Disclaimer: Black Butler belongs to Yana Toboso. If I owned Sebastian...let's just say he would never leave my bedroom. Ever. He'd be my little sex slave...ahem...yea. Also, the image is not mine. And do you guys know how hard it is to find a pic of Bassy as a mermaid? It is neigh impossible, I tell you!
Songs Listened To When Writing: The Steamboat Willie Medley, *Foxhunter by Celtic Woman(Ciel's song)*
P.S. This ENTIRE fic was inspired by the song 'Virginia Company' from the movie, Pocahontas. Can you believe that? I sure have an imagination, lol
The wind was crisp and cool as it hit the teenager's face, whipping his slate grey hair around his head and causing the ends to tickle his face and ears. Ciel placed his foot up onto the deck's side, resting his arm on his raised knee and staring down at the dark blue waters below. He could hear Finny singing a happy tune as he swabbed the floor and the clamor from the eating hall down below.
The 19-year-old had already eaten and had made his way up here, choosing not to be a part of the drunken mess downstairs. Ciel sighed and looked off into the distance, seeing nothing but clear waters all around. He vaguely wondered how his mother and father were doing without him. He had been on the sea for about two years now, and he always contacted them with letters when the ship went into port. Their responses weren't anything to be worried about; they were proud of him, and glad that he had left the nest to do his own thing. But still, he missed them terribly.
Ciel had been born into the middle class. He and his family led modest lives and Ciel never once thought it was boring, or that he deserved better. But he always wanted, for as long as he could remember, to get out on his own and explore all this world had to offer. So when the opportunity to get out on the sea came along one day, he immediately took it, even though it meant being just a deck-hand; or as the crew liked to call it, a 'swabby'. But that didn't matter much to him though, because Ciel could get off at any dock he wanted and make a life for himself wherever he wanted, giving the teen the kind of freedom that he always yearned for. It was great.
The ship that he was aboard was called the BiàntàiHǎidào, one of the best whaling ships at the time. The ship was medium-sized, allowing for good speed and versatility, and it had a specific crew to handle every aspect of the whaling process. First of all, there was the navigator, Claude. He steered the ship and could spot a whale from remarkable distances that no one else could see. Next, there were the people who went out onto the water and harpooned the whales: Mey-Rin, Agni, Ash, Undertaker and Grell. Usually on whaling ships there was a bigger crew to harpoon the whales, seeing as it could get dangerous, but these five always got the job done without getting hurt. They were that skilled.
Then, there were the people who cooked the everyone's meals and also processed, stored and preserved the whale: Bard, Hannah and Tanaka. Their job was messy and Ciel didn't envy them, although he did wonder why Tanaka barely helped out and just sipped his tea most of the time. Next, there was William. He sold the whale parts at the port and he was damn good at making money. He had this way of talking to people that was strictly professional and polite, all the while managing to trick you into foolish deals.
Lastly, there were those who cleaned up the messes around the ship: Ciel and Finny. The ship wasn't too big to require two people to swab it all the time, so he and Finny traded off. Finny, since he always liked to be out in the sunshine, cleaned up during the day, and Ciel, since he wasn't exactly that much of a social butterfly, cleaned up at night when everyone was asleep. It was a simple system, but it worked out perfectly for the both of them.
The captain was a person that Ciel really didn't care for at all. Captain ******* was nice enough, but was certainly one weird individual. The captain popped in on the crew at random times to check up on them and steered the ship occasionally but never spent too long outside, though, and usually just talked with William and the firstmate in the captain's quarters about what to do next.
Right now, they were sailing out to sea again after having just sold a catch. Ciel could feel the money in his pocket against his leg and reminded himself, once again, that he had to stash that away soon, lest he forget about it. Ciel inhaled slowly and sighed, glad that that horrid smelling carcass was off the ship so that he could breathe again. God, did those things smell after a while...
All of a sudden Ciel was ripped from his thoughts when he heard something hit the water. Now, normally this wouldn't be anything special, but that splash had sounded way too big and also very familiar as well. The teen blinked and looked over the edge, catching a glimpse of a silver shimmering tail disappearing below the water. 'There you are again.' He thought to himself, watching the creature vanish beneath the waves. He had heard that same splash for nearly a month now and he would always just see the brief glance of that tail whenever he tried to investigate. After all this time, he still couldn't figure out what that was, and it bothered him endlessly.
When he couldn't find anything else, the teen frowned and took off his eye-patch, using both of his cerulean eyes to scan the water's surface. The patch had been a gift from his father when he was young and they used to play games together, like 'Cops and Robbers' or Ciel's favorite: 'Pirates'. Vincent had bought the patch for Ciel to play with when he was young, and it just stuck with him all his life.
