A/N: Hey there, this is my second attempt in writing Kuroshitsuji and I hope you'll like it :)

Summary: Ciel is a grim reaper supposed to collect the soul of Sebastian Michaelis in exactly one month. He is caught, however, by the target himself. Will he really strip Sebastian of his life in the end? Or will they find some kind of a compromise?

Warnings: There will be yaoi in later chapters (meaning boy on boy action), shotacon to be precise, seeing how Ciel has appearance of thirteen years old boy. Language is there as well.

Disclaimer: Nope.

A big 'thank you' to Carrie2sky, fantastic beta of this story!

Push The Limit

Chapter 1

"Good morning, Phantomhive. As soon as your partner decides it's time to grant us his presence we shall begin," a deep, serious, emotionless voice echoed the office.

"But of course."

Ciel Phantomhive was a death god. A very proud one at that.

So it wasn't easy for him to talk with his 'superiors' respectfully. Not when they saw him as nothing more than a bothersome child. Who would blame them really, for he had the appearance of a thirteen-year-old boy. He was a lot older than that, in reality, and he would eventually grow up, but that took more time, a lot of more time than humans' growth.

Obviously, he was the youngest death god. He had great potential, he just passed his final exam, and with that finished his internship. Funny thing, he started those courses when he looked like he was only eight years old together with grim reapers twice his age. And he was the best.

Now, he was supposed to get his first real mission. He was standing in front of a large wooden desk, where two males were sitting at. He knew both of them; they were in charge of coaching newcomers when Ciel came to attend internship. One was dressed completely in red, that one was Grell, while the other one, William T Spears, Ciel recalled, was similar to every other death god in Dispatch Society. Black hair, glasses, tidy suit. The definition of boring.

He hated that fact about grim reapers. They were always so emotionless, so distant and bound to rules. True, Ciel often thought about emotions as human characteristics, but that was the exact reason he found humans interesting. They were so foolish, so full of unnecessary emotions, so unpredictable. So fun to watch and poke fun at.

William was the one who greeted Ciel, but now was too busy shuffling through the papers that were on the desk to start a decent conversation and lessen the awkwardness in the room. Grell, on the other hand, was too busy polishing his nails to even acknowledge Ciel was now with them in the office.

A few minutes of awkward silence passed before doors were opened without previous knocking. Ciel turned around only to see a blond boy, not much older than him, with glasses on the bridge of his nose and typical yellow-green eyes. That was Alois Trancy, the only son of Alfred Trancy, the grim reaper responsible for Admin department. That was the only reason Alois successfully finished and became part of Dispatch Society…after his third try.

"Trancy, you are late again! And those kinds of clothes are prohibited here, you have to wear your uniform," William gestured towards Alois' booty shorts, boots and leather jacket that barely reached his navel, as well as tight T-shirt under it with few 'Fuck you' written over it, before continuing. "You will get suspended for a year if this happens one more time. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, right," was the only answer they got from Alois, aside from rolling his eyes and crossing his arms childishly. Grell looked up for the first time to scan Alois' outfit, but got back to his nails immediately.

"Now, you two will be partners and you'll have one month to decide if a human should be left on a soul retrieval list or not. You can, of course, make your decision earlier," William spoke again and took a file to show them both.

"This is the human's file, read it."

Ciel approached the desk and took the file tiredly. He really found this kind of observing of humans unnecessary. There had never been a human that deserved to be removed from the 'to die' list. Not a single one. Death gods had permission to remove them only if the human in question could change the world.

The first thing he noticed when he took the file was the picture of the human. On the picture was a man in his late twenties with raven black hair and piercing mahogany eyes, his skin was pale, perfectly contrasted to his dark hair. Ciel felt his breath hitch, but he decided it was a better idea to read the file instead of staring at the ridiculous picture.

Name. Sebastian Michaelis.

Birth. January 24th 1987.

Birth place. London, Great Britain.

Death expected date. January 15th 2013, at 17:43.

Remarks. "Expected to die of blood loss." Ciel read out loud, then started going through the other pages in the file; however, he didn't find any important information there at the moment, so he turned around to face Alois who was still pretending to be sulking, even if there was an evident change in his mood.

"At least come and see this," Ciel said unenthusiastically and the blond listened to him for once. However, when Alois saw Sebastian's photo, he smirked, caressing the picture, his other hand traveling down it suggestively.

"Holy shit, I will come, I swear!" Ciel just glared at Alois. This kid was too perverted for his own good.

