Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except Xaelijor. Sort of.

Ciel cast a look at his new bodyguard from across the room. Xaelijor had declared himself to be a boy that day, and had somehow managed to dye his hair black. Ciel wondered if he had dumped ink over it or something. His long hair had been pulled back into a ponytail with a gold ribbon, matching the accents on his clothes-a black cheongsam with gold flowers and heart-shaped clasps (when Ciel had questioned him, he had said the hearts were the most efficient shape), and black pants with gold bands above the hems. He was standing silently in the shadow of the actually Chinese guest, Lau, not participating in the game of billiards. Ciel thought back to the day previous, when the idea was proposed.

-0-

"I think I want to become a servant of yours, sir. After all, I do owe you and your butler for saving my life. Are there any specific positions you need filled?" The girl's golden hair was pulled back into a braid, making her look slightly less feminine. Her voice was completely serious, and the easygoing smirk she wore most of the time was absent.

Ciel Phantomhive stopped in his tracks. Inwardly he was rejoicing. It was never a bad thing to have more servants, especially if they were competent. "And, pray tell, why would you want to serve me to pay that debt? And how can I be certain you meet the requirements?"

"My pride simply would not allow me to be complacent." The reply had a similar undertone as Sebastian's demon-butler puns. "I can cook. I can clean-though I'm not fond of it. However I don't believe you need either of those positions filled. I have my alchemy, obviously. And I am trained in fighting, both due to the martial arts knowledge of my adoptive cousins, and I was in the military back home." Ciel filed away that information for later.

Sebastian pointed out to the young Earl, "It would be to your advantage to have a bodyguard, young master. I may be one hell of a butler, but it would certainly lessen my workload if I didn't always have to keep an eye on you. Also, as a bodyguard, Xaelijor will be able to go places that a butler wouldn't, such as meetings with other nobility."

"Very well. However, I would like to be formal about this. What is your full name?" Ciel questioned.

"I don't know my given name." The blonde admitted. "But I go by Xaelijor Elric, the Elemental Alchemist."

"Thank you. I accept you, Xaelijor Elric, to be my bodyguard." Ciel smirked. Things were about to get much more interesting.

-0-

Ciel was clearly shaken out of his thoughts by his aunt, Angelina Durless, asking him, "Will you pass again, Earl Phantomhive?"

He replied smugly, "I make it a policy to not shoot for what I can't hit. Pass."

Sir Arthur Randall, the annoying head of the Scotland Yard, was the next to question the young noble. "That's good judgement. When will the rat be exterminated?"

"Soon. I've already made all the preparations necessary." Ciel said, leaning on his cue. "After we find the nest, we'll eradicate the rat while breaking a few of its bones. When can I expect compensation?"

The irritable investigator scowled. "...You're a vulture..."

Xaelijor looked expectantly at his master, and nodded when he shook his head slowly.

"Do you possess the right to insult my family's crest? You, a simple bloodhound who can't even catch a rat?"

Xaelijor smirked at the Yardsman's grimace. To remind everyone that the game was still going on, he said condescendingly, "Too bad. It's a fall." He found it immensely amusing when Lau would make a mistake. The Chinese trader might have born a slight resemblance to Lin, but he, in both mannerisms and voice, was very much like Barry the Chopper. It had startled the young alchemist to find someone so similar to the disembodied serial killer, but didn't prevent him from enjoying anything that happened at his expense.

"Billiards is hard…" Lau whined.

Azzuro Vanel, whom Xaelijor was confident was the "rat", asked, "Next is the Earl. What will you do? Will you put an end to this waiting game?"

Getting up, Earl Phantomhive replied in his own manner. "And? When will you be able to prepare the reward?"

Randall stuttered out, "Th-this evening…" Glaring at the boy, he warned threateningly, "Greed will destroy your body...Ciel!" He was obviously trying to get a rise out of the gamesmaster, but failed miserably.

"Ah, but greed is neither truly evil nor truly good. After all, haven't you ever wanted something so badly that you'd do anything to reach that goal?" Xaelijor asked, cryptically and rhetorically, as Ciel hit the cue ball, triggering a chain reaction that caused all but the unmarked white ball to land in a pocket.

Ciel smiled sardonically. "Greed, huh? Well? Am I undone?"

-0-

Ciel groaned to himself as he sat up. Xaelijor had clearly been awake for a little while already, and had earned some kicks for his sharp tongue. Ciel rolled his eyes, trying to remember how they had gotten into this mess, anyways.

