Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Summary: To revitalise Funtom which is in danger of bankruptcy, Ciel expands the business by opening a teashop at his aunt's suggestion that only hires good looking waiters. One of the candidates is a man named Sebastian Michaelis... CielxSebastian.

Chapter 1:

The CEO and owner of his family business, Funtom, scowled as he went through pages of spreadsheets, charts and sales forecasts that all conveyed the same message; he was losing money. Ciel Phantomhive and taken over the family business upon the murder of his parents and after being rescued from his kidnappers when he was 13 and had led the company through various crises including the recession and now at the age of 19, he was at his wit's end.

He picked up the phone on his desk and dialled the number of his aunt who was a shareholder as well as one of his father's acquaintances Tanaka who was another shareholder to request an urgent meeting regarding the future of the company.

"To put it simply, our sales have been falling for the past three months," he informed them abruptly once they were seated in front of his desk. "I feel that it is only fair to tell you both since you are heavily involved with Funtom and have a say in all decisions."

His red haired aunt leaned closer. "How bad is it?"

As an answer he handed her a stack of paper detailing statistics and predicted trends in growth and she and Tanaka pored over them together.

"It is likely that we will last another two years before we go into bankruptcy and have to be bailed out," Ciel sighed sadly. "Dad must be rolling in his grave at the prospect."

"Is there anything that can be done to prevent it?" Angelina enquired worriedly. "Why are the sales falling in the first place?"

Ciel tapped the desk with his ring irritably. "For the toys, it's mainly competition from cheaper brands that produce their products less ethically than us and the products tend to be lower quality, but the general public don't seem to care about that. As for the confectionary, parents are finally now worried about their children's teeth which is good for them and bad for us."

"What happened to the line of sugar free sweets? I know they were produced successfully in the test kitchen," his aunt brightened. "Maybe we can use them."

Ciel shook his head. "The only sugar substitute that produced the right consistency was Lycasin and it caused all the taste testers to have some... toilet problems. The upstairs toilets are blocked off for a reason."

Both of the shareholders in front of him winced and were silent for a moment before Angelina returned to the forefront with a suggestion.

"We can advertise them as being perfect for revenge."

Her nephew rolled his eyes. "That would cause more problems than good. Do either of you have any sensible suggestions?"

"We could move one of our bigger factories overseas, it would keep labour and material costs down," Tanaka suggested.

"No," Ciel said immediately. "That would go against the values of Funtom. Keeping production here has given us a good reputation."

"What about expanding to a new market?"

The owner of Funtom looked sharply at Tanaka "Name a market that is not saturated already."

The older man retreated into silence as Ciel went through all the trend forecasts for future months.

"There should be a temporary seasonal rise in sales next month as it will be the Christmas shopping period-" he was cut off by his aunt.

"I have an idea, Ciel."

Ciel asked the obvious question. "Is is sensible and viable?"

"Just listen without interrupting," she ordered and Ciel instantly inferred that it was not going to be sensible. Then again there was nothing to lose by listening to her so he nodded and waved his hand to signal that she could speak.

"I brought something for your birthday a few days ago," she began, her opening sentence causing Ciel to arch his eyebrows.

His birthday presents from his aunt had always been on a completely different level to all of the other presents he received. Last year she had rented out the London Eye for the evening and had invited random passer bys in an effort for him to make friends which had not worked well to say the least.

"I purchased some premises in Piccadilly Circus. I was planning to turn them into a nice little teashop for you as I know how much you like your tea."

Ciel smiled briefly before turning serious again. "How does this fit in with your idea? There are a surplus of cafes and coffee shops in London as it is."

His aunt held up a finger, her fingernail painted red to match her outfit.

"There will be a unique selling point. It won't be like any other teashop."

Ciel shot her a sceptical look as she continued on.

"These days, especially in large cities like London, it is hard to get decent service anywhere so we could incorporate that as customers will be more likely to return if they are served well. They would also be more likely to return if the person they were being served by was good looking," she explained happily. "We just need to hire some good looking waiters and wait for the customers."

Her nephew face palmed. He should not have botheredlistening to her if she was going to come up with something like this.

"Who would the target market be?" he asked hesitantly, not entirely sure if he wanted to hear anymore of the idea.

"Females."

"Teenage girls? Perhaps it would be better to appeal to a market with more disposable income," Tanaka said, seeming to be as confused as Ciel.

"Females of all ages, of course. You will see," she smirked. "What do you think?"

The CEO and the other shareholder exchanged looks which did not go unnoticed by his aunt.

"Well, neither of you have come up with something," she interjected. "I've already brought the premises and started building work so we might as well go ahead."

"I don't see any harm in doing a trial," Tanaka agreed and they both turned to the CEO expectantly who did not look happy with them.

He glared before replying. "I think the idea is ridiculous and won't work," he sighed. "However you can go ahead with it for the moment. Good luck on finding some good looking waiters to work for you, Aunt Ann."

On hearing that, she clapped her hands excitedly and grabbed his hand to pull him out from behind his desk.

"Let's go then!"

"Where?" Ciel demanded as he was dragged out of his office.

Ten minutes later they were standing in Oxford Circus and Angelina was holding a pair of binoculars to scan the crowd. Ciel debated sneaking off back to the office whilst she was occupied with her search, but he did not fancy looking at depressing statistics and part of him wanted to see if she would actually succeed in her search. He watched her binoculars focus in on a young man with blonde hair clipped back with red hair pins.

"I like that one!" she shouted before running after him down the street.

Eventually she returned with two other males in addition to the one Ciel had seen. All the candidates looked to be complete opposites of each other. One was a taller and darker blonde with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth which was dripping ash over the pavement. Another was a long haired redhead who looked completely psychotic to Ciel due to the skulls on his glasses and the pointy teeth. He began to feel even more misgivings than he had before.

"Hello, I'm Finny," the one who looked the youngest greeted him. "Are you really a CEO? You look too young."

"I agree," the redhead drawled and produced a nail file out of his pocket and began filing his nails in the middle of the street. "I'm Grell Sutcliffe in case you wanted to know, brat."

Ciel narrowed his eyes at him and decided he needed a talk with the person who came up with the idea. He tapped his aunt on the shoulder and stood on his tiptoes to whisper in her ear.

"Are you sure that you have selected the right people?"

"We need different types to get a wide customer base," she hissed back.

Something about that sounded familiar to Ciel. He remembered reading an article about marketing in south east Asia.

"Is this an Asian idea? You were the Funtom representative who went to Japan and Korea after all."

Her eyes shifted tellingly to the left and she hastily changed the subject. "It doesn't matter. In any case we need another couple of waiters or one really good looking one."

"Fine," Ciel huffed and scrutinised the people coming down the street.

Much to his surprise he locked eyes with a tall man with a long black fringe and scarlet eyes. The man walked past and smiled at him. Ciel frowned. It was unusual for people in London to make eye contact with each other let alone smile.

Behind him he heard his aunt squeal and he knew that she had found her fourth candidate. He turned back just in time to see her accosting him by pinching his bottom. He sighed exasperatedly and wondered if she had told any of them what she had gathered them for.

"What do you think, Ciel?" she asked him once she had encouraged the man to join the group of clueless candidates. "Is this enough people?"

"I think four is enough, there is no need to look for anymore," he said hastily. "Do any of them actually know what they are getting into?"

"I did explain to the first three, but not to the fourth," she turned to the fourth candidate. "What is your name?"

"Sebastian Michaelis," he answered and smiled again, flashing his white teeth at Ciel. "It's nice to meet you."

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 2:

Ciel eyed up the line of candidates that he aunt was currently talking to and wished for nth time that he had never listened to her. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Angelina had led the group of mismatched group of men back to his office and was in the middle of briefing them of where to meet the following day.

The teenager resolved to ask some of his contacts to CRB check the red haired one, Grell Sutcliffe as he looked a little deranged. Did females really like that type? He could not see his cousin Elizabeth liking him. It was likely that his aunt had only chosen Sutcliffe because he appeared to share her love of the colour red.

"So meet at this address at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. I will be measuring you for your uniforms so you can all dress casually," she explained a little too enthusiastically and Ciel groaned quietly. More bottom pinching was likely to occur. "Do you have anything to add, Ciel?"

"No," he answered quickly. He needed some time alone with his aunt to ensure that she was planning this properly and was not making it has she went along.

The group filed out of his office with Bardroy, the chain smoker dropping another measure of ash onto the carpet and Sebastian Michaelis flashing another smile at him.

"Aunt Ann," he paused and attempted to prioritise his questions. "If you ever manage to get this teashop open and running, would it pass an environmental health inspection with Bardroy there? Look at my carpet!"

His aunt swatted this concern away with a flick of her hand. "They give you an inspection date, don't they? It can be his day off."

Ciel chose another important question. "What about Finny? He doesn't look that intelligent."

Angelina waved her hand again. "Females like men like that."

Ciel felt like hitting his head on his desk. "Could you please give me some proof about what "types" females like? Like a consumer survey. I'm not entirely sure I believe you about any of this? What would Dad say if he was here?"

"He would be pleased that Funtom has been able to adapt to changing circumstances. That is very important for any business."

Ciel knew there was some truth in that statement, but there were some other problems that needed to be sorted out.

"You didn't even ask them for their CVs," he sighed. "What kind of employer are you? You should have checked that they had experience in the hospitality industry."

As he expected his aunt did not look too perturbed. "The renovation work won't finish for another few days. There is time to train them, it shouldn't be too hard."

A very important question to ask occurred to Ciel. "Have you actually planned any of this properly?"

His aunt grinned. "I have planned the theme and decor and the waiters will dress like butlers to match."

"What is the theme?" Ciel questioned nervously.

"Victorian England. I've ordered some classic tea sets and damask wallpaper."

Yet again something about this idea sounded strangely familiar to Ciel. He remembered being shown all the photos from his aunt's business trip to Japan. One of them had been of her being served tea by people dressed as butlers.

"That sounds like a ...butler cafe. Are you sure it will work for British people like it does for the Japanese?"

Now she looked unsure, but she quickly covered it up.

"Of course it will. Are you coming with me tomorrow?"

Ciel nodded immediately. He needed to keep an eye on his aunt before she concocted anymore outlandish ideas and he wanted to observe her training of the workforce.

The teacup splintered and broke the moment the blonde idiot called Finnian picked it up and Ciel did not even bother to look up from his laptop as this was the tenth time he had done it. Thankfully for everyone involved it was only an inexpensive set as the proper ones had not yet arrived.

"Perhaps try gripping it a little more lightly?" Angelina suggested casually with the only sign that she was annoyed being a slight tightening at the side of her mouth.

Upon seeing that, Ciel smiled nastily. He had found out that none of them had any experience with working in hospitality and none of them had ever made tea using loose tea as opposed to teabags. The only exception was Sebastian Michaelis who was working silently on the other side of the kitchen and had not broken any china yet. Ciel glanced over at the kitchen to see that Sebastian wasn't there anymore.

The scent of Earl Grey pervaded his sensed and he turned his head to see Sebastian Michaelis standing behind with a steaming cup of tea in his hand.

"I made this for you," he said and placed it down next to Ciel's laptop. Ciel picked it up doubtfully. The tea seemed to be the right colour; he hadn't overdone the milk or put too little in. He took a sip and sighed contentedly before remembering where he was.

"Is is to your liking?" the older man asked with a smile.

"Just a little," he replied and finished the cup. "At least someone here knows how to make tea."

The sound of china smashing caused bother of them to turn and see Finny picking up shards of a teapot. Ciel sighed and was about to return to his work when Sebastian sat down opposite him.

"You don't seem to be enthusiastic about this idea," Sebastian observed.

"Why would I be? It's doomed to fail," the CEO griped. "The only consolation is that she is paying for it and the Christmas boost in sales will cover any losses from this for a while."

