Author's Note:
Muahaha! Fastest update I've ever done! I'm currently on bed rest right now because I managed to knock myself out the other day...so I was bored, and I thought, "What shall I do? New chapter? New story? What about BOTH?" Apparently, concussion equals writing productivity in my case. Who knew? XD
I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, especially the first part. It's so random. XD
Please do take heed of the note at the bottom. It's important. Thank you! :3
Lydia awoke the next morning to find a tawny brown chicken at the foot of her bed.
For a moment she just stared at it. The window was open, white curtains billowing softly in the breeze. The dark teal walls hung over her, and the red candle on the nightstand had burned out. The indented little circle in the covers beside her body where Sebastian had spent the night was empty. Lydia leaned her head back into the pillow and closed her eyes, figuring that the chicken had been simply a figment of her imagination. When she opened her eyes again, however, it was definitely still there. It was walking around the edge of her bed slowly, right beside her feet. For one bizarre moment, Lydia found herself wondering if Sebastian had turned himself into a chicken, and why. She heaved herself upright to take a closer look.
The chicken had clearly not been expecting her to move. It didn't just squawk, it screamed, spreading its wings open and rushing violently toward the rising human as if determined to knock her back down. Lydia screamed as well, yanking the blankets up to create a wall between herself and the mad creature with the sharp talons and beak. She rolled out of bed, knocking everything off of her nightstand, and fled toward the door with the flapping lump of feathers right behind her. She dove out into the hallway and slammed the door shut just as the chicken reached it, squawking indignantly. Chest heaving in shock, she leaned her back against the door and felt her face, pinching her bottom lip hard to ensure that she was not dreaming. She was not dreaming. She was in Phantomhive manor- she had spent the night here after- after that- and now there was a chicken in her room. She had just been effectively banished from her guest bedroom by a barnyard poultry animal.
"Master?"
Sebastian appeared out of nowhere from the hallway that led to the main staircase. Lydia stared at him as he rushed over and proceeded to satisfy himself that she was not injured, wondering half-dazedly how she ought to tell him about what had happened. Like her father, she was not especially versatile with conversation in the morning. "Sebastian, there's a chicken in my room."
The tall demon stared down at her for a long moment. It was a mark of his inhuman grace that his mouth did not fall open. Lydia wished that the chicken would start squawking again, so that he could hear it. She was surprised when Sebastian placed an elegantly gloved hand against her forehead, and wrapped his other arm securely around her shoulders. "Come and lie back down, master. You may not recall it clearly, but you hit your head quite hard against the stone yesterday when you collapsed in the cellar. You have not yet rested sufficiently…." While he was speaking, he reached out and turned the door handle, swinging the door wide open and whacking it right into the chicken, which had been waiting on the other side of the door. The creature screamed in fury and took to the air, reeling about ungraciously and coming to land back on the bed. It immediately hopped off and charged straight toward the pair of them. Sebastian pulled the door closed with demonic speed. After a moment, he looked back down at his master. "….I understand the situation. If you are feeling quite well, please go down to breakfast and enjoy whatever foods you wish. I have prepared a wide variety of dishes, since I do not doubt that your range of taste has broadened since you last lived here. I will deal with the chicken. After you have eaten, I will see that you are provided with new clothes and amenities. I apologize most sincerely for this severe disgrace."
"Sebastian," Lydia snorted, just beginning to move past her shock and comprehend the absolute hilarity of the situation, (what a tale she would have to tell her father!) "you don't need to speak as though I'm some distinguished guest whom you barely know. It's a chicken, not a bomb- although it did give me a wicked fright!" She laughed. "How did it get in, anyway? We're on the third floor, and the little terror can barely fly!"
"I do not know." Sebastian shook his head as the chicken began once again to cluck and squawk from behind the door. "I left the room several hours ago, while you were still asleep. Obviously there was no chicken then, or I would have dealt with it….but I did open the windows to air the room out. I believe….I know who is probably behind this," he concluded, frowning fiercely. "It wouldn't be the first time…."
"You're not going to kill the chicken, are you?" Lydia asked as the demon turned the door handle and prepared to dash into the room. He shook his head. Lydia could not help but notice that his body seemed much more at ease than it had been the previous day.
"No, master, but I am going to kill the gardener."
Lydia left Sebastian to do battle with the chicken as she made her way languidly down the hall toward the grand staircase. She felt somewhat awkward about appearing at breakfast for the first time in years while wearing a nightgown and socks; but she would rather not risk a trip past the killer chicken to retrieve her jacket and shoes. She had no idea what had happened to her tattered green dress, but she assumed that the damage was irreparable. Sebastian owed her a new green dress. She didn't own many dresses fine enough to go visiting in.
