I'm baaaaaaack

Thank you for the follows/faves! I do not own Black Butler. Wish I did. Don't. Oh, well.

Without further ado...

That night, as Menefer climbed into her bed alone, Sebastian wandered aimlessly through the gas lamp-lit city, and Elizabeth paced the carpet bare in her hotel room, Ciel slipped the sage leaf under his pillow and lay down, anticipation tingling his nerves and anxiety keeping him from slumber. He could not dream if he could not sleep, he lamented, and forced his eyes closed for what seemed the hundredth time.

The sun pouring through the heavy draperies in his room some hours later drew him from his slumber and he distantly wondered why Sebastian had not come in to wake him yet. Oh, right. He's not here.

He could hear Menefer stirring around across the hall but he continued to lie there, trying to recall if he'd had any dreams the night before. There was a muddled confusion in the back of his mind as if he'd forgotten something extremely important, nagging his brain. A fog of uncertainty that clouded his consciousness. Menefer's noises were coming from the bathroom now and he heard the tap on the tub squeak as she turned it to fill her bath.

Groaning against the desire to remain exactly where he was, and no doubt lying in bed far longer than he'd intended, he shoved the down comforter from his body and sat up, stretching and enjoying the pull in his muscles and the few pops of vertebrae as he arched his back. He would get up and read, at least. It irritated him to no end that he could not remember his dreams, but he supposed there were two more nights in which to finish the ritual.

He dressed himself easily enough. That was one thing he seemed to be proficient with in the absence of his eternal butler. He didn't bother with shoes or socks, seeing as he couldn't leave the house. He pulled on a pair of slacks and left his button down shirt hanging loose, not really giving a damn about his appearance at that point.

He started out of his room just as Menefer was coming out of the bathroom and he had to bite back a startled gasp and avert his eyes as they nearly collided and the towel she had wrapped around herself came undone, falling to the polished oak floor in a pool of white terry cloth.

She chuckled as he bent down and lifted the towel, holding it out to her as if it were on fire. She commended him for keeping his eyes down, the picture of gentlemanly propriety. He grumbled something under his breath as she wrapped herself again.

"This may sound a bit... odd... to you, Ciel, but I do not mind if you look."

His head snapped up so fast it dizzied him. "What?!"

"In my culture, nudity is not so... how do I say this? It is quite normal to have parts of your body displayed. The breasts, or abdomen, legs. Our clothing was, in many cases, quite transparent. And really the only part of the body that was considered risque were the genitals, but after having your body used over and over, even that part is not so special any more," she smiled, a hint of sadness creasing her eyes.

"Are you... No. What are you offering me, here?" he asked, confused and quite honestly a little intrigued.

"You will be a man, hopefully, in two days. How will you satisfy Lizzie, if you have no ...schooling on the matter? I am not offering myself for your use. Only I will let you look, if you desire, and answer any questions you have... If you have any."

Ciel gulped. "I do have questions. But I admit, I was relying very heavily on instinct for the matter. It is not as if I am clueless."

"I know, dearest. You are a man, after all. But you seem so innocent when it comes to such things. I love Elizabeth and I want you to please her. I must admit, I have had an inclination to lie with her myself, but I know she would refuse me for her love for you..."

Ciel's mouth hung agape. Menefer, lying with my Lizzie...? No, surely she jests... But judging by the look on Menefer's face, she did not. And that brought all sorts of naughty things to Ciel's mind. A blush crept into his cheeks and Menefer laughed again.

"Is it so unnatural for one woman to show another the pleasures she's missed in her life?" Menefer asked, "Or perhaps, I've offended you?"

"Not... precisely... offended," he muttered. She smiled again, her wide mouth and thick lips spreading wide to display perfect white teeth. Her dark skin contrasted sharply with the white of the towel and her legs were smooth and ridiculously long, and he couldn't tear his eyes from her breasts as they strained against the towel, stretching it taut and spilling over the top where she clutched it closed.

"I see you are thinking like a man, at least," she laughed.

And at that particular moment, he wanted to see her in all her glory very, very much. "Menefer," he started, but the gruffness in his voice told her what he wanted before he could finish and she released her towel again, holding it open to either side of her body and let him drink his fill of her.

