(A/N: So here I am with a new WillxGrell fic. I've been meaning to post this for a while, but just haven't found the time
Sorry, kiddies. No goodies like pics, jokes, or fun-facts, today.
I had a lot of fun writing this, and as you may be able to tell, I like writing unique fics that I've never seen anyone do before.
Well, at least I TRY.
Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue.
~And with that said, let this epic tale begin...!~
(HAAAZAR!)
~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Grell sighed as he twiddled his thumbs nervously in the back seat of the carriage. His breath was visible due to the freezing temperature outside. 'I hope he's all right,' thought the redhead, 'God, I hope he's all right.
Grell wanted to get to the train station as fast as humanly possible.
(Exactly One Month and One Week Prior...!)
"William!" Grell shouted worriedly as he slammed open the door to his boss's office.
"Good morning to you too, Sutcliff." William said sarcastically as he raised a brow, not bothering to look up at his subordinate over the huge stacks of paperwork layed out before him. "May I be of any assistance to you at this hour?" William could act polite towards Grell, when he was in the mood.
Now seemed like the right time to be friendly, as he knew exactly why the redhead was there.
"Is it true?" Grell said weakly. William could almost see tears welling up at the corners of the redhead's eyes. The older man's mood dampened (a bit more than his mood usually is) at the sorrowful tone in Grell's voice.
"Pardon?" he asked stoically as if he didn't know what the normally-flamboyant redheaded reaper was talking about.
"A-Are you really l-l-leaving?" Grell tried his best to fight back tears, but failed miserably as he sobbed when he said the blasted L word (A/N: I immediately thought of Scott Pilgrim when I wrote that. I've never seen the movie, but I've seen that scene). William noticed the salty liquid running down Grell's cheek, taking some of his eyeliner with it and creating a thin black streak of makeup.
William sighed. "It's only for a month. I'm sure you'll be fine." he started nervously shifting around papers, afraid to look into Grell's sad eyes. It was quite heart-breaking for him to see the redhead so worried and desperate, yet he had to maintain his stoic facade. It was only a month, right?
"B-But you can't stay there for an entire month! Things are dangerous in Paris right now! Angels and demons are practically flooding the streets! I couldn't bare to see you injured, or worse, killed! I definately do not want to receive a letter that says you died in battle, and... Well... Um-Just WHO exactly is going to keep the office in order?" Grell pleaded for William to stay with all his might.
"Actually, I was hoping it would be a group effort between you, Knox, Humphries, and Slingby to take care of things in my absence. It is my duty to fulfill as a Shinigami to go help our friends in France. They have loads of experience with angels, but absolutely NO idea what to do about a demon. The London Branch practically specializes in the disposal of those filthy creatures. (They're always lurking around East End.) Therefore, duty calls." he explained this all to Grell as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose a bit more, as they had been slowly slipping down.
"NO! Y-You can't! I- I- I... I won't let you get yourself killed! I... I need you!" Grell began to sob sadly.
That last statement mixed with the crying coming from the redhead hit William hard. He sighed and retrieved a handkerchief from the pocket of his suit jacket. He then stood up from the chair and walked to Grell. Handing him the handkerchief to dry his tears with, he said, "I'm deeply sorry that this upsets you so much. I would love to stay, but sadly, that is not an option. I'll be leaving in exactly one week. I also have to bring Knox along, but don't worry, he'll just be helping me collect leftover souls."
(One Week Later from the Flashback...!)
"Will Dearest~!" called a certain feminine shinigami as he burst into William's office. His voice wasn't AS chipper as usual, but it was still pretty cheerful. William looked up as his name was called. "Are you ready?" the redhead asked.
"Yes. Hold on one second." he replied as he zipped up his leather bag. "Okay, we can go now." he picked up the bag and turned to face Grell. He noticed that Grell was holding something behind his back.
"Hey, Will? I- I, um, have a gift for you." Grell shifted his gaze away from the man in front of him as his cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red.
"Oh? And what might that be?" William raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. Grell could be really sweet at times.
"H-Here." he held out a really long red scarf, obviously hand knitted. "I started this for you a while ago. I tried really hard to finish it before you left, and just barely made the dead-line."
William looked thoughtfully at the scarf before gently taking it into his hands. Ooh~ He could tell it was soft even through his gloves. "You MADE this?" he asked, curiously admiring the practically perfect rows. It was knitted AND pearled, so that it looked like it had kind of a striped pattern. "It's lovely."
