Her Demon, His Demon, and the Story of Us - A Black Butler Fanfic

Re-negotiation

Royce and I were in my room afterward, content as fish swam in our bellies. I chuckled to myself. I don't think that I'd ever seen someone quite so excited as Royce to eat a fish in my entire life. The way he'd nagged and nagged at me to hurry up with making my it over and over again...

I chuckled to myself and looked over at him. He was staring up at the ceiling, a wide smile on his face. When he caught me looking at him, that smile went away, replaced by a much more serious one.

"So, we've officially met everyone, then?" he asked. I nodded. "Good," he continued, "So about tomorrow then. What you did during dinner was great with the stem of asking for the power but I'd like to help you hone it better. Make summoning it more natural."

"That makes sense," I said, nodding, "I'm sure I can do it."

"Good," he said, "It'll also serve as training then to let you know exactly how much to ask for."

"Okay, how do you mean?"

"I want you to be able to not just be like, "Give me enough to jump this bush." That could be varying amounts. You could jump high, you could jump low, you could barely make it across. Either way, you'd still be making it across the bush. I want you to be able to ask for specifics."

I nodded again, "Got it."

"You may also cancel you lessons with that butler, now since you won't need to be "controlling" me," he mused, "Not that you really were in the first place."

"You haven't "taken over" me since Houndsworth. And I've been able to stop you from doing several other reckless things since we came back that you wanted to do."

"False and true, I guess. I took over you for a brief moment when the butler was trying to snap your neck to tell him that it wasn't me. You should've seen the look of shock on his face. It was priceless. But yes, you have been able to stem my rage against the bloody mutt."

"Speaking of which, I'm surprised we haven't seen it yet."

"I hope not to anytime soon," he snarled slightly.

I reached my hand out and petted his head, "There, there. Though, promise me that you'll never attack first."

Knock, knock.

"Who's it?" I asked.

"It's me," Sebastian said.

"Come in," I said, sitting up. Royce blurred for a moment before appearing behind me, his tail wrapping around my waist as his hand came down protectively on my shoulder. Wait, tail? I raised an eyebrow at him, looking back to see that familiar black ears had popped out of his head. Ugh, boys and their territoriality. Not that I mind, but still.

Sebastian opened the door a moment later and walked in, looking at the two of us. His expression was perfectly hidden behind a poker face.

"I wanted to tell you that I'd prepared a room for him. It's next to this one, on the left."

I nodded, "Thank you, Sebastian. I heard that the two of you met this morning? Or last evening? One of the two."

"Yes. It was... interesting," he said as he shut the door, "Interesting and frustrating. I'd half the mind to make a contract with y-"

Royce's eyes narrowed, "She's mine. The option is no longer a possibility."

Sebastian's eyes narrowed the briefest amount, "That's clearly obvious, Prince of Cats. How's the King by the way? She hasn't made an appearance at the Devil Court for quite some time. We were all getting... worried."