I'm putting any WilliamxGrell stories I come up with here, whether it's a one-shot or 2-3 chapters, mostly because I'm tired of starting a new story every time I get a new idea. For this chapter, I wrote it because I do wonder how William would act if he ever snapped from too much work.

Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji is not mine.

-x-

Grell never gave much thought to whether William would ever snap. It just didn't seem like something that would ever happen to the calm and collected dark-haired shinigami. Grell supposed it could happen, with all of the stress that no doubt built up while William worked. From what Grell knew about the other man, he wondered why William hadn't snapped sooner. The redhead couldn't think of any way William would actually be able to relax and get rid of any built up tension.

In any case, Grell knew he shouldn't have been too surprised with what had happened. After all, he did cause William a lot of unneeded trouble. Grell just never thought that William would happen to choose to blow up at him.

-x

William closed the door to the Director's office, and walked back in the direction of his own office. Although William looked as calm as ever, on the inside, his nerves were shot. After his conversation with the director, his stress level had skyrocketed. William needed to get to his office and get into the relaxing feel of paperwork. Yes, he'd be fine after that. All he needed was a nice, relaxing atmosphere...

"William~!"

William halted his brisk walk, his high stress level bringing forth an irrational feeling of rage. William turned abruptly, and saw Grell flouncing toward him with a wide smile plastered on his face. William's scowl became more pronounced. Why did Grell always look so happy? He probably hadn't even finished his work for the day. William would wipe that smile of his face. He didn't have to be the only one in a bad mood.

-x

Grell had grown bored of paperwork relatively quickly that day, and had no fieldwork to do. After busily making a mess of his office supplies, Grell lost interest and left his office, deciding to go see William. Maybe he could make the day a little more interesting. Grell stopped in front of William's office door, and after not hearing the familiar sound of a pen to paper, poked his head inside the office. No one was inside. How strange. William almost never left his office, unless he were running an errand or going to tell other workers what to do.

Disappointed with not finding the man in his office, Grell decided to wander about headquarters in search of William. As Grell walked, he lamented aloud the fact that Will was avoiding him again that week. Perhaps he shouldn't have gone to see Sebastian the previous week. William hadn't spoken to him since after having dragged him all the way back to headquarters and dumping several weeks worth of paperwork on his desk. Grell sighed miserably at the thought, knowing that mostly all of that paperwork was still waiting for him to go through. Grell perked up when he found the other reaper a few minutes later, walking down the hall back to his office. Grell backtracked and moved toward William as he called out a greeting, "William~!" Maybe he'd see if William would finally go out to dinner with him. He had been asking for the past several months after all. Maybe Will would finally say yes...

As William turned around, the smile on Grell's face faded a little, as did thoughts of going out to dinner. William looked very unhappy. No, scratch that. William looked downright furious to see him there. Grell stopped mid step, rethinking the idea of throwing himself at William, which had been his original plan. He didn't want to chance being hit with William's deathscythe, which the man would no doubt use if Grell were to try and latch himself onto him. Grell wanted to ask what was wrong, but the look on William's face kept him quiet for once.

William didn't bother allowing Grell the chance to explain why he was there and why he wasn't in his office, working. Instead, all of the frustration and pent up stress was released in a vicious tirade directed at the red-head, who held perfectly still, obviously in shock that William was yelling at him. "Grell Sutcliff, why aren't you in your office working? You hardly get any work done! You are lazy and incompetent, leaving your messes for me to clean up! You are an insufferable nuisance, and I do not know how much longer I can tolerate it! Why are you even here if you aren't always working, and playing around instead?" William took a breath, before continuing, laying out every little thing Grell did wrong to how disruptive he was. William finished with, "If you bother me without finishing your work, you will regret it." With a cold glare, William headed in the direction of his office.

