Summary: Alois gives Ciel a treat…and Sebastian nightmares.
I do not own anything in this except the the characters or the candy done herein. I was at Universal Studios, and saw the 'Hello Kitty' marshmallow lollypop candy. Those of you who already know where this crazy idea is going, kudos to you.
Alois gazed dreamily at the purchases from Japan. Claude silently stood near, checking that all the packages that had arrived had done so safely, and were fully accounted for.
"Ne, Claude, do you think Ciel would like this?" Claude finished the checklist and turned his attention to his highness. The white marshmallow and colored sugar characteristics failed to get a reaction from Claude.
"The Earl of Phantomhive does enjoy sweets, and after the party we gave, I am sure he will appreciate the gesture."
Alois grinned and proceeded to carry the gift away. He would wrap such an important gift and know that Ciel's own hands would undo the ribbon and tape to see the gift.
Giggling softly, Alois flounced out of the room in search of wrapping paper.
Sebastian raised his eyebrows at the brown-paper package tied with string at the doorstep of the manor. The package had not been delivered by a regular mailman. They would have knocked or gone to the servants' quarters and rang until Meiren or Finny came to the door. Or Sebastian himself would have taken the package, if he wasn't tutoring his bocchan at the time.
Alert and cautious, but feeling no ill intent from the package, Sebastian carefully handled the package. To his surprise, the bulky package was very light. Sebastian frowned, wondering what was mailed to his bocchan that was so bulky, light, and even more importantly, who was mailing a package his bocchan?
Ah.
Lord Trancy. The spider. The one who sought to steal what belonged to Sebastian through his own contract because Alois 'desired' Ciel. Sebastian felt his fangs and claws beginning to lengthen, fighting to regain control before someone saw him, or worse, he damaged the package and performed the duties of a butler to the Phantomhive family in a manner lesser than his station. Whenever he felt himself slipping, he would always recall his one failing- to fix dinner the time his bocchan had been kidnapped.
Sebastian calmed himself. Ciel wanted him by his side more than Alois any day of the century.
He had even allowed Sebastian to be as rough as he wanted when devouring Ciel's soul. The pain from the contract's near fulfillment had caused Ciel to lose his memory, and once free of the contract, Sebastian had promised himself to serve Ciel through the loop-hole in the contract. He was just begging for more time to be near the delightful child, he knew. His behavior was despicable for a demon. But Sebastian found himself caring less. When bocchan finally left his mortal coil, Sebastian desired to leave with him.
How foolish, that he, a demon and predator, desired his meal far above all else, and not in the edible sense.
Sebastian pulled himself from his musings, before raising a hand to knock at the door. He really was careless, to follow a familiar path in a house he had been in for no longer than three years without paying attention, he might have endangered someone.
Sebastian knocked, before allowing himself entrance, another sign that he was slipping. He had not paused for Ciel to permit entrance. Then again, he was not summoned nor expected in the afternoon after delivering tea, so he could allow a slight infraction in bringing Ciel Lord Trancy's package.
Sebastian set the parcel down on the desk, and awaited Ciel to notice.
The young earl seemed to be developing a sixth sense to all things pertaining to Alois and glared at the package, as though wearing the color brown was a personal affront.
"A package, bocchan, from the Lord of Trancy."
He scowled at the package, but was wary of chucking the package out the window and of the inevitable consequences that would bring, so Ciel set aside the letter to Elizabeth and pulled the parcel to him.
He hesitantly lifted the parcel to his ear and listened, first. Then he sniffed the parcel.
Sebastian stared at his bocchan and wondered what Alois did to him to invoke such a strange ritual to check the parcel before opening. He had been kept from his bocchan while Alois cleaned the jacket, but he had felt distress, and surprise, then Alois had fled the room with Ciel's eye patch. Sebastian logically put down all the strong emotions to losing the eye patch.
Ciel then carefully drew a knife under the string, before using the same knife to pry open the parcel.
….Was bocchan deliberately not touching anything that Alois might have touched? He was not behaving in a disgusted or superior manner, just wary.
Sebastian scrutinized Ciel for a moment before scolding himself. Of course bocchan was not scared of Alois. He had a demon for a butler, for goodness' sake!
The paper fell away, revealing the contents wrapped in a clear paper for protection. Ciel lifted up the candy on a stick before realizing that the design and shaped committed the form into that of a cat's head.
Ciel suppressed a twitch, and upon deeper introspection, a shudder. Surely Alois was not sending a veiled threat that he would have the stupid cat-loving demon butler's head on a stick, right? Or that he would kill a cat?
"Sebastian." The butler cast his attention firmly upon his bocchan. "What is this?"
"Not a threat, bocchan, but rather a treat. They are a delicacy from Japan, using western methods of production. The white is marshmallow, and the decorations are sugar with food coloring. The theme the candy takes after can vary, but this appears to be a 'Hello Kitty' treat. The 'Hello Kitty' audience is generally aimed at young girls, usually before puberty, but some carry the adoration into their late teens."
"So, this is safe to consume, or is it a decoration?"
"You can eat the candy, bocchan. I am right here, and Alois addressed the package himself, so we know that poisoning you is out of the question."
In the next few minutes, Sebastian wished himself anywhere else, as Ciel devoured an ear, the nose, and began to eat the left side of the whiskered cheek.
"This is surprisingly good, Sebastian. Would you like a bite?"
Sebastian was thrown for a loop, before politely declining.
"Ah, that's right, you like cats. Is my eating a representation disturbing you, Sebastian?"
Sebastian was thankful that he would not lie to his bocchan.
"Yes, my lord."
"Pity." Ciel commented, giving the kitty a few more licks, he handed the remains to Sebastian. "Dispose of it as you will. I shall finish my letter to Elizabeth and then write Trancy of how much I enjoyed the treat."
Sebastian accepted the candy with all the respect of a butler taking away the remains of a fine dessert. He supposed there was a back corner in the garden where he could bury the treat with a lovely view of the sunrise.
After Sebastian let himself out, Ciel finished up a polite, two page letter to Elizabeth, asking her to tea in the next month, and replying that he would love to see her new dress, the one with the frills she had been gushing about in the last letter.
Ciel then turned his mind to an appropriate response to Alois Trancy's gift.
Alois happily tore into the box from Ciel, tastefully done in a light blue wrapping with a dark blue ribbon tied around it. He had wrenched the package from Hanna before sitting on the desk to open the present.
Stopping, mid rip, Alois fixed a glare at Hanna. "Out."
She bowed, and left. Alois returned to the package, before screaming for Claude upon discovering the contents. Lollypop spiders done in different colors and with various striped colors lay within the box.
Oh, Ciel did know how to play a fine game of revenge.
The End
