“Franziska, are you in there?”
Miles knocked on the foreboding door of the von Karma mansion, it has been a while since he’s willingly entered this place, however he has not seen Franziska in a while and was getting worried.
No reply, he knocked again:
“Franzi?”
A soft voice replied, if he wasn’t actively listening he was sure he’d have missed it, “d-don’t call me that!”
Miles would never admit that he let himself smile at hearing his ältere Schwester until the day he died, he’d only say that he called out “I’m coming in now” - a lie of omission is not technically a lie, after all.
The heavy door creaked, and his footsteps echoed through the practically empty mansion. Only two maids continued their work after the death of Manfred von Karma, the only other person currently occupying the house being the whip-wielding prosecutor.
“[Franziska! Where are you?]”
“[I do not wish to talk to you, little brother!]”
Following the sound of her voice, Miles found himself in the study, a place von Karma often watched over their shoulders as they worked, offering harsh critique at their every error. Franziska was curled up in Manfred’s old seat, silently watching the desk.
“You know, sitting like that is terrible for your posture”
“Miles Edgeworth, you fool! Is your German getting sloppy? I told you I didn’t wish to talk to you!” despite her words she stood up immediately, moving to stand in front of the man in question, signature whip in hand, “I swear, when Papa comes-”
Franziska paused, gripping her whip hard enough to leave her knuckles white.
“Franziska, I-”
“I did not forget! It was merely a slip of the tongue”
Undeterred, Miles continued, “Franziska, I understand, when my father-”
“I do not wish to speak of this!” Franziska proceeded to march off towards her room, Miles knew this routine well: she would vent out her frustrations on a poor piece of furniture, then return and apologise for her “abhorrent behaviour unbecoming of a von Karma, which would never be repeated”. Miles never expected her not to repeat it, underneath the prosecutorial prodigy persona she put on was an 18 year old girl who never got to have a childhood.
“Stupid, foolish, Miles Edgeworth,” Franziska muttered, “that gehirnverweigerer just had to come back from his ‘death’ now and tell me what to do”
Despite the relative emptiness of the mansion, Franziska’s room was full of noise: the sound of her muttering, pacing, and the piercing whine of her whip in the air. Yet it was still far too quiet. She’d never admit it but she really wanted her little brother, yearned for him in an unnecessary way she refused to understand, in a way she knew a von Karma should never behave. She wanted to cry into his shoulder and talk into the early hours of the morning like they did when they were kids, listening to stories about his life outside of the von Karma household, a life without expectations.
She never let herself imagine a life like that.
A von Karma cannot let foolish desires disrupt the pursuit for perfection in their chosen field.
She let her feelings guide her whip, hitting objects with a sharp swoosh, when something unexpected happened. She went too hard, the jar on her table shuddered.
Stupid. Foolish.
Crash. “Scheiße!”
“[Franziska, please, what is going on?]” Miles called out
“[I’m sorry, Miles, I’m so sorry]”, Franziska sobbed
Miles went to comfort Franziska, but she tensed up, “It’s okay, Franzy, allow yourself to have this”
“B-but, he’d-”
“He’s gone, it doesn’t matter what he wants” Miles replied bitterly, “what do you want?”
“Bitte...”
Despite his inexperience in the field, Miles carefully wrapped his arms around Franziska, who melted into his hold nonetheless. She felt warm and loved in a way she didn’t have the vocabulary to describe, even with her fluency in English and German. Gott im Himmel it felt… it felt…
She began to silently sob as he held her, gently rubbing circles into her back. Franziska figured Miles’ suit was definitely being sullied with tears by now, disgraceful for a von Karma to even consider doing, but he didn’t seem to care, he didn’t seem to care as much ever since he met that man. Phoenix Wright, the foolish defence attorney who stole away her papa’s life, her little brother’s honour, and her own win record.
Miles broke the silence that had cloaked them for what felt like forever, “Franziska, I’m going to say something stupid, bare with me” after the latters consent, he continued with, “so, you know what happens to debt works post-mortem?”
“Of course, what kind of prosecutor do you think I am?”
“I was thinking that we could use the leftover money not bequeathed to us in Manfred’s will and use it to go shopping, get to be kids again”
Franziska paused, in shock of the suggestion, “He’d hate that”
“I’m aware, that’s why I suggested it,” Miles smirked, but his face quickly transformed into a more serious expression, “when’s the last time you actually took a break and did something for yourself?”
For the second time that day, she was left speechless, “well… There was that time in 2011 during school break when I visited you and Papa in America...”, she studied that whole time and Miles knew it too based on the look he gave her, “and there was… verdammt I have nothing! Fine, I have no reason to reject your foolish little shopping trip”.
