William glared at himself in the mirror with disdain, feeling more foolish by the second. He closed his eyes, carefully counting down the minutes when there would be a loud knock at the door and a headache would commence.
Why had he made that bet to begin with? Will frowned, combing back a piece of unruly hair that had dared to stray into his eyes. Thinking back on it, the question should have been, why did he…no how could he lose that bet?
"William~" The singsong voice was all too familiar right now. He felt a migraine approaching via Grell Sutcliffe.
"What are you doing in my office?" it was a question that he had asked many times before. A question to which the answer would vary. Still, no matter what Grell said in response, it was always foolish. Will was beginning to wonder why on earth he even asked that question any more. Out of habit, he told himself.
"Do I need a reason to visit my friend on such a lovely spring morning?" Grell skipped towards the desk, resting his head in his hands upon his superior's paperwork . Will emitted a sigh of disapproval which Grell interrupted.
"Really, William. Am I that much of a burden to you?" golden eyes flicked upwards to meet with green ones. A smile passed Grell's lips.
"For you information, Mr. Sutcliff,"
"Miss."
"What?"
"That would be Miss Sutcliffe to you." Grell said, resting a hand on his hip in the most feminine way possible. Will rolled his eyes.
"Mr. Sutcliff," he said again, adding extra emphasis on the Mr. "for your information, yes, you do need a reason to see me this morning. I am very busy with work…and to answer your other question, yes, you are an incredible burden. I would not be drowning in papers were it not for you." he stated coldly. Grell pouted.
"William! How can you be so mean? After all, I came all the way from across the building to ask you something…" the tone of the man's voice was genuinely hurt, which almost made Will feel sorry for him. Almost.
"Well…what is it?" he asked.
"You and me, dinner at your house, tonight." Will furrowed an eyebrow, cleared his throat, and responded.
"No. I'm far too busy."
"What could you possible be so busy with that you can't spare an hour of your time to see a friend?" the patience he had for Grell was wearing thin.
"I'm busy with paperwork."
"What kind of paperwork?" Grell smiled, seating himself on the edge of the desk. He flipped through the large stack of papers next to him, awaiting a response.
"The kind that needs to get done or I lose my job, Sutcliffe." Grell threw his hands in the air, and strutted away from the desk.
"Work, work, work! That's all you ever do, Will. Don't you get bored of being so…boring?"
"Perhaps I would not have so much work to do if you stayed out of trouble, Grell." Will replied through clenched teeth. "I'm still filling out forms on the Jack the Ripper case, which, need I remind you, you caused. Single handedly."
"Madame Red did help, you know."
"Regardless, she is now dead, meaning all responsibility in the case falls upon your shoulders, but, as it would appear you are incapable of filling out the paperwork for the case, because it falls under my department, I got stuck with it." the dark haired man concluded, shooting Grell a venomous glance before he said in a tone that left little room for argument, "Now, you will leave my office, and return to your own workstation. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Sutcliff."
Though the words sounded finalised, Will knew that Grell could easily slip into any available gaps he had made in the conversation, which he did immediately after his superior had finished talking.
"What about a bet, Will?"
"What in heavens are you talking about?"
"How about we split your paperwork in half, and if you finish first, then I promise not to 'inconvenience' you for a week," Will's ears perked up at the sound of those words.
"I'm listening."
"…and if I win…you agree to have me over to dinner at your house tomorrow night." Will thought for no more than a moment.
"Fine." He quickly divided his workload in half, carefully counting to be sure that they had the same amount of papers. "Here, now return to your office, and do not bother me again until you are finished…and you are not allowed to ask anyone else for help, got it?" They shook hands, Will immediately wiping his off on the side of his pants as though touching Grell was like touching sulphuric acid.
"Yes, yes, of course!" Grell squealed, bounding towards the door.
"There's no way he'll finish in time."
. . .
"William~" for a second time that day, or rather, evening, the horrible noise invaded his office.
"What is it, Mr. Sutcliffe?" he asked without looking up from his papers, which were running low. A good sign.
Not good enough, though.
"Guess who owes me a date?"
"I don't know…who?" he muttered, still not glancing up until he heard Grell say,
"You, silly!"
"Grell, I believe I already told you that I would do no such thing."
"Uh, uh, uh," the other reaper shook a finger at him. "Did you forget our bet?" Golden eyes widened further, No…it was impossible! How could Grell have finished BEFORE him?
"There's no way that you are done." As though he'd expected those words, Grell plopped a stack of papers down upon the desk on top of the other man's work. Will immediately snatched them up, hyper analysing them for any mistakes, errors, misspellings…anything! They were flawless. He groaned, and buried his head in his hands. Will was seriously beginning to question his sanity when it came to Grell.
"So does seven thirty sound alright tomorrow?" Grell asked. The other man nodded. Though it was perhaps the farthest thing from what he wanted to do, William T. Spears was a man of his word.
