Chapter 5 – From Maid to circus freak

Hey, during the making of this chapter, my laptop restarted when I almost finished. And because I was stupid, I didn't save so I had to start this chapter again! URGH! FUSTRATION TO THE MAX! Anyway let's start again.

I DO NOT OWN BLACKBUTLER, ONLY ALICE!

Alice's P.O.V. ~

"My LORD! How long is Sebastian going to take?"

I rolled around in the carriage as Ciel began to get pissed at me and Sebastian.

"Alice, calm down…" although the look on his face suggested he wanted to kill Sebastian when he came back.

"This is what happens when you let that demon go off on his own."

After what seemed like an eternity, Sebastian came back, with a smirk might I add. I had this bad feeling that something was going to happen to us that we wouldn't like very much. Nothing was ever good when Sebastian smiled. It either meant someone was going to die, or someone was going to wish they had died.

"I have signed you both up to join the circus!"

Ciel went big eyed as I gasped with joy,

"Really?! When do we start?"

Ciel on the other hand was furious,

"THE HELL? Why did you head in that direction?"

Sebastian explained that to get closer to the circus and investigate, we should join and seek it out from the inside. I loved this idea, for once. So the next day, Sebastian took us to Joker and the Noah's Ark Circus.

Joker was really surprised at Ciel and I…well Ciel mostly, after all, he was a small child.

"WOW, you actually brought a really cute kid! Are you really a boy?"

Ciel looked at me and back at Joker, that look suggested Ciel was very annoyed but for the sake of this mission, he had to keep his calm,

"Yes, I was a Paige boy at the manor. My name is Finnian,"

Joker then turned to me, a bright smile on his face, "And you, pretty lady…What is your name?"

I blushed slightly at the fact that he called me pretty but brushed it aside as the look on Sebastian's face suggested that I didn't think too much of it, it made me shiver when I thought about how damn possessive he was, "My name is Alice and I was a street rat before becoming a maid."

"My, what a pretty name for a pretty lady…Do you have any skills?"

This question was directed to both Ciel and I as we nodded and both said Knife throwing.

"Dagger, give these two some knives! Ladies first."

So Dagger handed me some knives and I took my stance. From years of experience from hunting rabbits, which were a very hard target as they were fast and nimble, I relaxed my body and focused on the target which was very far away. With a flick of the wrist, the knife went speeding through the air and hit dead centre of the target.

Everyone applauded and awaited my next throw. I had three more throws, each landed near the spot in the middle. I was confident that I wouldn't miss because that confidence was what allowed me to live.

"Very impressive!" Joker put his hand on my shoulder and everyone clapped and complimented me, "How did 'ee learn to throw knives that well?"

I was hesitant to tell them about my life story but who cares right?

"When I was a street rat, I lived with my younger sister and 2 friends. I stole knives and sharpened them to hunt, mainly rabbit but sometimes deer. But because I knew that this required too much effort and soon, someone would notice so I stopped and used it as self-defence. Then one day, my sister and friends were killed in front of me, and I couldn't do anything to stop or save them. So I lived on the streets until I was hired by a noble man and worked as a maid, but he was boring so I decided to join the circus when Sebastian offered to take me to try out…"

I couldn't help but look over at Ciel who had this passive expression on his face but the burning inferno in his eyes told me that I was going to die after this mission. Everyone hugged me in sympathy; Joker stroked my head and spoke to me in a soothing voice,

"So young and yet you've had such a hard childhood…If we 'ee join, we promise to treat 'ee like family!"

I couldn't help but genuinely smile, it seemed hard to believe that someone like Joker could be guilty of abducting children from the streets, but in a world like today, anything was possible. Finally it was Ciel's turn. Everyone chuckled and whispered among themselves, "with those small, weak arms they won't even reach the target…"

Well, they were right. When Ciel threw his first knife, we all saw that it was never going to make it when suddenly it shot right up and hit the target.

"WOOO!" Joker and Dagger exclaimed with surprise. I looked very shocked as Ciel smirked with a victorious grin and threw his second knife, again we all saw it was never going to make it, but again we all saw it fly back up and hit the target. I had a feeling Sebastian was the culprit so I watched him carefully. And sure enough out of the corner of my eye, I saw his gloved hand poking out from behind him holding very small pebbles. I stared as Ciel threw another knife, Sebastian flicked the pebble which hit the bottom of the knife with great force, sending the knife flying up.

Sebastian was becoming more and more un human, even though I know he is a demon, it was still unbelievable that he could do this.

Sebastian caught me staring and put his finger to his lips, telling me to keep it a secret and I rolled my eyes, What A Show Off!

"is this ok?" Ciel asked after he ran out of knives.

