Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji


Each species had a standard.

A class if you will.

Reapers and demons were of equal level while humans were at the most bottom. Again, mixtures with human blood rendered the soul vulnerable to either of the two; angels were at another rank but one in equality to reapers and demons themselves. But once tainted with humans, the bloodline is considered useless and descendants were susceptible to anything. Grell had to praise Eric for that logic, it was common knowledge if one took the anatomy courses during their time at the Academy.

In truth, Grell would have satisfied himself for the medical teams and working at the Infirmary but his erratic tendencies, which he was conscious about, stood as a blockade for pursuing a course. So Grell settled for the field work, there were real men to compete against, it was high time he thought he would relieve himself of bowing to them. He started rough and made an impression but William was the one to crack that fortress of steel and force out the weaker, feminine side of him.

Grell lowered his head when he entered a bakery with Ronald licking at his heels.

Half will never go after whole.

Ana would flee at the sight of Sebastian Michaelis; her soul would be consumed if she even left a feather in the fountain. She was half an angel and he was a pure demon.

Common knowledge there.

Several loaves of bread were set up at a stand, each loaf fresh from the oven and ready for customers. Grell grimaced when he noted that one of the loaves were molding unnaturally. It was expected, after all, they were at the rather low class part of London where many tried to earn an honest living but fail to make it honest. Fresh as the dead was his thought when he eyed another batch sitting atop a counter. An old human, one who looked more than willing to give his soul as a barter the purchase of bread, sat upon a stool with a dog at the leg of his chair.

The two were haggard but lifted their heads to look at the two reapers cautiously entering.

"My wife died a few days ago, got up them last batches for stock, then closing this worthless place down," he gruffly stated,"just ignore them bad breads, hadn't changed it in a while."

Grell stared at him, then at the dog, who perked his ears up as though he had never done so before, as Ronald foraged through the shelves that had the rotted products. "Your wife died, sir?"

"Yeah, dropped dead...fat woman I say though, wouldn't stop eating even if her life depended on it-"

"Where's her body?" The redhead asked quite too quickly, the old man glared at him as though he saw the queer within him. Grell repeated sternly,"The body, where is it?"

He got up, the dog ached his way into standing as well when the old man, now only a head shorter than Grell, stood up as strait as he could. His back was bent and looked ready to collapse, and he tumbled forth, Grell caught him instantly and helped him to his feet as he answered,"Undertaker, but the blighter wasn't there at all...so I just had these men taking her dump her in the mass grave out of town. Now, are you going to buy the bread or ask more odder questions?"

Grell's eyes shifted to the floor and away from him, he released him and helped him back into the chair, the dog plumped back down and heaved a heavy sigh. "No, not at all...come, Ronnie."

Ronald, hidden behind the shelves of jarred berries that seemed to have been the breeding ground for fungi. popped up and eagerly fallowed Grell. The two were dressed in their usual clothes, lack a blazer or coat, though they were quite dingy. Besides their unusual hair color, they fit in with the district. Dusty, dirty, dilapidated, that was their only appearance. They scuffled through the ghetto in sad attempts to find edible provisions for their holdup in a cheap inn that they had all decided to bunk in for the next few days or so.

Eric had a substantial amount of money, he was quite the greedy man, seeing how he spent a while focusing on his salary than others until Alan came along, and had developed paranoia should he have less than fifty guineas in his pocket. It was enough to find them a place to stay but not the food to eat. As much as Eric could have bought the entire district, the quality of the produce and meat were unsubstantial for the reapers' tastes.

The four men took turns in pairs, Grell with Ronald and Eric with Alan; for obvious reasons, Eric's rage failed to recede and leaving Ronald with him was a thought Grell would never wish to entertain. With Eric trying to strangle Ronald every now and then, the redhead thought it best that the younger one's cryptic report of the collapse of the London Division would be told when Eric had calmed down.

"If you hadn't spent your time whoring girls in America, Raoul would have never found a servant and we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Yeah, it's true, I guess I did start all this, in a way...I'm not saying I'm proud of it but I'm not gonna say that I'm regretting it," Ronald sighed as the two crossed an empty street. He seemed too casual, his confinement somewhere that Raoul had placed him into had changed him somewhat; he had an even lazier air but a tinge of insanity to him. Grell could feel it but he remained quiet. "Maybe this is a punishment my own mother told me before she died. She used to say I'll be damned, and I guess I'm getting close to that. Makes me wonder though..."

Grell looked ahead of him, using the blobs of shape memorized earlier to find their way back. "Hnm?"

"Ivan never looked at me funny at all. I ruined his life, Samantha's too, but he never got the chance to beat me-"

"Do you remember the last thing you've done before you died?" Ronald went quiet. "Exactly, you can't. Depending how twisted someone's mentality is, when we revive humans into Reapers we work out the kinks they have and iron them out to be anew. Cinematic Rips I suppose, they are the strips of film containing your emotions; in turn, emotions produce memory. If I hit you right now, you'd be mad at me. Take away the anger and you won't remember that I hit you to begin with."

They crossed a bridge that was over a waterway, the redhead paused and looked out ahead towards the Thames and beyond that.

"Ivan may have been quite the work to deal with for whoever revived him, it would have been required to erase a good part of his anger towards you to ensure he wouldn't attack the wrong side during the Civil War. How it would decide to resurface now, or perhaps it never surfaced at all-"

"No, it's been there, remember? He clung to Raoul's name and face in his memory to come all the way here to fight him, in the end, he never did justice to the one who wronged him." A bottle was at their feet, Ronald picked it up and shook it, finding a bit of alcohol tinkle within the glass. He tipped it and drank a good sip or two before tossing it into the waterway, he leaned himself against the stone railing and rested his head upon his hand. "Why couldn't he have remembered me?"

Grell shrugged. "You were gone by the time Ivan came by then, wait, can't you remember what happened at the wedding?"

Ronald lifted an eyebrow and perked up slightly. "A...wedding?"

"After Eric reaped your soul, you refused to come out so you were revived into a Reaper. It happened on your wedding day, you were betrothed to Samantha, Ivan's daughter-"

He slapped his forehead. "Oh! Right! Since I'm his son-in-law, he never saw the need to kill me then..."

"That's not how it works," the red reaper sighed, rubbing his temple,"you're-"

A carriage drawn by a duo of chestnut coated horses came walking by, the wheels were soundless but the hoof beats rang through the empty street. Grell looked over his shoulder to see a certain butler driving, the two locked eyes briefly until the man snapped the reins to ease the horses into a fast paced trot. Grell huffed, his eyes were blurry and he failed to recognize who the man was, he shifted in his position and returned to his musings, ignoring the carriage's sudden decision to pick up the pace.

Ronald stared at the carriage, he noted the family's coat of arms painted in gold at the back. "Is it normal for nobles to drive through here?"

"Nothing's normal so I'm not surprised. Come, let's go look for Eric's cigarettes if we can't get food."

So a whole would never come after another whole as well.


A/N: Sorry for the shortness and the delay, I was just feeling a bit uninspired for a bit~!

READ & REVIEW!