Maid of Phantomhive

His Maid, Dauntless

Astre Phantomhive's breathing slowly evened out as the night progressed, she stayed still, listening to him breath and to his heart beating. His heart was so faint that fateful night when she held him in her arms for the first time. He was so small and so precious. 

It never ceased to amaze her how humans start out so small and are able to grow to such statures. Most of the time, they could easily grow to tower over her, as she was always on the short side. 

Her eyes trailed to his sleeping form, right next to her, almost on top of her. He was still holding her very tightly in his arms.   She tried to shift away from him a bit, but his arms held her tighter. It seemed that he was not letting her out of his grasp tonight. 

His arms were larger and more toned now that he was older, they held a strength that was more a kin to a man's, than his feather soft grip that she grew to adore. Her eyes went to his back, which was much broader than it had been when she had left. She watched as it rose and fell, with his breathing.  He has grown so much since she last saw him. He was barely near her breast in height when she left, now he was nearly her height. Knowing his lineage, he was going to grow rapidly the following year. All Phantomhive men have major growth spurts in their 16th and 17th year. 

She wrapped her arms around him and fought back tears. She missed so much of his life, 7 whole years. She could fight off armies, flatten mountains, seduce even the most holy of men, but once thing that she was not any match for was: time. Time robbed her, just as it robbed humans, stealing memories and people that could never be replaced from her. Despite, never having to actually meet her own end when it came to time, it still found a way to inflict pain on her,  it stung her, as if taunting her, the way she did to it with her life span.  Time would never claim her so it settles for all those dear to her instead.

 Usually, she could easily go on a mission that the Phantomhive head would send her on and be away for five years without thinking much of it. When someone lives as long as she has 5 years can easily happen in the blink of an eye, but she felt every second she stayed away from Astre. 

Coming back to the ashes of the manor that she helped build and finding none of the family she served destroyed her. The thought that Astre's ashes lied somewhere in the rubble. The thought of her little Astre not being alive caused her an excruciating pain that she was not familiar with. Through the years she lost many people she cared about to accidents, illness, and time, she had come to terms with it a millennia ago and chose to cherish the moments she shared with her loved ones while they were still alive. She became immune to the feeling of loss and missing her humans while she spent time without them, but this time was different, each moment she spent without Astre felt like centuries, it felt physically painful to be without him. Everything this time around was just so different. 

She allowed the tears to fall down her face.  She did not want to imagine what life would be like without him. For the first time in a very long time, she feared the day of the current Phantomhive's death. She did not want time to claim this boy's life, knowing that she would not allow an accident to hurt him and no illness to take him. She could not believe that she was in the same position that she was in lifetimes ago, fearing the time she would have to mourn the loss of a loved one. Somehow this time was different and she could not understand how.

She heard someone walking outside. She listened closely and she could hear that it was male shoes, it was not Tanaka, after all the years she knew the sound of Tanaka's footsteps. It was formal shoes. That demon. 

"I wish to speak with you, vampire,"  Sebastian said as he rounded the corner into the corridor of his master's room. She rolled her eyes at hearing the hostility in his voice and adjusted her nightgown that had ridden low because of Astre tight grip,