"You can't deny that she hasn't done a good job with the interior design."

Ciel was forced to admit that he was right. The seating area was aesthetically pleasing with a large chandelier above his head that managed not to look tacky and he could attest to the comfiness of the armchairs. The red patterned wallpaper was not too obtrusive either.

"Maybe. Do you like your uniform?" he returned with a smirk. "You didn't look like you enjoyed being measured by my aunt."

Sebastian twitched and Ciel's smirk went up a notch. His aunt had sneaked in some pinches here and there much to the man's obvious discomfort.

"Does this teashop have a name yet?" Sebastian changed the subject adroitly and the teenager realised it was appropriate to ask that. However he wasn't sure that he wanted to know what his aunt wanted to call it.

"Aunt Ann," he called out. "What is this place called? It had better be sensible."

His aunt rushed over, leaving Bardroy and Grell to supervise Finny.

"I'm glad you asked. What do you think of "Black Butler"?"

Ciel simply stared at her, guessing that he had heard properly. Angelina seemed to sense his disapproval.

"Well, we have butlers here and they are going to be wearing black. Sebastian, what do you think?"

Sebastian smiled and Ciel noted that it was more of a forced smile compared to others that had been directed his way.

"It sounds unique. There shouldn't be any copyright issues," he informed her. "It does indeed fit the theme."

Angelina laid her hand on Sebastian's shoulder causing him to flinch.

"See, Ciel. Sebastian agrees with me. Can you come up with anything better?"

"I usually pay people to come up with product names," the CEO retorted. "That said, it would be a waste of company resources in this case. I suppose you can call it "Black Butler" then."

She clapped her hands triumphantly. "Now that we all agree on the name, we should all get to know each other properly."

"No partying," Ciel interjected, this time he could predict exactly what she was going to say.

"But Ciel," his aunt stared at him beseechingly.

"At least until Finny can make a palatable cup of tea," he relented slightly, assuming a little too quickly that it was never going to happen.

Five hours later, after many failed attempts Ciel gave his approval on Finny's tea making although it had tasted more like the tea Sebastian had made him, but considering how many watery and unappetising cups of tea he had been served over the past five hours, he let them all off.

Considering what he knew of his aunt's partying habits, he packed up his laptop quietly whilst everyone was busy discussing which club to go to and was about to creep out the door when a black clad arm blocked his way.

"Are you going somewhere, Ciel?" Sebastian enquired silkily. "I would like to get to know you better..."

Without thinking, Ciel backed away in the direction of his aunt. At least he could predict her actions fairly well when it came to partying. Sebastian Michaelis was an unknown entity for the moment.

"Did he try to sneak off? You're involved in this too, Ciel," Angelina reprimanded him.

Ciel's gaze slid to the door which was inconveniently being blocked by Sebastian and he knew there was no escape.

"Fine, I will stay, but I am not setting foot in a club, neither will I be drinking any alcoholic beverages," he huffed.

The following morning Ciel woke up slowly, his eyelids feeling strangely heavy and his head seemed to ache for some reason. He opened his eyes gradually and took in his surroundings which were unfamiliar until his brain started to work properly.

He was not in his bedroom. He was lying on the floor of his aunt's new teashop with Sebastian Michaelis leaning over him in concern.

What had happened the previous night?

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots

Chapter 3:

"Are you feeling all right, Ciel?" Sebastian asked in concern, making Ciel that he was still staring at the man with a horror struck expression on his face.

"...What happened last night?" Ciel rasped, his tongue felt like sandpaper and he brushed his rumpled hair out his face with one hand.

"Someone spiked your glass of water- it was most likely your aunt. By spiking, I meant there was a tiny amount of vodka in it. Unfortunately, you are a lightweight drinker so the effects were immediate," he explained.

It began to dawn on Ciel that in addition to drinking alcohol and waking up with a hangover, he may have done something in between. Something embarrassing. He glanced up at the ceiling and down at himself. The chandelier was still there and he was still wearing his clothes which were encouraging signs.

Sebastian coughed. "Look around you properly."

Ciel complied and spotted an array of empty glass bottles and a set of cards strewn across one of the tables and caught sight of his aunt asleep on one of the sofas and Grell Sutcliffe spread-eagled on the floor nearby. Bardroy and Finny could also be spotted in the vicinity. Clearly the only person sensible enough to pass out somewhere comfortable was his aunt. He turned back to Sebastian and squinted at him. He didn't look like he had consumed large amounts of alcohol; the only difference was a red mark on his mouth.

"What happened to your lip?" he asked interestedly. "And how come you aren't passed out drunk with everyone else?"

"High alcohol tolerance and I'm sure everyone will be very willing to tell you what happened to my mouth. You're lucky that I'm not a germaphobe," Sebastian said cryptically and stood up. "Tea?"

The teenager stared after him in surprise, unsure what being a germaphobe had to do with the scab on his lip. He tried to sit up and the backlash from his head distracted him completely until Sebastian returned with a teacup.

"That had better not be Earl Grey," he groused. "I've had enough of it; it's all Finny's fault."

"It's herbal tea," Sebastian answered. "Would you like some help getting up?"

He held out his hand and Ciel took it after a moment of hesitation, his headache winning over his distaste of Sebastian's overfriendliness. Sebastian helped him into an armchair whilst Ciel cursed himself for not being able to remember.

He put the cup of tea to his lips and found that his lower lip twinged when he tried to drink the tea. He touched his lip and felt something hard that reminded him of dried blood or a scab. He wondered how it could have happened. Ciel decided that Sebastian might know the answer as he had one too.

The significance didn't occur to him until a few minutes later due to his headache and general state of confusion. Their scabs were mirror images of each other and were in the same positions. Did that mean...?

He shook his head. The teenager was very sure that he was one of those people were a boring drunk and not an amorous one. He did not kiss other men when he was drunk, his interests did not lie there and he certainly wasn't interested in Sebastian of all people.

"What's the time?" he asked when Sebastian offered him some paracetemol and a glass of water.

"Half past 11. Everyone has been asleep for most of the morning. I was going to let them sleep it off."

He held out the tablets and water to Ciel who knocked them back immediately.

"What are the cards for?" Ciel eventually questioned once his headache had settled.

Sebastian followed his gaze and smirked. "Ring of fire. It's a drinking game. It's quite effective in that everyone gets drunk very quickly."

Ciel groaned. "Did I take part in this game?"

The older man's smirk stretched even further. "Perhaps. In case you wanted to know, I won the game; I didn't pass out."

Ciel huffed. "Of course you won. You can do everything."

He realised what he had said when Sebastian's eyes widened and he raised his eyebrows.

"Are you jealous, Ciel?"

"No. I just find you annoying," he muttered and of course Sebastian picked up his words.

"Having a hangover really loosens your tongue. I'll remember that for the future."

The teenager narrowed his eyes at him, but did not retort, deciding that it would be best to remain silent before he gave Sebastian anymore material for teasing.

His employees finally woke up early in the afternoon and were uncommunicative and half asleep for several hours until Grell suddenly pointed at Ciel.

"I can't believe that you did that to Sebas-chan!" he wailed.

This seemed to wake everyone else up and they joined in.

"I never thought you would do something like that," his aunt added.

"What am I supposed to have done?" Ciel demanded and unconsciously put his hand over his mouth.

"I think you should apologise to Sebastian," Bardroy told him.

Ciel looked over at Sebastian and shot him a questioning look.

"It wasn't that bad, he could have done something worse," Sebastian said calmly. "It might also help if you told Ciel what he did- he doesn't seem to remember although I would have thought it would have been a memorable experience."

"I'll tell him!" Grell volunteered immediately and walked over to Ciel and pointed dramatically at his mouth. "You see that mark on your lip? That's from where you locked lips with Sebas-chan!"

A blush crept up Ciel's face and he cringed. Much to his horror, his half formed suspicion had been correct. He had kissed Sebastian. Fortunately for him, his brain was quick enough now to spot an error in Grell's story.

"Kissing doesn't give people marks on their lips."

Bardroy pushed Grell out the way and took over the explanation.

"You didn't really kiss him- you just landed on top of his lips when you fell of the table you were standing on."

Ciel sighed in relief and his heartbeat slowed down only to speed up when Bardroy continued on.

"It was what you did next that is the thing you need to apologise for."

"What did I do?" he asked with some trepidation. What could be worse than kissing Sebastian? He soon found out.

"You violated his mouth!" Grell screeched.

Ciel's eyes widened and he turned to Bardroy. "Did I?"

"Not in the way you're thinking," Bardroy began and winced. "Alcohol doesn't agree with you. Unfortunately for Sebastian you emptied the contents of your stomach into his mouth right after you landed on him."

A memory came flying back to Ciel. He had stood on a table for some reason and his balance had been affected by all the alcohol he had consumed causing him to fall off and land on top of Sebastian. He had locked lips with him and then he had thrown up straight away into his mouth.

Ciel made a face. Sebastian's germaphobe comment now made sense completely. He was lucky it wasn't the other way around as he had no idea how he would react if Sebastian had puked up into his mouth. Nevertheless, Bardroy was right, his action was worthy of an apology.

"I'm sorry," he apologised and avoided looking directly at Sebastian's eyes. "How is your mouth?"

Much to Ciel's relief Sebastian simply smiled and nodded.

"I have brushed my teeth since then. That said, in return for accepting your apology, you will have to do something in return."

Ciel looked up fearfully at Sebastian. Just when he thought the ordeal was over, something like this came up. He observed that Angelina was looking at him with shining eyes. She probably thought that Sebastian was going to ask to be his friend.

"I might come to collect a favour from you later on, when you least expect it."

His aunt squealed and Ciel glared nastily at her.

"What kind of favour, Sebastian?"

Sebastian looked thoughtful. "I don't quite know yet. I will decide when I know your nephew better."

"What about getting to know me better first, Sebas-chan?" Grell swanned over to the man and poked him teasingly. "You completely ignored me last night. That's not good for a lady's heart."

Sebastian brushed him off whilst Ciel leaned over to whisper to his aunt.

"So in addition to hiring someone who is never going to pass an environmental health inspection, you hired a gender confused idiot?"

"Red is his favourite colour too," she retorted and her mouth stretched into a grin. "I hired someone for you too. I saw him smile at you yesterday so I hired him." Her voice dropped to an even lower volume. "I think he likes you..."

"Aunt Ann, did you really hire him because of that?" he griped and sighed. "He does seem to be the most competent employee so far so I can't complain. However, don't you dare do anymore match making."

She pouted at him. "But it's fun. Oh, I told Lizzie about this. Expect a visit from her sometime this week."

"Here or the office?"

"Here of course. I thought you would be here to oversee everyone and make sure they don't make any more mistakes."

"This is your side project," he said, beginning to get an idea of what she had intended. There was no way he was going to be here every day to watch Finny smash all of the china, Grell fawning over Sebastian and Bardroy breaking safety regulations.

"No, this is a new Funtom business," she corrected. "You are the CEO, you need to supervise them. If you didn't want to get involved, you wouldn't have come here yesterday."

"But-"

"Just for a week. It's not like there are any new products been developed at the moment so you don't need to go to the office. You can do all of your work here," she reprimanded him and altered her tactics. "I can't be the one to supervise them; I don't know the safety regulations like you do."

"Learn them then," Ciel argued back, but the compliment successfully softened him. "I will do it, just for a couple of weeks though. They should be self sufficient then."

His aunt threw her arms around him happily and Ciel hastily pushed her away.

"I told you that I don't like being touched!" he snapped at her and stormed out of the room.

Angelina gave everyone a forced smile. "Ciel doesn't like to be touched so you should all be careful. You should have seen what happened to all of the psychologists I sent him to," she shuddered. "Sebastian, you should go after him."

