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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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Ciel did his best to help with packing up when the crew packed up the next morning, but he didn’t get much done after all.
The sun was beaming down as bright as yesterday and before long, his shirt was damp and clung to his skin. Ciel enjoyed the work, though; it seemed real, and honest, and these clothes, ill-fitting as they were and far inferior in quality than what he usually wore, felt just as good as the dress had last night. His parents as well as Ann had always insisted on him being dressed impeccably, although his parents had had more reason to seeing as he had been allowed to go out then. Ann had just been petty. Of course he couldn’t just sit on his bed in his pyjamas to read a book, no, he had to be dressed in a button-down and slacks and shoes, for heaven’s sake, just because she wanted to see a doll instead of a teenager if she happened to stop by.
Ciel shut this destructive train of thought down immediately. He didn’t want to think about Ann; doing so would remind him of Grell and that flooded his system with panic.
“Smile, sweetie, are you okay?”, Wendy asked in concern when she walked by and saw him just standing there frowning and shaking his head slowly. He jerked his head up and blinked at her owlishly. “Huh? Yes. I’m fine. Thank you”, he replied, giving her a light smile. It felt good to smile at people. He wasn’t in the habit of showing his emotions but these people were so open and friendly and quirky he couldn’t help but feel comfortable. “Leave the heavy lifting to Jumbo”, she winked at him, nodding to the flag he held in his hands. “Maybe you can help Beast with the feeding and penning, that’s not so strenuous.”
Ciel found he actually liked Beast. Yes, she ordered him around and glared a lot and seemed gruff, but when he arrived in the area the animals were hosted, she was sitting in on a trunk in the sun, Betty’s large head on her lap, scritching the tiger’s cheeks and ears. The large cat gently huffed in enjoyment every few breaths. He stopped to watch for a moment, but Betty’s ears were already twitching with his approach. The long, striped tail described a lazy half circle over the grassy ground and Beast’s chocolate eyes opened to look at him. “Come to feed some animals, kid?”
He smiled at her. “Wendy said you might need help.”
“Betty needs some juicy steaks. Are you volunteering?”
“If you tell me where they’re kept I can go get some”, Ciel offered and Beast smirked, lips twitching, then laughed at his obliviousness. “Alright. No. Come here.” Hesitantly Ciel stepped closer and was immediately charmed; behind Betty’s large body, curled up in the sun, were two tiger cubs napping. Betty watched him with alert eyes but didn’t make a move to attack as the boy leaned over, lips parting. “How precious…”
“You can pet them, if you want. Betty doesn’t mind I’m sure.” Ciel wasn’t so sure, but he inched around the trunk Beast sat on to crouch down next to the cubs, reaching out a hand to stroke the silky, fuzzy fur. The cub stretched and curled up around his hand so he could pet the soft belly. Ciel found himself smiling again. He looked up at the young woman. “How come they’re so friendly?” She chuckled, reaching down to grasp the other one efficiently and lifted the cub onto her lap for a cuddle. “They’re going to be circus tigers. They need to be used to humans so they don’t attack them either out of fear or aggression, so we make a point to interact with them from an early age. These two are three months old now.”
Ciel ended up feeding both of them with a bottle, one after the other curled on his lap and into the crook of his one arm, while everyone else packed up. Betty was watching him lazily from her travel cage but didn’t protest his handling of her babies. Eventually, a shadow fell over him.
He looked up to find Sebastian standing over him. “There you are. I was looking all over for you”, he said, but he didn’t seem angry fortunately. His eyes were drawn to the cub in Ciel’s arms, but he made no move to touch them. “Beast asked me to…” The tall man shook his head, smiling. “It’s alright. I’m sure they were very hungry.” Now he reached down to touch the fuzzy head of the baby; from her cage, Betty growled, getting to her feet. “She doesn’t like you much, huh…”
Sebastian smiled sadly. “Unfortunately not. I seem to have displeased her in some way.” He stood straight again and looked down at Ciel. “Will you ride in the truck with me?”
