This takes place after Hannah obtains Alois Trancy's soul, but the contract with them is altered,not costing Sebastian Ciel's soul. Ciel, having all his memories is pretending that he still has amnesia, as he has decided that he's not ready to leave the earth yet.
Chapter: 1
It was just another ordinary day around the Phantomhive manor, and in his study Ciel had grown weary. He hadn't had a free schedule in weeks, Surely, he thought, Sebastian must be hiding something from me. He rang for Sebastian to come to the study with tea so he could confront him. In the mean time, he tilted his chair to face the large window behind him. He could make out 2 figures off in the distance, believing one of them to be Finny, the gardener, who was off tending to the garden. But who was the other one? Clearly a human, but it was odd. Usually Finny enjoyed the company of Pluto while he was working. Come to think of it, Ciel hadn't seen Pluto in weeks. What was going on?
His scattered thoughts were disrupted by a knock at the study door. Clearly Sebastian, he answered with a, "Come in." The tall, red-eyed butler approached his desk, pushing in front of him a cart full of the young master's Earl Grey tea. Ciel turned around in his chair, having his arm resting on the armrest and using his hand to hold up his head. Sebastian took care in preparing the tea, as it smelled divine. He poured it into a small cup, placed it on a saucer with a gorgeous pattern decorating it, and handed it to the young master. Ciel took the cup from his butler and took a sip of the tea, it tasted more delicious that it smelled. As Sebastian began to leave the room, with the tea cart being pushed in front of him, Ciel finally spoke up, "Sebastian."
Sebastian turned around and looked at his bocchan. "Yes?" Ciel placed his cup back down on the saucer and tapped on the side of it rhythmically. He looked up and met the gaze of the demon. He wouldn't admit it aloud but when Sebastian looked at him, it made him anxious, but he liked it. It was almost like it was only them two in the world. Stop. Ciel shook his head lightly, no he was engaged to Lizzie, and Sebastian only stayed with him because he wanted to possess his soul. After all, Sebastian wasn't just going to let him keep his soul, they had a contract, one of which haunted him ever since 'that day'. There was no running away from it, as the contract sign was visible in his eye. That was one of the reasons why Ciel hated when people called he and his butler friends, they weren't friends. They were just using each other to get what they each individually wanted.
After a long pause he finally spoke up, "Is there news from the Queen at all?" A look of surprise came upon Sebastian's face, had the young master figured out that he had been holding the letters that were sent to him hostage? It wasn't his fault. After all he had been speaking more with Undertaker behind Ciel's back about the strange goings-on in London recently. According to the legendary grim reaper, there was another non-human terrorizing the citizens of the city. Undertaker didn't know what but he described the attacks to Sebastian, he said that random people on the dark streets of London were found dead in alleyways with their necks torn to shreds. Sebastian wondered what creature would do this and why, he even spoke briefly with William Spears and Grell, who didn't seem to know much either. Sebastian knew that he didn't want the young master to get involved with another unearthly being, as he had almost lost Ciel a few times before, and he wasn't going to lose him again. Though, he didn't have enough time to do a thorough investigation, as he had to cater to the young master, who knew nothing about this. "Sebastian," The demon servant snapped out of it and broke eye contact with the young boy.
"No, nothing new to report." He lied. Sebastian knew that lying to the young master was in violation of their contract but he had no choice. He had been preserving Ciel's soul so carefully and he wasn't losing it to another demon or whatever was out in the city. The bocchan's soul. Just thinking about it made Sebastian drool, after all the young master had been though his soul was so pure. Since, in fact, Sebastian was in violation with the contract his hand began to burn. Not any normal burning sensation, it felt like his hand was in an oven, and soon after his contract symbol began to pinch. Ciel noticed his red-eyed butler just standing at the door, clearly deep in thought by the look of it.
"You can leave now." Ciel said blandly. He didn't need the lurking of his butler in his study when he was doing things that didn't involve the raven-haired man. Sebastian had just snapped out of his little daze and simply bowed his head, pushing the tea cart out of the study and closing the door. Outside the door, Sebastian took off his glove and looked at his hand. The symbol was bleeding a little, though, sure enough it stopped a few moments later. He knew that the burning sensation wouldn't stop until he told the young master the truth, but the tall demon was willing to keep up the lie for as long as he could.
Pedaling the cart down the hallways and back into the kitchen, Sebastian decided to go outside and tend to the garden, as Finny would have probably destroyed something. He opened the front door to the mansion and brought a hand up to his forehead, giving his eyes a bit of shade on this abnormally bright day. The man looked for Finny in the large garden and found him talking to a strange woman. This woman felt familiar, though looked like a stranger. The light pink-haired woman turned her head to the side, getting a glimpse of the butler and whispered something into Finny's ear. The young gardener's face had a serious look to it, and he nodded at the lady, who proceeded to walk out of the front gates of the manor.
Immediately, the red-eyed servant approached him and questioned about the woman, who had seemed to have disappeared beyond the gates. "Oh, her?" Finny recalled, "She just had some questions about our master." Sebastian was taken back, what would a stranger want to know about his bocchan. What kind of answers were they looking for anyway? Company secrets? Or personal secrets? The Earl of Phantomhive was always quiet about his life, and besides helping the Queen and promoting his company, lived a rather reserved life.
He was very suspicious, "What did she ask?" He replied, he wanted, no, needed to know what she wanted, he didn't want Ciel in harms way at all.
"Oh, you know, just wanted to know if he was working on anything in London lately, which I said no because you and him haven't been there in a while. I wonder why, you two seem to go there all the time, it's never been a quiet city." Finny stopped himself, he was getting off topic, "She also asked what the master's schedule looks like right now- I told her I didn't know."
Those were rather specific questions for a stranger to ask. It was clearly none of her business anyway.
"Oh! And she also wanted to know if she could meet with him any time soon."
That was it, whoever this woman was, Sebastian was keeping a close eye on her. "The young master won't be accepting any guests until further notice." The gardener nodded. And Sebastian wondered. Who would travel out this far for Ciel? It was not planned, she just appeared at their doorstep, as it seemed. Sebastian was getting more suspicious, but laid his suspicions aside, and left the gardener to his work.