.:II:.
The entire house was quiet as the sun dared to peek out from behind the looming clouds that threatened more snow and possibly sheeting rain. Such a winter morning was best spent in bed, and if one was awake to enjoy such a morning that frosted the windows, one who preferably have a hot cup of tea to sip down and warm ones bones. Unfortunately, no such luxury was possible on that morning, and one of the inhabitants of the house, at least, was already stirring from their slumber.
Fighting the cold, Alexis sat up and yawned, rewrapping herself in her doona to fend off the chill in the air. Sleepily, she swung her legs over the side of her bed and buried her feet into her slippers – it didn't help that they were just as cold as the rest of her bedroom, but there was only so much one could expect from a morning such as this. Her sleep-blinded attention was pierced by the whistling of a kettle, and Alexis smiled. School today was going to be cold – but at least a hot breakfast was going to be somewhat warming.
Trudging downstairs, Alexis was greeted by the sizzling of an omelet on the stove and the smell of brewing tea on the bench. Skilled hands worked tirelessly over the cutting board – slicing a sandwich and deftly wrapping it in cling wrap before setting it aside to retrieve the sky-rocketing toast from the toaster.
'Good morning, Alexis,' the deep voice was tired, and Alexis knew that her older brother had been out late the night before.
'Hey Will,' she slid onto a stool at the counter as a plate of omelet-on-toast came sliding her way, before a steaming cup of tea was set down in front of her to join the plate. She smiled up at her big brother. 'Thanks.'
William T Spears nodded before spooning two heaped teaspoons of coffee into his own cup. He fished the kettle off the stove and soon the air was a battlefield of the smell of coffee and tea, puffs of steam wafting through the air. Alexis wrinkled her nose at her brother as he took a deep swig of the caffeine-powered drink.
'I don't understand how you can drink that,' she said around a mouthful of toast, and William sighed, a warm puff of mist escaping his lips as he readjusted his glasses.
'And I don't see how you can possibly think that this is any sort of appropriate time to be getting up. How many times this week do you want to be late for school?' he asked, scrutinizing her with his green eyes. Alexis shrugged – most people would have withered under Will's glare, but after seventeen years of living with him, she had become fairly accustomed to it.
'School's overrated. It's not as if I enjoy it, anyway,' she said into her own cup. 'Besides – it's only one year left, and I'm guaranteed to be graduating with the marks I'm getting.'
William cocked an eyebrow as he downed the last of his coffee before placing his cup into the sink. He was already dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and his normal black tie and black slacks, but his hair was in a sad state of disarray. Alexis smiled over her tea and toast as the sunlight coming through the kitchen window caught strands of Will's hair and cast different shadow patterns over the wall. She pouted as he ran an absent-minded hand through it to try to flatten it a little.
'You'd better hurry up and get dressed,' he said, not noticing her watching him. 'Otherwise I'm going to have to drop you all the way out to school. And I refuse to let you walk on such a morning.'
'Aw – why not?' Alexis complained. 'Sure it's cold and all, but I don't mind walking to the train station.'
William turned to send another unconvinced eyebrow in her direction. 'One, I will not let you be late for school – again. And two, there was an ice warning on the news this morning and I will not risk you trying to not be late for school by running and therefore entertaining the possibility of causing an accident and getting hurt.'
Alexis grumbled and finished her breakfast – but she knew that he was right. However she didn't honestly see the point in him driving her to school if the risk of ice on the roads was still going to be there – wasn't that only really putting them both in danger?
'I know what you're thinking, and before you say it, no.' William said from the hallway. He was running a comb through his hair in front of the hall mirror and pulling on his jacket. 'The car has ice protection on the tires, remember?'
Alexis sighed. It was worth a try.
Snow buried the house to about a foot deep, and William and Alexis picked their way through the snow, over the rough vicinity of the footpath to the sleek black car that waited for them like a sleeping panther. The scarf wrapped around Alexis' neck flapped in the soft breeze, blinding her vision for a moment as it flailed about in front of her eyes, and she tripped and went flying. Crying out, she collided with her brother and knocked them both forward, landing face-first in the snow. William was cursing softly under his breath and Alexis swore out loud as they tried to sit up, but kept getting tangled up in each others limbs.
'Oof! Hey – gettoff!' she cried as Will tried to push himself up, only to accidentally knee Alexis in the stomach.
'I'm sorry – but if you hadn't slipped – ouch!' he was cut off as Alexis scrambled to get out from under him, but his foot was on her scarf, and she was gagged and she slid back over and landed on him again as he fell back down from having her scoot from under him.
