Easing into Calm Before the Storm

Moving on.

This will be another short chapter.

I was going to do a weird fairy tale spin off chapter, but can't come up with anything.

Here's what I debated with - Robin Hood, Much Ado About Noting, Beauty and the Beast, a host club thing. Something. I'm at a loss for it. But will likely add it when the fic is over with.

xxx

Alois is dead. The main target of Ciel's revenge. This...wasn't part of the plan at all. Not in the slightest. If anything...this ruins...EVERYTHING! Heh. Listen to me. Not part of the plan. Everything is ruined. I am the former commander of one of Paris's most renowned and honored guard. An entourage to crimes of the most heinous, cruel, and depraved. I have been the victim of knives in the back, gunshots appearing from thin air, and surprise strikes from literally nowhere. Plans going awry was and is the cup of tea I sip before getting out of bed. And still...this bothers me to no possible end.

To be murdered by his own butler. How utterly repulsive. Why? Why does this bother me? No. Why does this DISGUST me? Is it because I am a demon? One who is loyal to both her brother - who is not her assigned master - and to her lover who is the servant? Or is it not so much as Claude's actions to repulse me, but what the effect behind his actions caused? Is this disgust a result of a sorrow I feel for Alois? That doesn't make sense. Is it because...part of me sympathized with him? How can I sympathize with such a monster of a boy? He was so broken. Twisted. Just like...like Ciel used to be. The difference is...Ciel had others to help him. Alois...who did you have in the end?

Claude, a butler who assigned himself to a boy craving revenge, killed his own master with his bare hands. Why? What possessed him to do such a thing? Jasper and Zano...they must know why. They were the ones who told me of Alois's death. They must know more...but aren't telling. Why? Could their reason now be similar to what provoked their disappearance a year ago. If so, should I be grateful they are maintaining their distance? Or chastise them?

No matter. Whoever involves themselves now, later, or never is irrelevant. The facts remains that one of the targets of my brother's revenge is dead. In the perception of Ciel's damaged soul, his revenge would be sullied. What would later transpire is anyone's guess? The damage wrought to Ciel the first time around was terrible in its own right. He lost all memory of the first couple of years he had Sebastian. The only ones he recalls are those who have been involved with him long before Sebastian. Hence why he doesn't recall Auntie Angelina being dead.

Ciel? If you learn of what's happened to Alois, what then? Will I...will I have to tell you that Ash and Angela, two angels, are responsible for our parents death? That they are no longer alive? An explanation that will, in turn, force me to divulge what truly transpired while you were in your coma. I don't know why - which seems to be a common element. But the idea of telling him the truth, after lying to him for so long, terrifies me.

xxx

A British pound shined in the dim moonlight. Alliahnna's blinked out of her distant stare. Her drifting mind returned to the present, and made aware of the hand on her shoulder and chest at her back. "A pound for your thoughts?" Sebastian purred in her ear. Chills scaled her neck. Her hands rested to a small window's sill. Her thoughts needed to come together for a moment.

Flickering candlelight from a worn desk was the main source of light in the densely compact room. She was in Sebastian's quarters of the manor. When she had a second, she thought about how rarely she comes by his room. She started to feel bad. That is until she remembered the the real reason for her spacing out. He thoughts were consumed by everything. Alois, Claude, and a couple of times Alexander. But, most of all, she feared for Ciel. Feared what will become of him. Will he return to normal? Will his soul be…?

"I was just...thinking about Alexander…" She lied.

Sebastian was bewildered. She's usually more convincing in her falsehoods. She must be troubled greatly. No matter. He will humor her for the time being. "The boy will be fine." He reassured her, slipping the pound back into his pocket. "Brave mother, loving father - He will become a fine man when he matures."

"You think so?" She mumbled.

"You and my young master are doing splendidly." He chirped.

"So splendid that we've curried the favor of a demon to cause pain and misery to those who bestowed it upon us." She retorted drearily. A rather dismal spin on things for Sebastian's taste. "Now one of us is a blooded demon and the other is a shell of a former boy slated to have his soul devoured."

Sebastian sat to a chair, drawing Alliahnna by the waist to sit on his lap. "You make it sound as if you've failed in life." He cradled her fondly, saddened by her melancholy.

