( No Title )
The Mechanics of Emotion (13736 words) thesavagesabretooth
Simon had spent the past year living like it was going to be his last year on earth– because it was. But now he is still alive, and there are questions unasked that demand answers. Just what is his relationship with the detective going to be going forward? And what complications of his own does Bobby Fulbright have up his sleeve
Not to mention that there are two more members of the Phantom Organization who’ve been captured that Simon now needs to prosecute, and Athena must defend. Love and chaos in LA. In justice we trust– but who understands the mechanics of emotion?
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December 27, 9:20 am
One week. Today it had been exactly one week. One week since Ray Hoshino’s life had completely fallen down around his ears. The Cosmos Center was still taped off even a week later, the courtroom still lay in blocked off ruins, and his mentor, Bobby Fulbright, was dead.
Long dead, if you went by what was shouted back and forth in the trial.
Ray hesitated outside the station, leaning forward towards the glass to try putting himself back together in its faint reflection. As he smoothed his deep blue-black hair. It sprung back into messy half curls and waves around his soft and freckled face. As he adjusted his precious reproduction mech pilot’s jacket, its shining badges– the circular LAPD detective’s badge flanked by rank insignias and merits– caught the light in a bright twinkling that hurt even his eyes.
He didn’t feel like a hero of Justitia today, that was for sure.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try. He posed, flipping his sunglasses down from where they sat atop his head, and flashed a peace sign at himself.
“In the endless reaches of space, one light shines even in the deepest darkness! The star of Truth and Justice burns bright, and its hero answers its call!”
He smiled broadly, the sun catching every one of the metal adornments on his mech jacket in a brilliant shine. “In…In…” he sniffled. “in justice we t-trust..”
He had completely forgotten that windows were see-through until he noticed the desk sergeant staring at him in disdain past his own faint reflection.
There was a soft cough behind him.
“Are you planning to go in, or should I just go around you?”
“UHM!” Ray snapped to attention as his face heated up in embarrassment. He stiffly turned with a bright and sunny smile “sorry! I’ll head in! Just having a moment!”
He turned to find a familiar, impatient figure waiting behind him. Interpol agent Adrian Andrews had her arms crossed, and was giving him a look– as usual. She was a frequent presence at the precinct, often there running errands and liaising for her boss, former prosecutor Franziska Von Karma.
“Having a moment, huh, Hoshino?”
“Oh!” He snapped a salute with a sparkling of his badges and his best dazzling smile.
“Hello Miss Agent Andrews! Pleasure to see you this fine morning!” His smile twitched, just the slightest as he stayed at attention “Just thinking about the…the whole thing the other day, ma’am. Lost in my own head.”
Some of Agent Andrew’s impatience went out of her expression and she sighed. “The Phantom case still on your mind, detective?”
They talked sometimes. Hoshino hadn’t been exactly up front, but Andrews was a woman who understood subtlety– especially the kind of subtlety that Ray wasn’t good at.
Ray nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.
“Yeah. Can’t seem to forget it, you know?”
He couldn’t forget it, not with the way it seared in his mind, and he couldn’t believe it either. Every time he thought of the Phantom’s torn mask and the accusations of ‘spy’ and ‘killer’, he couldn’t help but think back to every little moment where he knew Bobby Fulbright was the real deal.
After all– he’d known him for years. If anyone would know that Fulbright was a fake, it was Ray Hoshino. Yet…he didn’t.
“I know it’s a bother, the chief’s been on my butt about it.”
Andrews sighed. “I have to file some paperwork. But if you’re not busy in fifteen minutes we can get coffee about it. You up?”
Ray sniffed, and held his hand to his chest once more as tears beaded at the corner of his eyes “Miss Agent Andrews…that’s such a generous offer! You’re gonna buy me coffee? I’m up! For sure!”
“Yeah. I’ll buy you coffee, detective. Pretty sure I get paid more than you do these days. Meet me in the lobby.– or my car, if you’re just standing around outside anyway.”
And with that, she sashayed into the police department, her spiked black heels clicking all the way.
December 27, 9:43 am
The cafe down the street from the precinct was a favorite of the local detectives– and the detectives were a favorite of the cafe. The owner liked to brag that he’d never been robbed, but neither had the gas station across the street. In the precinct, the gossip was that the guy was secretly hoping for his cafe to be the scene of a crime some day.
Hopefully, today would not be that day.
Adrian Andrews, in her black turtleneck and blazer, blond hair pinned tightly, sat across from Ray and sipped her double shot espresso. She’d gotten him the extremely sweet drink he’d asked for– and he could tell that she definitely expected payment in the form of ‘tea’.
