A/N: An early update! And I might still do two more this week, because I'm getting more excited about this story, and hopefully others are too. I'm assuming I'm not the only one who's been waiting for Claude to make a bigger appearance.
Disclaimer: I only own Faye.
Phantomhive Manor
"Aren't you so excited?" Elizabeth asked, jumping up and down as she squeezed Faye's arm. "This is the first Easter all of us cousins will be together in over three years!" Faye smiled down at Elizabeth's shining exuberance.
"Yes, it is wonderful," Faye agreed. "It's been too long since the four of us have gotten together."
Elizabeth shyly held up a headband sporting a pair of rabbit ears. "Will you wear this for the occasion?"
Faye blinked at the offending article. She had seen Mey-Rin and Finny wearing a pair just like it, but was well aware of Elizabeth's penchant for dressing up the servants. Faye hadn't expected Elizabeth to want everyone to wear them. However, she couldn't find it in herself to deny Elizabeth when she was so excited. Reluctantly, Faye took the headband and placed it on her head before following her cousin out to the veranda. Edward and Ciel also wore bunny ears along with the rest of the servants, as did Agni and Soma who had joined them for Easter, but it was the sight of Sebastian wearing them that made Faye laugh.
Sebastian glanced over and Faye covered her mouth to stifle her mirth. She couldn't imagine that Sebastian would react well to being laughed at. That he would willingly submit to all the ridiculous antics of Elizabeth was a true testament to his commitment to be the epitome of a Phantomhive butler.
"Now," Elizabeth said, standing up straight and clapping her hands to get everyone's attention. "Let's start today's festivities! I've hidden eggs all around the manor and grounds, but I have a special treat!" She proudly held up an egg she took out of her pocket. "This one I decorated special! All of you will pair up in teams of two and hunt for eggs. Whoever finds this one will win the egg hunting contest! Ciel, do you remember how you always used to find my egg when we were little?"
"Is this a private affair, or may anyone join?" An obnoxious voice asked.
Faye whirled to find Alois with his butler exiting a stage coach. Ciel's eyes darkened and Elizabeth looked uncertain. "Well, this is a family tradition, so we usually only have family participate…" Elizabeth trailed off. Soma's chest puffed out at being included as a member of the family.
Alois looked down at the ground sadly. "I understand. I shouldn't have come. It's just that I don't have any family to celebrate with you see." He sniffled. "I was so excited when I was able to go home, but it was only to find that my mother was already dead and I lost my father so soon after we were reunited." He looked up and gave Elizabeth a pathetic, downtrodden look. "I only hoped I might be able to spend Easter with my good friend Ciel, forgive me for intruding."
"Wait!" Elizabeth cried as Alois started to turn away. "We have plenty of eggs for two more to join. No one should spend Easter all alone."
Alois turned back with a look of grateful rapture on his face. "Oh, thank you, Lady Elizabeth! You're just too kind!"
Faye clenched her fists down at her side. She was sure Alois had come here to threaten Elizabeth, as he had at his costume ball. The only question was, would the threat be subtle again, or would he try to hurt her this time? How were they supposed to keep an eye on Elizabeth when they were searching for eggs? Elizabeth would throw a fit if anyone didn't participate.
Elizabeth explained the rules to the newcomers, but Sebastian interrupted before she finished. "Why don't we make the game a bit more interesting?" He asked. "All the participants must carry an egg on a spoon. The object is to break your opponent's egg while keeping your own intact. To win, you must keep your eggs pristine and find Lady Elizabeth's egg."
Everyone agreed and Sebastian passed out spoons and eggs while Elizabeth began pairing people up. "Ceil will be with Sebastian, of course. Faye and Edward can be together, you two haven't gotten to spend any time together in ages." Sebastian twitched at that comment. "Mey-Rin and Baldroy, Snake and Finnian, Soma and Agni, and Alois can be with Claude. Now, begin!"
