3. I'll be the Death of You

She's fresh to death

She'll be the death of you

Seduction leads to destruction

She's fresh to death

She'll be the death of me

She's fresh, she's fresh but not so clean.

Cute face, slim waist

Still got 'em in a craze,

Yeah I think I'm going crazy.

I have a long list of things to say,

But I'll leave it at,

You amaze me.

("The Way We Talk" by The Maine)

"Just go with it, okay?" Ciel said to Sebastian, once they'd slipped into the chaos of Ciel's favorite uptown arcade. They'd decided to skip the last of the school day, seeing as it was pointless, and classes bored them.

Sebastian didn't bother responding until they'd reached the back of the arcade with the imported video games, where it was less crowded, and thus less noisy. Ciel absentmindedly ran his fingers over the slick, black M4A1 deal attached to the Terminator Salvation game. While Ciel was generally not a fan of the noisiness (or rowdiness...or joy...) inherent to places like arcades, he could never resist the lure of first-person shooter games and deep fried oreos. Because school had yet to get out, they had this portion of the arcade more or less to themselves, save for a lone forty-year-old playing a Dungeons and Dragons inspired fantasy game in the corner.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say this isn't a charity case for you," Sebastian said at last, leaning back against the BloodRayne kiosk.

Ciel smirked. He sat down across from Sebastian on one of the motorcycle-models, straddling the seat backwards and making it rock slightly. The screen behind him highlighted Ciel with unnatural neon light, lending him a certain unholy glow in the dim arcade. "Oh. Am I that obvious?"

"No, just predictable," Sebastian smirked back, "but I'll admit I wasn't expecting you to do...that."

Ciel lounged back on the curved seat, even going as far as to close his eyes. "Well, he interests me. There's something...different about him, you know?"

"I think they're called 'scales,'" Sebastian dead-panned.

"Something else," Ciel rubbed his temples impatiently, "though, those are interesting too..."

"I don't even want to know what you're thinking right now," Sebastian said, almost as flatly as before, "and fine, yes. There's something."

Ciel nodded. "An innocence, you would call it, right? And he has walls. I think whatever's going on in his head is interesting."

"Not a bad way of putting it. Okay," Sebastian nodded, accepting Ciel's words and waiting for this conclusion.

"All I'm saying is, he could be fun," Ciel said with a shrug, "I'll get a peek behind those walls. If it's any good, we've got a new game to play."

"Guess I can't say I'm surprised," Sebastian said with mock-thoughtfulness, "you do have kind of a thing for freaks."

"What are you babbling about?" Ciel looked up sharply from his recline.

"Well, you know, that thing you had with Doll, and now Snake..." Sebastian's smile was all innocence.

"It wasn't a 'thing,' okay? Just stop talking about it," Ciel snapped.

"She's into gymnastics, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, how does that—"

"So she was flexible?"

"Shut up."

Sebastian obediently shut his mouth and mimed zipping his lips and tossing away the key, making Ciel roll his eyes.

"Look," Ciel leaned forward on the simulation bike to look straight at Sebastian, "all I'm asking is, are you with me on this, or not?"

Sebastian smiled his signature grin—not unlike the one on the Grinch's face when he got a wonderful, awful idea, "Always."

Satisfied, Ciel let a slight smile play across his face and stood up. He hopped down from the bike platform, brushed himself off, and stood up on tip-toe so he could kiss Sebastian full on the lips. It was a short gesture, a brush, but a familiar one.

"Good," Ciel whispered, pulling back. He wandered lightly over to the Terminator game and slipped a few coins into the slot. He held up one of the guns and glanced back at Sebastian, who was undoubtedly thinking X-rated thoughts. "Play with me?"

OoO

"Bullshit!" Doll crowed gleefully, as she thrust the pile of cards into Snake's hands.

"No. I'm sorry," Snake said, genuinely apologetic as he showed Doll his two Jacks.

"Ah, crap," the petite girl sighed, "ya got some poker face there, Snake."

"I don't mean to," Snake admitted, and Doll giggled.

The pair were seated Indian style on a rat-eaten rug in a partially collapsed bungalow on the outskirts of town. The lot of them, high-school's flotsam and jetsam, called this place their home. Currently, Snake and Doll were alone. Joker, Beast, Dagger, and the rest had gone out to get booze from one of the many shifty liquor stores downtown that didn't check for ID. They thought it would be funny to get a little trashed and crash one of the fancy graduation parties they hadn't been invited too. Doll had been all for it, but Joker balked at "letting our cute little sister engage in such activities." Snake had wished them luck and stayed to hang-out with Doll.

"I'm gonna miss all you guys so much next year," Doll sighed, taking a filled doughnut from the box of Krispy Kremes open on the floor.

"I'm sorry," Snake said again. There was something liquid in Doll's eyes, and he wished he knew how to make her feel better; he wasn't very good with these situations.

"No. S'okay," Doll looked down so that her shaggy auburn hair obscured her face, "Might be nice to get away from home for a bit."

Doll, like most of Snake's friends, lived downtown. Her parents would never have the money to send her to private school on their own, but her gymnastic performance got her scouted, and, as Doll had bitterly relayed, "the 'rents jumped at the chance to be rid of me." Everybody had been sympathetic, but not particularly surprised; on the days Doll went home after school, rather than sleeping over at Beast or Wendy's houses, she showed up at school with new bruises, hidden behind her baggy boy's clothing.

"So, I saw ya sittin at Ciel Phantomhive's table," Doll changed the subject, cutting into Snake's musings.

"Yes. He was...nice," Snake said, thinking partially about the surreality of the whole situation, but mostly about the way Ciel smiled at him.

"Huh," Doll said. She looked down again, then bit her lip. Snake couldn't help frowning at this unusual behavior. At last, Doll looked back up at him, "d'you want my honest opinion 'bout Ciel?"

Snake's frown deepened; Doll had a habit of being very blunt, and she rarely thought twice before giving her opinion on anything.

"Yes."

"When we were freshmen, Ciel and I were assigned lab partners in Bio. He...wasn't like 'nyone I'd met before," Doll gave a small laugh, but her eyes were far off. Snake let her go on. "Well, we got kinda close, and it was nice. But Ciel...he's not like he seems."

"What happened?"

Doll shook her head, "Doesn't matter. All I'm saying is, if yer gonna spend time with Ciel, y'ad better be careful."

Snake was perplexed. "Do you think...I shouldn't?"

"I dunno. I saw good in him, too. I just—I wasn't the one to bring it out. I don't know if anybody can." Doll stared off into the distance, and Snake couldn't read her one bit. At last, she sighed, and it was all wistfulness, "But damn if that boy doesn't have a beautiful smile."

Inwardly, Snake was in agreement. However, it was something else that resonated with him: I saw good in him...I wasn't the one to bring it out...

But maybe... Something in Snake said, maybe, just maybe...