A/n: Sorry, sorry, sorry...
With enough pressure applied, the knife could cut easily across the vulnerable skin of a young man's neck. Sebastian's hands are already covered in blood but he grabs the man before him as he squeals, reining him back to his own bloodied body.
"Hush", he murmurs, and the man's whimpers become stiff, short breaths. "I'm sure you missed me", he smiles, drawing the knife to the outstretched neck, and for a second he slackens his grip and the man underneath doesn't bother running. Good, Sebastian thinks, he remembers. And then the knife is ripped along and the blood starts flowing instantly; Dagger kicks wildly beneath him, involuntarily, for if his body allowed him he'd have closed his eyes to the sight of Beast's face and gone with that. "She'd never have loved you anyway", Sebastian murmurs, and he isn't sure if the man died before or after the words fell from his lips.
He drops the body and kicks him away. Dagger's head lops to one side and he's staring into the glazed eyes of Joker's severed head. Ciel sits in a fine garb on the edge of a rotting wooden piano, kicking restlessly as the bodies fall around him. The garter on his left leg has detached, and the striped stocking has fallen down the boy's small leg to be collected around his ankle. Sebastian's eyes fall to the small bunch and he debates whether he should fix the thing before killing the remaining two. Ciel yawns as Sebastian stands up. To the boy's right swings the curvaceous figure of the woman Ciel had referred to as a "desperate whore" when he discovered Sebastian had had her for the fun of it.
"Are you jealous, Young Master?"
Ciel had glared at him and turned away. "Kill her. That's an order."
Sebastian's lips quivered with joy, "Yes, my Lord."
She had been strung upside down from the doorway; beneath her, she had collected a small pool of blood.
"You're a monster!" Wendy screeched from the corner. Peter tried to hush her, but Sebastian was already closing in.
"Then what, pray tell, are you?" Sebastian murmured, grinning, fingers outstretched with the knives running through them.
"Please", Peter said, Wendy said. "Don't."
"I didn't", Wendy gurgled, the tears already streaming down her pretty face, "Please, I didn't want to, it was Joker, it was Joker."
"Joker's dead, dear Wendy", Sebastian said, throwing Peter to the side. The boy scrambled up and tried bolting, but by the time he reached the door, the knife was already in his skull. "And now there's only you."
Wendy's scream was perhaps the most deafening of all because Sebastian had almost liked the girl. Ah, he thought, what I do for lov-
He paused. Love. He was about to say the awful word, about to toss it about like it was nothing, in the air, around his mouth like it wouldn't make him suffer. He sniffs and stands up, wiping the blood on the dead girl's blouse. Her eyes are rolled back in her head, white and gone, and her mouth is open, forever screaming. The weakest of all. Even above the skill of Snake, she'd been the hardest to kill.
Hardest to kill. Killing had never been hard before, not at all. And yet now, Sebastian had to think about his actions, about each steep, each look. He shouldn't be looking, but he was. Ciel sat yawning on the piano, one leg over the other. Noah's Ark Circus has departed from the confines of the order as they thought some disclosed location would be safer, somehow.
They should have stayed put, Sebastian thought.
The boy bobbed his foot, the bunch of stocking sliding up and down the tiny calf. His head had lolled back to stare up, somewhere in the direction of the chandelier or the broken body of Sebastian's desperate whore. Sebastian watched him, neck bare and open. He noticed the small red marks that detailed the soft porcelain of his skin; saw the ebony of his hair glint when the sun reached him. His eyes were veiled; hands locked as if they were the only support, and Sebastian could not stop his mind wandering to a similar stance the boy had been in, head thrown back, neck bare, legs reaching. A smile crept along his lips before he stopped himself. He looked away, surveying the mess around him before turning back and walking to the boy. When Sebastian's hands touched him his leg stopped moving and he waited, head back, as Sebastian slowly glided the material over his leg. Nimble fingers move to reattach the garter and Sebastian notices the boy bite down on his bottom lip. Sebastian lets a sigh escape him and Ciel is roused, opening an eye as he launches himself up.
