"What was that?"

The moment Greyson departed, Persephone latched hard onto Emma's arm. She gave Emma a moment to take a single deep breath after getting Padfoot situated in the massive playpen set up for the dogs before dragging her off. She pulled Emma far off to where Justin was standing, grumbling all the way and ignoring Emma's protests.

"What was what?" Emma asked sharply, crossing her arms over her chest and lifting her chin defiantly. She didn't miss the way Persephone and Justin looked at each other in near exasperation.

"Emma, that was Greyson, in case you didn't realize," Justin pointed out. "Greyson. The one you have been pining over for weeks."

"And?"

"And he didn't seem like he was in a rush to get away from you," Persephone said. "And after what you sent in the group text with everyone last night? I think there's a bit more there than we thought."

"He was just being nice," Emma huffed. "I sent something stupid on accident, and then Padfoot had to be an idiot. Greyson was just trying to be polite."

"I think it was more than being polite," Justin muttered. "He was holding you quite close."

"He was making sure I didn't fall!"

"With where his hands were?"

"It was safer! Padfoot is a menace!"

"Emma –" Persephone started to say.

"There is nothing there!" Emma hissed. "Greyson doesn't like me. He was trying to make sure that we didn't fall, and he's taller than I am. If this is the conversation you planned on having with me today, I don't want to have it! He doesn't like me."

Without allowing Persephone or Justin to say another word, Emma practically stomped over to her computer. She dropped her bag on the floor next to her chair and sat down with a huff, shooting Persephone and Justin an aggravated look. Greyson was just being nice to make sure that she – they – didn't fall with how Padfoot had them wrapped up.

Emma sighed, dropping her head to her desk for a moment. She knew that she had to get back up and head to Sirius's office to talk to him, but she wasn't ready for that yet. Greyson said he had to speak to Sirius, and she would try to wait him out before seeing her father. She couldn't stand the idea of being in Sirius's office knowing that he knew that she had a crush on Greyson. It felt like everything was getting worse and worse – first the text, then Padfoot…what was going to go wrong next?

A gasp of surprise left Emma's lips when she felt something brush against the top of her head, and she sat up quickly. Emma tilted her head in curiosity at the white cat with black speckles sitting in front of her. She knew exactly who this cat belonged to, and Emma sighed. The cat blinked lazily at her, tail swishing over the edge of the desk.

"Just like vanilla ice cream and sprinkles," Emma muttered to herself, reaching out to scratch the cat underneath its chin. "Nice to meet you, Sprinkles."

The cat seemed content to let Emma pet her for a while before she lifted herself on all four paws and returned to her perch on top of Greyson's keyboard. Emma's lips quirked in amusement as Sprinkles gingerly settled herself upon the device – she could only imagine the string of text going across Greyson's screen.

Casting a glance over at Padfoot playing with the other dogs, Emma decided to start her day. She could wait until Greyson returned, but after him being gone for an hour, Emma was beginning to grow impatient.

With a huffed-out sigh, Emma pulled her phone out and scrolled to Sirius's contact information.

Papa, are you still with Greyson?

Yes. What are u up 2? Where is Daddy?

I was going to come down to tell you Daddy left his things at home and had to head back, but you're still with Greyson.

Why dont u come here?

Absolutely not! Daddy ratted you out.

What do u mean?

You knew about Greyson!

;)

Emma sighed, staring down at her phone. Her father could be annoying sometimes – this was one of those moments.

Just come down, Sirius wrote.

No!

Emma Hope plz come here.

Why?

I want 2 see my beautiful daughter.

Suck up.

Love u. Come here.

You're still with Greyson! I'll see you at lunch with Daddy.

Fine.

Emma thought she was in the clear from Sirius's teasing, and she placed her phone back down on her desk upside down, so she didn't have to look at the screen. She would see him at lunch just as she said, preferably with Remus as a buffer.

It was much easier for her to get lost in her work with all of the dogs in the building and Greyson nowhere near her. The dogs' happy barking as they played was nice, and it helped her tune everything else out. If she was honest, it was probably one of the most productive days she had in a while.

