#oh to have a man like edward midford | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

irresistiibles · 2 years ago

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hello waddup here is a plotting/starter call for the mini event! below the cut is just some brief descriptions of what my characters will be up to. toss this a like if you want to plot but also feel free to just reply and i will throw some starters your way once it starts. please specify who you want the starter from/for! some characters have more info than others because they just made more sense for the event, so if you want a general starter for anyone let me know. i’ll also be keeping most of my other threads of course, though i’m slowly dropping older stuff, so if you want a new thread for something fresh just let me know!

achilles (1/?) - josh washington

i for sure know he’s gonna wind up kicked out of the snowball fights. he’s not using any powers he’s sure of it but then why the fuck is his aim absolutely perfect??? he’s also a menace unafraid to just cram snow into someone’s face so he should not be there. after that he’ll mope and complain but just kind of check everything out. definitely not a big fan of the cold.

amber (1/?) - imogen moreno

will be taking part in the snowman building competition and also just making snowmen in general. beyond that probably hanging out at the hot chocolate stand and generally having a good time

asami sato (0/?)

mostly exploring the vendors and buying a few too many gifts. gets weird rich people vibes during the holidays and may attempt to give things to strangers. not taking part in the snowball fights but will like watching.

chihiro ogino (1/?) - rei hino

mostly sticking to the food and drink vendors and giving in to her sweet tooth. will also want to watch some of the music performances. could attempt some ice skating or art but isn’t really interested in engaging in anything competitive. will try pouring espresso into hot chocolate.

ciel phantomhive (1/?) - lizzie midford

his toy company has a stall again this year but because his memories are still out he’s actually having a semi enjoyable time.

donna noble (1/?) - the twelfth doctor

not a big fan of the cold but she doesn’t want to be missing out. will be staying near the hot drinks and potentially doing some gift shopping for herself. will be getting several pictures with sexy santa

edward elric (1/?) - winry rockbell

will get goaded into competitive snowball so fast it’s embarrassing. is having an automail arm that’s going to be stronger than any organic arm cheating? maybe so but what are they gonna do? tell him to take his arm off? i think not. my man is going to win.

entrapta (0/?)

goes to build a wreath and somehow makes something completely different. or builds a snowman and tries to stick electronic parts in it to bring it to life. can she put launchers on the sleds? entrapta’s not sure but they definitely want to try. chaotic but having fun.

esther mckinnon (0/?)

she is a sucker for stuff like this and will be having a lot of fun. trying all the creative stands and hanging around the food vendors. really willing to try anything that isn’t competitive.

glinda upland (0/?)

doing some shopping mostly and taking pictures (there will be a sexy santa picture for sure). may try building a wreath but who knows if it’ll be any good.

jin ling (1/?) - orpheus

does not know how to social and will bring the dog as a buffer and though he will not get a picture with santa he may get her to lmao. can also compensate for social struggles by just buying people things. dogs and money are the only way he knows how to make friends. will probably do some snowball fights

katya goncharova (0/?)

this all feels a little chaotic and maybe childish for her but katya will check it out regardless. she’s probably not well dressed for the cold but oh well. will do some shopping.

lily evans (2/?) - rubeus hagrid, marlene mckinnon

may offer to help referee a snowball match and will be trying to get holiday shopping done.

mianmian (0/?)

she’ll give ice skating a shot even though she has no idea how to do it. someone is more than welcome to try and help her. beyond that she’s keeping it chill.

madoka kaname (1/?) - homura akemi

having a lot of fun! she’s not as into the super active things but will be hitting up the food and craft stalls without hesitation. will also definitely hit up ice skating.

mob (2/?) - lucrecia montesinos hendrich, rosemary winters

he’s not going to work at a stall but is willing to lend out his powers to help with set up, cleaning, whatever you need if you need a psychic to lift heavy things he is your guy. beyond that he wants to enjoy the other stalls, maybe try a craft or ice skating, but he’s an awkward guy and will need some help getting dragged into things.

nie huaisang (1/?) - dani powell

someone out painting. ornaments are not his usual medium but he’s happy to trying. he likes the aesthetic of everything but will be complaining about the cold and going for several warm drinks.

rita skeeter (1/?) - sha hualing

giving unwanted commentary on the snowball and snowmen competitions. maybe even taking bets. getting pictures with sexy santa. judging people’s gift choices. being a general menace.

shang qinghua (0/?)

here for the food and drinks but could easily be bullied into face planting on the ice skating. he’s for sure whining about the cold despite the fact it’s incredibly manageable compared to what he’s used to.

shi qingxuan (1/?) - abby anderson

has a flask to pour into hot drinks because this whole thing is cute and fun but how are you supposed to stay warm in the winter without a little alcohol? come on people get it together. very social and will drag strangers into doing stuff with them because qingxuan hates doing things alone and makes friends by force

toph beifong (2/?) - aang, katara

struggling cause it’s cold enough that she has to wear shoes most of the time so they can’t use their earthbending to navigate super well but will take them off to be very competitive in the snowball fights!

victor nikiforov (1/?) - langa hasegawa

will mostly be on the ice rink showing off, but also offering to help people who are nervous ice skating. if there’s any alcoholic warm beverages he will be drinking a bit

zagreus (0/?)

had a fun time at the event last year and is coming back this year, at least a little more well dressed for the cold this time! will be doing some snowball fights before attempting some of the more chill stuff. man gets competitive fast though so he ay say he’s going to do a lot only to get stuck in matches for a while.

zhongli (1/?) - childe

may be offering to referee some snowball fights. mostly just exploring vendors. this is an old immortal who just likes seeing societies getting together, so he’s mostly happily sightseeing in it all.

#hw: plot call #if some of these are copy and pasted from last year's call that's my business #hw: starter call

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kuroshitsuji-scenarios · 3 years ago

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What do the Kuroshitsuji boys think during...

Undertaker:

“...”. Head empty, just how blissful you feel next to him and how wonderful it is to have you so close.

“Ah, where was it again, the spot which made you tremble? Further up? To the right? There it is! Old man not so old with that memory, huh?”

“Slow down, control yourself, focus. You’ll hurt her if you keep that up. Deep breath, one, two, three—goodness, she’s too much, I can’t—!”

Sebastian Michaelis:

“I still have approximately five hours until breakfast, what shall I prepare today? I served soft-boiled eggs last Friday so perhaps they would do tomorrow. If I remember correctly we are currently out of apples, so ordering new is necessary, I will have to do it in the first place. Did Mey Rin polish the cutlery as I asked her yesterday? I should not have become so distracted... My, my, are you coming already?”

“If the assassin in the garden won’t be more careful I might have to stop and get rid of him right now. How do I politely excuse myself from a situation like this? Give me ten more minutes, mortal. Such a hassle...”

“Ah, such a sweet little thing... Let me hear more of those lovely sounds, will you, darling?”

Claude Faustus:

“Was this spider web always in the corner or did it appear just last night? Could it be Phalangium opilio?”

“You’re making way too much noise, little one, hush. Now, that’s more like it.”

“How is it they find copulation so entertaining? This going to take quite a lot of effort to wash the fluids off the sheets, she’s leaking everywhere... Just when I did the laundry yesterday. I wonder if I’m capable of breeding her in this form...”

William T. Spears:

“Oh dear, oh my, goodness, fuck—”

“Alright, calm down. You can do it. You know how to do it. Just relax. She likes you, she’s not going to judge you. Let’s proceed carefully, slowly, there’s no need to rush. Goodness, it’s been decades since I’ve done that for the last time...”

“!!!”. Too overwhelmed by pleasure to think about anything, utterly shocked how good can it feel and how he doesn’t want it ever to stop.

Ronald Knox:

“That’s right, baby, you can take it.”

“No, no, no, you don’t get to come yet, I still haven’t had enough fun with you. If I go deeper, will you cry out for me again? Just like that, fuck, it feels like you’re sucking me in.”

Since he’s not the kind of person to keep his thoughts to himself, he might actually say it all out loud.

Edward Midford:

*internal screaming*

“What was written in the book? How is it I can remember the page number and not any words?! Nevermind, I can improvise. Oh, wow, it feels so soft and squishy and warm...”

“I’ve never seen her in such a state before, she seems to be enjoying it and those little moans—no, no, don’t hold back, I want to hear it. Don’t hold back and don’t cover your face, let me see it. God, I love you so much.”

Charles Grey:

“I should’ve ordered lemon cake instead of pudding, now I can’t stop thinking about it. The topping looked delicious...”

“Oh my, do you enjoy my fingers that much? You seem to be so overwhelmed already, will you even notice if I go faster? Ah, ah, no scratching, I have to look appropriate tomorrow!”

“... However, you do not so let’s see how long will it take you to notice the this mark behind your ear, shall we?”

#black butler #kuroshitsuji #undertaker #sebastian michaelis #claude faustus #william t spears #ronald knox #edward midford #charles grey #sebastian #claude #william #ronald #edward #headcanons #notsfw #demons #humans #shinigami

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blackbutlerfandomnerddomain · 2 years ago

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What are your headcanons for the circus members being adopted by the midford family ?

Can do!

Names go as follow:

Joker - Jester

Dagger - Haiden

Beast - Mally/Mia

Jumbo - Jumbo/Nicky

Peter - Peter

Wendy - Wendy

Doll/Freckles - Ellie-Mae/Mae/El

It happened just before the Phantomhive manor burnt down. The family were out in town and Edward happened to see the image of them cuddled with barely a blanket over their head to protect from the rain. He demanded the cart to stop and ran over with Lizzy who holds a coat to give, the parents ran after.

After seeing they all seem to be so sickly pale, thin, and some had fevers, Lizzy and Edward pleaded their parents to take them back to their home to protect them Francis agrees for the night and planned to take them to a home in the following day

They all ate the most they ever did, Doll burnt her tongue on some hot ham similar to Ponyo

The next day, after getting them fed, cleaned, and more clothes to wear, Francis and Alexis took them to the nearest group home they found available.

"Available" was a understatement! Children were everywhere and it's clear some of them were already doing the jobs of the East End. And picturing these people doing such things broke their hearts

So yeah, they came back with them and announced they'll be Midfords from now on

Names were given after Joker admitted to not know his name just called "Joker" by his smiles and Doll saying she doesn't remember her name

The nightmares the family had to comfort was hard at first

Shockingly, the family who accepted them more than the Midfords were the Phantomhives. Like Rachel's all smiles to them and the twins were like "WHOA~!"

Doll and little Ciel's small twin brother get along well

People simply call Doll "El" and Lizzy "Lizzy" or "Liz" a lot cause it's cute

They learned fencing so well and fast while Doll, Peter, and Wendy take ballet/dance lessons

Edward showed girls who picked on his siblings in dance class who they're related too fast-

The ones who had the hardest time accepting family was Beast, Dagger, and Peter. Everyone was high spirits but these guys were skeptical since they were old enough to remember mistreatment over something they couldn't control

Like with Sebastian, the Midfords made the prosthetic

When the Phantomhive manor burnt down they all grieved with them

They visited the graves a lot

Dude when Ciel came home-

Lots of tears and snot

When Ciel mentioned his twin died Doll just about cried all night through the weeks her friend is gone

Unlike what you would assume, Wendy got her dressed tailored fitting for a woman instead of a little girl. In the Victorian times, dresses length got longer and longer by a girl's age. Actually, funny enough, during that time and others afterwards women/girls who had their hair done in a updo style hinted they are married or ready for marriage. So one could argue Wendy's circus outfit's hair was done up to help with her circus tricks, but when I learned that fact it adds a little lair of Wendy hinting she's a woman who wants to be married with someone who loves her

Oh Gods. I just realized the talk with Alexis and Francis-

"You see children, when two people fall in love-" "Uhhh...father, we kind of know this" "Let him have this, El and Haiden are coming to that age soon"

There was one moment a man wanted to ask for Beast's hand in marriage then made fun of her leg and background. Yeah he got a good whack or five or six if you wanna count Doll

Edward's first day of school-

Peter, Joker, and Dagger went to Weston with Edward while Wendy, Beast, and Doll went to whatever school Lizzy's in

Dagger gets a lot of noble men asking him to marry their daughters in which everyone teases over

Joker and Edgar meeting during a school event-

#black butler #midford family #noah ark circus #noah's ark circus #elizabeth midford #edward midford #francis midford #alexis midford #black butler joker #black butler dagger #black butler beast #black butler jumbo #black butler peter #black butler wendy #black butler doll

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undertaker1827 · 4 years ago

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Could you please write a scenario for Edward saving someone from the path of danger? Like a carriage or something coming towards them and he’s pulls them out of the way? Sorry for my English!!

Sure! And your English is great!

Masterlist

You glanced around as you walked briskly through the bright streets of London, morning sunshine reflecting off of shop windows and people talking animatedly with their friends and families as they went past you to carry on with their days. The usual stream of carriages and horses trundled down the road beside you, though somehow, everything was just a little happier today than it had been for a while. Even the smog, hanging thick above the factories and houses, didn’t bother you as much as it normally would have.

You crossed the road to head towards one of the city’s great parks, deviating from the route of your normal morning walk just for fun. You looked on with a smile as a few children went running past you, entirely disregarding the calls of their parents to slow down and be careful. A taller man in a top hat nodded to you on his way in the opposite direction to the one you were now walking in, a woman smiling as her child gave a small wave. You smiled and waved back, finding that in no time at all you were back on the main road. One of them, anyway. You would have to work out where exactly you had gone in order to get back-

“Watch out!”

The shout was accompanied by a sudden heavy weight colliding with your back, the force strong enough to make you stumble forwards and trip on a curb stone laying by your feet. You might have fallen over entirely, had a pair of strong arms not wrapped quickly around your waist and hauled you upright once more.

“I’m so sorry, are you alright?” You blinked to clear your vision and found yourself looking at a pair of strikingly blue eyes, partially hidden behind a few strands of blond hair. The man’s gaze flicked over you in a search for injury when you failed to say anything. Everything suddenly hit you with incredible clarity. You had stepped out into the road, entirely lost in your own thoughts and a carriage had come careening around the corner. The driver tried to pull the horses up to no avail, swearing as he went past after this man - your saviour, apparently - bowled you out of the way.

