.: seeing in the dark :.

Chapter Four

The sounds of the morning news filled the apartment as Ciel waited patiently for the coffee machine to finish brewing. The aroma of the dark liquid already wafted through the kitchen and made its way into the living room where Ciel sat. On the adjacent couch, Sebastian sat with Soot. She curled up in his lap and Sebastian ran a lazy hand over her body.

In the kitchen, Ciel could hear Mey-rin cooking breakfast and he turned his attention back to the TV. He met Mey-rin a few days ago when she came back from her trip and they had a rather unpleasant encounter for their first meeting. While Sebastian had informed Mey-rin of his stay at the apartment, she forgot by the time she came back from her friend's place.

When they first met, Ciel was in the kitchen making some tea and Mey-rin thought he was a burglar. What kind of burglar stopped to make tea during a house call, Ciel didn't know, but he didn't ask questions when she pulled the mace on him. He also didn't ask questions when she tied him to a chair while they waited for Sebastian to finish his shower.

And that was how Sebastian found them several minutes later when he finally emerged from the bedroom. The longest ten minutes of Ciel's life. It took a few more minutes to explain everything before Ciel was free of his bindings and took shelter next to Sebastian.

Mey-rin had apologized profusely and Ciel knew she felt bad, but it didn't mean that he quite forgave her. Honestly, was it that hard to hear him out the first time when he tried to explain he was a guest?

But with Mey-rin's return to the apartment, Ciel had to use Sebastian's bathroom as promised. And after the fiasco when they first met, Ciel didn't want to get on her bad side. Although the one good thing about using Sebastian's shower was that it finally satisfied the itch that had made itself known when Ciel first arrived.

He wanted to see what Sebastian's bedroom looked like.

Did it look any different because he couldn't see? Perhaps sparsely decorated or would it look cluttered because it was the one place Mey-rin didn't clean? Whatever Ciel had expected, it wasn't what greeted him when he first stepped in Sebastian's room.

It felt and appeared homey, and it – just like the rest of the apartment and everything else about Sebastian – looked normal. It was so Sebastian. Not that Ciel could explain what that meant, but he could see Sebastian in the bedroom. He looked like he belonged and Ciel felt at ease in the room.

And in the end, wasn't that what a bedroom was supposed to provide? A retreat from the world and place that no one else could call their own but the person who owned it?

It made Ciel feel annoyed with himself for expecting anything else simply because it was Sebastian's room. Just because Sebastian couldn't see didn't make it any less of a room or the room itself any different. What mattered the most in the end was that Sebastian liked it. And that was all that counted.

Although Ciel often found himself lingering longer in the room before or after his shower so he could soak in the ambiance. It relaxed him and Ciel couldn't help but gaze at the pictures and awards mounted on the walls. It gave him a glimpse into Sebastian's life before they met and Ciel wanted to ask about them but held his tongue. They had only known each other for a week, far too short of a time to start digging into each other's past.

If Sebastian knew about Ciel's fascination with his room or even suspected it, he didn't say anything on the subject.

"Mey-rin," Sebastian said calmly and looked in the direction of the kitchen. "The eggs are starting to burn."