Summary; Ciel and Allen meet and discuss the horror of birthdays, since both lost their families on that dreaded day
Set while both boys are thirteen. Just after the jack the ripper ark black butler manga (so after the birthday chapter) and while Allen was traveling with Cross.
The December English air was cool and crisp with just the faintest hint of snow for the morning. Adults were scurrying around and trying to escape the chill wind, children were running and laughing and planning all the snow fights they were to have once the promised snow arrived. The cheer seemed infections, for even those that didn't have the time to spend wandering the streets looking at Christmas things still had smiles on their faces as they saw all the brightly coloured decorations.
All except two that is.
Allen Walker was not having a good day. His "Guardian" or "Master" as he was made to call him had once again drunk several bars out of liquor and disappeared before paying for the alcohol. Allen now had even more debt that he had to pay off at several establishments, was meant to picking up more wine for the drunkard when no one was selling to him, and was continuously getting whispered about for his strange looks; though the last one didn't matter so much so long as they didn't get violent.
If that wasn't bad enough, the Christmas decorations served as a constant reminder of what day was coming up. Cross didn't care about the day, thankfully, and didn't expect to do anything for the occasion; everyone else however seemed to take great joy in his most hated time.
Ciel noticed the boy for his strange looks first. The white hair tucked under a knitted hat and a red scar running down the side of his face, as well as the fact that he looked rather young to be arguing with a bar tender to try and procure alcohol. The second thing that drew Ciel to the boy was something that no one else seemed to notice.
The child was just as empty as he was.
The way he acted was simply that, an act. A good one; but an act none the less. The boy looked like a polite child trying to use tears and fear to get what he wanted; if you knew what to look for however that observation was quickly proved false. The posture was one street urchins used when expecting to be hit, the expression wasn't quiet innocent enough to claim genuine, and the eyes were the ones Ciel saw in the mirror when he was practicing looking adorable before he had had to flirt with the Viscount (something that was still a little too fresh in his memory).
But the thing that had Ciel giving the order to help the boy was the very real flinch he gave whenever he happened to catch sight of Christmas decorations. A person walking by with holly in their hair, a child with a brightly wrapped present, and that one person who had the gall to sing Christmas carols as they tried to get to their destination. This would be very interesting.
Allen was mad as hell as the bartender sold the last bottle of the wine he needed to the red eyed man in a tail coat, more so when the bartender sneered and rejoiced in the fact that the wine was now gone. Allen was incredibly glum as he followed the man out of the store.
Only to have the bottle shoved in his face.
'It would appear my Young Master has taken an interest in you. Be happy.'
Before Allen could start worrying about what "interest" this master may have taken in him a voice called out to them from an alleyway right beside them.
'Sebastian, that's enough.' The voice was strong, commanding, and way too high to belong to an adult.
'Yes, my lord.' The tail coat man responded.
The owner of the voice stepped from the gloom and Allen was rather surprised. The clothes were rich, the face was young, and he held a cynicism in his eye that matches his from when the only name he had had was Red.
The boy was addressing him now. 'You may have the wine without payment, call it a lure if you will; however I am also willing to offer you a decent meal since you've don't look like you've had one in a while, though that one you will have to pay for.'
Allen looked at him, trying to hide the calculations going on in his head. The boy had made it clear he knew he didn't have money, which meant he wanted something else. Normally when people tried to make that deal with him they had something specific in mind, something he didn't give if at all avoidable. He had made the mistake of taking without asking the cost once, and never again.
'What do you want?' he asked warily.
Ciel smiled at the boys question, he had been right.
'Information,' he said easily, 'on why you seem to hate Christmas so much.'
Allen blinked. That was … not what he was expecting.
'Why on earth would you want to know? What's it matter to you?' the smile dropped of the other boy's face, a look of boredom replacing it.
'Curiosity, it's not often that I meet someone my own age who shares my dislike of this particular time,' was the answer, one that had Allen interested. 'Besides, something tells me we may have more in common than most, your mask is good but I think it might take a few more years before you can perfect it.' the smile was back as the boy so casually called him out on something very few others seemed to see.
Allen found himself nodding in agreement to the deal.
The place they went was cheap but sold good, solid food and didn't question the amount ordered, though Allen's two companions did raise eyebrows. Allen didn't particularly care, he was being fed and all he had to do was answer questions, hopefully.
One thing could be said for the boy with the eyepatch, he had the decency to wait until after Allen's stomach had stopped rumbling. 'So, now it's time for your part of the deal, why do you hate Christmas?'
'Can I at least have the name of the person requesting my life story?' Allen said in the politest voice he had. The boy smiled and the tailcoat man smirked.
