4 Foolish Games

Mr. Coffee: Here’s another lovely shot for the twosome that will go down as being one of the most epic couples in history, or end up killing each other. I can’t even say which one I’m anticipating more…

JP: If you’re reading this, there’s a chance you’ve already read the prior to this Klema2-shot: Don’t You Forget About Me and Ain’t Nobody. This picks up immediately after the events that happened after Ema and Klavier left the Sprocket Wedding reception. Enjoy my fave prosecuties! 😊

Maya, Phoenix, Athena, and Miles all stared after the forensic scientist and former rock star prosecutor as the duo exited the reception hall together. As soon as they were out of sight, Phoenix expelled a huge breath of relief.

“It’s a good thing Klavier got Ema out of here so fast! I’ve never seen her so steamed! I seriously do believe if the good detective had had a gun holster attached to her dress, she would’ve shot us for our Cupid endeavors!”

“No good deed goes unpunished!” Athena twittered. “I wonder if Ema had been packing heat, which of us would’ve taken the threatened bullet first? Maya and I for our part in the matchmaking, or Mr. Wright, since she’s known him the longest…”

“It could have just as easily been me dodging those vengeful gunshots!” Miles glared at the blue defense attorney. “Let the record show my involvement was something Detective Skye was wholly ignorant of – until my alleged best friend fingered me, even though I was the world’s most reluctant accomplice to these cockamamie shenanigans!”

“You better believe Nick threw you under the bus!” Maya wasn’t even remotely penitent for her boyfriend’s loose lips. “If we, along with his employee, had to go down for our noble intentions, you better believe we’d be taking you with us!”

“It’s not like we needed to twist your arm to participate in our matchmaking efforts for Ema and Klavier, Edgeworth!” Phoenix chortled. “You know that I know that you know that I know that there was no pulling of teeth required! You readily coughed up that pertinent information that sealed the deal, just like a cat with a furball!”

“Fact! You aren’t fooling anybody!” Athena smiled coyly at the scowling barrister. “I could tell that you were as moved as the rest of us when Ema and Prosecutor Gavin sang that romantic duet tonight! Why don’t you just admit you’re every bit the diehard romantic that we all are?”

“I shall admit no such thing!” Miles shifted his baleful glower from his best friend and directed it at the redhead, who smirked back knowingly. “Not that it would matter, in any case…”

He looked away, feeling his cheeks warm slightly.

“Ahem, I suppose to refute your point would be moot since you can apparently hear other people’s hearts, Miss Cykes. Incidentally, such is a most obtrusive trait, might I add!”

“Stop your grumbling, Miles!” Maya grinned impishly. “Are you honestly going to pretend that, like the rest of us, you’re not-so-secretly rooting for Ema and the glimmerous fop to sort things out and finally get together?”

“Nah, Edgeworth would rather have us believe he’s still as emotionally constipated as ever and doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body. He’d prefer we dub his involvement in trying to get those two together as purely due to peer pressure, and nothing else,” Phoenix deadpanned. “After all, this is the same man who publicly announced in our last courtroom battle that he sees nothing wrong with wishing to remain unwed!”

“That’s true,” the spirit medium recalled, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “I guess Miles is destined to be married to nothing but his work, in the end, am I right?”

The prosecutor groaned internally at the reminder of his rash decree during the state vs. Wyatt trial, made purely in the heat of legal battle. Crossing his arms, he did his best to ensure his countenance remained inscrutable.

Unaware of her friend’s contemplations, Maya was now flashing a teasing smirk at Phoenix.

“I guess not everybody’s a big believer in the power of love like you are Nick, you big sap!”

“I’m your big sap,” the spiky-haired man reminded his lover, tapping her playfully on the nose. “What can I say? Sorin and Ellen would make anybody believe in true love! Everyone except my android chum here – wait where did he go?”

The couple had been so wrapped up in their own little world that they hadn’t even noticed Miles had discreetly left the group.

“Did Mr. Roboto just take off without saying goodbye?” Athena craned her neck as she peered around the crowded room. “How rude!”

