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Chapter Text

The human was little more than a child. Or at least, Sebastian has been told he was little more than a child. From the letters and single tiny picture, he knew he was about to be wed to a whelp with skinny limbs and wide eyes and milk teeth still lodged in his tiny skull. It was a disappointment after the years of negotiating the betrothal. He had at least been able to meet Vincent, the human he had been planning to marry. In their brief discussions during marriage negotiations, he'd found that Vincent was an intelligent and competent person, someone that Sebastian would not have felt utterly bored by.

But humans were such fragile things. Just a month ago, they had received word that Vincent had died in a fire. The humans had assumed that this would mean no marriage would take place, but demonic contracts were more thorough than they had expected. Vincent had one surviving child, ready and able to step into the position his father had negotiated. The wedding would go on as planned.

They were not about to let this marriage slip through their fingers. It was far too important.

The humans, those scurrying little beetles, were accessing magic from somewhere and Sebastian was to find out the source and report back to the Demon Realm. If there was evidence of a contract with the Fae Realm, as was feared, then action would have to be taken. Either the Demon Realm would make more contracts to bleed their own magic into the Human Realm, or they would simply have to stamp out the Fae Realm entirely. Simple enough. But if the humans were uncovering magic from another source then that was a whole thicket they would have to wade through. So Sebastian was sent to uncover as much as he could.

Relations between the Demon, Fae, Human, and Shinigami Realms were tenuous. Sebastian had been instructed to move carefully, and not draw attention to himself and his investigations. If the Fae Realm were to suspect that the Demon Realm were making moves, then they were sure to retaliate, and they were at risk of destroying each other. The urgency of this mission did not vanish just because his betrothed died.

He and an entourage from the Demon Realm had journeyed to his area of the Human Realm with their wedding gifts. He had had one brief morning to move a paltry amount of furniture into his new quarters and distribute the jewels and food gifts to various guests to ingratiate himself. Then he had had to prepare himself for the wedding and to meet his new husband.

Sebastian had dressed himself in a cloak of swirling shadows, decorated with the eyes of the lost that blinked out from the dark that swirled around him. His skin-hugging tunic and trousers had been sung together by the finest weavers in the Demon Realm. It was made of the softest whispers and clung to his skin, flickering and morphing to draw the eye to his form. His face had been picked out with makeup: a shimmer on his lips, dark ink around his eyes, paint on his cheeks. The end result, he was dangerous and alluring in equal measures. The kind of appearance that would let the humans know deep within their bones that next to him they were nothing. Let them fear what they had invited here. Let them be attracted to it despite that fear.

His new betrothed was writing for him in the large cathedral. In contrast to Sebastian's darkness that clung to his flesh, the human was draped in white lace. It covered his body so completely that Sebastian could only guess at his in-person appearance. A wave of skirts fell to the floor, sleeves came down over his knuckles, and a veil shrouded his face. The lace itself was well-made and intricate, but no hint of the human's physical features could be made out. He was simply a ghost of embroidered flowers.

All Sebastian could tell for certain was that the human was small. He barely came up to Sebastian's chest as they stood in the human's cathedral. The boy was tiny, even considering Sebastian's heels. He would probably be able to lift him with just one hand. When they held hands for the marriage ceremony, the human's lace-covered hand felt delicate and frail. Sebastian took the opportunity to run his thumb over the back of the human's palm. He mapped out the slender fingers and knuckles, then up to a thin wrist. Felt those fingers twitch at his touch.

A silver blade was placed in Sebastian's hand and he pricked his finger. The blood beaded dark and glossy. His husband's trembling hand took his and raised the finger to his mouth, hidden beneath the veil. Sebastian couldn't see anything but felt soft lips wrap around his fingertip. A warm tongue tasted his blood. His hand was dropped, and the human cut his own finger through the fabric of his outfit. A red stain spread over the lace, dying the roses red. Sebastian raised his husband's hand to his mouth, placing the bloody fingertip on his tongue. It tasted sweet.

The exchange of blood began to tie them together.

The rest of the wedding, his new husband did not raise his veil or make conversation. He clutched his hands to his chest and never made direct contact with Sebastian. They sat down to eat the wedding feast and the human barely moved to put anything in his mouth. 

Sebastian tried not to let his irritation show. His entourage had brought delicacies from the Demon Realm, and this brat wasn't going to even make a show of trying them.

Sebastian leaned over during the feast and whispered to his new husband. "You should eat something. We have a long night ahead of us."

He let the meaning hang heavy on his words, and it had the desired effect. He saw his husband's body tense under all the lace. Could hear the increase in his heartrate. Watched as his husband obediently reached out a lace-covered hand, taking a small forkful of food and raising it to his veiled mouth. Sebastian smiled as warmly as he could. The human was easy to manipulate with words, that was good. It would make things far easier.

The ceremony in the cathedral was only the first half of the wedding ceremony; the second half was to take place back at his new home. After the feast was over, the guests were permitted to dance and drink as much as they wanted. Meanwhile, Sebastian and his new husband were lead away from the music to a coach which carried them through the cobbled streets back to the estate. Sebastian took his husband's delicate hand in his as they walked through the quiet corridors to the bedroom. He closed the door behind them and locked them with a click.

Sebastian took a moment to take in the quarters he would be sharing with the human. It was nice enough. Humans were frail creatures, but they had skills when it came to making furniture and fabrics. He ran his fingers over the dark curtains, appreciating the soft texture. The carpet beneath his feet felt warm and inviting, and the bed was more than big enough for his needs.

He had hoped during his betrothal to Vincent that the wedding night would be somewhat entertaining. During negotiations, they had had some minor verbal sparring that had piqued Sebastian's interests. He had been nothing like this boy with his quiet and timid matter.

His eyes flicked to his new husband, still smothered by the layers of lace. He was standing by the bed, facing away from Sebastian with one of his hands resting on the sheets. Sebastian wondered what expression he was wearing. Fear? Excitement? He may as well find out.

He undid his own cloak and let it fall away, the shadows sinking into the dark corners of he room. Stepped across the room to lean over his new husband's shoulder.

"Let me help you with your clothes."

This was the same song and dance he has done hundreds of times before with other weak humans. He moved his fingers over the human's shoulders, down his arms to take his hands. Gently turned him round so they could face each other. Sebastian took his time, savouring the reveal as he lifted up his husband's veil.

It was not a disappointment. The single photograph had not done him justice, Sebastian thought as his fingers gently cupped the human's dainty chin and tilted his head back. He had eyelashes that curled elegantly up over his eyes. His hair was shiny and dark, soft to the touch when Sebastian fingered a lock of it. The boy's lips parted and Sebastian could see the rosy pink shimmer of his tongue. When Sebastian leant down, he could feel the human's breath catch slightly. His lips brushed over the human's, just a sample before he continued. He could taste the barest hint of sugar and cocoa. A quick, gentle kiss. Then away.

His husband was looking at the floor, clutching the front of his lace ensemble. A trembling, timid creature. Sebastian would be gentle, so as not to scare him. But he would have the human dancing for him soon enough.

"Get it over with," the human said in a quivering voice.

Sebastian smiled. "Is that any way to ask your husband to consummate the marriage, Ciel?"

The name felt new on his tongue. He liked it. Short and soft.

His husband, Ciel, looked up. Bit his lip. "S- Sebastian. Do it... quickly."

The human name, Sebastian, had been selected for the benefit of the human's tongue. He wondered if it tasted as inviting to Ciel as Ciel's name did to him.

Sebastian pushed Ciel down onto the bed. Let him position himself so he was resting on the pillows, his head turned to one side and his hands covering his face. So precious. Sebastian would get some enjoyment out of teasing the pleasure from him, at least. He forced himself to look on the brighter side and find the moments of delight in this lot he'd been forced into.

Lace spilled out across the sheets. Sebastian did not undress his husband all the way, there would be time for that later. This first night was just to seal the contract. They had exchanged blood, binding them together in their death. Now they would bind themselves together for their lives.

Ciel's feet were clad in soft white boots, pearl buttons going up over his ankles. White socks hemmed with lace stretched up his slender calves and stopped at his thighs. His legs fell open, revealing creamy pale skin and more white lace covering his cock. When Sebastian moved this last scrap of lace aside, Ciel's body tensed.

"Don't worry," Sebastian said, planting a soft kiss to Ciel's inner thigh. "I'll be gentle."

His new husband was surprisingly reticent with his reactions. Sebastian could feel his pulse increasing, and detect minute twitches and shivers running through him, but he refused to make any sort of moan or gasp. Sebastian trailed a line of kisses along Ciel's thigh, moving higher and higher. His mouth whispered over the human's cock, feeling it harden against his lips. He circled the head with his tongue. Sucked it softly. But though he heard the heart beat and felt the flow of blood that indicated he was doing his job, Ciel bit his tongue and did not make a sound.

It was rather annoying.

Sebastian wrapped his hands around Ciel's waist, lifting his hips up into the air. He licked the flat of his tongue over Ciel's entrance, then pushed into him. When he felt his husband was wet enough, he pressed a single finger inside and curled it gently the way he knew a human would like. Any other person would be whimpering and begging Sebastian to go harder, deeper, faster.

But Ciel bit his tongue and pressed his hands to his face to keep any sound of pleasure from escaping.

Urgh. Fine, he would do away with any pretense at pleasure and just get this over with. Sebastian moved to hover above Ciel, stroking his own cock and pressing the head against him. But before he could push in, one of Ciel's hands snaked down and pushed on his stomach to stop him.

"Don't..." Ciel trailed off. Beneath the hand covering half of his face, he was biting his lower lip. His fingers reached out. Nervously brushed over Sebastian's cock, flinched back, then tentatively took it in hand. He stroked it down, then up. Nervous, faltering. Sebastian gave a low sigh, more to indicate to him that he was doing well than out of any pleasure.

Ciel moved them so that Sebastian's cock was lying hot and heavy across Ciel's stomach. The human's cock was small and pale next to his, even if it was already hard from Sebastian's touches. Sebastian's hand easily wrapped around the two of them, stroking them together.

He leant down as he worked, pressing a kiss to Ciel's neck. He could feel the increase in heartbeat. Knew the pleasure is rising.

Sebastian's lip moved up his neck, over his jaw, to suck on Ciel's ear. He whispered, "Can I see my husband's face?"

"No..."

"There's no need to be shy on our wedding night."

"Not yet."

An odd thing to say. Sebastian chalked it up to nervousness. Perhaps the human would feel more comfortable the more he got used to this marriage. He'd only had a month to prepare for this night, after all.

Sebastian moved his hips, grinding against Ciel. He felt Ciel's arms wrap around his shoulder and pull him closer. His face buried into Sebastian's shoulder, hiding from him but pulling closer to the pleasure. Sebastian pressed kisses to every part of Ciel he could reach. Calming him. Encouraging him.

"Sebastian..."

The first sound of pleasure that Ciel had made. A murmur against Sebastian's shoulder, as his body shuddered from pleasure. Sebastian let himself go too, whispering his husband's name as his hand moved. Stroking their cocks together. Finding the little enjoyment he could from this.

"Ah! S- Sebastian! I..." Ciel's body twitched. His hips thrust up into Sebastian's hand.

Sebastian kissed the curve of his neck. "Does it feel good, Ciel?"

"Y- yes! I... Ah!" He clutched Sebastian tighter as he let out a final small cry as his orgasm shuddered through him. Sebastian felt Ciel's hot cum on his fingers.

With that, he closed his eyes and stroked himself to his own weak orgasm. He let out a small sigh to indicate to Ciel that he was finished. Cum mixed in his fingers. Dripped onto Ciel's stomach.

Sebastian paused for a moment, pressing his nose to the human's hair. He smelled soft and sweet. That sex hadn't been unpleasant , just uninteresting. Sebastian decided as he lay there that he probably wouldn't initiate sex again. He would leave it to his husband to decide when he had needs. If that turned out to be never again, then it was fine with him. As it was, their union had now been bound and they were tied together. His duty towards this human was done.

But when he pushed himself up onto his elbows, he saw something that had him pausing. Ciel's hand had dropped away from his face and was now on Sebastian's wrist. His face was on full display. Sebastian would have expected to find a human who was flushed and glowing from intercourse, maybe a small smile or a sprinkling of tears depending on how they were feeling inside their own head.

What he did not expect was for the human's face to be icy and twisted into a snarl. When Sebastian met his eyes, Ciel's eyes flashed. His hands dug into Sebastian's wrist and pulled him closer, mashing his hand into the combined semen on Ciel's stomach.

"Foul demon," Ciel muttered.

"What-"

But Sebastian couldn't get anything else out. There was a piercing feeling as if his palm had been stabbed and his words turned to a cry. He tried to pull back, but something was holding him firmly in place. It felt as if something was sinking into his flesh, worming through his veins, spreading across his entire body. A thick agony. He felt it inching up his arm to spread across his chest and to his face. There was a slicing sensation at his neck and he couldn't breathe. His one free hand went to his throat, and he found a heavy collar materialise around his neck. When he grabbed it to pull it off, it burned his hand.

Sebastian scrabbled on the sheets, his eyes wide and his mouth open gasping for air. He was dying! He was burning from the inside out! He couldn't breathe!

The entire time he flailed and struggled, his husband kept Sebastian's hand pressed to the semen lying on his stomach. His face was icy cold. Sebastian stared at him. Terror gripped his heart. This was not the fumbling, nervous child he had thought. This boy... Was he truly a boy? How was he able to sit there and calmly regard Sebastian as he died on their marriage bed?

With a curl of his lip, Ciel let Sebastian go and kicked him off the bed. Sebastian slumped onto the carpet and finally felt the collar loosen. He gasped for air and coughed. A tug on his neck had him jerking up onto his knees with a wheeze.

Ciel had pulled himself up into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, his lace rearranged to cover himself again. There was a heavy chain in his hands that pulsed with silvery light. The heavy links connected to the collar still burning on Sebastian's neck. When he tugged on it, Sebastian found his breath getting caught again and he slumped forward in pain. Ciel's foot kicked on his shoulder, forcing him back.

How was this possible? How could a human, so small and frail with the scent of blood and flesh and all the human emotions clinging to him, command such power? He knew that the Human Realm had access to magic, but he had no idea it was enough to bind him like this.

"This is a much better position for you." There was a touch of amusement in Ciel's voice. He kept his foot on Sebastian's shoulder, holding him in place as he surveyed him. Sebastian saw with a start that there was a glow of magic deep within Ciel's eye. No wonder he had refused to let Sebastian see his face close up.

When Ciel had finished his observation of Sebastian, he leaned back a little and began to talk in a business-like tone. "Now listen to me. You signed that marriage contract and gifted me your body, so now you are mine."

"Yes, I am aware how marriage works."

"Quiet." Ciel tugged on the chain and Sebastian gagged. "On paper, we may be married. But don't ever think you have the privilege of being my equal. Foul creature. You are my dog , nothing more."

Sebastian opened his mouth to say something, to make a snippy remark about the frailty of humans and how this creature should be lucky to be his spouse, but the collar at his neck tightened and he slumped back with a gasp. His teeth were clenched in frustration. His hands balled into tight fists at the humiliation.

But at the same time, he felt a leap in his chest.

Ciel ground the heel of his boot harder into Sebastian's shoulder and gave a small snort of contempt. "I suppose you thought you would use this marriage to advance some political position for your people. Let me tell you how it's actually going to work, demon. I have taken the blood and semen that you gave willingly, and it binds you to me. Your life is my life, your death is my death. And vice versa." His mouth curled up into a smile. "If I die or come to harm, you will feel that harm on your own body."

"What?" Of course! That was such an ancient magic: taking a part of someone's body that had been given willingly and binding them with magic. Sebastian had walked into this creature's trap. He felt ashamed. But all the same... intrigued.

Ciel kept talking, not even acknowledging Sebastian's outburst. "Your body is mine. Your tongue is mine. All of you is mine to use as I see fit. You will obey me when I give you a command, and you will never lie to me. I am your master until I choose to sever this bond. Do you understand? Answer me."

The boot was moved from Sebastian's shoulder to his chin, forcing his face up to look Ciel in the eye. The lamps glowed as Sebastian took in his husband. Small, frail, with one eye glowing bright with magic. His delicate hands wrapped in the chain linked to Sebastian's neck. He could almost feel the heat from those fingers travelling down the links, could imagine them wrapped around his neck. He gazed at his human's lips, the ones he had kissed gently and were now calling him filth.

His mouth was dry as he acknowledged the human's power. "Yes, my Lord."

Ciel nodded. His eyes flicked over him again, narrowing when they landed on Sebastian's crotch. He slid off the bed to stand over him, lifting up a heel to press onto Sebastian's cock. Fuck, he hadn't realised he'd gotten hard again. The pressure of Ciel's boot had him gasping and his hips bucking upwards into the touch.

"Disgusting," Ciel said. His heel ground against him, filling Sebastian with a mixture of pleasure and pain. The collar at his neck burned and choked him again. Sebastian's eyes closed and he fought the urge to lean forward into this unexpected situation, to allow the tiny tiny human to spit on him and insult him and make him cum with just his dainty shoe. But Ciel kicked him away with a disgusted sniff.

"You are truly depraved. Get out of my sight."

The collar and chain vanished. Sebastian got to his feet and left the room with as much dignity as he could manage. As the door closed, Ciel yelled after him to get rid of that hideous outfit as well. The door closed without Sebastian throwing back a retort.

Sebastian leant against the closed door with his hand going to his throat. He could still feel the thrum of power. Could still see his new husband's cold eyes staring down at him. He swallowed. His other hand drifted down the front of his body to his cock, now aching and begging to be touched. He fisted it and bit back a groan as he moved his hand slowly up and down his length.

Those eyes... They were so cold. So hateful . When they looked at Sebastian, he had felt himself being stripped bare and his flesh being torn away until he was just bones to be crushed to dust. And deep in them, he had sensed something. Something dark and fetid that was eating his husband from the inside. It looked delicious.

"Fuck..." He bit back a swear as he fisted his cock, remembering the image of his husband stepping on him. He imagined him pushing Sebastian down, whispering insults into his ear, choking him and whipping him and any other number of things. His mind was heady with this new development. His husband. The frail human with delicate fingers and the pretty face. The human who had deceived him. Collared him. Made him kneel. He swore under his breath again as his hips bucked forward and he orgasmed into his hand.

With a sigh, Sebastian slumped back against the wall. He looked down at his hand, glistening with cum. He hadn't come that hard in a while, and it was just from the imagined idea of what might have happened to him. He raised his hand to his mouth and licked his palm clean.

Well. Maybe he was going to enjoy this arrangement after all.

Chapter Text

The Bone Tower was a permanent sentry watching over the three Realms. It skewered the earth and stretched up into the air, disappearing into the clouds so not even Sebastian could see the end of it. Defying any kind of geometry, it pierced the centre of the Demon, Human, and Fae realms equally. No doors. No windows. Just a complex lattice of ribs and femurs and skulls with no beginning or end. No matter where you were, it loomed at your back. A reminder that no matter who you were - Devil, Human, Fae - death would claim you in the end.

The story went that the Bone Tower had been constructed when the demons and fae had been introduced to the concept of death. Before that, they had lived however they'd pleased and fought countless bloody wars that ripped up the Three Realms and left human bodies scattered behind them. But the first shinigami had taken the remnants of those humans and spun them into threads that had been wrapped around the souls of the immortal demons and fae. Now they were tainted with the mortality of humans. They would age, they would bleed, they would sicken. Until their physical bodies crumbled away to leave behind their chalky white bones, ready to be collected and added to the Bone Tower.

Or at least, that was the story. Perhaps it was true for other realms, but Sebastian at least knew the extent of it's veracity for demons.

Sebastian stood in his new home, the door to his husband's chambers closed behind him and the Bone Tower looming outside the window. The high of his orgasm had vanished and he was now in a more analytical mood. This was the first time he'd left the Demon Realm, and the Bone Tower was as prominent here as it was there. Sticking up from the mess of roofs and chimneys and turning cogs, the same way it stuck up from the shadows and spider webs of his home.

He scratched at the back of his palm. There was a design there, etched into his skin, caused by Ciel and his little contract. A design of a pentagram inside a larger cog. The same design that Ciel had in his eye. He turned his hand back and forth, examining it from all sides.

"You've already failed."

The cold voice whispered in Sebastian's ear and he froze. That distinctive sneer always had Sebastian flinching, though he tried to hide it. Even now, he knew that there was nobody here, but he still had to take steadying breaths to keep from cringing away from an imagined enemy.

"I haven't failed," he said quietly. "This is a temporary setback, I can still-"

"You walked into a human's trap. You were foolish and underestimated him, you let yourself get carried away by your own pleasure, and now you're branded as his pet. You were given one job, a simple job, to ensnare a single human. You couldn't even do that right."

"Be quiet..."

"You have always been weak, Sebastian. Weak and foolish and easily swayed. Your only use was the way you could manipulate humans, and this boy has bested you. What is even the point of you? Why would we ever welcome you home after this?"

There were golden eyes glaring at him from the reflection of the window. Sebastian grit his teeth, straightened up. He kept a quiver out of his voice. "I have not yet failed. I will find the source of the human's magic, I will make this human tell me his secrets. I..." He swallowed. "I will come home victorious."

The golden eyes flashed. "See that you do, brother."

And they vanished. And Sebastian was alone.

With a sigh, he turned away from the window. If he had time to stand here and think about the past, he had time to do his job. With that determination, Sebastian started to look through his husband's home for any clues as to the source of the magic humans had discovered. Surely, if Ciel had so much of that magic inside him then there would be some information to be found and report back.

The top floor was quiet and dark when Sebastian stepped out onto it. There was nothing here but a scattering of bedrooms filled with furniture that had been covered in sheets. Nothing but the cold smell of dust. Sebastian pulled off the sheets and found nothing of particular interest. Beds, empty wardrobes, empty bookshelves.

Tucked in a back corner behind a locked door was a room filled with children's toys, again covered in sheets to keep the dust off. A rocking horse with an open mouth as if screaming; stuffed animals with limp heads lolling to the side; toys soldiers in a row with rusty weapons raised to fight off an invisible enemy; a bookshelf full of children's illustrated books full of stories of wicked parents and beautiful princesses. Dull painted eyes followed Sebastian as he searched the room. The only thing of note he found was a toy lying on the floor behind one of the bookshelves. A ball-jointed doll with a porcelain face, a young sailor dressed in a neat uniform patterned with suns and moons. It had a large fracture running across the pretty face. Judging by the mark on the wall, Sebastian guessed it had been hurled across the room and left abandoned here. He dropped the doll back to the floor and pushed the shelf back over it, before leaving to explore the rest of the house.

On the floor below his husband's rooms, Sebastian found an office filled with letters and books and economic reports. He found documents that indicated that on his father's death, Ciel had become head of a series of businesses across the Human Realm. Next to the office Sebastian found a drawing room. It had been equipped with a billiards table and soft sofas and more bookshelves. As he searched the room, Sebastian's mind placed Ciel in one of the leather sofas, his legs crossed, a billiard cue held in his hand. It would be interesting to see how his husband would interact with the humans he had to do business with.

No. He had to focus on his job, there was no time to get lost in his own imagination.

A floor lower, there was a large sitting room and a dining room. The dining room looked out onto an enclosed garden filled with flowers and a bubbling fountain. As Sebastian walked through, the wind from his cloak had the chandelier overhead clinking quietly. The sitting room was situated at the front of the house. Large bay windows let Sebastian peer outside at the front steps leading down to the cobbled street. No secret doors, no hidden rooms, no hint of magic or anything more than basic human furniture. But there was something of interest that had Sebastian pausing.

Hanging above the fireplace was a large painting. A portrait of Vincent, sitting on a chair with two boys who were identical. The same large eyes, small frames, pale almost translucent skin. They stood on either side of their father, looking out at Sebastian with identical sombre expressions. Sebastian reached out and ran a finger over the face of one of the boys. His eyes flicked to read the plaque at the bottom: Vincent Phantomhive and sons .

So his husband had lost more than just his father in that fire.

"Brother, please..."

Sebastian closed his eyes against the memories. Forced himself not to think of his husband, small and soft and powerful, and a brother that had perished in the flames. Did human siblings love each other? Did they struggle for power and fill each other's blood with agony? Did they steal from each other, break each other apart, torment each other's dreams?

"You are my dog..."

No time for this. He had to keep searching.

Finally, on the lowest floor that was half sunk into the ground, were the servants’ quarters. He drifted through the shadows to observe them, looking for anything that may indicate a source of magic. He found an aged butler who slept with his hand braced at his side ready to leap to work if needed. A maid who snored loudly and had thick glasses sitting by her bed. And the final room was what had him stopping dead.

The stench of fae.

There were two servants asleep in this room: the cook and the gardener. The room was filled with the smell of human, dirt, spices from the kitchen, stale tobacco, and fae . Sebastian couldn't find the source of it, it was all enclosed in that tiny room and muddled together so he couldn't work out its source. If there was a fae here then that was an indication that his magical husband had bargained with the Fae Realm for his magical abilities. How like a human to be so arrogant as to wave his fae bargain in front of his trapped demon. Sebastian considered with a smile the possibility of snuffing out the life of this mysterious fae, and waking his husband up with the body dumped onto his bed.

But neither of the humans here looked to be fae, and he couldn't find evidence of any fae artefacts or secret books of magic. He spent a long time in the shadowy corners of that room, searching for an explanation. Tried to pry up the floorboards, or find something hidden in the sheets or the wardrobes. But he found nothing.

All that searching, and he was as lost as ever.

In frustration, Sebastian left the sleeping servants to head out to the garden.

The world was dim, but there were streetlamps over the wall casting the garden in an orange glow. Sebastian stood by the fountain and looked up at the house. Light brown brick, dark tile, a row of chimneys. Dark windows closed against him. Behind it all, the Bone Tower.

Well, if his search inside the house had only turned up dead ends then he could search outside. Sebastian bent his knees, summoning his own magic. Then he pushed up into the air. The wind whipped around him, his cloak of shadows billowing like bat wings as he flew higher and higher. Past the rows of brick and windows, over the hedges and the fountain and the stone paving, up above the tiles and the chimneys to the sky.

Only for his leash to snap tight and tug him right back down to earth.

"What-?"

Sebastian had enough time for one word before he crashed into a rose bush in an undignified heap. The collar on his neck was burning and heavy again. Like it was laughing at him. With an irritated grunt, Sebastian started to experiment with the leash. He soon discovered that he had a limited range of motion. He could go as far as the garden walls, and as high as the top of the tallest chimney, but no further. Ciel had placed a box around the house and locked Sebastian inside it. So he was in a foul mood when he settled on the roof and looked out over the Human Realm.

"They're filthy creatures, those humans." The familiar voice drifted back to him. Cold and sneering, making his skin prickle. Sebastian closed his eyes and tried to block out the memory, but it couldn't be stopped. "Pathetic and weak. So you should fit right in."

"Brother," Sebastian had said. "Please, forgive me."

"No." Pain had lanced through Sebastian, bitter and cold. When it passed, he had been left on the floor shivering. The golden eyes had flicked over him like he was nothing. "You have your instructions. If you please me, then maybe I will reconsider everything."

The memory faded. Sebastian looked out over his prison.

It was incredibly noisy here. Sebastian was used to the Demon Realm, which had shadows so dark that sound couldn't penetrate them. But here, there was the constant background hum of the human's machines. Humans had always prided themselves on their ability to invent and innovate, even if the things they made were often disgusting and filthy. Sebastian had heard stories about the factories they had here, where large pieces of metal were moved through the air, propelled by burning rocks and boiled water, with large chimneys vomiting dark smoke into the air. The streets were lined with lamps that glowed orange, sputtering and fizzing as they spat out light. High overhead, lines of tracks criss-crossed so that trains could carry bodies and materials to every corner of the Realm. Far below, the world vibrated with cogs and pistons.

Sebastian tasted rot on the air. Rot and filth and noise and metal.

He lay down on the tile, staring up at the train tracks and clouds, considering his next steps. And as he lay there, something he had never seen before unfolded.

Unlike the Demon Realm that was constantly in shadows, and the Fae Realm that was eternally bathed in light, the Human Realm had periods of lightness and darkness. Yesterday, Sebastian had been inside at the wedding feast when the Realm changed from light to dark, but that morning he watched the sky change.

Somewhere out in the mess of buildings and cogs, there was the sound of a bell tolling. This was followed by a large creaking, and a hiss as the streetlamps below were extinguished. But the world was only dark for a fraction of a second before the clouds overhead began to lighten. The sky lightened to a pearly grey and the world lit up. The smog from the human's factories were too thick to see the source of the light itself. Perhaps it was the clouds themselves that glowed.

It was an interesting trick. He wondered if it was another machine the humans had made. Perhaps somewhere up above the clouds there was a giant furnace that melted down metal to make more machines, and the light spilled over to the world below.

There was movement beneath him. Sebastian looked down, and immediately stiffened.

Fae .

He shrunk back into the shadows, wrapping his cloak of woven shadows around him to further conceal himself. It was the gardener. Out here in the open, it became clear that he was the source of that fae stench. But mixed with it was the unmistakeably flavour of human. Sebastian narrowed his eyes as he observed the boy move around the garden paths.

Fae were peculiar creatures, they weren't like demons who liked to blend in. Fae were about the attention, and made themselves distinctive in their appearance. They had long limbs, large eyes, skin that always shimmered and flashed different colours, and wings of light that drifted behind them like gossamer. But this creature below him was none of those things. He was just a human boy, maybe a little taller than his husband. There were freckles on his arms beneath his rolled-up sleeves, an upturned nose that was red from the morning cold, ears that stuck out a little more than was pretty. His hair though, it glittered like spun gold, glinting like metal but soft in the breeze. When he turned, his eyes glimmered a rainbow before settling on green.

Human, but with more than a little fae in him.

Maybe he was also collared and bound to Ciel, forced to work as a servant. Sebastian remembered the way Ciel had sneered at him like he was filth. Pictured the human stripping him of his power, forcing him to become a lowly servant in the basement of his house, where all he could do was look up at the small human who towered over him. Had he already done that to this fae? Collared him, brought him to heel, and broken him? Sucked his magic and left him this half-fae monstrosity? It seemed unlikely. But he'd thought that any human collaring a demon was unlikely. His husband might have a whole lot of secrets in this house.

Before he could observe the strange human-fae creature more, there was a distinct tug on Sebastian's collar. A clear voice in his head said, "Sebastian. Come."

Ah. His husband was summoning him like a dog. Sebastian tried to resist, sitting stubbornly on the roof. But the collar solidified again and tightened around his neck, choking him tighter and tighter until it felt like his neck would snap. He had no choice but to wrap himself in his cloak and slip away into the shadows.

Ciel was awake but had not gotten out of bed. A servant had woken him and brought him a cup of tea. Ciel was not drinking it. He was sitting up, holding the saucer in both his hands, surrounded by the bed covers and his own lace nightshirt that cascaded around his frail body. His dark hair fell over his round face as he looked down into his cup.

Sebastian stood a moment in the shadows watching him. He told himself this observation was important, that he was learning how his husband worked when he thought he was alone so that he could be manipulated easier. He wasn't weak. Wasn't distracted by his own lust. Wasn't remembering the way Ciel's skin had tasted, and the soft give of his flesh beneath Sebastian's hands.

Sebastian stayed as still as he could in the shadows. It was interesting to see the minute ways humans moved. His husband's chest rose and fell with steady breaths. His finger tapped an occasional beat on the saucer. He blinked those dark eyelashes over his wide eyes, his eyes flicking away from the cup for a moment and then back. His mouth opened and his white teeth dug into his lower lip. Then back.

As he stood there, Sebastian was struck suddenly by the image of a cat: those beautiful soft creatures that could pass easily between realms, but which had sharp claws ready to unsheathe at a moment's notice.

The image of a gentle kitten had him smiling.

The thought of his husband scratching him had heat pooling in his stomach.

The memory of his job had the heat chilling.

As Sebastian aligned his thoughts, Ciel was coming more awake. His nightshirt had fallen down a little exposing his collarbone, but he didn't move to cover himself. He took a sip of his drink and said sharply, "Sebastian. Come ."

The collar tugged again, forcing Sebastian out of the shadows. His appearance had Ciel turning and his face settling into a frown. The way he looked, his hair untidy and his nightshirt spilling off of him, lit up with a morning glow from the window, he looked rather lovely. A kitten who would claw at you if handled wrongly. Sebastian wondered how far his boundaries were.

Sebastian swooped into a bow with a flourish of his hands. "You called for me, my husband?"

Ciel's eye twitched. The likeness to a kitten went up a few notches. "Stop that. And if I call you, you come straight to me. Don't stand in the shadows."

"Of course, my dearest husband. I shall be forever at your side."

"I said stop it."

His eye flashed and the collar at Sebastian's neck burned. He gasped, gripping his throat. It was only a moment before the pain vanished. A quick scratch.

Ciel looked at him coldly. "Don't mock me."

Sebastian didn't answer him. Just rubbed at the flesh of his neck and waited for his next order.

"Hm." Ciel's eyes flicked over him. "I told you yesterday to change that. You're a human's husband, you should dress like it."

"And how does a human's husband dress?"

He pointed and Sebastian followed his finger to the large dressing room across the floor. "My father had already organised for clothes to be made for you. Get changed, and then come back here to attend to me. We're running late for breakfast."

The clothes that humans wore were pretty enough to look at, but so bulky and uncomfortable. Humans were obsessed with covering their entire bodies, pretending that they didn't have any skin beneath the layers of pressed fabric. You had to peel away the bonnet, the gloves, the buttons, the lace, the dress, the crinoline, the petticoat, the corset, the chemise... So many layers before you could press your tongue to the hot, warm flesh.

When Sebastian had dressed himself in as tolerable an outfit as he could - a simple shirt, jacket, and trousers - Ciel ordered him to help him dress as well. He sat expectantly at the side of the bed, not moving a muscle and expecting Sebastian to attend to him. Sebastian drifted across the room with a smile, reaching out a hand to run his finger down his husband's soft cheek. At least he could enjoy this.

But Ciel's eye flashed, making Sebastian step backwards as if he'd been burned.

"Don't touch me," the human said coldly.

He obeyed. His gloved hands never came close to Ciel's bare skin, no matter how tempting it was.

But he just took the opportunity to look. Ciel stood up and let the nightshirt drop off of his body to fall on the floor. His body was thin and frail, bleached white from lack of sunlight. His neck a delicate curve up to a round face. His chest had visible ribs pressing out against his skin when he reached his arms up for his shirt. His nipples were a pale pink. His belly was soft, one of the few parts of him that was. His hips were uneven, he couldn't stand up on one leg for his trousers without placing a steadying hand on the bed. His cock was small and just as delicious looking as it had been the previous night. His legs were elegant and straight.

Such a shame that all of it had to be covered in fabric. Shirt, waistcoat, shorts, socks, jacket, tie, eyepatch. Every beautiful piece of his husband had to be hidden from the world.

Sebastian would never understand that. It was fashionable in the Demon Realm, if a demon had a human mate, for them to allow other demons a look. Human mates were decorated in jewels and dusky whispers of shadow, so all could see the pretty outlines of them. If a demon was particularly proud of their mate, they'd let other demons sample them. Sebastian had pressed his own lips to countless humans, ran his fingers over their sides and up their inner thighs, heard the way their breath hitched and felt the heat of their pumping blood. But before he could taste them any deeper, the demon would pull their human away.

If you owned something beautiful, it was only natural to want to show it off. Knowing you had something that other demons craved made it that much more delicious.

If his husband wasn't on display, how could anyone know what a fascinating creature he was? How could they understand why Sebastian was desperate for another taste?

"Don't make that face at me, brother. I know what's best. You're starting to get addicted."

"I'm perfectly in control."

"Show me your restraint. Keep your hands by your side, and let my mate play."

He grit his teeth at the memory of warm human skin and the smell of sweat. A long-forgotten laugh. Those golden eyes taunting him. All of that was the past. Sebastian focussed on the present and his husband.

As he was dressed, Ciel gave Sebastian instructions for breakfast. They had guests for breakfast, people who were here specifically to ensure the marriage had been consummated and the contract sealed. During the breakfast, Sebastian was not to leave his husband's side, he was to be well-mannered at all times, he was not to speak unless spoken to, and he would not say a word about what had happened on their wedding night. Each instruction bound his tongue tighter and tighter.

"Maybe you would prefer it if I just sat underneath the table and you used me as a footstool?"

That earned him another spark of pain from his collar. Ciel kicked him away and told him to keep his tongue behind his teeth, before they walked down to the dining room together.

"Am I allowed to at least know the names of our guests I'm not to talk to?"

If Sebastian didn't know better, he would've sworn Ciel's mouth twitched into a smile. "You met them yesterday. There's Soma..."

Ah yes, Sebastian remembered him. He had been wearing some heavily embroidered garments the previous night, it had drawn Sebastian's eye. But he himself had looked at Sebastian with a mixture of trepidation and hatred. He'd introduced himself as Ciel's older brother in all but blood and said if Ciel got hurt than Soma would make him pay.

"And there's Diedrich..."

This one Sebastian was more familiar with. He was a stout man with permanent scowl on his face and a moustache that looked like a slug had died on his upper lip. He had tried to renegotiate the marriage contract after the fire, and the name Diedrich Weizsacker had appeared numerous times in the correspondences Sebastian had found in the study. Apparently Vincent had said that if something were to happen to him then Diedrich was to look after his children. Diedrich had tried to argue that had meant that he was to take over any outstanding contract. He had spent the entire wedding glaring at Sebastian and Ciel from the other side of the room.

"And my aunt, Madam Red."

Sebastian remembered a woman with dark red lipstick and an elegant dress that covered her from collar to wrist. She had been terse with Sebastian at the wedding. Given him only a few brief words, before doting on Ciel and telling him he was to come to her if he needed anything. She had then proceeded to get lost in the wedding crowd, talking with people and drinking to excess. Rather uninteresting.

Well, except for one thing that Sebastian planned to keep an eye on at breakfast.

"Ciel!" Soma yelled as soon as they entered the dining room, jumping up from is chair and running over to pull Ciel into a hug. "I've been so worried! Are you okay?"

"Get off me!"

The image of a kitten was back in full as Ciel scrabbled to get out of Soma's embrace. Soma was apparently too strong however, and gave Sebastian a frown over the top of Ciel's head.

"If I find out you hurt him, I won't forgive you." Soma couldn't keep the nervous quiver out of his voice, but it was an admirable effort nonetheless.

Sebastian gave a pleasant smile, his hands behind his back. "I assure you that I have been nothing but gentle."

That small comment had both Soma and Ciel glaring at him.

"You're not allowed to touch him any more," Soma said, sweeping Ciel away to the table.

"Soma, be quiet," Ciel muttered. He tried to pull out a chair, but Sebastian was there first and pulled it out for him with a nod. Ciel faltered, but sat down and allowed Sebastian to push his chair in to the table.

As Sebastian took his seat at his right, he gave a small smile at Soma. Allowed his teeth to flash briefly behind his lips. "I was merely fulfilling the terms to seal our contract, there is no need to be irate. But if my husband asks me to touch him again, I will be more than happy to do whatever he wishes."

There was a harsh spike of pain from his invisible collar that had Sebastian shutting his mouth, but he was happy to let those words hang in the air.

"I still don't see why the demons had to insist on a same-day binding of the contract," Diedrich muttered. He was pointedly refusing to look at Sebastian, his arms folded over his stomach. "Instead of waiting for the boy to come of age."

"Demons have a skewed way of seeing things, darling," Madam Red said. The way she pronounced the word demon was filled with scorn and she barely glanced at Sebastian over the rim of her teacup. "Well, at least he's relatively handsome for a demon. Much better when he's not wearing those hideous clothes from yesterday."

"He's agreed that it will be better to dress as befitting a human's husband," Ciel assured her.

"Mm. So he says." She reached over and rested a hand in Ciel's hair, her expression turning more tender as she looked at him. "Ciel my darling, if he starts being a handful you tell me and I'll help you. You know how difficult these creatures can be."

"I appreciate the offer, Madam, but we'll be fine."

Soma sighed and pointed a fork at him. "You don't need to be so independent, Ciel. You can rely on us, not to mention those um... friends of yours. Where are they, anyway? They weren't at the ceremony, I'd assumed they'd be here."

Sebastian noticed the minor shift in Ciel's body at the mention of these friends. Just the barest of tensing of his body and the flicker of his eye towards Sebastian and back. Almost imperceptible. When Ciel spoke, his voice was as collected as it had been before this brief twitch.

"They're busy," he said. "But I'm meeting with them in a few days time."

"And will he be going?" Diedrich's eyes narrowed at Sebastian, who gave him a pleasant smile in return.

"Where I go, he will go," Ciel said. "My husband's duty is to be by my side."

Where I can keep an eye on him.

The implied sentence hung heavy in the air. Sebastian struggled to keep his face as pleasant as possible, biting back every comment he wanted to make.

The conversation turned onto more mundane subjects, Sebastian cut out even further. He sat on the outside of a chilly wall made of glares, listening to discussions about people he didn't know. Humans whose tiny fleeting lives were of such interest to the humans. And he found himself somewhat enjoying the stories. Somebody who was having a child, somebody else who had worn an outdated fashion to a party, and yet somebody else who was in talks to make a risky deal with some various businesses.

The food itself was bland. Eggs and kippers and bread, with some tea that was warm but flavourless. Sebastian picked at it, wishing for something a little more palateable. He knew that human tongues were different from his own. They were satisfied with weaker flavours. But he needed more. The taste of blood on his tongue, fresh from a mewling animal. The spice of earth from a freshly dug grave. Anything other than this pitiful fare.

So he picked at it, and let his eyes flick to Ciel's aunt again: the guest who intrigued him.

There were three things about her that piqued Sebastian's interest. The first, was that she had a telltale scent of demon on her. Nothing as powerful as the scent of fae that clung to the gardener, but there was a brief whisper to the edge of her that let him know there was a connection to his home. The second was the crest she wore on her lapel: a scythe set atop a skull. This woman was involved with the Shinigami and the Bone Tower.

The third was the most compelling. Both yesterday and that morning she had been referred to by people as only Madam Red. Even Ciel, her nephew, never referred to her by a given name. Merely as Aunt or Madam.

To Sebastian, that meant only one thing: she had lost her name.

Whether she had had her name stolen, or she had bargained it away in exchange for a favour, Sebastian didn't know. But the lack of name combined with those connections to both demons and shinigami was enough to have his mind turning with possibilities.

The presence of demonic and fae energy in the household suggested that there was some involvement with multiple realms. Perhaps his comparison to a cat had not been far off, and humans had discovered a way to pass between realms themselves. Or perhaps Madam Red had bargained her name away in exchange for knowledge that would help with humans developing their own magic. But who had she sold her name to? So many questions turning in his mind, it was almost enough to make up for the pitiful breakfast.

As the breakfast was done, Ciel had Sebastian stand by his side as they said farewell to their guests. Sebastian watched them traipse down the stairs into the foggy, rot-scented world outside the house. The last to leave was Diedrich who gave Sebastian a long analytical look. He then turned to Ciel, his face stern.

"My offer still stands," he said.

Sebastian looked at him and then at Ciel. What offer? He hadn't come across any potential new dealings when reading through the letters in the study.

But Ciel seemed to understand perfectly and shook his head. "You all worry about me too much. I am quite capable of looking after myself."

"I know you are. But I was asked to always look after you, and this..." He cast around for a word. "This arrangement is not something any of us could have expected for you. Just keep my offer in mind."

"Your offer to get out of the contract has already been tried, Diedrich."

Sebastian's eyes widened. These humans actually thought they would be able to ge tout of a binding demonic contract? He was a fool for even considering it. The terms were not breakable. They could be bent, they could be adapted, they could be looked at sideways, but never outright broken. It was why the negotiations had taken so long, Vincent had been thorough and understood exactly what the limitations were.

Ciel, at least, understood this. He shook his head at Diedrich and waved his hand. "My father has already taken care with the marriage contract. He was the one who was intending to enter into it after all. I am sure he wouldn't have left any loopholes that could be exploited against himself."

"Your father was... a singular individual. He also had years of experience that you do not have-"

"I have my own experiences," Ciel said cutting him off. He offered Diedrich a sweet smile. Moved his hand over to take hold of Sebastian's. At his touch, the contract seared onto his hand burned and Sebastian took efforts to keep his expression relaxed and easy. "And he taught me everything he knew, Diedrich. I have been fine running his estate until now."

There was a moment where Diedrich looked like he might argue, but seemed to realise he was not going to win this battle. He took his hat from the waiting servant and bid Ciel good morning, not giving Sebastian a glance.

As the door closed, Ciel called after him. "There's no need to worry about me, Diedrich. I am my father's son."

Chapter Text

The train tracks stretched across the open air high above the Human Realm. From his position so close to the clouds, Sebastian could see down onto the humans milling around on the cobbled streets. Top hats and bonnets moved in amongst each other. Carriages drawn by horses which filled the streets with the smell of animal waste. The sound of humans talking and laughing and arguing and shouting, mixed in with the hiss and crash of factories. Then, hidden beneath all of that, the grimy pits where the guttersnipes worked to keep the factories running. A cacophony of noise and mess and humanity.

And in the train carriage, Sebastian sat with his husband in a chilly silence.

The past few days had been very busy and incredibly dull. Whilst it was common for humans and demons to mate, those unions always took place in the Demon Realm. Sebastian was the first demon to agree to live in the Human Realm as part of the negotiations. As such, he had become a curiosity for the human nobility. There had been so many meetings and dinners and lunches where Sebastian had been forced to sit quietly as those humans flocked around him and observed him like he was a piece of furniture. Not even an attractive piece of furniture, since he was forced to cover himself in the human fabrics that Vincent had had made for him.

If only he could wrap himself in his shadows and whispers, peering into the hearts of the visiting humans to have them dancing to his tune. Instead he had this damned collar on his neck forcing him to be obedient.

The appeal of the collar had faded a great deal since the wedding night. Ciel hadn't touched him since then, although he still forced Sebastian to help him dress in the mornings. He said it was so he could give Sebastian instructions for the day. Sebastian suspected it was also to taunt him by showing off the flesh he wasn't allowed to run his tongue over, no matter how delicious it had tasted.

But maybe all of that would be tolerable if the meetings and parties were interesting. Sebastian knew from his brief examination of the house that Ciel had inherited various business ventures from his father, and numerous people spoke to him about it. He had sat next to his husband as various business owners talked at him about imports and exports and fuel and creation and development and so many other words that made very little sense. Humans liked to fill their lives with irritable nonsense.

Ciel spent a lot of those meetings smiling prettily and saying he was listening to a great many concerns from a number of people, and would get back to whoever this was later when he was finished with current projects. What those projects were, Sebastian had no idea. Whenever Ciel went to his office to work, Sebastian was forbidden from following him so he had no idea what his little husband was occupied with.

So he was bored, frustrated, and his mission had been fruitless. He could practically hear his brother laughing at him for already failing so miserably.

But that morning, Ciel had instructed Sebastian to fetch his cloak and hat because they were going on an outing. He had been tense all morning and had barely said a word throughout breakfast. The only conversation between them had consisted of Ciel hammering into him over and over that this meeting was to remain secret. He wasn't to speak about it to anybody else, no details were to pass his lips to any outsider, and so on and so forth. He'd wrapped Sebastian's tongue in magic and sealed it tightly behind his teeth.

Sebastian just smiled grimly and let him do what he wanted. He was already running out of patience for this world and Ciel was more quick to tug on the collar that morning. No sense in putting up a fight over this.

So they sat in chilly silence as the train swept over the buildings below. Nothing to do except look out the window, or watch the way his husband's fingers tapped the handle of his cane. When they reached their stop, Sebastian wordlessly followed Ciel through the crush of humans on the station platform. His head spun from the scent of all the blood and sweat and flesh hidden beneath cloying perfume and the filth of factories and soot. The air at this altitude was a little fresher outside the station, but not by much. A line of horseless carriages was waiting at the front of the station, and when Ciel slipped a coin into a slot at the front, it started moving with a whirr of clockwork. The wheels trundled across the cobbled streets, propelled by some power source hidden beneath the floorboards. On any other day Sebastian would've been more interested in the carriage, but that morning he was mostly tired. Instead, he tilted his head back and looked up at the houses around them.

This part of the world was situated higher in the sky, built on great scaffolds up above the bustle of the crowded streets below. Up here, the clouds seemed almost close enough to touch. They glowed opalescent white.

He glanced over at Ciel as they traveled. He was sitting with his back poker straight, his gaze resolutely forward. There was a bag resting on his lap, and he rested a protective hand on it. Sebastian had offered to carry it, but Ciel's grip had tightened on it as he refused the demon's offer. Whatever was inside was too precious to hand over.

After a few more chilly minutes, the carriage shuddered to a stop at a crossroads and Ciel stepped down. Sebastian followed, looking round for their destination. There were a few different houses nearby, but no gates close to where they had alighted.

"Sebastian," Ciel said. "Can you still access your magic in this realm?"

"Yes." Where was he going with this?

Ciel tilted his chin up. "I leave this final step to you, then. Get us there safely."

Sebastian looked up in confusion, then understood. Overhead, suspended in the air by some unseen magic, was a house. It had been built upon a sturdy base of metal which had been carved with intricate details. Sebastian could make out images of forests, flowers, interlocking cogs and clocks, wolves chasing their prey, and a woman in the middle of it all holding a great star in her chest. What little of the house he could see from this angle was made from white brick with black detailings. As Sebastian watched, it drifted slowly in space. Perhaps it would move around the skies as the day went on, or maybe like Sebastian it was tethered to a single point.

"Sebastian." Ciel stomped his cane against the cobbles, jerking him out of his own head. "Don't keep our hostess waiting, get us up there. We have to— Argh! "

His husband was small. It was simple enough to follow his order. Sebastian scooped Ciel up under one arm, ignoring the way he wriggled and yelled insults and hit Sebastian with his cane. From there, it was a simple matter of pushing off from the cobbles to fly through the air to the house overhead.

When they touched down, Ciel had the collar pulsing with pain and Sebastian dropped him immediately.

"Don't do that! I’m not a sack of potatoes!" Ciel was clutching his hat to his head, his face flushed an attractive shade of red.

"My apologies," Sebastian said. He looked down at his irate husband and couldn't help himself adding, "It can be so difficult for demons to tell the difference sometimes."

Up close, Sebastian now saw that the house was covered in even more carvings. The dark beams running through the house wore intricate designs of stars and planets and clockwork. The windows were surrounded with a lattice of leaves and tree branches, as birds flew between them on more of the timber cross-beams. Wolves darted throughout, carved so lovingly that they might spring to life and attack anyone who came too near. Sebastian wondered if they had been carved by hand or if humans had created a machine to do this intricate work for them.

The door itself was fashioned to look like a dark forest with stained glass leaves. As they approached, it swung open without them needing to ring the doorbell.

"You're late," a voice said from inside. Then, with a giggle, "Come and join us in the parlour, Moon."

The first thing that Sebastian noticed about the house as they stepped over the threshold was the smell. Up here, they were away from the stench of other humans and their machines. But now he was met with a strange scent he couldn't quite pinpoint. It was sweet, almost like fresh fruit, but had something at the edges that felt poisonous. Utterly unfamiliar to him.

The next thing he saw was the abundance of machinery throughout the house. Ciel held his hat and cloak out for a flurry of gold-plated birds to pluck from his hand and carry to a carved wooden wardrobe. As they walked further inside, lamps flickered on overhead with a hiss, only to turn off as they passed. At their feet, a machine that looked like a silver hedgehog mixed with a feather duster was rolling across the hardwood floor to collect dust. A mechanical snake was winding its way over the back of furniture, whirring brushes on its underside polishing everything to a bright shine. There was no sign of human servants. Just the clacking of machinery powered by some unseen fuel.

It had an uneasy feeling pricking at the back of Sebastian's neck. He had never felt farther from the Demon Realm.

In the parlour, sitting at a table set for tea, were two girls. They couldn't have been older than Ciel.

One was dressed head to toe in black silk. A sumptuous gown in dark fabric, gloves embroidered with black lace, shoes polished black beneath her skirt, and even her blond hair was pinned back and tied with black ribbons. At her throat sat a heavy black brooch which glinted when she moved. She didn't raise her eyes as they entered, instead staring staunchly at the table where a cup of tea rested untouched. Her hands were clenched tightly on her lap. Her lips were thinned.

The other was wearing a sombre green dress, and had bright eyes that lit up when she saw them. She smiled and waved a hand, beckoning them into the room. As she moved, there was another great whirring of clockwork. From beneath the folds of her skirt came a clacking of many feet on the floorboards, and with a start Sebastian saw that her legs were mechanical. Or, rather, she was using mechanical legs to lift herself up and walk towards them. From the way they moved beneath the fabric of her skirt, it was as if she were a porcelain spider from the waist down.

"Witch," Ciel said with a nod at her. Then, to the girl at the table. "Knight."

"Moon," the girl, Witch, said with a curtsy. She lifted her skirt just a bit to reveal the many porcelain feet skittering across the floor beneath her. "Allow me to give our congratulations to you on the wedding. Sorry we couldn't be there." She raised her head, her eyes flashing over Sebastian with an analytical air. "But thank you for letting us meet your new husband. So... this is what a demon looks like."

She spoke in a very matter-of-fact voice as she peered up at Sebastian. With another whirr, the legs beneath her skirt extended and lifted her up so they were eye-to-eye. The many porcelain feet were decorated with elegant painted designs: green and gold leaves that climbed up the feet before vanishing into the fabric of her skirts. Sebastian dragged his eyes away from the strange machinery to instead meet his hostess' gaze.

He got a sudden realisation as he looked into those sombre green eyes. They had the similar strange glow nestled deep in them that Ciel's did. His was a constant dim glow that he hid beneath his eyepatch, whereas this girl's was a duller constant burn. Sebastian wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't forced them face-to-face. But now it was unmistakeable.

Another child rich with magical power.

Suddenly, the floating house and the machines made sense. She must have been powering them all herself with her own innate ability. What use did she have for servants if she could have his house moving and taking care of itself under her own power?

"Well," Witch said after she had finished examining Sebastian like he was a diagram in a biology textbook. "Let's have some tea before we get to work."

But Knight raised a hand. "I think we should get this over with quickly."

Ciel looked tense but he also nodded. "Yes. I have some things I want to discuss with you, we can have tea after."

Witch looked between the two of them, her smile fading to give way to a more serious expression. Then she sighed and shrugged. "Fine. Moon, perhaps your husband should wait out here. Then we can speak freely."

"You don't need to worry about that. He's bound by the contract we all agreed on." Ciel looked at Sebastian. "And I've forbidden him from speaking about what happens here today to anyone outside of our circle. Sebastian?"

Sebastian nodded. "I assure you, my lady, I have sworn to keep the details of this meeting a secret."

"Hm." Her eyes narrowed and she looked at Ciel with a tilt of her head. "You trust him to do what you say?"

Ciel tensed slightly, his back straightening. "I trust my magic. He'll follow my orders."

"Your magic." A doubting expression passed over Witch's features and she glanced at Knight.

Knight's own gaze was focussed on her clasped hands. She said, barely moving her lips, "Has your magic even been stable since the fire?"

"Of course it has."

"We haven't had a chance to test it, especially given..." Witch was rubbing her chin. "I don't want anything to go wrong."

"Nothing will go wrong. You can see the contract yourself, and I'm telling you I've bound the demon to me. That should be enough-"

A flash of movement. Knight had grabbed up one of the spoons from the table and flung it across the kitchen, straight at Ciel. There was a flash of magical energy as she moved. Her muscles snapped, whipping the improvised weapon with superhuman speed. Sebastian moved without thinking, magic in his bones making him act. His hand shot out and grabbed the spoon just as it reached Ciel's face.

It had transformed in its flight. The spoon's metal had warped, turning into a delicate flower with wickedly pointed petals. If Sebastian hadn't caught it, it would have driven right through Ciel's eye and into his skull. As it was, it only grazed Ciel's nose.

Sebastian felt blood on his own skin. He raised his hand to it in surprise. A matching cut had appeared on his face.

Knight got up from the table, smoothing her dress down as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. She gave a dismissive little sniff. "Their bodies are linked and he is bound to protect his husband. The contract's holding for now. Let's just get this over with, Witch."

She swept past them, and after a pause was followed by Witch. Sebastian glanced down at Ciel. His face had paled and his jaw was clenched. As Sebastian watched, he took a slow breath in and out. Then, keeping his back straight and his face blank, he turned to go after the others.

Witch let them into a back room with a heavy door and no windows. The room smelled so thickly of the same strange floral and poisonous scent that filled the rest of the house that Sebastian fought to keep from gagging. Against one wall was a heavy cauldron, surrounded by shelves stocked with various bottles of ingredients. Carved into the wooden floor was a circular design: a large cog with a seven-pointed star on the inside with its points reaching out to touch the outer cog. It was decorated with writing in a language Sebastian didn't speak.

The same design was burned into the back of his hand and reflected in Ciel's eye.

Ciel, Witch, and Knight all took up positions standing outside the circle by one of the points of the star. When the door closed, the lamps didn't light. If not for Sebastian's demonic sight, he would have been completely blind.

"We are bound by blood to hold the secrets of the circle," Witch said. She raised her arms to her side. A shining silver dagger appeared in her hand. She pressed the blade to her palm so that blood dripped over her skin onto the design on the floor. The blood was soaked immediately into the star which then glowed a bright green. "The Witch."

The blonde girl raised her own hand and cut her palm with her own knife. When the blood fell, the design glowed with a pale dusky pink. Her eyes were cold as she said, "The Knight."

Now Ciel raised his hand and let his blood spill onto the magic circle. His blood had the circle glowing a rich, dark blue. He said, "The Moon."

Sebastian grit his teeth and clutched his hand to his chest as his own blood soaked into his glove.

"And now," the Witch said with a flick of her hand. "We remember those of our circle who we've lost."

The sound of clinking china filled the room, and Sebastian watched as dolls floated in from the shadowy corners of the room. They were similar to the doll Sebastian had found abandoned in the toy room back at the estate: ball-jointed, with painted faces and detailed clothing. They hovered in the air above the circle, touching down on the ground one by one as the children spoke.

"The Prince." A doll dressed in a ruffled coat with a mop of shiny hair. When it touched down, the room glowed a pale gold.

"The Oracle." A doll in a silk dress, with flowers twisting around her limbs and shrouding her face. The circle pulsed red.

"The Serpent." A doll with glassy eyes and mechanical snakes that moved around his body with a whir of cogs. It had the circle flashing dark silver.

"The Sun." A doll that was the spitting image of the one that Sebastian had found in the toy room. Soft face. Detailed eyes. A sailor suit embroidered with patterns of celestial bodies. Its perfect face lolled forward as it touched down onto the floor. It had the room glowing a pristine white, the light picking out all the dark corners of the room and highlighting the shadows and dips of Ciel's face.

"And... guest." Witch grinned widely, eyes and nose crinkling. "The first demon to visit our circle. I hope he doesn't become overcome with his desires and ruin our meeting."

"Witch." That was Knight, standing silently on her corner of the circle. Her hands were clasped in front of her and her head was bowed. In a quiet voice she said, "Don't."

Witch's smile flickered and faded. "Sorry."

"Let's just..." Knight clutched her hands in front of her. She refused to look up at Ciel as she gestured a hand towards him. "Just get to the meeting."

"Okay." Witch's hand turned over and the pentagram glowed its lush green again. "Well, Moon, I'll take those samples."

Ciel nodded and held out an arm, telling Sebastian to do the same. He couldn't refuse, the magic already forcing him to obey the order. From one of the cabinets flew twin needles, directed for Sebastian and Ciel's waiting veins. Sebastian grit his teeth as the needle punctured his flesh. The green light dyed his blood an inky black as it filled the syringe.

Witch took the blood-filled syringes and held them up to examine them with glowing eyes. "I'll do some tests and let you know if I find anything concerning, something to indicate this contract is having a negative effect. But have you noticed anything unusual yourself?"

