A/N: I wrote this story a long time ago, and then I looked back on it, realised it wasn't that bad and buffed it up a little bit. I'm sure the von Karma's are like one of those families that have massive gardens with fruit trees and all, along with their mansion. With servants that say 'yes ma'am' and curtsey to Franziska whenever they see her. ;)

Ok, maybe not the servants.

Underneath The Apple Tree

Miles had quickly learnt and adapted how to best avoid trouble in the von Karma household, and treasured those precious times that he got to spend time by himself. This was either when Manfred von Karma would occasionally teach Franziska in the afternoon – these were the best times, as Franziska would be in a good mood afterwards, but also when Franziska was out riding on her pony in the mornings, or that time just before getting up or getting ready for sleep.

This was one of those times. Miles was content enough, sitting underneath a solid apple tree, the mid afternoon sun providing a bright lamp for him to easily read the hefty law book that was weighted on his lap, with one hand on the pages as the slight breeze threatened to lose his place. It was a peaceful moment, a rare moment of tranquillity in his life to spend by himself reading in a cushion of grass, leaning against the crackling tree that would occasionally rustle its leaves in the wind. Of course it didn't last.

"Miles Edgeworth."

Miles looked up, and winced as Franziska was standing directly in front of the sun. Dots of colour burst into his vision and all he could see was a silhouette of her tapping her riding crop in the palm of her hand impatiently. Knowing her, she had probably chose that position on purpose, just so he would have to squint to see her.

He didn't say anything, there wasn't any point as she knew that she had his attention. He knew that the lack of conversation from him got on her nerves, but she had interrupted his study, so he felt justified.

"Miles Edgeworth." Franziska repeated.

He lowered his head back to his book and continued to read where he had left off. "Yes?"

Franziska hit him with her riding crop.

"What, what?" Miles said irritably, looking back up at Franziska, who had thankfully moved so he wasn't blinded any more. He folded the corner of his book with an distracted tut, knowing that he wasn't going to be reading it for a while now, "I'm trying to study."

"It's only polite to give me your undivided attention when I speak to you," Franziska said in an elaborately complex way for a six year old, but ruined the matureness with another hit of the riding crop and a babble on his foolishness.

"It's also polite not to hit people." Miles pointed out, but Franziska waggled her finger at him in a close imitation of her father, complete with one eye shut as she did it.

"It's all right if the people are fools," Franziska explained, "Now you are listening to me, I can tell you that you have the great honour of entertaining me this afternoon."

"Mmhm." Miles said, sounding thoroughly unimpressed, "I would prefer to read this book - "

"Foolish fool!" Franziska said, with another whack of the crop, "It doesn't matter what you want to do, papa said that I am in charge while he is away on business, so you have to do what I want you to do!"

"I don't remember him saying that."

"Of course you don't!" Franziska retorted, "That's because you are an fool blinded by his oblivious foolishness to matters that are anything but foolish. He said that because I am more perfect than you are, I am to be in charge. That means you do as I say!"

Miles was certain Franziska was bluffing, but had learnt from experience that arguing with her wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"Is that your riding crop you've got in your hand?" He said, on a change of tack.

"Don't ask such foolish questions, Miles Edgeworth, of course it's my riding crop." Franziska demonstrated it's effectiveness by cutting through the air, looking suitably satisfied when it made a dramatic 'whoosh' noise.

"Why don't you go ride on one of your horses?"

"I can't." Franziska huffed, swishing her riding crop in the air to make more 'whoosh' sounds, "Derrick said that they were all too tired to take any more hits from my riding crop and that they needed rest."

Those poor, poor horses...

"So... what do you want?" He asked bluntly.

Miles knew he was going to get a sharp crack from her riding crop for that, and wasn't disappointed.

"Fool!" She exclaimed, "Stop answering my question with another question!"

Miles wasn't aware that she had asked him a question, but patiently waited for her to get to her point. He knew if he interrupted again, he would get another hit of the riding crop, and while one hit was tolerable the blows stung after the first few times.

"As I said, you are to entertain me this afternoon, so you must think of something for us to do!"

"Something to do?" Miles echoed.

"Yes!" Franziska said, glad that the foolish fool was finally understanding and ceasing to act like a fool by getting to the point instead of distracting her with his usual foolish indifference.

"Ok." Miles began to put on an act of him thinking, with Franziska watching his face expectantly, "I think... I'll sit here and read my book."

Franziska exploded, and began to thrash him with the riding crop. Letting go of his dignity for a moment, Miles held both arms to protect his face and pushed himself into the tree to try and avoid the blows.