-x

Grell stood rooted to the spot, stock-still as he watched William walk away, no doubt still very agitated by the look of his shoulders. Grell remained where he was, wondering what on earth had just happened. William's words were slowly starting to sink in, making Grell's previous good mood vanish, to be replaced with one of utter misery. He couldn't remember William being so furious that he'd lay out all that he had done wrong, as well as adding some very heartless comments, that he knew had nothing with not completing work. Grell understood playing hooky to avoid work and going to see Sebastian was frowned upon, but what did his looks have to do with work? Grell tried to block out the other comments William had made and bit his lip lightly, wondering what the chances were that William wouldn't get angrier if he were to run away and go home for the rest of the day. Grell sighed. William would probably go and drag him back and yell at him some more.

Grell managed to shake off some of his shock, and headed for his own office. As he walked, Grell pondered how quickly it would take to get through the paperwork. It would most likely take him most of the week and that would give William more opportunities to find something else to be unhappy with him about. Grell hadn't been walking for very long before he realized that William was headed in his direction. In his distracted state, Grell hadn't realized that he had been moving around in a big circle, after William, and had changed directions unconsciously. Grell dropped his gaze immediately, and went by William in silence, struggling to keep himself walking as calmly as possible, even though what he really wanted to do was run.

Unfortunately for Grell, his attempt to remain discreet drew William's attention.

William had hoped to get to his office without anything to draw forth his irrational reactions, but the sight of Grell not looking at him or even saying anything, caught his attention. It hadn't even occurred to William that the redhead had been trying to do as he had suggested. Which had been telling William telling Grell to be more quiet when he was in the hallways and talking to other shinigami. As William hadn't quite calmed himself down yet, he stopped Grell with a sharp, "Sutcliff!" He was very suspicious of Grell's current actions, and wanted to make sure he was very clear with the red-head.

Grell cringed at the tone and halted, turning around, worried. What could William possibly say to make things worse? He was trying to get to his office, and William was no doubt going to think that he had been trying to leave.

William waited until he made eye contact, before questioning the cringing red-head, "What are you up to?" It had crossed William's mind that Grell might try and slink off, away from headquarters. He wouldn't have thought that Grell would dare come near him after the scolding he had just given him.

Grell forced himself to keep eye contact, and spoke in a quiet, subdued voice, "I...I was going to go do paperwork, you said..."

William cut him off before he could say more, "Grell, if you even think about trying to leave without getting your work done..."

"But William! I..."

William ignored Grell's attempt to speak and continued on as if he hadn't heard him, "If you go to that demon, and it happened to get rid of you, it would be a relief. If you're not going to do your work and play with that thing instead, I shouldn't care very much if he ripped your head off." William broke off, ignoring the shock and hurt that had appeared on the other reaper's face as he mused aloud, "That would, however, give me even more work to deal with. As such, I would advise against leaving before you've made some progress in your paperwork. I..."

Before William could finish, Grell turned suddenly and ran away in the direction of his office, eyes tearing up at William's blunt and vicious words. Grell entered his office and closed the door, hoping that William wouldn't go after him. Grell didn't think he could take much more. Why was William being so ruthless to him today? What did he do? Did William really want him gone? Was he really that much trouble?

William watched Grell return to the office, and, seeing the red-head shut the door, turned and went to his own office. He was unaware that Grell was currently crying and feeling utterly miserable.

-x

Inside his office, Grell was feeling useless as he stared at the mountain load of paperwork sitting on his desk. Brushing away some tears, Grell removed his fake eyelashes, figuring he didn't need them at the moment if he were going to cry on and off. Stowing them away, Grell slid out of his red coat and hung it up in the corner of the room. With a sigh, Grell sat down on the desk and pulled the nearest stack of paperwork toward him. This was going to take him a long time to get through. Grell started to write, deciding that William might not be as mad at him if he got all his paperwork done. Grell's eyes closed momentarily. William's words still hurt, and Grell wondered to himself if getting the paperwork done would be enough...

One day later.

