At last, the day had arrived. Everything ways ready. Pyestock was already anticipating Alois' arrival and all of his things were packed and placed into the car. All that was left was for him to get into the vehicle and drive off. Sadly, it seemed that this was easier said than done. Alois lingered with his arms around the bluenette, squeezing him tightly as if to get every single ounce of affection he could from the man. Ciel was no better. He was doing precisely the same thing!

"You two are gross." Revy said as he looked on, feigning a look of disgust. He had already received his hugs, and was more than glad that he didn't receive the same treatment that his brother's husband did. "There are children present."

"We're not doing anything obscene." pouted the menace. "Lemme live. It's gonna be rough without getting hugs every day. I need to get what I can."

"Why are you guys always so gross and mushy? This can't be normal..."

"Revy, we're a pair of secret agents who carry out assassinations and have regular dealings with the supernatural." reminded the Watchdog. "Hugging isn't that strange. Though I do wonder when the absolute latest Jim can leave is."

"I'm already running late. A little more can't hurt." added the other Phantomhive, but this, Ciel was a bit skeptical of.

"It can make you more late." Ciel stated, loosening his grip. He let go of his husband, much to the blonde's displeasure, but kept a hand in the small of his back. "Come on, I'll walk you to the car."

"Fine..." solemnly sighed the menace, very obviously disappointed. Still, he allowed himself to be led out to the garage after bidding the others farewell.

Their walk slowed as they reached the Mercedes before coming to a complete halt. Alois didn't reach for the doorhandle right away. Instead, he turned to face his beau and kissed him on the cheek. As he pulled back, however, he saw that he had interrupted the bluenette as he was trying to say something. Ciel's open mouth closed momentarily so he could flash the blonde a grin, but he did speak soon after.

"That's it?" he teased. "And here I walked you out here so I could give you a proper goodbye without Revy complaining."

"You still can, if you want." Alois replied while following the other's meaning. The two of them pursed their lips and moved closer, kissing each other like the married couple they are. Ciel thought that it might be a bit distasteful in front of the younger ones, as this was no mere peck.

"I love you, darling." the bluenette smiled when he pulled away. "I'll call you tonight, alright?"

"Okay~!" his husband chimed back in a sing-song voice, being swept off his feet at perhaps the worst possible time. He still needed to get into the car. He was so close, yet he was so far. He did turn to open the door, getting as far as grabbing the handle, but immediately, he turned back around and grabbed hold of the other man once again.

"One more for the road." he stated. "I love you, too, Poochie. I think Revy's right. We're a bit gross, aren't we?"

"A bit, but I like things this way." answered the Watchdog. "You better go. It's two hours, and you're already behind. You can call me when you get there, if you want."

"Fine… No parties while I'm gone." Alois jested, prompting the other to roll his visible eye. With that, Alois was finally in the car and started it up. Before he pulled out, he managed to look through the window one last time to see his beau waving with a smile on his face. Satisfied with this, he started the trek down the driveway. It only took him an hour to do so.

It was a boring drive, but Alois did get to sing along with the car's music player for long intervals of time, which was a fun change. He had to tone it down a little bit when he started to swerve a wee bit, but fortunately, the road wasn't too busy and there were not police officers looking. He did arrive late, but no one complained about it. He wasn't sure if it was because no one cared or if it was because it's hard to complain to someone higher in rank. Regardless, he was let in without any troubles and took his first look at Pyestock with his own eyes.

It was much more developed than what was seen in Audrey's photographs of the place, but it had also been months since then. There were restored buildings and little markers of an actual town, like signs to stores and mailboxes for those passing by to drop the post in. That indicated that some of the public services such as the post office were already in effect by this point, which was an encouraging sign.

The menace was slightly taken aback by how different it was, however. The place was surrounded by forest and there was more dirt than he expected. For the most part, it looked like a small town, but the streets were larger and there was more metal sticking out of roofs and in the middle of the ground. Large piles of scrap from the insides of the buildings and taken from any equipment that was found sat in the middle of some of the open space and it was being rummaged through by people who were collecting what they could find use for. It gave him the beginnings of an idea, but that would come later. For now, he was simply enjoying the sight of this peaceful town, although he was being very obviously stared at.

