"How long are baseball games?" inquired Kristopherson, beginning to lament his involvement as well. "This has been going on forever… Have we been curse?"

"We just have to switch one more time, I think." spoke Daniel, who was equally sick to death of this nonsense. Meanwhile, it would appear that the Macken boy had the right idea by having his phone out. He was texting the other Westley as well as Geraldine about the game thus far.

Even Audrey, who was so determined to win before was running out of steam. He sat on the bench, hanging his head while the two girls carried the team. Bones dreaded his own turn to bat, especially after seeing the Phantomhive return. Ciel practically collapsed after making it back to the dugout.

The Watchdog was completely and utterly exhausted. Things had improved for a while after being visited by his beau and after eating some candy, but then it progressively got worse again until it got to the point where he was having trouble standing, let alone thinking. Much to the astonishment of everyone there- the audience, his team, as well as the other along with his husband- he actually struck out after taking the bat.

"No!" protested the menace, mouth agape and hands clutching at his head in shock. He couldn't believe it. Ciel had actually failed at a game that was relatively simple. All he had to do was hit the ball with a stick and then run, but he missed not once, but three times! It was so unthinkable that Alois had every right to be concerned. His thoughtless shouting prompted the attention of both the audience and the Lions.

"Focus on the damn game!" barked Baldassare from second base. Turning to the pitcher, he continued. "Give 'em hell! Show no mercy, Tatum!"

"As you wish." the pitcher said, nudging his glasses back onto the ridge of his nose while staring down the next unfortunate soul to step up to the plate.

Alas, poor Audrey, his friends knew him well. With the winding of the pitch, he hesitated and subsequently missed. Gripping the bat tighter and taking a deep breath, he made an attempt to steal himself, but alas, it was not to be. He missed yet again, and again, making it the third out in that very, very brief section of the game.

Immediately after the umpire called it, Alois went dashing toward the Phantom's dugout again, only to find his spouse slumped over and staring blankly at the floor. Elizabeth and the others were trying to snap him out of it, but Ciel wouldn't budge. In fact, the crowding made him feel even worse. He knew that he needed to stay focused. He knew that he was bringing the team down. There was nothing he could do, however, no matter how hard he tried to fight it. His will alone was not enough to sustain him.

"Ciel!" the menace called out, rushing to his spouse's aid. Ciel didn't even sit up, but he could feel Alois' hand on his back. Gently, the blonde rubbed it in a soothing fashion, all while trying to get the other demon to face him. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm not." the bluenette said. "Offing a crime boss with a god complex would be easier than this."

"Tired?"

"Tired."

Looking up, Alois turned his attention to the acting captain of the team, Elizabeth. He wanted to know how they were going to proceed, as it would appear that the Phantoms were not in any condition to continue playing. "What do you want to do?" he asked, prompting the woman to fold her arms.

"I'm starting to think that the only thing we can do is end the game." Elizabeth answered. "The Lions can't play against no one, and the Phantoms can't play at all."

"Unless you and Seras want to play all the positions..." Revy butted in, turning his focus away from his phone for a moment. "This sucks. I wanna go home."

"Revy, we all want to go home." Kristopherson replied, followed by the sound of his teammates murmuring in agreement.

The two captains just looked at each other and shrugged. "You wanna go talk to the umpire?" questioned Alois. With one hand, he gestured to the field and with the other, he kept rubbing his husband's back.

"I suppose we have no choice." Elizabeth said. "How do we want to do this?"

"Well, we could just keep the points we have and end the game short."

"But that would mean that we win." the woman replied. "We would have a riot if the audience felt like their home team was cheated."

"Well, maybe not a riot riot, but yeah, I see your point." Rubbing his chin with his index finger, the Phantomhive thought. "Well, forfeiting is always an option."

"I'm fine with that." his in-law stated. "I'll have to see what the rest of the team thinks, however."

"I don't care." Daniel chimed in.

"I'm really, really bored." Kristopherson added.

"Baseball is stupid." stated Revy.

"Well, I don't feel particularly negatively, but..." began Seras Victoria, the other person who carried the team to almost victory. "I can't say I mind. If we don't have a team to play, then the game is over."

With that, everyone turned to Audrey, who had been the most adamant about winning since the game's beginning. Bones slouched in his seat and had to be torn from his fascinating view of the ground. "I want to win..." he said, much to the disappointment of his team. "But, I want to go home, too… This is boring. Football would have been a better option."

"But then we wouldn't get to wear these cute outfits, Audrey." jested the menace with a tip of his cap.

"So, seeing as we are all in agreement, I suggest we stop holding up the game and go speak with the umpire, Jim- er, Alois." Elizabeth corrected herself quickly, not knowing if she had the privilege to call him by his true name just yet. In professional documents and when looking to contact him, however, he was always listed as such, however.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." the Phantomhive smiled. "I don't mind if you call me by my name. I call you 'Lizzie,' don't I?"

