( No Title )
Lucifer Was an Angel As Well (25956 words) by thesavagesabretooth
Summary: Kristoph Gavin has woven a dark spell around all the people in his life, and now, Vera Misham, once the victim of his poison, is the victim of that same spell, too. Despite the best efforts of Miles Edgeworth to look out for Vera’s well being and her future, the true ‘guardian angel’ that she takes advice from is the man who would have been her killer.
After corresponding with her for years from prison, and convincing her to join the police force as a forensic detective, Kristoph tells her that there’s a way she can help him. That he can, with her word, become a prosecutor as community service, and perhaps stay his sentence. She can be his detective.
Jumping at the chance, like a fly diving into a spider’s web, Vera becomes part of the web of intrigue and twisted relationships that Kristoph has made of his life, learning his secrets and his evils one by one, as he draws her ever closer into the darkness of his embrace.
Please mind the full AO3 tags!
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August 29, 2028– 4:55 pm
After a few minutes of chatter, Klavier waved her out of the kitchen, and grabbing some snacks under one arm, settled with her in the spacious and tasteful living room. Here and there Vera could see the evidence of his occupancy, haphazard afterthought, stapled into a room that was tailor made for someone else. Old movie and rock posters had been framed and put on the walls, and Vera could see light spaces where other pictures had been removed.
Whoever’s taste it was that had originally decorated the room, she didn’t think it was Kristoph. The devil’s taste was warm, and comfortable. The living room’s appointment was sharp, and unyielding.
Klavier threw himself half over one armchair, draping himself like a coat over it with his legs crossed and hanging off the arm. Vera sat on a couch across from him, and Vongole immediately leapt up and curled up next to her.
Vera looked around the room with a soft hum. She liked the devil’s warm and comfortable style– she liked Mr. Klavier’s intentional and brash style too in its own way.
She did not like the original occupant’s. She could only imagine it must have been decorated to their father’s taste, from everything she’d been told. It made her feel small, penned in by the sharp and oppressive opulence.
She idly petted Vongole with a tilt of her head towards one of the posters. “Who’s that one of?”
“Hmm?” Klavier had been off in the distance again, but he turned his head when she pointed. “Oh that’s Ziggy. My idol, ja? I wish I could pull off a look as good as that.”
“I’ve never heard him.” She leaned on her hand with a subtle smile. “But I can see how he inspired you.”
Klavier ran his fingers through his hair showing the shaved down part, and Vera saw that it was quite like the man in the picture.
“He’s one of the real gods of rock,” Klavier chuckled. “I pay my respects.”
“I think you’re paying a lot of respect.” Vera nodded her head. She giggled softly. “you’ve got his hair. Are you gonna be going back to music, Mr. G— Klavier?”
“Who can say?” he said with a little smile. “It pains me to leave it for so long. But… I don’t know. A band is like a family, Fraulein, and my little musical family is in tatters.”
The look on his face told her a lot about how he felt about his blood family as well. Klavier Gavin smiled as well as he could, but he looked like the most miserable man in the world.
Vera felt a sting of guilt. It’d been so long since they’d really talked, and she couldn’t seem to help but remind him of things that hurt.
She bit her lip, scratching the dog’s head thoughtfully.
“I heard some about that from Trucy…” she murmured. “Hey, Klavier?”
He cocked his head, giving her the same kind of probing look she’s seen his brother give. “Ja, fraulein?”
She opened up her pad on her lap, and began to sketch as she often did when her nerves rose up inside her.
She looked up at him with a smile. “Ah…family is…difficult. I know that too. A musical family or no…”
He pushed his hair out of his face and smiled. “Ja, it’s true. And I have someone in jail from both families. Fate plays jokes like that, I suppose.”
Vera’s fingers tightened on her lap “Mr. Kristoph and…and Mr. Crescend, yes?”
She only knew the case details of that fateful serenade. The details she’d gleaned from the information passed on to her that made their way into her work. She mostly knew that it had hurt Mr. Klavier deeply.
“Ja. We were best friends for a while, I thought. But it turns out I did not know him at all.” She watched him turn his head away and take a sip of his soda. His fingers played on the neck of the bottle like fingering a guitar. “I think maybe I am a bad judge of character.”
