#So klavier trusts his brother because he’s been the only support only family he’s had in forever

[cala-aceattorney]

Trying to see something;

Like if you think kristoph never cared about klavier or apollo. comment about why you think he doesnt care about them!

reblog if you think Kristoph has a heart and feels emotions! feel free to tag your thoughts or headcanons on how Kristoph acts around people he trusts :))))))

[ronsenburg]

i saw this post and IMMEDIATELY started writing an essay, so I moved it here so as not to clutter up someone else’s post...........

it absolutely blows my mind that, today in 2021, i honestly can’t remember what’s canon from the turnabout serenade case, what i read in a fanficition, and what is my own personal HC. like, it’s been more than a decade since i played the case for the first time and it’s probably been 5ish years since the last time i played AJ (definitely forgot to play it again before writing youngblood which is.... contributing to this) so i really don’t know if what goes on in my head is accurate, but, over the years, i’ve come up with a Lot of Thoughts, which i’ll discuss below. 

tldr; it’s all about power (the desire for, the subversion of, the need to maintain), but if you’d like the specifics, here you go:

daryan: i think the explanation that he did it for “the money” is a line. please don’t mistake me, daryan is an asshole and a murderer, im not discounting that, but in court ive always thought that he was playing the part that everyone- especially klavier- is expecting of him. he’s the bad guy. might as well make it a finale for the books.

i’ve always seen daryan and klavier as opposite sides of the same coin when it comes to family and career aspirations. where i imagine klavier came from a well off and well loved family before his parents died, i see daryan from a working class, difficult upbringing. i read a few papers on the psychology of children/parenting style of police officers and decided early on that daryan’s dad was also a cop. his mother is either dead or (more likely) left them early on. dad coped by working a little too hard, gambling/drinking a little too much, and was overall not around a lot and kind of an authoritarian/controller when he was. it left daryan with a lot of anger he had to cope with, about what it means to be a cop, the idea of a “just cause” and the ends justifying the means, and an issue with authority (which is laughable, considering what a bully he turned out to be. sometimes we emulate our parents unintentionally; it’s the only thing we have to model our behavior on). so daryan started off at a disadvantage. klavier started off loved and supported and surrounded by expensive belongings, but the death of his parents and the subsequent emotional and financial abuse by his newly appointed guardian/brother left him in a similar place by the time he and daryan met. i think it was probably the foundation for their bond, and i think it’s why klavier decided to become a prosecutor instead of following in his brother’s footsteps and why daryan ultimately decided to enter law enforcement as well. i think they had a lot of optimistic, idealistic thoughts on being better than the people that hurt them, on utilizing the law to make the world a better place. i don’t think klavier ever conceived that kristoph could have wanted him in the prosecutors office as another pawn to play, and i don’t think he realized how fluid daryan’s morality could be.

shipping alert—you guys know me, im crazy for the idea of a “best friends to on again off again lovers to tenuous coworkers to bitterly disappointed in but still harboring feelings for the other person despite being on opposite sides” dynamic between daryan and klavier. i honestly can’t separate the ship from the case and im sorry about it. if you read youngblood you know that i think daryan started to resent klavier pretty early on, when they were still together, when the band was still successful, because klavier was able to move forward and work through the issues of his past while daryan was seemingly stuck. yes, daryan had made detective and the gavinners were a hit, he’d risen above his initial social standing and thrown off the control his father, he had money and fame and a future. but everything he had was because of klavier. daryan needed klavier, emotionally, morally, financially. but even when klavier was professing his love for daryan, both privately and in the form of chart topping songs, he didn’t need daryan. it was obvious (and of course, healthy, but how do children of abuse learn what a healthy relationship looks like without help? especially when the only relationships you’ve ever had are codependent and, in some ways, just as toxic?) and so things spiraled. daryan got possessive and angry again and klavier got distant and they broke up and got back together and broke up and didn’t get back together but kept ending up back in each other’s arms for comfort and for support and because how the hell do you move on when the person you’ve been in love with since you were 15 is sitting next to you on a tour bus and is also your partner in a homicide case and singing songs he wrote about you on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans?

