From a Place of Doubt

Main Points:
Ace Attorney universe optional, Definitely not fluff.
Summary: Klavier's first trial (and loss) against Apollo doesn't leave him quite unscathed.  Kristoph is a glorious bastard of a villain.
Word Count: 530
Rating: Gen

            Gott, Klavier needed to just go home, fall into bed, and let the world pass him by for a while.

            “And what of the rumors that green defense attorney Apollo Justice used false evidence in this trial?”

            The question alone turns the prosecutor’s veins to ice.  He hadn’t anticipated the question—it was easy to be ready for anything if one was prepared—but this…

            He plasters on the smile, the one that seems to fool everyone but Herr Justice, and constructs a proper response.  “Now, now, Fraulein, throwing around baseless accusations is unconstitutional, ja?”

            “But he’s been taken under the wing of the disbarred and disgraced Phoenix Wright.  And he, along with the new mentor, have accused your own brother of murder.  Surely you don’t think he actually did it?”

            The questions are digging under his skin more than usual, but then, before, the answers had always been easy.  Nein, we don’t do drugs; we’re all in law enforcement professions.  Stories of that party—greatly exaggerated.  This was different.  He’d expected something like her second batch of probing questions since Kristoph’s trial, really, and still didn’t have a good answer.

            Nein, he wanted to shout to the skies, nein, mein Bruder could never…

            But the voice won’t come.  He remembers his visits to his brother, and, well, they’re unsettling.

            There’s still no good reason that Kristoph would kill a perfect stranger.  If nothing else, Kris was cold, calculating.  The entire thing is ludicrous, and yet…

            And yet, the elder Gavin is much too calm.  He’s sure that he’ll get out of this.  The anger that briefly surfaced upon the mention of Wright’s name was unsettling.  In the end, there are too many questions, too many doubts, and Klavier is uncertain.

            It was easier before he’d met Apollo.  Apollo, so unassuming, so small and adorable.  Too easy to flirt, to fluster.  Anyone even halfway decent could beat Payne, the true last test to prove a lawyer’s skill.  And yet.

            Justice was a surprise.  Unexpected.  Unlike others, when flustered, he fought through it, with a sheer, stubborn tenacity that Klavier found himself admiring, even when the lawyer himself invited amusement.  Shy, but intelligent, capable of finding the slightest logical connections and pouncing.  Klavier couldn’t even begin to explain how Herr Justice could tease the slightest of details out of a witness, but it was no mere trick.  Apollo Justice cares about justice, and would never have fought so hard for a verdict he did not believe to be truth.

            “I trust the system of law,” he states carefully.  “It is not infallible, but I have to believe the truth will have been found in the end.”

            It’s not the answer they want.  They want the drama, the juicy stories, but he does not wish to give them that.  Eventually he makes it to his motorcycle and rides away.  He doesn’t remember the answers he gives, but his manager has trained the ability to give noncommittal answers to reporters in his sleep.  When he lies down and stares at the ceiling, he sees Kristoph’s cold, amused eyes staring judgingly into his soul, and it takes him a long time to fall asleep.