✳ 001 ✳ [video]
[Two proud Canadian geese. They're the only things of visible interest, standing no more than a few yards away. The video stays steady as a white-gloved hand moves into view, its palm turned to the sky and holding a few leaves of romaine lettuce. The geese immediately notice the offering, but they're too wary to approach for whatever reason.]You
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If you would like me to write a detailed account of it, I am quite willing to do so. [It is taking a lot of effort not to laugh in Ciel's face.] In the meantime, please listen to me: I was well on my way to stopping you from scoring the finishing blow. Sebastian managed to save you, and left with you, leaving me with my master as he began to bleed to death.
[He turns his face away, into the damp wind, but his eyes never stop piercing through Ciel.]
Your reaper is lamentably mistaken. I would never violate the integrity of my master's flesh in a manner as crude as "a fatal crushing blow to his head." [Does Ciel really want to know the gory details? Hahaha. Claude will tell him if it will unbalance him:] To remove his soul, I had to paralyze his central and supernatural nervous systems with an orally-introduced venom. The venom's secondary effect is the purge, which resembles an instantaneous hemorrhagic fever and may have been accompanied by a sound like you described.
[Alois' lips were so soft under his own for that split-second. At the time, Claude was disgusted with their fairy tale tentativeness.]
I assure you that I transferred his soul from his dying body in the most painless way possible.
[But Alois was smiling with genuine happiness.]
It is your prerogative to keep or discard what I have to say. Regardless of what you choose to internalize, Ciel Phantomhive, I will be looking out for my master's best interests.
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His umbrella is dropped in the process as the rain begins to soak his little form.]
Liar. [He manages after a moment, straightening himself, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He feels dizzy; dehydrated.] A demon only has their own interests at heart veiled under the ruse of truly caring for their Master. Don't make me laugh.
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Forgive me if I do not offer you my handkerchief, [he says, unable to keep pleased raspiness from his tone,] but it has been rendered useless by the rain.
[The geese, uncharmed and scared shitless, have fled the scene. Claude and Ciel are alone now. When he listens closely, Claude can hear every individual raindrop, the electric potential for lightning overhead, and the pitter-patter of off-color sick as it drips from Ciel's tiny hand. Claude remembers when he wanted to suck on those fragile fingers one by one, stripping them of fatally delicious skin with each swath of his tongue, but now he thinks they're just disgusting.]
I am not your Sebastian. [For that much, Claude is grateful. He couldn't imagine being that much of a fuckup. It might've been amazing for him, being contracted forever to another demon, but he enjoys where he's ended up too much to think on it.] You were never anything other than a meal to him.
On the other hand, Alois Trancy has become much more than that to me.
[In an instant, a literal heartbeat, Claude relocates behind and to the side of Ciel's right shoulder. He bends down until he can smell Ciel's hair, before the rainwater washes away what he believes he's going to find.
Yes. There it is.
He murmurs darkly into Ciel's ear,] Ah, I thought so. I can tell he has made the same ripples in your idle life.
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I'm more than well aware of the terms of my contract with Sebastian. I've never once thought anything fanciful of it.
[He was becoming wet now, soaking without an umbrella as he stood there in the rain, fists balled at his sides. A few steps were taken back to put distance between them both as he glared at the demon. If he stayed out any longer in the rain he was bound to get sick again, but he didn't care.]
Do not test me or my patience, Claude Faustus. Your existence here in this city depends on it.
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And for what? What was the fucking point? Claude hardly got a taste of Ciel's soul, and greatly upset his true master in the process. He cannot understand what he was thinking beyond not thinking at all.]
Sebastian was the fanciful one, [he says, slowly opening his eyes. His head is still tilted away, as if he's listening to some distant sound. The afterglow of physical pain is the closest Claude thinks he'll ever get to ever feeling Heaven's light again.] He was so fanciful in seasoning your soul that he led you to murdering my master.
[He looks at Ciel directly, his gold eyes peeking over the lower lenses. The first thing he does is--offer the umbrella back to Ciel, handle first. (He used webbing to grab and retrieve it from the ground, but this happened so quickly that the umbrella looks like it leapt into Claude's open hand.)]
