Chapter Four
He'd only been in bed all of half an hour, sleep alluding him as usual, when his door swung open and hit the wall with a crash. Half-heartedly, he wondered if the nuisance would leave if he pretended to be asleep, but dismissed the idea. If he pretended to be asleep the brat would probably just sit on him or something.
"Go away, Alois. I'm tired," the lump under the covers sluggishly snapped.
"Nuh-uh! It's Wednesday!" the blond announced, back to his exuberant self, bounding over to the bed and tugging on the quilt. He dodged the leg aimed at his stomach without even a blink, face-splitting grin not faltering, and finally succeeded in tearing the sheets from Ciel's death grip.
Ciel's temper only worsened when Alois lacked the decency to spontaneously combust beneath his one-eyed glare.
"Come ooon. If you don't come out now, Grey'll just come in and annoy you out anyway, and you know how you hate it when he comes in your room," Alois reasoned, holding the sought-after sheets and dancing away from Ciel's outstretched hand.
Ciel frowned.
"...He touches my stuff," he agreed, remembering the last time that damnable psychiatrist had had the gall to come into his room. It was ages until Ciel was satisfied that his models were germ-free.
Not to mention the imbecile had called them toys. They were not toys, they were collectables, dammit!
"Exactly!" Alois thought he'd won the weekly debate until Ciel just shrugged and flipped over, burying his face in the pillow. Annoyance surged up, he was this close to pouting.
"Ciiiel, I have candy~"
If Ciel had been a dog, his ears would have shot up.
Suspiciously, he looked over his shoulder at the newcomer in the doorway, brows furrowing.
"If it's that home-made stuff you tried to fob me off with last time, Soma, I swear to whatever God you believe in..." he trailed off when the purple-haired man opened his palm, a handful of wrapped sweets revealing themselves.
Five minutes later, Ciel was dressed and closing his bedroom door behind him, chewing a mouthful of toffee. Everyone else was already in the leisure room, all the chairs being arranged in a semi-circle in the centre. Both his self-proclaimed best friends flanked him, bickering between themselves about just who would be sitting next to Ciel, neither noticing when he meandered over to a waving Freckles, settling into his usual armchair beside her.
"Mornin', Smile," she greeted with a bright one of her own. When he only frowned at the stupid nickname, she snickered, snatching one of the wrappers and playing with it.
"Whew, full house today," Grey began, his ever-present grin plastered across his face. Phipps sat silently beside him, scribbling something onto the clipboard in his lap, looking forever-bored.
"So, let's start with the regular. Go round the circle and tell me how you're feelin', don't be afraid to express yourselves, guys." No matter what the man said, it always sounded so sarcastic. God, Ciel hated even being in the same room as him. Conversations with Grey never failed to bring up the unhealthy urge to punch a baby in the face.
Peter was the unfortunate sitting directly next to Grey, and snorted, "I'm feelin' like I always feel when you make us do this; like this shit is stupid."
Grey leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and adopting a look of intense fascination at Peter's words, "Uh-huh. Yes, I'm feeling a lot of pent-up aggression here. Did you get that, Phipps? Make sure to get it word-for-word, we've made a big break through here."
Peter just rolled his eyes at the obvious mocking, folding his arms across his chest and glancing away from the source of annoyance.
"Alright, Wendy, what about you?" Grey turned to the small girl sat beside Peter, who instantly looked flustered, and shrugged, muttering something about feeling fine. Peter flared up instantly, his temper not good at the best of times, and barked, "Stop makin' her feel uncomfortable!"
Grey just laughed.
Soma was next, and just cheerily responded with a Great!, and Ciel almost smirked as he expertly gave Grey nothing to work with.
Eventually Grey got bored of that, luckily before he got to Beast who would have given as good as she got, and then they'd all have to put up with Dagger rushing to defend his sister's honour for the next hour, which got old quick.
Ciel was pretty sure Phipps was just doodling at this point.
"Alright! Enough of that. Today's key word is self-control."
