Welcome back readers,
I hope you are all doing okay! Hopefully, this whole COVID thing will be wrapped up sooner than later.
I put a small teaser for fun in the beginning. I know few of you might like it, there is no double meaning behind it though. I did it for fun!
Here begins the CIRCUS ARC, please enjoy these future chapters. I am excited to write a jealousy scene with Rina, it should be interesting, to say the least.
Thank you for reading! Thanks to those who recently followed! :)
0o0o0o0o
London is busy as per usual. Many people pass the carriage I inhabit. I stare aimlessly outside while I wait for Sebastian and Ciel to come back from the Yard's building. I opted out of going with them as I feel I might become bored. Though, maybe I should have gone since sitting in this carriage is practically drawl. I decide to climb out and stretch outside it. Some passerby's give me an odd glance as I stretch my legs out. I don't think much of their eyes on me.
I stop stretching as my muscles feel relaxed after a few exercises. I lean my back against the carriage and whistle in boredom. I recognize the tune as Single Ladies by Beyoncé. God, I miss the twenty-first century. I start tapping my foot to the rhythm and resist doing the hand gesture like in her music videos. It is difficult to stop myself. Before I know it, I am singing the lyrics under my breath as my heels tap in the background. I feel a pair of eyes on me abruptly and I search around. How did I know someone is looking at me? I'm not entirely sure myself.
I find a handsome man with glasses accompanying a child around Ciel's age. The two stand out against the crowd. The child is dressed in expensive clothing on par with my brother's. His blond hair is rather pretty, and his eyes are icy blue. The butler next to his side kept staring at me as they walked by. Goosebumps spread throughout my body and I am left with an odd chill. He is giving me the creeps. His copper eyes remind me of Sebastian's but not as...friendly I would say. I press my back against the carriage feeling uncomfortable near the person.
He stops staring after they pass by the carriage. The two carry on down the sidewalk without a glance back. I hear a familiar click and look to my left to find Sebastian and Ciel returning. I sigh in relief and smile at their presence. "Thank god you guys are back," I tell them.
Ciel continues walking and waits for Sebastian to open the door to the carriage for us. "We weren't gone for that long."
I glance down the sidewalk with a slight frown, "It's not that. Someone passing by gave me the creeps."
Sebastian opens the door and my brother walks up the stairs to the carriage, "It's probably nothing. Stop worrying."
I follow in after him and Sebastian follows me, closing the door after him. I sit next to Ciel and Sebastian sits on the opposite side from us. My brother hits the top of the carriage with his cane, telling the rider to move.
"So, what did you find out about the case?" I ask curiously.
"It appears that they are all still accounted for. That may be true of the world on the surface, but in the underworld, there's the possibility that they may already be..." Ciel trails off in thought.
He takes out a letter from his coat and starts to open it. I recognize it as the queen's letter. I already know the contents inside and I'm sure he is trying to understand more from what she said inside. Children are disappearing from the circus the three of us plan on attending later today. It makes me wonder what is happening to these children. Why do they need to capture them? For money? Labor? There are endless possibilities.
I put my elbow on the wall beside the window and stare outside as the world passes by. I hope this whole circus thing is just a misunderstanding. I have a bad feeling about it though. Victorian times scare me sometimes. It also reminds me of what the twins had to go through. It is similar in different ways. A sigh escapes past my lips the harder I think about it.
"Young master," Sebastian starts and that catches my attention, "if this deals with the underworld, we will be visiting his place once again?"
I groan at the thought of seeing the Undertaker, "Ah, man. Do we have to?" I ask.
"To be honest, I want to avoid it too, but..." Ciel trails off, looking displeased. He suddenly pales and sinks in his seat, "I want to return to the manor as soon as possible." he states. "Let's go."
I don't realize why he suddenly wants to rush the case. Until I think about the two Indian's at the townhouse, we were earlier this morning. Ah, that must be why he wants to get this over and done with. The coach pulls up to the Undertaker's place within ten minutes and I feel dread plague my mind. I'm not particularly fond of him after all the ominous stuff he says to me.
One by one, we step out of the carriage and Sebastian opens the door to the Undertaker's place. We file in, Ciel in front of me and Sebastian behind.
