2Hello any and all who stop by, thank you for visiting my story here. I ended up working an overnight shift last night and in between cleaning and watching Duck Dynasty I decided to write for a fandom I've never written for before. So I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own. Never will. I do adore Grell though and because she refers to herself in feminine pronouns, I too have referred to her as such. This is not a slash story.
/GG/
Kuroshitsuji
An Unintentional Impression
Humans, the live ones that is, tend to pay very little attention to what is happening around them when it isn't anything that has to do with what their current train of thought happens to be. They hustle and bustle down the busy streets, running over the cobblestones, and dodging any sort of obstacles that might be in their way. So of course they wouldn't be able to see the other life that occupies Earth, just on a different level of existence.
Had the humans paid more attention to their surroundings they may have seen a red blur flying past them via the rooftops. Most, even if they had seen it, would have passed it off as a trick of the mind. Others would have said it was some sort of big, red bird on its way home. However, if they'd watched the movement then they may have seen the long red hair flying almost perpendicular to a body that was skillfully moving about the rooftops.
Said individual was on her way to collect the soul of a woman, and her unborn child, about to commit suicide because the father was a married man and refused to take responsibility. Grell Sutcliff couldn't care less about one less slut who'd allowed herself to get knocked up. Nor did she care about the child that wasn't going to breathe even one solitary breath of Earth air. All she cared about was completing the job and returning home for the night. Sleep was calling her name and the dreams that followed were always about a certain dark-haired demon. The unattainable, he was, but Miss Sutcliff didn't care, no one could take away a girl's dreams.
Letting out a deep sigh and flipping her hair from her face, Grell landed on a window ledge. She looked inside and saw the woman, her mission, sitting on the floor crying. The pathetic creature was naked and Grell could see the small lump of her stomach, starting to protrude with child. In her hands was a rather dirty looking knife. This was going to be a painful death for both her and the baby using such a tool. It would have been faster to ingest poison or to jump from the roof. However, there was something quite a bit more romantic about dying in a pool of red blood. Poison wouldn't bring forth any of the beautiful human juices that Grell adored. Jumping from the roof might, but there was no guarantee. No, stabbing oneself and letting that crimson essence spill out onto the floor was much more enjoyable.
The Grim Reaper grinned as she watched the woman take the knife and place it on her swollen belly. She cried harder for a few seconds and Grell started to wonder if the woman mightn't change her mind. Then with a shriek worthy of a bat, she plunged the knife into her abdomen and pulled it out quickly. The woman's blood oozed from the wound and she took the knife and thrust it into her heart. Grell took this chance to enter into the room and let the stench of blood overtake her senses. Smiling even further she watched as the woman's cinematic record started to play and without a second thought Grell lunged and completed her mission.
William always assumed most of Grell's jobs ended up with too many hiccups. This time the process went without a hitch and Grell was pleased with herself. No demons showed up, no bratty little boys, and this time the woman was on the list to die. One of these days she'd show William that Grell was more than capable of being a Grim Reaper.
/GG/
It was supposed to be a simple trip into town; nothing more, nothing less. Finding a half rotted corpse in one's city house didn't make the trip simple anymore. Instead it caused stress, created a mess that needed to be cleaned, and caused one diminutive boy to have to spend the day at Scotland Yard explaining that he didn't know the woman who had been killed in his attic.
Needless to say, Ciel was pissed and rightfully so. He'd left his butler at the house to clean up the disgust left by the corpse while he answered every question presented him. It took quite a bit of effort not to chuckle wryly when the constables tried their best to trip him up by asking similar questions using different wording. Finally, after a number of hours, he'd had enough.
"If you keep asking me the same questions over and over again then the only thing you're going to accomplish is wasting my time," he spat, hotly. The gentleman in front of him recoiled slightly, but leaned in to ask another question.
"Do you keep a maid at your city house, Lord Phantomhive?" This was the third time he'd been asked this same question.
