CHAPTER 23

Franziska sat quietly in the car as Miles drove them back to the apartment; she had anticipated this, and found it strange that he didn't as well. She knew not to bother him at the moment, as he was too stressed out to have a decent conversation with.

She looked out the window as they crossed the large bridge going towards the other side of town away from the courthouse, as that's the side of town the apartments were on. The sky was gray; it looked as if it were about to rain. Franziska shuddered; words could not describe her hate for rain.

They pulled into the parking garage and Miles Edgeworth parked in his designated parking area. After they had gotten out, he quickly made his way towards the staircase. Franziska didn't bother catching up with him; it was eating him up inside that he couldn't put this trial to rest today, especially when he had the perfect plan. She wondered what to do about this; Maybe I could do something nice for him later...

Her cell phone began to ring; it was Detective Gumshoe, but she had saved his name in her contacts under "Scruffy Detective."

She picked up the phone as she stood outside the elevator door. "Franziska von Karma speaking."

The detective stumbled over his tongue; "Uh-uh-uh, s-sir?" She made a point to have a cold tone with this man; "What do you want? I'm very busy at the moment." Yeah, she thought to herself, busy waiting on an elevator.

"Um...uh..Is Prosecutor Edgeworth there?" He spoke so fast she didn't understand a word he said; "What!? Slow down."

"Is M-Mr. Edgeworth a-around right now, sir?" She spoke a single word before hanging up the phone; "No."

She felt somewhat bad for treating the detective like dirt all the time; but she didn't want to make acquantince with such a foolish man; she was perfectly happy with Maya and Phoenix Wright being her friends and Miles being her partner. She didn't feel the need to expand her social circle; it was larger right now than it had ever been in her life, anyway.

The elevator door rang, and she stepped inside as the doors opened for her. She began thinking as she went up to the highest floor; Maybe I could light some candles and...no, no. Maybe... She couldn't think of anyway to bring her true love's spirits up; she was worried about the foolish bailiff being executed for no reason and the little girl's safety just as much as he was; it just wasn't in her hands to save both of them like it was in his.

She continued thinking about this until she reached the top floor; she had gotten completely nowhere during the entire ride up, which went faster than usual do to a stop free ascent.

She turned the doorknob and breathed a sigh of relief to find it unlocked; she hadn't had the time to get her own key made yet, and she didn't want to wait outside in the hallway. She realized Miles had made it up to the apartment faster going on the stairs than she did riding the elevator. She knew he never rode in elevators, and he could go up the stairs of the apartment building without breaking a sweat; she knew that for a fact, as she had had trouble going up the 29 flights of stairs her first time doing so with him, and he just smiled at her and held her hand up the rest of the way; her heart fluttered as she thought about it.

She opened the door to greet Pesu, as he performed his usual routine of running up and slobbering on her, but she paid no attention to the filthy dog this time. She walked into the kitchen to see if he was making tea, but he wasn't there. She checked the living room, but no one was in there. Pesu had been following her around, looking confused as to what was happening.

She walked into the bedroom to find him with his hands over his eyes, elbows in the air, having already changed into his nightwear, although it was only 2:45 p.m. at the moment. She didn't say a word, she just went and lay down beside him in her work attire. She snuggled into his side and put his hand on his chest, and he returned the favor by putting his arm around her as they drifted off into a daytime nap together.

Franiska woke up to the sound of rain outside her window; she was alone in the bed. She sat up with a yawn and went to rub her eye with her left hand; she felt the diamond of her ring brush against her skin and smiled, and then sge reached up with her right hand to rub her eye, as her ring was preventing her from doing so with her left.

She saw Miles walking into the room with a cup of tea in each hand; he handed her one as he sat up on the bed beside her, and Pesu ran his way into the room and jumped up on the bed with them; she threw her hands up in the air as the dog began drooling in her lap, causing the tea in her hand to spill all over her and the bed around her.

