"Anybody know what's wrong with Sebastian?" Vincent asked irritably.
It had quickly become December and two weeks had passed since Sebastian's shoot for Black Desire. December, of course, marked the beginning of the Funtom Winter Modelling campaign. Meaning that all the involved members had shown up for a mandatory initial fitting. Sebastian was in a noticeably terrible mood, evident by not only his sour face and snappy remarks but also his absolute unwillingness to comply with Angelina's requests. She had gotten him into one of the more important outfits but the pants were not fitting correctly on Sebastian's lanky figure. So, she had pulled out her sewing needles and attempted to fix the problem. Sebastian, however, was making her job increasingly difficult by staring off into space with a mixture of expressions- therefore not hearing her cautionary direction and launching into a fit befitting the Queen of England when his leg was repeatedly stuck with pins.
The rest of the group was spread throughout the room in varying states of decency, as both Angelina, Nina, and a few of her assistants worked on fitting a variety of different clothings onto them.
The source of Sebastian's frustrations was of course across the room from him, the green eyed man smirking despite himself every time the raven haired man launched into a fit.
Even Angelina, usually extremely patient due to her medical background, was getting tired of Sebastian's antics. Everyone else was at least half way through their fitting while Sebastian had been held back with the same pants for just over an hour.
Claude huffed, wanting to push up his glasses as well but resisted since his sleeves were having buttons sewn onto them.
"I have an idea." He muttered. Vincent raised an eyebrow at him, frustration shown clearly on his face when Claude offered up no other information.
"Go talk to him." Vincent demanded. "Now. Angelina is going to end up stabbing the major aorta in his thigh if he yells at her again."
Nina's assistant, hearing the command, finished up the button she was working on and stepped away from Claude, walking quickly to the other side of the room to assist Nina with Ciel and Alois. She had refused to work on the others.
"Sebastian, Claude- take five please!" Vincent called out.
Angelina sighed and straightened, removing the pins from Sebastian's pant leg after another unsuccessful attempt. Sebastian was obviously disheveled and brusquely walked out of the room, escaping the overbearing gaze that he had consistently felt since Adrian arrived.
Claude walked with quick steps after him, hoping he didn't do something stupid like leave or hide somewhere while out of his sight.
"Sebastian!" Claude called as he entered the hallway, seeing a dark figure turn round a corner. He jogged after the figure and only after the two got outside did Sebastian stop walking.
He leaned against the brick facade, breathing out a deep sigh.
"Hey." Claude snapped, he had diminishing patience for Sebastian's attitude ever since he had laid eyes on Adrian and to be completely honest Claude was done dealing with the pointless drama and tension.
Sebastian said nothing, keeping his gaze on the concrete pavement below them but his head turned in Claude's direction to let him show that he had heard.
"What the hell's the matter with you?" Claude asked, not entirely expecting an answer.
Sebastian held his silence for a long time, calming down as the strong winter wind whipped across their bodies, the traces of biting cold almost enough to draw a shiver.
"These pants are ugly." He stated after some time.
"What?" Claude demanded, barely having heard him.
"They don't suit me at all, the color is all wrong, the stitching is too light, this color makes my legs look too fat."
"Sebastian." Claude hissed, suddenly becoming all too tempted to hit him.
"It doesn't even go with the jacket." Sebastian mumbled. "I mean are they colorblind? 3 out of 5 men are colorblind and even I can tell these blacks are two different colors."
"Sebastian!" Claude nearly yelled, coming to his wits end with his friends erratic behavior. Sebastian visibly winced and finally looked up, meeting Claude's eyes.
He sighed. "I had to do a shoot with him. For Black Desire. It was awful, he's the most conniving, arrogant, ridiculous-"
"Sebastian." Claude interrupted, pinching his nose in frustration. "I don't care. I don't want to hear about what happened right now. You need to remember that modelling is your job and you're getting paid for doing it. You're a professional and you're acting like anything but right now. Everyone in there needs you to do your job not sulk and act out like a thirteen year old girl on her period."
