Before he even opened his eyes, Will felt a shock of pain course through his knees and neck. Under his forehead, he felt the cool softness of a bedspread. That was unusual, his brain registered. Will slept on his side, not his stomach. He opened his eyes, yawned and sat up. He looked around the room that wasn't his and saw a violin and bow, a cane, a small wooden box. Jem's room. He understood now; Jem must have been taken ill last night, and Will had stayed kneeling by his bedside, eventually falling asleep with his head bent forward, forehead and face buried in Jem's bedclothes. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence. Charlotte must have had a lot to do, for she would usually have coaxed Will to a chair in the corner of the room to sleep on, or draped a blanket about his shoulders at the very least. He looked up to see Jem, peaceful and porcelain in sleep. The only hint to his bad health last night was a small black bead of dried blood at the corner of his lips.

Will shook himself to rid his mind of an image of a boy with an eyepatch and his crimson-eyed butler. It was only a dream. No human had eyes of that colour.

He set off downstairs. The clock in Jem's room had told him that, by now, the Institute staff would be preparing breakfast, and the others getting dressed. This left Will quite peacefully able to slip downstairs, collect a pitcher of water and a glass, and return to Jem's room undisturbed. He weighed his options: he could leave Jem to get the bedrest he so desperately needed to recover, but not taking his Yin Fen until later and putting his health at risk; or he could wake him, ensure he took the drug and then let him sleep, secure in the knowledge he would not underdose.

"Jem," Will said, gently shaking his friend's shoulder. "Wake up."

Jem blinked sleepily and sat up. Will began moving around the room. He collected a washcloth and dipped the edge in the pitcher of water, then poured a glass, went over to Jem's Yin Fen box and – pinching some of the silvery powder between her fingers – and dropped it into the clear liquid, letting it swirl with deceptive beauty.

"You have some blood on your mouth." Will said, handing over the cloth and glass. He cleaned the blood off his lips, then swallowed the liquid grudgingly with a grimace.

"Thank you." Jem replied. "But I'm more than capable of..."

"Looking after yourself, I know." Will finished. "But that's what parabatai do."

Jem nodded. "I do hate it though." He said, with a surprising bitterness uncharacteristic of the boy. "Having to sit on the sidelines whilst you fight, not being able to help you, being treated by everyone like I'm breakable. I'm afraid I'm a rather dire parabatai, William." He sighed.

"Don't be an idiot." Will said. "You're a marvellous parabatai, fine as they come. And I will stop treating you as if you're made of glass."

"Good." Jem said. "Because it's dull and you're stealing Charlotte's role of fussing around me like a headless chicken."

Will laughed.

"I had an awfully odd sort of dream last night." Jem went on. "About a man with red eyes and a boy with an eyepatch."

Will's blood ran suddenly cold.

"We had better go to breakfast before Charlotte starts calling the Silent City to tell them she's concerned you've fallen into a sleep like death. Now come on, get up."

Meanwhile, in the West wing, Ciel was waking up.

"Good morning, Earl Phantomhive."

Ciel opened his eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room. Where was he? As the fog of tiredness cleared in his mind, he remembered; a silver-haired boy coughing blood and another young man, the same age, fighting a monster with Sebastian.

"Sebastian?" he mumbled.

"No, sir. My name is Sophie Collins, sir."

Ciel's eyes flew to a figure beside his bed and cried out and he cried out, clamping a hand over his eye that bore the mark of his Faustian contract with Sebastian, the demon he had sold his soul to. His left eye was perfectly normal, sapphire blue and clear as day. But his right eye was unusual, violet with a ring of barb enclosing a five-pointed star, and he kept it hidden beneath an eyepatch. Unless he was sleeping.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded, panic-stricken. "Get out!"

"I...my apologies, sir. I..." Sophie began.

"Get out!" Ciel ordered, clamping his hand tighter over his eye, as if she might be able to see through the layers of skin and tendons.

Sophie started to back up quickly, and tripped in her haste, stumbling back, the tray she was holding wavering dangerously. Then suddenly she felt a hand on her back, and she was righted carefully.

"Allow me," Sebastian said. "I shall tend to my master."

"Th-thank you. Breakfast is downstairs. I should escort..."

Sebastian cut her off. "I'm sure we shall find the breakfast room without much trouble."

Sophie nodded, turned on her heel, and left without a word. Ciel sighed in relief as the door closed.