'Ffffffu-'
'Alexis!' Will said sharply as Alexis loosened the scarf and slipped it over her head before rolling away from her brother. They both lay there for a moment, staring up at the sky, a little dazed. Then, Alexis felt something bubble and rise in her chest, until a soft laugh escaped her lips.
'What now?' William asked irritably, but Alexis just got to her feet and brushed herself off before replying.
'Nothing – it's just – that was kinda fun,' she said, offering him a hand up too. His glasses had fallen off in the tussle, and he just stared at the vague vicinity of where her hand was. 'Oh right – sorry Will.' She dropped down to her knees in the snow again and began to ferret around – it was hard, sometimes, to remember that her older brother wasn't able to see much past his outstretched fingertips without his glasses, mainly because she hardly ever saw him without them. They were like an aspect of him that, if missing, was surprising.
Will was grumbling under his breath as he let his fingers trail through the snow around him, too, in search of the glasses. Something cold, thin and metal hit Alexis' fingers, and she came up with gold, holding up the glasses with a triumphant cry.
'Found them!'
'Good,' Will reached out in her general direction. 'If you don't mind.'
Alexis laughed and held them just out of his reach. 'Aww, you're no fun, Will.'
'Give them back, Alexis – I'm going to be late for work and you'll be late for school.'
Alexis laughed and merely turned the spectacles over in her hands. 'Ha ha – come on – just one day surely won't matter that much? Besides, we're both going to have to get changed anyway, so we'll be late no matter what.'
There was a stern frown carving its way across Will's brow. 'Alexis!'
Alexis sighed and took her brother by his outstretched hand, pulling him to his feet. He patted himself down, shaking any offending snow from his suit before holding out his hand for his glasses again. 'Alexis – please.'
'Yeah, I know – hey – what does the world look like with them on, anyhow? Is everything intensified or somethi-' She put the glasses on, only to stop dead in her tracks. The moment the spectacles were seated on the bridge of her nose, her vision warped and change. Suddenly, everything faded into a blue colour, with tinges of violet and seaweed green. William was yelling something, but instead of hearing him, Alexis was focused on the bring white light that she could see exploding from her brothers chest, reels and reels of brightness dancing and weaving around each other, coursing through his veins…
'Alexis!' His hands were on her shoulders, shaking her, and then, his gloved fingers found her face and pulled the glasses off of her, and her vision went back to normal. A wave of dizziness spiraled around her head, and she felt herself falling backwards. William was there, catching her and supporting her while she regained her balance.
'Whoa – ' she breathed as the world stopped spinning enough for her to focus on the ground in front of them, a minefield of footprints and scuff marks in the snow. 'What the hell was that?'
'Never!' Will yelled, his eyes a furious green behind his newly returned glasses. 'Never put on my glasses! Ever! You have no idea the damage you might have caused – you…you idiot!'
Something went cold in Alexis' chest – and it wasn't from the snow. Will had never raised his voice to her, ever – not once. And he'd never called her an idiot. He'd never lost his cool with her – sure, he'd gotten annoyed and he'd chastised her for doing stupid stuff, but he'd never gone off the deep end like this. And his face was so close to hers, his arms stiff and cold around her. Alexis had never seen this side of her brother before – and that terrified her.
'I- Will, I'm-' She couldn't find the words to say; she didn't know what to do to make things right. Apologizing didn't quite seem like enough. Will bit his lip, obviously biting back more vicious reprimanding, and then he took a deep breath, calming himself. Then, he helped her to stand upright, but the moment he let her go, Alexis felt even colder than ever. William simply retrieved his working briefcase from the snow, readjusted his glasses, and stood by the car. When he turned to her, she felt his cold glare not meeting her eyes.
'Get in the car.' He said quietly, and Alexis nodded numbly and did as she was told. She had a feeling that the car trip to school was going to be very, very quiet and very, very cold, no matter how high the cars heater was turned up.
Alan Humphries was the first to notice his senior's foul mood that morning. William T Spears had stalked into the office, water almost literally vaporising from his wet closed, he was so steamingly teed off. He had, for the most part, dried by the time he'd reached the London Branch of the Dispatch Society, but Alan could see that not even that could have lightened his mood. He noted to himself how Will avoided eye contact with everyone, sending chilled looks only to those who dared say good morning to him. Alan allowed himself a small smile before regaining his composure – it was most certainly not a good morning for William.
Sighing, Alan quickly slid the last of his report papers into their file and tucked them under his arm as he composed himself to face his boss. Glancing across the main office floor to Will's private office, he could see his senior strip himself of his blazer and hang it neatly in front of the heater, before turning said heater up a few notches. There was a low chuckle at Alan's ear that made him jump.