Excitedly, the angel's eyes seemingly sparkled upon the news as a wide grin overtook her visage. The woman jumped at him, practically tackling him as she wrapped her outstretched arms around his shoulders and gave him a tight squeeze. If any additional force were added, Dame Hellsing might have broken his collarbone! He was safe, however, even if he couldn't breathe.

"Jim!" she called out just for the heck of it. "Jim Phantomhive! It's such a cute name!"

"Really? I always thought it a bit plain." the menace forced out, feeling obligated to answer her despite the circumstance.

"Not at all!" Elizabeth stated, finally letting him go and allowing air to enter his lungs. "It's cute! It gives off a fun impression and paired with a name like 'Phantomhive,' I would certainly say that it cancels out."

"Hey, how come we don't get to call you 'Jim?'" booed Audrey. "Don't you love us?"

"Sorry, only family gets to call me that." the Phantomhive shot back, only to be sassed by Daniel.

"Totally, definitely unrelated, but do you have any single relatives?" the Westley questioned before laughing at the look he was shot with.

As much as they would like to carry on the conversation, they had taken a really, really long time to switch. The rest of the Lions were already in the dugout and everyone was ready for the Phantoms to take the field. As both the crowd and the home team were getting impatient, the umpire decided to take it upon himself to walk over to the Phantoms' lair in order to remind them that there was a game that needed playing. Ducking his head below the awning, Mister Knaggs addressed the group.

"Is there a problem?" he asked with an arched brow. "The Lions' leader needs to go to his own dugout and the Phantoms need to take the field."

"We were trying to decide what to do." Elizabeth began to explain, gesturing toward her cousin. "Ciel is unable to continue playing, meaning that we are down a critical player with no replacement."

"Is he alright?" the postmaster questioned with concern in his voice and face.

"He'll be fine. He just needs some time to recover." informed the menace, reaching back down to start patting his beau again. "He hasn't been feeling too good over the past couple of days and we think that the game was just too much for him right now."

"The Phantoms are willing to forfeit the game, but we absolutely cannot continue to play." continued Dame Hellsing.

Knaggs, unfortunately, was put in an unfortunate predicament as a result. "What do I tell the audience?" he asked.

"The truth should be fine." Alois said. "You don't need to go into detail; just say that one of the members of the Phantoms is sick and no longer able to play. Since they're quitting, announce the Lions as the victors."

"That seems a bit unfair..."

"It's not fair playing a game that needs nine players with seven, either. It's also not fair to have one team without a pitcher."

"I suppose that's true… Alright. I'll tell them." Poor Mister Knaggs didn't seem too certain about this, but what choice did he have? Tipping his hat, he turned to leave.

"You're great, Lewis!" Alois called out. "I owe you one!"

"He's nice." Elizabeth said.

"Yeah. Super nice." agreed the menace before turning to his husband and gently shaking him by his shoulder.

"Alright, Pooh Bear, it's time to get up." he said. "Let's get you home."

"I'm sorry." Ciel apologised while his spouse helped him to his feet. Truly, he was remorseful. There was no need to bring everyone else down with him, yet somehow he managed to do so. It was embarrassing. He hoped his friends weren't too upset with him and in reality, they weren't. They didn't want to play anymore either.

After both teams shook hands and the Lions accepted their victory, the group dispersed, with a few of them heading off to enjoy some of the food that was being sold for the occasion and others simply going home. Placing a hand in the small of Ciel's back, the blonde guided him through the crowd, avoiding groups of people who wanted to talk to them with great dexterity. Once he was in Alois' car, the poor bluenette practically sank in his seat as the long sigh he uttered was causing him to deflate.

"You gonna be okay, darling?" questioned his beau, having shut the door on the driver's side and buckled his own seatbelt. Half-heartedly, the Watchdog nodded with closed eyes.

"Yeah… I'm just tired…" There was a moment of hesitation before Ciel worked up the courage to add: "I'm… sorry. I didn't mean to ruin the game for everybody."

"Oh, don't you worry about it, babycakes." Alois replied, affectionately patting the other's leg. "It's not a big deal. Besides, it's not really the result that matters here. It's that everybody had a good time, and they did. Mission accomplished. I'm the one who should be apologising to you, really..."

"Why? You didn't do anything wrong?"

"Well, I did pick up on how you weren't feeling well, lately." he confessed. "I should have known that things would turn out this way. For some reason, in my mind, I figured that a fun game would help you feel better, but totally forgot that that's not how you unwind at all. It's hard to plot nefariously when your brain's in a fog and your body feels like it's made of lead and that's that. I'm sorry I put you though this..."

