That butler, captured*
When he finally came back to consciousness, the sun was brightly shining into his room, blinding his eyes seconds after he had opened them.
"What time is it?", he asked, not even recognizing properly who sat next to his bed.
"I guess it's a little unfamiliar to see with both of your eyes, little brother."
He turned around shocked. It was Ciel!
"What are you doing here? Where am I?", he asked harsh.
"Easy, brother. You are in your old room. Don't you recognize it? I asked the servants to prepare it for you. I know you slept in mothers and fathers room for the last couple of years, but I found this one to be more fitting."
The younger one growled. This was not the boy he shared a womb with.
"Oh, I nearly forgot", Ciel said, ignoring his brothers behaviour. "I brought you a chocolate cake. Those where always your favorites, right?" He handed him a white plate with a fresh, brown cake on it. Yes, he was right. He always liked chocolate cakes, but he'd burn in hell before eating this one.
Hell.
Suddenly, he remembered what happened in the entrace hall.
"Where is Sebastian?", he asked nervous.
"Oh, that demon", the older one answered bored. "He's now in a place far out of your reach."
- "What do you mean?"
"You summoned him sacrificing me, so I thought, it would be fair enough if he'd belong to me."
- "Belonged? He's not a pet you can own like a dog."
"But you named him after our familydog. Ironic, isn't it?", he laughed.
"You will never be able to control him unless you'd enter a contract with him and you don't have anything left of interest for him", the other explained.
"You might have seen him as something else, brother", Ciel said arrogant. "But to me, this demon is a beast. Beasts can be trained if you break them. Thanks to you, he starved for almost half a decade. He is pretty weak now. It took Undertaker not many of his chains to hold him."
Sebastian in chains? Weak? Starving? This sounded bad. Very bad.
"Let me see him", he asked.
Ciel shook his head. "Far beyond your reach, remember?"
"But you can't do this!"
"I assure you I can. And I will", he answered calm.
The younger one angrily slaped the plate out of his brothers hands. It shattered into peaces on the floor loudly.
"You seem to need a little more rest, little brother. I need to attend to other things now anyways. I will see you later."
He stood up and left the room. Just before he walked through the door frame, he talked to someone outside. "Clean the mess."
To the younger ones suprise the one his order was meant for was no other than Mey-Rin.
"Mey-Rin!", he said, never thinking that he could ever be so happy to see his clumsy housemaid.
"You are still here!"
"Yes, I am, B-Bocchan", she said a little nervous and immediately bowed down to sweep the floor. "The-the.. o-other y-young m-master said he-he will k-keep us as his servants sh- should we-we p-proof him to b-be w-worthy of b-being p-part o-of the Pha-Phantom-hi-hive e-estate."
The boy jumped out of the bed and grabbed Mey-Rins arm to stop her from sweeping. "Everything is fine, I will not let him get through with this."
"B-Bocchan", Mey-Rin whispered.
"Do you know where he is holding Sebastian captive?"
"N-no, young master, I-I am s-sorry."
He could see that hearing the butlers name alone nearly made her burst out in tears.
"Okay, it's okay. Just don't lose your faith, Mey-Rin."
Just when he wanted to stand up, Mey-Rin was the one grabbing his arm. "B-Bocchan", she said.
"Yes?", he asked.
"W-we want you to know, t-that y-you w-will always be o-our t-true m-master and t-that we d-don't care for b-birthrights or t-titles."
"Thank you", he said relieved.
Then he left the room.
Sneaking through his own mansion, he didn't knew where exactly he was heading. Was Sebastian even inside the mansion? If so, where was he? In the basement perhaps? And how should he free him? He was just a boy. Sebastian always was his strength. Always there for him, fighting for him, whenever he was in danger. Now, it was his turn to help him out of danger.
As he sneaked around the next corner, he accidentally bumped into someone.
"Bocchan", a very old sounding, familiar voice said calmly.
The boy looked into two dark eyes surrounded by the face of the former house steward. Now the Phantomhive brooch, the sign worn only by the butler of house Phantomhive, was on his chest again. Althought he knew that Tanaka once was butler to his father Vincent, he felt uneasy seeing this on someone other than Sebastian. The last time the brooch was taken from his demon-butler was when he faked his death in order to solve the Phantomhive manor murders. This time there where no fakes anymore. Even his fake identity as Ciel Phantomhive was gone.
"You should rest", Tanaka adviced.
"I should not", the boy responded. "Tell me where Sebastian is."
Tanaka sighed. "I am deeply sorry, but the young earl told me not to reveal the location of the one you're searching for."
"The one I am searching for, are you serious? You knew him, you knew he was a good butler. Why are you talking about him like that?"
"I will not deny this, Bocchan. But as the Phantomhive butler, your wellbeing comes above everything else for me. Forgive me, but I can't let you risk your soul again."
Tanaka left. Leaving the boy behind. He couldn't believe it. The young earl. Had his brother really already ripped him of everything he had, including his titles and Tanaka? And... Sebastian?
No, he couldn't just give up. He would find him. And if needed, he would be willing to sell his soul once more.
But his first goal was to leave this golden cage. Even thought his brother took his servants, his title and the mansion, he couldn't take his memories as well. And he remebered most of the secret doors leading to secret tunnels underneath the building.
After all it wasn't to difficult for the boy to sneak out of the place he once called his home. He even managed to take a little bit of money with him in order to pay someone for taking him faster to his destination: the dark alleys of London at night.
