My second Ace Attorney fanfic! Because nothing gives you more inspiration than having a couple of articles to write, a presentation to plan, and being at the point of tearing up your hair. I blame Tumblr.

This takes place some time after Dual Destinies, but there aren't any big spoilers for that game.

The Inward Meaning

After some minutes of observation, Apollo Justice leaned on the door. He had never had much trouble with bluntness and wasn't going to start now.

"Klavier, you're being ridiculous."

His boyfriend turned from the bathroom mirror to send him a hurt look – "hurt" as in "offended", but also "hurt" as in "with an eye which had gone red and puffy and was certainly in no condition to wear contacts, which any moron should have realized before the third attempt."

"Now, Schatz, I'm sure I can make this work somehow—"

The defense attorney didn't even need the bracelet to spot the lie. Ignoring Klavier's protests – "I've been wearing contacts for a long time, I know what I'm doing!" –, he stepped into the bathroom and, holding the prosecutor's hands in place, stood in the tips of his toes to peer into the blue eyes with Perceive.

"Definitely looks like pinkeye," he said, examining the redness of Klavier's eyelid. "You should probably see an eye doctor."

"Then I'll see a doctor," Klavier retorted, stepping away from him, "after I put on my contacts."

Apollo had the time to feel somewhat confused – it wasn't like Klavier to be that stubborn – before his boyfriend started trying to put the lens on again; then there was some amount of wrestling, with Klavier using his height to push his boyfriend away and said boyfriend latching onto his arm and prying his fingers open.

The dispute ended with the lens falling to the floor and the defense attorney feeling actually annoyed. "What is wrong with you! Didn't I just say you've got pinkeye, why are you trying to stick a lens on it?"

"Because how can I go to the doctor if I can't see?!", Klavier shouted, looking very close to angry now; there was none of his usual gentleness as he brushed past his boyfriend towards his room.

Apollo bit off an angry retort and the impulse to go after him, pausing to take a deep breath. His better instincts told him to let it go, to calm down and let Klavier have some time to himself – and then he got the image of a half-blind Klavier on his motorbike, which sent him careening after the prosecutor.

He found him on his room, going over the contents of the bedside table drawer, badly-braided hair flying here and there with every exaggerated gesture he made. His frown – such a rare sight, even after all they'd been through – was more frustrated than angry; it sobered Apollo a little.

"I'll go with you," he suggested quietly. "I'll tell Mr. Wright what happened, I'm sure he won't mind. We'll call a cab."

Klavier paused and then sighed; a small noise that sounded like it had been drawn from very deep inside. Slowly, he sat on the bed, light purple pajama pants matching the bedding perfectly, back turned to the defense attorney.

"Es tut – I mean, I'm sorry," he said, not looking at him. "I didn't mean to cause you trouble."

The bracelet stayed still.

Feeling a burst of sudden affection inside him, Apollo crossed the distance to the bed, sitting by Klavier's side to play with his long musician fingers. He fiddled a bit with the prosecutor's favorite silver ring; his boyfriend leaned into the touch.

"Ach," Klavier muttered softly, burying his head in Apollo's shoulder. "I hate not being able to see."

Apollo's hand moved to play with the long blond hair. It was his turn to sigh. "You should buy a spare pair of glasses."

"…I have a spare pair of glasses."

That had Apollo looking at Klavier, mystified. "Then why aren't you wearing them?"

The smirk his boyfriend shot at him didn't suit him at all; nor did the bitter gesture he made, encompassing all of his face. Apollo didn't understand it at first, trying to imagine how Klavier would look like with glasses and—

Oh.

"I can barely see when I'm not wearing contacts," Klavier said, and the smirk was still on, voice carefully nonchalant. "But I'd rather go without them than impose a ghost on you, and everyone else." A snort. "And I used to be proud of the resemblance."

The presence of that particular ghost was suffocating over Klavier's back, and when the prosecutor fished a white eyeglass case from the drawer, Apollo felt he had to do something, anything, to dispel it.

"Put them on."

"Huh?"

He swallowed, licked his lips. "Put them on."

Klavier shrugged, avoiding his boyfriend's gaze.

