Aloha everybody! Now, before I type anything else, I must write this in case of future complaints or anything like that. THIS IS NOT A CIELxOC. THIS IS A SEBBYxCIEL. Note how I made that statement all caps and double underlined. But, the romance part is mainly going to be fluffy, and no lemons. I rated this M because of the gore and language.

Well, nothing else to say so, read on!

Disclaimer: There is a reason why it's called a FANfiction. You put the puzzle pieces together.

Chapter 2: The Lovely Geek

CIEL'S POV

Damn it is fucking cold out! Have you ever seen those cartoons where one of the characters has icicles dangling from their noses? If you haven't, you have no childhood, but you can get the idea I'm trying to get across.

"Maybe I should've stayed instead of acting all cool and mighty back there," I mumbled to myself. I shrugged. Oh well, what's done is done, and I'm not going back in there saying it was too cold out for me, no, my pride just wouldn't allow it.

Madame Red said that one day, my pride would be my downfall. I snickered. She couldn't be more right. I too believed my pride was too big for my body; after all, my pride is the one to blame for me losing my eye.

I quickly disperse the thought. No need to get a panic attack in the middle of the streets in London. Rhea would scold me, and that's the last thing I want to deal with.

I turned onto a quiet street with less cars and people bustling about. Streetlamps gave off a soft orange light on the sidewalk, and once in a while, a couple would walk by laughing and giggling. Besides that and the occasionally noise from animals, it was silent.

I smirked. What a perfect scene for a murder. I don't know why I get these strange ideas, but they appear anyway.

I finally stopped at a house made out of red brick with stained glass windows. I quickly checked the house number just in case, but as usual, I was at the correct place.

"285, yep, I'm here," I muttered. The only thing that stood out from the house and that no other house did was keep their front porch light on. I always found it strange that no one else turned on the front porch light, but hey, at least this made it easier to find Rhea's house.

I walk up to the front door and rang the doorbell. I heard the scampering of feet inside, and took a step back just in time to avoid getting my head smashed against the door (trust me, it's happened before. Not the most pleasant experience.).

A girl stood in the doorway with a big grin on her face. She wore baggy green Goofy pajama pants and an orange t-shirt that clung to her figure. Big thick rimmed glasses were slowly falling off their place at the bridge of her nose, but the girl paid no mind to it. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back into a braid that rested on her back. Both her deep purple eyes and her mouth were smiling.

"Ciel! How nice for you to visit," squeaked the girl, or I should say my friend, Rhea. "Come in, come in, we don't want you freezing to death outside like all the other brats, now do we?"

I gladly stepped into the warm, dimly light house. As usual, it smelled like freshly baked cookies. I know, I know, it's cheesy, but honestly, it seriously smelled like cookies. I shook my coat off, and Rhea took it and hung it on the coat holder in the corner. I shrugged off my leather shoes and was about to take a step forward when a hand stopped me.

"Wait," said Rhea, "I'll go and get some slippers for you. Be back in a sec!" She dashed away to somewhere in the house, and came back at no doubt with a pair of navy blue slippers lined inside with wool. She herself was wearing a pair of orange slippers with sun designs on it.

A tug on my arm shook me from my thoughts. "Come on Ciel, it's not every day you come visit me on Christmas Eve, I just baked some sugar cookies, want to try them?"

I couldn't help but nod furiously. Rhea's cookies are to DIE for. I'd be a fool to say no.

I followed her to the kitchen, and took a seat in one of the plush green dining chairs.

"Hot Chocolate?" Rhea's voice called from the kitchen.

"Yes please," I replied.

A moment later, Rhea came from the direction of the kitchen with three plates full of sugar cookies in the shape of sleighs, Christmas trees, reindeer, and holly berries all balanced on one arm. In the other hand she held two mugs full of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows.

As soon as she set the things down on the table in front of me, I began to devour the cookies. Rhea sat across from me, giggling. "It's amazing how you can make chowing down cookies like a hog appear graceful," she commented. I snorted. "So," she continued, "did come here for any particular reason, or just for the sweets?"

I waited until all of the food in my mouth was swallowed before I spoke. One must never forget proper table manners. "No, I have no problems to report; I just came here to escape the gala Madame Red dragged me to. There is currently nothing wrong with my mental state."

Rhea smiled. "That's good, but you know, you could've just gone to Alois house. Not that I'm complaining or anything." She slowly lifted her mug of hot chocolate to her mouth and took a cautious sip.

To any normal person, that would be a strange response I had given to her, but for us, it was the golden answer.

I quietly laughed to myself. This situation reminded me of when I first met her.

Because of the incident that happened 7 years ago, my mind and body was left in a severely damaged state. Therefore, I was taken to St. Daphne's Home for Traumatized Children. I shuddered at the memory.

Believe what I tell you next or not, but Rhea is my therapist.

I know, I know, how can someone that young be a therapist? Well, Rhea's IQ level is off the charts. WAY beyond 200. She was born in London England on December 18, 1999, just four days after me. She graduated Yale University at age nine, and completed their eight year medical program in just two. She is one of the youngest people in the world to receive a PhD, and her professions are surgery and psychological therapy. I know, quite the different subjects, but Rhea said it was boring learning just one, so she decided to do another.

She started out as a surgeon in the USA, and actually was the best doctor there, but she quit after two years. She said she couldn't stand the faces the family and friends of the patients she's performed surgery on. She said they looked at her as if she had killed the patient instead of saving them. Most of them were scared of her.