Hiding behind a corner, he grabbed for the knive in his pocket. He smiled a little for it was only silverware he managed to grab in haste. Sebastian really liked to fight with those thought. Not because he did not have any other weapon, but because it fit so well to the rest of his elegant form as a butler.
The boys smile vanished as he remembered Undertaker's words. Sebastian chose to keep his noble form instead of saving his own life. Had he chosen otherwise, would he have been able to escape?
He sighted. No, there was not enough time to think about things that never happened or could have happened.
"Hey, little one!"
He looked up in suprise. Before him stood a mid-old man with dirty, damaged cloth. Most likely a poor begger, the boy assumed. Perfect!
There was no need for him to think very long about what he was going to do next. With a few swift motions, he slit the guys throat as soon as he tried to get hold of him to steal his belongings.
After watching the man infront of him bleed to death he closed his eyes. Even thought he was fully aware of his actions and didn't regret it, it felt strange. This might have been the very first time he killed someone by his own hands without his butler at his side. Knowning that he was no longer bound to a contract, demanding his death by getting his soul eaten by a demon, for a brief moment, it felt for him like he just caused his soul to burn in hell for killing someone instead. This way or another, he was doomed. So he shove it away like some dirt on his shoulder.
"Karl Ronan Dwyer. Died November 16, 1889 by blood loss. Further notes: nothing at all."
The boy sighed. Yes, he knew this voice. Yes, this voice was a little annoying. But yes, this was the voice he wished to hear so badly that he killed someone for this sake.
He opened his eyes to see Grell Sutcliff collecting the beggers soul.
"You don't know how glad I am to have you here instead of any other Shinigami."
Grell looked a little baffled. "Don't get me wrong, you are really cute but I am more into... you know... more mature guys."
The Phantomhive facepalmed.
Meanwhile the red clothed Shinigami walked around him seeming to search for something – or someone. "Where did you left your handsome butler?", she finally asked.
"That's exactly why I wanted to see you", he answered.
"Me?" Big green eyes were starring at him.
"He needs your help."
"My help? What happened?"
"My brother happened."
Grell nearly dropped her death scythe. "Brother?!"
The child sighed again. "My twin brother, yes. I thought he was dead. And after all I've seen from him since he came back, I am pretty sure he truly is dead. Whatever came back from the death, it's not the brother I grew up with. But I don't know who or better what he is."
"Back from the death? It's not possible to come back, well, unless you died by your own hands", she pointed at herself.
"I know. I saw him dying. This was clearly no suicide."
"Well, so your dead brother is walking around again and what?"
"He captured Sebastian."
For a brief moment, the boy could swear to see the Shinigami's eyes glitter like his words caused some sort of crazy fantasies in her head, but it vanished just a heartbeat later.
"One moment please. Just let me get this right. Your brother managed to capture a demon?!"
The boy shook his head. "Not alone. He had help by a magician and Undertaker."
By hearing that name the glitter came back for another heartbeat – and vanished again.
"Magician? Are you sure you didn't hit your head, cutie?"
The child growled. "You are some sort of death god, Undertaker created horrible Zombies eating up half the people on the Campania and my butler is", he seemed to stumble upon his own words, "I mean was a demon and yet you didn't believe in magic?"
The redhead looked into the starry sky before answering. "Does this really matter that much?"
"No, not at all. The truth is I don't even know if you really can help him but you are the only one I could think of."
"Why is that?", she asked.
"My brother said that Sebastian is held by Undertaker's chains. So I thought if a Shinigami was the one to create those chains, maybe another Shinigami can break them."
"A death scythe can cut through anything", Grell repeated the famous phrase.
"Yes", the spare of the future Earl agreed.
The Shinigami placed her hands on each side of her waist. "Let's assume this would work. Why should I help you?"
The child shrugged. "It's Sebastian?"
"Okay, that's sort of a good reason."
"Really?" The blue-eyed just felt his heart jump a little bit. But it got shattered only seconds later. "But I could really get in trouble because of this. A former dead boy, a deserter and a demon. Three things I should inform the departmend of."
Minute by minute the young one felt his hope vanish. What else could he do to save his butler?
"I know!", he suddenly pointed out. "If you help me, I will grant you to command Sebastian for one day." Oh, Sebastian would curse him for that, he knew he would. But he had no other choice.
Grell looked suspicious. "A whole day?"
"A whole day."
"And I can command whatever I wish?"
"Whatever you wish."
"You mean I could command him to...?"
"Whatever you wish", he repeated, trying desperatly to get the pictures of what Grell might want to do with his butler out of his not-so-innocent head.
"Okay, I will do my best to help you two", the Shinigami finally said.
"Good, thank you", the child smiled a small smile.
He decided to not let the other know that his contract was broken and that he was not able to command Sebastian anything at all at this point. Hell, he didn't even knew if he could command him ever again.
"Oh, don't thank me before the day is over. So what are your plans?", Grell asked.
To be continued...
* as you may have noticed, the chapter is named different than I thought it would be. The reason is, that I decided to cut the second part into smaller pieces, so that I could upload them, instead of letting you wait longer. I know it's short but I don't have much time. :(
Anyways, I will try to give you some more as soon as possible and I am happy if you like, share and review!
Thank you for your support!
Mojito737 yes, I love those the most, too. Sadly there are not that much to find, so I decided to write my own. I'm of course no psychic. It just seemed that we have much in common.
emma. thank you for being the first to write a review. You made me smile! :)
Rosa2495 Ao3 thank you, that's nice :)
Guest No that did not happen in the manga, that's what I would like to happen ;)