Summary: It's Gray and Erza's turn to be unprofessional now…
Pairings: Team Natsu friendship feels.
YouTube Prompt: A Gray/Juvia video to 'As Long As He Needs Me' from the musical Oliver Twist.
It was a lovely, sunny, day, and so far nothing has gone wrong. Natsu and Gray haven't brawled in public and accidentally destroyed something, Natsu hasn't been sick on the train (though he did a lot of groaning and turned a nasty shade of green on the hour journey), Charle or Lucy hadn't sent Happy into a flood of tears, and Erza hadn't had to kill anyone at all so far.
Lucy had high hopes for this job as it was relatively simple, paid well enough to cover the last thirty thousand she needed for her rent with some left over for shopping, and not likely to cause any damage repair fees…..she hopes.
They were greeted almost instantly by the person who requested them, a small, elderly lady with sparse white hair and a cheerful but gummy smile. "Hello dears!" she cooed. "My name is Mrs Haycock and I'm-"
Lucy silently groaned. Oh no! She thought fearfully, we're going to lose this job unless I do something now!And that was when she suddenly stomped as hard as she could on Natsu's foot in a valiant attempt to shut him up.
"Ow!" Natsu yelped as he clutched his foot. "What was that for?!"
Lucy merely smiled, satisfied that she had saved the job. At least she thought she had but it didn't occur to her that she had other people to worry about namely….
"Pfft!" Gray sniggered. "Haycock!" he repeated in a scoff. "Is it full of hay?" he asked with false innocence.
….Gray.
Lucy moaned pitifully as she saw her chance to rent money fly out of her reach, Happy and Natsu blinked dumbly unable to get the crude joke for some reason, Wendy looked shocked, and Charle shot Gray a disgusted look that promised retribution for uttering such a thing near her charge.
Erza, however…..was speechless. Speechless with fury, her face red, her body trembling, and a dark angry and evil purple aura began to leak out of her.
The elderly woman blinked at Gray. "I beg your pardon, dear?" she asked politely. "I didn't quite catch that. Old age, you see."
Instead of looking sheepish, Gray merely looked delighted. "I said," he said much louder, "is it full of hay?"
"What is, dear?"
"Your c-"
Gray, thankfully, never got to finish his crude sentence as Erza took that moment to punch him so hard that he flew across the street and knocked himself out against a lamppost.
"How dare you?!" She roared furiously. "To make such crude and disgusting remarks about this poor, elderly, lady who has been nothing but kind and polite to us! I thought I taught you better manners than that! Obviously not," she snarled disgustedly, "I'll knock some manners into you if it's the last thing I do! And then I'll make you grovel for forgiveness for this lady who has kindly given us a job-"
"Actually dear," Mrs Haycock interrupted coolly, "I no longer wish to employ such unprofessional people."
"I see," Erza said curtly, she instantly whirled round and smacked Gray so hard that he fell back onto his knees (he had managed to wake up during Erza's rant and only just staggered back onto his feet before he was attacked again). "See what you have done with your thoughtlessness? Now Lucy will have no rent! And I will have no cake money!"
"Actually," Mrs Haycock interrupted again, colder than ever, "I found that you were the unprofessional one."
Erza lost all her fire at that point. "M-me?" she stammered.
"Yes," Mrs Haycock agreed curtly. "You. Do you think I am not used to silly boys making such comments on my surname?" she asked. "I assure you, you do not live as long as I have with such a name without getting used to it. In fact, I find it quite amusing these days. What I do not find amusing," she glowered at Erza, "is young ladies who think they can beat their colleagues up over such a minor offence. That," she spat out, "is what I find unprofessional. Good day!"
Lucy would have been devastated over the loss of her rent money but Erza, still in shock, had suddenly collapsed onto her knees, "U-u-u-unprofessional?" she whispered. "Me?!" and that was when her soul started to leave her body.
"Ah! Erza!" Both Lucy and Wendy wailed as they desperately tried to grab hold of her soul. "Don't leave us!"
Strangely enough the day didn't end as well as it started and it's not just because Lucy and Wendy had to lug home a concussed Gray, a shell-shocked Erza, and a motion-sick Natsu….