It was a warm summers day and Ciel was walking through the bustling streets if London. His arms laden with bags of shopping. It wasn't like it was foreign to him. He had spent the last few years of his life as a domestic servant and more, a far cry from the life of luxury he used to live. Forced to move in with a foster family at the age of 10, Ciel was immediately treated differently from the other kids, and why not, it wasn't like they were the happiest people in the world to be looking after someone else's brat.

When Ciel was 10 his parents had died tragically in a motoring accident whilst they were on their way back to their family home, there had been no way to save them, they had been knocked unconscious in the crash and the car subsequently caught fire. Ciel blamed himself for their accident, well it was his illness that caused them to cut their trip short and return home early, if they hadn't have come home early then they wouldn't have gotten hit by the maniac driver. It was all Ciel's fault, in his eyes anyway.

As Ciel walked through the streets, keeping his head down and trying to be invisible, a couple of lads bumped into him. "Oi. Bastard. Watch where you're going." One snapped, causing Ciel to look up, one of the lads he knew, well he was the son of his foster parents.

"I'm sorry," Ciel said quietly, "I wasn't looking where I was going." He added, even though he wasn't the one who had bumped into them, they had bumped into him. The lad Ciel knew looked at him with a glare,

"Shouldn't you be back at home?" he questioned Ciel.

"I'm sorry sir, I had to get some food supplies for dinner later," Ciel replied. The other just tsk'd,

"Just get back home," he snapped before continuing walking along. Ciel didn't respond just going and continuing to walk along back to his place of work. Alois, on the other hand, being the heartless sadistic bastard he was, and Ciel's foster brother decided to follow him before pushing him into an alleyway. Ash, Alois's best friend followed along, grabbing another friends' arm as he passed him, dragging him along too, well why not, Alois was probably going to beat some shit into Ciel, why not watch, there was no fun in it else.

"Hey!" The other called as Ash grabbed hold of his arm and he was dragged along, "Where are we going?" Well, he wasn't paying attention to what Alois had done so it was confusing.

"We're going to watch Trancy beat some shit into a brat that works for his family," Ash replied, turning to face the other, "you know, that Phantomhive kid." The other looked at him with a sigh.

"You know what I think about hurting others." He replied.

"Sebastian, you're just a softy. I know what you think, but you agreed to meet Alois and I, and well this is a slight diversion from what we were planning on doing." Ash said with a smirk. Sebastian could only sigh as he followed along, he didn't like this, he only supported violence if it was used in self-defence, and this certainly wasn't self-defence. He had heard Alois talking about Ciel, or rather the 'the bastard servant' as Alois would refer to him as, and he very much disagreed with whatever Alois said about him, he had never personally ran into Ciel, but he knew he was certainly not the bastard he was portrayed to be.

After a few hundred meters, Ash and Sebastian had reached where Alois had dragged Ciel. The blond had knocked the shopping out of Ciel's arms, before kneeing him in the stomach, sending the boy to his knees with a cough and splutter, before promptly kicking him in the face and knocking him onto the floor more. Sebastian stood, almost rooted to the spot, he had a personal reason for hating violence and seeing Alois treat Ciel like that was bringing memories he would like to forget forward. "Alois!" he snapped at him, "just leave him. He's done nothing to hurt you." Alois turned and shot a glare at Sebastian before going and kicking Ciel in the abdomen, causing the boy to whimper and cry out in pain.

"He's just a servant. He needs to be put in his place." Alois replied with a growl, Sebastian just looked at him, his eyes showed pain, sadness, he really didn't like seeing what was happening, and what was he doing to stop it, he was stood rooted to the spot unable to help him, he just couldn't move.

Ash let out a sigh before going over to Alois, "come on," he said pulling Alois away from Ciel, "just leave him for now, he's suffered enough, plus do you want our friend to suffer any more now." He added casting a glance back at Sebastian, seeing the look in his eyes. Alois looked at where Ciel collapsed, then at Sebastian then at Ash.

"I guess that's enough for now." He replied, not happy that his fun was cut short. "Michaelis, Ash and I are going to the pub to have some drinks, you don't have to come if you don't want to, you could drown your pains with alcohol, or go home and sleep it off. What we were planning can wait until tomorrow." He walked over to Sebastian and placed a hand on his shoulder, completely different to how he treated Ciel, "I'm sorry for making you remember." He said, getting a small nod of acknowledgement from Sebastian. After that, Alois and Ash left the alleyway and walked to the nearest pub where they very much intended to get drunk. And that could only mean one thing for Ciel when Alois got home. Trouble.

After a few more seconds of being rooted to the spot, Sebastian finally broke out of the trance that had taken him. He shook his head, before looking over at Ciel, who was in the process of trying of trying to sit up. Alois usually hurt him badly, and the pain that he was in was something that he was used to. Though just because he was used to it doesn't mean that he deserved it. Hell no. Sebastian walked over to him, crouching down in front of him and helping him sit up. "I'm sorry I didn't help." He said to Ciel, keeping his voice quiet. Ciel looked up at him,

"It's alright." He replied, "It doesn't matter anyway." Though Sebastian would beg to differ.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked, Sebastian seemed genuinely concerned about Ciel.

"I'll be fine." Ciel replied, "Thank-you though." He added giving Sebastian a soft genuine smile, after all Sebastian was the first person since his parents' death to ever show kindness or compassion to him. Sebastian smiled back a little before shifting and picking up the shopping that Alois had knocked out of Ciel's arms. "y-you don't have to do that." Ciel said quickly seeing that, and despite hurting, he reached and picked up most of the shopping so Sebastian didn't have to.

"I want to," Sebastian said, "I want to help because I didn't stop Trancy sooner."

"It's okay, like I said, it doesn't matter." Ciel replied, almost stubborn. But Sebastian didn't want to just walk away, he wanted to help Ciel. Sebastian looked at Ciel in the eyes, feeling something from them that he had never experienced before, well he never experienced them from his boyfriend. His boyfriend's eyes were cold, they never showed him true emotions, where Ciel's did, they showed warmth, someone with a kind heart. Alois didn't have a kind heart.

"Then, at least let me walk you back home, please. It's the least I could do." Sebastian said, no, ordered slightly, but the way in which he said it allowed Ciel to interpret it as someone trying to care for him. Ciel let out a small laugh before pushing himself up off the ground.

"If you want." He replied with a smile. Sebastian smiled and stood up, and walked Ciel back to where he lived, there was a slight protectiveness growing inside Sebastian, something that he had never felt before.

Author's notes

Yay! Another new fic, hope you enjoy it.

Title of fic may change if I come up with a better one.

I've had the idea for this fic for a while, and I finally managed to get it started.

Please read and review. I would love to hear what you think.

~~Phantomhive Child~~