Work Text:
High School
As soon as recess began, Franziska stormed up to the group of older girls. They were whispering and giggling as they looked at her brother across the schoolyard, and Franziska felt herself getting even angrier. Franziska had gotten up early that morning before school to prepare – she'd looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and practiced what she would say over and over. It was hard being taken seriously when you were the youngest student at the school.
“Valentina Kard!” she yelled in her most authoritative voice, using the girl’s full name so she’d sound more serious. “How dare you be mean to my brother?!”
The teenagers turned to look down at her in confusion, then to look at Valentina, a tall girl with auburn hair.
“Hi Frannie,” Valentina began, looking embarrassed. “I think you might be confused, I haven’t been mean to Miles. I actually really like your big brother...”
She’s speaking to me like I’m a foolish little child, Franziska fumed. How dare she?
“No, I think you’re the one who’s confused! I know my brother, and I know when he’s unhappy! Whatever you wrote in that nasty letter you gave him yesterday made him upset, he wasn’t himself at all when he got home. If you ever do anything like that again, I’ll... I’ll make sure you regret it!” Franziska clenched her hands into fists, wishing she had a way to show Valentina she meant business.
The other girls started giggling, and Valentina turned red.
“My note made him unhappy? Really?” she asked, seeming mortified now. “You’re sure? He wasn’t... embarrassed, maybe?”
“I already told you, I know my brother! Whatever was in your letter upset him, he was unhappy and uncomfortable! Not bashful!” hissed Franziska.
“I’m sorry, Frannie,” mumbled Valentina, and to Franziska’s surprise, she seemed to mean it. “I just told him... that I had a crush on him...”. The older girl buried her face in her hands, as her friends snickered around her but patted her on the back sympathetically all the same. “This is so embarrassing... I’m never telling a boy I like him ever again...”
Franziska faltered slightly. This was it? A crush? Well, it doesn’t matter what her intentions were, it matters that she made Miles sad.
“I’ll forgive you this time, Valentina. But you and your friends had better not do anything to upset him again, or you’ll be dealing with me! And don’t call me Frannie!”
She stomped off until she was out of their sight, then sighed against a wall. Miles might have been older, but it was up to her to look out for him.
Being a big sister is hard.
------
University
Franziska had learned, over the years, what it meant when people looked at her brother that way. Long glances, blushes, fluttering eyelashes, sighs...
Trouble.
Other people seemed to find Miles attractive. She just saw her brother, though she supposed he did have a very symmetrical face. At 13, she hadn’t really thought much about whether people were attractive or not, and everyone at their university was much too old for her anyway.
One of the law students in Miles’ cohort had started finding excuses to sit or stand near him a bit too often. Franziska had noticed that when Miles was studying in the university library, this young woman would inevitably find herself in the library at the same time, sitting near him, asking him questions, placing her hand on his arm... It was obvious to Franziska that he wanted to be left alone. Everyone who knows Miles knows he is preparing for his bar exam; distractions cannot be tolerated!
Miles would say as little as possible to the girl as was polite, and he’d flinch slightly at her touch and pull back. Yet she refused to take a hint! Franziska was furious. Both with this foolish girl, for pursuing her clearly uninterested brother so aggressively, and with Miles, who never seemed to stand up for himself properly in these situations. Miles preferred to ignore the problem, becoming more and more withdrawn, hiding behind walls of detached politeness and formality, until people eventually thought he was too cold and uninterested to be worth their time.
Franziska had had enough.
She knew Miles’ tormentor’s routine – had watched her, the way she must have watched Miles to learn when his classes were. She followed the student who, sure enough, had been trailing a little distance behind Miles as he walked to the campus library.
“Excuse me,” said Franziska firmly, stepping in front of her.
“Oh! Hello, miss, are you lost?” asked the young woman.
Franziska seethed. She was a prodigy, not a lost child. She had earned her place at this university.
“Not at all; I am a student here. I am Franziska von Karma,” replied Franziska firmly, offering her hand. She emphasised her last name as she spoke, but the girl didn’t react, only shook her hand politely. A law student who doesn’t know to respect the von Karma name? She can’t be taking her studies seriously. “ Now, may I ask your name, Miss...?”
“Kassandra Chasey, but everyone calls me Kass.” the girl answered. Franziska certainly would not be calling her Kass.
“Miss Chasey, I can’t help but notice that you seem to have an unwelcome... interest, shall we say, in my brother.”
Kassandra looked at her in confusion.
“In Miles Edgeworth.” Franziska elaborated, irritated that such a fool would think herself worth Miles’ time if she couldn’t even make simple deductions on her own.
“Really? Sorry, I didn’t realise he had a – wait, what do you mean?”