Everyone laughed at that, even Ciel couldn't help snickering a little. Grey's amused gaze was upon Alois as he said it.
"Now I know we've discussed this many times before, but because of a certain someone, the higher ups are making me sit through it again. Thank you for that, Trancy. Anything you'd like to say?"
Alois' grin turned feral.
"You talking about what happened with that whore? Pfft, that had nothing to do with lack of self-control. I did exactly as I meant to do."
It would have been alright if the patients had been the only ones laughing at that. They were insane, right? Things like that amuse them. However, an appalled Sebastian thought as he watched the session from the other side of the room, what the hell was Grey doing, cracking up just as much as Alois? Even Phipps let out a chortle at the boy's words. They... It was like they were encouraging the blond's actions.
Sebastian's gaze caught with Ciel's, and the same disgust that Sebastian felt at the psychiatrists was reflected in the eye that met his. He was almost relieved, but with that relief came yet more confusion. Because yet again, this patient was appearing as more sane than yet another member of staff.
Ciel had disappeared into his room at some point during the session when Sebastian wasn't looking, and his faint hope of maybe catching a game was dashed yet again. A part of him was annoyed that he'd allowed the kid to get under his skin so easily, so quickly, but he was mostly annoyed that he hadn't had his rematch yet.
"Sebastian, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Tanaka said, pulling Sebastian away from his work and out into the hall. There waited a man. Or a woman. It was impossible to tell beneath the dozens of layers of black. Shaggy gray hair hung across the man's face, hiding his eyes from view. An impossibly wide grin stretched across their face, showing all their teeth and giving the impression more of a vicious snarl than a smile.
"This is one of my fellow Chairmen, his name is-"
"Call me Undertaker," the man, no woman could have a voice that deep, cut in, a hand appearing from the depths of his overly-large sleeves to grasp Sebastian's in a firm shake.
Undertaker? These people weren't even trying anymore, were they?
"As I'm forced to travel often, if you ever need anything, feel free to go to Undertaker. He resides here year round, and his door is always open-"
"Only if you pay the toll, of course," yet again cutting across Tanaka, the man laughed, arguably the most unhinged laughter Sebastian had heard to that day.
Tanaka chortled himself.
"Ah, of course. Our Undertaker here does insist you share a joke before you can enter the office. Ah well, just make him laugh and he'll help you with anything."
A joke toll.
...a joke toll.
Sebastian made a promise to himself as he walked back to the ward to never need Undertaker's help.
"You should just switch with Ash permanently. He's such a bore to play with these days," Ciel stated in way of greeting as Sebastian crossed into the dimly-lit leisure room, toying with a white pawn.
Not long after his introduction with Undertaker, Sebastian had been summoned to Angela's office and told he'd be covering for Ash again that night. If he hadn't been pleased at the prospect of finally getting his rematch, he would have been annoyed that she was only just telling him this after he'd already worked most of his regular shift. It was with only two hours sleep that he went back to the ward that night, but something told him that he wouldn't be feeling particularly exhausted for the time being.
"That's because you've had an actual challenge now. Naturally other opponents will be dull in comparison," Sebastian replied with a smirk, sinking thankfully into the waiting armchair.
"Can you really call yourself a challenge when you've yet to win a single game?" Ciel replaced the pawn and gestured for Sebastian to make his first move. Sebastian didn't deem him with a response, too busy going over different strategies in his head. Ciel could almost see the cogs turning.
It wouldn't be for several hours that a word other than checkmate would be spoken, and unfortunately for Sebastian, it was only Ciel's voice that spoke out. Knowing that the sun would be rising soon and that Angela would be coming to dismiss him, Sebastian's fervour for the game was replaced with the curiosity that had been building for over a week now.
Though he was a master of most things, alas he was beginning to question his chess playing abilities, Sebastian was particularly good at talking. It came with the charm he possessed, and made it easy for him to get answers from people who didn't want to give them, without them even knowing they'd done so. At least until it was too late.
