Work Text:
In nearly every single way, Miles Edgeworth’s house was significantly different from Excelsius Winner’s.
Lived in where the other was cruel, well lit where the other was dingy, the air was clear where the others would’ve been full of smoke.
More people lived there too. Well, just two permanent residents. Stacey’s adoptive sister, Kay Faraday, was usually off traveling with Tyrell Badd, her… uncle? Stacey didn’t know, actually. All she knew is Miles had adopted both her and Kay, so they were sisters. Simple.
Three residents, if you counted the family dog. Miles had only just bit the bullet on adopting a dog a few weeks after a certain incident involving a lighter and a tense conversation in Stacey’s room. Pess, the big border collie, wasn’t a service dog, but she was quite possibly the sweetest thing ever and took to the family incredibly quick, instantly bonding with Miles and Stacey.
She usually slept in Miles’s room, but sometimes curled up at the foot of Stacey’s bed when Miles’s Interpol ‘work associate’ stayed the night. She hadn’t asked if they were dating. She didn’t want to know.
“Stacey, dear, I’ve been calling for you for the past five minutes, come down please.” Miles’s voice finally rang out. Her door had been closed and she was zoned out. The closed door was new too, back with Excelsius, she didn’t even have a door on her room.
Ugh, even thinking his name left a bitter taste in her mouth. Before running downstairs, Stacey opened her door a cracked and yelled down “I’ll be there in a moment!” before turning to her mirror. Her hair had grown out a good bit in the past few months, long enough to tie in two twin tail braids tied off with little red ribbons. She had even asked for the ribbons, just found them on her desk one day when she got there from Verity Gavèlle’s house alongside a big silky red bow.
The bow was her favorite, it sat right perfectly on the back of her head and matched the tiny red bow details on her new gloves. Was it clear how much she liked the color red? Probably not, but even her nails were done up red, if she ever took her gloves off people could see.
She ran down the stairs, nearly tripping over Pess with a startled yelp. Miles was in his study, chewing on the end of a pen. She hovered in the doorway for a moment, smoothing out her skirt. More new clothes, Verity had taken her shopping recently, and she adored all of it. “Right! Yes, I’m here, dad, sorry, I was working on my tutoring stuff, and- yeah. Sorry.” She smiled sheepishly, earning an amused eyebrow raise from Miles.
“Thank you for your haste, dear. Do you recall how you’re properly working at the prosecutors office now? Assistant work and the like?” Miles asked, pulling a file from his organizer on the shelf.
Stacey’s eyes lit up. “Wait, you don’t mean-“
Miles smiled properly. “I’d like you to read this over and see if you can make any ‘winning’ deductions. Practice those new and improved skills.” He said ‘winning’ with a stupid little wink. For a man who had only been a father for under a year, he was already making some of the worst jokes. It was horrific.
She grimaced. If Kay was home, she would’ve threatened their father with some plethora of things. She was far crueler with her teasing than Stacey herself. “That sucked, dad.” She accepted the file, unclipping the little button latch and flipping through. It was a simple case, really, something Miles could piece together and create a case against in a few days max. “Don’t tell me you’re working on this with that wolf man.” She deadpanned, noticing how the case mentioned ‘Interpol’ more than twice, a surefire reference to how Miles’s annoying boyfriend was on the case too.
“Stacey, please, be kind about Lang.” Miles groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in embarrassment. “He’s a good man and a good agent-“
“You’re just in love with him.” Stacey interrupted, finally looking up from the file. “Ew, by the way.” She snapped the file shut, smiling. “I’ll get to work on this. Uhm, thank you. Bye.” She turned on her heel, her skirt swishing as she walked back upstairs to go through the file properly.
She laid the file out on her desk. It was pretty cluttered, her foldable conductors baton and a half empty bottle of estrogen pills clattering off the desk. Her room wasn’t huge, her bed and desk took up a good bit, but it still was heavily decorated. Posters littered her walls, lights strung up between them, a music stand in the corner with far too many piano books, the works.
She was better at deductions now. Miles was a fantastic mentor. She fully zoned out while working, annotating the file, up until she heard a knock on the house’s front door, her head snapping up. She was still very, very on edge, but the voices that came from the foyer were nothing to worry about. Just Kay coming home for the weekend, probably. No, the crash of a lamp falling over definitely meant Kay.
“Stacey!! Are you upstairs?” Kay’s voice rang out, followed by footsteps, and then a knock on the door of Stacey’s bedroom.
Stacey yelped, nearly knocking over her music stand to open the door, and was promptly tackled in a hug. “I- oh my, hi, Kay.” She stammered, her bow knocked askew by the impact. “You’re home? For how long?”
Kay laughed. “Just the weekend. I had Uncle Badd drop me off.” Her voice lowered, like she was sharing a secret. “Don’t tell dad I told you, but he’s leaving tomorrow to go work on a case with Wolfy.” She hopped up and hauled Stacey back to her feet. “We’ll be home alone, well, with Pess too.”
Stacey smiled slightly. “Pess is good company…” she trailed off, Miles calling for both of them to come downstairs.
Once downstairs, Miles gently adjusted Stacey’s off-kilter red bow, pressing a little kiss to the top of her head once it was fixed up. “I see Kay has already filled you in on my trip.” He finally said, amusement lacing every word.
Kay and Stacey had the same sheepish little smile at the accusation. “Okay, well, she deserved to know!” Kay retorted, getting a proper smile and huffed laugh from Miles.
“You two just play nice. No breaking dishes, Franziska may drop by, but you’re both mature girls and I trust you.” Miles sighed, his phone suddenly ringing. His ringtone was the Steel Samurai theme song, obviously.
“It’s Wolfey, isn’t it.” Kay groaned, dragging her hands down her face. “Daaaaaaad, you’re killing me here.” She grabbed Stacey’s arm, accidentally knocking the other girl off balance. “Look at us, we’re pitiful, please don’t get off track working with the wolf-man again.”
Stacey nodded in agreement, mostly just going along with Kay.
“You two are awful, I’ll see you in a few days.” Miles shook his head, hiding a smile. The call had gone to voicemail, so he headed off to his study. Per usual.
A weird household, but good. Stacey liked it here.