❝She doesn’t want to talk about what they’re doing, or even think about it; she wants to go forward and leave the words that always seem too formal from her mouth behind, but when Maya keeps her like this, teetering, wanting, she doesn’t have much of a choice.
Uncertainty is not Franziska von Karma's strong suit, but to be with Maya Fey, bearing it seems like a worthy sacrifice in the end.
[ ace attorney/gyakuten saiban | franmaya | 2.1k | rated e | written for the @nsfwfranmayazine ]
To start off our list of contributor works, here is a lovely fic from @daddywright , aka ApprenticeofDoyle on AO3! If you’re a fan of soft dom Maya, experimentation, and loving banter, then this is an absolute must-read. Link in the reblogs!
Hii!! I saw your post about fic requests, I was wondering if you'd like to write about Franziska having to babysit Pearls while Maya's away? In my head this is in a franmaya context but I honestly don't mind it if it's not. Happy writing!!
Kinda took this one and ran with it, ended up a bit longer than I’d intended but hey, that’s what happens sometimes! XD
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Word Count: 4203
~ ao3 link ~
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Franziska von Karma was not the type of woman to fret over someone else. She was headstrong, independent, and fearless–everything that the title of ‘von Karma’ stood for. She didn’t waste her time worrying about other people’s business because it was their responsibility to deal with it.
However, when she received a text from one Maya Fey, her girlfriend, saying that there was an ‘emergency’ and she needed to ‘come quick,’ Franziska, definitely not in a rush, hailed an uber and made it to Wright and Co. Law Offices in exactly ten minutes. Not a second more or less, as is expected of a perfect prosecutor.
When she reached the door, she raised her fist to knock, but the door swung open before she could even bring her fist against wood. What a shame, she’d been perfecting her knocking technique.
“Franzy! Thank goodness!” Maya looked frazzled to say the least. Her hair, which typically appeared silky smooth, stuck up in a few places, making Franziska want to reach out and smooth it back down. Her hand twitched as she fought her own impulse for a moment, but Maya had been working with her to stop pushing down such childish–no, such normal impulses. As such, Franziska brought her hand up to smooth Maya’s hair back down.
“Maya Fey, you look a mess.” She shook her head, suppressing a smile that tried to sneak onto her face. Even so, Maya let out a tired giggle.
“Yeah, yeah I know.” She sighed, leaning into Franziska’s hand. “Look, Franzy, I know it’s… really sudden, but can I ask you a favor?”
Anything at all. Played in Franziska’s head.
“Of what variety?” Franziska replied instead, allowing herself one more moment of running her fingers through Maya’s hair before taking her hand back. Maya sighed, turning around to walk back inside and gesturing for her to follow.
“Well, you see, apparently there’s some emergency going on in Kurain Village. Something about some spirit getting out of hand, people panicking, etcetera etcetera–” Maya made a circular motion with her wrist, emphasizing the words. “--anyway, skipping the boring stuff ‘cause I didn’t even pick up half of the details over the phone, they need me to head over and ‘use my Fey bloodline powers’ to clean things up. Problem is, Nick’s currently out with the flu, and…”
“Mystic Maya!” Franziska absolutely did not freeze up when she heard the familiar young voice. Turning her head a tad bit too sharply, she spotted one Pearl Fey pointing at Wright’s absurd office plant. “Mystic Maya, one of the leaves is slightly wilted! Charley is dying!” The girl wailed, not even seeming to notice Fraziska’s presence, and Maya shot Franziska an apologetic smile.
“...I could only snag one train ticket back to the village at the next earliest time.” As the pieces clicked into place in Franziska’s head, Pearl finally noticed there was another person in the room, and her eyes widened as her wailing suddenly gave way to silence. The three of them stood there in a silent standoff before Pearl shuffled over to Maya, grabbing her arm and slightly pulling her away.
“Mystic Maya, you said you were gonna find someone to stay with me.” Pearl seemed to be trying to whisper, but it was loud enough that anyone in the room would have been able to hear it.
“I did! Pearl, you remember Franzy-”
“NO!” Pearl screamed, stomping her foot and pouting. “Nonono! Someone ELSE!” Maya, however, didn’t seem fazed by this in the slightest, likely having expected it. She would have been foolish not to, after all. Ever since Franziska started dating Maya, Pearl had been the number one protestor to their relationship, insisting this was just an evil ploy from Franziska to ‘steal Mystic Maya’s heart away from Mr. Nick.”
