It was hard for Ciel to believe that he was the only one who saw how idiotic and pointless this whole excursion was. Honestly, what was there to be learned from working in some cafe? Now, Ciel had nothing wrong with cafes. As a lover of tea and sweets, he would have loved to visit this place. However, he was born to drink tea, not make it. There was also the fact that the cafe sounded like some kind of strip club. Sweetest Sin, honestly? Of all names.
And now, here he was, unpacking his things in some small room above the cafe. The room was tiny and barren; simple single bed, a dresser, mirror, and window. The floor was made of wood, and squealed at the slightest adjustment in his weight. The room was, however, well kept. And he supposed he was responsible for keeping it that way, assuming there were no maids her servants here to tend to such trivial things.
And to make matters worse, Ciel had very, very nosy neighbors. Upon arrival, he had been introduced to them; Bard, Finny, and Meyrin. His first opinion of them was that they were all completely incompetent. Regrettably enough, they were also his coworkers.
From the corner of his eye he could see them peeking through the crack in his door, making him immediately regret even leaving it open in the first place. They whispered (rather loudly, at that) about the many mysteries of Ciel. His age and eye patch both seeming to be hot topics among the three stooges.
"He looks like he's eleven, he does!" The woman, Meyrin, 'whispered' in her scratchy voice, nodding seriously as she spoke. The short blonde guy nodded in agreement, but the taller man scratched his beard and leaned closer to the door as if to get a better look. They were each startled, however, when Ciel abruptly turned and gaze them a cold glare.
"Can I help you?" He growled, puffing up at little as he tried not to get offended. He was fifteen, almost sixteen, and yet he looked like a child. This much he was aware of, but that didn't mean he liked it. Still, he saw no reason to have to explain himself to these three knuckleheads; not about his age, his eye, or anything else for that matter.
The three seemed to jumped back a little at Ciel's blunt question, Meyrin blushing shamefully and glancing to the side while Bard rubbed the back of his head and Finny all but hit behind him.
"U-Um! Well, it's just that.. umm..." Meyrin stammered, trying to think of an excuse, but failing. Noticing this, Bar stepped up to the plate and took a swing.
"Sebastian should be downstairs by now, and we thought we'd come and fetch you so you can meet him!"
Ciel arched his brow at this information. When he had arrived an hour ago, Sebastian had not been here yet. He had been off running some errands, he supposed. Regardless, Ciel had never met the mad before, and this was his chance to do so.
"Very well, then." Ciel reached up, adjusting his eye patch. Really, he had no medical reason for the patch. The only reason being that his right eye was a different color than his left. This drew unnecessary attention, and so he chose to cover it. As far as he knew, that was all there was to it.
He glanced into the mirror to be sure it was in place, as well as too the time to inspect the rest of his attire as well. Ciel was well dressed, wearing a blue vest with a white long sleeve shirt beneath it, with a deep blue ribbon under the collar. His shorts were also a deep blue, and his black dress shoes were polish and fine.
Once the patch was properly in place, he turned and promptly left the room. The trio started to follow him, but he was definitely having none of that. He turned and glared at them once more, waving his hand at them in an annoyed way.
"I don't need you fools to escort me. I'll meet him on my own." That said, he gave them one last look over before turning and heading down the narrow hallway and towards the stairs that led into the cafe.
"Why you-!" Bard fumed, fists clenched and jaw tight as anger boiled inside of him. How dare this brat act so high and mighty! Finny and Meyrin had to hold him back.
Ignoring them, though, the young man made his way down the stairs and began his search for this Sebastian fellow.
The cafe was quiet and empty, with it being closed for the night. Not finding Sebastian in the dining area, he decided to go into the back kitchen/office area to look for the man...
The word ecstatic wouldn't have done any justice to describe how elated he was to meet Ciel, the boy who had quite literally been raised only to have his soul consumed by a demon. He hoped that Ciel's grandfather was tossing and turning in his grave about this now, and he wondered if immeasurable wealth had truly been worth the sacrifice of every firstborn in the Phantomhive family line. As promised, Sebastian had twisted fate and reality itself to ensure that the family company was financially successful, granting their future successors enough wealth to sate their greed.
