William sighed in exasperation as he looked at the date on the calendar beside his bed. August 15th his birthday. And usually the worst day of the year for him thanks to a certain few co-workers of his who seemed to find it amusing to play pranks on him on this day of the year. He never knew how they had managed to sneak into his apartment, but they did. Always.

His heart skipped a beat as he sat up in bed, worried that there might be something waiting for him on the floor for when he finally summoned the courage to put his foot down. He remembered last year when he had managed to make it safely to his slippers before finding his toes squishing against something inside them when he put them on. Turned out it had been some spare entrails that Grell had 'saved' from one of his victims after the incident with that 'Madam Red' woman, and his crimson haired co-worker decided it would be 'fun' to teach William a lesson for giving him all that extra paperwork and overtime.

He was happy yet slightly suspicious that he was able to make it not only to his slippers without anything untoward occurring, but even managed to get back to his bedside table and place his glasses upon his face. He turned around and surveyed the room closely, inspecting every corner for something that might have looked out of place. Amazingly, there was nothing.

A shiver ran down his spine as he approached the door of his en-suite bathroom and began to reach for the door handle. He had figured by now that since the bedroom was safe, the horror could only lie behind the thin piece of wood between him and the room beyond. Again, his mind was cast back to the year before when he had walked into a room of utter redness which he soon found to be blood smeared across not only the walls and floor, but also the ceiling. He thought that had been the worst of it until he saw inside the shower... He felt himself turn pale at the memory of it.

Amazingly, he was able to go in and carry out his usual morning routine without even the slightest thing happening to him. Again, not for the first time this morning he felt both happy yet highly suspicious at the lack of anything odd. He finished getting dressed and styling his hair before making sure he had everything ready and made his way to the front door. iThis must be it/i he thought. iThis must be where the trick lies.../i He opened the door expecting something to fall on his face or for someone to reach out and grab his ankle like they normally did, but again, nothing happened.

In fact, nothing happened at all throughout the whole day. He managed to get to his office without any problems, he managed to do his paperwork without any interruptions and he even managed to finish early enough to go home on time. All throughout the day, people talked to him normally, just like any other day. There was no mention of his birthday and not even one 'congratulations' or 'having a good day?' from anyone. Even Grell didn't come near him all day, despite the fact that he was usually bursting into William's office at any given moment. In fact, if he didn't know better, William would have sworn that everyone had forgotten his birthday completely altogether. He even felt a little bit sad about it as he made his way back home in the rain which, typically, had started just as he left.

He shivered as a rain drop fell down the back of his neck and looked up at the dark sky willing it to stop at least for a few minutes. He sighed in exasperation as he remembered how he had specifically placed his umbrella by the door to take it with him and forgotten it in his anticipation of something awful happening. By the time he managed to finally get home and get his key into the door, he was soaked through completely and wanted nothing more than to go in and have a nice warm bath-

"SURPRISE!"

The loud unexpected shout was very much a surprise indeed, and William found himself jumping back in shock and slipping on the wet ground before falling into an overly large puddle, soaking himself even further. As he wiped his glasses clean, he looked inside to see that his apartment has been decked out in bright colours with confetti and balloons everywhere. He looked up and saw a hand extended towards him but the bright light made it impossible to see whose hand it was, providing only a silhouette. From the height and the outline however, he managed to guess it was Grell. That or someone wearing a very long wig.

Not wanting to humiliate himself further, he stood by himself using his scythe for support. "What on earth is going on here?" he asked stoically, adjusting his glasses. Now that he had stood up, he was surprised to see that it iwas/i in fact a person in a very long wig, but rather than being red as he had expected, it was a silvery gray colour. Ronald's overexcited face poked out from beneath the wig's over-long bangs as he grabbed William and pulled him inside. No longer had William found himself in his apartment surrounded by colours and noise than someone from behind shoved a thick and itchy wig on his own head. As he struggled to take it off against the force of someone's hands pushing it down, he looked around and noticed that ieveryone/i was wearing some form of wig. They also seemed to be dressed up in each others' clothes, and as he managed to turn around and fight off his 'attacker', he was shocked to see Grell dressed as himself.

"Sutcliff... What the HELL do you think you're doing dressed up as me?! And why on earth is everyone else dressed as each other as well?" He asked angrily, finally realising that the wig he was wearing was long and red like a certain reaper's hair.

"That's 'Mr. Spears' to you, iSutcliff/i" Grell laughed mischievously as he ran to hide behind Ronald before William could hit him. William looked around yet again to see who was else involved in this preposterous shenanigan. It was as he expected - Grell, Ronald, Eric, Alan and...

"Wait a minute... Where's Undertaker? I would have expected him to be here too..." said William hesitantly.

"Oh don't worry, he is" Ronald said, flipping his fake hair. "He's in the kitchen finishing the cake."

