-:- Subject 13's Butler -:-
.:A Kuroshitsuji Fan Fiction:.
Author: AoUsagi
Summary: Ciel takes the leap into Oblivion, only to wake into a strange white-washed world of beeping machines and white-coats doctors. The only thing that seems real is Sebastian, who steals him away from the hellhole laboratory to save him from the sick sake of science.
BeforeNote:
I'll share a personal little thought with you all.
It's not any of your faults for this; really, it's just something that I feel. It's discouragement. I try as hard as I possibly can to keep the characters of this story (and others) as close to their original personas. It's not just with this story, it's happened in some of my other fics as well – I've had PM's from people, not reviews, telling me how much of a great job I'm doing, and quote, "even if the characters are OOC", then explain in explicit detail how my writing is wrong. And that discourages me.
I mean, for God's sake, it's a freaking fanfiction. No need to get so analytical about every single detail. What you might call "criticism" is to many other people I've talked to, along with myself, considered to be over-analyzation and completely unnecessary.
It makes me feel like I'm not doing a good enough job. And it also ticks me off, just a little, because these people are being high and mighty enough to list all the things I'm "not doing right". There's no need to pad it, guys, sheesh – just hand me my ass on a silver platter, thanks.
So just as a note, in the future, if any of you feel like writing me an essay on how the characters have the occasional outburst of out of characterness, then please take it and shove it down your throat. And eat it. And swallow it. And get ink poisoning. I had ink poisoning once, and it didn't hurt half as bad as the way I feel at the moment as I present this chapter.
I hope it's up to your fucking standards.
- Mercy
…
I'm sorry to my faithful readers and reviewers – your words are always kind and you are the reason that this story is being continued. I don't mind criticism, it's all good, just don't go over the top, okay? I'll admit that in the last chapter Ciel and Sebastian weren't exactly…normal, but you wouldn't be either if you thought you were about to experimented on again, would you?
By the way – I discovered the coolest of showers on my trip to the hospital recently. They've got these full-height curtains, but the curtains are on an adjustable rail that you can set up or down as you want; it's something to do with like, if you're handicapped or something, it lets nurses reach of the curtain to help you wash or something. It's actually that friggin' cool. So you guys get a shower scene in this chapter. NOT YAOI, MMKAY? IT'S COMPLETELY LEGIT.
Chapter Ten: His Butler, However You Like It
-:-
Steam rose in large, wispy clouds as the heat from the showerhead cascaded over Ciel's bruised and tired little body. He'd been here in the London Metro Hospital for a little over a day now – most of that time he'd been unconscious before waking and being reunited with his aunt Angeline. Now that the evening had fallen, rain still pounding on the roof outside, Ciel had disappeared into the en suite bathroom that was joined onto the private ward that Madame Red had had prepared for him and Sebastian while they recuperated. Because, in her words, "she would not see them leave this place until the bruises on Ciel's back had disappeared". She had scheduled an MRI appointment for Ciel, keeping him under a fake name as to not rouse the suspicion of the other doctors. The appointment was tomorrow morning at eight thirty.
It was only slightly embarrassing for Ciel to come to the realization, when he'd stepped into the bathroom, that he'd completely forgotten how to bathe himself. For as long as he could remember, Sebastian had done that as another one of his chores as Ciel's butler. But that wasn't the case anymore. He hadn't spoken a word about it to anyone, especially not Sebastian. Looking weak at a time like this would not serve in his best interests, he decided, and he'd simply stripped off and let the hot water soak his skin, plastering his dirty hair to his scalp. He assumed that, naturally, the dirt would just wash itself off, because he couldn't see soap of any sort anywhere around him. It would have to do. At least he'd remembered to ask for a towel.
There was a quiet knock on the door, and Ciel peeked around the shower curtain.
"May I come in?"
It was Sebastian's voice. Ciel shoved down any embarrassment he may have felt creeping up his cheeks, reminding himself that, at least in his delusions, Sebastian had seen him naked more times than he could count. And Ciel hadn't cared in the slightest.
