"Explain this to me again, Ciel. Where are we going?"
"I've told you seven times already, we're going to the zoo." Ciel sighed.
"And why are we going..."
"A case! We have a case, no, I have a case to investigate there."
"What kind of..."
"It's none of your business!" he snapped at the prince. He was already frustrated with that stupid case (which really didn't require much thought), he was worried about what Alois might have done to Sebastian (if he had actually managed to kidnap him at all, which he sort of doubted was within the lowly child's ability), and now Soma, with his repetitive questioning, was getting on the edge of his last nerve. By the time they got to the front gate of the zoo, this conversation had repeated itself eleven times, and Ciel's face was bright red with anger as he tried to keep from screaming. The earl stormed through the gates of the London Zoo, grumbling non-words to himself as he walked past the ticket booth before his two companions could follow.
"Hey! You there, come back! You have to pay to get in you know!" hollered the teller, as he scrambled out of his booth to chase after the boy. When he caught up, he grabbed the child by the shoulder. "You need to –."
"Don't touch me so easily!" screamed Ciel, causing the man to let him go in shock... only to follow him again, since he still hadn't paid his admission.
"It's only five pounds, c'mon I can take it right now you don't have to worry about going back to the front..." he tried, but of course Ciel didn't listen. He was not here to stare at animals, and he refused to pay because some idiot had sold his property to an insane child with an insect for a butler! He managed to reach Sebastian's habitat without being touched again by the teller, who was unsure whether he should continue pursuing the boy and risk being screamed at again, or just let him go (clearly the more sane decision).
Apparently, Alois had in fact managed to get Sebastian. There were several workers around, disassembling the habitat, one of whom spotted the young earl and went bug-eyed. Ciel stared blankly at the man, waiting for him to stop looking at him like an idiot and come over to explain why his butler was no longer there. Eventually he did come over, shuffling over slowly and keeping his eyes averted.
"What happened to my demon?" he asked, as calmly as possible.
The zookeeper scuffed his foot against the ground, making little clouds of dust form around his feet. "I'm so so sorry Earl Ciel Phantomhive." he said, so quickly that his words slurred into each other. "I... I forgot to send the letter... I have it! Here, here it is, please take it, I'm so so sorry." He took out a slightly crumpled envelope from his pocket and handed it to Ciel. "I'm sorry you were so worried."
Ciel ripped the letter out of the zookeeper's hand and tore through the envelope, tossing it on the ground and stamping the Trancy seal into the dust as he read:
Dear Earl Ciel Phantomhive,
On behalf of Earl Alois Trancy I write you today to inform you that the House of Trancy is currently in possession of your butler, Sebastian Michaelis. I apologize for any possible inconvenience that this may have caused to you, and assure you that he is safely in the care of
There, the letter turned into less of a letter and more of a giant ink blot, followed by the poorly scribbled words 'Ha ha, you'll never find him!' and a crude drawing of what was presumably a decapitated crow. It was nice to see that Alois was as mature and sane as ever.
"Thank you." he said to the zookeeper, folding the letter and putting it into his pocket. So that gave him no new information whatsoever, or at least none that he could use. Did the Trancy boy expect him to go on a wild goose chase across England in search of his missing butler? He certainly didn't have time for something like that, he had already wasted a few days on that case, he was going to be swamped with paperwork by the end of the week. He was beginning to understand why Sebastian was always so whiny when he got kidnapped by drug lords, it truly was a pain.
"I suppose you wouldn't know at all where Alois Trancy has taken my demon, would you? He didn't say anything regarding that, did he?"
The zookeeper shook his head. "He said that all the details would be in the letter."
Ciel scoffed and turned his back to the zookeeper, heading toward the main gate (with the teller still following about ten feet behind, just in case). Well, that hadn't solved anything. He was just as lost as when he had arrived, and about ten times as irritated. Sebastian was going to be in so much trouble once he got him back; how dare he let himself get kidnapped!
He saw Agni and Soma looking at the zebras (or rather, Agni was looking and Soma was flailing around trying to get their attention) and went over to them to inform them that they had to leave to investigate. Not that he knew how that was going to happen of course. It was going to be nearly impossible to transport Sebastian back to the original zoo without Soma or Agni noticing that he was a demon. There would be questions, lots of questions and it was possible that he would have to explain more than he wanted to. However, this was his only hope of getting Sebastian back safely.
