This was inspired by a few lines of dialogue I came up with a while ago. To my dismay, I don't own any rights to Black Butler/Kuroshitsuij. Enjoy!
When Grell got her next assignment of souls to collect, she thought it would just be another boring job like any other. So, she sighed to herself dejectedly and arrived at the appointed place an hour before she was due to be there since she had nothing else to be doing. She perched on the edge of a rooftop where she could see the street she would collect the soul at, her legs hanging over the side of the building. Humming to herself, she allowed her thoughts to wonder as she gazed over the rooftops towards the setting sun. Before long, she saw the man destined to die walking towards the street he would die in. This was when Grell became slightly confused since it was still half an hour before his life would end. She was about to check the time to make sure she was correct but then she saw something out of the corner of her eye- two people walking towards the man. It took her a few seconds to figure out who they were but and soon as she knew, she left all caution to the wind.
"Bassy!" she yelled as she jumped down from the rooftops and landed directly in front of the demon.
"What are you doing here?" Sebastian sighed, not surprised in the slightest at Grell's sudden appearance.
"Doing my job, of course" Grell smiled as sweetly as someone with so many pointed teeth could.
"Get out of our way!" Ciel demanded from beside Sebastian, finally getting over the shock of the reaper's dramatic entrance.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. I can see you have something against that man over there but he isn't supposed to die for another 30 minutes yet. So, I guess you'll just have to wait"
"Not bloody likely" Ciel scowled, storming towards where Grell stood. But before he could make it very far, Sebastian held out his arm in front of the boy and stopped him.
"Unfortunately, for once I have to agree with the reaper. If this man is not yet destined to die, we cannot kill him no matter what crimes he has committed" Sebastian said flatly, not looking down at his master.
"But there's nothing stopping us! Her Majesty wanted-" Ciel tried to splutter a rebuttal. But before he could say much, a loud crash sounded above them and cut him off. All three of them looked up to see an avalanche of bricks falling towards them. Grell jumped out of the way and Sebastian barely had time to pick Ciel up into his arms and pull him to safety before the bricks hit the ground.
"What on earth?" Ciel mumbled, looking up to see who or what had caused the bricks to come tumbling down towards them.
"Oopsie," a figure said from the shadows above them.
"Who's there?" Ciel shouted in a surprisingly confident tone. Silence followed the boy's question but as Grell dusted herself off she was sure she had heard that voice before, a long time ago.
"Show yourself" Sebastian commanded, his eyes momentarily flashing red. Despite herself, Grell found herself biting her lip at the sight of Sebastian glaring up at the darkness with his eyes almost glowing. A few more moments of silence followed before the figure jumped down from the rooftops almost exactly as Grell had done just 5 minutes before.
"Well, look what we have here. The famed Grell Sutcliff conversing with a low life like you" the figure said, scoffing towards Sebastian as he stepped out into the light. He wore a long, black coat, a white shirt with a black bow tie, black suit trousers and top hat that left the majority of his face still in the shadows.
"How do you know me?" Grell asked cautiously, noticing the surprised look on both Sebastian and Ciel's faces out of the corner of her eye.
"Oh, we all know 'Grell Sutcliff', the famous red reaper. But look at you, letting a demon get in your way"
"Who are you?" Sebastian interrupted and it was Grell's turn to look surprised.
"Someone who came here with a purpose... someone who came here to kill," the stranger said darkly.
"To kill who?" Sebastian asked, taking a step towards him.
"You," the man said, smirking. Everything was completely still and time seemed to almost stop as he said that one word. But the silence was violently shattered as the man pulled out a gun and aimed it directly at Sebastian.
"You really think that will kill me. For someone who holds such a dislike for my kind, you seem very uneducated about us" Sebastian said as he looked past the gun and straight at the stranger's shadowed face.
"Oh, but you seem to have missed something rather fundamental. This gun is very special; it can kill anything. You might even say, it's more than just a gun" the man said smugly. Suddenly Grell's entire body tensed as she realised why she recognised that voice; she didn't just know him, she had worked with him. And if they had worked in the same field together, she knew he was right when he said that wasn't just a gun in his hands.
"Go ahead, shoot me," Sebastian said confidently, closing his eyes. Grell watched as the man started to squeeze the trigger and she felt her body begin to move before her mind could even realise what was happening. A deafening gunshot rang out through the otherwise silent street.
"See, nothing happened" Sebastian smirked, opening his eyes again. But that smirk was soon wiped from his face when he looked behind him and saw Ciel's expression. The boy was staring past the demon's shoulder, his mouth hung open in shock. Sebastian turned back around just in time to see Grell's body hit the floor in between him and the shooter- who was also staring at Grell, completely astounded at what she had done. Out of instinct, Sebastian rushed over to the reaper but froze when he saw her hand clutching at her side as blood dripped down her fingers. She looked different to the times he had seen her bleed before; she looked like she was in pain, like she was... dying.
"I thought nothing could kill a reaper," Sebastian said quietly, his eyes fixated on Grell's wound.
"There's one thing that can- another reaper's death scythe," Grell said slowly. Instantly, the realisation washed over Sebastian and his head flicked towards the man with the gun.
"You're not human," Sebastian said in a low voice. Knowing his secret had been discovered, the man turned and ran down the street. A few moments later, Ciel seemed to realise what was happening and he started running down the street after the rogue reaper.
"Ciel!" Sebastian shouted after the boy but he was out of sight before anyone could stop him.