"Alright, sir, I will excuse myself now. I have unfinished business to take care of." William nodded, and Ciel exited office.

"I have as well!" He heard Alois shout, so he increased his pace to his dorm, hoping to avoid dealing with the damn idiot.

He took his keys and unlocked the door, and came in. Then he turned the lights on and lay down on his bed. Well this will surely be tiresome. A sigh escaped his lips. He truly never wanted to become part of that damn Dispatch Society. Nevertheless, his father was in control of the General Affairs Department, while his mother's father was none other than the famous Lawrence Anderson, 'Father'. Lawrence was designing and manufacturing glasses for death gods. And, for some reason, glasses had always been the most important detail for every grim reaper worth their salt.

So, Ciel was forced into working under his relatives. That was the reason for him starting his internship at such a young age, while it was his intelligence that naturally brought him to the top. Moreover, his grandfather took his time in designing and making his glasses so they could cover up his biggest flaw; his left eye. It wasn't the normal, yellow-green colour like it is its twin, but a deep blue. That wasn't anything unnatural, only uncommon and quite scandalous for somebody of his social status. So his glasses were oversized and he always wore his fringe on the side, covering it completely. His eye was another reason why his family was avoiding him. Seeing Ciel's eye only reminded them of his, ah, disagreeable nature. He did voice his unwillingness to become respectful grim reaper and they never seemed to appreciate it. However, they did not let anybody know about Ciel's eye nor their disgust of their own son, making a perfect family image for everybody else.

Ciel couldn't find it in himself to care. He never loved his parents or anybody in his family for that matter. They were only a means to get what he wanted, even if he needed to sacrifice something in return. He wouldn't be here for too long. He disliked grim reapers too much. Their obsession with rules the most. Ciel was never one to play by other's rules. He bended them, changed them and finally, broke them.

Glancing at his watch, Ciel decided it was time to go. He stood up and approached the mirror next to his bed. He put on his black jacket and buttoned it up, leaving two last buttons open. It wasn't really formal, but was close enough. The jacket hugged his waist slightly, making him look more fragile than he already was, and its sleeves were wider on their ends, and they had two horizontally positioned navy straps on them. He took and tied a navy bow around his collar. His black pants were already on. Everything he had on himself showed his shape clearly and he hated it. He thought he looked more feminine and younger. Stupid reapers.

The doors were opened suddenly and Ciel winced remembering he forgot to lock the door.

"So, Ciel, are we going? I jacked off already, you are sooo slow! On the other hand, if you have finished already, I may be able to go another round with you!" Alois was leaning on the door, of course.

Ciel forgot this dimwit knew where his room was. He stayed it in it during the internship. But since he was not willing to go home, he simply continued living here. Alois loved trying to make him suffer. And he was succeeding; though probably not in the way he wanted to. Alois was a proud sadist; however Ciel was the only person to deny it. Therefore, he decided to prove himself. Alois' hatred towards Ciel was no secret, and perhaps that was the reason the reapers always paired them up.

"Get out. We are supposed to 'work' separately. In case you've forgotten it," Ciel replied, continuing with putting his shoes on. The blond giggled.

"Oh, I assure you I didn't! But you said we need to be unsuspicious as well, so we need to leave the building together~!"

"I am not daft. I know what I said. I hoped you forgot, after all," Ciel mumbled the last sentence under his breath, but Alois didn't hear or simply ignored him, since there was no response. Ciel finally turned around and gasped when he saw Alois toying with his eye patch, which was on the nightstand next to his bed. That gasp make Alois look up at Ciel, knowing that he had seen what he had done. As their eyes met, Alois smirked.

"Oh, Ciel, what do you need an eye patch for~? I've never seen you wearing it…Then again, I have never seen your left eye either…Hmm…I wonder if those two things are connected~?"

This impossible-! Ugh, it was a surprise he could manage as much as realizing the obvious connection between the hidden eye and the eye patch. So his brain was functioning after all. Though his unpredictable mood changes were quite a bother to Ciel, because that changed the way Ciel could tell him off as well. And now, this nosy bipolar kid dared to question him!

Ciel glared at him, and approached him, and before Alois could react, slapped him and took away his eye patch.

"None of your damn business! Now get out, I want to get rid of you as soon as I can!" And with that said, Ciel left the room with his keys and glared at Alois to exit it as well, so he could lock it.