'My name is Ciel, Earl of Phantomhive, and I run Funtom Toy Company.' Even Allen knew those names. The Earl of Phantomhive was something that was talked about a lot on the streets of London; both as something to be feared and thankful for. The name was almost a Phantom in itself, used to keep the less manageable gangs in place. When he found out about Akuma and anti-Akuma weapons and all that he had wondered in the Phantomhives were Akuma themselves, with the way they could remove whole crime syndicates without a trace overnight.
Now he could see for himself that the Queen's Watch dog was just a human boy his own age, and that scared him more than if he had met a monster.
'If you have finished day dreaming,' the scathing voice commented, 'I would like my answer now.'
Allen swallowed, maybe best to answer truthfully after all.
'It's not Christmas I hate, it's my birthday that happens to be on the same date.' For a second he saw surprise, then the boy he was talking to burst out laughing.
'It seems we have more in common than I thought, my birthday was just a few days ago.' Allen tried to process that, couldn't, and gave up. 'So why do you hate this day that society dictates we celebrate?'
For a split second Allen hesitated, then gave up and told him everything except the stuff relating to Akumas, he wasn't quite ready to admit his insanity just yet, and couldn't bring himself to admit to that sin out loud.
The laughter had vanished from Ciel's eye and he sighed.
'I wonder if our meeting was coincidence, or some higher power having fun,' the boy muttered. At Allen's look he elaborated. 'The amount we have in common is rather amazing, I wonder if there is was a curse on December three years ago.
'You see, three years ago was my tenth birthday as well. It was going to be a grand affair, as it normally is for rich people, with all my family and friends arriving and having a good time.
'Only it didn't turn out that way. Instead my entire family, even my dog, were murdered and the house burned to the ground. My father's butler and I were the only survivors, and he was left fairly close to crippled.
'I was captured, sold, and used as a "pet", as I guess you could call it, for several months; though anyone treating an animal like that would likely be arrested.
'I learnt the surprising amount of suffering that humanity can cram into that short time.
'So we have much more in common than I originally thought. It seems we both hate that one day on which we are meant to celebrate our life, it seems we both lost the things most important in ours on that same day.'
Allen was silent; he had never expected to find someone that shared his hatred for their birthday and Christmas, especially one that had a similar reason.
'But you left something out,' Ciel said after a moment, 'I don't know what, but I can tell by the look in your eyes. What aren't you telling me?'
'What makes you so sure that I haven't said everything already?' the white haired boy sounded genuinely curious. Ciel snorted.
'We're a little too alike, I can read you like a book. The mask you wear doesn't quite fit yet.'
'You would never believe me.'
'You'd be surprised.'
'Do you believe in Akuma?'
'That's Japanese for demon, Right?' Ciel said with a rather strange look at the man in the tail coat.
'Yes, or something like that …' and with that Allen found himself explaining about Akuma and the mess he had managed to get himself into.
Silence, then; 'this is really just ridiculous, I would laugh if your story wasn't so tragic.'
'What do you mean?'
'What I mean,' Ciel said in that voice used with children, 'is that our stories are so ridiculously similar that, if I hadn't destroyed the evidence myself, I would be suspecting that you were playing a joke on me.' Allen stared at him in confusion. 'Demons, I am talking about demons. Though the one I know is a little different to the ones you described.'
And so Ciel told him about the other type of demon that was out there, the one that had been standing next to them for the entire conversation.
Allen suddenly found himself agreeing that the similarities were almost alarming in there frequency. He was also looking at the tail coat man, Sebastian, with new eyes and had a rather important question.
'Why are you telling me your life story? I mean, I traded mine for food so why are you giving yours away for free?'
'Maybe because were so similar? Maybe it because it feels good to be able to connect with someone over such similarities for once in my life? Or maybe because I feel a fake sense of empathy for someone who also hates their birthday?'
Sebastian spoke up for the first time since he had shoved the bottle in Allen's face. 'My Lord, if we stay here any longer we are going to fall behind schedule.'
'Yes,' Ciel muttered as he stood, 'you're right.' The boy hesitated a second before he walked through the door, and then passed Allen a card. 'That's my address, if you're ever in town again and in need of a feed either I or one of my servants should be able to accommodate you, assuming we all live long enough to do so.' Allen shivered at the words but nodded and put the card in a safe place. The words were ominous but true and no reason to pass up a potential free meal.
'Goodbye.' Allen muttered to the retreating figures.
Allen never did get to see Ciel a second time. Two years later saw him in London again, but just a few questions were enough to learn that the other had passed. People commented about what a shame it was with his youth to have gone so early.
For a second Allen wondered if the boy had managed his revenge, and realized that if he hadn't he probably would be hearing from a rather irate ghost pretty soon. Ciel just wasn't the type to give up his soul after being cheated out of something that big.