. . .
And that was where he found himself, cashing in on his part of the bet by having Grell over for dinner. He steadied himself on the sink, lifting his head to look in the mirror. A glance of sheer annoyance stared back at him.
"Just two hours. You can handle that." he told himself, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose just as that ominous knock on the door finally arrived.
Will braced himself for the worst as he stood at the doorway of his small home in the centre of London. The word "home" was questionable. It was more of a temporary dwelling until the recent string of murders that had been appearing in the streets had ended. After all, what better place to investigate than in the middle of the crime scene…it made his job all the more easier. They'd been short handed at work, meaning that the shinigami who would normally file papers were also collecting souls in the city.
With caution, he twisted the handle, just waiting for Grell to leap into his arms wearing a dress, or something of that sort. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes. Sure enough it was Grell, but he was simply dressed in the same fashioned clothes he wore to work. There was the distinct smell of currant and jasmine emanating from him though…Will would describe it as almost a seductive scent if he didn't know any better.
"Hello, Mr. Sutcliffe." he mustered a polite tone as a wave of relief swept through him that, at least thus far, Grell had not done anything stupid.
"I had quite the time trying to find your house, so I'm not counting the minutes before I arrived as part of our date." Will's eye twitched at the sound of the word 'date'.
"This is not a date, it is dinner."
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say." Grell smiled, tossing his coat into his 'friend's' arms. Will hung it up on the coat hanger before walking to the kitchen.
Although Will would never admit it, even to himself, he was not the best chef. No, his specialties were in far less culinary fields. He'd managed to put together a decent enough meal for the two of them, though.
"I've made us minestrone soup with rye bread…is that alright?" He asked, looking towards Grell who was already making himself quite comfortable on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
"What? No meat, William? Or would you rather save that for the bedroom?" he threw his head back in laughter as a steady blush crept to the darker haired man's cheeks.
"Mr. Sutcliffe…I have no clue what you think you are talking about but I have no intentions of doing any such activity."
"Ah, relax, William…I was only joking. But…" Grell withdrew a small stack of papers from behind his back. "I'll need you to sign these."
Will's eyebrows furrowed as he took the stack of papers, very confused at what they were for, and slightly annoyed that Grell seemed to have time to get foolish things done but not his own work.
"What are they?" he asked, skimming through a few of them.
"Just sign the bottom of the last page. It just says that you agree to spend a full two hours with me, and other terms of our date."
"Dinner" Will growled.
"Date." Grell insisted, waving a hand in the air nonchalantly. "No need to read through silly details, just sign it please."
Determined to get the time he was obligated to spend with the other man over with, Will signed at the bottom of the page, quickly handing the papers over to Grell who took them with a small, ominous, squeal.
"Dinner is ready, Mr. Sutcliffe." he said sternly.
"Oh, Will, please, call me by my first name~" Grell said with a smile.
"Very well then…Grell, dinner is almost ready."
. . .
Will's eyes darted up to the clock standing in the far corner of the parlour. Twenty-five minutes. It had only been twenty-five minutes. A sigh fell from his lips as he realised that he was stuck there with his co-worker for another hour and thirty-five minutes. They had hardly touched the food, Will because he knew better than to eat his own cooking, and Grell was too busy talking to notice that food was even in front of him.
"…so anyway, enough about me, how are you, William?" Will faded in and out of the other man's voice until he heard his name.
"Fine." he stated. Grell gave him a strange look to show that he was unsatisfied with the reply.
"Anything new?" he asked.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite." Silence settled over the two briefly as Will turned his attention to the clock once more. A half hour down, an hour and a half to go.
"You're boring, you know that?" the comment startled him, although it was one to be expected, Will still found it rude to simply say things without thinking.
"Why do you say that?" he found himself snapping. Grell rolled his eyes.
"Because all you do is work, work, work! I can't think of anything more boring!"
"Well if I'm so boring, why are you here?" a frown crossed Will's features. Grell thought a moment, then answered,
"You are not allowed to spend a Friday night all alone, and before you even try to tell me that you had plans, I know that you don't."
"How did you-"
"Your planner. I snuck a peek at it while you were out last week." Grell winked. Will almost spit out the water he'd been sipping on.
"Grell! That is my personal property! You have no right to be going through my things."
Grell sighed, "I don't know what you mean about 'personal'…there weren't any juicy details, or secret rendezvous with anyone or anything. Like I said before, just work, work, work!" he threw his hands up in the air at the end of his speech.
"Well, perhaps if you did not cause so much trouble, I may actually have some free time!" Will snapped back. Grell cringed, not prepared for such a harsh response. "Honestly, Grell. Out of all the Death Gods in existence, you are the only one I know of who is completely incapable of getting the job done on time because you always choose to partake in frivolous distractions as opposed to actually working. Thus, for some god unknown reason, I clean up after you." he stood, sliding his chair away from the table. Grell stayed sitting, looking at his superior with eyes welling with tears. A strange feeling loomed over William then…guilt?