“So,” Adrian opened. She waved a hand at him.
Ray had settled in the chair, brooding and thoughtful throughout ordering their drinks, creating an atmosphere of soulful, brooding mystery that was utterly destroyed by the fact he was in the middle of licking some of the whipped cream atop his drink when her hand gestured his way.
“Oh uhm.” He took another lick of the sweet drink’s caramel-drizzled whip cream. “…I just can’t wrap my head around it…Miss Andrews, I know Bobby Fulbright, and…and what happened on tv doesn’t make any sense.”
She leaned on her hand. “I did notice you two seemed close. Didn’t you tell me once you came from the same home town? When I saw that trial on tv, I figured if anyone would have known he was some spy, it was you.”
Ray looked out the window with a pained pout on his face.
“Yeah…we grew up in the same town in Utah. He did a lot to help me when I was at my worst…we were close. Very close. I’d have known if he was a spy, or…or if he’d been replaced.” He closed his eyes with a quiet hiss of breath. “…but he was the same man I knew, I swear it!”
“Very close,” Adrian nodded. “Like Miss Von Karma and I… I like to think I’d know if she were replaced by a spy.”
Ray sipped his drink sadly, looking up at her again. “like Miss Von Karma and yourself..y-yeah. Probably a lot like that, ma’am. I think you’d know, because…w-we know things about them a spy couldn’t possibly, yeah? So they couldn’t fool us.”
“I’d like to think so,” she repeated. “But if that were the case, what could possibly have happened?”
Ray pouted again as he poked at the mound of whipped cream with a straw.
“I..I dunno. Maybe this spy guy had him hidden somewhere and j-just stepped in for the trial. Or maybe…” he glanced from side to side “it was a big undercover op to help save Prosecutor Blackquill from the gallows!”
Adrian raised her eyebrows and smiled. “That sounds really romantic. Walk me through the logic on that one, detective.”
Ray tipped down his sunglasses and took a long, long sip of coffee before he flashed a peace sign with a grin “Yessir, ma’am!”
He tilted his head to the side “easy, when you think about it…Mr. Fulbright, in order to force a trial that would save Mr. Blackquill from execution, took up a false identity as this Phantom spy! And he worked to ensure that….the…trial…”
He paused for a moment before he said “oh geez.”
He rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace. “….Clay Terran and Metis Cykes, though. Yeah uh…I mean…maybe they’re not …really dead?”
Adrian sighed. “That might be a little excessively romantic, Ray. Sorry to say. But who knows? I know there’s a hush hush operation happening in Cauli that’s connected to the case.”
Ray’s eyes widened, and he found himself leaning over the table with a hopeful grin. “D-do you know what’s going on, ma’am? Can you tell me?”
“I know some. Miss Von Karma’s been handling the state-side part of the operation, so I’ve seen some things.” She sipped her espresso thoughtfully. “They arrested two suspects with regards to involvement in the same organization the Phantom was associated with, and they’re being transported to LA to stand trial.”
Ray fell back in his seat with a serious nod.
“Woah. That’s some high level stuff, Miss Andrews…two whole suspects huh? I wonder if maybe…maybe they’ll have some information on what went on a week ago. A-answers, you know?”
He flushed , and looked down at his coffee as his encounters with the man they claimed was a fake flashed through his mind. “For what exactly was going on this last year.”
“I hope you get your answers,” she nodded. “Being close with someone like that– it must be hard to accept. That he’s gone. And that he wasn’t the person that you knew.”
Ray’s fingers tightened against his mug. “he was the whole reason I became a detective in the first place.”
“Yeah?” she cocked her head. “More in common with me and Miss Von Karma I guess.”
“She inspired you to join interpol?” Ray asked with a curious smile. “and yeah…I wanted to follow in his footsteps once I got away. To be a hero of justice right by his side.”
“Well. I know you’ll live up to that, no matter what the truth is,” she said. She looked over to him and offered him a hand. “You can’t let yourself fall into despair, alright? Even if it hurts or seems hopeless.”
Ray sniffed quietly, before he took her hand with a firm grip and a smile “…it’s true, isn’t it? Even if everything seems hopeless…the star of justice shines brightly on us! Despair…despair is giving up,especially when it’s hard.”
He gave her a shaky smile. “you’re speaking from experience, aren’t you?”
She smiled a shaky smile, and nodded. “Unfortunately, I am. Miss Von Karma saved me when I thought I was beyond all hope. But she also taught me to find strength in myself, and not only live for others.”
Tears beaded in Ray’s eyes once more.
