Author's Note: The End. Thank you so much for your support, everyone! My next AA project is a Justicykes/Klema murder (mystery?) fic that you will see in the probably not-so-near future. Until then, here is the finished product of Titration.

I'd appreciate some feedback on your way out. Thanks again!

Titration by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 15

Walk of Fame

Ema could count on one hand the number of times she'd woken up next to a man in bed. Four of them had been with her college boyfriend who she generally left before the night was over. One had been a one night stand after a particularly miserable night the second time she had failed the forensics exam. Today, she was going to have to add another hand.

Once upon a time, she had woken up in Klavier Gavin's apartment and fled from it as fast as she possibly could. This time, he was lying next to her and she had no urge to escape. He had definitely seen her at her worst last night and at this point, Ema just couldn't see a reason to run away any longer.

Well, that, and frankly, the sex had been really damn good.

Facing him toward the middle of the bed, she took in his unguarded visage. He was undoubtedly on the prettier side of handsome, especially when he had hair that was probably nicer than hers. She had never seen it fully undone before, but he really pulled it off with how masculine he made it look. Ema brushed a few strands to the side and his eyes fluttered open sleepily.

"Ach, the princess has not fled from her prince? Is this the right fairy tale?" he asked in a low voice.

Ema rolled her eyes. "I'm going to puke if you say something that corny again."

Klavier chuckled. "My apologies, but I think the point stands," he replied, smiling though his eyes were asking if she was indeed going to stay.

That really had been what she'd been doing all this time, and Klavier had let her. She hated thinking that even after being given an out, she lacked the maturity to be decisive. Even more, she hated the fact that she continued to lie to herself about what she wanted for so long. Flirting hard with her boss while naively letting herself believe it was all in the name of friendship was a pretty stupid thing to do, especially when she was both older than Klavier and nearly thirty. Then again, neither of them had been particularly mature about this whole thing. It wasn't like he'd ever sat her down to tell her what the hell she was doing, and him avoiding her yesterday, when she probably needed his help handling the media the most, was definitely not the adult thing to do.

Well, they were going to do absolutely fabulously whatever happened next.

"The media is gonna be all over this," she said humourlessly.

"They are."

"I'll be known as some glimmerous fop's girlfriend."

"Unfortunately."

"People all over the world are going to be judging me."

"Ja."

It all sounded terrible, honestly, but lying here next to him so peacefully somehow made it all seem worth it. On the other hand, it was easy to believe that when she was alone with him in his apartment. She had no idea how she was going to feel when all of this was tested. Of course, Ema was a persistent woman; she wouldn't have finally passed her forensics exam if she weren't. The cloud of indecision no longer plagued her mind. Maybe it was time to be a little less selfish.

"Klavier..." she started as she rolled over in the tangle of sheets, "what do you want?"

He blinked at her in surprise. "Me?"

"Yeah. This whole time you've been asking me what I want, following my rules, and doing whatever I ask. Before I decide on anything, I need to know what you want," Ema replied. She was lying on her stomach now, head turned toward him.

Klavier stared up at the ceiling. "Will it matter what I want?"

She pinched him on his side under the covers, making him yelp in response. "Yes it matters. Because we're doing that now. The 'us' thing. Not just me, not just you. Us."

It seemed like he really hadn't considered that as he contemplated her question in silence. She didn't blame him; it wasn't something she'd been thinking about last night either. All her mistakes had culminated into that confrontation and all she'd wanted to do was make sure she hadn't destroyed everything she'd built with Klavier in the process. And then, well, obviously one thing had led to another... She certainly wasn't going to complain. Waking up today had been loads better than yesterday.

"I want this," he said as he turned to face her, placing a hand on her arm.

"This?"

"This," he repeated. "Waking up next to you in the morning, talking about things unrelated to work..." He stroked her naked back with a smirk. "...being able to touch you without having snacks being thrown in my face."

She snickered. "I suppose that could be arranged." Ema stuffed her face against a pillow for a moment, then turned onto her side. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think that's what I want too."

He tweaked an eyebrow at her response. "You 'think'?"

"Oh shut up," she said with no real malice. "I haven't had a boyfriend in six years. I wasn't really expecting to have one ever again."

"You aren't even 30 yet and you've closed yourself off from love?" Klavier asked.

