The familiar creak of Apollo's small couch sounded as the young man resting on it reclined backward.

In truth, it was more of a loveseat than a couch, but the word "loveseat" was not something Apollo Justice found any particular joy in saying out loud. "Couch" was a suitable word on its own, he found.

He glanced in the direction of the open doorway leading from his small apartment's living room to its even smaller kitchen. The audible clank of a large pot against something just as hard told him that, perhaps, he should have been supervising what his girlfriend was doing at the moment.

"Hey, Athena? Everything alright in there?"

The spirited young Athena Cykes had volunteered to make up a bowl of popcorn for the movie night she was currently here for. In her own words, she "knew her way around a kitchen". It was that specific wording that Apollo wouldn't argue; the particular implications of her words were what he took issue with.

Athena certainly knew her way around a kitchen, in that she'd come over to Apollo's apartment enough times to be familiar with the layout of the room in question. Her actual abilities in using the resources present in the kitchen were something else entirely. Still, Apollo had seen Athena make spaghetti without causing a fire, so something like popcorn couldn't be too much more complicated, right?

Another noisy clank marked the loss of another layer of Apollo's confidence.

"That was nothing!"

Apollo rolled his eyes, and as if it had been on a cue, caught the sound of a digitized voice chirping, "Liar!"

Widget made it very hard for Athena to lie to Apollo, even accounting for his talent in picking out nervous tells. This was balanced out, at least, by his own inability to lie back. Athena could pick out even the slightest fluctuation in his tone in an instant.

Had Apollo not already been severely questioning the safety of allowing Athena to continue working in the kitchen alone, her sudden panicked shriek a few seconds later sealed the deal. Apollo jumped to his feet and ran for the door.

He arrived just in time to see Athena hastily shoving a pot into the sink, where it gave off an impressive burst of steam and filled the air with an ear-splitting hiss.

Athena, her hands still submerged, looked back and forth between the sink and Apollo in the doorway several times.

"I'll rev up the microwave." Apollo sighed, waving his hand and approaching the small pantry.

"It could've gone worse." he was saying several minutes later, as he settled himself back on the couch. Athena dropped down next to him, a bowl of microwave popcorn in her hands.

She struck a pout. "It wasn't going to burst into flames…" she grumbled.

"Not this time, no," Apollo conceded, grabbing the nearby remote, "But I couldn't help noticing that you prepared a whole sink full of water in advance, just in case. Actually, come to think of it, it's probably best that it turned out this way. If you'd actually used cooking oil, shoving the pot into the sink would've just made things worse."

Athena just went on muttering under her breath for a few moments.

"… What are we watching again…?" she asked while Apollo set up the TV.

"The extended cut of 'Steel v. Nickel: Dawn of Great Justice'." Apollo answered automatically.

Athena raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "I always heard that movie was terrible." she said.

"The theatrical cut was terrible." Apollo replied, even quicker this time, giving the impression that he was used to explaining this frequently. "They cut half an hour out of the movie at the last minute and shuffled everything left over around. It completely ruined the pacing and all the characters' motivations."

"If you say so, nerd." Athena said, shrugging. She took a handful from the popcorn bowl and leaned against her boyfriend's shoulder. Apollo finished setting up the movie and threw his legs onto the footrest before the couch.

There came a lull in the mostly fast-paced and thrilling movie just shortly before the two-hour mark.

The popcorn was long-gone, its bowl left on the floor. Athena felt a bit sleepy, but the movie was interesting enough to keep her attention. She remembered seeing a lot of merchandise related to the Steel Samurai franchise around the office. Trucy was a fan, if she remembered right, and in the days after Apollo joined the Wright Anything Agency, the teen magician had converted him, as well.

Thinking of one friend made the face of another drift into her mind. Athena tried to just focus on the movie, but the gentle expression of her oldest friend, Juniper Woods, forced its way back into the forefront of her mind.

Athena felt like a terrible friend. She'd known Juniper since the two of them were children, and ever since first introducing her to Apollo, Athena had become very aware that her friend had a positively massive crush on the young man whose shoulder she was still burrowing into. But even knowing that, just two months ago she'd managed to let her own feelings take priority over those of Juniper.

She remembered every detail of the day in question perfectly.

