I always love looking deeper into the characters background. Even so in the manga and anime we are given bits and pieces, I always imagine each has a rather hard time moving on - I mean, they did get picked by a demon... So the next series of one-shots explore the characters through different emotions. If you have a suggestion for an emotion and character, leave it in the comments... I'll be happy to delve into the psyche of these guys with ya!
PEACE
There was a splash in the pool and Ciel mindlessly lobbed his head toward it. He was taking a vacation, from the city, from his country home, from just about everything a young man on the cusp of adulthood could take a vacation from. And yet there were still disturbances in his pursuit of peace.
Like Finny, now getting back out of the pool and running to the diving board and gleefully running and jumping off the end and holding his arms around his knees and laughing. The little drops of an ever bigger splash touched him and Ciel rolled his eyes and slid his sunglasses on.
"Sebastian!"
"Yes, my lord?"
"Ice."
"Of course, my lord."
And he held his hand out, fully expecting that in a second, or as he waited and glanced at his still empty hand, a few seconds later, it would be holding a glass of ice water.
It took a bit longer than he wished. Sebastian was not as yielding to his sigh of annoyance and Finny was once more running off the board, and now diving, albeit not well, into the water again. Ciel sat up and placed the glass on the small square of a side table. He swung his legs off the settee and slipped his bare feet into the sandals. Standing he looked at his butler and frowned.
"A straw hat? You look like you have gone mental," he said as he passed him. "Take it off. You like heat, remember?"
The smooth voice of the butler was a bit grainy as he swiftly doffed his hat and muttered, "Yes, my lord."
Oh yes, Ciel was taking a vacation, and he hated it with every ounce of his small body. He wanted peace, but did not really want it so badly that he abandoned his status and vacationed among the commoners. He wanted peace, but did not really want it so badly that he left his staff behind. He wanted peace, but did not really want it so badly that he actively tried to enjoy it. In fact, he took himself to the small cottage's library, fully stocked with books and his paperwork. He had merely glared at Sebastian when the butler had asked if he was sure he wanted the stacks to be brought on his vacation.
"I'll probably have no time, but the Queen, well, she waits for no one," he had said. And added cheekily, "but me."
And he sat down now, and looked at the stacks. He took his pen, uncapped it, and recapped it. He studied the walls. He studied the books. He leaned back and let the chair spin slightly.
"Damn it." Ciel threw himself out of the chair and tossed the pen somewhere in the direction of his desk and marched down the short hall and down the steps.
His maid, Mey-Rin was on her knees picking up the soil of a over turned plant. He rolled his eyes and eased slowly past her; he did not have the patience to hear her voice as she pleaded mercy for something she had no control over. Even if the plant had spontaneously tipped over, spilling itself, she would cry and carry on about how sorry she was. He was on vacation and he was trying his best to find peace, damn it!
"Young master," a voice called as he stomped down to the front room.
Ciel whirled around and glared. "Oh dear lords above, what?"
Bard paused in mid-step and seemed to gather that he was not in a mood to be approached. "I'll just baste the chicken," he said and bolted for the kitchen door.
"Honestly, my lord, if you were not keen to the idea of coming to the summer cottage, you should have said so," Sebastian's smooth voice said from the corner of the room. "I could have arranged for all your meetings to continue as normal, and leave you very little time to be on your own."
"I need to get away, and I need to do it now," the young man said. "The Queen wants this, the manufacturing companies, want that… all the time something!" He sighed and looked back at Sebastian. "And Lizzie. Oh dear, she has been on me for the past month about our wedding. I should be able to just show up and be married, right?"
"I have seen it done," Sebastian said. "However, I do believe Lady Elizabeth is wishing to involve you because this is also something important to you as well."
"I don't see how," Ciel muttered gloomily.
"She loves you, my lord. She wishes to have this," he waved his gloved hand, "with you. Not have them separate."
Ciel eyed the man and sighed again, finding the nearest chair and flopping into it. "And I should be the same and include my staff?"
"You are old enough and wise enough to know when you pick your battles, my lord," the butler said smoothly. "Accepting that this vacation is needed, and your staff wished to come, when they could have easily left for their own lives, is a good battle to loose."
The sound of Finny once more splashing into the pool, Mey-Rin sniffling, and Bard whistling, all came to fill the silence. Ciel looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "I hate you," he muttered.
"Yes, I know, my lord. Would you like your tea hot or cold?"
Ciel glanced over at the man and gave a small smile. "Neither. I'm going to nap and enjoy doing nothing on my vacation. The Queen can wait."
"Yes, my lord," Sebastian said, and Ciel heard the man close the doors, before he indeed closed his eyes and drifted into a dreamless sleep, for the first time in a long time.