Sebastian sighed and pushed his glasses further up his nose. His black hair was neatly slicked behind his ears.

"Young master, please pay attention."

"I am paying attention!" The child in front of him scowled.

"Then can you please repeat what I just said?"

"Young master, please pay attention," said Ciel meekly.

Sebastian was rapidly losing patience. "What did I say before that?"

"Something about French…"

Sebastian's eyes rolled so far back in his head, Ciel wouldn't have been surprised if he could see his own brain. "Seeing as this is a French lesson, master, that could apply to anything I have said in the past half hour. Although you've been paying so little attention, I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that you actually know what lesson this is."

Ciel's cheeks turned pink at his butler's smart comment.

"Now, as I was talking about irregular future stems. For example, in the verb 'avoir'"…

Ciel yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. Sebastian noticed.

"Oh, is this lesson boring you, my lord?"

"No!" snapped Ciel. "Get on with it."

"I have been getting on with it for half an hour yet I don't believe you've learnt a single thing. Can you tell me the future endings for 'er' verbs?"

"No."

"I explained them at length and wrote them up on the blackboard, and I believe I also instructed you to copy them into your book." Sebastian strode over to the desk where Ciel was sitting and looked at the page his French book was open at. The child had written the date, but nothing else.

"No wonder you don't know," scolded Sebastian. "You aren't listening and you aren't following instructions."

"Can't you leave me alone for even a second?!" Ciel was on the verge of a tantrum and Sebastian knew that; the child's cheeks were flushed, his eyes were watering and he was tense.

"I suggest you go to your room and calm down," said Sebastian, picking up a French poetry book and flipping through the pages. "However, I want you to learn the poem on page 53. Say it to me before tea, which is in one hour."

Ciel took the book and his heart sank. "It's two pages long!"

"If you had behaved like a noble instead of a spoiled child, you could have avoided this," said Sebastian simply, clearing up his table and cleaning the board. "Go to your room, please. Quite frankly, I'm sick of you."

Ciel rushed out of the room, slamming the door.

Page break

When Sebastian went to look for Ciel ten minutes before tea, the earl wasn't in his room. Frowning, Sebastian searched the entire manor before he found him hiding in a cupboard on the ground floor.

Sebastian stared, dumbfounded. "What on earth…how did you even get up there?"

Ciel glared. "Just get me down!"

Sebastian was tempted to leave him to try and get down on his own but he realised that the child was too small to get down by himself- goodness knows how he had got up there in the first place. So he said nothing but reached up and lifted Ciel off the top shelf, placing him gently on his feet. "Are you all right, my lord?"

Ciel nodded.

Sebastian got down on one knee to look at him directly. "Why weren't you in your room, like I told you?"

"You didn't tell me. You suggested," said Ciel cheekily.

Sebastian's left eyebrow twitched with annoyance. "Recite that poem to me immediately."

Ciel gabbled it off without a single mistake. He had an excellent memory and had only needed to read the poem to twice to get it off by heart. Sebastian couldn't fault his French accent, either.

"Very good," admitted Sebastian. "Now, please come to tea."

Page break

Later that night, Sebastian was in his bedroom when he heard a sound outside his door. He frowned. What his irrepressible master out of bed so late at night?

His thoughts became true when his door slowly opened and Ciel peeked into the room. He wore a most innocent expression on his adorable face, but Sebastian wasn't fooled by this at all.

However, he was touched when he saw that the child had tears in his big blue eyes. "Come here," he said.

Ciel toddled over and Sebastian picked him up and held him. "Why are you crying?"

"I thought you hated me," whimpered Ciel.

Sebastian smirked demonically. So his master did care about him, after all.

"Of course I don't hate you," reassured Sebastian, stroking Ciel's hair comfortingly. "You are a ten year old child, behaviour such as that which you displayed is only to be expected. That doesn't, however, fully excuse your actions. I'll let it pass for now, but please don't be so temperamental in the future."

Ciel nodded meekly, wrapping his arms round Sebastian's neck and burying his face in the butler's chest. "Will you take me back to my room?"

"Of course." Sebastian stood up to realise that his master had fallen asleep within seconds. Smirking, he walked down the moonlight corridor with the sleeping child in his arms.