'No one likes a cold office in the morning,' whirling, Alan came face-to-face with Eric Slingby, his constant partner and friend. Alan chuckled a little.
'I suppose not even the boss is that frozen,' he commented, and Eric laughed as he turned to the coffee machine a few feet away. Alan followed him over – anything to put off having to go up to Will and hand in his report.
'Yeah, well. Maybe Will's office wouldn't be as frosty if he didn't act like he had an icicle stuck up his ass all the time,' Eric chuckled, pulling off his gloves to wrap his hands around a brewing coffee mug. He picked it up and handed it to Alan. 'Here. You look like you need it.'
'Thanks,' Alan smiled and accepted the cup, sipping the broth gratefully. 'I suppose I'd better take another one – for William, of course.'
Eric smirked and raised an eyebrow. 'What're you gonna try and do, defrost him a little?'
'Something like that,' they shared another laugh as Eric filled two more cups with coffee. The two Reapers clinked their cups together before Eric handed Alan the second one, and Alan sighed and turned on his heel. It was now or never to face Will – of course, he shouldn't really be on the receiving end of Will's wrath this morning – it wasn't like he'd done anything wrong. He'd finished his report over an hour early the day previous, had sorted out some paperwork for one of the younger reapers and had even had time to shared a drink with Eric before one last assignment before going home that night. Will had been vaguely impressed with his constant work ethic, as usual, but that was, of course, the night before. Now was a whole new ball game. Alan cleared his throat and began to head towards Will's office.
'I'll wear a purple tux to your funeral!' Eric called after him with a chortle, and Alan rolled his eyes as some of the other Reapers bustling around the busy office joined in the light laughter – as soon as William glanced up from his desk, however, they were all back to having their heads down at their desks or noses in their paperwork. But Alan had caught William's eye, and now it was as if Alan was set into automatic – one foot in front of the other. Nothing to be afraid of, Will was just in a bit of a mood just like he was on any halfway decent morning. Alan told himself to man up, just a little.
'What do you want, Humphries?' William had gone back to his own paperwork and didn't even look up as he growled. Alan hesitated in the doorway before stepping into the office.
'My report, Sir, from last night,' he began, setting the second cup of coffee down next to William's right hand, which was furiously scrawling across a page, before fishing the manilla folder out from under his arm. Alan laid the folder into William's "in" box, and the older Reaper glanced up for the briefest of moments before readjusting his glasses and going back to seriously tormenting the paper with his pen.
'Fine.' Silence fell between them. It was an uncomfortable one – Alan knew better than to hang around when Will was in one of his bad moods, but somehow the younger Reaper seemed riveted to the floor. Something compelled him to ask a stupid question.
'…Sir?'
The pen stopped, and his superior looked up slowly. Alan saw, for the first time, really, just how damp William was. What had happened? Maybe he'd fallen in a snowy embankment? The cold look on Will's eyes reflected his chilled person.
'What, Humphries?'
Alan steeled himself into asking. He'd always been the one who faced angry superiors – it wasn't that he wasn't afraid of them; truth be told getting lectured for anything scared the pants off most Reapers. It was just that he could deal with it better than others. So if there was ever difficult news to break, Alan had been every other Reapers go-to guy who'd report it in to William. It was just something he'd grown used to over the many years he'd spent at the Dispatch Society.
'Um, well, Sir…is there something wrong, Sir?' the moment the words had left his lips, Alan regretted asking them. Of course there was something wrong. William had been silently fuming the entire time he'd been here, and the fumes were only getting hotter. Steam could have been rising off of him, for all Alan knew.
There was a very, very cold quiet between them, but now he'd asked, Alan knew that he couldn't back down. Funny how he always seemed to be the one to take Will's wrath. Maybe he was just too kind, too understanding. It certainly explained why he was able to put up with that jerk Eric and even consider him a friend after so long.
'There is nothing wrong, Humphries.' Growled William unconvincingly. Alan nodded curtly and turned on his heel, heading for the door before he could get yelled at.
'Of course Sir.'
There was a sigh behind him, and he paused in the doorway. Alan counted down from five, slowly, keeping himself calm, knowing that Will was surely about to complain about something he'd done. What if he hadn't filled out the form correctly? Will would know the moment he simply touched the folder. Alan braced himself.
'Humphries.'
Alan blinked. William wasn't yelling – his voice was quiet, controlled. Restrained, Alan noted, but still. No early-morning temper tantrums from William was a good sign.
