A/N: So it's slightly longer now. And it's a more Alan centric really. Poor baby. I appreciate the reviews you guys are leaving, they're very sweet and I shall do my best to keep you guys satisfied! Although does anyone else think that Eric and Alan weren't always so lovey dovey as they are now?
"You're such a liar, Alan! This is worse than the rain, my hair's all matted and it's gonna get frizzy! How could you~?" Alan glanced over silently before turning his attention back to the current record. The weather had been just fine when they left, a little grey but nothing else! Though that grey gave way to rain and eventually snow. It's a good thing that this was their last soul for the day otherwise they might end up stranded in London and buried into the snow. The longer it took for Alan to view the record, the worse both the snow and Grell's bitching got. "And it's freezing out here! William hates it when I get cold! Even at the academy, he was always like 'Oh Grell, you're freezing~. Now I must warm you u-'"
"Shut up, Sutcliff. Mr. Spears would never act so unrefined and even you know that. And please keep your fantasies to yourself! I don't want to hear them and neither does anyone else! Especially Mr. Spears, for sure!" He stood up straight and marked the name completed before walking away from the corpse. It was all too common for there to be dead bodies in the middle of the street in this part of London. It made Alan sad though, these poor people had so much to offer and yet they were never able to prove themselves. "Sorry...maybe we should get some hot cider or something before we go back? Don't wanna be freezing after all, right?" The redhead grinned and began to skip ahead to the nearest tavern, leaving Alan to walk slowly and silently behind him. The young reaper sniffed a little and rubbed his arms from the cold, pulling his collar up with little success.
"In here, Allie~! It's warm and they have such pretty red bows!" Grell waved as Alan finally caught up to him, looking inside before they stepped out of the way for a fellow reaper.
"Evenin' Mr. 'Umphries,...Sutcliff. 'Eadin' 'ome are ya? Best be off now, ain't gonna be wise with that wind soon," The two stood silent as he tipped his hat and dashed off to return to the office. Maybe he was right, the weather was getting any better. The wind has begun to pick up as well as the snow, it was literally blinding. A shout from inside the pub caught their attention as they walked in, glasses fogging up from the sudden shift in temperature.
"I doubt it'll get that bad. He's probably just trying to make us paranoid, you know how he is, right? Terrible track record, always dumpi-"
"My GOD Alan, will you shut up about work? Who cares about some Cockney idiot with no idea how to have fun? Come on, let's enjoy the warmth and maybe find us some pretty young men to keep us even warmer~!" The brunette blushed at the obviously dirty tone in Grell's voice, along with his sudden very obscene manner of rubbing his hands all over himself.
"Grell, please have some control! People will think you're ill acting like that!"
"Excuse me, did you say Grell? Mr. Humphries, what are you doing here? You two should have been back hours ago! Any reapers still here are forbidden from returning to the Dispatch for safety reasons," The older secretary stood and walked over to them, not even fazed by the two reapers staring at her in shock. To get technical she was the Supervisor of General Affairs in the London Dispatch, and barely ever came to the human world. But what she was doing there now, in a pub, and getting very close to Alan was beyond them. The brunette backed up the closer she got and searched around for Grell, scowling when he saw the redhead was sweet-talking his way into spending the night with...the barman? What in the—He squeaked loudly when he hit a chair and the head secretary stood above him, sliding her fingers through his hair.
"Don't worry Mr. Humphries...I promise to be gentle..."
Alan was clutching his chest silently, attempting to stay as silent as possible as he suffered through another attack. This one luckily was relatively mild, brought on by his three rounds with the secretary now fast asleep next to him. He wasn't usually attracted to women but the four mugs of spiked cider and egg nog had made him think otherwise. One of the consequences to him not being a big drinker, unlike Grell, Ronald and Eric. Even spiked drinks hit him rather hard, but he never worried about when he did get drunk. Eric would always take him home, make him some tea, rub his back when he got ill and even curled up with him so he wouldn't have any nightmares. That had been their way for god only knows how long now, although he wished it had been that way from the off.
"Come along, Mr. Humphries, we better hurry. Mr. Spears will have an aneurysm if you're late!" The girl had been running down to the Collection department's floor all the way from Human Resources. She stopped only for a moment to drag Alan out of the Glasses department. He'd only got back from his final exam not two hours ago and already he was being pulled to his new division. He was worse back then, a clone of William in all ways but appearance. He sprinted to keep up with her and scowled when they finally stopped.