She turned red as she looked at Miles with apologetic eyes; she was embarrassed about spilling the tea on herself, and she felt bad about possibly ruining his imported lenin bedspread as well. He just let out a warm laugh and grabbed her hand to help her up from the bed; she looked up at him, unable to conceal a pouty and pleading look in her eyes; her face was red with humiliation, contrasting the blue shade of her hair that matched her eyes. He just smiled down at her, and warmly said; "Here, let's get you cleaned up." He grabbed her hand once more and led her into the bathroom.

She didn't understand what was happening; he was still in there with her; she just gazed on with wide eyes as he undressed himself in front of her; she had seen him naked before, yes, but it just sort of...flowed naturally for her. She had made the first move, as she recalled. Now, however, he was making the first move on her, and she didn't know how to react.

Once he was done, he made his way over to her and wrapped his arms around her; he had sort of a cocky smirk on his face, and his coal grey eyes were half closed. "It's ok, Franziska...we're just going to take a shower together. Nothing past that, unless you want to...ok?"

She nodded a yes and she began to take off her clothes nervously; after she was done, he grabbed her hand and led her into his shower. It was a large shower; it had an adjustable shower head that was gilded in gold, and it was a stand up shower. Steam built up rather quick inside of it. There was a place you could sit down at, but both her's and Miles' various shampoos, conditioners, and body washes sit there, leaving no room for anything, or anyone, else to sit.

He turned the shower on, and she began to reach for her shampoo, but Miles let out a chuckle and stopped her. "Franziska...people don't take showers together to get clean." She blushed; "B-but y-you said we weren't going that far!" He laughed again. "We're not. Just follow my lead, ok?"

He walked over to her and put his arms around her waist and began swaying; she wrapped his arms around his shoulders unsuredly in return. He looked down and pressed his forehead up against hers; he whispered "I love you, Franziska." as he did this.

She was nervous, feeling herself begin to tremble under the hot water being produced by the showerhead. After a few minutes, however, she began to melt away in his arms, feeling safe and content with him and her being this way. BOOM!

The sound of thunder striking caused Franziska to gasp and jump simultaneously; Miles pulled her closer and held her tighter; she could feel tears of fear building up. Thunder struck many times after that, until one crashing BANG! caused the power in the apartment to go out.

Lightning continued to crash, causing streaks of blue to light up an otherwise completely pitch black apartment as they continued their shower together. Franziska was fighting back tears with all of her might now, but she felt somewhat more secure being in Miles' arms. She held onto him as tightly as her strength would permit, and with each strike of thunder reacting by tightening her grip even harder for a second, before releasing slightly back into her normal clasping on to him.

The thunder wouldn't stop, and, finally, she gave up fighting and she the felt tears begin to fall from her eyes. He picked her chin up with his index and his middle finger, revealing her teary eyes to him. She kept sniffling and tears kept falling down, and he wrapped his arms around her with a more seriousness than he usually displayed; especially when it was just the two of them with each other.

She held her face against his chest, softly crying as he held her close to make her feel safe. It was working; she felt much safer in his arms like this than she would otherwise, but she still was filled with fear. She never understood why these thunderstorms scared her so much, but she consistently cried tears of fear whenever one happened around her. She HATED them with a passion, but she was grateful he was there with her to help her along until the storms stopped.

After about an hour, the storm finally blew over, but the power was still out in the apartment. The had gotten dressed in their nightwear; she put on her clean, light blue with dark blue polka dots nightgown that she loved so much. She had always worn one exactly like this for as long as she could remember, just in different sizes. He put on the clothes he was wearing before; a white t-shirt with red-striped pajama pants; she thought this unsophisticated nightwear attire was a good change of pace from his usual cravat and suit combination. She picked up her whip and held it close as she tried to gather the courage to open the window curtains to see if the storm had passed; she turned away at the last second, too scared to do so. She tried to gather up the courage to look out once more, and was failing once again, until Miles walked up behind her and put his arms around her from behind. She felt strong with this, and opened up the window's curtains to reveal the sun shining and a rainbow outside, providing the once near pitch black room with light.