“I mean,” said Franziska through grit teeth, “That I have observed that you, Miss Chasey, have a lack of respect for my brother’s time and boundaries.”
“...What?”
“You have been following my brother from class to library to cafeteria. You have asked him to help you with revision when it is plainly apparent that he is focused on his own studies. You have ignored his absolute lack of interest in you, ignored the fact that your relentless attention clearly makes him uncomfortable, and persisted. Why?”
“...What?” repeated Kassandra, apparently in shock.
“Why. Have. You. Persisted. When. Miles. Is. Obviously. Not. Interested?” asked Franziska, her patience dwindling dangerously low. “Did you think you could simply annoy him into liking you? That if you followed him around long enough, you’d wear him down and he’d eventually give in? Have some self-respect, Miss Chasey!”
Kassandra started to cry, and Franziska realised she might have touched a nerve.
She sighed, closed her eyes for a moment, and tried a different approach.
“I’m.. Sorry, Miss – Kassandra,” Franziska compromised, still unwilling to call her Kass. “I am speaking with you because I am concerned about my brother. The most important thing to him right now is passing the bar. Please don’t interrupt him, and please stop following him everywhere – he is already stressed enough. I sincerely hope you find someone who returns your affections... please don’t debase yourself further by pursuing people who have made it clear they are not interested. Neither of you deserve that.”
Franziska turned and walked away from the crying girl, feeling slightly guilty despite being sure she’d done the right thing.
------
Interpol
Franziska had seen the warning signs, once again.
Lang was more obvious than most. He looked at Miles with intense interest, would walk up close to him and invade his personal space, grinning and calling him “pretty boy”.
The difference was, this time Miles didn’t seem to mind so much. He and Agent Lang had been adversarial when they first met, but now, seeing them together after the arrest of the mastermind Simeon Saint, it appeared that a mutual respect had grown between them. Miles would joke and talk with Lang, and had cooperated with him in a way she’d rarely seen him do with anyone else. She suspected that, while Miles might not be openly drooling over Lang the way Lang was over him (well, not literally, but he might as well have been), he shared some level of interest.
Franziska hadn’t been in this position before.
Perhaps my little brother has grown up, and no longer needs me to protect him, she mused.
She considered Lang again, who was looking at Miles hungrily as they spoke, baring his sharp teeth with every grin and laugh.
Still, it can’t hurt to assert dominance here... Agent Lang needs to know that Miles isn’t just another ‘lone wolf’, he has people who care about him... and who will not tolerate anyone treating him carelessly.
“Agent Lang, may I speak with you?”
Lang looked at her, grinned, and strolled casually over to her with his hands in his pockets. She noticed Miles watching him as he walked away, and a feeling of uncertainty flickered within her. I’m going to need to mind Miles’ feelings this time, she thought.
“What’s bothering you, sis?” asked Lang, looking at her curiously but without concern.
“What are your intentions regarding my little brother, Agent Lang?” This was the first time Franziska had had this conversation with someone she knew, and she determined that it would be best to keep things direct and professional.
“Intentions?” Lang barked with laughter. “Are you his sister, or his parent?”
“Answer me, Agent Lang.”
Lang pulled out a scroll and recited, with great enjoyment, “Lang Zi says - ‘Ferocious love blooms with each new Spring’".
Franziska scowled at him. “I’m asking you seriously, Agent Lang. If all you have to offer my little brother is ferocity, then-”
She readied her whip to strike him – not too hard, just enough to remind him that she deserved respect – but when she lashed out, Agent Lang caught the whip in his hand, betraying no sign that it had hurt him.
He looked at her seriously, the laughter gone. “Look, sis – I’ll stop playing. Do you know what that saying really means?”
Franziska shook her head, pulling her whip back from his hand.
“It means,” Lang continued, “that we can lose ourselves in the intensity of new feelings, that burst forth quickly like new growth after the snow melts. It reminds us that we can experience love anew after a difficult time, like spring bringing life after winter. And it also reminds us that some love isn’t forever, and will only last for a season – and life will continue.”
Franziska tapped her finger on her arm. “Lang Zi certainly said a lot of different things with one short sentence, according to you.”
“Well, he wouldn’t have been a respected philosopher for thousands of years if everything he said was just stating the obvious, would he?”
Lang looked at Franziska thoughtfully, and she realised that despite his brash personality and obnoxious fashion sense, he was also a man who had genuinely studied the ancient philosophy he loved to quote so frequently. Perhaps I’ve judged the investigator too quickly... there are depths to him I’ve dismissed.
“So, Agent Lang, which of those interpretations answers my question?”
