The breakfast was seriously delicious. I imagine that this was the kind of meal that the chefs on TV shows on the Food Network make. I swear, if right then I had to choose to only eat one thing and one thing alone for the rest of my life, it would have been the sweet equilibrium of flavors known as Sebastian's breakfast food.

I heard Sebastian's booming voice outside of the dining room say something like, "Get to work!" followed by the squealing of the household servants. I laughed a little bit. I really did like the servants. I wanted to know more about them, which is a feeling that I haven't experienced in quite a while.

I finished stuffing Sebastian's oh-so-delicious cooking down esophagus picked up the plate. I was going to carry it to the kitchen when Ciel stopped me.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sounding like he was mocking me, which I found to be really annoying, but I ignored it for the time being. I didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with him.

"I was just going to take this to the kitchen."

"Why? Sebastian will do it," he said as if it were common knowledge.

"But if I can do it, then why shouldn't I?"

"That's the servant's job, isn't it?"

"Really?" I asked. I thought about it for a second and spoke again, "Well, servant or not, I was raised to believe that it's rude not to pick up after myself."

"Oh? All right then. Have it your way," he replied. I wasn't really looking at him as I walked out, but I could feel his smirk. I could just feel his eyes following me as I walked out.

"How interesting," I heard him mutter.

I took my dish through the maze of hallways and into the kitchen where I saw Maylene cleaning up. I dropped it into the sink and set off a chain reaction that couldn't have been predicted by even the most skilled psychic. The dish made a loud clanging sound which scared Maylene which made her jump up and hit her head on a shelf with plates on it which made it shake which made the plates fall off of the shelf which landed on the pile of glass that Maylene swept up in just the right way to the point where it exploded and scattered itself along the floor again.

"AH! Look at what I did!" Maylene yelled in surprise. She frantically swept up the glass again. I picked another broom I saw and helped her. It was my fault for scaring her, so the least I could do was help.

"Eh? Lady Lani, are you helping me? Thank you, but I don't need any help. It was my fault for being clumsy after all! Not only that, but as the maid it's my job to clean up messes like these. Oh, Sebastian is going to be so angry if he finds out that Young Master's plates were shattered!"

"But-," I started to say.

"Maylene, what are you doing?" Sebastian interrupted me. I turned around to see him standing in the doorway.

Again, Maylene got scared. She slipped and made this UWAAH kind of sound. I expected her to hit the ground and send the items in her dustpan flying once more, but instead I saw Sebastian catch her, the dustpan, and everything inside it. My eyes widened. What an amazing sight I just saw.

"My, my. You haven't even been here twelve hours and you're already causing a rather large ruckus, Lady Lani. Young Master has a guest coming over today to discuss business related matters and everything needs to go perfectly for it. I would appreciate it if you would not disrupt the servants while they are working."

"But I just-," I started again, but Sebastian's oddly intimidating smile silenced me, "Right. Sorry."

"As for you, Maylene, please leave this mess to me. I will take care of it." Maylene had the same reaction to him as I did. We both walked out of the kitchen with our tails between our legs.

"Um, Maylene?" I whispered after Sebastian was out of earshot, "What is there to do around here?"

"Well, what do you like to do? We have pretty much everything here, I believe," she answered, sounding proud to live in such a place. I couldn't tell her that I spent the majority of my time on my laptop, so I thought of my second favorite thing to do.

"Read."

"Would you like me to take you to the library then?" she asked with that brilliantly shining face of hers.

"Yes!" I answered. I felt my face suddenly shine almost as brilliantly.

Who knew that something so simple could make me smile?

Maylene led me to the library door. I thanked her, and she walked away. I took a deep breath and walked inside. You'd think I'd be used to this type of thing by this point, but it was still so foreign to me. Being the bibliophile I am, I kept quite a large number of books at home in my bedroom, but that was nothing in comparison to this. Row after row after row of books surrounded me. There were bookcases all around the walls of the room. I took a closer look at the collection. It was even sorted like a public library would be sorted. To my dismay, the majority of the books were nonfiction, but even so, they were all on interesting topics.

"Amazing," I couldn't help but whisper to myself.

I picked out a fiction book that looked interesting and sat down. I was about to read it when I realized that I didn't have my mp3 player with me. I usually had some kind of music on when I read. I sighed, realizing a small downside to my wish. No technology.

