A/N: These poor bishies. They just get so much abuse, ne? Honestly though I wish Yana-san had more pictures of Eric with his natural hair colour. The dark brown suits him way better than the blond, I think. I wonder what made him dye his hair in the first place anyways. But those two are so charming together, even if they do hate each other, ya know?

Ronald cringed slightly as he stirred and grabbed his head. What in the world happened? Last thing he remembered was walking to William's office, so how did he end up in the infirmary? He sat up slowly and looked around, only then realising that he didn't have his glasses. As much as he would like to be able to see at the moment, it probably wouldn't be a very good idea for him while his head was burning. He looked around again, squinting in attempt to find something that looked relatively human, luckily seeing a shape that looked vaguely like William.

"B-boss?" he reached over to nudge him, smiling when the shape stirred and looked up, staring at him he was sure. "Boss, what happened?"

"You tell me. I opened the door and you simply collapsed, you've been tossing and turning since then. Are you alright? I'll not have my subordinates faking sick to get out of their work," Now for sure William was glaring. He looked down and sighed, rubbing his temples. William stood silently and slid the blonds glasses onto his face, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed and staring right at him. "Listen to me, Ronald and listen good. I will not tolerate you faking your way out of work, even more so if you are dealing with demons. You must remember that they can influence a person with just their voice. You will report to my office tonight regardless of how you feel, am I clear?"

"B-but boss, I-"

"No buts, Knox. Any more trouble and I won't hesitate to fire you, understand?" The blond simply nodded and ran a hand through his hair. Maybe William knew about whatever happened? Well whatever it was, it had made him very angry by the sound of it. He bit his lip and pulled his knees to his chest.

"My my my, have you upset your pretty boss?" Ronald looked up and searched around for Sebastian, more than certain it was him this time. He swallowed hard and shivered when the lights suddenly went out. "Such a shame, it seems your little stunt earlier made him angry..."

"Leave me alone, you're a monster..."

"You lips say 'Monster' but you your eyes say 'Lover'. I told you, Knoxie...your precious William can't give you the attention you want like I can..." Ronald sniffed and sat back a little, bad idea. Once he had, Sebastian appeared properly and pinned the shinigami to his bed, smirking triumphantly. "Just think, Ronald...if you let me, all of your fantasies and more can become realities," Ronald clenched his eyes shut as the demon slipped his glasses off, forcing Ronald to look right at him as his eyes glowed red again. A knock on the door had him gone in an instant, leaving Ronald laying there dazed and extremely confused.

"Glasses..."

"Dinner? That's pretty impressive. Now seriously, before Mr. Anderson whines about me not working, give me your glasses. They need adjusting. So how was it?" Thomas looked up as Alan handed over his glasses. Honestly he didn't like the ones he'd picked. Plain black metal frames with rectangle lenses, though he'd not had a choice in the matter. Honour students never did, anything other than those were considered unbecoming.

"It was...surprising. He's actually an amazing cook, Tom. Like he made this one thing, it wasn't quite soup but it had fish and ruits and pineapple and it was served in a wine glass and...it was really mazing, like you don't even know...!" Thomas shook his head and set down the pair he'd been working on. Alan furrowed his eyebrows as he picked up the plain black frames and snapped them in half. "THOMAS! What the hell did you do that for?"

"Those glasses don't suit you. They're worse than the ones at the academy, now come with me," Alan stood up quickly and caught up to him, scowling at the redhead. "So tell me more about what happened. Was it just dinner and then he threw you out? Or...?"

"Don't start. And it wasn't anything special, we just...we had dinner and then went over some paperwork and our lists for tomorrow and...nothing. He let me borrow some pajamas and said to take his bed for the night. End of story," He looked over as Thomas held up a pair of plastic white frames with stars on the sides. "Gaudy. Mr. Sutcliff Is bad enough with his and Mr. Slingby's look like shades,"

"That's the point. I asked Mr. Anderson about that and he said Mr. Slingby's eyes were really sensitive to light, hence why he has tinted lenses...how about these?" white metal around the lenses and plastic white sidebars but they weren't overly decorative.

"I don't want white. I want something more subtle. And white doesn't even look good on me! Is't there something that is less obvious and...feminine?" Thomas chuckled and started walking again, picking up a pair of blue metal frames. Really they looked just like the academy glasses aside from being blue and not silver. "Still too obvious. Ooh, how about these?" He squinted and grabbed a pair of rimless glasses, trying them on. Thomas cocked his head to the side and shrugged.

"But they're so...well, actually, they don't look half bad. Now come on, let's get them fixed up at least. And I'll fix up your other pair you've got a spare at least, alright?" He nodded and led Alan back to his table. "So, do you think Mr. Slingby will continue to be kind to ya?"

