Chapter 1

That Maid. That Butler.

Feather- Part I

Arc-en-Ciel

"Sebastian that girl's eyes…?"

"*chuckle* Yes, my Lord, your suspicion is correct."

Both master and his butler glanced at the miserable girl that sat on the corner of Memory Street. Her long straight silver hair brushed the dirty looking pavement silently as her eyes portrayed nothing but bottomless emptiness. From the point of view of the casual passerby, she was just another orphaned child. They thought that she was simply an abused, broken human.

"How long are you planning to stare at me for? If you want to have something to stare at, then go to a museum"

Her mouth did not move, but the pair could hear her soft, melodic voice very clearly. Ciel blinked and turned to look at her fully, studying her with a small hint of curiosity. Her eyes did not move an inch from the pavement but something told him that she knew that he was examining her.

While he was investigating the girl's appearance, Sebastian walked up to her and bent down so he could be on her eye level. Their eyes met for a split second, both bright crimson and dangerous.

"Why is a demon here? Who summoned her?"

Ciel enquired, looking back at Sebastian whose eyes, for a split second, showed pity. Sebastian shrugged, unable to answer his question- something about the girl was clearly not right and he began to wonder what it was.

' "If you had a chance

To live again,

What would you become?"

'Something that will not

Have emotions or feelings,

Forever resting in the

Calming numbness of

Eternity...' '

"Lizzie! You're interrupting my work!"

The young Phantomhive hollered and the said girl run out of his office, carrying a stack of paperwork Ciel had to finish by tonight. This meant he had just an hour to do it.

"Elizabeth! Give it back!"

Ciel chased after her, his expression far from being joyful. Hell, he was so irked he could kill someone!

"No! You'll have to look at the doll Mother bought me first!"

Lizzie retorted, not letting her enraged fiancé catch up to her. Unluckily for the girl Sebastian walked out of one of the rooms, after just having to clean most of the house.

Ciel saw the familiar figure of his merciless butler and shouted, pointing at the escaping female: "Sebastian- catch her!"

The butler stretched his arms out and caught the thrashing girl, raising his elegant brows in confusion: "what is going on, young Master?"

"All he does is paperwork! He wouldn't pay any attention to me at all!"

Lizzie cried out, teary eyed and Ciel sighed, feeling somewhat guilty:

"Lizzie, I'm busy at the moment"

"You're always busy!"

She retorted with a pout, sending her fiancé a displeased look but Ciel was momentarily blocked out of her view, obstructed by a big rose that was of cerulean colour.

"Would you like a rose, Lady Elizabeth?"

A tall, slender silver haired maid enquired, her kind reddish brown eyes looking right through the girl and Elizabeth giggled, accepting the rose: "It's so pretty! What's it called?"

"Unfortunately, this rose has no name" the maid revealed with a small frown, realising that she forgot to come up with a name before she presented it to the young girl. Elizabeth's eyes went wide and she touched the cerulean petals gingerly, not wanting to hurt the flower:

"That's so sad...can we name it then?"

The maid smiled and nodded, feeling a little relieved that her carelessness was actually put to a good use:

"Yes, I'm sure that it will make the rose happy"

Elizabeth giggled, her eyes sparkling with delight and whispered quietly to the rose:

"I will name you Ciel because you both are very important to me"

Sebastian chuckled upon hearing her reason and the maid smiled at the sweet little girl before signalling the butler to put her down. Sebastian complied and placed her back on her feet gently, making sure that she was steady enough not to fall over and Ciel sighed, feeling a little guilty about the ruckus he caused over some paperwork.

"Rachel, show Elizabeth your rose gardens, I'm sure she'll enjoy the view"

Ciel ordered and then mouthed, making sure everyone other than Elizabeth was aware of his next words:

'Keep her occupied until I finish!'

Rachel smiled and nodded at her grouchy master, sympathetic- she knew just how much the young Phantomhive hated doing the paperwork:

"Lady Elizabeth, please come this way, you have much to see!"

Lizzie nodded and followed Rachel, waving goodbye to Ciel with an overjoyed grin, completely forgetting about the chase and being upset with his work. Soon the pair disappeared behind the double doors that led outside the mansion and into the gardens that belonged solely to Rachel. Formally, the gardens belonged to the Phantomhive master but as soon as Ciel realised that the maid loved gardening, he left all the garden-related duties to her and she took over the gardens.

Elizabeth stood still, awestruck, clearly not expecting to see what she had just seen. Rachel looked back at the girl's astonished expression and laughed to herself, proud of her work.

"Do you like my Arc-en-Ciel* garden, Lady Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth breathed out, eyes still wide from excitement, and looked up at the smiling maid: "yes! It's so beautiful!"

All around her were roses of different shades of pink, blue, purple, orange, yellow, maroon, black, green- it created a stunning view! It was like being inside of a beautiful, colourful painting. It made Elizabeth feel at ease and she slowly breathed in the sweet smell of roses, smiling with joy.

However, for the first time, that peaceful feeling did not reach Rachel. On the contrary she was tenser than usual, her eyes scanning the garden attentively for anything that was out of place. Soon enough she found what she was looking for.

Rachel took a few steps forward, bent down and picked up a very beautiful china doll with big, light blue eyes that stared right at her. The doll itself was cold, too cold considering that it was mid-July and the days were filled with bright sunshine and almost unbearable heat. However, that heat did not seem to have any effect on the doll. It was like...

"Rachel-san! You found my doll!"

Lizzie exclaimed, smiling brightly and Rachel smiled back, handing the doll back to its giddy mistress. She wondered how it got into the garden in the first place, it couldn't just walk there on its own now, could it?

"It's very beautiful" Rachel commented, still reluctant to accept the fact that she couldn't figure out how it got here in the first place.

"Yes! Mother bought it for my birthday! Her name is Mathilda!"

Lizzie hugged the doll and Rachel cocked her eyebrow, a little surprised, forgetting everything about the bizarre doll for the moment:

"Is it your birthday, Lady Elizabeth?"

"No, my birthday is tomorrow but mother went away for two days and she didn't want me to stay home by myself so she asked Ciel to have me stay here for the night." After a small pause, the little girl looked down at the ground and whispered "I think that he has already forgotten about my birthday Rachel-san"

Rachel placed her hand on the girl's shoulder comfortingly; trying to hide her worried expression- has Earl really forgotten? Then, she shook her head to convince both herself and Elizabeth of the absurdity of that thought:

"He would not forget about someone so precious to him, my Lady. Earl might not strike you as the most caring person, but I know for sure that deep inside, he cares dearly for you."

Lizzie looked up, shocked to hear those words.

"...Really?"

A/N: okay this chapter has been redone yet again, and I will most likely be rewriting the rest of the story : )

'Arc-en-Ciel' literally translates to 'bow in the sky' (Rainbow)