When it was time to collect his part of the deal, Ciel's father had been reluctant. It was an old contract, one the old man initially thought didn't have to be honored, but Sebastian had proved that demons took their deals very seriously. If Ciel wasn't his by the boy's sixteenth birthday, he was going to make sure the Phantomhive family never saw a single yen in their bank account ever again, and money wasn't the only thing he planned to collect.
He had waited decades for this moment, so, truly, ecstatic was an understatement. When he greeted Ciel for the first time, Sebastian was donning a Victorian-style butler uniform, the hems and collar perfectly presentable. Not only did his attire suit the theme of his confectionery shop, it was a keepsake of his own time as a mortal hundreds of years ago. For this reason, he always seemed to be overdressed.
"You must be Ciel," the raven-haired male greeted him with a devilish smile. "My, you've grown." Deliciously, he would have added.
Ciel would have known that his father and Sebastian were on "close" terms so a bit of familiarity wasn't strange but the way his onyx gaze scanned over the younger male like he was some treat might have posed as a cause for concern. If Sebastian hadn't been more careful, his irises would have flashed their true crimson hue, immediately giving away what sort of thing he was. For now, his image as the tidy and mysterious employer of Sweetest Sins had been well-kept from his tenants, even if it didn't take much effort to hide something from Bard, Finny, and Meyrin. They were colorful characters, just unfortunately (or fortunately for him) not the sharpest tools in the shed.
With slender fingers, he pulled the tips of his gloves off, revealing thin, black-manicured digits and the back of his veined hand bearing some tribal insignia. At first glance, it only looked like a tattoo.
"I hope you've made yourself comfortable. The room is a bit small, but your father made his intentions clear that he didn't want you to feel too comfortable," he lied through his teeth, the fib perfectly articulated with a touch of false concern and warm hospitality. It was far more entertaining to see how long the boy would last believing that this was all some grand lesson teaching him to "remember his roots." If the youngest Phantomhive was as bright as his father had told him, it wouldn't be long before Ciel would notice that the Sweetest Sins truly wasn't all just glitter and gold. Maybe he'd sooner discover the secrets Sebastian craftily kept hidden in the walls of the confectionery shop than the three who had been living here much longer than him.
He had to lean forward just a bit to align their faces, his open palms resting on his thighs as he did. "After all, you're here to earn your keep." He flashed Ciel a charming grin, one that quickly dissipated as soon as it formed. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine, Ciel. My name is Sebastian."
The moment Sebastian came into Ciel's sights, he knew something was off. Not that Sebastian looked suspicious or anything or the sort. In fact, he appeared quite the opposite. He clearly took care of himself, his features what some might consider flawless, and his attire professional and cared for. What made Ciel immediately uneasy about him, though, was the way his right eye seemed to throb lightly the moment he saw the man. Ciel winced a little, but it was more out of surprise than anything else, as his eye had never done that before. It wasn't a painful sensation; it was merely uncomfortable due to how foreign a feeling it was.
There was also the fact that Ciel never fully trusted anyone, especially someone he was meeting for the first time. It honestly made no difference to him that his face knew him, the fact of the matter was that he himself did not know this man, and thus he did not trust him. He was just here to work for a few weeks, then he could go home and forget all about this ordeal. The hardest part of this would be socializing, given that Ciel was not a social creature.
Regardless, when Sebastian gave him that odd smile and commented on his much he had grown, Ciel did his best to offer a little smile of his own. The corners of his lips twitched ever so faintly and he strained to remove his ever-lasting glare from his eyes. Still, his one visible sapphire blue eye seemed to suspiciously scrutinize Sebastian.
“Yes, that would be me. You have quite the quaint little… establishment.”
Ciel struggled a little to find the right word to sum the cafe up without potentially sounding rude. Indeed, it was a nice shop. Again, though, Ciel would much rather be a customer than an employee.