"We must get that egg!" Edward declared, a fanatical look on his face.
"You do realize that you don't have to find your sister's egg to prove your devotion to her, right? Faye asked as the pairs dispersed.
Edward looked offended. "That's how your brother sees it! He wants to find the egg to prove that he's worthy of Elizabeth."
"That's…not why," Faye said, shocked by Edward's twisting of things. Edward went completely out of his mind when it came to anything involving Elizabeth. "How could finding an egg possibly prove such a thing?"
"Never mind that! We need to find that egg. Don't slow me down, Faye!"
"What?" She ground out, infuriated at the insinuation that she wasn't as capable as Edward. Edward may have been trained by England's head knight, but she was trained by grim reapers!
Billiard's Room
Sebastian was gratified to hear Faye and Edward arguing from inside the house. He knew very little about their relationship other than that it had become strained after Edward made his disapproval of Ciel's engagement to Elizabeth known. Still, the idea of Faye spending time with a male she may have been close to at one time made Sebastian uneasy. No. It made him jealous.
"We have to find Lizzy's egg quickly," Ciel said, dragging Sebastian away from his thoughts. Ciel looked frantically around the room, absentmindedly scooping up any eggs he found and putting them in their basket. "The longer we're away from her, the more danger she's in. This is the perfect opportunity for that spider to strike at Lizzie!"
"Calm yourself, my Lord," Sebastian said, hooking an arm around Ciel and pulling him away from an egg that exploded a moment later. "Lady Elizabeth is still sitting outside, and Alois and Claude are currently investigating the kitchen. They appear to be playing along with the game. For now, anyway. I will let you know the moment they came near Lady Elizabeth. No harm will come to her."
Ciel relaxed slightly. "Be that as it may, we should still hurry. There's no reason to tempt fate." Ciel quickly left the room, Sebastian trailing along behind.
"Ha!" Bard cried out when Ciel entered the hall. "I've got you now!" Bard's left hand swung down in a chop that would shatter Ciel's egg.
"That's pretty gutsy of you to attack your Master's egg," Ciel said, smiling. Bard's hand froze an inch from the egg, a nervous look on his face.
A kitchen knife flew from Sebastian's hand and pierced Bard's egg. "Ohhh," he groaned dejectedly, slumping his shoulders and letting his egg drop to the floor. "That's not fair. How's this game 'sposed to work if we can't even attack the Master's egg?"
"You're one to talk about fair!" Mey-Rin cried, rounding the corner with her hair singed and blackened. "What kind of a fool hides explosive eggs for an Easter Egg hunt? And then doesn't even warn his own partner about it?!"
"I thought it'd make things more interestin'," he muttered, staring morosely at his fallen egg.
Kitchen
"I can't believe Ciel Phantomhive engages in such ridiculous affairs," Alois blathered on, sitting on the counter and swinging his legs back and forth as he watched Claude gather all the eggs in the kitchen. "I thought he was such a serious and driven little boy, but he can't be all that serious if he enjoys this. Still, seeing the look on his face when I win and he loses will definitely be worth it. But the look on his face when we have his sister at our mercy and he has to do whatever I say will be even better."
Claude twitched at the mention of Faye. He didn't want Alois talking about her. He didn't want Alois thinkingabout her. It didn't matter that Alois had no interest in the woman other than as a tool to control Ciel; no harm would come to Faye as a result of Alois' worthless schemes. Alois kept talking, but Claude didn't hear it through the pounding in his head. All he could focus on was the fact that Faye was in his vicinity, yet for some unfathomable reason, Claude wasn't where he could see her. No, he knew the reason. Claude glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw the blond boy on the counter prattling about something. He was what kept Claude away from what he most desired. Claude could hardly function for want of the woman he'd been craving for months. And he'd still yet to come within ten feet of her. He needed to fix that. Now.
Claude finally realized that Alois had been yelling the same sentence at him for a while now. "You missed that egg, you oaf! Pick it up."