"Fine," Ciel let the curtain go and went back to mindlessly staring at the tiled wall as Sebastian entered – through the blur of the curtain, he could see that the doctor was walking on his own, even if he was moving rather stiffly. "Aren't you supposed to still be in the wheelchair?"
"It's a nuisance, so I decided to get my sprained ankle used to walking again. I'd certainly be no use to your cause if I were half your height, now, would I?" the doctor replied, and Ciel heard the smirk in his voice. "Would you like any assistance?"
Ciel was glad for the privacy of the shower curtain – the blush that flushed his face was hard to get rid of – if Sebastian happened to see it, he could always blame it on the heat of the water hitting his face.
"W-what makes you think I need help?" Ciel quickly scrubbed at his arm with one hand, trying to make it look like he knew what he was doing. "I'm perfectly capable of bathing myself."
"You've been in there for fifteen minutes, Ciel," Sebastian said, mild amusement tinging his voice.
"Your point?"
Sebastian covered a soft chuckle with a cough. "The soap's still out here on the bench."
Ciel groaned and peeked around the shower curtain again, making sure he was covered appropriately at Sebastian. "Fine. You can…uh…wash my hair. Or something. Gimme the soap."
Sebastian smiled down at him from his superior height, his good arm carrying a spare towel with a couple of bottles labelled as shampoo and conditioner set on top, along with a face cloth.
"I was going to suggest that, actually," he said, setting them down on a chair beside the shower and reaching for the soap, handing it to Ciel. "Lather yourself up with the soap and be sure to scrub yourself all over."
Ciel was glad that he'd turned away from Sebastian, who reached up and literally unhooked the rail that the shower curtain was on, and lowered it down before hooking it back into the wall, where there was a hole at about Ciel's chest height. Ciel blinked in surprise, his dry comment about washing himself disappearing on his tongue.
"How did you do that?" he asked, and Sebastian smirked.
"It's an adjustable rail – it allows the person bathing to retain a degree of privacy, but, if they are handicapped or unable to reach very high with their hands, such as to wash their hair, it enables a nurse or assistant to reach over the rail to help them. You're lucky it goes that low in the first place – you really are a slip of a thing," the doctor added off-handedly, and Ciel growled.
"I…urgh. Besides, how are you going to wash my hair with only one hand?" he asked, and Sebastian just chuckled.
"I'm nothing if not determined."
"I noticed."
"Oh good," Sebastian chimed as he gently hand his fingers through Ciel's hair, and his tone turned down to concern. "Oh my – it really has been a while since your hair was last tended to properly."
Ciel busied himself with rubbing the soap over in his hands and then rubbing his soapy hands over his arms and chest. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well," Sebastian sighed. "As part of my duties as your Keeper in the Hospital while you were being experimented on, I was to not only constantly monitor you but also take care of your physical needs and personal hygiene."
"Sounds lovely," Ciel muttered sarcastically, not sure just how much more embarrassing this conversation could get.
"Keeping an unconscious person well kept is incredibly important – especially because of the extended periods of time in which you were submerged with the tanks; some of the chemicals that were used did some rather awful things to the natural chemicals in your hair." The doctor noted. "And it was Mey-Rin who would keep my personal stock of care products for your skin and hair fully stocked, even after she discontinued her work at the Hospital."
Ciel let the soap rinse off of his skin under the raining hot water, watching as the water sprayed across the pale flesh and splattered down in larger drops to the floor, the steam from the heat rising around him. Sebastian was rubbing a handful of shampoo gently into his hair, the doctors' long fingers carefully massaging his scalp. Ciel would never admit it, but the feeling was heavenly. Being cooped up in the hospital all day had given him a headache – a mixture of random flashes, which he could only assume were flashbacks of some sort, and dizziness – disorientation and a little unsteadiness, had all built up tension in his mind. He'd gone to Madame Red, who'd given him a few tablets that she said would help, and while the headache had eased just a little, the effects of it still remained and it felt like his scalp had been slowly cracking in two.
