Pendulum

"I blew it, boss. I really, really blew it."

"Athena," A hand, sleeved with blue, came to perch delicately on her shoulder. "Everyone loses a case now and then."

Her cheek pressed itself harder against the desk, draping her paperwork in auburn wisps.

"But I didn't just lose," she moaned. "I royally screwed up. I looked like an idiot out there. What kind of attorney am I, to just…just fall apart so easily?"

"Like I said, you need to ease up on yourself," Phoenix sighed. "Look who you're talking to."

"One of the most legendary public defenders to grace our court system?"

"No," Phoenix smiled. "You're talking to the person who messed up so badly, he lost his badge and livelihood off of one case."

Athena sat up and drew her unruly strands back behind her ear.

"But if it was you…if it was Apollo…it would've been different today. If he hadn't moved to Khurain, this case would've been his. He would've known what to do."

Phoenix cheerfully patted her on the back.

"I assigned you with the case for a reason, Athena. I trust you."

"And I failed you," she nearly whimpered, sorely tempted to rebury her face in the paperwork.

"You made a mistake," Phoenix gently corrected. "You're still learning, Athena. Take today off and ruminate a bit. You'll feel better by tomorrow."

"Oh, I can't-"

"It's fine," he laughed, making for the door. "I have to head out and meet someone, anyway."

For the first time in hours, the slow, arduous corners of a grin traced themselves onto Athena's visage.

"Ah," she trilled, waving casually backwards with one outstretched hand. "Well, in that case, have fun on your date with Miss Fey!"

But for one brief moment, he stopped in his tracks, and but for his ears glowing crimson, he was unchanged.

"…You're worse than Pearls, I swear."

And as he left, Athena felt slightly better.

It was in the dead of night, bedsheet coiled securely about her like a sinewy snake, that her thoughts stubbornly persisted. They crept around the periphery of her consciousness, spiced with her stress, simmered in with her insecurity. Veritable tendrils of anxiety ghosting invasively, almost lovingly, against her skull.

Her body moved as if possessed; it certainly wasn't by her conscious will that she made the grab for the phone.

Each dull, repeated croak of the dial tone scratched against her mind; she nearly hung up then and there, but-

"…Hello?"

His voice was groggy and bleared with cotton, but it more than anything was what stranded her on an island, walls of sea on either side threatening to collapse, to shatter and spill over and leave her to clutch desperately at what threads of lucidity she had remaining, and god, why did she dial, it was a stupid idea –

"Athena?"

Jolted upright, she nonetheless responded.

"Um, hi, Apollo. Sorry for calling so late. You probably don't get enough sleep as it is, knowing the workaholic you are – "

She broke off laughing, but it was the sort of laugh that had her biting the air with every heave of breath, and she couldn't see him but she just knew he was sporting that distinctive Apollo frown, the kind that one couldn't help but want to agitate and soothe at the same time –

"Anyway," she murmured. "Sorry. Again. For being lame. Bye, don't let the bedbugs- "

"Wait!" and gone were the mites of sleep from before; his voice had always been so firm and ridiculous but it usually left her feeling stoked by the warmth of security. "Athena, wait. Why did you call?"

"S-Stupid reason. No reason. Go back to sleep, Apollo."

"I'm awake now," he sighed. "You might as well tell me what's on your mind."

"No, look, like I said," she chewed her bottom lip. "It's really dumb, and y'know, really not worth your time."

Her sharp ears picked up his obvious disgruntlement over the line. Even then, his voice comforted her, if only a little bit.

"Of course you're worth my time," Apollo said finally, barely restraining his urge to click his tongue in exasperation.

Despite his penchant for passion, despite his Chords of Steel, his heart and words perched on his sleeve, his bellows ripping through the courtroom like the wake of a thunderstorm, Athena rather thought that it was what he didn't say that really reached her.

Such as now, as he struck her momentarily speechless.

"…I don't know how you did it," she whispered, blush faint on her nose. "How you managed to keep up with everything and still be…still be…you. At the end of it all."

"Athena…"

"Ever since you left, being Trucy's new guinea pig was the least of it. I found out firsthand just how much you were doing for us. How much it was really you that kept it all together. And I…and now it's me who's supposed to, and I want to do it, I really do. I want to be that cheerful face who can tell everyone that this is the Wright Anything Agency and do you know who we are? What we've done? What we're going to show you?"

