Warnings: Swearing.
Disclaimer: (Do I even have to do this?) Kuroshitsuji is not mine
A/N: Thank you for taking time to read this :) Please give feedback, as it is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
Life is meaningless. Solely a monotonous repetition of the same events, over and over. The sun rises. You wake up. You go about your life, trying desperately to support yourself. To keep yourself alive. Then the sun sets, and you go back to sleep. It's the same, day in and day out, until you perish, disappearing from the world of the living. And then you're gone. Then it's all over. Nothing will ever change. Nothing will ever differ. Or so Leisa thought.
Rolling over on the couch which she woke up on, Leisa buried her face in a torn-up pillow. She was supposed to go to work today. Supposed to wake up in order to arrive at the coffee shop across the street at seven am sharp. Supposed to take people's orders as they came in for their morning coffee. But it was already eleven o'clock, and she hadn't so much as moved up from the couch which she slept upon just last night. But it didn't matter. If she didn't have enough money to feed herself, perhaps she would just die of starvation. Big fucking deal. She probably didn't even have a job to return to anymore.
She just felt so… empty. Like an ocean with no fish. A cup with no water. A house with no furniture.
Suddenly, Leisa heard a sharp knocking sound on the front door of her tiny house, breaking her out of her thoughts. She groaned softly, shrinking down into her tattered couch in a desperate attempt to pretend she was invisible.
It was probably just her stupid neighbors, knocking on her door to remind her (for the millionth time) that the poorly-kept nature of her house was ruining the appearance of their neighborhood. The imbeciles living in the houses surrounding her own cared profoundly about the appearance of their precious neighborhood.
The person at the door knocked once more -louder this time- and Leisa dragged herself off the couch reluctantly, sighing. The damn people would probably break down the door if she didn't answer this instant.
Twisting the rusty brown key and opening her door a crack, she pushed her face up against the door.
"Who is it?"
"Hello, I am-" the person outside started to respond before Leisa cut them off.
"You're my neighbor and you want me to do a better job taking care of my damn house. I get it. Go away." She slammed the door as hard as she could (having only opened it about an inch) and turned away abruptly. She'd only taken about two steps before there was a knock again. Her face reddening with anger, Leisa spun on her heel, facing the door once more.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WA-"
She stopped yelling when she realized the door was open. The people who had been knocking were now standing in the cluttered doorway of her poorly-kept home. Her eyes widened as she stared at the two strange intruders. One was rather tall, well-dressed and very handsome. The other person was short, with an eyepatch and a walking stick. Both looked drastically out of place in her grimy home. Both looked very rich.
"Just what do you think you're doing?!" Leisa raged, waving her hands in the air as she spoke. "Who gave you the right to just… barge into my fucking house?"
She glared at the two people, flicking a tangly, blonde lock of hair out of her face. The younger of the two chuckled, bringing a gloved hand up to his youthful face and resting it on his chin.
"The door was open. And we did knock," the boy said in a heavily accented voice, adjusting his grip on his walking stick.
Leisa raised her eyebrows in disbelief at the child's ballsy response. Then she narrowed her eyes, scowling at the pair.
"Well, what are you here for? You and your dad gonna take my house?"
It was the boy's turn to scowl now.
"He's not my dad. And we're not here to take your house. We just want a place to stay."
He huffed, crossing his arms.
There were a few moments of silence. The boy then stuck out his hand, his scowl replaced with an uneasy grin.
"My name is Ciel Phantomhive. And this man," he gestured to the tall person at his side, "Is Sebastian, my… er… friend. We'll pay you if you allow us to stay here," Ciel declared confidently. The word 'pay' caught Leisa's interest. The 13-year-old boy had the charisma of a businessman. Leisa bit her lip hesitantly then cleared her throat.
"Fine. But you've gotta pay up now."
"Of course," Ciel responded, signaling to his 'friend.' The man - Sebastian - reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a few paper dollars, handing it to Leisa.
"Will this be enough?" He asked in a deep, accented, voice. Leisa accepted the money at first but scowled when she looked at it.
"What the hell is this shit? Euros? This is America!"
Sebastian glared at her, and Leisa could have sworn she saw his eyes flash bright red. Then the man smiled, his eyes closing as he did so.
"My mistake."
He reached into his tailcoat once more and pulled out several twenty-dollar bills. Leisa
gaped at the money as he handed it to her. She then snatched it from his gloved hand and stuffed it into the pocket of her sweater.
"How long are you going to be staying?"
"About a week," Ciel responded, "But we'll only be in the house late at night and early in the morning. I have a very busy schedule."
Leisa rolled her eyes.
"Sure you do." That earned her a glare from the teenager. Sebastian cleared his throat.
"Perhaps we could take a seat? We've been traveling for quite a long time." He smirked as he said this, perhaps he had made an inside joke.
Leisa blushed. She'd forgotten all about hospitality, though, in her defense, she's rarely been a host.
"Of course… Um… come sit down," she gestured awkwardly to the two ratty couches on opposite sides of the house's small family room. She then leads the two guests into the room, sitting on a couch opposite the two males.
There was an awkward silence that lasted a few seconds after they sat.
"So, um… you're British right?" Leisa asked hesitantly, slouching low into the couch and hugging her knees to her chest. The two guests nodded simultaneously, but it was Ciel that spoke first.
"Yes." He responded quickly before continuing, "By the by, would you be able to tell me the date?" Leisa blinked at the non sequitur. Are all the British this weird?
"Ummmmm… One second," she muttered as she searched the pile at the end of the couch for her phone. She hit it a few times after she found it, and it flickered on. She checked the date on the lock screen before reporting it to her guest.
