Oh my god, seriously guys I cannot tell you how sorry I am for the delay on this story! I really feel so bad, and I love this story, I really do, I never wanted to abandon it for so long. But I must say thank you so so much to all of you who have reviewed, especially if you have encouraged me to continue, because once I picked it back up it came to me so easily and I'm so happy to be writing it again. And now I have a better idea of a lot of details and who the whole thing is going to play out ^^ I hope this chapter makes up for the delay, I can't promise my updates will be major timely but they will be much more so than this one was. I do not own Black Butler unfortunately.

"Mama?"

Jeanne smiled down at her small son who sat on her lap, her eyes full of adoration. She stroked his vibrant hair, the same color as her own, the color of spider lilies, and kissed the top of his head softly.

"Yes, what is it cheri?"

"You're so pretty." The small boy smiled and took his mother's hand in his own, squeezing it gently.

The woman laughed lightly, the sound like a chorus of bells. "Well thank you mon amour. You are very handsome."

Grell frowned. "I think I'd rather be pretty like you mama."

Jeanne just smiled good naturedly. "Well, if that is what you want then that is okay Grell; you can be whatever you want to be." She lifted him slightly and held him close. "No matter what, I will always love you."

"I love you too mama…"

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"What the fuck?" Grell muttered, rolling over in his bed to face his wooden nightstand, along with the annoying alarm clock that perched on top of it innocently, as if it hadn't just pulled him from one of his exceedingly rare good dreams with its damn beeping. Shit.

He picked up his red rimmed glasses from beside the clock and put them on, then rolled on his back to face the ceiling, huffing irritably; the previous day was slowly coming back to him, albeit a bit fuzzy, and he groaned inwardly when he remembered that his new roommate, the striking dark haired boy, had discovered his secret, what he does to himself, almost immediately after meeting him. It made him feel even worse than he usually did; he could just hear the criticizing judgmental voices now: Way to fuck up again fag.

"Dammit, shut the fuck up." He ground out, screwing his eyes shut and trying to feel something past the cloud of misery that perpetually hung over his entire being; it made it hard to think clearly or to even breathe sometimes, it felt as if a weight was crushing him, and the only time he got a bit of relief was when he hurt himself. It was a never ending vicious cycle and he was trapped right in the middle of the vortex; oh sure, the doctors and nurses thought they could help him get out of it, but they didn't realize just how deep in he was; there was no going back once one got so far in over their head.

"Excuse me, but who are you telling to shut up?"

Grell's head snapped up from its position on the pillow and he glared daggers at the other boy, who was sitting on the edge of the bed eyeing him curiously. His hair was sticking up all over the place and he was still dressed in his nightclothes, but his seemed a bit fancier than Grell's; he must have brought his own. The boy looked even more beautiful now than he had the previous day; it was rather difficult for Grell to hold his angry gaze as his eyes drank in the sight of him. But somehow he managed, and felt rather accomplished at this feat.

"I thought I told you not to bother me; do I need to explain to you exactly what that entails?" Grell questioned, voice dripping with malice.

William blushed nervously and shook his head, averting his eyes. "N-no, I merely wanted to be sure you are alright, that's all."

Grell turned away, his voice softening a bit, though it didn't sound kind due to the change; dead would probably be a better way to describe it.

"You honestly think that if I was okay I would be stuck in this hell hole?"

"Well no, I just-"

"Listen." Grell cut him off, fixing him with a cold stare. "If you're one of those people who thinks they need to go around helping everyone fix their problems that's great, whoop-dee fucking do, you get whatever the hell your issue is straightened out and go to school and graduate and get a job helping those of us who are fucked in the head. But leave me out of it, I want no part of being counseled or helped by anyone and that includes you. Got it?"

William nodded silently, not daring to question the other shinigami's request. Grell eyed him a bit longer, and there was a flash of something in his eyes William couldn't place; it didn't seem overly unpleasant, but it was gone before William could get any idea of what it might have been.

