Thank you "guest" for the review and thanks for the favs! The greedy me wants more XD (favs and reviews) As a bribe I give you the next chapter!
Ch. 3: Every shelter: a trap
'Demons,' Ciel deadpanned. Sebastian dearly wished that he could see the boy's expression, but his little master was facing away from him. Lavi nodded.
'Those things,' Allen spoke up. 'They were demons,' he added. Ciel twitched. Sebastian held his breath, waiting for his young master to absolutely not turn towards him. Together with their earlier suspicions about the blade and the wound, that would be disastrous, should those people really be living to fight demons.
Not that Sebastian wanted to believe that a bunch of mortals, or sort of mortals, he amended, remembering the wielder of the deadly sword, could fight demons. Then again, the report from the inauguration was clear: things appeared and then some people started fighting them and the things eventually burst into dust. Somebody did remove the creatures, which were described as "surpassing human imagination".
'There are no such things as demons,' Ciel grit out furiously after the longest moment of silence that Sebastian ever had to endure since becoming the butler. The exorcists seemed to be expecting that answer. They patiently explained about the Millennium Earl and his demon minions. The guide looked to be more and more out of his depth and Sebastian enjoyed his discomfort as he listened to the other side of the story.
His brother had told him about the annoying humans who killed the minor demons that he managed to create. Those people talked about the souls of people crying for release. His brother had laughed and described all the imaginable tastes. Allen looked ready to cry when he said that he could see the imprisoned souls and that it was how he was identifying demons. Interesting as it was, it didn't explain why he had thought that Sebastian was a demon, because Sebastian was sure that there was no soul attached to his body. He was born a demon in the deepest pits of hell, very much like his younger brother and a few others.
Finally Ciel turned to Sebastian with a furious expression burning in his only visible eye. The demon winced internally, having expected this kind of reaction sooner or later. His little master didn't like it when things surprised him.
'Did you know about it Sebastian?' he asked icily. 'Did you know about those people and you didn't tell me about them before we set out?' he asked, standing up from the chair and walking up to the sofa, on which Sebastian was pretending to be resting.
'Hey kid,' Allen jumped up and reached out for Ciel, but the warning, furious glare stopped him dead in his tracks. The white-haired teenaged backed up a step, raising his arms in a gesture of surrender. 'Uh, Lavi, do you think that he could be related to Kanda?' he asked.
'You know very well that there's not a chance,' Lavi replied, something in his tone spiking up Sebastian's curiosity. Humans were so interesting with their petty secrets and even now, in the face of potential danger, Sebastian wished that he had the time to psychologically dissect them. 'Besides really, would you like a little Kanda around as well?' Lavi asked in another tone, glancing at Sebastian with some sort of suspicion on his face. The demon wondered if his control over his expression had slipped for a moment. He couldn't really afford to let those people grow suspicious until he knew how to handle them.
'Are you calling me little?' Ciel all but hissed at the red-head. Sebastian chuckled under his breath and then froze when the blind man turned his head his way. Could Marie have heard the chuckle that was too quiet even for Ciel, who was much closer to Sebastian? It could have been a coincident, but it required further investigation, he decided.
'Well, you kind of are small,' Lavi stuttered. Sebastian could see that Ciel was on the verge of ordering Sebastian to obliterate the red-head. Thankfully, Lenalee took that moment to call out from the kitchen, asking for help to bring the food to the table. Relieved, Lavi and Allen excused themselves and rushed out.
'My lord,' Sebastian called quietly, hoping to not get too much attention. Ciel glared at him: he was obviously not forgiven yet. 'Could you please help me get to the table?' he asked. Rage blazed in Ciel's eye for a moment, before the little lord seemed to realise that Sebastian simply wanted to talk with him. He complied without a word.
'We should be very careful here, my lord,' he whispered when Ciel "helped" him to get up. With the corner of his eye, he noticed that the blind man was listening and he mentally cursed the Queen. 'It seems, my lord, that the Queen has finally found a way to dispose of us,' he whispered even quieter, hoping that Ciel would hear.
'The Queen?' Ciel replied incredulously. Sebastian sighed. Was it the time to tell the boy who was behind the deaths of his parents? He had known since the beginning of course, but Ciel was too interesting a master to spoil the fun and the missions from the Queen spiced his soul to the levels of perfection that Sebastian never dared to dream about.
