Hi, everyone! I'm back! :D

Sorry it took me nearly a month to get this out. I had some problems while writing this chapter. My muse is struggling, and I don't know why. :( Hopefully this is a temporary thing!

"Why on earth is this happening now?" Lydia moaned to the heavens as she lay sprawled upon the bed, pressing her burning head into the pillow as though it were a pack of ice. "Why couldn't I have gotten sick before the funeral, so I wouldn't have had to go to it, and this entire debacle would never have happened?"

Sebastian murmured something unintelligible as he gently turned her over and pressed a cool cloth against her forehead. It was 2:00 in the morning, and the demon had been sleeping beside his master in cat form when he had sensed a change in her body's internal temperature. He had promptly awoken her and run a few rudimentary tests, and sure enough, a fully-fledged fever had blossomed within her. This coupled with the fact that she had been nearly murdered that afternoon meant that Lydia was not pleased at all.

"Perhaps it is for the best, master. There would be people out there intending to kill you regardless of whether you had gone to the funeral or not. At least now we know of their existence, so that we can plan to defeat them."

"Yes, but my being sick isn't going to help us defeat them." Lydia mumbled, covering her face with her hands. "Oh, bother it all. I'm going to take a cool bath. I feel sweaty and parched and I can't sleep, anyway." She rolled herself to the edge of the bed and slouched slowly toward the bathroom, Sebastian hovering at her side.

"May I recommend that you make the water slightly warm? If you immerse your body in cool water, you will start to shiver because of your fever."

"Sure," she nodded wanly, and Sebastian proceeded to begin to fill the porcelain-white bath with the appropriate temperature of water. He noted with concern that Lydia seemed only half-aware of her surroundings. Her head was nodding to the side, and her entire body seemed rather lackadaisical. He had to ask her three times if she wanted soap bubbles in the bathwater before she finally flopped her head in what he supposed was a gesture of assent.

"Here, master, you are not well. Let me…." Leaving the bath, Sebastian circled around her and began to unbutton the black mourning dress which clung stubbornly to her body.

"I'm not used to wearing great heavy fabrics like this," Lydia muttered, closing her eyes as the removal of her dress jostled her body. "When I'm tramping about in the woods, I usually wear breeches….I hardly ever come across other people, which is probably a good thing, because most are quite scandalized….hey there, what are you doing?"

"Assisting." Sebastian tilted his head to the side as she recoiled from his hands in alarm, the dress hanging down off her shoulders and exposing her under-petticoat.

"I can….certainly assist myself just fine, thank you!" she declared, flouncing the folds of her dress away from him.

Sebastian smiled in sly amusement. "I am not a human man, Lydia. And I have seen your unclothed body before."

"True, when you used to dress me as a little girl! It's changed quite a bit since then!" she protested indignantly, coloring up even more than a mere feverish tinge would imply.

"Has it?"

"Don't look at it!" she practically shouted, throwing a towel over his head and pushing him toward the door. She seemed to have momentarily recovered her energy. "Out with you, you lech! Out! Out!"

Sebastian let the door slam in his face, then promptly reappeared in front of Lydia as she turned around. "I am afraid it would be irresponsible of me to allow you to bathe without supervision. In the state you're currently in, you could lose consciousness and drown. What would I do if I allowed such a thing to happen through my own carelessness?"

"You are absolutely not staying in this bathroom with me!" Lydia exclaimed, gripping the edges of the tub as he came closer, humming in amusement. She had the air of one giving a final war cry before a battle. The next second, they were both distracted by a sharp cracking sound. Sebastian tensed for a moment, but Lydia merely stared down at her right hand, which was now clutching a handful of the edge of the porcelain bathtub. Slowly, she rolled her head back in exasperation until she was nearly falling into the water. "Daaaaaaaamn…"

"I can fix it, master." Sebastian assured in a more subdued manner, his attention drawn back to the bandaged hand dangling out from underneath her black sleeve. After a moment, Lydia huffed and nodded.

"All right, all right. What we're going to do here is make a compromise. You will stay outside this room and sit near the door. I will keep the door halfway open so that you can hear me and verify that I haven't drowned. Fair enough?"

