IMPOTANT NOTICE
For this chapter it be best if I explain how asthma was treated in Victorian era; still to this day asthma is an illness we are unable to cure. So could you imagine in the 1800s? our knowledge has greatly increased from then over the illness because the "cures" that the Victorians had were actually causing more problems than helping.
Most medication in the time was trial and error since the Victorians were still learning how the human body worked (hence the anatomist).
Here are a few ways people were treated for asthma in Victorian England:
*giving the sufferer a cup of strong coffee
*A strong mustard plaster may be applied to the chest.
*allowing the sufferer to breath in smoke
*having them breath in the smoke of burnt nitre paper (basically burning paper that was soaked in salt)
*having them smoke tobacco
*they even believed cigars would cure asthma.
*a change of air (moving to the country)
*giving medication to the sufferer: Laudanum was used on asthma sufferers, Laudanum is basically opium and alcohol mixed with cinnamon (if any of you remember from episodes of kuroshitsuji opium caused a lot of problems: its addicting)
As you can see these are the exact opposite things to do, most people who had asthma had short lives and those with non-serious cases lived their whole lives suffering.
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Most of Sebastian's morning went to trying to convince Vincent to let Ciel off for the day. It was so much harder then he thought it would be. Vincent was more than strict when it came to Ciel but from what he overheard last night he knew that it was just the fathers over protective nature but he also knew that Vincent wished more than anything for Ciel to have a normal childhood; well, that meant games and days off and by Satan Sebastian was going to stop at nothing to get this for the blue haired boy.
The arguing went back and forth over if Ciel should take a break today and weather he should go through his normal routine of difficult lesions. Sebastian was not going to back down however, and finally he broke through to the father of the boy.
Vincent sighed
"Sir, it would be fine for him to miss one day…it's just one day."
"I understand that Sebastian and believe me I want him to relax however, he might take a liking to this and start refusing his lesions whenever he feels he needs some leisure time."
"Ciel is obedient to your orders my lord, if you command it he will be at every lesion you wish but over working him will burn Ciel out. Please take his age into consideration."
Vincent let out an exhale from his lungs and looked at Sebastian analyzing him. "I guess one-time won't hurt. Do not take him outside Sebastian, whatever you are planning do it inside."
"Yes of course, thank you."
"no, thank you Sebastian. For being the first servant to actually care about Ciel."
Vincent gave Sebastian what he thought was a genuine smile and with that he bowed to the slightly older male and left the room. Now the trouble was finding something that Ciel would enjoy that was something he could take part in with a partner, something that would be new to the boy, and something that would be easy to manage indoors. This was harder then he imagined. If Ciel was able to venture outside Sebastian would probably take him to the theater to see hamlet live. He knew it was the boys favorite book considering it was the only book that never seemed to leave the teens night stand and was warn from constant use. Ciel probably read it over and over again.
Wait…maybe he could bring the play to the boy. That's it!
However, all the preparation would take more time then he had, it would seem Ciel would have to wait till tomorrow. Luckily Vincent already agreed, changing the day shouldn't be that hard explaining it to Ciel however might prove difficult surly he would think it will just continue to be "pushed back".
When he found Ciel the boy was waiting for him eagerly in his own library but once Sebastian walked in the boy tried to act as if he wasn't waiting or excited. This made the taller male chuckle to himself.
"What's so damn funny?"
Attitude of a bull, and so early too.
"I talked to your father, you will be glad to know he approved, however it shall be tomorrow that you get your leisure time."
Ciel seemed taken aback, it was apparent that although he was hopeful his father would say yes that he somehow didn't think it would actually happen and now that it was he didn't know how to react.
"Did he really say yes?"
"yes young master. I wouldn't lie." Sebastian place his hand over his heart and slightly bowed.
"What's the plan for tomorrow then?" Sebastian couldn't understand what it was Ciel had painted on his face, something between a mix of astonishment and disbelief.
Giving Ciel a smile he only said "It's a surprise."
…..
The day passed with Ciel going through all his lesions as he normally did but he seemed a little different from the other days and Sebastian didn't quite know why but he liked to believe the boy was different because he was excited.
During Ciel's last session: independent study, a beautiful woman with short red hair barged in, she was wearing a red dress made of silk and was just as pale as Ciel but what Sebastian noticed right away was that this woman also had red eyes. All of a sudden he realized why Ciel never seemed to be bothered by his red eyes. The blue haired teen was used to it.