"Nothing." Ciel rolled his sleeve back down over the puncture.

"Are you sure? This is the first time we've all met since..." Her eyes darted to the doll sitting on the top corner of the circle, the one identical to Ciel's. “If you’ve been… different… it would be understandable.”

A sudden uneasy silence fell upon them. Sebastian examined the three children from the shadows. Knight, refusing to look at either of them with her hands clasped tight in front of her. Witch who had once been smiling and now stood with an uncomfortable expression on her face. Ciel with his back straight and his brow furrowed. He wordlessly reached down and snapped open the bag, pulling out a file. All eyes turned to it.

"I haven't been sick if that’s what you’re thinking," he said, flicking open the file. "I have been quite well, and keeping myself busy. I've been focussed on looking into what happened that night. I didn't want to say anything until I was sure, but now I am. It wasn't an accident. My father and brother were murdered."

He pulled out a series of photographs, throwing them down into the middle of the circle. They seemed to show scattered bricks and ashes. Rubble silhouetted against a cold sky. Scorch marks streaking against brick. Churned earth splattered with dark liquid. All photographs were covered in writing, notes about what was pictured, certain elements circled for emphasis.

Sebastian leaned forward slightly. This was the first he was hearing about any kind of investigation into the fire that had killed Vincent and the other human boy. He'd only heard it discussed vaguely in passing, mostly as a tragic accident and people taken too soon. If Ciel was correct that there was more to it, then that was intriguing. Fae influence? Or a human disagreement? He was itching to move closer to see the photographs, but Ciel's order kept him standing in the shadowy corner.

However, the other two humans were not as intrigued as Sebastian. He saw them exchange looks. Knight's mouth was pressed into a thin line, her eyes narrowed. Witch met her gaze and something unspoken passed between them. It had Witch turning to Ciel, her brow furrowed and her voice slow as she considered her words.

"Moon... I don’t know what you think you’ve found, but we already looked into the fire. There was no evidence of foul play. We couldn't detect anything."

"I know, but I think the investigations missed something. I read your reports, there are some things that canot be explained.”

“Like what?”

“There were traces of magical residue, it might indicate fae or demonic influence. I've already been looking into my father's business dealings to search for who might want him dead, but I was stymied due to my own recovery and then the wedding contract. But now, with your help, we can do research in earnest."

Witch shook her head. "That’s ridiculous. The residue was your brother's, Moon. He had a lot of magic, more than any of us. It was just a more powerful death, that’s all."

Sebastian's ears pricked. So the boy from the painting had also had magic, more even than Ciel. Did Vincent pass magic down to his sons? A genetic component? Curious.

"It’s not ridiculous," Ciel said, voice stern. “How do you explain the lack of bodies? You said you couldn’t find any remains.”

“Yes, because of the heat and energy released on death it completely obliterated all lifeforms. You survived because of your own magic was enough to shield you. We’ve told you all this, if you don’t understand then I can explain it but-”

"It’s not a question of understanding,” Ciel interrupted. “I know there's something else there. This isn't an ordinary death, it wasn't an ordinary fire, I know it wasn't. If we just-"

"Stop it!" The Knight raised her head, shooting Ciel a cold look. "Stop it, Moon. I don't know what you're trying to do here, but we're not going to play along with you. You've done enough already, so just... Just stop."

Ciel was silent, his mouth hanging open. He stared at Knight for a good few seconds. Then shook his head, slipping a blank expression back onto his face. "What do you mean by that?"

"You know what I mean. We all know what you did that night, Moon. That you..." Her lip quivered and she clutched her arms round herself. "If there was any unusual residue then it was probably from that ."

Sebastian noticed the way Ciel flinched.

Knight continued. "If this is your way of trying to make yourself feel better, or try to deny something, we don't want any part of it."

Ciel shook slightly, pressing a hand to his face. He took a long, deep breath. When he spoke his voice was quivering, trying to stay calm. "I… I've no idea what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what—"

"Knight, calm down," Witch said gently. Her smile was completely gone now, she was an analytical scientist once again. Her hands folded over her chest. "Moon, we both looked over the remains. Nothing suggesting a murder. It was an accident. That's all. Maybe the trauma of what happened made it seem like something more than what it was, but there’s no evidence."

"You think I'm delusional?"

"No. But... you and your brother, your relationship was unique. The way your magic fed off of each other, we always suspected there may he a risk that other parts of your existence may be intertwined as well. Losing him may have impacted you more than you realise."

Sebastian's eyes flicked from Witch to his husband to the doll. His brain clicked together all this information. Magic feeding off of each other, that was new. Something to do with human siblings? A genetic component to magic? He would have to research that more.

Ciel meanwhile was looking at Witch with narrowed eyes. "I see. You think I've gone insane."

"No. You're twisting my words," Witch snapped.

"I think all he's been doing for the past month is twisting things," Knight said in a low voice. "Twisted himself and now trying to twist us.”

“I’m not twisted.”

“Then what are you trying to do here, Moon? Are you trying to distract us, or make us feel sorry for you so we forgive you for everything? Or just deny everything and hope we forget? Is that why you locked yourself away all this time, and refused to see or talk to anybody? Is that why we had to find out by letter what you did?"

"I'm not doing anything like that! My family died! I want to know why! I would’ve thought you would want to know too!"

"All I want to know why you did what you did. Ciel." Her voice cracked on the name. A shimmer of tears appeared in her eyes which were glowing a dusky pink, making them look bloodshot. "What was it? Was there a fire, and you felt yourself dying, and you stole from him? Let him die so you could survive? Why? Why would you do that? To your own brother?" Her breath hitched. Her fingers gripped the fabric of her sleeves. "How could you steal his name?"

"Ah ."

Sebastian let out the involuntary noise at this accusation.

A human's name was their vital essence. The very thing that made them who they were, gave them life, gave them power. To have someone's name was to have the core of their being at your mercy. A name willingly given was a treasure, and a name stolen was pure decadence. Sebastian had tasted a human's name on his tongue just once in his life. It had been the sweetest flavour. Unforgettable. A rare delicacy, enough to kill for and enough to die for and enough to set the world on fire for. Or at least, it was enough for Sebastian to do all that for.

Now he stared at his husband, the accused thief, waiting for his response.

Ciel's lip twitched. He stared down at the circle, the star flickering now with pink and green and blue magic. He twitched. Sebastian felt the collar at his neck prickle. 

Finally, Ciel said through gritted teeth, "I have nothing to explain. You wouldn't understand what happened, so a conversation about it is pointless."

"Wouldn't understand? "

Knight's magic flared, the room pulsing pink. The magic swirled around her, whipping at her dress and the curls of her hair. Sebastian saw the legs beneath the fabric of her skirt was rippled through with silver that glinted like fresh blood in this light. Her voice was rising to a shriek. "That's all you have to say after everything that's happened? What wouldn't we understand, Moon? What would you understand which we wouldn't? What did you do?"

"Knight!" Witch held her hands out, attempting to diffuse the situation.

They both ignored her, Ciel’s own mask slipping as he raised his voice. "Why do you assume that I did anything?"

"You have to have done something! "

"If that's all you can think, then of course you wouldn't understand what happened that night."

"Then explain how else would it have been him that died, with all his power? There has to have been something you did!"

"What are you accusing me of? Do you think I murdered him? That I started that fire?”

“I don’t know what to think! You’ve refused to talk to either of us, all we know is that you took his name!”

“I’m trying to talk now and you’re just calling me deluded for wanting to research the fire!”

“Because there’s no evidence of anything about the fire! The only thing that’s incriminating is yo . You survived something that killed your brother, you stole his name, you are refusing to tell us what happened, and you are trying to get us to look elsewhere.”

“I didn’t steal from him!”

“You stole his name! You let him die and stole his name! And now you're trying to distract us and blame someone else!”

“No!”

"That's the only explanation, and you're refusing to admit wrongdoing! Just stop deflecting, Moon! Admit what you did!"

"I didn't!"

"Stop lying!"

"You don't understand!"

“I can’t take this, Moon!" She raise a hand, pointing across the circle. "You're lying! You keep lying! It shouldn’t have been him who died! It should have been you!”

"I-!"

The room exploded.

Pink and blue magic crackled through the air, crashing into each other with a noise that had the entire house shuddering. A flash of green shot between them. A scream of frustration. A swirl of metal. A yelled order. Sebastian's collar burning with bright light. The smell of blood. 

When the magic settled, Sebastian found himself standing in the middle of the circle between Knight and his husband. He had his arms crossed in front of him as a shield. Buried in his flesh was a sword that had been hurtling towards the middle of his chest. The sword was a twisted piece of silver and pink metal, extending from the sleeves of Knight's dress. Her very body molded into a weapon directed at his husband. Sebastian felt the metal cut into his flesh, blood dripping off of his skin onto the pentagram. It glowed blue where the blood fell.

To his side, Witch had raised her hands. Green chains had extended from her, binding Ciel and Knight in place and stopping their magic from pouring out further. She was breathing heavily, her shoulders raising and lowering.

Knight's lip quivered. With a loud squelch the blade retracted into her sleeves. She slumped to the ground in a puff of skirts. Her hands were covered in blood. It marred her skin and hair and dress as she broke down with loud, ugly sobs.

Witch gave a sigh of effort and let her hands fall to her sides. The green chains flickered and faded as exhaustion took her. She ended up lolling in the air, held up by by her porcelain spider legs as her head slumped forward and dark hair fell over her face.

Sebastian turned his head to look over his shoulder. Ciel was standing at his back: his hand clutching the eye patch over his eye, his face twisted in anger and fear, his body shivering. When he looked up to meet Sebastian's gaze, the expression cleared to be replaced with his familiar emotionless mask. He looked down. His hand moved from his eye down to his throat, clutching it as if he had something caught there. His mouth opened to say… What? An apology? An accusation? An order for Sebastian to burn the place to the ground? But no words passed his lips.

None of them moved. None of them spoke. Just stood there surrounded by blood and magic and salty tears.

And the faces of the four dolls, memories of other magical children who were now gone, watched them silently.

Chapter Text

Ciel was in a foul mood. He sat on an armchair in the library, a book lying open on his lap, glaring a hole in the page as if it had insulted him. A flickering candle on the table painted him orange, glinted on the buttons of his jacket, and picked out the pearly sheen of his knuckles clutching his book. He had the air of someone who did not want to be bothered. The perfect time for Sebastian to have a conversation with him.

Sebastian stepped into the drawing room and shut the door, his fingers deftly locking it behind him. It was late, and most of the jobs for the day had been done. There were no meetings, no people spending the night. The maid might be putting a warming pan in his husband's bed upstairs, but she wouldn't dawdle. They would be alone for this.

Sebastian was glad that he wouldn't be interrupted. This was going to be a delicate conversation.

"What do you want?" Ciel didn't raise his head and kept looking down at the same spot on the page. He'd been looking at it for the past fifteen minutes.

"I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

"About what happened at the meeting of your circle."

The room chilled. Ciel's body tensed even more, his mouth twisting in distaste. He was coiled so tightly he seemed likely to explode if Sebastian poked him too harshly. And exploding right now wouldn't be helpful, so he let his husband simmer. Instead of replying, Sebastian took a moment to cross the room and pull open a curtain. The night was dark. The streetlamps were already lit. The Bone Tower was a shimmering white obelisk watching them.

Behind him, Ciel muttered a sullen, "We don't need to talk about what happened."

"I disagree," Sebastian said calmly. "I think there's something incredibly important we need to talk about. Something you didn't bring up at all during the meeting."

"What?"

He turned round to look at his husband. Ciel was hunched in the chair with his chin resting on his hand, finger of his other hand toying with a corner of the book, his expression set in a scowl. Petulant brat, through and through.

Sebastian smiled. "I want to know why you are not using me."

Days of planning had lead up to this conversation. After they'd returned from the meeting with Witch and Knight, Ciel had told Sebastian to not bother him and locked himself in his study, only emerging for meals and to insist Sebastian help him with his clothes. Sebastian had taken that time to work. He had gone over and over the events of that disastrous meeting in his head, replaying it and picking it apart and analysing what each word or facial expression might mean. When he had tangled it all out, he had then pieced it together with everything else he had experienced since coming to the Human Realm.

The portrait of a father and his two boys, now dead with one twin stealing the other's name. The doll lying in a slump in the toy room with its perfect porcelain face smashed. The piles of business documents gathering dust in Ciel's office and the irritated voices of businessmen who insisted Ciel make decisions. An investigation into a supposed murder that may or may not have happened. Photographs of ashes and rubble. Ciel's insistence that Sebastian not touch him or act in any way a husband should, whilst also forcing him to dress and undress him each morning and night.

That disastrous meeting. The Witch. The Knight. The four dolls. The swirl of magic. The shouted accusations and denials. The raw anger. The blades sunk deep into Sebastian's arms.

All pieces of a larger tapestry that Sebastian had spent the last few days stitching together as Ciel had retreated to his office to sulk. But even after puzzling everything through, he still hadn't been entirely sure of some things. There was a missing element, a reason at the heart of everything that had happened. He had found that final thread the previous night.

Ever since their wedding night, Sebastian had not been allowed into Ciel's bedroom as he slept. He helped Ciel into his night shirt, then was ordered to leave until the morning when he was summoned to help him dress for the day. As he slept, the bedroom was barricaded by layers of magic shutting everyone and everything out. Ciel slept like a pearl in a tight shell. But no magic was ever perfect, and Sebastian only needed one brief moment where the magic protections wavered and a sigh slipped through.

It had been a vague shimmer of an idea: that maybe his husband had some secret that was locked up tight in the night. Sebastian leaned his ear against the crack between the door, waiting for something. Anything. And for a fraction of a second, something slipped out through the barriers. The sound of his husband, fast asleep. A high-pitched whisper that caught on his teeth. Words, half-muttered and impossible to decipher before the magic barriers closed tight. Something from the depths of his nightmares. Sebastian opened his mouth to swallow the whisper.

It had the unmistakeable taste of fear.

That had been the final bit of information Sebastian had needed. He knew how to proceed to make his husband bend into him. Now he stood in the drawing room, looking at Ciel who looked back with a raised eyebrow.

"Why am I not using you?" He repeated Sebastian's earlier question back to him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about your researching the fire that killed your father and brother. I'm your husband. An arranged marriage, but you'd think that would give me some priority in your life. But the first I've heard about this was when you asked other children for help. I want to know why you haven't been using me for your investigation."

Ciel leaned back in his chair, his finger tapping on his cheek. "I don't have any use for you. Just because you're my husband doesn't meant I'm obligated to involve you in my business."

Then he turned back to the book as if that was the end of the conversation.

Sebastian knew why he had been sent to the Human Realm. A large part of it was because of the mistakes he'd made: a punishment for his transgressions. But there was also a reason his brother had sent him here rather than tearing him apart or letting him suffer in his home. Because he did understand how to manipulate humans. How to position them subtly so they would give him what he wanted. Hand them a knife and watch them slit open their own bellies to spill their innards for him. Sebastian had been sitting back and observing so far, but it was now time to press forward.

He stepped away from the window, walking across the soft carpet towards his husband. Sebastian kept his hands folded behind his back, his head tilted to one side so as to appear thoughtful. When he was a few steps from Ciel, he let out a sigh. "Well, I must say... I had hoped that you might be interesting as your father. As intelligent as your father. But I see I've been let down."

"Let down?" Ciel's head shot up, his face a scowl.

"Yes. You've shown me that you are a petulant child: stubborn and stupid."

"I..." Ciel's mouth opened and closed. He spluttered, "You dare talk to me like that?"

"Yes, I do dare."

"I—"

"No," Sebastian said holding up a hand. "You will listen to me for once. You think I don't know what I'm talking about? That I'm just an ornament you can leave out for other humans to stare at? Or a shield to be dragged out the next time you get into some fist fight?" He stopped in front of Ciel's chair, leaning over him just a little to cast him in shadow. Let his eyes flicker red. "I've lived thousands of years more than any human could hope to see. I've seen dynasties rise and fall, I've seen wars that sprawled across all realms, I've tasted blood and betrayal and victory. And the only reason I'm still breathing today is that I learned how to survive. I know the mistakes that people make, and the idiotic decisions that can have people's plans fall apart. I know only a fool wouldn't use a tool that's sitting in his lap."

Ciel's eyes narrowed. His hands shook, his mouth twitched. For an instant, Sebastian saw him clearly. A few sentences had stripped away all the bluster and the petulance and the icy words. He saw a child, with no home and no family. Trapped in this marriage he had no hand in organising, with a demon he had no love for. The last Phantomhive, searching through the ashes to try and find some strength to keep going.

There had been someone else like that. Someone long ago in the shadows whose facade had broken. They had reached out, grasping Sebastian's fingers. Pulled him into the worst mistake of his existence.

He shook that memory away and reached out a gloved hand to hover over his husband's cheek. Not quite touching, but letting the warmth of his fingers whisper over Ciel's cheek. Looked down at him, letting him speak.

"I'm not a fool." Ciel's voice was soft. Childish. He winced at it the moment it came out of his mouth.

"You are," Sebastian said. "But you don't have to be."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Then educate me. What have I gotten wrong?"

"Everything. I don't..." He tailed off.

Hunched in the chair beneath Sebastian, he looked so small. Sebastian let his hand drift across those few millimetres and rest on his husband's soft cheek. The closest touch since their wedding night. He could feel the rush of Ciel's blood beneath his skin. The steady beat of his pulse. The quiver of his lower lip. The flutter of his eyelashes. It would be so easy for him to lean into Sebastian's touch, and topple into the abyss.

"Ciel." Sebastian's tongue was gentle on the word, sweet and delicate and mesmerising. "I am here. I am willing. Let me help you."

"I..."

"It's okay." Sebastian's thumb moved over Ciel's skin. Up over his cheekbone, down the side of his face, across to brush over his lower lip. "You don't need to say a thing. Just let me help you."

"Mm..."

"Aren't you tired? You've been working on this so hard. You can share the load."

"Sebastian..."

"Yes, my husband?"

"I..."

"It's okay. You can be honest with me. Tell me what you want."

Sebastian waited, watching Ciel, waiting to see his reaction. But instead of leaning into him, Ciel's jaw clenched and he smacked away the hand stroking his cheek. With a snap of magic, the collar pierced with pain and chains materialised in Ciel's hands. He dragged Sebastian down so they were nose to nose. His breath tickled over Sebastian's skin. His gaze was cold fire.

"You are my dog to use," Ciel said darkly. "Don't forget that. And don't ever—" The collar tightened, pain lancing through him that had Sebastian falling to his knees at his husband's feet. "—touch me without permission again."

It was the repeat of their wedding night. Ciel glaring down at him with utter contempt, pain like ice flowing through Sebastian's veins, the collar choking him. And yet it was different as well. Sebastian wasn't a cocky demon who had been caught off guard. He knew what he was dealing with. Who he was dealing with. He hadn't expected Ciel to really fall into his arms that easily, and now he had cracked his uncaring facade. All he had to do know was find his weak spot.

Sebastian let his lip quirk up into a smile and rests his hands on the leather of the armchair. It was such a pretty angle from this position between his husband's thighs.

"You're not changing my view of you, my dear husband." Sebastian let his lip curl over the last word, let it drip with sarcasm. "I offer you something that I know will help you, and you are reacting like a toddler throwing a tantrum."

Ciel's lip twitched and his eyes narrowed. His hands tightened on the collar, slicing into Sebastian's neck. But despite his posturing, Ciel had a flicker of pain in his eye: pain that let Sebastian know he was hitting him somewhere sensitive. The demon was wriggling into his fears and doubts and everything he had been holding close to his tiny human chest. Sebastian let his tongue work. Wriggled deeper into those fears.

"How are you going to get your way with humans you don't have collared? Will you scream and kick at their shins until they're tired and give you whatever will shut you up?"

"I have ways of dealing with humans," Ciel muttered. "I've been laying plans."

"Oh? What plans are these? Do you intend to go to more friends, ask them for help, and get angry when they tell you they won't help you and that your investigation is useless?"

That had Ciel wincing. But he couldn't deny what Sebastian had witnessed.

Sebastian leaned forward, curling up his spine so that he was essentially crawling up Ciel's body. He could only go as far as Ciel's chest. His husband looked down at him, his face a mixture of contempt and hatred and fear.

Sebastian's neck was throbbing with pain and he fought hard to keep his voice from wavering. His entire body was tense, ready to give out from the pain shuddering through him.

"You like to play at being the important Earl, but you have no idea what you're doing. You think you can flash a little magic and all the other humans will bow to you? It's a childish view. You wouldn't be able to play against any other human who had even the slightest bit of experience."

"You..." Ciel's words failed. His lip twitched.

Sebastian pushed on. "They'll chew you and spit you up. They've been playing this game far longer than you have. They'll know exactly how to manipulate and control you. Your magic won't help you against them."

"I know what I'm doing."

"You don't know a thing. If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn't be brooding here. You wouldn't be so close to crying your eyes out. You wouldn't be throwing away a tool that is sitting here, willingly offering itself up to you." Sebastian could see how close he was. How his delicate husband was so close to toppling, if Sebastian just chose the correct words. He searched through Ciel's expression, and through their time together, eventually landing on the words that would surely have him tumbling off the precipice.

"How disappointing you are, Ciel Phantomhive."

It was as if a wall crumbled. Ciel's mask, already feebly trying to stay stoic, fell away and at once Sebastian was greeted by a range of expressions. Surprise. Pain. Misery. Terror. Hatred. Anger. The anger was most prominent, spilling out of him and hitting Sebastian squarely in the chest with a burst of more pain from his collar.

Ciel's booted foot was on Sebastian's shoulder, forcing him backwards. He sprawled on the floor as Ciel got to his feet, standing over him with the chain in his hands. The heel of his boot ground into Sebastian's collarbone. It was so tight round his neck that he couldn't breathe, and Ciel's expression was pure hatred. More hatred than Sebastian had ever breathed in from a human. Hatred for him, for his friends who had dismissed him, for the fire that claimed his family, for the world around him with its cogs and smoke and grinding bones. It was delicious.

"Foul demon." Ciel's voice was low and cold. He leaned down, looking down at Sebastian like he was nothing more than filth. "Don't ever talk to me like that again."

"My apologies." Sebastian's voice was thin and weak but he tried to smile, enjoying the way it made Ciel's face twist in contempt. "But you are bound to me the same way I'm bound to you. It would be such an insult if a demon was shackled to a human who isn't living up to their potential."

"And what is my potential?"

"Your potential is infinite," Sebastian said, raising his hand to rest gently on his husband's calf, his fingers rolling up his boot to whisper along his knee. “If only you knew how to make use of the tools in front of you."

Ciel's hands tightened on the chain. He didn't move to shove Sebastian's hand away, didn't step off of him. His expression warmed, a flicker of some strange heat in his one visible eye. "I will make use of you."

Sebastian's mouth was dry and his cock twitched in his clothes. "I hope that you do."

He lay there, his heart beating in his chest, as Ciel stood over him. Waiting to see what he might do, if he'd take the bait. Ciel's boot dug into Sebastian's collar, then slowly trailed down his chest, over the fabric of his restrictive human suit, down to the waistband of his trousers where his cock was already hard. Ciel's lip curled at the sight of it.

"You're depraved," he said. But his voice had a touch of amusement in it now. Amusement and interest.

Sebastian pushed himself up onto his elbows. "I am a willing tool, my husband."

"Lie back down," Ciel snapped at him. "Don't move unless I tell you to."

He didn't need the magic pulling at him to follow this instruction. Even with his brother's taunting in his ear, even knowing the importance of his mission, Sebastian had his weaknesses. Seeing Ciel finally like he had been on their wedding night, after so many days of nothingness and sullenness and boredom! It was intoxicating. Sebastian eagerly lay down and waited for Ciel to move, to come into his clutches.

Ciel's foot moved over Sebastian's leg, pushing open his thighs. "You think I'm a disappointment, do you? Tell me what makes me such a let down."

"I have not met many humans," Sebastian admitted. It was hard to think straight with the way Ciel's foot was trailing ever closer to his cock. "But compared to the ones I have met, you're lacking."

"Lacking what?"

"Strength. You wouldn't last a day in the Demon Realm."

"But we're not in your realm. You are in mine."

"You think humans are any different? They can be just as cruel as demons."

Ciel looked at him with a smug expression on his face. His delicate fingers turned over the links of chain.

"Yes,” he smirked. “Yes, we most certainly can."

And his heel pressed to Sebastian's cock, pressure and pain just enough to have Sebastian's head being thrown back and his hips arching up into the touch. So long since he'd been touched there, and this pain through the fabric of his clothes felt delicious. Now his husband (the small, pathetic, weak human) leaned over him and held him captive and ground his foot into him, watching him squirm and writhe and moan.

His boot dug into Sebastian's cock, toe pressing against the head and then moving down his entire length. Sebastian's hands fisted at his side. He wanted to reach up and grip Ciel's ankle, direct him where it would feel best. But there was magic in his limbs holding him against the floor. He couldn't move unless ordered. All he could do was lie there and gasp with pleasure as his husband's foot moved over him.

"I am the Earl of Phantomhive." Ciel's voice was low, snarled through his teeth. He punctuated each sentence with a yank on the chain and grinding of his foot. "The only one to survive the fire, the heir to the Phantomhive family fortune. I'm one of the seven magic users of this generation. I've even bound a demon under me. But I'm not living up to my potential? I'm not strong enough?"

"Hhk!" The collar tightened around Sebastian's throat and his eyes rolled back into the back of his head as he gasped for air. When the collar loosened the flood of oxygen had his head spinning with pleasure. His mouth hung open in a gasp of pleasure.

Ciel have moved. He straddled Sebastian's chest, glaring down at him. His hands gripped the lapels of Sebastian's jacket, forcing him up so they were face-to-face.

"I was strong enough to bind you. I have you under me like the pathetic beast he you are."

Sebastian's eyes moved over Ciel's face. The way his cheeks were flushed, the dark lust in his one visible eye, the gleam of his lip. He smiled. "That's true. And now all you need to do is draw up a marriage contract with every other human so you can collar them on your wedding night."

Ciel ground his teeth, his grip tightening on Sebastian's jacket. "You're contemptible."

"Should a good husband not tell you when you are being a stubborn brat?"

"You should know your place."

"And what is my place?" Sebastian dared to move closer so their lips were mere inches apart. "Show me my place, Ciel."

He felt his husband's hands move up his jacket to his face. Fingernails dug into his skin, shaking with barely-restrained anger. He wondered for a moment if Ciel was going to stick his fingers into Sebastian's mouth, have him suck on his fingers and become an animal. Or if he would kiss him, suck on his tongue, swallow every moan. The thought had his heart hammering, his cock throbbing.

Instead, Ciel's hands fisted in Sebastian's hair and pushed him back down onto the floor. Then his husband, small and weak and not living up to his potential, straddled his face and pulled Sebastian's mouth against his clothed cock.

Fuck, if only the fabric wasn't there. If only Sebastian could once again taste his husband's flesh. He wanted to open his mouth wide and rink in the taste of Ciel, feel his pulse on his tongue, swallow down his cum like nectar. But he would content himself with this. With fabric on his tongue, the smell of linen on his face, and his husband's fists clenched in his hair.

Ciel was kneeling over the top of him now, Sebastian's head caged in by his knees. The magic was still in his limbs keeping him from moving. He couldn't reach up to grab his husband and strip the fabric off of him to taste him the way he wanted. All he could do was open his mouth and use his tongue as much as could be allowed. It was difficult at first, all he could feel against his tongue was the fabric of Ciel's shorts. But he let saliva soak into the fabric and warmed it with his breath, patiently letting his husband grind against his mouth until the fabric was soaked and sticking to his flesh. Then he could pick out the shape of him.

He couldn't wrap his lips around Ciel's cock the way he had on their wedding night, couldn't swallow him down. But he could feel the way his cock was hard against his mouth. Could wrap his lips around the head of his cock, pressing the fabric against his hot flesh to make Ciel's breath hitch. Then move down his length to lick the flat of his tongue over his balls. The fabric was a barrier, but Sebastian's tongue still curled and flicked and relished every part of his husband.

Overhead, his husband's body writhed in the candlelight. Sebastian could feel the heat of his body. Could hear the way his heart was beating so fast, sending blood to the smallest corners of his soul. Could see the way his back was arched and his head thrown back, silhouetted against the bookshelves.

There was no way Ciel could deny that he was enjoying taking control of his husband and making use of him. Good. Let him get addicted to the power. Let him believe he was in control, that Sebastian's mind and body was his to command. The demon beneath him was just a tool to be used. He had no desires or plans other than to please his human master.

For the next few minutes, it might even be true.

"Sebastian." Ciel's voice was small, a whimper caught behind his teeth. He rolled his hips down into Sebastian's mouth. Pulled his head up closer so that he could angle his hips better, achieve more pleasure. He grit his teeth to keep from making any louder noises. Even now he wanted to pretend like this was beneath him.

So stubborn.

Sebastian opened his eyes to gaze up at him as he worked his tongue. His own cock was hard, his hips thrusting up into the air for some semblance of release. The sight of Ciel writhing above him was almost enough to have him coming untouched. He was a beautiful thing to behold. His cheeks were flushed and his lips were parted slightly, shimmering with saliva. As he moved, Ciel looked down at him. His soft hair fell in front of his one visible eye, hiding the dark lust flickering there. Sebastian held his gaze. Opened his mouth wider. Let out a long, low moan of pleasure against his husband's cock.

"S-Sebastian," Ciel gasped, his hips shuddering.

He was close. Sebastian could tell from the way his breath was picking up and the feeling of his flesh against his tongue. His husband bit his lower lip, gripped his hair tighter. Gave him the order.

"Come."

With a groan, Sebastian orgasmed inside his clothes, his hips lifting up off the floor with a shudder that had his entire body flushing with heat. As he did so, he heard Ciel's own breath catch in his throat. His body rocked with pleasure. The taste of salt leeched into his clothes and Sebastian eagerly swallowed.

He lay there as Ciel rocked through his orgasm, using his tongue to milk the last dregs of pleasure from him. Listened to the way his breath evened out and his heartbeat began to slow.

Sebastian was watching Ciel's face so closely through his orgasm, but even then he almost missed it. The brief twitch of his lip. He flicker in his eye. The way his breath quivered in his throat as if he were about to sob.

What an odd reaction. But it was only there for a fraction of a second, before Ciel snapped his emotions back tightly to his chest and stepped off of Sebastian onto his own shaky legs.

They didn't say anything to each other. Ciel looked as if he might say something for a moment, then seemed to think better of it. He left Sebastian immobile on the floor, crossing the room and vanishing into his study. Sebastian was glad to have a moment with his thoughts after what had happened.

He'd hit on the emotions, but still didn't know what exactly was inside of this boy that was driving him? Was it just the death of his family and resigning himself to his fate? No, it couldn't be that. Surely if he were resigned then he would just roll over and accept a humdrum marriage. This felt different. Deeper.

Humans were complex creatures. A mixture of flesh and blood and bone and chemicals, no two ever quite the same. How one would react to their life would be completely different to another. And the end result was anyone's guess. So his husband was a little puzzle in front of him, ready for him to untangle if he was so inclined.

The muddle of his own thoughts and situation mixed together in his head and Sebastian closed his eyes with a sigh. He listened to Ciel pacing back and forth in his study and then through the drawing room, waiting for the order that allowed him to move again. Finally, Ciel broke the silence.

"You're not to lie to me."

Sebastian looked up from his position on the floor. Ciel was sitting on the armchair, his clothes still dishevelled and his hair messed. He had his hands clasped in front of his mouth as he gazed out the window at the sleeping city. His face was pinched.

Sebastian rested his hands on his chest and nodded. "You're the one who bound my tongue. Nothing I say to you will ever be a lie."

"Mm."

He could see his husband thinking hard, and waited for him to speak. This wasn't the time for needling and messing. He needed his husband to come to him willingly or nothing would work. So he waited for what felt like an age as Ciel wrestled with everything, attempting to up with a solution that would satisfy his feeble human sensibilities.

Finally, Ciel turned and glanced down at Sebastian. "Fine. You will help me with my mission to find who killed my family. You will keep me from falling into traps from any other humans. And... you will help me learn to survive."

Sebastian smiled and pushed himself up, as the magic restricting him fell away. He knelt in front of the armchair and rested his hand on the human's thin ankle. His lips brushed over the top of his husband's boot, kissing his toe and up the row of laces over the top of his foot and up his calf until his lips were almost brushing over Ciel's bare knee. Sebastian's mouth rested there as he looked up through the strands of his black hair.

His husband looked down at him. He was perfect and broken and ripe.

Sebastian's lip curled into a smile over the top of his husband's boot.

"I am yours to command."

Chapter Text

Humans were such hard-working little creatures. The Phantomhive manor had burned down a little over a month ago, but already they were in the process of clearing everything away and setting up scaffolding to build a replacement. They would have been further along in the process if Ciel hadn't delayed them for his investigation. But as it was, in as little as a few weeks it would seem as if there had never been any fire or any deaths. Cover the past with flagstone and build up something new, that was the way of humans.

Sebastian and Ciel had come out to this plot of land that had once been a manor to see if Sebastian could find anything that maybe Ciel had missed. But there wasn't that much to find. It had been so long since the fire, and the plot had already been picked over by countless human hands. Sebastian walked in between the wooden scaffolds, the boxes of materials, the beginnings of new walls, trying to detect the memory of Vincent. He could vaguely smell the lingering after effects of magic. It was the same flavour of magic that clung to Ciel's flesh. But it had been so long, any details were lost. It could have been from the fire. It could have been lingering magic from twins living here for years. Any number of things. The only certainty was rubble and death.

He stood a moment in what was planned to be a large ballroom. This would have been his home if he'd married Vincent. It seemed to have been everything Vincent had promised: large, beautiful, remote. This plot had also once floated over the heads of other humans the way the Witch's did, propelled by unseen magic. It was temporarily ratcheted down to a solid platform as it was rebuilt, but even in this position it was so far from the sound of any other humans. Far up here, there wasn't any taste of the factory's smoke. It had all blown away in the eddies.

When he'd had enough snooping around the abandoned wreck, Sebastian hopped over a small barricade to find his husband waiting for him on a bench by the cobbled road.

"Anything?" Ciel asked when he approached.

Sebastian shook his head. "Nothing that I can solidly identify. If I'd come earlier, then maybe I could find something. But now..."

He watched the way Ciel's eye twitched at the comment, but didn't push things any more. If Sebastian was too antagonistic towards him, then there was the risk that Ciel would just become cold to him. It was a delicate balance between reminding Ciel he needed Sebastian, but not making the boy feel utterly useless to the extent that not even a demon could help. So instead he looked up the empty street and asked if they had any more plans.

As it happened, Ciel did have something else planned for that day if the investigation of the former manor house hadn't turned up new leads. He led Sebastian towards one of the large lifts that connected the various levels of the human realm. A creation of heavy iron, with reinforced glass windows and doors that bolted with a heavy latch. They stepped into a small first-class lift and waited as the worker fastened the door shut. Around them, the gears whirred and they started their slow descent down through the layers of humanity.

Ciel settled onto one of the benches inside the lift and pulled a letter out of his pocket. "A week after the deaths of my father and brother, I received this letter. I didn't want to follow up on it but... if the rest of my circle refuse to help..."

Sebastian took the letter from him. It was delicate white paper and had been scented with something floral. The wax seal on the envelope had been an intricate design of a flower, with the letters KR embossed in the centre.

It read, "Earl Phantomhive, allow me to offer my congratulations to you on ascending to the head of your family's various business ventures. I look forward to working with you and assisting you in any of your future endeavors. I have information I believe you will find invaluable, should you ever need it. Do not hesitate to visit me. My door is always open to you."

Sebastian read the letter a few times, then handed it back to his husband. "What makes you think this person would be of any help?"

"I have dealt with them in the past," Ciel said. "In a fashion."

"Oh? Am I allowed to learn any more about this mysterious assistant?"

"Urgh." Ciel waved a hand and gave a pained expression. "His name is Lau, we've crossed paths once or twice, and I know that he's able to get information from different areas. He specifically deals in parts of the realm that I don't. But..." He looked at Sebastian. "I... I will need you to be on guard. If he seems to be spinning lies to trap me, you will help to steer the conversation to surer grounds. He can be... difficult."

"Ah, I see." So this Lau was a human that Ciel was wary of, and he needed his guard dog at his side. Sebastian crossed his legs and smiled. He was, of course, perfectly willing to play the part of noble protector.

They descended into the deepest pits of the realm. Past the townhouses where people walked about leisurely underneath the swirling grey clouds, and into the shadowy underbelly of the metal and clockwork. Down, down, until the only light was from rows of lamps that glowed a steady orange. The lift would go no further, and they stepped out to wander dark labyrinthine streets. Walls of brick and metal stretched upwards, disappearing into the void. Around them, pistons moved up and down, propelled by compressed steam and fire. Smoke clung to the metal, and a murky black grease was on every surface. The humans they walked past down here were drenched in sweat from working so close to the furnace. Even in these hellish pits they were bound by rules of modesty. Shirts were transparent with sweat, and yet they would never be allowed to strip down and bathe in cool water for a bit of respite. The world was filled with the crash of metal on metal, the hiss of great pistons moving up and down, the whir of gears turning against each other and sending strips of rubber to turn other cogs and gears in other unseen corners of the Realm.

Then in the midst of the smoke, they came across a shining beacon. A small building, built into one of the massive brick walls that held up distant unseen machines. It alone was untouched by the smoke and grime of the depths. Its virginal walls enticed all passersby to enter.

The sign above the door was of a golden dragon curling around a bouquet of flowers. As Sebastian and Ciel stepped through the door, the dragon's nostrils released a puff of smoke. It smelled sweet.

The world inside was so different from the world outside that it was as if they'd entered a different Realm. Gone was the crash of machinery and the cloying heat that penetrated you to the bone. Instead, this world was lit with honey-coloured lanterns, and the air carried to them some lilting music from an unseen band and quiet voices whispering to each other. The room in here smelled oddly sweet, it had Sebastian inhaling deeper than usual. How curious. The reception area was small. There was a handful of chairs, and some decorative vases painted with images of reeds. The rest of the building was blocked by a hanging curtain.

A woman at a nearby table got up and bowed to them as they entered. She had dark hair pulled away from a heart-shaped face, decorated with silver bells and lace. Her dress was a neat cheongsam: white silk with pink flowers painted onto the fabric, detailed with gold thread. She smiled at them.

"Welcome," she said with a gentle voice. The perfect picture of elegance. "How can we serve you, dear guests?"

Wordlessly, Ciel held out the letter to her. When she saw it, her eyebrows flicking upwards. She took the letter, bowed again, then ducked behind the curtain. There was a brief quiet discussion, the sound of footsteps, and the woman re-emerged.

"We have been waiting for you, Earl Phantomhive. Please, come with me."

She opened the curtain and beckoned them through. They descended smooth marble steps into a larger room, lit with more lanterns and filled with more of that delicious scent. Curtains and screens were positioned to create some areas of privacy, but most guests didn't seem to care who could see them. People were lounging on sofas, on collections of cushions, on beds with pillows propped beneath them, or even across the laps of various workers wearing elegant cheongsam. In one corner on a raised stage was a band playing delicate instruments so the room was filled with a dreamy melody. More workers were moving around the room carrying trays of drinks and food.

What drew Sebastian's eyes were the pipes that people were pressing to their lips. Guests were all sucking in unknown herbs, opening their mouths to exhale shimmering curls of smoke. It was this smoke that was so delicious to Sebastian. It smelled intoxicating. It reminded him of honeyed words and lies and shadows: a beautiful and tantalising mixture.

Exactly the kind of thing that may muddy his husband's mind.

Ciel kept his eyes firmly ahead of him, refusing to acknowledge any of the people lying across the room in flagrant disregard of proper etiquette. Sebastian moved closer so their bodies brushed against each other as they walked. He rested a hand on Ciel's shoulder, making him glance up. Sebastian didn't say a word, just kept Ciel's gaze and gave a terse nod. A silent reminder to stay focused. Ciel nodded and looked ahead, his back straight and his hands clenched at his sides.

They descended down another set of stairs and along a corridor to a door, leading to a room with no smoke or music. The room was picked out with polished wood panels and intricate carvings, lit once more with hanging lanterns. The walls were decorated with elegant paintings of various humans smoking, laughing, eating, and indulging in various vices.

But Sebastian wasn't interested in that. His eyes snapped to the two figures sitting at a table. One was a woman with dark eyelashes and painted lips, dressed in a dark purple cheongsam that revealed a large amount of her thigh. She was beautiful in a way that a sharpened knife was beautiful. But it was the man she was draped over that had Sebastian's mouth going dry. The man who was clearly Lau, who they had traveled all this way to meet. He was tall, had a pleasant smile on his face, one hand was wrapped lazily around the woman's waist as he raised the other in greeting. And he had the distinct scent of fae.

At once, Sebastian was on alert. Had he been lead into a fae den? Was the smoke up above some poison that was consuming him? But no that wouldn't make sense, why would there be a building built into the humans' machinery specifically to trap demons? And why would Ciel have brought him here? He knew that Ciel wasn't going to set him up or betray him. Sebastian was confident in his assessment: Ciel needed him now.

He looked down at Ciel. Perhaps the little human didn't realise that Lau was linked to the fae. But Ciel wasn't giving any indication that there was anything abnormal happening. Following his lead, Sebastian kept his back straight and his tongue silent. For now, he would sit back and see how this meeting played out.

But he still angled his body at they sat down so that his leg pressed up against Ciel's thigh, his arm laying along the back of the bench so that his hand could reach out and play with the hair at the nape of Ciel's neck. A subtle message to his husband to be on alert, to be cautious. Ciel glanced up at him. He didn't react, but he moved his hand to rest his fingers lightly on Sebastian's knee. An acknowledgement.

"I'm so happy you've finally visited me, Earl," Lau said with a smile, seemingly oblivious to any tension. "I was beginning to worry that my message had gotten lost." Then, to a girl at the door, "Pour my guests a drink."

Sebastian accepted the tea offered to him, but did not drink. The table was soon set with an array of snacks: buns and sugared fruit and small cakes, all arranged on plates covered in painted designs. The woman on Lau's lap reached forward, picked up a bun in her chopsticks, and fed it to Lau who gave her an appreciative smile.

Ciel threw his letter onto the table. "You said you had information for me," he said tersely.

"Ah, you're jumping right into business. That's not like the Earl I've heard about." Lau tapped a finger on his chin as he observed Ciel. "All the news I've gotten about you is that you're very reticent to make any moves or discussions no matter how much people try to persuade you. I'm flattered you want to actually talk to me."

"I make moves when it's necessary," Ciel said. "I just don't waste words with people."

"Of course. Resourceful of you." Lau picked up his own food and popped it into his mouth as he watched Ciel with a smile. "Well, I am always happy to offer assistance to people, for the right price of course. What is it you need to know, my dear Earl?"

Ciel looked at Sebastian, then back at Lau. "The fire. What information do you have about it?"

"Ah..." Lau's smile faded and he waved his hand to the door. The servants waiting there stepped out of the room, leaving the four of them alone. The woman on Lau's lap slipped off and moved to pour tea for them, encouraging them to drink.

As she moved, Sebastian kept his eyes on Lau. He was tapping his lip with his fingers as he thought. It wasn't in the nature of the fae to lie, but their words could be twisted half-truths. They were creatures of light and their actions were all done brazenly in the open. Whereas a demon would press a knife into your back in the middle of a dark night, the fae would have you executed in front of a crowd whilst people cheered. The trick was to look through their words, and see what they were distracting you from with their flashy tricks.

"There's a story my family used to tell me," Lau said after a thoughtful silence. He raised his hands and fanned out the fingers in front of one of the lamps, so that the shape of a butterfly appeared on the wall. "A story about a butterfly, with beautiful and delicate wings. The butterfly lived in a house made of flowers and each day they drank sugar water and bathed in the sunlight."

Sebastian's eyes flicked from Lau to Ciel. His husband was watching the silhouette, his jaw set and his eyes unblinking.

"One day the butterfly was out flying through the sky and showing off their beautiful wings to anyone who would stop and watch. But they were so caught up in the praise and attention that they stayed away too long. When they came back, they found that their beautiful house had completely burned down. Everything and everyone that had been inside was reduced to dark grey dust." He lowered his hands and gave a shrug. "Naturally, the butterfly wanted to find out what had happened to its beautiful home, so they set out to find answers. It asked other butterflies but they could tell it nothing. Then it tried to talk to other insects like spiders and crickets, but they weren't any help either. They tried to ask frogs and fishes in the nearby stream, or birds that had flown overhead. No matter who they spoke to, they learned nothing. They flew through the land so long and so hard that their wings grew old and withered in the sun. The once beautiful colours had faded to a pale grey. "

The room was still. Ciel’s shadow on the wall was as unmoving as marble.

"When the butterfly had grown tired of flying they settled on a white rock. But the rock turned out to not be a rock at all. The little butterfly had landed on a skull. The skull asked the butterfly why it looked so sad and drab, and the butterfly explained that it had lost its home and its family and had no idea what had happened or where they had gone. Everyone they asked had nothing to say, no knowledge to share. But the skull said they knew. They had intimate knowledge of what happened. So it whispered all the answers to the butterfly's questions, and told it everything it had been searching for."

"But..." Lau paused, resting his head on his hand and giving Ciel an appraising look. "I wonder if that little butterfly was happy with the knowledge it received."

Ciel was sitting with his back straight and his jaw set. His fingers that had been resting gently on Sebastian's knee had grown heavier as Lau had talked, his nails threatening to pierce the fabric of his trousers.

He spoke now in a clipped voice. "If everything had been burnt, then of course the butterfly would have welcomed any answers and information."

"Hmm." Lau tilted his head. "The skull was dirt and decay. Would knowledge of that really have brought that butterfly happiness?"

"Yes!"

"So you say..."

"My husband." Sebastian's voice was gentle, punctuated with fingers brushing over Ciel's flushed skin. He leaned forward to breathe into his ear, "Do not let them see your frustration."

Ciel looked up at him. His fingers tensed on Sebastian's knee and he looked as if he was about to snap at him. He leaned up to instead whisper, "I am only frustrated because he's not telling me anything."

Sebastian's fingers curled in Ciel's hair. "Breathe. Be stronger than him. Smarter. Look through what he says, to the hidden meaning beneath."

"Hidden meaning..." He pulled back to look up at Sebastian thoughtfully. Sebastian watched his chest rise and fall as he took that deep breath and let go of his frustrations and petty human emotions. In the calmness, Sebastian saw the gears start to turn in Ciel's mind. Pushing away all the fae deceptions and stories to find the information he needed. How fascinating to watch a human grow colder.

A light voice ruined the moment. "Cute."

They both looked round. The woman was standing besides Lau now, and her dark eyes were watching them intently as she fed him another bun. Her comment had Lau laughing and he poked her cheeks with his fingers.

"Ah, Ran-Mao, you are such a romantic," he said. "She's always so pleased to see happy couples you know, you've made her day with your visit."

Sebastian raised a skeptical eyebrow. Ran-Mao was somehow even more emotionless than his little husband. If he had been told that she wasn't real, just a carving being controlled by fae magic, Sebastian wouldn't be at all surprised. He watched as she moved to pick up another piece of food from the table, this time leaning over to offer it to Ciel.

"Eat," she said. Her face was still blank as she arched her back and fluttered her dark eyelashes. The kind of action that would encourage a drunk human to give in to their lusts.

Ciel snatched the chopsticks from her hand and instead held the food out to Sebastian. Of course he wouldn't eat without feeding it to his demon to check for poisons. Sebastian kept Ciel's eye and leaned in, wrapping his lips around the food. It tasted as bland and distasteful as any other human food. Slick and oily and grainy on his tongue. But no poison. Maybe to any other human it would be delicious.

"A butterfly seeking knowledge from a skull," Ciel said thoughtfully as he watched Sebastian chew. "Is that what I'm doing now? Would you define yourself as the skull, Lau?"

"You would compare my beautiful Shangri-La to a skull? I'm hurt, Earl Phantomhive!" Lau placed a hand over his heart and gave an exaggerated look of dismay. "I've always considered my establishment a place of bliss and fantasy. We give our clients nothing but good dreams, I assure you."

How like a fae to wrap their venom in delicious sugar. Sebastian had no doubt that the smoke upstairs gave people feelings of bliss as they filled themselves with toxins. Sebastian picked up a crystallised sweet from the tray and held it out to Ciel. He knew his husband had a sweet tooth, and was now certain that this food at least wasn't deadly. Ciel balked at first at the offered food, then tentatively leaned forward and wrapped his pretty mouth around the chopsticks.

"Delicious," he said politely. "So if you are not the skull, perhaps someone else. The underbelly of the realm? Or perhaps a demon?"

"You've already got all the information from me that you can," Sebastian said. "And we're already in the underbelly of this place."

"Yes, if it's not you and it's not anything down here... Perhaps..."

They came to the conclusion at the same time.

"The Shinigami..." Ciel's eyes narrowed and he stared into space, considering this. "They're the only ones who would know what happened at the moments leading up to death. They're rumoured to keep detailed records of all the bodies they add to the Bone Tower."

"But how could you infiltrate them?" Sebastian was thinking too now, his mind churning along with Ciel's. "They keep their secrets close to their chests. Not even a demon is allowed to enter the Bone Tower to see their records."

"We'd need a skeleton key. And a catalogue so we knew where to look for information, or at the very least someone who would know where to look. And..." Ciel's eyes widened. "Madam Red."

"Ah... Of course, I had forgotten your aunt."

Sebastian's mind flicked back to that breakfast after his wedding. The woman who had lost her name and now wore a shinigami pin on the lapel of her bright red jacket. A connection to the Bone Tower, who had a clear fondness for her nephew. Sebastian's lip curled. The Shinigami were as blank and unfeeling as death, but humans were malleable. He watched his smile be mirrored on Ciel's face as the prospects unfolded before them. He hoped that Ciel would not be above manipulating his aunt to uncover the information he wanted. Sebastian could teach him so much if they went down this path.

"You've given me a lot to think about, Lau. Your assistance is appreciated." Ciel picked up another of the sweets Sebastian had fed him and popped it into his own mouth.

"I'm glad to be of service," Lau said. He held out his arm and gathered Ran-Mao back into his lap.

"And now Earl, I have a question for you." Lau steepled his fingers in front of him and gave a thin smile. Sebastian tensed, waiting for the blow to come. The deal, the twist of the knife, the promise that would have them in the debt of the fae. He was ready to look for a loophole. Let the fae try and battle against a demon: the fae would lose.

He narrowed his eyes as Lau smiled.

"What fire are you talking about?"

A beat.

Ciel's mouth hung open and he spluttered for a moment. "The fire that killed my father and brother!"

"Oh my, is your father dead? Well, that explains why you took over from him. My condolences!"

Lau pressed a hand to his chest and laughed as Ran-Mao tried to offer more food to Ciel's gaping mouth. Sebastian looked between the three of them, trying to get a handle on what had happened.

The fae had won that one. He had no idea how to respond.

-

"Infuriating man. Don't know why I even... He's so aggravating!"

Ciel kept up a constant stream of muttered insults as he bathed himself that night, scrubbing off all the grime from the day. He had the door to the bathroom open and Sebastian waiting outside with a fresh towel. Sebastian had been forbidden from even looking into the bathroom, so instead he just leaned against the wall listening to his husband hiss and spit.

"I think you're doing much better," he offered during a break in Ciel's muttering.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... you waited until you were home to throw your tantrum today. That's a step up."

"Urgh." There was the sound of splashing water and a long sigh. Then Ciel was ordering Sebastian to come help him dry off. He was swamped by the fluffy white towel, and had an attractive appearance of a kitten again when Sebastian rubbed the fabric over his face. Sebastian paused a moment, taking in his appearance. Small and frail. He wondered what sort of man he'd grow into.

Ciel looked at him. "What?"

"Mm." Sebastian twisted around the contract binding his tongue and said with a smile, "I was just wondering how someone with such powerful magic can stay so short?"

"Urgh, I don't want to hear that from a demon who's probably stayed the same for the past thousand years." Ciel snatched the towel from Sebastian and walked into the bedroom. When he'd finished drying himself, he held the towel out for Sebastian to take before standing and waiting for his nightshirt. Sebastian slipped it over his head, covering Ciel's perfect skin with a slip of white fabric.

"May I ask a question," Sebastian said as he tied the ribbon at Ciel's neck. When Ciel nodded, he asked, "Were you aware that Lau is of the fae realm?"

Ciel looked up at him, his head tilted. "You can detect that, can you?"

"Of course. I can smell out any one of my enemies, it's a result of the years of war between our realms. But I want to know why you would take me into the den of a fae. And why you would shelter a fae in your own home." His thumb brushed over the ribbon. "As your husband, I think I deserve to know for my own safety."

"You're talking about Finny."

"Yes, the gardener. Did you think you'd hide him from me? Or do humans all liaise with the Fae Realm and keep pet fae in their basements?"

Ciel was silent for a long moment, looking up at him. Sebastian braced himself for a denial and dismissal. Instead, he got something unexpected.

A laugh.

Ciel's eyes crinkled and he brought his hand to his mouth to stifle the small chuckle that came out of him. It was a sound he'd never heard come from this child, who seemed only able to express anger or stoicism. It had him pulling back in surprise. Then Ciel smiled at him. Even if the smile had a tinge of contempt, it was a smile. More genuine than Sebastian had seen on him.

Reminded him of...

"You really don't know anything do you?" Ciel gave another small laugh and hopped up onto the bed. His bare feet kicked in the air. "They're not fae, and they don't even side with the Fae Realm. Or maybe Lau does, I think he's driven more by money than morals."

"But then who—"

"Finny and Lau are changelings. Rejected changelings."

"Ah..."

That explained the lingering scent that clung to them. When the Shinigami had sewn the Realms together, introducing the fae and demons to death, they had neglected to introduce them to birth. Understandable, it wasn't their domain. But the result was that demons and fae couldn't reproduce alone. They needed the help of humans to do that. For demons this was organised as part of contracts: humans would become a demon's mate for a period of years, then be returned to the Human Realm with whatever price they had bargained for. However, the fae went about things differently. Human children were selected and spirited away to the Fae Realm, with some payment left in their place. Perhaps money, or a magical ornament, or blessings on future human children. But the changeling was then kept in the Fae Realm to live out their lives as pampered broodmares.

There could only be one reason why a changeling would be rejected from the Fae Realm and returned to the humans. They were no longer useful. Or, perhaps, had never been useful and it wasn't realised until things were too late.

"Finny was returned long after his parents and family had died," Ciel explained. "He didn't have anyone when my father hired him as a gardener."

"Hm." Sebastian helped Ciel into bed, smoothing the blanket over him. He honestly hadn't even considered that the fae may discard a human mate, he'd thought they kept all their treasures close. He'd only in the Human Realm for a brief time and already he was learning so much. He picked up the candle on Ciel's bedside and raised it to his lip to blow it out. Then paused as a thought occurred to him that made him smile. "You know the story of the Shinigami binding us together."

"Of course."

"Well, it occurs to me. It's not just death that we all have in common. It's cruelty."

That had Ciel giving one more small smile from the pillows. His eye flickered bright blue with magic that had the collar round Sebastian’s neck pulsing.

"Yes. We all have so much in common, don't we, Sebastian?"

Chapter Text

Ciel's aunt was a well-known (and by all accounts well-liked) socialite in the Human Realm. She was known for her sharp wit, easy humour, and her personal style which bordered on scandalous. She was also known for her love for her nephews. In the brief time he and Sebastian had been married, Ciel had received a dozen invitations from her inviting him to various dinners and symphonies and morning teas. Each one included a note saying how she loved him, he was always and forever her darling nephew, and if he ever needed a break from his husband then he was to go straight to her. Even if Sebastian found it annoying that the woman constantly expressed her disapproval of their marriage, these invitations meant that it was easy for Ciel to find an opportunity to get close to her. So the morning after their visit to Lau, he finally sent out a reply accepting her invitation to one of the dances that seemed to occur every other day.

After that came a more difficult step. Apparently, humans were bound by social etiquette to change their clothing frequently. This made sense, they had shorter lifespans than demons and took great pride in their ability to manufacture fabrics so of course they would have the need to fill their lives with all manner of pretty things. The issue was that as the husband of the Earl of Phantomhive, Sebastian was expected to go along with it.

So when Ciel went to a tailor to be measured for a new outfit for this dance, Sebastian was forced to also stand on a stool and be measured and prodded and dressed up in muslin so he could be forced into new clothes.

"Is this really necessary?" Sebastian tried to keep the irritation out of his voice, but failed. He just hated the feeling of thick fabric on his skin, and this muslin was so hideous.

Ciel didn't even bother to look at him. "This will be the first event we'll appear at together after the wedding, it's important for us to be coordinated. And aside from the wedding, I haven't been seen in society in months. We need updated wardrobes. That way we can avoid any unnecessary gossip because we're out of style."

"So now the gossip will be limited to the topic of a marriage between a demon and an orphan." Sebastian lifted his arm as instructed and grimaced at the feeling of rough fabric scraping against his flesh. He missed his cloak of shadows. "Well, I suppose if we draw as little attention to ourselves as possible, it will allow us to not be bothered as you do what you need to do. That's an important skill to learn: going unnoticed."

"Mm. I'm sure as a demon you have intimate knowledge of hiding in the shadows and skulking around unseen."

"We all have our talents, my dear husband." Sebastian flashed his pointed teeth at Ciel, then hissed in pain when an errant pin dug into him. "Maybe I should just stick to the shadows and support you from a distance instead of coming to this dance. Your aunt won't exactly miss me."

"But the rest of society will." Ciel sighed and looked down at the Phantomhive signet ring that he wore on his thumb. "I've already been stirring up conversations. I should be in mourning for my family, but the wedding happened on schedule as insisted by you. Now as a newlywed, I'm expected to participate in society again. If I don't keep up appearances, it will be a disgrace. And I don't..."

He clenched his hand. Unclenched it. Turned away from the tailors and indicated to them to remove the muslin from his body.

Sebastian still had a lot to learn about how to exist and survive among humans, but he was starting to learn a little. There was a balance between being solitary and making appearances in public so as to appear as if everything was fine. Human tongues could spread gossip and rumours as good as any demon. Important to avoid drawing attention. If you didn't give people a reason to be suspicious of you, then it was far easier to slip behind peoples' backs to carry out your work.

If you were good at what you did, then nobody would notice the terrible mistakes you'd made until it was far too late and you'd dug yourself in far too deep to save yourself.

"Have you chosen a style, my lord?" The tailor's assistant who was helping them looked at Ciel expectantly. They gestured to a catalogue of various designs sitting on the table. "We just got a new collection in, from the Queen's dressmakers themselves."

Ciel looked down at the pages, tentatively turning the pages. Sebastian changed back into his own constricting suit and stepped up behind him to see what the humans were offering. He was greeted by page after page of various ways to cover up your flesh. Fabric up to the chin, ruffles down to the knuckles, buttons and layers all the way to the ankles. And of course, gloves and hats and socks and underclothes, to make sure there wasn't the slightest chance of skin being shown. But at least some of these coverings were more attractive than others.

He watched Ciel flick through the pages and mentally noted his favourites. The ones that he wouldn't mind being trapped in. The things he wouldn't mind seeing his husband wearing. Perhaps even items that his husband would allow Sebastian to peel off of him, layer by tantalising layer.

"Your aunt may be partial to this one," he said when Ciel turned a page to a design featuring a jacket with flowing layers at the back like a partial bustle. It wasn't really a lie. He knew that Madam Red liked daring fashion, and loved to see Ciel dressed up in new styles. If this outfit was enough to have Sebastian's eyes widening, then it may well please her as well.

Ciel's eyes darted to him, narrowing slightly. Then back to the page. "This one, then. And a matching fabric for my husband's suit."