"What is it?"
Sebastian pauses, and looks him, shaking his head. "Shall we, Young Master?"
Ciel gives him this strange look before he pushes off onto the ground. His cane hits the floor with a light clop! and the two walk together until they reach the door where Sebastian steps aside to let the boy pass. The air that greets them is fresh; the boy had been so used to scent of death he closed his eyes as he breathed it in. Sebastian smiled at that. He takes a final glance at his handiwork, at the blood strewn across the abandoned shack and the supple, swinging body of the first girl he had. And then he turns and walks and closes that door forever.
The next town they reach proclaims the Master as the highest being to ever have graced the sad, lowly land. As Sebastian tilts his head to the soft fall of snow around him, he notes the lines of soldiers standing firm against the walls. He knows the reason they are there as much as they do, and so he takes the child by the wrist and moves him away, circling back the way they had come to the first shady inn he had spotted. The child says nothing, lets Sebastian manoeuvre him this way and that until he steps over the threshold. In that single instant when the innkeeper's eye hits the fine details of Ciel's jacket, the polished shimmer of his shoes and the pointed elegance of the cane, Sebastian wishes he had been more forceful that morning when the child had insisted on wearing the only Earl-worthy garment he still owned.
"It would not be proper to appear to them as an urchin." He had murmured in his defence.
Sebastian had looked at him and said, softly, "It would not be proper to arrive at anyone's place of residence intent on slicing their throat."
Ciel had looked up, bit his lip and whispered, "No, indeed", but by this point the buckle on his shoe had been clicked and he was not keen to redress again. As he rose, the boy knocked the plate of untouched food to the side, off the arm where it had balanced precariously for the last few minutes. Sebastian had caught it, certainly, but he was concerned with the plate's contents. He looked to Ciel, the skinny thing, and said nothing of it, though he knew the boy was nervous; noted the skip in his step, the way he fidgeted with the blue lace on his gloves. Ah, he thought, perhaps murder is not always the answer.
Though the moment the boy had learned of his antics with Beast, all sense of anxiety had been swept away by a fearsome look Sebastian could only attribute to jealously. After telling him such, the boy glared at him, had risen the cane up and had intended to bring the thing down on Sebastian's shin – how lightly he intended to do so, Sebastian was unsure – but he had smiled at the child, noted the spike of his eyebrows, the twist of his supple, silent mouth, and the cane had been brought down. From then on, they had continued in silence to the next town.
And now. Ciel looked at him - he had been sure they would continue on throughout the night - Sebastian knew he was intent on ending this thing soon, though Sebastian himself felt no need to rush at all. Sebastian, of course, had not a cent on him but for the silver of the blood-stained knives. He had not thought of that. Sebastian opened his mouth in an attempt to barter, but Ciel had already slipped the ring off his small thumb. It landed with a thump onto the counter, and the boy did not wait for the man to let them pass, pushing through and up the creaking wooden steps. The innkeeper had the ring in his hand, inspecting the gem every which way.
"The first on your left", he giggled out, "Only one bed, last room we had. One night."
Ciel's final heirloom was worth far more than one night, but Sebastian managed a stiff smile and said, "It shouldn't be a problem", before following his young master up the flight of steps.
Ciel was leaning over a pre-prepared fire as Sebastian walked in. He was bent over, cane discarded against the chair, and Sebastian watch the fire pulsate along the child's small thighs. He did not seem pleased with his handiwork, Sebastian noted, seemed no different from three days passed when Sebastian announced he had the location of his parent's murderers.
Sebastian wondered what was in that pretty head of his, and he had not a single clue how he had made it across the room. Ciel paused and stood to look at him, eyeing him carefully.
"What is it?"
