There was a deep thunder that woke Ciel Phantomhive. He startled to a sitting position like a scared cat and pulled the blanket up to his chin, waiting for someone to attack from the darkness, from the shadows. His eyes - light blue and purple with a star-like figure - glanced around the room and tried to find some signs of a warm morning sun, but there was no light coming between the thick curtains. The room was quiet and dark, like it should have been in the middle of the night, and there was absolutely nothing suspious or dangerous. Ciel swallowed and kicked his blanket away a little too early, because suddenly there was a shiver running down his spine; the thunder stopped and a light started dancing somewhere behind the door.
Ciel wasn't afraid of the dark or, actually, anything else either, even if it would have been totally normal for a young boy like he was. He knew he'd be safe wherever he was and in every situation, so some weirdly stopping noises and lights in the corridor didn't disturb him that much. They could make him to get curious and interested, but it was never a fear he was feeling.
Ciel got up from his bed and startled when his feet touched the cold stone floor. He straightened his long shirt a little and then he sneaked to the door, pressed the handle quietly down and opened the door so slowly he could. He glanced carefully out, checked right and left and immediately stopped to stare at a small candle, which had been placed near his door; it wasn't something really unusual or weird, not really, because there was only unseal and weird people living in his mansion. Ciel raised his eyebrows, stepped to the corridor and closed the door behind him. He was sure something would happen.
At the right end of the corridor, where it turned to left and continued until the main hall, was a another light.
Ciel laughed and walked to see the second candle. His feet sank to the reddish carpet and he passed dark windows, expensive paintings and doors, and many antiquity drawers and elegant vases. Another candle was placed on the floor like the previous one and this time Ciel raises his head immediately he'd seen the candle, so he could see the continuing corridor. He grinned. There was a new candle again. Like a path. Guidance.
Ciel passed the third candle and came to the balcony, which was surrounding the main hall, and he waited for another light to come up somewhere. He knew this was some kind of a game and he wasn't adult enough not to try playing it. He took the safe path near the wall and, though he didn't want to admit it, he didn't want to go near the railing or look what was down in the hall - and suddenly the third candle behind him died and Ciel startled. He waited for a complete darkness, but his eyes had already get used to it and the huge windows down the hall gave some light, so he was able to walk to the stairs that led down.
Somehow the quietness and the missing danger started to feel funny. Ciel placed his hand to touch the cold surface of the wall, and he squinted and walked the stairs down to the first small balcony in the middle of the stairs. There were still another stairs, that led down and straight towards the front door. The light, which came from the windows, wasn't big enough to light up more than a small part of the hall and that worried Ciel. He was sure the front door was closed and so were the doors down right and left. He instinctively looked up, but it was as quiet as the hall down below. There was none. Or nothing.
Then he felt how someone walked near him.
Ciel grabbed his shirt and jumped couple steps backwards. His dark hair landed to his eyes and a small wind played around his bare feet, which started to shiver in need of socks. He leered around him and he was ready to complain and scold everyone he could see, but there was absolute none to listen him - except a mocking laugh, which could have been a wind or a mouse. Ciel snorted and crossed his hands over his chest.
Now there was a light again in the upper balcony, but Ciel wasn't sure if he wanted to care. Then the light moved and he immediately turned his face up to see what was happening; the light was moving on the railing and it was coming toward him - no, no, it wasn't. There were hundreds of candles. The railing, both railings on right and left, all the way down, were covered with small candles, which were lighting up in row with a whoosh. It was like a lighting trail. The dark wood was turning into gold and the light looked like flying up to the ceiling and trying not to touch the ground. There were images, shadows, forming up to the ceiling's surface and they looked like moving figures and drawings, which were playing and dancing in a chaos.
Ciel blinked stupidly and walked the last stairs down, straight in the middle of the huge hall. He felt really small and unimportant, and he raised his head straight up to see the lighting animation and for some reason he felt like smiling. The ceiling was getting deeper and deeper and it looked like sinking to the night sky, it was something that just had to be stared. It made one to feel unreal.
Then someone walked forwards from the shadows and his steps were almost way too quiet. Ciel didn't move an inch when a hand was placed to cover his eyes and another around him. There was no normal human heat, no normal heartbeat, the creature wasn't breathing; and still the young boy knew there was nothing to fear. He raised his hands, grabbed the hand covering his eyes and moved it down so he could see again.
Now the hall was full of candles. The stairs, the upper balcony was full of candles. The light was blinding, but not too bright, it was enormous, but still not enough, it was cold, but still really soft. There was no place, not a small part of the wood, where the ocean of lights couldn't reach. The floor looked like being on fire, the stairs looked like a lighting waterfall and the upper balcony, oh, he didn't even know - it was like a forbidden garden of god's. The view was absolute crazy, totally unreal, but still so beautiful, amazing and huge, and it almost screamed to be described, watched. It was something that was hard to fear, but it still was something that should have been feared. It was something to admire.
"I know you don't like the fire. And I know you fear it, I know you do", the dark, deep voice said to Ciel's ear and made shivers run down to the boy's toes. "You can control the fire. You were admiring it just a while ago. Look now, look."
Ciel swallowed as he felt the one behind him getting closer. "What the hell are you trying to say with this?"
The hand around Ciel turned him carefully, but still with a small force, around. The ocean of lights, fires, was left behind and for a while Ciel stared at a black suit, until he moved his glance up to meet eyes, eyes that were something between dark black and gleaming pink. There was a smile playing around Sebastian's face and it was tough like his unblinking stare. The light coming behind him made him look even paler he already was and - well, dead.
Ciel put his hands on the demon's unmoving chest. Sebastian's hands moved slowly, like testing, and then the right one stopped to Ciel's hair and the left one grabbed his shoulder. The silence was terrifying and even Ciel noticed he wasn't breathing, until Sebastian leaned a little closer and Ciel reached a little up, and the freezing cold lips touched the hot ones. It was more than careful, more like a touch, but for a first time in the whole moment the black butler breathed.
"This is exactly what I'm trying to say."
Sebastian grinned and showed his creepy teeth. The candles died. The darkness swallowed them.