Ronald Knox had snuck out of work early, thinking about talking to Grell about a party another section of work had planned for that night. He had wanted to ask about it yesterday, but seeing that Grell was actually working, Ron hadn't wanted to bother him. Assuming that Grell would be distracted now from the paperwork, the younger shinigami headed for Grell's office. Ronald was about to knock, when he paused in confusion. From what he could hear, it sounded like Grell was still working. Ronald blinked. That was odd. He'd have thought Grell would have gotten bored with it by now. Ron opened the door a bit and peered inside.

At the interruption, Grell glanced up over his glasses at the other reaper briefly. Seeing who it was, Grell's eyes dropped back to the sheet he was writing on, speaking in a terse and stressed tone, "What do you want?"

Ronald decided that asking about the party wasn't the smartest idea, and instead questioned, "Did you get any sleep last night?" The irritable glare thrown his was was rather surprising, mostly because it was a look William would normally give. Had Grell really stayed up all night?

"Go away, I'm busy. I need to get this paperwork done." Grell said after a moment, when Ron hadn't moved from next to the door. Grell didn't bother looking up at the other reaper, though he would have seen Ron's rather perplexed expression had he done so, "Close the door when you leave." Grell said distractedly, as he set aside a piece of paper and grabbed a file.

Ronald shut the door, baffled. He didn't know what to make of what had just occurred. Ronald left headquarters quickly, not wanting to be caught by William and questioned. He was going to the party tonight and he wasn't going to be saddled with overtime assignments. He wasn't missing this party for anything. He had heard it was supposed to be a really big gathering.

Two and a half days later.

Ronald Knox was simply amazed. Grell was still working in his office. Ron had spoken to some of the other shinigami, and it sounded like Grell hadn't been getting any sleep in the last three and a half days. Ron had gone to the party at night, after he had first checked on Grell, and knew he was treading dangerous ground if William happened to catch sight of him. William was still prowling around the workspace, trying to corner the younger shinigami. The reason? William had happened upon the party, and had crashed it, managing to send upset reapers to go off and do work. Ronald had managed to get away, though he knew that William had seen him. After a quick glance in either direction, Ron saw that no one was in sight. Ronald cautiously opened the door to Grell's office, remembering that some of the office workers that had picked up paperwork for Grell had mentioned that Grell looked as if he were ready to lash out at anyone disturbing him. Ronald would take that chance over running into a frowning William.

Once inside the office, Ronald saw that there was little paperwork left. Turning his attention to Grell, Ron could see that red-head looked absolutely exhausted, glasses set aside, as he wrote away on the pieces of paper before him. Not getting any kind of acknowledgment of his presence, Ron spoke up in a concerned tone, "You know, you should really get some sleep. It's not good for you if you don't get enough rest. You might make mistakes." Ronald swiftly backed out of the room and hid behind the door, as Grell had thrown several sharp objects in his direction. They bounced harmlessly against the door.

"Stay OUT! I'm very busy and I want to get this done! I don't need any more interruptions! Close the door and leave me alone!" Grell snapped angrily. Why was it that he was so close to being done, and people just happened to show up and break his momentum? Grell picked up a sharp pair of scissors and fixed his gaze on Ron's position behind the door. Maybe he could get the scissors through the wooden door...

Ronald Knox shut the door with a click and walked away swiftly, not wanting to chance getting hit with any sharp objects. It was lucky, because he heard a thunk and a slight crack, and, glancing over his shoulder, saw the tip of a scissor sticking out of the door. Ronald laughed nervously. The other workers weren't kidding. Ron slowed his walk, marveling at the startling change that had come over Grell in the past few days. What had happened to cause that change and make him act that way? There had to be a reason...

Ron was so lost in thought that he nearly walked right into William, who was wearing a disproving frown. Ron stopped short of bumping into William and spoke quickly, hoping to get William to avoid scolding him about the party. It hadn't exactly been work appropriate, after all, "Do you know what's wrong with Sutcliff, sir?" Ron watched in surprise as William's frown deepened, and he stalked off in the direction of Grell's office, muttering something about incompetent workers. Ronald quickly put himself between William and the door, flinching only a little at the cold glare he received from William, "Ah, well, you see, for the past three days, Sutcliff's been doing paperwork." 'And getting angrier every day whenever anyone bothers him.' Ronald thought to himself.