"Is there something troubling you, my lord?" Sebastian asked, after minutes of silence in which he dressed his master wordlessly, tightening the bow tie around his neck.

"No." Ciel replied firmly. "Let's go before they send another of their blasted servants."

When Jem and Will walked into the breakfast room, Will's fears were confirmed. There, sat at the far end of the table, was Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian; the boy with the eyepatch and his red-eyed butler.

"Good morning." Jem said brightly and sat himself down near them. "Ciel, Sebastian." He nodded. "I trust you slept well."

"Perfectly." Ciel answered shortly. Then he looked up. "Thank you, Jem." He nodded as Will seated himself beside his parabatai. "Thank you, Will."

A blonde girl sat alone give an imperious sniff at this. She tossed her hair, looking as if she would rather be anywhere else. She looked Ciel up and down, glanced at Sebastian, did the same thing, and sniffed again. Ciel felt his face flame in anger.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, forcing politeness into his voice. She was beautiful despite the sour expression on her face that would rival Ciel's. Her big brown eyes narrowed.

"Jem." She said, distaste in her voice, and a poisnonous look in Ciel's direction. "Will. Christian names and pet names are reserved for friends and family." She turned to Jem. "Does he not know that, Mr Carstairs?"

Jem sighed and Will stifled a laugh.

"Be reasonable, Jessamine." Jem said. "Will and I introduced ourselves as such. He had no reason to call us otherwise." He turned to Ciel. "Please, 'Jem' and 'Will' are quite alright."

"Duly noted." Ciel mumbled.

"And, of course," Will interjected. "I call you 'Jessamine', and I don't consider you a friend at all."

Jem gave a sudden and quickly stifled snort of laughter. "Will!" he reprimanded, flashing the other boy a look somewhere between exasperation and amusement.

"Oh really, William?" Jessamine said testily, eyes flashing dangerously. "What would you consider me?"

"An annoyance?" he suggested. "A nuisance? A pain in the..."

"Will, be quiet." Charlotte sighed, cutting him off as she came into the room with her husband, Henry.

"Jem," Charlotte said, sitting down with her husband. "Do you feel okay after your...bad spell last night?"

Jem smiled, thanking the cook Agatha as she brought out the breakfast on silver trays, then turned back to Charlotte. "Yes, thank you, Charlotte. I'm quite recovered."

"When did you last take your Yin Fen?"

"Just before I came downstairs. Before last night," Jem thought back. "A couple of days ago, perhaps?"

Will's head snapped up, and he put his teacup down so sharply the hot liquid sloshed over the rim and into his saucer.

"A couple of days? What do you mean by that?" Will demanded. He'd tried so hard to abide by Jem's wishes and not make a fuss, but a couple of days? That was far too long for Jem to go without his Yin Fen.

"Around two days." Jem shrugged elegantly. "That is what 'a couple' tends to mean."

"Two days? You idiot!"

"Will!" Charlotte snapped. "Please, we have guests."

At this, Charlotte's husband, Henry, looked up sharply. "We have what?" he asked, and cast a look down the table. When his eyes fell on Ciel and Sebastian, he jumped as if they'd appeared from nowhere. "You don't live here do you?"

"Of course they don't." Charlotte sighed tiredly.

"Oh, I didn't think so." Henry said, sounding chipper as he went back to reading his newspaper. "I think I might have noticed if they did."

Jessamine gave an irritated huff whilst Jem and Will burst out laughing. Will thought Henry was possibly giving himself too much credit. If anyone was not to notice two people under their roof, it would be Henry. It had taken him two months to learn that Will's name was not, in fact, Bill.

After a breakfast in which Charlotte attempted to hold conversation and everyone else being too tired – or too vacant, in Henry's case – to reply with much more than a couple of words. Even Jem, whom had been valiantly trying to maintain dialogue eventually subsided into quiet. Ciel and Sebastian stood up.

"Thank you very much for your generous hospitality, but we really must be going." Ciel said, and began to turn, flanked by his butler.

"You can't!" Will exclaimed.

Ciel turned back, raising an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"

"You...saw the demon last night. Both of you did." Will replied.

"Yes, of course." Ciel said. "And?"

"So you're not mundanes." Jem explained.

"I don't know what you mean." Ciel said. "I don't understand."

"You had better sit down." Charlotte said gravely.

Ciel glanced at Sebastian and took his seat again.

"Tea?" Charlotte offered. "We might be here a little while. We have rather a lot to explain."