I awoke to the sound of deep sobs and although I was still half asleep, I instantly knew to whom those sobs belonged to – Finnian. Before I had even opened my eyes properly my feet met the cold ground and I shot out of bed, almost sprinting towards his bedroom that was next to my own down the hall. I hesitated when I reached the door, not knowing whether I should knock or just enter considering the blonde was crying his eyes out by the sounds of it. I decided to opt for the second option as I wasn't entirely sure that he would even hear my knocking over the loud cries. I took a deep breath before placing my hand on the doorknob and turning it, hoping that Finny wouldn't be angry with me over letting myself into his room.

As soon as I stepped into his room I stopped. The room would have been fairly dark had it not have been for the two candles that were burning on opposites sides of the room, illuminating each part with an orange glow. I could see that Finnian was sat with his back against the wall, his knees pulled up onto the bed and his head was resting between them. His body was trembling uncontrollably, his hair was all over the place. I could just about make out his pretty little hairclips on the floor although it seemed that they had been broken. The straw hat gift which he received from the young Master that he adored so much had been carelessly thrown into the corner of the room and so had his gardening boots.

I took another step towards the young gardener before I had even registered my body's movements and the floorboard beneath my foot creaked loudly, gaining Finny's attention. He raised his head from his knees and my heart broke at the sight – his face was red raw from a combination of his crying and wiping away his fallen tears. His eyes were wet with more tears forming with each second that passed. He sniffled loudly before wiping his eyes furiously, clearly trying to rid his face of his tears.

"Ey Finny, what's the matter? Why are ye cryin'?"

I made my way over to the bed as I spoke, wanting nothing more than to comfort the crying boy in front of me. I could see that he was trying to hold back to tears but to no avail, they just kept coming. He dropped his head to his knees again, letting out a shaky breath before hiccupping.

"I-I-I-I almost k-kill-d the young Mast-errrrr"

Finny cried out, breaking into an even heavier load of tears and sobbing even louder when he said the word master.

I moved onto the bed, sitting myself beside Finny against the wall. As he let out another loud cry I placed my arm around his shoulders, gently rubbing the top of his right arm to try and sooth him.

"Ey, ey, ey. Calm down Finny. Shhh shhh shhh. The young Master is perfectly fine, Sebastian got there on time dint he, eh?"

"You d-on't understa-and! I almost K-KILLED him Bard!"

He shouted from between his knees.

"You were only doin' what Master Ciel asked ya t'do Finny, don't beat yaself up kid."

He didn't say anything after that so I just continued with stroking his arm. As I carried on with my stroking of Finnian's arm I noticed that his body started to relax slightly into the touch. His knees began to lower and by the time his legs were out flat, hanging slightly off of the bed, his loud sobs had become much quieter and the tears had stopped flowing so thickly.

"I j-just always mess e-everyt-thing up."

Finny let out a hiccup as he said the word up. He continued to look towards his own feet, seemingly refusing to face me. I didn't mind. I knew he probably wasn't up to having company but I couldn't just leave him to cry on his own. I always want him to have a smile on that pretty little face of his.

"Ey that's not true at all. You always try yer 'ardest!"

Finnian rubbed his nose, sniffling loudly as he did so. He looked up at me then, his gorgeous turquoise eyes reflecting the light from the candles, making them shine brightly. It seemed that he had got his breathing under control now. He had tears forming in his eyes once again but before they had a chance to fall he wiped his eyes and turned his head away from me as he began to say –

"I do try m-my best but I am always r-ruining everything. I bet the M-master is tired of having me around."

I stopped my hand movement then and I felt Finny tense up under my touch. I moved my hand to his cheek and pushed it so he was looking towards me. I could see that his body was still tensed up and his eyes were wide.

"Don't say that. The young Master would never want you to leave, the manor wouldn't be the same without you and your beautiful face."

As the words left my mouth Finnian's eyes softened and the tenseness of his body vanished. I noticed that he had a rather obvious blush forming on his smooth cheeks. It was then that I realised what I had actually said and it was my own turn to blush. I felt heat rise at a rapid rate in my cheeks.

"I mean er…um…er…er… Shit."

I quickly looked away from the young boy beside me. I was really embarrassed of my slip up. I had always found the boy cute but after spending so much time with him over the years we had been working at the manor, my feelings towards him had grown more and more.

I heard Finny take a deep breath.

"Um… Bard?"

I was too embarrassed to even say anything to him so I kept silent.

"Do…Do you really mean what you just said?"

I dared to look up at him then. I was expecting for him to be horrified at the comment, I mean I'm over twice his age for Christ's sake. But no. He sounded almost, relieved? I gulped at the sight. He really was beautiful. And the glow from the candles only added to that, making his eyes shimmer in the light.

"Well, urm, yeah…"

I shifted my eyes to across the room, I didn't have the nerve to look at him. I was practically confessing to him!

Finny let out a large sigh at my comment and I felt him shift his weight towards me. I felt something rest against my shoulder so I looked down towards to figure next to me and saw that he had rested his head against me. I tensed at the unexpected touch but I quickly recovered and relaxed my body.