Vera bit her lip.
“No worse than anyone else…” She leaned a little towards him, balancing her bottle between her hands “he acted as a friend, so you saw him as one.”
“Turns out he hated me all along,” Klavier murmured. “Just a means to an end. But I shouldn’t be putting this on you, fraulein. I beg your pardon.”
Klavier’s speech was funny to listen to. It was like he had three ways of talking all mashed up together. The german words. The casual, speaking and slang. And… polite and eloquent, just like her guardian angel.
“It’s okay,” Vera watched him with her wide, dark eyes. It was a fascinating combination, pinging different parts of her attention with every word. It was familiar, reminiscent, yet distinctly different…intentionally different. She could only imagine he affected the German and casual slang to differentiate himself from his brother.
She sipped her soda. “You look like you could use someone to talk to…and I make an excellent angel on the shoulder.“
"An angel, fraulein? I’m afraid I haven’t done anything to warrant a visit from a creature like that.” He smiled, winding his fingers through the length of his hair. “I’m happy just for a friendly ear. But it’s you I should be listening to! You have a big change coming up..”
Vera nodded slowly.
“I do. I’ve been living on my own for a while…but I’m going to be in a dorm in the barracks and everything. She raised her thumb to her lips. “Learning , trying to be stronger…”
“I think you’re doing a very good job,” he said with a smile. “It’s brave of you even to try, fraulein. Police academy will throw you right into the deep end of the world…”
She chuckled softly, almost biting her nail again before she stopped herself. “Part of me is a little worried I may drown.”
“You have lots of people watching out to make sure that doesn’t happen, I think. You can count me among them. I know prosecutor Edegworth has been looking out for you too.”
Vera smiled behind her fingers.
“He has been…Edgeworth, Pearl…others… and you have been too?” Her eyes glanced up to look at him “I know with all your support I’ll make my dream come true.”
“I’m glad, Fraulein.” He smiled the same gentle smile she knew from her guardian angel, and for a moment he looked just like him. “But I have to wonder, how did you get the idea to become a cop of all things?”
Vera’s eyes lingered on his smile for a long moment, her heart skipping a beat, before she shook her head.
“I…” She bit her lip. “Someone I care for had recommended it to me when I mentioned feeling…disillusioned and uninspired in my art.”
“Prosecutor Edgeworth?” he asked. He cocked his head. Something in his voice told her he wasn’t at all sure of his guess.
“N-no, but he was a little sad when I told him.” Vera chewed her lip. “..I think the idea of me going into law enforcement worries him. But I’m adamant.”
“He’s protective,” Klavier chuckled. He twirled his finger in his hair thoughtfully. “Pearl Fey, then? I heard she’s going to be doing the same thing…”
“Pearl and I have been talking about it for a while…we even planned to become roommates.” It wasn’t a lie, but she knew the danger of confirming or denying too much. She danced around the subject of her guardian angel.
Suddenly the prosecutor’s eyes sharpened on her like the gaze of a snake.
“Oh really?”
Vera nervously tugged at the braid in her hair, nodding slowly as she watched his eyes.
“Really! She’s really getting into it…I think she’s going to be one of the greatest detectives the precinct’s ever seen…it’s inspiring.”
“I expect it is,” he said, smiling. HIs fingers played musically on the neck of his bottle again. “You’re both wearing your hair differently too– but not the same as each other, ja?”
Vera shook her head.
“no, not the same as one another. She’s cut it down really far…it’s handsome on her…very curly.” Vera tilted her head, the fringe of hair over her eyes shifting. “I couldn’t part with my hair…though I..I wanted to try a more mature style.”
“More mature, ja,” Klavier nodded. His gaze pierced her for a long moment more, and then he looked away. “You smell like him, you know. His cosmetics.”
Even as her breath hitched in her chest, caught, she knew it was true. She’d taken his advice and recommendations in his letters.
Vera went pale, and her fingers tightened around the bottle with an audible crinkle of the plastic that caused her to jump.
“You can…can smell that?” she asked in a tone she realized was shaky. She cut herself off and nervously started to sketch again.
