I'm sitting in my philosophy of international justice class right now and we're talking about totally important economics and immigration issues and I'm just editing gay fanfiction. But I never said I didn't have priorities.

Cause and Effect

"Mr. Michaelis?"

Sebastian looked up at the boy standing in the doorway of his classroom. He was one of the office TAs who ran around delivering papers and summons from the administration, and he was fidgeting nervously.

"Yes?"

"Um, vice principal Landers would like to see you in his office."

Sebastian frowned, glancing over at Ciel, who was sitting at the front of his class, as per usual. The last time that he had been called to the administrative offices had been when Ciel had reported him for confiscating his phone. Now his lover only shrugged back at him, as if to say "hey, it's not me this time." But before he looked back to the messenger in the doorway, Sebastian caught sight of Alois. The blonde was staring very determinately at the surface of his desk, his body language showing every sign of discomfort.

Sebastian frowned slightly, trying for a moment longer to get Alois's attention before looking back to the TA.

"Well, as you can see, I'm with a class just now. Tell Ash I'll stop by his office afterward."

The boy shook his head. "Vice principal Landers said he wants to see you now."

A few of Sebastian's students had looked up from their worksheets at this point in curiosity. Students were pulled out of class by the office all the time for one reason or another, but this was the first time Sebastian had heard of such a summons for a teacher. And were he being hailed by any other administrator, Sebastian might have been intrigued. But this was Ash, so the only things it brought forth were wariness and suspicion.

Sebastian didn't bother to try to hide the annoyance in his voice when he responded. "Really, now. And who does Ash suppose is going to supervise my class in the interim? I don't suppose you'd like to, would you?"

A few of Sebastian's students snickered, and the messenger boy's face reddened. "I-I don't know, Mr. Michaelis. All I know is that you're supposed to go to vice principal Landers's office ASAP."

Sebastian sighed. "Fine, fine." He stood, looking around at his class. "Continue working on your worksheets, and if you get bored of those just read ahead to tomorrow's reading." Sebastian made sure to pass by Alois's desk on the way out, but the boy was still adamantly avoiding eye contact with him.

The walk to the administration offices was silent between Sebastian and the boy, and he found his mind wandering to wonder what could be the purpose of his visit. He had suspicions that it might have something to do with Ciel, especially considering he really didn't buy Ciel's description of the conversation he and Ash had at the wedding. He'd acted cool and collected that night, but Sebastian had seen the troubled look in his eyes.

After they got to the offices the boy went off on his next errand, and Sebastian went to knock on the vice principal's door. He found he was looking forward to a one on one conversation with the man about as much as he'd look forward to one with Claude, so he was trying to ignore their similarities of character. He knew that Claude was after Ciel, and the pervasive thought that the boy's newly christened uncle was as well had been one that until now he'd tried hard to keep at bay.

When he knocked on the door he was asked to enter and he did so.

The office Sebastian walked into was not the office he had expected. In Sebastian's mind Ash's office was bare, cold, and sterile. To match his personality, obviously. But the man's office was actually quite the opposite. The walls were hung with original artworks, and his desk had plenty of framed photos and knick knacks. One of the photographs on his desk, not entirely to his surprise, was Angelina, and next to it, one of Ciel.

Seeing his lover's face on Ash's desk turned his stomach, but he tried hard not to so blatantly focus on it. Instead he looked up at the man's face, which naturally wasn't any more pleasant.

"Hello, Sebastian. Thank you for coming to see me on such short notice. I apologize for the inconvenience." His oily drawl implied that he really didn't care much at all about the inconvenience. "Please, sit."

Sebastian sat down in front of his desk. "I'd hope so. I had to leave a class unattended. I'm guessing this must be rather important." Sebastian had toyed with the idea of feigning politeness, but he was finding he didn't care much. He didn't trust Ash, and he certainly didn't respect him.

"It is." Ash leaned back in his chair, nonplussed by his candor. "It has to do Alois Trancy, who I'm aware is one of your students that you are particularly close with."

Sebastian frowned, sitting up slightly. "Alois? What about Alois?"

Ash opened his desk drawer and pulled out an apple, absentmindedly shining it on the cuff of his jacket sleeve. "He has approached the administration with accusations concerning an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of your colleagues. Do you know anything about this?"

Alois came forward about Claude. Sebastian couldn't help but be surprised. The last time he'd talked about Claude with Alois the boy had seemed unsure as to whether he would say anything, and even if he'd decided to, Sebastian had assumed Alois would want to talk to him more about it first. Regardless, he felt a sense of relief that Claude would finally be taken care of such that he wouldn't harass any more students, Ciel and Alois included.

