Hey people! Just thought I'd let you know that there is going to be a time skip in the story. So these few chapters are going to be kinda like filler chapters to fill in the gap. It's basically what William and Leah do together. Me and my friend might do a William and Leah cosplay and lip synch to 'anything you can do I can do better', because let's face it, they're a really competitive couple. XD We might post the video on YouTube so you people can see it. That is a maybe, though. I still have to talk to my friend about it. XD

Chapter 21: a winter's day outside

Winter came quickly in the shinigami world. Sometimes it came far too quickly, like this year. I woke up one morning to find nearly three feet of snow on the porch. Well… on the bright side, we got the day off from work. On the down side, I had to shovel my way out of three feet of snow. Snow would make more snow. And if I didn't dig myself out of this by today, by tomorrow I would be up to the roof in snow. Sure, I could enchant a shovel to do the job, but disenchanting it is a completely different story. I have never managed to disenchant anything I've put a spell on. Let's say that every time I tried to do so, I would end up putting another spell on it to undo that one and it would keep going until I just gave up and threw whatever I had put a spell on in the trash or took it to Grell. He usually couldn't repair it either but under some rare occasions he actually could fix it.

So I got to work. I only owned one winter coat, a red insulated bomber jacket which I didn't really like because despite the fact that it was insulated, it didn't really keep me warm. Sometimes I would play a trick on Grell where I would climb onto the porch roof of his house and wait until he walked outside, then jump on the roof and make all the snow fall on his head. It was very fun. If it was anyone else, he probably would have killed them, literally. But being his best friend, I got away with just a snowball in the face, or a fistful of snow stuffed down my shirt which was yesterday as Grell was leaving for work. Considering the fact that he wore glasses, Grell actually had pretty good aim when it came to snowball fights. He would beat me almost every time. Speaking of snowball fights…

I picked up a handful of snow and shaped it into a perfect snowball. Then I lobbed it right at Grell's window. It hit the window with a thump. I threw another one. It hit the window again. Grell's face appeared in the window. His hair was a red haystack. It was so funny, as it got so tangled in the morning. But even after that he wouldn't cut his hair for anything. I waved up at him and held the shovel in front of me and pointed to the snow. He held up one finger and walked away from the window. That meant 'one minute'. I think. He'd better be coming. I thought to myself. I can't shovel all of this by myself.

Exactly ten minutes later Grell walked out of the house. I was waiting for him with a snowball. It knocked his glasses clean off his face. He shook his head quickly to get the snow out of his hair and put his glasses back on.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"For keeping me waiting" I threw a shovel at him. "You said you'd be one minute. You kept me waiting for ten. You can't expect a lady to shovel snow all by herself." He caught it and looked at it like I'd given him a dead rat and not a piece of wood and plastic. "Come on, get going" I said as I dug into the snow. He shovelled half heartedly. Most of the snow had actually been cleared away by the snowman we had made in the middle of the lawn and then had fun blowing up and hacking apart with my fusion cannon and his chainsaw.

"Hey, want to go down to that hill later on? We can go tobogganing. We can even invite Will to come with us."

"I don't think William would like to come… but hey, why not…"

I walked back into the house and picked up the phone and called William.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me"

"Oh, Leah. Good morning"

"Good morning. Grell and I were just going to go down to the hill by the pier, maybe snowboard and toboggan for a little bit. Would you like to join us?"

"Hmm… I'm not really one for sports"

"Come on, please? It's going to be so much fun"

He sighed. "Fine."

"Yay! Thanks!" I said happily. I paused. "You sound annoyed."

"It's because you always get what you want."

"It's your fault for agreeing to go."

"Why have I gotten so soft lately…?" he muttered. I laughed.

"You know, sometimes that's a good thing."

"Perhaps, but not in my case." I laughed. I still hadn't gotten William to laugh yet. That was another thing I had to do.

"I'll see you at noon."

"All right. Goodbye"

"Bye" I hung up. Exactly at noon, the doorbell rang. I laughed. William was always on time for everything. I let him in and hugged him.

"It's so good to see you." I let go of him. "Something's different…"

"I fell into a snowdrift."

I cracked up and burst out laughing. Something about the deadpan way he said it just killed me. It was true. William's hair was completely wet and his bangs were in his eyes instead of neatly combed in a side part like usual and the long black coat he had placed on the coat rack was covered in snow.

"What's so funny?" He wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"It's so not like you to fall into a snowdrift." I said, still giggling.

"Did you perhaps notice that the snow is three feet deep, and even deeper in the snowdrift?"

"Yes I did… I managed to dump that much snow on Grell this morning during a snow fight." I said matter of factly as I threw a spare towel over his head.

"I guess he deserved it."

"Hey!" Grell called through the window. "Not nice! And you…" His gaze rested on Leah, who gave him a malicious smile. "I'll get my revenge today."

"Ok" I said, shrugging.

"Let's get going before the snow melts." Grell said, throwing a pair of earmuffs at me.

"Where was your energy when I needed you to help me clean the driveway?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well… I did help you clean it, didn't I?"

"Not really, no"

In minutes, we headed outside, me and Grell still arguing about who helped clean the driveway more. It finished when William hit Grell over the head with his death scythe.

"Hey! Why are you always on her side?"

"Because she's right most of the time" I smiled and hung onto William's arm.

"Yes I am"

Grell gave me a jealous look.

"You are so dead today."

"Of course I am."

We headed to the hill, Grell carrying three sets of plastic carpets.

"I bet I can go faster than you can." He said as he gave me one.

"No you can't."

"Want to race?"

"Sure, but you can't use your death scythe."

"Neither can you, then. You can't use your telekinesis powers either." Grell grabbed one plastic toboggan and slid down the hill. I carefully positioned mine and put one foot on it.

"You're crazy" William said. "You're not going down that thing standing up, are you?"

"Yes I am" I said as I kicked off and slid down the hill. I admit, I had several near misses when I nearly hit a few trees, as it wasn't easy to steer standing up, but I did manage to get down the hill faster than Grell… until I crashed into him.

"Hey, look out!" I yelled. Grell looked up as I crashed into him and we both flew into a snowdrift. We sat up, covered in snow, laughing like crazy. Grell took his glasses off and wiped them free of snow. After several rounds of tobogganing and snowboarding, we went down the hill to have a snowball fight.

I was concentrating so hard on trying to win that I accidentally hit William with a snowball.

"That's it!" William said. "You'll be sorry for that!" He made a snowball and threw it at me. I was so surprised that I forgot to dodge it. I laughed and threw one again. From then on, it was a three way snowball fight. Pretty soon, all of us were covered in snow. William had hit Grell in the face twice with a snowball. It was a pretty good hit, seeing as it sent Grell falling into a snow bank.

I was happy to say that all of us had fun.

"See, that wasn't so bad" I said as William, Grell and I walked back from the hill. William and I were holding hands.

"It was better than I expected"

"Of course it was. You need to go outside more often."

"I have a schedule to follow."

"If you fit stupid, unpredictable me into your schedule, you can find time to go outside." He smiled.

"Tomorrow after work?"

"Sure… that is if it doesn't snow like hell again."

"Then it's a date"

"I wonder where we're going to go."

"It's a surprise"

"Ugh! You of all people know I hate surprises!"

"Too bad"

I sighed. The sun shone down on the shinigami world, reflecting off the snow as we walked in a winter wonderland.

End of chapter 21! XD I was actually thinking of putting a chapter where William and Leah do go on a date. I'm open to suggestions on where they should go. :D

Thanks for reading!

~darkironprincess17