The Grim Underbelly [words: 2,238]

After the little concert, the crowd had broken up. Klavier was hanging out backstage, catching his breath and becoming intimately familiar with several bottles of water. It was hardly a glamorous backstage area– but maybe one didn’t need that when it was for your alma mater.

“Never thought I’d hear that song again after it finally fell off the airwaves.”

The voice from just inside the makeshift backstage curtain was as snide as it was familiar– feminine with but the slightest rasp from too many cigarettes and chocolate snackoos. “The kid knocked it out of the park even if you, you glimmerous fop, were just as loud as ever.”

The long chestnut hair of Ema Skye poked past the curtain, her rose-tinted glasses tipped down her long, sharp nose as she peered inside at him.

Klavier laughed and pushed his sweaty blond hair out of his face.

“Oh, fräuline! Yes, that is what the microphone is for, you know. Glad that you enjoyed the show.” He offered her his half drunk bottle of water.

Ema’s eyes stared it down for a moment before she pushed herself the rest of the way through the curtain to snap it out of his hand.

“Enjoyed is a bit of a stretch, Klavier,” it was the sort of barb they shared often, ever since they’d met through the prosecutor’s office and her assignment to him by the precinct. Even as she continued with a dismissive snort, she had to admit…

It really had been a good show. Klavier’d gotten even better, and the girl…Juniper, if she remembered correctly, had a voice almost as nice as the woman whose appearance she wore on stage.

“It didn’t make me want to tear my ears out, at least. Not like the Gavinners concert.”

“Clearly the rest of the band was holding me back,” he laughed. “At least in your opinion. I’m pleased to hear you think so. And thank you for coming, hmm, Fräuline? I wasn’t sure you’d stay after that little emergency.”

He grabbed another water from the ice bucket and swaggered toward her, his shoulder bumping against hers as he fell in beside her.,

Ema took a long sip from the half-drained water bottle, glancing sidelong at him with an amused smirk.

“I tried to offer my services, but that pompous ass in the white suit kept yelling that it was under his jurisdiction in the name of ‘justice’. So …”

She shrugged “I stuck around to see how things would turn out, especially since you so kindly asked my help with untangling that phoney recording. Though I did think about leaving before the big show. You know it’s not exactly my usual scene.”

“Which part? The music, or the high schoolers?” he teased. He slipped his arm around her shoulders casually.

“Both.” She snorted softly as his arm draped around her…but she leaned into it with a half smile as she sipped the water. ”It’s a harsh reminder that I do NOT miss school one bit.”

“No?” he cocked his head and his pale locks fell over his face as he grinned out from under them. “No fond high school memories?”

Ema made the mistake of glancing over at the fop, feeling the slight flush of heat as she blushed and fumbled in her long coat’s pocket for her pack of cigarettes.

The way the light caught his tanned face and pale hair weren’t…the least attractive thing she’d ever seen.

“Not really,” she drawled “then again, my school didn’t exactly hold culture fairs like Themis…or much beside the occasional miserable pep rally to cheer on the sorts of people who harassed me for homework help.”

And got the swift reply of her elbow to the teeth when they pressed the issue.

“Ahhh,” Klavier nodded. “Admittedly, my fond school memories are a bit of a smattering of bright points between… other things.”

His bright smile faltered, and he seemed to eye her cigarettes.

Ema tapped one out and offered it to him with a wry smile.

“you and me both. So much for the best days of our lives, huh? Not that there weren’t bright spots…here and there.” She chuckled. “anyway, I was an awkward kid, Klavier. You’re lucky you missed me at that age. I was a mess.”

He took the cigarette gratefully and put it between his lips.

“Were you? I probably matched you then. I wish I could have seen it.” he grinned around the cigarette, and she suspected he was holding back a comment about her being a mess now.

She narrowed her eyes at him on the suspicion alone, before placing a cigarette between her lips and fumbling in her overcrowded pocket for a lighter.

“Tch, I can’t imagine you being a mess, you fop. You were probably one of those guys who practically sparkled. ‘I woke up looking this good’ .”

Where she was a fangirl of famous prosecutors in an oversized labcoat and more buttons than a store for scene kids’ checkout counter.

Klavier laughed.

“Oh hardly, I promise you that. I bet they have the yearbook in the library.” He leaned forward with the cigarette in his lips for her to light his cigarette.

Out came her lighter…though one of her snackoo wrappers hit the floor as she pulled her hand out of her pocket. She struck it, and lit his cigarette before her own.

Like the delinquents back at her high school, smoking behind the stage… despite being both a grown ass detective and prosecutor.

Her eyes met his with an inquisitive raise of her eyebrow.

“…did you look like a huge dork? Because if you did I gotta see it right away.”

He took a long puff on the cigarette and leaned back against the back wall of the stage.

“I don’t know if I’d say dork– but you probably would. So maybe we ought to go sneak in and see it.”

“I would.” She grinned a little wider around her cigarette as she took a long drag.

“It’s the eve after a heinous murder,” she stated dryly, “in a school for future legal professionals with the Goddess of Justice’s eyes bearing down on everything that moves. And you wanna.break me into your old alma mater , Klavier. To see your old school photos.”

She blew the smoke towards him with a wink “It almost sounds romantic.”

“Oh, fräuline now you are absolutely speaking my language,” he purred, leaning toward her. “I happen to know all the ways to sneak around this school, too.”

“Let me guess, prettyboy.” She found herself leaning just a little towards him, her cigarette hanging from her lips. “you were the school delinquent?”