The aroma of a thick array of breakfast dishes washed over her senses as she opened the door to the private dining room. It was a smaller room, made for the use of the immediate family only when company was not present. Ciel was already there, sitting solemnly at the table and gazing in the direction of the door. Lydia blushed slightly as she slid inside, noting that the red-haired maid was standing behind the table, accompanied by the thatch-haired gardener and a taller, slightly older man with a spatula in his hand and pair of goggles around his forehead. The cook? "You didn't have to wait for me."
"Did Sebastian not give you your new clothes?" Ciel raised his eyebrow, noting her nightgown and loose hair.
Lydia prepared to sound crazy once again. "Well, you see….there was a chicken. In my room. It was there when I woke up. So we got a bit distracted. Sebastian is up there right now, getting rid of it. It was quite startling."
As Sebastian had predicted, the thatch-haired gardener suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, exclaimed "Oh no!", and ran out of the room so quickly that he almost trampled Tanaka on his way in. Ciel stared after him with an expression of controlled alarm upon his face. "A chicken?"
"Yes. A brown, frightening one."
"I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore." Ciel sighed magnificently, burying his face in his small right hand. "Well, so long as you are unharmed, do sit down. I apologize for the inconvenience."
Lydia wanted to tell Ciel as well that he should stop speaking to her as if she was a stranger- but for some reason it wasn't as easy with Ciel as it was with Sebastian. She silently took her seat across the table from Ciel and allowed herself to scan the spread of truly amazing-looking breakfast dishes. Some of the foods she hadn't even seen since she had last lived at the manor. Sebastian had outdone himself. XXXXXXXX She hoped that the rest of this food was to be saved or given to the servants, for it was surely too much for two people alone to consume. Speaking of which….
"Where is Aunt Angelina?" she asked Ciel as he reached for a croissant from the basket near him. He pointed the croissant toward the road that lay outside the window.
"She took the carriage back to London. She needs to make more preparations for the funeral tomorrow. I am sorry to say that she hasn't given up the idea of you attending."
With a nasty flip of her stomache, Lydia recalled the conversation which they had had the night before. Suddenly all the food looked much less appealing, although she knew that it would be delicious no matter how nervous she was. She began slicing up some poached salmon on her plate, trying to appear as unperturbed as possible.
"Tell me something." Ciel said suddenly, laying his knife and fork back down beside his plate. "After the funeral is done, what are you going to do?"
Lydia pulled at her nightgown nervously, unprepared for the question. "….I had thought of continuing to visit here….if you would have no objection, that is. I know I cause a lot of trouble," she admitted sordidly, thinking that most of her existence here at Phantomhive manor had resulted in trouble.
Ciel frowned at his tea cup. "You don't cause trouble. That- Sebastian causes trouble."
"He has his own needs." Lydia assessed, aware that they could say nothing more on the subject with the servants in the room. Ciel looked as though Sebastian and his needs could go to hell. "What are you going to do for the funeral tomorrow?"
"Aunt Angelina will be there all day, first at the wake-service, then at the funeral itself, and finally she will be hosting a gathering at her town-house in London in the evening, for family members only. I will be obligated to attend all three….although I intend to get out as soon as possible. If you do end up coming, which I still say is mad, Sebastian will accompany you. You can stay in my party, so I'll have someone to talk to whom I don't hate."
For some reason, Lydia was pleased to hear Ciel attest that he did not hate her, although she had never suspected that he had hated her in the first place. At the same time, it bothered her how casually he could talk about hating people, especially members of his own family. Before she could decide whether or not to comment on this, the door to the dining room flew open once again. The young gardener rushed back in, covered in brown chicken feathers and followed closely on his heel by Sebastian, who was immaculate as always. As soon as he spotted her at the table, the blonde boy rushed over and skidded to a halt a few inches from her chair. "I'M SO SORRY about the chicken, Ciel's-older-sister! I really didn't mean to do it! I was in the yard this morning, and I was trying to help the chickens learn to fly because they're not very good, you see? But I don't always know my own strength, so when I threw Clucky- that's her name, Clucky- up in the air, she didn't come back down! And then I had to go inside and help Bard carry some things, so I forgot all about her! And then I guess she got into your room, and then, well-"
"That will do, Finnian," Sebastian announced, pulling the gardener back a few steps from where he had been flailing around in front of Lydia's chair. The young girl had started upright when she had heard Finnian call her 'Ciel's-older-sister.' She hadn't realized that Ciel had told the servants already, although that would explain why they were all staring at her, she thought. She suddenly felt very self-conscious of her nightgown.
