Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Fan Fiction ❯ To Be With You ❯ Frauleins and Glue-Wrapped Presents ( Chapter 4 )

The entrance hall of the precinct echoed with the footsteps of a lab coat-wearing detective. Usually, it'd be bustling with detectives and policemen. That's only if one enters the precinct for work on time. Which is what Detective Skye didn't do. In fact, she was almost an hour late.

 

Muttering curses under her breath as she clocked in, Ema quickly scanned the area for blond prosecutors before entering the office, feeling mildly relieved at his absence. She wasn't sure how she'd act around him today, after the entire shindig the day before. A disturbed groan escaped her as she felt a repeat of yesterday's self-disdain surround her.

 

`How could I have gotten so jealous?' Ema mentally groused as she strode to her desk, ignoring the glances of the other detectives and the obvious comments about her current instance of lateness. `And what's more, how could I have shown him that that I was jealous?' She plopped herself in front of her desk, closed her eyes and dropped her head down to the table to try and inflict some self-pain. The attempt wasn't what one would call successful though.

 

Her head hit something not exactly soft. And it sounded somewhat…crunchy? She cracked an eye open and saw a mess of reddish-orange swirls. `What? Oh, right.' Ema raised her head a couple of inches and allowed her eye to focus on the strange object. It was a present. A neatly wrapped, nicely sized present.

 

She cocked her head to the side, the thing was obviously on the wrong desk. She picked it up, ready to hand it over to the information desk in the entrance hall, thinking it'd be good for those speakers in the office to be put to good use once in a while.

 

A peach colored, folded piece of paper with her name on it caught her attention. “Ema” was written in the most elegant writing she'd ever seen her name in. The pen used was obviously the lurid pink colored pen sitting in the stationery mug on her desk. She'd recognize that ink anywhere. Regardless, the writing made the fun ink look unworthy to be written in such a style.

 

Her name looked good, she observed. It was a pity her name wasn't a little longer; she would've liked to see more of that writing. Hold on a second. The card's folded, meaning there had to be something written on the inside. That meant there was more writing to be read.

 

Ema made herself comfortable and flipped open the card, her eyes immediately noticing the name at the bottom, written in the same wonderful writing. `Except strangely, the name seems to make the word seem more beautiful,' Ema thought absently. `Urgh, that was a ridiculous thought.'

 

Something clunked in her head as the name really sunk in. “Klavier?” she muttered incredulously as she reread the name several times, just to make sure she got it right. She went through the facts frantically. If the pen used was hers, that meant he was sitting here, in her seat. Writing on her desk. But she was late, so she never saw any of that.

 

`What's a gift from him doing here?' she thought, a confused frown forming on her face. Shaking her head, she looked at the first line of the card and began reading.

 

Hello, Fraulein.

Don't throw this away just yet, bear with a few more lines.

Pardon me for using your pen and…hello again.

I wanted to apologize for yesterday and give you this but you're not here yet. So, I found this pretty paper and began writing. Very nice stationery you have here.

Well, Fraulein, enjoy the gift.

 

Klavier

 

Ema's eyes ran through the lines again and she took a look at the wrapped present on her desk. Folding the card carefully and placing it on her desk, she picked up the gift and turned it around, looking for the ends of cellophane tape to tear off. And she found a total of zero bits of tape. `Strange,' she stated mentally.

 

She shook her head and stuck her finger in a small opening in the corner and slowly separated the two sides of paper. Opening one end of the gift, she pulled out whatever was inside and felt a small smile make an appearance. It was a packet of Snackoos, adorned with a bright pink ribbon. Slightly wrinkled, but portraying obvious chirpiness nonetheless.

 

Shooting a glance at the clock, Ema's smile disappeared as she realized her break wouldn't be for another two hours. She sighed and put the packet back in the wrapper, making the sure the ribbon wasn't folded. After the gift was nicely visible in a corner of her desk, she began the boring torture of reading and filing reports written by junior detectives.

 

Work in the precinct was deathly dull when there wasn't an exciting court case going on. There weren't any crime scenes to investigate, evidence to be found, deductions to be deduced or possible conclusions to be made from evidence.

 

Being a proper detective, Ema was appointed to tutoring the juniors when she didn't have a case on her hands. Which was pretty much crap, really. The juniors were boring and unimaginative, causing them to write insanely successful sleep-inducing reports every single time.

 

An hour went by. And another. Lunch break was signaled by the sound of seats dragging and the rustle of people heading for the door. `Fantastic, break time.'

 

Ema grabbed her bag and her present, careful not to wrinkle the wrapper any further, pushed in her chair and made a wild dash to the taxi stand about a block from the precinct. Her foodless stomach growled but she astutely ignored it, instead paying attention to the yellow car heading her way. She got into the cab holding the present carefully in front of her and directed the driver to the Prosecutors' Office.

 

Getting down, she walked briskly to the lift and made her way to Prosecutor Gavin's office. She lost her way twice and had to ask for directions. She then realized she had walked past his office both times when she thought she was lost and frowned at her off-putting stupidity.

