Ever since his first day, a certain Macken boy was excitedly going to school every day except for weekends. Luka had made a good deal of friends and was very good at schoolwork, even if he did have a wee bit of trouble with sign language. He often practiced with Sebastian at home whenever he could and improved accordingly. He was keeping up in the class, but felt as though he should be doing better, since the other kids were more skilled.
As he was advanced in every other subject, the fact that he had difficulty with this one made him feel as though he needed to work twice as hard. It was simply that the others had some prior expeirience in signing, while he had none. This was the same reason as to why Luka was good at most everything else. The boy worked hard at school and enjoyed every bit of it. He got along well with the others, aside from a few incidents.
On this particular morning, Sebastian dropped Luka off at the church of Gehenna. He waved farewell at his guardian with a big smile before making his way inside. There, he met with his friend, Ezekiel, and they played together until it was time to start class. As soon as Sebastian had drove off, however, the small demon was approached by a few other kids, who had questions for him.
"Is that bloke who drops you off everyday your dad?" asked one, causing the other to shake his head.
"Nope, he's our butler." Luka answered honestly, only to hear a scoff.
"Ooh~! Look at that! He's got a butler! No wonder his family's got a car." the other said.
"Where do you live, anyways?" questioned another. "There ain't any mansions 'round here."
"I live in London..." stated the Macken, now slightly wary. He had heard this sort of tone before when he was younger. Usually, it was because he hadn't any parents or a place to live. Now, it seemed as though it were for the opposite reason. Now it was because he had too much.
"In London? Figures, since you don't know how things work." snorted the first child. "Who has a grownup wait for them in the back on their first day? Scared of the supers?"
"No, because I'm a supernatural, too." proudly declared Luka, bringing himself to his feet from his original position on the floor where he and his friend were playing. "I'm a demon."
"Rubbish, the only demons around here are the Lion and Watchdog."
"That's because the Lion is my big brother!" The poor thing was surprised when he was laughed at for saying this. He really expected them to back off upon hearing the name of the eldest Macken, but instead, he was being mocked!
"Sure, he is, and I'm the long lost son of Frankenstien's monster!" the bully teased. "Show us this 'big brother' of yours sometime, we'd love to meet him!"
"He really is, though!" angrily replied the demon. "I'm Luka Macken! My big brothers are Jim and Revy!"
"You look nothing like them! Look at this hair!" When one of the others reached forward and tried to rub Luka's hair, the Macken took a step back and attempted to swat the hand away, only for more to accompany it.
"Stop it!"
"What, can't the little brother of the Lion stop us?" one of the children sneered.
"Leave him alone!" Ezekiel finally ordered, stomping his hoof on the ground as he captured the others' attention. His classmates stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge the situation before he finally continued: "You're all acting like you think you're better than Luka, but you're really just acting like idiots!"
"Shut up, Zeke, you know he's weird!" barked back one of the others.
"What kind of selfish prick has a car? Nobody else has one!" said another.
"He's weird, and he's the one who thinks he's better! Look at him, showing off these toys of his..."
"Hey!" shouted Luka as one of his classmates picked up one of the toy cars that he and his friend were playing with. They picked it up and waved it around for everyone else to see.
"Look at this!" they said. "Brand new, with all the paint still on it! We're lucky if we get something like this." Suddenly, the child put the toy in his pocket, much to the shock of the Macken.
"You can't do that!" Luka said.
"Why do you care? You can just buy more!"
"Yeah, why don't you give us some?" said another child, holding out his hand to Ezekiel. "Hey, Zeke, did he give that one to you? Can I see it?"
"No, it's Luka's! That's stealing and it's against the law!" the faun said, holding the toy in his hand behind his back to protect it from the grasping hands.
"Are you gonna tell your dad on us? Can cops even arrest kids?"
"Yeah, they can. My brother and Ciel talk about it all the time, so give it back!" ordered the demon, holding out his own hand to the thief.
"Quit lying already!" the bully barked back as he extended his arm once again. This time, it was to push on Luka's head, but the boy was faster and grabbed his wrist instead. Poor boy. Luka was genuinely upset and his grip reflected that. Almost immediately, the bully was shouting and drew more attention to the group from the others in the class. They soon had an audience and Luka did not look like the good guy.
He was holding a boy's arm and the boy was shouting in pain. That's bound to reflect badly. A few of the children told him to stop being mean and hurting the thieving n'er-do-well, completely ignoring his insistence that he was not the villain, here. It was over, once class started, but the demon was still upset.
It affected his work, greatly. Every time he was called on, he didn't have the answer. He couldn't focus on worksheets at all, as he was simply too glum to think about them. The sign language portion was the absolute worst. Even though Ezekiel was his partner, he still couldn't bring himself to give it his all. It had been a long time since he had been treated this way and he had thought that it was finally behind him.
This was what he was afraid of upon entering school. Luka never did have a good relationship with other kids his age. They would always bully him mercilessly and sometimes beat him up. The only time he could escape such a fate was when his brother or some kind stranger took pity on him and intervened. He almost didn't want to go to school in the first place because of this sort of thing, and here it was, happening again. The Macken did his best not to shed a tear until he was out of the sight of his classmates, so he held it in until it was time to leave and he stepped inside the car that he was made fun of for.
