Chapter 44: Danny POV

"You want vanilla? Just vanilla, on vanilla?"

I shrugged, "Put some fruit on it."

Baldroy looked at me and frowned. "You want just vanilla and 'put some fruit on it?'"

"Are you hard of hearing as well as a bad cook," Sebastian grumbled as he walked into the kitchen. I shot him a look and he smiled a bit. "If Mr. Hyde says he wishes a vanilla cake, I would think you bake him a vanilla cake."

"Of course, Mister Sebastian." Baldroy said, and ducked his head and went off to the pantry. He rustled around and came back with some items in a basket. "I have some berries - will that do?"

I smiled. "Splendid."

I walked back up the stairs behind Sebastian and tugged on his coat tail as he got to the top. He paused and turned, looking at me in curiosity. I took the last two steps in one bound and pushed him into the wall. He smiled a little and leaned down as I leaned a up, not as much since I had started to wearing the lovely collection of heeled shoes he was creating for me.

"Thank you," I breathed and kissed him. He pushed his fingers into my hair and I smiled against his lips. We were celebrating my birthday - my real, Human birthday. I had mentioned it in passing as we had talked about the baby - Rachel Francis Phantomhive. The young Master had grumbled for two weeks after I came back that "she was born two days after my birthday - now no one will remember it!"

"Someone should celebrate the creation of an amazing woman," he said, pulling back slightly. "I know I already do, very eagerly, but to share it with the house. I think the young Master is looking for his favorite Tutor."

I kissed him again and sighed. "He has given me expressed orders not to go into the library. I'm trying to be good and not listen to him as he and the Earl discuss my present."

Sebastian gave me a small peck and opened the door, and let me pass. "You are a very patient and kind Demon," he breathed as he passed me and joined the Earl as he was getting ready to go out with the young Master. They would be back in a few hours, in time for the cake that Sebastian told Baldroy to make. I wasn't sure why he always complained about Baldroy's cooking, he seemed to do a good job.

"Mr. Hyde, can you tend to Rachel," Mey-Rin asked as she walked down the stairs. "Lady Elizabeth wants to pick out a nice dress for your birthday."

I felt Sebastian stiffen and the Earl look at me slightly in concern. "Of course," I said, as I took the baby from her. Rachel was asleep and I turned to the other men and walked them to the door.

The Earl bend down and stroked the chubby cheeks of the two month old baby and looked up at me. I smiled and gave a small nod. "Come, Vincent, let's go buy those -"

"No father! Don't say!" he looked at me and giggled, and frowned a little at his sister in my arms. "Come on - before all the stores close!" he grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.

"Will you -"

"Yes, please, go." I sighed and looked at him, his eyes softened. We had agreed to go out tonight to Feed. We had a standing "courting night" where we would go into different parts of London and took one or two Souls each, depending on our need. When we came back, after the birth and my breakdown, we had hunted once a week, and then we skipped a week, and now we were working on three weeks since our last hunt.

"Sebastian," I called softly as they walked to the automobile. His small turn of his head told me he was listening. "I love you so for your concern and trust in me."

I could almost hear the smile as he helped the young Master into the cab and they took off toward London. I looked down at the sleeping baby and smiled. Her Soul was bright, and she smelled wonderful, but I kept that rearing head of the Demon who wanted to devour to the deepest recess of my mind. The young Master was not eager to hold his sister, or have conversations with his parents interrupted by her cries. He pouted when Baldroy told him he was busy working on some furniture for 'her grace' as he nicknamed Rachel.

"Young Mistress," I whispered as I walked into the drawing room and sat on a floral printed chair. "You are born into a very strange world, in a wonderful time. Your brother will love you, does love you in his way. He just turned nine when you pushed your way into the world, and he is just feeling a bit pushed to the side as well. You are such a bright spot to your parents. And," I added as I sat back, settling her on my chest better, "you have a whole bunch of mixed matched family members who are wanting to pamper you." She yawned in her sleep and shifted. Her dark hair was once more from her father, and she had soft green eyes, like her mother. Both were already reasons for many to stare at her. "You have the only other female in the house, well known at least - Mey-Rin - who is secretly sewing you a cute dress for your first birthday. I know it's for your first birthday because she is learning to sew. Don't be alarmed - she takes her glasses off to see what she is doing.

