A/N: Hi. It's Kitty, stepping in for Mina while she does my work and I sit around pitying myself with a broken jaw. Welcome to the first chapter of a new fic. It is technically a sequel to Glass Emeralds and the Midnight Branch, but it's not essentail that you read them, anything important gets a summary of what you need to know when you need to know it. I'm told I write quite differently from Mina, but it's still working from her plot book, so let's go and please, read and enjoy and please review. Thank you.

"Report jackets are not to be used as fans."

Everyone in the office jumped and turned as William strode in. Even inside the office building, which had basic air conditioning, the heat was unbearable. Seasons in the reaper's realm were extreme. It was still early summer, it was hot and dry and was only going to get worse. Grell set down the folder he was using to fan himself and slumped back on his chair, panting heavily and running his hand through his damp hair. For once Ronald was almost jealous of Grell's issues with his gender. He was in a short, light skirt that must have been far cooler than their trousers. He didn't understand Grell's longing to be a woman, but he was his senior and a good reaper and close friend, so he respected it. Besides, most people either respected or feared him enough to comment. In fact it was only William and Eric who made an issue of it and they were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.

"And can we at least try to look like we deserve our position as the best division in the country, though heaven only knows who decided that. Mr Humphries is the only one who looks like he's actually here to work. He also seems to be the only one doing his work."

"Awww, but Will, it's so hot," Grell whined.

"Yes, and it happens every year," he said. "It's not the first time you've experienced summer, Sutcliff, you're well over a hundred years old-"

"I'm not old!"

"Get back to work."

Ronald sighed, mopped his forehead and reached for another report. It was one of the days when Ronald would have preferred to be out reaping rather than in the office, or even at home. The weather in London was milder and there was a nice breeze there today, and the humans there thought it was sweltering. He had actually agreed when William told him to take a cold shower that morning. They'd all taken off their heavy jackets in an attempt to find some relief. Eric had unbutton a few more buttons on his shirt, rolled up his sleeves and completely undone his tie so it was hanging uselessly around his neck. Across from him, having pushed their desks together, Alan had removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves but looked professional like it was a normal day. Grell was in a light skirt and heels- much to William's obvious disgust- and had pulled off his shirt and was just in his waistcoat. Although Ronald didn't think he was nearly as bad, he had opened his waistcoat, loosened his tie, undone a few more buttons and rolled up his sleeves.

"Those can't be helping," Grell said, gesturing lazily to the bandages and bracers on his forearms. "Take them off."

There was a moment where Ronald just watched Grell silently before he turned back to his work. Everyone knew why he still wore them, even if it wasn't strictly medical anymore. The scars, one on each arm, were still plain to see. He didn't like the rumours that followed him around or the things people asked or said when they saw them. Not to mention, William still blamed himself to some extent. It hadn't been his fault, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he hadn't been in control and when William wasn't in control he started to feel he wasn't doing everything he could. Ronald hated to think about them, or how guilty they made William feel so kept them covered as much as he could.

"They're fine, Miss Grell."

Time passed tortuously slowly and Grell returned to fanning himself with a folder. He dropped it whenever William came out to check on them, or snap at them for being too loud and chatting instead of working, only to pick it up again the second he was gone. Ronald had long since grown used to the way William was just as cold and harsh as ever in the office unless he had a good reason not to be. It wasn't as if he expected to be treated differently though. William wouldn't be William if he wasn't cold and professional.

Finally, their shifted ended and Ronald picked up his files, pausing as he got up and waiting for Grell to throw his own reports on top of the pile like he always did. Alan got up with him and took his and Eric's reports. William's office was a little cooler. The only window in the two adjoining offices was in there, not that there was even a breeze to ease the stifling heat. Ronald set down his reports on the desk next to Alan's. The smaller brunette left quietly when William had thanked him, leaving Ronald to smile down at him.

"What is it, Mr Knox?"

"Mr Knox?" Ronald said, leaning his elbows against the desk and grinning over at him. "We're alone now, boss, and we're off work. The least you can do is call me by my name. I know you're not going to treat me differently in the office, but we're alone now."

William stood slowly, keeping his hands on the desk and leaning forwards to look Ronald in the eyes. When he spoke it was with a low, firm tone, making it clear there was to be absolutely no arguing. "You, Mr Knox, may be off work, but I have to finish correcting all your reports. If the four of you did a better job I'd get off earlier and you distracting me is not helping. So, if you don't have anything important to say, spit it out, if not, get out."