Claude glanced at the egg he'd passed over and considered throwing it in Alois' face. "That's not an egg, Your Highness. That's an explosive."
Alois finally fell quiet and blinked in surprise. "Is Phantomhive trying to kill us?"
"Aha! Competitors!" Soma exclaimed, sliding into the kitchen. "Agni, break their eggs!"
"Yes, Prince Soma!" Alois smirked, confident in the knowledge that Agni would never get close to Claude. He would enjoy watching the arrogant Indian Prince being knocked down a peg. Alois had only dealt with Soma a few times, but the man was always so cocky in his own self-worth and so utterly dependent upon his merely human butler.
Agni lunged toward Claude with a yell, two fingers aimed at Claude's egg. Claude dodged, but it almost looked as though…Alois narrowed his eyes, trying to replay the motion in his head. It almost looked as though Claude had tripped trying to get away from Agni, which was ridiculous. More than that, it was impossible.
"Break his egg, Claude!" Alois ordered when the demon failed to do so. Honestly, why was it even necessary for him to give that order? One of Alois' hands curled into a fist, his nails digging into his palm as he watched the struggle between the two butlers. How was it possible that Claude was struggling with this? Agni was only human, wasn't he?!
"Aha! You lose!" Alois whipped his head around to see that Soma had broken his egg. "Did you like our distraction tactic? Though really, you should be proud. The only man I have ever seen do so well against Agni is Sebastian. Your Claude is almost as good." Alois seethed, struggling to reign in his temper and keep a cool front.
Gardens
"There!" Edward cried, diving down and clutching an egg hidden under a bush. "It's the same color as the one Lizzy—" A small explosion erupted from the egg and Edward fell backwards in surprise as the egg continued to smoke.
"Look what you've done now, you foolish man," Faye said, putting her hands on her hips and regarding Edward's shattered egg. "Now we've lost." Not that Faye had any intention of winning. Both Ciel and Elizabeth would be distraught if anyone but Ciel got her egg, but Faye was competitive and had at least wanted to gather the most eggs.
"You could have warned me that some of the eggs exploded!" Edward exclaimed, getting up off the ground. "What kind of an Easter Egg hunt has exploding eggs?"
"I didn't know! I didn't help make or hide the eggs. Don't blame your mistakes on me."
"Ugh! I'm going back to wait with Lizzie!" Edward said as he stomped away.
"Good!" Faye called back, actually sincere. Elizabeth shouldn't be alone with Alois around. Though it wasn't like Edward would provide all that much protection from a demon. Faye should go back too, but she'd had enough of Edward for the moment. The two of them couldn't seem to be in the same room together for five minutes without breaking into an argument these days. It was a good thing they saw so little of each other.
Feeling dark eyes on her, Faye grasped a knife and whirled around. Or tried to, anyway. A strong hand grasped her arm with the knife, holding it still. Another hand came around to clamp onto Faye's waist. She felt a breath touch the back of her neck and heard deep inhale.
"What—What are you doing?" She demanded too shocked to say anything else. Wasn't Elizabeth the target? Why was Claude attacking her?
Claude groaned and the hand clutching her waist moved to wrap around her more fully and crush her to him. Faye started breathing heavily. An unfamiliar man was holding her and her fight or flight instincts were beginning to override her usual senses.
"Let me go!" She screamed driving the heel of one boot into Claude's foot. If he had been human, the pain would have been enough for him to let go. Unfortunately, he was a demon. That thought finally penetrated and Faye held her free hand up and yelled, "Hoctum irarae nym!" Brilliantly colored strings flowed from her fingertips to wrap around Claude. As the strings bound Claude's arms tight to his side, his grip slackened and she stumbled away, turning to face the demon.
A/N: I don't do enough cliffhangers Also, Claude is creepy, creepy, creepy. Yet, also surprisingly fun to write. Maybe I just like writing from the point of view of demon stalkers…Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!