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Apples & Arsenic	By : Kitteh Category: > Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji ???) Views: 2220 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler and don't make any profit from this.

Chapter List
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Full summary:

Since the demise of his parents, Ciel's aunt has kept him locked up inside and taken over everything he held dear. He manages to run away to try to save himself, his family name and fortune, on the night the maid is certain Ann will make away with the Phantomhive heir.
Fortunately for Ciel, the circus is in town and headed right where he wants to go. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any circus skills.

But the circus's director, a tall dark (handsome) man named Sebastian, takes pity on and a liking to him.
A chase begins, halfway across the country, with death waiting spectacularly at every turn.

Run
Ciel’s breath was hard and burned like fire in his chest.
Run, Ciel, you have to go
Gasping for air was loud and painful but he kept on running, sneakers hitting the concrete like claps of thunder.
She will kill you, Ciel, run
The maid’s urgent whispers still rang in his ears. It couldn’t be true, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
RUN!
He took a left at the end of the driveway and another left turn which would lead him onto the forest path close to the manor. Once he deemed the darkness around him deep enough, he allowed himself to stop, all but collapsing into a bed of ferns, dry heaves shaking his small frame. The cocktail party aunt Ann was throwing was still in full tilt. No one was missing him yet – especially since he wasn’t actually invited to the party. He’d merely used the party as a diversion to flee once Mey-Rin had unlocked the door of his bedroom and ushered him out of the house via the servants’ pathways. He wore shoes and a jacket, a bit of money tucked into the inner pocket. He hadn’t dared to bring his cell phone out of fear Ann could have it traced. He had remembered to bring his inhalator, at least.
Every rustle made him tense and hold his breath until he was gasping, coughing, fingers scrabbling at the cord around his neck until he could push his inhalator between his lips and inhale, deeply. Immediately, the scratching and squeezing in his chest stopped. Drops of cold sweat ran down his temples and wetted the hair curling around his ears. The moment Ann noticed he was gone, she would send her pet maniac after him. Ciel shuddered at the mere memory of the scarlet haired man. Grell was aloof enough towards him, barely even noticing him usually, but the sight of that shark grin, teeth filed to horrible points was still giving him nightmares. Every cry of an owl now was sounding a lot like the revving of a chainsaw to Ciel, making him duck deeper into his ferns.
There were no called out taunts though, no blade swiping over his head. Nothing but the settling night and all its inhabitants coming out and going about their business.
Ciel sagged back. Now what? The money he had managed to hide wasn’t enough to sustain him. He owned nothing but the clothes on his back – if you didn’t count the hefty trust fund he couldn’t access until the matter of his parents’ will wasn’t settled. If he ran, he would miss the appointment with the notary and solicitor. If he didn’t…well, he was sure Mey-Rin hadn’t been exaggerating. If she had chosen this particular night to scurry him out of the manor, she must have overheard something. He was a bright boy usually, even hidden away as he was, and…ah.
He smiled lightly, raising his head over the tips of the ferns again. If he could make it to the appointment, he could relay his version of this story. It was two weeks from now, Angelina had told him in passing, in the notary’s office in Dover. Right now, he was just outside of London, which made a distance of just short of a hundred miles. Quick by car of train, but Ciel had to ration his funds. If he drove down to Dover immediately, there would be little left over for lodging or food and he didn’t know how well the solicitor would take his story. Angelina had been sure not to bother any of his father’s friends in this topic; Ciel didn’t know the man.
That left walking. Ciel sighed and got up, brushing off his pants. At least he wore warm clothes. He didn’t dare run anymore, his strength had to be rationed as well. First stop would be London, of course, if only to find a Tesco and buy breakfast as cheaply as possible. Ciel had been sheltered before, but never kept inside forcefully like in the last three years. He wasn’t even sure if the townhouse still belonged to the family – or where exactly it was. This would take some careful planning. And he really didn’t want to walk all the way to Dover. Following the faint lights he could see through the trees, he was soon out of the woods on the other side of the bit of forest surrounding many of the manors of British nobility, a class he belonged to by principle. Not that he felt much like it.
Fate did him one better. Down at the base of the hill, just at the outskirts of London glittering around the broad band of the Thames, spotlights did slow turns around a large, colorful tent surrounded by smaller tents and a short train of transporters. A crowd had gathered at the entrance to the fenced off areal, waiting for the show to begin.
Ciel smiled slowly. The circus was in town.
