Precious Reflections

A/N: This is the prequel/sequel to "A Precious Reason." It is therefore another collab with Deona Lindholm that we did as an RP.

Ronald

It was a cool evening at the pub. Ronald was relaxing with some co-workers and knocking back a few drinks.

Better not have too many, or the boss is gonna be all over my case in the mornin'. Psh, what am I saying? He'll be all over my ass anyway!

"...anyway, that was when Sutcliffe actually had th' nerve to get in his lap and kiss him, right after getting reamed over about that damned demon!" Eric was saying to both Ronald and Alan.

Alan pretended that he was listening intently to humor Eric, but he didn't really care about the story. He sat, still holding his first drink. He wasn't a big drinker.

"Yowch...and I'll bet that he got shoved to the floor."

"Yup, then a good whacking with those clippers of his and another lecture."

Ronald shook his head. "Man...I can't tell who Sempai's serious about, if anyone. If someone was flirting around like that but said they were serious about me..."

Alan caught only half of the conversation.

Ronald continued, "If it were me, I wouldn't put up with it, either."

Alan soon became lost in thought. The conversation didn't interest him.

Eric snorted and said, "Bollocks! Ya got the look of crushin' hard on someone while yer datin' those secretaries!"

Alan focused back in on the conversation. "Eric's right, Ron."

Ronald blinked at this, surprised. He hadn't expected these two, of all people, to have figured out that he had been, as he put it, "crushing hard" on someone...although the truth was closer to being "deeply in love".

"Ok, who told you?"

"Well, I told Eric. But I noticed it on my own."

"Oh? You're in love? I never would have thought that."

"Yeah...damn...am I really as bad as sempai...?"

"Well, it's not as noticeable, so it's not as bad."

"Hmm..." Eric frowned, looking at Ronald's expression. "Mind if I ask ya just who it is you've got the hots for?"

"No, I think I'd better keep that to myself for now."

"How come?"

"'Cause it's someone that right now I might not have a chance in Hell with, especially if I'm as bad as Grell."

"You aren't as bad as Grell," Alan insisted.

"Bad enough..." He then thought for a moment again and said, "Yeah...you're right, there is one thing that makes me not as bad..."

"What's that?"

"I know when it's time to start making changes."

Alan nodded.

Eric took another drink and asked, "Makin' changes, huh? So where are ya gonna start, and when?"

Alan waited for Ronald to answer before adding his opinion.

"Where to start? I know just where to start: No more dating the secretaries! I don't know if he-if it'll do any good, but I got to start somewhere. That and less screwups on the field, better work on the papers..."

"Huh? I get why the secretaries, but what's the rest got to do with it?"

Alan was beginning to figure out who Ronald was talking about.

Ronald looked at his watch and said, "Think I better get going...if I'm gonna drop the news on the secretaries early, better get some sleep. 'Sides...might surprise him..."

"Alan, you got any idea what he's on about?"

"No," Alan lied.

Ronald got up, paid his tab, and then left.

On his way home, he passed by one of the houses and saw a familiar silhouette in the lighted window.

Boss... he thought, I'm a poor excuse...but it's time for the next To-Die Reaper to do some growing up. I know I said I start in the morning...but it starts right now. See ya in the morning, William.

William

It was a bad night for William. He often had nights like this, but tonight was worse than usual. The depression that he felt was crippling.

/

Earlier in the day, when Grell had gotten the first lecture, he had quickly silenced the supervisor by sitting in his lap...and kissing him, hoping to excite his passion.

William had only pushed Grell away from him.

"Hmph...! How cold! That is truly no way to treat a lady. Now Bassy...ooo, now there's a-"

"Don't talk of that filth!"

"My my, such anger! But you must admit, We would have the most adorable children together, Bassy and I-" That did it.

William smacked Grell with his death scythe. "Get out, Sutcliff! I have no patience to deal with you today!"

