"He vanished only moments afterward, and I didn't hear anything about him for at least four years." William said. "I searched for him, of course, but my son had hidden himself well. When I wasn't looking for him, I was throwing myself into my work, trying to forget everything. Grell was not much better off. For the first time in his life, he was wearing black, as if he was in mourning. One day, his death scythe was reported missing, and he just didn't come back at all. I began looking for him as well, but I found nothing. I was alone. Until that day in eighty eight."

...

"Hello William."

The shinigami in question did not even bother lifting his head from his hands. He knew whom the voice belonged too. The damn Undertaker.

"What do you want?"

"What I want? Doesn't matter."

William resisted snarling. That was the man's answer for everything. It did bloody too matter.

"Then why are you here?"

"I just thought you would want to hear the fabulous joke I heard earlier today. The demon Michaelis told it to me. Though, I suppose his name is Sebastian these days. In any case, he came into my shop with his newest little master and told me one of the best jokes I've heard in years."

"Oh? Why should I care?" William asked, growing nervous.

"I thought you would appreciate it. Here is the punchline..." The Undertaker moved closer so that he was inches from Will's face. "He said, 'I fucked the Head Administrator of the Grim Reaper Staffing Association'."

There was a moments silence before Undertaker burst out into laughter once more. "I knew you bedded a demon, but I didn't know who! And it was Michaelis of all demons! Hahahahah!"

William could take it no longer. The younger shinigami hit his superior smack in the face, making the grey reaper's hat fly from his head and his mouth drop open, his laughter halted.

"You think this is funny!" William shrieked. "My son has been missing and on the run for the past three years! I might not ever see him again! My son is gone, Grell has disappeared, and I have nothing anymore! And you find my misfortune funny!"

The Undertaker was at a loss for words for the first time William had ever seen him, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Get out! Get out of my house and leave me the hell alone! And don't you ever come back!"

"But don't you want to know who was with him?" the Undertaker asked.

"Not particularly, no." William snarled. All he wanted was this creep out of his house, out of his life! He was tired of it!

"Not even if it was your little red friend?"

This made William freeze. Grell? Grell had been with Michaelis? Why? The Undertaker seemed to have read his mind and answered for him.

"Dressed up as a butler, he was, serving a lady all in red known as Angelina Durless. It was a very good disguise, but I know a reaper when I see one." The Undertaker smiled.

"And... And did he hear the punchline?" William asked softly.

"Oh no. Good old Sebastian made sure the two of us were alone before he told me, just like the courteous little demon he is."

...

"Little?" Sebastian interrupted, before he was silenced by a glare from both his master and the reaper.

"That was the joke you told?" Ciel asked his butler. "How... distasteful."

"And for once I find myself in agreement with a demon." William snarled. "But using the information that the Undertaker had given me on both Grell and yourself, I was able to discover that Grell was assisting the Jack the Ripper case and catch up with the pair of you by the following night. I came just in time to see the very end of the resulting conflict."

...

"You scream very nicely. As a reward, I will kill you with your cherished toy." the demon smiled as he pulled the blade over his head.

Watching Sebastian Michaelis about to kill his friend with his own death scythe made William's blood boil. How dare he! That bastard! Hadn't he taken enough from him!

"Please stop!" Grell begged pitifully from under the demon's foot.

"So sorry." Michaelis smiled. Then he swung the weapon.

William cast his own scythe to intercept the demon's killing blow, but not before he heard the reaper's last attempt to save his own life.

"I can tell you who killed the boy's parents!"

The two scythes met in a shower of sparks, and every eye present turned to the roof-top on which he stood.

"I apologize for interrupting." He said coldly, doing his very best to act as though he had never seen this demon before in his life, let alone had his child. He refused to let Michaelis see how much he had effected him, and resolved to be as professional as possible. He retracted his scythe and took comfort in the uniform, soothing, clicking sound that it made.

"Let me introduce myself, I am William T. Spears, the Head Administrator of the Grim Reaper Staffing Association." He paused to push up his glasses with the pointed end of his weapon. "I came to take charge of that reaper there."

It was best to pretend that he was not familiar with Grell either. Not that he wanted to be at the moment. He was furious with the shinigami.

"Will!" the other reaper beamed, his swollen face shining in relief as his saviour dropped down from the rooftops. "William, you came to save me-" The rest was muffled as William landed on the back of his head, slamming Sutcliff's face into the ground again. William knew that it was harsh, but he had to. First of all because Michaelis might just kill them both if he thought he was going to go easy on the rouge reaper, second because he didn't want Grell to say anything stupid. Thirdly because it made William feel better.

"Attention Reaper Grell Sutcliff, you have violated several regulations." William read out of his book without emotion. "First, you have killed people not on the To-Die List. Second you have taken a death scythe without proper authorization. And finally, you have offered someone strictly classified information regarding the identity of his relatives' murderer."

Then he slammed Grell's face into the ground again, to warn him to keep his mouth shut. William shut the book in his hand, which then disappeared, going back to it's place in the library. Then William stepped off of Sutcliff, swallowing his pride long enough to bow his head.

