Eleanora scowled down at Ciel. She was wearing a large hat that hid her hair and was rather dirty. She was wearing loose men's clothes and was speaking in a much deeper, hoarser voice than usual. Someone wouldn't have been able to tell that it was Eleanora if they hadn't taken a second look at her. Ciel was incredibly pleased to see her; he probably would have hugged her legs if he hadn't been in a hurry to get inside and if he wasn't so dignified.

"Eleanora," he said, trying to make his voice steady while still trying to shout over the throng, "please. We need to get inside."

"Pay first," she said, shoving her hand into his chest.

"But don't you recognize me?" Ciel cried and then realized that yes, she did recognize them, which was why she was behaving like that. Her face continued to scowl yet her eyes darted around the crowd nervously. If she had acted as if she had recognized them, it would be the worse for all of them. It was safer to treat them as if they were nobodies.

Sebastian accordingly stepped forward and shoved several coins into Eleanora's hand. She dropped her arm, allowing them to dart inside, and then her arm shot up again to prevent anyone else from getting inside.

"Pay up, you little mother—"

Ciel didn't hear the last word right because Sebastian had quickly hurried him away.

They really needed a brawler waiting outside the door. The bar was crowded enough as it is; if there had been no one guarding the door, no one would be able to move around. As it was, however, Ciel still kept on being shoved and pressed against legs and someone even spat at him as he scooted past a table. He tried to catch Sebastian's eye, but the butler was staring intently at the bar.

Sebastian had seen that hooded man that the two men had confessed had talked to him. He was sitting in the darkest corner of the bar. He couldn't tell what species he was; there were too many other souls in the building for him to properly tell.

"Young Master," he said, trying to be quiet but still having to shout to be heard, "I've found what I believe to be the aforementioned man."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm going to go and talk to him," Sebastian said grimly and strode forward, leaving Ciel alone in the drunken throng.

"WHAT?! WHAT'S HAPPENING? WHERE ARE YOU GOING? COME BACK!"

Either Sebastian hadn't heard him or he wanted to make Ciel suffer a little bit, but he continued forcing his way towards the bar. Ciel tried to follow, only there were too many people forcing him back, laughing, swearing, blowing their disgusting breaths into his mouth…

Someone grabbed him by the shirt and hoisted him up over the masses, shoving him into a corner where there weren't too many people.

"Now just stay there and shut up," Eleanora hissed and stalked back to the door, stealing a bottle of alcohol from a table as she went and taking a swig from it.

Sebastian sat down at the bar, a little bit aways from the hooded man but close enough so that they could both see each other. The bartender came over, looking tired, and asked him what he wanted.

"Grenadine," Sebastian said.

The bartender's bloodshot eyes widened a bit in surprise.

"Grenadine? You mean…like the syrup?"

"Yes," he said and placed some money on the counter. "Just the syrup, and put it in a shot glass and leave the bottle." He slid some more money over to the bartender. "And tear off the label."

"Y-Yes sir," the bartender said, taking the money and walking away, looking over at him quizzically. Sebastian ignored him and fingered the ring in his pocket. There was a mirror in the bar; he could clearly see Eleanora in it. She was still yelling and kicking people and taking bribes to enter. Sebastian wondered where she was putting the money and then saw her stealthily pull her shirt collar away from her body and tuck the money down there.

"Oh, that's naughty," he thought. "A gentleman really shouldn't be watching that." He craned his neck to get a better look and then the bartender brought the grenadine. He had taken the label off, as he had requested. Sebastian nodded and gave the bartender more money. Then he started taking shots of the syrup, downing them one by one while watching Eleanora in the mirror and trying to ignore the hooded man who was now carefully moving closer to him, seat by seat.

"Heavy drinker, eh?" the man said. He was now sitting in the seat next to him. Sebastian turned around and looked at him, easily masking his surprise. The hooded man was speaking in a coarse tone, like the lower-class, only he wasn't very good at it. It was evident to a sober man that he was upper-class.

Sebastian shrugged and took another shot of the syrup.

"Drink helps a man who's trying to forget his troubles," he said, faking a slight drunken slur.

"Oh, you've been through troubles then, have you?"

"Oh yes."

There was a silence; Sebastian realized that the man was waiting for him to elaborate.

"Well, first my wife left me," he finally said. The hooded man whistled.

"That's rough, man," he said. "Did you love her?"

"Of course I did," Sebastian said, taking another grenadine shot. That was odd; his hand with the contract wasn't hurting the way it always did whenever he told a lie. Maybe it knew that it was an emergency and that he would feel the pain later. Or maybe the grenadine was numbing the pain. He took another shot. Mm, it was good.

"That's rough," the hooded man repeated sympathetically. "Was she pretty?"

"In her own way," Sebastian admitted. "She had nice eyes."

"Oh? What color were they?"

"Blue."

"How blue?"

