Disclaimer: You know.

One week.

Seven days.

One hundred sixty-eight hours later, Ciel Phantomhive gave up. The stress which had been weighing heavily on his thin shoulders was not worth the maintenance of his pride. Although he had done it with an impressive reluctance, he ordered Sebastian to escort Danielle to his office after his routine afternoon tea.

The door opened mere minutes after Ciel had set down an empty porcelain cup and the clink of the expensive material against its partnering plate was marked by Danielle's presence in the room. The air grew heavy with tension as the teenager shut the door behind herself, "You requested my presence, Master Phantomhive?"

The tentative way she reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, the soft tone of her voice, the proper manner in which she kept herself from meeting his eyes directly; it all grated against his nerves to act as fuel to a fire which had been sparked the second he saw her in the garden. She was acting, forcing herself into the mold of the "perfect maid" and Ciel would simply not stand for such a blatant act of fraud, "Stop. You're making me sick acting like that. We both know you are the farthest thing from a 'good' maid, so stop pretending to be one."

Resisting the urge to scoff, Danielle coolly offered her apologies only to stiffen when Ciel slammed his hands against his desk with a grunt of frustration. His chair fell backwards, a thud resonating through the room as he stood up and stalked toward her. She barely flinched when his hand jut out to harshly grab at her chin and force their eyes to meet. His next words were slow, punctuated with a tightening hold on her jaw, "Stop the act. It makes me sick."

He gained a certain sick thrill when a fire ignited behind Danielle's dark eyes, loving the challenge his saw in her expression and finding pleasure in the possibility of a return to the bickering which composed their normalcy. His obsession with her madness was obscene. She was the most difficult puzzle he had ever encountered and all he wanted to do was solve the riddle of her being. Bygones could be bygones later, right now he was close. With the knowledge of her past he was so close to solving her; so close he could feel the satisfaction of a solution in the very marrow of his bones yet he would always be just short of the finish line if she continued to refuse him access under that damned mask she wore. He would never be able to uncover the true nature of his favorite pawn if she continued to keep her true self locked away. And the thought of being plagued by Danielle's stressing presence made Ciel's stomach turn uneasily.

He needed to figure her out quickly. He needed to rid himself of the emotional strain her mere gaze left in its wake before she burned holes into his skull. He needed to get her out of his head before he only knew how to speak her name. He needed to eradicate the ache in his chest before it consumed him whole. And he would simply be damned if she kept him from doing that.

But he was not naïve enough to think she would let him do so easily. After his last words, Danielle had only remained in place for a short moment before reaching up and wrapping her smooth fingers around his wrist, pulling her face out of his hold and offering him a sharp stare as she warningly pressed her fingertips against his skin, "I'm sorry Master Phantomhive but I'm afraid I don't understand your request so if you don't mind I am going to return to my—"

Ciel Phantomhive was nothing if not used to getting his way and he had no intention to let her leave. As she began to drop her hand from his wrist and turn around he reached out and grabbed her by the forearm, spinning her around before pinning her to the door with his own body. Air whooshed from her mouth as her back slammed against the wood and her chin was grabbed again to regain lost eye contact, "Where the hell do you think you're going? Hm? Are you going to run away?" He emphasized this question with a press of his body against her own, his hips arching to cage her in as he spoke lowly, "You're no coward, Danielle. You and I both know that so don't you dare start acting like some submissive imbecile when you know damn well you are not anyone's bitch." At those words, her jaw clenched hostilely, "Stop playing into the role I've given you. You said you weren't my pawn so prove it. Show me your strength. Don't be weak enough to think you can't handle your own past."

Her heart pounded in her chest, adrenaline quickening both its pace and her breathing. She felt captivated by his harsh, truthful words, by the penetrating gaze he refused to break, but most of all by his personal hold over her. Ciel Phantomhive had the entirely strange, entirely unique way of making Danielle feel as if she were both powerful and smaller than a grain of sand. Yet as his face drew closer to hers, she had to admit, she felt much smaller and weaker than that.

"I don't want to forget what happened," the dangerous syllables of his words were marked by slow decreases in the space between their faces and each one seemed to sink like knives into the sore muscle of the heart she was trying so desperately to guard, no. "So for the love of the Queen, quit trying to make it seem as if nothing ever happened between us because something did…"

She had no time to identify the emotion which flashed in Ciel's visible eye, no time to predict his next move, no time to register his words, no time to even take a breath because in the next moment her master's lips were pressed firmly against her own with only his words left to hang heavily in air around them.

"…and I don't want that to go away."

Oops.

I was going through my old documents since I got a new laptop for college and had to transfer things and...I found this story. After many tears, many wishes to punch my 14 year old self in the face, I decided to go ahead and post a (rewritten) version of something I had already written. I don't really know where I was going with this chapter. I had two more chapters pre-written and after reading those I had even less of an idea. So. We'll see? In another 4 years time?

(Nah, jk.)

Comment.