"Just one, my lord, give me just one joke!"

"I will do no such thing."

"I guess you're getting your information somewhere else, then."

Ciel huffed. His father must have had both an excellent sense of humor and patience to deal with this old fool. He stood across from Undertaker, trying and failing to get the information he needed for his first case as the Queen's guard dog. He could not fail his first mission! This was preposterous, his family's reputation scared the daylights out of London but this maniac was just giggling as if his anger was amusing.

He shoved the handle of his cane under the mortician's chin threateningly. "You listen to me, old-"

His well prepared threat was cut short by an impossibly strong hand knocking him off his feet. Undertaker's giggles turned to deep laughter as Ciel landed on a coffin. He fell back onto his desk, clutching his sides. Ciel sat up, dusty, sore, and furious. "You would dare lay a hand on the Earl Phantomhive?"

"You're so cute!" Undertaker said, still laughing. "Listen here, ya little brat. That name doesn't make you some kinda God, trust me I'd know about it. I respected your father because respect is earned, see, so don't expect to come struttin' in here with that smug look on your face and me to kiss your boots. Now get out."

Ciel made to continue the argument, but Undertaker started to get up and he thought better of it; the old man was stronger than he looked. He marched out with as much dignity as possible (read: none) and stood on the sidewalk. The man's words had cut deeper than he expected. How was he supposed to know any of that? He just got dropped into all this mess with no one to mentor him! His mother was trying to stay strong but she was still half mad with grief, he could hardly seek her advice. He turned down a side alley to clear his head before he went back into the Undertaker's shop with a different attitude.

"Aww is wittle Ciel Phantomhive saaaaad?" drawled a high voice.

He turned to see the entrance of the alley blocked by a boy no older than him and not much taller, holding a supernatural looking weapon across his shoulders. Ciel reached back to rest a cautionary hand on his gun. The revolver had been in the drawer of Vincent's desk, and though he hadn't used it, he had examined it and felt confident he could hit this mad boy. The voice rung a bell in the back of his mind but he spared little thought for it. He was more concerned with the massive, curved blade glinting in the afternoon light that filtered into the alley. It was a shady side of town so Ciel doubted anyone would stumble across them for quite some time.

"I wouldn't come any closer, vagrant."

Childish laughter echoed off the brick walls. As the boy stepped forward Ciel saw purple laced boots and shorts just a couple inches too short to be decent. That bell was ringing louder now but he had to focus on the matter at hand. He drew his gun and grasped it with both hands. A gust of wind swept through the alley, sending leaves and debris around their feet, and whipped a purple coat around a blond haired boy who had just stepped into the light.

He almost lowered the gun instinctively, then raised it again. "No...you're dead."

"I was, yeah. It wasn't doing it for me."

"Who are you?"

The space between them vanished and a warm mouth came to his ear. "Who do I look like, sweet Ciel?"

The worst kind of shiver went through him as a tongue darted out to lick the shell of his ear. It had happened before, at the orphanage, and he had struck the boy who dared to touch him. He thought back to a seductive smile and eyes the color of fresh rainwater. "Alois."

"I do love it when you say my name." Alois twirled, his blade missing Ciel's face by inches.

"Get away from me."

Alois flipped his hair back from green eyes, proving Ciel's theory that whatever he was now, it wasn't human. He began firing the revolver, taking a step back with each shot. Alois' blade was in his hands in a movement too fast for his eye to track. He brandished it with terrifying grace, deflecting each bullet with ease. He once more closed the distance between them and knocked the gun out of Ciel's hands with a final spin of his scythe. Then Ciel, for the second time that day, was hurtling toward the ground. This time there was someone on top of him.

"Are you done? I'm not here to hurt you...unless you're into that kind of thing," Alois said from where he lay atop Ciel, pinning his hands to the filthy ground as the young Earl struggled against him. His smile widened the longer Ciel fought back. He flicked his tongue against the throbbing pulse point in Ciel's exposed neck.

"Stop licking me you freak!" Ciel pushed against him and Alois allowed himself to be dislodged. He stood up and crossed his arms, glaring at Ciel. His moods were as unpredictable as ever, then.

"You never did want to play with me," he pouted.

Ciel stood up and brushed himself off. "If you're not here to hurt me, what are you here for? And what are you, for that matter?"

"So many questions, you really don't know anything." Alois smirked, seeming pleased with the dig. He tossed his hair and said, "I'm a grim reaper, obviously. See? I have a death scythe."

"Do excuse me, my tutor only touched on the educational material of how to identify a grim reaper in five easy steps."

Ignoring Ciel's quip, he carried on, "I harvest human souls and I also investigate when there seems to be something funny going on with them."

"That's lovely. You enjoy that."

He tried to shoulder past Alois but was blocked by that damn scythe and pushed back into the place he had just been standing. Alois knocked him back a step with an angry jab of his weapon. "You're awfully cocky for someone carrying around a fragment of a human soul. The reapers don't approve."

"Carrying around what?"

"Oh, you really don't know?" Alois blinked, forgetting to look smug for a minute as his face betrayed true surprise.

Ciel ground his teeth together. "Explain."

Alois hefted his scythe back onto his shoulders, his anger fading faster than it had appeared. "It was easy enough to figure out why we couldn't harvest Vincent Phantomhive's soul once we found the pentagram on his chest. You can't reap a soul that's been eaten, but the ledger had his soul in two places."

Eaten...ledger...Ciel wanted clarification, but it wasn't worth hearing this prat gloat. He tried not to look as confused as he felt. "So where was the other place and how does a human soul end up in two places anyway?"

"I can answer the first question, the second one, nobody is quite sure of. We haven't really seen this happen before."

"So where's the rest of his soul?"