"Fair," he agreed, still staring at the arm, trying to detect any aberrations in its shape or size. It moved and looked exactly like a normal human appendage. He made up his mind to take a peek into the bathroom once she was in the tub, to see what it looked like with the bandages off. He had nearly forgotten about it over the events of the day, but now his curiosity was back in full force. He could not detect any demonic energy coming from it, but that arm was definitely not normal. This time, he stayed outside once he was herded out; he pulled a chair up against the wall directly beside the door and reclined in it, listening to the gentle rustle of fabrics and the timid footsteps of bare feet against a cold floor. The water splashed as Lydia dunked her body down into it. Sebastian listened closely to every sound, waiting for the ripples to stop washing against the sides of the tub. When all was quiet, he leaned his head in the doorway for a glance, quicker than the human eye could catch. Her wet brown hair was floating lazily around her chest. The lavender bubbles he had put in the bath concealed most of her body, but her arms dangled out on either side of the tub. He nearly fell off his chair when he realized that the bandages covering her right arm were still on. That girl-!

"Master, should you not take the bandages off of your arm?" he asked in exasperation.

"Can't." she replied placidly. Then, a moment later; "Hey!"

"You never ordered me not to look," he pointed out with a smug smirk that she could probably hear in his voice. The water splashed again.

"Sebastian, you- you evil thing- I ought to get some holy water and chase you right out of this manor! I would chase you if I had the energy! You'd better hope I don't recover soon!"

"Yes, master," he replied, unable to stop himself from laughing softly. He did not really fear holy water. It could harm him, but only if the antagonizing human actually managed to throw it on him, which was unlikely, considering how slow and uncoordinated humans were when compared with demons. Lydia probably knew this as well. Still, this was one of the many reasons why he preferred Lydia to her younger brother a thousand times over. She could let things go or take them in stride. There was room for playfulness in their relationship. Ciel would have had him writhing in agony if he had tried violating the boy's all-important personal space in such a bold way. "If it eases your mind, I did not see anything but your head and your arms, one of which is still bandaged. Why don't you take the bandages off to wash it properly?"

"This arm doesn't need to be washed," she grumbled cryptically, dunking said arm into the water. "And if I actually did take the bandages off, you'd understand why I shouldn't take them off."

"Do you ever remove them?"

"Sure, I can if I want to. But it wouldn't be a good idea to do it around you. Or around most people, for that matter. Particularly you."

"Why not?" Sebastian tilted his chair forward, listening intently. For a moment, there was silence.

"….It could hurt you. Because you're a demon. So if you ever get it in your head to try and yank the bandages off my arm like you did my glove that time….don't do it. I'm not exaggerating."

Water dripped from Lydia's hands back into the tub. Sebastian frowned. "What could hurt me?"

"It's not that it's a bad thing." Lydia chattered on. "It's actually very good, and I quite like it. It's helpful and pleasant. It's a gift- a good one. But you wouldn't like it. It would cause you pain. As for humans, it's not dangerous to them, but I think most of them would be a fair bit alarmed. Humans are always alarmed by things that fail to be ordinary."

"Lydia, what is underneath your bandages?" Sebastian insisted, leaning his upper body back into the bathroom and staring at the arm that Lydia was rotating slowly in front of her face, seeming most content with its appearance.

She smiled and ran her finger over the swath of gauze. "It's light."

"Light?" Of all the things Sebastian had expected to hear, this wasn't one of them.

"Mmm-hmm. My entire arm is made up of light. It's quite amazing. But don't tell Ciel," she added quickly. "I really don't think he wants to talk about what happened that night, even though I didn't come out of it nearly as badly as he seems to think I did."

"….I am afraid I still do not understand, master. What do you mean by light?" Sebastian asked, staring unabashedly at the girl in the tub.

She splashed some water over her collarbone with her bandaged arm. "I mean light. Quite literally, light. Only it's not light from this world. It's not like sunlight or the light from a kerosene lantern. It's pretty indescribable, actually," she murmured, closing her eyes as her body floated in the water. "The best I can do would be to say….that it's very golden….and it doesn't hurt one's eyes to look into it. And when it becomes visible- when I take the bandages off….well, that's the indescribable part, really. The light has power. It's not my power, but somehow the rest of my body is able to support it."

Sebastian was disturbed at this description. "But we both know that light is not a solid substance, and your arm is clearly made up of solid matter. You can grasp things and push against them with it. It is-"

"Hah, and this coming from the evil spirit who's technically made out of poisoned darkness? You're pretty solid as well." Lydia pointed out with a wry smile.

Sebastian blinked. "But, master- I am a spirit, as you said. I have the power to take corporeal form, but I have never been anything but a spirit. You are a human. It is different."

"Well, don't ask me how it happened." Lydia shrugged, and began to lather her hair with scented soap. Sebastian was now standing fully inside the bathroom again, staring at her in confusion.

"You mean you don't know how it happened?" he demanded incredulously.

"I know what happened, but not how. To be honest, I'm not even entirely sure that I still have an arm of flesh and blood underneath the light. I might have lost it on that night. But it's not really important."

