A/N:

Warning: Spoilers things into and before the Murder Mystery arc.

Mostly this is about Sebastian with a little bit of the others thrown in. Sebastian is about as IC as I can make him considering it is hard to figure out what is going on in his head!


Sebastian couldn't help but think that humans were strange things indeed. It was what made them interesting, but still, sometimes they truly puzzled him.

Agni, for instance, could be called his polar opposite but the man insisted on calling him friend, something no one had ever done before.

The reasons behind the title were ridicules. In no way had Sebastian entered that contest to help the Indian, he had simply wanted to beat him.

Sebastian prided himself on being perfect and the fact that Prince Soma claimed Agni's curry better than his had been a blow. Also Agni could actually handle those insufferable servants and make them useful for something other than killing. That was something Sebastian had yet to master despite his years with them and Agni had done it in less than an hour.

It had irked him and given Sebastian the desire to crush the Indian at what he did best. Yet when all was said and done the man had not been angry with him at all. No, instead Agni had called him a friend. Really,where was the fun in winning if the man wasn't at least a little upset?

So strange. He wondered if the man were to truly know what he was if he would continue saying such things.

Then there was the instance of his 'death'and funeral. All those idiotic servants had actually been sad. They as well as Agni and Prince Soma, had cried over him. Then at his 'resurrection' they had jumped him, cried even more, and declared it a miracle. It had been a hassle trying to pry them off him without using his demonic strength.

He didn't even know why they were so happy. What had he done that had made them care so much? Really?

But when it came to puzzles his Young Master was the most complicated of all. Sebastian swore the child had to be bipolar to some extent. The recent event with the circus seemed to prove that without a doubt.

One moment the boy was screaming at him to save a girl and the next he was telling Sebastian to burn a mansion full of children to the ground.

Ceil's explanation for his actions later on the train had made some sense but Sebastian was sure it was a lie. Yes, most of those children were probably un-savable, and, if given a moment with a shape instrument, would have used what little spark of free will they had left to take their own lives.

His Young Master, though, had been in no way rational after seeing his darkest nightmare recreated before his very eyes. What the boy had wanted that night was to have his fears burned away and his pain reduced to ashes.

The incident in front of the abandoned workhouse had also been confusing.

The look on Ceil's face had been nothing short of abject horror. There was no mask hid his emotions that moment. Sebastian had to admit that he had not seen the child so very bare since he had lay bloody and tear stained on the sacrificial alter when Sebastian was summoned.

Even when his Young Master had begun to suddenly laugh like a mad man he was sure he was seeing a truly unguarded Ceil Phantomhive. I rare thing indeed.

This lap dog to the Queen was a murderer, and yet he chose to pay for the burial of penniless prostitute. This strange boy, who took advantage of a girl's kindness to further his goals, but then tries to keep his enemies' suffices from being in vain.

In all things Ceil Phantomhive was unrepentant and seemingly uncaring, but yet he claimed he had to take responsibly for his actions.

Sebastian wondered if the boy considered their deal the ultimate punishment for his sins in the end. Did he see himself as a sacrificial lamb, taking on the burden of managing the underworld, using underworld tactics, so fewer people would have to suffer. Probably not, lambs were a symbol of gentleness and innocence after all, and his Young Master was neither.

Sebastian forgets, though, in his musings of human strangeness, that he is also a puzzling creature.

He is a demon; a tempter, a slaughterer, and a sadist. He embraces these things and is as unrepentant as his little master.

But one stormy night, in the chilling rain and crashing thunder, he came upon a cat and her kittens. They cried to him, a demon, for help, and he could not, would not, deny them.

"Could this be what they call the light in the darkness?"