Dagger stared the target, still trying to accept the extraordinary sight. We left the rest of the circus to wonder about how Ciel's knives hit the target and believe to be a fricking miracle.

Next, Joker took us to Doll in the high top who was waiting high up at the tight rope. Personally I hated heights.

"Next is tight rope walking! Alice, please head up and Doll will tie a safety rope to you,"

I was most definitely afraid of heights and so when I took my first couple of steps, I was shaking badly. Really badly. I couldn't help but sway slightly as I gasped at how high up I was and the notion that I could fall and break every bone in my body. Although I had awesome balance, my fear made it hard for me to walk, Doll called out from behind me,

"if you are afraid you can call it quits,"

"No, I can do this!" I took a deep breath and regained my calm and continued along the rope. At the middle, I began to feel a bit more relaxed and guided my foot to the front, but I misjudged the speed and I could feel myself slip to the side. I leaned as hard as I could to straighten myself up and I began to panic as it wasn't working so I hooked my foot around the rope and swung up, miraculously landing with both feet back on the rope and regained my balance. From beneath, I heard Joker gasp and I could see the surprised look in Ciel and Sebastian's eyes. I didn't want to stay on this rope any longer so I hurried to the end.

When I reached the end, I breathed out and laughed as I finally finished the tight rope, my heart hammering in my chest and the adrenaline soared. I got down the platform and went up to Sebastian and Joker who were watching as Ciel began to walk. Not even a quarter of the way, Ciel began to tumble but then quickly went straight up, his face in pain. Again, Sebastian was using his pebbles to keep Ciel from falling, and judging from the look on his face, Sebastian was enjoying this.

When Ciel got to the floor, he was rubbing his back and butt where Sebastian had attacked repeatedly.

"I accept but this young man has not done something yet….A big O' SMILE!"

Ciel looked at us with an annoyed look and shaking with regret, he gave a big smile. I was amazed at how cute and innocent Ciel looked when he smiled like that. So finally Joker accepted and introduced us to the other performers. As we walked to the centre of the camp, Ciel gave Sebastian and I a look that said, speak of this to anyone and you will regret it.

"Listen everyone! From today onwards, we will have some new friends… Meet Black, Lacie and SMILE!"

At the sound of the name Smile, Ciel cringed and Sebastian, I mean Black and I snorted and tried to hold back our laughter as Ciel pinched Sebastian and I, causing us to stop laughing. Sebastian led in getting friendly and nice with the other performers,

"I am Black, nice to meet you,"

"Hi~ I'm Lacie! Please look after me!"

Ciel was still trying to recover from the trauma of having his name as Smile and Sebastian had to remind him to stay in character,

"Um…My name is Smile, nice to meet you all…"

After all the introductions, Joker showed us around. We went passed the tents in which we were staying in, the doctor's tent, the dining hall and finally we arrived at the training tent. Joker left us in the hands of Dagger.

Dagger took me to the targets to practice knife throwing.

"Miss Lacie, you're really good at this!"

"Thanks Dagger! You're pretty good yourself!"

He blushed and went all shy and modest,

"Not really, I mean, lots of practice is good… A-And-" then he spotted Ciel, I mean Smile and Black not doing anything so he went over. I followed along.

"Guys! You can't just stretch! I can teach Smile knife throwing with Lacie, but I have no idea what you're good at Black! You can try anything that interests you here-"

Before Dagger got a chance to finish his sentence, Sebastian began to show off, again.

He outdid himself on the trapeze, juggling, jumping through rings of fire and countless others when Dagger stopped him before we spent the whole day watching Sebastian show off.

"Black, you're really talented, just like our other newcomer!"

Smile and Black looked at each other as Dagger called out and pointed above us,

"COME DOWN HERE FOR A SEC WOULD YA SUIT!"

I looked up to see a young man with hair combed back, a star patterned suit, glasses over his shimmering green eyes which I could have sworn I've seen before… and a weird pole thing with weird clippers at the end. It reminded me of a pruner, which is a gardening tool I've seen Finny use.

"Oh, that's where the revolting smell was coming from. It was you…" the pole stabbed into the ground and he sailed down it to the floor. Then he pointed his tool at Sebastian, "You devilish fiend!"

Everyone looked at them weirdly and I tapped on Ciel's shoulder, "Who's that?"

"Him? He's a Grim reaper, just like Grell…"

A grim reaper? There's more than one? Grell…I haven't seen him since Madame Red.

Then Dagger and the other performers laughed and Dagger scruffled Suit's hair and joked,

"This one is crazy! Hahaha, he's been going on about souls and demons since he joined!"

Suit was very serious though, slicked back his hair and whispered, "I'm not joking though…."

