The next morning Madame Red pried her groggy eyes open. She lazily looked over at the clock. "Eight thirty. SHIT!" She exclaimed.
She rushed up, straightening her blouse and tying up her hair as she checked her medical bag for her equipment. "What time is it?" Grell groaned, just having woken up himself.
"Eight thirty five, I have a consult with a patient at nine, SHIT!" She exclaimed again. "Okay, two questions, one do I look like I just woke up from sleeping on a couch with someone I just met? And two, how did that wine glass break?" Madame Red asked after visibly trying to calm herself.
Grell ran his fingers through his hair, attempting to untangle it. "One, you look lovely and two I assume one of us broke it dear."
"Ha, I had figured that much. I have to get to the hospital, stay if you want, lock up before you leave and don't steal my liquor, tata love." She said quickly before rushing out the door.
"Suppose I should get to work myself, Huh, looks like I'm already late." Grell muttered to himself, fairly resigned, he was always late. So he walked upstairs to find Madame Red's vanity.
"Ohh, lucky me. Of course she would have good taste, same as mine." He smiled, finding some subtle red eyeshadow to balance out his heavy black eyelashes and thick eyeliner. He finished it off with a bold matte red lipstick. Loving his look, he pushed his hair back and took off for work.
It was past midnight when Grell's shift finally ended. Technically his shift ended at 6pm however he had been given one hour overtime for every day he had been late that week plus an extra hour for uniform violations. Sitting down on the edge of a rooftop, Grell sighed, it had been a long exhausting day and he barely had enough energy to head back to the shinigami realm. Looking out over the city he realized he was only a few blocks away from Madame Red's townhouse.
"Closer than my place anyway." He shrugged to himself.
He had already knocked on her door before it occurred to him that she might be sleeping. But about a minute later Madame Red answered the door, wrapped in a silk red nightgown.
"Oh, Grell, good to see you again." She said, looking rather surprised and leaning against the doorframe for balance.
"You too, that sadist Will, the one I told you about, had me working overtime all night." Whined Grell.
"Well then come in darling, by the way your makeup looks great." she paused. "Or should I say my makeup?" Smirking, she walked inside, almost tripping before falling onto the couch.
"My my, someones been hitting the bottle pretty hard without me." Grell teased. perching on the arm rest next to her. "But thank you that's the first nice thing someone has said about my make up today."
"Maybe I had just a little to drink." she laughed, her head lolling back drunkenly.
"Why stay up all night drinking instead of getting your beauty sleep, darling?"
"Oh, I couldn't sleep. And besides drinking is fun." She said, laughing it off.
"Well you've had plenty to drink by the looks of the things love. Come on, let's get you to bed." Grell sighed. standing up and wrapping one arm under her shoulders and the other behind her knees, scooping her up and carrying her to her room.
Madame Red babbled on. "But you just got here, can't we stay up and drink more, I want to hear all about this boss of yours, is he cute?"
"He is very cute, also very cruel I'll tell you all about him tomorrow. Right now you need your beauty sleep." He scolded jokingly before tossing her onto the bed.
Madame Red pouted childishly. "You're so mean."
"Yes, yes I am. Now I'm going to borrow a nightgown off you and head to the guestroom because I'm exhausted." Grell sighed dramatically before walking out.
Madame Red was already curled up under her duvet, "G'night." She called.
Finding his way to the guestroom, Grell changed into the silk slip he had snatched from Madame Red's closet on his way out and climbed into bed.
"GRELL!" His name echoed through the townhouse walls late that next morning.
Grell was already somewhat awake so he got up and walked down the hall to the origin of the scream. Upon entering the room he happened to see Madame Red hiding her head under a fluffy red pillow.
"Everything hurts." whined Madame Red.
"Yes I suppose it would, have you learned why you shouldn't get that drunk alone?" Grell asked with a smug smile plastered on his face.
Madame Red groaned, "just get me some tonic water, better yet put some Gin in it."
"You're not that hung-over, get it yourself." Grell snatched the pillow and threw it at her.
"Ugh, that is no way to treat a lady." Complained Madame Red, pouting and attempting to hide her head under the duvet.
"But it is how you treat a drunk." Grell teased, smiling at her.
Once Madame Red was alert and in less pain they spent the rest of the day slacking off. It was a Saturday after all. They gossiped a little, went into town to do some shopping and eventually wound up lying around Madame Red's living room reading romance novels for the rest of the day. Towards the late afternoon Grell figured It was about time to head back to his own apartment.
