Ciel Phantomhive was in his study frantically trying to clean before his guest arrived. He heard a knock on the door and the familiar voice of his butler as the dark haired man entered the room."My lord is everything all right, you seem out of sorts ...and you're cleaning?"
Ciel heard the butler softly chuckle. The boy glared at the taller man. "I am fine Sebastian, just concerned about the guest that I am expecting today." He moved everything from the desk and dusted off the wooden surface. He returned everything back to the desk and proceeded to dust off the photos sitting there.
Sebastian looked stunned, as the butler he was usually informed of guests prior to the day of their visit. If was unusual for his young master to not tell him something of this nature. "I was unaware we were going to have a guest sir. Is it Lady Elisabeth? "No it's someone much worse than Elisabeth" He slumped down into the chair behind his desk. He sighed. Sebastian frowned, wondering about this mysterious guest. Ciel was not usually this worried and left everything to the butler.
He bowed "Well then Young Master, I'll prepare the servants." He stood up and looked at Ciel waiting for his instructions, but he wasn't expecting what he got instead. Ciel became alert and worried. He stood up slamming his hands down on top of the desk.
"NO! You, Mey-Rin, Finny, Baldroy, and Snake are all off duty today." He heard the door open once more and Tanaka entered the room. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. "Lady Celia has arrived sir." Ciel sighed and glanced around his study, it wasn't perfect but it would have to do since his guest had arrived earlier than he had expected her to.
Ciel quickly dismissed Sebastian and went to greet his guest. Unfortunately, the servants that he dismissed for the day were all there as well. He frowned. "What are you all doing here? I thought I told you lot to take today off!" Ciel shouted at them just as a carriage stopped in front of the stairs. A girl stepped down from the carriage, her red haired butler following behind her. Sebastian went to help her down from the step but Tanaka beat him to it "Allow me Mr. Sebastian, Lady Celia is not very kind to strangers."
A young woman took Tanaka's outstretched hand as she stepped down from the carriage "Ciel who on earth are these people?" She had the same navy blue hair and sapphire blue eyes as Ciel did. Her hair was pinned up in the back into a loose bun. She wore a silk blue gown with a matching hair pin.
Ciel was flustered, nothing was going his way today and he hated it. "They're my servants." The girl looked at Sebastian "I see you still have the Black Butler." The butler smiled softly and bowed.
"It's nice to see you too My Lady." The woman, Celia, moved away from the servants and began talking to Ciel. Sebastian's eyes followed her then moved back to the other Phantomhive estate servants.
Mey-Rin was the next to speak, but it was in a low whisper as Ciel's guest was taken to her room by Tanaka. "Mr. Sebastian, sir, who is that girl." Sebastian chuckled and answered her question. "That Mey-Rin is Lady Celia Phantomhive, Ciel's older sister."
Baldroy coughed on the inhaled smoke from his cigarette "Sister?" Celia's butler was taking bags from the carriage as the Phantomhive servants spoke amongst themselves. Snake spoke next. "She smells like Smile, says Oscar."
"Yes, Our Lord has a sister; she's a very discrete person and mostly keeps to herself. She doesn't visit often, but it would explain the Young Lord's behavior over the past few days. I've only met the girl once before this, right after I returned here with the Young Lord. As Tanaka said she doesn't take kindly to strangers, which is most likely the reason our Young Master attempted to give the five of us the day off." Snake spoke again "That failed, says Wordsworth." Sebastian chuckled.
Finny looked over at the red head butler "Should we introduce ourselves to him?" The others looked at him as well. Sebastian sighed "If you must Finny, but do it quickly. I'm going to tend to the Young Lord." He went inside leaving the other four with the other butler. Finny as cheery as ever walked over to the red haired, green eyed butler. "Hello there! I'm Finnian, the Phantomhive estate gardener. But you can call me Finny." The man looked at him "I am Spirit Sutherland, butler to Lady Celia Phantomhive. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Baldroy and Mey-Rin both introduced themselves to the butler as well. Baldroy shook his hand and gestured to Snake "This here is Snake; he's the Phantomhive estate footman." Sprit nodded another greeting. "It's nice to meet you Snake." He glanced at the manor and picked up the luggage.
"I must go and tend to my lady now." He walked inside, and the Phantomhive servants followed him and went to their stations. When Spirit entered Celia's room he could hear the bath running, so he began to unpack her things.
Meanwhile Ciel was once again in his study, giving orders to the servants. "Sebastian you are to handle dinner preparations and make sure that everything is perfect tonight." He handed him a list of foods to prepare. "Tanaka you are too make sure my sister stays happy and content. As for the rest of you, do what Sebastian tells you and do not under any circumstances bother my sister, unless she asks for your help." He dismissed them.
