A/N: Thank you so much to you lovely people who have reviewed, it fuels me to keeping writing this thing. On with the chapter!

The Butler, Entrusted

"If I asked you to come up to my rooms tonight, would you do it?"

The voice is sweetly husky, rich with confidence, feminine. Red velvet. He had not noticed her come in.

"Madam."

Sebastian turns from where he had been scrupulously arranging china on a mahogany side table to face the doorway, which frames Angelina Dalles' crimson curves. Her visits to the manor are getting rarer, but the London season is yet to start and this weekend has apparently afforded her the time to come by. She sees his sober expression and tinkles a little laugh.

"I thought not. You're much too...professional."

She glides over to his side and shifts her weight companionably onto one hip, giving him a sly sideways smile. She has always been curiously familiar with him.

"Have you ever been in love, Sebastian? Somehow I couldn't imagine it."

"No, Madam. I do not find myself drawn to...pursuits of the heart," he replies blandly.

"Well, I hope for your sake that you never are. It's such fiery madness."

Her smile pinches a little with melancholy. He wonders who she is thinking of, who made such a ragged hole in her. Outside, the autumn is still clinging to the golden skirts of summer.

"I wanted him to come and live with me, you know. Ciel," she says to the window. "I would have had him as my son."

"That is generous of you, Madam."

Scarlet lips go tight. "It isn't. Not really."

The silence holds, serene. They can take the weight of it between them.

"I was the first person to hold him after he was born, did you know that?"

"No," he tells her softly. "I did not."

"He was so tiny. So precious. I could never forget it. Holding him frightened me in case I hurt him, but he seemed happy to be held. And now, he flinches at my touch," she continues, her voice raw. She turns to him, pinning him with a gaze nearly as red as his own. "But not yours."

"Madam?"

"I don't know what happened, Sebastian, to make him so afraid of human hands. And I don't expect you to tell me. But I do know that for whatever reason, you are the exception. He trusts you enough to let you take care of him. And although I will not deny that I wish it had been me, I would like you to know that I am thankful for that."

Sebastian just barely covers his astonishment by laying a gloved hand over the place where his heart should be and bowing slightly. "I will stay by the young master's side until the very end, Madam."

As he lowers his hand, she catches it and squeezes briefly with a rueful smile. Her perfume is rose musk, near misses, second best, making do.

"Thank you. I wanted so badly to take him home with me. But I can be content, as long as I know he feels safe."

A/N: Sorry it's such a short one! I was trying to capture the essence of the conversations we see An have with Sebastian about Ciel in the manga, which are always brief but heartfelt. Please do let me know what you think!