"I don't blame you at all. I agreed to do it, didn't I?" suggested his beau, opening his eyes again to look at the menace. "Maybe it's one of those things where it's nobody's fault and that's just how life is. Things just go wrong for no reason, sometimes."

"Yeah… It's probably how you adapt to it that counts." the blonde suggested. "I'm honestly impressed at how long you lasted like that."

"I said I would play, so I was going to play."

"For someone as evil as you, you're very earnest. I love it."

Turning on the car, Alois put it into gear and took off, driving slowly in order to avoid pedestrians. The entire ride home was silent as the Watchdog had dozed off, but Alois didn't mind. Instead, he simply let his husband sleep. The others were still playing around in Gehenna, so it was just them when they arrived. Luka, Sebastian, and Revy were looking around, which was something that they didn't always get to do. Ordinarily, they just showed up at work or school and then went home. It was a nice change of pace and occupied all of them so that Ciel wouldn't be bothered.

Shuffling through the door to the master bedroom, Ciel took off his cap and eyepatch before setting them on the vanity. As for his shoes, he didn't seem to care where they ended up, as he took them off and simply left them in the middle of the floor. Poor pooch. He felt a lot freer upon doing so, and begun to unbutton his shirt when the other Phantomhive walked through the door.

"Why don't you take a bath?" Alois suggested. As helpful and sincere as he was being, he didn't bother to try and conceal his eyes glancing at the bluenette's revealed chest before looking back up at his face. "Just soak it all off."

"Aren't you sweaty, too?" questioned the Watchdog. "You could take one first."

"Nah, go ahead. We have a big-ass house full of rooms with bathrooms attached. I can just use one of those. Just let me get my stuff out of there real quick before you get in there."

"What if I wanted to use your bubble bath?"

"Don't worry, I'll leave it for you."

"I was joking." Ciel stated, only for his husband to duck his head back into the dressingroom from the bathroom, just so the Watchdog could see him roll his eyes.

"Sure, and my bubble bath doesn't disappear twice as fast as it really should." the blonde said. "You're full of shit."

"Don't be mean to me. I'm pitiful."

"You're pushing your luck, Phantomhive." Alois replied as he walked back into the room with a few of his personal hygiene products bundled under his arm. With his free hand, he gave his spouse one more pat on his rear. "I don't have to spoil you. I could always leave you to fend for yourself."

"I'll be good, then..." the bluenette answered, accepting a kiss on the cheek from the other. With that, the two parted ways and Ciel was now alone.

He knew he shouldn't sit down just yet in case he didn't want to get back up. Thus, he sorely wandered into the bathroom, closed the door behind him and filled the tub with water. Alois was apparently serious about leaving his bubble bath for him, so the Watchdog helped himself. He was supposed to be relaxing, after all. As he lowered himself into the water, he groaned as the heat immediately started to effect his aching muscles.

The Watchdog couldn't help but kick himself a bit for his failure at the baseball game. He dramatically under-performed and knew full well that there was no real reason for his body to be this sore. He had gone on missions that lasted far longer and were far more physically demanding than this. Certainly, he was always exhausted by the end, but it made more sense than being tired after playing a simple game. It was embarrassing by itself, really. Yet, once it started, he simply couldn't recover and it all got progressively worse until he was near collapse. The bath was helping, however. It gave him time to recover a fraction of his strength. It would definitely be enough to carry him to bed, at least. Perhaps if he slept it off, he would be fine. In all honesty, however, he was hoping that the bath would be enough.

His mind was a fog and time was meaningless. Ciel was prone to take incredibly long baths, but this time he stayed until most of the bubbles were gone and the water had gotten cold. It was only due to the temperature that he mustered up the ability to get out again. Had it stayed warm, he would be in there for another eternity.

Toweling off and wandering into the dressing room, he picked out some unusually comfortable clothes for him. It was still daytime and he wasn't keen on going to bed yet, but he still picked out a T-shirt and some pyjama pants like he was going to turn in for the night. When he walked into the bedroom, however, he couldn't find his baseball shoes to put them away. His cap was still on the vanity, but his eyepatch was now on the night stand, although due to the sweat, it was a disposable one and really ought to have been put in the bin.

Next, he wandered into the front room of he master suite and found the culprit, who turn around to face him once he walked into the room. Alois was lounging on one of the couches, wearing one of Ciel's long-sleeved shirts while watching TV. His hair was still slightly damp, although in the time it took for Ciel to return, it had mostly dried and was tucked behind his ear so it wouldn't stick to his face. He looked rather cozy, having commandeered the entirety of the sofa, the throw pillows, as well as a blanket that sat in his lap.

"Oh, good. You're out. I was starting to think that you might have drowned." the demon grinned. "You look comfy."

