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Together Again	By : CheshireCity Category: > Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji ???) Views: 2888 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler and make no money from the works of Yana Toboso.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
“Together Again”

Chapter One

Delias Eucharis

"The world is filled with,

the lives of people who try to define

The lines that find you,

Can anyone save you?

The truth is never far away,

You always give yourself away

Through open eyes in slight of him,

Reveal to me."

Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz (In Transit)

There was a certain alluring charm about the night time. The stillness and tranquility of it, the peace that wraps around one like a blanket. A certain comfort and wonder in feeling singularly alone. Of feeling alive. At least that was how Sebastian Michaelis saw it.

The manor was particularly beautiful at half past midnight. It was then that everything was swathed in the dark robes of night. On the East end, the curtains had been fastened shut, allowing the candlelight to play over every polished surface, casting arrays of multifaceted light spiraling across the lavish rooms. The brushed coppers and bronzes burned more passionately at the flame's passing. The picture frames caught its passion, breathing temporary light into their charges. Even the oriental rugs glimmered hues of gold and orange, otherwise invisible in waking hours. Everything the candlesticks passed caught a flash of liveliness before twinkling back out into darkness.

It was a melancholy notion for Sebastian.

People appeared.

People faded away.

All within a flash, repeating in an endless cycle.

But such was the life of a demon.

He progressed to the West Wing of the manor, where the sun said its final goodbyes before slipping over the horizon. Here the windows lay bare, letting in the distant light of stars and the loving gaze of the moon. She cast motherly embraces to the glinting silverware and pewter vases, spilling over with gentle wisterias and white roses plucked from the garden earlier that very morning. She whispered a farewell as the drapes where drawn closed with a practiced hand, fabric shushing across the hardwood.

There was indeed something very much alive about the quietest hours.

Sebastian made his way along the wing, taking a concealed stairway down into the servant's corridors. The hallway here was narrow, the walls a drab cream, but the butler loved it nonetheless. Up a small set of stairs he could hear Meirin's gentle snoring, dwarfed only by Bard's bear-like accompaniment. Bemused, he proceeded to his own chambers at the far end of the hall, slipping inside the room silently.

The place was as familiar as it was queer. Against the wall was the headboard of a basic bed - the largest of all the servants, he had noted - flanked by a desk on one side, and a dresser on the other. The fireplace sat barren, bathed only by the moonlight that crept in through the undressed window. There was nothing unusual about the room; it was casual, if not simple. Yet Sebastian, in all his sleepless nights, had rarely spent more than a few minutes at a time inside it on a daily basis, and so always felt rather like a visitor than an occupant.

The bureau made a soft thump, and the demon set the candlesticks down upon his desk in reply. Gingerly turning the handle, he peered inside, meeting the curious looks of nine pairs of eyes. The figures flowed out of the boudoir like wraiths, curling around their master's feet and stretching gracefully up on the mattress. Satiated from their afternoon prowl around the gardens, they curled languidly about the room, all watching, it seemed, the demon at their epicenter.

Sebastian shrugged out of his vest and blazer, hanging them back up within the now-unoccupied boudoir in record time. House in order, and without much cause, he sidled onto the bed. The cats around him eyed his behavior curiously, knowing it to be out of turn. A white longhair approached him, pelt shimmering almost lavender as the moon touched her. A small smile curled onto the demons lips as he reached out to stroke the creature. There was a familiar set look in the animals eyes: a determined, if not reproachful, blue.

She pressed against his hand gratefully, eagerly accepting - or rather, demanding - his touch. Sebastian uttered a low chuckle as satisfied purrs rippled throughout the room. His fingers played over her equally pale fur, and for a moment, he felt disgust. His skin was like porcelain. White, and presumed beautiful by many aristocrats, but also hideously fake, like the stagnant countenance of a doll. He curled back into himself, slinking lower upon the mattress until he lay fully, almost curled like the creatures around him.

"It's a crime when the inanimate breathe more life than the living." he whispered to himself. The marmalade across the room meowed in resounding agreement. Not long after, Sebastian's surroundings began to blur into dim pastels as the familiar heat of nine lithe bodies pressed against him.

