A Rather Unusual Day
Another day at the Grim Reaper's Association. William T. Spears had woken upon the wrong side of the bed, already feeling personally responsible for his late arrival by a few minutes. Anything would off set that delicate balance of his upon which he lived his reaper life. Sitting down right away, he got to work, filing names and reading through training lists for each new reaper that had just emerged from the school, a few of them being his own students.
From there, he walked hastily to the library to gather materials and research to complete a few ancestry charts, as he did nearly every morning. After typing all day, attending meetings, facilitating meetings and taking minutes at the last meeting, William was nearly ready to punch out. However, the clock fancied that it was only 2 in the afternoon. There was work to be done until 6 o'clock this evening.
Sighing, he sat back in his chair, glancing over reports and troublesome soul collections that would have to be handled by either himself or another reaper that may be of equal standing. Regrettably, there was only one reaper on staff today that would have any help whatsoever to offer.
His office door bursted open, and in walked his red reaper, pushing up his spectacles.
"I have things to show you," Sutcliff trickled in, closing the door behind his dramatic entrance.
William sighed. "Reaper Sutcliff, I need your assistance."
Grell was taken aback, gesturing to himself. "Me? Why you shouldn't have." His arms folded in front of him as he looked at Will in that annoying and flirty way.
"It's a reaping. Too many issues with soul collections. If we must, we will be in after 7 this evening," William informed him.
Grell took out his recruits' reports, setting them on Will's desk to read later. "Ugh, tell me about it. I can't believe these people. I mean, really, we couldn't have sucked this bad when we started."
"We all have to start somewhere," Will gave Grell the list of the souls and their new expected times of death. He nodded.
"Now, get out. I've work to finish," William said.
"Ah, how cruel you are, Will," Grell replied, stopping at the entrance. "Have you ever considered taking time for yourself?"
7pm was not an attractive end of the day, but it seemed there was no other choice. After Grell's report was in, he stopped into Will's office again. This time, there was no reaper to be found. Grell waited for a few minutes, thinking that although the occasion is rare, perhaps William was running late. Or perhaps he'd gone ahead without Grell, that wasn't unusual. Grell took a look around the office, discovering the walk in closet in the corner of the office was left open, if only slightly. Nothing ever stopped him except the latch before, so he made his way in to kill some extra time.
Mostly paper, how boring, Grell thought to himself. Lots of them were personal reports, leaves and other documents for the end of the winter season. Reaper evaluations, how cumbersome.
Just then, the door came thrashing open, a second dramatic entrance today. Grell emerged from the closet.
"You're rather late," Grell noted. "Why is that?"
"No time to explain, we should be going," Spears sounded a bit out of breath and his heart rate was probably bouncing off the walls. Grell swore he could almost feel its presence as Will slid past him to get his death scythe.
"No," Grell said, pushing Will back against the opposite wall, for he'd not much strength to fight back. "Why are you late? What's got you out of breath?"
"Never mind that," William pushed Grell off of him, reaching again but Sutcliff denied him. "Don't push me, Grell." Grell was going to push him.
"No seriously," he refuted. "You're never late, you're out of breath, and you really think going on an overtime reaping will help with that?"
"You're all I have tonight and I'll finish the collection reports for tomorrow. Come now." William was fighting, but Grell knew it wasn't going in his favor. He grabbed William by the collar and flung him into the closet, closing the latch.
"What the devil are you playing at?" Grell was demanding answers. "You think I don't see it? You're in no position to be reaping right now. Just tell me why you're late."
William was silent for a few moments, annoyed to his bones with Sutcliff already.
"Look, we are late as is. We mustn't get distracted."
"Why are you late?"
William was gaining a little strength but not enough to spare for Grell's attitude today.
"Get off me Sutcliff or I swear I will file you away with the rest of them."
"Like one of your reports hmm? Well, we are in a closet, it can only be deemed appropriate. But just tell me why you're late. It's a rather easy thing, wouldn't you say?"
William went on a rant about meetings and libraries and record collections and meetings, and an incident with Undertaker who had apparently stopped by to return a few things, a lost collection book, a misplaced file and something about him being late all day.
"Stop," Grell commanded, making Will narrow his eyes. "Will, just stop, right now." Will realized he was still panting a little from his run to the office to meet Grell. Sutcliff pinned Spears to the wall, intending to keep him there. He knew Will would hate him for this tonight but he'd be thanking him...eventually.
The red reaper leaned himself in and took hold of Will's lips, which were still looking for oxygen, but that task was easily transferred to the nose. At first Will was resistant, but after a few moments, he seemed to just let it happen. Sutcliff wasn't so daring as to use tongue, but he did manage to feel Will's back muscles relax as he practically lay on top of Will's chest. Grell brought his hands up to outline Will's face and lock behind his neck.
As if reluctant, William brought his hands to Grell's waist, slightly pushing him upward, making Grell release his passionate kiss and he stared, just stared, at Grell.
"My goodness, sometimes you're so buried in your workload, you don't even take a moment to yourself," Grell noted. He wasn't sure if William was ready to slap him, fire him, kill him or all of the above.
Grell displaced himself from Will, thinking by now after Will's silence for so long that he was in serious trouble and shouldn't have done that.
"Look, let's just go," Grell said, trying to diverge. "Forget this ever happened." Spears had his breath back, but he could no longer find a single word to say after what Grell had done. The red reaper unlatched the closet door, but Will wanted to protest. Well, a part of his mind wanted to protest, but he soon enough convinced himself there was still work to be done.
