A/N: Hi there! I'm doing my best to get these chapters on faster so wish me luck!
Ch.9
It was bright inside the room, decorated with so many things that Ciel would despise. I noticed that there was a girl in there, she was pretty, probably the same height as me, but she looked nothing like me. Her hair was blond, and her cheeks were rosy, she had the biggest and brightest smile on her face that I had ever seen.
"Huh? Who's this?" She asked looking in my direction.
"Crap! I think I'm in the front parlor aren't I?" I tried to open the door, but no matter how much I turned the knob it wouldn't budge.
Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap! I think that's Elizabeth!
Gynx jumped of my shoulder and scurried towards the blonde
"Crap! Gynx come back." I whispered to the mischievous kitten who didn't listen.
"Damn it of all the times!" I hissed under my breath.
The blond ran in my direction.
That's it I'm doomed. I'm dead, my life is over.
"What happened to your dress!?" The blonde said looking at me.
I looked at it too. It was fully covered in dust, and bits of dirt and grass.
"O-Oh I didn't even notice." I said, patting some of the dust off.
"I'm sorry for intruding I'll be on my way now." I said motioning for Gynx to return to my side.
"Huh? Why? No one said you were intruding, why don't you stay for the ball?" She said
"Ball?" I asked not knowing what she was talking about.
"Yeah this right here, I decorated it so that I could surprise Ciel. My name's Elizabeth, call me Lizzie." Elizabeth said.
"Oh yeah, Mey-Rin told me about you." I said.
"Yup! Now let's get you out of those dirty clothes." Elizabeth said grabbing me and pulling me towards another woman.
"This is Paula; she will be helping you for now. Paula, please get her nice and cute please." Elizabeth said.
Good lord, what's going to happen now?
Paula led me to the nearest guest room and ran a bath.
"I'll be back with some change of clothes, please relax." She said.
Well at least she's nice.
I managed to get all the dirt out of my hair and then realized that Gynx was missing.
"I shouldn't be too worried. He'll turn up." I got out of the bath and Paula was waiting there with a large variety of frilly dresses. I quickly covered the demon seal on my neck.
"U-Uh isn't there anything, less flashy?" I asked staring a pink dress was suffocating to just look at.
"Let me check.' she said leaving the room.
At times like this I really wish I had my normal clothes.
Paula came back with a short sleeved dress that was black with a blue lining.
"That's fine." I said and Paula put the dress down with the others.
"What are you doing?" I asked confused.
"We have to first put your corset on." She said looking through a drawer.
"C-Corset?!" I said scared when she took out what looked like a torture device.
"I-I'm fine really, j-just put the dress on, there isn't any need f-for that! I-It's not like this is an event for nobles!" I said backing away from her.
Some time passed afterwards, Paula managed to trap me in that damned corset and fitted it tightly. I could hardly walk, or even breathe; she helped me into the dress, and knee socks. She left my hair down, but took two pieces from each side and brought them to the back of my head. She placed a blue bow to keep them in place and trimmed my bangs a little to keep them from covering my eyes. Finally the torture was over and I slipped on some black shoes. I made sure she didn't get even a peek at the mark on my neck and I put on a choker so that no one would notice.
"My lady, wouldn't you like a simple necklace instead of the choker?" Paula asked holding up a beautiful blue pendant.
"N-No thank you, I think that this looks better. After all it is blue with black lace, I should be fine. Let's go, I don't want to keep Elizabeth waiting." I said trying to avoid the question.
We finally left the room and walked to the parlor. It was even more like hell than I'd ever imagine. It looked like a rainbow threw up sparkles.
"Oh my you look adorable!" Elizabeth said squeezing me in an unbreakable hug.
"T-Thanks Elizabeth." I said trying to breath.
"Please call me Lizzie, what's your name? I never got a chance to ask you." Elizabeth said.
"Oh yeah, it's Clarissa." I said trying to escape her hug.
She wasn't letting go any time soon.
"That's a lovely name." she said squeezing me tighter.
I can't breathe with this corset, let alone Elizabeth squeezing my lungs out! Someone stop her already!
She finally broke away and I bent slightly to catch my breath.
FINALLY!
"Oh Ciel isn't this lovely!" I heard Elizabeth say.
I looked up to see Ciel being glomped by Elizabeth the same way she did to me, but this time it looked like she were squeezing him twice as hard.
Poor him, oh well! At least that isn't me. I thought and chuckled.
"Clary? What are you doing here?" Ciel asked and broke away from Elizabeth with ease.