The gardens were manicured to perfection, blushing shades of soft pink, yellow, and lavender. The vague images of exotic animals peered over symmetrical hedges, staring, eyeless, down at their leafy brethren. The pathways were trimmed with tiny pebbles and periodically bridged by elaborate arches of trellis. They spiraled to and fro, weaving through the crowd of greenery in purposeful sweeps. The main garden was pruned into a giant diamond, and at its heart was a fountain supported by cherubs. Their eyes looked heavenward to the fluffy clouds and immaculate blue sky.

            Aesthetically, there was never a thing out of place around the manor. Even the forest that grew naturally to one side of the house seemed relatively tamed into order. All was peaceful, save for one thing.

            "Butler." a feminine voice broke in impatiently. The young man snapped to attention, claret eyes dancing up to check hers before skittering away again.

            "My apologies, m'lady." he replied fluidly. "I was merely admiring how lovely the day was - m'lady has selected a fine day for taking tea out-of-doors."

            "Of course I have." she scoffed, selecting a scone off of the tray in the center of the table. "I will one day be the lady of this house, so it's only natural that I can select the right afternoon to host tea."

            "Not if I inherit it first." a boy called to her. He was broad shouldered, even in youth, with a determined pair of green eyes.

            "Rose Petal or Chai?" the young butler asked softly. The female ignored him.

            "Don't speak to your sister in such a way, Darwin!" she scolded, sending him a poisonous look as she reached for the jam. "Rachel, dearest, would you pass the Devonshire cream?" she asked of her youngest sibling, voice dripping sweet. The young butler supplied her some without remark.

            "I can speak to you how I wish." the boy shot back. "You're just a woman."

            "And no lady either!" a fourth sibling chimed. He was thinner than his older brother, with a more drawn looking face.

            "Oh Terrence, not you too! See!" the eldest exclaimed shrilly. "You see, Darwin? See what you're teaching your brother?"

            The butler righted a tottering glass before it hit the tablecloth, quickly disturbed again as the girl brought it violently to her lips. "What would mother and father think, to see how ungentleman-like the two of you are becoming?"

            "Can I have a crumpet?" Rachel asked meekly from her seat. The other three siblings grew louder.

            "Do you think father would care, Mary?" the elder brother scoffed. "Everyone says that I am his mirror image already."

            "But mother comes from a strong line of reapers too, you know!" the sister hissed. "Who's to say that I won't take over, hmn? I get the family fortune. I do. So don't you think of getting your greedy little paws on it, you hear?"

            The butler considered that the nearby stones cherubs where looking heavenward merely in exasperation. "Rose Petal or Chai?" he tried again.

            "I'll take Chai, please." Rachel replied sweetly, setting about buttering the crumpet that had appeared before her.

            "Greedy?! Me? You've got to be kidding me, dear sister." Darwin snorted, Terrence sniggering beside him, eyes watching his brother's actions attentively. "What would I possibly do with all that cash? Spend it on mink stoles and hat boxes? Don't kid yourself, you're the bigger glutton of the two of us."

            "At least I'd spend it on finery and not women." Mary shot back. Her brother froze, face contorting in anger. His mirror continued laughing.

            "Shut up, Terrence." he spat, backing away from the table. The other boy stilled instantly, uncertain what action to take next. "As for you, Mary, I won't be conversing with crude women."

            "And I won't be conversing with whores." she stabbed, laughing mirthfully as her brother stormed away. There was an awkward scramble, and then Terrence followed his brother like a faithful hound, leaving only the two girls and the butler in his wake.

            Mary sighed, swirling her cup absently. "Men are scum, Rachel, dearest. Men are scum." she said earnestly.

            "Not all of them." the young girl pouted, gingerly fishing a strawberry out of her tea with a spoon.

            "Oh, yes." Mary sighed dramatically. "I'm afraid so. Now stop acting like a crazed monkey and be more respectable!"

            Rachel's fingers darted from her cup, a nervous blush spreading on her cheeks. "Sorry, sissy, I was just trying to- "

            "You need to act more like a lady!" the elder scolded. "Now when you drink tea…" she trailed off, blinking dumbly into her own empty cup. "Aye! Butler-boy! What is the meaning of this?" she scowled, showing him the porcelain belly.

            "I was uncertain- "

            "I thought I ordered you to pour me tea a while back, now didn't I?"

