Disclaimer: Arakawa owns FMA and Toboso owns Kuroshitsuji.
Sebastian was surprised and slightly concerned. He had been working through the night(as usual), making sure the manor would be prepared for the young Earl's lessons. He had checked his pocketwatch, and seeing that there was still half of an hour before his master would have to be woken up, had headed towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast. He had not expected to smell food cooking already. Thankfully, it didn't sound like it was Bardroy's cooking…Sebastian opened the kitchen door, revealing Xaelijor, who seemed to be distributing paper-thin pancakes to a set of six plates. Various ingredients were stacked neatly along the counters, and there was a bowl filled with a batter that was quite runny. After a second glance, the raven demon recognised the stack to be crêpes.
"What are you doing?" He asked the obviously tired bodyguard.
Not looking up from her work, she replied, "What does it look like? I'm making breakfast." She stifled a yawn as she transferred another crêpe from the pan. "Does the young Lord like strawberries?"
Completely perplexed as to the fact that not only was one of the other servants awake, but actually doing something properly, Sebastian simply said, "Yes."
After that confirmation, Xaelijor flipped one last crêpe onto a plate, and then switched the pan with a small pot of strawberries. She sprinkled two spoonfuls of sugar over them, and then stirred them as they heated. She pulled out a round gold object, flipping it open. "How much longer will it be until he will receive breakfast?" She asked, shutting the pocketwatch(for it was, indeed, a pocketwatch) with a snap.
Regaining his composure, the demon checked his own and replied, "Approximately fifteen minutes. If I may ask, why are you making crêpes?"
"Couldn't sleep." The blonde said shortly. "Plus, the young master likes sweet things. I didn't wish to bake anything, as you had already made a torte...so I decided to make strawberry crêpes for everyone. I hope you don't mind that I didn't make you any." She yawned behind one hand, stirring the berry pot with the other.
Sebastian inclined his head in thanks. Human food had no appeal to him.
"May you please grab the confectioners' sugar for me?" Xaelijor asked, placing a line of jellied strawberries on each crêpe before rolling it shut.
Sebastian handed her the pouch. "Why didn't you get it down yourself?" She gave him a tired glare.
"It was up too high." With that, she carefully sifted the powdered sugar over the breakfast pastries, then placing a small scoop of the strawberries on each one. Then she used the leftover syrup from the berries to make a decorative design on the plate that had five crêpes, rather than the three the rest had. "Here." She said, handing the plate to Sebastian, allowing him to see that the syrup had formed the Phantomhive crest. She turned towards the door, catching herself as she stumbled slightly. "I'll let the others know that breakfast's in the kitchen."
Sebastian stopped her before she got too far. "I think it would be best if you stayed behind today. The young master and I will be going out to retrieve his new cane, but you should rest after you eat. You aren't awake enough to be able to help." He then went to wake Ciel, ignoring the homunculus's weak protests.
-0-
"So you're telling me that Xaelijor made this after staying up all night?" Ciel asked. "It's actually very good."
"Yes. I do not lie, remember?
"Of course I remember. Now come. My cane's not going to retrieve itself."
"Yes, my Lord."
-0-
"It...I've forgotten how to smile...like I'm having fun."
There came a knock on the door, bringing the Earl Phantomhive out of his depressing reverie. "Come in." He ordered cautiously. Surprisingly, his bodyguard entered the room, hair let down and swishing behind her. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?"
She smiled at him. "I'm feeling much more awake now, Sir. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else I needed to do."
"Actually, may you please teach the young Lord to dance so he doesn't embarrass himself in front of his fiancée? You are about the same height, and the young Lord wouldn't have to worry about damaging his pride any further by dancing with a man." Sebastian requested, before turning to the Earl. "And my Lord, what is forgotten can be remembered, can it not?"
"Oh, of course! Here, you hold the girl's hand like this..." Xaelijor said enthusiastically, pulling Ciel's hand into position and startling all other thoughts out of his mind.
"Wait, how do you even know how to dance?"
"I had the misfortune of being dragged to military balls in the few times whenever we were in Central for longer than a day, as the dates mysteriously always coincided. As such I had to know how to dance. Strangely enough," she smirked cruelly, "Nobody ever worked up the courage to ask me to dance. Now, you put your right hand on the lady's waist. Neither so low as to put it on her hip, nor so high as to...you know. Now, it's much easier from here on out. You go in a circle, like so." First, she danced with a nonexistent partner to demonstrate. "Do you get it?"
