Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji, its characters, or the Chinese jokes in this chapter.

Undertaker had spent the morning wandering around his little shop, rearranging things as he saw fit, and had just decided to take a little walk to the market on the corner and pick up more ingredients for his infamous bone-shaped cookies when he saw a vaguely familiar figure pass by on the other side of the dusty display window at the front of his store. The silver-haired shinigami quickly hopped into the nearest coffin but the man didn't enter - he did pause by the door, however, and turned as if waiting for another person. Curious, Undertaker held the coffin open just enough for one of his eyes to peer through.

Lau. That's what the man's name was. Undertaker knew that thanks to the little Earl Phantomhive. Lau had also visited his shop during that Jack the Ripper incident - he could still remember the sweet look of surprise and terror on the Oriental man's face when he'd peered out of that coffin at his guests~ Hehee~

Oh darn, had that little giggle been out loud? A guest might have heard him.

No, they hadn't seen him, but the girl now within sight casually glanced into his shop, then pressed her hands and face against the glass like a child gazing into a toy store. She was very childlike, save for the rather large...feminine assets she possessed-

-and the absolute lack of expression on her face as she gazed at his beautifully crafted resting places of the dead, save for what could be a faint glimmer of interest in her deep brown eyes.

"How interesting... I wonder if I have a coffin in a size suitable for such a...petite guest~" Undertaker grinned to himself. "And how to prepare her... Such a blank visage would most definitely present a challenge..."

To his disappointment, however, Lau calmly dragged the woman away.

_-Smile-*'

It was around dinnertime when Undertaker realized that he was starving. All he'd had after an afternoon of shopping were the cookie ingredients. The produce he usually didn't mind buying at the market wasn't up to his usual standards, so he'd had to make a quick trip to his secondary market several blocks out of his way. Then he'd remembered that he needed to place an order for more coffin wood and polish for the lockets hanging from the chain around his waist.

In the end, he decided to dine at a little Indian curry restaurant tucked into a rather shady-looking alley. The building was actually very clean and well-kept despite its location. Hopefully Undertaker's meal would be expensive enough to clean the last of those wretched coins out of his pockets. (He'd rather have given them a good laugh in exchange for a hot bowl of curry, but since humans insisted that money was what made the world go round, he only took what was necessary to continue his work and well-being from his clients.)

"I picked up a few new jokes, Ran-Mao. Tell me what you think of them."

Undertaker peered at the two Orientals out of the shadowy corner where he was seated. Lau and his companion - Ran-Mao.

"A teacher was helping his students prepare for a test by pointing out important parts of the material. He says, at one point, 'This topic is very important. Mark this section with a star.' However, one of the students asks, 'Can I use a checkmark? A monkey is too hard to draw.'"

Undertaker nearly groaned. That was horrible! It didn't even make a lick of sense! Lau's sense of humor seemed to have degraded even more since his 'New Year Tiger' joke!

Ran-Mao seemed a little skeptical as well, if the tiny shrug was anything to go by.

"Okay... But how about this one:

"A teacher asks his class, 'If you had just one day to live, where would you go?'
After a pause, one student chooses to answer, 'I would spend my last day in school, in this classroom.' Pleased, the teacher replies, 'Oh! How touching! Such an eager student!' But then the student clarifies his statement with, 'because time in this class goes so slowly, one day feels like a year!'"

Now that was better~ The silver-haired shinigami felt the corners of his lips twitch upward for a moment. Apparently human schools weren't too different from shinigami academies.

How did the petite woman not enjoy that joke? Ran-Mao just stared at Lau as if he'd spoken fluent Gaelic. Her gaze didn't even falter when her companion repeated the joke in what was obviously Chinese. Did that perfect little face ever shift out of its emotionless little pout?

Or, even worse, did Ran-Mao not have any sense of humor at all?

Impossible! Undertaker decided right then and there to find something that would make Ran-Mao laugh. The task would definitely add some much-needed excitement to his life.

[Edited 12-18-14]