Grell smiled sweetly before replying with a soft, "Thank you. I know that red isn't your favorite color, but I just wanted to give you something that may remind you of me. It'll protect you from the cold, dark winter and keep you safe and warm, so I don't have to sit here and worry about whether or not you're freezing to DEATH out there."
William allowed the corners of his lips to twitch upward a bit, just barely. "Thank you very much. It means a lot to me."
To Grell's complete and utter surprise, William took the scarf and wrapped it around his neck a few times. 'He's probably just doing that for me,' thought Grell. "Well, shall we go?"
It was a long carriage ride to the train station (the train would take William to wherever he needed to go to get a boat ride off the large island) full of Ronald and Eric throwing loud-mouthed remarks at each other. It was WAY too crowded. William knew one thing for sure.
On the ride back home, they were splitting two different carriages.
Once they entered the train station, William and Ronald went through all the necessary steps you needed to take in order to board the train.
Ronald ended up having a different train than William, so he said his goodbyes and went on his merry way.
Once they got to his platform, William noticed that Grell was looking a bit down, so he decided to try and talk to him. He suddenly grabbed Grell by his slender shoulders and said, "I will live through this, and so will you."
Grell looked at him with wide-eyes for a moment before tears started up again. He leaned forward and started to sob into William's coat. "Honestly... You don't have to cry. I'll be back in a month." he placed a reassuring hand awkwardly on the small of Grell's back.
Grell looked up at him with pleading eyes and asked in a hushed tone, "Y-You promise?"
"I swear to God." William managed to show a bit of affection and sympathy without breaking his cold mask.
Grell nodded his head and shoved his face into the cotton of William's coat. "Well if you're going to be strong, so am I." he mumbled into the taller man's chest. William gave him a tight reassuring squeeze of the hand and a small hug (which and Eric cat-called to. He wasn't wearing his new scarf because he knew that the two blondes would pester him about it.).
The dark-haired man said his goodbyes to his friends, and boarded the train. Sparing one last glance at Grell, he smiled a bit and disappeared into the train.
(Current Time...!)
Grell snapped out of his flashback as the carriage stopped, signaling that he and the others had arrived at the station. He hopped out of the carriage and onto the cobblestone street below, high-heeled boots clacking on the hard surface.
He wasn't wearing anything too fancy. A Long black coat with red trim and buttons, black trousers, red knee-high (really) high-heeled boots, and a black beanie with a red rim and red pompom on top. He was also wearing some red lipstick.
Okay, maybe he DID look a bit fancy.
But, he had to look good for his darling William!
He just hoped to God that William WOULD come out of the train.
And not on a gurney or in a wheelchair.
Eric, and Alan both hopped out behind him, the former helping the latter, as a true gentleman would do for his lady.
And with that, they set off into the train station!
...
"Okay," Eric started, "Ginger, you go to Platform 3 and wait for Knox. Me and Alan-"
"Alan and I!" Alan corrected.
"Alan and I, whatever, will be at Platform 5, tending to William."
"Whaaat!" Grell whined, "Why can't I go get Will~?"
"Because you can't." Eric snapped, "Now, head out!"
Grell did as he was told and went to Platform 3 to retrieve Ronald. He pouted at the thought of Eric sending him to go get his precious Knoxie instead of William just to tick him off.
No offense to Ronald in any way.
Grell stood by the platform and waited for what seemed like an eternity, before finally, a train came, and from this train emerged the wonderful bright-eyed Ronald Knox.
...
"Uggh! How many people are in this train?" Eric complained as ordinary human beings filed out of the train, William nowhere to be seen.
"Be patient, love. I'm sure there can't be THAT many more passe-" Alan was cut off when William finally came out of the blasted train, but both Eric and Alan's jaws dropped when they saw him.
...
"So how was your trip, love?" Grell asked sweetly as they walked to Platform 5 to meet up with the others, "Did you meet any nice French girls?"
"Oh, yeah, there was this one cute young la-" he was cut off mid-sentence when he spotted something in the distance, and his jaw dropped (much like Eric and Alan's had) at the sight.
"Is something wron- OH!" Grell's face turned a lovely shade if red. Judging by the dumbfounded looks Eric and Alan were giving this person, Grell would have to say that it was William. In very... Different attire.
...
"H-Hey, Boss!" Eric managed to call. William looked up at him for a moment, before realizing that they were his colleagues and walking over to them.
