Days had gone by, and the numbers in the classroom had dwindled. Half of the large lecture hall was now empty thanks to the frightening professor, but Ciel's confidence was not shirked in the least. He merely deemed them "unfit for the job" and let things be. His methods were a bit unconventional. He would show photos of old crime scenes to the classroom and lecture while pointing out important things to look for with a laser pointer. Some of them were murders. Before he would show the slide, he would warn the class, thank goodness, however, his tone was rather unforgiving.

"If you can't stomach the sight of blood, then why are you interested in pursuing this line of work?" he would ask. He would also hand out puzzles to the room in which students would have to narrow down who did what based on up to five "clues" they were given. The rest was process of elimination and problem-solving. The first few times he did this, there were students in there for up to the full hour trying to solve them. They quickly eliminated themselves from the classroom.

Overall, however, the students' times have improved. Even Alois, who always completed the task first, improved and he was now able to solve them in under ten minutes. In second place was always Kyle Brykle. Even still, instead of leaving, mister Brykle would always wait afterward and flood the bluenette with questions again. He did this every single day.

Poor Alois had to make detours and wait at the bluenette's office door in order to avoid suspicion. It wasn't fair. He was finally going to school with Ciel again, but he never got to talk to him easily. It always had to be a covert mission because of Kyle, and the Macken wasn't at all pleased.

His behaviour worsened as time went on. Subtle comments with double-meanings, interruptions of all kinds, rude gestures and posturing; Alois had been very busy getting the bluenette's attention—or rather, stealing it from Kyle. The other student took notice of how the Phantomhive reacted toward the menace- always scolding him, and even throwing things at the man. The other students reacted the same conclusion as he did before long. They hated each other.

It was obvious, or so it seemed. The reality was a little be different. All it would take to confirm this was to catch them in the Phantomhive's office together to find them either chatting leisurely, eating lunch, or participating in more amorous activities together. They had their ways of working out the frustration. One day after class, however, they were cut short by a phonecall.

"Phantomhive." He answered, holding his cell phone up to his ear while speaking flatly. His eyes were apologetic to the blonde seated in his lap, pouting at the interruption. Idlly, the menace twirled a lock of bluenette hair around his finger while remaining as quiet as possible.

"Sir! It's me, Bailey." Stated Michael on the other end of the line, almost prompting the demon to roll his eyes.

"A murder?" Ciel asked, skipping to the reason why the younger detective called.

"Three…" Bailey stated. "Three students from King's College have gone missing, and their remains were found tossed into the Thames wrapped in tarps."

"Cause of death?"

"Strangulation with a wire, it looks like. It cut into the skin pretty deep on the first one, though."

"Did you try the cameras on the bridge?" asked the bluenette.

"Yes. There was nothing."

"Try the ones nearby." The bluenette stated. "Also the docks. While you're at it, send me information on the victims, will you?"

"Yes, sir." Answered Bailey. "I'll send everything I have over right away."

With that, the bluenette hung up, setting his phone back on the table before returning his attention to the menace. The other man had been waiting patiently, refraining from playing any pranks during his beau's call, but was still very obviously miffed at the loss of attention.

"What's wrong?" Ciel asked, pecking the other demon on the cheek, wrapping his arms around the man's waist. "You've gone awfully quiet…"

"Nothing's wrong." His boyfriend answered, shaking his head. "I was just waiting for you to be done, is all."

"Is that so? I expected you to mess with me, somehow, especially given your recent behaviour." Pointed out the Phantomhive. "You've been acting up a lot until we're alone. Then you get especially clingy. You always do that when something's bothering you." He pulled away from the Macken as the man turned away with a small pout on his face. "Jim, you shouldn't lie to a detective…"

"I know…" grumbled the blonde, removing his arms from around the other demon's neck before crossing them over his own chest. "I just want your attention a lot, is all…"

"Really? Why's that?" asked Ciel. His hand reached upward in order to stroke Alois' chin. "Have I not been attentive enough? You know that there's not a lot I can do, during class…"

"I know that! I just hate that annoying fedora-dork getting in the way of me trying to talk to you! I finally have you at school with me, but you're busy trying to run away from Kyle."

"There's not a lot I can do about that, either, I'm afraid…" the bluenette trailed off. His eyes were apologetic as he pulled the other man closer. "There's no reason you should worry about him, though. You know I'm yours."

"I know…" whined the menace. "I still want to tell him to piss off…" Ciel thought for a moment, furrowing his brow as he thought.

"When does your next class start?"

"It doesn't. It was cancelled for the day, remember?"

"In that case…" began the blunette, pecking the other man on the lips. "How about a date?"

"You seem to be under the impression that I would ever willingly say 'no' to a date with you…" Alois replied.

"Then let's do it."

It was then that the phone went off again, causing both demons to audibly groan. With a roll of his eye, Ciel begrudgingly answered it, only to discover that he had received an e-mail. Opening it, he discovered that it was information on the victims of the case he had just discussed.

"These names look familiar…" the Phantomhive trailed off, holding up the phone to his partner's view. "What do you think?" Taking it, the blonde examined the message thoroughly before answering.

"Aren't these people in our class?" he questioned, looking up at the bluenette with a puzzled expression. Raising his eyebrows, his beau leaned over with a grunt to reach one of the folders on his desk. Both men examined the roll sheet, only to discover this to be true.

"So that's why they stopped coming to class… I thought it was odd…" spoke the bluenette.

"Why's that? A lot of people switched over."

"These people where all at the top of the class. They were also some of the only ones who spoke up during class discussions."

"That can't be a coincidence…" the menace said. "What do they look like? Small build? Large build? Medium? I overheard that they were strangled with wire… that says a lot. We could narrow it down that way…"

"Are you suggesting that the killer might in fact be another student?"

"It's entirely possible, don't you think?"

"Does a date and a murder case sound good to you?"

"It sounds perfect."