The next few days of classes passed by in a blur for Ciel; he had mathematics, classic literature, violin for music class, poetry, anatomy, Latin, French, and oil-painting, on top of his usual Fag duties and practicing for the cricket tournament. It was draining and while Ciel didn't mind the monotony, he loathed how exhausted he felt mentally and physically afterwards and could only go to bed and not research further into what to do.

At the end of the week, though, he took it easy in his given classes because right after Fag duties he was supposed to see the school's alienist for his first session, something he kept silent about aside from his brother who somehow already knew, and the staff, but none of the other students were ever allowed to know.

At exactly five in the evening sharp, Ciel gingerly knocked on the alienist's office; getting turned-around because he wasn't expecting his office to be in the building for Green Lion of all places.

"Hello? Who is it?"

"P-Phantomhive."

"First name? There are two attending here,"

"...C-Cedric,"

"Ah, yes, you were expected! Come on in!"

Ciel slowly pushed open the door and found a large open room painted almost entirely in eggshell, two chairs sat up across from each other in the center. There were lots of empty shelves stacked in the back of the room, and a closed door labeled with the alienist's name.

Mr. Liverpool.

Nobody he recognized then.

"Have a seat. Normally I have more than one person in my sessions, because social contact is very healthy in young men like yourself, but since today is your first day, I decided to go easy on you and made it just you and me today," The man stepped out into the light, and Ciel thought he looked unremarkable. Brown hair, straight, brown eyes, a tan suit and long white coat pulled over it, a book of notes, glasses on his face. Looked like one would expect, but Ciel also didn't let his guard down. The most average-looking person could be hiding the most dangerous secret, he learned that well numerous times.

He did sit down, sitting up straight and looking at the floor. Mr. Liverpool sat down across from him.

"Now, Cedric, let's get some things out of the way. I saw your wince and want to first say that yes, we will all be on a first-name basis in here despite the rules. When you meet the others for your sessions, you shall refer to them by their first name and not their last, and they shall do the same for you. Being on a first-name basis with your peers is the first step to building a solid friendship. Secondly, my methods have been considered unorthodox. I simply believe that a healthy well-being has plenty to do with your mental, physical, social, and emotional health. Therefore, I will do any method necessary to be sure all four areas are in great shape. And thirdly, our sessions will not last long, only an hour or two tops. However, if I ask for you at any time during the day, you are to come at once. You do not get a say in there. This is all for you, remember. You want to be a healthy and productive member of society, correct?"

Ciel nodded slowly, still staring at the floor. It sounded to him like he was about to get inducted into a cult. Knowing the school's history, that was likely. The thought made him shudder.

"Perfect. I can see us getting along quite well. Let's start with the basics. I know you as a student, but I don't know you as a person. Enlighten me. What do you like to do? What do you want to be when you grow older? Are you close with your family? Do you have any friends?"

He only had two options; lie or tell the truth. Any lies about his family would be caught on-sight due to their influence, yet Ciel didn't really feel like pouring his heart out to this strange man. He didn't even want to attend these sessions, he just had to because the school was forcing him to all because he accidentally burned half of the first-floor of Sapphire Owl down. He wasn't crazy and didn't need to strengthen his bonds with anyone. He was perfectly fine.

"My family and I have a complex relationship." He finally answered.

"I imagine all families do, especially noble ones. There's always so much going on and never enough time for everyone as they'd like. Having a twin as you do too must be exhausting. You never truly know if who you are is yourself or just a mirror image of your brother," Ciel heard him writing on the pad and briefly glanced up. "Am I right?"

"Did you have any siblings growing up?"

"A few, but they all died very young. Only I survived. The croup, scarlet fever, whooping-cough...diseases are truly cruel when they decide to come for children," Mr. Liverpool sighed.

Ciel, who survived all of those diseases as a child, said nothing. Really, who didn't know someone who had croup as a child? It was almost a rite of passage. He had it, Elizabeth and Edward had it, his brother had it even, and he bet even Sieglinde had it when she was younger.

"What sorts of hobbies do you have? Your classes are far more focused on art and culture than your brother, who has grueling business-related classes. Do you envy him? Do you wish you could be considered as an heir too? Do you think you should've been the heir and not him and therefore entitled to everything he currently has?"

"No. I've never thought those things at all," Ciel answered quickly. The lamps were far too bright and gave him a headache as they reflected off the walls. "He is the heir because he is older. That is how it works. I never wanted the title of Earl or the wealth or any of that. I'm perfectly capable of making my own way in life,"

Mr. Liverpool stared at him for a maddeningly long time before writing that down.

"So you like your simpler classes,"

"They're all just classes at the end of the day. A lot of this stuff is just review for me anyway," Sebastian had trained him thoroughly and vigriously the past three years in everything needed and wanted in an Earl in terms of their education. He had sports, art, culture, music, languages, math, literature, and science all under his belt at high levels.

