I have no idea where this idea came from. I guess it was shortly after I started playing Apollo Justice. I just really wanted to write an Apollo x Klavier story, and I love torturing my favorite characters. Anyway, this is the shit I came up with. We'll see how well it goes. It's also in first person because I am obsessed with first person. And it switches between Apollo and Klavier. Also, this takes place between Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies. Just so ya know.

Also, much like another story I'm working on, all the chapter titles are song lyrics. Because. Enjoy.

Chapter One – One Step At A Time

Apollo

I couldn't ignore him. I wish I could, but I couldn't. He was staring right at me. He had been staring at me all through the trial, and it was getting on my nerves. Why was it that the one time I didn't have to face Klavier Gavin in court, he would show up anyway?

I knew the reason. It was a friend of his I was defending. A former member of his band. Gavin wasn't allowed to prosecute or defend his friend, because of the emotional involvement, so he had asked me to defend him. I had already called Gavin as a witness to testify to his friend's character. Winston Payne, the prosecutor, was doing as well as he usually did. Which, of course, was terribly.

But it was kind of hard to defend anybody with Gavin's eyes burning into the side of my head. I wish he would stare at something else for a while. I didn't have to fully look at him to know that he hadn't blinked through the entire trial. It was only the first day, but I didn't know how much more of this I could take.

Thankfully, Payne was just as incompetent as ever, so he more than made up for the fact that I was having trouble focusing. I could probably win today if Gavin would just stop staring at me. If only.

"Mr. Justice!" a voice snapped at me, startling out of my thoughts. I jumped and turned to the judge, trying to regain my composure.

"Yes, your honor?" I asked, standing up straight.

"I was saying that you and Mr. Payne need to get your acts together," the judge said, sounding annoyed. I flinched. "Now, we'll take a ten-minute recess so you two can reorganize." He banged his gavel before either of us could protest, and I was resigned to making my way out to the defendant's lobby.

Prosecutor Gavin was already waiting for me already with his friend by his side (Sparky Highnote was his name). Gavin had a sympathetic look on his face as he went over to greet me. I returned it with an annoyed stare of my own.

"Is something wrong, Herr Forehead?" he asked. "You looked uncomfortable during the entire trial."

I let out a sigh. I really didn't think I could tell him that his staring at me had been the cause. He would probably stop, but I didn't want to think about what his reaction would be. He would probably tease me mercilessly.

"Someone wouldn't stop staring intensely at me," I said, trying to keep it vague. He immediately saw through it.

"I'm just worried for Sparky, Herr Forehead," he said gently. I let out another sigh.

"Yeah, I know," I replied.

Before I could say anything else, though, the doors opened and Trucy came hurrying up to us, out of breath and clutching some papers in her hands.

"Polly, I got the information you asked me for," Trucy gasped, leaning on me for a moment. I let out a sigh of relief and took the papers from her. One of them was a thick envelope that had something bulky in it.

"Thanks, Truce," I told her. Gavin gave me a look.

"What is that, Herr Forehead?" he wondered.

"Our ace in the sleeve," I replied, quoting one of Mr. Wright's new favorite sayings. "The prosecution is claiming that the security footage showed Sparky never being in sound room like he said."

"That's right, the security guard even showed the court the footage," Gavin sighed. "Sparky was nowhere to be found in that room."

"Dude, I know I never left that room," Sparky growled. "That footage is a lie."

"That's what I figured too," I agreed. "I remember reading about one of Mr. Wright's old cases where the perpetrator hacked security footage to make it look like he was somewhere else at the time of a murder. I figured if someone could change the date of footage to look like they were there, can't someone change the date to make it look like someone wasn't there?"

Gavin's friend looked slightly confused, but Gavin was looking at me with excitement.

"You think someone altered the footage?" he asked.

"Thankfully, there's more than one security guard in that building," Trucy said.

I had already asked the bailiff to bring a TV and video player into the lobby so we could watch the security tape. This was from a data bank that was completely secure and couldn't be hacked into, which is why the real killer wouldn't be able to alter the footage. Looking it over, I grinned triumphantly and turned to the others.

"I think we have your alibi," I told Sparky.