"Undertaker," Ciel calls out and waits for a second when silence greets us. "Are you here?" he asks.
An echoing creepy laugh sounds throughout the room and a shiver inches its way up my spine. Fucking weird-ass old man. "Welcome, Earl and little Lady. ~"
Suddenly, a skull rolls past our feet and I jump in the air in fear. I swallow a scream and take a deep breath. It knocks over some objects which make a strike. What the hell?! Was bowling a thing in the Victorian era? We all look behind us and find Undertaker with that insane smile in the form of a bowl pose.
"Did you finally want to get into one of my special coffins?" Undertaker asks in an eerie voice.
"You..." Ciel trails off, exasperated.
Undertaker chuckles, "Well, have a seat. I've just baked a cake."
Ciel walks to one of the coffins and sits down slowly. Undertaker walks past me and travels to the counter. I walk closer and opt to stand. Sebastian follows me and comes to my side. I cross my arms, feeling uncomfortable. Undertaker has been rubbing me off the wrong way for a long time now.
Ciel clears his throat, "Have there been an increase in children's corpses as of the late?" he asks Undertaker.
"Children's corpses, hm..." Undertaker thinks out loud.
"The surface of the world seems to not yet found the missing corpses; it seems." Ciel informs.
"And in the underworld, children's corpses are an everyday occurrence, after all," Undertaker says. "Which the Earl knows very well, doesn't he?"
I frown at that, not happy to know so many children die often. It's a horrible fate. My brother dismisses the fact, "We've brought you the documents. Are there any children you've 'tied up' amongst them?" Ciel asks.
Sebastian takes out a stack of papers and hands them over to Undertaker. He takes them and sets them down on the counter. He picks up the first page and examines it quickly. "I wonder. ~ Were they there?~" he questions out loud, obviously insinuating something. "If I saw something interesting, I think I'd remember. ~"
I roll my eyes, knowing where this is going. "Let me guess, you want a first-rate laugh?" I ask dully.
He zooms around the corner and is abruptly in the face with a crazy look, drool drips down the corner of his mouth. I take a step back at the sudden closeness. "That's right! ~ Give me that, and I'll tell you anything you like. ~" he practically moans out.
I make a face of disgust and push Undertaker's face away from mine. "You don't need to get in my face about it!"
"Sebastian," Ciel calls out.
Sebastian reacts by tightening his gloves, "Then..."
"You're really going to rely on him again? ~" Undertaker asks. He starts to snicker, "I wonder, if the butler isn't here, is the Earl just a child who can't do anything? Though if it's amusing, I don't care who it is."
I rub my forehead, thinking he just poked a bear with a stick. Ciel's not going to let this slide. Undertaker is devious. I watch he hunches over, and a tick mark pulses against his temple abruptly. He looks up in pure determination and irritation, "I'll do it." he states seriously.
"Are you for real?" I ask, feeling some amusement bubble in me.
"Leave," he orders both of us, his head lowered. He whips around with a dark look, "Don't you dare peek. That's an order." he commands us.
I feel some fear grip my heart and I just nod automatically. My brother can be scary sometimes. "Yes, my lord." Sebastian complies and takes me by the wrist. He walks us out and closes the door behind us.
"How long do you think this will take?" I ask and shake off his grip.
"The young master does not have much of a humorous personality. This might take a while." he replies with an indifferent look.
I sigh and lean against the wall to Undertaker's shop, "This is going to take forever then." I mutter.
An hour passes by and I am bored out of my fucking mind. All I did was kick dirt for the past hour. I grip my hair and start to pace. "This is really going to take too long." I cry out.
Sebastian sighs, "You're impatient."
I give him a glare, "Hah? I'm not as bad as you!" I declare and point at him.
His eyebrows furrow, "How do you mean?"
"You don't even realize it yourself. You are impatient when it comes to wasting time. This should be bothering you the most."
"I cannot help that the young master does not have a sense of humor."
I throw my hands in the air in exasperation, "Of course he doesn't. He's surrounded by a brick wall with no emotion half the time." I shout at him. "Oh lord, someone please have mercy on me."