Alois took his hand before he could resist. He lifted it almost to his face and stared at it through his oversized glasses. Ciel tried to yank it back but he was as formidable against Alois as a kitten against a lion. Alois ran his finger down Ciel's thumb, down to his ring. He stared at the large blue stone.

"It would seem it's right here."

))))((((

"You were the shadow to my light

Did you feel us?

Another star, you fade away

Afraid our aim is out of sight

Wanna see us, alight."

))))((((

Sebastian opened his eyes to a scathing light. He raised a hand to his face, unsure why it bothered him so. He could stare into hellfire (he had been born of it, after all), he didn't know why it was hurting his eyes now. He sat up and blinked a few times to clear away the retina burn. The weather was oddly moderate for Hell. Furthermore, how had he fallen asleep? He only slept from time to time when he was on Earth to pass the time. He didn't think he had slept once in his centuries in Hell.

He looked back up and realized what he had seen was not hellfire, but the sun. Hell didn't have a sun. Slowly, two plus two began to equal four. If Hell didn't have a sun and there was a sun up there...he wasn't in Hell. Okay, very good. He had that whole debacle sorted out.

Wind swept around him, carrying the scent of sunlight, humans, and pollution. He turned in a circle to observe his surroundings. There was a view of the city but the valley seemed to be quite a few miles away from it. He had awoken on a field of tall grass tainted only by the scorch mark that was about six feet long where he had arrived.

"The human world," he said, hardly believing it.

He couldn't remember how he got there, or why. He started to make his way across the valley when he recalled the strange occurrence in Hell. His contract seal was back which would explain his return to Earth, now if only the return of his seal could be so easily explained. What kind of demon had a contract but no master?

His leisurely progress across the meadow was halted by a jolt to every one of his senses. It was panic and clarity all at once, a feeling that told him exactly where he needed to be. He broke into a sprint, guided by the pull of a soul he knew and longed for all too much. Ciel was in danger. No human eye could have detected him as he crossed the distance into the desolate part of the city where he sensed the young lord's presence. The closer he got, the more he could feel Ciel's racing heart as though it beat in his own chest, hear the adrenaline pumping into his veins.

He leapt from a rooftop to the alley below. There, he found Ciel being backed down the alley by a boy with what could only be a death scythe. He seemed to be aiming for Ciel's hand. Ciel backed into the corner, trying to fire his gun only to find it empty. He tucked his hand behind himself and held his other arm defensively across his face. The scythe grazed his forearm, ripping his coat and leaving the faintest scratch to slowly weep blood. Sebastian snarled at the sight.

He landed between them in time to shield Ciel from what might have been a fatal swing of the blade. The small boy's eyes widened as his scythe buried itself in Sebastian's shoulder and splattered them both with blood. He heard Ciel cry his name and wanted to turn to him, to take him away, but he was hindered at the moment.

"I don't think I've seen one of your kind openly wandering this realm," he said.

The small reaper twisted the handle of his scythe and sent a fresh stream of blood down Sebastian's body. "Likewise, demon."

"You seem familiar, if I might beg the question of your name."

Ciel spoke up from behind him. "Alois Trancy, you stood next to me when he was buried."

"That explains how you became a reaper, though I offer my compliments on how strong you've become already." Alois smirked at this, but the smile fell from his face as Sebastian grabbed the blade and pulled it from his shoulder. "But not strong enough, I'm afraid."

Alois flipped backward when Sebastian moved to seize him. He was small and agile, unable to land a blow on Sebastian but avoiding harm himself. Sebastian fought through the searing pain in his left shoulder with Ciel's voice resonating in his mind. He had awoken in the same form he'd had when he left the human realm, something he was pleased to learn when several silver table knives slid into each hand. He pursued the boy in circles until the reaper started exhausting himself.

Once Alois grew winded, it was an easy fight. Reapers were formidable adversaries even for a demon but this one had very little experience fighting. Sebastian lacerated Alois' hand in a clean swipe and caught the scythe as soon as the reaper's grim loosened in reflex to the pain. He hefted it up and gave the most polite smile he could muster.

"May you have a peaceful afterlife, Mr. Trancy. Rest assured you won't be coming back from this."

He swung down only to be stopped by a solid piece of metal. The obstruction seemed to be whirring like some kind of machine. Alois had closed his eyes in anticipation of the blow but now he opened one, then both of them when he realized he was alive. Sebastian's eyes traveled the length of the chainsaw to its owner.

"Get out of here, Alois," Grell said.

"But-"

"Go you dumb brat!"

Alois darted under Sebastian's arm and was gone in the blink of an eye. In his place, with a death scythe of his own, was, "Grell Sutcliff. I guess no one stays dead these days, hm?"

"Lay one more finger on Alois and I'll show you just how dead someone can stay."

The chainsaw and its owner vanished in a streak of red. His hands were also empty of the boy's death scythe. He raised a hand to his shoulder, which was healing slowly but surely. Did it have to be reapers? He had never encountered one on Earth but he had forgotten how much of a damn pain they were. Demons of his age and skill were rivaled by few things, but gods were one of those things.

"Sebastian."

He turned to find Ciel approaching him. His lapis colored eyes were full of fear, anger, and relief. Sebastian reached out but the world had gone fuzzy. "Young master."

Ciel's voice seemed to be coming from much further away when he said, "You said you would meet me on the train...what happened?"

"Well, I ate your dad, slept with you, and then I had to go back to Hell. The truth sounded rather bad. Oh dear...have you always had that many heads?" He never got the answer to his question since that was the moment he collapsed.

)))))(((((

"Where are you now?
Was it all in my fantasy?
Where are you now?
Were you only imaginary?

...

Where are you now?
Another dream
The monster's running wild inside of me
I'm faded...I'm faded
So lost, I'm faded."