The Exhibition

drakkarnoir

'Here it comes' Sebastian mused to himself as he watched visitors came pouring into the gallery. He was standing by the buffet table, wearing a normal white long-sleeved button down shirt with black slack pants and an unbuttoned black vest. He continues to watch the visitors, especially the invited college students that have been hovering over pictures of an albino lion he'd took while he's on short vacation in North Africa. The picture was indeed one of his favourites. It was rare to see such beauty and he paid a lot of price for that picture.

"Hey, can you give me that éclair?" Sebastian turned his head towards the voice. 'Oh, a little boy,' he thought…except that the little boy was actually a sophomore in one of the college that participate in this event, Sebastian just couldn't help wondering as the boy's face was…well, boyish…despite the height given. The boy was actually a few centimeters short from him. Sebastian realised he had been staring at the boy when he noticed those thin lips curved into a frown. "Yes? How may I help—"

"You're in my way" the boy said and pushed Sebastian aside as he made his way towards the desserts table. 'Kids, nowadays' he thought as his eyes trailed the boy whom now had stuffed two mini éclairs in his mouth. 'He's pretty for a boy, too bad his manners aren't that pretty'. He shook his head gently. And then it dawned on him, did he really look like a waiter in this attire? Because earlier, before the gallery opened Grell did mentioned something about his choice of clothes that that sounds like pedophile and he never understood what he meant. Really, that guy, Grell…is what people would call…complicated. Sebastian sighed and walks towards Maylene whose waving her hands frantically towards Sebastian so he would come over.

"Oh. My. God…Seb, did you see that? Did you? Did you?" whispered Maylene as soon as Sebastian was in her reach. And for Sebastian, he felt like he just had an elephant jumped on his back because the difference in height he and Maylene had since she just had to yank him down to whisper and Maylene's whisper – whenever she's excited - wasn't exactly a whisper. Sebastian felt like he was a microphone that had been yelled by a deaf and sputtering speaker. Yuck.

Maylene looked at him wide eyed behind those glossy spectacles. He returned a glare at her. She whimpered. He rolled his eyes. She stuttered. He sighed.

"What am I supposed to see, Maylene?"

"Uh…uhm.."

"One…"

"Wai..wait…I do want you to see something, err, someone,"

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. Ah, who could that be…?? For all he cared, he just wanted to be left alone with his camera and took a few pictures for his solo art exhibition next. Not that he hated a grand exhibition such as this, its just that he felt uncomfortable with other artists that certainly had more experiences and some are more talented – not to mentioned with inflatable egos – around him. Well, he admits he had issues with himself but he'd rather not talked it openly and somehow it resulted in people kept mistaking his cold demeanor as his inflatable egos. Simply said he's just felt like an alien to human population. Not that squealing girls and Grell make the sun shine brighter. Definitely,not. Sebastian wandered whatever sins that he'd committed in his past to have this kind of life…oh, wait…there is one. But he doubted that would be counted as a sin.

"Sebastian, are you listening?" Sebastian turned and he met with red-faced Maylene. And he had a feeling that Maylene's red face has nothing to do with embarrassment because he could see steams coming out from her ears and her glasses are kind of…foggy.

Uh oh…

"…no?" he replied, edging away from her.

"Y-you…you know you could be an ass sometime Seb…and stop pouting it's not working on me anymore…ju-just because you had a pretty face you can get away with murder…literally…hey, are you list—know what…I HAD ENOUGH!!!" huffed Maylene as he watched Sebastian fiddled with his tie…totally ignoring her rants. So she did what everyone would, kicked him hard. Not on the nuts, mind you…that would be her fault later on. So she kicked him hard. On the shin. And walked away.

The said person she wanted him to see was actually watching them from the corner of his eyes, amused at those two behaviors.

"How did you do that?" said the blond man beside Sebastian when they hang out in the storeroom beside the man's room inside the gallery. "Do what, Bard?" Bard, on the other hand just shrugged and lighted his cigarette. "You know, dodging stuffs…questions…" he exhaled, letting the tainted smoke filled the space between him and Sebastian. Silence crept on before Sebastian replied, "If you hadn't notice, I am dodging all those stuffs and probably in pursuit by Grell. Honestly, I don't know why I agreed to do this the first place," said the raven haired as he ran a hand through his hair. Bard smirked as he exhaled another puff of smoke, "Not a people person…you never change Seb," "And it is your fault too," Sebastian stabbed a finger at Bard's forearm. "Why can't I just say no to you?"

