(October 10, 5:30 pm)

C'mon, now. This was inevitable.
So, if you've ever seen or been to a Brina Palencia panel, you probably know the story behind this. If not, just search "brina palencia prank" on YouTube. It should be the first result.
As far as this story goes, I struggled a bit with the characters (mostly because I found Alois so frigging annoying in the series), so I apologize in advance for any OOC moments you may find.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Bleh.

The Prank

chapter one: The Call

It started with a phone.

It was a calm summer night (well, as calm as possible) in New York City. Ciel Phantomhive was heading to his limousine, his butler, Tanaka, trailing closely behind him. The wealthy young man was vacationing from his lavish England estate for the season in hopes of getting a welcome break from his stress-inducing life back home. It was as he was lost in his thoughts of this fascinating city that his cell phone began ringing. Coming to a halt, he pulled the phone from his pocket and immediately groaned when he saw the name displayed on the screen.

"Would you like me to take the call, sir?" Tanaka asked.

Ciel sighed. "No, thank you, I can handle this." Reluctantly, he accepted the call and spoke into the receiver. "Hello?"

"Hiiiiii, Cieeeeelll!"

His eye giving a slight twitch, Ciel steadied himself as he replied emotionlessly, "Hi, Alois." The son of a rival businessman in England, Alois Trancy had always seemed to find amusement in harassing Ciel whenever possible. However, the proud Phantomhive son did his absolute best to not let the blond freak get to him. This often came across to Alois as an invitation to befriend him (if his constant pestering could be considered a bizarre form of "friendship"). And this, of course, was one of those times.

"Sooo, where are you?"

Ciel could practically hear the boy's sadistic grin over the phone. "We've gone over this several times, Alois," he growled. "I'm in Manhattan for the summer."

Alois chuckled, "Oh, I know that, silly, but where are you, specifically?"

Knowing that absolutely no good could come of this, Ciel replied coldly, "I hardly think it's any of your business where I am."

With a sigh, Alois went on, "Yes, I suppose you're right. If you're at home, or if you're at the giant toy store in Times Square, it is simply none of my business."

"How do you-" It was then that Ciel realized Alois' voice had become much clearer since they'd started talking, and he made the horrible conclusion. "Oh God..."

As if this were his cue, Alois jumped out in front of Ciel from behind a nearby wall. "Surprise!" he beamed.

Before Alois could dare to hug him, Ciel pointed threateningly in his face. "Touch me and die," he warned.

The blond boy chuckled. "Oh, Ciel, you're so funny! Aren't you going to ask what I'm doing here?"

"No."

"Well if you must know, Father thought it best for me to get out of the house and do some traveling this summer."

"Those were his exact words?" Ciel asked skeptically.

Alois paused, as if to think over his response. "Well, no, but what he did say was rather ungentlemanly..."

"Fascinating," the Phantomhive boy muttered as he continued on his way to the car. Much to his dismay, however, this went unnoticed by his hanger-on.

"So, I was wondering... can I come o-"

"No."

Alois pouted. "Ciel! You didn't even let me finish!"

"You're not allowed in my house, Alois," Ciel said firmly, not even so much as glancing in the other boy's direction. "I'm still picking up feathers from the last time you were there."

"It wasn't my fault. The guy told me that ostriches are virtually fearless!"

"Well, obviously, ostriches have never been exposed to giant butterfly nets."

"But-"

"Go home, Alois."

"I can't!"

At this, Ciel stopped. He wasn't sure why he had done this, but he felt it was a decision he would later regret. "Why?" he asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Didn't you hear?" Alois replied. "Our New York estate is being renovated. No one's allowed in right now except for the workers, so... I'm pretty much homeless." He said this as if it were hardly an issue, but he punctuated his statement with a pitiful wide-eyed pout.

Unfortunately for him, Ciel was not fazed.

"Is that right?... Well, enjoy being a bum."

"Ciel!" Alois cried with an adamant stamp of his foot. "How could you be so cold toward a man of equal if not superior wealth?"

The dark-haired youth shook his head. "I honestly don't know where to begin with that sentence..."

Alois turned Ciel to face him, grabbed his hand, and went on dramatically, "Please take me in, Ciel! You're the only one I can trust in this big ol' city!"

