Swan Song • Sebastian Michaelis

04 | aspectabund

[ A/N: the *** are to separate both scene changes as well as a point of view change. This will be a rare occasion that a small part will obviously be in Sebastian's point of view, rather than Aurora's. ]

aspectabund:
(adj.) letting or being able to let expressive
emotion show easily through ones face and eyes.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Aurora cleared her throat and untied the cloth from around her neck, "I'll be finishing the laundry and have it done by the time that Madam Red arrives."

Sebastian pursed his lips together in a line and narrowed his eyes as the girl turned her back to him and stretched her arms above her head. She watched him out of the corner of her eye once she had turned around once again and gathered the sheets that needed to be cleaned, as well as what was left on the soap. Aurora could feel his eyes burning into the back of her skull while she silently worked across the room from his unwavering stare. With Mey-Rin still gone, she knew that Sebastian wouldn't leave until she completed her work and Madam Red arrived.

It was only thirty minutes later that she finished washing the sheets, then hung them up outside with Sebastian's silent help. The two walked back inside together, Sebastian in the left and Aruroa in the right with a respectable distance held in between as their steps matched in pace. Aurora glanced over at the butler beside her, then back to the floor. The day before he had been spiteful and rude and now he was willingly assisting? She shook her head. He didn't make sense.

"Madam Red will be here in any minute now," Sebastian told her. He snapped his silver pocket watch shut and placed it back into the inner pocket of his tailcoat with one hand while he stopped and gestured Aurora to stop with the other. "I do expect the same behavior from you that I have received all day, if not better. Which also means you must not only look the part of a Phantomhive servant, but you shall play it better than you have already."

"Have ye little faith, butler," she replied, brushing a few strands of hair away from her eyes. "I'm capable of keeping my composure."

"Please do be completely sure of that, having a mishap with a guest, the young master's aunt no less, would be awfully time consuming for me to clean up when I should be tending to something more worthy of my time."

Her eyes hardened into a glare up at him. "If I'd had the chance before being captured, I would've sent you and your master both to heaven."

"Oh," he chuckled and leaned down to Aurora's level as he adjusted the lace frill on her head, "I'm afraid heaven and I strangers."

Her shoulders stiffened and her bright eyes stilled their movement to briefly lock eyes with the black clad butler. A sinister smirk fell across his lips before he straightened out to his full height, checked his pocket watch once again, and made his way over to the door, leaving Aurora to the thoughts that had begun to swirl through her mind.

She watched on while Sebastian welcomed a woman clad predominantly in red into the manor, telling her that Ciel was in his study and that the tea would be brought up within a short period of time. Then Aurora followed Sebastian to the kitchen and without a word began listening to his instructions on how to make the proper tea for their master and his guest for the afternoon and evening. Serving the tea would be an easier job, or rather it should have been. The entirety of the time she had listened to Sebastian drown on about the tea and the food that went along with it, her gloved hands had been trembling in the pockets of her white apron, hidden away from view of the butler.

"I'm afraid heaven and I are strangers."

The words swam through her mind, twisting and turning its way into a fear she hadn't possessed for years it seemed. His words, his actions – the butler wasn't like the other servants, it was plain as day to see that. Compared to them, he was the image of utter perfection in all the work that he did. He was like a faithful dog unwavering in everything he did. Even to the point of something etheral.