I'm taking gen and rarepair fic requests over on my writing blog kittendispenser . tumblr, and this was one such request! As always, I'm open to comments and critique.
Grelle looked entirely too comfortable curled up in the windowsill of the earl's townhouse, painting her nails a predictable, if garish, red. She barely even glanced in Sebastian's direction when he and the young master walked into the room.
"Are you ill?" Sebastian asked.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ciel added.
Like a cat who deigned to seek affection, Grelle took her time getting up from the sill to slink between the two of them. Mindful of her wet nails, she draped herself across Sebastian, but her heart wasn't in it. He didn't even bother to shrug her off.
"Oh, Bassy," she sighed. "I'm in love. And not with you. I have found a better man."
"There's no one better than me. Objectively. Being a Phantomhive butler, I am the best."
Grelle was about to question that line of logic, but was interrupted by a familiar, excited chirp of a voice.
"I see you've met Agni's new friend!" Soma said, flinging himself into the room and into the conversation. "Isn't she lovely? She's so exotic."
"You can't just invite strangers into my house."
Grelle gasped and released Sebastian to pout at Ciel. "We're not strangers, little earl! Don't you remember me? I used to be your aunt's butler."
Ciel scowled at her in response.
"You were a butler as well? That's wonderful! You must all have so much in common." Soma clapped his hands and pulled Ciel toward the seats. "Agni's making me lunch. Perhaps your butler and Grelle would like to go tell him to prepare extra?"
Grelle gladly slipped out of the room, waving her fingers back and forth to get them to dry faster. Sebastian followed at a slower pace.
She stopped in the hall, waited for him to catch up.
"Well?" Sebastian prompted.
"It was so romantic! It was almost four months ago, a day with one of those rare snows that weren't ruined by all the coal dust and carriage traffic. I had just finished my last reap, so was window shopping some bakeries. Invisible, of course. Then this man sees me, Bassy. He sees me. Ah, it must have been fate!" Grelle pressed her hands to her cheeks and wriggled like a streamer in barely-suppressed excitement.
"So I hear this man ask, 'Miss, are you hungry?' and I turn around to see six feet of sexy. The only thing I can think to say is 'I think you're a little out of my price range.' Either he didn't get it, or he thought it was cute. I'm not really sure which, but somehow Agni wound up buying me a tartlet, introducing me to the prince, and inviting me into this lovely townhouse. As one does. I forgot it was the brat's, but by the time I realized, I'd become a fixture. It would have been awkward to say something at that point. And here we are."
"He mistook you for a homeless woman. An understandable error due to your general dishevelment."
"Yes. And here we are," Grelle repeated, beginning to walk again. "Regardless of how we got here. Agni, my dear! We have company!" she sang out.
Agni glanced up, then wiped his hands on the towel flung over his shoulder. "Mr Sebastian! What a pleasant surprise. I'm to take it Earl Phantomhive is with you, as well?" Sebastian nodded. "I will have to prepare more. Miss Grelle, you don't have to do anything – the kitchen is no place for a guest. So please, make yourself comfortable with the others, and I'll bring you something."
Grelle played with a lock of hair, looking almost as if she wanted to object. But then Agni leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple, and she giggled her way out of the kitchen.
"That's not a woman," Sebastian said as soon as Grelle was far enough away to not attack him. He doubted she'd told Agni about her reaperhood, despite that she wasn't hiding behind a human guise this time.
"No, I guessed as much. I suspect she might be an avatar of my goddess, Kali." The way he said it suggested that he was simply commenting on their similarities, but while that had not been what Sebastian meant at all, it made a certain sort of sense. Wild and fanged, clearly inhuman. The tongue thing.
Agni smiled vaguely, thinking the same about Grelle. She was certainly something. A god incarnate wasn't too far off so far as guesses went. "How fortunate I am to have found her, whatever she might be."
"You really love Grelle?" Sebastian asked. Love was an entirely foreign concept to him, except when it came to cats, and Grelle used the word often enough that it lost all value. But he'd never heard Agni express any sort of love but that of a servant for his prince.
"Yes, I believe so."
"She's incapable of love like a normal person," Sebastian said, thinking of Madam Red and every declaration Grelle had made toward him. "Grelle's more in love with violence than with people."
Agni smiled peaceably as he plated the food, and they made their way to their lords and lady. "I do not believe that is true, Mr Sebastian. Kali herself is a being of contradictions. She loves bloodshed and is full of wrath, but she is also a mother and wife. Do those not require love, as well?"
"I suppose…"
He dropped the topic as they entered the room. Grelle had returned to her windowsill, the rare English sun creating a fiery outline of her hair. Soma had convinced Ciel to play a game of chess with him, and it looked to be going as poorly as expected.
Sebastian handed Ciel his meal, then stood to the side and observed Grelle and Agni. He wasn't sure why the idea of them being in love sat so wrongly with him, but he refused to believe it despite what his eyes told him.
Agni knelt next to Grelle as she ate, bandaged hand resting on her knee. They occasionally spoke quietly to each other, but, for the most part, existed in amiable silence. The change was most noticeable with Grelle. She wasn't throwing herself at anyone, saying inappropriate things, or otherwise making a nuisance of herself.
Grelle soon excused herself because she did have work, and Agni saw her to the door. Out of view of the children, Agni caught her hand before she was able to leave.
"Restraint doesn't suit you," Agni said. " I didn't wish to bring it up in front of the prince, but is something the matter?"
"Well, I suppose Sebastian's told you all about me, so…"
"He's told me nothing I did not already suspect. While Mr Sebastian is – ah, how does he say it? One hell of a butler – he seems rather less well-versed in matters of love."
"Does that mean you're well-versed in matters of love?" she reflexively asked, grin making the question as inappropriate as possible.
"That's better," Agni said as he leaned down, fearlessly kissing Grelle despite the teeth that made her so feral-looking. Grelle wrapped her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss, and there was nary a drop of blood between them when they broke apart.
Grelle licked her lips thoughtfully, then dragged Agni in for another. It wasn't often she got to properly kiss people, and it was even less often those few kisses she got didn't taste like sucking a penny.
"I really do have to go now," she said when they separated the smallest distance for air.
"Then perhaps you should let me go?" Agni suggested.
"Maybe one more kiss."