"Mom and Dad told me to keep Ciel safe. To watch over him and guide him." She sank miserably, resting her head to his shoulder. She normally felt comfort in his arm. Not selling his embrace short, no, but it wasn't necessarily working. "I left and abandoned him, and now I'm forced to stand aside while you cultivate him to eat him like a cheap dinner."

Sebastian was unable to resist chuckling. She certainly held a creative imagination. "I can assure you he will not be a cheap dinner." To say such a thing wounded him. "His soul is perhaps one of the rarest delicacies of the human race." Alliahnna's growls vibrated on his shoulder. She was about to leave him. Sebastian's tightening embrace held her in place. "There is only one other occasion many years ago where I met a soul inexplicably identical."

"Really? And whose soul was that?" She snarled irritably.

"Yours."

Alliahnna felt a lift in her body. Smoothly and with his usual lack of effort, Sebastian shifted his hold on Alliahnna. She squeaked as she was jerked at an angle against a strong arm. Sebastian's gloved hand cupped her shivering chin. Hypnotic, unfathomably blood red orbs aligned to her deep pools of sapphire. A hue, like a vale, coated to his blank expression. A glow intensified those crimson eyes. Jolts sparked in her core, sending tingles spanning to her weakening limbs. A sharp pull in the back of her mind forbade Alliahnna from looking away. Sebastian's being - his essence - surged within her, casting the grip he fastened over the years. The dominion of her soul he achieved hardened by the reflection of him in her frightened eyes.

"Hardship, grief, despair - you wallowed in your pity. Wasting to atrophy in a room soaked to the foundation with your surrender." He uttered with a purr, reciting the noose she fasten with a poetic sense. "But that night I sensed it. No. I tasted it in the air." He traced a finger from her cheek to her lips, drawing a line to her chin, running to her chest, "Felt it crawl up my body, restraining me in its desperation for vengeance." The fingers circled to her stomach, balling in a fist. Alliahnna felt a small twinge of tension in her stomach. He opened the palm at his nose, inhaling sweetly as if a delicate aroma wafted to his nose, "The aroma of your soul - so invigorating and inviting - my heart quickened, fooled to believing it was my young master." He gazed deeply into her rich sapphire eyes, drowning in those pools. "When I saw it was you...glee consumed me. A mirror image of my master, but mentally more mature, reasonable, and compassionate. Qualities my young master lacked." The blush in her cheeks filled him with the same glee. "The light of your soul beckoned me. Like a moth to a flame I heeded the call. Every burn etched to my body is a memory I shan't soon replace."

Alliahnna released a held breath. He was so embarrassing. She twisted away from him, trying to hide her embarrassment. "You're too much for me sometimes. Have I ever told you that?" She muttered.

"Once or twice." Sebastian poked her cheek. "But your reactions are too adorable for me abandon them." Alliahnna's brow bounced irritably. There he goes again. He has a terrible habit of treating her like a child or doll. "Now then," He stroked hairs from her cheeks, "Why don't you tell me what's really at the forefront of your mind."

That's Sebastian. Always knows how to reach the deeper root of an issue someone is trying to avoid. Alliahnna was an open book to him. And vice versa. It's common for Alliahnna to bottle what she really feels, only to have Sebastian surreptitiously weasel information out of her. He once got her to divulge a long kept secret about a stash of cookies her parents hid that she and Ciel uncovered. She still carries the guilt of never telling them to that day.

"Jasper and Zano…" She hummed. Sebastian's ears perked at his brother and father's names. "I cannot shake this feelings they aren't being truthful with us." Sebastian moved from the chair, switching Alliahnna to the spot. He leaned to the window sill, holding a grim intrigue in her dissertation. "When they told me of Alois's death, I could see in their eyes that there was more." Zanosuke, Jasper, and Alliahnna used to behave awkwardly around one another. Maintaining a shield so neither one could trespass further than five feet. Now...as much as it pleases her...Alliahnna is able to see past their pokerfaces. And they hers. "As if they were purposefully withholding vital information that would inevitably help us."

