Hey guys! Thank you so much for following and commenting and just liking this little tale. There are a few more chapters - don't fret! - and I still have my epic!fic - Danny Hyde - in it's 4th (of 7) installments... but I will try to conjure the muse and have her give me more cute!fic... I think the Feelings series may have a few more installments to still be posted as well... anyhow. Just thank you guys! And never hesitate to ask for a request... I can usually kick the muse into submission when there is a deadline.

Enjoy!

The air was still and the moon was bright. Mey-Rin used her scope to watch the horizon while Finny and Bard checked the stashes of guns and brought up the cases of bullets. Tanaka was placing needed food and water stations along the large roof and Ciel quietly stood and scowled. He had received already a few more Reapers, some were excited to tear into the demons, and didn't care a lick about that Sebastian was one of them. They camped on the outsides of the walls, making their destained for Sebastian known as much as Ronald Knox seemed to.

And there were a few defected demons, who offered up to protect the Manor, and Sebastian, because they had found homes, happiness even, among the humans as he had, and this, this calling him back, this questioning him on his lack of souls he had in his grasp yet did not turn over, had them worried as well.

Some now stalked the roof, their forms shivering in the night, making Mey-Rin glance in curiosity at them, laying awake in her bed, sometimes sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at where the perfectly pressed black suit used to hang, wondered. About what Sebastian looked like - what he shivered into, what form was he really. How he would come and be presented to them? Would he be hurt like the master? Would he stride in and claim the Phantomhive staff, deliver them to his family?

"Mey-Rin, you need to calm," Bard said getting up and moving toward her. "You are flittering around like a bird whose cage is too tight."

"It is," she muttered. Bard and Finny didn't know anything about her falling for the butler. She didn't know when or how to even tell them. They all were fighting to keep the master safe; she was also privately fighting to have her beloved back. Their master was fighting to have his Butler, his… demon… back. She looked up and the moon shined around her, flooding her mind and clearing it. "Mister Sebastian is something that isn't us. He is something… more. Those who are gathering are also more. And… they know the cost. The cost is us putting the demons who come with Mister Sebastian, the ones who took the master, down. Down to the ground to never get back up because they are strong, Baldroy. They are stronger than us, stronger than what we have faced."

"The Manor is falling around us, isn't it?"

She shook her head a bit. "No, not as long as we stand and we do our jobs - or real, true jobs. You - assess and plan. Finny - you destroy and take them down as they come into the gardens. I will take them out with my weapons given to me by Mister Sebastian. I suspect they are more than simple guns, so Bard, you too will have some. I have placed them along the second and third floor windows. A trigger is in the hallway, and in the sand below in the garden." Bard lifted an eyebrow. "I am an assassin, Baldroy - a lady would not know such ways to maim and kill a man in such gruesome ways."

"Thank you for not carving me up like a Christmas goose," he said lightly. He lit his cigarette and eyed her. "You have more in mind than just defending the Manor, eh?"

She smiled and walked past him. "I have a home, a family, to defend. A ladies job is to do that. A wise demon of a man told me so."

The crackle in the air, the way the air shined and smelled… Mey-Rin glanced around and saw the movements of those coming to aid them, change. The way they moved seemed to be more determined. Tanaka's head snapped up and he met her gaze as he and the master walked. It was as if they were watching the storm coming in, far away at first, but now the clouds were gathering, and soon the night would be welcoming with a raging storm. One the whole gatherings would be ready for. Had been ready for for the past week since the master came home suddenly. She gripped the ledge and looked down into the garden, her glasses now never on, her sharp eyes taking in each movement, each shadow, each creature. Something was happening that was different, something would happen tonight.

She glided down the stairs and stole into Sebastian's room. She opened the chest and took out his tailcoat and best pants. She laid them gently on the bed and slid her thumb over his shined shoes, laying them on the bed, beside the pressed garments. Mey-Rin smiled; he would come home and find his staff, his family, waiting and eager to welcome him back. She stole next down the hall, to her room and took out the cream gown, now ready for her. And she for it. She slipped quickly out of her maids uniform, unneeded and unwarranted. She was a lady, waiting.

Waiting to meet her Master, her heart, home from an unknown battle field. Ready to fight for him, die for him. And ready to be embraced openly, and kissed as all could finally view the lovers, see the sprouting of two hearts entwined, even as Sebastian's last fiery kiss had promised. She touched her lips, so cold for so long, and looked at herself in the mirror. She was different.

Mey-Rin turned up the lantern and stood in the pool of moonlight that filtered in from the high window. She smoothed the fine silk bodices and the short sleeves that had tiny ribbons on it. She smiled and piled her hair up, pinning it, trying to tame her curls and finally failed to do a proper up-do, and had half of it cascading down her back. The skirts were loose, and she easily fitted herself with her hidden gun holsters, and even quickly fashioned her ribbons from her undergarments to pull the skirts up, letting her have free range to run as needed. She smiled; surely Sebastian had thought of that as well. And she stood, her legs clad in her usual black stockings, her gun holster holding them up, and her silk ribbons tied in a dainty and tight bow above the fine silk. The contrast of her profession as a trained killer, sharp eyes, and sharp tongue and the beauty and elegance of a proper Lady's dress, made Mey-Rin feel powerful.

"Power, corrupts," she muttered. As she turned she flashed a devilish smile at her image and winked. "Absolutely."