He allowed himself a sigh, and he let his eyes close as Sebastian worked his fingers through the damp, soapy strands of hair before instructing Ciel to rinse the suds out under the showerhead. They repeated the process with the conditioner, but this time, Sebastian instructed him to stand for about three minutes with the conditioner in his hair before rinsing it out. Ciel had gotten some of the conditioner in his eye, and, grumbling in pain, had finally allowed Sebastian to assist in rinsing it out. At first, he'd refused, cowering in the corner away from Sebastian with his hands pressed to his face, but Sebastian had gone so far as to pull off his own shirt, kick off his shoes and step into the shower with Ciel, hauling him to his feet and forcing him to stand up straight with his head tilted back under the showerhead. Sebastian had gently worked his wet fingers around Ciel's eye; carefully flicking away any offending soapsuds, until Ciel had insisted the pain had gone.
Now both thoroughly soaked, they stepped dripping from the shower, Sebastian immediately wrapping Ciel in an overly large, fluffy towel before rubbing himself down with another. In his attempts to dry himself, Ciel's eyes caught on Sebastian's skin – the man was skinny; scrawny, almost, but finely muscled. Ciel could see the re-applied bandage on Sebastian's shoulder, now also soaking wet, which Sebastian carefully dabbed at with his good hand until it was relatively dry and not in danger of falling off.
Sebastian left him to dress in the clothes that Madame Red had given him and had disappeared out into the private ward, and Ciel, still wrapped up in a towel, watched him go. It was only as Sebastian turned his back to Ciel when Ciel caught sight of something – something that made his stomach drop like a lead weight.
There was a tattoo – no, a brand mark – on Sebastian's back. On his left side, just on his ribcage where his elbow would fall at his flank. Ciel's eyes widened, and he went to speak, but no sound came out, and Sebastian disappeared without realizing what Ciel had seen.
That was the same brand mark that Ciel had had, when he'd been used as a sacrificial lamb for that damned cult. In his hallucinations. Quickly stepping up to the mirror, Ciel flung away the towel and twisted around, desperately trying to see his own back.
He nearly screamed. Nearly vomited. Nearly screamed again.
There was the very same brand mark – why he hadn't noticed it there before was beyond him – why Mey-Rin hadn't mentioned it that time she'd been helping him find something to wear he didn't know. Did Sebastian know it was there? Of course he would – he'd just told Ciel about how he'd had to take care of Ciel's personal hygiene – that would include some sort of bathing, right?
Silently, Ciel touched two fingers to the mark on his side. The skin was numb, raised like a scar, puckered into the shape of the branding mark of the cult. It had been a symbol of his humiliation, his disgrace as a child at the hands of insane murderers.
With a sinking feeling, he knew it still was.
He dressed quickly, tugging the shirt haphazardly over his head and pulling on the pair of cotton shorts over a set of underwear Madame Red had given him, and made his was quickly out to the rest of the ward.
"Ciel!"
"Hey! You're okay!"
He was suddenly assaulted by hugs and embraces, and blurs of red and blonde hair smothered him, laughing and crying in happiness.
"What the – Mey-Rin! Finni! Cut it out, hey! I can't breathe!" he gasped, his intent suddenly disappearing as the two of them attempted to hug the life out of him before finally letting him go and stepping back. Beyond their happy faces, he could see Pluto standing by the door, on guard already, and Bardroy speaking quietly to Sebastian by the window.
"We're so happy, yes we are – I can't believe that happened to you!" Mey-Rin blathered, almost seeming to revert to her high-pitched nonsense voice that Ciel remembered her having so clearly on a daily basis. "Thank God you're all right – you've been so brave!"
"Brave?" Ciel repeated. "Bravery's got nothing to do with it."
"Course it does!" Bardroy chimed in, leaving Sebastian and coming over to give Ciel a pat on the head. "For all you knew, you'd been shipped away back to that hell hole! And Sebastian told us all about your courageous scalpel-wielding skills!"
Ciel blushed crimson at the memory – he still felt bad about not recognizing his aunt sooner, and the whole ordeal had resulting in getting her hurt. She didn't blame him, insisted that she was fine, but he couldn't help but feel a touch guilty about it.
