A/N: …don't read this while eating. Just don't.


"The demon's shadow lurks within…"

Sebastian didn't return for days, and when he finally did he found Ciel huddled in a tiny ball, quivering with pain and hunger and exhaustion. The boy's eyes were wide and haunted, and Sebastian immediately understood. It was reminding him of the month he'd spent in those cages, always hungry, always abused. But then he had at least been granted the brief reprieve that sleep offered. Here, there was no such thing.

"Ciel," he called, offering the child a hand. Ciel looked up at him, suspicion fighting to make its way into his expression before exhaustion won over again. He looked away, back at his knees, and Sebastian smirked. "Ciel, get up. I will not ask again."

Still he didn't move despite the sudden pain in his eye, and Sebastian reached down and jerked him to his feet by one wrist. He stumbled, barely staying on his feet, and Sebastian asked, "You're starving, aren't you?"

Haunted eyes flashed briefly with hate, and Sebastian chuckled. "Oh, are you not talking to me? That's fine. Come this way." He led the boy by the wrist through the blackness, until they seemed to pass through the dark itself and into a room beyond. Despite his insistence on remaining silent, even Ciel couldn't hold back a small cry of surprise when he saw what waited.

It was a dining room, with a table containing the most spectacular feast he'd ever seen. Every type of dish or sweet he could ever ask for seemed to be there, just waiting for someone to come along and indulge. His stomach growled audibly, but after a swift glance at Sebastian he turned away from the food. It was another trick.

Sebastian, of course, had anticipated this. He leaned down, lips barely brushing Ciel's ear as he whispered, "Eat, Ciel. The food is delicious."

Ciel's eye prickled in warning, and he walked stiffly to the table, sitting down and reaching for the glass of wine sitting by his plate. He took a small sip, then began picking out things to eat. Sebastian was right, of course. The food was perfect, exquisite, like tasting Heaven within this Hell. Roast chicken and creamy mashed potatoes, fish cooked with lemon, savory soups, buttery bread and an astonishing array of desserts… He ate until his stomach no longer complained, and then sat back in the chair, sighing in something like relief. Now if Sebastian would only let him sleep…

His eye began to prickle again, and Ciel blinked in confusion, reaching up to cover it with one hand. He didn't understand. He'd eaten, as ordered. Why…? But a glance at the demon sitting a little farther down the table showed him a smirk curling on the man's features, a wicked look that promised nothing but more pain. He hesitated, hoping that the demon would rescind his order, but Sebastian's smirk only widened.

Ciel reached out for a roll, taking a small bite and feeling the pain in his eye ebb. This was horrible. Almost worse than starvation, the sick feeling he got from his stomach as it slowly became too full. It was no longer content, but causing him twice as much discomfort as before. He continued to eat, taking as small bites as he possibly could, just enough to keep the pain at bay. He could endure this. He just had to last until Sebastian had gotten his amusement.

But eventually it began to catch up with him. It became a struggle to chew, and a worse torture to swallow each bite. His stomach began to feel nauseous, and the pain still lurking in his eye didn't help any. He took another bite of a lemon tart and nearly gagged, barely aware of Sebastian coming around to stand behind his chair.

"Gluttony is a delicious sin, my little Lord," he purred, watching Ciel choke down the bite of tart. "A buttery, oily taste. The perfect seasoning."

Ciel looked up at him, tart crumbs clinging around his mouth, his eyes wide with pain and fear. Sebastian raised an eyebrow and seemed to take pity on him, finally saying in an almost condescending voice, "You may stop eating, Ciel."

The child hurled the tart down onto his plate, leaning over the chair and retching violently. He coughed and spluttered, all of the meal he'd eaten coming back up as his stomach rebelled. Sebastian merely watched, and when Ciel sat up, grasping weakly for a napkin to wipe the vomit from his mouth, the demon said, "How rude of you."

An icy glare was directed at him, as Ciel grabbed pathetically for his wineglass, trying to wash the taste of sickness from his mouth. Sebastian took the glass from him, slamming it back to the table hard enough to break the stem. "I go through the trouble to make you a divine meal, and you get sick? And after I am putting off my own feast as well."

"For no reason!" Ciel cried weakly. "Why won't you answer me? Why this torture?!"

Sebastian lifted him from the chair, sweeping the dishes aside in a clatter of shattering china, and pinned Ciel to the tabletop by holding his wrists with one hand. He regarded the little earl spread out before him, savory and tender and delicious-looking, like one of the dishes of wonderful food still on the other end of the table. He could eat him right now, if he wished.

But he had more self-control than that. "Perhaps you need to be punished for putting this good food to waste." He dragged Ciel from the table, squirming and protesting, and hauled him to a different room. Within moments, he was naked again, chained by his ankles in the center of the floor. Sebastian had walked around behind him, and Ciel could hear him chuckling.

"Now…" he murmured. "Let's see if you will sing for me."