Warnings:
-This fic is rated M for a reason. There will be boyxboy, violence, language. Please stop reading if you are not comfortable with this.
- Neither Batman nor Kuroshitsuji belong to me.
Thank you
Lucius made one more circle around the conference room. He had come in early to make certain that everything was ready for today. Sure he had a staff for the building that should have prepared everything but it calmed his anxiety to see the preparations beforehand. The office was clean, the lights weren't too bright or too low, but spread soft light throughout the office. The table was oval, two spots were accentuated in the curves, one spot would be his, the other for Dante's CEO. An outline of today's meeting sat in crisp folders at each spot along with a glass for water and a tea cup upside down on its saucer. It all seemed fine.
He looked down at his wrist watch. It was a simple one, not showy like the ones Bruce wore, but he still considered himself a simple man even if he had to leave the building in a bullet proof glass car. 15 minutes till. A few members representing the stock interest in the company came in along with a few committee members and greeted him before taking they're seat. Bruce said he would be here; this was half his party, he better show up. He was standing by the door and he turned to look around the room. They were only missing a few people, aside from Dante Tech.'s people. They would arrive 10 minutes after in order to stagger this event so everything would be set up before they arrived. He turned back to the entrance shaking the hands of a few other people as they walked in. He looked back toward the hallway everyone was entering by and had the privilege of watching Bruce walk swiftly down the hallway, heading towards him. His eyes caught Lucius's and he sped up, if that was possible, coming straight for him.
"Lucius." Bruce reached for his hand and shook it.
"Mr. Wayne, I'm glad you made it. You were almost late."
"Lucius, listen, I met Dante Tech's CEO last night." Bruce hadn't let go of his hand and instead had used it to almost pull him closer to talk to him.
"Really? That's great, how was the party?"
"It was good, NO, that's not important, you need to know something about the CEO."
"What would that be? You didn't charm him?"
"No, NO, listen to me," he leaned in to whisper. "He's not what'd you'd expect. We have to proceed with this deal carefully."
"Do we need to pull out of the deal?"
"No, NO." Bruce took a step back and let go of his hand. Taking in a deep breath calming down, he was getting a little excited. He looked towards the members, most were trying not to look like they were paying attention, but they were. "I still want to continue with the deal." He was still whispering. "It will go through as planned, however . . . ," he edged forward and looked him straight in the eye. "I know you Lucius, you have more than one proposition planned and you'll choose which one to do once you meet the CEO and gauge his character."
"You have been paying attention, Bruce."
"Listen to me please, I talked to him last night. He's unpredictable and you can't base anything in this meeting on first oppressions. I couldn't read him last night. He's not dangerous, at least I don't think so. I looked all night and I couldn't find anything on him personally, and anything that has to do with the company is open to the public, too open."
"I thought you looked worn out."
"Lucius please!" Bruce frowned, and let his usual pretentious attitude drop for a minute. This was the real Bruce talking to him not some other personality he showed outwardly to hide his true self. It was unsettling to see, something was wrong. "I know you'll go one of two ways in this. Please take the more cautious. This guy is smart, if we aren't careful, we'll give him exactly what he wants without knowing it. He already got me to play right into his hands and I didn't even see it coming. Please be careful, take every precaution you can in this deal. He wants to work with our company, a lot. Use that as leverage to put up as many safeguards on his imports that you can."
"Alright Bruce I'll try. But if this goes bad, I'm dropping everything."
"You are in charge, just remember what I said."
He nodded, and watched as Bruce went and sat next to his chair. He pushed it away from the table. There weren't any shadows in the room, but Bruce sat in the one spot that was less conspicuous then all the others. It was almost instinct for the man to find spots that hid him, it was rather funny to watch. He turned toward the room and looked over the people sitting there, looking at him expectantly. He normally didn't do this but Bruce's warning changed his plans.