"I-I think so." Ciel stammered awkwardly.
Xaelijor grabbed Ciel's left hand, guided his right to the proper placement, and put her left on his shoulder. After about a minute of simple waltzing, she declared, "It's nothing fancy, and you still need to work on it, but it's quite an improvement, Sir. Now, you should probably get ready, Sir. It's not polite to keep your partner waiting." After saying this, she waved and bounced out of the room, looking more decidedly feminine than they had ever seen her.
-0-
"Leave her alone, Elizabeth." Ciel ordered, eyes sweeping the room. Grell, his aunt's incompetent butler, was lamenting the fact that he was forced into an extremely frilly white dress. Xaelijor appeared to have avoided the worst of Lizzie's fashion assault, and was wearing a simple light green dress, with sunflower and mesh accents. Her hair was pulled into her usual braid, albeit tied off with a green ribbon. She was comforting the tall man, ("Come on, you look really pretty!") though she seemed to be enjoying his discomfort immensely. Either that, or she just liked how Grell looked in a dress. The rest of the servants were wearing even more absurd outfits than earlier, even Tanaka. He was wearing a kimono(or was it a yukata?) and a long black wig.
"Ciel! I was right, you look adorable!" Ciel's betrothed squealed happily. "But…" Her expression darkened. "Ciel, where is the ring I brought you?"
-0-
"I hate this ring!" Elizabeth yelled. Time froze as she threw the Phantomhive ring with all her might, causing it to shatter on the floor. Nobody moved for a second, before Xaelijor sprung into action. She saw Ciel raise his hand to strike, she jumped in front of Lizzie, braced herself to take the hit, and...nothing. Sebastian had caught Ciel's hand mid-blow.
"Young master...you forgot the walking stick we had made." He handed the cane to Ciel as Xaelijor, seeing that there was no more danger of Ciel hitting Lizzie, stepped away from the drama and retreated to the group of servants. Lizzie paused the hitching of her breath long enough for Sebastian to explain exactly why the ring was so important to Ciel, and afterwards started sobbing even harder.
"You mean I-I destroyed something-a ring that precious?" As Lizzie said this, horrified, Ciel scooped up the ring and walked over to the window. "Ciel, I…" Ciel threw it as far as he could. "Ciel, how could you do that?"
'Yes, Ciel, how could you do that?' Xaelijor echoed mentally. 'Now I'm going to have to go looking for it so I can fix it!'
"It's just an old ring." Ciel lied, pretending it wasn't a big deal. "Even without it, I'm still Head of the Phantomhives!" He declared. Turning back to Lizzie, he asked disapprovingly, "How long are you going to cry like that? I couldn't ask a lady whose face is such a mess to dance, could I?"
Sebastian pulled a violin out of nowhere and started to play a waltz. "Shall we join him, sir?" Xaelijor asked Grell, grabbing the butler's hand and running over to the stairs, where the two started singing the melody, Grell in a rich baritone, and Xaelijor in a lovely soprano. Lizzie was swept onto the dance floor by Ciel. The rest of the night passed uneventfully, other than Xaelijor going outside at the very end.
When she returned, she handed something subtly to Sebastian, who slipped it into his pocket. "Aw, you're leaving, Grell?" She pouted.
"Y-yes! I am in charge of escorting Lady Elizabeth home!" Grell stuttered.
"You gonna be alright?" Bard grumbled.
"Yes." Grell smiled. "I'm a much more deadly efficient butler than I look!" Xaelijor noticed the pun. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Ah yes, Sebastian. Thanks to you, I've learned what it means to be a butler! The say when a person dies, his life flashes before his eyes. I'm sure that if I die," The "if" did not go unnoticed either. "The dreamland I saw tonight will flash before me over and over!"
"You're saying that?" Sebastian asked. Xaelijor's mind was working furiously. 'Does that have something to do with why you don't have any Dragon's Pulse? I will figure you out, Grell!'
"I get the feeling he's the sort of man who will never die, yes!" Mey-Rin added.
Except Sebastian, the servants all waved goodbye as Grell guided the carriage away from the manor, Xaelijor smiling the widest.
-0-
The next day, Pride smiled softly as he saw the ring shining on Ciel's finger. It would have been a shame for him not to wear it after Pride went to all the trouble to find it and repair it with alchemy, after all.
Okay, there's that. Xaelijor doesn't have any ulterior motives for getting close to Grell, though she is genuinely curious about what Grell is. She's in for a huge shock when she finds out who Jack the Ripper is...
Ja ne!
~Pride