Chapter Notes: You've been working at the Phantomhive's for almost a year and Snake just got hired a couple weeks ago. Also, I believe that Snake talks to his snakes, or commonly referred to as his 'friends' in the manga, like a normal person if no one else is around. It's just when there are other people that he talks through his snakes.

Some quick reminders from the manga, Snake still calls Ciel "Smile" and Sebastian "Black". Also, when Sebastian introduced Snake to the rest of the servants, Baldroy asked him if he thought it was OK to hire a shady person, hinting the Bard didn't trust Snake at first.

Hitting the Books

(Snake/Reader)

You were sitting on your windowsill, completely absorbed in the book you were reading. Occasionally you would look out the window, into the garden. You were surprised Finny wasn't out yet. It was a beautiful day. The sun was high in the sky with no cloud to be seen. You shrugged, figuring he was still asleep. You turned your attention back to your book. Not too long after, someone started knocking on your door.

"Come in." You say, not looking up from your book.

Sebastian walked in, "[Name], the Young Master wishes to see you."

"OK. Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes." You said, looking up at him, "Is he in his office?"

"He is." Sebastian said. He looked you over, "Though, do change out of your nightgown first."

You chuckled, "I will."

Sebastian nodded then left. You got up off the windowsill and changed into your uniform. Not wanting to keep Ciel waiting, you grab your book and hurry out. After working here for a year, you found it remarkably easy to find your way around, despite how big this place is. Once you got to the door of Ciel's office, you knocked and waited for his approval.

"Enter." You hear him say.

You open the door and walk up to the front of his desk, "Did you need me, Young Master?"

"Yes. I need you to run a few errands for me. Normally I would have Sebastian do them, but we're expecting visitors tomorrow, so I need him to stay and help prepare." Ciel handed you a piece of paper, "This has all the addresses and the things you'll be doing."

You took the piece of paper and glanced at it. You mentally sighed. It was pretty long. You looked up at Ciel, "I will leave immediately"

Ciel nodded and went back to the paperwork he was doing. You left his office, shutting the door behind you, and looked at the list again.

'If I'm going to be out all day then I'm gonna go change.' You thought to yourself. You opened your book back up as you walked to your room. After a few minutes of walking, you suddenly bumped into something. Or someone, as you heard hissing.

"Are you alright? Says Goethe."

"Yeah, thanks." You said, looking up to meet Snake's golden eyes. A light blush crept its way onto your face, "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

"It's fine. Says Goethe." He nervously scratched the top of his head, "Could you help us with something? Says Oscar."

"Sure. What do you need?" You said, smiling up at him.

"Could you show us the way out? We kind of got lost again. Says Oscar." Snake asked.

"Is there something you need? I'm already running a bunch of errands for the Young Master." You say, gesturing to your list, "I don't mind adding something else to it. If I'm already going to be out then there's no need for you to go as well. Unless you're needing something personal."

Snake shook his head, "Black just told us to go help Finny in the garden. Says Goethe."

You chuckled, "In that case you're going in the wrong direction. Follow me."

Snake followed you back to your room. You went inside, tossed the book on your bed, and grabbed a pen and paper. Snake just stood in the doorway and watched as you wrote something down. Once you were done, you put the pen down and walked over to him, "Here. Directions on how to get to the garden and how to get through the garden. If you're not careful, it's pretty easy to get lost in it. Even after a year, Finny still teases me about that."

Snake smiled and took the paper, "Thank you. Says Oscar."

"No problem." You said. He left to go help Finny and you changed into something more suitable for all the errands you'll be running. After grabbing the list, you were on your way out.

"Oscar! Where did you go!? Says Goethe." Snake called down the hall. He put a finger to his chin, trying to think of where his friend went. Whenever one of his snakes isn't with him, they're usually in his room. Smile and Black doesn't like them roaming around the manor without supervision. They say it's a safety thing or something. Snake rolled his eyes. His friends were safe to be around. As long as you didn't pick them up by the tail. Or get near them when they're eating. Or put your face up by them. Or step on them. They really don't like that one. But his friends were safe to be around!

Snake entered his room and looked around. All his friends were there except Oscar. Goethe hissed and slithered down off Snake's shoulder. He then started to slither down the hall.

"Goethe, come back!" Snake called after him. Black's already going to be mad when he finds out one snake is loose, but two? He doesn't even want to think about what would happen then. Walking down the hall, he found Goethe laying in front of a door that was slightly ajar. Goethe hissed again. Snake looked at the door, "This is [name]'s room. Why would Oscar be in there?"

Goethe hissed once more and slithered into your room with Snake quickly following, "We really shouldn't be in here wh- Oscar!"

Sure enough, the missing snake was laying on your bed. Goethe slithered up the bedpost to be with his friend. Snake walked up to them, "You know you shouldn't roam off on your own, Oscar. What are you doing in here?"

Oscar hissed and used his tail to point to the book on your bed. Snake curiously picked it up and looked at it. It was just a plain black hardcover book. There were green and blue tabs you put in to mark specific pages. It didn't look like anything special to him. He flipped through some of the pages and his curiosity only grew. He looked at the cover. It was an encyclopedia about snakes.

'Why would [name] have a book about snakes? If she wanted to know something, she could've just come to me. I know practically everything about them.' Snake thought.