Though, perhaps even more foolish than that was the foolish idea to have Franziska babysit this foolish fool.
“C’mon, Pearly! She’s the only person I can get on such short notice, do you really wanna stay by yourself-”
“Yes!” Pearl huffed, crossing her arms, though a slight tremor in her voice revealed her true intentions. “I’d rather stay here by myself than with that soulmate stealer.” Maya shot Franziska a helpless look. Only Maya Fey could make Franziska von Karma cave with a single look.
“Hmph, fine.” Franziska mimicked Pearl, crossing her arms in return. “I’ll just leave then, and you can enjoy your weekend alone. Farewell, Pearl Fey.” Maya squawked in protest as Franziska walked purposefully towards the door. In her head, she started counting. Three… two… one…
“W-wait!” There it was. Franziska smirked, the wonderful feeling of being right rising in her chest as she one again turned sharply on her heel, looking down at the girl. Pearl Fey was staring at the ground, shuffling her feet. “Fine. I’ll… w… v…” Her words were so quiet Franziska couldn’t make them out, but seemingly audible enough for Maya to hear them, because a relieved smile crossed her girlfriend’s face.
“Thank you, Pearly.” She crouched down and wrapped Pearl in her arms, the younger cousin quickly returning the hug. “I’ll be back before you know it, ok? Promise.”
“...pinky promise?” Maya chuckled, leaning back and holding out her pinky finger.
“Pinky promise.” The two joined pinky fingers, Pearl looking like she was about to start crying again. Pinky promise complete, Maya stood again, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the time- and gasped.
“Shoot! I have to be at the train station in thirty minutes.” She scrambled for her bag that was strewn across the couch, slinging it across her shoulder and all but running out the door, stopping only for a second to give Franziska a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Franzy. I owe you one.”
There was no time for a reply. As soon as Maya walked out the door, Franziska was left under the harsh gaze of Pearl Fey. Neither of them moved as Franziska started coming up with a carefully formulated plan in her head. It was quite simple-
Step one, leave the office and return to her apartment with Pearl Fey in tow. Step two, show her where the guest bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom are. Step three, wait for Maya to return. Flawless in every way.
“Come. My apartment is ten minutes from here.” Franziska made for the door, opening it and taking a few steps outside before realizing there were no footsteps following behind her. Refusing to backtrack, she simply turned around, looking back through the door. “What is the issue?”
“I can’t leave Charley here! He’ll die!” Pearl pouted, gesturing to the abomination of a plant in the corner. It looked completely fine save for one slightly wilted leaf.
“The foliage will be fine.”
“No! He’ll die if we leave him alone!” Pearl wailed, running over and throwing her arms around the base of the pot. “Mystic Maya said it’s her duty to keep him alive in memory of Mystic Mia! If he dies while she’s gone I’ll have failed herrrr.”
The child was hugging a potted plant and sobbing. Franziska huffed, stomping back inside and resigning herself to dealing with this. The girl clearly wasn’t going to leave the plant here willingly, and she couldn’t just drag her kicking and screaming into a cab… well- no. No, that would be the cheap way out. She had half a mind to just whip the plant and put it out of its misery, but that would get them nowhere.
So, if she couldn’t drag the girl into the cab… this was a terrible idea.
Franziska immediately blamed Phoenix Wright for the turmoil she was about to endure.
~~~
Twenty minutes later, Franziska finally unlocked the door to her apartment. Double the time it should have taken, but it had happened. She ushered Pearl in before turning back to the hallway, crouching down, and picking that godforsaken potted plant up for what would hopefully be the last time.
Somehow, they’d managed to find an uber driver that both had a car large enough to carry the foliage, and also allowed them to bring it in. Perfect as always, Franziska had supplied the driver with a generous tip. Her clothes were partially coated in a layer of plant dirt, and her hair was frizzed from being whacked by leaves, but she’d successfully gotten Pearl to her apartment.
Not quite flawless, but the original goal was achieved flawlessly.
Foolish plant.
After carefully setting down the plant right by the window, as per Pearl’s insistence, Franziska closed and locked her apartment door before placing the apartment keys in the bowl right next to it. Perfect. Smiling slightly to herself, she turned back around to enact step two of the already slightly strayed-from plan-
Only to see that the girl had climbed onto the kitchen counter and was attempting to grab a glass from one of the higher cupboard shelves.
“Pearl Fey!” Franziska scolded, and Pearl froze, slowly turning her head with a guilty look on her face like a kid caught stealing candy. “Get down from there this instant!”