 

She knocked the door absently while marveling at the fact that she missed the shiny plaque with his name on it twice as she walked past. Hearing a “Yes?” from behind the door, she opened it and stepped inside, allowing the door to close on its own.

 

“Fraulein?” Klavier's surprised voice rang in her ears and she looked at him seated behind his desk with a guitar in hand. She rolled her eyes as she remembered how free prosecutors really were without a court case going on. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” his voice enquired.

 

Ema looked at him and froze as she took in his face and eyes. She forgot what she was supposed to do when she got here. “Um, hi. I just- Uh-,” she stuttered. A smile was flashed her way as he placed the guitar on the desk and walked towards her. He looked at the wrapped packet she was holding and asked confusedly, “Do you not want the Snackoos?”

 

She gave a start. “Of course I do! I just-,” she cut off, hearing his light chuckle. She glared at him and softened almost immediately. “I just wanted to thank you. It was really nice of you. And I wanted to say that you needn't apologize for yesterday, it was no big deal. And I also wanted to say sorry again. I mean, I said sorry yester-“

 

He raised his hand to stop her and smiled. “You like the ribbon?”

She wrinkled her nose. “It's obnoxious…but cute.”

“Why, thank you, Fraulein. Nice to know you appreciate my taste in gift-wrapping.”

“Speaking of which, how did you wrap it without cello tape?” she asked, holding up the gift and showing him the opening. “See? No tape.”

He laughed, “I used glue.”

She tilted her head slightly, “Glue? But that would've taken some work, and you did it so neatly! Cello tape would've been easier.”

“I agree, Fraulein. But I couldn't find tape in my home, only glue. My glue-wrapping skills impressed me, to tell the truth.”

She rolled her eyes. “Impressed me too,” she mumbled.

 

Klavier's eyes widened interestedly. “Impressed you, Fraulein?”

Ema felt a blush begin to show. “I didn't say anything of the sort.”

He didn't let up his gaze and she rolled her eyes once more.

“Fine, fine,” she muttered, “It's pretty cool. I wouldn't be able to do that.”

 

He grinned and took the present from her, turning it and looking at his handiwork carefully before placing it in her bag with a quarter of it sticking out funnily. “Glad you like it, Fraulein.”

 

Ema looked at him curiously. She never bothered before but she suddenly wondered what “fraulein” meant. She searched her list of all the German words she knew and came up with nothing. Besides, one of the few things she knew about German was that the F-word came from it. And that it meant “to strike”. Yes, that was it. So, she decided to ask.

 

“Hey, what does “fraulein” mean?”

“Pardon?”

“Fraulein. What does it mean? Is it anything special?”

A laugh escaped him. “Don't worry your pretty head over it. It does not mean anything of consequence.”

She frowned as she realized he was hedging mildly. “Then can't you just tell me? If it really is nothing special.”

“Fraulein, it-“

 

A loud beeping noise cut Klavier off and made Ema jump. She looked down at her watch that was currently beeping for attention and switched off the alarm. “Crap, I've got to be back at the precinct, break's over. Crap, crap.” She raced out of his office and raised her arm crookedly in a rushed wave.

 

He walked to the door and looked out, smiling as he watched her run into the elevator and frantically jab the button. He shook his head watched the elevator light blink it's way down to the ground floor. Klavier then made his way to the picture window, watched a certain fraulein clamber into a taxi and watched it drive off.

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ema was tired and curious. The day was almost at an end and she was still wondering what “fraulein” meant. She couldn't ask any of her colleagues; rumors would be flying around the precinct in no time. And she shuddered to think how it'd be if they got to the Prosecutors' Office. “Oh my, Detective Skye's asking about German phrases? I wonder whatever for?”

 

She groaned and looked around. Everyone else was still reading or writing some report or other. She was done and she was bored. The Internet was not to be accessed for fun and- Wait a minute. `That's it, the Internet's dictionary!' Ema cheered silently and went on to an online dictionary.

 

“Fraulein” was typed in slowly and she twiddled her fingers in mild anticipation. `I wonder what it means.' She pressed the “Enter” key and waited for the page to load while tapping the keyboard, suppressing nervous laughter.

 

The term “Fraulein” is defined as a polite title for young, unmarried women. Directly translated, it means “miss” in English, to be used in front of a lady's first name.

 

…

She stared at the screen and reread the definition. “That's it? Miss?” Her lips thinned in mild annoyance and then disappointment. It didn't mean anything special; just “miss”. Ema sighed softly and forced her annoyance to come back. It felt better than being disappointed. She narrowed her eyes and typed “German insults” in the Search bar.

 

“Right,” she muttered as she wrote them down.

Schweine, Saukerl, Arschloch.

 

She read them out quietly, testing how they sounded. Okay, menacing enough. She could figure out what the first and last meant; she was smart enough to compare them with her English dictionary.

 

She wasn't quite sure about what the second one was but the description gave enough satisfaction. It said that it was an insult specifically for men and that was good enough for Ema. Never mind that she didn't have a clue about how it was supposed to be pronounced. She'd get it right, how hard could it be anyway? “Sau-kerl,” she rehearsed and nodded.

