Hey hey hey! This is probably the last chapter for a while, but if it's isn't then a new chapter will be up on Friday (because I don't do anything on a Friday evening, because I don't have a life and never go outside if I don't have to). But I will not upload between the 10th and the 18th of January.

And I wanted to say something that some of you might like, some of you might hate. I decided that I am going to do the Noah's Ark Circus Arc. Not only because I would love to put Clarissa in a circus (XD) but also because there's not enough story left to come across every scene that I had in mind, there is a lot of stuff, a lot of conversations and scenes, that need to happen before I can go on.

The Circus Arc will be on the same place as it is in the manga, so after the Curry Arc.

I actually planned on shortening the Curry Arc, because it doesn't do much for the Clarissa-story, except for 'introducing' Ash. But I decided to keep it as it is. Mostly because I love Agni and Soma.

I don't own Kuroshitsuji, but I do own Clarissa!

I think that was everything that I wanted to say before this starts. Enjoy chapter 29 everyone!

XxX

Chapter 29

'Honestly, when are you going to finish?'

Princa Soma and I were laying on a carpet on Grell's old room, which was empty now. Wasn't sure it had always been empty or not, but now it was. Agni had brought the carpet when he realised that there was nowhere else to sit in this room.

Prince Soma was laying on his stomach and looked bored, Agni was sitting behind him with a very neutral expression and I was laying on my back and had pulled my head backwards so that I could look at Ciel and Sebastian as they were training. Fencing-training, to be exact. Yeah, I didn't know that still was a thing either.

I had been chatting with Soma up until now, Soma had decided that he'd waited long enough.

'I say, what are you doing?' Soma said when his other question wasn't answered. 'I say!' he said when he still didn't get an reaction.

'Be quiet!' Ciel said annoyed, 'you're distracting me!'

Soma rolled his eyes. 'British people are so short-tempered,' he said bored.

'Thanks,' I said, pulling one eyebrow up.

He gave me a little smile. 'British nobles, then.'

I laughed. 'I do believe I agree with that.' Then I decided that I wanted to irritate Ciel too. 'Ciel! Ciel! Prince Soma wants your attention!'

Ciel turned to us, looking extremely annoyed. 'All right, fine!' he said angry. 'If you want my attention that badly, I'll oblige!'

'Oblige?' Soma repeated, looking at me with a look that told me that he'd never heard of the word before.

'Ciel, Ciel, Ciel,' I said, sounding like a cartoon character's mother. 'You don't use such difficult words and expect these Indians to understand you. English is not their first language, you know?'

Ciel held out his hand to Sebastian, who gave him his fencing foil. Boy that sounded weird. 'Why are you so annoying today?' he asked me.

I pulled the most innocent face I could. 'I'm not doing anything, Ciel! I just want the prince to have a nice time while he is in London.'

Ciel pressed his lips together and threw the foil to the prince, who shot up and caught it. 'Alright, then,' Ciel said. 'I'll entertain you.'

Soma chuckled like a little boy he'd gotten his first toy car. 'Then if I win, you'll go out with me and show me around town.' It wasn't a question.

Ciel pointed with his foil to the prince, trying to look threatening in that silly little get-up of his. 'If you can win,' he said arrogantly.

The look on Sebastian's face made me laugh. He looked like he really did not want this kind of shenanigans right now.

'I wish you luck,' Agni said while the prince stood in position to start. I wondered why the prince didn't need to wear a fence-uniform. It looked kind of dangerous just in his normal clothes.

Not that the foils they were fighting with could cause any harm. They were made for training and didn't even have a sharp end.

Agni looked at me. 'Do you want some tea, lady Lane?' he asked.

'Clarissa, please,' I said, 'and I would love some tea.' I always rolled my eyes at myself. Typical British person that I was.

Sebastian stood between Ciel and Soma and raised his hand. 'Begin!' he said and after that he stepped back, making sure that he didn't stand in their way.

I wasn't really interested in this fencing stuff, certainly not after having to see it for over an hour now, but when Sebastian was fighting, I at least had something to look at. So I just stared at the ceiling, listened to Ciel as he made arrogant remarks and smiled as I heard that Soma indeed did not the rules of fencing.