She shook her head, but then remembered Apollo couldn't see it.

"Boss, he's a symbol. You, Apollo, were an inspiration. But me. A kid meant to fill your shoes in over her head. You're amazing, you know. You're the…the…"

She ran a hand through strands of crimson and gave him a frustrated sort of huff.

"The shining example. No, not that. I dunno how to - "

She couldn't muster the words. Apollo is elemental. He's this force of nature that brews miracles, harnesses hatred, channels love, overwhelms the senses until no one was left with any shadow of a doubt what his brand of justice was.

"See, I told you it was stupid," she chuckled without humor. "I'm a ditzy child complaining about her workload."

"You are being stupid," was his blunt retort.

"P-Pardon?"

"Because you're so busy selling yourself short that you can't recognize how incredible you are."

She twisted herself further into the mattress until she was indistinguishable from the linen.

" 'P-Polly, I'm hardly incredible…" she whispered against fabric.

"I'm not gonna forgive people who put you down, Athena," Apollo admonished, well and truly irritated. "Not even if it happens to be yourself. And if you think I'm so great, you'd be wrong, because it wasn't Mr. Wright or Trucy or anyone else who doubted you. It was me."

"Oh, Apollo," she sighed, breath audible through the speaker. "We've been over this."

And truly they had. It had taken many a heartfelt conversation and sharp rejoinder to his repeated apologies in order to convince him that she held no grudges for implicating her of Clay's murder.

"There's nothing to forgive," she said firmly. "Nothing at all. It's a mark of how close we are that you'd want to face me with the suspicion head on, and I'm glad for it, remember?"

She unburied herself from the abyss of fabric so she could adjust the phone on her shoulder.

"I do," Apollo responded. "But the thing is, I literally accused you of murder and you happily took it as a sign that I liked you."

The corner of her lips unwillingly curved, resembling her usual grin.

If she wore Widget to bed, he'd burn pink right about now.

"So you're saying you don't," she giggled.

"Ugh, you know what I'm saying," he grumbled. Athena could only imagine his face, not needing a device to rival the color of magma. "My point being that I accuse my friends of crime. I slug our boss the first time I meet him. I have an uncurbable habit of doubting people, but you choose to see the best in them."

She'd sat up by now, because she was sick of hiding. Layers of cloth and pity had entombed her, but he had begun to cast her out.

"Apollo, your doubt is what makes you strong. Your own convictions never waver, no matter what anyone else thinks," she insisted.

"And that's why we're the perfect team," and her ears could quite literally pick up the strength of his smile, roaring over the phone like a blaring beacon, so noisy it was obnoxious, so inspiring her heart skipped a beat. "You and I, Athena. Together we're unbreakable. And I think Mr. Wright saw that. So talk to me about the stress. You're right; I've been there and somehow fumbled along until I managed to make sense of it all. But if I could do it, you'll certainly pull through with heavens-be-damned flying colors. That's the kind of girl you are."

"A-Apollo…" and she tried to smother the telltale hitch of breath, the pitch of voice slanting uncontrollably higher for that split second, but oh lord she was not crying, she was not crying –

He tactfully ignored the staccato of her exhales, the quiet sniffles left unstifled.

"I may be way over here in Khura'in right now," he near-whispered. "But never hesitate, okay? To call on me for anything. You're Athena Cykes and – "

"I'm fine," she murmured, closing her eyes. She laughed across her tears. "I'm fine."

She'd made her decision.

"Are you sure, Mr. Wright? I know this is a lot to ask."

"I have faith you know what you're doing."

Sighing, Athena rubbed the flimsy material between her thumb and forefinger until it creased and the lettering cut across the rivulet of paper.

"I hate to just cut out and leave the agency understaffed on such short notice."

"Athena," he chuckled, almost incredulously. "You've already holding the ticket. Pretty sure your mind's made up. Don't worry about us, I'll call Maya or something and she'll fill in while you're gone. It'll be like old times."

"Okay, but you're sure – "

"Don't make me shove you out the door."

The sun beat down on his shoulders as if it too were berating him.

If even Nahyuta was getting on his case for working too hard, Apollo supposed it wasn't madness to go enjoy the outside world for a spell.

A small crown poked its way up from beneath his desk, and he yelped.

"Rayfa!" he spluttered. "Don't do that!"

The petite princess regent scowled, her cheek bulging in indignance.

"Well, I'm bored."

