Disclaimer: Plot n' OCs. Mine. All mine. Franchises…admittedly not mine.
A/N: Hellooo everyone! I hope everyone has had an awesome holiday, and I wish you all a late Happy New Year! Once again thank you to everyone who left reviews, favorited, and/or followed Evil Nobility! If I could lavish you all with gifts I would, but I suppose a chapter update will have to suffice in the meantime!
I am so sorry for all the email notifications some of you may have received over this update. Fanfiction is NOT an editor-friendly site. I would think I had everything edited, only to preview the posted chapter and realize there was a glaring mistake that I couldn't ignore. I then had to delete, edit, save, and repost. So annoying, and I apologize again for any confusion this may have caused.
Without further ado, here's chapter 14!
~Happy Reading!~
Chapter 14: Interim
She was a ghost and London Town was her haunt. No one listened to her, no one saw her, and no one helped her. It had been this way for many years now. She was so tired.
There was a time in the past when she stuck to the bright main streets where passerby's of all sorts came and went, and enticing smells, shouts, and laughter filled the air. She was taught very quickly, however, that these things were not meant for her and she was not meant to exist among them.
The scowls of the fortunate, the indifference of the wealthy, and the enforcing strikes of police batons were excellent teachers.
She learned to live with the dim chill and filth of the narrow, twisting alleys of the city. She learned who to steer clear of to keep safe, learned where it was safe to seek shelter, and she learned that utlimately no one cared for her lot. She knew that this was how she would die; alone and starving.
This did not bother her as much as it should have, and that in of itself was worrying, but she lacked the will to be concerned over it. It didn't matter because she didn't matter, this she knew very well. London's underbelly had been a most thorough instructor in that particular lesson.
It was a lesson repeated every single day, every single night, everywhere she went, and by every person she encountered.
It was repeated again tonight, when screams punctured the air, and when people as filthy and inconsequential as herself charged past her, eyes bulging with horror, and she walked on.
It was repeated to her when she turned the corner and her eyes landed on what everyone had fled from, a ragged corpse splayed on the ground with a pool of moon-blackened blood spreading from it.
It was repeated when the man-shaped monster crouched on the corpse loosed its jaws from around the mangled throat with a squelching sound, and swung its gore-streaked face about in her direction.
It saw her, snarled, and blurred as it lunged at her.
She opened her arms to receive it and smiled.
"You did secure a method by which Alucard can secret his coffin away, yes?" Ciel asked as he came to a stop before the townhouse door.
Abraham was still by the carriage overseeing his vampiric servant's luggage duties while delivering last minute instructions and warnings for behavior.
"Indeed, young master, the matter has already been dealt with," Sebastian replied as he opened the door for his young master, only to stiffen in surprise as two hands lashed out from within the entrance to seize the little earl.
"~CIIIIEEEELLLL!~" The boy gasped as he was hauled forward by the lapels of his overcoat into the zealous hug of a delighted Indian prince.
"I'm so glad you're finally here, I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up! What took you so looonnnggg?!"
"Prince Soma, an answer to your question might be more forthcoming if you allowed the young master to breathe," Sebastian pointed out meaningfully, as he watched Ciel's face slowly turn from a blushing red to a worrying purple within Soma's brightly clad arms.
The prince yelped in alarm, both at Sebastian's voice and as the import of his words registered. He quickly released the now blue-faced boy, and whipped him around by the shoulders as a barricade between himself and the ill-amused Phantomhive Butler.
"Prince? Prince Soma?" Agni's voice reached their ears, and was swiftly followed by his rounding the corner of the staircase as Ciel breathed again in ragged relief.
"Oh, there you are! And how wonderful, Master Ciel and Mr. Sebastian have arrived! Oh…but Mr. Sebastian, you said you had guests…?"
"Hello, Agni. Yes, Director Hellsing and Mr. Alucard will be in shortly," Sebastian replied, raising his voice slightly over the brewing spat between an indignant Ciel and a defensive Soma.
"Don't just pounce on people when they haven't even crossed the threshold yet! It's not proper!" Ciel hissed, while struggling loose of Soma's grip.
"Might I offer assistance with their luggage?" Agni asked with his customary earnestness, also steering clear of the quarrel.
