A Soul's Tourniquet
Servants of Phantomhive
Shadows: Uwahhh! Srry that this is semi late! This chapter was kinda hard to write because I couldn't think of how I actually wanted to start it! Eventually I actually had to write out the first part by hand and then type it up. And being sick doesn't help much either… Anyway, enough of my irrelevant complaining and let the story commence! Remember, I don't own Kuroshitsuji! If I did… well, let's just say that there would be a lot more Sebby/Ciel moments in it XD…. Yes, I like that pairing, so, haters can hate all they want!
KAISHI!
"So, whadd'ya do 'round th' manor anyway?" Benjamin wondered, looking to the older dirty blonde male next to him.
"I'm the chef!" Bard grinned happily.
"I'm the maid, yes!" Mey-Rin nodded.
"I'm the gardener!" Finny smiled.
Ben nodded, just then only realizing something that didn't seem to make any sense to him. "'Old on a second… If yer th' chef, Bard… 'Ow come Sebastian makes all th' food?"
The Phantomhive chef flinched, looking away from the teen and nervously rubbing the back of his head. "Well, ya see…" He began.
Rebecca ignored the conversation between the Phantomhive servants and Ben, absentmindedly stroking the demon hound's hair as he slept soundlessly on her lap. Her thoughts were focused on trying to figure out how the black clad butler had been able to defeat a DEMON HOUND so easily. No human even in their right mind would have been able to do something like that! It was downright impossible. But yet Sebastian had done so without so much as breaking a sweat. And from the way the rest of the Phantomhive household had reacted made everything that the butler did seem like it was their norm.
"Wow! Plu-plu really likes you, Rebecca." Finny pointed out, breaking the ebony haired teen out of her thoughts.
Rebecca looked up at the young gardener before looking back down at the sleeping hell hound. "I uh, g-guess so." She nodded.
"Are ya sure it's th' same 'ell hound that we saw in Houndsworth? 'E sure don't act like one." Ben grinned, glancing over at the carriage in front of them.
Bard immediately caught on and started snickering. The only way that they would know if it was the same mutt was if… "Let's find out!"
Mey-Rin and Rebecca looked at both males with confused looks, trying to figure out themselves what the two men were suggesting. After a moment, it finally dawned on them.
"Bard, that's rude, yes it is!" The maid scolded.
"Not that I wouldn't mind testin' yer theory, Ciel might get mad if ya pull a stunt like that."
Benjamin smiled sheepishly, causing Rebecca to shake her head. Whenever he smiled like that meant he was going to sick Pluto on Sebastian anyway. Whether it was now or later.
"I refuse to help you if you get in trouble."
"I ain't makin' any promises!" He nodded.
Mey-Rin sighed. It seemed to her that the Phantomhive manor was about to become a bit livelier with the three new additions.
"By th' way, where're you guys from anyway?" Finny interrupted, looking at the two teen expectantly.
"We uh, w-we're from Kingston." Ben replied, slightly surprised by the strawberry blonde's question.
"Y-yeah… We're s-siblings?" The ebony haired teen added, looking to Benjamin for some help.
"Ah! Y-yeah, sh-she's older though." The dirty blonde teen agreed.
"Ya don't look like yer related." Bard pointed out.
Both teens flinched.
"Th-That's cuz I uh-!"
"I take after our mum! Ben 'ere takes after our Da!" Rebecca recovered, hoping that she at least sounded believable instead of like a complete idiot.
The Phantomhive servants briefly exchanged looks before nodding.
"Makes sense ta me." Bard replied, taking a drag of his cigarette.
Benjamin and Rebecca sighed internally. Yet another bullet they narrowly dodged. They were lucky that it didn't seem to take much to convince these three.
"Why were you dressed like a boy when we first met you, yes?" Mey-Rin inquired, looking at Rebecca as she waited for the teen to answer.
The ebony haired female sweat dropped. 'For servants they tend to ask a lot of questions…' She thought. "W-well, Her Majesty requested that I do so for my safety. 'Sides, it's easier ta move 'round when I don't got some 'eavy dress weighin' me down."
"Must've been some important stuff if ya had take dress a boy." Bard grinned.
"Yeah… important." Rebecca sighed.