Sebastian clenched his teeth, visibly offended by the comment. But even he couldn't deny it's truth. However, knowing he was wrong and doing something to fix it were two separate things altogether. He couldn't focus while in the same room as Adrian. Not only was the gaze of that man suffocating but he also felt as though they had done something in secret and Adrian was constantly teasing him with that knowledge. He had gotten an erection in the middle of a photoshoot due to him and Sebastian didn't even want to consider the implications of that.
He didn't want to- but he also hadn't slept soundly or gotten off in two weeks and the stress was wearing on him.
He sighed heavily, contenting himself with the knowledge that he could leave earlier if he just focused for a little while and got this done.
"Just- give me a couple minutes alright?" Sebastian huffed pulling out a cigarette from his coat pocket along with a lighter.
Claude watched him, irritation evident in his eyes, but acquiesced with a sharp sigh before he disappeared back into the building.
Sebastian took a few drags from his cigarette, looking up at the sky with a blank mind.
Suddenly the door the next to him opened and someone stepped out.
"Claude just give me like 5 minutes alright?" Sebastian snapped, but an amused chuckle greeted him instead of Claude's voice.
Sebastian looked up immediately, shocked to see Adrian standing before him.
His shock dissipated as a flicker of memory passed through his mind.
"Here to steal a drag of my cigarette again?" He asked sassily.
Adrian chuckled at that as well and leaned against the wall next to Sebastian.
"No, not today. Unless you're offering of course."
"I'm not." Sebastian snapped.
"Right well, I couldn't help but notice your… distraction today. And I just wanted to assure you that I have the full intent to act with the utmost professionalism for the duration of our work together." Sebastian was at a loss for words at the statement and simply muttered,
"Okay…"
"I may have overstepped my boundaries the other day and I apologize for that. I would hate for the project to be jeopardized by any… discourse between us so I hope you'll accept my apology." Sebastian frowned and looked over at Adrian, wondering if those were indeed his true intentions or if he was being messed with.
But as he peered into those startlingly green eyes he saw no ulterior motive and quickly broke eye contact.
"Well… thank you." Sebastian said stiffly. Absentmindedly taking another drag of his cigarette.
"You're welcome. I'll leave you alone then." And with those words Adrian disappeared back into the building.
Sebastian felt an odd pang deep within his heart for some odd reason. It felt kind of lonely all of sudden but just as soon as the feeling came it was gone once again.
...
Several hours later, everyone was wrapping up with their fittings. To Sebastian's extreme discontent Adrian had finished first and had hung around to talk with Vincent and offer advice to some of Nina's assistants. Meaning not only did Sebastian have to deal with his presence for longer but he also had to deal with the occasional school girl giggling from the assistants as Adrian flirted with them.
Finally, everyone was getting their things together and taking a few more measurements for future fittings. Alois spoke up suddenly,
"Hey, so… A friend of mine just opened a club recently and asked me to come with a few friends tonight to boost attendance."
"Oh?" Adrian spoke, intrigued. The rest of the group looked up as well.
"Yeah, and I was wondering if you all wanted to come?"
"Is it that new club off of 25th?" Claude asked, raising an eyebrow. Alois grinned, overjoyed by Claude's attention on him.
"Yes! It's called Reapers." Ciel made a face.
"That's a weird name." Alois turned towards him,
"It's not a gay club or anything, Ciel. You can bring Elizabeth since she really wanted us all to go out, remember?"
"Well, she really wanted to talk to Adrian so…" Ciel trailed off looking over to the silver haired man.
Adrian grinned, "I'd love to go- It's been awhile since I last properly experienced an American club."
Ciel nodded, clubs weren't his thing but if Elizabeth found out he declined he would never hear the end of it.
"Alright, we'll be there then." Curious gazes turned to Claude and Sebastian.
"We're going as well." Claude spoke, staring intently at his phone but noticing the silence and the eyes on him.
