Ciel inhaled the scent of his hot chocolate contentedly as he strode alongside Finny. In just a few hours Finny had managed to put most of his fears to ease, and he was walking around streets crowded with people without seeing every single one as someone who wanted to lock him up. Finny had taken him to a little café and bought them hot drinks, as they had chilled a bit walking back from their swinging adventure. Ciel had not had hot chocolate in a very long time, and even though he burnt his tongue slightly in his eagerness for his first sip, he was still enjoying the scent as he waited for it to cool.
"How far away is this 'secret place' of yours?" Ciel asked, gently swishing the hot contents in his cup to try and cool it down.
"Not far now. It's close to Angel Wing."
"That's your Shelter, isn't it?" Ciel asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice. Finny grinned and took a long sip of his own citrus tea before saying,
"Don't worry, I'm not trying to lure you there or anything. I only found this place because I could see it from my window when I was really young. I always wanted to go and explore it, and now I have."
"So you grew up in a Shelter?" Ciel asked, testing the heat of his drink with his lips, and then taking a cautious sip.
"Yea." Finny said, looking up at the puffy white clouds in the very blue sky. This short and simple answer surprised Ciel; normally Finny expounded on everything when Ciel didn't want him to, but now he was curious.
"How'd you get there? How old were you?" Ciel asked. Finny was quiet for a moment and his ears laid back a bit before he began,
"I was four. I can still vaguely remember my mum's face, as she passed me to Bard's father, Nicholas. She cried a lot and hugged me close before she let me go. That's all I can remember of her. She had blonde hair, like me, but her eyes were brown." Finny looked at Ciel and grinned weakly as he said, "I guess that means that my teal eyes came from my dad, but I don't remember him at all."
"Oh…" Ciel said, looking awkwardly at the lid of his cup before saying, even more awkwardly, "That sounds…a lot like me." Finny cocked his head, his ears perking up.
"Really?"
"Yea…I was really small when I was given to the Shelter I grew up in. I remember that my parents dropped me off together. I think I was about the same age you were, four or five. I can sort of remember that we belonged to rich people. It was a big house with servants and everything. I didn't understand why they were making me stay at the small, crowded Shelter after coming from a house like that. They cried, too, but they left me there and I never saw them again. I've even forgotten what they look like."
A long silence passed between them as they continued to walk. It was a reverent quietness shared by two beings who knew the other's pain. Finally, Finny spoke softly,
"It's almost worse than being a real orphan, isn't it?"
"Yea…" Ciel said, swallowing a mouthful of hot chocolate to cover the lump in his throat. "Yea it is."
"A lot of us suffer from abandonment issues, you know."
"Not surprising at all." Ciel said, a tone of sarcasm arising despite the conversation. "It's obvious, isn't it?"
"I know. But you see, at least a lot of us are able to work through it when we're adopted. I'm able to rediscover my sense of belonging because I found Bard. He's my family now. And you…you have Sebastian."
Ciel scoffed, though the way Finny has phrased that made something inside of him grow warm.
"I'd hardly call him family! He's no more than my meal ticket at this point."
"I don't think that's true." Finny said, his smile returning slightly.
"Really?" Ciel asked, rolling his eyes and taking another sip of his hot chocolate.
"Really. Cinder, he has become your provider. If nothing else, that bonds you to him. As opposed to the scattered people you used to steal food from, this is a person who is actually taking care of you. I think that makes you care for him as well, much more than you are even aware of."
"Wonderful."
"We're here." Finny said abruptly. They were on the corner of a tree-lined street, before a huge stone church.
"We're going to church now?" Ciel asked, arching his eyebrow at Finny.
"No, this church has been abandoned for years. I think it's owned by an old man who used to come here, and when it shut down he bought it to save it from being demolished. He's never really done anything with it, though. Come on."
"'Come on' where?" Ciel asked, following Finny to the alley-side of the church.
"We can slip in here." Finny said, pointing to a broken window at street-level. "We have to shift forms though. Leave your hot chocolate where you can reach out and get it from the inside."
Finny leaned down and cup his tea beside the break in the window. Ciel shrugged and placed his own cup beside Finny's before shifting with him and slipping through the hole. It was dark inside, with only dusty shafts of light filtering in from the window, falling on old tables and blank stone walls. This must be the basement.
Finny shifted back and reached out to retrieve their drinks.
"Now just stick close, I know this place like the back of my hand." Finny said, starting forward into the dark room. Ciel did not need to be told twice, and shadowed Finny's every move. The place actually creeped him out, and he wondered why in the world Finny liked it.
Finny led him up a set of stairs which led into a hallway. There was more light here from the high windows, and Ciel felt his ears rising from his head a bit with the change. Even despite the dust there was something peaceful about the place, like it was at rest. Through a long series of hallways, then up through a very long set of stairs they went. Ciel suddenly sneezed.
"Look, this place is great, but with all the dust I'm going to clog my lungs!" Ciel said, coughing a bit.
"Hey, I've been coming here for years, and I'm still alive," Finny replied, "besides, where we're going, we won't have to worry about dust."
"And where exactly are we going?" Ciel asked, as they continued to climb.
"You'll see in just a second, one more flight."