“Kristoph and I were very close,” he said. It was the first time she’d ever heard him say his name. “And he was always going on about what he liked to wear. I wouldn’t be able to ignore it if I tried, fraulein. And I have been trying.”
He cocked his head again, looking back at her perhaps to gauge her reaction.
She’d started to shake as she sketched, falling silent once more as she often did when cornered and unsure.
She looked up at him through the fringes of her hair, very aware of the way her subtly painted nails caught the light as her pencil moved across the paper.
Klavier was silent for a long moment, the only sound in the room was that of her pencil on the paper. Vongole, it seemed, was immune to the tense atmosphere.
Finally, Klavier asked, “Do you talk to him often?”
Vera’s brow furrowed for a moment, and she trembled against the couch before she added something to the sketch she was drawing.
She held it up…the rough image of an angel with wings outstretched and letters falling below into a rough sketch of a pair of long fingered hands.
She nodded slowly at Klavier with the barest ‘ah’ of a sound, all she could make– frozen up as she was.
He stared at the sketch, taking it in for another long, quiet moment.
He fell back in his chair, like a puppet with all his strings cut. “I’m sorry, Fraulein. I made you upset. I wasn’t trying to do that.”
She shook her head quickly, before she turned the page and sketched again. This time, it was a rough picture of a hug, and a ‘sorry’ in her elegant signature.
He smiled a little and nodded.
“Cat got your tongue. I understand. I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. It’s… an instinct, I guess. Prosecutor.”
She took a deep series of breaths before she smiled nervously.
“…g-going to have to get used to that…as a detective.” She brushed her hair away from her eyes. “sorry..you just su-surprised me. “
He chuckled, looking away. “Ja, you will have to get used to it. But I didn’t need to do it to you in the damned living room. I have no right to interrogate you.”
Vera hugged her notebook to her chest “You’ve already figured it out.” she murmured quietly “so I’ll make my confession.”
She looked up at him with a nervous and shaky smile.
“I’ve been writing letters to Mr. Kristoph since…since a little after I woke up, Klavier. He’s given me advice on ..on how to get out of my father’s shadow, and how to face the world…and been my companion in the written word.” She looked down at her lap, away from Klavier’s face. “He’s the one who suggested becoming a detective to me.”
“Ja, fraulein,” Klavier nodded with a sigh. “I was getting that impression. Can I ask a follow up question, liebchen?”
“Y-yes si-Mr. Klavier?” Vera’s fingers nervously tore at the corner of her sketchpad’s page.
He smiled at her and rubbed his face and neck awkwardly, looking entirely lost.
“Fraulein– why? Do you have an answer to that, or did it just seem… natural.“
Vera looked up at him.
“Why…why did he write me? Or why did I write back…and take his advice?”
"The second one,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “I have stopped trying to understand why he does things.”
Vera chewed her lip thoughtfully. “I can’t …can’t say for certain why I started. He never apologized for poisoning me or utilizing my talent to…to disbar Mr. Wright, but…h-he’d always been so kind to me, so polite when I was younger…I just responded.”
She looked down at her sketchpad at the drawing of the angel .“…I’d always seen him as my guardian angel– or the devil watching over me, after all. He’d killed my father, but that freed me from his hold…even if it was meant to free me in a different way. So I’d written back…and after that, he responded…twice a week.”
She tightened her grip on the edge of the paper. “His advice was always sound, always polite and sweetly spoken, and– and It’s only ever put me in a better position to face the world. I took it because despite everything I trust him…and…and I …”
She couldn’t finish the sentence, her eyes glancing shyly away from Klavier’s face. She couldn’t let him know how deeply she found herself caring for the devil who’d hurt him.
Klavier never took his eyes off her as she spoke. A few times his lips moved, as if he was repeating something that she’d said, but soundlessly.
Finally he drew a deep breath, and she heard the shudder in it, and he smiled. “Well, fraulein, that certainly makes sense in its own way. He does give very good advice. And it makes him seem so very trustworthy…”
Vera raised her painted nails to her lips, barely resisting the urge to bite them as he watched her. Her heart beat too fast in her chest, she almost felt faint as she responded.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Klavier.” Her thumb rested against her lips as she dropped into a murmur. “…I visited him today.”
