At two in the afternoon there aren't many patrons inside the candy shop to begin with. The door remained transparent with no faces pressed up against the logo of a cat present on the window. While some schoolchildren had come in sometime earlier after noon, the aisles now were barren with only ruffled baskets and empty cartons to tell of the presence that had once been there.
Doris had been glaring at Allen since the kids had gone, hell, maybe even longer. Considering the gray haired store manager had been doing a great deal of huffing and scowling today instead of her usual tight wrinkled smiles, it was a little worrying if not peculiar.
Sure, she had never been exactly the brightest person he had been around but Doris had been the one to hire him after he had admitted needing to take up a third job aloud while being in the area four months ago. Underneath the hard demeanor, wrinkles, and dark circles was a soft-hearted person so seeing an almost scathing atmosphere around her differed greatly from how she acted on a usual basis.
Though, he mused going into the backroom to get another box of the milk chocolate bars, there was supposed to be an inspector coming in today. Which would explain the sighing and watchful eyes.
Allen walked back out to Doris swiftly looking away from the door to the back, her eyes going to the catalog held between her hands and tried very hard not to twitch.
Just a couple more hours Walker, deal with it, Allen inwardly groaned, noting how Doris' gaze refocused on his back as he shuffled toward the aisles.
The sky outside is a blank canvas of pale grey save for a few splotches of a darker shade that bely rain sometime in the afternoon. Despite the weather, enough light falls through the adjacent window that Ciel has no trouble perusing the morning paper. The dull clack of porcelain on a saucer brings his eyes away from the headline of "Religious Heretic's Body Belongs-" to Sebastian standing idly by the side of the table, a hand holding an empty silverware. At Ciel's glance, the butler enunciates the upward quirk of his mouth, eyes closing into upward crescents, "Good morning young master, today's blend is-"
"Earl Gray", Ciel interrupted lowly, reaching for saucer with both hands, stopping only when the tea was on level with his chest. A single blue eye blinked back from the reflection of the liquid.
"Why, yes", Sebastian murmured amused, "Well done. Ah."
Ciel looked up from the cup in his hand to a letter sitting placidly on top of the table, a red wax seal stamped across the center of a white envelope. The insignia inscribed was the silhouette of a lion reaching with both hands to paw at open air. An older sibling that now sat on Ciel's desk had arrived but yesterday asking about a "Jack the Ripper". To receive yet another one so soon…
"While I do feel that we should focus on today's activities, it is quite odd for us to receive another immediately after", Ciel placed the saucer and cup back on the table.
Sebastian hummed, watching as Ciel reached for the envelope.
Porcelain traded itself for paper, the envelope then being slit open with a knife and the deft work of thin fingers.
"My dearest Ciel…"
Inspector Morris was a man in a green suit with a thick set of eyebrows and a pair of spectacle whose lenses only seemed to magnify the size of his eyes to an almost bug-like degree. The man was also a whole half foot smaller than Allen even with heels on. A clipboard seems permanently glued to the inside of his elbow and a pen moves furiously in the clasp of his right hand as he takes notes.
He hasn't stopped writing since the coach dropped him off.
Doris hasn't stopped quivering since the man set foot in the store.
"Why Inspector Morris, h-hello! It's a pleasure sir t-to have your presence here!" Doris entreats, gesturing to the store with a wave of both her hands.
Morris grunted, scribbling some more.
It is Doris' elbow jabbing sharply into his side that has him pasting a smile across his face instead of running into the backroom.
"Yes, sir; welcome!", at his voice the inspector started, looking away from his clipboard, his pen hand dropping and bug eyes coming up to stare at Allen as he spoke, "Is there anything we can do to help you today with your inspection? I'm sure we have everything in order for you."
"Ah. Yes", finally the man seems to move, robotically extending a thin arm from where it had been clutching at the clipboard, darting forward into Allen's personal space. "The pleasure is all mine", Morris croaked nasally as Allen quickly grabbed the inspector's hand and shook it twice before letting go.
"Morris sir, would you want us to bring the records?" Doris said wringing her hands next to Allen. The woman's face had taken on a sallow complexion; her eyes if possible had sunken further into her head and the dark circles under her eyes had seemed to gain weight.
A beat of silence.
The smile on Allen's face freezes when the inspector reaches once more for his pen, ignoring Doris entirely.
"It is nice", the inspector said his voice catching on the tail end of the last word, "that the care of this establishment is once again in the hands of another man like yourself." Morris glanced up at Allen from under the magnifying lenses that are his glasses, seemingly mistaking the plasticity of his smile for approval, "Not that it was wrong for the lady of the late manager to take over temporarily. In fact she did quite a good job for a woman."
