Hello people! I couldn't update because of school. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, I decided to use one of the suggestions made by a reader. I will sort of base my future chapters more on the Public School arc... By which, I mean that I'll include Macmillan. So... Oh, yeah. Uh, I hope you don't mind me adding Elias. He's Ciel's betrothed, but I'm still including Lizzy. She'll just be on the side lines... Elias and Elizabeth are twins. I need a guy Lizzy, but a guy screaming about pink sparkly stuff isn't really nice. I even considered making Elias obsess over something else, but I wanted him to have Lizzy's badass side. So, Elias is the guy version of badass Lizzy while Lizzy's just there screaming about making things cute and complaining about the fact that Ciel wants to live as a male.
I know that I said I'd make my chapters up to date with the manga, and my sources tell me that the new chapter is already out, but I don't have a copy of the English translation. Yeah. Sorry.
A few days later, the bleeding had stopped, and Ciel was able to move around properly. She sighed in relief, then realized that, according to Mei Rin, it would happen every month. In frustration, she sat back heavily in her chair.
Could I have it taken off?
Shaking her head, she decided she just needed some fresh air. The Queen seemed to be preoccupied with Sullivan's arrival, and hadn't sent her 'cute little boy' (for the sake of both humiliating and protecting Ciel) any love letters aside from the most recent, the one about the Sphere Concert Hall.
Of course, there was still the matter as to where the twins could possibly be...
"Sebastian, we're going out." She abruptly stood and moved towards the door of her study.
Sebastian, who was now back at her side (at least, until a month passed), followed her to her sleeping quarters. "Where to, my Lord?"
"Nowhere in particular. Maybe Wrest Park."
"Certainly. Would you like to wear a summer dress, then?" Sebastian teased.
Glaring to hide the slight blush that graced her face, Ciel turned her head up. "You know I'd wear nothing of the sort, Sebastian! Don't put words in my mouth!"
She unshamedly slipped out of her nightgown, standing naked. Such trifles bothered her not for, after all, Sebastian was a demon and had no sexual obligations towards a human like her. Her mind wandered to the comment he made about the dress.
The thing was, she did own a summer dress, but it was saved for missions where she would have to act like her real gender. Sebastian merely put on that smug grin of his, leading Ciel to tut in distaste.
He finished dressing her, and they headed out, with no particular purpose. At the park, Ciel sat on one of the stone benches and watched with no obvious emotion the families and kids running around, laughing, happy, together, loved, unashamed, innocent, naive, beautiful, pure, white, unscathed, I hate them, I hate them, all I want is to kill you, you pathetic excuses for -
"Young Master." Sebastian's voice jolted her back. She looked down at her hands and unclenched them slowly from where they were gripping her walking stick. She heaved so as to calm herself, breathing in every scent: the fresh pastries, the perfume of the flowers…
She opened her eyes. There was a quite familiar young boy in front of her. She had a strong impression that she knew him from before. The round glasses, slightly messy hair… However, he was looking at her so strangely that Ciel felt extremely compelled to lash out and demand what business he had looking at her like that. Suddenly, his freckled face broke out into a grin.
"Ciel? Ciel Phantomhive? Is that you?"
Do I know him?
"It's me, Macmillan. Don't you remember me? From Weston College?" the boy who called himself Macmillan blushed and hesitated, wondering if this glaring youth was truly the Ciel he knew.
In an instant, recognition sparked in her eyes. "Ah! Macmillan! It's really grand to see you again! What are you doing here?"
"Ciel, um, I really need to talk with you…" He didn't say it, but Ciel thought she heard the word alone in his sentence.
Instinctively narrowing her eyes, she waved Sebastian away with the flick of her wrist, and patted the space next to her on the stone bench for Macmillan to sit. He looks quite nervous… I wonder what's wrong… why's he here, anyway? I thought they had school.
"So? What did you want to talk about?" Ciel forced a slight smile on her face, to help Macmillan relax. It seemed to work as his shoulders relaxed and he leaned back into the bench.
"Um, it's our summer break, so I was just visiting, and strolling along, and I just saw you here…" The boy looked down, a blush forming on his face.
Ah, so that's why… But he seems like he's lying.
She sighed. "Macmillan, you can just say it. I'm your best friend, aren't I?"
He jumped a bit at her voice. "I actually have some things to ask. Like why the prefects, vice principal, and principal suddenly disappeared… the same time you did. And, um, why a girl would go to an all boys' school."
Her eyes widened slightly. So they did connect the disappearances… well, of course, but how in the world did Macmillan realize she was a girl? Ciel thought that she had hidden it quite well. Perhaps it was his observation skills?
"What are you talking about? I had nothing to do with the prefects being kicked out, nor am I a girl. In fact, it offends me that you'd think I'm female! Who in the blazes had given you such an idea?"
