It was a night like any other in England, except this evening was wrought with a violent storm that roared outside the Phantomhive manor, causing the windows to creak and rock in their place. Pouring rain hammered their little beads against the glass panes, creating a thunderous sound throughout the mansion. It was a lovely manor, made for a once-lovely family of three and their servants, friends and whosoever had the pleasure to take shelter here. That was long ago, however, and the house occupant was now an Earl, who was only a small child himself, though he didn't stay here alone. His own, new servants occupied the household, serving under his watchful, careful eye as the Queen's Watchdog- not that he minded.
Two figures, one seated, one stood, were inside the dining room of this behemoth of a manor. The female, a woman named Haricku Minamoto was the newest addition to the household, having served for almost half a year. She had long, straight, black hair that ended to her waist with the fringe framing her cheeks, ending in joyful little curls that hugged her jaw-line. There was always a small lick of hair that dropped down over one of her emerald green eyes, which stood out more against the black of her tresses. Her stature was rather short, but at most three heads taller to that of Earl Ciel Phantomhive's height, her master, the one seated in a tall-back, ornamented black chair. He had vivdly dark blue hair that leveled with his ears, bearing an elegant, black, eye patch over his right eye, while the eye that was shown was a beautiful, deep blue. Both were awaiting the arrival of Sebastian Michaelis, the long-termed head butler at this establishment, for the Earl's dinner to be served.
Haricku looked towards the large dining room windows with a frown and asked, "Sir, will the windows be able to withstand the winds?" She looked down worriedly at the young male, biting her lower lip.
"Why? Afraid of a little rain? Those windows have seen the fiercest storms England has to offer. A tiny storm like this won't even be a match." Ciel looked up at the maid with uncaring eyes, his head rested on his fist, his elbow on the arm of the chair he was sitting in.
"It's... Not exactly that. I just don't like storms. Rain is fine, but storms...Are an entirely different story."
"You never had a problem with it before."
"You've never been near me before in stormy weather."
Ciel sighed at this, "Yes, and now I shall remember to stay away from you during an ordeal like this... It's unappealing." He looked up towards the kitchen doors as his butler strode in gracefully, pushing a small metal cart loaded with food. Sebastian was at least six feet tall, with slightly long, black hair. His bangs extended on either side of his face to his chin, and his eyes were a curious color of red. A delighted, almost cocky, smirk always placed itself upon his lips and he was rarely seen without it flashing.
Haricku's stomach grumbled with hunger as the aromatic scents etched their way through the room, a small drool trail at the edge of her mouth. "That smells wonderful as usual, Sebastian. What did you make tonight?"
Sebastian looked over at Haricku and gave her his dazzling smirk. "A simple meal that I thought the master would enjoy. The ports were beaming with fish this morning, so I had picked up an abundant amount of fresh filets. Poached salmon with garlic and herbs, accompanied by a bed of mashed potatoes, including a butter sauce, asparagus with lemon, garlic, and ginger, and a freshly tossed salad, using ingredients from the garden. Are these... To your liking, Master?"
Ciel scanned quickly over at the foods, putting down his arm to the chair's, leaning up to fully gaze at each dish, regarding them carefully and then closed his eyes with a pompous sigh. "I suppose, if that's the best you can do."
Sebastian simply smiled at this with a low bow. "I shall prepare something more of value for breakfast tomorrow."
"It better be good... Or else." Ciel looked up at Sebastian as the butler served him. "Oh... Haricku, I need you to file the records from the case we finished recently. I haven't been able to get to it and neither has Sebastian. Since you aren't particularly busy, nor do I need your help for the moment, go bother yourself with that. At least you'll be useful there."
"Me, sir? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to help to file it, but isn't that supposed to be Seba-" She stopped at the look Sebastian was giving her, clearing her throat, then bowed. "Yes sir..."
"Good, now go do your job before I consider you more of a burden than help." Ciel replied coldly, starting to slice up his salmon for better consumption. "I'm sending Sebastian up soon to keep a check on you. If you aren't working... Then we have a problem, don't we?"
Sebastian and Haricku looked at one another. The butler glared at her dominantly, and she knew what it meant: 'Do what you're told, or you're going to be facing my wrath.'
Haricku looked down at the floor with a disheartened expression. "Yes sir... I'll get to work on it right away," she murmured towards Ciel, bowing again and turned on her heel, walking up the grand staircase towards the study, thinking, "Sebastian's so cruel to me as opposed to the other servants... Does he hate me for something I did?" Her gaze was glued down to the ground, passing through the ancient halls of the manor. Upon pulling her head up, she took to glance at the various paintings lining the walls.
