Prologue: That Butler: In a Web
Somewhere, dancing under the weight called "duty" like shadows of the departed twilight, two butlers reminiscence and revise their priorities at the death of another day…
"Please forgive my insolence. It is has been several centuries since we first me-" Sebastian Michaelis momentarily paused, feigning mirth in his scarlet, feline-like irises, "crawled past one another as lowly shadows in hell without even tongues to speak. You were never far away-always to my immediate left and right, waning and waxing like that indelible scar on the moon, scrutinizing like the specter forever laughing on it surface. My dearest and most despised of acquaintances…to what do I owe this untimely pleasure, Claude Faustus?"
"Not even a thousand souls would suffice, Sebastian Michaelis." Claude Faustus answered in the astute manner that Sebastian suspected would shame, equally, a thousand gentlemanly souls. " You've evolved quite a bit, considering you devoured the soul of that mad monk who gave you his name. You've more than just a tongue to speak with now-you're merely a step away from coming to rest at the side of our great Prince as a knight."
Sebastian raised a brow as he swept some dust into a bin. "Lucifer? You flatter me, Claude. I'm eternally in the servitude of another now. Let the past become dust here."
Claude narrowed his eyes, "Flattery for the likes of you was not at all my intention. Time is short and the others, including the Prince are all cackling over you and what you've done. Honestly, it is beyond me to deduce what precisely enticed you to prolong the life of your banquet."
Sebastian visibly flinched at the term banquet, but then pandered into an unapologetic smile. "Are you by chance referring to my Lord, Ciel Phantomhive? Then yes, the monocle is devastatingly fitting."
Claude remained silent.
"Don't be so formal. Do you not like my master's 'Lady of Forget-me-Nots'? It's a special brand of herbal tea from Ireland, though they are not on the best of terms with England. The strange hue is alluring yet whispers lacrimosa." Sebastian insisted. "I don't believe the illustrious Trancy Household has been competent enough to purchase it yet."
"What made you spare him?" The other butler demanded, ignoring the deliberate slight. However, he was entranced by the enigmatic blue color of his tea-the same icy brilliance of his master's lonely eyes.
"Hmm." Sebastian hummed teasingly yet genuinely content, to Claude's quiet dismay, with his costly shenanigans. "What indeed."
Claude set down the teacup in his hand, a faint scowl ghosting over his stoic expression. "You should know as well as our great Prince, that once you've set the table and allowed the human bait to have his fill of his own sins, he in turn becomes your feast. You should have taken to him promptly, pulling apart flesh and bone in order to attain the true gift of his soul-a rare delicacy in the case of an innocent, but sullied man-child."
"Don't be so prudish, Claude. You are a demon after all. You mean virgin, don't you?" Sebastian politely collected the tableware, eyeing his counterpart mockingly. "Whilst I've prolonged my feast, tell me why you've begun setting the table for one that's already been savored?"
A whisper of annoyance flashed in Claude's golden irises. "That was of my own volition. Does not the darkness emitted from human suffering taste exquisitely different to each of our kind?"
"Oh?" Sebastian paused, broom in hand, "Should I take it to mean that you're one who enjoys leftovers? The residue must be to die for, spider-kun."
"Indeed I am like a spider, no more different than you. I've spun many sweet-smelling webs of delusion and death, but for that boy who cried out to me-no desired me so succulently, I knew that no ordinary web would do. I shall invest all of my being into entrapping my new prey as gently as possible for his has suffered greatly…" Almost sympathetically, Claude removed his spectacles, his intense gaze filled with hunger, malice, and some alien longing. "Until he has preyed on all who have caused him to suffer, until he drinks whole their sustenance so shall I partake of his being. Indeed, there is nothing virgin about my Lord…" Claude stood and faced Sebastian coolly. "But by the time our contract concludes I am certain that he will taste just as divine-no more so-than a poor bottle of wine suffocated for centuries in darkness untouched…until mercilessly uncorked by these hands."