Sebastian brought his fingers to the boy's chin. The fire lit up the sapphire of his eyes, made them bright and daring. It revealed the fine creases of his temples, the tucks and folds in the silk of his lips. Sebastian lent down and kissed him, and neither of them closed their eyes for a moment, until they had to, needed to. Sebastian's hand slid around the child's thin waist, Ciel's hands gripped the cotton of his shirt, pulling the killer to him. Sebastian feels the warmth of the child's mouth, the wetness of his tongue, and then the crash came from outside and the two pulled away, eyes closed. They heard the scattered apologies of two guests outside, the collection of fallen pieces, the footsteps as they left, but it was too late and the moment had passed. Ciel sighed as he dropped himself on the bed. The floor beneath him creaked with each step and floorboards seemed almost close to rot.
"I have no bed clothes", Ciel murmured, pulling the end of his neck tie. Sebastian watched the thing untie and crumple to the floor. The boy lent down to undo his shoes and Sebastian wanted ever so much to aid him but instead he left the room and returned shortly after with an oversized shirt he assumed would do finely, though Ciel seemed displeased.
How odd, Sebastian thought, that in previous dire situations he would give himself to any who so desired, and yet cannot bear the prospect of wearing another's clothes. But then Sebastian paused, watched as the boy pulled the thing down, slowly, saw Sebastian watching and pulled the thing down even slower, letting it rest just below his hips. Wrong, Sebastian thought, so very wrong… the boy wants me to make another mistake.
Sebastian collected the garments and began to fold them carefully as behind him the boy tugged at the shirt and slid himself to dangle his feet over the edge. When he was done, Sebastian turned to find Ciel as a boy, as a child, wide eyes looking down at him, Ciel with one sock, with ruffled hair and tired gaze. He found himself smiling at that.
Ciel looked away. "I'm tired", he murmured.
"Then sleep", Sebastian said, taking a seat by the fire.
Ciel did as he was told, climbed into bed, and closed his eyes. Sebastian watched him as the boy fingered the place where his father's ring had rested, and felt a slight pang. He was sure the boy felt it too, that the flat feather bed and weak fire were nothing in comparison to that ring. And so, Sebastian waited until the child's breathing slowed and stood, creeping over to the door. At a final glance he saw peace on the boy's face and hoped – to whoever was listening – he would not be plagued with nightmares. But such a nicety was soon replaced with darker thought; with the boy writhing beneath him wildly and Sebastian closed the door and walked down the stairs and forgot such things.
He'd decided to give the man an offer he couldn't refuse, as it were, though had not intended to leave him quite so frightened. There he was, like a cornered animal, slipping in his own urine, eyes wide and Sebastian walked over to him. The killer reached out, pale fingers sliding down to the knife in the man's arm. He twisted it. The groan the man let out was not the groan he wanted to hear. He tried again, twisting, pushing the knife, and the scream that erupted gave him no joy. No, indeed, the moans he desired would come from pleasure – Ciel's, specifically – and suddenly he wanted him, needed the child. Sebastian's hand darted beneath the man's coat to take the gleaming sapphire ring; his fingers enclosed around it. He threw five golden coins to the floor and murmured, "For your trouble", when really he'd pried the coins from behind the man's own locked drawer, but the man did not yet know and looked at the coins with a gleam in his eye, even despite his current state. The room reeked of his urine, so Sebastian left him and wandered out to find several curious faces collected around him.
"The poor man", he said, "broke a bottle – the glass was embedded in his foot, it took some time to remove it. Oh, yes", he nodded to a woman about to ask a question; "He was drinking heavily, of course." And at that, left the bunch to meander back to their rooms. Sebastian had other plans.
But by the time he reached the room, Sebastian knew something was not right. He heard the child's voice seeping out, heard him beg.
