A Shinigami Christmas - part 2

A Shinigami Christmas

Chapter 2
The following week turned out to be extremely busy as all of the shinigamis rushed around trying to get their work done before Christmas.  Apart from their usual jobs, they had also begun to prepare for the festivities whenever they could get a break.  Having finished decorating, Ronald had taken it upon himself to prepare for the Christmas party.
  "Oi!! Eric-sempai!! What are you bringing to the party?" He called as he raced down the hall with a clipboard in hand. "Sutcliff-sempai said he could bring the dessert, and Willam-sempai said he would provide most of the main dishes so that leaves…."
  "…the plates and napkins right?" Alan smiled as he walked past them with a hot coffee in his hand.  He shot Eric a small glance then remarked "we can both be assigned that right? We can bring all of the paper goods…."
Ronald grinned as he wrote that down.
  "Then we're almost set! I just need to get a few more signed up…." He signed it off with a flourish, then spotted another down the hall and hurried off to get their assignment.

Alan gave Eric a slight smile before he headed back to his office. He hadn't much time to settle down however, before his office door was thrown open and a flurry of red bounded in.
  "Hello Alan~!" The flamboyant reaper called as he flounced up to the desk. "I have a favor to ask you~!"
  "G-grell Sutcliff!! Uh…what is the favor?" Alan spluttered as he stared uneasily at his outgoing colleague.  The reaper tossed his long red hair then pulled some tins of tea out of his bag.

  "Nee~ I managed to get these from Sebas-chan! He said that they were high-quality and some of the best teas for the holiday!"
  "Sebas-chan….ah! You mean Sebastian Michaelis, that demon who works as a butler to the Phantomhive family?"
Alan had heard about this particular handsome butler before from Grell.  Grell purred at Alan's question.
  "Mm hm!"
Alan stared at him, confused. "And….how does this concern me?"
Grell giggled, bringing out a teacup and saucer from his bag along with a thermos of hot water.
  "Well~, seeing as how you're sick and should be drinking lots of liquids~" he smiled down at Alan from over his shockingly red spectacles.  "I would like for you to try each tea and tell me which one is the best! I hope to serve some at the Christmas party~! And seeing as you have a better taste in tea than me~" He batted his false eyelashes at the brunette.
  "Would you please pretty please do me this favor~?"

Alan started in shock, then smiled.  
  "Of course!  Since I can't really do much else with this cold, I would be glad to help!" He gently took the different teas from Grell and went over to the cupboard in his office where he took out a teapot and another cup and saucer.  Bringing them over to the desk, he set them up and smiled up at Grell.
  "Would you like to join me?  It feels a bit strange to be drinking this alone when it was you who got it…"

Grell giggled behind his hand.
  "Are you inviting me to have afternoon tea….with you~?"
Alan smiled bashfully.
  "Well it's not quite the afternoon yet, but yes." He picked up a silver spoon and gently removed the lid of one of the teas.  He gazed down at the fragrant dark leaves, then glanced back up at his co-worker.
  "Did Mr. Sebastian tell you how to make a perfect cup of tea? Since I am no butler, I am afraid I can only brew a commoner's cup which seems to be a bit of a waste seeing how fine this tea is…."

Grell nodded excitedly as he pulled out a piece of paper from his bag.
  "Sebas-chan wrote this for me~!" He exclaimed, kissing the note tenderly before holding it out. "Let's see…..'the amount of tea leaves you put in should be relative to the number of people, with one extra for the pot. One pint of boiling water for every two portions is probably the best amount.'"

Alan quickly followed out the instructions and in a few minutes, poured out a steaming cup of tea and held it out to his fellow reaper.
  "Hopefully I followed the instructions right….it probably isn't as good as Mr. Sebastian's but it'll do…"
Grell took it with a smile and took a little sip with his pinky finger out.
  "Ahhhh~!!! It's wonderful~!"
Alan held up his own cup and peered down at the amber liquid.
  "It is? What's it like?"