okay, shipping glasses off, sorry. but no matter how you look at their relationship, daryan’s promotion out of homicide was probably the most distance they’d had from each other in years, as it removed a large chunk of the daily “working relationship” aspect. and without klavier there to act as a moral compass, it was likely easier to slip back into his earlier thoughts about what constitutes justice and his intense hatred of being pushed around by someone who has more power than you. so enter the chief justice with a son who is sick, dying even, but can’t get the medicine he needs because there’s a government out there telling them no. The reasons are arbitrary: the medicine could be used as a poison and can’t be found anywhere else so it might come back to bite the country in the ass if it’s misused by criminals. newsflash: pretty much all medicine is poisonous if it isn’t used correctly, should we stop using penicillin entirely because some people might be allergic to it? they’ve essentially condemned a whole bunch of people to death because they’re worried about their reputation. and that doesn’t sit well with daryan, who is caught up remembering the bullshit justifications his dad would spout when he knocked him around, that kristoph would give when withholding every single penny of money klavier was entitled to until he agreed to do what kristoph wanted. it isn’t right, it isn’t fair and unfair laws shouldn’t have to be upheld, especially when they’re the unfair laws of a country you most definitely did not swear to uphold and protect. it was never about money, though daryan agrees to take it when the chief offers it to him, more for his comfort level than for daryan’s need or desire. it’s about justice and putting a bully in it’s place with a (seemingly) victimless crime that should be so easy given his role in the international division of criminal affairs and klavier’s sudden hard on for the country of borginia. seriously, how could this have been any more straightforward? daryan is capable of murder, though. all cops are. and if it came down to a “them or me” shootout, of course he’d pull the trigger. 

machi: when you come from nothing, the desire to have something of your own is overwhelming. the idea that machi is famous and financially set is disingenuous; he is not individually famous, he is Lamiroir’s “blind” pianist. yes, she views him as a son and seems to care deeply for him, but his main purpose in her life is to perpetuate a lie. machi has been abandoned before; what will happen to him if lamiroir suddenly remembers who she was in the past? what if she has a family and a true son of her own and has no use for him? what if their secret is found out and the public rejects him for his role in it? he is 14. what does he know about being provided for? about contracts and trust funds and royalties? he ended up in an orphanage originally because he was unwanted, and that led to a life of poverty and hardship. abandonment issues are rooted in fear and are rarely logical. i find it far easier to believe that machi did it for the money, but more for the power money might have given him towards independence in an unfeeling and capitalist world.

kristoph: i won’t get into this, because this is supposed to be about daryan and machi and the guitar’s serenade, and kristoph is not really involved in that at all. but i think everything that kristoph has ever done in the game, good or bad, is rooted in a pathological need to constantly be in control. i think that kristoph and klavier both have very intense personalities that they have sought to control over the course of their lives for the sake of their careers. kristoph believes that to be a good lawyer, you need to play your cards close to your chest, that to show your hand is to expose a weakness that the enemy can exploit, that to show no weaknesses at all places you in a position of power. klavier believes that to show his true self, to display his weaknesses and fears to the public, would result only in their rejection. as such, they both wear masks of their own creation even under the most intense of pressures: kristoph as pleasant and calm, klavier as magnetic and dynamic. note the primary difference in their rational? klavier wants to be wanted, while kristoph wants power. and power corrupts, after all. once you have it, what could be more overwhelming than the idea that you might lose it all? it can drive even the most rational people to commit acts of passionate irrationality in the name of holding on to that power. and kristoph has so many pieces involved in his strategy to maintain.  

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

More AA Star Wars AU, now moving to the Next Gen.

Kristoph is a Senator from an old, powerful political family who seems initially favorable to the Jedi. He worked with Phoenix during Phoenix’s initial investigations into Senator von Karma’s corruption, but he’s just been biding his time to figure out how he can frame the Jedi for treason against the Republic. Which he does. The Republic’s armies turn against the Jedi and it’s a little less massacre and a little more civil war, albeit a short one that ends with the Jedi being pretty badly massacred. But the chaos of a galaxy being suddenly plunged into a short war against what were supposed to be its peacekeepers - though who have been more and more disdained for more shutting themselves away in their temples and less trying to keep the peace - leaves time for some actual treason against the Republic to be committed.

