Hi! Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji
Infinity minus one-Evangeline, Our New Maid
Bard, Finny and Maylene wandered sleepily into the dining room and said, "Good morning Sebastian!" Then Finny gasped as he eyed the slightly burnt porridge, although it looked excellent.
"Sebastian, you NEVER make burnt porridge, even if it's just a little! What happened, are you sick?"
I sighed at their stupidity, as May-lene and Bard were visibly excited, shouting loudly and shoving a thermometer into my mouth.
The thermometer turned blue inside my chilled mouth. Bard sweat dropped, and moved further away from me.
"Minna-san, meet our new maid, Evangeline. She will be working in the Phantomhive manor for the time being." The lady clad in the black dress shyly exited the kitchen holding another two bowls of the watered rice.
"I hope to learn much from everyone, and to have a pleasant time as a maid of the Phantomhive manor." Her voice is soft, like velvet but with a hint of warmth and sweetness, like the purr of a cat. I like that.
May-Lene, Finny and Bard looked at her surprised, while Tanaka sat in the background sipping green tea calmly while ho-ho-ing.
"Wow you sure got to her fast Sebastian, she's a real beauty. Hi I'm Bard, the kitchen cook, pleased to meet 'cha!" He shook her hand, and my fist tightened considerably when she blushed.
"H-Hi, I'm May-Lene, the other maid in the house. You are very beautiful Miss Evangeline." She grasped her hand kindly and she appreciated the gesture.
"You have beautiful eyes, Miss Evangeline. My name's Finnian but you can call me Finny if you'd like! I'm the gardener."
She smiled sweetly, and said "You all can call me Eva if you want. I hope to have a good time working with you! If you'll excuse us, Sebastian and I have to meet the Young Master."
This lady, if I may call her so, is very bold, waking my young master up before 9 in the morning, very brazen indeed.
After she laid the tray on the bedside table, she tentatively called his name, by his side.
I was beside her ready for any emergency, but inside I wondered if this female was faking it.
Never mind. Soon, all about this woman, including her fake mask of truth, will be torn personally by myself. Demons can be anything but innocent, I smirked as I laid casually against the counter.
Ciel
'Ciel. Ciel!' It was once again the same dream, one among the many in the library of dreams that haunted me since the fire.
How strange it was to long for it to be real but I knew in my somewhat small conscious that it could never be.
Mother and Father were standing in loving embrace in a field of white and violet flowers, wearing the same clothes they wore on the day of the fire.
I don't understand. My eye, it's normal for once. Not a purple pentacle, just a blue sea again. I feel serenity and peace, my heart is already lifted. Oh, no.
Here it goes again. No. I will not let the hate, abandon me. I try to call out for Sebastian, but my tongue fails me.
My parents reach out to me, arms outstretched. My own hands shake, as if deciding whether to...
"Ciel. Ciel." A soft voice calls out, very much like my mother's. I wake up with a start.
And I see Mother looking at me. In my bed. With Father by her side.
She used to wake me up like this, calling my name softly as my father stood by and smiled.
"Okaa-san?" I mutter, and my eyes are momentarily blinded by a shaft of light.
This woman is not my mother. She has lighter blue eyes, and brown sunned hair. And the man is Sebastian. My shoulders slump as my hope was gone.
"Who are you and what are you doing next to my bed?(I glanced at Sebastian, and that, that bastard smiled in my face) Sebastian, who is this guest? Couldn't she wait in the hall after my breakfast?"
Evangeline
Ara, ara, Ciel Phantomhive seems rather frazzled today. I looked at Sebastian-san, suggesting something.
"Bocchama, my apologies for not alerting you earlier. She is a friend I picked up during my life before this contract, and I was wondering if Lady Evangeline Kinsella could stay, just until she finds a contract."
Was it my imagination or did Sebastian snide up when he mentioned me?
"I am sorry for imposing on you, Earl Phantomhive." A flicker of resonance grew in his eyes as he looked at me.
However it is…I wait eagerly for Ciel's hopefully positive reply.
He took a bite of the rope bread in olive oil, and thought about it. I was really desperate…
"Sure, why not. As long as she does not interfere with our contract, and I assume she is of your kind?" Ciel was nonchalant, as much as Sebastian was coldly smiling.
"Evangeline here has an interesting background, but that would be for your bedtime story. Young Master we have a packed schedule today starting with a visit to the hat store, after May-Lene's latest incident." Sebastian announced after a bow to his master.
But as he left, I caught a look between them that said, "I expect to know more about this." From Ciel and a reassurednod from Sebastian.
While Sebastian attended to the carriage, horses and the like I was allowed to dress Ciel.
As I pulled his collar on, I felt him looking at me in the strangest of ways, as if not seeing me but seeing someone else.
When I caught him, he blushed a little and looked away, pouting. When I confronted him, it was an entirely different story. He didn't like that either.
"Ciel, may I call you Ciel? Who do I resemble so much?" I teased.
"Nande mo nai. Nothing, at all." "Perhaps someone you loved…and lost? May I have the honour of knowing?" I pressed. His eyes grew soulful, and he averted them. I immediately regretted the decision.
"I'm sorry, I did not mean to evoke any painful memories. Let's go, Sebastian must be waiting outside." I dusted my dress and stood up from my squat.
"My mother." Such a thin whisper I could not have caught it if I was not supernatural being. His…mother.
We stared at each other for a long time, like what seemed to be eternity.
"Now I feel a little old." I laughed. He sniggered a little, but at that moment, we understood without words. A new kizuna was born, and it clashed with my other new bonds.
I saw him all the way outside. Sebastian was waiting, one heel on the horse. "What took Young Master so long?"