I need to get home and collect my thoughts about certain things, the Chief Prosecutor reflected as he strode purposely towards the exit. Not that I have any desire to broadcast my personal reflections to those jejune, twitterpated fools, but it’s not just the newlyweds that I wish the best of luck. The truth is, I am rooting for Detective Skye and Prosecutor Gavin. Hopefully our endeavors tonight will lead them to become something more. Like Wright and Maya, they too started as mere colleagues. Moreover, they’ve given me further reason to believe that despite knowing someone for years, as much as some things remain the same, they also tend to change…sometimes before you even realize it…

His residence wasn’t very far away from the Sprocket Park Mooring Dock, and as the slate-haired man stepped into the entryway of his posh, sprawling penthouse, he was still mulling over the niggling underlying issue Phoenix had unwittingly reminded him of.

Something Miles had been denying to himself for far longer than he should have.

At last, I’m finally back in my humble abode. I’m most keen to curl up in front of my fireplace, in my favorite armchair, with a glass of wine. My haven bears more familiarity and warmth than I’ve had these countless days, which have gone so fast with the madness of that Sprocket court case! Whilst it was pleasant to be with my friends at the wedding, I’m happy to return home. I feel like a tortoise retracting into his shell, the troubles of the world evaporating. To anyone else, this home is like all the others exactly like it on this street, but to me, it is a sanctuary. It is a cocoon, it is rest. I can finally gather some perspective and resolve these repressed deliberations I’ve been having for far too long regarding …

“You foolish fool!” An irate voice suddenly snapped from behind him, shattering his reverie. “How dare you?”

Miles reflexively leaped from his cushioned wingback chair as the sharp crack of leather lashed against his hand, nearly making him spill the vintage port he’d just poured himself onto his immaculate Persian rug.

The logic enthusiast spun around, quickly placing the crystal stemware onto the wooden coffee table, out of harm’s way. With saucer-sized eyes, he then met the fierce glare of a very recognizable femme fatale who was brandishing her trusty whip while sparks of rage – and questionable hurt – shot from her argent orbs.

“You are unbelievable, Miles Edgeworth! And I do not mean that as a compliment!”

“Franziska?!” The astonished lawyer gaped at his unexpected guest. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t arriving to visit until tomorrow evening!”

“I decided to take an earlier flight because I could no longer contain my rage and disappointment with you, Little Brother!” She almost spat out the familiar title, one she hadn’t used in years. “I have been seething overseas for nearly the past week now, ever since I saw your latest trial against that foolish Phoenix Wright!”

Miles goggled at her blankly, utterly bewildered by her ire. It had been nearly a decade since his ‘Big Sister’ had encountered the defense attorney, her old courtroom rival. Therefore, perhaps naïvely, he’d assumed that time had softened her old hostility against his friend; at the very least, into some kind of grudging respect, and possibly some wry affection.

So, what in the world could have thus infuriated her about their latest courtroom battle?

Is she clinging to her childish vendetta against Wright for breaking her perfect win record and feels resentful against me because I didn’t defeat him, thence allowing her to be triumphant by proxy?

“I see your memory has left you, along with your common sense, you Dummkopf!” Franziska appeared to have grown further agitated by his nonplussed expression. “Have you honestly forgotten that any cases that involve either of you Ace Attorneys gets televised?”

No, Miles hadn’t failed to recollect this fact. He just hadn’t thought she would bother to pay any mind to this, and was straining to excogitate how to proceed without being whipped yet again!

“I am touched that you still cared enough to take the time to watch me in action since I know how busy you have been with Interpol over in Europe,” he began placidly, keeping a wary eye on her weapon. “Although I remain at a loss as to what it was about this case which has you so up in arms?”

“You truly have no idea, do you?” Franziska’s anger fizzled then, her voice taking on a more anguished inflection. “Or is it that you simply did not care how much your scornful views on relationships and holy matrimony would affect me at all?”

The realization of what she was referring to hit him then, like a bucketful of ice water to the face.

Franziska was referring, of course, to the various ways Miles dismissed anything even remotely about his beliefs on matters of the heart during the trial. Such as how he’d harrumphed Wright’s saccharine, trite declarations about the power of love. And on top of that, he’d then superciliously responded to the judge’s harmless, (albeit impromptu) query about his own marital status, by declaring that he saw nothing wrong with being unwed… and choosing to remain that way!