**
“This is so odd”, sighed the freckled girl when the show was over and everyone was in the large tent behind the show arena where the crew usually spent their time off. “I know I had some biscuits here. Someone must have taken them from my plate.”
“Guys, my cup has been used”, the tall man beside her sighed, pushing his mass of dyed-orange hair back. “You know I don’t like it when someone drinks from it!”
“We were all out in the show, Joker, calm your tits”, grumbled the woman in the tight corset. “It wasn’t one of us.”
“Someone moved my chair!”
“I can’t find my knife…”
“Guys”, said the tall, bald man. “It seems someone was here that wasn’t supposed to get back here. An intruder.”
“An intruder?!”
“How?”
“Who could it be?”
“I am going to ask Sebastian what to do”, said the freckled girl and got up from where she had sat, staring mournfully at her empty plate.
“He isn’t back yet though, is he?”, asked the small brunette girl in a voice that sounded too old for her little frame. “Although if he is, he’s probably in his tent, Doll.”
The freckled girl nodded with determination and strode off towards the tents that housed the crew members. Each had their own, each a different color and always put up in a tight circle around a pure black one. The one in the middle belonged to Sebastian, who was with all intents and purposes the owner and director of the circus. Towards the dark one Doll hurried, pulling aside the tent flap. “Sebastian?” She didn’t get an immediate answer, but there was someone laying on the cot put against one wall of the tent in the darkness of the tent. Frowning, she crept inside quietly. Whoever it was, it was unlikely this was Sebastian…for one, the director was much taller, and second, he would never just go to sleep without telling anyone he was back. She reached for her phone clipped to her belt and pushed the button to turn on the screen, using the dim light to find her way around towards the cot.
Curled up on it lay a slight boy in socks, jeans and a big hoodie, with a face as pretty as a girl’s. She blinked at the sneakers on the floor…and spotted crumbs on one sleeve. So this was the biscuit thief, at least. Rocking back on her heels, she frowned and sucked on her lower lip in thought. Without making a move towards the boy, she turned and walked back out, carefully closing the flap. If there was someone sleeping in Sebastian’s tent, it would be best if she waited until the director was back to ask him lest she throw out a friend of his. That would not go over well.
Doll returned to her toggle of friends, telling them only Sebastian wasn’t back yet.
**
Ciel stirred with a small hum when his bangs were brushed back from his forehead. He blinked sleepily into the dimness above him and jerked back when he found someone standing over the cot he had curled up on.
After finding the circus, he had skidded and slipped down the hill, getting his sneakers even muddied in the process. There was no cover on his way down so he had hurried, resulting in him scraping a long, lightly bleeding welt against his shin when he had tripped and fallen to hands and knees; the balls of his palm were scraped and ached as well. Once at the bottom of the hill, he had hurried into the crowd of tents, only then casting a fearful, panicked look behind himself.
The line of trees stood dark and quiet, sentinels at the grounds line of the Phantomhive estate. There was no flash of red hair, no gleam off of a metal blade. There was no one following him.
Ciel sighed in relief and loosened his grip on the laminated fabric of the tent. Slowly, he ventured deeper into the circus grounds. He didn’t encounter anyone; not with the show almost starting, everyone was busy. He found a tent that had one wall completely rolled up that had tables and benches in it…and on those tables…
Ciel’s stomach growled loudly in protest. The prospect of food alone made him feel faint, so he chanced only a guilty look around before snatching the biscuits off the plate and shoving them into his mouth. Chewing furiously, he spotted a cup a bit away and reached for it, gulping deeply to force down the dry crumbs. There was a strange, almost sour taste to the liquid in the cup but lunch had been hours ago and he had had to leave when Mey-Rin had brought him dinner because only then she had been given the key to his bedroom. There hadn’t been time to eat or even grab it before she had hustled him out of the manor. He put the cup back and turned, knocking a chair back a bit when he ran right into it. Something clattered from the table to the ground. Ciel fled the scene and chose the darkest tent to hide. His belly was barely filled, so the wine he had drunk went straight to his head.
Hiding from possible psychos chasing him turned into a nap.
And now he was staring up into warm but curious garnet eyes, throat constricting with panic. “Someone’s sleeping in my bed”, the man murmured with a private smile, as if quoting something Ciel didn’t know. The boy squirmed off the bed, only to be caught. “Easy. It’s alright, you won’t be punished.” Ciel stared up again with huge, blue eyes, darkened with panic. “NO, you need to let me go, I need to….I….” He swayed in the grip, suddenly dizzy. Sitting down, now that the man gently nudged him back onto the cot, didn’t seem like a bad idea right now. “What’s your name, little one?”, asked the man kindly, lowering himself to one knee so they were almost face-to-face. The man was really tall, Ciel noticed.