Chapter Text

Teapots and Teacups:

Chapter 4:

Ciel sat down on the bench outside Black Butler and fumed. His aunt knew he hadn't liked contact since his kidnapping and yet she had hugged him like that. Granted, it was something that she had done in the heat of the moment, but his outburst had occurred in front of everyone, including Sebastian. He wasn't entirely sure why he cared so much about that fact.

Despite the weak autumn sunlight, Ciel noticed a shadow fall over him and assumed that his aunt had followed him out to apologise so he didn't bother verifying who was behind him before he spoke.

"Come to apologise?" he questioned coldly. "You know that I haven't liked being touched since the kid-" he broke off abruptly when someone sat down on the bench next to him and he jumped when he saw that it was Sebastian and not his aunt.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" he demanded and stood up to flee the scene before Sebastian asked him to finish his sentence.

He felt a hand grab him arm and he jerked back.

"I came out to see how you were. You can't solve your problems by constantly running away from it, Ciel," the older man told him.

Reluctantly Ciel sat back down and decided to make some things clear to Sebastian.

"Don't spout any psychologist babble to me again- I've seen enough of them to know all the vocabulary and you will look at me with pity when I tell you my reasons why."

He cast a look at him to see that there was only curiosity in Sebastian's eyes, no pity of sympathy. Perhaps Sebastian wasn't too annoying after all. Maybe.

"As you have probably guessed by the face I run my own company, I have no parents. They were murdered when I was ten," he explained. "I took over the company last year on my 18th birthday. It was run by my aunt and one of my father's friends prior to then."

Ciel turned to look at Sebastian to check his reaction. Again, he didn't look pitying, he just looked intrigued.

"I think you are very talented to run a company at your age," Sebastian complimented him unexpectedly. "That said, I have never actually brought a Funtom product."

Ciel frowned. He had predicted that Sebastian would ask him about his kidnapping next as it had been rather obvious how his cut off sentence would have ended.

"You've never brought one of our products?" he tutted and glared. "I would recommend the caramel lollipops. I think I might have one on me."

He fished around in his pocket and brought out a slightly deformed lollipop and held it out at arm's length to Sebastian who looked very taken back by his offer. He accepted it and grimaced.

"It's a shame that I don't like sugary foods," he said with a smile as he examined the packaging. "The aesthetics are good though."

"You don't like sweets!" the teenager gasped.

Strangely enough Ciel had completely forgotten about his public outburst and devoted his full attention to questioning Sebastian.

"Sweets are bad for your teeth," Sebastian answered as he twirled the lollipop around his fingers.

This reminded Ciel of his conversation with his aunt two days before about Funtom's sugar free confectionery line and the diuretic effect of the sugar substitute. He did still have some samples somewhere so he knew what he was going to do if Sebastian annoyed him again.

"We do have some sugar free ones in development," he said as innocently as he could muster. "They passed early tests, so let me know if you would like any."

He caught Sebastian's suspicious look and he had the feeling that Sebastian might just be aware of the effects of sugar alcohols or he had good preservation instincts.

"Don't go to any extra trouble for me," Sebastian said hastily and changed the subject, "Are you still not confident that "Black Butler" will be a success?"

"Have you ever heard of such a ludicrous idea before?" Ciel muttered before speaking normally. "You seem to be marginally more level headed than Aunt Ann, what's your opinion? She isn't here to listen in like last time."

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow. "Marginally? I am the only person here without a hangover."

"If you were sensible, you wouldn't be here. You would have run away from Aunt Ann immediately," Ciel retorted. "Anyway, give me your honest opinion."

Sebastian turned his head to look in the front window of the teashop and spotted Angelina waving at him.

"I think your aunt wants us to come back in," he informed the younger boy. "I think cake baking was planned for today, although there isn't much of the day left."

At the mention of cake, Ciel perked up and stood up immediately. A thought of what Finny and Bardroy would bake with cake ingredients made him sit back down again. No cake lover wanted to see that happen.

"Aren't you coming?" Sebastian enquired and seemed to guess what was passing through is mind. "I am one hell of a cake baker myself so you don't need to be concerned about the quality of my baking."

"You're very modest," Ciel scoffed, but followed him back to the teashop anyway.

Two hours later, as he had expected, Bardroy presented him something on a cake stand that looked like it had been in a fire and did not remotely resemble the chocolate cake he had been told to make.

Ciel cut a slice out using a meat cleaver after bending several other knives.

"Did you even use the oven? It looks like you used a flamethrower instead," he commented dryly before pushing it to the side.

"How did you guess?" Bardroy grinned, causing Ciel to weakly slump in his seat.

Finny's carrot cake was next and was found to contain whole carrots instead of grated carrot. Grell's Victoria sponge followed after and contained copious amounts of red food colouring which affected the taste. Ciel was about to throw it in the bin when his aunt jumped in.

"I'll take this cake," she said and grabbed it from his hands. "You're too harsh on everyone."

"You just like it because it's red. You try it without gagging."

Ciel watched in satisfaction as she ate a mouthful and her face screwed up.

"Red colouring contains cochineal from insects and tastes very strong," he smirked. "Are you going to eat the rest of it?"

"Perhaps not," she winced and backed away from the cake. "Aren't you going to try Sebastian's cake?"

Ciel recognised that she was trying to distract him and he hated to lose an argument. However he preferred to eat cake that was actually edible so he let it slide in favour of being presented with Sebastian's devil's food cake.

The chocolate frosting was perfectly piped around the cake and the whole cake seemed to be level. One end of Finny's carrot cake had been higher than the other and the middle of Grell's had been sunken. Bardroy's cake was just simply charcoal.

Ciel dipped a finger into the frosting to have a taste and a blissful look passed over his face. He met Sebastian's amused eyes and his face flushed bright red.

"Did you make the frosting yourself?" Ciel enquired critically. "Or did you cheat?"

Sebastian looked mildly affronted. "Of course I made it myself."

The teenager cut a slice and examined the height if the layers and frosting and found no anomalies much to his disappointment. He tried a forkful and smiled unconsciously as the combination of chocolate frosting and cake was perfectly balanced.

"Is it good?" his aunt enquired before grabbing a fork and trying for herself.

"It is good," Ciel admitted reluctantly. "Well done, Sebastian. You can be in charge of teaching the others how to make tea and cook before the opening next week. Good luck."

As he spoke he felt someone poke him and he looked around to see Grell Sutcliffe glaring at him ferociously. He wondered why Grell was so annoyed with him now as he hadn't thrown up using Sebastian's mouth as a receptacle for the past twelve hours.

"What now?"

"You have been criticising everyone else for their tea and cake making skills. It's only fair that you demonstrate your own," Grell smirked and Ciel was very sure that he could see pointed teeth.

"I run a confectionary company," he returned, now beginning to feel apprehensive again. "I know a good cake when I see one; you don't have to make cakes to know that. The same goes for tea."

Grell leaned in closer. "Oh really? I still think you need to make a cake too, it's only fair. Don't you agree, Miss Durless?"

Angelina's response was exactly as Ciel predicted it to be. Her eyes sparkled and she clapped her hands happily.

"That sounds wonderful," she enthused and threw an apron at her nephew. "What cake should we have you make?"

"A chiffon cake!" Grell suggested vindictively.

"This isn't the Great British Bake Off," Ciel snapped back.

"Black forest gateau," was Bardroy's input.

"Coffee cake," Finny said.

Angelina surveyed everyone critically and came to a decision before Grell could suggest an even more complex cake out of spite.

"Sebastian had the best cake and Ciel puked in his mouth so he gets to decide."

All eyes turned to Sebastian and watched him stroke his chin thoughtfully. After a minute of suspense he finally voiced his decision.

"Genoise sponge."

"A what?" Bardroy and Finny exclaimed at the same time.

Grell scratched his head in puzzlement. "Is it French or something?"

Fortunately for the trio of idiots, Ciel knew the answer and how complex it was going to be. He assumed that Sebastian was still offended by the puke thing or maybe he had worked out that he had been offered the chance to eat diarrhoea inducing lollipops.

"It's Italian, Grell," he groaned. "It's also a fatless sponge."

"How does that work?" the redhead frowned and then shrugged. "Nevermind. It's obviously difficult so off you go."

He pushed Ciel in the direction of the kitchen, making sure he was on the opposite side to Sebastian who immediately joined Ciel to annoy him.

"Are you sure that you can do this?" Sebastian asked and waited for the boy's eyes to narrow and glare at him. He wasn't disappointed.

"I will do anything to shut Grell up," Ciel sighed and leaned around Sebastian to reach the eggs and realised he had a problem. He knew in theory how it was made, but he had never made the cake before and he didn't know exactly how to separate egg white from egg yolk. "Do you mind separating the eggs for me?"

Sebastian cocked his head on the side and seemed to consider it.

"That's cheating."

"Grell didn't specify that cheating was forbidden," Ciel pointed out, quite accustomed to finding loopholes in contracts and agreements. "I will agree to never throw up in your mouth again."

Sebastian placed his elbows on the worktop and a glint appeared in his eyes.

"That's two favours you owe me now, Ciel."

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 5

"What kind of favours are they?" Ciel asked cautiously. Perhaps he would be better off trying to bake by himself than be in debt to a suspicious person he had only known for two days.

Sebastian looked thoughtful. "A tour of Funtom? I've become quite interested in it. I'll even sample that sugar free lollipop you offered me."

Inwardly Ciel sighed in relief. That was something that was possible.

"If that's not possible, I suppose I could ask you to go-"

"It's possible!" Ciel said hastily before anything worse could be suggested. He didn't want to consider how Sebastian's sentence was supposed to end.

He handed the egg box to Sebastian with a forced smile.

"I need six egg whites," he ordered.

He watched as Sebastian cracked all the eggs perfectly and let the egg white drain into a bowl, leaving the egg yolk behind. It didn't look that hard to Ciel so he grabbed an egg to have a go. Unfortunately for him he cracked it too hard and the yolk split and came pouring out along with the egg white. He glared at it and then at Sebastian who was shaking with silent mirth.

"It's not funny," Ciel pouted and picked out a second egg to have another try, only to be waylaid by Sebastian.

"Be less violent this time. It's an egg, not Grell's face."

Ciel smiled in spite of himself and gently tapped the eggshell with a knife and cracked the egg in half and slid the egg yolk into one half and let the egg white flow out.

"It worked!" he exclaimed victoriously and grinned at Sebastian.

Sebastian smiled back and passed Ciel his bowl of egg whites. "Let's see if you can master the next part."

Ciel ignored the jibe and plugged in the electric whisk, ready to start properly. He switched the whisk on and lost a third of his mixture in two seconds. Sebastian's hand shot out to change the level.

"That's too powerful, Ciel," he reprimanded him. "You'll lose all the egg whites I prepared for you out of the kindness of my heart."

Upon hearing that Ciel snorted and whisked the egg whites at a slower speed and was relieved when he achieved the desired result. The last thing he needed was to ask for Sebastian's help again.

"The egg white forms a foam because the protein chains in the egg denature due to mechanical action and unfold to form a network and trap air bubbles," he informed the older man. He may not be experienced in actual cooking, but he knew the science behind it.

To his surprise Sebastian did look interested; most people would have yawned.

"I suppose that is correct, I have just never thought about it in that way," he said and checked Ciel's mixture. "You can add the sugar."

An obvious question occurred to Ciel whilst he added the sugar.

"What is your background? My idiotic aunt didn't ask for any CVs so I don't know. You do seem to be skilled compared to the other three idiots here."

The older man seemed to take a while to consider his answer.

"...You could say that I have worked in the hospitality industry before," he said haltingly. "However not in the catering industry."

Ciel gave him a sharp look and returned to the cake mix which was turning out surprisingly well. Sebastian leaned over his shoulder to have a look, causing Ciel to flinch but he didn't squirm away like he was tempted to.