It’d all been uttered with unthinking waspishness, as he’d been in cold, hard prosecutor mode at the time. Right up until now, Miles had forgotten all about the whole thing! Anyone who knew him was well aware by now that he was never one to reveal the softer side of his persona in the courtroom – not even to his best friend!

For heaven’s sake, he’d also blithely dismissed ever associating with Wright or Maya or His Honor, in any social capacity, despite being fond of all of them, because he hadn’t wanted to openly mix business with pleasure! Nevertheless, his friends hadn’t held those lofty words against him! Obviously, he hadn’t meant a word of it, since he’d just come from dancing and mingling with the lovebirds all night at the wedding!

“Franziska…” Miles tried to put a placating hand on her shoulder but she brushed it off as though she’d been scorched. “You of all people should know, more than anyone, how I’m a completely different person when I’m in the courtroom than I am whenever I’m out of it…”

“All I know is that you have not changed one bit over the years, Miles Edgeworth!” She cried, drawing away from him and clutching at her sleeves. “I was evidently deluding myself all these years, thinking that we had grown… closer from all that time we had worked Interpol together. Like a fanciful foolish fool, I allowed myself to believe that maybe…”

She shook her head, long argentite tresses falling dejectedly around her ethereal visage, hiding it from his view as she choked out the last sentence.

“Well, it does not matter what I thought, since you have proven that you are romantic as a – a salad bowl!”

Miles could have laughed at the absurd comparison, except for the fact that her very prominent angst was no laughing matter. He’d successfully aggrieved her with this supposed revelation she thought had been made, and while he could take an educated guess as to why this was so, he had no idea how to remedy any of it.

Her next words brought things to a head and judging given how choked up she was, they were as excruciating to hear as they obviously were for to say.

“I had hoped that the shadows of our past would not cloud our current relationship, such as it were. That the gradual transcending from childhood rival siblings to respected colleagues of equal level, and now to friends would allow things to further continue to progress their natural course. Had even hoped that in due time, perhaps someday…”

She drew in a shaky breath

“No matter. Ultimately, I was wrong. It was all a built-up fantasy in my mind, nothing more. You will never change who you are or the way that you see me, no matter how much time has passed. And that knowledge breaks my heart, Miles Edgeworth.”

Her voice broke then.

“It hurts so damn much.”

“Franziska…” he was a loss for words.

As crazy as it’d seemed at that time, the legist desperately wished, with all his heart, that Sorin Sprocket’s time machine invention had been an actual, tangible device. If it were, Miles would’ve surely gone and turned back time. He would have gladly rewound the hands of the clock to those precise moments in the trial when he’d uttered those completely nonsensical untruths about his views on love and marriage.

And I would have gladly zippered my accursed mouth shut, had I known how much agony my thoughtless statements would’ve caused the person closest to me!

“I have always prided myself on being a good judge of character but I have long ago come to terms with the fact that I am far from perfect, ergo neither are my perceptions of people.” The beautiful orbs were now two liquescent pearls. “Sometimes, you are too close to someone to see the way they are; the way things really are. Sometimes, you care about them so much that you do not want to. Perhaps the worst thing to realize is that you did not mean as much to someone as you thought.”

That was when Miles saw the droplets begin to flow from those normally shuttered eyes, shimmering twin silver pools, which were now peering up into his mien with unmasked sorrow.

Unlike her customary hardened and aloof expression this time, those eyes aren’t emotionless; they are strong locks, holding all her powerful feelings within. They’re glaciers to keep her heartrending emotions of the past frozen, but it’s ice that can no longer bear the torment within her. It’s a lock that opened for my sake. This woman is young, but she’s certainly a warrior, one who’s found the light to continue, even after she’s seen the deepest floors of hell.

At last, the source of the tears fully dawned on him, and with it, his suppressed feelings were fully triggered at last. When his friends had harangued him about being an unfeeling automaton who didn’t give a fig about love or marriage, he hadn’t cared too much if any of them had believed those things about him.

All that mattered was that the woman currently shedding tears over it did as well.

In all the years I have known her, I could count on the fingers of one hand many times I’ve seen Franziska Von Karma cry. The last time I witnessed it was 10 years ago when I chased her to the airport. And somehow, I am the cause of them, yet again.