When the ten minutes were up, we strode confidently back into the courtroom. Mr. Payne was not looking any better, but that didn't concern me. Our alibi was so rock solid now, it was almost too easy. Well, they couldn't all be memorable battles.

"Now, where were we?" the judge asked when the court had reconvened.

"I want to bring to light some new evidence, your honor," I said. "I believe the security footage was a fake."

"Objection!" Payne shouted. "The head security guard already said he looked over the footage and he assured us that it was not forgery."

"Objection," I replied, pointing at him. "He only testified that the initial footage was real. But the Arena has two records of all security footage, with one being channeled in a secure program that can't be altered."

"Really?" the judge asked, looking shocked. "That's quite intriguing. Perhaps we should look at this footage instead. Bailiff! Fetch that secure security footage!"

"No need for that, your honor," I responded. "We already have the security tape right here. And I think if we watch it over, we'll see if Mr. Highnote really did leave the room or not."

We all waited with bated breath as the footage started up. It began at 10am, just as Sparky was entering the room, saying good-bye to someone behind the doorway. Then, through fast-forwarding, he went over to his drum set and practiced for a while, went into a bathroom with no way out to take a shower, came back over, ate some sort of snack, and finally passed out on the sofa. Even when it finally ended, the evidence was obvious.

"So Mr. Highnote really didn't leave his room after all!" the judge gasped. "He was telling the truth the whole time!"

"Told you," Sparky grumbled under his breath.

"Your honor, I think you'll find that my client has a rock solid alibi and therefore could not have committed this murder!" I declared over the chatter from the gallery. "He is innocent!"

"Let him go, your honor!" Trucy shouted beside me.

"I see no reason to continue this trial," the judge agreed. "Though we still don't know who the real murderer is, the defendant has been proven to have an alibi and could not have done it. Therefore, I declare the defendant, Wilbur "Sparky" Highnote NOT GUILTY!"

He slammed his gavel down and the courtroom was showered in confetti as it usually did.

"That was amazing, Justice," Sparky said back out in defendant lobby. "I heard from Klavier that you were great at your job, but I didn't think you'd be able to get me off the hook like that in one day!"

I rubbed the back of my neck, slightly embarrassed.

"It was nothing, really," I replied.

"Dude, I need to repay you somehow," Sparky insisted.

"How about free tickets to yours and Prosecutor Gavin's upcoming comeback tour?" Trucy requested before I could even speak. He pointed at her.

"You got it," he replied and I couldn't help but let out a groan of despair. The last thing I needed was to go to another Gavinners' concert. Why wasn't paying your lawyer ever enough for people anymore?

"Forehead, I can't thank you enough," Gavin said, pulling me aside. "This meant a lot to me." There was a lot of emotion in his voice for some reason, though I couldn't figure out why.

"Well, it wasn't that hard of a case," I replied. "Though it's strangely rare nowadays for a court case to end without knowing who was the real killer. Usually that's what I have to do to get my client found innocent: find the real killer."

"It is strange," Gavin agreed, though he had a faraway look in his eyes as he spoke.

"Is something wrong?" I wondered. He shook his head.

"Nein," he replied. "I really want to thank you properly for this, Herr Forehead."

"You really don't have to do anything," I grumbled, turning my head so he wouldn't see the uncomfortable look on my face.

"Please, at least let me take you to dinner," he insisted. "It's the least I could do."

Something told me he wasn't going to give up until he felt he had repaid me somehow. But I was never one for making things easy for him, so I gave him a skeptical look.

"I don't know," I replied, folding my arms. "This could be some sort of trap. How do I know you won't just leave me with the bill or walk me into some sort of humiliation?"

"I promise I'm not trying anything, Forehead," he laughed. "I really am grateful to you and Fraulein. I'll even let you pick the restaurant."

"No tricks?" I prompted.

"No tricks," he promised, giving me one of his famous smiles. I let out a long, frustrated sigh after a moment of thought.

"Fine," I sighed. "I'll let you buy me dinner. But this is the last time you're going to bug me about that." His smile widened and he took a step closer to me.

"I'll pick you up around 7 tomorrow night, then," he said in a low voice. There was a strange look in his eye before he turned and walked over to join Sparky and Trucy. It wasn't any look that I was used to from him. I had no idea what it meant.

