Maid of Phantomhive

His Maid, Returned

Sebastian walked through the hallways of Phantomhive Manor. The tea cart in front of him held his young master's morning tea and a freshly ironed newspaper. The manor was fairly quiet as the other servants were yet to either blow something up, break something, or destroy a complete landscape. He could hear them walking around in various places in the manor and he could hear Snake's snakes making "conversation" with each other. He made sure to listen to his surroundings regularly, just in case of the odd event that intruders got past the servants. The presence of intruders, however, was constant normality, unfortunately, the humans seemed to want his master's soul almost as much as a demon would, albeit for different reasons, but nonetheless, many people wanted to see his young master dead.

The years seemed to be crawling by at a snail's pace and this was slowly becoming one of the longest contracts he has ever made. Not that he minded though, his master's life rarely held a dull moment. There was either a disaster taking place in the manor to fix, an undercover case to solve, a ball to go to, or a reaper to fight. He rather enjoyed dealing with each obstacle as much as he would pretend to be feeling otherwise. It was obviously better than sitting around near the pits of hell waiting to be summoned and the young lord happened to be one of his better masters. Then again, his current master also happened to be the youngest human that he has ever made a contract with, he could still possibly grow into the disgusting shoes that man has left for him to fill, but for some reason, he could seem to be able to imagine his young master becoming like that. After all, he has been watching his little master for almost 3 years now and he seemed to not be making his way there in a hurry.

He knocked on the door and waited for his master's usual response that gave away his boredom as clearly as ink on paper. He walked and started serving his master's tea. He reminded his master of their itinerary for the day, while his master paged through the morning paper. He then heard an extra pair of footsteps making its way through the east wing, he could hear Tanaka in front of the unknown's steps, he seemed to be leading them somewhere. He could hear it was female. Tanaka would sometimes have his daughter over, who happened to be another noble's personal maid, but he would usually the young master for permission first. It could not be a "lady-friend" as Tanaka was old, also he did not seem to be the kind of man, as well as the fact that they were not anywhere near the servant quarters. He seemed to be leading the unknown female towards the back, towards the garden, if they continued this way they would end up at...

"Young Master, " He abruptly stopped lecturing his young master on how important it is that he attends his tutor's lessons,

"What is it?" the azure-eyed boy, trained his gaze, that was on the newspaper, turned to his demon butler,

"It would seem that Mr. Tanaka is leading someone towards the Phantomhive burial grounds, my lord," He explained and watched as the young earl's eyes widened,

"Take me there now, " He commanded, Sebastian's signature smirk made its way to his lips as he placed his right hand over his heart,

"Yes, my lord"

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Once they got there, they saw Tanaka standing next to a woman, their backs were turned towards them and they both seemed to be looking at the gravestones of the young lord's parents. Sebastian did not know what to make of the situation, however, the anger that shone in his young master's eyes told him that today was definitely going to be one of the more eventful days. 

The Earl knew that flowing black locks from anywhere, the same hair that he spent years crying over.

"You! How dare you show your face here!" He shouted, the figure stiffened and Tanaka turned around,

"Young Ma-" he tried,

"Not now Tanaka! Look at her, she can't even turn around and face me that's how ashamed she is," he cut him off and turned back to the female,

"You disserted us for some other nobles and you expect me to just be okay with you waltzing right back?!" He continued to shout, walking closer, shaking in anger,

"You do not deserve to be anywhere near my parent's graves, especially not my father's" he continued, the woman's form stiffened at the comment,  Sebastian saw Tanaka try to say something but she shook her head telling him to stop,

"Why are you even here? Did the other nobles finally get sick of you? Oh wait, you thought that all because I was young I would forget how you abandoned us and how you abandoned me and I would just take you back? " the boy said and stopped three feet away from her, but still visibly twitching in anger. 

"Years..." the boy paused as his voice cracked, 

"Years, I- we waited for you to come back. You promised to be with us and protect us, look what happened! My family was slaughtered. My home set ablaze!" Sebastian heard her stifle a sob, 

"But that was not enough for you to come back, so why are you here?!" Sebastian could smell her tears, she had been crying since they had gotten there, but she seemed to cry more as his master started talking. Her form was not giving away the fact that she was crying and he doubted that the young lord knew.

"Oh wait I know, you want my money, don't you?" he said smirking, angry tears were visible in his eye,

"Young Master, the previous Phantomhive maids never received payment. Boarding, food, clothes, superior education, the necessary network to marry into good families and the promise that their children could also work in the house of Phantomhive were their only compensation " Tanaka stated, he was struggling not to frown at his young lord's harsh words. The boy's eye widened at that, knowing that Phantomhive maids always accomplished their tasks above and beyond what was expected of them, especially this one in particular.

"Then why? I command you to face me and tell me why!" he shouted and she did just that.

Sebastian took in the woman's appearance as she faced them, she was beautiful even by demon standards, however, her flawless beauty was tainted by the big gash on her forehead and the dark rings under her eyes. Her teary hazel eyes - that he was sure would have been enchanting if they hadn't held so much pain in them. Her full lips were chapped and her cheeks were indented as if she was starved. That had not been the most disturbing part of her appearance, what was most disturbing was her mangled right arm, which she was holding with her left. Her arm looked completely destroyed, each bone looked broken at least three times. Sebastian could not tell if the pain in her eyes was caused by her arm or his master's words. 

His master stood still for seconds almost in shock, silent as the grave, not even breathing, he looked to see his master frozen staring into the woman's eyes, what confused the butler more was the fact that the boy's heart was racing. Sebastian cleared his throat after their staring contest, which the woman seemed more than willing to participate in, dragged on more than seven seconds, far too long for a gentleman to be looking at a woman. 

That broke the boy out of his trance and started to actually gauge the situation. He seemed to only just then notice her arm and a soft gasp could be heard escaping his lips.

"My contract stated to never stay away from the manor for more than 5 years."

AN

-I grant my permission to post my fanfiction book to his/her YouTube channel FanFicFantasy(Monitised) As Long As Proper Credits are given.