I am here for the sake of my master, Ciel Phantomhive. His continued dissatisfaction is why I cannot and will not cease to exist at the whims of anyone else. [Is he talking about completing their contract, or something else entirely?]
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Sebastian will answer for himself if he ever bothers to return. [There's a dull sting to his eye, the faint memory of how it felt to have the demon's presence about. Sebastian wouldn't lie to him - that had been one of the first orders he'd ever given.]
Alois wasn't dissatisfied. He's been more than content here. [The offered umbrella was ignored. He wouldn't take anything offered from the man.]
If anything, you've done the complete opposite of what you supposedly care about.
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I wonder if you will punish him in the same way, [he muses, unable to hide his small smile. Something about Ciel Phantomhive still sets his insides squirming about like garden slugs getting salt poured on them.] You and my master...
[But Claude isn't going to elaborate on that, not right now; not even if asked.]
--Hm?
[Too bad it'd be too rude to laugh. He wants to.]
If you believe that, then he has not fully explained our contract to you.
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[That smile - it no longer makes his blood curl, it makes it boil. Ciel wants to tear that smile off the demon's lips, have him gutted and stuffed and put on display. There's so much contempt he feels toward the man towering over him in the rain. Ciel had always thought no one could be more unnerving than Sebastian could.
Apparently he'd been wrong.]
Things have changed, Claude Faustus.
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[How disturbing and frightening it must be for Ciel, being confronted with a demon that doesn't belong to him. If Claude wanted to, even though it might annoy his master, he could do anything and everything to Ciel without experiencing supernatural backlash. He could bind Ciel in spider silk from head to toe--there'd be no need for eyeholes, and no slits to facilitate breathing. He'd hang Ciel on the same tree branch the NV is dangling from, and allow him to steadily, inexorably suffocate to death. Then, carefully and precisely, he'd cut into the silken tomb and drill all the way to and into Ciel's soft flesh. --Where would he do it? Why, if he chose the skull, that'd make an excellent cup to drink Ciel's fluids from. Or perhaps he'd irrigate Ciel out through his belly, after injecting a venom that dissolves his internal organs.
Claude could do all of that, but he won't. He doesn't want to when he is so fixated on Alois Trancy.]
Not enough that he has not stopped calling for me.
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Even so, he can't tear himself away just yet.]
I'll never let you complete it.
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He really doesn't give a flying fuck about Ciel Phantomhive getting sick from standing out in the rain. Only the consequences of it concern Claude:
1. If contagious, Ciel could infect his master with his germs.
2. His master is still likely fond of Ciel. Causing Ciel harm, even indirectly, will upset his master.
3. (But if 1 is true, then they must have tangibility again.)
4. (How is that even possible? (It just can't be.))
5. (Is he still in nirvana, or isn't he?)
6. (HUNGERHUNGERHUNGERHUNGERHE'DGRINDYOURBONESTOMAKEHISBREAD)
6. He cares for his master too much to upset him again.
7. Why should he be rude to Ciel anyway? There's no point.
Umbrella swinging from one wrist, Claude walks away in the direction of the mansion. He'll show this magnificently stubborn child the door, even if it isn't his responsibility to.]
My contract is not yours to decide anything about.
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There's absolutely nothing he can do except stand there in the rain. Maybe if he stays there long enough he'll drown in it.]
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When he touches one door's heavy handle, his gloves don't stop him from feeling the pulse of life inside of this home. Alois Trancy is in there, somewhere, wondering what he should do. Claude hopes they'll see each other soon vis-à-vis.
Your Highness, you are never alone.]
Ciel Phantomhive.
[He pushes open one door and then the other, and then looks over his shoulder at Ciel. His expression, slightly somber, is unreadable again.]
You oughtn't linger outside in this weather.
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I'll do whatever I damn well please to do, Claude Faustus. [It's said with an air of viciousness, a forced calm that is really only just a front.]
I'll come in when I feel like it.
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[Ciel's passionate protectiveness of Alois Trancy is a sight to behold, but it's not dispelling the nirvanic haze clinging on to Claude.]
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