Somehow, when it comes to this, those days are vague and indistinct. A boy, his butler. Ciel knows that it was really a poisonous thing inside, black with rot and lacquered façade, but in this moment he can only remember something warm and comforting, a static, fading photo of better days. There's no way to prove it wasn't a dream.

And more than he feels the shrieking pain of his soul being ripped from his body, Ciel feels himself losing someone dear.

I will meet you three times, three times more than I was meant to, and I will follow you to the edge of oblivion. I will sell my soul to dream you wide awake.

ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION

A man, his footman. This life is very nearly connected to the last, you think, but the dream is back and you forget just enough so that you don't realize what doesn't make sense. Tables turned, you serve. Clumsily, still a child, immortal child. Sebastian oscillates between merciless demands to gentle, amused instruction. No, you'll drop it like that. Hold it here, Ciel...

It's the perfect formula to keep you flustered at all times, which is surely Sebastian's intent. And yet, you find, there's still a terrible nostalgia pressing on your black little demon heart, when the time finally comes to say goodbye again. Pathetically, you're sniffling with the tears you're pretty sure demons can't cry, but Sebastian brushes your cheek (like before) and coaxes, it's alright, Ciel, I know you can do it. And you do. You tear the soul right out of him and before you can even choke crying on the taste of it, the dream ends again.

TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Alois almost names you Luka, but decides, in a fit in himself, that that's far too precious a thing for a monster. Or anyone. You're glad, because you get to find out it was a lie about demons not having names. Alois asks for yours, and then orders it, and the strings of that contract pull and pull until something, some answer that satisfies, reaches the surface. You are Ciel Phantomhive. Your young master has already saved that much.

Alois is on the verge of tears, and he articulates that peculiar thing you felt so long ago. (it's impressive, how much smarter he is at divining things that make no sense) (there was always something fundamentally broken about that kid) (but you still manage to love him anyway) (maybe love him for it) (maybe) (you hope) (this is how Sebastian felt)(?)

"You're leaving me, aren't you?"

You smile, sadly.

"I'm sorry. But there's someone I have to meet."

You saw him once, in this life. It was chance, so painfully nothing more, just a boy walking past on the sidewalk on the other side of a gate. But it's him. How can he look this much the same, in youth, but now so fundamentally ordinary? Is that what being a human does? He doesn't look your way.

THREE DEGREES ZERO

You find him one final time in a place that makes no sense at all, a black void with white petals. It was a long time coming, a long time missing, but let it be known that you never once considered giving up. But you've finally found it, a dream that doesn't have to end. Your Young Master has been waiting.

Two demons, an eternity.

NOTES: In TWO DEGREES, Ciel is an adult demon, rather than the child he is in ONE. Yes, the point of view in THREE is deliberately ambiguous, and can be interpreted however you want. The line, "sell my soul to dream you wide awake" is from the song 'Dreaming Wide Awake' by Poets of the Fall.