Instead of tears or the usual declarations, Grell hmphed and said, "You never do. You never have time for anything except the damned paperwork. That and your job, it's all you care about, if anything at all."

"So? What's wrong with that?"

"That's why just about everyone hates you!"

"Do you think I care? I'd rather be a competent boss and hated than loved and incompetent." William didn't let on how much that comment stung.

"You obviously don't care at all. You know what? To hell with this...since you don't care, you can just go ahead and deserve to be alone the rest of your life." Grell left, slamming the door behind him.

William glared at Grell until the other left his office. Only then did he let his face fall. He hadn't been feeling well in the past few weeks. He had been becoming more and more depressed, and he could feel it getting worse now.

Now, in the street, Ronald stood for a moment before continuing on his way, but Grell's words echoed. You can just go ahead and deserve to be alone the rest of your life.

William stood up from the chair he had been reading in and decided to go to bed. Maybe he would feel better in the morning. He knew he was lying to himself, but he needed to cling onto that last bit of hope.

Day of Change

The next morning, Ronald was actually up early, thanks to setting his clock a little earlier. He knew his body would protest it, but it was something he had to do.

After all, I made my choice, time to stick to it. I've got a damn good reason...no...it's more than a good reason...man, even damn good doesn't fit it...what's a good way to put it...

He thought on this as he fixed some quick breakfast. Even when he left the building and went on his way, he was having a little trouble putting just the right word on it.

It wasn't until he was halfway to the Dispatch when he saw a couple walking down the street, talking.

"...and what if it's a boy?"

"How about Alan Matthew?"

That made the blonde listen closely.

"Hmm...you mean, after that young man working at the Dispatch?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Splendid chap, and quite the precious one to..."

Ronald blinked, taken aback in a mixture of revelation and shock.

Precious, he thought, precious...that's it. That's exactly it.

William went into work that morning, feeling no better than the night before. In fact, he felt worse. He knew he needed to do paperwork. That would be the only thing that would prevent him from completely losing it. It would distract him from the dark thoughts that ran rampant throughout his mind.

When the two-tone haired blonde arrived, his first location was not the clock-in station, but directly for the secretary's area, a determined look in his eyes. He was so focused on what he was doing that he failed to notice that he had someone tailing him.

Angelina was the first one there. "Ooo, Knoxie! You rarely come by this early."

"Yeah, but I got good cause for it this time, babes."

"Oh? What's up? Planning on going steady with one of us?" she grinned.

He shook his head. "Nope...actually, the rest will be here soon after I'm clocked in and at work, so I need ya to spread the word to the other birds for me."

She blinked. "What's going on, Ronnie? I don't like the way you're talking."

"Then you won't like this either...I'm canceling the dates."

"As in tomorrow's date?"

"Not just tomorrow's. All of 'em. I'm done with the dating scene."

The brunette was silent for a moment, then burst out laughing. "That's a good one! I thought you were serious there!"

"Do I look like I'm laughing?"

Her laughter calmed at once, then she peered at him again. "You are serious."

"Serious as a demon attack."

"Mind if I ask why? They'll want to know that!"

He thought for a quick moment. Whether anything happens with it or not, I better not be telling all to folks about it. I'm not sempai, I'm me, a new me.

"Let's just say that I have a precious reason and leave it at that."

"That's all?"

"That's all. Now, do me this last favor and spread the word, okay?"

She nodded, gave a sniff and hurried off.

Ronald walked out of the area and clocked in. But, before he could go to his station, he was surprised to feel someone pulling him by the arm, but not as surprised to see the one doing it.

Alan pulled Ronald away. "I think I know what's going on," he started.

"Wh-Alan?! What's going on, and what do you mean?"

"I just saw what happened with the secretary. You said you were in love with someone. I think I know who you are in love with."

"I said that I'm quitting the dating scene and that I have a precious reason-" he stopped and then asked, "You were tailing me?"