Sebastian threw his hands up in the air in utter consternation. "How can you not know whether or not you lost your arm? And why it is not important?"

The bubbles in the bathwater were beginning to dissipate, and Lydia gathered the remnants to her chest to preserve her modesty. Her pale legs flashed through the water as she adjusted them against the opposite end of the tub. "Honestly, that's not the important part. I imagine that I'll never be able to fully understand as long as I'm a part of this world. This light-arm is a gift from the higher world, but despite its invulnerability, I'm still a mortal human. There are many things that mortals cannot understand about the spiritual ways of Heaven and hell until we get there. Our earthly minds lack the ability to comprehend such places and their effects on our beings." She paused, and sunk down lower in the bath. "Now will you get out of here?"

Sebastian's curiosity was not satisfied, however. He stared at the bandaged limb closely. "Are you sure I cannot be permitted to move the gauze coverings back for a moment to take a look?"

"I am very sure that you really don't want to do that. I don't know what would happen to you. Being connected to me might give you special protection from the light, but I'm not sure of that at all. We shouldn't risk it now, especially for no good reason. If you're just like every other demon I've met, you won't be able to stand direct exposure."

"But the- what? Every other demon you've met?" Sebastian demanded, his attention re-directing with alarming rapidity. His red eyes narrowed at the thought of another demon approaching his master. Demons were selfish and territorial creatures, highly sensitive toward others imposing upon what they saw as theirs. Their very nature as evil spirits meant that they saw the world through the burning smoke of hatred. They hated The Named, they hated angels, they hated humans, and they hated each other, even as they were forced to work together toward a common goal. Sebastian had always found that being in the vicinity of other damned creatures similar to himself was rather like being yoked at the neck; irritating, confining, and highly unpleasant. The thought of one of them basking in his master's light was even more maddening.

Lydia sensed the change in the atmosphere, curling her legs up underneath her and gliding to the rim of the tub. Soap dripped down from her hair, and she shaded her eyes to keep it out. "Don't worry, Sebastian. It's not as though I've been keeping company with them, at any rate. But a soul like mine does tend to attract them occasionally when I'm out in the world. There've been a few incidents, that's all. Sometimes they end quite amusingly…."

"If you had my mark on you, they wouldn't come near you." Sebastian growled angrily, approaching the tub and kneeling down beside the rim in a flash of black. Her flippant attitude made him want to lift her out of the tub and shake her. He gripped either side of his master's face with black-tipped hands, staring into the eye that should have borne the mark of the covenant. It was clear and blue, and this infuriated him. "And that's not all. I was able to save you today because you were right in front of me when danger struck. But what if I hadn't been there? Without the covenant, you cannot call for me. I cannot sense when you are in danger. I cannot find you if you should go missing. Your life is at risk every day, every time you leave this manor. Anything could happen- an accident, an attack- and you would die just like the countless pathetic humans who die every day, crushed by the follies of the world. Is that what you want, do you want to die? Your right arm may be indestructible, but the rest of your body is still soft and vital flesh. Death will be your lot if you continue to refuse me!" Sebastian loomed over the girl, jabbing the flesh of her shoulder harshly with a pointed finger. She needn't have bothered trying to hide her breasts. He knew her through and through, because she was his, just as much as he was hers. She just needed to stop dreaming and acknowledge it.

She stared at him with eyes like the flat surface of a building. "I will not take the contract. I cannot allow you to be attached to me in that way."

"You scorn me," he told her, deciding to play on guilt- Lydia had always been very susceptible to that. "I have done everything for you. I have kept you alive and served you faithfully-"

"You're a demon- you don't know the meaning of faithful!" she defended, gathering herself at the bottom of the tub. "You always serve your own interests first. You were planning to eat my soul when I was only a child!"

"It was the most productive option available to me at the time." Sebastian remarked casually, tilting his head and softly touching the side of his hip where the mark was. "It is no longer. I thought you would understand that that plan has since been abandoned."

"It doesn't excuse you for planning it in the first place," Lydia shot back. "As if I'd care about your idea of 'productivity' while my soul was being dragged to hell and devoured! You were trying to corrupt me so that you could take it. I don't call that faithful."

"Master, you are holding me to human standards of morality," Sebastian purred, leaning over the bathtub and bringing his face only inches away from her own. "But I am a demon. I have my aesthetics, and that is all."

"And that's exactly why you're not putting your mark anywhere on me," Lydia declared, trying to push his hands away from her face. He frowned.

