Acting as if nothing was wrong was one of the hardest things Adalina had ever had to do. It was almost impossible, but since she had not truly smiled in many years, none of the servants noticed anything different. She managed to hold back her tears in their presence.

She didn't really know what she was supposed to do now. She could never take over for Sebastian. He was capable of doing supernatural things for obvious reasons. She could never do any of that for Ciel.

But that was irrelevant. She may not have his abilities, but she was going to do everything in her power to protect her master to the best of her ability. And that was going to start by helping him find the Grim Reaper responsible for all of this.

For the remainder of the day, she served Ciel his meals and his tea, completed her daily chores, and made sure that she hid her tears in front of him as well. She would be strong for him in the midst of this loss and let him see that she would still take care of him.

However, that night when she was finally alone, all of her built-up tears released. She curled up into a ball on her bed and cried for at least an hour. She fell asleep to swollen eyes and a sore stomach.

When Adalina awoke, she wanted to cry all over again, but she didn't. She forced herself to be strong like she promised herself she would be.

She promptly awoke the young master, helped him dress like a good servant did, and prepared his breakfast for him. Never once did she cry.

"Adalina," Ciel said once his breakfast was finished. "We are going into London today. Perhaps we can find out more about this Reaper vigilante."

Adalina curtseyed and went to prepare the carriage, but she didn't really know what he wanted her to do. If Sebastian hadn't even been able to handle himself against this Reaper, she didn't have a prayer.

But Ciel had ordered it, and Ciel's word was law.

The young boy and his head maid walked through the streets of London, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity that may give away the rogue Reaper.

"Is that…Ciel Phantomhive?" a voice with a bit of a Cockney accent laughed as the owner pushed up his glasses.

The two of them turned their heads to find a young man with such dark brown hair that it was almost black who looked to be in his early 20's leaning against an alley wall.

"Pleasure to meet you!" the man said with an overdramatic bow.

"Do I know you?" Ciel asked as he walked over to him.

"No, but I know you. Everyone does, of course! The loyal Guard Dog for the Queen! Although, I'm unfamiliar with this lovely lady."

"She's my head maid, Adalina."

"Right pretty little thing she is. But, uh, where's that famous butler you always have by your side? Word on the street is he can do practically anything."

"I'm afraid he's…" Ciel faltered for a moment as Adalina forced back more tears. "He's dead. He was killed a few days ago in a fight with…a suspicious character."

"Oh," the man said sympathetically as he put his head down. "I'm terribly sorry about that."

"Are you?"

The man lifted up his head and smirked. "Not really."

Before Adalina could even grab the whip tied around her waist, she found herself chained to the alley wall with two separate chains holding her wrists up. It all happened so fast that she had no idea how they had even gotten there in the first place. Ciel was chained up next to her in a similar fashion. The entrance to the alley was blurred, and she figured that no one passing by could see what was happening. They had definitely found their Reaper.

"Lukas Everett at your service," the Reaper smiled with another bow. "You, Ciel Phantomhive, have broken the rules of the human world. You have killed and hurt many innocent people and have yet to face any retribution for these actions. Because of that, you are no longer allowed to live. May your judgment be swift and fair."

"A Reaper dealing out his own sense of justice," Ciel smirked. "How kind of you."

"I'm helping London, my good sir. These good-for-nothing criminals deserve to die! They hurt innocent people and were never punished for it! The world is better off without them!"

"Why hunt me down? What have I done to deserve your brand of justice?"

"For one, you have that disgusting demon helping you. Or at least, you did. But I took care of him, and now that's one less demon we Reapers have to worry about."

"I believe I try to help people by delivering criminals in the underworld to the Queen."

"But you don't care who you hurt or kill in the process. And for that, you must be punished."

Adalina watched in horror as he produced his Death Scythe: a very large sickle. She looked up at her chains, trying to see if there was some way she could protect her master, even if it meant that she had to die. Sebastian hadn't been afraid to die for him. She wouldn't be either.

