Kitchen Boy

VIII

Alois rests his feet atop a velvet footstool, smelling a violet rose he balances between his fingers on the stalk. Claude, efficient as ever, pours him morning tea and stands over him while he eats, almost as a statue. "Hm, are you still using that pathetic man as your toy?" The earl inquires, having ignored the subject for the past week, despite having been so enthusiastic before. "He's barely a demon,"

"My 'Union' with Michaelis is growing ever more tiresome," Claude agrees. It would be wholly improper for him to say any more.

"We don't really need two butlers, do we?" Aloud smirks implicitly, staring proudly at his own reflection in the New Moon Drop.

*

Ciel rolls his eyes as he contemplates Sebastian's recent incompetence. Sitting at his desk, he nibbles on the overcooked cheesecake and searches for a reason why Sebastian has been acting so strangely. Ciel likes to think he has mastered the art of reading the demon, but then something like this happens and that confidence dissipates to a pride-crushing low. He evaluates his evidence.

First of all, Sebastian has been slacking in time management. Previously having done everything superlatively perfect, now dinner is late, made left unmade, mistakes unfixed. The quality of the food has gone down and Ciel swears he found dust on the windowsill this morning. What could possibly prevent the perfectionist demon performing hi duties?

Surely something so traumatising would have left some other scar but Sebastian has maintain his ordinary demonic countenance all week. Like he's hiding some shocking secret pain due to shame or even just pride. Or an ignorance to how human his reactions can be - yes, it's something Ciel notices. Sebastian can't have spent so long around humans without picking up some habits.

Sebastian, carrying a platter of tea, nudges the grand door open with his hip. Normally he takes care to place the platter back on the trolley, knock and use the handle. Another little slip Ciel has noticed. "Your afternoon tea," he places the platter on Ciel's desk without addressing him correctly as 'Master' or 'My Lord'. "Where is the Earl Trancey? I have his tea ready too,"

The earl curls his lip in disgust at Sebastian's crude language.

"What's going on?" He demands, almost slamming his teacup on the desk. "Why are you acting so different?"

"Different, Master?" Sebastian pulls back in genuine surprise. "I'm not sure what you-"

Ciel cuts him off with a slap to the face, drawing blood on the ridge of the butler's cheekbone with his sapphire ring. He watches the cut seal itself over immediately on Sebastian's face and the demon smooths I over with the silk of his white gloves. "What happened that you're acting so incompetent?"

He is shocked when the human form falters. Sebastian's teeth pull into sharpened fangs, his already body growing longer and slimmer. His clothes can't cope, slipping from his hunched back as black scales break out in patches across his skin. The process is quick, subtle as the change in eye colour until enormous black raven wings sprout from his bloodied back.

Sebastian has always said his from form is repulsive, but it's actually quite beautiful. "M-Master I-" he's cut off by a shooting pain up his arms as they sprout blacker than black raven feathers. His voice lowers to a fierce growl.

"Where is the Trancey Butler?! Where is he so I can tear him to shreds with my bare hands!" The demon begins to cackle. "I forgot how good it feels not to be a human!"

Ciel stands on his desk, glaring fireballs at his butler. He rips off his own eyepatch, exposing the amethyst seal of his contract. "Return to your human form and stop this foolishness - that's an order!"

Bound by the seal of his contract, the demon cries as its body contracts, regressing back to the simple human form, each feature painfully retracting into itself. This leaves an exhausted Sebastian panting on the floor. "I-" he gulps. "I've become so much like you, I have lost myself,"

A sarcastic slow clap rings from the doorway. Sebastian's crimson eyes lock into Claude's gold ones. "Bravo," the large demon runs his tongue across the upper row of his teeth, revealing sharply pointed fangs. "You've succeeded in weakening yourself,"

Ciel glares. "What are you doing here?" He scoffs at the inferior butler. "Go and bother your Master!"

"It's on his orders I am here," he walks forward, stopping at the mangled Sebastian hunched on the floor, curled into a pitiful ball of despair. "To act as the scarecrow and rid the field of pesky, unwelcome birds,"