Sleep never came for Ciel Phantomhive. He didn't even try. The idea of trying to go to sleep without his husband seemed too daunting of a task, so all hope of getting a good night's sleep was abandoned completely. All the while, instead of tossing and turning, he tried to get some work done. He tended to Funtom affairs while messaging back and forth with Elizabeth about the Belmont case.
It would seem that they were planning on raiding the property that evening with a group of elite soldiers. Naturally, the Watchdog wanted to know how this was going to turn out. As of that moment, everything was at a standstill with only the inside of the house left to give them a big enough reason to apprehend Richard Belmont.
The team snuck up on the house in the dead of night, trying to maintain the element of surprise up until the point where they broke in. Their earlier reconnaissance indicated that there was no alarm system and that no one had entered or exited the house in days, but caution never harmed anyone.
HELLSING operatives were met with an almost empty house. It was furnished nicely and well kept, but there were no signs that anyone had been living here for quite a while. Room by room and floor by floor, they secured the area, only to turn up empty handed thus far. That, however, did not mean that there was nothing here, however. They had yet to look for any hidden rooms or safes. In addition, the basement was still untouched by the group, so they had to be brave and grit their teeth for the sake of the mission by descending deeper into the house.
Ciel waited patiently for the update on what they found, but he was going through several people at the same time, so it would take a while. In the meantime, all of his attention was focused on the arrival of Elizabeth's next message.
"A body has been found." Elizabeth finally said. "A woman, propped up in a chair in the basement. They say it looks like she hasn't been dead long. We're going to send out a corpse retrieval unit and start working on identifying her. In the meantime, Mister Belmont is in serious trouble."
"Are you going to have him arrested tonight?"
"We don't know. We believe that we might go through the police this time and have them make the arrest as to not make a scene." the woman answered. "Then again, being arrested on suspected murder charges will almost always do that, won't they?"
"Usually, yes." stated the Watchdog in reply. "So it might take a while, will it?"
"The absolute latest will be in the morning. From then on, we will be interrogating him."
"Do you need my help?"
"Not really. If we do need you, we will certainly call you in as 'acting demon.'" There was a pause while Ciel typed in his reply, but he was interrupted when Elizabeth sent him another message. "Are you trying to distract yourself?"
"From what?" Ciel answered. Even though his cousin could see only text, she could pick up on a touch of indignation in his response.
"From Jim not being there."
Now, Ciel's fingers twitched, ready to object, but in the end, he realised that no lie he could come up with or amount of denying it would fool Elizabeth. She was up there with Alois and Sebastian when it came to being able to read the Watchdog with the ease of a children's picture book.
"Yes..." he admitted, yet while still trying to seem unsure about it. He couldn't see it, but the Hellsing woman was rolling her eyes.
"Is that why you're still awake? Normally, you're asleep by now."
"I know I won't be able to sleep, so I'm not going to waste my time trying."
"Isn't it boring?"
"I had your operation to draw my focus until you reached a conclusion."
"I'm sorry for being efficient." Elizabeth apologised without a shred of sincerity. "How has day one of being spouseless been?"
"Not so bad. The idea that he won't be here tomorrow either seems a bit daunting, however." her cousin replied. "The next day is going to be tough..."
"Just don't do anything silly like rushing down there. Let the man do his job." She could picture the bluenette doing this all too clearly. If he gets desperate, she'll be hearing all kinds of crazy excuses, or be interrogated for one. She liked this part of Ciel, however. She never got to see it when they were both human together, so it was a fascinating change. Never in her life would she ever suspect that her Ciel would be the type to dote and worry.
"I wasn't going to."
"Of course you weren't. I just felt obligated to say that."
Rolling his eye, the bluenette huffed and leaned back in his chair. Of course he wasn't going to do something so rash! He knew that it was healthy for couples to have time apart on occasion, so this was without a doubt going to be perfectly alright. It was true that the dull pain of worry sat in the back of his mind, but he could reason himself out of it. Alois was going to be fine. He is in a safe environment and the idea that anything bad could happen to him there was illogical. Yet, the bluenette certainly was disappointed when night fell and there was no Alois to cuddle with before dozing off. This was the only real set back thus far. The bed in the master bedroom was empty and so were Ciel's arms.
