part two of the twofer ehe
y'all like sick fic? lol
Time seems to stop and speed up at the same time for Aoife after Alois is shot.
Stop in the sense that she's standing extremely still and can't move her body, even after the rush that that strange light and power had given her. Perhaps she's in shock, if people knew about shock in Victorian England. Hell if I know if they did. It's the air too, though. Snow dampens everything, after all.
Speed up in the sense that lots of things around her are moving. The triplets arrived, Hannah was awake, Claude arrived—two Claudes? Oh, no. Sebastian is here, ushering Ciel away. Ah, Ciel. Aoife thinks she tore his coat in their scuffle. That was something.
Ah.
The red stain growing on Alois' crisp white, ruffled shirt. Just on his right side, at his ribs. That was moving quickly, as well. That— That…
Aoife approaches him numbly, hears him saying something but can't make it out. There's blood on his hands, from where he's been pawing at his shirt.
Pressure. She's read you have to put pressure on a wound like this. She reaches, but Alois grabs her hand, jolting her back to reality.
"If not— What can I do—" she says, and her voice is hoarse. She doesn't know how it got that way.
"Go inside." He says it through gritted teeth, and there's sweat on his forehead.
Aoife hears footsteps crunching in the snow dusted grass—it began to stick, it seems—and Claude crouches down without a word and lifts Alois off the ground and whisks him off into the manor house. Alois cursed the whole way.
Somehow, it made Aoife laugh. She felt dizzy, kind of, as she got to her feet to follow after them.
Firm but gentle hands take hold of her arms, and now she's looking at Hannah, who looks—it's hard to tell what her expression is.
"Are you alright, My Lady?"
Aoife looks down at herself to assess the damage, and startles when she sees blood smeared on her hands from where Alois grabbed them, then a few droplets on the snow between her damp shoes. More appear, and Aoife reaches up absently to her stinging eyes. More blood stains her fingers when she pulls them away.
"Was there really nothing I could have done?" she says, perhaps more to herself than really answering Hannah, and it sounds slurred to her own ears, and her vision swims with red.
Hannah catches her after she loses consciousness, and the maid takes several deep breaths before carrying her inside.
[if you couldn't tell she was crying blood ehe i don't think i nailed that visual but oh well now you know]
Cut to a relatively short amount of time later at the Phantomhive mansion foyer with Lizzie pacing the floor, wringing the torn fabric of the dress she wore to the engagement party. (It got a bit messed up in the rush.) Lizzie came home to an empty manor and refused to change or do anything else until Ciel was home. Because apparently he was at the ball as well.
The front door opens. Lizzie whirls.
"Ciel! Why didn't you tell me you were going to the ball?! I was worried you got caught up in— the…"
Ciel steps into the light of the foyer with an unreadable expression and rumpled clothes with a smattering of blood on them. Sebastian enters behind him, his own expression stormy but unbetraying.
Lizzie covers her mouth with her hands as she takes in Ciel, about to reach out and console because her fears were correct, but—
Ciel laughs—a short, airy thing. Just as quickly, his face falls blank again. He mumbles something under his breath.
"What what that?"
"I said it's over, Elizabeth."
Beat. "Ciel, what— You're scaring me…"
"Mey Rin." It's Sebastian who speaks. "Please take Lady Elizabeth to her room. It has been a long night for all of us."
There's a squeak and rustle as Mey Rin stumbles past the other servants (all of whom were eavesdropping conspicuously from a nearby doorway).
"Right away, Mr. Sebastian! Come along, My Lady…"
[aiight i'm getting burnt out again wahoo but like—]
More internal monologue of lizzie being like wtf and hearing ciel chuckling to himself where he stands in the foyer, now staring out the window. She turns the corner at the top of the stairs as Sebastian approaches him, and she sees and hears nothing more.
[i wanted this to be a scene where she reams him out but i realized that she would just assume he was in the kerfuffle—]
Cut to Sebastian. Tense conversation scene that would probably go along the lines of Are You Fucking Happy Now? Is This What You Wanted? and Ciel is highkey manic that he shot his rival blah blah blah. Ends with Sebastian telling Ciel that he better hope he's ready for the consequences ahead of him. Ciel scoffs and is like "This is a normal Tuesday, Sebastian. I'm the Queen's Dog."
And Seb is just like :/ mhmmmm aiight u right ig
"It just goes to show, Sebastian—" Ciel wipes his hand across his face for like an itch or sumn and it leaves a blood smear. "If you want things done right, do them yourself." He sighs, then: "Run me a bath." He walks past Sebastian and goes up the stairs, posture straighter than it's been in months.
