Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji is Yana Toboso's lovely playground. I just bring my toys of plots and play in it.
-Thank you all for reading! This is the final chapter, so I hope I do (did?) your expectations justice!
Eleventh Hour
Chapter 11: Lament
I woke up early, it seemed, wrapped in Sebastian's strong arms facing his pale chest. 'Again... we took place in that act again... but-'
"I take it you are awake now, Bo-chan?" Sebastian's voice was deepened by sleep, and sent wondrous chills running down my spine.
"Yes... Sebastian, I need you to do something." I dreaded this thought, but it had to be done. I needed it to happen.
"Of course, my Lord. What is it?" 'Ever the faithful servant, isn't he?'
"Send word to Elizabeth. I need to discuss something of importance with her." I knew my cold tone gave him a clue as to what I was going to tell her, but he was not going to get it out of me.
"Yes, my Lord." 'Now I just wait until my next pawn returns so it can be discarded...'
I was dressed in my usual blue, waiting anxiously for Elizabeth to burst through the doors of my mansion shouting my name at the top of her lungs. Apparently, I was psychic that day.
"Ciel-kun!" Her voice reached me easily, even in my study. I left the room quickly and made my way to the foyer. 'Time to get this over with...'
"Lizzy," I started, knowing her nickname would lighten her up for the earth-shattering news I was about to tell her. "There is something that I really need you to understand..."
"Okay... What is it?" She seemed all too eager.
"I... I am afraid that you are no longer my fiancee... There... there's someone else that means more to me. I am sorry, but as long as you are my fiancee I cannot truly be with this person completely... Please tell me that you understand..." 'I must have just broken her... If she starts crying I have no idea what to do...'
"Really? Who... who is it? It isn't... It isn't that maid of yours, is it?" She didn't seem upset, but the way she referred to Mey-rin was almost insulting the poor red-head.
"No... It is not her..."
"Oh! Is it... Is it... Sebastian!" Immediately he entered the room. I felt my cheeks grow warm as she said his name. 'Not good... Please tell me that she did not notice that...'
"Yes, Lady Elizabeth? Do you require something?"
"I was just wondering... Do you know who it is that Ciel likes?" The distinct curiosity in her voice made him smile slightly, and as he looked at me the smile only got wider. 'Please, Sebastian... Don't...'
"I may have an inkling as to who the person is, but I am not completely sure of it so I am afraid I cannot answer you question. Forgive me, Lady Elizabeth." His smirk said it all. He was changing the rules to the game. My game.
"Oh... Oh well! Ciel-kun, it does make me sad that I won't get to be with you, but I just want you to be happy more than anything else. I just want to see your beautiful smile!" Her grin could have lit up the sky brighter than the sun, given the chance, and her green eyes sparkled with truth and honesty.
"I truly am sorry, Elizabeth..."
"Ciel-kun! I told you to call me 'Lizzy'!" A pout was placed firmly upon her face.
"Fine then, Lizzy, that was all I needed to tell you. Feel free to stop by again, but please, please send notice ahead of time." I turned and left the foyer, leaving my former fiancee and my demon butler to look after me as I traced my steps back up to my study. Upon entering, I saw a bright red letter sitting upon my desk. I opened it to find that even the writing was in red, but dark enough to where it could be seen easily on the vivid paper.
'My dear little Phantomhive,
I hope you know that do to your current relation ship with my Sebastian makes us enemies. I look forward to seeing the pure red from your veins light up the sky someday soon so I can take my rightful place at Sebas-chan's side. Until then, Earl, enjoy the time you have left. The next time we meet may be the last.
Grell Sutcliff'
'Great... So now I have a Shinigami after me, too? Oh well.. Grell is not the biggest threat. He can be easily disposed of.' I sat at my desk staring blankly at the letter that I still held in my hands.
"Bo-chan? Is everything alright? You seem... distracted, somehow." Sebastian was standing behind me, reading the letter silently. "Oh... Should I dispose of the troublesome Shinigami? It wouldn't be much of a hassle at all..."
"No... He's an essential pawn in this game. However, I have an order, Sebastian. You are to take my soul. Today. Our contract's terms have been met for a while now. It is long overdue that you got your reward.
Sebastian looked pained as he laid his hand over his heart, "Yes... my Lord." His voice was full of regret.
I followed him blindly. Through an endless maze of trees and brush, walking down a path that could barely be seen. Sebastian was silent, and for once his quietness wasn't comforting. For some reason, I dreaded what was going to happen. Even though Sebastian craved my soul, he distressed, now having come to the time to take it. We finally passed through the trees and we were in a stone garden. Statues were perched upon marble pedestals, and grand pillars were in each of the four corners. In the middle, under the gaze of a stone demon and angel, sat a black bench. The stone was smooth and the colour went beyond black, flickering in the pale light as if it had fire living inside it, like beautiful onyx.
I sat on the bench, waiting ever-so patiently. Sebastian knelt before me, with great pain set deep into his ruby eyes.
"Sebastian, stop your worry. End your pain. This is something I want and that I chose. I wish not to see you troubled, so end this quickly, before I can bear witness to your suffering no longer." My voice, though quiet and some-what nervous, traveled across the stone garden easily, making me sound much more sure of myself than I actually was.
"Yes... my Love." His pain was even projecting itself through his voice, his words becoming daggers to my still-beating heart. I gazed around the garden one last time, realizing that there was a grand obsidian castle behind Sebastian. 'His home,' I thought. 'Will he live there once I am gone?'
"Do it, Sebastian. End it."
Confusion, pain, anger, regret, happiness and sadness all flashed through his eyes over the period of a single second. Then he slowly leaned closer to me, hips lips lightly brushing mine before pressing against my eye.
Sebastian's POV
'I hate to lead him on, but I do not intend on breaking that promise I made to him. I will not consume his soul; he will become a demon like myself, so that I may spend forever at his side.'
I removed my lips from his eye, watching as my Young Master slumped over, unconscious, on the stone bench. Now, all that was left to do was wait, and remember everything that Ciel and I have done...
Ciel's POV
Everything was so warm -like a fire had started within me. The black got darker, and I could feel myself being consumed...
My eyes fluttered open. I was in a stone garden, and it seemed so familiar, but where could I know this place from?
"Are you awake now, Young Master?" The deep voice brought back all my memories. IT was Sebastian. He's the one who loved me... the one who killed me.
"Why! Why didn't you just take my soul? I trusted you! I trusted you... to take my soul and moved on... I... I loved you... Why? Why do this to me?" I was trembling, but not from chill. I was shaking in pure anger and frustration. 'Why? Why had Sebastian not fulfilled the covenant?'
"Ciel... Young Master, please understand... I could not take your soul. You are too important to me. I could not kill you and then live the rest of eternity knowing it. It would have caused me more grief than anything else in the world. I did not intend to break that promise we made, Bo-chan. I will stay by your side forever. And now, I truly can." There was a sad smile on his lips, like he was glad I was still here, but upset that I didn't appreciate the gesture.
"What do you mean, 'And now you can.'?" He did something to me, that was for certain. Everything seemed different somehow. Like I was instantly more powerful than before.
"You... are now like me." Sebastian's words were spoken in a soft whisper, but somehow I heard them with perfect clarity.
"Wait... you don't mean that... I'm a demon now?" I knew my look was incredulous. 'He... turned me into a demon so that we could be together?'
"Forgive me, Ciel... I simply could not bear the thought of living forever without you."
"Sebastian..." I raised his bowed head slowly, drawing our lips together. "Thank you."
