Chapter 4

"What will it be, Ritsuka? Stay here, or come with me?" Why does he have to say it like that? He makes it sound like I'm rejecting him if I don't say yes. This was more than just me or him. Having to sit by and not do anything while Ciel tried to solve my problems for me was frustrating. I had to rely on someone I barely knew and would never meet again after this. There had to have been something I could have done to help, I just didn't know what. Distancing myself was more than likely not the way to go, and the same went for staying here by myself. Fending for myself at home was entirely different than this. At least I fit in back home. I was familiar with my surroundings and I was more fluent in the language. Looking at this logically there wasn't any real choice, plus I didn't think Ciel was really going to let me go that easily, but at least Sebastian was trying to give me a sense of control in this situation.

I bit my bottom lip and reluctantly nodded, before slowly lowering my weight to a branch beneath me. "Jump." I felt my eyes widen at the suggestion and quickly shook my head. Unlike him, I wasn't sure I'd make the fall without hurting myself in the process. Sebastian chuckled at my reluctance, and assured he catch me.

"Don't make promises if you can't keep them." Sebastian remained silent as I continued to shimmy my way down the tree. Scraps of bark peeled off in my hands, and a few dead leaves had settled on top of my head by time I made the final leap to the ground. I brushed my hands off on my pants and looked to Sebastian, who picked a few pieces of bark out of my hair.

"Shall we be off?"

I nodded and lowered my gaze to the ground as he walked. Sebastian slipped his hand into mine, calmly writing it off as not wanting me to get lost as we left the grassy knoll. A few kerosene streetlamps had already been lit, and did their best to light the way. "I'm sorry about the other day, I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Sebastian took a moment to think back, then shook his head and smiled. "No harm done. I didn't take it personally."

I nodded again and continued to stare at the uneven cobblestone. I stole a glance at my surroundings, wondering how far we were going before realizing that there wasn't a carriage in sight. "Where are we going?"

Sebastian ruffled my hair, and offered no explanation for me. For the time being I wouldn't have to endure another carriage ride. The surrounding streets seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place where we were going. Thankfully it wasn't back to Lau, I knew that much.

A chill ran down my spine as we approached the Undertaker's shop and I involuntarily shivered at the thought of having to deal with the strange man again. Sebastian came to a stop a few feet away from the door and glanced down at me. "Are you cold?"

My ears flattened against the top of my head and I quickly shook my head. "No, it's nothing like that."

He doubtfully pressed one of his gloved hands against my forehead, then hummed to himself, stating, "You don't seem to have a fever."

"I told you I'm fine, but do we have to go in there?" Sebastian ruffled my hair again and took a step towards the door.

"There's no way around it. You'll have to endure it for the time being." He turned the knob and waited for me to enter first. A few candles placed haphazardly around the room did a poor job of fending off the creeping darkness, and called more attention to the macabre things floating around in the shelved jars. There wasn't any sign of the undertaker, but I kept my ears pricked for any sounds of movement that wasn't from Sebastian.

The butler scanned around the dim room before sighing and closing the door back. "I've brought him as you requested." After a lot of shuffling around and something heavy toppling to the floor, the Undertaker emerged from where he had been hiding out in the back room, a wide smirk spread across his face before having even laid eyes on me. "There you are! I was afraid the little earl would have scared you off by now."

I pressed my back against Sebastian's chest and remained silent. No amount of reassurances could make this feeling of unease around him disappear. Maybe it was just this place, and had nothing to do with the Undertaker himself. Eccentricity was nothing I wasn't used to, but there was just something there that made my blood run cold every time he tried to be friendly. I nodded curtly when he stopped in front of me, and kept my eyes trained on the creaky wooden floor. Sebastian looked on as the Undertaker rested his hand on top of my hand, and vigorously tousled my hair. I swatted his hand away when he gave a tuft of my hair a gentle pull and firmly told him not to touch me.

He giggled and backed away, his creepy smile never fading. "Where did you say you were from again?"

"I didn't." When I looked to Sebastian for help, he pretended not to notice my apprehension and remained silent while the Undertaker continued to prod me. "How about when? I've seen some pretty strange things in my travels, but I have yet to come across someone with you…affliction."

"It's not an affliction, I'm not sick! I told you, this is normal."

Undertaker chuckled and ruffled my hair again in spite of my attempts to dodge his hand. "Maybe there it is, but, in case you haven't noticed, you stand out, kitten."

