A/N: OK, here's this Christmas fic. I have multiple reasons for leaving all my updates so late - I promise!
One is that, well, Christmas! Duh. I had to help clean up my house on the 23rd because my family hosts the family Christmas Eve get-together, and then there was the ACTUAL Christmas Eve get-together in which I am required to entertain my many cousins (the oldest of whom is about eight) because small children are unnaturally fond of me, and then finally Christmas itself.
Then there's the fact that even if I DID put the effort into posting something, NO ONE WOULD READ IT because everyone else would ALSO be busy.
And I also changed my plans last minute and ended up having to renegotiate them. How lovely.
Finally, I got the first three Black Butler mangas (yes, I did start in the middle) and found out that Rachel is not ANYTHING like I thought she was and damn I'm glad that I put writing this off until after I'd read them, because rewriting this would have been a pain.
Title: Looking a Lot Like Christmas
Author: liketolaugh
Rating: K
Pairings: Rachel/Vincent
Genre: Family
Warnings: Pre-series, Little!Ciel
Summary: Five-year-old Ciel does so love Christmas.
Disclaimer: Sadly, Black Butler is not mine.
Ciel yawned tiredly, and turned over. Mmmm... Wait.
His eyes popped back open and he sat up straight, beaming. Christmas! It was Christmas!
He rolled off of his bed and ran toward his Mama and Daddy's room, tripping along the way, but he didn't care. Christmas! Why were they still sleeping?
He tried to hop onto their bed, but was too short and fell. Too impatient to climb on, he tugged on his Daddy's hand insistently. "Daddy! Mama! Wake up! It's Christmas!"
His Daddy yawned and looked up at him with an amused smile. "Ah, Ciel. Awake already, are we?" He chuckled and turned over to wake up Mama. "Rachel, it's time to wake up. Small children are becoming impatient."
His Mama groaned a little and Ciel heard her mumble, "Let them be impatient."
Daddy chuckled and threatened, "You have five seconds before I let Ciel get you. One... two... three... fo-"
Mama sighed and sat up. "I'm up, I'm up!"
Both Ciel and his Daddy smiled at her, and Daddy held Ciel's hand as they both went downstairs to the huge Christmas tree that went to the entrance hall's ceiling. Mama followed soon after.
Daddy smiled at Ciel, but still ushered him away as he got the fire going, but that didn't mean that Ciel couldn't watch. Mama was lighting the candles that were in the Christmas tree and carefully not knocking over any of the ornaments. Ciel giggled as one of the ornaments fell off anyway and Mama gave it a dirty look before Ciel picked it up and struggled to put it back, before Mama took it out of his hands and he pouted because his Mama could reach it while he couldn't.
"Sit over there, Ciel," Mama told him, pointing to a spot a little ways away, before seeing Grandpa coming from the servant's wing. "Oh, Tanaka. Sit over there, will you?" She pointed to another spot on the floor and Grandpa chuckled.
"Young Master woke you again, I see."
"Always," Mama sighed, smiling fondly.
Daddy finally got the fire to be a big crackling blaze that made Ciel laugh as Daddy threw a pinecone into it, making it explode. The pinecone, not the fire. Ciel giggled again at the thought.
Then Daddy gave each of them a sprig of cedar, like he did every year. "Make a wish," he encouraged Ciel.
I hope that someday I'm just as good a Guard Dog for Grandmother Victoria as Daddy is, he wished silently. Then he tossed the cedar into the fire and giggled as it made an odd crackling sound, like his wish was being sent out on a shooting star.
Ciel waited as his Mama made a wish, and then Daddy, and finally Grandpa was given a cedar twig and had tossed it into the fire to make that odd crackling sound.
Then, finally, the four of them went to the tree and sorted the presents. Or, Daddy and Grandpa did, anyway, calling out names and, if it was their's, putting them where they were going to sit; Daddy between Ciel and Mama, and Grandpa on the end.
Finally, the last present was handed out and they were allowed to open them. Ciel beamed at his parents with each one; he loved them, they were exactly what he'd wanted! He especially liked the toy arc for him and Lizzy to play with. He couldn't wait to show it to her! She'd love it for sure!
Ciel cocked his head curiously as Mama called to Grandpa, "Tanaka? Will you go please get Ciel's last present?"
Grandpa smiled and bowed a little. How he managed that while sitting down, Ciel wasn't sure. "It would be my pleasure, my lady." He stood and went into one of the other rooms and returned carrying a box with holes in it. Ciel gave Grandpa and his parents a puzzled look.
"Open it, Ciel," Daddy encouraged.
Slowly, Ciel opened the lid of the box, and then let out a soft scream as something wet licked his nose. He took another look inside to see...
A black puppy. He beamed.
"A puppy! A puppy!" he cheered.
"Give him a name, Ciel," Daddy told him, smiling broadly.
Ciel settled down to think for a moment, holding the puppy tight in his arms while he tried to lick Ciel excitedly.
"Sebastian," Ciel finally decided.
"That's an excellent name, Young Master," Grandpa told him, smiling.
Ciel smiled back.
Eh... That could have turned out better. A lot better. But I hope it's okay. Also, I hope that you people appreciate all that random research I do to try and make things historically accurate when possible, lest I accidentally pretend chocolate chip cookies were invented several decades before they really were, or light the Christmas tree, or some other such horribly embarrassing historical blunder. By the way. That Sebastian thing? Totally thrown in last minute. Does it work? I wanna know! Please review?