The Reaper, in Trouble Again
Setting: English Reaperspace, 1940 (or as close as you can get in a place like that)
"It was one letter! You can't let me get in this much trouble over one bloody letter!" Grell protested, leaning over the cluttered desk and nearly toppling a heap of forms. "Hand on my heart, I swear it was an N."
"Well, it wasn't an N, and you have another unscheduled Reaping on your record now," William stated. He had intended to sound disappointed, but all that came out was exhaustion.
"Unscheduled?" Grell sounded genuinely confused. "Will—very well, don't glare so—Mr. Spears, she was trapped in the basement of a bombed-out building. The most I did is take another Reaper's target."
"She would have been rescued alive in another hour. That is, if you hadn't barged in and ripped her soul out."
Grell's shoulders slumped and William quickly regretted being so descriptive. There had been nothing malicious about the blunder (Grell's issues were mostly in the past now, with the demon and the Phantomhive brat), but it had wasted time and resources, things that were as dear to the English Reapers as the English people currently.
"What now?" Grell asked. "You wouldn't put me on probation for one little N, would you?" he pleaded. "I won't do it again, honest!"
"That's what you said last time," William reminded him. "We have to get you out of the way for a while so you won't cause any more trouble. But no, you're not going on probation," he continued, handing the red-haired Reaper a file. "We're loaning you out—the German Reapers are desperate for help, and they don't have the luxury of caring about paperwork, apparently."
Grell's eyebrows went up as he took the file. "Doesn't seem very patriotic, that...Poland? What's going on in Poland that they need so many Reapers?"
William shrugged. "The humans are being especially enthusiastic about this war, it seems. Anyway, you can reap to your heart's content over there for six months, and hopefully things will have calmed down enough here by then that we can deal with any extra paperwork you cause."
"Well, if you say so…" Grell did not sound pleased at having to go so far away, but didn't directly protest. "Still, I suppose it's better than probation."