Grell's eyes narrowed a bit. "What's your name?"

"W-William. William T. Spears." William replied, his voice just a tad bit shaky. He didn't know why, though he guessed it had to be the redhead's intimidating nature, but he felt very anxious with the other focusing on him so; his stomach was fluttering in a way he wasn't used to.

Grell just nodded once, his eyes never leaving William's. "I'm Grell. I guess if we're going to be living together we need to know each other's names." Grell didn't offer a last name and William didn't ask for one; better not to push him when he was being halfway civil.

He did however smile a bit. "It's nice to meet you Grell."

Grell rolled his eyes. "Tch. Whatever."

The two sat in silence for a few moments, not a very comfortable silence but it could have been worse, and were both a bit startled when there was a loud knock on their door and it was slowly pushed open after a few moment's hesitation. Marie, the same nurse who Grell had dealt with the other day, entered the room and bowed to them, smiling kindly. "Good morning, excuse me for entering your room, but I must make my morning rounds and give the two of you the usual check over; after that I'm going to show you around the facility a bit more so that you know where everything is, at least the parts of the building you will be seeing and using. Does that sound alright?" William nodded politely while Grell just glared at her; she sighed inwardly and pointedly ignored it, looking to the charts in her hands and flipping one of the open. "Alright then, William, is it?"

"Yes ma'am?" William asked quietly. She smiled and gestured for him to stand and join her, which he did so without protest. She began to check over his body swiftly, not finding anything concerning, though with this particular patient she hadn't expected to; he seemed to be a fairly easy case, recently discovered as a bulimic with no history of mental illness or problems; probably just suffering from a bit too much stress. They saw this kind of case all the time and it was pretty routine. "Okay, everything on you checks out. I just need to get your weight. If you would follow me." She led William into the adjacent bathroom and opened the small closet next to the toilet. It appeared to be empty except for a large scale, one like all the doctor's offices had, where you had to slide the little bars into place in order to get a reading. William eyed it nervously; being weighed was not a simple task for him as it was for everyone else in the world, and this fact made him feel even stranger than he already did. Nonetheless, if he was going to go through the motions of 'recovering', he would have to deal with it sooner or later. Marie pulled the scale, which had wheels attached to the bottom, out of the closet enough for William to stand on it and for her to easily move the bars into place. She did so, fiddling with them a bit to make sure they were just right, then smiled at William. "All done, you can get down now."

William looked at her questioningly. "So, what do I weigh?"

She frowned slightly. "Well, I can tell you if you really want to know, but usually we withhold weigh-ins from ED patients, it just gives you another thing to worry over and more pressure on yourself to reach a certain point, and we try to keep the stress to a minimum." She explained kindly and then patted his arm. "Just don't worry about that dear. You checked out just fine, so if you will wait a moment and allow me to tend to Grell I will take you both to breakfast and give you a tour." William nodded and retreated to his side of the room, grabbing some clothes to put on and then shutting himself in his bathroom to change into them as Marie put the scale back in it's proper place then left the bathroom, making her way over to the angry redhead who was eyeing her very suspiciously. "Good morning Grell, how are you today?"

Grell said nothing, just raised an eyebrow at her, as if to say 'what the hell do you think?'

She sighed and tried again, moving a bit closer to him. "Grell, you can remain mute for as long as you like, but that's not going to get you anywhere in the way of recovery. Please, just answer my question, it's not that hard. "

"Fine, then I'm just fucking peachy." He spat, rolling his eyes. "Happy now?"

Marie pursed her lips, about to reply, when she noticed the white bandages that were yet again covering Grell's right forearm. She was sure to keep her face neutral and not make a big to do over it, and just calmly gestured to the wrapped arm. "You did it again?" She asked softly.