 

Time's up. Everyone began packing up while Ema quickly made her way to the door, the Prosecutors' Office in mind. On the way there, she repeated the word “Saukerl” in her head, testing how it sounded with different accents. She decided the word was actually rather catchy.

 

Outside Klavier's office door for the second time that day, Ema knocked on the door and entered the second she heard a “Come in” from inside.

 

“Fraulein, it's nice to see you again,” he said easily, a smile sliding on his face. She marched right up to his desk and stood in front of it, crossing her arms. “I found out the meaning of `fraulein' on the internet just now,” she stated coolly.

 

He looked surprised at her tone and a little confused. “Okay. That's…good to know,” he said slowly.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “It doesn't mean anything special at all! It just means `miss'. `Miss'! That's it?”

 

Klavier visibly relaxed and he began to laugh as he realized what she was so worked up about. “I told you it wasn't anything special, Fraulein,” he laughed, putting a little more emphasis on the last word.

“Then why'd you make it seem like it was such a big secret, you saukerl?!” Ema swung her arm to give extra strength to her accusation.

“But I did tell you it wasn't much. Really, Frau-,” he paused and began laughing again. “What did you call me?”

“I called you a `saukerl',” she sniffed, glaring at the guitar case beside her, refusing to look at his laughing face.

 

“Fraulein, where did you get that word?” he asked, still grinning.

She turned to glare at him. “The Internet,” she said shortly.

 

More laughter. He repeated the insult carefully for her to hear and she couldn't help feeling mild awe at his accent. The insult just sounded so wonderful when he said it with its proper phrasing and tone. “I am guessing the Internet did not teach you what it meant or how to pronounce it?”

 

“I do know what it means!” she exclaimed indignantly. “It's a low, rude German insult specifically for jerk men.” His eyebrow raised in amusement. She was losing steam, and fast. Watching his grinning face, she felt her annoyance ebb and embarrassment rise to great amounts.

 

This was bad. She'd never been more embarrassed than she was now. Ever. Ema decided to make her exit quickly. Her cheeks felt like they were about to melt off her face as they colored rapidly.

 

“Creep,” she muttered. Ema whipped around, ready to stalk to the door when she tripped from the excess momentum and landed on her front. The floor was covered with an obviously expensive soft carpet so the fall didn't hurt her. The embarrassment, however, wounded the little pride she had left that wasn't mutilated by her ridiculous show.

 

She didn't have to look at him to know that he was shaking with silent laughter. Ema pushed herself up to a sitting position as he squatted in front of her, smiling briefly before his face turned serious. Klavier looked at her for a moment and took in her blush.

 

“Fraulein,” he called her quietly.

Ema felt her heart pick up speed and beat scatteredly. She could hear it pounding in her ears and she noticed the tempo was horribly off. She looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Were you really hoping that I was calling you something that meant…more?” He tilted his head and looked at her, his expression thoughtful, similar to the one he wore the day before.

Ema felt a fresh blush wave over her face and she looked at the floor, not being able to handle his gaze. She picked at the carpet for a second before looking back at him. She took a breath. “I was hoping that-“

 

A knock sounded at the door, surprising the both of them. Ema got up quickly and dusted her hands as the door opened. It was one of the office boys, coming to collect Prosecutor Gavin's reports that were to be sent to the archives. He greeted the prosecutor, nodded to the detective, took the files on the desk and left.

 

An awkward silence filled the room. Klavier was still looking at Ema, expression no less serious than before. Ema bit her lower lip and shuffled her feet, watching him carefully. Her heart still hadn't stopped pounding. If anything, it was getting faster.

 

She absently brought her hand to press against her heart for a second to try and calm it down. His eyes followed her hand and flashed back to her face. He gave a small smile, as if he knew exactly how her heart was behaving. He began to say something when the door opened again, another prosecutor entering the room this time.

 

“Prosecutor Gavin, I need your advice on a case I've been working on,” the man stated briefly, before noticing the awkward tension in the room. He looked at Ema, then at Klavier before he suggested, “I'm sorry, I can come back some other time?”

 

Ema shook her head. “That's alright. I've got to be going. Good night, Prosecutor Gavin,” she said quickly. She made her way to the door and opened it, turning around and looked at Klavier for a second, taking in his serious features as he watched her leave. As she shut the door, she heard a “good night” slip out of the room and her heart skipped a beat.

 

She made her way back home, sunk to the floor of her bedroom and released a breath that she felt like she was holding since she left his office. Ema leaned against the cool wall of the room and felt her heartbeat finally calm. She shut her eyes and placed a hand on her chest, uncertain of how she was supposed to be feeling now.

 

“I need that stroll with Phoenix. Right about now,” she announced to the empty room.

 

 

 

 

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Ohh, boy! That's the longest chapter I've written so far!

So, there's good news and bad news, my pretties.

Good news is you've got a longer chapter this time.

Bad news is…well, I've got major exams coming up and I won't be able to write or go online for a month!

Alas, my heart aches. Exams are ridiculous, seriously. Oh, well, damn. Got to go through `em either way.

 

Please review, I'd love to know what you guys think! Thank you so much, I absolutely adore all of you!

 

Love,

Be