''...What are you? A dolphin?'' The teen asked out loud, looking down at the water.
''Dolphin?'' Ciel blinked as Finny came to stand next to him and stare down at the water too. ''Was that what that splash was?''
''I don't know, I couldn't see.'' Ciel frowned and the two of them searched the water's surface for a few moments before someone shouted at them.
''Hey, you two! Stop leanin' over the railin' like that. You're gonna go overboard and I'm not goin' in after ya.'' Bard scolded as he made walked up the steps from the dining hall below deck.
''Oh, oops! Sorry, Bard!'' Finny said and stepped back to get to work again. Ciel moved back as well after stealing a final glance at the water. The blue-eyed boy silently tied his eye-patch back on while tuning out Bard's scolding. Honestly, Bard was good guy and all, but his constant brotherly over-protectiveness just irritated the teen sometimes. Ciel didn't even listen to the whole lecture before he just waved the cook off and walked away.
By now, people were starting to come back up from the dining hall and Ciel sighed as he heard Grell's flirtatious comments toward William. He skirted past the doorway to the eating hall before the two of them walked on deck, not wanting to see the red-haired male try to make out with Will. Ciel nearly shuddered at the thought.
''Hey, where are you going so fast, little boy?'' Ciel frowned as Undertaker stood in his path suddenly.
''Do you honestly have to ask?'' Ciel questioned, sighing and bringing a hand to his head as he heard a smooching sound and then the loud smack of Grell getting punched in the face.
''Hee hee hee I suppose not.'' The Undertaker cackled and peeked around the corner to watch the quarreling couple, giggling all the while. Ciel looked at him silently. He could never figure the old man out. All he seemed to want to do was just laugh all the time. Besides that, no one knew a thing about him, not even his real name, only his nickname. But the white-haired male was harmless, so no one questioned his odd quirks.
While the Undertaker was distracted, Ciel turned around and headed to the back of the ship, nodding to Claude and Ash as they walked past him. The pair barely acknowledged him, too caught up in their conversation about which part of the sea they should go next.
At the back of the ship, Ciel wasn't surprised when he found Hannah, Meyrin and Tanaka all sitting together. The girls usually stayed to the back of the ship, preferring the slight privacy it offered. The other crew members rarely came to the stern because there was nothing really to do. There were only barrels of cargo and other things back here including a large fish tank. Tanaka usually could be found on different parts of the ship, so he came back here occasionally. Though oddly enough, nobody ever saw him get up and switch spots.
''Oh, Ciel!'' Meyrin greeted and waved him over as soon as she saw him. Hannah silently turned around and stared at him, causing Ciel to get slight goosebumps on his flesh as he came to sit down with them. Hannah rarely ever spoke to him, just stared, and it always freaked him out.
''You barely touched your food at dinner.'' Meyrin said, frowning as Ciel sat down on one of the high barrels next to her.. ''Is everything alright? You've been acting weird lately, yes you have.'' She asked, concerned, as Tanaka concurred with his usual santa impression.
''Yes. I just wasn't hungry, that's all.'' Ciel said and leaned back against the barrel behind him, looking out over the railing to see the waves behind them. Meyrin silently decided to let the topic go for now and the girls picked up their conversation again as the teen drifted off, thinking about that mysterious silver colored tail he kept seeing.
Eventually, Ciel retired for the rest of the day and woke up when it was around ten o'clock at night. The blue-eyed teen stretched his arms above his head as he made his way on deck to do his job. When he got to the top he actually had to take off his coat because the air was so warm out here. Claude must have decided to steer them towards the tropical oceans in search of sperm whales this time.
Speaking of Claude, he, William and Ash were all sitting at a table near the right side of the bow, playing cards and smoking. Well, Ash and Claude were smoking. William was apparently too fancy for such things.
The teen silently walked past them to reach his work tools but stopped when he heard William call out to him, ''Phantomhive. Come here a moment.''
Ciel sighed and turned around. He didn't really want to deal with those three. He didn't like talking to them, mostly because they just gave off a bad vibe for some reason, like they would stab you in the back if you weren't looking. Ciel couldn't explain it.
''Yes?'' He asked, coming to stand in front of the table the three were seated at.
''It has come to my attention that you did not do a thorough job last night with the deck and that Finnian actually had to pick up your slack.'' William got straight to the point, putting down cards simultaneously with Claude and Ash on middle of the table and not even looking at the deck-hand.