"I could say the same about you." Ciel answered before walking over to the sofa. The man waved his hand at the menace's feet, prompting Alois to move them so he could sit down.

Leaning back, the Watchdog rested his head on the back of his seat while Alois moved to share his blanket with him, tossing a portion of it over his lap. This was good, but Ciel felt as though he could become more comfortable, still. Turning his head, he looked over at the menace with a small, tired, smile. His purple eye closed in an odd sort of wink out of habit.

"C'mere." Alois chuckled. He leaned forward, holding himself up on his hands and knees before sitting on his legs right next to the other. Reaching out and cupping Ciel's cheeks, he guided him toward himself and began placing gentle kisses on his face.

Thoughtlessly, Ciel progressively got closer, shifting the blanket until he was comfortably laying on top of the menace with the blanket covering both of them. Alois sat reclined in the corner of the sofa up against both the back and the arm at once, allowing the other demon to lay his head on his chest. He played with damp, bluenette locks while his husband got comfortable and used him as a pillow without even giving a single word of notice. Alois simply accepted his fate without question, even as Ciel buried his face in his shirt and wiggled his arms between Alois and the sofa so that he could wrap them around the blonde's waist. Sighing through his nose, the Watchdog's entire body relaxed and he shut his eyes.

"Poor thing." the blonde cooed. "Just take a nap. You might feel little better when you wake up."

"Maybe." Ciel replied. "Hopefully, you won't need to get up anytime soon..."

"It's okay. You don't feel good and this makes you feel better. Besides, it's kind of cute."

"Please don't take a selfie with me while I'm sleeping..."

"What? Me? Well, I never!" gawked the menace in faux indignation. With a giggled, he pecked his beau on the head before proceeding to run both hands through his hair, causing his body to relax further and his mind to draw a blank.

"Liar..." Ciel thoughtlessly mumbled through his drowsiness, but between the hands running through his hair and the warmth of his spouse, he was already starting to nod off. Truly, he was tired. Unable to stand and unable to sit up, his eyes fluttered shut and his breathing began to slow. The scent of his spouse felt safe and comforting, so he felt entirely free to surrender himself to the blonde's care.

It felt mean to think so, but the Lion couldn't help but find his husband adorable in this state. He knew he was feeling awful and hated it. He hated how the bluenette suffered, and sincerely, he wanted Ciel to get better as soon as possible. Yet, him alleviating his stress by seeking out affection did not hurt Alois' feelings too much. After all, this was the Ciel Phantomhive that only he could see. Only Alois and Alois alone had the honour and privilege to witness the Watchdog in such a vulnerable, docile state, and he was going to savour that fact.

Comforting his husband was his duty and he was determined to fulfill it. Although, to be fair, it wasn't at all unusual for Ciel to seek him out like this. As cool and aloof as the bluenette presented himself to be, even he had to admit that he enjoyed Alois' embrace. He certainly enjoyed it enough to fall fast asleep almost immediately upon lying down. It certainly helped that the blonde knew the exact way to run his hands through the man's hair in order to relax him further. Truly, Alois could play him like a fiddle, even if he didn't like to be mean about it- even if he couldn't enact all of his nefarious schemes as a result. It was simply a trade-off that he was perfectly willing to make. There was no other way. Alois could tease and pester the Watchdog, certainly, but some of those plans would have been downright cruel and there was no way in hell or heaven, or anywhere else in between that he was going to hurt the person he loved like that.

Now he was all alone in a room with sleepy company with no means of having a conversation, leaving him with no option but to resume watching the television until his spouse decided to wake up. As tired as the Watchdog was, however, it could have been a long time, but that was simply another sacrifice Alois was willing to make. Thus, he was left to his own devices.

"There's like a billion shows on Netflix, but never anything to watch..." he sighed in a hushed tone. Looking down at his husband, he blinked and then leaned back, resting his head on the arm of the sofa. "I think you have the right idea, there..."


A/N: I wanted to write shippy stuff. Sue me. I'm gonna write the other kids dicking around in Gehenna, though, so there's that. First, I gotta figure out what the cool cats in Gehenna are up to after a baseball game... I'm very tired.

I wasn't tired when I started writing Ciel being tired, but then I feel like it helped me get to the point where I think "That's a pretty good idea. I should sleep sometime, too." What a fool I am. Sleep is for the weak.

Ah... What else can I talk about? Not much. Most of the story ideas I have are from the distant future in the DLTD Timeline. shit that can't possibly happen yet. Maybe someday. Maybe someday...

Uh... Let's see... I got nothing... What kind of stuff should I be talking about in A/Ns? I feel like I've lost how to do them, somehow?

Whatevs. Doesn't matter. I need sleep.

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!