This story contains a slash pairing (shonen-ai, yaoi). There won't be anything to flip pancakes over like crazy, but please proceed with caution.
Warning: I do not own Kuroshitsuji! It all belongs to the amazing Yana Toboso.
A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone for being patient with me. Especially those who have gone through with reading the old version of this story (Which was, what I call it: The terrible version. It was so horrendous it still gives me shivers)
Thank God I went through the trouble of changing the point of view, and some scenes. So, yeah. Thank you to all who silently read, those who favorite, and those who review! I love you all! I also wish to thank my Beta-Reader for editing all my chapters! Thanks Ravenwood316.
Note June 25, 2012: I have changed the previous character Victoria to Angela.Yes, Angela! I came up with a huge plot twist the other day. I changed her appearance in Chapter 9, just so you guys know! Her character will be crucial to the plot later on!
Enjoy Chapter 10!
Chapter 10~
"You have a lot of explaining to do Ciel Phantomhive!" The angered mother stood firm above the child as she spoke.
"When did you think it would be fine to disregard my exact instructions? I told you, not to go out. And yet you disobeyed me!"
"But mother-"
"I'm not done speaking Ciel!" The boy stared at the floor pensively, trying to think of an innocent excuse to tell her. He could not let her find out he had seen her at the diner with that mysterious man. He couldn't even tell her that he himself was with a man.
"Where in the world were you?" she asked, "My goodness child, you're soaking wet!" The woman handed Ciel a small towel to dry his hair. Ciel placed it around his neck and let the water soak into the towel.
"You know what, get yourself cleaned up first. I don't want you to catch a cold. Then, we'll talk! Don't think you're getting past this one Ciel! I've been spoiling you for far too long." Rachael walked out of her child's room without another word and shut the door behind her.
'Where could that boy have gone? To meet a girl perhaps. Ciel? In love?' Rachel turned around to face the door she just closed a few moments ago. 'But Vincent already made the arrangements with Aunt France's daughter.' The woman walked down the stairs, wondering who could have caught her son's attention. 'This is very bad.' she thought.
In his room, Ciel stared at the door in a trance before walking to the bathroom drowsily. The boy sighed, pulling up his soaking wet sweater over his head and dropped it on the marble floor. He tossed away his shoes and peeled off his white socks. Ciel squeezed and twisted his shirt and pants, trying to get as much water out of them.
The boy stared at himself through the foggy mirror. He removed his eye patch and opened his right eye carefully. The eye had become more, and more irritated over the course of the years.
Ciel hated it; the bloody, red veins and the peculiar blue pupil. He thought it was a disgusting sight and would constantly complain about it to his mother.
The only thing she could do was send him to a surgeon or let the boy wear an eye patch. Surgery at his age would be a dangerous task so she refused on letting him go through it. Ciel covered his eye with his hand and then removed it, comparing how it looked from his left eye. He finally sighed, removed all of his remaining clothing from his body and stepped nimbly into the icy, cold shower.
Ciel cringed when the water hit his skin but soon became used to it. A shower had never felt so good to him. He began to scratch his head into a lather with shampoo, paying special attention to the roots.
He sighed in relief as the now mild water cascaded down his slender shoulders, mingling with the soap. Ciel stood still under the shower when the thought of Mr. Michaelis crossed his mind.
He grabbed the blue sponge and scrubbed his hands vigorously. The boy noticed Mr. Michaelis would always like to touch him there for some unknown reason. And to Ciel, that was one of the worst and most delicate of places; his hands.
Over the past weeks, Ciel still couldn't comprehend Mr. Michaelis' actions and his own feelings towards him. He hung the sponge on the hook placed on the wall and started to run his fingers though his wet hair, combing all the difficult knots out.
'Angela. Mr. Michaelis & Angela? She seems different than most people. Wearing so much white tones. She has the same style of Mr. Landers. Siblings perhaps. Mr. Michaelis must really like her. Maybe even love her...' The boy suddenly realized he was showing signs of jealousy towards the woman. Ciel mentally slapped himself and shook his head.
"Idiot." he mused out loud.
After a long period of time, Ciel finally emerged, still wet, from the shower and started to dry himself up with the blue towel. He starts to dress in clean clothing. Droplets of water dripped slowly from his hair, onto his nightshirt. The boy once again, stops to gaze at the reflection in the mirror.
Nothing had changed. Blue hair, plain face, one blue eye and the other bloodshot. Just staring at the eye made him teary eyed. Nothing could ever wash away his plainness.
'Why would Mr. Michaelis ever be interested in someone like me?'
The next thing Ciel knew, he woke up in a pool of his own drool on his desk and the sound of his alarm clock pounding in his ear. Still drowsy, he waits for his eyes to adjust to the brightness. He stares at the red, neon numbers on the digital clock and falls from his chair, onto the floor.
"Shit! I'm late!" Ciel stumbled to put on his blue, polo shirt and shorts on while getting his book bag ready.
