"Hey! Stop!!!" An officer yelled immediately blowing his shrill whistle alerting all the nearby officers. All of them bolted down an alley and onto a different street. You pretended to be engrossed in whatever was on display in the shoppe in front of you as two officers zipped past you, your hood covered most of your face from recognition. Don't draw attention to yourself and attention almost always won't find you. Crossing the road casually you almost walked headfirst into Mr Randall. He was busy barking out orders to surround the street and to check the shoppes. Annoyance simmered on the surface of your head but you kept out of his line sight while keeping him in yours, he would definitely recognize you immediately. You knew he enjoyed this manhunt having never liked the young master in the first place. Shaking your head, you cleared your mind. Having emotional ties to your work was different, pre-Phantomhive you would've shut your brain down at the mere thought of being emotionally attached to an aspect of work.

Randall barged into a familiar shoppe with a posse of officers. Letting the last of the officers trickle in, you inched toward the familiar shoppe.

"...Don't act smart with me boy," he growled. "Where did you hide them?"

You saw figures crowding around a spot in the back through the frosted glass and red cursive letters read back to you, "The Lark Photographic Studio". It was Mr. Pete's shoppe, the photographer that was at the townhouse just yesterday morning. A wave of emotion swelled in your chest at the remembrance of Agni and the prince, and you tried desperately to shake it off but couldn't help wonder where they were.

Where one of them was anyway.

"They went underground through the back. That's all I know."

"Good," Randall's gun decocked. He probably held Pete at gunpoint. "A fitting place for those rats. Go in after them."

You dashed into an alley and bent to shift the cover over the manhole leading to the sewers. "Find them," you said to the albino snake hiding in your hood who you hoped understood you like he understood Snake. Sliding off your shoulder he slithered on the wall. Mr Lao and Ran Mao followed suit dropping down behind you from wherever they were hiding. "There's another level beneath us we need to find another way down," you said quickly, your eyesight was considerably better than theirs in the dark thanks to your binding mark with a certain demon.

"Oh no need. Ran Mao?" Mr Lao said.

She pulled her chuí from behind her back and blasted the floor beneath all of you. Quickly searching for Keats, he slithered his way to safety before any destruction was dealt thankfully. You grabbed onto the nearest thing to steady yourself but unfortunately it was an unstable set of brick and you fell into the rubble that was the floor you were standing on a moment ago. A warning would've been appreciated, you thought in annoyance.

"Go get them Ran-Mao," Mr Lau said nonchalantly.

"Since when were you working with the Yard, Lao?"

You looked up at the sound of the young lord's voice.

"What? We had an agreement," you hissed through your teeth, dragging yourself to your feet and whipping out your blade.

"Now miss assassin," he smiled innocently at you not fazed by your glinting blade and pointed behind you to Ran-Mao who was caressing Bard's chest.

"Wha-"

"Ran Mao, really, that's not what I meant."

"And you..." the young lord turned to you finally.

"You knew about this," he stated and not asked. Pissed off wasn't enough to describe his face or demeanour.

"I didn't," you said firmly.

"LIAR!"

You sucked in the uncomfortably tensed air afraid this would happen and instantly regretted it. The air was the worst thing you've inhaled no wonder everyone had cloths covering their nose. But his words stung because it was true, but you never knew how soon your knowledge about his twin was coming back to bite you in the ass.

"I promise you, my Lord. I did not know," you lied through your teeth, your firm facial expression not revealing your lie. Not to anyone human at least. Your mind practically trying to will the young master to believe you.

"Lady and small gent the Yard will find a way around the rubble soon. Come, I promised I'd get you out," Mr. Lao smiled trying to calm the situation down although he lightly enjoyed it.

~

After a much needed damn near scalding herbal bath in which you took long to get out of and into a qípáo that was laid out by one of Mr Lau's girls', you joined everyone for dinner. Your neck wound was still open, there was nothing for you to do but dress it with a bandage. You arrived just in time to see Sebastian grab the young lord's face and reprimand him for his table manners.

You could see why. The table of the perfectly prepared food was a mess. Pieces of duck were everywhere, an entire chunk missing from it. Bowls of greens, rice, and assorted meats were toppled over and no one had food on their plate yet. Apparently he finally lost his nerve.

"Too pungent," you said holding your breath feeling sick to your stomach. The smoke from Mr. Lau's guests wafted in from the other room making you gag, your stomach lurched threatening to bring up whatever was left in it every time you managed to catch your breath.

"We prepared rooms. You can have your food there if the fumes are too much," he offered.

Sebastian took a long look at the silent young lord who had gone mute since you entered the room. His blue eye was glued to the floor and his face blank and unmoving. "I'll be back shortly," he said. His hair was slicked back, and his chángpáo was a gorgeous blend of black and red to match your qípáo. He traded in his normal white gloves for black to match his attire which suited him better than his uniform. Your cheeks heated as you realized you were staring, and they heated even more once you realized he was staring right back with a heated gaze. You were practically drooling before you caught yourself.

You both proceeded into the corridor leading to the rooms when you heard a crash from the next room.

"WHERE IS SHE?!"

"Shit am I in for it..." you groaned at Grells shrill voice and raging death scythe. Screams from the wasted customers erupted and Grell bashed his way through the next door and spotted everyone at the table looking at him in shock. His green eyes darted to everyone then to where you were standing.

