Problematic: Chapter Ten

"What's your problem?" The tone was harsh and, accompanied with the slamming of the door, was enough to make William look up from where he was sitting on his bed. They had only a week left of their punishment, and Undertaker had let them leave earlier that day due to 'good work.' Grell had casually departed at the doorway, saying he wanted a good hour or two to revel in freedom before they returned to the Academy and had to start preparing for the Final Test. Granted, the redhead had looked troubled, but William had put it down to stress. As it were, William put his book down before answering Grell.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh don't give me that, Will! You've been acting off for the last three weeks! You've ignored me, you've started to wedge a distance between us and lately you have acted like your mind is elsewhere. And you've been bitter too, to me. What did I do?" Grell paced in his confusion, eyes on William as the latter sat frozen with blatant surprise. He hadn't been acting too obviously, had he? After a spectacular incident where he had almost stuttered non-stop, in a remarkably uncharacteristic way, in the middle of a conversation with the redhead, William had decided to simply not initiate conversation with the redhead in order to calm himself and his mind down. In other words, to squash out what he regarded as foolish feelings.

Put simply, William had panicked.

At first, Grell must have assumed that he was merely in a bad mood, and decided to leave him alone until he felt better. It seemed, however, that the silence had been getting to him to the point where he needed to confront his taller partner on the issue. William pushed his glasses up his nose and switched his gaze to the redhead.

"I've been… busy." It was more of a question than an answer, as if William were offering out whatever answer would satisfy Grell's temper. It didn't work.

"Oh we've all been busy!" Grell threw his hands up in the air, shaking his head at William. "We've been busy since the day we walked through the academy doors. But we still talked."

"We argued."

"Until a few months ago, when we started to talk to each other. You know, when we became friends?" Grell paused and looked at William as he spoke, waiting for a reaction from William. The darker haired Shinigami looked to the side.

"You need to sit down, else you'll overexert yourself." In response, Grell gave a noise of frustration before sitting down hard onto his mattress; straw poked out the end, but the redhead gave it no heed. His eyes were on William, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Did you ever put our relationship down as friendship? Or was it all a ruse to make me focus on my grades?" Grell's eyes locked with Williams, the startling green starting to fleck with yellow and filled with a deep confusion. William couldn't lie when faced with a gaze like that.

"I will admit that, at first, I only made peace to make sure you passed your final exam. However-" Grell cut him off, hurt visible on his face.

"I don't believe this! Here I thought that-"

"-to me." The tone of William's voice shut Grell up immediately, and William himself was surprised at the authority that seeped through his voice. "Mere days after we attempted to stop our arguments, I started to feel differently, and quite quickly I considered you as more than an acquaintance." No matter the tone of his voice, Grell was determined to win and to find out what was causing William to have drifted the last few weeks. He stood up again, looking down at William.

"Really? And how do I know you're not lying, considering you did a brilliant job of it at the start?"

"You'll have to trust me." William moved to stand up, arms by his side with clenched fists as another argument brewed between them.

"I did trust you, I thought you were fast becoming one of the greatest friends I'd ever have! Do you know why I don't get on very well with the other Shinigami?" Grell spoke quickly, as if trying to get all his words out before William would go or cut him off. William took a step forward, eyes narrowed.

"Because of your inability to stay calm?"

"Oh you're so funny; such rapier wit, Will! No, it was because whilst the other Shinigami recruits spoke of how you were a stick in the mud with no personality to be desired, I stuck up for you. I told them that there was more to you than what we simply saw, that you were likeable and the same as the rest of us, even if you didn't want to let us see it." At that, William directed his gaze to the side before answering.

"No one asked you to." William's tone was resolute, making Grell's mouth drop in disbelief and anger. He moved forward to strike William across the face, stopping short only because William's hand shot up and gripped his wrist before the hand could connect with his cheek. Their gaze held, a silence slipping over them as Grell reeled from the shock of attempting to hit William. William watched the redhead, knowing he had acted on impulse but not allowing the redhead to look away. Grell's hand clenched into a fist as he started to shake before he pulled his arm back sharply and let it hang by his side.

