This is a Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler One Shot. It was originally meant to be for my English Class, but the theme was just too fitting. It was "write a story based off of a nursery rhyme." I asked if "London Bridge is Falling Down" worked, and lucky for me, that was a yes. If you've watched the anime, you know why "London Bridge" is just oh-so-fitting for Kuroshitsuji. This version is a longer due to the fact I was timed on the original. Not that you needed to know that...
Enjoy!
"London Bridge is falling down!" A young boy with bright orange-red hair cried. He had on a tattered brown shirt with a green tie, and some khaki beige pants. His socks were torn and worn out with holes at the soles of his feet. On these feet, he ran through the streets of London, crying this phrase over and over. He stopped running around and skidded, nearly 10 centimeters away from the face of a young girl. This girl was a young teenager of around 12 or 13, wearing a ruffled pink dress with a fuchsia poncho. Her blonde hair was pulled into four curly ponytails, two on each side. Next to her was a young short boy of the the same age. He had short, choppy indigo blue hair, a blue outfit with an equal amount of ruffles, and a black eye patch over his right eye.
The red haired boy was panting and gasping as he said, "London Bridge... is falling down! It's falling down, my fair lady!" he panted. The young girl turned towards her fiancee. "Did you hear that, Ciel?" she asked, her voice was filled with worry.
"Tch, ignore him," Ciel replied. "This boy only wants attention." Ciel glanced over in the direction the boy had ran from. He pointed his hand and turned the girl's attention to the bridge, which looked perfectly fine. "See, Elizabeth? It's perfectly fine."
"Oh, you're right," Elizabeth sighed in relief. "As per usual!" She giggled. Elizabeth glanced through the stores, which was the reason they were in town in the first place. She spotted a fancy boutique covered with pink frilly fabric, and inside was stuff with dress. "C'mon, Ciel~! That dress looks adorable!" She squealed with delight as she dragged her fiancee against his will to the store.
"Li-Lizzie, slow down, I can't keep up!" he complained as they went over to the boutique. The red head sighed, and suddenly noticed the crowd that had gathered around him. The older men and women scolded him with little holding back.
"Mouthy brat. Dirty rotten liar with a capital D," a man scoffed.
"Hmph, glad I don't listen to commoners," the man's wife responded with hate. "Troublemakers nevertheless."
The next day, the young boy went further from the bridge than usual, towards the outskirts of London. It was mostly greenery, with a few ginormous manors or mansions ever here and there. Eventually, he came upon a huge manor with it's iron gates open, even if they didn't look too welcoming. There was a young blonde trimming the hedges in the front lawn, and the... surprising smell of charcoal came from a chimney that must've been a fireplace... definitely not the kitchen, good grief no! As he walked towards the gardener, he heard the shattering of fine china and a scratchy voice pleading "I'M SORRY, YOUNG MASTER! PLEASE FORGIVE ME~"
The carrot top smirked. What easy victims, they were all a bunch of unsuspecting fools, in his mind. He dashed up to the gardener with fake tears in his eyes. "London Bridge is falling down, sir! I was walking along it and as soon as I got near the edge, it started to crack and break! While I was still shocked, some pickpocket stole my only money and tossed it in the Thames! Please help me, sir!" He hugged the gardener tightly. The gardener glanced down at the young boy with sympathetic eyes.
"Alrighty then! I'll take you in to see my young master, I'm sure he'll help you out!" the gardener smiled. The only thing the gardener heard after that was, "I'm...poor... fool... eh? Oh! Thank you so much!" However, what bothered the young boy was the way the gardener said "young master". How old was this "young master" of his? "Say, kid, what's your name, anyways?" the gardener asked.
"Oh, uh... Riley!" the boy answered, obviously lying. "What about you?" he asked, his hands playing with his shillings he just "found".
"I'm Finny, and I serve Ciel of the Phantomhive family!" Finnian grinned. Ciel? Oh no! What if it's that one eyed boy from yesterday? Riley thought. They had reached the manor's front door. No turning back now, he'd just have to hope karma doesn't bite too hard. Finny knocked on the door and opened it. "Young master! We have a young boy who needs assistance!" Finny called joyfully. The manor was a plain white, with some wooden brown pillars here and there. There was a staircase down the center with a red carpet that had gold like details. The young Earl Phantomhive walked down the railing.
