I have totally forgot the disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji or its characters. Yana Toboso owns everything.
A Cagebird out in the Big Wide World
Chapter 3
Baldroy yawned as he got up in his bed. He was getting used by the schedule of the manor little by little, which was good for him because the chef didn't want to make Sebastian mad again. Baldroy rose up from his bed and changed his nightclothes to workwears. Then he went to next to the another bed where the boy was still sleeping.
Baldroy had heard last night that the young master had offered a job as a gardener to the boy. Baldroy doubted that the boy knew anything about gardening but because Baldroy himself didn't know much about cooking, he didn't say anything.
Baldroy shook carefully boy's shoulder. "Wake up, kid. We should go to eat breakfast."
The boy whined and opened his eyes a little bit.
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Baldroy asked.
The boy didn't answer which didn't surprise Baldroy. Althought the boy had been in the manor already five days, he still didn't speak much. Baldroy walked to the door of their bedroom and wait that the boy would get up and follow him in the kitchen. Instead of getting up the boy had begun touching his head.
"Ummm... What's wrong?" Baldroy asked with confusion.
The boy stared at the older man. "My head feels funny..."
"What?" Baldroy asked. "Is something wrong with your head?"
"Feels funny..." the boy repeated.
Baldroy looked irresolute for a while, then he sat on the boy's bed. "Where does your head feels 'funny'?" he asked.
The boy placed his hand on his head. "There."
Baldroy reached out slowly his hand so the boy wouldn't get scared and caressed boy's head. Soon the chef believed that he had found out the reason of boy's confusion.
"You have already got some hairs," Baldroy explained.
The boy stared at him in confusion. "Hairs?"
"Yes, yes. These here," Baldroy explained while combing his own hairs with his fingers.
"I'm... not sick or anything else...?" the boy asked unsurely.
"Of course not, idiot," Baldroy said with slight amusement in his tone. "Hairs have never killed anybody."
"Oh..." the boy said while touching his head again.
"Looks like you're going to have a nice color in your hairs," Baldroy told him friendly.
"Really?" the boy asked.
Baldroy nodded and got up.
"We should go to eat breakfast or I will get scolding from Sebastian," Baldroy explained to the boy, walked back to the door and stood there waiting the boy getting up who was still caressing his newly grown hairs.
Finally the boy got up and followed the chef into the kitchen where Mey-Rin and Tanaka were already.
"I heard that you are going to become the gardener of the manor," Mey-Rin said to the boy when they were sitting at the table.
"Yes..." the boy answered and bit a piece of bread.
"Do you know anything about gardening?" Mey-Rin asked friendly.
The boy turned silent and didn't say for a while until he admitted: "No..."
"Mr. Sebastian anticipated that," Mey-Rin said with smile.
Baldroy and Tanaka shared questioning gazes while Mey-Rin brought out a thick book.
"Mr. Sebastian asked me to give this book to you so you would understand what is required of you as the gardener," Mey-Rin told to the boy as she gave the book to him.
The boy took the book carefully and stared at the cover quietly.
Later when the servants of Phantomhive were doing their duties, the boy was sitting on his bed and browsing the book's pages. He stopped browsing when he heard somebody knocking the bedroom's door.
Sebastian entered the room.
"Good morning," Sebastian greeted the boy. "I heard that you're exploring the book I recommended. What do you think about it?"
The boy glanced at the book's spread with unsure gaze. "N-nice pictures..."
"That's all?" Sebastian asked with an kocked eyebrown.
The boy nodded timidly.
Sebastian looked thoughtful. Then he grabbed the book from boy's hands, browsed it for a moment and then the butler showed to the boy a picture of lily flower which name was written next to the picture.
"What flower is this?" Sebastian asked while pointing the flower's picture.
The boy stared at the picture but said nothing. The boy's face was expressionless but his eyes told that he was afraid.
"You can't read, can you?" Sebastian inquired.
The boy shook his head.
"Well, I'm not surprised actually," Sebastian sighed. He gave the book back to the boy. "Just continue watching pictures. But when you've officially named as the gardener and the servant of manor, I will teach you read and write. Those things belongs to basics that the servants of the Phantomhive manor must know."
After saying this Sebastian left the room, leaving the boy alone with the book. The boy looked at the pictures of book, got up from the bed, walked to the room's window and watched out with thoughtful expression.
Sebastian took the boy in the library room where Ciel Phantomhive was waiting for them.
"Well," Ciel said to the boy standing in front of him. "Have you made your decision? Will you become my gardener?"
The boy was quiet for a while until he answered quietly: "Yes..."
"In that case," Ciel said while giving a small smile to the boy, "I'll give you a name." *
The month had already passed since the boy had arrived in the manor.
After Ciel had given the boy name Finnian, the boy had finally given up from expressionlessness and ventured to show his feelings. Thereby Finnian had become curious and cheerful, though childish, person.
Actually childishness didn't hamper anybody. Baldroy, Mey-Rin and Tanaka were just happy that somebody brought some vivacity in the manor. The only problem was actually Finnian's unbelievable strenght. Finnian either snap trees in the garden or broke the manor's movables at least twice in week, not to mention that he had a bad habit to destroy the whole garden. Always when Finnian had done something like that, he begged forgiviness while crying flowingly like a little kid.
In spite of the boy's cheerful nature, the other servants noticed that Finnian looked sad sometimes. The taattoo which was a reminder of boy's past was now covered under the straw hat which Finnian had got from his current master. But if somebody asked reasons of Finnian's sadness, he just smiled quickly and said that everything was alright.
Finally the truth of Finnian's past was revealed to other servants of the manor.