The three Phantomhive servants had stopped asking their questions after that, randomly conversing with the two teens about the household and all the usual mishaps. Ciel's fiancé, Lady Elizabeth Midford, had come up in the conversation once, but that hadn't lasted very long… especially since the last incident was still fresh in servants heads.
From what Rebecca understood, Sebastian hadn't made it out of that one unscathed either.
Ciel smirked when his butler cringed slightly. He wasn't surprised that the terrible trio would bring up the pink bonnet incident with Lizzy. "You've been awfully quite since we left Houndsworth." The young Phantomhive pointed out.
Sebastian remained silent for another moment before speaking to his master. "Shall we pay a visit to the Undertaker before returning to the Manor, my Lord?"
The boy's smirk fell. Not the response he had actually been looking for. Momentarily defeated, Ciel sighed. "Very well. We'll send the others on ahead of us."
"Of course." The demon nodded.
Rebecca and Benjamin had failed to notice when the carriages had first arrived in London. Only until the carriage came to a halt and Sebastian's voice reached their ears that they surveyed their new surroundings.
"You six will head back to the manor ahead of us. The young Master has some business to attend to before we can return. Begin your chores once you've unloaded everything." The butler explained.
Tanaka, Bard, Mey-Rin, and Finny gave a curt nod to the butler before both carriages started once again, this time headed in separate directions.
"W-wait, what should Ben and I do then?" Rebecca wondered, turning to Mey-Rin.
"Ah-! We could show you around th' manor till the young Master and Mister Sebastian return, yes we can!" The red haired maid smiled.
"Yeah! I can show you around the garden!" Finny chimed in happily.
"Brilliant." Ben grinned.
"Bloody 'ell! Th' place is huge!" Ben gaped once the Phantomhive manor came into view.
Rebecca was, by all means, impressed. The Phantomhive manor was much larger than her family's manor by at least a good four hundred square feet. How only five servants were able to take care of a place this large was beyond her.
Pluto yelped happily before jumping out of the carriage and running the rest of the way to the manor. He had woken up shortly after Ciel's carriage had separated from their own and hadn't appeared too happy about it either.
"You can put your things in our rooms until Mister Sebastian and the young Master return, yes." Mey-Rin smiled.
"Okay."
"Mum and Da would have a benny if they found out we were gonna live 'ere!" Benjamin grinned. Though he was going to be a servant here, the fact that he would be living in a manor house was, at least to him, the greatest accomplishment of his life.
Rebecca nodded her head, pretending to agree with Ben. She was somewhat glad that the male hardly ever wrote to his parents, otherwise it wouldn't have taken long for everyone to realize that something was up.
The carriage finally stopped once they were in front of the Manor's main entrance.
Finny and Benjamin vaulted over the sides of the carriage, to eager to wait for the others to get off through the back.
The ebony haired teen rolled her eyes and jumped down from the back of the carriage once Mey-Rin had gotten off. Living in a Manor was the norm for her. Frankly she was glad that she had at least some idea of what servants did when the served nobles. Thinking back on it, Rebecca was glad that she skipped some of her lessons as a child in order to watch some of the family's maids clean.
"Hey Finny, get over 'ere and 'elp me unload everythin'!" Bard shouted.
"Coming!"
"Are you here, Undertaker?" Ciel demanded, walking into the funeral parlor.
As usual, the front room of the Undertaker's shop was full of coffins and his 'clients', but the silver haired male was nowhere to be found.
The young Phantomhive surveyed the parlor briefly before the sound of laughter hit his ears.
"Heh-he heh heh… I was wondering if you were going to come by, Phantomhive- Hakushaku." Undertaker chuckled, climbing out of one of his coffins. "I don't suppose you're here to get into once of me specially made coffins, heh heh heh."
"Weirdo…" The boy muttered under his breath. "Has anything happened in the Underworld while I was away?"
"Perhaps… You know my usual payment, Hakushaku."
"I don't have time for your nonsense, Undertaker." Ciel hissed.
The silver haired male chuckled. "A little birdie told me that you met a certain girl on your travels, ne? Chinese sewer rats can't keep their mouths quiet when it comes to matters of both worlds, heh heh heh."
Ciel looked at the Undertaker, a brow raised in confusion. "Lau?"
"Heh heh heh, I'll be nice enough today, since Shitsuji-san gave me the choicest of laughs the last time. The Underworld has been mostly quiet for the last few days. Just make sure that little stray you found doesn't make her way into one of me coffins." He mused.