William blinked, his expression turning into one of faint surprise, "Then what is wrong with him?" Was it actually possible for Grell to focus that much and get work done? While he doubted it, it would be nice if Grell were actually starting to be a bit more responsible.

"He hasn't slept in over 72 hours, and the paperwork's almost done...but Grell looked like he was ready to lash out and injure someone," Ron paused, then added, "Grell threw several sharp objects at me, just now, including scissors, when I suggested that he really should get some sleep."

William frowned at this. At the moment, he was unaware that his anger-laced outburst days earlier was the cause of Grell's behavior, "Stay here. I'll go and speak with him." Seeing the other man nod, William walked around him and knocked on the door. He pointedly ignored the scissors sticking out of the door, though he vaguely wondered how much force Grell had put behind the throw to get it lodged into the door.

On the other side of the door, there was a heavy sigh and an exasperated, "Come in."

William opened the door and entered the small office, closing the door behind him. He and Grell stared at one another in silence. It was at that point that William didn't know exactly what to say. Ronald had been right. The paperwork was nearly finished.

Grell looked away first, acting indifferently to the other man's presence, "What do you want?" Of all the people to come into the room, why did it have to be William? Grell paused in writing. William...Grell's eyes glanced up at William, and Grell ground his teeth a bit. It was William's fault that he was feeling so furious. It was William's fault that he had been in his office for who knows how long. It was William's fault...it was...his fault...Grell dropped his pen and stood abruptly, picking up his deathscythe as he did. He'd teach William not to treat a lady so horribly. He would make sure that he got his point across. A crazed smile found its way onto Grell's face.

Meanwhile, William was preoccupied that Grell had addressed him in such a way, "Grell Sutcliff, you will address me properly. I will not tolerate any..." William stopped talking abruptly and held up his own death scythe, when he noticed that Grell had stood up with his chainsaw, "Grell, put that away, now."

Grell merely laughed as he drew closer to William, crazed smile more prominent, "Why should I? And why should I bother listening to you, when you were so rude to me earlier in the week?"

The angry outburst came back to him, and William realized that he hadn't really meant all of those harsh comments. He would have to worry about that later, as he was currently more concerned that a sleep deprived Grell was closing in on him with the chainsaw on and laughing maniacally as he swung it. William countered the attack with his own deathscythe, and the force of the blow made him stumble backwards, back hitting the nearest office wall. Inwardly cursing the small office for being a bad place for a fight, William diverted Grell's scythe's path again, leaping to one side to give himself some more room. Unfortunately, Grell kept up, pushing him back toward another wall. Before his back could hit it, William pivoted and put the desk between himself and Grell. It would have probably slowed the red-head down, had Grell not been so angry.

William twisted his scythe as Grell jumped onto the desk and swung the chainsaw down heavily. William countered, catching the brunt of the blow, and, before Grell could do any more, manged to force the deathscythe out of Grell's grasp. At the same time, William lost his grip on his own deathscythe. William sidestepped Grell, and grabbed him from behind, his right arm snaking around Grell's throat in a choke hold, his left hand trapping Grell's left arm against his side.

Grell growled angrily, attempting to free himself, unable to form any words as he struggled wildly.

"Grell! Stop it!" William snapped, "Listen to me! I have my reasons for what happened the other day!" Why wasn't Grell listening?

Grell, however, merely increased his struggling, not listening, only intent on escape. Grell writhed in William's grasp, until he got the angle right. Without a moment's notice, Grell sank his teeth deeply into William's right forearm.