"I didn't 'pounce', I embraced you! Don't act like you don't know what a hug is when you receive one, shorty," A smug smirk curled the prince's lips as his last statement sent the young boy into obvious quivers of aggravation.
"Your offer is very kind, but truthfully they should be in any second now," Sebastian replied with a pleasant smile that Agni returned with far more sincerity.
The two butlers then turned to their masters in time to witness Ciel's petite stature seemingly explode.
"NOW LOOK HERE, I'M NOT SHORT! Where do you come off, telling me….?!"
"Ahem,"
Agni would never forget the day in which Ciel Phantomhive and his loyal khansama, Sebastian Michaelis, first entered their lives…or perhaps, the day his prince and he had entered their lives would be the more accurate way to phrase it.
His beloved prince had ordered him to strike against the English pair, one small and light, the other tall and dark. He had expected little trouble, the few English nobility that were trained in combat tended to exhibit very different fighting styles than what was taught in India, and he had always been the strongest fighter in his country.
Then the English servant had moved. He was faster than Agni had expected, limber and precise as he blocked the first blow. That had been somewhat unexpected, but what had been even more so was the strange light that had flashed in the servant's eyes. He had known from that first moment on that Sebastian Michaelis, the Phantomhive Butler, was no ordinary man, and the following events merely solidified his conviction.
The butler had continued to evade and block Agni's repeated strikes to his marman, and the arm had remained functional. For the first time since his prince had rescued him, with his fist striking the slender yet iron-stout forearm of the grimly clad butler, he had experienced the first tremors of doubt.
For the briefest of seconds Agni had not been in England delivering justice to a British noble and his servant, but was instead deep in the lush jungles of India beneath the cool, merciless regard of a tiger.
A man-eater.
Agni never saw such a look again in his peer's visage, but he knew it was still in there buried beneath layers of English servant etiquette, and though he held Sebastian in the highest regard, claimed him as a dear friend even, he never let himself forget what lurked behind his friend's polite demeanor.
That day once again swam to the forefront of his mind as he drank in the appearance of young Master Ciel's guests.
There was a tall man with red hair and bright, intelligent eyes of the coolest blue color Agni had yet seen in this pale, northwestern country. His clothes were of fine make, if bordering on the middling class, and his presence breathed such strength and sincerity that Agni felt many of his wary, protective instincts settle. This would be Director Abraham Van Hellsing, then.
Agni smiled politely and then his gaze slid over to the figure that could only be the man's servant.
The servant with the eyes of a man-eater.
Agni felt his smile freeze and the whole of his scalp tingled in unison with his blessed, right hand. The protective instincts he had for his prince that had just been laid to rest surged to the forefront of his mind once more as he quickly analyzed the somber being.
Very tall, as tall as he was if not more so, with a deathly pale cast to his flesh, an unkind face framed with swirling, inky curls, and all the while Agni was registering these details, that sharp, predatory gaze raked across them all, leaving nothing unobserved.
"Ah, Director Hellsing, please do forgive us," Sebastian's voice, cultured and unruffled, brought Agni back to himself.
"I apologize, I would be loathe to interrupt such an important speech as what I am sure Earl Phantomhive was about to deliver," Director Hellsing responded with a wry smile.
Upon the ginger's interruption, said earl had become so still as to bring a taxidermist to tears of envy, his face a deep burgundy of mortification. He slowly turned away from Soma's poorly concealed sniggers to face the poorly concealed amusement of his guests.
"N-not at all, Mr. Hellsing," he managed through gritted teeth, "Welcome to the Phantomhive Townhouse," he shot a meaningful look in Agni's direction.
Agni stepped forward, concealing his misgivings as the movement brought the full force of both the icy, blue gaze and the red, hungry glare down on himself.
"Greetings, honored guests! This person," he gestured behind himself and Soma moved forward with a radiant smile, "is Soma Asman Kadar, a prince of Bengal, and the twenty-sixth child of the Raja of Bengal! I am Agni, his khansama," he bowed and stepped back.
Prince Soma swept forward grandly, opened his mouth to further welcome their guests, and promptly froze as he made the grave mistake of glancing in the new servant's direction. He blanched and, to Agni's immense relief, the little earl interceded.
"Yes, Prince Soma and his manservant have been…kind enough to manage my townhouse whenever I'm away, making sure the property is properly upkept and maintained."
