Dinner at the Trancy household was warm. There were lights opened and ceiling fans were whirling keeping the inhabitants of the room cool. Why then, pray tell had the first adjective used on the dinner been "warm" if they had fans blowing breezes while they ate?

"Why Ciel you have such interesting stories!" Eladine Trancy was not a hard woman to please.

In fact, her wants were simple and easy to attain. A cake to enjoy every other month, a garden where she could tend to her roses, and breakfast and dinner were meals to be had with her family.

It wasn't often that someone intruded, well not intruded per-say. There were six of them dining that evening. And when she said six, it wasn't their regular six.

Matthew was caught up at work and wouldn't be eating with them. Normally she would hold off dinner until her husband came home so that her wishes were fulfilled but certain circumstances changed things.

After all it wasn't everyday that her children brought home friends. Alois had introduced her to a boyfriend or three of course and while she appreciated her son's honesty about such matters she had always been a bit worried about Jim.

Jim was older than Alois (or so the twins both said) and the boy liked to think that he had to be the mature one, the responsible one. Although Eladine liked that he had such a developed outlook towards certain things, and she knew that she could trust him with everything coming down to their family she still hoped that he'd act like his age sometimes.

He didn't have to be worrying about stuff like this anymore. He had a family supporting him to do the worrying for him.

Of course, you can just about imagine Eladine's great surprise when Jim of all people invited a classmate home. She was way beyond ecstatic, delighted, thrilled, overjoyed and some all rolled into one! No matter that the invite had been spontaneous, Jim had taken the initiative and invited them and according to Luka his big brother had done it without any prompts or hints. Jim wanted Ciel to be here.

Of course she was incredibly curious who this Ciel Phantomhive was to attract her eldest's attention and his butler was even more mysterious. Man hardly said a thing and was quiet a fine gentleman. He complimented almost everything he had seen and according to the slightly shocked look on Ciel's face, compliments from Sebastian were hard to come by.

Alois on the other hand was seething in place.

He liked dinner. His mother couldn't cook to save her life and whenever she tried to make a meal for them the siblings all agreed that it was the thought that counted. Although they wished they would think of their poor stomachs should they ingest such horrid-but-love-filled-food (If that's what love tasted like none of the siblings were ever going to kill for it- ughh). They had because of that a cook for their meals and she was amazing at what she did. She once brought him to his knees after eating the most delicious blueberry cheesecake ever!

The same blueberry cheesecake stupid-smug-faced Ciel Phantomhive was eating now. It didn't help that his current source of ire was sitting right beside him. They had a certain seating arrangement when they ate.

Mother at one end, father at the other end, Jimmy and Al to one side then Luka and Hannah to the other side. Seeing as the head of the family wasn't there the seating arrangement was now mother at the same place because she proclaimed it was her chair hence the embroidery of her name with Luka and Sebastian to her left then the twins and Ciel to her right. A chair had been pulled out for him as there weren't enough and Hannah had decided to simply eat in the kitchen with the cook, Johanna.

Alois wished he could have the same options.

Eating with Jojo was nice because she always let him sneak an extra slice of whatever dessert they were having and all the soda he could drink. It was their little secret she had said and boy did he love her for it. Even if he wasn't in the disposition for sweets since his mood was turning more and more sour as the minutes ticked by, it would have still been better than sitting here and having to listen to Ciel dumbfound them with his many, many, many stories.

How can a kid do so much? Didn't he have school? Didn't his parents care? And like Alois would believe he'd gone to all those countries. Tickets didn't just sprout from trees! If they did then show it to him right bloody now so he could grab one and fly to Timbuktu or somewhere else far away from this horrible dinner. Maybe the Caribbean. Yeah… sandy beaches and blue waves where he could probably find a shark that would swallow him whole just until dinner was over.

Another thing irking him was sitting on the bluenette's other side.

What had Jim been thinking? He'd told his twin about his problems with the Phantomhive boy, how he had felt violated- violated- and yet here they all were bonding over cake! He would not be able to look at his favorite dessert anymore the same way. Never again. More so the pity, he would never see his second favorite chair in the house and not moan in despair since lord-know-it-all was currently sitting on it.

Life was a bitch and didn't Alois know it.

When people started clearing plates away, Alois took the opportunity to excuse himself. No way was he spending time with the short-know-it-all for any longer than what was necessary to be deemed polite.

"Are you all right Alois?" His mother asked worriedly as she placed her teacup back on its floral patterned saucer. "You've been quiet all evening."

"I'm just tired Mum." And that wasn't even a lie. Hating someone and mentally bashing them could be quite tiring. He smiled at her rather obvious concern (mothers!) and gave her a kiss on the cheek before he turned to the other people in the room still drinking tea. "It was a pleasant evening everyone, alas, I am weak against fatigue!"

Luka laughed at his brother's silly antics and he played with his tea. Odd but he never did like it. "Goodnight Al!"

"Oh please." Jim rolled his eyes at such a display and he was also stirring the spoon in his cup with little care. None of them were too fond of it, it seems. What kind of Englishmen were they?! Oh the horror! "Such dramatics don't become you Alois."