"Ugh... These paintings still give me the creeps... I can never get used to them. I wonder why Master keeps them around?" she asked aloud, letting her gaze fall back down to the elegantly designed red-brown carpets. A sudden sound came from one of the rooms in the hall and she paused outside the door, turned to her left as she carefully approached the dark-wooden door and pressed her ear against it, hearing a strange assortment of scuffling followed by growling.
"Huh?" Haricku opened the door to see Pluto, the demonic dog that resides at the Phantomhive manor (Whom Sebastian hates), and she smiled at his appearance. "At least there's one person that doesn't hate me. Pluto, come here!" She ran over to the demon dog, who was in his human form, and squatted down to pet his head. "You really should wear clothes, boy... The naked part of you is... Awkward, very awkward." Haricku let out a small chuckle, and sat on the floor, beginning to scratch his stomach as he made sounds of pleasure from the attention he had been craving. "It's a shame Sebastian doesn't like you... You really are such a nice person, and an even better dog."
"Haricku!"
She ripped away from Pluto in alarm, sprawled backwards on the floor as she pushed her black bangs out of her eyes, looking around wildly for the loud booming voice, then gulped at the dark figure striding towards her. "Mis- Mister Sebastian!" She looked at him, startled by his appearance.
"I thought Master Ciel told you to get started on the recordings. Why are you playing with such a dirty mutt?" He walked up towards her, his tall stature glaring angrily down with malicious intent, his red eyes glowing like embers. "That thing shouldn't even be in here, it belongs outside."
"I'm... I'm sorry. Pluto's really cute and he doesn't have anyone that he likes enough to let them pet him, so I thought he'd be good company. What's so bad about him, Sebastian? How come you don't like Pluto?" She looked up at Sebastian with a questioning gaze.
"I don't. Like. Dogs." He mumbled these words with disdain. "At any rate, the dog must go outside, that's final."
"A storm is coming! You can't just put him out, he might get sick!"
"I don't care that's his problem, dogs belong outside," Sebastian grabbed Pluto by the collar, dragging him towards the staircase.
Pluto started to whine and whimper, pawing his hands in the air to Haricku, looking at her with pleading eyes that wanted help.
She stared at Pluto and Sebastian beginning to depart, then yelled, "Wait! Then let him sleep in my room! I have enough space!" Haricku glared at Sebastian, pushing herself up to a standing position, determined to keep Pluto inside and away from the bitter cold.
He, Sebastian, turned slowly in his stance, looking Haricku up and down, as though analyzing her. "If... That's what you wish. But he is your responsibility then." He threw Pluto towards Haricku, to which, she raised her arms up, catching Pluto bridal-style. For a tall male, he really was rather light weight and easy to tote around.
She smiled greatly at Pluto. "Thank you Mister Sebastian... Say thank you, Pluto."
Pluto only stared at Sebastian, letting out a happy bark, panting at Haricku, giving her cheek a gracious lick, a lot of drool remaining.
"Pluto! That's gross..." She whimpered, wiping the drool off the back of the long, tight to the skin, black sleeve. The uniform had a blue cuff that ruffled off the sleeve and extended down to the back of her hand.
"Keep the mutt away from my room. If he so much as comes 3 feet from my door I will toss him into the oven for tomorrow night's dinner. Make sure he doesn't chew on anything, either." Sebastian pivoted in his spot, walking away to the dining room, leaving Haricku and Pluto alone in the large room.
The maid sighed, staring at Pluto with saddened eyes. "At least he hasn't killed me yet, right?" Pluto cocked his head at Haricku in slight confusion. "Hmm, not yet anyway. Come, Pluto, let's go finish the records." She smoothed out the wrinkles in her short, blue and white dress skirt, heading towards the study once more, grabbing a silver candlestick holder from the wall, lit it with a match, then continued again.
After some time heading through the winding and twisting corridors of the mansion, she finally arrived at her destination, opened the door and slid in, allowing Pluto to follow through then closed the door, turning towards the desk and sighed from the stacked papers, books, and ledgers. "My, my... We have our work cut out for us, don't we?" Haricku walked over to the windows of the study, pushed aside the curtains, having a fit of coughing from the dust that wafted off and glanced through the window down to the front gardens below with a frown.
"Hopefully the garden doesn't overflow. Finnian may not enjoy having to irrigate everything properly. At least the storm isn't as bad as before," she said to no one in particular, but Pluto listened to her none the less.