''Oh?'' Ciel asked, lifting an eyebrow. He honestly didn't remember forgetting to swab anywhere...but then again, he did hear that splash again last night and had spent most of his time searching the water with binoculars. He inwardly grimaced at the thought. When had he become so obsessed over a mere sea creature?
''Yes, and if it happens again, I will dock your pay.''
''See now, you don't have to be so cruel.'' Ash said as he gathered the cards on the table into his deck. ''He's just a boy and people make mistakes.'' Ciel frowned at the insult to his pride when being called 'just a boy' but otherwise was surprised that Ash was defending his side of the story.
''Mistakes must be reprimanded.'' William countered, flipping a card again. ''You know this very well, Ash.''
''You just won't let that go will you?'' Ash chuckled and shrugged. ''You let one whale go by accident and you're branded for life.''
''Yes. That whale cost us a fortune.'' William pushed up his glasses and glared at the white-haired male.
''War.'' Claude said suddenly as the same number card appeared on the table and everyone started laying down three cards to duel.
''Anyways Phantomhive.'' William said as Claude won the duel, getting everyone's cards. ''I expect you to do your job tonight, thoroughly.''
''Of course.'' Ciel said and returned to what he was doing before being called over, feeling ashamed that he had let his mind slip so much last night by accident. Even more so about the fact that he didn't even realize it until just now. It was all that stupid sea creature's fault. If it would just come up out of the water and show itself, then Ciel wouldn't be so obsessed with figuring out what it was.
Ciel closed the door to the broom closet with a little bit more force than necessary and decided to start with the back of the ship. He didn't want to be near those three right now, not after that embarrassing lecture.
''Ciel!'' The teenager frowned and stopped when he heard a door close and footsteps approach him from behind. ''There you are. I have been meaning to speak with you.''
The blue-eyed boy turned around when he realized that it was only Agni. He had expected it to be William coming to scold him again or something. ''Speak with me?''
The teenager set down his bucket, deciding to start swabbing here so that he could still talk to Agni and also get his work done. ''Yes.'' The Indian nodded. ''Meyrin told me that you didn't eat dinner.''
''Now that is an exaggeration.'' Ciel said, swabbing the area with practiced ease. ''I did eat, just not very much.''
''Precisely.'' Agni implored, standing in front of Ciel's mop, causing the boy to frown. ''You were distracted by something today, just like all the other days for a long while now.''
''So?''
''So I want to know what it is and so does everyone else. It is not like you to be so distracted.'' Ciel could see that Agni was only concerned and wanted to help, but Ciel didn't need his help, nor anyone elses for that matter. He was perfectly fine.
''It is nothing, Agni.'' Ciel said and walked off to go get his work done. Agni frowned and watched his friend shut himself up in his own little world, just like all the other times when anyone tried to get close to him. The Indian frowned and sighed before heading back to the bunks to go and get some sleep. He knew that Ciel would refuse to talk to him about his troubles tonight and could only hope that he would open up eventually about what was troubling him so much.
It was around eleven when Ciel was finally left alone and everyone was sleeping below deck. But it unfortunately took another hour of his alone time for him to actually finish his job. Now, with nothing to do, the teen went to the back of the ship and got a case before bringing it back to the bow. One would think that since Ciel was done mopping that he would go back to bed, but no. His other duty was to stay up til at least three a.m. and then wake up a crew member so that someone was watching over and steering the ship at all times. Ciel himself could steer the ship in case of an emergency, like if they were going to hit a rock or something, but that usually never happened. Claude, for the most part, kept the ship in a path that was void of any danger.
The blue-eyed boy set the case on the table and opened it, revealing the violin within. He usually didn't play his instrument on the deck at night, because he might wake someone up, but he did play it now and again when he felt that he might fall asleep if he didn't do something, like tonight.
Ciel placed the instrument at his neck, sighing at the familiar weight on his shoulder. He strung his bow across the strings, playing a tune from memory. He decided to play a song that his mother taught him. It started out slow, but progressively got much harder to play and faster as well. As he played, Ciel could faintly hear splashing from the water, but he ignored it, focusing on his song.
The teen frowned when he hit a wrong note by accident and took his bow away, looking at the strings to try and remember how a certain part went. Everything was quiet as he thought, the splashing having stopped. A few moments later he picked it up again and so did the splashing. Ciel raised an eyebrow at this and experimentally stopped playing. In response the noise stopped. Now Ciel was really intrigued.
He tried one more time and the same response was found. Ciel smirked at this, an idea forming in his mind. As quietly as possible, he went over to the side of the ship where he heard the noise and looked down. The water moved in a strange way before settling, signaling that whatever was there retreated down below. The teenager creeped back to the stairs that led to the steering wheel of the ship, carrying his violin with him. There was a crank up there that controlled the large net that was used to catch fish in the meantime when the ship was looking for whales.
