justice, but lately he has had very little time for prosecuting, barely enough to make it out of the palace. Today, however, he has made the time, however brief, to visit his brother.
When Nahyuta knocks on the door there is no answer. This shouldn't be; it's well into the office hours, and he knows Apollo is not out on a case today, checked with Datz to make absolutely sure of this. And yet, the door is closed, the windows are shuttered, the office seems all but abandoned.
When Nahyuta tries the door, it's unlocked. His heart in his throat, he rushes through the office, up the stairs and into Apollo's apartment, calling his brother's name without response.
He finds Apollo in his bed, looking quite peaceful, an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to him. He never quite took to those, Nahyuta knows that, didn't like how they made him dead to the world, and yet it seems he has preferred that in the end. The note next to him is brief and to the point, and as Nahyuta reads it he cries out without words.
"I'm sorry I could not be a dragon."
*
Like a good big brother, Nahyuta sits next to Apollo the whole time the tattoo artist is working on his palm and doesn't call him a wimp for the way Apollo clutches at his hand. Like a typical brother, he very much teases him for it afterwards, but at that point the worst is over so Apollo is not quite so tempted to punch him for it.
Klavier teases him even more, though for different reasons. He can't believe Apollo is the first one of them to get a tattoo, he exclaims, clearly it should be Klavier with his all but certified rock god persona, and yet here is his ever formal and proper Herr Forehead with a dragon inked onto his palm. Apollo can't even be bothered to get flustered anymore, pointing out that tattoos are not exactly the domain of rebels in Khura'in, that Rayfa has been talking to him for ages about how he should get himself tattooed to show his royal connections. Apollo has refused such suggestions, pointing out that he has no connection to the actual royal bloodline, for all that Nahyuta and even Rayfa may acknowledge him as their brother. He has every right to the mark of the dragon, though, has been acknowledged as the true heir of Dhurke's will by everyone who has any right to voice their opinion on the matter, and it is a mark he can bear with pride at last.
He speaks with Klavier late into the night, about his feelings of abandonment, about all the parents he has lost in his life, and Klavier listens. He speaks in return of his family, of the parents who could not accept who he is, of the brother who deceived him along with everyone else. Except there is a new family now, one that has somehow enveloped them both. Datz and Rayfa have their own nicknames for Klavier, now, the people back at the Agency ask for them both when they call, and Amara seems to be making up for all the years she lost with her children by mothering Apollo and Klavier as much as either of the two children she carried in her womb. Klavier's dog is curled up around Apollo's cat as they sip at tea in the falling night, and as Apollo drifts off to the sound of a guitar once again he finds himself wondering if this was what his mother once felt, years and years ago.
In the morning they will continue their fight, the fight his father started, the fight Apollo will see to its end. He's not alone in it, though, not anymore, and he isn't entirely certain he ever was.
He is a dragon, and a dragon never yields.
*
This is what could have happened:
Apollo Justice Sahdmadhi is the first foreign-born person to be given a state funeral in the kingdom of Khura'in. It is a grand affair, quite unlike what he might have preferred, but he is not there to protest. Rayfa had tried to demand her mother to change this, to channel Apollo so they could question him about his wishes and motivations, but Amara had steadfastly refused. It was the last honor they could give their friend, she had said, to grant him the rest he had so desperately needed.
Prince regent Nahyuta is clad in black for the second time in public memory, the first being his father's funeral not a full year before. He is quiet and solemn and only says a few words, of a brother he failed and a name he is not worthy of bearing. Rayfa does not speak but she dances instead, a dance without words and full of longing and grief, and if there is any justice left in the world it reaches Apollo in the Twilight Realm.
Nahyuta is still wearing black the next day, and all the days since.
*
This is what did happen:
The wedding of Apollo Justice Sahdmadhi is the grandest celebration the country has seen since the day Queen Amara married his father so many years ago. He has tried to protest, of course, has insisted that a small ceremony would be fine, but his family will have none of it. As their brother he is a prince, Rayfa insists, even if he doesn't share their blood, and the people need to see that the royal family is happy and prosperous as they lead their people into a new age of prosperity. Nahyuta agrees, though Apollo wonders if he is simply trying to make up for all the years Apollo was left alone, for all the insults he delivered under Ga'ran's will. Perhaps they would back down if he truly insisted, but in the end it is easier to simply give in, and Klavier is certainly no help, seeming utterly delighted that he is suddenly the less important and famous party in this relationship.
A day of celebration is ordered for the entire country, and the streets of the capital are full of revelry on the day Apollo swears himself to the man he loves, their wedding ordained by Her Mercifulness Amara Khura'in herself. Their friends and family from the States are there too, of course, as Nahyuta made sure to fly every last one of them over to witness the day. Apollo is somewhat surprised to see both Maya and Pearl Fey among the guests, considering he had never been terribly close to Pearl and only met Maya in passing during the horrible incident that cost him his father. His confusion is resolved later when he hears a familiar voice booming his name and finds himself pulled into a crushing hug by Dhurke, has barely recovered when he is met with the much deeper and more unsettling shock of meeting Jove Justice for the first time in his memory.
Apollo had somehow made it through the ceremony without breaking into tears but he cries now, embracing the father he never got to know and the one who was stolen from him just before they were reunited, and if it wasn't for Klavier's arm at his waist he's not sure he could stay on his feet in the wake of the wave of emotion.
He does not look when Amara finally gets to speak to Dhurke, closes his eyes when Thalassa meets Jove one last time. It is too much, too painful, and when he thinks he might one day lose Klavier he very nearly breaks down in the middle of his own wedding reception. Except Klavier is still there, real and solid and breathing, and he is not going anywhere.
Dhurke makes an embarrassing speech, as is expected of Dhurke, goes on about how any dragon worth its salt needs two eyes and Apollo has now found his pair, and Rayfa and Trucy hit it off well enough that Phoenix is starting to worry about the mischief they might get into together. Nahyuta finds the time to dance with both Ema and Simon and nobody's quite sure who he is trying to tease, Lang somehow manages to act both like he has just finished speaking with Edgeworth earlier in the day and like he hasn't met him in decades, Athena can't manage to get through her rather elaborate threats towards Klavier before bursting into what she assures them are happy tears, and Shah-Do only ruins one flower arrangement. Apollo's friends and family mingle seamlessly with royalty and foreign dignitaries, where the two aren't interchangeable, and if his heart breaks when Jove plays one last song before Pearl's strength betrays her and she has to let go of his spirit at least Klavier is there to build him back up again.
There is still work to be done, and he is starting to wonder if it will ever end, but for tonight he is happy, happy and surrounded by everyone he loves and everyone who loves him, and while that love will sometimes also bring him to tears it is still worth the pain, always.
Klavier is still standing by him the next day, and all the days since.