This demon, Useless
It was a Friday afternoon and Ciel was once again sitting in front of the TV, playing a Computer Game. All of his concentration was focused on the screen as he was only a few clicks away from clearing the game.
“You really are enjoying this game, aren’t you? I would have never believed a demon could get so captivated by something as trivial as this. You're certainly interesting.”, Sebastian's voice suddenly came from directly beside his ear.
The demon flinched, as he had not even realized the man had come back from his work, and accidentally dropped the controller. “Game Over!” the screen proclaimed as his HP-bar dropped to zero in the process.
“Idiot! Don't sneak up on me all of a sudden!”, Ciel complained, frowning at the taller man with displeasure.
The black haired man smiled. “I thought your demon senses would notice me anyway. But I seem to be wrong. Is it always like this or have you gotten weaker lately?”
“Certainly not!” Ciel barked at the other. “It was just... I was distracted. Don't you dare do something like this again!” Angrily he turned to look at the screen again. Great, he had to start this mission all over again, thanks to a certain intruder.
“Is that so...”
Sebastian continued looking at the smaller one in suspicion. Since the night when the demon had returned from his hunt a few weeks ago, seeming quite enraged about something, his nightly hunts had become fewer and fewer. Instead he had gotten used to going to bed early and sleeping until late morning. Each time Sebastian went to work or to a meeting, Ciel was still fast asleep and it didn’t seem like he would wake up any time soon. It also appeared that while his sleeping time kept extending, he grew lazier by the day. In the beginning the demon had accompanied Sebastian when he went downtown from time to time, but it looked as if the boy limited himself to activities using a minimum of physical exercise lately, like playing Video games or reading books. Thinking about it, he reminded Sebastian a bit of a squirrel during hibernation.
“By the way... shouldn't you be doing something more useful than enjoying your free time with your master's video games, Mr. Butler? Like housework?” the black haired teased.
Ciel looked at the taller one as if the latter had just grown a second head. Where did that ridiculous idea come from?
“Since when are you human my master? And I'm certainly not going to dirty my hands with something like household work. I am a demon.”
“So? Wouldn't it look especially cool if you used your demon skills to excel at house work? People would be astonished not knowing that you are not human but mastering the most impossible tasks! You could even turn this into a TV show! Just imagine the viewing figures. This could be a masterpiece!”
“...you are talking too much. This is ridiculous. I am NOT going to use my demon skills for something trivial like this.” Ciel responded unnerved.
“And what about the deal we made when you moved into my house?”, Sebastian reminded him. “My parents said you could live here if you began working for me as a servant. Do you want them to throw you out before our contract has ended? I'm sure sleeping on the streets would make you dirtier than doing some chores.”
“...”
“So it is decided.” the man chirped in a good mood and clapped his hand. “Let's see what we can make you do.” He was obviously enjoying the situation a bit too much.
*~*~*
A few moments later the two of them were entering the kitchen. Sebastian had informed the other servants beforehand, so that they had the kitchen for themselves. Of course Sebastian's parents would not actually throw Ciel out of the house if he did not do any housework. On the contrary: the servants were very surprised when Sebastian told them that Ciel actually wanted to do some housework. According to their point of view Ciel seemed to be more like a homeless kitten, one that Sebastian had found on the streets and now enjoyed taking care of, rather than an actual servant. It was just Sebastian's way of tricking Ciel into doing something he wanted him to do.
Ciel stood there with folded arms, putting on an annoyed face due to the unnecessary outcome of events. “So what am I supposed to do now?”, he grumbled.
Sebastian put a hand onto his chin in thought. “Let's see... I think we should start with something easy. Like preparing tea and washing the dishes afterwards. “
As expected, it ended in a disaster. Not only did Ciel spill the kettle water over the kitchenette and leave dirty spots all over the dishes after cleaning them, he also accidentally broke a glass in anger when Sebastian scolded him for not doing his job properly. After half an hour the kitchen looked as if it had been hit by a bomb.
The black haired man was not sure if he should laugh in amusement or twitch his eyebrows at the demon's sheer incompetence. How was it even possible to be this clumsy, let alone for someone wielding demon powers? He really was a case. However, watching the demon's struggle filled Sebastian with amusement. The boy had eventually become Sebastian's new object of observation and, actually, he was by far better than any human the man had ever watched. Humans were all the same; they were grieving over the same things over and over again, each of them searching for a distraction in their life in order to find their own happiness. It had just become … boring. The demon however was a being Sebastian could not fully understand; neither did he search for happiness nor did he act according to any of the patterns that applied to humans. It was fascinating.