Alois' eyes were widened, and his trembling hand was raised to touch the cheek that was slapped. Ciel could clearly see disbelief in his eyes, as well as how his pride obviously stung. And Ciel felt pleased.

Alois shook himself from the shock and spat on the floor of Ciel's room before stomping out of it with Ciel following behind. That gesture was probably supposed to anger Ciel, though it failed miserably. Ciel maybe would be angry if it for the fact that there were people who cleaned his room daily. Too bad for Alois.

They were walking (running) less than five minutes before they came out of building. And they separated that instant.

All of that was part of their so-called deal that was made during the final test. They were unfortunately paired, and Alois just kept messing everything up. Mostly on purpose, though. So Ciel was forced to take over and do the actual job, while Alois was walking around city, meeting people. And if he correctly understood, Alois was 'in relationship' with a human or something along the lines.

You see, Ciel knew next to nothing about humans' way of life. Sure they were entertaining at times to watch, but he never bothered to get to know them better. So, logically, he was quite awkward with them. It was easier to interact with reapers; they simply never showed emotions and Ciel got used to being mostly emotionless himself, dealing with reapers was difficult enough for him, but humans on the other hand, would be on the floor crying after one simple conversation with Ciel. He simply lacked the ability to know how to tactfully interact with others. He only knew how to command and get what he wanted.

Ciel walked for another ten meters before he stopped to see if anybody followed him. Nobody was seen, so he proceeded to brush his hair out of his blue eye. With that done, he removed his glasses and tied the eye patch over his right one. When glasses were put on again, he sighed. This was his way of stopping people from freaking out because of his abnormal eyes. It felt like he had two different personalities sometimes. He would show only one at a time, depending on which of his eyes wasn't covered.

But, ahem, now was the time to find his target, Sebastian.

"There it is!" Ciel felt relief wash over him as he stared at the familiar address. It took him some time to find the right house, but he succeeded. Sebastian Michaelis was living here according to his file.

The house was large, too large for him to live alone, with two floors. Its façade looked freshly painted, as white as the first snow. The roof and the doors were black, however, leaving the impression of a modern house. Two similar seemingly expensive cars were parked in front of it.

That was another thing Ciel didn't understand: humans' need for everything they had to be expensive. How vain could they possibly get?

A terrace was there as well, and Ciel could clearly see two black kittens playing with each other, and his nose scrunched up at the sight. Pathetic, really. He hated cats. Dogs were more of his thing.

He heard voices inside the house, so he concluded it would be better to take a closer look and maybe even find Sebastian. He took few steps and looked through the closest window, and, seeing how the room was empty, he went to the next one. That was an interesting thing, when he said empty, he meant empty. For somebody who had such big house, expensive cars, and obviously much money, he kept few personal things and furniture at all.

It took three more windows until Ciel found the right room. It was a living room by the looks of things, black and white like the whole house was. But in the centre of the room was a coffee table and two couches on both sides of it. There were four men and one girl, sitting on the couches and Ciel recognized one of them as Sebastian. And he realized how bad the picture in the file portrayed Sebastian. He looked far more breathtaking in person. It was really hard to imagine he would be dead in exactly one month. He seemed so…so full of life. At the moment he was chuckling, his eyes lit up with amusement, one of his brows arched upwards, obviously mocking, while his tall, but slender frame was shaking barely visible to a human's eye, but Ciel picked it up regardless. That man seemed over-confident and arrogant, and Ciel didn't like that trait of his at all. Most humans were like that. For no apparent reason either, they only made fools of themselves. Nevertheless, Sebastian's looks suggested that maybe he had a reason.

There was another raven in the room, with golden eyes and glasses. He was sprawled across the couch looking rather doubtfully at Sebastian. A Chinese man was sitting next to him, looking oblivious to the happenings in the room, content with petting the hair of a girl (also Chinese) sitting in his lap. The last person in the room was a white haired Indian who stood beside Sebastian laughing sincerely.

That was an interesting scene indeed, so Ciel ducked under the window and started listening, only the top of his head was showing, trying to grasp who was talking to whom.

"-became quite pathetic. Besides, I honestly don't think that was a good thing to do, Claude. Though nothing better was expected from you." That was Sebastian speaking to the raven on the couch. Sebastian's voice was smooth and deep, a very addicting sound. Not that it made any difference to Ciel, anyway.

"Oh? Is that so? What was I supposed to do? Let him go and get police on our back?" The Claude guy growled, obviously in bad mood.

