Of Stalking and Tomatoes

Chapter 1

One of these days, he swore that this friend of his was going to rip one of his good shirts. As if it wasn't enough that he was being dragged all the way across the floor while he carried several plastic bags of goodies he got from the event earlier, Jul had to grab onto one of his shirt's sleeves and he swore that it was about to be ripped off. It wasn't that he didn't want to go where Jul was hauling him to. It's just that he didn't understand why they have to be in such a hurry. The event was going to last for three hours, anyway. Okay. Sure. They were an hour late for it but it's an open door event. There's no need to be in such a hurry.

"Let go of my sleeve," he lazily told him, "You're gonna rip it."

Jul did not let go. He actually tugged at the poor cloth harder than he already was.

"Jul!" he whined, "I like this shirt!"

"Then hurry the fuck up, man!"

Jul finally let go of his poor sleeve and started brisk walking, leaving him whining and following after him in a jog.

"The panel hall's not gonna leave you." he stated as he jogged beside Jul, "Slow down."

Jul stopped and turned to him, annoyed.

"Nyx. You have watched a lot of panels when you were in Spain. But this is my first time watching a panel LIVE. Throw me a bone here, will you?"

Then he started walking again. Nyx sighed and just followed him with a shake of his head.

What Jul said was true. He had seen a lot of cosplay panels whenever he went to Spain. They were fun, sure, but since he wasn't very participative in open forum events, he doesn't see how they differ from watching panels up on YouTube. He figured this one would surely be the same: quiet, awkward, and sudden exploding laughter. Hence, his lack of excitement.

"Ay, dios mio."

Nyx went to catch up with Jul and found him in front of the panel hall. 'Event Hall 3' embossed in white on a red signboard hang from the ceiling. There were several people with nametags loitering near the entrance of said hall. Event staff, most certainly. The door of the hall was shut closed with a small table sitting beside it. A sign that read 'Registration' was pinned to the front of said table. Jul was leaning on the table and was writing something on a paper when Nyx approached him.

"Wrote your name, too, bud." Jul said as he grabbed Nyx's arm, "Let's go!"

Once again, Jul pulled him along, this time towards the door. Nyx groaned internally but the moment he entered the event space, he stopped trying to plan Jul's funeral.

A cosplayer, sitting on the panel table at the front center of the room, caught Nyx eyes. Male or female? Nyx couldn't tell. Their body was lithe and small like a woman's but there have been cosplayers who disguise themselves so well that no one could tell what they are biologically and Nyx didn't care about genders right now. He was fixated to how this cosplayer appeared to him.

They wore Ciel Phantomhive's iconic dark blue suit paired with dark blue short trousers, and black vintage-heeled shoes over black high socks, which were held in place by sock garter suspenders on each leg. A black frilled cloth, starting from their waist, flowed down barely touching the floor as it did. They had a little top hat in dark blue decorated in frills resting on top of their dark gray wig. A riding crop clasped in their right hand, tapping it down to their left as they stare down the Sebastian currently down on one knee in front of them.

Of all the things he was expecting in a panel, this domineering image of Ciel, the moment he stepped in, was not one of them. It made his eyes widen and almost made his jaw drop. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He, unconsciously, swallowed.