They left the tailor with instructions to pick up the clothes in a few day's time. Sebastian kept close to Ciel's side as they wandered down the winding streets past more shop windows and vendors barking their wares.

"Does your aunt know about your name?"

The question occurred to him as they stopped in front of a shoemaker with displays of new boots arranged in various levels. Ciel flinched and didn't look round at Sebastian.

"No," he said simply. "And you will not mention it to her."

He opened the door and stepped inside before Sebastian had a chance to process that answer. He hurried after his husband, lost in thought. So this aunt, along with the rest of the realm, believed that one child had died and Ciel survived. But in reality, Ciel had died and had his name stolen. She had already lost her name, how might she react to the knowledge that her darling nephew had done something so heinous to his own brother? He watched his deceitful little husband as the shopkeep measured his feet and discussed shoe styles that would best fit the outfit they had ordered. Ciel refused to look at him. Just let Sebastian's gaze burn into his skull.

"Is there anything else she does not know?" Sebastian asked the question in a low voice when the shoemaker had ducked into the back to collect fabric samples.

Ciel looked didn't turn to look at him, but clearly picked up the meaning in his question. "She doesn't know about... anything."

"I see."

So the loving aunt was completely unaware about his name or the magic that swam in his eye. Sebastian stepped back as the shoemaker returned and started showing his husband various fabric options. Watched his husband mull over a few options, his brow furrowed.

"The white would go well with the suit you've ordered," Sebastian suggested.

"It'll get filthy quickly."

"You're not exactly a socialite, my dear husband. You'll likely only wear them once. May as well make it a statement."

Ciel glanced at him, then back at the offerings. He finally shrugged and agreed to the white, along with a set of buttons, then agreed to have the shoes be ready for pick up in a few days time.

Out on the streets again, Sebastian moved up to walk side-by-side with Ciel. Close enough that they could talk in lowered voices and be heard over the din of the street.

"So this shouldn't be difficult for you at all," he said as they walked. "You have experience lying to your aunt, and manipulation is just a lie with a purpose."

"Of course you'd see no difference between these situations." Ciel shot him a harsh look. "My aunt doesn't need to know about my magic. And as for the name... The circumstances around that would just hurt her."

"Humans rationalise their actions so much, it's an art form."

"And demons just embrace their depravity."

"Demons don't hide who we are."

Vicious, cold, cruel beasts. Stealing and lying and deceiving. Battling for power and torturing each other for their transgressions. Forcing the weak down into the deep pits of the realm, only pulling them out of their misery when they were useful. The more time Sebastian spent here, the more he realised how similar demons and humans truly were.

There was a flash of gold out the corner of his eye, making his heart race and his head snap round. But there were no eyes glaring at him from shadowy corners. Just a pocket watch chain glinting in the light.

He sighed and turned back to face forward, focussing on his task and his husband as they stepped into yet another shop. This one was filled with various styles of hats and bonnets and accessories to pin the hair back. Sebastian brushed his hand out over a few of them as Ciel approached the milliner, marvelling at the human creativity making all these different decorations.

Another flicker of gold caught his attention. Sitting on a higher shelf was a small bonnet made of pale yellow fabric, covered almost entirely in gaudy decorations. Ribbon spilling over the front, large plumes feather arcing over the crown, and bright blue jewels dotted throughout. It was ridiculously over the top and eye-catching. Bordering on garish. He ran his fingers over the fabric.

His brother had always called him weak. Said that he was an easily manipulated fool. Dangle something pretty in front of him and Sebastian would run after it. He was pathetic, useless, worthless. Sebastian had used that to his advantage once. Nobody had been looking at him, so nobody expected the weak brother to slip behind the stronger brother's back and turn everything on its head.

But even then, his brother had been right. Sebastian had been distracted by a shiny trinket. Something bright and colourful. A voice calling to him. Jewels and lace and gold filigree.

He'd been so weak. He couldn't be weak again.

Sebastian's hand dropped away from the bonnet.

It would have been perfect.

For someone else.

In another time.

He turned away and went back to his current mission. Ciel was holding various hats over his head and looking in a mirror to see if they were up to his standards. Sebastian stepped up behind him and took over for the shopkeeper, choosing ones he thought would look best on his husband's pretty little skull. As he worked, showing his husband various options, he lowered his voice and continued their earlier conversation about his aunt.

"Do you know what you'll say to Madam Red when you have her alone?"

Ciel shrugged. "I have some ideas."

"What ideas? Persuading her to give you access to the Bone Tower won't be easy. It's rare enough to find have a human who works alongside the shinigami, she won't let you in without a good reason."

"Don't say things I already know."

"I am just trying to help you."

"I know what I'm doing." Ciel's voice was terse and he was pointedly not looking at Sebastian. He picked up a different hat, turning it over in his hands. Then put it down and moved down the row away from him. Sebastian followed, his eyes narrowed. He flicked over his husband, taking in the rigid spine and the thinned lips.

"Are you having doubts about this?"

"Of course not," Ciel lied.

Sebastian moved so that his body was blocking Ciel from the shopkeeper's sight, rested a gentle hand on his shoulder, and leaned down to speak to him in a whisper. "Part of survival is doing things you do not wish to do. Those who are overly soft are crushed by those who are uncaring. You want to be stronger, and to navigate this world. If you falter here, who is to say you won't falter at other steps?"

He watched the poison sink into Ciel's ear. Let it convince him. Twist him. Ciel closed his eye, sighed, and brushed a finger over his ring.

"What would you do, Sebastian? To persuade her to help me?"

"Hm." He straightened up and tapped his chin in thought. "She is your aunt, and she clearly cares about you. Probably still grieving the loss of your brother and father. Did she care for them, as well?"

There was a slight pause, then Ciel nodded.

Sebastian continued. "Then I would lean on that familial bond. She's your blood. The only true family you have left. If she cared for you and wanted your brother and Vincent to find peace, then she would help you however she could." He placed his hand on Ciel's shoulder and angled them so they were standing in front of a full length mirror. Sebastian's hand easily cupped Ciel's chin. His face was small, his eye wide and innocent. Sebastian rubbed a thumb over his skin.

"You should tread delicately,” he continued. “A butterfly can be beautiful and innocent, and that means nobody sees the poison they're scattering as they fly. Remember our wedding, how you pretended to be naive and sweet before you revealed your hand and bound me. Simply do the same to your aunt."

Ciel was silent for a moment, just staring at himself in the mirror. Then he sighed and closed his eyes. "It is necessary."

"Many unpleasant things are."

He let Ciel grapple with his own misgivings about what they were planning, and they stepped out into the street once again. As they walked, Ciel seemed a little lost in thought. His cane tapped out a steady rhythm on the cobblestones and he hardly glanced in at the windows they passed. He seemed a thousand miles away. Possibly rehearsing what lies he could spin to his aunt.

Lying to relatives was easy. And difficult. Knowing someone for so long meant you were better able to grasp the things that could best trick them. Have them looking the other way as you go behind their back. On the other hand, it meant that they were more likely to recognise the lies you were feeding them. But Ciel shouldn't be at much risk of danger. His Aunt loved him. She wouldn't torment him for a betrayal if she were to see through the lies to the manipulation underneath.

He watched Ciel as they walked.

Such a small and fragile creature. And he still had that softness in his heart that had yet to be beaten out by the cruelty of the people around him. Pale unmarred skin. Soft lips that seemed permanently fixed into a small scowl, except for a few brief moments when a smile shone through. Soft hair. Bright eyes. Power that Sebastian was still trying to understand and that intrigued him. Delicate feet with claws ready to be unsheathed if Sebastian stepped wrong. A soft voice that was almost musical. A belly that was warm and so rarely seen but which Sebastian wanted to bury his face in. A long tail, covered in orange fur. Tiny fangs inside a perfect mouth. Perfect and beautiful in every way. So delicate and soft. He just had to go to it and pick it up and touch it and stroke it and love it and compliment it and-

"What on earth are you doing?"

"Hm?" Sebastian looked up at his husband who was watching him with a look of extreme embarrassment. The cat in Sebastian's arms mewed happily as his hand absent-mindedly stroked behind her ear. He came back to his senses. "Ah. Forgive me. She was so beautiful, I couldn't help myself."

"Put that down, we're in public !"

"Would you like to hold her?"

"No! My allergies!" Ciel pressed a handkerchief to his face and backed away. "Put it down!"

The contract squeezed Sebastian's blood and he reluctantly put down the cat. She purred prettily one last time and rubbed against his legs before vanishing into a gap between realms. So beautiful, so mysteriously powerful. Oh, how he adored cats.

What had he been thinking about before she'd distracted him?

Ciel tugged on the invisible chain and dragged Sebastian away from the cat and down more streets. "You're incorrigible."

"Would you prefer I focus all my attention on you, my husband?" He leaned forward so they were cheek-to-cheek. "Because I can oblige."

"Get off." He pushed Sebastian away and slowed down their walk. "I just want you to focus on what we were discussing, and how best to handle things at this dance."

"Of course." Sebastian straightened up and refocused his mind. "What else is troubling you?"

"Well..." Ciel's face turned from annoyed to uncomfortable. He looked away, scratching at his cheek. "There is a possibility that that woman will be there. Which may make things a little more complicated."

His voice was dripping with such displeasure that Sebastian couldn't help raise an eyebrow. "What woman?"

"There's just... someone my aunt has a tendency to attend these things with."

"A lover?"

"A co-worker."

Sebastian blinked. "You can't mean a shinigami? A shinigami who chooses to leave the Bone Tower on something other than business?"

Ciel gave a terse nod.

"Then why are we even speaking to your aunt? Can we not target this shinigami for information?"

The look Ciel gave him was comical in how much he looked like a distressed mouse. "You haven't met her. She's not like any other shinigami, and she's definitely not like any other human . Trying to get any information out of her... It just won't amount to anything useful."

Sebastian nodded, filing this away for later. He had little experience with the shinigami, but surely it wouldn't be too difficult to manipulate this one. Even if they were peculiar enough to leave the Bone Tower to visit a dance like this one. The few times he'd met shinigami in the past, they'd been entirely focussed on bureaucracy and timekeeping and making sure that all the columns in their books lined up perfectly. Not at all interesting. But he agreed to keep this woman occupied so that Ciel could have a moment alone with his aunt so as to have her bending to his will.

By that time it was getting late in the day, and Ciel insisted they stop. He directed Sebastian to one of the cafes that humans had dotted around everywhere. A place with neat wooden tables and decorations of polished brass on the walls. The place was filled with other humans, their scents filling Sebastian's nostrils. He heard snippets of conversations and emotions jostling together, mixed with the smell of spices and flavourings drifting from the kitchen. He ignored it all and settled into a chair as Ciel read a menu.

"I'll have the chocolate pudding and Ceylon tea." He handed the menu back to the waitstaff and glanced at Sebastian. "You?"

"Nothing for me."

"You're not hungry?"

"I'm starving." The words were pulled out of his mouth by the contract on his tongue before he could stop them. He gave an attempt at an apologetic smile, handing his menu to the waiter. "Forgive me, my demonic palate is not suited to much human fare."

Ciel watched him in silence until the waiter left. Then he said, "But you're able to eat. I've seen you eat plenty of times."

"A human is able to eat dirt. It still wouldn't have any nutritional value or be an enjoyable experience." He leaned back, rubbing his eyes. Sebastian had been trying to ignore the gnawing in his belly, but it was uncomfortable. He was able to go without food for decades if need be. But he'd already been starved before he was forced out of the Demon Realm and into this current cage. If he stopped to think about it, he was desperate for something to eat. Anything.

Now Ciel was looking at him, resting his chin on his hand. "What do demons eat?"

"That which humans have lost."

"Urgh, you demons and your damned riddles. I lost a glove last week, would you eat that if I found it?"

The snippy comment had Sebastian chuckling. "I'm sorry, I forgot how unimaginative humans can be. What I mean is that demons survive by consuming the pieces of humans' souls that they have lost. The memories. The emotions. The aspects of themselves that they cast off. Humans grow and change in a way that demons don't, and when they grow they lose parts of themselves. Some of those parts drift between the realms, crystallise, and are consumed."

The last piece of food he remembered had been his brother dangling a wisp of soul before his lips.

"Aren't you hungry, brother? You've stolen so much from me, come and steal this from my hands as well."

Sebastian had been half delirious from pain at that point. He'd eaten from his brother's hand like a beast. Licked his fingers clean as he'd apologised and begged forgiveness. If he had been able to, perhaps he would even have wept. All parts of him had been flayed and he'd felt as if his very self was coming unbound. The food had been the sweetest thing he had ever consumed, and he desperately wanted more.

That had been when his brother told Sebastian that if he wanted forgiveness then he would debase himself further and marry a human.

If he hadn't been so starved, perhaps he wouldn't have agreed. If he hadn't made that terrible mistake, perhaps he wouldn't have been starved. If he hadn't heard that voice calling to him for help, perhaps he wouldn't have made that mistake. If he hadn't been intrigued by the lace and jewels and beauty, then perhaps he wouldn't have heard that voice.

There were so many tiny steps that led him down this path that ended with him starving in a cafe in the Human Realm watching his tiny husband's eye light up when a plate of chocolate pudding was placed in front of him.

He'd gotten better at deciphering Ciel's mannerisms. He kept his face expressionless as much as possible, especially when in public, but there were still tics that Sebastian noticed. The way he sat up a little straighter in his chair. The slightly too fast movement when he picked up his spoon. The tiny sound he made as he took the first bite. Each unique to him, and each something that Sebastian found himself watching intently, wanting to find out more and research the minutiae of what made this peculiar human work. Because humans were all such fascinating creatures, and this one was particularly interesting and unique.

He found himself resting his head on his hand, watching his husband in silence and observing all the little things that made him Ciel. Could have lost himself in the moment if he let himself. It almost seemed like a good idea to let go and just watch his husband, to not have a care for anything else.

Until his stomach growled and he was brought back to his senses, remembering that he was nothing more than a traitor and a starving wretch.

But like his husband, Sebastian wore a mask. He slipped it on as easily as breathing. Smiled happily at his husband, discussed the upcoming dance, joked with him about his height in a way that had his husband spitting.

As if he were happy.

Sebastian had always been good at pretending.

Chapter Text

"Presenting Earl Ciel Phantomhive, and his husband Sebastian Phantomhive."

Sebastian kept his back straight and his smile easy, one hand resting in his husband's as if this was just a normal day. He nodded at the servant who had announced them as they stepped through the door into the ballroom. The curtains had been drawn to reveal the views out onto the sprawling gardens. High above, lights were floating on whirring propellers. Below, the floor was elegant carved wood will gold inlay. A band was already playing: clockwork dolls made of elegant golden cogs. It was really rather gauche to hire human musicians these days. Sometimes a noble might hire a human singer if they wanted to be daring, but this party was entirely mechanical.

At his side, Ciel was resplendent. Ciel had given his travelling cloak to a servant when they entered the estate and now Sebastian coudn't help admiring his form. His eyes flicked over the high ruffled collar of his jacket, cuffs with fine lace that brushed his knuckles, a long ruffled bustle that accentuated his narrow waist, not to mention an elegant shell pinned to his hair and an embroidered gold patch over his eye. Even his boots were soft and supple. Sebastian had sat in front of him earlier in the evening and fastened each of the buttons, feeling the soft leather against his fingers and marvelling at human ingenuity. It was almost as soft as his own cloak of whispers.

His outfit was apparently inspired by oysters, which were very much in fashion (several other humans they passed were similarly wearing oyster-inspired accessories). Sebastian was also wearing a broach made from an oyster shell, and his tailcoat was lined with a shimmering fabric the colour of a pearl.

They looked elegant and coordinated as they greeted their host and whisked away into the room in search of their target.

"Where is she," Ciel murmured, looking round for his aunt. He had been tense all day: a little stiff and awkward creature at the end of Sebastian's arm. The prospect of manipulating his last living relative for his own ends was weighing heavily on him. It had given Sebastian many chances to admire his pretty husband getting into a snappish mood, but wasn't helpful to the task at hand.

Sebastian rested a reassuring hand on his husband's shoulder. "Breathe," he said. "Remain calm."

His throat constricted and Sebastian dropped his hand. Ciel cast him a cold glance. "Don't touch me without permission."

Now very aware of his collar, Sebastian lapsed into silence as they made the rounds greeting people in the ball. A quadrille was taking place in the middle of the room, but his aunt never danced. Food was laid out in a side room, but she wasn't eating either. Finally they found her.

But when he saw her, Ciel stiffened. "Oh no... She's here."

Sebastian followed his husband's gaze and found two women standing in the middle of a gossipping crowd. One of them was Madame Red. She was making herself difficult to ignore with her elegantly painted face, and dress made of dark red satin that spilled around her. But she was hanging onto the arm of her companion, and it was her that had Ciel so tense.

The shinigami was tall, with sharp features like she had been carved from metal. Her own bright red hair had been curled and pinned up out of her face with a series of carved bones. She was wearing what at first glance appeared to be a man's suit, but which had been tailored beyond all sense of propriety. The shirt had ruffles that spilled over her chest with intricate embroidery. Her waistcoat was cinched in at the waist and decorated with more embroidered bones. Her suit jacket lay off her shoulders like a shawl, and it too was blood red and picked out with more large ribbons and embroidery. She seemed to be cut from the same eye-catching cloth as Madam Red. But where Madam Red leaned into the fashions of the day, making her dresses and colours so of-the-time that they became bold and futuristic, the shinigami seemed to utterly disregard them. Now they stood, two sides of a coin, in the middle of their gaggling group of humans, listening to the music and talking loudly about who knows what.

Out the corner of his eye, Sebastian watched his husband steel himself. He straightened his back, smoothed down the front of his jacket, gripped Sebastian's hand tight enough that he felt magic spike through his veins. Then the two of the walked calmly across the floor to greet the woman they had come here to see.

"Ciel!" Madam Red gave a loud cheer and pulled her nephew into a tight hug. Ciel let her embrace him even as his entire body flinched away from her like a withering plant. She pulled back and gave him a wide smile. "It's so good to see you, darling. And you look so wonderful! That colour suits you."

"I went to the tailor you recommended," Ciel said, making her beam with pride.

Her hand went to his cheek, and for a moment she had a strange distant look as she took him in. Her thumb rubbed over his cheek absently.

A pointed cough broke the spell. She shinigami loomed behind her, teeth glinting. "Dear Red, aren't you forgetting your manners? Introduce me."

"Ah, of course. You know my nephew, Ciel. This is his husband..." She gestured at Sebastian, her eyes narrowing in distaste as she was forced to acknowledge him. "This is my colleague: Grelle Sutcliff."

Sebastian stepped forward, bowing to kiss Grelle's hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Sutcliff."

He straightened up, catching his husband's gaze. Ciel gave an imperceptible nod. Sebastian turned to the shinigami with a wide smile. "I'm famished. Would you care to join me for a drink?"

Ciel had given him strict instructions for that evening. He'd paced back and forth in the study before they left and gone over everything he thought might be relevant for that evening. Guests who would be at the dance, topics of conversation to avoid, tips on how to be polite. Specifically, he had ordered Sebastian to do whatever was necessary to keep Madam Red happy, and to keep Grelle Sufcliff occupied.

His pretty brow had been furrowed, his eyes narrowed in concentration, his lip curled in displeasure. He had only stopped pacing when the butler had politely knocked on the door to tell him their carriage had arrived to take them to the party. Ciel had paused only for a moment. He had gripped the chain on Sebastian's collar and dragged him across the office floor. Sebastian had felt the rough carpet against his knees and each abrasion had thrilled him. He had ended up kneeling in front of Ciel who wrapped the chain tightly around Sebastian's neck and pulled it taut.

"You will behave ," he had ordered.

The magic had swirled in his eye and Sebastian felt it flow through his body with a delicious lick of pain. In that moment he would have done anything to keep that intoxicating and fascinating little human close to him, overpowering him, insulting him. He'd let Ciel bind his body and his tongue with orders for the night. Felt the magic wrap around his body and dig into his flesh like perfect claws. For that night, he would be a willing and obedient slave.

But some orders turned out to be more painful than he could ever have imagined.

Sebastian learned very quickly that he hated Grelle Sutcliff. She had a laugh that sounded like an out-of-tune brass instrument. Her perfume was sugary sweet and cloying, she smelled like a walking patisserie. And she was flirtatious in a way that had Sebastian recoiling.

She reminded him of Ran-Mao: that kitten who had perched on Lau's lap and wiggled her hips enticingly. The kind of thing that probably would send a hundred humans running, and any lesser demon too would fall for it. He could tell by the practised way she waved her hand and fluttered her dark eyelashes that she was used to having attention and relished in it. But Sebastian couldn't stand the forwardness of it. He preferred the chase. The seduction. The slow unravelling of a person, peeling back layer upon layer to reveal the desire beneath.

But his husband (that petulant little jailer) had ordered him to keep her occupied, so Sebastian kept all biting remarks behind his teeth and forced himself to be as pleasant as he could. Even if he wanted to grab her hand where she was gripping his arm and fling her across the room, he just sat quietly as she clung to him.

"Ah, my dear Madame Red always ignores me whenever her nephew is around," Grelle was pouting. She was holding a wine glass in her long fingers, her nails painted a dark red to match her lips. As she spun the glass round, she examined Sebastian's reflection in the glass. "I think it's rather rude to abandon a girl at a ball, but she always puts him first. I've never understood it, children aren't that interesting."

"Mm." Sebastian nodded politely, imagining he was anywhere else but listening to her whine. "I dare say my husband is rather more interesting than any other human child."

"Ah, of course you'd say that." She downed her glass and leaned against him, filling his nostrils with her treacly perfume. "When am I going to find a man to shower me with praise, hm? Say the word and I'll steal you from your little brat of a husband."

Sebastian laughed like the idea of a night with her didn't make him feel nauseated. "I'm afraid demons are bound by our contracts."

"Hmm." She pouted, blinking across the room to where Madam Red and Ciel were talking. "Yes, I'm aware of your contracts. Little annoyances."

"Do the shinigami not use contracts?"

"Urgh, our entire existence is contracts!" She waved a hand to a servant and had her wineglass refilled. "Every moment of my day is part of my employment contract! I have to account for all of my work hours, and then file all my paperwork and have it signed, and then account for every movement I make outside of the Bone Tower. A girl can't have a single moment's fun without having to fill out forms in triplicate. I'm so lucky I met my Red! So long as I say I'm accompanying her in a survey then I can have some fun without needing to constantly work."

She gave an exaggerated expression of shock and then winked at Sebastian. "Oh my, did I just let one of my secrets slip? I am a bad girl, aren't I?"

"I won't breathe a word," Sebastian said, even as he filed away information about this particular shinigami's habits and potential weaknesses he could exploit later. If he had to be subjected to her company he could at least get some use out of it.

But his bland remark had Grelle laughing and clinging to him even tighter as they walked slowly around the ballroom. Sebastian had hoped that maybe he'd get an opportunity to observe the humans, but Grelle was making it impossible. She was plastered to his side and talking loudly so that they were impossible to ignore, and the humans they passed all gave them a very wide berth. The combination of shinigami and demon was too much for polite society, it seemed.

He looked across the room to where his husband was talking to his aunt. Ciel had a smile plastered onto his face as he sat next to Madam Red on a chaise, leaning back and resting his hands politely on his knees. He nodded along to what she was saying, laughing when she did and offering little words of his own. But Sebastian could see the way his fingers clutched the hem of his jacket, tugging at it as if the cloth felt too constricting on his body. The way he sat up straight whenever someone passed behind him, his eyes flicking to the movement and then back to his aunt like nothing was wrong. He was on edge. Twitchy. Sebastian wondered if it would be best to go over and press a reassuring hand to his shoulder, assure him that he could do this. Encourage the twisted words to fall from his tongue into Madam Red's ear. But, no, he would just get in the way. The kitten needed to stumble and walk on its own without being picked up by the scruff of its neck and thrown in the correct direction.

There was a flash of colour, and Lau emerged from the crowd to greet Madam Red and Ciel with a loud ostentatious greeting. He had a little entourage around him: girls and boys in various silks that showed just a little too much skin than was appropriate. Madam Red got to her feet and embraced him warmly.

"What are you looking at, Seb-chan? What's so much more interesting than this conversation?" Grelle craned her neck to look over Sebastian's shoulder.

Sebastian ignored the distasteful nickname and just turned away. "I saw an associate of my husband's, that's all. I wasn't aware he was also acquainted with Madam Red."

"Ah yes. That one. Well, my Madam Red is a sociable type, and he likes to take her out to some of the more risqué events. Never seen the appeal of him myself, but he keeps Red entertained."

Sebastian's eyes slid over to the shinigami. She was looking away again, sipping her wine, apparently uninterested in discussing Lau. His eyes flicked back to the throng of silk now around Ciel. The way Ciel's polite smile twitched with effort as he had his hair patted and his outfit pawed at by Lau's employees.

But where was that woman, Ran-Mao? Sebastian couldn't see her in the crowd, and surveyed the rest of the room. He caught a flash of bright purple silk, painted with designs of cranes in flight. Dark hair styled into sharp points above a round face. Dress cut to reveal a long flash of pale thigh. Ran-Mao was standing in a corner, her head lowered and her mouth moving. Next to her was someone Sebastian didn't recognise. He seemed young, a teenager maybe. His own face was pale and thin, his eyes sunken. Long dark hair hung in front of his face, which had been painted with dark makeup. His suit jacket had a silken hood which he'd drawn up over his head. Sebastian wondered why somebody who seemed to want to melt into the wall would come to an event like this. Then again, that description could fit Sebastian as well. They all had their reasons.

"Do you know who that young man is?" he asked Grelle.

"Hm? What young man?"

"The one over by the window there." He turned to try and point out the duo, but his finger got interrupted. A man who was the opposite of the strange shadowy boy in every way appeared in front of Sebastian with a loud greeting. Tall, blond, dressed in flashy opulence. The Viscount Druitt, host of the party, had finally come to talk to Sebastian.

"Good evening, so good to finally get a chance to meet you!" He clasped Sebastian's hands, leaving a smear of fragranced powder behind on his gloves. Then gave a bow to Grelle with a flourish of his hands. "And Miss Sutcliff, always a pleasure. If there's anything I can do to make your night better, please do let my staff know."

"It's a fine party," Sebastian said politely.

Next to him, Grelle flashed her teeth. "We're having a wonderful time."

"Marvellous. Now, I am introducing my nephew to all the new members of society," he said with a flourish of his hands. "Please allow me to introduce Edgar Redmond. He was so sorry to miss your wedding. He was on an important engagement for Her Majesty, just returned this morning, and I had to bring him here tonight. Edgar, my dear nephew, come here."

Druitt pulled another young man out of thin air. They looked nearly identical. The same long blond hair, same oval face, same elegant features. When he smiled and shook Sebastian's hand it was with the same air of extreme flattery that made Sebastian feel slightly sick.

But, no. Not quite identical. There was something else about Edgar. A lack of something. When he looked up at Sebastian, the smile didn't reach his eyes. Of course, neither did the Viscount's. But whereas Druitt's smile stank of flash and glamour like a bird displaying its plumage to distract you from its claws, Edgar’s felt hollow . A gemstone that sparkled all the colours of the rainbow, but when cracked open, would be nothing but a hollow husk.

Sebastian dropped his hand and tilted his head to one side with a smile. "A pleasure to meet you, Master Edgar. Did you say you were acquainted with my husband?"

His fake smile didn't even twitch. "Yes. We've run in similar circles for a few years. Him and his brother were... They were thought very highly of. I'm pleased to see him doing so well."

Sebastian couldn't detect any lie, but nor could he detect any truth. The words, the sounds, they were so thin and empty. He had never encountered anything like it. His stomach twinged and he got a sudden desire to crack Edgar Redmond's head open to taste the inner workings of his mind, find out just what it was that was missing from him to make him sound as if he were made of porcelain instead of flesh.

He kept his hand clenched at his side and smiled politely, nodding along to more pleasantries until the humans grew tired of him and drifted away into the sea of party guests. Only when they were gone did he let the smile get replaced with a frown. These humans kept throwing more puzzles at him.

"Do you dance, Seb-chan?"

Urgh, that nickname had his skin crawling. The collar pricked into his throat as he imagined all the things he could say to this woman he'd been saddled with. His tongue was constricted and he was forced to swallow the insults. Instead, he politely sidestepped her request to dance.

"I'm an old married man now, it wouldn't be right for me to dance with anyone but my husband."

"Ah, who cares about those stuffy rules?" Grelle laughed and much to Sebastian's dismay, she grabbed him by the wrist to pull him out onto the floor. "Come now, the waltz has been in fashion for a while and it would be so delicious to have a strong handsome man like yourself take a few turns around the room."

Sebastian's windpipe was constricted by the damned collar. He glanced across the room to where his husband was sitting with his aunt in conversation. As if feeling the eyes on him, Ciel looked up. His fake smile flickered, becoming a stern expression when he met Sebastian's gaze. The order was clear: do whatever was necessary to keep the shinigami happy and away from Madam Red.

With a sigh, Sebastian took one of Grelle's hands and wrapped the other round her waist to start slowly waltzing round the floor. She pressed far closer to him than was polite, almost nose-to-nose. Her perfume clogged his nose.

"You should come to more parties, Seb-chan. You dance so well. Did you go to many of these things in the Demon Realm? I've heard the parties there can be quite... interesting." The way she rolled that final word around in her mouth, Sebastian could tell she was prodding him for salacious details. Maybe even an invitation for her to accompany him to a party in the Demon Realm the way she accompanied Madam Red to parties in the Human Realm.

In truth, Sebastian hadn't attended many social events in his home. And when he had, he had stayed only as long as necessary. There were simply better uses of his time than associating with other demons who were attempting to curry favour with his brother. Lines of demons posturing in the vaulted halls of his home, dressed in clothing made of woven secrets and falsehoods, exchanging gifts and making deals as they pointedly ignored Sebastian. If a demon wanted to make a particular show of their power they would have a human mate at their side, embellished in jewels that let them flicker happily in amongst the gloom.

Sometimes Sebastian had been invited to run appreciative fingers over the flesh of those humans. He'd enjoyed feeling the way their pulses had quickened under his touch. Each human was so unique. They all had their own colours, their own scents, their own flavours. It became a joke throughout the Demon Realm that Sebastian was more suited for mingling with humans than with demons and soon all visiting human mates were presented to him for him to admire and compliment. He learned to notice each blemish, stretch mark, scar, mole, misaligned bone, broken tooth, errant hair... The things that made them so delectable.

He thought of his husband's small hands and unmarked skin, the uneven stance of his hips and his soft belly. The way he got a set of three pretty wrinkles between his eyebrows whenever he was angry. The way he threw his head back when he laughed loudly and you could see every one of his teeth. Sebastian had spent more time with him than any human back home, but there was still more he was discovering. He saw new tics and new foibles each day.

Such fascinating creatures. The other demons, his brother, they'd never understood. Never appreciated all the layers and depths you could uncover in a human's soul, and the deliciousness of them after they had been cultivated. Demons would snatch up any random human with a contract, dress them in the finest decorations they could find, parade them around without a care in the world. They wouldn't notice the unique way their mate moved, or the pitch of their laugh, or how the colour of their hair shimmered all different colours in the candlelight. The beauty was lost on them.

Wasted.

Used.

Discarded.

"Help me. Please, help me."

"Forgive me, brother."

"This is what you get for taking what was mine."

He mustn't think about that. Sebastian forced himself back to the present and focussed on the task before him. He stepped lightly across the floor with Grelle, dancing as properly and politely as one could dance a waltz. It was far more salacious than the quadrille or redova that were in style, and drew a great deal of eyes. Grelle was clearly enjoying it and laughed at the scandal. Sebastian was sure that his husband was watching and getting irate, but Sebastian couldn't stop or it would risk violating his orders. With that happy thought, the waltz became almost bearable.

When the dances were over, Sebastian accompanied her to the other room where he let her push food on him. She downed more of the expensive wine, staining her lips a dark purple.

"I know the human food is so bland, but their drinks are perfect," she whispered to him as she finished another glass.

As the night went on, Sebatian caught glimpses of his husband out in the crowd. He was talking to his aunt, resting a hand on her arm and looking her in the eye. He was accompanying her in a sedate dance around the room, smiling and laughing as they stepped together. He was conversing with other guests as his aunt stood proudly at his side, like he was her own son she was showing off. A flood of humans passed by his husband, talking to him. Lau, the Viscount Druitt, the strange hollow nephew, various earls and counts and nobility and factory owners.

All the while, Ciel smiled and nodded and played pretend. His mask was perfect and people all responded jovially. Only Sebastian noticed the way his body quivered with effort to keep his smile easy and his words polite as more and more bodies surrounded him.

When the night was growing late, Sebastian felt a tug on his collar letting him know it was time to go. By that point, Grelle had drunk enough wine to kill several humans and she leaned heavily against him as they walked to the front. Madam Red was more put together, but her cheeks were pink enough to indicate she had been in her cups.

"Did he hurt you?" she asked Grell as they climbed into a carriage. "He's a brute, you know. He manhandles my nephew something awful."

Sebastian's smile twitched and Ciel refused to meet his eye.

Grelle just laughed though, leaning against Sebastian's side in the carriage. "He was so cold to me all evening! Made me want him more, you know how I like a man who's cold."

"You're incorrigible!"

The two then laughed, dissolving into happy conversation about people at the ball who Sebastian didn't know. He looked at Ciel as the carriage trundled on. His face was pinched. If Sebastian poked him, he would have bitten his finger off. A long night full of conversations and lies, it was draining him. And there was still more to go.

They arrived at Madam Red's townhouse and Ciel instructed Sebastian to accompany Grelle to her room while he and his aunt had a quick nightcap. Sebastian had to carry the shinigami up a flight of stairs to the guest bedroom where a bed was already waiting for her. Apparently it was not uncommon for her to spend the night here after an evening engagement. But he still didn't want to spend any more time than was necessary with her. There was only so much Grelle Sutcliff he could take in one evening. Sebastian dumped her unceremoniously on the bed, extricating himself from her clawing fingers. She hummed happily when he deigned to pull the blanket up around her.

"So attentive," she said as he plucked the glasses from her face to fold and put away. "That little brat is lucky to have you."

"Many humans would disagree." His aunt, for one. But Sebastian didn't verbalise that part.

"Ah, don't listen to any of them. Humans scare easy. A lot of them fuss and cry and act so shocked when they see something different as if the Realm is about to fall apart. But then every so often you find one like my dear Madam Red, someone who isn't scared of you and who lets you stand by them." Her fingers were drawing little circles in the pillow. Her eyes were closed now, her voice mumbling. "Someone like her who bares her soul to you and lets you see all the passion and fury she's hidden away. Then when you meet her, loving her will make everything better."

Sebastian stood by the bed, looking down at the mop of red hair that was the only visible part of Ms Sutcliff. "You love her?"

"With every part of me."

"I wasn't aware shinigami could love."

That had her giving a small bark of laughter, and she shifted. Her piercing green eyes flashed out at him in the darkness. "Why do you creatures always assume we are so different? The stories that you come up with... Shinigami can't love, fae can't lie, demons can't cross running water. We're all capable of everything, Seb-chan. We're all capable of love." She laughed again, softer this time. "Why, we can love someone so badly it kills us."

Sebastian stood there, looking down at her. She shifted on the bed, mumbling something as she kicked off her boots. "I was scared she'd die, you know. When that... that fire happened. She fell to pieces." Her voice was muffled, face half hidden in the pillows. "Couldn't get the poor thing out of bed. Whenever... always thought it might be her, whenever I got a job in."

"Humans can be so fragile."

"Mmm. We're all..." She sighed. "She was so bad."

"Mmhm."

"She'd never liked being apart from them, those little brats. Except... When they went off to that school, she kept reading me their letters. Talked about them so much."

Sebastian's ears pricked. "School?"

"Mmm..." She waved a hand, her words now coming slower and quieter. Spoken more to the pillows than Sebastian. "The brats. They were shipped off to some... some human school. Red kept talking ’bout how she missed them. Wanted to throw a party when they came back. She never got the chance, that fire happened so soon after they came back." She sighed. "Fell to pieces again after that."

"What school did they go to?"

"Mm..."

"Miss Sutcliff."

"I don't... know..." She mumbled nonsense for a moment. Then, "Some boarding school. Prestigious. She bragged so much."

Her voice tailed off as her eyelids drooped. The last thing that she said before she began snoring, "She loves those boys. So much."

Sebastian turned off the light and closed the door.

The house was quiet as he slipped down the staircase, listening for the sound of his husband. He stopped by the door to the drawing room and listened.

"You know I wouldn't ask you this if I wasn't in great need, Auntie." Ciel's voice was slightly higher pitched, exactly the way they'd practised. He was feigning innocence and acting as if he was even younger than he was. Playing into his aunt's weaknesses. "I've just felt so alone since it all happened. I just... I need to know what happened."

"Oh Ciel."

Red's voice was soft. She was deep in the alcohol. Sebastian could picture her with her makeup smudged and hair in disarray, pressing a hand to Ciel's cheek and gazing at him like a precious jewel. Ciel would be looking back at her, wide-eyed and pleading. He would take her hand in his and squeeze her fingers.

But she gave a small hiccup. "You know I would do anything for you, but this is... I can't just steal you into the Bone Tower. There are rules, darling."

"You must know some way to get to my family's records. Please!" He could imagine Ciel leaning up on his knees, clasping her hands in his. "I have such terrible nightmares... I see the flames... But I cannot remember what happened. I need to know."

Sebastian could practically taste the salty tears rolling down his husband's cheeks.

"You look so much like your father." Madam Red would be wiping those tears away with her handkerchief. "But... I..."

"Please. You are... You are my only family, I have no one else I can ask for this."

The killing blow. Sent at a moment when she was comparing him to his deceased father, bringing up images of dead nephews and dead sisters and countless other deaths that humans encounter every day. Ciel was good. He had pressed at just the right moment to have her crumpling into him, her wine-flavoured sobs filtering out into the hallway as she agreed to help him. Sebastian let himself smile as he headed to the front door to find his husband's coat.

A moment later, Ciel emerged from the drawing room. His own outfit was creased and his hair had been mussed from his aunt combing through it with her fingers. His body was tense. Poker-straight back. He shut the door to the drawing room with a firm snap, his face a storm. He had been on edge all evening as he danced this little dance, and now he glared at Sebastian who only smiled pleasantly back.

"A successful evening?" Sebastian held out his cloak. "Shall I have some warm milk prepared for you when we get home?"

Ciel's lip twitched. His own mouth curled up into a grin as he watched Sebastian, and the expression had Sebastian's own insides turn to ice. Ciel's finger flexed. The chain materialised, the collar tightening on Sebastian's neck, forcing him to stumble forward and kneel on the carpet. Ciel looked down at him with narrowed eyes. His body was tense, his demeanour harsh, and he was now looking at Sebastian with something like hunger .

"I'm tired," he said simply, his hand twisting the chain round and round. "It has been a long night. We are going to go home, and you will not say a word to me in the carriage. You will be quiet. You will behave. And you will think of a way you can help your husband relax when we are alone."

Sebastian's mouth was dry and his heart pounded in his chest as he whispered, "Yes."

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Humans were defenceless when they slept. It was so easy to slip through the gap beneath the locked doors, glide across the soft carpet, climb up onto the bed with light movements so as to not rock the mattress, and crush the life out of the human's tiny body before they could wake. Sebastian's fingers could wrap around that gossamer throat and cut off all oxygen to the brain. His knees on either side of the body would pin it down so even if it thrashed and cried it wouldn't be able to push him off. He could lean down and catch a glimpse of that last breath seeping between its lips. Then when things were over, he could snap its neck as easy as crushing a quivering bird that had fallen from its nest.

All that was left was a warm body encased in sheets that were easily torn away. Then it would be natural to lean down towards it. Open his mouth so that his jaw unhinged and revealed his sharpened teeth. Let them sink into what had once been that perfect neck and was now just a slab of meat.

Yes, he would devour it. He was so hungry. He wanted to eat.

Once there had been someone whole, someone beautiful, someone who was captivating and unique and brilliant and who had made him smile.

Destroyed. Consumed. Gone.

Sebastian's throat pulsed as he swallowed down mouthfuls of flesh. The blood dribbled over his chin to splatter onto his chest. With trembling hands, he wiped it away. Hot fluid smeared across his skin. With a gasp, he opened his mouth to rip more meat from the bone.

Whose meat was he devouring? It tasted rancid and foul. Hadn't he been eating something so sweet just a moment ago?

Teeth sank into the flesh again and he tried to blink his eyes open, but his lashes were dripping with gore and viscera. The world was nothing but a blur of red. He felt flesh slither down his throat. His hands sank into something that gave a wet sucking sound as it was ripped apart.

So fragile.

He crunched the bones between his teeth. Shards cut up his throat and pierced his belly. He felt sick. He wanted to vomit. But he kept going, kept eating, kept forcing himself to feel this nausea until the meat was gone and he was licking the blood from his palms.

A hand on his face, pulling his head back, making him stare up into golden eyes.

"My dear brother, look what you've done. Now he's all gone and you'll never get him back."

His brother's hands were prying Sebastian's mouth open. An arm forced its way down his throat. Sebastian felt fingers inside his stomach, probing and searching, wriggling through his organs like an insect. Even if he'd wanted to run, he couldn't. Those eyes were pinning him in place. All he could do was choke as tears ran down his face and that cold hand pierced through him, grabbing and twisting him from the inside. Finally his brother's hand grabbed onto something solid. Slowly, agonisingly, it was pulled up his oesophagus and out of his mouth with a squelch.

A doll.

Once perfect, now destroyed. He knew just by looking at it that this destruction was Sebastian's fault. If not for his selfishness, his foolishness, his transgressions then that doll would be pristine and beautiful. He broke everything apart.

Sebastian leaned forward and finally allowed himself to throw up. All that fell out of his mouth were tangles of chains and collars. His body shivering, his chest heaving, he spat out link after link until the mountain grew high enough to crush him. His tongue tasted nothing but metal. His insides were hollowed out. The chains were smothering him and breaking his bones. Pain ricocheting through him.

Even through the pain, he saw those gold eyes glaring at him. When he scrunched his eyes shut, they were still there. Inescapable, inevitable. Reminding him of all he'd done. All he deserved.

Then that voice ripping through everything and slicing him open all over again.

Help me!

Sebastian woke with a start.

It took him a second to get his bearings. He wasn't covered in blood or being crushed by chains, he was sitting in an armchair by the unlit fireplace in his husband's living room. He pressed his hand to his chest and took a breath to settle himself. Squeezed his eyes shut. Swallowed thickly, fighting the memory of a hand down his throat. It had felt so real.

Demons did not sleep, generally. They didn't need to. If they were low on energy then they would drink revitalising water from the river of memories, and maybe take time to meditate in a place filled with shadows. This was the first time Sebastian had slept since arriving here, and the first time he had ever had a dream so vivid. It unnerved him.

His body felt heavy as he got up from the armchair. Sebastian examined his reflection in the window, his gloved hand poking at his cheeks and the corners of his eyes to search for any imperfections. He may have been exiled and disgraced, but he was still a demon. His appearance was to be kept subtle and refined when he was in public. Luckily it seemed that his inner nightmares hadn't destroyed his outward appearance. He could smile easily and pretend the world was fine, like he wasn't falling apart from the inside out.

Urgh. That boy was destroying him.

Sebastian shivered as he remembered the feeling of leather on his flesh and his husband's body writhing beneath him. He heard the sweet sounds Ciel had made as he'd orgasmed, the memory making his body flush with heat again. He hissed and forced himself not to think about it.

Everything that had been said about him was right: Sebastian was weak. He'd debased himself and let a human control him, all so he could maybe get information that would allow him back home. What was worse, he'd enjoyed it! He'd actually liked it when that frail little human had made him kneel and given him orders, treated him like an animal and a toy. He had gone to that bedroom with the hope that he'd be able to touch the human's skin. He had felt like his treatment had been a reward . He had wanted more of it! Even after the sex and the pleasure, he had wanted to lie there in the sheets and curl around his husband's body, feel flesh against flesh, heartbeat against heartbeat.

If any other demon in the court knew what he had done, what he had ached for, they would never allow him to return. He wouldn't blame them.

If he returned to the Demon Realm, would they be able to tell what had happened? Would they be able to smell the fluid that had clung to Sebastian's skin? See the remnants of the leather straps around his face?

"My dear brother, how low you have fallen."

Sebastian bit the inside of his cheek and felt black blood on his tongue. He was not fallen yet . He could still claw some remnants of dignity back and return home with his head held high. With a snort, he turned on his heel and headed up the stairs from the living room up to his husband's study. The events of that evening had given him some threads to pull at, and Sebastian was going to make use of them.

He went through the drawers and ledgers thoroughly, eyes skimming over every line to find what he was looking for. Finally, he found it: a folder tucked in the back of one of the cabinets. Smooth brown with an embossed crest, and across the top the words 'Weston College'. Sebastian flicked the folder open and laid the contents out across the desk.

In his previous search of the office he had only skimmed this, discarding it when it had no mention of magic. But now he picked through the pieces and analysed them carefully. He had before him a selection of letters between Vincent Phantomhive and the Headmaster of this Weston College. In it, they were arranging for both the Phantomhive twins to attend the school. First they would only attend day classes, but then they were to attend the boarding school. This all took place in the last year before the fire that had claimed the house and lives of Ciel's family. It seemed from the correspondence that Vincent and the Headmaster were previously acquainted, but Sebastian couldn't find any details on how.

Underneath this collection of letters was a photograph. Sebastian held it up to the lamplight to see it clearly. Rows of children in neat school uniforms, assembled on tiers and staring out at the camera. Sebastian's eye soon found his husband in the second row, standing beside his brother. After all their time together, Sebastian was able to tell them apart. His husband was on the left. He was wearing the same thin-lipped expression he had whenever he thought something was a waste of time.

With a slight frown, he found two other faces he recognised. Towards the back was a girl with bright curls, and a face that was smiling even in that stiff pose she'd been made to hold for the photograph. The girl, Knight, was the one who had attacked Ciel and caused Sebastian to grab her blade to keep from hurting him. She looked brighter in this photograph. Not currently in mourning. Then, in the front row sitting on a wheelchair, was Witch. Her hair was longer and her face was more pinched, her hands clasped in her lap.

So, this was where the circle had met? Sebastian looked into the faces of all the other children, wondering which of them were the lost members. Snake, Doll, Prince... What had happened to them? More fires? Or had they been banished to other distant realms for a transgression that couldn't be forgiven? But he didn't dwell on it, there was little information to be gleaned from just a photograph.

There was another handful of letters, written on paper embossed with the Weston Academy crest. He picked one up and read it, searching for anything interesting.

"Father,

We are enjoying fair weather this week at Weston - there is even talk of the prefects and their boys having a picnic down by the river, much to the chagrin of the house staff who will have to prepare lunch for them. Remember your time when you were a prefect here? What daring things you must have gotten up to! You and Uncle Diedrich must attend the cricket match on the 23rd so we can hear more stories!

Did you receive my previous letter about the cricket competition? We did not expect to both be placed on the team, but we are working hard to have a good game and live up to your expectations. Do write back with any advice you may have. Not that we will likely need much help, we are your sons after all and you taught us well.

Forgive the short letter, but we must leave things here.

Yours..."

The signature at the bottom of the page was smeared. At a glance it looked like a blot of ink, but now Sebastian knew better. When someone's name was stolen, there were ripple effects. Memories of the name would become clouded in people's minds, unnoticeable to all but highly powerful magic users. If names had been written down anywhere they would become destroyed. Ink spilling across a page, water damage on a book, the heat from a fire warping the nameplate on a painting...

It was a heavy thing to steal a name. Its ripples could have severely damaging effects.

Everyone went by different names at different times, of course. Even his husband had names aside form this one he had stolen from his brother: Ciel, Earl Phantomhive, Moon... Not to mention the smaller names people used: dear nephew, old friend, loyal customer. Each name was an aspects of a person that could be forgotten and stripped away, consumed by demons or bargained away to fae.

But those were small, partial names. The name that was central to a person's very being, that was the name it was terrible to steal and was only bargained away at a great price. The name that burned at a person's core. The name they knew was them, truly and utterly and unmistakeably. The name that they used in their own dreams when they had nobody to answer to but themselves. The name that was on their tongue when they had no eyes on them and no outside expectations.

Sebastian's own name he kept tight to his chest. 'Sebastian' was merely a moniker he had been forced to use as part of these negotiations with humans. The name of a hungry and tired demon who was bound to a human without any chance to say no.

It was merely a small part of him. Although that felt less true as the night drew on.

Who was he? Brother, traitor, saviour, destroyer...

He remembered the name 'Sebastian' falling from his husband's tongue as they fucked.

Sebastian, foul demon, beast, dog.

"You're mine."

That's who Sebastian was: a human's object.

He was still in the office when the sky outside the window ticked over to daylight, and soon after that he felt a familiar tug on his collar. The master was summoning his pet. Sebastian chewed the inside of his cheek as he took his time putting things away, fighting against the magical pull until he felt like his neck might snap. Only when the pain was unbearable did he finally let himself be dragged out of the office and up the stairs to his husband's bedroom. He was too exhausted to even try melting into the shadows just then.

His arrival through the door instead of stepping out of a shadowy corner had Ciel visibly jumping in surprise, but the shocked expression soon gave way to an easy smile. The human looked far more relaxed that morning than any other morning Sebastian had known him. The room was neat, Ciel had clearly tidied up the discarded clothes before going to bed, but there were telltale signs of what had happened the night before. A discarded shoe kicked into one corner. The way the bedsheets had come untucked at the bottom of the bed. The distinct smell of sex that clung to the edge of everything. And, of course, the laid back expression in his husband's face that showed something had occurred.

He was sitting there with his nightshirt falling off one shoulder, hair dishevelled, eyes crinkling up into a smile. His newspaper was propped up on his knees where he'd been flicking through it but not scowling at it the way he normally did. His tea was already drunk, the empty cup on his bedside table. The image of him so care-free, smiling at Sebastian with that easy expression, it had a blade of anger piercing through Sebastian's chest.

If he hadn't known better, he would have thought that Ciel was mocking him. That he enjoyed making Sebastian feel belittled and worthless, because he hated Sebastian and wanted him to hurt. But he knew that wasn't true. Ciel was smiling at him like that because he didn't care. He wasn't aware of the way Sebastian was debasing himself when they had sex, or the shame and disgust that the collar on his neck filled him with. He just saw Sebastian as an obedient animal to order around. He was the Earl of Phantomhive: a spoiled and incorrigible little brat. The most beautiful and infuriating creature in the entire Human Realm, and as Sebastian stood there he wanted nothing more than to cross the room and crash their mouths together. He wanted to push his husband down onto the bed and feel what it was like to fuck him without his bindings. Wanted to watch Ciel break apart beneath him. Wanted to be broken by him, wanted more of the chains and the degradation. He wanted to be insulted and toyed with and whipped and owned. Wanted to hold every expression and thought and secret of this human in his hands, then swallow each and every one so he could feel his husband inside his flesh and against his bones.

Sebastian hated how much he wanted him.

"You kept me waiting," Ciel was saying with a small chuckle as he folded his newspaper. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd run away, and if I was going to have to put out a notice declaring a lost demon."

"I apologise for worrying you." Sebastian kept his voice even and his face stern. He walked forward when Ciel beckoned him, but didn't move to touch him.

Ciel shifted to the edge of the bed and held out his hands to be dressed. Sebastian moved stiffly, but tried to appear normal. Like he wasn't wrestling with a flood of shame and exhaustion and hunger that was threatening to drown him. He looked at his husband with an objective air. He was just a human with flesh and hair and fluid. Nothing to deserve him ripping his dignity to shreds. Sebastian stripped off his nightshirt and swiftly pulled on a new shirt so that his bare flesh was not so tempting. Buttoned it up, and let Ciel step into some shorts.

When he knelt to help Ciel with his stockings, Ciel raised his foot. A bare toe brushed over Sebastian's lip. Playful. Daring. Sebastian's lips parted just a fraction, and for a moment he teetered on an edge. If he tilted forward just a fraction he could press his lips to the sole of his husband's feet. Kiss up his ankle and the curve of his leg. Use his teeth again to pull apart his clothes and suck his cock into his mouth. Let his husband own him so he could become no more than Sebastian the beast, a tool for his husband's pleasure.

He pulled back.

Watched as Ciel's foot fell down against the bed. His eyes flicked up. There was a flash of an unfamiliar expression on Ciel's face. Wide eyes, slightly open mouth, brows furrowed in confusion. Then it was gone. Replaced with his usual mask. His pretty mouth was downturned again and his eyes were uncaring, all business with none of the amusement that had been there a mere second before.

Sebastian lowered his head. Swallowed any desire he might feel.

This exhaustion was killing him.

Chapter Text

Travel between the realms was possible for anyone with suitably high magical ability, but doing so could risk tearing apart the flimsy fabric of existence. As a result, travel was heavily regulated by the shinigami and generally only allowed for the purpose of demonic contracts and the fae spiriting away children. As such, it took a good few weeks for Sebastian and Ciel to be granted permission to travel between realms for purely recreational purposes. This meant that for a long period, Sebastian and Ciel were forced to write numerous letters and deal with the Bone Tower's convoluted and thorough systems of bureaucracy, all while Sebastian had to force himself to not fall back under his husband's sway.

It was a difficult balance. There were a few moments where Ciel would attempt to force Sebastian to be his dog again, and Sebastian had to pull back without severing their relationship completely.

One evening he was in the office and Sebastian bought him tea he'd asked for, only for Ciel to pour it onto Sebastian's cupped hands and tell him to make it again as it hadn't been brewed correctly. He had tilted his head forward, his lips curled up into an impish little smile that had had Sebastian's heart thumping and every part of him longing to lean forward and kiss him. It had been almost painful to maintain his calm demeanour as befitted a demon. He told himself he didn't notice the swirl of doubt and hurt in Ciel's expression.

Another day, they were out shopping and Sebastian watched Ciel standing on a chair as he was measured for a new jacket. He had found his eyes lingering on the shape of his husband's face. The elegant nose, pink lips, the dip of his throat, the point of his fingers. Then his eyes flicked over the catalogue of dress patterns, his finger brushing over images of outfits that would pick out his husband's best features. When he looked up again he caught Ciel's gaze. The brief quirk of Ciel's eyebrow. The knowledge that Ciel knew just how much power he had on Sebastian. Sebastian forced himself to turn away and look out the window, swallowing down any desire he might be feeling.

On one afternoon when Ciel's loud friend Soma dropped by on a whim, Sebastian had gone searching for Ciel somewhere in the house. He found him down in the kitchen, perched at the table and chewing on a freshly baked bun as he listened to a story the changeling gardener was telling him. Ciel was wearing a gentle smile as he nodded along, his thumb brushing crumbs from his cheek, one foot swinging beneath his chair. Sebastian stepped into the kitchen to break the peaceful tableau. Finny leapt to his feet, bowing and apologising for being in the way until Sebastian quieted him with a gentle smile and wave of his hand.

"We have guests," Sebastian said to Ciel.

Ciel placed a hand on Finny's shoulder to keep him from bolting out the kitchen. He then took his time finishing his snack. Licked each one of his fingertips with that shimmering pink tongue Sebastian longed to feel moving inside his own mouth. The entire time, he held Sebastian's gaze.

"You can tell them I'll be up shortly," Ciel said eventually when the sugar was all gone.

"Are you telling me to play host without you?"

His eyebrows raised slightly. "Do you want me to be there?"

They looked at each other for a long moment. Sebastian read the meaning in Ciel's eyes, and knew this was a crucial moment. Saw the weight in his question. Now he had to answer in a way that would keep Ciel close, allow Sebastian to find out his secrets, but not so close that he was losing his self-respect as a demon. Always it was a dangerous dance along the cliff's edge.

Instead of answering, Sebastian walked across the kitchen floor. Finny jumped aside with a nervous smile, eyes flicking back and forth between human and demon, ready to defend his master if Sebastian took a wrong move. Not that Sebastian would be foolish enough to insult Ciel or anything like that. He reached down and took Ciel's hand in his. The same hand that his husband had licked sugar from moments before, Sebastian now raised to his mouth. Keeping his eyes on Ciel's, Sebastian pressed a warm kiss to the knuckles. His lips moved over the Phantomhivee family ring. His gloved hand brushed over his skin. Their proximity was so tantalising, so weighty, and yet so restrained.

"Don't keep our guests waiting."

When Ciel did join Sebastian and Soma in the living room, he barely acknowledged Sebastian's presence. An attitude that continued long after their guest had gone.

He had have given up on trying to goad Sebastian into physical contact. No more looks, no more brief touches, no more wicked little smiles. From that day, Ciel acted as if the times they'd had sex had never happened. Sebastian still assisted him with business dealings and analyses of human interactions, but their skin never touched and Ciel never again seemed to delight in Sebastian debasing himself. He never again brought Sebastian into his bedroom, locked the door, and ordered the demon to strip. Never called him names as his elegant booted feet pressed against his cock. Never cried out Sebastian's name and begged to be fucked harder as he sank his kitten claws into Sebastian's back.

Sebastian told himself that this was a better relationship for the purposes of his mission.

It didn't make the days pass any faster.

-

When they finally had hopped through all the bureaucratic hoops required of them, Sebastian and Ciel found themselves making their way to the Bone Tower ready to travel between realms. Up close, the Bone Tower reminded Sebastian of an umbilical cord. The way the bones had been stacked together resulted in a mass of undulating white that burrowed into the ground and then vanished up into the clouds. He reached out a hand and brushed a fingertip along the bone as they approached a heavily guarded door. Even through the fabric of his gloves, Sebastian felt a shudder of magic that crawled up his arm. He pulled his hand back with a grimace.

Ciel didn't seem perturbed by the oppressive bones. He wore his usual blank expression as the shinigami waiting at the door looked over their documents and waved them through the entranceway. Wordlessly followed another shinigami down bleached white hallways, not glancing around him or making any indication that he was anywhere remarkable. Sebastian tried to follow his lead, but felt his skin crawling despite this.

The Bone Tower unnerved him. He had been on edge since the morning bell, and there was something about this place that had him feeling almost nauseated. There was very little furniture, and no decorations: just bones woven together into walls and ceilings and floor. The magic that secured the bones in place also swallowed up all errant sounds. There were no footsteps or idle mutterings or even the rustling of papers. Voices didn't echo off of the walls, making words sound thin. The lack of windows and way the ground subtly sloped beneath his feet meant it was impossible to tell where they were in relation to the door they had come in by. Unless accompanied by a shinigami, one could easily become lost. Swallowed by the bones and chewed by the teeth that dotted the walls. It felt like pure death.

They were lead to a room that felt the same as any other. A shinigami was standing by yet another door, this one made of a faded grey stone that felt out of place with the surrounding bone. Ciel handed over their documents which the shinigami looked over with vague disinterest, before stamping it with bright red ink. When that was done, they turned and placed a key into a lock in the centre of the stone door. It turned with a loud clink that Sebastian felt rather than heard.

When the door opened, he was looking out at his home.

"You will present yourself here in seven days time to return to the Human Realm," the shinigami said, handing back the documents. "You will not stay at any residence other than the one on your documents. You will not travel to any other Realm. You will obey the laws of the Demon Realm as if you were residents and not merely visitors."

The last sentence had the shinigami's bright green eyes narrowing and they flicked their gaze from Ciel to Sebastian, obviously distrustful of both of them. Sebastian favoured them with a thin smile.

"I assure you, we shall be on our best behaviour." With that, he stepped through the door with his husband and let the door swing shut behind him.

Ah, the smell of home . Sebastian took a moment to savour it.

After so long in the cramped and close Human Realm, the silence of his home was a balm. He drank in the air that was cool and unsullied, feeling it fill his lungs and flow through the rest of his body. There was no wind that rustled his clothing and brought with it the stink of metal and rust and flesh. No screeching of distant machinery that mingled with the sound of voices and blood pumping in veins. It let him appreciate the murmurings of his own breath, the crunch of stones beneath his feet, the hush of an insect's wing as it alighted on his suit jacket.