William felt a sharp pain, accompanied by a crunching sound. William knew that it wasn't a good sign when he couldn't feel his right hand, or beneath the elbow, for that matter. William saw the back of Grell's head leaning over the arm he had used to put the red-head in a choke hold. William blinked, disbelieving. Had Grell just bitten him? The pain was sharp, and William wasn't sure what to do to get Grell to let go without causing more damage. William supposed that he could pull Grell's hair, though he really didn't want Grell to grind his teeth...that wouldn't be good...but he couldn't think of anything else that might get Grell's attention and bring him back into reality. William let go of Grell's left arm, and wrapped his uninjured hand into Grell's hair tightly, near the back of the head. Taking a deep, steadying breath, William yanked the hair sharply, wincing when it caused Grell to bite a little more deeply. It had the desired effect.

Grell blinked, snapping back into the real world when he heard a quiet moan of pain from William. Grell blinked again, realizing from the taste of blood that he was biting William's forearm, rather deeply. Grell carefully dislodged his teeth from the arm, wincing at the damage done. He didn't remember biting William.

William felt Grell release his arm, and backed away from the red-head, toward the desk. The dark-haired shinigami sat down, resting his back against the desk, cradling his right arm against his chest. William knew he would most likely slip into shock, and hoped that Grell or Ronald, standing outside the office, would have enough sense to go get help. William really wanted his newly acquired injury to be treated as soon as possible.

Ronald Knox had picked that moment to venture inside to check on the situation. He had heard what sounded like a fight, but he hadn't wanted to interfere with it, unsure if he would get caught up in it. Seeing what had happened, Ron spoke, "Should I go get help?"William didn't respond, possibly due to shock setting in, otherwise Ron would have gotten an annoyed glare for stating the obvious. Grell, after hearing Ron's voice, made a faint sound, before rushing out of the office.

"I...I'll be back..."

Ronald later learned that Grell had been washing his mouth out and trying not to retch at the thought of what he had done.

Grell returned to his office a few minutes later, to find Ron trying to coax William into standing up. Grell hovered in the background, nervously waiting for William to scold him. If he deserved to be yelled at, now was the time to do so.

Instead of scolding, however, William glanced up and over at Grell. With a pained grimace, he spoke, "Does this...make us even?"

Grell let out a helpless laugh, shaking his head, "I'm sorry, Will. I was just trying to get the work done. I wasn't thinking..."

William was about to respond, when he heard movement outside the office. The door opened, and his eyes widened slightly, "Grell!"

"Look out!" Ronald added. Several other shinigami had apparently heard Grell's chainsaw roar to life.

Grell let out a surprised gasp as he was dragged backwards a bit, two other reapers having seized his arms. A few shinigami crowded into the office, one kneeling down next to William to check on him. Grell wasn't really listening to what they were saying, more focused on that he was being held rather tightly and it hurt. Grell tried saying "Let go of me!" but every time he did so the two shinigami tightened their grasp. Why were they holding onto him anyway? Did they think that he had snapped and was going to attack again? Well...he had snapped, but only for a little while.

Ronald noticed that the other reapers were getting agitated, and once the reaper checking on William announced that he had gotten his injury from Grell, there was an uproar. Ronald even saw a few of them holding onto their deathscythes, looking very unhappy about the announcement.

William, despite being in pain and not really feeling well, managed to grab onto the nearest reaper, keeping him from going toward Grell, "I'll deal with him." Even William, in his injured state, could tell that things were starting to get out of hand.

Grell had been concerned when a lot of angry eyes were looking at him, but became a little surprised when the anger simmered down to disappointment when William spoke. What the dark-haired man had said, Grell didn't know, as he had spoken rather quietly. Seeing Ronald's outraged expression didn't make much sense to him either, but it didn't matter. Grell felt something strike him rather heavily over the head seconds later, and felt himself go limp in the grasp of the two other shinigami. What had just hit him? Another sharp crack hit the back of his head, and Grell didn't have to worry about anything as he was knocked unconscious amidst angry voices and arguing.

