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—
Ciel had just sat down in that purple velvet chair for what felt like a moment, but now it was….
Morning.
The light of early day poured through Alois's curtains, causing Ciel to squint her closed eyelids.
There was a voice.
A male voice.
Reading?
"...and then the handsome knight climbed all the way to the top of the tower to rescue the princess once the dragon fell to its death."
Ciel blinked her eyes open slowly.
Once the world came into focus, she saw that she was lying in bed on her side.
Alois's bed…..
Alois was beside her, reading quietly from a book of fairy tales to her distended tummy.
"Alois….." Ciel groaned, rubbing at her eyes.
"Oh, good." Alois smiled sweetly, glancing up at Ciel. "Mummy's awake~."
"Alois, let me…." Ciel began as she sat up in bed.
It was then that Ciel noticed her left wrist had been tied to the back canopy pole.
The bluenette hissed in irritation.
Ciel's voice was firm as she looked at Alois angrily and asked, "What on earth are you doing?!"
—
Downstairs, in Trancy manor, Claude swept the floor while Sebastian worked on taking the decorations for the ball down.
It had been a grand party, yes, but grand parties left behind grand messes.
Claude tried not to smirk as he went about his task, but it was very difficult for the spider butler not to show his smugness.
Claude was silently triumphant.
Claude was certain that Sebastian would best him in a physical fight, so Claude had chosen deception as the way to distract Sebastian….
Claude's plan had gone well.
Not only had Claude managed to keep Sebastian out of Alois's way the entire night, but Claude had also convinced the Phantomhive butler to help him with his own job!
Brilliant!
"I only have a few left, then everything should be in order." Sebastian nodded, interrupting Claude's thoughts .
"Excellent. Thank you for your help, Michaelis." Claude said politely, pausing to adjust his glasses.
Sebastian narrowed his eyes at Claude. "I trust that you'll keep your word?"
"Of course." Claude replied calmly. "As long as you cooperate, no harm will come to your master under the Trancy roof."
Sebastian walked to the other side of the room to remove the last few decorations and as he passed Claude, the two men exchanged a suspicious glance.
"If one hair on my master's head is damaged in any way, I will see to it that you no longer have yours." Sebastian threatened Claude in a low, dangerous voice.
"Believe me," Claude said blandly, "Harming Ciel Phantomhive is the last thing on my master's mind."
—
"I'm reading to our baby." Alois explained sensibly, smiling warmly at Ciel.
"What baby?" Ciel scoffed.
Alois gave Ciel a look.
Alois moved a little closer to the bluenette and Ciel grit her teeth, turning her head away while Alois unsnapped her nightshirt and laid his hands on her rounded tummy.
"This one." The blonde whispered lovingly, cradling Ciel's bump in his palms.
A silent moment passed.
When Alois neglected to speak, Ciel gave a frustrated sigh and said, "Alois, listen, I-"
"-Why didn't you write to me?" Alois asked in a sad, quiet voice.
Ciel scowled at the blonde. "What was I supposed to say?"
Alois blinked at Ciel. " 'Hello Ally~, Thank you for all the letters. With great joy, I want to tell you that I'm-' "
"I will never call you 'Ally.' " Ciel huffed.
Alois's eyes were half-lidded as he retorted in a husky whisper, "No, but I remember several nights when you called me 'Jim'. "
Ciel frowned and turned away from Alois.
Their romance had been dreamy, neither Ciel nor Alois could deny that.
Ciel had let all of her walls down, allowing Alois to connect with her in ways that were intimate beyond anything that could be physically expressed.
"Yes, well, that doesn't change the situation now." Ciel said stoically.
"Don't you still love me?" Alois asked with sad eyes.
Ciel kept her frown but she glanced over at Alois.
Alois could see in the bluenette's gaze what she was too proud to admit…..
"...Then marry me." Alois said with a warm smile, "Marry me, Ciel, and we can be a family!"
