Yo, I think I'm almost done with the next chapter of Tabby Cat, but have this little christmas thingy. I guess its directly before the Circus arc, and a couple days after the curry arc
Sebastian had had a particularly trying day today. Not that what he did was difficult; cleaning the house so it was in impeccable shape; polishing the silverware until it's surface was as reflective as a mirror; preparing the food that would be served on the morrow, an elaborate twelve course dinner.
No, it was the other three servants who had tried his patience.
Christmas within the Phantomhive household was a rather subdued affair; it was simply a time for a family to gather around and catch up over dinner, while a gift or two was exchanged, though they never put a tree up, much to Lady Elizabeth's reoccurring disappointment.
Neither Sebastian nor his young lord cared to decorate the manor in celebration of the holiday. However, the other servants seemed to take it upon themselves; the scent of pine had slowly increased over the course of the day, and despite how overwhelmed his own nose felt, Constance seemed to revel in it.
He quickly discovered she was helping with the ludicrous decorations when she had passed by, the scent of fresh pine wafting behind her.
At the moment however, he was glaring unabashed at a giggling cook that was currently ignorant of his presence.
"Bardroy." The blond gave a yelp, jerking and falling off his ladder with a crash. "What are you doing?"
Bard's blue eyes flitted across the room, calculating any escape routes —not that they would help should Sebastian decide to gut the human— before answering. "Hangin' some mistletoe."
Perhaps he should rephrase his question, because his eyes were fully functional. "Why then, are you hanging mistletoe."
"Eh?" The man sprawled on the floor blinked. "Why, 'cause of you and Miss Tabby. Yer supposed ta kiss under mistletoe, ya know."
Demons weren't supposed to get headaches; he had never gotten one until he'd had to work with these servants. "Bardroy, a sprig of mistletoe has no remarkable powers that would trap Miss Constance and I under it until we kissed; if you believed so, you will be horribly disappointed."
"Well doesn't Miss Tabby seem like exactly the type that would?"
Unfortunately. Sebastian didn't even have to think about that to know the answer.
"You are forgetting, Bardroy, that I am not." He replied, and considered the repercussions of leaving Bard's body at the bottom of the lake behind the manor.
The cook simply grinned, and Sebastian had to remind himself the idiot did actually serve a purpose in the household. "It'd give you a reason to kiss her."
"In front of not only the young master, but the Marchioness of Midford and her family." Bard finally grimaced at that fact. "Even the most idioti—" He caught himself, receiving a small glare from the shorter man. "—obtuse individuals are aware of the contempt Lady Midford holds for me."
"Yeah, doesn't she say you have a lecherous face?" He teased, Sebastian's eyebrow twitching. "Considering your, uh, actions with Miss Tabby, ain't that true now?"
Truly, the cook would look good cement shoes. "She said as much long before Miss Constance arrived to our time period. It is simply her opinion on my facial features, and my actions do not reflect that."
Bard frowned, gazing at the wall intently, before returning to his mistletoe.
"It's weird, ain't it, how Miss Tabby is from the future." Sebastian wondered if the change of topic was to distract him from the mistletoe he was continuing to hang. "It's so unbelievable my brain says it's not true, but then, the way Tabby acts is believable. It's so continuous, it'd be impossible to make up."
As Bard got off his ladder and dragged it along to the next doorway overhang, Sebastian reached up and plucked the offending sprig of greenery off the pine decorations.
"Miss Constance's arrival from the future is far from the most abnormal thing this household has experienced."
A grunt sounded from the chef as he climbed the ladder. "Well, no, pretty sure Pluto takes the cake." Sebastian's eyebrow ticked at the mention of the demon dog, who was housed in it's specially built stable for the next two days until the Midfords returned to London. "But Miss Tabby rates a pretty close second."
If the cook found Constance's time travel the most supernatural occurrence, Sebastian considered where he would rank on the human's scale.
"I mean, the young master doesn't really deal with supernatural stuff."
An eyebrow lifted on the demon's face, grabbing the second sprig of mistletoe as Bard moved to hang another.
"You shouldn't make such assumptions, Bardroy." The blond paused in his ministrations, taking a glance at the smirking man below him. "You would be surprised."
Then, Sebastian plucked the mistletoe right out of Bard's hands.
"Oi!" Glancing between Sebastian's gloved hands and the other door frames, he sputtered. "My mistletoe! Why did you take it down?!"
"I am not leaving something with gun powder residue to lie among the manor."