Ribbons and Mistletoe
For: mousecaper Author: Batsy (ifbatmanwereajedi) Pairings/Character: Grell/William, Ronald Knox Warnings: N/A Prompt: Grelliam Author’s Notes: 3/3 I had the most fun with this one. I’m such Grelliam trash. This one is just short and sweet XD
“It’s begun!” Ronald yelled, crashing into several carts holding papers on his way to William’s office. “Sir, it’s happening!” He swung open the door, his eyes full of terror. “It’s a code RED!”
William glanced up from his papers, his green eyes piercing into Ronald’s very soul. “What is it? I do not have time for your foolishness today.”
“Sutcliff- Sutcliff’s /decorating/..” Ronald replied.
“Dear lord.” William stood up, his eyes wide. “This truly is an emergency.” He quickly left his office- but those few moments were enough for Grell. William was greeted with poinsettias everywhere, candy canes hanging on all the walls, mistletoe dangling from every possible surface. “How on earth did they get /that/ in here?” A life-sized Santa sat on a bench, surrounded by cookies that looked just like Grell.
“Will, darling! Isn’t it wonderful?” Grell said happily, sneaking up behind him and hugging his arm. “I really outdid myself this year, hm? It’s enough to say ‘Merry Christmas’ without being all in your face, you know?”
“I think my retinas are burning.” William replied, pulling his arm from Grell’s grasp. “You’ve turned this dispatch into a joke!”
Grell pouted, crossing their arms. “But you said I could decorate!”
“I certainly did not. When did I-.” William began.
“Last week! Don’t you remember?” Grell said, looking into the distance.
“Sutcliff what are you looking at-.”
“Shush, it’s the flashback, just play along.”
————————————————– LAST WEEK ———————————————————-
“Oh, Will, darling~!” Grell exclaimed, bursting into his office.
William groaned, his head hitting the desk in frustration. “What do you want now, Sutcliff?”
“Well, I was just thinking..” Grell slowly started walking towards William’s desk. “The holidays are coming up-..”
“No.” William said. “The answer is always no. You ask every year, and my answer never changes, I don’t know why you still try.”
“Oh, come on, dear.” Grell pouted, sitting on William’s desk. “Where’s your spirit?”
“Dead, yours should be too, we’re all dead.” William replied, going back to his paperwork.
“Oh, not literally! Your figurative spirit! Where is it?” Grell turned so he was facing William.
“With all this work? I don’t have time for spirit or cheer.” William said with a sigh. “And I really wish you’d let me finish it.”
“What a downer!” Grell pushed his stack of papers to the side. “Don’t you want to make me happy, Will?~”
“Don’t start this now Sutcliff-.” William said. “At work, we are strictly platonic, don’t bring /that/ into my office.”
Grell took his glasses. “Ah, can’t work if you can’t see. Now you’ll have to listen to me!”
“Sutc- Grell, give them back, please.” William looked them in the eyes, causing Grell to nearly melt at his gaze. “If I don’t finish all of this work in an hour, I’ll be working overtime.”
“Please, pretty please?” Grell stuck their lower lip out and batted their eyelashes.
William sighed, snatching his glasses back. “No, that’s my final answer.”
Grell huffed and sat on William’s lap- not settling for his answer. “It would make me so happy~” He kissed his cheek over and over again.
“Grell- it’s not working.” William said.
Grell kissed down his neck. “I’ll do anything you want~. I’ll be nice this year- or naughty~.”
“I really need to work-”
“Pretty, pretty please?” Grell kissed him fast and passionately. “It would make me so, so happy.” Grell grabbed him by the tie and-
——————————————————————————————————————————–
“That’s enough explaining- Sutcliff.” William said, his face a bright shade of red.
“Woah..” Ronald said, laughing. “Well, Sir I didn’t think you’d easily give into ‘persuasion’ like that.”
“Enough!” William said, adjusting his glasses. “This is too much, you need to clean this up immediately, Sutcliff.”
Grell groaned. “What a bore. Fine, I’ll clean it. But with the clean up, you’re going to have to excuse my collections for the day.”
“Fine, Knox, you and Slingby will be in charge of picking up their collections today.” William replied.
Ronald frowned and crossed his arms. “Great. Way to go, Sutcliff.” He sighed and left the two to find Eric and tell him the bad news.
Grell’s eyes met William’s. “You must understand, dear.” William said softly so that no one else could hear. “I must keep this dispatch in a professional manner- and I myself must keep a professional persona.”
“I know.” Grell looked down at their shoes. “I think- I maybe overdid it a little. I’m sorry, darling.”
William’s lips curved into a slight smile. “It’s alright, meet me in my office when you are done.”
Grell nodded and turned to leave, getting to work on cleaning up the dispatch and making it look reputable again. Starting with the life size Santa. Clean up seemed to take much longer than set-up as Grell was far less motivated to clean then decorate. It took hours to find places to stash the decorations out of sight and to eat all the cookies they made in their likeness as no one else wanted them.
After working for hours, Grell was drained and dragged their feet into William’s office. “I’m finished cleaning..” They said sadly. “My beautiful, beautiful work is gone.”
“You didn’t finish cleaning.” William replied coldly. “You still have work to do.”
“Wha-?” Grell looked up at him “I made sure the dispatch was cleaned top to bottom!”
“It’s not good enough.” William replied, narrowing his gaze at Grell and walking over to him.
“But-”
William threw a giant ribbon over Grell and pulled them close with it before looking up. “It seems you had forgotten that.”
As Grell looked up, they were greeted with a giant mistletoe. “I didn’t put that there-..”
“I know.” William pressed his lips to theirs. “Merry Christmas, Grell.”
“Merry Christmas, Will.”
