It was another alley, another familiar row of homes, which looked like the other shacks across the street. But these, these were where she had laid her head for so many years, so many years ago. She turned and looked at Sebastian, now a bit dirty yet still regal in his streaked face. She wondered if she too looked as refined as he did, or if she was just sinking back into what she knew.

"Mey-Rin?"

She shook her head and slipped the glasses off her head, placing them back into her cloak pocket, hidden and safe. "That is the house. George may still be doing his dealings out of there. But he may have gotten wise and moved."

"So a good chance he is still there," Sebastian said, amused. "He didn't strike me as a smart criminal."

She laughed. "No, but he knew better than to get caught," she said bitterly. She shook her head. "The past is never as far in the past as we wish."

"No, not when we have to face it."

Mey-Rin sighed and turned and walked down the road, away from the house, dilapidated and in need of a good scrubbing. Like it always was. Like all the other houses. A working neighborhood ran by the underworld, which she had learned quickly enough once she calmed and accepted her new life, her young master effortlessly ruled to keep them in line. Earl Ciel Phantomhive was a broken child, like she was, but was also strong in his desire to keep order and lashed out in mighty revenge when that order was toppled. She loved her master with all her heart; she understood each of his emotions perfectly.

"Are we going shopping?" Sebastian asked as they entered one of the pop-up markets that sat between the homes, in the open spaces large enough for five or more stands to squeeze together.

"I don't know what to do next," she said quietly. "I don't want to be seen by George, or Anthony again." She turned and looked up at him, towering over her by eight inches. "I don't know why I am here."

He took her arms and steadied the shaking fear that was creeping up. "My Lady, you are here to put your past to rest. Once. And. For. All."

There was a dangerous tone and edge to his voice and Mey-Rin sank into it. She wanted his rage, his calm smile, his certainty. She laid her head on his chest and nodded. "Yes, Mister Sebastian," she muttered. "I am the strong woman you think I am."

"Yes, yes you are," he said, once more kissing the top of her head. She blushed, wishing now for that kiss to be on her lips, securing his strength in her to herself.

"A little shopping and it will be mid-day. I know the house will be empty for the boys will be going down to Turners for food."

Sebastian nodded. He let her lead him around the small market and left her back across the street to put their items into the cart he had hidden outside the neighborhood. She had not questioned how he could make it to the cart so fast, she knew he could. And so she waited, behind a pile of trash, eyes on the front door as it opened and out stepped George, his eye still visibly blackened, and Davis hovered in the doorway as well. She swallowed. Davis was missing a hand and he was still angry looking. She closed her eyes and tried to think of the good, the pleasant, not the way his breath was on her body, his hands, touching.

"My dear," Sebastian said, pulling her to his body and wrapping a light hand over her mouth as she squeaked. "You are safe in my arms."

She tried to not let the panic get her as she replayed that same phrase in each of the man's voices as she watched them filter out and become the mob across the street. She was safe in Sebastian's arms. Only in his arms. She turned and hid her face, feeling like the small child who had first been shoved out of her fathers house and into the arms of the very men who had said they would protect her.

"I can't… Sebastian, I can't…"

He tilted her head up and looked at her, his eyes both hard and soft. "Mey, you have done so many things that you should be ashamed of, but Mey-Rin is stronger than all that. You have spent four years gathering your strength and becoming the woman those men," he spat, "took away from you as a small child. You are not helpless. Let me be your strength when you need it."

"I couldn't possibly -"

"I may be the butler of the Phantomhive Manor, and servant to the Earl, but right now, I am a man who wishes to help you defeat your enemies as I do the young masters." His eyes flared and she saw the passion in his eyes even as it was in his voice. "Let today be your stand. Let today be when everyone knows you as Mey-Rin - the dignified little warrior who will burn them down."

Mey-Rin surprised herself by reaching up and pulling his beautiful face down, letting her lips dance over his before she felt his hand cup the back of her head and he moved her into a kiss. A kiss she had dreamed of. With a man she had never thought would exist. With the handsome man who would never hurt her, never leave her, never judge her.

She kissed her knight in shining armor.