Reincarnation

Chapter 18:

Sebastian paused in the act of throwing a set of knives at Ronald Knox. Under his left arm Ciel Phantomhive perked up. Propositions were his area of expertise, not fights. His butler had already done several cartwheels whilst fighting which were making him feel nauseous.

"Sebastian, stand down and let go of me," he ordered and once he had his feet on the floor he smiled at the trio of Grim Reapers; Grell had Sebastian's shoeprint imprinted on his face and Ronald's death scythe had a 50 piece cutlery set stuck in it like a dartboard. "Have you all decided that you can't win against me?"

There was a brief silence as the two battle weary reapers glanced at the superior for permission to reply to the insult. Will glared at them. He had only chosen to work with them as he had plenty of compromising information on them so if they betrayed him he would be able to retaliate to keep them quiet, but this was mostly aimed at Grell who always strayed from the right path. The disadvantage of pairing up with them had been that they were prone to fighting before thinking.

"For now, yes, but remember Phantomhive, it's only because of us that you gained this opportunity to possess a body. If it were not for us, you would just be fragments of a soul."

Ciel raised an eyebrow. "I take it that you are about to ask me for something in return for your gratuitous service to the Phantomhive family."

At his side Sebastian tensed ever so slightly. Now that he knew that the Grim Reapers had been after him all along, he guessed that Will's proposition involved him somewhere. He didn't want to be separated from the human Earl Ciel Phantomhive that had only just returned.

"If you haven't already guessed, the Grim Reapers are planning to launch a war on demons so they stop indiscriminately devouring souls that we need to judge and collect. We were originally going to use Michaelis to turn other demons onto our side and act as a spy whilst the other Ciel Phantomhive's soul was contracted to him, but since you have thwarted us we have no choice but to enter the war without any demon assistance."

"What do you want from me?" Ciel asked simply, completely unperturbed by Will's monologue.

"Whilst we are fighting we will be a little short handed at the Grim Reaper Dispatch Society so it would be useful if you could make sure that no demons steal souls at places where a large number of souls are due to be judged, that is all. If you are interested I will give you a list."

The teenage Earl considered the proposition carefully. A little excitement in his life once in a while would be good as sometimes the status quo became too tedious. He still wasn't sure whether or not he would take his descendant's identity and live with his butler at his side, finishing school, college and university, eventually succeeding Vincent Phantomhive the second and taking over the company which was something he wouldn't have been able to do in his old life. That said, being privy to future events was interesting...

"What do you think, Sebastian? It is your life as well," Ciel turned to Sebastian, wanting to hear his opinion.

"Your wish is my command. After all, I am just one hell of a butler."

Ciel rolled his eyes. "I do not know if this is just the influence of my descendant's modern memories, but could you please tell me what you are really thinking. That poker face gets annoying to look at!"

Momentarily Sebastian's eyes widened in surprise as he digested the statement. After a moment he rested his hand on the boy's shoulder and spun his round so they were face to face and inhaled the succulent scent of Ciel Phantomhive's soul.

"I desire your soul, but I still want you to live and I will still follow you anywhere you go, as a butler, so the decision is mainly yours. Now that you have achieved revenge and you can live with the reincarnations of your parents, you might simply want to live out your descendant's life as it has everything that your previous life was missing," Sebastian said and tapped his master's chin lightly with his finger. "Or you could choose to run away from the life. The decision is yours."

"Hmm." Ciel removed Sebastian's finger from his face, but kept hold of it. "I think that I will remain as Ciel Phantomhive and live with his parents whilst occasionally doing some work for the Grim Reapers on the side. Normal life can get monotonous and the Phantomhive Earldom no longer act as the Queen's Watchdog so I can get my fun from working for the reapers- I do owe them for accidently giving me the chance to live again," he smirked deviously as he looked down at the ring on his thumb.

The demon smiled at the sight of the smirk; it had always been one of his favourite things about the boy.

