Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ciel sat by, watching through the open door as Mey-Rin dropped a stack of  imported china plates, squealing an “oh my!” as they shattered. He sniffed in distaste as smoke drifted in from the kitchen, and flinched slightly upon hearing the booming crash of another statue breaking. He glanced over towards the corner of the eloquent drawing room at Tanaka, sipping his tea.

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he called for Sebastian.

As Sebastian arrived, he caught Ciel’s eyes and bowed, “I’ll attend to it immediately, Master.”

Nodding, Ciel closed his eyes until he was sure that his butler had left the room and was at least out of hearing distance. He opened his eyes and stood, walking past Tanaka and out of the door.

He stopped several feet behind Mey-Rin, who was still scavenging for any undamaged plates in the pile of glass shards.

“Mey-Rin, your hand is bleeding,” he said in a monotone, sounding bored and somewhat annoyed. The maid yelped, jumping up and spinning around, head angled down more to hide her blush than out of respect.

“Y-Young Master! I didn't see you there!” His eyes skipped down to the pile of glass shards.

“I’m sorry sir! I was just carrying these new china plates to put them away, yes I was! And Pluto was sitting over there, and—“ the ginger waved one hand, gesturing somewhere behind her. “But I didn't see him and I ran into him and then I…” she frowned, looking back at the ground.

Ciel, frowned, unconcerned with the expensive china plates whose remains lay at his feet. “Mey-Rin, if you need new glasses I—“

“NO! I mean—no thanks! I like these ones just fine, sir!” She stumbled over her words, blushing even more and cast her eyes as far away from her Master as possible.

“I insist, there is already another pair or two with much stronger correction that I had made just for you—“

She blushed even harder despite herself. She had been about to interrupt—a sure yelling at from Sebastian—and assure the young boy that she was fine, but stopped herself when he said that he had them made for her. He had said that he had them made, not we, and they were  just for her! She was flattered, pleased that Ciel cared for her, or at least that she could pretend he did.

He stopped, watching as she looked away from the floor and dared to glance into his deep pools of cerulean for just a split second before—

“MEY-RIN!” The stammering maid jerked her head around and found her face almost buried in the chest of the head butler. She raised her head up a few inches until she could see Sebastian’s burgundy eyes glaring at her down the bridge of his nose. She immediately stumbled backwards, bumping an indifferent Ciel, who only looked at the butler with a raised eyebrow.

“Mey-Rin, I need the servants in the kitchen,” Sebastian  said, glancing down at her with distaste, eyes momentarily flashing red.

“A-ah! Yes sir Mister Sebastian!” Clumsily she pulled herself back up and dusted off her maid’s uniform. Adjusting her cracked glasses, she started on her way, sparing Ciel a glance once Sebastian had him distracted.

“Tanaka is in the drawing room,” Ciel brushed past Sebastian, heading in the general direction of his study. Behind his back the uniformed man raised an eyebrow at the behavior of his young charge.

Bored restless of his work, the young Earl rested his head on his hand as he doodled on a spare sheet. Hearing a knock at the door, he raised his head,  covering the doodled-on paper with the work.

Within moments his faithful butler was by his side, serving him tea and a slice of apple and raisin pie. Sebastian studied his emotionless face before remarking,

“Young Master, may I inquire about the reasons behind your sudden interest in Mey-Rin?”

He smirked, knowing that his obscure bluntness had struck a nerve when Ciel’s eyebrow twitched.

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about. If you are referring to the events that occurred this morning, however, I simply heard the crash of the plates, as she was in the hallway outside of mine. It’s clear that in order to continue her service without killing herself or someone else she will need a stronger pair of glasses. I was offering to exchange the weaker, cracked ones she has now for new, stronger ones when you arrived.”

With a knowing smirk Sebastian placed the dirty dishes on the cart, “Mhhm.” He began wheeling to the door of the room, before turning to a now-glaring Ciel and asking “Do you need anything else, my Lord? Or will that be all for now?”