Sebastian realized that if he talked about having suspected (or any knowledge of) the abuse then he would have to divulge a great deal more information about his relationships with Ciel and Alois than he wanted to to justify why he hadn't come forward sooner. So instead he decided to be somewhat selective of the information in his answer.

"No, I hadn't heard anything about this. Though I can speak to Claude's character when I say that I'm not surprised. And Alois has seemed somewhat despondent in class recently."

Ash nodded, turning his apple in front of his eyes and scrutinizing it. "I see. And I agree that Claude is just slimy enough to do such a thing." Ash glanced briefly at Sebastian before looking back to his apple. "Not that you can really say too much about inappropriate relationships with students."

Sebastian felt a chill run down his spine. Ash had spoken with a painful casualness that effectively shook him. "Excuse me?"

Ash smirked, glancing up at him. "Don't be childish about this, Sebastian. You came to my wedding and sat at a table with no one else but Ciel and Alois. Not to mention your late night visit to our house the other night to speak with Ciel. I know there's something going on there."

Sebastian just looked back at him unwaveringly. "I thought this was about Claude and Alois."

"It is." Ash looked away from him, biting into his apple. "Right now I'm the one in charge of investigating Alois's claims and enacting sanctions against Claude. Now." Ash turned in his chair to face Sebastian head on, looking at him carefully. "There are a couple of things that I could do." He took another bite of his apple, slowly chewing it as he watched Sebastian's expression closely. "I could take every word of Alois's as gospel and bring the force of God down on Claude's head. I could get him thrown from the school and likely into a courtroom and make this school just that much safer for every student within it."

Sebastian felt a sick feeling creeping up into his stomach when he saw the amused gleam in Ash's shiny eyes.

"Or… I could have the whole thing swept under the rug. Tell Alois that his claims are not substantiated by any evidence, while subtly implying that if he tries to say anything to anyone else no one will believe him anyway, and let those ideas swirl around in his head until his own shame and humiliation double up on themselves and he becomes even more irreparably damaged and self loathful." Ash grinned here, his eyes shining with a cruelty that Sebastian hadn't seen on another person before in his life.

"…What do you want, Ash?" Sebastian's voice was low and thick with disgust.

"I want you to disconnect yourself from Ciel and his affairs. I don't care what your relationship has been before now, but I want it dissolved. And I don't just want you to stop seeing him, I want you to stop caring. Really, the best way I think you could attain this is by leaving the school. I would be perfectly happy to write you a lovely letter of recommendation so you can find work elsewhere." He smiled again, taking a generous bite from his fruit.

Sebastian only stared back at him in shock. Ash was actually blackmailing him. He was holding Alois's sexual abuse over his head to make him leave Ciel. His mind was working into overdrive trying to both accept what it was he was hearing and trying to find a way out of the man's trap.

"…You're making me leave." Sebastian's voice was tight and only barely controlled.

"I'd like it if you left. It would make things easier for everyone." Ash shrugged a little, still positively bleeding casual control.

"And you're blackmailing me." Sebastian stared back at him, his voice stronger as he was overcome with indignance.

"I prefer to think of it as a business transaction. You give me what I want, and I give you what you want. You leave the school and end contact with Ciel, and I make sure Alois gets every ounce of justice that he deserves. Really, it's mutually beneficial."

"Or I could tell the board that you're blackmailing another teacher and threatening to not take action on a situation of sexual abuse between a student and a teacher."

Ash smiled. "And then I could tell them about your own inappropriate relationship with a student."

Sebastian shook his head. "You don't have any evidence to support a claim like that. In a case of my story versus your story, you're the one who loses."

The two of them stared across Ash's desk at each other, considering the other's threat. Sebastian knew that in a larger investigation into him, Ciel, Claude, Alois, and Ash there would be repercussions for everyone, and no one would come out of it well. They seemed to be at an impasse as each of them realized that they weren't willing to sacrifice their own privacy in their personal matters.

"Well, Sebastian. We seem to be at an interesting gridlock. Neither of us is particularly ethically sound in our actions, and yet we both want things. Things that clash with the things that the other wants." Ash had set his apple down on his desk, watching him closely.

"Indeed. That does seem to be the case."

"I understand that you'd be rather reluctant to leave the school even with Alois's situation at stake. Which is rather cold of you, you know."

"I would do nearly anything to protect my students."

"Nearly."

They were again silent.

"…Alright, Sebastian. You do what you have to do. I'll make sure Claude is sanctioned. You called my bluff. But you might want to consider what I said about staying out of Ciel's affairs. Because I am aware that there is a relationship between you and Ciel, and that's just such a burdensome thing to know. It's the sort of thing that might accidentally slip to my wife were I confiding in her the stresses of my work."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at Ash. The man might have realized that withholding information about Claude and Alois was too dangerous, but this threat was something entirely real and possible.