Dagger took Ciel and I away as Sebastian grabbed Suit and they went outside to talk, I think…Ciel wasn't successful with his knife throwing since Sebastian wasn't there.

"Smile? What happened to all that strength and accuracy before? Did you suddenly lose all your arm strength or something?"

"Sorry, I guess I'm just tired."

Dagger finally had to go off and practice for himself, leaving Ciel and I alone to 'practice'. Ciel sighed and tossed the knives on the ground while I decided to have a few more goes before Ciel deemed that it was time to figure out what took Sebastian so long.

"Oi, the noisy knife thrower is calling you guys in!" Ciel approached, glaring at Suit.

"H-hi!" I stuttered as this was the first time I ever talked to a grim reaper, Grell does not count though as he wasn't in his normal form I guess and he was an idiot.

"hmm.. who are you? Seems like you're no demon but you are hanging around his ilk,"

"um…well…" I wasn't sure if I should tell him or not because it seemed that Sebastian and Ciel didn't like him.

Ciel cut in, "She's none of your business, shall we agree that we shall not interfere with each other's work?"

"Very well, you better not get in my field of sight!" Suit used his pruner to lift his glasses as I sensed tension in the air. I could have sworn I saw lightning between their gazes.

"Well then, Smile I ask you to keep your dog on a lease, so he doesn't go and wreak havoc," Suit said as Ciel smirked back,

"I don't want to hear that form some glasses who can't even sneak in properly,"

"it's not Glasses…it's Suit!"

I gave up trying to understand things as the seriousness of the conversation began to plummet and the situation just got awkward. To save ourselves the embarrassment we all headed back in. Joker announced the tents we would be staying in and who we were with.

"Smile, is in tent 8 with Freckles,"

"Lacie is in tent 7 with Rose," a small and very shy girl stepped up to me and gave me a nervous smile, "Nice t-to me-et yo-u L-l-acie!" I smiled back and replied, "let's get along!"

Joker continued,

"Black will be in tent 9-" Ciel interrupted, "What? Black isn't in my tent?! I need him!"

Dagger tried to comfort Ciel, "It's time you are on your own!"

"Black will be with…Suit!"

And at the moment, I saw Sebastian and Suit go dark and I'm guessing in their minds, they said "OH NO, this couldn't get any worse…"

When everyone left, surrounding Suit and Sebastian was a black aura as Ciel and I sweat dropped, "Ciel, I think they're going to kill each other in their sleep…"

"…"

Since there was not much else I could do, I headed to my tent with Rose. When I entered, the whole tent was surprisingly neat and tidy and smelt kind of nice as well.

"is it ok if you go top bunk?" Rose asked, she was probably scared of heights too, "yeah, sure…"

She looked away, blushing as I began to climb up the stairs to the bunk,

"I don't like heights… sorry,"

The next night, there was a performance so it was our chance to investigate. Unfortunately, Sebastian and Suit was asked to replace Wendy and Peter. So I was in charge of looking after Ciel. We went into Beast's room and saw a picture of some old guy and them when they were young. Also we found a couple of sheets with Ciel's name on it and information about him.

"Hey Ciel! Do you think they've found out about you?"

"I don't know!"

Suddenly we heard footsteps, "S***, quick hide!" I whispered. The steps got closer as suddenly something black swooped passed, grabbed us and stuffed us inside a chest. Inside were Beast's clothing and outside was Beast. When she wasn't looking, Sebastian left her top hanging out of the chest so she wouldn't have to open it to get it. Which worked very well and she left, leaving us safe and undetected.

"Phew, thank God!" I sighed as Sebastian, Ciel and I sat up inside the box. It was amazing that this chest could actually hold a very tall demon, a moderate teenager and a small kid.

"Urgh! What a fit! Please don't stuff us into a chest again Sebastian."

"I had no choice. We were going to get caught otherwise."

Freckles grabbed Ciel and I by the arm and dragged us to the 'bath' which was actually just a slightly closed off area where naked people would splash freezing cold water on themselves. I covered my eyes with my hands and blushed upon seeing the countless naked men.

"Freckles! I can't bath here! Shouldn't women and men be separated?!"

"Don't worry, there's a section over there for girls!"

I didn't bother and decided that bathing can wait. Freckles didn't bother waiting for Ciel to take his clothes off either as he or she began to strip him. Ciel began to yell and squirm, desperate to keep his shirt on and I wondered why. But the natural protective instinct made me throw myself at him and pull him away. The look on Freckle's face was one of shock and I wasn't sure why but whatever he or she saw, it couldn't have been good. I decided to drape my outside shirt around Ciel, only wearing a camisole. I was more worried about his health than mine. I could hear Freckles yell after us, telling us to wait up but I was adamant to take him to a warmer area while looking out for Sebastian. We were almost to the tents when Ciel went into a coughing fit and began to throw up.