The chains were sloppy and clearly made without much thought. She may not be able to break the chains, but what the chain was hooked to was open. If she could maneuver the chain just right, she could get it to flip off the open hook. It wouldn't get her free, but it would allow her to step in front of Ciel to block the Death Scythe coming towards him. Maybe in that time, he would be able to free himself somehow.

With three hard pulls and then one sharp snap of the chain on her left arm, she flipped the chain off the hook and quickly flung herself in front of Ciel, tightly grabbing onto him to shield him from Lukas's Death Scythe. She waited for the pain that would end her life…but it never came.

When she turned around, there stood Sebastian alive and well, his uniform fully intact with no blood in sight. He had managed to deflect the Death Scythe from hitting either of them. With a butter knife of all things…

"Lukas Everett," Sebastian smirked towards the Reaper. "A new Reaper I see. You're still young yet and are learning your way about the world of reaping souls."

"A clever trap, demon," Lukas smiled. "Pretending to be dead so that I would show my face to the young Phantomhive, and then you could be able to identify me. However, I'm afraid to do anything, you will have to catch me first, and though you are a demon, I am much faster than you as I proved two nights ago."

In the blink of an eye, Lukas had vanished.

Sebastian turned back to Ciel and Adalina and undid their poorly made chains.

"Well, now we have a face and a name," Sebastian said to his young master. "What do you wish to do now, my lord?"

"Let's not involve William just yet," Ciel said. "I'd rather not have to deal with that monotone Reaper who constantly complains about working overtime. And besides, if William gets involved, Grell won't be far behind, and I cannot handle his insufferableness at the moment."

"Agreed."

"We'll deal with Lukas on our own for now. We've gained more information on him now, and hopefully, that will lead us to a way to defeat him."

"Very good, my lord. Shall we return to the manor?"

"Yes, I could go for a good cup of tea."

"Indeed."

That night, Adalina was preparing for bed when there was a knock on her door. There was only one person who would be coming to her room at this hour.

She hadn't even looked at Sebastian ever since they had gotten back to the manor. She was utterly furious with him for making her a complete wreck for nearly two days when he had been completely fine the whole time.

"Adalina?" Sebastian said cautiously, seeing her back was to him.

Without warning, Adalina quickly turned around and flung her whip at Sebastian. He caught the weapon with his arm before it reached his face.

Adalina smiled a little (Sebastian almost thought she looked a little…seductive?) and pulled the whip so that he was closer to her to the point where he could easily steal a kiss from her if he so desired. He was sharply pulled out of those thoughts when Adalina pulled her hand back and smacked him as hard as she could on the face.

Sebastian chuckled a little. The young woman was certainly not afraid of him anymore. Very few people had the courage to slap a demon.

"I see you are quite upset with me."

Adalina furiously nodded.

"The young master and I agreed that we should keep you out of this plan so that your reaction to my death would be genuine. He wanted to leave the servants out of all this because we could not so easily explain my sudden reappearance to them as we can to you. We knew that Lukas was watching over the manor to see if he had killed me. The young master's reaction wasn't enough, so we needed yours as well. And it worked, didn't it? He truly believed I was dead."

Sebastian could still sense the anger flowing from her.

"I apologize for not telling you about our plan. We were afraid Lukas would not be convinced by your reaction unless you believed I was really dead."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not saying I doubt your ability to successfully convince him if you had known I was really alive…but…"

The butler quickly realized he had dug himself into a very deep hole.

He smirked a little. "I have to say…I did not expect you to shed so many tears over me. Would you have shed that many tears had you been in on the plan?"

Adalina rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood for this.

"I didn't think so. Don't fret. From now on, the young master and I will involve you in all our plans to catch Lukas."

Adalina narrowed her eyes at him.

"I promise. Have a good night, Adalina." Just before he left, he called back, "Oh, and one more thing. If it makes any difference, I didn't enjoy hearing you cry."

With another smirk, Sebastian left the room.

As the demon butler went upstairs to prepare his young master for bed, he thought back over the past couple of days.

Sebastian sat in the carriage, his face contorted into one of pain, an expression he did not wear often.

