Agni remained in the kitchen preparing the lunch. It had been twenty minutes since he'd brought Ciel to his room and there was no sign of him. He wasn't with Soma because Agni could hear the impatient noises the prince was making and the constant visits to the kitchen to find out if he'd come down.
"Agni I'm going to go up and fetch him!" Soma announced, appearing in the kitchen again.
"My prince you know it is not proper for you to be in here," Agni said patiently, putting down the knife he'd been holding. "Besides, this is a very big change for Ciel. He needs some time to adjust."
"But he's taking so long!" Soma whined, stamping his foot, his lower lip sticking out in a pout.
"Go into the drawing room, read your book or do your drawings and wait," Agni said respectfully with a smile. "When young Ciel comes down I will send him in with some tea for you."
"Very well," Soma sighed, "But if he's up there much longer you are to go up there and bring him down. I'm not paying him to sulk in his bedroom," he said, leaving the room.

Agni did not need to go upstairs and bring Ciel down as the young earl appeared in the kitchen a few minutes later. Agni heard the door opening and turned around, expecting to see Prince Soma again, but was pleasantly surprised. Ciel looked around the kitchen before focusing on Agni.

"You look very nice," Agni said with a kind smile as he moved from what he was doing to prepare Soma´s tea. Ciel responded with a glare.
"I am not happy about this," he said, folding his arms. He looked absolutely ridiculous. Agni simply smiled again.
"I realise that, but this is really your only option. Prince Soma does not wish for you to live on the street. Besides, he will pay you well and after your training is finished, you will have an afternoon off every week." He told him as he handed him the tray, with a teapot and a cup.
"What am I to do with this?" Ciel asked, struggling to hold the tray.
"Bring it to Prince Soma. He has been waiting for you in the drawing room," Agni instructed. For a moment it looked as if Ciel were going to argue back, but instead he turned and walked, unsteadily, to the door. It was better to just get this over with, he figured. It wasn´t ideal but what choice did he have?
Agni followed behind Ciel, opening doors and generally making sure the boy didn´t drop the tray and break everything, but he managed to make it to the drawing room with no spillages. Agni opened the door for him, but disappeared again. He had a lunch to prepare after all. Having Ciel here to entertain the prince and help with chores would make things slightly easier. Once he´d been trained in. That part, Agni was not looking forward to

Ciel hesitated in the door for a moment, mentally preparing himself for the squeals and the hugs that Soma was going to inflict on him before he stepped into the room with a scowl on his face. Soma was sitting with his back to him, apparently drawing, but he looked up as Ciel approached.
"You look fantastic!" he said with a wide smile, "I knew I picked out the right style for you. It´s perfect!" he told him. Ciel sighed, placing the tray down in front of Soma and straightening up. The prince watched him expectantly for a moment before speaking.
"Aren´t you going to pour the tea into the cup?" he asked, cocking his head, "You must pour the tea into the cup. Like all good servants. Surely even you know that much," he remarked, slightly puzzled. Ciel sighed and poured some tea into Soma´s cup, receiving another smile from Soma who stood up and embraced him in a tight hug, ignoring Ciel´s attempts to free himself.
"I am so happy you agreed to come and work for me, now we can spend so much time together!" he squealed.
"Let me go!" Ciel growled, trying to push the prince away, but Prince Soma was not going to let go that easily.
"You are my servant now, I can hug you whenever I wish to," he said, but let go anyway. He stood observing his new servant for a moment before speaking again.
"You are always so grumpy Ciel. Smile! You must be happy in my presence! I command you to be happy in my presence," he said brightly, watching as Ciel´s scowl simply deepened.
"I am not going to smile," he replied through gritted teeth. This time Soma frowned.
"The correct answer is ´yes your highness´" he told him, "Or ´yes my prince´. Agni prefers that one." He added. "Still. Never mind that now, play chess with me," he said excitedly, but his excitement faded when Ciel picked up the tray and headed to the door.
"I have work to do. I don´t have time for you or your silly games," he snapped, opening the drawing room door. To his surprise it was slammed shut again and he was face to face with an angry Indian prince.
"Ciel you are my friend and I am going to have to be harsh for your own good. To help you learn" he said, "You are a servant here. You do not seem to understand that. Your work is doing whatever I order you to do, not whatever you feel like doing," he told him furiously, his golden eyes glittering in anger.
"If I tell you to do something, you don´t walk away. You respond with "Yes your Highness" and you do it immediately. Do you understand?" he demanded.
For a moment Ciel didn´t speak, but glared back at Soma furiously.
"Do not look at me like that and answer my question," Soma shouted, "Do you understand?"
"Yes," Ciel answered after a moment. Soma raised an eyebrow expectantly and folded his arms.