A coworker would walk by to pet Sprinkles every so often and give Emma either a questioning or knowing look. Every time Emma would choose to ignore it and tactfully ignored even Justin when he brought Padfoot over to her. Padfoot, more than exhausted from his playtime, curled up at Emma's feet and quickly fell asleep. Emma delighted in being able to reach down to pet Padfoot in between writing e-mails and working on whatever was needed for Tonks's campaign. The only thing threatening to ruin her focus was Sprinkles staring at her from between the computers.

"What?" Emma hissed quietly at the cat. Sprinkles stared at Emma from her bed, laying on her side and still blinking just as slowly as before. Emma was in a very heated discussion with Sprinkles when Greyson finally sat down at his desk. She stared at him with wide eyes, and his lips quirked up into a half-smile.

"Problem?" Greyson asked, running his hand affectionately down Sprinkles's back.

"No," Emma said quickly, sitting up in her chair. "Everything all right with Sirius? You were down there for a while."

"Perfectly fine," Greyson smirked. "Just wanted to get a rundown of everything going on with Tonks's release."

"Ah, that would take some time," Emma said knowingly. "Get him talking, and he won't be quiet."

Greyson chuckled softly, pulling Sprinkles into his arms when she stood up to greet him. It was another side of Greyson that she was surprised to see. He held Sprinkles close to his chest, rubbing his cheek against the top of her head, and Emma couldn't stop the smile that crossed her face. Sprinkles seemed to be just as in love with her owner as his owner was with her, and Emma had to hide her grin.

She sneakily hid her smile with her sleeve as she returned back to her work. Emma took a quick look at the time and let out a breath. Only a few more hours until she could meet her fathers for lunch, and hopefully, Remus would be making his appearance sooner rather than later. She could see him getting caught up in his work at home before Sirius called him at least a hundred times to get himself to the office.

The longer Emma worked, the less she remembered her unfortunate texting mishap. She could ignore Greyson across the way and didn't particularly mind giving Sprinkles scratches under her chin when she wandered over. At half-past noon, she stretched her arms high over her head and let out a long sigh.

"All right there, Emma?" Greyson asked, pulling his gaze from his computer to look over at Emma. She wasn't sure that Greyson's hand had ever left Sprinkles' fur.

"Time for lunch, I think," Emma said, reaching down to grab Padfoot's leash. Emma thought about it for a moment before gathering her things and giving Greyson a slight smile. If she was lucky, she could work from Sirius's office for the rest of the day.

"Ah, there's my favorite girl!" Sirius said delightedly when Emma entered his office. He rose from his desk, swept Emma into a tight hug, and kissed the top of her head.

"Papa, you know people can see in, right?" Emma muttered as she pushed herself away from Sirius with a shove. "There are windows everywhere!"

"Sweetheart, you're so tiny that he could have been hugging the dog," Remus said from his place near Sirius's desk. He lifted his laptop up from his lap with a grin. "I remembered it this time."

"Hey!" Emma shouted, giving Remus an aggravated look. "When did you actually get here, though?"

"About an hour ago," Remus said sheepishly.

"Here," Sirius said, grabbing onto Padfoot's leash. "I'll go take this handsome man for a walk."

"He's a menace," Emma muttered, shaking her head. She sighed heavily as she took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Sirius's desk. "How's work going on your book?"

"Not too bad," Remus said almost excitedly. "Do you want to hear about the edits I've done so far?"

"Of course," Emma replied. Remus didn't need to be told twice before launching into his explanation of what he had done so far. She loved how excited her father got when he spoke about his books, and she could listen to him all day. He brightened up considerably, his face lighting up and eyes glittering with his excitement. Remus was proud of his work, and she was proud of him as well.

Emma absent-mindedly picked up her phone when she felt it buzz, fully expecting it to be Sirius sending her a photo with Padfoot. She continued to listen to Remus, opening up her message app with a delighted smile. Emma took a quick glance down at her phone and immediately froze when she saw who the message was actually from.

So, what did you think of Sprinkles? Sweet like I said?

Emma felt her face immediately flush, and Remus paused in his explanation of his book.

"Everything all right?" Remus asked, his brow furrowing in concern.

"I, uhm…yeah," Emma said, sitting up straighter in her chair. "Just surprised by this text message I received."

"Ah," Remus said slowly.

She was sweet, Emma replied, turning her attention back to Remus.

