Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima. :D

Playing House

Chapter 2

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The first thing Gray noticed about the young Anderson was that she was fond of Juvia. As a matter of fact, Erin was too fond of her and all the attention the water mage gave was all for the young girl. He eyed them closely as both girls where helping each other cook dinner for their "small, happy family".

Still annoyed at being stuck in this mission, which included a lot of babysitting, Gray just focused on what he would do. Since he honestly admitted that he wasn't good with children—especially young girls—he thought that he could do the original mission, guarding the lacrima from thieves.

Besides, Juvia loved children. Gray often saw her playing games with random children in the streets back in Magnolia. Asuka always sought her out whenever she wanted to play or take a bath in the guild or maybe even have someone do her braids. And heck, her instincts are stronger than his when it comes to children! She went on job quests that require taking care of them while their parents were gone. So, this would be a piece of cake for her.

It was a perfect set-up. He would take care of the lacrima and Juvia would look after little Erin. For two weeks.

Gray managed to stifle a groan as he closed his eyes and lightly banged his head on the table. Two weeks was just a long time for him to be near a kid who seemed very lively and hyper. Although she seemed prim and polite, observing Erin with Juvia right now, with the young girl bombarding his partner with a lot of questions, he concluded that both of them would cause him sleepless nights.

To his consolation, at least Erin agreed to call him big brother. He was slightly uncomfortable with being called like that because he was never really the older brother. When he and Lyon where under the supervision of Ur, the dynamic ice make mage always teased him about being the younger one and that he should listen to him. Ah, Lyon and his crap. Sometimes, he really didn't get what the guy was trying to prove to him.

So, he was a big brother now. He guessed it was… alright. It was better the being called a father anyway.

"It's done!" The smell of the food filled his nostrils and Gray just realized how hungry he was. He looked up to see them taking off their aprons and giggling. Soon afterwards, Erin was hugging Juvia tightly by the waist.

They looked like that for a few seconds before the young girl's eyes landed on him. "Gray nii-chan, could you help Erin and Juvia-nee set up the table please?"

Getting up and smirking to himself, he ruffled his hair before taking out the plates and utensils in the cabinet.

"Sure."

Juvia followed his movements and can't help but to think that maybe Gray could learn something about children during this job.

"So, what do you usually do with your parents after dinner, Erin-chan?" Juvia asked as she washed the dishes with the young girl. She enjoyed spending time with the young mistress. Erin was really sweet, always smiling and blushing. From what she had seen, the girl was kind like her mother was, and affectionate towards people, even the ones they've had just met recently.

Poking her cheeks repeatedly as if thinking, Erin bit her lip. "Well, mama braids Erin's hair and papa braids mama's hair, while we listen to music." She giggled softly as she remembered the things they do before going to bed. "Why do you ask, Juvia-nee?"

The woman in question dried up her hands when she finished cleaning the last plate. "Well, since Gray-sama and Juvia are here to take care of you…" She pouted for a second before she caressed the girl's face. "Would you like to do those things with us? That is, if it's okay with you."

It was silly, really, to ask a young girl to do things with them that are almost like family rituals for the Andersons. Juvia never had a family before Fairy Tail, so she wanted to try to do this traditional family setting with Erin and Gray. A family with parents and a child, living happily together in one roof.

That's why it was a pleasant sight when Juvia saw the little kid clap her hands together and squealed gleefully. "Juvia-chan! You are so sweet!" The young girl hugged her again for the second time that day, swaying Juvia's body with her. "Erin would love to!"

Juvia was glad to hear that she was willing to share her family's bonding moments with people whom she have met only a couple of hours ago. She lifted the giggling girl in the air and made their way to the living room.

The only thing that plagued her mind that moment was how to get Gray into this thing.

He was gone for only a couple of minutes to fix some things in his room. And the next thing he knew, Juvia was dragging him to the living room, saying things about bonding with Erin.

He didn't know what hit her head to do this.

"Just what are you trying to do?!" He was led to where the girl was, with Juvia grabbing him by the arm. Gray allowed himself to be dragged by his partner—he was cool with it. It's not like she was going to do something disturbing to him in front of a child anyway.

"Both of us are going to spend quality time with Erin-chan!" She gripped his arm firmer and he noticed how her slim fingers created marks on his skin. "You know, Gray-sama, you should get to know her, she's really sweet."

"Tsk." He glared at her for a moment before she gave him a pout on her small mouth and a pair of pleading eyes.

"Please?"

There were here for not more than twenty-four hours and Gray was already submitting himself to these two girls.