"Oh didn't like it?" Alois gasped and pressed a hand to his mouth. "I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry for not pleasing you with my mediocre drama. I'll simply have to brush up on my acting skills until I become worthy of your hard to come by praise."

Jim cracked a smile. "You do that. Goodnight Al."

The only people left to say anything were Sebastian and You-know-who. And since he was the host here, one of them at least, he couldn't afford to be rude.

"I trust you had a pleasant evening?" His eye almost twitched at having to smile at the bluenette look that way to his audience. Keep smiling. Think of happy thoughts. White Maltese puppies. Hot chocolate. Ciel's head on a platter. Yeaaaaaah. He was a master of the arts so he knew what he was thinking wasn't obvious to his audience.

Or was it?

Ciel smiled at him and nodded his head looking quite… pleased about things. There it was again. That stupid smile and that stupid knowing smirk. It had return. Damn him! He felt his skin crawl at seeing it on the other boy's face and his fingers twitched belatedly realizing that he shouldn't have stand up yet since he left quite a pretty butter knife back on his plate setting.

"Quite pleasant, thank you."

Alois took in maybe more than one lungful of air and smiled. "Right... For real this time everybody, goodnight."

He made his way from the dining room to the stairs and through the halls until he get to his room. The mansion was more like a manor now, not very big as they'd converted most of the land into stables and what not. It was still big enough that he had a rather spacious room and also an obscenely huge bed.

Alois laid on it now in his pajamas, thinking sometimes it was a little too big. Years ago he used to sleep with Jim in the same bed, one that was too small for the both of them but they made do. They had done the same thing upon being adopted by the Trancy family. They had separate rooms but that didn't stop Jim from going into his and asking if he were all right.

Luka had seen them do so, especially when he'd gone to wake them up and found them both on Alois' bed. He'd snuggled in between them and left the maids an opportunity to coo and go aww when they were visited for a second awakening. No one could bear to ruin such a serene moment and they usually got away with sleeping in whenever that happened. It could probably still work but at their present age people might get the wrong idea.

They didn't do it anymore because of that, except when the other one really had a bad day and just needed a hug or something like that. Luka often slept with him when they were younger but not anymore. This is where boundaries came because they were respectable lads, never mind that he was openly gay and it now seemed that so was Luka.

Alois grit his teeth as he thought about the short interaction a little after classes ended. He had hustled to Jim's class which was usually in the hall adjacent to their class. Too bad it was Wednesday and Jim's class had PE that day. He had to run to the quadrangle so he could haul his brother off of his ass (Jim liked PE a little too much) and away from the sore losers he had been baiting before they high tailed it to the seniors classroom.

There were three senior classes. They had checked the first section because only a student there would have been approved as student-teacher-substitute. Oliver had seen them and raised an eyebrow at both twin's disheveled, flushed, and panting states before he simply shrugged and walked past them, reminding Alois that they had a student council meeting tomorrow and that he'd text him the meeting place and time.

Jim had ignored them and shuffled ahead of Alois and stared pointblank at the three remaining students in the class. One was the person they were searching for and he had stormed up to him, eyes blazing like fiery ice. Was that even possible? Alois had let his brother do the talking (ahem, threatening). Suffice it to say that Jim got the job done.

The Mallory boy had been sitting on his desk, staring out the window. Jim had advanced on him to the point he was nearly flat against the wall he had been leaning against and his hands were raised in the universal cease fire motion. The words 'twat', 'brother', 'dare', and 'watch it' had been uttered multiple times in constant repetition.

Alois had watched all this, quite content with his arms crossed over his chest. If Jim excelled in loud warnings, he was left to be the silent one. It worked better this way. People feared his brother because he didn't hide that he was a force to be reckoned with. Alois, on the other hand, would be underestimated and he liked it that way. He cackled wickedly at every person who had dared target him thinking he was weak.

'Weak am I?' he laughed at some bloke's face as he parked his foot into his arse. Those were good times. Everybody knew not to mess with him or Jimmy now though. It was sorta dull…

It was a nice feeling though. Reminiscing about the old days. Yeah, the good old days with no blue-eyed-blue-haired-blueberry-cheesecake-eating-know-it-all-that-probably-idolizes-cookie-monster-for-being-so-blue butting into his life. Alois yawned into his hand and closed his bedside lamp. He really hadn't been lying to his mother when he said he was tired.

He closed his eyes now and simply dreamed… dreamed of white maltese puppies... hot chocolate with whip cream... and wait for it- Ciel's head on a beautiful floral patterned platter.

Sweet dreams indeed.

Jim had given his mother a rather pointed look when the woman continuously hovered over them in the drawing room. It had been one of many delivered as the night progressed since Alois had excused himself and retired to his room.

Ciel saw this and inwardly smiled. He liked to imagine what life would have been like with an overbearing mother. And what little he saw of Jim an Alois, Eladine seemed perfect for them. She was caring but not too much. She was interested in what he children did; particularly when it came to the people they hanged out with. He did not miss how she eyed him when he entered, plus the way she had subtly stolen Sebastian from his side to slightly question him. He could hear them from where they were still in the dining room while he and Jim were in the living room.