"...Cake?" enquired William finally beginning to relax a little. Could it be they had planned an actual party for him for once, rather than just torturing him in his birthday? He wasn't sure whether to be happy or worried and made sure he kept a neutral expression just in case it was yet another elaborate prank by the others. Just as he was about to enquire further, he felt a strange weight on his shoulders and realised that Grell had draped his coat over William's shoulders.

"If you want to be a part of this celebration then you have to dress up too!" He said trying to force William to put the coat on properly.

"I...I will do no such thing!" William said, pulling the coat off and tossing it to the ground. He was about to finally pull the wig off when he was suddenly tackled to the ground by Eric who was rather poorly dressed as the much smaller Alan.

"Now, now, don't be such a party pooper!" Eric said, pinning William to the floor while the others gathered around him.

"Yeah Will, we went to a lot of trouble to prepare this ya know! It took weeks of planning!" Ronald said kneeling down next to William. "Have you any idea how hard it was to try and act all casual and pretend we'd forgotten about your birthday?"

"Yeah, and trying to resist pranking you was just so hard!" Grell chimed in looking down on William.

"If it's any help, I tried to prevent all this..." Alan added trying to pull Eric off William. "I told them you wouldn't like it or you'd get really mad, but they just did it anyway!"

William said nothing and just looked up at the four wide-eyed faces above him. Everyone went silent wondering if he was plotting to stab them all there and then, but then he did something unexpected. He laughed. It was a forced, exaggerated laugh, but it was a laugh nonetheless, bursting forth from William's lips and causing everyone to look at each other in shock. Even Undertaker came through from the kitchen, dressed as Ronald, his hair pinned up under the wig, to see this exclusive sight of William laughing. It went on for what seemed like forever before William sat up from underneath Eric's now limp arms and looked around at everybody.

"Sure, I'll dress up, why not? Then you can all take pictures of me and humiliate me in front of everyone!" he said standing up. "I know this is just another one of your horrible jokes, so just give it up now. If you think I'm going to be stupid enough to do something like this then you obviously don't know me do you?" He adjusted his glasses once more and made his way towards the front door. "I'm going to give you all ten seconds to leave before I dismember you all one by one."

"B...But Will-" Grell started, tears welling in his eyes.

"Silence, I don't want to hear it." William said. "And for the last time, it's WILLIAM, you should know that by now."

"It's not a prank!" Ronald shouted. "I swear! We just genuinely wanted to give you a nice birthday party for being such a good boss, even if you are an annoying bastard!"

"Calling him that isn't really going to help is it?" Alan said to Ronald before stepping closer to William. "Seriously though, as much as I wanted to prevent this, it's just a normal party, I swear!"

"How do I know you're not just in on it?" William said sceptically. "Knowing you lot, there's probably body parts in the cake or something or you've put itching powder inside the clothes I'm supposed to wear-"

"I swear on Alan's life it's not a prank!" Eric suddenly shouted, coming to place his hand on Alan's shoulder. "And that's saying a lot."

"Not really, the man is half dead anyway," William said coldly. It was too much. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Eric's fist coming towards his face and the ground getting closer.

When he woke up he found himself fully dressed as Grell with a party hat placed on his head. He was tied to a chair in his kitchen and the only light was coming from some candles on the cake in front of him. He looked around and saw five faces creepily illuminated by the light singing happy birthday to him.

"Happy birthda-aa-aay toooo youuuu~" They concluded. The all looked at him expectantly but he just stared back not sure of what to say or do. "Blow the candles out!" someone said. "Make a wish!" said another, so he did. He wished they'd just untie him and just leave him the hell alone.

After blowing out the candles, he felt the ties around his wrists loosen and someone handed him a knife telling him to make the first cut. The lights suddenly came back on blinding him for a second but after a few minutes he was finally able to see the cake to cut it. From the look of it, a lot of time and effort had went onto making it and he thought at last that maybe they ihad/i actually decided to do something nice for once. He cut the rectangular cake with the intricate icing delicately spelling out his name and 'happy birthday' into six equal pieces, which everyone took a piece of. As Eric went to get his slice, he apologised to William for punching him so hard.

"I didn't mean to knock you out... It's just that what you said about Alan wasn't very nice," Eric said wincing as he looked at the black eye he had left William with.

"Don't worry about it..." said William quietly, not noticing the fact that his right eye was slightly swollen. "It wasn't an appropriate thing to say at all. I apologise," he said, taking a bite of cake.

After they had finished the cake and apologised to William for dressing him up without his permission, Grell announced that it was time to hand out the presents and they pushed a still rather unwilling William into the living room where they sat on the floor in a circle.

"OK!" Ronald said. "Mine first!" He handed William a relatively small dark blue box with a red ribbon on it. William opened it to find a pair of unexciting grey socks inside.