Those thoughts, however, were shrugged aside when the tall dark haired man began to remove his gloves. At first, there was nothing odd about it… but then Ciel saw that tattoo on the back of his hand. Again, Ciel's eye began throbbing, and, as if in a small trance, Ciel could only stare at the marking. It seemed somehow familiar, even though he was certain he had never seen it before. Furrowing his brow, he cocked his head to the side to get a better look and narrowed his eye.
Sebastian spoke, then, bringing Ciel back to the moment with a blink as the boy instead lifted his gaze to Sebastian's face.
“Oh, the room? It's fine. If my father intended to make me uncomfortable, he'll definitely need to try harder.” Ciel again forced that 'grimace-like smile to his lips, bluffing slightly. He didn't like the room at all, but it could be worse. At least he had the room to himself. Besides, the room as well as the nosy neighbors were all manageable. Ciel was a professional young man and would do what he had to do. Even if it till made no sense to him that his father would ever send him here to begin with.
“I think you'll find that I'm more than capable of preforming whatever tasks are required of me while I'm here.” Ciel spoke confidently, his words more of a promise than anything else. However, when Sebastian actually knelt forward, hands on his thighs, just so the two were eye level… well, that rubbed Ciel the wrong way. It made Ciel feel as though he were treating him like a child, not an equal. Still, gritting his teeth, he kept that fake smile and slowly extended his hand as Sebastian finally introduced himself.
“… Yes.. It's a pleasure to officially meet you. My father speaks very highly of you.”
Ciel certainly wasn't a tame kitten, but he was a kitten nonetheless to someone who could very well devour his soul whenever he was famished for a treat. But where was the fun in that? Sebastian had discovered that it was far more entertaining to raise his pigs for slaughter than to actually slaughter them. The young Phantomhive was simply another keep to his collection, but undoubtedly his favorite since Sebastian had literally been waiting several generations for his birth and arrival.
His irises gleamed excitedly when he felt the call of his insignia behind the one trademark eyepatch Ciel wore over his eye, knowing what the younger male kept hidden that others would find a freakish phenomenon of nature. He longed to witness the marking for himself, to further confirm his joy of owning Ciel's heart and soul, but it hardly seemed appropriate to ask for such a favor at first greeting. It seemed he had already soured the younger male's mood by being a bit too curious about his mesmerizing pair of eyes.
"You won't have a difficult time," he assured him with a grin. "But you will if you intend to keep that scowl on your face."
The Sweetest Sin was a confectionery shop for the affluent and while they occasionally catered to people who could still afford a taste of Sebastian's "devilish" treats, their customers were more often than not just like Ciel. They were rich and always had to make a point in proving that they were. They were also ninety percent women, so if Ciel wanted to live up to his promise of performing every task exceptionally, he needed to learn some customer service. That meant to woo, seduce, and extort in any way possible, just to squeeze a couple more yen out of their greedy purses.
"You'll find that people are generally happy when they eat or buy cake," he said. "No one brings cake to a funeral or gifts it to someone they hate." People were always susceptible to making poor and impulsive decisions while drunk on joy, which left the perfect window of opportunity for Sebastian to manipulate them into buying more dessert than they needed.
He wondered if Ciel knew this, being a successor to a corporation that heavily relied on marking to keep afloat.
"Why don't we try a test run?" he offered, simultaneously heading into a small office in the back where he retrieved a packaged set of uniform clothes. The fashion was similar to what Ciel wore now, except it looked more like a modern butler's outfit than an aristocrat's. "I'll be the customer."
Immediately, his mannerism changed and he pressed a palm to his own chest, his expression adopting the warmth of a feminine face. "Excuse me?" he asked, already fitting into the role of a wealthy customer. "I was hoping to treat myself today to something nice. What would you recommend, handsome?" His eyes twinkled, awaiting Ciel's response expectantly.