This begged the question what he was doing here. He had been incredibly surprised to be approached by the elder Trancy as he seemingly pissed of the younger one by simply existing and being in the same vicinity as him. His shock doubled when he was invited to dinner no less with the matriarch of the family even.

"So, Ciel." Jim folded his hands over his lap. It was such a practiced gesture but the blonde made it seem so effortless. He leaned forward a bit. "Do you mind if I call you Ciel?"

"Of course not." He smiled. Jim didn't seem to have a problem with him.

"Good." Jim returned the smile. "Ciel, you're a new transfer to Pitchthome Academy. Everybody's wondering just who you are and where you came from, what spurred this decision to transfer and just what is up with that mysterious butler of yours!"

"I know." Ciel inwardly stressed himself. The blonde's entire demeanor had changed in a matter of seconds. He had taken this aura of uncaring air around him and he seemed to be less into the conversation than he had been while they had been enjoying dinner. Ciel felt like he was nothing around Jim and he wondered why that was.

Jim raised a fine eyebrow at him and Ciel wondered if this was what Harry Potter felt like being interviewed by that mad bug lady. "You know?"

"Students don't actually know how to whisper very well." Ciel said, he tapped the armrest of his chair with his fingers. "I hear them when I pass by. They can be quite loud actually. Very… irritating."

"Ah, yes." Jim smiled again. "I don't know how they think they're being discreet when everybody can hear them in a two mile radius. Stupidity seems to run in the females, doesn't it?"

"Not stupidity." Ciel corrected. "A lack of self-awareness. They easily get sucked into their conversation and they forget that sometimes there are people around them."

Jim seemed to mull over his words then he nodded. "Perhaps you're right. I agree, stupid is a very harsh word. I don't know why I said that."

Ciel chuckled. "Perhaps you are like them? You get sucked into conversations quite easily or so I've noticed."

"Been watching me have you?" Jim smirked. He had seen Ciel freeze. It was obvious as there were only subtle changes, like the way Ciel had stopped tapping the arm rest and his breathing had hitched there for just one second. "Don't worry Phantomhive; I've been watching you too. I finally have you."

Ciel remained quiet. The atmosphere in the room had changed. It felt colder, which was ridiculous because… as a demon he shouldn't be feeling this way. He could hear Sebastian's rather fake heartbeat pulsing from the other room. It wasn't as calm as it usually was. He was listening on their conversation. He had to tread carefully.

"What's wrong?" Jim asked in faked concern. He stared at Ciel with widened eyes but his lips were still pulled into a quite amused and pleased smirk. He titled his head to one side, his chin tipped slightly. "Trouble breathing?"

Ciel gaped. "What?"

"Does it hurt?" Jim cooed. "If you'd like I'd be happy to lick it all better for you. Let me lick your bruise. You just have to tell me which hurts more, you're ego or your palms? You seem to be clenching your fists so tightly you're hurting yourself. Why do you do that Ciel?"

The bluenette continued to stare at the blonde. Jim was entirely too amused for anything to end up in Ciel's way. He felt a sense of déjà vu as the minute hand on the clock continued to make it's clock-wise journey. Sweat beaded on the nape of his neck and he swallowed the lump in his throat as discretely as he could.

"You know." He stated more than asked.

Jim giggled that bloody giggle. He'd never thought he'd hear that again. The other Alois had a giggle too, but it wasn't… quite like this. This giggle was filled with hidden intentions. Jim knew something and he wasn't bothered with stopping low enough to torment him with what he knew. Jim was… had he been wrong? But he had been so sure! He had been attuned to Alois- not Jim.

"Hoheo Taralna, Rondero Tarel." Jim giggled again and let out a sigh. "It's been a while Ciel. I've missed you and you're pretty blue eyes- not."

AN: You know... I've noticed that in almost every chapter I have Alois eating. I think I want him to get fat or something. Anyways, may I be the first to say; BOOM. Jimmy knows and remembers Ciel XD

I also noticed that you guys like Cielois than Sebacial&Aude. I'm basing this on my fics though so this isn't definite.

There will also be a Lumber scene in the next chapter because they had only been mentioned in this one. I might rewrite that intervention in Timber's POV cause I can just imagine how it goes XD

The italicized stuff in the Ciel/Jim scene is quotes from Kuroshitsuji II. Wanna guess which episode that was? :D Mind you it's the dubbed version cause I can't find BB subbed on the net.

Also that thing about self-awareness and women bah, I don't really believe that. My avatar does not lie, I am a girl too. I just needed a really mean comment for Jim to say. Don't take offense please :)

Special thanks to; jellydonut16, ashira23, Alicee, 13, and Sevarous for your reviews! They really encouraged me to quit procrastinating and start writing XD

Thoughts on this chapter? :D

EDIT: Proofread and BETA checked – 04/18/2014

Nique