"How did you find out about this place?" Alois asked after Ciel had finished reading him the rest of the book; it was late in the afternoon and the fall air had started to become chilly. He rolled over onto his back and put his hood up over his head before resting it gently back in the bluenette's lap. Ciel placed the book to the side of him and stared down into those crystal blue orbs of the older male.
"My mother used to bring me here a lot when I was a child; I like coming here on my free time because it reminds me of her. Sometimes when my father would have off work he'd come with us and we'd have a family picnic together." Ciel said, a small smile coming across his expression at remembering his childhood.
"That must have been fun." Alois said, twirling the string from his sleeveless hoodie around his slim fingers. He didn't have any fond memories of him and his family spending time together; the only time he could think of was when his mother would home school him and his younger brother while their father was out on business.
"It was. Did you do anything like that when your parents were alive?" Ciel asked curiously, hoping he could get out why Alois hated his parents so much.
"Nope. I hated them why would I spend time with them?" The blonde retorted, turning his head away to watch the branches that surrounded them move with the gentle wind. A small sigh escaped Ciel's lips as he reached over into the basket and grabbed one of the sugar cookies Sebastian had packed for them.
"Alois…why do you despise your parents so much? What could they have possibly done to make you hate them so much; even after they have passed?" Ciel asked curiously, bringing the cookie to his lips and taking a small bite out of the sweet substance. Alois was quiet for a while, trying to swallow down the lump that had formed in his throat so he could talk.
"I don't want to talk about it…can we just sit here quietly for a while?" Alois said finally, turning his head back up to stare up at the younger boy. Ciel just nodded in response and leaned back against the tree trunk; he could see Alois really didn't want to talk about it and he didn't want to be the one to make the boy depressed and cry again…he couldn't stand to see Alois when he cries.
After a while of sitting close to each other Alois sat up and put back on his boots which he had kicked off earlier. He stood back up to his feet and stretched his tired muscles, grinning down at the bluenette who had fallen asleep in their bliss.
"Come on sleeping beauty, time to wake up." The blonde giggled, nudging Ciel in the side with his foot. A low, irritated growl came from the other as he opened his one uncovered eye to look up at Alois.
"It's almost dark, we better head home now."Alois said, reaching a hand out towards Ciel to help him back to his feet. Once they had packed up all the picnic stuff they pushed through the limp branches and started back down the path towards home. They walked in silence for a while, enjoying the light breeze and occasional hoots of nocturnal birds.
"So Ciel…thanks for taking me here, I really enjoyed coming. It was nice to get away from town and just relax for a while." Alois said, one of his very rare smiles starting to appear across his face. Once Ciel saw this he couldn't help but smile a bit too; he had never seen Alois smile like that before…he really liked it.
"No problem, we could visit here every day if you want. We can come after school and on the weekends. When it gets warmer we could camp out here if you like." Alois's smile widened when he heard the suggestions.
"That sounds fun; it's much better than staying in that dusty old manner with stupid Claude who doesn't even give me the time of day." Alois grumbled, that sweet smile of his fading to a frown as he kicked a rock down the path in anger.
Once they got to the gate of Alois's manor they stood there for a while in silence, not really knowing how to part from each other.
"I don't want to go home; I'll just be in my room alone all night. I hate that." Alois mumbled, not realizing he had just said his thoughts out loud.
"Do you want me to sleep over? I don't have any plans for tonight either." Ciel suggested, actually hoping the blonde would agree to it. Alois thought for a moment before that rare smile returned to his expression.
"Yea! Go home and get all your stuff ready, then you can come right over!" Alois said happily, glad that he wasn't going to spend this night alone like he had spent many others.
"Are you going somewhere my lord?" Sebastian asked, standing in the doorway of the young earl's bedroom as he watched him pack a small duffle bag with clothes and his toothbrush.
"I'm going to be spending the night at Alois's house; he seemed to need the company." Ciel answered, going to his bookshelf and trying to decide on what book to bring.
"That's nice of you; after all he's been threw he could use a friend about now." Ciel took down one of his favorite classical books and stuffed it into the bag.
"What do you mean by that? What happened to him?" Ciel asked, zipping up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He watched as his butler tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"He didn't tell you what happened? Seeing how close you two were becoming I would have thought he would have told you what happened to him when he was a child." A long sigh escaped the demon's lips before he leaned his side against the door frame, knowing his master was going to be curious about the story.
"Alois's father was an evil, cold hearted man. He would mercilessly beat Alois when he was a child along with his mother and younger brother Luka. Although his mother was very loving to Alois and his brother she would never protect them against their father's beating. When Alois was seven his mother committed suicide and since his father didn't want to pay for a cemetery plot he just had her buried in their garden. I don't think Alois ever forgave her for leaving him that way. Now this is just a rumor, but I've heard that not to long after their mother's death Luka was strangled to death by his own father and was buried next to his mother. Even though Alois's father insisted he died of a terrible flu, he would not let any medical personnel take a look at the child's body to see if his story was true." Ciel's eye had gotten so wide from his butler's words they looked like they were about to pop out of his head.
"That's…that's just horrible…" Ciel whispered, Sebastian just shook his head in response.
"That's not the worst part. When Alois had just turned ten his father started forcibly using him for sexual purposes, and continued to abuse him to points where he would cough up blood and almost die. When Alois was almost thirteen his father suddenly died of a heart attack, so he had lost the last family member in his life. That's when he was taken by Claude and now they live together in the manor he grew up in." Ciel's hands went into fists at hearing what had happened to his new friend, the abuse he has taken all these years.
"If people knew about all this…why didn't they do anything to help him?!" Ciel growled angrily, almost shaking with rage.
"Nobody knew about it, the only people who know about this are Claude and me…and now you as well. Please do not spread this information to your fellow students; it will most likely not turn out well." Sebastian sighed, feeling pity for the poor child. Ciel backed up and sat down on the edge of the bed, still trying to let all the information sink in.
"Alois seems perfectly fine when I'm with him, shouldn't he be really mentally messed up by all this?" Ciel asked after a while.
"Believe it or not he has a few serious mental problems that he hides extremely well, we haven't seen these in him for a few weeks but we're still keeping a close eye on him. He's cut himself before and also attempted suicide a few times, trying to hang himself or drown himself in the bathtub. He's even tried to shoot himself in the head but the maid who works for him stopped him before he could. For some reason he's very disappointed in his appearance so he refuses to eat most of the time so he stays skinny. He's been hospitalized about two or three times for it. Alois also has violent mood swings where one moment he can be extremely hyper and happy when the next he can be ready to throw himself off a cliff." Ciel stayed silent for a while after that, repeating the words Sebastian had said to him in his head over and over again. He suddenly stood back up and slung his bag over his shoulder.
"I'm going to Alois's now." Ciel said, pushing past the older male and running out of his manor as fast as his legs would carry him.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. As you know the holidays are next week but that also means I'll be on vacation from school so I might do a few updates that week~ I know this chapter was somewhat OOC you don't need to flame me for it because I know it is. But ya know, helpful tips and reviews are always welcome. I'm very sick so sorry if this chapter isn't very good, I tried my best. Thanks for reading! Please review, favorite, and alert~