“Wow… She seems like one heck of a woman, Miss Andrews. And I mean…I think you really learned that lesson well, ma’am. You’re really strong” He put his hand to his chest “maybe I can learn a thing or two from that.”
“I believe in you, detective,” Adrian said. She raised her coffee to salute him. “And if I find out more about what’s going on, I’ll tell you, okay? Promise.”
Ray snapped a salute…thankfully having remembered to let go of his coffee first and grinned.
“Ma’am yes ma’am! And h-hey. I’ll…” he looked from side to side, “pay you back with all the best gossip the precinct has to offer, okay?”
Adrian smiled widely. "I’m looking forward to it.”
December 27, 10:45 am
When Ray returned to his desk at the precinct, there was a folded sheet of paper stuck under the keyboard of his computer, and he noticed quiet conversations going on between some of the other officers and detectives.
He gave one of the nearby clusters a sparkling smile before he settled into his seat to pluck the paper from the keys, opening it with a curious tilt of his head.
From the desk of chief prosecutor Miles Edgeworth–
This communication should be shredded after reading.
Your department is doubtless aware of the recent publicity surrounding the alleged death of your co-worker Detective Fulbright, and the subsequent public assassination of an espionage agent who attempted to assume his identity.
We are happy to assure you that the death of Detective Fulbright and the circumstances around his impersonation were reported incorrectly during the televised event for the purposes of successfully closing the investigation on the agent known in the department as ‘The Phantom’.
Happily, Detective Fulbright will be returning to your department shortly. However, owing to the complications surrounding the phantom organization and Bobby Fulbright’s public death, we ask that you instead welcome Detective Robert Halblicht as your new co-worker until such time as ‘Bobby Fulbright’ may be able to officially return to work.
Thank you for your cooperation.Ray’s heart skipped a beat, and he was sure the others nearby heard the sharp gasp of breath. He read the letter again…and again…and a fourth time over with a widening of his eyes and a widening of his smile.
“I knew it” he whispered. “It’s just like I told Miss Andrews, it…it had to be fake…”
Ray Hoshino clutched the letter to his chest with a welling of tears in his deep blue eyes and began openly sniffling in the middle of the precinct.
“Lady Justitia has smiled on this scion of the star of justice!”
It was only a few minutes later, while Ray was dutifully shredding the piece of paper stained with his tears, that he noticed the chief’s door click open, and a very familiar figure slip out from it.
Ray’s heart skipped a beat as Bobby Fulbright–his mentor, the man who inspired him, the man he shared stolen moments with, his crush– walked through the chief’s door.
He stared, like a rabbit in the headlights, directly at him with a smile that he was sure might literally light up the room.
Fulbright–or Halblicht, according to the memo– stopped short upon seeing him. It was strange to see him in a black suit for once, Ray was used to seeing him in bright white and pale colors.
A moment barely longer than a heartbeat passed, and the man snapped into a salute in Ray’s direction.
“Good morning, detective!”
“M-m-m-mr. Fu-Halblicht!” Ray snapped a sharp salute in his direction as he fought back the urge to cry. “G-good morning, sir!!”
Halblicht glanced at the other officers– who were stealing looks their way– and then back at Ray. “I only came in this morning to file some paperwork. But if you’d like to walk with me to my car, I could use some catching up.”
Ray glanced towards the chief’s office, biting his lip before he nodded seriously.
“I’m sure the chief won’t mind me being a little late to my duties, sir…I’m on uhm…” The chief had put it as a ‘temporary removal from active duty’ , but what it really meant was ‘Ray Hoshino’s too upset to be sent out , so let’s have him do all the paperwork in the office until he calms down’ “Paperwork duty, anyway.”
“Ah. Oh. Well. That works out, huh?” Halblicht laughed awkwardly, and beckoned for Ray to follow him out of the office. He gave a little wave at their fellow officers as he headed quickly for the door.
Ray hurried to follow him, scampering and grabbing his coat before he fell into step just at Fulbri— Halblicht’s heels.
“It sure does…h-hahah…wow. You look uhm..” he stammered. “Pretty cool, honestly? You look good in black.”
He glanced at him with a little embarrassed look, his familiar amber sunglasses sliding down his nose. “You think so?"
He held the door for Ray.
Ray stepped out into the morning sunshine, keeping his own sunglasses tipped up in the fluffy locks of his hair.
“Y-yessir! I think I’ve only ever seen you in light colors…it’s a big change! But I guess if you gonna be a whole new you..” He put his hand on his chin thoughtfully “it gives you more of an ‘antihero’ look.”
