For Hippykattrs on tumblr
Prompt: The two nine year old twins, Ciel and Astre, are having trouble sleeping. So, despite being sleep deprived, the two manage to stay up late telling stories and giggling. In their wake, they manage to catch the attention of Tanaka, who sings them to sleep. (Set in the cannon universe.)
Um. So, this was really fun to write, and it's something that I never would have done on my own. :) The title is from Shakespeare, where he (maybe) references the song. I just. Really loved writing this prompt.
"Hey, Ciel?"
Astre's whisper hangs in the darkness of their bedroom for a long moment. Then there comes a rustle of bed sheets, and a slightly muffled voice breaks the silence.
"Yeah?" Ciel answers, his face half buried in his pillow. His voice has the slow drawl of the recently woken.
"Oh—!" Astre exclaims softly. He hadn't meant to wake Ciel, and immediately he backtracks, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep."
"No," his brother says, his voice still thick, "I'm awake. What's wrong? Are you feeling bad?"
Unseen, the younger twin's face pinches at the question, and he picks at the prickly end of a feather escaping his duvet.
"I'm fine," he insists, "I just can't get to sleep."
"Oh," says Ciel, a smile obvious in his voice, "because you're excited for tomorrow, right?"
"Maybe," Astre admits, although he feels closer to nervous than excited. Reluctance draws out the word, and he is met by soft laughter.
"You are!" the older twin exclaims in a whisper, and Astre hides a frown against the hem of his quilt. There is another rustle as Ciel tumbles out of his bed, scampering across the room to climb into his brother's. He lands with a bounce, and the sheets are tugged out of Astre's grip by his scrabbling knees.
Ciel leans over his brother, and Astre can see his grin illuminated by a streak of moonlight that slips in though a crack in the curtains.
"It's okay," Ciel says, "I'm excited too."
Astre's reluctance melts in the face of his brother's obvious glee, and he softens as he smiles almost involuntarily back. The boys grin at each other in the dark for a moment, before Astre says,
"But what do you think we'll do in London? We're staying for a whole week; do you think we'll get to see Aunt Ann?"
"Probably," Ciel nods, "Mother will want to take her shopping, but Father will have meetings to go to. I just hope we get to go to a party. We're probably tall enough to dance with Mother, now. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"Oh," Astre says with a pout, "dancing, really? You know I don't really like to…"
"Pfft!" Ciel scoffs, "It'll be fun, you'll see. Everyone likes parties. You get to dress up and be important."
Astre sighs.
"If you say so…. But that can't be all we'll do for a week."
"Hmm, you're right," says Ciel, and he scrunches up his brow for a moment before saying, "Maybe Father will take us with him on a job for the Queen. That'd be exciting!"
"That would be dangerous," Astre hedges, "Father wouldn't…."
"It'd be an adventure!" Ciel declares, bouncing slightly on the bed, "We'd be like the Rowdy Count from the stories, and go after villains so terrible that even Scotland Yard can't catch them. Father will track down a criminal and corner him, but, boom, another villain comes out of hiding behind him! That's where we come in—and I'll pull out a sword, and fight him off so that father can catch the other one. And the villains are pirates, so the fight goes on, and clash, clash!" Ciel straightens up, and gestures with his arms, "I disarm him, and you pick up his sword, and faced by both of us, and father having caught his first mate, the pirate captain gives in!"
Ciel falls backwards onto the bed with a thump, arms spread, and Astre looks cross-eyed at his brother's curled fingers that land in front of his nose. The younger twin levers himself up on one elbow and peers down at his brother.
"You're not that good at fencing," he says, and Ciel giggles.
"No," he agrees, yawning slightly, "and Father wouldn't need us, either. He's the best."
"As good as Aunt Frances?" Astre asks, raising an eyebrow, and Ciel makes a face.
Astre laughs.
"Well, what do you think will happen?" asks Ciel, and Astre hesitates. Here, in the dark, in stories, the twins could do anything. Here, Astre could be….