'Indeed, my lord,' he muttered. Before he could add anything else, or even decide if he dared, with the blind man listening closely, he realised that the distorted soul was in the room. He looked up right on time to see Kanda glance from Marie to Sebastian, eyes hardening into a cold glare, hand reaching towards the hilt of the katana that was still strapped to his waist. The demon had no doubts as to whom the Japanese would trust.
Again, Sebastian cursed the Queen.
'Ah, Kanda, you're down,' Allen said, walking in with two big plates, filled with food. For a moment he looked like he was going to add something else, but then he seemed to have changed his mind.
'Why are they still here?' Kanda asked coldly, when it became apparent that Allen wasn't going to speak. The latter put the dishes on the table and frowned. Lavi came in from the kitchen.
'You!' he exclaimed. Or at least that was what Sebastian heard, but he must have been wrong, because Kanda glared at the red-head murderously. 'Ah, you're always in such a foul mood when you lose,' the red-head added and it didn't seem to be helping his case with Kanda.
'I didn't lose,' the Japanese replied through gritted teeth. 'I was stopped,' he added. Sebastian took the opportunity that the attention was away from himself to take a careful look at his opponent. He had no doubt that the black, sleeveless turtleneck that the man was wearing had for purpose hiding the thick bandages around the man's neck, but it also exposed both of his arms and, suspiciously enough, there was only one minor cut visible. Sebastian was sure that he had gotten his knives to slash those arms at least five times and at least once deeply.
'Now that I think about it,' Lavi started, as though the previous exchange didn't happen. 'Did you have your Innocence activated?' he asked. Sebastian felt the feeling in the room change as all the exorcists present looked at Kanda tersely.
'Of course I had it activated,' the Japanese growled out and a cold chill ran down Sebastian's spine. He didn't forget the small conversation about what the innocence could and couldn't harm. He readied himself for an attack, mentally calculating the moves he would have to make to get out of the place alive, with his little master unscratched. However, before anybody could move, Kanda shot him a resentful glare.
'It deactivated when Marie grabbed me,' he said. 'Before he pulled me away,' he added and Sebastian could feel the relief in Allen's and Lavi's souls as both smiled and went back to the kitchen to pick up more big plates, full of food. Unsurprisingly, Kanda didn't seem to be bothered by unintentionally causing pain to an innocent "human being".
'Well then it seems like your injury is my fault, Sebastian,' Marie spoke calmly, with just a tinge of sadness in his voice. Kanda glanced at him but said nothing. 'Please forgive me,' he added.
'I have caused injuries to your friend,' Sebastian replied smoothly, sparing another glance at Kanda's neck. 'Please forgive me for that as well,' he added, noticing that nobody in the room seemed to be overly worried about the said friend. Either they didn't care or they knew that whatever the wounds were, they wouldn't be too serious. He itched to know the secret.
'Please take your seats everybody,' Lenalee exclaimed, carrying in even more food. 'Kanda! You can't think to eat with your sword,' she added.
'Is that any different from normal?' Allen asked with resignation. 'He always makes it feel like we're on duty.'
'We are on duty,' Kanda pointed out dryly. 'I don't see that stupid rabbit putting away his weapon,' he added. Allen muttered something about Lavi being less obvious about it, while Lenalee sighed and repeated the invitation to sit at the table, smiling at Ciel and Sebastian. The demon shuddered as he realised that he was going to have to eat some of the disgusting, human food. Distastefully, he glanced at the table that was almost bending under the feast, as Ciel led him to the table and helped him sit.
'My lord, would you forgive me for eating in your presence?' he asked, hoping that Ciel would not agree and he would be spared the unpleasant experience. However, Ciel's lips twisted into a nasty smile for just a split of a second.
'Of course Sebastian. What kind of master would I be if I didn't let my heavily wounded butler restore his strength?' he asked back as though he was amazed by the very possibility. Sebastian was sure that only he noticed the malicious gleam in his eye.