Ciel had never seen Sebastian so injured before. It was rather frightening. He knew very well that it was possible to kill a demon with a Death Scythe, but Sebastian was usually so skillful about avoiding the deadly weapon.

The fact that this Reaper was faster than him was a huge problem.

"Will you be all right?" he asked his butler tentatively.

"I believe so. Once I clean these wounds and get some rest, I should be fine. I need time to heal."

"Take all the time you need."

"Why, young master, are you concerned about me?"

Ciel rolled his eyes. Even in this state, the butler could still tease him. "That Death Scythe could've killed you."

"Like I said, I will be fine."

"I can't do anything if I don't know what the Reaper's name is or what he looks like. Do you think he would show himself if he thought you were dead? He was after me as much as he was after you. If he believed you were dead, then he would get arrogant and reveal himself to me."

"It's a long shot, but it could work."

"He'll be watching you to see if he killed you. You will need to pretend to die from these wounds."

"It will not be difficult, sir. But how will he know he's killed me?"

"If he's watching you, he'll see anyone reacting to your death. It won't be enough for him to just see me though. He'll have to see Adalina as well."

"Shall we inform her of this plan?"

"No. I want her reaction to be genuine."

"That's rather cruel of you, my lord."

"If this suits our purpose, it has to be done. She'll get over it eventually."

Sebastian didn't really approve of his young master putting Adalina through something like that, but he had his orders which meant he had no say in the matter.

When they returned to the manor, Sebastian allowed Adalina to clean his wounds. Her touch was so gentle, something he rarely experienced. He made sure to move his chest up and down to give her the illusion that he was breathing. That way, she would think that he had stopped breathing when he didn't move his chest later.

The next morning after Sebastian had rested and felt much better, he saw that the bandages Adalina had wrapped around his chest were soaked in his blood. It was repulsive to lay in them, but this would help Adalina believed he had died.

He sensed the young master and the head maid approaching the room and closed his eyes.

What he sensed from Adalina surprised him. It was something that went beyond sadness. When she touched his face and chest, the emotion intensified and he heard her sob quietly.

Ciel gave her instructions to pretend as if everything was normal. Once Ciel was gone, he heard Adalina sob freely as she went to the ground. The awful sound hurt Sebastian's chest. He had never felt such an emotion before, and he wasn't exactly sure there was a proper name for it. He just knew that he never wanted to feel it again.

Sebastian sensed Lukas's presence outside the manor disappear, and he briefly smiled. Their plan had been successful.

Once Adalina had left as well, he sat up and removed the blood-drenched bandages from his chest.

The things he did for his master.

That night, his supernatural hearing picked up Adalina's cries before she fell asleep. The mysterious painful emotion from before returned to him, but it hurt more than it had previously. He went down to her room and put his hand to the doorknob. But he was physically unable to turn the knob because doing so would be against his order. He lightly pressed his hand against the door, hearing Adalina's cries from within.

Sebastian usually treated humans in whatever way was appropriate to get what he wanted. If he needed information, he could seduce someone. If that didn't work, he could use intimidation. If he needed someone to cooperate who was afraid, he was gentle with them. If he needed something to get done fast, he was firm and strict.

But lately, he found himself being gentle and loving towards Adalina when he got nothing out of it.

Right now, he just wanted to go into her room and hold her in his arms so she could know that he would never leave her like this. Unfortunately, he had his orders. She had to stay in the dark for now.

But with every cry he heard, it hurt him just a little bit more.

Adalina looked at her closed door. She couldn't help but think about what Sebastian had said to her. She had been extremely upset at the thought of him being dead. But why had she been so distraught? Sure, the two of them were very close, but not enough to warrant the amount of tears she shed for him. She had never cried so much in her life which was saying something considering where she had spent so much of her time prior to becoming a Phantomhive servant.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that…she cared for Sebastian more than she had initially believed. He was the only one who really knew her desires and her wants. He was the only one who had been able to see her past with his own eyes.

He was the only one who understood her.