"Go after him," Grell told him, knowing full well about the contract the two of them shared.
"I'm not leaving you" Sebastian immediately replied and Grell blinked up at him in shock. Suddenly another shot of pain washed over her and she clutched at her wound, gasping for breath as Sebastian found himself stepping forward and falling to his knees beside her.
"He was going to shoot you" Grell managed to say.
"So, you took a bullet for me?" Sebastian raised his voice a little, though it was more out of shock than anger. He quickly wrapped an arm around Grell's waist and gently pushed down on her wound to stop the bleeding as much as possible. The reaper groaned in pain and her whole body tensed.
"It's okay, I'm just trying to stop the bleeding" Sebastian whispered far more softly than Grell would have thought possible. Suddenly, she found herself almost laughing at the irony of her situation.
"What's so funny?" Sebastian questioned her, puzzled by her sudden outburst.
"The one time I finally end up in your arms and it's just before I die" Grell huffed despite the smile on her face.
"I'm not letting you die here"
"If I had told you when we met that one day you would say that to me, you would have laughed and then probably tried to kill me just to prove me wrong" Grell scoffed.
"You might be right about that" Sebastian said, a smile ghosting his lips. The two of them fell silent as neither knew what to say. They both knew the unavoidable end to their situation but neither one wanted to accept it. Eventually, Grell coughed a little before saying something she knew she needed to say, no matter the consequences.
"It's tragic, isn't it? How someone like me could fall so completely for someone like you" Grell smiled sadly to herself, looking towards her feet.
"I think it's far more surprising that someone like myself was capable of developing such strong feelings for anything, let alone for someone like... you," Sebastian said so quietly that Grell would have missed it if their surroundings hadn't been so quiet. Grell stared up into his eyes and for the smallest of moments she almost forgot what was happening; the blood, the pain, the fear, it all seemed to melt away and all she saw was Sebastian looking down at her. She tried to speak, to question the meaning of what the demon had just told her and if it really meant what she thought it did, but all she could manage was an incoherent mumble of disbelief. This caused Sebastian to laugh- not a cold, mocking laugh but a genuine, happy laugh despite how quiet it was. That only served to confuse Grell even further.
"Another thing, you're going to owe me a new suit" Sebastian joked, looking down at his blood stained clothes. Now it was Grell's turn to laugh, although her's was mostly out of disbelief. But her laughter quickly turned to coughing as another shot of pain travelled through her body and she immediately gripped onto the closest thing to her left hand which happened to be Sebastian's arm. Slowly one of Sebastian's hands slipped down, pried her hand from his arm, and held it in his own. He gave it a light squeeze of reassurance and Grell returned the gesture.
"I don't think I have long left" Grell admitted. She could feel the pull of death tugging on her and she was fighting it with everything she had but she knew it was a battle she would eventually lose. Sebastian said nothing but she could see the panic in his eyes as he felt her fading in his arms.
"Goodb-"
"No, not yet. You don't get to say goodbye yet" Sebastian instantly cut her off and Grell found herself smiling sadly at the urgency in his voice. Slowly she reached up, held onto the back of Sebastian's neck and pulled him down towards her slightly. Trying to not show how much pain she was in, she pushed herself up and gently kissed Sebastian's cheek.
"Thank you for everything" Grell whispered into Sebastian's ear. She sighed quietly and took one last look at the demon before closing her eyes for the last time. Her body slumped down in Sebastian's arms and he looked down at her motionless body. He refused to believe what had happened and yet he couldn't move. His body was frozen in place as he stared at Grell lying in his arms, willing her to open her eyes despite that fact he knew she never would again. He tried to speak, to call her name, but his throat was too dry. He wasn't sure how long he had stayed there but at some point, Ciel had returned. From his breathlessness, it could be guessed that he had been running for quite a long time.
"Sebastian?" Ciel called out but he couldn't bring himself to answer. No matter how hard he tried, all he could do was silently stare at Grell. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ciel walk over to him and place a hand on his shoulder. For someone so young, Ciel had become oddly accustomed to seeing dead bodies- it seemed to come with the social status.
"Oh look at this, yet more unpaid overtime," a voice said from the other side of the street. Ciel looked up to see Will watching them but not stepping any closer.
"She was killed by one of your own and all you care about is overtime?" Ciel spat and Will blinked at him, a little bewildered at the boy's outburst.
"It's my job to be professional, not emotional" Will answered simply though Ciel was beginning to notice that he refused to look at Grell's body.
"Why are you even here?"
"I've come to collect Grell's body. The reaper who killed her has been caught and will be punished rightfully within reaper laws, I assure you" Will said, nudging Ciel out of his way and heading towards Sebastian. He reached down towards Grell's body but Sebastian refused to let go. His arms stayed wrapped around Grell and his eyes didn't move from her almost peaceful looking face.
"Please don't make me order you," Ciel said as softly as he could bring himself to. He had never seen Sebastian like this before; so void of everything, even his own mind. But he still wouldn't- or couldn't, Ciel considered- move so Ciel sighed and untied his eye patch. He let it drop to the floor before glaring at his butler.
"Sebastian, let her go. That is an order" Ciel demanded, feeling the power rush through him. Having no other choice, Sebastian reluctantly pulled his arms away. Will briskly walked over, scooped Grell's body into his arms, and walked down the street into the darkness without saying a word or turning back. Once he was out of sight, Ciel picked his eye patch off the floor but didn't bother putting it back on.
"Let's go, Sebastian"
"Yes, my lord"