William tried not to pay attention to how close they were. With Grell looking up, their breaths were mingling due to their closeness; it was something the redhead wasn't blind to either.

"Why have you been distant?" It was clear that Grell wasn't going to give up. William's narrowed eyes softened slightly, but the glare in his eyes was still aimed wholeheartedly at Grell.

"It would be unprofessional of me to tell you." William took a step back, pushing his glasses up his face again. Grell shook his head.

"Always about professionalism and right and wrong. I'm not sure if you'd stand it this long if you were only pretending to accept me, but I can't be sure. Prove me wrong, Will." Grell muttered quietly, walking towards the door to their room. William straightened his jacket, facing away from Grell before he spoke.

"I have found that, recently, I have begun to care for you." His words weren't a complete confession and were spoken formally, and could be left to be interpreted any way possible. Grell interpreted it the wrong way, and stopped as the door was half open.

"Shockingly Will, that's what happens when you start to get along with someone." Grell left, shutting the door quietly as William shook his head.

"This is ridiculous." He muttered under his breath as he sorted his tie out before leaning against a wall, thumping his fist against it lightly. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he silently pondered on what to do.

He settled with finding a way to keep his emotions more in check.

- - -

Rarely did Grell Sutcliff ever get angry. He'd get upset, occasionally would act angry to add drama, and sometimes he would feel very, very annoyed. But an angry Grell Sutcliff was rare, and whenever Grell mused on the instances where his fury boiled and ran through his veins faster than adrenaline ever could, he noticed one thing that connected all his angry instances together.

William T. Spears.

The man was always at the centre of his rage, being the only thing that could ever push Grell past the boundaries of annoyed and into an angry rage. He could send Grell into storms of anger with the right words, and yet with those same words he would have Grell waiting on the edge for something else, something exciting. Grell frowned; William Spears could send his stomach soaring with butterflies and have him secretly jittering with nerves as easily as he could rile him up into temper.

To Grell's mind, William was the biggest contradiction to his emotions out there.

Pouting, Grell hugged himself as he walked through Hyde Park, mulling over the scene in the room. It had stung to find out that William had only initiated their friendship to benefit himself, but Grell also knew that of all things, William didn't lie. He knew that William had been honest when he'd claimed that he'd genuinely begun to care where they were concerned.

When they'd first started to get along, really get along and not the odd day where they'd happen to not be arguing, Grell had been content. He'd brush off the shivers that those cold eyes sent down his back, and keep going on. When he'd accidentally tricked William into revealing his sexuality, he'd turned downright hopeful. Not that William could tell; Grell had worked hard into making sure his attraction couldn't be detected, and it had worked. That, and Grell didn't have to fake having fun flirting harmlessly with everyone; he found that enjoyable anyway.

There were also the last words that William had spoke to him as he'd left their room. Grell had known from the first day at the Academy that William didn't throw words around carelessly; he didn't say what wasn't needed. It was one of the reasons William could cut so deep with only words, and it helped to establish the aura of emotionless and professionalism that William radiated.

Grell froze.

He could spend hours picking apart exactly what William had said, but he knew that William wouldn't say he cared if he only meant friendship. Grell knew he'd say 'concerned' or something equally as professionally embarrassing. Words that conveyed any emotion other than anger or annoyance would be blunt with the dark haired Shinigami, and although it annoyed Grell to no end most of the time, he could safely say he knew William enough to know exactly what words really meant. He didn't need to pick words apart. One only needed to know William to know his words, and it had been the only thing that had constantly kept him on edge during those times when he knew neither William nor the meaning of most of his sharp words.

Therefore, Grell mused in self-disappointment, William had meant something much more than friendship when he'd said he cared. And Grell had misinterpreted it in anger and stormed out in his typical fashion.

Grell grinned. William knew he'd been angry, and would likely be quick to forgive him. Straightening his suit jacket, Grell sorted his cuffs out and turned on his heels, walking calmly back to their shared rooms with a new purpose and the most suspicious grin on his face that could easily put the London Undertaker to shame.

"Well then," He muttered under his breath, grin still plastered on his face, "I guess I'll have to go and clear this up."