"It's June 5th… 2018, obviously," she said before throwing her phone back into the pile of objects on the end of the couch. But the guests weren't even listening. They were both staring wide-eyed at her phone.
"What is that?" Sebastian questioned calmly, pointing in the direction of her phone with a slim, gloved finger. Leisa raised an eyebrow at his question.
"Have you never seen a phone before?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"Like a telephone?"
Leisa's eyes widened. He'd genuinely never seen a cell phone before. Is that even possible?
Leisa groaned, mustering enough strength to reach over and retrieve her cell phone once again. She held the object in front of herself, pointing at it as if she's a teacher teaching a lesson to a classful of students.
"This," she pointed dramatically at the object, "is a c-e-ll ph-o-ne." She'd expected her guests to be angered at her 'lesson,' but they instead leaned in, listening intently.
"And what does it do?" The boy with unnaturally blue hair asked.
"Umm… a lot of stuff," Leisa responded intelligently. She then cleared her throat, trying again.
"It does almost anything, really. You can call people, text people, set timers, browse memes, look up funny cat videos…" The two people sitting across from her stared at her intently, confused expressions crossing their faces. She realized that if they didn't know what a cell phone was, they probably weren't aware of the definitions of 'texting' or 'memes.'
"Funny… cat videos?" Sebastian repeated, his eyes glinting. Leisa leaned back in her seat and laughed, surprising herself. She rarely ever laughed.
"Do you like cats or something?"
A small, polite smile crossed Sebastian's lips.
"Very much so."
"Well then, we have something in common," Leisa decided, crossing her arms. This human exposure must be good for her. She doesn't remember feeling this good in a long time. Leisa smiled.
"Do you want to see some cat videos?"
The man sprung up from his seat.
"Yes," he said quickly, his expression entirely serious. Leisa leaned backward as he pushed his face far too close to her own. His breath smelled an awful lot like... roses? Leisa could feel her cheeks heating up as looked down at her lap, avoiding the man's red eyes.
"There will be no cat vid-eohs," Ciel said firmly, struggling to pronounce the new word. Sebastian turned to glare at the boy.
"Yes, master," he muttered before taking a seat reluctantly. Leisa squinted her eyes.
"Did you just call him master?"
Ciel coughed into a gloved fist.
"None of your concern. By the way, where will we be sleeping?" Riiiiiiight.
Leisa groaned, getting up from her comfortable position on the couch. The two guests got up as well and follow her into a room just a few feet from the room in which they had just been sitting.
"Here," Leisa announced, spreading her arm out to showcase the room, "is where you'll be sleeping."
The room, to put it mildly, was a mess. The twin bed to the right of the small, dark room was barely visible under the mountains of… stuff covering it. Wooden planks were nailed over the room's two windows in a most awkward manner. Worst of all, several sharp-looking objects were embedded into the scratched-up walls, some of which were knives.
Not only was the room an eyesore, but it smelled. Really bad.
Sebastian smiled, his eyes closing.
"It's lovely. Thank you for allowing us to stay here."
Leisa snorted.
"Have fun guys, call me if you need help getting settled… Actually, don't." With that, she left the two to deal with their situation. They sure were idiots to pay her in advance. She went to go make herself some coffee.
Meanwhile, Sebastian was desperately cleaning the room, while Ciel stood awkwardly in a corner, not lifting even a finger in assistance.
"I don't understand why the queen was so set on us avoiding hotels," the boy complained, crossing his arms and tapping his foot on the wooden floor of the bedroom. "Staying in a hotel would have been much more convenient. We could have used aliases, and therefore erased all possibility of them potentially recognizing us. There's absolutely no reason I should have to live in this dump."
"I'm sure she had a reason, my lord," Sebastian responded as he began sewing up a hole in a nearby blanket at an astounding speed. By now, he'd already cleaned up about half the previously messy bedroom.
Ciel plopped himself down on the clean half of the room's twin bed.
"If I'm being perfectly honest, I don't have a clue why the Queen would assign me this task. It hardly seems a fitting job for a guard dog. Perhaps a scientist… historian... or some sort of spy would be better equipped for the role?"
Sebastian smirked, tucking the needle he'd been using up his sleeve.
"Well, you are a detective, my lord. Is a detective not a fitting profession for the task at hand?"
Ciel snorted.
"I suppose your right."
The teen leaned back on the bed which was now completely rid of filth, as was the room. Sebastian had finished cleaning everything.
"This sure is going to be a boring case… if we don't run into any complications," he mused, spreading his arms over his head and yawning. Sebastian chuckled, going to sit on the bed next to his master.
"Are you quite sure, my lord? We are nearly two hundred years in the future, after all."
Ciel smirked, sitting up and yawning once more.
"I suppose. But the future isn't nearly as advanced as I was expecting. In fact, I'd say modern society has regressed quite a lot, what with our host's behavior."
Sebastian chuckled.
"I understand your point quite well my lord."
Cup of coffee in one hand, Mac in the other, Leisa sat down at the kitchen table, pushing a pile of stuff out of her way. She snapped open her Macbook and quickly typed in her password, her fingers flying over the keys. Once logged into her computer, she opened Google, tapping her fingers impatiently against the table as she waited for it to load. She was going to do some research or her new guests. Only the basics, really, just to ensure she wouldn't be slaughtered in her sleep. Not that she cared.
Once Google loaded, she clicked on the search bar and typed Ciel Phantomhive. That was the kid's name, was it not? She pressed the enter key and took a long swig of her coffee, wiping her mouth and smacking the mug on the table once more when she finished.
The page had finally loaded, and Leisa's eyes widened as she stared at it. The coffee she had just drank came spurting out of her mouth, flying all over the keyboard of her precious computer.
"What the fu-"