I noticed that there was an error in my last chapter at the very beginning, but that's because I'm writing this in my Gaia's inbox, because I'm lame. So I apologize for that. Also, the title of the story was going to be The Phantomhive Menace, but I changed it at the last minute and forgot to erase it from the text, so I also apologize for that. This chapter was really hard to write, I don't know why. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
_
Once Ciel passed through the heavily laced black curtain that lead to the dressing room on the other side of the stage, he was greeted with claps and cheers. A shy smile made it's way onto his warm face. He received pats on the back, hugs and many compliments from all of the other dancers there. Although he appreciated the generous remarks and praise. All he wanted was to change into something else so he could go roam around in the lounge area, grab a drink and socialize with the members of the audience.
By the time he made his way to a changing rack and began to ruffle through the clothes in his size, the next wave of dancers had already made their way onto the stage and the music was blaring. Ciel slid hanger upon hanger over until he finally found a suitable outfit he knew he'd be comfortable in. It was another pair of short underwear, but this time they were dark blue with a small trail of corset ribbon laced down the sides. The dark ribbons excess hung off and fell against his smooth, creamy white legs. He kept his thigh high boots on and removed his hand cuffs along with some of the bracelets, his belts and the over sized choker still dangling around his neck. He threw on a small vest that one of the girls would usually wear. It was originally a navy blue and black school girl jacket, but the sleeves had been removed and all of the buttons had been cut off.
"There. Decent enough." Ciel touched up his makeup and sprayed himself with a light mist of Ed Hardy perfume. Once he had situated himself and decided he looked presentable, he made his way to a door which lead into a long hallway. His spiked shoes clacked against the cement floor and once he reached a second door, he ran a small hand through his smooth coal colored hair and pushed his way past the heavy blockade.
The lights were flashing wildly and the music was louder than he expected it to be. He pranced over to the bar and leaned over the counter.
"Give me three Cosmos, two Mojito's and a Bloody Mary." The bartender smiled and nodded, quickly mixing the drinks and setting them onto small carrying trays. Ciel turned his head to the side and spotted a table full of women who were all watching the female dancers gyrate and hang upside down from their dance poles on stage. He grinned and looked back at the counter and saw that his drinks were already prepared and set on the trays for him.
"Thank you Bard." Ciel leaned forward and gave the bartender a small peck on the cheek and swiftly hoisted up the two drink covered trays.
"Any time kid. Have fun, and great job tonight!" The man's husky accent made Ciel smile again and as he turned around to reply, he ran straight into a solid object. With a light thud, he stumbled back a little bit and quickly caught his balance. He looked at his hands and noticed the trays were gone, the man in front of him had caught them. Not a drop had spilled over, in fact, the glasses didn't look like they had even budged. He shifted his gaze higher and saw those dark strands of hair and that wicked grin again. He huffed out a breath of hot air and regained his composer and held his hands out.
"Thank you for saving those for me, may I have them back please?" The man set the trays gently onto Ciel's delicate little hands and without another word, he swerved around the tall, slender body and continued walking towards his destined table. He shook his head and tried not to think about what had just happened.
"What a creep." Ciel rambled to himself until he had finally reached his destination. He grinned widely and sat the two trays down on the table. The women seated all looked up and began to scream and squeal.
"Ciel! What's this?"
"Drinks? For us? You shouldn't have!"
The ladies swooned and quickly grabbed their desired drinks and Ciel made himself comfortable, sitting between two women. He threw his arms around their shoulders and leaned back against the backrest of their booth. He kept smiling as the women boasted about how great he looked dancing tonight and how none of the other dancers had anything on him. He tuned out a bit after a while and noticed his boss sitting at another booth on the opposite side of the room.
"What brings you here to our table tonight?" Ciel instantly was snapped out of his trance and looked at the woman sitting on the opposite side of the table.
"I like to treat my ladies like ladies. The drinks are on me tonight." The girls giggled and blushed and diverted their attention back to some of the women on stage. Ciel tuned out again as they began to talk about some of the dancers. How they wish they were that skinny and flexible, or how some of them looked overdressed or under dressed. They commented on their outfits, hair, makeup, bodies. Soon Ciel began to grow tired of their comments, but kept smiling and looked at each girl as they talked.