"'Cause you love me," Sebastian raised an eyebrow and he swore Bard's grin just got wider. "Shut up, Bard"

Before Bard could retort the door flew open and standing there was Grell and Maylene. In an instant Maylene's and Grell's faces become flushed but the men inside the storeroom could tell both was flushed for a different reason. While Maylene was left speechless Grell pointed a finger at Sebastian. "H-how c-could you?!? Oh, HOW COULD YOU SEBASTIAN?!?!" Sebastian just rolled off his eyes and stepped out of the storeroom while Bard snickered behind, following Sebastian's back. He even managed to stick out his tongue at Gaping Grell, sending more wrong signals at him. Literally snarling, Grell stomped past Bard and snatched Sebastian away from them for he had a piece of his mind that Sebastian should hear. Finally, in a secluded place but still inside the building, Grell let go and faced Sebastian. "You. Are. The. Least. Matured. Men. I've. Ever. Met." He huffed out loud. Loud enough to have few visitors to that walk pasts them to turns their heads.

"Hmph…I was only do what I signed on the contract," True, it was only fair because he never agreed to give a speech on whatever the artworks was displayed in the exhibition. And giving speech was the last thing he would do, even though it would meant his carrier depended on him. Well, it's not like his photography carrier was his main; it was merely stand as his hobby. One that he held passion for. "Grell, if you ever did notice, that was captions for. I'm not going to answer the exact same thing that's already written—in bold,"

"I see…" a low, quite voice interrupted before Grell could say a word. Both heads turned towards the speaker and in an instant Sebastian was reminded of an éclair. It was the little boy earlier. "But the captions…never mentioned anything about the price, no?" the boy tilted his head to the left upon his question. His gaze never left Sebastian. "Eh, you must be…" Grell trailed off.

"Phanthomhive, but Ciel is fine," said the owner of the voice. There was an air of royalties and maturity the way he speaks and carried himself. Though, Sebastian wandered about his manners on the buffet table. "I take it you're interested in one of my pictures," Sebastian said after a moment of silence and stepped forward, hands out in the forms welcoming a handshake from the other company. "Michaelis," was all he mentioned. Ciel caught his hand and replied the gestures. "Indeed, especially the one with the mansion in it," Sebastian pondered for a moment. A mansion? Well, he'd taken a lot of architectural pictures and…yes, there is one. The Phanthomhive Mansion. It was one of his favourite too; the old mansion never looked more beautiful in its ruin state. "The Phanthomhive Mansion?" he asked, just in case. "Yes, obviously," "Well, pardon me but I have never had an intentions to sell—,"

"I understand that, your art was…indeed priceless. Therefore, I would like another picture, another side of the mansion, the darkest part perhaps…and I want it to be taken by you, of course." And indeed Sebastian's face was priceless at the moment. Was this, Ciel, joking? To ask such favour...meaning to be working under people commands, his commands, and Sebastian definitely not a people person, he wasn't one to understand people well and only a few would understand someone like him. Mentally shaking himself out of his stupor, he cleared his throat. "I…forgive me but I can't do that," Ciel raised an eyebrow at this. "And I believe I had the rights to protect my privacy,"

"You're going to sue me," stated Sebastian matter-of-factly. Somehow, he knew this moment would come. He knew he'd taken the pictures…well, most of it…spontaneously. Only when there is a need to ask for permissions he would follow the black and white protocols. "Blackmailing was more like it, actually," Now it was Sebastian to raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

There is a perfect reason why Sebastian had been avoiding speaking with visitors. This was one of the reasons. He never favoured to deal with something he's not interested to. Especially if it's involves money. Suddenly, out of nowhere came out an old Japanese man, wearing a suit that would indicate him as the guardian of the boy in front of him. Said the Japanese man bowed down a little before whispering something on the boy's ear. Ciel presented a soft smile as soon as the Japanese man bowed down again and took a stance behind the boy. "This is Tanaka, my butler. And unfortunately I had matters to attend right now—," he paused, as he eyed Sebastian from head to toe "—we will continue our pleasant meeting…sometime afterwards," he nodded and hand out a business card. Sebastian accepted his gestures and felt Grell was standing too close behind him. Both of them watched Ciel and his butler turned their heels towards the door, but after a few steps he stopped glanced over his shoulder and spoke "Though, you are an art yourself, Mr. Michaelis," leaving both Sebastian and Grell speechless for a moment. After those two disappear among the crowd and sculptures, Grell finally able to stutter out.

"I know this would sound…weird and complicated, but I believe that boy was mentally raping you," said Grell breathlessly.

"Mentally what, Grell?," Bard's voice came from behind Grell. Both turned towards the voice. Sebastian shrugged while Grell's face changes from bewildered to confused to sceptic and accusing. "And what's that got to do with you?" asked Grell. While Bard and Grell have those mental sparring Sebastian made his was towards the architecture section of the gallery and found a rather large commotion around the 32 inches wide picture of a ruined Phanthomhive mansion. Sensing people contact he quickly hid himself behind a large pillar situated across the picture as he watched an art educator explained towards the group of students.

Pondering on the brief conversation he had with Ciel Phanthomhive he couldn't help but wondering.

Ciel Phanthomhive, what do you want from me?

a/n: okay, i said that i will update smoothly after April..well, work caught me. Damn that. But here it is. i worked from noon till night...and sometimes late at night so, most of my fics ended up in my dream...which is...disturbing...sometimes. Oh.