Rhea claims she understands though, and doesn't blame anybody. She once asked me `would you act differently if a child around 10-11 years old walked out of the procedure room wearing a blood covered sterile gown and gloves to tell you she performed surgery on their loved one?` I of course said no, and she chuckled. `Me too, ` she would mumble, `me too. `

So, she left that hospital and moved back to London. From there on, she helped bring a lot of people deemed as lost causes back to sanity.

I am her current project.

Before I met Rhea, I was constantly switched from therapist to therapist, each claiming they could do nothing for me. And they couldn't. All of the treatments my past therapists put me through didn't help at all. When we tried looking for other doctors, they all refused me, saying they don't want to waste their time on a lost cause. Of course in a more polite manner, but the message was the same. Just when Madame Red was losing hope, she caught wind of a special therapist who accepted all patients, labeled as lost causes or not.

What really gave Made Red hope was the fact that she was the exact same age as I was at the time. I suppose Madame Red thought, since all of Ciel's past therapists were older men and women, maybe a doctor closer, well, exactly his age would help or something like that.

I was surprised when I saw who my next doctor would be. Honestly, I was expecting an old geezer, so imagine my reaction when I saw a twelve-year old girl sitting in the big leather chair all therapist seemed to have. Okay, my face didn't show any reaction truthfully, but inside I was shocked.

Rhea's face at that time was an oval and angular. Her long wavy light brown hair tied into a long ponytail ending just beneath her shoulders. Her side bangs perfectly curled around her chiseled face. She had full lips and a warm smile.

The first feeling I got from her was the aura of an older sister, which was funny because she is younger than me.

But her age wasn't the main thing from my opinion that made her different from other doctors. Well, more like other people in general.

What really surprised me were her eyes.

It wasn't because of their peculiar color, but rather the feelings they showed.

I'm sure some of the people I've met in my lifetime so far have gone through serious things, like having to choose between your parents because they divorced, or maybe someone close to them suddenly died, or even being abused either now or back when they were younger. I'm not implying those aren't serious matters, but the eyes of Dr. Rhea Lynsbee were the eyes of someone who has been through something much more horrid.

The eyes of someone like me.

As weird as it sounds, it was because of her eyes that helped me gain the courage to face the past. She said she understood my pain, my lost, my sorrow, and she sincerely meant it. The other therapists would say `they know what I'm going through`, but there is nothing less sincere than the words of mankind. Their eyes would say they lived a nice life with a happy family, or how they wanted a pay raise from their boss. They didn't understand, and I don't think they ever will.

Rhea used to relate my trauma with her own, and I always admired her strength to speak of her past horrors with a straight face and even voice.

Even to this day, I still admire her.

"Hhheeellloooooo~, earth to Ciel Phantomhive. Did you hear a single thing I just asked you?"

I snapped my head to look at Rhea. She had taken her glasses off and was staring at me.

"I'm sorry, but could you repeat that?" I said sheepishly.

Rhea rolled her eyes and sighed. "I said if you were doing any activities, like going to a club or maybe even school."

I calmly took my steaming jug of hot chocolate and took a deep drink. "Please, I'm perfectly fine with occupying myself with a good book and practising my self defense, and I did tell you that I'm being homeschooled right? There is no need for me to actually go to a school."

Rhea face palmed. "Ciel, for the hundred and ninety-forth time, it's not for academics! You're currently using the grade 10 curriculums, right? So the work part isn't what I'm talking about!"

Rhea sat up straight and looked at me right in the eye. "Ciel Phantomhive. You. Need. To. So. Cial. Lize."

I lazily turned my head. "I hang out with you and Alois. Isn't that considered socialization?"

Rhea let out an exasperated sigh. "Ciel, how many people do you know have a friend they met at a mental institution and also has a friend who is their fourteen year old therapist, huh?"

"Me."

"Oh my-, do you honestly want to just have two friends for the rest of your life? I know how you categorize people, acquaintances, enemies, and everyone else. Are you happy as Alois and me being the only people who don't fit into any of those boxes? At least make a friend category."

I understood what she was saying, but I felt like pissing her off a bit more. "Aren't friends and acquaintances synonyms?"

Rhea looked at me, feigning shock and sadness. "Do you only see Alois and me as mere acquaintances? Fuck you Ciel; I'm not your friend anymore." She folded her arms on the table and pretended to cry.

"Yes, yes," I mumbled. I chugged the rest of my hot chocolate, stood up and stretched. "Well," I said, "I'm going to bed. I assume the extra toiletries are in the cabinet underneath the sink?"

Rhea lifted her head to look at me. "Aren't you going back to your own house?"

I gave her the, are-you-seriously-asking-me-this look. "I wouldn't be asking about the toiletries if I wasn't."

Rhea rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Don't ask me, the owner of this house, for permission. Just go on ahead like you own the place."

I snickered. "Oh great and mighty Rhea Lynsbee, would thou give feeble lil' me your honourable permission to soar to the Dreamlands from your humble estate?"

Rhea had a smug look on her face. "Due to the kindness and generosity from my heart, I give thee permission to stay here 'till the morrow."

"Bless you, oh wise one." I mocked.

I bowed low and walked out of the room towards the stairs laughing.

When I was upstairs, I was just about to ask a question, but Rhea answered it as if she had read my mind.

"The pajamas are in the second drawer on the left."

I yelled down thanks and prepared myself for the night.

Yay! Yet another chapter done and over with. If you're getting any OOCness, whatever, I did it for the story.

I had this huge debate whether to add a couple of paragraphs about Ciel's experience in St. Daphne's in this chapter or the next, and as you've probably noticed, I decided to add it on the next chapter.

Please review!

-BrokenWings66