She sees red.
Lizzie had a policy to be nice to the servants, her own and others. She didn't have much a stomach for people that would go out of their way to hurt people that depend on them like that or visa versa, she couldn't stand servants that were rude or cruel to their employers. Though the later category usually got fired quickly. Both situations were difficult to watch. She found a comrade in her maid Paula, and she would rather like a world were everyone had a friendship with their servants. She paid attention, when she could, to how people treated their servants, and valued how the relationship was treated.
"I'm so sorry Lizzie, I know I said I could have you over today but the hospital just called in with an emergency."
Lizzie hadn't yet figured out what kind of relationship her Aunt and the Butler Sutcliff had. Mr. Sutcliff seemed to be a butter fingers, often messing up something or another and apologizing it with pleas of forgiveness. Her Aunt didn't often put up with that kind of behavior, she was usually mad at the butler's mistakes. But that made her wonder why the butler was still around then.
"But we haven't gotten to spend time together in so long Auntie Ann."
Not that he was a bad man, not in the least, seemed to be a nice fellow, just clumsy and a bit high strung. Seemed to have some low self esteem too. It was easy to forget he was there or to ask for too much from him and his limited skills but it's something that just seemed to happen. (She didn't mean to ask for too many different kinds of cookies at once, resulting in the poor man falling down in his scramble, or the time he burnt the milk for tea because she was chatting him up and he wasn't minding the flame properly.) She concluded he seemed like a nice man, just seemed sad. He took his verbal corrections and teasing well. She thought that sometimes her Aunt was too mean to him, but he looked at her Aunt with an expression that seemed to say that it was alright.
"Well, it should be a quick operation, can you wait for a few hours? I can come back and we can go shopping like we planned."
"M-Madam?"
"Stay here with my lovely Lizzie, Grell, I'll have one of the other butlers come with me. I trust you, and only the best for my Lizzie!"
Mr. Sutcliff seemed very nervous at the idea of spending time looking after her, she would have to try and be easy to watch then. She didn't want to make too much work for the poor, nervous man. But her Aunt deciding to leave him to watch after her spoke volumes of how highly she felt towards the butler. She watched as her Aunt slid into her her favorite red coat the one with the black bow in the back, having worn one of her favorite outfits that day and walked out with the other servant.
She hoped for the best. She had been over a few times and her aunt and the butler over to the Midford residence a few times as well. But she didn't know much about Mr. Sutcliff by himself, what he liked or didn't like, he was a bit hard to read but she felt bad for him more often than not. Today would be a good opportunity to get to know him better then.
"So -" Even saying this seemed to startle the poor fellow and he knocked a vase over. It was a red vase, a pattern from the far East and the white flowers scattered in the broken porcelain.
She saw red in the pattern of the people on a lake, she stepped back as Mr. Sutcliff and a maid cleaned up the accident.
She sees red.
How exactly Grell ended up in the guest bedroom being groomed was a little hard to put a finger on. One moment she had been apologizing over the broken vase (it was ugly anyway) then next Madam's niece had suggested a make over.
The opportunity for a make over was simply too sweet to pass up, she seldom gets to decorate her butler disguise but the leap from one event to the next was hard to piece together. Poor child had seemed embarrassed to ask for it. At least she and the child would both be doing something Grell liked, instead of just having to fetch sweets and tea and having to trip or fall over the whole time. She really didn't know what Angie had been thinking, but an actress will work with whatever she had at hand!
It was her turn first, apparently. The child, was brushing her dull dark hair. She missed her fire red locks but underneath the disguise they were still there. It was still, even after all this time, the thing she hated the most about this disguise. After a life time of waking up and seeing red hair it was even a little jarring.
"If you don't mind me saying so but you have lovely angles to your face." She drags the brush along the length of the hair, sometimes Angelina did the same at night, sometimes when the hair was dull like this and sometimes when it was red. Depended on the Madams mood. (Though that tended to be a little more intimidate this situation.)
The child was complementing her! How cute.
"Y-You think so Lady?" A small blush, the butler would probably die if someone actually complemented him out right, but a blush is the best Lizzie is going to get.
