Dancing in red (Grell, Will and tiger)

Grell cackled a little bit in amusement even as William swung his death scythe at him expertly. He was giggling like he was happy but to be honest he was just giggling because he was glad that William had yet to hit him even once with the deadly weapon. Honestly, even a reaper as beautiful and strong as he was would be done after a few swings from William's death scythe.

Dodging the attacks expertly, Grell cursed the fact that they were currently fighting in what had once between a thriving building with rooms to let. After awhile though it had gone downhill towards the bottom, with only the top floor rooms being pristine anymore. They were fighting on the highest floor and damned if there was anyone in these rooms!

Grell would know, William had been pushing him through several of the walls at high speeds after all.

Narrowly avoiding having his head chopped off, he backed away from William with a wide grin and his hands held up in a non-threatening manner,

"How about we stop fighting? It's not doing either of us any good!" he declared before grinning a little bit louder, "How about some 'vigorous exercise' instead?"

William frowned a little bit as he swung his death scythe repeatedly at Grell. The reaper was a disgrace to them all! He had been murdering prostitutes again because it had been what that human woman he'd followed wanted... or some such rot. William didn't really pay attention to the red-head's reasoning because he believed that there was no way to reason for the idea of breaking such clear and practiced rules! Rules that specifically limited the interaction of reapers with humans.

Grell repeatedly waved this rule off and William was very anxious to show the rebellious reaper what the punishment for insubordination was! He wouldn't kill Grell though; but that didn't stop him from roughing the other reaper up and making him bleed the damned red blood that the manic reaper seemed to have developed such a fondness for.

Growling in annoyance, he paused when Grell seemed to see reason and called for an end to the fighting. Finally, it seemed, the red-obsessed reaper was going to see some sense and put an end to his continuous rule breaking! But just when he thought Grell couldn't anger him more, the reaper went and pulled this. He growled and slammed his death scythe into the other reaper's gut, sending him flying through the wall into the living room of one of the apartments up here.

Shame. They were the expensive kind up here.

"Enough with your attitude Sutcliff! You have broken the rules, broken our laws!" he seethed as he entered the apartment after his prey, "Why shouldn't I just drag you back down to see you burn?"

Ophelia didn't think that she was going to be able to do many projects when she graduated because she was a newbie, however she had been given her fair share and it kept her busy, it was really very kind that they kept giving her projects like this, it seemed that she was rather adept at them. She had passed her reaper exams with flying colours and so she was trusted after her first few assignments turned out right.

She had been in the center of London to reap a large number of souls, there was a large fire in one of the factories in London and she had to reap a grand total of 22 souls, 5 of which were children. It was a horrible task in theory and in practice, although it had to be done, it had to be done so that their suffering would end, she tried to see it like that.

Now, she was wandering down the streets reading one of the cinematic records she had checked out of the library of Reapers, and laughed lightly, this guy had lead the most amusing life it was like watching a comedy unfold in front of your eyes, his death was particularily amusing too. Ophelia often found peoples deaths amusing because she saw them from a different perspective.

Easily she could see the ifs, and buts, the ways they could have avoided it.

Running her hands through her flame red hair, Ophelia smiled to herself before her attention was drawn by the sound of fighting, gasping softly she thought that she had better go and find out what was going on, maybe she could help! It sounded like two reapers fighting, they were definitely death scythes she could see as she got closer.

"Oi!" she cried out "You both are completely destroying this building...surely you can find another venue for your fight if it is really that important!" Ophelia stated with a small pout before she recognised one of the reapers, William T. Spears, he was her tutor in the Reaper Academy, gasping she waved her hands in the air "So s-s-sorry Mr. Spears I didn't know it was you."

Grell muttered under his breath about terribly weak walls as he pulled himself up out of the bricks and mortar that he had found himself buried in rather quickly. Pushing it off of him, he pouted a little bit when he realised that, since he was covered in dust, most of the red on him would now be grey! Where was the fun in that? Where was the attraction in having all of his glorious red dulled to grey?

Grabbing his death scythe, Grell brought it to glorious life with a cackle. He loved his death scythe because no one was expecting it to take such a strange shape and even those who were, were often caught off guard by how heavy the thing was when swung right! And Grell, obviously, swung his death scythe with skill and precision! He was a professional after all,

"Come on William! You getting tired already?!" he taunted as he slammed his death scythe into William's, sending the more respectful Reaper skidding across the floor. He raised his death scythe to finish off the stuffy bastard but stopped dead upon seeing the red headed woman waving her hands at William. He smirked a little bit and turned his death scythe off, "Oh me oh my! Such a beautiful little red head! Tell me dear... where has William been hiding you from me hmmm?"

