Thorns

Summary: AU. Sebastian, an aristocrat of the Michaelis family, one day came across a small, frail boy allowing himself to die on the middle of a pathway. Taking him in, he learns about the boys true past and his life-threatening illness.

Rated: T+

Chapter Three

Sneaking carefully, Ciel glanced down the hallway, flinching when a floorboard creaked. He knew his bedroom was near Sebastian's, but it would simply be embarrassing if he was caught in the process of-

Getting food? Since Ciel was being too overly cautious, he refused to eat food given to him, unsure if it'd be drugged or not. So if he could sneak into the kitchen and steal a slice of the cake.

"Ciel, what are you doing?" Ciel covered his mouth not to yelp from the fright he got and when he turned round, he paled to see Sebastian standing there, candle holder in hand. The more humiliating part was the fact that his stomach growled loudly. They before remained still before Sebastian smirked, leaning down and petting Ciel on the head. "Hungry?"

Screwing up his nose, Ciel was about to deny it, but his stomach clenched in a painful not, causing him to double over. Sebastian pushed him along, heading to the kitchen while murmuring to himself.

"This is what happens when you don't eat." said Sebastian quietly, lighting the oil lights and smiling lightly as the cautious boy. "I can't wake Bardroy at this hour, so I'll make the food. You can even watch so that you know it isn't drugged."

Ciel glared at him, irritated that he was practically a mind reader. He sat on a high stool, watching Sebastian grab some eggs and cracking them open, the sticky liquid falling into a pot as he placed it on top of the stove, opening the grill/oven and placing a few slices of bread in it. Scrambled eggs would be light enough for his stomach to cope, right?

Stirring the raw egg, Sebastian was slightly started at the question the boy sitting next to him threw.

"Why did you save me?" asked Ciel quietly, his head bowed as he clenched his hands. "I mean, you already know that I can't do much other than watch your movements and get in your way, so why-?"

Sebastian pressed a finger to his lips, smiling gently as he closed his red eyes.

"I saved you since I thought you needed saved more than the other children there." he said. "I don't buy things beyond repairable."

"I wasn't anywhere near broken though!" squeaked Ciel, folding his arms. Sebastian chuckled and petted his head while he stirred the eggs.

"Of course." he said, still smiling. "So I saved you before you got abused in some way or another."

Ciel paled further, but understood what he meant. He had heard the horror stories that happen on the streets. Murder, beatings, rape. Those were the three most common, and it made Ciel shudder. Now he didn't mind, since it seemed no one was going to hurt him here. Finian had been safe this whole time, so shouldn't he be safe too?

Pulling down a plate from the cupboard above his head, he placed the scrambled eggs on the plate before pulling out the grill, placing the toast around it while grabbing the silverware. out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian watched Ciel watch every single one of his movements as he handed the plate over.

It was shocking how fast someone so young could shove food in their mouth, but Sebastian wasn't all that shocked. The others had done the same. Red eyes glinted slightly as Ciel fidgeted, chewing the food eagerly.

Sebastian found the behavior of certain humans oddly strange. Sure, he was human too, but he counted himself totally different from them. Normal humans were selfish, greedy…

He tried to help everyone he came across, simply because he did not wish to go to the depths of hell like most people were going. Thing was though, everyone thought he was a demon that took children away to suck out their souls…

Just because of the color of his eyes. It irritated him, but he let it go. He wasn't willing to get into an argument over his red, very close to cat-like eyes. He took the plate off the boy before him, smiling and closing his eyes as Ciel looked content yet exhausted.

"Would you like a glass of-" Sebastian stopped and then leaned forwards to catch the boy who just passed out as his facial expression softened. The boy would settle down eventually, he just had to be patient.

Yes, patient.

Name: Ciel Phantomhive

Age: 12

Class: N/A

Info:

Height: - 152cm

Weight:-5¾ stone

Bought at an underground auction, Mr. Ciel Phantomhive seems to be a shy, nervous young boy. When questioned about his parents, he ran into a separate bedroom. When asked where he used to stay, he remained silent.

Quite fragile and easily restless, Ciel Phantomhive is often plagued by nightmares and tends to wake up screaming through the night and looks for the sharpest object he can find in the room. Whether or not it is to harm others or himself is difficult to decide. Other Information is N/A.

