This is a Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler fanfic.
The manga/anime and all the characters doesn't belong to me.
Summary: (This takes place shortly after Ciel and Sebastian made the contract and still needed to get used to each other) Ciel can't sleep and Sebastian is nearly coming to an end with his hope when he seems to find a good method who to make his master get some sleep.
Warning: This fanfic contains lots of fluff and tickles
"Sebastian."
"Yes, my Lord?"
"I can't sleep."
Sebastian sighed inwardly. It was the fourth time this week that his master had complained about being unable to sleep. Every night he was told to come over, only to find the young earl sitting upright in his bed, a blanket tightly wrapped around his small frame and he was always greeted by these three little words.
The first time the young master was kept awake by nightmares hunting him a simple cup of warm milk had helped but sometimes the child just felt too restless to sleep and not even the calming drink could help at times like these. The young earl always looked terribly tired the next morning and often fell asleep at his desk and during his lessons and Sebastian saw that this was starting to be a real problem.
Sebastian started to occupy himself with the matter. He himself had to admit to not know much about this field. Demons do simply not need to sleep and it was never something which he had to worry about in his previous 'lives' before. But now since he had to take care of a child for which sleep was very important for it's health, not to mention that the young master had a weak body since the beginning, he had to realize that it wasn't as easy as he thought it to be.
He started reading about it and even went out to small villages around the area to watch humans putting their kids to bed, observing precisely what the parents were doing to make their children fall asleep.
In the end it seemed that the best result came out when the little humans felt save, protected or felt the warmth of other humans around them but Sebastian knew that he could not give the young master any of that.
Sebastian had to admit that he almost gave up, the research seeming useless since he could not rock the young master to sleep if he didn't want to be kicked out and the warm milk with honey only helped when the master had nightmares but not when he felt restless.
But then one night when he was observing another family he witnessed something interesting. A mother chased her son playfully around their small home before catching him and scooping him up in a loving embrace. She then started tickling his tummy as she carried him over to his little bed where she laid him down. She tickled him a bit more, the child laughing and giggling happily before she gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead and tucked him in. The child immediately felt asleep with a smile on its face.
"This is interesting." muttered the demon as he vanished back into the dark and went back to the mansion of the Phantomhives.
Now that he was standing in front of his masters bed with the young earl expectantly looking up at him why not testing this new method?
"Young Master I will try something new today from which I believe it could help." said Sebastian while he fluffed the pillow up before putting it gently down behind his master.
Mismatched eyes glanced a bit warily from under black-bluish bangs up to him. Sebastian smiled reassuringly at the boy.
"If you would please lay down, my Lord."
The demon waited for the earl to unwrap himself of his blanket cocoon. After he had laid down Ciel watched with a questioning face as Sebastian knelt down next to the bed.
Sebastian moved a bit closer so he was kneeling right in front of the boy. He then pulled the blanket down so it wasn't covering his masters upper body anymore.
"Sebastian wha-" protested Ciel and wanted to pull the blanket back up. It was cold only with his thin shirt on but a hand laid down on his own and stopped him.
"Shh just let me continue." shushed his butler with a finger on his lips and a small smile playing over his features as he put the blanket back into place.
Ciel frowned a bit but then laid back down again.
"I hope Sebastian knows what he is doing." thought the boy who was still a bit skeptical at what his demon of a butler had in mind.
Sebastian waited until his master was laying down again before he slowly stretched his arm out.
Ciel watched curiously and raised an eyebrow when the hand was placed on his abdomen.
"Sebastian, I want to know what you are planni-ahah no!"
Red eyes widened and looked right into a blue and a purple one who stared back at him, looking just as surprised like he was.
While his master had started to protest again Sebastian had curled his fingers and mimicked the movements he had seen the woman doing at the child a night before.
Just to test it out Sebastian wriggled his fingers again, this time lightly tickling along his masters stomach and he was not disappointed at the reaction he got.
