Chapter 36

Disclaimer - I do not own Kuroshitsuji

Warning - graphic depictions of violence and animal cruelty. I DO NOT SUPPORT VIOLENCE OF ANY KIND, NOR DO I SUPPORT CRUELTY AND VIOLENCE TOWARD ANIMALS!

Mr. Si part Three

Ciel's POV

I waited patiently for my guest who would be there shortly. Sipping on tea to keep myself calm, I studied important finances of my company back in England. No mafia members were around so I had no need to fear that my lies would be found out.

Westly rushed into the room, panic and anger on his usually placate face.

"Ciel…" he started as he entered the room. "What were you thinking?"

I sighed and gestured to the seat across from mine. "Please, sit."

Westly frowned but sat down as suggested. "Why are you directly disobeying the queen's orders? Are you wishing to fail?" his voice steadily rose from a whisper to nearly yelling.

I let out a frustrated grunt, "I didn't intend… I didn't do this, Sebastian did. Somehow he found out I was here and came right away. I wasn't even aware he was coming until he arrived!"

"You should have trained your dog to obey your orders better. Or now since you yourself are becoming someone else's dog you've lost all sense of pride? Your father would be ashamed!"

"Don't speak of pride to me Westly!" I yelled, unable to curb my anger. "I may have one unruly servant but that doesn't mean I've become the queen's bitch! I'm not her dog, I am a Phantomhive. If you wish to dispute my honor, then challenge me outright, for it is disgraceful to your family if you dare insult me behind my back."

Westly growled low in his throat as he determined what he would do. Finally, he exhaled long and low. "I never thought you'd grow into such a tricky bastard Ciel, but what you say is true. I said such remarks due to stress. I was not thinking properly, please forgive me." He bowed to me, not raising his head.

"It's fine," I, too, exhaled, "just be careful in what you say. If you said such things in public it would be my duty as head of the Phantomhive household to challenge you. I doubt the queen would like to deal with that on top of this."

"Indeed," Westly agreed. Nodding, he continued, "I do assume you called me here not to just reprimand you. If what I guess is correct, you want me to talk to Her Majesty and make sure you don't have to be on the chopping block, correct?"

I nodded as well, "you have a good sense for these things, Westly. I also, as you have seen, am easy to be angered - although I am sure my displeasure would be hidden to a much greater extent around the queen. Despite that I am certain I would say something rude and unforgivable if faced with the situation, especially when we would be talking of Sebastian. It seems I'm bad at controlling my emotions when it comes to him." I chuckled despite myself.

Westly's eyebrows scrunched together and he frowned slightly. "Ciel, I really wish it was simple for me to and ask for a pardon on your behalf, but the queen will still be mad and… despite being a family 'friend' of sorts, in an odd way to say the least, I don't want to get involved in something as serious as this. I know I've caused you many problems in the past but this isn't just my job on the line. I hope you understand…."

"I do," I replied, "but I still had to ask in case there was any hope. The most I can do is successfully complete this mission and then ask for forgiveness - then she might feel more kindly towards me and lessen my punishment."

Westly continued to look at me with worry. "Is something wrong? You seem more… more tense than usual. Did something happen?"

"No, nothing of importance. This mission will be completed, I swear," I answered, faking a smile.

Westly didn't push the question more and we enjoyed each other's company for a bit longer.

It was dinner by the time we had finished conversing. Knowing that Westly's presence was something the mafia members would be aware of, we had planned out his fake backstory. He was my mentor in England, a father figure to me, and was visiting to see how I was doing.

He left to his chambers where he would get dressed. I waited in my room for Sebastian to come. He entered the room and began to undress and then dress me. No words were spoken and he left as quickly as he had arrived. I bit my lip as he left, holding back my stupid, girl-like emotions. This was dumb. I shouldn't be acting like some love-struck female. This is exactly how Lizzy would act - no, worse. Lizzy kept her head on her shoulders. She always kept a happy, smiling face, even when I was rude to her.

I was a disgrace to my family.

XxXxXxXxXx

Finnian's POV

Although I was rather upset at master Ciel for many reasons (mostly surrounding Lady Elizabeth) the way he was acting around Sebastian and vice-versa was uncomfortable. The morale of the guards was also lowering because of it. Every night when we'd have a meeting between the off-duty guards Sebastian would enter with a large scowl upon his face and would often huff angrily throughout, making everyone feel awkward. On the other side, Ciel was so wrapped up in his work - or at least trying to be with flipping pages, writing notes in the margins of documents, and tapping his pen against the table - that he hardly let any conversation occur. When it did happen his voice was sharp and sounded similar to the crack of a whip against some poor sailor's back. If Sebastian was brought up in the conversation while speaking to or around him, his muscles strained and his jaw clenched. His eyes would go wide open before becoming half-lidded and he would lean back in his chair, trying to act as if he was bored and disinterested. If asked about Sebastian he would find a way to change topic, often to a completely unrelated subject. If caught listening in on a conversation about him, the master would scoff and mock whoever had been speaking of the butler before sending him off to work.

