takes one
"Master, here is your tea."
Ciel takes his cup from Sebastian, and puts a bit of honey in, surprising her.
"I thought you only liked milk in your tea."
He blinks, startled by the force of her statement. "I've changed."
A quiet alarm goes off in her head.
(Of course you have.)
One of the main differences about Ciel is that he reads a lot.
He was much more interested in playing outside before, but although Lizzie misses those golden days and that Ciel, she realises it is not that strange a change. He runs the Phantomhive estate now, and has to be educated enough to stand his ground with the other lords.
However, Lizzie is surprised by the fact that he reads for recreation, too. Once, she visits while he's reading a mystery in the library, another time - a poem by some obscure young author. When she's choosing his birthday present, she decides to experiment with something rather uncute, and searches what feels like every bookshop.
When she hands the red packet to him, all smiles as always, he looks sceptical. After it is swiftly unwrapped and he sees the leather cover, wonder dawns on his face. Then, he breaks into a smile, a real one, and her chest constricts because she could swear-
"Thank you, Lizzie."
She pulls her own smile back. "No problem."
-she's seen it before, on a (not entirely) different person.
She watches him and Sebastian play chess once.
She remembers Ciel telling her, a long time ago, about how boring chess was. Now, she watches the crease from concentration on his forehead become deeper and deeper, proportional to Sebastian's slick grin. He's growing annoyed, she can feel it. Sebastian loses, in the end, but even she thinks it may have been out of courtesy, and the next time she sees Ciel is in the library, a tome of chess strategies in his hands.
She remembers a boy who would shrug his shoulders when he was caught at tag, and goes to hug him goodbye.
It's her family's annual Spring Ball, and also their first public appearance as a couple. She goes around shaking hands, receiving congratulations, her smile so wide her mouth is hurting. Sometime in the midsts of all the hustle she remembers she hasn't seen him since the beginning of the ball (which had been a good two hours ago) and goes looking for him. She goes to the first place she thinks he'll be - a terrace overlooking the small rose garden.
She knew for a fact that Ciel hated roses. He'd told her as much when they'd been eight. Vain flowers, he'd called them; vain and arrogant.
She's not surprised when she finds him there.
She goes next to him on the railing, not saying anything. After a while, he speaks up.
"How is the ball going?"
"Brilliantly, I would say. Everybody's saying what a cute couple we are, wishing us a happy marriage and beautiful children. I tell them it's too early for that, they laugh, and that's when the gossiping starts -'Oh, but Lady Bennet had her first child at age 18, didn't she?'. You'd love it, really."
He smiles, raising an eyebrow at her sarcastic humour; she thinks it's fair he sees this side of her, once in a while. She's half-certain he'll ask what is going on with her, but he doesn't. "I don't doubt it. I think I'll just stay here, though."
"Of course," she says, pushing off the railing. "You never were one for social encounters, were you, Ciel?"
She walks away without looking at his expression.
He joins her for a dance ten minutes afterwards. The air is heavier than it had been before, and there is an edge to his fake, fake smile, but he doesn't say anything, and neither does she. She'd figured out his game, and had given him an insight to hers. She smiles into his shoulder.
He'd always been the better playmate.
A/N: Happy belated birthday, Ciel Phantomhive. (Or whoever you turn out to be in the end. The TCT sure messes things up.)