The Ties That Bind

Chapter Fourteen: Miles Edgeworth, International Man of Mystery

Los Angeles – April 16, 5:30 p.m.

Franziska closed her eyes in the back of the taxi, which had picked her up at LAX Airport and was driving her to Miles' penthouse.

Correction. Their new home. A small smile played on her lips despite the slight exhaustion due to the long flight from Europe. She was also absolutely starved. The lunch she'd been forced to endure on the airplane had hardly constituted as 'food', even though she'd flown first class, as usual, so she'd barely pecked at her so-called authentic fare of rouladen and spätzle.

Miles had flown back a few days prior, to get his 'affairs in order' and set up things at the residence in readiness for her arrival. He'd insisted on prepping a welcome home dinner for her, brushing aside her offer to prepare their evening meal upon her arrival.

"Why won't you let me showcase my culinary skills? I've come a long way from my blended salad days, I assure you! I've been practicing very hard these past few days in the kitchen," she'd protested to her fiancé the previous night while speaking to him on the phone. "My mutter was a wonderful cook, liebling, don't you recall Papa always raving about her food? Her chef genetics definitely got passed onto my older sister Katharina; they have just been über delayed in unleashing within me, that's all! But Helga can attest that I make cabbage rolls and schnitzel that rival her own!"

"I just want you to be well-rested from your jet lag, is all, meine dame," Miles reassured her. "Miss Fey's birthday party is tomorrow night, remember. I'll not have my betrothed spending all her energies preparing meals when it could better be used relaxing and prepping herself to look ravishing for the occasion. Besides, you have the rest of our lives to wow me with...the masterful things you can whip up, and the more G-rated things you can do with your hands!"

"As you like it, liebling." Franziska let out a throaty chuckle at the roguish meaning behind the words. Whoever would have thought that Miles Edgeworth, the stern-faced prosecutor, harbored such a delightfully naughty side?

"Just one thing, meine dame." There was a guilty, apologetic note to his voice now. "Despite my working round the clock to prepare the place and get my other matters dealt with posthaste, I'm uncertain I will have them ready in time to pick you up from the airport. Would you mind terribly taking a cab? If for any reason I'm not home, Hendricks will be here to serve you and see to your every need in the meantime."

Franziska raised a skeptical eyebrow at the receiver. He'd been back in Los Angeles since Tuesday, and the ever-prepared, meticulous, obsessive workaholic that was Miles Edgeworth was running behind with his deadlines? Inconceivable! It was as likely to happen as that lily-livered fool, Phoenix Wright suddenly growing a pair and finally telling the woman he loved enough to throw a milestone birthday party for that he was head over heels for her! What was next, the proverbial cow jumping over the moon?

Still, she knew Miles well enough that things must be most amiss indeed if he couldn't even get away long enough to make the 20-minute trip to the airport!

"It's fine, Miles," she assured him. "Assuming everything is running on time with the flights, and traffic is not too hectic, I should be home by about 5:30 or so tomorrow night."

"Thank you for being so accommodating, Franziska. So, perfect, you should arrive just in time for dinner at 6:30, which I will take care of. Till the morrow then, meine dame. I love you."

"Ich liebe dich auch, liebling."

"We're here, ma'am," the taxi driver said, jerking her out of her reverie and pulling in front of the main doors of the luxurious condominium building where Miles resided. She paid the man and thanked him for bringing her suitcase into the lobby. She had only brought one with her, planning on sending for more of her things later. Or flat out just get a new wardrobe from scratch, as few of the clothing items she'd packed that had been suitable for mildly cool spring days in Germany wouldn't make her positively wilt under the same season sun in California!