"Don't call me that. I'm not a cat."

"I never said you were little one." He looked to Sebastian then added, "If this doesn't work I could always try writing him back."

Sebastian frowned, and protectively rested one of his hands on my shoulder. "Even if it would work, how safe could it really be?"

Undertaker shrugged, sounding a little too enthusiastic when stating he didn't know. "Worst comes to worse, I can always bring him back by the same method and we can try something else."

"I would hope it doesn't come to that." Sebastian steered me back outside, and paused in the open door after directing me into the carriage. "I'll see if I can turn up anything on my end." The Undertaker waved him off and closed the door to his shop after Sebastian had closed the door to the carriage.

"What was that about?"

Sebastian flashed me a weary smile as the carriage started to amble down the long road leading back to my temporary home, still keeping whatever was going on a secret from me. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."

I frowned and glared at Sebastian, trying to press him for an answer. "Then why did I have to be there if it was 'nothing I need to concern myself with'. If that was the case I could have waited in the carriage."

"There are some things you're better off knowing. Once you learn something, you can't forget." I shouldn't have expected things to change. For now I let the subject drop, and gazed out across the darkened landscape as it rolled by. Sebastian had made a big deal about my coming back and now I was right back where I started: out of the loop. None of us seemed to really know what was going on, or how to fix this, but Sebastian and Ciel knew what they were trying to do while I was left with vague snippets of conversation and empty promises. Then don't put me in the middle of this.

The rest of the carriage ride carried out in tense silence. I slipped into a light doze on several occasions, but each time I awoke to find Sebastian watching me. His brow furrowed, as if something troubled him, but when I tried to figure out what, he ignored me, and checked the time instead. Ciel's brightly lit home stood a beacon of light amongst the trees, and was a welcomed sight.

We went our separate ways once inside, and it was probably for the better. Sebastian went to the kitchen to check on dinner preparations while I retreated to my room. My head was still spinning from the long carriage ride. A few minutes rest and ridding myself of these stuffy clothes was just the remedy I needed. The light remained off as I navigated around the darkened room with ease. I flopped down on the oversized bed and buried my face in one of the pillows in an attempt to block out all the shuffling other just barely audible sounds floating up from their unseen sources. It must have worked, because in now time at all I had managed to drift off.

Nothing had changed when I slowly swam my was tot he surface of my consciousness other than the eerie silence that had settled over the house. There was no way to be certain until the clock downstairs chimed the hour, but my growling stomach told me I had slept a long longer than I had originally intended. I swiped my tongue around my dry mouth a few times, and stretched my tense shoulder muscles before stumbling out of bed.

Moonlight drifted in through the open curtains, and helped me make my way across the room to the door. Making my way through the complex series of different corridors was another matter entirely. I ran my fingertips along the smooth wall as I went, feeling my way down the stairs and to the kitchen. Navigating through the downstairs halls was a lot easier than it was upstairs, because of all the windows letting in what little moonlight there was. I'm surprised woke me up...unless no one came to check on me.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my bedraggled hair. It was for the best, at least that's what I told myself. I shouldn't have expected so much. If anybody was going out of there way to keep an eye on me it was Sebastian, and I still couldn't figure out if we were on speaking terms or not. Even after apologizing for taking it out on him, I just went and did it again. It's not his fault this happened. If he hadn't been trying so hard to get close, maybe I wouldn't have felt like I needed to keep him at a distance. I couldn't get close to him. There was no way this was going to end well for us.

After a few tries, I found the right cabinet and pulled out cup. At some point in my quest to sate my appetite, Sebastian had emerged from his room, and ended up positioning himself a foot behind me while I was filling the cup with water. I started when turning around, and nearly choked on the apple I had been munching on. I coughed several times to dislodge the chunk of apple stuck in my throat, before straightening, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Forgive me." He waited until I had taken a few sips of water and taken a few shaky breaths before continuing. "I was wondering when you would finally wake up."

I nodded and took another sip of water in attempts to get rid of the burning in my throat.

"How about something to eat?"

I nodded again, and eased myself onto the counter as he heated up the remainders of tonight's meal for me. We went about out business in silence, and after I had finished he wouldn't let me do so much as wash the dishes. Having slept the rest of the evening and most of the night, I wasn't quite ready to go to bed again, so I followed Sebastian back to his room. Once again, his cat was sprawled out on the desk next to a stack of papers and the window was wide open. "Don't feel you have to stay here."

