A grin spanning from ear to ear stretched across the blonde's face as he read the message on his phone. His baby brother was becoming a big demon, and it warmed his blackened heart. When they all got home after the party, he would have to see it. He needed to see it- at least that's what he convinced himself. Alois was practically glowing at the news, much to the confusion of his bluenette "boss".

"What is it?" asked the Phantomhive, turning to his assistant while arching an eyebrow. Alois simply continued to grin in a goofy fashion. His cheeks hurt and his faux-glass nudged themselves up his face with them, much to the dismay of the other demon. He wasn't even allowed to comment on the blonde's appearance, as it may come across as "suspect".

"Luka's tail appeared~!" the menace answered cheerfully, placing his phone back in his pocket. "My baby's growing up!"

"Oh. Well, good for him." Ciel answered, unsure as to how to respond in this situation. Internally, he was happy for the Macken boy, but he wasn't entirely certain as to how to express that. His beau simply shook his head at the other man's awkwardness, his grin never vacating his visage. They were in the middle of the room, so there wasn't much that he could say. All he could do was stand by as the Phantomhive subjected himself to the torture of socializing.

Movie stars, businessmen, politicians, as well as other kinds of people spoke with the bluenette, and Ciel had to pretend to be hospitable while the blonde helped him along with useless small-talk. It helped the Phantomhive out immensely. There was minimum awkward silence, and he didn't come across as intimidating. The usefulness of the menace seemed to reach no bounds, but it did, however, come with a price.

As they walked, occasionally, the blonde would briefly hook their pinky fingers together before quickly letting go again as if nothing happened, amoung other, less innocent acts of hijinks. Every single opportunity he found to make an innuendo or lean in close to the bluenette, he took. The blonde would lean directly over the Phantomhive in order to grab things, or in order to "listen better" to the person talking to him if they were standing on the opposite side of the watchdog. Ciel knew full-well that Alois could hear them perfectly. He was just playing his usual silly games.

Yes, the blonde took great delight in watching her majesty's guard-dog trying to refrain from scolding him; noting the slight pink that dusted his cheeks. Even with all of this, it was nearly the final straw when the Macken subtly brushed the back of his hand against the bluenette's rear. Ciel almost jumped at the action, causing confusion from the guests that they were talking to. Thank goodness that their backs were facing the confectionary table, or else someone might suspect something obscene.

"Are you alright, sir?" asked one of the pair in front of them; a businesswoman and CEO of a popular cosmetics company. They had at one point been discussing the possibility of doing a FUNTOM-themed line of makeup when the bluenette's distraction became apparent.

"Oh, yes." The Phantomhive answered. "I didn't know how close the table was, and it startled me." He stated, pretending that he had backed up too far. He put a hand behind him and swiped at his back. "I don't have food on me, do I?"

"Nope. You look good, from where I'm standing." Replied the menace, leaning so that he could inspect the other man's back. Ciel felt his eyebrow twitch at that particular choice of words. Damn him. "Now what were you saying about colour?" he asked, getting the conversation back on track.

"Oh, yes!" the businesswoman said. "I was wondering what colour pallet we should use for the line. Pastels seem fairly obvious, don't they?"

"Why not use some FUNTOM toys as inspiration?" suggested the bluenette. "The majority of our most famous products come in all sorts of colours, not just pastels. 'Bitter Rabbit', for example. There's also multiple variations of him."

"Oh! That could work! Is there any way that I could get my hands on a few samples?"

"Of course." Answered the Phantomhive with a polite smile. It wavered as he heard shuffling from the direction of the blonde menace.

"What are you doing?" he asked, turning his head. Alois had reached over, dragging one of the flower vases from the middle of the table closer to him. To the shock of the guests that they were conversing with. He plucked a colourful rose out of the vase and started nibbling on the petals.

"Eating." Bluntly stated the fair-haired demon. "Nobody's touched the chocolate roses! They're too realistic-looking."

"'Chocolate… roses'?" echoed the businesswoman.

"Yes, we thought it would be appropriate to place one of our new products out on the table as well." Said the FUNTOM CEO. "They're made of coloured chocolate. They're perfectly safe to eat." He added, grabbing a flower for himself. He picked off one of the petals and plopped it in his mouth before chewing.

"That's amazing! I thought that they were actual flowers!" spoke their guest. She decided to grab one, herself. Hesitantly, she took off one of its petals. Sure enough, it was made of chocolate. "Oh! What if we used these?"

"Go ahead and see what happens." The Phantomhive replied. "Just send your concepts to the office, and we'll go from there."

That conversation lasted a few more minutes before the duo finally managed to get away. Thank goodness Alois had bought them some time. Ciel had to sit down on one of the sofas off to the side of the venue to recover. His head leaned back and his eyes shut as he tried not to be overwhelmed by so much socializing. It exhausted him, really. He had done enough chatting for him for at least an entire year and he simply wanted to go home.