[/td]
“Scowl?” Ciel repeated, furrowing his brow further at the accusation. He had been smiling! Or at the very least giving his best attempt at it. It had to be pretty bad if it was mistaken so easily for a scowl. That or Sebastian was messing with him. It was entirely too soon to tell what his sense of humor was, just as it was too soon for Sebastian to note that Ciel had absolutely no sense of humor at all. Of course, in his opinion he did, but honestly, the boy was maybe a little too serious for his own good.
Sighing to himself, Ciel simply turned and followed Sebastian into the office, where he was handed was he assumed was a uniform. If nothing else, he could at least appreciate the man's taste in clothing. That was irrelevant, though. “How are we going to preform this 'test run' without a customer, dare I ask..?” Ciel, very reluctantly, pointed out. Deep down he knew the answer, but decided to wait until he heard it for himself before allowing it to affect him.
Of course. Sebastian was going to make believe to be a customer… and what was even more embarrassing about the whole situation was that the man was such a good actor. He perfectly executed the role of a woman come to buy some sweets, which put Ciel on the spot. And, like a deer caught in headlights, he froze up. Blue eye wide in surprise, his heart hammering away nervously in his chest as he drew blanks. He didn't even know the menu for this place yet!
But he had to think of something. He couldn't bare the thought at failing at something so simple. So he tried to keep his cool, one again forcing a 'smile' onto his lips as he all but glared up at Sebastian, his cheeks a soft, humiliated red to have to play along with such an act.
“Good.. Good evening, madam,” Ciel tensed his shoulders and balled his hands into fists. “Might I suggest the.. molten chocolate cake?” Ever cafe had cake, right? Well, surely, molten cake wasn't too scarce a dessert. “It's very good. You should buy it.” It was unintentional, but Ciel sounded more like he was about to threaten the 'customer' into purchasing the item than anything else.
It was amusing how stiff Ciel was as he was attempting his best to "help" the damsel in distress. Sebastian certainly had his work cut out for him training this hopeless employee to become charming enough to work the front of Sweetest Sin. A face like that was a waste to shove into cleaning or baking duty in the back. So, he really had no choice but to teach Ciel a thing or two about customer service, didn't he?
"Oh, sweetheart, you couldn't sell a fine lady such as myself a single cupcake with that attitude of yours," Sebastian crooned, thoroughly enjoying his charade as one of the many types of clients he worked with daily. Ciel would encounter customers who were far more aggressive than this and he wondered if he'd be able to handle the pressure, or if he'd keel under his crushing ego. Forcing an aristocrat's son to truly forget his roots and slip into the shoes of someone he'd likely order around was easier said than done.
He snapped out of his alter ego as soon as they left the storage room. "Treat your customer as if they were your lover, Ciel, with a touch of gentleness and respect," he advised, leading the young Phantomhive to the front of the store where some cakes of various colors and sizes were displayed. Most of them were petite and adorned with the most scrumptious, sugary decorations. There was everything a cake lover could desire from the traditional "blackout" cake to the sophisticated baumkuchen. "Women are more likely to purchase something if you compliment them. They're quite simple-minded," he added, simultaneously sliding open a display case filled to the brim with desserts that had been prepared for that following morning.
He pulled out one wrapped in ladyfingers and a velveteen bow, the top powdered with gold flakes. He offered Ciel the cake on a silver plate and cutlery. "A Charlotte Russe for you? It's a custard dish, filled to the brim with authentic Bavarian cream and topped with a maple and fruit glaze."
Sebastian also handed Ciel a brochure with all the different varieties of cake they served. "You get some rest. I'll be seeing you tomorrow, seven o' clock sharp."
Ciel tensed up slightly when advised to treat the customers like his lover, but quickly shook that off. He had never had a lover, but the closest thing to that was Lady Elizabeth, he supposed. Possibly the only living soul that got to see Ciel's more gentle side. Their parents were planning for the two to be engaged, and Ciel had no qualms. Perhaps the hyper energetic girl was his complete opposite, but she still was the closest thing Ciel had to a friend, and he had a soft spot for her. Ciel supposed that if he treated each customer like he did Elizabeth, then things would work out. Even if he was still learning how to treat the blonde young woman… she was a teenager as well, after all, and was going through some bizarre stage where she almost seemed like a bipolar nutcase.
