"CLAUDE!" Alois screamed, a note of panic rising in his voice. "Claude! Where are you!" The young earl Trancy tore a path of destruction through the house, opening every door as he searched, picking up items at random and smashing them against the walls or floor to accent their screaming.

"You!" he said, encountering one of the triplets. They were scurrying about the house in their master's wake, attempting to prevent as much damage to the house as possible. Hannah was wisely refusing to emerge from her room. "Have you seen Claude?" Alois demanded.

The purple haired young man shook his head. "No, Your Highness, none of us have seen him since…" he trailed off.

"Since when?"

"Since the night you burned him, Your Highness." the servant finished, almost inaudibly.

To the man's great surprise, Alois sniffled. "Claude promised he wouldn't leave me. You think I kill him, don't you?"

"No, Your Highness," he said carefully, "I didn't say that. I simply think he might have gone somewhere to recover. Or perhaps an enemy got to him while he was in his weakened state?"

Alois tears dried up instantly. "No one could eve defeat my Claude!" he shouted, kicking his servant in the shins. The young man resisted the strong urge to jump up and down on one foot.

"N…no, of course not, Your Highness. Except…"

Alois growled. "Except what?"

"Except for perhaps, Sebastian Michaelis, Your Highness…"

"Phantomhive is behind this." Alois stamped one high heeled foot. "Get the carriage ready! We're going to rescue Claude! And Ciel Phantomhive and that butler of his will be punished for trying to take my Claude away from me!"

"Yes, Your Highness," The servant bowed, and went off to find his brothers. That could have gone worse. Of course, now they would be facing both Alois's wrath, and the wrath of Ciel Phantomhive, if his hypothesis turned out to be false.

XXX

"Can you believe that your Young Master asked the maid to give me my own room?" Claude said, leaning against the doorframe to Sebastian's room with a seductive smirk.

"Well," Sebastian stroked one black nailed hand down the side of Claude's face. "Let the boy keep his innocence a little longer."

"I don't think he'll stay innocent much longer if you keep pulling stunts like that bit in the closet this afternoon."

"Please, darling, Ciel didn't see anything. Besides, I'm allowed to have a life."

"Yeah," Claude chuckled, "his," he said, meaning Ciel.

"You take your duties very seriously, Claude."

Claude raised an eyebrow behind his glasses. "As should you, Sebastian. You actually have a master worth serving."

"Oh, have no doubt, I'm devoted to Ciel," Sebastian said, taking off Claude's glasses and placing them on the bedside table. "But I'm devoted to you as well. I hate those glasses, by the way. " Sebastian began to unbutton Claude's shirt.

"No you don't, Sebastian," Claude said, grabbing Sebastian's wrists before he could finish his task.

"What are you doing?" Sebastian sounded amused rather than concerned.

"Well, Sebastian," he said, spinning Sebastian around and stripping off his jacket. "You can just consider this payback for this afternoon."

"Payback?"

Claude laughed, and nibbled on the side of Sebastian's neck, "Mhm, for that little humiliating incident in the kitchen. And you said you wanted me with my spark back. You should be careful what you wish for."

Even with his arms pinned behind his back, Sebastian couldn't help but laugh. Yes, this was more like the Claude he remembered. The Claude he had known before that particular butler had the misfortune of meeting Alois Trancy. "And what do you intend to do with me?"

Claude rolled his eyes. "I should have thought that would be fairly obvious."

"Well, no. If this is revenge for this afternoon, and I, hm, slightly humiliated you by letting everyone know what we were doing in that closet, then it stands to reason that you would have to do something more humiliating to me to pay me back for it. So no, I'm not sure what you have planned."

Claude pulled off Sebastian's shirt and shoved him onto the bed, laughing. "Such logic could only come from your devious mind, Sebastian. I have no intention of humiliating you."

"So what do you intend then?"

Claude smirked. "It intend to be the one on top."

Sebastian laughed. "Well, I suppose I'll allow it, just this once. It's good to have the real you back, Claude."

XXX

"Good Morning, Sir. This morning's tea is green sencha."

Ciel sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. Something was wrong. Very wrong. "Sebastian?" he said blearily, "What's wrong with you? You know I don't drink green tea."

"I thought perhaps this morning you might like to try something different." Claude said, waving the cup under Ciel's nose.

Ciel glowered. "You're not my Sebastian." The young earl refused to take the teacup. "Where's Sebastian?"

Claude held one white gloved finger to his lips with a wicked grin. "He was very busy last night, so I thought I would take over his duties for the morning." The butler pulled a set of clothes for Ciel out of the wardrobe.

Ciel lifted the teacup from the silver tray on his bedside table and took a delicate sip. He winced, and set it back in the saucer with a click. "Absolutely not."

"Absolutely not what, Sir?"

"I will absolutely not allow you to dress me." Ciel picked up his eye patch and tied it around his head. "Please get Sebastian for me."

Claude nodded, and adjusted his glasses. "Very well, sir."

XXX

Sebastian awoke, instantly worried. He smelled something peculiar. It smelled like…cinnamon? He opened his eyes to find a tray of freshly made French toast and coffee sitting by the bed. Since nothing was burned, Sebastian could only assume it was Claude's handy work. The demon smiled, and dug into his breakfast. He hadn't had a morning this pleasant in a long time.

When he was halfway finished with the toast, the door opened to admit Claude, fully dressed, down to the white gloves. He adjusted his glasses.

Sebastian laughed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, Sebastian. I tried to take over your duties for the morning, but your young master did not take to it very well. He's asking for you."

Sebastian was out of bed and dressed in under five minutes. He nudged the plate in Claude's direction. "Here, finish the toast."

XXX

Alois Trancy hoped out of his carriage, and strode to the front door of the Phantomhive mansion. He knocked, and, as a nobleman, was admitted to the drawing room to await Ciel's attention.

Finnian knocked on Ciel's bedroom door just as Sebastian finished readying Ciel for the day.

"You have a visitor awaiting you in the drawing room, My Lord," he said.

"Who is it?" Ciel asked, checking Sebastian's work in the mirror.

"It's the Earl Trancy, Sir."

Ciel sighed, disappointed that his staff had, yet again, allowed an enemy into his house. "This wouldn't have happened if you and Claude hadn't been playing games this morning." Ciel was confident that his butler would have been able to turn the Trancy earl away without difficulty.

"Yes, My Lord." Sebastian said, slightly chagrinned. "The question now, is how does my Young Master indeed to deal with his guest."

"That depends," Ciel said, "on what you want to do about Claude."

((So. If Ciel takes off his eye patch when giving an order to Sebastian, what does Alois do when giving an order to Claude. Nothing, since the seal is on his tongue? Or does he have to stick out his tongue or something? And wouldn't that make speech rather difficult?))