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

A Royal Encounter

I took a deep breath, inhaling the soapy scent of apple butter as I sunk into the tub. It'd been a month or so since the curry fiasco at the World Expo, and I was... bored. With nothing to do but train and work, my life at the Phantomhive estate had morphed into a cycle of waking up, performing my duties as a maid, eating lunch, training with Royce, eating dinner, taking a nice bath, and then going to sleep. I was more relaxed than ever, but despite that...

I'm... so bored. Maybe I should pick up a hobby or something.

SLAM!

I jumped in the tub and whipped around only to see the door wide open and Royce walking into the bathroom with a catty grin on his face. My shock quickly turned to annoyance and I sunk down in the bath until I was chin-deep in the water.

"Does the word "privacy" mean anything to you?"

He ignored me, flapping a white letter in my face, "Lookie lookie."

I glared at him before lifting my hand out of the tub, flicking water at him, "What are you, a child?"

He jumped back, hissing slightly, "You're so mean."

After a slight incident involving the fountain out front, Royce, and the hell hound, I'd discovered that the cat sith despised water. Maybe I should find an empty perfume bottle somewhere and turn it into an anti-Royce spray. For emergency situations only, of course.

"Hmph," I said and stood up, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my body. After drying my hands, I reached out to him, asking for the letter "What's in it?"

"Well," he said, smiling, "A letter."

I facepalmed, "Royce."

He sighed and gave it to me, "Here, here."

"What does it say," I stepped out of the tub, water dripping down my legs and onto the floor.

"You've been very bored recently, yes?" he asked, putting his hands behind his back.

"Why else do you think I abuse you so?" I hummed, pulling the letter out and reading over it once.

Trouble at Ludlow castle... remodeling... Signed by some random person... the funtom company?

"What's this?"

"What do you think it is?" Royce said, fighting back a smile.

"A mission?"

"Mhm," he smiled cattily again, "Sebastian brought it to Ciel a few minutes ago and it looks like you get to go on another trip."

"What's this about people unionizing then?"

He nodded, "Apparently, the young master is assisting in remodeling the Ludlow castle to a hotel. The workers there want to halt construction and dissolve the contract."

"Why?"

"Because of ghosts, apparently."

"...ghosts?"

"Yes," he nodded, "Real ghosts."

"..."

"..."

"...do ghosts really exist?" I whispered.

He shrugged, "It's a possibility."

"But then..."

"Indeed. This will be quite interesting."

"...Do we actually need to go? Ciel has yet to order us to his chambers."

Knock, knock, knock.