Chapter 15

Sebastian slept for a total of three days and three nights as his organs healed and began to function again. No one could exactly say Ciel had stooped to pampering his butler, but he did remain genuinely concerned about him and he would check to make sure he was okay every great once in a while. Most of the work of taking care of Sebastian was left to Tanaka, who had more than enough time at the end of every day to venture downstairs and update Ciel on his condition.

The stiffness of rigor mortis slowly came out of Sebastian in fits of snaps, crackles, and pops from his joints, limbs, and spine. How Sebastian had managed to travel back to the manor in such horrid condition was unknown. It must have been hard to move, as rig stiffened joints and muscles, and even in sleep Sebastian would toss and turn in discomfort as it slowly came out of his body with continual fits of cramps.

That third night was one Sebastian woke up. The majority of his strength was back, in fact if it weren't for the fact he was still somewhat groggy from sleeping for three days, he wouldn't have felt any different than he normally did. A splash of cold water did the trick, and he changed himself out of the white dress shirt, trousers, socks, and underwear he wore. He wasn't sure how old they were (or if anyone had bothered to change his clothes in the first place, and even so he didn't want to know) but the prominent winkles in his clothing did tell him he's been in them for quite some time.

He pulled a new tailcoat out of his wardrobe as well as trousers, underwear, socks, a white dress shirt, a tie, a vest, and even a fresh pair of white servants gloves. He picked up his pocket watch and checked the time. It was a little bit after 5 AM. Ciel was likely still sleeping.

"It's good to see you're finally awake, Mr. Sebastian."

Sebastian turned to the doorway, where Tanaka stood. The elder servant gave him a curt bow.

"I'm glad you were able to fill in for me while I was away," the butler said, "and again while I was sick."

"My pleasure, sir. How are you feeling? If you need another day off . . ."

"No, no, I'm perfectly all right."

Tanaka nodded, "I'll leave you to tend to your own business then."

Sebastian returned the nod and Tanaka left.

The butler spent a short amount of time simply making rounds about the manor; making sure most of the garden was salvageable, checking to see how much of the kitchen Bard had burned down, counting the number of tea sets that needed to be replaced, and seeing how much tea Tanaka had consumed and what needed to be restocked. He was pleased to find that Finny hadn't damaged very many flowers. The kitchen had only a few burns about the oven and stove; definitely not any sort of damage caused by the chefs flamethrower. There were only two tea sets that had been broken. Mey-Rin must have been very careful this time. And as for the tea . . . Well, most of it was gone. There was only a little bit of Earl Grey left and a type of tea that Sebastian gave when someone around the mansion was suffering from a sore throat.

Sebastian let out a sigh, "Looks like I'm going to be busy shopping tomorrow."

Suddenly, a voice piped up from behind him.

"Well, I'm surprised to see you're still alive."

The demon turned around and came face-to-face with the one person that he was loathing; the one who originally caused the mess that had occurred over the course of these past few days. Angela.

"I would have thought that the enchantment you activated would have struck you down by now."

Sebastian let out and irritated snort, "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but it would seem I'm here to stay."

Angela let out a hum, "Perhaps."

Before she could process it, Sebastian had her pinned against the wall by her throat, rage glinting in his eyes.

"I ought to shag the living saint out of you!"

"Temper, temper, Sebastian," the angel taunted, "Maybe you'll learn not to keep information from your master, next time."

"None of that is any of your goddamn business," Sebastian released his grip on her, "Besides, I thought I told you before that you aren't welcome here."

"I just wanted to see Pluto."

A pity it was when Sebastian told her the demon hound ran off days ago. Naturally, Angela didn't fall for it, but Sebastian's message was clear to her.

"Leave. You have no business here."

Angela glared at him and scoffed. "Filthy, vile, unclean vermin!"

"Tell me something I don't know already, you cross-kissing, holy-water-drinking, bible thumping pigeon."

"One day you'll see!"

Sebastian had heard enough. In undetected move, Angela was kicked through a wall and in the kitchen and sent flying out into the garden. It would create some unnecessary work for him later, but he didn't care about that, right now. Instead, he looked to Pluto, whom he could see sniffing around near a patch of roses.

"Pluto!" He called out, "Fetch!"

The demon hound lifted his head and galloped out of the rose patch, targeting Angela.

"No, Pluto, down!" The angel ordered.

Pluto didn't listen. He was caught up in the word "fetch" and was coming at her with jaws open and fire sprouting.

Sebastian only looked on in amusement as the white wolf chased the angel through the garden and eventually lost track of her as Angela took off into the air.

"Cheater!" Sebastian called to the fleeing angel, "He's your dog. Hey! You can have him back if you want!"

The demon knew he was back to his old self. His sarcasm had returned and his foolish games with those that were at his disposal were just as devious as they were before the mess that had occurred days ago. Some part of him hoped that pretty soon everyone would be able to go back to leading their normal lives and forget the day Ciel sent his butler away.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 5-2-15

"I'm sorry, I had to do something evil to Angela. I'm sorry if this chapter seemed rushed or poorly written in anyway. Nearly done here. I think I'll write one more chapter to wrap things up, and believe me, it's going to be good!"

-BlueRaven666