"I don't. I'm just not tired yet." His cat picked it's head up as I lingered by his desk, trying to make out the titles of the books and failing. There embossed letters were either too faded on their cracked bindings, or hadn't existed in the first place. What would someone like him even read?

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I may not be the liveliest of company."

I shrugged, offering my hand to the lethargic cat. For now it let me pet them, and I glanced at Sebastian as he flipped through a book with a black binding. There were a lot of alchemy symbols, but that was the only thing I could pick out of the strange words scribbled out on the page. I couldn't even recognize the language. I caught him looking at me from the corner of his eye and quickly took his cat into my arms. The large animal mewed softly, but made no attempt to worm it's way out of my grip. "What are you reading?"

He chuckled softly, and took one of the cat's paws in his large hand. It's claws poked out from their sheaths when he applied a slight pressure. Aside from an annoyed huff, the cat put up with it. He must do that a lot. "It's quite a mouthful, and I don't know how well it will translate."

"What's it about?"

"In layman's terms, voodoo, and alchemy. I'm quite surprised, the two don't normally mix well."

For a moment I set aside logic. Of the two, alchemy was probably a more realistic option than strange chanting and human sacrifice. How the two could ever be related was beyond me, but Sebastian seemed to know more on the occult that I ever could, and for that I was thankful. This was the only thing I was happily uninvolved with. If I had been stuck pouring over stuff like this day and night I might have gone a littler mad. "I didn't think they would either."

"Some tribesmen have the right idea with some of their rituals, but most of these are just embarrassing. Why the indigenous people have such a thing for chicken blood I'll never know." A low, annoyed sound escaped him as he stared into his cats eyes, as if he had personally been wronged by a botched voodoo ritual. The thought of it was enough to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Who knew a butler could have such a colorful past.

I returned his cat to the desk and eased myself onto the edge of the bed, before curling up on my side. Sebastian continued to read, occasionally frowning at the page or smiling to himself as if the strange symbols hid some sort of hidden joke only he understood.

My eyelids started to grown heavy when Sebastian's cat settled next to me, purring and smacking my thigh with its long tail. "If you insist on sleeping in here, you should at least get under the covers."

I waved him off and continued to run my fingers through the cat's soft fur. The air drifting in through the open window hadn't been that cold. Sleeping with the window was something I had done dozens of times, why would doing it here be any different?

The wooden chair scraped against the floor as Sebastian shoved away from his desk and moved me under the blankets himself. I left my arms draped around his neck when he tried pulling away again, until Sebastian cradled me in his lap. "You shouldn't stay up so late."

"You should worry more about your own needs."

I shook my head and shifted unto a more comfortable position, tucking my head under his chin and closed my eyes. "Don't tell someone to do something you won't do yourself."

He sighed when I continual refused his attempts to put be to bed, and sighed. "I can't very well do that with you clinging to me like this."

After a moments deliberation, I slide out of his lap and flopped down on the bed again, working my way under the blankets without disturbing Sebastian's sleeping cat. He tucked away a few loose pieces of paper, and carefully placed his books in the drawer of his desk before turning off the light and returning to my side. He ran his fingers through my hair and gazed into my eyes, Moonlight drifting in through the window gave his black hair a silver glow, and his normally dark red eyes seemed almost black in the low light. The sound of out shallow breaths filled the silence, as I hesitantly brought on of my hands up to rest against his chest. Warmth flowed off his skin and into my hands, and I could feel each rise and fall of his chest while he breathed.

Silence stretched between us as I inched closer to him, until my chest was pressed against his. Sebastian remained frozen where he was, his face, as always, a mask of cool indifference. His eyes remained transfixed on mine as the space between us closed, and he met me halfway for a gentle kiss. He buried his fingers in my hair while I clung to the front of his shirt. We parted for air, and Sebastian continued to place kisses on the sides of my face. "I something wrong?"

I shook my head and buried my face in his chest, suddenly embarrassed by the outburst. What was I thinking?Sebastian stroked one of my ears, humming softly until I managed to steal a glance up at him. He stopped humming, and brushed some hair off my face, smiling at me. "No need to be shy, there are worse things we could have done."

Heat rose to my cheeks and I buried my face in his chest, trying to hide my rising embarrassment at what he was implying. Joking or not, adults didn't usually tease kids about that until they got older. "My parents would kill me if I lost my ears."