"Agni." he said, voice serious to get his complete attention. The man turned to him, concerned as he waited for his orders. "We have to leave."
"Why is that, Master Ciel?" he asked, noticing right away that something was clearly very wrong. "What has happened?"
Ciel sighed, crushing the useless letter in his fist. How was he going to explain this to them? "It appears we have come to the wrong zoo..." he began, a look of mild confusion crossing the butler's face.
"What zoo do you need to investigate, Master Ciel?" he asked, becoming increasingly curious as to what exactly the boy needed to look into. A zoo was certainly a strange place for a crime to occur, but clearly Ciel had no say in what he had to investigate and where.
"I not can't say for sure." Ciel answered, sighing again as he tried opened the crumpled letter and tried to decipher what had been written before that noxious child destroyed it. He even turned it over to see if possibly the writing had caused an indentation but unfortunately Claude's writing was so light and careful that it was perfectly flat on the other side. And also perfectly useless.
"We will simply need to travel to every zoo in the area." Ciel stated, adding "Not because we are going on any sort of 'best friend zoo hopping adventure', 'surprise half birthday trip' or anything to do with 'brother detectives'!" he snapped before Soma could decide to dub his investigation any of the above. Soma frowned at this declaration, trudging away from the zebra cage and pouting beside Agni. It was disappointing that he wouldn't get a trip with his friend, but this time it was clear that Ciel was very serious.
"... What is it you are looking for, Master Ciel?" Agni asked, his curiosity finally taking over. He hadn't been nearly this serious last time, it was very unusual indeed.
Ciel didn't answer right away. He looked over the letter one more time, just to make completely sure that nothing there could be used to lead them to Sebastian. He didn't have to tell them about everything, it was his right to maintain some level of confidentiality. However, as much as the great Ciel Phantomhive did not want to admit it, he was going to need some help. Folding the letter, Ciel placed it in his pocket and turned toward the front gate, looking as determined as ever.
"We are looking for a demon."
XXXXX
'Solitary' was a fairly unpleasant place. It was dark, extremely dirty and there was little in there to keep the injured demon occupied until he healed. Sebastian was lying on the cold cement floor, turned slightly toward the wall where he carved pictures of spiders into the wall. Spiders getting squished, spiders being eaten by crows, spiders with their legs torn off, spiders being mutilated in the most horrible ways possible. It made him feel slightly better, though he would rather be murdering Claude himself.
It took nearly 24 hours for his body to heal, at which point he turned around to check out the state of his poor feathers. Oh, they were horrible. They were all stuck together, practically shriveled, and oily. Ugh, they even smelled like human. It would take forever to clean them off.
But he couldn't worry about that right now. He had to somehow get out of here and get back to the other zoo (though of course he would prefer the manor, but he was under orders). Sebastian got up and stretched his newly healed body before heading over to the door and examining the structure. It was locked, obviously, and made from concrete and steel, so it would be quite the pain to break through it. Of course, it was completely possible for Sebastian to do so.
The demon cracked his knuckles and fingers in preparation, then punched through the solid concrete and metal block that was the door. It took him a couple of tries to actually make a hole in the wall, but when he did he slunk out of the chamber. Fortunately it was nighttime and there were very few humans walking around the zoo, and most of the staff was currently cleaning up, or tending to a screaming Alois Trancy in the medical tent.
Rubbing his hand gently, Sebastian followed the noise of the child's screams. He wasn't the person that he wanted to see right now, but there was no possible way that he would ever let Alois get away with kidnapping him with nothing more than a twisted leg.
Sebastian quickly located the tent, thanks to the faux Earl's high pitched squeals of complaint. He stood outside for a moment, smirking as he listened to something that could barely be called conversation coming from inside.
"What do you mean you can't fix it! I've been in here for a fucking week and you still don't know how to fix it? It bloody hurts!"
"Your Highness, you have been in here for little more than 42 hours. That is hardly…"
"Shut up Claude! I don't care about that! Why can't you fix it either! You're useless!"
Sebastian chuckled softly to himself when he heard a loud smack and a series of gasps from the staff.
"Earl Trancy! Please refrain from such actions, this zoo has no tolerance for animal abuse!" one warned him, causing Sebastian to chuckle again.
