The First Book: Behind Melpomene's Tears
Sketch V
Saudade
And as my train rolls down the east coast/ I wonder how you keep warm/ It's too late to cry/ Too broken to move on – Ron Pope, A Drop In The Ocean
-X-X-X-X-X-
Dean twitched at the sight of the next drawings in his book. They were all from when he first saw that man, and just the memory of that day was enough to make Dean want to punch something. He glared at the page. He'd almost succeeded in shoving it all the way to the back of his mind too.
-X-X-X-X-X-
"Diedrich!" With obvious delight, Ciel ran up to the visitor, a man whom Dean had never seen before. Dean also noticed that she spoke the man's name differently from the Master, in a way that didn't sound like English. She stopped in front of this Diedrich's chair and held her arms out to him.
Diedrich looked back into her wide, doe-like eyes with a stern expression. "Tch," he scoffed, sounding annoyed. "Troublesome like your father," he muttered, but caving and picking up the little heiress nonetheless.
As soon as she was in his lap, Ciel wrapped her arms around the man's neck. "Ich habe dich vermisst," she said sweetly, resting her head in the crook of it and smiling. Definitely not English then, Dean thought. He didn't understand a word of what the Young Mistress said, but Diedrich had quickly turned his head away from the girl, looking uncomfortable.
Lord Vincent Phantomhive watched the pair before him with a sly smile on his handsome face. "Who would have thought it'd be so easy to melt your heart, Dee?" he teased.
Dean stared resentfully at the man now spluttering at the head of the house, silently wishing he would just disappear back to wherever he had come from already. There was a gnawing feeling in the pit of Dean's stomach even though he had just eaten lunch, and he just knew it was somehow that man's fault.
Dean observed this Diedrich with a critical eye, wondering what it was that made his muse look at the man with such eyes. Dean couldn't see anything special about him. Sure, the man was tall and broad-shouldered, and his short black hair with the slightly longer forelocks parted to the right may have been considered handsome, but none of that could make up for his angry face and lousy attitude. His clothes were strange too, nothing like the Master's neat suit. He wore a long, double-breasted coat in a muted shade of green with matching pants and tall black boots.
His muse sat in Diedrich's lap, quite happily nibbling at a sandwich. One of his arms was around her waist, preventing her from falling as the man single-handedly devoured the rest of the sandwiches. What did she see in him? All he did was eat. Then Dean noticed that Ciel's double-breasted dress was the same muted green as the visitor's coat. She wore black knee-high boots and her two bunches were tied with matching ribbons. She'd even left the top buttons unbuttoned in the same way.
Dean decided that he hated green. He glared at the man who didn't even notice.
"Hey," a sudden thought seemed to strike Diedrich as he chewed his latest sandwich, and he eyed the girl in his lap curiously. "Why's your daughter learning German?" He looked across the table at Vincent. "Don't tell me you plan on bringing her next time you come hassle me."
"I had no idea she decided to learn your mother tongue," the earl replied pleasantly. "We'll just have to ask her." He looked at his daughter. "Ciel?" he inquired.
The little girl looked up from her sandwich at her father, and then turned her gaze to Diedrich. "Gramps is teaching me," she said brightly, "so when I grow up, I can marry you." Dean decided that he hated German too and he glared harder.
Diedrich nearly choked on his sandwich in surprise, but recovered soon after much to Dean's eternal disappointment. "Phantomhive! What are you teaching her?!" the man exclaimed loudly.
Vincent, instead of reacting angrily to his daughter's declaration like Dean thought he should be, looked amused. "She's usually quite shy but she seems to really like you, Dee." The other man glowered at him. Dean would have too if he wasn't the Master of the house. "I've heard that children are good judges of character. You are a very kind and reliable guy, aren't you?"
The German looked dubiously at the older Phantomhive. "…tch." He glanced sideways at Ciel who was nuzzled against him, her small hands clinging to the front of his coat. "Saying weird things all of a sudden…" Diedrich muttered grouchily, reaching for another sandwich.
"That's why," the earl continued pleasantly, "should anything happen to me, I'm counting on you to look after them."
-X-X-X-X-X-
It didn't mattered in the end, Dean thought bitterly. Neither of them had even been anywhere near the manor at the time. Now she was gone and she wasn't coming back. Dean's hands clenched tightly about the edge of the blanket, his eyes burning with angry tears.
A/N: Does anyone else find the idea of little girl!Ciel with a crush on Diedrich really cute? And little Dean is jealous and sulking. Ciel may seem a little OOC sometimes but I'm chalking it up partially to her being a girl and partially to the fact that I'm blending some of Harry into her personality. Feel free to let me know if it becomes too much, but at the same time I'll need advice on how to fix it. Also, Ciel does still have asthma, I'm just letting her magic take some of the edge off. Hope you guys enjoyed the update!