Let the humans and the fae put on their ostentatious displays. Demons knew that true beauty was found in restraint.

The Bone Tower shot into the air behind them - as white and garish as it was in the Human Realm. In front of them, the world rolled away into hills and dark valleys filled with silent trees and scattered flowers. In the distance, buildings could be seen nestled in their own corners away from unnecessary neighbours. But they had only to walk a short while along the smooth dirt track before reaching a stable where a carriage was waiting for them. The creature already strapped to the yoke was made of smooth black flesh, pulled from the earth and ready to decay away once its job was done.

Ciel stood a little way away from it as Sebastian loaded their luggage into the carriage.

"Where is everyone?" In the stillness, the human's voice sounded all the more radiant. But the quaver was noticeable, too. Sebastian glanced at him and recognised a nervousness to his expression. His hands were clutching each other inside the folds of his travelling cloak and he was eyeing the doorway as if ready to make an escape.

"My brother will be waiting to welcome us at his eyrie," Sebastian said, "but there is no need for him to meet us here. I know the way if something were to happen to our carriage."

Ciel's mouth thinned. "That's not what I meant."

Sebastian looked at Ciel's expression, then away over the realm laid out before them. "We are solitary creatures, my husband. If demons were to live in the same proximity as humans are day-to-day, then there would be... difficulties."

"Difficulties?"

He felt his tongue prick in his mouth as the contract tried to force him to divulge more information. Stories of brothers fighting, stealing, punishing. Stories that nobody need know. He sidestepped the issue with a smile and wave of his hand. "You of all people know how difficult it is to spend so much time with a demon, my dear husband. Imagine if there were a dozen of me. I doubt either of us would survive such a thing."

Luckily he saw his deflection had the desired result and Ciel's mouth twitched into a minute smile. "Well when you put it that way, perhaps there is something to be said for this quiet. Very well, let us not keep your brother waiting."

The carriage started to move the moment they were both seated, pulling them down the smooth dirt road and out into the wider realm. Sebastian leaned back and looked up at the sky. The sky here was a rich, dark black that he'd sorely missed. If you watched it long enough you could soon pick out the distant eddies of magic that drifted high over them. He felt his mouth watering just at the thought of being so close to that magic. Perhaps if the carriage stopped close to one of the rivers that filtered through the enchanted mountain rocks, Sebastian could steal a drink that would at least somewhat satiate him. But, of course, his brother had ensured that the route their carriage took them was far away from any magic source Sebastian could take from.

They passed through dark valleys where the shadows were so thick that you could feel them passing over your skin. Marble bridges with thorns twisting around the bricks and reached out to try and grab at the carriage wheels. Lakes of still water that were revealed to be polished stone. Large buildings with crumbling exteriors and wrought iron windows, with curtains that fluttered in an unfelt breeze. Forests of looming trees with branches like fingers clawing at the skies and filled with birds whose beaks moved with silent songs.

The eyrie, the place where his brother resided, was situated on a distant outcropping above a wide ocean. A creation of archways and dark windows like open eye sockets, held in the air by buttresses reminiscent of insect legs. The mountain below it was an accumulation of discarded statues and broken chess pieces and a lifetime of other detritus. His brother coveted those items that had once been beautiful. The half-broken faces watched Sebastian with their silent eyes as the carriage rolled across the thin bridge over them. Welcomed him home with the coldness he had expected.

"Do you remember what I told you?" Sebastian asked as the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the final flight of steps. "About how best to proceed when we are under observation?"

This trip home had been a source of stress, but more than anything Sebastian had dreaded the thought that anyone would recognise the relationship between them. The thought of his brother recognising the interest Sebastian had in Ciel had him overwhelmed with shame. His solution: Ciel was to hide everything that would have a demon wanting to pursue him, everything which had Sebastian so enraptured. He was an excellent actor. As Sebastian watched, his husband lowered his eyes and became no more than a tiny creature not worth noticing. Not worth hurting.

He hoped it worked.

The front door was an intricate pattern of delicate ironwork, and swung open at their approach. Sebastian felt his stomach lurch as something hit him. It took him a moment to understand what it was. Then he realised it was the subtle fragrance that always clung to this place: morning dew and spiderwebs. The last time he had been so surrounded with that scent... He had been shivering, weak, delirious from pain and hunger. Hands on his flesh, forcing a pen into his fist, making him sign the contract agreeing he would be a marriage sacrifice. Those hands had smelled of dew and spiderwebs.

The smell crawled inside of his body and wrapped itself around his throat. It was difficult to breathe.

This was a mistake. Everything was wrong. He was sorry. He shouldn't be here. He was a traitor, and a failure, and...

"Sebastian?"

Ciel was looking up at him with a frown. A silent inquiry, asking if anything was wrong and if they should turn back.

Sebastian looked at him. He took a long breath, swallowing everything down. He couldn't lose face. Not here. Not in front of a human and certainly not in front of his brother.

With his best attempt at a breezy smile, he placed a hand on Ciel's shoulder and took a long breath to steady himself. "Forgive me, I was caught up in memories."

The room they entered was built of black bricks, picked out with gold detailing and draped with velvet curtains. Corridors branched out from the entranceway, vanishing off into the building like a labyrinth. As they stepped into the room, the door closed behind them and a soft white light flickered on overhead picking out the shadows. They stood there alone for a moment. Sebastian could feel his heart beating loudly in his throat. He was in danger of choking on it.

Then a curtain was drawn back, and Sebastian met his brother's golden eyes for the first time since he had been branded a traitor and thrown out of his home.

He was in his powered down form: his skin smooth and his dark hair combed into a facade of decency. Sebastian realised with cold dismay that his brother had styled himself after a human. Some cold mockery of his brother's status, no doubt. His clothing was a human suit, complete with white gloves and a black tie. He had even seen fit to place eyeglasses onto his face. His entire outfit was neat and simple, so out of place for this demon who Sebastian knew favoured decadence and lace and intricate patterns. It had Sebastian's clothes feeling even more constricting than normal. He wished he had been able to change into his cloak of whispers on the way here.

"Brother! It has been too long." The demon swept across the room to them, his arms wide in greeting and his mouth curled into a smile that didn't warm his eyes. He clasped Sebastian's shoulders, gripping him so tight that he almost felt his bones being ground together. Smiled with those perfectly white teeth. "Living alongside humans suits you, brother. You've never looked better."

Sebastian wanted to fling those hands off of his shoulders, but merely smiled. "I have been well looked after, but it is always good to be home." Then, "May I introduce you to my husband: the Earl Ciel Phantomhive."

Sebastian's brother let his hands linger a moment more on Sebastian's shoulders. Then they dropped away to turn to Ciel. Ciel was playing the part of a demure human and glanced up beneath the brim of his hat. His brother nodded and bowed.

"Claude Faustus, a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you too, Sir," Ciel said in a quiet voice.

Claude Faustus. So that was his chosen moniker for this visit. Sebastian turned that name over in his head. He wondered dimly where Claude had chosen that name from. Maybe it had come fluttering through the air on a page torn out from a distant human book. It sounded ugly to him, like something curdled on the back of his tongue. But, everything at that moment felt ugly.

Had this eyrie always been so repulsive? Sebastian felt an oppresive cold as they walked to the dining hall. Something was chilling him to the bone, despite the constricting mess of his human clothing. Shadows did not appear beautiful here, but dank and dreary. The sound of insects crawling in distant corners no longer were reassuring and beautiful, but an uneasy rhythm that had his skin twitching. The dining hall they were finally lead into gaped open like a ribcage.

What was wrong with him? This was his home.

"I have prepared some food to welcome you both," Claude said. "Here, let me take your cloak and we can eat."

He watched as his brother approached his husband and helped to undo the ribbon at his throat so that the travelling cloak was pulled away. Ciel stood there like a demure pet and let it happen.

Claude's gloved fingers, they were moving so closely to the human's warm flesh. Sebastian felt bile at the back of his tongue. His body ached with a sudden urge to step forward and draw Ciel close. Clutch his body close, turn away from his brother's hands, brush off his clothing where his brother's fingers may have soiled the fabric. He forced the urge down.

Why was he feeling so out of sorts? Every part of Sebastian's body felt uncomfortable. He told himself it was just his hunger.

Claude tapped his foot on the ground. With each movement, the room thrummed with magic. The air became thick and heavy, it made him feel more claustrophobic than it already was. Was magic always this overwhelming? No, his brother was not normally quite so extravagant. He could have summoned food with just a snap of his fingers, but he was choosing at that moment to put on a display. Draw out the magic, let Sebastian feel it push over and around him, remind him what he had lost as a result of his mistake. He felt the magic pulse in a rhythm that increased in power and speed until he felt like his knees would give way beneath him. He was sure Ciel would notice, would sense the cracks in his facade. But the magic crescendoed and ended before his body gave way. The table before them was set with elegant silver platters of food.

"Please," Claude said. He smiled up at Sebastian. His teeth flashed. All Sebastian could do was give him a tight-lipped smile in return. He felt too nauseated to make even the most feeble display of strength.

But when the silver cloches were removed from the food, Sebastian felt the last bit of his strength leave him. He had hoped for crystallised memories arranged on the decadent plates: slivers of forgotten songs, drunken secrets, and childhood dreams. But laid out before him was a human feast. Roast mutton glistening with juice; vegetables roasted to perfection; pie with crisp golden crust; fresh bread; an assortment of fruit; numerous cakes with elegant decoration. Sebastian's stomach clenched with hunger.

With his brother's eyes on him, all he could do was raise forkful after forkful to his mouth. It tasted like ash on his tongue.

Claude and Ciel were talking. He tried to listen, but it was as if he had been dunked into water. Everything felt so far away. Listening was an effort. It was all he could do to keep his expression pleasant, and nod whenever someone looked at him.

Snippets came through...

"What do you think of our realm?"

"It is rather different from my home. But nice in its way."

Chew. Swallow. His teeth bit down on the cutlery, making his head ring.

"I have heard that the Human Realm is not large enough for an ocean, is that true?"

"Yes, Sir."

"You should visit when you're here."

His stomach was so heavy, he was drowning.

"Such a polite one, you are. I hope my brother is not taking advantage."

"No, Sir."

"Well, if he was I'd be surprised by that. He was never one to cause trouble."

Sebastian was going to be sick. He felt his brother's smile. Ciel's curious eyes. They both must have noticed how quiet he was, but if he opened his mouth he wasn't sure if any words would come out. Perhaps his dream was prophetic and he would vomit up blood and chains if he tried to speak. Better to just pretend. Keep his head down. Don't say a word.

When the meal was done, Claude clapped his hands and the dishes vanished. "Earl Phantomhive, I am sure you are tired. Please, take some time to rest. I wish to speak to my brother about a family matter."

Ciel paused at the table, his demure expression flickering a little. Sebastian tried his best to smile and nod at him. Anything that kept him away from Claude was for the best. Perhaps their proximity would let Claude pick up on the activities they had done, or detect the collar around Sebastian's neck. Ciel was lead out of the room by a floating candle, and Sebastian sat stiffly listening to his footsteps get quieter and quieter. Across the table, his brother slowly pulled his gloves off finger by finger. Reached up and pulled off his glasses, setting them onto the table. Undid the top button of his shirt. Got to his feet, the chair sliding across the tile.

For a moment, the brothers looked each other in the eye. Sebastian gave his practiced smile. Claude wore a familiar stern expression.

For a moment, Sebastian thought that maybe things would be as they had been long ago. His brother would ignore him, and he would pass the days unharmed. He and Ciel would be nothing more than minor nuisances here. Perhaps...

Crash!

Sebastian was hurled against the wall by the force of the entire table smashing into him. Wood, silver, linen, food scraps, it all barrelled into him. His body crashed into the floor. The world around him swung and whirled. He spat out blood.

"Well? What have you to say to me, traitor?"

The sound of crunching glass as his brother approached, not caring about stepping on the discarded dinnerware.

Sebastian couldn't think. Couldn't move. He blinked, trying to summon some magic to help his body heal itself but of course his reserves had run dry. All he could do was cough out a mouthful of blood and try to speak.

"I'm sorry."

"Not enough."

A kick to the side of Sebastian's body had him rolling onto his back. Sebastian cracked his eyes open to see Claude raising a handful of golden knives.

The first one skewered through Sebastian's hand so hard that it became lodged into the stonework.

"You were sent to get results, brother. Told not to return until you had finished your mission."

The second sank into Sebastian's thigh.

"I heard nothing from you, then received word from the Bone Tower that you were to visit? That you would bring that human with you?"

The third was in his chest, shattering a rib.

"So, explain yourself. What has you showing your face here again after everything you've done?"

Oh, if he weren't so tired, if he weren't so pathetic. Sebastian opened his mouth and felt his breath shuddering through his chest. The pain from his rib was making it difficult to think. His brother knelt over him so that his golden eyes were all Sebastian could see.

"My..." His words failed and he wheezed, his body shuddering in pain.

"Speak clearly now, brother. You're a demon, even if you are a sorry example of one, so have some decorum."

He grit his teeth. Took a breath, attempting to will away the pain. Choked out, "My pocket. Evidence. Of Fae."

"Fae..."

The golden eyes vanished and he felt pressure at his side. Then a low growl as his brother found the evidence that Sebastian had brought him.

A lock of golden hair, stolen from the gardener as he had slept. It was weak evidence, Sebastian knew it was nothing. But he could not have dared shown himself here without something . Even something as paltry, as deceitful, as this. He hoped it would satisfy his brother just for a moment. Just enough to let him and Ciel do their business here and be on their way.

If it wasn't enough... He shuddered at the thought that maybe he would be punished further. His brother would have every right to gut him right there on the floor. Parade his body before others as a show of his own power. Sebastian was a failure and a traitor, and he deserved any pain that was brought upon him. Then there would be nothing to prevent him from going after Ciel.

Ciel... No, don't let him...

Sebastian felt something hot burning his eyes.

"This is something, at least. It will do for now."

Claude's voice was calm, neutral. It had such relief washing over him that Sebastian would have sobbed if it hadn't been so unbecoming.

The knives were removed from Sebastian's body and he curled over onto his side, feeling the pain aching in his body. Claude knelt in front of him. A blade, still slick with blood, was pressed lightly against Sebastian's cheek.

"You know, brother, I am not so cruel as to deny when you've done well. Your punishment was because you betrayed me and stole something that was mine. But when you do your job like this, I will not be so harsh as to punish you needlessly." The press of the knife had Sebastian's cheek splitting open. "Are you hungry, brother?"

"Yes..."

"Then here." He held something out. "You deserve this. Eat and be well."

Food! After so long starving, his brother was holding out nourishment. It was a daydream: once something that had given a human happiness, then lost to the air and captured by demons. It had been condensed into a crystal orb, small enough to fit into the palm of Claude's hand and coloured a rosy pink like a sunrise. Not enough to satiate him. Not nearly enough to have him back to his full power. But it was something.

His broken and bleeding hand reached up, scared that it would be snatched away. But his brother let him take it. Let him press it to his mouth. When he sank his teeth into it, the flavour of food after so long had him finally breaking down and crying those unsightly tears he’d been fighting to hold back.

Chapter Text

In the middle of a wide field of swaying grass and shattered obelisks, there stood a tower made of black marble. It listed to its side like someone intoxicated. No footpaths lead to the door, and it was far from any main road. All signs indicated that the owner of the tower did not want visitors. Yet despite all this, a demon and a human had slipped away from the ocean-side eyrie in order to travel there.

Ciel was not particularly nimble, he was both uncoordinated and too short to easily climb over the obstacles. Often Sebastian would have to help carry him over a particularly large obelisk that had fallen into their way. This wasn't made easier by the fact that Sebastian was still exhausted. The small bit of food his brother had offered him the day before had been enough for him to heal up his most recent wounds, but he was flagging and fast. For some reason, being in that eyrie was even more exhausting than the Human Realm had been. At least being here, out in the open, he felt more relaxed.

"Will this demon be like your brother at all?" Ciel asked as Sebastian helped him over the final obelisk.

Sebastian smiled thinly. "Demons are as similar to each other as humans are to others of their kind."

"I see." Ciel touched down onto the earth, his gloved hand still in Sebastian's. He didn't pull away, and instead frowned up at Sebastian. His gaze was analytical and probing. "I've noticed that you are different to him, at the very least."

"We have often been told that." Yes, everyone commented that Sebastian was different.

"Mm." Ciel still didn't pull away. "You've also been unlike yourself. You've been quiet recently."

Sebastian tried to smile, tilting his head to one side like this was a playful conversation and he was not aching from exhaustion and hunger. "I was not aware you missed the sound of my voice, my husband."

"It's not that I miss the sound of your voice. It's just that you haven't said more than ten words in a row since we arrived at your brother's estate, and that's noticeable. Something's different about you."

Sebastian felt his heart jolt in his chest. "Different? How so?"

"You tell me. You're bound by our contract, Sebastian. I order you to tell me what has been bothering you."

His tongue pricked, his throat constricted, the collar forced him to speak. Tell the truth. Confess his wrongdoings.

"I do not know what to say," he said. That much was the truth. Finding the correct thing to answer was always difficult, even when not balancing a vengeful brother and dangerous husband. "It is... strange, returning home. And my brother and I... our relationship is... difficult." An understatement wasn't a lie. "Sometimes family can hurt you and it takes some time to be at ease around each other."

Ciel was silent for a long moment. His one visible eye was on Sebastian, staring at him intently as if there was something on his face that needed puzzling out. Then he turned away. "I see," he said simply. "Family can certainly be troublesome. I understand."

The crisis averted, Sebastian felt his body relax. He leaned forward as they walked, smiling at his little husband. "If you wish to hear my voice, I would be happy to attend to you in the evenings and read you poetry."

"Foul creature, don't push your luck."

Sebastian laughed, straightening up. It was a small bump, but he thought he had navigated that well. He hadn't let out any of his secrets, but hopefully Ciel would interpret what he had said as an admission of vulnerability. Perhaps this would encourage him in future to open up himself about his own secrets.

The tower when they entered was filled with roses. They were scattered across the floor and climbing up the walls. A myriad of dark petals in all shades of black, with silvery thorns that would draw blood from anyone who placed a hand wrong. In amongst them were small mirrors hanging from the ceiling on thin threads and mirror shards pressed into the wall like eyes. Sebastian and Ciel looked up at a thousand reflections, all subtly warped so no two were the same. A person could get lost in all the images here.

Sebastian led Ciel up the spiral staircase to a closed door. He knocked thrice and let it swing open. The room was open to the night air, with the moon spilling in through a round window. A soft grey shroud had been draped over a chair in the middle of the room.

Ciel stood in the doorway, looking round for any sign of life. "Sebastian? What is this?"

"The home of the Seeing Eye," Sebastian told him. "She listens, even if you do not see her. Be polite."

Ciel gave him a sceptical look, but removed his hat and bowed to the empty room. "Madam," he said. "I am the Earl of Phantomhive. I've been told that you can give us the answers we seek."

The wind blew through the window, lifting the edges of the draped cloth. The shadows cast on the wall took on the shape of a demon. A demon with long silken hair, and hands reaching out to envelop the room. A beast who had given up her physical form to be open to all knowledge, all thoughts, all voices that may come to her.

"I will answer what I can." The voice seemed to come from all corners of the room. It was musical and clear. A chair appeared in the middle of the floor, as if it had always been there but they had only now noticed it when the breeze changed. "What would you ask of me, little human?"

Ciel took a seat, his hat perched on his lap. If he was nervous, he didn't show it. He spoke with all the authority of an Earl. "We're seeking a name. Fourteen years ago, my aunt made a deal with a demon and bargained away her true name. We need to know where it is, so that we can attempt to reclaim it."

The shadow moved as if searching. There was a glint of something where her eye might be, as if a shard of mirror was embedded in the wall and moved with the wind.

"Madam Red," she said. "I see her now. She lies in the arms of a shinigami, and there is a hollowness inside her where once she was whole. Her name, it leaves a mark. A trail of red blood. Red flowing over her breasts and between her thighs. Ah, it was taken from her. Such a bitter regret. It festers inside of her. Deep. Pulsing. Red."

"Where-" Ciel started to talk, impatient, but Sebastian rested a hand on his shoulder to quiet him. He placed a finger to his lips. This vision could not be interrupted. The Eye would see what it would see, and they could only interpret her message.

"The name. It had been promised with a kiss. Bargained with a contract. It wants to be retrieved, it was not given with the heart." The shadow flickered on the wall. The eye flashed. "It shall be found in the broken pieces of that which breaks. The remnants of that which remains. You shall take it with your own hands from that grotesque horde, and it shall be waiting for you. It is calling for you now. You shall see it."

The words tailed off in a whisper, and the cloth fell to rest. Ciel was left sitting there awkwardly. He looked up at Sebastian. His face was so confused that Sebastian bit his cheek to keep from snorting in laughter. He pressed a hand to his mouth instead and offered a shrug. Finding a name that had been bargained away so long ago was no easy business. But this was the best informant that could be found in the Demon Realm, and they would need to puzzle her information out for themselves.

"Is there anything else we can do? Can you ask a question?"

Sebastian shook his head. "The Seeing Eye answers one question for every visitor, and I asked my question a long time ago. I suggest we leave. We have what we came for and it's unwise to spend too long in another demon's presence. Even if this demon is more shadow than flesh."

"So instead we should spend time in your brother's presence," Ciel said with a sceptical frown.

Ciel was halfway down the stairs and Sebastian about to follow him when a breeze carried a voice to him. He stiffened. This voice had called him by a name he had only used as a whelp. It was distant, feminine, soft. The drapes had been picked up, and a new shape was being cast onto the wall. Someone he had not seen since she had given herself to the earth so long ago.

"Mother."

"Sebastian," she said in a calm voice. "That is the name you go by now. Has it been suiting you?"

He swallowed. "As well as any other. Why are you here?"

"I felt your return, I wished to speak with you. One last time." The shadow moved across the wall in a motion not of tenderness but neither of hatred. "I think of you often. Both of you. I blame myself for what was done. I cared for the human that sired you, and you inherited your eccentricities from me. It was inevitable something would occur. I did not know it would be like this... but..."

Sebastian did not reply to that. Any reminder of his mistake made him feel unwell.

The shadow of his mother's ghost passed over Sebastian's flesh. It was considered unbecoming for a demon to rely on an elder after they had been weaned. But now she seemed to lean over him the way she had done when he was only half her size. Her voice whispered to him as if he were a child again that needed to be scolded for fighting with his brother - the boys had been too close together in age and temperament, always at each others throats and stealing and lying. His mother had sired another son too soon after the first. He had been a mistake. It was all a mistake.

But she leaned close and gave him one last message before her shadow faded and the shroud sat at rest on the chair.

"Keep the human close, Sebastian. Do not let this one be taken from you."

.

They could only delay returning to the eyrie so long, and when they finally stepped back over his brother's threshold they were given news. Out of a desire to celebrate this union between demon and human, and to welcome his brother home after so long, Claude had arranged for select members of the demon aristocracy to visit that evening. He had taken the liberty of arranging for outfits for them, as he noticed that their human clothing was not fit for a demon gathering. Ciel had lowered his head and thanked Claude in a small voice but that false obedience could only carry him so far.

"This is... obscene."

Ciel held up the clothing that had been made for him, his lip curling in distaste. It was certainly in line with demonic fashion, and with Claude's personal tastes. Thin silken spiderwebs had been layered on top of each other to create diaphanous fabric that shimmered with intricate patterns when the light caught it. This fabric had been cut into tiny strips and used as accents on a bodice made of golden threads. The bodice went around Ciel's neck, looped under his arms, wrapped around his slim waist, then hooped over his hips and between his thighs. The spiderweb fabric added softness at specific areas (his shoulders, his hips, his wrists) but was just a light touch. All of Ciel's skin would be on display. Then there were the red jewels, delicately arranged so that they would appear like blood droplets across Ciel's clavicle and scattered across his skin.

"I am not wearing this," Ciel hissed. His hands were clenched on the bodice, knuckles turning white.

"You're not in the Human Realm any more, this is expected of you. If you don't wear it, then every eye will be on you. The one human in the realm who does not want to show skin."

Ciel hunched his shoulders his hair falling over his face. Sebastian himself felt torn by the outfit. On the one hand, it would definitely draw more attention to Ciel if he wore his human clothing with all of its layers. On the other hand, the thought of someone observing Ciel's bare skin like he was some common demon's mate had Sebastian's hackles raising.

Claude would want to comment on Ciel's flesh, wouldn't he? He would want to reach out his fingers and touch it. Feel the way Ciel's pulse increased.

"You owe me a taste, brother. After all you have done to me, be glad I'm only asking this much."

The thought had him shuddering.

"Here," he said, taking the outfit from Ciel's hands. "Let me see what I can do."

There was not much Sebastian could change, but he did as much as he thought he could get away with. The more eye-catching jewel arrangements were removed, and a thin layer of whispers was draped over his stomach and back to cover the bare skin. Ciel's body could still be seen, but now it was as if it was bathed in shadow rather than positioned beneath a spotlight. He hoped it would be enough.

Ciel stood in the middle of the quiet bedroom, letting Sebastian pin the whispers to the bodice without much fuss. When he was done, Sebastian sat back on his heels and took in his husband. Most of his legs were bare, up to the middle of his thighs where the hemline now fell. The outline of his cock could be seen if you peered hard, as well as the dip of his bellybutton and his rosy nipples. But it was not so ostentatious as to be eye-catching.

Ciel looked down at himself with an expression of discomfort. He stretched out his foot, wiggling his toes in front of Sebastian. “What about shoes? Or are all demons as fascinated by feet as you are?”

He gave a thin smile at his joke, then the smile immediately faded. Ciel looked away, his mouth thin again. The expression he got when he was uncomfortable. Sebastian reached out a hand and took Ciel’s ankle, his fingers wrapping around it easily. Let his husband lean on him for balance.

“It is tradition for humans to walk barefoot, and their demon carries them over dangerous territory. So it is more… a status symbol for humans to go barefoot. It shows that a demon can care for their mate in all things. That they have the ability and power to keep them unharmed for the length of their contract.”

Ciel looked down at him. He lifted a hand, as if to touch Sebastian’s hair or the curve of his neck. Hesitated. Let it drop.

“It’s exhausting spending so much time with demons,” he said instead. “Let’s get through this night, and focus on finding my aunt’s name.”

Sebastian bowed his head. “Yes, my husband.”

Sebastian’s own outfit was not so eye-catching. A high-collared tunic which stuck close to his skin like oil. Makeup at the sides of his eyes to highlight the red colouring. The only item that gave him trouble was the shoes: wickedly high heels, and laces that came all the way up to his mid-thigh. It was the kind of fashion which would have required a demon to balance with magic, but Sebastian could only walk slowly and carefully with his head held high as if he were not at risk of stumbling and falling at any moment.

His brother was waiting for them as they descended the stairs from their quarters down to meet him. He had kept his human attire: a suit made of black fabric that seemed to absorb all light. When he saw the two of them, his eyes danced with restrained glee.

"You two suit each other so well," he said. Then, to Ciel, "Ah, was the outfit not to your liking? If you leave me your preferences, I can craft you another which would suit you better."

He reached out and gently took the hem of the new fabric draped over him. Sebastian's eyes narrowed, his fingers tensing on Ciel's shoulder as he watched his brother's hand move closer to his husband's skin. But Claude didn't move to touch his skin, and Ciel stepped away with his eyes downcast.

"I thank you for the gift, and apologise for these alterations," he said in his meek voice. It always sounded so bizarre coming out of his mouth. "I'm just not suited to this sort of thing. I got nervous."

That answer seemed to placate Claude, who stepped back and led the two of them to a door. With a clap of his hands, there was a peel of music and the doors swung open onto a ballroom brimming with demonic guests.Claude announced them to the room in a loud, demanding voice.

"Please welcome back to our fold: my brother Sebastian, and his husband, the human Ciel Phantomhive."

Eyes all staring up at him. Bright, glowing, numerous eyes. Peeling him apart and analysing every part of him. Sebastian felt like he was viewing his own body along with them. He could see all the ways the guests would be judging him: they would tell by the way he carried himself that he didn't have the magic to float, they would see how tired he was, they would see how his hair lay without its usual shimmer and his teeth were not as pointed. Perhaps they would be watching where his hand rested on Ciel's shoulder, and the way that Ciel stood next to him, analyse the angles of their bodies and the words they whispered, and they would know all the things they had done behind closed doors.

His feet carried him down the stairs into the ballroom. The room had been decorated with more intricate silver webs, and shadowy cloaks. On one side of the room a stage had been set up, with something covered by a curtain at the back. In front of it was a band. Here, there were no mechanical bands to show your class, but a group of human mates who were skilled with instruments. They were draped in jewellery and lace, all flesh on display. One of the humans had a large pregnant belly. Their demon mate would be incredibly proud of this fact, and the human had been dressed accordingly. Their belly was bare, hemmed in with intricate lace details.

Ciel's gaze was fixed on the human mates on the stage, his one visible eye wide and his jaw clenched. Sebastian's hand squeezed his shoulder gently. These humans had chosen their position. There was no need for concern or fear.

The other demons thronged around them with wide, sharp-toothed smiles.

"Sebastian. Is that the name you go by these days? It's a human name, isn't it? How quaint of you, and how fitting." A demon with large mothlike wings folded against her back was leaning close to gaze into his eyes, not taking any notice of Ciel. "We hadn't seen you in public in so long, rumours were that you'd vanished into the sea. This is, I think, much more your speed."

There was a smattering of laughter through the crowd. Even though Sebastian heard it all as if through a pane of glass, he felt that laughter. It seemed to crawl over his flesh like maggots on a corpse. If he opened his mouth to respond, the maggots would slip into his mouth and down his throat where he would choke on them. So he kept quiet and laughed politely.

This kind of situation was not new to him. He had spent years at his brother's side, with everyone judging them and finding Sebastian wanting. He had learned long ago that to survive you wore an easy smile and let the insults wash over you.

It would all pass, if you let it.

A demon with the branching horns of a stag bursting from their forehead was at his side, commenting on Sebastian's absence. "Really, we should have realised where you'd gotten to. You always did prefer the taste of humans. Living with their kind is only natural for you."

More laughter. More whispers of the ridiculousness of Sebastian's situation.

At his side, Ciel's head was bowed. He had his own arms crossed over his stomach and seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Was he also letting it pass over him? Or would he let it explode later, and force Sebastian to pleasure him until he had burnt off his anger?

No, there was no time to think of that.

Focus on smiling. Focus on not letting the insults slice you into pieces.

The music stopped and now they were surrounded by human mates. The pregnant human's demon had a face glittering with scales, and a forked tongue that flicked over his skin. He presented his mate to Sebastian with a wide smile.

"How are you finding your new mate, Sebastian? Or, well, it's a husband for you isn't it? Such a strange word. I see it isn't pregnant. But is your human even capable of bearing you children?"

Demons now turned their attention to Ciel who was still standing motionless at Sebastian's side. One lifted the hem of Ciel's outfit and his body froze in shock. Sebastian waited for the kitten to bare its claws and lash out, snarling about how dare they touch him. He was the Earl of Phantomhive, not a toy for them to play with. But he just lowered his gaze, chewed on his lip, didn't say a word as demons examined him.

"No, this one isn't capable of childbearing," the examining demons agreed.

The lizardlike demon with his pregnant mate gave an exaggerated expression of pity. "How unfortunate, Sebastian. But perhaps this one has... other things that interest you. You always did have your peculiar tastes."

Their eyes went to Ciel, sparkling with mirth. Compared to the other humans here, Ciel looked comparatively drab: his body not on display, his outfit not as bejewelled. The demons would not see him as sparkling and beautiful and intriguing, but as something dull and unworthy of their attention. Something fit for a failure like Sebastian.

That thought stung him. He let it wash over him. Let it all wash over him and smiled through the conversations.

The one thing though that managed to come to him through that thick haze, was that none of the gathered demons seem to know of his treachery. They were taunting him and belittling him and showing off their own mated humans, but none of them mentioned Sebastian's mistakes and his theft. There was no discussion of any betrayal to Claude. As far as they were concerned, Sebastian had simply vanished and reappeared one day with Ciel at his side.

Sebastian's eyes flicked to his brother's through it all. He saw Claude standing on the stage where the band had once been, looking back at him. His face was emotionless. The light hit his eyeglasses so the golden eyes were obscured.

Of course he wouldn't have let anyone know what Sebastian had done. It would reflect badly on him, as much as on his worthless brother. Better to let them think that his little brother had been banished to the Human Realm for unrelated reasons. Or perhaps let them think Sebastian had wanted to travel to the Human Realm. That would have people laughing.

He felt his body blur. For a moment, he was no longer Sebastian who had been bound to a human husband. He was just a demon once more, filled with his own magic and his own power and his own desire.

The great curtain behind Claude twitched, and it seemed as if something stepped through a gap in the darkness. A slight figure covered in ostentatious jewellery and lace, more than any other human mate in the realm, a sign both of Claude's tastes and this creature's preferences. A slim arm lifted and there was a flash of silk robes as the figure danced to Claude's side. Their body pressed up against him, whispering something nobody else could hear.

Sebastian remembered the gold and the lace and the jewels. Remembered a smile and a sneer. Remembered his brother's lips pressing to a pale hand, one whose fingers were decked in rings and bracelets.

He remembered a voice that broke through Sebastian's haze. A voice begging, pleading, asking for help.

It had been a mistake to follow that voice. It was always a mistake to lift your head and acknowledge what you shouldn't.

Keep your head down.

Let it wash over you.

Let it be.

"Sebastian." Another voice, one that was solid and real, pulled him back into his body. Sebastian looked down at Ciel. He had been quiet the entire evening, and even now his voice was barely above a whisper. His hand was gripping at Sebastian's sleeve like an innocent child. His head was lowered as if nervous.

The sight had Sebastian reeling.

Ciel like this... it was wrong. Sickening. He was a human best suited to being conniving, playful, and making others dance to his own tune. Stoic with rare moments when his true feelings would shine through. Thoughtful and silent with his brow furrowed as he considered a puzzle. Smiling when the mood struck him just right. Commanding and sinister, forcing a demon to his knees, letting his power swell to fill an entire room.

This frail creature in the gold and the shadows... It was safe. But it wasn't Sebastian's husband.

Sebastian leaned his head down. "Bear with it a bit longer."

Ciel grit his teeth, and Sebastian saw a flicker of pain through him. Humans and their frailty. But there was nothing that could be done, not here, not where the other demons were watching with their piercing eyes.

Sebastian was about to make a suggestion that they take a moment outside, when a light appeared above them and a hush fell over the crowd. Raising his head, he saw Claude was speaking from the stage.

"My esteemed guests," he was saying. "I thank you for coming here this evening. I am glad that we could, for one night, put aside our differences and come to celebrate the return of my brother."

There was a smattering of applause and laughter around the room. Sebastian kept his face blank even as his stomach clenched.

Claude went on. "This is truly is a rare moment for us. My brother, a demon, has taken a human not as a mate but as a husband. He has participated in a human contract. But I am sure that none of us are surprised. We have all known how fond my dear brother is for these creatures." Another pause for laughter. "As recognition of their union, I have prepared some entertainment for us. Something I believe my brother will enjoy. Please, brother, join me here and bring your husband-" he said the word with a curl of his lip, "-with you."

The crowd parted. Sebastian placed a reassuring hand on Ciel's shoulder, trying to assure him that this would be fine. They must keep their heads down and let whatever was to happen happen. Then they would pass unscathed.

But his blood froze in his veins when he and Ciel mounted the stage, and Claude revealed what was hidden behind the curtain. A pillory made of twining silver metal was positioned beneath the spotlight. There were bindings for Sebastian's neck and his wrists, as well as twisting metal on the floor to hold his feet apart. Because Sebastian knew instantly that he was the one this device was intended for. He was to be the entertainment for his brother's guests.

If it had been any other time, any other place, he would have just let them do whatever humiliation to him they wanted. He was a demon and no one could strip his pride from him. But Ciel at his side had him hesitating. It wasn't that he was scared they may do anything to Ciel (he knew that Ciel was only an accessory to their hatred of him) but something in him recoiled at the idea of his human seeing him debased. It wasn't the pain or mockery that had him hesitating, just that Ciel would witness it.

But that was ridiculous. Ciel had seen Sebastian already debase himself. He had tied Sebastian's arms behind him, had forced him to be a dog only useful for rutting. But all the same. There was something about this situation that had him shivering in trepidation.

"Brother?" Claude was watching him with narrowed eyes. He was unused to Sebastian pausing like this.

Another laugh went up from the crowd.

"He's gone so human," someone commented. "So scared."

"Let his husband show him how it's done first," said another. This was followed by a small murmured argument. Some voice were saying they would rather have their own mates as the entertainment whilst others were curious about the fresh meat.

At his side, Ciel's body tensed. It was this that had Sebastian lifting his chin and stepping forward beneath the spotlights. He would not let them lay their disgusting hands on his husband.

Claude's hand on Sebastian's head forced him down into the pillories. Metal twisted around his neck and his wrists: as an extra insult the metal holding him place was weak and feeble. Claude knew that Sebastian was too pathetic to ever try to escape. He would stand here willingly with his head bowed and his legs spread, ready for humiliation. Was Claude going to have Sebastian stripped before a cheering crowd? Perhaps they would take turns piercing him, scarring him, then healing him with magic so they would each leave a mark. He would take it without a care. He was a demon and he would survive this.

"Well brother, there is one thing I think that would truly celebrate the nature of your marriage. Earl Phantomhive. If you would."

What? Sebastian's head snapped up just in time to see Claude turning to Ciel and holding out a silver whip and gag.

No! Did Claude know what they had done? Had those been Claude's eyes peering at him from the shadows, watching as Sebastian had willingly lowered himself for a human? But, no, of course not. He knew from the way Claude was smiling and the audience was laughing that to them this was a farce. A ridiculous performance. They knew that any demon would rather die than be at the mercy of a human. They must have though this the height of amusement.

If they knew what he and Ciel had actually done, they wouldn't laugh. They would destroy them both.

Ciel wordlessly took the items from Claude's hand. Time seemed to slow down at that moment. The crowd quieted to a hush. Ciel turned so he was looking at Sebastian. The human was radiant beneath the spotlights with that whip in his hand. Any other time, perhaps Sebastian would have been happy to see him like that. But at that moment, he wanted to yell to not look at him. To drop the whip and leave, this entire party be damned.

But, no, that would surely have Claude angry at the human and hurting him. This was better. This was easier. Just let it happen. Let it pass. Let it be quick. Let it end.

Ciel crossed the stage to stand in front of him. The gag he held in his hands had a strap to go round Sebastian's head, and thin legs like a spider to hold his mouth open. Ciel’s fingers on Sebastian’s face were gentle. Hesitant.

At his husband’s touch, Sebastian let his lips part. The silver metal slipped into his mouth, holding his jaw open so that his blunt teeth were on full display. His tongue hung over his lower lip. He tasted the tip of Ciel’s finger.

For a moment, demon and human looked at each other. Ciel’s face was inscrutable. Was it pity he felt? Hatred?

There was nothing to be done. Sebastian lowered his head and closed his eyes.

The party which had already felt so distant now seemed even further away. He heard Claude saying something. The laughter of the crowd. The was a crack of something hitting him. A whip across the top of his thighs. It didn't feel pleasant, nor did it feel sore. He seemed unable to even acknowledge it right then.

Maybe if he imagined himself somewhere else, this would be easier. If he wasn't on this stage before this crowd. If it was just him and Ciel. He imagined his husband gripping his hair and forcing his head up to acknowledge him. Telling him he was a foul beast who needed to learn manners. Sebastian would smile and tell him that he was sorry to have disappointed his husband, and would work hard to repent.

The whip would hit his flesh and he would feel it so perfectly. The burst of pain that started from where his skin was hit and then emanated through the rest of his body. He would hold his tongue at first, as befitted a demon. Then maybe his husband would order him to let out his cries. He would become the beast his husband knew him to be, writhing and yelling and overcome with his lust. The whip would crack across his flesh again and again, leaving his skin raw and bleeding. Until his body gave out and he slumped to the ground.

Then Ciel would feed him crystallised memories so he could heal himself. His soft human fingers would smooth Sebastian's hair back. Say that he had done well, that he wasn't pathetic or worthless but that Ciel needed him.

Sebastian would get rewarded with a kiss. He would taste the sweetness of his husband's mouth. Would feel Ciel's soft skin against his own. Let the rest of the world fall away as they held each other.

Pain brought him back into reality. His neck was aching from being held in the pillories, and his legs were beginning to shiver from the effort of holding him upright. His mouth was dry from being forced to hang open. There was a throbbing sensation that flowed from the top of his thighs to his lower back, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. If he breathed in too deep, he felt white lines across his skin. He could feel each memory of the lash.

There was movement in the crowd. Distant voices. Sebastian lifted his head just slightly to decipher it. Were they going to force Ciel to be whipped also? They shouldn't, there would be no entertainment value in that. But in his addled state, Sebastian had a brief vision of the other demons tearing his husband from him and enjoying him themselves. Someone else touching his pristine flesh, tasting his cum, feeling the inside of his mouth. He grit his teeth. Don't let them touch him!

But no, Ciel was there in the front of the crowd. He was clutching his body and trying to say something. Demons' hands were on his arms. They weren't clawing at him, just shoving him to the side and away. The crowd had gotten bored of just watching. They wanted to be a part of the entertainment.

Other demons now pushed their human mates onto the stage. With cheers and laughter, they encouraged them to take up the whip and beat Sebastian.

Let it happen.

Don't fight it.

Sebastian's head was filled with water. He knew that there were jokes and insults, probably people calling him a human-lover and laughing at his position, but the specific words were nothing more than a hum to his ears. The pain he felt was distant. He didn't feel his body at all: not the whip, not the metal at his wrists, not the ache of his feet in his boots. The room spun and swam, warping around him.

It would be a simple thing to let himself get lost in all of that hum. Drift away into nothingness. Later, he would come to himself and feel the bruises across his body. But for just then, he could just forget.

Something was motionless out there in the blur. Sebastian lifted his head to see. The room was distant. Unimportant. But his eyes caught onto a small human dressed in gold and whispers, and held firm.

Ciel was leaning against the wall. Behind the crowd, apart from everything. His arms were clutching himself. His head lolled forward. Nails dug into his flesh. Shoulders hunched.

He shouldn't look like that. He was best when he was striding into a room with his back straight and his head held high, smiling at the gathered guests and holding them captive with a word. He was best when he was sitting at his aunt's side, filling her ear with poison. He was best when he was in his office with papers in front of him, and Sebastian at his side.

It was true, what they said about Sebastian. He liked humans far more than was decent.

He should have lowered his head. Appear contrite and docile. Let the pain pass, and soon the demons would get bored of him. But his gaze was caught by Ciel and he couldn't look away.

In the short time they'd been together, Sebastian had come to know Ciel's mannerisms. He knew when something was wrong. It was in the way that Ciel's body leaned a little too heavily against the wall, as if he was losing strength in his legs. How his lips were parted as if he was struggling for breath, his chest rising and falling with deep gasps. The slight flush to his cheeks. The flutter of his eyelashes. The way he stumbled on his feet, one hand going to the wall for support. Then the shape of his mouth, sounding out a distant word that shot across the room to him.

"Sebas..."

The pillory crumpled under his hands. Weak fragile silver, it was pushed away without a moment's thought. Behind him, a human yelped and fell backwards. The crowd before him gave sounds of annoyance. Sebastian's own body was aching and sore, and he stumbled over his own feet, almost falling.

He noticed none of that. Sebastian ran through the crowd to his husband, his arms reaching out to catch him just Ciel's legs gave way. He didn't care about the crowd around him, now yelling and reaching out to drag him back to the stage. They weren't important. He slipped between the hands and vanished into a shadow. Left the sound of yells and crashes far behind. All that he focussed on, all he cared to see, was his husband's tiny body that now lay limp and heavy in his arms.

Chapter Text

High up on the the vaulted roof of the eyrie, in a shadowy valley where two towers met, concealed from view by the sprawling legs and stone around them, Sebastian and Ciel were hidden. This was a part of the eyrie which Sebastian had found as a whelp, and it had remained one of his best kept secrets all these years. He had come here numerous times in his life to lick his wounds and reassemble his broken pride. Without even thinking about it, he had come here with Ciel wrapped up in his own cloak of whispers.

Far below from within the eyrie, he could hear the distant sound of Claude searching for them. No doubt he would be destroying the eyrie and all of Sebastian's personal belongings as a punishment for letting the night's entertainment be cut short. Let him. Sebastian had long ago learned to not bring anything of value around his brother.

In all the times they had been married, Sebastian had never been allowed to spend a night by Ciel's side. He had always assumed it was a way of showing dominance. Sebastian was Ciel's to command to come and go as he saw fit, there was nothing more to it than that. But that night he learned the truth.

Ciel's body sleeping body began to shake. Shudder. Convulse. His back arched like a bowstring. Hands grasped and clawing at his sides. His eyes flickered open to reveal glassy whites shot through with red veins. His lips parted with whimpers and small cries.

When he realised this wasn't a kind of seizure but a nightmare, Sebastian tried to wake him. But whatever was happening inside Ciel's brain was holding him down too tightly to wake.

"No... Let go... I don't... Stop it!"

His whispers started small. Tiny whimpers and words that Sebastian could barely make out. But then Ciel's fingers gripped Sebastian's wrist and his eyes flew open in unseeing terror as he screamed. A scream that was so loud, so visceral, that it hardly seemed human! Pure terror and pain, ripped from deep within Ciel's subconscious.

Sebastian clapped his hand over Ciel's mouth and dug deep into whatever last reserves of magic he had to silence him. The effort had his body shuddering and his head swimming with fatigue. But he couldn't risk Claude tracking that sound and finding them when his husband was so vulnerable.

Ciel's eyes eventually rolled back in his head. His body slumped against the cold stone. Quiet whispers and whimpers fell from his lips once more.

Sebastian sat back and pressed his hand to his forehead. His body was slick with sweat.

Several more times that night, Ciel let out those bloodcurdling screams that had Sebastian draining the last remains of his magic to quiet him. But as the hours passed, he soon quieted and lapsed into a deeper sleep. Sebastian lay him down on a sheltered corner of the roof and sat next to him. When he was certain his husband was not about to start screaming again, he took the opportunity to survey something else. With delicate movements, Sebastian peeled back the layers of the cloak around Ciel's body. Lifted aside the thin whispers that covered him as part of his demonic attire. Bared Ciel's pale skin to the light of the moon.

He had always seen Ciel's flesh as soft and untouched. He was a sweet morsel hidden beneath layers of thick human clothing, ripe for the plucking. But the creature lying before him was anything but.

Scars littered Ciel's body. Dark pink lines, raised up out of his flesh, leering and disgusting. A thick jagged scar ran down the centre of his being, from the base of his throat and down to the top of his pelvis. Diagonal lines across his sternum came down to meet this central scar, as well as lines up over his hips. It was as if he had been a carcass on a butcher's block - sliced open for his organs to be thrown to the pigs. Further thick scars ran around the circumference of his arms, so that his limbs appeared to have been sliced up at various points. Down his legs as well: slices around his calves and long scars down the sides of his hips. On his back there were more scars along his shoulder blades and down the length of his spine. And those were just the thickest scars, the ones that seemed to pulse a dark visceral red. Scattered amongst them were other, smaller marks. Thin cuts that blurred into surrounding flesh. Neat surgical lines. The spill of small burns. Crescent moons of human teeth. A cacophony of marks on his husband's flesh. Then on his lower back, a raised circle containing a design of twisting lizards. He had been branded like cattle.

Looking at all this, Sebastian slowly pieced together what had occurred that night. It had all been pieces of a larger whole: Ciel's insistence on dressing appropriately at all times; his hatred of the demonic bodice Claude had gifted him; his refusal of any help when bathing; all the times they had had sex when he had not let Sebastian see him undressed or even let his hands touch his bare skin. Ciel, his meticulous little husband, had used these brief moments when Sebastian dressed him in the mornings to put on the appearance of someone pristine and untouched. Covered himself in a magical veil to appear perfect. Perhaps if Sebastian had been able to touch him with his bare hands, he would have sensed the lick of magic.

His husband was so talented at the art of deception.

But it was one thing to hide the scars for a few minutes' time in the morning. It was quite another to hide them from a crowd full of demons for the length of an entire evening. He would have had to use every bit of magic he had in him to cover the marks. Until it was too much, and his body gave up.

"You foolish child," Sebastian said gently to Ciel's sleeping form. "You should have called for me sooner."

He lost track of time they sat there. Perhaps Sebastian also drifted off to sleep due to his using up of his own dregs of magic. But after a time he heard the sound of Ciel stirring next to him. Sebastian opened his eyes and turned to see Ciel's own eyes blink open.

"Sebastian..."

"Don't sit up too fast," Sebastian told him. "You need rest."

"What..." Ciel looked round in confusion. "Where are we? What happened?" Then he sat up and, realising the air was hitting his scarred skin, pulled the cloak up around his shoulders. His face was terrified when he looked at Sebastian. "Did you... did you see?"

Sebastian nodded.

Ciel grit his teeth and hunched over, his body shaking. "I didn't want anyone to see. Forget you saw. Forget it!"

He sounded like a child. Sebastian held out his hands in a placating gesture, and said, "I cannot forget. But please lower your voice, my brother is searching for us and is not in a good mood. I don't... I didn't want him to see you in a weakened state so brought you here. But you must be quiet."

That had Ciel settling down a little. He sat hunched over, his knees up to his chest, the cloak pulled up over his head like a cowl. Sebastian sat opposite him, his back against a slope of the roof. Neither of them said anything.

Then Ciel broke the silence. "Thank you."

Sebastian didn't ask what in particular he was being thanked for. It didn't matter. But he just nodded and said, "It is my job to take care of my husband."

"Mm."

The smell of the ocean drifted through the night. Sebastian watched his husband shiver in his cloak, hair falling over his eyes, lips turned downwards. He looked more vulnerable than Sebastian had ever seen him.

After a long silence, Ciel raised his head. "I want to ask you something."

"You can ask me anything. I'm bound to answer you truthfully."

Ciel's fingers toyed with the edge of the cloak. He looked out across the ocean with a frown. After a moment's thought he asked, "Your brother. And all those demons back there. Why did they do that to you?"

A long pause. Sebastian closed his eyes, trying to find some lie. But he was too weak to work out how to sidestep the spell on his tongue. And, well, perhaps he could bare some of his own scars for Ciel. If only to help the kitten feel better after such a long night.

"Somebody has to be the weakest. For demons, to be weak is to be worthless, so I am worthless. But they find use for me by making me the entertainment. Don't think it will reflect on you at all. I doubt they thought much about you."

The answer had Ciel huffing, pulling the cloak tighter around him. "You're my husband, of course it reflects on me. I... I hated seeing them do that to you."

Sebastian lowered his head. "It's as much as I deserve."

"For just being weak?"

"No. For..." He swallowed. Was he going to confess? Spill his guts and let the truth finally come out? He felt the contract on his tongue. The spell reached down his throat into his chest and he could feel his greatest shame being wrenched for him.

Let it. Let Ciel know. If his husband was to be bound to a traitor, he should know it. He should know exactly what Sebastian had done.

.

The brothers had been at each other's throats ever since they were whelps. Their mother had been peculiar for having multiple children with the same human mate and then having grow together instead of forcing one out into the wilderness to grow by itself. So throughout their lives, they had fought and struggled for power. Sebastian had been the younger of the two, so he lost more times than he could hope to count and soon gave up trying. But it didn't stop Claude from using him as an example throughout their lives.

The first time Sebastian met his downfall had been at a social gathering of demons. Claude was taking the opportunity to introduce demon society to his new mate. He had had various mates over the years, had been able to breed successfully several times, but this one was purely a mark of his status. A human boy, still young with baby fat on his face and hair not yet grown on his flesh. He might have seemed like any other mate at that party. But something about him had Sebastian's ears pricking.

It was the fact that this creature did not appear scared . Not even slightly. He stood at Claude's side, dressed in jewels and gold lace, leaning up against his side as naturally as breathing, not lowering his head but standing with his chin high and an easy smile on his face. When he felt Sebastian's eyes on him, he returned the gaze coolly. Stretched his mouth into a wide smile that had his eyes sparkling. Other humans Sebastian had met in his long life were more nervous than this, especially when newly contracted to a demon. They were stuttering, quiet, unsure of themselves in this new realm. But this one stood proudly with his arms wrapped around Claude, listening to the conversation and laughing along loudly. Then tugging Claude down to whisper something in his ear that had the human grinning and Claude nodding. As if he had been here for years. As if this was normalcy.

A strange, peculiar creature who was utterly unlike everything else at the demon court.

Alois. That was the name he used. Alois Trancy.

Claude called Sebastian over. "Let's see what the human expert has to say," he said with a thin smile.

Sebastian leaned over the little human ready to examine him. He was prepared for the human to stand awkwardly and maybe retreat into himself, since humans were normally so unused to being scrutinised.

Instead, Alois gave a small snort and stepped nimbly forward with his arms wide and his head tilted in a smile. "What parts of me do you want to see?"

He leaned against Sebastian's side, his robe hanging open so that Sebastian's hand could press against the bare skin of his chest. Sebastian felt each rib through his skin. The human had been thin before arriving here, it would show Claude's power if he could pamper the creature and return him healthy and plump. Now though, Alois was slim with birdlike bones and a concave stomach. Sebastian ran his fingers over Alois' naked flesh, taking in all these corners of him. Up his thin neck and bony cheek. Brushed a thumb over the thick eyelashes. The rosy lips. The hair that lay thick and gold on his skull.

"A fine quality mate," he said calmly. "I commend you, brother. You always pick well."

Alois gave a tiny laugh. "If you keep talking this nicely, maybe I'll switch my contract to be with you."

As he said this, he grabbed Sebastian round the waist and pressed the length of his body against him. But as he did so, his eyes glanced behind him. He was hugging Sebastian tightly, but smiling at Claude. Waiting for a reaction. For a command to stop. When Claude did no such thing, just remained motionless, Alois dropped his arms with a huff and moved to stand beside him again.

For so many nights after that, Sebastian felt the warmth of Alois' tiny arms around him.

Sebastian didn't see his brother or the mate for a while after that. He had not lived at the eyrie since he was old enough to leave on his own, but he had yet to find territory of his own. Sebastian's nights were spent drifting through the realm, encountering other demons only briefly, and he soon forgot about the human. Then one night he felt a tug at the back of his neck calling him home. A message, his brother making a request of him. Despite their animosity, they were still blood and the lines of communication were always open.

Sebastian made his way back to the eyrie.

He found it changed.

The place was bursting with colour now, or at least more colour than was expected from a demonic residence. A plush rug had been laid out in the entrance hall, soft to the touch and woven with images of dancing humans on a forest background. The black curtains which had once hung in corners had been replaced with white drapes with golden hems. Dotted throughout the building were various vases and statues, all delicately made and clearly human in origin. Candelabras had been placed in all sconces so that the eyrie was saturated with a warm glow. Sebastian wandered through the halls, taking everything in, wondering what had happened in the time he'd been away.

He found the answer in a room that had become something of an art gallery. The walls were covered in various human paintings and music was playing from a little gramophone in the corner. Draped across a chaise longue, dressed in an embroidered silk nightgown and eating fruit off of a silver platter, lazed Alois. He had grown since Sebastian had last seen him. The human was still petite, but he had put on weight so his face was rounder now and the legs spilling out from the hem of his gown were softer. He had been lying across the chaise with a distant expression, but shot upright when Sebastian entered. When he saw who it was though, his surprised smile gave way to a frown.

"Who are you?" His voice was venomous.

"I was called here by my brother. Your mate."

"Oh." Alois' tone changed, less venomous and more cold. He leaned back in the chaise, tilting his head and taking Sebastian in. "Yes, I remember you. The brother. He said you might come by. Well... He's not in, so you don't need to stay. Bye bye. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."

"Not in? Where is he?"

"Who cares? He's just not here." Alois had a petulant expression on his face and kicked his feet out in front of him. He gave Sebastian a long, probing look. Sebastian looked back calmly. After a long pause wherein they weighed each other up, Alois finally broke out into a smile and gave a little shrug. "Well... You can stay a little if you want, I suppose."

Sebastian didn't reply and instead turned to examine one of the paintings up on the wall. A human woman, holding an apple up to her mouth, with various flowers blooming around her. He'd never seen any human works in the eyrie before. Claude had always been particular about his own tastes, and they did not extend to anything human-made.

"Aren't they nice?" Alois' voice was right at his back. He had gotten up from the chaise and was now standing close behind him, almost but not quite touching. He had pulled the neck of his night shirt down to reveal a sliver of his shoulder and collarbone. A hand reached out and pressed against the painting. "He brought them back for me as a gift. I told him I wanted something to brighten the place up. Our contract means he has to keep me looked after, which means obviously I can't live somewhere that's hideous. So he got me all of these."

Sebastian glanced around the room. Alois was a status symbol, and the fact that Claude was able to have these works imported from the Human Realm was certainly evidence of his ability to put in time and work to keep his mate looked after. An elaborate gilded cage for his pet.

Alois drifted around the room, brushing his fingertips over all the paintings and sculptures that decorated the place. He stopped when he was back in front of the painting of the woman with the apple. His gaze darkened. With quick movements, he grabbed a knife up off a nearby platter and stabbed it into the canvas in front of him, slicing it over and over until it was a tattered mess.

When he'd destroyed it, he dropped the knife to the floor and swept out of the room without a backwards glance.

Claude didn't return to the eyrie for a few nights, so Sebastian waited for him. No sense in leaving without hearing his brother's message, not when he had no place to go. He spent his time there under close observation by Alois. The human seemed suspicious of every movement Sebastian made.

When Claude returned, Alois perked up immediately. He ran to the door with a cry and threw his arms round him. Raised his voice in a happy laugh, his legs kicking a few inches off the floor. When he let go and hopped back though, his face melted into a scowl.

"You left me," he snarled. "I was stuck in this place with nobody to talk to except your brother."

"Forgive me. I am home now." Claude cupped Alois' face in his hands. Rubbed his cheek with a thumb lightly. Moved so they were mere inches apart. Alois' eyelashes fluttered a little and his lips parted just a sliver. But they didn't close the gap between their mouths. Claude was motionless, one hand on Alois' cheek and the other brushing down under his chin. Alois could have moved closer. But he closed his mouth. Swallowed. Pressed his hands to Claude's chest to push him away and giving a haughty little laugh.

"Well, whatever. You better have brought me something to make up for it, or I'll never forgive you."

Claude had a large crate which had Alois hopping up and down with glee. When it was cracked open, it was filled with various human artefacts. A jewelled choker that fit around Alois' neck. A gilded music box that had a mechanical dancer inside. A teapot with matching cups.

Alois picked up the teapot, turning it over in his hands. He looked at Claude. Let the teapot slip out of his hands to shatter on the ground.

Claude didn't react. Stood there stoically and met Alois' gaze, until eventually Alois looked away. "You seem tired," he said to his human. "Let me help you to bed."

Only as he lead Alois away did Claude finally acknowledge Sebastian's presence. He gave him a sharp look, indicating that there were things to discuss and he was to stay put. Sebastian stayed down in the foyer, looking down at the pieces of shattered porcelain and trying to understand what exactly he had just watched. Humans were such fascinating creatures. Clearly there was still so much he didn't understand about how they worked.

Claude had called Sebastian back to the eyrie for a simple reason. "He needs watched," he explained later over a dinner of crystallised memories. "I have business that needs attended to, and cannot take him with me. The last thing I'd need is a weak creature like that getting hurt and bothering my work. I know you have no mate of your own, and no commitments. Here is my offer: you can stay here and I shall not bother you, but in return when I am away you will make sure the human doesn't hurt itself."