Ronald opened his mouth and William glared down at him, daring him to argue and offer anything but an apology and quick exit. Of course, Ronald was never one to give up easily. "You're very sexy when you're angry."

"How about when I'm giving you overtime?"

"Not so much."

"Then leave me to work."

"But-"

William silenced him by gripping his tie and pulling him away towards the door. They crossed the floor within seconds and just as William paused to open the door Ronald slipping his tie over his head and wrapped his arms around William's chest from behind. He laughed and nuzzled against him gently between his shoulders as the older reaper sighed.

"Let go."

"But boss-"

He pried Ronald's hands away and pushed him out the door with a gentle pat on his rear, ignoring his pouting and the bright, cheeky smile his touch brought. As Ronald turned to call him out on it, William smirked and shut the door, and turned away, locking the door behind him, leaving Ronald to glare through the small window in the door. The others were snickering amongst themselves. He turned and glared over them, folding his arms.

"Shut up."

"Aww, Ronnie," Grell laughed, bouncing over and pausing for a moment before throwing his arms around his shoulders. Ronald clenched his fists and sucked in a sharp breath but managed to keep still. After the attack that caused the scars on his arms, Ronald had been left broken and withdrawn and not wanting to be touched by anyone. There were plenty of times Grell had forgotten how jumpy he was and simply thrown his arms around him only to be thrown off, often into something, as Ronald's fears got the better of him. Ronald had been through months of therapy, which was still ongoing, to get to the point where if he knew Grell was coming he didn't really react. "See, he loves Ronnie but he's mean to him. He doesn't hate me."

Alan laughed softly and gave him a friendly smile. "Only you could have that logic, Grell."

"Yeah," Eric said, turning away and grabbing his jacket. "He's special like that."

"Of course I'm special, Eric."

"Don't be mean, love," Alan muttered.

"Miss Grell, please." Ronald struggled to push him off. "It's too hot to be so close."

"Are you two coming?" Alan called.

He and Eric were waiting at the door. Almost instantly, Grell dumped Ronald and ran over. They going up to the forest above the old Library. Once, a long time ago now, everything happened in the Library; reapers were born- or whatever happened when they were created, no one really remembered- trained, worked and lived there. Over the past few hundred years, as both the human and reaper population had boomed, it had become just bookcase after bookcase of cinematic records. Only high level reapers ever went in there though. Still it was a beautiful old building and looked stunning against the woody scenery, as long as you kept your back to the town that had sprung up to house the growing reaper population. Against the modern looking town it looked a little out of place. Eric and Alan were just going up there for a private picnic away from the general population while Grell was following along for the free food.

The London Branch was one of the biggest in the world. Their Dispatch and Collection Department had over a hundred divisions, each expected, even if it didn't always work out, to have a full force of two Junior Officer, two Senior Officers and a Supervisor, and they were still considered to be understaffed. Their offices took up the entire sixth floor of the office building, while smaller divisions could fit all the offices for all their departments in the same space. The sheer size of the place caused issues with reapers being transferred from smaller branches.

Not only was their work force huge, they had one of the two English training academies. While the students were generally housed in the dormitories, they did share the training block with the professionals, and many would pick up extra money on the side by working in the various cafes, restaurants and bars. They got a minimal allowance, so it was a good way to make extra money and network with the people they could be working with after graduation. There were older reapers who had other jobs, although almost none from Dispatch and Collection, or Internal Security. Outside of management, Dispatch and Collection was the most respected division. Officers from that department were known for being the toughest, most competent and highly trained reapers in the realm and as such it paid considerably more than any other non-management job.

Ronald didn't feel the need to get away as often as Eric and Alan and wasn't going with the others. He sat back on his chair, slipped off his waistcoat and pulled a chocolate bar, which he was amazed to find wasn't half melted, and book from a draw, sitting back and settling in to wait for William. He didn't mind. Sometimes William was strict on the rules and sometimes he let him in to sit with him while he was working. It depended on his mood. Today he was being strict about it, but Ronald was content to wait.

The door to William's office unlocked and Ronald glanced over. That was all very well and good, but William had kicked him out, he wasn't that easy. He wasn't going to just go running the second William called. Birthday or not, William was going to have to apologise before Ronald went back into the office.

After another fifteen minutes or so, William came out and set a pile of reports on Ronald's desk. Ronald made a point of ignoring him, not even glancing up from his book. It annoyed William to no end when Ronald ignored him and Ronald knew it. William moved around the desk and ran his fingers teasingly up the sides of Ronald's neck, slowly tipping his head back so he was staring up at his dark haired boss. Smiling and blinking innocently, Ronald pushed down the urge to tangle his fingers in his thick dark hair and instead closed his book and waited patiently, something William had taught him over the years of their relationship. When they'd first got together Ronald had no patience, he couldn't help himself, but he'd grown rather fond of making William wait.