Heads were turning and curious kids were jogging to catch up with the shiny black vehicle, prompting the man to slow his speed down to a near crawl so he didn't hit any of them. Occasionally, golf carts and bicycles could be seen on the street, but not much else. Eventually, he made it to the building that he was supposedly staying at and parked, hoping to see the person that was supposed to lead him in. Surely enough, a grouchy looking man wearing a suit stood up from a crouching position. He had been outside smoking a cigarette, which only heightened the informality of his get-up. He wore most of the pieces that a suit had, only he was missing the jacket, his sleeves were rolled up and his tie was loosened with the first few buttons of his shirt undone so one could see his collarbones.

"You the Lion?" the man questioned While Alois got out and locked his car door.

"I'm the Lion." shot back the blonde without any thought. It was a natural reflex, given how he didn't really like the tone that he was being greeted with. It was for this same reason that he cracked a bit of a smile at the twitching of the other's eyebrow. Alois knew the man couldn't say anything because he was of higher rank. "You the guy who's supposed to show me to my room?"

"Yeah, I'm the guy. Been waitin' here for an hour."

"My bad. I got caught up while trying to leave." He paused, holding out a hand to politely shake. "And you are..?"

"Hector Flanagan. Supernatural Relations." the other answered, taking the menace up on his offer. "My job is to get you where you need to go, and not much else."

"They sent you out here just for that?"

"No, I've been here, I just don't do much." Mister Flanagan took a moment to look around before leaning closer to whisper. "Listen, I know you're just here to talk about you-know-what, but can you maybe look at some other stuff?"

"Like what?" questioned Alois with an arched eyebrow, matching the other's volume, regardless.

"Well, you made Gehenna work, right? Most of us here don't even know what our jobs are supposed to be. There's no policy or nothin'! Can you, y'know, look into it?"

"Not until I know what you're talking about." the Phantomhive stated. "Come to my room and tell me what you know. Then, I'll see what I can do."

Honestly, he was extremely perplexed by the strange behaviour of mister Flanagan, but just about chalked it up to this being a strange new place. Regardless, the other man did exactly as he was instructed, handing the blonde his key and leading him to the small apartment where he would be staying. He even went so far as to help carry Alois' luggage! A bad feeling began to bubble up in the pit of Alois' stomach over this, and once they were behind closed doors, he soon found out why.

"This place fucking sucks." the Resource Department member stated rather bluntly. "Like I said, most of us don't even know why we're here and there's no policy for anything. There's no laws, no public services, no nothing! The only thing we have is a slapped together post office that doesn't always work and a bunch of buildings that they're gonna put more people in."

"Wait, what do you mean? Are you serious? There's nothing?" gawked the menace, still only on the cusp of believing this stranger. "How is anything being done?"

"I honestly have no idea. It's been getting harder to get the supernaturals to finish buildings, since there just seems to be no point in it. They're paid for there work, but there's nothing to spend that money on! You will not find one single store in this place. There's nowhere to buy anything. Even food! They just flock to the food truck when it comes in and grab what they can. If they don't get anything, they don't eat."

"There's no system?! How- what?! Why aren't we carrying over anything from Gehenna?! We already have stuff written down!"

"I don't know! Most of the money is going on construction!"

"The fuck it is!" barked the menace, his mood shifting almost immediately. It was startling to see someone who appeared to be an under-qualified and somewhat lazy bloke who knew somebody important enough to get the job suddenly reveal their true colours as someone who was appalled by the incompetence of his peers. Suddenly, Alois' eyes flickered to life as he stared at the other man. "Tell me absolutely everything you know about this. I'd like to hear from other people, as well, so names would be nice, too."

What he heard angered him to no end. Construction was going well, but people were struggling for food due to the poor planning when it came to distributing rations. Money was worthless, as there was nothing to buy. They were secluded enough that they couldn't simply walk outside the gates and get some food. Oh, no. Things were complicated. Some who were used to living in forests did alright, but for everyone else, things were difficult.