"You are wrong, master. My aesthetics compel me to protect you and cater to your every order. Your best interests are my best interests. I could serve you completely if you would just take the mark." Sebastian laid his hand along the border of her left eye. With his thumb, he gently pushed the eyelid shut. "Take the mark. It will not hurt. I promise I will make it quite painless. Master…."

"And what about Ciel, was it painless for him?" she queried breathlessly, placing her right hand against his chest and pushing him slowly back. The urge to rip off a corner of her bandages arose in Sebastian's mind, but he pushed it aside. He was on a different mission tonight.

"Naturally, it was not. He forced me to give him the mark. He bound me. I fought him with all my strength, and for that, he has always hated me. But you, you don't hate me, do you?" he breathed airily, turning up his face so his beautiful features would catch the light. He was closing in now; she was tired, sick, weak. Just a little more pressure, and she would give him what he wanted.

"I've never hated you," she murmured seriously, gazing right into his eyes. "But Ciel was a child forced into circumstances too demanding for him. He was made to take the contract by his elders; grandfather, and Vincent. Then he was given the company and the title upon Vincent's death. Who gives a company to a ten-year-old? The responsibilities he must have had to assume! No doubt you've been of great assistance in that area, Sebastian….but Ciel is not your antagonist. He's just a boy following blindly after the ones who came before him. It's just bad luck that those ones happened to be Phantomhives."

Sebastian frowned again. She could tell him Ciel was not his enemy after she'd gone through the years of torment that he'd had to endure. Regardless, Sebastian did not want to talk about Ciel, anyway. He wanted to talk about Lydia and himself, about the contract and new arrangements to be made. He slipped his hand in between the bandaged fingers that lay on his chest. "Master, you are the one I was intended to serve. The contract was disfigured in order to give your brother power over me." He squeezed her hand intensely. "I want what I was promised."

"You'll simply have to do without me," she determined in a faint voice, tilting her head to the side. "I will be here at the manor as often as I can manage. I will share my light with you. I will ensure that you are given due consideration as a sentient being that should not be tortured. But I can never fill the role of your contractual master. I have too many other roles which I must rise to meet in my life-some of which I have been sorely neglecting."

"Am I such a burden that I would only hinder your pursuit of these roles?" Sebastian demanded lowly, his eyes flashing like glowing embers. "Have you never considered that I could aid you to meet them faster? I am a demon. I can do things which you cannot."

Lydia nodded, bringing her other hand to her head and watching as a beaded trail of water spilled down her temple. She looked like she would fall asleep at any moment. "I understand your sentiments. But only a human can do what I have been called to do. Sometimes, things- things not only have to be done, they have to be done right. It wouldn't be right if I accepted a contract with a demon."

"Because you're following the voice of the Named?" The accusation was blunt, swift. Lydia didn't deny it, although Sebastian desperately wanted her to. He squeezed her rock-hard hand until he would have broken the fingers if it had been a normal appendage. "I can give you anything. Anything you want, master. I can save your life."

"You didn't give me life," she declared, pulling her hand away from him. "You didn't make me."

"Silly, foolish human! The one who made you allowed you to suffer!" Sebastian growled, leaning toward her. "I was there to save you from that suffering. Each time your life was almost taken, I gave it back to you. All I asked in return was to be treated fairly, but instead you left me here!"

"Because you were trying to eat my soul!"

"No, because the Named told you to leave, and you just believed him." Sebastian rolled his eyes, unable to wrap his mind around such baseless human naivety. "Anyway, I've already told you- I disavow that."

"Only because you think you've found a better use for me now that I'm a magna shalom. I know very well that the only one you really care for is yourself. Demons have no true loyalty."

"What would you have me do?" the demon demanded. "Humans are plentiful creatures crawling across the surface of this world. Most are quite meaningless. And I need to consume souls. I'll starve without them." He brushed his hair out of his eyes in frustration. "I have never pretended to be a noble being. I am not going to starve myself simply to avoid causing weaker beings pain. And they're already dead when I devour them, anyway. It's not as if they could be spared."

"But you corrupt their souls while they're alive-"

"So that I can eat them after they die, yes, yes! I would have nothing to eat if I didn't prepare my meals beforehand."

Lydia slid back down in the tub, dropping the end of her soapy hair back into the water. She sighed lowly. "Have you ever….tried just eating human food? Or drinking water?"

Sebastian snorted, standing up and reclining against the edge of the porcelain tub, his back to the naked girl. "Master, I was in this world when it began. I have spent the majority of my immortal lifespan here. Of course I have tried eating human food. I do have a streak of curiosity in me."