“Yes, I - I’m fine,” your murmured, more than a little shocked at what had almost just happened. “I… You just saved my life. Thank you.”

He allowed the smallest of smiles to curl his lips, though his features were still painted mainly in concern for you.

“Where are you headed? May I accompany you?” His eyes sparkled for a moment in the sunlight as a thought occurred to him. “Oh! My name is Edward Midford, I apologise for not introducing myself sooner.”

You assured him that it was perfectly alright, deciding that actually, some company after that scare would likely be a good thing. You continued on your walk after that, arm linked in his and talking about anything and everything, learning about each other as you went.

#kuroshitsuji edward x reader #black butler edward x reader #edward midford x reader #edward x reader #black butler edward #kuroshitsuji edward #edward midford #black butler #black butler x reader #kuroshitsuji #kuroshitsuji x reader #black butler reader inserts

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antihero-writings · 4 years ago

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His Butler, and the Problem with Magic (Ch2)

Fandom: Black Butler | Kuroshitsuji x Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Crossover

Fic Synopsis: Life at Hogwarts isn’t all bad…usually. But when Valentine’s Day rolls around, and Lockhart throws an extravagant ball, the number of couples at school the next day skyrockets, and Sebastian finds himself a new object of devotion…Can Ciel save his butler from the spell on his own?

Character Focus: Ciel (Edward Midford, Grell, Lizzie, Snape)

Notes: I bet you all thought I forgot about this fic didnt you? SIKE! I forget nothing.

(By the way, I'll definitely repost chapter 1 of this as well, in case you guys forgot about it XD)

I was informed that Valentines day with this coming Sunday and I couldn't believe it. I had been wanting to work on multiple valentines fics and I thought I had weeks left to write them XD So in light of that, I knew I had been slowly chipping away at a chapter 2 of this over time, so I decided to check it out and see how much work I had to do to make it postable in time for valentines day. To my surprise, the chapter was pretty much ready to go! So at long last, here it is!!

I really hope you enjoy it!! If you do, I implore you to consider commenting and/or reblogging!! I assure you its much much more likely this fic will get a chapter 3 if I know that people are interested in reading more <3

@elegantkittycat Tagging you in case you’re still interested in reading more!!

Chapter 2:

Ciel jerked his hand away as the cauldron sizzled, muttering curses under his breath—(the normal kind, not the magic kind). Usually Sebastian managed their clandestine dealings and he didn’t have to worry about burning his fingers off.

His conversation with Tom Riddle had left him with a list of ingredients, and a method of combining them into a potion that would allegedly cure Sebastian and others of this ailment.

He was fully aware trusting strange voices in diaries wasn’t the best decision he could make on the career path of life, but considering he had found no other options, and a whole lot of annoyance, he didn’t have much to lose. Besides, Sebastian was a demon, so even if it was supposed to make your eyes pop out or something, he’d probably be okay.

Ciel looked down the instructions and grimaced, reaching over for the next ingredient, trying not to look directly at it.

Despite the potions classroom being the main place to get potions, and potion making materials, he was not in the potions classroom. This late in the evening, Snape probably would have killed him. He was in a room on the seventh floor which Sebastian had found last May. It seemed to hold within it whatever the person walking by it required.

He dropped the last ingredient in, raised his wand, muttered a very complicated spell and sighed.

The only thing left to do was wait. It had to brew for twenty-four hours, which meant it wouldn’t be ready until six o’clock the next evening. Twenty-four hours was too much time with a love infested school to deal with.

Ciel packed up his stuff and headed out into the hall—making sure to check for Filch first. He was almost back to his common room when—

“CIEL PHANTOMHIVE!”

He nearly tripped and toppled to the ground taking all his supplies and homework with him.

As he righted himself, he jerked his head up to observe the source of the disturbance: a tall, blonde boy, a few years older than Ciel, sporting his Gryffindor robes as if he was the reincarnation of Godric goddamn Gryffindor himself.

Ciel had the displeasure of knowing this boy.

“Edward?!” he growled, recovering his dignity and dusting himself off. “Are you trying to kill me?!”

“That depends,” he said in a low murmur that seemed to hide waves of anger.

He marched up to his future-brother-in-law, stopped far too close, and stared into Ciel’s eyes like he could bore into his brain with his gaze.

“What. Did you do. To my sister?”

“What did I— ?” Ciel blinked, rivalling anger disappearing in the face of concern. “What?”

Edward was the son of the proud, and not to mention handy-with-swords Marquess Midford, and all this noble, virtue-loving, God-fearing, paladin energy was often channeled into being protective of his younger sister Lizzie…who also happened to be Ciel’s fiancé.

“Lizzie. What did you do to her?!”

“Yes, I’m familiar with to whom you’re referring!” He pushed him back, “What’s wrong with her?!”

It was Edward’s turn to blink. “You don’t know?”

“You may or may not have noticed I am otherwise occupied! I’ve been running around trying to save my butler from this hell, thank you very much!”

“Oh,” his eyes flickered.

Ciel looked up at him, then blinked. “You think I caused this?!”

“Well you don’t exactly foster an atmosphere of peace and calm, now do you?”

“I’d thank you to have more confidence in me in the future! For your information, Undertaker caused this!”

“Undertaker?! Oh that slimy bloke hasn’t seen the last of me!” He turned, putting his fist into his palm, beginning to march out of the room.

Ciel lazily grabbed the sleeve of his robe, pulling him back. “Hunting him down isn’t going to get you any answers—and will likely make you more frustrated. Believe me, I’ve already tried. Now, if you’d be so kind, I’d like to know what’s wrong with my fiancé.”

Edward rubbed the back of his head. “Well…”

“Tell me, Edward.” It was Ciel’s turn to stare him down. Apparently it was effective, because Edward couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I went to go say hi, and I found her sitting in the common room, staring out the window. She barely took any notice of me. And when she did she started spitting prattling nonsense about this man she met,” he said the last words like men were the most revolting things in the planet. “Naturally I assumed this was a newfound appreciation for you, or she simply was admiring Lockhart like she usually does.”—Ciel made a face at this—“But apparently…not.”

Ciel blanched. He was about to speak, but Edward continued:

“When I learned it wasn’t you, I told her to have some decency, but it was as if she couldn’t even hear me!” His air of forced calm broke. “Apparently she’s madly in love with some—some—some idiot!”

“She’s… what?” The words were soft.

“I said—”

“I heard what you said!” He grabbed his robes.

Some third years walked by at that exact moment and stared at them. Ciel released him, and he and Edward paused and waved awkwardly. After they passed, Ciel continued in a shout-whisper.

“How the hell did this happen?! I specifically made sure she stayed away from the punch at that party!”

“The punch? What punch?”

“The punch Undertaker spiked!”

“Undertaker spiked—?! Oh…Maybe she drank some when you weren’t looking? You can’t have been keeping her under constant surveillance, can you?”

“I was watching her very closely, she couldn’t have!” He said, realizing his usually-more-than-adept butler was quite possibly compromised at the time. “When did these symptoms start? The morning after Valentines Day?”

“Um,” Edward put a hand to his chin, thinking, “I…I’m not sure.”

“Oh you’re just useless aren’t you?”

“More useful than you! If you knew it was spiked at the party, why didn’t you tell everyone?! Or try to stop him?!”

“It seemed like a harmless prank!”

“What are we up to?” Snape’s greasy form appeared, cutting the scene.

“Nothing, Professor Snape,” Edward said quickly. “We were just—”

“I wasn’t talking to you.” He folded his arms and stared down his hooked nose at Ciel. “Your detention is to take place tomorrow evening at six o’clock. Meet me in my office. Try not to earn yourself another one before then.”

“Yes, Sir.” Ciel said softly.

Snape’s black robes swished passed them.

“So Lizzie—? Wait, did he just say six o’clock?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Damn it!” Ciel groaned, leaning against the bannister.

“What’s wrong?”

He waved him off. “It’s none of your concern.”

Edward folded his arms and glared at him.

“I’m working on a potion to try to neutralize this whole…love mess.”

“I’d say that’s very much of my concern! You have the antidote?!”

“I said I’m working on it. It’ll be ready at six o’clock tomorrow evening—six o’clockexactly.”

“I guess you’ll have to get it after you get back.” Edward shrugged.

“It’s a very delicate potion I have to—Ugh Nevermind.”

After a pause Edward asked, “…And you’re sure this antidote will work?”

“I’m not sure of much of anything. The only thing I am sure about is if the potion doesn’t kill me, if I’m late to his detention, Snape just might.”

*****

As Ciel sat down to breakfast he made the silent resolve to quickly finish the potion at six o’clock, then speed to the dungeon as fast as possible, taking the bottle with him to his detention, and hurry to Sebastian right afterwards. Snape wouldn’t be happy, but, despite what he said to Edward earlier, the worst he’d do was give him another detention, or take a large sum of house points. And he wasn’t so strict he’d make students empty their pockets, so he shouldn’t notice while he sat sitting for a few hours cleaning viper guts off potion bottles. There was no telling what this potion would do if he left it for however long detention was, so it took priority. And even if his detention went into the night, that would be the perfect time to test it—the demon wouldn’t be asleep anyways.

Ciel was currently trying to make his seat in the great hall a little corner of peace and calm, and block out the chaos in the rest of the hall, setting down his knife properly, trying to ignore the food flying across the hall, when—

“Oh, Brat~!”

Ciel sighed resignedly as his least favorite redhead came swinging into his vision.

“What are you doing back here so soon?” Ciel grumbled, holding his scowling face in one hand, sticking his fork aimlessly into his eggs with the other.

“And when I came all this way to see you, too?!” He turned up his nose in disgust. “I couldn’t possibly get my beauty sleep after I saw my Sebas-chan in such dire straits.” He pulled a scroll out of his jacket pocket, “So I was up all night thinking of ways to get him back to his sexy self!” He unrolled its impressive length, the end landing in Ciel’s eggs.

Ciel couldn’t help but skim through some his ideas, if nothing else for a good laugh.

They ranged from the more simple and reasonable Find the spell, and make a counter curse, and Bash his head in, to the not-so-reasonable Maybe true loves kiss will work~?

“What’s this?” Ciel squinted at a particular line. “‘Put that brat he calls “master” in mortal danger’?”

It was starred and underlined several times.

“Oh you noticed that one did you?” He said in fake innocence. “That’s one of my personal favorites!”

Ciel’s eyes lidded.

“And how exactly would putting me in mortal danger solve the problem of my butler being in love with you?”

“For some reason—can’t see why—Sebas-chan is very attached to you—”

“Sure, it has nothing to do with the contract we made.”

“Yes, yes.” He waved him off. “Well he’s very against you being in any sort of danger. See the idea,”—He put a nail on the table— “is that if we put you in mortal danger his primal demonic—”—he said the word in a way Ciel was not fond of—“inclinations will override the spell and snap him out of it.”

Ciel blinked, staring down at the line of text.

The worst thing was…that actually made some smidgen of sense. You know, in a sadistic kind of way.

“And how would you propose we do that? You know, without actually killing me?”

“Oh all part of the fun. I have a number of ideas as to how we could push you riiight up to the edge! It’ll be delightfully diabolical. Of course, if it doeskill you, well…” he turned away and muttered, “All’s well that ends well, as they say.”

“Not that that doesn’t sound fun…” Ciel stood, pushing the list away. “I’ve found my own way of breaking the spell thank you very much.”

“Oh?” Grell blinked, intrigued. “Have you now?”

“Not that its any of your business, yes.” He brushed himself off, gathering his stuff, “If you’ll excuse me, I have my own business to attend to.”

“Well when that fails don’t hesitate to come crawling back to your favorite reaper Grellypoo ~!” He rolled up the scroll.

“You’re not even my fifth favorite reaper!” He threw over his shoulder.

“But at least I’m on the list!”

*****

Due to the fact that little real learning was happening on either side—unless you count learning too much about various students and teacher’s romantic habits—they had decided to cancel classes for the time being. This gave the teachers more time to devote to finding the cure as well.

Ciel decided to take this time to ascertain the validity of Edward’s statement the night previous and visit Lizzie.

She was a Gryffindor like her brother. Visiting the Gryffindor common room wouldn’t be first, or even last, in a list of things he wanted to do…but he’d half to bear it.

As he walked up the stairs he bumped into someone. At first they apologized and continued walking but soon the other person called back:

“Hey, I ran into yesterday didn’t I?”

Ciel turned to see none other than Harry Potter.

“Yes?”

“Did you happen to see a diary? Like when you were helping me pick up my stuff?”

“The great Harry Potter keeps a diary?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “It’s not my diary. Just a diary.”

“A diary that just so happened to find its way into your bag?”

“Well…yeah.”

“Sorry to say, I haven’t seen it.”

“Hmm…Alright. Thanks anyways.” He waved as he continued down the stairs.

As another Gryffindor left, he slipped into the common room.

Lizzie was sitting in a chair against the window, just like Edward said she would be. She rested her hand on her chin, her elbow on the table, and watched the rain fall.

“Lizzie!” he ran up to her.

“Oh…Ciel…it’s you,” she said in a dreamy, nonplussed tone.

“Yes it’s me. What happened? Have you completely lost your senses?!”

“No I’d say my senses are in tact thank you. And I’d thank you not to ask a lady such an impolite question.”

“Sorry but…what happened? Why are you—?”

“I don’t know. I just, of a sudden, found him to very attractive one morning, and I’m having trouble thinking of much else.”

“Who?” He sat in the chair across from her.

“That’s not really of your concern, is it?”

“It is when I’m your fiancé!” He said a little too loudly, making Gryffindors turn towards him.

“Mm…” She muttered like it wasn’t an issue.

“Lizzie, I tried to make sure you didn’t drink that punch at the party! How did this happen?!”

“Party?” She paused, and for a moment he wasn’t sure she was even going to continue the conversation. “…Oh I don’t know. I seem to faintly recall the most beautiful man I’d ever met saying I simply must try it.”

His eyes widened. “Someone gave it to you directly?! Who?! Why?!”

“I’ve already tried that, I don’t think you’ll get much luck. She won’t tell me either.” Edward arrived at his side, then leaned over and whispered, “I think she knows we’ll come after him.”