Let's explain what he was wearing, shall we? He was wearing a long (very expensive looking) black coat, and normal black trousers.
That is not the interesting part, though.
He was also wearing a black beanie. William usually never wore hats. His hair was NOT gelled, making his bangs fall naturally down across his forehead (like in the Noah's Ark Circus Ark in the manga, when he was lying in bed). For some reason, he decided to acknowledge the fact that he got his ears pierced when he was very young, and still human. He used to be of nobility, and it was apparently some kind of status thing to have your ears pierced back when he was growing up. Anyway, he had tiny little black stud earrings in the shapes of roses. Perhaps the most shocking part of all was the gorgeous, long red scarf hanging around his neck.
Before his name was called, he was just standing there, reading over some work assignments in a black book while sipping a (Starbucks-like) cup of tea. "Good afternoon." he said politely once he arrived near them.
"H-Hello, sir," Greeted Alan. He had never seen his boss look so... Un-boss like. "How was your tr-"
He was interrupted when a certain Knox yelled, "HEY, BOSS!"
He got many weird stares and Grell was standing next to him blushing like a schoolgirl, partially out of embarrassment of his friend, and partially because of William's outfit. The two younger Shinigami sprinted excitedly over to their supervisor.
"Hello, Knox, Sutcliff. How have you been holding up?" asked William. Deep down inside, he was quite happy to see Grell. Though he would never admit it out loud, he missed the flirtatious redhead just as much as Grell missed him.
"Fine. How bout' ya?" Ronald said casually.
William briefly wondered why Grell was being so quiet (and why his face was all red), before replying, "Just fine. Work was tiring, I hate demons even more then I did before, and I'm happy to be home. Also, a member of our London Division group went out and gave the Eiffel Tower a hefty death scythe mark. Whether this was on purpo- Sutcliff, are you okay?" he asked the last part with a slight trace of worry in his tone. The redhead was really freaking him out.
"I-I'm fine." was Grell's short, quiet reply. His face turned even redder. William looked awfully handsome, today.
William eyed him cautiously before turning to the others and saying, "Well, we have enough time to talk about the trip later. For now, it's best we get home."
The rest of the group nodded at his sensible logic and headed for the doors. Once Eric looked outside, he noted the TWO carriages waiting for them. A devious plan was hatched. His lips twisted up in a sly smirk as he leaned over to whisper something in Alan's ear. Alan blushed a bit before smiling and nodding his head in agreement. He passed the information that Eric had just given him down to Ronald.
The youngest Shinigami smiled brightly and raced to the carriage, followed by Eric and Alan. On the way there, Alan 'twisted' his ankle. "Ouch! Eric, help me!" he called. The older man winked at him (and he winked back) as he picked the smaller man up and ran to the carriage.
Once there, he sat the smaller man down on one of the bench seats, made him lie down, and climbed into the opposite bench seat. Ronald climbed in after him and sat down. Due to Alan laying down on 1 of 2 benches, and Eric and Ronald taking up all the space on the other bench, there was no room for William and Grell to sit down.
"Sorry, Boss," Eric started, "No more room."
"It's fine. We'll take the other carriage. Come on, Sutcliff." William shut the door on the occupied carriage and escorted Grell to their carriage. He opened the door for the smaller man, like a gentleman. Grell gave him a soft smile, and a curtsy before hopping in the carriage. "Thank you, pet~"
William rolled his eyes and followed Grell into the carriage. He shut the door behind him and sat beside Grell on the bench seat. The carriage took off and they were on their way home.
All was in awkward silence for a few minutes, before Grell decided to speak. "I see you're actually wearing the scarf."
William turned his head to look at Grell for a moment and replied, "Of course. I'm quite fond of it. It's warm, soft, and it's colorful, which is quite nice because I don't have a lot of color in my wardrobe."
Grell smiled sweetly, a light blush beginning to (re)appear on his cheeks. "Well, I'm glad you like it." he thought for another moment and said, "Why are you wearing earrings?"
William turned his head away and said, "They were a gift... From Eric."
Grell giggled, making William's eyes-widen at the girlish noise. "Did you know that Eric has a matching set of those earrings?" Grell leaned in a little closer to William's ear, "Yup! Black studs in the shape of little roses!"
William's face almost turned beet red, but his mind screamed, 'Don't you dare blush like that! You are William T. Spears! William T. Spears does NOT blush!' So instead of blushing bright red like a schoolgirl, a light pink dusted his cheeks.
