Chapter Text
Apollo looked up at the banner hung above the door to his new makeshift office and smiled to himself. “Welcome Professor Apollo Justice!” it said in bold, colorful letters. He wondered if the Themis art club students made it. He unlocked the door, set his briefcase down on the empty desk, and debated turning on the computer to pass the time until the “new faculty welcome event” started.
The defense attorney decided against the computer and tried to look over his introduction speech a few more times. He’d gotten to the school early for just that reason after all. Today’s agenda was: 10:00 - New Faculty Speeches in the Auditorium; 11:00 to 12:30 - Open Office Hours. Essentially, after he introduced himself to the faculty, staff, and students, Apollo was to sit in his office and wait for people to come by and ask him questions. It seemed fairly simple, but Apollo was still extremely nervous about it.
At 27-years-old, and after three years rebuilding the legal system from the ground-up in the Kingdom of Khura’in, Apollo Justice realized he wanted to teach. Part of that decision stemmed from the countless hours he’d spent instructing new Khura’inese defense attorneys. Apollo found teaching attorneys to be exciting and rewarding, and it gave him a sense of purpose he hadn’t realized he was missing.
So after studying a lot, and using quite a few references to his advantage, Apollo landed himself a (very) temporary position as an Assistant Visiting Professor at Themis Legal Academy. He’d be in Los Angeles for about three months, teaching “Introduction to International Defense Law” to students in the defense course.
Apollo’s goal for himself, at least for week one, was to keep his cool, look and sound professional, and get through everything on his syllabus without incident. The attorney hoped it wouldn’t be too obvious he’d only just landed in LA a couple days ago. As he’d learned from that case a few years ago, students at Themis Legal Academy were very serious about law and were some of the best young legal minds in the region. Teaching was still very new to Apollo, so he hoped his real-world expertise would be enough to give these students something useful.
Apollo also had a slight ulterior motive-- he hoped that at the end of the semester, some of the defense course students might be interested in working abroad in Khura’in. The country was desperate for more defense attorneys, even young ones. When Apollo left Khura’in a few days ago, he had promised Nahyuta he would at least attempt to look for more people interested in coming to his home country.
Los Angeles didn’t feel like home either right now, since Apollo was staying in the boring, sterile environment of the Gatewater Hotel. The Gatewater certainly wasn’t a place he’d made any real memories in back when he lived in the States. Apollo looked down at the speech in his hands and his eyes drifted to the name “Phoenix Wright”.
Apollo sighed.
The current occupants of the apartment attached to the Agency were Mr. Wright and Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth, as Trucy currently lived on campus at her university.
This gig was only three months, then he’d be back to the apartment above Justice Law Offices that he’d grown so accustomed to the past few years. Apollo didn’t need any reason to become attached to Los Angeles again. As much as he was eager to get experience teaching, he didn’t expect this to be where he ended up permanently.
The defense attorney looked down at the time on his phone.
Apollo was starting to get antsy, so he paced back and forth between his desk and the window for a while until he heard a knock on his door.
He opened the door and a flash of yellow and orange burst into the office. Another figure, clad in all black, stood in the threshold with his arms folded.
Athena Cykes threw her arms around Apollo’s neck, knocking him backwards until he was pushed up against a sharp corner of his desk.
The bright-yellow attorney extracted herself from him.
Athena grabbed Simon Blackquill’s arm and yanked him past the door frame and into Apollo’s office. His towering figure coupled with the relative smallness of the office made it a tight squeeze.
Apollo would always be kind of nervous around Prosecutor Blackquill, and he tried not to look him in the eye.
He highly doubted Blackquill ever gave anyone “moral support”, let alone Apollo.
Athena rolled her eyes.
Blackquill glared at Athena.
Apollo stared down at his speech notes. It suddenly felt heavy in his hands as the panic settled in.
Blackquill cleared his throat and Apollo realized the dark-haired prosecutor was staring at him.
Apollo swallowed and tried not to sound too nervous when he answered.
Blackquill stuck a feather in the corner of his mouth and looked up at the ceiling.