He slid closer to her and reached out, almost touching her soft red hair. He shivered happily and couldn't help but giggle a little bit,

"Oh how wonderful you look my dear!" he cooed happily, "Simply wonderful!"

Ophelia almost squeaked when she saw the red headed reaper sending William across the floor, she reached for her own death scythe which took the form of a simple sickle seeing as she was a new recruit, and held it in the air ready to join the fight if she needed to. There was no way that she was going to allow her favourite mentor to be hurt like that, even if she did admire the death scythe of his opponent, however did he get that approved?!

Although, when the other reaper stopped and turned off his scythe she placed hers back in her sheath biting her lip softly, she hoped that he wasn't going to be unhappy after she had done something like that. It was only in self defense when she got down to it.

Pointing to herself when the other reaper complimented someone, Ophelia didn't really get a whole lot of compliments because of her red hair and she didn't expect them. So, when she heard him being so nice to her, especially after throwing someone across the floor, she didn't really believe it. As he approached her and almost reached out to touch her hair, Ophelia blushed softly and stepped backwards shyly away from the reaper.

"Well...I was one of his recruits from last year at the reaper Academy." she stated with that same blush on her cheeks "I just graduated you see...I am glad that you two have stopped fighting, people were beginning to wonder what was going on."

Ophelia's eyes shifted to the floor and she hummed; "My name is Ophelia McMillian, pleased to meet you, and nice to see you again Mr. Spears."

William had been about to finish the battle, knocking Grell out before dragging him back to HQ, but it seemed that fate had other plans in store. One of his top students from the Reaper academy showed up right there in front of him, ready to stop the battle. To be honest he was proud that she was so willing to follow the rules about no Reaper-on-Reaper combat that she was willing to jump in until she saw that it was him.

Of course Grell, being a complete asshole, used his momentary distracted to attack him with that diabolical contraption that he tried to pass off as a death scythe. Honestly, he thought as he picked himself up off the ground with a sigh, it was simply awful to him!

He growled when he heard Grell complimenting his favourite student. The monster was likely going to try and make her a twisted as he was,

"One of the best students I've ever taught." he added as he slowly put his death scythe away, "I see... we have been discovered in our actions. This is annoying but unavoidable it would seem. We shall have this discussion another time Sutcliff but for now you will do well to remember that she is my favourite student and I will not see her harmed."

He nodded to her with a small smile,

"How have you been finding the work my dear?" he asked her quietly, "I do hope that you haven't been too busy."

Ophelia smiled happily when it seemed like the fight was going to be over, she wanted to be able to talk to her tutor perhaps on a more level plain than they had been talking when they were Professor and Student. She had proven herself when she had passed the exams and she was sure that she was going to be able to hold her head high when she faced her Tutor, many had failed the final test and as such she was even more proud of herself.

"Ah well, thank you Mr. Spears." she stated with an even bigger blush on her cheeks, Ophelia was getting complimented from all angles today and she didn';t know why, maybe it was the perfume that she was wearing today "I was lucky to have such an amazing tutor, without you I was so unsure that I would pass the final exam."

When she heard William warning the other reaper, Sutcliff off Ophelia immediately realised that she knew who the other reaper was! He was Grell Sutcliff she had heard so much about him and not very good things either, he tended to harass William and that was something that she didn't like about him, when it was so obvious William didn't like it. Apart from that, she thought he sounded really quite good fun.

"Oh I have been finding work great, I haven't been too busy but today I had my greatest amount of souls to collect since I began, 22 in total." Ophelia admitted with a proud glow "How is your work...you haven't gotten more overtime have you?" she asked with a little pout.

Grell had to admit that he didn't really want the fighting to be over. He was just beginning to have fun when it came to slapping William around after all! But apparently everyone here, including himself, was having a sensible attack and had decided that it was a bad idea. Hearing Spears compliment her, he rolled his eyes at the thinly veiled threat. Oh so William T Spears would hurt him if he corrupted poor little Ophelia would he? Well they'd soon see how truthful that was going to be,

"Oh I'm sure that you would have passed with flying colours even without this old stuffy little git!" Grell laughed happily as he patted her on the back with a little grin, "I bet I could have taught you the same stuff easily! People say I'm a natural at teaching after all!"