“I guess I need to show you how this is done properly.”, Sebastian sighed theatrically, reaching for a dishcloth. “Please step back and have a close look.”
In just a few minutes the kitchen was once again shining from cleanliness; the dishes had been washed, they sparkled without any traces of dirt and the tea, brewing on its little teapot warmer, gave off a perfect fragrance.
Ciel looked at him unimpressed. “Why do you even want me to do these things if you end up doing them yourself anyway?”
Sebastian smiled: “Well... to be honest I just wanted to see you fail.”
“You insolent moron!!”, the boy hissed in rage. “Remember your standing! You're a mere human and in the end I am going to be the one to take your soul and kill you!”
“I know. And I'm thankful about that.”
Raising an eyebrow, the demon stared at the taller one in disbelief. “What are you talking about? Why should you be thankful when I am going to kill you?”
“It is actually quite easy to understand. I am just glad to have met you. I actually enjoy being with you.”, the taller one responded in all honesty.
By now Ciel was staring at the other in bewilderment. Not knowing what to respond to this, he stumbled: “Don't make up such nonsense... You humans are crazy. I will never understand you...”
“I can assure you, I don't count lying as one of my habits.”, Sebastian responded, still grinning.” “Oh and by the way, I also think your flustered face is quite cute.”
The demon's face turned a shade of red in embarrassment. “D-don't fool around! Idiot! I had better eat your soul early before even more rubbish comes out of your mouth...”, he tried to hide his uneasiness with a splurge of words.
That very moment Ciel's outburst reminded Sebastian of something he had wanted to tell the demon earlier.
“By the way, there is something important I want you to promise me.”
The sudden change of tone silenced Ciel and he gave him a questioning look.
“According to our contract you are free to take my soul at a time you decide. However, I want to ask you to take my soul before my illness keeps me chained to bed unable to do anything. When this time comes, please take my soul without thinking about it a second time. I want to die before reaching such a pitiful state.”
Silence grew between them. The way in which Sebastian declared his request made Ciel realize the importance behind his words. This man, although he was frequently annoying him with his teasing, wasn’t joking.
“...All right.” He finally declared after a while. “If this is the only condition you make, I can accept it.” The demon had turned his face away from the man before him.
Sebastian's face split into a smile.
“Thank you.”
*~*~*
When they returned to Sebastian's bedroom, the telephone suddenly started ringing. The man answered and after a few words and nods, he put the phone down again, turning to Ciel: “One of the servants. I got a call from my agency while we were in the kitchen; they're urgently searching for some photo models for their new catalogue this evening. It seems like some of their models canceled their participation at short notice. We had better get ready right now; the shooting will begin in two hours.”
Ciel was sure he misheard something. “What do you mean with 'we'? Who else is going with you?”
“You, of course.”, the man grinned. “They said they also needed a male model for teenage fashion. The servants immediately thought of you and asked me to talk you into taking part.”
The demon threw the taller one a look as if he had suggested warping to the moon and back.
“Are you crazy? I can definitely NOT do this. I don't like people staring at me at all and I don't even know how you do these things!”
“Actually you just have to stand there and look into the camera. The staff will even help you to put on your clothes, so I think this is something even you could do.”, Sebastian teased. “Also after your disaster in the kitchen, isn't this the least you could do to regain your pride?”
“...” The demon still doubted if this job really suited him or if Sebastian just wanted to talk him into something stupid again, but on second thought he had to admit that having spent the last days inside the house had been kind of boring. Besides, he felt quite well today, not having used much of his power lately.
“...Fine. I will help you but if it's too much of an effort I'm returning home immediately. Understood?!”
“As you wish.”, Sebastian grinned.
*~*~*
“Ohhh yes! Do it exactly like this! SO beautiful! So graceful! If you could just bend your hip a bit more- YES! Perfect! Ahhh...”
Ciel was standing in front of the camera, behind him a clean white wall. He was wearing a black knit cap, a loose gray shirt, tight blue jeans with a belt and short brown boots. Sebastian had been right; the staff had indeed helped him with putting on the clothes and had even insisted to put some make-up on his face to make his skin look neat in front of the camera. The staff putting on his clothes while he had to do nothing was actually very much to his liking. The job would not be so bad after all if it wasn't for that one photographer and his embarrassing behaviour.
“Now! Please put your left hand into your pocket and look to the side. Yes! Your expressionless face is magnificent! Could you open your mouth a tiny bit? Very good! Oooh, it gives me the chills!”
“Okay, we'll take a tiny break now.”, came the chief's instructions from the other side of the room.