He frowns, "I thought you said you did not believe in God." he says.
I want to bang my head against the wall. I grab my hair and pull at it again, "I don't—did! I kind of have to believe now that there's a freaking demon living in the same house as me." I whisper-shout.
He smirks a little and puts a knuckle to his lips, "My, that is true."
I feel my eye twitch and turn away from him. He's too much for me sometimes. "Ah, just shut up for a bit." I wave him off with a sigh.
He does not reply, and another long hour passes. The sun is high in the sky and it blinds me from time to time. I wish I owned a pair of sunglasses. The heels I am wearing hurt my feet. How long must we stand here? Ciel can never be a comedian. I sigh loudly and glance at Sebastian. He stands in the same spot, appearing unbothered. I purse my lips at his indifference.
"Hey, Sebastian," I call out to him. He turns to look at me, his eyes asking 'what?'. I smile in response, "Wanna play a game?" I ask.
This suggestion seems to catch his attention, "What do you have in mind?"
I walk over to a spot where a stick lies on the ground. I pick it up and twirl it in between my fingers. "It's called Hangman."
He tilts his head to the side, "Hangman?" he repeats. "I have never heard of this game. By the name already, I am wondering what kind of vulgar behavior it involves."
I snicker as he is not completely wrong. I never thought of the game having such a horrible meaning. "Come over here," I demand and he strolls on over, appearing not happy to listen to me. I start to make the traditional hangman design. I think of a word to use, it needs to be something good. It can't be too easy since he's smart. A super hard word that he might not recognize...is that even possible?
"When are we going to begin?" he asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"I need to think of a word." I inform and scratch my head.
"A word? Whatever for?"
"The basics of this game is to guess the word. By doing that, you will give me different letters and if one of them is right to the word. I will fill in space where it belongs. However, if you get a letter wrong," I explain and point to the design in the dirt. "I will draw a body part to a man. When the man is complete, you lose and it's game over."
He puts a knuckle to his chin, appearing to be thinking. "I see...I have never heard anything like this before. Is it from America?" he asks curiously.
I nod, "Yup! A childhood game of mine when I was bored. Now give me a moment to think of a word..."
Should I do a word that relates to him? Nah, that would be boring. Maybe a futuristic term? Then he would never know what it means or what the word could be though. Ah, this is harder than I thought. Think, think, think. Enough? Analytical? Enormity? Enormity! Yes, let's do that! That's kind of difficult and not used commonly. I smile at my idea and start to draw eight lines.
"You can guess now," I inform him.
He narrows his eyes at the ground. I could tell he is calculating what it could be.
"A." he says.
I smirk and draw the head on the stand, "Bzzt! Wrong!"
He frowns and stays silent for a moment until he says another letter, "R."
"Nice one!" I say and draw the letter in the spot it belongs to.
"B."
"Nope. ~" I draw the body next. "Try again."
This goes on for a while until only two spots are left. He is missing the 'y' and 'o' in the word. He has two more chances before I complete the body. He is thinking quite deeply as my knees start to become sore from standing in one position for so long. He snaps his fingers abruptly with a pleasing look.
"It's enormity," he says with a smirk.
I fill in the gaps with a smile, "Good job! Took you longer than I originally thought."
He sends me a scowl, "You do not realize how many words the English language has. That goes for other languages as well."
My eyebrow piques as curiosity filters into my thoughts. "How many languages do you know?"
He puts a knuckle to his chin, "I believe the majority of them."
The stick falls from my hand as I stare at him in disbelief, "You're joking, right?"
"Does it look like I am?"
"How big is your brain?" I ask.
He sends me an odd look, "How do you mean?"
I reach up and grab both sides of his face, "What percentage of a demon's brain is unlocked? I am truly curious."
"Percentage?' he asks in confusion. "I do not understand what you mean, my lady."
I sigh and pat his cheek a bit harshly, making it sound like a small slap. "Never mind." I dismiss. "Want to play another round?" I ask while pointing at the ground.
He shrugs and I take that as a cue for 'sure'.