“You look at me and you don’t see a trouble maker, do you?” He gave a little smile as he slipped his hand down from her shoulders to the crook of her arm, to lead her out of the backstage area. “Well, that’s no coincidence.”

She huffed out a breath of smoke, glad for the way the plumes hid the flush as she squeezed his hand in her arm.

“I knew it. Shameful,” She tutted her tongue, “to think they call you a superstar prosecutor now when you were probably a damn terror here at this fine academy of pompous jerkoffs.”

She looked up at the school with a wry smirk as they stepped out of the backstage “…mostly pompous jerkoffs. Some of Baby’s First Courtroom seem like they’re alright.”

“They do, don’t they?” he said, leaning her, cigarette in mouth, toward the edge of the building. There was still a lot of little groups chattering around the stage as people dispersed. “I was glad to hear none of them were guilty of murder.”

Ema wasn’t sure if he was deliberately avoiding further talk about his past or not.

“But a professor was.” She murmured. “Which if you ask me, is completely fucked up. That man was a nutcase. Good kids though. We’ll need them on the bench in a few years to replace hacks like you and The Wright Anything Agency”

She looked him over with a huff, taking a longer drag of her cigarette “…you know, actually.”

He cocked his head as he pulled her into a grassy alcove between a couple of jutting walls of the school.

“Hmmm? Know what?”

“I figured out one of the most infuriating things about you, Klav.” she took a long drag off her cigarette, glancing at him with a wry smirk.

There was a large window, just around waist height at the far back of the alcove that was very slightly open.

“Oh yes? Do tell, I’m dying of curiosity.”

“You dodge questions like the state dodgeball champion.” She looked up at the window with a tilt of her head “that looks like an in.”

Klavier laughed.

“So it is a way in, frauline,” he said, strolling up to the window. He looked at her with a smile. “Am I dodging questions– or are you attempting to have three lines of questioning at once, dear detective?”

“Given that you’re turning it back in on me, I’m going to say you’re still dodgy.” She leaned on the edge of the wall near the window, and took a pull off her cigarette “…I’ll go first.”

“If that’s what you’d like, dear frauline.” He put both hands on the window pane and pulled it upward– just far enough to squeeze through.

Ema dropped her cigarette on the ground and ground it out with her heel before she leapt up and grabbed the rim, attempting to wriggle through.

“So. About High School Klavier.”

Klavier dropped his cigarette as well, and reached up to steady her hips for her.

“Yes? What about the charming fellow?”

Ema flushed deeper as his hands grabbed her hips. Instinct said to kick him…but she instead shimmied her hips in his grasp before she slipped through.

“I’m curious about what sort of delinquent bullshit he got up to.”

“Oh you know,” he chuckled, helping her through before he hauled himself up. “The classics. Smoking in the boys room and all that.”

“Uh huh. I smoked in the boys room too,” she joked. “that’s nothing special. What else you got for me? Quick, before I start worrying you were straight laced.”

She looked around the room in quiet curiosity as she entered…it really was an amazing school. Leaps and bounds above her own high school experience, just from the barest glimpse.

It was some sort of storage room, mostly filled with folded tables and overturned chairs.

Klavier squeezed through the window gracefully and slid to his feet.

“Well, now I’m curious what rebellious acts you imagine for me,” he chuckled.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Ema drawled, “setting up a secret rock show that interrupted the principal’s keynote speech or something.”

She pushed a table out of the way and meandered towards the door “…hm…”

He shook his head with a smile as he followed her to the door.

“Sadly, all my rock shows were sanctioned by the staff. At school, anyway.”

“And out of school?” She asked as she eased the door open and peered down the hall as carefully as she could.

“I may have had a few unsanctioned ones.” he leaned over her body, putting one arm around her waist as they peered down the corridor together.

The long stretch of elegant learning facility was abandoned.

Ema huffed, but found herself walking closer to him, her shoulder against his chest as she shuffled along the ornate corridor.

“You going to play mysterious or tell me about them?”

Klavier smiled awkwardly at her.

“I guess it feels difficult to talk about, even now,” he admitted. Ema was slowly getting the feeling that the subject made him uncomfortable, even though he had brought it up. “My apologies, Frauline.”

Ema looped her arm around his waist.

“that bad, huh Klavier?” She let her usual venom drip out of her voice, as she leaned her head against him “…I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable you know. I’d just..I dunno. Like to get to know you better.”

He leaned against her, and put his arm around her in return.

“Is that so?” there was a sad, troubled look on his face. “I suppose most of the things that I considered rebellious and trouble making at the time were not so much so for most people– that’s all.”

“Ah…” Ema grew a little quieter, “I can relate. A bit.” she murmured.

Klavier glanced down the empty hall and leaned a bit closer to Ema.

“You know– I have a yearbook at my place. Would you like to go there? We both know we aren’t even actually trespassing right now.”

“Way to take the mischief out of it.” She drawled, letting herself sag against him “….can we take your bike?”

“I’d hope so,” he said with a little smile at the edge of his still tense mouth. “Its a bad omen to ride home from a show in a squad car.”

“You might wind up with a hoard of the little Jr. Defense Attorneys trying to take big bad Klavier’s case as their courtroom debut in a crime that doesn’t even exist.” She smirked dryly before nudging him “…come on. I’ll even hold you while you drive, lucky bastard.”

“Ah, frauline, you’re too good to me.” He swooned goofily, and pulled her toward the exit.