The Hellsing Director's eyes had widened in some surprise, a normal affect on most people engendered by the presence of anyone or anything of royalty, but he stepped forward anyway with a short, dignified bow in the Prince's direction.
"It is an honor to make your acquaintance, and I thank both you and the Earl for your hospitality," Agni felt himself relax further at the clear respect exuded by the man.
"Indeed. Now come, I tire of standing about in the foyer," Ciel stated as he turned away from the group, "Sebastian will show Director Hellsing and his servant to their quarters, I'm sure they're quite exhausted. We'll dine together later at the customary time. Soma, with me."
The still uneasy prince did not need to be told twice as he nearly stepped on the back of Ciel's fine shoes in his haste. Agni fought back a fond, exasperated smile as he heard his prince whine in a clearly audible whisper "Ciieeelll, where do you English nobles keep finding such scary servants?!"
To which Ciel muttered back, "I don't know what you're babbling about seeing as your servant does similar 'scary' things."
"That's different though!"
"I don't see how. Now quit complaining, I didn't invite you to the parlor with me to bear witness to your assorted types of idiocy."
Soma's response faded from hearing as the two round the corner. Agni turned to Sebastian.
"I'll go to the kitchen then to finish dinner preparations,"
Sebastian nodded and turned to the Hellsing duo.
"Well then, follow me please and we will get you settled."
Agni hummed to himself quietly as he considered this new situation he and his prince had become a part of, and carefully slid the rest of the chunked potatoes into the burbling pot on the stove.
This new servant, Mr. Alucard…he troubled Agni greatly, but Agni was at an utter loss in explaining how this was, they had just barely met! The man hadn't done anything but stand in sullen silence behind his master as niceties were exchanged, but those eyes had rung a warning chime in Agni's senses.
Sebastian has never troubled you this much.
This was true. For all that Agni was aware of something more to Sebastian and that the butler frightened his prince, Sebastian was still a loyal and intimidatingly competent servant to Ciel, and his beloved prince had declared the young noble his friend and example. Soma would do most anything to support the boy, and given that Sebastian was clearly an asset to Ciel, Soma tolerated the man's presence.
It was for this reason, as well as Agni's admiration in his comportment and their comradery, that Agni trusted Sebastian around Prince Soma. The same could not be said for this new servant, and Agni worried for what might come to pass.
The door swung open just as he was closing the oven door on the chicken, and he straightened to see Sebastian's lithe frame sweep into the heated space with the object of his concern in tow. Mr. Alucard drifted to the corner farthest from the oven, and Agni tried not to notice how the shadows seemed to deepen around him, making his eyes gleam all the brighter.
"I see you have dinner well in hand, Agni, thank you," Sebastian fairly chirped, and Agni retrained his focus back on his colleague.
"I'm happy to be of service," Agni replied with a wide smile.
Sebastian turned to the occupied corner of the kitchen.
"Mr. Alucard, would you give me a hand with the dishes, please?"
Agni felt his shoulders tense as silence reigned in the kitchen for several seconds before Mr. Alucard huffed and made his way towards Sebastian and the massive rinsing sink. The monochrome pair washed and dried dishes as Agni continued to oversee their masters' dinner. The slosh of foaming water, the clink of dishes, the sizzles and snaps of cooking food, and Sebastian's short whispered instructions were the only sounds to waft through the kitchen air.
Agni frowned in contemplation.
Dinner was a successful, if somewhat stilted, affair, but between there being new guests and Prince Soma's unease regarding one of those guests, things could have gone far worse. To the great fortune of those involved, however, dinner passed smoothly with the Earl and Director calmly outlining the schedule of what was to come in the next few days.
Agni kept one ear tuned into the conversation and kept his other senses focused on the other two servants in the room.
He noted that the next few days were certainly going to be busy and that Mr. Sebastian attended to both the young master and the Director while Mr. Alucard merely observed with dull red eyes.
Agni again found himself in the kitchen with his fellows to finish cleaning the kitchen. Their respective masters had retreated to one of the numerous sitting rooms stationed throughout the spacious townhouse to whittle away the remaining hours before retiring for the evening.
Agni again noticed that Mr. Sebastian was whispering instructions to Mr. Alucard as they worked on putting away dishes and polishing the work counters.
