Yeah, another William/Grell fic. It was inspired from the scene in the manga where Ronald Knox wants to get work over with so he can go to a party. William had his 'I do not approve' face. An idea sparked and this was written.

It was also inspired because, somewhere on another site, there was a scanned picture showing Grell in a dress (supposedly a design for the next Kuroshitsuji musical or something to do with the series). So, of course, I had to write something about that, and how William might react.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Kuroshitsuji.

It was half past midnight, and he was late. Grell knew he would be late because of his detour, but he had hoped it would have been worth it. Of course, Grell's earlier encounter hadn't gone the way he had envisioned it.

Grell limped further away from the Phantomhive mansion. He knew that he shouldn't have bothered trying to talk Sebastian into going to a party with him. Grell should have foreseen what would happen, but he had decided to be hopeful that his charm might have worked this time. The mansion was out of view by now, as Grell started down a street, silently relieved that no one out this late at night paid him any mind. Although there had been some curious stares. Grell was now headed in the direction of the building where Ronald Knox had said the party was going to be held.

Wincing as he walked, Grell sighed miserably. What he really wanted to do right now was to go straight home and curl up underneath some blankets and cry. Sebastian's cold dismissal and subsequent roughing up (including the ruining of his clothing, ect.) earlier had been more forceful than usual...Maybe it was because of the dress he had worn. Grell really couldn't think of any other reason why Sebastian would have reacted the way he did.

Ten minutes earlier...

Grell straightened his outfit again, nervous. He was within the Phantomhive mansion grounds, and was making his way to the front of the mansion. Grell had decided to stop by on the way to the party, to see if Sebastian would go with him. After all, a lady should have someone to escort her, especially so late at night. Who knows what might be lurking in the alleyways? Grell smiled to himself as he got closer. He stopped directly in front of the front door, assuming that Sebastian had already sensed his presence. Grell shifted his stance. He was wearing a red and black dress that fit his frame perfectly, the right side cut in a way that showed off the leg. Grell thought that between the dress and his spruced up hair, he looked quite nice. He had wanted to dress up for the party tonight.

Grell broke out of his thoughts on his outfit, sensing that Sebastian was headed for the door. Grell heard the click, and smiled when Sebastian opened the door, "Hello~. Sebas-chan~." So intent on making sure he was standing in a seductive pose, Grell missed Sebastian cover his face with one hand and sigh in an exasperated way.

Sebastian didn't know what to say. He had sensed the shinigami's presence, and went to investigate. Sebastian caught sight of Grell's clothing, and closed his eyes, drawing in a breath. It couldn't be a dress, he was imagining things. Sebastian opened his eyes once more.

Grell looked back at Sebastian after the demon dropped his hand to his side. With a light smile, Grell spoke, "Are you busy tonight? There's a party, and a lady needs an escort in the night~."

Sebastian kept his eyes on Grell's face, once he had realized that the redheaded shinigami was indeed wearing a dress. Sebastian had just put Ciel to bed twenty minutes ago and had completed his nighttime wandering of the mansion. He thought the rest of the night would be quiet...before Grell showed up. Seeing Grell's hopeful expression, Sebastian realized that the reaper hadn't thrown himself at him, yet. Sebastian considered what to do to get Grell to leave with the least amount of fuss. He didn't want to wake the young master. Now then...

Grell took a step back when he saw Sebastian start toward him with a determined look, "Sebas...?" Why did Sebastian already looking like he wanted to get rid of him?

"If you could leave right now, it would be greatly appreciated," Sebastian said with a thin smile. He had no desire to deal with Grell and his odd requests tonight.

Grell started to walk backwards, half of him telling him to run for it, the other half telling him to keep trying. Grell figured he could always crawl home if something went wrong. Surely taking a risk, Grell suddenly lunged forward, causing Sebastian to stop and prevent the shinigami from catching him in a hug. Grell didn't have a chance to say anything, and instead winced as Sebastian tightened his grip on his shoulders.

Sebastian smiled pleasantly at the squirming redhead, "I should warn you that I'm not in the best of moods. Do you still insist on trying to...persuade me?"

Grell swallowed nervously at the cold voice, thinking he should really just leave. Before anything bad happened. Too bad his body already had a mind of its own.

Sebastian was taken aback as Grell broke his hold on him, and snuggled up against his chest, wrapping his arms around him. What did Grell think he was doing?

Twitch.

Grell knew this probably wasn't the best idea, but he was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

"...I guess you didn't take my warnings seriously. Very well then."

A minute and a half later...

Grell lay on the ground, not even caring for the moment that during the short fight Sebastian had managed to rip parts of the dress and make some scratches and bruises. Sebastian had gone back into the mansion as soon as Grell had hit the ground and stayed there. Sebastian had assumed that Grell would leave once he got up. While this hurt Grell's feelings, he was silently glad he had his deathscythe back. Otherwise, Sebastian would have been able to inflict more damage.

Grell sat up, biting his lip lightly as he tested for breaks. His right leg hurt, but at least it wasn't broken. He couldn't remember having been hit there. Well...Grell supposed he could have missed it. At least it appeared as though Sebastian caused no lasting damage. The brief fight had gone by in flashes, and Grell had been focused on trying to not get hurt. It had gone better than when he had fought with Sebastian during the Jack the Ripper case. Grell stood up, frowning all of a sudden. His dress was a wreck.

Present time...