"I suppose from that point of view, I’ve had a bit of character development,” he chuckled, embarrassed again, and followed him out down the steps of the precinct to the employee parking lot.
Ray glanced around, before his eyes fell on Bob—Halblicht’s embarrassed smile, his fingers resting against his lips in a thoughtful gesture. He had to get used to the new name.
“You have, huh? I ..I bet you’ve been on one heck of an adventure, sir..” he smiled shakily behind his fingers. “Because we…we thought you were dead. I kept hoping they were wr-wrong, though.”
Bobby paused mid-stride and sighed, rubbing his jaw. “I’m sorry about that, Ray. It wasn’t exactly something I had any control on… It’s a… really complicated situation.”
Ray stumbled to a stop, the medals on his coat jingling musically as he folded his arms around his chest.
“It had to be, right? It had to be a big, complicated situation for the good of justice to wrap you up in that whole Phantom case..”
“For the good of justice.” He looked a little uncomfortable for a moment, then nodded sharply. “It came out on the side of justice in the end. Thank Justitia herself. But I have to apologize for scaring you.”
Ray’s brow furrowed briefly. He knew he could sometimes miss things, sometimes his head was too high in the stars, and his excitement a little too present and it caused him to overlook that which experts like Investigator Skye might otherwise catch.
But he was good with people he knew, and he could tell something was off about Detective Fulbright…something odd in his reactions.
“Thank Justitia. “I was having trouble believing I’d been lied to all this time, sir…and that I’d have to go on alone from here on out…but…” He hesitated before he blurted out “there’s more to it than Mr. Edgeworth’s letter, isn’t there?”
December 27, 11:05 am
We have to tell him, Robert.
Why?
Because he’ll find out. And I don’t like lying to him.
Halblicht hesitated at the question, looking at the slim detective standing in front of him. Robert had only known the young man for six months or so, but Bobby had known him much longer.
Ray Hoshino had been the complication. The one unexpected person who could have noticed that something was off with ‘Bobby Fulbright’’s’ behavior.
Robert had made sure that that wouldn’t be a problem. But now that was a complication too.
Robert sighed, performatively as he acquiesced to Bobby.
“Get in the car, Ray.”
He motioned to the black sports car that was currently arranged as his rental.
Ray glanced over his shoulder at the precinct with his deep, dark eyes, before he snapped a dutiful salute and hopped into the passenger seat of the car. Once he settled, they saw him fussily fixing his hair in the rearview mirror like a nervous prom date.
Robert thumpted the driver’s side door closed and glanced at Ray in the mirror as he started the car.
Robert, Robert say something, we are being so ominous right now.
But Robert didn’t say anything. He just started the car, the engine purring to life.
Bobby, telling him the truth right now will just create more questions than it answers. Create more problems than it solves.Ray got into the car, as he was instructed, his shoulders tense and his expression pensive as he buckled himself in. He stole furtive glances at Robert, before he visibly seemed to at least pretend to relax.
“You’re gettin’ me a little worried here, sir.”
Robert reached over and stroked Ray’s cheek with his gloved fingers.
“My apologies, Ray,” he chuckled, putting on a wide smile. “I think you can probably guess, it’s been kind of a tough week for the side of justice.”
Ray did lean into his hand with an unsure little smile on his face, but Robert could see the way his eyebrows knit together.
He was confused, or potentially worried.
“Justice sure has taken a beating from the sound of it…where the heck were you when everyone thought you’d been shot?”
Robert, what are we going to tell Ray if not the truth? I’ve known him since he was a teenager, you know? I tried to help him out with his parents– no matter how much that backfired… the point is he trusts me.
That’s right, Bobby. He trusts you. That’s why he’s going to believe what we tell him, just like he has the whole year.
“I was on the stand, being shot in fact,” Robert laughed as he backed out of their parking space. “That’s what bullet proof vests are for. Thank Lady Justice. A large part of that night was an elaborate illusion, Ray– that’s why it wasn’t even legally a trial!”
“You’re kidding me…” Ray’s eyes widened as his hand went over his mouth again in a quiet gasp. “…but that Aura woman’s in jail for taking hostages, and…I mean…why the heck would Mr. Edgeworth lie about justice?”
“Ms. Aura was not supposed to be involved,” he said, rubbing his jaw, “That was unfortunate, but Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth’s grand plan adapted to it. As for lying about justice, well, sometimes it’s necessary– only for the greater justice, Ray.”
Is it him you’re trying to convince, or me, Robert?
Both. Not that I need to convince you. You know the truth would hurt him, and you don’t want that.