A heavy kind of silence fell in the room afterwards as everybody found their chairs. The exorcists seemed to be determined to keep their guests as far away from Kanda as possible, or to keep together in case they were attacked. Sebastian found himself sitting opposite to the Japanese who ignored everybody and everything, except for a noodle based dish, which he put on his plate. It didn't escape the demon's attention that, while the others liberally chose what to eat, nobody even glanced at the relatively small plate of noodles.
Well, since I am forced to eat those disgusting things I can at least have some fun, Sebastian thought. Without hesitation, he reached out for the noodles and had to forcefully restrain laughter when their hosts froze in barely contained terror. Kanda glared at Sebastian, dark eyes promising bloody murder, but said nothing for the moment, so he moved to continue with his action.
'Sebastian,' Ciel growled. Pouting ever so slightly, Sebastian left the noodles alone and glanced at his master, whose glare could compete with that of Kanda's. 'Eat something else,' the little lord said, his tone clearly indicating that it was neither a suggestion nor a request. Their hosts relaxed again and Kanda went back to ignoring everybody.
'Yes my lord,' Sebastian replied with a nod and grabbed the first dish that he saw, putting a tiny portion of food on his plate. He knew that Ciel didn't care about the Japanese, but wanted to avoid any unpleasant situations and get out of the trap as fast as possible.
He put a small piece of meat on the fork and ate it, doing his best to ignore the taste of ashes in his mouth. Really, for a demon to stoop down as low as to eat human food! To make things worse, he was acutely aware of Ciel's attention on him, as though the infuriating boy was waiting to see Sebastian's displeasure. In the meantime, Lavi and Lenalee restarted their discussion about the cook that had apparently pre-prepared the food. They tried to pull Marie and Kanda into the discussion, but didn't have too much luck with the latter. Allen kept eating and eating, finishing off dish by dish. Sebastian was thoroughly impressed and he noticed Ciel very carefully trying not to stare, while their guide gave up all the pretence.
'You eat a lot, sir,' he said with some awe in his voice. Those were his first words since they have met with the exorcists and Sebastian wondered if the man was part of the plot or just an innocent guide who had no idea what the Queen was planning.
'Everybody says that,' Allen said with a huge grin. Kanda scoffed. 'It's because of my Innocence,' he added cheerfully, heaping more food on his plate. Sebastian felt his blood run cold, figuratively of course. He didn't see any weapon on the white-haired teenager, but neither did he see anything on the red-head, whom Kanda claimed to be armed. Were they all really armed with something that could hurt a demon?
Nobody seemed eager to continue the topic. Eventually, the food was gone and everybody looked happier than before. Well, most of them, Sebastian amended, glancing at his little master and at Kanda. While in the case of the first one, it could probably be explained by the lack of appropriate dessert, Sebastian started to believe that foul mood was Kanda's default state. He watched as the Japanese got up from the table.
'We're moving tomorrow,' he announced coldly, provoking groans from Lavi, Allen and Lenalee and a disappointed sigh from Marie. He glared at all them, as though he dared them to say anything.
'We've just made this place homey,' Lenalee complained.
'If they haven't brought intruders in, you could have your homey place,' Kanda replied in a tone that suggested he didn't understand the adjective.
'That's unfair, Kanda!' Allen exclaimed. 'We only brought them here because you injured one of them. We could hardly let Sebastian bleed out to death.'
'And why is that?' Kanda asked. Sebastian had no doubt that the Japanese man was not bluffing. He would have left Sebastian in the alley. 'Besides, it's your fault that all this happened, beansprout.'
'How is that my fault, BaKanda?' Allen yelled, outraged. 'I told you to stop.'
'You told me it was a demon,' Kanda growled back. By the expressions on the faces of the other three exorcists, Sebastian guessed that it wasn't an unusual occurrence that those two fought.
'My eye was wrong!' Allen defended himself.
'Well if your eye is wrong then we have no choice but to act like everybody else,' Kanda pointed out venomously. 'And that means trusting nobody,' he added, not seeming bothered by that in the slightest. Allen, on the other hand, looked crestfallen, like his long-time effort was crumbling at his feet.
'Besides,' Kanda broke the uncomfortable silence that had followed his previous statement. 'We have caught them on the way here. Have they already explained that away?'
Suddenly, Sebastian realized that he would have to choose: destroy the Order, to spite his brother, or not, to spite the Queen. Whom did he hate more? It was a difficult question to answer.