Bringing a hand up, he scratched his temporary beard, unused to having facial hair. It only added to his list of annoyances along with overly-talkative businesspeople and a mischievous blonde menace. The other man sat next to him, keeping an appropriate amount of space between them on the couch.

"No homo." He jokingly said.

"Yeah, right…" the Phantomhive replied. "Way to be subtle, by the way. Was that entirely necessary?"

"You know it." Alois answered with a laugh. "How else am I supposed to pester you?"

"I'm certain that you're creative enough to find a way that doesn't involve sexual harassment."

"It's not 'harassment'. It's a preview."

Immediately, a blush appeared on the Phantomhive's cheeks. "If I'm not too exhausted by the end of this, maybe." He said.

"Exactly why I need to cop a feel now, just in case." Jested the menace, causing his beau to shake his head. Alois leaned back against the couch as well. "I wanna get home, too. I need to see Luka's tail and stuff. Also, I'm tired of these geeky glasses."

"Tell me about it. This beard is so itchy…"

"Good. Get rid of it later."

"Do you have a problem with this disguise?"

"Yes, it makes my beautiful Doberman look like a scruffy schnauzer."

Ciel simply chuckled at that statement. Perhaps Alois was right, but that was the whole point of a disguise. "Perhaps I should keep it a while longer as punishment for your previous actions." He suggested.

"No! Don't!" Alois replied, turning to face the other demon. "Kissing feels weird with a beard!"

"Volume, Jim." Reminded the Phantomhive. "We're supposed to be 'heterosexuals'."

"Screw that!" answered his beau, speaking much more softly this time. "I want the gayest of all your gay smooches that you've ever gayily gayed!"

"Kissing a bearded man is pretty gay."

"But I'm not into that."

"You said 'the gayest smooch'."

"But I want to smooch my Ciel, not some scruffy chav." The Macken stated, crossing his arms across his chest. "You look like a tramp and it's not cute."

"You're hurting my feelings." Answered the businessman. "I think I might cry."

"Alright. I'll grow a beard, too, and we'll see how you like it."

"Okay, okay, I'll get rid of it when we leave." Ciel insisted, sitting up straight in his seat.

"That's what I thought." Alois answered. He opened his mouth to speak again, but cut himself short as they were approached by another gentleman.

He was grouchy-looking; far grouchier than Ciel could ever appear to be. Regardless, when the Phantomhive laid eyes upon the man, he smiled. Or rather, it wasn't so much of a "smile", as it was an evil smirk. Ciel reclined in his chair as the man stopped in front of them.

"Phantomhive." Said the man.

"Fairburn." Said the bluenette, glaring up at him. His beau, however, looked at both of them with a confused expression. What was going on?


A/N: Whelp.

I wanted to go further, but I found this cool documentary on netflix that I want to watch and I have to prioritize, I'm sorry.

I haven't been answering my PM box that well at all, lately... I'm better at answering stuff on my tumble. On here, I just let it sit for some reason... So if you sent me a message and I haven't replied, I'm sorry! I just get really distracted...

Eh... A lot of the questions lately are repeats of the same ones, and it's something that I'm going to answer eventually, so I'm not answering them at all. That's why "Character Shet" hasn't had too much content over the past few chapters.

If you wanna know about Dan, Kris, or Preston, you're gonna have to keep reading. I'm ain't tellin' you shit at the moment, and all of the inquiry is starting to make me a bit reluctant.

It's like how being asked to do something that you were already planning on doing makes you immediately not want to do it. Sucks, too, 'cause they're intense arcs. I'll just get too 'em when I get to 'em, so chill, you guys.

I mean really...

It's gotten to the point where if it's mentioned in the review at all; anything along the lines of "HATE Y U NO TELL US ABOUT DANKRIS/PRESTON?!", I just ignore it...

Let's see... what else? Oh, I have questions...

"Question for Hate-san, what house do you think the Sensational Sevens would be in, should they attend Weston(the school from the manga)?" by Colleen Lylac

Hmmmnnn... Kris, Dan, Travis, and Audrey would be Violet Wolf; while Ciel, Alois, and Preston would be in Sapphire Owl. None of them meet any of the qualifications for the other houses... Their interests and talents either seem to be arts-related or academics-related. Kris and Audrey might qualify for Emerald Lion, but that's not where their true interests lie...

Not really a question, but:

"HateWeasel! I was in the store talking to some friends and I quoted you and this dude behind us yelled 'HATEWEASEL IS THAT YOU' and I was laughing so hard I would've talked to him but unfortunately I'm antisocial but I thought you'd like to hear that aaaannndd that's all I have to say..." by BigBossandScorpius

WHERE WAS THIS?! LEMME LOVE YOU ALL.

Anyways, Until the next chapter, my duckies~!


CHARACTER SHET

Question: "Luka, how do you feel about your tail? Is it like what you expected?" by KatieKaboom713

Luka's Answer: "It's awesome! I love it! It's not as long as Jim's or Ciel's, but it's still real cool! I can't use it too well, though..."