Then, suddenly, Agni was gone. The teapot fell out of his hands and landed all over me, making me flinch from the heat. 'Ouch!' I said as Agni screamed: 'Your Highness, look out!'

I had shot up and saw that Ciel was on the ground the same moment that I felt someone's hand on my shoulder. 'Are you okay?' Sebastian asked, frowning.

'I'm fine,' I lied, cause clearly my arms and neck were burned. Maybe I should take a cold shower. But right now that didn't matter. 'Worry about your master,' I told Sebastian.

But Agni already did that. He ran to Ciel to help him up. 'L-Lord Phantomhive! I'm so sorry! When I saw the prince losing, my reflexes took over…'

Ciel did seem fine though. At least he wasn't injured.

Then Soma laughed. 'Good job protecting your master, Agni. I commend you. Agni is my khansama. He belongs to me. In other words, I win.'

'B-but…!' Ciel protested.

The Lau was suddenly standing beside me and Sebastian. He'd been standing across the room. 'My, my. Butler, it looks like you'll have to avenge your master. For goodness sake.'

Ah, the irony was almost funny. It would have been funny if I wasn't in pain. I pretend I wasn't though. What kind of pussy would I be, if I would cry because tea spilled over me?

Sebastian grabbed the fencing foil. 'This is what you get for provoking a novice who doesn't know the rules,' he said to his master, making Ciel clench his fist and look angry at him. 'However, as the Phantomhive butler, I cannot remain quiet when someone harms my master. And more importantly, we're a full ten minutes behind schedule now.'

Geez, what an organized demon he was.

Ciel looked at Sebastian with a sour glare now. 'That's what you really care about, isn't it?'

'Interesting,' Soma said. 'All right, I'll allow a duel.' The turned to his servant. 'Agni, in the name of Kali, make sure you don't lose.' He handed Agni the foil.

Ciel shot up, stood straight and proud as he said: 'Sebastian, this is an order—'

Sebastian put his hand up to shut his young master up. The look on Ciel's face as he did that was really comical. 'I will, young master,' Sebastian said, knowing the order before he heard it, 'but first I believe that miss Lady needs some medical attention.'

All the men in the room turned to me and I blushed. Geez, since when did he care?

XxX

I was brought to my old bathroom, yes, I was brought, cause apparently I couldn't walk to the bathroom myself, and Mei-Rin got called to oil me after a cold shower. Agni, who had carried me while apologizing the whole time, left after bringing me to the bathroom.

I actually wanted to slap myself in the face. Now I would miss the most interesting duel, while I had to sit through so many boring ones!

I left the bathroom wearing my pyjama, since it was loose and Sebastian had told me to wear something lose because that would feel better. Mei-Rin stood there, ready to put the ointment on for me, but I just took it from her and said that I could handle it myself.

Jesus, how had Agni managed to get the water so hot? It felt like it was hotter than boiling hot lava. I knew it wasn't, but it hurt like hell.

The only burned place I couldn't reach was my back, but I decided to let that slide for now. Burning marks like this surely wouldn't kill me. It had been only boiling water after all.

I didn't return to the room where they were fencing. Mostly because I knew that the duel would be over by now, but also because I didn't want the prince to see me in my pyjamas. Sebastian had seen it numerous times already and Ciel and Lau had also seen it before, but it was somehow more embarrassing when I had to deal with a prince.

Someone knocked on the door soon after I had sat down on my bed in an uncomfortable position, making sure that none of the burns hurt while I sat. 'Yes?' I said, but the person was already coming in.

'Hello, miss Lane. How are your burn wounds?' Sebastian asked, a polite smile on his face.

'I'm fine,' I told him, really wanting him to leave. I couldn't keep my emotions under control with Sebastian here.

Sebastian didn't give a shit about that though. 'I do believe you've missed a spot,' he told me, grabbing the ointment that I had put on my nightstand.

I looked at him, not sure what he was going to do. 'What are you doing?' I asked carefully.

The smile on his face was way too much for me to handle. 'I'm going to take care of you, of course. You can't reached your back yourself.' He sat down the bed beside me. 'Undress.'

