The Queen's New Pet (A Black Butler Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty Eight

One Year Later

The carriage clattered away from the manor for the last time. Ciel looked away after a brief, dismissive glance, not looking back after that. His butler looked at him instead of the disappearing manor behind them as they moved farther away.

"What shall we do now, Young Master?"

Both of Ciel's eyes turned briefly pink as he replied, "You already know the answer to that, Sebastian."

Sebastian leaned back into his seat, closing his eyes briefly. He knew indeed.

The last time he had seen Maria she had been whisked away in the arms of Castizel, and that had been a year ago.
It had certainly been a long year of frustrated searching late into the nights when he and Ciel weren't dealing with other problems.

He wondered if she had changed at all.

"Yes." He finally responded mildly.

"We're going to find her." Ciel said quietly, perhaps more to himself than to Sebastian. He turned to his butler and repeated his statement a little louder, prompting an answer.

Sebastian's eyes were now pink.

"Yes, my lord."

Ciel wasn't giving up anytime soon, and now that he was a demon Sebastian wasn't sure if he would ever give up looking. Many times Sebastian tried to convince himself that he should just forget her to save himself some pain, but he couldn't. It was extremely frustrating. He had tried, even though deep down he knew he couldn't.

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Meanwhile, Maria was looking out one of the windows overlooking the estate Castizel owned. She didn't know where it was specifically, after all she had never gone outside the walls surrounding the spacious property. A caged bird, she mused quietly to herself.

She couldn't just fly over them either. Castizel knew her every move, probably most of her thoughts, and definitely all of her feelings. She wouldn't get halfway to the gate before The Trinity showed up.

"The Trinity" was the nickname Maria had coined to the three fallen angels that were with Castizel the night of her capture. They all had more Fallen angel-y names, but only one of them went by it. The other two were more distant with her and had more human names: Ronan and Samuel.

The one who was hurt by Sebastian on that night quickly became Maria's friend in the walls. She had wrapped his wound for him as soon as they arrived - only after she had awoken and discovered he still had not cleaned the wound - making Castizel quite angry as she pushed him away in anger.

She heard the door open behind her and turned to see the fallen angel himself.

"Hi Zeke," she said softly before turning back to the window. Zeke wasn't his full name, but the full name he had rattled off was too complicated to remember. She started calling him Zeke instead - it was the only part of his name that sounded good when shortened - and he never argued. And so the nickname stuck.

Zeke flashed her a smile before answering in a teasing tone, "My Queen." He accompanied the jest with a deep bow.

"Don't start with that, I told you that Maria was perfectly fine with me." She turned again from the window and faced him. "In fact, as your Queen, I demand you call me Maria."

"Your wish is my command." Zeke replied, and together they left the room.

Since Castizel was usually "busy with his King work", he had put it upon The Trinity to teach Maria the in's-and-out's of being a Fallen. Castizel was always there though, watching her progress. She could feel it.