Puzzle Scars is a flashback story that takes place back when William and Grell were younger and just passed their exam. What is the truth about William's long scar? Just read to find out already! I'm sorry if it is a little long. I am too lazy to make it two chapters.

This is a story I was thinking about for a while. I just had to write about it.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Kuroshitsuji. The pic isn't mine either.

/\/\/\~OO~/\/\/\

"William?" William looked up at the pondering Grell, "What is that?"

Grell beckoned to his long scar with his finger.

William looked plainly up at the red reaper and said, "It is a scar, Grell."

Grell pouted, not getting the answer he wanted. "How did you get it?" Grell asked again.

William looked down at the scar that stretched accosted his back. Grell was in his apartment for no apparent reason, and just decided to barge in on William while he was changing. Why would he even need to tell the intruder?

William sighed to himself. He turned around to look at his long time friend in the eye. There was a suspended silence between the two of them, until William finally broke the silence. "A demon did it."

Grell looked at him with question. A demon wouldn't be able to make a scar on a shinigami. William's voice seemed to answer his thoughts, "It had my death scythe."

Grell watched him meticulously, for he proceeded in changing into his clothes – covering up his scar that reached from almost the top of his left shoulder, diagonal down to almost his right upper thigh.

The walk to the Shinigami Dispatch HQ was silent and boring – at least in Grell's perspective. He wanted to know more about this scar of William's.

/\/\/\/\/\~OO~/\/\/\/\/\/\

Grell, for some reason (maybe it was because he wanted to hopelessly catch William in there and question him) was in the men's bathroom. He took off his own cloths and was about to step into the showers, when he noticed his own scar on his right shoulder. It was thick at the bottom and seemed to fade off at the top. He then remembered that he had on just like it but on his left hip. He looked at it. This scar seemed to fade off at the bottom and get thicker near the top of the scar. Both scars had an abrupt end to where the heavier part was. It was almost as if the piece in the middle was missing.

He had never pondered about the two scars before. They seemed to be pointing at each other. Maybe William's scar was the missing piece. He decided to push off the thought for the day, for he was doing field work. his favorite thing.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the thought out of his mind. He was paired with Ronald while doing this assignment, for demons were more-than-often a trouble in these areas. Grell thought that he could do the job just fine on his own.

Grell couldn't take just pondering to himself any more. He had to tell someone, and in this case it was the lawn mower riding shinigami, Ronald Knox.

Grell and Ronald had a two hour beak in between now and the next soul to be collected, so the red head took advantage of this and spoke what was on his mind. "Hey Ronald, I know this is going to seem stupid, but…" Grell blushed.

Ronald looked at his superior, somewhat baffled, and spoke, "What is it, Sempai Grell?"

Grell made awkward eye contact with Ronald and said, "Well this morning I was watching William change and I saw that he had this really big diagonal scar on his back. Then in the change rooms I realized that I had two scars that could just fit on the outer edges of his… do you think that it could be a coincidence?"

Ronald thought about it a little bit and answered, "Well why don't we find out?" Ronald seemed a bit over confident, raising his right arm towards the sky. Grell could have sworn he had some kind of gleam in his eye.

/\/\/\/\/\(At the shinigami office)/\/\/\/\/\/\

William had his head buried in his paperwork, that is until the red reaper decided to barge into his office with the younger reaper following. "Hey Will?"

William answered with a grunt.

Grell pouted a bit and sat on the edge of his desk. Then he did something no-one expected. He reached down and traced a line on William's back making him sit up a little. "Your scar is about the right length to fill in the gap in my two."

The statement came out more like a question, and a bit seductive.

"What about it, Sutcliff?" William asked.

Grell continued rubbing his back. "Well I have two on me that would go perfectly with yours. This is almost like a puzzle piece.

Grell giggled at his own statement. Even it seemed far fetched.