The young Phantomhive sighed. "Let's go, Sebastian. I want to return to the manor before those three manage to destroy it."
"Very well, my Lord." Sebastian nodded.
"Come back again soon, Phantomhive-hakushaku." Undertaker grinned, watching as the door closed behind the boy and his butler.
"Try this on, yes!" Mey-Rin smiled, holding up a maid's uniform at Rebecca.
"I-I don't think we're th' same size, Mey-Rin. 'Sides, I don't mind wearin' the clothes I have on now." She admitted, nervously rubbing the back of her head.
Mey-Rin sighed. "That's true, yes... I'm glad the young Master finally hired another maid! It's no fun only having boys to talk to, yes it is."
"You're the only maid? That's kinda surprising. Don't nobles normally have more than one maid?"
"The young Master has Mister Sebastian, yes. He's always the one who takes care of everything. Even though the rest of us try to help." The red heads smile briefly disappeared causing the teen to question exactly what it was that forced the butler to take care of all the chores. She supposed only time would tell on that one.
~Two weeks later~
Bard, Mey-Rin, and Finny stood before Ciel in his study, nervously waiting for their young Master to speak. Benjamin, Rebecca and Mister Tanaka stood against the back wall, wondering why only the other three were standing before the Earl.
It had only been two weeks since they came back from Houndsworth and both teens were managing better than Ciel or Sebastian had actually expected them to. Of course, that hadn't kept the usual damage the terrible trio created from happening.
"S-so, what did you want to speak with us about?" Mey-Rin asked nervously, pressing her forefingers together as she spoke.
From Rebecca's view, all three of them seemed really worried about possibly losing their jobs. 'I doubt that Ciel will fire them… otherwise he would have done that by now…'
"I have a job I want you to do." Ciel replied, looking up at the trio of idiots, as Rebecca had called them not two days after arriving at the manor.
The trio's eyes began to sparkle at the word 'Job' and the gloomy atmosphere around them disappeared in a instant.
"Jay-!"
"Oh-!"
"Bee!"
"Thank goodness!" Finny cried, hugging his co-workers next to him.
"Thank goodness! When he called us here I was so sure we were fired, yes!" Mey-Rin admitted, crying with joy that she wouldn't be fired like she had feared.
"There ain't enough servants to work this place as is… why would 'e fire ya if 'e hadn't already?" Benjamin deadpanned.
Rebecca simply nodded in agreement.
Ciel ignored their blubbering and took out the camera he had hidden under his desk, placing it on top for everyone to see. "This is a camera said to have been in the famous Talbot's collection. It's got a story to it. It was missing for some time, but I heard it was coming up at auction and went to great pains to get it." He explained.
"Talbot…?" Finny questioned.
Benjamin and Rebecca looked at the object with curiosity. Both knew exactly what it was, but neither had really seen one up close before.
"William Henry Fox Talbot. He was an English scientist and one of the inventors of photographic technology. There were queer rumors about the last camera he used. Legend has it that when you photograph someone with this camera, whomever he thinks of most fondly will appear in the picture… perhaps." Tanaka explained.
"Whoever yer most fond of?" Ben repeated, blushing slightly. Truthfully, he was quite fond of Rebecca and sometimes found himself either wishing he had been born a noble, or that she had been born in the middle class. The thought of a simple photograph being able to reveal that embarrassed him slightly.
"Can such a clever camera really exist?" Bard wondered, finding the idea a bit too farfetched.
"Shall we take a shot to test it out?" The young Earl inquired, lifting the black cloth behind the wooden box as he spoke.
Rebecca quickly walked over to Finny and pulled him in front of her, knowing that Ciel might attempt to take a photo of her. If the camera did exactly as Tanaka had said, she really wasn't sure she wanted to know who she was most fond of.
"Don't move. Exposure takes ten seconds." He ordered, taking off the camera's lens cover.
Surprised, Finny went statue stiff at the young Master's order. Opting to not breathe as well.
"Wh-What's 'exposure'?" Mey-Rin wondered.
"To put it plainly, it's copying an image of Finny." Bard replied, clarifying the camera's inner workings.
"If you don't stay still for ten seconds, the image will blur and we won't get a good picture." Ciel added. "Eight, nine, ten… done." Quickly he returned the lens cover back to its rightful place on the lens and removed the black cloth from over his head.