"You can add the flour now. It has to be sieved and folded in, do you need help with that?" Sebastian offered and Ciel could feel the tickle of his breath on his cheek and he stepped to the side to pick up the flour.

"If I say yes, will I owe you more favours?" he asked sensibly.

"No, I was going to do it for free considering the amount of fun I am having just by watching you."

Ciel scowled at him and weighed out the flour carefully before sieving a small amount into the mix and folding it in with a spoon. Or rather he tried. He felt, rather than heard, Sebastian snigger behind him.

"What does folding flour into cake batter do?" Sebastian questioned, surprising Ciel again. He had been expecting him to offer to do it for a favour.

"It helps retain air-" he broke off when he realised that Sebastian had taken his spoon whilst he was distracted and had done a neat figure of eight with the spoon to mix the flour in.

"That's how you are supposed to do it," Sebastian pointed and handed the spoon back to him. "Have a go."

Ciel was too exasperated to bother to glare and snatched the spoon from Sebastian's grasp and tried for himself. The flour didn't immediately disappear and he had to swirl it around a bit, but it did work in the end. He wasn't going to be actually working at Black Butler and he was sure his cake was going to be better than Grell's already. He smirked.

Sebastian's head came into view and Ciel lost his smirk.

"What are you smirking at, Ciel?"

The teenager ignored him and poured the cake mix into cake tine and put in the oven and set the timer. He felt something touch his head and he looked up to Sebastian patting him on the head.

"I think you did a good job, Ciel."

Ciel took a step back and looked Sebastian up and down.

"For some reason you have been very touchy feely today."

"Does it bother you?"

This made Ciel pause for thought. He hadn't felt an uncontrollable urge to push the man away; he attributed that to his attention mostly being on making Genoise sponge correctly. On the other hand, he usually automatically pushed people away without even thinking about it. His mind couldn't decide and something else came out of his mouth.

"Sebastian, your hair is slightly too long for hygienic practise. If you let it grow any longer, you will have to tie it back or wear a hairnet."

The curious look on Sebastian's face morphed into a mortified look and his hands reached up to touch his hair as if to make sure it was still there and Ciel took the opportunity to disappear from the kitchen until it was time to take the cake out.

Half an hour later he had two layers of Genoise sponge and he placed them by the open window to cool at the same Sebastian reappeared behind him.

"They look about right," Sebastian commented, getting very close to Ciel again. "Are you going to do the cream next?"

"Yes," Ciel replied and saw fit to add, "I don't your help. All I have to do is not overwhisk it otherwise Syneresis will occur."

"Syneresis?"

"Shrinkage of a gel and subsequent loss of liquid," Ciel informed him, happy that he knew something that Sebastian didn't.

"How come you know a lot about the science, but you have never made it before?" Sebastian asked interestedly.

"I run a confectionary company so it helps to know the science and I can be directly involved with new product development," Ciel explained. "As for why I don't make cake; it's just easier to purchase it and I have the money to get professional ones."

"Do you know what the difference between homemade cake and shop brought cake is?" The older man asked suddenly.

Ciel paused and then resumed pouring out the cream. That was an easy question to answer.

"Commercially made cakes contain preservatives and anti caking agents among other things to increase shelf life and retain palatability-"

Sebastian interrupted him. "That is right, but I was referring to something else. If you make something yourself for another person, it is generally made with love."

This caused Ciel to pull a disgusted face. "How sappy. I never expected a line like that to come out your mouth. You really do have a way with words."

He switched his attention back to what he was doing and hoped that Sebastian was not going to continue with the subject. He didn't like to be reminded that no one had made him a cake since his parents had been murdered and that had been alone since then despite the presence of his extended family.

Much to his annoyance Sebastian was still leaning against the worktop the next time Ciel looked up from piping the cream.

"Why are you still here?" he demanded. "I've nearly finished, you can't offer me anything else in return for a favour."

Silently Sebastian pointed at Ciel's attempt at a swirl.

"If you carry on like that Grell is going to be very happy."

Without replying Ciel removed it with a knife and had another go with turned out marginally better, but it still was not a recognisable shape.

"You can show me how it's done then," he sighed and held out the piping bag to Sebastian.

The man perked up and instead of taking it, he gripped Ciel's wrists to guide him. Ciel tried to wriggle out of the hold, but Sebastian's grip was too strong. The end result was a neatly decorated Genoise sponge and a very irate teenage boy.

"I'm very sure that I have made it clear that I don't like being touched," he griped at Sebastian as they waited for the others to return and evaluate the cake.

"I didn't ask for a favour this time," Sebastian answered. "Perhaps we should just make a contract, it would be easier."

Ciel stared up at him in puzzlement and was about to answer when Grell came bounding in holding a ruler and a spirit level for some reason. The others followed in less theatrically.

"Swirls are a bit cliché," the redhead comment disdainfully and began to measure them to check they were the same size.

Ciel was about to accuse him of being petty and then he remember he would have done the same thing. He found that it was annoying to be on the receiving end.

Grell laid the spirit level on top of the cake and looked angry when it deemed that the cake was level.

"Maybe we should just taste it," Angelina suggested after noticing the glaring contest between Grell and Ciel.

Ciel took Grell's murderous look after he had tried the cake to mean that it tasted good. Finny and Bardroy gave him a thumbs up and said they looked forward to working with him.

He offered Sebastian a slice and the older man reluctantly tried some.

"I think it turned out perfectly for a first attempt," he complimented.

"I agree," Finny said and Bardroy nodded too.

"I thought it was good," Angelina agreed.

All eyes turned to Grell who was pouting in the corner.

"It wasn't bad," he huffed.

Ciel smiled widely. Perhaps his aunt's idea wasn't too bad after all.

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 6:

Ciel hated to admit it: his aunt had been right all along. Black Butler was teeming with females, mostly squealing teenage girls and even Grell was popular with them which was probably the biggest surprise for Ciel. He did have to admit that Grell did look slightly less psychotic when he was dressed in a black suit as a butler. Bardroy and Finny were popular with older females. Sebastian was simply popular with everyone.

He watched as Sebastian served tea to a large table of blushing girls. Ciel didn't know much about girls, but he was almost positive that Sebastian could have served them anything and they would have left happily. Perhaps they could save money by using less expensive tea. He made a note of it and resumed observing his employees.

Ever since he had made the Genoise sponge his relationship with everyone had improved. He wouldn't say that they were all best friends; it was more that they asked him for advice and he stopped making snarky comments from the sidelines about their abilities. It had probably helped that Finny hadn't smashed anything for several days and Bardroy smoked outside the premises instead of inside which was actually illegal.

"Would you like another cup, young master?" a familiar voice asked and Ciel looked up in surprise to see Sebastian standing next to him.

His aunt had decreed that all of the butler should address the customers as "young lady" or "young miss" and since Ciel was the only male customer, everyone called him "young master" during opening hours.

"Yes. Could I also have a death by chocolate cupcake?" Ciel requested.

They had all discovered that Sebastian could make any cake perfectly after spending several days suggesting every cake they could think of. Ciel had found those days extremely enjoyable, something to do with all the opportunities to eat cake. His favourite were Sebastian's Devil's food cake and his death by chocolate cupcakes.

"Of course, young master," Sebastian said and bowed, another one of his aunt's ideas.

"You're really getting into your role," Ciel commented wryly. "It's quite strange to watch."

Sebastian simply smiled and walked away in the direction of the kitchen and Ciel took to observing Finny to occupy himself until Sebastian returned with his cake.

The blonde was coping fairly well with serving hordes of teenage girls and Ciel could tell that he was trying hard not to crush anymore teacups in his hands. If he did Ciel knew that even his aunt would be annoyed as the inexpensive sets had been replaced with high end china tea sets.

Angelina herself was sitting alone in the corner at a small table and like Ciel, she was observing the stream of customers and unlike Ciel she was smiling brightly. He caught her eye and she mouthed something that looked like "I told you so" to him. He childishly stuck out his tongue in return and realised that all the girls sitting at the table in between them were staring at him strangely. Immediately he blushed and held up some paperwork to hide his face.

"You shouldn't do that in public, Ciel," Sebastian told him as he placed his cupcake in front of him and refilled Ciel's teacup.

"Why not?"

"...No reason in particular," Sebastian replied. "You can do it when you are with me though."

Ciel stared after him puzzlement and then strained his ears to listen in on nearby conversations. It was for market research of course. He wasn't his target market due to his gender and he still wasn't fully convinced that it was a marketable idea. Potentially, the novelty of being served by butlers could wear off quickly and he needed some target market feedback to gauge any signs of that occurring.

"That butler with dark hair is so fucking hot."

Ciel raised his eyebrows at the use of the profanity, but noted it down anyway. As had expected. Sebastian was the most popular.

"I think that butler with the red hair is a little creepy."

Whoever had said that had good taste, Ciel decided.

"That boy that stuck his tongue out at us was so adorable."

Hearing that comment made Ciel blush even darker and he found himself following the rest of the conversation.

"I wouldn't waste your time. He wouldn't be here if he was straight. Think about it, what kind of male would come to a butler cafe if he was interested in females?"

Rather understandably Ciel choked and hid his face. People thought he was gay because he was the only male customer at a butler cafe. The girls' conversation continued and he listened in reluctantly. He didn't like where it was heading.

"He seemed very close with that black haired butler if you know what I mean."

Ciel's ear picked up the sound of the girls gasping and he groaned. So, not only was he gay, he was gay with Sebastian.

"I think they look cute together."

"The age difference is a bit too much though," another girl said. "That boy looks about 12."

The 19 year old glared ferociously in their direction and packed up his paperwork to move table. He ended up sitting with his aunt as there were no other tables free and he sat facing the wall so he wouldn't have to make any more eye contact with those girls. The look on his aunt's face suggested that she had also overheard the conversation. This was confirmed when she gave him a suggestion.

"Perhaps you should sit somewhere more discreet next time."

"I think I might sit here next time, no one even noticed when you pinched Sebastian again," Ciel replied and looked down at the piece of paper she had in front of her. "What's that?"

"I've been taking notes for the past few days on what the customers seem to prefer," she explained. "For example, the uniforms are going down well. Sebastian is the most popular by far, Finny is considered to be cute, Grell is the gay best friend and everyone has a suspicion that you are gay."

"Maybe I should not stay after all, you seem to be keeping an eye on everyone as well. There is no need for me to be here," Ciel said, suddenly remembering what they had agreed on.

To his surprise his aunt seemed to panic. "You have to stay here, I won't be available for the rest of the week," she answered quickly."

Ciel eye her suspiciously. She was certainly keen for him to stay at the teashop and not at the office. Either she had a hidden agenda or she was forcing him to stay so he would make friends with everyone. She had tried similar things in the past so he went for that option. He took a bite of his cupcake and another option presented itself to him.

She had said that she had hired Sebastian purely because he had smiled at him on their first meeting. There was a chance that she was trying to match him up with Sebastian Michaelis. He made a face, that did sound like his aunt.

"I will stay, but only to observe. I'm not making any friends here," he warned.

He saw a shadow pass over the table and he knew exactly who was behind him.

"You offend me, I thought we were friends," Sebastian said.

"Why do you always have such appropriate timing?" Ciel demanded. Sebastian seemed to creep up on him a lot.

"It's just a coincidence," Sebastian answered and sat down next to Ciel.

"There is no such thing a coincidence," the teenager retorted. "Shouldn't you be working right now?"

"I'm on a break and I thought I would join my best friend, but he clearly isn't interested."

Angelina waved her hand. "He is just pretending that you aren't friends because a lot of customers think that you two have something going on. He got quite embarrassed, so please forgive his rudeness."

Sebastian's eyes widened. "They think... we have something going on?"

