CHAPTER 9

Franziska awoke the next morning to find herself still in her cocktail dress from last night, under a sheet fortress, having been asleep in Miles' arms. When she realized that she had slept all night in this position, she involuntarily blushed as she felt goosebumps begin to rise all over her body. She slowly got up in an attempt not to wake him as she checked the time on the clock situated on the table on the opposite side of the bed that she and Miles and stayed under. 7 a.m. Neither her nor Edgeworth had to report to the prosecutor's office until 10, so that gave her time for a good breakfast and a shower. She decided to take a shower first, so that way she could get out of her dress from last night.

She turned on the hot water and the stand-up shower began filling with steam. She washed up as she thought about what Edgeworth must've been thinking about last night as he held her in her sleep. ...did he feel like I did when I woke up being held by him...? She quickly dismissed the thought as she rinsed the shampoo from her hair. ...No. I'm just a little sister to him, and that's all I ever will be. She turned off the hot water and wrapped a towel around her body and her head, and opened the door leading back to her bedroom, hoping Miles was still sleeping, so he wouldn't see her like this. She peeked around the bed, under the fortress she had built for them last night, to find him still sleeping. She breathed a sigh of relief as she walked to the other side of the bed to her closet. She opened the door and pulled out one of her work uniforms and got dressed, then she made her way down stairs to the kitchen. She knew her father had kept this place unfurnished, so before she moved here she had the pots and pans shipped over from the von Karma manor in Germany. She began searching through the cabinets to find a pan for her to cook Edgeworth and herself breakfast.

Once she had set the stove top's tempature and cracked the eggs into the pan, she realized she had little experience cooking. She began stirring the eggs around like she had seen the family cook do back in Germany, but she kept growing more worried and insecure about serving Miles' her cooking. She kept on bouncing back and forth whether she should just throw her food out and have Miles pick them up breakfast on the way to the prosecutor's office, or to just see if he'd like it. Once she had made up her mind to throw out the breakfast, she felt someone behind her touch her sides. She was caught off guard and picked up her whip she had set aside and lashed at who would turn out to be Edgeworth.

Edgeworth just caught the whip in his right hand and smirked; "Don't forget, Franziska, I lived with you for 8 years. You've hit me with things like this more than you've hit anyone else." Franziska felt herself blushing in embarrassment. Miles looked at her with confidence; "Here. Let me help you with that. I've lived by myself long enough to learn how to cook a decent breakfast." She moved over with a hint of insecurity and let him take over the reigns of the frying pan. She gazed at him longingly as he cooked the eggs, making it appear as if she was watching him cook instead. He kept on giving her pointers on what to do when cooking these things, unaware of her being fixtated on him instead.

After he had cooked their breakfast, they sat down at the breakfast nook that was exclusive to the American von Karma estate to eat their breakfast with a cup of coffee for Franziska and tea for Edgeworth; she took her coffee with sugar and cream, but her tea plain. She only had coffee for breakfast, and tea for the rest of the day afterwards. Edgeworth piped up at the table between bites; "Before we go to the office today, I need to return to my apartment to change clothes. I'm sure you understand." Franziska tried remaining strong as if he were like everyone else to her; "Hah. I'm sure that all of your clothes are just as unstylish as that foolish outfit you're wearing right now with the cravat." Edgeworth just smiled playfully as he took a sip of his tea; "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was fairly certain that you're work attire featured a cravat as well. Did it not?" Franziska hugged herself tightly as she felt the redness rushing to her face. "I-I...umm.." Edgeworth just smirked at her embarrassment and took another sip of his tea. CRACK! Miles didn't even flinch at the whip striking him.

After they had finished breakfast, they both made their way out to Miles' Fiat. When she sat in the passenger seat, she noticed a Steel Samurai comic situated on where she was about to sit. She finally had some way to get back at him for embarrassing her earlier this morning. As soon as he got into the driver's seat, she held up the comic book. "So, Miles Edgeworth, tell me about how this found it's way into your car, if you can." Miles turned red and quickly snatched it out of her hand. "I-I...urrghh...it's um...it's Gumshoe's. Yes, that's it. It's Gumshoe's." Franziska smirked at his embarrassment like he did at hers earlier as he put the car in gear and backed out of the driveway.

