Hey guys!

I wrote this story in celebration for my one year anniversary since watching 'Black Butler' for the first time. I owe this show so much. It has dramatically changed my life and has helped me find my writing style, and has shown me what I really like to write about. So thank you so much, Yana Toboso for creating this amazing story!

You can take whatever you want from what I've written. I won't try to explain it or my motives behind it. I'll leave it all for you to decide...

Please enjoy.

HeartElyse

XXX

Fly On

Ciel felt as those soft, bloodied feathers shivered in his hands. The dove could only writhe against his fingers, its movements similar to that of rusted cogs turning in a machine. Its squawks came out like the fading whimpers of a child in pain, wheezing, elusive, the final song.

The boy peered into its pearl of an eye, his own eyes gaping and prickling in a way that was foreign to him. His skin had turned the beautiful hue of rose-red. It seeped over his palms like ink, leaving a stain that could never really be washed clean. What a dazzling colour it was! What a royal colour! A tragic colour. A horrible colour…

The dove appeared to freeze for a moment, as if suspended in time, a statue of glistening rubies in a receding sea of white. A heaviness then grasped its brutalised limbs and with a last coo, it did not breathe another breath. It no longer moved at all…

"My Lord?"

The velvety voice that ghosted through the summery wind sounded as cold and unfeeling as ice in that moment, and Ciel felt as it stabbed through his heart, inspiring a stifling ache in his chest. He did not raise his head, but continued to stare at the dead bird as though a voice had never addressed him at all.

Footsteps crunched the grass, as silent as the light tread of a cat. Again, that voice spoke, nearer, less dismissing. Ciel could even feel a chilled breath sift through his drooping slate hair.

"My Lord, what are you doing with that? It could be diseased. Surely you don't want to get sick."

"S-sebastian." The tone that fell from Ciel's lips did not sound like his own. It was as torn as shredded paper, shaking, hollow, scattered at his feet. "I-I don't care about that… I-I have a question…"

"Yes?"

Ciel's mouth was incredibly dry. "Why does everything die?"

The breeze howled for the longest time. Perhaps it too was surprised by the question, but Ciel did not care for how much bewilderment it inspired. He just wanted an answer…before his tears poured free…

"Because everything dies, Master." The voice dripped with melancholy.

Ciel swallowed with immense difficulty. "Even you?"

A sigh corrupted the silence. "It is not impossible…"

The bird slid to the earth with a low splat. "Oh…" With it, delicate droplets pattered.

A hand cupped Ciel's quivering shoulder and for the first time, he raised his head, the terrible memories blinded by the face that consumed his vision, lengthened by the sadness that Ciel could not decide was fabricated or not. Another hand came to support the chin that seemed to waver with feebleness.

"But there is no need to cry, my Lord. It is as it should be. Life is fragile; there is no telling when it might end. That's why it must be cherished and celebrated, not mourned."

"Do you really believe that?" Ciel sobbed, unable to pretend that he was disgusted by the hands that held him.

The demon dipped his head. "It is the truth. Humans have such terribly short lives that it seems like such a waste to not cherish it."

"A-are you saying I should not mourn the death of this bird?" Ciel snarled, his tongue slicing the air with venom, his watery eye flaming as he glared up at the horribly conceited monster still refusing to release him. "Are you saying I shouldn't mourn the death of my parents?!"

Sebastian's claret irises shrunk against the whites of his eyes. "Not at all, Master," he murmured, shaking his head. "But you have to accept. Accept that they are gone, accept that they will never come back, for all things eventually die. The grass we stand on now shall eventually wither and die. This very Earth may eventually disintegrate and be lost forever. Even myself might eventually meet my end. It is just the way it is."

"But I don't want to accept it," the boy wailed, tossing his head, tears rolling off his cheeks like rivers.

That heartless, unbearable demon drew the quivering Ciel into his arms, holding him close to his broad, immovable chest. "But you must. It is the only way to move on…"

Ciel didn't have the strength to pull away. "But I can't. Because if I do, than what will be left of me?…"