As if he was handling a dangerous snake, he caught the rimless pair of glasses and unfolded them very slowly. Shoving his hair aside with one hand, he placed the temples over his ears. Crossing his arms and leaning back like that, all solid composure, made Apollo think of what his former mentor would have looked like without his usual shirt-and-suit ensemble. The pinkeye almost broke the illusion, but, for a moment, the early sunlight flashed on the lenses, and he couldn't see Klavier's eyes—

"Smile."

"Was?" A raised eyebrow.

"Smile. You know, the million-watts smile."

That particular nickname earned him another snort – an amused one, this time – and then, a full-on smile, one of those that seemed to lit a darkened room with the strength of the sun.

And just like that, Kristoph Gavin was gone. His brother was peering through that face – that younger brother, who resembled him a lot, but who laughed freely and honestly where Kristoph only had fake restrained chuckles. The younger brother, who had all those hammy gestures, who kept doing that silly thing with the air guitar, who argued his case with a passion only matched by Mr. Gavin's eventual unraveling. Prosecutor Gavin, first the living reminder of his mistakes, but then a friend, a rival, an equal on the other side of the courtroom; a man whose features were almost the same as his brother's, but which sparked in him a fire he'd never felt before…

He only realized what he was doing when his hands were already caressing Klavier's face; the curious look behind the glasses was also very different from anything that had ever showed up on Mr. Gavin's face.

"What?" Klavier asked. The "is it that you see?" went unspoken.

Apollo sighed again. "I'm going to say something very corny now. Is that a problem?"

An honest, deep chuckle. "Fire away, Herr Forehead."

Another chuckle, this one from Apollo. "All right… I – I don't think you look like your brother – I mean," he started, after catching his boyfriend's incredulous eyebrow shooting up, "I mean, you do resemble him a lot, yes, not arguing with that, but – but you use your face in a different way. There's more to you than just his face… It's like – it's like there's something inside you – I mean," and he held Klavier's head in place, looked deeply into his blue eyes, "I mean, the eyes and the nose and the chin are the same, but you – you shine through all of it, you make it all look different. And everyone that matters will be able to see that, just like I do."

He would have tried to say something more, maybe something more fancy – like "the inward meaning gives significance to the outward appearance", or something like that – but Klavier took the opportunity to crush his lips against Apollo's.

The glasses poked awkwardly against his nose, but they were too busy in the heat of the meeting of their lips to mind; the battle of tongues was long and thorough, sending shocks of pleasure throughout Apollo's whole body. When it finished, the defense attorney felt like every inch of him had been touched by the prosecutor's tongue – like he had been kissed out of words.

And Klavier was smiling again, and when he meant the smile like that, he could light up the room with the strength of a thousand suns (…not that Apollo would ever admit such a thing). "Can I say something corny as well, Herr Forehead?"

The defense attorney nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed already. Klavier's smile grew even brighter, if such a thing was possible.

"I want to say I feel blessed to have you with me, Liebling… You're amazing, and I don't know where I would be if you hadn't showed up in my life. And," he raised a hand as Apollo looked about to protest, "and thank you. For – for seeing me."

Apollo spluttered a little bit, as he always did whenever Klavier spouted things like that – and the rockstar being who he was, it was quite often – but was stopped from looking away by Klavier's arms pushing him close, pressing him against a naked, tanned chest that he probably appreciated more than he should.

They stayed like that for a few moments, the scent of Klavier's body wash – something floral and really, really nice – invading Apollo's nostrils, before the defense attorney dared to break the silence with: "So let's go to the eye doctor, then?"

Soft laughter shook Klavier's frame. "Ohhh, Herr Birdman is going to be so angry."

"Let him be. You need to take care of your health, too." Besides, nothing that Athena couldn't smooth over if Apollo talked to her. "Get dressed, I'm going to brush my teeth and get my hair straight."

He moved away from Klavier's embrace, and stopped his hand from poking the irritated eye, and pretended not to see the tears on his good eye. As his boyfriend rose to pick which of his purple suits he would wear, Apollo crossed the distance to the room door.

Before leaving, he cast Klavier one last look – basking in everything beneath the surface that made him so different from his brother. He would have looked more, but his boyfriend caught him looking; the million-watts smile came through again, one-hundred percent honest and playful, and Apollo turned away before he could be teased – but not before he heard the prosecutor say something else.

The "I love you" was quieter, but not less meaningful than the words that came before.

Try to guess what my favorite Klavier sprite is. XD

Reviews are appreciated!