Sebastian updated this file everyday as he learned something new. It had been five days since he had brought Ciel into his household and he was feeling a little off. Perhaps as illness of some form?

Looking in the mirror, he examined his eyes and frowned. They'd gotten a little brighter and looked more cat-like than anything else. He needed to make an excuse about them. Perhaps just bloodshot?

In any case, it was quite common for ones eye-color to change, just not so drastically. It had happened more and more in the past five days, and he often got headaches. For now, he could ignore it…

Somehow.

Exiting his room, he bumped into Maylene, watching he sweep the stairs in an elegant manner before she started fussing over him, a blush on her cheeks.

"M-Master Sebastian! What happened to your eyes…?" she asked, looking at the closely through he glasses. "Maybe you should drink some milk! That should help!"

"I'm afraid milk only helps bones, Maylene." chuckled Sebastian, petting her on the head before he walked down the stairway, rubbing at his temples. He could hear Bardroy in the kitchen, but he hadn't found either Finian or Ciel.

Walking into the library, he raised an eyebrow to see them both sitting quietly, playing a game of chess. Finian looked stuck while Ciel just clasped his hands together, smirking. If he'd known they liked playing games, he would have gotten more of them than just a chessboard.

"Checkmate." said Ciel. Sebastian glanced at the chessboard, and true enough, Finian had lost.

"A skilled player at chess, I see?" both boys jumped in fright, Finian falling off his seat and Ciel inches off from hitting Sebastian's face. "Now, don't get alarmed by such a minor thing, Ciel, Finian."

"Are us children not meant to be startled when someone sneaks up on us and then suddenly we hear a voice?" said Ciel stubbornly, folding his arms. A dark blue eye stared into brightened red ones before he froze. "I-I… need to go…"

Ciel ran out the room and left Sebastian puzzled as Finian blinked stupidly, bowing to the raven and smiling.

"Thank you so much for taking in Ciel, Master Sebastian." he mumbled. "I thought he was dead…"

Sebastian petted the blonde haired boy on the head and smiled, closing his eyes. Finian seemed a lot happier now that he had someone of a closer age to him. Kneeling down, he picked up the child's favorite straw hat and placed it on his head.

"Can you tidy the chess set up for me? I need to go check on Ciel."

"Y-Yes!"

Scrambling up the stairs, Ciel stumbled into the bathroom, panting lightly as he ripped his eye patch off, examining his eye. He knew there was something wrong with it, he knew there was something wrong with it the instant he entered this house!

Opening his right eye slowly, he paled dramatically His eye glowed purple. He was scared. He never thought that he would inherit the Phantomhive ability. It usually showed at a much younger age, so since it never showed before, his parents had just shrugged it off as 'he doesn't have it' and petted him on the head, giving him a patch for his eye.

Phantomhive's had the ability to sense demons, but Ciel hadn't been able to pick on the aristocrats demon since it was sealed away. It must… It must have come out after being around him and his soul too much, but it seemed Sebastian hadn't noticed anything different about himself.

It was a scary thought, but Ciel had to hide the fact that he knew something Sebastian didn't-

He nearly screamed when red eyes appeared in the mirror, but his mouth was covered quickly. Peering more closely to the mirror, he saw that it was Sebastian standing right behind him, a concerned expression written over his face.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, oblivious to Ciel discomfort. He let go of the boys mouth and kneeled down, his thumb tracing under his right eye. "It… changed color…"

"You really can't say much, Sebastian." growled Ciel. "Look at your own ones. Don't you dare say to me that they're bloodshot."

Sebastian was confused as he smirked lightly. such an intelligent boy had secrets he really wanted to know. It also seemed that Ciel knew something about him that he didn't know himself.

"Care to explain what is going on?" asked Sebastian, raising an eyebrow as his piercing eyes checked over the boy. His eyes looked panicked, but his body was showing the most calm a child could ever hold. He was pale, his skin clammy, his hands clenching.

"Sure thing, demon."

A/N: Oooohh, my head is gonna... EX-plode... I've gone on a writing overload o.e

Hope you enjoyed the chapter... Now please go look at the poll that determines where the story goes~ Hope you enjoyed~

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~Sky~

2nd A/N: I don't know if the pollis working *frowns* It's open, posted on profile... Can someone tell me if it's working or not? Thank chuu~