It took a long moment for Ciel to tear his gaze from her heavy breasts. He'd seen Elizabeth nude and he wasn't honestly expecting too much of a difference when it came between two women's bodies, but the difference was profound and though he decided he preferred Elizabeth's smaller breasts and rosy nipples and blonde curls, Menefer was far more ample than the blonde.

Menefer dropped the towel lower, holding the corners at her hips and letting it drape below her bottom and turned. Ciel took in the sight, biting the inside of his cheek and feeling that nagging pressure building in his groin. She was perfect, he thought; it was no wonder Sebastian had laid claim to this buxom beauty. From her long neck to her squared shoulders, her huge round breasts tipped with chocolate, her tapered, muscled stomach, her flared hips and beautiful heart-shaped ass, she was the picture of an exotic goddess.

Menefer turned fully back around and lifted the towel again, wrapping herself and twisting the ends under one another to secure it around her torso. "Well?" she asked, a grin playing at the corner of her mouth.

"I think you are the most beautiful woman in the world and were I not bound to Elizabeth I would take you for myself."

"Because I'm pretty?" she laughed, and Ciel laughed with her.

"Because you're pretty."

He waited in the kitchen for Menefer to finish dressing, knowing she would come there to make herself breakfast. He had more questions than he'd ever imagined flowing through his mind about love-making and he was both flustered and relieved that he had someone whom he trusted that could educate him on the matter.

The problem with Menefer was that she was perfect, and that she had more knowledge on the subject than anyone he knew, excepting perhaps, Sebastian. Ciel sighed, imagining asking the older demon for advice about that. "No way in hell..." he muttered to himself. Sebastian would laugh. A lot. Then fill his brain with things that ranged from useless to absolute perversity. No, asking the demon for that sort of education was absurd.

Menefer came in, her usual slacks hugging the curves of her hips and bottom and Ciel wondered how he'd never noticed how round that bottom was... Her shirt was obviously Sebastian's, open at the throat and tied in a little knot at her waist, showing just a peep of brown skin at the waist and a little bit of those perfect breasts at the top. She immediately went to work on the coffee, even going so far as to set out a cup for Ciel, which though he wouldn't drink, he would let the aroma waft to his nose and enjoy the smell.

"If you will pardon my bluntness, how far have you and Lizzie... you know?"

"Farther than I think anyone here would believe," he retorted, the memory of her on his desk, robe open to him, lust filling her eyes flooding up to his mind. The way he'd ground himself into her, the pressing need in his loins to fill her and taste her overwhelming his better judgment that night... He rolled his eyes. "I have seen her... We've kissed. I've..." he pressed his lips together, trying to decided if he should admit that night aloud, lest it have been another dream, or Menefer laugh at him.

"It's alright if you'd rather not tell me, but I think if you do, you'll be more comfortable with asking me questions in future," Menefer pointed out.

Her back was to him as she faced the stove and fried her eggs. Ciel concentrated on her rear-end and forced himself to talk. "The other day, she came to the study in nothing but her dressing robe. She sat on the edge of the desk and I stood in front of her. I was delighted that we were finally eye-to-eye. She... opened herself to me, and I touched her. We kissed... I think. I was between her legs. I pressed myself into her. I didn't open my trousers, mind you. She was wet and I wanted to. But I was afraid that I... couldn't... fill her."

Menefer didn't laugh. She nodded, he knew, by the bouncing of her curls and Hmmmed. He was eternally grateful for that.

"Then, it was as if we both awakened from a dream and she... fled. She ran from me-"

"She ran from her desires, Dearest. Not you. Never you." Menefer turned her gaze over her shoulder to lock eyes with the young demon. "You need to understand that. Elizabeth loves you very much, and if she planned on running away, I think she would have done that when she found out what you are."

Ciel nodded, grateful to hear Menefer echo his own sentiments on the matter. It was solid logic, after all, but it calmed his nerves to know that her love for him wasn't a fabrication of his own imagination.

"Did you dream last night?" she asked, turning her attention back to her frying pan.

"I do not remember. I had hoped that idle chatter would bring the memory to me, but so far, nothing."

She nodded again. Then, "Do you have any questions or should I just dive into the subject matter?"

