A Test of Friendship, Chapter 1

Beaten, bloodied, bare, humiliated, cold, miserable, alone, and dying. There was no one to help him, no one to comfort him, no one to save him. The demon attack left him fatally wounded and near death. Was there no one there? No one to lend a hand? No… No, he was alone in the world. Over a century and half old and no friends. Not once had he ever had one and now he would never own the chance. The Shinigami he worked with on a daily basis didn't even bother to take a second look at the pitiful being which was him, for what had he ever done for them? He scolded them, punished them, and gave them extra work. He never praised them or rewarded them. He was cruel, cold and heartless. Why should they help him? He saw the faces of everyone he knew, and every human he collected the soul of, laughing down at him. Everyone was present but one, the red Reaper, but his voice was; calling out his name from somewhere in the back of the crowd, "William! Will!"

"Will! William, wake up!"
William T Spears, manager of the Shinigami dispatch division, woke with a start, jolting up, eyes wide, and breathing heavily.

Grelle Sutcliffe, an officer, leaped back as William woke up. Will stared at Grelle for a moment, looked himself over once, and let out a sigh of relief. He leaned over and moved his hands under his glasses to he could rub his eyes tiredly.

"Ah, William, are you alright?" Grelle asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," William said in a monotone, repositioning his glasses on his face.

"You looked like you were having a bad dream…" Grelle noted, a hint of concern to his voice.

"It was nothing," William lied before yawning.

Grelle reached out and touched Will's hand, which was on his desk, tenderly, "Perhaps you should go home and get some rest?"

Will pulled his hand back and replied, "I will be fine," He stared at Grelle a moment before saying, "Now, was there something you needed?"

"Ah, uh, no. We were all just curious as to where you had gone, considering we hadn't seen you in about an hour and a half," Grelle said..

"Is that so?" Will sighed. Were they all really curious as to where I was?

And as if Grelle could read his mind, he answered, "Well actually…It was mainly I that was curious… everyone else just sort of didn't seem to care where you were… They seemed to enjoy the fact you weren't there to scold them…"

As I suspected…Will thought. No one else cared…

"…Is…everything alright?" Grelle asked, putting both hands on Will's desk.

"Yes. I don't know why you insist there is something wrong," William said, "Just a bit of fatigue. Work has been rather strenuous lately…" Not to mention these odd dreams I've been having these past weeks…Many times before William had had similar dreams to the one he just had.

Dreams that he was alone, had no friends, and no one cared about him. Though, the thing that kept catching him offguard was the fact that Grelle was either never present in the dreams, or when he was, he was the only one who showed compassion and care for Will.

William figured that was just because Grelle spent a lot of time bugging him every day in the office, and the fact that they had worked with each other everyday for over 120 years, and on top of that, Grelle was in love with William, though those feelings weren't returned to him.  And William still didn't see Grelle as a friend…. And if he did, he wasn't willing to admit it to anyone, himself included.

William often awoke from those dreams with a feeling of loneliness and depression that lasted throughout the entire day as the dreams weighed on his mind. Perhaps he wouldn't feel like that if he didn't think those dreams were in a way true.

William had no one he considered a friend. No one he really cared about, and he felt like, aside Grelle, no one really care about him. Even in Grelle's case though, half the time, he wasn't sure Grelle even genuinely care about him, just had a crazy crush.

"Hmm," Grelle hummed and shrugged off Will's comment, knowing he was in a bad mood, "Well, if there's anything I can help with, just let me know."

"I don't need help, and even if I did, I would be mad to even consider giving it to you to be in charge of it," William said coldly, picking up and glancing through a small portion of his paper work.

"Hnn," Grelle moaned happily, turning his back to William quickly, wrapping his arms around himself, and blushing, "You're so cold, Willu~!" he said affectionately, looking at William over his shoulder. Grelle let his arms fall to his side when he saw Will's expression. William was just staring at the table, what seemed to be in thought, and though there was almost always a permanent frown on his face, there was something about this frown that seemed off to Grelle. William looked… almost sad. It wasn't a look Grelle liked though. He turned back around and just looked at Will sadly, not speaking quite yet.

'You're so cold, Willu~!' Grelle's words echoed in Will's mind. Those were words he had heard numerous times a day from Grelle, and though Grelle seemed to thoroughly enjoy(perhaps a bit too much) his coldness, William was starting to wonder if it was a good thing he was so cold, cruel and heartless. Possibly that was why no one really wanted to get to know William.

Another reason, William assumed, why he couldn't start any relationships was because he was naturally quiet, somewhat shy when it came to himself, and just plain bad at opening up to others. That was just how he naturally was, and he doubted he'd be able to change. At least not easily or quickly.

Grelle nearly lied on the desk and tried to look up at William, "Something's bugging you. You rarely ignore me like that. And it's not just today you've been acting strange! The past week at least I've started to notice you're attitude is changing, and honestly, it's starting to scare me…"

"In what way?" William asked.

"Well, you just act… depressed or something," Grelle said, "It's really starting to concern me."

William was taken aback by what Grelle said. He paid closer attention to him than he thought. And he seemed truthfully concerned. But again, his natural attitude was getting in the way and he wasn't sure how to respond.

"I…am not really depressed," William started.

"But?"

"I…" William found it hard to continue, "I am-"

"Hey, Sutcliffe," Eric Slingby, also a Shinigami officer, appeared in the doorway of Will's office, "Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but Alan was being nosy and saw that there's a soul on your to die list that's due to be collected in about twelve minutes."

"Ah!" Grelle squeaked, "I'm sorry, I just lose track of time when I'm with William!" he shut his eyes and smiled happily, blushing a bit. Then he opened his eyes and a concerned look took over his expression again and he looked at William, "I'll be back later, Will!" And with that, Grelle carefully pushed past Eric and headed to grab his Scythe and to the Human Realm to collect the soul.

Eric watched Grelle leave and turned to Will, "So, what happened to ya? You hadn't been around for quite awhile. Normally you watch us like hawks."

"Someone has to keep you all in line," William said.

"True, true. Ronald and Alan were sort of picking on each other, but I settled that," Eric said, "So don't worry, I kept things under control."

"As to what happened to me-I fell asleep," William said.

"Not something that happens very often for you, but I have noticed you seem rather tired. Lots of
overtime?" Eric asked, "Or is there another reason you're so tired this early afternoon?"

"Overtime combined with my regular duties," William said, "I've not been getting the best sleep lately either."

"We all go through those phases," Eric shrugged, "You don't want to see Alan in one of those phases…" They were both silent for a moment before Eric spoke again, "Anyway, I've got a soul due for reaping here too in a few… See ya later, Spears." Eric turned and left, leaving Will alone in his large, empty, characterless office.

"Well then…" William said, "I suppose I should take care of some of this.." Will stared at the paperwork on his desk and though he really didn't have the energy or will to do it, he started looking through it and started working the massive pile of papers bit by bit.