It was an insulting offer. One that Sebastian knew he would be a fool to turn down. He was a demon without a territory, without a nest to call his own. At least when sharing the eyrie with his brother, he would have some guarantee of safety from other demons as well as food and other stores of magical energy. It would be a mark of status if Claude was be able to have another demon look after his mate. It would be in his interest to make sure that Sebastian was safe and looked after, so long as Sebastian looked after Alois in turn.

He told himself self-preservation was the only reason he accepted the offer. That it had nothing to do with the mercurial little human who had contracted himself to Claude. So he settled into a room out in the depths of the eyrie, and kept an eye on the human just as he'd been told.

That first night, Alois spent all of his time in that tiny art gallery waiting for Claude to come through and see the way that the painting had been destroyed. Sebastian hovered in the shadows, curious about how the interaction would go down. It took three nights before Claude deigned to let Alois see him pass through the room. His presence had Alois sitting up like a puppy. He smiled a wide smile, his chin on his hands, feet kicking in the air behind him, eyes focussed on Claude as he approached the tattered remains of the painting.

"I didn't like this one," Alois said with a tiny laugh. "Get better paintings next time."

"Very well." Claude snapped his fingers and the ruined painting vanished from the wall.

"Hmph." Alois blinked. After a beat, he flopped himself over onto his back with his arms crossed over his stomach. "And when are you going to hold another ball? I'm so bored here with nothing to do."

"We can have one whenever you want."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"I promised to take care of you."

"You did. So... If I told you to have one tonight..."

"I would do my best to put it on."

Alois sat up, his eyes narrowed. "If I told you I wanted you to throw a costume ball, with a hundred guests and a full orchestra. And a whole lot of food for everybody. And I wanted it thrown in an hour."

Claude didn't answer, merely stood there with his hands behind his back meeting his mate's gaze. Alois' smile twitched. Then he scowled and kicked his foot out, toppling over a small table near to his chair. "Forget it. Your shitty balls are all full of shitty demons anyway. Who'd want to go to one of those?"

Claude stood there as more moments stretched on, watching his mate stew in his own emotions. Then finally Alois pushed himself out of the chair and looped his arm through Claude's, demanding he be accompanied to the library so they could read something new together. After they'd gone, Sebastian sank down from the shadows and righted the table by the chair.

"How interesting," he said to himself.

Sebastian spent so many nights observing Alois and trying to unravel the strange way his brain worked. He felt though that the more time he was around the human, the more unpredictable he become.

Alois had contracted with Claude in exchange for wealth. Hardly a novel reason to forge a contract. So many humans had a hunger for power back in the Human Realm, and thought that wealth would be the way to ensure that. So in the Demon Realm, Alois took care to demand as much of Claude as he could. He liked it when Claude lavished him with gifts and rich food, when he was given an education that would rival any human noble, when he was paraded in front of other demons and their mates in outfits that were so much more beautiful than any of them could hope to achieve. That much seemed simple enough. He was more garish in his tastes than other humans, and more comfortable making demands of a demon, but that in itself was not the puzzling thing. It was the splashes of strange contradictory reactions that were scattered throughout all of this that were intriguing.

Claude would leave for countless nights, and return with more boxes of treasures imported from Alois' home realm. Each time, Alois' reactions would vary. He would throw the fabric over Claude's shoulder and insist that the demon needed to wear a bright and colourful outfit for their next outing. He would smash an entire box of ornaments because they were hideous and not what he wanted. He would wordlessly turn over all the books in a crate, his lower lip quivering with barely-restrained sobs. Each time, a different reaction. Some of them to be expected of a human mate, others completely baffling.

The eyrie quickly became crowded with human items. Alois was insatiable. Sebastian would find him wandering the halls, examining whatever new item had been delivered from the Human Realm, inscrutable expressions on his face. Sebastian wanted to understand those reactions but it was so difficult. So many times they didn't match his outward actions. Some nights Sebastian thought Alois was overjoyed by a gift, and he'd throw it out of a window into the ocean. He would sneer at Sebastian, then immediately burst into loud laughter that didn't reach his eyes.

Like a flickering, iridescent flame. Changing shape. Changing colour. Beautiful and impossible, and endlessly fascinating.

However, throughout it all, there was one area where Alois was perfectly predictable: his treatment of Sebastian. He loathed the demon. Whenever Claude left Alois in his care, Alois took every opportunity to make this hatred known.

It started out small, with Alois insulting Sebastian and rejecting all his offers of assistance.

He would slam the tray of food offered to him to the ground and yell, "This shit is inedible. Can't you do anything right?" Then he would grin widely as Sebastian cleaned it up.

At any parties where Sebastian was humiliated, Alois would cheer and clap happily at Claude's side. Take any opportunity to join in on the fun, throwing insults and jeers at the demon as if he were part of the demonic crowd.

As time went on, he grew bolder with his admonishing of Sebastian. He began throwing things so that they shattered closer and closer to Sebastian's head, and waving knives in front of his nose but not quite daring to close the distance. He might cut a lock of Sebastian's hair so that his appearance was marred. Stain his clothes with paint and declare that he looked much better in colour. But nothing too harmful, not at first.

The first time he made physical contact with Sebastian had been interesting. It started out as an ordinary night with Sebastian bringing him dinner and Alois insulting everything he could. He had picked up one of the crystal glasses that Claude had newly had imported, and he held it up so it caught the light. His eyes sparked with anger. His mouth twitched. With a wide laugh, he brought the glass round in an arc and smashed it against Sebastian's face.

Glass cut through his skin. Blood sprayed out of his flesh and onto Alois' bright yellow shirt. Hot red droplets on the human's skin. His blue eyes wide in shock.

Immediately, the laughing and yelling stopped. He dropped the stem of the glass he'd smashed against Sebastian's head and stammered out confused words. Sebastian raised his hand to his face. Looked at the blood smeared on his palm. Then at Alois' scared expression. There were tears in the human's eyes.

"W- will you..." Alois' voice was nervous and quavering. A new sound that Sebastian hadn't heard from him before. He swallowed. Fat tears rolled down his cheeks. "You won't tell your brother, will you?"

Ah, so the first thought was of Claude. Sebastian wondered why that stung him more than the glass.

He turned away and let the magic stitch his wound back together. "If he asks I won't lie, but I doubt he'll be upset by this."

"Oh... G- good..."

Until Claude's return after that incident, Alois barely raised his voice. But by the next trip, he had regained confidence. He grew more physical from then on.

The fact that Sebastian took his blows without complaint and healed them seemed to anger Alois even more than if Sebastian had died at his hands. He smashed new gifts from Claude against Sebastian in an attempt to break bones. Stabbed him with cutlery that he said he needed to test out. Held Sebastian's head under water as Sebastian tried to run a bath for him.

One memorable night had Alois kneeling on his chest, one hand clutching Sebastian's cheek to keep him in place as the other stabbed into his eye. He felt Alois' fingers wriggling inside of the socket. The scrape of fingernails scraped over bone. The heat of blood flowing down his skin and into his mouth. Alois' face was alight with a manic delight that had Sebastian's own heart thumping. Then Alois pulled away with disgust. He wiped his fingers in Sebastian's hair and left him there with orders to clean everything up.

Sebastian lay on the ground feeling his eye knit itself back together and thought of how pleasant it have been to have Alois' weight on his chest. He wondered what had been happening in the Human Realm to create a child so unpredictable as this one.

However, moments where Alois took out his sadistic impulses on Sebastian were too much of a rarity. Whenever Claude was at the eyrie, Alois focussed his attention on him. Then when he was away, half of the time Alois was in a depressed malaise waiting for him to return. The flares of violence were the one radiant bright spot that showed he was still alive.

One evening had Sebastian pausing before he lit the lamps in Alois’ room, distracted by a light scent he was unfamiliar with. Something salty and sweet. He peered through the darkness. There was liquid on Alois’ cheek. Sebastian stood by his bedside a moment, watching him sleep. His hands clutched in front of his face as if hugging an imaginary toy to his chest. His spine curled up into a ball. His cheeks still wet with tears.

Demons could not cry. Their powered-down forms did not need liquid the way humans did, so there was no need for working tear ducts. Certainly, showing any outward emotion with tears would be considered unnecessarily garish. He wondered how human tears tasted and felt his mouth water.

But he turned away and lit the lamps, calling in a gentle voice to wake the little human he was caring for. Alois however wasn’t in a mood to sit up and cause havoc that night. When he woke, he just pulled the covers up over his head.

“Get lost,” he muttered through the eiderdown.

“I am instructed to care for you in my brother’s absence,” Sebastian said calmly, the same way he did every night that Alois was like this. “Tonight’s tea blend is a new import: Gullthistle. It’s harvested from the borders between realms, and its flavour profile is-”

“I don’t care. Shut up and take your stupid tea and… I don’t give a crap what you do with it. Just leave me alone.”

Sebastian stood by the bed holding the teapot in his hands, watching the shivering lump of bedcovers that was Alois. It was going to be one of those nights where Alois would need to be handled gently. Sebastian would leave him the tea and a selection of cakes which he knew Alois liked (the ones decorated with candied almonds), then retreat to the shadows to keep watch. When Alois was ready to get up, Sebastian would then re-emerge to help him dress. Alois would be listless those evenings and need to be dressed like some kind of doll. If the mood took him, he might mutter that the clothing options Sebastian offered him were shit but he would eventually allow himself to be dressed. And the night from there would pass slowly and quietly.

Occasionally there would be sparks of his anger through the malaise. He would swear at Sebastian and call him incompetent. Or perhaps he would lazily throw something across the room and scowl at it wherever it lay as if it had caused him a great wrong. Little sparks that showed the memory of the creature Sebastian knew him to be.

Tiny sparks of his fire, separated by that malaise and the obsession with Claude. But those little sparks were so compelling. They fuelled Sebastian like nothing else. He had always been more interested in humans than other demons. He had never expected that his interest would be what lead to his downfall. It was just his weakness. Something to be laughed at, but nothing more harmful.

But it could not stay innocent for long.

One night after Claude's return from a brief absence, Sebastian heard conversations coming from Alois' bedroom. A human and demon, one talking with a musical lilt and the other cool and even.

"Do you think I'm beautiful?"

"You're a fine mate, Alois."

"And you want to touch me, don't you?"

"Being contracted to you is all I need."

"But you do want to touch me. I can see in your eyes, all you creatures are the same. You want to fuck me don't you? Want to put your demon cock inside me."

Claude was silent.

Alois' voice turned snappish. "Come on then. Touch me. Wherever you want, touch me. Touch me the way I know you want to. The way- No! No, stop it. Wait, stop it, get back. Don't move, I don't..." The sound of stumbling footsteps, and something being thrown. Shattering against a wall. Then Alois' voice, high-pitched and yelling, "Get out! I don't want to see you, fuck you."

Sebastian vanished into shadows, no desire to meet his brother after that altercation. For some reason, that overheard conversation replayed itself in his head more than others.

At a gathering many nights later, Claude took Alois with him in a newly imported outfit. Ribbons cascaded down his neck and looped around his frame, all different colours and patterns. He stepped into the dark room like a rainbow made flesh. The entire night he kept close to Claude's side, his face fixed into a happy smile even as Sebastian saw his hands grip tightly to Claude's outfit. At a lull in conversation, Claude beckoned Sebastian to them.

"There are new mates here, why not have the human expert pick which one is best?"

The demons laughed and clapped happily, pulling Sebastian into the middle of their throng. Sebastian bowed his head and went along with things, the way he always did. Humans were presented to him, and he obediently observed them. Found the uniqueness to each one. The way one shivered when his hand caressed the curve of her hip. The sound of another's gasp when Sebastian's teeth dug lightly into their skin. He gave flattering assessments of them all, complimenting demons on their fine tastes.

Then his brother's hands were on his shoulders and forcing him down onto a chair. A flash of colours in front of him. Blond hair in amongst the darkness. Bright eyes that never seemed to shine no matter how loud the human laughed.

Alois climbed into Sebastian's lap and hovered over him, smiling a wicked grin. His hands wrapped around Sebastian's neck. His spine arched so his hips were in the air even as his chest bowed towards Sebastian's front. Lowered his mouth so Sebastian could feel his hot breath over his cheek. Licked the curve of Sebastian's ear.

"Well, brother? What's your assessment of mine?"

Sebastian's hands rose up to brush over Alois' hips. He heard Alois give out a loud moan right next to his ear, but could also hear its falsity. Moved his fingers up the front of Alois' chest, slipping under the ribbons to brush over his nipples. Then one hand drifted down to rest on Alois' stomach whilst the other went to his soft blond hair. Gently, Sebastian pulled Alois' face round to look him in the eye. The human was wearing a sneering smile. But there was a twitch at the side of his mouth. A tenseness to his shoulders. He moved his hips in a little circle and stuck out his tongue as if he was a coquettish little imp, but it was all fake . A show for the gathered demons. For Claude.

He didn't want to see what performance Alois put on for other demons. Sebastian wanted to know what Alois would be like if they were touching each other like this away from prying eyes. If he were allowed to touch Alois slowly and leisurely, figure out all the things that truly made him tick. He imagined slowly licking up the side of the human's body and listening to the way his heartbeat increased. Taste the hollow of his throat and feel the way blood pulsed beneath the skin. Grip his hand and interlace their fingers, pull the human closer, press their bodies together, understand all the complexities going on inside his skull.

"Touch me," the human would purr against him. And he wouldn't push him away the way he had pushed away Claude.

He wanted to know what would make Alois happy. Truly happy. How would he like to be held? How would he like to be kissed? Would he be happiest if Sebastian wrapped his hands round his waist and fucked him, or would he prefer to sit on Sebastian's chest and strangle him? Would it please him? Would it make a sparkle appear in those cold eyes? Would it have him smiling without that strange falsity that always hung at the edges of his mouth? He wanted to know. Wanted to understand.

That was the moment that sealed his fate. Sebastian knew then, as he gazed up at Alois' cold eyes in the middle of that gathering of demons: he wanted his brother's mate. And not as other demons may covet something. Not as a show of status or to have a pretty possession. His want was far more repulsive and wrong.

.

Those years with Alois were pleasure and pain in equal measures. Sebastian watched him grow from the frail child with the sunken cheeks to a teenager with round face and soft stomach, his cheeks rosy with health and his skin soft from pampering. He was frequently loud and gauche. He took delight in causing a scene and gauging others' reactions. He learned musical instruments so that he could take centre stage at an event and get showered with compliments afterwards. Gifts from the Human Realm were destroyed again and again with loud shouts of anger or giddiness.

And frequently, he toyed with Sebastian. Skewering him with a blade to watch the way blood soaked through his clothes. Pushing him off of a boat into a slowly rolling river, happily planting his boot on Sebastian's forehead to force him under. Streams of insults and expletives, and loud laughter at his expense.

All of that was pleasure to Sebastian. He would have gladly lived in those moments with the sadistic little human trying to hurt him and leaving him with scratches like kisses. The thing which hurt him was the thing that Alois wasn't even conscious of.

For whenever he hurt Sebastian, threw vases at him, insulted him, whenever he showed that sparkling life within him, his gaze always went to Claude the moment his brother made an appearance. Alois was always waiting for a reaction. Desperate for Claude to acknowledge him, join in on the laughter, congratulate him on his volatile performance, take his delicate palm and kiss it. None of the anger and pain was actually directed at Sebastian. Sebastian could have been anybody.

All that mattered to Alois was Claude.

Sebastian was, and always had been, worthless.

Chapter Text

Seven years. That was the length of a demonic contract. Seven years of a human's life, when they were tethered to the Demon Realm and used as breeding stock or status symbols. Seven years of pain and pleasure and destroyed gifts and elaborate outfits and Sebastian being humiliated in front of a baying crowd. Seven years of watching a human go from a skinny waif with dry hair and chapped lips, to a rosy-cheeked teenager with soft stomach and venomous tongue. It was far too little.

The last time Sebastian saw Alois, he had not seemed at all bothered by those seven years. He was leaning against one of the crates of his belongings, dressed in a new plum-coloured jacket and crossing one foot over the other as he picked at his teeth with a knife. When Claude approached, he dropped the knife to the floor to flash him a wide smile.

"Come to see me one last time, have you?" He lifted one foot to rub the toe up and down Claude's shin. "Will you miss me terribly? You'd better not kill yourself because you miss me so much."

"I will look back at our contract with pleasure," Claude said simply. He pressed a hand to his chest and bowed slightly. "You have been an exemplary mate."

Alois' foot paused by Claude's shin. Then dropped down to the floor with a clack. He turned with a huff and struck the top of the crate with his hand. "Have these sent to me in the Human Realm. I'm going to have a massive party when I get back there so I want to have all these decorations put up." There was a pause. He glanced back at Claude. Perhaps he wanted to say something. But then he left without saying a word, sweeping down the steps to where a carriage was waiting for him.

The eyrie was cold and quiet without Alois. All of the paintings and fabrics were removed to be sent back to the Human Realm as part of his contract, and their absence was heavy. Sebastian had never cared for the opulence of the decorations - they had all been rather garish - but the stark contrast felt cold on his skin. He would drift down the dark corridors expecting to see a flash of gold and lace, a memory of Alois. But there was nothing.

Sebastian left the eyrie that night. There was a brief moment where he considered staying and making a lair for himself in the room that had once been Alois'. He could have passed the time existing in the space the human had existed in. Imagining that he could still hear his voice, feel his touch. But he dismissed that notion immediately. He was already a laughing stock in the realm for liking humans. If he was to be caught with fond memories of a mate that wasn't even there any more and had never been his ... No. Better to put distance between himself and any memories.

Sebastian was broken.

He'd known it for a long time, and it as only confirmed in those long nights. He had always been warped and wrong, but it had up until then been a more subtle type of wrongness. One that could be laughed off and ignored. Appreciating humans was an oddity, bordering on absurdity, but it was ultimately harmless. Now though he found himself drifting, untethered, haunted by the knowledge that he was irredeemably twisted.

Even after the human was gone, Sebastian still desired him. He couldn't settle in one place to rest because the moment he stood still his brain would start swimming with images of him. Memories of those seven years. Dreams of a possible future. He couldn't help but think of Alois calling his name, kissing his skin, holding him close, choosing a contract with him. It was grotesque.

One night found him climbing the tower of the Seeing Eye, through the roses and the mirrors. The shadows coalesced into a figure across the wall. She asked Sebastian what he wanted, what his one question would be.

Perhaps he should have asked how to fix himself. He needed instructions on how to rip out the part of him that desired humans, and take with it all the memories and all the longing that festered inside of him. A smarter demon would have. But Sebastian's mind was turning over and over, haunted by that cruel little human, and he had only one thing on his mind.

"The human known as Alois Trancy, the one who had contracted with my brother. How is he? Is he alright? Is he... happy? I need to know that he's happy. And safe."

The shadows twisted. A hand reached across the room and tapped on a mirror that shone a bright gold. "Take this," she said gently. "Whisper his name into it, and it shall reach across realms to show you the one you desire."

The mirror was cold and oddly heavy in his palm. He spent many nights after that wordlessly turning it over and over, looking at the way it reflected his own eyes back at him. All he had to do to see the human would be to say his name. Curl his lips around that word and admit out loud that he desired him. That was a step too far. Sebastian still had his pride as a demon, and he did not think he could live with himself if he admitted his weakness out loud even if the only person to hear it was the empty land around him. So the mirror lived in a pocket of his outfit, pressed close to the hollow of his throat so that he felt it each time he swallowed.

But still as he wandered, his mind turned to Alois. The human had only been in his orbit for a sliver of time, but it had been enough to embed him in Sebastian's mind. Now he stood by the side of a river and remembered a human lazing at the side of the water, delicate eyelashes curled against his cheeks as Sebastian poured him a drink. He felt the wind rustle his clothes and remembered opening the window to let in the sea breeze, turning to see a mop of blond hair poking out from the blankets. He would run his fingers across his own skin and remember how soft Alois' flesh had felt when he had been dressed and bathed and scratching Sebastian's body to shreds. His lips burned at the memory of how he had never kissed him. Had never tasted him. Had never been able to make him happy. Truly happy.

Sebastian admitted this much: that he hoped Alois was happy in the Human Realm. He hoped that wherever that mercurial brat was, that when he smiled the smile reached his eyes. That he laughed freely and happily, even when there was nobody around to perform for.

He didn't know how long it was after Alois had left that he felt a tug on his blood calling him to the eyrie. Time always flowed slowly when you were caught in your own thoughts. Perhaps it had only been an hour. Perhaps a year. Regardless, Sebastian did his brotherly duty and returned to the eyrie to see what Claude needed of him.

His brother said words that had Sebastian being sliced open and his guts splayed across the floor. "The human is coming back. Your assistance will be required again, the same arrangement as before."

Sebastian kept his face blank as the world around him crumbled. "What do you mean? Has he opened another contract with you?"

"He has asked for an audience to discuss another one, yes." Claude fastened a cloak around his shoulders. There was a look of hunger in his eyes. "I anticipate him returning here soon. Have a room made up for him. It won't need to be large, just enough for a human to be kept in safely. I don't plan for this second contract to be the same as the last, so there will not be as strenuous a toll on us."

With that, he swept out of the eyrie, leaving Sebastian confused and shaken.

The room where Alois had once slept was cold and dark. Sebastian used his own magic to make it suitable. Soft cotton sheets, because Alois had always complained about silk being too cloying. Velvet drapes with embroidery at the bottom: spiders to please Claude, and gold thread for Alois. The wardrobe was stocked with the jewels and lace he knew Alois favoured. He picked out a nightgown, Alois' favourite, and lay it across the bed in preparation for his arrival.

The entire time he worked, Sebastian's mind was spiralling with questions. Claude hadn't seemed to be lying, this didn't seem to be an elaborate plan to humiliate his pathetic younger brother. But it made no sense. Another contract? Why would Alois need another contract after he'd gotten everything from the first? Humans rarely had multiple contracts with demons, but it did happen from time to time. Usually if the first contract had been worded badly, but Sebastian knew that this one had ended with Alois receiving all the wealth he needed.

Perhaps Alois was so enamoured with Claude that he didn't want to be parted.

Or perhaps the Human Realm was so insidious that it had broken him.

Sebastian tried not to think about Alois, his little human, in distress. But it stuck in his brain. The mirror in his pocket burned.

When he couldn't take it any more, he ripped the mirror from his clothes and held it in front of him.

"Alois."

It sparked in his hand, an explosion of light that speared his eyes. He got the vision of a human: eyes red and puffy, mouth stretched in a scream, hands gripping the fabric of a dark cloak. The human's hair was dishevelled. Tears and snot and saliva coated his face. His brightly coloured clothes were in disarray, as if he had been clawing at them with his fingernails, scraping holes in the fabric and tearing off buttons.

Sebastian's knees gave way. What had happened to him? What had the Human Realm done to this human who had sparkled so beautifully?

"Help me!" Alois voice was strained, as if he had been screaming for hours and his vocal chords were in tatters. Now he clawed at the dark cloak before him like an animal and made those whimpers. "Please, help me! Don't make me go back there, I can't bear it. Please. "

Another voice. Darker, calmer. "Well, now. What a thing for a human to come begging for a demon's help."

"Please, you're all I have left. He's gone and... I need you. Help me."

Fingers crawling up a cloak. Fat tears rolling down red cheeks.

Calm hands reaching down. Cupping the human's face. A thumb rubbing at the tears.

"You know I can't steal a human away from their own Realm. I'm bound by rules as much as you are."

White knuckles. Tears clinging to golden eyelashes.

"I'll do anything. Give you anything. I love you!"

"Ah, what a thing to say."

A thumb rubbing along that saliva-slick lip.

"Please..."

"Well then, will you give me every part of you? Show me your devotion by giving me your whole being? Tie yourself to me until your body decays, and the Bone Tower claims you as dust?"

Wide blue eyes.

"Yes. Yes, whatever you want. I'm all yours."

"Do you give me your name?"

"M- my name?"

Stern golden eyes.

"Yes. Give me your name. Surrender yourself to me and I shall take you away from all of this."

"I love you."

"And you want to be by my side? Until the end of time?"

"I do. I do, more than anything.

"Give me your name."

"I..."

"It's such a small request."

"..."

White knuckles. Glittering tears.

"I give you my name."

The mirror shattered in Sebastian's hand.

-

A human without their name is not a lifeless corpse. They are an empty vessel, ready to be filled with whatever name someone chooses to give them. A simple matter to lean across the contract and whisper a new name into them. Make them Madam Red , and whatever that name entails.

Claude could have easily poured a new name into the void left behind. Made his human an obedient pet, or a bloodthirsty sadist, or even a clown to entertain guests. But he didn't. He merely held the name up as a trophy and left the human body hollow.

Their rekindled contract was announced at a gathering of demons at the eyrie. Claude had the main hall filled with demons and a stage set up in the middle of the room covered in dark curtains. When the guests were all assembled, he tapped his foot once on the marble floors to have the curtains be swept away. An intricate web, woven from moonlight reflected on a pond, held up a thousand white calla lilies. Nestled in the middle of the lilies was a human. Pale skin that had been cleaned and polished to perfection. Nails that had been trimmed and buffed. Hair that had been oiled and trimmed. The body was perfectly nude, his body on display for all to admire. Its face was blank. Delicate limbs were heavy by his sides. Blue eyes stared upwards at the ceiling, not registering anything as the crowd made noises of admiration.

At an order from his master, the human lifted itself up and stepped off of the web to walk across the stage. Calla lilies spilled behind him and were picked up by a breeze to drift through the air. As it walked through the crowd, hands reached out to brush over the soft flesh. The human didn't even flinch at the touch.

It stood at its master's side, pliant and obedient and pristine.

That party was the first of the season. Claude's new prize was to be displayed at every possible event. Let the other demons see what a treat he was. He kindly let other hands touch it, roam over it, even sample it if they so desired. The human never protested.

Let it play music for a crowd, the way it had been trained to when it had a name. Let it stand in an open window with the cliffs dropping away below, so guests could pretend to push it to its death. Let other human mates fuck it for entertainment, and other demons place their mouths on its skin and their fingers inside of it. Let the human kneel there quietly with its mouth open and willing.

It didn't need a name or a purpose for any of this. A name would probably give it some unecessary desires that would have it making a fuss and saying "no." Better to leave it unfilled and placid. Sebastian would see to its care regardless.

Because of course Sebastian wouldn't leave the human's side. He had cared for Alois all those seven years, after all. The nights when Alois was miserable and unmoving, Sebastian had tended to him like a doll. He had lifted Alois in his arms to help him wash, moving his limbs to get him dressed, feeding him foods that would sit gently in his stomach. They were things he did gladly for the little human that had enchanted him. This was no different. That was what he told himself each evening when he pulled the human's unmoving form from the bed and clothed it in whatever outfit would best suit it. When he helped it bathe, pouring water over its head and scrubbing its soft skin. When he held a spoonful of food to its mouth and watched it mechanically chew and swallow, its empty body remembering the basic movements needed for survival.

This had to be the same.

This body, it was his human. The human who had yelled at him and hurt him and who he found so fascinating.

But... No. It was not the same.

Sebastian kneeled in front of the human. The body sat wordlessly on the bed, one leg raised ready for Sebastian to help it into its boots. Its blue eyes blinked slowly. Unseeing. Sebastian moved himself up onto his knees, pressing forward between the pale thighs. He raised his hands. Pressed them to the human's cheeks. Held him so they were nose-to-nose and he saw his own red irises reflected back at him. He could taste sweet breath on his tongue.

Suddenly, a flicker of anger inside Sebastian's chest. His magic spilled out of him, painting the room an inky black. Shadows twisted over themselves and wrapped around the human's limbs, picking it up off of the bed. Writhing tendrils around its arms, its waist, between its legs, turning it over in the air like a slab of meat. The kind of action that would've had Alois snapping at him to stop, or perhaps laughing and wiggling his hips as if he thought it was a game. But this creature's head lolled to one side, hair hanging over its eyes, lips parting slightly but no sound coming out.

Sebastian gripped the blank face in his hand. He bared his teeth. His eyes flared red. Opened his mouth as if to consume the body whole.

Was he still in there? That flickering, ever-changing ball of confusing emotions. Was there even a tiny sliver of him left rattling around inside those bones? If there was, if this body had even a whisper of Alois, then Sebastian would gladly do this for the rest of his life. He would care for this flesh even if it never moved by itself, if it never looked at him, if it never said his name. So long as there was just the barest hint of Alois in there, he would get by.

Blue eyes rimmed by golden lashes stared back at him. Sebastian waited for a tilt of the head. A twitch of the lips to hint at a sneer. A half-formed whisper of an insult at the back of the humans' tongue.

Of course, there was nothing.

The magic dissipated into the air, letting the body drop onto the bed in a heavy mess of limbs. Sebastian picked the empty vessel up in his arms. He lowered his head so his forehead pressed against the human's, holding it close even as the human stared blankly at nothing. He clenched his eyes shut and grit his teeth. His entire body shook with screams. He wanted to tear this entire eyrie to the ground. Wanted to let it wash out to the sea. Let it all sink and take his brother with it.

-

Claude would never imagine that his weak and pathetic brother would defy him, so he was careless with Alois' name. Left it sitting in a wooden box on the side of a table in his layer, in amongst the clothes and spiderwebs and pieces of discarded chess pieces he had collected over the centuries. It was a simple matter for Sebastian to scoop up the body that had once been Alois and carry it through the eyrie to retrieve what had been taken from him.

Alois' name was a deep, rich red. A darker red than blood. It was the colour of passion and anger and regret and hatred and sadism. All the wonderful things that had made him Alois . Sebastian lifted the name from the box. It swam in his hand like minnows in a pond. A simple matter to tilt the human's head back, hold its mouth open so that the slick pink throat was on display, and pour the name back in.

Let the name pour into the body. Let it fill all those empty holes, and patch over all the cracks. Let it remind the body who it belonged to. Sebastian held him in his arms, watching that face and waiting for the flicker of life to show that he was Alois once more. His mouth was dry. His hands shook in anticipation.

It took a moment. A moment for Sebastian to worry that it hadn't worked, that somehow the name had drifted through the cracks and was lost. But then Alois' body convulsed in his arms. Twisting, spine arching, teeth bared as the lips pulled back.

"Alois."

Sebastian's voice was quiet, hopeful.

The sound of the name had Alois' eyes snapping up to him. His body weakened, slumped into Sebastian's arms. Then he kicked furiously, pushing Sebastian away until he was released to slam onto the marble floor. He crawled across the floor a few feet before his body gave out, his arms shaking too much to hold his body. When he opened his mouth to speak, a stream of vomit poured out. All the parties where demons had watched him swallow sugar and magic and semen and urine and spit and blood and flesh, his body expelled it all in a mess of acid and tears. He fell to the side and shuddered as his body gave over to heavy sobs.

"Don't touch me!" He screamed when Sebastian reached out a hand. He curled up, his hands over his face, sobs flowing out of him. "Why did you bring me back? I didn't want to... Why did... I..." His words were cut off by another mouthful of vomit which he spat onto the floor. His body slumped over, shivering and small.

"You'll feel better in a moment when you get used to being back in your body," Sebastian said. He summoned a glass of water. "Have something to drink."

"Fuck you!" The glass was slapped from his hand. The movement was weak. It would be so easy to overpower him and force him into whatever position Sebastian desired. But Sebastian just sat back and watched as Alois trembled and coughed and spat up more vomit until his stomach was empty.

After a moment, Alois managed to push himself up onto his knees. The front of his shirt was sodden with filth and he was disgusting with fluid. But the sight of him emotional and alive was the most beautiful thing Sebastian had ever seen. He looked up at Sebastian with a cold hatred.

"Well. Go on, then. Do it. I know you want to."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"Don't play coy. You want to fuck me, don't you?"

He spoke with such vitriol that it had Sebastian reeling backwards. The honest answer would be yes, he did. He had been thinking about what it would be like to fuck Alois possibly since the night they met, and each night they spent together his desire had grown and grown until it now threatened to consume him. But he didn't make any move to touch him.

Alois kept talking, his words punctuated with the occasional hiccup and cough. "That's all you creatures want. You... You all want to fuck me, and use me. Humans and demons are all the same, you monsters just want something that you can put your filthy dicks into. Don't care at all about... I remember how you used to look at me, I know you wanted to fuck me. And at all those... You looking at me as I was forced to fuck those... Those demons. They all..." He hunched over, his hands gripping his shoulders. "Fuck, I can still feel them! You're all disgusting! What you did to me! The things you made me do!"

He broke off, his body shuddering. Tears splattered across his clothes.

The human body without a name didn't have wants or desires, and it would forget some things. But not all. The empty vessel could remember what had happened. What it had felt, what had been done to it. It would hold memories until it had a name and knew how to react.

"Disgusting. You're all so disgusting." Alois glared up at Sebastian. "What did you bring me back for if not to fuck me? Or did you just want to watch me suffer? Was it not interesting enough to dress me up every night like a little toy? Was that too boring for you? You needed me to fight back, is that it? Pervert ."

"I wanted to see you again," Sebastian said simply.

"Well here I am! You can see me!" He clawed at his shirt, ripping it open and revealing his bare chest. "You can see all of me! Get a good look!"

Rosy pink nipples. Soft flesh on his stomach. A dusting of hair vanishing into his trousers. Sebastian forced his eyes upwards to Alois' tear-streaked face.

"Do you like what you see?"

Yes. He liked every part of him. Every broken and hideous and fascinating element. Sebastian adored it all.

Still, he made no move to touch Alois. "Why did you forge another contract with my brother? I thought-" I hoped. "-that you'd be happy in the Human Realm."

"Well you're dumb as shit, aren't you?" Alois sneered, then coughed. There was snot dribbling from one nostril into his mouth. "Everyone back there is just as bad as you. Those bastards all think just because someone doesn't have money that they're worthless. Unless you're useful to them." He gave a shaky smile. "I know what makes me useful. I made myself useful to that old bastard, and I was good at it. Made that piece of shit happy so he'd let me do what I wanted. And I made sure he never touched Luka, if he did I'd bite his cock off. But he never did. I kept us both safe. Until I could get a contract. Then I'd make it better for us. And... It was only meant to be seven years..."

More fat tears rolled down his cheeks. With an angry snarl, he started to punch the marble next to him. Sebastian watched the fist come down over and over, until the skin on his knuckles split and blood smeared across the floor, and still he kept going as he screamed and yelled insults and punched the floor so hard his bones would shatter. He only stopped when Sebastian grabbed his hand and held it in both of his, forcing him to slump forward.

Alois cried into Sebastian's front. All the disgusting fluids smeared across the two of them.

"He was dead by the time I got back." Alois' voice was small and quavering, muffled in Sebastian's chest. "I said I'd be back in seven years, and Luka would be fine, he just had to wait for me. But more time had passed there... How had more time passed there? Why hadn't it been seven years?"

"Time can be slippery if people aren't paying attention. How much time had passed in the Human Realm?"

"Thirteen years."

"Ah."

"He died a month before I got back. I... I'd left him waiting so long. He was meant to be safe, they said they'd keep him in some fancy school and he was going to be safe there but I was away too long so I couldn't protect him..." His voice trailed off into murmurs that Sebastian couldn't follow. Lay slumped in his arms as the eyrie was cold around them. "Why haven't you fucked me yet? Get it over with. Then leave me here to rot."

"Is that what you want?"

He tilted his head back. A harsh expression was on his face, twisted and confused. "The fuck are you talking about?"

Sebastian looked back, his own face expressionless. "What do you want?"

The question seemed to startle him. His mouth opened and closed like a fish, even as his expression grew stormier.

Sebastian kept going. It was easier to talk now he was finally admitting the hideous emotions that he'd been hiding for so long. His one hand cupped Alois' cheek as he spoke those terrible words. "I want to know what you want. If you want sex, then that's what we'll do. If you want to be taken somewhere, or for me to give you anything, or for me to do anything. If you want to kill me, or have me kill someone for you. Anything. If it will make you happy."

"Happy..." His voice cracked.

"What would make you happy, Alois?"

A fist came up and cracked the side of Sebastian's head. Fingers clawed at his skin. Nails dug into his eyes and his mouth. Alois screamed in his face. His legs kicked in pure rage. His hands punching and clawing and his teeth gnashing.

"You bastard! How dare you! You... You ask me that now? After everything? You think I can be happy, you sick foul demon scum! I hate you! I hate you!" He screamed it over and over as he ripped at Sebastian's flesh, letting the blood spill through his fingers. Sebastian felt every blow with warmth. Kitten scratches when you brought it home from the cold.

He lay on the ground with Alois on top of him, his tiny hands around Sebastian's throat attempting to throttle him. As if he needed oxygen.

Hot tears splattered onto Sebastian's ruined face.

"I want my brother back! Can you do that, you stupid fuck? Can you make it so time didn't pass, and he didn't die? Can you make it so I could protect him, instead of being here without him?"

Brothers, brothers, brothers. They caused nothing but distress.

Fingers on Sebastian's throat. They fell to the side, Alois slumping over Sebastian's motionless body. It seemed he'd let out all the tears and screaming. Now he was sitting in the mess and blood and breathing slowly. Weakly.

When he next spoke, he sounded like the child he truly was. Small and weak and inexperienced.

"Your brother never loved me, did he? I thought... I was sure that he did. But I was really just a prize, wasn't I? He never actually..."

He sat up and for a brief moment his blond hair shimmered silver in the moonlight.

"I was so stupid."

The last words he said were so quiet in that small room.

"I don't want to live any more. Not like this."

Sebastian's arms reached up to cradle Alois' face in his hands. His thumbs wiped away the hot tears that were now flowing. He couldn't make Alois happy. Couldn't bring back the brother he wanted. Couldn't make Claude see what a spectacular creature he was. But he could do this much.

The magic spooled from his fingers and threaded its way into Alois body, to painlessly sever vital parts of his brain and snuff out the life once and for all.

A lifeless body so small and fragile in Sebastian's arms. He couldn't bear to leave him there, for Claude to find and discard like nothing. He let his magic swell and his body grew so that he was holding Alois in his two hands. He sank his teeth into the delicate flesh. Crunched the bones between his teeth like sugar crystals. Let the organs roll over his tongue the way one would play with fruit pastels. Sucked down the blood with the relish of a drunkard and his wine.

The last piece of Alois was his name: swirling red and beautiful. Sebastian placed it on his tongue. It was in that moment that he understood all that Alois had been. All the flickering elements of him, they aligned in his mind and on his tastebuds, revealing all the secrets. All the beauty and ugliness that had made him so perfect in Sebastian's eyes.

If he had spat up the name, perhaps his punishment would not have been so severe. The human body was just flesh. It was a treasure, but not irreplaceable. But the name. The name was a dear prize, something that had been gifted to Claude and which no other demon could claim. He could have worn the name as a display piece to dazzle other demons. A permanent display of his power.

The thought of his brother's uncaring hands holding the name that contained all of Alois made Sebastian sick. He couldn't . Any punishment was better than that.

So he swallowed it down. Alois existed inside Sebastian, alongside his flesh, protected and precious. He wouldn't give it up, no matter what his brother would do to him. Humiliate him. Starve him. Torture him. He would hold Alois' name close until it had dissolved into his system, cradling every last drop of him with the grotesque and hideous emotions that he couldn't deny any longer even if the knowledge of them made him feel sick.

He had betrayed his brother, stolen from him, made him a fool. For a human. For that, he deserved any punishment.

-

Ciel didn't speak for a while after Sebastian finished his confession. He kept the cloak wrapped around his shoulders and his gaze fixed at a point across the sea. Sebastian waited for him to react. To tell him he was disgusting. Mock him for the weakness he'd shown, and the foolishness.

After a while, Ciel said without looking round, "Your brother. How did he punish you?"

"He had different methods. But the one he preferred, was to trap me inside a pocket of time where I was left blind and starving and surrounded by the sound of... of his screaming."

"His... Alois, you mean?"

"Yes."

His brother was talented in his cruelty. Sebastian had to acknowledge the ability he showed, and the ingenuity. If anything would have had him dislocating his jaw and reaching down his own throat to pull out the last whispers of Alois' name, then perhaps that would have done it. But he hadn't the strength to give in and had stubbornly clutched onto the human's remains.

Ciel's face twitched. His lips thinned. "That punishment does not fit that transgression."

"Doesn't it?"

"You loved him. It's not a crime to have emotions."

Love. The word sounded foreign to him. Sebastian didn't think he had loved Alois, that was something that humans did. He wasn't so far gone as to have an emotion as base as that. He had merely enjoyed Alois. Taken delight in him. It was natural to have wanted to extend that feeling as long as possible, to keep the human by his side, to facilitate that human's happiness to feed his own pleasure. It was a repulsive emotion in a demon, but not something as crass as love.

"Regardless," Sebastian said with a small shrug. "I stole from him and humiliated him, and have always been the weaker younger brother. This is why they treat me the way they do, and why I have no right to protest. I am Claude's to punish as he sees fit-"

"No!" Ciel sat upright, his hand darting out to grab Sebastian by the collar. He pulled him close and glared up into his eyes. "You are mine now. My obedient dog. And I am the one who decides if you are to be punished."

They stayed like that for a beat. Sebastian's lips parted, longing to close the difference and taste his husband's lips. Ciel's fingers moved up, to brush over Sebastian's cheek. His face was set in a determined scowl.

"I won't let them punish you like that any more. You're my husband . What happened in the past isn't important, what's important is you are tied to the Phantomhive name. I will do what I can to ensure you are treated with the respect owed to any member of that family."

Sebastian gave a small smile. "Such a passionate declaration to make to a demon. What would the humans around you think?"

"It hardly matters what they think."

The assuredness with which he said those words had Sebastian starting.

Ciel went on. "Neither of us chose this relationship. A human and a demon will be looked down on no matter what we do in public. What's important is how we act here when it's just us. And I cannot stand to have someone who is tethered to me be treated as they have treated you. You are mine. That is all that matters."

Sebastian moved without thinking. There was no particular reason he did what he did, no goal or plan in his mind. All he knew was that for some ineffable reason, at that moment he could not bear to have a fraction of space between his body and his husband's. He reached up and grasped Ciel's hands in his, bringing them to his lips to kiss the palms. Ciel started to speak, but then gave up. He let Sebastian kiss his hands, his fingers, his wrists. His body tensed when Sebastian's mouth reached the first scar around his arm, but he did not pull away. He allowed Sebastian to pick his body up and pull him close, his body cradled in his arms. Let the cloak fall away so his skin was bared to the moonlight. Allowed the fabric of his spiderweb outfit be carefully pushed aside so that Sebastian's cock could slide inside of him.

Ciel's arms around his shoulders. The sound of him panting in Sebastian's ears. Whispers ordering him to move at different paces, to position his hands just so.

What a fascinating little human. How unfortunate that he had to be tied to a demon like Sebastian: weak and starving and branded a traitor. Sebastian buried his face into the curve of Ciel's neck, sucking and nipping at the flesh to make his body tremble and his moans come hot and fast. Sebastian knew that he was the lowest of all demons. How depraved that the claiming of ownership from a human could get him so passionate. But perhaps there was a kernel of truth in Ciel's words.

He was not a powerful demon. Was not respected or feared. Very little about him mattered. But perhaps Ciel's claim over him mattered. At the very least, this servitude was pleasant. If he were to be a dog, forever at the side of his master and bowing to their whim, then this master was a beguiling one.

Chapter Text

When the distant sounds of Claude searching through the eyrie for them had died down, Ciel disentangled himself from Sebastian and stepped up to the side of the roof. Sebastian sat up and watched him, waiting for him to speak. The little human stood in thought for a moment, frowning out at the ocean. The scars on his body were lit silver in the moonlight.

"We can't leave this realm until we find my aunt's name. So we can't stay up here forever. I've been thinking over that riddle that the Seeing Eye gave me: You shall take it with your own hands from that grotesque horde, and it shall be waiting for you. It is calling for you now. That seems to suggest that I need to go and find it. But..." He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to one side. "It's a fair distance down. I may be able to use magic to create a path, but I used most of it up during that party."

"How does your magic replenish itself?"

Ciel didn't answer, just stared down at the distant ocean. Sebastian got to his own feet, but stumbled as his body protested. He had used up the last remnants of any energy to quiet Ciel's night terrors and now the exhaustion flooded through him. He clutched the side of the roof and breathed deeply to try and keep from passing out.

A hand on his cheek. Ciel had come to him and was now reaching up, pulling Sebastian's face round to examine him. His brow was furrowed in concern. A gentle finger pushed stray locks of hair out of Sebastian's face, tucking them behind his ear.

"I'll get us down," Ciel said firmly. "I can use magic to slow our descent, and we can jump."

But Sebastian shook his head. "My brother isn't aware that you have any kind of magical ability and we should keep it that way. If he detects magic from you then he'll hunt you relentlessly." 

And punish Sebastian for not divulging the truth about his husband, but Sebastian did not need to share that information just then. Instead, he straightened up and attempted to put on a reassuring smile. 

"If we get down safely,” he continued, “we can gather your belongings and leave this place to search for Madame Red's name. If we’re away from my brother, we will be able to work unencumbered. I will get us down."

"How? You can barely stand."

Sebastian smiled gently and forced his body to move. He looked down at the ocean, making calculations in his sluggish mind. "As a Phantomhive husband, it is only natural that I can do this much." 

What he was about to do was the height of foolishness. If he weren't so exhausted, he would be able to think of something better, but he was focused solely on Ciel not revealing his abilities. If his brother could smell magic on him, he would want to possess him. Wrap him up in his web and keep him as a treasure. He could not run that risk.

Taking a minute to steady himself, Sebastian reached out his arms for Ciel. Ciel hesitated, his arms folded over his chest.

"You'll kill yourself," he said firmly. "I won't allow it."

"I am a demon. I am far hardier than you humans." Sebastian swallowed and closed his eyes briefly. "Allow me to do this, Ciel."

His request had Ciel sighing and stepping forward. Sebastian picked him up, his knees trembling slightly as he did so. But he straightened up and turned out in the direction of the ocean. He took a moment to gather himself, then forced his body to move, leaping off of the roof into the open air. It was not a graceful leap (he stumbled over his own feet) but it was enough. In the air, he was able to hold his husband close and curl his body around him, creating a shield of flesh as they tumbled down into the waves.

The impact of water crashing into him. The contract between human and demon directing all pain away from Ciel and into Sebastian. Vibrations so powerful they would break him apart.

He bit his tongue to keep from yelling. Felt blood in his mouth.

The shore was in sight. He needed to kick his legs towards it. But his body was weaker than ever, and that leap had been too much. His arms went limp. His husband's body drifted away from him on the ocean waves.

"Sebastian! Sebastian!"

Salt water in his mouth. Waves pounding against his head. Sebastian wanted to stay above the water, but the ocean was pulling him down into the depths.

He could see Ciel drifting away from him, his hands reaching back towards him as if he could physically pull Sebastian's beaten body up. Foolish child. He was so small and frail, his bones fragile as a bird's. He probably didn't even know how to swim. But a human body would float on the waves and be pushed towards the shore, so that was enough. Sebastian had protected him from the fall. Now he could get to safety.

The salt was heavy on his eyelashes. His eyes were forced shut as he sank.

He was so tired.

So hungry.

He just wanted to rest in oblivion for a moment.

Something was burning him. Light on his throat, slicing into him, tugging at his flesh. Sebastian's eyes blinked open, he could see the blurry light of the moon getting closer and closer. Could feel his head breaking the surface. His body was dragged through the ocean like a hooked fish. He could feel waves battering his body and then the harsh sand at his back and the frigid air. The chain at his throat dragged him through the surf onto the beach. The moon overhead burned into his eyes, and he wanted to raise his hand to shield his eyes but his body was too heavy. He couldn't move.

A body sitting on his chest. Something slapping his face.

"Sebastian, this is an order! Stay awake just a moment more. Until we get away from the water."

How he wanted to sleep. Keeping his eyes open was such effort, but he felt compelled. Leaden movements as he nodded his head. Slurred words of acquiescence.

His body moved, dragging itself along the beach towards the cliffs. Hands on his clothes were pushing him further. Someone was talking to him, but his ears were filled with water and he could only hear snatches of words.

"You foolish demon, you were going to leave me all alone but I won't let you! I haven't even told you..."

Sebastian's eyes fluttered closed. There was hard rock underneath his cheek. The shade of the cliff enveloped him.

"Stay alive. That's an order."

Such a compelling voice. Sebastian wanted to pull the speaker closer to his ear and hear him whisper his beautiful insults. Hear him moan so prettily.

"You need food, don't you? You said you were starved. There must be something in the eyrie, I'll go and search."

Ah, was the voice leaving? Sebastian didn't want it to leave. It was so dangerous in the eyrie, don't go there alone. But he couldn't stop the voice, his arms were too heavy and his mouth was too full of seawater. He could only lie there with salt crystals on his lips and his stomach screaming for food.

Was he going to die?

Sebastian had not paid much thought to whether or not he was to live or die. It was a rather neutral thing for him to think of. He did not want to be in pain , but his continued presence in the world was not something he felt particularly invested in. His existence was not overly pleasant. He had no lair to call his own, no mate, no power to display for other demons. Very little to stay alive for, on the balance of it all.

"You wanted to stay alive for me ," a voice said.

A figure was lazing against a nearby rock. Alois was watching him with his familiar sneer, dressed in his plum jacket and lace stockings around his soft thighs. He laughed and stretched his legs out, crossing one ankle over the other. "Isn't that what you admitted? You said you would've gone on living if I was around, even if I didn't pay any attention to you. How pathetic."

No. It wasn't pathetic to Sebastian. It was a testimony to how fascinating the human was that he would have continued existing.

"Tch." Alois looked away and said, "You think he's pathetic too, don't you? You probably expected a powerful demon to be tied to you. But this one's no fun to control."

"Yes. It was rather disappointing to learn the truth of his past. I can understand now why the others treated him the way they did." Ciel was sitting on another rock. He had his chin tilted up and an air of disdain clung to him as he talked over Sebastian to Alois. "I don't know if I'd use the word ‘pathetic’. Maybe... pitiable."

Sebastian hated the idea that Ciel would pity him. He could handle hatred. That was an emotion with teeth, saved for someone worthy. But pity? Let it not be pity.

"Pity?" Alois laughed. The teeth at the back of his mouth were all on display. "He's not even worth pity."

Maybe not... Maybe all Sebastian was worth was silence...

"The lowest of all demons is probably worth nothing at all," Ciel agreed. He was standing now, stepping across the rocks to Alois. Alois was standing too, but his body was growing taller. The plum jacket flickered to a darker shade of black. His blue eyes flashed a dark gold.

Claude…

Don't let him touch Ciel.

"You are a far better demon, one worthy of a contract with me." Ciel's body pressed to Claude's side.

No. Sebastian wouldn't let him!

"I'll give you my everything. We can let that other one disappear. It doesn't matter."

Claude's hand was on Ciel's back, running over his bare skin. Unmarred and smooth to the touch.

"He is pitiable. Beneath contemplation."

This was wrong.

"I shall not even remember him."

Sebastian watched Claude lower his face. Watched his lips press against Ciel's neck. Knew that Ciel was mocking him, didn't care for him, found him contemptible and pathetic and the lowest of the low and-

No! This wasn't... This wasn't true!

With a snarl, Sebastian flung his eyes open and the dream vanished. He had fallen asleep on the rocks, and Claude's anger had permeated his dreams. But... That hadn't been real. He knew that. His husband's body was not unmarrred: it was scarred and it was beautiful. And pitiable? Perhaps Ciel did pity Sebastian. But no matter what he felt for Sebastian, Ciel would not abandon him. His own human pride as a Phantomhive would not allow that.

His dreams could not lie to him. Sebastian knew his husband too well for that.

Sebastian's body was sluggish and heavy. He cast around for Ciel, searching for him amongst the rocks. But no, of course he was gone. He had travelled to the eyrie...

"Foolish child." Sebastian's voice cracked, the whisper harsh on his throat. He forced himself upright and glared up at the eyrie so high above him. Ciel was so thoughtless to barge on ahead without him. He had no idea how dangerous Claude could be.

No, Sebastian would need to find him. Take him far away from the eyrie, and from Claude. They could find food for him somewhere - anywhere! - else.

The first step he took had his knees failing and his body slumping onto the rock. The entire world shimmered around him, fighting to bring him down into unconsciousness again. Sebastian swallowed thickly and shook his head. He forced his eyes wide, not letting himself blink. Lifted his head upwards.

Small movements. Delicate motions. He would inch his way up to the eyrie bit by bit, his hunger be damned. With great effort, he started to move his body slowly across the rocks towards the cliff face. His nails sank easily into the sheer rock, a demon's claws far sharper than any natural sediment. Discarding his boots on the beach, he sank his fingers and toes into the cliff and began to climb. His chest scraped against the rock. The harsh wind whipped his hair into his eyes. Flecks of salt clung to his skin.

Twice on his ascent he felt the world swim around him and his head lolled on his shoulders. He pressed his body close to the rock and forced himself to stay upright, but each time it took a little longer to be present in his body and restart the ascent.

His body was filled with salt water, dragging him down. He could feel each and every twitch of his muscles as he pulled himself upwards. The pumping of his organs, the grinding of his bones. But each time he considered dropping back down to the beach below, his brain flashed that image of Ciel in his brother's clutches. It had him gritting his teeth and pulling his body ever so slowly up the cliff. How gauche it would be to sit and wait for a human to rescue him.

One of the eyrie's many legs appeared in front of him, swimming out of the murk in Sebastian's eyes. He reached a hand up, scrabbling against the smooth marble, seeking purchase. His hand found the bottom of a window and with a burst of pain he pulled himself up into the eyrie.

Something inside of Sebastian was leaking. He hunched over and opened his mouth, watching as dark blood dripped out over his tongue. The pain was a throbbing ache deep inside of him. He spat up blood until his mouth was clear, then struggled to his feet.

He found himself in a cramped room filled with scattered detritus stacked haphazardly on top of each other. Some distant storage room where Claude sent all the items he no longer cared for. Trophies from battles with weaker demons, trinkets from mates long forgotten, rows and rows of broken and forgotten treasures that had once been on display, long since fallen into disrepair.

Sebastian pushed his way through it all, his body staggering as he went. He left smears of blood on statues as he passed. In the middle of the room he tripped, his hand dragging down a leather briefcase whose contents spilled across the floor. Sebastian spat up more blood, taking a moment to gather himself. A carved stone horse, rearing on its hind legs with teeth bared and nostrils flared, stared down at him with contempt. Sebastian turned away from its stare. His eyes went to the briefcase that had fallen.

A scattering of paper lay across the floor. It looked like contract information, perhaps from Claude's previous mates or dealings with other demons. But Sebastian blinked as his eyes alighted on one paper with a familiar crest on the letterhead.

With shaking hands, he gathered up the papers and blinked at them. The name at the bottom of these letters was familiar. Familiar curling script and elegant penmanship. Vincent Phantomhive.

Ah, so these must be correspondence between Vincent and Claude regarding the marriage arrangements. Sebastian could make out fragments of words, but his eyes were unable to concentrate long enough to decipher any meaning. The papers slipped through his fingers onto the floor.

There was a scent of something down here. In amongst all the dust and forgotten papers, something was making his head swim and his stomach lurch. He leaned against the wall, waiting for his body to feel better and his brain to re-align.

When he tilted his head back, he caught the specific scent of magic. A magic that reminded him of a boy with dark hair and wide eyes. A boy with a golden chain gripped tight in his fists as he smirked down at Sebastian and forced him to kneel. A similar magic, but not quite the same. He turned his head in confusion. Was he going insane from the hunger? Imagining things?

"That troublesome boy," Sebastian muttered to himself. Probably was so occupied with his need to find his husband that it was warping his brain. He needed to find Ciel quickly and get out of there. Before his mind slipped any further.

Slowly, he staggered his way through the corridors and up winding staircases, searching for a hint of his husband or his brother. Each sound had his pulse racing as he expected to see his husband's body splayed on the ground. His addled brain kept flinching at shadows. He saw his brother's golden eyes peering at him through doorways. Heard Alois' wicked laugh in the wind, and then his screams of despair as the windows rattled. Most of all he kept seeing his husband's body silhouetted in shadows. Ciel with his ball outfit and his head held high. Ciel in the morning with his hair unbrushed. Ciel with his bare body littered with scars as he was wracked with night terrors. Ciel, Ciel, Ciel, haunting Sebastian through these corridors and making him trip over his own feet as he tried to find him and keep him safe.

He found Claude first.

The ballroom where they had gathered for the party was destroyed. The marble flagstones were cracked, ornaments and decorations were broken into pieces that were strewn across the floor, curtains were ripped to shreds. Claude had swept through like a hurricane, making his displeasure out on everything he could set his many eyes on. Now his body had ballooned out into his full demonic form. Large, insectoid, filigree. His many legs, covered in their black chitinous casing, slammed down onto the floor hard enough to have the eyrie shake. His humanoid body had burst into a spider's abdomen, inlaid with lace patterns and swirling dark magic. His human-shaped torso had split in two, opening up into a gaping maw of teeth stretching from skull to pelvis that dripped with saliva as he hunted.

Sebastian did not have time to run. The moment he entered the ballroom, his brother's body twisted round. Rows of eyes swivelling to land on him, the legs already moving to chase him down. Sebastian's body was hoisted into the air like a ragdoll for examination.

"There you are!" Claude's voice was the sound of cracking rock, filtered through his many grinding teeth. The numerous eyes bulging across his flesh were fixed on Sebastian. His body rippled in anger as he held Sebastian aloft. "You miserable wretch, what did you think you were doing? You take your little toy and leave without permission? You think you can humiliate me and not be punishd for it?"

Sebastian opened his mouth to speak, but did not know what to say. He was so used to keeping his head down. Letting insults wash over him and taking punishment. Offering up apologies when needed and flattering to get his way. But he could not find the words; the world was spinning too much. All he could think was that Ciel was not in this room. Not in his brother's clutches. It had a smile making its way onto his face.

The smile was the wrong decision. Sebastian was slammed against the wall. "Watch yourself,” Claude hissed. “Don't you forget who you belong to. What you owe me."

Sebastian coughed, his head lolling forward. He looked up through the tangles of his hair and tried to speak. All that came was a croaked, "Brother-"

"Watch your tongue," Claude said. A swirl of magic wrapped around Sebastian's face, forcing his jaw apart like a many-fingered hand. "You can't speak to me like we're family. Not when you've disgraced me like you did tonight."

"Hhk." The fingers crawling through Sebastian's mouth had him choking.

"You will work to make things right, if you have to crawl on hands and knees to kiss the feet of all the guests who saw you. They think I am unable to control you, and you will correct them. Won't you?"

"Yyhs."

"Your little human: where have you hidden it? Or did you devour this one, too? Were you too greedy and pathetic again that you had to destroy it?"

"Hhrk."

"You're pathetic. You were sent there and bound to a human and you couldn't even do your job. Did you even manage to find any information about humans and their magic? Or were you too busy fornicating and rutting and debasing yourself that you forgot the entire reason you were sent there?"

"Hhng."

"Miserable, vile, weak... What?" 

Something had Claude stopping, his body reeling back slightly. The eyes across his body all swivelled across Sebastian's body, towards his mouth. Then, slowly, Claude began to laugh. A strange, deep laugh from inside his bulbous arachnoid body. "My my, what have we here? There is magic on your tongue."

Sebastian's eyes widened and he tried to struggle, but he was too weak. He felt the hand in his mouth break apart into a flood of spiders crawling down his throat into his chest, pulling at him with all their many legs and forcing his mouth to crack open. He saw the way his tongue unspooled. The glow of magic, lighting the room a dark blue.

Claude's myriad of irises pulsed a dull gold. The spiders inside of Sebastian infested his organs, their feet puncturing his flesh. The arms holding him up were shuddering with barely-repressed anger.

"A human bewitched you." Claude's words were a quiet mutter. "You were exposed to a human with magic, and they were able to put a spell on your tongue. You... You feebleminded... And you were brazen enough to bring that magic back here with you? Are you trying to bargain with a human, because no demon will have you?" 