Baldroy woke suddenly up in the middle of night when he heard something. His hand reached under his pillow where the chef had a hand gun for case of emergencies while he scanned the dark room with his gaze. There wasn't anybody like intruder in the room but Finnian's bed was empty and the door of the room was open a little bit. Baldroy knitted his eyebrows together and got up from his bed.
He walked to the door and peeked out of the room. The chef flinched when he noticed that somebody was sneaking down the stairs. The person couldn't be Sebastian because the sneaking person was too short. Baldroy left his room and sneaked in the hall to see the person better. Chef's sneaking was interrupted when he heard a silent voice.
"Baldroy."
Baldroy turned quickly but luckily he didn't shoot because Mey-Rin was standing behind him.
"Mey-Rin, did you see that guy?" Baldroy asked quietly while he gestured towards the stairs.
Mey-Rin nodded. "It was Finnian. I saw him when he sneaked past my room. Why is he awake this time of night?"
Baldroy looked little bit worried. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I think it's better to solve."
They sneaked as quickly and quietly as possible after the boy but they stopped when Finnian disappeared out of the back door. Baldroy and Mey-Rin shared glances before they followed the boy out.
They looked around in the nightly garden but they didn't see Finnian anywhere. Suddenly Mey-Rin flinched and whispered to Baldroy: "Did you hear that?"
Baldroy looked around and shook his head.
Mey-Rin started sneak and she motioned Baldroy to follow her.
They stopped to the garden's hedgerow and then Baldroy heard something: sobbing. Baldroy and Mey-Rin peeked over the hedge and they saw Finnian hugging his legs against his chest and crying.
"Finny? Why are you crying?" Baldroy asked with worried tone. Finnian flinched and turned to face the chef and the maid who approached him.
"W-what? M-Mr. Baldroy... and Miss Mey-Rin? Crying? I-I'm not crying...!" Finnian protested while quickly drying his tears.
"Yes, you were crying," Baldroy stated as he sat down next to the boy. "Why?"
The boy didn't answer, instead he lowered his gaze on the grass.
Mey-Rin sat next to them. "If you have worries, you will tell about them to us," she said gently. "Maybe we can help you somehow."
It was clear that Finnian tried to hold his tears back but he failed and started to cry again.
"Listen. Whatever is your problem, you can tell about it to us. We promise not to tell anybody," Baldroy promised and glanced at Mey-Rin who nodded.
Finnian swallowed and stared the duo for a while. Finally he sniffed and began to tell.
"I-I was in the l-laboratory... with others... Doctors gave us ma-many injections and f-forced us in tests... I got my strenght from there... I-it was horrible! We were hold together in the dark room b-but... if we survived for injections and tests, we were placed in the different room than other children. T-then we got more injections... More tests... More pain...!"
At this point Finnian held his head and sobbed louder.
Baldroy and Mey-Rin glanced at each other with worry and tried to say something comforting to the boy. Then Baldroy remembered something what Sebastian had told him after Finnian had arrived first time in the manor.
"Finnian," Baldroy said carefully. "After you came here, Sebastian told me that you had to kill people after they tried kill you... What happened?"
Finnian said nothing. His whole body shook with sobs and tears streamed down his face.
"Here," Mey-Rin gave her handkerchief to Finnian. "Dry your tears and blow your nose in this. It should ease."
Finnian took the handkerchief and blowed. When he had calmed down little bit, he drew deeply his breath and continued telling.
"I-I don't k-know why... Before I met Mister Sebastian and young master Ciel... The doctor came... He... He...!" Finnian buried his face in his hands and managed somehow continue: "He killed my friends... I... I... I killed him. I killed everybody! I didn't want to but I couldn't control myself that time, I swear! Please don't hurt me!" Finnian curled up like protecting himself from beating.
But there wasn't any beating incoming.
"Finny," Mey-Rin said gently.
Finnian glanced at Baldroy and Mey-Rin with teary eyes behind his arms. For his surprise there wasn't fear nor hatred in their eyes but more like... sadness.
"Listen. We understand well why you went crazy like that. Anybody would be ready to avenge for their friends," Baldroy said while placing carefully his hand on the boy's shoulder.
Finnian stared two older person with confusion. "Aren't you... Aren't you going to kill me?"
Baldroy shook his head. "We all have our mistakes in our past. I'm an ex-soldier and Mey-Rin was a sniper before coming here. But we got a new chance to our lifes when we were hired here."
"A new chance...?" Finnian asked while he rubbed his eyes.
"That's right," said somebody behind of them.
All three turned to face the source of the voice. To their surprise they noticed Tanaka standing there.
"You all are hired in the Phantomhive's manor because you can do something that's useful to protect the manor and our young master. When you protect the manor and the young master, you simultaneously protect the place you can call as your home," Tanaka said with gentle smile.
Baldroy, Mey-Rin and Finnian glanced at each others.
"He's right," Mey-Rin admitted.
"We got a roof over our heads and we have jobs which we get our livelihood," Baldroy said while scratching the back of his neck.
Finnian stared at them without knowing what to say first. Finally he managed to say: "I-I want to do my best for the young master because he... was nice to us."
"That's the ticket," Baldroy said and reached his hand to Finnian.
Finnian grabbed his hand and let the chef pull him up.
"Very well. Now we have solved the situation, we should go back to sleep. Too much sleeplessness is harmful for health and young master Ciel doesn't like if there is too loud at night. And we all have works to do tomorrow," Tanaka reminded.
All of them agreed, so they went back in the manor to continue their sleep.
Sebastian, who had observed the whole situation without other servants knowing, stood at upstairs window. He smiled slightly before closing the window's curtains.
The End
I know that I set this story before Finnian became the gardener of the manor but I wanted also write how other servants got to know Finnian's past.
I think that the end was little bit rushed but it's finished now. All honest reviews are welcome.
*A's note: If you have read the Kuroshitsuji manga's chapter 100, you know what happened.