The wind was picking up again.
Sebastian clutched his coffee cup closer to his chest and tightened his grip on his jacket to hopefully hold in more of his body heat. He cursed himself for not checking the weather report that morning and grabbing his thicker jacket. It was the start of autumn, but the wind was too chilly for this time of year. It was still another block to his destination and he growled under his breath. He was a free-lance digital agent, why was he being called in to the police station at 6 'o clock in the morning. It was too early for him to be up. Too. Damn. Early.
He stomped into the office, shutting the door behind him loudly and letting the warmth of the building restore feeling to his hands. He released his jacket and brought his coffee mug to his lips before swallowing a generous amount. It was the only thing that made him civil enough for people, especially this early in the morning.
He strode forward with long strides into the front office, and was immediately barraged by the amount of red the secretaries were wearing. Both of them seemed obsessed with the color, and if he did not know any better he would have thought them twins. But once a person talked to them, it became very clear that they were not twins, and were not even related. The woman in the pair looked up and a smile spread across her crimson lips. "Good morning, Sebastian." She greeted. "On time as always." She said with a smirk. The other one of the two's head snapped up at the mention of his name that Sebastian almost thought the man had gotten whip lash. But, alas, that was only a fantasy.
"Bassy!" Came the unadulterated shout as the figure launched towards the darkly dressed free-lance agent. A simple side step saw the man crashing into the wall rather comically. Sebastian walked forward to the woman and nodded. "Miss Durless." He greeted in a monotone voice. He really did not like either of them, but she was far more endurable than the other. She smirked again at him and Sebastian sighed. She may have been his preference of the two, but her own subtle pursuit of him (or rather any handsome man) made him wish he did not have to visit this office at all. "I thought you were a coroner." He said as he signed the register on the desk.
"I am." She responded, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair. "But I don't have any cases, so I am helping Grell until something comes up." She said lightly. At the mention of his name, Grell stood and rubbed his nose. "That was mean, Bassy!" He whined. "Why would you treat a lady like that?" He complained loudly as he took his seat next to Dr. Durless. He also crossed his arms and pouted, something Sebastian ignored very easily. "I would not treat a lady like that." He said. "When you find one, let me know." He said before turning on his heel and walking out of the room. Grell pouted and wiggled in his chair as Sebastian left.
"Why is he so mean?" He whined to Angelina. She laughed and patted Grell's head.
The chief of police was a tall man with an intimidating stance, but Sebastian was not easily swayed by a person's presence. He leaned against the wall and finished his coffee before tossing it in the trash. "Why am I here?" He demanded of the chief. The man sighed and sat on his chair. He pulled a file from his desk and place it on his desk. "Have a look, please, Sebastian." He asked and Sebastian sighed before sitting in the chair and taking the file and looking through it.
"Only thing here is a name, a picture and a few minor charges of internet fraud." Sebastian responded, looking at the chief with a look half way between bored and unimpressed. "That is what you dragged me out of bed for?" He growled. "You could have emailed this to me. I'm not one of your grunts you can order around and give pointless cases too." He snapped, crossing his arms.
His glare was intense, but the chief did not shrink back. "This isn't one of your normal cases of tracking deposits back to their source or tracing IP addresses from porn videos." He growled back. "This is something much more difficult as well as delicate." He said, leaning back in his desk.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow, clearly asking the chief to impress him. The chief sighed and continued. "This man has no criminal record, nothing out of the ordinary other than using false email addresses to obtain information from people. But nothing to charge him with anything more than a few years." He explained. "But just a few months ago a woman came in and filed a sexual assault charge against him on behalf of her eleven year old son. She seemed to be just a single case, but we found that other charges had been filed, six in the past ten years. But none of them were followed up on and have been buried. Now this man is a high-ranking politician and he can't be touched without proper proof. That's where you come in." He said, leaning forward.
"I want you to get anything you can on him and hopefully prove these accusations right. Now, I wouldn't be having you on this if they hadn't been more than one accusation." He said as he crossed his fingers and laid his chin on them. "Do you think you can do that?" He asked and Sebastian tapped his chin with his finger.
"Seems easy enough. I just have to get the evidence, right?" He asked and the chief nodded. "So I'll just pose as an underage kid and catch him in a chat room. Easy." He shrugged and the chief chuckled.
"If it was that easy I would not have asked you." He said and Sebastian looked at him again.
The chief went on. "From what the accusations have said, this man does not just go on to chat rooms and ask for them to meet him somewhere, he has a very unique pattern. It seems that he spends months seeking out his next target before he begins the pedophilic circle of destruction. And he seems to be rather picky." He explained slowly. "He picks these children from seeing them in public." He said slowly.