“I was going to opt for slow psychological torture,” he muttered back, “but I’d like to hear more about your method.”

Edward tried to suppress a smile.

“And you really love this man?” Ciel asked Lizzie.

“Oh, with all my heart!” She seemed to gain a rush of energy.

He sighed, realizing more questions would be futile, and getting up.

“Alright well…” He ran his hand gently over Lizzie’s fingers. “I-I’ll see you soon.”

“You’ll give me the potion as soon as you can, right?” Edward demanded.

“I’m going to use Sebastian as a test subject, but, if it works, then this will be my next stop.”

“The password is ‘chocolate frog.’ Feel free to wake me up. I can’t stand another minute knowing Lizzie is in love with some-some lunatic!”

“We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

*****

Ciel carefully held the porcupine quills, and gingko leaves over the cauldron, dripping them in one at a time, stirring counterclockwise with his other hand, glancing continually back to the instructions.

Finishing off the potion was proving no easier than making the rest of it, but at last, it gave a final sigh, and turned a foggy white.

Ciel gave his own sigh of relief, before using tongs to dip and fill the bottle beside him, making sure to clean off the sides of it—(it was a good thing he used a towel to do so, because the stray drops burned through the fabric).

He held up the bottle, staring at the potion. At long last. Finally, after three days of slow torture, he’d finally be rid of this curse, and the world could return to its normal state—demon butlers included.

He slipped one into his robe pocket and the moment he stepped out of the room, he sped off towards Snape’s dungeon for his detention without a moment to clean up the rest.

He hadn’t intended to burst through the door, but he found himself doing that a lot over these past few days.

Snape’s black eyes narrowed upon his panting form as if he were a worm to bottle. Then they flicked to the clock.

“You’re late.”

“I’m sorry, Professor, I—”

Snape held up a hand to stop him. “The last three days have been longer than the past few months, and am not interested in feeble excuses, Mr. Phantomhive.” He glided around his desk, but instead of setting him up at a desk, he marched past him, swung open, and exited the classroom.

Ciel paused a moment, leaning over to the side, watching him exit, a quizzical look on his face, before deciding he wanted him to follow him.

“Where are we going, Professor?” He asked as he caught up—(not altogether happy that he’d have to do more walking after the run he just made).

“Your detention is to take place in the Forbidden Forest tonight.”

Ciel’s eyes widened.

Snape raised an eyebrow. “Is our dear Mister Phantomhive afraid of the dark?”

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I’m just a little surprised, that’s all…due to it being forbidden and all.”

Snape smirked. “Most of the time, yes. But on some extra special detentions we may take students inside.”

He was right: The Forbidden Forest wasn’t exactly a common detention spot, though it wasn’t unheard of either. What was more surprising was that Snape taking him there. Usually Snape’s detentions consisted of pickling rat brains, or cleaning octopi suckers off desks. Not that he’d been to very many of his detentions—he’d always been pretty good at potions. It was this godforsaken spell that had reduced him to a less-than-model student.

“Professor, may I ask what exactly will we be doing?” He asked as they traversed the grounds, the trees growing ever closer.

“You will be coming with me to gather a rare flower that lives in these woods.”

Ciel gave a curt nod. It was a moment or two before he asked, “May I ask what it’s for?”

“I am a potions master, Mister Phantomhive. I encourage you to use your brain.”

“I understand that. But what potion is it for, Sir?”

“I am attempting to remedy the spell that has plagued the school.”

Ciel fell silent at that, resisting the urge to tell him he already had the solution in his pocket.

They arrived at the edge of the forest, the trees reaching towards them with gnarled claws, the darkness like curtains for a stage set.

“Lumos.” Snape spoke, and Ciel drew his wand and did the same as they ventured into the shadows.

The trees seemed to taunt them, to whisper about them, to dare them to come any closer, any phantom sound at home here.

After more than a few minutes walk in silence—quite possibly half an hour—Snape stopped and spoke: “They should be around here, nor should they be difficult to spot. Look for a glowing blue flower.”

Ciel made a move to venture off in search of them, but Snape grabbed his arm, warning:

“Don’t wander off where you can’t see me.”

Ciel nodded before venturing into the trees, scanning the ground for anything glowing, or blue, continually glancing back to make sure he could still make out the figure of his teacher.

It wasn’t long before he saw something glowing, and ran up to it. …It turned out just to be a mushroom.

As he sighed disappointedly, and stood back up, he saw two beady eyes staring at him from the darkness.

His heart began to pound as he stared, unsure if he should back up, stand his ground, play dead, or attack, the ghost of a certain name forming on his tongue.

He never had to fear beady eyes, bandits, or bullets with Sebastian around. This was the first time he felt real fear in a long while.

A black spectral horse reared out of the bushes, its eyes aglow with more than just a reflection of the dark.

It stepped towards him in slow, calculated hoofbeats, flaring its nostrils a little too frequently for his liking.

He’d read about these before.

He continued backing up, as the thestral didn’t seem like it planned on stopping its pursuit anytime soon.

“Mister Phantomhive,”—Snape’s voice was low, warning—“I am aware you likely don’t see anything but—”

“I can see it.” He continued his reverse walk.

Snape gave him a short glance like he had a newfound respect for him.

These creatures only appeared to people who had seen death, and he was sure the look in his parents’ eyes that night sufficed. But they didn’t commonly act like this.

Snape lifted his wand, casting a nonverbal spell, and the thestral fell to the ground with a bloodcurdling whinny too much like a scream, ropes binding its legs.

Ciel let out a relieved exhale as Snape joined him.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine…Thestrals…they aren’t commonly…aggressive, are they?”

“No.” Snape muttered softly, gazing for a moment at the now-helpless creature, then turned sharply to Ciel, pointing his wand at him. “Empty your pockets.”

Ciel jerked his head to the professor, saying a little too loudly, “What?!”

The thestral fought against the binds, and Ciel took a step back.

“I said, ‘empty your pockets.’”

“Why?!”

Snape flicked his wand, and his pockets’ contents excavated themselves of their own volition.

Snape grabbed the potion from the air, and let the rest of spare quills and things fall helplessly to the forest floor. He held it up and stared at it, observing the contents, his emotion as imperceptible as always. Then he lifted the cork, sniffing it. His eyes widened and he jerked to look at Ciel, his eyes almost more terrifying than those of the thestral, and definitely not holding a look his eyes had ever contained for him before.

“Where did you get this?” He whispered.

“Excuse me?”

He lifted the potion up, and violently smashed it on the ground, the contents breaking out with a puff of smoke, spilling helplessly onto the forest floor.

“NO!”

Snape grabbed his arm as Ciel made to reach for it, as if to save the unsalvageable.

“I said—” he grabbed both his arms, forcing him to look at him. “Where. Did you get that?”

“Sir…. I don’t understand…”

Snape’s face was far too close to him for comfort.

“Listen to me and listen to me very carefully. That potion is more than dangerous—it’s banned in every major country. It’s not something I could easily mistake. If you were to use it, you wouldn’t just die an excruciating death, it would rot you from the inside, and leave you open to the possession of any vile spirit in the vicinity. A fourteen-year-old boy such as yourself shouldn’t be carrying it around in his pocket,” he spat. “And I’d like to think that you didn’t know what it was when you gained possession of it. Now.” His grip tightened on one of his arms, his nails digging in, as he put his wand to his throat with the other enunciating each word, “WHERE. DID. YOU. GET. IT?!”

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hiddenwashington · 5 years ago

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Anonymous said:Are there any anime muses that are wanted?

oh man, absolutely, so, so many! really i’d love to see any anime muses since we don’t really have any, but in particular i’d love to see edward elric, al elric, winry rockbell, roy mustang, riza hawkeye, lust, and greed from fullmetal alchemist, ciel phantomhive, sebastian michaelis, elizabeth midford, soma, and alois trancy from black butler, any of the sailor scouts, tuxedo mask, and luna from sailor moon, izuku Midoriya, katsuki bakugo, tenya iida, ochaco uraraka, tsuyu asui, and shoto todoroki from my hero academia, l, light yagami, misa amane, and ryuk from death note, yukiteru amano, yuno gasai, and minene uryuu from future diary, junko enoshima, aoi asahina, and nagito komaeda from danganronpa, rize kamishiro, touka kirishima, and juuzou suzuya from tokyo ghoul, and anyone from the throwbacks like inuyasha, bleach, naruto, or one piece! members of course feel welcome to add on to this list!

#anime rp #appless rp #fandom rp #active rp #multifandom rp #mw #anonymous

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queencamellia · 7 years ago

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Daily Life of the Midfords

A/N: This was originally written for @wife-of-queens-watchdog for the @faustianexchange (make sure to join this next year!), but I switched prompts midway for a sweet Cielizzy fic. I stumbled upon this again and decided to finish it lol. :3

Timeline: Sometime after the Public School arc & before the Green Witch arc.

Victorian England particularly stresses the importance of social etiquette. “One must always conduct themselves in such a behavior befitting of one’s class,” one of his mother’s friends once told Edward, patting his cheek with her gaudy pink fan. “You’re a good, proper boy. Nothing like my rascal of a son.”

The Midfords, to the majority of Victorian elite, are always kind, cordial, and charming despite their superior monetary status. Their manners are impeccable, and their comments rarely elicit any sort of resentment or dislike. They are, as many whisper, the shining example of true Victorian nobles.

“How proper she is,” they whisper of Francis Midford, unbeknowning of the calculating nature and mild distaste behind the former Phantomhive’s cordial compliments. “A good wife that has done her duty in raising two marvellous children.”

“How sweet and delicate she is,” they whisper of Elizabeth Midford, unaware of the steel warrior underneath the dimpled smiles, the swords beneath her petticoats, and even the loyal knight underneath her princess-like conduct. “She would make a nice and docile wife for my son.”

“How strong he is,” they whisper of Alexis Midford, ignorant of his father’s true strength (his heart) and fooled by his genial and lighthearted nature. “He is our knight.”

“How kind he is,” they whisper of Edward himself, oblivious of the ruthless measures he can (will) take for the sake of his family. “He will make England proud, someday.”

Edward is aware of all of these whispers, but follows his parents’ precedent and feigns ignorance anyways. Although it’s considered more of an ��unrefined” American game, his father once taught him how to play poker. Edward knows better than to reveal his cards before the game’s over.

He is sitting ramrod-straight in front of an ornate rosewood table. Placed in front of him is the possibly the most traditional of English breakfasts: back bacon, eggs, British sausage, and various fried vegetables. To his right is a servant perched over the coffee table, pouring another cup of coffee for his father. Edward’s father always drinks coffee at breakfast, to his mother’s everlasting annoyance.

It’s relaxing to be around his family again. Their presence is comforting; it helps Edward cope with what would forever be known as the “incident” amongst Edward and his fellow Weston College prefects. Ciel had told him that he wouldn’t turn out like the former Weston prefects, pointing out Edward’s guilty conscience as evidence. Unfortunately, his cousin’s words weren’t enough to assuage Edward’s fears.

I could’ve ended up like them. I would have acted just as blindly, just as recklessly, and definitely just as foolish if Ciel hadn’t revealed the truth. Edward’s realization that day had shaken him to his very foundation, but spending time with his family drives away his fears. His family is his anchor: his mother’s stern looks and sister’s bright countenance ground him.

“We forgot to congratulate you,” his father says suddenly, setting down his coffee mug, “...about your promotion to prefect.”

There are many words left unsaid. Edward is certain that his parents know there is more to the story. Ciel’s presence at the boarding school definitely fueled their suspicions.

“Sir?” Edward asks immediately, then flushes a bright red. It’s nearly instinctual to call older men ‘sir’ thanks to Weston’s strict protocols. “Thank you, Father,” he amends, fixtating his gaze on his plate awkwardly. He thought himself past the phase of teenage gangliness, but he supposes he is wrong. It’s somewhat humiliating; Edward Midford is supposed to be strong and bold, not diffident and gauche.

He stabs at a slice of bacon with his fork, a feeble attempt at distracting himself from the awkward atmosphere that has enveloped the dining room. Alexis Midford, for all of his strengths, has never been one to talk about feelings: that role had always been allotted to Lizzy.

Speaking of his sister, Lizzy is beaming at the pair, most likely pleased that they are on slightly better terms. After being defeated by Ciel in the cricket match, Edward’s father hadn’t been angry with him, per say, but Edward’s been unable to look at his father properly in the eye since, despite his father’s multiple talks about how failure makes one stronger.

His sister clears her throat, catching their family’s attention and eliciting a stern look from their mother. “One of the servants brought to my attention that there’s a new comedy showing at St. James’ Theatre.”

“Lady Windermere’s Fan?” Their father asks, his face breaking out into an attractive grin that Edward knows he has inherited. “Why, I was just talking to Viscount Arbuthnott of the matter.”

“It sounds horribly improper,” Francis sniffs. “A man running off to have a love affair with his wife’s mother, for shame.”

“You mean you wouldn’t attempt to elope with our dear Ciel?” Their father teases, his comment instantly infuriating his wife.

“Alexis!” she rebukes sharply, but when their father lays a hand down gently on hers, her sharp look softens. Edward and Lizzy exchange uncomfortable looks as their parents gaze at each other with sickeningly sweet adoration. Edward briefly wonders how the prudish aristocrats would react if they witnessed such...well, as Lizzy says, “lovey-dovey” exchanges between his parents.

To Edward’s immense relief, Lizzy clears her throat, cutting off their parents’ blatant adoration of each other and drawing their attention to her. “Mother, Father? I was hoping to attend the play with a few...friends.”

Their mother has always been quick-witted, immediately noting Lizzy’s aversion of aforementioned friends’ names. “Of whom are you speaking of, Lizzy?”

“W-well, Ciel will be there,” Lizzy says brightly. She’s oblivious of the way their parents’ eyes sharpen. “And I have kept a healthy correspondence with several of the boys we’ve met at Weston during the cricket tournament.”

“So they’re all boys?” Alexis demands, managing to sound both like a British knight and like an overprotective, clingy father at the same time.