The dark-haired prosecutor nodded at him, then immediately exited his office. Blackquill couldn’t have been more disinterested in the faculty event if he tried. Athena frowned at the door, then wished Apollo good luck before jumping out the door to catch up with her friend.
When he was alone, Apollo sighed. It was nice to have his lively colleague around again. Seeing both Athena and Trucy the previous day had been chaotic but amazing, and it suddenly made him wish he had longer than just the three months.
Klavier Gavin fussed with the ends of his hair as he mouthed the words to the introductory speeches he would be giving in a few short minutes. He sat in a folding chair off to the side of the stage, an acoustic guitar propped up against the wall next to him.
The blond-haired prosecutor was going to be playing the Themis Legal Academy’s anthem at the beginning of the “new faculty welcome event”. Klavier was asked to do this quite frequently at large Themis assemblies, since he was one of the most famous alumni of the school. But this was his first time at this particular event.
Music wasn’t all he’d been asked to do, however. At the last minute-- literally an hour before the event was supposed to begin-- Klavier was asked to introduce a few of the new professors, filling in for someone who’d gotten sick.
The stuff he was asked to say in his speeches was pretty cut-and-dried. The deans of the prosecutorial and defense courses had given him short bios of professors he was to introduce-- two from the prosecutor course and one from the defense course. Klavier was allowed to embellish the introductions however he saw fit, but he didn’t need to stray too far from what he was given.
And in any other circumstance, he wouldn’t stray too far. In any other circumstance, Klavier would begin with a joke, read the bio more or less word-for-word, then try to connect the person’s bio with a story he remembered from his time at Themis. Nothing too wild-- Klavier liked playing by the rules in a professional setting such as this one.
Yes, in any other circumstance, that’s what he would do. But this was not “any other circumstance.”
Klavier took a deep breath and tapped his notes on his knee. Faculty and students were already trickling into the auditorium. Any moment now, the sole defense attorney he was asked to introduce would be slipping into a seat in the roped-off first row.
He’d been surprised and intrigued upon learning that Apollo Justice would be returning to LA to teach at Themis. Even more surprising was that he hadn’t heard about this through the grapevine, either from Herr Edgeworth or Herr Wright. The fact that Klavier wasn’t in-the-know about Justice was quite frustrating, but the reality of the situation was that he and good ol’ Herr Forehead just weren’t all that close.
The bio he was given on Justice was bare-bones and basic. Over the last hour since he’d been given the assignment, Klavier made significant edits to it, making the speech more personal and sincere. Because what was the point in choosing someone who has actually worked with Apollo Justice, if not to say a few words about how outstanding he is?
He shrugged off the concern. Klavier Gavin was known for being extra.
As if on cue, the defense attorney entered the auditorium from the back and slowly made his way to the front row with the rest of the new professors. Klavier thought about rushing over to greet him, but decided against it. He needed to play this cool-- he was cool after all. He didn’t need his first interaction with Justice in years to be an awkward hello while standing in front of a gaggle of Themis faculty members.
Also, Klavier did have to begin performing in a few minutes.
Apollo had been so focused on reading over his speech, he lost track of time. The defense attorney made it to his designated chair in the front row with only 4 minutes to spare. Most of the other teachers had already taken their seats, nodding to him in greeting as he slipped into his.
After quickly introducing himself to the professors sitting next to him, Apollo glanced down at the folded sheet of paper that had been on his chair. It was a program booklet for the event: “Welcome New and Visiting Professors to Themis Legal Academy” it said in fancy gold letters on the front.
He opened it and searched for his own name.
He wasn’t first, thankfully. Apollo’s section read:
“Apollo Justice, Esq. - Defense Course, Assistant Visiting Professor - International Defense Law. Introduced by--”
He covered his mouth, but luckily the noise of chattering students in the room muffled his swearing. The name next to “introduced by” had been manually crossed out, and “Klavier Gavin, ‘19” was handwritten beside it.
Apollo stared at the man’s name, his mouth agape.
No, of course not. Apollo could see that the same professor’s name had been replaced by Klavier Gavin for two other people. Clearly he’d been a last-minute replacement for someone who couldn’t make it.