"I'm going to take the reports up. Are you going to wait?"

"I waited this long, I'll wait a bit longer."

William picked up the pick of reports and strode out with Ronald watching him go. He smiled and returned to his book, snapping off a piece of chocolate. It never took William more than fifteen minutes to deliver the day's reports to the District Supervisor. The last one had been found guilty of getting demons to attack reapers just to get a promotion. He was executed for it although Ronald had heard it was his assistant who framed him. It didn't make a lot of sense but Ronald got left out the loop a lot.

When William returned Ronald put away his things and got up to follow him home but William locked the door, caught his tie and pulled him into his office. Ronald went with him without any fuss, melting into William's hold as they kissed and William manoeuvred him down onto the couch. This was how it was supposed to be. After all their troubles, and their relationship hadn't been the easiest in the world given the rumours and talk that followed them or the number of incidents that kept setting them back, Ronald was ecstatic that things were getting back to normal.

"Where's my birthday surprise, Ronald?" William said, sitting back slightly. "You don't usually wait so long."

He laughed and lifted his head slightly, reaching his hands up to tangle them into his hair. "Well, I wanted to shake things up a little, didn't I? It's no fun if you're expecting it, boss. You know what's coming anyway."

"Cute, little and blue."

"Don't look so smug about it, it's embarrassing."

"You'll be blushing and flustered then." He chuckled softly and nipped at Ronald's ear, making him gasp and shiver. "Good."

"You're so mean to me. You tease me all the time, and you like it when I'm embarrassed."

"Hmm, but you look so adorable when you're blushing and stuttering." Hot sparks bolted down Ronald's spine as William's gloved his slipped under his shirt, the cool leather absolutely divine against his heated skin. A clouded, hungry glint flashed in his eyes sending heat rushing to Ronald's cheeks as he turned away to keep William from noticing. "Like now. It makes me want to just eat you up."

Ronald sat up slightly, pushing William off carefully. "Ok, ok, let's not get too carried away. You'll ruin your appetite for later. And I'd hate to waste Grell's gift if you're not going to savour it. Besides..." He sat up fully and pressed a soft, teasing kiss to William's lips. "I've got something else planned until then."

The small teasing smile seemed stop all arguments and William let Ronald pull him up. They walked through the halls, chatting quietly as they went. Ronald had cancelled his therapy session for the day since he wanted to spend all the time he could with William. It was his birthday, after all. Not that William would tell him how old he was. He was over one hundred, he knew that, and he was the same age as Grell. Whenever he asked William just told him he was old enough and Ronald didn't dare ask Grell. It wasn't polite to ask a lady her age after all, and the fact that he wasn't actually female wouldn't make any difference. He'd considered asking Michelle. She was a year older than the pair and William's first girlfriend when he was back in the academy, not that William talked about those days much. She was nice enough, as long as you stayed on her good side, and she'd retired about a while ago- for the second time although this time it wasn't a case of retiring before she got convicted and executed. Ronald didn't mind her, but in the back of his mind a nagging voice always told him to be careful. She was dangerous.

Ronald led William up to the roof where he'd laid out a blanket and a few pillows by one of the walls. Well, if Grell, Eric and Alan were going for a picnic, Ronald had decided they deserved their own private one. William sighed and shook his head.

"This is rather extravagant, Ronald."

"I'm sick of people thinking our relationship is just physical or that you're staying with me out of sympathy or guilt or something. So, big romantic gesture right? And after what Grell said about whether we're a proper couple or not, and whether we're going to spend the rest of our lives together and how unsure you were, I just wanted to do something different and fun and... just me and you enjoying each other's company rather than each other's bodies." William frowned and opened his mouth and Ronald realised how that sounded so quickly corrected himself. "I don't mean that I think our relationship is based on sex. I just mean... it's nice to just spend time talking and being together without doing anything, you know? And we've got to save that for later, right?"

For a long, silent moment, Ronald worried he hadn't said it right and he'd offended William. That was until William took his hand and gently pulled him down to the pillows. There was a large umbrella held in place with some stones to shade them, a cooler box and a large wicker picnic basket. Ronald had got one of his secretary friends to set it up on her recent coffee break. William shifted one of the pillows and leant back against the wall as Ronald pulled a bottle of wine from the cooler and poured out a glass for each of them. Usually they shared red wine but it generally got spilt and he didn't want to stain anything.