“Well, Earl Grey and Earl Phipps should be attending,” Lizzy responds cheerfully. “Don’t fret so much, Father! They can keep an eye on us.”

The mention of Double Charles definitely does not comfort Alexis Midford in the slightest way. “More boys?”

“...Nina may accompany me,” Lizzy suggests meekly, sensing both Edward’s and his father’s growing consternation. Her offer doesn’t assuage Edward’s suspicions (he’s not going to let a bunch of little punks hang around his precious little sister, dammit), but their father relaxes. Lizzy senses her opening and pounces. “I’ve really been looking forward to this outing, Father,” she insists emphatically, pulling all stops -- pleading eyes, pursed lips, and all. “May I please go?”

Their father visibly wilts as he acquiesces, “Take Paula and invite one of your female companions along.”

“Father!” Edward protests immediately, but his sister is already out of her seat.

Beaming, she hurries over to their father, pressing kisses to both of his cheeks and giving him an affectionate hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squeals, emerald eyes sparkling with excitement. “Oh, this will be so much fun!” She then turns to Edward, staring at him innocently. “Is something the matter, big brother?”

He can’t bear to extinguish the light in her eyes. “Nothing,” he grinds out. “When do you plan to attend the theatre?”

“Tomorrow evening,” Lizzy admits, giving her brother an affectionate pat on the shoulder and pressing a kiss to her mother’s cheek before bounding off to her room, dismissing herself from their meal. Lizzy has always been an unstoppable whirlwind of surprises, but this time he still needs a few more minutes to process exactly what had occurred.

“...Edward,” Francis says, taking a sip of tea.

His mother’s voice is cold, commanding, and undoubtedly Phantomhive. Edward unconsciously straightens his spine. “Yes, Mother?” His heart pounds with hope that they will grant him permission. Alexis is giving her a similar hopeful expression.

Francis Midford nee Phantomhive gives him a slow, serious look. “...make sure you watch over sister.”

Edward beams. Parental approval granted. “Of course!”

“Is your brother not coming?”

Lizzy blinks, then turns around with a half-upturned smile. “Earl Grey,” she greets, curtsying. The formal gesture irritates the Queen’s butler, judging by the prevalent scowl on his face. “Unfortunately, my brother had prior arrangements,” she says regretfully. Although she loves Edward Midford to the moon and back, she doesn’t want him to use his precious vacation time chaperoning her to a play. Edward never likes such productions, anyways.

Earl Grey gives her a measured look, his silver eyes darting to her left where other nobles are engaging in conversation. “Hm. Is that so?” he mutters mainly to himself, shrugging and shoving his hands in his pockets. “Well, his loss. Wilde’s works are usually decent.”

Lizzy visibly perks up. “You read Wilde’s works?”

“His poems, mostly.”

Lizzy brightens.

(Disguised as Cheslock’s nonexistent cousin, Edward laughs along with some of his companions’ jokes as he glares daggers at Earl Grey for being so close to his little sister. For Heaven’s sake, where was that man’s propriety? Nobody needed to be that close to discuss literature, dammit--)

“Oh, good evening, Earl Phipps,” Lizzy chirps, skipping over to the other silver-haired noble.

“Lady Midford,” Phipps greets, bowing his head in respect.

Lizzy giggles and swats at his arm with a fan. “Lady Midford is my mother. Please, just call me ‘Lizzy.’”

“As you wish, Lady Lizzy. Please, just call me Phipps.”

(Edward glowers. How dare such a man act so casually with his little sister!)

“Cieeeeeeeeeel!”

“Lizzy!” Ciel groans, prying her off. She purposefully slackens her grip so he can push her off and frowns at him.

“Aren’t you happy to see your cute fiance?” comes Grey’s voice, amused and almost accusing.

“Cute?” Lizzy repeats, indignant as she places a hand on her hips and flips her hair, the epitome of grace. Obviously. “I’ll have you know, earl, that I am pretty and beautiful. Ciel’s cute.”

Ciel squawks, turning red. “Elizabeth,” Ciel hisses, cheeks burning. “Enough.”

“I mean, look at his smile! Oh, and his ears are so red. Ne, ne, Ciel? I have a new outfit in mind that would suit you well.”

“Are there ruffles?”

“...no…”

“Ribbons?”

“...no…”

“Frills.”

“...maybe a little…” Lizzy pouts. “You’re no fun. Come on, Ciel: let’s enjoy the play to its fullest!”

“I didn’t want to come to the play,” grumbles Ciel. His eyes, however, speak differently.

(Cheslock has to physically restrain Edward from approaching the pair to pummel Ciel to the ground for speaking so callously to his precious little sister.)

“Mother! Father!” Lizzy flies into the sitting room, shrieking in a rather unladylike way. Her parents indulge her, regardless, and hold out their arms for a group hug. “The play was amazing,” she babbled. “We must attend it together, sometime. I think you will enjoy it, Mother. The actors were perfect for their roles. Oh, where’s Edward?”

“Here, Lizzy,” Edward says, appearing in the doorway. Her brother smiles gently at her and ruffles her hair as she launches forward to give him a hug. “So you liked the play? Did any of those ruffians try to pull anything on you?”

“Honestly, brother,” Lizzy huffs, giggling. “You worry too much. I almost thought that you’d come to whisk me away during intermission.”

Edward twitches. “And have you miss the second act? I think not,” he laughs. Her brother is much too considerate and kind, but Lizzy doesn’t mind. If anyone tries to cross their family and spit on his kindness, her sabres are ready.

“I would’ve liked to have Ciel come for dinner, but everyone seemed like they were in a hurry to leave,” Lizzy pouts. Unbeknownst to her, Edward gives a nod towards their parents and mouths “mission accomplished” behind her back. “Dinner after a play sounds nice, doesn’t it?”

“How about this, then? We’ll all go see a play of your choice at the week’s end,” their father suggests genially. “Family is important, and we should do something together before Edward leaves for Weston.”

“Yes!” Lizzy cheers, embracing their father wholeheartedly.

Edward laughs, glancing to his side to look at his mother. Although she portrays herself as a cold woman, he can easily discern her telltale signs of contentedness.

“Happy, mother?” Edward asks quietly as they watch the raucous father-daughter duo laugh and chatter.

Francis Midford exhales, a genuine smile curving across her lips. “Of course.”

#midford #edward midford #elizabeth midford #francis midford #alexis midford #kuroshitsuji #black butler #charles grey #charles phipps #ciel phantomhive #fanfic #fanfiction

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thestarsofthenight · 7 years ago

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Side Story 1: Heartfelt Gifts

Fandom: Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler

Pairings: mainly Ciel Phantomhive/Elizabeth Midford

Summary: “There is nothing more ridiculous than living in a country in which an orange-skinned man won an election,” Francis had said, ending the Midfords four-year-long stay in the USA. Three days later, Elizabeth lives in gloomy London, wishing to be back in sunny LA, when a murder case suddenly turns her life upside down, entangling her with Ciel Phantomhive, his duty to the crown, and his school-intern detective agency…

Navigation: Chapter Index

Note: is set after the second arc; originally written for Cielizzy Week 2017

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

― Mother Teresa

London, England, United Kingdom – January 2017

When Elizabeth Midford entered the Detective Agency, Ciel was sitting at his desk, entirely focused on his laptop. She had often seen him like this when coming to the Agency, but what was actually shocking here was right next to him was an untouched piece of strawberry shortcake. Unless they were not in the middle of a zombie invasion, Ciel Phantomhive never ignored a piece of cake. Especially, not a piece of his favourite one.

“Is everything all right?” Elizabeth asked him, genuinely worried. She did not know Ciel for a very long time now, had only met him in early November, but she already knew him well enough to know that something was fundamentally wrong when he did not touch his sweets.

Ciel raised his head and blinked at her. “Oh, it’s you. I did not notice you coming in,” he said, slightly confused, before returning his attention to the screen.

This is not good. Cute Shortie’s perceptive ability is usually outstanding – he always notices it when someone enters or leaves the room.

Elizabeth walked in front of Ciel’s desk. “Ciel,” she said, “is everything all right? Are you not feeling well?”

“Yes, of course,” he eventually answered, not taking his eyes off the screen. “Why should everything not be all right?”

“Because you are glued to your laptop,” Elizabeth replied.

Ciel, apparently not having heard her, did not answer and simply continued to do whatever he did. She sighed, and, suddenly, she had a brilliant idea. Elizabeth took the plate with his cake and stepped away from the desk. Ciel looked up the instance she let the fork sink into the cake.

“Hey!” he shouted, his eyes widening. “That’s not yours!”

“But you weren’t touching it! The cake sat there all sad and alone. It would have been terrible to waste it,” Elizabeth said and cut off a part of the cake with the fork. Immediately, Ciel jumped up from his chair and ran towards her, but she dodged him and ran towards the desk with the plate still in her hands and a smile on her lips. Ciel tried to stop her from getting to his laptop and barricaded the way, but to his surprise, Elizabeth simply jumped over the table and landed gracefully on the other side. Before Ciel could stop her, she glimpsed at the monitor.

Elizabeth had expected files of a case which was greatly bothering him. Instead, Ciel had looked at a website for birthday presents all time long. Bewildered, she looked at him. Ciel let himself fall onto the sofa and ran a hand through his hair.

“It is his birthday next week,” he muttered, and then louder, “Can I get my cake back?”

With wide eyes, Elizabeth handed the plate over, and Ciel started grumpily eating his cake. “You were behaving so weirdly because it is McMillan’s birthday next week?” she said. He is always so grumpy and aloof; I did not expect this in the slightest. But Cute Shortie seems to really treasure his best friend. Elizabeth smiled.

Ciel mumbled something and continued to eat his cake. “He always gets me something for my birthday even though I keep telling him that he shouldn’t. And this makes me obliged to give him something too. Especially after what happened earlier this month. It is bothersome.”

“Why don’t you just ask Sebastian to buy him a present in your stead if you have problems finding one on your own?” Elizabeth wanted to know, sitting down on Ciel’s ridiculously comfortable office chair.

“I tried, but he only laughed and said ‘So the Young Master cannot even buy a gift for his best friend?’” Ciel answered between two furious bites.

Somehow, I can see Sebastian in these words.

“But if you have such a hard time finding a suitable gift – why don’t you just buy him anything? Something standard like chocolate, or some clichéd boy gift like a video game,” she suggested. “After all, you have tried to find something else, something only for McMillan, and, in the end, the thought is what counts.”

Ciel did not reply anything to that, and Elizabeth’s smile grew. His dedication to finding a nice present is really cute.

“I have an idea,” she said, beaming. “How about I help you? I love buying gifts because I love to see their happy faces when they unwrap it and see what I got them. Also, now that I know that it is McMillan’s birthday next week, I can get him something too. We can go on Saturday because we don’t have school and thus have the entire day for ourselves.”

He did not answer, and she kept beaming at him, but, eventually, Ciel sighed and said, “Okay, Lady Midford. Let us go shopping.”

***

Elizabeth hummed while getting dressed. For today, she chose to wear a white blouse with sleeves made of lace and a pale pink skirt with white tights. When she was done, she curled her hair and carefully put it into twin tails like she always did, but, today, she put even more effort into making her hair look nice. Today, she even put on a little bit of make-up.

Quickly checking one last time in a mirror that everything was fitting, Elizabeth grabbed her light brown coat and backpack and ran down the stairs. Elizabeth was almost out of the door when someone called her.

“Are you going out, Lizzy?”

Immediately, she stopped in her movement and turned around. Her elder brother, Edward Midford, was standing by the stairs.

“Yes, I am going shopping,” Elizabeth answered him.

“With Paula?”

If I say that I am going shopping with Ciel, he will certainly freak out.

“Yes, with Paula,” she lied, smiling.

Edward sighed. “I almost got a heartache when I saw you are going out so dressed up – I assumed that you were going out to have a date. Perhaps even with that little nuisance from the Detective Agency even if I know very well that you would never do anything like that – especially not with him. But if you are only going out shopping with Paula, it is okay. Seems like I have overreacted.”

“I am not going out on a date,” Elizabeth firmly said, and even though this was not a lie, she hoped that he did not see her cheeks becoming rosy. “I can dress up whenever I want. Not only because of some boy, Eddie.”

Edward smiled at her. “Yes, you are right. Have fun,” he said and walked upstairs.

***

Before the actual shopping started, Ciel invited Elizabeth to an early lunch as his way of saying “thank you” for helping him to find a suitable gift for McMillan. Elizabeth was not very hungry, but who could say “no” to free food?

They had met at the Phantomhive townhouse, and Sebastian had brought them to a restaurant before returning to the townhouse. Elizabeth was not quite sure if Sebastian had left them alone because he wanted Ciel to really do this on his own or if there was another reason for that. After all, Ciel was usually quite inseparable from his butler.

The restaurant Ciel had chosen was located in a strange but beautiful place – St Katharine’s Docks, East Smithfield. The Docks were just east of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, on the north side of the Thames. It was a small, rather secluded and quiet place with cafés, restaurants, and other shops built around the small port. Numerous footbridges pointed into the greenish water which was filled with ships of all shapes and sizes. Street lamps in black and gold stood everywhere, and colourful flower arrangements hung from them. On this bleak January day, these flowers were refreshing specks of colour, and Elizabeth told herself to come here again in summer when the trees and bushes around the water were wearing leaves, and the sun was painting the water gold.

They passed by numerous shops and restaurants like St Katharine’s Docks Café or John Harding, a hairdresser for “ladies and gents,” until Ciel stopped in front of a restaurant called “Zizzi.”

Elizabeth threw a questioning look at him, but he did not notice it and held the door open for her.

When I come back in summer, I have to sit in the outside area, Elizabeth made a mental note while eating her ridiculously delicious dessert which was called “Chocolate Melt.” It was a dream of chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream.

Between entering the astonishingly beautiful restaurant and her first bite into her starter, Elizabeth had fallen in love with this hidden gem of an Italian restaurant.

Ciel had explained to her when she had tried to eat her garlic bread with mozzarella like a civilised human being and not a wild, starving animal having tasted ambrosia for the first time that there were more Zizzi restaurants in London, but he liked this one the best because it was rather hard to find.