Finny finally released the breath he had been holding in and took in the much needed air.
"It would have been all right to breathe."
"Now what?" Rebecca asked.
"Now we develop the image that the camera copied of Finny." Ciel stated.
Everyone watched in amazement, save of course Ciel, as the image finally developed on the paper the young Earl had placed in the chemicals. Using tongs, Ciel fished the paper out of the developer and held it up, allowing for the excess to drip off before putting it in the stop bath.
"Wow! It's my little birdie!" Finny gaped.
"Huh? You have a birdie?" Bard questioned.
"It's so cute!" Mey-Rin gushed.
"Blimey, it really does work!" Rebecca gaped.
"I gave it food every day, and one day it started eating out of my hand!" Finny smiled, telling everyone the story of his winged friend as they walked back to Ciel's study. "I was so happy I gave it a gentle pat, and…" The head of the wooden bear statue he was holding broke off, surprising Bard and Mey-Rin while scaring Benjamin and Rebecca. "It stopped moving…"
"He crushed the thing just by trying to pet it?" Ben had a hard time trying to believe that the happy go lucky gardener actually killed a bird just by trying to pet it. Even a rock couldn't kill one right away.
'Th' bloody 'ell 'is parents feed him when he was growin' up?' Rebecca wondered mentally.
"Y-You mean…?"
Tanaka took another sip of his tea before explaining the camera's 'true nature'. "Ah, I forgot. The only loved ones that the camera will show are otherworldly beings… in other words, the dead."
"W-What?" Rebecca shrieked, not sure if she just heard the old house steward correctly.
"Th-The dead?" Benjamin blanched.
"Y-You mean…?"
Ciel grinned. He was surprised that no one had figured that out after Finny finished his story. "The photo contains the otherworldly being you remember most fondly: in other words, someone dead."
Bard screamed like a little girl after hearing his young Master say such a thing. "Like anyone would believe such an occult story in the nineteenth century!"
"Amazing, yes! What an outstanding camera!" Mey-Rin blushed.
Rebecca stepped forward and picked up the photo of Finny off of Ciel's desk. "As much as I'd like ta agree with Bard, the 'proof is in the photo'." She reluctantly admitted.
Finny cried in the corner. "My poor little birdie!"
"Take a picture of Sebastian with this camera. But don't let him notice." The young Phantomhive ordered, resting a hand atop the camera.
"Eh, so you mean, like a candid photo?" Bard asked, slightly surprised.
"Yes." He replied bluntly.
"Wh-Who does Sebastian think of most fondly, yes?" Mey-Rin blushed happily.
"I might want to see that." Finny agreed.
"This sounds interestin'. Count me in!" Benjamin nodded.
"He's always ripin' about my atistic cookin'! He's as human as any of us! He must have a weakness or two! This is our chance!" The Phantomhive chef cheered.
Rebecca eyed the Earl carefully when she noticed him smirk. Deep down, she knew there was something about that black clad butler that Ciel wasn't telling anyone, and frankly it worried her quite a bit. Especially after seeing Sebastian's little 'show' back in Houndsworth.
"Yes!" Mey-Rin nodded vigorously.
"I trust you can do it?"
"Yes, my Lord!" The four replied.
"Oh, I've always wanted to do that!" Bard grinned as Finny clapped happily beside him.
"You gonna join us, Becca?" Benjamin asked, noticing how the ebony haired teen had somewhat cut herself off from the others.
The teens gaze snapped up to meet her friends. "Uh, s-sure I guess."
The dirty blonde teen smiled.
'What on Earth will appear if we take a photo of him with this camera?' Ciel mused. "This will be worth seeing."
The grandfather clock in Ciel's study chimed at half past nine. The boy was focused intently on the toy house that sat atop his desk, moving the soldier figurines to surround a black goat figurine in one of the rooms. "At this time of day, Sebastian will be… in the library."
The six servants crammed themselves into an open space behind one of the bookshelves as they stalked the butler.
"Stay still!" Bard hissed, holding up the camera.
"W-We need ten seconds, yes." Mey-Rin reminded.
"Ten seconds…" Finny repeated happily.
Rebecca moved slightly, trying to readjust herself into a more comfortable position in the already cramped space. "Who's bloody idea was it to hide behind here?" She groaned under her breathe.