Ciel instantly bought his hands over his mouth trying to stifle the giggles.
Sebastian pulled his hand back, a small smirk playing on his lips while the boy in front of him fought the blush back but to no use and threw a glare in his direction.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"It's called tickling if I remember correctly."
"I know what it's called but why?" asked the young boy aghast.
"You said you could not fall asleep so I studied some methods that could help. It seems like laughing can tire humans out and make them happy at the same time. This help them to relax and fall asleep easily. I saw it myself." explained the demon.
"Yes but you do that only to children!"
"If I may point this out my Lord, you're quite a child yourself." said Sebastian with a chuckle.
"Shut up Sebastian. This is stupid, think of something else." ordered the boy before reaching out for the blanket to pull it over himself and try to sleep without his stupid butler trying to 'help' but a hand stopped him.
"But Young Master you didn't even test it out." said Sebastian with a sickening sweet smile.
"Nonono we are not doing this. Sebastian I order you to lea-ahaha nooo!"
Sebastian smirked when the young boy shrieked before quickly rolling to the side when he started tickling his stomach again.
"You seem to be quite ticklish my Lord. Maybe this method will be a success."
"Shuhuht uhup!", yelled the laughing boy angrily but squealed in surprised when he was pulled back, facing his way too brightly smiling butler.
Sebastian now started to use both hands, ten fingers softly and experimentally poking and prodding all over the young earls body. When he squeezed the boys hips, Ciel bucked violently, his back arching before he flopped back down onto the mattress laughing louder than before. He rolled on his stomach to shake the hands of but that didn't help, more of the opposite. Now Sebastian was tickling him and he couldn't even see him which made the feeling even worse.
"My my, seems like the Young Master got quite sensitive hips.", stated the demon matter of factly while squeezing said hips, his large fingers digging right into the trashing boys hipbones. The young boy squealed before a peal of loud laughter filled the room as he desperately trashed around on the large bed. He squeaked in protest when the tormenting hands grabbed him around the waist and flopped him onto his back like he weights nothing before a big hand creep under his thin shirt, fingers starting to tickle his belly again. They softly scratched, wiggled, poked and pinched at the soft flesh making the young earl fall into a giggle fit while he weakly tried to bat the attacking hands away but it was to no use. The demon of a butler snickered at his masters attempts to bat his hands away, reminding him of a small kitten.
Ciel bucked under the touch laughing even louder than before and he tried to curl into a small ball when fingers wandered up and down his sides, playfully goosing and tweaking them which led to Ciel squirming around like a worm.
"Thihihis ihis stupihihd." protested the boy as he managed to roll back on his stomach. He tried to crawl further into the middle of the bed and away from the edge where his evil butler was now standing with a sly smirk on his lips. Just before he had thought that he had managed to escape a large hand wrapped around his ankle and pulled him back with ease.
"Nooohoho!", screamed the boy and kicked out, small hands clawing into the bedding as he tried to pull himself back into the safe center of the large bed but then a high-pitched surprised squeal escaped him. He instantly pulled his arms back when a hand clawed at his rib-cage, long fingers digging in between the bones and he was sent back into a stage of being a ball of flailing limps and laughter.
"I never knew you where this sensitive young master." said Sebastian with a demonic grin on his face as he watched his master laughing and trashing around on the big four-poster bed, childlike giggles and squeals filling the room.
"Sebahastiahan!"
"Yes my Lord?"
"Stohohahap!"
"But Young Master, wasn't it you who asked me to help you to sleep better?"
"Hohow is thihihs going toho hehel-NOO!"
The young boy screamed before he fell into another hysterical laughing fit. Sebastian raised an eyebrow in question, wondering what could have made his master lose it like that so he could not even finish his sentence when his eyes wandered to the place his hands were right now, a smirk forming on his face.