"Oh…that," he muttered, and he managed to duck out of the blabbering three as they fell into excited conversation around him. He glanced at Pluto, who gave him a small smile and a nod, before turning and striding over to Sebastian. "Hey."
The doctor turned to him – he was now wearing a large, loose grey shirt that hung off his shoulders, and Ciel could see that his hair was still damp, shining wetly in the overhead light.
"I see you had no trouble dressing," Sebastian smiled down at him, but Ciel's frown made him pause. "Is there something wrong?"
"Yes. Explain this." Ciel turned on his heel and yanked up his shirt, and he heard Sebastian take a sharp intake of breath. Mey-Rin, Finni and Bardroy all stopped and turned to stare, Mey-Rin catching sight of the marking and gasping.
"Aw hell," Ciel heard Bardroy breathe, and he looked back over his shoulder at Sebastian.
"Well?" he demanded, and Sebastian returned his demanding gaze with a solemn one of his own. "You have one too."
"I won't deny it," Sebastian nodded slowly. "We all have it." He looked past Ciel at the others, who all shared slightly nervous glances before they, too, lifted up their shirts. Finni's brand mark was on his right shoulder blade, and the mark was a little blurred – as if he'd tried to twist and turn while the brand had been applied. The scarring looked painful, and Ciel had to swallow hard. Bardroy's was on his left hip, a much deeper marking than that of either Ciel or Sebastian's, like the brand had been pressed harder on his skin. Mey-Rin's was on her front, the left side of her ribcage, just under her breast. It didn't look as if the one who'd branded her had been particularly careful, either – one side of the brand was deeper and darker than the other.
Even Pluto had one – his was marked on the back of his right shoulder, and he grimaced as he peeled his shirt down to show Ciel the grim, angry mark.
"H-how…why…" words and coherent sentences wouldn't form on Ciel's lips, and all he could do was stare in shock at the gathered assortment of brand marks. They were all marked – labelled, like livestock.
The mark of the noble beast.
"We all bare this mark because we were all once under the Hospital's influence. These brands were part of the process we had to go through to convince us to keep our silence, whether we stayed or fled," Sebastian explained quietly, and everyone around Ciel had to glance away – none of them could look him in the eye. "It was our pact. Now, it's a symbol that we have survived; we aren't theirs anymore but we are still together and have each other."
"That's the Phantomhive way," murmured Ciel softly, almost to himself – he hardly even realized what he was saying. It just seemed…right, somehow.
"You're right," Pluto said. "We're the Phantomhive medical team. Well, you are, anyway," he corrected himself, gesturing around at Sebastian and the others. "Me, not so much."
"What do you mean, Plu?" Finni asked. "Of course you're one of us."
"I know that," Pluto said mildly with an off-handed shrug. "It's just – you know. You all had each other first. I just appeared later on. Wasn't even there for most of it."
"Yes, but you were a valuable asset nonetheless," Sebastian noted, and Ciel could hear the gratitude in his voice. "Without you, we wouldn't have had the intel or the information possible to hatch such a scheme as to rescue Ciel. You were key in this too, Pluto."
Pluto glanced away, a slightly embarrassed smile on his face. "Cheers." He muttered. Ciel turned back to Sebastian.
"So even the patients have these brands?"
"Sadly, yes. Every single one of them who are of the age of ten or above. For some reason, those sadists got a kick of morality that was just enough to tell them that children under ten shouldn't have to suffer such…pain." He nodded, and Ciel sighed.
"Well, I'm thirteen now. I've had this for the last three and a half years." He said softly, but Mey-Rin piped up.
"You'll be fourteen in December," she smiled, trying to ease the melancholy mood a little. "That'll be a great chance to celebrate, won't it?"
"Yes, but its only August," Ciel replied, feeling proud that he'd been able to understand the calendar that he'd seen hanging in the old safe house. "Still nearly half a year away."
Bardroy snorted. "Isn't that the point of bein' thirteen and a half?"