"Fool! Fool! Fool!" Franziska said with each hit, and when she was done, hit the grass for good measure, "How does that entertain me?"

Miles shrugged, "I don't know, but you asked a question and I gave you an answer. If you don't like the answer, then think of something yourself."

Franziska opened her mouth to argue, but it must have been a hopeless battle against Miles' logic, and vented her frustrations on the tree with one vicious whip. She sat down besides Miles, and hugged her knees to her chest in a beginning of a sulk.

Miles subconsciously smiled a little to himself, and opened the book to where he had left off. Franziska's silent sulk didn't last too long, around a couple of minutes, where – unlike other children her age – she understood that this was not going to get her anywhere, and she needed to think of an alternate plan. Loosening her grip on her knees, she took in her surroundings, and stared up with a child-like fascination at the immensely tall apple tree that Miles was leaning against. The apples that were hanging off were all a juicy red, almost begging to be picked and eaten, and Franziska felt hungry.

"I know what we can do, Miles Edgeworth."

"What?" Miles said, annoyed that his peace was disrupted yet again. He thought that she had enough sulk in her to let him finish his chapter at least.

"I want an apple!"

"We have lots of apples inside the house - "

"No, fool, I want the apple off from this tree!"

Oh, well, obviously.

Miles was directly under the tree, and craned his neck up to look directly above him at the foliage of green leaves, a backdrop of blue sky and streaming sunshine blooming through the empty gaps where there were no branches or twigs.

"I don't see any apples."

"That's because you are looking in the wrong place!" Franziska stated. Miles turned his head and noticed that Franziska was now standing up and had moved away a little from the tree, looking up at the fruit that he couldn't see, "Come and stand over here!"

Miles reluctantly let Franziska pull him to his feet, and let her drag him over to where she had been standing.

"What apple?" Miles asked. There were quite a lot, it seemed the gardener hadn't picked any yet.

"That one!" Franziska tugged at Miles' sleeve to look at where her other hand was pointing at. Miles followed the direction of her finger, which was naturally pointing to the apple that was the furthest away from the ground.

"Right. How are you going to get it?"

"You're going to get it for me!" Franziska said, as if it was extremely obvious. Miles folded his arms in a fit of stubbornness.

"I don't think so."

"Ah ah ah," Franziska reprimanded with another finger waggle, "You don't have a choice here, Miles Edgeworth. Remember, I'm the one in charge today!"

"No."

"If you don't, I'll tell papa that you were mean to me!"

Miles scowled. Franziska had picked up on this little blackmailing habit after Miles had been locked up in his room for a day after he had refused to do something for Franziska. He wouldn't have minded, if he had his books with him, but Manfred von Karma had confiscated them, and had made sure he didn't have anything to eat for the day either.

"Why do you want it anyway? We have plenty of apples in the house, and this one probably has had birds peck at it and spiders crawling all over it."

He thought he had won at the mention of spiders, as Franziska tried to cover up a shiver, but she soon recovered and scoffed at Miles' stupidity.

"Foolish brother, of course it hasn't! The von Karma apple trees are perfect!"

Miles restrained himself from rolling his eyes and decided that this was an opportunity for him to do practise his practical court debating skills.

"Well then, in that case, how do you propose I get this apple down for you?"

Franziska brightened as it seemed that Miles was now agreeing to her plan and pointed her riding crop at him, "Isn't it obvious? You will climb up and get it for me."

Miles shrugged and shook his head, "No, I don't think I could do that. One, it is highly dangerous and I could potentially fall off and break some bones – all of which you would be responsible for as you have claimed that you're in charge and two, if I do that I would doubtlessly get my clothes dirty from the climb, which would only anger Mr. von Karma, especially when I tell him that I did it for your benefit."

Franziska considered what he said, with a fold of her arms and both eyes shut. What he said made logical sense, and papa always scolded her whenever she got her clothes dirty from falling off her horse. With this adult sense of mind, she realised that all she would have to do was offer an alternative that erased both of these points, and remembered what she had seen as she had walked out from the mansion that morning before she went riding.

"In that case, we shall simple use a ladder. I remember one is being kept outside the house."

Now it was also Miles' turn to consider what she had said. He didn't particularly want to agree, as it was wasting valuable study time, but thinking about it, if he did what she wanted he would benefit. Once she had got the apple she would have to eat it. That would give him around five to ten minutes (she was a slow eater) of silence as she ate, and that meant five to ten minutes of solitary reading. There were only problems with not agreeing, as he would be locked up in his room the next day, bored and hungry, and have a whining Franziska for the remainder of this one.

"Ok."

"Ok?" Franziska echoed in surprise, not expecting Miles to give in so easily.