"Stop yer belly achin' Becca. It won't take that long." Benjamin sighed.
"Something tells me otherwise." The teen deadpanned.
Ben shook his head. Moving one of the books out of his way, the teen had only enough time to see a black blur move across the room. "What the…?"
"Bloody 'ell!"
"He's fast!" The other three gaped.
"He's so fast I can't even see him, yes!"
"Damn, he won't show up in the photo like this!" Bard groaned.
"Oh, he stopped." Finny pointed out, noticing the butler stand in front of one of the flower vases.
"Brilliant! This is our chance!"
"Hurry up and take th' photo!" Ben pressed.
After scrutinizing the vase for a moment, Sebastian grabbed the handkerchief from his coat pocket and with a flick of his wrist, turned it into a rose. Placing it inside the vase, the butler took his leave. The room appearing to sparkle after being cleaned.
"I forgot to take the picture." Bard admitted, acknowledging his defeat.
Rebecca stared at the last spot the butler stood in. Ciel had a clear reason for wanting a picture of Sebastian… and whatever the reason was, the noble was sure it had something to do with the fact that that specific camera could reach into the realm of the dead.
"He's so wonderful, yes!" Mey-Rin gushed.
"Damn, now we gotta try again!" Ben hissed, balling his fist angrily.
"Next… He puts each room in order." Ciel smirked, knocking over the black goat figurine with one of the soldiers.
Sebastian continued with his usual chores, unable to help but wonder why it was that the trio of idiots were being so quiet. Normally when that happened it meant that something was going to get destroyed.
As if almost on cue, the strawberry blonde gardener came barreling through the doors with the pool table. "Prepare yourself!" Finny shouted.
"'Prepare yourself', really Ben? Is that the best you could think of?" Rebecca glowered. If the butler hadn't known they were up to something before, he sure as hell did now.
"What? It sounded good in my head." Benjamin replied.
The five servants watched as Finny slammed into the wall and fall out of the hole he had made in the second floor wall before tumbling to the ground outside.
The ebony haired teen sweat dropped. 'There is absolutely no way on God's great earth that that boy is anywhere NEAR normal…'
"Bloody 'ell! We were so close too!"
"Haah~, I'm done fer th' day." Rebecca sighed.
"Whaah! Yer givin' up already?" Bard blanched.
"Not to sound offensive, but I'd rather save myself the threat of punishment later on."
"Suit yerself." Benjamin shrugged.
Shaking her head, Rebecca made her way down the hall towards one of the sitting rooms. Namely the one Finny had just taken the billiards table from. Over the last two weeks, the teen noticed how Sebastian would always hide his anger with the trio of idiots with that creepy smile of his. If the devil could have an incarnate, there was no doubt in her head that Sebastian would be one.
"And now, administrative work in his office." The Earl sighed, picking up one of the fallen soldier figurines and placing it back inside the toy house.
Sebastian silently recorded Funtom's transactions along with the Earl's own personal transactions for the month of September*. So far it seemed as if his work was already piling up for him thanks to Finny. Lucifer knows what the remaining four were up to. Once again his work was interrupted when the bell for the study rang. Granted he was a demon, that brat Earl expected far too much of him. Sighing, he quickly wrote down the amount for one of the transactions before standing up and taking a leave of the office.
The demon knocked on the study door twice, waiting for his master to allow him in.
"Come in."
Opening the door, Sebastian stepped inside. "Do you require something, my Lord?"
"It came undone." The boy stated plainly.
"My Lord?" He questioned, noticing that the ribbon around the child's neck had come undone. As usual, the bratty prince was trying to only create more work for him. "Very good, my Lord."
Rebecca stretched out her back after finally dusting the billiards room like Sebastian had asked her too earlier that morning. It seemed like it was the only room the black clad butler didn't touch while they were trying to get a picture of him. "Heh, he probably did it on purpose. What a sadist." She smirked.
Glancing around the room, the teen spotted something sticking out from under one of the bookcases that she hadn't seen earlier.
Curiosity got the best of her and she walked over to the book case, pulling out a small black leather book. Rebecca flipped it twice in her hand before opening it.
'Homines longe misellus ego Poeteli creaturae in vita mea.Semper agens benifit quae in finem. Ego libenter Hoc primus scriptor vindictam est tandem capta et contractus perficere.'*
"Of course it would be in Latin." She sighed, closing the book and placing it on one of the side tables. "Father was right… I should have paid more attention to my Latin lessons."
