Chapter 25

"Meh, to be honest those two have been suspicious from the get go." Lau eyed the morning paper with his typical close-eyed smile while Sebastian served them more tea.

"While true, I just can't see why those two would cause trouble." Ciel sighed putting down yet another invitation without reading it. "Moreover, if they are the criminals why would they come to stay with me of all people?"

"Like foreigners would know any better." Luce rolled her eyes at the kid. He may be a big shot here in London but why would people in India know of his title- much less a naive prince.

"Well then..." Lau grinned, "It would be good if it were night time soon." And that was how the four of them found themselves hiding behind corners in the icy cold London night, shadowing the Indian duo.

Luciana yawned yet again, her breath coming out in a crisp white fog. "This is utterly boring." She leaned her weight on top of Ciel's head, staring at the pub their two guests had just entered. Were there age restrictions in the 19th century? Nick never said anything about her drinking, but admittedly there weren't many law abiding citizens in the deep east end.

"It does seem like they are just looking for that person..." Lau added with a disappointed frown. He had expected something more entertaining.

"In this country the best places to look for news of a missing person would be in a club or pub." The young earl grumbled while trying to remove the girl's arm from his head. "Will you get off?!" He quietly hissed at her.

"Aw~ But you're the perfect height. So small~" She smiled innocently at him but was pulled away by Sebastian. Luce stilled in his arms, almost going rigid as she remembered Mey-Rin's comment about babies. 'I'm too young for that...' She internally grumbled while a small blush graced her cheeks. Luckily it could easily be blamed on the cold weather.

"Don't tease the young master too much, Luce." The butler smirked down at her. "He is quite sensitive about his height." A shit eating grin adorned his face as Ciel's eye twitched in annoyance and she muffled a laugh behind her hand. Sebastian's mind reeled back to the mark on her. He needed to gain her favour- now that he knew she was his. He just wasn't sure where to begin. "Either way, I predict they will return home soon." He checked his pocket watch. "It is now 1am; we should go home as well." So back they went- only it wasn't to sleep.

.

"Winner, winner chicken dinner." She grinned victoriously as yet again Lau and Ciel lost. They were playing blackjack for the past hour and both men found themselves owing the black haired girl a large sum of money. They had been oh so smug about winning, only because she had lost the first couple rounds.

"How is this possible..." Ciel groaned, his eye twitching.

"Oya~ Lady Luck must love the little maid." Well, Luce did always have a lot of luck with cards but knowing how to cheat didn't hurt either. She casually shrugged. 'What they don't know won't hurt 'em.'

"Young Master..." The demon butler appeared by the window, hanging down like a bat. For a second, he eyed the bets on the table and then moved his gaze back to the kid. "He's making a move."

"Finally- "

"Wait!" Surprised they turned to the door. The Indian prince stepped in with a rather serious look on his face. "Let me come too."

.

Luce gazed at the prince as they watched Agni enter a guarded nobleman's house. He had apparently known that his butler always left at night and now wanted to find out the truth for himself. She commended him for that. If she were in his shoes, Luce didn't know what she would do. 'Probably nothing and just go with the flow...' She sighed, tilting her head to look up at the sky. It was snowing so there were no stars. '...too bad.'

She followed the group to the side of the mansion, her breath coming out in quiet puffs and her thoughts drifting. In Soma's place, Luce would do nothing but wait and see for how things turned out. It's what she had always done; live within the rule's strangers set for her, act demure, keep her thoughts quiet and adapt. It's how she got by in life- and how no one found out what she did in secret. A smirk tugged at her lips. Now it was different. Here, in the past, she didn't have to follow those regulations anymore, she was free- the smirk changed into a small genuine smile -and she had no plans of getting tied down again.

"Who lives here?!" Soma's question interrupted her musings, snapping her back to reality.

"Settle down prince. No need to panic." Lau gripped his shoulder with his ever so present hippy vibe. Somehow her mind drifted to those 'keep calm' shirts. 'They should make one for Lau.' Something like; 'keep calm and be Lau.' or 'keep calm and be clueless.' It was basically the same thing. "If you go in you shall see, the horrible truth. You and I...?"

"With that you mean you have no idea what's going on either, right?" Ciel's eye twitched in annoyance, though he should have seen it coming.

"Yup." Luce chuckled at Lau's chipper answer. 'Clueless indeed.'

"This is the home of Harold West Jebb." The kid grumbled out, his gaze testily moving to his new maid and a frown tugged on his lips. He hated this situation. "I've only met him once and he is rather creepy, not to mention his criminal record." Ciel released an agitated sigh and turned his head to the girl. She had her typical nonchalant look and was rather quiet. He had thought she would be rubbing it in by now.

Luce raised a brow. "Something wrong?" And Sebastian gazed between them, not understanding the kid's agitation.

"Go on, you can say it." Ciel growled under his breath, his nose wrinkling as he turned away from her in an attempt to keep his dignity.

"Whatever is there to say?" The sparkle in her eyes told the demon that there was really something he had missed.

"...you were right." The boy reluctantly admitted effectively shocking the demon. Sebastian had never heard the boy say that before, to anyone.

"Oh my~ did you hear that Sebastian?" Luce turned a teasing grin to him. "He said I was right- the world must be ending." He chuckled under his breath.

"Just shut up and let's go in."

"Certainly, my lord." In moments Sebastian had an arm around the girl's waist and his young charge tugged under the other. Knowing what came next, Luce gripped on with an excited smile and off they were.

"WAAAH!" She laughed at the kid's frightened shout, thoroughly enjoying the high jump. And with high jump she meant HIGH- how no one questioned the butler's humanity was lost on her. He literally just jumped 7m into the air. "What did you do that for?!" Ciel hissed at him.

"I do believe it's much faster this way." And mainly because Luce seemed to enjoy the rush, but the boy didn't need to know that. Sebastian gave him a close eyed smile as he set the two human's down, just as low dangerous growling sounded from behind them.

"Of course they have dogs..." The exasperation was clear in her voice. She hated guard dogs; they just made life difficult.

Soma screamed as the hungry mutts pounced on them like vicious beasts on a raw piece of meat and Luce unconsciously gripped onto Sebastian, a breath caught in her throat- when suddenly the hounds stiffened. She could literally feel the deadly aura pour from Sebastian. '...how scary' A shiver ran down her spine and the dogs whimpered away. This was exactly why she did not want to get on his bad side.

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