Sebastian blinked slowly, looking down at the white-haired boy that had suddenly shown up at the Phantomhive mansion, requesting a place working there as something similar to a butler-in-training. He looked the boy over with a calculating eye, pertaining as much as he could from just that glance.
One thing that was for sure, he looked rather young, seeming as if he couldn't be any older that fourteen or fifteen, with merrily sparkling eyes the color of storm-clouds. The creamy pale skin of his face was interrupted only by a gruesome scar running down the left side of his face, cutting through his eye. The boy's hair was a wispy white, like new-fallen snow, and he was dressed nicely for someone coming in off the streets, as he had claimed. A white collared shirt beneath a dark grey vest, tied off by a limp red ribbon in a bow. Black trousers and boots completed the outfit. "What did you say your name was again?" Sebastian asked of him after a few moments of silence.
"Allen Walker, sir." The boy answered with a slight nod, as if to emphasize the truth of that statement. The movement caused his snowy hair to momentarily flick into his face, and he gently brushed it away with one gloved hand.
"Hmm…" Sebastian contemplated, wondering if it would be a good idea to hire him or not. Of course, he'd have to be strong enough to withstand an attack on Ciel's mansion, as were the other servants, but something seemed off about this Allen boy, something he wasn't telling. The scar, for one, was a curious thing. Sebastian could see through the flecks of silver locks that the very beginning of that star was in the shape of a pentacle, a demon's mark, yet he didn't sense any demonic power from him.
Finally, Sebastian consented. "Come in." He said, bowing politely and stepping away from the door, opening it wide to welcome Allen in. "We will have you for a day, and see what you can do. Then I shall make my decision."
"Thank you, sir." Allen said, dipping low in his own bow of thankfulness, and stepped inside, slate-grey eyes immediately widening at the sheer size of the place, as well as its elegancy. It was as if he'd never seen such a mansion before.
Of course, he hadn't. The last time Allen had seen something like this was at Krory's Castle, and though this place wasn't as littered with morbid statues and grim gargoyles, it still had a strange and unwelcoming aura about it. Every bit of his instincts told him that this was not a safe place to be. That, and his left eye, the one which bore the mark of an Akuma, was throbbing painfully, though he didn't show. It was as if an Akuma was dancing teasingly just outside the field that his vision could reach. That, or he'd finally come across a demon that could disguise itself so well that not even his eye could detect it.
"This way for your first assignment." Sebastian called to him, motioning to one door just off to the right of where the elegant stairs ended, before turning and disappearing through it himself. Allen followed, wondering where this door could have led, and what the first task of his 'initiation', as he'd pictured it as, entertaining, for a moment, the thought that it might be like joining some sort of club. Led through a few more doors, he finally ended up in a room that appeared to be a kitchen. The most prominent feature though, was the man in the kitchen, holding a flamethrower aimed at a raw piece of meat that sat on the tabletop in the middle of the room.
The man had a tousle of blonde hair atop his head, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and a bit of stubble on his chin. His chef's coat was smudged with soot, and goggles covered his eyes in preparation for setting off the dangerous instrument he held, which would, inevitably, turn the poor steak into little more than a lump of charcoal. "Meet Bard." Sebastian said, motioning towards the man.
Sebastian stood by the door after leading Allen in, and said, "Your first task will be to help prepare dinner for the young master." And though it was not spoken aloud, Allen was also to keep Bard from incinerating half their stock of food, and blowing up the kitchen. Then, turning to Bard, he informed him, "This boy will assist you in preparing dinner tonight." Sebastian delivered a cold glare to Bard, warning him against using the flamethrower, and Bard, seeing the icy look from the demonic butler, slowly and carefully set the instrument down on the tabletop. With that, Sebastian left.
Bard sighed, resisting grumbling as he turned from the door to the kid he'd been left with. "So kid, what's you're name?" He asked gruffly, pulling the goggles from his face to rest around his neck, wiping his hands on the white chef's apron and letting his fists come to rest at his hips.
"Allen Walker." Allen answered politely, smiling kindly, holding out a white gloved hand to shake. Bard took his hand, in turn offering his own friendly grin. "What can I help with?" Allen then asked, glancing around the kitchen for anything he could do. The ingredients lining the shelves only reminded him all the more of the fact that he hadn't eaten since before the several hour train ride, and even longer seeming carriage ride, that carried him here. As if in response to this thought, his stomach resounded with a loud gurgling growl, and Allen smiled sheepishly. "I guess I'm a bit hungry."
Bard chuckled at the youngster, motioning with a knife he'd picked up from the table over to shelves full of vegetables, and then the sink. "You can wash and cut the vegetables for tonight's dinner. We'll need carrots, potatoes, and celery."
Allen nodded in response, moving over to grab a good amount of the specified vegetables, placing them in a strainer he found and running them under the sink, little flecks of brown dirt coming off of them as he worked. Once he deemed them clean enough to eat, he moved them to the cutting board, cutting a few carrots in half length wise and setting them parallel to each other on the board, before quickly chopping the carrot into small cubes, guiding the knife and holding the orange vegetables in place, careful not to cut himself. A strange, hissing sound started up behind Allen, but he hardly paid any attention to it, thinking that maybe this would be a test of his concentration. The success of the mission depended on gaining work here, so he'd been given a few tips in his dossier as he left, and he had to be sure to keep concentrated on the task at hand. A few more carrots, several potatoes, and a couple stalks of celery later, he had the strainer filled with cubed vegetables.
Satisfied with his work, he picked the strainer up, the persistent hissing still lingering in the background, he turned to a sight that made his stomach drop. Bard stood over the piece of red meat, rolled up around a stick of dynamite. A lit stick of dynamite. The fuse was already near its end. "No!" Allen shouted, leaping at the offending explosive, reaching out in an attempt to snuff the sparking flame out before it reached the black powder within. Alas, his efforts were for naught.
The flame died down, and moments later, with Allen's hand hardly inches from the deadly cooking method, it exploded, sending out a deafening boom, the walls rattling, spices falling off their shelves and rolling haphazardly around on the floor. When the smoke cleared, Bard had rather frizzed hair, the front of his apron even more smudged than before, and Allen lay in the corner, a tangle of pots, pans, and lanky limbs. His hair was dusted with soot, giving it a deeper grayish hue, his face little more than a black coating of soot with two stormy eyes and a mouth.
In moments, Sebastian stood in the doorway, a sigh rising in his throat as he casually walked over to the boy on the floor. Picking a stray carrot cube from the top of the sooty head, the remnants of said vegetable, and many others, lying in a disarray all over the floor, and sighed once more, offering nothing more than a disapproving 'tsk', before leaving.