0-0-0-0-0-0
The door finally creaks open around the evening time when a small laugh escapes from inside. I must hold back a cry of relief at the thought of the day almost over. It's been so boring, that I even played hopscotch earlier. Sebastian and I played at least fifteen rounds of hangman before I got too bored with it. He ended up watching me the entire day appearing just as bored. However, he contained his boredom better than I did. That's to be expected though.
I walk inside and find my brother to appear tired and disheveled. I snort at the sight and immediately raise a hand to cover my mouth. He sends me a heated glare that practically says, 'shut up'. He straightens out his clothes and Sebastian wander's over to help in with this task. Undertaker is slouched over the counter as drool slides down the corner of his grinning lips. I couldn't help but be disturbed once again by his appearance. To think laughter brings on such a reaction every time is a bit disconcerting.
"My...that earl Phantomhive would go that far..." Undertaker snickers.
I walk to my brother's side and flatten his messy hair, "I am surprised as well. To this day, you still can't even make a joke."
He smacks my hand away with another glare, "You act like you're funny!"
I cross my arms with an amused smirk, "But I am. You just don't get my sense of humor."
"You know what—Whatever! I don't have time to listen to your nonsense." he proclaims and focuses his glare at Undertaker instead. "I gave you your reward. Now tell me about the children."
Undertaker sits up and rests his head on his hand, "There aren't any."
"Huh?" the three of us reply in sync. Did Undertaker really trick us just now? Wowwww. Undertaker shuffles through the papers Ciel gave him, "None of these children were my clients, and I haven't heard any rumors from the underworld companies."
"So, in other words, you know nothing about this case?" Ciel asks with an irritated clip in his tone.
Undertaker simply smiles, "That's not it. I know that I 'don't know' anything."
"You deceived us then?" I pursue.
His grin stretches a little when I spoke, "I didn't deceive anyone. It's a great clue, isn't it?" he asks.
I feel my eyes narrow at him, something about that sentence sounds a bit off to me. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Sebastian's voice breaks through my thoughts, "—You know nothing of this case means there's no truth to the idea that the children were murdered by underworld companies." Sebastian reasons. "If corpses haven't shown up on the surface or underworld, then there's a high probability that the children are still alive."
"Does this mean we've got no choice but to examine this circus firsthand?" Ciel ponders.
I smile, a bit excited, "I feel like Sherlock Holmes! This should be cool."
"Sherlock Holmes?" Sebastian questions.
I laugh awkwardly and clear my throat, "Ah just a random person I met once."
"There's nothing cool about this. It looks like we've decided, come on you two." Ciel states and makes way to the door to leave. I begin to follow from behind. "Contact me if any information surfaces, Undertaker."
"Earl, ~" Undertaker calls out before we fully exit. All of us turn to look at him in question. "Keep your soul safe, at least." he instructs with a sly smile.
My heart drops to the floor and I can feel my eyes widen in shock. Sebastian opens the door for my brother as he remains a bit confused by Undertaker's advice. "I know that." he informs. I could feel the evening sunlight seer my skin in a daunting way. I hear the click of their shoes as they walk out the door. I continue to stare at Undertaker in alarm. I do not like the way he worded what he said. His smile grows as I don't drop my stare.
"Rina?" I hear my name being called out. "Rina?" it repeats.
Undertakers head lowers and the sunlight makes his eyes glint through the bangs ever so slightly. An explosion of goosebumps erupts all over my body in reaction.
"You better go, little lady." Undertaker advises lowly and offers a hand to the door behind me. "Before your soul becomes trapped forever."
I don't break his gaze as I walk backward, out the door. Sebastian closes the door once I'm outside. Suddenly, I take in a large gulp of air and start to cough harshly. I didn't realize my breath has been still and unmoving the whole time.
"Rina." Ciel cries out in concern. I feel his hand pat my back lightly as I try to breathe normally again. It works after a couple of minutes. I still feel like I'm stuck though, I want to leave.
"Sebastian," I call out and he shuffles beside me.
"Yes, my lady?" he asks, I miss the lilt of concern in his voice.
"Help me to the carriage, please."
