A/N: For those who are watching, sorry for the slow update, I know this is short (really, really short), but it is sort of a filler while I'm working on a bigger, more complicated one coming up. I still think it has meaning though.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji, I do own Athena

They looked beautiful.

The two of them, studies in contrast. Her father, dark and serious, dressed in the cool blues and greys that fitted his coloring the most. Her mother, bright and excitable, dressed in the radiant reds and golds that reflected her joyful nature.

They were sitting opposite each other in one of the tables of the library. Elizabeth Phantomhive was reading an adventure novel while Ciel Phantomhive was reading a mystery. Nevertheless they had both extended an arm across the table so that they could hold hands.

Athena Phantomhive loved her parents so much. And she loved the way that the two of them were in love. A fierce, equal, truthful love, as seen in the way that her father had his eye patch off to revealed his marked eye.

Her parents were best friends and confidents, her father disclosed completely to her mother about what he did, and she revealed what she had done behind the scenes to help him succeed.

Even though Athena looked at the two of them and felt that they would still be there, night after night until the day the two of them died at the same moment, slumping over that particular table in the library…she knew they wouldn't be. She knew that someday the butler would turn and become evil and take away her father's soul to devour and keep her parents apart for the rest of eternity.

She knew why, and yet she didn't.

She stepped away from the doorway of the library and padded down the hall to an empty room. Despite the fact that it was an unused parlor it was still spotless and dust free. Athena went over to the white velvet divan and sat down and she moved her hair, plaited down her back for sleeptime to over her shoulder, revealing the mark on the back of her neck, the same one as on her father's eye.

"Sebastian?" She whispered.

"You shouldn't be up so late, young mistress." Sebastian had appeared without a sound besides her, as if he had leaped from the shadows. Perhaps he had.

"Father explained to me, but I still don't understand why."

Sebastian was a good butler, he always understood what a member of his Family was talking about. He sighed and knelt down so the two of them could look at each other face to face.

"It was a deal, a very old deal that was made in desperation and desire. The Phantomhive family had fallen so very low, and your forefather declared that it would never do so again. All things have a price and my role in your family, then and now, has a price."

"How can people not think of the future?"

"It is astoundingly easy, young mistress, to not consider the future when you have a wildcard for the now. Other people need to worry about what comes next, because of me the Phantomhives don't."

"But they are so happy together," Athena whispered, "and they deserve to be together forever."

"It was decided long before either Lord Phantomhive or you were born, the same fate is for everyone who bears this mark." Sebastian pulled off his left glove to show Athena the back of his hand. "The Earl could have stopped it with himself, but he chose not to, none of the others even considered it."

"Haven't you ever felt love though? Couldn't you make an exception?" Athena asked desperately.

Sebastian had an expression of complete shock. His mouth opened and closed before he regained his composure. But even then he was silent for a while before finally speaking. "I did, once." He spoke slowly, unwillingly. "A long time ago, and it ended badly. My love… became hatred."

"Were you loved in return?" Athena asked, for she was, as the very young are, totally unaware of the butler's emotions.

"Yes, but they felt likewise, and if they didn't…I don't know what they felt, and I don't want to know how they feel now." Sebastian's expression was unhappy, which Athena finally detected.

She was silent, before she spoke quietly, "I love you, Sebastian. And I don't know how you feel about me, but it doesn't matter, does it? Because someday you will also eat my soul."

"The contract is absolute." Sebastian said, his voice was steady although there was a confusion of expressions on his face. He then sighed again. "Come, young mistress, it is time for you to go to bed." He gathered the six-year old into his arms.

"Is it bad?"

"Pardon?"

"Does it hurt in your belly? Is it like hell?"

"No," Sebastian said softly, "you will simply no longer be. It's a bit like sleeping without dreaming, I believe."

"I guess that wouldn't be so bad, to sleep forever." Athena said, resting her head on Sebastian's shoulder, suddenly sleepy.

"No, my young mistress, it wouldn't be at all." Sebastian said heavily, walking out of the parlor with his future in his arms.

A/N: Heh, softy Sebastian. And none of you have guessed who the doctor is! Oh well, review!