Sebastian was fully functioning and able to get back to work in a week. He was still rather fragile; he couldn't eat heavy things and tired easily, but at least all of his organs had repaired themselves and he was up and walking and alive.

He should have known it wouldn't last.

About half a week after his recovery, he was called into the young Master's study. He realized that something was wrong when Madam Red, Grell, the young Master, and Eleanora were all there—and they were all looking quite murderous.

Madam Red went first.

Sebastian had to stand there patiently for an hour while she lectured him about marriage and torture and fidelity and all those wretched human things that he really couldn't care less about but had to listen to anyway.

"You can't just marry any woman!" she finished. "What about the issues? What if you're not compatible? You have to agree on the necessaries!"

Sebastian sighed and turned to Eleanora.

"Miss Black."

"Hm?"

"Do you like…dogs?"

"Dogs?" Eleanora thought about it and made a small face. "N-No, not really. I've heard that some dogs are intelligent, but I've never really seen one in action. All the dogs that I have met are stupid. And they smell bad. No, I guess I prefer cats to dogs. I much prefer cats." She nodded decisively.

Sebastian grinned and smirked at the Madam.

"See? We agree on the important things."

Eleanora looked shocked, which quickly turned into anger.

"That's your main issue? On whether cats or dogs are better? Are you some kind of moron?"

Sebastian glared at her and she hissed at him.

"Enough," Ciel said, standing up in his chair. He glared at Sebastian, who stared down at the floor. It was rude to glare at earls, particularly earls that one had a contract with.

So he was silent throughout yet another hour-long lecture.

"Such behaviour cannot go unpunished," Ciel finished. "I didn't want to punish you while you were injured, but in a way, it's good that you had been out-of-the-way. It made it easier to choose the best punishment for you."

He whistled and then something large came bounding in. Something large and white and smelly…

"My Lord, why's the dog in the manor?" Sebastian said, unable to hide his disgust.

"It's not a mere dog, it's a demon hound," Ciel said, scratching the monstrosity behind its ears. "And his name is Pluto, and you'd better get used to him. For the next month, I want you to personally take care of him."

Sebastian's face was the very definition of "horror."

"My Lord," he said a bit faintly, "you can't be serious?"

"I'm dead serious," Ciel said. "For the next month, you'll be personally feeding Pluto, walking him, washing him, everything, and at night, he'll be sleeping in your room, and in the daytime, you'll be doing your duties with him around. If I catch you disobeying any of these rules, I'll increase the time period by a day. Is that clear?"

"Y-Yes my Lord," Sebastian said, but if looks could kill, Eleanora would have died instantly.

And to think that he was actually starting to tolerate her! Her! The traitorous maid! This was all her fault; she had taken things too far and now he was getting punished for it! She had withstood a life in the East End; one would think that she could handle a month of some minor roughing-up; he had fixed her once she had consented, right? Did that mean nothing? He was the one who had ordered the nuns to carefully preserve all of her "bits," so that when she had consented, they could be reattached and she would be absolutely healed. The marks weren't even visible anymore! She was fine now, right? It was all over with, right? So why was he getting tortured?

And she had been so kind to him before! She had fallen in a dead faint once they had gotten back to the manor, but that was understandable; such a powerful contract had to be firmly reattached, and that created a lot of pain. And then she had run off back to her pathetic middle-class family, but she had always returned at night to help at the manor and take care of him. She had changed his bandages and made him boiling-hot tea and had kept him as comfortable as possible…And now this! This was sheer betrayal.

He hated her. He hated her! He would never forgive her for this injustice and cruelty. He stalked away from the study with the damned demon mutt running after him, whining obnoxiously and breathing its horrendous-smelling breath and licking his nice, clean gloves…An angry demon is not a fun thing to have around, and if Eleanora had been working at the manor full-time, he would have cheerfully made her life as much of a hell as he could.

But with Sebastian properly healed, Eleanora had naturally assumed that the manor was back in good hands and spent most of her time working at the Standfields, so nobody saw much of her.

The month passed in agony for Sebastian. Once or twice he had "forgotten" to take care of the mutt and Ciel had, as promised, added another two days to the punishment. He tried to muzzle the beast, but the young Master didn't like that, so another day was added on.

But the month and three days eventually finished and the dog was forced back into its kennel and Sebastian spent another two weeks properly sanitizing and disinfecting the manor and all of his clothes and sheets and furniture. He deeply regretted behaving so rashly. He wished that he had never married that traitorous witch. He would hate her until Judgement Day.

He nodded to himself and sterilized his gloves for the fiftieth time that day. He was glad that she hated him. They could live in mutual hatred forever. He was so glad that he was a demon. He would never learn to tolerate her.