You're being daft. Mr. Alucard is clearly just a new servant acclimatizing to his station and responsibilities. Mr. Sebastian is just mentoring him. You shouldn't be so assumptive and suspicious!
Why would the director of an organization bring a new and agonizingly inexperienced manservant along on an important business meeting?
Agni eyed Mr. Sebastian as the other butler continued to work alongside and supervise Mr. Alucard, and felt rather like he was watching some great bird of prey instructing and tending to its hatchling.
The evening cleanup was completed in near record time, even with the addition of Mr. Alucard, and Agni tried to occupy his thoughts with the rest of the evenings activities. He barely slept that night for all the tossing and turning his brain performed.
Had Alucard possessed the presence of mind to be more self-aware, he might have disgustedly noted that his current posture and gait was remarkably akin to that of an old, crippled ghoul's as he trudged down the stairs the next morning. He did not, however, possess this level of consciousness, and was just as likely not to care even if he had because it was morning and he was awake instead of asleep!
Stupid master. Stupid earl. Accursed butler.
His eyes were dark slits swimming in the middle of his pale face, and felt as though they were welded shut, which did nothing for his sense of direction. He nearly stumbled as his feet alighted on the landing, and his steps made scraping, shushing sounds as he shuffled exhaustedly down the hall and to the kitchen, where the blasted butler instructed him to report to for his assignments at six in the morning.
He hoped those assignments involved him tearing Sebastian's head into six separate pieces.
Sebastian wasn't there. He promptly collapsed in the nearest chair, laced his arms together on the tabletop and nestled his head in their comforting cradle. His long hair splayed down over his slumped form, further shielding him from the outside world. His slitted eyes closed… and slitted open again at the sound of someone entering the kitchen, and a brief sniff coated the insides of his nostrils with the smell of incense and oranges.
"Ah, good morning, I didn't realize anyone had made it to the kitchen yet."
It was the Indian servant. Not Sebastian. What joy.
Alucard forced himself to abandon the relative comfort of his cushioning limbs and peered out at the man through his long tresses. The servant shifted uneasily as a single red eye stared blearily while its owner remained mute.
A rueful smile graced Agni's face, then.
"Not much for mornings, are you?"
Alucard worked to unglue his tongue from where it was trying to become one with the roof of his mouth so that he could reply with the proper scorn that remark deserved. His lips parted.
Grunt.
…Good enough.
Agni must have thought so as well for he merely smiled softly, nodded, and began to putter about the kitchen in blessed silence. Alucard made to lower himself back to the table, when the door swung open once more to permit the figure who embodied his current torment.
"Rouse yourself, Mr. Alucard, there is much to be done!"
Gurgle. Grunt.
One of Sebastian's smooth eyebrows rose, and Agni covered his amused smile with the back of his hand.
"Right then," Sebastian muttered.
Agni busied himself with preparing his prince's breakfast, all the while observing Mr. Sebastian rouse the recalcitrant Mr. Alucard and send him off on basic morning chores. Agni couldn't help the reluctant smile that kept creasing his face as he listened to Mr. Alucard grumble and slur, and to Mr. Sebastian's quiet but firm commands.
Quiet descended again on the kitchen when Alucard stumbled out, and Agni turned to face the room at large.
"Good morning, Mr. Sebastian,"
"Good morning, Agni, I apologize for the delay," Sebastian acknowledged with a slight bow of his sleek head.
"Oh, no need to apologize…It is very kind of you to assist Mr. Alucard. Might I be of some assistance in his training?"
"I have been rather obvious, haven't I," Sebastian muttered to himself, "I am not at all opposed to you lending him some advice from time to time. Mr. Alucard is very new to the role of a servant. I warn you, though, he might not take your advice with much grace,"
Agni mulled that over and thought back on Mr. Alucard's glowing red eyes. Yes, it would be rather different for a man like Mr. Alucard to be taking orders, and to think of others besides himself, that much Agni could perceive about him. There had been hints of a strangely familiar arrogance in the man's demeanor, something that reminded him strongly of the nobles he had once rubbed elbows with in India.
"I'll be alright," he responded, "…Mr. Sebastian? May I be frank with you?"
Sebastian paused and set the tea kettle he had just retrieved onto the countertop, his eyes boring straight into Agni's.