"I'm not too bothered." he finally said. "It's normal for couples to be apart sometimes, especially when he's so passionate about the project. It would be strange if I were to be opposed to the idea." he finally said. "Speaking of which, he gathered some people from the community and pitched his ideas for how to fix it. Essentially, he wants to put in place the same rules and regulations as in Gehenna, but slightly updated. I don't know what he's going to say to do first, however. He was tired, so I didn't keep him."
"Is he okay?"
"He was in the meeting for several hours."
"Oh. That seems like something he would do." answered Elizabeth with a strange amount of understanding. "I'm pretty sure our plan was to do this in the first place. Going over everything, I found out that they approved the current plan that says that putting things like laws and policies in place should come after everything is built."
"Who on earth approved that stupid plan? You need both going at the same time!"
"I don't know. Whoever it is is going to be moved to a different job once I find out."
"That's good. People who don't have the foresight to prevent these kinds of screw-ups shouldn't be in charge of planning major projects."
"What will you do in the meantime?" the woman questioned. "You're going to run out of work to do."
"Believe it or not, I have friends other than Jim." protested Ciel. "Or, if you want to, you could come over and visit."
"I was already planning on it!" The Watchdog could almost see her words smiling with his cousin. Truthfully, he had already anticipated this and maybe even hoped for it. It wasn't often that he got to visit with the woman on his own, as his husband was good friends with her as well.
"Excellent. For now, however, taking a walk seems like a good idea. Will you still be awake later?"
"Most likely. I usually only sleep when there isn't any work to do!" Elizabeth replied before offering: "I can call later, if you'd like."
"I would. It's better than text." Ciel stated. With that, he stood up from his desk with a long sigh. The house was by no means empty, but it sort of felt that way. Revy and Luka were both teens or preteens, which are both age groups that are difficult for the man to talk to. Then there was Sebastian, who was… Sebastian. It was going to be a long week.
It was pitch black outside with only the moon lighting the way, but Ciel casually strolled through the garden, regardless. It was still in a peaceful like it was supposed to be, unlike the inside of the Phantomhive estate. It was beautiful, but did nothing to help Ciel's loneliness. He sat down by himself on one of the stone benches that occasionally lined the path and stared up at the sky. He missed the days when one was almost always guaranteed to see the stars in the sky, but now, he only saw occasional specks of light that he was almost certain were actually satellites. Perhaps he had underestimated just how long this week was going to be afterall.
A/N: This chapter will not help the comments about Ciel lately... "Ciel is so ridiculous." Yes. Yes, he is. He's sweet, though. He has to get credit for that. I really like this part of him. It's fun to write.
I don't actually have anything to say this time, but I did get a question.
"HateWeasel: I probably just missed something, but when did Alois gain the title of "The Honourable"? I would say that I recall Ciel using it but you can hardly take anything he says seriously so I'm going to go with it was used when Elizabeth arrested this dude in Gehenna for slander(I think you meant libel, though I may be wrong). Also, do you still do Character Shet?" by raynaheart23
"...but you can hardly take anything he says seriously..." I find that really, really funny for some reason. I snorted when I saw that. Poor Ciel. Is he such an unreliable source of information when it comes to Alois?
They use "The Honourable" to refer to him as a courtesy title because he got married to Ciel, who is knighted. A courtesy title is just a title given to a person who is married to someone who has a "real" title. So since Ciel is "Sir Ciel Phantomhive," Alois SHOULD get a courtesy title just like the spouses of every other knight. The only thing is, they don't have those for same-sex couples. There was a movement to give the same-sexed partners of Sirs and Dames the title of "The Honourable," but unfortunately it was struck down because old, poncy, rich, white dudes tend to be like that. Since the Phantomhives and Hellsings have a tendency to not follow the rules, however, (and also because it's my goddamn universe lol) they essentially said "fuck it, he's 'The Honourable Jim Phantomhive.' He's earned the shit." It's technically not a real title, but hey, who's gonna tell them otherwise? The guy's the husband of Ciel goddamn Phantomhive, who is the cousin of both Elizabeth and Integra Hellsing. If they say he's "The Honourable," then he's "The Honourable." This all happened as soon as Alois married Ciel.
By the way, for those of you who don't remember, Ciel isn't an Earl anymore. They kind of fell out of fashion. Also he kind of ran out on the queen so they kinda have to demote him a bit. Sucks, man.
Also, I DO still do Character Shet. It's just that nobody ever sends it. You can send Character Shet questions to your heart's content.
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