Claude gave a snort of derision. "Or did you not even realise you'd been infected? Maybe you were too busy rutting with your pet. Did the humans invite you to a human orgy, let you debase yourself? Make you think you were accepted, so one of them could infect you and spread their magic here?" Sebastian was slammed into the wall. The room spun around him. "You're a disgrace. I should never have been so merciful as to give you a final chance. You couldn't have ever hoped to investigate the Human Realm."

Sebastian couldn't focus on the words which were swimming to him through a thick fog. All he could cling to was the fact that Claude did not suspect Ciel. But of course he wouldn't. He would never think there was a human with magic who could exist right under his nose without his notice.

Ciel was so remarkable.

Sebastian blinked and saw flickers in the shadows. His husband in his wedding lace danced across the periphery of his vision. He vanished when Claude forced Sebastian against the wall hard enough to have the entire eyrie shuddering.

"Who placed the magic here? Who infected my lair? Tell me."

Spiders crawled over Sebastian's tongue, teasing the truth from him. Sebastian didn't want to tell him. He didn't want to admit his husband's truths. Was it the contract between them, keeping his secret? Or did he just not want to give his brother any more than he had already taken?

Alois and Ciel were dancing together, their bodies coated in blood and bile. Alois whispered something that had Ciel laughing. Claude moved, his malformed body hiding the humans from view. They were gone when he moved again.

"You're being stubborn," Claude said. His magic tightened around Sebastian's body. The spiders were pouring out of Sebastian's throat.

His husband was standing in the far corner. He was wrapped in shadows and cobwebs, a cloak thrown over his shoulders that still dripped with salt water. He was watching Sebastian with an unfamiliar expression. Too distant to decipher.

This time, when Sebastian was slammed against the wall, the vision didn't fade. How stubborn. It wasn't safe for the human here, he had to get away.

Sebastian's eyes moved back to Claude, and he felt his tongue move. The spiders manipulated his tongue and his organs, vibrating his vocal cords to push sound out of his mouth. The truth.

"You've never understood humans."

Claude gave a bark of laughter. "Of course that's what you say. Your perversion is all that you have. Is there no other thought in your skull?"

Sebastian's eyes rolled. His husband was still standing in the distance. Watching. Why would this vision not fade? He forced his gaze back to his brother, taking him in. A creature of power and control, and one who never paid attention to what he considered beneath his notice. Who never cared for the treasure in his hands.

Sebastian didn't regret stealing from him. He would never regret stealing from him.

"You are squandering all you have," Sebastian said. "The lair, the magic, the mates. You take it because you believe you are owed it, but you don't understand any of it. You don't care to. What a waste."

"Stop blathering. Tell me who bewitched you."

He smiled again. Blood trickled over his lip. "A human. One of those creatures you don't care to understand, but believe you can control."

"Who? Tell me, you pathetic-"

"You call me names, but never name me." Sebastian's head was pressed against the wall. He could see a shimmer of dark hair over Claude's shoulder. A solid vision of his husband: perfect and beautiful and powerful. Sebastian wished he would leave. Get to safety. "You are hollow, brother. Hollow and foolish and weak."

"You dare call me weak?" Legs came up, pressing against Sebastian and pinning him to the wall. Claudes body leaned down, the eyes all focussing on his limp body. "Perhaps you don't understand the position you are in."

"I understand more than you ever will. I know more about humans and their power than you ever could." He knew his husband. And whatever he didn't know, he would never stop trying to learn.

Let his husband with his bare feet walk across this cracked marble floor. Let his husband skirt the room, one hand on the wall to steady himself. Let his magic flare in his eye.

Let him escape. Get to safety.

Claude would never understand. Would never consider the possibility of a mere human slipping out of his clutches as he was distracted.

"Are you trying to grovel now? Prove that your life is worth something, because you have information on the humans?"

Sebastian's head tilted back. It was so hard to think. "My life can have meaning. But not to you. You gave me the name: Sebastian. Chosen at random. Empty and meaningless, as so many of your possessions are. You never realised that that emptiness left it open for someone else to fill."

"What are you talking about?"

"Another master gave my name meaning. You could have made me Sebastian the spy, the brother who will find you information, but you did not care to. You assumed that I would be too weak to disobey me. But he made me Sebastian." His lips couldn't keep from smiling, even as spiders crawled over his skin. "Sebastian. The loyal beast. The guard dog. The creature who is debased and enjoys it. The demon who willingly submits. All I am, he made me."

"You are disgusting."

"Yes. I am." His hand lifted, came to rest on the leg pressed to his chest. Large, imposing, directed at his core. "I am worthless and pitiful, and all I can do is give my master some time. If I die so he has time to run, so be it. A dog chooses his master, and I choose..."

The vision of Ciel was staring at him. Scarred and dripping wet, covered in his cloak, his mouth hanging open to reveal that beautiful pink tongue that Sebastian had never been able to taste. Perhaps in another life, his husband would allow him to kiss him. Perhaps in another life, he would not have to appear so inelegant before him.

But in his current life, Sebastian's body forced itself forward. He felt his brother's legs pierce his body.

Dark blood spilled over the floor.

A final whimper came from his lips.

"Go,” he choked out. The last bark of a fallen dog. “ Go, Ciel.”

Chapter Text

The morning before they had left for the Demon Realm, Sebastian had been kneeling before his husband helping him to get dressed. Ciel was sitting on the bed, looking at the ceiling, lost in his own thoughts. Somewhere in the middle of their morning ritual Sebastian had found himself forgetting what he was doing, and instead watching his husband. The slow way he blinked so his eyelashes fanned over his pale skin. The movement of his lips and jaw as he chewed the inside of one cheek. The rhythm his dainty finger tapped on the duvet. Sebastian sat there entranced, one hand cupping Ciel's bare foot and the other holding the stocking he was meant to be helping him with.

Ciel looked down at him. For a moment they had stared at each other, not saying a word. Then Ciel had raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"What are you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking at all," Sebastian admitted.

The response had had Ciel giving him one of those fleeting smiles of his. He had lifted his foot from Sebastian's hand and tapped the centre of Sebatian's chest with it instead. His delicate toes toyed with one of the buttons of his shirt. Pulled aside the fabric to brush over his bare skin. Then down to a spot below his ribcage where the flesh was soft.

It was right at that spot where Claude's leg now skewered him.

It was funny the things that one thought of as they died. As Sebastian stared down at the blood beginning to trickle from around his brother's leg, all he could think was that it was a good thing he was wearing demonic fabric that would not be so difficult for Mei-Rin to clean. When his brother pulled out, Sebastian slid down the wall to the floor. There was now a gaping hole in his torso. His bones and organs could be seen glistening through the meat. Sebastian lay in the pool of his own blood and viscera, staring up at his brother. Claude's demonic form warped and rippled as Sebastian's vision began to fail. The spider abdomen looming over him. The many eyes fixed on his fallen form. The gaping maw of teeth open in a laugh.

He was insulting Sebastian. Telling him that this death was fitting for someone like him. He would die weak and alone and unknown .

But that wasn't true, was it? He was hungry and exhausted, but he would surely be remembered. Ciel had said that he was a Phantomhive now. A Phantomhive would lay his life down in order to save the person they were contracted to serve. Then, years in the future, Ciel would remember him and it would not be as a waste but as someone who had done their duty.

Yes. He could die with a smile on his face, even as blood filled his mouth and the room around him darkened and his body started to feel so cold.

Movement above him had Sebastian's eyes rolling upwards. His brother was leaning over him, his mouth moving. Sebastian couldn't hear the words he was saying any more, but could imagine them. Unimaginative insults and reminders of Sebastian's worth. Hardly worth hearing. In a state of disinterested, his gaze drifted downward to a spot behind Claude's feet.

Which was why he was able to see the whirlwind that was Ciel, his clothes in tatters, his scars on full display, his teeth bared and his eyes blazing with bright blue magic, running across the tiled floor and cutting the air in front of him with a slash of his hands and a wordless yell.

Claude didn't even have time to react. Too busy crowing over his brother to notice the tiny human.

His body exploded in a shower of blood.

Hm. Nobody had ever saved Sebastian before. A shame he would not have time to appreciate that.

Claude's body fell to the ground with a splatter. Ciel ran through the blood, his bare feet sliding on the fluids, his eyes fading to their normal blue. He collapsed at Sebastian's side. His mouth opened and closed, words failing him as he took in the sight of Sebastian's body. Foolish boy, he should have run and saved himself all this effort. Then he wouldn't have to see Sebastian looking less than his best. Sebastian found that he was rather adverse to appearing anything other than perfect in front of his husband. And yet, even though his appearance was not up to his personal standards, he felt he was happy to have Ciel here at the end of it all.

Ciel, however, was decidedly not happy. He had his hands on Sebastian's front, ripping apart the clothes to reveal his flesh. His teeth were bared, tears and snot rolling down his face even as he tried not to go to pieces. His eyes glowed blue again as he moved his hands over Sebastian's body. But after half a second, he looked back at Sebastian with alarm.

"I don't know your anatomy." His voice cracked. Shook with pain. "Sebastian, I can't... I don't know how to heal you! I can heal myself, and I can do other humans, but your organs... I don't..."

Sebastian blinked. His eyes were so heavy. His hand twitched. Lifted up slightly. He was able to press his palm to Ciel's neck. Couldn't reach any higher to his cheek.

That expression doesn't suit you.

He wanted to say it, but couldn't make his tongue form the words. His hand fell to his side.

Ciel punched his shoulder. "No! I won't allow this. You... You need food for your magic, that's what you said. Here! I managed to find this."

Something was pressed against Sebastian's lips. He could taste it on his tongue: it was a forgotten memory. Crystallised and so saccharine. His mouth lolled. He was so hungry, but he didn't have the strength to eat it. His head fell backwards. The memory rested uneaten on his lip.

"No no no no," Ciel muttered under his breath as he tried to force Sebastian to eat. He held the memory up, his hand shaking. Tears fell on Sebastian's open wound.

With a wild movement, Ciel brought the memory up to his own mouth and crunched it between his teeth. It wasn't designed for humans. The flavour burned his mouth even as the crystal sliced his gums. But still he forced his jaws to grind the memory up until it was small shards. Then he straddled Sebastian, leaning over him with both his hands on Sebastian's face, opening his mouth.

The first time Sebastian kissed his husband's lips, they tasted of regret and blood.

He couldn't react. Just lay there as Ciel's tongue moved, pushing food into Sebastian's mouth, down past the back of his own tongue into his throat. Sebastian's body moved by itself. The muscles of his throat contracted, forcing the food down. Ciel sat up. Pulled another memory from where it was stored in his tattered clothes. Chewed it in his ragged mouth. Kissed Sebastian again to feed him more.

"Come on, Sebastian." His whispers were choked. Heavy. His hands shook as blood trickled from his tongue. "Please. You can't do this, you can't leave me like this. Get up. Just get up."

And Sebastian's mouth twitched. His hand moved, circling Ciel's waist. His tongue scooped up the memories Ciel was feeding him, swallowing them down, letting the magic pulse and flow into his bloodstream, fueling him after so so long spent on the brink of starvation.

He opened his eyes. Saw his husband's teary face clearly above him. Leaned up. Kissed his mouth, tasting the memory there, licking the fragments clean.

"I'm here, my husband."

With a sob quite unlike him, Ciel gripped Sebastian's face and kissed him. Open mouthed. Desperate. He was clumsy and grasping, pressing their lips together without a hint of finesse, as if he were a blushing virgin once more. Sebastian flinched at first, his body still healing, but then he sat up to wrap his own arms around Ciel's waist and kissed him back. He tasted coppery blood on his husband's tongue and let out a moan of desire. One hand stroked over Ciel's bare back, feeling the ridges of his scars and longing to map them all out so he could become familiar with them. The other went to Ciel's hair and held him close. He tilted his head. Pulled Ciel back slightly. Kissed him slower and sweeter. Saliva and blood and memory mingled on their tongues in fat slimy bubbles.

When they separated, a shiny string of bloody spit hung between them. It broke apart. Blood flecked onto the floor. Sebastian stared at his husband sitting on his lap, arms around Sebastian's neck, chest pressed to chest. He smiled and leaned down to kiss him again.

Ciel slapped him in the face.

"What in the blazes were you thinking? "

Sebastian raised his hand to his stinging cheek. "Ow..."

"Don't say that like I hurt you. You let your brother stab you through the stomach! What was that? Why would you do that, you ridiculous foolish aggravating..." He gave up thinking of more insulting adjectives and gripped his hair instead, letting out a high-pitched whine like a kettle. "If I hadn't been here you would've died!"

"You weren't meant to be here," Sebastian said. "Why are you here? I was distracting him so you could escape and return to the human realm where he couldn't follow."

"That was a ridiculous idea. I'm not going to just leave."

"So you stayed in a building with a monster who wanted to destroy us both?"

"Of course! I'm not going to run away without y-"

He caught himself, his cheeks going bright pink. Sebastian felt his own face stretch into a smile.

"Without what, my dear husband?"

"Shut up. There's no time for this, we still have a job to do." Ciel looked away in an attempt to regain his composure. He extricated himself from Sebastian's arms and stood up. A trickle of blood ran over his lip. He looked down at Sebastian, his mouth thinning. "You're still injured..."

Sebastian followed Ciel's gaze down to his own torso. A hole gaped there still, blood trickling thick and dark over his flesh. He pressed a finger to it and hissed in pain. It was healing. But slowly. Now that he was aware of it, Sebastian realised how painful it was and grit his teeth to keep from saying something distasteful. But there was an easy way to fix that now that he could move unencumbered. All he needed was to eat.

How fortunate that his husband had left him a fresh source of magical energy to devour.

Sebastian's mouth watered as he crawled forward towards his brother's body. His hands reached out. Sunk into the still-warm flesh, feeling it already breaking down into pure magical detritus to flow back into the aether. Sebastian lowered his chest to the floor, unhinged his jaw, and sank his teeth into the bounty before him.

Blood. Flesh. Magic. It all mingled on Sebastian's tongue and flowed into his body. He felt his magical reserves start to move, working slowly at first then quicker and quicker as they became used to the torrent of energy coming in. His body started to stitch itself back together. Blood coagulated. Muscle regrew. Bones stitched together. Organs pumped. Sebastian's body had been weak and lacklustre before - a mere shell of himself. He had been brought so low for so long. But now as he gorged he felt himself come back to its full glory. The magic had his skin glowing with moonlight and eyes pricking with the colour of raven's blood. His teeth lengthened. His claws rended. His tongue writhed.

Soon his body was sated, but Sebastian didn't stop. Like any demon, he was greedy. He wanted more power and magic, wanted to hoard it all! So he kept consuming. Swallowed down the magic and flesh until it was spilling out of his body.

The humanoid form quickly became overwhelmed and began to expand. The shadows on the wall morphed and rippled with the shape of a wolf pack on the hunt, their teeth bared and their paws tearing through the earth. His mouth split further, opening all the way down his body. Red eyes blossomed across his flesh. Sebastian's physical form shifted as he stepped into his true demonic shape: huge and hulking, many paws on the ground, proud muzzle rippling with teeth, pointed ears swivelling this way and that, dark tail that swept through the night, thick fur that rustled with the sound of forests and raven song. His canine head tilted back and howled loud enough to have the eyrie shaking on its foundations. A dark tongue licked his teeth. A growl rumbled through his chest as he lowered his mouth to swallow down the final scattered remains of what had once been his brother.

"Sebastian."

A golden chain at his throat, tugging him away from the feast. Sebastian fought. Snapped. But the collar was too strong and pulled him back, forcing him to sit. A tiny human stepped up beside him. If Sebastian wanted, he could have crushed this human under one paw. But he did not move. Instead he sat with his ears back and his tail down.

Ciel moved forward, picking his way through the mess. As he went, he spoke in a thoughtful voice, repeating the words of the prophecy they had received.

"It shall be found in the broken pieces of that which breaks. The remnants of that which remains." He stooped, his hand going through the remains of Claude. Sebastian recognised this as a ribcage: where demons kept those treasures that were important, and needed kept safe. There was something solid in there. Ciel probed into the gore. "You shall take it with your own hands from that grotesque horde, and it shall be waiting for you. It is calling for you now. You shall see it."

With a loud squelch, Ciel pulled something free. Something bright. Passionate. Red.

It was a name.

Sebastian lowered his head and sniffed the air around his husband. There was no doubt about it: this was a name belonging to a blood relative. What was his aunt's name doing here? Sebastian was sure he had never seen Madam Red before, and he thought he was aware of all of his brother's mates.

Ciel was equally baffled, turning the name over in his hands. It swam through his fingers with a whisper. With a click of his tongue, Ciel gripped the name in his fist and sealed it into a small orb-shape. He looked up at his husband.

"You can store things inside of your chest."

Sebastian nodded.

Ciel held the name out. "Keep it safe until we can return it."

In his current form, Sebastian's snout dwarfed Ciel. His mouth cracked open, splitting down his body and twisting away in eldritch spirals. His tongue flicked out, thick enough to wrap around Ciel's entire arm. He lapped up the blood still clinging to Ciel's flesh. Picked up the name. Swallowed it down to keep it nestled in his ribcage. Then he leaned down to taste more of his husband.

Sebstian was drunk on this magic now. His body rippled and his breath came quickly. He was nothing but desire and hunger and he wanted to consume.

"Stop."

A hand on his nose, halting him. Ciel was watching him with a cold stare.

"I can't talk to you when you are like this. Become humanoid."

It was a fair enough request. Sebastian condensed his power and felt his body fold in on itself to be a more pleasing form. Shadows shipped around him, coalescing into his body. He became as humanoid as he wanted at that moment, but allowed himself flourishes. The multiple arms that spiralled around him and encased his husband's body. The mouth that could split open to reveal twin writhing tongues beneath rows of teeth. The skin glowing pale moonlight. But to appease his husband he stitched the shadows into a human suit and knelt down to await his orders.

Ciel stood before him, clothed only in blood as the last remnants of his cobwebs fell away. The chain materialised in his hands, twisting in his fingers. Wordlessly, he raised his bare foot.

Sebastian's hand took hold of it, his mouth splitting open. He licked a stripe from Ciel's toe up the top of his foot all the way over his shin up to his knee, tasting the blood that lay heavy on his flesh. His eyes flicked up and met Ciel's. Held his gaze as he pressed a kiss to the skin.

"You took too many liberties with your brother," Ciel said.

His hands tightened on the chain. His foot raised, his toes pressing on Sebastian's chest and pushing him down to the floor. One foot kept him in place, his hands tugged on the chain so the collar tightened on Sebastian's neck. Sebastian gasped at the pain. His body began to react in anticipation.

Ciel loomed over him, his eyes burning blue in the darkness. "You made an agreement that you would be my dog, and that you would assist me with finding out the cause of the fire that killed my family. You think you can get out of our contract so easily? That you can let your brother kill you without my permission?"

The collar tightened and Sebastian let out a moan of pleasure. He reached his hands up, wrapping them around Ciel's shin and reaching up to press along Ciel's thigh and up to his hips. "I apologise for my impudence."

"Hands at your sides."

Sebastian's arms fell to the ground immediately. His eyes were fixed on Ciel with wonder. Ciel's lip curled. He smirked down at the demon lying prone before him.

"Also... I heard your brother say something interesting just now. He said that you were sent to marry me as a way to learn information. Is that true, Sebastian?"

Ah. He had heard. Sebastian closed his eyes, waiting for the punishing blows. "It's true. I was sent to be a spy. I was to win your trust, and bring information back about the source of humanity's magic."

"Hm. You really are a duplicitous lot. And brazen! Did you truly think that you would be able to manipulate my father into revealing secrets? That you would manipulate me?"

His heel pushed down into Sebastian's chest to emphasise his point. Sebastian writhed underneath him. It was good to be alive. To be able to experience his human in this way.

"I was foolish to ever believe it possible."

"Yes. You were." Then Ciel kicked Sebastian in the face, sending pain lancing through him. It was a beautiful spice.

Before Sebastian could react, there was more weight on his chest. Ciel had sat down on top of him, his thighs on either side of Sebastian's head, his body curved over to glare down at him. His hands gripped Sebastian by the hair. Lifted him off of the tile just slightly.

"I order you to tell the truth now," he said darkly. Sebastian felt the contract wrap even tighter around his tongue. "Are you a spy? Or are you a dog?"

Sebastian's mouth watered. "I am a loyal dog."

"And who do you belong to?"

"You."

"And whose orders will you follow before all others?"

"Yours."

"Good." His hand stroked down Sebastian's cheek, leaving a smear of blood. "You're mine. All mine."

Sebastian knew his husband. Knew that this was how he could speak, how he could get out the emotions he must have felt watching Sebastian near death. If he had realised how much pain it would have caused, perhaps he would have chosen a different method of distracting Claude. But on the other hand, if it caused his little husband to react in so fetching a manner then perhaps his skewering had been worth it.

Ciel was not done with him. He tilted Sebastian's head back. The other hand not on his hair came to Sebastian's mouth, forcing his lips apart to bare his teeth. Sebastian's tongues wrapped eagerly around his digits. He heard Ciel swallow thickly.

"Put that mouth to use," he said eventually.

Sebastian opened his mouth eagerly as Ciel slid forward onto his face. How beautiful to taste his husband, mixed with the flavours of blood and sea salt that coated his body! And now with his power fully restored, Sebastian was able to explore him deeper than before. His bifurcated tongue wound around Ciel's cock, wrapping along his shaft and over the head before slithering over his balls and to his perineum. When Ciel's back arched in pleasure, Sebastian's other tongue probed against his husband's entrance, pressing inside of him. He pleasured Ciel eagerly, his mouth splitting open further and more of his tongue probing forward.

Ciel's thighs trembled and clenched around Sebastian's head. His hands were back on Sebastian's stomach, holding him down as his body writhed. Sebastian's heels pressed against the ground and he thrust into the air, his own cock hard and desperate. Ciel's fingers dug into his flesh.

"Don't come," he commanded through gritted teeth. "I won't let you."

"Mmn!" Sebastian gave a pitiful noise, his eyes flying open. Ciel was glaring down at his face pressed between his bare thighs. From this position he was so strong and domineering and Sebastian wanted - no he needed to fuck him. Or if not, he needed Ciel's hand around his cock, or his booted heel on him, or he needed Ciel to watch him as he orgasmed from nothing more than his gaze. Sebastian's brain was swimming with lust and desire and power that demanded an outlet. Now this human was going to deny him? This human would take his own pleasure and leave Sebastian a panting, desperate mess?

Sebastian's eyes rolled up into his skull in pleasure at that notion. His tongue moved faster. His hands clenched on the ground where they were ordered to stay. His hips rocked in the air, his cock throbbing. Fuck he was going to-

"Hhrk."

Magic wrapped around his cock like cold metal bands pressing into the flesh. Even as he approached his own orgasm, his husband's order was preventing his body from acting. He could feel the pleasure building inside of him. Every part of him was aching with desire. But he couldn't release. It just built and built inside of him until he felt he would expire: a mixture of pleasure and agony that had him whimpering and crying in a most unbecoming manner even as he used his mouth and tongue to stroke his husband to his own orgasm.

With a long cry, Ciel came on Sebastian's tongue. His hips ground down onto Sebastian's mouth. His toes curled. His thighs clenched Sebastian's skull. Sebastian swallowed down his semen, licking him clean, relishing every drop.

How beautiful to be alive in this moment.

Ciel slid off of him to sit beside him, one leg curled beneath him and the other stretched over Sebastian's chest. His gaze went to Sebastian's crotch. The demon was still painfully erect. Any hope of relief was squashed when Ciel gave an amused little laugh at the sight with no move to allow him release.

Little brat...

But Ciel's hand went to Sebastian's hair and stroked it out of his face. His movements now were tender. Sebastian leaned into his touch despite himself and felt his eyes flicker closed.

"You're a foolish demon," Ciel said. He wasn't saying it cruelly. It didn't make Sebastian's chest ache the way it may have done if Claude had been the one to say it. "Thinking that you could get information out of me... Thinking..."

Sebastian sighed and raised his hand, pressing it on top of Ciel's. "I know that now. You are something marvellous."

"No. It's not that." Ciel was frowning into the middle distance. He moved his hand, turning it over to clasp Sebastian's. They sat there a moment: Ciel naked on the floor with Sebastian curled at his side. Ciel was wrestling with something. Trying to find words. Sebastian waited for him to find them. He had time, now. He could wait as long as Ciel needed.

"There's something I haven't told you. Haven't told anyone."

"What is it?"

"I don't..." Ciel stumbled at first. He swallowed. Ran his fingers through his hair. Started again. "You were never going to get information from me about magic, Sebastian. I don't have any to give."

That had Sebastian frowning. "What do you mean?"

"There's a reason I need to find out what happened during the fire. What happened when my brother and father died. I... I don't remember." He squeezed Sebastian's hand tight and admitted the secret he'd held their entire marriage. "My mind is... I think it's broken. Or emptied. I can feel a space where memories should be, but when I try to access them..."

The words came faster now that he was finally able to say them. Spilling out of his mouth like wine.

"I don't know where my magic comes from. I don't know where these scars came from. I don't know anything about who I am, or my life, or... or anything. It's a blur. All of it.”

His hand was pressed to his face, nails digging into the skin so tight the skin was about to break. A tear dribbled down his face. It left a stripe through the dried blood.

"I have no memory of anything. Nothing before the fire."

Chapter Text

"Give me your other foot."

"I think you've washed me quite enough, Sebastian."

"Well I disagree. And besides, it was not too long ago that I thought I would never again be able to touch my husband. Let me indulge myself."

"You have indulged yourself quite enough for one evening. You would have broken me if I hadn't stopped you."

"I am sorry to hear that. Will you let me make it up to you? I shall treat you gently and make you feel far better."

"Incorrigible."

Ciel flicked water at Sebastian with a frown, but he had a quirk at the edge of his lips that betrayed him. They were at that moment in Claude's chambers at the very to of the eyrie. His brother had kept all of his greatest treasures and comforts in these rooms, including a large bathroom with marble tub sunk into the floor big enough to float in if one wanted to. They had been sitting in the warm water together, letting the heat soothe each other and the scented oils relax them. Sebastian had also taken the liberty of washing the last flecks of blood and salt from his husband's skin, teasing out all the knots and aches in his muscles, letting the boy relax for what may have been the first time in all his thirteen years.

Now Ciel lay against Sebastian's side and ran his fingers through his hair. The magical contract in his eye glimmered a pale pink.

"I need to gather my thoughts," he said after a moment's silence. "It is considered good business practice to reflect on what you've achieved during a particular venture. And what goals you still need to pursue."

Sebastian gave a little hum to indicate he was listening.

"We can safely describe this trip to the Demon Realm as... chaotic . I do not think we will be repeating it in future."

"A wise decision," Sebastian agreed. The death of his brother would likely put more demonic eyes on him as they tried to discover what tricks the weak brother had used to best his superior. Then they would naturally turn their attention to Ciel, seeing him as an extension of Sebastian. Thinking of those creatures running their hands over his husband had Sebastian wrapping a protective arm around Ciel's shoulders.

Ciel continued. "But despite all of that... messiness... we've achieved more than I expected. We found Madam Red's name, and as per our agreement she now will assist me in gaining entry to the Bone Tower. There, I can find more information about the deaths of my family and the cause of the fire itself, and hopefully an explanation for my lack of memory. That would have been enough for me to declare this trip a success. But you..." He looked at Sebastian with a tilt of his head and a brief hint of a smile. "You managed, in one evening, to prove your value as a Phantomhive. Protecting my secret from the rest of the demons, killing your brother, and regaining your magical reserves. Although... Perhaps that last one is less of a benefit than I would have liked."

Sebastian smiled and felt his mouth split into undulating rows of teeth. With a bit of effort he managed to contain the flow of excess magic and his face settled into that of an ordinary human's once more. It had been a while since he had had so much magic at his disposal and his body was still getting used to it. Even as he listened to Ciel, if he let his mind wander he may end up sprouting an extra set of arms or letting his ears grow tall and canine. In the bath he had actually managed to slap Ciel in the face with a tail he had not realised he was wagging.

It was manageable, he was just a little out of practice.

"The thing which confounds me," Ciel said, "is how my aunt's name ended up in your brother's possession."

"Yes, that is a riddle." Sebastian scratched his chin in thought. He remembered Ciel stepping over the body of his brother, pulling her name out of the viscera that had one been his body. It had been inside Claude's chest: protected within his rib cage as all demons protect their dearest prizes. The last place either of them would have considered searching.

"You said your aunt lost her name in a contract with a demon?"

"That's what she told me when we made our deal. She did not give me particulars... Did not describe the demon who took it or what she had bargained it away from. It was frustratingly little information."

"And you're sure she wasn't hiding information intentionally?"

"No. At that point in the night, she was mine."

"Hmm, that is curious. To make a deal and lose your name, but not remember the details." Sebastian poured more water over Ciel's hair as he considered this.

"And you have no memory of her?"

"None at all. My brother had a number of human mates, and he loved to show them off. A fertile human like your aunt would not be hidden away, he would have called me to him to bear witness to her. Unless, of course, it occurred during my punishment."

"Ah..."

They lapsed into silence at that, both of them remembering what they knew of Sebastian’s confinement.

Sebastian had no idea how long he had been trapped in his brother's prison. For him, it had been centuries of torment. Long enough for him to consume all of his magical stores until he was forced to consume the treasures he had stored in his chest: the few pieces he had saved of the fights he had one, of his long-forgotten mother, of Alois. Then his captivity had lasted for even longer after that, as his brother would pull him from the depths to feed drops of magic before shoving him back into his prison.

But that pocket of time had existed within its own timeline. Millennia may have passed outside of it, or only a few nights. It was entirely possible that during that time Claude had a dozen different mates, and that Ciel's aunt was amongst them. He had no way of knowing.

With a sigh, Ciel pulled himself out of the water and moved across the tiled floor to a window. He looked down over the ocean, lost in thought. Sebastian rested his elbows on the side of the tub and watched him. His husband lit up in the lamplight. The water droplets ran over his scars and made them shimmer.

Sebastian got out of the water himself, drying himself with a flick of his wrist and materialising clothing as he did so. He picked up a towel that was waiting on a nearby grate and went to help his husband dry off.

It was still odd to him to see his husband's skin with the neat scars along it. The more time Sebastian spent looking at his flesh, the more marks he discovered. It was a credit to Ciel's abilities how he had managed to conceal them for so long. Sebastian now ran a finger over the thick scar tissue running over Ciel's shoulder blades. Down his vertebrae to his lower back. The thick twisting design which had been branded into the base of his spine blazed a hideous red. He flinched when Sebastian touched it.

"Does it hurt?"

"No. I just..." Ciel's lips thinned. "I hate them. Knowing someone else has seen them... That someone is touching them..."

Sebastian wrapped him in the towel and soothed him with muffled touches. It was lucky for the creatures who had done this to Ciel that he had no memory of them. They would not survive another night if Sebastian had their names.

"Do you remember anything at all?" Sebastian asked as he gently rubbed his husband dry. "Not just about these scars. About anything."

Ciel gave a small hum as he thought. His early childhood he remembered, but through the same distant haze as any other human. He remembered his twin, and his father, and time spent at the family estate in the higher strati of the Human Realm. From what he confessed to Sebastian, his childhood had been largely uneventful. He remembered his aunt, and he was certain she had her name then. But then there was a blur in his memories.

"The last thing I remember clearly is sitting in the drawing room reading a book. Then..." He winced. "It is as if I fell asleep right then and there, only to wake up five years later pulling myself from the wreckage of my home as the fire burned into the sky. But... I didn't realise I had been asleep. In those few days after the fire, I thought that I remembered everything quite clearly. It was only when someone asked me what had happened that I realised..."

He tailed off with a frown. Sebastian linked their fingers, his thumb rubbing over the back of his husband's palm. Let him find the right words.

Finally Ciel went on. "It is difficult to describe. I must have lost my memory during the fire, because people commented that after it I was… changed. If I had been constantly losing my memory, living my life through a fog, then surely I would not have been acting any differently? But if it only occurred during the fire, why does my memory blur so much before that? It is so frustrating! Sometimes I think I almost have a hold on a memory, something seems to take shape in my mind, but when I try to grasp at it, it dissolves into nothing."

He was getting irate, spitting his frustration out. Sebastian wrapped him in the towel like a cocoon. Ciel gave a huff and relaxed into him.

As they stood there, his little kitten of a husband calming in his arms, Sebastian thought back to a day early in their marriage. The day when he and Ciel had visited those two girls: the Witch and the Knight who had their own magic. He remembered the way they had talked to each other. The interrogation of the girls, trying to ask Ciel what had happened at the fire and refusing to help him with his own investigations. At the time he had thought his husband something of a fool, someone who grew flustered in the face of any problem and could not handle the slightest hiccup to his plans. An easy thing to manipulate, he had told himself.

But no, there had been strength in there. The strength that had picked him up again and again, kept him running forward into the darkness now matter how he stumbled and no matter how he hurt. No matter the nightmares and the scars and the pain and the void inside his own head.

Sebastian raised Ciel's hand to his mouth and kissed the delicate wrist.

Later, as Sebastian was dressing Ciel in new clothing he stitched from black fabric (their own luggage having been destroyed in Claude's rampage), Sebastian asked a question he had been wondering.

"You said you have no memory of how you gained your magical ability. Would I be correct in thinking that you also have no memory of your brother's magic?"

"You would be correct."

"Do you remember him at all?"

"Of course I do.”

“Were you fond of him?”

“Yes. I loved my brother." He said this without emotion, as if by rote. It had Sebastian raising an eyebrow, but he did not question it and focussed on pulling Ciel's stocking up his calf. He had not heard his husband talk that much about this brother, and he did not know the intricacies of human siblings.

"But you have no memory of him having magic as a child?"

"No." Ciel tilted his head to one side as he thought. "Of course, I cannot rule out the possibility that I missed it. Childhood memories aren't infallible. But I believe we had no kind of ability as children. Perhaps it is linked to puberty?"

"Perhaps." Sebastian shrugged. He was familiar with human puberty, it was necessary to know if a mate had reached puberty to see if they were suitable for breeding. Such a curious thing for humans to change in so tremendous a way so long after their birth. How unlike demons who were birthed as a powered-down version demonic form and would unfurl to their full height once they were fed. He mulled over this difference in human biology - the difference between life and death for the two lifeforms.

"I wonder how much of your missing memory is a result of your brother's death."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when a demon dies, our bodies dissolve into the magic that fuels the rest of the realm. I am not knowledgable about fae biology, but I would not be surprised if something similar happens upon their deaths. Our realms are made of magic: we are born from it and when we die, we dissolve into it. But humans have been without magic for all time. When I am in your realm, the air is stale and empty. So when a human with magic dies... Where would their magic go?"

Ciel was silent a moment. "We did not have bodies to bury. There were no remains in the rubble: not even teeth or fragments of bone."

"And that is unusual?"

"Yes. There are always remains to entomb..."

"Ah. Another mystery to unravel."

By the time they made their way back down the eyrie, Claude's body had largely disintegrated into the air. There were some remains. Smears of congealed blood on the tile. Some scraps of fabric and flesh. The only thing remained was his rib cage: the last thing of any demon to dissolve, and the place where they kept their treasures.

They leaned over the rib cage now, to see if there was anything there that may give clues about his connection to Madam Red and his possession of her name. They found various items he had treasured. Memories of fights he had won. Prizes he had torn from enemies. Nothing of particular interest. Only three were noteworthy.

The first, a large key made of twisting metal that seemed to writhe in his hand. This he set aside to see later if there was a door it would unlock.

The next had Sebastian's breath catching in his throat and his entire body recoiling. When he picked it up in his hand, it felt oily and slick. Like something half-decayed that had been pulled from a fetid lake.

It was a memory of him .

When he held that memory, Sebastian saw himself through Claude's eyes. He was staring down at a haggard wretch being dragged from that torturous pocket dimension, delirious with hunger and begging for scraps of mercy that he did not deserve. He saw wide and terrified eyes. Pasty skin stretched too-tight over a fragile skull. Fingers scrabbling over the floor and over his brother's ankles. A pathetic voice choking out platitudes and promises.

It had his skin crawling and he wished to stuff the memory into his pocket and hide it away. But his husband held out a hand wordlessly and with a grimace Sebastian handed it back to him.

He watched as Ciel held onto the memory. Knew that now Ciel was truly seeing Sebastian at his lowest and most pitiful.

He watched as his husband wordlessly crushed the memory in his fist with a curl of his lip and let the fragments of it blow away into the air. They did not speak of it and Sebastian was glad of that.

However, the final item had Sebastian trembling for an altogether different reason. This was yet another memory, but this one did not feature Sebastian. It was focussed entirely on a human with blond hair and a wicked smile. A memory from one of Claude's gatherings of demons, from a night when Alois had appeared especially radiant decked in his ostentation and luxury. In the memory, Alois stood in the midst of a pack of demons and laughed when they tried to intimidate him. Whilst Claude's memory was focussed on the demons and their admiration, when Sebastian held that memory he saw only the human who had once so bewitched him. It had an aching feeling beat in his chest.

Ciel placed the memory in Sebastian's hands. "You should keep this one safe," he had said.

He did not know how to react. Stared down at the memory being placed in his palm. The way Ciel cupped Sebastian's fingers around it, cradling it gently. A part of him screamed that this was some test. A trick. When had anyone given Sebastian something that was just his? And this was his husband gifting him a memory of another human. What secret game was Ciel playing with him? What answer was he supposed to give?

As Sebastian stood there, his mind wrestling with itself, he asked a small, "Why?"

Ciel gave him a strange smile. "Alois... He had no family in the Human Realm. Nobody else to remember him. I would hate to think that a human could be forgotten, and... I can think of nobody better than you to hold onto this last piece of him. He meant so much to you, after all."

That had been enough.

Sebastian swallowed down the memory, feeling it slip down his gullet and nestle inside his chest. Then he leaned down to capture his husband's mouth with his own. He could not say why, but in that moment Sebastian felt such a rush of joy and devotion that he could not hold himself back.

Picking up the tiny human in his hands, he held Ciel against the wall, hitched one of the boy's legs around his waist, and kissed him deeper. Since Sebastian had gotten that first taste of his husband's blood-soaked lips he found himself craving it. He opened his mouth and pushed his tongue forward. Ciel's mouth welcomed him in, his own hands coming up to grip Sebastian's hair.

Sebastian's tongue had lengthened and twined around Ciel's. Ciel sucked on him, making Sebastian purr deep in his chest. He sprouted more arms, eagerly pulling his husband closer and also spreading his thighs and supporting him against the wall. His dear precious husband, his human mate, his Ciel .

His cock was hard and desperate as he ground against his husband's stomach, rutting against the fabric of his clothing. His length lay alongside Ciel's, aching and throbbing and begging for release. One of his hands gripped Ciel's hip and moved round to press against his entrance. His fingers were already slick with fluid. His cock trembled. Every part of him ached to push his husband against the wall and fuck him deep and hard until Ciel was screaming in pleasure.

But he knew his place and he held back. Gazed at Ciel. Silently begged for permission.

Ciel looked up at him with a blush on his cheeks and saliva on his mouth. He had reached up a hand to gently brush along the collar at Sebastian's neck. Hooked a finger into the first chain link, pulling Sebastian towards him so they were forehead-to-forehead.

“So eager. Fuck me then, but try not to make such a mess.”

Hands at Ciel's knees to spread his legs, on his hips to hold him up, between his thighs to rip his clothing to tatters, round his waist to pull him back and forth as Sebastian fucked him, on his chin to pull him closer to kiss him deeper, on his wrists to pin them to the wall behind him so all he could do was writhe on Sebastian's cock, on the wall itself with claws digging into the rock and providing Sebastian with more traction to fuck into his husband, pumping into him over and over, listening to the gasps and moans Ciel made around Sebastian's tongue, hearing the increase in Ciel's heartbeat, feeling his legs shiver and tense as his pleasure increased, letting his husband's body shudder and clench as he orgasmed, then continuing through the pleasure as he kept fucking his husband until Ciel was shimmering with sweat and his moans were peaking again as the pleasure grew too much to bear, until he was near to sobbing with a mixture of ecstasy and exhaustion and pain, until the collar at Sebastian's throat was beginning to get heavy as it was beginning to hold him back from destroying his husband's human body, and then, and then Sebastian finally thrust deeper inside of him and felt his own release, filling his husband with his potent demon seed that was thick and rich with magic once more, pumping into him until Ciel's insides were filled, and so that it dripped onto the floor when Sebastian pulled out, leaving Ciel limp and panting and his.

If Sebastian had had his way, he would have taken Ciel another dozen times at least. Now that he had his magical stores back, he wanted to show his husband the true pleasure a demon might bring their mate. But the moment he had gotten his breath back, Ciel had demanded they stop. They had work to do, there was no time for any more of their rutting.

Well, if he had not been so focussed on his goals then he would not be Ciel.

They explored the eyrie at their leisure after that. When word got out that Claude was dead, this place would be flooded with demons hoping to pick it clean and fight over it. As it was, they were undisturbed.

They found room after room filled with Claude's treasures: more detritus won from fights with other demons, decaying statues as a monument to decay, arachnid-shaped accents and magical tools. Rooms heaving with ostentatious displays. So many twisting corridors and windows open to the elements.

He and Ciel descended through the corridors to the basement filled with the forgotten treasures. It was easy enough to find the trail Sebastian had left during his earlier climb: salty footprints and smeared handprints in the dust.

They stopped in a room filled with old broken toys and paintings staring at them with cold dead eyes as if telling them they were intruders. As if they had not killed the previous owner and now had claim on his lair if they wished.

Sebastian pointed to the ground. Sheets of paper that had spilled out of a leather folder. Ciel picked them up, his eyes widening as he turned the paper over. The Phantomhive family crest was emblazoned on the letterheads.

"This is my father's handwriting," he said.

"Negotiations over our marriage?" Sebastian leaned over Ciel's shoulder. "Claude wouldn't care enough to keep those close to him. Once I was out of the way, he would easily have forgotten about the agreement entirely except for when he needed to gloat."

"Perhaps." Ciel frowned and flicked through the papers. "This is my father's hand, but this language... Sebastian, is this a demonic script?"

Sebastian took the page from him. The words on the page were clearly set out in the manner of a contract (every demon knew the proper format for a binding agreement) but the words in and of themselves were nonsensical. It was as if the letters had all been scrambled on the page. But beneath it, there was a seal of agreement and the signatures of Claude and Vincent Phantomhive.

"It's been enchanted," Sebastian theorised. "A spell to ensure that nobody but the bound parties can read it."

"Is that common for demonic contracts?'

"It is... not unheard of. But unusual."

Ciel took the papers back and puzzled over them. Sebastian stepped away to give him space to think. And to look for something he had half-found on his earlier journey through this room.

He was looking for something imperceptible. The ghost of a whisper from the other side of a crowded room. A strange magic he had only been able to detect when he had been starving to death and desperate for the smallest shred of magical energy. Now he grabbed at that brief memory of smelling something and focussed on it. Coaxed it out of hiding. Like finding a delicate thread and following it to see where it lead, whilst being careful not to snap it by grasping too hard.

In another forgotten room of discarded objects, a large dresser rested against one wall. Human in design, it had once had a piece of clockwork on the top so that different dolls would dance whenever a drawer was opened. Now it was rusted and broken, propped against the wall on uneven legs. Sebastian's nostrils flared as he stared at the dresser, but it was not this piece of furniture that he wanted. With a flick of his wrist, he pushed the dresser aside. It clattered to the floor with a crash of metal.

Something had been carved into the rock.

Again, light carvings. In the dim light it could easily blend into the rockwork. Expertly hidden, but now Sebastian knew where to look; it shone like a beacon.

A square design, filled with curling scratches that twisted over each other. As he examined it, Sebastian realised the carvings were mimicking animals. A menagerie of beasts: amphibians and birds, lizards and mammals. He ran his finger over the rock and felt himself getting lost in following the path of the carvings. Were the animals playing together? Were they mating so that their bodies pricked with sweat and pleasure? Were they battling to the death and filling their mouths with blood and splinters of bone? His own mouth watered, almost tasting the blood.

In the centre of the carving, a deeper nick in the wall. His finger pressed against it.

There was something there. He could feel it through the rock. He could taste something on the back of his tongue.

Movement beside him. Ciel had stepped up to his side, also staring at the carvings. But he was not getting entranced by the animals, his gaze was directed to Sebastian's finger. To the nick at the centre. Although, it wasn't a random nick. It was a carved divot, a smaller square shape.

Ciel reached into his pocket. He pulled out the strange key they had found in Claude's chest. Stepped forward. Pressed the carved end against the divot in the wall. It slid easily into the wall, and turned with a click.

But this was peculiar. They were in the deepest cellar of the eyrie, in one of the spindly legs that held Claude's lair up off of the rock. This wall was the only thing separating them from the plunge onto the rocks below.

Ciel turned the key. Something that sounded like a great many tumblers turning over and over, the sound reverberating through space.

The wall hinged open. A doorway opening away from them.

There was no drop to their deaths. The door did not swing open onto the night air and let in the smell of salt. Nor did it reveal a hollow in the wall where something of great importance was hidden. Something so precious that Claude had not kept it in his chest, merely kept a key to fit into this hidden keyhole.

Instead, they found something far stranger.

Sebastian and Ciel found themselves standing at the start of a long, impossible corridor.

"What is this?" Ciel reached out with his cane, tapping at the floor and walls of the corridor. It sounded like solid rock. There was no give when he pressed on the walls. He picked up a piece of the discarded dresser and threw it down the corridor. The piece clattered on the floor and rolled away. "Sebastian, is this another pocket dimension? Like ones your brother made?"

"It can't be." Sebastian squinted into the distance. The corridor went far ahead, before making a sharp right turn into what would have been the open ocean. "A pocket dimension has to be observable from all angles at once, so that it can be controlled and kept stable. This is something else."

"But what?"

They looked at each other, neither knowing what to make of this.

Sebastian took the first move. He reached out a hand and pressed it through the doorway, braced for some painful barrier. Nothing happened. He ran his fingers over the walls, they felt solid. Took a breath. Stepped through the doorway.

The ground did not fall away beneath his feet. The roof did not break into thunder and lightning. It felt like an uninteresting corridor.

Ciel took a step after him. When the corridor still did not crumble away, Ciel nodded at him to keep going. They walked down the corridor, on high alert for anything out of place. Soon the sound of the ocean died away, muffled by whatever strange material this corridor was made of. They turned corners, twisting through the nothingness until they were utterly turned around. Until they were met with another door, this one made of dark polished wood.

"No keyhole on this one," Sebastian said, looking it over. "Nor any hinges or a handle." He gave a light rap with his knuckles, the sound echoing back at him.

"Can it be forced open?"

Sebastian braced his shoulder upon it and strained, but there was no give. He stepped back and contemplated the door. Or, well, it was a barrier more than a door at this point. But why would a corridor just end like this? It was not his brother's style to carefully conceal something, he was all about the show and the display. But this would not have been constructed by a previous master of the eyrie. Claude had raised this lair himself from the cliff below.

As he thought this over, Ciel stepped past him to examine the door. He tapped at it with his cane, listening to the sound of wood on wood. Then he gently tugged off one glove and ran a finger along the grain of the wood.

Where he touched, the wood glowed blue.

They started, Sebastian pushing his husband behind him and baring his claws. The lines where Ciel had touched the door began to spread, small splinters of blue light creaking out across the wood until the entire barrier was a lattice of blue. The blue lines glowed brightly, then flashed. When the light dimmed, the barrier was gone.

Now the corridor opened up into a larger room: empty ceiling and floor, but the walls were made up of more doors. Sebastian counted eleven other doors. All more wood with no sign of keyhole or hinges.

Ciel stepped past Sebastian into the open room, looking round with a calculating frown. He flexed his bare hand in front of his chest. This was far too many coincidences for Sebastian's liking. Madam Red's name in his brother's chest, and papers with the Phantomhive crest, and now a mysterious barrier that had not reacted at all to Sebastian's ministrations but immediately opened when his husband touched it? It stank of meddling. Sebastian kept his teeth pointed and his claws unsheathed as he moved to Ciel's side.

Ciel's curiosity took the lead. He walked around the room, brushing his hand across the other doors to see if any more would react. Only one of them glowed at his touch, disintegrating to reveal yet another corridor. They stared down this one. It felt different. Colder.

Sebastian placed a hand on Ciel's shoulder. If he said the word, Sebastian would pick him up and dust him off and carry him back to the eyrie where they would leave this place and these impossible corridors and return to the Human Realm and their estate there and that would be that. He knew that Ciel would never allow that. But he also knew he had to lay that option there for him.

Ciel stepped into the new corridor. The air here was colder and Sebastian felt the hair at the back of his neck stand up as they walked further. The air smelt different here, he couldn't put his finger on it. It felt... dead. Not empty the way it was in the Human Realm, there was magic here, but it was as if the magic was lifeless and dull. It had him covering his mouth and nose with a hand.

Finally, they reached yet another door. This one was metal with a heavy handle. Sebastian listened against it, but there were no sounds on the other side. He pulled the handle. The door opened with a slight creak.

Unlike at the eyrie, this end of the corridor did not open into a forgotten dusty basement. The room they stepped into was neat and clean. Cold tiles beneath their feet. White walls with neatly stacked shelves. There was no light in here; Sebastian squinted ahead into the gloom. He could see vague shapes ahead of them.

"Sebastian, make some light."

"Yes, my husband." He snapped his fingers and a glowing orb appeared floating above his palm. It bathed the room in a dull glow.

There was furniture down here. Chairs and a desk by the door they'd come through, all neat with not a scrap of paper to give them clues about where they were. Glass-fronted cabinets containing bottles of substances Sebastian could only guess at. He held the orb higher, revealing more of the room. It stretched further than he expected: beyond the reach of the light. But further down the room was something odd. A collection of statues, perhaps? Arranged around a low table, or a bed perhaps? No, not a single table. Multiple tables, he could see others in the distant gloom. Bizarre statues gathered around tables, laid out in the room stretching away from them into the darkness.

What was this place? Sebastian stepped forward to see what was happening.

"Stop."

The order brought him short. It was not the collar at his neck. It was the tone.

Ciel was staring into the darkness with wide eyes and his hands shaking at his side. His mouth opened briefly. Closed. He swallowed. His pale cheeks were flushed even paler, almost an ashen grey colour.

Sebastian kneeled in front of him. "What's the matter? Are you ill?" His hand stroked his husband's cheek. He felt the way his heart was hammering. The way his breath was coming faster.

"This place..." His eyes darted round to the little he could see. His lip trembled. "I don't... I..."

But they were cut off. Words died on both their tongues.

Because somewhere out there in the darkness, something moved.

Chapter Text

Sebastian pushed Ciel behind him, his eyes focussing in on the darkness where something had moved. He wasn't sure what it was. His demonic eyesight was used to darkness, but some magic made these shadows impenetrable. Ciel allowed himself to be pushed without any fuss. He was reeling from something, clutching his head and grimacing. The perfect bait if any demon wished to snatch him away.

The creature in the shadows moved again. Sebastian caught a brief glimpse of eyes, dangerous and feline. He bared his teeth. Dared it to try and take his husband.

It pounced, heading towards them with flashing eyes, and Sebastian leapt to meet it. Claws ripped into his flesh. Strong muscles were driving blows into him. They crashed into the ground together hard enough to crack the marble flagstones. Harsh breath on the side of his face as whatever it was struggled to force him down. Sebastian twisted in its grip, clawing and gnashing and tasting blood. Above, he saw those fierce eyes again. They were looking past him. Towards Ciel. Sebastian's own arms multiplied, hands fighting to rip the beast to shreds. The creature spat and hissed before driving a knee into his stomach, making him gasp and wheeze. It used the power of that kick to push off of him, flying up to the ceiling and then barrelling down across to Ciel like a cat ready to consume its prey.

"Ciel!" Sebastian leapt out of the rock as fast as he could.

Too slow.

In a fraction of a second the beast had crossed the room. It bore down on his husband with claws outstretched. Sebastian yelled as the creature reached Ciel, picked him up in its arms to hold him up to the light and whisper to him in a soft, musical voice…

"Little brother."

Sebastian faltered. He blinked at the sight before him. It wasn't some unholy beast of claws and teeth; it was a woman wearing a silk cheongsam and rosy pink lipstick. Instead of tearing Ciel to shreds, she was holding him off the ground and hugging him so that his face was pressed to her breast, watching him with a very blank expression even as he struggled to break free.

Ran-Mao. The girl who has sat on Lau's lap in the Shangri La so long ago.

As Sebastian stood there in bafflement, Ciel continued to wriggle uselessly in her arms. This was finally enough to jerk him out of his reverie.

"What are you doing?" he spat. "Put me down! What on earth are you doing here?"

Ran-Mao tilted her head to one side. "I'm guarding tonight. Why are you here, little brother?"

Sebastian got his wits back somewhat and stepped forward with his attempt at a soothing smile. "Please, Ran-Mao, may we have this conversation with all feet on the ground? My husband is not an object to be picked up."

She looked at him, unblinking. Gently, she placed Ciel on the ground, brushing her hands over his cheeks to wipe away specks of dust that still clung there. Tenderly. Almost like a family member.

Sebastian tried to put pieces together. This entire situation was bizarre. He brushed his hair out of his face, trying his best to align the girl from the Shangri La who had sat on Lau's lap and fed him dumplings with this girl calling Ciel 'brother' in a way that made sense in this strange corridor of the eyrie. She still had the scent of fae on her, but it was a dull scent that clung to the fabric of her clothing - remnants of her time with Lau rather than anything inherent to her.

The 'little brother' comment was the most puzzling. Sebastian's eyes flicked over her, trying to see a family resemblance. But there was nothing. Her skin was a smooth brown next to his husband's pale pink, her hair had red undertones besides his husband's blue, her eyes were gold and rimmed with dark lashes that kept them in shadow next to his husband's wide innocence. Her strong shoulders, her steady hands, her downturned lips. If there was any blood relation it would have been distant.

So what was she saying? With a jolt, Sebastian had a thought.

He stepped forward with a hand out in a placating gesture. "If I may, Ran-Mao, if you are trapped here by my brother, you do not need to feel bound by any contract you may have had. My brother is deceased and any contract would have been voided."

She blinked up at him. Didn't move from her crouch in front of Ciel. The longer she didn't speak, the more Sebastian felt like he hadn't gotten the right answer.

She gave a small sigh, her shoulders slumping. Then crouched to be eye-to-eye with Ciel. "You don't remember. Do you?"

Ciel flinched. To his credit, he did not give any further sign that she had hit on his secret.

"I hoped I was wrong. That you were just pretending to not know me in the Shangri La. I missed you. Both of you."

"Both..." Ciel's mouth parted slightly.

She nodded. "But don't worry. If you forgot, I can teach you again."

"Teach me what?" Ciel gripped his cane and narrowed his eyes.

"Do you know where we are?"

He didn't answer.

Ran-Mao straightened up. One hand moved up to the collar of her cheongsam. She undid the top clasp. They watched as her hand went down the front of her dress, undoing the clasps, letting the fabric fall to the side to reveal her undergarments and her bare skin.

Scars.

Around her neck. Down her chest in a Y shape, like an animal on a butcher's block. Around the tops of her arms. Mixed in amongst them, smaller scars that almost blended into her flesh but became more obvious the more one stared. And, Sebastian was sure, on her back at the base of her spine would be a mass of warped flesh where she had been branded.

Her fingers held open her cheongsam, letting Ciel wordlessly take it in, before she slowly redid her clasps.

"This is where they made us, little brother."

She flicked her hand. Gas lamps flared to life along the walls with a hiss. And now they could see the long room stretching away from them and the mysterious tables surrounded by statues were finally identifiable.

Raised plinths of polished stone, angled ever so slightly so that any fluid that was to drip onto them would run off into the gutter that ran along the edge of the room leading to the large water grates. Each one waist high, with a lamp overhead to bathe it in pristine light. Now the statues around the tables were revealed to be mechanical devices. Large pillars encased in wood, covered in dials and switches with thick wires emerging from the wood to hook up to tools: clamps, prods, diodes, rays. Large metal bowls on wheeled tables to collect detritus and fluid. Glass tubes that twisted around themselves. Tools set up on tables in their own neat cases. Blades and hammers and clamps and pincers and saws and pumps and hooks and speculums and syringes and forceps and and and...

"God!"

Human bodies. Children.

Each plinth held a child, small and thin and lit up by their own lamp.

Vivisected .

Skin expertly carved away and pinned back to reveal the layers of fat and muscle down to the bone and fluttering organs. Ribs that were clamped open to bare the lungs and heart and oesophagus. Intestines lifted out of the body on hooks, pumped through with fluid by wheezing machines.

With a lurch, Sebastian realised that he could map each of these children's conditions to a similar scar on his husband's body. On the nearest plinth he could see a child's hand slick and wet, the skin peeled back from a neat cut round the wrist to reveal the polished bone and tendons beneath.

There was an identical scar on his husband's wrist. He had kissed that scar hours earlier.

Ciel took a few faltering steps forward towards the nearest plinth, then stumbled back with a hand over his mouth. "They're... No, they can't be... They're still conscious!"

Yes. They were still conscious. Strapped down and immobile, but conscious. The child on the nearest plinth had wide brown eyes that were open and staring. Their gaze rolled across to them when Ciel had approached. Their lips had moved but no sound could come out. A large piece of tubing had been inserted into their mouth, stretching out their throat, connecting them to one of the machines with all its dials and switches. As the machine whirred, the child's chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm.

Ciel rounded on Ran-Mao. "What is this place? What are they doing to them? Who ?" He ended up spluttering in his rage and disgust and- Terror. Sebastian had never before seen his husband so scared.

Ran-Mao had not moved. She watched Ciel with her usual blank face and tilted head. "This is where they made us," she said again.

His husband was staring at her. He swallowed, his throat fluttering. He echoed her words back to her. "Where... where they made us."

"Me before you." She tapped her chest. "You were made alongside the Prince, the Oracle, the Serpent, the Witch, the Knight, and the Sun."

As she calmly repeated the names Sebastian had heard so long ago, he felt himself once again back in the room with the other magical children. The Witch and the Knight, who had accused Ciel with such hatred. The dolls representing the four lost members of the circle: Prince, Oracle, Serpent, Sun... Other children, other humans with magic, other creatures lost to the shadows of Ciel's memory.

But it seemed that as she said the names, something was igniting inside Ciel. He clutched his head, hunching over, his breath coming heavy and fast. Sebastian went to him, but Ciel flinched away with a snarl of, "Don't touch me!"

He was lost. His eyes wide and staring into nothing. His nails digging into his flesh. Some nightmare brought on by this room. He began to mutter to himself, his shoulders shaking.

"They made us. Yes. Yes, this is where... this is where they..." He gulped. Curled so much it was like his spine was folding in on itself. "You are a cup, an empty cup, and they fill you. And they fix you. And they make you. And..."

Whispers and groans, the same ones Sebastian had heard issuing from him when he had been unconscious on the roof of the eyrie and lost in his nightmares. Then through the pained yelps he muttered a word, repeating it so it grew louder each time, "Sebastian… Sebastian!"

"I'm here, my husband. What would you ask of me?"

Ciel gripped Sebastian's sleeve. Looked at him with wide, bloodshot eyes filled with terror and rage. "This needs to stop. We cannot... We refused to let it continue!"

"Who did? What are-"

"It can't go on! Destroy it! All of this, destroy it now!"

The collar at Sebastian's neck pulsed harsher than it had ever pulsed before. Immediately it sliced into his flesh, ordering him to move and follow his husband's commands. Not that it needed to. If this was truly the source of his husband's nightmares and scars and memory loss, then it would be a joy to burn it all down.

As he rose to action, Ran-Mao stepped in front of him to block his way. Sebastian narrowed his eyes at her. "Please stand aside. I do not know what this place is or your history with my husband, but anything that he orders I am bound to obey."