"It seems that none of them particularly mind. In fact they seem to quite enjoy it. I was surprised about that." She leaned forward in Sebastian's direction. "Do you mind?"

The butler was silent for a moment and when he finally answered he sounded unusually hesitant and Ciel wondered what was going though his head.

"I don't mind too much. I just find it a little strange, then again teenagers these days seem to be quite open minded," he glanced at Ciel. "Do you mind?"

"Yes!"

"He's just annoyed that everyone seems to think that he is 12."

The teenager shot her a baleful look and stabbed his cupcake with a fork viciously. It may be annoying that people made presumptions about his age, but assuming his sexuality was another matter. He needed a way of dispelling his rumours. He recalled something that his aunt had said the week before about his cousin visiting.

"Aunt Ann, when is Lizzie coming for a visit?"

Having Lizzie with him would dissuade any rumours and there was a chance that she would keep Sebastian from being too close to him too.

"Tomorrow. She had to postpone last week's visit as she entered a last minute fencing tournament," Angelina said.

"Did she come first?" Ciel asked with a smirk, knowing his cousin's abilities very well.

"Of course. It's Lizzie."

"Is Lizzie your girlfriend?" Sebastian interjected suddenly, causing Angeline and Ciel to give him a sharp look.

"Does it matter if she is?" Ciel challenged, interested to see Sebastian's reaction and he wasn't disappointed.

Sebastian looked uncharacteristically annoyed and his face looked dark. Naturally he had displayed some annoyance previously when Grell had become very clingy. However it was nothing on the level that Ciel was seeing now and he wondered why.

"She likes cute things and my nephew is very cute," Angelina offered some information. "Her favourite colour is pink, but don't underestimate her. She is very good with a sword.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "It looks like I will have to be careful then."

"Why?" Ciel questioned. "She is only my-"

He broke off when he felt someone kick his leg under the table and he looked at his aunt who was winking at him.

"Don't mention that she's your cousin yet. Misunderstandings are fun..." she whispered in his ear.

Ciel groaned. His aunt was incorrigible. Clearly setting up the teashop had not been enough amusement for her or she was seriously trying to set him with Sebastian.

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 7:

Elizabeth Midford arrived promptly the follow morning dressed in a pink Lolita dress with a cupcake shaped skirt accessorised with an impressive amount of pink jewellery. Ciel knew that she had been briefed by his aunt due to the fact that she never mentioned that she was his cousin to anyone she had been introduced to, but she hadn't claimed to be his girlfriend much to Ciel's relief because it would be awkward if they found out later that they were cousins.

She had immediately got on with Bardroy and Finny and they were currently discussing how to cutify their uniforms with Lizzie being the one making the suggestions and the pair politely demurring. She was less successful with Grell though. Complimenting his hair had warmed him to her, but it had backfired when she had mentioned how cute she thought Ciel was.

Sebastian had greeted her perfectly politely and had served her with a professional manner causing Ciel to wonder what his aunt's plan was. He had assumed she was trying to somehow make Sebastian jealous. For that to work Sebastian needed to have feelings for him in the first place and she hadn't asked Ciel how he felt about it. He wished that she was around so he could get it out of her. She had claimed to be on a business trip and Ciel was sure that nothing had been scheduled as Funtom weren't releasing any new products so he had a feeling that she had just taken a holiday.

"Lizzie, what do you think of the cake?" he asked her after she finally stopped persuading Finny to wear a pink bow in his hair. "I haven't tried the Strawberry Shortcake here yet."

"It's good!" she enthused and held out her fork to him. "Try it."

He was about to lean across the table to try it when someone put a place of Strawberry Shortcake in front of him.

"It would be better if you had a whole slice to yourself, young master," Sebastian said. "You do have an insatiable craving for sweet things. One small bite wouldn't be enough."

Ciel sat back and frowned. Sebastian never gave him cake unless he actually asked for it. There had obviously been some significance in his actions.

"How is it, young lady?" Sebastian turned to Lizzie.

"It's wonderful. Is it hard to make Strawberry Shortcake?"

"It's whisked sponge so you have to be good at separating egg whites," the butler smirked down at Ciel before adding, "You have to be careful not to overwhisk the cream so Syneresis will not occur." He winked at Ciel.

Ciel became aware that he could hear female customers squealing again and he sighed.

"Sebastian, do you have time to be doing this? The table over there hasn't been served yet. I might give you a paycut if you continue on like this."

Sebastian bowed and rapidly left them, clearly not relishing the prospect of a paycut.

Lizzie finished off before broaching a certain sensitive subject.

"Aunt Ann has been telling me a lot about you and Sebastian..."

Ciel's head snapped up. "What has she been saying?"

"Apparently I'm supposed to be acting as your "beard" today," she whispered. "She was unusually insistent."

"What's a "beard"?" Ciel asked hesistantly. "I have a feeling that I don't really want to know."

"It's when a gay man pretends to date a female so he looks like he's straight," Grell jumped into the conversation. "You had better not have an interest in Sebas-chan, brat."

Ciel shuffled in his seat to get away from the redhead. "I don't. You're free to flirt with him. Just don't do anything in front of the customers-"

"He's already gone," Lizzie gestured to where Grell was hanging off Sebastian who looked extremely disgusted. "Aunt Ann certainly hired a variety of people. How are profits?"

Ciel held up the relevant spreadsheet to show her.

"Surprisingly good. It is only the first week though. Profits may drop off at a later point."

"Hopefully they won't," Lizzie said. "Is this place being run with company money? With the current state of affairs I didn't think you would agree to use company funds."

Ciel shook his head. "It's Aunt Ann's pet project although she left me here to keep an eye on everyone. She is paying for everything. In the unlikely event it proves to be a stable business, Funtom will take it over," he paused. "How did you know Funtom is in trouble?"

"Tanaka told Mum. You know how she likes being kept up to date."

The CEO felt suddenly nervous.

"Aunt Frances isn't planning to visit here, is she? She isn't going to be happy when she sees everyone's long fringes."

He shuddered and searched for something to different to talk about. He spotted that his cousin had cream left from the Strawberry Shortcake left in the corner of her lips.

"You have cream there," he pointed and she hastily wiped it off with a flower patterned napkin.

"You have too. Should I wipe it off?" she reached out.

As she did a hand gripped Ciel's chin and he knew exactly what was going on as someone gently removed the cream from around his mouth.

"You're such a messy eater, young master," Sebastian chastised him.

Thankfully for Ciel, Lizzie asked the question that he wanted to ask and since she wasn't him she got a slightly sensible answer.

"Sebastian, are you stalking Ciel? You keep turning up whenever I try to get close to him. Are you jealous?"

The butler smiled down at her. "Keeping him clean and supplied with sweets is my duty. As for your other question: I know you two are related."

Ciel's eyes widened. He had no idea how Sebastian could have known that. The only conversation that would have given them away had occurred whilst Sebastian was in the kitchen. Had Sebastian looked up his records?

"How did you know that?" he demanded suspiciously.

Sebastian tapped his chin. "Intuition. You two don't act like lovers, you're too stiff, but you aren't uncomfortable around each other which suggests you are friends or are related. Judging from one of my conversations with Ciel, he has no friends so I deduced that the second option was the correct one. Considering that you are an only child, are you cousins?"

The teenager had to admit that Sebastian was slightly intelligent in addition to being able to make any cake.

"That was a good deduction," Lizzie complimented the older man. "Can you deduce anything else?"

"You're only here because Ciel wants to look like he is in a relationship so the customers don't think he is interested in me," he turned to Ciel. "That plan isn't working by the way."

"Why?"

"I've been listening in. It's had the complete opposite effect. Everyone here is thrilled about the prospect of a love triangle. Some are even calling their friends over to witness it. Your aunt has a good eye for fanservice."

Ciel ran an agitated hand through his hair. Of course there was a reason behind why his aunt had invited Lizzie over and why she had hired Sebastian. She was highly unscrupulous when it came to marketing, but she obviously knew the target market well and had done her research.

He wondered if there was any chance that he could just leave the teashop now. Everyone was doing well without him and he hadn't needed to intervene for a few days so "Black Butler" would be fine without him.

"Sebastian, you're in charge tomorrow. Call me if anything goes wrong." He flashed one of his best fake smiles and Sebastian did one in return.

"You can't run away from everything, Ciel," he said. "You have quite a dilemma and a question to ask yourself. Your company is in danger of bankruptancy, is it not?"

Ciel nodded reluctantly.

"If you run away now, "Black Butler" will lose one of its main attractions. So you must ask yourself what matters more; profit or pride?"

Ciel knew that Sebastian had made a very good point. Funtom had been owned by the Phantomhive family for generations and he didn't want to be the Phantomhive that allowed it to go bankrupt. He would regret it forever.

Nevertheless, when did providing fanservice for females become part of his company role? The idea of consciously acting like that with his cousin and a highly annoying make employee was not a pleasurable prospect to say the least. He pulled a face. Recalling that none of them knew that Lizzie was his cousin and Sebastian was the most capable employee that made the best cake made it slightly more appealing,

"...How long do I have to keep it up for?" he signed and resigned himself it. If it helped save the company he would have to do it.

"How about forever?" Sebastian suggested with a quirk of his eyebrows.

"That's pushing it."

"I am sure that you owe me two favours..." the butler grinned.

Ciel stared at him in horror. He had forgotten that he owed Sebastian two favours. His cousin sensed his distress and interceded on his behalf.

"Sebastian, Ciel does have to go to the office to work so he obviously can't keep the act up full time. Ciel, when do you stop supervising everyone?"

"At the end of next week," he answered her, feeling very glad that she had spoken up. If she hadn't he didn't want to consider what he would have had to agree to.

"After next week you can occasionally visit for some cake. That will provide entertainment," Lizzie said and switched her attention to Sebastian. "Do you have any problem with that idea? It provides a balance."

"I suppose I shall have to make do with seeing Ciel only a few times a week," Sebastian sighed theatrically and returned to his normal self. "Would either of you like any more cake?"

After Sebastian left, Ciel's focus returned to his work and only when he reached for another data sheet did he realised that Lizzie was missing. He decided that she had gone to the toilet and didn't think to consider that she might have followed Sebastian which she had done.

Sebastian was heading outside for his break when someone called out to him.

"What are your intentions towards my cousin?"

He turned to see Elizabeth Midford standing behind him, still managing to look threatening despite all the pastel pink she was wearing.

"What do you mean by that? We are simply friends," he answered and took a step forward away from her.

He heard her step closer to him and he knew he wasn't going to escape with just that answer.

"If you knew we were related, why did you bother getting in my way?"

Sebastian turned to face her. "Because only I can get close to him. Do you have a problem with that, Miss Midford?"

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 8:

Ciel looked up as his cousin sat back down. Her eyes were dark and narrowed. He only ever saw her look like that when she was up against a tough opponent. He briefly wondered if she had had a fight in the girl's toilets, but the sensible side of his mind rejected that.

"Are you all right? Did something happen in the toilets?" he asked and watched as her face rapidly turned blank.

"I'm fine. I nearly dropped my phone down the toilet," she said and picked up her teacup quickly. "The tea is cold."

Ciel looked around for the nearest employee to find it was Finny. He waved and the blonde bounded over happily.

"What can I get you, young master?"

"Lizzie would like refill of her tea," Ciel said and checked what tea it was. "Ceylon."

"Would you like any more cake?" Finny offered.

"Does everyone here offer Ciel cake?" Lizzie asked suddenly and Ciel knew what was coming.

"Some cake has fruit, it's part of your 5-a-day," he protested.

"Ciel, you're 19 and the owner of a confectionary company, you know it doesn't work like that," he reprimanded him before turning back to Finny. "I will just have tea, thank you."

Finny moved away and left Ciel to be lectured by Lizzie.

