The Indignity of Mortality (Sebasclaude)

4. Claude

22nd November , Wednesday, the Phantomhive Manor, two o'clock exactly

I rapped on the door, Alois standing impatiently just behind me; I could practically see him bouncing on his heels, even with my back turned. Michealis opened the door, and forced a smile, like he always did, and quickly bowed. "Good afternoon." Alois nodded dismissively, and I watched him searching frantically for Earl Phantomhive, who appeared after Sebastian. Where there was one, there was almost always the other.
"Ciel!" Alois cried, running up to the young boy, arms outstretched in a manner that implied he was going to perform that strange, human attack, that was apparently "a form of affection". So as to avoid things being more painful than they needed to be, before we had even got started, I quickly caught Alois under the guise of taking his jacket. I had learnt how to do such things without arousing suspicion or animosity, since humans were such confusing, easily upset creatures, and I had to try and blend in. Alois stopped and huffed letting me remove his jacket, his momentum lost - for the moment. Sometimes it felt a little like I needed to put him on a lead so he couldn't wonder off, and so I could take him for a walk, to burn off some of his endless energy.
"Good afternoon, Trancy," Earl Phantomhive greeted woodenly.
"How are you?" Alois chirped, seemingly recovered from being irritable already.
"I am fine, but, with all due respect, my health is not what we're here to discuss. I assume you have read the letter, and are aware of her Majesty wishes for us to combine our efforts to investigate a case that has so far stumped Scotland Yard-"
"- A string of gruesome murders, with no leads, and so on and so forth. Yes, I know." I saw one of Earl Phantomhive's eyebrows twitch, and his lips grew thin, before he turned away from Alois and began to walk, presumably towards somewhere he could conveniently discuss the issue at hand with Alois. Funnily enough, Michaelis was pulling much the same face as Earl Phantomhive; I supposed that - in some ways - Earl Phantomhive and Michaelis were incredibly similar, and I would hazard a guess that these shared traits were what enabled them to work so well together; Alois and I had no such similarities.
"Sebastian, bring some tea and biscuits."
"Yes, my Lord," Michaelis replied, bowing. I looked over at Alois, awaiting orders, but got not such thing, as he seemed far too distracted by Earl Phantomhive. Feeling a little at a loose end, not wanting to go with Michaelis, and with nothing better to do, I wordlessly followed Alois and hoped I was doing the right thing. I caught Michaelis glaring at me - I could only assume he didn't want me with Earl Phantomhive unsupervised. As if I'd try anything - I just wanted this to go smoothly as possible so I could get it over with and never have to see Sebastian ever again.

Earl Phantomhive opened the door to a room containing a chess board, amongst other board games, and Alois followed him in. My Master finally noticed me trailing him and Earl Phantomhive, and paused in the doorway. "Oh, Claude. Just wait outside, and don't start any fights with Sebastian," he ordered, a bright smile on his face, but some lingering feeling I couldn't quite put my finger on told me he meant what he said about arguments with Sebastian. I didn't really fancy loosing an eye like Hannah had, even if it would heal, so, I did as I was told without a word.
Michaelis turned up roughly a minute and half later, with the tea trolley, and we both exchanged glances for a few seconds. "If you try anything, I might not be able to kill you, but I'll make you wish I had. Understood, Faustus?" Michaelis growled, his voice low so the young Earls couldn't hear.
"The feeling is mutual, Michaelis," I replied with narrowed eyes. Michaelis nodded curtly, and pushed open the door, wheeling the refreshments into the room. I could hear him saying something arbitrary about what flavour of leaf-water he was giving them, and what biscuits he'd made (they were all ultimately very similar, in my eyes), before excusing himself. On his way out, we again exchanged icy gazes, before Michaelis went to return the tea trolley.
Michaelis returned without the tea trolley around a minute later, and stood outside the room Alois and Earl Phantomhive were in, on the opposite side of the door from me, so there was a bit more than a foot between us. "Do you really think I'd try to steal Earl Phantomhive's soul here and now?" I asked in a hushed voice, not appreciating his presence.