The boy slammed the bathroom door open and stuck his toothbrush inside his mouth. He nearly screamed when he looked at himself in the mirror. His tie was undone and his hair looked like a tornado had passed through it.
He touched the tips of his hair and notices it was still moist. He hadn't dried his hair and was going to catch a cold.
He cleans his teeth with one hand and attempted to comb his hair with the other. Several hair yanks later, he gave up and frizzed up his hair even more out of frustration. His right eye was as irritated and bloodshot as always.
He couldn't find his eye patch anywhere. He rummaged through his drawers and emptied out bags. Ciel gave up on his search quickly and ran out of the bathroom without it. The boy bolted out of the room and slipped into his shoes as he opened the front door.
Hoping onto the porch, the spring air made him sneeze uncontrollably. He was right; he was going to catch a cold.
Ciel looked at his watch and started to run for it. He had exactly four minutes and thirty seconds to run across London, into Merryweather High School, and up to room 666 or suffer the wrath of Mr. Michaelis.
It seemed like the staircase never seemed to end for Ciel. He ran up the main stairwell, jumping and skipping two stairs at a time. Once he reached the third floor, he turned a corner and quickly looked for his homeroom.
'I've been in this school for more than a month and I still can't manage to find my class!'
Finally reaching the room of hell, the boy turned the door knob and stepped inside. A cold breeze from the air conditioner hit his face and the smell of morning sweat was in the air.
Sitting down on his desk, sat Mr. Michaelis, grading papers as always. The teacher put down his red pen and raised his head to look at Ciel.
"You are fifteen minutes late Mr. Phantomhive." Mr. Michaelis said as he wrote tardy under the name Ciel Phantomhive in his notebook.
"Please see me after class so we can have a..." he paused and looked at Ciel's terrible figure.
"A small discussion. You may take your seat." Mr. Michaelis smirks, points at the boy and then towards his seat with his favorite ruler.
Some students laughed out loud, while others covered their mouths when they noticed the ever so fancy, Ciel Phantomhive, walking in with tangled hair, a bloodshot eye, and his tie undone.
"Pfft. What the hell happened to you? You look like a homeless boy. A poor, little homeless boy," Alois chuckled. Ciel covered his infected eye with his unruly bangs before anyone noticed and decide to make fun of him for his eye as well.
'They all probably think it's disgusting!'
"Alois, settle down! Stop making fun of Ciel. Or would you like me go on a rant about you hair?" Mr. Michaelis teased him. Making the class turn to laugh at him instead. Alois gave the teacher a displeased look and turned to face the board.
"Anyways," the history teacher straightened out his glasses.
"The lesson for today revolves around dictators and tyrants in history around the world. I would like each of you to make an essay on any dictator you want. This project will count as thirty percent of your grade for the first semester."
Students started to murmur around each other, complaining about such a large portion of their grade focused on one single project.
"Thirty percent?" Ciel said out loud accidentally.
'Why? I'm trying not to gain any attention right now and I had to open my big mouth!'
"Problem?" Mr. Michaelis asked bluntly.
"I- I'm sorry. I mean, no. There's no problem with anything." Ciel nervously said when he saw everyone had their eyes glued on him.
"Well then. Just do as I say and you will receive a good grade. A bright student like you should have no problem with something so easy, correct?" he asks.
"Yeah. I mean. I'll be fine..."
"Then if there are no further questions, we shall continue the lesson,"
After all the students had left, the classroom was only occupied by the aloof student and the malicious teacher. Ciel could hear the teacher's chair grind against the floorboard, his footsteps become nearer.
He looks up to see the history teacher leaning over his desk in the ever so familiar way, signature smirk present.
"You didn't ask for me to stay after class to have a 'discussion' with me did you?" the boy asks. He shakes his head and places a single digit on Ciel's forehead.
The slender finger sliders to the left and he lifts his bangs to reveal the eye that is usually covered by an eye patch. Ciel grabs the man's wrist with his small hand and pushes it away, his hair concealing the eye once again.
"That seems infected," he says forcefully pulling his hair up to observe the bloodshot eye closely.
"I know. I use eye drops to keep it from getting this irritated but I was late for class. I didn't have the time." he says it like it is all Mr. Michaelis's fault. And in a way, it really was. If Ciel didn't have History with such an angry teacher right in the morning, he would have had more time to take care of his eye.
"Well I have some medication in the back. I could help you apply It." he smiles. Before Ciel could object to the offer, the teacher disappeared into the closet. He could hear the clattering of objects and he curiously steps in.
Mr. Michaelis was looking through a white cabinet, rummaging through countless of pills, ointments, and liquids. The closet consisted of a large table in the center, many dusty cabinets filled with random supplies surrounding the room, piles of books in floor, boxes, and the dim light above which flickered on and off constantly.