"Go bother Nahyuta. I'm busy."

Her lips twisted into a pout.

"He's busy, you're busy," she moaned, sluggishly propping her chin on his arm. "I'm sorry, but I thought I was the one who was supposed to have a stick up her butt. I can't believe I have to tell someone else this, but live a little!"

Apollo sighed, gently nudging her head off of his body. She drooped to the floor like festering slime and didn't seem to be able to muster herself back up.

"Don't you have royal stuff to learn?" he scolded, not sparing a glance away from his paperwork.

From her vantage point as a puddle, she grumbled.

"Mother says the sun is shining and it's no day for a girl like myself to be cooped up. So she gave me the day off. You know, that should go double for you because I doubt you've seen sunlight for at least a month."

"Too much to do," he muttered, his eyes lined with exhaustion but no less focused.

Rolling her eyes, a thought dimly struck her mind, hazy with monotony though it was.

"Oh yeah," she mumbled, her eyes half-lidded. "There was someone in the marketplace looking for you. Um, that one pretty girl who was with you when you first arrived. A…melia? Andrea? A…?"

"Athena?" his eyes widened.

"Yeah! That's the one," her finger pointed up, perpendicular to her prone, worming body. "I don't think she knows where your office is yet. You should go tell her, Apollo. Apollo?"

But the door was ajar, drifting slowly on its hinges, the chair at his desk askew from his hasty exit.

Rayfa sighed, staring listlessly above at the woodgrains trailing the underside of the desk.

"Well. Time to go try again with brother. I'll bother him to take a break if it kills me."

Athena held the godforsaken map at arms' length and thought to herself that maybe if she glared hard enough, she could burn holes through it.

"This place makes no sense," she muttered, lips pursed in aggravation. "So, the temple's there…and that means Apollo's place has to be that building! …Or not. What?!"

"Need any help?" an amused voice from over the rim of the map.

"I swear this place is another dimension, 'Polly," she griped, not bothering to look up. "Or whoever drew this sorry excuse for a map is a sadist. I checked over there like a dozen times, this place is topsy-turvy, Apol – "

She blinked. Lowered the map (it tumbled from her loose fingers to the ground like a used napkin).

Her lips parted, her eyes slow stars of realization, and she quivered.

"Hey, Athen – whoa!"

She had launched herself at him, arms wasting no time in wrapping about his neck in a viper's grip, and the pair was sent sprawling to the gravel.

"I'm happy to see you too, tiger," he chuckled. "But maybe we should have our reunion standing. I think my rear found a puddle."

A throaty laugh from her, but she was quite nearly sobbing.

"I missed you," she whispered.

He clutched her that slight bit closer.

"Same here."

Finally sober enough to raise her head, her eyes searched his.

A raised brow.

"You look awful," she explained, pointedly noting the bags under his eyes. The shadow of fatigue lining the bridge of his nose.

"Well, gee. I try," he deadpanned, his own brow raised in retort.

"I knew it!" she frowned, slowly extricating her limbs from his. "I knew you were working too much. Well,"

She stood, and offered him both hand and cheesy smile, complete with rows of gleaming teeth.

"As long as I'm here, we'll have that fixed in no time flat."

He rolled his eyes, but reached for her hand and grasped it, hauling himself to her side.

"Of that, I have no doubt. Is that why you're here, then? To badger me about my work ethic? You're worse than Rayfa."

She scrutinized him, eyes possessed of a strange twinkle as they roved his form. In his mind's periphery, Apollo vaguely discerned that her hand hadn't let go of his.

"That…among other things," she finally replied. "We have a lot of discuss, y'know."

She kissed his cheek with all the indifference of a grazing giraffe. His brain short-circuited.

But she paid his slack jaw no heed, cheerfully swinging their joined hands like a pendulum as they started off towards his office in the distance.

"So...what's there to eat around here? Airplane. Food. Sucks."

He groaned, lips barely quirked into a smile.

Author's Note: So I've had this lying around for a while. Like a long while lol. Ever since Dual Destinies, I've relentlessly shipped these two bc like they're such awesome partners and badass lawyer buddies and stuff.

I have no idea why I made Rayfa such a sloth lmao. I mean she's such a sweet little adorable sweetie, and I could totally just imagine her lazing about like the immature itty firecracker she is on a hot summer's day, complaining because everyone's too busy to play with her. I dunno.

Review, please?! Feedback would be awesome.