MELODY
A gentle melody fills the Phantomhive manor. It's haunting, mournful, and sad. It holds loneliness and tragedy. It feels so wistful and nostalgic that can bring even the coldest person to tears. This melody, this beautiful song holds no words, but it tells a tragic story. The melody comes from a small boy of thirteen. His black hair is fine and straight, hanging messily over the right side of his face. His right eye, normally covered by a black silk eyepatch is open to reveal a stunning violet with a pentagram taking over the pupil and iris. His other eye is a perfect, crystaline blue. He is slight and petite and wears white night clothes. He is barefoot. His pale face is illuminated by the moonlight that gently falls over the piano he sits at. His lips, usually twisted into a frown or smirk hold the slightest smile. His face is sad, just as his music is.
His melody tells the tragic story of a boy. A boy whose childhood was ripped away from him at four, burnt to the ground, burnt to death, just as his home and parents were. A boy who was captured and tortured in unspeakable ways. A boy who was branded like a slave by those who took him and humiliated him. That brand will always be a reminder of the pain he went through. His melody tells of a boy who was saved, not by Heaven, but by Hell. A boy who made a contract with a demon for revenge. A boy who became engulfed in a coldness and loneliness that he embraced. A boy whose demon butler saved him, who still saves him. A boy who has fallen in love with his demon butler, but knows that those feelings will never be returned. His melody tells the tragic story of Ciel Phantomhive.
The servants of the Phantomhive manor are asleep. Or at least, were asleep. The melody wakes them up. The gardener is filled with that tune, and remembers his time in his own Hell. His time in a lab, experimented on endlessly. His time when all he wanted was to be outside, and see the sun again. His time in endless darkness.
The cook is reminded of his time on the battlefield. Endless blazing, cracking guns. The cook remembers that final trap. It was too easy, he had known, but no one would listen to him. In the end, they all died. Their screams will haunt him forever, their deaths etched into his soul. The cook remembers his time surrounded by death, and death alone.
The maid is reminded of her time as an assassin. She remembers the thrill of aiming and firing with her perfect aim. She remembers the guilt and sadness that ate away at her afterwards. She remembers being forced into several assassinations, and that endless, endless guilt. She remembers her time in a world where death was the key to survival.
Those three servants are in tears from that achingly beautiful melody of sadness. The gardener and former test subject Finny. The cook and former soldier Baldo. The maid and former assassin Mey-Rin. They are moved by the melody so greatly, and they wonder where it comes from. Slowly, they fall asleep again, and when they wake in the morning, think that melody to be only a dream.
The butler, too, is woken by the melody. He is the only one to leave his room. He is the only one who knows where the melody comes from. Every year, on the night of his young master's parents death, a melody rings through the Phantomhive manor. Every year, it is different, but it always tells Ciel Phantomhive's story. It is a siren's song, beautiful, haunting, without words, but enchanting. It draws those who hear it towards the boy. It is always pure nostalgia, always causes those who hear it to remember the woes of their own lives.
This melody is different, though. It has a new part to its story. It has the tale of Ciel Phantomhive falling in love with his demon butler. The butler heads towards the music room where the piano is. He sees his young master illuminated by the moonlight, unearthly in his beauty, surrouned by his melody. Slender fingers dance across white and black keys, the only light the silver moonlight. The butler does not interrupt the melody, just listens. It can bring anyone to tears. Anyone but its player and his butler. It still tugs at the demon butler's heart, pulls at it painfully. Slowly, the melody comes to an end, and a single last note is held, echoing through the night.
"Bocchan. You should sleep," is what the butler says. It is soft, almost a whisper as though not to disturb the spell that the melody had cast on the night. The boy silently complies, following his butler back to his rooms. He is tucked in between the cool sheets. As the butler turns to leave, he is stopped.
"I love you, Sebastian," says the boy. It is soft, barely whispered. A slight smile crosses the butler's face.
"I love you too, Ciel Phantomhive." The boy falls asleep with a smile on his pale face. His demon butler loves him.
The next year, a new melody rings out. It starts with its usual sad loneliness, but it has another part to it. This part is happy. It tells of love returned. It tells of how Ciel Phantomhive is in love with his demon butler. It tells how Sebastian loves Ciel Phantomhive. It tells of a love between two souls, one mortal, one of hell.