"Of course I know my dietary guidelines. I have updated all of the nutritional labelling on the confectionary to be in line with new labelling legislation," Ciel argued.

Lizzie looked doubtful. "That's good. How much work can you get done here? I would not say that this place has the best working atmosphere."

Ciel nodded in agreement. "Some of the financial reports don't quite add up at the moment. It's probably because it's hard to concentrate here with Sebastian stalking me and Grell stalking Sebastian..."

"You will not have to put up with it for much longer," she smiled a little too cheerfully. "You will get plenty of work done next week."

Ciel cast her a suspicious look, noting that she seemed happy about him not having to stay at the teashop.

"Don't you like this place? I thought you would like it."

"Under normal circumstances I would. Everything is very cute and the cake is high quality, but..." Lizzie paused.

Ciel looked at her expectantly. "Yes?"

"It doesn't matter," her gaze lifted to something behind Ciel and he looked around to see Sebastian walking towards them with a teapot in his hands.

Lizzie pushed her teacups towards him and smiled acerbically.

"Your outfit has a sophisticated aesthetic, Sebastian."

Ciel observed as Sebastian gave her a quizzical look before adding milk to her tea.

"...Thank you, young lady."

Lizzie smiled again and Ciel was sure that it was more of a smirk than a smile. Something strange seemed to be going on between his cousin and Sebastian.

"That said, I prefer a cuter look myself," she said and bent down to rummage in her pink handbag. "There!"

As she spoke she drew something pink out and swiftly placed it on Sebastian's head before he could do anything to stop her. Ciel snorted with laughter when he saw what it was. Sebastian was now wearing a frilly pink bonnet on his head.

"What do you think of this look, Ciel?" she asked him brightly.

"It's never going to get Aunt Ann's approval," he grinned and spotted Finny and Bardroy shaking with laughter a few metres away. "You can both take photos, I'm sure Sebastian will not mind. Right, Sebastian?"

The butler in question turned to look at the laughing pair and they both stiffened and mysteriously rushed off in the opposite direction.

"I am honoured that you took the effort to make me look cuter. However, may I take it off now?" he requested politely.

"You can keep it if you like," Lizzie said. "Ciel seems to like it though. Look at his face."

Sebastian caught Ciel's eye and the teenager tried to suppress a snort and failed.

"Perhaps I will keep it," he said and picked up the teapot again. "Let me know if you would like anything else. Elizabeth, remember to watch your waistline."

With that parting line he left them.

Ciel was surprised by the pettiness of Sebastian's comment and it only fuelled his suspicions that there was something strange going on. He remembered Lizzie's absence earlier on and wondered if she had talked with Sebastian.

"Lizzie, did you have a fight with Sebastian or something?" he asked and observed her reaction.

Her eyes widened and she laughed a second too late.

"No, I didn't have a fight with him. We just had a brief conversation about a subject common to us."

The next day at Black Butler proved to be difficult. There was a record number of customers and Ciel's attempts to hide himself in the corner were unsuccessful. It appeared that word of a love triangle had spread and he was now being subjected to being stared down by teenage fangirls.

The sight of Sebastian approaching made him wince. He could already hear squealing and his ears couldn't take anymore. He remembered when he used to think that Lizzie squealed too much.

"I thought I told you to stay away. I can't take anymore staring or squealing," he hissed once Sebastian was close enough to hear him.

"I was respecting that order, but we have a situation in the kitchen," the butler informed him. "You're the supervisor; you need to take care of it."

Ciel stood up and was prepared to follow him to the kitchen when he realised what it would look like if they disappeared together.

"I'll come in a few minutes, you go on ahead," he whispered.

Sebastian looked amused and pulled him by the arm. "You might as well do something to get the customers excited."

After being dragged past the customers by Sebastian, Ciel was half exasperated and half relieved to discover what the situation was.

"You brought me here to tell me that we have run out of Earl Grey tea?"

Bardroy folded his arms. "It's our most popular tea and it's only 11 in the morning. I considered it to be an emergency so I told Sebastian."

Ciel sighed. "Just take it off the menu. There are plenty of other varieties available here."

Sebastian and Bardroy exchanged looks.

"We're running low on all the popular ones," the chain smoker told him.

The teenager changed his stance instantly. It was typical of his aunt not to consider stock control systems.

"Where's the nearest supermarket?" he asked. "I know my aunt ordered all the specialist expensive teas, but we don't have time. No one will notice a difference in quality; they're too busy staring at me or Sebastian."

"That is the only way out of this," the black haired butler agreed. "Who is going to go?"

Grell, who had been lurking in the doorway finally contributed to the conversation.

"The brat should go. He doesn't exactly pull his weight around here."

"I have no idea where it is," Ciel argued and in a quieter voice he added. "I hate crowded places."

He felt someone pat him on the head and he looked to find it was Sebastian.

"I will go with you."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of sending the brat-" Grell was cut off by Bardroy.

"Don't take too long."

Ciel kept close to Sebastian as they navigated the busy street outside the teashop. He avoided being out in London as much as he could and the last thing he wanted to do was get separated from the person that actually knew the way. He noticed that Sebastian kept turning to look back at him as if to make sure that he was still behind him and Ciel found that he didn't mind and it was actually comforting.

They spent a while in the tea section of the supermarket debating the merits of different brands of tea and evaluating newer types of yea. Ciel had never heard of the diet forms of tea and neither had Sebastian.

"Perhaps I should look into these new products," Ciel mused aloud. "I didn't know there was such potential in tea and I drink it every day. Some of these are probably fad products though."

"Have you tried liquorice tea?" Sebastian pointed at the relevant box. "I found it didn't taste anything like actual liquorice."

Ciel shook his head and picked up the box. "I generally stick to normal teas like Darjeeling. Lizzie is the one that drinks fruit teas. Perhaps I should try some new varieties. What would you recommend?"

Sebastian looked surprised that Ciel had actually asked for his advice and then he straightened up and walked down the aisle, pointing at different teas.

"Don't bother with that variety, the flavour is too weak. Stay away from New Moon Drop. This one is good, that one isn't."

In the end they ended up buying all the tea and fifteen more types.

"Will that tea really taste like salted caramel?" Ciel asked curiously as they walked back to the teashop.

"Only if I make it," Sebastian stated simply. "Don't get anyone else to make it for you."

Ciel replied without thinking. "Why would I? I can only drink tea if it is made by you."

He realised what he said a few seconds later and hastily back tracked. He could not have Sebastian getting an inflated opinion of himself.

"You make it better than me, I can only use teabags."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "Oh really? Perhaps I should stop serving you tea and get Grell to make it for you instead."

Ciel shuddered in disgust. Usually Grell's tea was passable, but he had been in a foul mood when he and Sebastian had left and he wouldn't put it past the redhead to put something in his tea. Grell was as conniving as his aunt and she had been responsible for his hangover the previous week and the current situation.

"I take it back!"

Sebastian smiled widely. "That's good. There's no need to feel shy about saying complimentary things about me."

"You make the best cake and you attract lots of customers. That is the extent of your good points," the teenager retorted and walked off before remembering once he was a few metres down the street, that he didn't know the way back.

He stopped and looked around for Sebastian and began to feel worried when he couldn't see him in the crowd of pedestrians. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he sighed in relief to find it was Sebastian.

"Don't walk off again, especially if you don't know the way back, Ciel," the older man said. "Perhaps we should hold hands in case we get separated again."

"Can we not? I'm not a child anymore," Ciel said and felt someone push past him causing him to change his mind. He held out his hand. "Sebastian, don't get any ideas that I actually like you; I'm only doing it so I don't get lost."

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 9:

Funtom had been restocked with tea several days ago and Ciel was content, but not happy. Sebastian had not let go of his hand even when they had returned to the teashop meaning that everyone had seen them holding hands. His aunt had even heard about their "date" and had texted to him to check if the rumours were true.

Sebastian's attitude towards him had also changed. He seemed to have taken Ciel's permission to hold hands as permission to touch him anytime. It was sometimes a pat on the head, a stroke to the cheek. It happened so frequently that Ciel could not be bothered to complain or protest anymore. In fact he had become quite accustomed to it. He would definitely react if Sebastian took it any further though.

He took a sip of Salted Caramel tea and caught sight of Sebastian approaching him.

"Would you like anymore cake, young master?"

"That's the fifth time you have offered me cake in the past hour. I still haven't finished my last slice," Ciel pointed out. "If you are trying to fatten me up, you aren't going about it in the right way."

"Sorry, I will alternate it with fruit next time," Sebastian said. "That said, would you like anymore cake?"

"No!"

Ciel wondered why Sebastian was going to such lengths to get him to eat cake. Bardroy who was walking past with a heavily laden tea tray provided the answer.

"He isn't trying to make you gain weight, he is acting under orders."

"Whose orders? I'm your boss."

Sebastian produced a folded up sheet of red paper from his pocket and laid it on the table in front of him. Ciel guessed who the sender was immediately; only his aunt would use notepaper that colour. The note read:

Sell all of the cake and send Ciel and Sebastian on a date to replace stock.

Upon reading that note Ciel let out a groan. Clearly setting up the teashop, spiking his drink and creating a false love triangle wasn't enough excitement for her. She seemed to want them to date for real. He opened his mouth to complain and realised that he couldn't be bothered. It wouldn't do anything.

"Let me know when you have sold all the cake," he said simply.

Sebastian looked surprised that he wasn't putting up a fight and nodded before walking away.

Ciel pouted. He liked cake, that was all. He wasn't going to refuse an opportunity to buy cake. He found a bakery that he wanted to visit and hadn't had any free time to go and now he had the perfect pretext. It didn't matter if Sebastian came along or not.

Sebastian returned an hour later to say that there was only one slice of Red Velvet cake left and they needed to leave soon. Ciel's plan hit an unexpected snag when he gave Sebastian the address of the bakery.

"That is quite far from here. We will either have to hold hands for a very long time or take the tube."

Ciel knew there was no way he was going to take the tube and he frowned. Sebastian seemed to sense his thoughts.

"We could always go to the cafe down the road to sample their cake and call it market research."

The cafe Sebastian led Ciel to was a five minute walk down the street and Sebastian insisted that they should hold hands the entire way just to be safe. Ciel didn't put up a fight as it was easier to agree. He pulled out a notebook to take notes as soon as they entered the cafe.

The decor was a complete contrast to Black Butler as it was modern and open and the lighting was bright and harsh. Ciel sat down on a strangely shaped plastic chair and winced at how uncomfortable it was. He had become too accustomed to the armchairs at Black Butler.

"Who thought these chairs were a good idea?" he griped as he tried his best to sit up straight.

"Some design university graduate," Sebastian answered, seeming to feel the same way and passed Ciel the menu. "Are you going to note down the varieties of tea and cake."

Ciel took the menu and scanned the list of available tea with a disdainful eye.

"There are more herbal teas on here than traditional and a few fad ones. They don't even do the other types of Earl Grey," he sniffed and noticed that Sebastian was trying to hide a smile. "Is there something wrong?"

"I am enjoying your criticism of every little thing. It shows how much you really like Black Butler even though you pretend not to," he smirked and changed the subject before Ciel could protest. "Are you going to order one of every tea?"

"No, I'm saving that for the cake," Ciel answered seriously. "I will just have one of all the normal teas."

The butler picked up the menu, counted the number of teas and checked his pocket watch.

"We are going to here a long time. It's a good thing I had some extra cakes left so Black Butler will be fine without us."

Ciel stared in surprise. "Why did you tell me that we had run out then?"

"Because I wanted to spend some time with you alone and I needed a pretext."

After saying that line Sebastian stood up to order, leaving Ciel alone to digest that statement. That had to be the boldest line that Sebastian had come out with so far which made him fear what Sebastian could say in the future. He only had to spend one more day left at the teashop and then he would be back to the sanctuary of his office. There would be no more incompetent gender confused butlers, fangirls and overfriendly dark haired males. It would be peaceful again.

