The baby was a girl.
They named her Charlotte, and she was beautiful.
Erina would've sold her soul to make sure that little scrap of human would grow up happy and healthy, would never go through what her mom and aunt did, but she liked her soul where it was.
Even Gray loved Charlotte already. Watching him play with her, on the rare moments when Dee left to pick up a phone two feet away, Erina felt something in her, an emotion for which she finally had a name.
Happiness. An almost terrifyingly fierce happiness.
Her worst self knew happiness like this wouldn't last.
But she would not be the reason for that.
She won't ruin anything anymore.
She held Charlotte in her arms, cradling the sleeping bundle, and felt her delicate breathing. She felt a wave of emotion so fierce she restrained herself from squeezing Lottie closer.
"Little Lottie," she whispered. "Life gets shitty sometimes, but we'll always be here. Me and your mom and dad and Gray. We'll punch the universe in the nose when it fucks us over."
Gray smiled crookedly. "Language, Erina."
"She's asleep," Erina whispered back. "She can't hear me."
"You don't know that," Gray said. "Babies can do weird crap."
"Haha," Erina said sarcastically, rocking slightly. "I'm making promises here. No killing of my buzz."
He just grinned again. "You say weird shit, and I love you anyway. That's gotta be a superpower."
"You're a weird shit and I love you for that," she replied. "Clearly, you're Superboy."
He grinned and leaned closer carefully, trying not to jostle the baby. They kissed, long and slow.
A sudden click made them break apart. Dee was standing in the doorway, holding a camera.
Erina groaned. "Really? You know I hate pictures."
"I just had to, you looked so adorable," Dee said teasingly as Frank came in from the kitchen. He grinned at the sight of them.
"I feel usurped, though," he said, mock-disgruntled, wrapping his arm around Dee. They went out into the garden.
Gray took a lock of her hair between his fingers. She looked at him questioningly. He just chuckled. "Some things never change."
She'd put some light purple streaks in her hair after Charlotte was born.
Erina smiled, cradling baby Charlotte against her frayed black P!ATD shirt, as Gray put his arm around her shoulders. The both of them stared off into the clear glass doors.
The sun was setting.
Some things never do change.
And they hoped to God that when they do, it'll be for the better.
**********
YOU ARE READING
Red and Gray
Short StoryGray's back. He just spent a year being 'straightened out' - apparently - and now he's back, with his emotions no less conflicted than they were a year before. Only becoming more conflicted when he reunites with his best friend, Red.