"YOU!" Grell marched up to you and swiped at you with his death scythe getting it stuck in the concrete floor. He spotted a black bird resting on the window sill and grew more agitated."Why would you leave me with your kid?! I'm not a Godmother! Or a babysitter!"

You grinned, "Would you like to be?" you joked.

He paused, taken aback by the question. "Godmother to that little demon spawn? Absolutely not, I prefer to be a free woman."

The black bird flew through the window finally and landed on your shoulder. Your wedding ring hanging from its beak. Your eyes widened and looked at Sebastian who for the first time looked truly shocked.

"Suit yourself, I think he likes you," you said holding back your laughter from teasing Grell. It was clear Corbin didn't even care about Grell. He was simply happy to be back with his parents, chirping happily on your shoulder. "I only did it because I knew you would try to give him back to me and that you'd take care of him. Thank you."

"Besides, an unpredictable demon child in a stressful situation with that lot?" you said gesturing to the other servants who had gone back to eating whatever was salvaged from the young lord's tantrum. Thankfully they were out of earshot. "We have enough on our plate already."

"Ugh that little troll made me late for my already overdue manicure thank you," he yanked his death scythe out of the ground and grabbed onto the windowsill before Sebastian could grab him for the remark. "Ta ta for now," he blew a kiss to an annoyed Sebastian and disappeared.

"I love Grell," you said giggling.

"I think you're the only one, my dear," his eyebrow twitched.

~

"Kitten hold still," Sebastian groaned, trying his best not to hurt you.

"You try being human and have your skin sewn together," you hissed. That gash on your neck was deep and hurt like hell.

"This was a scythe that did this. You're lucky it didn't hit deeper," he growled. You could feel how intense the air got at his anger, like the room reflected what he held back from saying.

"But... grim reapers never had a problem showing themselves before. The man was hooded and obscure, and I didn't sense anything from him."

You could tell he was troubled refusing to speak to you about what just went down within the last twelve hours.

"Do you trust me?"

"Well, I never pegged you for a blatant liar. Even without the lie there's not much but my word vouching for you with him at the moment," he said matter of factly.

"It doesn't take a genius love, I see your reactions anytime Undertaker is around."

"What am I supposed to think?" he snapped. "He refuses to actually harm you, he saves your skin while throwing everyone else aside. I found his handkerchief in your coat pocket which he gave you while I clearly wasn't there. You were dying and refused to come home because of him. Need I say more?"

"I know, it seems terrible. But-"

"Papa?"

"Sebastian wait-"

"Later," he picked Corbin up who entered the room rubbing his eyes and walked off to put him to bed. You felt around the bed for the bandage and wrapped your neck securely.

Sebastian took forever to come back, your eyes cried to close for a couple of hours, but your stubbornness wouldn't let you. Finally, some three hours later he peeked his head in to see you forcefully staring. "Do you know what time it is and when you have to wake up?"

"I would never betray either of you. I promise you that. This household has given me the best years of my life so far, I will do my best to preserve it. I'll choose you every time," you grabbed his collar and kissed him deeply dragging him down into the bed with you, feeling him untense and melt into your grip.

A human is making me hesitate. My normally calculated moves are being siphoned by a queen. No wonder it's the strongest chess piece.

You grinned inwardly at his unspoken praise. You had contemplated telling him some of his thoughts were no longer his but knowing him, he'd find a way to censor what you could hear... or torture you with unholy thoughts and descriptions. You shivered from the thought and almost blurted it out just for that, but you wanted raw unfiltered Sebastian to be your secret for a while longer.

"From now on I need straight answers when it comes to Undertaker," he pulled away too quickly for your liking. "Whatever little conversations between you two are no longer confidential. So by all means start talking."

"Assassin," you pointed to yourself, "Man who inspects dead bodies and cleans them up for the funeral but also knows what happens when the beasts of the Victorian shadowy nights come out to play."

"We had an agreement; I visit him he doesn't rat me out to the police. I was thirteen or so, so I was scared shitless of course. I didn't trust him, but I didn't want to get the death penalty. He'd feed me and we just talked. Nothing important, just about my day or what I'd been up to. If it was long between visits he didn't pry into my life, and I didn't pry into his. Sometimes I'd need information, but you know I'm not a comedian so..."

"Beg to differ," Sebastian interjected and smartly ducked as your random choice of weapon went hurling at his head not even a second later.

"As payment sometimes he tried to make me laugh," as you snickered at Sebastian getting the shoe you threw at him. "After I met you, we would go to Undertaker and I saw no point of visiting him on my free time. Our agreement was honored anytime we went to him during a case."

"How did you meet?"

"I'm an assassin what do you think?" you snapped defensively. His eyebrow raised reminding you to keep your cool. You weren't in a position to be defensive.

Your words unintentionally got stuck in your throat as you tried to speak. Your body realized before your mind that you were so nonchalantly about to confess to something you've never spoken about before.

"A funeral of someone I killed. I attended and he had a stupid grin on his face and poked fun at me. He knew I did it. Like I said I was scared he'd tell the Yard, and he found it amusing. The underground spreads word like wildfire, I should've known someone would know I did it."

"You, sympathetic to a victim?" His eyebrow raised in question.

"It was my mother. Hardly a victim," you spat automatically, never meaning for that to ever fall out of your mouth. For damn near four years you've kept your past out of the mix. That was the thing about being a part of the Phantomhive Manor, your backgrounds didn't matter as long as all of you served loyally and for that you were thankful. But of course any secret buried within that manor will always come to light. Even yours.