"No. I just happened to be walking by. And you said last night that you are in love with someone."

"Yeah...I did. and I meant every bit of what I said last night, too." He peered right into Alan's eyes and said, "Bet you think I have about as much of a chance as Grell...no chance in Hell."

"So it's William, then."

"Yeah." He let out a breath.

"So, now you know who it is...and why I decided to start changing. Bet you think I'm silly now, huh?"

Alan shook his head. "I think you're a good match."

That answer surprised him, and it showed in his eyes.

"Don't be so surprised."

"I-I...I just...never mind. Say, Alan...you seem to know him pretty well. Anything I should know about that would help?"

"He seems to be depressed lately."

His eyes widened at that. "It wasn't my imagination...yesterday, I went by his office, and even though he looked fine on the outside, there was something wrong...his eyes didn't seem to match up. Kinda like something or someone ripped him up."

Alan nodded. He had noticed it, too.

"I've noticed how a lot of the others get real nasty about him...don't you tattle, but some of the worst ones, like one that called him a 'Demon in Reaper's body' the other day...let's just say I fed them some knuckle sandwiches."

"I know he doesn't help his cause, but they shouldn't be so mean to him..."

"No kidding! Although we don't exactly help things either, do we? I mean, I'm guilty a time or two when I've gotten overtime or he's cracked down a little too hard..."

"I think we all are guilty of it occasionally." It was true. They all seemed to think that William was this emotionless machine that wasn't affected by anything.

"I don't know about the others, and I sure can't speak for 'em, but I can speak for one...and that one's gonna try to change there, too. Cause...the way we've been doing that...it's just not right."

Alan nodded. "I know. I don't think anyone realizes that he has feelings."

"Wrong," he replied with conviction, "Two here do."

"Perhaps."

"Yeah, and I know who they are."

"I'm going to assume one of them is you."

"And the other one is you."

"Oh? I suppose."

Ronald smiled, and it wasn't a mischievous smirk, or one of the flirty types, but an honest smile. "Let's work together on this one, for William's sake."

"Of course," Alan nodded, returning the smile.

The blonde took the smaller man's hand in a friendly squeeze, then said, "I better get to my workstation if I'm going to be making a proper impression. Last thing I need is to start late!"

"Yes, let's go."

The two men then left for their work.

Later, some of the workers were chatting as they went by William's office.

"...would you believe it? Overtime again! Third time this week, and just for being a little late! Nevermind that the time-clock area was crowded, oh no..."

"Yeah, I know...bastard monster doesn't care about anything but work."

"Far as I'm concerned he can take this stupid overtime and shove-"

"Watch it now, or you'll have more of it."

"Guess so...but seriously...hope he drowns in the paperwork or something...evil little bastard..."

William could hear every word they said. It hurt. A lot.

"Evil is right. No wonder everyone in the damn place hates his guts, even if nobody says it to his face. Nobody'd miss..."

The voices faded.

William felt tears spring to his eyes. They were right.

Grell's accusation from before echoed again. You never have time for anything except the damned paperwork. That and your job, it's all you care about, if anything at all. That's why just about everyone hates you! To hell with this...since you don't care, you can just go ahead and deserve to be alone the rest of your life.

A sob escaped from William.

Another time, someone had said, That monster, Spears...he don't deserve anything good, that's for sure...

All the bad things he had said and had been said to him we're coming back to him now. He knew he treated everyone like crap. He couldn't help it.

Outside, Eric was raging over an overtime notice he had received. "Why that no good, better-than-thou, stick-up-the-arse! Why am I gettin' overtime over Sutcliffe's stunts?! Stupid asshole's punishin' the wrong one!"

"Eric, don't say things like that," Alan said, walking up to Eric.

"Why not? That just wrecks the date we had planned."

"Don't insult William. He's just trying to be an efficient boss."

Eric let out an angry breath. "Why am I gettin' the punishment for Grell's stunts, eh?"