It had been an exceptionally dull day at the Wright Anything Agency. Athena had engaged Apollo in many wildly varied conversations over the course of their work day in an ongoing effort to just pass the time before either could lose their mind. One such conversation had taken a unique turn and ended with an escalating series of teasing remarks between the two, as their conversations often did. What began with a minor jab at Athena's dress sense eventually came to a sound conclusion when Athena found herself unable to properly respond to Apollo's latest comment - a particularly long-winded and intricate deconstruction of her entire personality that simply covered too much ground in one go - and instead just struggling for a moment to articulate a comeback. Apollo just sat enjoying a smug look at his own accomplishment as her silence went on, until...

"Damn, he's good!"

If it was possible, the room seemed to become even more silent following Widget's unexpected outburst.

Apollo was the one to react first. Seated in his office chair in front of Athena, who was standing just a step away, his shoulders hunched and he began to laugh. His laugh was of the most genuine sort, loud and pushing his voice to its higher register.

Athena had certainly heard Apollo laugh before, but never had he sounded so completely absorbed by the mirth in his voice. He only got louder as the seconds passed, and Athena herself might have broken out in laughter as well were she not so suddenly fascinated by a particular undercurrent her ears picked up from Apollo.

She always liked when she had a chance to try and make Apollo laugh. Her worries over his mental health following the UR-1 retrial kept her vigilant in observing her friend's mood and emotions. What she was hearing from him right now, however, was something she wasn't used to. Beyond the easily recognizable emotions she always picked up from a person laughing genuinely, she noticed another sound, as clear as anything.

Love.

It wasn't something Athena heard especially often, but she'd spent enough time around college-aged students during her time in Europe to know what she was hearing. Her mouth fell open a bit and her legs suddenly began to feel weak.

Apollo was still laughing, his eyes directed to the floor, and with every moment he went on, Athena could hear more and more of the peculiar emotion surging from his voice.

(… Apollo loves me…?)

It took another few stunned seconds for Athena to notice Apollo calming himself down and beginning to curiously look up at her.

"Uhh… Hey, Athena…? You spacing out there?"

"I- uh…"

Athena's indistinct guttural noise didn't help her case. She felt rather out-of-place all of a sudden. Unless she was drastically misinterpreting something, - which she doubted - she'd just heard what essentially amounted to Apollo standing up before her and clearly confessing his undying love. That was quite something to take in so quickly. She couldn't be mistaking it, could she…?

Apollo gave one more little chuckle, standing up to face her properly. One little thought flitting around Athena's scattered mind pushed her into a decision she suspected she might regret.

It only took her one step. A single rapid move and she was pushing Apollo backward with force that sent him into instantaneous shock. Athena heard one of his elbows hit the wall just behind him with a clumsy thud, and before she knew it she'd claimed his lips with her own, pushing his back flush to the wall. She felt Apollo wriggling between the wall and her body, a tiny questioning noise bubbling out of his mouth, muffled by her kiss.

Still nuzzling into Apollo's shoulder, Athena felt her face heat up a bit as she recalled the way Apollo had recovered from his momentary daze and returned her kiss, the pair of them rapidly descending into the kind of passionate make-out that Athena was certain would've prompted Mr. Wright to fire both of them on the spot if he'd witnessed it.

It was only once they'd calmed down that they began to consider precisely that point. What would their boss say if he knew about this? Trucy would just have a whole new world of teasing to introduce them to, but they weren't sure about her father.

This brought Athena back to where she'd started. There were, it seemed, numerous people she and Apollo had decided to keep their new secret from. They'd needed a day or two to agree that they were into the realm of "officially dating", and once there they had begun to worry in earnest about how they would reveal the news, if at all.

"I don't need your big brother finding out and threatening to cut off my-"

Athena had opted to interrupt Apollo before he could finish that particular sentence. She giggled at the memory.

Apollo, his eyes locked on the screen until that moment, glanced at her.

"What's up?" he asked. Athena just smiled, adjusting herself and sliding another inch or two closer to him on the couch. She didn't want to burden him with any of this at the moment. Their evening was going very well without her worries interfering.

This is just a little something I'm working on for the Wright-a-Thon over on the Kink Meme. Not everything there can be steeped in depravity, y'know?