"Please", Ciel whispered. He heard a gasp and closed his eyes. Oh, the jealously. It ran through him like a fast poison and he found himself hating, hating, hating –
He burst through the door, yelling, knives in hand, ready to kill, to kill, to rip the heart out of the man behind this door –
- and found instead a sobbing Ciel in a blood stained shirt; the cowled man above him had driven him to the back of the bed; Sebastian watched the hand that held the knife to the child's quivering throat, the blood that seeped down his leg and arm and finally – and most painfully – the hand that danced under the boy's shirt.
The first knife punched through between the shoulder blades and sent the man reeling backwards. He dropped his knife – Ciel slid away to grab at it – and turned to confront his attacker. He saw Sebastian, saw the anger, and laughed.
"Oh, dear Sebastian", he said, "it seems you have a weakness." He smiled once more, drawing the cum-covered hand up to lick at it. "The Master says hello."
At that, Sebastian ran forward in a fit of rage, stabbing the next one through the man's chest, his leg, his neck. When he was out of knives, he scratched and kicked and bit, ripping out the jelly of the man's eyes and screaming, screaming, crying, oh..
He picked the knife from between the man's skull and stood, turning. He saw the boy on the bed and sighed at the body beneath him. Sebastian dropped it, blinking, watching the stunned boy. His leg was still mid-air, knife in hand, but he threw it aside. Sebastian was covered in the stench of blood, but Ciel did not mind. Sebastian brought a bloodied hand to back of the child's knee and rested there.
"What did he do to you", he said and it wasn't a question. The damage was clear. The boy's cheeks were tear-stained. Sebastian frowned at that, and rubbed them.
"I know", Ciel said, "That was weak of me. I've had worse."
Sebastian said nothing, moving his hand back to the child's leg.
"But I don't know why I cried. I've had worse. I've never cried. I've never-"
Sebastian's hand was sliding down the porcelain of his skin, down, down, until he felt the wetness. He looked at him, the child, flushed and shamed.
Just the way I like him.
"I think", Sebastian said, removing the blood stained shirt before pushing the boy down onto the bed. "I know why you cried."
Instantly, the fear left the child's eyes as he lowered himself back onto the bed. Ciel let a sliver of a smile escape him. "Oh?" He murmured, arms reaching back over his head. There he was, outstretched and naked and beautiful. Sebastian felt himself stiffen.
"You knew", Sebastian said, kissing down the boy's leg, "He couldn't make you feel like this."
Ciel smiled, pushing back as Sebastian slid his fingers around his cock. "Oh?"
Slowly, his hand moved, up and down, until the boy shuddered beneath him, smiling still. He brought his mouth down on him and worked to remove his own clothes before the child could climax.
Ciel giggled again. "Like what, Sebastian? I seem to have forgotten." He smiled again, "Ah.. ah..!" He threw his head back and sighed. "Perhaps you shou-uld, ah.. show me.."
Sebastian brought his mouth off the head – earning a disappointed growl – and said, "Is that an order, Yong Master?"
"Ah…" Ciel panted, bringing himself up to look at him and smiled. "Of course it is."
The smile that Sebastian showed almost made Ciel come right there. But it was the way he whispered, "Yes, my Lord" with the dancing of his fingers that made him climax the way he did. He groaned and writhed, shuddering beneath Sebastian, and opened his eyes as Sebastian brought himself up to kiss him.
The boy looked sleepy, he knew, but when he told him so, he laced his arms around Sebastian's neck and drew himself up to whisper in his ear. What he said made Sebastian smile. Oh, no, there was no way he was done with him quite yet.
But certainly, hours later, as they lay together, Sebastian felt odd. Ignoring the ever growing presence of the Master, it frightened him how willing he was to seek comfort from the child whom he would one day, soon, torture to death. For that was what he wanted of him, was it not? That was the contract that was passed between them…? His eyes softened at the boy's squirming and he kissed the child's head. Beneath him, however, Ciel was fearful of much the same, and for once, he found himself wondering if he should have given himself as the contract's prize. Especially now.
Especially now he wanted to live.