"Yes, I do, I also want to keep you were I can see you, as well as being being able to hear what the two young masters are saying, since I'll obviously doing my part in the investigation. I should hope you'll do the same, Faustus," Michaelis answered pointedly.
"I want this over with quickly as much as you do."
"I actually want this to be done to the highest standard possible, not as quickly as possible, Faustus. Unlike you, I care about the quality of my work." I sighed - Lucifer bellow, he just couldn't pass up on an opportunity to wind me up, sometimes it felt like he actively wanted a fight, or perhaps he actually did. I could never quite entirely understand Michaelis.
"Oh, stop trying to start an argument."
"I think you'll find that I didn't start anything."
"Oh, grow up, Michaelis."
"Coming from you, Faustus." I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, and I knew I was playing right into Michaelis' hands, and it was entirely possible he'd heard Alois' warning and planned on getting me in trouble, but for some reason I just couldn't keep my mouth shut.
"Well it's not coming from anyone else, Michaelis," I snarled, and I could feel a brief flash of fuchsia come over my eyes.
"I can't believe you of all people have the audacity to call someone else immature. After all, who was it who couldn't take a simple joke back in the third century."
"You started the plague because of temper-tantrum in the fifteenth century, and then again in the seventeenth century."
"That was not why I started the plague, I started it because I was bored," Sebastian hissed, his own eyes twinkling with magenta. Now I knew I was really pushing it, but I couldn't quite bring myself to stop.
"Because starting the plague because you couldn't provide your own entertainment is so much better."
"Not everyone enjoys sleeping for days on end, crocheting, and frolicking in meadows with song birds, Faustus. Not everyone is that childish. Some of us like to have purpose in our lives, instead of aimlessly meandering along and hoping everything will magically fix itself without one even having to lift a finger. Besides, if we're still talking about being childish, I quite distinctly remember back in fifteen-eighty-eight-"
"- Don't you bloody dare bring that up-"
"- Back in fifteen-eighty-eight at that ball in Montreal-"
"- Do not talk about that-"
"- When, for absolutely no discernible reason you-"
"Both of you!" Earl Phantomhive exclaimed, standing in the door way, with Alois behind him, both looking thoroughly irritated. Michaelis opened his mouth to protest, but Earl Phantomhive spoke before his butler could. "For God's sake, if you're both going to argue then can you at least take it outside like the civilised men I would hope you both are. You're both as bad as each other." Earl Phantomhive sighed, and closed his eyes for a few seconds, during which my gaze traveled to look at Alois, who was wearing that face of barely controlled anger I had seen him pull only a few times - and none of those times had ended well for anybody.
"Claude, you're to go to the gardens. I'll talk to you later," Alois stated, his voice enough to make even me hesitate.
"Yes your Highness, my apologies." I began to make my way down the hall, hearing Michaelis apologising, followed by highly unwelcome footsteps. I turned to find the owner of the footsteps, hoping it was some other servant, but as I suspected it was Michaelis. Of course he would come with me, because it wasn't as if he could just drop it. "Well done, you've got both of us in trouble now," Michaelis snapped.
"I think you'll find it was just as much your fault as it was mine."
"You started it."
"It takes two to argue."
"Oh, don't start. How can you even call yourself a demon when you say things like that?" Michaelis exclaimed, his eyebrow twitching in the same ways Earl Phantomhive's does - I wondered who got it off who.
"You don't much approve of other demons either," I replied, growing slightly irritated, as I pushed open the door to the gardens.
"Yes, but only for their animalistic tendencies and lack of resolve. You might as well be reaper, with that attitude." Fed up with Michaelis' pointless arguing, and insistence on following me around and not giving me room to breathe, not to mention the fact we were now out of ear shot, I let slip something I probably shouldn't have.
"You're every bit as welcome in Hell as I am, and it is almost entirely your own fault. Do not take your indignity following being kicked from your imaginary throne out on me, Michaelis." It felt good to say something that was highly uncalled for, and would irk someone to the point of violence, and this was absolutely no exception. I felt I spent too much time letting Michaelis bat me about for his own entertainment, so it was nice to change things up a bit - it was more than time for it to be my turn to be unreasonably unpleasant.