            "I asked your pref- "

            "There's no excuses for your lack of professionalism and responsibility." the reaper interrupted. "None. Why do you think we keep you around, hmn? Why is that? Decoration?"

            "No, m'lady, but- "

            "You DARE defy me? When I've been so gracious with you in the past? Pour me some tea." she hissed through clenched tea. The butler hesitated, eyeing the two teapots with apprehension, pondering which selection would betray him. What felt to him like hours later, he made his selection, elegantly filling the cup with clear, ruddy tea. For a second he saw his own claret eyes ripple across the surface, instantly hating the masochistic resolve he saw there. He drew back, standing perfectly poised as the young woman brought the china to her lips. She drew from the cup, setting it with agonizing slowness back upon it's saucer, before pinning him with her sharp green eyes.

            "Rose Petal." she said finally. "What made you think that I'd want that?"

            "M'lady requested tea, and so I merely served what I- "

            "What you? Silly boy, what do you think you have to do with anything, hmn? Do you think that your sense of taste is superior to mine? That your judgment is better than mine?"

            "No, m'lady." the butler replied quietly.

            "Then why on earth would you assume that THIS is what I wanted?" the reaper hissed, shoving the teacup away from her.

            "The rose is much like m'lady." the butler uttered quickly. Mary opened her mouth to protest, closing it curiously at his choice of words.

            "Go on." she insisted suspiciously.

            "Well, it is a symbol of beauty, is it not? It's petals are soft and silken, like finely kept hair and skin. Even a token of wealth, for the Queen herself adores the flower, and only the refined can keep them."

            "Well I suppose that is true." the young woman smirked in ill-hid vanity. She dipped her knife back into the Devonshire, spreading it generously over another scone. "Of course I would make such an obvious choice in my tea. See, Rachel, what were you thinking, hmn? Learn to think like a proper lady should."

            "Oh, but that's not all, m'lady." the butler added sweetly, a smirk spreading over his lips that was beginning to become his trademark.

            "Oh, do tell me more!" Mary squealed, all pretenses gone.

            "Well you see, m'lady, for all a rose's beauty there is only bitterness. The materialism of the petals belies the hideous thorns beneath it." He tensed in anticipation as the reaper's hand faltered, painted lips quivering into a snarl.

            "Why you…" she laughed in shock, eyes sliding venomously to lock with his outwardly uncaring ones. "Aren't you SO proud of yourself, Durante? Aren't you witty?" The butler fought the instinct to back away, not letting his eyes drop or betray him. "Why you little WRETCH!"

            He wasn't sure why he was on the ground, or how Mary got so tall, but the scent of blood washed over him in waves, and the dripping butter knife in her hand was a clear indication of what might have transpired. "You little demon bastard." she snarled, crouching over him, the extent of her race threatening to release in full.

            He looked up at her with a half-hearted glare, already resigning himself to the pain he knew would come. In anticipation, he cupped his hand to his coursing cheek, surprised that such crimson life existed within himself.

            And how easily it was destroyed.

            How easily it could gush from the body and smear like paint. It was as disgusting as it was entrancing. The entire room was rank of it. Filled with bodies rent this way and that, their own faces wearing more hideous masks than the ones they had been donning only seconds before. Elaborate, white masks; the mock innocence tarnished with their own tainted blood. If not art, then it was elaborate. He had to give himself recognition for that.

            His eyes slid back over to the corpse of a boy on the slab. He, too, was bloody. It bubbled, fresh, from around his eye, matting his hair together in sticky clumps. The demon observed him as the boy took another quavering gasp, so far gone that he was impervious to the pain coursing through his system. The wildfire crashing through his veins as the pact solidified itself. Tears fell down familiar tracks on his face, without a sound. On the right side, they mixed with the blood, leaving unusual pink streaks upon the granite alter.

            "Is it done?"

            The demon almost started at the sound of the voice. When he had been summoned, that voice was strong, demanding. In waking reality it was cracking and feeble, devoid of emotion. Just straight necessity. He looked about at the massacre he had committed, at the atrocities the humans had wrought on their own.

            "You are the only other living soul." he said finally. The boy stared up at the ceiling and nodded imperceptibly.

            "You are my demon?" Even monotone, it sounded like a statement.