The boy sighed just thinking about it, rubbing his temple and letting out an exasperated sigh as he reluctantly followed Sebastian from the office and back towards the front. “Honestly, women are far too complicated. Why can't they just take their cakes and be done with it??”
Ciel himself wasn't too picky with sweets. He didn't need to be swooned or talked into any specific confection; give him anything sugary, and he was a happy lad. Which was revealed when Sebastian offered him the Charlotte Russe.
Ciel's eye widened a little and, for the first time since he had met Sebastian, his expression seemed to smooth out a little. Yes, there was absolutely, positively no denying that Ciel himself had a heavy sweet tooth, based on the way his sapphire eye sparkled in that moment. He was quite famished, but was a little too prideful to outright ask for anything to eat. So, when offered the cake, he definitely had no plans to turn it down. His cheeks even burned a soft pink as he took the dessert and examined it up close, the delicious scent all but having the young Phantomhive drooling.
Quickly, though, he hardened his expression a little and cleared his throat while accepting the brochure of the many varieties of cakes sold here.
“Y-yes, of course. Well then, I'll be seeing you tomorrow.”
Nodding, he turned and scurried away, desperate to be alone to try and recuperate a little. There was also the matter of eating the dessert, and he planned to fully memorize the brochure before going to bed. Plus, he could still feel that blush on his cheeks and didn't want Sebastian to get the wrong idea.
Luckily, the three idiots were nowhere to be seen, likely in there own rooms. Unluckily? The walls were thin, and he could hear Bard and Finny arguing in their room (which they presumably shared). Sighing, Ciel closed his door before setting the tasty dessert down on the dresser along with the brochure to change into something more comfortable for the night; a loose white button-up top. That was what he always slept he, and he wasn't changing any time soon! Aside from his clothing, he also removed his eye patch. He didn't plan to be seeing anyone for the night, and he didn't sleep with it on.
Once it was off, he glanced at himself in the mirror and quirked a brow at what he saw. His right eye was kind of a brighter hue of magenta than usual. That was all he noticed, though, and didn't think too much of it. He had cake to tend to, after all, and he all but scarfed it down. He then settled into bed, ignoring his noisy neighbors to the best of his ability as he took to reading and re-reading the brochure. He did this over, and over, and over, until finally, he fell asleep in a sitting position, leaning against the headboard with the brochure in his lap. His right leg, bare and smooth, dangled from the side of the bed while his left was folded and nearly touching his chest.
When Sebastian headed downstairs fifteen minutes before the opening hour, he saw Bard, Finny, and Meyrin already hard at their assigned tasks. They were, as Sebastian had mentioned before, not the sharpest tools in the shed but perhaps the most durable, also well-worn with the age of experience. The three were prompt and diligent, so Sebastian hardly had any qualms about their work ethics.
He noticed, however, that one of his employees was nowhere to be found. It was still ten minutes before seven, Sebastian checked, which gave Ciel a narrowing window of opportunity to be on time for his first day on the job. The young Phantomhive's father had warned Sebastian that he would be bull-headed but the demon hadn't thought that would literally translate to insubordination. Was Ciel's tardiness just another method for him to rebel against Sebastian's direct orders? Well, he couldn't have any of that in his establishment.
Sebastian walked upstairs when it was seven o' clock sharp, pausing momentarily in front of the young Phantomhive's dormitory. The demon sensed the younger male's presence inside, which only meant one thing: Ciel had overslept. With ease, Sebastian twisted open the doorknob which would have been locked any other occasion, and walked right up to the sleeping boy like a shadow.
Crimson irises glanced this and that way from the crumbs left on Ciel's silver plate to the clothes (or lack thereof) the highly esteemed Phantomhive wore to bed. He was still so much like a child, Sebastian thought as he picked up the used silverwares in one hand. With his other hand, he pulled apart the curtains that cloaked the dim interior in darkness, the bright crimson pools swirling in his eyes darkening into a deep onyx. His pale skin seemed to glow even brighter under the warm rays of the sun but the raven-haired male quickly side-stepped to avoid the blinding light.