Ciel led out a sigh of relief. He had to find Sebastian, who had been taken to another room for his photo session, in order to escape this disgusting man. Also he did not quite know how to behave around humans and having the taller one around to help him out just in case he made some mistake would be a relief. Not that he needed him of course...
He wanted to approach the door unnoticed when said photographer suddenly blocked the door. He was a bulky small man with brown hair, sideburns and a moustache and was wearing small glasses that seemed to almost slip from his nose.
“It's such a pleasure to meet you! You do have some talent! And you're so beautiful, it's remarkable! But it’s no wonder considering the fact that you were brought here by Mr. Michaelis. I guess beautiful people surround themselves with other beautiful people. It's like a different world, unable to touch for normal people...” His flood of words did not seem to come to an end. Ciel was already considering just taking his leave like he had warned Sebastian before, when another man interrupted the photographer.
“Father, it'd be better fer 'ee to rest a bit. Remember 'ee blood pressure!” It was a man with an eccentric hair style; his orange hair was tied into a spiky ponytail and his bangs combed to the left side of his face. Ciel remembered him as the man who had greeted them first upon entering the building.
“But I'm okay! I can continue! I want to-”
“'ee ‘ealth is more important. I won't accept any protest.”
With this he brought the man backstage, much to Ciel's delight. Now all that was left to do was to find Sebastian.
“Oh, are you looking for me perhaps?” Talking of the devil, the black haired man appeared just behind him.
“Idiot! Don't leave me alone during the breaks! Why are you so late?”, he was greeted by the boy.
“Oh my, have you missed me already?”, Sebastian winked. “Even though I hurried so much to pick you up. I was engrossed in a conversation up until now. We are going to have dinner with the staff and the other models in the cafeteria right now, so I thought you would like to come along.”
Not even feeling like responding to Sebastian's teasing right now, he just followed the other into the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was full of people chatting loudly with each other. Ciel sat between Sebastian and a teenager around his age, who appeared to be a boy, with brown hair hiding his left eye. Close to them sat a slim blonde man talking happily with a beautiful woman with curly black hair, who seemed to ignore Sebastian the whole time for reasons Ciel was unaware of, a gigantic man with a bald head, a silent man with white hair and two small twins.
The atmosphere was lighthearted and informal. Since the demon had never been with so many humans at the same time, which made him feel rather uncomfortable, he let Sebastian do all the talking and made sure he never left his side.
However, it did not take long until the brown haired boy next to him engaged him in conversation. Replying only in short sentences, Ciel was relieved when finally dinner was served. He barely ate human food, not because it tasted gross; it just wasn't necessary for a being like him. Also, even though human food did not taste bad for demons, it did not taste good either. But it wasn't like he could not eat it for the sake of not standing out of the crowd. Besides, it made the chatty boy next to him shut up eventually.
While eating, he listened to Sebastian's conversation with the slim blonde man sitting next to him. He did not understand the meaning of what they were talking about, but the way the black haired man talked to all of the people around him made it obvious that he had known them for a longer time. Of course, it was only natural for them to know each other since they had been working for the same magazine since childhood. But even though they seemed kind of familiar, they had not been enough of a reason for Sebastian to stop his suicide attempts. The demon was bad at judging human relationships but he did know that humans with so called 'friends' were less likely to willingly end their lives. Or were they not what humans called 'friends'? He did not give much weight to humans’ pathetic concept of 'friendship', but it did strike him that he still did not know much about Sebastian's life before he met him. Not that it interested him in particular and he would never ask the other one about it either. After all the only thing that really mattered was the present, wasn't it?
When dinner was over, the group disbanded; everyone returning to their respective photo shooting room. Ciel was upset having to return to the perverted photographer again, but fortunately when he entered the room, he found that the orange haired man with the weird accent had taken over the older man's shift.
This time Ciel had changed into a long gray knitted jacket over a plain white shirt with a loose scarf around his neck and tight black jeans. After just a few poses, however, the simple work was at an end. The good-humoured photographer suddenly paused, looking at Ciel as if he was lacking something and tried to put it into words.
“Is there a problem with me?” Ciel asked, confused at the sudden pause.
“It's not really a problem, but I think a different facial expression would look good on 'ee from time to time. How about a great big smile?”, he grinned at him full of expectation.
The demon looked at the photographer in bewilderment.
“Come on, smile!”
“...”
“Here, smiiiile.”
Clenching his fists, Ciel beamed him his brightest smile.
*~*~*
It was well past 10 o'clock when they finally set off on their way back home. The tube was crowded with people going to parties or meeting friends, huge groups of them swarming in and out each time the giant metal serpent opened its many mouths at a stop. Ciel was glad when they finally arrived at the station near Sebastian's home and walked through the quiet well-groomed neighbourhood.
