Okay, so I'm really excited to finally post a story on Fanfiction. I've been reading on here for a couple of years, and now I have a story crawling around in my head, so...let it be written!

I've written before, but this is my first foray into fanfiction. I figured I might as well enter the realm of my OTP. At the moment, this is just rated T. It'll probably stay that way, lol, even though SebaCiel smut is pretty dang awesome. I'm just a bit unsure about writing it.

Additionally, if this gets good feedback, chapter 2 (Part 2: Delights) should be up in the next few days.

Disclaimer: I own nothing...I'm just borrowing Yana Toboso's big-girl toys for my foray into her little black sandbox.

Part 1: Mortals

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

Ciel sighed after reading the line aloud, knowing that Robin was the part he wanted to have in the play. He also knew that he probably wouldn't get it, seeing as how musical theater at his school – Victoria's Institute for the Arts – was run by the popular crowd.

And Ciel was not popular by any means.

He sighed again, leaning back on the luxurious couch and dropping the script on the cushion next to his thigh.

With his dumb eyepatch, his small stature, and his well-known sexuality, Ciel knew he pretty much had no hope of ever becoming popular at that school – which he found highly ironic, as most of the guys attending his school were likely just as straight as the yellow brick road.

Normally, that suited him just fine, but when it came to other matters, such as playing the part he just knew he was destined for in one of his favorite comedies, he hated the position he held in his high school.

If only they knew…

Now that Ciel's father was dead, he was being prepped to take over his father's old position as principal of Victoria's Institute. He was aiming to get his doctorate in education administration, teach for a while, and then work his way up to principal, all under the instruction of his father's elderly mentor, Tanaka.

However, when his father had been sixteen, he had been essentially king of the school; he'd had the trust of all the teachers and met no problems in his climb to the top position. Ciel envied the position his father had held at the school, even as a freshman. Vincent Phantomhive…his name was hallowed in the halls of Victoria's Institute. He had been class president, president of the Key Club and student government, lead in almost every play, a star athlete (football, soccer and track), a straight-A student, and valedictorian.

And although he had plenty of reason to be, he wasn't cocky or rude. He had actually been one of the nicest students in the school…

Or so Auntie Angelina claimed.

It wouldn't surprise Ciel if she had embellished a few details. His mother, Rachel, had told him all about Angelina's pitiful little crush on Vincent back when they were all kids.

Ciel scoffed at the mere thought of it.

Anyways, that wasn't the point. The point was that Ciel should have been able to rule the school as his father had, but circumstances didn't allow for it to just be given to him; instead, he would have to work for it.

As he came to that conclusion, his Auntie walked into the room, smiling far too widely, teetering in heels far too high, and wearing far too much red than was probably sane. "Hey, Ciel! What's up?" she asked kindly as she collected things in her purse.

Ciel picked at a non-existent piece of lint on his sweater as he answered. "Just going over lines for my audition this afternoon, Madame." He kept his eyes cast down, radiating disinterest.

"Ah, good luck with that. You know your father was Puck in that play, a Midsummer Night's Dream." Her eyes grew teary and wistful. "He was amazing, had the part down to a science-"

"That's lovely, Madame, but you should really get going before you're late for work," he interrupted, bored with the conversation.

Angelina frowned slightly, blinking away the tears. "Now, don't you know by now to call me Auntie, Ciel Phantomhive? Honestly, I'm not a stranger, you know," she pouted, squeezing him in a hug before flouncing out the door.

Ciel looked down at his watch, thinking that he should probably get going as well.

5:45. Yes, I should definitely get going.

Stomping through the small puddles left behind by last night's rain, Ciel grumbled, "I fucking wore my nice boots today, and for what? For mud all over the heels. Fan-fucking-tastic."

The bus pulled up just as he reached his stop.

Ciel looked around the muddy street corner in mild surprise, noting that his self-proclaimed "best friend", Alois, was nowhere to be found. He then shrugged and began climbing the steps to get on the bus.

The moment he was eye level with the first row of seats, his name was shouted with zeal. "Ciel! Come sit with me!"

He sighed in annoyance but complied, sitting in the seat across the aisle from his other self-proclaimed best friend, Soma Kadar, and his – almost frighteningly – devoted boyfriend, Agni Munshi, who was previously orphaned and had been taken in by a foster family.

"How's it going, Ciel?" Soma asked eagerly, in an overly-friendly mood as usual.

"You should know, you were over for most of the weekend, Soma," Ciel replied somewhat shortly.

"Aw, come on Ciel – don't be like that! Tell me how your morning was."

Ciel frowned and reluctantly told him a severely abridged version of how he wasn't expecting to get the part in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the conversation with his Aunt that had followed his inner monologue.

Soma pouted and slammed his hands down on his knees. "How stupid! You're a great actor, and those drama geeks are all idiots if they don't choose you to be the fairy. Right, Agni?" Soma looked to his significant other for affirmation.