Sebastian baulked.
"What?" He snapped, narrowing his eyes in complete confusion.
"We're going." Claude repeated. "You could use a drink and I'm going to see to it personally that you do."
"I can have a drink at my own apartment." Sebastian hissed, hoping that Claude would stop ignoring the daggers his eyes were stabbing him with.
"We're going." Claude replied, his voice booming with all the authority of a pissed off parent.
Sebastian opened his mouth again but Claude suddenly looked up his eyes daring him to continue. Sebastian's mouth closed immediately reading the unspoken words in that glare- keep going and I'll never drive you anywhere again.
He sighed and turned towards the rest of their group.
"Guess we're going too." He acquiesced, letting his displeasure seep into his tone.
"Hee, hee!" Adrian cackled, tossing his head back making Sebastian instinctively frown. "You too are delightful."
"They're always like that." Alois added with a smirk. "See you guys there at 8!" He winked, and with a flourish was gone.
...
"I still don't understand why you're forcing me to come with you." Sebastian sulked in the passenger seat of Claude's car. They had just found a parking spot outside of Reapers. Sebastian had to wonder what exactly Alois' friend had met about boosting attendance seeing as the gigantic parking lot was absolutely packed.
"I'm not forcing you to come with me. I'm forcing you to go and coming with you to make sure you stay." Claude corrected snappily. He took his keys out of the ignition and exited the car not bothering to wait for Sebastian's response.
Sighing with growing irritation, Sebastian climbed out of the car as well before Claude resorted to dragging him into the club.
Silently they navigated their way through the parking lot, the booming music increasing in volume as they grew closer.
Looking more closely they could see that the entrance even had a long line with a bouncer checking a clipboard for names. Did this club really just open a few days ago?
"Claude! Over here!" A familiarly high pitched voice called from the line. Sebastian noted that the blonde had completely ignored his existence.
The two of them walked over, noting the intense glare the bouncer was suddenly giving them and decided to not cut in the line.
Alois noted their hesitance, looked toward the bouncer and made an annoyed sound.
"Hold on!" He yelled, pushing through the line until he was directly in front of the burly man.
"Hi guys!" Elizabeth chimed from the line. Claude and Sebastian greeted her and Ciel. Apparently Adrian hadn't arrived yet. Sebastian amusedly wondered if he was having trouble navigating the roads.
"Hey!" Alois shouted at them, waving his hands. The bouncer standing next to him looked annoyed as if he would rather do anything but let them in.
Nevertheless, Ciel and Alois stepped out of the line and joined up with Sebastian and Claude as they made their way to the entrance.
"He sent someone to get Ron." Alois informed as they stopped before him.
"Ron?" Elizabeth questioned.
"Yeah, the owner of the club. My close friend Ron- well his full name is Ronald Knox but he goes by Ron."
Sebastian couldn't help but wonder how exactly Alois was close friends with someone with enough money to finance this entire club. But the more he thought about it the more he decided he didn't really want to know.
After a few moments of waiting, the club doors opened and a rather annoyed looking man walked out. His hair was strangely dyed- blonde on top and black beneath that. His sense of fashion was at least sensible, a simple black and white suit with a narrow tie and thick - what looked like Oakely- rimmed glasses sitting atop his nose.
The man's face brightened considerably as he laid eyes on Alois.
"Alois!" The man exclaimed. A huge grin appearing on his face as he took in Alois' company.
"How's it going, Ron?" Alois greeted, sporting his signature flirty grin. The two hugged affectionately, only adding fuel to Sebastian's earlier hypothesis.
"It's going well, it's going well!" Ron grinned, looking over towards the long entrance line.
"So, I see you brought some friends-" he said, turning his attention to the four well dressed people behind Alois. "This can't be all the people you could bring, now could it? Come on Alois don't hold out on me!" Ron jested, slinging an arm around his shorter friend.
Alois scoffed, feigning offense. "These are my modelling friends, I of course would only bring you the best looking people. Clubs require certain appearances after all." All of the aforementioned friends were thoroughly shocked by the compliment.