"Ciel?" His bright blue eyes shot up to Finnian, who was standing there fidgeting and holding his little clip board.
"Yes?" Ciel tried to sound cool and collected, but he had been wishing for the past couple of minutes that someone would pull him away from the table he was seated at.
"The boss wants you to join him at his table." As soon as the women heard the younger dirty blonde haired boy's words, they all sighed and gave unsatisfactory "awwws".
"Sorry ladies, it was nice seeing you all here tonight, enjoy your drinks and the rest of your night. Love you all, come back and see me again." Ciel winked at them and they all giggled and made unnecessary high pitched noises. As he walked away he sighed heavily and thanked Finnian silently for saving him. He made his way through the smokey dark room quickly and finally approached the table. He expected there to be numerous dark suits seated around the table with his boss. He looked at his boss and quirked his head to the side. There was no one else there.
"Ah Ciel! Wonderful job tonight, you did excellent! My friends were very impressed. You've definitely earned that bonus!" The man slid a yellow envelope across the dark cherry wood table top and Ciel's face lit up.
"Sir?" He grabbed the folded container and looked at it excitedly.
"There it is, in cash. You earned every penny kid." Ciel's boss stood from his seat and gave him a light tap on the shoulder.
"Oh, and one more thing." Before leaving, the man handed Ciel another envelope, but this one was black with a beautiful silver S stamped in the middle. Ciel accepted it and looked at it curiously.
"I'm sure you'll appreciate what's inside. It's from the man you paid special attention to tonight. He wanted me to give it to you." Ciel's eyes shot towards his boss's back as he walked away and towards the exit.
"W-wait sir! What was the man's name?" Ciel stood on his toes to try and keep his eyes on the fading back.
"Sebastian!" Ciel lowered himself back down to the floor and sighed. His eyes fell down to the two envelopes in his hands.
"Sebastian. I wonder what it is." He held up the thick paper to his ear and shook it gently. The music was too loud for him to ear anything rustle inside.
After a few minutes had passed, Ciel looked towards the back of the room at the clock. It was already eleven. He bit his lip and took off for the door.
'Damn. I have to work early tomorrow, I'm hardly going to get any sleep.' His feet rushed down the same hallway they had walked down earlier that night. Once he was in the dressing room, he made his way towards his own changing area and quickly threw on an extra t-shirt that he had brought along with him. He quickly began to unlace his boots and threw on his jogging shoes along with a pair of sweat pants.
'I'll just wash these at home and bring them back.' He shoved the two envelopes into his bag and skipped over to the back entrance. As soon as he exited, he noticed a group of men standing around in a small circle about twenty yards away from him.
"Freaking gang bangers." Ciel shook his head and rolled his eyes. They began to whistle and call him over. When he began to walk the other way, some of the men became irritated and yelled a little louder at him.
"Hey, pretty boy. Get your ass back here!"
"Fuck off!" Ciel shook his head again and continued to walk the opposite way.
"The fuck did you say to me? Your ass is mine!" Ciel turned around and saw that the small group of men had began to run towards him. Fear kicked in and Ciel began to run as well. Gripping his bag tightly, he gradually picked up his speed and soon he was sprinting around dark corners and down ally ways.
He glanced back to see if the men were still chasing after him and when they were nowhere to be found, his small feet began to slow down and eventually stopped. He leaned against a brick wall and took heavy, steady breaths and when he finally felt his lungs had cooled down, he began to run again. He ran all the way home, as to avoid any other night walkers.
Once he reached his address, he slowed down again and bounced up the small stair case up to the dark red door. His hand reached into his sweatpants and pulled out a set of keys. He shoved the key inside of the keyhole roughly and jerked the small key to the side until the door clicked. He retracted the key and lazily kicked the door open wider and walked through. Next he faced three flights of never ending stairs. When he finally made it to his apartment, all he had to do was jiggle the handle and step inside. He dropped the jingling object on a small wooden counter top next to the door and quickly kicked his shoes off. His body waddled over to his room and he flicked the lightswitch on and plopped onto his bed.