"Eh, repeat that, Finny? I can't hear well after all that racket Mei-Rin and Baldo caused," Ciel sighed. He glanced over in "Riley"'s direction. "Eh? You again!" he exclaimed.
"Hmm, what's the matter, master?" Finny asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Finny..." the Earl warned. "Check your pockets. And your wallet," he ordered.
"Well, sure, but I don't see what the problem could be with them," he checked his pockets of gardening tools, which were fine, and everything else was fine, but his wallet was missing. So was the pickpocket, who had just dashed out of the door. "Bwa-! Hey, get back here!" Finny cried as he chased after the boy.
"There's no need," Ciel smirked. With a confused look on his face, Finny stopped in his tracks. "He's finally right. London Bridge will be falling down sometime very soon, if you catch my drift," the Earl turned toward a tall butler who wore almost all black, with hair equally as dark. The man's red eyes flashed demonically momentarily.
"Yes, my lord," he responded.
The young lad gasped for breath as he reached The Thames River itself. He glanced back to make sure no one had followed him. How peculiar, he wondered. Not a single soul nearby. Usually this road was very crowded, even at night time, but today, it was completely empty. The brown bricks on the road looked somewhat reddish in the sunset. Heck, so did the river, which looked like a line of endless blood. "Riley" rubbed his eyes. The redness went away to be replaced by usual colors. He checked his now somewhat heavy pockets, proud of pickpocketing that stupid gardener of his 5 pounds and 20 shillings. "Well, now that I have money," he sighed to himself. He glanced at his feet again, and this time, even the road looked like a path of endless blood, the Thames looking a bit like slow moving blood trickling down someone's skin. He blinked harder than before, hoping to clear his eyes. They cleared.
"I must be seeing things," he murmured. "Must 'ave been that bright red carpet that's driving me crazy." He shrugged. "...well, now I'm bored. I might as well head home!" He grinned happily as he skipped across the London Bridge. "That's weird. The Bridge never creaks this much..." he whispered.
Suddenly, CRACK! The bridge started to fall apart. The shock cause the young boy to lose his balance as a board underneath him gave away. He fell into the bloody looking Thames. He surfaced and gasped for air. "Gah! Help! I can't swim!" he kicked furiously, but to no avail. He fell underwater again, then surfaced. Eventually, the boy managed to teach himself how to tread water. Pieces of the bridge continued falling around him. He grabbed for one and held on as if his life depended on it, because... well... it kind of did.
"My, my..." a man said. The red head looked up to see a tall butler wearing clothes as dark as his pitch black hair. Next to the man was the extremely short Ciel Phantomhive. "Riley" thought a short person could never look so intimidating. "Looks like London Bridge is falling down, doesn't it, young master?" the man inquired. Ciel nodded in agreement. The man reached his hand out to the thief. The young boy reached for it desperately, but the butler took his hand back. "Oh, no, young sir, I don't want you. I want the money you've stolen," he requested simply.
Carefully, the worn out and tired pickpocket returned the gardener's wallet to Ciel's butler. The man smiled. "Thank you, have a wonderful day, Ben Dwight." The mysterious butler's eyes glowed a fierce and evil red for a split second, but the glowing stopped just as quickly as it started. Ben gasped at his own name. How did he know...? "Wait! Please! Get me out! I don't have the strength to- WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" he wailed. Not a single sound was made in the Thames afterwards.
"Hurry up, Sebastian," Ciel sighed. "Honestly, we could've finished this sooner if you didn't have to warn the residents about the worn out bridge." He waited patiently for the butler to return to his side.
"But if I didn't warn them, we would have had witnesses. The Queen's Guard Dog doesn't need anymore trouble than he already has, does he?" Sebastian responded politely. Ciel sighed again.
"Speaking of, now I have to write a report to Her Majesty to ask for money to rebuild the..." Ciel glanced back at the murky colored river. "Well, let's just say that that boy won't be pickpocketing anybody anytime soon..." Sebastian nodded as he and his young master walked back to the manor.
So, how'd ya like it? Not bad for my first One-Shot and Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler Fanfiction, right? Did I manage to keep everyone in character?
All the characters-except for Ben Dwight- belong to Yana Toboso.
The story and Ben belong to me. (Originally, Ben was gonna be that creepy puppet servant who sings "London Bridge" to lure helpless girls and turn them into dolls, but I changed my mind eventually)
I still can't believe the original version is what I'm turning in to my English teacher tomorrow... *facepalm*