“Is that why you came to see me?” There was a plaintive tone in his voice, but Vera couldn’t tell which answer he was hoping for.
Vera curled slightly into herself.
“…I wanted to see you. I’d been so busy lately, and so have you, that I had missed our lunch outings.” Her fingers tore the edge of the paper into strips. “…but he was the one who suggested I visit you…so we could keep one another company.”
“Was that what he said?”
Vera nodded as her teeth grazed the pad of her thumb. “Yes.”
Klavier sighed and sat up properly in his chair for the first time. The posture made him look even more like his brother. “I’m sorry, Fraulein, I do not mean to make you so nervous. I’m…. also nervous. I’m all wound up.”
“I can tell… I know it’s probably a lot, and..difficult, for you. Your brother is a complicated subject.” She chewed on her lip. “…I think he thought we could maybe bring one another comfort while…while s-situations changed.”
“A very complicated subject,” he murmured. “Fraulein… forgive me another prosecutor question. I understand how your situation is changing– but what you imply is something about my own, too… ja?”
“In a fashion… Kristoph has asked Prosecutor Edgeworth if he can take the same sort of deal that Simon had in Prison. Working– working in the courtroom while he lives out his sentence. So…so you may see him there, if it’s approved.”
“Scheisse…” he hissed. “Are you serious? No. No, of course you’re serious, that’s a stupid question.”
“I ..I am serious. And it may stay his sentence, possibly. I asked if I could be assigned to him,” she continued in a quiet voice. “Once I graduate.To watch over him.”
Klavier rubbed his face and took a breath. “Of course you did. He really has you under his spell, ja, fraulein? He… can be like that. So you want to save his life. You want to watch over him.”
“Under his spell…” Vera murmured it thoughtfully as she brought her thumb to her lips. “I suppose you could say that…the devil has his ways of ensnaring a soul…”
She tilted her head with a frail smile. “I want to save him from execution like he saved me from my– ” her father, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. “My situation. I want to be the one to watch over him…for a few reasons.”
Prosecutor Gavin seemed to know anyway. He shook his head.
“You mean he saved you from your father, don’t you?” He bit his lip, and then took a long drink of his soda, finishing it off. “Mein gott. So even though he nearly killed you as well, you feel like you owe him a debt.”
Vera nervously raised her drink to her lips and took a sip before reaching out to pet Vongole who happily leaned into her pets, changing position for better access..
“I do mean that, Mr. Klavier…” She kept her eyes averted down at her lap. “It’s true I almost died. I’ll always remember that second of pain before the poison took me, but I can’t hate him for it. A debt, I ..suppose so. He’s done a lot for me, even behind bars.”
“Ja… I can imagine it feels that way, fraulein.” He leaned back in his chair, his arms less crossed than they were protectively around himself. “He can be like that. He makes himself seem very… protective. And you are right– his advice is very good. Nine times out of ten.”
“Nine times out of ten…” Vera murmured, before looking up at him. His posture, his tension– she was pretty sure she knew the root cause.
“The tenth time will seem like very good advice at first, too, fraulein. But let’s remember where taking his own advice got him.”
“Prison.” Vera bit her lip with a glance up at his eyes. “I know you’re worried about me being…manipulated, or led astray…”
“Or betrayed. Or discarded. Or used.” He agreed, counting on his fingers. There was a heat in his voice but it wasn’t directed at her.
“He’s done it before…?” Vera asked with a quiet tone. “…has he done it to you?”
He spread his hands. “What do you think, fraulein? You know about his crimes. Yes he used me– he manipulated me, and used me to disbar Phoenix Wright when I was barely yet a man.”
Vera shifted on the couch with a quiet nod
“He did…it was a cruel manipulation that had a ripple effect felt even today. And it wasn’t kind to you.”
“It was not, liebchen, it was not kind at all. He did not consult with me on his doings. And why would he? By that point he had already purchased your forgery and was plotting to kill you.” Klavier shook his head. “I’m sure he knew I might be persuaded or bribed to do some things– but not murder a child.”
