"I'm home," Eleanora said tiredly, entering a small shack. Ciel and Sebastian cautiously followed her in and then Ciel promptly wished to leave again.

Eleanora lived in a crib.

"E-Eleanora," Ciel squeaked. "You don't—This isn't—Are you—?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Eleanora said. "I just share the place."

"Share it? With whom?"

"Oh, is that you, Mary Ann?" a woman's voice came from a decayed bed on the other side of the room. "I thought I heard you come in. Who's your friends?" A prostitute sat up in bed and smiled sleepily at the newcomers, modestly hiding her nakedness with a blanket.

"Forget em, Ida; go back to sleep," a man said irritably.

"Hello Joe," Eleanora said. "Having fun with your whore?"

"I had been, until you came in," Joe said, glaring at her. "The hell you doing ere? I thought you was working elsewhere. Celebrated your exit, I did."

"So sorry to crush your dreams," Eleanora said sarcastically. "But I work here now."

"What? As a bitch? Wouldn't mind getting a taste o that ass…" Joe grinned sleazily at her rear.

"Touch me and I'll make you a eunuch and feed you the remains," Eleanora said sweetly. "Ida, these are our guests. Keep your clients off of them, will you?"

"Certainly," Ida yawned. "How d'ye do, gents?"

"H-Hello," Ciel said. "This is where you live?"

It was just a one-room shack with two half-broken beds crammed inside, covered in ratty blankets and worn pillows. There was a rotted desk with a cracked mirror leaning against the wall. One half of the desk was crammed full of makeup and torn gloves and fake gems while the other half just contained a locked box.

"Be grateful; most people don't have it this good," Eleanora said, striding over to the desk and unlocking the box.

"'This good?'"

"You know, for a kid with no place to go, I'm not hearing much in the manner of 'gratitude.'"

"We're very grateful," Sebastian said firmly, interrupting a fuming Ciel. He placed some coins in Eleanora's hand, much more than he had originally intended to give her. "Thank you so much for your hospitality."

Eleanora scoffed and tossed the money into the box. It was filled with more money, as well as some random doodads and junk that must have been very precious to her for some reason.

"E-Eleanora?" Ciel whispered, leaning in close to her. "Where's the restroom?"

"Out that door," Eleanora gestured to a door on the right. Ciel opened it and looked inside.

"Eleanora, this is an alley," he said coldly.

"Uh-huh, and you'd better hurry up and do your business before someone notices you."

Ciel winced but went outside anyway and closed the door behind him.

"By the way, who is this 'Eleanora?'" Ida asked. "Surely they can't mean you, Mary Ann?"

Eleanora shrugged and removed her long heavy coat and her hat. She was wearing her usual black dress underneath the coat, but the dress didn't have long sleeves and so didn't hide the bruises that dotted her arms.

"What?" she said when she noticed that Sebastian was staring. "You can't brawl for a night and come out without a scratch."

She turned around again and quickly slipped off the top of her dress. She leaned over the desk and all of the money that she had collected in the night clattered into the box. She put the top back on and locked the box. The key was on a rope that was tied around her neck, like a necklace.

She sat down heavily on her bed and sighed.

"Aren't you going to sit down?"

Sebastian silently sat down next to her. The prostitute and the client fooled around for a bit more, slightly muffled because they both wanted to go back to sleep.

"Hey!" Ida said playfully to Sebastian, whose eyes had been wandering around the room. "Wait your turn. Or are you contented with just watching? And here I thought that you were a gentleman!"

"You misunderstand me," Sebastian said. "I have absolutely no interest in either you or your profession."

Ida turned bright red and she yanked the covers over her head, muttering "rude ass". Eleanora nudged him with her elbow.

"Be nice; you're a guest here."

"Please forgive me," he said and instead watched her. She was tracing her calloused hands over her bruised arms and staring gloomily at the floor. "Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?"

"Your arms—those bruises."