"Ciel? Is that you?" Ciel sat up and tugged his back pack off.
"Yeah it's me. Go back to bed." Ciel looked up and saw Alois standing in his doorway. His small body was covered only in a loose fitting pair of boxers and his hair was ruffled up immensely.
"Hey, what are you still doing up? I figured you'd be in bed by now." Alois opened his mouth but before he could utter a single word, another figure made it's way into the doorway. There was a tall, heavy man standing next to Alois. Ciel could smell him all the way from across the room. He reeked of body odor and sweat. His hair was ratted and it looked dead. He wasn't wearing anything. Ciel found it easy to keep his eyes above the mans waist, in fact, he mainly kept his eyes focused on Alois, who refused to make eye contact with Ciel.
"Hey there, is this your boyfriend?" Alois kept his eyes focused on the floor and shook his head.
"No." The man snorted and coughed up what sounded like phlegm. It sounded disgusting. He rolled his eyes and walked back into the other room where he pulled on his clothes and wrapped his tie lazily around his neck. He walked back towards Ciel's door and had his wallet out and looked at Alois.
"Here, is this enough?" Alois looked at the money and nodded without saying anything. The man handed him the money and took off towards the front door.
"See you next time kiddy." The man whistled and slammed the door shut.
There was an awkward silence between the two boys. Ciel kept his eyes on Alois, and watched as he tried hard not to make eye contact.
"What are you doing?" Ciel asked in a disappointed tone.
Alois looked up at him and bit his lip while shaking his head. Ciel patted the bed and Alois limped over and slowly lowered himself onto the plush mattress. Ciel grabbed the money and counted it.
"You said you weren't going to do this kind of stuff anymore."
"I know, and I'm sorry, can we not talk about it right now?"
"Alright, but I don't want to keep coming home, seeing you disheveled and with nasty ass men." Alois nodded, rolled his eyes and grabbed the money he had just earned back from Ciel. Ciel pulled out the two envelopes and held the first one up.
"I got my bonus, so we should be good for quite a while." Ciel opened the envelope and began to count the money. Alois grabbed the darker one and turned it around multiple times to examine it.
"What's in this one?" Ciel shrugged and continued counting.
"I don't know, it was from one of the men the boss had observing tonight, he said he left it for me and I'd appreciate what was inside. Whatever that means. Open it." Alois furrowed his eyebrows and pulled the paper slip open and gawked at what he saw inside.
"What? What is it?" Ciel grabbed the envelope and quickly looked inside to see what Alois was so surprised by.
"You must have given one hell of a performance tonight." Alois stood up and smirked while walking out of the room. Ciel dumped the contents of the envelope out onto his bed.
"Someone's popular with the richy rich boys now." Alois laughed and headed towards his own room.
Ciel was speechless, there was a handsome amount of cash sprawled out on his bed. He began counting again and shook his head.
"Five thousand dollars?" Ciel dropped the money and picked up a small card that was enclosed with the cash.
'Your performance tonight was excellent, I enjoyed it immensely. Enjoy the tip, you earned it. Your boss should be proud.' The letter was hand written in fancy cursive writing and was signed at the bottom S.M.
Ciel stared at the card for a few more seconds and shook his head. He gathered up his money and hid it in his dresser. He switched the lights off and walked over to the window to pull the curtains back. The moon was full and shone brilliantly through the glass and flooded his room with pale light. He cracked the window open a bit to let the cool air flow in and quickly began to undress.
His shirt and sweatpants were thrown into a corner on the opposite side of the room. Then came his vest and shorts. After removing them, he laid them on a chair next to his dresser and pulled off any remaining jewelry and set it in a small glass bowl on a shelf hanging from the wall. Nothing was left, just the small black bellybutton ring that sparkled when he walked past the window. His skin was so vibrantly white. He walked over to his bathroom and damped a wash cloth to wipe his face with. Once he had finished, he climbed into his bed and set his alarm for five thirty. He fell asleep satisfied with himself, he was happy to know that his hard work had finally paid off. Literally.