"I don't know, there's still six out there, if Sebastian and Naveen can't figure it out together, how can we, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the brightest in the bunch, I think you're putting too much faith in me Ciel."Alois said. Naveen wrapped his arms around the blonde demon and Luca was quick to join.
"Alois, you are much too hard on yourself, You are beautiful and brilliant, if ever I needed someone at my side to help me with a problem of this magnitude, I would choose you without hesitation."Naveen said softly.
"If you feel that way about me, you obviously don't know me at all, I-"
"You're the best brother ever, You always took care of me. If you weren't smart, we couldn't have lived on our own and you wouldn't have been able to care for me."Luca added.
"If I was smart Luca, we wouldn't be in this situation, you wouldn't have made that contract with Hannah and we'd still be-"
"We'd be sad, because Hannah wouldn't love us and you wouldn't know Naveen or Victor and Ciel couldn't be your friend. I like our life now Brother, it's much better than running the streets and worrying about how we'll survive. Anyway, I get to see you be really happy now, that's enough for me. I believe in you." Luca smiled up at his brother as Naveen pulled them both close.
"I honestly don't know what I'd do without you Luca, you're very important to me, you know that don't you?"
"Yes, Your Highness, you're important to me too, The best, bravest big brother ever!" Alois rested his head on Naveen's chest, still embracing Luca tightly.
"Look Mommy, Cousin Naveen loves Alois and Luca so much!" Rachel cried clapping her tiny hands. "Will they be a happy family just like us?" Naveen chuckled warmly.
"That is my hope princess, that the love I hold in my heart for Alois will continue to grow and one day, I will gain both a mate and a second younger brother."
"Yay, that will be such a happy and good thing to happen, then you can have lots and lots of babies that can play tea with me!" The little princess grinned.
"I don't know about all that" Alois said.
"But mommy and Daddy have..." She turned to her mother for help.
"Four." Ciel offered.
"yes, four whole babies. Mommy will not have anymore, I asked lots. But if you have them-"
"That's enough, we're off subject." Sebastian said sternly, Mey-Rin and Bard excused themselves from view as their snickering continued, Ciel merely shook his head.
"Moving on then, Sebastian wants us to have a look around when we arrive in Rome. We aren't exactly sure where to find the next one but it's worth a look. There's a lot of places there to hide something that small so we'll have to go in teams, I'll be staying with my children this time. I don't know what to expect there so I think it's best to keep them out of it."
"But mommy, We want to do it, for Grandfather, he is a good thing to have. Can we be good and help too?"Rachel pleaded.
"You are good. You can help by listening to what you're told."
"Mama, if we go to maybe we will find it very fast. We will be good and nice and not run away."
"It has nothing to do with you running away, I know you wouldn't do that. I'm more concerned about you getting hurt or-"
"Ciel, it takes a lot to harm a demon, you know that well enough by now. It's true that they're very young and your maternal instinct is to protect them is natural. Maybe we should allow them to come, they've done so well thus far. They'll be going." Sebastian said earning a sharp glare from his mate.
"No. I won't take them out there and-"
"You must trust our children."
"It's not them I don't trust, it's everyone else. As their mother, it's my responsibility to do what's best and keep them safe."
"And they are safe, you and I are here, our guard is close by, nothing will happen to our little ones. I promise you that." Ciel was silent for a moment.
"Alois, Naveen, can you keep an eye on the children for a bit, I need to talk to Sebastian."
"Of course, take all the time you need, they can play with Luca."
"Sebastian, let's take a walk." Ciel demanded and began to walk away, Sebastian sighed and followed.
"Alois?" Rachel called quietly, tugging on the older demon's blue jacket.
"What's the matter Rachel?"He asked softly.
"Is Mommy angry at Daddy?"
"Well, I don't know that he's so much angry as he is...upset." Alois said in an attempt to calm the child who now had tears in her eyes.
"Will Mommy go away from Daddy?" she sniffled, her brothers gathered around her.
"No Rachel, Your parents-"
"They will not love each other anymore and then we will not have a mommy and daddy and we will be so sad and all by ourselves and- and" Alois embraced the child.