We smiled looking at each other, Ciel and I, and he got into the carriage. Sebastian looked annoyed at me, as he helped Ciel into it.
I helped him in. I tripped, falling onto Sebastian.
Sometimes I wonder as I scratch my cat behind his ears when Silvia and Sebastian are out back playing, was it a loose stone? Or a trick of the wind? Or just pure fate?
I don't know, and probably I never will. We ended up kissing and what was worse, the servants saw, gasping mouths agape pointing through the mansion windows.
Ciel could not be less interested, and quietly asked Sebastian as to where their newest hat store was exactly. Me?
I laid on top of him, my eyes wide. Our lips just touching and my hands on his smooth chest. The last time we were this close was when he rescued me.
I was really shocked, but yet a new sensation rose over me, something that told me I was really enjoying him. I blushed more.
He smelt like the sweetest wood, minty with coolness at the back of my nose. He looks so very handsome, like a perfect sculpture by Michalangelo. I shielded my eyes with my hands, to block them from looking at him.
Sebastian? His face was an emotionless mask of coolness. Stupid idiot, did he not feel my conflicting emotions?
Sebastian
Inside, I was hopelessly embarrassed, and mixed of feelings yet, the smell of her skin…The most addictive floral scent in this world.
She looks so beautiful. In all the years and after I met her, I had never seen one female more beautiful than her. I could just stare at those deep blue eyes, they look like two twin pools of calm sea. And warm brown hair, like warm scented chocolate. And those lips, I'll bet...
I pulled myself off her. Quickly, so no one would suspect I...
She dusted my coat for me with one hand, the other for hers.
"Well then, the Phantomhive household and servants are in your care now, Evangeline." She nodded, the tawny dusk-like blush on her cheeks showing more than ever.
Young Master and I set off. We did not speak for the entire journey. However, while he was looking away, I pinched the bridge of nose, deep in thought. What does she do to me? More importantly so, how?
Young Master turned to me, a visible curiosity on his face. I sighed. "Wakarimashta."
He sat as usual when he was listening attentively for once, face in hand on arm, arm on knee. And just looked at me with the non-imprinted blue eye. A blue calm sea. It then shook me that their eyes looked surprising similar. Their being Young Master and...Evangeline.
He was still waiting, but he smirked. "You like her don't you Sebastian?"
"If a Phantomhive butler could not make ties with probable women, where would we be now?"
He nodded as if to say, Very well.
The carriage went over a bump, and I began my story of the female demon in our estate.
"Her real name is Evangeline Maia Kinsella, My Lord. She was given the job of an Angel sometime before the Black Death spread around Europe. But her job is not as simple, or as satisfying for some as she would wish, but she loved it all the same.
"Some call her kind Caretakers. Because they are caretakers, caring for the recently departed souls only kin. The only children with their surname left, and also perhaps a small side request.
"Evangeline's most recent charge was Randall. You remember her don't you, Young Master? The mysterious fire, and that even more mysterious Second Demon. She was tried and found guilty in the Higher Council of not protecting her properly. Therefore, she was cast onto Earth as a demon, the lowest of livings."
Young Master looked very surprised, and I knew exactly why. "She...chose to start anew from her problems, she chose to forgive."
I had never heard Young Master's voice shake like that before. "How could she do that?" All the way there and back to the house, his eyes were a darker blue. . I ,too, was thinking, about the ambitious, self-reserved, morally-inclined, beautiful, kind female I saved.
We arrived, and Young Master got into the study without a word. I too, went into the butler's room, to do my duties. Along my way, I saw Evangeline dusting the stairwell.
"I trust you have kept the servants under control." She looks at me, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. She had tied an apron over her Victorian Loy dress. Much, more practical. Those blue eyes seem to peer into my soulless body, like a dream...
"Yes. Tanaka is fine as usual, but Finny almost set the garden on fire with Pluto. Luckily, he listened to me and sprayed non-flammable pest remover. Also, I've kept Bard's dynamite and taught him to make cream-of-wheat soup. It's almost delicious, but I think it'll be okay after a while." I almost left, but she clutched me forearm.
"I request to personally train May-lene. I saw great, but raw potential."
I chuckled sarcastically. "You can try. Idiots will always be idiots."
The aura suddenly turned dark. She let go of my hand and glared, duster long forgotten. "Nothing can be accomplished without the will to accomplish. She has that, Nikita, and you admonish it. You disgust me."
She spoke really softly, but with a hint to kill. She was fast, fast even for me, for in the next millisecond I had a red handprint on my cheek.
Evangeline
In another second, he had me pinned against the railing. He growled, "Maybe I made a mistake. I should have fed on you together with that man." He was cold, but yet our close proximity led me to another, however much smaller feeling, was still burning. Passion.
But I felt my blood boil and my stomach knot. "Maybe you did."
"I know best." He disappeared into the dark side of the manor. I never saw him again, until later. It was relatively quiet, but a message came in for Ciel, which I brought in a silver tray for him.
As he read it, his brow furrowed with worry. My heart wrenched. Please, I begged, he's only twelve…
He ordered me to leave, and I did .I kept a close eye on the servants, but nothing seemed out of control. I watched the servants eat dinner, feeling numb. The day seemed endless, however, it was autumn in England and the days were pitifully short.
May-Lene was excited, she said, for our training. "Sebastian-san never trained me before, Evangeline-nii-san." That made my heart pound at the rememberance of our heated argument. Later that night as everyone slept, I glanced out of the window at the silver countryside. It was never like this at the mansion in the city.
I sighed, contempt and the house seemed to sigh with me. It felt like peace, the quiet of the night.
I slipped the items into a rattan basket and headed out for the night, Bard's snoring fading behind me.
Little did I know, a hidden silent observer watched me. And he even decided to follow me.
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