Gray Fullbuster sat alone in his office staring blankly at the rain tapping against his floor to ceiling windows. Spring storms had finally rolled into the city, ushering out the winter snow.
Gray didn't mind the rain, he found it peaceful. The rain was a steady and soothing reprieve after the chaos of the last few weeks.
It had been about three years since Gray first joined Fairy Tail Private Investigation and Security. He'd excelled, naturally, and had not long ago been promoted to head of the Security Department.
Fairy Tail dealt with the full spectrum of security needs- from investigating cheating husbands to full sting operations taking down human traffickers and drug dealers. Gray's department was the boots on the ground, private security guards, witness protection, the full gambit. When shit hit the fan, when there was imminent danger, Gray and his team were there.
He glanced at his watch. He was running late for a meeting with his least favorite co-worker. Sighing he turned back to his desk.
A profile for a member of a local crime family known as Tartaros was spread over his keyboard. Gray frowned as he leafed through the pages for the millionth time.
He slammed the file shut and shoved it in the top drawer of his desk, grabbed his suit jacket and headed for the door.
Passing the elevator Gray took the stairs up to the next floor and then shot down the hall towards Natsu's office.
Natsu Dragneel. He was Fairy Tail's lead PI and the bane of Gray's existence. The guy was good at his job and, yeah, they were friends. But damn that guy had a unique way of always pissing Gray off.
Now that they were working a top secret investigation together, Gray was forced to bite back his complaints and be a team player.
That's what the meeting was about.
There was a mole in Fairy Tail feeding information out of the firm and destroying evidence. And all of it revolved around the Tartaros Family.
So far as Gray could tell, there was only a small group of them who had figured out that there was a security breach. But without knowing where the breach was, they couldn't risk bringing anyone else in on the investigation. Who knew how deep this rabbit hole went- or how high up in the ranks.
Gray pushed into Natsu's office without bothering to knock.
Natsu sat leaning into his chair, his feet propped up on his desk.
"Thanks for finally showing up Gray," Natsu jeered immediately, his wild pink hair contrasting his slick black suit. "We've been waiting forever."
"It's been five minutes, get over it," Gray snapped back, making his way across the room, choosing to lean into the wall rather than taking a seat. "Hey Levy," Gray greeted the small blue haired girl seated across from Natsu.
"Hi Gray," Levy returned with a bright smile. She was already scribbling in her notebook, her glasses at the edge of her nose. Gray laughed to himself- that was Levy. Part of their Cyber Security team, Levy lived and breathed her work. At least, she did. Recently her focus had taken a sharp detour when she started seeing one of Fairy Tail's newest operatives. He should be at this meeting too, Gray thought, finally noticing the other man's absence.
"Where's Gajeel?" Gray asked Levy.
"He should be here," she replied glancing at the clock on the wall. "He's probably just-"
The door slammed open and a tall, muscular man with black hair and silver piercings along his brow and nose stormed into the room.
"We have a fucking problem," Gajeel snapped. He held the door as a young woman followed him inside. Gray looked the woman over as Gajeel shut the door behind her. She wore a tight navy dress under a white raincoat. Her shoulder length blue hair was soaked through, she had black make-up lines under her eyes. She looked like she'd been crying.
"Juvia?" Natsu said, sitting up straight in his chair, "What's going on?"
"Juvia are you alright?" Levy asked urgently as she stood up and moved to the woman, embracing her gently as a fresh line of tears rimmed her eyes.
"Someone broke into my apartment," Juvia said in a weak voice.
Juvia, Gray vaguely recognized her now. She used to work with Gajeel and Natsu's girlfriend Lucy at a club downtown. A club Fairy Tail busted a couple months ago for being involved with a human trafficking ring.
Gray had seen her that day at the sting. She'd been tied to a chair in a warehouse, knocked out with chloroform. As Gray had carried her out of the building she began to wake up, batting her big azure eyes up at him. It was her eyes that he recognized. Only now her tears dampened the blue waters within them.
"What's that got to do with us?" Gray chimed in lowly. Juvia seemed not to have noticed him before. She turned her big eyes on him and then quickly looked away again, her gaze dropping to the floor.
"Someone is after her," Gajeel growled.
"Come, sit down," Levy said kindly, guiding her to an open chair.
"Who's after her?" Natsu asked quickly, his eyes already filled with a fiery rage.