When they arrived at Miles' luxury apartments, he invited Franziska inside to wait as he got ready. He let her inside and told her to make herself at home as he got ready. She took a seat on a wooden chair at his made-for-one dining table and began contemplating her surroundings. As she was looking around, a very large dog made it's way over to her and placed it's head in her lap. She looked down and then threw her arms up in the air in shock at the large, white sheepdog. It seemed to like her, but she could tell this dog was not something she wanted to be friends with, especially after she found it's drool on her clothes. She never wanted to lash an animal with her whip, but she was getting ready to with this disgusting mutt. Edgeworth walked into the room and found her trying not to touch the dog while making her way into the kitchen to wash it's slobber off her clothes with a napkin. Franziska looked up and found him with his arms crossed, leaning on the doorway to his room with a giant cocky smirk on his face. "So, I see you've met Pesu."

Before Franziska could say anything about the dog's disgusting slobber, Edgeworth laughed and made his way over to her and the dog, kneeling down to pet the giant white dog; "Pesu here is my best friend in the whole world. There's not a thing I don't tell him." Franziska just hugged herself, except out of anger and disgust rather than the usual hugging herself out of embarrassment. "That disgusting creature slobbered all over my clothes! He's foul!" Pesu just wagged his tail with even more excitement, and Edgeworth replied with a smile; "Awww, you're going to hurt his feelings. Anyways, I believe we must be making our way to work now, wouldn't you say, Franziska?" Franziska's tone had an icy bite of irritation in it. "Yes, we must."

When they arrived at the office, Edgeworth showed Franziska to her office, carrying her belongings on the way. Franziska made note of this; I like it when a man shows a gentleman-like personality like this. He opened the door to a giant office containing empty shelves and a giant desk in the middle. He set her belongings on the desk.

He made arrangements for them to visit a small bistro that he frequented for their lunch break, and left her in her new office. She sat in the rolling chair and turned it to where she was looking out the window that replaced the entire wall behind her desk and thought to herself Welcome back to America, Franziska...

It was a very slow morning, as she just put her old case files from her days as a prosecutor in Germany on the empty shelves and a picture frame on the wall containing the von Karma Creed of Perfection, although she had a different perspective on the word perfection now. She then set her tea-maker and tea-set on the long table that was positioned against the giant window behind her desk, and made herself some tea, drinking it in solitude as she waited for lunch time to come. Her train of thought was broken by a large, bumbling detective, barging his way into her office uninvited.

CRACK! "Don't you know not to just barge into people's offices uninvited, Scruffy!? Now, what is it you need?" Dick Gumshoe held out a greetings card depicting a small dog on it. "T-the boys at the precinct got you this card as a welcome back gift, s-sir." CRACK! "A-ah!"

"Is that all, Scruffy?" Gumshoe's eyes slowly and cluelessly looked around, as if he were searching in his head for what he needed to tell her. He snapped "Oh yeah, pal, I-" CRACK! "Do not address me as 'pal', Scruffy. Please continue."

"I just wanted to tell you that I am going to be working as both yours and Mr. Edgeworth's subordinate, since we've been doubling up at the precinct due to shortages." Franziska closed her eyes and let out a sigh. CRACK! "Wh-why'd you hit me for, s-sir?"

"That was an 'ok, that's fine, it's my lunchbreak' lashing, Scruffy. Now I must be on my way." Gumshoe just nodded in compliance as she left to meet Edgeworhth in the parking garage for their lunchbreak.

He drove the car up to a small restuarant called "The Corner Bistro" that had two large window panes, allowing for complete vision in over the small restuarant that couldn't have seated more than 20 people at a time.

He showed them to a table and pulled out a chair for her. As soon as they sat down together, it was as if everyone turned to look at the two of them seated together. Franziska grew increasingly nervous, but Edgeworth just seemed cool, calm, and collected. The middle-aged waiter didn't take their order; instead, he just brought Franziska a napkin with an arrow drawn in pencil pointing to the back of the napkin. Once she turned over the napkin, she found a poem written in handwriting that she immediately recognized to be Miles'.

The title of the poem was The Road Paved in Blood and Tears, and it was clear that it was a romantic poem. She looked up at Edgeworth with a tear in her eye; he was clutching his shoulder, seemingly nervous. She stood up, grabbing his hand, pulling him up with her, and stood on the tips of her shoes so she could reach his lips, wrapping her whip around his shoulders, kissing him for the first time. Everyone in the bistro applauded them as Miles put his arms around Franziska's waist.

Their first kiss was even better than what Franziska had been dreaming of for the past 19 years.