A/N: Heh~ I think I should comment that, right now, I'm becoming a very quick and avid GrellxWilliam supporter. Extremely so. And after I'd read that Yana Toboso had confirmed that Grell's 'True love' was William, well, this spawned. Heh. Read on! I want to make sure I'm writing these two in character. :D It should also be noted that this will be a short story, since I've others that I'm not paying quite so much attention to, and this originally started out as a one-shot. D: Also, I placed Grell in smart clothing as in the Manga, in Madam Red's memory she see's him first in a suit with his tome after she kills the prostitute, and he's wearing a black blazer and tie, so I'm keeping it like that.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji, Grell, or William. They belong to Yana Toboso.

The sharp click of heeled shoes down the hallways of the academy was the only sound as he stormed down them, attempting to regain control of his anger before he reached the reception. The sharp, stinging words that had left his lips mere minutes before echoed around his mind, reminding him of the situation he was in and mocking him as he walked.

Annoying roommate or no, William T. Spears would not allow the redhead to anger him so quickly or so easily.

The start of the argument, William couldn't remember. They'd argued for so long that eventually the cause of the argument completely left their minds and they only spent a further hour hurling insults at each other until William had had enough, storming out with a procession of 'you don't turn your back on a lady!' following him. A year of pent up annoyance and distaste for his gender-confused roommate had come spilling out; he had left the room only because the situation was starting to get out of his control. He had needed to be on top of the situation, and leaving allowed him the few minutes needed to calm and pretend that the redheads words hadn't affected him half as hard as his had hurt the redhead.

Vividly, as he slowed his pace down but continued towards the reception, he remembered the first time he had met the redhead.

He walked down the hallways of the Shinigami Academy's Hall's of Residence, surprised at the condition that such an old building was in, but eager to get his stuff packed away quickly. The suits he had been given were enough to last a year if cleaned regularly enough, and they were packed neatly in his case. Slowly, he stopped outside the door that the map in his hand had indicated, and heard a slight rustling noise inside the room. He paused. Whoever was on the other side of the door was to be his partner for his next two years in the Academy. Whoever was on the other side of the door would be taking all his exams with him, his partner in the Academy. If William T. Spears were to ever become a true reaper, it depended on the competence and reliability of the person in the room. If he were to succeed in the final challenges of the Shinigami tests, only to have his partner on the other side fail, neither of them would truly become reapers.

He really, really hoped that he was roomed with someone similar to himself.

Opening the door, he gracefully pushed his way into the room, eyes drifting over everything and halting over the Shinigami who was sitting on one of the beds, a copy of Romeo and Juliet in his hands. At William's entrance, he looked up and, with a sharp, shark-toothed smile, looked quickly for something to mark the book with.

William himself was stunned. The fact that his roommate was reading seemed a good sign, but only just. He was wearing a simple black suit, a bright red bowtie resting under the collars with distinctly red soled shoes. That didn't bother William; the bright red, outrageously long hair was what had bothered him. That, and the ridiculous bright red glasses that had small skulls attached to them.

He would handle it, however. At least, that was what he told himself. But by that point, the redhead had found something to mark his page with, and had outright launched himself in William's direction, catching the man in a surprised hug.

"Ah~ You must be William!" Said man had recovered from nearly being knocked off of his feet, and had grabbed the redhead's arms to stop him from squeezing him any tighter. Pushing him off, William gave an annoyed sigh.

"I take it that you are Grell Sutcliff?" He asked, already dreading the prospect of rooming with this man for the next two years. He'd only needed to open his mouth to annoy William, it seemed.

William pulled himself from his memories, absent-mindedly wondering just how Grell's hair was such a vivid red colour. Immediately he stamped that thought from his mind. If he got his own way today, he wouldn't have to look at Grell again. He reached the reception, moving straight to the window that held the receptionist on the other side, the woman seemingly alone in a room that held hundreds of records of those in the academy. She looked around sixty in appearance, implying to William that she had seen many thousands of years pass her by; if her grey hair was anything to go by, she'd been under a lot of stress lately. Nonetheless, at his approach, she pushed her grey glasses up her face and looked at him pleasantly.

"Why would a young Shinigami recruit be in the reception at this time of the morning?" She asked him, glancing down to quickly write her signature on the bottom of a form and filing it away as William looked around.

"Exactly what time is it?" At his question, she glanced behind him to look outside, a small look of consideration crossing her wrinkled features.

"Roughly around seven." William's eyebrow twitched at the answer; he'd been arguing with Grell longer than he had thought; they'd started arguing at eleven at night. For them to have been arguing for eight hours straight seemed impossible. They hadn't been arguing quietly either, and William wondered why none of the Shinigami in the surrounding rooms had complained. Perhaps they thought to simply let the two of them vent? There had been a whole years worth of animosity when it came to those two. Most of it on William's part.

"I was wondering if you could perhaps help me with a problem. I wish to change rooms."

"Oh? Is there a problem with your room?" Again, his eyebrow twitched.

"Yes. It comes in the form of my roommate." At that, the older Shinigami gave a sigh, as if she was used to complaints like this.

"Judging by the time, I take it that the two of you have just had a little argument?"

"I should hardly call it a 'little argument.' The man went mental. I admit, I too lost control, but we've been arguing since eleven last night." As William kept his cool, the woman looked down at the notes in front of her and gave a sigh of realisation.