"So," Alois said promptly. "This is Elizabeth, Ciel, Claude, and Sebastian." He introduced each with a wave of the hand. Ronald shook hands with them each in turn as well.
Although at the introduction of Claude, Ronald appraised him carefully. "This is the Claude?" He asked Alois, seemingly amazed. Alois nodded, proudly. Ronald considered Claude again and nodded several times in succession. "Not bad, I might even go for him myself." He said under his breath.
Claude, of course, overheard and sent a disgusted look Alois' way.
"Nice to meet you all, now I'm sure you'd like to actually get inside and not stand out here talking all night in this cold air." He turned swiftly on his heel and was about to reenter the club when suddenly a voice rang out behind them.
"Wait for us!"
The voice was eerily familiar and Sebastian's gut sank before his brain could even process who it might have been. The group turned to look.
Adrian had apparently arrived, yet he was not the owner of the voice that had called out.
"Adrian!" Elizabeth called, her face lighting up like a christmas tree at the sight of him. He grinned and waved at her as he and his companion approached.
"Did you get lost?" Alois asked, worry evident in his tone.
"No, no." Adrian assured. "Grell insisted on coming with me at the last minute." The ruby red companion of his grinned.
"It takes time to look this fabulous. I can't believe you were about to leave without me." They responded, pouting.
A murmur had started among the line, and Ronald walked over to the group shock covering his features.
"Are you… The Undertaker?" He asked, in complete disbelief of the person standing in front of him.
"Hee, hee." Adrian giggled. "How I do love that title." Ronald's face paled, and he held out a visibly shaking hand.
"I-It's an honor to meet you, sir." Adrian politely shook his hand.
"The pleasure is all mine- It's quite the impressive feat to own your own club at your age." Ron blanched for a moment, then seemingly regained his composure with a quick clearing of his throat.
"Thank you, I'm very proud of it." His gaze slid over to the fiery redhead beside the silver haired man. "And who's your companion?"
Grell gave him a flirty smile along with a wink.
"Ah, this is my stylist Grell Sutcliffe." Adrian offered.
"Hi~" Grell chimed, with a wriggle of fingers at Ron.
Ron smiled back politely then turned to Alois- resting his arm across the smaller man's shoulders again.
"Well I must say you certainly brought the best of the best, Alois."
Alois smiled despite himself. "I already told you that. I don't disappoint."
Ron grinned, and squeezed Alois tighter into his side."No, no you certainly don't." He murmured with strangely sexual undertones.
"Well!" He announced to the group. "You're not making my club look good by standing out here, let's get you guys to the special guest section!"
...
Sebastian was having the worst time of his life. Upon entering the club his mood had been looking up, his heart excited by the bright lights and booming music. But after they had all been sitting for a while the group had split up a bit.
Elizabeth had said she wanted to dance and half-dragged Ciel to the dance floor with her. Ronald had left them to make rounds at his club promising to return though he hadn't yet and Sebastian doubted that he would. Alois had been upset at first but Sebastian noticed him giving flirty looks to some guy on the dance floor and had slinked off with him sometime in the night. Which left Sebastian at the table with the three people he least wanted to be around. Claude, Adrian and Grell.
Grell had been getting on his last nerves since the moment they sat had practically shoved Adrian out of the way when the silver haired man made moves to sit next to Sebastian on the loveseat and promptly sat infuriatingly close to him. And though Sebastian had been attempting to ignore them -and the sudden hand dangerously close to his crotch- by talking with Claude, Claude had sat a distance away from him and the music was so loud he would have to yell at the top of his lungs for Claude to hear him.
"Sebby~" Grell cooed, moving into Sebastian's line of sight. Sebastian groaned internally.
"Yes?" He answered, tersely.
"You were very impressive at the shoot the other day." The hand moved ever so slightly closer. "I looked at some of your other work too and I'm a huge fan."