Before Apollo could process any more of this, the strumming of a guitar on stage gained his immediate attention.
Gavin began to sing a song he wasn’t familiar with-- not that Apollo was familiar with any of his music really. Students and faculty joined him for a chorus, and Apollo soon figured out that this was Themis’ school anthem.
Apollo looked down at his name on the program booklet again.
The prosecutor sounded good, though, smiling slightly as he performed a song he must have sung dozens of times as a student. He looked good, too. A little older-- he must be pushing 30 now-- dressed semi-professionally in a purple blazer and black dress pants. Of course the plunging neckline was still… a thing, though Apollo noticed he wasn’t wearing his Gavinners necklace.
During the chorus near the end of the performance, Gavin stopped singing, letting the students and faculty finish the song for him. Before Apollo knew it, the blond prosecutor was looking at him with his blue eyes and dazzling smile. Apollo sat up straight in his chair, his heart beating fast. It took him a moment to smile back, and by the time he did, Gavin’s eyes were elsewhere.
The song ended, Gavin bowed to his audience, then exited to the left of the stage to sit with a group of people Apollo assumed to be other presenters. He was angled away from Apollo, which ensured he wouldn’t catch the man’s eye again until one of them took the stage. It was probably for the best-- Apollo didn’t need any distractions as he waited for his turn to make a speech.
Apollo was highly curious as to what kind of an introduction Gavin was going to give him, but he didn’t have to speculate long. Gavin introduced two new professors for the prosecutor course, and his speeches were actually pretty basic. The blond prosecutor added some humor and threw in a couple stories about his years at Themis. The students laughed-- they all seemed enthralled by Klavier Gavin. Apollo was relieved.
Apollo assumed his own introduction by Gavin would be just as sanitized and basic.
Before he knew it, it was time for Gavin to make his speech introducing Apollo. The defense attorney couldn’t help it-- his heart raced, his palms were sweaty, his mouth went dry. A sudden thought filled his mind as Gavin made his way onto the stage.
Gavin adjusted the microphone at the podium.
Gavin flashed Apollo a quick smile.
He paused to let the students clap and cheer for a few moments.
A few students gasped.
Klavier held his hands up.
Apollo’s heart clenched in his chest.
Gavin snapped his fingers.
Apollo’s eyes were wide as he listened to the words being spoken about him. He did remember saying that line to Gavin, though for him to recall Apollo’s exact words was quite astounding.
If his face wasn’t red before, it certainly was now.
Apollo was floored, and Gavin had only been speaking for a few short minutes. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to be shocked, embarrassed or flattered. Maybe a little bit of all three? Gavin’s words were incredibly sincere and meaningful, and were causing a lump to form in Apollo’s throat.
So much for all the vocal exercises he’d done that morning to prepare.
Gavin went on to detail some of Apollo’s work as Phoenix Wright’s junior partner, then continued into an explanation about his move to Khura’in.
They made brief eye contact again, and this time Apollo was prepared with a slight grin, in spite of himself.
He winked at the audience and students burst into cheers and laughter again.
The roar of applause echoed off the walls and made Apollo’s ears ring. As the attorney stood up and approached the stage, Gavin quickly grabbed the microphone again.
Klavier slipped back into his seat off to the side of the stage and took a sip from his water bottle. As Apollo Justice awkwardly adjusted the microphone for his height, Klavier suddenly wished he hadn’t pulled it up so high for himself.
The microphone gave a little feedback, so Justice backed up a few steps.
Klavier joined in the scattered laughter among the students and faculty. As Justice waited for them to quiet down, Klavier shouted from his seat:
Justice flashed him a quick, sheepish grin. Klavier was delighted.
Justice took in a deep, long breath.
The defense attorney continued with his speech, and Klavier tried his best not to stare. Justice mentioned Phoenix Wright a few times, and rightly so. The attorney must have known the audience would eat it up, as Herr Wright was quite the celebrity in the legal world.
Justice looked good up there on the stage, in the spotlight. He sounded wiser than he used to be-- definitely like someone with experience under his belt. And he exuded more confidence than the young, fresh out of law school vibe the attorney had back in the day.