"I told you before…twice…I do not keep any full-time staff at the city house. Whenever I plan on coming into town I send my servants ahead of me to clean the place up before my arrival. This was how I found out that there was a corpse in my attic." Ciel was bored, tired, and rather agitated. He wanted to leave. "If you have no more new questions then I will take my leave. This has been a complete waste of my time, and yours."
Hardly anyone could disagree when Ciel put his foot down. The way he spoke had a finality to it that left no room to move about. Two perplexed constables let the boy exit the room, the office, and then the station without attempting to stop him. Such an action wouldn't have done much anyway since they couldn't very well hold a kid overnight.
Ciel walked out into the setting sun and took in a deep breath. The Yard had a musty smell and he was grateful to be out of the stuffy room. He'd need a bath once he returned to the townhouse since he was sweaty. The black-haired boy hated feeling dirty. Even though his own hands were clean, this entire fiasco had left him feeling as if he'd spent hours rolling about the mud like a common pig.
Sebastian wasn't waiting for him, which probably meant he was still attempting to remove the smell from the room. A dead person in his attic, rotting for god knows how many days was bound to leave behind some sort of malignant odor that wasn't going to be easy to clean. Of course Ciel was probably wrong about that thought; Sebastian was more than likely finished. After all, what sort of butler would he be if he couldn't clean up such a mess in a timely manner? Ciel didn't doubt for a moment that by the time he walked home the entire townhouse would look as immaculate as ever.
/GG/
Grell watched the little boy leave Scotland Yard and head back to his city house by himself. That was new, but then again the brat was getting older and probably felt as if it wasn't necessary to have his dreamy shadow following him everywhere. Too bad for her since seeing Sebas-chan was one of her favorite past times. Stalking the creature didn't do much since Sebastian knew everything, but unintentionally running into him was another thing completely. If the demon butler wasn't within eye-sight he was most likely nearby. And while Grell didn't particularly want to deal with the kid, Ciel Phantomhive was definitely a good way of running into the object of a Grim Reaper's desire.
"Rather uncommon to see you walking about town unattended," Grell purred into Ciel's ear, causing the youth to tense up and turn on the red head.
"And what of it, Grell?" Ciel demanded, stepping back so he was a couple of feet away from the transgendered woman.
"I'm just surprised to see you without your usual arm candy," Grell replied, smiling vindictively. "And pray tell, where is my darling Sebas-chan this evening?"
Ciel rolled his eyes and started to walk away. He wanted nothing to do with the woman in red. Every time they came into contact unnecessary things happened. He'd already had enough of the unnecessary for the day.
"Come on now, young Phantomhive," Grell whined, not caring how she looked when her questions weren't being answered. "Play nice!"
"Walking home is not playing. I'm not sure how you are mixing them up."
"Tell me where Sebas-chan is and I will leave you alone," Grell bargained. She knew the kid would cave eventually if she persisted enough. There was a method to her madness, after all.
"I highly doubt that," Ciel shot back, not even realizing he was actually conversing in a normal fashion with the Grim Reaper. In the back of his mind he was actually grateful to have some way to pass the time, even if it meant talking to the charismatic Grell.
Grell giggled and jumped in front of the boy so she was looking right into his eye. "Oh, but little Ciel, you'll never know if you don't try, now will you?" She waved a finger in his face.
Ciel swatted the article away and tried to walk around the otherworldly creature. Grell bounced back and forth in front of him, predicting his every move to the point where they danced together on the sidewalk. It was lucky the area was all but deserted or passersby might have stalled in their own movement to watch the boy, dressed in black with a top hat and a cane, jumping around.
After a few moments of play Ciel stopped and ground his cane into the cobbles. "Is this necessary Grell?"
"Of course it is!" the woman sing-songed. "You need a little more fun in your life, especially since all you do is deal with adult matters. Someone needs to teach that fabulous demon how to treat you more like a kid and not just dinner."