A nod. "Do you have any friends here at school?"

"I am not a very social person," Ciel bit out. No sense in throwing Norman and Joanne into the deep end so quickly; perhaps later, but not right now. He didn't need them at the moment and wouldn't be so unfair to them.

"Are you sure? My records say you are close with Norman Mcmillian from Sapphire Owl and Joanne Harcourt from Scarlet Fox,"

"They think they are friends with me, but they aren't. They just latched onto the first lonely-looking person they saw," Ciel sat up more and winced. His head hurt even more and he felt airy and slightly dizzy. A bad kind of airy, as if his entire lower-half just didn't exist at all. Who was this man, and what was this room?

"What a shame. Friends are very important for social structure, you know. Well, here's to hoping you'll befriend some people here during your sessions,"

Ciel doubted that highly. He didn't want to know who in Weston of all places was so eccentric they needed to get it talked out of them.

The session continued on for another forty-five minutes, Ciel feeling more and more disoriented as it went on. The questions ranged from deeply personal to extremely random, and somehow Mr. Liverpool was privy to several of Ciel's own insecurities. As he left, he received a sudden smack to the wrist that brought him back into reality and made him wince.

"Cedric, I enjoyed our time today very much. I shall see you next week for our next one. You are a very interesting young man," Mr. Liverpool smiled. "Though you really should have a better attitude about everything. Nobody likes gloomy and sullen people,"

Ciel decided he didn't like Mr. Liverpool very much.

####

When Ciel returned for his third week, he still hadn't met any of the other 'clients' of Mr. Liverpool, and upon walking into the room, wondered if that would change when he saw several coloured glass bottles set out on the floor.

"A pleasure, Cedric. We're going to be doing something a bit different today," Mr. Liverpool was smiling that day and Ciel suppressed a shiver.

"Are those bottles for your other patients?" He asked, walking into the center of the room.

"Guests, Cedric. We call them guests. And no, those are for you,"

There was a purple one, a green one, a blue one, two yellow ones, three pink ones, four white ones, a gold one, and a black one, all in a line. Ciel could tell they all had something different each inside.

"Inside each bottle is something different. A solid, a liquid, depends. Today you will not be allowed to leave until you drink all of these, but surely that cannot be a hard task, correct?"

Ciel stared at the bottles uneasily. Normally, it wouldn't be, but he was suddenly very certain one or all of those bottles contained poison.

"What does this have to do with my mental state?"

"Learning to take things as they come is a very useful skill. If you live your life full of paranoia and hysteria, you get sick. You hurt people unknowingly. If you sit back and handle things as they're presented to you, you will find you'll live a much longer, happier, and healthier life,"

He thought that sounded like a giant pack of lies and was just an excuse to get him to drink, but Ciel didn't want to waste all day arguing with Mr. Liverpool. Drink all of the bottles and he could live. Easy enough deal, and if they all were poison? He had a feeling his family wouldn't let the school hear the end of that.

Though, Mr. Liverpool was supposedly an esteemed alienist with several other patients. If he was killing them, even secretly, the school would have a way of knowing, right? Or was that the plan all along, send troubled students who couldn't be helped to an alienist who'd kill them on the guise of helping them, then burn the body and claim it was suicide, shaming the family?

He suddenly felt extremely sick and tense, but swallowed his feelings down and took the green bottle, associating green with poison. Would it really be that easy? He looked at Mr. Liverpool and then at the bottle, finding it plain and unmarked and made from high-quality glass. He bit his lip and wafting the scent over to his nose, unable to smell anything. He then took a sip and felt his eyes widen at the taste of chocolate cake and buttered toast. Together, they tasted heavenly and he tried to remain composed as he polished the drink off.

"Marvelous!" Mr. Liverpool praised, but Ciel ignored him.

One down, thirteen to go.

He picked a white one at random next, getting milk. The blue one was an American drink of cola. Two of the pink ones had cotton-candy in them. He then glanced at Mr. Liverpool.

"This is a waste of my time,"

"What a response, being upset because you didn't drop dead! What an interesting person you are, Cedric," He smiled.

Ciel turned his back and looked at the remaining bottles. Purple, two yellow, one pink, three white, one gold, and one black. He picked up the yellow one and tipped it into his mouth, feeling something hairy drop into there instead. Startled, Ciel pulled it out and widened his eyes at the sight of a large spider, wiggling around in his grasp. He looked over at the alienist, who was taking notes.

