Treat Me Like A Lady 〖Claude x Alois〗

Chapter 11: A Lady's Knight's Flame

"Alright, kid,  time to go... We have a customer here paying a hefty lot. He told me to "surprise him", and for such a handsome pay... I couldn't resist showing off the new toy." 

As Mr. Spinnet talked, it all felt like static in the blonde's ears. He was still pushed up against the wall, confused and shaking wildly. The man realized his emptiness and smirked to himself. This boy was a lot easier to break than he had assumed, what a shame. Dayton walked forward and gripped onto the boy's arm, he jerked him off of the floor and kept a tight hold onto Alois's wrist. He dragged him out of the room and into the hallway mercilessly, tossing and throwing him around as if he were nothing but a rag doll. He was thrown into a room and he tumbled out onto his hands and knees. 

Within the room sat a man in a trench coat and a hat. Through the shadows of the hat, as Alois stared, he could see that this man had blonde hair. It was similar to his own, but a bit darker. Stubble lined his chin and from his mouth came a cigarette, unlit due to the fact that... he'd probably planned to do other things with his mouth. 

He looked... unnaturally familiar. Alois knew he'd seen this man before, at least at some point in his life. He hadn't looked over at Alois yet, most likely as some form of intimidation. As soon as he turned his head and their eyes met, the older man's jaw dropped. His cigarette fell to the ground as he stared at the young blonde for a while, processing what exactly was going on. 

"...You... Aren't... you.... Earl Trancy...?" 

Alois's eyes widened as he heard the rough voice, scooting back quickly. He was terrified that despite the fact that this man recognized him, he'd still try to go after him. Quietly, the blue-eyed boy spoke, keeping his distance. 

"Y...Yes... I thought you seemed familiar. Who... Who are you?" 

The man stood up quite suddenly and balled his fists, moving to walk a little closer to Alois. Abruptly, he kneeled down right in front of him, causing the younger boy to shoot back against the wall in fear. Slowly and carefully, the man removed his coat and wrapped it around the unclothed boy, along with his hat. 

"You're a business partner to my master... Ciel Phantomhive, of course you know 'im. I'm only the chef over  there, but... I know for sure 'e's been to several of your balls and I recall seeing you at the manor several times." 

Alois stared up at the man, his eyes twinkling with little tears. This was his savior,  this was his way out... he'd be reunited with Claude once again and everything would go back to normal. 

"You're not going to do anything to me... right?" 

Baldroy rolled his eyes at the young boy's question, taking him into his arm and holding him close. He was American, he'd been raised up with the knowledge that a good hug and some love could mend a person better than any medicine. 

"I wouldn't. I'm only here lookin' for the girls that are here by choice. You know, the actual prostitutes. But something tells me that this wasn't exactly a choice of yours..." 

Alois nodded in response. thinking quickly, Bard tied up the front of the boy's jacket to cover him up. It was oversized, but it would do. Bard continued his sentence, staring at the boy with  serious eyes. 

"Listen... I'm gonna help you get outta here. You gotta trust me, alright?" 

Once again, Alois nodded. Bard pulled his glasses up over his eyes and picked the boy up to his lip, holding onto his backside to keep him up. 

"Hold on tight." 

Alois curled himself up around the chef and hid his face against the his chest. Bard pulled out a small torch from his pocket and walked to the opposite side of the room. He stuck it against the wall and grinned as the wallpaper curled away. 

"Just like I thought, cheap fuckin' walls! there's nothin' but a board behind the paper, we'll be outta here in less than a minutes. As soon as it burns a hole big enough. But no worries, that jacket you got on there is flame retardant." 

As soon as a hole opened up on the wall that the two of them could squeeze through, bard slipped out it with ease. Alois hid under the jacket pitifully as he did so, scared to death and not even sure what was going on. He couldn't look out, either, he was too afraid of getting burnt. 

"Wooh, we're good...! Good thing he put us on the first floor, eh?" 

Bard said this proudly. There were many little burn marks against his skin, hair, and clothes, but it didn't seem to bother him at all. In fact... he seemed rather used to this. Alois peeked out from under the jacket to see that they were outside on the grass. 

"Th...Thank you." 

Alois smiled and whimpered a little. Bard clicked the lock button on his torch so that it would continue expelling fire without the aid of a person, then tossed it through the hole in which they came out of. Hopefully it would burn down soon. 

"No problem. Don't worry, kid, I don't think anyone inside will be harmed. They just can't have any trace of where we went. Someone'll smell smoke sooner or later and come to investigate. Now, we'd better get going... the manor is just around the next block. We'll get you cleaned up and then take you back home, alright?" 

As bard began walking, Alois shivered a little and narrowed his eyes. This was strange, no one ever showed him utter hospitality like this. 

"You're... too nice. A lot nicer than Ciel. It's hard for me to even believe you're associated with him." 

Bard chuckled a little at Alois's words and smiled. He made eye contact with the boy's pretty blue eyes and Alois stared back. The older man suddenly looked a lot sadder in the eyes, almost like his hard had just been broken.

"I'm not usually like this, y'know... It's just...after fightin' in the war, I just don't want to see anybody else suffer. There are evil, evil things out there... things that need to be taken out of this world. Then there are the good things... the things that deserve to be treated with respect." 

Bard paused, taking in a deep breath. This man was a hell of a lot more emotional that Alois had initially thought, but it was kind of sweet. 

"I can tell by all those bruises on you that you've been through Hell and back... those aren't new, either, they look like they've been there for a while. You're strong, and you deserve to stay in this world." 

Alois's heart throbbed at the words he spoke. He's eyes grew wide and he broke their little staring contest, shoving his face against bard's head and sobbing quietly. They kept on walking, heading towards the manor as they had now reached the driveway. The only problem with this, however... was Ciel.