Agni, tattoos, piercings, dyed white hair and all, blushed at being called out and stuttered a response. "Y-yes…yes, of course!"

Ciel simply rolled his eyes and dug his phone and in-ear headphones out of his small black messenger bag. After a few taps, he placed his earbuds into his ears and began listening to Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Movement Two, tuning out the rest of the world.

Soma frowned, turning back to Agni. "Does he seem sadder than usual today?" Soma asked his boyfriend.

Agni glanced at Ciel before returning his grave gaze to Soma. "Well, it is only a few weeks before his birthday," he responded, in a low voice. "And you know how that makes him."

The younger boy's shining, golden eyes widened. "Of course!" he said, planting his right fist in his left hand in realization. "Well, you know what? Ciel should just get a boyfriend!"

"Eh?"

"Well, whenever I'm sad, you make me happy, Agni!" Soma clarified. "So wouldn't it make sense for him to be happy if he had someone to love as well?"

Agni smiled, feeling his heart beat just a bit faster in his chest. "I suppose you're right."

Soma laughed, leaning back into Agni's chest and closing his eyes for the remainder of the bus ride.

Ciel was jolted out of his trance-like state a few minutes away from the school when his phone vibrated. He put in his passcode and dragged down the notifications bar with his ringed thumb, seeing a new text from Alois.

OMG sorry i wasnt at the bus stop 2day, Im still coming to school tho

Ciel rolled his eyes at Alois's terrible typing skills, then replied: Where were you?

A few moments later, his response came through: getting screwed HARD by this rly hot guy!

Ciel chose not to answer.

It didn't matter anyways because the moment he stepped off of the bus and onto the curb, he noticed Alois emerging unsteadily from a bright red 2014 Tesla Model S with a dreamy, satisfied smile on his face. Soma suddenly popped out of nowhere from behind Ciel, whistling lowly. "That's a nice car. What's Alois doing in a nice car?"

"I have no idea," Ciel responded slowly as Alois made his way over.

"Did you get my text, Ciel? That's the hot guy," he gestured grandly to a dark-haired, very tall boy who was rummaging around in the trunk of the Tesla. "I dunno where he came from, but we need more guys like that around—"

Ciel cut him off. "Where did you meet him?"

"We actually bumped into each other at Wal-Mart. We both reached for the Cheeto Puffs at the same time…Clearly it's meant to be!" he said dramatically, faking a swoon.

Soma and Agni, who had appeared without Ciel's noticing as well, laughed raucously at this.

"Ha-ha." Ciel said sarcastically. "So you just happened to run into some really hot guy while buying Cheetos at Wal-Mart, and … what, he decided on the spot that he wanted to have his dirty way with you?"

"Yes, that's about right," a deep voice said, surprising Ciel.

The boy who had been by the car was now standing behind Alois, wrapping his long arms about the smaller boy's waist and leaning down to place a soft, not-so-chaste kiss on the side of Alois's neck.

His dark hair was neatly cut at the back, and midnight-colored bangs, parted harshly to the sides of his face, swung slightly, significantly longer on one side than the other. He had thin, rectangular glasses perched on his nose, which glinted in the watery sunlight as he shifted. His sharply cut jaw was only outdone by the even sharper tilt of his arched eyebrows, which lent to him a constantly brooding facial expression. Perceptive golden eyes took in Ciel's petite form with unreadable emotion.

"But then, could anyone blame me?" he murmured into the milky-white skin with a smirk. Alois giggled as Claude continued. "He's just so damn—"

Again, Ciel interrupted. "And who the hell are you?"

"Ah, I'm very sorry, Ciel. My name is Claude Faustus. My cousin and I are new in town. It's…nice to meet you," he introduced himself, detangling from Alois and holding out a hand. "Alois has said many things about you."

Ciel sighed, firmly grasping Claude's much larger hand. "Nice to meet you as well, I guess."

At his touch, Ciel saw Claude's oddly golden eyes flash with something predatory, and his hold on Ciel's hand tightened briefly before he let go.

Ciel opened his mouth to say something snide, but at that moment, the bell went off for first period. Snapping his mouth shut, he grabbed Soma – who had been saying a soft goodbye to Agni – and dragged him off to their first class –Calculus AB.

Soma was a junior at age 17, a few years older than Ciel, who was 14 but turning 15 in a few weeks. Ciel had strived to be in top-level math classes, taking Algebra online in 7th grade, Geometry in 8th, and both Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus online in 9th grade. Ciel had also skipped 6th grade, so aside from being the only sophomore in Calculus AB, he was also one of the youngest sophomores in the school.

Despite his youth, Ciel was better with numbers than most of the kids at the school, and proud of it. He was also great in history and science, and while he didn't especially shine in other areas, he had high enough grades in English and Art. His 4.0 GPA, perfect attendance record, and great behavior had earned him the title of class president in SGA (student government) from the administrators, but nothing else. Everything else came down to student vote, so he pretty much had no chance when it came to presidency in other clubs.