Ciel cleared his throat, blood staining his cheeks, and finally managed to tear his gaze from her behind, focused now on the kitchen floor. "I do not know where to begin," he admitted.

Menefer scraped her eggs out of the pan and onto a plate and sat down across from the earl. "You know what parts of a woman are the most sensitive?"

His face was suddenly scarlet and Menefer had to forcibly choke back a laugh. "I suppose that was a bit too blunt. Hmm, let's see-"

"Breasts," he whispered and Menefer had to lean forward in her chair to hear him.

"Yes, those are quite. But they are not the only things that beg attention," she began. "And mind you, all women are different. We may be made of the same parts, but each woman has a weakness. For some, it is the side of the neck or the ear; for others, her bottom or inner thigh. Trying to discover just what that weakness is is part of the fun of love-making."

Ciel was finally able to meet her gaze again, and he stared, focused on the Egyptian, listening to every word she uttered.

For the next three and a half hours, Menefer regaled the boy demon with tales of face-flushing passion, most of which he suspected were between herself and his older counterpart; some he knew could have only been with the once-Pharaoh of Egypt, and one sad story that had him on the edge of his seat as she recounted a memory of a palace soldier that tried to rape her in her sleep. The man was so large, Sebastian had to dispose of the body for her and gave her quite the scolding for letting down her guard.

In those tales, he felt emotions that he thought had either never existed, or had long-since lain dormant within his heart. He felt an overwhelming compassion for this beautiful woman who had been a pawn for one man after another when all she'd ever set her sights on was one demon incapable of ever returning her love for him. He felt a deep sadness for the pains she had been through; for her trials and failures and loss. There seemed to only have ever been two people in her life that she loved or felt she could trust and though one of those seemed to care for her in his own perverse way, she had lost the only father figure she had ever known after her move to the palace.

Menefer, throughout all this, didn't bat an eye. She seemed as though she were telling someone else's tales of woe; disjointed but efficient. And Ciel sat there, unable to tear his gaze from her face, wanting nothing more than to hold her hand and tell her that he would be her friend for as long as he lived.

But Ciel was not an emotional creature and old habits die hard; so he bit his cheek and tried to hear her words and not feel that pang of sympathy when she admitted something terribly sad. She did tell him how she'd died-or at least, what happened before she awoke in the display case in the British Museum. She did flinch when she remembered the blade slicing through her spine, a wince creasing her brow, and she stopped there for a moment to catch her breath and take a sip of her coffee.

"I dreamed it, the other night. I don't know that I've ever had a nightmare in my life, but I woke with a scream in my throat, the cold bite of that blade still fresh on my spine."

"I cannot imagine," he muttered, trying to keep his voice from breaking. "And Sebastian could not come to you?"

"We did not have a contract, he and I. There was no real communication between us when we were face to face, let alone distant from one another. He had left for Cynopolis that night-he was probably more than half way there when I fell. That he was the last thing that crossed my mind as I fell into slumber... I wonder if that is why this pendant worked the way it did. If it works the way we think it does, that is."

"And that is it stores up Sebastian's demonic aura and uses it to keep you young? I suppose I have no counter argument. It's not as if I'm a specialist in magical items."

Menefer nodded and rose, taking her coffee cup and china to the kitchen sink. "Shall we continue in the study?"

"By all means."

Once settled in his plush chair behind the huge desk, Ciel felt a bit more relaxed. Though he couldn't seem to stop glancing at the spot on the desk where Lizzie had perched her bottom that day he'd lost his senses. He tried to focus on Menefer as she wondered at the bookshelves, but his gaze was repeatedly drawn to her bottom and he felt very nearly like laughing at the absurdity of it all. Why did his hormones suddenly choose to rear their ugly heads? Could it not have waited till he had the proper body to go with all this new information?

He chuckled despite himself, and Menefer turned a confused eye in his direction. "Ciel?"

"It's nothing," he assured her. "It seems I'm losing my mind this week, is all. Continue. Please."

"Where were we?"

"You were asleep for millenia. Did you not dream? You said you couldn't remember ever having a nightmare."

"I do not think I dreamed. I do not remember anything from the time I was asleep. I think perhaps, I must have been dead and my peoples' religion was just a lie. Or maybe I did not deserve such an afterlife as I was promised."