Ciel grunted quietly as he turned the crank to position the net where he wanted quietly. When that was done, he took up his violin from the ground and placed it on his shoulder again, starting to play. He took his foot and lightly put it on the latch that dropped the net, keeping his eyes on that one spot where the rustling water had been.
Normally this net was used to just drop in the water and open like a butterfly net to catch stray fish as they sailed, but Ciel figured that it might work in this situation and perhaps the sea creature would get tangled up in the net somehow. He severely hoped that it would. He had tried countless times to catch this thing at night, but it always went away before he could try. Perhaps now, with his violin, he could get it to stay in one spot long enough to catch it.
As he expected, he saw the water rustle in that same spot, but he waited just a little bit longer, until he saw that silver tail. The moment Ciel saw it come up to slap at the water, he hit the latch with his foot, releasing the net on the water below.
Once Ciel saw the net wiggle, the teen wasted no time in putting his violin down and cranking the net back up again. He didn't look to see if he had actually caught anything yet and focused on moving the net onto the deck so that if he really did catch something, than it would just fall onto the deck if it managed to break free.
All the while, his mind was racing as the moved the net. 'I bet it's just a dumb dolphin.' Ciel thought as he slowly stopped the crank. 'Or it could be a shark, for that matter.' Well, whatever he was expecting to find, Ciel sure wasn't anticipating to encounter widened wine-red eyes staring back at him in shock.
Ciel couldn't believe what he was seeing. His jaw dropped in shock before he could stop it as he stared at the creature before him. It had the upper body of a male human and the shimmering silver tail of a fish.
He'd heard stories of such creatures from the drunken sailors that returned from god awful long journeys from the sea. But of course no one ever believed them: It was just a silly tale. But now, here he was, staring one straight in the face. A real…life…"Merman…" The word left his lips in an amazed whisper.
Okay, I know what you all are thinking: How in the WORLD can Ciel and Bassy get it on if Bassy is a fish? Well, it is possible, as you will find out later. XD Anyways, sorry for the short chapter, but I wanted to see if anyone was interested in this. My editor/bff actually laughed at me when I said that Bassy is gonna be a mermaid in this and it made me feel bad :[ Mermaids are awesome, leave me alone D:
***I have a contest about the captain if anyone is interested. The first person to leave a review or send me a message with the correct identity of the captain will get a say on who is the seme in this fic, cuz I haven't really decided yet if Sebby or Ciel should be on top. Also, they can help me come up with some side pairings if they want too. So use your brains and tell me who the captain is! :] You only get one guess, so if you send me a response with a whole bunch of different people, I'm only gonna count the first person you said, so yea, think carefully :3***
Welp please review and let me know if you want more okay. There will be smex later on and also a lot of drama because of it and stuffs yep yep! Also, the captain will be revealed next chap, which I hope to have up sometime next week, so yea Review! And have a good day! :D See cha :DDD Thanks for reading!
P.S. I do not support whaling, just so you know :'[
~Migoto Nami
Now here's a bit of randomness, just for you!
~Random Short~
Sebastian kicked the door to his home in the demon world closed as he whistled a happy tune, carrying a bag of groceries with him that consisted of Ciel's soul, a few potato skins, a cat key chain and strangely enough a fake mustache.
He could hear the television in the other room and put his bag down in the hall, prancing over to the living room and jumping on his lover, who was sitting down. ''Hi Skully!'' The demon cooed and cuddled against his love, who threw an arm over him as he flicked through the channels.
''Hi hunny.'' The red human skeleton monster said monotonously in his very deep and smexy voice. ''Did you get the milk?''
Sebastian's eyes widened and he froze before cuddling up to his skully. ''Uh...no.''
In an instant Skully turned his head around without moving it's body and glared at Sebastian with fire in it's hollow eye sockets. Sebastian scooted backwards in slight fear as the skeleton leaned over him.
Everything was silent for a moment before Skully cried and got up from the couch. ''How dare you! MY MOTHER WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU! GET OUT OF HERE!''
''But this is MY house!''
''Then fine, I'm leaving, and I'm taking Alphonso with me!''
Sebastian felt tears come to his eyes as he saw his love pack up and leave, taking the giant jellyfish, Alphonso with him. ''Well...well fine! Who needs ya!''
''Whatever fatass! Go on a diet! All you ever think about is your own damn food!''
Sebastian collapsed on the couch and cried, knowing that it was true: All he ever did think about was food...