"Gentlemen, today we are meeting with the CEO of a very promising arms manufacturer. Joining with this company could offer us many possibilities and opportunities in the future." He looked around the room, no one seemed to disagree with the generic positive statement. "However . . . we are going into this union with much trepidation. Unlike many past business dealings I asked you gentlemen here to observe, not to participate. The rules of this agreement have already been drawn up between me and Mr. Wayne." Many frowns appeared around the room at the fact they would have no involvement, but no one seemed to acknowledge Bruce's name. Most thought it better to ignore him. "I ask that you please save any questions or concerns for the moment. If you have anything pressing you would like to say, please talk to me after the meeting. I know this is unusual but I hope you all will understand the sensitivity and precautions our company is taking going into this deal." There was a ding in the distant as an elevator door opened, time to wrap this up. "Thank you again gentlemen, and please remember, observation only." They all nodded and he turned to watch the hallway entrance.
He took a deep breath. God, he hoped Bruce was wrong about this. He realized how foolish that statement was, Bruce didn't make mistakes like this. He would do what needed to be done. He let the breathe out slowly, then all breathing stopped as the group of three walked around the corner. It was a strange image, and somehow what he was seeing didn't seem to register in his brain. It was like watching a movie, things were just happening and he didn't really understand.
The group of three walked around the corner, almost as fast as Bruce had, but not with the excitement Bruce had, but with an almost unnatural grace that carried them faster. Well at least two of them had that pace. The third person, seemed to be a normal secretary. He stood behind the two rushing to keep up with the two, his arms carrying two planners, wearing a simple suit his parents probably gave him. The secretary couldn't be older than 25, but looked like they had just scooped him out of a graduating class, no experience. He glanced at the other two uncertainly, as if not knowing his place but kept up with them. The second man, was tall, maybe 6 foot, supermodel skinny. At first glance it looked like his excellently tailored suit was black from head to toe. However as they walked passed a window, he could see the jacket had a red sheen about it. Silver cufflinks sat on his wrists and black leather gloves sat on his hands. His jagged hair cut accented his sharp bone lines in his face. The poor female secretary walking the opposite direction looked straight at him and didn't have a chance. Once they passed her, he caught a glimpse of her tripping over a floor plant while trying to crane her neck in his direction.
The person in front was the one who grabbed everyone's attention though. He looked to be about 12 or 13 but they way he carried himself . . . was remarkable. His gait was long yet his casual attitude he exuded said he was in charge. His suit was dark blue, nearly black. The boy was already skinny but the suit clung to him like a second skin. He didn't wear a tie like the other two but in front of his high collared shirt ran small silver chains behind his jacket coat. His slate colored hair lay wispfully around his face framing it. Sharp silver studs pierced his ears. The boy walked through the doorway and stopped. Lucius couldn't see his eyes, he wore reflective aviator glasses as he looked up to him and offered him his hand without turning to him, still facing the room as Lucius stood by the door. "Nice to finally meet you Mr. Fox."
"Mr. Phantomhive." He was proud of himself that he kept the question out of his voice.
"Well, let's get this started." The dark figure pulled out the chair for the young man and sat down, as did Lucius. Neither of Mr. Phantomhive's lackeys sat down but stood by his chair. He then reached a heavily tattooed hand up and took off the glasses, flipping them over his shoulder carelessly. The man grabbed them out of the air and put them in his coat pocket. Mr. Phantomhive turned his eyes toward Lucius and he understood now that his attire wasn't unnatural to the boy. His large blue eyes drew all attention, the rest of it, it just matched the boy's ostentatious nature.
"It's nice of you to invite me here today, Mr. Fox. I'm excited about this business venture."
"As am I Mr. Phantomhive. I'm just going to get right down to it, don't want to waste your time. Now there may be some stipulations on our agreement we didn't write down in our prior proposals, but we feel that they are necessary precautions for our company."
"Such as?"
"Our business is a very public image. Dealing in arms, we have to be very careful; as I'm sure you'll understand."
"Alright, what stipulations."
"Now some of these may seem demanding and unnecessary, but I assure you they are for both of our company's general benefit."
"You've been forthcoming up until now Mr. Fox, spit . . . it . . . out." The boy's eyes seemed very sharp as he regarded him.
"Cargo manifests, unannounced inspections of cargo, using our shipping companies to import and inspect goods as necessary." He slid one of the folders he had brought with him down the table where Ciel caught it, opened it and regarded the paper inside. There was a moment of silence as he did this. He flipped it shut and threw the folder over his other shoulder. The secretary had a harder time of catching it then the other man had with the glasses, some papers fell to the floor, where he bent over to pick them up.
