Author's note: I've never read the manga, so let's not go there. Please, please post a review! I need to know if it's worth continuing as well as of any improvements I need to make. But you will. Because only losers don't write reviews.

"So within three months, your investment in our company will have tripled!" the guest across the table insisted. "Sounds good, doesn't it?" Yvon, the head of the table, half-smiled ironically. He was around seventeen, with medium-length, golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

"Fascinating," the lord replies snidely, "how you feel it is appropriate to come to me with investment opportunities only a few months after my brother has died."

"Ah... yes, well... you seemed to have moved on. You were married only two months after the event." Yvon looked to wife, a young lady named Louise, who sat quietly at the young lord's right side. She was young, only sixteen, and breathtakingly beautiful; her soft, shining emerald eyes looked out from a face most marvelously framed with copper-colored hair which swung freely past her shoulders. Just the sight of her made Yvon smile fondly.

"It is always best to see happiness in life's simple pleasures, even in the midst of tragedy," Yvon explained. "I believe that it is what my brother would have wanted."

"Nevertheless, about the proposal –"

"No."

"What?"

"I am too confident in my finances to waste them on a crack-pot proposal."

"What?!" The man seemed unable to contemplate rejection. "You're just..." he stuttered on, "you're just a coward!" Yvon ignored this, sipping his wine. "You're just a man with no balls!" There was a pop as Yvon's glass shattered in his newly clenched fist. His calm expression had twisted into extreme rage. His infuriated breathing could be heard from across the room.

"Oh dear," Louise spoke in her soft, high-pitched voice, "now you've done it."

"What? Done what?"

"Yvon takes his manhood very seriously. I'd be surprised if he let you leave this house without injury, if alive at all."

"That's it!" Yvon howled. "You've insulted my intelligence, my family, and now my pride. I challenge you to a duel!" There was a pause as the guest nodded, knowing he had no choice but to accept. "I'll show you how much of a man I am," Yvon muttered.

They had agreed to use swords, and moved to the dueling hall. They stood back to back, and made the starting call. One Pace. Yvon closed his eyes. Two paces. I have to focus, he thought. Three paces. The sword is an extension of myself. Four paces. I'll show this bastard who's boss. Five. Pay attention – listen to everything. Yvon opened his eyes and smiled. This would be easy. Six. He could hear his opponent tremble – it was like he had never held a sword before. Seven. Yvon took a deep breath. Eight. Here we go. Nine. I'm ready. Ten. The two men whipped around to face each other, brandishing their weapons. Yvon was almost entirely offensive; his strokes and slashes almost too quick for his opponent to block. Yvon's confidence disturbed his opponent greatly. This kid fights like the devil! the man thought. Yvon took a moment's pause to catch his breath, which his opponent took advantage of. Yvon jumped back to avoid a wide slash that would've sliced right across his chest; however, the maneuver was incomplete. The blow landed across Yvon's waist, and, while it cut no flesh, the blow tore completely through Yvon's pants and undergarments, which fell to the floor leaving Yvon completely naked from the waist down. Both combatants froze. The opponent stared openly at the exact opposite of what he had expected. Yvon looked down in shock.

"Y-you're... you're a woman!" the man exclaimed, horrified.

"Well," Yvon replied quietly, "I was going to let you go with a stiff beating, but now I have to kill you." Shaking off the remainder of his trousers, Yvon lunged forward. His opponent, totally off guard, didn't have time to parry before being impaled straight through his heart. "No one will know," Yvon whispered into his opponent's ear as the man fell, never to rise.

"Baldroy!" Yvon shouted. The blonde cook (who had been switched to the butler position, considering Tanaka's retirement and the fact that he couldn't cook worth a damn) rushed in and immediately shuddered at the sight of the dead body and his naked master. "Pants!" Yvon demanded. "Now!"

"Yes my lord!" Baldroy answered, running back out.

"Mey-Rin!" Yvon shouted. The maid rushed in moments later. "You're the maid, aren't you? Clean this up!"

"Yes my lord." Just then, Baldroy returned with a fresh pair of pants. Yvon re-dressed himself. As Mey-Rin began removing the body, Yvon strode back into the dining room where his wife was waiting.

"Oh no!" she squealed, seeing him. "Are you alright?" Confused, Yvon looked down at his shirt and realized that there was blood spattered all over it.

"Oh, this?" he answered. "This isn't mine." Her expression changed from concern to disappointed suspicion.

"What did you do?"

"I... I killed him."

"Yvon!"

"I had to! He saw!" Louise sighed.

"Yvon... that's the second time since we've been married. Twice in three months!"

"I'm sorry, Louise. I don't know what happened the first time. He just started touching you and... everything went red."

"You beheaded him, Yvon."

"I realize that."

"Last time I ever try to help you with any of your cases."

"Good! A brutal murderer-rapist, the last thing I wanted was for you to get involved!"