Kristoph is busy attempting to consolidate some power and position himself as the power behind the next chancellor, and every chancellor after, and then he kind of looks around and finds that the planet of Khura’in has done some actual treason against the Republic and actually gone off and straight taken over, and this is an Empire now, with Empress Ga’ran at its head, and her husband ruling Khura’in specifically. And Kristoph is just like “what, no, this was supposed to be MY power-grabbing opportunity!” and he turns around and starts trying to track down the last of the Jedi so that he can organize them into a rebellion against this new Empire, so that when it falls, Kristoph can be the hero who leads a new government out of this empire’s ashes.

Phoenix is aware that Kristoph is a backstabbing bastard, but since he’s not running a shoot-on-sight policy against the Jedi right now, Phoenix deigns to work with him. Phoenix doesn’t trust him enough to let any of his friends work with him, though.

(I’m gonna say that the Gavins are from Naboo, simply because I think it’s funny and also makes sense that they would come from somewhere with such culturally extravagant fashions. Also this from last time we were on about this AU:

Klavier with two different extravagant hairstyles every day and Apollo’s like “we are rebels and smugglers on the run how the fuck do you do that”. I’ll come back to Klavier later.)

Miles, Franziska, Gumshoe, and Ray fled to Zheng Fa, a planet that was nominally part of the Republic, but always valued its freedom and distance from the Senate, and which has now pulled even further away from the Empire. Zheng Fa is in a position that it can be neutral on the Empire and maintain that independence, bolstered by support of its clone army, identical and terrifying soldiers in black loyal only to the royal family. Lang, no longer a Senator, is now the general of this army. Justine remains in the Galactic Senate, the powerless body that it now is, but she has sent her son to take sanctuary on Zheng Fa, afraid that someone may try to use him to get to her. Sebastian, like Lang, has left the Senate; he has some weak connection to the Force, not enough that he was taken by the Jedi, but enough that Miles is now training him in secret. Lang is glad to have their help, having previously been betrayed by his lead bodyguard, Shih-na, who turned out to be a Clawdite assassin. As is the kind of shit that happens here.

Right before the fall of the Jedi, Phoenix was given an apprentice, a Togruta girl named Trucy, who he hides away on Dathomir. He trains her as a Jedi whenever he can sneak away back to Dathomir, and while he is gone, Maya and Pearl train her in the ways of the Witches. 

Returning to the topic of Khura’in, it has always harbored dislike of the Jedi, much like Mandalore, despite Khura’in being a core world. Members of the Khura’inese royal family are often uniquely gifted in the Force; the Jedi have historically sought to bring them for training in their temples, while Khura’in refuses to give up its royal children. However, without the rigid structured training of the Jedi, these often become dangerous to themselves and their people - reckless, cruel, and susceptible to corruption by the dark side. Khura��in is often rocked by infighting, and it sees frequent turnover in its representatives in the Galactic Senate as new Queens come to power and appoint new senators. 

The citizens, and the Republic and the Jedi at large, hoped for some stability when Queen Amara gained power. She opened her planet to the overtures of the Jedi and soon married Dhurke, a Jedi Knight who had been sent on assignment to Khura’in. This is wildly against the Jedi Code, and he probably should’ve been tossed out of the Order, but the Council made an exception for him because they were desperate to build a relationship with Khura’in. Dhurke and a few other Jedi founded a training academy on Khura’in; Queen Amara was still reluctant to give Force-sensitive children up to Coruscant, but bringing aspects of that Jedi Temple training to Khura’in is a compromise everyone was willing to make. On giving birth to her first child, Amara agreed that as soon as he showed signs of Force-proficiency, she would allow the Khura’inese academy to train him, and eventually, when he was older, allow him to go to the Temple on Coruscant for further training. 

Unfortunately, Amara was assassinated, and it was blamed on her Jedi husband Dhurke. He managed to escape from the planet, taking with him the Force-sensitive children he had begun to train, and the Jedi who had come from the Temple, into exile. Some Jedi chose to stay and fight in Khura’in’s civil war to overthrow Ga’ran, while others returned to the temple on Coruscant and were told that the Jedi could not intervene, as this was a civil matter for Khura’in. After several years of fighting, Dhurke sent most of the Khura’inese padawans to Coruscant’s temple to keep them safe there; he kept with him only his own child, Nahyuta, fearing that some agent of Ga’ran’s would find Nahyuta were he in the Temple on Coruscant. 

