- The Layer of Ice -
2. The strange birthday
(Sebastian's POV)
I'll try to make your days brighter. I always did so and I always will.
If only you would notice and not only pass by me.
If at least once it brought a happy smile on your lips, however, then I would be content.
-/-/-
One year before
(Ciel's POV)
As far as I was concerned, birthdays are cursed.
It always starts by these, big events, usually of destroying nature.
'It's my fifteenth birthday.' I thought sadly as I looked through the window to see the garden of the Phantomhive estate, which was now dull, as the vegetative season was long since over. 'I wonder what will happen this time.'
For a moment a flash of fire from memory appeared before my eyes and I had to close them for the picture of burning bed to disappear. Then I forced myself to bring my thoughts back to the garden.
'I wonder how it is even possible for it to stay like this without a competent gardener.' I sighed at the sight of perfectly trimmed branches of – now leafless – decorative bushes. Then my eyes slid at the gardener, if I could even call him that. The only thing that seemed to connect the youngster to the work was the straw hat which he always had with him.
Yet I could not fire him.
Not that it would not be within my rights, it's just that I did not have the heart to.
'Heart, che…' I could not help but smirk at myself. I sometimes doubted that this one organ even worked within me, yet…
It did not change the fact that it has been four years since then and since he has been, but the gardener was still the same blonde, who was only now recognized an adult.
The S-012 tattooed on the back of his neck, which he covers by his hat, as if that thing could cover his past also.
His fear of small places and needles.
The way he tries his best, even if it ends up a catastrophe.
All of these simply did not allow me to fire the boy.
As for the rest of the staff… I had a problem also.
MeyRin, the clumsy maid, with her overprotective streak over the first gift I ever gave her.
Bardroy, the explosive chef, with his non-vanishing hope to one day cook a food which would actually be presentable to a guest.
And Tanaka… well… aside from sitting around and ruining my tea supplies he's the only one of the remaining servants from my parent's times and was the one to hire the other three after the… incident. As I later got to know, all of them have been sent here… As for the reason for that… It remains unknown to me.
The servants of Phantomhive. That's what they are above all that, and if not doing their own jobs right, at least they hold that name proudly.
"That does not change the fact that I need someone who can make edible pastries though…" I moaned to myself in exasperation.
'Is that too much to ask?' I thought, then my mind went a bit astride and suddenly I remembered that Sebastian is to come over… Just before the guy in question rang the doorbell.
As I walked down the stairs to welcome him, I overlooked the raven as he stood in the main hall. He was still an enigma to me.
Sebastian was the only senior in the school that I've ever talked to… scratch that, aside from teachers he was the only one I talked to in school whatsoever…
He's been coming over even now, few months after I switched to home tutor, some William or what, who was unbelievably boring, but at least I did not have to put up with my chicken-brained classmates… I only managed to live with them for two weeks.
Sebastian, however, made me really intrigued.
When I wanted to learn chess, he offered to show me, same went for violin, classical dance, language lessons, horse-riding… I named it, and he would know enough to learn me.
'Where did he learn all that?' I always asked myself, as I did at that moment. That however was probably making me seem a bit spaced off.
'Aren't you staring a bit too long at him?' A small voice in my head – which undeniably resembled the owner of the area's Antique's store whom everyone called Undertaker – said before laughing madly. I however could not retort back at it has been true.
"Sebastian, it's good to see you." I said after snapping out of the trance I've put myself into.
"Ciel! It's good to see you too." Sebastian said back, the corners of his mouth curled into a smile.
'He's got such a nice smile.' I said to myself only. In my head was the only place I'd ever say it. There was no way I'd admit that out loud.
"Happy birthday."
That brought me back into the reality… and into the bad mood also.
"They're not something I want to celebrate, really." I sighed, then finally stepped down the last of stairs, walking over to Sebastian, who to my dismay was as always foot and half taller than me…
"That's sad." Sebastian said after a pause, his mood seemingly going down also. Then however he smiled once again.
"Won't you reconsider?" He asked, bringing out a box.
It was obvious at the first sight that it was not a gift that it held, but then it could only mean…
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked, trying not to control the hope in my voice. It however seemed to fail as Sebastian laughed.
"That depends on what you think… I better not torture you any longer though." He decided and opened the box… To reveal the most beautiful cake I ever got.