"I just worry about you, Yvon."

"I know..." Yvon answered. The room fell silent. "I told you you shouldn't have married me," he muttered.

"Oh, not this again!" Louise whined.

"I told you. I'm just a liability. I'm nothing but trouble. You need to find a real man, with a legitimate job, and legitimate money. But did you listen? No."

"Yvon, I already told you! You're the only man I could ever love!"

"I should just leave you. It'd be for your own good. Except... well, this is my house. I'd have to kick you out, and that's not really the same, is it?"

"Yvon!" Louise cried, running to her husband and wrapping an arm around his waist. He gasped, and they looked at each other, blushing. Louise took her other hand and slowly ran it through her husbands hair, pulling him in for a kiss. It lasted a moment, and then broke up. Louise's hand dropped down to Yvon's chest, her eyes lowering to avoid his shocked gaze. "You know... I should look you over... you might be injured..."

"I... yeah," Yvon replied awkwardly. "You... that's dirty." Louise giggled and kissed him. The kiss released and they hugged tightly. Yvon spotted something moving in the shadow of a hallway. He pulled apart from his wife. "You head on upstairs," he told her, smiling calmly. "I'll be there in a moment."

"Don't be too long," Louise answered, skipping up the steps to the master bedroom. Yvon heard footsteps approaching from behind: two people, one shorter than the other given the difference in the frequency of their steps.

"Yvon Phantomhive," one voice rang out from behind him, clear and cold.

"Hello, brother," Yvon greeted, turning with a smirk on his face. "I didn't figure on you showing up here again."

"Oh, blast, I was hoping I could scare you a bit," Ciel answered with the same smirk as his brother. The demon Sebastian stood behind his master in the shadows, expressionless.

"Please. I knew what you were the moment I first saw you. The cold, emotionless eyes; the pitch black fingernails. I am familiar enough with your kind, demon."

"You're very observant," Ceil answered, impressed. "Most humans are too stupid to realize what we are."

"Most humans are too stupid to realize what they are: ants crawling on a rock in space; here one day and then gone, never to be remembered. But, inevitable oblivion aside, what are you doing here?"

"Excuse me, I believe that this is my house."

"Not really; as I recall, you left everything to me when you left to... go do whatever it is you demons do. Hunt souls, I guess."

"You see, that is why I came here: I require a bit of payment for that favor."

"No, you don't. We never actually made a contract. I simply asked nicely for the fortune, and the title, and the estate, and you just handed it over without a second thought. It's surprising I could be related to someone so stupid." Ciel glared and clenched his fists, but said nothing for a moment, trying to calm down.

"It's still not too late, brother," Ciel offered. "We can still have a contract. Anything you desire!"

"No, thank you. I already have everything a man could ever want: a noble title, a fortune, a loving wife. There's nothing more I desire."

"Not even to be a real man?" Ciel asked. Yvon paused. "I know your secret, sister." Yvon, however, quickly regained his composure.

"Not necessary," He replied. "Louise loves me for the way I am. She'll never admit it, but I don't think she'd be attracted to me if I were, as you say, a real man."

"But you'll need an heir! Unless you want to abandon our family."

"You did. Besides, I've already planned for that: I'll hide Louise from the public for nine months, and adopt a child. When she reappears with a baby in her arms, everyone will assume she was pregnant with my child. If all else fails, and I have her permission, I could even have Baldroy impregnate her; he looks kind of like me. I'd rather not though; the thought of another man with her makes me sick." Ciel was at a loss for words. "I'm sorry not to offer you hospitality, but it's late, and I want to go shack with my wife." Yvon headed for the stairs. "Oh, and a word of advice: Try a little more practice on weaker souls before you go after the intelligent ones like mine." He swaggered up the stairs without so much as a backward glance.

"You know, Sebastian," Ciel remarked, amazed, "since becoming a demon, I've been able to smell fear."

"I don't smell anything," the butler replied.

"Precisely! Yvon has no fear! The man walks around as if he's God! It sickens me to the core, and yet... it enthralls me. I can't look away."

"He is... interesting."

"Yes. I almost wish I would've met him when I was human. We might have gotten along quite well."

"What took you so long?" Louise asked, curious, as Yvon entered the room. She was lying on the bed, already down to her chemise and drawers.

"My... brother... decided to drop by," Yvon answered, beginning to undress himself.

"Ciel?! What did he want?!"

"He seemed to believe I owed him something for the estate. I handled it. However, I wouldn't be surprised to find him hanging around here for a while. He seemed quite interested in me."

"Well I'm not surprised," Louise enticed, getting on her hands and knees and crawling across the bed toward her husband. "You are such a handsome man." She reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, kissing him. He pushed back against her, so that by the end of the kiss he was laying down on top of her.

"Don't worry about him," Yvon reassured. "Tonight is for us alone." His head bent forward and kissed her again.