Swallowing hard, William grabbed his death scythe and locked the door to his office behind them as they began their troublesome soul collection. Some souls were just easier the second time around. They weren't as reluctant. Some still fought tooth and nail, which was partially why Spears needed Sutcliff, as much as he hated to admit it. Grell's collections were flawless every time, even if he did screw around. The records must be kept straight, so the two of them finished up their evening together, not saying much of anything except the locations of the souls and their discussions of the those who were meant to die tonight.
By 9pm, the books were ready for tomorrow's work and the two reapers were sent home simply exhausted. Of course, Grell couldn't help but glance at Will every other moment. He seemed to have something on his mind, probably work related.
"This is where I part," Grell said as they came to a cross section of London. There was hardly anyone on the streets, few cars and nice park behind them. As Sutcliff turned to the right, knowing full well William needed to go left, he felt a glove hit the sleeve of his red coat, wrapping around his arm.
"Ah?" Grell turned.
"You're right," Will said, still holding onto Grell's arm.
"What?" Grell gasped. Will adjusted his glasses.
"You're right, I take nearly no time for myself. My job is my life and there haven't been many moments to spare. Today I was running late, all day, and I apologize for keeping you this late, but I must thank you."
"Well what can I say?" Grell replied. "I'd do almost anything for you, Will. You know that, don't you?" Will's eyebrows rose.
"But you hate overtime."
"Mm, yes, and sometimes I hate that cherry ice cream from around the corner," Grell said, shaking his head. "But it doesn't matter. If it's you serving the ice cream, I could care less about what flavor it is." What a completely irrelevant yet somehow relevant analogy.
"But this does matter. I want no word of this around the office, and I am deadly serious. I will refute you until the day you and I both die if there's any word or suspicion coming from your side of the table."
"What?" Grell asked. "The reaping? Your tardiness? Fine, fine. I'll say nothing."
"No Grell," William reached out his other arm, death scythe aside, and grasped Sutcliff's shoulder. He let go of Grell's wrist to take his other shoulder and stare into Grell's bright green eyes. There was small blush creeping up the red reaper's face but Will never saw it fully mature.
No, he was too busy pulling Grell into a kiss. A full, lip-locked kiss, which nearly made the reaper melt before him as he responded readily and rapidly to the situation. Grell reached his arms to wrap around Will, nearly forcing the black reaper's arms lower and closer to Sutcliff's waist, which Will took hold of. This time, Grell was just too shocked to use tongue. He questioned his sanity and imagination as Will pulled him even closer to himself until the two were chest to chest. William seemed to be hanging on for dear life which only prompted Grell more, enough so that Will could feel Sutcliff's transition to balancing on one leg.
Now this was passion! And the most he'd ever seen in William T. Spears outside of his work environment. Finally, after Grell's many moments of bliss, Will let the kiss go, just standing there at the crossroads, looking at the red reaper, who was completely blushing.
"What?" Will asked, breaking Grell's trance.
"Oh! Nothing. It's just. Wow." Grell was stuttering a little. "You've...you made me very happy, that's all." He couldn't resist it! Grell embraced William in a gentle hug, barely leaning against him at all. William felt him sigh, feeling the cool air emerge from within him and onto an opening between his own gloves and his suit jacket. Will returned the hug, pushing Grell away again to look into his eyes. This time, the blush could never go unnoticed. The red reaper was frozen it seemed, right where he stood.
"Are you all right?" Will asked, but Grell shook his head.
"No, but I'll be fine," he replied, looking at the ground.
"I cannot accept that answer," Will said, still holding Grell upright. He pulled the reaper's chin up just to meet his lips again and to pull away as soon at it seemed to have started.
"You know you're making it much worse. I won't be leaving you alone now, I just can't," Grell was warning him, but Will didn't care this time. For too long it seemed there was nothing but work to be done and a schedule to complete. Too long it seemed were the times when the new recruits needed an extra lesson or a practical skills appointment. And for too long it seemed that Will was trapped in his office except for finding those in the field making grave mistakes.
"Very well," Will said, pushing up his glasses.
Grell walked with him slowly back to the black reaper's flat, where he let them into the living room to set their death scythes and remove their shoes. Right as Grell's red coat was set onto the couch, he turned back around to see William, but this time, the red reaper beat him to the punch.
He took hold of Will's face and kissed him more violently this time around. Not that William seemed to mind this gesture. Knowing this was wrong, unethical and probably somewhere in a rule book someplace sitting on a shelf of some sort, Will didn't care anymore. Not after today. Tonight, he was going completely against his quota, convincing himself this was a good thing for him to do, to deter once and a while from the norm. After all, he hadn't successfully been able to fix his schedule or get back on track at all. He grasped Grell's waistline and pushed back against his mouth as much as he could.
Will's coat was set aside after Grell took hold of it, pushing him back against the wall to attack him more fiercely, pushing himself onto the black reaper. Nonetheless, Will pulled Grell even closer. Something about this was intoxicating, stimulating, inviting, and oh so accentually addicting! Grell pulled himself away, grabbing Will and leading him into his own bedroom.
"Feels good to break the rules once and while, hmm?" the red reaper asked.
"Stop talking." Spears pushed Grell's willing form onto the bed and Will took the top, unknotting Grell's red ribbon tie and crashing his lips again with his. A small moan crept along in the back of Sutcliff's throat with the way Will began to kiss him.
Grell turned the table, this time throwing Will onto the bottom and unbuttoning his own vest. "My turn."
Will smirked as the red reaper's flaming hair flowed after his passionate kiss onto the bed beside them. He lay atop William, feeling as though this were surely all just a dream. He didn't want to risk the circumstance, no matter which one it was, so Grell kept his focus on keeping Will pinned to the bottom. Not that it worked for too long. They were in for a long night...