Although it was positively gut-wrenching to see, it seemed long overdue for her.

Oh, Franziska, let those tears flow. In those salty trickles is who you are – one who feels. You aren’t cold like a machine that runs on logic alone, who wants only what is sensible for themselves. You have emotions so divine; I want to scoop you up in my arms and keep you safe for all time. In a world of hurt, it is human to cry, yet always let the joy in whenever you can. There is love here too, so much love. So, let me see those eyes that swim with tears, for they shine with life and the knowledge of who you truly are.

“Franziska listen to me. You weren’t wrong in sensing that things had changed between us over the years. I stopped seeing you like my Big Sister a long time ago, for the same motives I can only hope that you stopped addressing me as your Little Brother. The only reason I have never addressed this is…”

“DL-6,” she finished dully, brushing away her tears. “That has always been the pink elephant in the room betwixt us, has it not? You may not see me as your foster sibling anymore, and perhaps even promoted my place in your life to a colleague or even a friend. Nevertheless, you will never be able to see me as anything more, because of that horrible incident, nein?”

“DL-6?” He gawked at her in disbelief. “That’s what you think this all comes down to?”

“What else am I supposed to think?” Another wet bead rolled down her cheek. “No matter how much time passes, I do not think you will ever be able to lay eyes upon me without being reminded of the fact that my Papa ruthlessly murdered your father in cold blood.”

The words were like a sucker punch to the gut.

“Nonsense! I have never lied to you about anything in all my life, Franziska, and I am not about to start now!” He denied vehemently. “I swear to you that I have never had nor ever will hold you accountable for the sins of your father! If anything, I have always wondered if a part of you would always despise me!”

“How could you ever think such a foolish thing?” She demanded, not even trying to hold back the deluge continuing to empty itself down her face. “You are the one who lost everything because of my father!”

“Yet I’m the one who chose Wright to be my lawyer, therefore inadvertently being the reason you lost Manfred in the first place. I thought because of this, that you would never forgive me!”

They stared at each other without speaking for what seemed like ages, the Interpol Agent still hugging herself as she shed tears of relief now that the unspoken truths of their wretched past had been finally brought to light. However, a lingering lament prevailed, because, despite all this, nothing else had changed.

“So be it then,” she whispered finally, a dull ache in her chest. “We have acknowledged that we do not hold any bitterness or acrimony for one another in spite of the horrid ties that bind us. I will take comfort in that. However, even if you are saying you did not mean the things you said about love and marriage, it still does not matter, right? Ultimately, even if you do want those things, it is not with me.”

Her eyes were pained as she stared up at him, chest heaving with sobs.

“That is the true reason our relationship, such as it were, has been at a stalemate all these years, is it not?”

Franziska wasn’t even bothering to wipe away her tears anymore. It was unlike her to be so candid about her emotions, but here she was, laying her heart on the line to him, even though she believed her feelings were unrequited. This meant in the end, she was even braver than Miles himself. He inwardly cursed his pusillanimity all these years for denying to himself what was now so glaringly palpable.

When first I looked upon her comely visage, when I first realized she was no longer the spoiled, tempestuous young girl I once knew and was now a strong, formidable, desirable woman, it was not her grown-up pulchritude that enraptured me. It was not on the perfect features that I dwelled – not the shimmering gray eyes, nor the pomegranate lush lips. Instead, it was the small flaws and insecurities that allured me. The small scar on her shoulder from that bullet wound, the demure, modest smile whenever she was being unpredictably kind, the very slight flare of her nostrils when she’s enraged. That’s when I knew I had found the person who was perfectly imperfect for me. I can’t even pinpoint exactly how long I’ve felt this way. All that matters is that I do. And it’s high time that she knew.

As she choked back another sniffle, Miles fervently wished, with every fiber of his being, that he could dry every tear she’d ever shed, one by one, and ensure that this remarkable, fiery, sweet dame before him never cried another tear in her whole life.

Now, when I look upon those features, I lose myself. All the mistakes I have ever made, and there have been many, are gone – every impure thought erased. All negativity is cleansed, almost like a religious experience or spiritual enlightenment. I know her eyes can see through me, but I know they do not dwell on the anger, the deceit, or the selfishness. She looks past every flaw to find the person inside, the real me, and at that moment, I know I’m perfectly imperfect for her too.