The boys stared at each other in silence for several seconds -Alois pleadingly, Ciel with complete apathy- before Ciel groaned. "I'm going to hate myself for this..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Alois squealed and jumped in delight. "Thank you thank you thank you, Ciel! This is going to be so much fun! I promise you will not regret this! Let's go over to your place right now! I call shotgun!"

As Ciel stood frozen on the sidewalk, fighting the overwhelming urge to bang his head on the nearest concrete wall, Alois made a dash for the car. Not even a second after he started running, though, Tanaka -whose presence had gone unnoticed by the young Trancy- gripped his shoulder, bringing him to a halt.

"I apologize, sir," he informed the boy, "but the passenger seat is off limts for the time being."

Alois whined, "But I can't sit in the back with Ciel! It's bound to be cramped enough in there as it is!" He added nonchalantly, "Especially compared to my limousines..."

Upon hearing this, Ciel spun around on his heel and sneered, "Well if space is the problem, I'm sure you'd fit quite snugly in the trunk."

Immediately, Alois burst into a fit of laughter. "You see, Ciel, this is why we're such good friends. Because we're not afraid to tease each other!"

Again, Ciel chose not to respond.

"C'mon, let's go!" The blond grabbed his comrade's wrist and dove into the back seat of the car.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So."

Ciel looked to his left, where Alois sat, his knees drawn to his chest, staring into space. "...What?" Ciel asked.

Alois went on, "I've been thinking. Y'know, about stuff we can do while we're out on the town together. And I just remembered... your brother lives around here, doesn't he?"

It was barely even noticeable, but Ciel's eye gave a twitch at the mentioning of his brother. Or rather, his half-brother. At the astounding age of twenty-four, Sebastian was already revered by everyone that traveled in the Phantomhives' circle as the most handsome, intelligent, and successful of the family's youth. Ciel suspected this was greatly influenced by the age difference between them; were he just a few years older, people might actually take into account what he had to say half the time. He never verbalized the grudge he held against Sebastian for this situation neither of them were in control of, but most of the time, he didn't even need to.

"Yes," Ciel muttered, turning to look out the window at the scenery passing them by.

"We should go hang out with him! Wouldn't that be fun?"

With a huff, the Phantomhive boy replied, still avoiding making eye contact, "I don't know where he lives."

Either Alois was unaware of Ciel's dislike for his sibling, or he just didn't care, because he went on, "Well then why don't you call him?"

By now, Ciel could feel Alois' eyes boring into his back, and he came to the conclusion that he was never going to relent, so he groaned, pulled out his phone, and dialed Sebastian's number.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

"Hello, you've reached Sebastian. I'm currently unavailable..."

Ciel tried his best to mask his relief at this as he told the boy to his left, "It went to voicemail."

Unfortunately, Alois still refused to give up. "Leave him a message!" he demanded, shaking Ciel by the shoulder.

"Why don't you leave him a message?" Ciel snapped.

Alois blinked. "That would be creepy," he answered, as if this were obvious.

Ciel held a hand to his forehead, muttering something along the lines of, "I really hate..." before he heard the beep of his brother's voicemail. He sighed, "Hey, Seb, it's Ciel. Al-"

"HIIIIII, SEBASTIAAAAAAANNN!"

The young Phantomhive made a point of sticking his finger in his ear as he continued, "Alois and I are in town and we wanted to hang out with you, but we can't remember where you live. Call me back." When he hung up, he glared at Alois. "Happy?"

The blond boy smiled, but Ciel was unable to discern whether it was sincere or just pure sarcasm. "Was that so hard?"

Burying his face in his hands, Ciel mumbled, "I knew this was a bad idea."

"WAIT!"

The shout from Alois was so sudden, so loud, so frightening, that Tanaka immediately jerked the car to a halt, which caused Ciel to slam into the back of the passenger seat. "What?" he shouted once he'd peeled his face off the leather.

Alois leaned over Ciel to point out the window. "That's it!" he beamed.

Pushing the blond away, Ciel gritted his teeth. "What are you talking about?"

"That house, right there! That's Sebastian's!"