"Clearly not well enough."

"Clearly."

The corner of his lips tugged upward into a smirk and he shifted forward, pulling her into his chest. Ema felt herself blushing at the intimacy, which was kind of stupid when she thought about everything they'd done last night. It'd just been a really long time since she'd been held in such a way.

"So, shall we make up a new set of rules?" he asked her as he stroked her hair.

She looked up at him curiously, briefly distracted by the gentle rumble of his chest that occurred when he spoke. "What do you mean?"

"It just…seems like it's taken a lot of work to get here," Klavier replied. "I'd prefer not to let past mistakes repeat themselves if we're really going to do this."

Ema snickered against his skin. "I guess neither of us has been particularly mature about all this."

"Well..." He tapped her on the nose with his finger. "...I believe one of us didn't know what she wanted."

"Okay, rules," she retorted, but before she could say anything else, she heard The Guitar's Serenade drifting up from the floor. She scrambled to her knees and looked over the edge of the bed. Obviously she and Klavier hadn't exactly been careful of where their clothes were being discarded, but her phone was somewhere in the pile of red, purple, black, and white, maybe now with a cracked screen. Their initial encounter last night had been anything but gentle.

Klavier smirked pointedly at her before he climbed off the bed to help her with the search. Oh great, as if getting the girl who wasn't interested him wasn't going to make him bigheaded already, now he knew she (begrudgingly) liked his tunes too.

He managed to fish her phone out from under her crumpled pants a moment later. Ema pretended not to notice how his eyes lingered on her bare skin as she answered the phone in one hand while digging into the pile of clothes with the other. Where the heck was her underwear...?

"Hello?"

"Hey, Skye." It was Spex. Ema's face twisted in confusion, wondering why he was calling her. "I know you're off today, and the last thing the chief wants is for you to be out doing field work, but we're shorthanded. I've got two bodies in two locations and first impressions say they're linked. I can't cover them both."

"It's fine. Just send me an address," she replied and ended the call. It took only seconds for the address to pop up among her messages. Sometimes she really liked Spex. He hated small talk and always got straight to the point.

"Herr Spex?" Klavier asked as he pulled out a clean shirt from his dresser. He'd put on a pair of boxer-briefs while she was on the phone.

"Yeah. He's calling me in. We're shorthanded today," she said, donning her own underclothes.

He eyed her worriedly. "You understand what this means, right?"

Ema looked at him quizzically. "What?"

Klavier crossed his arms and sighed. "Reporters? Photographers? People that make you snack?"

Oh right. That. After being cooped up in Klavier's apartment for the last fourteen hours without any disturbances, Ema had forgotten that being outside would turn her world into a place of relentless prying eyes, all wanting to know if she was shacking up with Gavin—which she now was, but that wasn't the point! Spex had mentioned that the commissioner didn't want her in the field and now she remembered why. They'd need extra officers at the crime scene to man the tape if she was there.

Making a noise of annoyance, Ema sat back on the bed. "Whatever. I said I was going to do this, so I'm going to. What's the difference if it's sooner rather than later?"

Just as Klavier opened his mouth to reply, his own cell phone began to ring with an instrumental version of Guilty Love. His phone had somehow actually ended up on the nightstand, probably because it had been in his pants, and those hadn't come off until...

Well, until it was necessary.

She turned her attention back to dressing herself. Her pants were in the messy pile on the floor, but her blouse was in the corner of the room near the washroom. After retrieving it and evaluating the wrinkles that had accumulated overnight, she realized that her biggest problem was much worse than the paparazzi. Pretty much everyone at work had seen her yesterday. All of them were going to know she was wearing the same outfit today.

Oh god, a real walk of shame this time, Ema thought to herself in despair. Except she wasn't ashamed; she just didn't want everyone to know she hadn't gone home last night.

"Your fellow detective is requesting a warrant for a double homicide," Klavier said as he looked back at her. "It seems that both of us will be braving the reporters."

"It'll be worse when you get to the crime scene. Let's get this over with," she said, pulling her shirt over her head. "Is there some place nearby where we can grab something quick to eat?"

When he didn't answer, Ema glanced up at him. He had a dazed look upon his face as he stared at her with a small smile. It was a little embarrassing, really, to have something stare at her affectionately.