William sighed and sat up trapping Grell's hand between William's back and his chair. Grell pulled it back as if a snake had threatened to bite it and adjusted how he sat on his boss's desk; like a child would do waiting for a story. Ronald took a seat next to William's desk to listen.

William sighed and said, "Don't you two have something better to do?" The two shinigami in front of him just shook their heads no in reply. William pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, and looked Grell straight in the eye, as if saying, "Go away or I'll kill you!" Grell still stayed intent on hearing a story.

William shook his head and told them briskly to leave, and that he would tell them after they were done with reaping their souls. They happily agreed on the terms and left his office, leaving it in silent peace once again.

William touched his scar on his back. And sat back in his chair thinking about how he got it. This had been a long time ago.

/\/\/\/\(FLASHBACK)/\/\/\/\

A young William and Grell were sitting in the bench outside their superior's office. Their final exam was finally over. Now they were wearing Father's glasses and were quite happy about it. Since their Exam ended they sent them out as a team on many missions. They were a quite successful pair.

This time they were going to maybe face a demon. Grell was handed the report file on the place they were going to go.

/\/\~on the file~/\/\

Sutcliff, Grell and Spears, William.

Assignment code: Puzzle001.

location: Southern English countryside.

Report: - A few humans have been reported to have bought a demon summoning book from America. This group of people have been put on watch. On order of the High Shinigami, an assessment team was dispatched to investigate the group, for they had been put on high alert after a farmer had gone missing near their base of actions. After the Assessment Group had assessed the area, they found that there are blood stains around a large dead tree near their base of actions. The tree was described to have a very ominous aura. There are multiple pentacles around the tree, along with many nails driven into it.
They meet every Sunday at dawn, according to the scout team who had been watching them for a month. There would be good reason to send out a Shinigami Dispatch Unit to the scene. The location is far out in the country side, far away from the closest populated area.
All of the human associated deem no use to the world, and are a potential threat to the well being of others. The Dispatch Unit shall inflict whatever justice they believe fit to the humans.

written by:
Shinigami Dispatch Assessment Team officer, Eric S.

/\/\~Off File~/\/\

Grell handed the file over to his partner. "This Eric S doesn't have very good details, what a boring guy."

William pushed his glasses up on his nose for effect. "Well, you don't either you hypocrite ginger."

Grell grabbed a lock of his short blood red hair and pointed at it, "This is not ginger, don't call me that!"

As William closed the file a portal opened. It was nothing fancy, just a wide white disk of paper thin light. They stepped though, then headed over to the fields were the humans would usually hold their ceremonies. It was so far in the countryside, the screams and yells of the person who would be getting sacrificed wouldn't be heard by any passer-by-er for miles around.

The two shinigami quickly saw a deep red aura around one of the human there. That one was most defiantly the demon. Now they had to decide on how to handle this. The two, after a quick bout of bickering, decided that Grell had the better cutting tool (a chainsaw) and could more easily finish off a demon faster. William, having a better tool for collecting would harvest the soul.

Grell kind-of stupidly interrupted the ceremony and waltzed up to the group of people and one demon. "Why, hello demon," Grell started, "we wont let you take that soul." Grell pointed at the person that was about to be hanged.

The demon looked at Grell with a look of surprise plastered on his face. That was quite plainly said. It's eyes narrowed as it figured out that the new comers were shinigami.

The people didn't do anything. They all just gawked at the two men in suits as if they were aliens or something like that. One person made a move, and it was to the guy who was holding the ladder that the other man with the noose around his neck was clinging to. The man yelled, "Go away in peace, or I will hang him!"

Grell was about to say something when William cut him off, "If he dies or not does not concern us."

Noose man's eyes widened in horror, the other man just gave a grunt and pulled the latter from the man's feet. The noose man slung with all of the force of gravity, used up all of the slack of the rope, and with an audible crunch of the neck, he died.