I dodged just in time, so the knife only grazed my cheek, as Michaelis stood with his eyes a burning pink, and his teeth bared. I knew I had pushed it too far. "Don't you dare mention that, you insolent bastard." The corners of my lips twitched upwards, and I forgot all about my master and his already bad mood.
"Why not? Have I hit a nerve?" Another knife whizzed past my shoulder, and a second grazed my ankle. Then the world was a blur, gold and silver flashing through the air at speeds that gave you no time to stop and think. When a knife was buried in my calf, and in my chest, I couldn't flinch, I had to keep moving or risk the pain and humiliation of loosing.
My back was slammed against an oak, knocking the air from my lungs, as a knife was pressed into my neck. "Is that all you can do, Faustus? You're out of practice, not that you were any good in the first place," Michaelis sang. He went to dig the knife further into my throat, when a small red line appeared on his hand, and blood dribbled out, the invisible thread now quivering and scarlet.
"I wouldn't advise you move too quickly, Michaelis." We both moved at once, two metallic flashes, before knife hit the back of Michaelis' eye socket, and his buried itself in the back of my throat, just far enough to down to make bile rise to my mouth, while Michaelis gasped. We both pulled away; Michaelis clutching his injured eye in horror, as I fell to my knees to wretch, the invisible strands slicing through skin and muscle, but stopping at bone. I pulled the knife from my mouth, gasping, and forcing myself to keep down what I had left inside me, my throat burning and my stomach heaving.
I was hoping sticking a knife in his eye would be enough to deter Michaelis, but if anything it only aggravated him further, as proved when his foot connected with my already uneasy stomach, sending me sprawling onto the ground before I could get up, choking and spluttering. I rolled onto my back, deciding there wasn't enough at stake to keep fighting, the nausea a good enough reason to stop, and let Michaelis have his way.
"That is why you don't bring that up, understood?" I sighed, letting Michaelis deliver his final blow to my gut, before he walked away, and once I was sure he wasn't looking, coughed up whatever was even left to cough up.
I stumbled to my feet, leaning against the oak and panting, my glasses lying cracked on the ground. As I rested my head against a tree, I pulled out a second pair and slipped them on, aware Alois was probably to be leaving soon. I placed a hand delicately over my aching insides; even for Michaelis that was a dirty move, taking advantage of our redundant gag-reflex. Mind you, I knew far too well who he'd got it off.
I began to make my way back towards the manor, hoping Alois might have just had a very good meeting with Earl Phantomhive, and forgotten all about myself and Michaelis' excessive bickering, but as soon as I opened the door, to find Alois standing in the doorway, with his arms folded and pulling that face he only pulled when someone had done something especially unpleasant, I knew this was not the case.
Like lit dynamite, he walked with me, out to the carriage, completely silent, until the very second door closed, at which point he went off in my face. "What the bloody Hell do you think you were doing?! You argue with Michaelis, get sent outside, and then have the audacity to return late, looking a mess, probably because you fought with him again?! Am I some kind of a bloody joke to you?!" There was the sound of flesh against flesh, followed by a sharp, hot sting on my cheek, as Alois looked up at me, panting, with his lips curled. "Once we get home, tell that tart Hannah she'll be doing your job for the rest of the day, then I don't want to see you again until tomorrow morning, where you had better be on your best behavior or so help me, you'll be wearing a monocle instead of glasses. Do you understand?" I silently nodded, glad I'd got off lightly, I didn't know how far I could stretch the little patience I had left. "You look paler than usual, what did he do?" Alois asked, his voice quieter.
"Don't concern yourself with-"
"Did I bloody stutter? I wouldn't give me stupid answers like that in your position." I sighed, wanting to curl up and sleep for once.
"He stabbed the back of my throat." I saw Alois' eyes narrow, as he assessed everything from the way I was sitting, to where I had my hands, making silent, most likely accurate judgements in ways I couldn't comprehend, before he nodded and fell silent, his face dark.