"I'm glad." Sebastian responded trying to convey how uninterested he was in his tone. He removed the hand from his lap but Grell immediately laced their fingers together. Sebastian sighed with growing frustration and rolled his eyes.
Though, upon rolling them he caught a glance over to where Claude and Adrian had been speaking to each other.
Ronald had surprisingly returned and was talking with Adrian while Claude was suddenly nowhere in sight.
Where the fuck did he go? Sebastian wondered angrily, wondering if he had been left here all by himself even though Claude was the one who dragged him here in the first place.
Grell was still talking to him but Sebastian couldn't take his eyes off of Ron and Adrian. Sebastian couldn't hear what they were saying but there was something decidedly flirty in their interaction.
As Sebastian kept looking at them, Ron laughed and said something then Adrian said something back, then Ron looked surprised but he grinned wickedly and stood up from his seat to speak directly into Adrian's ear.
"Hey," Sebastian said suddenly, turning towards Grell who looked delighted by the sudden attention. "Can you get me a drink?" Grell hesitated and Sebastian quickly followed up,
"I would get one myself but I wouldn't want to leave you sitting over here looking lonely. It can be dangerous at clubs like this." Grell blushed, and scrambled up not even bothering to ask what Sebastian wanted before bouncing off to the bar.
Sebastian clenched his teeth in a sudden surge of irritation as he caught sight of the two once again.
...
"Another." Syllables drunkenly slurred together as Sebastian lifted his glass and gestured to the bartender.
"Sebby," Grell called worriedly, attempting to get Sebastian to lower the glass. "You're drunk." They announced as Sebastian resisted.
Sebastian whirled around, nearly knocking himself off of the barstool he was perched on .
"I thought that was obvious?" He asked, though it was more of a statement with a hint of questioning at the end. "I would like to become more drunk please. So- bartender- please." The bartender raised her eyebrows at Grell silently asking if it was okay.
"No! He's drunk. Too drunk!" Almost as if on cue Sebastian slammed his empty glass on the bar and slumped over. Grell moved quickly to catch him and keep him from falling to the floor but Sebastian quickly proved to be the heavier person and Grell was crushed under the sudden weight.
"Se...bas...tian…" Grell grunted out, putting all of their effort into keeping them both off the floor.
"Whoa, whoa there!" A sudden deep voice called out and strong hands managed to get Sebastian back into his chair and set Grell upright.
Silver hair reflected in Sebastian's eyes as he rested his weight against the bar instead.
"Someone have a little too much to drink?" Followed by a low chuckle.
"Yes!" Grell chirped indignantly, taking care to smooth their now messy red hair and ruffled clothing.
"Never thought I'd see such a professional so completely knackered." When Sebastian produced no response to the teasing words, Adrian sighed and looked around.
"Sebastian!" He called to get the younger man's attention, getting only a grunt in response. "Where's Claude gone off to? Let's have him get you home."
Sebastian made a choked sound that sounded something like snicker. "Gone. He escaped without me. Damn good for nothing…" Sebastian trailed off sleepily, lightly pounding his fist on the bar in his outrage.
"That so?" Adrian mused, surveying the club once more. "Well it seems none of your other friends are in sight so I suppose the duty falls on me to get you home."
Sebastian frowned although his face was covered by his arms.
He wanted to resist but he was so intensely sleepy…
"Alright, Grell give me some help with him- so irresponsible to leave him alone like this."
Sebastian felt hands grab onto him again as his consciousness slipped away and he was pulled into a sea of darkness.
Sorry if this chapter was a little all over the place, it's kind of filler and filler is really hard for me to write but thankfully there will probably not be anymore until the end! I am very excited to write the next few chapters - so excited that I literally wrote half of the next chapter in like an hour! Hope you guys are excited to read thank you for the support thus far!
Happy Holidays! Hope you're still alive afters finals!
Side note: The club name is Reapers and almost all of the reapers were in it at the same time. Gosh once again I'm so clever. (not really)