In fact that sounded a little boring to him now.

He had become accustomed to the chaos at the teashop and there was a chance that he might actually miss it. He told himself that he was out to make profit, not make his life interesting.

He jumped when Sebastian started to place a number of teapots on the table. Ciel took note of the plain white colour of the crockery, missing the colourful tea sets at Black Butler.

"We should try the tea first before it gets cold," Sebastian suggested after he had finished laying out all the teacups and teapots.

"Did anyone think it was strange that you ordered so much tea?"

"No, the woman that took my order seemed to have a very red face and looked dazed the whole time. I think I could have ordered something that wasn't on the menu and she wouldn't have noticed," the butler explained. "Should we try the Earl Grey first?"

He poured out a cup for Ciel and one for himself. Tentatively Ciel took a sip and found it tasted like the cup hadn't been washed out properly. He looked over at Sebastian who was also pulling a disgusted face.

"Did you enjoy that?" Ciel asked teasingly. "It was much better than yours."

"Stop lying," the butler glared. "Or I really will get Grell to make your tea from now on."

"It's Ceylon next," Ciel said and reached out to pick up the next teapot.

The next half an hour passed like that. Sebastian would pour the tea and Ciel would pass a judgement, usually a negative one and the butler would add his own opinion.

"Out of 35 cups, only 2 were actually decent," Ciel summarised. "I have tried every type and everyone's tea and Black Butler and even Bardroy's tea making is not that bad. I wonder why."

Sebastian perked up. "It's possibly because the temperature of the water is too low and the water in some teapots tastes like it has been reboiled so there is a higher concentration of minerals which does affect the taste."

"I never knew that," the teenager admitted reluctantly and racked his rains for a fact about tea that would outdo Sebastian's. "Did you know that it is better to add tea to milk than milk to tea?"

He was disappointed with the butler's answer.

"Yes, I did. I know most of the things there are to know about tea," he saw the downcast look on Ciel's face and rectified his statement. "I may know a lot about tea, but you probably know more about sweets and cakes."

Ciel smiled at the compliment. "Of course I do. I do own a confectionary company after all."

He glanced at Sebastian to observe his response and noticed that he was staring at something behind Ciel in the street. He was about to turn his head when Sebastian grabbed his shoulders.

"Why can't I look?" Ciel demanded.

Sebastian kept his eyes on whatever he was seeing.

"Are you sure you want to see your aunt with her boyfriend?"

Instantly Ciel turned round to see his aunt who had been unavailable by phone, standing outside a shop opposite the cafe, dressed in her customary red coat and hat, standing next to none other than Grell Sutcliffe.

"Shouldn't Grell be working right now?" Ciel asked eventually, once he had recovered from the shock.

"He does have a short break this morning. I was joking about the boyfriend thing; their body language is wrong for them to be dating."

Ciel breathed a heavy sigh of relief. His main fear had been that he would end up with Grell as his uncle. He shuddered at the prospect. However, that did leave the question of why his aunt was meeting Grell. He remember her text about his handholding with Sebastian.

"Perhaps Grell is her informer. She knows a lot more about what goes on at the teashop that she should considering she is never there," he theorised.

"That is probably it," the butler agreed. "Should we move on to the cake next? I am looking forward to hearing your criticisms. Your comments about the tea were very creative. I especially like it when you said they were all inferior to mine."

Ciel ignored him and turned back to check if his aunt was still there. It looked as if her and Grell's conversation was ending and a few minutes later the male redhead waved goodbye and rushed off in the direction of Black Butler. His aunt went off in the opposite direction.

"I can't believe she gets all of information about me from Grell," he muttered. "It would be slightly better if it was Bardroy or Finny."

"Look on the bright side, it's simply a business transaction, not a romantic liaison. Grell isn't going to be your new uncle anytime soon," Sebastian winked at him.

"I suppose it's for the best," Ciel moaned and his eyes fell on the first cake that Sebastian had put down on the table.

"Is that supposed to be a Victoria sponge? It looks like an explosion. No marks for presentation," he commented and dug into it with a fork only to feel resistance."It's also quite dense. Even yours is better."

Sebastian sat back down opposite him and smiled.

"I enjoy hearing how reluctantly you compliment me. Can't you just agree that I am one hell of a butler?"

I apologise for the long wait. I had a number of assignments due and the chapter had to wait unless you all wanted a chapter about food safety management and HACCP plans. I also caught the cold that had been going around uni on the last day which made the delay longer.

P.S. If any of you wash your turkeys or meat under the tap you will have me to answer to. It's dangerous!

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 10:

It was the last day that Ciel had to be present at Black Butler to supervise. Although he kept telling himself that it would be a relief to be away from the teashop even if it was making money, he knew that he was going to miss it.

He checked the thermometer in the fridge critically. It seems that his lectures about temperatures and the danger zone of bacteria had finally sunk in. Temperatures were not something he was personally fussy about, if temperatures were wrong, Black Butler would fail an environmental health inspection and the consequences of that were unpleasant.

"Is the temperature to your liking?" a voice asked from behind him. "It is below 5°C."

By now Ciel knew who always crept up behind him silently.

"Sebastian, what is the danger zone for bacteria?"

"If I get it wrong, does it mean that you will have to stay because we are all too incompetent to work without supervision?"

Ciel turned around and regarded him closely. Sebastian seemed unusually serious for a change.

"Of course not. I know that you know the correct answer. Even Grell knows it," Ciel answered after a moment of consideration. He was unwilling to give out any hints that he wanted to stay at the teashop.

"5°C to 63°C," the butler said, seeming reluctant to give the right answer. "Fridge temperatures should be 0-5°C. Are you sure you don't want to stay?"

Ciel allowed himself a moment to be impressed that he had schooled everyone so well before he gave his answer to the question.

"Why would I? I can finally get some proper work done with no distractions. There will be no more silly plots from my aunt either," he said happily.

"Are you sure that you won't get bored?"

The teenager took a step closer to Sebastian whose eyes followed his movement.

"Sebastian, is there something that I am supposed to be picking up on?"

"Ciel, I-"

The moment was broken by Bardroy and Finny entering the kitchen talking loudly. Bardroy paused on noticing them, making Ciel widen the distance between himself and Sebastian. He did not want to give his aunt anymore material or anyone else for that matter.

"Did we disturb anything?" Bardroy asked hesitantly.

"The young master was just testing me on bacterial growth. He seems to be worried that we won't survive without him. If you mess up your answers he might just stay," Sebastian informed the former chain smoker.

"We'll be fine," Finny grinned and a moment later his attitude changed. "...I think we might need you here after all."

Since Ciel had known them all for several weeks now he knew what Sebastian had done behind his back.

"Sebastian, stop leading Finnian. I know he is susceptible. You cannot convince me to stay."

He walked towards the door and something incongruous with the surrounding caught his eye and his gut instinct told him that his aunt was involved.

"Bardroy, why are you holding a red carrier bag? You haven't been in contact Aunt Ann, have you?"

Bardroy held out the bag and said what Ciel had been predicting he would say.

"We met your aunt outside. She told us to give it to you. She said you had to wear it or she will show Sebastian your baby photos," he said and baulked before continuing. "...She also said that the cat ears are optional."

Tentatively Ciel took the bag from him and felt around without looking to feel fabric beneath his fingertips. He did not like where this going. He pulled out an item at random to find it was a pair of shorts that were rather short. He put them to one side and picked out something else that turned out to be a white blouse with a bow attached.

"Is she making me wear Ouji Lolita to match Lizzie?" he asked out loud, recalling when Lizzie had tried to persuade him to match her Lolita style.

Sebastian pointed. "There's a note pinned to the sleeve."

Ciel read it carefully and sighed. "She wants me to cosplay as a 13 year old Earl from the 19th century."

"How did she come up with that idea?" Bardroy asked admiringly.

Ciel made a face, knowing his family tree fairly well. "She isn't that imaginative. I had a number of ancestors that were Earls. I think one of them was called Ciel too. Sebastian, what is that?"

Whilst Ciel had been reading the note, the dark haired butler had taken the remaining items out the bag and was holding up something long and black with a clasp attached.

"I believe these are socks," Sebastian observed. "I was looking for the cat ears to check the quality, but Miss Durless appears to have been joking about them."

A look of disappointment was apparent on his face and Ciel felt the need to ask why.

"Do you like cats?"

Sebastian's face brightened and Ciel blinked in surprise. He had never seen Sebastian this animated.

"I do. My hobbies mainly revolve around cats. I like to pick stray cats off the street and keep them in my wardrobe."

Ciel wrinkled his nose. "Don't you dare do that here; I'm allergic to cats."

"How unfortunate. You see, cats-"

Sensing that Sebastian was very eloquent on the subject of annoying furballs known as cats, Ciel cut him off.

"It doesn't matter; I am not wearing any of this. I looked fine as a baby, there's nothing embarrassing to see."

Bardroy twitched and Ciel knew his aunt had thought of a way to cover that avenue.

"Miss Durless said that she had some good shots of you in the bath."

Without giving anyone time to react, Ciel grabbed all of the clothes and left the kitchen, muttering curses under his breath. His aunt clearly did not know when to stop. He reiterated that when he found another item in the bag that had been folded in with the jacket. He stared at the item before reluctantly putting it on. His aunt would hear via Grell if he had worn it or not.

Finny was the first to see him when he finally ventured from the toilets, feeling very self conscious.

"It suits you, Ciel," the blonde complimented. "Where did that eye patch come from?"

The previously unnoticed item in the collection had turned out to be an eye patch for an unknown reason. He found that having one eye covered was quite annoying as he had to pay more attention to where he was walking.

"Looks good," Bardroy said when Ciel strode past him and headed over to where he had left his laptop only to be intercepted by Sebastian who corrected the tie on his eye patch for him.

"It needs to be tied tighter otherwise it will slip down," Sebastian said and adjusted Ciel's collar and bow too.

"Thank you," The teenager said and waited for the butler to release him which didn't happen. He had a feeling that he knew what Sebastian wanted. "All right. I will promise to visit here if that is what is making you so clingy."

Sebastian let go of him immediately. "Let's make it official."

Ciel stared at him. "How?"

"Let's make a contract."

"That's going a little far for something as minor as this," Ciel scoffed.

"You run a company, surely you know what you should always use contracts to make promises binding," the butler pointed out.

"Just don't act like a demon and make me use blood," the teenager relented. "There had better not be any pentagrams on it either."

"As you wish, young master," Sebastian bowed before leaving, presumably to draw up the contract.

After closing time, Ciel was handed the contract by Sebastian. He perused it and signed at the bottom as there didn't seem to be anything suspicious or untoward in it.

"I still can't believe that you made a contract just to make sure that I visit once a week," Ciel complained and handed it back.

"I like seeing you and I would like to see you at least once a week," Sebastian explained. "I suspect that you would prefer the opposite so a contract is required.

Ciel flushed. "I would have visited anyway," he said quietly.

Unfortunately Sebastian heard that and a smile spread over his face and he patted Ciel's head affectionately.

"I'm glad that you have admitted your true feelings."

"It's nothing to celebrate," Ciel mumbled.

"I think it is," Finny argued. "Let's take a group photo to mark that we are now free from supervision."

Ciel wasn't fooled. He had been waiting for one his employees to request a photo of him. He had been subjected to the stares of teenage girls all day and lots of squealing over how cute he was.

"You just want to take a picture of me in cosplay."

"Can I?"

"Just because I am feeling generous, you may. I'm not going to pose though," he warned.

It took a few minutes to get everyone in the right position as Sebastian wanted to be as close to Ciel as possible and Grell wanted to be next to Sebastian which did not go down well with the dark haired butler. Despite these issues they managed to get a decent photo eventually.