"I kind of, got caught up in this by accident." I said amazed at how effortless it was to break from Elizabeth's hold.
I heard a muffled sound from behind me and turned to look. It was Gynx, with a dark blue bow wrapped around his neck, and he was covered in colorful glitter.
"So this is where you were, being thrown up on by a rainbow?" I said picking up the kitten and patting some of the glitter off.
I turned back around when Elizabeth called my name.
"Come over here." She said.
I walked over to where they were and noticed that Derrick was waiting by the door.
"Hey Derrick, you're awake now." I said. He looked like he barely got up.
"Yeah, Sebastian over here made me look for you, I didn't know you were being held hostage." He said irritated.
"Well I wouldn't say hostage." I said in a light tone.
"Anyway, why don't we begin?" Elizabeth said dragging Ciel to the middle of the floor and danced to the music playing.
I just walked to where Derrick and Sebastian stood.
"So do you guys have any idea on what we are going to do tomorrow?" I muttered.
"Someone doesn't seem to happy now do they?" Derrick purred.
"I've been through more than you can imagine, so I suggest you stay quiet." I hissed back.
Sebastian chuckled lightly.
"Well aren't you two quite the pair now?" he murmured trying not to draw any attention to the three of us.
"Well, considering the Queen will be there, since Derrick is her nephew, she will want an explanation." Sebastian murmured again.
"You're her nephew?!" I hissed at Derrick.
"Yeah, yeah. I never told you for this reason anyway, what do we do?" Derrick mumbled back at the butler.
"You are going to have to act like Clarissa's guardian. Since you are her elder, at school I mean, just say that you were assigned to look after her. You didn't go to classes because you had to show her around and tutor her. You never went back home, because she didn't have a place to stay, so you took her in." Sebastian said the answers to any possible question that would have been asked.
My face started to get hot as I held back a blush.
Guardian, look after, took me in?
Everything just rushed over my head in an instant.
"Tch. Fine, it's not like I want to go back anyway, but don't you think that she would want to know where I was staying?" Derrick asked.
"Good idea, I think you should just say that you stay with Clarissa at the school." Sebastian said.
"Now for the ball tomorrow, you mustn't say a word to Elizabeth, understand?" Sebastian said, mainly focusing on me.
"Oh don't worry about that, I could hardly even speak with this corset on." I said.
"You do know how to dance right?" Sebastian asked Derrick.
"Yes of course I am the Queens nephew after all." He said.
"What about Miss Stonewell over there." Derrick said with a smirk, he knew that I was trying to avoid that question and shuddered when Sebastian asked Derrick first.
"U-Uh, I do, of course I do...No I don't." I muttered.
"Well this is a big problem, and you must keep your guard up as well, Mey-Rin and I will be training you once this is over, actually, we can start after this." Sebastian said with a smirk as he pushed me and Derrick toward the dance floor to join Ciel and Elizabeth.
"W-Wait! Sebastian! Damn it!" I said in a hushed tone.
"That damn bastard!" Derrick also said as he and I stumbled to the middle of the floor.
It was too late to retreat now. "I guess it can't be helped, shall we?" Derrick said with a sigh and extended a hand to me.
"I-I don't know how, trust me." I said.
"Don't you get it? He did this so you could learn how after you get the hang of it, we are going to do other training necessary." Derrick said.
I took his hand and he placed my other hand on his shoulder and put his hand on my waist.
I shuddered a bit then he whispered steps so that I followed. Luckily, I didn't step on his foot, but I tripped over my own the majority of the time. He seemed to catch me each time, and straightened my posture when it was wrong. He led very well and after a while I caught on, I think we were doing a classic waltz. Once the music ended, I was already tired, and my head spun a little.
"You can't possibly be tired, come on!" Derrick said.
"If you were wearing as tight a corset as me, you'd understand. Come one before another song starts." I said dragging him away from the dance floor.
"Quite splendid, you did much better than I imagined." Sebastian said.
"Now there should be some clothes in your room waiting for you, change into them, and both of you meet me in the study."
"What about Ciel?" I asked.
"Don't worry; I'm sure Lady Elizabeth will keep him busy." Sebastian said with a smirk as he led us out.
"Okay, I'll be back in a bit." I said as I ran toward the room.
Once I finally got there, I quickly changed out of the clothes I was wearing and picked up the ones that were left for me.
"Thank god Sebastian was the one to pick out the clothes." I said as I put on a t-shirt and pants.
I took of the bow from the back of my head and put my hair up in a pony-tail.
"Damn, since we have guests over, I can't have my seal showing." I quickly wrapped a bandage around my neck and slipped on some shoes.