"Aww~! Will, you're so cute when you blush~!" Grell pointed out with a wide smile.
"Hmmph!" William looked away to hide his face.
A silence fell across the carriage. But not an awkward silence, a warm, comfortable silence. Suddenly, William felt Grell shiver violently beside him. He glanced over to find the redhead rubbing his hands together in a poor attempt to stay warm. "Cold?" he asked as he raised a dark brow.
"Very." Grell continued to try and warm himself.
"Here," William handed the smaller male the cup he had previously been holding, "Drink some of this."
"Oh! Th-Thank you." he carefully took the cup from his boss. He looked at the cup thoughtfully before all the heat that was left in his body traveled to his face. 'THIS IS INDIRECT KISSING!' his mind screamed at him, 'AND HERE I THOUGHT MY USELESS ATTEMPTS AT FLIRTING WITH THE MAN WERE HOPELESS!'
He brought the cup to his lips before thinking, 'William can be a real sweetheart sometimes. It's a wonder he's still single.'
"It's a special mint lavender blend that I picked up during my trip. It helps relieve stress. It was made with only the finest herbs, in fact, it was very expensive. Some of the leaves that were used are very rare, but they add magnificent flavor." the taller man explained.
'Spearmint.' Grell thought with a smile.
Letting the hot liquid travel down his throat and warm his freezing body, he couldn't help but think of how his supervisors lips had touched the same spot on the lid. Realizing that it had been a few seconds and he was still holding the cup to his mouth (due to daydreaming), and William was watching him with a brow raised in wonder, he quickly pulled the cup away and handed it back to his boss.
William almost felt like smirking as he retrieved his tea. He knew exactly why Grell was holding it like that for so long. Instead of making a snarky remark, he pretended to act clueless about the whole thing and said, "Did you like it?"
"Very much so," Grell started, and William almost took that as an innuendo, before the small redhead finished innocently with a polite nod and a, "Thank you."
After another moment, Grell piped up and said, "William, I'm really glad you got home safely. I- I... I don't know what I would've done if you didn't. Life is hard, and Lord knows where I would be without you here to guide me through it. I know to you I'm just an annoying, flirtatious, slacking nuisance, but you changed my life for the better. You gave me a friend. And for that of our tiny flame of friendship, I would give my life to protect. Thank you for being there for me, through thick and thin."
William didn't know why, but those very words broke his icy barrier and hit somewhere deep in his heart. And for the first time in a long, long time, his lips twitched upward into a smile. A real, unmasked, unrestrained, genuine smile. "I- I should say all the same to you." William raised his cup of tea to the level of his eyes (cookies if you get why I worded it like that.) and continued with, "And long live our friendship!" he said half jokingly and half serious. He said it just to make Grell give that cute little giggle again, which he did.
Grell leaned in and gave William a light peck on the cheek, "Long live us..."
The rest of the ride home was spent in a warm, comfortable silence.
(Well, almost silence. Somewhere along the way, Grell fell asleep on William's shoulder. William was going to push him off, but just decided to let him be. In his sleep, Grell mumbled, "Oh, William~!" almost seductively, which didn't go unnoticed by William. Without anyone watching him this time, William allowed his face to blush bright red at a few other things Grell said, in which the author can't tell you. Let's keep this rated K.)
(The Next Day at Grell's Apartment Room...!)
Grell yawned as he opened his door to go to work. Just about to step out, he noticed a small package sitting outside of his door. Picking up the package, he brought it inside for him to deal with later. But the more he looked at it, the harder it was to restrain himself from opening it.
It wasn't signed, but it was a deep red box with a black satin ribbon.
This person OBVIOUSLY knew him.
Finally, his curiosity got the best of him, and with a sigh, he undid the black ribbon, letting it fall gently to the table. He removed the lid only to find something that made him smile.
A special blend of spearmint and lavender tea, a perfect stress reliever.
He picked up the note that was lying on the box of tea and read it.
'Sutcliff,'
His smile widened at the lack of the word, 'Dear' or some other pleasant opening.
'I was lucky to have bought an extra box of tea. Seeing how you enjoyed it SO much,'
Grell blushed as he remembered how long he held that blasted cup to his lips. He could just SEE the smirk on William's face as he wrote that.
'I've decided to gift the second box to you.
Enjoy,
Your Boss'
Grell squealed with joy at the William' signature. He knew that this was William's own strange way of showing affection. He glanced down at the tea.
Little did he know that William was wearing his precious scarf today, as well.