The conversation with Ciel was quite nice, albeit silence often fell upon them, but, surprisingly, it never felt awkward. Elizabeth was not absolutely certain about that, but she assumed that the reason for the lack of awkwardness laid in the fact that they were both enjoying their meals too much. Especially, when it was time for dessert, they did not exchange any words while Elizabeth savoured her pudding and Ciel his baked lemon and raspberry cheesecake. From time to time, she lifted her gaze though to look at him.

Only he can look so unbelievably happy while eating cake.

After around an hour, they were done and ready for the actual shopping.

“What does McMillan like?” Elizabeth asked Ciel while they walked to the next train station. “What are his favourite things?”

“He likes mangas and animes, and often watches them through the night,” Ciel answered, rubbing his hands together to keep them warm. “And he loves playing video games. His favourites are visual novels. They are not very popular in Europe and the USA as people there prefer games in which you are more active – you mostly click through texts in visual novels, and here and there you can choose answers, that’s all –, but they are very well liked in Japan, so they are not often translated and thus hard to get your hands on. But if you know the right ways, you can still get a patched version. He does not only play visual novels though, the likes the more regular games too. Like Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, or Legend of Zelda.”

“McMillan does not look like someone who would play Call of Duty,” Elizabeth pointed out. “He looks more like a textbook book nerd.”

“He likes books too. His house is full of them, and he has read at least half of them.”

“Yes, I have seen it. His house looks on the verge of exploding because of that.”

“His mother is a lawyer, and his father is a librarian, and his entire family loves books. Even the twins.”

“I see. What else does he like?”

Elizabeth almost did not notice Ciel hesitating. Almost.

“He has a model railway,” he said in a low voice.

“Why are you talking about it so quietly?” she wanted to know, blinking at him in curiosity.

“Because he does not like it when I tell anyone about it. He thinks it could damage his reputation if others found out that he has a love for model railways.”

Elizabeth smiled at Ciel. Cute Shortie is even cuter than I’ve thought.

“But everybody already thinks that he is a nerd,” she pointed out, and Ciel shrugged. “Ask him. It’s his way of thinking, not mine.”

“Here, let me help you,” Elizabeth said, seeing him rubbing his hands together again. Quickly, she took his hands and laid a pair of light pink gloves with white bobbles into them. Ciel stared at his hands as if they were holding something disgusting like a dissected frog.

“I lend them to you,” she said, smiling. “My hands are not cold, so I don’t need them.”

“Thanks, Elizabeth, but I think that–” Ciel started, but she cut him off by grabbing his hands and putting the gloves on them.

“There you are!” she exclaimed with a grin and started walking again, feeling him scowling behind her.

They took the underground train, and in almost half an hour, they were in Covent Garden. Then, they went to Leadenhall Market and Camden Market. Every time, Elizabeth was astonished by their beauties. She fell in love with the glass roof and the many, many tiny shops of Covent Garden and begged Ciel to stay a little bit longer to see the performance of a magician in front of St Paul’s Church.

Leadenhall Market’s beauty of red, white, dark green, and gold took away Elizabeth’s breath, and she could not focus on shopping. Instead, she grabbed Ciel’s arm and pointed out interesting things she saw, dragging him here and there with stars in her eyes.

On their way to Camden Market, Elizabeth apologised to Ciel for her behaviour in Leadenhall Market, but he only said that “at least, you did not break anything.”

In Camden Market – first they went to the “actual” one –, Elizabeth was amazed of the liveliness everywhere. No matter where you looked, there were little booths. Some sold t-shirts – mostly fakes as Ciel told her, but there was also a small shop in which an Asian woman painted t-shirts herself and even took commissions. Other shops sold jewellery, cuddly toys, glass plates, anime and manga merchandise, very old books – there was a shop selling, among other things, a Bible with a sign “If you touch it, you have to buy it” as if it was so old that it would crumble under your fingers –, old records, clothes, and numerous other things. Elizabeth would have loved to buy the entire Market.

When they were done going through the “actual” Camden Market, they went to the “small” Camden Market. There, they walked through the countless booths selling clothes, mostly t-shirts.

“Look at this one, Ciel!” Elizabeth exclaimed with a giggle and pointed at a white t-shirt with a penguin saying “I am fucking freezing” on it.

“I saw a better one,” Ciel meant and led her to a t-shirt with three men on it. The first one was Bryan Cranston in his role of Walter White from Breaking Bad and next to him “knows chemistry” had been written. The second one was Jim Parsons as Sheldon Lee Cooper from The Big Bang Theory and next to him were the words “knows physics.” The last one was Kit Harington as Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, and next to him it said: “knows nothing.” Elizabeth burst out laughing, but quickly put her hands in front of her mouth, her cheeks slowly turning pink.

“I did not know that you watch such TV shows,” Ciel said, a faint, amused smile on his lips. “I thought you would only watch romance or princess shows and movies.”

“I don’t,” Elizabeth replied. “I am on Tumblr – you get basically spammed by fandoms there. Of course, I would pick up one thing or two from every fandom I’ve encountered.”

They quickly let this topic fall and continued to search. Elizabeth suggested buying McMillan a t-shirt on which “Lord of the Cats – The Furrllowship of the Ring” had been written. It even had the Lord of the Ring characters reimagined as cats on it.

Ciel shook his head. “I had bought him this t-shirt last year. He doesn’t have it anymore, however.”

She frowned, putting the t-shirt away. “Why? McMillan doesn’t seem like the type who throws away presents or re-gifts them”

“You are right, and he didn’t do neither of these things.”

“But what happened to it, then?”

Ciel turned away, fixing his eyes on a “Keep Calm and Call Sherlock” t-shirt. “Sebastian stole it right after he saw it.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “Mr Sebastian is a very odd person.”

He looked at her and didn’t say anything for a moment. “Yes, yes, he is.”

***

Even after having gone to hundreds of shops, Elizabeth and Ciel still hadn’t found anything nice for McMillan, and thus decided to head to Piccadilly. In their despair, they briefly entered one of the numerous souvenir shops for tourists which were filled with emoji pillows, jumpers saying “I love London,” little Big Bens, keychains, postcards, clocks, jumpers saying “adihash #givesyouspeed,” “The bitch is back,” and “I love weed” with a weed leaf replacing the “love” – the jumper with a cartoonish Nutella on it was cute though. There were even shishas and green cannabis lollipops. After seeing the lollipops, Ciel and Elizabeth quickly left the souvenir shop and headed to Waterstones.

There, they split up for a while as Ciel wanted to go upstairs first and Elizabeth wanted to quickly go through the “stationery shop” which was part of the bookstore. Elizabeth could have gone through the postcards, notebooks, booklets, papers, and stickers forever as most of them were incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately, she couldn’t because buying these things wasn’t today’s plan.

When she saw a “365 days diary” with a light blue cover and edges sprayed in silver, she took it. McMillan was the organiser of them – without him, the Agency would fall into chaos. He simply loved to record everything and sort things into alphabetical orders. A “365 days diary” whose purpose was to make you write something inside it for 365 days straight – it did not have to be much, a few sentences were enough – was, therefore, quite perfect for McMillan. Elizabeth also took some stickers in the shape of glasses, which she could put on the cover of the notebook, and another notebook. This one was thinner and of a burgundy colour, and the only reason Elizabeth had chosen it was the funny description on top of the notebook’s cover in white: “I can’t sleep: A journal for passing the time when insomnia strikes and my brain is circling in on itself, cannibalizing the trivialities of the day and exaggerating the ticking of the clock, reminding me that every minute spent awake is another minute to when I’ll have to get up, though many of the great artists and sages were insomniacs and that was part of how they got so much done, so if I can’t sleep I might as well write and channel my misery into something productive.” With every line this sentence claimed, the letters shrunk in size. It was terribly funny and more or less perfect for McMillan as Ciel had told Elizabeth that he liked to pull an all-nighter.

She purchased the two notebooks and the stickers, put them into her black backpack and went to find Ciel. She found him in the manga area, flipping through one while looking rather puzzled.

“What is it about?” Elizabeth asked, positioning herself next to him.

Ciel put back the manga. “It was a weird story set in the late 1880s about a boy with an eye-patch and his battle butler.”

“Your biography?”

He looked rather unamused. “Definitely not.”

“I am sorry. Of course, I wanted to say: Your biography – in historical London?”

Ciel’s scowl deepened. “The protagonist was late and went to school with a waffle in his mouth – you would never find me in such a clichéd situation.”

“Why not? I think it would look cute.”

“You think everything is cute.”

She shook her head. “No. I am just trying to find a little bit of cuteness in everything, but that doesn’t mean that I think everything’s cute. After all, no matter how long you search, in some things and people you simply don’t find anything cute at all. Like Voldemort. Who would find Hitler 2.0 without a nose cute?”

He nodded.

“What is the manga called?” Elizabeth asked.

“Why does it matter?”

“I don’t know – perhaps, it could be helpful for the future?” She grinned at him, and Ciel walked away.

“Hey, wait for me, Ciel!” Elizabeth said, hurrying after him.

***

Even after another few hours of searching, even after going in and out of more shops, Ciel wasn’t able to find anything for McMillan. Now, it had got too late to go on, and it was time to bring Elizabeth home.

Sebastian let them out a few streets from her house, and Ciel walked Elizabeth to almost her door – after all, she didn’t want anyone to see that she had lied.

“I am sorry that I couldn’t help you,” Elizabeth said to Ciel right before they parted. He has looked crestfallen the entire day even though he did his best to conceal it.

She briefly hugged him. “Sorry.”

Ciel shook his head when she let go of him. “It was always rather hard to find N anything nice.”

“Uh…” I have no idea what to say. I am so sorry. “I think it’s time to say goo–” Elizabeth began, but cut herself off when she saw Ciel reaching into his coat pocket and taking out a white alpaca cuddly toy with a red bow.

He held it out for her and averted his gaze. “You stared at it in Camden Market.”

This is his way of saying “thank you.”

With a soft smile on her lips, Elizabeth took the toy, and Ciel turned around and left. “I wish you a good night!” she called after him.

She watched Ciel until he vanished around a corner. Elizabeth looked at the alpaca in her hands – she had stared at it when they were in Camden Market, but she hadn’t bought it because she hadn’t wanted to buy anything for herself today. Ciel must have secretly bought it for her when they had split up and walked around on their own.

I really want him to find the perfect present for McMillan.

With determination and an idea running through her boy, Elizabeth walked towards the Midford Villa.

***

Ciel woke up to noise filling the townhouse. Sleepily, he rolled to the side and glanced at his clock. Today was Sunday which meant that he and the servants didn’t get up before nine o’clock, but when he looked at the clock on his bedside cabinet, it showed half past seven.

What is going on? Ciel thought and sat up the instance Sebastian entered the room.

“What is going on?” he repeated his question aloud while Sebastian helped him to get dressed. “What is the reason for this commotion so early in the morning?”

“A guest rang the bell at seven o’clock.”

“Who the hell would visit us at seven o’clock on a Sunday? The local pastor wanting to force us to attend his mass? No, that is impossible. He would have probably burned down the moment he stepped through the entrance door.”

Sebastian chuckled. “It wasn’t Pastor Verlac who paid us a visit – it was Lady Elizabeth.”

Ciel blinked at him. Green Eyes…?

“What is her reason for coming? And why so early?” he asked, fully dressed and heading with Sebastian to the parlour.

“Why don’t you ask her that yourself, Young Master?”

He opened the door to the drawing room, and as soon as Ciel stepped into it, he saw Elizabeth sitting by the table and surrounded by masses of coloured paper, stickers, scissors, glue, glitter, different kind of markers and pens.

“Good morning, Ciel,” she said, beaming at him, and Ciel knew that today would be a long day.

Goodbye, Sunday rest.

***

McMillan carefully unwrapped his present.

It was Wednesday – and the Agency smelled of the chocolate cake Elizabeth had baked for McMillan’s birthday today.

“You didn’t have to buy me anything, Lizzy,” he said, taking awfully long to unwrap the gift wrap with a pair of scissors and a ruler.

This looks like a surgery.

Elizabeth sat down the couch opposite from the one on which McMillan was sitting. “Of course, I had! Everyone deserves presents on their birthday. And when I found out that yours was around the corner, I couldn’t help myself. And I love giving gifts – I simply love it when people unwrap them and finally hold what I have bought them in their hands.”

McMillan was finally done, and his eyes widened behind his glasses when he took the “365 days diary” in his hands. “Oh, it is so pretty!” he said, examining the silver edges and the pair of glasses she had put on the blue cover; and he laughed when he read what stood on the other notebook.

“Oh, they are great! Thank you, Lizzy!” McMillan exclaimed, giving Elizabeth a brief hug.

She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

McMillan folded the gift wrap. “I wonder where Ciel is; I’ve missed him the whole day – I don’t want to cut the cake before he arrives.” He smiled at Elizabeth. “And thanks again for the cake. I am not much of a cake maniac like C – I prefer my cucumber and jelly sandwiches – but I still greatly appreciate it.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “You’re welcome,” she said, and the door to the Agency flew open. Ciel entered the room, his hair dishevelled and a clumsily wrapped present under his arms. He clapped the door shut behind him and put the present on the side table before letting himself fall into the sofa at the table’s head. Elizabeth smiled at him. Seems like someone stayed up late to finish his gift.

McMillan blinked at the strange present in front of him and looked at his friend. “Hi, C. Uh… is that for me?”

“No, it’s for the other birthday kid today – Theodosius the Great. Happy 1670th birthday, Theo.”

McMillan grinned and started his second surgery for the day. This one went faster than the last because Ciel had wrapped it so poorly.

In McMillan’s face shone puzzlement a huge, bleak looking memorandum book, on which the name of their Agency had been written, appeared underneath the wrapping paper.

“Uh… C…? Did you give me… decorated work for my birthday?”

Ciel scowled at him. “If you don’t want it, you can give it back to me.”

“But is it work?”

“Why don’t you flip it open and see for yourself?”

“No matter how much I love my work here at the Agency, I don’t want to look at work right now… and…”

Elizabeth couldn’t listen to that anymore and opened the book for McMillan whose jaw dropped when he saw the colourful inside of the dark grey book.