William wrapped his arm around his shoulders and gently drew him back to rest with him. It was only five in the afternoon and they had plenty of time. He smiled and handed William the glass, sipping his own quietly. In recent months he'd cut down on the amount he drank. Therapy had mellowed a lot of aspects of his personality, although Eric said it was just him growing up at settling. Along with not drinking so heavily and so often, he didn't stay out late partying so late or so often and he didn't hide behind hollow smiles and laughter so often. He'd found himself becoming similar to how he was in the academy, and how he imagined he would have been if his life hadn't become so mess up, if one sadistic teacher hadn't picked him and set him on a path of self-destruction and burying his pain in fake friends, booze and sex.

The wicker hamper moved and Ronald frowned, reached out and pulled it over. It moved again and this time there was sound inside. William glanced down at him, one eyebrow quirked curiously, and Ronald pulled open the lid. Staring up at them innocently was a small, fluffy white kitten. It mewled and blinked up at them before scrambling out and climbing up onto Ronald's lap and stretching so it was lying across both of them.

"Grim," Ronald sighed.

"I wondered why I couldn't find him this morning."

"He's been in there all day?" He sighed and rubbed Grim's stomach gently. Grell had taken to tying a tie around his collar and calling him one of the team. There were dark marks on his face, around his eyes, over his nose and up to his eyes, like glasses and on his front paws, like a pair of gloves. "Poor fella. Did you want to give the boss a birthday surprise as well? Well, you are part of the family too, aren't you?"

"Family?"

Ronald frowned and glanced up at him, blushing heavily. "Yeah, I mean, we're kind of like a family, I guess."

"Perhaps. Although, it's more likely he was simply in there because it was shaded and quiet."

"Looks like he ate some of the food too. Sorry boss."

Ronald smiled as William squeezed his shoulders and tilted his head up slightly, locking his gaze with William's. "Don't be sorry. It's still a nice surprise. And it's good to spend time with you, just some quiet time together."

"You're so soppy sometimes. But I like that."

"My lady-"

"Julian." The demon fell silent at his mistress' glare. Michelle Galloway was not a reaper to annoy. 'Should have been a demon' was not a phrase associated with her for no reason. Given that she was in tears and in her hands was a very large axe, Julian stayed out of her reach and remained silent. "Don't you dare tell me this isn't going to work. I have gone through eight demons before you, one of them I actually cared for, and countless humans, and given years of my time to make this work! Don't tell me everything's going to go wrong now!"

After a few long, awkward moments of silence, Julian took a hesitant step forwards. "My lady, I was only going to inform you of potential blip in the plan. Dr Charles Dray has succeeded." Michelle frowned and glared at him, brushed her tears away and sniffling slightly. Somehow, it didn't make Julian any less wary. "He has succeeded, by fluke or by science in creating an artificial half breed."

"Let him," Michelle said. "It won't be long until the others get to him."

"Shelly!" Madeline came running in a flung her arms around Michelle. "What's wrong? What's the matter? Why are you crying?"

"Nothing, Maddie, don't worry."

"Who's that?" she said, pointing to the picture in Michelle's hands. "He's really handsome."

Michelle smiled and Madeline stroked her cheeks, brushing away her tears. "That's Daniel. He was really special."

"Did you love him?"

Michelle smiled at the child but shot Julian a glare. He turned away and strode out. The demon who had served her before Julian, Daniel Black, had been at her side for over a decade. While Daniel had mentored him, something Julian was very grateful for, he was always going to be in his shadow. Daniel was a powerful demon who'd fallen to a trio of enraged reapers. It served as a lesson to many demons and confrontations between reapers and demons had dropped after the brutal murder. Being with Michelle was a huge opportunity, staying her on her good side was a perfect way to keep from getting into trouble with reapers while learning about how to deal with them, and receiving the odd throw away soul.

Of course, getting on her bad side tended to result in decapitation or worse. Julian wasn't even completely sure what she'd agreed to keep Madeline for. When Alan had brought her to Michelle, explaining that she wasn't on the death list but was innocent and didn't deserve to suffer, which was most likely some kind of survivor's guilt after his life was saved, Michelle had said she would take her as a replacement, since she couldn't baby Alan anymore. He didn't buy that for a second though. Michelle never seemed to do anything without an ulterior motive. She was known to always be thinking years ahead. She'd probably found some use for her already.