William heard Grell sigh behind him. He muttered, "That wasn't a fun death"

"Come on Sutcliff we have work to do," William said. He could already see the cinematic record spilling out of the dead body. William extended my death scythe and caught a few strings before the demon swatted his death scythe away. Its eyes shined of greed and hunger. "It obviously won't be an easy fight," thought William.

Grell went right to work on the demon, slashing and dodging – no wonder he had triple As in practical technique. William stayed focused on collecting the cinematic record. A random man that hadn't already run away stayed and tried to fight William. William quickly struck him over the head and – careful not to kill him – knocked him out.

As William gathered up the remaining part of the cinematic record he turned to see if he needed to help Grell. Apparently, he did. The whole battle was turned around. The demon was swinging its claws harshly and heavily, wanting to inflect as much damage to whatever he could hit. It had already revealed its true form, a giant lizard that stood upright. It had a strikingly similar appearance to a velociraptor or Godzilla.

Black and red swirls of dark energy rapped themselves around its claws. The demon was repeatedly striking Grell's chainsaw. All Grell could do was block the crushing blows from hitting his body. The chainsaw wasn't going to last to mush longer. Click the chainsaw's chain broke out of it's place as the whole top half of the chainsaw bent forward and almost completely broke off. Since the chainsaw was still running the lose chain flicked backwards and stuck Grell's arm.

Grell instantly dropped the scythe and crimson blood poured out of his wound.

The last thing Grell did was call out William's name in painful distress.

/\/\/*William's POV*\/\/\

I watched in horror as my partner, no, friend collapsed on the ground at the demon's feet.

I swung my death scythe at the demon's head. It easily dodged the attack. I bent down to pick up Grell's scythe; I flipped the lever to turn the thing off. Then I attacked the demon. Swinging and dodging for a good minute or so. The demon and I were locked in a dance of death.

I swung at the demon's head again. It dodged the blow and got under my arm, it suddenly uppercut me on my abdomen. The air was knocked out of me at that moment, and I fell on the ground hard. I felt something strike my legs and I hit my head on something. Then my world went black for a second.

I started to get up, and I noticed I didn't have my death scythe in my hands. The demon raised it to strike Grell, who was still un-conscious on the ground a few feet beside me. He was laying on his back, so his vital organs were totally exposed to the demon's wrath. My legs refused to move so I heaved myself on him to block the blow.

My own death scythe cut though the skin on my back, and I felt the searing, stinging pain of the blow. I lay there, loosing consciousness. The only thing I could think about was if I had saved my friend. My whole world went black again.

/\/\/\/\~OO~/\/\/\/\/\

(Third person POV)

Later at the hospital wing in the shinigami department, a nurse told William that Grell had almost made a full recovery, he just needed rest, and that he very successfully blocked the almost killing blow that could have been inflicted on Grell. He was going to have to live with a scar on his back his whole life, but the nurse only said it proved his bravery. He had also been struck in the legs with the demon's claws, and would not be able to walk for a while.

Later during the day, when William could walk around a bit again, the Shinigami Dispatch manager gave him a promotion, for he witnessed the whole end of the battle. He commended on William's bravery, putting his own life in danger to save his partner.

The man explained that he thought that it was taking them a bit long so he went to check up on them, only to see that William's death scythe being taken from him and William's way of saving Grell. Leo then explained that while the demon was going to finish them both off, he chopped off its head with his scythe (which is an eclectic saw.)

After he was released from his room in the hospital, he checked on Grell. He had two small scars on his body, where William had not shielded the blow. He silently promised himself that he would explain how he got those… someday.

/\/\/\/\/\~OO~/\/\/\/\/\/\

(End of Flashback)

William smirked to himself. He had a lot of explaining to do.

A/N:

This took me a REALLY long time to edit because the stupid internet editor that has did not save the edited version after I had already edited the whole thing... no I did not time it out, it just did not save hen i pressed save. Failure of technology... WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!

Please flame to your heart's content. I have marshmallows, after all.

-Sincerely,

Robinfire11