But she stood firm. "You have your orders. I have mine."

As she spoke, her eyes glowed a rose gold. Veins on her neck were picked out with that same hue, sending light through her skin to the rest of her limbs which rippled and warped as her magic took hold. Sebastian tugged off his gloves, his own limbs expanding and unfurling.

"Ciel," he said calmly. "Stand back."

Sebastian's teeth were the size of dinner knives as he leapt at Ran-Mao. His many arms were reaching to claw and tear, his eyes burning with fire.

But she had her own tricks.

When he was near, she ducked to the side and brought up her fist to smack into the side of his skull. Her fist had been warped into a huge chui, the veins and bones in her arm twisting together to create the solid metal ball. Sebastian was thrown to the side, his head spinning. But magic was coursing through him and he could easily knit his bone back together.

They snapped at each other: Sebastian snarling and lupine, Ran-Mao tense and steady.

When he managed to break her defences and tried to sink his teeth into her flesh, he was met with skin turned to metal scales, his fangs screeching over them. When she brought up her chui, she found his flesh disintegrating into eddies of blood and shadow then reforming in an instant.

Sebastian took his chance when she tried to bring her fists down on his spine, slipping underneath her and darting to the side. The nearest plinth was mere feet away. He could leap across to them and crunch the child between his jaws, destroying the machinery that was connected to them.

He could not reach them. A barrier of rose gold light flung up between them, blooming like peonies in thick petals of light. Sebastian slammed against it and it held true. With a snarl, he turned back to Ran-Mao. He was growing frustrated now. Would end her, and end this .

He threw himself at her again and again. Each time she smashed against his bones, he stitched himself back together and leapt towards her flesh. Whenever his jaws ricocheted off her metallic scales, she would slip away in time to heal herself. Her defences were a match for his claws, and her weapons were equal with his healing speed. It seemed that they would be locked in a battle until one of them gave in.

Perhaps they would have stayed tussling each other for hours, if not for his husband.

In their focus on each other, neither of them had been watching Ciel. He had picked himself up from where he had been shivering on the floor and slowly made his way across the room to the nearest plinth. His small frame had slipped beneath one of the petals of Ran-Mao's barrier. Across to the nearest plinth. Now he stood over the child, his face in shadow beneath the brim of his hat, his hands resting on the machinery pumping around the creature's body, ready to free it from its existence.

Ran-Mao's head whipped round. Sebastian tried to catch her, was able to claw through her metal scales to reveal a sliver of bare skin beneath, but not deep enough to even draw blood. Before he could catch hold of her, she had slipped away from him. She broke through her own barrier and skidded to a halt as Ciel's hand gripped one of the tubes. Sebastian tried to follow, but the barrier stopped him dead. He forced his claws and teeth on the golden peonies. Felt his body shudder as he tried to get through. Could only snarl and snap and watch as the humans stared each other down.

Ran-Mao's body had shrunk back to her previous proportions, her hands returning to delicate fingers and soft palms, but still encased in her metallic shell.

"I don't want to hurt you," she said gently.

Ciel's eye twitched. He looked at her oddly. His lip curled. "What makes you think you'll be the one to hurt me ?"

"I know your abilities, Little Brother. You and the Sun, your powers fed into each other. Without him..." She shook her head slightly. "You will not win in a fight with me. Please. Come away from there."

His eye narrowed at her. He looked awful, the usual facade he wore was slipping and revealing the raw emotions that always simmered beneath. His skin shimmered with a cold sweat. In the dim light, his eyes were sunken and exhausted.

"I have dreams," he said. "Dreams where I don't know where I am, don't know whose hands are touching me. Not knowing drove me to the edge of my sanity. But being here... Makes those dreams more solid." His hand tensed on the tubing. "I know the extent of my power."

He pulled. Ran Mao vanished, leaping cross the plinth. Her hands came down to smash into his husband, splinter his bones, destroy him utterly. On the other side of the barrier, Sebastian howled.

A great crash against his own skull had him hurling to the floor, the world spinning, his bones splintering as his magic pushed them back together. In the distance he heard the sound of an explosion. A high-pitched cry that ended shortly. Blood poured down Sebastian's face, clouding his vision in red. He crawled forward. The floor was slick. Towards the plinth, towards his husband's body. Found a body on the ground. Soft skin. Scars.

A silk cheongsam.

Sebastian blinked. Ran-Mao was lying on the ground, a hole ripped into her body through the small gap in the metal Sebastian had clawed earlier. As he looked he saw small pearls in her flesh. Human teeth. He looked up. His husband's body was misshapen, rearranging itself in an unholy squelch of flesh back to its normal form. In the blood it seemed that his skull had twisted round, his body forcing itself into a hideous weapon like some mixture of a gun and discarded offal. His body shivered as it reverted back. He leaned over and spat. Blood and another human tooth splattered to the floor.

Sebastian stared at him with reverence.

Ciel stepped across to stand over Ran-Mao. He held out a hand, materialising the chain and collar. Held it in front of her eyes. "My contract linked my body to my husband's. Any pain I feel, I can send to him. Any blow you try to land on me, I can have him take. You doubt my power, and that is your folly."

She blinked slowly. Light faded from her eyes. Her magic dimmed. Her lips moved, quietly making words.

"Little brother... I didn't..." The rest was lost.

Ciel stared down at her body, jumping when Sebastian in his humanoid form placed a hand on his shoulder. The boy looked shaken. But alert.

They turned their eyes to the child on the plinth; it was still watching them with its lips stretched around the tubing and its chest rising and falling in time to the hissing of the machines. Ciel reached out a gentle hand. He moved like a parent stroking their babe's cheek to send them to sleep. But his hand wrapped around the pipe and he wrenched it free of the child's throat. The child choked, their eyes rolling back in their head, blood bubbling up over their lips. The freed tube writhed like some mechanical tentacle, dripping fluid onto the polished floor. The child's mouth closed and opened, gulping for air, tears coming faster down their cheeks now.

Ciel pressed his fingers between the child's eyes. His flesh morphed, twisting and becoming metallic, skin transitioning to polished gunmetal. When he fired this time, it was a finger bone instead of teeth.

Seventeen children were laid out on plinths in that room. Ciel destroyed all of them with a cold fury that had Sebastian's chest warming. The blood and fluid trickled down the angled surface of the plinth to run off into the gutters. When his hands formed themselves back into individual fingers, they were slick with his own blood. Sebastian took a handkerchief from a nearby drawer and wiped the blood off for him.

He looked at his husband, at the harsh expression on his face and the way his shoulders rose and fell with heavy breaths. "Ciel... Do you know where we are? Have you remembered something?"

Ciel shook his head. "It's a dream. But more solid. I don't remember anything, but it feels more substantial. I know... but I don't know." His eye twitched. Turned his head to a distant door. Stared at it for a long moment, his expression inscrutable even to his husband.

"Sebastian," he said calmly. "Open that door. Tell me if there is a corridor."

"Yes, my husband." Perplexed, Sebastian did as instructed. Sure enough, behind the door he found a wide corridor sloping upwards. When he confirmed its presence, Ciel nodded. He pressed a hand to his face, taking a deep shuddering breath. When his hand dropped, his blue eye swirled with magic. The lamps that Ran-Mao had lit pulsed. Burned brighter. Hotter! Ciel strode forward and where he stepped he left behind him more flames, running like water along the marble, burning through the machinery and the oil and the bodies of the mangled children.

"Let's go, Sebastian."

Not daring to question him, Sebastian scooped his husband up and ran with him up the corridor. The smoke and fire heated up quickly behind them. As they climbed the corridor, Sebastian began to pick up the sound of distant voices. The smell of humanity . He emerged from the corridor into a brightly lit hallway opening out onto a courtyard with flowers and trees. He could see the Bone Tower in the distance. A clouded sky overhead that glowed with light. Distant cogs turning, powering the machinery of the realm.

This was the Human Realm.

“But… But how…”

"Move," Ciel ordered him, not giving them any time to ponder what was happening.

Sebastian ran to the courtyard and leapt up onto the roof. The doorway behind them belched smoke. Now others were noticing the quickly-spreading fire, the sounds of panic and screams filled the air. Sebastian ran over the tiles. He was heedless to direction, too confused about what was happening and where he was to go. All he could do was trust the boy in his arms who directed him with a sure and steady voice.

When he leapt off the roof, he found himself sending them over a great chasm of grinding cogs. They landed safely on a different street, ready to vanish into the nearby alleys.

Before they disappeared, Sebastian looked over his shoulder. The fire had spread quickly. Smoke was pouring out of the building they had left, the building that had been inexplicably linked to his brother's eyrie. What was this place?

Before he was forced onwards, Sebastian caught sight of wrought iron gates with words twisted into the metal. He could make out the words. Mouthed them to himself before he turned and ran.

“Weston Academy.”

Chapter Text

The Witch's cottage floated high above the top streets of the Human Realm, held aloft by magically-infused carvings upon its base. Inside the cottage, there were numerous devices designed to convert minimal magical energy to various activities. She had always been adept at this sort of work. She was talented at chemistry and biology of course, most of her work for the Realm involved medical examinations, but she found the most joy in these creations. It was like a beautiful jigsaw puzzle. She could put together all the different pieces, turn a single key, set a series of cogs and levers and wires spinning and pulling, and the end result was a finely crafted set of hands that helped her to dress and undress in her room.

The devices she made, combining human mechanical development with her own magical abilities, were the finest in the Realm. She was perfectly self-reliant thanks to them, able to live and work by herself despite her injured feet. Of course, this ability was thanks to Weston College having nurtured her ability. Without them, she doubtless would have been reliant on the assistance of others. Now, she lived alone and the only guests she had were ones she deigned to have visit her. Or those who she insisted take a room.

The Knight had been living in the same cottage since the fire had taken the Sun from their circle. She had always had a fondness for the Sun, and his death had hit her hard. She had been in danger of retreating to her own town house, shuttering the windows, and wasting away entirely. The Witch had insisted that she instead join her in the cottage. Up here, there would be no socialising necessary and she could mourn as needed, but the Witch would be able to ensure she was in relatively good health. Or that was her intention, at any rate.

That morning, the Knight had risen early and done her exercises. It was important for her to always flex her muscles and her tendons. There was metal twisting round her veins making her a perfect weapon but liable to break if she allowed the metal to settle. She had been less active than she had been before the fire. Whereas once she had enjoyed dancing and fencing as well as her exercises, and walks through the town to various events, now she would only do the bare minimum of her exercises and only because the Witch insisted. The Witch had taken notes of her veins. She was worried that her flesh was becoming brittle. That her withdrawal from society was affecting her more than they realised.

After the most basic of exercises, the Knight had retreated to her room without eating. She sat in silence with the curtains drawn so that the only light came from a candle, staring down at her clasped hands in their black gloves.

The Witch knocked on her door gently. "Lizzie? Would you like me to have breakfast brought up for you?"

There was a pause. As if the air was too thick and the words took a long time to make it across the room to the Knight, and then even longer for her to process and answer. The Witch waited patiently at the door. Finally a reply came.

"No thank you, Sieglinde. I'll have some tea later."

The Witch, Sieglinde, puffed out her cheeks and longed to knock on the door again to tell her companion that she simply had to eat something. That whilst she was still a healthy weight, her most recent tests had indicated that she was in danger of losing too much muscle mass and being unable to support the metal inside of her. If the Knight were to be injured, then the Witch and the Moon would be the only two members of their circle left, and then how would they be able to carry out their duties?

Especially since the Moon was hardly any help with the Circle's work. He had been the weakest member of their Circle from the start, his magic paltry and his body frail, wholly reliant on his brother to do the most basic of tasks. In addition, his mind had been slipping ever since the fire and this entanglement with his demon husband. At the Circle's last meeting, the Moon had reassured her that he had control of the demon, but Sieglinde didn't believe that for a second. Perhaps if the Sun had still been alive and they had been able to use each other's magical reserves as they once had, then the demon could have been tamed. But as it was...

She sighed, rubbing her head. She needed coffee.

Down in the dining room, the Witch morosely ate her breakfast alone, her mind caught up in all she had to do that day. She had a stack of letters on the table that she read through. Messages about what she had to research, what jobs she had to do, what her duties to the Realm were that day. These she then handed to a mechanical bird that fluttered through to her office to file them away.

But as she was finishing her food, she was distracted by something out the window. The cottage was suspended above the higher strati of the Realm, close to the silvery clouds. From here she could see a great deal of the lower strati. If she gently manoeuvred her cottage, she could even peer down through the cracks between the strati and the moving cogs to the deeper levels of the Realm where people toiled away in amongst the soot and grime. The only things that were on a level with her cottage were the highest strati of nobility, and the occasional flying transport.

That morning when she looked out the window, she saw thick dark smoke.

Weston Academy was ablaze. When Sieglinde ran to the window, she saw the flickering blue flames that engulfed the entire building. Looking through a telescope, she saw people escaping into the nearby streets. Fire brigades fighting to quell the flames. People rushing to protect the neighbouring estates from catching alight. People in the flames. Fighting. Screaming. Some escaping. Some succumbing.

She lowered the telescope with shaking hands.

She turned, her face pale and her lips thin, leaving the remains of her breakfast on the table to hasten to her office. The College succumbing to flames was chilling. Action needed to be taken! Her brain was already ticking with who she would need to contact, who she would need to speak to, who she would need to organise with in order to ensure that the College's work could continue with minimal disruption.

But when she threw the door to her office open she halted with her mouth agape.

The Moon (Ciel, he who had stolen his brother's name, the most unfit member of their Circle, the failure whose mind was slipping, the weak link in the chain with his ear filled with poison from his demonic husband, the one human she knew could not be here because he was in the Demon Realm and could not travel between Realms without the oversight of the Bone Tower) was sitting at her desk, her filing cabinets opened, their contents spilled across the room, folders and letters open in front of him, his cane lying across the table in amongst the remains of the mechanical bird which he had just crushed.

He raised his head as she entered, his eyes wild and dangerous.

"Sieglinde," he said. "Good. I've been wanting to talk to you."

She stared at him, eyes flicking around the office, clearly thrown off course. Understandable. It was not every day that one walked into a room in their house to find two men had already gone through their documents and had been waiting for them. Sebastian waited patiently for her to get her bearings, standing in the shadowy corner at his husband's command.

The two of them had been here for half an hour at that point. It was a good thing Sieglinde's mechanical systems were so organised; it had meant they were able to focus their search and more easily find the information that Ciel wanted.

Their brief time in that basement room in Weston College had aligned things in his husband's mind just enough to ignite a flame, and now he needed information to fuel it. He had gripped Sebastian's hand and stared at him with such wild intensity that it had been all Sebastian could do to carry him here and follow his instructions. He did not want to limit the fervour in him. The beautiful intensity as he told Sebastian that for a brief moment in that depraved pit, his nightmares made somewhat more sense. Something became clear. As he had read through the documents in the Witch's office, throwing some folders aside and stacking others onto the desk, circling things Sebastian did not recognise and making declarations Sebastian did not follow, Ciel had grown more and more certain.

Certain of what? Sebastian did not know.

Now he sat at the desk as if he owned the space, his fingers tight on the handle of his cane and his eyes fixed on Sieglinde.

She straightened her back and met Ciel's gaze. "Moon. I didn't know you were back from visiting your husband's home." Her dark gaze flicked to Sebastian and back. "How did you get in here?"

"We found a way." Ciel gestured her towards a chair again. "Sit down, Sieglinde. I'm not going to hurt you. I was just doing some research."

She didn't move. Her hand surreptitiously pressed against the door beside her, her magic flickering in her fingertips. Sebastian watched the way she frowned. She was discovering that the magic lock she had placed on the door had been shattered by a blast of magic directed at a key point - Ciel had pinpointed where to aim, Sebastian had provided the magical power, the door had swung open easily enough.

In the office, they had gone through all the filing cabinets and the drawers. They'd found letters between Sieglinde and various other high-ranking humans. More letters stamped with the Weston College letterhead. Complex schematics for new machine designs, and recipes for medicines. Sebastian had been interested in these, but Ciel had directed him elsewhere. To the medical folders.

There were three filing cabinets along the back of the wall, sealed with more magical locks. These locks, Ciel pointed out, were only as strong as the material they were locking. And the dear Witch, whilst intelligent, was not wise. The filing cabinets themselves were cleanly sliced in half and the files collected.

Three filing cabinets. Each was filled with different numbers of files. The files each had detailed medical notes of specific humans: years and years worth of notes from examinations that had been conducted at various facilities and all collated here. The Witch had then examined the notes and performed her own experiments with various collections of blood and tissue, adding further reports to the bulky files.

Each file contained documents stamped with the Weston College crest.

Each cabinet had the information for a Circle of magic users.

The first cabinet contained records for four people. Charles Grey, the Heliotrope. Charles Phipps, the Cedar. John Brown, the Nasturtium. Ran-Mao Guo, the Peony.

Ciel had these files in front of him on the desk, and turned them round to show to Sieglinde. "You have a lot of information on these people," he said. "Do they know you keep such scrupulous records?"

She didn't answer. She had her hands on the door, still refusing to sit down as if her being on her mechanical feet would give her any advantage if it came to blows.

"I'm afraid that your records will need updating, Sieglinde." He flicked a finger through all of the files, finding the death certificates for the Cedar, the Heliotrope, and the Nasturtium. Three men Sebastian had never met and Ciel had no memory of, all with the same pasty skin and dead-eyed expressions. Ciel then paused over the records for the person who went by the codename Peony. Ran-Mao's face stared up at him as he pressed a finger to the top of her file.

"The last of our eldest siblings died this morning. You'll probably be called to assess the situation as soon as all the commotion dies down. I didn't want to harm her, but... Things got out of hand."

His words had the Witch starting. Then she crossed the room to stand in front of the desk, hands gripping the back of a chair. "Moon... The fire at Weston College... Was that you? What did you do​? "

He glanced up. "I never mentioned Weston. Why would you bring it up, Sieglinde?"

She didn't answer. Ciel's mouth twitched. The clock ticked loudly, echoing through the silent room as they both waited for the other to crack.

It was the Witch who faltered first. "Moon, why are you here?"

"I told you. Just some research. I'm sorry for being so forceful and breaking in, but if you knew the morning we'd had, you would forgive our impertinence. There was just something I needed to know..." That same crazed glint flashed in his eye briefly as he glanced down at the files.

Sieglinde pressed on. "Were you at Weston this morning?"

"Yes."

"God..." She pressed a hand to her mouth. "Moon, how could you...?"

He met her eyes steadily until she dropped her hands and took a breath to steady herself. Held her hands out in a placating manner. "I don't think you realise what you've done. I think maybe you have been stressed and you have forgotten yourself, and things got out of hand like you said. Maybe you've been working too hard, or the Demon Realm disagreed with you. But it's all right. We can fix this. I'm sure some rest will help you see things a little clearer and this will all be sorted out."

"You don't need to be polite with your words. I've read all your comments about my mental state. That I'm losing myself and am becoming and unstable and... What was the wording she used, Sebastian? The phrase I liked."

"Do you mean where she said that your actions were reckless to the point of insanity and that she would need to bring you to heel?"

"Bring me to heel... That was it." He gave a soft laugh as he turned back to the Witch. "But I assure you, I'm not losing my mind. You're right in that I was at Weston, but I am the sanest I have ever been."

He looked back at the files. His voice tinged with ice. "What I did was what my brother and I had planned on doing for a very long time."

"You don't know what you're saying."

"Actually Sieglinde, I think you're the one who doesn't know what you're saying."

Five more files opened, five more faces staring out. Edgar Redmond, the Fox. Lawrence Bluewer, the Owl. Herman Greenhill, the Lion. Gregory Violet, the Wolf. Derrick Arden, the Lamb. More death certificates. The only ones left alive were the Fox and the Wolf.

Sebastian had seen the boy, Edgar, be introduced at that party where Ciel had bewitched his aunt. He remembered the dead, hollow expression behind his carefully curated smile. The way his shirt stretched up his neck, and the cuffs of his jacket down to his wrist. At the time it had seemed as normal as any other human outfit, but now he thought about what must be hidden beneath the fabric. Thick scars around the neck, in a V across the chest, the brand at the base of the spine. He remembered the way the Viscount had placed a delicate hand on Edgar's shoulder and called him nephew. The file in Sieglinde's office stated that the Fox had no living relatives. It said that he spent his time between Weston College and the town house of Viscount Druitt: a benefactor of the school.

In fact, all the members of this second Circle had spent a great deal of time between unrelated nobles and Weston College. It seemed that the College had arms that spread out through the upper echelons of the Realm.

There were pages and pages of medical notes for this Circle: analyses of blood and tissue samples, records of physical and magical abilities, reports on medical procedures correcting broken bones and punctured lungs and failing vision and dozens of years' worth of pages.

But Ciel had pointed out an interesting fact as they had read the files. The medical examinations had all taken place in the patient's or Sieglinde's house. Even when one of the Circle members had an injury or organ failure at Weston College, they would be transported elsewhere for any treatment.

None of her medical data had been collected in the College where this Circle spent their time. The place where Ran-Mao said that they — all of them — had been made.

"Weston College..." Ciel stroked his chin as he looked down at the files in front of him. "It certainly has enough facilities and room to support all its students. Why do you not stay there, Sieglinde?"

"You know why," she said stiffly.

"But my husband does not," Ciel said smoothly, as if he were merely being playful and not concealing the gaping hole in his memories. He gave an elegant flick of his wrist towards Sebastian. "Tell me for his benefit."

Sieglinde swallowed. "We're still the newest Circle. We need time to develop our skills in the wider Realm before we work at the College."

"By doing work at the behest of the Realm and of Weston College."

"Yes."

Sebastian listened with his head tilted, his gaze on his husband. Ciel was looking at Sieglinde over his steepled fingers, his face inscrutable save for the occasional flash of that strange intensity. He had not yet explained to Sebastian what his aim here was. There had been little time for that in the hurried journey from Weston. And he could not ask for an explanation now with Sieglinde watching them. All he could do was follow his husband's lead for the time being.

Ciel turned his attention to the third set of folders they had found. These ones had been of the most interest to the both of them: the ones detailing the youngest and final Circle. Ciel's Circle.

They had found the files about Ciel himself, as well as Elizabeth Midford and Sieglinde Sutcliffe. In these, Sebastian had learned about the brittle metal in Elizabeth's flesh, and Sieglinde's feet wasting away leading to her need for mechanical assistance. They had also discovered information about Ciel's breathing issues. Apparently, in all the tests performed, Ciel had regularly shown a lack of oxygen in his lungs and was unable to exert himself physically.

"I have no memory of this," Ciel had said as he had read the documents. Then, to Sebastian, "Have you noticed my breathing being more impacted than other humans?"

Sebastian remembered his husband's fluttering chest: pale with dusky nipples. The way it rose and fell as he slept. The volume of his screams as he was struck by nightmares. The gasps and moans as they fucked. The power in him as he had torn Claude to shreds.

"I have not seen you as more frail than other humans."

It had been a curious thing to read in the folder, and Sebastian's answer had Ciel's eyes narrowing and he set his own folder aside.

His brother's folder had the distinct warped text whenever his name was mentioned that indicated his name had been stolen. It described a boy incredibly dissimilar to Sebastian's husband: loud and confident and brash, a perfect physical specimen with great magical ability. Nothing Sebastian had not already gathered from the way the Witch and Knight had spoken of him.

The final three files were faces unfamiliar to Sebastian: all dead before his marriage to Ciel.

Dolores Smith, the Oracle, represented by a doll overgrown with flowers. Her portrait was of a young girl with freckled cheeks and a thorny flower twisting out of one eye socket. The medical notes described a body that twisted and flexed like vines, athletic and lithe but frail. She had snapped like a twig when she had landed off-balance. Her body was unable to be repaired.

Sirvestru Marianus, the Serpent, represented by the doll spinning with snakes. His portrait showed a boy with sunken cheeks tinted an odd silver. His scaled skin made him impenetrable but sluggish, his voice a whisper, his insides slowly crushed by the weight of his own flesh.

Lucas Macken, the Prince. This one had had Sebastian starting when they had found the file. He had snatched it from Ciel's hands and held it to the light, his eyes wide and his mouth dry.

Alois . The portrait had been of Alois.

But, no, it was not Alois. They had the same upturned nose and soft lips, the same shape of his ears and wide eyes and angled eyebrows that made him look permanently lost in wicked thoughts. But this boy had darker hair. His eyes had dark rings beneath them. He was thinner: closer to how Alois had appeared when he first arrived at Claude's eyrie than after he had left when he was plump and soft.

Sebastian had read quickly through the file. Detailed notes of a human with raw, burning energy filling his veins. When he spat, it was bright gold venom that he produced. When he laughed, it had the ground vibrating. He had been cheery and happy, even as his body failed. Even as he curled in on himself and coughed up the glittering fluids that had corroded his insides.

Lucas had been the first of their Circle to die.

The file had no family history. No details of another boy who had bargained his name to a demon. No hint that this was the brother that Alois had cried for and loved more than his own life. All that the folder said was that there had been a boy named Lucas Macken with golden veins and sunken eyes, that he had been educated at Weston College, that his body was littered with scars, and he had been cared for by one of the British nobles.

It could have been a coincidence.

Sebastian knew it was not.

Ciel ran his fingers over all the pictures in the files. His Circle, all dead apart from the Knight and the Witch.

"I just had one more question, Sieglinde," he said as he looked at all the photos before him. He raised his eyes to meet hers. "Do you remember your family?"

She tilted her head. "My... what?"

"Your family. Do you remember them? Your mother? Your father? Any siblings, or second-cousins, or distant aunts and uncles? Do you have your childhood memories of holidays spent all together in a large drawing room by the fire as you played cards? Being bounced on a grandparent's knee? Anything like that?"

She had stiffened and her eyes narrowed slightly. Her hands clenched on her lap. "The Circle is all the family we need."

"That is not what I asked. I don't need to ask if you care about your Circle - you have plenty of notes detailing every minute detail of us, so I would hope that you do. Not to mention your notes on the Circles that came before us." He gestured to the folders stacked neatly before him, with the photographs of departed children all on display. "No, Sieglinde, I am asking about your flesh and blood."

He pulled a photograph from the pile: a family photo of himself, his brother, his father. This had been taken when they were newborn, his and his brother's faces blurred from moving too much. He held it up to Sieglinde.

"My brother and I have living relatives. I am to meet with my aunt after I have finished discussing this with you. But I'm curious... Where are your parents, Sieglinde? Where are Lizzie's? And the other members of our Circle, where are their families? Sirvestru. Dolores. Lukas. Did they not have parents? Siblings?"

Sebastian kept his face neutral.

Sieglinde shook her head. "Of course not. You and your brother... You and your magic was unique. The only magic users to have living relatives."

Sebastian's grip on the back of Ciel's chair was so tight that the wood splintered. Ciel raised his hand to calm him as Sieglinde flinched. She raised her hand, a swirl of protective magic being conjured on instinct. Ciel held his hand out to calm her.

They were interrupted by the sound of footsteps above them.

Lizzie was moving around upstairs. Sieglinde started. Her eyes darted to the window out of which the smoking remains of Weston were clearly visible. Her magic faded and she flicked a hand hurriedly at Ciel.

"You need to leave. Now . Before the Knight finds out you're here, and learns what you did. I don't know what she might do, it's not safe."

"You're worried for me?"

"Of course I am!" Sieglinde glared at him. "You've been acting ridiculous lately, but you're still part of my Circle. I still care about you. About you and Lizzie! But I can't... If she knew what happened, if she found you here, I don't know if I would be able to stop her. She's been... She's been fragile since the fire." She bit her lip and looked down at the folders on the table. "I don't want the Circle to break any more than it already has, Moon."

"Hm." Ciel tilted his head up. He considered for a moment. Then brought his cane around to press a button behind the desk, starting a cog spinning that tugged on a series of wires and had a bell ringing in the upper hallway, summoning Lizzie down.

He smiled at Sieglinde's affronted expression. "I wanted to speak to all of my family anyway. Best to let it all out in the open."

Lizzie appeared in the doorway shortly after, still in her full mourning attire. The moment she saw Ciel, her morose expression changed to shock.

"You-"

"Good morning, Lizzie," Ciel said with another gesture towards the chairs in front of the desk. "Please sit. I want to talk to both of you."

She looked to Sieglinde, then back at Ciel. Her hands twitched at her side. Sebastian tensed, ready to jump in front of his husband in case she was to make her hands a blade. But Sieglinde placed a hand on Lizzie's arm and kept her calm.

Ciel took it in stride. "I won't keep you long, I assure you. I just have a question I need to ask, something that will help me align everything in my mind, then we will be off." He leaned forward across the desk. "This is important. Do you remember the room where they made us?"

The girls looked at each other. Then at Ciel. Sieglinde answered, "What are you talking about?"

Ciel looked at Sebastian. Sebastian tilted his head.

"It seems they're not lying," he said. Looking into the eyes of both girls he saw many things, but not the sort of reaction he would have expected of a human familiar with that room they had seen earlier. The machinery, tubing, and fluids were surely enough to have caused a reaction on either of these girls' faces.

Instead they were looking at Ciel in mild confusion. "Do you mean the College? Of course we remember that, it's where we learned magic."

Ciel shook his head, getting that strange crazed look he had as if he were seeing into a dream again. "No no, not just the College. The room . The room where they took us, hollowed us out, so that we may be refilled. My brother... I remember him saying... saying you did not remember, but you have to. You have to."

But there wasn't any flicker of recognition. Just Sieglinde's concern and Lizzie's restrained anger.

Ciel pressed a hand to his face, muttering something that Sebastian could only hear when he leaned close to him.

"It makes sense... Memory is such a slippery thing. So soft and malleable, it just needs the right hand to mould it. To twist it. To take a brain and a name and to..." He clenched his teeth. Sighed. 

When he lowered his hand, the distant expression on his face was lessened. He seemed more in control when he said, "Thank you. This confirms something I had suspected."

"What is it you suspected, my husband?"

"That there is something deeply rotten here." Ciel got to his feet now, placing both hands on the desk. He turned to the Knight. "Lizzie. This morning, Sebastian and I destroyed Weston College."

"You what?" She sparked with shock and fury, Sieglinde's grip tightening on her arm.

Ciel continued. "It is something I suspected my brother wanted us to do, and now I am certain of it. The College, what they have done to us and what they are doing to others..." He shook his head. "It's evil . And for what ends, I don't know. But I'm sure that when my brother tried to destroy it, he was killed for his attempts. Killed from people who want to protect that place. "

He stretched a hand over the desk. "If you cared for him, help me carry out his last wishes. We can find the rot at the heart of Weston College, find out who did this to us and who made us. And we can make them pay."

The girls were silent. As Sebastian watched, a tear rolled down the Knight's cheek.

Ciel softened his voice. "I understand this is hard, but I believe that together we can do this. I knew that something must have happened to my brother, but now I am certain. If we work together, we can find out-"

"You're insane."

Sieglinde was staring at him. She nervously looked between Ciel and Sebastian. "Moon, I... I knew that you were different since the fire, but I never thought you were so far gone as this. You still think that your brother was killed?"

Ciel's body stiffened. "He was killed."

"You don't have any evidence of any murder! There's nothing! But you're saying now that Weston College killed him?"

"Maybe. That's what we need to find out."

"But why would they do something like that? They've given us everything, Moon. Your brother was the strongest of us, the College would never..." She tailed off, shaking her head. "This is insanity. It's insanity!"

"Lizzie," Ciel said, turning desperately to her. He held out his hands, reaching across the desk. "I know you may not believe me, but I am asking you to trust me. Trust me that there's something happening here, and that my brother didn't need to die. I... I know you must have cared for him deeply-"

"Don't you dare do that!" Lizzie spat the words at him, harsh enough to have Ciel taking a step back and hitting against the seat. She gripped her fists at her side. Her gaze was pure hatred. "You don't get to use him. To steal his name and destroy Weston College and then act like you're doing anything for him. For us . You're... You're truly reprehensible."

Ciel swallowed. Tried to reach out for her again. "Lizzie-"

"Be quiet. Sieglinde's right: you've lost your mind. You think that your brother was murdered? That there's something sinister going on at Weston? The place that gave us our worth? Our home ? Were you so angry that you lost your family that you had to destroy all of ours?" She jabbed a finger at Sebastian. "Maybe you've been corrupted by that thing you're married to! Trying to bring us down from the inside, trying to destroy the entire Realm! And you're just letting it infect you, and trying to twist us into your insanity?"

"Lizzie, you don't understand! You don't remember that room. I didn't either, but I do remember now. I remember what they did!"

"You are insane!"

"I am not! How do you explain these scars, Lizzie?"

"You blame those on Weston College? You are insane!"

"I want you to listen to me!"

"Ciel." Sebastian placed a hand on his husband's shoulder before things escalated further. He took Ciel's hand, squeezing it in reassurance until his husband met his eye. "You cannot convince those who are not ready to be convinced. They did not see what you saw."

Ciel grit his teeth. Closed his eyes. He took a shuddering breath, and when he spoke it was through gritted teeth. "You're right. We don't have time for this. I'm sorry for intruding, Sieglinde. We'll be on our way. Come on Sebastian, let's go."

But Sieglinde stepped in front of the door. "Moon."

Ciel moved around the desk. "Sieglinde. I'm sorry we took your time, but we really can't-"

"We can't let you leave," she said. "Not after what you admitted you did to Weston."

Sebastian stepped close to his husband. "There is no need for violence."

"No," Lizzie said. "I hope there won't be."

Her hands flashed. Arms extending out into blades. She pointed one at Ciel, the other at Sebastian. "Sieglinde, contact the Palace and tell them that the Moon has gone rogue."

Ciel gripped his cane. "I don't want to fight you," he said. "If you don't believe me, I won't try to convince you. Keep believing what you want about Weston. But don't do this. Just let us go."

But Lizzie shook her head. "I'm sorry, Moon. We have our duties."

"We should never have let you get this far," Sieglinde said.

There was a heavy pause in the room.

Ciel broke it with a sigh. "Sebastian," he said, "Let's make it quick."

"Yes, my husband."

Sebastian leapt into action, jumping to meet Elizabeth's blades with his own hand, feeling it slice into his flesh. She was swift, faster than Ran-Mao had been, but she was not as hardy. When he lashed out with a hand, he found soft flesh instead of hard armour. His claws could dig in and leave her bleeding.

They twisted around each other. Her blades flashed. His body dodged this way and that. With a snarl, she leapt back and braced herself on the wall ready to leap and tackle him. But instead, her mouth opened with a gasp. A gurgle of blood on her lip. For a second she hung in the corner, but then slipped to the ground into a heap of black lace.

The metal bird that Sieglinde had used to organise her letters had its beak buried in her throat, exactly where Sebastian had thrown it.

"Lizzie!" Sieglinde pushed Ciel aside and ran to collapse next to her. Her hands pressed against the wound, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

Dark green magic swirled around the both of them. The room around them came alive as all the cogs and machinery whirred, swooping in to attack Sebastian and Ciel. Mechanical forest creatures, mechanical arms, mechanical hooks and tubing, all determined to tear them limb from limb as punishment! Sebastian swung, tackling as many as he could, bringing down the machinery in a great cacophony.

Ciel stepped through the carnage. He stood across from Sieglinde, looking at Lizzie's body. Gripped his cane.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I truly didn't mean for it to come to this."

"You bastard!" Sieglinde spat at him. Her hair flew about her face as she screamed. "You were a mistake! You and your brother, you never should have been part of the Circle!"

Ciel looked at his hands. "Maybe that's true. But we must live with the consequences of what was decided before us."

His own hand twisted into his weapon. A single shot rang out. Sieglinde's body collapsed on top of Elizabeth's, their blood mingling on the polished wood floor.

Sebastian scooped his husband up and they leapt free of the house. The Witch's magic that had imbued the building to keep it aloft quickly depleted. As Sebastian and Ciel touched down on the street, they heard a great creaking overhead. They turned just in time to see the cottage that had hung so prettily in the air, shudder and tilt, before falling. It smashed into the houses below it, scattering brick and mortar and metal. Then down through the upper tiers of the Realm, down and down into the lower depths. The entire stratum reverberated with the echoes of its path of destruction.

Sebastian rested a hand on Ciel's shoulder as they watched it fall. Ciel reached up and linked their fingers together.

"It had to be done," the boy said. It was unclear if was saying this to himself or to Sebastian. But regardless, he took Sebastian's hand and turned to lead him away into the winding streets. 

"Come," he said, his head held high and his cane striking the cobblestones. "I think we should make a few stops before we meet with my Aunt."

Chapter Text

The water in the barrel was stained red as Ciel scrubbed his hands with an intense fervour. Sebastian watched him work, the way he focussed on his hands and his nails even as his body trembled and his eyes stared with that harsh intensity. He needed rest. It had been many hours since he had had his nightmare-riddled sleep on the top of the eyrie, and since then so much had been thrown at them. If they had had the liberty of time, Sebastian would have scooped his husband into his arms and told him he needed sleep before taking him back to their home and to his bed, lying next to him in order to keep any nightmares at bay.

They did not have that luxury. As Ciel straightened up from the water barrel, they heard the sound of hoof beats on cobblestones. Sebastian's eyes flared and he made the darkness softer so that they could sink into it. The two of them watched as a fleet of Her Majesty's Police passed by, their clockwork horses tossing their heads, eyes glowing with their red gaslights, teeth champing with metallic chimes.

It was the Viscount Druitt's fault. He must have had some sort of alarm system within his estate, something that he triggered as soon as Sebastian had found him. Or perhaps one of the servants, alerted by Sebastian’s movements throughout the estate, keeping people quiet so that Ciel had had time to have his conversation with Edgar Redmont.

Ciel had tried to persuade Edgar to join him in his quest to find the rot at the heart of Weston College, and to find the cause of the fire that killed his family, but Edgar had been as hesitant as all others. He had said that Ciel was wrong, that Weston College was innocent, that there was nothing to discover here and that there was no emptiness behind his eyes and no hollowness in his soul. The exact same things Lizzie and Sieglinde had said. The exact same thing Violet had said when they had visited him earlier.

Ciel's patience had been wearing thin by that final conversation with Redmont. His eyes more crazed, his hands trembling. He had barely let Redmont finish his sentences before he was killing him with a single shot of finger bone. Sebastian had found Ciel sitting in one of the wing back armchairs over Redmont’s body, angrily drumming his fingers against the arm and glaring into space. They were supposed to have been safe to burn the building down at that point, but that was when Sebastian had heard the sound of hoof beats and the distinctive clatter of the medals of Her Majesty’s police.

“I do not think they saw us,” Sebastian said now as he stepped out of the shadows into the alley. “They seem to be heading in the direction of your townhouse, perhaps they wish to apprehend us.”

“Maybe,” Ciel said. “But I don’t think they saw us at Druitt’s. It may be they just think someone is targetting Weston College. Nobody knows we’re in this Realm, we didn’t travel via the Bone Tower.”

Sebastian remembered the strange twisting corridor they had traversed to get here, the impossibility of it all. This entire situation was bizarre; he half expected to discover that he would wake up from some nightmare and find himself half-starved on the seashore in the Demon Realm once more.

They set off again, kept to the shadows wherever possible, slipped into the lower levels of the realm where the cogs turned and the furnaces roared, losing themselves in the underbelly whenever the sound of the police horses were heard. Eventually they re-emerged in sight of Madame Red’s townhouse. Once more, it was a simple matter to send magic through the lock of an upper-floor window. Inside, they startled the maid whose bedroom they had infiltrated, but she was quickly silenced. Ciel was growing tired and didn’t let the frazzled thing get a single word out before he was firing a piece of bone through her neck to leave her bleeding out on the floor.

“We’re growing sloppy,” Sebastian said as he silenced the maid’s pitiful little gurgles.

“Mm.” Ciel was barely listening. He had crossed the room, cracking open the door to look up and down the corridor. Then he padded out with Sebastian on his heels. Two floors down, Ciel threw open a door to find his aunt in her library.

She sat up in her chair, the book she was reading falling to the floor. “Ciel! You’re back, I didn’t… Thank goodness you’re alright!” And she flew across the room to pull her nephew into a tight hug. “I told Grelle she was to tell me the second you stepped back through that portal. Oh, why didn’t she say anything? She’s a right beast sometimes, I’ll have to have a word with her, this isn’t the first time she’s forgotten to-”

“Madam,” Ciel said, cutting her off, “I’m afraid we don’t have time for this. There’s so much to explain, so much has happened. But… we need to go to the Bone Tower immediately.”

Madam Red looked mildly startled. Then steadied herself and gave an indulgent smile. “Now Ciel, I know I promised, but…”

He slipped his hand into his aunt’s, squeezing her fingers. “Don’t worry, Auntie. It will be quite alright. We brought you what you asked for. Sebastian?”

Sebastian let the flesh unstitch over his chest, ribs unfurling like a jaw to reveal the cavity in his chest where he kept his precious items. He reached in and took Madam Red’s name. Handed it to his husband. The name shimmered in his fingers.

“I know how much it meant to you to get this back,” he told his aunt, holding it up so that she could see it clearly. Feel it resonate. Hear it calling to her, longing to slot itself back into her body and remind her of who she once had been. Her eyes widened at the sight. Hands trembling, longing to reach out and reclaim it. Ciel kept a tight grip on it as he spoke. “It took a great deal of effort to find it. I was afraid we wouldn’t make it back safely, but I couldn’t have lived with myself if I had backed out of my promise to you. Not when it’s so important to the both of us.”

He played her masterfully. Like he was holding a treat above a puppy and leading it around to his own commands. She dressed hurriedly (not putting the same effort into her hair or clothing as she would have normally, utterly thrown off by the presence of her name) and they commandeered a passing carriage to take them towards the Bone Tower. The entire time, Ciel kept his hands tightly on her name. Madam Red’s gaze kept flicking to it. Her heartbeat raced. Her teeth worried her lower lip. 

The Bone Tower pierced the cloud overhead and buried through the ground to twist down through the lower tiers of the Realm. Rows and rows of skulls glared down at them with empty eye sockets. The streets around the Tower were empty: no human would willingly come so close to the reminder of their own mortality. High walls blocked it from the nearby buildings' sights.

There was no visible doorway they could see, but Madam Red pulled a key hanging from a chain round her neck. Polished stone, large and heavy, she held it confidently. Pressed the key into the open jaw of a skull. The skull bit down on it. Twisted. Split apart. With a sound of quiet chattering teeth, the bones fluttered aside into a round doorway. A corridor stretched away in front of them: into the bones.

Madam Red gestured for them to enter, and followed behind them. She took the key back from the skull and the wall closed, leaving them locked into the Shinigami's realm.

Ciel looked round. "How do we find the details of specific deaths? Do they keep specific records?"

"Yes, they do. You navigate through memories." Madam Red brushed her hand over the wall. Her gaze was fixed to her name. "Time and space meet here, one interacts with the other. You just need to remember who it is you wish to see, what death you wish to learn of, and the way will come..."

Sebastian looked at her, then down at his husband. Memory... They would have had no way to foresee this (so few humans had access to the Bone Tower, to any Shinigami) but of course why would anyone expect the navigating of this place to stick to any expected pattern?

But how to navigate, then?

"My husband, how should we proceed?" Sebastian leant down to Ciel, speaking in a whisper so that his aunt would not hear.

Ciel frowned in thought. "Have you come across anything like this? Travelling via memory?"

"No," he admitted. He knew of access to memories: that was what his brother had used to so easily torment him. And the Seeing Eye could whisper to the memories that lingered in the Demon Realm, flavouring the magic in the air, use it to answer questions asked to it. But nothing so solid as this where memory and reality blended so seamlessly. He thought a moment, then suggested,

"Perhaps if you were to remember the snippets of your childhood, that would give us a starting point."

Ciel turned away to look down the corridor, his brow furrowing as he concentrated on the memories he had lost. The walls shimmered. Thick clouds swelled around them, soon rendering Sebastian blind. He stumbled, reaching through the cloud, grasping at where his husband had once been. His hand clasped onto a cloak, holding it tight.

"Ciel!"

"I know, give me... Just a moment." His husband's voice was strained, the effort of pursuing a memory clearly hurting him. The room started to solidify. Blurry at the edges. Filled with the dense mist. But slightly more solid.

A toy room: the room from the top of the town house, the nursery with two beds and all those toys and books. There was one difference in this memory: the presence of two identical dolls, one sitting on each bed. Uncracked porcelain faces. Neat sailor suits. Neither of them thrown across the room and lying forgotten beneath a wardrobe, nor sitting in the middle of a magic circle to remember those lost.

Someone was standing in the corner. Pale face. Bright eyes. His husband.

No, not his husband. This boy did not have the same smile. The same devious flash in his eyes.

Sebastian stared as this figure stepped closer to them, each step had him grow taller, his body widening until he was looming over them, his eyes bright blue and glowing, his hands reaching. Ciel was caught in his memory, eyes staring up at this figure: his brother, dead and nameless but now alive in his memory, even if the edges were blurry and even if this amalgamation of memories was too tall and too overbearing and too looming to be anything other than a misremembered image.

"Ciel. Ciel!" Sebastian gripped his husband by the shoulders, turning to look at him. Ciel stared right through him. His eyes were glazed. The memory overcoming him.

His hands slackened. His aunt's name fell to the floor.

Sebastian was too focussed on his husband, he didn’t have any time to react. The moment her name fell, Madam Red pounced on it.

It pulsed a thick bright red. All that she had once been, all that she had forgotten, now in her grip. She threw back her head and gulped her name down.

Let it fill her chest.

Let the memories pour into her.

And the Bone Tower exploded.

Flames roared up around them. Soot filled the air, thick noxious clouds, and heat baked against them. Sebastian sprouted numerous arms from his shoulders, encircling his husband, holding him tight from the flames. But, no, it wasn't fire. There was no heat, no soot, not really. Just the memory. The memory of a fire.

There was also the memory of a woman, on the outside of the flames, her face lit up in a bright orange, her hair and dress a pulsing red. There was dark liquid soaking into her dress. Blood across her stomach. She did not enter the flames. Seemed rooted to the spot. All she could do was stare up at the flames as a distant voice spoke.

"Madam, there's been a terrible fire at the Phantomhive estate. Three dead. No, Madam. Yes, Madam. Yes, the survivor is your nephew. Your medical services are needed. Please make haste."

Within the flames, something moved. Two bodies rising up out of the ashes. A man. A child. Sebastian recognised the shape of his husband: this then would be his twin. And the man had the same way of holding himself as Vincent had.

Ciel gripped Sebastian's arm, staring up at the figures in the flames. "These are... her memories? But she wasn't at the fire. She was at a party, she had an alibi, I checked!"

Sebastian shook his head. "This must be your aunt's perception of what happened. What she felt, what she thought, when she heard the news."

Ciel blinked up at him, then over to his aunt. He gazed up at her stricken face. His own expression was inscrutable.

Madam Red reached out, towards the flames. Ciel's twin reached back. Tiny fingers crackling in the heat. Before she could take a step towards him, something wrapped around her. Dark, smokey tendrils crept out of the shadows at her back, wrapping around her arms and up to her palms, taking solid form of humanoid arms that linked with hers. A figure, wrapped in shadow, standing at her back. Leaning down to whisper into her ear. Pulling her arms down. Reaching round to her stomach, into the blood that soaked her clothing.

"We need to find Madam Red," Ciel said. His hand swished through the woman before him, revealing her to be nothing but a phantom. “She’s the one whose memories these are, she will be the key to getting through them.”

“As good a plan as any,” Sebasitan said, scanning for a way out. There were several doors set into the wall, no way to tell which one would lead them forward.

They picked at random.

The corridor they had found made no Euclidean sense: twisting and turning in all directions and seeming to double back on itself. The walls were made of burnt brick and cobblestones, mixed in with the bleached bone of the tower. But it shifted, the brick giving way to damask wallpaper, the cobblestone to fine carpet, the skulls now staring out from the walls of an elegant town house.

A room with familiar dark curtains and a dresser in the corner: Madam Red’s bedroom. A figure was lying in the bed. Long red hair spilled across the pillows, the sheets rising and falling with deep breaths. On the other side of the room, Madam Red was draped across a chaise. Her gown hung open to reveal one breast and a single dark nipple. Blood trickled down the middle of her chest. As the gown fell open, a wound was revealed on her stomach, dark and glistening. The shadow was at her side, arm about her shoulders. Fingers twitched at her neck. Madam Red flicked a match, the flame hissing as she raised it to a cigarette. She sucked on it. Blew out a stream of sweet smoke.

The figure in the bedsheets moved. Bright green eyes opened, watching the human across the way. Grelle Sutcliff shifted, resting her chin on one hand as she took in the sight of Madam Red in the orange lamplight with a cigarette burning between her fingers.

“You humans are such fascinating creatures. Does it feel pleasant to fill your lungs up with that smoke?”

“As pleasant as anything else,” Madam Red said.

“Hopefully some things are more fun.” Grelle laughed, a lil snap of noise. Fell back to watching Madam Red. “What are you thinking about?”

Madam Red breathed out another curl of smoke. “Death,” she said.

That had Grelle pouting. “Well if I’m so bad at these things that you’d rather die , then I’ll see myself out.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Madam Red said. She gave a smile around the cigarette. “But when a human ends up the lover of a Shinigami, it’s natural to think of death a little.”

“Mm.” Grelle rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. “Humans and their fascination with death. It’s all I spend my day thinking of. Rather a boring thing, really.”

Silence. The glow of Madam Red’s cigarette as she sucked it. Breathed out smoke.

Then she asked, “Do Shinigami die?”

“Why would you ask that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know anything about any of the other races.”

Grelle was silent a long time. Madam Red’s cigarette was almost burnt down to the stub. Then Grelle stood up out of the bed, the bedsheets slipping away to reveal her naked form. Sebastian stared. It was the first time he had seen a naked Shinigami: they always moved through the realms wearing cloaks and jackets and suits, their flesh a mystery.

Long limbs: strong and functional. No claws or tails like a demon. No fat or muscle like a human. Her chest was perfectly smooth: no collarbone, no protruding larynx, no nipples, not a single hair. Down a flat torso without a bellybutton. A smooth pelvis with no genitalia to be seen. Her feet had five toes, but no toenails. Her fingers now they were freed from her lace gloves were revealed to have delicate fingers with no nails and no fingerprints or creases. There were no scars. No moles. No stretch marks. As if she had been formed from clay, smoothed and bevelled out, with no extraneous details.

She leaned over Madam Red. Arms on either side of her on the chaise, hair falling down to brush the Madam’s face. Moved their faces together so that her efficiently carved nose brushed against the Madam’s smaller one.

“Don’t talk about death,” she said. “I’d rather focus on something more fun right now.”

She bit Madam Red’s lower lip. Opened her mouth so that the Madam breathed smoke into her. The smoke filled her mouth and pooled out. Sebastian stepped close, curious.

Grelle had no throat. A tongue and teeth, but the back of her mouth was closed off.

“Fascinating,” he said to himself.

“Sebastian, what are you doing ?”

He looked up. Ciel was facing the wall, the tips of his ears flushed bright red. He waved a frantic hand at Sebastian. “That is my aunt! Don’t ogle her like she’s a whore.”

“It is not really her, this is a memory.” Humans refusal to allow others to watch their procreation still baffled Sebastian.

"That doesn’t matter!” Ciel snapped. “Just… Just try and find a way to the next memory. Now!”

Sebastian wished they had time for him to indulge himself, he would have loved to tease his so unflappable husband and nip the red curve of his blushing ear. He told himself there would be time later.

There were no doors here, but Sebastian found a gap in the wallpaper. He pulled it apart, rending it like soft flesh, revealing an egress. He and his frantic husband went on, leaving behind the memories of Madam Red and her paramour.

Another corridor, twisting over itself, this time the carpeting and wallpaper gave way to smooth tile and polished stone, still littered with the ever-present bone.

A medical room. The smell of chemical disinfectant. Not as large and grotesque as the room they had found below Weston College, this room would not have seemed out of place in any human hospital. Madam Red was at a table. A lump on a table before her, draped in a sheet. The shadow was at her back. It guided her hand towards a scalpel, lifted it towards the sheet. One hand on her fingers. One hand at her throat.

Ciel moved closer, peering up at the shadow. There was no discernable features. Just the silhouette of a person: a little taller than Madam Red, and slight. It was difficult to tell anything distinct about them. Nor was there any hint about why they had been clinging so rigidly to Madam Red throughout all of these memories.

The window across the room slid open. Grelle Sutcliffe was leaning through the window, hand resting on her chin, wide mouth stretched into a sharp-toothed smile.

“We meet again,” she said cheerily. “I keep finding you when I’m collecting a death.”

“Good evening, Grelle.” Madam Red smiled indulgently, placing the scalpel down. “Working late again?”

“Oh of course, when am I not? All my colleagues, they’re all business all the time, always forcing me to go out working and harvesting no matter the time of day. When’s a girl supposed to have some fun?”

“Maybe your next death will be at a party and you can sample the drinks.”

“Won’t that be the dream,” Grelle sighed. She swung her legs over the windowsill and hopped over to the table. “But why are you here? Why are you working late instead of enjoying yourself?”

“You have your duties, I have mine,” Madam Red said with a small shrug. The shadow wrapped itself tighter around her wrist.

Grelle lifted up a corner of the sheet, her hand moving underneath. There was the sound of ripping, like tearing fabric. She let the sheet drop. “Charles Grey, human, 24 years old, sepsis.”

Charles Grey? One of the faces from those files in the Witch’s office: a member of the first circle alongside Ran-Mao, used the name Heliotrope. Sebastian looked at the sheet as it fell back over the distinctly human shape. He reached out a curious hand to lift it, but this was just a memory. His hand passed straight through.

Grelle stepped back from the table. She was spinning something in her finger: it looked like a strip of pale fabric. But before either he or Ciel could get close to look at it, she pocketed it.

“You’re a peculiar Shinigami,” Madam Red said. “I’ve met others in this line of work, they never want to stop and talk. Just you.”

“There are anomalies in every species. Like you.” Grelle’s eyes flashed. “There aren’t many humans who do this sort of work, even if it is fun. Is autopsy a passion of yours?”

Ciel winced. “Autopsy? Disgusting.”

Madam Red smiled. “Oh no, my passion is dancing and meeting new people.”

“Ha!” Another sharp laugh. “We both need to leave work and head to a party, then.”

“We do! But…” She waved a hand at the sheet before her. “You have your duties, I have mine. You must know what is is like to give your life to a cause. To want be useful for someone.”

Grelle stepped round the table, tilting her head in thought. She grinned wide. “My entire existence has been about being useful. All work, no play, it gets rather boring. I’d rather someone call me a nuisance.”

“How unusual for a Shinigami.” She stepped closer, almost chest to chest with Grelle. “Shall I call you a nuisance for interrupting my work, then?”

Her smile widened. “If we can’t get out of here, maybe we should think of something fun we could do that isn’t work.”

Madam Red’s hand drifted up. A finger pressed to the fabric of Grelle’s shirt, circling a button. “I have never performed a medical examination of a Shinigami. It would be enlightening .” Her eyes flashed. “But perhaps that paperwork would be too much of an annoyance.”

Sebastian was leaning forward, trying desperately to see more of the creature under the sheet. Hands gripped the back of his jacket, making him glance round. Ciel’s face was bright red and he was staring resolutely at the floor.

“Why are there so many memories of my Aunt and this woman?”

Sebastian looked back at the two of them. He raised an eyebrow. Certainly if he had any choice he would not dwell on memories of Miss Sutcliff, but these were not his choices. “She must have been an important part of her life. How much do you know of your aunt and her lover?”

“I didn’t even know they were lovers,” Ciel snapped. “I knew they attended parties and they spent time together, but I thought they… I don’t know what I thought! I didn’t know Shinigami had any inkling of romance, they stick to the Bone Tower and work and… Just find a door!”

“We don’t know what the next memory will be. It may be even more scandalous.”

“Just find something!”

Sebastian glanced back at the two women. Madam Red had unbuttoned Grelle’s shirt and was running her hand down the Shinigami’s smooth chest. The shadow had its hand wrapped tightly around her wrist, following her movement intensely. Or guiding them. It was hard to tell.

He turned away, looking around the room. This place had shadowy walls: the memory focussed on the meeting between Madam Red and Grelle. There was no clear exit. His eyes alighted on the window that Grelle had entered from, and in curiosity he stepped over to examine it. Sure enough, when he leaned out the window he found a new corridor slipping away into the darkness: walls of bones spinning into the distance.

Up a series of steps, flanked by bones on all sides. The sound of some far-off voice came to them. It sounded familiar, but Sebastian couldn’t place it.

They opened a door and came into what seemed like a winter garden: plants on all sides, walls of glass that looked out onto a vague smoke-like world, some music playing from an unseen phonograph.

A table in the middle of the room. Madam Red sitting on one chair, facing away from them. On the other side of the table, that shadow. But this time it was not wrapped around Madam Red. They were sitting across from each other. The shadow’s hand reached across the table. Rested gently on Madam Red's. As if lovers at a private dinner.

Ciel stepped forward and reached a hand out to the shadow. His fingers passed through, ephemeral and drifting. “Who is this? I thought it was some figment of my aunt’s imagination, but was this an actual person?”

“I suppose it must have been.” Sebastian looked at the shadow, the way its fingers intertwined with Madam Red’s. “Your aunt seems to have had had a number of loves in her life, my husband.”

“Urgh.” Ciel strode across the room to a window. “We don’t have time for this.”

Sebastian lingered a moment, taking in the tableau. Madam Red was shuddering. She pressed a hand to her stomach. It came away red with blood. “Tell me what you need of me,” she said in a quivering voice. “Tell me how I can make you happy.”

The shadow leaned forward. “You are already doing just as you need.”

That voice… It was familiar. Sebastian stared at the shadow a moment until the chain at his throat tugged him away.

Out the window. Down more steps, along more corridors. They passed through different rooms of memories now.

Madam Red in a lecture theatre, watching a professor and taking notes, the shadow looming over her.

Madam Red at a ball with Grelle, the shadow leading her steps.

The shadow whispering into her ear, they overheard its words, “That Shinigami, you need to infiltrate her, do what you must.”

Ciel didn’t linger. He forced them further and furhter with that wild fervour of his.

The walls around them grew darker. Dripping blood. The smell of iron thick in their nostrils. Until they found a room bigger than any they’d entered before, stretching out to the horizon, lost in a distant haze.

Their feet sunk into the floor with each squelching step. Hot fluid soaked the cuffs of Sebastian’s trousers. But they walked towards a figure slumped in the middle of all that viscera.

Madam Red. On her knees. Skirt sodden with gore. Her head lolled forward.

The shadow stood in front of her. Atop the blood, not sinking into it. It was holding something in its arms: a bundle of white fabric. The fabric squirmed.

"Please," Madam Red said. Her voice was weak. Quivering. "Please, give them back to me. Don't... Don't take them..."

"This is what you agreed to, my dear Madam Red." That familiar voice again. Said with a smile. As if chiding a child for a small indiscretion. "To give yourself, body and soul, to this noble goal."

"But... They are my…"

Ciel gave a strangled gasp and pointed. Sebastian followed his finger. The source of the blood was Madam Red herself: a swollen belly, ripped and bleeding and soaking the floor with blood, two thick cords of flesh winding from her open wound and through the blood, up to the bundle held in the shadow's arms.

The bundle squirmed. There was a small cry. A tiny hand.

Two babies wrapped in fabric, their umbilical cords twisting towards the bloody and crying woman. Mouths open in silent screams. Skin still slick from the womb.

Madam Red reached for them with her trembling fingers. The shadow spoke in its same voice. Uncaring. Unfeeling.

"They are not your children. They were never yours. You gave them up. You agreed to be Madam Red, our doctor and our researcher and our entry into the Bone Tower. You gave your womb, that is where your duties end in this particular matter."

The shadow gripped the cords and sliced through them with its hands, messy and jagged cuts severing the babies from their mother.