"Good morning, Ciel," he greeted with a chirpy hum. "It's currently seven ten, and you are officially late on your first day of work. I'm sure your father would be pleased to hear of your... work ethics." He turned towards the window to keep his gaze from wandering; after all, Ciel was wearing very little and Sebastian was a demon at his very core.
Ciel was dead asleep when Sebastian entered the room, still loosely clutching the menu that he had staid up studying late into the night. Perhaps too late, given how soundly asleep he was. This sleep, however, was blatantly disrupted when, out of nowhere, the room was flooded with light. Instinctively, Ciel grumbled and rolled away from the light, his brow furrowing and eyes pinching shut tighter. Problem was, Ciel was already on the edge of the bed, so rolling over caused the young phantomhive to wind up flailing to the wooden floors below with a surprised yelp.
Well, if the light wasn't enough to wake him up, the fall most certainly was.
Ciel landed awkwardly on his back, left leg caught in the sheets and stretched up against the side of the bed while his right leg flailed to the side. Luckily, Ciel wasn't completely nude beneath the loose shirt; he wore a pair of dark gray boxers. However, for a moment, they did ride up his thighs as a result of his current position on the floor.
Grimacing against the painful morning sun, Ciel held his hand out to try and block some of the light while glaring up at Sebastian, giving the demon the first glance at Ciel's mismatched eyes. Ciel was too angry to really care about that, though, and instead gave Sebastian a very grumpy growl.
“You don't have the right to just barge in here!” Ciel fumed, face bright pink as he quickly pulled his leg free of it's entrapment in the sheets so he could make himself at least a little decent but fixing his boxers and staggering to his bare feet. He was embarrassed to be late for his first day, but Ciel was a very grouchy person in the morning, especially when woken so suddenly.
“I don't care what my father would think; he's an idiot for making me come here!” Grumpy bug Ciel grumbled, quickly turning away from Sebastian as he began to hurriedly began unbuttoning the night shirt. He paused halfway down, though, and cast the demon an expectant look from the corner of his magenta eye.
“...well? Do I at least get privacy while I change?” His tired, unamused tone was laced with flat sarcasm. He wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed, but figured he may as well see if he could make it through the day before throwing in the towel and returning home.
Sebastian felt a bit silly for doubting the old man when he had said their son was "one of a kind" in the sense that he wasn't quite the typical character. For someone who talked high and mighty, he sure was a klutz... and a sleepyhead on top of that.
"Actually, I do. You left your door unlocked," he fibbed through his pearly whites, gesturing to the door that was open just an inch or so to prove that his entry hadn't been forced, even if he had used a bit of magic to unlock it in the first place. "This is quite a lot of fuss for someone who's tardy." He knew the young Phantomhive didn't care about this minimum wage job nor should he have a reason to, but Sebastian still wondered if the prospect of making an error or falling short of perfection irked the other male any. For someone who strove for excellence, the nagging feeling of not doing good enough was too familiar for him, so he figured Ciel would feel the same.
Sebastian soon grew bored of listening to Ciel throw his temper tantrum and focused on something else that caught his attention instead: Ciel's mismatched eyes. To someone else, Ciel's genetic mishap was only a rare case of heterochromia, but to Sebastian it was something far more significant than a lucky draw in the gene pool lottery. That insignia was his, and he felt the same marker burn brightly on the back of his hand, signaling him that his contract was close to fulfillment.
Ciel's soul was not ripe yet, not now.
"Privacy? Ah, yes," he mumbled flatly, too, his gaze scanning Ciel briefly. "Of course. I'll expect you down here in fifteen minutes, Ciel. You'll be in charge of sweeping the entire store before we open since you were tardy." If Sebastian had his way choosing the method of his punishments, the consequence would have involved some blood, but even he had to live by a set of mortal laws. Fragile creatures, they were. With that, Sebastian left Ciel's room with his empty plate, returning to Bard, Finny, and Meyrin still hard at work.
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