"Deep blue. Like…like a sapphire. That really deep, intense color." Sebastian was surprised at himself. It wasn't like him to remember eye colors, especially eye colors right off the bat. Stress and adrenaline must have sharpened his memory. He would forget what color her eyes were tomorrow.

The man whistled again.

"You still love her, then?"

"I…suppose," Sebastian said cautiously. All this talk about Eleanora was making him uncomfortable. He didn't want to reveal anything else about her—or about himself. But the man didn't seem much interested in his wife.

"You take out your frustration in any way?" the man asked casually, playing with his glass. The man had a bottle of vodka next to him, but Sebastian didn't smell any alcohol. Also the man was taking shots from the bottle as easily as he was drinking his grenadine.

"He must have filled up a vodka bottle with water," Sebastian thought. "No human could drink that much vodka in one sitting."

Sebastian wasn't really sure what drinking vodka was like—as all alcohol is poison to the unholy—but he had heard that it was really vile and not easy for beginning drinkers. And this man looked like a beginning drinker.

"I did," Sebastian said, also trying to keep his tone light. "Some men assaulted me and tried to rob me and I beat them all up. Seven of them. It was fun. Made things easier."

This wasn't technically a lie; he really had gone against seven men who had tried to rob him. It hadn't happened recently, but it had happened, and that meant it was a half-truth, so technically not a lie. Demons are good at loopholes like that.

"Really? Seven men?" The hooded man looked impressed. "Hey—I like you. What say we go to the back room and have a friendly round of cards, hm?"

Sebastian grinned and polished off his bottle of grenadine.

"Certainly. But I warn you—I'm pretty good at them."

"That's awfully convenient," the man said, slapping his hand on Sebastian's shoulder. "Because I'm terrible at them myself."

Ciel was getting very tired and very sick. The smell of alcohol and dirty bodies was overwhelming. And plus he couldn't find Sebastian. He had seen him at the bar. First he had talked to the bartender, then he had started gazing very intently at the mirror. Once he even saw him craning his neck to get a better look at something; he probably was trying to find Ciel. Then the bartender brought him a label-less bottle filled with a bright red liquid and Sebastian began downing shots like he had been drinking all of his life. Ciel wasn't sure what the liquid was, but apparently Sebastian enjoyed drinking it. He hoped that his butler would stay sober enough to concentrate.

Then the hooded man and on the other side of the bar came over and they talked for a while and then the hooded man and Sebastian stood up and went to another room, laughing and talking. The hooded man kept slapping Sebastian on the back and Sebastian looked incredibly triumphant, as if something had gone directly according to his plans.

That had been an hour ago and they hadn't returned. Ciel shuffled around; his bare feet were getting cold and he wanted to go home.

The bar began to change. People started to mellow out and shuffle outside. Men went upstairs with prostitutes and the bartender began putting up chairs.

"Bar's closing in ten minutes," he said to Ciel as he passed.

"Th-Thank you," Ciel said. "Have you seen a man anywhere?"

"Kid, I've seen three thousand just today."

"He's outside," Eleanora sighed, entering the building. "I saw him. Pay up, Jimmy."

The bartender scowled at her but walked over to the cash register on the bar anyway.

"It's criminal to make me pay you," he grumbled. "I've seen all the money you've pocketed. I shouldn't have to pay you. You're making three times as much as I pay you from all the bribes you take."

"Ah, you can never have not enough money," Eleanora said, gleefully taking her payment and striding towards the door.

"Wait, that was a bribe? Meaning we didn't even have to pay? Come back here!" Ciel followed Eleanora out onto the street.

Sebastian was waiting by the side of the building, looking a bit cold.

"Young Master," he said upon seeing them. "Are you ready to depart?"

"I've been ready for hours," Ciel grumbled, hopping up and down. "Did you find out everything you wanted to know?"

"Yes sir."

"Then let's get out of here."

He looked around and his stomach dropped. It was awfully dark outside.

"E-Eleanora?" he called out.

Eleanora, who had been walking away, looked over her shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Where's all the gas lights?"

"Can't afford them," she said shortly. "Most of us get where we need to be by memory only. Good evening, gentlemen."

"Sebastian," Ciel said, turning to his butler, "you remember the way—right?"

Sebastian looked a bit sheepish, slightly sheepish but mostly annoyed.

"I can't be expected to remember everything."

Ciel groaned in annoyance and impatience and turned back to Eleanora, who by this time was little more than a shadow in the distance.

"Eleanora!"

"What?"

"You have to escort us back!"

"Ppff, I can't do that. I don't remember where the hell you live. And I'm not dumb enough to wander around these parts at night—especially with a bodice full of money."

"…Then take us with you?"

"Give me one good reason why I should."

"I'll give you several," Sebastian said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of coins, which tantalizingly jingled. Eleanora paused, thinking.

"Follow me and hurry up," she finally said irritably and strode into the darkness with Ciel and Sebastian behind her.