"I am not putting a spider inside my mouth. Or anywhere in my body, for that matter,"

"Spiders have a lot of protein in them. Many cultures make food out of them, like grilling them or boiling them, making soups and salads and even steaks out of them. Some even eat them raw-"

"S-Stop! I don't want to hear anymore!" Ciel looked back at the spider and felt ill. This 'experiment' or whatever it was had nothing to do with his mental state, he knew that now. Dr. Liverpool was just extremely eccentric. What did his other patients think of him?

Ciel then closed his eyes and shoved the spider inside, slamming his mouth shut tight and feeling the spider walk around inside. He nearly gagged and felt his throat burn as liquid came back up, but forced it back down. The spider was small enough that he could swallow without chewing-even that thought made him shudder, as was the current one-so he did so, swallowing it a few times to get it down. He then leaned over on the chair, panting hard and concentrating on both his brain and stomach to keep the spider down. He bit his lip and stood up straight after several minutes, knowing then it wasn't going to come back up.

Disgusted, Ciel rushed through the rest of the drinks, finding treats in all but two; the black bottle was empty and the gold bottle had several pounds in it. He stared back at Mr. Liverpool in curiosity, who just smiled.

"A reward for your trouble. Get yourself something sweet, you seem like someone who likes candy. Or maybe a present for your sweetheart,"

Ciel ignored him and silently counted the money, enough to give Sieglinde a new dress if she so wished for one. Or a new set of books. He wondered what Elizabeth would've wanted had they still been engaged; a new dress too? Yes, along with a matching hat and pair of shoes.

"Now run along. My next guest is due in just a few minutes and I have to clean all of this up,"

Ciel was all-too-glad to do so, heading back to his dorm. Norman and Joanne were there, happily studying together, and the moment Ciel saw them, his stomach flopped from the memory of the spider and he darted over to the commodore, lifting the lid up and beginning to vomit. Norman and Joanne silenced instantly and stared at him in concern and worry.

"Shall I get the nurse?" Norman asked first, finding his voice.

"Should I get your brother or Midford?" Joanne asked, trembling.

Ciel said nothing and continued to puke, gagging and coughing. Nothing had digested and he was suddenly terrified of seeing the spider come up too, alive, still crawling around and wriggling, but luckily it didn't. Afterwards, Ciel backed away from the commodore and shivered, trying to find his own voice but being unable to. He bit his lip; his eyes watering from the vomit.

"What happened? Where were you?" Joanne asked, running over. He stared down into Ciel's eyes, his red ones shimmering with worried tears.

Ciel shook his head, refusing to admit he had to see an alienist, and that said alienist forced him to eat a live spider. Joanne pouted.

"Harcourt was originally going to sleep in his room for tonight, but how about the three of us sleep here? We can make a big pallet on the floor, fill it with pillows, and read until we literally pass out! Nobody else has to know," Norman suggested eagerly. "That'll make you feel better,"

Ciel just nodded, feeling too weak to properly protest. He unbuttoned as much of his uniform as he could manage before collapsing into the cot Norman had made up for him. Joanne left to get his own things from his room and also alert a maid to the mess, who cleaned it wordlessly. He then came back in his own pajamas and carrying a large bundle of bedsheets.

"Now this is more like it! Three best friends, lying here on the floor," Norman teased, having changed and curled up in bed.

"The floor's a bit hard though..." Joanne pouted.

Ciel laid in the center inbetween them, having a headache from vomiting. His eyes were closed and he knew the other two took that to mean he had dozed off, because they started talking about him.

"You think he's fallen ill again?" Joanne wondered. "His face is flushed and he's unnaturally quiet,"

"No way, I think someone did something to him. For the past three weeks he's skipped practice for an hour to go somewhere else but never said where. Now it's none of my business, but what if a group of miscreants got to him and are messing with him?" Norman suggested. "We could take this to their Prefect!"

"They wouldn't poison someone, would they?" Joanne gasped. "Surely they wouldn't be that awful?"

"You are in Scarlet Fox, you figure that one out yourself, Harcourt. Could be anyone though.." Norman was silent for a time before suddenly saying: "And such bullying tactics are common on campus anyway. One year, I heard that a group from Violet Wolf forced a first-year from Sapphire Owl to swallow live goldfish as a show of courage or something like that,"

"Goldfish can't hurt you though..." Joanne sniffled. "He's been so different since he came back...I don't want to think about him getting hurt or involved with the wrong people," He bit his lip. "Tomorrow morning, I'm telling Midford. He'll know what to do. Maybe he'll get sent home to relax,"

Norman laid down next to Ciel, moving close to him. "For once, I just don't know what to do...I just don't know what to do,"

Joanne moved in close to Ciel as well, pouting more. "We should just go to bed...maybe we'll have a better idea when we wake up,"

"Agreed."

The two then fell asleep, and Ciel fell asleep himself at a later point that night, and in the morning the three were sleeping very close to each other, Joanne and Norman snuggling close to Ciel.