"Are you insane, woman? How dare you act like I'm some sort of slacker! I'm an honor student for goodness sake! Do you ha-"
"Oi! Will you shut up out here? Some of us are trying to nurse a hangover here and your squawking isn't helping!" Alan stopped and looked over to see a very angry and VERY unprofessional looking shinigami. He swallowed hard and waited for him to continue yelling, which he was sure he was had he still been listening. The man was pretty striking aside from the sneer and bloodshot eyes, though his tinted lenses hid that for the most part. His shirt and tie needed to be fixed right away, with the tie being basically just slung around his neck but not knotted and his shirt half unbuttoned. His blazer needed a serious pressing, shoes needed shining, hair...where to begin? It was insanely wavy, and needed a trim like nobody's business, and why was the opposite side braided into cornrows? "Hey, you! Are you deaf? Why are you still here? Bugger off back to the academy!" the man slammed the door in Alan's face to leave him alone in the Collection department.
"Wait...so where's this Mr. Spears guy?"
"Mr. Humphries? Are you feeling well?" The secretary looked up at him quietly, obviously he wasn't quiet enough to leave her some peace. He cleared his throat a bit and wrapped an arm around her, trying to keep her calm. "You're shaking like a leaf my dear, are you cold? Perhaps I could-"
"Oh YES!" They both jumped at the sound of Grell shouting at the top of his lungs, far too shameless about what he was doing. Of course, Sutcliff could wake the dead at this rate, couldn't he?
"I um, I'm gonna take a walk..." He swallowed heavily and slid out of the bed quickly, pulling on his clothes and dashing out and down the stairs to leave the pub as he continued to dress himself, leaving the secretary to watch confused and shivering.
"Don't be ridiculous, there is no way in HELL I am working with some idiot who just got his glasses five minutes ago!" Eric shoved Alan out of his office and slammed the door shut.
"I am not an idiot! I was an honor student at the academy thank you very much!" Silence. Three days and of this and Alan was starting to get fed up. Every morning Alan would come in, avoid the insane redhead that pranced around and go straight to Eric's office, not talking to anyone on the way. They never talked about anything interesting, they always gossiped about which secretary was dating what supervisor, what the humans were doing in their world, but never anything worth discussing like the amended approval forms sent out by the Death Scythe Department and General Affairs. They could have been talking about the revised forms regarding transfers and suspensions from Human Resources, at least!
"Maybe I should just move my desk out here..." At this rate he'd be taking up residence in the Collection division hallway anyway. The academy only allowed graduates to remain in the dorms for a month after they left and Alan had no money for a decent place. He sighed and began walking down the hall to a large cluster of desks, some occupied but most of them empty. He'd heard that the London Dispatch was notoriously short staffed. That didn't bother him though. He set his coat on one of the desks and got right to work on what paperwork he still needed. He'd yet to confirm his assigned department, fill out the remaining forms regarding his glasses, get a start on approval forms regarding his death scythe, and...Eric's paperwork? "That...that...that bastard! I'm not doing that party boys paperwork for him!"
"Then don't. Eric's a right bastard to ev'ryone 'cept ol' Will in there. Ya need to scare 'im or prove yer not just some academy nerd," The man stood up and grabbed his death scythe, looking like hedge clippers."Best o' luck ta ya, kid," And he was off. Alan stared quietly in his direction and almost didn't realise his pen was still touching the paper, or that a massive black line was now on the page. He bit his lip and looked around terrified. Luckily he'd not put his name on it yet and instead drew a huge saw on the page, scribbling on Eric's name quickly before sliding it to the bottom of the pile.
"I'm in so much trouble..."
"No. But you will be if your ass doesn't get a move on, Intern. Now get up!" He looked up and Eric was glaring right at him. "The hell are you just sitting there for? Get your scythe and let's go! I have no desire to do overtime!" He pulled Alan up and handed him a scythe like William's, his own hanging over his shoulders. It was kind of fascinating that his was very plain, it looked like a proper scythe except for being all black with a twisty silver design on the blade. The older brunette started walking off, not bothering to wait for Alan.
"It just keeps getting worse..." He sighed as a young woman ran into a doorway, trying without success to block out the brutal wind and snow. He stopped by an old building to attempt figuring out where he was. He'd been so lost in though and confused in the dark that he wasn't even sure he was still in London. The only thing he was sure of was that he was tired and very hungry. By this time he would be curled up in front of the fire with Eric, soft music on the radio, and no worries about ending up in bed with a strange woman. Eric would have made sure they got back safe and in time to even go out with Ronald for a bit or something, although he'd prefer to be alone with his mentor instead. It'd been ages since they had an evening to themselves, or even a day off at the same time. What Alan was missing the most though was Eric's cooking. The man could make anything out of some old cheese and a dried loaf of bread. "Man what I wouldn't give for some of his stuffed artichokes...or maybe some fried salmon with mint sauce. Oh, and some cheesecake...with raspberries on top and some of that aweswome hot cocoa with chilis...oh man-" He sighed happily and rubbed his arms again, warming up just at the thought of Eric's amazing cocoa. At least until the warmth in his chest started burning a little too much. He cringed and fell to the ground when his chest began to sting, gasping for breath and curling up in a ball. He cringed and heard a pair of footsteps approaching before everything went black.