-x

When Grell came to, he realized that he was at home, in his bedroom. Grell lay still, trying to figure out what had happened and what had gotten him from headquarters to his home. Giving up on that momentarily, he tilted his head, and found William was in his bedroom as well, dozing on a chair. Grell would have been thinking something along the lines of hitting on William while he slept, but the sight of the other man's bandaged arm stopped him. Staring guiltily at the white bandages, Grell wondered if he were going to get into trouble for biting William. Grell sat up in bed stiffly, one hand going to the back of his head, where it was throbbing a little bit. Right...he had been restrained...there had been arguing...and someone had hit him over the head twice...but, why didn't it hurt more?

William heard Grell moving around, and opened his eyes. Seeing Grell's confused look, William spoke, "You've been asleep for nearly a week. You're lucky that you're not more injured, as some of the other reapers felt that they wanted to retaliate more than to just knock you out."

Grell sighed miserably, "I'm going to be punished, aren't I?"

William stared at Grell, "Since you've gotten caught up on your paperwork and sleep, you will assist me until my arm recovers," William looked off to the side, "I can't write at the moment. Not for at least a month."

Grell groaned at the thought of more paperwork, but nodded in agreement, since he had been the one to cause the injury. If that was all he was being punished with, then he would take it.

William appeared to hesitate, before adding, in what he hoped was a casual tone, "I will also need some assistance getting my outfit on in the morning and off in the evening..." William froze in his seat when he saw Grell get up of the bed with a wide smile. He held still as Grell circled him, before Grell leaned up against the back of the chair and wrapped him in a half-hug.

"Do you only need help with your clothing, or do you need help with your baths as well?" Grell asked teasingly.

William thought, as Grell let go and came in front of him, if perhaps he should have taken a few days off and had a nurse look after him.

Grell tut-tutted, as if he could read William's mind, and planted a kiss on William's cheek before the other could stop him. Leaning forward, Grell whispered close to William's ear, "If I wore a nurse's outfit, would you let me take care of you?"

"Absolutely not." William responded instantly.

Grell laughed at the vehement response, and stood back, pulling William up off the chair, "You should go home and get some rest before you go back to work."

William was not in agreement with this and held back his annoyance as Grell practically dragged him home. There really wasn't much he could do with only one functional arm, and fighting off a determined Grell wasn't something he could do at the moment. At the house, William attempted to change into his suit, in no mood to listen to reason. Grell, however, wouldn't hear of it, and followed after him in the room, managing to get a nightshirt on him. Grell's eyes twinkled mischievously as he managed to change William's pants as well.

William soon lay on his bed, surprised and frustrated with himself for allowing Grell to order him around in his own home. And how exactly had Grell managed to get him into his clothing without a lot of fuss?

Grell grinned at William from a nearby chair, legs crossed, "Want to play a game, Will~?"

There was something in the way he said it that should have been suspicious for William, but he was tired, and decided to humor Grell for the moment, "What is it?" If it would distract him from thinking about the position he was in, William would allow it, for now. When he saw Grell start to smile, William started to regret speaking.

Grell's grin widened as he placed a nurse's hat that he had found onto his head. Standing up off the chair, Grell all but crawled onto the bed, "I play a nurse and you're my willing patient~."

William sighed and closed his eyes, deciding that sleep actually sounded like a good idea once he felt a hand splay across his chest. Although, the next day William knew he was going to be having Grell do paperwork for him, so for now, maybe he would play a little.

-x-

Interpret the ending however you like. I couldn't think of how else to end it. On a side note, I never thought about whether William was right or left handed. I didn't pay attention if there were any signs in the manga or anime. Oh well. I wasn't in the mood to type another chapter of Rain Noir at the moment, so I typed up this, and feel a lot better for some reason. I'll add new chapters to this when I have something to add to it. I am open to ideas, but I have a few scribbled down in a notebook. Like a chesirecat!Grell and William one-shot, because I feel like it after seeing the ova.

For now, I'll try and update my other stories.