“I’m…” There had been a time in which Ciel had stated his name happily and proudly, aware of the tight net of family to catch him should he fall. That had been before a freak accident had killed both his parents and Aunt Ann had been given custody over him. That was before he had found out Aunt Ann was a psychopath, herself. Now, telling a stranger his name with the probability of said stranger returning him home was a terrifying prospect. “Um…”
The man smiled, stroking down his upper arm. “It’s alright. We were all runaways once”, he said, as if he had read the boy’s mind. “I’m Sebastian. You don’t have to be afraid, I won’t call the police over a few crackers.”
“Ciel”, he replied in a small voice. Surely only his given name wouldn’t give his identity away. “But…um…I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.” Sebastian gave a small nod. “You have my word.”
There was a beat of tense silence between them, garnet locked on navy blue, before Ciel averted his eyes. His cheeks were flushed due to the alcohol he’d unwittingly drunk, lips plump from being bitten with nerves. “I’m sorry…”
“No. No, you don’t have to be sorry. Joker’s cup can be cleaned, and biscuits can be replaced. Though you…” Sebastian looked at him thoughtfully. “Do you need a place to stay, or were you just passing through?” Large blue eyes turned back to him, luminous in the porcelain face. “Would you let me stay? You’re leaving this area soon, yes?”
“We’ll pack up two days from now; get to the other side of London, then south along the coast. We’re taking the Dover ferry in two weeks, our tour continues through France.” He smiled easily. “Why, did you want to come along?” Frantic nodding answered that question.
It was near perfect, although it would probably take too long to get down to Dover to take part in the appointment. If he turned up a little later, however, and talked to the notary, maybe something could be altered still. How better to hide than here on his way; he wouldn’t have to walk or hike and he probably would be fed. And once he was the heir to his parents’ legacy again, he could easily reimburse them a hundred times over. “I always wanted to join the circus”, he told the kind man sweetly. “I ran into some trouble here so there’s a change of plans in my life…quite abruptly so.” Sebastian chuckled. “You will have to try out, but that can be done tomorrow. The tests aren’t that hard and you can stay until then. Now. Are you hungry?”
Ciel’s belly answered that question for them both.
**
“Guys, this is…”, Sebastian started and trailed off at the tug on his sleeve. Looking down, he found those huge eyes look back up at him with fear etched into them; Ciel was terrified of anyone finding out his name, that much was obvious. “…Smile. He’s very sorry he caused all that confusion earlier, but he’ll be staying with us for a while.”
“Will he try out?”, Beast asked, one of her thin brows arches. “If he doesn’t pass, I can still feed him to Betty.”
“That’s her tiger”, chirped the tiny brunette girl. Ciel blanched. “Her…tiger?”
“Beast is our animal trainer”, Sebastian explained, fixing the woman with a firm look. “And she was kidding. Wasn’t she.” The woman just rolled her eyes and leaned back into the man next to her. “This is Joker, he’s an expert in juggling. Peter and Wendy work the flying trapeze. Doll walks the tightrope, and Dagger handles the action-filled knife shows. Jumbo is our strongman, he usually works between shows in the attractions exhibit.”
“What do you do?”, Ciel asked.
“Yes, what IS it that you do?”, Wendy chimed in with a giggle. Sebastian chuckled. “I make sure we don’t starve. Speaking of. Dinner?”
Dinner turned out to be a raucous affair. It was almost eleven at night and the commons tent was filled to capacity; Ciel was snugged in between Sebastian and Doll, who kept drawing him into light conversations with her calm voice. Yet the closer the clock ticked to midnight, the more nervous Ciel became.
He felt when the clock finally did strike midnight, he could hear his aunt’s enraged roar echoing over the valley.
No one else heard anything, apparently.
Ciel was given to Doll after dinner although he dutifully helped clean up the commons tent first. Doll’s tent was in the inner circle but boasted two cots instead of one. She claimed she didn’t like sleeping alone usually. Ciel was just glad he could finally stretch out. His feet hurt, his scrapes hurt and there was a dull throbbing in his temples that was entirely unpleasant. The moment his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light.
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Apples & Arsenic