Problematic: Chapter Eleven

Another quality that William Spears brought out, Grell mused, was nervousness. He'd felt fine after he came to his senses, had felt confident on his way back to the room, and then once he'd started climbing the stairs to get to the room, jittery nerves had taken over and had completely destroyed any confidence he may have had. Really, it was ridiculous; He was Grell Sutcliff, he didn't get nervous! But merely the thought of William's disapproving gaze and that damnable raised eyebrow was enough to send Grell askew.

And thus, Grell found himself pacing outside the door to his own room for over an hour, stomach dipping and soaring at the thought of what he was about to do and the possible outcomes.

Many times Grell moved to turn the door handle, but each time he stopped and stepped back with a shake of his head. Eventually, after he'd started to pace again, he heard the turning of a key in a lock. He paused, looking down the dirty corridor he was standing on and frowning. It was a few seconds before he realised it was his door that was being unlocked, and by that time the door had already opened with William standing there. He looked unimpressed, with one eyebrow raised as he regarded Grell.

"Are you going to actually come inside, or stand out there all night?" At that, Grell gave a grin, letting loose a small giggle from his lips.

"Haha~ How did you know I was stood out here?"

"I heard you arrive an hour ago. You pace like a bear."

"Gracefully?" Grell asked, arms out in the air in a graceful pose. William shook his head.

"Loudly." William stepped aside, allowing Grell into their room. Grell harrumphed, walking in and then standing in the middle of the room. He watched as William closed the door and then turned to face him, eyebrows narrowed as Grell thought of something to say.

"I'm sorry." It was the only thing that he could blurt out without feeling ignorant, and it caused one of William's eyebrows to rise and the other to narrow.

"What for?" His voice was guarded, and Grell took it as a distinctly bad sign. He moved closer, fumbling his hands in front of him as he did so.

"For my outburst earlier… With the way I acted then, and the way I always act, well… what?" Grell took another step forward as William shook his head with narrowed eyes.

"Honestly, Grell, I know you well enough to know when you mean what you say and when you don't." William moved to take a step backwards, but Grell's hand shot out to grip his upper arm.

"No, wait!" Both their eyes locked onto where Grell was gripping William's arm; Grell gulped loudly. There was no turning back now. "I think I misunderstood what you said earlier." Definitely no turning back now.

"And what, exactly, did I leave up for interpretation?" Either William was retreating back into the cold man he'd been when they'd first met, or he was testing Grell. Grell hoped it was the latter. They were close enough now that Grell had to tilt his head up to properly look William in the eyes.

"When you said you cared… you meant more than friendship, didn't you?" Grell asked quietly, nervous shivers running down his spine when William locked eyes with him. William himself stiffened but didn't let any signs of discomfort show on his face. After a momentary silence, William answered.

"I did." It was blunt, Grell reflected, and exactly how William would admit to any form of feelings. Grell waited for William to do something after he admitted it, but William seemed to be waiting for a reaction from Grell. The redhead rolled his eyes.

"Well, don't expect a lady to initiate-"

Grell was cut off abruptly. By William's lips tentatively meeting his own. Once, twice, both softly before the next kiss held more pressure behind it. Almost immediately Grell's eyes fluttered shut, his arms moving up around William's neck and pulling their bodies closer. His stomach soared in an eruption of nerves, and Grell became aware of every sense in his body. He could feel William's hand move to the back of his neck, pulling him even closer and threading his fingers through Grell's hair. Grell moved a hand down to fist in William's shirt, pushing forward and attempting to push the kiss much further.

As he did so, however, they pulled apart. Grell breathed heavily, dizzy from the kiss with his heart bursting. A grin spread across his face.

"That was-"

"Not likely to happen again." William was also breathing heavily, and Grell noticed that there was a very rare look of emotion on his face; William was torn between something.

"Why not?" Grell asked, taking a step closer to William and looking at him in concern.

"The rule's we're breaking by merely thinking about-"

"Rules? You're thinking about rules, now~?" Grell stood directly in front of William, who had turned to the side to regain his breath. When he locked eyes with William, Grell was surprised to see a conflict behind the dark green and speckled yellow orbs.

"You have to understand; I grew up having rules drilled into me. The one time I broke a rule, I ended up dying. I don't break rules." Grell put a hand on his arm and turned him slightly to make sure that William was looking at him as he spoke.

"We're Shinigami. We don't have the same rules as they do in the human world! There is no rule against this."

"For now." William spoke straightforwardly, watching as Grell moved closer, leaning on the heels of his boots.