Although this behavior created an air of discomfort for the guards it seemed to be making the Chinese Si family rather excited. The fire in their veins seemed to be fueled by the thick air of silence that flowed between the master and servant, and daily Ciel seemed to be creating ties to more important members of the mafia. Once they were controlled by him, the men under them would also stay by their side to be puppets in Ciel's hand. From the look of things, Ciel was gaining the larger part of the mafia, despite being a foreigner, as his allies when compared to his antagonists who were falling behind.

Today seemed to be particularly bad. Ciel had earlier met with Westly and, from what I know, tried to address the problem of Sebastian being here. It didn't seem to go well. Ciel was frustrated even more than usual yet was being an exceptional leader. As dinner was served and the master began to leave he pulled me, who was guarding him at the time, to the side. As I was about to speak he shushed me and pulled me into his room from the hallway I had been standing in.

"Finnian, finally I can talk to you!" he sighed with a hint of happiness under the stressed action.

"Master Si?" I asked, in character.

"Finny, no one's here to listen in - not yet at least. Don't call me that ridiculous name please," he laughed lightly. "I just wanted you to know for certain that I told Sebastian about the thing Lizzy did to me - how she kissed me."

I raised an eyebrow, shocked that he would actually tell his lover. "How'd he react?"

At this master Ciel frowned and looked at his hands which now hung limply to his sides.

"Not well, I take it?"

He nodded, "it wasn't the best timing - when I said it - but I was so mad… so frustrated! I couldn't help myself."

"What do you mean, 'it wasn't the best timing'? Is there really a good timing for such a thing?"

"Well," he groaned, "we were fighting already before I told him… and we were fighting about how Lizzy was sleeping in the same bed as I was and… and, well, things just happened. It got heated and I just… I was just so mad that he couldn't trust me! He never has! He's never believed me…."

I shook my head in dismay for him. "True, that definitely was not the best time to tell him that you and the woman he was already mad at kissed. I now think I comprehend why the two of you have been so silent around one another and so distant."

"How do I fix this?" Ciel asked.

I thought for a moment. Shrugging, I shook my head, "I have no clue. The best thing I can think of is talking to him. Let him hear what you really feel. I wish Mey-Rin was here. She'd know what to do."

"That's true," he chuckled. "At least I could let you know I told Sebastian about that kiss already; your glares were getting hard to handle!"

"Oh, sorry about that," I said with a sheepish grin.

"It's alright, just don't keep it up."

His warning was followed by the door opening and Lizzy smiling widely. "Ciel! We should go to dinner now!" she called.

Ciel smiled and I could sense his wariness. "Yes, Lizzy, I'll go now." He then turned to me and quietly whispered, "tell Sebastian I want to meet him at this address at midnight." He discreetly passed me a slip of paper, then pulled away and grinned before going to Lizzy.

After he had gone, I sat and groaned; I hope they figure this out.

XxXxXxXxXx

Sebastian's POV

My knuckles were whiter than paper and I could hear the wood underneath my fingers creak as it was slowly broken.

Dammit!

Throwing the now-broken tree that used to decorate the shore of an ornately lit lake I now sat down on a boulder and began to crush up smaller rocks.

I looked up again at the moon: it was definitely past midnight, where was Ciel? He was the one who so… so rudely called me here! And now he's standing me up! Oh, sure, I see how it is you little….

I had come at half past eleven, and an hour had passed with no sign of Ciel. Maybe this was his attempt at laughing in my face for even thinking he would try to talk to me.

"Ciel, dammit, come out!" I called, thinking maybe he'd be nearby and hear me.

Nothing moved other than frogs and other wildlife.

One particularly fat slimy creature hopped next to me where he sat, croaking away.

"Stop mocking me, you foolish beast!" I poked it with a stick. Frogs, the nasty creatures, always were so obnoxious with their croaking. 'Ribbit' this and 'ribbit' that! It's not even a cute noise.

I grabbed an especially sharp shard of wood from the tree I had broken and poked through the tongue of the amphibian as it went to catch a bug. It tried to scramble away, but I had it by its sticky, long muscle.

"Fat little nasty creatures…" I grumbled and picked up another sliver of wood. This time I stuck it in the animal's eye, causing the green thing to scream painfully loud. This influenced me to poke more wood through its lips to hold them shut together.

"Hmm…" I wondered as I prodded the frog's belly with a stick, "I should perform a dissection to distract myself!"

The frog, although unable to speak English, seemed to get at what I meant and flopped about more violently.

