Cuts and Cake

Chapter 3

There was a deafening silence as Ciel had an internal debate inside his head at what to do. He wanted to get up right now and walk away, but Sebastian would persist in finding the truth and end up annoying him even more in the process. The sooner he told him, the sooner Sebastian would leave him alone, he decided eventually. Of course he didn't have to tell the entire truth: the fact that Sebastian needed to ask him implied that he didn't actually know.

"Didn't your research unearth the facts?" he asked finally after making his mind up.

Sebastian's ears pricked up at the sign of Ciel relenting.

"No, all I know is that the previous Earl and his wife lived with their son in a mansion outside London until 6 years ago when there was a fire that destroyed the house and the son was the only survivor," he said as he watched Ciel carefully. "I could only find one news report and all the other reports had been deleted so I thought I would ask you for the details."

Ciel's only reaction was to scowl and turn his face away. He had never told anyone the truth about what had happened on the night of his 10th birthday apart from his aunt and he didn't know what Sebastian intended to do with the information if he actually told him.

"There was a fire one night. We became trapped and they threw me out of the window so I could escape, but they didn't get out in time and they died," Ciel lied, praying that Sebastian would believe him and drop the subject and eventually leave him alone.

Unfortunately for him Sebastian sensed the lie immediately as it didn't cover the facts he knew or why the incident had not been reported in full detail.

"Stop lying Ciel. I know there's more to it than that," he leaned in towards him.

"If I told you, would you leave me alone?"

That was an interesting question, Sebastian thought and cocked his head on the side and considered allowing his new toy to escape unscathed.

"No."

There was still a lot of fun to enjoy and he had never been able to play with an Earl before.

"Fine," Ciel sighed. "Will you at least drop the subject of my parents if I tell you?"

That sounded fine to Sebastian: he wasn't really that interested in Ciel's past- the future looked to be more interesting. However the past was what shaped a person and it would be helpful to know why the boy self harmed.

Unconsciously Ciel's hand moved up his face to touch the eye patch under his fringe. Sebastian's eyes followed the movement and widened when they spotted the eye patch, but he decided not to say anything for now.

"My father had a rival competitor in business- the Phantomhive family used to run Funtom- that confectionary and toy company. The competitor held a grudge against him. One night he arrived at the house with a group of friends, mutilated and killed my parents in front of me, set the house on fire to burn me alive, but the fire didn't spread fast enough to satisfy them as the house was quite large so they started on me and one of them dug my eye out. I never knew who the man that started it all was."

That was not what he had expected to hear. Sebastian felt unusually guilty for asking such a sensitive and painful question. His family were bad enough, but at least he had parents. It explained why the boy looked permanently depressed and why he self harmed.

The memories were right on the surface for Ciel and he couldn't stop watching them in his mind. His mother's pained screams. The laughter of the men. The blood flowing everywhere. The flames and the smoke. Then the terrifying moment when they turned on him.

"Luckily for my other eye, the emergency services turned up, alerted by the fire and the gang scarpered," Ciel finished and adjusted his fringe to cover the eye patch again.

"So that's why you're here, in a state school instead of a private school and explains why you don't use your title," Sebastian inferred the reasons for Ciel's presence in a place that he didn't really fit into. "You don't want to attract the attention of the people that killed your parents."

"Yes, my aunt moved me here after their deaths and last week she tricked me into coming here."

"Tricked?"

"We had a chess match over it. She cheated and I lost, but we hadn't agreed beforehand that cheating was forbidden so I had to come here."

"By the way Ciel, I believe you now about yesterday when you threw up. As part of his punishment for setting fire to one of the science labs Bard works in the school kitchen. 80% of what he had managed to cook has been charcoal and the other 20% has been classed as hazardous waste."

Ciel nodded at the unexpected apology. "Now that it has been settled that I'm not bulimic, can you give me my fork back and let me eat in peace?"

***

It was impossible to deny that Ciel Phantomhive excelled in all academic subjects such as English and Maths, but it was also undeniable that his weakest area was definitely Physical Education.

Sebastian watched and smiled from the bench at the side of the sports hall as Ciel dropped the basketball and fell over after a teammate had passed it to him for the fifth time in a row. The boy really had no coordination which made him amusing to watch.

PE was one of the lessons that Sebastian normally skipped, but it was worth it all, even wearing the highly unflattering kit to watch Ciel struggle.

The Physical Education teacher blew the whistle to stop the game.

"Phantomhive! That's the fifth time. Sit out for the next game," he barked unsympathetically.

Ciel made a face as Sebastian waved at him from the bench. To cover his arms he was wearing the hooded top which was part of the kit, but it only came in one size and was too big on him and made him seem a lot smaller than he really was.

As Ciel sat down next to him Sebastian slipped the sleeve back on one of his arms and examined it for fresh marks. Ciel made no movement to stop him as he knew that there weren't any to be found. Sebastian pulled the sleeve back down and checked the other one disappointedly. If the boy had stopped now then his fun would be over all too soon.

"So are you going to stop then, Ciel?"

"Maybe." Ciel moved his arm out of Sebastian's grip.

"Don't you ever think about getting revenge on the people that ruined your life?" Sebastian enquired thoughtfully. If he was in that position then he certainly would.

Bitterly Ciel nodded. He thought about it often; hunting the men down and killing them painfully, but reality always prevailed and he knew deep down that it wasn't possible with his current means.

"You watched me fail in that simple basketball game. I'm physically weak and underdeveloped. I can't do anything by myself and I don't inherit my parent's money until I'm 18."

The boy had a point. In the 21st century money was power: if you didn't have a large amount of money, you didn't have any power so he was essentially powerless. The situation was interesting. Ciel had the need and he had the means. His family were well off and known in the business world. They could work together, but he wasn't going to do anything for free.

"Ciel," Sebastian began as he put the proposal together in his mind. "I'll help you obtain revenge. To put it simply: I'm rich and my parents are out of the country so I can do anything I like with their money."

Ciel blinked in surprise at the suddenness of the proposal, then he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"What's in it for you?"

"The pleasure of your company," he winked and Ciel narrowed his eyes even further. "No, I'm joking. I'll tell you what I want when you get your revenge."

It seemed too vague for Ciel. If he didn't know who the perpetrators were, even with a large amount of money, how was he supposed to track them down? But it was the best option he had right now and he was willing to clutch at any straw even if it was the thinnest spider's thread.

"I agree to your ambiguous terms for now, until a better option presents itself."

"Excellent," Sebastian steepled his fingers. "Let's make a contract then to make it official."

***

A minor point: Ciel and Sebastian are 16 in this story and are in their final year of secondary school. <--- Both are of the age of consent before anyone starts calling anything illegal.