Torture and Tea:

Chapter 2:

The office workers at Funtom Publishing looked up expectantly as Ciel Phantomhive stalked angrily into the office, ten minutes before the end of work which was at half past 5. He had left the office in the morning, over 6 hours ago. There was nothing unusual about that; the interns normally stayed at Sebastian Michaelis' flat for most of the day.

The harassed intern strode up to Bardroy and handed him the manuscript.

"I've done what you asked me to. Can I go home now?"

After a moment of silence, Bardroy nodded slowly and Ciel walked out without glancing back.

Grell and Finny exchanged startled looks.

"The brat can still walk and he doesn't look exhausted," Grell commented in surprise. "Did Sebas-chan keep his hands off him? That is a first."

"I don't think so," Mey-Rin, a red haired woman with thick circular lens glasses, answered from the other side of the office. "He wouldn't look that annoyed if something hadn't happened.

"In any case, he came back looking different to the others, meaning I get to keep all of the betting money," Bardroy said with a grin.

Gell shot him a suspicious look. "You know something that we don't about the brat. Or is it that you thought that Sebas-chan wouldn't lay a hand on him because he looks too innocently childlike?"

Bardroy did not rise to the bait and began flipping through the manuscript, checking first for grammatical and spelling errors and then actually reading the content. He squinted closer when he noticed that the descriptions of the uke changed from being a tall gangly blonde teenager to a short and skinny boy with "baby soft lips" and hair "the colour of slate mixed with the sky". He groaned at the inconsistency, then realised that it meant that author had interest in Ciel Phantomhive as the description, albeit flowery, matched the intern perfectly. The editor wondered if the inconsistencies were deliberate mistakes so he would have to send Ciel back with the manuscript or whether the author had been too intent on his own fantasies to notice. Either way it connoted that Ciel had caught his interest as this had never happened before.

It was also disturbing and he knew he couldn't let this go much further. After all he had a duty to the boy's father.

Around him the other occupants of the office packed up their work, put on their coats before leaving work for the day, but he barely noticed as he closely read the manuscript for anything that would set alarm bells ringing.

He was so intent on his work that he didn't notice that subject of his thoughts standing in front of his desk until the boy cleared his throat.

"Bardroy, can I ask you a question- it is the obvious one," Ciel said and nervously straightened his coat as he wasn't sure if the man would actually answer. Something about the looks that he had been given when he had arrived back had given him the hint that everyone had known what had been going to occur when he went to Sebastian Michaelis' flat.

Bardroy sighed heavily. "I'll tell you, you deserve to know. I'll treat you to some cake too whilst I'm at it."

The pair adjourned their conversation to a restaurant that was around the corner of the street that the office was situated on. Bardroy ordered ham, egg and chips for himself whilst Ciel chose a selection of cakes.

"So, what exactly do you want to know about Sebastian Michaelis?" Bardroy asked as he dipped a chip into the fried egg.

"Is he really a bestselling author? I've never heard of him before and I thought I was well read," Ciel decided to start the interrogation off on a light note before he got to the heavier morality questions.

Bardroy was grateful for the evasive question. "He is, he writes under a pseudonym and you wouldn't have heard of him as BL is actually aimed at females."

Ciel took a bite of his heaven and hell chocolate cake before adding another question to the mix. "Does what happened to me... happen to every intern that has ever worked at Funtom Publishing?"

That was the question that his supervisor had been waiting for. "What exactly happened? He clearly didn't do much as you're still walking and I can't see any love bites."

As Ciel described the situation that he had been in, he noticed that Bardroy's shoulders sagged in relief. Ciel raised an eyebrow.

"Were you expecting something else?"

His supervisor looked away guiltily. "Every other intern has... fallen in love with him and er, done things. You got off very luckily with a French kiss and a cat costume."

Upon hearing the author's modus operandi, Ciel spat out his latest mouthful of cake. He had suspected that the pervert had been very prepared to go all the way with him. He was now extremely glad that he had bitten the pervert's tongue. He didn't even what to speculate what could have happened to him.

Bardroy grimaced. "It's a true. They come back unable to walk in a straight line and then they quit because he is no longer interested and ignores their calls. It has happened with every single intern that had ever gone to his flat to collect a draft."

"They fall in love with him?" Ciel questioned and flicked his fringe out of his eyes so he could observe Bardroy carefully for signs of lying as what he was saying sounded so improbable.

"All of your predecessors were older than you and most were doing the internship part time as they were still in university. Their tight and gruelling schedules meant that none of them had a girlfriend and they were very susceptible to him."

"So, I'm only different because I'm not a burnt out university student?"

Ciel moved onto his second cake which was a strawberry shortcake and picked the strawberries off first with his fork.

The person paying for the cake considered the question for a moment.

"It's not just that. You... have a presence and you're very firm on your decisions. Your refusal was probably so strong that he was shocked and didn't know what to do."

Ciel couldn't recall being firm on his decisions at any time during his internship so he wondered where Bardroy had got that impression from. He looked down at his strawberry shortcake and then he knew.