"They're a little sore, but this is nothing. It'll be worse in the morning. Then I'll be aching like hell."

"Why do you brawl, then?"

"Pays the bills."

"So does being a maid."

"In case you've forgotten, I can't be a maid anymore. No one wants to hire a married maid."

"Phantomhive does."

Eleanora told him where he could shove his Phantomhive.

"But I can't imagine that you like this kind of life," Sebastian said. He had already gotten used to Eleanora's language; it didn't bother him anymore. "Brawling every night and living with a prostitute…What do you do in the daytime?"

"Eat, mostly," she shrugged. "I don't have enough time to eat in the night, so I eat in the daytime."

"How much sleep do you get at night?"

"Geezus, why do you care?"

"Just wondering."

"I get enough."

"But how much?"

"! off, Mommy; I don't need your babying."

"I was only trying to help," he said quietly.

Eleanora laughed, a cold, half-forced laugh.

"'Just trying to help,'" she muttered. "Where the hell was your 'help' when I needed you?"

"You needed me?" He was surprised; he never thought that she would ever 'need' him. It was a surprisingly nice feeling—to be 'needed.'

"Of course I did. I needed you to shut up about my marital status—and you told. And now that I don't need you, now that there's nothing you can do for me, now you want to help me?" She laughed again. "God, this whole situation is like one bad clichéd joke that nobody got the first time."

"Don't say such things," Sebastian said.

"How can I not say such things? It's true."

"It's not."

"And how would you know?"

"I just do."

"Oh, then that must change everything, right?"

"Oy, lovebirds," Joe shouted from the other bed, "shut up."

"Shut up, Joe."

"That's what I just said…"

Ciel burst into the room, panting.

"That was horrible," he gasped. "Never again. Never, ever, ever again."

"But did you do your business?"

"Y-Yes…"

"Then what's the problem?"

"It was horrible! It was nasty and disgusting and—"

"Never mind; I don't really want to know," Eleanora said and stood up with a groan. "You can have the bed, if you like."

Ciel leapt for it immediately, but Sebastian caught him in midair.

"I think that the lady should get the bed," he said.

Eleanora looked around.

"A lady? Where?"

"Very funny," Sebastian said, raising his eyebrow at her.

She was actually confused.

"…I meant you."

"Oh!...But I'm not a lady. And the Earl should have the bed. That's fair. That's healthy."

"How is it healthy?" Ciel asked.

"Well, I know that, if you don't get the bed, you'll spend the whole night whining, so…"

"I do not whine!"

"Of course you don't," Eleanora said kindly. "But you should still get the bed. You're a noble. You don't know how to sleep on floors."

Ciel glared at Sebastian, as if daring him to change Eleanora's mind. Sebastian wasn't much in the mood to argue, so he just sighed and allowed the young Master to flop down on the bed. Eleanora sat by the door and leaned against the wall. Her eyes closed…

"I'm hungry," Ciel said.

"Tough," Eleanora said.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"Always."

"Isn't there food around?"

"Joe ate it all."

"What?" shouted Joe. "You can't just blatantly accuse me like that! I have rights! I have—"

"But did you eat all the food?"

"…Yes. But that's precisely beyond the point here…"

"Joe?"

"Wut?"

"Go back to your whore. Shut him up, Ida."

Joe looked furious, but Ida whispered something into his ear and he calmed down. They both lay back down and pulled the covers over their heads. Ciel waited until all was quiet and then he whispered.

"Sebastian?"

"Hm?"

"Are we safe here?"

"As safe as anyone can be here, my Lord."

"You won't fall asleep, right?"

"No, my Lord."

"Good," Ciel sighed and also—somehow—managed to fall asleep on the bed.

Sebastian stood up and sat down next to Eleanora.

"Are you going to go to sleep?" he whispered to her.

She shrugged.

"You should," he said. She shrugged again and smiled. "What? What is it?"

"Tomorrow," she whispered, "you're getting the hell out of here."

Then she closed her eyes again.