After a brief chat with Sebastian, Ciel and Xaelijor had headed up to the study. Xaelijor had promised to reveal what kind of creature he was-he had admitted to not being completely human, not anymore, at least-and had, for some inane reason, decided that this would be a good time. (Ciel suspected his bodyguard knew he would get captured.) Ciel had opened the study door, and both were immediately put to sleep with chloroform-soaked rags.

Azzuro Vanel (so his suspicions were right!) was waxing poetic with a monologue that Ciel tuned out. He grumbled to his bodyguard, "Hey, can't you just zap us out with your alchemy?"

Said bodyguard shook his head. "Nothing to draw with, and I can't clap. I'd try something else, but I can't think properly about how to do it with those drugs in my system," he said grimly.

Vanel made an offer-essentially for Ciel to just let him do as he pleased-and Ciel turned him down with a mocking smile. "It'd be nice if your puppies could play 'fetch'."

He got a kick to the face as a reward. Vanel picked up his phone. "Did you hear that? Negotiations broke down!"

After about a minute, Vanel flipped his shit (to put it politely) at his snipers. Earl and bodyguard shared a condescending smirk. Then, Sebastian must've gotten ahold of the other end, because Vanel froze. Correctly deducing this, Xaelijor glanced at Ciel, and in a flawless imitation of the Earl's voice, said, "Woof!"

-0-

After what felt like an eternity, Sebastian finally entered the room that the two teenagers were held captive in, only to be shot full of lead.

Xaelijor turned to his fellow hostage. "Should I take care of this guy?"

"You can kill him if you so desire. But we should get my butler to get up, first." Ciel allowed.

"You know," said Vanel, running a hand through his ash-blond hair, "It'd be a shame to cut up a face as pretty as this. I think it'd fetch a price as pretty as your organs." He stroked Xaelijor's cheek. "But don't you worry. By the time those perverts have their hands on you, you won't feel a thing…"

Xaelijor glared at him, unrestrained hate burning in his eyes. "You just signed your death warrant."

At the same time, Ciel bristled at one of his servants being manhandled in such a careless and vulgar way. He asked his supposedly dead butler, "Hey. How long are you going to play around? I wouldn't think that was such a nice place to sleep." He smirked at the shocked look on the Italian drug lord's face. "How long are you going to play dead like a raccoon?"

"N-no way!" The blond yelled.

"My, my…" Said the "corpse". "The efficiency of guns has improved drastically in the past century." He snapped back into a standing position, coughing up the bullets that had been shot into him. "I'll be returning these…" The gunners found themselves dead within seconds. "Oh, what a mess." Sebastian complained. "My clothes are all full of holes."

The unamused Earl told him off. "That's because you were playing around, you idiot."

The amused butler gave him a sarcastic smile. "But I was only following your command, my Lord. You said to act like that."

There was an exchange that Xaelijor was too busy to listen to. He had figured out how to control the shadows enough to change his hair colour, so how would he...ah, that'd do it.

"That's an order! SAVE ME!"

A gun went off. The room went black, but there was still light, somehow. The bullet was dropped into the shooter's pocket. Ciel was picked up by Sebastian.

There were eyes everywhere, the same red-violet, slit-pupiled eyes of the bodyguard. There were also many grinning mouths, filled with smooth,white, sharp teeth. They all opened at the same time as Xaelijor's, all saying the same words, creating an odd sort of multiple-voice. "You don't realise what a stupid mistake you just made, do you? Hai appena fatto l'errore che ti invierà all'inferno, signor Vanel.*" The Italian screamed. As the Phantomhive butler tore the belts binding Ciel, the mouth closest to the blond mafioso opened wide, and then he was no more. The shadows then spiked up, cutting the bonds around their controller. As he stood and stretched, the blackness receded, leaving only his hair shadowed. Red electricity danced around the wounds he had, healing them completely.

Ciel could only stare at his newest servant as said servant collapsed, and both were carried back to the manor by Sebastian.

The next day, everything returned to normal-or at least as normal as the Phantomhive estate could be. Ciel caught Xaelijor's eye, and some sort of agreement passed between them. What had happened would be discussed that day.

*"You just made the mistake that will send you to Hell, Mr. Vanel."

I forgot to mention in the previous chapter that this will be based around the Manga, though it does borrow some elements from the first series of the anime. The angel(s) will not be making an appearance, though there will be mentions of them every once in a while.

До сведаня!

~Pride