Sebastian tapped his fingers against his arm sleeve. "So why are you talking to me? I'm not exactly a young boy." He said, voice once again monotone. The chief chuckled and nodded. "True. And that brings me to the other reason I called you here." He said, amusement dancing in his eyes. "I'm assigning you a partner for this case." He said and Sebastian glared at the man. "I don't do partners. I'm a free-lance agent for the station, I don't do cases, I don't do field work and I don't do stumbling little rookies who are more concerned with impressing me than which way their gun is pointed." He snapped and the chief smirked.
"Well, forgive me, Mr. Michaelis, I'll do my best not to stumble about." Sebastian whipped around in the direction of a new voice and his eyes widened. There was a boy standing in the doorway, no older than thirteen, with hair the color of slate and eyes the color of lapis gems.
"Who are you?" Sebastian asked and the boy shrugged.
"Oh, I'm no one." He said with a smirk.
The chief laughed. "This is Ciel Phantomhive. He's your partner for this case. Like you, he's a free-lace agent for the police. He works pedophile cases as 'bait'." The chief explained. Sebastian rolled his eyes. "I'm not working with a child." He said, looking Ciel up and down with a critical eye. Ciel smirked and stepped forward, passing Sebastian and sitting on the side of the desk. The chief sighed. "Ciel may be young, Sebastian, but he is a child prodigy with detective work and psychology. He also happened to be….well…."
"I just so happen to be exactly what a pedophile is looking for, physically speaking." Ciel finished for the chief. Sebastian shook his head.
"I don't care if he double majored in psychology and criminal science in high school-"
"I haven't been to high school yet, but I have finished several online courses in psychology, criminology and sociology." Ciel fired back.
Sebastian looked at him. "I'm sorry?"
He asked and Ciel smirked at him through his bangs. "I got bored so I signed up for online courses from a nearby college." He said with a shrug.
"And what was your final grade?" Sebastian questioned.
"I passed." Ciel shrugged again and crossed his arms again.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "And how did you pay for these courses?" He asked and the chief chuckled again. "Ciel is descendant of British nobility. He has quite a financial background." He said and Sebastian nodded. "So rich kid gets bored and the chief of police stacks him on me and decides to ship us out on a case that may or may not be actually a case. Sounds fantastic. Where do I sign?" Sebastian said, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he stood up. Ciel laughed and moved his bangs from his eyes. "Being stacked with you does not sound like a bad idea." He smirked and Sebastian stopped in his tracks.
"Are you flirting with me?" He asked, looking over his shoulder incredulously. The chief laughed. "If he can make a shut-in like you stop in his tracks, I'm pretty sure he's the right boy for the job." Sebastian rolled his eyes again but turned around. "Fine. I'll work with the migit on this case. But if it goes nowhere, I'm demanding compensation for his presence." He said, pointing at Ciel. The chief nodded. "Fine. Fine. It's a blessing to have you only demand that." He said.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Why?" He asked carefully and Ciel smirked as he walked passed Sebastian to the door. "Because, after a week with me, you'll want more than just extra compensation." He laughed as he walked out and Sebastian rubbed his temples.
What in the world had he gotten into?
At least the kid was smart, Sebastian mused to himself. He leaned back against the wall as Ciel looked through the case files in the basement of the police station. The police kept all the cold cases or cases filed as 'resolved' here in the basement and it was unusual for a person to want to go through the old files. Cold cases so rarely resurfaced that a thick layer of dust plagued most of the cabinets. It was then that Sebastian found out something interesting about his new 'case partner;' the boy had a severe case of asthma that was easily triggered. Sebastian had spent an hour dusting off the cabinet they needed just so Ciel would not have a reaction, and now the kid was digging through the files with all the professional now-how of a seasoned police man or secretary.
To say he was impressed would be an overstated assumption; Sebastian found it interesting to watch the boy work, yes, but it was nothing impressive. It took a few moments for the search to take place, but finally Ciel made a noise of triumph and lifted a thin one-page file from the cabinet.
"There we are. Filed in 1996 just like the report said. One molestation charge against one Baron Kelvin." Ciel said with a triumphant smirk. Sebastian quickly snatched the file.
"Good. Now find the other five, sniffer pup." He fired back and Ciel sent him a glare.
"Why don't you help, Sebastian Michaelis?" He snapped.
"Have to have you do some genuine police work there, pretty pants. Otherwise my poor conscious will feel terribly guilty about having you strut about like a steak in front of a starving man." He said with a smirk.
Ciel rolled his eyes and snorted. "Please. I do more police work when I email my parents than you do in a month." He said before moving to another cabinet. "Alright, Mr. Michaelis, let's clean up these other cabinets to resume our work. Or is that too difficult for a real police man like you?"