One of the first things Klavier noticed was that he was wearing a red suit jacket instead of showing off his forearms as he usually did. He did have on that peculiar bracelet, though it was partially hidden by the jacket’s sleeve. Klavier had a vague idea of what that bracelet did, and he wondered if it had reacted to anything he’d said in his introduction.
Klavier smiled to himself at the thought. The defense track students were in for quite a semester.
Justice ended his speech by thanking the school for allowing him to teach. Although he still wasn’t that close with the defense attorney, Klavier felt a wave of pride wash over him. What a commendable thing to do, wanting to teach young law students about the legal systems of other countries. Klavier would have loved to take a class like that back when he attended Themis.
After Justice’s speech was finished, the room applauded him, and he sat back down out of Klavier’s view. For the rest of the event, the prosecutor’s mind wandered.
He hadn’t seen Apollo Justice in quite some time, but they had texted back and forth on a few occasions over the years. It started with little comments on social media, mostly initiated by Klavier, and eventually turned into him texting Justice links to funny articles about defense attorneys. Oftentimes the attorney would reply back with a laughing emoji and nothing else of real substance, but Klavier still felt a connection in those moments, however intangible.
Klavier mentioned that court case with his brother as a time when he began to admire Apollo Justice as an attorney. But Klavier also knew he had another form of attraction for the man. Something more akin to romantic attraction, which had definitely peaked back when the defense attorney saved him from his brother’s influence.
Back then, Klavier’s heart leapt with joy every time he saw Justice’s little “bunny ears” wandering the halls of the courthouse. He used to try to chat him up any opportunity he could, hoping for any kind of hint that the defense attorney was interested. Unfortunately life got in the way for both of them, and before Klavier knew it, Apollo Justice had moved to another country.
The blond still harbored those feelings now, though they were muted by distance and time. He had to admit though, when his old courtroom opponent looked him in the eyes and grinned earlier, Klavier’s feelings briefly came alive again. He’d even stumbled over his words, which was something Klavier never did. He wondered if Justice noticed him choosing not to use “Herr Forehead” in his speech.
The blond prosecutor looked down at the program booklet in his hands, and traced the name “Apollo Justice, Esq.” with the tip of his finger. So Klavier’s feelings for this man were coming to the forefront again. It couldn’t come at a more inconvenient time, considering how temporary the teaching position was.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t flirt with Herr Forehead though, right? If Klavier was known for anything beyond his careers in music and law, it would be for his flirting. There was no harm in reconnecting with the defense attorney, maybe double checking to make sure Klavier had his current phone number?
The last new professor was introduced, and then the event ended. Klavier stood up and quickly secured his guitar back in its case before strapping it to his back. He wanted to get to Justice before--
Klavier sighed deeply.
This was for the best. Contrary to popular belief, Klavier Gavin had to work hard to come up with just the right things to say to sound as smooth as he always did. He needed to weigh all the variables in his head before interacting with someone he had a crush on.
Before he knew it, some students ran up to him and began asking questions about his YouTube channel. And of course Klavier was too nice to turn them down.
Quite a few people visited Apollo’s office during the open office hours, professors and students alike. After Klavier’s glowing introduction and the reveal that Apollo had been mentored by the great Phoenix Wright, students seemed genuinely excited to meet him. There was no real way to tell if the students found him professional enough to be worthy of teaching at Themis, but so far none of them had been rude or disrespectful. He counted that as a win.
Two girls interviewed Apollo for the campus newspaper, mostly asking him about the class he was teaching and why he chose Themis as his first teaching gig.
When the topic of how he knew Klavier Gavin came up, Apollo gave them as vague an answer as possible.
Apollo rubbed the back of his neck.
The girls left his office giggling to themselves, no doubt preparing to write something weird about him in their article.
Oddly enough, the first faculty member to introduce themselves was a professor for the prosecutor course-- Professor Ruth Barb. She was shorter than Apollo and had a friendly smile. She spent a good 10 minutes telling him all about the school’s dining hall and how she sometimes liked to help out in the kitchens during her breaks. She seemed very sweet, and definitely not like anyone he’d ever met who had an association with prosecutors.