"Oh... Socks... Thank you so much..." William said rather dismissively.

"Ah, but not just ANY socks!" Ronald said excitedly. "WATERPROOF SOCKS!" he shouted.

"And... Why would I need those?"

"Well, not only does it keep your feet dry if you get caught in the rain again, but it'll also stop your feet getting soaked in blood if Grell puts stuff in your slippers again! AND, you can shower with them on!"

"I don't think I'll be showering with my socks on... But thank you." William said putting them to one side.

"Am I the only one that does that then...?" Ronald asked looking around at everyone else who were laughing at him.

"Me next!" Undertaker said pulling out an oddly shaped parcel which strangely resembled a skull. It iwas/i a skull.

"Oh...Wonderful..." William said turning it around in his hands.

"It is isn't it? It's a desktop skull buddy!" said Undertaker enthusiastically.

"A what...?" William asked, inspecting it to see if any flesh remained on the bone.

"A desktop skull buddy! You put your pens in it eyes and stuff and if you open its mouth," he said grabbing the skull from William, "You can put notes and stuff inbetween the teeth!" he laughed, placing some of the wrapping paper there as an example.

"I...I'm sure it will be very useful..." William said, already picturing the nightmares that would arise as a result of having that near him all day. He placed it next to the socks before having a large parcel shoved in front of his face by Eric and Alan.

"And this is from us!" said Eric. "We were too poor to get you stuff individually so we just got you this instead!"

"I wonder what it could be?" William asked inquisitively, weighing the package.

"Oh you'll really like it!" Alan said excitedly. "They're not even meant to exist here yet and we went to a LOT of trouble to get one for you so you better appreciate it!"

William unwrapped the present to find a thin rectangular object inside about the width of his lap. "It's... a heavy plastic box?"

"It's a thing called a laptop!" said Alan. "Apparently it will help you a lot with your paperwork!"

"We also got you this thing called a 'printer' that helps you even MORE with your paperwork!" said Eric. "Bu that's already at your office~"

"I don't understand..." William said, opening the laptop to find lots of strange buttons inside. "How does this help? It hasn't even got anywhere to write on it..."

"That's because you type silly!" Ronald said, scooting closer for a better look. "Did you guys get this in the same place I got my watch and my mobile?"

"Your what and your what?" Everyone asked, looking at Ronald in confusion.

"Never mind..." he replied. "See, what you do is-"

"What about my present?" Grell asked pulling out a small rectangular parcel about the size of a book wrapped entirely in red. "I have one too you know... And a card..." He shuffled over on his knees and handed the package and the card to William. "Happy birthday... I was too poor to get anything good, so this is all I could do..." he said, moving back to his spot in the circle.

William left the laptop in charge of Ronald who was already setting it up and turned his attention towards the items Grell had given him. As he went to open the card, Grell stopped him and told him to open it later when everyone was gone, so he opened the gift instead. Inside was what appeared to be a diary, the outside cover of which was covered in pictures of William and Grell in their younger days in a carefully designed collage.

"It's to remind you of how fun you used to be..." Grell said quietly "And to remind you of how many years we've been friends, even if you hate me now... Most of the pictures were taken on your past birthdays before you turned so... Boring."

William looked down at the book in his hands unsure of what to say. He opened it and saw scrawled on the front inside cover:

iHappy Birthday William, I hope you become fun again.

Your friend Grell./i

He closed the book slowly and continued to stare at it, turning it over and looking at all the pictures. For a long while he was silent before finally looking up, revealing that there were a few tears in his eyes, both of happiness and nostalgia. He smiled at Grell - something very rare indeed - before standing up and thanking everyone for giving him the best birthday party he'd ever had, even if it had started a little oddly.

Finally, for the first time that night he relaxed, and the rest of the night was spent reminiscing about the past and playing party games. William even had one or two drinks which was something he never did. He still didn't know why they were dressed as each other, but he didn't care, because for the first time in many years he was actually enjoying himself.

Finally, after they had all left, he opened Grell's card to him. It was short and sweet but it said all it needed to say.

iTo William,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hopefully we managed to convince you that it wasn't a scam and we all had a great time together.

I just wanted to apologise for all the horrible tricks I've played on you on past birthdays (though they WERE pretty funny right?) And I'm going to promise now that it won't happen again.

I hope you enjoy your diary and remember how nice you used to be. You can see it as a new start if you like, an incentive to change yourself so that what's written in there will show people in years to come what a nice person you were.

Happy Birthday again,

Love, Grell/i

That 'love' just ruined the whole thing... William thought, yet he still smiled slightly at the card and placed it next to his bed - and his calendar.

And as he lay down to sleep that night, he smiled to himself in the darkness. It seemed they hadn't forgotten his birthday after all.

THE END