The three main servants went about doing what the butler ordered them to do, he sighed every now and then when he had to fix their mistakes. Snake did what was needed of him, helping when help was needed. Most of his work was with Sebastian. He was then sent to set the table for dinner when Sebastian needed to scold the others.
"The three of you are fools." he frowned "I've told you before it is three spoons of detergent not 30, May-Rin. Baldo, guns and explosives are not required for cooking, and Finny please be more careful with the pesticide on the garden." He walked from the room to let his master know what time dinner would be served.
As, Celia, finished her bath she heard the sound of a piano playing and walked into her bedroom. "That's a pretty piece Spirit, didn't know your type could play that well." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "My type?" he chuckled "I thought we agreed not to talk about that." Celia smiled and kissed his cheek "I suppose we did agree not to talk about your past." She dried her hair with a towel, then let the navy blue curls fall back down against her back.
"And what about yours, my lady? Don't you think you should tell your fiancée that you are in London? You haven't seen him since you last came to visit Ciel. When was that again? Right before we met, wasn't it about four years ago? Around the same time your brother was found alive, after the attack on your family, and he returned with that butler of his. You know what kind of man he is and you still let your brother stay with him." He looked at her curiously waiting for an answer.
"Sebastian won't hurt Ciel, my brother is perfectly safe with him. As for Aleister he is already aware that I am in London. He actually paid for our train tickets. He wanted to visit, but I haven't given him an answer, this is no longer my house after all. I need to talk to Ciel about it. He has a few issues with him. I'm not quite sure what though"
"You don't even love him why do you care if he visits you or not?" The butler stood from the piano and shut it. He saw her smirk. "Appearances dear Spirit. Aleister wishes to please my every whim for the exact same reason. Although I do think he might really love me."
"Four years and I still don't quite understand you. But I made a deal to stay by your side until the very end." He kneeled "I shall take my leave now My Lady. The servants have offered me a room." He stood and left the room. Celia stood there for a moment after he left. "Jusqu' à la fin. Until the very end, huh? You sound like Sebastian when you say things like that Spirit." She began to get ready for dinner.
Spirit walked to the servants' quarters of the manor. Finny stood outside one of the doors, waiting from him. "Hi Mr. Spirit! We've prepared this room here for you." He gestured to the door. When Spirit stepped into the room he saw Mey-Rin making the bed. He watched her for a moment. "Miss you don't have to do that. I am a servant myself it is not your duty to take care of me." She looked up blushing and backed up into a side table, knocking it over. "Oh no Mr. Sebastian will scold me for being so clumsy in front of a guest he will!" Spirit walked over and set the table up right. Finny ran in "Mey-Rin are you alright? I heard a crash!"
"Miss Mey-Rin just knocked over the table; I startled her when I came in." He sat his luggage down next to the wall. When he turned back around he found Finny staring at him. "Can I help you Mr. Finnian?" The young blonde watched him "You remind me of Mr. Sebastian." He grinned "But not so serious."
Spirit watched the blonde grin. "Oh? Sebastian and I are quite opposite I assure you." He inhaled as he smelled dinner being prepared in the kitchen "Ah lobster and quiche my lady's favorites. The servants here at Phantomhive manor really are something." As he picked up his bag and laid it on the table he felt Finnian's eyes on his back observing him "Did you need anything else Finny?
Finny blinked and blushed "No I um…..I'm just not used to seeing someone like Sebastian around here. Someone not so clumsy like the rest of us. So how did you meet Lady Celia?" Spirit smiled.
"Come I'll tell you the tale as we head to dinner." He left the room and heard Finny quickly follow behind him. "It was four years ago in Paris, France. Lady Celia had been living there since she had left this mansion the previous year after a fight with her parents, the pervious head of the house and his wife. We bumped into each other on the street one night; I was a gutter rat at the time after having also left…my family. She took me back to her residence where she took care of me. After I recovered I became the lady's butler. It isn't the most extravagant story in the world." He stopped at the dining room door. "Well here we are." He opened the doors.
Ciel was sitting at the head of the table with Celia across from him. The others servants were standing off to the side as Sebastian served the two. Celia glanced at him as he walked to her side. "You're late Spirit."
Spirit nodded "I'm sorry my Lady." He bowed "It won't happen again." As he rose up, he felt eyes on him and glanced over at Sebastian, who was watching him curiously. He stepped away from the table to join the other servants.
Celia looked across the table at her brother. "Come on Ciel, smile it is almost your birthday after all." Ciel grumbled. He poked the lobster on his plate before taking a bite of the savory meat and wiping his mouth. He looked back across the table at her.
"I've quite forgotten how to smile Celia."