"Are you about finished?" Sebastian let the coldness and disgust into his voice as he spoke.

Ash nodded, leaning back in his chair and picking up his apple again. "You can go."

Sebastian stood and left the office, glancing down at Ciel's picture on Ash's desk as he did and wishing he could rescue it from this toxic room.

Sebastian strode quickly back to his classroom, unsurprised to find when he got there that his students were all talking and whispering to each other. Once he entered the room they all looked down quickly and pretended to continue their work, but Sebastian had little interest in their charades.

"Class is dismissed. Go home."

They all looked at each other for a moment.

"You heard me. Go."

In a flurry of excitement and confusion his students packed up their bags to leave, and the room was emptied in a matter of minutes. Empty, of course, except for Alois and Ciel.

Ciel walked over to Sebastian, frowning. "What is it? What did Ash say?"

Alois was still back by his desk, leaning against it and looking off.

Sebastian touched Ciel's arm, but turned his attention to Alois. "It will be handled, Alois. You don't have to worry about it."

Alois looked up, looking relieved, and nodded. "They told me that Ash was the person I needed to talk to about it, and I was afraid he wouldn't do anything."

Sebastian shook his head. "You don't have to worry. It's not something he can afford not to take action on."

Ciel was frowning in confusion between them, but must have sensed that this wasn't a conversation he was meant to be a part of. "Is everything okay?"

Sebastian looked at him. "Yes. Well, sort of. Ciel, you need to tell your aunt about us."

Ciel's eyes widened. "What? Why? Does Ash know?"

"Ash isn't an idiot. He figured it out. Well, he's at least figured out that there's some sort of relationship between us. He's threatening to tell her about it, so I need you to beat him to it so he loses any power over us. It would be much better coming from you." Sebastian gently stroked Ciel's hair, his voice softening. "And it's about time you told her regardless, don't you think?"

Ciel looked off. "…I suppose."

Alois walked over to them, turning Ciel to face him. "Don't be stupid, Ciel."

Ciel blinked at the aggressiveness of Alois's statement. "Excuse me?"

Alois sighed with annoyance. "This is Angie we're talking about here, Ciel. You can't seriously think she'd give you shit for liking guys. Even if he is old and crusty and your teacher. If you explain to her exactly what you feel and the kind of relationship you have, she can only be happy for you. Okay?"

Ciel nodded a little. "…I suppose you're right."

Sebastian bent to kiss the top of Ciel's head. "As much as I hate to say it, Alois is right. Your aunt will understand, Ciel. If you want I can be there with you when you talk to her."

Alois made a face. "Uh, no. I don't think you need to sit there and be a dinosaur while he tries to explain things to her. I don't think there needs to be a visual reminder that you're like fifty and creepy."

Sebastian made a noise of impatience. "Alois, I'm not fifty."

Alois shrugged. "Whatever. You're still old. And if you're there towering over Ciel while he tries to tell her that you exercise no control over their relationship it won't look good."

Ciel nodded a little. "He has a point, Sebastian. I should talk to her myself."

Sebastian nodded reluctantly. "Alright." He kissed the top of his head again. "Just text or call me if you need anything at all, alright?"

Ciel nodded. He might have had something else he was going to say, but Alois grabbed Ciel's arm, pulling him toward the door. "You can be all mushy later, but we need to get back to your house and talk to Angie before the Creepy goes home."

Ciel nodded, waving back at Sebastian as he was dragged out. "I'll call you, okay?"

Sebastian waved. "Please do." And before the two of them were out of the classroom he made eye contact with Alois for a moment, and in that half a second he nodded slightly, and he sensed the boy's thank you for Sebastian's role in his own situation.

After they were gone, Sebastian went back and sat at his desk, hoping to get some work done before Ciel called him with the news of how things went with Angelina. But before he started in on his work, he took his phone out to text Claude.

As unnerving and threatening as his conversation with Ash had been, it had left Sebastian with the joyously good news that action would be taken against Claude for his abusing Alois. Ash had bluffed that he would sweep the situation under the rug, but they both knew that this wasn't something he could ignore and keep his job (and avoid a scandal of his own). Calling that bluff might have switched Ash's threats toward Ciel, but Sebastian didn't regret even slightly making sure to secure Claude's sanctioning. And it was making him grin all over.

"I'd like to say that karma's a bitch, but really this is just cause and effect."

He didn't have to wait long for Claude's response.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Sebastian smiled.

"Justice, my dear friend. Justice that I'm fairly certain will sting more than the end of my fist did."

This chapter has actually been done for days, but I had to keep putting off editing it because of midterms. But I plan on punching those in the face soon, so I said fuck it and decided to edit it during class.