I hold out my arm to him and he takes it. We follow my brother who keeps glancing back at us. I can only guess he is concerned. Sebastian helps guide me and once we reach the carriage, I climb inside and rest against the window. I didn't feel the best like I woke up from a bad dream. What did Undertaker mean by that? Why would he specifically tell Ciel to take care of his soul? Does he know Sebastian is a demon then? God, what on Earth is going on! I'm going to go crazy by the time my brother dies. I know that well enough by now.
"Rina." I hear Ciel call out to me again. I glance at him, feeling more worried thoughts consume me.
"What?" I ask after a beat.
"What happened back there?"
I glance out the window, not knowing for sure what really did happen and what it meant. "Good question," I say and lean back against the cushion. I didn't feel like adding anything more after that and my brother did not ask in return.
0o0o0o0o
My mind clears up the moment we reach the circus. Children run around everywhere along with their parents. Colors burst out amongst the crowd and I can feel my inner child wanting to run about with them. I feel a giant smile spread across my lips as I admire everything I spot. I wouldn't be surprised if I am radiating sparkles right now.
"Is this it?" Ciel questions, his voice slightly distasteful.
I smell popcorn instantly and I am reminded how much I miss movie theater popcorn, "You bet it is."
My feet move on their own as I fully enter the circus. I don't hesitate to travel to the stand selling the food. I take out my money pouch as I lick my lips unconsciously. I am so psyched to eat this.
"I'll take one of these, please." I tell the vendor while pointing at a bag. The vendor smiles and shows me his palm, "That'll be two pounds, miss."
I give him the money with a smile and take the bag of popcorn. I pocket my money and turn around to find my brother and Sebastian waiting impatiently near the circus tent. My smile turns sheepish as I jog over to them. "You didn't have to wait," I tell them as Ciel strolls inside.
"What was I supposed to do when you bound off in a blink of an eye?" he nags.
I chuckle with a sweat drop, "Sorry, I just really wanted some popcorn."
He 'tsks' and leads us in. The circus tent made things appear shadowy but colorful at the same time. The place is crowded. Sebastian points out to some seats nearby. But there is hardly enough room for all three of us. In the end, Ciel ends up being squished between us.
"Can't you move over?" he asks me with an irritated look.
"Why don't you sit in your big sister's lap?" I tease.
He blushes and does not hesitate to glare at me, "What—There is no way I'll ever do that!"
I hear Sebastian cover up a laugh and Ciel whips around to glare at him too. I snicker to myself and take a fist-full of popcorn. "You used to like it when you were smaller..." I comment offhandedly and shove the popcorn into my mouth.
He glares at me again, his cheeks slightly redder. "Exactly! When I was young—"
I cut him off and shove popcorn into his mouth, "Oh, shut up. You're still young."
He munches on it without uplifting his glare off me. Eventually, a bright light focuses on the stage below us, and a man wearing a festive costume enters. He reminds me of a mix between a clown and cosplayer almost. The crowd quiets down after a few seconds.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls of all ages!" he announces and bows slightly to the audience. One hand of his appears as a skeletal and the other normal with juggling balls between the fingers. I couldn't help but think what an interesting contrast. He resumes his normal stance and begins to juggle the balls. "My name is Joker. If you'll look here..." he says, and all the balls fall down on him like it is a mistake. I could tell he is acting though. "...whoops."
Some people appear around him, all uniquely dressed in different costumes for the circus. Joker clears his throat to grab the audience's attention again, "The whole circus is jostling for a chance to give you a fun show!" A bald man steps up and spits fire out of his mouth. I watch in awe as I don't see something like this often. "Here we go! With one shot from the fire-eating man," Joker exclaims and the crowd thrums with excitement. "The show of the century begins! ~"
"This isn't a Ringling Bros. Show, what a disappointment." I complain as some circus acts begin below.
"Ringling? I've heard of them." Ciel murmurs next to me.
I nod, "I would die to see them. The beginning in the making, the history involved."
"History? What do you mean?" he asks.
"Never mind." I say and wave him off.
The next act travels onto the floor as the earlier one leaves. Two people stand next to each other, a boy and a girl. "Next up is gasp-inducing flying blanco!" Joker announces from somewhere. The two start to swing from the trapeze and I wonder how hard it is. That takes a lot of practice and courage, I'll give them that. After they are done, a man comes out and a giant wheel is pushed onto the floor. Another person climbs on it and straps themselves down to it. The man takes out a knife and I already know what this act is.