Apollo is a Togruta boy who was found alone orphaned on Khura’in, where Dhurke took him in and began training him as a Jedi. Apollo was then sent to the temple on Coruscant and trained there; he was a teenage padawan when the Republic turned against the Jedi and he managed to escape the fighting. He eventually joined on to the crew of the Cosmos, a trader ship whose crew included pilots Starbuck and Clay, mechanic Metis, Mandalorian-exile weaponsmith Aura, and an ever-increasing number of droids that Metis and Aura built. 

Aura and her brother Simon were the children of Death Watch exiles living on Mandalore’s moon. After their parents were killed in the fighting between Death Watch and the Mandalore governing forces, the two of them left their home to sell their services as mercenaries. There they met Metis and her daughter, Athena, a Force-sensitive child who Metis refused to give up to the Jedi, and she has been on the run since, determined to keep her child whatever it took. They travel together for years and get a small ship of their own, but they are caught in the civil war between the Republic and the Jedi, attacked, and separated. Metis and Aura make it out to join a freighter crew with their skills; Aura privately blames Athena for the loss of her brother, being sure that the Republic/Empire came after them because of Athena’s Force-powers.

Simon and Athena, however, do survive, and with them Simon’s droid TK-A4 (”Taka”). Unsure of what to do next, they return to Mandalore and for a time join the Mandalorian fight against the new Empire. While they’re there, Simon steals the darksaber, because why not. Nobody else here deserves it! When Mandalore falls to the empire’s control, the two of them flee and become bounty hunters, seeking any Jedi survivors who would be able to train Athena. They hear rumors of Phoenix, and on hunting him down, he sends them to Zheng Fa for Athena to be trained by Miles.

Meanwhile, Klavier, Kristoph’s younger brother, who Kristoph’s been hoping to raise into a staunch and loyal political ally to help Kristoph with his end goals, decides that he doesn’t have the temperament for politics, and together with a member of Kristoph’s guard, Daryan, runs off to become bounty hunters. They aren’t terrible at it, but Daryan has more love for money than he does sense in his head, and deciding that it’s the real best way to get rich, Daryan, against Klavier’s wishes, turns their crew to spice smuggling and gets them caught up in a terrible triple-crossing scheme that ends with their whole crew, except Klavier and the blind Togruta bounty hunter Lamiroir, who hired onto their ship a few months prior, dead.

Left stranded, and regretting every choice that has led him to this moment, Klavier almost considers returning to his brother, and politics, but Lamiroir talks him out of it. She reminds him about all the monstrous deeds they’ve seen that the Empire has done, and how ineffective the Senate is. If they want to do something to save the galaxy, it’s got to be done from the front lines.

Apollo separates from the crew of the Cosmos, hoping to find his way back to the Khura’inese exiles and find Dhurke and Nahyuta again. He ends up crash-landing on Dathomir, where the Fey clan find him and rescue him. Trucy latches on to him immediately, eager for news of the galaxy at large, and having hoped for a pilot to find their way to Dathomir to help Trucy leave and go looking for Phoenix again, having sensed that he’s in trouble. Apollo agrees, not wanting to piss off a clan of witches when he’s at their mercy, but once they’re off the planet, Apollo and Trucy quickly find that they were both Jedi once, and bond over that and the fact that they’re both some of the only Togruta they’ve met, having both grown up amidst other species in the time since the Jedi were destroyed.

Their quest to find Phoenix, which has already waylaid Apollo’s quest of finding Dhurke, is further waylaid when they pick up a distress signal and go to the rescue of Klavier and Lamiroir. They end up banding together in opposition to the Empire, which is after them for reasons unknown (it’s Lamiroir; she doesn’t remember she used to be a Jedi), and several crime syndicates who are after Klavier for what Daryan did to screw them over. Klavier still believes the lies about the Jedi, that they were enemies of the Republic, which makes this a bit of a difficult arrangement for Apollo and Trucy. Their weird little crew is finally rounded out when Trucy’s search for Phoenix brings them to Ema, a part-time mechanic, part-time medic, who is very sick of her dull life, which has been dull since she met Phoenix like, over a decade ago, and signs onto the ship without any of them asking her to come with them. (Trucy was gonna ask though.)

They pretty much just careen around the galaxy helping people, fighting criminals and Imperials, and doing crime themselves.

