A/N: I don't know where this came from. Or why. I'm totally not writing fanfics instead of doing my paperwork. And when I do my paperwork, chances are it's going to be covered in doodles anyway. Admin hates me. Anyway, yeah, random fanfic with random bad guy ocs (evil ocs are the best because I tend to torture my characters, obviously) with such wonderfully generic names. I dunno, I'll update sometime, but you know what I'm like, I get distracted. Like distracted from paper work by fanfics. May or may not have pairings. We'll see how I feel. Obviously I don't own anything 'cept my characters, else I wouldn't be writing fanfics. Duh.

"Another one," Eric muttered. "What is that, the eighth one?"

"If it's the same as the others, he's the twelfth," Alan said. "In just over a month as well. We have to be extra careful now."

Ronald nodded and sipped his coffee, which he was sure was the only thing keeping him on his feet at that point. The three had been leaving after a particularly difficult late shift when the blonde reaper had been rushed passed in a complete mess. Everyone was on alert after now. Twelve reapers, all working in London, maimed with their own death scythes and their glasses taken. It couldn't be a coincidence.

There weren't any official reports linking them. That would just cause panic. Or as much panic as reapers would allow themselves to feel. Everyone knew it though. There was a demon attacking reapers for something other than a clash over souls. None of them had been killed though. It was like they were being hunted just for the thrill of the chase. It was unnerving for those who worked alone but a lot of people just said that odds were on their side- that it'd never happen to them. Ronald almost envied Alan and Eric. They worked together most the time, what with Eric getting to follow Alan around because of his illness. Chances were they weren't going to be attacked. It'd be a brave demon to hunt down a pair and a strong one to manage to beat them both.

"Haven't you got a date tonight, Ronald?" Alan said.

Ronald frowned and shook his head. "Everyone's fussing about these attacks, I suppose."

"You can come back to ours if you'd like," he offered. "Otherwise you'll probably do something silly."

Ronald nodded and took another sip of coffee. He didn't have anything else to do. The demon attacks had everyone on edge, no one wanted to go down to London for a good night out, no one was having parties. In fact, the last couple of months had been incredibly slowly and boring for Ronald. He nodded and flashed Alan a grin.

"Good, if you ended up in the hospital wing, we'd be forced to fetch our own coffees in the morning," Eric said.

His grin widened and he tilted his head slightly. The innocent, childish look. He was the youngest in the office, so of course it was his duty to fetch coffee for everyone. A lot of the older reapers saw him as nothing more than incompetent, childish and reckless. Eric and Alan knew better, most people who knew him did, but it didn't stop them all playing up to it sometimes.

"You look like a Labrador when you do that."

"Eric."

"Mr Knox." Ronald stopped and turned to face William. He looked a little more stressed than normal, but that was all he could expect from him really. It had taken a dozen demon attacks to get even a little from him. "I trust you won't be going into London tonight."

"He's going to hang out with us," Eric said, folding his arms.

"Yeah, I'm not stupid," Ronald laughed. "I know there's a demon around."

"Good. I wouldn't like to see you injured." Ronald's grin somehow grew even wider than even he thought possible. Who said William T. Spears didn't care for anyone or anything beyond work and rules? He was actually worried about him. "We're understaffed as it is."

Or maybe not.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure he's safe," Alan said. "What are we going to do about the demon though?"

"It's being talked over," William said, adjusting his glasses. "There are no solid plans yet, only recommended precautions. Currently, it's recommended that no one leaves unless working so at least you can be found using your death lists. Several people are talking about making everyone work in pairs until the culprit is stopped, but with the amount of work it's not feasible. We're already shorthanded." He shifted his glasses up his nose once more. "The most viable course of action is to keep the distance between souls shorter and have reapers closer together."

"That's it?" Ronald said loudly, folding his arms. "Don't we even know what the demon's after or what it looks like? We have no idea what we're against."

"None of the victims have recovered enough to tell us what happened yet. We don't even know if it's the same demon. Don't get yourselves worked up over unknowns. It won't do anybody any good. There will be an official report as soon as anything becomes clear. I'll see you for work tomorrow."

They nodded and William turned away. Whether William said it or not, all three knew that it had to be the same demon. Everyone knew. Even William's eyes gave away some hint of concern.

"It's playing with us," Eric said as they walked away from the offices. "Why else would it be doing this? It's not killing them but making sure they're in pain and taking a trophy. What other reason is there but for the fun of it and getting us all worked up?"

"Then we should just not think about it, right?" Ronald said. "If we worry, it's winning."

"Oh boys!" Grell came over and grabbed Ronald's arm, almost spilling his coffee. "Have you seen the latest poor victim? He must have been such a cruel demon."

"I thought you were gone for the day," Eric said. "Or at least being forced to do overtime."

"Ahhh, Will just can't spend enough time with me," he replied with a dreamy sigh. "This demon is dividing his attention so much he completely ignores me no matter what I do. I'll just have to work harder."

"I thought you liked when men gave you the cold shoulder," Ronald said under his breath.

"This isn't the right kind of ignoring," he snapped. "I wouldn't expect a child like you to understand how complex love is, Ronald. He's not ignoring me because he knows I like it, he's not noticing me. He's too busy to ignore me. What's a lady to do when she can't even get a man to ignore her properly?"

"Well, we just saw him heading up to his office," Alan said with a small smile. "Maybe he'll have a bit of time to be annoyed while he's filling out reports."