"Because I'm sure you had something to do with it or you bad mouthed William."

"Hey now, I had nothing to do with what he pulled yesterday, I swear on William's Death Scythe!"

"Are you sure?"

"Sure as it gets."

"Fine. But I'm sure he did it for a good reason."

Before anything else could be said, Ronald was seen walking down the path and towards Spears' office, holding some papers. When he opened the door, the younger blonde said, "You in, sir? I've got the paperwork already done and—B-boss!"

Alan quickly hurried over to William's office. The brunet saw William wiping away tears from his eyes. He knew something was seriously wrong.

If Ronald saw Alan, he didn't acknowledge it. The blonde quickly but carefully closed and locked the door, making his intentions extremely clear.

Alan made sure that no one went to William's office.

At one point, Grell came up the walkway. "Oh my, time to go see what William's up to...more of his cold attitude from yesterday, probably-"

"Oh no you don't."

Grell raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? And why would that be?"

"Because you probably have work you should be doing."

"Oh, that. Ronnie should be doing that, since I, ahem, assigned it to him-"

"You can't make Ronald do your work for you! Go do it yourself."

"Isn't he my junior? That's part of his job. Now, out of my way. Honestly...I should have dropped that little shield between William and the rest of the workplace sooner than I did."

Alan glared at Grell. "Just because he is your junior does not mean that you can just dump all your work on him! And you shouldn't be like that towards William! You don't know how up-" Alan cut himself off. He couldn't let Grell know what was going on.

"Oh, I know how uptight William is...that's why yesterday I had enough of things and told him the truth of how everyone here feels about him."

"That's not what I was going to say! But that's beside the point. You don't need to be here. Go and do your work like you're supposed to!"

"Psh...fine! I can see you're not going to budge on this..." The redhead trounced off.

Alan huffed. Grell could be so nasty sometimes.

Eric came by with paperwork in his hands. He still looked annoyed, but he was headed for William's office.

"Don't go in there, Eric," Alan said, standing in front of the door.

That surprised the older man. "What's going on? Don't tell me Sutcliffe's pulling some shit again-"

"No, no. It's nothing like that. William is in a meeting," Alan lied.

"Oh, I gotcha. Well, I got some papers for him, so he won't mind if I give these to bim real quick."

"Yes he will. It's a very important meeting."

Eric looked torn for a moment, then asked, "Can you, then...?"

"You can do it once the meeting is over."

"Alright, then." Eric leaned in and claimed Alan's lips in a tender rush.

Alan pushed him away. "Not in public..."

"Just appreciatin' this...and you."

"Just go, Eric."

"I'm going, I'm going."

It was at least an hour, closer to two before the door opened again, allowing both Ronald and William to exit. a few minutes after that, Eric came by Alan's table with a grin.

"By jove, someone's watchin' over us after all...you're not gonna believe this, love."

Alan looked up at Eric. "What happened?"

"You know that overtime that got issued? Recinded! And guess who got it instead?"

"Who?" Alan asked.

Within seconds, Grell's voice could be heard, shouting. "WHAAAATT?! TWO Hours Overtime and the rest of Ronnie's work for the day? William, my darling, why such treatment...?"

"Well, that answers my question," Alan chuckled at Grell's dramatics.

"Sure does. I dunno what happened, but I sure ain't questioning it. You're gonna love the restaurant I picked out...well I better get goin', thought I'd better let ya know."

Alan nodded. "I can't wait. I'll see you later."

Once Eric was out of sight, the row could be heard between Ronald and Grell. The latter had actually tried to snoop on what had happened in William's room, only to be stopped on the threat of having his Scythe taken away again. The crimson reaper didn't even bother to look at Alan as he trounced off, hands full of paperwork.

Alan tried to hide his laughter as the fiery reaper walked past him.