Vera’s fingers wound together on her lap, just over the neck of the bottle she held between her knees.
“It’s not in your nature, and it was a hard thing for him to explain away…so you knew nothing.” she murmured. “…that sounds like the devil’s work, Mr. Klavier.”
“Ja, fraulein. You speak the truth. My brother has much in common with the devil. His sweet face and his sweet lies being chief among them.”
Vera brushed her fingers through her fringed hair, nodding.
“I’ve known him as the devil since the day we met…but…” She smiled wistfully. “The devil was once an angel, and by that token, even the devil can be a guardian angel despite his sins. Even the lies hold a measure of truth..”
“Supposing you can tell the lies from the truths, sure, fraulein. But then you would be some sort of fairytale hero.” He sighed, and did the same as she, toying with his hair.
She laughed with a shake of her head.
“I…I know I’m nothing like that. I’m just a girl who survived an atroquinine attack. Just a former artist.” Her fingers tightened around one another. “But I know he’s been as much the devil on my shoulder as he has been my guardian angel…and taking his advice has eased me out of the house and into the world I wasn’t born to have been a part in.”
“I can’t say that’s a bad thing,” he murmured, leaning back in the chair and spreading himself out again just a little bit. “That’s good… that you’ve been getting out. But surely you didn’t need his advice for that? With Mr. Edgeworth, and Pearl and such?”
“They were a fantastic help,” Vera smiled at him. “They always have been. The same with Trucy…and even sometimes Mr. Wright.”
She twisted the braid around her fingers. “But even long before them…he’d been looking out for me. And when I thought he’d discard me after the trial– he wrote again, even if it bore no immediate benefit to him.”
“No immediate benefit,” he murmured in echo. “But look what it’s gotten him now. My brother knows how to play the long game, liebling. I have watched him play it.”
Vera put her hand to her chin. “The long game…so you think this has all been by design?”
“Ja, fraulein, that would be my guess.” He wove his fingers together thoughtfully, his voice tense. “Maybe not this specific scenario, but you can see how it would be useful for him to have his own victim speak on his behalf? For parole hearings. To speak on his character. It looks good and my brother is very good at looking good. It’s been years, you say. But let me tell you about Phoenix Wright.”
Vera knew all about Phoenix Wright. His disbarment had been a tale woven in the fabric of her own work, her first original work of fabrication ever made– and far from the last. Her photographic memory captured every detail garnered from the trial, the papers, the video evidence and the years since.
She knew Kristoph Gavin had played ‘best friend’ to Phoenix Wright for years only to have destroyed him and pinned the blame for the murder of Trucy’s father on him. Then to be caught in a game of forged evidence and manipulation.
More than almost anyone save likely Klavier, she knew the long games Kristoph Gavin could play and the gambits he could make. Every kind word could be a lie.
That didn’t make the ache in her heart any less real. It didn’t change the fact that she wanted her guardian angel nearby, or that she wanted to help him never make the same mistakes that led him to prison again.
It didn’t stop the fact that she loved him. But how could she explain it to Klavier without sounding like some lovesick kid on the path of willful self destruction like a wandering lamb?
“If you want to, Mr. Gavin.” she murmured quietly.
“I can see it in your eyes, fraulein,” he said, as if echoing her thoughts. “I can smell it in your hair. You want to be his, ja? You want his affection, and his attention? For seven long years he gave these things to Phoenix Wright. They were lovers, you know.”
That, Vera did not know.
Kristoph had never spoken of it.
Vera couldn’t help but gasp, even as her face burned hot and her breath grew short.
He knew…he could tell. He understood her most secret wish– and it made her feel small and vulnerable.
“T..they were?”
“Ja, they were, fraulein,” he nodded. She saw a tender look in his eyes that might have been pity, or might just have been nostalgia. “They dated. I won’t sugar coat it for you, you are an adult now. They fucked. They had a relationship. In private of course. Such things are not considered above board in our society. But if you don’t believe me, you can ask Trucy Wright.”
It wasn’t surprising that Kristoph had never mentioned it in his letters. They had never even skirted the subject of love, or lovers. To an unfamiliar eye, all of their correspondence was simple and– like the term Klavier had used– above board.