'Excuse me?!' I shot up from the bed, hugging myself to make sure that he wouldn't rip my clothes off. 'I'm not going to undress while you are looking at me?'

Sebastian sighed and rolled his eyes. 'Don't feel unnecessary flattered. I don't want to see that. I just want to put some ointment on your back and put a bandage around it, so that you can wear clothes without all too much pain.'

Still really didn't want to take my clothes off. Now that I knew that Sebastian did not lie, I felt insulted. Oh? So I wasn't attractive.

Of course I wasn't. I was a human, after all.

I sighed and sat back on the bed, my back towards him as I pulled my pyjama shirt over my head, holding it against the front of my body.

Sebastian sighed and I felt how he took my bra of, making me scream and almost – almost – turn around. 'Hey! There was a reason I didn't take that off!' I told him.

'I'm sorry,' he said, not sounding sorry at all, 'but it was in the way.' Then I felt his soft hands against my back, putting the ointment on my back with his bare hands.

Finding this silence way to awkward, I decided to start a conversation. 'So, did you win?' I asked him.

'It was a draw,' he answered almost immediately.

Pfft, as if a normal human would ever be equal to a demon. 'Ciel said that you didn't lie,' I said cynical, clearly not believing him.

'Well, he did order me not to lie to him. He never said lying in general.' He sighed. 'But it really was a draw.'

I believed him, though this new information sure was interesting. So he couldn't lie to Ciel, but he could lie to me and everyone else. Hmm. 'Don't tell me that guy is a demon or something.' I pulled a face. 'Or a reaper.'

'No,' Sebastian answered as he put the bottle of ointment on the bed beside me. 'He is just a human.' Again that tone, that strange way he always talked about humans.

'Huh,' I said, surprised. I wasn't sure what to think of it. 'So humans can be just as strong as demons.'

'Hmm,' Sebastian said, but it didn't sound like a 'yes'. He started to put the bandage on and handed it to me, and I understood that I had to do the front and then give it back to him. I was happy that he at least gave me that kind of privacy.

'You sound like you do not agree with that,' I said as I gave the bandage back to him.

He was way faster than I was and gave it already back to me. 'A demon in his human form isn't really a good thing to go on. I have many limitations in this form.' He took the bandage from me when I handed it to him.

'Fascinating,' I said, not really thinking that but not sure what else to say.

'Done,' Sebastian said after a while.

The moment he said that I put my clothes back on as fast as I could. Then I turned around. 'Thank you,' I said and I knew I was blushing. 'I really don't know why you are being so kind to me, but I appreciate it.'

Sebastian smiled an way too polite smile with closed eyes. 'Young master ordered me to take care of you and watch over you, so I do what my master ordered me to do.' Then his laugh disappeared. 'Though I am amazed everything I get so see how weak humans are. Can everything harm you?'

Just as I opened my mouth to protest, he was gone.

XxX

Prince Soma gave me some wide-falling, Indian clothes to put on as an apology and even though I didn't look very good in the, I wore them the rest of the day. Even during dinner. Now that I had bandages put on I felt better, but I was sure that it would take a while for the wounds to heal. Which meant that I had to change the bandages sometime. Ugh, I would ask Mei-Rin then.

'How long do you people instead to stay here?' Ciel asked during dinner.

Soma and Ciel were sitting at the head of the table, one on each side and Ciel was staring and Soma with a not-so polite glare.

'We'll leave when our business is finished,' Soma told Ciel, his elbows on the table. I was surprised that Ciel or Sebastian didn't say anything about the etiquette or something, since even I knew that having your elbows on the table wasn't proper.

'Come to think of it,' Lau said, who was also still invading Ciel's space, 'you said you were searching for someone, right?'

Ciel looked at Lau annoyed, not really listened to what he said. 'And why are you staying here too?' he asked him.

'An interesting question,' was the only answer Lau gave.

'I'm looking for a woman,' Soma then said, taking something out of his jacket. It was a really ugly drawing of an… alien… girl? Or maybe it was a fish. I wasn't sure. 'Her name is Mina,' he said. 'She was a servant at my palace.'