I sat in silence for a few minutes and just thought. I recapped on everything that had happened, and I wanted to tell somebody about it. Nobody would understand though.

Then I felt a chilling guilt run through my veins and down to the very marrow of my bones. It engulfed me. I just remembered something that I had forgotten. I remembered the only person who would understand my situation.

"Hiroshi. I'm sorry. I forgot about you."

I talked to him out loud for once.

"Hiroshi, please come out."

Just when my guilt was about to eat me alive, he appeared. He crossed his arms and pouted like a child. I knew full well why, so I didn't ask him. I always included him in everything exciting that I did. Everything. The fact that I had the nerve to forget to include him in one of the most thrilling things in my life so far was so inconsiderate of me.

"Please don't be stubborn with me! Everything happened so fast. I'm still confused about it all!"

Of course, right then Sebastian came in and saw me pleading for forgiveness from my imaginary friend. He had to come in right then.

I stopped and stared at Sebastian. Sebastian stared at me.

"Is there a reason you're staring at me, Lady Lani?"

"Is there a reason you're staring at me, Sebastian?"

He snickered. "I merely came in here to tidy up the library before our guest arrived. When I walked in, you stopped what you were doing and stared at me, so I assumed that you wished to speak to me. That's all."

"Who is that?" Hiroshi asked cynically.

I hesitated in answering. I didn't want to answer him out loud. Sebastian would send me to some kind of mental hospital in the 1800s where they would give me a lobotomy or something.

"You don't have to be afraid of me, if that's the reason you're afraid. I am but your servant, tied to you by the symbol that was burned into your skin. That seal is the mark of our agreement. I promise you that I will grant your wish, but when the time comes for your body to perish, I get to do whatever I want with your soul. I will not harm you in any way until then."

"What is he talking about, Lani?" Hiroshi asked, getting more and more impatient by the second.

"That explains a little bit."

"What is he talking about, Lani!"

"HIROSHI, SHUT UP FOR TWO SECONDS PLEASE."

Oh god, I snapped again.

Silence.

I looked down at my feet. My face grew hot, along with my throat. I felt like I was going to cry again. I felt Sebastian's eyes on me.

"If you're worried about me knowing about your imaginary friend, don't. From the moment we made that contract, I knew everything about your past, including that."

My face went from red to pale.

"Well, this is really awkward isn't it," I said, trying to laugh it off.

"I apologize for making you uncomfortable. I'll leave you alone now. Please excuse me."

The demon walked out.

I was alone with Hiroshi again.

"Tell me what's going on," Hiroshi implored once more. His voice didn't sound annoyed anymore, but I still didn't really want to hear it right then.

"Can I be alone right now? I need to sort out my thoughts."

"But aren't I usually the once who helps you do th-,"

"I need to be alone, Hiroshi," I said desperately. I felt a tear run down my cheek, and then there was no stopping it. One after the next, they fell. When I looked up, Hiroshi was gone, but the tears kept coming. I didn't even know why I was crying. How pathetic, I thought to myself. How pathetic indeed.

I closed my eyes and took multiple deep breaths. It helped me clear my head a little. I felt my heart ache a little still, though. I plopped my back against the seat of the couch cushion I was on. I took one more deep breath and tried to smile.

Why did I even freak out in the first place?

At that point, I just laughed. I started laughing at everything. My odd emotional instability, the completely random situation I was in, everything. I suppose it was just the stress of a situation so foreign to me that set me off. I don't think I could have even imagined something like this happening if I wanted to, so I wasn't really surprised that something like that happened, in hindsight.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I saw Hiroshi peek his head out from behind a bookcase and stare at me as if he was surveying my level of sanity. I giggled a bit.

"I think I'm mentally stable now. At least more than I was a few minutes ago," I said, smiling. He smiled back and sat down by my feet.

"I'm glad. I was worried for a minute there. Sit up for a minute."

I sat up. Hiroshi hugged me and whispered, "I don't exactly understand what you did or how you did it, but I'm always here if you need somebody. Even if the rest of the world betrays you, I will not."

I embraced him back and responded, "Thank you, Hiroshi." He faded away, leaving my arms empty, but I wasn't sad. I wasn't alone. He said he would always be there for me, and that was good enough for me.

I decided that I'd had enough of the library for now. It was time for a little exploring.

I crept out of the library and into the hallway. I scanned the doors on the walls to see if any of them looked like they held something interesting within. None of them really looked any different from the rest however, so I just began opening doors at random.