It was white and creamy, covered in marzipan… It had a hat made along with "Happy birthday" made of chocolate on a top of it, not to mention that there were strawberries in a half circle, opposite to the hat…
The bad mood was about to return at the reminder of my birthday, but the excitement over the cake as a whole overtook it in the end.
"You're a mind-reader!" I exclaimed, not being able to hold it in. "I was just thinking about how I'd kill for a good pastry!" I admitted, only to get yet another smile on the face of the raven before me.
"Better try and taste then, young master." He laughed.
"How many times do I have you not to call me that?" I groaned. It felt a stupid to be called that by him, servants were enough.
"Come on, aren't you one?" He said simply, smiling for a moment. For me however the smile stayed etched in my mind.
"Whatever…" I sighed in the end, leading him to the dining room. It was not like I would change his mind once he had his mind on something. I knew him enough to know at least that.
-/-/-
(Sebastian's POV)
'Like a child…' I could not help but laugh inside when I saw his reaction when I opened the box. It was a rare moment actually, one of the few moments when Ciel let a positive emotion show on the surface, a moment to treasure.
Later, after we finally got to the cake I could see an expression of content see on his face. It was not exactly a smile, but it was close enough.
"So, I take it you liked my gift?" I asked once he ate a second piece of cake, after pretty much devouring the first one.
"Delicious indeed." He said matter-of-factly. "I wish I could eat this all day."
"I could make some more, if you wanted. I can bring some over next time." I offered.
"Wait, you mean it was actually you who baked this?" He asked, intrigued apparently.
"Of course. I don't trust bakeries to make something as I want exactly."
'That's partly true only.' I said to myself though. 'It's just that I wanted to actually make something for you… And this seemed as something you'd appreciated the most.'
"Compliments to the chef then." He said, his corners turning upwards slightly as he reached for yet another piece of cake.
'Oh my… He actually smiled!' My mind screamed at me, sending beautiful warmth across my whole being. Only now I could truly say that the day was a success.
-/-/-
(Ciel's POV)
When Sebastian left I walked back to the dining room and sat at the chair by the window. The view from it was pretty much the same as the one from my room, only on the ground level.
After getting bored with sitting around I walked over to a little table which stood beside window and took an item I had a tendency to tie to this day for as long as I had it… Then I decided to come and get some fresh air and do my yearly round.
It was pretty cold outside. That however did not change the path I took, all the way back, to the cemetery of Phantomhive family.
There were ancestors of different centuries, but there were also those whose passing was not that much of a distant past.
"It's been another year, huh…" I said out loud, more to myself than to those under the ground, as I overlooked the bouquet I've told Tanaka to bring here beforehand. "You should see the company now. Auntie is doing good work, even if I have to help out…" I then continued, twirling a ring around my thumb, a ring with a blue stone, which I had since the fateful day.
I still remembered the day after. When I woke up in a hospital and a man gave me the ring, saying that it was left for me as a birthday gift. Since then I only wore it on my birthdays.
Once I was depressed enough, standing above the graves of my closest family I returned to the house. I returned through the dining room, as it was the closest way and there saw the rest of the cake Sebastian brought.
Somehow, thinking about him made my bad mood disappear just a little bit. Not to mention that I was already looking forward to eating the rest of his delicious gift.
I took the box with me upstairs and sat on my usual spot by the window, placing the cake on the table next to me.
As I took a piece into my hand, I could see a paper sticking from between the yet, uneaten part of it.
I took it out saw that it was a birthday card.
Dear Ciel,
It has been only a short time since the two of us met, but it has been far longer for me than you may think.
I feel as if I've known you for decades, but it has not been even one.
Maybe one day, you will understand just how fast time seems to be for me and then we'll celebrate every event of your life as brightly as you deserve.
Happy Birthday,
Sebastian
If I said that the content seemed a bit strange to me, then I would be underestimating. It however did not cause me a shock.
The post scriptum, the last words, however, did.
P. S. I hope that you're wearing the ring I gave you.
Done~
So :3? What do you think? I'm curious (^^)
Also… The cake as described is as near as I can get to remember to a cake Sebastian makes for Ciel in the manga (I don't know which chapter). I just thought it sad that it was left uneaten in there and so I put it to a better use (^0^)
See ya~ ( "-.-)/