Disclaimer: I own NOTHING of the ace attorney series, it all belongs to Capcom...except the occasional OC here and there.

Warming a cold heart

Gray skies could find you at the worst of times.

The raindrops came down in pellets as the stormy clouds rolled in from the eastern direction of Japanifornia Los Angeles, the skies became darkened and gloomy —filled with massive and pronounced grey puffs of cumulus that had decided to just casually pop up out of completely nowhere. Those storm clouds, which had been coloured in such a dark hue that it was pretty close to being titled as ebony or even charcoal black.

The downpour was harsh and unrelenting, it created naught but a dank and dreary atmosphere outside.

Alas there was one particular soul whom was particularly affected by this depressing weather.

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, one of the greatest and world-renowned prosecutors of the decade and former student of the legendary Manfred Von Karma, had lived quite a solitary life right after his father had been shot in killed by the man whom raised him and taught him all he needed to know when he was just a young boy.

Of course, needless to say, he had his friends like the attorney Phoenix Wright (whom was also a great friend to him growing up) so he wasn't a total recluse...

But it was on nights like this when he felt truly lonesome.

Edgeworth didn't do much as he sat inside his office, very well-protected from the heavy weather storming and raging outside. He just sat at his desk, an ink pen in hand as he scribbled his signature down repeatedly and without even deviating from his work. His bleary and bloodshot eyes didn't drift away from the small and extremely neat stack of paperwork that lay before him.

His reading glasses drooped and hung by the bridge of his nose.

Kay opened the door and popped her head in.

She smiled brightly upon spotting the cravat-wearing tsundre prosecutor, her eyes lit up. She raised her hand and gave a little wave as she entered the office. She had taken to visiting the prosecutor's office every once in awhile and checking in on her friends.

Edgeworth lifted his gaze for a moment to acknowledge her presence before lowering his gaze back to his paperwork.

"Hello, Kay. I take you are well?"

The great thief nodded cheerily.

"Ummhmm! I just took a short trip to the museum nearby,"

Edgeworth smiled pleasantly. He never let it show but he did enjoy the visits, he liked having a bit of company in his day-to-day office monotony when he was stuck in his office with paperwork and not working on any cases. He was just reviewing some case file for an upcoming trial and seeing a friend visit put some levity on the stress he felt...he never let his feelings show, however.

"That's nice. Why don't you simply settle yourself down on the settee and I'll get you a cup of tea after I'm done reviewing this case file?"

Kay nodded and smiled at the suggestion.

"Sounds good to me!" She chirped.

Kay went to go and sit down on the sofa but her curiosity got the better of her. She looked at Edgeworth and smirked evilly to herself.

Perfect.

She gazed up at the bookshelves and decided to take a bit of a browse at her surroundings. She studied the office and nosily examined stuff she usually would have been kept away from but Edgeworth was too busy with his work that he wouldn't stop her. She loitered around the posh office and found herself becoming bored...until her sights set on something strange.

It was something that felt out of place in the prim and proper-styled office.

The great thief approached the area next to the window and stared at an object that sat on one of the shelves by said window behind the desk her friend sat at. At first it was a bit hard to see what it was, exactly, but she soon identified it as some kind of music box that was looking like it was made out of pure gold.

The supposed music box looked quite beautiful, like it had been crafted by a master.

But it was covered in a thick layer of dust, this suggested that it hadn't even been touched in a very long time.

The "great thief" tilted her head to one side with her eyes huge with confusion.

This little masterpiece looked far too pretty to have been hidden away, especially as it was made of solid gold! So why was it hidden away, concealed by the darkness of the rest of the precious items that were stacked on the shelves?

Kay started to ask as she reached out to touch the alleged music box, to bring it out into the light so she could study it better.

"Hey, what's thi-"

Before the young woman could even move another inch, however, she was left both blind sighted and winded when a sudden flash of magenta had swiftly moved right before her eyes and she was roughly shoved away by some force. She fell to the floor and found herself looking straight up into the hurt and teary eyes of her friend.

Kay could see how pale the normally steel-hearted prosecutor's complexion was right now and she didn't like what she was seeing.

The great thief felt her heart drop from her chest and into her stomach.

It was when Edgeworth saw what exactly the "great thief" was about to touch that instincts took over and possessed him to abruptly leap from his seat in behind the desk, causing it to fall when he stood, and he dashed with inhuman speed and accidentally knocked the girl with all the force he could muster so she would get away from it. Then he found that he stood right in front of the shelves, scowling darkly down at the girl whom had toppled to the ground with fear and terror gleaming inside her eyes.

"GET AWAY FROM THAT!" He screeched, pale blue eyes swelling up with tears.

Kay was startled.

What was going on?