            "Your personal demon." the other replied, lips twitching at the double entendre.

            "Who are you?"

            'Doriaen Durante.' Only silence.

            "Then come, Sebastian. Take me h- " he faltered. "Take me away." The demon drew near, lifting the weightless child from the slab, mindful of his own claws. He stared down at the soulless blue eyes, finding the broken pieces of determination, pride, and maybe, just maybe, of happiness.

            "Yes, m'lord."

            "Sebastian…" the boy murmured, elapsing into unconsciousness.

            "Sebastian…" the name echoed on.

            "Sebastian."

            An order. The demon sat bolt upright, eyes casting wildly about his darkened surroundings.

            "Purrow?" the longhaired white inquired, whiskers twitching at the startled man with feline curiosity. Sebastian blinked down at her slowly, settling back into the land of the waking.

            "I'm surprised too." He whispered. "I rarely ever sleep, nonetheless dream." He gathered himself quickly, smoothing out the wrinkles in his clothing in a matter of seconds and hoping, for his masters' sake, that it eradicated the cat hair with it. "Better see what it is he requires." Sebastian stated aloud. "If it's cake, I'll kill him."

            "Mrrow?" the white cried piteously.

            "Honestly." the demon sighed. "I'll be back soon enough. Make sure the others don't get too rowdy, won't you?" he mused lightly, his voice the only thing left in the room as the door finished swinging shut.

            Mere seconds later he arrived at Ciel's door, and then he was inside just as quickly. "Yes, my lord?" Distantly, he caught the scent of something that he couldn't place, only that the need to use disinfectant was strong. The young earl lay in his bed, propped up with one arm, an unreadable expression on his face. His complexion looked even more fair than usual.

            "Sebastian. Fuck me."

            The demon started in genuine shock, his eyes searching out the underlying words his Master must have uttered. Yet there was nothing but raw apathy and the faintest trace of amusement at his servant's uncharacteristic dumbfounded state. The teen regarded his property lazily, a challenging look stirring in his good eye.

            "You heard me." the whisper cut like any knife would. "Fuck me. Now."

            Sebastian stared a moment longer, an icy feeling settling in his gut as everything became automatic. "Yes, my lord." he replied. He could hear his masters' heart pound against his ribs, very much alive. The drums increased as he drew nearer, climbing gently onto the mattress, and pinning the young earl beneath him. 'Such a curious thing, to be alive.' Sebastian thought, looking deeply into anxious blue eyes. After a second, Ciel melted slightly, his body submitting to the powerful creature above him.

            Sebastian reached out, letting his fingers massage gently into his masters' chest, allowing them to leave small trails down to the other's stomach. Felt the muscles beneath his touch tighten and flinch nervously. 'It is disgusting to what lengths I allow you to make me your possession, my lord.' He fanned out his fingers, massaging the tips down until a familiar tingling ran through him, shortened claws slowly extending and pricking at the flimsy fabric beneath them. He turned them, allowing the flat edges of them to run sensually down the earl's frame, instantly drawing forth a shudder of satisfaction. 'To be not only your butler, but your protector and keeper. And now your whore too?'

            Decisively, he snaked his fingers across the front of the nightshirt, slipping the buttons free. His eyes slunk upwards with each conquest, finding nothing but expectation staring back at him. A milky path of skin shone up at the demon, tantalizingly. The usual faint scent of éclairs and strawberries quickly melting together with heady arousal as Sebastian caressed the naked flesh. Expertly, he flicked his thumb across a peaked nipple, wondering distantly if it would taste as sweet as his master smelled. Ciel gasped lightly, and the simple submission sent a smirk to the butler's lips.

            'Then,' he nimbly pushed the shirt off of his young master's frame, running his palms across rapidly bare shoulders. 'If I am to be both your whore and your possession, then I shall be exactly as you wish, and nothing more.' The tumultuous ice grew stronger, and Sebastian dismissed the familiar naked body below him. Beautiful, nubile… a chore. A task. Platonic, like when he was to be dressed. Platonic, like when he was to be bathed.

