Later, Ciel woke up, wondering why his husband was uncomfortably sleeping on top of him until he moved. The action woke the blonde up and forced him to open his eyes. To the Watchdog's surprise, Alois wasn't too pleased. He stretched in hopes of removing the stiffness in his back from sleeping in such a position, and held himself in hopes of warming up.

"Morning..." Ciel said, receiving nothing but an uncomfortable grunt in return. "You went to sleep, too?"

"Nothing else I could do." his beau answered, gesturing to the coffeetable. "My laptop was out of reach and I couldn't call for help."

"Sorry, dear..." the Watchdog replied, pressing his lips to the blonde's cheek. "Want me to rub your shoulders?"

"That'd be nice." With his consent, the bluenette reached out and started to massage his husband, earning another grunt followed by a sigh. "Oof, yeah, that is nice..."

"Did you at least get some work done?"

"Yeah. I approved a few things, though I might need to dip into my bank account to do it. Either way, HELLSING's paying for it."

"What did you approve?"

"They wanted to put in a few solar panels so the place can have some more self-sufficiency." Alois explained, sharply taking in a breath as his spouse popped his joints before letting it out again. "They still work when it's a little cloudy, so location isn't really a big deal."

"Sounds like a good plan. They have better output on sunny days, but if you had enough of them, you could just rely on that." Ciel stated. "You know, there's tiles that can you can pave the street with, and they work as solar panels as well."

"How much do they cost?"

"I don't know. I would have to look it up."

"Hmm." hummed the menace, acknowledging the other. His eyes closed as he focused on Ciel's hands. It was hard to be mad about being made sore with this. Not only was it not really the bluenette's fault, he was receiving quite a bit of pleasant attention, so it was difficult to complain.

Unfortunately, this didn't last as his beau piped up with a question. "Didn't you need to go somewhere today?"

"Yeah. I have mail in the Gehenna box." Alois replied. "Kris says I need to check it as soon as I can."

"Wonder what it is..."

"You wanna come?"

"If you'll have me." the Watchdog said, moving his hands up to massage the back of the blonde's neck. "I need to get biscuits as well..."

"You ran out?"

"I no longer have access to your stash, so yes."

"I really want to tell you that you need to cut back, but it's not like it'll affect you, so I've got nothing."

"Do not deny me this world's simple pleasures." Gently, Ciel moved blonde locks out of the way and placed a kiss to the back of Alois' neck. He was about to add something else, but upon observing something about the other, the thought escaped him. "Was your hair always this long?"

"Hm? I dunno? I've tried experimenting with it a few times before..." pondered the menace, taking notice that his hair was just about to work up the nerve to brush against his shoulders. "I guess I accidentally made it longer whenever I put it back? Maybe I think it looks weird because of that?"

"Do whatever you want with it."

"You say that, but what if I wanted a mohawk?"

"Could I stop you?"

"What if I changed the colour?"

"Now that, I have to question..."

"Don't worry. I know you have a thing for blondes." As Alois stood up, the action forced the other's hands away but Ciel had no need to frown as he bent down again and placed a kiss to the top of the other's head. "I'm gonna go get ready to go."

"Alright." nodded the Watchdog. "I'll put on shoes and a tie then, I suppose."

"I might be a while, so don't wait up. Also, don't fall asleep."

"I won't."

"Good. I'll be back."

Ciel didn't need to wait long, as he decided that fifteen minutes was long enough to wait and headed to the master suite. He was going to grab his shoes and a tie. Possibly, he was going to get his jacket out while he was at it. Once that was sorted, he sat down in a chair in the dressing room while he waited, staring at the bathroom door. It was open part of the way, allowing him to see part of his husband's profile as the blonde stood in front of the mirror. He knew that Alois was aware of his presence, so he waited until the other decided to acknowledge him. All the while, he watched the other as he sat.

Eventually, a head of blonde hair peeked out of the door and looked at him before the rest of Alois stepped into view. He was wearing a plain black suit- the kind they wore to work, made of cheap material and easy to replace. Alois did pair it with a blue tie with small lions on it, however, giving his attire colour. Ciel smiled, as it was the one that he had given his husband for his birthday, but mostly it was because of the changes Alois had made to his appearance.

"What do you think?" questioned the blonde while still fussing with the ends of his hair. "I wanted to try and get it as close to how I had it back in the day as I could. This is the best I can do..."

"I love it." Ciel replied, talking with his hands as well by standing and reaching out to touch those flaxen locks. "Throwback to 1888."

"You remember the year?"

"Yeah. It's kind of hard to forget."

"Revy was asking me how we can still love each other after all that shit that happened between us..."

"Quite easily." Nodded the Watchdog with a smile. His hands moved lower and rested on his beau's shoulders while Alois' naturally landed on the bluenette's waist. "Just watch." he added pressing his lips to his spouse's smile. The menace giggled into the kiss, causing Ciel to smile and break away.

"If you laugh, you're going to make me laugh." Ciel warned.