Time to start training; I've got a long way ahead of me.
I ran into the hall and headed for the study. Derrick had been waiting at the end of the hallway; his facial expression looked annoyed, or agitated.
"Derrick, you okay?" I asked as I came closer to the demon.
"Here you forgot this." He said handing me Gynx.
"Oh woops, I guess he slipped my mind." I said grabbing the kitten from his grasp.
"You don't like cats very much do you?" I asked as we started walking to the study.
"I don't really care about animals, but no matter how much I tried to be friendly to that thing, it just growled and scratched me." Derrick said.
"Sorry about that, but it's not my fault that he doesn't like you, he seemed to get along very well with others." I said lifting the kitten to my shoulder, and he wrapped around my neck, scratching at the bandage.
We finally got to the study where Sebastian had waited for us.
"Good to see you here, now let's go." He said coming out of the room.
"We shall be training in the lower rooms you visited earlier." Sebastian said to me directly.
"Oh you knew I was looking around huh?" I asked.
"Don't worry I didn't do anything wrong on my little adventure earlier." I said making sure I hadn't done anything to upset the demon butler.
"Oh I know you didn't, I was just making sure you didn't get hurt." Sebastian said with a smile.
"So why do you need me here?" Derrick asked irritated.
"Even though you may be a demon, you need to train as well, last time you didn't hold up for too long in our fight." Sebastian said smirking at Derrick.
"Well it was kind of a surprise to me to you know." Derrick hissed.
Gynx purred softly then jumped from my shoulder to Derrick.
"Hey get this thing off me!" Derrick yelled trying to shoo away the kitten.
Gynx hissed and then bit at his shoulder.
"Maybe he doesn't like you because you throw a fit whenever he gets near you!" I said prying Gynx of his shoulder.
"I didn't know that you were so good with animals." Sebastian said his face lighting up.
"Oh that's right you like cats don't you Sebastian?" I asked handing Gynx to the butler.
He took the cat in his arms without a second thought.
"Ah, here we are." Sebastian said as we were in the familiar hallway.
"Clarissa, you will start off with Mey-Rin in this room." Sebastian said opening one of the doors.
"Derrick, you will be training with Finnian in the last door on the right side of the hall." Sebastian said stroking the Gynx's fur.
"Wait, I know Finny is strong and all, but don't you think it'd be better if you trained with him?" I asked.
"Also, why am I training with Mey-Rin?" I said confused about the whole idea.
"Don't worry; the Phantomhive servants are very, capable. But I will take one of your suggestions to consideration. Derrick if you'd follow me please." Sebastian said leading Derrick to one of the rooms.
Naturally I went into the room that I was directed to and waited for instructions. The room was a lot bigger than it appeared on the outside, and it was filled with guns, bullets, and targets.
"U-Uh I can see where Ciel spends his free time." There was a knock at the door.
"It's Mey-Rin, Clary, are you there?" Mey-Rin asked.
"Yeah, I'm in here." I replied.
The maid came in and closed the door.
"Alright, it's time to start." She said taking of her glasses and revealing dark brown eyes.
Her eyes looked as if she were ready to kill, she grabbed to pistols from the wall and handed me some earplugs.
"Pay close attention." she said tossing me one of the pistols.
I caught the pistol with ease, but there was a pit in my stomach as I did.
"U-Uh, are you, uh sure?" I asked trying to hold the object.
Mey-Rin said nothing; she just fixed my grasp on the pistol and pushed me forward to one of the targets.
"Try shooting at the chest target first." Mey-Rin said shooting three times and hitting the target perfectly.
I stared in awe for a moment, but snapped back into reality when Mey-Rin called my name.
"Just relax, and shoot." She reminded me as I went into position. I took a deep breath and fired my first bullet, just as I expected, it missed completely.
"I knew I wouldn't be able to shoot as well as you." I muttered.
"It's alright, the faster we keep going the more practice you'll get." She said.
"Okay." I murmured under my breath.
I shot again, and this time it hit a lot closer to the target. Not exactly on the spot, but very close.
"Good, try it a few more times until you get three in a row, once that's done, we will move on to many other things." Mey-Rin said patting my shoulder.
I fired another shot, and hit it perfectly.
"Yes!" I whispered to myself as I fired another shot.
Once again it hit the target,
Yes! Looks like I'm not that bad after all!
"Just one more right?" I asked Mey-Rin who reluctantly nodded back at me.
I fired another shot, which missed. My mouth hung open in disbelief.
"I-I was so close. D-Do I have to start over?"