A tall woman from the judge course named Isabella Donna introduced herself soon after. She mentioned having known Professor Courte, and she thanked him for being involved in finding her murderer. Professor Donna very openly asked him to call her “Bella”, but he probably wouldn’t. Apollo wanted to be friendly, but he didn’t expect to get to know too many people in the judge course during his short time in the States.
A few minutes before the office hours were supposed to end, a third faculty member knocked on his open door and introduced himself as Lee Thull, a defense course professor. He was an older man, with greying hair and glasses that slipped down his nose as he spoke. As he introduced himself, Professor Thull told Apollo he had spent a great deal of his life traveling and studying defense law all over the world.
Apollo was immediately relieved as he stood to shake the man’s hand.
Thull nodded and fiddled with his glasses.
That was very true. It seemed like everyone who worked under Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth was well traveled. And any time someone mentioned international lawyers, the names Franziska von Karma and even Nahyuta Sahdmadhi came up before the names of any defense attorneys.
Thull closed his eyes and nodded again, causing his glasses to slip down the bridge of his nose. Apollo was afraid they’d fall onto the ground, but Thull pushed them up just in time.
Thull went on to explain something about a manuscript he was writing and his struggles with publishers. Apollo was honestly surprised to meet someone so interested in his work right off the bat. He’d actually assumed a lot of the defense course teachers would ignore him, considering how temporary his position was going to be.
Noticing the time, Thull eventually excused himself, leaving Apollo to finish setting up his makeshift office. He left the door open. The chatter of students and teachers echoing through the hallways gave Apollo an odd sense of belonging, as if he’d finally found one place he was meant to be. It was a silly notion, considering the defense attorney had yet to teach a single class. But it comforted him all the same.
Just as Apollo was about to sit down and switch on his computer, he heard a knock on his doorframe.
Apollo’s heart jumped into his throat, and he swallowed before greeting his guest.
The prosecutor smiled warmly and leaned against the doorframe with a guitar strapped to his back. He wasn’t flashing his perfect teeth as usual, which was an interesting look for him.
They shook hands in greeting, and it wasn’t lost on Apollo that this was the first time they’d done so. The prosecutor’s hand was rough and calloused, and his grip was firm but friendly.
Gavin ran a hand over his twist of golden hair. Apollo snorted.
Apollo bowed his head a little, looking down at his feet.
The prosecutor closed his eyes and snapped his fingers to an unknown beat.
The defense attorney rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. He knew his cheeks were heating up a bit, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Apollo maneuvered back to his desk and sat down in his chair. He gestured to the guest chair across from him.
Gavin pulled the guitar case off of his back and leaned it carefully against the wall, before taking the seat offered to him. Apollo’s stomach swooped.
The blond chuckled.
Gavin flinched.
Apollo was looking anywhere but at Klavier Gavin right now.
He could practically feel Gavin’s deep blue eyes staring at him with interest. When Apollo chanced looking back at him, Gavin had that same sincere, authentic smile from when he first knocked on Apollo’s door.
Gavin winked.
Apollo grinned and shook his head. This guy really was too smooth sometimes. Suddenly, he heard something that sounded like a few muffled seconds of an electric guitar. Gavin reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
Apollo chuckled at this. It was just too funny seeing Gavin being petty about such a mundane thing. After texting a response to Edgeworth, the blond looked back up from his phone and smiled brightly.
Gavin shook his head and chuckled.
He held up his phone and pointed to it.
Apollo shook his head.
In an instant, Klavier had a small piece of paper in his hands, which he held out to Apollo. The defense attorney took it. He noticed the paper’s rough edges, indicating it was torn from something.
The prosecutor stood up, snapped his fingers and pointed at Apollo.
Gavin chuckled. He slung his guitar over his shoulder, winked, and then he was gone.
Apollo stared at it for a moment, and then made a sudden realization.
That meant Gavin had definitely written down his address with the intention of giving it to Apollo.
The attorney pulled out his phone and carefully added Gavin’s address to his contact for the prosecutor. And then he slipped the piece of paper with the address into his wallet. You know, for safekeeping.