Malphas had always been concerned about his soulmate. Growing up, he had never had his soulmate's voice in his head. If your soulmate was alive, you'd be able to hear them, no matter what.
He hadn't worried at first, thinking that maybe he was just the older one. They'd be born soon, there was no worries about it.
However, as the centuries passed by, and no voice was ever heard, Malphas began to grow concerned.
Shouldn't his soulmate have been born by now? Where was he or she? Had he been born too late? Born way too early?
Malphas had heard stories (who hadn't) of demons who never found their soulmates for whatever reason (they died young or whatever), the stories of the demons who went crazy in search of their other half. Those demons were the ones who gave Hell and all demons a bad name.
So Malphas was concerned. Why hadn't his soulmate been born yet? Or did he not have a soulmate?
That was the worst possibility. The other types of creatures- angels, shinigami, and humans- could easily function without one. Soulmates were just a nice thing to have, to them. But for demons it was different. A demon's soulmate is their everything. Their soulmate is their sanity, their home, their life, everything. For a demon not to have one was just… unbearable.
So where was his?
More centuries passed, and Malphas found himself becoming a bit more cruel, a little more distasteful of other beings, a little more like the demons humans portrayed in legends.
He didn't like it. It wasn't him. He shouldn't be like that.
Malphas tried everything he could possibly do to try and keep a hold of himself, of his sanity, but he was slipping.
So, when he finally felt a soul connect to his, and a new mind connected to his begin to form, he was immensely relieved.
Ciel tilted his head as he looked at the "homework" he had been assigned by his tutor. 'Mal?' He asked his soulmate, knowing the older male might help. Either he would tell him to figure it out himself because relying on someone else (even a soulmate) is moronic, or he would be ridiculously happy to help. He always was one or the other, for some reason. Ciel knew most soulmates weren't as, well, clingy (that seemed like the wrong word but it was all Ciel could think of)- perhaps overprotective was better- as Mal (as he introduced himself) was, but that was okay with Ciel.
'Yes?' His soulmate replied, sounding a little stressed.
'Do you know French?' Ciel asked, ignoring how Mal seemed stressed. Last time Ciel asked about it, Mal refused to reply, and asked him to just drop the subject, so Ciel figured it was probably the same in this case as well.
'I do, why?'
'I need help with my French work.'
He heard a mental snicker of the other end of the connection and pouted (what, he was five, he was allowed to pout). 'Is it really that difficult?'
'It's conjugation,' Ciel replied, annoyed.
'Ah, yes, conjugation, the most difficult part of learning,' Mal said sarcastically. Ciel gave up on trying to get help and just ignored him, going back to his work. At least he was learning early (five was definitely early to learn another language, since most other British kids his age were only just starting to learn how to use English properly), so it would be easier for him to learn other languages later. His father did say once that the earlier you learn, the better you learn.
"Ciel!" Ciel looked up at the yell, noting his betrothed, Lizzy, run into the room.
Ciel smiled. "Hi, Lizzy. How was your day?" He and Lizzy were cousins, and even though they were engaged to be married, they had both agreed that it would only be a public marriage. Within the privacy of the manor, they would only be best friends. They also both agreed that no matter what happened, they wouldn't judge each other for anything. The reason being was that same-sex relationships were declared 'works of the devil' by the Church, according to quite a few people who were devout Christian's, child slavery was okay by the Church. Ciel and Lizzy both had soulmates who happened to be something that went against the church (well, Ciel did- Lizzy's soulmate was the second situation, and was 'okay'), so they weren't that fond of the Church. Ciel's was obviously Mal, and Lizzy's was some guy named James Macken.
"It was great," Lizzy gushed, sitting in a chair, "mother took me to London and we got such cute clothes! Or," here she looked slightly sheepish, "I did, at least. Mother didn't."
Ciel nodded, grinning at her. "I figured as much. Aunt Francis really doesn't like cute clothes, does she?"
She snickered, "No, she doesn't. Now, Ciel, can you help me figure out how to get my brother in a dress?"
'And the future Emperor of Hell, Lucifer, which means morning star in Latin by the way, was cast from Heaven and became a demon,' Mal finished the story, though Ciel didn't know this, as he had fallen asleep already. He had agreed to tell Ciel a bedtime story but for some odd (to Ciel at least) reason, he didn't know any actual bedtime stories, only demon and angel lore. Or history and other academic things. He knew a lot about those things, actually. Ciel often wondered why.
Well, either way he was currently asleep because Mal, even though he had crap stories, was good at telling said crap stories, so it worked either way.
"Father? Why do some people fall in love with their soulmates but others don't?" Ciel asked, sitting on the second chair in his father's office while the man looked through his bookshelf.
Vincent turned around to face him, book in hand and a slightly confused expression on his face. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was curious because some people marry them and live with them for the rest of their lives and others hate their soulmates. I don't get it," Ciel shrugged.