Macmillan bit his lip. "I saw you. The dead who were suddenly alive, like those students and the vice principal, the principal and his scythe, you, with your gun."
She was honestly panicking right now. Given what he saw, and what he might have gleaned from it, she might have to kill him. She would do anything to get her way, after all, wouldn't she? But as much as she wanted revenge, she couldn't convince the little part of her that still held the right morals that not killing him was a weakness, and could prove to be her downfall. She felt this inside only. These were the kinds of thoughts that she kept covert. On the outside, though, she looked at the boy with an emotionless gaze. Sighing, she stood up, and held out her hand. "If you really want to know the truth, you'll have to come with me."
He blinked and stared at her gloved hand. She's a girl. Definitely. Smiling awkwardly, he took Ciel's hand and let her help him up.
Back at her manor, in her study, Ciel ordered Sebastian to fetch them some tea (with the simply hidden underlying order not to disturb them) and sat on her chair heavily. She already had so much on her mind. First was Elizabeth's then Elias' disappearance, and now Macmillan, who was suspicious of the truth.
Ciel folded her hands and leaned forward, putting her weight on her arms which were on the table. "I'd like you to tell me first off what all that you saw that night made you think. No, wait, tell me why you even followed me to the midnight tea party in the first place. And be blunt about it."
Nervously fiddling with the brim of his hat, Macmillan managed to make his vocal chords work. He decided he disn't particularly like this side of Ciel. "Um, actually, I followed you because I was a bit worried that you might get in trouble… it was a bad feeling I had, and I was acting on the assumption that you really were a girl. I mean, if I'm wrong, please don't get offended, I was - "
At this point, Ciel interrupted, slightly irritated that these explanations would have to be longer than she originally planned. "Okay, fine. I'll come off it and admit it now, alright? I'm female. That doesn't matter. But when, exactly, did you start being suspicious?"
Here, Macmillan blushed profusely. He couldn't think about it, not when the very person was sitting right across him! "You were really shy the first day we had to bathe and I was really curious because you had all these bandages wrapped around your chest, and someone else noticed it and spread around, then they dared me to go and see what kinds of wounds you'd be hiding, so I - I - I… peeked."
When his words had fully hit her, Ciel blushed as red as a tomato. She leaped from her chair and pointed her finger accusingly at Macmillan. "So you knew all that, but you still lay down with me in my bed?!"
As impossible as it seemed, Macmillan's face seemed to darken an extra shade of red. "I didn't see everything, okay? Even to other males I wouldn't even - "
"And yet the fact remains! Did you think you could do something to me whilst I was asleep?"
"It was a test, I swear! I thought that if you really were a girl, you would blush and turn me down! Why did you even let me sleep with you if you know that you're a girl? I thought I was mistaken, okay? Who would've thought that a female would allow someone other than her fiance to sleep with her?"
Ciel gritted her teeth, still blushing. "It was precisely because I keep up the facade that I was a male that I allowed you to sleep with me!"
They both went silent for a while. Ciel glared passionately at the short sighted youth in an unwavering stare, whilst Macmillan's eyes flitted everywhere, tracing the sides of her face, taking in the smooth paleness of her hands, and even lingering a few seconds on her chest, meeting everything but the dark blue eye that saw through him.
Sebastian took that exact moment to come in, wheeling his silver cart upon which rested a china tea set. Ciel wordlessly sat back down and accepted the steaming hot cup of tea that Sebastian gave her. She sputtered suddenly, realizing that Sebastian replaced her beloved strong tea with a weaker one. Serving their guest, the butler allowed himself to smirk in such a way that only Ciel saw.
"You damn bastard," she muttered over her cup. She really needed a dose of caffiene.
"Macmillan, something tells me that you didn't come here just to admit that you peeked at me." Ciel studied the chess board in front of her. Ciel had requested, although it sounded like an order to him, that Macmillan stay for dinner. Being the impatient person as she was, Ciel set out a game of chess to keep them occupied while they waited.
Macmillan silently watched Ciel move a knight.
"Well? I think I can tell that you came here with a purpose other than admitting that."
He lowered his head. "Actually, I came here with information on the Sphere Concert Hall. I was invited to the Hall last Saturday by Bluer, and I noticed something... amiss about the place. There's this bloke taking fortunes... And I saw someone who looked almost exactly like the girl you danced with on that night disappear with him behind a curtain. I - I don't know what happened after that."
Ciel's eyes widened. "Elias!"
Wow. Now that I think of it, Macmillan's character seems a bit off.
This is a filler. I am still waiting for the translations. Please, bear with me. But I find it a bit necessary to introduce Macmillan into this story. So. Please. Review. Read. Something. Yes. Thanks.
-sentimentalcausetranslationsain'toutyet