Madame Red looked up from her book. "Oh, well then tata darling, do come visit me again sometime soon."
"Oh, well of course. After all, What would you do without me dear."
"Spend a lot less money shopping." She retorted with a smirk. Pointing out the three shopping bags Grell was holding.
Grell just blew her a kiss, already halfway out the door
As time went on Grell took to staying at Madame Red's townhouse whenever he got stuck working late or if Madame Red had a little red 'project' in mind. They become very used to each others company, not dependant though. They both valued their independence too much for that, it was more of a comradery. Becoming so close to Madame Red made one thing very clear, Grell was dead wrong all those months ago. Madame Red's passionate spirit was not dulled by widowhood, she relished the freedom. Frankly it amazed Grell that he had found such a ruthless killer in a human widow.
It was a typical evening for them, around nine PM. Grell stretched out on the couch with his paperwork on his lap and more papers littering the coffee table. Madame Red sat in the armchair with medical sketches resting on the arm, references scattered along the coffee table mixing with Grell's paperwork. Grell blindly grabbed for his next paper, accidently taking one of Madame Red's reference sketches.
"What's this diagram for?" Grell asked curiously.
Madame Red looked up from her current work to see the sketch. "Oh, that is a diagram of the human heart."
"Explain it to me." He demanded, leaning his head over side of the couch.
Madame Red gave him a knowing smirk. "Bored of your paperwork already? Ok, for starters the heart has four chambers, two atria and two ventricles."
"Ok, so the blood flows through like this?" Grell ran his finger along the diagram, drawing a path through the heart.
"Yes. Oh did you know that there are strings all through the heart that can break during emotional distress and cause the person to die.?"
Grell laughed "Ohh, that sounds like such a romantic way to die, If I could die it would want it to be is a poetic death like that?"
"I would hope you die like that too." Madame Red said with a sly smile. "You know, next time there is someone for us to... take care of, if you can get her somewhere quiet. I could give you an...anatomy lesson." She said with a murderous glint in her eyes.
"Oh darling you know I would always welcome and anatomy lesson from you." Purred Grell.
A few days later Grell had their victim lying on the wooden floor of an out of the way abandoned house. The once beautiful woman now lay lifeless in the dark room. Her head rolled along the floor, hitting the door frame.
Madame Red stepped into the room, nonchalantly pushing the whores head away with the toe of her shoe. "Really Grell couldn't you be a little more subtle?"
"Death scythes are not known for their subtlety, my dear." He explained.
Madame Red sighed and walked over to the dead body, kneeling next to it she unfolded a leather pouch to reveal an assortment of scalpels and other sharp instruments. She then looked over at Grell, raising an eyebrow. "Time for your lesson, darling."
Grell kneeled down next to her, cheshire cat grin plastered on his face. "Where do we start?"
Carefully Madame Red took a pair of scissors from her equipment pouch and cut off their victims blouse. Then taking a scalpel she cut into the woman's left shoulder. "First we make a Y shape. I'll cut through the fat and muscle from the left shoulder to the center of the chest, do the same on the right and bring it all the way down the abdomen."
Grell watched closely as Madame Red tore the scalpel through this woman's flesh, she worked quickly, without hesitation or feeling. He doubted this whore even looked human to her, just meat to be cut up, examined and discarded. He really had to admit, as passionate as he knew Madame Red could be, cold professionalism suited her quite beautifully.
"Are you done staring at me, I need your help with this next part." Smirking, she clamped the flaps of skin down.
"Whatever you need." Grell offered.
"I need you to cut through her ribs and pelvis, carefully!" She emphasises. "if you want a proper lesson the organs need to stay intact."
Grell revved his chainsaw, standing over the body and lowered his scythe slowly. The tip scratching through the ribs, snapping each one as the teeth of the blade brushed the blood stained bone. He did the same brushing his blade over the front of the pelvis.
Madame Red carefully looked over Grell's handiwork. "Not bad, there are some shards of bone lodged in the lungs but that can't be helped when using such a large instrument."
"This does give me an opportunity to show you how capillaries work. They're too small to see but feel here." Madame Red directed, taking Grell's hand and leading him to feel the porous interior or the lungs. "Feel those little dips in the flesh, those are capillaries."
She continued to explain various facts about the different organs, completely at ease surrounded by gore. She was clearly in her element. Grell watched closely, paying attention to Madame Red's explanations and assisting when needed. Once they were finished Madame Red snapped her gloves off and they both walked away as though nothing had happened, both feeling nothing.