Behind My Pride
By: PhoenixJustice
Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji is owned by Yana Toboso. I only own this story and make no profit from this.
Warning: Rated M for future sexual content, underage, slash, language, violence, etc.
Pairing: eventual Sebastian Michaelis/Ciel Phantomhive, etc.
Setting: Post-Green Witch Arc. Spoilers for the entire manga.
Summary: Trapped and put at a disadvantage that he had never dealt with before, he struggles to regain everything he once knew. Struggles to deal with Sebastian in a place, a situation, he had never envisioned.
Bold italiced words (when someone speaks German.)
Italics are thoughts.
Bold is flashbacks.
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Four - That Butler, Trapped
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Sebastian's brows burrow in obvious confusion.
"Trapped? What do you mean?" He asks, just refraining from saying Young Master again. It was something he'd have to work on. They must play the parts. And usually it wasn't an issue, but he was still injured, weakened beyond what he had been hurt before (and so was not thinking quite as clearly as he'd like.)
"I went for another walk after checking the mail," Ciel says, obviously still frustrated that he had yet to receive a mail in reply to his yet. "I was leaning against a wall, but no, I only thought I was. It took longer than I'd like to notice, but I did notice it. I wasn't leaning against a wall; I was leaning against nothing."
He could picture it fairly clearly, the Young Master taking a breath after walking so much (it was something he was not used to doing so much, after all) before finally noticing that he was leaning against apparent air, nothingness. But what did that mean?
"A barrier of some sort?" he murmurs.
Ciel nods, looking frustrated again. "I thought something of the same. Do you," he hesitates, obviously hating that he had to ask, but they were currently on their alone, alone, and had no others. He couldn't exactly be the Earl here, not in a situation such as this and it seemed like he was starting to get that. "Do you think that it was Undertaker's doing?"
Now it is his turn to wonder. He puts a hand to his chin. "Possibly," he says thoughtfully. "We do not know the full extent of his powers yet; he is obviously a formidable, despite being a former Shinigami, so I could see it being possible. We will have to check things out and see what we can do."
Ciel almost looks ready to argue at that, but grudgingly nods. Sebastian holds back a snort, before becoming serious once more. "If that is the case, perhaps that is why you have not gotten a reply back from anyone at the Manor yet."
Ciel's eye widens, as if he didn't think of that. "We'll have to test that out then." Ciel says, more a demand than a statement. Sebastian tips his head in acknowledgement. He starts to follow Ciel out of the room, before pausing briefly (which Ciel does not notice) looking down at his hand.
He wore no gloves.
The gloves he had had on when they arrived were more than ruined, by blood, dirt, gore, all of that. He had been without them since almost the entire time.
Which meant that the Pact mark was visible (and had been so the whole time.)
Why had Kyrie not reacted to it?
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Sebastian touches the space with a frown. It did not give way.
They had come to the small alleyway that Ciel had first discovered the 'barrier' so as not to be disturbed. It seemed to be one of those areas that had been built weird, so there was a small area in between buildings that few knew about. The hole that led to the outside was, he knew, something that someone had created themselves, rather than having been built that way (he could tell from the knocked out bricks, and some of the holes.) He knew that other people could get through to the outside of the town fine-he had seen so for himself, but when he tries-after Ciel tries and fails again to get through-he too gets stopped by the invisible barrier.
He had never seen something that would affect a demon and a human so equally.
He finally turns back to Ciel, holding back a frown.
"What shall we do now?" he asks the young Earl.
Ciel looks angry, though not at Sebastian; more at himself. "I...don't know." he admits, muttering the words. "As it is, without some way to research it, we're stuck. If you don't know what it is," At Sebastian's shake of the head, he continues. "Then there isn't much we can do at the moment. I've checked the libraries, but this town is small. Even if if the town had been the size of London, I'm not too sure we'd find information for something this specialized."
"Hn. I believe you are correct." Sebastian says, a hand underneath his chin in thought. He felt rather naked without the gloves he was so used to wearing most always, wondering idly if he could get a pair from Kyrie. "In that case, I believe all we can do is check on this barrier daily. I do now know what this kind of barrier is, but from what I do know of barriers I know that most tend to degrade very quickly and are gone within hours or days. Very few that I have ever come across have ever lasted a week."