Lang grinned at her again, the wolf and the philosopher merging in front of her eyes. “It means that I’m not going to pre-empt the future. I like your brother... I’m surprised how much I like him. He’s shown me what a prosecutor should be – no offense, sis – and I like a man who can surprise me, can change my mind. I don’t know if it’s the bloom of a new romance; if we've made a real connection working together; or whether I’m in it for a long time or for a season. All I know is, I’d like to try see where this goes.”
Franziska considered what he’d said. It makes sense, I suppose. No point rushing to know how something will end before it’s even started.
“Alright, Agent Lang,” she said evenly. “I will allow you to ‘see where this goes’. Be warned, however – if you hurt Miles, if you are reckless with his feelings, you will meet the full force of my wrath.”
“Understood,” said Lang, shaking her hand. “He’s lucky to have a she-wolf like you watching his back.”
Well, I’ve made my point, thought Franziska as she watched Lang walk back to Miles and resume talking to him. The result is up to the two of them.
------
The Courthouse
Phoenix Wright was talking to Miles. Wright was blushing as he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly with his hand and laughing. Miles was smiling at him, that small gentle smile that only came out when he was with people he trusted and he could let his guard down.
Wright and her brother had always had a strange relationship – how odd, to think that Phoenix Wright knew my brother before he was my brother – and Franziska had never really known what to make of it. At one time they had clearly been rivals, but they had been friends for years now, and Franziska suspected Wright might know Miles almost as well as she did.
Their current relationship, this conversation, however... it was stirring those long-honed sisterly senses, telling her that someone was pursuing Miles, but this time felt... different.
Franziska pretended to scroll on her phone as she considered the men across the hall. As it had been with Lang all those years ago, she sensed that Miles returned Wright’s interest. She had intervened then, and Lang had assured her he would treat Miles with care – and so he had, their long-distance relationship ending on good terms and turning into a long-distance friendship instead. Yet Franziska had felt she needed to speak to Lang, to protect Miles.
Franziska felt nothing of the sort now. This felt unlike any other occasion she’d noticed someone courting her brother.
Wright and Miles had supported each other through years of trials and tribulations, had been there through each other’s darkest hours and times of need. Wright had helped Miles become the prosecutor he was meant to be – the Chief Prosecutor, now – and Miles had assisted Wright during his disbarment and ensured his return as an attorney once his name was cleared. There was no chance that either man would treat the other unkindly – not after the bond they had forged over decades of friendship. Wright would no sooner hurt Miles than she would.
“Hi, Miss von Karma!” Wright’s teenaged daughter, Trucy Wright, popped up at her elbow. “Why are you looking at Mr Edgeworth and Daddy like that?”
Ah. Of course this painfully perceptive child would realise I was watching them.
“Good afternoon, Trucy Wright. I am... reminiscing about your father’s long friendship with my brother.”
“Oh,” said Trucy wisely. “Yep, they’re in love, aren’t they?”
Poor Wright. What it must be like, having your own daughter read your every thought and feeling like it was written on your face...?
“Yes, I suspect so.” Franziska considered Trucy carefully. “How do you feel about that? You must be accustomed to having your father all to yourself, no?”
“I actually gave daddy the talk yesterday,” said Trucy solemnly.
Franziska tried not to laugh. “The talk?”
“Yes. I told him that he’s getting old now, and I’m worried he’s never going to tell Mr Edgeworth how he feels. I told him he needs to look after himself too, not just me, and he doesn’t need to stay single for my sake – I like Mr Edgeworth, and I want to see daddy happy.”
“And what did your father say?”
“He said he’s only 35, thank you very much, and he could sort out his own love life.” Trucy laughed. “And then he told me he was grateful for my blessing, and that being my daddy had never once stopped him from being happy.”
“He’s a good father,” said Franziska, smiling at Trucy. “He’s lucky to have a daughter like you looking out for him.”
“Like you look out for Mr Edgeworth, Ms von Karma?”
“Just so, Trucy... and please, call me Franziska.”
Franziska looked back at the two men, still in a world of their own in amongst the chaos of the courthouse.
“Shall we leave them to it, Trucy?”
Trucy nodded. “Yes... Daddy’s brave, but I think talking to him last night gave him what he needed to confess to Mr Edgeworth. I’m sure of it.”
“Very well, let’s give them some space. Would you care to accompany me to the vending machine? The Swiss rolls are surprisingly good quality for something from a machine.”
Franziska and Trucy took their time, sitting by the window and talking over their afternoon snack. By the time they returned to the court hallway, Wright was speaking earnestly to Miles, holding his hand in his and looking into his eyes. Miles beamed back at Wright, nodded, and clasped his other hand around Wright’s so both pairs of hands were joined. Franziska could tell, even from here, that Miles’ eyes were misty behind his glasses.
No, there was no need to warn Phoenix Wright. Miles was in safe hands now.