Now, as soon as he walked out of the building, Sebastian could see something was wrong. Ordinarily, he greeted the boy with a smile, but it quickly fell as he witnessed Luka's solemn expression. He held open the door for the boy to step into the car, but his attention was soon captured by some of the other children laughing in their direction as the small demon quickly shuffled into the vehicle where it was safe.
At last, there was a barrier between Luka and the others, prompting him to utter a sigh of relief. His calm was short lived, however, as Sebastian opened the door and stepped inside the car as well. Starting it up, the butler went through the usual routine of asking Luka how his day went. This time, however, the boy was hoping he wouldn't.
"Did you have fun at school today?" questioned the butler, prompting the other to shrug silently as he stared out the window. His silence spoke volumes, however. Sebastian knew Luka after years of raising him and was thus familiar with his behaviour. He knew that this wasn't normal.
"Not good, hm?" Sebastian asked further.
"Kinda..." Luka replied, leaving the man hanging on in hopes of getting some answers.
"Do you feel like talking about it?" Again, Sebastian was met with a shrug.
There wasn't much more Sebastian could do in this case. It wasn't as though he could force the boy to talk about things that he didn't want to. The butler was determined to try again later once Luka had some time, so for a while, the car ride consisted of nothing but silence. It was eventually broken, however, by none other than the Macken himself.
"Can you not bring me in the car anymore?" he finally asked, prompting the older demon to arch an eyebrow. "You can park it down the street and I can walk."
"Why do you not want to be seen in the car?" Sebastian answered with an inquiry of his own.
"The other kids don't have cars."
"I see..." With this, the man had a pretty good guess as to what was happening. "Do the other children have a problem with the car?"
"No… Well… Maybe..." In truth, Luka didn't have an answer to that, as he really wasn't sure what the problem the others had with it, but he did know that it gave them a reason to harass him, somehow.
"I wouldn't take that sort of talk to heart." the butler stated as he continued to watch the road. "You're different from the others, but that's perfectly alright."
"They don't think so..." the younger mumbled. "They took one of my hot wheels and kept touching my head…"
"They what?" questioned the butler. His ordinarily calm and perfectly smooth tone wavered for just an instant at the revelation.
He actually surprised himself a bit at this and had to remember not to squeeze the steering wheel out of risk of breaking it. The butler was not pleased by this news. In fact, it rather irritated him. No, it was slightly stronger than this, but he didn't recognise the feeling. Sebastian was angry that Luka was being treated in such a manner by his classmates. It was an outrage. How dare they treat his child like this?! Or rather, how dare they treat Luka like this? Sebastian knew that he was protective of the Phantomhive family, but wondered if this was a paternal feeling or not. It was odd to him. He wanted this awful feeling he got when his Luka was treated badly to go away.
Quietly, Sebastian fumed over the news until he was presented with an opportunity to discuss it with the boy's oldest brother privately. The butler had asked Luka many questions and it appeared as though those children did not understand just who Luka was and who he was related to. Naturally, this called for action. No one vexes this family and the blonde of the two family heads was none too pleased with this news as well. Alois frowned deeply as Sebastian relayed the news to him and both men agreed that something needed to be done.
The very next day, they had both decided that they would need to talk to the teachers as well as the students. Sebastian would not park a block away and force Luka to walk. No, he parked right in front of the school and Luka got out of the car there accompanied by his big brother. Alois had decided that he wanted to deal with these hooligans personally.
It was a very frightening day for them, but a few things were made clear: if a member of the Phantomhive family, including the extended family is trifled with, they do not tolerate this. In addition, Luka's big brother was indeed the notorious Lion and the Lion will indeed resort to frightening children until they give his little brother back his toys and leave him alone. Alois personally frightened the thief and persuaded him to surrender the toy car before calmly presenting it to its rightful owner.
Luka had won this. Everyone now knew what exactly happened and were apologetic. The boy was now untouchable, given his status as the brother of Alois Phantomhive. The church was even on Macken street! There was no way that the boy was going to be bullied in this establishment ever again.
Once again, Luka could enjoy going to school. He was very good at sharing his belongings as long as they were returned and treated as nicely as he was. He even gave one of his cars to his friend, Ezekiel. Luka continued to go to school and smile at his butler upon arriving and leaving. Things weren't always perfect, but overall, he was happy.
A/N: Don't mess with this bunch. They will call in thugs on children. Only the ones that are little shits, though.
I really wanted more of Sebastian in this chapter, but I'm getting sleepy...
I've been wanting Sebastian, lately, but I don't really know what to do with him? That's going to take some thought...
Am I killing time before I get on with the plot? Maybe...
If I just go right into it, I'll be occupied on it for a while. I want to get some kinda... not quite "filler", but some more "day-to-day" chapters out, y'know? Need me some of that slice of life before I crush people...
Some of the ideas I have are pretty dark. Jus' sayin'...
I want nerds first. Let me build up some courage...
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
CHARACTER SHET
Question: "To Preston, why are you still doing this? You know it won't have a happy ending, right? Why don't you just give up?" by Guest
Preston: "That isn't guaranteed. The only thing guaranteed is that if I do give up, there will be execution involved very shortly after. Besides, I have things I need to do... H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. will not win."
