Gift fic! For my friend, who shall be mentioned as Hedgehog for this purpose. I'm sorry you got Diabetes, honey. (I know this won't make up for your pancreas being a bitch...)

Discaimed!

Sebastian walked through the manor's halls, searching for his young master.

The boy wasn't in the study, or any of the usual hiding places, and no one had seen him in a few hours. Some of the more useless servants were starting to get worried, and only God knew what that could lead to. Certainly nothing good, but nonetheless the young master had been disappearing more and more often recently.

Sebastian wasn't worried; he'd know if Ciel's life was in danger, and if he was in a situation he wouldn't be able to handle on his own he would call. He sighed at the stupidity of it all, this whole unnecessary charade of worry. The boy, now in his early teens, was fine. He just needed to be ready for dinner with one of his plant managers that night.

With his lips pursed Sebastian walks into the library, opening the dark wood doors to the smell of aged paper. The room was grand, in itself, and what Sebastian saw did genuinely surprise him. It was improper in society for such a thing to occur, and the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn't helping matters.

"Young master, Trancy, what exactly are you to doing?" Sebastian inquired, a frown settled firmly on his lips. The sight before him was not one he would like to have walked in on.

The books were not being sinful, in fact they were dutifully forgotten, tucked away into the sturdy wood shelves. The table was inconspicuous, though the chairs by it certainly gave the impression of being sat upon recently. The carpet was of rich color and its full glory, the same color and features that the previous Phantomhive Estate possessed.

But situated in that carpet was something almost entirely sinful. Something Sebastian might approve of had it not been his young master underneath that cretin Trancy being pinned to the floor, their lips parting from whatever kiss they had been surprised out of. Both boys' clothes were somewhat askew, their hair a mess, and Ciel looked a bit tart about being interrupted.

"It is none of your business, Sebastian, what Earl Trancy and I are doing," Ciel responded, glaring at his butler.

Sebastian sighed, his eyes of ice staring at the Phantomhive. "As your butler, I should be informed of such matters as to properly attend to them. I can make tea, if you would like to keep your company."

Ciel pushed Alois off of him, sitting up. "It's fine. Alois is just about to leave, anyway."

"But Ciel, I don't want to go!" Alois pouted, and Ciel sighed, something he tends to do in abundance when Alois was around.

"I'm sure Claude is worried about you, so maybe you should go," Sebastian pointed out, wanting the elder of the two boys out.

Alois pouted, seeming to have trouble doing much else. "Claude doesn't love me,"

"That's unfortunate. However, I request that you go as we have a dinner guest coming tonight for business. It's a Phantomhive ordeal, to be taken care of by the company, so please."

Alois pouted, but nonetheless got up to leave. He exited the room, disappearing into the near-castle, leaving in much the same fashion he had appeared. Just a holler to his butler and the adolescent was but a whisper in the wind.

"Our company shall be arriving in an hour or so, master, so I suggest you prepare yourself," Sebastian informed the boy. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go prepare the house."

"Whatever," Ciel stated offhandedly, fixing his ruffled clothing and flattening down his disheveled hair.

The dinner with the factory manager was an overall boring event, with much small talk and little chatter about anything of importance. It was something Ciel did, though. The managers in his company that could make it were occasionally called to dinner, as a treat and gesture of good faith. Naturally, it was also so Ciel could judge their loyalty to him, and this particular manager was a decent enough man, nothing to worry about. But keeping up appearances was necessary, so he still saw the man a couple times a year.

Sebastian catching him with Alois wasn't a particularly daunting figure on Ciel's mind, and it wasn't even brought up again until the nighttime, when Sebastian was getting him ready to retire for the night.

"Am I correct in the assumption that the Earl Trancy will be around more often now?" Sebastian asked, and Ciel shrugged. That was all of it, the entirety of their discussion, and while Sebastian was mildly annoyed Ciel thought nothing of it.

Alois was saying with the Phantomhives for a week, supposedly while his garden was redone. Because for some ungodly reason he couldn't live in his own house while the garden was being redone. It was on the outside of the house, anyway, so Sebastian didn't really see why it should matte if the garden was being redone. But he was merely a butler, no matter if Hell was involved, and it was not his place to question it.

But more than anything, Sebastian was annoyed that he'd have to deal with the shadow of Claude all week.

Alois, he could handle. It was relatively easy to deal with the bratty human, but his demon accompanyment was an entirely different matter. He was too petty for Sebastian's tastes, too plotting. He was hardly even serving Alois properly as a guest, not that Sebastian would ever serve such a brat otherwise.

But he would be staying at the manor nonetheless.

It was late, when Sebastian felt it. He was just cleaning up a knocked over vase that Mey-Rin had stumbled into earlier, when it came knocking over him. It felt… odd. Wrong. Something had shifted in his contract. Something in Ciel had changed… But what was it? The boy was in his bed, sleeping… He would have to find out in the morning.

Find out in the morning Sebastian did. It was apparent from the odd limp in the boy's movements, the way his legs went out a little bit and then back in, instead of straight forward like he was accustomed to doing. There was no change in face, though maybe Alois was a bit more clingly, but Sebastian still felt the crack in his soul. It would not do. Alois would have to go if there was a possibility of any further damage.

So go he went, Ciel making no more protest than a raised eyebrow.

Good riddance.