Ciel turned around and faced the Grim Reapers who were awaiting his response- only Will was though. Grell was trying to attack Ciel again and Ronald was occupied with holding him back.

"I accept your proposition."

"Good. I will give you the list next week as school will be closed for the rest of the week due to the murder. It will also give you time to acclimatise to your descendant's life," Will answered and strode out of the school hall with a reluctant Grell being dragged away by Ronald behind him. "I must admit that your descendant was more likeable than you."

"So young master, what are you going to do now? Your parents will be arriving home about now," Sebastian flipped open his pocket watch to verify the time.

"Go home and see Mother and Father," Ciel replied slowly. He had never been with his parents since his 10th birthday so living with them at the age of 16 was going to be a new experience.

Sebastian tapped Ciel's lip. "The modern term is "Mum and Dad", young master. You are going to have to acclimatise yourself to speaking differently. Otherwise everyone around you is going to sense that there is something different about you."

Ciel scowled. "Is is me, or have you been touching me quite freely since I returned?"

The demon's response was to stroke his cheek softly. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks. If you don't like me touching you, why did you request your descendant to kiss me?" he smiled deviously and the smile grew as Ciel's cheeks flushed red. "Were you too shy to do it yourself so you got him to do it? I never thought you would be this shy, young master."

Ciel turned his face away from his butler and stared out the window at the glowing white light of the full moon. A new moon, how fitting, he thought to himself, there was certainly something in Pathetic Fallacy. Sebastian turned his face again so he had no choice but to look at the demon.

"All right, Sebastian. I harboured the urge to kiss you and when I became a demon you changed completely so I lost the chance. In order to make up for it I asked whoever picked up the ring to kiss you, as in theory fragments of my soul would be attached to theirs, meaning that you technically would be receiving kiss from me, but things did not go as planned."

The raven haired butler smiled down at his precious young master. "Sometimes you are nothing but a damn brat, sometimes you are, for the lack of a better word, cute. However you will always taste delicious to me and I have always harboured fond feelings towards you."

He bent down and captured Ciel's lips which were soft and tasted of his soul which made the whole experience even better. Ciel's eyes widened before he lost himself in the kiss. He had not been expecting this, he had assumed everything would just go back to how it was before; master and servant, demon and master. Nothing more and nothing less. To have Sebastian return his feeling was nothing short of a dream.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his lower lip and Sebastian pulled away from him.

"What have you done?" Ciel questioned and touched his lips with a cautious finger to find that blood was thinly flowing out of a tiny cut.

"I'm verifying that you are definitely not a demon, young master. I don't want to have to decapitate you again." An unreadable expression crossed the demon's face.

"Decapitate? What are you talking about?"

Ciel had no idea what the demon was referencing. As he came from fragments of Ciel Phantomhive's soul, he was Ciel Phantomhive, but he wasn't the demon Ciel Phantomhive. Because he had his descendant's memories he knew what the demon Ciel had written in his journals so he knew everything that had occurred up until when he had left for the demon realm.

Sebastian looked puzzled for a second, then his expression cleared. Demons didn't have souls so his human young master had no idea of what had transgressed between him and his demon master.

"I was not too fond of you as a demon, so I tore your head off in anger," Sebastian informed him with a smile and observed that blood was still flowing from the boy's lip. "As I have confirmed that you are definitely human, I don't think I will have any trouble with you at all."

"Tch. I knew you only liked me because of my soul," Ciel scowled. But having Sebastian at his side was enough for him; he couldn't expect anything else.

"On the contrary, I like you, full stop. I'm not just after your soul. It may be mouth-wateringly tempting, but if I only desired your soul I would have taken it by now as our contract is finished. No, I just like you."

To prove his point he licked the blood off Ciel's lip with his tongue. The taste set his taste buds aflame with the desire to consume the entire soul, but he quelled it to kiss his master on the cheek.

"Let's go home."

We are nearly at the end now... Just a few more chapters to go.