A contemplative frown was on Mr. Phantomhive's face before he finally looked at Lucius and spoke. "This changes things quite a bit Mr. Fox."
"I understand, but the basics are still the same. You deliver us the arms at the previous agreed price. We use them to fulfill certain government contracts; you earn a percentage of the contract price at the successful completion of said contract as well as your fee which we pay."
"Hmm," he sat back in his chair and fiddled with rings on his fingers unconsciously still staring at Lucius. "You know I'm selling you these arms at an amazing price, almost half you'll get from any other dealer."
"I understand that."
"Then you understand, I'm not selling these for any profit, I'm doing this, paying the difference straight from my own pocket, in order to work with your company. These new . . . demands, will also be paid for by me according to that little piece of paper you just handed me."
"That's the deal."
He looked at Lucius again. He understood now how a weaker man would give into those blue eyes, but he was not a weaker man, and this had to work.
"Unannounced inspections and cargo statements?"
"Yes."
"Worried?"
"We have to protect our company Mr. Phantomhive. This is the deal. I know these changes are a little demanding but this company is offering you more than money. Working with us will give your company its international title it has been striving for as well as working with one of the most powerful companies in the U.S. These are the stipulations, and they must be met or we don't have a deal."
"Well, you're not giving me much of an option."
"There are no other options, this is it."
He looked at Lucius with the contemplative frown again. "Your right about one thing, I do want to work with this company, and that's going to be the only reason I'm going to put up with these changes." He swiveled to the side and looked out the giant windows. "Fine." He slammed his ring clad hand down on the table. "Let's sign this."
Mr. Smith who sat a few seats down stood up with a folder in hand, he put it on the desk in front of Mr. Phantomhive and laid down a pen in front of the young man. He brushed it aside and instead accepted a pen from the man in black, signing it with a flourish. Lucius signed next, noticing that Mr. Phantomhive had signed in a brilliant blue. The notary did his business as Lucius and the rest of the board stood. Mr. Phantomhive stood, straightening his suit.
"Thank you for coming today Mr. Phantomhive. Our investors will be made aware of this deal since our company is public, however we'd like to keep this out of the press as much as possible."
"I understand, I would rather keep my . . . image out of the press as much as possible."
"Understandable. We look forward to working with you and Dante Technology, Mr. Phantomhive."
"We'll be in touch Mr. Fox, Mr. Wayne," he tilted his head in Bruce's direction then walked out of the room, his weird entourage following behind.
As soon as they were around the corner, many of the members started clapping, congratulating him. Standing up to shake his hand, some were calling for champagne. He let out a breath he had been unconsciously holding. If everything went the way he had planned, then why did he have this unpleasant feeling in his stomach?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mr. Wayne had watched the exchange with much interest. It seemed as if everything went as planned. Lucius had taken the boy for as much as he could and the boy had given in. The members of the board had started celebrating before Mr. Phantomhive had even left. He watched the boy as he left. It was almost perfect, he could almost imagine everything going fine. But the small smile that had slipped up the boys face as he rounded the corner drowned any feelings of hope Bruce had. Damn.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ciel could feel himself smirk behind his sunglasses as he walked down the stone steps outside the Wayne building. The driver was waiting and held the door open as he and Sebastian slid in. The door shut behind them and Ciel pulled the glasses off and smiled at Sebastian who sat across from him.
"I told you it'd work."
"Alright, you win."
"Haha!" he flopped onto his back and flipped off the sunglasses. "Damn they are stupid."
"Most people are more honest in their business dealings then you Sir, I don't think they are expecting you to use them."
"Then they are more stupid than I thought, nobody gets what they want in a business deal, the fact that I gave into all their demands should be the first warning. Idiots."
"That is quite true, Sir. Plus you are a very good little actor."
He sat up and moved across to straddle Sebastian. "I won the bet Sebastian," he leaned in whispered against his lips, "you owe." Sebastian smiled up at him but made no moves. A very loud knocked sounded against the window, Ciel jumped a little and looked at the window with a scowl.