"Cei-Smile!"

Freckles caught up and began to look very concerned while Sebastian appeared and ran up to help. We took him to the doctor's tent and found out, it was asthma.

"I've never seen him like this before, and I've been with him for 3 years," Sebastian said as Ciel panted heavily, trying to get air. His forehead was very hot and he seemed to be in pain. It must have been the cold water and the shock. Late that night I heard some rustling noises and woke up. I got down the bunk, trying not to wake Rose and snuck out of the room. I saw Sebastian walk out of the doctor's tent to be attacked by Suit, in pyjamas.

"Where do you think you are going? I'm quite sure I told you not to go anywhere without your Master."

"Sorry but my Master can't make this move himself, so he asked me to do this instead."

"I'm not listening to any excuses, get back in the tent. One mistake can lead to lots of overtime!"

The pruner extended and went straight for Sebastian, he caught the clipper, blood spilling everywhere. I ran out to Sebastian and stood in between Suit and Sebastian,

"What do you two think you are doing in the middle of the night fighting? Stop it! You are going to get caught and everything will get blown!"

The clipper released itself from Sebastian and he stepped in front of me, just in case Suit would attack me.

"Care to make a deal with me?"

"I refuse, I will not be deceived by your sweet words and be dragged into darkness. Isn't that a demon's signature? Is it that you have deceived this young lady with your foul words?"

Suit flicked blood off his pruner as Sebastian licked the blood off his hands,

"Indeed, you have left me no choice… I will have to do this another way…"

When Suit left, I checked to see if Sebastian was ok. Stupid me! Demons were fast healers.

"How nice of you to protect me, although it wasn't necessary,"

"Shut up! Sorry for worrying!" I retorted sarcastically as I headed back to my tent, Sebastian grabbed me wrist and held me close.

"I never said I didn't like it though… this side of you is very alluring, I might not be able to hold back, after all I am beginning to get hungry," Sebastian whispered in my ear as I elbowed him in the stomach and stepped away,

"sadly I couldn't say the same about you, I respect you and all and grateful that you took me in, but this side of you, is getting annoying…" and I walked into my room.

I collapsed on my bed and pounded the pillow. Stupid, how could I say that? I lay there silently, as I contemplated. I guess, if I do react like this, then I do like him…NO, he's a perv and nothing else! And I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

~Sebastian's P.O.V. ~

I heard quiet sobbing as I went to investigate. To my luck, Beast was alone and very weak, time to pounce. After all, the seducing of females was one of the things that I do best…among thousands of other things.

"Oya, Oya… are you crying?"

I stood up on Betty's cage and looked down at her, smirking. I couldn't help but grin at how helpless and pathetic she looked. Like prey before the predator.

"You! This has nothing to do with you! GO AWAY!"

I jumped down, slowly making my way over, whispering words of seduction and entrapment. A heartbroken female was an easy target. Their weak hearts and darkness from the hurt and betrayal made it almost too easy to get inside her and use it to my advantage.

"Shut up! What yould you know?!"

She tried to punch me but it was weak and I dodged it. I grasped her wrist and pulled her against me. A position where she could not see me but only hear my voice, the words to snake inside her heart and twist it to my liking.

"nothing, but there is one thing I know… the way to release you from the pain for a while,"

She seemed to hesitate for a bit but attacked me again, this time, out of embarrassment rather than anger. She hadn't known it but she was already dancing on the palm of my hand. She was as good as mine.

"Shut up, stop teasing me!"

I held firmly to her arms and whispered into her ear,

"What will you do with this pile of painful thought? Even if you call out to him, he will never look back at you, how pitiful…"

She was relaxing, she was succumbing and I knew, I've got her in my trap. The prey is deceived by sweet words and dragged into darkness. To not notice the demon's concealed power, skilfully, sweetly, quietly…

"Isn't it painful? Don't you want comfort? Forget him who is cruel. Wouldn't it be good to forget everything, even if it was for a moment? Indulge in pleasure, breathe a sweet poison into your lungs…"

A single tear rolled down her eyes,

"It's a demon's whisper,"

She was mine now, and it was so easy. Luckily for me, this was just entertainment but the real fun refuses me and is probably resting her poor, sweet body right now… I whispered one last message to my prey as she took me to her room,

"I only want to get in and explore…that secret place deep inside you…"

End of chapter 5

OMG! NOSEBLEED / I can't believe how sexy and alluring Sebastian is! I mean, if there was a man like that in the world, damn! When ready the manga and watching the anime, I couldn't stop squealing at every word he said to Beast, like seriously, hotness OVERLOAD!

Anyway, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed that and please review and tell me what you think! STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!