In response the bluenette only huffed and continued working, not even bothering to look at the triumphant butler. As soon as said servant was clear of the room, Ciel leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling and releasing a long sigh. Gently, he placed the tips of his fingers on his forehead and sighed again, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance.

Why couldn’t that devious butler ever mind his own business?

He had no right or reason to assume that it was anything other than coincidence that Ciel had been talking to Mey-Rin of all the servants, after all she was just outside the room and it made sense as he had to ask her about the new glasses anyways and—Why was he getting all worked up over nothing? Sebastian was simply being Sebastian and it wasn’t like he had any particular reason to strike up a conversation with her personally other than just the convenience of her location.

Deciding to ignore the implications behind his butler’s question, Ciel shifted the letter that sat on the desk before him, absently rereading it, not even noticing when his mind drifted back to thoughts regarding the brief conversation he had with a certain red-headed maid.

Less than an hour later four of the five Phantomhive servants stumbled into the room, the three responsible for the morning’s commotion stopping in front of the young Earl’s desk, heads bowed. Tanaka sat in the corner, sans tea.

“Do you need something?” The cold, indifferent and chilling voice sliced the air and anyone who had not met the boy could not have guessed that he was capable of such an imposing and authoritive tone. 

“Uhm, about this morning sir…” Finny began, raising his head up ever the slightest, eyes flickering between the finely polished mahogany wood desk and the eyes of the boy sitting behind it.

“We’re, uh, sorry for the damage we caused, yeah?”

“It was an accident, yes it was!” Mey-Rin and Bard both chimed in, all three of them looking earnestly at the Earl, but respectfully avoiding his eyes directly.

“Honestly, it astounds me how you can say these things like it doesn’t happen almost daily,” Ciel rolled his eyes and Tanaka could be heard chuckling from the corner of the room.

“But no matter, these things are easily dealt with. You’re all forgiven.”

Chapter Text

The three (understandably) confused servants looked up at him, mouths open and ready to drown the young boy in questions, when he dismissed them, along with Tanaka.

“Mey-Rin, would you stay behind for a minute?” The sudden question froze the poor maid to her spot, and her face grew red enough to rival her frizzy locks. Calming herself, she turned around and bowed her head down as she took a step away from the door she had previously sprinted to, along with the other troublesome servants.

“Y-yes, my Lord?” Her hands grasped her maid’s apron, anxiously awaiting a reply, eager to escape the small room before the estate’s butler returned.

“About your new spectacles, I will have Sebastian arrange the appointment with someone, or perhaps have him do it himself, assuming you still wish to receive a new pair?” Of course, Ciel had planned on Sebastian carrying out the vision-test from the start, he didn’t want too many people to know how amazingly farsighted his servant was.

“Appointment, sir?” the question was blurted without a second thought and the red-headed girl blushed, hating herself for being such a terrible servant. Although she had been working at the Phantomhive manor for multiple years, she still had trouble remembering her manners around the Young Master and his butler. Silently, she scolded herself; although Ciel would likely leave her be (and perhaps let Sebastian know later that he needed to work on fixing the other servants’ mannerisms), if said butler had overheard her questioning the young Earl she would have been in a load of trouble, and she knew it.

Slightly irked, Ciel sighed.

“To test your vision? Or would you prefer if I were to guess?” voice dripping with sarcasm, Ciel rolled his eyes. He had tried to resist being so rude to her, but at times the three newest servants could be incredibly dense.

“O-oh. Yes, of course sir! I knew that, yes I did!” Her face remained beet-red, having been continually embarrassed ever since the conversation began. She once again mentally punched herself, knowing that’s exactly what the raven-haired butler would have done had he been in the room. Paranoid, she glanced over her shoulder at the door, assuring herself that he wasn’t over-looking the entire exchange.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes again or reply with a scathing insult, the bluenette instead dismissed her, and watched as she almost slipped in her attempt to escape.

Mey-Rin walked nonchalantly into the hallway used by the servants to get from place to place within the manor quickly and efficiently. She timidly looked both ways down the hall, checking and double-checking that Sebastian wasn’t almost upon her.