'Yes, Sir?' Alan turned back to Will, who had his elbows resting on his mahogany table, fingers steepled together and thumbs gently rubbing his temples, like he had a headache. He looked up after a moment, his expression unreadable, before reaching into his desk drawer and pulling out a smaller manila folder.
'I'm putting you on an unofficial reconnaissance mission.'
Alan's ears pricked. This was new.
'Unofficial, Sir? What's the matter?' he stepped back into the office and stopped in front of William's desk as his superior took a single photograph from the folder. It was like a school photograph, taken of a teenage girl with long, brown hair and pale green eyes. They weren't Shinigami green – they were about three shades greener. But they were similar.
'This girl,' William said shortly. 'I want you to keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't do anything that would seem out of the ordinary. She's currently attending Ravenhurst High School in Winchester.'
'Winchester?' Alan took the photo that William handed him. She was a pretty enough girl, looking straight at the camera like she was daring it to snap the shot. Alan looked questioningly at William. 'Is there any particular reason for this sudden precaution?'
William took a sip of the steaming coffee that Alan had left on his desk.
'Mm,' he nodded. 'She may know too much. All you have to do is make sure she doesn't say anything that might incriminate us.'
'Incriminate? How so, Sir?' Alan tucked the photo into the breast pocket of his blazer, before glancing around. The glass windows allowed a view into the open area of the office, and he could see Eric and Ronald, a younger Reaper like himself, standing by the printer, pretending to be busy putting in new ink cartridges and more paper, but he knew that they were both sneaking looks his way.
'Just do it, Humphries.' William sighed irritably. 'If she finds out about the Dispatch then we could be as good as finished.'
Alan blinked in surprise. 'B-but Sir – she's just a human, isn't she?'
'Of course she is,' William said, a little forced. 'But if she starts to talk then we could have a world of problems on our hands. I assume you know what schoolgirls are like with their gossip.'
Alan nodded. 'Well, yes, Sir – I do remember the occasional reaping that has to take place in a school.'
'Then you know that rumours are deadly. So just watch her, and make sure they don't start and that she remains out of harm's way for the day.' William said curtly, and Alan nodded again.
'Yessir.'
'And Alan,' William called to Alan's retreating back as Alan turned to head out of the office again.
'Yes, Sir?'
'Consider all your paperwork, any Reapings, and any overtime you may have or be assigned today officially added to Reaper Slingby's workload.' William said, and Alan nearly choked.
'Do you mean –'
'Yes, Alan,' Will interrupted. 'You're on an unofficial mission for me, observational mode only – that means no interfering unless completely necessary, and therefore you shouldn't not have to cope with the extra work you already have. This takes priority in ensuring the safety and secrecy of the Society. Therefore, Eric gets your workload today, on top of his own.'
Alan felt like cheering, but at the same time he felt bad for having to hand off all his work to Eric. The older Reaper was going to have words to say about that. Alan nodded in response to William before heading out of the office again, pausing only one last time in the doorway.
'Sir?'
'Yes, Humphries?' William was back to being head-down and frustrating an innocent piece of paper with his pen.
'Shall I keep word of this mission quiet from the others?'
The pen paused a moment, but then it went back to scrawling and twirling across the page. 'Yes, Humphries.'
Alan nodded to himself, and then, he stepped back out into the open area, where several of the milling Shinigami gave him questioning looks as to the conversation he'd just held with his superior. He gave them polite smiles, quick nods, and then continued on his way. He passed Eric and Ronald, both of whom had their jaws on the floor in surprise that Will hadn't murdered Alan with his foul mood by now, pressed the button a the elevator, and then stepped into the capsule that would take him down to the parking garage.
His phone had been beeping constantly on his way to the train station that would take him on the hour or so journey out to Winchester, and simply refused to stop even after he'd take his seat on the train. Alan had ignored it, but it had been insistent. He knew he couldn't keep fending off calls from Eric and Ronald forever – they undoubtedly wanted to know what was going on, where he was going, what was up with William. Finally, he flipped his phone open and the screen lit up.
Fifteen missed text messages, four missed calls. All from Reaper Slingby and Reaper Knox. Bored, Alan opened the messages from Eric.
From: Slingby-Senpai
To: Alan Humphries
oi – OI! What's up with all YOUR work now being mine? ANSWER ME ALAN. DO IT. OR I'LL HOLD UP THE COFFEE MACHINE FOR RANSOM.
The next one wasn't much better, but at least they made Alan smile a little.
From: Slingby-Senpai
To: Alan Humphries
what's goin on Alan? Wills got a stick up his butt and nearly fumigated the entire floor with his shit mood. Wherere you going and why wont you reply? PICK UP DAMMIT MAN THIS IS YOUR SENPAIR TEXTING.