This announcement actually hit Ciel in a part of the brain he thought he'd even accessed. A memory popped into his head of his father and him rolling about the carpeted floor. They were wrestling and his mom was off to the side egging the both of them on. Internally he smiled at the memory, but his facial features only conveyed a minor amount of shock, both from the memory and the fact that Grell seemed to show some interest in something other than the color red or his butler.
Grell stood up to full height and put a hand on the top of Ciel's hat. "Hit a nerve there, didn't I?" she asked, pleased that she'd managed a slight bout of emotions from the normally cool child.
"Not really, just annoyed that you've kept me from returning home. Sebastian will come looking for me soon." He tried to act as uninterested as possible. "Unless of course that is your plan, Grell?" he asked, eye narrowing.
A smile lit Grell's eyes as she lowered her glasses to the tip of her nose. The kid was smart, but that wasn't what she'd imagined. While Sebastian was always on her mind, she was actually starting to like the little game she and the boy had started playing. And oh yes, they were playing, even if the younger didn't actually consider it as such.
"I say we forget about Mr. Butler for a time and find something entertaining to do together," she suggested, knowing full well that unless forced Ciel would never agree to such a request.
Ciel caught on and decided he'd play her game and humor her for a while. It wasn't as if he any pressing business to attend to and it wasn't as if Sebastian wouldn't come and collect him at some point in the near future anyway.
"Okay, Grell," he answered calmly. "What would you suggest we do then?"
Grell's eyes shot wide. She wasn't actually expecting the little Lord to play along and thus hadn't thought that far ahead. She didn't know what she could do with a child, and a human one at that. It wasn't like she could do the things with a twelve year old that she could do with said child's butler. And she couldn't really do the same things with a kid that she could do with other Grim Reapers; not that she ever really did much with the others anyway.
Using her superior brain she wracked her memory to find something that would appeal to a child, specifically one who wanted nothing more than to be an adult before his time. Then it hit her like lightening striking her brain. A smile snaked its way across her face as she took hold of Ciel's free hand and threw him on her back and piggybacked him onto the roof of the nearest house.
"Grell!" Ciel involuntarily cried out in surprise. "What's the meaning of this?"
"We can't get there quickly enough on foot, little Ciel, so we are taking the fast way," Grell calmly shouted back so he could hear her.
"Someone's going to see us!" Ciel growled, wrapping his legs around Grell's midriff tighter lest he fall off and create a mess on the street below.
"Nonsense," Grell giggled. "As if humans are intelligent enough to see someone like me when I fly. There is no such thing as a human who pays attention to anyone other than themselves anyway."
The raven-headed boy couldn't argue that knowledge. There were countless beings in existence on Earth that humans didn't pay attention to. He himself was rather the selfish twit on occasion and he didn't half wonder if it ever bothered Sebastian. His butler wouldn't make comment of it; after all he wouldn't be much of a butler if he spoke out of turn. But that didn't mean the demon didn't think about it to himself.
Still musing, Ciel didn't realize that Grell had stopped her travels and he still hadn't removed himself from her back. It wasn't until his make-shift horse turned her head and looked into his eye that he excused himself and hopped off. Then he looked around to understand his surroundings.
"Grell, where have you taken me?" he asked, not quite sure where they were.
"This, little Lord Phantomhive," Grell declared with an air of superiority, "is one of the few stationary doorways into the realm in which our beloved Sebas-chan calls his home."
Surprise didn't even cover how Ciel felt after hearing that news. He'd always been curious as to his butler's true origins and here Grell was dangling temptation right in front of his very nose. Visiting the demon realm could very well turn out to be a most intriguing experience.
Ciel wasn't going to show his desire though. "Was it your plan all along to bring me here so another demon could make a meal of me, thereby giving you a clear way to Sebastian?"
Honestly, Grell hadn't even thought of that and it was an interesting idea to say the least. Of course Grell knew that if she did that then Sebastian would most likely kill her for losing his meal.
