As Time Goes On - A SebaCiel Story

Chapter 39: Sebastian

S L A P

Sebastian's hand collides with my cheek in a swift blur that knocks the air out of my lungs. The dark fog that clouded my mind dissipating in an instant.

Eyesight, mind and purpose becoming clearer and clearer the longer the stinging lingers on my cheek.

Sebastian would never lay a hand on me. Unless it's required for my safety...

So, what the Hell just happened...?!

"Ciel? Can you hear me now? Do you understand?"

"Why the Hell did you just slap me, you asshole!"

"There's my Ciel, something happened to you my dear. I can't say for sure what it was that made you act this way but it certainly wasn't you. Though I must admit, I would have thought it truly was you if I didn't have an obsession with your eyes-"

"Just spit it out, what did you see?"

"Your pupil had become misshapen rather than being it's usual perfectly larger form. A sign of witchcraft or something of the sort. Perhaps the work of another demon but then again, there aren't many of us who roam Earth and I never sensed anything abnormal. Certainly bewitched..."

His face falls in an instant, staring into my eye with an undeniable sense of bleakness as he begins to speak once more.

"You can only uncover true emotions when using such power...My dear, are you really scared that I will abandon you?"

Y e s

"Terrified." I admit with great shame. Feeling pressured by my insecurities. By the fact that I just screamed at the man who somehow stayed in the room with me...even when I acted like an insufferable bastard.

"Ciel...my little Lord..." Sebastian, the angel that he deserves to be, gets onto his knees to kneel in front of me, taking my hand to gently brush his lips against my knuckles, as though I were royalty.

"My King, I swear to you that I will never leave you. I will always be here to take care of you, in any and every way imaginable. And I wish to do so for eternity. For you, my dear, are the only being in my entire existence that I have ever felt any connection with. You may not believe it but before our contract, I never felt any positive emotion. I only felt power. I never thought I would be this way, I think if I was told eight, almost nine, years ago that I was about to meet a man who would make me feel love I would have thought that I could never fall for such drivel."

If ten year old me was told that the demon he was so afraid of trusting would become the only thing in the world that I could trust, he would feel the same way as Sebastian would.

"And I can't even begin to describe what it feels like to have become Sebastian Michaelis. To have become so comfortable in this identity that it has become the centre of who and what I am. Even though it was the name of your family dog, it has given me personhood."

"Sebastian, do you know the reason why I named you after my beautiful little dog?"

"No, I always thought that it was malicious, that it was to prove my place as your servant, your loyal pet."

"He protected me. When I had asthma attacks, he would chase after my parents or after Tanaka for help. When I got sick, he would watch over me. If I went outside he wouldn't let me go alone, in case I got hurt. He would help me through the night because, even then I had nightmares and not even my Mother could calm me. Only Sebastian." I never thought about telling him before, because I wanted him to fall at my feet. Wanted him to feel inferior. As I felt.

Now he has fallen into my arms.

"That sounds very familiar."

"Well, you and Sebastian have a lot in common. You both want to protect me, have dark hair and red eyes. You were both supposed to be the Head of the Phantomhive family's guard dog and yet, you ended up becoming a central part of the family."

"This is the only time I have ever truly felt happy about being compared to a dog. But I wonder why he and I became so similar."

"I suppose, Sebastian never really left me at all."