Grell purred, taking another dainty sip.
  "As Sebas-chan said it's a holiday tea, it has a warming, cozy holiday taste to it!"
Alan chuckled at the description and took a sip. Grell was right. It did have a sort of holiday taste to it.  Was it…
  "Cranberry?"
Alan licked his lips as he tried to place the flavor on his tongue. Grell checked his list and squealed.
  "Ooh! I knew you had a good taste in tea!  According to this, Sebas-chan gave me…..cranberry, ginger, cinnamon-honey, apple, peppermint, and sugarplum!"

Alan coughed slightly into his hand as he surveyed the teas spread out on his desk….so he really was to drink all of these?  He finished off his cup and poured himself and Grell a fresh cup each as he glanced at his watch. Sighing slightly, he pulled over a stack of paperwork to do as they sampled the rest of the teas.  He couldn't let the precious time leading up to Christmas slip away from him or else he would be stuck doing unfinished work on Christmas day.

After about an hour or so, Grell took his leave saying that he wanted to go report their findings to Sebastian.  Thanking Alan for making the teas, he departed, flying off with his red hair and coat swishing out behind him.  Alan smiled at he quietly shut the door behind him, then glanced around at all the unfinished pots on his desk.  Pouring himself another cup, he settled back down to finish off the rest of the paperwork, listening to some of his colleagues singing Christmas carols down the hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming back from a long day of reaping souls, supervisor of the Shinigami Dispatch Management Division William T Spears sighed wearily as he adjusted his glasses, handing off his death scythe to a subordinate.   
  "Honestly, so many people are getting too much into the holiday spirit and drinking themselves dead in the pubs.  Creates so much overtime for us reapers…."
Eric chuckled at the remark as he came in behind William, hanging up his death scythe for the night.  
  "True…but hopefully there won't be much drinking in the human world on Christmas day so we can all get some rest around here."
William turned around to face him, then shook his head as he adjusted his square-framed glasses once more.
  "Let us hope so, but one can never tell with humans.  And let me remind you that if we don't keep up our guard, the souls may be taken by all of those detestable demons as Christmas dinner."

Eric nodded in agreement, then started making his way down the hall to his office, only to narrowly avoid colliding into Alan as he burst out of his own.
  "Eric! Uh…one moment…"
He disappeared down the hall before a bewildered Eric could get a word in.  Eric stared puzzlingly at his friend's back, then headed off to his own office.

He settled himself down at his desk and pulled a stack of paperwork toward him. All of the souls that had just been collected needed to be written up.  He started in on a report, stamping it to certify the successful collection of the soul.  As he was finishing up the document, Alan meekly made his way into the office.  Eric looked at up his visitor and smiled warmly.
  "Hello there. How are you doing today?"
Alan chuckled wryly.
   "Well, besides from dashing off to the bathroom every twenty minutes I'm doing quite well."

He laughed at Eric's confused expression and told him of Grell's visit. Eric leaned back, discarding his attempt at trying to work and chuckled softly.
  "Well it's nice to see that he can be considerate once in a while."
Alan grinned as he pulled some of Eric's paperwork toward him, took one of his pens on the desk, and started in.
  "Oh, there's no denying he can be considerate.  He just shows it in different way." He paused. "Although I would think that it would be more considerate of him to actually do his job so we wouldn't have to do his work as well."  
He finished off the report and quickly grabbed another.
  "Speaking of which….." Alan began as he skimmed down the person's file,  "when are we going to go shopping for everyone's Christmas gifts? It's in a few days and I've completely forgotten to do any Christmas shopping."
Eric glanced up from a file that he had just plucked from the stack and paused.
  "Hm…." His eyes traveled over the stack of paperwork on his desk and then back to Alan.  
  "If we finish all of this now, then we'll be able to leave early and hopefully without William-san yelling at us.  We can stop by the town then."
Alan smiled, placing another finished report on the completed stack.
  "Sounds excellent!"
He stared at the pile of unfinished reports and suddenly rolled up his sleeves, expertly twirling his pen between his fingers as he glared at the paperwork, his green eyes alight with new vigor.
  "Now a race with the clock to finish!"