Ciel Phantomhive walked down the silent halls of the Phantomhive manor on Christmas Eve, his mind in a different place. Why did something seem missing? Why did his mind seem ablaze with thoughts of things he couldn't remember? He took a right turn and continued walking down the hall, his course seemingly for his study. "Oh, I do hope the young master will like this tree..." He heard one of his servants say in excitement.
"Shut up Finny! Your bein' to loud!" Bard said loudly.
Ciel sighed, his head in one of his hands. His servants where quite idiotic. The young earl sighed and began walking down the stairs, where his servants where decorating a Christmas tree.
"What in the blazes are you doing?" Ciel asked them, his voice in monotone. With his arms crossed over his chest, he walked over to his servants who where as still as statues. He chuckled and pulled an ornament off the tree. "A Christmas tree eh?" He smirked, "I haven't seen on of these in a while..." He mumbled, looking at the delicate ornament.
Bardroy and Finny looked at each other, both of them where quite nervous. "BARD, FINNY! I FOUND SOME MORE ORNAMENTS!" Mey-Rin yelled with a giggle from down the hall, where she was charging with boxes tetering precariously on top of one another in her arms.
"Mey-Rin! Quiet down! That's an order!" Ciel's demanding voice called to his bespectacled servant, the delicate ornament still in his hand.
"Oh my! Young master!" Mey-Rin gasped, skidding to a hault, the boxes almost falling. Ciel, Bardroy and Finny gave a collective sigh in relief, and walked over to Mey-Rin.
"Young master, what're you doin up in the first place?" Bard asked his master, looking down at him.
"I couldn't sleep." Ciel said softly, his tumb grazing the ornament in his hand. Mey-Rin, Bard, and Finny looked at each other, each of them thinking in their own way that Ciel should be asleep.
"You really should be getting some sleep." Finny told his master, looking at his eye patch.
"Would you be able to fall asleep when thoughts of your dead mother and father haunted you?" Ciel snapped, looking up at the blonde in annoyance. Finny's eyes widened, and his own mind flashed to when his father sold him to the research facility. He shook his head slowly, not daring to meet Ciel's dark and seemingly endless blue eye. Ciel sighed and looked back down at the ornament. The ornament was a delicate ballerina, seemingly frozen in the middle of her dance. His parents and him had gone to the Nutcracker ballet, and his mother had purchased the ornament as a keepsake. When Ciel was little, he thought the ballerina was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. Since then, his thoughts have darkened to dark and endless pit of despair and vengeance.
"Master Ciel, what was Christmas like for you when you where little?" Bard asked, always the brave one.
Ciel smiled slightly, much to his servants surprise. "Christmas in the Phantomhive manor when I was young was almost like a dream. Our Christmas tree was covered in the most elegant ornaments money could buy at that point. My mother always insisted on making Christmas dinner, even though she wasn't much of a cook..." Ciel chuckled at that point, along with the servants, who where starting to sit on the ground, pulling Ciel with them. "Father would insist on wearing a Santa hat the week before and during Christmas... He insisted that it brought more Christmas spirit." Ciel half smiled, and stared at the ballerina in his hands. Ciel looked up at the group, and blinked in shock to see that almost all of them where in a trance at his words. "W-What about you three?" He asked, shifting uncomfortably at their gazes.
"Oh, I remember when I was a wee baby, me and my mum would make all of our ornament, and then we would put them on our tree. Even though they looked like rubbish, both of us loved them just the same because we made them." Mey-Rin said with a smile, her hands folded into her lap. Bardroy patted her on the shoulder, then looked to Finny.
"What's your favorite memory Finny?" Finny's lower lip trembled, and he rubbed at his eyes.
"I-I don't have any... m-my family s-sold me to-to the lab when I was little!" Finny cried, holding his head in his hands, sobs racking through his body. Ciel's eye widened in surprise. He had never seen Finny in such a sad state. Typically, Finny was all smiles all the time. But on Christmas Eve of all days, he was sad.
"Oh, it's alright Finny...." Mey-Rin said soothingly, taking out her handkerchief and handing it to him.
"T-Thank you...." He said through his tears, taking the handkerchief and wiping at his tears with it. Ciel and Bardroy looked at each other, both shocked at Finny's attitude. Bard shook his head and chuckled, looking down at his lap.
"See, for me, Christmas was somethin else." Bard took a drag of his cigarette and looked at the group. "Us soldiers couldn't do much of anything, so we decided to screw around. Each of us wound up wearin a Santa suit and scaring the General at some point." Bard laughed softly, and took another drag of his cigarette. Finny rubbed his eyes and looked up at Bard, a smile playing on his lips. "I swear, the General would piss himself everytime..." Bard laughed, and Mey-Rin followed, and soon Finny was back to being the happy go lucky soul that he was. Ciel smirked at the story Bard told, not knowing that he had such fond memories of the war.
Ciel's eye wandered to the bottom of the tree, where presents wrapped in old news paper where, and upon seeing this, his entire face turned into one of shock."W-Why are there presents under the tree?" He asked the three servants, who all paused and smiled at him with a look that read just how innocent Ciel really was.
"Young master, we all decided to get you some presents...." Bard said, rubbing his head with his hand. "If that's ok wit you." He added, looking at the other two who where nodding along with him. Ciel paused, his eyes locked on the presents. Memories of previous Christmas presents flashed through his mind and he looked at his servants with a signature Phantomhive smirk.
"I say that we open these presents early then... Shall we?" Ciel said, and everyone laughed and cheered, watching as he went to grab the first present of the season.
"Young master? What are you doing up?" Sebastian called to his master, coming over to them, "And why didn't you three idiots put him back in bed? A young boy such as his needs his rest." Sebastian said, his eyes narrowing into a glare that made the servants tremble.
"W-We jus waned t-to talk wit him!!" Mey-rin whimpered, her bottom lip trembling. "That's enough Sebastian." Ciel snapped, standing up and smoothing out his shirt.
"I will be heading back to bed. I'll see you all in the morning...." He paused, then turned to them with a some what smile. "And Merry Christmas." He said, just as the Grandfather Clock hit the stroke of midnight.