Why was Edgeworth screeching at her?!

What was going on!?

"THAT MUSIC BOX IS IMPORTANT TO ME, DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH IT! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!?"

Before Edgeworth could register what else was happened, Gumshoe burst into the office with a stunned expression on his face when he saw Kay standing up from the floor with Edgeworth towering over her with teary eyes and tear-stained cheeks.

Gumshoe tried to intervene, shocked at what was going on.

"S-Sir...!"

Edgeworth then shouted, loudly, his baritone voice raising several octaves higher then normal. His body trembled with rage and tears rolled down his cheeks. "JUST GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!"

Detective Gumshoe didn't question anything and grabbed Kay, she looked stunned, and made a swift exit out the door without saying a thing.

The instant Gumshoe and Kay left, Edgeworth started to pant heavily as he started to recover from his adrenaline rush and he backed up until he crashed back-first into the bookshelf on the other side of the room; the collision his back made with the bookshelf was so rough was that it knocked a couple case files from the shelf and caused them to tumble to the ground.

He started to feel awful about what had just transpired...

What have I done...?

He sunk to the floor as he clutched his own face in his hand and started to break down into a mess of sobs and sniffles.

After grabbing Kay, Gumshoe practically carried her into a different office so they could both calm themselves and collect their thoughts after the rush they'd experienced. Neither had seen the prosecutor so upset or raise his voice at anyone before, whenever he got angry he'd just simply tell them off in a scary low tone whilst scowling darkly at them.

He'd never outright shrieked at anybody!

"What in the world just happened, pal?" Gumshoe asked softly.

"I...I don't know, Gummy!" Kay answered in shaken disbelief. "He just flipped out after I saw he had a gold music box and tried to touch it!"

Gumshoe looked incredulous and uneasy after hearing that.

"Do you mean the solid gold box that sits on Edgeworth's shelf? The shelf by the window?"

Kay nodded.

Gumshoe looked down and scratched the back of his neck in an anxious manner. "I saw that gold box and asked about it once, Edgeworth got this really scary look on his face and told me to never touch it..."

Then, all of a sudden, someone spoke up.

"Scruffy. Faraday. What happened?"

Both the great thief yatagarasu and the detective looked around and watched as a familiar figure approached.

Franziska Von Karma stepped out into the hallway with a look of confusion etched on to her face.

She had heard some kind of commotion and had decided to investigate and she overheard some of what the detective and Kay was telling her. She approached whilst she glared at the both of them with a glare coated with ice, her voice was serious and was even colder than her glare was.

Gumshoe decided to answer, although quickly out of fear of getting a taste of her whip.

"I don't know! Kay was curious about a golden music box that Prosecutor Edgeworth stored in his office and was about to touch it when he completely freaked out! I'm telling ya, pal, it was so weird and even a little scary to see him so pale!"

Franziska was silent for a very long time.

She took in the info that was revealed to her.

"Did you say...a golden music box?"

Kay and Gumshoe nodded simultaneously.

Franziska sighed as it all made sense to her.

Remorse shone inside her eyes as she stared at the floor sadly, she knew what this meant and it would make sense since it was a very important day for her "little brother" and for herself too. Judging by what she had been told, Miles must have been so troubled and hurt by this...and understandably so.

She couldn't help but stare absentmindedly at both Kay and Gumshoe.

"I see. Come along then and I shall tell you a story,"

She gave the two a swift hand gesture, telling them to follow her.

Gumshoe smiled a subdued grin, trying in vain to hide his excitement.

"Oooh! I love stori-!"

Before he could finish, though, the prosecutor turned on her feet and proceeded to give the detective a sudden lash with her best friend and her prized possession —her whip. Gumshoe cried out in pain as the whip lashed him across the shoulder and he couldn't help but give an inward shudder as the stinging pain quickly dulled into his skin.

"Ouch!"

He didn't say anything more out of fear of getting another whip.

Franziska scowled warningly at the detective. If looks could kill, both Gumshoe and Kay would have been set ablaze and disintegrated into a pile of soot and ashes, she had an aura that struck fear into anyone nearby. Plus she always had a tight grip on her whip so she could crack it at anyone she deemed as being a fool or slacking off.

"You will do well to not interrupt me, foolish fool of foolishly epic proportions!"

Franziska cleared her throat and raised her head up a bit and started to walk off down the hallway with Kay and Detective Gumshoe right behind her.

"It all started several years ago, back when Miles Edgeworth and I were living in Germany..."

A/N: Heres the first chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it.

Oooooh, I wonder why Edgeworth feels such a connection to the golden music box? Don't worry, I'll reveal this soon.

Have a nice morning/afternoon/evening/night!

-Chloemcg