Time passed and soon, snow began to cover the earth as December made it to the people's calendars. There came a day, around late November to early December, wherein Ciel and Sebastian went to London, to the Ice Top Market and they won the ice sculpting contest. Well, as expected again of Sebastian. It was for some sort of ring but sadly, some gang wanted that ring and it was chaos.
Of course, once that twelfth month arrives, there can only be two things to remember: Ciel's birthday and the Phantomhive annihilation. Amelia realized this and she became worried for her cousin. 'Not once has he mentioned anything about his birthday,'
So now, it's a day before his birthday and to be honest they, meaning the three stooges, Amelia and Tanaka, want to celebrate it.
"Tomorrow it's his… you know. Why can't we celebrate it?"
"It's a rare occasion, so why can't we make it fantastic and lovely, yes?"
"I know right? But knowing him, he would just… think of it as a hindrance or maybe a waste of time." The housekeeper said, picking up dried leaves off the ground. Then they heard some jiggling bells, their heads turn to see a carriage. A curly-haired blonde young lady, wearing pink, stuck her head out the carriage while waving her hand.
Oh yes, it's Lizzie.
"I'm here!" she cheered happily. Mey-rin, Finnian and Amelia all had the same reaction. "L-Lady Elizabeth?!"
With dread looming over the winter air, Amelia Midford slouches for a while and gripped on the broom she held. She prayed that whatever purpose the younger Midford has in her sudden arrival, would not involve another round of wearing her frilly dresses. With a sigh, she turns to her co-workers. So I'll take that as a sign to pick up our speed. Let's return inside after, and who knows, maybe Lady Elizabeth has some dance parties up her sleeve."
The doors of the Phantomhive manor burst open, revealing a young lady in pink which happened to be Elizabeth, the fiancée of the head of the said manor.
"Ciel~~~!" the girl squealed, running in the mansion, up the staircase and grabbed Ciel's hands. She spun the startled young earl around while giggling happily. After she had her fun, she placed a small red box with a fuchsia ribbon tied around it. "Here! This is for you! Open it, now, quickly!"
Confused, Ciel just followed her demands with a bored expression and used his other hand which was wearing the family heirloom, yes the ring, on his thumb.
Elizabeth grabbed this hand, quite surprised at the sight of the ring she clearly smashed to tiny pieces in front of everyone. "Wh-what? I thought I broke that!" she said. With a dismissive tone, Ciel only replies, "Ah, Sebastian repaired it."
"No way! It was all cracked! I don't even see any flaws!" Elizabeth couldn't believe her eyes. The said butler raised a hand to his chest and replied, "Such skill is only natural for one—!"
"Who serves as a butler for the Phantomhives." Ciel cut in and finished the quote overused by his demonic butler. "Exactly as you say." The butler only smiled his fake smile, and the two males didn't notice that Elizabeth took a step back, now feeling down.
"I see… Sebastian…"
"My Lady…?" her maid, Paula took a step closer to her, worried.
"Lady Elizabeth, what is in that little box?" asked the butler clad in black. At that, Elizabeth snapped out of her sulking, and stuttered; her voice rising in different pitches. "Ah, this? Oh, this! It is just… er, a secret!" she quickly snatched the small box from her fiancé's hands.
"Huh? Didn't you just say you were giving it to me?"
She faked another smile, "That was an f-e-i-n-t, feint~! A lady who tries to catch a man with gifts is no lady. It's unseemly, especially for someone like me. Now Paula, ring your bells!"
"Yes, My Lady!" the said maid grabbed the said thing from behind her and put up a smile, jiggling the tiny bells with all enthusiasm. "Well then, good day to you!" Elizabeth turned around and dragged her maid outside the large manor with her.
"So… what did she come over for then?"
"Tomorrow is your birthday, Young Master. Perhaps that was the reason?"
The young earl's eyes widened for a while before it returned to its original shape, a small frown coming along with it. "How about it, Young Master? Shall we hold a party? It looks as if there are others who are hoping to celebrate, too."
Meaning, the three stooges plus Amelia and Tanaka. Those five were peeking from behind a pillar they were hiding in.