“Our relationship has been at a stalemate because I grew up in the same household you did – where expressing sentiment for anything other than ambition or perfection was discouraged and ridiculed. Therefore, I have been an emotionally crippled fool all these years. A coward who has been too scared of these unfamiliar emotions to tell you that my feelings for you have changed; that I stopped seeing you as any sibling of sorts a long time ago. That I view you, want you, yearn for you, the way a man does a woman.”

Franziska emitted a startled gasp, and he spotted the rosy calescence in her fair cheeks mounting at this unforeseen declaration.

It was all the encouragement he needed.

Miles stepped forward and leaned down so he could stare right into her stunned, tear-stained visage. When she continued to stubbornly cast her timid gaze down at the ornate carpeting under her black boots, he crooked a finger under her chin and spoke, for the first time in his life, not from his mind, but his heart.

“I see I’ve shocked you with my ardor. I know this is unexpected and strange, but please hear me out. I know I told you I never lied to you… but that was the biggest lie of all. The truth is: I am a liar. I lied. I lied to myself and you by not making my feelings for you known. But only because I had to. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you, Franziska – you were my mentor’s daughter! Nonetheless, it happened anyway.”

Her lips parted in another soundless gasp, and she started to shake her head, as though not allowing herself to believe he was finally uttering what she’d forever longed to hear.

“And it gets worse,” he continued earnestly. “Not only am I a liar, but I’m also selfish. Selfish enough to want it all, for I know if I don’t have you, I don’t have anything. The one trait that remains constant with me, both in and out of court, is that I am ruthless. I cannot and will not give up until I can prove to you that you are the only thing that matters. So even if I hurt you so badly that you want to send me away, or run away as you did 10 years ago, just know that this time, I shan’t let you go. I’ll just keep running after you. Again, and again, and again. And if you can ever find it in your heart to forgive me… I will do everything it takes to make it up to you. Cross my heart.”

He lifted her face with both hands now, cradling it in his palms so she had no choice but to look up and see the tenderness in his expression.

“Ask me to define my love for you and I’ll say it’s captured in every beautiful memory of our past, detailed out in vivid visions of our dreams and future plans, but most of all it’s right now, at the moment, where everything I’ve ever wanted in my life is standing right in front of me.”

The veracity on his handsome face made her heart fill with so much exultation that she thought it would burst. She had never felt more joyful, secure, or sure of anything, in her entire life.

All I know is that when I am with you, I feel as protected and secure as I do when I have my whip in hand. It is like I am reliving a moment of being carried to bed by Mama when I was five years old and fell asleep in front of the television. All-day long, I can feel fragile, like a raw nerve, and when you are by my side, Miles, it is like I just put on the thickest winter coat and installed bulletproof windows in my house. I am comfortable and safe. Moreover, I am home. I am no longer terrified. I always feel at home with him, no matter how far away from home we are. With him, I am free. With him, I am me.

Franziska almost wanted to pinch herself to convince herself she wasn’t dreaming. A part of her almost couldn’t allow herself to fathom that the most abysmal week of her life could be so quickly swept away by the soothing ointment made by the dulcet proclamations from that beloved voice, by the promise of forever in those spellbinding smoky eyes.

“Do you sincerely mean all of this, Miles? I – I almost cannot believe that this is happening…that all you are saying is true. I want nothing more in the world to believe you, as I have yearned for this moment – yearned for you, for so very long…”

“For the rest of my days, I shall speak nothing but the truth to you, Meine Dame.” His cadence turned husky. “Because all of me loves all of you. All your curves and all your edges. All your perfect imperfections. Give your all to me, I’ll give my all to you. You’re my end and my beginning. Even when I lose, I’m winning.”

He took her hand and kissed it.

“There are so many reasons that I love you, Franziska von Karma. Do you want to know why I’m so helplessly and unequivocally besotted with you?”

“Because you have finally released the sentimental fool within you?” She whispered, never tearing her gaze from his as a warm, happy glow began working its way from her head to the tips of her toes. “You wonderful, foolish fool of a man!”

“If that is the case, then so be it,” he teased softly. “After all, it takes one to know one, does it not?”