"Can we still be friends?" Finnian asked anxiously, causing Lydia to giggle a little before she realized that he was in earnest.
"Yes, Finnian, I'm sure we'll be very good friends. And I don't particularly dislike chickens," she told him amiably, offering him her hand. Sebastian pulled him back further as he moved to take it. "Just wave at her," the demon muttered in his ear, and Finnian obediently waved enthusiastically. Ciel cleared his throat from the opposite side of the table.
"With that out of the way, it seems that introductions of my other servants are in order. You know Tanaka and Sebastian, of course. This is Meirin, the maid-" the red-haired, bespectacled young woman curtseyed to Lydia, still looking curious, "-and this is Bard, the cook." The older blonde man had a gigantic grin and a scraggly chin. When he greeted her, the first thing that Lydia noticed was that he did so in an American accent.
"We're pleased to have you here, you bet! We didn't even know you were alive until about 20 minutes ago- imagine, our lil' master having a sister- but me, Finnian, and Meirin will serve and protect you no matter what, so don't you worry!"
Lydia could not help but notice that Ciel looked rather worried.
/
Sebastian had mended her dress. In fact, he had gone beyond mending it. He had washed it, cut away the ripped portions, and completely re-done the material so it now looked like an entirely different, fancier dress. He had sewn white ribbons to the front that ran in between the patches of green, filling them out, and he had hemmed the sleeves and the base He had attached white ribbons to the back as well, filling in the space which his claws had ripped away with a corset-like latticework of soft, silken ribbons that meshed together beautifully. Lydia stared at the dress which lay upon the bed of her now-chickenless guestroom while Sebastian ran a brush through her loose brown hair. The faint smell of candle wick filled the room, although the window was still open.
"Honestly, Sebastian….Ciel told me that the other servants were naiive, but I don't see how they have possibly not come to suspect that there's something inhuman about you."
"I maintain my cover well, at my master's orders." Sebastian murmured, beginning to tuck her hair up in a bun.
"Did you repair the cellar ceiling as well?"
"Yes, master."
"And you feel all right?" Lydia inquired, turning around to face him as he finished with her hair.
The demon's lips quirked upward into a fanged half-smile. "Much better, master."
"Good. Thank you for the dress," she carried on, wasting no time in striding to the bed and picking it up, admiring it from both sides before retreating behind the folding dressing-curtain in the corner. "And for the breakfast as well. It was delicious."
"Let me help you," the demon offered, approaching the curtain.
Lydia stuck her hand out and waved him away. "You stay where you're at! I'm not a little girl anymore."
"I assure you, in the context of our relationship, there is nothing improper-"
"No, it's not that. It's just that I know how to dress myself perfectly well. Don't mention this to Ciel," Lydia leaned her head and bare shoulders out from behind the fabric, "but I find it almost lucridious that he doesn't know how to dress himself or care for his body. He's almost thirteen years old!"
"He would be scandalized if you suggested that he learn," Sebastian pointed out, settling down on the edge of the gigantic bed. Lydia ducked back in and worked the dress up over her arms.
"I'm not going to suggest it. I'm not going to be one of those relatives who shows up and hasn't been staying for three days before they start suggesting things." Lydia remembered all too well the memorable visits of many Phantomhive relatives to this residence back when she had been a child. Now, in only a day, she might find herself seeing them again. What a strange thought. "But even so…."
There was a moment of silence as Lydia finished adjusting the dress on her thin body and stepped out from behind the curtain again. Sebastian rose, and both demon and human admired the demon's handiwork before the mirror. His gloved hand touched her shoulder gently. "In another vein….may I ask you a question, master?"
"Sure."
"When you sleep, do you dream?"
Surprise jumped across her tanned features. "Well, yes, I think that everyone does. Why, don't you?"
Sebastian shook his head. "I do not believe so. Or at least I have not dreamed since I first began to absorb the ability to sleep from your light. What do you dream about?"
"Well, you can't really control it," Lydia explained, wondering why Sebastian was so interested in dreams all of a sudden. "Your mind does it for you, I think. Mostly I dream about things and people that I know, which aren't normally connected in waking life, but my dream connects them for me. It's interesting. Sometimes I'll be in the middle of dreaming, and something will begin to wake me up, but if I'm not fully awake yet, I can go back under and finish my dream. Just last night I had a dream that somebody crashed their carriage into our house while my father and I were eating dinner. He wasn't pleased. And there was….something about dogs." Lydia trailed off, smiling as she saw Sebastian frown at the mention of the animal he hated most. "You can't always remember your dreams. That's another funny thing. When I saw the chicken on my bed this morning, I thought I was still dreaming."
