Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji...
Their Persephone, Enigma
Chapter One
The girl, Persephone Darling, was injured. There were various shallow scratches on various parts of her body, a very slight bruise on her chin, a dark bruise on her left forearm. Nothing major and she was fine, assessed Ciel.
Ciel was sipping on his tea, his eyes sharply resting on the girl. Sebastian had offered her a cup, which she declined politely with a sweet smile, instead asked for a hair tie or a ribbon. Both males watched her, amazed and in slight awe as she put the ribbon in between her plump lips and started to run her hands and those thin elegant fingers through her silky dark locks, combing them and twisting them into a long tail and twisting it around and up behind her head. With a flourish and an expert speed she placed the ribbon from her mouth to her hair and twisted, knotted and did something blindly and successfully put her hair behind and up in a respectable style.
Ciel stayed neutral not betraying his awe. It was quite a sight to see a woman manage her hair, something about the way she handled her hair with her back arched up, he noted with the barest hint of a blush on his cheeks. It seemed like too intimate an act to watch, something that should be limited between lovers.
Sebastian on the other hand had no qualms about keeping his opinions to himself or turning a blind eye to the lady in question and her enigmatic little quirks. If anything every little thing about her intrigued him and piqued his curiosity. But a butler of the noble Phantomhive family would never pick and prod at a lady so obviously and especially in front of his young master.
So, he settled for a compliment in his silkiest voice and a look so intense it was sure to mesmerize her like it had done so on women so many times before, "That was most impressive, my lady. You look lovely with your hair up, if I may be so bold as to say."
She sighed and barely reacted to him and his looks. She told him matter-of-factly, "You may be nothing but bold because you already said it and you certainly didn't need my permission to say so. As for it being impressive, it really wasn't. Have you never seen a woman tie her hair up before or do women in this era really are that lazy, incompetent and helpless?"
There was a moment of pause where both master and butler took in each and every one of her word and went through rapid comprehensions in their minds while the lady watched them with waiting eyes. Ciel and Sebastian exchanged a look which made her smirk. They had caught onto her little clue.
Sebastian asked with a cheery but obviously a fake smile, "Forgive me, my lady, but did you say 'this era'?"
She let out a soft chuckle before she asked amusedly, "Ah, the hammer of knowledge hit the right spot, huh?"
Ciel frowned at her. She was as awful as Lau and as exasperating as Sebastian. Could she not answer anything straightly? He demanded sternly , "Answer the bloody question."
She tilted her head to the side and stared right into his eyes. Her eyes were too vibrant and the way she stared into his eyes unblinkingly was utterly unfeminine, it irked him to no end and made his face flush just a little. She gave him a smile just as fake as Sebastian's before answering, "Ignoring your lack of manners or hospitality, fine I shall answer. But bare with me, the answer might be a bit tricky and I am figuring it out as I go."
Her conceited attitude and her comments about him were getting on his very last nerve. A large vein on his forehead ticked as he scowled at her and gathered what little patience he had left and listened to her explanation. She leaned forward, her eyes looking straight out the window behind him and into nothing. Those green eyes of hers burned bright with knowledge, determination and what looked like some sort of pleasure at figuring out a puzzle. Ciel knew that look very well. The look of someone who enjoyed games and winning; it was the same look he saw on his own face when he looked into a mirror.
Her lips moved yet she remained utterly motionless and unblinking. Her voice soft and almost melodic, Ciel noticed her crisp and strange pronunciation. She was an American, no doubt about that. That explained some of her strange behavior. Everyone knew Americans were crazy. She told them, "When I said 'this era', I meant that I am not from the time you two are from. To be more specific, I am from a time far advanced than yours. I am from roughly about a hundred and thirty years ahead of your time."
There was a gasp and widened eyes from Ciel at that important and unbelievable piece of information. But Sebastian looked at her with a large smirk, one that looked befitting on the face of a demon, a psychotic smirk. She nodded once at Ciel and went back to staring out the window and explained further, "My clothing, appearance, behavior and speech should be proof enough for that. Now, just to say that I am from the future would not be specific or correct enough. You see, from where I am from, you two are fictional characters."
Ciel snorted and went to open his mouth for a serious rebuttal, but when he looked to his faithful butler, he immediately stopped short. The demon looked for the lack of a better word, enraptured as he stared at the lady in the room. He was hanging onto each and every one of her words.
Ciel considered for a moment. It was believable that she was from an advanced timeline. There was proof enough of that and it was also true that she appeared into his room unwillingly and by magical means. If that could be true, then it was also possible that she was not from his world, but a different world altogether where his world was merely tales in a book. Fictional, she said. He wanted to slap her for such insolence; how could a life like his be fictional? Could tragedies, horrors and twisted incidents like he lived through be made up by some bored individual's mind?
Still, the lady was not to be blamed. She was only figuring her situation out and giving them the truth of what she knew. How could he condemn her for stating the facts as they were, especially when he had asked for them? He would not do so, not yet. So he decided to remain silent and listen more of what she had to say. She was clever; he had to give her that. Just as he had predicted, there was brilliance in this woman. It was unusual to meet such a woman and he decided that it was a novelty he was going to enjoy for now.
She leaned back, dropped her eyes to the carpeted floor, tracing her eyes over the intricate designs of the carpet. Then, she lifted a hand to her face, her fingers resting on her chin as she traced her forefinger slowly and hypnotically across, under and over her plump and pink bottom lip.
It was inappropriate and very distracting, decided Ciel. He couldn't take his eyes of her lip and he was feeling very warm all of a sudden. He didn't like it, not one bit. He wanted to grab her hand and tell her to stop it and then give her a lecture about proper behavior from a young woman. But he resisted the urge. Why would he concern himself with a strange woman and her actions? He shook his head to drag his eyes away from her lip. Then he looked at her with distant eyes.
Tracing her lip, it was a habit, he concluded. She did it while she was lost in thought. She spoke, her finger still running softly and slowly under her lip, "Therefore, this world that I have, for the lack of a better term, magically dropped into is not my world. This is a different world than mine. I know a lot about you two and this world merely because of the fictional stories written about you."
She knew about them, did she? Now, that was not a good thing at all. Did she even know what sort of a danger she just placed herself into by admitting that to a demon and one of the most powerful and dangerous nobles in the country, wondered Sebastian. It sent a strange sort of buzz throughout his body. She was very exciting and unusual. What luck that she would end up before him and he had all the time in the world to decide what to do with her! For now, every little thing about her fascinated him. A human girl from a dimension in the future where he was a fictional character, how exhilarating.
It seemed like she didn't give a fig about the sort of danger she put herself into. She continued on with her line of thinking without so much as even looking at the demon and the young noble before her, "I know I am not dreaming because I actually have bleeding injuries upon my body which have been causing me pain since the moment I appeared here. Thus, it would be accurate to say that I am from a different dimension and an unfortunately incident in my world prompted my arrival here. There, easy enough explanation."
Ciel gave her a dry look despite being quite impressed with her. His voice dripping with sarcasm, "Quite, Miss Darling."
She blinked owlishly at him and proceeded to give him a sunny smile which was pretty but fake. "My last name was made for innuendos. So skip it. Please, call me Persephone or better yet, Percy. Just Percy."