"My birthday…" Ciel started, reminiscing his dramatic and tragic past, few flashbacks of the said birthday two years ago and of what used to be that can never be returned.
"I was so looking forward to it; to my birthday." Ciel turned on his heel and headed the other way as he murmured to himself.
"Young Master?"
"Ridiculous. Bring me tea in my room." His voice was colder than ice as he ordered his butler, heading east and up on the staircase. "Right ahead." Sebastian said with a fake smile plastered on his face. After a while, his face turned serious, somehow rather, not amused.
That evening, in some part in London, Elizabeth was stuck in traffic. Not minding that, she stared at the little box which was supposed to be her gift for Ciel. Paula, her maid, looked out of the carriage window as she sat across her young lady.
"I wonder if it's because of work on the Underground?" the maid trailed off, noticing Elizabeth's gloominess. "A-Ah, My Lady, please look!" she went on with ringing the bells she had with her.
"Paula."
"Yes?" Jingle. Jingle.
"You always look so happy." Elizabeth said, making the maid somehow shocked by her comment and she sweat-dropped. She stammered with the bells, causing it to ring continuously. "I—I'm sorry!"
"Oh, I'm not scrutinizing you. It's just that I'm quite envious. You're so radiant and you never seem to worry." She said, reassuring the maid as she leaned back on her seat. "My Lady, you're normally quite carefree yourself." Paula replied, gone a little too honest.
Elizabeth looked up at her when she said that with a knowing look and the maid did a follow-up, "Th—that aside, we really aren't getting anywhere, are we? If we get stuck here until nightfall, what on earth will we do?" as Paula said this, the blue diamond ring, the Shard of Hope, started to glow in the little box.
Elizabeth started to hear music playing and she looked outside. She saw a puppet-like man playing a music box, yes it was 'London Bridge' he was playing, and then he disappeared in the shadows.
Enchanted, the blonde Midford leaves the carriage with Paula not realizing this, since the brunette maid was staring out the other window, trying to get a glimpse of how much longer the traffic would last. Trying to ease the worry she felt, she mutters, "Ah, but that might be kind of like camping, so it could be fun My La—!"
She gasped, seeing the empty seat across her and the open carriage door. "My Lady? My Lady!" she stepped out, calling for her master but to no avail.
Back to Elizabeth, she followed the music, took turns on some narrow alleyway and all that, 'til she stopped by a doll shop.
"Welcome." The puppet-like man greeted her, a leg over the other as he sat down with the music box on his lap. Elizabeth was startled by him. "U—Uhm…"
The puppet-like man stood up from his seat. "That ring… how unfortunate. It has not chosen you as its master." He monotonously said with a small frown on his lips as he stepped closer to the young lady, who at the moment was looking down on the supposed-to-be gift for her fiancé that she wore on her thumb.
"However, your eyes…" the man crouched down to level his face with hers, and a hand tried to touch her face. This made Elizabeth quite uncomfortable, avoiding his touch and a little pink tinting her cheeks.
"A—Ah, C—Ciel is the only man I…"
"Your eyes have such tremendous depth and sadness in them. I can tell. They're incredibly melancholic." As he said this, tears began to form in the emerald eyes of the said girl. Well, this emotional girl ended up explaining and opening up with this stranger as she cried, consumed by her own emotions.
"I see. A birthday present."
"I—I wanted to ch—cheer Ciel up." She hiccups.
"There are many wares here, and they are all wonderfully fantastic items." Puppet-man said, with finger puppets on his fingers. This made Elizabeth to stop her crying as she looked at him.
The clock suddenly chimed, which said seven in the evening. The music box suddenly played and Elizabeth smiled a little as she looked at those dolls that sure looked quite realistic—as though the dolls were once young human girls.
"I shall give you whichever one you wish. Please choose whatever you will." He followed the gaze of the girl across her. Running out of polite words to decline, the young blonde stutters, "B—But…"
"Ah, I understand. To you, these are all the same." Suddenly he bent like how a doll does, "Therefore, I reason, for a superior present, to be given to a very dear person…" he raised his arm and held his top hat, before he bent down stiffly.
The puppet man looked up at Elizabeth, a scary smile on his face while the girl's face was reflected on his eyes.