Sebastian sighed dismally. "That sounds about correct in their characters." He added so dismissively, Alliahnna wondered if he knew what it was they were hiding. By the irritation in his tone, that wasn't the case. "Under the usual circumstances, most demons who are not bound by contract or other demons choose a supervisory role. They act as spectators, only intervening when situations demand." An example would be when Alliahnna first met them in Paris, and at the Danse Macabre at Trancy Manor. "They did the same thing with you."

"What?!" She gasped.

"They divulged their motives for confronting you a year ago to me." And he waited this long to tell her? Sebastian was magnificent in many feats. But his sense of timing could use some work. "They said it was not only to test your mettle, and if you were a good candidate for demonhood," Other personal matters Alliahnna became aware of put aside, "But they wanted to ensure you were ready to face an angel."

To ensure she was ready to face Ash? "If I wasn't?" She asked nervously.

"They would have intervened and killed Ash in your stead. In turn…" Sebastian released a breath, glancing away with a note of shame, "Your soul would have shattered at your revenge being taken."

"Really?" She shrieked, cupping her mouth.

"Yes." Sebastian regretted answering. "I am afraid once a human soul has their sights set upon those who have wronged them, the seal we demons craft binds them to the revenge. Makes them yearn and hunger for it." Alliahnna swallowed a large lump in her throat. This explains very much. Ciel and she craved nothing more than their revenge. Would become unreasonable and lash out blindly. Anyone who stood in their way...removing them was a viable option. "When it is taken, a pin is pulled, and their soul unravels."

"What happens then?" Alliahnna placed a shaky hand to her chest, feeling thin threads untangling within her.

"The master becomes useless. And the demon is forced to abandon them." He stated with a note of indifference.

Alliahnna dropped like a log. "Wow." She glowered at her lover. "I never realized how self preserved and selfish demons are."

"You flatter us both, My Lady." Sebastian snickered, making her realize she just insulted herself.

"It's not flattery." She gruffly responded. She marched to the window, sitting beside him. "It's...a realization…" She rasped somberly. The light in her eyes dimmed.

"Alliahnna?" Sebastian placed a hand over hers. "What is the matter?"

Alliahnna's hand tensed under his. Not in anxiety. But something else. "When this storm passes...Ciel will be lying on the pacified waves." She tilted her head to the ceiling, peering past the roofing to the night sky. The the darkened clouds outlined by the moon's glow drifted aimlessly across the sky. "Once the clouds part, and that longed for ray of sunshine shines upon him…that will be it." The heavens - or rather, Sebastian - will whisk him away, taking him to wherever souls go when they have left their mortal hosts.

"Indeed it will." Sebastian was unable to comfort her at this juncture. It is a fear that she has carried with her for some time. He was astonished she withheld the normally streaming tears the subject brings. She's either growing stronger, or stifling her emotions. Both worried him. They worried him greatly. "What will...what are your plans moving forward?"

"I don't know. I guess…" Alliahnna is in quite the predicament. A noblewoman and a demon, as well as a prominent figure in two different nations. "Huh. I haven't really thought about it." Hasn't thought about it? Or doesn't want to think about it? "I mean...it's come up before...but I get cotton in my mouth and digress to a less painful topic." Like she is now. Her heart is skipping beats. What is she going to do? What does she WANT to do? She will be named as the Head of House when Ciel passes. Knowledge of her being a demon is restricted. But ruling by herself would be...boring. "Umm...if I were to say...that is...I know I'm a demon and all, but I am the Earless…" Sebastian wasn't able to decipher what she was trying to say. Not entirely, "I'll have to be the Head of House when Ciel passes."

"Yes?" Sebastian was starting to understand.

"But...when that time comes...would you…" Her heart was pounding. Her mind was in a haze. She was darting between looking at Sebastian and the ground. Her face heated up like an oven. The more Sebastian leaned to meet her gaze, the hotter she became. "THAT IS...um...I…" She was going to faint if she doesn't spit it out fast, "I...I don't want to be alone in title or in the house when it's mine. I'd...like for you to rule the house with me...as my...um…"

"My Lady?!" Sebastian glistened. His cheeks flushed pink. Alliahnna drooped her head, hoping her long hair hid her reddening cheeks. Sebastian was sure he understood. Or was his mind creating what he wanted to hear? Her intentions are vivid enough. Sebastian earned his own nervous lump. His mouth was drying. "Are you...asking me...to be your husband?" He crooned the last word.