He could tell by the way that she looked at him after William said his name that she had been poisoned by William! Oh how cruel! William had poisoned her mind to be against him since before they even met! How truly, truly, cruel! He chuckled a little bit. Had they all been that keen when they first started trying to become Reapers? Honestly he couldn't picture William being excited in anyway, the man was like some form of talking brick after all,

"You seem to be doing well with your duties! How are you finding the change eh? Different, easier, when there's no William T Spears next to you, telling you what you should and shouldn't do." he teased her with a little wink before sticking his tongue out, "Ick... overtime. Just saying it makes me what to vomit! It's a disgusting word!"

Ophelia blinked when she felt Grell patting her on the back, she hadn't really had much contact with male reapers yet and even a pat on her back making her jump a little bit if she was honest, she wanted to be able to get closer to a reaper in time but she just hadn't met the right one yet. Well...she might have done but he sure wasn't going to be interested in her.

"You're a natural at teaching?" she asked with a bemused expression on her face "Maybe you can try and teach me something, like how you managed to get your scythe through the general affairs office, it's a beautiful design Mr. Sutcliff."

Of course she was striving to be respectful, these reapers were much older than her and she wanted to be able to respect her seniors, as was taught to her. On the other hand she would be very happy if they did actually tell her to call them by their first names, it would be kind of exciting to be so close to some really powerful reapers. It would certainly gain her some credit with the other new graduates!

"W-well no I wouldn't say that." she whispered softly with a shy blush on her cheeks "I was always happy to have Mr. Spears with me while I was judging and weighing souls, although it is very exciting to be able to do so on my own now, it makes me feel very competent."

Unable to stop herself from giggling happily when Grell cracked a joke she smiled broadly up at him; "I have to agree, I certainly wouldn't like to do any! It must be a real bind."

William wanted to cut off the hand that Ophelia was being patted with. Damn that Grell! He could have the reaper finally lose his licence and his abilities after this incident, of that you could be damned sure! He had simply had enough of the damned man! He was touching his favourite student as if she was Grell's own little minion. He gritted his teeth tightly,

"Oh he's a natural a something but it's not teaching; it's warping young minds. Grell here is responsible for more reapers being forced to retire than any other factor." he told her honestly before snorting a little bit and looked down at his own death scythe, "That's because he was sleeping with the general affairs office secretary at the time and she just slipped the approval letter in."

He could also tell that she was doing her best to be respectful considering that even Grell was considered a senior officer when compared to her. But he was unlikely to give her any orders that she would actually go through with. He couldn't help but glow with pride when she said that she liked how he had hovered close by when she had judged and weighed souls up. It was one of his favourite aspects of teaching he had to admit, especially Ophelia,

"Well I'm glad that you enjoyed me watching over you like that." he told her with a small smile, "I must admit that it was rather fun to do myself, I liked looking out for you."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose when Grell and Ophelia laughed at the same joke. That was fine by him. Just as long as she didn't end up following his example in the worst possible ways,

"It's not too hard." he admitted before shrugging slightly, "You get used to it after the first few weeks."

Ophelia bit her lip and she looked from William to Grell and then back again, she didn't want to judge him but she was sure that she had heard this story from someone else before, she wanted to be able to believe that Grell wasn't as bad as other people said but it seemed that all evidence was to the contrary. Warping young minds? Making them retire? That wasn't what she wanted at all, but part of her wanted to get to know the interesting random reaper.

"You always make Mr. Sutcliff sound truly horrible Mr. Spears. surely he can't be all that bad, he is a reaper after all he must be efficient at his job." she smiled softly at Grell "Besides I'm not as cute as I seem, I can be pretty strong willed as well, you'd have a hard time of it if these rumours are true." Ophelia winked, she always did enjoy having a little joke.

What she didn't expect to hear was that William had liked watching over her, she didn't think that he would have done, that she was just another little student he had to look after until the time was right for her to graduate the academy. Ophelia had often had some steamy thoughts about her tutor, but she would never ever let him know that! It was his whole demeanour, especially his glasses...they truly suited him.

Running her hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face Ophelia smiled lightly, she knew that William took on a lot of overtime, and she was often worried that he was pushing himself too hard, Ophelia hardly ever saw him around the Reaper terratories any more;

"I hope you're getting enough rest Mr. Spears...sometimes I think you're going to burn out with all the work you do." Ophelia admitted, poking her lip with her finger.

Grell pouted a little bit and tried to look as innocent as he possibly could when she looked at him, clearly trying to make her mind up about him. And, obviously, he wanted her reaction to him to be a positive one! He didn't want her to just dislike him after all! She was going to like him as much as he was beginning to like her, what with be beautiful red hair and plentiful blushed,

"Yeah William! Surely I can't be as horrible as you make me out to be seeing as I'm a reaper of renown and dignity!" he teased William before grinning a little bit when she joked back with him, "Oh I can believe that... there's more beauty in you than cute after all!"