She blinked hesitantly upon walking into her bedroom, as it was hardly lit at all, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was hardly shocked to learn that she wasn’t the only one in there.

“Mey-Rin, what was the young master asking you about?” Finny’s curious voice popped up from no less than three feet in front of her, his innocence leaving him completely unsuspicious.

“Yeah, what was that all about?” Faintly, she saw Bard’s form lingering farther into the small room, at the foot of her bed.

“Aren’t you going to light up the room?” the maid shut the door behind her, allowing the room to momentarily be flushed into darkness until Bard lit a candelabra, the flickering flames more than enough to illuminate the small room.

“Are ya gonna answer the question?” Bard raised his eyebrow, but this was countered by his characteristic grin that left his cigarette tilted at an odd angle. Mey-Rin almost giggled, but upon remembering the question, decided that it would not be in her best interest.

“I need new glasses so I can see better and not be as clumsy,” she blushed lightly as she said this. Although they had all accepted their faults, she was currently admitting that their master had noticed hers and thought her bad enough that he needed to resort to extra measures to fix hers.

Before Finny could reply, Bard winked at her and murmured a comedic and suggestive “uh-huh”. He of course knew that both his master and his friend were at relatively close ages, ages at which they began to notice and take interest in the opposite gender. He knew that Mey-Rin had a thing for Sebastian, rather, he would think any girl that didn’t insane, and was actually rather jealous of the butler’s perfectly sculpted looks and somehow charming personality. However, he also knew that she thought that the young boy was rather cute and his intelligence seemed to appear endearing to her, rather than intimidating.

Blushing harder, she forced herself to ignore the chef and instead focused her attention on the petite-looking gardener frozen half-way into whatever he was going to say.

“That’s okay Mey-Rin! At least you only mess up because of your eyesight, and that’s not your fault! And if you’re getting new glasses then you’ll be able to see better, right? So you’ll be better than me and Bard!” Finny’s earnest face leaned slightly towards the girl in his excitement, and she sighed as she moved over to the wall, and turned so that she could look at both of the men at the same time.

“I wouldn’t say it was just me eye-sight. I’m just very clumsy, and I don’t think that seeing better will change that. And it’s not your fault, either!”

“Well, no, but I still need to learn to control my strength better…”

Bard rolled his eyes and laughed, apparently the only one who noticed the sheer absurdness of the argument.

“Neither of you have anything to fret about, yeah? Nobody could really manage to control that kind of strength anyways.”

Upon hearing this, the other two fell silent, staring at him and only increasing the awkwardness of the situation. Whereas they had almost no control on the issues dragging them down, his was simply a result of his inability to release his mind from his previous military perspective. For quite a while he had no choice but to adapt to harsh conditions, to toughen up. He needed to heat up everything as quickly as possible, or he couldn’t eat, so he used fire, even if it meant burning his food. This habit was hard to drop when his survival had once depended on it.

It was at this point that the head butler of the Phantomhive estate entered the room, all eyes immediately snapping to his.

Caught unaware and unprepared, the trio was slightly slower than usual in snapping into an attentive and polite posture, the only one fitting of a Phantomhive servant.

Sebastian simply pretended as though he hadn’t completely shattered a rather tense atmosphere, for they what sort of servants were they if they let personal problems interfere with their performance?

“Miss Elizabeth will be visiting along with the Marchioness of Midford and Lord Edward this evening, so we must begin preparations immediately. Finny, tend to the gardens; no chemicals are needed, simply trim the overgrown bushes and eradicate any weeds. Mey-Rin, start cleaning the stairwell and in an hour begin preparing the dishes for tonight’s meal. Bard,” At this the raven-haired butler sighed into his hand, “I suppose you can gather the ingredients for tonight’s meal, I have a list already in the kitchen.”

As he finished, his glare hardened, something the other servants found astounding, as his previous glare was enough to possibly kill a small mammal (in reality he was capable of much more, but they of course did not know this), and the trio nodded.

“Yes sir!”