Ciel paused, confused for a moment, before he realized that the grin on Bardroy's face was one of jest, and the tense atmosphere disintegrated into quiet laughter and joking. Though he didn't participate in the laughter so much, Ciel couldn't suppress a smile as he realized something; this was the sort of thing a family would do. Move through a problem and resolve it with good cheer. He thought that he'd long forgotten what good cheer was – but, as he sat on the hospital bed closest to the window, watching the night sky with the reflections of the others dancing about before him, he wondered if maybe happiness wasn't all that far away. Sure, he was being hunted. Sure, at any moment someone might step in here with a gun and murderous intent, but for now, the feeling was warm and comforting; and he held onto that.
He remembered feeling this way only a few very, rare times in his previous life. And, as he let his smile sit on his face, he remembered that every single time had been in the company of these people.
-:-
"Riiiiise and shiiiiiine, my darling little dumplings~!" Grell's shrill voice roused Ciel from the strange dream he'd been immersed in as the flamboyant redhead danced through the door the next morning, and Ciel pried his eyes open to blearily look at his bedside clock. Seven fifteen. He didn't have to be awake for at least another half an hour, and despite the firmness of the hospital bed and the crispness of the hard sheets, he found himself unwilling to rise from the nest he'd managed to make himself.
"No shining this early, please," he heard Sebastian grumble from the hospital bed next to his – there were several feet of space between the beds, and Ciel rolled over to look at the doctor. Whilst he'd been able to curl up and twist and make himself somewhat comfortable during the night, Ciel saw that Sebastian had been stuck lying on his back so that he wouldn't aggravate the bullet injury. The dark-haired doctor was staring blearily at the ceiling as Grell invited himself in, and Ciel noticed that, despite the mans hair being it's usual inky shade of red, it still had long, unrinsed streaks of brown dye running through it and was still pulled back into a relatively tidy ponytail, with the exception of several strands of red hair flying freely around Grell's wide-awake face.
"Oh Bassy, you're such a morning person!" he chortled as he leant over Sebastian's bed, a clipboard in hand and flirtatious smile on his lips. "Angeline will be up to see to you both shortly – she just asked me if I'd run a favour for her and get you up ahead of time. Now, says here that the kids got a head-scan at eight thirty, that's fine – and she'll be bringing up something breakfast-y with her in a moment for you. Also, Bassy, she wants you to know that there's gonna be this thing down at the X-ray room…"
Grell continued on his ramblings, reading quickly off the sheet attached to the clipboard, but Ciel stopped paying too much attention as he sat up and yawned, stretching his arms above his head.
"For someone who hates desk work," he murmured, half to himself. "You sure know how to remember lots of things that are important for the day."
Grell overheard him and stopped for a moment to flash a grin at Ciel. "They don't call me deadly efficient for nothing, boy. I much prefer to be out and about instead of being cramped up inside, but I'm not stupid." He threw a wink Ciel's way before turning back to Sebastian. "…So anyway, Doctor Red wants…"
"Same as always," Ciel sighed quietly, not even bothering to question why Grell was running around doing favours for Madame Red if he didn't even work here. He was momentarily reminded of something Grell had said in his previous life – consider it an act of passion out of love for a certain woman. Ciel pulled a face and shuddered – he hoped that Grell's flamboyant sexuality wouldn't result in someone's death this time. Well, not Ciel's newly reacquainted aunts' death, at the very least.
He turned away from Sebastian and Grell, the former who had taken the clipboard off of the latter so he could read its contents for himself, the latter never once losing his flirty attitude. Ciel slid from the bed and stood in front of the window – in the morning light, the city far below them was quite peaceful – not quite what Bardroy had referred to as 'rush hour' yet.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Sebastian called for the person to enter, and the door opened again – this time, it was Pluto, who had stood guard for them outside the ward all night, and he was holding the door open as Madame Red wheeled in a trolley with a few covered dishes and bowls, a pitcher of milk and a pitcher of water, and on the shelves underneath there looked to be a few tools and implements that a doctor would use in a physical examination.
"Morning all," she smiled as she stepped past Pluto. "I hope the beds weren't too hard for you?"
