A/N Hey everyone! Scotland's Pond here. This is a story I wrote for LadyofKalam, as she's been kind enough to feature me (or rather one of my OCs) in her wonderful Hetalia fanfics. I don't own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji (if I did, Grell would've gotten his day with Sebastian) but I do own Adrienne Knight, Ebony Knight, Adelaide Montrose, and Cordelia Croix-Rouge

"I can do that for you...for a price," those words are my motto. People come to me when they want to get rid of someone...permenently. In other words, I'm an assassin, and quite a good one at that.

"How much do you want?" The boy sitting across from me leans forward and folds his hands together, no emotion on his face. His name is Ciel Phantomhive, a noble, I've already noted, and he wants me to dispose of his aunt's murderer. I haven't received many of the details yet, but I will once we've settled on a price.

"A thousand pounds," I reply, giving him a smirk as I quote my usual fee.

"Five hundred," he counters, narrowing his visible eye. "As you know, I am the Queen's guard dog...and I'm sure she'd be none too happy about a contract killer in London." I can't help but laugh.

"Seven-fifty," I say, tucking a loose strand of my thick, black hair behind my ear. "And I'm sure Her Majesty would be none too happy to hear that her watch dog is hiring said contract killer." Earl Phantomhive scowls but he extends his hand to seal the deal.

"Very well then, Miss Knight," he concedes as I shake the proferred hand. "But you had better get the job done."

"Oh, I will," I promise before taking out a pen and sheaf of papers. "Now, you said you want your aunt's murderer out of the way?"

"Yes," Ciel responds, looking away for a moment. "His name is Grell Sutcliff..." The boy goes on to describe the man who, I admit, will probably be a rather easy target. Long red hair, yellow-green eyes, red spectacles on a chain, a long red coat with a black bow, high heels. Yes, easy and strange. Very strange.

"It shouldn't be too hard," I note, feeling like seven hundred and fifty pounds will be a nice payout for such a simple task.

"Good luck..." The Earl states, standing up and taking his top hat from the black-haired butler who accompanied him. "And I should also point out...he is not human." And with that, the boy and his butler leave without another word.

"Not human?" I scoff and roll my eyes slightly. "Well, even if it IS true, I'm sure I can handle this..."

The Earl did not give me a straightforward answer when I asked where I would be most likely to find this Grell Sutcliff. He suggested I simply search around London, preferably at night. He was sure I'd come across the man eventually.

That is why I now find myself in the East End, past midnight. I'm wearing the outfit I generally use when I have a job: simple black shirt, black trousers, kneehigh lace-up black boots and a black overcoat. My hair is pulled up in a high bun to keep it out of my face and I'm armed to the teeth with the many objects I need to work: a small, easily concealed pistol, knives, daggers, fun stuff like that.

In my line of work, patience is a must, so when my methodical search of the East End turns up nothing for about three hours, I'm not discouraged. When I pass by a seemingly deserted alley, however, my luck changes.

I hear an odd sound, almost like the roaring machinery of the factory I used to work in, and turn back to take a second glance. There, lying on the ground, is the body of a recently deceased young woman, but there's someone standing over her. My eyes widen slightly as I realize that the person fits the description of my target.

I take out my pistol, which I've already loaded beforehand, and take aim. My finger squeezes the trigger, and I expect Grell Sutcliff to drop dead, as I hardly ever miss and I'm considerably close to him. To my complete shock, though, the man simply turns around and gives me a wide grin, revealing shark-like teeth. He extends a black-gloved hand, on which the bullet from my gun rests. I blink but quickly pull a dagger from up my sleeve.

"Oh, my," he speaks for the first time as he holds up a strange contraption in a defensive position. "I haven't had someone try to kill me since Bassy~" I ignore him and lunge forward, my hand clenched tightly around the dagger.

This will be tough, I note as he expertly dodges me and raised the noisy machine over his head. I manage to turn swiftly and sidestep into one of the alley walls as he brings it crashing down on the spot where I had been a second before, sending up a spray of cobblestones.