"He never misses his mark! The bull's-eye knife thrower!" Joker proclaims to the audience.
I slowly become bored; I thought this event was going to be better honestly. "These are all standard circus acts," I whine.
"No music nor anything particularly special..." Ciel observes.
"Indeed." Sebastian agrees. "There is no sign of the rumored kidnapped children, either."
"Would they make children work in a circus though? It makes sense why they aren't here." I try to reason.
"No, it would make sense since this is the kind of job children can work in," Ciel argues.
I raise a finger to counter, "That may be true. But if I were kidnapping children and didn't want people to know. Would I want to make myself an obvious target and broadcast them in the circus? The most probable answer is no."
Ciel crosses his arms in thought, "What is going on in this circus?"
"The better question yet is: Why are they kidnapping children in the first place?" I offer.
Ciel glances at me and proceeds to narrow his eyes on the circus performers down below. We were missing too many clues to be sure of what could be happening and why. The trapeze performance lasted around twenty minutes or so. "And next is—The princess of the circus and her death-defying tightrope walk!" Joker announces to the crowd.
I peer up and the bright lights kind of hurt my eyes. That burning sensation comes back a little and I rub at my eyes to get rid of it. Once the pain disappears, I find a girl dressed in pure white. She is already on the rope and I couldn't help but wonder how difficult it is to do that too. My feet would die trying to walk. I glance down and don't find a net at the bottom. I whip my head back up at her in horror. How do you find the nerve to walk that without something to catch you?! What the actual fuck?!
I can't deny how beautiful she looks though. She reminds me of fresh snow dressed like so. My brother's voice cuts into my thoughts suddenly, "If they don't intend to make a show of the children, perhaps the circus's movements and the children's disappearances are merely a coincidence?" Ciel ponders.
"If so, where else could the children be?" I add on.
Our thoughts are silenced when the next performer appears. A bunch of snakes is entangled around him and I lean forward in my seat. I don't mind snakes; I just have the fear of being bitten by one. This performer is pretty cool, not going to lie.
"Look! Look! Ciel! There are snakes all around him." I point out and shake his shoulder with a grin.
"Stop moving me! I can see that," he whines, annoyance dripping at the last word.
"Next is a rare snake/human half-breed. Our snake man's dance!" Joker informs the crowd.
My jaw drops as he does a beautiful dance with the snakes. I could not help but be enthralled just this once. "Oh my God, he's beautiful," I comment. "Is it even possible to half snake? I mean, those scales have to be fake, right?" I ask more so to myself.
Ciel and Sebastian ignore me and my childlike awe for the most part. Probably too bothered with trying to understand where the children are. When the snake man's performance is done, he leaves the stage (along with his snakes) and a woman enters. I feel my eyes blink rapidly as I take in her appearance. She is beautiful, a blind man could even tell. But that's not what shocked me the most. Her breasts were so noticeable, very exposed. I saw some wives cover their husband's eyes in the crowd. She is wearing the equivalent of what I would consider a stripper back home would wear.
I look down at my own breast size with a frown. Hers is way bigger and I feel my womanly pride be crushed. I unconsciously rub at my chest and glance at the two boys beside me. Ciel doesn't seem to care nor does Sebastian. What unnormal men, I think with an inward laugh. A cage with a tiger is abruptly pushed into the ring, behind the woman. I frown at this, not liking animal cruelty in the slightest. Tigers aren't meant to be in cages.
The woman takes out a whip and holds it behind her as they release the tiger from the cage. "And finally, the star of the show, our wild animal tamer!" Joker says loudly. The audience does the standard 'oh' and 'ah'. Joker appears to address the audience with a smile, "For this act, we'd like a volunteer from the audience!"
"It appears the final show also has no connection to the children." Ciel remarks.
"They didn't specify the age so—Sebastian, what are you doing?" I ask when I notice him stand from the corner of my eye.