"And what happens when you do?" Lydia's voice inquired liltingly. Sebastian's red eyes flared.

"It turns to ash in my mouth. It is quite unpleasant," he murmured bitterly. "You humans lead lives of luxurious ease when it comes to obtaining food. You can just walk out into a forest and pick some apples. You spend about seventeen years of your lives being fed by your parents in return for nothing at all. Demons have to spend entire lifetimes preparing souls for which to feast upon. Not only that, we have to guard them every step of the way, for even in their last living moments there is still a chance that they could slip out of our grasp. If we fail, we starve. There are no charities or philanthropic nobles to feed us- no mercy. We can steal souls, of course, shoddy things which haven't been prepared beforehand- that's why so many demons spend their time hovering over battlefields. But such souls do nothing for us but keep us from the ragged edge. The hunger remains." Sebastian stared out across the white-tiled room with dull eyes. He thought about turning around, but figured that such an act would probably get him thrown out of the room now that all the bubbles were gone from the bathwater.

"Are you hungry right now?"

The question surprised him for some reason. "Not terribly," he declared smugly, smirking at the darkness outside the window. "I have just had a meal."

"….Oh. Right."

Lydia began to pour water over her soapy head as Sebastian closed his eyes, feeling deep within himself to the part in which that soul was located. He wanted water. He was desperate, mad for water. Sadistically, the demon allowed him to listen to the sound of water pouring down from the mortal world, knowing he could never, never obtain it. Each splash was a new wave of torture for that soul, and Sebastian relished the cries. Completely oblivious, Lydia continued to immerse her hair in the bathtub, rivulets of water running down her skin and dripping from her face. It was a while until she spoke again. "….Sebastian?"

"Yes, master?"

"When you eat a soul, does it just….disappear?"

"What kind of question is that, master? You already know that souls do not simply cease to exist."

"Yes, but….well then….okay."

"What do you want to know?" the demon called languidly over his shoulder.

"Well, is he, um….does that mean he's….still inside you….somehow?"

"Yes, master."

"I thought you said he was in hell!" she protested. Sebastian turned around enough to see her face.

"He is in hell. And he is in me. I carry hell within me, Lydia. We demons are the gateway. That is why I burn."

"Oh." The water was still now. "Well, I really have no idea what to say to that." Her face was shadowed, bearing trouble like a heavy load.

"I could let you speak to him…." Sebastian trailed off, and for a moment Lydia really did look like she was going to faint. "But I do not think master would like that."

"No, no." Lydia shook her head vividly, spraying water droplets onto the floor. "That would be bizarre. And terrifying. Also….it wouldn't do him any good. It's too late for him now. 'Slike a stillborn child- something no one can help." She looked up suddenly. "He can't hear us, can he?"

"Not unless I allow him to." Sebastian decided not to mention that he'd been doing just that a few moments ago in order to torment the soul. Lydia stared back down at the water.

"Bizarre," she muttered again, reaching out a hand to lightly touch the side of his chest. "….Vincent in there, too?"

"I did not have a contract with your mother's husband. He is in hell, however."

"Is it all right for you to be telling me these things?" Lydia asked, tilting her head to the side. "Isn't this like….some sort of breach of secrecy or something? If most humans knew the truth about the afterlife, there wouldn't be nearly as much sin and cruelty in the world…."

"Most humans will not know. Most humans will not believe, no matter who tells it to them. And many of the ones that do believe will fool themselves into thinking the laws do not apply to them. We will get many souls, no matter what is said or done on earth. It is the inevitable consequence of freedom of choice." The demon sighed, hunching his shoulders forward. "Anyway, I can say whatever I want. It is the end of the day, and I am tired."

"Go, so I can finish washing." Lydia commanded suddenly. Surprised, Sebastian obeyed without argument. He closed the door to the bathroom gently (he could hear perfectly well through it, anyway,) and slid slowly down the wall to the floor, curling up against the doorframe like a cat. His head ached slightly. He thought about all of the souls inside of him, and placed a gentle hand over the beginning of his ribcage, where she had touched him. Lydia was the first and only human to ever question him about matters such as this. The demon scoffed quietly to himself. And she thought that he was bizarre.

There! I hope that was okay. I was kind of worried that this chapter would be boring, due to the fact that it's basically one long conversation between Sebastian and Lydia...with a bubble bath involved. XD But I also felt that we needed to get some things established in this story, so...yeah! Honestly, with some of the things I think of, I swear there must be something wrong with my brain. :P But hopefully it's interesting!

The next chapter will have more action. I hope it will come to me more easily than this one did... Perhaps reviews would help? :D

See you next time!