Vera’s face turned a deeper red.
“Oh…my…” she murmured. “No wonder Mr. Wright seems so hurt and bitter..”
“Ja, Fraulein,” Klavier leaned forward toward her in the chair, his arms resting on his knees. “Listen to me, leibchen. My brother played a dirty trick in court to have Phoenix Wright disbarred– just for upstaging him! And then he played a funny game where he was the hero rooting for Wright all along. He voted against his disbarment. He became his friend. His lover. He was like an uncle to Trucy. And then look what happened.”
Vera’s fingers tightened on her lap.
It was true, of course. He’d turned it all away in what seemed to be an instant. He’d betrayed all those connections, Trucy, Phoenix Wright, his brother– for reasons Vera couldn’t fathom. He’d poisoned her with her favorite things in the world.
But she still couldn’t bring herself to turn away from him.
“Don’t you wonder–” she whispered, “why he’d do it?”
Klavier’s jaw was tight, and he looked away from her. “Every day, fraulein. Every night. Every moment. I do not understand it. He was my brother. I admired him. He had practically raised me. Sometimes he could be cold, cruel even, but I thought he cared, Liebling. I do not– I don’t know why he would just throw everything away.”
The subtext was clear. What Klavier was really saying was I don’t know why he’d throw me away.Vera’s fingers twisted gently against one another , and she looked up at him with tired eyes.
“And I’d like to know why he sought to poison me one day and guide me the next.” She bit her lip. “…there’s reasons behind everything he’s done, Klavier. I don’t know them… but I want to.”
Her hair had fallen back into her face as her breath shuddered along with her shaking shoulders. “…If he really wanted to throw you, or everything else away– he wouldn’t have asked me to come see you. What does he have to gain from– from telling the person you’re sure he’s manipulating to come to one of the people who’s most suspicious of his actions?”
Klavier shook his head, his pale hair falling around his face.
“I don’t know, liebling. I don’t know. My brother thinks five steps ahead of everyone else. There may be something to gain in him sending you here. He knows I will not tell his secrets to the world outside, even now. ’This stays between us, Klavier’, ‘this is a family matter, little brother, it’s our secret’. He knows I won’t tell on you– and perhaps he has something to gain by making me see your perspective. Making me question him again after I’ve shut my heart to him.”
Klavier’s breaths were shallow now, and his eyes were distant. He was living somewhere else for the moment, somewhere else in time.
“I’m sorry, Klavier.” Vera murmured softly and she traced her pencil over her sketchpad after opening it near Kristoph’s furry old companion.
“You’ve spent a long time shutting him out, haven’t you? I’m..I’m sorry to have come to your home and to bring doubt to your door.” She looked up with a shaky smile. “I– I know everything you’ve said was true. But I can’t help the way I feel..”
She held up her sketch, the image of a hug on it. “…do you need one? I don’t want to distress you.”
“You smell like him,” he murmured. It seemed apropos of nothing at first, then he held out his arms. “Come on then, I won’t say no to a hug, fraulein. It’s a powerful medicine.”
Vera shifted off the couch, and placed the drink down before she hurried over to wrap her slender arms around Klavier Gavin in as firm a hug as she could manage, practically falling in his lap.
“It is.” she murmured. “…I could use a hug too.”
“I’ll just bet you could, Fraulein,” he huffed a hollow chuckle and he wrapped his arms tightly around her, giving her a squeeze.His chest expanded and his breath shuddered as he held her.
She took soft, shaky breaths of her own as she let her head rest against his chest.
“You look a little like him when you smile,” she murmured. “That time…in the court room when I first saw you in person, my heart nearly stopped.”
“Ja,” he nodded. “That’s why I cut my hair.”
He leaned his chin against the top of her head, and drew a long breath of it, probably smelling her shampoo.
It was his shampoo– he’d told her which brands were best, which cosmetics were worth owning. The best nail polish in its crystal bottle, the best shampoo to accentuate the gentle curls of her hair, the best soap to keep her skin soft.
Lotions and mascara and lip gloss. It was no wonder she smelt like him– and yet Klavier didn’t seem to mind.
