Ciel reached the balcony of his apartment, landing gracefully amongst the veil of curtains blowing in the wind past the door sill. The sunset cast a myriad of pink and orange shades on the white bricks of the building.

Delicate notes were coming out of the high perched balustrade.

He peered into the room as he unfolded himself from the landing and saw Sebastian sitting at the piano, his hair was still damp. He was shirtless, in fact the only piece of clothing being the black trousers that he wore.

In nanoseconds, Ciel was able to take it all in: the music flowing delicately, the curtains gently dancing in front of his vision, Sebastian barefoot on the marble floor, his hair falling over his eyes as his body curved over the instrument and, his body undulating, making his humid skin shimmer in the sunlight

That was all the time Ciel needed, and all he would be granted. He secretly thanked demon's heightened senses as Sebastian fingers froze into place at his arrival. He didn't need to see his face to know the hunger that transpired:

"You fed."

Ciel stepped forward and headed for the small refrigerator. They had a luxurious apartment with items gathered through their travel from all around the world; expensive paintings on the walls, rare statues, and the likes. But in New-York, even luxury was tiny. Ciel had removed the kitchen seeing as no one would be using it to make more room for the opulent leather couch and a desk where he often wrote missives to the demon realm. He opened the fridge as he replied to himself "I was bored."

Sebastian stayed silent a moment, never looking at the boy and then his answer took the form of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Ciel took a sip of the bottled water he had fetched as the door of the refrigerator closed in on itself. Leaning against it, he watched Sebastian as he passionately played the song – Ciel's favorite. The scene was eerie as the sunset casted shadows of colors in the apartment.

Sebastian playing the piano always had mixed effects on Ciel. He liked watching him to his heart's contempt being able to scrutinize the man who always kept to himself. But the sound of the piano, more than any other instrument, always reminded him of his past; of their years back in London as he played the role of the Queen's watchdog, butler at his side...

It reminded him of the people he cherished back then, the ones he once loved. They were all dead now; long gone from this world. He had no one left, not even a picture had survived the past 250 years. Eventually, he had started to forget their faces. The only thing remaining was the feelings they left on him. An impression.

People say that so long as you're not forgotten, you are eternal.

He sometimes wondered... if you only remembered people for how they made you feel, did you really remember them? Were they eternal if they only lived in the tiny bits that your mind and heart could carry? Forgetting everything else that they were? Everything they could have been...

That was why Sebastian had bought the piano after all, to torture the little bits he could still torture out of him. The Lord had thought of refusing the purchase, but the bitter sweet feelings the music brought to his heart was something, as a demon, he almost relished in nowadays.

Melancholy was an understanding mistress.

Focusing back onto the scene in front of him, he let his eyes linger from Sebastians' hands on the piano up to his arms and then his shoulders; watching the motion as his hands moved up and down the notes. He trailed to the crook of his neck, noticing the still wet hair brushing against his skin and lingered on, tracing a path between his shoulder blades where trails of water glowed as his muscles shifted and curled under his silky skin. His eyes peaked down the man's spine slowly until he reached the seam of his trousers. His blue eyes narrowing as his imagination ran rampant... the thought of his fingers brushing the skin, his tongue and teeth longing for the taste of it...

"Yes, My Lord?"

Snapping out of his reverie Ciel noticed Sebastian had stopped playing. Following the cold breeze he walked back to the balcony's door.

After a short while he asked "Why can't I hold back?" When Sebastian didn't answer he felt annoyed at the misunderstanding and clarified "The souls. Why can't I hold back?"

Sebastian turned from the piano and got to his feet. He moved in slow silent footsteps, his eyes impassive as they had been for the last couple of hundred years.

"You are still young, My Lord. You let your desires overcome you." He said as he passed him without stopping.

"Only some of them", thought Ciel. At first he had relished in his new demon status and the hold it had over Sebastian. He had toyed with the demon and forbade him from contracting with a human. He wasn't sure if he could have but he didn't want to risk it. He felt cruel and experimenting with the new emotions filling him.

After a few years, he noticed his body began to change and with it came different desires. The demon process seemed to have triggered a new growth but seemingly a slow one. Then it stopped again, as if deciding this was the age the demonling was to be. He had kept his human body and as a result, was unable to enter the demon realm.

Ciel heard Sebastian's bedroom door close.

The older demon had changed completely the instant he found out Ciel had been turned. He never teased him anymore, never tortured him. Sebastian was once his saviour and his misdemeanor. The game between balancing Ciel's friendship and his fear of the demon came to a halt as the fear had gone.

Over the decades, Sebastian had had other opportunities to torture Ciel but as he hadn't. Without a prize, the game wasn't worth playing. So there were no more games of cat and mouse between them... only a game of cats. It was always a fight to see who would get the upper hand over the other.

Things had turned sour for him.

Now more than ever before, Sebastian was his everything. His family, his servant, his fantasies but mostly, now he was a mouse. His entire world revolved around Sebastian no matter how much he will himself not to. To him however, Ciel was mere chains; an obstacle keeping him captive.

Ciel sighed as he brushed the thoughts aside and headed for a shower.