"Move, squirt." He said, pushing the boy out of the range of the dust before he took the dusting rage to the top and sides of the metal contraption. Once the majority of the free moving dust had been cleaned up, he motioned it was safe for Ciel to step forward.
Again the boy dove into the filing cabinet, flying through the names and file numbers with a speed that was unbelievably quick. "What do you know about Baron Kelvin?" Ciel asked as he looked through the names.
"Only what is written on the file." Sebastian responded.
"Would you like to know more?"
"Sure, kid, impress me."
"Well, for one, Baron is his first name, not a noble rank. He was a small time business man up until a few years ago when his business suddenly grew exponentially. In under a year, his business gained solid holds in both China and Australia." Ciel explained as he handed another file to Sebastian before diving into the lower drawer for another. "He is known to the public as a major philanthropist, big into charities. Most of his money gets channeled into children's cancer and diabetes research, improving education in public schools, sending food and water relief to children in African villages, things like that." He explained.
"Sounds like this guy's life revolves around kids."
"It does. His company does textile creations that is bought by toy making companies around the world. Things like stuffing, fabrics and plastic."
"So how is it so hard to believe he likes to bring kids to his bed?"
"Because in the general people's eye, he is so focused on improving the lives of children, he could never hurt them." Ciel responded with a snort.
"But there's been six…sorry, seven, charges now."
"Childs play to bury if you have the funds. Money can bury things deeper than any grave."
"Sounds like you speak from experience."
"Of course. And maybe someday I'll show you~"
"You cannot seriously be flirting with me again."
Ciel laughed and pulled the third file from the drawer and handed it over to Sebastian's waiting hand. "Do you want the last three or is this enough?" He asked.
Sebastian weighed the options for a moment. "Let's get the other three." He finally responded and Ciel sighed.
"Fine. Fine." He said as he moved into the next cabinet that Sebastian had dusted for him.
Moments later, Ciel was searching for the fifth file when Sebastian decided to break the silence between them. "So how do you know so much about Kelvin?"
Ciel stopped for a moment before resuming his work. "Because his company supplies the textiles for my family's. He's not a major supplier, so I have no reason to protect him, but he still had to provide us with the overview of his company as well as his stock portfolio and monthly budgets in order to apply for us to take him as a partner. So when the chief told me his name, I pulled up the files my father had on him. It's not much, but it gives us the basic picture of the person we are dealing with." He replied.
Sebastian nodded slowly. "Do you have anything else on him?" He asked and Ciel shook his head.
"Not at the present, no. Just his business profile. I can tell you, however, that he has reached the 'untouchable' status of wealthy in the last few years. And there is no actual reason for the sudden growth of his company. A textile business does not just grow like that, not in the way his did. But without his bank records, I can't tell you where the money came from that allowed him to place the holdings. But it was a strange increase." He replied and stood, popping his back in the process and handing Sebastian the fifth file.
"How long have we been here?"
"Two and a half hours."
"Let's see. We both arrived at 6 this morning, had to wait an hour for the head secretary to get in and help us find the locations of the cold case files. So it's about 9:30 right?" Ciel asked and Sebastian nodded. "I'm hungry." Ciel stated.
"So go home and eat."
"Too far. Let's go get breakfast or something."
"Are you serious?"
"Oh fine, I'll pay half."
"You are not going to let this go, are you?"
"Nope."
"Fine. Follow me." Sebastian said as he headed up the stairs. "But we have to come back for the sixth file.
"Deal." Ciel said as he ran after Sebastian, grabbing on to his arm. Sebastian rolled his eyes.
"You are unbelievable."
"I know. But you'll learn to love it."
If King can be a first name, so can Baron. Sue me. I'm not changing it. Come now my sweet little darlings, feed me your love and affection. Or the Ninjas of Uncertainty shall rain down upon me with all their wrathful worrisome words and I shall succumb to their horrible, nasty ways. Don't let the Ninjas get you, my lovelies. Lock your doors, windows and eat your veggies. And maybe leave me a review on the way out?
Look. I'm even being cute and rolling on my kitty back and pawing the air in that way you humans cannot resist. Love me.
Niki loves me. She feeds me ideas and stays up late with me to form ideas and make nonsense. I should marry her. Marry me, Niki. I want your sweet fanfic babies. Oh snap. Better raise the rating on this fanfic. See what you do to me, darlings? You raise the ratings on my fanfics. Because I love each and every one of you who reads this fanfic. Yes. You. There. Reading this. I love you. Now let's run away together.
But first, leave me a message of your undying devotion to me, sweetlings.