Grell was gone again only seconds later. Ronald couldn't help laughing. If nothing else, Grell was persistent. Given Grell's liking for people who were mean to him, Ronald couldn't help wondering sometimes how Eric got away with being so snide. He didn't hide the fact that he didn't exactly like Grell.

"What are you smirking about?"

"Oh, just thinking; William and that demon have dark hair," he said quietly. "Maybe that bad dye job is the reason why you get away with being mean to Grell."

Eric glared down at him. "You can talk about a bad dye job, Knox. Look at your hair. And if being blonde keep Sutcliff away then that's fine by me."

Ronald nodded quickly. He had a point. At least the demon attacks weren't bringing the mood down too much. They could worry more about that in the morning. The demon had done enough attacks for the week, it was unlikely there'd be another one for another few days. Perhaps by then there'd be some progress.

The carriage pulled to a stop and Christopher Johnson opened up an umbrella as he stepped out into the warm summer rain. As he approached, the carriage door was opened and the butler glared at him as he opened his own umbrella. It was the 'be quiet and behave' look. Christopher beamed up at him. He'd known Daniel Black for long enough to know what almost every look meant.

Daniel stood at the door, reaching in and a hand slowly took his. The lady of the house, Michelle Oakland, came into view in a plan navy dress and black coat. Christopher bowed his head slightly- not that she could see it as Daniel helped her from the carriage. Her eyes were covered by bandages.

"Welcome back, my lady," Christopher said quietly. "Everything is prepared for you. There's tea waiting."

"Thank you."

Daniel helped Michelle into her London townhouse. Christopher turned and glanced at the carriage- particularly the horses. It was one of Michelle's quirks that she only kept jet black horses, tall, lean and muscular ones specifically. She was considered something of a connoisseur when it came to equines. In fact, her whole family was, her uncle was a well known breeder. Michelle never brought her horses to London though, nor her carriage. She would insist the city air wasn't good for the beasts or the wood of her carriage.

He turned and strode back into the house. Michelle was sitting in her favourite armchair by the fire as Daniel poured her tea. He held the cup and saucer in one hand, gently guiding her hand to it. She grasped it slowly. Despite the bandages over her eyes, Michelle had been determined not to be an invalid. She didn't want to be reliant on her servants anymore than a normal noble. Christopher didn't blame her. Sometimes he wondered why she went so far as to let them near her in her current state.

"Will you be going out on errands again tomorrow, my lady?" Christopher said.

"Yes, quite early I think," she replied. "I take it there were no problems today."

"None whatsoever," Daniel said. "We await your next order."

"Try to remember that. I wouldn't trust either of you half as far as I can through you. Can I have some cake, please?"

"Of course, my lady."

"And see if there's anything more on those dreadful murders, will you? It's so sad, and there were no leads last I heard. It's like London's not safe anymore."

The pair left Michelle to her tea and headed towards the kitchen. Christopher grinned up at Daniel. The butler was a few inches taller than him and slightly thinner, with slightly lighter brown hair and deep blue eyes. Christopher twisted a loose strand of hair around his fingers, golden brown eyes glinting in the darkening light.

"You were hit today," Daniel said bluntly. "Are you hurt?"

Christopher laughed, tossing his hair out of his eyes. "It's the once in a century occurrence, you worrying about me. Are you going soft?"

"If you were injured we'd have to put the plans on hold. Madam wouldn't be pleased."

"Next time we make a deal, let's do it with someone's who's already a maid, that way we don't have to be servants."

Daniel sighed and shook his head. "Come now, it's not so bad. We're getting souls out of it and mixing with the upper class is amusing."

"If they didn't ignore us because we're servants."

"Heaven forbid anyone should ignore you, hmm?"

"I'll be fine by the time we find the next target, ok? There won't be another one for a few days, so I've got plenty of time to recover completely. How weak do you think I am?" Christopher snapped, folding his arms as Daniel sliced the chocolate cake. "Can I-"

"No," Daniel said firmly, pushing his hand away from the icing. "Where are they?"

Christopher laughed and pulled a pair of glasses from his pocket, slipping them on. The world blurred and he squinted at Daniel, who quickly snatched them off him, muttering about being serious. He barely listened to the lecture that followed. Daniel should have known better by now. All he could do was stare jealously at the cake and then glare at the ceramic biscuit barrel that Daniel placed the glasses in.

There was a moment of silence before Christopher realised Daniel had stopped and was glaring down at him. He smiled slowly and straightened up as Daniel's eyes flashed red for a moment. He supposed there were worse things they could be doing. Much as he'd sworn never to contract with a human- he'd never be a lap dog following orders- Daniel had talked him into playing a servant for the sake of a few souls and a bit of fun. At least it had cured his boredom a little. There were far more mundane people he could be serving. Although if he was completely honest- something he wasn't very often if he could get away with it- he would have followed Christopher and helped out on whatever he was doing, just because it was him. There was nothing that entertained him more than annoying his long time friend.

"Daniel," called Michelle from upstairs. "Can you pour me some more tea please?"

"At least she's polite about her demands," Daniel said, picking up the plate with the cake. Christopher smiled and nodded, slowly reaching for the biscuit barrel as Daniel turned away. "Leave it. It's not good for your eyes."

"Urgh, fine. Such a spoil sport. And I do all the hard work anyway."