"The most suitable thing would be… your very self."
Back at the Phantomhive manor, a telephone ringing could be heard. The housekeeper, Amelia, was the one who answered it and was pretty much displeased by the sudden news she heard from Paula.
She quickly ran towards Ciel's study, with Sebastian in there, not minding to knock anymore. "E-Elizabeth… sh—she's gone missing." The brunette held her breath, trying to calm her nerves. Ciel couldn't believe what he just heard from his fiancée's sister.
"What? She's disappeared?"
"I just said that." Her voice was sharp as the glare in her eyes before she ran a hand through her brunette bangs. "Her maid said that she lost sight of her around Islington." She spat out at him, clearly annoyed by the situation at hand. "Then, we'll move out immediately." Ciel wasted no time and stood up from his seat. "For Heaven's sake, what was she thinking?"
"I have no idea. We just have to go. Look for her. Now."
"Before that, I have this for you." Sebastian interrupted the two of them, showing the silver platter with a sealed envelope, a letter from Her Majesty. This caused an angry groan to erupt from the housekeeper.
Amelia had no choice and waited as Ciel read the letter. "Scotland Yard is frantically continuing their search in the case where only young girls are kidnapped. The bodies of the girls have not been found, but most likely…"
Without finishing the thought, he continued. "The culprit sends out the Shard of Hope to those who would become targets. The mysterious gem that brings ill fortune to its owner. To return to the tale of this treasure, having previously failed to acquire it." The housekeeper raised a brow at this, her foot tapping impatiently on the floor.
"What shall we do?" asked the butler. The little earl placed the letter down on his table and said, "We shall ease the Queen's gloom. That is our highest priority, no matter what happens."
'Oh the beloved Queen, the Queen… it's her again!' Amelia thought, number of curses rang through her head.
The butler stared at his master, again with another stern and sort of bored look on his face while the housekeeper punched the nearest thing she could punch, which happened to be a shelf, venting out the pent anger on the furniture before she can hit any one of the males in the room.
"Okay, I just had to hit something so I could calm down." She said right after the books fell off, catching the two males' attention. She forced a smile, them knowing the reason why she would react like that.
"Pardon the intrusion."
The puppet dude said, opening the doors as he walked in stiffly. "I have made my Master wait. Master, what should the doll be this time?" he said, down on one knee, and hand to his chest.
"Make it out of wax and stone, wax and stone, wax and stone. Make it out of wax and stone, my fair lady~" his master sang for an answer, while waving his hand about.
"Understood."
Meanwhile, Amelia, Sebastian and Ciel were riding the carriage in silence. The woman was probably still quite pissed by what Ciel declared a few moments ago, seeing that her arms were crossed while looking down on her feet, avoiding the gazes of the other two men.
Ciel was looking out the carriage window, whilst his butler turned to look at him. "Young Master?" the little dude closed his eyes, as if thinking deeply and said, "Open the carriage door."
The housekeeper's head snapped up and Sebastian's eyes widened, speaking, "Pardon?"
"Go and question the victims' families and make a list of suspects. We need names and addresses. Sneak into the crime scenes. You should be able to achieve all that within three hours, no?" he never looked back at the butler, but the demon's reflection could be seen through the window.
"In the meantime, I will take care of some minor business. That is all."
"I see." The demon's eyes narrowed in the slightest and he looks at the housekeeper through the corner of his eyes.
"Hurry up and get on with it."
"Yes, My Lord."
The moment he said that, he jumped out the carriage and ran. Ciel leaned back his seat and Amelia stared at him, the glare softening but the visible blue eye not meeting her own forest green pair of eyes. "Minor business, huh?"
A/N: YAY AN UPDATE AFTER A LONG TIME. tbh I kind of slacked...lacked the motivation... hahaha I'm so sorry.
jenny - I'll think about that. XDD I don't know if I'll do that or not but I promise I'll think about it. XD
gene-edge - YAY GLAD YOU LIKED IT! :D
Lorelei Tatsuye Marivaine - HAHA You noticed this I'm thankful XDD and also for that question mwahaha!
chocolaterose - O.O That's a loooot of questions. But... THANK YOU hahha!