"No, but was a notion. I didn't even think of that," commented Grell. "The reason you are here, the reason I am here, is we are both in need of each other to enter. You can't enter without someone like me and I cannot enter without someone who has a pact with a demon," she continued to explain, making Ciel realize that at times Grell could be calm and not overly flamboyant. "Do you want to go in or would you rather keep it to the imagination?"
Giving him the choice was the wisest move. Many humans would have been scared, but she knew that Ciel wasn't like many humans. If anything he was more a subset of human.
"What would be the point of bringing me to the middle of nowhere if you didn't want to go?" Ciel deadpanned.
Eyes forward the two took a step toward the doorway. Ciel couldn't actually see the entry, but he didn't doubt for a moment that it was there. Grell may have been a joke in all types of society, but her curiosity was similar to his. Absentmindedly both he and the Grim Reaper reached out and grasped hands before proceeding forward and being eaten by the nothingness.
/GG/
"I now understand why Sebas-chan prefers to stay in the human realm. Who'd have thought that a realm full of demons could be so boring!" Grell complained, disappointment dripping off of every word.
Ciel had to agree with that sentiment. He'd have at least expected to see a demon in the demon realm, but unless they were hiding the whole trip had been a waste of time.
"There are hundreds of more interesting places to visit. We could have gone to Barbados or someplace where the men are scantily clad." Grell was not happy as she finished escorting the young Lord back to his townhouse. Even the bond that they'd managed to create had been shattered upon returning from their adventure, or lack thereof.
"It's hardly worth complaining about something that's already happened, Grell," Ciel commented dryly. He saw his home in the middle of the block and was glad to be home where he could put his feet up.
"But I wanted to find out more about Sebas-chan by visiting his home, seeing his neighborhood…meeting his parents!" the red-head cried in mock anger.
Ciel chuckled. Grell was back to normal and acting just like the little child she was at heart. "Do demons even have parents?" He stopped in front of his house and turned to bid his temporary companion goodbye like a proper gentleman should.
"Everyone has to come from somewhere," Grell commented, talking in her surroundings. "Wait, this is your place?" she asked, remembering her task from a while before. Normally she dropped any and all of her collections from her mind, but the amount of blood had been extensive and with all that red she clearly remembered the night.
"Yes, and the reason Sebastian wasn't with me today was because someone died in my attic. He was cleaning it up," Ciel responded, finally answering the question from some time ago.
"I was the one who collected her and the infant's soul," Grell proudly stated.
The boy turned and glared. "You were responsible for the mess in my house?"
"Not hardly; the wench was responsible for the mess, I just collected her soul after she stabbed herself."
Ciel involuntarily groaned. "The next time you collect from any of my abodes, have the decency to contact Sebastian so he can clean the corpse up before it has a chance to decay."
Grell leaned down and stared Ciel in the eye again. "Really?" she asked, actually interested. "You are giving me permission to come visit Sebas-chan any time there's a death near you?" Grell eyed the child carefully. "I'm surprised you don't ask me to save the person to avoid the mess to begin with."
"Like I care about someone dying, I just don't want Sebastian to spend too much time cleaning up unnecessary messes. He has more important responsibilities."
The way Ciel spoke gave Grell shivers. She was starting to like the kid and his deadpan, morbid way of speaking. Ciel didn't care about anything, including himself. Grell found him an enigma and an intrigued Grell was a dangerous Grell. She was going to have fun with him in the future.
"Well, Ciel," she purred impishly in his ear, red hair blowing in the wind and wrapping around the other's neck. The hairs on the back of Ciel's neck stood on end, but he didn't move. "It's been fun and I'm sure we'll meet again."
Ciel watched the Grim Reaper jump onto the roof and disappear into the twilight. He shook his head and started to question his sanity. Had he actually spent time with Grell and enjoyed himself?
"Master?"
Ciel looked at the door and saw Sebastian standing at attention and waiting to serve him. He started toward his townhouse and caught himself looking toward the sky again. Whatever had happened between he and Grell had obviously left an unintentional impression; and yes, it was definitely going to be fun.