Madam Red screamed.

The blood swelled, a great tidal wave sweeping them off their feet and away.

"Sebastian!" Ciel yelled, reaching and grabbing for him. Sebastian clasped his hand, holding tight as the waves carried them away.

The memories were coming thick and fast now, a jumbled mess of sounds and images, sights and sensations. A baby crying in the distance. The sound of a vibrant dance hall. Grelle's piercing laugh. Medical tools and body parts and the bones and the cobblestone streets and the churning of cogs.

And in amongst it all, Madam Red was pursued by the shadow.

It directed her hand as she cut up the bodies. Held her mouth as she whispered to her lover. Twisted itself around her at parties as she laughed at a joke. Moved between her legs until her belly swelled with child, then ripped those children from her to leave her screaming and alone.

The shadow, always the shadow, the shadow with the voice that sounded so familiar.

"This is for the good of all of us."

"We need your skills."

"Give us your body, your brain, your flesh, your soul, every part of you, your very life to this goal."

“You are Madam Red.”

“You are…”

Sebastian gripped his husband, held him close as the memories swarmed over them and dragged them into a vortex of fluid.

It was not as if they were carried by a current through the Bone Tower to somewhere far beyond. It was more as if the Bone Tower shifted around them, with femurs and tibia settling at their feet and coalescing into walls around them. All he knew was that at some point he managed to feel something like a floor beneath his feet and was able to pull the two of them from the swell.

They needed to find Madam Red. She was the key to stopping this madness, this rush of memories.

Through the sticky residue, through endless corridors of memories. Memories of Madam Red at medical school, surrounded by books of anatomy, her face stained with ink. At parties as she laughed with nobles, throwing back glasses of alcohol. Elbow deep in the torso of a corpse, her own pregnant belly heavy in front of her.

Were they in there for days? Centuries? Time lost meaning. There was only the memory . Untwining around them, revealing all that Madam Red had once been, what she had become.

But the memories broke eventually. They lead them to her .

Madam Red was before them in her dishevelled outfit. Her hollow eyes gazed forward. When Ciel reached out a hand, his fingers did not go through her like all the others. They caught onto the wool of her skirt, making her head jerk round.

"Madam," Ciel said. "We were searching for you."

"Yes," she said distantly. "I was searching too. They... all the memories. They come in a rush. All of what I was. What I lost." Her voice quavered. "I was a child... I didn't realise..."

There were two more people in the room with them.

Two figures sitting on a bench. The air around them was light. It smelled of flowers. A young Madam Red, her long red hair tied demurely in the manner of a girl still unsure of herself. Her virgin fingers did not yet have their callouses from years of medical work. Her lips had not yet been kissed by a Shinigami.

And before her, the shadow. A finger brushed over her chin. It had her cheeks blushing pink.

When the shadow spoke, Sebastian could see the words twist through the air, piercing her ears and eardrums, twining through the whorls of her being and constricting her. She had been infected by those words for so long. Her flesh was tinged with dark red poison.

"Our families won't let us marry," the shadow said. "That’s why we need to give ourselves to each other in a way they cannot break. Why do you hesitate? Do you not want for us to be together?"

"Of course I do." The young madam blinked. Her eyes were fluttering with tears: the emotions of a child and not the hardened woman Sebastian had met in the pervious memories. She leaned into the shadow's touch on her cheek. Her mouth parted. "I would do anything. But..."

Before she could get out anything else, the shadow clasped her hands in both of its own. Pulled them to its chest. "Stop. Do you feel that? The way my heart beats for you? I have never been more sure of anything than I have been at this moment. But if you are not as sure, if the sight of me causes you distress, then push me away. Say a single word and I will leave you and never bother you again. But if you love me as I love you, then let us be with each other forever. Let me cradle you within me. Let us be the happiest we have ever been."

Not a particularly elegant speech, not subtle the way Sebastian would have admired more, but the sort of speech that would make a young girl's heart sing with romance.

The kind to have her crumpling forward into the shadow's arms, sobbing and holding them and begging them not to go and that she would do whatever was needed to keep them together.

She tilted her tear-stained head up. "I love you! I love you so much. I’m so sorry I made you doubt me, I won’t… I’m sorry! I give you my everything. I give you my name."

Permission given.

The shadow’s hand whipped out, forced its way down her throat so that her neck bulged, down into the core of her being, ripped from her the bright shiny red name. They held it up and the glow of the light threw his face into light for the first time. Sebastian now knew why that voice had been familiar.

Sharp eyes like a cat's. An easy smile as if he had not a care in the world. The same round face and soft hair as his husband's, but older and more mature.

Vincent Phantomhive held the name up. The name of Angelina Dalles, a girl so young young and innocent and in love. Manipulated like clay in his expert hands. Left hollow for him. He leaned forward and whispered to her her new name.

She was to be Madam Red. Doctor, and dissector, serving him and Weston College, stained red, beautiful and available, her body his to command, the Shinigami hers to seduce, her womb ready and waiting.

Madam Red. Doctor. Lover. Mother of the Phantomhive twins.

Chapter Text

A person’s name is the core of their being, something that cannot truly be taken but only given willingly. Even the most powerless demon knows not to offer another being their name, for to do so is to give their entirety to that person. Everyone had heard the horror stories about demons who foolishly offered their human mates their name and became their drudges. Usually those stories involved other demons swooping in to dispose of the human and the nameless demon, taking over whatever lair they had set up for themselves. Then again, there are other tales where a demon is able to skilfully manipulate a human mate to give up their name, something that goes above and beyond any contract, and how such a thing showed how powerful and impressive a demon was.

Of course, it was not necessarily a sign of any great intelligence on the demon’s part. Sebastian knew that. His brother had been many things: determined, patient, cold… But intelligent? He would not give his him that.

It was not a sign of Claude’s intelligence that Alois had given him his name - merely a sign of Alois’ desperation and of his loss.

Now, in this memory within the Bone Tower, Sebastian saw Vincent hold the name of Angelina Dalles in his hand. Here, too, was not a man who was necessarily intelligent in his actions. His speech had been clumsy and forceful, it would not have convinced a great many people, but it didn’t have to. The girl sitting in front of him with her wide-eyed youth and innocence was willing to believe his awkward lies and had offered him the name based on them. Sebastian had no doubt that the solid woman with the wrinkles at the side of her eyes and the callouses on her hands from years of work would never have offered her name so eagerly. Not for so simple a speech. Ciel’s own ministrations of her had had to be subtle and probing and aided by copious amounts of wine and grief, and even then her promise to enter the Bone Tower had come with heavy caveats.

No, it was a far different Angelina Dalles that stood next to him now.

Ciel was staring up at her with wide, confused eyes. He looked to the memory of his father, at Sebastian, back to his Aunt. No… his mother .

“Madam… I… I had no idea.” Then at the memory of his father he said simply, “But my mother… The Lady Phantomhive? Was she a fiction?”

“No,” Angelina said. “Lady Rachel Phantomhive existed. She was my sister. She died before you were born.”

She turned her head, her brow furrowed and her lips thinned. “I remember it now. Here, let’s walk this way. I don’t want to see that any more.” She waved a dismissive hand at the scene of her and Vincent surrounded by the flowers, instead picking up her skirt and walking away. As she moved, a wide cobbled street pushed its way up through the flowers to meet them.

Sebastian glanced at his husband. “You had no inkling of this?”

Ciel shook his head. “I remember my father and he would sometimes speak about a mother... But I think I always knew Madam Red as my aunt.” He ran his hands through his hair, confused and more than a little irritated. Then strode after Angelina with Sebastian hot behind them.

The three of them fell into a steady pace. Angelina on the left, leading them forward. Her right hand twitched awkwardly, as if she wanted to reach out and take Ciel’s hand if only his fists weren’t buried within the folds of his cloak. She instead gripped the heavy fabric of her skirt. Ciel was beside her, in the middle of the group, walking with the occasional stumble as his exhaustion tripped him over the cobbles and bones emerging below them. After the first minor stumble, Sebastian helped to hold him up. An arm made of shadow he grew from his side, wrapping itself around his husband and supporting him. It would not do for a Phantomhive to appear weak in front of his own mother.

So the three of them walked across the street that Angelina conjured. And as they walked, the Bone Tower around them morphed with the memories that she was now explaining to them.

“Vincent Phantomhive married my sister many years ago,” she explained. “They met when she was presented at court.”

In the distance, a girl in a crisp new dress holding a bouquet of flowers was bowing before a seated queen as a voice introduced her as Rachel Dalles.

Sebastian blinked in confusion. “Presented?”

“When a young noble has finished their education and is eligible for marriage, they are presented to Her Majesty and the rest of society,” Ciel explained. “Something I am sure a demon has no need to know. Please, Madam, continue.”

“Well, Vincent was known to my parents. The Phantomhives are an old family, and Vincent’s grandparents were particularly influential with the royal family. But my parents didn’t approve of your father even with his lineage. They could tell he was a snake.” She spat the word at the same time as a sheet of rain fell over the them.

They turned into an alleyway lit by a single lamp and filled with wind cutting to the bone. Ciel shivered and stepped closer to Sebastian who placed a warming hand on his shoulder. Madam Red glared at this, but kept walking.

In the shadow of a wall, two girls were wrapped in thick winter cloaks and whispering to each other, the whispers clear in the memory despite the loud patter of the rain and the harsh wind. As they walked, the figures appeared in each shadow, the memory shifting around them and keeping them present even as they tried to move past it.

The first girl’s voice was familiar. A young Angelina Dalles was clutching at her sister, imploring her to stay. "But Rachel, you can't! You simply can't. Papa said he would never talk to you again, and you will break Mama's heart."

"Annie, they will understand." The other girl was slightly taller than Angelina. Her face was thinner and had lost some of the fat of childhood. She had a kind of beauty that made one think of gossamer lace: fragile and to be treasured. "They’re just concerned for me. I am sure that after they talk to Vincent, when they know him like I know him, they will see that he is serious with his affection. He may appear cold, but he is just so focused on his work. You know he has his own businesses and his dealings with Her Majesty. It’s really quite admirable! They will come to approve of him, you’ll see."

"But..." Angelina's round innocent face was nervous as it peered through the rain. She chewed her lower lip. Lowered her voice as if someone may overhear them in the deserted street. "Rachel, you must have heard the rumours. He's cursed!"

Rachel laughed. "Oh, you can't be so silly as to believe that."

"It's not silly!" Angelina's cheeks flushed, making her look more like a child even as she protested. "His parents and his sister dying so close together? And they say he had discussions with the Montague family to marry their daughter, and she took ill so suddenly as well."

"Annie..."

"If you die, what will I do!"

Rachel took her sister's hands, squeezing them in her own. "Silly thing. I'm not going to die. I'm going to live, and I'm going to get married to someone I love, and we will be happy! We’ll have so many children the house will be heaving with them, then you shall visit with your husband and children, and we will have the most beautiful parties together, and we shall grow old and grey surrounded by all our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I promise, there’s nothing to worry about."

Angelina's further protests were cut off by the arrival of a third figure into the rain-filled street. Vincent Phantomhive was younger here than in Sebastian's own memory, maybe in his twenties at the earliest. He held a large umbrella held over his head, the handle a delicate wrought metal design. His crumpled suit was slightly too large on his shoulders: sitting awkwardly on his slight frame. When he approached the sisters, his face lit up into a smile that Sebastian had never seen on him before. It was wide, stretched out his face, making his eyes sparkle. He hurried forward, heedless of the way he splashed in the puddles and soaked the cuffs of his trousers.

"Rachel," he said. His voice was breathless, giddy, not at all polished or poised.

He reached out, taking her hand in his, raising it to his mouth to kiss the knuckles. Then, noticing Angelina, he gave her a much more reserved smile and bowed politely.

"And Angelina, so good to see the red-haired beauty out and about." Angelina blushed and scowled.

Vincent held the umbrella out over the two girls, his gaze back on Rachel once more.

She pulled her hood a little back from her face to reveal wisps of dark gold hair. "What did my father say, Vincent? Did he listen to your business plans? Your ideas for our house? Did he give his blessing?"

But Vincent shook his head with a huff of annoyance. "He barely let me talk. Said I was bringing bad luck to his doorstep and that I wasn't to talk to you any more.”

“Oh, he can be so shortsighted. Just let me write to him, I’ll convince him.”

“I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to see more than a foot into the future. He kept talking about reputation and tradition. Stupid foolhardy jumped up old-"

"Vincent! He is still my father, and he will be your father too. Be nice." Rachel chided him gently, squeezing his hand in both of hers. Then she sighed. "But you’re quite right, he can be so stubborn sometimes. I'm sorry." She looked back at Angelina. "Well then, if Papa isn't going to give the blessing then there is nothing else to be done here. Hand me my luggage, Annie."

Angelina hesitated. There was a travelling bag at her feet and she lifted it now but did not hand it to her sister. It hung heavy between them like a barrier.

Vincent was the one who leaned forward to take the bag from her. He gave Angelina a warm smile. "There’s no need to worry. I shall take good care of her, I promise you. Thank you, Angelina."

He kissed his future sister on the cheek, a light brush that had her blushing furiously and turning away from him. Rachel also kissed her, once on both cheeks, tender and affectionate.

Then she and Vincent left, vanishing into the rain and leaving the young lady alone in the street with the rain soaking through her cloak.

"They got married the next day," Angelina explained as the three of them walked past down the street, the memory finally slipping away. "Our father was furious when he received Rachel's letter. I was forbidden to talk to either of them. It was like I had become an only child suddenly. Later, after I made my own presentation at court, I had to ignore them at any social events. Not that there were many where we were both in attendance. The world of married and unmarried nobles is so different."

“Did you have a way to contact her?”

“Of course! We were still sisters even if our parents didn’t approve of her marriage. We had letters we could send each other. I couldn’t meet her very often, I couldn’t travel so easily to the Phantomhive Estate, but the few times I did she was happy.”

They passed a few tableaux. The sisters sitting to tea, laughing at a joke one of them had made. The sisters walking through a garden dotted with statues and flowers. Rachel in bed propped up with pillows as Angelina sat at her bedside.

Angelina paused before this last one. Her lips were thin. "My sister was always... frail. She had a weak constitution and issues with her lungs. She and your brother had that in common… I wonder if it was genetic… If it was my fault...”

Sebastian and Ciel exchanged a look. In the folders they had read that whilst ‘Ciel’ had been healthy, his brother had been weak with issues in his lungs. Madam Red did not yet know that Ciel had stolen his brother’s name…

Angelina brushed her hand over Ciel's hair absentmindedly, watching the tableau of her sister. Then she let her hand drop and continued walking. "Well, regardless, even if we hadn’t been in contact I would have learned all about her goings on. Even if I wasn't allowed to talk to my sister, I heard the gossip. Their elopement created quite the scandal, and your father was making roads with his businesses, not to mention his importance with Her Majesty and at Weston College.”

“Weston College? He was involved even then?”

“Oh yes.The Phantomhives have been involved in the institution for many years.” Angelina scratched at her cheek, glancing down at Ciel as they walked. “I never did learn what they were teaching you there. You boys were so secretive.”

Ciel met her gaze. Did not respond.

She did not push the point and kept speaking. “Well… I heard that my sister was sick. But at first I assumed she was no worse than she usually had been.”

The ground under their feet had changed now, great swathes of blankets that billowed underneath them, rising and falling with the breath of an unseen body.

"I still have all her letters. I read them sometimes, to remember her voice. I knew she was happy with Vincent. That she was settling into her new life.”

The air grew thick with the sweet stench of laudanum. Angelina kept walking, brushing aside the hangings of curtains that had fallen in front of them.

“In her last letter to me, she told me that they were hoping to start a family soon. Apparently the doctors were worried for her.”

In the distance, they heard coughing and the clatter of medical instruments alongside hushed whispers of doctors.

“Sometimes I went weeks without a letter. But they always came. So I wasn’t too worried."

She lifted a final curtain and they stepped into a ballroom. A mechanical band was playing as people danced in stiff movements around them. In a distant corner, Vincent Phantomhive had his head bowed in conversation with Angelina. She was slightly older in this memory, her body more developed but not yet calloused with age and wisdom. Her red hair pinned up out of her face to reveal her slender neck. Her delicate hands were encased in lace gloves.

As they watched, Vincent shook his head and gave a furtive look around the room before placing a hand on Angelina's elbow and steering her out a door. They followed to find them on a balcony, lonely and cold. In the lower light, Vincent's face was hidden in shadow once more.

"I’m sure she’s not feeling well, so I’ve been thinking of a time when I can visit,” Angelina was saying. “I think I’ll have time on Wednesday, Mama and Papa are going to visit the Smiths and I can pretend to have a head cold."

"No... We..." Vincent's hand tightened on her elbow. His head drooped. "Angelina… That won’t work.”

“Oh. Well if she can’t meet me, you can pass her a letter. I brought one with me tonight in case I was to find you.”

“No.” He closed her fingers around the letter, gently pushing it back towards her chest.

“What’s the matter, Vincent?”

“It's Rachel, she... She..." His breath hitched.

The balcony cracked. The ground shuddering with the weight of what was going unsaid.

"No..." Angelina's hands went to her mouth, as if she could swallow down Vincent's words and make his implication disappear with them. "No, she can't! She's not!"

His shoulders shuddered. “I’m sorry.”

"How long?"

"Three weeks."

Angelina wailed, collapsing against Vincent's side with such impropriety it had the entire balcony crumbling. Sebastian kept hold of his husband as they followed his mother through a nearby doorway into another street. She was walking faster now. Her gaze forward, her jaw clenched.

“Wider society didn't learn that she had died. I soon heard that people were saying that she was unwell and was lying in at the Phantomhive estate. I was the only one who knew the truth." Her eyes flashed scarlet. "Or at least that's what he told me."

"You must keep it secret, Angelina," Vincent's voice said from a dark alcove where he was clutching the hands of a girl. "Rachel was adamant... She did not want anyone to mourn..."

The solid Angelina gave a derisive snort. "He was involved in some business dealing at the time. Said it was important to Rachel that things not be disrupted and that life carry on as normal. I don't know, maybe the people he associated with in Her Majesty's inner circle were aware of Rachel's death."

"What was so important that he had to keep it a secret?" Ciel asked.

Angelina shook her head. "He never let anyone know what he was planning. And I was too shortsighted to even think of questioning."

They passed a memory: Angelina sitting beside Vincent as he looked at folders. Behind them, figures that looked half familiar were flitting through a vague mist. Businessmen with thick moustaches and heavily-inked contracts. Police officers astride their mechanical steeds. Faces Sebastian recognised from the files: Charles Grey, John Brown, Ran-Mao.

They soon blurred into nothingness. Angelina had focused her attention on Vincent. He was thinner in this memory, his eyes tired. But he reached out and rested a hand on Angelina's, smiling at her as she blushed and hid her face.

"You have to understand," she said as they walked past the memory, letting it fade into the background, "That when you are a young lady like I was, sheltered and inexperienced in things, a handsome man taking interest in you can be very disorienting. I did not have the knowledge I do now to know that he was using me. When he said that he had fallen in love with me, I believed it.”

Another image, another ball with Angelina in an evening gown, Vincent leaning close to whisper into her ear, his hand going up her wrist to brush over the exposed skin on her upper arm, fingers pushing strands of hair off of her bare neck.

“I was prepared to go and tell my parents that I was going to marry him. Perhaps it would have been better if I did." She gave a dismissive snort. “Maybe they could have locked me up and I would have been spared him. But instead, he took my name and had me run away without telling my parents anything. Kept me in his house studying basics of medicine. Then when you were born, he told everyone that Rachel had died in childbirth.”

Two shadows of children ran by, laughing as they darted through them.

“But maybe even without taking my name, I would have gone along with what he wanted. I thought I was happy. I thought I loved him.”

She snorted. “Oh, why am I lying? I did love him. I was a stupid little girl, not a thought in my head, and I loved him. Let that be my advice to you, Ciel darling: don’t love anyone. It’s the most foolish thing a person can do.”

Sebastian tilted his head. All these memories he had listened to and taken in in quiet contemplation, but this one he felt he had to push back. “No, Madam, it is not foolish to love.”

Ciel whipped round to stare up at him. Sebastian, however, was looking past Madam Red at all the memories they were walking past: Madam Red with her name lost from her; Vincent Phantomhive manipulating her like a puppet; doctors and professors and cold bureaucrats. Then, in amongst these, the blooms of something more. The memories of a sister who giggled at an inside joke. Doting parents who kissed their youngest child on the forehead and praised her intelligence, wanting a bright future for her. Children running through the corridors of a townhouse, laughing and greeting the women they viewed as their aunt, hugging her in welcome. A shinigami with glinting teeth and harsh laugh who lay across her human lover’s lap as they stayed up late into the night talking.

“It is human to love,” Sebastian said as they walked. “Yes, love will have a human making mistakes and acting like a fool and doing things that they wouldn’t do otherwise, but all that is part of what makes a human what they are. What made you what you are.” He looked at her now, the woman before him. He had no affection for her, but she was the mother of his husband and for that he could appreciate her. If not for her, his husband would not be at his side.

She did not smile at him. Did not even look round, even as she drew to a stop with her hands clenched at her sides. “What do you know about it, demon? Do your kind even know love?”

“Not as such,” he admitted. “We have our aesthetics and our desires, but not love. However I think the fact that I do not feel it myself is what makes it easy for me to appreciate it in humans.”

“Is that so? And do demons have concept of family? Of marriage?”

“Not in the way humans do.”

“Then you don’t know what you’re talking about. Human relationships… Marriage at such a young age... Marriage at all! It is ridiculous."

"Perhaps so," Sebastian said with a small nod. "Especially when one does not enter into a marriage with all the knowledge one should. But even then, sometimes one is lucky.”

She turned now, glaring at Sebastian with such hatred in her expression that he started back. “You’re worse than Vincent. Trying to talk things round to your way, as if nothing you’ve done is wrong. As if your wedding wasn’t an abomination. I thought that at the time and I still do. For you to take my nephew... My son!"

The walls around them swirled, growing darker, sharp spikes of church spires erupting form all angles to point towards Sebastian. Angelina's mouth curled into a snarl.

"Madam." Ciel dropped his hand from Sebastian and stepped towards her, his hands out and placating. "It is alright. This marriage is not one any of us would have chosen. In circumstances none of us would have chosen. But there's no need for this. Sebastian and I..." He stumbled, searching for a word. "We have come to an understanding."

Angelina looked at him, her snarl softening a little. She crouched and took his face in her hands, thumbs rubbing his cheeks. “Darling… You’re safe here. You don’t need to lie to me.”

He looked in her eyes and gave a weak smile. “I assure you, I am not lying.”

“Perhaps not. But you’re making the best of a situation you didn’t choose. But you don’t have to stay in it.” The ground shifted. Metal crept up Sebastian’s sides. Angelina’s hands were gentle on his husband’s cheeks. “I remember everything, we can start over again, go and be a family. We can change anything you need.”

Ciel was silent a moment, taking in the words. Sebastian had a sudden cold feeling that maybe Ciel would take his mother’s hand and go with her out of the Bone Tower, leaving him here.

But he didn’t move. Instead he said, “I have already changed things. What my marriage is now is not what it was in the beginning. But it also can’t be undone. We’ve already done all we can to try and undo this union, long before any wedding took place. Sebastian and I are bound by the contract that was signed and sealed without our proper consent. Neither of us chose it. But we have found a way to live within that contract.” He turned to look at Sebastian, then back at Angelina. He pressed his hand on hers, leaning his face on her palm. “Listen… Some things cannot be undone. My marriage. What my father did to you. They will always have been.”

She nodded. “None of it should have taken place.”

“No. But what use is it to be angry about it now? My father is dead and gone, he won’t be hurt by you hating him and me returning your name to you. We can’t turn back time to when you were my age and have him never meet you.” He took both her hands in his now, holding them between them and forcing Angelina to look into his eyes. His wild, determined, sleep-deprived eyes that were dark and cold and grim. “Instead, you must take that anger and use it to drive you forward. You have your name back. Your life! It is yours once more, and you are no longer the young girl you once were. There is nobody looming over you and making decisions for you. Don’t focus on what anyone else wanted. What do you want? Focus on that and take it. Make your own changes here and now.”

A tear welled in Madam Red’s eye. It slowly trailed down her cheek, drying on her chin. “I remember when you were small enough to hold in one arm,” she said. “But you’ve grown so much.”

The church spires and metal melted away into a mist. Tinged white from an unseen light source, it drifted around the three of them.

Ciel gave her a tender smile. He leaned forward to kiss her teary cheek.

“Nobody can change the past. But the future is ours.”

Her eyelashes were glittering with tears. “What is your future, Ciel?”

A beat. He looked at his feet, took a breath, then up at his mother. “My future is with my husband, in this Bone Tower. We are going to find the cause of that fire. I want to get justice for my family. And then…”

He trailed off. Sebastian stepped forward and rested a hand on Ciel’s shoulders. “Then, we shall go home and sleep, and tomorrow we shall face the day together.”

“Yes,” Ciel said with a nod. “That is our future.”

The mist shifted. The ground smoothed out, revealing them to be standing at the top of a flight of steps. Around them, the ground dropped away, a deep pit of white, walls of bone, distant flights to distant doors. And at their side, at the top of this flight of perilous steps loomed a large white door. Inscribed above it was the name ‘Vincent Phantomhive’.

Angelina stayed crouching. Pressed her hands to her face. Took a deep, shuddering breath. Then straightened, smoothing back her hair and adjusting her clothing.

It was remarkable how often the human body changed in its lifetime. A demon was birthed fully formed, able to grow to its own shape as soon as it absorbed magic, never any doubt about how they looked or would look in day to day. But a human? They could look any different way from one morning to the next, with each wrinkle and scar and stretch mark a detail to make them unique. Sebastian would be able to pick his husband out of any number of humans, even if all he were to see was a single hair on the left ankle, so unique and precious was his human.

The same way, he was sure, someone would be able to pick out Angelina if she were to let them.

He took his chance and leaned forward, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “If I may be so bold, Ms Dalles, based on the memories we have seen and the way I have seen you act, perhaps you may begin your future by going to a certain shinigami. If, of course, she has the time to meet with you.”

Angelina gave him a withering look. The look did not last long as she instead got an expression of doubt, almost fear, in her eyes. She turned away, looking out over the drop at all the distant stairs. “No,” she said. “Grelle should never have even met me, that was entirely Vincent’s manipulations. She doesn’t need to be any more involved in whatever this is.”

“And yet she is involved,” Sebastian said. “Regardless of how it began, your relationship as it is now still exists.”

“Please. What relationship?” She snorted. Stared at the ground. “No, she had a relationship with Madam Red. That’s not who I am. Not now.”

“You are you,” Sebastian said. “Maybe Grelle will find that… fun.” He smiled, encouraging. “And besides, does she not deserve to have a say in the matter? I am sure she is not the kind of woman who would like a decision to be made for her without her input.”

Angelina was silent a long time. Sebastian watched the way her face moved: the twitch of her lip, the furrow of her brows, the thoughts and emotions shuddering across her body as she considered and doubted and raged and finally calmed.

She looked at him. Then at Ciel. She leaned down and kissed his cheek. “I don’t know what lies beyond that door. I have never been this deep, I don’t know what will happen. Will you be safe? If I leave you here with… with him?”

Ciel laughed. “You don’t need to concern yourself with me.”

“But I will. You can’t stop that.”

“I don’t think anyone could stop you if you put your mind to something.”

She gave a brief laugh, tears in her eyes again, and kissed him once more. Then turned and headed down the steps. As she walked, another set of stairs appeared, leading her away to a distant corridor leading away. She paused, hand on the bone, turning over her shoulder to them.

“Sebastian!” Her voice echoed through the emptiness. “If you hurt my son, I’ll kill you!”

With that, she was gone.

As soon as the flash of red had vanished through the corridor, Ciel’s exhausted body gave out and he collapsed into Sebastian. Sebastian scooped him up into his arms. Ciel blinked at him blearily.

“You were surprisingly encouraging of Grelle Sutcliffe,” Ciel said. “I thought you hated her.”

“I do,” Sebastian admitted. “But if she and Ms Dalles continue their relationship, then maybe your mother will distract her from me.”

That had Ciel laughing. Then he blinked. “My mother… You know, I have no memory of the woman who I was told was my mother. Rachel. I don’t think there’s even a photograph of her in the house.”

“Perhaps you can get more stories from Angelina. You will need to make yourself acquainted with your real mother, now that you know her.”

“Yes. We should call on her after this. Another plan for our future.” Ciel pulled himself up, situating himself so he was resting on one of Sebastian’s arms and leaning into his chest and arm around his shoulder to support him. He rubbed his face, clearing away the sleep as best he could. Sebastian brushed a thumb over his eyelids. Smoothed his hair. Kissed the corner of his mouth.

“My once and future husband,” he said. “Shall we see what the Bone Tower says about your father’s death?”

“Yes,” he said, his gaze firmly on the door. “It is time to finish this, Sebastian.”

Chapter Text

The door opened onto a room that felt familiar. Sebastian knew instantly that this must have been an office in the Phantomhive's estate before it had burned to the ground. The furniture and decorative choices all pointed this way: supple leather upholstery, rows of fine books with well-loved spines, a tall grandfather clock with a delicate mechanism where a silver bird flew across the clock face every hour on the hour. The same taste that was on display in the townhouse he shared with his husband. It was simply missing those few touches that would show Ciel’s presence: a stack of newspapers with annotations, crumpled paper from discarded letters, a plate with a few crumbs from whatever sweet he had been absentmindedly eating as he worked.

This was a room that belonged to a Phantomhive, but not to the Phantomhive in Sebastian's arms. Instead, the owner of this room was casually leaning back in a chair with his feet propped up on the desk, his eyes closed in a doze, his hand stroking the purring cat curled in his lap.

Vincent Phantomhive.

He felt Ciel's entire body tense. Sitting up straighter in Sebastian's arm, he tapped Sebastian on the shoulder to urge him forward. As they stepped through the doorway, the air shifted. It wasn't as if there was a change in any temperature or air pressure, nothing that Sebastian could truly put his finger on, but there was a definite change in their surroundings as they went from that cavernous tower of stairs and doorways into this office that (he realised with a start) had no windows or doors save from the one through which they entered. The entire room smelled of wild roses, courtesy of a bowl of pot-pourri set on a nearby cabinet. The phonograph was playing a song that sounded familiar but which he could not place.

"Mm?" Vincent stirred, not opening his eyes but tilting his head towards them.

This was the Vincent that Sebastian remembered. He was thinner than he had been in the previous memories. Strands of grey shot through his dark hair, giving it a stormy appearance. Wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. His fingertips had smudges of ink from whatever he’d been writing. One thumb had a half-healed paper cut.

This was the man that Sebastian had met so long ago at the negotiation table, the one who had kept his hands neatly clasped in front of him and negotiated with a demon as if it was the easiest thing in the world. So interesting and intoxicating, charming Sebastian until he had hoped that maybe his situation would not be so terrible. The one who had perished before Sebastian had had a chance to truly live with him and get to know him, to understand the way that his mind worked. 

The man in the chair yawned, stretching his body the way the cat on his lap might. He had pristine white teeth. With a contented hum, he opened his eyes and glanced at the grandfather clock even as a hand went to the watch chain on his chest. Sat up with a creak of the leather chair. Then his eyes flicked to the two of them in the doorway and his expression paled.

“ You… What?” He got up, the cat falling from his lap with a disgruntled hiss. Ignoring it, Vincent strode round the desk before stopping a foot from the two of them. His eyes were fixed on Ciel.

“ Is this… Is this a dream? But, I haven’t dreamt since I…”

Ciel shook his head. “I’m no dream, father.”

Vincent’s hands moved upwards. Hovered by his son’s face. “Ciel? Or are you-”

“ I’m Ciel.”

“ But how are you…?” 

There was a moment of silence as they took in each other’s presence, let the reality of what was before them settle in. Then Vincent leaned forward and kissed Ciel’s forehead, gentle and reserved, the kiss of a gentleman. That brief moment was enough to break the stoic human barriers. Vincent’s arms wrapping round the boy, pulling him out of Sebastian’s grip and into a hug. In his arms, Ciel twitched, nervous. His own hands crept up. Fingers gentle on his father’s shoulders. Then letting the tension leave his body, head resting forward on Vincent’s shoulders, eyes closing, taking a slow deep breath.

“ Father,” he said, his words so quiet that only Sebastian’s sensitive ears could pick it up. There was a slight warble in his voice.

Now Vincent pulled back to look at Ciel closely. “You’re alive! Thank goodness, I was scared that you had been claimed by that fire as well.” His hands cupped Ciel’s face again, as if reassuring him that his son was real. The smile was not as wide as it had been in his youthful memories, was more becoming of a gentleman, but it did not leave his face. 

“What of your brother?”

Ciel did not respond.

Vincent looked away. Only now the did the smile fade. “ I’m sorry.”

His gaze flicked to Sebastian, only now noticing his presence. A brief moment of confusion on his face, then his eyes widened. "Ah... Sebastian, of course. I forgot about that contract." He turned to Ciel. "So then, in my death, the agreement passed to you? I suspected as much. I'm sorry, if I had ever suspected what would happen then I would have negotiated a way out of it for you, but it was never a concern at the time. No human likes to think they’re mortal."

"It's alright, father," Ciel said. "We don’t need to dwell on that, it’s not why we’re here."

"No? Why are you here?"

"Investigation. Come, let’s sit."

Ciel walked slowly across the room to a seat by the desk. He indicated for his father to take up his seat once more on the other side. Business partners discussing things. Equals. Sebastian followed at a slight distance, stooping to scoop up the cat that had now approached him. It was a marvellous creature, with green eyes and brown striped fur giving way to creamy white on its belly. When Sebastian stroked behind her ears, she purred happily.

Sebastian settled into a nearby armchair, his eyes fixed on Vincent. The last time they met, Sebastian had been tortured and starving, unable to carefully take in the human to whom he thought he would be tying his existence. Now he looked at him with all the acuity he could. He took in every detail of Vincent Phantomhive. The way he held himself in the chair. The straight line of his spine and neck leading up to his skull perfectly balanced atop. His clothing, wrinkle free and perfectly tailored to accentuate his narrow waist and long legs. His gentle smile as he looked at his son. When he spoke, his voice was gentle and unhurried. Confident. A man with all the time in the world (very apropos now that he was dead).

Polished. Poised. Perfect in every way. That was the Vincent Phantomhive that Sebastian saw.

Such a contrast to Ciel, so dishevelled and exhausted with his wild eyes and his chewed lip. Ciel tripped over his words sometimes. Paused to think of what to say. Drummed his fingers on the desk in a staccato rhythm.

Vincent broke the silence first. “How have you been, Ciel? I wish I could say the stories are true and I’ve been watching over you, but my existence has been limited to this room. You are the first visitor I have had since my internment. Well…” His eyes flicked to Sebastian. “Except the cats, of course. They go where they please and it seems even death is no obstacle.”

“ I see.” Ciel glanced at the cat as well, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

“ But how are you? You look exhausted, Ciel.”

“ My apologies,” he said, flushing and anxiously smoothing down the front of his shirt and his hair. “I… We haven’t had time to make ourselves presentable. It was quite a challenge to find you, I’m sure you can imagine.”

“ Mm, yes, I suppose it would be.” Vincent leaned back, contemplating his son a moment. Then turned and pulled a bottle from somewhere behind him: a fine wine vintage, and two glasses. “Here, have something to drink.”

The wine was red and smelled delicious. Ciel stared at the glass in front of him, not moving to take it. Vincent himself took a sip. None was offered to Sebastian. There was a long silence before Ciel spoke.

"Father, I need to ask about the fire."

"Ah." Vincent rested his wine on the table. He gave his son a look that was equal parts concern and steel for a moment. "You've come this far to ask that? Is the answer so important to you?"

"Of course.” Ciel met his father’s eye. “I know that it was not a natural fire, that someone set it. But all my investigations in the Human Realm came to nought. You always said that a Phantomhive would never rest until he get to the bottom of something."

“I did say that, didn’t I?” He gave a small chuckle before looking pensive. "It's a valuable trait, the desire to pursue knowledge. But... Some knowledge is dangerous. This knowledge, in particular. Once I tell you, it may haunt you. Put you in danger. Are you sure you want to know about that fire?"

Ciel nodded. He kept his back straight and his gaze sure, and Sebastian admired him for it. The two of them looked on at Vincent as he sighed and shook his head.

"Well, I can’t say I expected a different answer. You are my son, after all. But all the same…” He tapped his finger, tilting his head to watch Ciel. “Knowing the extents you must have gone to to even infiltrate the Bone Tower and find me, I am sure this answer won't come as a surprise. You’ve probably had your suspicions already. Your own idea of who may have been the cause."

It was not a surprise. All three of them could have given the answer at the same time.

"The fire was set by Weston College."

"But why?" Ciel slammed a fist down on the desk, making a pen rattle in its holder. "What are they doing in that damned place? What would drive them to do what they’re doing? Why are they doing such hideous things to..." His voice caught in his throat. 

Vincent was tactful, pretending not to notice the way that Ciel fought to keep his emotions under control. He turned and pulled open a drawer on the desk, taking out a sheet of paper. This he held out to Ciel. It was stamped with the Weston College crest.

"The College has one aim," he explained as Ciel skimmed the document. "It was created at the order of Her Majesty, after the death of her husband Albert. It is dedicated to understanding death. Where it comes from, what causes it, why Shinigami are unique overseers, and..."

"How to reverse it." Ciel looked at the document in disbelief. Shook his head slowly before holding it out to Sebastian.

Sebastian skimmed through it quickly. It was a communication from Weston College administration addressed to Vincent Phantomhive, thanking him for accepting a position in the College, explaining their goals, and ending with an assurance that all which occurred on the College grounds and all work undertaken in pursuit of the goals of the College were top secret.

"Violation of the trust of Her Majesty will not be tolerated," Sebastian read aloud. He looked up and met his husband’s gaze. It seemed that neither of them were quite sure how to reckon with this revelation. A reversal of death? The idea was ludicrous.

Vincent took the letter back, slipping it into a drawer. “ They came to me shortly after Rachel’s funeral. I was the last Phantomhive, the supposedly cursed son haunted by death. I was looking for some sort of hope and some direction. They offered me work. Said that if I worked for them, if I helped with their goal, I would be able to be with Rachel again. When you’re offered that chance, you take it.” His eyes were glistening. His voice hitched at the memory of his wife, lost so soon. "You have to understand, when you are in Weston College you are not allowed to leave. Once I discovered the true nature of their work, the depths to which they sunk, I was too entrenched. My refusal would have meant their taking out their anger on you and your brother. I did not want that to happen. I had already lost the rest of my family, it would be too much to lose my children as well."

"So you say." The fingers of Ciel’s hand traced over a scar running over his opposite wrist.

The sight had Vincent visibly wincing. He reached across and took Ciel's hand in his, making him look up.

“Listen to me,” he said. "If I had any idea what they had done to you, I would have taken action. Nothing would have stopped me from getting you out of there. Ensuring that they would never hurt you. You are my children. I love you. The last thing I would do is hurt you. My mistake was ever trusting them when they said that they would keep you safe as I pursued my work."

Ciel nodded slowly. Then shook his head. "You say that, but you had so many secrets. Why did you never tell me about my mother? My real mother?"

He lowered his gaze. "I was ashamed. I loved Rachel, in my grief I turned to Angelina for comfort, and if I was a good person I would have done the honourable thing and married her. But I was dedicated to Rachel. I thought that to marry again would be to sully her memory. So l covered up everything. I pretended to be a good man, an example for you and your brother."

“ And taking her name?”

“ A command from Weston College. She was unwilling to work for them, they needed to control her another way. If I refused, they would have killed all of you.”

He shook his head with a sigh. "I tried my best, Ciel, but I am still human. I have made innumerable mistakes and they have tormented me in death as much as they did in life. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that my work may at the very least have some meaning . That it would keep others from suffering the way I had suffered. It was a foolish hope, but it was all I had.” Now he looked up at Sebastian. "But now, maybe I can replace it with the hope that you and your husband will help to leave the Realm better than I ever managed. Make the Phantomhive name have a new, better legacy."

Sebastian did not speak. He was staring at Vincent. The quiver of Vincent's lips. The steadiness of his gaze. The delicate yet reassuring pressure he placed on his son's hands.

Ciel himself slumped forward at the desk. He had his fingers splayed on the wood, his hands shaking, his shoulders trembling. "I had no idea... You went through so much, Father. I'm so... I'm so sorry. I never realised."

"Of course you didn’t. It is a parent's job to hide the harsh reality of the world from their children," Vincent said. His smile was gentle and kind. "I am sorry I could not be there for you and your brother. I should have protected you better. Do you forgive me?"

Ciel nodded. A tear trickled slowly down his cheek.

Vincent reached across and wiped it away with his finger.

“ There now, it’s all in the past. Weston College has burnt down and with it has gone all of the research and the poor children who were entombed there. Now you and your husband just need to go and do some good. Something to make up for my mistakes.” He cupped Ciel’s face in his hand. “And I have to thank you for this , Ciel. For finding me. For letting me tell you the truth, and see what a good man you have become. If nothing else comes from this, just know that I am proud of you.”

They were good words. 

Sebastian got to his feet and crossed the room. He placed his own hands on Ciel’s shoulders, but kept his gaze fixed on Vincent.

Vincent looked up at him with that same, gentle smile. It was welcoming and warm, the love of a father that any child would be grateful to get. Especially an exhausted child who had seen more than his fair share of blood and horror that day, most of it at his own hands.

But Sebastian was not his child.

"Vincent," he said calmly, "How did you know that the College had burnt down?"

A small twitch at the corner of Vincent's mouth. "How did I know?"

"Yes. How did you know? You said yourself you do not see outside of this room, that this and only this is your afterlife. So how did you know of an event that happened after your death?"

“ Sebastian? What are you-” Ciel started to speak, but Sebastian shook his head sharply. He kept his gaze on Vincent. Vincent and his gentle, paternal smile.

"How indeed?" Vincent tilted his head. "A lucky guess. I know that Ciel is talented, and it is what I would have done if I had the chance. It is a good-"

"But you did have the chance," Sebastian interrupted. "You worked for the College, you were surely on the Academy grounds far more than we were, and yet you did nothing. You knew it was dangerous. You said yourself that Weston kept its work a great secret. Things were guarded, our own exit was almost barred by Ran-Mao. How would you guess at its destruction? And how would you guess at fire?"

Ciel was now frowning as well, his gaze cleared from sleep. He looked up at Sebastian. Then across to his father. “That… Yes, that is curious.”

But Vincent kept his easy smile. “It was a lucky guess. That is all. Is it so unbelievable?”

“ No, not in itself. A few leaps in logic, but that alone is not beyond explanation.” Ciel frowned. "You explained how you took Angelina Dalles' name, but not how it got to be in the ownership of a demon."

"That’s a simple explanation. It was merely a part of the contract between me and Sebastian. A human’s name is quite a trophy, a demon would love to own it. So I bargained it in exchange for Sebastian’s part of the marriage."

“ A demon would surely display it proudly,” Ciel said, glancing at Sebastian who nodded. A name was a display piece, not a secret. Not something kept in its chest, not told about even in whispers.

Vincent shrugged. “I can only guess at the goings on of demons.”

"And why was our marriage arranged? The first of its kind between realms.”

“ And that tunnel?”

“ And those things they did to the children? The purpose of that?”

“ And the source of a human’s magic?”

"My word. You both ask so many questions."

Vincent was still smiling. He leaned across the table now. His voice lowered, darkened just an octave. The perfect smile remained.

"Ciel, there are things that not even I understand the reason for. Sometimes things happen outside of my control. I make my peace with that. Now I am asking you to make your peace with that as well."

But it was too late. Ciel got to his feet, hands steadying himself on the desk as he stared at his father. Sebastian stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, claws ready to unsheath if needed. 

"Vincent Phantomhive was a name people spoke of in all levels of society,” Ciel said. “A businessman. Intelligent and shrewd and calculating. He made it his business to know everything and everyone. The Phantomhive library was known for rivalling even the greatest of all scholars. There is not a chance in all the Realms that he would ever make his peace with not understanding something outside of his control. He was a Phantomhive and he would not stop until he had some grasp of it! You yourself said you could not comprehend death and made strides to tackle it. It was what lead you to into the trap of Weston College. It is what killed you! What almost killed me!"

He gripped the edge of the desk.

"You are not my father. Who are you?"

Vincent did not answer. But a wholly different voice echoed through the room, one that had the entire room reverberating and shuddering, the cat hissing and scrabbling away. Books shook from their shelves, falling open to reveal blank pages. The furniture cracked and fell apart into hollow paper approximations of furniture. Vincent Phantomhive’s body slumped in the chair. With a flash, the wall behind his desk crumbled and light shone in, cold and blue and revealing. Harsh wires were piercing his body. They stuck into the back of his head, at his shoulders, at his wrists, at each of his fingers. 

Not a man of flesh and blood and bone. A puppet of wood, his head lolling and the strings whipping around him.

They needed to run! But where the door had been, there was now empty space. The walls and office collapsed, leaving them nowhere . Nothingness on all sides, above and below, as the room collapsed.

Sebastian reached for his husband. Too late.

The strings that had once skewered Vincent Phantomhive now whipped around Sebastian and Ciel. Sebastian’s arms were wrenched behind him, almost pulled out of his sockets. With a snarl, he tried to expand his body, growing more arms and letting his mouth open in an ocean of fangs. But the strings encased him, bound him, sapped his power. He fell to the ground a limp and useless creature. The bindings were cold and bitter. They sliced into him with every movement. Even so, Sebastian thrashed, his eyes rolling as he searched desperately for his husband. He saw him a distance away, his own body wrapped in string. His mouth covered, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

The sound of footsteps. A pair of black boots walked into Sebastian’s field of vision. They stopped in between him and Ciel before being covered by the hem of a dark cloak.

"I tried to give you a way out," a voice said. "You humans are such strange creatures. You can never leave well enough alone. Just keep running into danger because you have to understand things nobody needs to understand. But I do so love that about you, Ciel Phantomhive."

Sebastian spat against the bindings in his mouth. He tried to speak, to tell this thing to leave his husband alone .

The boots turned. Approached him. Sebastian tried to curve his body up to see who it was looming over him, but the strings held him supine. It hardly matted. Whoever it was raised a boot and pressed it to the back of Sebastian's head, forcing him down. Sebastian’s nose was crushed against a floor that he could not see. His eyes were staring into the nothingness. The sight hurt his eyes.

The voice over him tutted. “Well, it seems you have been spending too long with the humans. You have gotten curious, too. Ah well.” The boot ground into the back of his head. The voice gave a small laugh. “I suppose we know what curiosity does, don’t we, my little cats? There’s only one thing to do now. Hang on, this will only take a moment.”

A crack.

A piercing pain through Sebastian’s skull.

Darkness.

Chapter Text

As a demon, Sebastian was sustained by magical energy that when depleted made his body smaller but still alert. The strength of constant alertness was a boon as much as a curse, for although he was able to see every second of joy in his existence he also was unable to gain a release from pain or terror. So when he slept for the first time in his existence, when he woke up and experienced that moment where nothing feels quite real, it was utterly unfamiliar to him.

Sebastian opened his eyes from a period of nothingness and found himself beside his husband. For a good while he merely lay there and looked at Ciel's sleeping face nestled in the pillow, dark hair falling over his face, lips parted in a gentle snore. He reached up a finger and brushed the hair away from his husband's face. This close he could see the individual veins in his eyelids. He could hear his heart beating and sending blood around his small body. Moved a finger to feel the pulse on Ciel’s neck, a steady rhythm that almost lulled him back to sleep.

He lay there a moment, watching his husband sleep, appreciating the gentle sound of his breathing in the stillness of the surrounding room. But as he lay there, as we woke, he also experienced for the first time what it was like to awake in unfamiliar surroundings with no memory of how he got there.

He sat up, his body unfurling into multiple arms and claws, mouth rippling with teeth. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was the office falling apart, bindings holding him down, and that pain through his head as if his skull was being skewered. If that creature that had appeared from the aether was here, then Sebastian would not hesitate to tear it limb from limb. He tensed to leap and devour whatever had taken them hostage.

But they were alone.

Sebastian got his bearings and looked round with a calmer head.

The bed they were in was Ciel's bed from their town house, Sebastian recognised the eiderdown covers and the carved frame. But this was not the bedroom with the window looking out across the realm, the en suite bathroom, and the chairs arranged by a fire. It seemed that the bed they were in had instead been moved to that cold nursery room that had been placed in the top floor. Or a version of the nursery, at the very least.

A version of the nursery that had Sebastian’s stomach churning and his body tensing in something akin to fear.

The nursery back home had been cold from disuse, yes, but it had been tastefully decorated in the manner of the rest of the town house. Beds with brass frames. Elegant quilts covered in embroidered dust cloths. Wallpaper patterned with green fleurs-de-lis. A memory of a place that had been warm and loved.

But the room he was in, whilst it had all the basic elements of that nursery, it was completely and utterly devoid of any colour. That is not to say that the walls and all furniture were painted white, nor was it so dark that any colour was impossible to make out. That would not have made Sebastian feel so unsteady and out of place, it would not have had a shiver creeping up his spine at the innate feeling of wrongness. No, it was a distinct lack that surrounded them.

A nothingness.

An emptiness.

Sebastian gripped the sheets and grit his teeth to keep steady. The more he looked round him, the more the emptiness of the room beat against his eyes in a way that had his entire body recoiling. He took long, slow breaths. Tried to stay calm even as every part of him wanted to scream and claw at the walls for a way out.

He had just managed to get a hold of himself when there was movement beside him. Ciel had turned over, his face scrunching. He whispered in his sleep.

"No… Stay away…"

Sebastian tore his eyes away from the nothingness around him to lean over his husband. His hand hesitated over his husband, suddenly unsure how to comfort him. 

Ciel hunched. Gripped the sheets. His eyes were flickering in his nightmare. Small whimpers and yelps as the dream tormented him. His body shivered. Spasmed. Then the scream that Sebastian had been dreading ripping from his throat and piercing the air. Sebastian wrapped Ciel in the blanket, holding him tight to try to sooth him as the nightmare rippled through Ciel’s body. In the enclosed room, the scream echoed off the walls and battered Sebastian.

Ciel jerked wake mid-scream, flailing in the blanket, his fist making contact with Sebastian's jaw with a loud crack.

"Get off! Don't touch me!"

Sebastian let him go, watched him scrabble away to the corner of the bed, hunched over naked and shivering and scarred. That period of waking had reduced him to an animal, all instinct and terror. As he watched, Ciel’s wits came back to him. His eyes darted around the room, landing on Sebastian. The terror in his eyes faded. The fingers that had been clutching at himself relaxed. Wordlessly, he reached out. Sebastian moved forward, taking his husband’s hand, pulling him close. He felt his husband shudder and relax into him.

"How are you feeling?" Sebastian asked after a few minutes when Ciel's breathing had evened and his heartbeat had slowed.

"Better. Thank you." Ciel pressed a hand to his face. "Those nightmares... I thought I had figured them out in that foul basement, but they clearly haven't stopped." He looked up, raising a finger to brush along Sebastian's jaw. "I'm sorry, I didn’t know what I was doing. Did I hurt you?"

"No," Sebastian said. "I'm afraid that you have many admirable qualities but great physical strength is not one of them."

That earned him another smack and Ciel pushing him away with a huff, evidently out of his nightmare. Instead he settled into the bed, pulling the blankets around him. His gaze went to the room. His own face, still full of life and colour, paled as he took in their surroundings.

"What is this place?"

“An attempt at imitating your home,” Sebastian said.

“But why is it so…” Ciel’s lip curled. He looked away, focussing on Sebastian in amongst the crushing emptiness. Sebastian took his hands in his and Ciel gripped him tight. He closed his eyes. Shuddered. “Let’s look for a way out of here.”

They had been resting naked in the bed, but the air in that place was neither hot nor cold so it was not uncomfortable. Sebastian slipped out of the bed to examine their prison. Ciel followed, dragging the blanket with him as a makeshift cloak.

There were no windows. No doors. No wallpaper to pull back and reveal a way out, or a lose floorboard to pry up to reveal a set of steps. They tapped along the walls, examining every inch of the place, but there was no hint of an escape.  

What they did find were various children's toys positioned across the floor: a rocking horse; a dolls house; a battalion of toy soldiers; a bookshelf; a small chess set ready for a game. Upon the wall were various drawings, illustrations of fables and stories. Some Sebastian recognised from his own realm: stories of how to trick an evil witch and lock her in her own oven to burn, or else a tale of lovers bewitched to turn into animals and only able to come unstuck if they went through various trials. But looking at the paintings, knowing what they depicted even as no colour or shade registered in his mind, had him feeling nauseated. He could only look at them for a few moments before having to turn away.

Perched on a table against one wall was the presence of the porcelain-faced doll that had been discarded behind a cabinet in the nursery back home. Now it had a pristine face and was smiling serenely at the world around it, content and at ease. Sebastian flicked it with a finger and watched it slump to the side, still smiling happily the entire time.

The last thing he explored was the wardrobe and chest of drawers which had been set against one wall. These were empty save for a small selection of clothes. Two outfits, to be precise: both in the strange colourless style of the rest of the room, but one made of human fabric and the other lightweight and more familiar to Sebastian.

Behind him, Ciel was examining the books set out on the shelf. "The Water Babies, Tom Brown's School Days, A Garden of Children’s Verses,” he read, tapping a finger across the spines. “These are all children’s books. I read them when I was younger."

"They must have been taken from your nursery along with everything else here." Sebastian frowned at the room. “Why would we be in a simulacrum of that room?”

"I’ve no idea. We hardly spent any time there, and we hardly needed toys like this. My brother and I grew out of these sorts of books long ago. I even-” He stopped mid-sentence.

Sebastian blinked. 

“I think we did… I remember growing bored of them, at the very least. Or…"

He turned. Sebastian saw him in profile, his brow furrowed and his eyes flickering. He suddenly looked very small, dwarfed in the blanket. Sebastian went to him, taking his hands in both of his. 

“You're not dressed,” he said gently. “Come. It will not do for a gentleman to remain in this state while we search for answers."

Ciel swallowed and nodded, allowing himself to be lead back to the bed.

The clothes in the wardrobe were that same unnerving lack of colour as everything else, but they had the desired effect. The moment Sebastian let the shirt fall over his husband's head, Ciel's entire body relaxed. As each layer was placed onto him, he became more and more composed. By the time Sebastian was lacing a ribbon at his neck, Ciel was calm enough to instruct him to dress as well, saying that the husband of a Phantomhive should have some modesty. Even if the outfit that had been prepared for him was soft and cut low enough that it would have made any human avert their eyes and whisper of the scandal.

But it would do for Ciel. Soon Sebastian knelt in front of him, one of Ciel’s shoes resting on his shoulder and the other on his knee as he laced it up. Ciel sat back on his hands, looking round the room with a more calculating eye. He drummed his fingers on the sheets as he thought.

“Do you think we may still be in the Bone Tower?”

“That feels the most likely,” Sebastian said. The windowless, doorless room was too similar to the office that they had found the Vincent puppet inside. Whatever had found them had apparently constructed them their own little prison.

Ciel sighed, shaking his head. “I… I don’t like this, Sebastian. Any of it.”

“I know,” Sebastian said.

But Ciel scoffed at that, drawing his feet away. “You don’t know. And neither do I. That is the problem.” He kicked the bed with a huff. “I am so tired of not remembering. I want these holes out of my brain, and I want answers! And that… that thing that was pretending to be my father!” He grit his teeth. “That should never have happened at all!”

“Ciel-”

"I should have noticed sooner!"

Ciel punctuated the remark with a harsh kick to the bed frame, making it rock. He threw himself back onto the mattress, gripped his hair, and gave a frustrated wail.

"Looking back now, it was obvious from the first moment that that wasn't my father. He would never have acted with such a lack of decorum! Anyone else would have immediately known something was wrong, but I acted like some pathetic little child desperate for attention from their father."

He kicked the bed again and again, his feet making the bed frame rattle.

"I should have noticed, and we could have turned and left before anything happened, but I didn't and now we are stuck here. If I hadn’t been such a stupid child, this never would have-"

"Stop." Sebastian grabbed his husband's ankles and pulled him forward, standing up to lean over him. Ciel scowled up at him. His face was flushed pink, his hair in disarray.

Sebastian held him in place by the ankles, meeting his frustrated glare with his own stern expression. "You are not stupid. You were exhausted, and frustrated, and operating with less information than is ideal. The fact that you caught on so quickly shows you were not falling for the creature’s spell so easily." Ciel huffed and looked away. Sebastian let go of one ankle to grab his face, turning him round to look at him.

"I am not married to a fool. I am married to someone who in one day killed multiple people, including his own magical circle, and infiltrated the Bone Tower deeper than any human has penetrated. My husband has gone through many obstacles and only stumbled at that last obstacle. No, be quiet." He squeezed his husband's face when Ciel started to protest. "I am not allowed to lie to you. Your spell is still on my tongue." He opened his mouth, letting the magic binding him shine through. "If you were truly being foolish, I would let you know. If only to have you pout so prettily."

That had Ciel's face flushing a deeper scarlet and kicking him. "You're incorrigible even now."

"It is hard not to be when my husband is so attractive." Sebastian let himself laugh once, then settled back into his sincerity. "But do not let your frustration cloud you. We both misstepped. And now we are somewhere unknown to either of us, with no obvious means of escape. But even so!”

He squeezed Ciel’s face again.

“There is nothing to be gained from hating yourself. I need my husband as shrewd as he normally is, not caught up in a spiral of self-blame. Especially when it was so natural a mistake."

Ciel blinked up at him. "I should not have been such a child."

"Is it childish to want the approval of someone you admire?" Sebastian let go of Ciel's face to rest his hands either side of him on the bed. "If I was exhausted and starving and a creature looking like you came to me and said all manner of pretty things, I would not have acted any differently. I would have done anything you told me, even if you did not bewitch me."

"Well, you're a ridiculous demon with no self control."

"And you are far more beguiling than your father was. An unfair comparison, I admit." Sebastian leaned down, catching Ciel's mouth with his. He felt Ciel smile against his lips. He opened his mouth, letting Sebastian's tongue slip between his lips to taste him. Sebastian drank him in.

Here in the strange empty dead room, his husband felt even more alive. He was heat and flesh and fluid and colour and scent. Everything that was solid and grounding in that horrific room.

Sebastian wanted to swallow him whole. Wanted to press his lips to every imperfect part of him. Let them forget about the mistakes that lead them there, and the surroundings that so unnerved them both.

Just for a moment.

With a small groan, Sebastian crawled onto the bed, kissing his husband again and again, nipping on his lower lip, sucking on his tongue. He had one hand on his husband's ankle and now ran it up his leg, over the curve of his calf, to the bottom of the fabric of his shorts where he felt the soft skin of Ciel's thigh. The other moved down Ciel's cheek to his neck and over his arm, down to his wrist and linking their fingers. He felt Ciel's hand squeeze his.

"Sebastian," Ciel gasped as Sebastian drew away to kiss down his neck to the top of his collar. "This is hardly the time or place."

"Mm." Sebastian's tongue flicked over the hollow of Ciel's neck, making him shudder. “You can stop me."

Ciel's fingers twitched, the chain materialising in his hands. He pulled Sebastian up by the caller to rest their foreheads together. Sebastian moved forward to kiss him again, but a chain link materialised between their lips.

Sebastian bit at it. Sharp fangs extended past the metal as he looked imploringly at his husband. The way Ciel's throat twitched as he swallowed. The feel of his heartbeat.

"No, Sebastian." Ciel said the words, but his collar did not dig into Sebastian's throat. He did not put any force behind it.

Sebastian's body pressed down on Ciel's. His own clothing was thin but far too thick. He wanted to feel each capillary of his husband's form. Feel the colour of his flesh.

"Do you have suggestions for a better way to spend our time in this prison?"