As Time Goes On - A SebaCiel Story

Chapter 101: Elusive Sleep

Sebastian's PoV:

"My darling, Elizabeth would die if she knew I was in here. She's been taking the wedding traditions rather seriously." I close the door silently, slithering into my fiancé's bedchamber just like I had long before he knew I loved him.

I missed sneaking into his bedroom.

Waltzing in so casually simply isn't the same.

"Lizzie's wrath be damned, I needed to see you..." His eyes avoid my own, clearly perturbed.

Perturbed enough time hide from me.

"What's the matter, darling?"

"I-I...."

"Yes?"

His voice swells with embarrassment as he confesses his little secret.

"I couldn't sleep."

"That's all? You sounded so concerning. You couldn't sleep without me by your side for a night?"

"No...is that so wrong?"

I can't help but smile as I see that my darling Ciel truly hasn't changed.

"Not at all, I was hoping you'd call for me. The night is so long without you."

"It must be difficult to keep yourself entertained when you can only feign sleep." He remarks as I carefully lay beside him, allowing him the ability to choose what position is more comfortable for him. To which he surprises me. Cuddling into me the way he did before our little one physically coming between us. His top half laying atop my chest, face pressed against mine.

"Novels help ease the boredom when I'm not in bed with you. It's simply difficult to ignore the powers of a demon when touching such an object. Sometimes... I still accidentally consume the entire novel by a single touch of the first page. It's funny, honestly, I've been given eternity and I can't even enjoy a damned book." We share our laughter over the ironic absurdity of it. I didn't know that I was bored for eons, until I became enraptured by the first display of true emotion I had ever seen. That boredom only truly settling in when I am no longer around the man who showed me that emotion.

"I could read to you, you know."

"You want to read me a bedtime story, Ciel?"

"I'd love too. I don't have difficulty reading novels as I used to. Besides, it'll let me calm down about tomorrow, it's part of the reason I cannot seem to sleep."

"Alright, I'll be but a moment." Barely a second had passed by the time I slid back into the bedsheets, and yet, my lover's sharp eyes follow my every movement. Taking the book in my hands within the blur.

"Madame Bovary? I never thought of you as the empowerment type."

"Have you seen Lizzie, darling? She is the success story that I believe is vital for the future of women like Lizzie and like Eliza in the world of business. Eliza deserves to be the heiress to the Phantomhive estate and fortune, and you know it. This novel, only highlights the wrongdoing of the way our society is structured by showing a woman who wishes for her child to be a man in order for him to be successful in life and be taken seriously."

"I believe that Eliza should be our rightful heir and quite frankly...I know she can do more than I can and will ever do for the company."

"So do I, which is why I'd do anything to prepare her for the world I prepared you for. But for now, at least, that is a distant future."