Ray bit his lip, before glancing off to the side. He didn’t seem entirely convinced as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“I suppose…” He grimaced “the light of the star of justice is sometimes eclipsed by the moon of duty, I guess. But I don’t know what could be important enough to…to make everyone think you’d been executed on live TV over…especially with all that ‘Phantom’ stuff. I don’t get it. It hurt a lot of people to watch! Everyone in the department…”
“It hurt me too, a lot.” Robert gazed at Ray’s face in the rearview mirror as he drove down the highway. “But after the Phantom stole my identity on that day and impersonated me while he committed that gruesome murder– suddenly I was involved in a web of intrigue. Mr. Edgeworth and Interpol asked me if I’d cooperate in a plan to draw out other members of the Phantom’s organization so they could move up the chain of command and punish them in the name of justice.”
“Stepping into the darkness of the abyss to save everyone from something terrible…” Ray pushed his hands through his hair, smoothing it back and away from his youthful face. He hadn’t smiled yet, but some of the tension between his eyebrows had softened into what seemed to mostly be worry and confusion.
“It’s awfully heroic, sir…what ah..” he trailed off “what happened to the Phantom?”
“I’m not at liberty to disclose that, thanks to interpol,” he said, scowling. “And I’d prefer not to think about the man who stole my face. But, I’m happy to report that the mission was a fantastic success. Thanks to the public mock trial, we lured out the badguys and got them on the back foot. Two more of them are in custody now. And all it cost me was my life.”
Is that even really a lie, Bobby?
It feels like a lie. It’s not the whole truth.
Despite the inner conflict, the Phantom summoned the ability to laugh out loud at his own dark joke about his death.
He reached over and scooped an arm around Ray’s shoulders.
Ray shifted across the seat with a flush, blinking a little dazedly as he laughed along with his musical little laugh, at least until he grimaced with an audible.
“Oough…” He half fell into Robert’s embrace as he made a quiet sniffle of a sound “all it cost you was your life!”
Ray’s shoulders shook gently for a moment before he flashed a bright smile. “well. That sounds like Interpol, from what Miss Andrews always tells me! It sounds like it was terrifying sir, but as long as we got the badguys, the day is saved!”
Something in that enthusiasm seemed a little forced.
Ray was confused. And still uncertain about everything that had happened. Robert certainly understood that. But he knew how to deal with Ray. He’d been doing so for the last six months, making certain that he wasn’t paying attention to anything that would cast suspicion on him.
It was manipulative.
Obviously it was manipulative.
Robert had been lying and manipulating people his whole life.
“The day is saved,” he repeated with his own much more natural forced enthusiasm. “So how about we celebrate my return, Ray? As ‘Halblicht’ at least, for however long that’s necessary.”
Ray Hoshino’s face flushed a deeper shade of pink, and as he often did, seemed to glance for prying eyes before he relaxed somewhat and answered with a lopsided little smile.
“Sounds like a plan, Bob….Rrrobert? Yeah, Robert.” he laughed, and when he smiled the light seemed to catch his jacket again to make it as bright as his grin. “Let’s celebrate…it’s not every day someone comes back from the…fake…dead, after all!”
They laughed. “Oh it’s weird to hear you call me Robert! But yes, it’s not every day. It’s an occasion worth celebrating. And I hope to make up at least a little bit for scaring you.”
It is weird to hear him call us Robert. Do you think everyone’s going to start doing that?
Probably not.Ray’s foot scuffed gently against the floor of the cab, and some of his usual smile crossed his face.
“well sir…I won’t lie and say i wouldn’t be happy with a little making up for it. Miss Andrews and Detective Byrde can probably attest that I wasn’t in my finest form for a …a week. Or so.”
“I’ll be sure to ask them about it so I can properly regret having upset you so terribly, detective Hoshino!” he chuckled, and smiled at him. “But honestly, I feel absolutely terrible about it that I couldn’t let you know until now.”
Robert…. you know um, when you think about it there are other things we haven’t let him know about either. I mean it sounds like we’re going to take him on a date, and…
And…
He doesn’t know about Simon. And Simon doesn’t know about him.
“I mean…I guess you couldn’t help it, sir.” Ray gave him a weak smile “interpol’s high level stuff…and while they’re fighting for justice too, I know they got their secrets. I..I’m not gonna hold that against you, okay?”
He pumped his fist “so let’s enjoy our d…” he turned a vivid scarlet “outing.”
They gave him a thumbs up. “Let’s enjoy it together!”
We’ll tell Simon later today, Bobby. Maybe he can help us figure out how to handle the… situation.
Bobby sighed internally. At least he could tell that Robert was trying. But it was some situation!
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