"Ticklish underarms I assume?" teased the demon whose hands had buried themselves under the earls arms, scratching lightly at the thin fabric of the night shirt his master always wore when going to sleep. It did a poor job protecting the earls sensitive skin and even if the demon was wearing his gloves it still tickled like hell.
Ciels laughter kicked up a notch and he trashed, kicking widely with his skinny legs and his arms flailing around uselessly.
Sebastian was truly evil and ruthless with his tickle attack and Ciel couldn't even remember the last time he laughed so hart. It was dumb and childish but he couldn't deny that it felt good to laugh like that and he hated to admit it but it also was fun, even when Sebastian behaved like an oaf by teasing him so much because that made the whole sensation ten times worse but made it also more playful. He could feel how his trashing grew weaker and that he got more and more tired with every torturous tickly moment.
"Sebahastiaaan! Ihihi cahahn't ahaha."
"You can't? I must apologize my Lord but I don't know what you mean with 'I can't'. Could you please try forming whole sentences?"
The demon had to chuckle at the glare his young master was trying to throw at him but the bubbly giggles and the smile he tried to oppress wasn't really doing him a favor while trying to look threatening.
"Hmm, you still seem very energetic to me. Are you feeling any tired yet young master?" asked Sebastian teasingly as he pulled the child even closer to the edge of the bed.
"I'm tirehehd. I'm tirehed!" yelled the young boy while still trying to pull himself back into the middle. He didn't even want to know what would happen when Sebastian caught him.
"I think one more minute and we can stop. What do you say my lord. Is one minuted enough to tire you out?" with these words the demon pulled the boy completely over to him.
Ciel gulped before his eyes grew wide as he watched how Sebastian reached for his feet. The boys kicking increased greatly and he kicked violently but the demon managed to catch one of his flailing limps with ease.
"I heard humans are quite ticklish on their feet. Does that count you in my Lord?" asked Sebastian while calmly catching Ciels over leg. He then closed one hand around both of the boys slim ankles and hold the tiny feet in place.
"No." lied Ciel instantly, still trying to pull his feet out of Sebastian's hold.
"No?" asked the demon teasingly.
"So this," he began and slowly scratched with his pointer finger along the arch, "does not tickle at all? What a shame." He chuckled as he saw how his master had taken the pillow and was now tightly pressing his face against it, his small shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress his laughter.
Sebastian the started using four fingers to scratch at the small feet from the top down to the bottom and watched with great amusement how now Ciels whole small body was shaking, face pressed even tighter into the pillow but it couldn't absorb all of the little noises the boy made, stifled laughter clearly dancing through the room.
It only needed a brief tickle under those toes for the boy to lose it completely. The moment his demon butler wiggled his fingers under and between his toes Ciel shoot up from the pillow and pounded with his small fists against it. His laugh slowly changed into giggle wheezing with little hiccups in between and he could feel how his body grew more and more tired with every ticklish moment. Sebastian who heard the change in his masters laughter started to slow down, not wanting to trigger the boy's asthma. He still let his fingertips dance softly over the boys feet, listening to the frantic laughter changing into tired giggles before he let go of the young earls ankles.
Ciel instantly pulled his feet and legs up before quickly grabbing the blanket and pulled it over his small body.
"Don't worry, I won't tickle you anymore.", chuckled Sebastian as he stepped up to the front end of the bed and reached for the pillow. He fluffed it up again and laid it back down onto the bed before bowing once into the direction of the blanket pile.
"Good night my Lord."
He tapped lightly at the blanket pile before making his way over to the door but turning back again.
"I'll retire now but if you need anything feel free to call me."
He then reached out for the door nob and was about to blow out the last candles when he heard his master calling for him.
"S-sebastian!"
"Yes my lord?"
"Stay there. Until I fall asleep."
"Yes my lord."
As soon Ciels head meet the pillow, his eyes were already closed and he slept without any troubles into the next morning.
Please leave a comment or constructive critic if you like :)