"Well, I always said live in the moment!" At that, William raised an eyebrow, to which Grell merely laughed. "Shh, Will." Grell looked down, messing around with William's tie as he waited for something, anything. There was a sigh from William, before he spoke again.

"Don't expect this to happen outside the four walls of our rooms. And no being affectionate in public. And expect a longer talk once we return to the Academy." With that being said, Grell nodded and gave a wide grin and moved even closer.

William allowed himself to be pulled down into another kiss.

- - -

"Well, your punishment has been done in full. The Undertaker's rather… exceptional report here paints you both in a positive light. Anything you have to say regarding the punishment?" A file was casually thrown onto the desk, and the Head of the Academy looked down at the two recruits before him. William met his gaze steadily; Grell looked at a spot behind him.

"Only that we acted as competent as was possible with the utmost respect towards the Undertaker." William spoke levelly, everything about him, from his aura to his stance to the tone of voice, was professional and ultimately impressive. The Head of the Academy seemed to think so too.

"Indeed, you most certainly did. Thus your punishments for destroying property and losing a soul are complete. Let's hope the Academy learns from this mistake, hmm?" The older Shinigami looked at both his recruits, eyebrows raised. William smiled grimly in acknowledgement.

"I am confident the Academy will use this to help make tests safer for the recruits so that souls will not be lost and demons not allowed to run rampant." William's words were calm, and anyone listening in might think that William was simply using every word possible to appeal to the older man. But Grell knew better, and he outwardly winced at the sharpness of the words that were deceitfully hidden through a calm and friendly face. The insults were loud and clear to a witty mind; William was pressing the right buttons on the right topic, knowing full well that they weren't the first to lose a soul to a demon whilst on an Academy test, and knowing they wouldn't be the last.

Apparently, the Head of the Academy was really good at reading people and their words too, because his eyes narrowed before they quickly changed into a charming smile.

"Indeed, although perhaps we may also need to change a few things regarding the competence of trainees." Grell blinked at the words before they registered to him as an insult, and he saw William's eyes flash at the words despite the polite smile on his face. Knowing he had no place in the verbal battle before him, Grell attempted to turn around and silently leave. Almost as quickly as he had turned, the Shinigami Head of Academy had caught him.

"Where do you think you're going, Sutcliff?" The man barked, and Grell turned back with a shark-toothed grin on his face. He quickly thought of something to say, and thanked William silently for being the one to practically teach exaggerated formality to him.

"I merely felt that it would be best for me to leave, as I felt I was intruding on your riveting~ conversation." At this, William shot him a look of confusion before his face returned to its emotionless mask, and they both glanced to the oldest one of them in the room. The Head of Academy gave him an odd look before picking the file back up.

"I need to give you both the results of the test you took in January." Grell frowned at that.

"We got graded on that? We nearly died; that can't be a fair-"

"He means the written test." William muttered quietly to Grell, who stopped his talking and nodded with a grin.

"You both did well. Exceptionally well, actually. Spears, you got all B's on the written test. Sutcliff, you got all A's." Grell felt his own eyebrows rise significantly at that, and he shook his head in wonder. Out of the corner of his eye he saw William's lips twitch upwards slightly before settling again, and Grell shot him a grin.

"Are these our final grades?" Grell asked quickly, pushing his glasses up his face at the same time that William did. He held down a giggle.

"If you pass the Final Test, then yes. You are both to spend the next few weeks preparing for that test. You are both to report to your Culture tutor tomorrow morning to be given the details. And no matter what, you can't discuss the details with any other recruit. Now get out of my office; I don't want to see the two of you again unless it's to graduate you both out of here."

William and Grell nodded and left the office as fast as they could. Grell grinned up at William, hands clasped together in front of him.

"We're doing the test earlier than you thought we would, aren't we?" At Grell's question, William nodded. "Are we going to be prepared?"

"Honestly, it's like you think I haven't been ready to prepare us for this for months." William shook his head, pulling a book from his pack as he did so. He flipped through it as Grell latched onto his arm.

"What if we fail?"

"I'd like my arm back, please. If we fail, we re-try it." When his arm was reluctantly released, William stopped on a certain page and quickly began to scan it. Grell looked at the book, wondering if it were more important than the present moment. When he realised it was a book on preparing for the final test, Grell acquiesced.

"Are you proud of me for getting those test results?" Grell asked quietly, as he walked alongside William as they headed back to their room, Grell pulling William to the side every now and then when he came close to walking into a pillar. Not that William would actually walk into one; he was too aware of his surroundings for that, but Grell liked the contact. It took a moment for William to register the question before he answered.

"Yes."

And he meant it.