            The drumming went off-kilter as the earl's heart began to pound harder. Sebastian lowered his gaze, intently turning his skilled hands to the objective before him. Without thinking, they smoothed over ivory skin, leaving tiny pink blemishes wherever they went. The tips of his claws teased along Ciel's sides, leaving ghostly imprints behind them. He clasped his hands down on unconsciously bucking hips, massaging his thumbs against the bones in elaborate patterns. Allowing his nature to take hold, his hands mapped down lower, stroking along the length of the teen's thighs.

            His empty caress dipped lower, brushing against the juncture of Ciel's thigh. The beginnings of a moan tumbled out of the earl's mouth like music. Sebastian's increasingly feline eyes flickered up to examine the face of his master. 'Still just an order?' But his master had no reply aside from the palpitating rhythm between them. Sebastian suppressed a bitter laugh as he stroked the sensitive expanse between Ciel's entrance and the base of his member. The other gasped, innocently trying to break away, his body insisting on lowering into the sensation. Shakily, he grabbed his servant's wrist, forbidding it from leaving there, and the demon found himself chuckling at the unintentional wanton display. Carefully, he pressed against the sweet spot, this time fingering tiny circles against the skin. Ciel bucked back into the mattress, his hand instinctively fisting into his pillow as his body rocked into the unfamiliar kneading sensation, shaking every time the pressure of the strokes changed.

            A tremor of carnal excitement curled within the demon as his master grew hard before him, unaware of the tiny whimpers and pants already falling from his lips. Slowly Sebastian raised his hand forward, cupping the back of the teen's strained erection. Ciel gasped in ecstasy as fingers curled around him, laying him open as his butler began to stroke him off. His heart roared in the demon's ears, the palpitations fluttering like the wings of a caged butterfly. Trapped. 'Trapped.' He reminded himself, stroking more roughly. 'Automatic.' Extending a hand to the wicked creature within, he allowed himself to be consumed, eyes flickering defiantly into their natural catlike slits.

            Unphased by his own lewdness, Sebastian brought his fingers to his lips, licking and wetting two, then three of them, his eyes trained on his master. 'Why won't you back down? Don't you know that I'm tainting you? …Or am I really only nothing but your toy?' Ciel blushed openly, a shock of pleasure shooting through him at something his servant couldn't possibly fathom. He mewled and raised his hips in time with Sebastian's strokes. It was too much. Far too much to think through. "In due time, my lord." he promised distantly. All reservations and hurt fading away like smoke, he exposed his master to his own carnal delight.

            The second he brushed against Ciel's entrance, he felt the tremor of anxiety beneath him, the explosion of trepidation that sent the other's heart beating out of control. "My lord should relax." Sebastian whispered seductively into the teen's ear, ghosting breath across the crook of his neck. The earl shivered and nodded distractedly, melting into the plying pressure at his entrance. The demon bit his tongue, reigning himself in as he slipped a finger inside the desperate heat, struggling not to moan as he felt the tightness that would soon surround…

            Ciel gasped at the intrusion, rubbing against the unfamiliar sensation. Knowing the unspoken command, the demon added a second finger, and, almost too quickly, a third. It was methodical. Rushed, but precise. And Ciel groaned and moaned with the same precision that the butler had intended.

            Then the earl did something that he did not expect. As his free hand snaked along the bare, flushed expanse of his master's chest, Ciel shifted, wrapping an arm around his servant's shoulder, clinging desperately as the warm grasp went to his erection once more. The demon continued to stroke him, inside and out, driving him higher and making his desperate body shake. The feeling beneath Sebastian's fingers changed slightly as the scent of precum strengthened within the mingling pool of heady strawberries and sugar. Humming low in his throat, the demon pulled away, sensing the next unspoken order, and toying apart the clasps of his trousers. He groaned softly as he freed himself, drawing closer to the small body beneath him.

            For a split second, their eyes met. Those blue pools so uncertain, contrasting garishly with the scent and action of his body. With the way his body rocked eagerly without his consent. Cat-slitted wine peered back, equally unreadable and glazed over with purpose. And then he was inside that blessed heat.

            He heard the sharp moan that he knew his master hadn't heard himself make, felt the quivering parting of his body. The gentle salt of tears mixed with the sheen of sweat over their bodies, but it was all hazy notions in the moment of the place Sebastian found himself. Instinctively, he leaned forward, bracing himself as he began to thrust into his master.