"I met the other Chairman today," Sebastian said, still moving the pieces in response to Ciel, but not really paying mind to the board any more.
Ciel hummed, snatching yet another fallen pawn from the board, "Undertaker?"
"Yes... I trust that's not his real name?"
"I wouldn't put it past him to have had it legally changed," the boy said, shaking his head as he thought of the cloaked man, "Have you met the other one yet?"
Sebastian blinked. Now that he thought of it, there had been mention that there was more than two Chairmen of St. Victoria's.
"No, can't say I have. What's his name?"
Ciel just shrugged, wriggling in the chair to get more comfortable. Sitting all night was a real pain.
"Can't say I know. No one does, actually, not even Soma. It's one of those mysteries, but I got bored of trying to solve it a long time ago."
Ah. A lead-in.
"Oh? So... exactly how long have you been here?"
Sebastian saw Ciel tense at the question, and scolded himself for not being subtle enough. Still, there was only so many ways of broaching the subject, and Ciel had handed him one on a silver platter. No doubt the boy would be careful not to do it again now that he'd already slipped up once.
Forcefully relaxing, Ciel answered after only a brief hesitation, "Must be... five years now, I think." Seeing Sebastian open his mouth, no doubt to ask another question, Ciel continued, "I meant to ask; do you know if anyone has been taken to The Room today?"
Sebastian knew perfectly well that Ciel was trying to change the subject, and not very subtly either. Luckily for him, his companion had simply handed him yet another opportunity.
"I'm not too sure. I was out of the room at the time, meeting Undertaker as it were, but Agni told me there was an incident with Peter. I didn't see him the rest of the day... but while we're on the subject; what exactly is The Room?"
For a second, nothing but pure surprise was on Ciel's face, before a strange expression replaced it, half-way between a scowl and a smirk, as though his face wasn't sure what expression it wanted to show, and all Ciel said was, "It's your move."
They played for another hour, another three victories for Ciel, before Sebastian's usually expansive patience fled him. He took hold of his King and lay it on its side across the chequered board, raising his eyes to meet Ciel's single questioning one, and threw caution to the wind.
"Why are you here?"
Ciel didn't look surprised at the question, but he did look confused. The confusion didn't last long, and then it was replaced by laughter. Not the types of laughs Sebastian had seen from him so far; the derisive snickers and half-smirks, not cruel but usually at other's expense. No, this was genuine, almost childish laughter. Unbridled and unrestrained.
Ciel was laughing at him.
"W-Why? You're asking me why?" Gasping for breath, clutching his stomach as barks of laughter still spilled past his lips, "Because I'm mad!
Sebastian waited for the boy to regain his composure, until only the faintest whisper of a chuckle was escaping him, to argue, "You're the sanest person I've met here. Look, I know what madness is. I've seen it! And you've not mad. Half the staff are, but you aren't-"
Another bark of laughter cut him off, "Don't you think you're being rather presumptuous? We've met two, three times? You're making the mistake of letting your guard down around me, Sebastian. In a place like this, that mistake can get you killed. You saw what happened to Ms. Hannah, didn't you?"
Ciel paused, and Sebastian looked ready to argue with him, but he raised a hand to stop any words that were forthcoming.
"I understand what you mean about the staff. Believe me, more than half of them a certifiable. Now, you. You are a sane man. For now, anyway. So it's only natural that a sane man, in an insane place, will look for sanity. But you're making a mistake in looking for it in me."
The beeping of the system as a key-card was swiped alerted them both to Angela's approach.
Ciel rose from his seat and rounded the table, pausing by Sebastian's side. Leaning down, watching the doorway with a wary eye, he murmured, "Letting your guard down around me could get you killed, Sebastian. Don't let it happen again." Without glancing back to see the effect his words were having on the dark-haired man, Ciel strode from the room. However, he paused in the doorway and glanced back with a smirk.
"Oh, by the way... Alois mentioned something about liking your eyes. You might want to watch that."