Ciel began to have an idea where Finny might be taking him, and excitement rose in him regardless of his complaints about the dust. He had always wanted to be able to go out onto a churches'…
"Welcome to the bell tower." Finny said, swinging open a door at the end of the stairs. Wind gusted directly down to hit Ciel in the face. He closed his eyes against it and felt Finny tugging him forward. The wind was all around him now, and when he opened his eyes, he was facing an enormous bell. It was rusty from years without maintenance or use, but it was somehow still beautiful with its regal shape. Ciel looked around; there were no walls around him at all, just a few pillars to hold the small pointed roof over the bell. The wind was rushing through the open gaps and whistling slightly every now and again.
Ciel's heart sped up. It was exhilarating to look down upon the city, to feel the flow of the wind, and taste the freshness of the air this high above the streets.
"So, what do you think?" Finny asked, "Not too shabby, eh?"
Ciel shook his head, carefully walking over to the nearest pillar to hold onto it and gaze down the side of the building. The wind brushed his face, lifting his bangs from his forehead for a few long seconds.
"I think your secret place just might have mine beat." Ciel said, turning to look at Finny, his hair all tousled and his cheeks pink from the cool air. Finny smiled at him.
"Here, take this back, you'll need it." He handed Ciel his hot chocolate, and then went to the other corner of the small tower. In this corner there was an old faded blanket folded on top of a crate, which was lined with another blanket.
"Your hideaway?" Ciel asked.
"You said it." Finny knelt down by the crate and popped the lid off his tea before shifting. The fluffy cream-colored cat then settled himself in the crate, and began lapping the tea out of the open cup. Ciel chuckled.
"You have this all figured out, don't you? Can you even drink that when you're a cat? Won't you get sick?"
"There's nothing wrong with tea; it comes from leaves, after all, and those won't hurt me. Your hot chocolate now…you just can't drink that much."
"Well I don't fancy curling up as a cat right now anyway," Ciel said, instead leaning against the ledge of the tower. "I'm admiring the view."
"Suit yourself. In the meantime, we've played around enough for one day. It's time for lessons."
Ciel nodded.
"Right, so tell me more about our magic."
Finny lapped a bit more tea with his rough pink tongue before saying,
"Before you get too excited, let me tell you that the scope of our magic is nothing compared to fairytales with wizards and all that, just wanted to let you know that right away. If we did have those kinds of powers, do you really think we would have let humans treat us the way they have?"
Ciel's ears drooped a little.
"Don't be like that. Our magic has been called nothing more than 'extreme survival resources'. For example, did you know that we can hibernate if we need to?"
"No." Ciel said, frowning, "If I'd known that I probably would have been hibernating for too long when I couldn't find food."
"Hibernation goes with the seasons, just like any other animal. You wouldn't be able to pick and choose when you wanted to."
"Then what's the point?" Ciel grumbled.
"To save energy in the winter months, when food is most scarce."
"Yea, I guess that makes sense."
"Are you going to be this grumpy about everything I teach you? Because I'm afraid a lot of this stuff is less grand than you apparently thought, and I don't want you running off on me."
"I don't mean to be grumpy." Ciel said, "I'm just used to being that way."
"Ah yes, 'me against the world', am I right?" Finny's long fluffy tail swished and he crossed his paws as he looked up at Ciel.
"Heck yes." Ciel said, sliding down the wall to sit beside Finny's crate.
"So you never became involved in any of the gangs on the street?"
"Gangs?"
"Sure, you must have at least seen one or two. Stray Leonards who band together and travel around in a gang, collecting food."
Ciel shook his head.
"I've never seen anything like that. I probably would have joined in a snap if I had."
Finny was silent for a moment, before cocking his head and asking seriously,
"You really never saw a single gang? In all your years on the street?"
"No. Why? Are they common here?"
"They used to be…" Finny bit his lips as he began to think.
"What's the matter?" Ciel asked. Finny shook his fluffy head slightly and looked up at him.
"That's not normal. The gangs used to make themselves known; they raided stores or markets before, everyone used to know about them."
"Well, maybe they were all caught." Ciel said halfheartedly, taking a very long drink from his cooling chocolate.
"Maybe…" Finny said, "Or worse…well, never mind. But in a gang, superiority and position are marked by how much a Leonard can channel of his feline form while in his human form."
"Like what you did with your eyes." Ciel stated.
"Quick learner, that's a good start! Yes, that is definitely the most important aspect of position; being able to retain your feline eyes. Other aspects are keeping the agility of your feline form."
"You mean being able to jump from high places and always landing on our feet?" Ciel asked, a smile tugging his lips. It was a myth that he knew was only partially true.
"Yes."
"But then wouldn't that make all of us able to escape our humans?" Ciel asked, and Finny noted to himself that he had said 'our humans' instead of 'your humans'.
"Not many of us know about these abilities; we're not taught, and even when we become in tuned to our magic, it is not used. It is just treated as a warm feeling that reassures us that everything will be ok, instead of a power source we can tap into when necessary. Like when confronted with the need to fight. I thought for sure you would have been in a street brawl or two."
Ciel laughed.
"As if I'd stand a chance, my feline form is still barely bigger than a kitten. I'm only fourteen, look how scrawny I am!"
"Well, now you'll be getting a regular supply of food, so we can fill you out a bit." Finny said, lapping at his tea again.
For the next two hours the young Leonards talked atop the bell tower, Ciel drinking in all that his elder had to say, despite his apparent stubbornness to accept that Leonards did not wield tremendous magical power. For all his disappointment, Ciel learned much, and was very grateful that Finny had come into his life. He just hoped, that somehow, they could stay there, in their own little world forever. Or at the very least, that Finny and Sebastian could stay in his life…at least a while longer…