"Excuse me Ciel, but we may have to wait a bit." Ciel stepped back off of Sebastian and slumped into his previous seat grumpily.
Sebastian opened the door and in scooted whoever had been following him around during the meeting. Now that Ciel could get a better look at him, he saw how unremarkable the man was. Maybe 22, 23, short brown hair, and an open, honest face. The kid shut the door behind him and looked over to Sebastian.
"Thank you Mr. Michaelis."
"Sebastian!" they both looked over at him. "Who the fuck is this," gesturing at the kid.
"Ciel, don't be rude, this is Jeremy Lloyd, your secretary."
"It's nice to meet—,"
"Shut up! What do you mean secretary? That's your job."
"Ciel, I can't do everything."
"Don't give me that bullshit, yes you can."
"Ciel, it'd look very weird if your butler was also your secretary. Jeremy will be taking care of your personal business needs. He's qualified, and I trust him."
"You trust him? HIM?"
"Yes I trust him, he is a noble and honest person. He will work well for us."
"Thank you Mr. Michaelis."
"No problem Jeremy. You did very well in there, Ciel can be a bit unpredictable, so you just need to stay on your feet."
"Fuck you."
"Now Ciel, you need to play nice. Jeremy is necessary. There will be lots of calls coming in for you now that this is going to be public. People are going to try and contact you for interviews, parties, to try and get on your good side. I can't be in charge of that, or would you like me answering phone calls while I'm out on your little errands?"
"But—"
"We need to appear in control Ciel, Jeremy is going to be our face for a bit."
"We never had to do this shit before."
"Things change Ciel, we need to keep up with the times."
He glared hard at Sebastian who still wore that stupid smirk. He knew he was right. He looked over at Jeremy who looked rather uncomfortable at the argument. Was he blushing?
"Does he have to be so young?"
Sebastian sighed and closed his eyes rubbing his hand over his face, "Ciel, really?" He turned to the side and pushed a button and the partition behind him lowered. "Mr. Daring, can head to the office, we need to drop off Mr. Lloyd there and then me and Ciel will be going to the penthouse." The partition slid back up and he turned to look at Ciel again. "You're going to have to get used to some changes Ciel, we can't do things as usual."
He sighed, "Fine, I suppose." He looked over at Jeremy. "I'm sorry Jeremy, I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Thank you Sir. I'll try my hardest. I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances."
"What do you mean?"
"The deal . . . it didn't go as you had hoped."
He smiled at the boy in front of him, "I thought you said he was smart Sebastain."
"I said he was honest Ciel, he's not going to understand your subtlety."
"Yeah, obviously. Don't worry about that Jeremy. Me and Sebastian will take care of the business, you take care of what Sebastian tells you to."
"Yes Sir."
"And don't mind Sebastian and I's skirmishes, he just likes to fuck with me," sending a smirk and a glance toward Sebastian.
"I like to do much more than that with you Ciel, but we'll discuss that later." Sebastian sent his own double meaning message back along with his own smirk.
The car stopped, and the driver stepped out. A moment later, the car door opened and Jeremy looked up surprised before stepping out. Sebastian leaned a bit out the door and looked up at Jeremy. "Wayne Enterprises should be sending a copy of the deal over to the office soon, double check all the paperwork and notaries. Take care of phone calls, and call me if there is anything important."
"Yes Mr. Michaelis." With that Sebastian leaned back in the car and the door was shut. Sebastian and Ciel sat watching each other for a moment as the car started up again and left.
"Ciel, that was very naughty of you, throwing a fit like that in front of poor Jeremy."
"It's your fault for not warning me."
"You should have predicted something like this, running a scheme like this takes more than two people, even if those two are supernatural."
"I know."
"Good, then you'll understand why I'm going to give you a spanking tonight." Sebastian smiled, lust slowly filling his eyes.
"You are going to keep your horny hands off me, I'm not in the mood."
"Oh? What would the young master rather do?"
"Don't call me that." He sat back lounging in his seat. "I feel like shooting someone."
"Sooo . . . the arms dealer?"
"Yes, let's go give him a little visit."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thank you to everyone who has favorite this story so far. Please remember to review!
I'm also looking for a beta, if anyone is interested please contact me.