"It's quite fine," Sebastian replied, who was still lying flat on his back. Ciel would have called him lazy if he hadn't known about Sebastian's injury. "Just don't send your lackey in here next time with cheerful greetings like the one this morning ever again."
"Why not?" Madame Red looked from Sebastian to Grell in surprise, and Grell chuckled softly as Sebastian rolled his eyes.
"Because if you do, I'll be forced to choke him with his cheerful greetings and let him explain that one to his boss," Sebastian said dryly, and Grell burst into a fit of laughter, Madame Red and Pluto also catching on the sarcastic comment. Ciel watched, feeling only minorly amused. His aunt called him over, and offered him a bowl full of diced tinned fruit and a glass of water – only after a nod from Sebastian did he accept the milk, remembering what the doctor had said about bad side effects.
Angeline began to explain in more detail than Grell's vague rambles about what would be happening that day – at eight-thirty, she would take them down to the MRI chamber, which at that time of morning would still be deserted, and quickly perform the scan on Ciel before any suspicion was aroused. After they had gathered the results and determined what had really happened during the surgery on Ciel's head, they would head back up to the ward to stay out of sight of any other doctors and patients. A while later, during Angeline's lunch break, she would come back and take Sebastian down to a special room for an "X-ray", which Grell briefly explained to Ciel as being a big machine, like an MRI, that let people see what was going on inside of the person. Only the X-ray was designed to highlight and show bone structures and the like, where as the MRI was specifically made to scan the brain and build an electronic image of the brain. All the while, Mey-Rin, Finni and Bardroy would all take turns standing guards outside the room while Pluto headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
Ciel assumed, somewhere along the line, that he was going to have to entertain himself for the entire day in which he wasn't allowed to the leave the room. Before Pluto headed back to the hotel to send one of the others back in his place, he asked Pluto to get one of them to bring a deck of cards or something if something like that was available. Pluto had laughed before disappearing out the door and commented something about how Bardroy would be so over the moon about Ciel showing some interest in playing a game he'd bring an entire toy factory to satisfy him. Ciel could only hope that Pluto was kidding.
"Well, Ciel? Are you ready?" Madame Red pulled Ciel from his day-dream of staring out the window and turned to her.
"Hmm?"
"It's almost time," she said kindly, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Finish your breakfast and then we'll head down – most of the nurses stations will still be fairly quiet so we shouldn't have to sneak you around too much."
Ciel nodded absently and sipped down the last of the syrup from the fruit from the bowl before setting it aside – something that he couldn't have imagined doing if he'd been a dignified Early; sipping straight from a bowl was…unbecoming of a young man. But, he reminded himself, he wasn't really an Earl. That was all just some delusion concocted by some cocktail of drugs. He wondered if he ever slurped straight from the bowl when he was a kid, with a proper, loving family, before the whole experiment ordeal happened.
Setting aside his bowl, Ciel followed as Madame Red, Grell and Sebastian, who had been forced to lower himself back into the wheelchair for the sake of Madame Red, filed out of the ward, the door clicking shut behind them. They moved quickly and quietly, Grell assisting Sebastian by pushing the wheelchair behind, occasionally scooting ahead with small cries of glee as he coasted along behind Sebastian, who firmly and repeatedly asked him to stop before they hit a wall. The small, odd group passed by an abandoned nurses station, and Ciel only saw very few nurses and doctors moving through the halls that they passed, and none of them were close enough to stop and question the strange little cohort.
What seemed to be a hundred corridors and three floors down later, the two doctors, redheaded agent and young boy entered a large, white-washed room with a large machine set into the middle of it. It had a long tray that slid into, with an array of buttons on the side for manual control, and all number of wires and cables sprouting from the base of it, snaking across the lino floor into a panel on the wall. Ciel paused as he looked around, taking it all in.
The room seemed to buckle and warp all of a sudden, and he could suddenly hear his heartbeat in his ears – there was something wrong…something not right with this place. He looked around – and saw himself. Surrounded by the large, looming shadows of tall, white-coated men. All huddled around him as he was strapped to the long tray. There was a trolley with several bloodstained instruments on it. There was blood all over their white gloves.