"What?" she demanded, feeling the heat creep up her face.

He chuckled, his smile widening. "Nothing. Just thinking this could be what all my future mornings look like."

The way he delivered it wasn't remotely flirtatious. It was just so sincerely sweet and meant only for her that Ema actually felt her heart skip a beat. This was it. She had turned into everything she'd ever hated about Klavier's fans. The little butterflies in her chest were quickly extinguished by the immense disgust she suddenly felt for herself.

"Rule one," she started, "no sweet-talking. Ever."

She gave up on feeling self-conscious about her outfit as soon as she walked onto the crime scene. With Klavier being as vain as he was, he of course had a steamer that she was able to use to salvage her shirt a bit. As such, she was able to present herself to the world wrinkle-free, but she was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. It was obvious that people noticed. Luckily, they were gracious enough not to say anything even when their eyes did. Especially after Klavier had dropped her off. His car was less well-known to the general public, but every cop in the precinct knew exactly what it looked like.

Ema took solace in the fact that the paparazzi hadn't arrived yet, though the whispering girls on their smart phones behind the tape nearby indicated that that would no longer be the case very soon. It was fairly obvious that there were at least four extra officers at the scene, so she wasn't going to worry about it too much. There was still a dead body with bullet holes through his head lying on the ground and that was sure to scare off a few of the reporters with weaker stomachs.

She put everything out of her mind except the case at hand. There was a partial footprint that she carefully captured and a bullet shell lying nearby. The pattern of blood spatter was somewhat unusual for execution style of murder that the body gave at first impression as well. That seemed a little out of place considering they were in an outside parking lot with no good vantage point to shoot someone from. Examination of all the evidence kept her occupied until Klavier arrived at the scene.

They'd left his apartment in a hurry this morning, so Ema found herself admiring him from afar a little as he spoke to the lead officer. He had forgone the chain necklace today and looked a lot more casual than she usually saw him. He was wearing a navy button down (with the top two buttons undone, of course) with black pants, hair up in a loose ponytail instead of neat braid he always kept it in. There was none of that rock star glimmer covering up the person he was underneath it all. He looked more handsome this way, Ema thought.

He turned his head and shot her an arrogant grin when he saw her staring. She rolled her eyes and snickered at the size of his ego on display, but smiled back at him. In that moment, there was no one looking at them. It felt like it was their own.

Ema's phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out to look at the message she'd received.

Rule two, it read, remain professional in the workplace. A crime scene is no place for googly eyes, Fräulein Detective.

She didn't bother texting back when she felt him standing in front of her. Ema crossed her arms and fixed her prosecutor boyfriend with a dry expression. "My eyes are not 'googly.'"

Klavier's eyes twinkled mischievously. "Do you normally speak to prosecutors about your eyes? Or am I special in some way?"

Oh okay, so he was going to tease her and pretend like he didn't know what she was talking about. They were at work, after all, and apparently the new rules had already gone into effect. In fact, having him flirt with her was kind of a relief. They'd been dancing around each other for so long that she sort of enjoyed the very familiar interaction. "Don't flatter yourself. My eyes are focused on the dead guy with two bullets in his head."

"Ah yes, well, Herr Spex should be dropping by soon to compare notes," he said, his gaze wandering. "Maybe you should fill me in under less watchful eyes until then."

Ema didn't quite get the subtext, but a noisy shutter went off, drawing her attention. The screaming fan girls, she was used to; the crowds of slimy photographers, she was not. The area behind the tape looked worse than the horde of people that had been surrounding the front of her apartment building. This was the exact thing Ema had been dreading. She could see why Klavier was suggesting they try to go somewhere private.

A light blinked from her right side and she heard one of her colleagues screaming at the photographer to turn off his flash. Where could they even go? They were in a flat parking lot. Aside from ducking into a police car, there was nowhere to hide. As long as she stayed with Klavier, there was never truly going to be a place to hide.

"Let them take as many pictures as they want," Ema said, her tone firm. "I'm not going anywhere."

A girl shrieked and Klavier winced. For the first time, Ema realized that he might have been asking for his own benefit as well as her own. Clearly it wasn't the cameras that were bothering him.