Doris has quit wringing her hands, instead choosing to look at the floor. Her eyes are shadowed and the wrinkles around her mouth have tightened. There's a slack in her shoulders that Allen has never seen before, even with the older children who get scolded for trying to steal small toffees and smuggle them out the door.
"But you see, such a soft creature managing the store front will cause us a loss in profit-"
Something about it burns, sets a low fire behind his ears that roars.
"Considering our target market to be young adolescents, a woman managing the store would lead to chaos. But the establishment looks very well kept which I suppose the company should attribute to a determined young man such as your-"
Enough so that Allen feels his smile turn knifelike at the edges, cutting across his face, "Actually sir, Doris is still the manager of this establishment. I am simply hired help; hired muscle if you will. Now, I do believe that she has the records for the sales of the last three months for you, right ma'am?"
Doris starts, her shoulders jumping and her mouth flapping. For a moment she seems too stunned to move before she seems to steel herself, hurrying in a flurry of skirts towards the counter where a large book sits. Its leather bound and several inches thick, with small bits of paper kept in the pages as markers for the last three months.
Morris has gone slack-jawed, his hand stilling on the paper attached to the clipboard as she rushes back with it, slowing and opening the book as she approaches where Allen has yet to move from in front of the inspector.
"W-well", she began, "Three months ago was the Christmas event and so as you can see-"
Allen's smile had regained its original gentility the longer Doris talked though he inwardly cackled at the way Morris' brows scrunch together and at the red flush that slowly overtook the man's face as he watched Doris from behind his lenses.
"Of course, recently there was the Jack the Ripper incident that took place close to here which has seen profit f-"
"Yes that!" Morris suddenly spat, "I was beginning to mean to mention that. Our chairman feels it might be a good idea to retire this branch", Doris' face paled, her expression shuttering closed just as Allen's heart sinks, "at least until that issue gets solved as it would not be wise to otherwise leave the store open."
"I'm so sorry that you must hear this from me." Morris looks positively gleeful.
"A-ah. I-I see." Doris wilted.
"Though", Allen started seeing Morris' smile grow wider as Doris moved to look at the floor, "sir, you did state might. I suppose then that should that decision come into effect that we will hear from higher ups on the issue?"
"Y-yes", Morris shoved his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose, "though-"
"Excellent!", Allen clapped his hands together once, "We will wait for their decision. After all we respect our betters and simply want the best for Funtom Corporation right?"
Morris reddened but doesn't say anything else, choosing instead to narrow his eyes behind bottle-lenses at Allen's grin.
Checkmate.
A/N:
Alrighty so first to that review two years back? A while back? Somewhere? Basically the one that went "are you dead?"
Yes, I was very much dead and part of a realm called high school. It sucked. I'm also almost through! Which, wth y'all like seriously. On that note though I'm back! Permanently! Hopefully!
You all might've noticed that this is a chapter completely disjointed from the last eight. The reason for this is kinda easy to guess. Over time my writing style has changed a lot and my take on the characters has as well. Still love them though but yeh. I've decided to reboot Phantom's Clown in its entirety and give the whole thing an actual plot with an end goal in mind. The premise of the story is still the same however and now I actually have some ideas where to take this but I'm also going by the seat of my pants on some things. There will be OC's as they're kind of unavoidable but I will make them somewhat relevant or characterize them as the story continues. Most of the focus will be on the main characters from canon though~ (Can anyone tell I got attached to Doris cause I got attached to Doris). I'm going to try to make the chapter's double this length if not more so; this is kind of an intro? And a reintroduction for me seeing as its been a while too since I've written for this story.
Basically: the story will remain teen/general. There will be some degree of violence. I will not introduce any pairing other than what's been expressly said or stated in canon for both Kuroshitsuji and Man.
Oh also, I honestly forgot whether Victoria referred to Ciel as his name or as his title so kajsfkjshfkjs if someone corrects me I will gladly change it if I have done it wrong.
That being said I'm going to try to keep a regular updating schedule but I have no beta (we die like men y'all) and I am but one human being. A very lazy, too-much-homework-having human being. I will try to update in two weeks but yeah, I'll try to let you know of my updating schedule soon. If I can somehow make one.
I'm choosing to leave the original eight up for now; you will be able to tell the "reboot" from the old simply because 1) the chapters will actually have names and two just writing style as well. That being said sorry for leaving you guys hanging for four years and thank you to those who stuck around.
I hope to see you all in the next chapter and please review!
Edit 03/02/2019 Fixed verb tense cause hehehe ^^; Ow.