The Butler's Kitten -Black Butler

Chapter 12- Smile for the Picture

"Today is rather boring."

I sighed aloud, swinging the bucket in my hand back and forth. It was an unnaturally quiet day for the manor, no mysteries to solve or servants to clean up after. Even that demonic mutt Pluto was quiet and not bothering us all with his obnoxious howling.

Reaching the stairs in the west wing, I paused. "Why do I get the sense something bad is happening."

Shrugging off the feeling of impending doom, I resumed with my walk through the manor. Michaelis had sent me to the west wing to clean up the library while he dealt with the niceties of lunch. Usually, I wouldn't be doing any of Sebastian's jobs but later today one of Ceil's business associates would be coming by and he needed everything perfect.

So he told me to stay out of his way.

"I guess since he's going to be preoccupied all day..." I smirked to myself, "Michaelis won't notice if I use my powers to do all my chores!"

Unfortunately for me I had been standing still and thinking aloud atop the staircase. I'd probably been maniacally talking to myself for about ten seconds when I accidentally swung the bucket a little too hard and it came right off the handle.

"Shit!" I scrambled down the stairs to pick up the cleaning materials. Usually, I admit, I could be rather clumsy. Today however felt like I could do no right, I was rushing around everywhere today. I doubt I'd gotten even a moment of rest.

I smacked my forehead and paused cleaning up. "Idiot, just use your powers!"

Dropping all the supplies in my hand, I flicked my hand and watched as all the brooms, polish, and cleaners swept themselves into a nice and orderly line.

"Polish, to the stairs." As I spoke, the wood polish moved and started started frantically rubbing away at the stairs. Smiling, I continued telepathically organizing the room. "Curtains, open. Glass cleaner, to the windows. Dusters, window sills. Mop, floor."

I watched from the center of the room as all my cleaning supplies were rapidly cleaning away. If I had done this by hand, it would've taken me like two hours and Sebastian still would have probably found things wrong with it. Now, I would be done in under two minutes.

"This whole manor is so dreary." I pouted, going up to the window.

The shining sun outside hit my face and I basked in the warmth. Like most cats, I had a proclivity to enjoy sunbathing and warm weather over the cold. Ceil and Sebastian typically kept the curtains drawn because they were two of the moodiest creatures alive, but I was happy to let some sunshine in.

Reclining my head on my hand, I gazed out at the green fields that surrounded the manor. A pang of longing hit me as I thought of my kingdom. My bedroom there had a wall entirely made of glass so a stream of sunlight was always hitting me. The hallways were shining bright and polished constantly by all the servants. I missed it terribly.

"No use moping about it." I sighed, turning away.

The cleaning supplies were practically finished and started organizing themselves in the bucket, but that's not what caught my eye. When I turned around, I thought for sure I had seen the fluttering of someone running into the room next door.

I didn't sense anything supernatural on my radar and Sebastian was still in the kitchen. Walking over to the double doors, I threw it open revealing the art room. I strode in, doing a sweep to see if any of those servants had walked in but there was nothing.

I huffed. "I wouldn't be surprised if this stupidass manor had ghosts too. That's the only thing I haven't had to deal with yet."

Shutting the doors behind me, I left to start on Sebastian's chores now that mine were done at an exemplary rate. I couldn't hurry back to Michaelis as soon as I was done because he would have known I was using my demonic abilities to rush through my day. That meant, so long as he was busy, I had three hours of downtime.