This was something Franziska would never ever admit to for the rest of her days, but she felt out of her element: so many people, mostly around her and Miles’ age, but none of them keeping their shoulders straight in fear of the weight of the world falling off of them - she thinks this is what her little brother meant when he spoke of a life without expectations. They all seemed to know where to go, while Franziska stood, frozen.
“Any ideas of where you’d like to go?”
All these shops… she was feeling overwhelmed, however she managed to keep her composure when she replied, “What types of shops are in this place?”
Miles began listing off the stores, counting on his fingers as he talked, “Well there’s grocery stores, clothing stores, toy stores, plant stores-”
“Plant stores, you say? We must investigate this immediately”
As the pair walked on, Franziska realised she knew nothing about plants. She was interested in them as a little girl, however her Papa quickly extinguished any and all interests outside of studying to be a prosecutor, this ignorance must not continue any further!
“Miles Edgeworth! We must detour to a store that sells books at once!””
“Any reason why?”
“I cannot make a fool out of myself when I am buying flowers”
Miles covered his face with his hand, clearly stifling a laugh despite her expert reasoning, however showed her the way to the bookstore. She picked up a few on different species of flowers, even one on the language of flowers, however one more book caught her eye.
Following her gaze, Miles realised what she was staring at, “If you’re interested you can buy it, nobody is stopping you”
“But it’s so childish!”
“You remember whenever you came into my room I would change the tab-”
Flushing, Franziska squaked, “How does that relate?!”
“It wasn’t what you think! I was watching Steel Samurai: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo!”
Her face flushed further, this time with laughter, “I cannot believe the former Demon Prosecutor watches such a juvenile childrens show!”
“You see, nobody will judge you if you pick up something related to horses, especially not me”
With no reply, Franziska added the book to her pile, from the corner of her eye she saw a proud smile on Miles’ face, gone as quickly as it came.
“You see little brother, this is a Coreopsis, while this is a Calendula, you can tell the difference as the former has wider petals and a lighter pistil compared to the latter.” Franziska barely had to look at the pages anymore, her ability to quickly memorise information was envied and feared among defence and prosecutors alike.
“I see, where are you planning to put these flowers? You do travel often”
“They’re not for me you fool, they’re for-”
Miles smirked at the chance to tease his sister, “Does kliener Franzichen have a special somebody?”
“Not yet, I need to find the perfect way to win over her affections, Adrian deserves the best I can give her and more,” she was carefully analysing every flower, comparing them together, apart, and their meanings.
“I think she’d appreciate anything you give her, it’s clear she adores you”
Franziska scoffed, “And how long did it take you to confess to that man? Scruffy, even?”
“In my defence, I haven’t known Wright for as long as he makes it sound. We knew each other for a year as kids, then for two as adults before we started dating - it would be three, but I was… on my sabbatical then”
“Speaking of your sabbatical, what you said to meine Knuddelbär after you returned was absolutely abhorrent and she deserves an apology”
“I know, I just, I- I don’t know how to do this, I’ll probably just make it worse…”
Franziska shoved a sparky horse notebook into his hands, “use those words you’re so proud of and write an apology! If it upsets her you’ll be on the business end of my whip”
Miles knew that the fact that she was willing to let him use her new notebook meant that she trusted that he’d do a good job in his apology, however he didn’t let this knowledge show as he knew it was meant to be unspoken, “I’ll do my best”
With a crack of her whip she replied, “you’d better, kleiner Brüder!”
And with that the conversation was over, she marched over to the register with her flowers, Miles in tow, carefully watching the person behind the counter tie up the bouquet to make sure it was up to her standards. Nodding her approval, they left.
“Well, Miles Edgeworth, I am forced to admit that your idea was not as foolish as I thought”
Looking up from his writing, said man smirked, “well of course, it was my idea”
“Don’t make me take it back!” Franziska paused before continuing, “I came here to check on how your apology was doing, I will be visiting meine Lieben next Friday and I expect it to be done by then”
Miles handed back the book, open as not to smudge the still-drying ink, “as a coincidence I have just finished it, you can read it over if you wish”
Wordlessly, she read over the text, carefully turning the pages of her treasured notebook. After finishing, she hummed, “you are lucky this time, it is up to standard”
As she left, Miles finally let his facade slip, allowing the fond smile that he knew his own loves enjoyed seeing to stay on his face. He just hoped that Franziska embracing her love for horses would have to change her whip to a riding crop again, that was a pain he could deal with…