"I doubt it. Last night after dinner, he laid into me about my collection abilities, or lack there of. I mean, there honestly is no pleasing him! I don't know what to do!"

"Only one thing you can do. Prove him wrong. Go out there and show him that you can collect souls as well as he can! No show him that you can do it better! He can't say anything if you can prove yourself, now can he?" Alan ran a hand through his hair and looked down at his broken glasses, nodding a bit.

"You know what, you're right. I'm not a student anymore. I'm a Dispatch Officer! And I'm gonna show that low-life rat who's boss!" He stood and made to leave but Thomas grabbed his wrist.

"And you're going to do this blind? Sit down and give me an hour. Until then you're not going anywhere. Understood?"

"Oh, right..." He nodded and sat down again, straightening his coat and watching as Thomas went to work on his new glasses.

Alan sighed and checked his list once more. Eric had the day off so he could at least get a little bit of peace in that regard. He stood up from the cafe and left quickly, following after one of the people on his list. It wasn't until he caught sight of the man that he realised it was a young kid. He couldn't let that bother him though, he was going to show Eric that he was an exemplary shinigami worthy of the London Dispatch. He took a deep breath and watched the kid for a bit longer, worrying when he started coughing heavily.

"You poor kid...I really wish I could help you, I feel your pain. It's no fun to die suffering, is it?" He swallowed hard and stepped up close behind him, giving him a pathetic look before he slashed him with his scythe. "I'm so sorry..." he looked away and wiped the tears from his eyes, not seeing the record come right at him full force.

"H-help..." the kid tried to sit up and instead collapsed to the ground, screaming and crying. Alan looked back at him for a moment, dropping his scythe.

"I really am very so—AAHH!" He gasped as the record hit him square in the chest, going right through him. The rest of it grabbed him and began to pierce every part of his body possible. "I'm so...sorry..." He screamed at the top of his lungs as a few more reels pierced his heart, making him cry out again and again. He looked back at the boy and his breath started to hitch, catching sight of someone slicing the records away from him before everything went black.

Eric watched quietly as the doctors attempted to hold Alan down with no luck. He'd started screaming and thrashing once he came to, managing to snap the older brunette's arm in the middle of it. Though he'd not worried about it too much and was more concerned with getting Alan to relax. He'd managed to break his glasses in the process and so had Thomas bolting in the second he heard the commotion.

"What happened to him? What did you do, Slingby? I swear if you-"

"Drop it, kid. I found him being thrown about by a record. All I did was save his ass, he should have known better than to attempt collecting souls on his own," Alan screamed again and attempted to tear the remains of his coat off, his whole body on fire. He opened his eyes enough to look at Eric and Thomas for a moment.

"You idiot, I said hold him! I can't inject the sedative if you don't!"

"I'm sorry sir! He won't stay still! He keeps thrashing! And he's on fire! We should cool him down first, no?"

"Tch, nurses. Just hold his arm!" The nurse tensed up but held Alan's arm down, managing for it to pull out of the socket and snap his collarbone from the angle he twisted at. The doctor took his chance and stabbed his wrist with the needle before he could twist away again. Almost instantly he stopped tossing and turning and looked up at the ceiling, panting heavily. The nurses remained quiet as the doctor grabbed a second needle and gave him another injection, this time knocking him out for at least 35 hours. A nurse glanced at Eric and Thomas afterwards and instantly stared at the brunette's arm.

"C-come with me, Mr. S-Slingby. Let's take a look at t-that arm,"

"Oi! You said he was burning up. Aren't you going to cool him down?" the nurse dragged him away as Thomas went over to sit by him, biting his lip.

"...Mr. Slingby...?"

"Go back to sleep, kid. You need to rest," Eric offered to keep an eye on him when Thomas went home, just in case he woke up. "What were you thinking? You know that you're not good with collecting souls and yet you went out to do it on your own anyway?" Alan slipped his glasses on and sat up slowly, cringing at the stabbing in his arm. Eric looked tired, and his arm was in a sling by the looks of it. "You should have asked Grell or Will to go with you. So why did you do something so stupid?"

"I just...I'm tired of you always yelling at me and complaining about how i'm not doing good enough. That hurts to hear that, you know? I'm a damn good reaper and I don't take kindly to being told otherwise."

"So what...you wanted to impress me? Getting yourself killed ain't exactly impressive kid. You want to prove me wrong then do it right. If I hadn't shown up, you'd be in the ground right now. Got it?" Eric glared at him silently before looking back out the window.

"I'm really sorry, M-"

"Eric."

"I'm sorry?"

"Call me Eric. Mr. Slingby is too formal. By the way, your friend dropped these off before he left again," he pulled a glasses case from the sling and tossed them to the younger brunette. "Said he fixed them up quick and you better make them last," Alan looked down at the case and sighed, running a hand through his hair.