I asked with a weak grin on my face.
"Yep." Mey-Rin said.
"R-Right." I said with a sigh.
Demon training:
Down the hall was another story…
"Damn you!" Derrick screamed at Sebastian who didn't look like he was breaking a sweat.
"Tired already? We barely started." Sebastian teased.
"Barely starting?! We've been at this for 30 minutes already!" Derrick hissed.
Sebastian threw a few knives at Derrick, and Derrick managed to dodge each one. Derrick lunged for Sebastian, who moved with little effort, causing Derrick to hit the wall with an abundance of force.
"Bastard." Derrick hissed and winced at the sudden pain.
"Come on, you can at least control your speed." Sebastian said smirking in amusement.
"Maybe we should stop here; after all, I was just playing." Sebastian said.
"W-What? You had no intention in training me in the first place?!" Derrick yelled in fury at Sebastian.
"Of course not, you are a strong fighter, and your defense is high as well. What else did you think you needed help on, besides working with people, that is?" Sebastian said with a smile.
"You've got to be kidding me." Derrick muttered.
"It's about time for Clarissa to be done with one part of her training, time to go help her with part two." Sebastian said picking up Gynx who had been quietly sitting in the corner.
"Part two of what?" Derrick asked.
"Part two of her training, unlike you; she does need to improve on a lot. Mainly on the amount of force she puts into physical attacks, which is basically all she really needs just to be on the safe side." Sebastian said.
"Do you really think that there will be any problems while we are there? I mean yes it's the Queen, but if she is going to meet some girl then I'm sure there isn't any threat." Derrick said.
"You can never be too sure, and this isn't just some girl we are talking about." Sebastian said smirking as he began to set things up in the room."
"What are those for?" Derrick asked pointing at the chains.
"You'll find out soon enough." Sebastian whispered.
Meanwhile:
"That is the end of this course." Mey-Rin said grinning.
"You did a remarkable job at this, your accuracy is striking, and your speed is stunningly fast." Mey-Rin said.
"Thanks!" I replied with joy.
"That's it right?" I asked hoping that I'd be able to sleep.
"Nope, please go into the next room on the left, and Sebastian should be waiting." She said.
"O-Okay." I said depressed as I slowly left the room.
What more do I have to do?! It was hard enough to shoot at targets, not to mention some were moving!
I went into the room to see Sebastian and Derrick waiting there.
"Good to see you, how was your first set of training?" Sebastian asked.
"Set? You mean there is more?!" I asked outraged at the amount of prep I was going to get.
"Remember this is just a ball we're going to!" I yelled exhausted from shooting a gun and having to dance in a killer corset.
"Yes, yes, I know this is a lot, but it is necessary for you since you are going to help with these cases once we get approval from the Queen. After all she wants to meet you personally, so she must have some interest in you. Now then step over here please." Sebastian said motioning toward a table.
"Wrap these bandages around your hands tightly." he instructed.
I wrapped the bandages and waited for further instructions.
"Now, you see this here? I want you to hit it as hard as you can." Sebastian said pointing at the cylinder-shaped sandbag hanging from a chain.
I burst out in laughter once I saw it.
"What's so funny?" Derrick asked then froze in his tracks.
"What the hell-Sebastian what kind of joke is that?!" Derrick said pointing at the face drawn on the bag.
"Care to explain why my face is on that!?" He yelled outraged at the demon butler who just giggled in amusement.
"Well I had to have a little fun." Sebastian said.
"I'm fine with that." I said laughing as I started to punch the bag.
"See, it helps the training doesn't it?" Sebastian said to Derrick who just threw a round sandbag at him.
"Hey Derrick! I don't mind you trying to kill Sebastian, but don't hurt Gynx!" I yelled and Derrick dropped the sandbag he was about to throw.
"Damn cat." Derrick muttered.
Sebastian grinned, still holding Gynx. I kept lashing out at my target, but I just didn't know what I was trying to accomplish.
"Hey Sebastian, what's the point of this?" I asked still hitting it.
"The point of it is to land enough blows to knock it down." Sebastian said.
"You don't have to though-"
Derrick quickly interrupted.
"Hah! You actually think she can handle that? I bet she couldn't even put a dent in it." Derrick said laughing.
"You better shut the hell up before I go over there and do it for you." I hissed glaring at Derrick who took my words in consideration and stopped talking.
I looked at the bag and saw Derrick's face and started to land blows that I couldn't imagine doing. I realized why Sebastian put Derrick's face on it; he knew I'd get mad at him sooner or later. I threw punches and started to kick as well. It seemed like at least half an hour until the bag fell with a loud thump to the floor.