All over him.
"Ciel?" Sebastian's hand was suddenly touching his, dragging him away from the horrible scene and back to reality.
"Huh?"
"I was saying your name for almost a minute. Are you quite all right?" Sebastian inquired, his dark crimson eyes flaring with concern, and Ciel shook himself, realizing that both Madame Red and Grell were also watching him with looks of concern on their faces.
"I'm fine. I just…thought I saw something," he muttered, before lowering his eyes and stepping up to his aunt. "Let's do this. Before I lose my nerve."
Angeline leant down and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "Are you sure, darling? It can wait if you're not ready."
Ciel gently pulled away from her embrace, not wanting to seem ungrateful for the kind gesture of affection. "I'm sure. If not now, when? This is our chance and if we don't take it while we can, then we might never know what they did to me. To my head. To my memories." He looked up at the MRI machine. He still didn't know what MRI actually meant.
"Well then let's get this party started," Grell smirked, and Madame Red nodded, guiding Ciel over to the tray. She helped him to sit up on it, before instructing him to lie down. Against every fibre of his being, which still wracked him with the vision of the scene just moments before, Ciel obeyed, and suddenly, Sebastian rolled up at his side, the doctors pale, strong hand gently sliding over his own.
"You're all right, Ciel. I cannot be with you while the scan is being taken, but I'll be in the observatory with Red and Grell," he said softly, and Ciel rolled his head to look up at the dark haired doctor.
"I know it was only a dream, just a…made up memory – but…will you say it?" he asked quietly, and Sebastian blinked before realizing what he was asking; he remembered from when Ciel had been telling him everything he remembered. "I…I think it might help to calm me down. Just a bit."
"You're nervous."
"You're being obvious."
Sebastian smiled gently. "You have nothing to fear. But, before I said it, didn't you always have to give me an order?"
"Michaelis!" Madame Red called – she was already at the door. "Come on. We don't have much time."
Sebastian nodded, before turning back to Ciel. "Well? What is your order?"
Ciel took a deep breath. He knew Sebastian was merely indulging him in this; but it felt…nice. Almost like he was used to. If nothing in this messed up world was right, there was always Sebastian. Sebastian was his unchanging, unwavering solid rock of stability.
"After this is over, Sebastian," he whispered, his throat dry in nervous anticipation. "I…I want you…to…help me. Find my parents."
He glanced at Sebastian, who gave him a rather surprised look, but then, the surprise melted into his same old smirk.
"That's an order."
Sebastian bowed his head, as he was not able to stand and bow, before letting go of Ciel's hand and rolling back a little.
"Yes, my young Lord."
And with that, the raven haired doctor retreated from the MRI chamber and joined Grell and Madame Red up in the observatory, a small room full of more machines that would show the scanned images the MRI would take of Ciel's brain. With a nod from Ciel, Angeline started up the machine, and the tray Ciel was lying on was slowly pulled into the MRI machine. It came to a halt as nearly half of his body disappeared, and Ciel let his eyes close as several bright, red LED lights began to shine down over his face.
He felt…calm, now. Almost normal, were it not for the whir and hum of the machine all around him. He would get some answers, finally. There was no running this time. There were just going to be answers.
-:-
AfterNote:
So it wasn't a very exciting filler chapter, unless you count the shower scene where he gets soap in his eyes.
I once had to have an MRI scan, and goddamn it was the weirdest thing I've ever had done to me. (Apart from that one time with the ouija board, an over-ripe mango and the staple gun…) However, I digress. I've been having rather terrible Kuroshitsuji withdrawal symptoms lately, so instead of doing tons of writing I've been doing tons of re-watching of the anime. Because no one gets Sebastian as in character as J Michael Tatum and Daisuke Ono. My God those men make me shiver.
And now, I apparently need another job =_= away to roam the town of little opportunity! At least I won't be on my own, I've got a friend coming with me coz apparently I inspired him to do some job hunting of his own. Dear Lord, I hath created a monster…
- Mercy
