Ciel had been incredibly ill after that trip, but after he had recovered, he immediately wanted to go to that first hospital where the Aurora Society had started out—the place that had started it all.

Sebastian shot it down immediately, which Ciel thought wasn't very obliging of him.

"My Lord, we barely got off that ship alive. And now you want to go right back into another nest of them?"

"I want to know more—no, I need to know more!"

"You're not going."

"I most certainly am!"

Then the butler gave him a very dark look which made Ciel rethink his life decisions.

"...Can I go, please?"

"No."

Sebastian was not in a listening mood, and he was definitely not in a cooperating mood. So Ciel had to resort to other, sneakier means:

"Eleanora," he said when the maid arrived with his afternoon tea, "how much do you love Sebastian?"

Eleanora immediately looked up in alarm. Shit, she had almost forgotten—the kid had also seen that damned kiss.

"…Why do you ask?" she finally said, keeping her voice as calm as possible.

"Do you love him enough to happily spend an evening all alone with him?"

"What? My Lord, where are you going with this?"

Ciel leaned back in his seat.

"I've convinced Grell to be my butler for an evening. We're going to go and explore that Aurora Society hospital."

Eleanora was silent for a few minutes. And then she said some things, most of which can't be written down, but the main gist of her speech was, "WHY?!"

"Because I want to close this case—close it completely. And I can't do that if I run away from the source of information."

"Send the butler to do it and stay here."

"He won't do it."

"Order him to!"

"I tried. He said that putting himself in danger is a violation of the contract—he can only do an order if he knows for sure that he'll survive through it."

"Damn demon," Eleanora muttered under her breath.

"I agree," Ciel said, which made Eleanora blush at being heard, "but I have no choice: I have to sneak away and leave Sebastian behind, and he can't know where I am."

"But why me? Why don't you make Grell keep him occupied and I can go with you?"

"Because Sebastian can't stand Grell. He'd lock her up in a cellar and go to check on me and once he sees that I'm gone, he'll blow several hundred gaskets."

"But…But…He can't stand me either!"

"You remember that kiss?"

Eleanora got a cold feeling in her stomach.

"…What kiss?" she said innocently.

"When we were all on the lifeboat, Sebastian was so happy to see you that he kissed you. You remember that?"

Eleanora's blush increased.

"…I might remember something along those lines," she mumbled.

"Well, I don't know about you, but that proves to me that he likes you. Or, at least, he doesn't hate you as much as he hates other people, which implies to me that he wouldn't mind spending an evening with you."

"So what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Just keep Sebastian distracted for one night—do whatever it takes to keep him occupied."

"What—you mean like dance like a whore, give him unhealthy amounts of wine, jump into the Thames and make him save me?"

"I said to do whatever it takes."

"God help me," she said, looking away.

"So you'll do it then?"

"My Lord," Eleanora said, giving him a wide-eyed, half-terrified look, "do I have to?"

"Yes, you do." Eleanora closed her eyes and placed her hands over her face. "Pleeeeeze?"

"Alright, fine. But I'd better get compensated for this—and I mean compensated."

"If you do this for me, I'll buy you a whole store full of chocolates."

Eleanora licked her lips.

"Gourmet?"

"The finest—straight from Belgium."

"My Lord," Eleanora said, grinning, "you really do know the way to a lady's heart."

That night, a half-hour after Sebastian had helped the young Master to retire, Grell snuck into Ciel's room and got him dressed again. Eleanora was waiting outside the room.

"Are you ready?" Ciel asked her.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she sighed. "I'll go downstairs—he's in the kitchen. You sneak out in fifteen minutes. Okay?"

"Good," Ciel said and Eleanora left.

"I still don't see why I couldn't distract Bassy for a night," Grell said. "I'm so much more attractive than any other human woman."

"I told you—you give Eleanora this night, and I'll give you Sebastian for a week."

Grell grinned at this exciting prospect.

"I think I'll make him take me to a beach. Sebastian in a bathing suit—oooh!"

"I…did not need—or want—to know that."

Eleanora peeked into the kitchen. Sebastian was cleaning up after dinner—the other servants had already gone to bed.

"Well, this is it," she thought and took a deep breath. "M-Mr. Michaelis?"

Sebastian paused in his work and looked over his shoulder.

"Oh—Miss Black." He went back to the dishes. "Can I help you in some way?"