"Finnian has been cutting fresh flowers to place in your nursery, and has started to build you your own garden. He asked Baldroy to help dig a small pond, a pond called a reflection pool, not one you can fish in. Baldroy didn't like that he can't put fish in it, but Finnian told him no, a reflection pool did not have fish. It may sound as if the pair argued about it, but it wasn't really too much of an argument - Finnian is building what he wants, with or without Baldroy.

"And Baldroy is hiding a bed he is making for you for when you are ready to sleep in one. It looks nice. Don't tell him I told you I saw it. I was getting my horse and spotted it under a blanket." She shifted again and I got up. "Oh, hungry? Let's nip upstairs and get you to your mother."

The young Mistress, she was already commanding most of us, so it was fitting. She opened her eyes and stared at me, as if she was looking into my Soul. Her Soul was bright and lit her eyes up in delicate hues of green. I knocked on the bedroom and heard Mey-Rin crossing the room from the dressing room. She opened the door a bit and smiled.

"Is the young Mistress needing her mother?" She took her from my arms and I smiled, turning away. I now had nothing to do on the lovely Saturday and the air had just started to turn cool as the summer was slowly leaving and autumn was sweeping in. It was my favorite time of the year.

I walked down to my room, not quite getting the whole hang of materializing clothes, and grabbed my coat. I paused as I put it on, a rather red dress was stuck in the back of the wardrobe. I opened the door a bit more and then shut it. If Sebastian wanted me to see it, he would have put it out in the open. I walked down the side garden lane and took in the way the trees swayed over my head. It casted shadows and I rounded the corner, bringing me back to the times when my brother and I would -

I stopped and crumbled into the bench nearby. My brother. Danny - Daniel. It was his birthday as well. I pulled the jacket closer and let the tears and memories wash over me. Daniel was my other half - the reason I disguised myself. I lied. I gave myself up - my female part. It was easy since much of of my days were spent in the orchid, climbing and washing, helping Mama with the chores, but mostly helping Papa and the men. Daniel and I would run down to the main road and make sure to pack just one apple into the bags, sent to town. We would laugh and shove each other as we got older to see whose apple was be best, which one would be sold, or be eaten.

I fingered the lace trimming on the jacket and let the tears roll, the knowledge that this was the first celebrated birthday I would have since I stopped being Human. I angrily wiped at my tears. Why did Sebastian - the only one I mentioned many things about my Human life to - tell the Earl about my birthday? And then the Earl had to tell the staff. I shook my head and stood, continuing my walk. I passed a tree and looked at the carvings in the bark, a reminder that someone was there, someone took the time to mark the occasion of something. It was old and faded, and I traced over it again. A small letter was barely recognizable and I left it, simply looking at it. I had a marker somewhere. Daniel, Alyse and Rose, all had one too. Mama and Papa was already gone by the time of the fire. And I the only survivor. I placed a hand over my mouth to stifle my own cries of realization.

In a month was when my siblings - and I, I figured since the home was completely destroyed and I vanished - were killed in the wildfire that also destroyed much of our picked crop, and our orchid. I had found many trees already felled to start clearing the land when I came and saw the house. I did not want to be revisiting that memory.

I bit my cheek, wishing to be unpassionate, unemotional, as I gazed at the past with the eye of eternity. The eye of a speck of time had been once when I was Human, once when I was a Reaper, but now I was this glorious Demon, covering the innocent with her Mark and saving them from certain fate. I scoffed at my own thoughts. What would I save the young Master from? What would I save even the young Mistress from? A nine year old child, and a two month old baby needed no more protection than I needed to commemorate my birth or my death. Or my real death, I thought shamefully. I didn't note the day and time when I… I took my life.

I heard the callings of Baldroy, that the Earl, young Master, and Sebastian were turning up the lane. My back tingled as Sebastian came into the Estate. I closed my eyes and wished I could carve a hole out where my compassionate heart was. Never did I want to pack it with so much ice, darkness, and nothingness then when I also felt the young Master. I wasn't tied to him by my Mark, we had no Contract, no understanding that there would be one even, and yet his Humanity, his smell, his energy, coursed into my veins as well.