"Keep your eyes closed now!" Grell indulges her. She rather enjoyed the feeling of fingers on her scalp and running through her locks, felt luxurious and indulgent, which she was always up for.
Tiny fingers start to brain her hair, quickly and with skill that Grell wouldn't have imagined belonged to the child. Some pins are slipped in and Lizzie tugs a bit hard in some places, Grell grimaces as the butler would. She hardly felt it in truth but the butler was so sensitive and weak.
"Almost done..." Grell assumes the girl wouldn't think to let her wear make up, a butler wouldn't after all. She tried not to be upset about that, she can simply put some on later. There is the sound of tiny clips and the feeling of hair falling forward onto her chest.
"I think that's it, you have such lovely hair Mr. Sutcliff." Grell tries not to scoff, "open your eyes." When she does, she finds her dark hair has tiny braids. One starting from the front of her hair part and some running from behind and they falling in and out of larger braids, they all meet in a very low pony tail flipped forward over her shoulder. The sound of clips had belong to flowers, different kinds in shades of reds and pinks. That's when she remembers that this guest room was Lizzie's and these flowers must belong to the girl.
"I know it's a bit odd, but you look lovely, I dare say red is your color!" Lizzie laughs and its obvious she feels proud of her work. She walks away leaving Grell to examine herself in the mirror.
She saw red in the blooms that Elizabeth had put in her hair, it would be a while before they both knew that it would have to come all out but Grell had to admit Lizzie had good taste.
...
She sees red.
The ship was sinking, strange things were chasing her and Ciel. Lizzie didn't know what to do, exactly. Ciel had a gun but those creatures didn't like to die easy and the bullets would run out. They had found Sebastian and she felt positive that things would be okay. Sebastian had always been a smart, strong and above all, capable. She felt better, she wasn't too worried to start with, her natural optimism useful for times like this but with a update about her family and Sebastian around, things would be fine!
But then...
But then Grell Sutcliff clad in more red than a hospital room floor, came from above.
He seemed to be only paying attention to Sebastian but Ciel clearly identified the red man as Grell. This was confusing, the Grell she knew was very different and had disappeared after her Aunts death. But this man was very different and, to top off this confusion even more apparently wanted to hurt them. Certainly wasn't the docile man that Lizzie had seen around her Aunt, by no means of the imagination at all.
He was so very red, as he flipped around and swung his machine around, so, so very red, from hair to shoes and jacket...
Things seem to spiral out of control into a point as sharp as the blades she had to use. The ship had a swords and navy theme, the steering wheel and swords decorated all the dinning halls and main areas of the ship and she, like the rest of her family, knew they were usable. No expense had been spared in the attention to detail in the building and decorating of the ship. It was more impressive to say you had real swords around, to throw that kind of money out, than to say you had fakes.
She saw the red of the blood she spilled from the foul creatures. Her desire to be adorable for Ciel fading away with each body that she laid down. She knew that these things weren't exactly human, but even if they had been, she would have done the same. Her life was in danger, his life was in danger, everyone around her was in danger and she had to do what had to be done. She had to protect him.
She saw red in their blood and the stolen clothing of Grell Sutcliff.
She sees red.
When Grell had started that nights reaping she had expected a lot of things. It was a ship, a lot of people were dying, the ship would sink, yadda yadda. On the list of things she expected this evening to hold, watching Madam's niece behead the undead wasn't on it, then watching the same girl turn the blades toward her...oh no, that wasn't possible.
Impressive as the girls skill with swords was Grell knew she could and would kill the girl and wouldn't hesitate if push came to shove. It would be deliciously dramatic. Madam had died because she had given into her sappy emotions and it seemed like her beloved Lizzie would too. Alas, if only his Angie had gone out with a fight...
She saw the red hot anger in Lizzie's eyes and wonders what the child's blood looks like.
Meant to write this for a while. Needed to write some Lizzie and Grell interaction unfortunately it wasn't all that happy and I love the idea of the two of them being happy and cute as friends together. Maybe another time?