"I don't mean to pry into affairs that I am unwelcomed in, but Mr. Alucard…he, well…I am concerned that…,"
"You're concerned that he's an unsavory sort," A statement, not a question, and Agni nodded helplessly.
Sebastian offered him a rare, gentle smile. "You've nothing to be concerned over, Agni. Director Hellsing is a man of integrity, this much I have witnessed for myself, and Mr. Alucard is aware of the expectations set forth for his behavior. He will abide by them. Mr. Alucard is keen of mind and able, and between the two of us, we'll have him in tip-top shape in no time!"
Agni laughed, both at Sebastian's encouragement and the relief his words brought him. "Indeed! And how have you been, my friend? I'm afraid I didn't get the chance to ask yesterday,"
"I've been quite well, busy I admit, but nothing has arose that I can't handle,"
"Of that I've no doubt,"
Sebastian smirked. "Now come, we must decide what our masters will be eating today, and I need to update you on a few details regarding our future activities in town."
Mr. Sebastian, Agni discovered quickly, had not been joking regarding Mr. Alucard's competency. The man picked up new skills and applied them successfully at an almost alarming pace. In the matter of a couple days, Mr. Alucard went from merely watching and listening to actively participating in the various tasks a butler was expected to perform. Something about the rapidity of it all niggled at the back of his brain, but he was at a loss as to identifying what it meant.
The man was still unsettling, a predator's gaze still lurked in the recesses of his red eyes, but Agni was also learning to relax around him. Agni's naturally friendly and emphatic disposition, combined with Mr. Alucard's improving attitude, aided this process greatly.
Agni's regard for Alucard settled into true fondness the third night of Director Hellsing's stay with them.
They were all three in the kitchen once more preparing for dinner. Agni turned from the dough he had been laboring over and left to proof, and set his gaze on the familiar sight of Sebastian and Alucard working together.
Knives flashed as the two worked in near perfect synchronization, peeling and slicing the assorted vegetables that would be used as sides to accompany the main dish. With their pale, angular faces blank with focus, dark hair, and precise, graceful movements one might mistake the two for brothers.
Agni stiffened.
He had noted one real (terrifying) similarity between Sebastian and Alucard from the beginning, and now others were crowding the forefront of his mind for attention. There were of course the physical features to consider, but now Agni refocused on the man's efficiency, and remembered the speed in which Sebastian learned a new dish from an entirely different culture, and not only learned how to make an exquisite curry, but one that defeated his own curry fashioned by a hand blessed by the gods. That is what had troubled him so about Alucard's learning rate, it was akin to Sebastian's own competency!
He didn't think they were actually related, however, their behavior towards each other was not that of siblings, but…perhaps they had similar origins.
Agni knew the Phantomhive household employed servants with unorthodox talents that were not related to their respective jobs, knew that from the odd saying or phrasing here and there that they had troubled pasts, and while no one had hinted anything about Sebastian's own past (indeed, no one seemed to know anything about Sebastian prior to his becoming the Phantomhive Butler), Agni suspected something dark about his friend's beginnings. Something that related to the man-eater that lay caged inside.
Watching Mr. Alucard and the increasingly hidden nature of his own predatory regard, Agni wondered if he was being given a glimpse at the sort of man Sebastian used to be and his own transformation into the pinnacle of English servitude, wondered if Alucard was just a wilder, inexperienced version of Mr. Sebastian.
With these wonderings came an unexpected surge of compassion towards the two servants.
Here they both were, in spite of whatever sufferings they had endured, working to serve and assist others!
Agni smiled and turned back to his work before the other butlers could catch him staring.
Sebastian sensed the transition in Agni from worry to fondness, and fought not to roll his eyes. A quick, sidelong glance at Alucard and the crease that appeared between his brows informed Sebastian that Alucard had picked up on the change in the Indian servant, and felt much the same as Sebastian did about it.
Agni really was a sentimental fool.
A/N: I know, I know, this chapter was really servant-centric (and Agni-centric), but it was also getting long and I wanted to give you guys an update sooner, rather than dragging the process out a few more days to tack on the masters' bit. I'm going to try to push for another update or two in the next coming weeks before the spring semester kicks in, so fingers crossed! There will be more Abraham, Ciel, and Soma next chapter!
Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and please REVIEW! Let me know what you thought, give me details, feedback, whatever!