Alan didn't really believe that Eric would leave him alone unless he came up with some sort of good explanation. And, he realized with a sigh, the truth was always the best sort of explanation.
From: Alan Humphries
To: Slingby-Senpai
fyi, eric – I'm on a mission for Will and I'm not allowed to say what it is and where. Don't worry about me, I'm be back a little later this afternoon. I'm sorry about you getting my workload today – if you don't finish all the paperwork, bring it over to my apartment after about 5 and I'll help you finish it.
-A
The reply he received to that was less than happy, and almost instantaneous.
From: Slingby-Senpai
To: Alan Humphries
I remain unimpressed. Your place. 5. You better be there.
-E
Alan sighed and stowed away his phone, watching the scenery pass by out the window. The countryside was cover in a layer of snow that was quiet light for this time over year – winter had graced London a little later than usual this year, but it only promised that there would be heavier snowfall later on.
The train pulled into the Winchester station about twenty minutes later, and Alan filed off with the rest of the passengers before hailing a cab. He gave the destination to the driver and the car pulled away from the station. Alan sat back and tried to think about all the things that this girl could say – Will hadn't exactly been very explanatory with the situation, but Alan had to assume that the threat he'd mentioned was serious.
The car arrived at the gates of Ravenhurst Private High School a little while after that, dropping Alan off outside the gates. He took a leaping bound up onto the wall encircling the school after the car had disappeared from sight, moving quickly and silently over the walls and through the school grounds. He reached what seemed to be the main class buildings, and groaned inwardly as he saw that the buildings stood about three stories high. That was a lot of classrooms to cover before he found the girl.
Sighing, he entered what must have been the receptionists office inside the main building, and approached the desk. The young lady behind the counter didn't notice him until he coughed.
'Oh – sorry Sir, I didn't see you there,' she smiled politely and turned away from her computer to face him. 'What can I do for you today?'
Alan fished the photograph that Will had given him out his pocket and handed it to the receptionist.
'Uh – I'm looking for this girl, I believe she's a student here?' he said, and the receptionist took the photo.
'Oh yeah – she's a senior up on the top floor; can I ask what relate you have to her?'
Alan blinked. He hadn't actually expected that question at first, but thinking over it, it made sense for it to be asked. He hadn't even known the girls name.
'Uh – I'm her new tutor. Alan.' He held his hand out to shake, and the receptionist smiled and shook his hand in return.
'Sure thing, Mister Alan – ' she hit a small bell on her desk, and from the office behind her another young woman came out. The receptionist gestured to her. 'Miss Hetherington will guide you up there.'
'Thank you,' Alan smiled and followed the other woman, who led him up three broad flights of carpeted steps. She was blabbering something about how wonderful it was that the students were taking their education into their own hands by asking for tutors. Truth be told, it was only the thought of how Eric had been Alan's own tutor through his initiation and internship that Alan had survived. So saying he was a tutor was merely a slip of the tongue; he had meant to come up with something more convincing, but neither the receptionist nor this Miss Hetherington seemed to see anything wrong with that.
Instead of listening to the young woman's constant chatting, Alan surveyed his surroundings. The windows on each floor seemed fairly secure, but as a fully grown Reaper he'd have no trouble smashing through them with either brute force or his death scythe. Which…he'd forgotten. Will hadn't mentioned anything about a Reaping, so Alan's death scythe had remained, completely forgotten, beside his desk in his own office. He mentally kicked himself for such an irresponsible move.
'…And here we are – this is her floor.' Miss Hetherington said finally, bringing Alan crashing back to reality. She pointed down the hallway to a door at the end. 'Her classroom is right down there, on the left. She's got English right now, but I'm sure her teacher won't mind the disturbance.'
'Thank you, ma'am – I believe I can find her on my own now,' Alan said, and the young woman nodded and flounced away down the other end of the hall. Swallowing, Alan fished his phone out of his pocket again, only to be greeted by another three text messages from Ronald. Thankfully, Eric had stopped messaging him by now.
'Yes?' the voice on the other of the line was expectant.
'I'm here, Sir,' Alan said. 'Can I at least know this girls' name?'
William sighed down the phone line. For a moment, Alan almost thought that he wasn't going to answer him – he started down the hall, passing each classroom until he got to the last one on the left. There she was – sitting in the back, staring idly at the whiteboard and the teacher, lazily twirling a pen around her fingers.
'Fine,' Will said finally. 'Her name is Alexis.'
Alan nodded. 'Okay. I've spotted her.'
