Your Own Skin (Black Butler)

Accepting the Blame

He glanced behind him once more to make sure Ronald had left, flicking the red hair aside in annoyance, then knelt down at his lover’s side. “Grell? Grell, can you hear me?”

“Will?” Her eyes fluttered open, only it was with his eyes instead of her own. He was so plain looking compared to her; it was almost a tragedy to have her trapped in such a form. “Oh gods, I can’t see a thing!” She rubbed at her eyes and he realized that his glasses had been knocked off.

“Hang on. Here they are.” He placed them on her and her eyes went wide.

“Holy shit! Will? Am I losing my mind?”

“No, I don’t think so. Otherwise we would both be crazy. I think our bodies were switched somehow, though I’m not sure how or why. I think that demon I was fighting-”

“Wait,” she narrowed her eyes. “The one up top? I saw him, but I had my hands full.”

“He said something to me, but I couldn’t make sense of it. It wasn’t in any language I-”

“William!”

He froze and arched an eyebrow at her.

“Why did you let it speak to you? Dammit, I knew you weren’t exactly a top fighter, but I thought you had a bit more sense than that!”

William adjusted his spectacles and got to his feet so he could glare down at her. “I was questioning it, I’ll have you know.”

Grell gave a weak laugh and he helped her to her feet. “Questioning it. Why not reap it and look for the answers yourself?”

“That would hardly do me any good. I doubt it was in a pact, especially with this many lesser demons at its call. It’s cinematic record could go on for millennia. I don’t have time to-”

Grell crossed her hands and jutted her hips to the side. It was bizarre to see his body in such a strange pose. “So you were lazy,” she spat.

“No, I simply thought it would be inclined to give information with a deathscythe to its throat!”

She rubbed at her temples. “Honey, it’s a demon. They’re never truthful, you know that!”

“It’s been my experience that they can be if given the proper motivation.” He adjusted his glasses.

Grell grinned and came over to loop her arms around his waist. “Oh lover, I know you hate demons, but you really shouldn’t go around threatening them without thinking of your own safety.” Her smile faded, “Your hatred of demons has screwed us both over.”

He felt a blush creep up his cheeks despite his attempt to hide it. It was much easier to repress such emotion in his own body; Grell’s seemed to have a complete lack of such inhibitions. “I needed to ask it about something but… it apparently thought this was more amusing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We should probably decide how we’re going to-”

“No, no, I recognize that look even on my face. You’re horrible at keeping secrets from me, baby. Are you blushing?”

William sighed.

“You might as well tell me. I’ll beat it out of you if you don’t. With your own deathscythe, I might add!” She snickered.

He reached into Grell’s coat pocket, much to her surprise.

“Ooh, want to feel yourself up?”

“No,” he stated and handed the paper over. “I’ve been charged with determining the fate of these souls. All of them have dropped off the map over the past three days. Management assigned it as a top priority.”

“We’ve got a more urgent problem now though, don’t we?” She looked up at him with pleading eyes. Damn, it was creepy to see such an expression on his own face. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this, Will? I’m your Second in Command! I could have helped you out. I wouldn’t have been too lazy to sort through a demon’s record.”

William ruffled his shoulders. “They specifically requested you not be involved. They feared you might be responsible for them, similar to the murders in the Jack the Ripper cases.”

Grell gaped at him. “But I reaped those women!”

“I know you did, but it was still seen as misconduct. You do it once, and you’re seen as prone to it.”

She smacked him in the head with his deathscythe.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“For allowing them to treat me like a criminal. Just because they give you an order, William, doesn’t mean you should follow it. How ridiculous! I ought to hunt our manager down and throttle him.”

William put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t you dare! Not in my body in any case.”

Grell’s fury broke into heavy laughter. If the emotional expressions looked unusual earlier on William’s face, the full out laughter was absolutely bizarre.

“Listen,” William said, stepping closer to her. “We need to set some ground rules. Namely how we’re supposed to act around the rest of our dispatch.”

“Oh goodness,” she rolled her eyes. “I can’t imagine what they’ll think.”

“We can’t let them know about this.”

“What? Why not? They deserve to know their Supervisor and Second in Command are now opposites.”

“We’ll never hear the end of it, but that’s not what bothers me. I have a review that you need to attend in my place tomorrow. It’s an evaluation with our manager, you know, the man you said you wanted to throttle just a moment ago?”

“Red Dodgson? Oh hell, Will. He and I don’t exactly get along…”

“Exactly. You’ll need to be on your best behavior. Because you’re me.”

“Will, I can’t fool him. He’s our manager!”

He put his hands on her shoulders, “You’re the best actress around. I don’t know of anyone else I would want to be me.”

“Really?” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into an embrace. “Wait, what are you going to do?”

“Find someone who can help us.”

She smiled, “Go find Sebastian Darling. I bet he would know how to get rid of a demon’s curse like this.

He blinked, “You want me to ask that insufferable demon for assistance? Preposterous!”

“Do you have a better idea?” Grell took his hands in hers and squeezed them tight. “We’re in this together, Will! Can’t you try to be nice to a demon just for a day?”