The first door I opened was a small room, only slightly bigger than a closet. It had an old telephone (thought I suppose it would be the newest technology for this time period) placed on top of a small wooden table. I guess this would be a good place to go if I ever needed to call somebody at some point.

I stealthily crept out of the small room and into one next door to it. That room was a storage room for a wide variety of tea sets. I've never seen so many tea cups in my life. I stopped to admire some of their craftsmanship. Some were simple, but very elegant. Some had intricate designs that screamed "I'm-expensive-so-you-better-not-break-me!" I decided that I could look at them some more later and tiptoed back out into the hallway.

I don't really know why I was trying to be all sneaky about it. It was just more fun that way. I quietly ran down the hallway and up some stairs. I felt like a little kid in a maze. I couldn't have been paying very much attention to where I was going, because it wasn't long until I ran into Sebastian.

He sighed and brought his hand to his forehead. "As if I didn't have enough to take care of right now," he said to himself.

"I'm not bothering anyone, am I? So why do you have that annoyed expression on your face when you look at me?" I asked.

"You're not bothering anybody right now, however Young Master's guest will be arriving in an hour, and we need to provide him with the hospitality that the Phantomhive household should. If you were to crash into him while running around crazily everywhere like you just did to me a moment ago, it would be a problem."

I suppose he's right. "Okay, so what should I do when he's here?"

"Perhaps you could observe the young master. Not only would it be beneficial for you to see how one from the Phantomhive family should behave around a guest, but you might get to know him a bit better, which would also be beneficial to the both of you."

"Okay, so what about now?"

"Please follow me," Sebastian requested politely. I nodded and followed. He walked me past a few rooms and opened a door. It looked like a game room. It had a pool table, a chessboard, and a few other miscellaneous game items. Ciel was sitting at the chess table. It looked like he was starting to make a house of cards.

"Young Master, Lady Lani would like to play a game with you until the guest arrives," Sebastian said, smiling that smug-yet-humble grin of his.

"Oh? Is that so?" Ciel asked, looking from his small tower to me. He smiled a sly and crafty smile, which made me somewhat uneasy. "All right then. Thank you, Sebastian."

Sebastian nodded obediently and left, leaving me with this mysterious boy. I tried to look through his eyes, figuratively speaking, and make out the type of person that he was. I was pretty good at reading people's personalities a majority of the time. I couldn't really see anything when I looked into Ciel's uncovered eye. No, that's not exactly right. I definitely saw a spark of something, I just couldn't tell what. I wasn't used to this type of person. It was almost exhilarating. I could see through almost everybody I met, but here, I couldn't tell what anybody was truly like, especially not Ciel.

"So," Ciel started, "What kind of game would you like to play?"

He was still smiling oh-so-creepily. Or maybe that was just his regular smile?

I looked around a bit. "Checkers, maybe?"

Ciel nodded. He knocked his small tower of cards over and began to set up the checkerboard. "Red or black?"

"Either," I answered.

Ciel had all of the black pieces on his side of the board which meant I was red. I was quite confident in my checker playing skills, but I was sure that Ciel was too. He gestured for me to make the first move, and the game began. I have always used the same strategies in every game of checkers I've played. The first is to lower the enemy's number of pieces by sacrificing a few of your own. For instance, I'll move a piece right in front of my opponent's, but when they jump over mine, they'll be in a position where I can jump over them. My second strategy was to never move my back four pieces. They were like the guards. They guarded the edge of the board to make sure the opposing team never touched it. If they touched it, their piece would become a king, and they would have a major upper hand.

However, this time it seemed that I had quite a knavish opponent. He figured out my strategies. He outwitted me whenever I tried to use the first strategy. Somehow he would always end up jumping two of my pieces for every one piece I got from him. After I got frustrated with that one, I studied the remaining pieces on the board closely. I noticed that he hadn't moved any of his back pieces either. At this point, I sighed a small sigh and looked at him once more.

"You know, a game of checkers can reveal a lot about a person's personality," Ciel claimed, looking up to me. "But you've figured out that much already, haven't you?"

"Well, yes and no," I replied. "That's true of most people, but I still can't get a clear image of you."

"Is that right? Then I'll make a deal with you. If you help me out with the guest that's coming over tonight, I will honestly answer one question you ask me. That should help you get a clearer image, shouldn't it?"

That sounded interesting.

"All right. I'll help you."