"As you were saying?" Emma offered, plastering a smile on her face.

Remus was quiet, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied Emma. He placed his laptop on Sirius's desk and crossed his arms.

"Was it Greyson?" he asked, one side of his lips quirking at the overdramatic moan of distress that left Emma's lips. "Ah, I see."

"I just…he's really cute," Emma said, looking down at her phone as it buzzed again.

Sweet like her owner?

Emma frowned and looked up at Remus with a pathetic whine. "I don't know what to write back," she said, gesturing vaguely to her phone. "He asked me if I thought his cat was sweet like him!"

"Don't look at me," Remus said, lifting his hands up in surrender.

"You're the writer!"

"Yes, but Papa's the romantic."

"So are you!"

"But in a different way!"

"What's going on?"

Both Emma and Remus turned to look over at Sirius and Padfoot as they walked back into the office. Emma looked over at Remus pleadingly, and he gave Emma an apologetic shrug.

"Greyson texted Emma," Remus said lightly, his tone equally as apologetic as his expression.

"Ah," Sirius said, sounding far too delighted for Emma's liking. He quickly unlatched Padfoot from his collar and nearly skipped over his desk. Sirius sat down in his chair, a broad grin on his face. He looked expectantly at Emma, glanced over at Remus, and returned his beaming smile towards Emma.

"What?" Emma huffed out. She looked over at Remus, who cast Sirius an uncertain look, and Emma's frown deepened. "Daddy?"

"I'm not allowed to say," Remus said quietly. "Contracts and the whatnot, you know how it is, sweetheart. If we were home…"

"You can't say a word, but I can," Sirius said. He quickly picked up his phone from his desk, clicked away at his keyboard, and then set it back down and waited. Emma could only stare at Sirius in confusion, unsure why her father had the expression he wore on his face. His expression was part smug and part excited, and Emma wasn't sure that she liked it. Sirius was dangerous when he had an idea in his head.

Everyone remained silent. Emma was tempted to ask what they were having for lunch just to break up the quiet, but she was too concerned with Sirius to bother. Even Padfoot was staring at everyone with curiosity, silent when he would ordinarily be digging through Remus's bag, which was sure to have treats. The knock at Sirius's door seemed to echo through the office, and Sirius's smile only grew.

"Come in!" Sirius shouted.

"You wanted to see me again, Sirius?"

Emma thought she could melt through the floor. She looked over at Remus with wide eyes and pulled her legs up on her chair to try and shrink herself down. Why was Greyson in Sirius's office?

"Come in, come in!" Sirius said, beckoning Greyson over. Greyson stepped into Emma's line of vision, and she swallowed hard, trying to hide the look of panic off her face. He cast Emma a curious look but didn't question why Emma was there and looking very unprofessional as she held herself close. She quickly placed her feet back on the floor and cleared her throat, keeping her wide-eyed gaze on Sirius.

"Is something wrong?" Greyson asked, glancing over at Emma.

"No, no, not at all!" Sirius said, glancing over at Remus with a mischievous grin. "I was doing some more thinking about what we talked about earlier – about Remus's upcoming launch."

Emma looked over at Remus, who purposely kept his eyes averted. She could curse him for clearly being in on whatever scheme Sirius had in mind.

"Oh, right," Greyson said with a laugh. "Doing that much thinking about it? You know Remus's launches go well."

"Well, I want this one to be perfect," Sirius said. "Remus and I were talking after you left, and since this book is the penultimate book in his current series, we want to make it big. With Tonks's launch almost done, I thought it was about time we started to move staff to different projects."

"And I completely agree," Greyson said politely. "Anything you had in mind?"

Emma knew that Remus was ending his series, but she had no idea he was so close to finishing his edits. She cast him another curious look, but Remus still kept his gaze averted. He clearly wanted nothing to do with what was happening.

"Well, Emma is quite knowledgeable on Remus's work," Sirius said, giving Emma a brilliant smile. "Remus doesn't have anything specific in mind, but I think with Emma's knowledge, she'll be able to come up with something perfect."

"Oh, excellent," Greyson said. "She does wonderful work, and I've been enjoying working with her on Tonks's launch."

"Good," Sirius said brightly, "because she's your assistant for Remus's launch."