"You know who I am, don't you? No one else in their right mind would buy a 19 year old cake. I suppose it makes sense as you are my supervisor."

Bardroy smiled. "I met you once at a garden party hosted by your parents when you were about 7. I asked if you if you wanted to play hide and seek since you looked very bored, but you refused steadfastly and persuaded me into a game of chess. Of course I lost the game and you made me sneak you cake secretly as your parents had banned you."

Ciel couldn't recall the memory in question, but it sounded like something he would do as he always got bored when he was forced to attend parties and his parents had banned him from eating sweets at some point in his childhood due to the risk of him getting a cavity.

"Does my father know what Sebastian Michaelis does?"

"Sebastian Michaelis is a very grey area for us. All subjects involved are willing and he gets results out of the encounter which are beneficial to Funtom Publishing. Or at least until now. You weren't willing: you could press charges."

He looked up at Ciel who was looking down intently at his cake as if he was in deep thought. Then the boy looked up, tilted his head on one side and smiled angelically as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

"Reporting him to the Police wouldn't be enough revenge and the Phantomhives have always worked on the other side of the law," Ciel said and straightened his posture. "I'm getting revenge on him personally. Do you have any objections?"

Bardroy grimaced. He had never been fond of the volatile situation, but it had never done anyone any actual harms as all the interns were willing, Sebastian produced yet another bestselling book and there was never a shortage of people wanting to do internships at Funtom Publishing. But now it was different. Ciel had not been willing and Michaelis did seem to be enamoured with him, but he had chosen the wrong intern to mess with.

"I can't do anything directly to stop him as I'm only an editor, but I think something that should be done. I have no objections," he said thoughtfully, then he remembered what Ciel had said about Phantomhives not working on the side of the law and reconsidered. "Just don't kill him."

"Of course I'm not going to kill him," Ciel smirked which sent shivers down Bardroy's spine. "He might want to be dead though, when I'm finally through with him."


The author in question was smiling to himself as he thought about the intern whilst he was drinking tea. The softness of his pale skin... The cerulean blue of his eyes... His innocence of how the world worked…

Then he realised that he didn't have a name to match with his fantasies so he finished his cup and got out his phone out to call Bardroy.

His editor picked up after several rings. There were the sounds of people talking and a train whooshing past in the background so Sebastian guessed that Bardroy was at a tube station somewhere.

"Bard-"

His query was cut off by his editor shouting at him. "What is wrong with you? The two halves of your manuscript don't match up! Which description do you want to stick with? It had better not be the second one!"

Sebastian realised that he had been too intent on his fantasies about the intern when he had been writing and he had forgotten to use the descriptions of the uke character that he had used in the earlier part of the draft.

"I think that you should send the intern back with it," he suggested innocently, or rather sadistically. "I'll rewrite the first half so it matches the second. That will solve the problem."

A silence met his suggestion and he wondered what Bardroy was thinking. Was he having second thoughts about interns equalling BL inspiration? He pressed on anyway.

"Speaking of interns, what is the latest one called?"

"His first name is Ciel and he is only 19 years old, so could you please leave him alone. He is younger that all the other ones you seduced."

"I won't violate him, Bardroy. If you promise to send him over tomorrow, I will promise that."

There was a short silence before his chain smoking editor replied. "Agreed."

Sebastian ended the call and smirked like a satisfied cat. It had been a very useful conversation. He had obtained the knowledge that he was getting a visit tomorrow from his new favourite intern and the boy's name.

Ciel.

He wished he knew the surname that went with the name that was French for sky. Something told him that he wasn't going to get it from Bardroy as the man seemed to be quite protective over the young boy for some reason.

He tried to think of prospective surnames as he conjured up memories of the boy's face. The surname clearly wasn't a common one like "Smith" or "Jones". It had to be something rare and unusual to match his blue grey hair which was a very uncommon colour- he had only ever met one other person with a similar hair colour and that was the CEO of Funtom Publishing, Vincent Phantomhive.

Amusedly Sebastian put "Ciel" and "Phantomhive" together. It seemed like a fitting surname. Then he recalled that Vincent Phantomhive did have a son that had a close resemblance to him and that he had met the son once when he had been invited to his mansion about 10 years ago.

He tried to think back to the evening. They had been sitting down at the dinner table and then the butler had entered and discreetly informed Vincent Phantomhive that his son who was will was having trouble sleeping and wanted his father to read him a story. Sebastian had overheard and offered to help as he was feeling overwhelmed as he had only published one book and he had already become popular with people like Earl Vincent Phantomhive.

He remembered following the butler to the child's bedroom which had his name on, written in brightly coloured wooden letters. Letters that spelled out "Ciel"...

Sebastian was jolted out of the memory by the surprise. The boy he had nearly violated that morning was Ciel Phantomhive, the son of Earl Vincent Phantomhive, his publisher.

He was going to have to tread carefully.

But he was still going to get his hands on Ciel Phantomhive.