"We think it's the creeps at Phantom."
"Phantom Lord?" Gray asked curiously. "That other club you two used to work at? We took them down over six months ago. How could they possibly have anything to do with this?"
Gray gave Juvia a cold stare as he waited for a response, but she wouldn't look up at him.
"I just know that it's them," she whispered quietly.
Natsu looked Juvia over with a frown. "I hate to say it, but Gray's right Juvia. Those guys are behind bars. Maybe it was just a random B-and-E."
"There was nothing random about it," Gajeel snapped again. "The place was cased. Everything was torn up but nothing was stolen. They were looking for something."
"And I..." Juvia started weakly, "I think I'm being followed."
"So then why the hell did you bring her here?" Gray asked coldly.
"Gray take it easy, she's distressed," Levy scolded.
"Well I sure as hell wasn't going to leave her alone," Gajeel was fuming. Gray had never seen the man so pissed before. He'd heard that Gajeel and Juvia were close. That she was like a little sister to him.
"Hey, Juvia," Levy said with a gentle smile, "come on, let's go get you some water, maybe something to eat to."
Juvia nodded meekly and took Levy's outstretched hand. Levy paused at the door and looked back at them.
"Behave," she said to the room and shut the door behind her.
Gajeel snickered. "Not likely," he said under his breath.
"So you want to figure out if there's someone after her?" Natsu observed, leaning forward against his desk.
"Not if," Gajeel sneered, "Who. I'm sure it has to do with Phantom, but like Gray said most of them are locked up so they must have some contact on the outside."
"She seems like she'd be scared of her own shadow," Grey observed, "do you really believe she is being followed?"
"Juvia has no reason to lie, and like I said, I saw the place. It wasn't random."
"We'll need to send a team to do a thorough investigation of the scene," Natsu put in. He looked focused, intense. "Are there any security camera's in the building? We can have Levy take a look at them. I can interview her neighbors-"
"Are we really going to open up a whole case over this?" Gray commented from his perch. "We have more important things to do. Why don't you hand her over to another team?"
"Like hell," Gajeel sneered.
Gray rolled his eyes. Gajeel was as hot headed as Natsu sometimes. The two were more alike than either of them would admit.
"I want security on her 24-7 until we figure this out," Gajeel said.
Gray sighed. "I can put someone on her but my team is spread pretty thin right now-"
"You think I'm going to leave this to one of your little underlings?" Gajeel laughed. "No way. You're on this case Gray."
Gray gave him a cold, blank stare.
"No."
"No?" Gajeel growled.
"No," Gray said more firmly. "We have too much we need to do with our current situation and only the four of us even know about it. We can't bring anyone else in because we can't risk word getting back to the traitor that we're on to him. I'm too busy to babysit some paranoid girl who isn't even in any real danger, not as far as we know."
"Well, technically Gray," Natsu chimed in, "right now we need to investigate Fairy Tail to locate the mole. We don't need someone from Security for that."
Gajeel snickered. "Sounds like you've got nothing better to do."
Gray glared at him. "If you're so worried about her then why don't you protect her, Gajeel?"
"I can't look for the person that cased her place and protect her at the same time."
Gray glanced at Natsu who threw up his hands in defense.
"If Gajeel is working on Juvia's case then I need to be here investigating the traitor. Sorry Gray, but I think Gajeel's right. You should be the one guarding her."
Gray let out a deep breath.
"Fine," he said grudgingly. Then he shot Gajeel a threatening glare. "But you're going to owe me, big time. Especially when you realize this was all just a big waste of time and resources."
"It's not," Gajeel snapped back. "Someone is after her. We just need to figure out who."
Gray shook his head in defeat. This was not how he had planned to be spending his time right now. Gray had his own investigating to do- into Tartaros, but he wasn't planning on sharing that info with either of the men across from him any time soon. He needed to do a little digging first.
He would just have to work while he was watching her. That wouldn't be too hard. The girl seemed pretty helpless. It would be pretty easy to keep an eye on her.
But something about this felt off- the girl, her story, the idea that Phantom could be involved even though the crew had been locked up. Juvia had been so quiet, unwilling to give them any concrete information besides just feeling like she was being followed. If Gray didn't know any better, he'd say the girl was hiding something.
Well if she was, Gray thought, she wouldn't be for long.