"I'm glad."

I snapped my head up.

"Huh?!"

He shifted himself up and looked at me, eyes wide once again. He went to speak but it came out as more of a squeak –

"Hmm?"

"Did you jus' say you was glad?"

I was surprised. Even if he sounded kind of relieved before I didn't expect him to say he was glad I thought that about him.

"Well, er, yeah. I am glad if you find a part of me beautiful"

The blush on his cheeks from before made another appearance, deepening in colour this time. Before I had time to think the words through I blurted out –

"I think everything about you is beautiful!"

Finnian's mouth formed the cutest smile and I felt my heartbeat speed up. I went to speak but his voice was so quiet when he spoke that if I hadn't have been so close to him at the time I wouldn't have heard him.

"I think you're beautiful too, Baldroy."

I'm not sure if it was the adorable smile or the fact that he called me by my actual name instead of my usual nickname but something lit a fire in me. And before I registered anything I had closed the distance between the two of us, shut my eyes and I was pushing my lips against Finny's. And they were, oh - so, so soft.

I noticed that there was no movement on his part and tried to move away so I could apologise for forcing a kiss onto the boy but as I did so I felt his hand grab my waist and keep me in place. An easy task to do with super strength but he was being nothing but gentle. He moved his lips then. I felt that he angled his face so we could move more freely against each other and the action made my heart soar. Finny was actually kissing me back! That meant he must feel the same for me, right?

We broke away from each other after a little while, both regretfully welcoming the much needed air. His hand was still holding my waist and we had only separated a small amount so I could feel his warm breath fan over my face with each breath he took. He had a pink tint upon his cheeks, his lips were slightly darker than usual and the sight was so gorgeous. We made eye contact before I spoke.

"Well…Hey…"

"Hey."

"Sooo… What does this mean then?"

I knew what I wanted from the situation but I didn't want him to feel like I was pressuring him into anything so I planned to let him do most of the talking.

Finny's cheeks turned bright red at my question and he turned his head slightly away from me. I felt him move his hand away from my waist; he started to twiddle his fingers in his lap.

"Well I've, erm, liked you for a while now but I thought you liked Mey-Rin…"

I snorted at the thought. I really liked Mey-Rin in a friendly way but I had never really been into women. I kept up an act in front of people as it made my life a whole lot easier but I just simply didn't swing that way.

"No 'fence to Mey-Rin but I jus' don't swing that way y'know?"

The corner of his mouth twitched upward before he spoke again.

"Then how do, er, how do you feel about me?"

He had already said that he liked me so I decided to just tell him the truth about my feelings. It seemed like I had a decent shot with him and I wasn't willing to just pass the chance up.

"I love you, Finnian."

The two of us leaned towards each other then, our lips crashing against each other. I melted into the kiss, letting the feel of his lips overpower me. After a few moments I felt his tongue press against my bottom lip and I eagerly granted him access to my mouth. As he began to explore my mouth I let my own tongue prod Finnian's, the feeling was so much better than I had imagined in the past.

The pair of us moaned as we carried on the kiss, soon having to break for air. As we separated I noticed that there was something different about Finny's eyes, they had a grey tint to them that wasn't usually there. I loved his eyes and I paid special attention to them on a regular basis and I knew I had never seen that colour in them before but I shrugged it off.

As I got lost in my thoughts I didn't notice that Finny had closed the gap between us and shifted himself so he was sitting in my lap. I tensed up at the unsuspected contact which made him flinch before trying to move away.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

I stopped him by placing my arms around his small waist.

"Don't! …Don't move. I was just surprised, that's all."

I pulled his smaller frame against mine, his body heat instantly warming my own body. We sat in comfortable silence for quite some time, the only sound that could be heard was our mingling breaths. The silence was broken when Finnian spoke –

"Thank you."

I was confused by this - I hadn't done anything to deserve a thank you. I pulled away slightly so I could look at Finny's face.

"What're ya thanking me for? I ain't done nothing worth thankin"

He smiled.

"For comforting me of course. I really do feel a lot better now."

I returned his smile at that comment. I lifted my right hand and softly caressed his cheek.

"Well I'm glad, I don't want you to cry anymore."

He placed a soft peck to my lips then before moving his head into the crook of my neck and hugging me tightly. We sat like that for some time. I felt his breathing slow down after a while and realised he had fallen asleep and decided that it would be best to put him to bed and take my leave. I took a hold of his smaller form and moved him to the top of the bed so that he was laying down. I climbed off of the bed and started to tuck him in so he wouldn't get cold throughout the night but stopped when I felt a set of slender fingers wrap around my wrist.

"Will you… stay?"

He asked me in a shy tone. I smiled at his cuteness.

"If that's what you truly want, Finny."

He nodded in confirmation so I turned around to blow the two candles out before climbing into bed behind the younger male. He moved himself back so his back was against my chest and pulled my left arm so it wrapped around his side. Within a few moments I could hear his shallow breaths indicating he had fallen asleep once more and after a couple of minutes of listening to the calming breaths, I joined him in sleep.