Once Grell had gone past, though, Alan burst into laughter. He couldn't help it. Grell could be such a drama queen, and Alan found it hysterical. He stopped after a few minutes and went to find Ronald, wondering if he'd tell him what happened in William's office. Alan was quite curious.

However, in the hallway, a pair of ominous, familiar voices could be heard as a particular pair of men walked by. One of them gave Alan a very nasty look, but said nothing.

Alan glared right back at them, but walked past, not interested in starting anything with them.

Luckily, though, their target was not Alan. Unluckily, it was someone else, although who it was wasn't made clear until word got out about William having been in a fist fight with Thompson and Lang...

Alan felt bad that he had just walked away and had not seen what the two idiots were up to. But there was nothing he could do, and William had come out of the fight okay, so he didn't have to feel all that guilty.

There had been a lot of noise at the break room, this time by the secretaries. That, as well as the two thugs, were all about Ronald's actions earlier that morning. At first it seemed like the break room was cleared and the blonde could be approached, but...

Alan saw William come up to Ronald, and he decided to leave them alone. He didn't want to interrupt them. He could always ask Ronald later, though he now had an idea of what had happened, seeing the two kiss like that. He walked away, leaving William and Ronald alone.

How in the Realms did I get blessed with you...? Ronald thought this that night as he peered deeply into a pair of Reaper green eyes, fingers intertwined.

William was thinking the same thing. He couldn't understand how anyone could love him, but yet, here Ronald was. He felt so happy, happier than he'd felt in a long time.

Even after clock-out, the blonde had not left his side. In fact... "William..." Ronald asked quietly, "If this is too forward of me, sorry in advance, but...would you like to come over to my place?"

William looked at Ronald, confused. Was he really asking William to come over? He found his mouth speaking before he thought about it. "Yes."

The blonde had grinned and lead the way, but not before leaving a message in Alan's cubbie. We'll talk tomorrow. Let's keep working together. Ronald.

William followed after Ronald.

Now, the blonde murmured softly as they cuddled by the fire, "Who'd ever think that today would happen...?"

"I know I wouldn't..." William answered softly.

"Definitely not around this time last night. But...I do know I'm looking at something very precious in front of me."

"I'm hardly precious. If anything, you're the precious one."

He chuckled. "Nah. You really are, Will..I mean, William. Without you, I wouldn't love so strongly...or have a good reason to change."

"You can call me 'Will.' You are the only one I don't mind calling me that."

There was a soft, but bright smile on his face at that. Ronald used his free hand to caress William's cheek as he said, "I mean it, Will...what I said just now."

William blushed. "I..." He didn't know what to say, so instead, he leaned in and kissed Ronald.

The two-tone haired Reaper kissed him back, hand now gently stroking his hair, letting thoughts be forgotten and letting themselves just be.

William pulled Ronald closer to him.

The younger man deepened the kiss as he ran a hand slowly down the side of William's neck.

William pulled back after a few minutes to catch his breath. "I love you so much."

Ronald smirked and replied softly, "That's my line...my precious reason."

William smiled. "I love you. I love you. I love you."

Ronald leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, "I love you too...more than you know," on the nose, "I'm never letting you be alone again."

"Good. I don't think I could deal with being alone again."

"You won't be, ever. I love you too much for that...you deserve to be loved and to be happy."

William looked away. He didn't think he deserved any of that, but he said nothing.

Ronald saw the movement and held the man as close as possible. "Without you, my life would be...empty. I know that for a fact now. You really are my precious reason."

"You are my precious reason. Without you, I would not be here today. I would be dead, but you gave me a precious reason to live."

Ronald blushed slightly at that, not knowing quite to say. He smiled softly after a moment, and kissed William, pouring his love into it.

William kissed back, putting just as much love.

Just how did I get so lucky...? Thank God for the wake-up call last night, he thought.

William broke away from this kiss. "Thank you for saving me, my precious reason..."

"Think we saved each other, my precious reason..."