"On your back, not ours. But now, this decision of yours affects all of us," Sebastian corrected, rolling his eyes.

"Ah, aren't you a smart one, Sebastian? You do know how to get rid of your rivals."

"You, my rival? Good one, I must say," Sebastian chuckled.

"Uh, guys? Calm down, all right? I think we can make our way through this," the white haired Indian jumped into the conversation, trying to stop this fight before it escalated. Hearing this, Sebastian chuckled once again.

"You know us better than that, Agni. What would I do if I couldn't tease Claude and get away with it? Would Lau still-?"

"Ohhh, I do not think now is right time…They say walls have ears, too…" The Chinese spoke interrupting Sebastian, as shivers went down Ciel's spine and he was on the roof in two seconds time. Faintly he could hear somebody respond, but he disappeared before he could see how things ended. Getting caught wasn't exactly his first priority.

It was December 18th when Ciel was summoned to the Admin Department. Death gods were all around him, typing quietly, and not paying any attention to him. This was his most hated department. The reapers here were far stricter than anywhere else and they always, but always, worked in silence. It would be a miracle if they still knew how to talk, Ciel thought bitterly. He stood still, not wanting to move before the one who called him came to pick him up. So he was relieved when he saw a red haired girl running clumsily to him. She had huge glasses, bigger even than Ciel's, though fogged and cracked.

"Um…I am Mey-Rin, and I requested time, umm, to talk with you?" She whispered, but made her sentence to sound more like a question. She was extremely nervous, looking down instead at Ciel while her hands were behind her back.

"Sure, do you want to talk somewhere more private?" Ciel whispered back putting a hand on her shoulder, which made her tremble and look up. Now he felt a bit nervous as well when he saw all of those reapers looking at them.

"Ye-yeah, I mean yes, let's go to my off-office…" She replied and Ciel nodded, letting her lead the way. They passed few workers and nodded in greeting to them as they entered another hallway. Another turn left and they were in front of the white door with 'Mey-Rin' written above them. Ciel concluded she must be responsible for printing single files in accordance with the soul retrieval list if she had her own office. And if that was true, and she wanted to talk with him, that meant only trouble.

She opened the door and let him in. Ciel sat on the chair closest to him and waited as Mey-Rin sat across from him, on the other side of desk. The office was cozy, all in warm colours and it was so easy to relax there.

"Well, I, um, kinda…" Mey-Rin started nervously, still whispering and therefore she was confirming Ciel's theory about them not being able to talk normally. And it made it somewhat awkward for Ciel to speak in a normal volume, but he did, anyway.

"Yes?"

"Put…the wrong…date…of death on Sebastian's file," she finished finally, covering her face with her hands. "I have been...staring at his picture," she admitted, even quieter than before, but Ciel heard it.

Just exactly what did she expect him to do after hearing such a confession? This girl, she was nuts, she was. She developed crush on a human while working on his death file? How foolish. No, no, how human. And humans were truly funny foolish beings.

"Is that so? What am I supposed to do about it?" He smirked.

This girl felt intimated by Ciel's demeanor. She felt inferior to him, like any other human did. She was a death god, yet she behaved more like a normal human would. So, were not all death gods the same?

"I, I hoped you'd help me, I truly did!"

Ciel blinked. What the-

"And what exactly do you mean by 'help'?"

"I'll, I'll get in trouble. I will be…fired. Please do help me! I'll change this date to the one that was written in the soul retrieval list and you, you tell the others you read the file wrong! I swear no one will pay attention to those details!" Mey-Rin was desperate, she grabbed onto his hands and tears were freely falling down her cheeks. And Ciel…he had never seen somebody of his race cry.

"Ah, I see. But what is the real date of his death then?"

"Umm, January 25th."

The 25th? How could she mess up so easily the 25th and the 15th for God's sake? They were ten days apart! But Ciel kept those feelings inside him, smiling cutely. Now he understood why she approached him of all people. He was a mere child in her eyes. And she acted like a human. Those two things were probably similar to her and she naturally came to him to ask for help.

"Alright, everything will be alright, Mey-Rin," he said, standing up. "I will bid you a goodbye, then."

"Bye, Ciel, thank you very much! I owe you!"

You sure do.

Ciel hurriedly exited the Admin Department, this time not minding that the only sound in the room was the clicking of his shoes because death gods stopped typing to glare at him. He just shrugged them off. Really, he couldn't care less what they thought about him. He was 'just a child' after all.