Vincent tilted his head and gave him an amused look. "Well, it all depends on your soulmate's personality. The concept of soulmates is basically someone who is perfect for you in every way, but your relationship with them is your decision. Some people don't like the thought of someone fitting their personality perfectly, and so they and their soulmate don't get along. Other people like the romantic attachments to the concept of soulmates and end up pursuing a romantic relationship. Others just take it as platonic, basically a best friend you can always talk to no matter what. It could be any reason, really," he explained, sitting in his own chair.
Ciel nodded, thinking it over. It made sense. "I see, thank you for explaining father."
Vincent chuckled, "No problem. I assume you were curious about any possible relationships with your own soulmate in the future? As well as your other reason, of course."
Ciel gave him a bit of a sheepish grin. "Yeah…" Vincent laughed, shaking his head just a bit as he opened his book and picked up his quill pen, positioning it over a piece of paper, obviously intending to do his paperwork. Ciel stood up, leaving the office to leave his father in peace.
Ciel's eyes snapped open to heat. While this wasn't unusual considering it was winter, so the manor was kept warm, this heat was too much. It was too hot to be just the manor.
Looking around, he almost screamed. There was fire, fire everywhere. He rocketed out of bed and ran for the door, looking for his parents, who he noticed weren't in the bed with him like they should be. Where were they? What happened? Why was the manor on fire?
'Ciel? Ciel, what's wrong?' Mal asked concernedly in his mind, but he was ignored by the almost panicking ten year old.
Ciel ended up at the doorway to his father's study, seeing him sitting on the chair with their dog at his feet calmly as if nothing had happened, fire wrapping around all the walls of the room. But Ciel saw blood, saw it dripping from his wrist, pooling around his feet.
'No, no, no,' Ciel thought, shaking his head as if to clear the images from his eyesight as if it were only a bad dream. The image before him didn't change. He was dead. Vincent, Ciel's father, was dead.
'Ciel?' Mal was getting worried, but Ciel still ignored him in favor of looking for anyone else in the manor. 'What's going on? Answer me, Ciel! I need to know if you're okay!'
Ciel took a deep breath and backed away slowly for a few steps, before turning and running. "Tanaka!" He exclaimed, relieved to see at least one person alive.
Tanaka turned and his eyes widened. "Young master!" He exclaimed, running over and almost dragging Ciel from the manor. "You need to get out of here, now."
"What about mother? What happened to her?" Ciel asked frantically, ignoring Tanaka's words for the time being.
Tanaka shook his head, not answering the question.
'Nonononono,' Ciel was getting even more panicked.
'Ciel!' Mal's voice was almost panicked now, which was not normal. That had never happened before. Mal didn't get panicked, he worried a bit, sure, but he didn't get panicked. It just didn't happen. But Ciel had no time, no base of stability, to reflect on that at the moment.
"Go. Get out of here a-" Tanaka was cut off by a pained noise, which Ciel dimly realized came from Tanaka himself.
Blood. There was blood everywhere again, but this time it was from Tanaka. It wasn't the blood from his father like in the study, but it was from Tanaka.
Before Ciel could register this, he went unconscious.
When he woke up, his head was pounding and he had no idea where he was. "What?" He tried to stand up, and managed it, but he couldn't move very well. Looking down, he saw a metal shackle around his ankle, chained to the corner of what Ciel was in, which he then realized was a cage.
'Mal? Mal, are you there?' He asked mentally, looking around, afraid.
'Ciel!' Mal sounded relieved. 'What happened? You wouldn't answer me, and then your side went black.'
Being reminded of what had happened before he woke up in the cage made Ciel shake slightly. Instead of replying, he instead just sent the memory to Mal, which was difficult, but Mal had taught him how to do it, saying that it was a good way to explain things if you don't want to actually explain it.
'Oh,' Mal said quietly. 'I see. Where are you?'
'I- I don't know. I'm,' Ciel trailed off as he heard footsteps. Ciel shook a little bit again, eyes widening as two people in all white, with white halfmasks and hoods to hide their identities, came in the room, looking around at the other cages with children in them, which Ciel hadn't noticed until now.
They stopped in front of Ciel's cage, and the ten year old took a shaky step back. They laughed maliciously. "Where'd you get this one?" One of them asked his companion.
The other one smirked at the first. "Bought him off the benefactor. Cost more than two of the others combined, but it was well worth it. He's the Phantomhive heir."
The first snickered, a smirk curling his face as well. "A noble, eh? Oh this'll be good. We can use him in our large ceremony."
"My thoughts exactly," the second said as they wandered off, looking at the other children in cages.
'Ciel?' Mal poked at his side of the connection gently.
'I don't know where I am. But I was apparently sold. I think it's a cult.' Ciel told him absently, in a bit of shock from what he had just learnt.
There was an animalistic growl from Mal's side of the connection. 'I'll find you, Ciel,' he vowed, 'don't worry. And when I do, they're all dead.'