"Oh, do shush now!" I chastised as I began to open up the amphibian's chest.

The silly creature passed out soon after I had opened him up, and I pouted. "Your reactions were quite funny! Such a pity you didn't stay for the whole time."

With no incentive to continue with the dissection, I hooked the slimy thing on a stick and threw it out into the lake.

Stupid frog, you should have known better than to sit by a demon!

I checked the position of the moon again. A quarter of an hour had passed since the last time I looked. I growled, stood, and began to head back to the household. If Ciel wanted to make a fool of me, well – he did a good job.

XxXxXxXxXx

I stormed in, furious yet trying to curb the emotion, and opened the door to where Finnian shared a room with Carter.

"Finny-?"

No one was in the room. Odd, I thought his was their shift off.

I began to wander around, looking for another guard or someone I recognized. No one was in their rooms.

Ugh, I groaned, probably getting drunk….

I approached Ciel and Lizzie's (growl) room. The light was on and I could hear fervent rustling. A crash was produced from the room and I rushed in. Lady Elizabeth was on the ground weeping and clutching the comforter to her chest. Finny sat by her while Carter was looking around the room. Lau was present for once and was sitting in the corner, his brow furrowed in frustration.

"W…What's wrong?" I barely got out.

Lizzy tried replying but it ended up being a mewl turning into a cry of hopelessness. Finny frowned at me, consoled Lady Elizabeth a moment more, and then dragged me from the room.

Once outside he smacked me across the face. "What the hell were you thinking!"

I snarled, "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"You did something to master Ciel, didn't you? He went out tonight to try and fix things between the two of you, not create more issues!"

"Ciel never showed up tonight!" I shouted back, then bit my lip and clenched my fists in anger.

Finny looked at me, confused. "What? But… he left at eleven-thirty. He should have gotten there in time…."

"Maybe he went to a meeting or something…" I said hopefully.

"You know that's ridiculous. A meeting? At this time of night? You've got to be joking," Finnian scoffed.

"I know, I know!" I said, making sure my emotions didn't cause my voice to increase in volume.

Finnian remained silent for a few moments before speaking up. "Maybe… is it possible that he's been kidnaped by the other members of the mafia? I mean, they are feeling threatened by him now, so they decided to remove him from the competition."

Anger consumed me, and I could hardly control it. "That makes sense, so it's time to go find them and torture those horrible bastards!"

"Calm down!" Finny reasoned. "If you do that you'll gain many more enemies than we could ever fight."

"I could fight them."

"But could Ciel fight them off - alone?"

His words made me evaluate my fury, but it still roamed through my blood.

"We have to do something; we can't just wait for him to get tortured by those sons of bitches!"

"I know, Sebastian, but we have to be tactful about this. First, I suggest infiltration. Then we can attack them from the inside out. Okay?"

His words pushed my rage further back in my mind and pulled the task at hand forward in my thoughts.

"Alright, but who's sneaking in?"

Finny sighed sheepishly, "I stick out a lot more than you with this blonde hair of mine. Plus, I think you'd be happier being the first with Master Ciel after all of this is done."

I grinned and nodded as the enticing thought of killing those damn brats for even thinking they could take Ciel - my Ciel! - away.

"You should get ready; you'll leave at the next shift change." I nodded and went to my room where I changed into the uniform of one of the enemy guards. The man who donated it to me was still in a nearby supply closet all tied up.

As I left, Finny stopped me. Handing me a gun he gave a grim look. "There are two flares in there. Send one when you get in. From that point on there should only be about half an hour until the higher ups of the group realize what it means. Shoot the other one when you have master Ciel."

"Thank you, Finny," I said earnestly and took the gun.

He smiled warily, "God speed."

Wait for me, Ciel. I'll be there soon.

Okay - it's super short. Trust me, I know.

I'm really worried that I'm gonna start getting hate for the animal cruelty but you know what I put an explicit warning and god forbid someone ignores it and gets their panties in a twist. So I'm putting it down here AGAIN. I DO NOT SUPPORT ANIMAL CRUELTY/VIOLENCE IN ANY SINGLE WAY. NONE AT ALL EVER.

But please remember - first off this was during an era where animal fights were common. Also, Sebastian is a freaking demon. He's kinda insane when he's frustrated.

I'm not saying it's alright for him to be violent towards animals, but I'm explaining.

Thank you.

Oh! I also got an AO3 account so yep! I am also "kaythefujoshi" there so go check it out. I'll be posting stuff both here and there soon/eventually.

I think there is one thing I need to point out though. I was extremely sad to have missed the one year anniversary of this fic's first chapter. I'm here to say - thank you all. To those who just started this journey and those who have been with me every step of the way. You all help me keep writing! I love you guys.

Thank you! Great to be back for a bit!

KRM