"How's it going?"
"I don't know what you are talking about." Lips presed into a thin line, his eyes squinted as he peruse the fresh files the red head laid on his table. Serial killings...bank robberies...hostage takings...missing cats...mismatched socks? He groaned inwardly as he took a sip at his coffee, only to choke on it and spat it out a few seconds later. "What the hell is this?!"
"You rang, Princess?" Just by his office door leaned an amused woman, her arms across her chest. "Good morning, Erza."
"Good morning, Mira. Early shift I guess?"
The woman named Mira padded across his office and plopped herself unceremoniously on his couch. "Laxus' being a git, and I can't stand his mood."
"You can always dump the guy, and what the actual fuck is this?" Gray asked, eyeing the offending liquid rested in his cup. "Tastes like shit."
"Decaf?" Mira answered, wriggling her body in the couch to find a better position.
"Decaf my ass! That's just fucking brown colored, tasteless water, and hey," he quickly made his way to the couch and pulled the seat pillow under the woman's head, "no sleeping in my office."
"But, Gray, I missed you," Mira whinned, pouting as she tried snatching the pillow to no avail, as Gray kept it out of her reach.
"No, you just want to sleep. Just go back to your PMS-ing fiance. Erza and I have work to do."
"You're getting hard on her, not that I'm complaining," from the other side of his office Erza said. "She's in for another six months, Gray, in case you've forgotten."
"No, Erza, and it doesn't change the fact that that muscle brain knocked my partner up. Not that I'm complaining also that getting her knocked up means that you'll be my temporary partner," he hastily added, seeing the frown on the red head's face. "No offense, Erza, and I'm sure you never really want to leave Jellal on his own, though as you have said, he can fare enough for himself."
"And you can't," Erza dropped.
"And I can't. Happy, ladies?" Gray sighed, looking from the couch then to his right where Erza has made her way to his seat. He sighed defeatedly, then plopped himself near Mira's curled toes. "So, aside from rubbing that fact in my face ," he pointedly said, cocking his eye back to the white haired, "what did I do this time to deserve a visit from the spawn of Satan herself?"
Mira giggled at the mention of the pet name. Pulling herself up from her fetal position, she turned so that her head rested in the man's lap and she let out a contented sigh as Gray started playing with her hair. "I'm worried about you, Gray."
"Worried?" Gray asked, raising a brow at Erza, who shrugged and looked at his abandoned files, but he was sure she was listening. "Im not the one pregnant,"
"That's not it," Mira softly said, trying hard not to closed her eyes to sleep, and Gray's soothing ministrations in her scalp were not helping. "I mean, after each and every job we take, when it's time to go home..."
Oh, here we go again, he thought.
"...you have no one waiting for you."
He closed his eyes. "Clearly that's not something to get worried, unless a criminal's waiting for me at my doorstep." He heard a scoff from his seat. "Are we really having this discussion for the 'nth' time?"
"You ask her," Erza flatly replied, resting her chin on her palm. "I gave up a long time ago and you know that very well. And don't give me that look, Mira," she said as she raise a brow to the soon to be mother's glare. "This man," she then pointed a finger to Gray, "is a lost case. And if you don't want your unborn child to bear similarites with him, I suggests you shift your track now."
"I can't see any unwanted traits coming from me,"
"Your stripping habit,"
"Did you just insult me?"
"Learn to take a compliment, Private Fullbuster," Erza sarcastically said to which the white haired woman giggled.
Gray just pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, I guess inside my head, the meaning of the word is all messed up." Women. He will never understand them. "But seriously, you know you don't really need to worry about me. I can beat the shit out of them that try, right? You should know your partner by now very well."
"Um, I think we're not talking about safety here," Erza sighed, fiddling on his files and pulling a stack that caught her interest. "Company, Gray. Woman, to be precise,"
"That's BS, Erza. I don't even especialize in that division," Gray shrugged, hand catching a knot in the soft hair, making Mira gasp in the little pain. "Sorry,"
"Clearly in that aspect, I sometimes wish you were Loke,"
"No, thanks. I'm not interested on ONS. And did you just wished for me to be a manwhore? Sorry to burst your bubble but that's not on my bucket list."
"No one wants you to be Loke, Gray." The white haired shifted in her side. "But, atleast have someone who can take care of you."
"I'll buy myself a dog. Hap...Ouch! What's that for?" He rubbed the back of his hand that Mira just pinch.
"No one's buying a dog, Gray. Dogs don't do the laundry, and you even need to walk them out and let them do their busines,"
"Fine. Then I get Romeo. The kid's looking for a change of scenery I heard,"
"That kid's as bad as you and Natsu, for god's sake! That'll be Condition Red!" Erza screeched. "Don't even think about it," she added when she saw Gray tried to open his mouth. "Everyone knows Natsu have rubbed off on Romeo, and getting the three of you altogether is chaos, but if you enjoy paperworks then go and be my guest."
Gray 'tchd' at her. "I'm not allowed a pet for a company, nor a flatmate. I get it."
"You also don't have a girlfriend, don't you forget," Mira snickered, making Gray scowl.
"I'm not allowed a pet for a company, nor a flat mate. I also don't have a girlfriend." He rolled his eyes, making the two stifle a laugh. "There. I said it. Now, tell me, oh, great Mirajane," he pulled the hand that was massaging the woman's scalp and put it in his heart. "What should this poor, humble servant of yours do?"
Upon his words, the pregnant woman's body quickly shot up, making Gray hold her securely in his arms in fear for her current condition. "Are pregnant women supposed to be that quick? Ouch!"
His arms got slapped as Mira freed herself and put herself in a comfortable sitting position facing him. With clear, gleaming eyes, she smiled at him. Not the smile that his partner usually have when they are happy, nor the relieved smile when both of them managed to escape the pinch they were in. Instead...
"Pregnant women are said to be glowing, but you're kind'a creepy," Gray chuckled, earning another slap from Mira, the smile unnerved.
"You just said you agree," Mira sweetly said, making the hair in his nape stand.
"I asked what I should do to get you out of my case, to be clear,"
"That's agreeing to me," Erza quipped, legs now streched on his working table, to which she saw Gray mouth a silent 'feet off' that she replied with a silent 'fuck off.'
"Anyway, Gray, she will be arriving at your place in four days, so you better learn to tone down that strip show."
"Fine, she will...WHAT THE FUCK, MIRA?"
Any living being would be scared out of their wits hearing the venom in his voice, but since the people currently inside his office, digging his grave not just 8feet deep were two of the elite agents of their organization- Private Erza Scarlet and the spawn of Satan Private Strauss, Gray could just close his eyes, groan and fists his hair and try to pull them out. Just what the hell happened?
Condition Red [ ref. Color Code of the Tactical (Combat) Mindset]
At the beginning of the red condition your weapon should be out and ready. This will free up any required retaliatory options. You execute your plan working your way from the primary threat to secondary threats, and so on; always be thinking of the here and now and not on what you have just done or will do after you have gotten away from the situation. Remember, as you are making decisions, they will be very quick and the member of the battle who makes the correct decisions the quickest will be the most likely to walk away. As in condition orange difficult moral and ethical decisions that you will run into should have been determined (by yourself) before you ever started carrying your weapon on your person. In this competition "the only trophy is the right to breathe, and the loser gets sent home in a body bag."