To be honest, as soon as he heard that William liked looking over her he had to say that his first reaction was that William was some kind of weirdo stalker. He could tell that Ophelia had had some level of a schoolgirl crush on William and he was not happy about it! Why would someone who seemed to be so much fun, want to spend time with Mr Boring? It made no sense to him.

When she ran her hand through her hair and caused it to move, Grell's eyes were drawn to it instantly and he couldn't stop himself from reaching out and beginning to stroke it happily. Her hair was as soft as it appeared and that was pretty damned soft! He chuckled a little bit when she warned William about not over working himself,

"Oh I don't think that should be a problem." he said with a snort, "He only deals with his problems peacefully."

Ophelia blushed softly when she heard that Grell disapproved of what William said about him, she wanted to be able to feel as if she could trust Grell not to try and make her corrupted...but besides saying that she was right he hadn't made any sorts of protests at all, maybe what William was saying was correct. Maybe Grell was a little more sinister than he appeared, but he seemed so fun and carefree!

As he complimented her again, Ophelia couldn't help but allow her blush to grow even more, it was such a sweet thing to say to her! Once again she recalled the fact that she hadn't been approached by many male reapers so far, so, this was doing a world of wonders for her confidence, both seeing Grell's attraction to her red hair, and William's proudness in her achievements and success.

"Thank you Grell, you certainly are full of compliments." she smiled happily "You must be a real ladykiller in the literal and figurative way!" Ophelia joked, she was very glad to have met some senior reapers, maybe she would even be able to ask Grell some questions.

Squeaking a little bit when he came closer and actually began to touch her! Stroking her hair! It made her want to purr happily but that was something she wasn't going to do, not in front of William, it would shame her so much to purr in front of her crush! And of course Grell was a complete stranger to her, and here he was stroking her hair!

"Uhm...Grell...why are you stroking my hair?" she asked with a bright blush on her cheeks "And that's sometimes a good thing you know, I guess if you combined both of your personalities together you'd get a perfect balance of fun and work, now, if only I knew how to do that!" she joked.

William was seething on the inside and on the outside he wasn't much happier he had to admit. Here was Grell, the reaper who stood for everything that William fought against, and he was flirting with William's greatest student and forbidden romantic interest! Yes it was true, he wanted to be with Ophelia in a romantic way but he had never been able to do so while she was in the academy. Apparently it was no open season on her affections if Grell was any indication, which meant that he would have to act fast in order to get her affection,

"Yes well Grell here is very good at making people open up to him like this." he told her with a little smile before it faded slightly and he glanced at Grell, only to get a quick line to just drop that point. He coughed a little bit as to draw more information about Grell to her, "I think it's part of his damned charm and his damned job to kill younger ladies. Horrible no?"

The fact that he was actually trying to touch his Ophelia instantly made William wish to rend him limb from limb. Taking one of her free hands in his own, he lead he her out to the other side of the room so that Grell wasn't able to molest her. He scoffed quietly,

"He's doing it because it's his nervous twitch." he told her with a little shrug, "The guy wanted to touch your red hair and red blush since you arrived. Please kindly tell him roam around but keep a strong and don't let him just feel up your hair."

Ophelia merely laughed a little bit awkwardly when William spoke, it was getting more and more difficult to remain in conversation with the two of them if they were going to keep throwing barbs at each other all of the time, there was really no need for it. Especially considering that they were both reapers of high standing surely they shouldn't be engaging in a slagging match with each other?

Running a hand nervously through her hair Ophelia replied;

"Well yes that is horrible but it is a reapers job to do that, I suppose somebody has to do it in the end." she stated with a little grin on her lips "But I can see you two were in the middle of sorting something out and I don't want to be a bother to you so I might as well be going back to HQ for now."

As she was turning to leave she heard William tell her that Grell had wanted to touch her red hair since she had first arrived, looking at him again she could see that he really did love the colour red, she supposed she was lucky, he might have turned on her too if she didn't have the colour hair that he liked. Biting her lip a little bit Ophelia ran her finger along the blade of her scythe.

"Be that as it may." she laughed nervously "I really should be going now...ttfn!" she grinned, before hopping out of the building and scurring along the street away from the odd sight she had just witnessed, she could still feel Grell's touch in her hair and it brought a blush to her cheeks.

Ophelia had never seen her Tutor behave in such a way, maybe he wasn't as stoic as she thought he was when he taught her.