"Hands that for now serve him so diligently." Sebastian finished. His cocky smile faded into a justified frown. "In other words, you're not looking forward to just a feast. You're much more distasteful than I recall, Claude Faustus"
Claude's eyes gleamed maliciously in the half-light of the moonrise, "Call it whatever you wish, but for my Lord, I will make all of his desires real: day into night, sugar into salt, living into dust: all that is darkness into gold. And in exchange, I will savor all of him to the last. I will make the second rape of his body and soul so grand that even our Prince will mourn for him…" Having concluded his stay, he retrieved his spectacles and put them back on as he vanished into the onset of night, his last words resonating: "That, Sebastian Michaelis, is how you prepare a banquet."
Sebastian remained unmoved, but somehow felt within his dark self the slightest inkling of sympathy for the latest pawn of Claude Faustus: Alois Trancy. He had only met the spoiled, naughty child once and loathed to explore the depths of his naughtiness. To Sebastian, the child was a hideous creature not just bathed in the usual scent of sin, but something else far more abnormal and repugnant. What did Claude see in that child? Surely it was not his near-silver crown or hair nor his greedy, crystal eyes. But knowing Claude, it was probably the unnaturally mature swing in his hips and the depravity resting on those rosy lips that could make even the late Marquis de Sade green with envy. Sebastian shivered inwardly in disgust. He loathed to think that that spiteful Alois and his filth could compare with his obstinate and pure Ciel Phantomhive. Yet he still pitied Alois somehow.
"How to prepare a banquet, hm?" He wondered, "well, any true butler would know the answer to that. I now know that I'm inclined to a few eccentricities-almost like becoming human."
Becoming human. The idea tickled him so much that he chuckled. No. He would always be a demon and one hell of butler. But for Ciel…A grin more mischievous and devilish than himself danced across his lips.
"That is a different matter. A private banquet we shall learn to prepare for together."
Still, he felt the overwhelming desire to rip out his own innards-still warm and pulsating-and place them at the feet of his master if the feat would allow him to covey just how deeply, dangerously, and foolishly he had fallen in love with Ciel. Sebastian sighed. If only it held the same meaning in the human world as it did it Hell. It would only end up being traumatizing to his master if he was to go about it that way. Speaking of Hell, could it be true what Claude said about the Prince, their eternal Lord of Darkness and the others in hell cackling over his latest rendezvous? No. He had no reason to doubt Claude, even if he was more pompous than a true knight of Hell. In the event that it should lead him headlong into danger, Sebastian knew that he would have to protect Ciel far beyond their half void contract. He would have to protect Ciel not by the order of a contract, but by the order of…
"Love." Sebastian uttered naively, surprising himself.
Yes. He would do it by any means. When had Ciel, a mere foolish mortal, become so dear to him? Even if he did not have an answer at the moment, Sebastian silently resolved to embrace that small, fragile body, to protect him at all costs. This was a dream, he knew, though demons rarely dreamed. Soon, the paused time on their contract would move again and come full circle. Why was he delighting in such an illusion? But if it was for Ciel, then he did not mind nor care.
"Young master," He began as he looked toward the moon, full and somber, "I promise to give you the sweetest dream-and death-in the world. Before you become dust in my arms, I will see the true smile of happiness that has for so long eluded you…Ego diligo vos*."
Sebastian, as he turned away from the moon, caught the scar of darkness peeking behind her silver skirts. Instantly, he thought of Claude and Alois. He was well aware that They would be more than a little troublesome, but to each his own. He would strike down Lucifer himself if it meant keeping Ciel at his side. But as for Alois, that defiled mortal boy he pitied more than he repulsed, Sebastian would merely keep him at bay. Somehow, he hoped, Claude might make the boy as dear to him the same way Sebastian had made Ciel. If not…well, he did not want to dwell on any "if nots". Even so, that boy, like his Ciel, was in some way, doomed. Claude was nothing like him. Ciel had fallen into a demon's arms rather than the cruel net of his contract. Alois, however, had fallen into something much worse: a spider's web and if he should remain true to his nature, Claude Faustus would not spare him. Not in the name of something he thought as trivial as love. Either way, Sebastian was going to prepare a new banquet and this time he was going to prepare it however he wished.
"As expected of you Claude Faustus." Sebastian thought aloud, en route to lay his heart at the feet of his most beloved of masters. "Such is the game of a spider."
Fin.
Ego diligos vos: "I love you" or "you shall have all of my value/worth" from Latin. Thanks for reading!