"Do you dream every time you sleep?" They were still standing in front of the mirror, their graceful reflections staring back at them.
Lydia shrugged. "I honestly don't know. Like I said, I don't always remember. I suppose I could be having dreams every moment that I'm asleep, and just forgetting them when I wake up. I don't know what decides which dreams will make it into my conscious mind and which will not." She paused for a moment, glancing over her shoulder. "Why so interested?"
Sebastian stared blankly into the glass. "The concept of dreaming has intrigued me since I first began to sleep….but I do not understand whether I am capable of it. Consciously, I cannot create dreams. Only nightmares."
"You can create nightmares?" Lydia asked, turning around fully. She should have guessed that a demon would have this ability, but still, she was more than a bit surprised. He nodded.
"It is not difficult for one such as myself to infect the minds of humans with dark things."
"Oh," she turned back around. Red and blue eyes stared at each other in the reflecting glass.
"Do you ever have nightmares, master?" Sebastian tilted his head, his beautiful face smooth and inscrutable.
Lydia shook her head, her bun swaying back and fourth. "Not since I left this place so many years ago. Sebastian- do demons always give people nightmares?"
"Not always," he said. "In many cases, the minds of humans are so twisted and depraved that they need little help to haunt themselves with terrifying images that reflect their souls." He wrapped his black-clad arm securely around her shoulders. "Come, let us go back downstairs. You ought to re-familiarize yourself with the manor while I prepare the afternoon tea. What flavor would you like?"
"Apple-cinnamon, please."
The room lay cold and silent after they had gone, the lone mirror reflecting an empty white bed.
/
Ciel was reclining in an armchair inside the Phantomhive's private library when Lydia slipped out from behind a long row of shelves, leaning her head back to take in the enormity of the chandelier-topped room. She quickly tried to backpedal when she saw Ciel, clearly not wanting to disturb his reading, but the young boy called out to her and beckoned to the armchair beside him. In truth, he was anxious- anxious about the upcoming funeral, anxious about the strangeness of Lydia being in the manor, anxious about what memories the coming 'reunion' might bring up for her- and for himself- and reading simply was not enough of a distraction. She was wearing the dress that Sebastian had mended for her, and she looked content, if a little pale. He wondered if she was anxious as well. For a while, he pretended to return to his reading while he tried to think of something to say. There were hundreds of things to say- it was choosing one with no upsetting connotations which was the difficulty. He looked at her right arm, still covered up in a glove and sleeve even though it was now pointless to try to disguise what was underneath it. He decided that he needed to know at least one thing, upsetting connotations be damned. He closed his book and indicated toward her arm, lying languidly at her side. "It's not something demonic, is it?"
Lydia stared, and then looked down at her arm. "What, this?"
"Yes. That. I thought that it was just crippled, but what you did with it yesterday…." Ciel looked away determinedly. "It's not….it isn't some piece of that creature that somehow attached itself to you when it pulled you under the ice on that night….is it?"
"No!" Lydia exclaimed, appearing shocked that Ciel had thought of this. "My goodness, no! How horrible! It's not entirely human, I'll grant you that, but it's nothing demonic. In fact, it's rather quite the opposite. It's a gift. I still don't completely understand it, but…." Her face took on a calm, warm expression as she began to spin into the memory. "When I came out across the ice that night-"
"That's all that I needed to know. I would prefer not to discuss it further." Ciel cut in sharply, hunching his shoulders down and staring at his lap. It disturbed him deeply that Lydia could speak of such an awful occurrence so easily, and with such a gentle, almost nostalgic look upon her face. Surprised out of her reverie, the older girl nodded briefly and turned to gaze out the window. It struck Ciel again, when the light touched her face, exactly how much she looked like his mother. He remembered hearing the screams of his mother on that night, how they had gone on and on and on until they were cracked and sounded like the shedding of scales, like the shaving of wood. Still she had continued to scream, although it had accomplished nothing. He wondered which one of them she had been screaming for.
Lydia turned back from the window, and her features dove into concern. His face must have showed his thoughts. "It's all right, Ciel," she told him softly. The young boy stiffened his back and narrowed his eyes. No, it was not all right, and it was his fault. How could she not be afraid every time she looked down at her bandaged arm and remembered what had happened to cause that disfigurement? How could she still try to comfort him even when she knew what he had cost her? Everything….
Ciel suddenly wanted to leave the library, to leave the entire manor, but that would be running away, and he could not run away from this. He must be dutiful. Lydia had picked up a magazine and tactfully started to read while he collected himself. He never should have asked that damn question. Still, at least he now had that sickening possibility banished from his mind. It had kept him awake for half the night.