“I need a cup to water Charley with!” The girl protested, turning back around. Franziska, having enough of this, stomped over and scooped the girl up, placing her back on the floor despite her protests. She then reached up, opened a different cupboard, took out a plastic cup, filled it with water using the sink, and held it out to the girl. Pearl stared at it like it was an alien.
“Well? Here’s your foolish cup to water your foolish plant.” She pushed the cup against Pearl’s chest, and Pearl instinctively grabbed it, eyes still fixated on it. Slowly, she looked up at Franziska, a completely neutral expression on her face, before turning around and walking towards the plant without a word.
Hmph. Fine, then. A von Karma doesn’t need a ‘thank you’ anyway.
~~~
The rest of the day went fairly smoothly. Franziska showed Pearl where she’d be sleeping, where the food in the kitchen was, and where the bathroom was, exactly as planned. The cup for watering the abomination was left sitting on the windowsill next to it, and Pearl spent most of the afternoon sitting and talking to the plant, occasionally inspecting its wilting leaf. She was an odd child, but at least she could entertain herself.
Franziska didn’t have the faintest clue how she would have entertained a child otherwise, not that she’d ever admit that to anyone. Except maybe Maya. Maybe.
Even so, time passed quite quickly, Franziska deciding to do some light reading in the living room to keep an eye on Pearl, and soon enough dinnertime came around. Franziska preferred to eat at precisely 8:00pm when she wasn’t planning on eating out, and planned to stick to that schedule as best she could. However, the challenge came when she realized she had to feed not only herself, but also the girl currently telling a plant a story about some prince.
“And then, the prince swung at the dragon! He couldn’t let it take the princess, she was the love of his life!” Blech. Children and their little romance stories. Disgusting.
What exactly did children eat? Pizza? Candy? Marshmallows?
“Pearl Fey.” It was better to just ask than fumble around. Pearl paused in her story, looking over at Franziska warily. “What do you eat for dinner?”
“Uh… food?” Pearl said, cocking her head to the side like a confused puppy.
“Yes, I gathered that. What type of food?”
“I just eat whatever Mystic Maya makes, or whatever is available at the temple.” Pearl shrugged, and Franziska repressed a frustrated sigh. This wasn’t helping.
“Fine. I will ask it another way, then. What do you want to eat for dinner?” This time, Pearl didn’t answer right away, her face scrunching up as if she was deep in thought. Then, she perked up.
“Mac and cheese!” Hm. Simple, both adult and child friendly, and Franziska knew she had a box of it in the pantry. Perfect.
“Good.” She said, marking her place in her book before standing from the couch. “It will be ready in ten minutes. Finish speaking with the foliage by then.” Pearl nodded, turning back to Charley and going right back into her tale.
Mac and cheese sounded pretty good right now.
~~~
Dinner went flawlessly, as to be expected. Pearl had downed her mac and cheese with the enthusiasm of a hungry child, and had let out a huge yawn almost immediately afterwards. Franziska, ever the attentive host, has taken this as a sign to get the girl to bed. Pearl had gone with only a small bit of protest on account of leaving Charley alone for the night, but her tiredness had quickly gotten the best of her.
Now, Franziska sat on her own bed, having changed into her night clothes and turned all the other house lights out apart from the one on her bedside table. She’d thought it best to move her reading to her bed so as to not disturb the sleeping child, lest she wake up an irritable Pearl. She finished the book she had been reading before glancing at the clock, seeing it was just past 10:00pm. Not quite tired yet, she took out her phone and decided to scroll through the day’s news articles to try and find something interesting… creak.
She heard footsteps in the hallway, then the bathroom door opening. Confused, she glanced over at her door–Pearl had gone to bed hours ago. Perhaps she had woken up to use the bathroom? Silence followed, and Franziska decided to disregard the noise, turning back to her phone.
At least, until she heard the faint sound of sniffling coming from the hall. Shoot.
Staring at the door for a moment, Franziska hesitated. She knew, at least partially, what was going on: Pearl was crying for some reason. Why? No clue. Perhaps she was missing Maya? Or she had a certain part of her nighttime routine that Franziska had missed that set her off? Or maybe she fell out of the bed and hurt herself?
Whatever it was, Pearl was choosing to hide in the bathroom instead of seeking out Franziska’s help. Despite Franziska’s bedroom light very clearly being on, it wasn’t like she’d have to wake her up or anything. It could mean it’s something personal that Pearl didn’t want to share with her, and getting up to help would be intruding on that privacy.