Two minutes had passed and he was headed to his target's house. He had been following him the past three days, and luckily, he hadn't seen Sebastian's friends since the first day.

Ciel found out very few interesting things about Sebastian thus far. He was inside his house while he was not working (he was a cook in a prestigious international restaurant) usually playing with his cats, and he rarely came out to buy groceries. He lived alone, and stayed alone, not once since the first day had Ciel seen him with anybody else.

And Ciel wanted nothing more than to just stamp Sebastian's file 'completed'. Alas, he knew better. He was supposed to last until that January 25th (25th, not 15th!). That was the way he worked. But so far, Sebastian had not provided him with any entertainment, as previous humans had. Sebastian seemed too perfect for a human. Sure, he had his flaws, but he was not foolish, he was clever. Very clever. His moves were never unplanned; Ciel caught on that much until now.

Sighing, Ciel came to Sebastian's house, and approached the window where kitchen was. As he predicted, there was Sebastian, making dinner for himself. That human was so strict to his daily schedule. Never did he fail to perform tasks in time. Yes, he really reminded Ciel of a death god, but there were still huge differences. Like a being a death god.

Ciel shook his head. Why did he become so insistent on over-analyzing others' personalities and comparing them? Was he unsatisfied with his own? No, that was an absolute no. Ciel had never been the one to have issues. Never. So, whilst he was trying to get his mind away from such topics, Sebastian moved from the kitchen stove and sat on the chair close to it, lighting up a cigarette.

Well, in past few days Ciel had not even once seen Sebastian smoking. Nope. So, logically, that triggered the thought that this wasn't the only thing Sebastian was hiding. Now, this made Ciel feel like a secret agent, not a reaper, spying on his target like that. Why did he care anyways? The sooner he was dead the sooner Ciel would be able to go back to his boring life until a new mission came. Not that he was thrilled about that prospect, but watching Sebastian was proving fruitless so far. He certainly didn't seem worthy of being taken of the 'to die' list what from he had seen so far. Would the next mission be as tiresome as this one was? Most likely. Ah, Alois was a lucky one there.

Though this deal they made gave Ciel so many ways to blackmail Alois, so much power over somebody who hated him from the depths of his heart. One wrong move and Alois would be out of the Dispatch Society forever. As if. Alois' father, being the important person, could save him, in exchange of his late night 'services'. Like it had been done in the past, Ciel remembered. So he was literally powerless in this situation. However, things would change, he knew that much. Damn disgusting creature.

Ciel jumped when a window above him opened. He was too lost in thought to notice Sebastian move! When he tried crawling away, hand snatched his collar and lifted him effortlessly. He was thrown in the house and he landed perfectly next to the table in the centre of the room. He looked at it and noticed that the cigarette was still not extinguished, meaning Sebastian probably knew Ciel was there the whole time and just waited for the moment he was distracted, like he was a minute ago. Sebastian sure did have skills. Though 'how' was the first question to pop into Ciel's mind.

He turned back around to be confronted by a smirking Sebastian, whose eyes were on Ciel's one, like he was searching for something. His composure was completely relaxed, like he had done this many times before. Since body language did not reveal anything at all, Ciel's eye fixed on Sebastian's again, glaring at him as a warning.

"You really thought I didn't notice you from the first day, kid?" Sebastian asked in a mocking tone, and despite the questioning nature, this question was not meant to be answered. This question was just a confirmation, just a way to show off. And Ciel gave his best not to give away his irritation when he was addressed as a kid. This was their mind game after all.

"So, pray tell, why were you spying on me?"

A/N: Thanks for the reading! How did you like it?

I believe I should clear few things up. I based whole grim reaper society off Kuroshitsuji OVA 'The Tales of Will the Grim Reaper', but since that's the only source we have about reapers, there were many things I assumed. From manga we know reapers share humans' basic needs, so I assumed they age as well (I got that from OVA, Will and Grell looked a bit younger, about four or five years I think, while aforementioned Lawrence Anderson looks pretty old) and here in about 25 years they would look one year older. Therefore Ciel was born in 1688 here. And he started his internship in 1888 XD

By the way, that shitty picture for this story is supposed to represent Ciel. His appearance here, I mean. Yep, the author of that same shitty pic is me.

Please do review! Tell me if you liked it, disliked it or you couldn't care less. Every feedback means so much to me!

Kitten Rebel.