Many Moons Ago, I Wrote This Post About One Of, If Not My Favorite, Ship In The Ace Attorney Series.

Many moons ago, I wrote this post about one of, if not my favorite, ship in the Ace Attorney series. That being Klavier Gavin/Ema Skye, a.k.a Klema. At the time, I said in the tags of the post that I would probably revisit it and add things that I didn't include at the time. Looking at it again, I would say that my feelings remain largely the same... so maybe it's time to add those extra thoughts to the post:

Give me post-AJ Ema and Klavier spending time together at work where they’re more cordial at first. Where it’s awkward because she doesn’t want to say anything insensitive because he’s Been Through A Lot Lately. And he’s polite too but he notices the tension between them, and neither of them know how to get past it. He doesn't want to be treated like glass, and she doesn't want to rub salt in the wound. Then one day he can’t help but make a joke at her expense and she snaps back with a snarky retort. It’s a shift back into familiar territory, but it’s with a new foundation of mutual civility and consideration for each other.

Give me an Ema who realizes that she knows what it’s like to have been deceived by an older sibling who you were supposed to trust implicitly. So even if she finds his attitude utterly grating most days, she can never bring herself to hate Klavier for the mistakes he made when he was younger when he was acting on the advice of someone he trusted. Even if she could salvage a relationship with her sister in the end, it does not erase the years of uncertainty and loneliness or the lingering doubts.

Give me a Klavier who starts paying attention to how his own attitude could rub someone the wrong way, and how his own standard of perfection and success is not necessarily shared by all. He considers how disheartening it must have been for his colleague (and now maybe work friend?) to fail to realize her own childhood dream, despite her best efforts. He had once made a disparaging remark about the forensics experts and how as a detective, Ema has even more authority, so shouldn’t she be more grateful for that? When he remembers the brief pause in her reaction, the hurt and dismay in her eyes that quickly gave way to outrage and the outburst that had followed, he apologizes to her for making the remark in the first place. Maybe he's surprised when she forgives him (and maybe so is she).

Give me a Klavier who feels he has to atone not just for his own mistakes but for those of his brother. It's enough for Ema to see that maybe there is goodness in him. There is a man who wants to do better and be better.

Give me these work friends bringing coffee to each other and sharing stories over them while they're working. Give me a Klavier and Ema that start to spend time together outside work and finding each other to be great company, actually. Making time for each other in their lives to the point where they are a welcome and expected presence. Where it just hasn’t been a regular day if Klavier doesn’t make a lightly flirtatious or self-aggrandizing remark or if Ema doesn’t bring him back down to earth.

Give me a Klavier that encourages Ema to follow her dreams, to try again and again until she has what she wants. Who, if he could, would move heaven and earth to make her dreams come true, but he knows how much sweeter that accomplishment feels when it's earned through one's own merit. Klavier who stops to consider why he would feel that way, why he would want to do that for her.

Give me Ema who's so so happy when she gets the news. Ema Skye, Forensic Investigator. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? She thinks so, and she's bursting to tell the world. Give me an Ema who finds Klavier and wants to celebrate with him because he's been supporting her through her renewed efforts, and maybe a small part of her still wants to gloat. Give me Ema, whose insides warm when Klavier gives her the brightest and most sincere smile she's seen from him. She must have seen him smile like that before, but here it takes her breath away.

Give me Klavier and Ema suddenly with mixed feelings. Unable to shake the realization that they might not work together anymore. This is a good thing... right?

Give me a Klavier and Ema with tension, but this time it's the tension that comes with unspoken feelings. Feelings that they can't even fully admit to themselves. Of course he's happy to see her achieve her professional dream, so why is he worried that she'll never want to be around him again now that they don't have to be? Meanwhile, she can't pretend that he's still just the 'glimmerous fop' she once couldn't stand. He is still that glimmerous fop she can't stand... sometimes. He is also much more than that, and that 'much more' is what she has come to admire and miss in him.

Give me a Klavier and Ema that try to fight their feelings at first. Maybe there's embarrassment because 'ew, are you even supposed to have crushes when you're 25?'. But at some point it just grows and grows until there is no hiding the stolen glances or lingering touches. Someone has to eventually make the first move. There is awkwardness as there always is when you're in uncharted territory, but they want to go through it together.

Give me a Klavier and Ema filling their shared moments with banter in one minute, and then with companionable silence in the next. Give me a Klavier and Ema who root for each other, tease each other, and still drive each other crazy. Who somehow couldn't get away from the other. A Klavier and Ema who don't want to be apart from each other.

Give me Klema.