-

Species Breakdown:

Human: Klavier, Kristoph (Naboo), Simon, Aura (Mandalore)

Togruta: Apollo, Trucy, Thalassa

*I decided Apollo’s a Togruta because they’ve got the montrals that could be like Apollo’s hair horns, so now the rest of his family is, too. Maybe Trucy’s only half Togruta? Maybe Zak was human. I’m not sure what concept I like best.

And everyone else again, I don’t know! Suggestions?

[chlogummy]

Do you have any headcanons about Kristoph and Klavier growing up? (I know you don't like Klavier, but.) Think he ever tried to kill him?

Hello! Thank you for your ask! ^^Oh well, I have some ideas/headcanons about them, yes! Mostly because my friends shared them and I enjoyed them though eheh. And most of the headcanons I have aren’t related to eachother either. (I apologies in advance for all the english mistakes/typos I may do or bad phrasing that could lead to confusion, that happens a lot with me T-T).So, first, I think they are from a rich familly (….maybe Von Karma related… that could explain their rich appearance, law obsession, german/european style etc). They probably lived together all alone at a certain point, (I have no idea what could have happen and when, maybe a murder that traumatized Kristoph? Could be parents murdered OR murderer parents. In any case, loosing their parents is always a traumatizing experience, and… maybe Klavier was too young to be affected). And that’s when things started to go wrong. Well I like to imagine Kristoph being a “”normal”” (I prefer to add quote marks because he is obviously mentally ill and/or toxic) brother, Taking care, raising him and all. So much talented, and cool, managing studies and taking care of them at the same time that Klavier take him as a role model. And I kind of have two ideas about it.First, Kristoph is “nice”  and he is manipulating Klavier without really noticing it (later in the game I mean, for the 7 years, after the forged evidence incident). Maybe he just really wanted to work with his brother on that case with Zak, and  the forged evidence was just personnal, he’s just laking of attention and really wanted to become more recognized for his talents than the heritage from their family, but I have an other idea in mind too. So yeah, in that way, Klavier just trust his brother a lot, because he really has never done anything to him, excepted the classical brotherly love teasing (you know what I mean if you have a brother or a sister).Second, before anything with their family happened, Kristoph was an average kid, he was working well, going to be a good defense attorney (or maybe a prosecutor?) and Then Klavier arrived. And here comes the jealousy. what if their parents played favorite with them. Klavier was maybe brillant, without really having difficulties, and their parents were so proud, and Kristoph started to feel dismissed, and that’s where his complex and need of recongnition started. So if he was going to be a prosecutor, he maybe changed to become an attorney to just be in front of Klavier in court, and that Zak case was just perfect to beat him (parents still alive or not) to proove his own talents, and so in that case, he probably manipulated Klavier from the start, pretending to be the good and supportive brother while he was so jealous. I recently talked about a headcanon of Kris being a trans man and it is highly highly easy to associate with that second one. Why? because if their family is related to the Von Karmas, if I remember well Manfred had only daughters and Franziska was the last one (I think it’s mentionned but I’m unsure, it’s maybe another headcanon ahah), that means He desesperately tried to have a son to become a prodigy, but in vain so he rised prodigy Franzy as last resort. (and then Miles came in their life, etc etc, ANYWAY it’s not what I wanted to say ahah). SO if he was born “as a girl”, and Klavier a little boy, the preference for Klavier in the family must have been even stronger!  also trans!Kris sounds realistic to me. Even if he is tall, he has so many feminine features. So yeah, Kris working hard on his own to become a prodigy even without having any support sounds plausible.I don’t know where to place it, but Klavier enjoying to be with his brother so much he is his role model probably leaded to have the same haircut. because, well this, is a big mystery to me. Why the hell does Klavier has the same haircut?? If that’s to be looking like Kris, the in the headcanon, Kris would find this cute, in the second, it would piss him of even more, but would pretend not ahah.As you can see, there is always something that happened to the Gavin family, specially to Kristoph in my headcanons. I don’t think he was born a sociopath or psychopath (I’m not familiar with those terms so I won’t say more) and that’s why I prefer to imagine him as a “normal” man who’s just.. so obsessed with his image, and because of this lack of attention/ love/ support, whatever, he as done bad things, and did even worse to try to cover his previous crime but he’s so bad at this, so nervous and anxious about everything that happened with that forged evidence that he did big obvious mistakes.There is another headcanon I have of him doing mistakes (like giving a collective stamp to Drew Misham instead of a simple one that could be collected, David Krisler being super close to Kris Gavin, not hidding himself while giving the forged evidence to Trucy (well it’s not official but if that’s what happened it’s dangerous but he did this), defending Phoenix while… he’s the real murderer?? using atroquinine while it’s in his brother’s song??) just to proove he’s impossible to catch and play with the juridic system to piss of Wright. But I also like to headcanon he did that to actually be arrested, because he’s so, done with that story that is consuming him, and also because he *coughs* appreciates Phoenix after get to know him more (yeah in his breakdown he’s super bad toward him, but it’s just… his way of being? he just felt dismissed another time and it affected him a lot, see?).Still about those evidences. well the atroquinine in Klaiver’s song. I once had the headcanon that his first plot was to put the blame on Klavier, and that’s why he did leave all those clues. and Klavier looking like him would help a lot since Vera saw him.I think I said everything about my headcanons??About killing Klavier…. hm. I don’t think he would… since… he was whether a brother he loved (first headcanon) or a pawn to use to hide his crimes, the proof of his sucess, or eventualy someone to actually blame for his own crimes, so why kill someone so useful? ;)Thank you for your ask! (and your attention if you had the courage to read everything)