            It was everything and nothing at once. It was automatic, instinctual. There was the dark desires of the demon to push harder, to test the limits of this new body, restrained by the methodical mind of the butler who knew the only purpose of the act was to pleasure another, and take nothing for himself. It was empty, yet purposeful. There was only the feel of the friction, of the blessed heat, the restraint and tightness all around. The broken panting and the crashing and rolling of the inexperienced hips below him, of the ecstasy that reverberated back to him every time he struck just so.

            The short, breathy gasps that quickened with every second.

            His own scent of dark raspberries diffusing into the fog of sex and strawberries.

            The racking mewls of pleasure beneath him.

            He was just a toy.

            And he wanted more.

            Unaware of himself, his hands fisted the fabric gathered around Ciel's body. Dress shirt? Bedding? A low growl escaped his throat, evanescing into a moan despite his desperate attempts to suppress it. Fingers groping forward, grasping hungrily as the scents and sensations coupled together in a myriad of pleasure. His thrusts increased in tempo, the most feral of desires tumbling to the forefront of his otherwise blank brain. The demon nuzzled into the crook of his master's shoulder, poised above it. Unable to restrain himself so far gone, he emitted a dark chuckle, closing in on the vulnerable expanse of flesh where the neck and shoulder met. "It's hard to contain myself." Sebastian remarked huskily, grinning as Ciel shivered against him. Then the earl did the worst thing he could do, the most wonderfully submissive thing he could so ignorantly do, rolling his head aside to bear his neck fully to the teeth that ached to claim and mark and take the flesh beneath them. "I apologize, my lord." Sebastian growled, bowing to his darker urges once more.

            He could tell as his mouth filled with blood and intoxicating sugar that the bite had hurt his master. And he sunk in farther, savoring the manifestation of the earl's scent, the animalistic act sending shockwaves of satisfaction and raw pleasure bursting through his veins, overwhelming his senses. Finally the teen felt the pleasure of being claimed, gasping and rolling seductively as each wave of pleasure crashed against him and pooled. Sebastian pulled away, licking and sucking at the mark greedily, the creeping delight that the spot would bruise settling into the back of his mind.

            His eyes were electric and demonic now, he could feel it. As he licked the blood from his lips he felt the surge of power course through him, knowing how catlike his now-violet eyes must appear in the darkness. In lust. Under order. As a tool.

            Straddling his arms on either side of the earl's shoulders, he thrust deep into Ciel's frame, making him arch and cry out in terrible, enticing need. A faint smirked played upon the demons lips as he thrust continuously, mercilessly, into his master's prostate, relishing each and every broken gasp as he pushed him farther, pumping him just out of time with their rhythm. The sounds and scents bombarded him as his hips crashed forward once more, shuddering on the brink of release. The body beneath him spasmed, pulling him even further into the heat. Becoming erratic, Sebastian gave a final, powerful thrust as Ciel seized around him, moaning as he shook and came into his master. The breath hitching in his throat as the currents of release drowned him in pleasure as he climaxed together with Ciel.

            The last waves of orgasm receded, and Sebastian collapsed gracefully over the still body beneath him. And it was over. Spent. Used.

            As the last of the pleasure melted away into the darkness, so did the presence of the demon, until all that remained was the butler and the gripping ice cold sensation that permeated his burning body. It felt empty again. Nauseatingly so.

            Sebastian slid out of his master, the lingering scent of blood curling up into his nose. With a frown, he felt beneath them, wincing in realization. "I apologize deeply, master." he said, all remnants of huskiness gone. "It would appear that I was a bit too…" he paused awkwardly. "… rough for your body." he finished, holding the blood-slicked finger up for inspection.

            "No need." Ciel muttered, staring beyond him towards the ceiling. The ice curled in the butler's stomach. Used. Discarded.

            His mind was blank as he pulled away and cleaned himself up, realizing numbly that he had made it into Ciel's bathroom. Casting about, he procured the pitcher from the washstand. Finding the results of his master's nightmares, he fished a second washbasin from the linen cabinet and filled it - in the way only Sebastian could pull off - within seconds with crystal-clear water, the bowl of sick nowhere to be seen. With a sigh, he pocketed a spare square of linen.

            "You vomited." he stated, re-entering the bedchamber.