"So, what were you and Prosecutor Gavin talking about?" Trucy asked as we made our way out of the courtroom. I couldn't help but flinch. I had really hoped she would be too absorbed in our victory and free concert tickets to notice what had gone on.

"Um, he was just thanking me for helping his friend," I told her vaguely, hoping that was enough to satisfy her curiosity. It wasn't.

"I don't know, he looked pretty happy about something else to me," she pointed out. "And if that was all he did, you wouldn't have walked back over looking annoyed."

"He wanted to buy me dinner as thanks for some reason," I growled, knowing she wasn't going to let it go. "Why do people always have to make a spectacles out everything nowadays? Can't people just say 'thanks' anymore?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up there, Polly," Trucy said suddenly, stopping and turning big, wide-eyes at me. "He asked you out?"

I stopped and stared back at her.

"No," I hissed. "It's just buying me dinner as thanks for helping his friend. That's all."

"Polly, that's a date!"

I glared at her as a huge grin spread across her face.

"It is not," I growled. "It's just two acquaintances having dinner together. People do it all the time and it's not automatically a date, you know."

"Whatever," she scoffed. "It's totally a date."

"No, it's not," I snapped.

"He totally likes you!"

"Trucy!"

She covered her mouth as she started giggling and I just glared at her. I don't know why Trucy kept insisting that Prosecutor Gavin had romantic feelings towards me. I thought it was super obvious that we barely tolerated each other. Sure, he flirted with me on occasion, but he did that with everybody!

"Prosecutor Gavin is just a colleague, Truce," I told her, taking a deep breath. "That's all we'll ever be. I know you're too young to understand it, but people can hang out and not have romantic feelings towards each other."

She frowned back at me. Trucy always hated it when Mr. Wright or I used the "you're too young to understand" card, but it usually managed to quiet her at least. She already had her arms folded in a huff and was staring at the ground.

I thought the conversation was over and I had finally won that argument, until I heard her mutter something under her breath in a mutinous voice. I turned towards her once more.

"What?" I asked. She looked up at me.

"I said I'll bet Prosecutor Gavin doesn't consider you to be just a colleague," she said.

"What makes you say that?" I wondered.

"Have you really not noticed the look in his eyes whenever he sees you?" she asked. I blinked in shock at her as she continued. "Every time he sees you, it looks like he's in heaven. It's the most adorable thing I've ever seen! His eyes soften and he gets this smile on his face! How have you not noticed, Polly? He totally has a crush on you!"

That made me stop in my tracks. I could feel all my limbs freeze up and my blood run cold. I couldn't even look Trucy in the eye when she turned to look at me.

"N-no, he doesn't," I muttered. "He acts like that around everybody."

"He's never looked at me like that," Trucy argued. "Or Ema. Or Mr. Wright. Or anyone else I've seen him talk to."

"Alright, I get it," I snapped. "It doesn't matter anyway. I don't like him that way. In fact, I barely even like him! And he knows it. And I don't care what you say, he definitely doesn't have a thing for me."

"If that's the case, then why are you going on a date with him?" Trucy wondered. I let out a hiss of frustration.

"For crying out loud, Trucy! It's not a date!" I repeated once more. "He's just paying for my dinner out of gratitude for defending his friend, ok? End of discussion."

Trucy tried to say more, but every time she did, I interrupted her, telling her there was no more to discuss. This went on for five more minutes until she finally threw her hands up in defeat and mercifully decided to switch topics until we got back to the office.

Though it was hard to focus on anything after that conversation. Trucy had a knack for doing that, getting my mind of more important matters. I couldn't help trying to recall the way Prosecutor Gavin stared at me. I had no idea what Trucy was talking about, because I definitely never saw anything special in his eyes. Maybe she was just making the whole thing up because she never had a proper family or something.

Because there was definitely no way that Prosecutor Gavin could be in love with me…right?

I'm going to end the first chapter there and hope you guys enjoy it. We obviously know that Klavier is TOTALLY in love with Apollo, but how will he express it? And how obvious is he going to be about it? Well, you're just going to have to wait and read to find out. I apologize in advance if this or any of my other fan fictions take a while to update. I've been going through a lot of shit, and I've been working on my novel. Hopefully I won't be keeping you waiting for too long.