CHAPTER TWO: Filler

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji. All I own is Cal, Evan, Nicola, and my own (awful) attempts at humor.

A/N First things first. 1.) Sorry, this is just a filler chapter. The next won't be and it should be up soon. And 2.) I rewrote the last two chapters so that they're better, and they make a bit more since now. Okay, now on with the story! :D

Cal didn't trust this kid.

Anyone who had access to the net knew of the missing Phantomhive. (Actually, that was how she found out herself.) The "Phantomhive Phantom," they called him. Supposedly, the Earl Ciel Phantomhive, a young boy who had inherited the role after his parents perished in a fire, had a pretty good life. His business, the Funtom company, was booming. Things were going pretty great. He had no reason to leave. And yet one day (his fifteenth birthday, if Cal recalled correctly) the Earl and his butler mysteriously disappeared.

Poof. Without a trace.

They searched for months, but there were no leads. The kid had vanished like a...like a ghost. Eventually, they just stopped looking for him, and Phantomhive Manor was passed onto his only living relatives, the Midfords. People continued to whisper about the Phantomhives for years, and countless theories sprang up about where the boy went. But no one knew for sure.

It was all too easy to fake things these days. Study up on the right things, find the right outfit...it would be a piece of cake to show up as some "long lost relative." (But after all this time, it was kind of silly. What was the point? There was no way the real Ciel Phantomhive would be alive now.)

But something about all of this bothered Cal. There'd been no marks in the dust in the cellar that suggested anything had been disturbed before they came along, which there surely would have been had someone passed through. And when she found "Ciel," he was unconscious. Actually unconscious! Who would do that to themselves for just a prank? He could've died, for God's sake!

And then there was that feeling she got stepping up onto the stand…

Was this really Ciel Phantomhive?

No, it couldn't be. There was no way he could be alive after all this time. Unless he was a vampire, but vampires weren't exactly living…

Unless it was some sort of spell. Cal certainly had heard of sleeping spells like this before, (um, Sleeping Beauty) but she'd never encountered one before and didn't know anyone who had. She wasn't even sure if they were real.

Of course, this unusual explanation made the most sense. That sensation she had gotten was probably another sort of spell—most likely a force field of some sort. (But if it was a force field, then Evan would've been able to feel it too, if not be stopped completely by it. Of course, different spells worked in different ways. Maybe that just wasn't the point of this one.)

And then there was the boy himself. Ciel had odd sort of aura around him. Demonic...yet not. If she didn't know any better, Cal might have thought that he was possessed by some sort of demon—a powerful one at that—but she did know better. It wasn't as if he was possessed, more like he had something demonic in origin on him. But what?

Ah, just another day in the life of Cal Midford.

She studied Ciel carefully, trying to detect any signs pointing to one conclusion or the other. He held himself in a dignified manner, his walk very sure and pompous. It was the walk of a noble, all right. He held his chin high, and an air of superiority surrounded him. It was obvious that Ciel was used to a high-class living, to being pampered. He also seemed a bit unsteady, but who wouldn't be if they were in a coffin for over a century? That was, if he actually had been…

As they approached the top of the stairs, Cal turned off the flashlight. She let out a soft sigh as she emerged back into the land of the living. As much as she liked the dark, something about that cellar just gave her the creeps. (And it wasn't the spiders.) As her eyes slowly adjusted to the change of lighting, she looked back at Evan and Ciel. Much to her amusement (but not her surprise) she saw Evan openly staring at the other boy, looking quite eager to ask more questions. Sure enough, the moment they were all upstairs, he turned to Ciel with a grin on his face.

"You didn't answer my questions before!" the ten-year-old said. "Do you actually drink blood?"

"I said—" Ciel started, looking quite annoyed.

"Wait, does this mean you're going to eat us?!" Evan jumped, like this was the first time this had occurred to him. He ducked behind Cal. "Please, I'm not tasty! I swear!"

Ciel let out a low growl. "I'm not a vampire, you brat! I already told you that!"

"So you're not going to eat us?" Evan asked meekly.

"Of course he isn't," Cal said, laughing. Then she paused. "You're not, are you? 'Cause I don't think Aunt Nikki's gonna appreciate us inviting a cannibal to dinner. And I don't particularly want my first night in this place ending in me become Cal ala Mode."

"I am not a cannibal," replied Ciel, sounding quite affronted.

Cal grinned. "Good."

"Caaaaaal? Evaaaaaan? Where are youuu?"

Aforementioned girl let out a squeak. It was Nicola, and she was just around the corner! "Shit," she cursed under her breath. She turned to Ciel. "Alright, eyepatch, get down, stay quiet and out of sight." She pushed him behind the counter and managed to shush his protests just as Nicola appeared in the doorway.

A relieved smile spread across the aunt's face. "There you two are! I was thinking that I really would have to call you." Nicola looked around, and her face morphed with awe. "Whoah, look at this kitchen! It's huge!"

"They probably had a bunch of cooks here back in the day," Cal said. "The Phantomhives were a noble family, after all."

Nicola nodded. "Yeah. You know, I think I'm just gonna call for pizza tonight. Hows that sound?"

"Yay!" exclaimed Evan, hopping up and down with excitement. "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

His mother laughed. "Looks like that's a resounding yes. Okay, well I'll go order. You two...why don't you go pick out which rooms you want? You've got a lot of choices here. I think this place has more rooms than the nearest hotel!" And with a chuckle, Nicola left.

Ciel stood up abruptly the moment Cal let go of him. "What was that about?" he hissed, scowling.

"She can't know you're here," Cal replied.

"And why not?"

"Oh, I don't know," said the girl, sarcasm dripping from her words. "Maybe because you're claiming to be a relative who disappeared over a century ago?"

A pause. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." Cal met his eyes. "Now, you and I need to have a talk."

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry about not updating since February; I've been really busy with school and I found it really hard to work out what to do next with the story. The next chapter should be up tomorrow or the day after. Yay! I hope you enjoyed reading, and that I didn't make Ciel too OOC. Have a nice day or night wherever you are!

~Teddi