"Ok, lets go get this ladder."

***

Once they had gone and retrieved the ladder, although it was actually a stepladder, Franziska had argued her point that it didn't matter what the ladder was called, it still shared the same primary purpose, Miles struggled to drag it back to the apple tree and was now pushing it up and ensuring that it was properly in place.

Franziska was supervising, with barks of orders for him to hurry his foolish self up, and a whip of the riding crop when she felt he was taking too long. Miles had told her that he would have done it quicker if she was actually helping him, and she had told him that she had helped by telling him where the ladder was and helping him move it to the apple tree. She had helped him move it for a couple of minutes, before getting bored, but that wasn't the point.

When Miles was done, he moved out of the way and gave Franziska an expectant look.

"What are you doing?" Franziska snapped. Miles held on to one side of the stepladder, and shook it a little bit just to double check that it wouldn't wobble.

"I'm waiting for you to climb up so I can hold the stepladder for you."

"You mean ladder, and don't be foolish. You are climbing up, not me."

"But I don't want the apple."

"I'm in charge."

"Then you should take responsibility for what you want."

"You're older than me."

"So why do you keep calling me little brother?"

"Because you're a fool." Franziska said, the retort she had come to rely on for any situation which she could not think of any other reply.

Miles looked up at the stepladder and back to Franziska. He was torn between whether or not he should throw away his pride and tell her of his irrational fear of heights, something that might not be so irrational after this experience, or to just go up the stepladder and keep up the appearance of the nonchalant older brother.

"You're not scared are you?" Franziska baited, and the decision was made.

"Of course not." Miles replied, giving a show of confidence as he grabbed hold of the stepladder and made his first steps. The first movements of his feet were done quickly, and he realised that if he kept this up, he would be done in no time at all. However, as he continued, he realised he was gradually getting higher and higher, and as the stepladder wobbled, he clung to both sides with both feet on the same bar and froze. Slowly he turned his head back to the ground, the one mistake, and noticed that Franziska wasn't holding the stepladder properly.

"You have to hold it with both hands!"

Franziska scowled, but thankfully did as he asked, dropping the riding crop to grip both sides of the ladder.

He watched her for a couple of moments to make sure she would stay there and then continued. The top of the tree came closer into view, and with each bar there was a less amount to climb, but it was when he was about three steps down from the top that he started to feel a little sick. He looked down again, and observed that he was actually quite high up.

"Uhh..." Miles wondered if it was too late to back out, and felt his hands start to sweat. He would have wiped them on his trousers, but now he was too scared to let go of the stepladder, holding on tightly until his knuckles turned white.

"Come on little brother! The apple!" Franziska directed from down below, and was it him or did she sound a lot quieter than usual? It felt like the ladder walk upwards had taken everything out of proportion, he knew he wasn't that high up, but it felt like he was climbing up a skyscraper or if he had been dropped in a well and forced to climb out, like that old episode of the Nickel Samurai he had watched when he was younger. Everything was subdued apart from the fear in his chest that he was going to fall. I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall...

Slowly he regained his composure, and moved his right foot up a step, his right hand releasing that clamping grip from the stepladder, when he heard a terrifying shriek from down below.

Franziska continued to scream at god-knows-what, and as Miles looked down with a 'what is it?' a sense of dread filled up inside him as he watched in slow motion the calamity occuring below on the safe ground. Franziska had suddenly let go of the ladder like it had burned her and tripped over the ladder with her right foot, getting tangled up in the metal from trying to run away by whatever had happened. The ladder tilted on one leg, and Miles turned back, desperately outstretching his hand to try and get a hold onto something – anything, but in his blind panic, all he could get was a handful of leaves and something else which was pulled off from the tree.

Crying out in terror as he lost his footing on the stepladder, which had now tipped over, he yelled as the branches whipped him like mini-Franziska's, and fell to the ground with a resounding 'omph.'

Ow ow ow ow ow...

Miles simply lay underneath the apple tree, his eyes opening with a blur of tears clouding them, and hoped nothing was broken. It didn't seem that there was, but he knew that there would be an explosion of bruises on his back by tomorrow.

Franziska took whatever he had grabbed from out of his hand, and stood over him with what looked like a flattened spider on the end of her riding crop.

"Miles Edgeworth." She said, and Miles tried to detect a hint of concern in her voice but couldn't find any at all, "What do you call this?"

Miles didn't say anything, all he could feel was pain.

Ow ow ow ow ow...

A red blur was thrust in his face before she threw something at his chest in a spoilt tantrum.

"This wasn't the apple I asked for!"

A/N: Poor Miles. That's sibling love for you. :3