Chapter Seven

In Which A Secret is Learned

"Sleep well, my boy."

My boy…my boy. . . The words echoed around in Ciel's skull as he entered through the gates of dreamland. Where have I heard that before? Suddenly, his dream became clear. He was lying beside a warm body, creamy yellow and white fur surrounding him. His mother, his young beloved mother; how sweet her scent was…how grand.

"Do you remember?" A voice cooed. Ciel attempted to lift his head, but he found it impossible. Frightened, he tried to yowl out a cry for help, but found his jaws unresponsive to his brain's signals. "When this was all taken away from you?"

The image changed. Now he was looking at his dreams from an above view, and he watched helplessly as a black shadow moved into the mansion. It was like watching a movie—he wanted desperately to cry out to his parents, to wake them, but everything was already decided. First, it was his father's cries he heard, then his mother's. Again, he tried and failed to move, and the voice chuckled behind him. "You alone were spared young boy. But were you really spared? Or only doomed?"

Now, he could see the black figure. He couldn't tell what it was—it was only a shadow. There were no eyes, no face. He could only imagine that the shadow was looking down at his young form as he still slept in his bed. The creature spat, and flung itself out the window, quickly running from the scene. Not long after, he could smell the flames. The flames of his burning mansion. Ciel watched as his younger self awoke at the terrifying scent, then raced to his parents burning rooms.

"Mother!" They both cried out in unison. "Father!" Ciel kept repeating the screams, tears rolling down his face. He never wanted to see this scene again, he never wanted to feel the same fear…

"Bocchan," a worried voice called, waking Ciel from his dream. He could feel the tear stains on his cheeks where he had probably been crying. Sebastian's eyes were furrowed with slight worry as he looked down at the frightened boy. "Are you alright? You were screaming in your sleep."

"It was a nightmare." He sat up, causing the cat to shift and move so Ciel could be comfortable. "I'm hungry."

"Breakfast is waiting for you in the dining hall," Sebastian replied, jumping from the bed and shaking out his black and red fur. "Will you come and join the others, or shall I bring it here?"

"I'll come." He waited as Sebastian switched quickly into his human form, bringing out Ciel's outfit for the day and beginning to take off his nightgown. As soon as he was dressed, Ciel followed Sebastian down into the dining hall, where most of the main Black Lands residents already were. As usual, Ciel sat at his own table at the front of the room, eating away at his breakfast, a poached salmon. As much as he tried to stay away from his cat side, he always had a taste for fishy things and meaty things, nothing uncommon to the half-bloods. Ciel, however, wished he wasn't a half-blood—he wished he could just be a normal human, but that would never happen.

"Ah, Ciel!" Ciel turned as he heard Liz's welcoming voice, and she patted him on the head. "Did you have a nice sleep?"

"I was fine." He plucked her hand off of his head. "Would you please attempt to refrain from doing that?"

In a mocking sad, teary, woe-is-me English girl accent, Liz replied, "I'm *sniff* sorry my dear Ciel, please *sniff* forgive me?"

"Oh, stop that." Ciel smirked, taking a bite of his salmon. "You have a terrible accent."

"I'm supposed to. English accents, especially girl's, drive me up a wall."

"Is that why you hate Lizzy so much?"

"No. Well, that's one reason. She's also an annoying, snotty, stuck up, nuisance of a girl. I like the flies that sit on my food better than her. They make better pets."

Ciel managed a small smile as Liz pranced away, tail swishing back and forth.

"She must have quite the sense of humor to make you smile," Sebastian noted, smirking a bit. "A very special girl, is she not?"

"You could say that." Ciel soon found himself finished with his breakfast, and he pushed the plate away. Sebastian took the plate away to be cleaned, and Ciel sighed lightly, still brooding over his nightmare. The dark figure seemed so close, and he felt as though he knew who it was.

The evidence is right under my nose, Ciel thought angrily. It's right there, I know it is! All I have to do is find it.

As soon as Sebastian returned, Ciel stood. "I'm going for a walk. Come with me," he said, turning and heading for the exit. Sebastian nodded and followed him, like a faithful shadow.

Shadow…Ciel thought as they moved out of the hall and into the new sun. Could that be a sign? He follows me like a shadow…and the murderer in my dream was just a shadow…no, it couldn't be. Sebastian couldn't have been there, I hadn't summoned him yet. The fact that Sebastian wasn't the murderer seemed to relieve Ciel a bit…but why? Why was he relieved by that? Was he really worried that his butler was murderer?

"You seem to be very distant today, bocchan," Sebastian noted, easily keeping stride with the younger boy. "Are you still troubled by the attack?"

"No," Ciel murmured, looking down. "I'm fine. Don't worry so much, Sebastian. I can handle my troubles on my own."

The demon gave a sad little smile as they continued on, falling silent as Ciel gazed through the trees. Spotting a butterfly, Ciel thought to himself, Oh, how nice it would be to live a life without troubles. How nice it would be to simply forget about everything else and relieve myself for a while, without worry of being ambushed or to have assassination attempts on you every other day. To be as carefree as a butterfly, worrying only when a small bird comes by, or a cat, or perhaps even a dog. To be free to wander anywhere you want, sipping nectar out of flowers.

"You thought perhaps I was the one in your dream." Ciel was snapped back into real life as he noticed that he and Sebastian were standing on a hill, Sebastian turned to face him. He could see across the entire Black Lands territory from this point—he wasn't quite sure what caused his feet to bring him here though.

"H-how did you—how would you?"

"Do you take me as stupid? The signs were obvious."

Ciel bit his lip. He had nothing to say to that as he looked out across the land.

"I assure you, even though I used to murder when I was young, there was no way I could have killed your parents. I was still in the demon world."

"You used to murder?" This came as a surprise to Ciel as he looked at his butler with wide eyes.

"Yes. I was very…mentally unstable after my parents were killed." There was a gleam of sadness in Sebastian's eye as he spoke, looking out at the sun-tinted land. "The circumstances drove me insane. I was determined to punish the one responsible, but since I could not find him…I took to killing. It made me feel better that others would feel the same pain as I."

Ciel was quiet for a few moments, before turning his eyes back to the land. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Unknowingly, he leaned against Sebastian's side, slightly entwining his fingers with the demon's larger ones.

"Yes." And it was there they stood for a while, looking silently across the horizon.

Meanwhile, at Claude's headquarters, the large black panther paced angrily in front of his den.

"The nerve! I can't believe that creature attacked you!" he growled, turning to Alois and nuzzling him. "Don't worry Alois, I won't let them ever hurt you again."

Alois purred softly as Claude's long, rough tongue cleaned his scratches. "Claude, I wasn't hurt very badly."

"That doesn't matter," Claude replied, turning into his human form. He started to walk to his den, but Alois stopped him, placing his small hands on Claude's dense shoulders.

"You're so tense," Alois murmured, rubbing small circles on his shoulder blades. "You need to relax." The smaller blonde boy slipped in front of Claude, leaning up and pressing his lips to Claude's. If he was going to say anything, he stopped, letting Alois's tongue brush up against his lips. Pulling away from him for a second, Alois grinned.

"I know just how to help you."

Hours later, the two lay beside each other in Claude's bed, Alois's steady breathing in the only noise in the room. Planting a soft kiss on Alois's warm forehead, Claude smiled.

"Sleep well, my love. We have a big day tomorrow."