DISCLAIMER: Phoenix Wright belongs to Capcom. Fox In Socks belongs to Dr. Suess.

A/N: I didn't have a copy of the book handy so all passages from Fox In Socks are re-created from memory and may not be entirely accurate.

~ Test of Perfection ~

"A von Karma is perfect!" Franziska stated, at the beginning of what was meant to be a much longer speech.

Phoenix cut her off before she could get going with the rest of her tirade. "Oh really? Then you must be able to read Fox In Socks out loud perfectly, too!" he challenged, brandishing a copy of the beloved children's book. "The author of this fanfic can do this, but she got a lot of practice when her little brother was about 4 years old and wanted to hear it all the time. It's actually rather difficult to read aloud with no mistakes!"

"Of course I can!" Franziska snapped, lashing him across the face with her whip.

"Ow," Phoenix commented dryly. He was actually getting used to that from her, though.

She then snatched the book from his hands and began to read. "Fox. Socks. Knox. Box. Fox in socks. Knox in box. Fox in socks on Knox in box." She stopped reading and said, "This is stupid."

"It's a kids' book," Phoenix said, glaring at her. "What did you expect? Come on, that part at the beginning is just the warm up."

By the time she got to the part where Sue sews rose on Slow Joe Crow's clothes, Franziska had to admit to herself (but not Phoenix!) that this was going to be more difficult than she thought. She started to slow down, pronouncing each word carefully as she read it, but Phoenix snapped at her when she did this.

"No cheating, Franziska. Normal reading speed!"

She cleared her thoat and kept reading. "Chicks with bricks come. Chicks with blocks come. Chicks with bricks and blocks and clocks come." Now she was starting to get worried. They kept throwing new words into the mix then bringing the fox and Knox back into it, trying to trip up the reader... This was a terrible book for children!

She got through the chicks part okay, but she started to slow down again when she got to: "Luke Luck licks lakes. Luke's duck licks lakes."

Phoenix saw that she was having a hard time with it and he didn't reprimand her for slowing down. In all honesty, he was surprised she'd gotten this far without messing up.

But when she got to the part where freezy breeze blew through these three cheese trees, she started tripping over her own words. She went back and tried to read the lines again correctly, only to mess up worse than the first time. Franziska threw the book down in frustration and turned to glare at Phoenix.

She was surprised to find him smiling at her.

"That was pretty good for your first time, actually," he said gently. "It's a pretty simple book, but it's hard to read out loud. The author did it on purpose." He leaned down and picked up the book, then tucked it away in the Court Record. "I've had a lot of practice because Pearls likes to hear that story," he explained. "I could probably recite it from memory at this point." He smiled apologetically at her and reached out to brush a lock of hair back from her face.

The contact was sudden but brief, and it was so unexpected that Franziska didn't react until it was already over. She stepped back from Phoenix and reached for her whip, but he stepped toward her at same time and whispered in her ear, "You're more fun when you're not perfect."

On impulse, he kissed her cheek, then quickly removed himself from the range of her whip.

~end~

A/N: Reviews are love.