As he sat down in one of the middle rows in his math class, Ciel fiddled with his eyepatch, making sure it was mostly hidden by his bangs.

Such a pain sometimes.

He would wear a contact to mask the discoloration in his right eye, but the eye was far too sensitive for that and far too sensitive to simply be left open in broad daylight. So Ciel was forced to wear the eyepatch…

And it had sort of grown on him.

When the second bell of the day rang, signaling that all students were to be in class, Ciel sat up ramrod-straight, focusing all of his attention on the teacher, Mr. Spears.

He was a strict man who stuck exactly to the textbook, and sometimes it really pissed Ciel off. He had done so many math classes online that sitting in a classroom, listening to a boring man lecture on a topic that was far more simple and easy than he made it sound, nearly made him want to flip a table.

So when a voice crackled over the intercom, "Ciel Phantomhive, please report to the front office," Ciel was ecstatic to get out of class. He said a quick goodbye to a nearly-asleep, drooling Soma and practically sprinted out of the room, hardly remembering to gather his things before he left.

As Ciel speed-walked through the hallways, the heels of his less-than-impeccable boots clicking loudly on the polished wood floors, he began to wonder why he had been called down to the office in the first place.

Of course it wouldn't be anything bad. Ciel never broke any rules. He kept his hair an appropriate length and didn't dye it. He had one earring in each ear, nothing gaudy, just small onyx stones. His eyepatch was for medical reasons. He kept his shorts knee-length and his boots no higher than the knee. He always wore the black blazer with the school logo on it and kept his white dress shirt buttoned – besides the very top one, as that was simply uncomfortable. He did everything the teachers asked of him, earned community service hours, and kept his grades in the range of ninety-six to one hundred.

It was hard to fault him.

He arrived at the office and knocked on the doorframe, catching the attention of the secretary, a very smiley man named Mr. Pluto with graying hair. "Go right in, Ciel," said Mr. Pluto cheerily.

He did just that, and to his surprise, found Claude sitting in a chair in front of the principal's desk. Another boy was there as well, but at the angle he was sitting, Ciel couldn't see his face. Just as Ciel opened his mouth to ask why he had been called down in the first place, Edward Midford, the junior class president, entered the office as well.

"Well, boys," started Miss Blanc, the elderly school principal, "we have two new students, and as class presidents, I'd like you to show them each around the school."

For some reason, the principal didn't seem very happy that the two boys were in her office. There was an odd look of disgust in her eyes, Ciel noticed.

She gestured to Claude, who smirked at Ciel. "This is Claude Faustus. He's a junior, and he will be taking A and AS level classes."

She then gestured to the other boy, whose face Ciel still couldn't see. "This is Sebastian Michaelis. He is a sophomore, and he will also be taking A and AS level classes. Sebastian and Claude are cousins from out of state. We will treat them with kindness and acceptance as we would any other students, understood?"

"Yes, Miss Blanc," Ciel and Edward responded at the same time.

At that moment, Sebastian chose to turn around. Ciel's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he took in Sebastian's appearance. His dark, soft-looking hair was cut just so that the back was a only a bit shorter than the front, his bangs hanging over part of the right side of his face. His full (but not exceedingly large) lips were quirked in a smirk, somehow similar to Claude's while still looking completely different. His nose was slim and perfectly straight. His skin pale and unblemished. But the best feature was probably his eyes – almost unsettling with how bright they were.

Ciel thought, They're pretty much crimson! What sort of contacts is this guy using?

Sebastian stood, and Ciel noted the way that the standard black school pants hugged the lean muscles of his thighs. The taller – much, much taller than Ciel – boy held out a hand for Ciel to shake, and as Ciel's hand was firmly captured by Sebastian's, Ciel felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

He also noticed a similar flashing of Sebastian's eyes to the hungry look Claude had cast him just an hour or so earlier. But instead of feeling frightened or nervous, he felt…attracted.

What the hell?

"Pleased to meet you…" he prompted, asking for Ciel's name.

"Ciel. Ciel Phantomhive," he clarified.

"Well, then I'm very pleased to meet you, Ciel Phantomhive," he practically purred in a sensual baritone, sending pleasurable chills down Ciel's spine. He stroked over the ring on Ciel's left thumb before pulling away. Ciel tried his hardest to fight off a sudden blush, but some of it seeped through, causing Edward to snicker behind him.

"I-I'll see you later, Miss Blanc," he said, turning and walking out of the principal's office and knowing that Sebastian would likely follow.

A/N: So, stuff I write is usually about this long. 2K to 4k words. Sorry if you guys prefer longer chapters...that's just how I write. . Alright, well, review, follow, whatever else. Wish me good luck on my journey! .