Grell shook his head. He should have known better, but he had at least wanted to try. Grell looked up at his surroundings, and changed directions, deciding to stop by his home after all to grab his red coat. The stop by the house was swift, and Grell went back to heading in the direction of the party, pulling the red coat on and over his ruined outfit. He had decide against changing out of it. Grell had wanted to show it off to Sebastian, but had also wanted to show William. The dark-haired shinigami was supposed to be at the party, making sure nothing got out of hand. That was the only reason Grell was still going to the party at all, and he could only hope that William wouldn't give him a cold dismissal as well. Grell didn't think he could handle two rejections in one night.

As Grell drew nearer to the building, he became hesitant. Would William be upset with him for going to see Sebastian? Probably. Grell sighed as he reached out and opened the door. Only one way to find out. Grell slipped into the building and closed the door behind him quietly. Seeing where he was, Grell started to walk along the quiet hallway in the direction of the ballroom. He could hear the sounds of happy party goers. Grell stopped in front of the ballroom door, and inched it open enough to peer inside.

Everyone looked to be having a good time, many of the shinigami dressed rather fancily. Grell smiled when he spotted William looking disapprovingly at an almost drunk Ronald Knox. Poor Will was probably none too happy to be there. Grell wondered vaguely why the expression William wore appeared to be agitated. It seemed to be directed at something other than those in the room drinking themselves silly and generally having a good time.

Grell sighed softly. He couldn't do it after all. He felt like a wreck compared to the others. Grell couldn't let William see him like this. William looked so...nice and formal looking as he usually did, but wearing a dark blue tie instead of a black one. An attempt to be somewhat festive for the party, which made Grell's lips twitch into a faint smile. Grell gazed at William for awhile longer, before sighing wistfully. He really should leave, so he could avoid being detected by William...

Grell looked back inside the room, and saw William looking around. Apparently not seeing what he was looking for, William threw one final glare at Knox, before turning and...heading for the door. Grell let out a silent gasp as he shut the door as silently as he could. Panicking, Grell looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. Why was William deciding to leave the room now? Couldn't he have waited a little longer? Hearing the steady footsteps draw nearer, Grell walked hurriedly down the hall, trying not to make a lot of noise. Seeing William come out of the ball room and walk in his direction, Grell quickly darted behind a pillar.

Grell leaned heavily against the pillar, closing his eyes and hoping that William hadn't seen him. Grell really didn't think he could face the dark-haired man in this state. He'd more than likely break down if William asked him anything. He didn't want that to happen.

"Grell Sutcliff...what are you doing?"

Grell bit his lip. He had been spotted after all. What was he supposed to do now? Grell took a shuddering breath, trying to calm his nerves, but failing for the most part. No point in hiding now that William had spotted him. William would expect a response to his question. Grell slowly peeked out from behind the pillar to look at William, and said, with a tired smile, "Hello, Will."

121

William disliked parties with a passion, so he avoided them whenever it was possible. William especially avoided the parties that Ronald Know spoke of going to. One, it made one get behind in work, which caused overtime, and two, it was highly inappropriate and surely there was a rule against it somewhere. He just hadn't found it yet. Parties weren't looked down upon, but the parties Ronald frequented were treading dangerously close to being canceled altogether. Too bad William couldn't find reason enough to put a stop to them.

So why was the dark-haired shinigami thinking about all of this at the moment? It was because he was at one of the parties he had been trying to avoid. William was merely there this night to observe and make sure nothing got too out of hand. After seeing all of the alcohol, William silently decided that the night was more than likely going to get out of hand anyway. Ronald Knox had requested him specifically for tonight, and William didn't have enough of a reason to decline. William didn't even want to be there in the first place, but Ronald had told him that he was the only one likely to remain sober, therefore perfect for the role of the observer.

It didn't make William any happier to be there.

William cast his gaze around the ballroom where the party was taking place and settled his frown on a group of drunk, giggly shinigami. Ronald was with them and appeared to be well on his way to the drunken state, chugging down drink after drink to loud applause. William averted his gaze, and was about to walk away when he turned back to the crowd of party goers, realizing something for the first time. He hadn't been paying attention with all of the rule breaking going on around him to realize it.

He had yet to see Grell show up and make his presence know (most likely with an outrageous outfit to draw attention). William looked around more closely at the others in the room. He knew that Grell had been excited about going to the party. Grell had been even more excited to go when William had, with a long suffering expression, agreed to go to the party to 'observe the sad state of the other departments.'

William looked around the immediate area, but did not see the obvious red among the other more common colors. In a way, the dark-haired man was relieved; he didn't really want to know what Grell had been going to wear. William was worried that it might have been a dress. His mind could barely handle the mental image. It would have been mind blowing to see it in person...on a male. Grell would like the attention he got either way, William supposed.

William shook his head and, after shooting Ronald Knox an annoyed and disapproving glare (Ronald had begun to do a vigorous dance with another shinigami amid rancorous applause) turned and exited the ballroom into the hall. Good, it was quieter now that he was away from the party and the happily drunk. William needed to take a break in a quiet room before going back into that. William was about to walk toward the desired room, when he caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eyes.

Was it Grell?

Although he was hesitant, William walked down the hallway for a bit, before stopping and staring at a pillar with a small frown on his face. Why was Grell hiding from him? "Grell Sutcliff...what are you doing?"

There was a moment of silence, before Grell peeked around the pillar at William, wearing an unsure expression. After staring at one another for a minute, Grell managed a very small, tired smile, "Hello, Will."

Originally this was going to be a one-shot, but got a little bit too long. So I split it into two. I'm editing the last part, so it should be up tomorrow sometime. The next chapter will attempt to be fluff. Let me know how it went? (and if there are any errors I missed).