"Aha, quite an argument you two must have had. Indeed, I got a complaint about the two of you at around three this morning. I'd have sent someone up, but one of the part-time teachers here told me to let you both vent. He even made comments about 'sexual tension' or something similar." She jabbed her thumb behind her to a Shinigami who was sitting in a chair, head on the table and snoring loudly. Even if William couldn't see his face, he knew from the deadly looking scythe and the mop of silvery grey hair that the Shinigami was Undertaker.

"Someone complained- wait… Excuse me, but there is no such thing as 'sexual tension' where myself and my roommate are concerned." William spoke calmly, arms crossed and successfully hiding any surprise that should have come from that statement. He knew that if Grell were hearing this, the idiot would have made a flirtatious comment and draped himself over William's shoulders. William wasn't sure what was more concerning; the fact that that image had just popped into his head, or the fact that he wasn't entirely repulsed by it.

"I hear you. Right, let's see this…" She held up the note in her hand. "Hm, I'm assuming that since you don't look to be a 'flamboyant, flirtatious, ridiculous redhead' then you must be…" She gave a small pause, meeting William's narrowed and impatient eyes before continuing. "You must be the 'dark haired, stuck up man with the stick permanently lodged up his'- let's not finish that." The woman gave a quick grin, folding the note up and putting it into a record file. William's eyebrows twitched again.

"Who complained?"

"I'm afraid I can't divulge that information to you. Although from the complaint, it seems that the arguing stopped for around half an hour at one point before one of you started it again." William tried not to quickly divert his eyes from hers; he'd started another argument after Grell had kept a candle lit to further read one of his Shakespeare scripts. Instead of asking him nicely to blow the candle out or move it, the tension in the room had made him snap an insult at the redhead. Grell had only responded with another insult of his own, and the second argument had erupted.

"Are you going to tell me if I can change rooms or roommates, or simply relay the events to me?" William asked curtly, berating himself for acting the way he was. In the end, he could just blame his behaviour on Grell. He changed dramatically around that redhead, and not for the better. The woman simply gave a smile.

"No. Unless he's attempting to murder you –which he can't – then you're not allowed to change this late in. You've six more months left of the academy training. Unfortunately you're just going to have to put up with his behaviour for the next two and a half years." She gave him a very childish smile that looked odd on her features, but her words were enough to make William splutter in astonishment.

"You just contradicted yourself. If I have only six months left of training, how can I be with that thing upstairs for two more years after it?" The woman cackled.

"The announcement will be made tomorrow, but I'll tell you now. Too many Shinigami were never leaving the offices because they'd not had places to go to after their work; no home or nothing. So the head of the dispatch sector came up with an idea to give Shinigami fresh out of the academy housing for a further two years, so that they could save up their money to buy houses of their own. In order to stop Shinigami from being housed with people they didn't know, the plan is to house the Shinigami in the way they were roomed in the academy. In short, your roommate will become your housemate for a further two years until you save enough money to move out." Outwardly, William cursed. Inwardly, he had no idea what to think of that. But at the moment, his anger was still simmering, making him unable to properly process the idea of sharing a house with Grell Sutcliff. In the Academy, he'd only see him briefly before they both went to sleep, and in lessons. Oh he could see the fighting that would erupt over simple things like control of the cooking, the cleanliness of the house etc if this plan went ahead. At least in the academy, as long as Grell didn't put his mess on William's side of the room, the darker haired Shinigami couldn't care less.

"Listen to me; if I continue to be partnered with that redhead any longer, I'm never going to fully pass the exam. I can't rely on that redhead to pass his half of the exam, and I refuse to fail because of him." William complained, but the old woman pulled some parchment from a drawer and began to write on it, pushing her glasses up again and looking at William.

"At the end of the day, Mr. Spears, he relies on you just as much as you rely on him. Do you honestly expect him to cooperate with you if you are constantly hostile towards him? You're arguing with him because of the way he is, and because of that, he argues back. If you are snappy with him, do not expect him to be kind. Try studying together, or something. Put your differences aside and try to be civil. Not every Shinigami who are roomed together get along. I never got along with my roommate." She offered him a smile, but William tried hard not to make a comment on how rooming together in this age was considerably a lot different to thousands of years ago when she probably had a roommate.

"It won't work. He'll make some ridiculous comment, or he'll-"

"Try to show him that you care about your final challenges, and that you care about whether he passes them or not, and that you care about his wellbeing."

"I most certainly do not care about-"

"Mr. Spears, if you didn't care, you wouldn't have spent eight hours arguing with the man. Now, I'd suggest you go back to your room and get ready for today; the announcement will be made in the auditorium in less than an hour." William refrained from scowling, rubbing his temples and ignoring how his glasses moved with the movement. He hated how the woman had absolutely no idea of the insanity that had erupted from Grell mid-argument. He hated how the woman assumed that he'd be able to get on with his roommate after the angry words and hurtful insults that had been spouted from them both. But mostly, he hated how the woman was right. He wouldn't have argued with Grell for so long –or even at all – had he not cared somewhat about the man.

This posed a problem for William Spears.

He was not –absolutely not- going to develop anything beyond a vague sense of pity for his redheaded roommate. At best, he would feel said vague sense of pity for him. At worst, he would feel very, very annoyed by the redhead. He couldn't hate him – that required caring about the man in some way. But it seemed to William that he was contradicting that statement simply by thinking about Grell, and with a frustrated groan William was forced to accept that Grell did make an impact on him, no matter how much he hated it.

With an inward sigh of defeat, William made his way back towards his room, towards his angry roommate and a barrage of problems he would be forced to accept sooner or later.