Eleanora slowly woke up in that way where one feels that they're waking up, but they also vaguely realize that, if they wanted to, they could go back to sleep again and no one would be the wiser: that nice, comforting, pleasant feeling. She smiled and wrapped her arms around her pillow—it was an odd pillow; it was kind of hard yet kind of soft and it was cylindrical. She buried her face into it…It smelled nice, like lilies. And she was warm, so warm…She hadn't been this warm in forever. Someone was gently smoothing her hair and that felt so wonderful…She was about to fall asleep when she realized that no one in their right mind would ever actually want to pet her hair so kindly.

Her first thought was that she had died and gone to heaven and an angel was doing it. Her second thought was that she probably wasn't good enough for heaven so she had died and gone to hell and a demon was doing it, just to mock her. She opened her eyes and saw the half-rotted, dirty floor of the crib and realized that her "pillow" was actually someone's leg.

She made a sound similar to "YAAIII!" and leapt away, hitting her back against the wall. "Ow…"

"Are you alright?" the butler asked, completely casually, as if he didn't care that she had just spent the last minute cuddling with his right leg.

"You—Who—What—" she choked out and pulled the coat that had been draped over her shoulders tighter around herself—and then she realized that this was his coat. "Wh-What happened? What'd you do?"

"I did nothing," he said, still as infuriatingly calm as ever. "You did it yourself."

"Why? What did I do?"

"You fell asleep," he said, stretching his arms, "and then you fell down on my lap."

"And you didn't wake me up?"

"No."

"Why the hell not?"

"Firstly, I have decided that you're the type of woman where waking you up is dangerous to my health. Secondly, I thought that you might need the sleep. And thirdly—" He trailed off, paused, frowned, looked away.

"And thirdly…?"

"Never mind; it's not important."

"But isn't this your coat?"

"It is."

"Why'd you give it to me?"

"You were shivering."

"SO?"

"So, as a gentleman, I couldn't just sit by and allow a lady to freeze."

"I don't know what's funnier: the fact that you think that I'm a lady or that you consider yourself to be a gentleman."

Eleanora groaned and stood up, tossing the coat aside. Her prediction last night had come true: everything ached.

"Ohhh, what time is it?"

"About noon, I should think."

"What? Already? You have to leave! Now!"

She yanked the blankets off of her bed and Ciel fell to the floor.

"OW! Wh-What is it? What's going on?"

"You have to leave," she said. "Hurry up and get a move on."

"Why do we have to leave so suddenly?" Ciel yawned. "I'm still tired."

"Because I want you to get out of here as fast as possible. Come on: move move move!"

In five minutes they were out the door and Eleanora had locked it.

Ciel and Sebastian looked at each other.

"…Do you remember the way out?" Ciel finally asked.

Sebastian blinked, sighed, and knocked on the door.

"Go away," Eleanora said sulkily.

"Miss Black," he said sweetly. "We have great need of your assistance again."

"Go away."

"We'd be most grateful to you."

"Go away."

"And there'll be a reward for you at the end."

Silence, and then she opened up the door again, looking marvelously annoyed.

"Fine," she said icily. "I'll get you back to your townhouse. But then I never want to see you again."

"Thank you," he said, smiling brightly.

"Hm," Eleanora said and shoved past him. "Well, hurry up; I haven't got all day!"

Sebastian picked up the bare-footed Ciel and they followed Eleanora through the East End, which was far tamer in the daylight than it was at night.

It didn't take very long to get from the crib to the townhouse. Ciel was incredibly pleased to be back in proper civilization and demanded a bath right then and there.

Sebastian went inside to get him all set up while Eleanora waited in front of the gates for her payment.

"Sorry for the wait," he said, coming back out. "The young Master didn't like the temperature of the water."

"It's fine," she said. "But do you think he'll be alright?"

"Yes, why?"

"I mean, he's not going to drown in the bathtub, right?"

"I doubt he's as stupid as that," Sebastian assured her and paid her. "But then again, I have been wrong before."

"Hm," she said and gave a small smile. He couldn't tell whether she was smiling because she thought he was amusing or because of the money, but he frankly didn't care. It was a nice smile either way.

That is, if humans even had nice smiles, which they didn't. He was just overtired, that was all. It wasn't that great a smile. And she hadn't even looked that cute while she was sleeping on his lap. In fact, she hadn't looked cute at all! Cats were cute. Eleanora was disgusting. End of story.

She was about to pocket the money and thank him when a young man ran by them, so quickly that Sebastian hadn't even realized that something was wrong until Eleanora shouted,

"HEY! He stole my money!"

Then he promptly sprang into action.

He was behind the young man in two strides, then he leapt up and quickly planted his foot down on his back, pinning him to the ground.

"H-Hey man; I'm sorry, I didn't mean nothing by it; I'm sorry man; I'm sorry…Hey, HEY! Wait a moment! That's my money!"

Sebastian had recovered Eleanora's payment and, as a bonus, had also deftly taken the man's wallet.

"You'd better leave," he said coolly, stepping off of the man's back, "and get out of here before I call the police."

The man opened up his mouth to protest, saw the expression on Sebastian's face, and then decided that it wasn't worth it. He ran off, sobbing.

Sebastian watched him go, and then turned back to Eleanora.

"Here," he said, giving her money back to her, "and, a dividend." He gave her the wallet.

Eleanora was staring at him wide-eyed.

"That was…That was…"

"Yes?"

"That was…amazing…" she said, and for the first time, she looked at him with respect and—dare he think it?—admiration. "That was just…wow. That was incredible! You were amazing!"

"Oh—Thank you," Sebastian said, suddenly feeling very awkward but also very pleased with himself.

"Well…Goodbye," she said, giving him a real, genuine smile. "Thank you for everything."

She sauntered off. Sebastian watched her leave.

"That's odd," he thought. "She seems to be moving in slow-motion."

And someone, somewhere, was playing a nice piece of classical music.

And he felt strangely light and ecstatic, as if he was walking on air, which was completely ridiculous. But for the rest of the day, absolutely nothing bothered him. The young Master whined and complained; the servants ruined things, as usual; but he still remained utterly at peace and the light feeling never left him.

"I'm just tired," he told himself over and over. "I'm just overtired. Some rest and I'll feel normal again."

But he subconsciously realized that deep down, he didn't want to feel "normal" again. He wanted to remain like this forever.

But he would be fine in the morning. Everything would be fine in the morning.

He lay down on his bed for a quick half-hour or so of rest. The last thing he thought about before he fell asleep was Eleanora's smile.