She continued to watch as the rain pounded against the glass panes, the droplets dripping down like quick little streams of tears. The trees in the garden sway dangerously from the harsh wind as it calls it haunting howl over the manor's rooms. Haricku sighed long and deep at the thoughts of the gloomy weather, the atmosphere feeling reminiscent of an event that happened not too long ago. Her gaze rose towards the sky, the night's dark demeanor closed off by the threatening black clouds, lightning appearing off in the distance. With a shake of her head, Haricku glanced at Pluto and frowned.
"Have you liked storms before? I guess there's not much use in asking you, considering you can't speak. Oh, well."
Pluto merely cocked his head at her with confusion, panting again, crawling to a corner of the room beside a large bookcase, revolving around in a tight circle a few times before laying down comfortably on a small, black and red ornamented rug.
Haricku smiled warmly at the action, then took her place behind the desk, getting to work. First, she started to copy the names of the victims into the ledger, painstakingly making it to perfection. When she was happy with the work, she then proceeded to copy the case files from the draft, to the official record, cringing at the gory scene photos, pasting them to the ledger. Her eyes became red and bloodshot from the lack of sleep she'd been getting, but determinedly worked to copy the words from the drafts onto the final. After an hour, too tired to lift her head up, too tired to even think anymore, she had slipped into a peaceful sleep on the desk.
Suddenly, a loud slam resonated through the desk and she jerked her head up, pushing her bangs out of her face quickly, rubbing her eyes sleepily and glanced at the figure dressed in black in front of the desk. Confused, she rubbed her eyes again, then realized who the black attire belonged to. "Oh no..." She whispered, feeling frightened.
"I thought I told you to get to work. You aren't being paid to sleep on the job." Sebastian glowered down at the maid, his hand spread out on the top of the desk. "Are you even done? No! And you drooled all over the ledger!" He used his other hand to gesture at the ledger where, indeed, there was a small, mostly dry, puddle of drool.
Haricku cringed at his abusive behavior. "There's no need to yell, I'm right here. I'm quite tired, Michaelis, something you wouldn't understand." Haricku widened her eyes at what she had just said not realizing to stop before she spoke. Sebastian's red eyes appeared to glow with hate.
"Just what makes you so sure about that? I sleep at a perfectly normal hour," he snapped back as he slid his hand off the desk.
Haricku challenged his glare, slamming her palms on top of the desk, leaning forward, getting in his face. "Because I can see you wander off into the gardens in the middle of the night! Every night! Always the same time at 1 am! You don't get back until 4:30! Which is when you start to make breakfast!"
"So you spy on me now?"
"No, I couldn't sleep one night and stayed up, looking at the stars, I wasn't spying! I just happened to notice you."
"And so you spied on me the whole night?" Sebastian intensified his glare with even more hate.
"That's not-..." Haricku looked at Sebastian, trying to figure out what to say from the bombardment of accusations he was throwing her way. While Sebastian always gave her a hard time, she never quite had seen him this upset towards her. That still didn't excuse him, for she was in a no-nonsense mood and already tired from working so hard earlier on in the day. Taking in a deep, even breath, she mustered up a fierce look and pointed towards his chest with a finger as though scolding him. "Sebastian Michaelis! Would you listen to other people for once!? I can barely hold a conversation without you smacking me back down! I am a human being, not an untrained dog!" She grabbed the ledger angrily off the top of the desk behind her, walked around, and slammed it into his chest with enough force to knock him back a couple steps. "Do this work by yourself, I'm tired and I am done! I'm not your maid, I am Ciel's maid, do take heed to remember that!" She turned her back on Sebastian, stormed out of the room and she slammed the door shut with all her might. Sebastian stood there, blinking a few times in astonishment, then lowers his gaze down with a small frown, thinking over what the maid had said.
"Well, that was the first time anyone had ever stood up to me so boldly," Sebastian thought to himself, giving out a sigh and shook his head.
Pluto stared at Sebastian and whimpered mournfully. The butler merely glared at him in return.
"Don't judge me. This house must have order... If not, it runs into total chaos." He took his seat behind the desk, placing his glasses on, poking the bridge of them to push them up and got to work, finishing the recordings of the "Devini Murders". Sebastian was impressed with the work so far, but was annoyed with the extra effort to clean up and redo the parts that were blotted with saliva. It wasn't until very early in the morning did Sebastian finish, however, he was always used to late shifts, accustomed to the tight job schedule his master always threw at him.
The morning would bring another day for Sebastian and he didn't expect it to run any smoother than it had in the past. After all, he was a hell of a butler that could handle any situation thrown at him. Dealing with the people involved was an entirely different matter.