A Young God (P h a n t o m h i v e) [Kuroshitsuji 4]

Chapter XIII: The Visit

Walls got ears, Essie. Walls got ears.

What on earth could that have meant? Bard had me puzzling over his suspicious remark for days after. Again, it was no secret, the position that Lord Phantomhive occupied in society. We all knew it well. But the abundance of his enemies, as had been suggested to me, was something that I had not expected. That would suggest something about his character, wouldn't it? But I didn't know if I could make such a leap, myself. After all, I was... well, one might say compromised, on account of my feelings for the young master.

It kept me suitably paranoid when I was alone. With Lady Elizabeth gone, though – and allowing for the fact that our affair was to kept quiet from the rest of the servants – I was permitted the immense luxury of sharing a bed with Ciel. Well, that was what it felt like (although considering it, I did feel almost disgustingly hypocritical, having been set in my previous ways). I didn't go so far as to dress up in Elizabeth's silks and fineries, either; but my plain gowns and undergarments did not seem to bother the young master all that much. In fact, he seemed to enjoy them and their simplicity.

"Does Sebastian know?"

Slowly, paranoia about Ciel had given way to paranoia about the tall, strange butler that haunted the halls of Phantomhive manor like a demon. His eyes appeared to see everything, piercing red drilling through your soul; and besides, he seemed to be inexplicably chained to Ciel. The relationship puzzled me somewhat – I'd never experience a servant/master bond like that before.

And yet, there I was. There we were. I loved how the moon kissed his skin, greying the lily-like colours until all I could see was the night on him. The sheets rustled as I moved a little bit closer, my lips brushing his shoulder.

"Yes. Sebastian knows everything about me that there is to know." He answered after a moment, as though he were contemplating what he should tell me. "We've been together for quite some time. It would be impossible for him not to know."

"And he says nothing about it?"

"Neither of us are in a position to judge the other, shall we say." The sharp crease of his brow indicated that he was amused by something I couldn't comprehend. "Why? You're puzzled by him? It's true that for the most part, people are. Elizabeth can't see why I keep him around."

"I confess that in my opinion, I do not understand those silent women that you have in your employ – the ones with the scars on their faces. They wear gloves." They'd given me nightmares, among many other things, but Ciel need not know that.

"Yes, well... that too is a complicated issue. Do you ever cease in asking questions?"

"I try my hardest not to, my Lord." I smiled sweetly in his direction, and he sighed.

"I suppose I must find some way to silence you, then."

"You know that everything that you could conceivably to do me would have the opposite effect."

"Are you trying to bait me, Estelle?" A smile touched his lips, dark and carnal, and I thought that in that moment I might die from need. My fingers, twisted in the sheets by his hips, found their way to the hollow of his hips. Over the gap there, brushing briefly over curls of hair and subtle measures of muscle, until I could feel him quiver slightly beside me. "My God, you like to try your luck."

"And yet, you can never bring yourself to punish me." My hand, of its own accord, touched against his sharp cheeks and traced up towards his hairline, past the band of his eyepatch, burying itself in silky ink hair. I had never seen something so beautiful in my life.

"If that is what you want from me, I'm sure that it can be arranged –"

However, in that moment, the slam of a door that could be heard echoing all throughout the house froze us both. What on earth could that have been -- ?