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So they started to check on it. The first couple of days go by pretty quickly, thanks to helping Kyrie at her theater (which tended to take up much of the day.) They didn't do much; cleaned a bit of the floor, moved clothing, stage props, things of that nature. Sebastian was, of course, much better at it than Ciel but even he had to admit that Ciel wasn't terrible at it. The Earl wasn't used to much manual labor (tending to leave it to Sebastian and his other staff) but the days cleaning in Kyrie's place as well as in the theater now had helped him get better at it. Certainly much more, than the time at the Noah's Ark Circus. Though perhaps if they had had more time there, then he would have improved more. They'd never know now.
On the third day he approaches Kyrie after he checks on the barrier (they switched each day) about a spare pair of gloves.
Her brow raises, opening up a box that had arrived to the theater only minutes earlier. It seemed to hold new costumes. "Gloves? I should have some spares lying around." She pauses for a moment, pondering, then smiles. "I think I can do better than an old pair though." She rummages through the box, before giving a little "aha!". In her hands was a pair of white gloves. That shouldn't surprise him, but it does.
The gloves look exactly like the ones he usually wore (and if he had the power, he'd have just created some out of thin air, but he was still sadly lacking in that. And how pathetic a demon was he, that he couldn't even create a simple pair of gloves right now? The power was still there within him, thankfully. But it still needed time.)
As a demon he could obviously see and hear things better than normal humans, as well as other things besides. So he could notice details in a much more defined way than a human could. These were the same as the gloves he always wore, right down to the creases.
His brows furrow. "What-"
She smiles again, handing them over. "I noticed that you seemed to be hiding your hands as much as you could while working. You don't need to worry; we all have secrets here and we've all been through a lot. None of us would judge for your past experiences, nor would anyone press the matter. But if you feel more secure with them on, then you can definitely use them. I just ask for one thing."
"Yes? What might that be?" She was certainly an odd duck. But Sebastian liked that. The majority of humanity bored him to no end; they had no real character, no idiosyncrasy. He liked to find those who were different than the rest of the masses of sheep that most other humans were. Ciel Phantomhive had been a veritable treasure of gold, mixed between hunks of tin and copper.
She tells him. And his eyes get wide.
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"Where is Sebastian?"
"Ah, he was talking to Henry." Kyrie replies, sorting through a box of clothes. He heard from Gemma that they had just come in, specially made. For a small town theater, they certainly went through a lot of effort. "They should be coming-ah! There you two are!"
He turns to look at the door which had just open.
And stares.
Sebastian was dressed like...Sebastian.
He looked rather calm and unruffled. Henry, the playwright, stood next to him with a wide grin, a stack of paper in his hands.
"I'm just glad you're finally done. I thought you'd take forever to finish!" Kyrie scolds playfully, hands on her hips.
Henry shrugs, still grinning. "Ah, I just needed the right inspiration to finish the play! Having these two show up has definitely been a godsend."
Ciel looks at Sebastian questioningly, but Sebastian makes the barest shake of his head. Henry steps forward but he moves to stand in front of Ciel, not Kyrie. He hands the paper over to Ciel. It was obviously the finished work that the playwright had just finished.
The title on the cover has him quirking an eyebrow.
The Most Beautiful Death in the World.
It certainly had a macabre sort of ring to it that he could appreciate.
"Go on," Henry says, almost urgently. "Take a look at some of it and let me know what you think."
He starts to look through the first couple of pages and he gasps as he reads it. His eye finds Sebastian who didn't look surprised at what Ciel was reading (Henry must have had him read it first.)
The contents were about him and Sebastian. Specifically, during the time when they dealt with the Shinigami's Eric and Alan. Something that Henry couldn't have possibly known about.
"So? What do you think?" Henry asks, with a grin.
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A/N: Those who know about the Kuroshitsuji musicals should certainly know what it is that Ciel is reading. XD
I hope you enjoyed this!
Let me know what you thought!
-PhoenixJustice