Of course he did. The circus was packed up into five trucks, all of which pulled an animal compartment also. Sebastian led the way in the one he drove, Ciel strapped into the passenger’s seat. The ride was slow and careful, due to the delicate equipment and live cargo, so the trip from one end of London to the other took longer than Ciel had remembered it. He could barely believe that the next show would be that evening already, packing up had taken at least four hours and it would take just as long, if not longer, to set everything up at the next grounds again. Downtown London was packed with cars and buses and they stood on one of the bridges for the longest time. Ciel found himself humming along to the song playing on the quiet radio.
Sebastian smiled over at him. “You’re pretty relaxed for someone stuck in traffic.”
“Well, I’m not the one having to drive”, Ciel grinned over. Sebastian chuckled. “Would you like to?”
“Even if…” Ciel spread his hands and shrugged. “I don’t have a license. I’ve never been behind the wheel of a car before.” The elder looked at him with brows raised. “You’re…”
“Not quite old enough to have learned before, and besides, if I do go somewhere, I’m usually driven…”
“Or you go by foot”, Sebastian teased him. Ciel gave him a small smile. What could have been seen as a barb didn’t sting at all. “Only if I have to run.”
“I’ll teach you myself. We have a one day layover before we get to Canterbury. We’ll make a day trip to the sea and you can try to drive.”
That sounded pretty nice actually. “You know we’ll be in a world of trouble if we’re stopped by the police.”
Sebastian’s grin was close to demonic. “If. You mean if we’re stopped.”
**
To his loathing, Ciel’s dress that night was pink. He made a face as Wendy helped him get dressed and made up. “I don’t like this one.” It was perfectly doll-like, with a full skirt that hung in drapes, a bodice waist and long black gloves that matched the applications on the skirt and chest. Wendy chuckled. “It’s apricot, Snowy.” Ever since Beast had begun calling him that for his sunburn, one by one everyone else had done, too. Ciel supposed it fit him better than ‘Smile’ anyway. “It’s pink. And it’s horrible”, Ciel complained, pouting when the short girl stepped onto a stool to clip in the long pigtails he would wear. A cloth flower was clipped into his bangs to hide one side of his face. The other side was already made up, eyeliner and mascara making his eye huge in his pale face. Wendy purposefully didn’t use blush on him, she had said, to make him seem more fragile and dolly. Atop the flower came a hat in the same color as the fabric of the dress. Ciel had liked the one from the day before much better; at least it had been a color that wasn’t an eyesore. “See how pretty you are! We should sell pictures of you. And calendars.”
Ciel didn’t think that was a very good idea, but smiled and thanked her anyway. He was put into his glass casket and settled into his little chair comfortably, eyes closed for the first pose. He’d be tempted to follow the patrons with his eyes if he didn’t, trying to find red in the crowd. It would stress him more than necessary.
He was a little disappointed he wouldn’t be able to see the crew perform with his new job; he could hear Sebastian’s deep voice though when he announced the acts, amplified by the microphone clipped to his ear, his words rolling over the grounds. As he sat and waited before changing his pose, he had a lot of time to be alone with his thoughts; instead of scary, as he thought it would be, Ciel found that very meditative. He felt oddly peaceful despite the bit of panic running through him at the prospect that Grell could find and recognize him; in his fantasy, the redhead would smash the glass with his chainsaw, making splinters rain on Ciel sharply, grasp him by the neck, drag him back screaming and slaughter everyone that tried to stand in his path.
Doll. Wendy. Betty the tiger and her babies.
Sebastian.
Ciel grimaced and shifted into another pose to hide it. He chose a spot in the middle distance and let his face go blank. He was putting all of them in danger; something he hadn’t thought he would care about but found that he did. He wasn’t even sure how this would play out, maybe the notary wouldn’t even listen to him, maybe Ann had gotten to him before. What if she had figured out his plan already and made the necessary steps to spoil it? She wasn’t stupid; as a doctor and a first grade manipulator, she was more than apt to see through his plots. He could only hope that she believed the circus to be so far beneath her noble-born nephew that she wouldn’t even consider it.
The circus crew was good people. They were a little dysfunctional, but they were kind and caring and they had taken Ciel in without a second thought.
Guilt crept in to hang out with his paranoia.
He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if Sebastian was harmed because of him.
**
Ann was throwing another fit. Grell took a step to the side calmly to dodge another heavy paperweight she threw in his direction. The color in her cheeks matched her hair, furious beautiful red. He loved watching her get all riled up. Fury was even better than arousal, he found.