However, this was a child currently in Franziska’s care. And god forbid Franziska let a child continue crying when she can do something about it–she wasn’t her father, after all. Shuffling out of bed, she quietly creaked open her own door, taking soft steps toward the bathroom so as to not startle Pearl.
The bathroom door was closed, and upon slightly jiggling the handle, also locked. The movement of the doorknob caused the sniffling inside to go silent, though a few choked sobs could be heard through the door, as if Pearl was covering her mouth with her hands to suppress the noise. Franziska stopped to think–she had to handle this correctly. Walking away now wouldn’t help anything, but she had no idea what she could do.
It wasn’t like she’d had caring parents to show her what to do in a situation like this. Whenever she’d cried as a kid, she’d had to hide from her father or risk being punished for it. A von Karma didn’t cry… but Franziska did. As a child, she had quite a bit. It had been lonely before Miles Edgeworth had come along, with his customs foreign to her. Before father had whipped him into shape, he’d said crying was natural.
He’d never judged her for her breakdowns. Her vulnerabilities. Whenever she’d been having a rough night, they’d both sneak out of their rooms and…
That was it.
Franziska cleared her throat quietly.
“I’m going to make some hot chocolate.” She said, keeping her tone as soft as she could. It wasn’t natural for her to speak without lining her words with harsh consonants and bitterness, but she was working on it. “If you want some, I’ll make an extra mug.”
Silence. She didn’t take it personally, instead walking off towards the kitchen as she’d said, taking out two mugs and moving over to the pantry. She kept the hot chocolate powder behind some of the cereal boxes–a habit from when they were younger. One of the maids had kept it stocked for her and Miles, and they’d hid it from her father to stay out of trouble. After also grabbing a bag of small marshmallows, she made her way back to the counter.
Throwing together two mugs of hot chocolate was something she could do with her eyes closed at this point. It wasn’t a skill she’d ever expected to have, but it came in handy right now. Just as she was finishing up, she heard the bathroom door creaking open. Despite the urge to look up and see the state of Pearl, Franziska kept her eyes on the mugs, topping off the hot chocolate with exactly seven marshmallows each. After some careful consideration, she grabbed another handful and dropped the extra marshmallows into Pearl’s mug.
Sometimes, the extra marshmallows were justified. Just sometimes.
Finally glancing over at Pearl, mugs in hand, Franziska kept her expression carefully neutral. The girl’s eyes were red, tear-streaks under them, and she looked utterly exhausted. She also kept glancing around, as if looking for something lurking behind the couch or table. Franziska knew the signs of a nightmare, having experienced far too many herself, and knew she’d guessed right. Not saying a word, she held out the mug of hot chocolate to Pearl.
Pearl stared at it the same way she’d stared at the cup from earlier. This time, though, she reached out to take it, grabbing the handle and staring down at the sea of marshmallows. Franziska walked past her to the couch, sitting down. After a few seconds, Pearl followed, sitting down next to her, holding the mug in both of her hands.
They sat there, not talking about it, drinking their hot chocolate. While they sat, Franziska eyed the foolish plant in the corner. What was it doing to help Pearl, who had sat there all afternoon talking to it? Absolutely nothing. Pathetic.
“...I like hot chocolate.” Pearl mumbled into her drink, and Franziska felt herself relax slightly at the sound. She quietly hummed in agreement. Waiting for a moment to let the comfortable silence between them sit, Franziska decided to speak.
“It tends to help when I can’t sleep, so I keep it around.” She kept her eyes carefully trained on her mug when she saw Pearl glance over at her in her peripheral vision. The marshmallows were bobbing in the brown liquid, a faint line of steam rising and bringing heat to her face. It was calming, even now as she was older.
“When you can’t…?” It wasn’t a complete question, but Franziska knew what the girl was asking. Of course she did, she was perfect at interpreting childish fools after all, and actual children were only a step up.
“Nightmares.” Franziska bore her gaze down on the marshmallows, trying not to make the conversation seem like it was affecting her. One sunk under the surface. “My father.”
Silence grew again, except this time it wasn’t entirely comfortable. Franziska refused to look over at Pearl, not knowing what expression she’d be met with, and focused on taking another sip of her drink. She knew what she was doing–opening up about her own struggles was the best way to try and get Pearl to open up, she’d learned that from Maya–but it didn’t make it feel any less stifling.