In addition to this, theft was common, particularly that of food, as one could imagine. There was no police force in Pyestock as of yet. There were only a handful of soldiers who couldn't possibly see everything or even do anything about crimes that were reported. In fact, even if there were, there weren't really even any laws to enforce! According to Hector, even he had been mugged before, just furthering the sense of urgency in the blonde.

Fortunately, he wasn't giving his presentation that particular day, and had plenty of time to take matters into his own hands. This may seem rash, as one would think that he should wait for permission, but Alois decided that if he was going to file a complaint with Sir Integra, he should have as much information as possible. Thus, he requested a meeting with some prominent members of the community in order to diagnose as many problems as possible.

These people weren't always bureaucrats like Flanagan. Some were simply leaders within certain social groups. These could be distinguished by nationality, by species, or by family. Language barriers kept many of them segregated, but according to Hector, at least someone out of each could act as translator, since the ones he had requested wouldn't be arriving until the presentation.

With that, he sent the other man on his first real assignment in Pyestock, while he sat alone in his room to think. For a while, he simply had to sit in the quiet and reflect on what he had just heard as he simply had trouble accepting it. In order for this to work, every piece of the puzzle had to be under construction simultaneously, including the social parts. This was a terrible blunder on someone's part. Alois didn't care who it was, as long as it got fixed. He was so angry. These towns were extremely important to him. For something like this to happen was unforgivable and truthfully, he felt as though he was partially to blame for not paying attention.

Pyestock had his attention now, however, and he was going to make it work. First, he had something else he needed to do. He made a promise to Ciel that he would call when he arrived. He certainly had quite a few things to talk about. Once he collected himself, he pulled out his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts.


A/N: NOW you decide to let me add notes... Most of the time, the only reason why there aren't A/Ns is because of some glitchy nonsense. Nothing ominous. I am gonna fuck some shit up, tho.

I've already mapped out what's going to happen for the most part. It's super rough, and it's only a section of this storyline, but it feels like an arc within itself? Ah... I'm so nervous... What if this baddie doesn't live up to Lilith? I was hoping to end this "book" after this arc, but I don't think that will happen if the big bad isn't big enough. Admittedly, though, it also has to do with comments. It's kind of disappointing that DLTD has 4,000+ reviews, while this one is almost the same length and only has a fourth of that. If I start a new one, it'll start back at zero. I feel like that's a really shitty reason for doing it that way, though, so I don't know how this is gonna end up.

I'm not complaining or trying to make anybody feel shitty. I think the biggest thing is just the fact that season two has been over for several years now, so that excitement has died down a bit. How long has this series been going on? Since 2013 or some shit. That's crazy. I'm still obsessed and still gonna keep going. The best part about this is that by design, it's almost impossible to run out of material. I've done a few posts about fanfiction writing on tumblr, and I think I should explain that, someday.

I dunno. If you want fanfiction help, send me a message on tumblr and I'll answer your questions about it. Or here. Either one, really. I love talking about this shit.

I feel like this A/N was weirdly heavy? I'm sorry about that! It's really nothing. DLTD is still going strong no matter what.

Changing subjects: I got a question:

"Question, so Audrey is half human...does that make it possible for his human half to change if he were to be bitten by a vampire or werewolf?" by Hideyoshi Noir

Huh. That's tricky. I have no idea. The thing about hybrids is that it's almost impossible to know what you're gonna get. Different traits come out in different ways and with different intensity. Audrey could have very well inherited the same immunity that most supernatural beings do (I say "Most" because sorcerers can get vampirism and lycanthropy) OR, he could have very well not have. He might be granted some immunity, while not complete immunity. He could just be a carrier. Or he could be infected. If that were to happen, though, I can assure you that it would NOT come out in a way that is not the same as it would in humans. It's a mess. Hybrids are unpredictable...

00000000000000000

"is there any chance of seeing some demonic babies i the future" by Guest

Yeah. Dunno if it's gonna be THIS "book," but the chance that it will happen sometime is high. The duo kinda wants to be married a few years before having that conversation, though, so it'll be a while.

That's all I have this time~!

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!