“That is… that is…”

“A scrapbook,” Ciel said boredly. “‘Scrapbooking is a method, an art for preserving, presenting, arranging personal and family history in the form of a book, box, card. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling. Scrapbooking is a hobby commonly practiced in many parts of the world.’ That’s what Wikipedia has to say about it.”

“I didn’t know that you have such a weird hobby, C.” McMillan looked up from the book and stared at him. “You are Ciel Phantomhive, right? And not some kind of imposter?”

Ciel’s scowl deepened. “Of course, I am Ciel Phantomhive. That’s my one and only name.”

“I cannot believe you have made a scrapbook about our agency!” Happily, McMillan flipped through the pages. “Look! The Viola Fleming Rabbit Abduction Case! The Not Really Beauty Pageant Scandal! The Case of the Missing Things!” He turned over the pages. “Look, Lizzy! The Whitechapel Copycat Case! The Curry Conspiracy Case!” McMillan looked through the pages until he arrived at pages and pages of emptiness.

“Uh… Ciel – why is this scrapbook mostly empty? Did you give me half a gift?”

Ciel sighed. “There are pages left for future cases to come.”

McMillan smiled before he stood up and fetched three glasses and filled them with Dr Pepper. He gave each Elizabeth and Ciel a glass before he raised his.

“For future cases to come!”

Ciel and Elizabeth looked at each other, and she smiled at him. Then, they clinked their glasses together with McMillan’s.

“For future cases to come!” Elizabeth joined in enthusiastically, and Ciel only mumbled it.

#the stars of the night #ciel phantomhive #ciel x lizzy #cielizzy #kuroshitsuji #black butler #elizabeth midford #fanfiction #modern au #sebastian michaelis #mcmillan #ff #fanfic

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keikaku-sama · 8 years ago

Text

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 5

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised. Side note: Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in “Italics” with quotation marks are characters on the other end of a phone call speaking. Sentences in “Bold and Italics” with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like.

And, sentences in “Italics and are in headline font” with quotation marks, are two characters speaking in unison. Sentences in “Bold, Italics, and are in headline font”, are three or more characters speaking in unison. Sentences in Bold and Italics without quotation marks is a character telepathically speaking to another character.

“Larten, may I ask why Mr. Undertaker and Miss Eusford are sleeping together?”

“Hm? Oh. Yuki likes to sleep with someone by her side if she’s somewhere that makes her uncomfortable.”

Lady Francis had come to visit the strange trio first thing in the morning, wanting to see if any of them knew how to fight with a sword.

Larten had let her in, and quietly led her to Adrian and Yuki’s room to see if they were awake, and opened the door silently, letting them see Adrian, and his hair, sprawled out on the bed, with one arm around his step-daughter, with Yuki lying on top of him, snuggling into his chest.

Needless to say, the Marchioness of Midford was confused as to why a teenage girl was sleeping with her step-father, as she had thought that all teenagers wanted their own room.

“She…doesn’t want her own room?”

“Here, no. She…has a phobia of boats on top of her motion sickness, along with a phobia of large bodies of water. So, sleeping with Undertaker helps her feel safe while on the boat. She also occasionally……okay, she often sleeps with someone by her side at home. Mostly our uncle, or her boyfriend, though.”

“You let her boyfriend sleep with her?”

The orange haired vampire raised an eyebrow at that. “Yeah. They don’t do anything, other than talk about stuff, or read, until they fall asleep, though. They’re still virgins, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

The blonde woman looked a bit put off, when the man said the word ‘virgin,’ so casually when talking about his little sister. “How do you know that they’re still pure?”

“Vampires can taste it in their blood. Yuki and her boyfriend often donate their blood to us Eusford vampires, so we can easily tell if they still are or not.”

Lady Francis’s eye twitched, before she sighed. “That aside, I was wondering something.”

“Yes?”

“Do any of-“ She was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing. Though it wasn’t a normal ringtone.

Despair, you call to me, with your poison and your misery.

Oh death, you come to sting, with your poison and your misery.

Death, death, death, death

Death surrounds me, singing to me softly (Death, death, death)

When the shadows spreads its wings around me-

Larten smiled in amusement, while the Marchioness looked appalled at the ringtone.

“I suppose that would be Mr. Undertaker’s phone?”

“Nope.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s……Miss Eusford’s?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“She likes the band. As do I, and nearly everyone in our family.”

“May I ask the name and genre?”

“Skillet. They’re a Christian rock band from….Tennessee, I believe.”

The woman looked confused. “Christian?”

“Yep.”

“Coffee.”

“Tea.”

The Marchioness of Midford yelped in surprise, at the sound of the two half asleep people behind her.

Larten smiled at them, and waved. “Mornin’. Coffee and tea’s already made, just the way you like it.”

The two grunted in thanks, before going to the kitchen.

“Are they….always like this, first thing in the morning?”

“Not always. For Undertaker, it depends on whether he wakes up next to mother or not. And for Yuki, it depends on what time she gets up, and the weather.

“Undertaker’s usually genuinely happy when he wakes up next to mother. And Yuki acts like she’s on a high, and is all blissful and happy, like a hippie fairy, if she ‘wakes up with the sun,’ as she puts it.”

“In other words, waking up to beautiful sunrises makes her happy, and almost nothing can upset her during the day?”

“Right on the nose….So, what were you saying before?”

Lady Francis blinked, before her eyes widened, as she remembered what she was going to say. “Oh! I was wondering if any of you three know how to fence?”

The orange haired vampire blinked at her, before responding. “I…..have no idea how to fence, and for that matter, I’m rusty with a sword as well.…..Undertaker….I believe he knows how to use a sword, but he hasn’t fought with one in a while….

“And….Yuki doesn’t know how to fence, but she does know how swordfight, and she’s pretty damn good at it too.”

“So, Miss Eusford would be my best bet in looking for a sparring session?”

The orange haired man stared at her confusedly. “Yes, but….Why do you want to spar with someone?”

“I’m bored, and I haven’t won a sparring session since last week.”

Larten’s eye twitched. “Lady Francis…..”

“Yes?”

“If you’re to fight Yuki, a piece of advice for you.”

She smiled at him. “Of course, Mr. Crepsley. What is it?”

“Don’t underestimate my sister. Doing so would be the worst mistake you could ever make.”

The Marchioness raised an eyebrow. “I understand that you care for her, as you are her older brother, but I doubt-“

“No. I’m being serious. She’s been trained to fight by our oldest brother, Shimazu Toyohisa, who used to be samurai, until he was turned into a vampire in the battle of Sekigahara.

“And the phrase ‘hold back,’ doesn’t apply to her.”

“So, you’re telling me that…..”

“I’m just telling you that it would be a huge mistake on your part, to underestimate her.”

Their conversation ended at that, as Adrian, and the ghoul they were speaking about, came out of the kitchen with mugs of coffee and tea.

“Miss Eusford?”

“What’s up?”

Lady Francis gave Yuki a smile. “How would you like to spar with me?”

The girl stared at her blankly. “I don’t know how to fence, and my fightin’ style ain’t exactly for sparrin’.”

“That’s fine! We’ll just spar with real swords then!”

The ghoul blinked at the woman confusedly.

She reminds me of Erza.

I know.

“Um…..Okay….I guess…”

■-----------------------------------■

It was later that morning, and Lady Francis had taken Yuki to the arena the ship had, after the ghoul had changed into the clothes she usually wore while on jobs in Earthland.

The white haired girl looked around in awe.

“Holy shit…..This is fucking awesome!”

The Marchioness cleared her throat at Yuki cursing so openly, which the ghoul ignored, before speaking, and gesturing at the girl’s weapons, which were strapped to her waist with white sashes.

“May I ask what those are?”

“Huh?”

Yuki blinked, before looking to her weapons. “They’re weapons.”

The blonde woman’s eye twitched, while Adrian, and Lizzie, who were in the stands with Ciel, Sebastian, Egin, Edward, Lord Midford, and Larten, laughed at Yuki’s clueless act.

Or, her sassiness. It could be either.

“I know that. But are they real?”

The ghoul stared at her, before looking to her brother. “TenTen? Can you see if there are any dummies around for me to demonstrate with?”

“What kind?”

“Sparring dummies, though you wouldn’t mind being that dummy for me, would you?” The girl had a sweet smile on her face that imitated Mira Jane’s, as she subtly insulted her big brother.

The orange haired vampire’s eye twitched, while Adrian laughed. “GYAH HA HA HA~!!! HEE HEE HEE HEE~!!!”

The vampiric Irishman glared at the renegade reaper, and threw a Styrofoam cup at the man’s head, which he caught.

Larten growled, before sighing, and getting up to go find the dummy his sister wanted.

♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡

“Here.”

Larten set the wooden sparring dummies (3) down in front of Yuki, before going back up to sit with the others in the stands.

Only to glare with his eye twitching at Michaelis, who was chuckling at the vampire. “Though I dislike your sister, her jokes are quite funny.”

“Shut up.”

Yuki then drew her katana, which was nearly as long as she was tall, and poised it to strike.

The girl smiled, as she quickly charged at the sparring dummies.

She swung at the middle dummy, slicing its arm off, before switching her sword to her left hand, and quickly drawing her shotgun, and shooting the left dummy where its heart would be, then rushing at all three dummies.

She shot another bullet, which exploded on impact in the middle of the right dummies chest, before quickly slicing her katana too quickly for the human eye to see, then flipping backwards a few times, and shooting three times, and sheathed her sword, and her shotgun.

The people in the stands who didn’t know how she fought (Ciel, Edward, Lord Midford, and Lady Francis), gaped, while Sebastian and Egin’s eyes widened, as they hadn’t seen the full extent of Yuki’s fighting abilities.

The dummies had been sliced and blown to pieces, the stands they had been on had not even been given mercy.

Yuki was whistling along with the song that she had stuck in her head, when she noticed long silver haired man hiding behind a pillar above the stands.

She blinked, before looking to Adrian.

Who was still sitting in his seat next to Larten.

“Y-Yuki…..I can call you Yuki, right?”

“Hm? Oh, of course, Lady Francis.”

The woman’s eye was twitching, and her skin had paled a bit after seeing what the ghoul could do. “U-Um…..c-could you use just one weapon?”

“Yeah, sure. Adrian, catch.” The girl quickly drew her shotgun, and pulled her short sword which was still in its sheath, out of its spot hanging from her waist, before throwing them up to the Undertaker, who caught them, and gingerly held on to them.

Lady Francis wished that she had on a full suit of metal armor, instead of just a fencing jumpsuit. Despite only having one weapon, the blonde woman felt that Yuki would be just as deadly.

“So, on three?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yes.”

“One.”

“Two!”

“Three.”

At three, Yuki immediately rushed the Marchioness, with her katana poised to strike. She held it at arm’s length, at her side, then quickly swung at the woman’s left.

Lady Francis’s eyes widened, as she blocked the strike, before countering it, nearly striking Yuki’s side.

The ghoul smiled, and dodged, before putting both hands on her sword’s grip. The girl then jumped back a bit, before running to the wall.

And running up it.

The Marchioness’s eyes widened in shock, before coming back to her senses, and dodging a strike Yuki flew at her with. The woman then used that moment to spin around, and stab at the girl’s arm, only to find that she had disappeared.

Then quickly turned, as she had felt a breeze on her neck, and blocked a fatal blow.

Edward paled, while Lord Midford was nervous, and felt as though his wife was fighting for her life.

Adrian smiled, feeling as though his step-daughter was having a spot of fun, while Lizzie watched, torn between who she wanted to win.

Larten watched interestedly, as he had never actually seen his sister fight before, and……Sebastian was glaring death at the ghoul, while Egin watched n awe, and Ciel’s eye twitched.

I am so glad that she’s my friend.

Yuki then glanced to the right, making Lady Francis think the ghoul was going to come from that direction, and preparing to block a strike from the right.

Oh, how wrong she was.

The white haired girl vanished, leaving behind an after image, which soon disappeared as well. The Marchioness glanced around quickly, trying to figure out where Yuki was, when her son shouted.

“She’s coming from above!!”

The woman’s eyes widened, before she looked up.

And sure enough, the ghoul had pushed herself off the ceiling, having stayed there due to her using…..ice?

She was now dive bombing the blonde woman below her, with her katana poised to stab Lady Francis’s shoulder, and from how fast she was falling, the sword could either graze her heart, or, go right through it.

The Marchioness hoped it would do neither, as she bent backwards, and positioned her sword so that it might send the girl off trajectory.

Yuki grinned maniacally, as she turned the blade in her hand sideways, before she was right on top of the woman.

Or, rather, hanging right over the woman.

Lady Francis fell to the ground, and sighed in relief, that she was still alive, before her eyes widened, at how Yuki was hanging from the ceiling.

She had four blue, purple, and red, scaled tentacles wrapped around two rafters.

The woman then looked to the girl’s eyes, and gasped quietly.

The scelera had turned from white to black, and her irises had turned from blue speckled with amber, to red.

The Marchioness then blinked in confusion, and, despite having a ghoul hanging over her, she took her attention off the girl, as she felt something warm and wet roll down her cheek.

She put her hand to it, then held it in front of her face.

It was blood.

Yuki had managed to strike her.

Lady Francis looked at the ghoul, who was still hanging over her, but was trying to figure out how to get down, as her tentacles had gotten all tangled up in each other, and wouldn’t come apart.

When the white haired girl noticed the Lizzie’s mother was staring at her, she smiled triumphantly. “I don’t know how to fence, but I once heard that one of the rules of a fencing match, was that if you strike your opponent once, you win, and the match is over. So, I win!...I think….”

“You won, Yuki!”

The ghoul looked excited at that. “Cool!....Um….I’d help you up, Lady Francis, but, I…..I don’t know how to get myself down….sorry…”

The blonde woman blinked before smiling slightly. “You’re fine, dear. I must say though, that was a most exhilarating sparring match! It felt as though I was fighting for my life! I never get that feeling when sparring against the usual people! I thank you, Yuki, for sparring with me!’

Yuki blinked, then smiled radiantly. “You’re welcome. But, that feeling of fighting for your life…..sorry……the habit of not being able to hold back rubbed off on me from my extended family.”