"H-How's that?" I asked catching my breath.
Sweat dripped from my forehead and my face felt hot.
I think I might've overworked myself just a little.
"Is that it for training?" I asked Sebastian who just stared in disbelief, Derrick handed him a five dollar bill and snapped him back into reality.
I hung my head down and started to shake.
"Hey, you alright?" Derrick asked standing up.
"You, were betting on whether I knocked it down or not? So, looks like you lost huh?" I said picking my head back up and gave him a look that could murder puppies.
"I will promise, that you two, are going to live through hell tonight." I said again trembling with rage.
"Maybe I'll spare Sebastian, but that doesn't mean Ciel can't do his own punishments. Derrick, when you sleep, do you have nightmares?" I asked grinning slightly.
"N-No why?" He asked backing away slightly.
"Looks like you won't be sleeping well after I'm done with you." I said as I ran as quickly as I could and landed a blow to his face knocking him back to the wall.
"Alright, that sums it up for training." Sebastian said opening the door and letting me out first.
"Looks like you have quite the mistress now don't you?" Sebastian asked Derrick who had gotten up and wiped the blood of his cheek.
'This isn't my blood.' He thought.
"Shut up already!" Derrick said leaving the room.
"That bastard! I swear I will make him pay." I muttered under my breath trying not to attract any attention.
My hand throbbed from hitting Derrick; I was surprised I even knocked him back. He wasn't the kind of person to be easily struck like that, I must've caught him off guard, and even Sebastian was surprised. Tears formed in my eyes and ran down my cheeks as I slid by the room where Ciel was probably being tortured by Elizabeth. It was pretty quiet in there, but I decided not to look, I felt horrible as it is. I felt something drip from my hand and noticed my hand was bleeding.
"When did that happen?"
I knew I shouldn't have hit him. Now look where it's gotten me, why am I even crying though, I should've known that he wouldn't think I could do it, but I didn't think he'd bet money.
"That damn bastard!" I said slamming my bloody fist on the wall.
The tears dripping down my face fell in streams, and my hand hurt like hell. I heard someone move from inside the walls.
Oh crap!
The door opened and Ciel came out.
"Clary? What's the matter?" He asked and I just face away from him.
"It's nothing, I-" I started trying to hide the fact that I was crying.
"I was just, training a bit." I finished then started to walk past him hanging my head low.
As I walked past him he quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw him staring at my hand that was bleeding.
"That doesn't seem like nothing's wrong." He said in a flat voice.
"It's nothing, I just trained too hard" I started to choke on the tears.
"I-I'll see you tomorrow morning alright. I just want to be alone." I said before running off.
Ciel said nothing and I didn't look back. After running for what seemed like ages, I made my way through the hall, only to be knocked down by something.
"Ow, hey you alright?" Derrick said.
I said nothing; I just stared at him, while the tears rolled down.
"Why are you here." I asked though it came out as a demand.
"I knew you were hurt, and I'm sorry for what I did. At first it was just a joke between me and Sebastian. I didn't mean to hurt you." I still sat there and Derrick came closer.
"Clary, I'm sorry." he said hugging me.
I felt the warmth of his embrace and hugged him back, my tears fell on his shoulder, and soon enough I stopped crying. He picked me up from the ground and took me to my room. Once we were in there he placed me on the bed. He looked through the cabinet to find a first aid kit to use for my hand.
"You're really reckless you know." he said cleaning the wound.
I winced at the pain, the cold liquid he used stung, and the gauze he wrapped around it was itchy.
"I don't want to wear this." I said looking at my hand.
"Too bad it's for your own good." Derrick said putting the first aid kit away.
Derrick opened the door and was about to leave.
"Wait." I said.
"Stay here, until I fall asleep." I said facing the other direction.
"Such a child." he said teasing.
He closed the door and moved a chair next to the bed.
"Anything else you want." he asked.
"Yeah, sing me something." I said my voice filled with amusement.
"W-What?!" he asked almost jumping out of his chair.
"I still need to punish you remember? This is all I can think of at the moment." I said turning to him and smirking.
"Fine." Derrick started to sing a classic lullaby, before he even finished I had fallen asleep.
His voice was beautiful, but what surprised me was when I woke up the next day, he was asleep on the chair next to my bed.
Hope you guys like it! I'm going to be working on the next chapters as fast as I can and get them to you! ((I'm getting little sleep as it is but if there are people out there who actually find interest in my weird story then I will work my ass off to please them X3))