"Er…Don't cry." He said in a tone that was far from comforting, and only made those tears begin to fall down Grell's face.
"b-but," he stuttered, sniffing helplessly. Will crossed over to his side of the table, standing next to the troublemaker. He could not say that he understood Grell, or his feminine mannerisms, but even he could see that he'd come off as a bit harsh…even though that had been his intention. "Wi-Will…do you mean th-that?" Will took a deep breath. Of course he had meant it, but he had a feeling that answering the question truthfully would only end in more tears.
"No. I apologise, Grell. I was just speaking without thinking." he said in a bit of a softer voice. Instantly Grell's tears dried up, and his arms were wrapped around Will's shoulders. The dark haired man felt his face grow hot, but he prayed that his cheeks weren't too red.
"Oh William! I knew you'd never say something so mean about me for real~" he squealed, unhanding his superior who grumbled in protest.
"Yes, well…are you done eating?"
"Hmm…?" Grell asked, not noticing that food had even been placed in front of him. "Oh no! Here I was, so bust talking that I didn't even eat!"
"Well, do not worry about it." Will said quietly, and added in even less of an audible tone, "I'm not much of a cook anyway."
"Nonsense! I'm sure you're a great cook!" Grell said happily.
"No, really, Grell." Will stuttered nervously, having already tasted his creation, and finding it not the least bit to his liking. "What would you like to do now?"
"Oh~," Grell smiled a very unnerving smile. "You're asking me?" Instantly William regretted saying anything.
"It must be work appropriate, Mr. Sutcliffe." he added and a look of disappointment fell over the redhead's features.
"Fine…and here I was going to offer you a massage since you're always so…" Will hardly noticed Grell moving until he felt two hands on his shoulders, rubbing down his back. "Tense." Grell finished, whispering dangerously close to his ear.
"That is enough, Mr. Sutcliffe."
"Aw…what happened to calling me Grell like I asked you to?" Grell pouted, removing his hands from the other shinigami's shoulders.
"Alright then Grell, what would you like to do that is work appropriate?" Will muttered through clenched teeth.
"What does that mean?" Grell asked, batting his eyelashes.
"It means that if it's something you ," he thought a moment, considering that nothing would be "inappropriate" in Grell's standards. "if it's an activity that I would not find appropriate at work, it is off limits here as well." he stated matter-of-factly. Grell stared at him for a moment, then said,
"The park!"
"Huh?"
"Let's go to the park!" the look on the redhead's face could be described as sheer joy, while the look on Will's was detest.
"Grell, really now…by the time we got to the park our time would have run out. Besides, I am here investigating murders. When there are madmen on the loose the last place I want to be is out there with them. Be logical." the look of happiness faded.
"Oh…" Grell muttered, eyes casting to the ground. For a moment it looked as though he would cry again. "Well…there's no rules saying that we have to go our separate ways after two hours, you know…Will?" William's eyes darted to the clock. It'd been exactly an hour since he'd signed the ridicules papers that Grell had drawn up for him. Hardly enough time to make it to the park. He looked from the face of the clock to the window, and his stomach dropped.
Before Grell could blink, Will had flung open the front door where sheets of rain were falling from the sky. His field of vision would not have been more than a metre in this weather, and he had a feeling that it was only going to get worse.
"Wow…look at all that rain." Grell said, wandering to his superior's side. William groaned, and ran a hand through his hair.
Why me…of all people…why me? And why with him… he thought to himself. Of all the situations to be trapped in, this was quite possibly the worst. Yes, in fact, aside from being trapped with that damned demon of a butler, to William T. Spears, this was the absolute worst situation in the world.
"William?" Grell asked with a pout. He knew the question that was coming next. Oh death gods he knew what Sutcliffe was going to ask.
"Yes…?" Will responded coldly. Grell fidgeted a moment, doing some sort of schoolgirl-ish dance.
"Um…is there any chance that well…maybe I could spend the night tonight?" As much as Will wanted to respond "I'd rather have my fingernails ripped off one by one than spend one night with the likes of you" he couldn't bring himself to do so. Letting Grell walk home in weather like this…he shuttered to think of the consequences. The best possible scenario is that Grell would catch a cold and be unable to work for a week and the worst…Will shook his head, not wanting to think of all the trouble Grell could get into. So, after a few moments of silence, he finally spoke,
"Considering the weather…I suppose I could allow you to spend the night here…" Grell's eyes lit up and he let out a loud cry of,
"Really? Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the next thing Will knew his underling had his arms flung around his shoulders in a tight embrace.
"One night." he muttered. "And you're sleeping on the couch."