Sebastian chuckled, and gently kissed me again. "Such things are left for better circumstances." He continued to run my fingers thought my hair, after I had turned and pressed my back against his chest. Warmth wrapped around me as I slowly drifted off to sleep once again.

Early afternoon light filtered in through the now closed window as Sebastian dressed himself for the day. His cat was long gone, having sought greener pastures from whatever it did all day to occupy itself. Ritsuka was still curled up on the bed. At some point during the night after Sebastian left him, he had wormed his way under the blankets. Now only his ears were sticking out from under the cotton fortress.

Sebastian could hear the rest of the staff slowly rising from their slumber down the hall, but it would have been at least another hour before he would have anything for them to do. He was almost done buttoning his tailcoat when he felt a presence behind him. He turned with a sigh and waited for his unannounced guest to emerge from the shadows. "I supposed I should expect nothing more from a 'butler' of you caliber."

Undertaker leaned against the door frame, and watched as Sebastian closed back his wardrobe. He jumped right to the point, and explained, "The young master has not yet risen, you'll have to wait."

"No need, I've done it myself." The strange man giggled when Sebastian glared at him. The fact that he had managed to elude Sebastian for so long frustrated him. It was one thing to remain hidden when he wasn't looking for him, but for him to have simply waltzed in with out a care in the world and have been right under his nose for so long annoyed him.

Sebastian brushed past the Undertaker in favor of beginning preparations for Ciel's morning meal. After watching Ritsuka sleep for a few more moments, Undertaker followed suit. The thought of Ritsuka getting caught up in Sebastian's charm brought a smile to his face. The young boy had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Just as he eased the kettle onto the stove, Sebastian sighed, busying himself with making toast for his disgruntled master as he stumbled down the hallway. Ciel ambled into the kitchen a few moments later, running his fingers through his disheveled hair. "Sebastian, what is the meaning of all of this?"

"That's something I'd like to know myself." Silence fell across the room as they both turned to the Undertaker, who was leaning against the counter and watching the unusual pair. However, he didn't speak until being prompted. "Why are you here?"

"I've come up with an explanation to our little kitten's sudden appearance here." It was this moment, Ritsuka chose to drag himself out of bed in search of something that would wake him up. Having slept a little over twelve hours, the last thing he wanted to do was risk sleeping the morning away as well. Even now as he ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tame the tangled tresses, sleep was the first thing on his mind. In his defense, he had been sleeping a lot more than usual since coming here.

Feeling eyes on him, Ritsuka picked his head up and took a step back when he saw Ciel, Sebastian, and the Undertaker watching him. Without a word he turned to go, assuming his presence was unwanted. Ciel was fully prepared to let him go, more concerned about where he was coming from than him potentially walking in on something that had been decided he didn't need to know about. However, it was Undertaker who stopped him, and instead invited him to join in on their unusual early morning meeting.

Ritsuka hesitated near the doorway leading to the back hallway, wary of the abrupt invitation before deciding to stay. At least someone felt the need to include him on this. Ciel continued to ignored his presence, while Sebastian tenderly brushed back some of his bedraggled hair. A soft sigh escaped Ritsuka, and he didn't put forth the effort required to step out of arms reach.

Undertaker paused for a moment, as if he had lost his train of thought before taking up where he had left off. "Someone on the other side had opened a portal. I won't name names, but a spell like this isn't easily preformed. Someone really wanted our little kitten gone."

Ritsuka shied away from Undertaker when he stopped to look at him, a broad smirk plastered across his face. "What's to stop someone from doing this again?"

The Undertaker giggled, before cheekily explaining, "that would be quite impossible because he is dead as a door nail. I did say, a spell like this wasn't easy to do."

Ritsuka frowned at the ground, having no idea why someone would go through so much trouble to get rid of him. He hadn't done anything worth noting back home, and it wasn't like his parents were involved with anything bad.Did something happen after I got sent here? What if there was no place for me to go back to? He nervously bit his bottom lip, is ears flattening to his head as thousands of worst case scenarios ran through his mind. There was nothing he could do while he was stuck here, but he didn't know what was worse: not knowing, or being stuck here feeling so useless.

