I do not own Kuroshitsuji. This includes spoilers for the latest manga chapters. So far, I'm planning for this to be a five-chapter fanfiction. Four of the chapters are already written (although the third and fourth veer into noncanon territory, as they were written after Chapter 131 and 132 hasn't updated).

.

Elizabeth Midford knew it.

She knew it from a long time ago...yet, she couldn't bring herself to actually vocalize such an idea, much less investigate it. It was so much easier for her to smile and pretend, to play the dutiful and cheery fiance that society expected her to be. She didn't want to grow up and be "Elizabeth", the title that her mother so often used to chastise her.

She was Lizzy, the girl who played tag with Ciel, Aunt Anne, and Aunt Rachel.

And so, for months after she came to the realization that her Ciel wasn't the one that she remembered in the past, Lizzy lied.

Father had always said that Lizzy had a natural talent for acting and would do well in the field, much to her mother's countenance. He was right all along. Lizzy made a convincing actress: she could even fool herself, most of the time. There were instances where she faltered. They were nothing but little missteps, nothing that Ciel (she couldn't, she wouldn't call him anything but 'Ciel', for even if he wasn't the Ciel of the past, he was Ciel to her) ever noticed. The only one who seemed to catch onto her act was Tanaka.

Tanaka, faithful, kind, gentle Tanaka. She remembered catching the elderly servant's eyes once for just a split second while dancing with Ciel. Somehow, she found herself begging the servant with her eyes: "Is it true? It can't be true, it can't. Not my Ciel, please not him…"

Tanaka's gaze had softened for a moment, the solemn smile he offered enough of an answer to Lizzy. Her smile had wavered for a split fraction of a second before she plastered an even brighter grin on her face, turning back to Ciel to chatter some nonsense about cute stuffed animals.

Lizzy loved Ciel. She had loved him in the past, and she loved him in the present. That was a fact that was as clear as day to any other observer, but there was a treacherous part of her mind that whispered: "do you really love him?"

No, no, no!

Lizzy loved Ciel. Ciel wasn't just her cousin or fiance, he was her world. She had grown stronger to protect him and had hidden her strength for the same reason. She loved Ciel, regardless of...regardless of…

Abruptly, a memory flickered into her mind of a sunny day filled with laughter. Her, Aunt Anne, Aunt Rachel, and Ciel (not her Ciel, the Ciel she once loved) gathered around a picnic table. She and Ciel had attempted to spit watermelon seeds out on the lawn, ignoring the scandalized looks from Aunt Anne and reprimands of Ciel's mother. She loved Ciel back then, too.

But that wasn't the same Ciel.

Did she love that Ciel? The Ciel that would give her blinding smiles and decorate her hair with flower crowns? The one who would paint Easter eggs with her and always offer her a hand whenever she fell down?

Or did she love Ciel? The one who had done his best to protect her aboard the Campania, the one who had accepted her despite her not being the wife she was expected to be, innocently smiling and waiting for her husband at home.

Then again, it didn't matter, anyways. Ciel was her fiance now, and the smiling Ciel of the past was gone. Most likely dead, the extremely helpful, logical side of her brain pointed out. The facts were that there was only one Ciel Phantomhive occupying the Phantomhive mansion at the moment, and that Ciel was her fiance.

That was the unequivocal truth.

Of course, Lizzy had tried to deny the truth for the longest time. But eventually, the lies and facts piled up to the point that she couldn't push the matter aside any longer. The name "Elizabeth" upon his lips, the Easter egg, the asthma that he so desperately tried to hide from her (really, did he think she was an idiot?) — all of them pointed to the one conclusion she had hoped and hoped wasn't true.

...he had been lying to her.

...and he was still lying.

He wasn't Ciel. ("No," a voice inside her screamed. "He is Ciel, he's our Ciel. Just not...Ciel.") And idly, she wondered if Ciel ever would've bothered to tell her the truth.

It really shouldn't have stung as much as it did. After all, Lizzy was used to being lied to by him. From Sebastian to the mysterious events on the Campania, Lizzy already could sense that whatever Ciel was getting himself involved in wasn't pleasant. But even so, the fact that he didn't trust her enough to tell her the truth still caused a part of her heart ache in an unimaginably painful way.

.

.

Lizzy was thinking. She did often did that nowadays, now that she thought about it.

In the midst of her musing, a voice cut in, its familiarity startling her out of her trance. A greeting and a name: that was all it took for reality and her world to crash and burn around her.

"Hello, Lizzy."

She whipped around, heart pounding and emerald green eyes dilated. Her lips parted and let out a tiny, quiet gasp (of hope, horror, or amazement she couldn't tell). And although Lizzy felt like doing a myriad of things — ranging from collapsing on the ground into a quivering mess to rubbing her eyes to ensure her vision wasn't failing her — she simply blinked once. Then, quite numbly, she said, "It's you."

Her simple statement was met with a bittersweet, twisted, perverse imitation of the blinding smile she once knew. And then, without any sign of doubt in his tone came her reply:

"So you knew."

She couldn't discern if it was betrayal or amusement swimming in his deep, azure eyes that looked so much like Uncle Vincent's.

.

.

A/N: To be honest, we should've seen it coming. Hah, I remember the days when I thought of the twin!Ciel theory as nonsense without researching further into it. Now that I've officially read through tons and tons of Tumblr posts, I've realized how much I've missed. The idea is absolutely fascinating, and the part that Lizzy plays in all of this was too angst-y for me to resist.

Writing both Ciels is pretty fun, tbh. :D And Lizzy is just amazing.

If you have the time, please review! I'd love to hear your thoughts on everything going on.