As much as he was beginning to become impatient for this arrangement to end, Sebastian couldn't possibly hate Vincent as much as he hated his businessmen, especially the lawyer sitting directly across from where Sebastian stood dutifully behind Vincent's chair, giving Sebastian dirty looks while trying to skew information as much as possible without Vincent noticing.
Sebastian noticed, however, and corrected him every time.
Finally, it seemed that Vincent was catching on, that he should have known these facts better than his butler.
"Sebastian, would you fetch one of the folders on the desk in the study? It's labeled...India Export something, either Records or Statistics, something like that."
"Yes, my lord." Sebastian agreed immediately, turning gracefully on his heel and leaving the room.
Sebastian scowled as he stalked down the hallway, not caring about posture or decorum once he was alone, pushing the door to the study open and rubbing his temple.
It was overcast outside, making the room gray and dreary, all the more difficult to read the different files scattered across Vincent's desk.
"Which one do you need?"
A listless voice behind Sebastian asked, making him jump admittedly.
He turned to see Ciel curled up, perched on top of the bookshelf in the shadows behind the door, a stack of folders near his knee as he skimmed one boredly.
Sebastian hesitated. He hadn't spoken to Ciel since their conversation in the rose garden, nor had he brought it to Vincent's attention, and wasn't sure how he was meant to treat Ciel.
Blue eyes glanced up, but stayed on Sebastian.
Ciel straightened a little, closing the folder he was reading.
"Hey, what's wrong? It's probably 'cause Tiller's here, am I right? Don't worry, I hate him, too."
Sebastian processed slowly.
"I don't know that you are meant to read those files, my lord's child."
Sebastian remarked dutifully, certain that the one he was looking for was up there with Ciel.
Ciel smiled, a devious little flash of teeth.
"If I was meant to read them, I wouldn't be hiding up here, would I? They're pretty boring anyway. Which one do you need?"
"Export Records from India. Of course they're boring, they're business folders; what were you hoping to find?"
"It's not 'hoping', actually; I found it. Somebody's been embezzling funds from the Factory Materials. It means worker's pay is being docked. Here, look, you can see where the money doesn't match up."
Ciel leaned forward, and Sebastian, admittedly concerned for the young man's balance, stepped quickly up to the bookshelf.
Ciel reached down as far as he could with one file open, a few lines of expenses underlined in red ink, and then a single page from another folder's payroll record, the monthly costs underlined and added up.
Sure enough, there was a difference of about three hundred dollars.
"Very clever, Ciel. Your father will be very pleased to hear that you found that."
"No, he won't, because he won't know I found it." Ciel said calmly, handing Sebastian the file he needed. "I just rearrange the files on his desk so these two are together, and he'll open them and find the underlined stuff. He'll think he did it separately without paying attention, and the coincidence of the two files being near each other will help him notice it."
Sebastian looked up at Ciel in surprise, realizing that Ciel had done this before, several times.
Sebastian smiled.
"You are too clever for your own good, Ciel, but why not tell him yourself? I'm sure he would be very proud."
"You said it yourself, Sebastian; I'm not supposed to know about these files. But, seriously, Father isn't very good at bookkeeping, and I'd rather have him think he underestimated himself than me."
"Why would you rather he underestimated himself?" Sebastian asked.
Ciel flashed another smile, gathering the files he'd snatched in his arms.
"Everyone underestimates me. I like it that way. Nobody really knows what I'm capable of."
Sebastian made to laugh, but as Ciel jumped to the ground, closing the distance of at least seven feet without so much as a hint of pain, he found he was actually slightly intimidated by the small human's capability.
"You're the one who taught me to subvert expectations, after all." Ciel told Sebastian with a heavy-lashed wink and devilish grin.