"Have you brought it?" The child demanded insolently, slumped over his desk and glaring at the servant with his one good eye.
"Sir?" The butler had come to collect the dishes from breakfast. It was highly unlike the young lord phantomhive to make such a miscalculation.
Sebastian's puzzlement seemed to disorient the boy for a second but he shook his head, straightening precariously in his seat "Right, so..." Then suddenly he giggled, a little oddly, "I disappear when you call my name."
Sebastian recognized their riddle game, despite the odd circumstance. "Silence," he gave answer.
Ciel's face twisted into a cloudy sort of consternation "You don't give the orders here. I'll speak when I want."
"The riddle, sir," he reminded slowly, his voice as calm as his gaze was suspicious.
"Oh, right- erm, alright then I give up."
"It was you, sir."
"The answer?"
"No, sir, it was you that gave the riddle."
"Oh..."
Sebastian's brow knit, "Are you quite well, young master?"
"Hm? Oh, I'm fine. I'm fine. Go- see about breakfast."
"Tea, sir."
"Tea for breakfast?"
"No, young master, you just ate your breakfast. The dishes are right there. It would be time for tea." Sebastian's mouth became a thin pale line, with just the hint of a frown at the edges.
Ciel laughed. It was a mangy, diseased thing. "Who killed your smile, Sebastian?"
The butler, for one extraordinary instance in a singularly long life, was unsure how to respond.
"Riiight- there!" The lord phantomhive lurched forward to point, almost falling from his seat. "I've only ever seen the ghost of it, right there, right there on your face. So tell me Demon, who killed your smile?"
Sebastian's gaze sharpened. "There are so many ways a smile can die, young master, I hardly know where to start," he said, advancing. "There is poison," he checked the boy's pulse, "assassination," he put the back of his hand to the boy's flush, "suicide," he lifted first one lid, then the other, "or plague," he turned the boy's hands over and inspected the palms. "Most often, though, it is foolishness."
"What would be foolishness?" Ciel asked in genuine bewilderment, his gaze unfocused and his voice vague.
"To not return to bed, when one is unwell." The demon affirmed softly without missing a step.
It took a second, but then the young master's brow furrowed. "I will remain in my study until I see fit to return. I am the master of this house! Perhaps you are feeling unwell." He slapped away the demon's hands and jerked straight his own clothes. The demon retreated to an impersonal distance. Ciel impatiently gestured the butler's dismissal, and the demon bowed and turned to comply.
"Go see about breakfast." Ciel commanded flippantly.
Sebastian's hand stilled at the doorknob, "You mean tea, sir."
There was a long pause. "Of course that's what I meant. Now if you have the time to be correcting me, it should already have been done."
Another pause, "Yes, my lord." He was halfway out the door when he heard the ominous dull crash of a body hitting the floor.
It had been poison after all.