"It's too late for that now!" Ciel snapped. "The timing isn't right, people will know."
"So what?" Alois chuckled.
"So what?!" Ciel gasped. "I'd be ostracized and outcast! I'd soil my family name and be stripped of my rank, that's so what!"
"Oh, come now, Ciel." Alois purred, moving so close that he was within an inch of Ciel's face. "I'm sure that you and I can think of something. Claude and Sebastian can help!"
"This is none of their business!" Ciel spat. "And frankly, it's none of yours. The paperwork has already been filled out for the orphanage."
A look of horror came over Alois's face when he heard Ciel's cold declaration. "...Orphanage?"
"Yes, Alois, the orphanage! What did you think I was going to do?" Ciel asked patronizingly.
"You…..you would send our baby to an…..orphanage?" Alois asked, heartbroken.
From the moment that Alois had seen Ciel's tummy, he was overjoyed.
Alois was in love with Ciel, yes, but he had originally thought she was male.
Alois never thought he would have any children.
Even after discovering the opposite about Ciel, Alois had never considered the fact that he could father a child.
A child….
His child.
Ciel's pregnancy promised to give Alois the one precious thing he had lost which he thought could never be his again….
A living, flesh and blood family member.
Even Ciel had cousins that were still alive.
Alois had no one.
Ciel had slept through the night, but Alois hadn't closed his eyes for a moment.
No, Alois had laid awake, whispering to the baby, giggling and laughing, and reading chapters out of books, which Ciel had awoken to hear.
Alois wondered…..
Ciel could be cold, oh yes, but would she really be so cruel as to….take this away from him?
"The baby is half of me and half of you." Alois reasoned, looking at Ciel like she had a gun to his head.
Ciel blinked. "Yes…..that's…...that's true, I suppose."
"So then, you could send yourself to the orphanage?" Alois asked, swallowing thickly, "...You could send me?"
The question made Ciel uncomfortable, but she mentally disregarded it. "Alois, that's entirely irrelevant."
"It is absolutely not irrelevant! I thought you cared about me, Ciel!" Alois lamented.
"I do care about you, Alois." Ciel confessed quietly.
"No you don't, Ciel!" Alois pouted. "Not if you'd…..not if you'd….."
"Alois, I don't know what else to do!" Ciel cried with bitter desperation.
Alois crawled over to Ciel, coming closer and closer until he was inches away from her face as he spoke, "Let me love you, Ciel~. Let me protect you…..both of you."
Ciel's frown faded while Alois spoke and her eyes closed instinctively when Alois pressed his lips to hers, locking her in a passionate kiss for several delicious moments.
Ciel had almost forgotten just how good Alois's kisses felt….
They would have gone a little farther if a loud, unignorable growl from Ciel's stomach hadn't interrupted them.
Alois pulled away with a laugh, looking down at Ciel's abdomen. "My goodness!"
Ciel was mortified.
The bluenette's cheeks flushed red and she hurriedly pulled the covers over herself as another noise exactly like the first rumbled from her middle.
"There's no need to be embarrassed about being hungry, my dear." Alois smiled down at Ciel while he stood from the bed.
"Where are you going?" Ciel asked as Alois walked towards the door.
"To get you two something to eat." Alois said with a smile as he turned to face Ciel before he left. "I don't know what you'd like, so I'll just bring a little of everything, how's that?"
"What about Sebastian?" Ciel asked quickly.
Yes, what about Sebastian?
Ciel was surprised that Sebastian hadn't taken her home in the middle of the night.
What had Alois done with Sebastian?
Never would Ciel have guessed that Claude had managed to distract him!
"Don't fret, Mummy. Sebastian is time and I'll see that he doesn't bother us." Alois smirked. "Just let Daddy handle it~."
As Alois left the room, closing the door behind himself and skipping down the hall, Ciel sighed.
Was Alois right?
Was there…...was there a way this could…...work?