Ciel waved aside the Undertakers words and started to trudge back to his room. "If you come up with a safer method to accomplish the opposite, feel free to stop by for tea at a less ungodly hour. Sebastian, bring me my tea when it's done." He was barely out of ear shot when the Undertaker frowned and said, "the little earl must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed."'

Sebastian nodded slightly, neither agreeing or disagreeing with his unexpected guest. Ritsuka remained frozen to his spot while Sebastian removed the now boiling water from the kettle, and reached into the cabinet for a box of green tea. "Shall you be staying for breakfast?"

Undertaker shook his head, straightening with a glance at the clock on the wall. "I have some guests waiting for me, I just thought I'd share the good news in person." He looked to Ritsuka then added, "cheer up little one, everything else will work out as it's supposed to."

Ritsuka barely nodded as the Undertaker crept out as silently as he had appeared. Ritsuka son followed, retreating back to his room for a bit of privacy and a moments peace before having to confront what was going on.

Ciel was gazing out of the windows behind the desk when Sebastian brought him his afternoon tea. A small stack of papers remained on his desk, relatively untouched since Ciel had placed them there a few days ago. With some prodding he could have everything squared away in a matter of hours, but with everything that had been going on, he found it hard to concentrate.

At first he pretended not to notice his butler's presence, but for moments after Sebastian had already poured the tea Ciel failed to dismiss him. Sebastian stared at the back of his chair while waiting for his master to address him. He would have rather started lunch preparations and set to work on the cake Ciel had been pestering him about, yet there he stood.

Ciel studied Sebastian in his reflection off the window for quite some time, before finally asking, "just what are you doing with him?"

Sebastian let his arms fall to his sides and played along with Ciel for the time being. "Which him are you referring to?"

Ciel frowned at Sebastian's reflection, and turned with a sigh. For once he had anticipated this sort of reaction from his troublesome butler, but he wasn't much in a joking mood. He had been placed in a delicate situation and he wasn't going to deal with any negative outcome born from his butler's need to cause mischief wherever he went. "I'm talking about Ritsuka. Whatever you are trying to do to him, I demand you stop."

A smiled twitched at the corners of Sebastian's mouth as he realized where Ciel was going with this, but he quickly regained his original composure and calmly responded, "I don't intend to do anything with him."

"Don't play stupid with me Sebastian, it won't work."

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but I am not. The boy simply latched on to me. I cannot do anything about that. If you prefer, you could spend some time with him and maybe he wouldn't feel the need to attach himself to me as he does."

Ciel frowned at the thought, promptly dismissing it. He didn't have to time to aquatint himself with someone who would be leaving as soon as he could make it happen, and he wasn't supposed to have ever met in the first place. Only he wished Sebastian would follow in his footsteps and do the same. There was no way to know how his trip through time was affecting the future, and such a thing wouldn't be noticed until Ritsuka was sent home. Hopefully it was permanent this time. Ciel couldn't even begin to fathom what he or his family must have been involved with for someone to kill themselves just to dispose of Ritsuka in such a way even temporarily. "I don't have time for such nonsense and neither do you. If you put half as much effort into finding a way to get rid of him as you did fraternizing, we might have gotten rid of him already."

"If I was capable of pulling off such a feat, I assure you, I would have already done so. It's been more difficult to find a reasonable solution than I had originally anticipated and even then, there's no sure way to know if it will work."

"It will. It had to Sebastian." Ciel finally picked up a few of the papers and started skimming through one of them, wanting to seem busy when Sebastian left. "If not you'll have to try again until you get it right." Sebastian nodded and bowed, with a compliant, "of course, my lord." Sebastian was as much as a loss for an explanation as Ciel, but he wasn't sure that Ritsuka had been sent here because of something that he had done. The boy was genuinely confused about this predicament, but Sebastian wasn't sure how long something like this could have gone on unnoticed. If he was going to get Ritsuka back home, it would have to be fast and without fuss.

"That will be all Sebastian." Sebastian straightened and tucked the now empty tray under his arm before making a break for the door. After the sturdy wooden divider had clicked back into place, Ciel sighed and tossed his papers aside again in favor of staring out across the garden. He brushed back some of his dark hair and shifted into a more comfortable position in his high-backed chair. There was nothing for him to do now but wait, and hope that everything would work out for the better. He had enough on his plate with having to deal with whatever missions the Queen sent him on without having to worry about deformed children who dropped out of the sky and claimed to have been from the future. There has to be more to this than what he's told us. I just haven't figured out what.