"...On second thought, why don't we go talk to the M. E.?" She didn't want to give the paparazzi the satisfaction of thinking she was trying to hide from them, but she couldn't very well ignore Klavier's discomfort. The medical examiner was somewhat concealed behind a dark police SUV and that would at least block them from some of the noise.

He nodded in agreement and Ema placed a placating hand on his shoulder. Screw the fact that everyone and their mother was going to get a shot of this.

"Hey, we've still got a long day ahead of us," she said.

"Ach, I'll get through it," he replied in a tired voice, "though we skipped getting coffee this morning. I could really use a cup about now."

"We can go after we talk to Spex. But I'm paying for myself," Ema declared stubbornly.

Klavier sighed, obviously exasperated her resistance to being spoiled. "Can't a man just be chivalrous?"

"Hasn't anyone told you?" she asked playfully. "Chivalry is dead, Gavin."

It was officially a day of success. Ema had used her finely-honed skills of observation to order Klavier's coffee for him as well as her own. The man, of course, tried to jump in and pay before she could which led to a strong verbal and slightly physical altercation. She was not above snatching his credit card out of his hand when he tried to give it to the cashier and he had no problem shoving her arm to the side when she was offering up cash. The barista had been understandably baffled, but accepted her bill simply because it was within his reach. He hadn't seemed to recognize Klavier or Ema from the tabloids. However, Ema was not deaf to the giggling of his nearby coworkers.

They claimed a seat as far away from the window as possible. Klavier was still sulking a bit about being beaten during the bill fight, but Ema was concerned about other matters. Now that they were away from the paparazzi disaster zone known previously as a "crime scene," she could actually have real conversation with him.

"Your last concert is tonight. Are you going to be okay?" she asked.

It was clear that her suspicions were right by the way he began to fiddle with his cup. Klavier was still feeling the effects of the woman that had come after him a month ago at the last concert. The jumpiness and lack of interactions with his fans was quite telling.

He flirted with her, trying to make light of his uneasiness. "Will you be there?"

"Are you paying me?"

"Ja. No service goes unrewarded."

"I'd better go to work then."

They exchanged a mutual smile. That was it. The easy banter Ema had grown so used to, but the way they spoke wasn't just as friends anymore. She'd been single for so long that it felt strange for her to think of him as the man she was in a relationship with.

"This is the same shop we were in when you asked me to handle your security," Ema stated as she looked around them wistfully. "Did you ever think that me accepting the job would change things so much?"

"I believe you know the answer to that," Klavier replied, shooting her a pointed look. She blushed in embarrassment under his gaze, hating the reminder of her completely out-of-the-blue confession when Klavier thought they'd probably just be enemies forever.

She cupped a cheek with her hand with a huff. "It just happened, okay? Something changed."

"So you don't think it was a chemical reaction?" he asked teasingly. "Because I think of us like an experiment. The right formula, and there's a perfect reaction, ja?"

Ema stared at him, breathless. "...Oh my god, you are so hot right now."

Klavier laughed and took a sip of his coffee. Though they'd only sat down a few minutes ago, he gestured towards the exit. "As much as I'd like to spend the rest of the day sitting here with you, I don't think either of us has much time to spare," he said. "Besides, I think our little tryst is starting to find its way onto social media."

At Ema's confused expression, he nudged his head in the direction of the couple a few tables away from them who were filming or taking photos of them on their phones. She could tell they were trying to be discreet and failing at it spectacularly.

"Well, Spex wanted to make an arrest soon," she said as they stood to leave. For now, they had a double homicide to solve and a case to build. "I'll see you later anyway."

A couple of steps ahead of her, Klavier looked back at her and grinned. "And then you'll watch over me, mein Detective?"

"Ema," she corrected him as they walked through the exit. The sun beamed down on him, his smile the only thing more radiant. Klavier almost seemed to glow in the afternoon light. This was who he was: bright, warm, dazzling, like a star that was too pretty to be real and made it impossible for anyone to look away.

And she watched him. She, Ema Skye, the sarcastic cynic whose brightest quality was the use of cold, hard scientific fact, watched him. She was not afraid to see him and not afraid to see him looking back. No more thermal runaways. No more confounding variables.

Ema took his hand in her own. "I won't take my eyes off you," she promised.

Rule three: never give up on finding the right formula. With the right amount of substance, you will always create the perfect reaction.