"What an unusual policy." Sebastian said, entering the tent much to the surprise of everyone within. "You will not allow this brand of 'abuse' but you condone my kidnap and torture. Quite a contradiction, is it not?" He walked forward into the tent and kicked Claude through the side of the tent (and at least several hundred metres away) as a preemptive defense for the inevitable attack. "Or perhaps you are so simple that this common child was able to trick you into doing so?" he continued, bringing one heeled boot up to rest on Alois's abdomen.
As he looked down at the frightened child, the staff surrounding them erupted into confused and angry chattering about 'not knowing that he was kidnapped' and 'being sure that Earl Trancy had permission to take this demon here'. Sebastian could see the terror in Alois's eyes as he realized that his plan was quickly falling apart. The demon could only smirk as the staff quickly began to side with him. "I believe you know the punishment for that." He smirked, running a finger over the child's neck.
As he heard a loud whistling noise coming toward the tent, Sebastian kicked Alois off the bed and jumped out of the hole in the tent, running at top speed to meet Claude as he returned to defend his master. The two demons clashed in a ferocious battle in the center of the zoo, tearing into each other with their teeth and nails, screeching at each other loudly enough to alert any passersby that there was a demonic battle raging on nearby.
XXXXX
"Agni! Stop the carriage!" Ciel screamed out the window, and the moment it stopped he jumped out and listened to the earsplitting noise coming from behind them. Agni got off the carriage as well, and went over to the young boy to make sure that he was alright.
"Master Ciel, what is that?" he asked, extremely worried. He had never heard any creature make that sound in his life, and it certainly didn't sound human. Ciel had explained that they were looking for a demon, but he still couldn't fully believe that it was true.
"… I believe that is where we need to go…" Ciel said quietly, walking back around the carriage. "Turn us around, Agni. Go toward that sound. And quickly." He ordered, getting back into his seat. He had never heard Sebastian make such a noise, but he was positive that those noises were demonic in nature. And there were two of them, so it was more than likely that one of the noises came from Claude as he attacked his butler. He could only hope that they arrived in time to stop whatever was going on, or he feared that there might not be a Sebastian to bring back with them.
Soma had been asleep for a while as they travelled around to different zoos in England. They had been at this for nearly 2 days, and this was the first time that they found anything that could even remotely lead them to the demon. Luckily, he didn't have enough energy to 'help' Ciel with his investigation, and he had become disenchanted with the animals after the first couple of stops. Hopefully he would remain calm when they found Sebastian.
It was nearly half an hour before they arrived at the zoo, and the noises had quieted slightly. Rather than constant angry screeches, there was only the occasional scream or cry of pain. Ciel could only assume that the battle was nearly over, which would make everything easier for him.
The boy got out of the carriage, instructing his counterparts to stay where they were, and walked right through the open gates of the zoo, though it could hardly be called a zoo anymore. Beat up, dented cages and ripped up tents were strewn about the area, and confused animals were roaming free. He continued walking around the wreckage until he came to the center, where two beat up, bloody demons were making halfhearted attempts to attack each other in the dirt, their former bloodcurdling screeches now reduced to low whimpers and whines.
"Tch." Ciel scoffed, getting the attention of both creatures, who ended their battle and looked over to him with a dreamy sense of relief.
"Young master…" Sebastian muttered, standing up in spite of his exhaustion to go over and bow to the child. His clothing was torn up, revealing deep scratches on his body. His lip was split and bloody, he was covered in dirt and grime, and his wings were disgustingly ragged. Yet, with the way he still managed to hold himself up straight, with his trademark smirk across his lips as he pinned his heel into the other demon's hand, he still seemed like the same smug, arrogant demon, ever pristine in attitude and demeanor.
"You're an idiot." Ciel declared, sighing as he looked his butler over. "You look awful."
"My apologies, my lord. I was inconvenienced by this thing." He answered, kicking Claude in the side of the head as he crawled over to Ciel with an odd, creepy gaze.
"CLAUDE!"
The scream came from the child across the battleground, being carried away by the police as several enraged zookeepers pointed around between Sebastian, Ciel, Alois and Claude, presumably telling about how they had been tricked into keeping a kidnapped demon. Claude looked up at Ciel for a moment, almost pleading with his eyes as the staff came over to take him to Alois and decide on his punishment. Ciel stepped back from him and allowed them remove the demon from his feet and drag him over to his master.