"No, I just like to wrap my arms in gauze for the hell of it." Grell replied flatly, but much to the young woman's surprise, he stood and held his arm out for her to examine, hanging his head and averting his eyes. "Well go on, look at it if you must." She sighed softly and began to unwrap the bandages. Of course she was never shocked to see the aftermath of a self-harmer's rampage on themselves, as she'd seen it countless times now. But she had to admit, Grell was definitely one of the worst she had ever seen; she wasn't really sure exactly what his reasons were for cutting, but judging by how deep he did it staying alive was probably not high on his priority list. She carefully looked over his arm, along with the rest of his body, and sighed, facing him and squaring her shoulders. "Grell, listen to me. I do not want to see you suffer and have a hard time during your sty at this facility, I would much rather see you begin to recover and hopefully turn around and get out of this place, but you have to put forth at least the tiniest bit of effort. Now I could be wrong, but it seems to me like you don't care at all about recovering and-"

"I don't." Grell cut her off. "I have no reason to. This life holds nothing for me."

"Then why haven't you already offed yourself, if you're so sure that you want no part of recovering and reclaiming your life?"

Grell's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That is none of your fucking business my dear."

Marie nodded curtly, violet eyes flashing. "Of course not. Very well. You will be going to see the doctor again this afternoon Grell, and both of you have your first group therapy meeting at four. Today is individualized treatments so you will be in separate groups; there are some days the two of you will be in the same group. Now, I will give you both a bit of time to dress yourselves and get ready for breakfast and I shall return to collect you shortly." With that she spun on her heel and exited the room, shutting and locking the door behind her. As soon as she was out of sight, Grell turned and knelt beside his mattress, slipping the razor out from under it. He turned it over delicately in his fingers, watching it glint in the fluorescent light beaming down from the ceiling. He frowned at his arm, already covered in many fresh cuts, and then at his blade; he didn't normally like to cut this often, but he just couldn't take this damn place. Back to the doctor? And what the hell was this shit about group therapy?

He wanted no part of it, that was for damn sure.

He figured that, eventually, they would realize he was a completely hopeless case and give up on him; maybe they'd let him go free or maybe they'd put him in a padded cell, he really didn't care as long as they left him alone.

And besides, if he cut too much, too deep, hit a vein, would it really be such a bad thing?

He very lightly pressed the blade against a small, unmarred spot of skin, bringing a small bead of blood to the surface. He was able to sigh in relief at the sight of it; he wouldn't be able to do much at the moment, but he could at least do something to alleviate the stress he was feeling. He mindlessly poked at his skin with the blade for a few moments, not paying any attention to his surroundings, so when a voice sounded behind him, although soft and gentle, it nearly gave him a heart attack.

"Please stop that."

Grell turned around abruptly, eyes wide and fearful, and gazed up at the other boy who was standing behind him. He slid the razor back into its hiding place and stood slowly, facing William, who was now cowering slightly for fear he was about to be ripped apart by the moody redhead.

But Grell didn't scream or curse or any of that; all he did was fix William with a steady gaze and ask in a low, soft voice. "Why do you care?"

The question wasn't full of sarcasm or venom like most of Grell's questions were; it was a genuine question, one that had him utterly baffled, because who cared about him? No one, that's who. So he couldn't understand why the brunet was so insistent upon interfering with what he did.

William just shrugged, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and staring right back. "I just don't want to see you hurt yourself; is that so hard to believe?"

Before Grell had a chance to reply Marie pushed the door open once again and poked her head in the room. "It's time for breakfast, if you will both please follow me."

William nodded and followed the young woman out of the room, but not before placing a hand gently on Grell's shoulder as he passed him. The redhead flinched away from the touch as if it was painful, but once the hand was removed there was a strange electric sensation left in its wake, buzzing over his skin, and strangely enough, he found there was a part of him, though it was an exponentially small part, that wished the contact hadn't ended quite so abruptly.

So what did you think, any good? I hope you guys like it, and again I'm so very sorry for the wait. I'll get the next chapter up soon I promise. It's now bedtime for me. Ciao!