"Yes your Highness, I understand," Ciel said, not bothering to hide his sigh. He´d known Soma would make this difficult. Soma gave a happy laugh.

"Good. You have learned something. Now. Play chess with me," Soma requested again, cheering up a little bit.
"Yes your highness," Ciel responded with barely concealed rage. But this time he did turn away so that Soma wouldn´t see the furious look on his face.

Ciel spent the next hour and a half playing chess and card games with Soma. The worst part was that he could think of nothing to get himself out of it. He had no other duties apart from keeping the prince entertained. Eventually Agni interrupted to tell them lunch was ready. Good Ciel was starving. It had been a long morning. But it turned out that Soma was eating alone. Ciel was told to stand and watch Agni serving, watch how he did it. Ciel observed with annoyance while Soma chatted incessantly. When Ciel it became too much, Ciel gave a groan of annoyance and found himself being walked to the kitchen.
"Ciel, Prince Soma did you a favour," Agni said patiently, "He took you in and gave you a job to save you from a workhouse. This means he is your master. You cannot show him annoyance." He explained, ignoring the withering look Ciel shot him. "You must listen, converse and keep him happy and in good spirits. There will be consequences if you don´t and as you are Prince Soma´s friend and servant I don´t want to have to punish you,"
With that, the tall Indian returned out, followed by Ciel. Soma was still talking. Had he stopped at all when they´d left? Idiot, Ciel thought silently.

Some reprieve did come after dinner when Agni provided some of the curry he´d made for Ciel. He sat in the kitchen once Soma had disappeared and the dishes had been cleared from the dining room. Agni had gone with Soma. Apparently there were advantages to being Prince Soma´s servant, Ciel thought as he flicked through a newspaper on the table. Soma didn´t come down to the kitchen and their different social classes meant that he and the prince would not be eating together. Finally some peace from his incessant chatter, hugs and stupid games. Ciel was beginning to suspect that Soma had hired him as some sort of companion/pet.
Once he´d assisted Agni in washing the dishes, Soma rang for him and the rest of the afternoon was spent playing board games, having discussions and at one point teaching Soma the rules of fencing. All the while, Ciel fantasised about all of the gruesome things he´d have Sebastian do to the prince were it possible.
Dinner passed the same as lunch. Agni served while Ciel watched. Although this time he was expected to pour a drink once or twice. Once again he was left to eat his dinner in peace. Agni was with him this time, but he didn´t mind that. Agni didn´t insist on chattering non -stop about idiotic topics.
But Soma did call him back in after this, asking him to read to him. Ciel´s patience was running very thin now, but luckily Soma was very easily entertained and found Ciel´s brusque and grumpy tone amusing as he read.
"I need you to wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen a little," Agni told him when he returned to the kitchen "You don´t need to do a huge cleaning job, just make sure the counters are clean and sweep the floors. The last thing we need are rats around" he said. "I will help the prince to prepare for bed and afterwards we can have some tea," Agni said offering the boy a friendly smile as he left.
Ciel seriously considered disobeying, but the idea that he might have to return to Soma and have more "what if goldfish had legs?" types of conversations. He might actually push the prince out of his bedroom window.
Agni returned just as Ciel was finishing and looked around the kitchen. The dishes were put away. There were splashes of water on the kitchen counters, but still. It was more than he´d expected from the young earl.
"What do I do with this?" Ciel indicated the dust on the floor that he´d managed to sweep.
Hiding a smile, Agni fetched a dustpan and showed him how to gather up the dust.
Once he´d made the tea, they sat down.
"How was your day?" Agni asked gently. The boy looked tired.
"Long," Ciel replied, "I don´t know how you can work like this and stay sane," he told him. How did Agni work so well and patiently and still have a smile on his face? But the Indian gave a gentle laugh.
"Poor Ciel," he said softly, "All you have done today is wash some dishes and play games with the prince," he pointed out. That was practically nothing. There was a lot more to it than that.
"Tomorrow morning you start work properly," he said, "The prince and I decided that it was better to ease you into it today,"
"That´s….not a typical work day?" he asked, sipping his tea and putting the cup down.
"Well no. In the morning I will wake you up when I get up and we will have a cup of tea and some breakfast before the prince is woken up." He explained, "After his breakfast you will have chores to do, along with whatever the prince needs,"
"That sounds horrific," Ciel muttered, sipping some more tea.
"You could always leave," Agni offered, "Although I do not know where you could go, especially tonight," he said, glancing out the window at the heavy rain. He smiled, seeing the face Ciel made.
"You will adjust," he told him gently. "It will be difficult, but sooner or later you will see what Soma has done for you"