Black and Red | Kuroshitsuji | Sebastian Michaelis x OC

Devil Dog

The following morning, the atmosphere remained suffused with the pervasive aura of misery and unease.

The morning sunlight was little more than a ribbon of gold through the ever-hovering clouds, but Thalia was grateful for even that as she lay outside on the grass. A few feet away, the three servants were chattering amongst themselves, engaged in a conversation that Thalia wasn't necessarily interested in participating in. 

Sickly yellow pollen and dust drifted into the air when she breathed, and Thalia allowed her head to sink lower than the tips of the untamed blades of grass that surrounded her, lost in morbid thoughts of blood and death and being devoured by the thirsty roots below.

That might be preferable. After all, the dead had no need for food or shelter, existing only to be ensconced and devoured by the dirt and worms. Only the living needed to worry and ask themselves, what am I going to do after this?

"Ms. Thalia?" The thump of footsteps alerted her to Sebastian's approach far more than his voice did, and a tingle of anticipation zapped over her skin.

Anticipation?!

The woman shot upright and scratched her arm, mentally ridding herself of such a silly notion. The man was nothing but a pervert with little respect for the boundaries of others. Thalia may not have dallied around, but she knew what such people were like, and how they treated women like her.

Memories of bruises flickered through her mind. The sound of raucous, careless laughter mixed with the harsh clattering of coins in exchange for pounds of flesh rationed by the hour.

"What's wrong?" Her eyes flew open at the question, and Thalia became aware that she'd been pressing her lips together hard enough that the flesh had gone bloodless white. It took her a moment to loosen the tense muscles of her jaw, and another to realize that the question had been directed to the other servants in general. "You were all so lively on the way here."

Bard's forehead crumpled in a frown. "Well, it's because...you know..." he trailed off. 

"I see." Sebastian gazed down at the four of them, an almost patronizing smile on his face. Thalia quickly averted her eyes and pretended to be engrossed by a ladybug struggling it's way up a dandelion stalk. 

Thankfully, he did not say anything to her, and mercifully changed the subject entirely.

"Have you all forgotten?" From behind his back the man produced an impressively large picnic basket, the brown wicker-weave stuffed fit to bursting with bottles of piping hot tea, sweet cordial, and delicious finger foods. In his other hand rested a folded stack of swimsuits. "We have come to a resort."

"Oh, you're right!" Finny cheered up quick as a flash, the switch in temperament so rapid that it almost left Thalia disoriented. No one would have believed that he had been moping less than a minute ago. "We should have fun while we're here! Let's go!"

"Are you coming, Thalia?" Grass and flower petals dislodged themselves from Mey-Rin's apron when she climbed to her feet and patted herself down. Flecks of velvet and greenery remained buoyed by an early autumn wind not yet ready to put them down.

Thalia bit her lip, the urge to turn them down warring mightily against her own fatal curiosity. In the end, the searing gaze boring directly into the side of her head tipped her hand, and the young woman puffed out a grudging sigh of defeat.

"Yes, I'll come too." Thalia rolled to her feet and did her best to clean up as Mey-Rin had done. Though there's really no point, she thought with some chagrin as she plucked an intrepid beetle from her head and flicked it back into the grass where it belonged. In lieu of having nothing else suitable to wear, she had been forced to accept items from the other three.