"Sorry. You're just a wee bit silly, is all."

"Just a 'wee bit'? I can live with that. Ready to go?"

"Yeah. I just need keys, is all."

The conversation followed them out to the car, where Ciel complemented his beau on his attire, poorly masking his satisfaction at the blonde wearing something he gave him. It was very conspicuous, but Alois said nothing, electing to grin at him instead. Ordinarily, Alois would have worn ordinary clothes, but because it was Gehenna, he felt as though he needed to present himself professionally.

As usual, they parked outside of the gate so that they could walk the rest of the way. Ciel would prefer to go by car, but part of Alois' job is checking on Gehenna and seeing how things are doing. Part of that involves observation. So, he would stroll through town with his husband on his arm, listening to people as they stopped him here and there. Many weren't brave enough to talk to him while the Watchdog was there, but many others were at the same time.

This made it take quite a bit of time to get to the Gehenna post office and by then, Ciel was somewhat regretting coming along. He had reached the threshold of how many people he is able to handle already, and there was still the trip back left. It was possible for him to manage, since he was only playing the part of arm decoration, but it was still a bit irritating to keep being stopped.

The inside of the post office gave him some relief, as there was only one person there. She was a woman who looked rather shy, given that she ducked her head down as soon as they walked in, despite the menace's friendly wave. They couldn't see part of her face due to her bangs, but they didn't really need to, given that they were just opening a mailbox.

Alois was surprised to see that there were quite a few things inside. There were letters, indeed, but most of them were from fans. The menace wasn't sure why Kristopherson insisted that he needed to check the box for this, so he kept looking, handing envelopes to his spouse to hold for him while his hands were busy.

"Forsetti Sibyl is running for judge?" he questioned, looking at a flyer he received.

"She will most likely win, given he reputation as a champion of justice." informed the bluenette while Alois found another flyer. "I don't know who Ardith Ravencroft is..."

"Well, apparently, she's running, too."

"She seems doomed from the name. 'Good war' going up against the god of justice for the spot of judge? That's silly..."

A small snicker came from the counter behind them as the young woman behind it couldn't contain her amusement at the observation. It caused the menace to call out to her. "Is Ravencroft not popular or something?"

The question surprised the woman, but hesitantly, she answered. "Well… Yes and no..." she said. "She's very wealthy. She's a witch from London whose come back once Gehenna was fixed. She kind of comes across as a little… Well..."

"Pretentious?"

"Yes, that..."

"Well, we know who the popular vote is." Alois said, turning back to his pile. Handing the flyer to Ciel, he found a rather official looking letter addressed to him simply from "The Witan of Gehenna".

"Witan? You mean how nobles used to decide kings back in the day?" questioned Ciel, looking over his shoulder. "All of the nobles would get together and decide if someone is suited to be king."

"Huh. I didn't know that. All I know is that's what they call the town council. It's basically a collection of Gehenna's bigwigs and they get together and decide things for the city. Sister Dorothy, Baldassare, Chief Sibyl… people like that."

"Hard to imagine Sibyl and Baldassare in the same company."

"It is what it is." the menace almost sighed, opening the letter right there in the post office. Glancing over it, he scrunched his brow before going over it and actually reading it thoroughly.

"What is it?"

"They… They want me to join?" The menace sounded almost perplexed by the offer. "I'm flattered, but I don't really think I should. I already have enough influence as it is. I'm fine with just being the middle man to HELLSING on occasion.

"You're an odd one." Ciel chuckled. "You're offered power, but you turn it away. Every time, almost."

"Not my job. My job is to make sure the city is stable and people are able to live happily and comfortably. That's all there is."

"There's more to it than that and you know it."

"I'll believe it when I see it." The Lion retorted while starting to walk toward the door. His husband followed, but the two of them were stopped when the girl behind the counter called out to them.

"Mister Lion! Wait a minute!" she said, causing the both of them to turn to face her. "You have more mail than that. The rest wouldn't fit in the box."

"Oh? Alright?"

"It's in the back. I can go get it for you, if you like, but I don't see your car outside..."

Ciel piped up at that. "Why the car?"

"Well… It's a bit heavy."

"How heavy?"

Moments later, the woman came back from the back of the post office with a box containing the blonde Phantomhive's mail. It was filled to the brim with paper and parchment. There was the occasional package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. The menace's eyes widened at the sight and his brows raised in surprise. Never in his life would he expect that. Looking back to the other demon, Ciel shook his head.

"I'm not carrying those, too."


A/N: I wanted this to be another 2,000 words, honestly. Next time, next time.

I don't think I've mentioned this, but The Post Office doubles as the Bank. Irrelevant, but maybe some day...

Also, Alois has a P.O. Box.

Neat.

I should be writing about murder, but here I am, writing about this shit...

I feel like I'm not doing the original Sudoku Killer case any justice, and honestly, I don't think it'll ever top the original. I probably shouldn't have gone with this plotline, but I can't take it back, now.

This is how we learn things, my friends.

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!