Things were very slow in the Phantomhive household. While waiting on detective Bailey to e-mail the bluenette a list of the most recent missing persons, the demonic duo simply had nothing to do. Ciel had given the FUNTOM party organization to his staff at the company, so now he was stuck sitting at his desk while his boyfriend folded paper into triangles and flicked them at him. After the first few times, he was confused, but now he simply sat there, allowing it to happen. Eventually, he started collecting them in a pile on his desk while he read the news on his computer just to see how big it could get. When one triangle hit him in the head and landed on the floor, however, he finally said something.

"Looks like someone is bored." He mused, turning in his chair to pick up the piece of folded paper. Ciel then flicked it back at the blonde, hitting his shoulder as the man sat on one of the uncomfortable couches in the room. Alois giggled.

"Well, I've done everything I'm supposed to, and now there's nothing left." The menace replied, flicking the paper object back. "Maybe it's time to find another hobby besides murder?"

"Probably." Ciel answered. The triangle landed back on his desk, so he put it in the pile with the others. "Have you tried Netflix?"

"No… I usually find like, five things that I want to watch, but can never figure out which one to pick, or what order to watch them in."

"Draw names out of a hat?"

"Do we even have a hat?" inquired the blonde.

"I think there's a helmet or two in the memorabilia room." Suggested his beau.

"Too much effort for Netflix." Alois stated, falling over so that he was laying on his side. "Wanna play pool or something?"

"I don't think I can look at the pool table again after what we did…" Ciel said with a sigh, his cheeks lightly dusted with pink.

"You loved it."

"I know, and that's why it pisses me off..."

To that, Alois sat up again and turned to face the other man. "Wanna talk about the case, then? Like, what are we gonna do after we get that list?"

"It's relatively simple, but it should take some time." The Phantomhive said. "Basically, we go to the friends and family of the victims and ask them where they were last seen. We can compare that to Gentlemen's usual hunting grounds to see if they had been anywhere near there. Then, if we think we've got a possible victim of Gentlemen, we can ask for something we can use to get their scent, which we'll then ask Amelie to trace."

"Sounds like a total pain…"

"Once we get the possible victims, though, we can ration the work off to H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. teams and their hounds." Ciel explained. "Until then, however, we have to wait on Michael."

"Why don't we just go up there and take the files." Questioned the menace.

"We have to at least try to give him a chance."

"He's incompetent, though."

"So was his father when he first started." Ciel replied. "He was annoying. He always tried to make me follow rules that didn't matter. To be honest, he was more suited for deskwork."

"Young-Bailey sounds like a total geek." Chuckled his beau.

"The geekiest." The Phantomhive stated. He reached over and plucked one of the triangles from the pile and started playing with it. "Michael's a bit worse, though. Gabriel wanted nothing more than to help people, which is why he turned out okay, but Micheal… I have no idea why he wanted to be a detective."

"Probably because of his dad, y'think?"

"Possibly." The Watchdog answered before looking up at the other man with a curious expression. "Why do you want to be a detective, Jim?"

"You mean besides the fact that I have to?"

"Yes, besides that." Chortled the bluenette. "If it was just because you were forced to do it, you wouldn't have insisted on going to school for it."

Alois laid back down again, this time resting his chin on the arm of the couch so that he could face the Phantomhive. He paused for a moment as he thought, his eyes focusing on the floor. Soon, he actually looked up at the other man before answering.

"Well, part of me just wanted to be like you, I guess." He said, causing a small blush to appear on the one-eyed demon's cheeks. "Mostly, I just sort of love it. I've always wanted to go on adventures and stuff like that."

"I've never thought about it that way…" the bluenette replied. "I've always thought of it as sort of a way to kill time, mostly."

"Didn't you have, like, friends to talk to or something?" Alois inquired.

"Not really…" his beau said softly, catching the blonde's attention. "I had decided that getting close to anyone would be pointless since they would just end up growing old and dying. The whole reason I summoned you back was because I was sick of it and needed somebody, even if it was someone I would have to take down. As my rival, you were not only perfect, but the circumstances of your death made you perfect."

"Glad I could help." Said the Macken with a grin. "Sorry if I disappointed you by making you fall madly in love with me." His eyes snapped shut and he wrinkled his nose as a paper triangle gently hit his face.

"Not at all. I like this turn of events much better." Ciel smiled. "Things are a lot livelier. It's nice." With that, his boyfriend sat up again and flicked the triangle back at him before grabbing another piece of paper and jotting something down on it.

"I like it too." Alois stated as he finished writing. He then put down the pen down and started folding the paper into another triangle. "I'm still amazed, though, how you somehow managed to completely turn everything around for me, yet you still think I need something for my birthday."

"Maybe I just want to do something nice for you intentionally." Answered the Phantomhive. He opened his mouth to say something else, but had to catch an origami triangle before it stuck him in the face. Because he saw the blonde writing in it, he unfolded it, only to roll his eyes.