"M...Maybe?" She squeaked. She started to tremble. Her legs squeezed together, shuffling uncomfortably at the heat filling every portion of her body. She felt swelling on her skin. "I don't...I mean...would it be wrong?" She finally came clean.

"Of course not!" He swooped both of her hands in his, spinning onto one knee in front of her. "Nothing would make me happier!" He kissed her ring finger, overheating her on the spot. "I just thought it would be me asking you."

"WELL...you...TOOK TOO LONG!" She couldn't control her voice, stuck between irate and glee.

"I didn't know how to ask you!" He cursed himself. "We hit our awkward patch when I mustered the courage to ask!"

"You mean at the Danse?" She cried. Then it hit her, "You were going to ask me then?"

"Not necessarily THEN! But around the time!"

"I don't believe this…" Veins popped in her head. "Don't tell me you bought a ring!"

"Of course not!" What ridiculous gesture. He towered over her, hands to his hips, "I find jewelry meaningless in conveying true feelings! As do you, if I recall!"

"Well, yeah, I do! But still, of all the times to pick and choose you chose one of the worst times!"

"Now see here!" He slammed a hand to the wall near her head, "You're the one who is bringing it up, and asked ME!" He hasn't breathed a word of it until strong armed by her usual rhetoric. "I'm merely conveying what you are! Only you've taken the first step!" Which is more than he's taken. "And you're asking me when a heated battle is on the approach!"

"Not on purpose!" She blurted shakily. "You asked me what my plans were, I told you! So there!" She folded her arms, huffing as she twisted away from him. Sebastian growled in the back of his throat. This sort of thing always happens. They have a romantic moment, and one of them says something to spoil it. He was about to scold Alliahnna for her ruining the moment when she groaned sickly. She touched a hand to her stomach, losing color.

"Alliahnna?" He cradled her by the shoulders. "Are you alright?" He touched her forehead. "You don't have a fever. But you look slightly pale. Have you been eating properly?"

"No. That's not it." She massaged her stomach. A shiver scrolled her spine. This talk of futures and marriage, Alliahnna forgot something very important. "Um...this may seem out of the blue...but do you recall when you joked about Alexander being ours?"

"I do. Why do you ask?" He tilted his head.

"Would you...that is...were you joking?" Sebastian was confused. Joking? He thought. "Were you relieved Alexander wasn't yours? Or...did you really…?"

"I see…" He was struck with realization. He can tell, this is another circumstance that has been bothering her. For quite some time, it would appear. "Honestly?" She wouldn't have it any other way. Alliahnna truly wanted to know if Sebastian wants a family with her.

Sebastian thought for a long while before concluding what he wanted. True, he was mildly disappointed by Alexander not being his. Even if it was a joke from the start. But the way Alliahnna responded. She sounded as if she didn't want to bear his child. Perhaps because of the tiff they had before hand. After their latest argument, Sebastian lost minor faith in his relationship with her. But, slowly, it was blossoming into a new splendor. Would he want a family? Like what Jasper had? Or...would he want something better? What could be better than starting a family with...the woman he loved?

"I am afraid I do not know." Alliahnna felt her stomach flip. And not because of the baby. "That is...I do not know at this point in time." Sebastian corrected himself. It did nothing to ease Alliahnna. "But, I do know this." He cupped her cheeks, caressing his thumbs over the soft rosy flesh. "I will have an answer before this is over. Please wait for me?"

"Oh...okay...sure…" She despondently replied. Sebastian kissed her cheek, then left his room to inspect the manor one last time. Alliahnna sank to the floor, folding her knees to her chest. "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised." She moaned, wrapping her arms to her stomach. She wanted to cry. But...she felt strangely calm. As if...she came to expect this from him. "He's already a servant of a temporary master." She buried half her face in her knees, partially lidding her eyes sadly, "Why be permanently restrained to a temporary love?"

To be continued