“That’s fine, dear. Not everyone is able to control their strength. Including me! Haha!”

The two on the arena floor smiled and laughed with each other, before Adrian spoke.

“Yuki, I believe that you can get down if you disperse your kagune~! Though you should disperse them-“

“Owwie…..”

“One at a time…”

The Undertaker sighed at his step-daughter. “You should’ve waited until I was finished talking, dearest.”

“Sorry……Oww…….” The ghoul had fallen flat on her face, on the floor of the arena, which was a gym floor wood painted white, and was now sitting on her legs, rubbing her nose. The bruise that had formed, had healed as quickly as it came, as with the bruise that had been on her forehead.

Despite the bruises being gone, her nose still hurt, and she had tears in her eyes.

“Are you alright, dear?”

“I’m fine, my nose just hurts a little…..Wait….” Yuki kept her hand on her nose, as she looked at Lady Francis, with her Kakugan still activated.

“Yes, Yuki?”

“You’re…..not….You don’t look to be….afraid of me….Why?”

At that, Adrian gained a soft look as he watched the ghoul, while Larten smiled sadly.

The Marchioness blinked at the girl. “Why am I not afraid of you?”

The ghoul nodded. “I’m a ghoul…..I eat human flesh……Why aren’t you scared, or running to tell security?”

Egin’s eyes widened, as he heard what Yuki had said.

Ghouls eat human flesh?

“Snake? Why do you look confused? You knew ghouls ate human flesh, didn’t you?” The snake man looked at Sebastian, still wide eyed, and shook his head. The demon blinked, before gaining a look of understanding. “Ah. I see. She didn’t tell you, because she didn’t want to scare you off. She was afraid of losing a friend, or getting hurt.”

The white haired half demon gaped, then looked at Yuki.

Lady Francis looked at the ghoul with a soft smile. “I’m not afraid, because you’re one of the sweetest….yet strangest…..girls, I have ever met. I don’t believe that you’re capable of killing an innocent human, or that you’re capable of thinking of humans as only food.

“If you were, I’m sure you would’ve killed and eaten almost every last human on this ship, as you are certainly strong enough to do it.”

Lizzie then cut in. “Actually, mother, if she killed almost every last human on the ship, it would’ve been for sport. Ghouls only need to eat once every one or two months. Though there is the exception of that Binge eater a few years back….

“Oh, and some ghouls-“

“Lady Elizabeth, I think that the rest of your extensive knowledge of ghouls should be saved for when we aren’t on a ship, where people get nauseous easily.”

The blonde girl blinked at Sebastian, before smiling. “Okay~!”

Lady Francis’s eye twitched, before she sighed at her daughters antics.

“You’re….not……afraid?”

At the small, quiet, and cracking voice, the Marchioness looked back to Yuki, who had started to cry. “You heard what I said, didn’t you? You’re too sweet to be feared.”

The ghoul let out a quiet sob at that, making the blonde woman crouch, and hug her. “Shh….Don’t cry…”

“I-I’m not-I’m not crying! I-I just got s-something in my eye!”

“In both of them?”

“Y-Yeah!”

Lady Francis chuckled at that, making the ghoul attempt to pout cutely, but it ended up looking like a severe frown as she was crying. “There, there…”

Yuki went to wipe her tears away, but scaled hands did it instead. “E-Egin?”

The snake man smiled at her, making her cry even more, and leap forward into his arms.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t tell you…..”

“You’re fine, Yuki. I understand.”

At that, the ghoul bonked her forehead against his, and nuzzled his nose affectionately, making him blush.

“Sorry to interrupt the moment, dearest, but here are your weapons.”

Yuki looked up, to see Adrian smiling softly at her, as he handed her short sword, and shotgun back to her. “T-Thank’s, Adi.”

“You’re welcome, dearest.”

“W-Wait, hold on!” Everyone looked to Edward, making him yelp, before he spoke again. “A-Are we all just okay with her being a ghoul? I mean, this is the first time we’ve met her, mother!”

Lady Francis frowned at her son. “What, you want to turn her in to the CCG, and have her be locked up, or worse?”

At that, Yuki hid her face in Adrian’s chest, and whined.

Edward paled at how protective his mother was of the ghoul already. “W-Well….I mean, it wouldn’t …..be a bad….idea…”

That made Lizzie get up, and jump the barrier, before she walked angrily over to her friend, and hugged her tightly. “Wha-?! Lizzie?!”

“Edward.”

“Yes, mother?”

“Did you not hear what I said earlier? She means no harm. She’s just a child. She isn’t capable of killing innocent people. We will not be calling the CCG on her, or her family, if there are more.

“Understand?”

The blonde boy internally groaned at the tone in his mother’s voice.

It meant she would not, and could not, be swayed.

“Yes, mother….”

“Good. My lord. Do you have any objections?”

Lord Midford smiled. “Not at all, my dear! Miss Yukino has done nothing to earn my ire. She’s just as innocent as a toddler in my eyes!...Though she is a very deadly toddler…”

At that, Adrian had to restrain himself from laughing.

The Marchioness smiled, then looked to Ciel, and Sebastian. “Did you have any objections, or did you know the whole time?”

“We knew.” Ciel spoke before Sebastian could get a word out, as the boy just knew that the demon would say something to upset everyone.

Adrian smiled at the Earl, before looking down at Yuki, as he had felt her tugging on his shirt. “Adrian, I’m hungry…”

The mortician blinked, before smiling softly at his step-daughter, who had the cutest pout he had ever seen. “Alright, dearest. We’ll leave shortly. Okay?”

The girl nodded at him, as her tears went away, and she smiled.

■-------------------------------------------■

“Ciel, Yuki, look! Those cakes are so cute! Oh! And there are cakes inspired by Nightmare before Christmas!

“I’ll go get some for us, okay~!” Lizzie ran down the stairs, leaving Ciel and Yuki.

The ghoul was currently being used as a crutch, by one Sebastian Michaelis, who was squeezing her head tightly, seemingly wanting to see if her head would explode.

“Could you stop squeezing my head so tightly?!”

The demon looked confused. “Oh? Why? I thought you had a hard head.”

The girl growled at him. “I do, but your strength ain’t normal. My head will explode if you keep squeezing so tight.”

“Maybe that’s what I want to happen.”

“Fuck you.”

“Would you two behave?! I am not in the mood to deal with your bickering!” The two reluctantly stopped, making the Earl sigh in relief, when they made it down to the floor.

Yuki pulled Michaelis’ hand off her head with a bit of difficulty, before going to sit at a table with Egin, as they waited for Adrian. The renegade reaper said he had something to do before going to the dinner party, and had promptly left soon after that.

Ciel leaned against a pillar tiredly, while sighing in frustration. “Aristocrats really do do nothing but get together daily to talk nonsense about this family and that…And they will do it with exactly the same conversation partners every single day!! I feel like a fool for having traded in my work for this…”

Sebastian limped back to his master, with a plate of food in his hand. “Then how about you accept the Marchioness’s invitation for a fencing lesson tomorrow?”

The Earl’s eye twitched, as he took the plate of food. “Do you really want to keep me from greeting the goddess of freedom that badly? She may have lost in a swordfight with Yuki today, but she’s still confident in her fencing skills. She’d wipe the floor with me!”

Michaelis chuckled at that, before turning serious. “That aside, young master. Tonight is the night.”

“I know. It seems the convening of the ‘Aurora Society’ will be signalled by a waiter carrying empty glasses and walking the hall. Participants are to take a glass and then head to the meeting place.

“Don’t miss that signal.”

“As you wish, sir.”

Egin scanned the crowd, watching for Adrian, when he caught a couple of women in Victorian get up speaking about him.

“See there? Just look at his skin.”

It seemed that Yuki had also heard them, as she raised her head from its resting spot on the table, to look at the women with a frown.

“It’s like that of a snake.”

Yuki began to growl, but cut herself off when they heard the other woman speak.

“My goodness. There are certainly some very talented people in the cosplay community. The scales look so real! Maybe we should start getting into that kind of cosplay as well?!”

The first woman chuckled at the other. “But dear, we know nothing about how to make those detailed cosplays the anime and video game community makes. And we only know how to pretty ourselves up, not how to make ourselves look-Pardon my french-badass.”

The second pouted. “But the internet is a girl’s best friend! I’m sure there are tutorials somewhere! And practice makes perfect!”

Their conversation then changed to Yuki. “And look at her! She’s rocking those awesome tattoos! And the one from Supernatural looks really good on her!”

The ghoul’s face flushed at that.

They think my tattoos are awesome. They think my tattoos are awesome. They think my tattoos are awesome.

“Excuse me?”

“Huh?” Yuki yelped quietly when she saw the women standing in front of the table her and Egin were at. “Y-Yes?”

The second woman smiled politely at them. “Could you tell us where you got that wonderful Charmain?”

The white haired ghoul blinked, before stuttering. “M-My dad g-got it for me a-at Hot Topic….”

“I told you.”

The woman who spoke to the girl huffed, before speaking again. “Well, I just wanted to be sure. May I ask how your boyfriend’s scales look so real?”

At that, both Egin and Yuki blushed.

“S-S-She’s not my-“

“H-H-He’s not my boyfriend….um….but….I’m flattered that you think his scales look real. I made them, and painted them. I’m an art major.”

The two women, and Egin, looked surprised at that. “You’re in college? But you look about 15!”

“I am. I got in to college early because the elementary school, and high school thought that I was too smart for them, and sent me to college with a scholarship.”

The two women looked impressed, while Egin gazed at the ghoul in awe. “Are you in your first year?”

“Third year, actually.”

“Y-You were twelve when you got to college?!”

“Didn’t all of the adults intimidate you?”

Yuki smiled sheepishly. “They did at first, but my big sister was there with me, so the intimidation didn’t last long.”

“Well, that’s good…Oh, dear. We have to go now. We promised our husbands we’d go dancing after we came to the dinner party. How may we contact you? You seem like a nice girl to talk to.”

The ghoul blinked, before responding. “My Tumblr URL is reapers-daughter. You can contact me that way.”

“We’ll have to write that down. Thank you! Goodbye!”

The white haired girl waved at the women, before turning to her friend. “They were nicer than I thought they’d be.”

Egin nodded in agreement, before yelping, and jumping into Yuki’s lap, startled, as someone had suddenly touched his shoulder.

The ghoul smiled amusedly, as she held the snake man.

“Why so jumpy~? It’s only me, baby boy~! Hee Hee Hee~!” Adrian grinned amusedly at his charge’s ability to be startled easily, and laughed.

The white haired half demon blushed at the nickname the reaper had called him. “Adrian! I’m not a child anymore! You don’t need to call me that!”

“But I like to~! You are my baby boy, and you always will be~! ♡”

Egin’s face flushed even further at that, as he pouted at his legal guardian.

Who proceeded to smile softly, and chuckle at the snake man’s childishness, before going to pat the man’s head gently.

“Aaawww~ You’re cute when you pout, Egin~”

“Y-Yuki!”

“Very true~! Hee Hee~!”

That made the half demon get off of his friend’s lap, and huff at her and the renegade reaper.

“Snake.”

Said man, and the two he was with, looked to Ciel, who had walked up to them, with his demon butler following behind, surprisingly keeping up with his master’s fast pace, despite his leg. “Yes, Smile?”

“Take care of this. We have something to do.”

The Earl placed a plate of half eaten food in Egin’s awaiting hands, before the slate haired boy and Sebastian went off somewhere up the stairs, with Ciel helping the demon up them.

The snake man blinked, before looking at the food. “Adrian, Yuki, would you like some?”

“I’ll have a bite of the beef, please, baby boy~!”

“Huh? But…….Fuck it. I’ll have a small bite of the chicken.”

♧-------------------------------------------------♧

“So good!

“Ale! Ale’s the way to go! Much better than any fancy champagne! Y’think so too, don’t ye, laddies?!”

The dual tone haired reaper smiled, as he picked up a mug of ale, while his friend, an orange haired man, had a glass of whiskey. “Still, if you’re drinking with your lass, a real famous brand of champagne’s the way to go!”

Larten laughed, after setting down his now half empty glass. “I don’t know ‘bout you, but I’d rather give my lass a fine glass of Saint George’s red wine!”

“Oh~! ‘Ow nice! I envy your girlfriends!” The woman sitting next to Ronald looked at the reaper longingly.

“If only we had ‘em!”

“Wot?! You don’t?”

“Another glass o’ whiskey o’er here!”

The blonde reaper, and everyone at the table, gaped at the orange haired vampire, as he had drunk his whiskey quicker than anyone they had ever seen before. “That’s like your fourth glass, man! Your stomach’s like a bottomless pit!”

The vampire smiled, and laughed merrily at that, as someone poured him another glass, before he dropped a blood pop in the alcohol.

Ronald smirked amusedly at his friend, before grabbing his mug of ale, and raising it. “So! Even if we don’t have girlfriends, we do have plenty of time!”

Larten sighed in relief internally at that, as he was planning to leave as soon as Ronald, to make sure his sister was alright.

“Cheers to our free time!”

■-------------------------------■

“Would you care for some ‘Absolute purification water?’ It costs thirty pounds.”

Adrian’s eye twitched, as he brought out his wallet, and gave sixty pounds to the man. "Sure…”

Yuki raised an eyebrow at the renegade reaper, as they walked into the first class smoking lounge. “What’s up with you?”

“Thirty pounds for water is outrageous.”

“How much is thirty pounds in Yen and USD?”

“About eight hundred thousand to one million yen, and about eight thousand to one hundred thousand dollars.

“And in addition, about eight hundred thousand to one million jewels.”

Yuki gaped at that. “What the hell! Why are they making people pay more than they should for water?!”

“No clue.” The outrageous price for water was only one reason why Adrian was in a bad mood at the moment. The other reason, would be that the Earl and his insufferable demon butler were behind him and his step-daughter, and the butler was currently glaring daggers at the ghoul.

Yuki and Adrian hadn’t bothered to put on disguises like Sebastian and Ciel had, so the ghoul was just wearing the clothes she wore earlier, as was the renegade reaper.

The white haired girl hid behind her step-father, and clutched his hand, as she felt anxious around such a large crowd.