            "I did." Ciel replied matter-of-factly. He was still staring at the ceiling, almost in boredom.

            "Are you ill?" the demon posed, settling down on the edge of the mattress. His eyes flashed over the prone form. He hadn't sensed sickness, not even within close proximity.

            "No."

            "Ah."

            The response had been too sudden, and Sebastian no longer felt the patience to pry into it any further. He had lived through enough nights of his master waking up, screaming in terror, to be too concerned. Setting the basin down upon the nightstand, he pulled the linen - a handkerchief of sorts - and wet it in the bowl, watching the fabric seep up the cool water. It did nothing to quell the frozen storm occurring inside him. Ciel lay in silence as his butler bathed his body, wiping away all the evidence: the sweat, the blood. All but the small, angry bruise that blossomed against the crook of the teen's neck.

            Sebastian rose gracefully from the bed, letting the stained linen fall into the washbasin, the blood spiraling out across the surface of the water, tainting even the lunar reflection. "I'll retire to my room now, my lord." the demon murmured, hand already on the door. He paused, reflecting back a moment. "I'll prepare breakfast and wake you a bit later than usual, my lord. You'll need your rest."

Within the lapse of silence that followed, Sebastian had slipped from the room, gone before the door had finished closing , heading to find solace in the kitchen below.

The sky was overcast, soft grey pallor causing the surrounding vegetation to appear ultra-bright against the drab surroundings. Uneven brick steps were embedded in the sloping pavement, already overgrown with wild grass and weeds. The scent of freshly tilled earth contrasted harshly with the musk that spread in a thin mist from the numerous sepulchers dotted across the cemetery. In the distance, a black wrought iron fence boxed the fields of endless sleep in. Sebastian was still trying to puzzle out what exactly it was that brought he and his master to the place that morning.

            "An odd request to come here, my lord." he quipped, hoping to prod an explanation from the younger male. Ciel effectively ignored him, continuing to climb uphill through the dotted landscape of eroding stone slabs, the names of the fallen fading away into time unannounced. 'Like the flickering flames of candlelight. Here one moment, and blown out the next.' His eyes shifted ahead imperceptibly. 'One day you, too, will fade away, young master.'

            He could see the odd rigidity in how the earl walked, feeling an odd smirk catch his features. The way the teen held his cane in a death grip, the way he leaned on it far more than an ornamental cane should ever need be used… 'Perhaps you decided to visit this morn to pay tribute to your lost virginity?' The demon pondered in amusement. 'Humans are always so sentimental about the queerest of things.'

            After a labored pause, the earl continued along the rolling hills, weaving through weedy plots and irregular brick pathway. At last, the duo reached the heart of the cemetery. Here, the scent of antiquity was the strongest, and Sebastian knew instinctively that there were graves surrounding him that had been there longer than he had been alive. The Phantomhive family plot was easily one of the largest, sprinkled with a small multitude of headstones and edged with white granite, rather than brick, a miniature fence that mirrored the cemetery gates serving as its border.

            The demon glanced about in slight unease. Despite human misconception, a graveyard was not a place for his kind. The passing of each candlelight was a tick mark in the book of a reaper. The cemetery was like a playground for the keepers of death, for they were the lords of it and had no fear of it. Humankind had a reserved anxiety for the places of those before them and of the places they were destined for. For them, the lifecycle was too brief, too fleeting, and the inescapable fate of death crept at the backs of their minds. The stone angels and cherubs stood guardian over their departed, but looked only flightless and condemned in the eyes of a demon.

            He looked to the huddled form of his master as he sat before the newest marker, shifting uncomfortably under the suspicious glares of the stone goddesses that stood vigil over Phantomhives past. 'I know I don't belong here.' He muttered internally, standing very much like a statue himself. After a moment of prolonged silence, he sighed, the memories of the night prior pervading his thoughts with soft, fluttering wings.

            When it had ended, it had been ambiguous. Graciously so, as a matter of fact. And that open-endedness bothered Sebastian greatly. With a blurry conscience, he had left his master's chambers, descending to his own safe haven, feet thinking more for him than his brain was. Quiet so as not to disturb the rest of the household, he had set about preparing for breakfast and that afternoon's tea. The lemon squares would be ready precisely for the evening meeting with Baron Thatcher. The miniature vanilla cheesecakes would similarly have finished setting by that night, perfect for after dinner. Yet his passions had done little to stem the flow of tumultuous thoughts, and, at last, he rose to wake the manor, ushering the sunlight back indoors.