"No, that won't ever happen. Your mommy and daddy will always love each other, it's just that sometimes, they don't agree. Like when you disagree with your brothers, you still love them, and they love you, it just needs to be worked out, and it will be. They'll never ever leave you. They love you too much."He comforted. Naveen smiled.
You would make an amazing mother one day Alois, I only hope that when the time comes that you feel you are ready to be, you will choose me to raise a family with, you and I will be so happy together. Naveen sighed contentedly at the thought.
Back in the room, Sebastian quietly closed the door behind him and turned to his mate.
"Ciel, my love, before you say anything I just want you to know that I only had the best of intentions for our children, I would never allow any harm to-"
"Quiet." The younger demon said sternly, Sebastian fell silent.
"I've always trusted you, as a human, and even in this existence, I've given you more of a lead as my mate than you had before, I've given in to a good bit of what you've wanted from me when it comes to being around your family. But the one thing I won't tolerate is you trying to undermine my authority as their mother, especially in front of them. How dare you go against me after I've made a decision that's there to protect them and then you have the audacity to come in here and tell me-"
"Ciel, I understand you being upset. I do, I should never have do it in front of them, you're absolutely correct and I apologize for that. I need you to know that as much as I love you, I feel as if you're a bit too worried about the children, they're demons, not humans, they are not as fragile , they will not break."
"You don't know what's there, I won't have another problem like we had in the tomb. I will not lose my children, I'll do what I have to to protect my children and I'm not comfortable having them there and not knowing what to expect."
"What happened in Egypt was frightening for you, I know. But we got through that wall and our children are safe. I swear to you that I will protect them, just as I know you will and have done in the past. Perhaps I was beginning to allow the way I was raised surface a little more than usual. My father always tried to instill the idea of dominance to an extent over our mates. Something that I didn't want to do with you, I wanted you and I to be equal in all we do. Raising children is something that by our tradition is done by the more dominant mate setting the rules and the 'mother' following the guidelines, something that my mother never submitted to completely. I'm sorry it was starting to come out. I believe-"
"Let' get something straight right here, I don't give a damn what you were taught, when it comes to my children, you will not try that again. I am not-"
"You keep saying 'my children' they are our children. I have every right to make choices for them as well."Sebastian said in irritation.
"You do, but you don't have the right to make them feel like they don't have to listen to me, and if you keep doing that, that's going to happen. I won't have it. I'm so tired of you doing this, it's not the first time. When I don't want them to do something, you need to support me and if you have a problem with it, then you come talk to me when they're asleep or playing in another room. I've let it go before but if something happens to them because-"
"I can make safe decisions for our demonlings. You need to trust me as both their father and your mate."
"If I didn't trust you, you wouldn't be a bloody father so don't start that."
"I'd like to know what it is that makes you think being a father makes me any less qualified to-"
"Sometimes, you don't think about what you're doing. You thought it was okay for them to play on that-"
"They were safe, I consider myself to be very responsible. In our tradition the father's role was-"
"Tradition my ass, Fathers aren't more important than the mother."
"I couldn't agree more, however, what you're not understanding and I am trying so hard to make the point of is this, traditionally, Fathers handled everything and their mate's trusted them to do so. I'm not asking you to let me take over, just to trust me enough to allow me to take the children and know that you are not the only one capable of caring for them. Now, I plan to go out there and tell them how wrong I was and I apologize for disrespecting you. I must say though, I am very proud of you for being the mother you are. We should be in Italy within a day's time, can I still count on you to help search for the stone?" Sebastian said in a softer tone, It hurt him to know he had made Ciel so unhappy.
"You know you can." Ciel said turning away from him. "But if something happens to my children, I promise you, you'll be the sorriest demon to ever live."
"Fair enough love, I swear that I will look after them." Sebastian placed a hand on Ciel's shoulder only to have him pull away.
"Don't touch me. I need time to calm down." Sebastian nodded.
"I understand. I shall go and see the children then. I do love you." he said but received no reply. With pain in his heart, Sebastian turned and left Ciel to his thoughts.