"Fine. Fine! Quit pouting!" They walked faster so as to not make Erin wait any further. The ice mage can already hear the soothing music coming from the room. Making a few incoherent comments, Gray saw the girl with brushes and sparkling clips and hair bands. Quick on her feet, Erin was already hugging Juvia again and she just looked at him. He supposed he made her shy and maybe she felt intimated by his demeanor. Looking back at the table full of… girly stuff, the ice mage cringed inwardly.

"What exactly are we going to do?!"

She pushed Gray onto the sofa to sit and sat herself comfortably on the ground with Erin. "Just follow my lead, Gray-sama."

Oh dear no.

His eyes widened as he watched Juvia picked up a brush and comb through the dark locks of Erin, and Gray realized he was about to do something he never imagined he was going to do.

He just hoped that when they come back to their guild, Juvia would be considerate enough to keep her mouth shut about this. Gray wondered if even Elfman would think this was manly.

"Do I really have to do this?" He could hear the mocking laughs of Natsu and Gajeel in his head.

Two set of puppy eyes looked directly on his own orbs as he voiced out his concern. Gray could only let out a sigh.

Man, he was so whipped.

"Ouch! Gray-sama, be careful!"

"I'm sorry! I don't know what happened!"

"You tangled my hair…"

"Sorry. It's not like I do this thing to myself, you know."

While it's safe to say that Erin's hair looked really wonderful with the way Juvia braided her hair like that of a mermaid's tail and all the accessories she placed on her locks, she cannot say the same for her. Gray made a total disaster and she's pretty sure that she'd be having a hard time untangling her hair.

Looking at the mirror in her hands and staring at the mages behind her back, Erin turned around and tried hard not to laugh at the slightly quarrelling couple behind her. She knew Gray was forced into this, and cannot help but feel a hint of guilt for making them do this for her.

There was another thing that she and her parents do whenever they were tired from whatever they were doing throughout the day. Erin knew they were exhausted from the trip from where they came from all the way to their family's place so to give them some consolation for their kind gesture towards her, she got up and knelt behind Gray on the sofa so that she could reach his shoulders.

"Erin thinks both of you are tired from your trip, so she suggests that we should exchange massages!"

Before both could say anything else, Erin began to massage Gray's shoulders. For such tiny hands, she was good at this, like she did this everyday. His muscles began to relax as Erin pressed her hands on his back.

He was having too much relaxation on that moment that he almost forgot that he should massage Juvia's back too. Reaching for her, his hands began to touch her shoulders, but her muscles tensed and flinched back, partly moaning and partly chuckling. He tried to reach her again, but this time Juvia pulled herself away from his touch.

"What's wrong with you?!"

"Juvia's sorry, but that tickles!"

She continued to pull away everytime Gray tried to put his hands on her shoulders and relax her muscles. Still massaging her nii-chan's back, Erin thought that these two people in front of her looked really close to each other.

"Juvia-nee, allow Gray nii-chan to massage your back. You'll enjoy it!" She encouraged the water mage, because it would benefit her in a way, and she might sleep well later.

Sitting up straight and prepared for the upcoming touch, Juvia fought her chuckles. On the other hand, Gray rolled his eyes. He was doing her some favor and he also considered this as an apology for her messy hair courtesy of him. "Stop squirming, okay?!" He began to rub her shoulders gently. "Juvia, I'll try not to tickle you so stop struggling!"

The next couple of minutes were spent in silence, not counting Juvia's struggle to laugh. Feeling bored, Erin hummed the tune that was being played on the radio lacrima to entertain herself. She saw Juvia trying her best to fix her hair from all the tangles Gray had caused. And then, she suddenly stopped humming, remembering something to ask the guy.

"Say, Gray-nii, don't you have a special nickname for Juvia-nee?" She didn't know if that was a weird question for him. Growing up using a different manner of speaking and giving certain honorifics to other people was normal to her and since Juvia told her that she saw her younger self in her; Erin thought it was pretty normal for her, too.

"Nickname?" Gray turned to his left to look behind him. "Kid, I don't do nicknames."

Juvia was quiet the whole time when they were talking but she was looking over her shoulder just to assure them that she's going to contribute something in their conversation.

Now, the young girl was confused. "Oh," She blushed and pouted. "Erin thought that since both of you are together, you'd call her Juvia-koi or something. And come on, Juvia-nee calls you Gray-sama!"

Appalled by her conclusion about his relationship with Juvia, Gray felt the heat rise on his cheeks. "You're interpreting this the wrong way!" He stopped giving Juvia a back rub because he was too surprised with the question.

Fully turning around to face them, Juvia began to speak. "Erin-chan, Gray-sama and Juvia are just friends." She smiled sweetly before turning her back on them once again and started brushing her hair.

In that moment, Gray couldn't read Juvia's mind—what she thought about his answer and how she felt about it. Not knowing what else to do, he groaned and dropped the case. When will people stop all these kind of questions?

Erin stopped massaging Gray as well. She felt tension in the air and the silence, for her, was definitely awkward. "Sorry," She whispered silently, but enough for the two Fairy Tail mages to hear. "Erin would not bring that up again."

"It's okay." Juvia stood up from the floor and dusted herself off. Her hair looked better than earlier, and she fixed it like what she did with Erin's, with only a few hair accessories. Pinching the young girl's cheeks, she smiled at her.

Feeling less awkward as the blush on his cheeks toned down, he picked up Erin in his arms. "Kid, what else do you do during this time of the night?" Gray hid his concern for the child with his gruff voice, but Juvia saw how he actually liked to spend time with her now.

"Milk." Erin played with his raven hair. "We'll drink milk."

"Milk." Repeating her words, he looked at Juvia, tilting his head to the left. "Then off to the kitchen, we'll go!" Gray wasted no time and paced as fast as he could to the kitchen with the young girl in his arms, leaving Juvia to take in the view.

No matter how much he tried to hide it, Juvia clearly saw that he was trying his best to do, as he said earlier, Juvia's part of the job—the baby sitting thing.

And she could get used to these scenes already.

When she said milk, Gray thought that she was the only one who would drink a glass.

Nobody told him it was a drinking party between the three of them.

"No."

"Gray-sama, it's just a glass of milk."

"No."

"It's good for the bones and teeth."

"No."

"Um, it's white and maybe it reminds you of snow?"

"I don't want to drink that, okay?!"

First off, Gray wasn't fond of milk. Really, he doesn't like drinking milk. It irritated him everytime he was served with that during his younger years in Fairy Tail. One of his first friends in the guild, Cana, understood that. The brunette doesn't like milk as well. Maybe that was the reason why both of them started drinking liquor at such an early age.

Half-way drinking her glass, Erin stopped and looked at Gray. She looked downcast and he didn't like where this was going.

"B-But Erin m-made those for the two of y-you…" tears formed on the corner of her eyes and he swore he saw Juvia give him a look that he seldom saw.

"Gray-sama, drink the milk."

"I told you I—"

"Drink. The . Milk."

She was looking at him sternly. He knew that Juvia was the type of girl who never gave up until you give in, so Gray knew that he was cornered in this conversation. And another part of him said that his partner was doing this for the little girl's effort and feelings. If he didn't do it, he's screwed.

He honestly was thinking of pouting and maybe give them a taste of their own medicine but he decided against that. "Fine." He raised the glass and drank the milk in one go, looking at Erin if there was already a change in her reaction.

Oddly enough, when he looked at Juvia, she was looking at Erin too. She was already smiling and laughing as she herself finished her glass of milk. It amazes him that him and Juvia mutually understood that their little stunt a few moments ago was for the sake of the child. He smirked and shook his head.

He wouldn't admit it aloud but he liked it when they understand each other completely without words.

Sitting on a bench in the front porch of the Anderson residence, Gray was waiting for Juvia and Erin to finish cleaning up themselves and get ready for bed. He came out of the shower quickly so he dressed down and roamed around the house for a while before finding himself outside to get some fresh air.

The box where the lacrima was kept was encrypted with some kind of rune. He thought that no one can open the box, unless in the presence of Erin's parents. It was a wise move though—just in case something went wrong and it fell into some bastard's hands, at least they would have a hard time decoding the spell.

He was playing with some decorative stones from the bowl on the table when he saw something rustle behind the bushes. Gray immediately alerted himself and got up to take a closer look at the bushes in the garden. The gust of the wind was strong when he saw the strange movement, so he might be imagining things that weren't there in the first place. But just to make sure, he still checked it. It was their mission after all, and Erin needed all the protecting they could do to keep both the child and lacrima safe.

Parting the bushes with one hand and getting ready for an offense with the other, Gray braced himself to the sight that he was about to see.

"Meow."

The ice mage let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. He eyed the cat with midnight blue fur closely, just to make sure it wasn't some freaky creature that could be able to use magic. Living in a world full of supernatural things, it wasn't impossible that it might happen.

"Am I being too paranoid?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest as he asked himself. He looked up and watched the clouds moving to who knows where. When he averted his gaze to look back at the cat, it was gone and nowhere near Gray's line of sight.

Searching for the cat that was there a few minutes ago, he tried to separate the twigs and branches to find the animal. Gray still looked for it, but with no such luck, until he heard the creaking sound of the wonderfully carved mahogany door a few meters away.

"Nii-chan!" The sound of Erin's high-pitched voice filled his ears. "What are you doing there?"

The ice mage ran to where she was. Where's Juvia?

"Oh, Juvia-chan is still in her room." He hadn't realized that he voiced that out loud.

As if remembering the girl's previous question, he cleared his throat. "I was just getting some fresh air." Gray took her tiny hand and motioned her to go inside the house with him. "We'll get Juvia and then all of us will sleep."

When he opened the door, the sight of Juvia stopped his tracks. He could see that she was surprised as well all of the sudden. Smiling, the water mage extended her hand to let Erin take it and they walked to the child's bedroom.

"Juvia-nee, nii-chan was walking outside with no shirt on." The young girl told Juvia and looked at him accusingly.

Gasping and turning to the guy, Juvia squinted her eyes. "Gray-sama, you might catch a cold!"

He raised an eyebrow at that and then scoffed. "I'm an ice mage, you know. I used to take off my clothes in the middle of a snowstorm." She was about to retort but he raced her to it.

"Enough about that, Juvia. I need to tell you something."

"Last time you said that, something awful happened." Turning the knob of Erin's bedroom, she switched on the lights and guided her to bed. "Let's talk later."

He also entered the room, which was full of fluffy stuffed toys and very big four-poster bed. Gray watched as Juvia tucked Erin in, kissed the young girl's forehead and caressed her cheeks.

"Juvia-nee," She played with Juvia's soft hair. "Maybe tomorrow, both of you can join me here and read me a story. Please?"

How can you deny such a cute girl?

"Of course, sweetie." She picked up a random stuffed unicorn for Erin to hug. "Right now, Mr. Unicorn would accompany you for the night."

Erin giggled as the water mage began to tickle her sides. "Gray nii-chan, you too?!"

Gray snapped out of his thoughts. All these motherly Juvia things that he had seen since they started this job were very foreign to him. Sure, he saw her with kids a couple of times, but this time around, he was there to witness the whole scene unfold. He had to admit, she was pulling this off more than he expected.

And he liked to see more of it.

"Sure."

They said their goodnight's and the two mages went out of the room. Gray and Juvia stopped in front of her bedroom for the weeks to come and the blunette turned to her partner.

"What is it that you want to tell Juvia?"

Scratching his nape, he gave her a serious look. "I saw a mysterious looking cat outside." He sounded ridiculous but he should tell her this. "I think it has something to do with the bandits."

He waited for some insanely loud laughing from her but he didn't get it. Instead, he saw her smile. "Gray-sama should get some rest." She turned him around and pushed him towards his bedroom. "Guard the box while you sleep. If ever the cat's a nuisance, Juvia thinks Gray-sama could handle the situation with ease."

Sometimes, he can't figure out what good he had done to have a girl like Juvia to trust him wholeheartedly. She stopped in front of his door and opened it for him. "Good night, Gray-sama." She hugged him from behind, to which he reacted with a tensed body. "Sweet dreams! Juvia hopes she's in them!"

He began flustering when he heard her closing the door. "You and your fantasies Juvia!" He opened the door to shout at her overly-amused and retreating form. "Control them, would you?!"

As the night deepens and all three of them were asleep, the sound of purring could be heard in the garden.

Hi there! Sorry this took so long. I don't know what I got myself into when I started this multi-chapter. Nonetheless, I'm enjoying writing this. Updates may be slow, since I'm such a lazy ass. I really don't know when my next update would be. Guess I'm not really good at updating multi-chapters.

Thank you very much for the support! Your reviews made me happy and squeal in front of my parents. Now, they think their daughter is crazy.

Reviews, as always, are highly appreciated. Please do leave a review if you have time. Thank you little sweeties!

OUTTAKE:

He put the emptied glass down on the table and heard the girls controlling their fits of laughter.

"What are you laughing about, you two?!" They always did that, whether he was with them or not. It was not irritating, but the sound they made just appealed wrong to him, as if they were mocking him. Gray was pretty sure that those chuckles were for him.

"Gray nii-chan!" Erin hid herself behind Juvia, who was looking at him with flustered cheeks and teary eyes. "You got yourself a white moustache!"

The ice mage fairly believed that he was the joke of the day.