"What if it's not so straight forward?" he whispers, "What if…we don't even get to London, because…our carriage is robbed!"
"Oooohh," Ciel says, and rolls over on his side to face his brother, his cheek resting on a bent arm, "go on."
"So, so the carriage is robbed, but we can't let the robbers know who we are, because our family is important. So we say—we say that father is a lawyer coming back from meeting with someone, and we and mother are sharing the carriage so she doesn't have to travel alone to London to visit her sister. So the carriage is stolen, and we all have to pretend not to be noble, and we have to walk. All the way to the next town. And no one knows us there, and we were robbed, so we can't hire anyone to take us home or to the city. But there's an old man who has a carriage, and he says that anyone who can beat him in a game of chess can win it. And Mother tries, and Father tries, and they can't beat him. So it's just down to you and me. And the old man is old, and has lots of experience playing chess, since he's too old to walk much. And I have a lot of experience playing chess, because I can't go out, and I play him next and beat him! And we take the carriage to London," Astre finishes, biting his lip. Ciel is looking up at him though the fingers of one outstretched hand, and as Astre trails off, he smiles.
"You would win," he says, "you're really good at chess. But father can defeat you."
"Yeah, yeah," Astre mumbles, "I know."
Ciel yawns again and rubs at one eye with an open palm.
"Go to sleep," says Astre, and Ciel grins up at him.
"Okay," he chirps, and tugs some of Astre's blankets over his shoulder. Astre's eyes narrow in the dark.
"In your own bed," he whines, prodding at his brother, who giggles.
"Nope," Ciel declares, "I like this one better. Your quilt is softer."
"Cieeeel," Astre moans, and pokes at his brother's cheek where it peeks out from under the duvet. Ciel giggles again and reaches back, prodding Astre in the stomach, and soon the twins are shoving lightly at each other and laughing. Somewhere along the line, the quilt ends up being kicked onto the floor, and this is how Tanaka finds them: flushed, bright-eyed, and overcome with giggles as they bounce over the bed.
The butler's candle cuts a swath of yellow over the room as he opens the door, and the boys freeze.
"You two…" Tanaka says, stepping into the room and placing the candle holder down on their bedside dresser, "You should be asleep at this hour. Your mother wants to leave early in the morning."
"Aw, but Gramps…." Ciel wheedles, only for Tanaka to cut him off with a tut.
"Into your own bed, young master," the butler instructs, and Ciel gives in, grumbling. With a sigh, Tanaka bends to scoop the quilt off of the floor and smoothes it over the bed, tucking Astre in as he reaches the boy.
"Thank you Gramps," Astre says softly as Tanaka pulls the quilt up to his chin. Tanaka gives a slight smile in return, before pulling away and heading towards the door.
"Get some rest, young masters," the butler says, his candle stick held at chest height as he pauses to look at the twins; both boys are dwarfed by the thick blankets, only their dark heads of hair visible where they're nestled into their pillows. He makes to leave the room, but Ciel calls after him.
"But Astre can't fall asleep!" he says in a piping voice, and Tanaka turns back.
"Then I suppose I'll just have to do something about that," he says, looking at Astre, whose eyes are already half shut, and Ciel, whose wide eyes peep out from the edge of his quilt.
Smiling, Tanaka sinks down onto one of the divans at the end of each bed, and closes his eyes.
"Let's see," he says, his voice soft and raspy, "a song to help the young master sleep… Ah." And he sings:
"Little boy blue,
"Come blow your horn,
"The sheep's in the meadow,
"The cow's in the corn;
"Where is the boy,
"Who looks after the sheep?
"He's under the haystack,
"Fast asleep.
"Will you wake him?
"No, not I;
"For if I do,
"He's sure to cry."
Tanaka's low, slightly scratchy voice fades into silence and he opens his eyes. Looking over the sleeping twins, a full smile comes over his face. Then he stands with the candle held carefully in his hand as he makes his way once again to the door. He lingers there, surveying the room one last time, before slowly shutting it behind him; the line of yellow light thins and then vanishes, casting the room once more in only black and silver from the moon.