"I apologize for all the trouble this wretch has caused." William hated how mechanical his voice sounded, but he knew that if he broke protocol for just one second, he would break. He used his scythe to pull a business card out of his jacket, which he then shoved into the demon's face. It was a small victory, but William enjoyed having the demon on the pointy end of his shears.

"Here. Please accept my card." Although what he really wanted was for the demon to drop dead. Michaelis took the pro-offered item in two fingers without the slightest change in expression.

"Honestly." William growled. "I never thought I would see the day when I would bow my head to demon scum like you. This is a disgrace to all Grim Reapers."

Michaelis smirked, and spoke so quickly that William was sure that he was the only one to hear the demon speak.

"And getting on your knees before me isn't?" Before William could so much as twitch in anger, Michaelis then spoke up, so that their audience could hear. "Perhaps you should keep a better eye on your minions, so they don't trouble us."

Michaelis made a motion as though he was going to toss the card aside, but with all the demon speed befitted to him, seemed to think better of it and tucked it inside his vest, giving William a wink.

The reaper was doing his best not to react, not even by flushing, even though he wanted nothing more than to kill him.

"Humans are so easily... tempted. They will do anything in the grip of utter despair. They will grasp at any thread that promises to save them from unhappiness, no matter the consequences. You should know that."

William was well aware of the innuendo Michaelis was placing on his words, and finally lifted his head, standing straight again. He met the demon's eyes, furious.

"That's a charming bit of hypocrisy." He said in a clipped tone. "You demons capitalize on that quality more often than we do."

"That I cannot deny." Michaelis said with a leering grin.

"Right now you seem to be a tame dog." William said, looking over at the Phantomhive boy whom Michaelis was contracted to, pushing up his glasses again. "That makes you far less dangerous than the rabid mongrels that roam free. Now, come with me, Grell. We are leaving."

He grabbed his friend by the hair and began dragging him off, completely unsympathetic to his plight.

"We are already short handed and here you've gone and landed me with even more overtime." He said, making idle talk. "The board is not going to be pleased."

And then there was a ringing in the night, the sound of a scythe slicing through the air. William did not even have to turn his head. He caught Grell's weapon with two fingers as it flew by his face. He tilted his head just the slightest in the demon's direction.

"I assume you will want that, yes?" Michaelis asked with a saccharine smile.

"Yes, thank you." William dead-panned, letting the scythe drop onto Grell, who grunted in pain. Will just pushed up his glassed one last time.

"Now if you will please excuse us."

Then he pulled his friend off into the shadows.

...

"You mean to tell me that your entire conversation centered around your one-night tryst?" Ciel asked.

"Indeed." William said. "Of course, I read much more into it than was obviously intended. I believed the consequences he spoke of to be the fact that I had conceived."

"It was purely misfortune on my part." Sebastian said.

"Well, why were you so angry with Grell? I don't particularly blame you of course, but it does not resemble your previous interactions with one another." said Ciel.

...

"William! William, let me up! Please!" Grell begged as his superior continued to drag him along by the hair.

"Do be quiet." William snapped, not in the mood to talk.

"William! What's wrong? I know you aren't pleased with me, but you have never been so mad at my insubordinate behavior before!"

"Your behavior!" William snapped, finally letting go of his hair so that Grell's head smacked heavily against the pavement.

"Ouch!"

"You think this is about your behavior? I could care less if you were Jack the Ripper at the moment!"

"Then... what...?"

"I'm angry because when everything quite literally went to Hell and I needed you, you just got up and left! Vanished! For three years!" William snapped. "And then when I find you again, you aren't crumbling and depressed like I worried you would be, but back to your vibrant and colorful self, without a care in the world! Never mind that I've been searching every spare minute to find you and Claude! And not only are you happy as a little lark, but when I do, in fact, find you again, you are engaged in a death match and flirting with none other than my son's father!"

Grell's mouth opened, and he blinked several times in surprise.

"That... That was...?"

"Yes, Sutcliff. That was Claude's father." William hissed.

Grell took another moment to marvel at the fact that he wasn't already dead.

"I can see why you were attracted to him." Grell said finally. Then he shrieked and scrambled away as William jumped at him, hands at his throat.

"Ack! Calm down, Willy...!"

"Don't you dare call me that, Sutcliff! I will not calm down! I just had to bow to Michaelis because of you!"

"I didn't know- Ouch!"

William had caught him again, and was now attempting to strangle the red reaper. He had suppressed the urge to do so for nearly two hundred years, and he felt he had the right to let go for a moment.

"Willy... choking..." Grell spluttered.

"That's the idea."

"William..."

The shinigami eventually sighed and turned Grell loose. He had enough paperwork to do without actually killing the wretch. Grell gasped for air, and for a few minutes all that could be heard was the reaper as he tried to regain his breath.

"I'm sorry I left, William." He said finally.

"You should be."

"... Forgive me?"

"You are insufferable."

"Please?"

William sighed. He was just so tired...

"Fine. Come on, Grell, lets go home."