Then, shockingly enough, Ciel out his elbows on the table. Okay, maybe he didn't know because he was raised by a demon or something. Now that I think about… he was raised by a demon wasn't he? His parents died when he was… twelve? Ten? I didn't remember. But I knew that they had been dead for quite some time. Hmm. Maybe that demon that a bad influence on him.

I almost laughed at myself. A demon having a bad influence? No kidding!

'Sebastian,' Ciel said, pointed with his fork to his butler, 'does that give you enough to find her?'

Highly doubt if a girl that Sebastian could do anything with that picture of a fish, whether that was supposed to be a girl of not.

Sebastian looked at the drawing and pulled a face. The funniest thing was that Soma was still dead serious. 'Even I can't do much with this…' Sebastian said after looking at it for a while. 'But I'll try my best.'

I rolled my eyes. One hell of a show-off.

'And?' Ciel asked as he went on eating. 'What is she doing in England?'

Still holding on to the horrible drawing, Soma said: 'Mina was my attendant… more or less my nursemaid. She'd been with me ever since I could remember. My father and mother never even looked my way. I was always alone in the palace…'

Yeah, sorry. I couldn't feel sorry for a rich-ass prince who lived in a palace. Because I also was always alone. I just didn't live in a palace. And I didn't have servants. And I got beaten up quite a lot. Jup, I think I win.

'But Mina always stayed by my side,' Soma went on. 'But… a British nobleman with his eye on her kidnapped her and took her to England while I was away.'

Okay, so she was kind of like an older sister. I understood why he came to get her back. What I didn't get was why he hadn't found her already. He was a prince, right? And rich, probably. Hire the FBI or the CIA or call the cops. Was that really that hard?

Ciel wasn't impressed by his little background story. 'In other words,' he said, 'you came here to get this woman back?'

Soma out the drawing down. 'Yes,' he said determined. 'I'll get her back and bring her home with me, no matter what!'

Ciel wasn't impressed by his determination either. 'That's a lot of fuss over one servant,' he said, looking down at his food.

That insulted Soma, apparently. He shot up. 'No, it's not!' he screamed. He ran over to Ciel and grabbed him, almost pulling him out of his chair. I was surprised that Sebastian didn't do anything, but he let the scene play out.

'Can you even comprehend my despair?! Can you even comprehend what it feels like to be separated from her?!' Soma screamed.

I cringed as he said that. Ouch.

'No, I can't,' Ciel said, making me and Soma make a surprised sound. 'The kind of trifling despair something like that could inspire? I can't understand it, and I don't care to.'

Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies.

Ciel slapped Soma's hands away and walked towards the door. 'Some things won't come back, not matter how much you struggle. And some despair is impossible to escape.' As he left the room, he said: 'Maybe you can't understand that, though.' And I was sure that those words weren't a lie. I wasn't sure about everything else though. Wasn't such despair the thing that had let to his contract with Sebastian? I looked at the demon, who just stared back. Then I stood up from my chair. 'Excuse me,' I said and after that I ran out of the room, following Ciel.

I wasn't surprised to see him standing in the hallway, a hand over his eye-patch with his other eye closed.

I didn't say anything, though I knew that he must have heard me. But he gasped surprised when I put my arms around him and hugged him. I had wanted to for such a long time and even though he maybe didn't appreciate it, it calmed me down to hear his heart beat in his chest, to know that at least he was still human.

'Some things won't come back, no matter how much you struggle,' he said, but it was so soft that I was sure he was only saying it to himself.

Then he pulled away from me, but I was surprised that he didn't get angry at me. He just looked at me for a while with a pained look and then he looked away. 'I'm going to my room,' he announced, but I realised that he wasn't talking to me when I saw Sebastian standing in the hallway. 'Bring tea to my room,' he said to Sebastian. 'And some sweets.' Then he walked past me and walked towards the stairs.

'Yes, my Lord,' Sebastian said, but he was staring at me as he said it.

XxX

I was wearing my pyjamas again and was walking through the house, trying to understand where everyone had gone. Mei-Rin and Finnian had gone to sleep, Sebastian had the ability to completely disappear, but I didn't know where Ciel, Lau, Soma and Agni were.