Ciel placed his book down from the sudden invasion and looked at his aunt surprised.
"My darling Ciel!" She walked up to him smiling and gently placed a hand on the boy's cheek.
"Madam Red? Your early."
"For god's sake Ciel call me auntie Anne like when you were little." She messed up the younger teens hair to show her frustrations. Ciel stood up and walked in front of his aunt to give her proper respects and she attacked him in a hug the boy stiffened desperate to get free "Why haven't you grown?" she jested and it seemed to aggravate Ciel. Sebastian couldn't help but chuckle and that was unfortunate because it cased Madam Reds attention to shift to him. "And who might this handsome man be?" She smiled at Sebastian still not releasing Ciel.
Sebastian smiled at her and said charmingly "how rude of me to not introduce myself, my name is Sebastian."
"Wow Ciel where did you find him?" Finally letting go of the boy he straitened his clothes and looked at his aunt then Sebastian "He's my new servant."
She smiled and looked back at Ciel. "Your mother requested that I check your health while I'm here."
Ciel sighed in annoyance "I'm fine auntie." It was pleasing to hear Ciel address his aunt in such a childish manner but Sebastian knew why he was saying it; the boy was trying to manipulate her to get what he wanted and that was for her to leave the subject of his health. At this point Sebastian was wondering if Ciel was ill when he was younger. He remembered Rachel saying his nose bleeds started when he was four years of age and that's the same age when Ciel stated his eyes changed color.
"Sorry kiddo, you're not getting out of this one, you know how stressed your mother gets."
Madam red grabbed the chair from Ciel's desk and placed it in the middle of the room. "Sit there, I need to go get my bag." She then looked and the raven haired man "Make sure he doesn't try to escape. He has a tendency to try and avoid these things." Sebastian nodded in understanding and she left the room.
Ciel sighed in submission and sat on the wooden chair. The room was filled with silence until Sebastian broke it.
"Young master?"
"Hm?"
"Are you ill?"
Ciel looked at the older male and thought of his response before he spoke "I have asthma."
The boy said it so nonchalant like it wasn't anything important but this was vital information, hundreds of people died a year because of asthma and there was no cure for it. "Why didn't you tell me that sooner?"
"I'm telling you now."
"Master if you were to have an attack and I was unaware-"
"Then I would have died. I know Sebastian but I haven't had an attack in over a year."
Something was wrong; Ciel was hiding something from him but what was it? Before he could question the teen more the woman dressed in red returned carrying a medical bag. "You know the drill Ciel, take off your shirt." Ciel only looked at Sebastian and he obediently complied careful taking off the boy's shirt. The teen looked uncomfortable but it was most likely due to being in a vulnerable and exposed state in front of someone other than Sebastian.
Anne pulled out her stethoscope from her bag and she started to check the boys heart rate "Your mother told me you had another nose bleed yesterday?"
"Yes, it wasn't as bad as she plays it out to be."
"In the city I've been doing some research with my patients who also have asthma, I found that out of ten, one will have nose bleeds randomly. We're not sure if its tied to asthma just yet but it's a possibility."
Lady Anne switched the stethoscope to Ciel's back to listen to his lungs while she instructed him to breathe in and out. Sebastian thought this a perfect time to ask the red lady about Ciel's asthma.
"if I may ask, what would be the best thing to do in the event of an attack?"
She seemed confused as to why Sebastian wouldn't know already considering he was always by the young boy's side, "well, normally if he has a small attack giving him strong coffee should work. However, if its serious he will need his medication and you will have to burn nitre paper in the room so he can breathe that in."
"he has medication?"
"Ciel why didn't you tell him?" She glared at her nephew and he responded by shrugging but was clearly embarrassed Sebastian was finding out some of his weaknesses.
"He takes Laudanum. If you ever need to find it; it should be in his night stand."
He nodded letting her continue to examine the frail boy, Sebastian couldn't help let his mind wonder. Laudanum was a strong drug and it made him uncomfortable that someone as young as Ciel was taking it.
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Hello again,
I just wanted to thank everyone that stayed with me throughout this story and those of you who also read my other story that is also part of this one.
I'm starting to think this story will be longer then Dark Dreams was because I'm mapping out Ciel and Sebastian's bond. I want it to be in depth.