"... Yes, My Lord." (/sarcastic)
…
The door creaks open and Snake scooches in. He sees Ciel disappear at the top of the steps, looks to Sebastian, and goes, "Did we win?"
Sebastian just sighs and lowkey contemplates all his life choices.
[ok probs on further edits i wouldn't put that little comedy bit at the end as this is a VERY SERIOUS SITUATION—]
[Cut to a few days later.]
We're with Aoife, who's sitting outside of Alois' bedroom, inside which a physician is tending to her fiance.
She's tired and knows that it shows on her face. Has a monologue about the last few days being a whirlwind of feelings and people she knows and even more she doesn't know and she's barely been able to see Alois at all.
A steaming cup of tea enters her field of vision, and she initially thinks Bridget? but it's one of the triplets. Timber? No—Thompson, she thinks. She shoves her disappointment aside and takes the cup with a gratuitous nod. Thompson nods in return, his expression as blank as ever yet somehow more solemn, given the circumstances.
At least she's not the only one feeling out of sorts.
The manor has been… oddly mechanical, almost, in its taking care of such a grave incident. Like it had been in a similar situation before.
Which, Aoife is realizing, she is sure it has many a time.
She tries not to think about it too much.
"My Lady?"
Hannah's voice, soft though it may be, makes Aoife jump. Spots of now-cold tea dot her dress, but she pays it no mind. "Yes?"
"He's woken up, and the physician said you can come in—"
Hannah is barely halfway through her sentence and Aoife is already on her feet and through the door, teacup and all.
The first thing she notices is that he's rather small, gently propped up by countless pillows in the massive four-post bed. The next is that he looks noticeably pale and remarkably grumpy, to the point she almost bursts out in hysterical laughter.
They're not alone in the room; the physician is talking to Claude by the window, the nearby table littered with his instruments—few of which Aoife recognized—and two of the triplets were doing various cleaning tasks—probs taking out bloody dressings, idk.
Alois looks up from where he'd been picking at his sheets and frowns deeper. "It's about time they let you in here. Ridiculous." His voice comes out a bit raspy, and Aoife instinctually looks around for a water pitcher.
At least the attitude is intact, Aoife supposes, moving towards the side table where the pitcher sits. Must be a good sign. "How are you feeling?" she asks tentatively.
Alois gives a long put-upon sigh, then winces, then pouts deeper. After a beat he looks at her and says pitifully, "That's about how it's been going."
Aoife can't fight the smirk as she pours him water. "Don't make me laugh, we're in the midst of a tragedy."
His eyebrows pop up under his disheveled bangs. He quips, trying for playful, "Oh? Something happen? Must've missed it, what—"
Aoife sets down the pitcher with a firm bang. The room is noticeably quiet for a beat after.
"I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you myself, Alois."
The silence stretches, and Alois looks away. "Bit bold, aren't we?" Even his sass doesn't hold up.
Basically neither of them know how to handle this and it's awkward and everyone else in the room is pretending not to listen and failing. Then—
"Aoife… I think you have a pretty good idea already—I mean you're not stupid—but this… isn't… not a normal occurance… in a way."
Aoife rolls her eyes. "I gathered as much. If you're choosing now to explain, out with it."
Alois sighs and glances toward Claude. Aoife glances too and catches Claude's eye, sharp and unreadable. She looks away.
"Another time. Just… we'll focus on you healing."
Alois nods, so very uncharacteristically somber, and starts coughing. Immediately the room becomes a whirlwind again as servants and the physician descend.
This time, though, Aoife is in the fray, and she's not leaving.
[A moment I'd wanna put somewhere but couldn't find where:]
Alois: Doc can i sit up
Doc: I would prefer you did n-
Alois: Lit *sits up* *pained noises*
Doc: :|
Aoife: :/ moron
Aiight I wish that I could do a kinda montage type of soft moments with Aloife bonding as he's getting better. But man… I'm getting burnt out again. Shit sucks. Y'all have gotten 24 chapters with various dumbshit bits of them being a mix of stupid, wholesome, lil sus, and fuckin confused, which is just about how I feel relationships go atm, sO— imagine more of that. More wholesome than not. Maybe she reads to him. Maybe they learn to knit together and they're both shit at it. Maybe they talk for hours about anything until the early hours in the morning—half the time Aoife just passing out in the room—but they never talk about what Alois was wary about the first day Aoife was let in. Somehow she's okay with that, passing the time as he heals, but it never leaves her mind that so much must be hiding behind that weakened but cocky grin. Let's not even mention what must be behind Claude's cold gaze, always intently watching them whenever he's in the room, never saying more than routine acknowledgements as he brings his lord his tea or food. That, she doesn't miss, though she wishes she did.
i love aloife they're so stupid and fun to write banter for lmao
xx kiiro