She held him a little tighter. “It ..it looks nice on you, Mr. Klavier.”
“Thank you liebling, I–” he broke off and shook his head, still holding her. “There is nothing I can say that will dissuade you from your course, is there?”
“Do you wish there was?” she whispered against his shoulder.
“I don’t know, fraulein. I don’t know my own feelings,” he said. “But if there is not– if you mean to continue then there is one thing that you must understand at all costs.”
“There isn’t… I’m on this path and I can’t be dissuaded from it.” Her eyes closed tightly. “I’m listening, Mr. Klavier.”
“There is one lie you must never believe, liebchen,” he said, stroking her hair as she leaned on him. “You must never believe him if he says that you are the only one. In his heart. in his bed. In the strings he pulls.In his web. There will be others. There are always others.”
Vera was quiet for a long moment as she leaned into his hand.
There are always others. Other’s under his sway like she knew she must be, and as he said– others in his heart and in his bed.
Her fingers tightened against Klavier, her breath held as the thought turned in her mind. Was she jealous? Scared? Fear was a familiar feeling to her, and it didn’t taste the same on her tongue. Jealousy…that was utterly unfamiliar though. How would she even know it if she felt it?
Or was this something else? Her painted nails curled against Klavier’s shirt as her eyes stared blankly into the darkness of their mingled shadows. Did she really care if there were others? As long as one of the strings binding her to his web was hers alone? As long as a piece of him was hers just as a piece of her, a large piece of her much to her worry, belonged so clearly to him?
Did the affairs of others matter, if she got the attention, the affection she craved and could share the affections that swirled inside her before they tore her apart?
She didn’t realize she’d started to murmur. “…promise…I promise..”
“Good girl, liebchen,” he murmured, petting her hair. “I am sorry to hurt you this way, but better you hear it now than later. You can steel your heart the way that… others could not.”
She nuzzled against his hand, her heart skipping in her chest.
“…better now than later…I promise, I’ll..I’ll steel my heart for anything. In honor of them.”
Her eyes closed as the thought of just who– and how many– Klavier meant flashed through her mind. Did he mean himself? Mr Wright? People she’d never even met?
“My heart was strong enough to survive the poison,” she murmured “It’ll be strong enough to survive this path.”
“So far, like the poison, perhaps you are the only one,” he sighed. He hugged her tight, and then released her, finally. “You’re wondering who I’m speaking of.”
She nodded, still sitting quite close to him. Her next words came out in a soft murmur as he made room for her to sit in the big chair with him.
“Perhaps… I’d like if I wasn’t the sole survivor.“ She brushed her hair from her eyes “but I’m curious– despite theories.”
He put his arm around her shoulder. "Hah! Tell me your theories, fraulein.”
She leaned against him. “…so far…Mr. Wright and… yourself, Mr. Klavier.”
Klavier turned immediately scarlet and she felt his body tense against her. He looked away, running his fingers through his hair.
“What a thing to say, liebling.” He hesitated, but his voice, and his movement, told her everything she needed to know.
Vera nodded slowly. “…I’d thought so.”
Kristoph Gavin, her guardian angel– her devil– had claimed the soul and body of his own brother as well.
He tugged on the strands of his hair still looking away from her. “So you’ve guessed the family secret. Ja, fraulein. You may count me among that poisoned number. I know it’s a secret you won’t tell– because it would ruin him, and you love him.”
“I do…with all my distorted heart.” She looked up at him with her dark eyes starting to water. She bit her lip. “I won’t tell– not just for him, but for you. Our secret…shared. I’m sorry he hurt you, Mr. Klavier.”
“So am I, liebling. And I am sorry that he will hurt you, and that I cannot stop it from happening.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “The other that I know is Apollo Justice. There may be others. There probably are. Justine Courtney, perhaps.”
There were rumors about Apollo Justice– and Klavier. The tabloids had sometimes tried to paint them as boyfriends.
She flushed a little deeper, brushing her hair over her ear.
“…Apollo…”
The name brought a little flash of joy to her, a sparking of warmth at the man who’s defense saved her life quite literally…of course he was also entangled in this.