"Uh…No. That is, I was just wondering if I might help you?"

"Thank you, but I'm already finished," Sebastian said as he placed the last clean dish away. He leaned against the counter and looked at her. "Shouldn't you be asleep? You're still recuperating from that cruise, you know."

"I know, but I feel so much better. Maybe it's because of your superior nursing skills…" She gave him a big smile and blinked twice.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. 'Superior nursing skills?' Well, he had taken care of her when he had felt able to get out of bed and move around…He had made her soup and had changed her bandages…Piddling things like that—and she thought that they were superior?

Eleanora suppressed a shudder as he smiled at her. She still had nightmares about him being her doctor—giving her a sponge bath and shit like that. But she had to press on, even though she didn't really know what she was doing, or how she was going to adequately distract him. She hoped that the young Master and Grell had already left.

Indeed they had—in fact, they were already on the manor lawn when Grell suddenly stopped.

"My death scythe! I forgot my death scythe!"

"Well, can't you get on without it for a night?"

"NEVER! I must have my death scythe! I'll just run back and get it."

"NO! I'll get it. I'm smaller than you—Sebastian probably won't notice me skulking around. And if he sees you trying to get your death scythe, he'll get suspicious. Don't go anywhere—I'll be right back."

So saying, Ciel turned and ran back to the manor.

Meanwhile, Sebastian had sidled up to Eleanora and was running his hands up and down her arms, still smiling. Eleanora had never seen a sleazier person in her life, but she still forced herself to keep smiling, keep flattering; praise everything and anything…

"What else?" he kept on asking. "What else?"

Eleanora had run out of compliments about his cooking, cleaning, and hygienic skills; she was forced to start talking about important things.

"And," she said, forcing herself to touch his chest with her fingertips, "and…And you're just always so…strong…"

His eyes gleamed with demonic fire.

"…and so…so…brave…"

Sebastian kept moving closer to her.

"What else?" he whispered. "And what else?"

"And so…so…"

Eleanora stopped tracing her fingers up his neck, which irked him. She was now finding something exceedingly interesting going on behind him, which really irritated him. Just right when they were getting somewhere—right when things were getting interesting…

"Eleanora?" he asked, daring to use her real name. "Eleanora? Is something wrong?"

He tried turning his head to look, but she suddenly gasped and turned his head back to her.

"NO! That is, nothing's wrong…Absolutely nothing…"

She laughed and gave him a coy grin. Sebastian felt his annoyance dissipating and his demonic instincts rising up again. He put his arms around her waist and brought her closer to him. She continued smiling and gently touched his face.

"Eleanora…"

"S-Sebastian…"

She had used his real name. He had never been happier in his whole life; he felt as if his feet could just leave the ground and he could fly away…

"Eleanora," he said and he suddenly pulled her even closer to him; his demonic instincts were at their peak; this was it; he was definitely going to kiss her—

There was a clattering sound behind him, as if something had fallen.

"What—"

He turned to look, but at that moment, Eleanora seized his head and violently kissed him.

Sebastian's body immediately relaxed; his euphoria reached an unprecedented level. He gathered her up and deepened the kiss; her lips parted and he slid his tongue into her mouth.

Sebastian wished that this moment could stretch into eternity, but eventually Eleanora pulled away from him, smiling and blushing and panting a bit.

"S-Sebastian…"

"Eleanora!" Sebastian said and tried to kiss her again. She darted away from his arms and whirled around playfully.

"No, no, not here," she said, winking. "Someone might see…"

"Ohh…" Sebastian smirked back at her. "Well, then…shall we go to my room?"

Eleanora laughed and forced back a scream. She had just come up with a plan of distraction—she just really, really hated it.

"When the young Master comes back," she thought as the butler closed his bedroom door behind them, "I'm going to demand two stores of gourmet chocolate—and a pony."

Grell was still waiting on the front lawn.

"Well? Did you get it?"

"Yes, I got it," Ciel panted, handing over the scissors.

"What happened to you? Are you alright?"

"Sebas-Sebastian almost saw me, but Eleanora stopped him."

"How could he have almost seen you?"

"I tripped," he said sheepishly, but then he was back in control. "But enough of this. Come on—we only have an evening."

"I wonder what Eleanora's doing to distract him," Grell said as they left the manor property.

"I don't know," Ciel said. "Maybe they're playing chess or something."