I was surprised to find at least two of those in Ciel's room. Well, I wasn't surprised to find Ciel in his own room, but I never thought he would let Lau – Lau of all people! – into his room.

They were playing some sort of card game that I didn't understand because I'd never played games. 'Were are Agni and Soma?' I asked as I sat beside Lau on the couch. Ciel was sitting in the chair at the other side of the table.

'They went out about two hours ago,' Ciel told me, sounding grumpy for some reason. He did look better than before, though. I seemed like Ciel was his best when he was in the moment and not dwelling on the past. Then the sound of a door opening and closing and two men with familiar accents talking loudly in the entrance hall was enough for the three of us to know that they were back. I couldn't hear what they were saying, though.

'So they're back,' Ciel said.

I leaned towards Lau to look at his cards, but immediately leaned away when he looked at me with a flirtatious look that I did not trust at all. 'I have to say those two are very suspicious,' Lau said.

'Well, yes, but I don't see how they'd benefit from those crimes. They don't seem to bear much of a grudge over colonial rule. And if they are doing it,' Ciel put one of his cards on the table, 'would they waltz right by me on their way to commit the crimes? It's like begging me to suspect them.'

I wanted to ask about which crimes he was talking about, but I didn't want to annoy him more than I had already done today and I guessed I could just read it in the papers or something.

'True,' Lau said, putting one of his own cards on the table. 'Then maybe they really are just looking for someone?'

Ciel put all his cards on the table and I wasn't sure if this meant that he'd won or lost. I didn't know anything about the game, after all. 'It's still too soon to say,' Ciel finally said, looking out of the window where the sky was still filled with snow. Then he sighed and turned back to me. 'Do you want to play, Clarissa?'

I shook my head a bit too quick. 'Oh, no. I don't know any games, so I would just be a bother. But thanks for asking.'

'It's not a bother at all,' Ciel grumbled. 'Not knowing any games, what kind of teenage girl are you.' He handed me a few cards and looked at me with a serious look. 'Now listen closely, because I will only explain it once,' he said.

I smile crossed my lips. Way kinder than he gives himself credit for.

But then the smile faded. Because 'kind' didn't seem like a compliment anymore. It was a weakness.

XxX

Chapter 29 has ended!

I actually didn't want to do the ointment-scene at first, but that conversation needed to happen and she needed to hurt herself (sorry Clarissa), so it seemed like a good idea. And I'm thinking of giving you a Dutch word every chapter, because I think that's funny. And because this is a fanfic for an anime, I will give the Japanese word with it as well, which means that I have limited words, but okay. Today's word is: world. In Dutch, world is 'wereld' and in Japanese world is 'sekai' (it can also mean 'society' or 'universe' I believe, not sure about that though). You probably knew that already though, since the word 'sekai' is used all the time. It's also the name of that one chick from 'School Days', but we're not talking about that. Ever.

And to get this out of the way, because this isn't one that I'm going to do: Black butler. 'Black' in Dutch is 'zwart' and 'butler' in Dutch is… 'butler'. So that means that 'Black Butler' in Dutch is 'Zwarte Butler' (the 'e' behind zwart is a grammar rule that I'm too lazy to explain). And in Japanese, of course 'Kuroshitsuji'. 'Kuro' means black, 'shitsuji' means butler. There you have it.

BlackMoon901: ha ha, thanks :) Hope that you did enjoy the dream, even though it was creepy. I think that Kuroshitsuji is way creepier than some give if credit for.

justaislinn: if you literally translate 'mijn excuses' to English, it would be 'my excuses'. That sounds a bit weird XD. If you can handle many languages, that's cool! I've had French, German, Spanish and English in school and I totally suck at all of them :/, except English, but that's because of movies, shows, books and that kind of stuff. And thank you so much! I will try my best! And I love eating way too much to forget it XD

promocat: yeah, I did think it was pretty well done. I think it has a lot to do with what you're used to, since Japanese voices are very different (think about all the girls with the high voices for example).

Love you guys and see you next time!