As soon as they were in custody, Ciel sighed and took off his coat.
"Agni and Soma are in the carriage, and we need to bring you back to the other zoo." Ciel explained to his butler, holding the jacket out for him "Put this on your head."
"… Excuse me?"
"Don't make me order you, Sebastian. It is bad enough already that I had to explain that I was finding a demon. I don't need to make it worse by letting them know that it's you. Now put it on, and make sure it covers your face completely."
"Young master, you must start thinking things through." He said, covering his head with the jacket. "This is one of your better outfits, Ms. Hopkins will not be pleased with you for destroying your clothing."
"You're one to talk." Ciel scoffed, taking Sebastian's torn sleeve in his hand and pulling him toward the carriage.
"Master Ciel, have you found…" Agni asked, freezing when he saw the demon following behind him, more confused than frightened by the creature. "… Master Ciel?"
"This is the demon we needed to find, he says you cannot look at his face directly, so I covered him with my jacket. Let him in the carriage, Agni." Ciel ordered simply, and the butler complied without question.
Sebastian sat across from Soma, who was now very much awake and in mixed terror awe at the new passenger in the carriage.
"… Ciel… is that really a demon? Why is your coat on his face? Why is he in the zoo? Where does he have to go? Can we go home now? Is your case done?" he asked, shrinking back from the creature.
"Yes, he is really a demon. You can't see his face. Someone kidnapped him. He is going back to the other zoo. We can go home once he is returned. Yes, it is done."
"Jeune maître, vous êtes sûr que je dois retourner au zoo? Je pense que compte tenu des circonstances, je doit retourner au manoir. " asked Sebastian (much to Ciel's dismay. He had expected Sebastian to be silent through this entire ride, but of course the demon would use his knowledge of French against him). He didn't think that he could survive another few weeks in that zoo, and considering everything that had just happened, it made much more sense for him to return to the manor.
"Non, je vous ai donné un ordre. Vous êtes à rester dans le zoo jusqu'à la fin du mois, je ne se soucient pas de vos 'circonstances'. Vous allez survivre. " Ciel snapped back. As if he were ever going to let Sebastian come home because he was 'kidnapped'. He was under orders, and he was going to follow them to the end.
Sebastian smirked. "Très bien. Je suis sûr que vous pourrez également profiter le reste du mois avec eux." He knew that Ciel wasn't enjoying his month with Agni and Soma, and though he didn't believe he could, perhaps he could convince him to let him come home. Life would be much easier for both of them.
"Tais-toi. Vous savez mieux que d'aller contre vos ordres" Ciel hissed back. Sebastian was not going to convince him otherwise. He was staying in the zoo no matter how irritating Agni and Soma could be.
The prince gaped at Ciel as he spoke to the demon, surprised that he would converse with the creature so informally, and angrily from the way it sounded. His tone made it almost sound like he was speaking to Sebastian.
"Sebastian!" Soma screamed out, suddenly reminded of Ciel's butler's whereabouts. "Ciel! If this demon is speaking French, then he is from France, that is where Sebastian is! Tell this demon to stay away from him!" Soma was quite afraid of Sebastian, but he was his best friend and little brother's butler. If he got hurt by a demon that would be awful!
"… I will be sure to tell him, Soma." Ciel said flatly, and then proceeded to talk to the 'demon' once again.
He agreed that Sebastian would go unharmed.
XXXXX
Phew ! I finally finished the chapter ! That only took… forever… and a half… OTL
I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, it was quite difficult to write :P I've been doing college things and I haven't had as much time/energy as I would have liked. Also it was painful to punish Claude and Alois for me. I must admit love the Trancys. Maybe I will write them a story to make up for it.
Oh, and here's translations of the French.
Sebastian : Young master, are you sure that I must return to the zoo? I think considering the circumstances I should return to the manor.
Ciel : No, I gave you an order. You are to stay in the zoo until the end of the month, I don't care about your 'circumstances'. You will survive.
Sebastian : Very well. I am sure you will also enjoy the rest of the month with them.
Ciel : Shut up. You know better than to go against your orders.
If it's horribly grammatically incorrect, I apologize. I am a Spanish major, I don't know a word of French.
And thank you all for being patient and others for beating me with sticks until I update. Both are greatly appreciated.
Review please! It fuels my writer energy.