“My mother.” Pearl muttered the words so quietly Franziska would have missed them had she not had perfect hearing. Franziska finally looked over at her, meeting her gaze with what she hoped was a reassuring gaze. The girl sniffled, clutching the mug tighter. “She… she hated Mystic Maya’s side of the family so much. She just wanted me to be powerful like them, and I couldn’t… I wasn’t…” Sobs wracked Pearl’s body again, the mug shaking in her grasp.
Franziska put her own mug down first, then reached over and gently took the other one from the girl’s grasp. Once it was set down on the coffee table, Franziska turned back to Pearl. She clenched and unclenched her hand for a moment, not sure what to do, before slowly reaching out to wrap an arm around Pearl, unsure if the girl would respond positively to the attempt. However, her worries were quickly quelled when the girl all but threw herself against Franziska’s chest, clenching the oversized night shirt like a lifeline. Franziska’s hands hovered for a moment before she returned the gesture, slightly awkwardly moving her hands up and down the girl’s back.
“I just wanted her to be proud of me.” Pearl wailed against her chest, and Franziska held her just a small bit tighter, the words hitting just a bit too close to home.
You’ll be alright, little one. No one will hurt you again.
~~~
She wasn’t sure how long they’d sat there, but at some point the tears slowed down, and Pearl just lay against Franziska’s chest, their breathing completely in sync. A yawn escaped from Pearl’s mouth. Right, she ought to be getting tired again. Franziska spared a momentary glance to the half-finished hot chocolate on the table, but decided to deal with it in the morning. It could wait.
“Come on, time for bed.” Franziska whispered, shuffling slightly. Pearl tensed up, breathing growing shallower again, and Franziska stopped, thinking. After a moment, she readjusted so her arms slid under Pearl’s before hoisting the girl up into her arms and standing. Luckily, Pearl was quite light, so carrying her was no more difficult than carrying that damned plant.
“I-”
“Shhhh.” Franziska moved carefully towards her bedroom, the light on her bedside table still turned on. Once Pearl seemed to realize where they were, she slumped slightly in Franziska’s arms. Franziska set Pearl down gently, draping a blanket across her before flicking off the light and walking around the bed to lay down on the opposite side.
It only took a few seconds before Pearl shuffled over and curled up against Franziska’s side. Franziska slid an arm around her in return. They lay there for a while, Franziska staring at the ceiling as she listened to the girl's breathing–even, calm. She’d thought Pearl had fallen asleep when she heard a small voice in the darkness.
“Ms. von Karma?”
“Hm?” In the dim room, Franziska felt less awkward glancing down at the girl curled up against her. She could make out her face in the darkness, still tucked into her side.
“Are you and Mystic Maya happy together?” After everything that had happened that day, Franziska could only smile at the question, letting her expression be free knowing there were no outside eyes watching.
“Very.”
“And… and you can still be special someones even if…” Her voice trailed off, and despite Franziska’s impeccable ability to decipher unspoken questions, there were a lot of directions this one could go.
“You can ask what you wish to, Pearl Fey. I won’t be mad.” Somehow, that seemed like the right thing to say. And it was.
“...even if you aren’t a prince and a princess?” Franziska lay there for a moment, confused at what fairytales had to do with any of this, but then it hit her. And oh, did it hit her hard.
‘Franziska von Karma! Never, ever, say something like that again!’ Her father spat in her face, grabbing her by the collar and shoving her away from the dinner table. Miles was watching in silent horror.
‘But father, I love her!’
She blinked a few times, shutting down the memory. That didn’t matter anymore. He was wrong. Refocusing on Pearl, she thought about what little the girl had revealed that night about her own mother, and took a soft breath to ground herself.
“A prince can love a princess, yes. But sometimes, princesses don’t fall for the princes.” She ran a hand through Pearl’s hair, which was slightly drooping out of its usual style. “Sometimes, she finds another princess, and even if some people decide to stare, the two princesses are happier together than they ever would be with princes.”
Her metaphors needed work, but Pearl seemed to understand.
“...Mystic Maya’s really happy with you.” She mumbled sleepily, and Franziska felt her slump against her side. Asleep. Good, the girl really needed it.
Franziska was about to close her own eyes when she heard her phone ding in her pocket. Right, she needed to silence that. Pulling it out, she silenced it before looking at the notification.
Two texts from Maya Fey.
She opened it.
Maya Fey: Hey Franzy! Cell service sucks up here :(
Maya Fey: Everything going ok with Pearly? Sry I left in such a rush this morning
Franziska looked down at the girl by her side and smiled.