The silver haired man gently squeezed her hand in reassurance, and gave her a soft smile, before looking ahead, as a large man with fancy glasses walked up to them.

“Is this your first time here?”

The Undertaker gently ushered his step-daughter out from behind him, so that the man would be able to see and hear her, as she and Ciel began to speak in unison.

“The eternal flame in this breast, cannot be quenched by anyone.

“We are-“

The two teenagers, and the two adults, then got into ridiculous poses, which made Yuki and Adrian burst into laughter internally, while Sebastian seemed to be completely ignoring the pain that came with putting all his weight on his bad leg.

“Phoenix!!”

Ciel blushed in embarrassment, as he glanced at the ghoul and the mortician, before glancing at Sebastian with concern.

All three of them held straight faces.

What kind of pose is this?! No one would believe them sane!!

If we’ve got it wrong, all will be lost, Sebastian!

This must be the right pose, though. If it wasn’t he wouldn’t even bother with doing this.

The man in front of them widened his eyes, before striking the same pose. “Phoenix!! Welcome to the Aurora Society.” The man then gave them fire bird pins, similar to his. “Here are your membership badges.”

After the man left, Sebastian walked over to Ciel to fasten the slate haired boy’s pin onto his lapel, without his cane.

The Earl blinked in confusion, while Adrian and Yuki raised an eyebrow. “You taking oxycodone?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, I am. Surprisingly, it helps.”

“Guh! Hee! Hee! Hee…”

At the laughter, the demon, ghoul, and Earl, looked to Adrian.

Who was glaring at someone behind them, as he pulled both Yuki and Ciel close to him.

“EEEE! HEE! HEE! HEE! I NEVER IMAGINED YOU’D DO SUCH A THING!”

#Kuroshitsuji #Black Butler #Undertaker #Adrian Crevan #CIel Phantomhive #Sebastian Michaelis #Jack the Ripper #Lady Francis Midford #Edward Midford #ELizabeth Midford #Lord Alexis Leon Midford #Cirque du Freak #Larten Crepsley #SNake #Fanfiction #OC: Yukino Eusford

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queencamellia · 7 years ago

Text

“His” Fiance, Choosing (Ch.3)

Summary: [TCT, spoilers for recent chapters] Confronted with the truth, she chooses. (or: Lizzy is faced with a decision to accept her past or move forward, and looking at her two Ciels in the eye has never been harder)

Chapter 1 Link

Chapter 2 Link

I’ve been late with this because I’ve fallen in love with Charles Grey/Lizzy and am unabashedly writing a much longer, more well-written story about the two of them at the moment. ^^ Sorry.

Lizzy woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Immediately, she sat up and scanned the room warily, and to her relief, it was empty. Light streamed in the bedroom through a single window, and to her side laid a single stuffed animal. It was a rabbit (rabbits had always been one of her favorite animals), and its resemblance to Ciel almost made bile rise to her throat.

She couldn’t do this.

Lizzy couldn’t face him: not now, not after meeting the other Ciel.

“The other Ciel”, hah. Wasn’t that a funny thought? After all, “the other Ciel” had always just been “Ciel” in the past. She was hit by a sudden turbulent wave of emotions: anger, fear, guilt, sadness, hope, and confusion. It seemed as if the entire emotional spectrum had somehow managed to overwhelm her senses.

She had no doubt that Sebastian was somewhere nearby. In fact, she could faintly hear voices from downstairs. One of the voices sounded suspiciously like her brother.

Edward.

God, she couldn’t do this. Not yet.

Lizzy had to leave. And if she wanted to leave without getting caught, she’d have to do so quickly before Sebastian came upstairs to check on her. Silently mustering all the agility she could, Lizzy pulled off several of the bedsheets and began to work. Hands nimbly weaving the fabric together, each satisfying knot distracted her from further thought and emotion. All that existed in her tiny world was her and the bedsheets: twist, tie, secure. Twist, tie, secure.

“Okay,” she whispered quietly, her voice sounding hoarse and nearly inaudible in the bedroom. Lizzy, you can do this. She scooted over to the side of the bed, securing her makeshift rope around the bedpost. Gingerly, her feet stepped onto the bedroom floor. Ensuring that the wood would not creak, Lizzy made her way to the window and slid it open.

Throwing the rope out of the window, Lizzy hesitated for a split second and glanced back.

Ciel will be furious.

“Maybe next time,” she murmured, nimbly scaling down the wall nearly effortlessly.

And so she ran away.

She didn’t want to face either of them. Not now, at least.

Lizzy trudged through the streets of London with a purpose.

“Nina,” she greeted, exuding as much authority as she could. Lizzy tried to emulate the intimidating aura that Ciel and her mother often used whenever they meant serious business. “A pleasure to see you, again.”

The dressmaker, who had been in the middle of pinning a cloth to a mannequin, froze and promptly dropped her sewing needle. “Oh my, Lady Midford. Please...why don’t you take a seat?”

Within three hours, Lizzy was well-fed, properly dressed, and warmed to the core. At the moment, she sat on a fashionable Oriental chair in Nina’s backroom, sipping some tea and ignoring Nina’s pressing stares. To her relief, the dressmaker hadn’t questioned her sudden reappearance or state of unkemptness, instead fussing over her and remarking about how “cute girls like her needed to take better care of their complexion and clothes”.

Feeling as though the woman needed some semblance of repayment, Lizzy cleared her throat. “I’ve been avoiding Ciel.”

“Ah, I’m well aware,” Nina replied cheerily. “After all, he kept sending men to ask me if you ever came by. Not to mention the Sphere Music Hall nonsense.”

Lizzy flinched at the invocation of the place. Just thinking of the atrocities that...that occurred there made her want to vomit. Vomiting, as her mother once told her, definitely was not ladylike (much less the proper thing to do when being received by somebody in their own workspace).

“I see,” Lizzy said simply, taking another sip of tea. Carefully, she asked, “What did Ciel tell you about me?”

“If you mean to ask how much did he tell about me, young Lady Midford, you shan’t worry,” Nina assured her. “The young Lord Phantomhive doesn’t like discussing such matters with somebody like me, the little brat. But don’t worry, I won’t inform the young Lord of your presence. I can basically gather what’s going on, anyways.”

Trying not to flinch or show any signs of panic, Lizzy gave a somewhat noncommittal hum of acknowledgment. “And your conclusions?”

“A lover’s quarrel, of course!” Nina declared confidently, causing Lizzy to spit out some of the tea she was drinking.

“L-lovers’ quarrel?” She sputtered, blinking rapidly. “What even...why would you ever think such a thing?”

“The young Lord Phantomhive, as adorable as he might be, is not the most tactful of lovers, m’lady,” Nina sighed dramatically, and if it were any other situation, Lizzy might have burst into laughter and probably would’ve agreed. Instead, she bit her lip.

“If…” Lizzy started. “Just...suppose, Nina, that there is a woman who loves a man. She loves him with all her heart, but then she learns that he isn’t the man who she thought he was. What should she do? P-purely hypothetical, of course.” The last fragment was added as a nervous sidenote.

“Purely hypothetically, you say?” Nina pondered. “Well, whoever you love, you love. Love is a fickle thing, m’lady. It’s the man’s actions that matter, not his name nor words. What was that quote I liked again? From that play by William Shakespeare.”

“Hamlet?” Lizzy offered, recalling Edward’s near fanatic reverence of the play.

“No, no. The one with the lovesick teenagers.”

Lizzy blinked for a moment, searching through her memory for several seconds before finally remembering the title. “Ah, Romeo and Juliet.” Something about her expression seemed to darken, which Nina caught.

“Is it not to your taste, m’lady?” Nina questioned curiously. “I would’ve pinned you as the type to swoon at such romance.”

“The play ended as a tragedy,” Lizzy explained shortly, biting her lip. “I don’t like tragedy.”

Ah, the amount of irony that went into that statement was astounding. Sometimes Lizzy felt as if she were one of the characters in a tragedy of her own.

“There was a quote that I took a liking to in that play,” Nina hummed, procuring a plate of biscuits and offering one to Lizzy. She shook her head politely, content with her tea. “It was about roses.”

“Perhaps you are referring to the balcony scene?” Lizzy suggested. Juliet’s speech had resounded with her many years ago when Lizzy first viewed the play. She quoted quietly, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

“Ah, yes. That was what I was thinking of!” Nina confirmed, bobbing her head excitedly. “Even if we called a rose something else, it still retains the same qualities. I would think that the same applies to this lover of yours, Lady Midford.”

“Hypothetical situation, Nina,” Lizzy insisted, but the dressmaker looked unconvinced.

It was slightly interesting to see the dressmaker act so normal. Usually, the eccentric woman always portrayed herself as a rather exuberant and over excited fool, if she were to quote Ciel. Then again, considering the time period, Lizzy supposed there must have been a well-educated and rational side to the woman. Not anybody could own a dress-shop, not in this society where women were supposed to take care of the household and educate their children.

Mother had drilled it into Lizzy’s head since as long as she could remember: if you’re a woman and want to survive in this “man’s world”, you must be strong.

“Well, Lady Midford...if you need a place to stay for the moment, you may stay with me,” Nina said kindly, reaching over and petting Lizzy’s hands gently. “I don’t know exactly why you and Lord Phantomhive are fighting, but I understand that a girl has to have some space every once in awhile. You’ll be alright, dear.”

The amount of warmth leaking into the woman’s voice was almost enough to make Lizzy’s expression crumble completely. Instead, throat constricted and voice somewhat raspy, she mumbled, “...Lizzy.”

“Pardon me?”

“Please just call me Lizzy,” she said in a louder voice, offering the woman a small smile. “And...um, if you need any help with your shop, I’ve learned a bit of sewing here and there from my etiquette lessons.”

Nina returned her look with a grin of her own. “As you wish, Lizzy. Now, why don’t I show you one of my new designs I’ve been working on for a client? Actually, your figure is about the same as the girl I’m designing it for. Would you mind being my model?”

Over the next week, Lizzy learned the ins and outs of sewing and had reached the point where Nina would actually entrust some minor details to her. (She had spent the first few days practicing on scrap fabric and acting as a mannequin: Nina had high standards for her clothing, and Lizzy’s mediocre sewing skills were not enough to impress her.)

Now, Lizzy was sitting on a bed that Nina graciously granted her. Emerald eyes glancing out of the window and towards the dreary gray sky, Lizzy pondered. She thought and pondered and ruminated over the same thing over and over and over:

What should she do?

Ciel (the one with the eyepatch, the one who had gone through so many experiences with her) wasn’t really “Ciel Phantomhive”. And, on the flip side, her old Ciel wasn’t the same Ciel anymore, either. Not-Ciel (because she refused to call her former childhood playmate “Ciel” when all he did was smirk evilly and look remarkably like Uncle Vincent all day) was planning something, like always.

Not only that: he was associating with shady groups that Aunt Rachel would’ve been horrified to even hear about, much less speak to. She could understand not-Ciel’s anger: his name, title, fiance, future stolen by the person he trusted most.

Then again, he was dead. Or he had been dead. Not-Ciel hadn’t offered much of an explanation to her, but Lizzy knew that when Ciel had returned from whatever hellhole he found Sebastian, not-Ciel had been dead. When Ciel returned to her, he had looked tired. Lost, broken...as if he had lost his twin.

Not-Ciel had returned from the dead.

Was there any laws barring the dead from reclaiming their titles? Lizzy wasn’t even sure: legal matters never interested her in the past. Maybe that was something she should look into. On the other hand, were there any laws against Ciel remaining the heir to the Phantomhive family? It wasn’t as if reanimated corpses were something Queen Victoria worried about on a daily basis. (Then again, maybe she did worry about them: after all, she had heard the whispers about Ciel, the “Queen’s Watchdog”. She had no doubt that the Queen was informed of the Campania incident.)

And moving on to her next problem: rather than what should she do...what did she want?

Did she want not-Ciel to reclaim his title? Did she want Ciel to remain “Ciel Phantomhive”, even though that was a lie?

Who should she side with? Who would she side with?

Lizzy swallowed, feeling a lump rise in her throat. Not-Ciel had been her childhood playmate. He had been her first love, her best friend, the ray of sunshine that penetrated through her worries. Not-Ciel had loved her back, and had been unafraid to show it. Even now, he still cared about her.

She could tell: from the way his gaze would follow her across the room to the scent of strawberries in the room he arranged from her. (He had always done those kind of little actions. She noticed. Not-Ciel always kept her likes and dislikes in mind when doing anything. He was thoughtful like that.)

(He had been thoughtful towards Ciel, back in the day, too. Lizzy remembered Aunt Rachel talking about how not-Ciel would often stay inside for his sickly brother.)

(Lizzy once again kicked herself for not realizing sooner. Stupid Ciel, hiding his asthma like he was some cool protagonist of a novel.)

Ciel, on the other hand, was the kind of person to cause anxiety and worry. He was rough and callous with his words. He lied to her, pushed her away, and refused to listen to her.

But...she knew that somewhere deep inside, Ciel cared.

Ciel had been the person to accept her strong side. Ciel tried to protect her from harm, Ciel was the one who comforted her. Ciel had been the person who obliged to her selfish requests, from dancing to the Campania (the latter ending in disaster).

Did she love him?

Ciel had been the person who she wore her low-heeled shoes for. Ciel had been the person who she fought for. Ciel had been the person who she accepted all sides of, just like how he accepted every part of her.

But did she love him?

Even though she could describe Ciel with so many derogatory terms — callous, rude, tactless, and socially inept to name a few — he still was Ciel. Beneath his prickly exterior was Ciel: caring but shy, kind but awkward, weak yet strong. And even though he was such a dork whenever he tried to do anything remotely kind, Lizzy knew that he cared.

And sometimes, that was enough.

Not-Ciel had confided in her about his plans. Not everything — oh, no, not-Ciel would never tell his dainty cousin all of his plans — but enough for her to figure out her next plan of action.

Lizzy was going to put a stop to this act.

#elizabeth midford #lizzy midford #kuroshitsuji #tct #ciel phantomhive #cielizzy #his fiance: choosing #sebastian michaelis #chapter 3 #phantomhive #charles grey is bae im sorry

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