Snake picked up his two friends and put them around his shoulders. Taking the book with him when he left, he decided to see if you were back yet. He tried to think of places you could be. Obviously you weren't in your room. He spotted Mey-Rin cleaning the banister.

"Mey-Rin, have you seen [name] lately? Says Oscar." Snake asked.

"Hmm..." She thought for a second, "I think she's in the kitchen, she is."

Snake nodded his thanks, "Also, you might want to stop cleaning with shoe polish. Says Goethe."

"Huh?" Mey-Rin looked down at the now black banister. She put her face in her hands, "Not again!"

Snake just shook his head as he walked away. After about twenty minutes of searching he finally found the kitchen. Upon entering, all he found was Baldroy and a slab of raw meat. Bard had his goggles on and dynamite in his hand. He looked up at Snake and took his goggles off, "You need something?"

Snake inwardly flinched. He could tell by Bard's tone of voice that he still doesn't fully trust him yet, "Have you seen [name]? Says Oscar."

"Yeah, she just left a couple minutes ago. Apparently she forgot a few things she was supposed to do." Baldroy said, putting the dynamite away.

"Great, we could've found her if we didn't get lost. Says Goethe." Snake said.

Bard shrugged, "It's a big manor. It'll take some time to get used to the layout. Why do you need [name]?"

"We want to know why she has this. Says Goethe." Snake held up the book.

"That's her snake encyclopedia. She's trying to learn more about your, er, 'friends'." Bard said. He walked over and took the book.

"She could've just asked us. Says Oscar." Snake said.

"She said something about wanting to 'surprise you with knowledge'." Bard sighed, "I don't really get it. Then again, I don't really get her. Look, the tabs have different meanings. The blue ones are the ones she believes you own. There were some she couldn't tell apart."

"And the green ones? Says Oscar." Snake asked.

Bard scratched the back of his neck, "I'm thinking she said those were the ones she thought was either cute or had cool patterns."

Snake chuckled, "Thank you. Says Oscar."

"Yeah." Baldroy put his goggles back on, "Just don't tell Sebastian I'm cooking with dynamite."

"We won't. Says Goethe." Snake said. He got the book back from Bard and left.

He went back to his room and sat on the floor. He looked at all the pages with blue tabs and smiled. [name] had managed to figure out the species of most of his snakes. As he was shutting the book, one of the green tabs caught his attention. Unlike any of the other tabs, this one had a heart drawn on it. He flipped to the page that had that tab and read what it was. His smile widened as an idea formed in his head.

You walked into your dark room and immediately collapsed onto your bed,"Uhg. What a busy day. I can't feel my feet."

Though just wanting to fall asleep right then, you forcefully pushed yourself up off your bed. You went to your dresser and pulled out your nightgown. You usually bathe before you go to bed, but right now your feet were screaming at you to lay down and you could barely keep your eyes open. You quickly changed and crawled under your covers. With the warmth of your sheets, and the fact that you were already exhausted to begin with, you fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

You quickly sat up and scanned your room. Nothing seemed out of place though it was pretty dark. You clutched the covers to your chest and took a deep breath. Exhaling, you shook your head.

'I could've sworn I heard something in here.' You took another look around your room, 'It doesn't look like anything is wrong. Must've dreamt it.'

You laid back down and shut your eyes. You pulled the covers over your head, hoping it would aid in getting you back to sleep quicker. You were on the verge of unconsciousness when you heard the same noise from earlier. You jolted back up and looked around your room again.

'OK. Now I know I heard something.' You thought.

You were about to get up and get some type of light when you felt something rub against your leg. Your body froze and you held your breath. You felt it again, this time by your feet. Almost unable to stop yourself from screaming, you swiftly threw the covers off and jumped out of the bed. Even with just the light of the moon, you could see something moving under your covers.

Scared, yet curious, you slowly made your way back to the bed. You could feel your heart beating faster and faster with every step you took. Gulping, your grabbed the blanket close to where the 'thing' was. You closed your eyes as you yanked the blanket off the bed.

You had expected whatever it was to attack you once you uncovered it, but the attack never came. Instead, all you heard was hissing. You opened your eyes and found a pair of green slitted ones staring back at you. Laying on your bed, and intently watching you, was a snake.

You mentally scolded yourself for being so afraid. You walked up to it and gently pat its head, "I don't remember seeing you with Snake before. You must be new."

From the corner of your eye, you noticed something else. An open book was laying at the foot of your bed. You picked it up and sat down.

"Wait, this is my encyclopedia. How did it get down there?" You asked yourself. Heck, you were so tired when you got back, you didn't even realize it was missing. You looked at the page it was opened to. It was the Bumblebee Ball Python.

You looked at the snake that had now slithered onto your lap, "I thought you looked familiar."

You smiled as you started running your hand down the length of its body. You had this strange feeling that this particular snake didn't belong to Snake.

Yeah, I got a little lazy with it at the end :P And the beginning was sloppy. Well, this turned out to be a failure, now didn't it. Oh well. That's what I get for typing this at two in the morning… I also feel like I didn't quite grasp Sebastian's or Ciel's personality very well. I'm gonna have to work on that.

Oh! And look up the Bumblebee Ball Python. They are GORGEOUS. I really want one...Too bad my mom is terrified of snakes...

Request any character :)

~hugs n kisses~