"Wow, I'm impressed," I say with a witty undertone, although it's true. My targets rarely get a chance to fight back so it's a bit refreshing to meet someone who can actually hold his own when confronted by me. "You'd make an excellent partner, but I'm afraid I can't let my client down."

"Client? Please. Don't tell me that brat's paid you to avenge his beloved Madam Red. That would just be silly, wouldn't it?" Grell gives a dismissive laugh as he extracts his contraption from among the stones and points it at me. "And besides, what could a human like you do to a Grim Reaper?" I remember how the Earl warned me that this man wasn't human, so if he's a Grim Realer, that would make his...thing a death scythe. I highly doubt any of my weapons can hold up against a supernatural object.

Still, I have to try because I could never give anyone the satisfaction of knowing they killed me, especially not this flamboyant, red Reaper.

"Are you really going to underestimate me so quickly?" I tease as I surge forward once more. Luckily, I've caught him slightly off-guard and manage to knock his death scythe away from me. In the second it takes him to regain his grip on it, I have two of my knives to his throat.

"Like you could honestly kill me with those," he snaps, shoving me away and causing me to land on my back. He goes to bring the scythe down upon me again but I roll quickly to my left. Even so, I'm not fast enough and gasp as I feel it rip across the back of my right shoulder.

An image of my sister, Ebony, enters my mind. It's only a brief glimpse but I can see it is from the night when she died.

"Mmm, I daresay YOUR Cinematic Record should be rather interesting." The sound of Grell's voice pulls me back to Earth. I am lying on the cold ground, blood oozing from the wound on my back.

"How disappointing that you won't get to see it," I retort as I stand, pretending I know just what the hell he's talking about. By this point, I'm getting rather frustrated with the red-haired man, so I do the only thing I can think of at the moment; in other words, I punch him.

"You fiend!" He whines, holding a hand to his nose, which I've hopefully broken. "How dare you aim for my beautiful face? For a lady, her face is her life!" I take this as an opportunity to knock the death scythe out of his other hand, sending it clattering to the ground, and shove him into the wall.

"This has been fun," I say with a smirk, reaching inside my jacket for another dagger to finish the job. "But I think it's time for me to end it."

Just as I raise my arm to plunge the knife into his chest, something clamps so tightly around my hand, I can feel it break my skin and see the blood that begins to trickle down my wrist. I turn my attention up, following the pole of the device with my eyes to see another man, this one with black hair and a sharp suit and spectacles, standing on a nearby rooftop and holding the other end.

"Please excuse the interruption, Miss" he says in a cool, polite voice as he jumps down and lands neatly beside me. "But I'm afraid I cannot let you harm this Reaper."

"I have to," I snap angrily as I wrench my bruised and bloodied hand from the clamp. I'm about to to on but Grell, the annoying (yet oddly attractive...) git, chimes in.

"Oh, Will, you've come to save me again~" he muses, pushing me away and grabbing the other man's arm, a strange wiggle in his body. "Not that I needed you to...After all, I certainly had this under control-"

"I could honestly care less if this human managed to kill you," the man called Will responds, jerking his arm out of Grell's grasp and slapping him across the back of the head. "I only came to collect you because you've received a new assignment." Then he turns to me. "I do apologize if this arrangement troubles you, Miss Knight, but as I said before, I cannot allow you to do anything to this wretch. The board would have a field day. Here," he offers me a card with the name 'William T. Spears' printed on it. "Now if you will excuse us...Come along Reaper Sutcliff."

I glare at them as they take to the rooftops and feel myself burn with fury as Grell has the audacity to wink at me as they leave; though, I can't help but wonder if the burn is something else...

"This is going to be more difficult than I expected," I murmur softly, prying my mind away from the thoughts I should not be having about this...man-lady who also happens to be my target. "I'm definitely going to earn my money on this one..."
~~~