Benjamin, Bard, Mey-Rin, and Finny sat in a circle at the end of the hallway, somewhat exhausted from trying to get a picture of Sebastian.
"Why do we have to work so hard just to take one measly photograph?" Bard groaned.
"'Cuz someone doesn't like us…" Ben replied.
The group let out a depleted sigh.
Everyone jumped in surprise when the doors next to them opened to reveal the one person they had been trying to get a photo of all day, Sebastian.
"I have a job for you four."
"Not another job!" The teen pleaded.
"Wh-What is it?" Mey-Rin asked.
Sebastian looked up at the window behind them. "That."
"Gahhah!" Ben yelped. He hadn't expected the mutt to be right there sitting in the window the whole time.
"The dog? What about him?"
"We'll be receiving a guest in the afternoon. Please transfer that thing somewhere out of sight before he gets here." Sebastian ordered.
While the others were distracted by the demon hound, Benjamin realized that this was the perfect chance to get a photo of the butler before he moved out of the way. Carefully grabbing the camera, the male simply pointed the wooden box in the butler's general direction and hoped that Sebastian wouldn't notice. Uncapping the lens, Ben counted to ten in his head.
'Nine, TEN!' Quickly capping the lens, Benjamin place the camera down at his side just in time for Sebastian to turn around and walk though the double doors that lead down another hallway.
"Hey, we've got plenty to do ourselves, you know." Bard replied.
Sebastian turned and gave the chef one of his usually shit-eating smiles. "You can do it between your other tasks. Please take care of it before the guest arrives." And with that, the butler closed the doors behind him.
Benjamin finally stood up, picking up the camera as he stood. "Well, I gotta talk ta Ciel 'fore that guest guy gets 'ere. I'll help with th' mutt when I'm done."
Before anyone could protest, the dirty blonde teen was already down the hall and out of their sight.
"I assume you got the photograph already then?" Ciel smirked, noticing the air of accomplishment that surrounded the male teen.
"Yep! I'm not that interested ta see who the guy likes n all so, it'd probably be betta if you see fer yerself. Don't tell the other's though… Kinda wanna see how far they go." Benjamin grinned, placing the Talbot camera in front of the Earl.
The bluenette nodded. "Alright then. I'm actually quite interested myself to see what those three come up with. Since you were able to complete the task, you and Rebecca have the rest of the day off. Sebastian has started to slack off in his own chores anyway."
"Right!" With a quick bow, the dirty blonde teen took his leave of the study and headed down the hall to look for his friend.
"Come here, Pluto." Finny smiled, pulling on the demon hound's leash.
Pluto struggled to stay where he was, but the abnormally strong gardener was able to drag him a few inches before swing the dog into the air. Opening his mouth, a geyser of fire engulfed Finny, burning him to a near crisp and causing the leash to break. Realizing his freedom, the demon hound quickly made his way back towards the manor.
"W-Wow! So Plu can breathe fire, yes?"
"That's a demon hound for you. Wait, we don't have time for this!" Bard panicked.
"Really, those three… Perhaps it would be better for them to just be eaten by a dog." The demon sighed. Nothing the trio of idiots were told to do ever got done. Maybe finding more capable servants would be the best thing to do.
"Meow~"
Sebastian's eyes immediately snapped down to one of the stray cats that tended to stay in the area as it walked by. "Well, now." He smiled. Cats were the only thing that he liked about the human world. Such majestic creature's cats were. Picking up said creature, the demon sat down on the steps, enjoying what few moments he would have to himself before something went array. "What a limber body… and such soft hands. Ah! Cats are lovely." He mused, lightly blushing.
"Heh he, so the black hearted butler actually has a soft side." Someone giggled, surprising the butler.
"Ah, Miss Sommers. Have you finished the chores I assigned you already?"
"Not all of them. Th' young Master gave me and my brother th' rest of th' day off." Rebecca admitted. The teen could have sworn the butler's eye twitched out of irritation.
"I see. Is there something you need then?" Sebastian inquired.
"Ah, well uh, n-no. I-I was just walking around when I saw you slacking off." She grinned.
Before the demon could speak, the black cat that he had been holding a moment earlier was thrown out of his lap as Pluto whimper and tried to win the butler's favor over the cats.