[bindingties]

(Edgeworth&Klaiver) Prosecutor, what do you think of Kristoph Gavin/your brother?

(( both miles & klav have answered a lot ic abt their feelings toward kristoph so this is kinda a fic-like thing??? i wanted to try something different rather than having the muses answer like they’re being interviewed shjdfgdhjf ))

The first time Miles meets Kristoph Gavin it is,unsurprisingly, in a courtroom.  Everyargument is an uphill battle; no matter what Miles says, Gavin has a quickcounter.  In a certain way, it isexhilarating to have such a quick and vicious opponent that forces him to stayahead.  On the other hand, he can easilytell that Gavin is not fighting for the same end that he is.  

He doesn’t agree with Gavin’s general philosophy but bears noill-will after the verdict is declared.

—

Gavin comes up again after Wright has been disbarred.  Miles had called his friend to Europe and isdoing his best to be supportive.

“You don’t have to go it alone, Wright.”

“Oh, well, I’m not, Edgeworth. I’ve got a friend back inCalifornia who’s helpin’ me out fine, so you don’t hafta worry so much aboutme!” He laughs and Miles rolls his eyes.

“Are you sure you want to get advice from Larry?”

Wright’s brow furrows and then he snorts. “Oh!  I didn’t mean Larry, I’m talking aboutKristoph Gavin. Probably should’ve mentioned that. Do you know him?”

Miles doesn’t know why he feels like the floor has opened upbeneath him.  Doesn’t know why thethought of Kristoph Gavin being Wright’s emotional support makes him want todry heave.  Of course Wright would haveother friends.  Of course.  It’s perfectlysensible that he’d go to the people who live near him and not across a fuckingocean.  He’d want someone who couldactually help and not someone woefully incapable.

“I’ve met him in court. I’m glad you have someone there.”

—

Miles sips a glass of water, watches Gavin and Wright talk,and decides that he hates Kristoph Gavin. What does Kristoph have that he doesn’t?  Why is Wright running to this purple bastardall of a sudden when Miles has been here….

Been here….

He hasn’t been here, has he?

He runs away at the drop of a hat and comes in like a stormand vanishes once more.  Why would Wrightever confide in him?  His grip on hisglass tightens and he feels bile rise in his throat as Wright chuckles atwhatever it is Gavin has just said.

He’s mine, Gavin.

But he’s not.

—

“Kristoph Gavin has been convicted for the murders of ShadiEnigmar, better known as Zak Gramarye, and Drew Misham as well as conspiring todisbar Phoenix Wright and attempting to murder Vera Misham.”

Hearing the report should not make him giddy – there is asizable body count and trauma – but Miles can’t help but feel vindicated.  He always knew that something was wrong withKristoph Gavin and had always been justified in hating him for it.

Still his sense of triumph is damped by the fact Gavin hadonly been sentenced to life in prison. Such a sentence will not do, in Miles’s opinion.  After all, someone so slimy is a disgrace notworthy of the air that they breathe.  

