Surrounded by Doubt | Kuroshitsuji

Chapter 2 - The worried butler

Sebastian's P.O.V.

Upon standing outside the young master's door with a cart, on it a teapot containing his master's favourite Earl Grey tea and a beautiful porcelain cup matching the pastel pink pot, Sebastian had taken out his golden pocket watch to check the time before carefully knocking on the door and entering.

He wheeled the cart into the room before moving towards the window where he allowed the sun's rays to enter the bedroom by drawing the dark drapes wide open.

When turning around to face his master waking up Sebastian noticed right away that the boy's eyes seemed to have a harder time adjusting to the light than usual, having to blink a surprising number of times before being able to open them properly. Thinking to himself that the master might be ill, Sebastian was getting a little worried since they had only recently returned from their last mission, but decided he wouldn't ask his young master about it unless other symptoms of sickness showed themselves.

During the years he'd spent with his master he had grown rather fond of the boy, developing feelings such as worry when he was hurt or sick, not understanding where these feelings came from had made him quite irritated at first. A demon caring for a human? It was unheard of, of course he didn't care about his master any more than a servant of his position should and that was excluding the fact that he was a demon. Then again, his current master was exceptional - one of a kind - never had a master been so interesting to him before.

Trying to make sense of it, Sebastian had thought these emotions came from the demon's tendency to be possessive, not wanting anything to ruin the perfect meal he had been willing to starve himself so long for. Though it didn't take him long to realise that perhaps he simply cared for the boy now, their bond was stronger than any other he had ever experienced. Was it possible it had been so strong as to introduce feelings in a demon he was otherwise a stranger to? Unable to do anything about this new situation he was in, he chose to accept it, there was no use in dwelling on what seemed to be inevitable at the time.

Evidently the young Earl was not aware of this as Sebastian did not wish for him to know about such a weakness, a boy as clever and devious as Ciel Phantomhive was bound to use this kind of information to his advantage. Giving the boy even more power over him was not something Sebastian was in the mood to experience and regardless of what he was feeling, in the end the demon was to devour the boy's mouth watering soul.

After waking up the young lord, Sebastian went to pour him his morning cup of tea while observing the pale boy shake his blue locks after sitting up in his bed as if he was trying to get rid of something in his head.

Slightly concerned, the butler chose to ask if he was feeling ill but as expected the response he got was "I'm fine" followed by a snarky question if the butler was worried about him. It was a question he had managed to answer effortlessly without revealing the actual concern building up inside of him.

It had also occurred to him that his master might have been exposed to some of the gas in that building while looking for the documents. But why would it not have affected him earlier then? The other victims passed out directly after having inhaled a small amount. Then his mind wandered onto thinking it might as well just be an ordinary cold that the young lord has managed to catch while being out.

Sebastian settled on a cold being the reason for his master's symptoms and with that he was going to do what was needed to nurse the boy back to health.

In his attempt to encourage rest to the young master, Sebastian didn't expect anything else than resistance from him, the boy had always been stubborn, especially when it came to being sick, always insisting that the phantomhive hier did not have time for any illness to get in his way.

Of course the butler, having lived with humans for more decades than he cared to remember, knew very well how weak humans were. Having had quite a number of different masters, needless to say none which could compare to his current one, Sebastian had witnessed several of them more or less sick.

It was hardly a challenge for him to deal with illnesses but in this case his current master was a child, more fragile and resistant than his other masters had been, the butler was already aware that this sick master would only mean more work for him.

Last thing Sebastian said before leaving the room was "Yes, my Lord". As he was moving out through the door, rolling with him the cart carrying tea, Sebastian quickly tried to eye his master who was still sitting by the bed waiting for the butler to leave.

It had been so obvious that the young boy wasn't feeling well yet he still tried to hide what was presented so very clearly. Sebastian thought his sick master must be delusional for thinking his butler would be so slow-witted as to not register the subtle signs of illness he had so desperately tried to conceal.

Be that as it may, Sebastian left the room to go make breakfast. Still watching the boy, his blue locks concealing the eyepatch hiding one eye, sit on the bed before shutting the door carefully so as to not make too much noise which he knew would not agree with his master's unsuccessfully hidden headache.

After closing the door, Sebastian stood still there for a little while, listening to the earl's light footsteps after getting out of the bed. While quietly listening, the butler could tell that his steps were slower and much heavier than usual, even a slight cough could be heard through the door.

Once he noticed the boy's steps coming closer to the door, the butler hurried away so as to not be seen by his master. Fully aware the young master would scold him for lingering by his door instead of doing what he had been ordered to do, he got away at the last second but wasn't able to escape without making an insignificant noise coming from the cart, tension spread through his body, however all he could do was to hope the boy hadn't heard anything.