"Aha. Here we go!" Mr. Michaelis held a small bottle of liquid in his hands.
"Sit here." he tapped the edge of the table. Ciel silently obliged and hoped on. The table felt cold against shorts.
"Why is all this stuff here?" the boy asked. Mr. Michaelis shook the small bottle several times.
"Oh, the medications? This actually used to be a nurse's office. Principal Landers said there had been an incident with the nurse so they fired her. Currently, the nurse's room is on the first floor."
"Why did they fire her?"
Mr. Michaelis shrugged.
"I wasn't here when that happened. Landers had mentioned that the woman was rather delusional. Always ranting about purity and cleanliness. That is all he told me." Ciel wondered who this woman was and about this incident that happened.
"Well enough of that. Your eye must be aching like crazy." Mr. Michaelis placed his right hand onto Ciel's shoulder and placed his body rather close to him.
"Okay. This might hurt quite a bit. More like a lot." he sounded like doctor instead of a teacher. He moved his hand from the boy's shoulder onto his cheek.
"You do know I could do this myself." Ciel said. The palm of Mr. Michaelis' hand rested on his cheek slightly pulled his eye wider.
"You should be grateful I'm helping you Phantomhive." He finally placed the bottle over the boy's eye. It hovered over him until a single drop entered his eye. Ciel's vision blurred as several more droplets fell.
Stinging tears started to drip down his cheek, onto Mr. Michaelis' palm and sliding down onto the table.
"Crap. It burns!" he yells, attempting to cover his eye to soothe the pain.
"It's ok. It's over, see." Mr. Michaelis removes the boy's hand and replaces it with his own. He slowly blew air into his eye which made the pain subside.
He stares at him for a moment and steps back.
"I hope that will make you feel better." Mr. Michaelis says as he puts back the medication.
"I'll get going then." Ciel said stepping out of the closet and holding his bag.
"You are right. I shouldn't keep you here all day, you have to go to library to do your research paper." he says walking behind the boy.
Ciel quickly walked towards the door and into the hallway. He looks back at the door to see Mr. Michaelis smiling at him through the window.
The boy felt his cheeks starting to burn. The teacher waved at him as Ciel stomped off, heading for the stairs.
Mr. Michaelis kept his smile until he couldn't see the boy anymore. It quickly changed into a frown. Turning on the heel of his shoe, he walked out of his classroom and headed for the office.
The young Phantomhive wandered throughout the aisles, scanning the bookshelves for the subject he was looking for. He comes across several novels he has read in his younger years. Many classic favorites.
'Many of these are children's books compared to my fluency level.'
Coming from the back shelves, he could hear small giggles from a young girl. High-pitched and clearly annoying. Ciel removes a random book off a shelf and starts to investigate, walking slowly toward the scene.
'It sounds so familiar. Like that one girl-'
Ciel turns the corner of the aisle to see none other than his cousin sitting on the floor like a doll. She had her golden, blonde hair pulled up into pig tails that curled perfectly. Her uniform was styled to her liking. It followed the school code but it had been decorated with various buttons, flowers and colorful strings.
"Elizabeth!" he yells dropping the book onto the floor. The girl turns her head and screams at the top of her lungs.
"Ciel!" She throws her own book on the floor and tackles Ciel onto the floor. Students in the library tell the two to be quiet.
'She hasn't matured one bit.'
"Elizabeth. What the hell are you doing here?" Ciel says through gritted teeth.
"I was-" Ciel covers her mouth and leads her outside of the library. Her voice could not be silenced no matter how much she tried to lower her voice.
Once they were in the hallway, Ciel removed his hand from her mouth.
"Okay. You were saying?"
"Well, my mom said we were moving to London a week ago. She said I was going to attend school with you. I was so excited to finally see you after all these years! I don't really get it though. I thought you would be in a private school..." she said.
"I thought that as well. My parents have been acting so weird lately!" he says wondering if Elizabeth has a similar experience with her own family.
"Oh, Ciel!" Elizabeth embraced her cousin tightly once again.
"How I've missed you! You're still so short, cute and cuddly!" she squeezes his cheeks and stretches them out.
"Elizabeth. Elizabeth! You're killing me!" Ciel was being crushed by the petite yet strong hands of Elizabeth.
"Sorry." She smiled.
"And you should call me Lizzy. You used to do that when we were younger!" she pouted.
"As you might have noticed, we are older now."
"We're just freshmen silly!"
Ring! Ring! The bell rang signaling the next period was starting.
"Well I'll see you around Ciel! Bye, bye!" And with that she skipped away happily, her curly pig tails bouncing with every hop.
Older pupils stared at the overly cheerful girl scamper by their lockers. They turned to see Ciel waving goodbye awkwardly.
"Bye. I guess." Ciel said.
'She didn't tell me why she moved here, though...'
A/N: This is a re-edit/re-written version of this chapter. Thank you for your patience and support.
~Madeline Von Rose~