They had walked half the way to the big mansion Sebastian lived in when they heard the loud meow of a cat. Ciel kept walking; not bothered by the cat's scream at all, only finding himself bumping into the taller one who suddenly halted in front of him.
“What is it?”, Ciel asked.
“It's a cat's scream and it sounded upset. I’m going to look for the poor thing.” Without waiting for Ciel's reaction, the black haired man rushed into a by-road.
“Oi! Wait! Is that really necessary?” The demon sounded bugged, following Sebastian into the side road. The road was leading away from the row of houses, the street and its lanterns and darkness slowly engulfed them as they advanced further in the direction of the sound from before.
Suddenly there was a black cat running into their direction. Sebastian kneeled down and tried to attract the seemingly flushed out cat to come to him by making weird noises that made Ciel roll his eyes in distaste. However, cats appeared to like Sebastian's strange sounds, so the cat lumbered towards the man, nuzzling its head into his shirt as if it wanted to hide from something.
“Oh my, aren't you a cute one?”, Sebastian whispered affectionately and caressed the cat's dark fur, making it purr. He picked the cat up and turned around to Ciel, smiling at him in joy.
“Don't you want to hold this cutie, too?”
“No, definitely not! Stay away with that thing!”, the demon demanded; immediately stepping back.
“Oh, come on. Why not? With its cuteness it could ease even your temper a bit.”, he continued walking towards Ciel with the cat in his arms.
“No, it cou- AA-CHOO!”
At first, Sebastian stared at the smaller one in irritation. Then it dawned at him and his face split into a grin.
“Don't tell me you're allergic to cats? Well, that is funny! A demon being allergic to cats.”, he chuckled in amusement.
“SHUT UP!”, Ciel shouted at him furiously. “Go away with that thing and don't you dare come close to me again anytime soon!”
“Too bad, even though I wanted to give you a tight hug when we arrived at home.” the taller one joked , still stroking the cat’s head. Suddenly he was interrupted by a loud bang. It sounded like a shot from a gun, not far from where the two were standing.
In shock, the both of them turned round and the cat jumped from Sebastian's arm, fleeing. The sound came from the direction the cat had been coming from and as far as Sebastian knew the path led to an allotment garden.
They started running into said direction, arriving in the garden only minutes after. The bang had come from somewhere around here, but Sebastian did not see much in the dark. At this hour no-one was in the gardens anymore and the lamps had been turned off, the only vivid light thus coming from the street in the distance behind them and from the crescent moon lurking behind the clouds.
Halting and taking in the scent around him, Ciel abruptly began walking around a hedge and followed a path leading deeper into the gardens. The black haired man followed the smaller one as he rushed through the labyrinth-like arrangement of plants and sheds, turning right and left here and there.
When Ciel stopped, they had arrived at a small clearing. On the grassy ground a man was lying in a puddle of blood; a dark, wet hole gaping in his chest. He had obviously been shot, slowly dying as more and more blood was escaping his body.
Sebastian had never seen anything quite like that other than in crime films. The sight was horrifying, making him feel like throwing up, but fortunately he had enough self-control to keep his composure.
“Oh my, uninvited observers? Peeping on a lady is no good, you know?”, came a voice from seemingly nowhere. Looking around, Sebastian got sight of a slim man with long red hair floating in the night breeze, sitting on the branch of a tree. He was wearing red glasses and carried a big chainsaw with him.
“A demon and a human walking around together?”, the mysterious man who referred to himself as a lady continued talking. “What a rare sight. Is he your prey? You demons really are bothersome creatures, snatching away our souls.”
He took a closer look at Sebastian who was staring at the unknown man with a mixture of irritation and interest. “But that one's sure the handsome kind of human. I would like to have a bite as well~”, he squealed in excitement; leaping from the tree gracefully, making no sound as he landed on the grass only a few metres in front of the two witnesses.
Grinning, he took a flashy pose and announced: “If I am allowed to introduce myself: I am a god of DEATH.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Merry Christmas everyone! (^o^)/
I am sorry that this chapter is a bit late but I had some trouble with one of my beta-readers, that's why I couldn't upload it earlier. I think my English is still not good enough; that's why I need native speakers to beta-read my chapters. (x__x)
For this chapter I want to thank Britty and my new beta reader Daniel for correcting this chapter so fast. You made my Christmas! (^^)
This chapter is a bit longer than the ones before and I hope you enjoy reading it. This time I added a lot of side characters from the manga. I am curious if you recognise all of them. ★
And again thank you for all your lovely comments! They give me the motivation to keep writing as fast as possible. ^^