Ciel follows my gaze with wide eyes, "What is it? Did you find something—"
Ciel gets cut off when Joker notices Sebastian in the crowd, "That really distinguished-looking man in the tailcoat!" Joker calls out and points at Sebastian. "Please step onto the stage." Joker instructs. Sebastian does as Joker says and slowly makes his way down. "Now, come on down!"
"Sebastian! Sebastian!" I whisper-shout after him, but he ignores me. I turn to my brother in confusion, "What is he doing?" I ask.
"I don't know. Let's watch, maybe he found something."
We watch attentively as he makes his way down to the stage and side jumps into it. He walks toward Joker and the animal tamer with a blank face. Joker smiles and gestures his hand to a table near him, "Now, sir, could you lie down over here?"
Sebastian straight up ignores him and walks past. I can feel my eyebrows dip in confusion as the audience whispers all around. What is that idiot doing? He comes near the tiger and offers a hand towards it. I immediately smack my forehead when I realize why he volunteered. The tiger is part of the cat family, oh my god. He bends down with a soft smile and grabs the tigers face.
"Aah, such round eyes." Sebastian practically purrs. Everyone is shocked as he pets the tiger like a common household pet. Sebastian leans closer to it with admiration crossing his eyes. "I've never seen such soft, vividly striped ears...how lovely." he compliments the tiger. I shake my head as I can't believe what I am witnessing. Demon seduced by the cat family. I'm sure Sebastian is one of a kind in his world. I watch as he picks up a paw of the tiger, "What's this? It seems your claws have grown a bit too long. To be not groomed..." he analyzes. He pushes on the tiger's paws next, "Your paw pads, too, are plump and exceedingly charming."
I peer over at my brother and find him holding his face in his hands. I copy his action feeling the exact same thing momentarily. Suddenly, the audience gasps, and some people scream. I look up quickly and find Sebastian's head inside the tiger's mouth. All I could do is stare; I didn't feel any emotions currently. The animal tamer gasps and produces her whip out, "Betty! Let him go!" she screams.
The tiger continues to gnaw at Sebastian's head like a chew toy. However, somehow Sebastian grabs the whip the animal tamer tries to discipline the tiger with. I feel my eyes widen, not sure how he even saw the whip coming in the general direction.
"She did not do anything wrong." Sebastian says as he takes his head out of the tiger's mouth. The animal tamer stands speechless. "In the face of such loveliness, I was unintentionally rude. And besides that," he continues and raises the whip to his mouth with a smirk while peering at the animal tamer, "If you simply recklessly swing the whip, you'll never be able to train her." he suggests.
I try to ignore the slightly suggestive look he is giving her, but it is hard to dismiss it. However, I am able to calm myself down before something ugly brews in my heart. Because I don't want it there either way. Her face is red from anger, I think. Before she could get a word in, the tiger jumps onto Sebastian's back and bites his head out of nowhere. The whole audience screams and gasps along with Joker.
"My, my what a tomboy." Sebastian comments as everything turns chaotic.
0o0o0o0o
Ciel and I were walking out of the tent, feeling inexplicably drained. This is too much excitement in one day. My brother appears a bit pissed though. I glance at Sebastian behind us knowing he is the cause. "Who said you can go that far?!" Ciel explodes with a tick mark at Sebastian.
Sebastian appears to be in bliss and puts a hand to his chest, "My apologies. I've lived for such a long time, but it's only cats whose fickle emotions I cannot read."
I become curious and tap a finger against my chin, "For real? How interesting."
"It's really not." Ciel insists as his tick mark multiplies. "What were you thinking, far more conspicuous than necessar—" he sneezes abruptly which makes me jump a little. "You know I'm allergic to cats! Walk further back!" Ciel demands with another sneeze.
Sebastian takes a couple of steps back like ordered with a small bow. I shake my head and continue walking with Ciel. He rubs his nose constantly from irritation. I hear Joker behind us, and we glance back to find him talking to Sebastian. We wait patiently as Joker seems concerned about Sebastian's wellbeing despite how much Sebastian assures his health. Eventually, Joker drags Sebastion off to find their doctor to make sure he is alright.
I look at Ciel and nod at him. He returns the gesture and we make way for the carriage. Once we arrive, we sit inside and wait for Sebastian to return with information.
