🌙When the Lights Go Down🌙

Chapter 12

Leaves danced along the sidewalk as the wind caressed the trees with its touch, brushing against the leaves and sending more to scatter down on the ground with the rest. They moved across the sidewalk littered with gum and cigarette butts as they swirled around the legs of the benches while others were crunched under feet.

Ciel watched them skirt around, his head propped against his knuckles will his other hand curled around a coffee cup. A soft sigh left his mouth and he shifted as someone sat across from him at the table. "Poor leaves. They live such a short and fun life on those branches before they fall and are forgotten about, crushed and torn apart in an instant."

Elizabeth snorted. "Well aren't you a little ray of sunshine today," she stated and brought her coffee to her lips. "What's got you in such a gloomy mood? Classes have already started, so it can't be the start of the term and last I checked, this is your last term so you should be rather happy with that. Leaving me all alone to finish the spring term by myself, thanks for that."

"You'll live," Ciel murmured and turned to glare at Elizabeth as she smacked him on the arm. "What was that for?" He asked.

"Don't ask me that, Ciel Phantomhive, you know exactly what that was for. You've been moping for the past few weeks and it's only gotten worse as the days go on." Elizabeth pushed her coffee cup to the side. "So tell me, what has you in such a foul mood today?"

Ciel shook his head and looked out the window again, watching the students walk by outside. "I don't want to talk about it," he answered. He knew he was sulking but he couldn't help it. It had been a month; a month, since Sebastian vanished and Ciel hadn't seen so much of a shadow from the man.

The first week after Sebastian's disappearance, Ciel had searched high and low for the man. He went back to the DIE set only to find it empty, as he had expected; Sebastian had said that they would be finished filming soon. It had still been worth a try though and once there, Ciel had torn apart the building looking for a hint, anything that would tell him where Sebastian went.

But the building was cleaned out, just as the first set had been all those months ago and Ciel was left with nothing. No papers were left, no books or scripts, not even a piece of trash was left behind. The rooms were spotless and Ciel realized exactly how thorough Sebastian was in making sure that everything was cleaned up when they left.

It was frustrating for Ciel, who simply wanted to find Sebastian but at the same time, he had to admit that he was proud of the older male and his company for being able to vanish so quickly and efficiently. DIE was a large company and to pull off a vanishing act like that within a matter of days was an amazing feat.

However, with DIE's disappearance, Ciel was left with nothing and he didn't know where to start. At one point in time, Ciel made his way back to the grocery store, hoping that Finny would be able to tell him where Sebastian was. But after searching the store for the man, Ciel couldn't find him and had to ask someone when he would be coming in. They had informed him that Finny had quit almost a month ago, leaving Ciel with nowhere else to turn.

Claude wasn't talking to him and the few times they had seen each other, had looked away and given Ciel the cold shoulder. The gesture hadn't hurt at all, a sign that Ciel was indeed over his petty crush and he was glad to put the man behind him.

It didn't get him any closer to finding Sebastian, but at least when he did; Ciel could honestly say that Claude was behind him. Their interactions so far had been strictly professional and Ciel planned to keep it that way. Just the thought of Claude touching him or promising pleasure was enough to make Ciel's stomach churn and his skin crawl.

But with Ciel sitting at a dead end in the 'Sebastian disappearance', it left him with nothing but time on his hands. Time that had allowed Ciel to sit and mull over everything that had happened, letting the anger that had been suppressed earlier to bubble and build until it threatened to spill over. In the end, that anger had reached its peak and Ciel found that he was more angry then depressed.