As his rich baritone slowly transformed into the melodious song, it was the diapason of all thoughts and feelings showcasing his unleashed profound and passionate spirit.

[MILES]
Do I love you even though you’re a fool
Or is it you’re a fool
Because you love me too?

Am I delusional that it is true
All that I feel for you
You feel it too?

Do I crave you cuz you make my heart full?
Or is it my heart’s full
Because I crave you?

Are you truly perfect as I think you seem?
Or am I merely a fool and this is but a dream?

[FRANZISKA]

(whispers)
Mayhap I am only dreaming all this…Mayhap these are just dreams of fools

[FRANZISKA]

(sings)
How am I to believe that it is true
That such a man like you
Could love me too?

Do I crave you cuz you make my heart full?
Or is it my heart’s full
Because I crave you?

[FRANZISKA & MILES]

Are you truly as perfect as I think you seem?
Or am I merely a fool and this is but a dream?

[MILES]

*kisses her palm then stares deeply into her eyes*

(Murmurs)

Meine Dame, too long I have yearned for this
and now that it finally has, I hope we’ve started something that will never end.

[FRANZISKA]

*raises a hand to his face*
(speaks)

As do I, Liebling

[BOTH]

Are you truly as perfect as I think you seem?
Or am I merely a fool and this is but a dream?

Franziska was holding both his hands in her own as she peered up at him through her lashes.

“If this is just a dream, Miles Edgeworth, I do not ever wish to awaken again.”

“I do not need sleep when my reality, at last, surpasses even my wildest dreams, Franziska.” He stroked her cheek. “Together, we are nothing but the most perfect of fools.”

“In your words, I am safe because, in my heart of hearts, I know they are not mere words.” She let out a sigh of contentment. “You have been there every month, every year. You have been there in the good times and the bad.”

“And I shall continue to be there for you, for the rest of my days.” Miles ran his index over her now quivering lips. “I swear this to you, Meine Dame.”

“Even knowing my faults, of which there are many, you have been there to listen, to defend, to love. You understand my anxieties, my triggers, and the ghosts that haunt me, driving actions that are so illogical to others.”

Franziska had to brace her hands against his chest to keep from melting into his arms. She first needed to bare her soul, unflinchingly, just as he had.

“In return, I keep you safe with my words, my deeds. In turn, I am the one who will always be there for you, be honest with you, listen, and care. I will not always have answers for you, and you will not always have answers for me, but you will never be alone in your problems, and neither will I. So today I will paint you a picture of my love with words, and then every day, I will prove they are true. Now that I have spoken my heart, there is only thing left to say to you, Liebling.”

The German beauty’s eyes twinkled with a naughty glint as she pressed her lips against his fingertip.

“Satiate my yearnings for you at last and kiss me, you fool!”

“Your fool.” Holding her gaze, he said solemnly. “I’ve been waiting for a girl like you all my life, Franziska.”

She was barely able to get more than one step toward him before he reached out and crushed her against his muscled length, strong arms wrapping tightly around her slender waist as his hot, insistent lips seized hers in a fiercely passionate kiss that was way too long overdue. A lifetime of suppressed yearning, love, and desire was wordlessly spoken in that heated embrace, and they were breathless when they finally parted. Miles pressed a soft kiss on her forehead, then rested his chin atop her satin tresses as she pressed her face against his chest.

“It’s always been you, Meine Dame, he breathed. “Nobody but you.”

Franziska was already aching for him to kiss her again. Drawing back slightly, she tugged at his cravat until his mouth was only a fraction away from hers, matching his hungry, heated look with an unmasked, come-hither one of her own. Her lips curved into a sultry smile as with her free hand, she reached around and clapped a possessive hand around his firm buttocks, drawing him even closer still, reveling in the sight of the smoldering flame in his eyes.

Right before his lips claimed hers again, Miles whispered huskily, “Always you, Meine Dame. Time after time…”

The End

JP: This may look familiar to those of you who follow the songfic series, Singing in the Courtroom where I collab with my fave funnyman, CzarThwomp. The parody, “Do I Love You Even Though You’re A Fool” is sung to the tune of “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1997 film version of Cinderella.

 John Legend – All Of Me (Miles’ speech)
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” – Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful