𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐘; Draco Malfoy

II

ELENA
___________________________

"Morning." Christian smiles when I enter the office, handing me a cup of green tea— my favorite drink in the morning.

"Good morning, and thank you." I grin at his friendly face, taking a seat opposite of him at my cluttered desk. It's eight am, and I've barely had any sleep. Draco kept stirring and mumbling, which was exactly what was keeping me awake, too.

"Rough night?" Christian asks, adjusting his tie.

"Didn't sleep much." I run a hand through my hair, starting on cleaning up the mess on my desk. It's true what they say— a messy environment is a messy mind. I'm usually neater than this.

"You okay? You can go home if you aren't feeling well." Christian says, his eyebrows furrowing with worry. I look up from my desk, sighing. "I promised I'd be here to help. I would still have come even if I got into a car crash on my way."

His full lips curve into a grin, and a low chuckle then leaves his mouth. "Of course you would. But I wouldn't allow you to," He says, rubbing a hand over his short stubble. "Even if I've seen plenty to know you don't like being told what to do."

"Correct." I laugh. It's partly a lie, some people can tell me what to do. Butterflies come back to life in my stomach at the small thought.

"Anyway— our witness should arrive in," Christian checks his watch. "Nine minutes." He finishes the last sip of his morning tea before he gets up from his desk. "But you never know, there are hardly any punctual people out there these days."

"Oh, imagine waiting two more minutes, Mr. Fraser, such torture.." I tease, handing him the documents I took home with me last night after we spend our time at the bar discussing our latest case.

Christian narrows his eyes at me, a corner of his mouth lifting. "You're in a good mood, despite your lack of sleep. That usually makes you crankier. You once threw a pen at me when I got you coffee instead of tea." He says, grinning to himself.

"You learned from it— never brought me coffee again." I say, checking my watch quickly before I rise from my still— partly cluttered desk.

"Strong memory." He takes a highlighted stack of documents from the pile in front of him, gesturing with his head to the exit of the office. "Come on, smart-ass, time for some good-cop, bad-cop."

Smart-ass, the ridiculous nickname he gave me when we first met, and I corrected him when he gave me a file to check, and instead, I complained to him about using the American version of a word instead of the English one.

When I met Christian for the first time, I found him rather aggravating. I was so focused on doing my job well that I completely ignored the idea of being nice to my coworkers. But then Gigi came into the picture, and with Gigi came Christian— and well, now they've become my friends.

Not that Draco likes that. But I can't do everything he wants. Outside of our marriage and our family, I'd like to have a personal life, too. And since both Gigi and Christian are harmless, I managed to convince Draco to give me more freedom. He can't control what I do forever, those days are over. We're just like any other normal family, I suppose.

I roll my eyes at Christian, quickly taking a peek at my phone when I feel it vibrate in my pocket. It's a text from Draco. My chest warms up.