And another chapter. Because I can't be bothered to wait a whole week, lol. Enjoy! And do write reviews so that we can get over 100!

Chapter 10

Two months pass quickly. Ciel spends them in Sebastian's flat day in, day out, staring out the window, waiting like a pet for its master to return. He doesn't go to the hospital anymore, lest Grell tries something, and even if it would get the reaper fired, it's better not to let all mortals know of the supernatural.

He tries to find this Edgar and Maurice on the weekends, but London is quite big and Ciel is just so little. It is as if Edgar's demon scent isn't carrying that well, or he is masking it better than Ciel would have believed. Either way he doesn't find the blond duo again. Maybe they've moved to the countryside…

It is a Friday and Ciel is waiting for Sebastian to return. He's sitting on the bed in his room, wings curled protectively around his body. The feathers have paled from a rich black into a dark grey and are now silver. He stares at them for hours, trying to will them back into their old colour, but nothing ever happens, so he retracts them again. He can still shapeshift which he does regularly now, and all his other powers are still intact. It's just the damned wings and the fact that he's craving actual human food. Ciel lets out a groan when his stomach rumbles and buries his face in the pillows. This cannot be true. His parents have never warned him about such a thing.

A loud thud at his window has him looking up. A purple bird is sitting there, chirping loudly, and Ciel lets red bleed into his eyes as he crosses the room to open the window. As soon as it can fit through the opening, the bird barges into his room, still chirping as it shifts into a more undesirable form. Alois tears at his hair and shouts "Hells!"

Ciel turns to face him. "What do you want?"

"I'm not here to fight you," Alois blabbers, looking crazed. He grabs Ciel by the shoulders. And the younger demon snarls at him, but Alois really doesn't look like he has the time for it.

"Why are you here?" Ciel asks.

"You're the counsellor's son," Alois says. "You're strong. Cure me!"

"Cure you?" Ciel echoes. "What?"

Alois nails are digging into Ciel's upper arms, probably drawing blood by now. "Something is happening to me!" He takes one hand off of Ciel, pointing at his own chest. "I don't know what it is."

Ciel feels his features go slack in understanding. "What changed?"

"My eyes won't bleed red," Alois says. "I eat. I drink. I require sleep. My pulse rises. It can fucking rise, I didn't know it can do that!"

"Well, our pulses shouldn't be able to do that," Ciel mutters. Human forms don't even need a pulse, but a demon shouldn't exactly stick out just because he doesn't have a beating heart.

"I am changing!" Alois spits. He pushes Ciel back. For the first time Ciel doesn't interpret it as an insult. "Into what, I don't know…" The older demon's eyes widen spectacularly. "Is this death? Oh my god, am I dying?"

Ciel frowns at him. "How would I know?"

"Cure me!"

Ciel shakes his head, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I don't know how."

"Wow." Alois takes a step away from him. "You're so fucking useless. I hope somebody takes your father's legions before you do."

"Are you done?" Ciel asks.

Alois drops to the floor, hugging his knees and scowling at the carpet.

"Since when have you been… changing?"

"Eight months ago, maybe." Alois shrugs. "Could be more, could be less."

"You're in a long-term contract, right?"

"Not for long," Alois replies. "Two more weeks to go. Claude is quite… Anxious."

Something clicks inside Ciel's head. Could it be…? "Are you feeling… sorry; are you feeling something on his behalf?"

"I think I shouldn't kill him." Alois shakes his head. "He's getting more famous by the day. People love him, and I just… I can't."

"Do you feel… attached?"

Alois looks up. "Yes. Yes, I do." He gets up. "Shit. That's what's changing me, right? Into what, though?"

Ciel shrugs. "A corpse, maybe." His silver wings come to mind. "Or a higher being."

Alois snorts. "Like what, an angel? Yeah, right."

"You don't want to harm him anymore. Therefore your nature could be changing. You could become an angel. Or… a reaper?"

"After what I've done? Not likely. Besides, angels aren't former demons." Alois blows a stray strand of hair out of his face. "And reapers have to die. I don't want to die. So, of course, I have to stop this development."

Ciel frowns. This doesn't sound particularly good.

"Switch on the news tomorrow." Alois winks at him. "I believe a star is going to die."

"You cannot do that," Ciel says. "That's against the contract."

"Nobody cares about two weeks." Alois changes back into his bird form and leaves through the window. Ciel watches him disappear.

OOO

Sebastian reacts badly, surprisingly enough.

Ciel just frowns at him as he tries to call Claude at least a dozen times. "I thought you hated each other."

Sebastian frantically paces the room from one corner to the other, distributing the smell of hospital that still clings to him. Ciel wishes he'd wash it off, but mentioning that might not be a sensible choice. "He's still my brother, and he's being killed by a demon, how can I not react like I do?"

"Claude wouldn't be in this kind of situation if he hadn't made a contract over a specific length of time," Ciel says sourly.

"For god's sake," Sebastian says, turning to him, "this is not about you!"

Ciel frowns a bit more and leans against the backrest, crossing his legs. "He's dead, for all we know."

Sebastian drops his phone and falls heavily onto the couch, burying his face in his hands. Ciel pushes the annoying feeling in his chest aside. "I'm sorry… I think."

Sebastian looks at him before wiping his hands over his face and clearing his throat. "You could have called me."

"Do you think it would have changed anything? Alois would have hunted him down."

Sebastian's Adam's apple bobs. He gets up abruptly, his movements hasty. "Are you hungry? I'm going to cook something."

Ciel stares at him. "Why are you changing topics?"

"Does it matter?"

"I…" Ciel tilts his head to the side. He'd give a lot to know what this human is currently thinking.

But Sebastian leaves, putting an end to that notion. Ciel forces himself not to follow him.