"'You're a nerd'? Really, Jim?" he asked, reading the hastily scrawled out words with a big heart around them.

"I meant it as a term of endearment!" the Macken giggled. "Were you expecting a mushy love note, or something~?"

"You would…"

"No I wouldn't. That's too embarrassing! Besides, I'd never be able to write down just how much I'm in super-duper, lovey-dovey love-love with you, especially on a piece of paper that small!" Alois' grin only widened as the bluenette shook his head.

"Why do you do this to me?" Ciel asked.

"Because I like seeing you all flustered and cute." The blonde replied. "Check your e-mail again, sweetums. Maybe Junior sent it to you by now."

"Yes, dear." Answered the Phantomhive, smirking as he noticed the blonde's grin drop while the menace tried to hide his embarrassment.

Ciel never calls the menace by a pet-name, so it sort of threw the man off-balance. A blush formed on Alois' visage as his beau turned to his computer again to check his e-mail. To his surprise, there was indeed a message from detective Michael Bailey.

The e-mail had at least thirty names on it. There were also pictures of most of the missing persons along with their last known whereabouts. Predictably the majority of them were young women and children. A few young men were mixed in as well, but it would appear that they were not as high in demand. Ciel saved the file before forwarding it to Sir Integra. By now, the menace had made his way over to look over his shoulder.

"So where do we start?" inquired the blonde, leaning on the bluenette as he peeked at the screen.

"We have Integra compare this to the known coven territories to narrow it down to the possible victims of Gentlemen, have her ration off names to her operatives, who will try to locate them with their dogs, and if she wants us to participate as well, we will." Ciel answered.

"Ugh! I thought we were actually going to do something!" Alois complained. He stepped back a bit before leaning down again to nuzzle the other man's shoulder. "Cieeel! I wanna do something, too!"

"I know, but we have to follow orders." The bluenette stated, reaching back to pat the blonde on the head. "You aren't allowed to help find them, anyway, remember?"

"Even worse!" declared his beau. The menace looked up again with a pout, placing his hands on the Phantomhive's shoulders. "I'm not suited to be a housewife, Ciel."

"What kind of wife are you suited to be then?"

"None. I don't want to be a wife. I'd rather be a husband."

"Are you saying that you'd like to be my husband?" teasingly asked the bluenette, turning his head to smirk at the horrendously embarrassed expression on his boyfriend's face.

The blonde's eyes were wide, his brow was furrowed, and his mouth was agape as he scrambled to find his words. Eventually, his lips flattened into a straight line before he hid his face in the crook of the Phantomhive's neck. Poor Alois' words were muffled as he spoke.

"Maybe someday…" he said, gripping the bluenette's shirt tighter. In response, his lover only grinned, tilting his head so that he could kiss the top of the blonde's.

"You're so cute." He stated, only increasing the other man's bashfulness even further. "How can someone so cute be so deadly, I'll never know."

"You're one to talk…" Alois muttered with a small pout. "Stop teasing me… Anyways, what am I supposed to do while you're out secret agent-ing?"

"Netflix?" suggested the bluenette.

"Oh, piss off!"


A/N: More of this stuff, eh?

We'll start like, getting to work and junk in the next chapter. Is gon b good.

Quite a few of you were weirded out because Integra smiled at Ciel and Alois in the last chapter. She's not heartless, you guys. She just puts up a serious front, much like Ciel does. She can be a total goof.

Integra does kind of have a big heart, which is why she's so determined to keep everybody safe from supernatural bullshit and part of the reason why she's so firm with Ciel and Alois. She's always been reminding them: "Don't fuck up. I don't want to have to hurt you." even if they didn't see it that way, originally. They only saw the "Don't fuck up" part.

The change is not with her. The change is with them accepting her which causes her to reveal her true colours more.

Anyways, Questions?

"For for HateWeasel: is it hard to write a new chapter every single day? I can hardly get down two pages in an hour. How do you do it?" by Cielois

I dunno, bro. I just kinda do?

What I try to do is imagine the scene, or part of the scene, at least in the middle, and then I go back and figure out how I got there. Once we've come back to the starting point, then I just walk back through it while I type, and the end just comes naturally after that.

It's also easier when you try to limit yourself to one scene at a time. Focus on that scene, and don't move to another point in time in the same chapter. That way, you're also more capable of focusing on smaller details. Like, I want you to get the image of them flicking paper at each other while they're talking. It's not especially important to the scene, but it adds a little something to it, y'know?

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!


CHARACTER SHET

Question: "Hey Maxwell, how are you doing?" by Artemis Phantomhive

Maxwell's Answer: "Not too good. I have to retake the final exam with a new partner, and I'm having trouble getting one. I may end up having to do things solo..."