Ciel looked at the house outside his window. There was a good possibility that Alois was right, but he couldn't help wondering... "How the hell do you know that?"

Slightly embarrassed, Alois laughed it off, "Oh, that's... not important. C'mon, let's go surprise him!" Before the words even left his mouth, he was climbing over Ciel to open the door and run out onto the sidewalk, dragging the Phantomhive son with him.

"Mr. Tanaka," Ciel sharply instructed his butler, "do not leave this spot."

Tanaka nodded. "Very well, sir."

Ciel had no time to express how grateful he was before he was out on the street and Alois slammed the door behind them.

As the boys looked the house over, Alois gave a content sigh. "Yup. Looks just the same as last time."

Once again, Ciel was dumbfounded. "When were you here?"

"Oh, relax," Alois said with a wave of his hand, "it's ancient history. Let's go inside." With that, Ciel found himself, yet again, being dragged somewhere against his will by the person he hated more than anyone else he'd ever met. Alois bounded up the steps, rang the doorbell, and waited.

And waited.

And when he got sick of waiting, he rang again. Repeatedly. Finally, Ciel grabbed his hand in a death grip and growled, "Do it again, I dare you."

Alois replied, with a wicked smirk of his own, "You wouldn't."

"Oh, really?"

"You don't have the guts."

"Try me."

"Are you looking for Sebby?"

The new voice caused Ciel and Alois to cease their argument and look next door. The sight caused a double-take from the both of them: the voice had come from a person whose gender was, shall we say, debatable (too feminine to be a man, but too masculine to be a woman) who sported long, fiery red hair, red glasses perched on the nose, a red peacoat, black gloves, black skinny jeans, red high-heeled boots, and a somewhat creepy smile.

Needless to say, the boys were more than a little terrified.

"...U-um..." Alois began, his voice cracking.

"Do you know him?" asked Ciel.

The neighbor pondered this for a moment, then shrugged, "Something like that."

"Is he home?"

"'Fraid not," said the neighbor, pulling off a glove. "He's been out all day. You could wait for him, but he'd most likely just call the cops on you."

Suspecting the neighbor spoke from experience, Alois nodded. "Alright, well, uh... thank you."

The neighbor winked, calling, "Stay safe, boys! You never know what could happen in the big city!" before heading inside.

There was a brief silence between the two. Alois broke it by loudly declaring, tactless as always, "That was weird."

"Well, there's obviously no point in staying here," Ciel said, turning toward the stairs. "We might as well just-" Before he could take a single step, he felt Alois' hand on his arm. "...What?" he groaned.

Alois grinned, looking at the house. "He left the window open."

Ciel narrowed his eyes. "Don't lie to me, Alois."

"What? I'm not lying!" the blond replied, shocked that Ciel would even think such a thing.

The young Phantomhive went on, "Why would he leave the wi-" But as he spoke, his gaze unconsciously traveled to the spot where Alois was looking, and he realized that he was, in fact, being told the truth.

Sebastian's front window was wide open.

"...Oh, look at that."

"I say we go in!" Alois smiled.

Ciel snapped, "Are you insane?" However, Alois was already trying to climb over the small wrought-iron railing to get to the window. He groaned. "Why do I even bother asking?"

As he balanced on the railing, Alois called, "Ciel, spot me!"

The dark-haired boy huffed and reluctantly held Alois by the legs. Alois proceeded to twist himself into a rather awkward position so he could try to reach the windowsill. It was at this moment that a man walking past the house stopped to stare at the boys. "We're in New York," shouted Ciel, "this is not the weirdest thing you've seen!" Quickly, the man continued on his way.

When Ciel looked back to Alois, the blond was stretching his arms out as far as he possibly could to reach the window. He scoffed, "Some people have absolutely no respect for privacy."

"Shocking, isn't it?" Ciel rolled his eyes.

"Ooh!" Ciel's attention snapped back Alois, who now had a loose grip on the windowsill. "I think I've got it! Ciel, gimme a boost!"

"You realize that if I let you go, you could-" Before Ciel could proceed to chide Alois on how he was risking his life to commit a crime, it occured to him: would the world really be any worse off without Alois Trancy?

Within moments, the Phantomhive boy had thrust his apparent partner-in-crime toward the window.