            With scorn this time he noted the glimmering life the light brought the contours of the walls, the budding flowers in the gardens, the golden spines of the many books in the studies and libraries. When he looked at his own flesh, all he saw in the morning sun was translucent, almost sickly looking skin. He wondered distantly - yet also very presently - if his master made the same observations when he looked at him. The previous night had certainly called that into question. To order such a base thing of Sebastian was confusing. For one, it was primal. Disgusting and manipulative, even. Yet at the same time it was a display of submission and, as far as the earl would see it, of weakness as well. To entrust his body to someone for the first time after his tragic months as a slave. As a sacrificial virgin. A victim. Was it just his manner of coping? To feed his body's own desires by looking at another as a tool rather than a being?

            Then that frosty curl would seep back inside the butler, and he would force his thoughts away. It wasn't as though he was personally invested. It wasn't even as though he had an reservations about laying with his master, moral or otherwise. In a demon's eyes, the teen was on the market to be taken mate. To be his forever and ever for eternity. Remembering that brought on a different sensation, this one an acidic tasting charcoal on the inside of his mouth. While Ciel may have been bound to him by contract, his soul doomed to be consumed by the very demon who had spared him from his waking nightmares, he was still an elusive person. 'A songbird,' Sebastian regretfully put it. 'A certain Viscount would say the same.' But it was an accurate assessment. The earl was a person meant to be heard, to be admired, yet always remain distant. Always lighting about from one place to another, always cautious of staying still in one location for too long, else something bigger than him come along and end him. It was a beautiful tragedy. But Sebastian had committed an indiscretion against the nature of things. He had chained his songbird with his own horrid nature.

            His eyes flickered to the prone form before the grave. 'You'll be mine forever and ever for eternity, master. Do you know? You played with fire, my lord, you tempted me. I was only trying to be your ever faithful servant. And so it seems that I've drug you further down the rabbit hole with me.' The acidic tang flamed up. Ciel had used him, plain and simple, as if he held no more worth than a common whore. And the demon had fought back, laying claim to something that didn't belong to him in the first place. It was a fine mess they had landed themselves in.

            The earl hadn't stirred. Perhaps it was his innocence he had come to lament.

            Trying to shake the feelings attacking him inside, Sebastian shifted, folding his arms across his chest. The stone guardians seemed to be scrutinizing him with particular disdain now. "If my lord is finished having a staring contest with a stone," he began irately, squashing down the emotions bubbling up. "We are growing ever late to our scheduled meeting with Baron-"

            "Shut up." Ciel hissed, cutting through the foggy morning. "It may be a stone to you, but monuments are precious things to humans."

            Sebastian hesitated slightly before bowing. "I'm sorry, then to have upset your-" his brow quirked in annoyance. "-grieving, I-"

            "What." the earl glared, countenance growing icy.

            The butler contemplated the cold blue eye. "If it is not out of place for me to say, my lord," he began, looking dubiously out over the sprawling expense of cemetery, before resting claret upon the very inanimate tomb before them. "I never considered you to be the sentimental type."

            The earl jolted from his seat, wavering slightly and clutching furiously at his cane. Anger rippled off of him in waves, the scent of boiling berries tinged with the electric undercurrent of fear. His hair fell across his face like a curtain, and the butler wondered if tiny pinpricks of tears had begun to form. "Sebastian." the voice was low and falsely strong.

            "Yes, master?" the demon replied, bowing in his customary manner. Anticipating the return home and the end of his master's eccentric yearnings.

            "Leave." the whisper trickled back to him, disturbingly final. For a second, everything froze. 'Leave? Forever…?' He stared back in shock, head cocked slightly. Then the cogs began to turn once more, banishing the reckless panic. He was being ordered away like a child for acting out, not banished. That cold voice. A metaphorical slap on the face, reminding him of his status. A butler. A possession. It may have been the events of the night before replaying in his mind, but then he too was as frozen as the angels and goddesses condemning him from above. He bowed curtly, almost gone before the words had left his lips.

            "Yes my lord."
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Together Again