"Or perhaps a higher power knew that you would not remain asleep and as such, chose not to waste his time?"

"Terrible and cheeky of you, Ciel," Menefer laughed, "but entirely possible, I suppose. I know if I had dreamed, my thoughts would have been filled with Marcus. It's horrible, I know-my blatant obsession with that demon-but he was all I knew. He was my savior and my lover and the closest thing I had to a friend. He expected much of me and drove me to complete my goals-"

"His goals, you mean."

"They were our goals. For had he not wanted what he wanted, I would have had no purpose, and so his goals became my own. I lived for him."

"You died for him, you know."

"And yet, I live again. Because of him. So vicious is the circle."

"Vicious, indeed. I understand why you love him, God help you, Menefer. I just do not understand how you can love him. You know him for what he truly is, and yet you throw yourself at his feet."

"Why does Elizabeth love you?"

Ciel was taken aback. He folded his fingers in a steeple before him and concentrated on the linked flesh and bone. He had no answer.

"Love is a horrible, wondrous, vicious thing. It gives us hope. It crushes our souls. It hurts and it soothes. And even knowing what my Marcus was-what your Sebastian is-he is the creature that plucked me dying from the desert sands and put me in a home with a loving father and set goals for me and-as you say, 'God help him'-cared for me even when he said he could not. I know he doesn't love me. Not the passionate, selfless, all-encompassing devotion for which I yearn-for which every woman yearns, I assure you. But if he hadn't given me this necklace; if he hadn't recognized me in that display case; if he hadn't the compunction to 'rescue' me from the museum and bring me with you-I would have died a child in the sands of Egypt. How could I not love him for that?"

"How could he not love you?" Ciel breathed.

Menefer managed a weak smile and turned to face Ciel behind his desk. "I have a great many reasons why he cannot love me. And all of them make me love him more. Not the least of which, is that only one tiny piece of his black heart harbors a love for another woman. A love that sometimes threatens to break him. I've felt it. It's furious and wild and he hates himself for it. He hates me for trying to take her place and if she were still alive, she would hate me, as well. But most of all-and part of me takes a great deal of pleasure in this-he looks at me and he tries to pretend I'm her. And he fails. And he's still able to let himself go. He cannot hold himself back when I offer myself to him. And all the pretending in the world cannot make me his lost wife."

"You are as twisted as the rest of us, I fear."

Menefer smiled, but Ciel could see the glistening pools of tears in her eyes. "Put yourself in his shoes. Love a woman with all the heart you possess. And when time or circumstance takes her away from you, you are still a man. You have needs. You crave flesh. Yet you wait. You push her from your memory for centuries. Then, your desire is too much and when a beautiful woman offers herself up to you, you take her. You're sickened with yourself for awhile. But the cravings of the flesh do not die and you take her again and again. You hate yourself. You hate her. You feel the memory of your lost love slipping from you and yet you cannot force yourself to love another because you do not have room in that black little heart for another." Tears were spilling down her cheeks now, but she stood her ground, arms wrapped around herself as if she were cold. "He cannot stop himself. He is all-powerful and yet he has no control."

"You are defending him for using you, Menefer! You are a body with whom he can converse and defile and magnanimous as he may sometimes be, he does not deserve your love!" Ciel was furious. He found he'd lost his own control, emotions long since laid to rest rising from the depths of his consciousness. "You are magnificent, Mennie... He has made you love him. He manipulates your emotions-"

"Ciel, darling," she started, striding to the desk and perching on the edge near his chair. She reached out and pulled him against her chest, hugging him as his shoulders shook in rage. "You must understand that I am no longer his pawn. That I cannot control my love for him is the same as his inability to requite my love." She felt his narrow arms snake around her waist and he turned his head into her shoulder.

There was a tell-tale sniffle and Ciel refused to believe it had come from his own nose. "I have not been this irrational and sentimental in my entire life," he grumbled. He felt her smile spread where her face was against his hair.

"I have never defended a demon so impassionately in my entire life," she retorted, and a breathy laugh escaped his lips.

Ciel lifted his head to meet Menefer's eyes and knew in that moment, his tiny black heart had enough room in it for two women.