The Grey Butler.

Perfection

Author's Note; okay, I know I've been a little neglectful of this story...and that this is a really crappy update. I will have to make up for it I know, just tell me what I can do. Another lemon? A real 'I love you'? Cupcakes? Tell me what I can do so I can stop feeling so guilty and shitty!

Cedric leaned over the small, ornate side-table, carrying the jug of wine in his arms as he poured the blood-red liquid into Vincent's glass, the latter just smiling at him knowingly and lazily reading the newspaper. Cedric smirked, his eyes lazily half-lidded and his body flopping into the seat opposite his boyfriend and master, staring at the food he had prepared for the young Earl. Vincent huffed at the action.

"I don't think the butlers should be allowed to sit by the Master of the house," he teased Cedric, who just winked. They were playing house, pretending like their relationship was anything close to normal. And they were both enjoying doing so, do far. It was working. Pretending to be a happy couple had actually made them a happier couple. Cedric had learned to let go of al those resentments, all the nagging things he didn't like about Vincent, like the fact that he didn't love him and was married. Speaking of Vincent's wife -

"So she's really pregnant then?" Cedric asked, watching Vincent nod. He actually seemed excited to have a son. Or daughter, but Cedric had a feeling it would be a boy. "Wow Vincent, I guess that's it then, no more 'us',"

"Why do you say that?" Vincent asked.

"Well you can't really want me around when you have a child, can you? I'm not exactly the best caregiver in the world," Cedric reasoned, resting his chin on his hand, propping his elbow up on the table. He knew Vincent hated it when people propped their elbows on the table, but he was done caring about that. Done trying to impress Vincent. He looked up, confused, when Vincent chuckled a little. He had been around Vincent long enough to know his chuckles; this one was genuine amusement, not at his expense.

"Is that really what you think of me, Cedric?" Vincent chuckled more. "I'm not that much of a monster. I assume that you and my little Ciel would love to spend some time together,"

"R-Really?" Cedric asked, astounded and feeling his chest swell with cautious honour. He smiled, a little dumbfounded by the whole thing. "I'm thinking of retiring myself, so I'll have plenty of time to babysit"

"Retiring? Really?" Vincent asked with a raised eyebrow. "How can Death retire?"

"Oh, there are many young reapers in dispatch. They're poorly trained but they all get the job done. There has to be at least one reaper there who can handle the job I do,"

"Hm," Vincent agreed, seeming distant. That was okay though; not only had he no idea what Cedric was actually talking about, but he was distracted by the impending birth.

Vincent heard a telephone ring in anther room, high-pitched and urgent. He got up to leave, mumbling about rudeness. Cedric just waited, fiddling with his own nails as he phone call went on for longer than anticipated, until Vincent finally let out a loud yell. Cedric sprang up from his seat, running through to the other room in which Vincent had slammed the phone down on the desk and was gathering up his coat.

"Is everything alright?" Cedric asked in all seriousness.

"Cedric, Rachel's having the baby! Quick, drive me to the hospital in your carriage!"

^

The baby was perfect. Cedric couldn't find a better word to describe the boy. Radiant? No. Cute? No. Handsome? No. Ciel was perfect, lying in that little bed wrapped up in blue cloth, Rachel lying there, bags under her eyes yet still looking beautiful. And Vincent, sitting beside her, Ciel in his arms, nuzzling his face against the baby's, sighing in contentment. Cedric watched from his spot on the chair in the maternity ward, observing it all, falling in love with it all. He saw the child, like a mini-Vincent but with eyes like Rachel, sapphire blue and so soft, so tender with long eyelashes. The child was just so perfect, untainted and pure. Cedric was going to make sure that nothing ever happened to little Ciel. That nothing ever ruined the innocence in those eyes.

Cedric let the couple have their moment, Vincent seeming so genuinely happy that Cedric was almost jealous. Almost. He loved to see Vincent this way, he only hoped that he was the cause of that happiness. But he knew that he could never be, not really. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he had zoned out, only just registering that Vincent had asked him a question. "Huh? What was that?"

The nurse looked a little put-off by the 'butler' being so brash and rude in his speech to the apparent master. Vincent just chuckled, a sound too sweet to be a genuine Vincent-chuckle. "Oh silly Cedric. I offered that you be the godfather of my little Ciel," Rachel nodded in support behind Vincent.

"You - You really mean it?" Cedric asked. "Wouldn't Tanaka be a far more suitable godparent than I?"

"Yes but I don't want Tanaka to be the godparent," Vincent interjected. "I want you to be. We both do,"

Cedric barely spluttered out a 'yes' before he nearly fainted from shock as the little child was placed in his arms, all bundled together in blankets, so soft and warm and curious about the world. Cedric felt the child's finger twitch as he brushed his long, soft hair against the child's body. He was never very good with births and babies. His forte was the newly deceased, not the newly born. He had no idea what it felt liker to begin life, or create a life. That may have been one experience being Death never granted him; a chance to look at life from the other perspective. The happiness rather than the sadness. The joyful welcoming rather than the grieving departure. Cedric had always been good with words, but it seemed that this situation was the exception.

"Hello, little Ciel," Cedric smiled. He leaned in, so that his lips were brushing the tiny ear. "I have your special coffin already measured out,"