There is a precedent, and wouldn’t the world be saferwithout Kristoph Gavin in it?

—

“Kristoph Gavin has been executed this morning.”

Miles smiles into his cup of tea.

 ——————————————

One of Klavier’s first memories is tripping on his ownshoelaces and skinning his knee. Kristoph is the one who cleans and puts a band-aid on it.  And for the longest time, Klavier is entirelyunaware how strange it is that his parents are fuzzy ghosts barely at the edgesof his memories.

All he has is his older brother and he loves him with all hisheart.

—

“I FUCKING HATE YOU, KRIS!”

Klavier slams her bedroom door shut and kicks her trashcanfor good measure.  Who does he think heis?!  Telling her what she’s allowed towear?!  It’s not even that fucking cold.  Would it kill him to stop being such acontrol freak?

She snorts to herself as she slides her window open; itprobably would kill him.  

Carefully, she slips out of the window.

—

“Is this how you’re choosing to spite me this time, Klavier?”

“I’m not- It’s not- Just because you’re a defenseattorney, doesn’t mean I have to be one too!” And Klavier has done many thingspurely to spite his brother but choosing the prosecutor’s course is not one ofthem.  

He’s just worried that becoming a defense attorney wouldmean his brother also becoming his boss and doesn’t want to be under Kris’sthumb his entire life.  It’s bad enoughwith Kristoph being both an older brother and guardian.

Kristoph just peers at him over his glasses.

—

“The attorney who’ll be there in my place tomorrow is not tobe trusted. Don’t even give him the benefit of your respect. Listen, I want youto call in a special witness.”

Kristoph holds out a plain business card.  It would have been nice to face her brotherin court and prove that she knew what she was doing, that she didn’t need to bebabied.  Struggling not to scream, Klaviertakes the card and mentally waves her chance goodbye.

She trusts Kristoph’s words, of course she does, but shewishes that he had kept his nose out of this! Does he seriously not even trust her to corner a crooked attorney byherself?!

Why does he always have to try to control her life?!

—

“Prosecutor Gavin, we see fit to inform you that yourbrother, Kristoph Gavin, has been convicted of the murder of Shadi Smith.”

“Danke, I’ll return to California shortly.”

Klavier hangs up and doubles over a trashcan.  Nothing comes up and she wants to cry.  Why would her brother murder some randomguy?  It doesn’t make any sense!

When she visits him, she doesn’t get any answers. Why wouldshe?  He is allowed to pry into her life,but the reverse has never been true.

—

“I told you that Daryan boy was trouble, Klavier.”

“Just shut up.”

“You truly can’t trust anyone, can you?”

—

Klavier tries to keep his voice steady, tries to shine witha confidence he does not feel. “Let’s clean out the family closet, eh,Kristoph?”  He feels his brother’s steelygaze, but that isn’t what is making his stomach turn.

“Klavier… You’re spinning out of control. Calm yourselfbefore you say something you’ll regret.”

Before any performance, it is important to breathe and tokeep one’s eyes on the goal.  Breathe anddon’t get distracted.

“Spinning out ofwhose control? Mine? …Or yours?” Another confident retort said as he feelsadrenaline burn his veins and while he can’t keep his hands from trembling.  Honestly, he does feel like control isslipping away, but he can’t show weakness now.

“Take a moment to consider everything you’ve built. Yourreputation as a prosecutor… your fame with the masses. You could lose it all,Klavier.”

Just breathe.  Thetruth has always been his guiding light and he won’t let go of it now.  The truth will be his anchor.  He can handle what’s about to happen.

He can handle this.

—

“Infamous defense attorney turned murderer, Kristoph Gavin,has been executed today…”

Klavier is already well into a bottle of whiskey – it isn’tlike he hadn’t been informed earlier – and he just barely manages to grab atrashcan before he vomits.  He sinks ontothe floor, body wracked with sobs.  He’s broken, isn’t he?  What sort of person misses someone likeKristoph?

He looks at his knee and all he can see is Kristoph huffingout a sigh as he sticks a band-aid there. He just remembers meeting Vongole, just remembers Kristoph at hisgraduation, just remembers the trust and love he used to feel.

He wishes he had anyone to talk to.

‘You could lose it all, Klavier.’

You were right. Of course you would be right….