For some reason, Ciel still felt the need to talk- but this time about something normal. He glanced over at his sister and asked another blunt question which had been bothering him. "Why on earth are you studying environmental biology?"
Lydia blinked and raised her head. "Did my father tell you that too?"
"Yes, and he seemed rather pleased with it. But I don't understand." Ciel shook his head, flaxen gray bangs falling over his covered eye. "I would have assumed that a subject in the field of social sciences would appeal to you. Literature, or Education. Perhaps even Philosophy. Pure science is not fitting for a woman- and it doesn't really seem to fit with your personality either, if I may say so."
"Aunt Angelina became a doctor, did she not?" Lydia remarked amiably, replacing her magazine on the coffee table.
"Yes, much to the consternation of our family, especially grandfather. She's a bloody aristocrat, a lady of the upper class. She does not need to work. She does enough in society as it is." Ciel stated firmly, echoing the many criticisms he had heard in his childhood.
"Perhaps work gives her purpose, especially such noble work. She is in the business of healing bodies and saving lives." Lydia pointed out gently. "She is as competent as any man. Furthermore, her unique position as a woman doctor gives her insight into her female patients' cases which her male colleagues do not have."
"It isn't fitting for a woman's nature that she should be exposed to such distressing things as diseases, blood, and the innards of the body." Ciel insisted, crossing his arms. "And what about you? Why environmental biology? That's barely even been established as a field yet- how do you know it won't deflate? What if you aren't able to find employment after graduation?"
Lydia had to smile at the adult-like cadence in her brother's voice. It sounded so odd coming from one with such a young face and tiny body. "I already have employment, although it will be only partial until I graduate. And as for why- environmental biology suits me. It holds my interest. Many people don't realize it, but the world is so much more beautiful and complex than our eyes alone can tell us. Everything is interconnected."
"You don't even live in the countryside!" Ciel protested. He was taken aback when Lydia nodded sagely.
"You're right- I live in the city, and that's why it's so important to study what I study. Environmental biology can apply to humans just as much as to plants and animals." She paused for a moment to notice his confused face. "The way that we live in the cities is not good. It's not clean, and it's damaging the world around us. People suffer when they're stacked up in tenements in the slums, three to a bed, dirty streets and buildings, diseases running rampant and not enough food to keep their bodies healthy. And the environment suffers when we take from it while thinking only of our own survival. So many things that the rich and powerful do in this day and age are not beneficial for the land or for the people. What I want-" she blushed a little, as if confessing a secret love- "is to bring together people who are in need and ecosystems which are in want of simple, honest caretakers. The poor are the ones who know how to live within their means. If they can be educated to make a living in a new environment- an environment where there will be space and food and a surplus of life- then they could eradicate their poverty and protect the land from being ill-used. We could create sustainable communities where people have enough." She smiled dreamily for a moment, and then laughed aloud. "Sorry- when I get on to talking about my studies, I can go on forever. But that's what I hope to be a part of."
Ciel had never heard of anything like this. If he was to be honest with himself, he thought that it sounded a bit mad, although he knew better than to say so. She and Madame Red were really two of a kind. However, something she had related had bothered him. "Is it very crowded where you live, Lydia?"
"Eh," she shrugged, "it's crowded enough, for sure. It's not a slum, though, so don't worry. It's a rather interesting middle-class neighborhood. I can bring you to visit my home sometime, if you'd like. We can go over to Kentish Street, too. You'd probably like Kentish better than Camden Town. Less people, more historic buildings."
Ciel wondered if she truly felt in her heart that the house on Camden Street was her home. She had not been born there. Even so, she had always been welcome there, with her own father. It was the place to which she had always retreated as a child when his father would sporadically decide to kick her out of the manor. She would vanish for weeks at a time. Somehow his mother had always managed to slip out after her, and then she would be gone too. He remembered waking up each morning in his little wooden bed in the nursery, sick with loneliness, hoping that today would be the day that Lydia and Mother would return. The manor had not felt like a good place to be without them.
"Ciel?" Lydia questioned, leaning forward.
He straightened himself up. "I think so," he told her.
ATTENTION! For the first time in this story, I've decided to ask for reader input. :3 I want to introduce some new canon characters after the upcoming funeral, or possibly even during the funeral. However, I can't decide who should come in. Madame Red is already in here, as is Aberlaine and the Phantomhive servants...soooo...who else do we want? Unfortunately, I don't want to include Alois, Claude, or any other season two characters yet...if they come in, it will be later on. I'm talking about characters like Lizzie, Grell, Undertaker, Pluto, or pretty much anyone else that someone might want to suggest. Your comments will be very helpful! :D