The action caused Rebecca to giggle.
Sebastian sighed. "Why must I always be interrupted like this?"
"Heh heh, guess Pluto likes you more than he does me. Dog's are loyal animals by nature. They'll always stay by yer side no matter what. Maybe you could use that to your advantage."
"Oh?"
"I'm just saying… Well, I'm gonna go look fer the idiots. See ya."
Sebastian watched as the ebony haired teen turned the corner and out of his sight. For some strange reason, the demon butler felt almost at ease whenever the girl was around. He shook his head. There was definitely something wrong with him.
Ciel stared at the photo Benjamin had managed to take of Sebastian earlier in the afternoon. It surprised him that the demonic butler actually appeared human of all things, but what didn't surprise him was a certain ebony haired female standing right behind the black clad male. He could probably use this for blackmail if he absolutely needed to at some point. The young Earl doubted that the demon would ever want this photo to see the light of day. With that thought in mind, Ciel hid the photo in the top drawer of his desk.
The rest of the day had been nothing short of eventful for the Phantomhive household. With the help of Lau and some of Ciel's own devious planning, Bard, Mey-Rin, and Finny had finally captured their own photo of Sebastian. Unfortunately for them, their photo never did have the chance to actually see the light of day like Benjamin's had. On Sebastian's order, Pluto had torched the image along with the entire dark room that had been set up.
The young Earl remained in his study after Lau left. The day's excitement had finally got to him and eventually, he fell asleep with the one successful photo sitting atop his desk.
"Excuse me, my lord. It's time to prepare for bed." Sebastian stated, walking into the child's study. The raven haired male sighed at the sight of his sleeping master. "How untidy of you, falling asleep in a place like this." As he approached the boy's desk, he caught sight of the photo sitting next to the camera. "You never give up, do you, young Master?" He sighed, taking the photo and placing it in his pocket. "In any case… Once again, you've given me more work than necessary."
The demon thought for a moment, looking down at the camera that Ciel had ordered him to get a hold of not long ago. Perhaps a bit of revenge wouldn't be too bad. It would probably do the boy some good.
"Whoa."
"Sebastian's in the picture!"
"So the young Master thinks most f-fondly of Sebastian?" Mey-Rin frowned.
"Is that how it is?"
They're good friends!" Finny smiled happily.
Benjamin and Rebecca ignore the three as they continued to eat their breakfast. Neither doubted that Sebastian wouldn't force them to help clean up the mess that had been made last night, and neither Benjamin nor Rebecca was looking forward to that.
"Hey… Didn't th' old man say that only th' dead show up in them photo's?"
"Yeah…"
"Then how come Sebastian showed up in it?" Ben wondered.
Rebecca shook her head. "I wish I knew."
Gah! MUST KILL OLDER SISTER! I'm rly sorry everyone! I was going to put this up last night, but my stupid sister decided that she wanted to go out to dinner last night with my family and her boyfriend(( note, she's actually my half sister)) and we ended up staying at Olive garden for three freakin hours D! So again I've very very sorry!
Translations:
Homines longe misellus… perficere.: Humans are by far the most pathetic creatures I've ever met in my life. Always doing things that will benefit them in the end. I'll be glad once this brat's revenge is finally taken and our contract complete.
If you're wondering what it was Rebecca found that was written in Latin, I decided that it would be kinda interesting if Sebastian had a journal of sorts for like, the first week of Ciel's contract with him, and then her find out more about it in a later chapter. Also, the reason why Rebecca showed up in the photo Ben took even though she isn't dead is cuz she's Sebastian's mate and was pretty much marked since birth. Naturally Sebastian would deny the fact that his mate is a human and Rebecca would have no clue about it.
Provided that the pain killers I'll have to take tomorrow don't make me sleepy, I'll do my best to try and update another chapter before Saturday. Perhaps even three if I'm able to.
Thank you Noface, I Am Pandora, Daniella, and Snookens5 for reviewing. And thanks to everyone who add my story to their favorites/subscription lists^^ it means a lot.
To Daniella,
Yes, I realized that I referred to Rebecca as 'ebony haired teen' a bit too much last chapter. For some reason I felt like I used her name a bit more than I should have when I wrote that chapter… go figure. And things won't start heating up until midway through the curry arc.
Please review with your thoughts on the chapter!
Ciao for now!