Disclaimer: If I owned Kuroshitsuji, I wouldn't be writing this.

That Butler: Final Thoughts

Sebastian had never thought too highly of humans.

But because he had to feed, and had a rather bad habit of playing with his food beforehand, he had to form contracts with mortals.

A soul for his loyalty to a human master, obeying every order, protecting him with his life until his master's wish had been fulfilled.

Sebastian considered his part to be easy.

He was a demon; it would take much more than a bullet through the head or the chest to kill him. And the petty requests made by humans were always manageable—no matter how impossible they might seem to his mortal masters—and sometimes could even be considered extremely easy.

And then, when Sebastian had fulfilled his half of the contract, his current master would always be reduced to begging for his life, asking for other ways to repay the demon's services. Usually, he paid no mind. Sebastian would retrieve his meal—as promised—deaf to any pleadings that his masters might make. Sometimes, he would even be gentle.

It had happened to him too many times to count. That was why, Sebastian supposed, that he had never thought it would be any different when he was bound to Ciel.

He should have known better. Of course.

For this time, he was serving a twelve-year-old boy, something that had never happened to him once in his long life.

There had been no hesitation in his Young Master when he had ordered Sebastian to kill the first time they met. There had been no hesitation in forming the contract, unlike with most of his other masters.

And—though perhaps this was due to the fact that Ciel dealt mainly with the British underworld—Sebastian had suffered more blows that would have been fatal, had he been mortal, than under any other contract so far, even when he had served others of nobility.

That should have told him that Ciel wasn't an ordinary human.

But then, perhaps he had been too busy tending to all his Young Master's needs and wants—because he was still a child, no matter how mature he seemed—to notice any of these things.

There were also the other three servants, who seemed to destroy the Phantomhive mansion more times than they protected it, like Sebastian had specifically hired them to do.

So, when the time had come to retrieve the Young Master's soul, Sebastian had half expected to go through another round of desperate pleas, which he would ignore.

But even in the end, Ciel had never ceased to surprise him.

Instead of begging the demon for something other than his soul for payment, or even asking him to be gentle—which Sebastian himself had offered—Ciel asked him to make it as painful as possible.

"Carve the pain of my life into my soul."

Sebastian stood there, slightly stunned for a few seconds before he knelt down and replied.

"Yes, My Lord."

He had been reluctant.

Sebastian was still confused. He had been reluctant to claim a human soul, even though he knew it was going to be the best he would have for a long time.

Perhaps, he mused, he had developed a kind of love for the boy. Could demons do that?

Sebastian supposed they could.

While under the contract, Sebastian had thought that the urge to protect the Young Master was purely because of the contract. It had happened to him many times before. But now that Ciel was gone, he found himself feeling a sort of regret.

Or maybe he hadn't noticed it at all. Because, during the time that the demon had served Ciel, Sebastian now realized, he had let many emotional things pass him by.

Perhaps he was too busy masking his own emotions when Ciel surprised him out of the blue once in a while.

Perhaps he was to busy dealing with Ciel and the other servants, and the annoying demon hound.

Perhaps he just never wanted to realize it.

But, for whatever reason, Sebastian found that he had indeed developed a kind of love for the twelve-year-old, even if he'd never thought too much of Ciel three years ago.

Sebastian sighed, and made his way back to the small boat at the shores of the small island filled with the ruins a mansion.

He found himself wondering if there were any other souls like Ciels at all. And if there were, he wondered if he would ever get one again.

Yes, Sebastian had never thought too highly of humans. Until Ciel Phantomhive had some along and proved slightly otherwise.

A/N: First attempt at a Kuroshitsuji fic/drabble. And I don't really know where this came from....