Sure, he had thought he’d found the little brat. He hadn’t told her. For Ann, the boy remained lost.
To be fair, Grell didn’t have anything against the boy. Certainly not his type, too young and too twinky, all pale and gloomy up in his tower – but Ciel had never been cruel to him or treated him with anything but politeness. He was quite smart, too. In his heart of hearts, Grell found it a travesty what Ann planned to do to the boy. It would be so much easier to treat him like family, get a huge chunk of the trust fund when the kid turned eighteen and live as beloved aunt. That certainly was nothing to sneeze at. The kid was kindhearted enough that he’d support her until the end with anything she could want. It wasn’t like Ann was broke, anyway.
Grell dodged yet another object – a stapler, this time. “I’m sorry, madam. I’m sure I’ll find him soon.” Not too soon, though. As much as Grell loved spilling blood, paint everything a glorious red, the tiny thing wouldn’t have enough inside him for even a small room.
That’s what he told himself to justify the lie.
“You’d better! The appointment is next week and the full moon just a day after that. We can NOT lose time like this! I want him back here by his birthday!”
“Yes, madam.”
“You have to find him before he starves. I need him alive. For a while.”
“Of course, madam.”
“Ugh, just go find the little bitch. Quickly.”
Grell bowed at the waist and left the room, throwing an impassive glance at the body chained to the wall that Ann was approaching now. Poor girl.
The maid wasn’t quite dead yet, but he assumed this would be the last time he’d see her breathing.
He left the manor, then the grounds, passing the frantic little gardener and didn’t pay him any attention. The manor had gone very quiet ever since Ciel had run – if Mey-Rin wasn’t screaming, that was. Beautiful screams. Grell enjoyed them very much although he wasn’t allowed to play, not until he had found the boy.
Tracking him should have been easier. The boy was clumsy; his path through the foliage should have been obvious. As it was, Grell had found nothing but a little pressed down patch of moss in a nest of ferns. Nothing more. Nothing less. Could have been badger for all he knew.
The circus grounds had been promising. There had been a kid that looked a lot like the Phantomhive heir, but Grell hadn’t been sure. He normally didn’t care if it was the right victim as long as he could rip someone open…but he wouldn’t be allowed to play with Ciel anyway, and there would be hell to pay from his mistress if he brought her the wrong child.
Now if he’d only paid more attention to what the little brat actually looked like.
This evening, he went out without his beloved saw, taking only two knifes. Easier to hide. When he came to the circus grounds, deciding to look at the living doll more closely, the little valley was empty.
Bright green eyes blinked once, twice behind redrimmed glasses. “Uh.” They were gone.
**
“You did really well tonight, Snowy!”, Dagger clapped him on the back so hard Ciel almost choked on his biscuit. “I didn’t actually do anything…”
“Now, don’t be modest, you’re really pretty in drag”, Doll winked at him from across the table. Sebastian chuckled as he put a large pan into the middle of the table. “Alright everyone, here’s your reward for a well-done job! It’s apple and raisin crumble. Enjoy!” He cut the still hot dessert and put piles of it into small bowls. When he set one down in front of Ciel, the boy shook his head. “I’m sorry, I can’t eat that. I’m allergic to apples.” Here were disappointed and sympathetic exclamations all around. “Like, a pimple or two allergic?”, Joker asked and Ciel shook his head again. “No, it’s really bad. My windpipe would swell shut in moments. It’s really unpleasant.”
Sebastian was quick to exchange his crumble for a plate with a few oatmeal cookies. He was rewarded with a smile so radiant it managed to outshine the period of sunshine they’d been graced with so far. It was redirected too quickly when Wendy tangled Ciel up in a conversation about how she had looked through the large costume chests and was sure she could alter some of them to fit the boy for more variety in his show outfits. Ciel actually seemed interested in that.
The director sat down, the chatter a din around him that he could tune out easily as long as no one was talking directly to him. Ciel was glowing across the table; there was a slight blush in his cheeks, lips pulled into a permanent light smile, the beautiful seablue of his eyes reflecting the candles and lanterns they had put up for their after-show dinner. He seemed at ease here. He looked happy.
Sebastian’s eyes followed the delicate line of the boy’s neck down to where it curved into the line of his soft shoulders.
How he wished he could keep him.
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Apples & Arsenic