Wrapped up in Kristoph Gavin’s web along with her.
“I see…and Miss Courtney as well?” her eyes downcast thoughtfully. “Fellows in the devil’s gaze.”
Klavier waved his hand. “Courtney I only guess at. I know they were lovers in school. I have no idea if she’s still in his sway. Who can say? But trust me when I say there are others, and those we’ve spoken of I have no doubt–”
He paused, and shook his head.
Her fingers darted to his shirt, winding against the fabric as he took a deep breath. “…I..I see. But..please, no doubt that what?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged, helplessly. "I have no doubt they have been his in the past. And might be again if you let the tiger out of his cage. Who knows. You know the spell my brother casts.”
She nodded quietly.
“I know it intimately well, sir. But I…I’m sorry that I feel I have to let him out.” Was this a plea for forgiveness? Or a hope that he’d understand. “I hope…I hope the spell doesn’t draw any of them who want to truly escape it back in. But I have to…I have to become his…his detective. At the very least.”
At that, Klavier chuckled. “A detective for him? Or a detective of him? Both, I expect, ja? If you solve the mystery of Kristoph Gavin, fraulein, truly you will be the greatest detective of all time.”
She giggled, she couldn’t help herself.
“Both. I want to understand him, Klavier. I want to understand every side of him, masks and all. I want to watch over him. I want to explore my talents in a way that makes me feel like more than poppa’s tool…but I want to do it in service of solving mysteries by…by…his…his side.”
“You picked the right career then, fraulein– or let him lead you to it.” He smiled sadly, and pushed his hair out of his face. “As a detective, I expect you’ll always be useful to him.”
What was it Klavier had called himself in the kitchen? Charming and useless?
Charming and useless. She could only imagine that was how he must have felt when his brother used him to frame Phoenix and cast him away.
She bit her lip.
“I..I expect I will be…the blessing of always– always being useful.” Her hand reached up to touch his hair. “Mr. Klavier…?”
“Yes, fraulein Vera?” he cocked his head, looking at her with his distant blue eyes.
She gave him her best smile, subtle and quiet as it was.
“…I think you’re a pretty amazing person. Even if you say you’re useless. I can speak of my own experience and say you., you’re admirable. Kind– friend.”
He smiled back at her, and squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you, fraulein. Why don’t we do something, ja? Something normal. Something fun. A game or a movie or something. Something to cleanse the palate of all this dark talk of poisons and spells.”
Vera nodded quietly. “That sounds– ” she pressed her hand to her face to wipe away the last of her unfallen tears. “That sounds fun, actually.”
Klavier immediately smiled more broadly. "Good. To me, too. I only have one more very little question for you on this black subject, and then we will put it away in the dark where it belongs, ja?”
“Alright, Mr. Klavier.” she said with an attempt to smile as well. “..I’m listening.”
“If I speak to him– if–,” he emphasized the word. “Do I have your permission to mention you, and that we spoke? I won’t do so without your permission.”
Vera’s eyes widened, and she nodded slowly.
“You can. To him. Just don’t tell anyone else.” She put her finger to her lips. “Our secret, .please. But you can tell him. I think he already knows.”
He put his hand against his heart.
“Our secret,” he promised. “I am good at secrets, fraulein. I will tell him nothing he does not know already– and speak nothing that can be understood by another.”
She hugged him again with a shaky laugh. “Thank you, Klavier!”
He hugged her back– and stood up, tugging her up with him with strong arms. “Wonderful, liebling. Now, let’s go do something fun. Do you feel like stretching your legs, or sitting in front of a television?”
Vera felt, in a way, that she had been somehow let into the family.
She wondered if that was what Kristoph had in mind all along. She wondered if it was a position which was possible to escape.
Her arm tightened around Klavier Gavin as he helped her to her feet. As she was now, she had no way of knowing the twisting thoughts and complicated weave of Kristoph’s mind beyond only her inklings, guesses and twisted fascination.
Yes– she was certain that in this she’d been welcomed into the family. Absolutely certain that as he requested a game from Klavier Gavin that she was allowing the jaws of some great machination to close around her with a knowing smile.
For better or for worse, there may have been no escape at all.
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