Chapter 26 – Downhill Again

Ciel slept quietly that night, he felt a small relief within himself, some weight off his shoulders. Part of him knew that it would be a struggle for him to let go of his pride and to ask for help should he need it. And Sebastian, who continued to lay beside him knew that it wasn't going to be an overnight cure, he was expecting to have to remind Ciel a fair few more times for the message to truly sink in. But the demon had a lot more patience now than he had before, and that, to some, may have been a good thing for the demon.

Sebastian stayed by Ciel for most of the night, it may have not been what the earl had intended but first and foremost Sebastian was Ciels butler, and as his butler he needed to tend to the duties within the manor, and to keep an eye on the trio of trouble makers that they had in the form of servants. The butler slowly detached Ciel from his person, the teenager had somewhat ended up hugging him like a sloth in the middle of the night, but the demon hadn't cared. As Sebastian finally got himself free he placed next to the earl one of the new Funtom Bitter Rabbit prototypes that had been delivered just the day before. Personally, the demon thought it would be funny to see if Ciel would curl up to the teddy in his current state. Since well, he was pregnant and he was breaking all the stereotypical norms.

Sadly, Ciel just remained as he was, curled up slightly under the covers as he slept. "Oh well, there's always the time between now and when I come back with his breakfast for him to cuddle up to it." Sebastian murmured to himself quietly so he wouldn't wake Ciel, before quietly turning and leaving the room.

The door to Ciels room closed with a soft click, a cool breeze running through the hallway sent whispers around the manor. It was nice, nice and quiet for the demon, he wanted to get as much done before the other servants woke up.

As Sebastian worked through his usual list of morning chores, he couldn't help but think the worst. Ciel was human, he was frail and could die any moment. It was something the demon didn't like considering, he always took the view that Ciel would most certainly live until he completed his revenge, despite the fact that the pair were now lovers and the boundaries within the contract were starting to blur, but now he wasn't so sure, he didn't quite know what to do to ensure that Ciel survived, not just for Ciels sake.

Back in Ciels' room, the young earl continued to sleep away, unaware of what was happening to him. He hadn't noticed it, having become quite a deep sleeper through his pregnancy, but his temperature had crept up to an alarming level. Sebastian had expected him to fall ill again, like the many times he had before, but the demon, when he realised, was most definitely not prepared for what he was going to return to.

Ciel lay, almost unconscious, in his sleep beads of sweat rolled from his forehead, pain splintering through his spine, it was most certainly not pregnancy related, maybe someone had found out about Ciel's condition, maybe they had crept in when Sebastian was unaware and done something to the earl in order to make him suffer or to see what would happen during the pregnancy. Maybe it was something that Sebastian had given Ciel, after all Ciels health was frail in the first instance, it could have been something that Sebastian had caused, that he had no idea he had.

Mey-Rin was the first to notice Ciels' state, she had come into the room an hour or so after Sebastian had left to do his duties, she frowned when she noticed that despite Ciel seemingly sleeping, had some form of pain. Ciel may have been able to hide pain that he was in, he was good at that, but he wasn't able to hide this pain in his almost unconscious state.

Carefully, she walked over to Ciels bedside, cautiously placing her hand over his forehead, almost flinching at the temperature, it was much higher than a human should have been able to handle. "MISTER SEBASTIAN!," the young maid yelled as she ran into the adjoining bathroom and grabbing a cool cloth to put on Ciels forehead, she had to try and help reduce the fever. She didn't want anything bad to happen to her master.

Sebastian appeared in the doorway barely a second after Mey-Rin had placed the cool cloth on Ciels forehead, he wasted no time in ordering the maid to run a cold bath for Ciel, he needed to drop the temperature, else who knew what would happen to Ciel.

Whilst the bath was running Sebastian gently shook Ciel, wanting to at least bring him into some form of consciousness. He wanted to make sure that Ciel was going to be ok.

"Its run," Mey-Rin said after a few minutes, walking into Ciels room from the adjoining bathroom. Sebastian nodded and picked Ciel up carefully and bringing him to the bathroom. Sebastian had just about managed to bring Ciel into some consciousness, the earl was unable to make any sense, but he was somewhat there and awake.

The demon lowered Ciel into the cold water, still with his clothes on, getting a hiss from Ciel as the cool water touched his scorching body. Sebastian could do nothing for the pain that Ciel was in, he wished he could have done, he hated seeing Ciel in pain, he just whispered soothing words, hoping that Ciel could understand them in his state.

Mey-Rin stood at the door, wanting to know if her master would be ok, she waited with anticipation, watching Sebastian care for Ciel, being ever gentle with his frail lord.

Ciel spent about an hour in the cold water, before his temperature even started to reduce, and even then, Sebastian wouldn't take him out of the water until it was at least half of that when Mey-Rin summoned him.

Just when I hoped that Ciel could pull through what's been plaguing him these last few months… Sebastian thought to himself with a sigh, I don't know what to do, its only be about 4 months or so and he keeps getting worse, he won't be able to make it to 9 months if something isn't done…

"What should I do…?"

Authors note

Hey Phantom here, sorry for the delay in updating, things have been busy for me. I hope to have more updates soon.