"I'm going to make this my phone wallpaper," Finny announced brightly. "I'll send it to everyone else so they can do it the same."

Grell snorted. "That angle is not befitting a lady like myself. I'm not seeing that picture every time I want to use my phone."

"It's a good thing you aren't a lady then," Ciel smirked, keen to get back at Grell for reporting everything to his aunt.

"At least I don't look like a snotty nosed 13 year old brat with an eye problem in it."

"Well, when you're old and decrepit, I will still look youthful," Ciel stuck his tongue out.

"I think I'm going to print it out and put it in a frame," Sebastian said, effectively ending the disagreement between Grell and Ciel.

Ciel was silent following that, but he found himself doing the same thing when he returned home. He claimed to himself that it was a memento that he had survived several torturous weeks and Black Butler, but deeper down he knew he just wanted to remember it for what it was.

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 11:

Ciel tapped his pen irritably on his desk as he tried to think of what to write. He had all of the relevant information in front of him and he been putting off this task for a whole week. Now what he was in an atmosphere easy to work in, it should have been easier, but instead he found it too quiet.

He let out a short laugh. When he had first met everyone and started teaching and supervising them, he would have killed to have this peace and quiet. Currently he was missing the chaos and he had started to blame any procrastination and avoiding work on his employees. He had nothing to blame at the moment for his inability to work. The situation was quite ironic, amusingly enough.

In search of a distraction, he slid open the drawer in his desk that a contained a vast collection of sweets. Naturally they were all his own products. Ciel unwrapped a lollipop and placed it inside his mouth. He was going to have to put Black Butler out his mind and focus on his confectionary and toy line. Black Butler could survive without him unless there was a call to say that a customer had passed out due to blood loss from having too many nosebleeds. He had noticed that a few customers developed nosebleeds whenever Sebastian served them for some reason. He felt like he would never understand females.

He moved to lollipop to rest in his cheek and got to work only to stop twenty minutes later. He was looking to develop their chocolate line as he felt that Funtom's range of lollipops was vast enough and there was nothing to be improved on. Additionally, the sugar free lollipops had turned out to be a bad idea.

He had a list of all the market leaders in chocolate sold in the UK, but he felt that more research was required. To be more precise he was keen to sample some rival's chocolate. After all, he hadn't tried any Cadbury chocolate since their American takeover a few years ago and Cadbury was his biggest rivals in terms of sales.

That was a good excuse for some taste testing. All he had to do was get hold of some chocolate. He could send his secretary, Mey-Rin to obtain some. However she had never been one for following instructions properly and would be likely to return with a different brand of chocolate. He would have to go out himself to do it. There was a small sweet shop nearby and all it entailed was walking down the street and turning right. He could do it without holding Sebastian's hand.

As it turned out he did not have to bother about being unaccompanied because he encountered a tall dark figure outside the office that looked exactly like his favourite/least favourite employee.

"Sebastian?" he called out hesitantly. "What are you doing here?"

The person turned to look at him and he saw that it was indeed Sebastian dressed in more casual clothes than usual.

"Oh, this is where the Funtom office is. I wasn't aware of that," the butler said with a mysterious smile.

"Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I have the morning off. I was just out for a walk when you saw me," Sebastian explained, somewhat failing to convince Ciel.

"Are you sure that you aren't stalking me? You always seem to turn up wherever I am," Ciel pointed out.

"Ciel, we worked in the same place for a few weeks so of course I was always around. I am not stalking you."

The teenager knew that Sebastian was obviously not going to explain himself for the moment so he switched to another subject.

"I'm going to get some chocolate, would you like to come?" he offered.

Sebastian answered immediately. "Of course."

He offered his hand and Ciel took it without hesitation.

"Is this for market research or for personal use?" the off duty butler asked.

"It is for work," Ciel replied. "I eat my own products when I want to eat sweets."

"So it is for taste testing. I would like to help you, but I don't like sweet things."

"Sebastian, when you taste test you're supposed to do it objectively. It's not based on personal preference. Anyone would be able to sign up for taste testing if that was the case. To taste test for my company you have to pass a test."

Sebastian looked curious. "What does the test involve?"

"Different concentrations of salt water. Testers have to line them up in order of concentration," Ciel smirked, remembering the number of people that had failed. "It's quite hard."

As he spoke he recognised the exterior of the sweetshop and pulled on Sebastian's arm to stop him from walking past. Upon entering he quickly pinpointed the Cadbury section based on the distinctive purple colour and rushed over to it. He picked up some of the products quizzically.

"They have expanded their product line since the takeover. I'm not sure about the combination of crackers and chocolate or the chocolate pretzels though."

"I have noticed that in recent years you seem to be table to get anything in chocolate. Chilli, sea salt, meringue..."

Ciel frowned. There were more products than he had expected. There was no way he was going to be able to try one of each product without being sick. He glanced at Sebastian out the corner of his eye. The butler was engaged in staring at a display of animal themed sweets and chocolate. He looked closer to see that Sebastian's attention was firmly fixed on a cat shaped chocolate.

Ciel sighed and resigned himself to asking Sebastian for help. He knew that Sebastian was likely to add it to the list of favours that he owed.

"Sebastian," he began and paused for a moment. "...Can you help me with this?"

Exactly as he had predicted, the butler turned his head and smiled.

"That's another favour that you owe me. Considering that I dislike sweet things, I will collect one of them today."

"What kind of favour is it?" Ciel asked fearfully.

"It's nothing too bad," he wriggled his eyebrows. "You will find out later."

Ciel interpreted the eyebrow movement to be an innuendo and rapidly backed away from Sebastian.

"It had better not be anything perverted!"

The pair walked hand in hand to a nearby park with Ciel worrying about what Sebastian was going to ask him to do and the butler's thoughts were elsewhere. They sat down and Ciel divided out the products, kindly giving Sebastian the more savoury products.

"This isn't proper taste testing because we aren't in a controlled environment," Ciel explained as he opened a bar of Dairy Milk. "My intent is check out the competition. Oh, it's changed shape."

His attention was diverted by noticing that the pieces of chocolate were no longer rectangular and were rounded instead. He checked the weight of the bar and laughed.

"It's so they can charge the same amount of money for a smaller amount of chocolate. How sneaky."

He took note and realised Sebastian was staring at him strangely.

"That practise is very commonplace. Haven't you done it at Funtom?"

It was true that Ciel had debated it to keep costs down, but decided it was only to be used as a last resort.

"Consumers will notice any major changes to products and there is a danger that they will stop purchasing the product so I have never reduced portion sizes. Sebastian, why haven't you started yet?"

He had noticed that Sebastian was still holding an unopened bag of chocolate buttons and looking down at them with trepidation. Ciel hid a smile, unused to seeing the usually perfect butler looking lost.

"I know you don't like sweets, but you're an adult not a child," Ciel said and took the bag from him. "I'll feed you."

Mysteriously enough Sebastian perked up and sat up straighter. Ciel carefully picked out a chocolate button and gingerly dropped it into Sebastian's mouth. Feeding him meant a lot of close contact, but it was for the sake of his company so he found the willpower to do it. Ciel tried one himself and was happy to find that the taste had not changed at all.

"Did you enjoy that?"

Sebastian winced. "The texture was good. Is there a Funtom equivalent?"

"There are small animal shaped pieces of chocolate around the same size. Yes, there are cats," he added before Sebastian could ask. "Fruit and Nut next."

He snapped off a piece and placed it in Sebastian's mouth, being careful not to touch his lips. He tried caramel chocolate whilst Sebastian was occupied.

They carried on this method until they reached the final product: a creme egg. Ciel groaned when he found out what it was. He should have eaten it first due to the sickliness of creme eggs. He unwrapped the foil reluctantly and passed it to Sebastian who was looking even paler than usual.

"The top is usually a thick layer of chocolate, you can eat that and I'll try the filling- it's too sweet for you."

"Thank you for thinking of me," Sebastian said and bit into the egg. "The chocolate is different..."

Ciel consulted the foil. "I know it was always Dairy Milk and now it's just milk chocolate. Interesting, changes like that never go down well," he grinned in satisfaction until he was handed the remainder of the egg so he could try the filling.

"My conclusions are that the changes made by the company that owns it now will mean lower consumer satisfaction and should eventually work in my favour," the CEO summarised. "Also, I think I need something for indigestion. Did you enjoy it, Sebastian?"

"Whilst I enjoyed being fed by you, I don't like chocolate. However I like spending time with you so that negated my dislike of chocolate," Sebastian answered and checked the time."I need to go soon unless you want to give me time off work to recover from eating all that chocolate?"

Ciel gathered up the wrappers. "No, you're my best employee- you're not getting any time off. In any case, it's your fault for not liking chocolate."

"That reminds me, I need to collect my favour before I leave," the butler winked, causing Ciel to shuffle away to the opposite end of the bench.

"I fed you. Isn't that enough skinship for you?" he protested.

Sebastian tilted his head. "That was for your benefit so it doesn't count. What I would like is for you to accept what I am about to say and not protest like you usually do."

This made Ciel gulp and he gestured at him to continue.

"Thank you for asking me to go on a date with you. I enjoyed it. Remember, you were the one that invited me to go with you."

Ciel's mind unearthed the relevant memory from two hours previously. Sebastian was correct; he was the one that asked him to go with him. He pulled a face.

"Yes, I was the one that initiated it. I had fun too. Thank you for helping me," he said reluctantly.

He felt Sebastian pat his head. "It's good that you have accepted it. I'll walk you back."

The walk back was pleasant for Ciel as they discussed other subjects that weren't regarding Black Butler or favours. The remaining favours that Ciel owed were only mentioned once they had reached the office and were about to part ways.

"Ciel, the other favours you owe me will be harder to fulfil..."

I updated sooner this time because I am temporarily free from assignments. Yay!

The changes made to Cadbury products by Kraft/Mondelez have not been popular in the UK, but messing with Creme Eggs has proved to be their least popular move. Has anyone else noticed any change in Cadbury products?

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots

Chapter 12:

As promised and per the contract, Ciel visited Black Butler a few days later having finished his market analysis of Cadbury and started development of a new product based on the results. He greeted everyone on his way in and sat down at his usual secluded table in the corner. Sebastian immediately appeared at his side as if summoned by magic.

"Which tea would you like?"

Despite the fact that he had the menu memorised, he checked it anyway and caught sight of someone wearing a red hat on the opposite side of the teashop. He took a second glance and saw that they had red hair and matching red clothes. Their back was facing him so he couldn't see their face, but he had a very good idea as to who it was.

"Sebastian, is that my aunt?"

The butler glanced in her direction. "She arrived earlier this morning and didn't give any reason for coming. Grell was the one to serve her though."

This reminded Ciel of witnessing his aunt meeting with his least favourite employee and he scowled. Some investigation was needed. He approached her table quietly and looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. In front of her was a list of bullet points and his attention was drawn to his name and the words "cat costume".

He took the seat next to her. "Aunt Ann, what are you doing here and why haven't you been answering my calls?"

She didn't bother to look up at him. "I own these premises and you only ever call to nag me."

Ciel reluctantly admitted to himself that she had a point. He had tried to call her to complain about her actions involving matchmaking and cosplay as well as her relationship with Grell Sutcliffe.

"What are you writing?" he asked, deciding a change in subject would be for the best.

"Sales boosting tactics. We shouldn't just stick to the butler theme, it will get boring. I have been asking some of the customers," she handed him the list.

He read the ideas on the list very carefully. He could not afford to approve the list without reading it properly and finding out later that he had agreed to something outrageous.

"A butler cafe is already unique as it is in this country, perhaps you should wait another year before employing some of tactics, for instance the swimwear themed one and the animal themed one."

"I think I know the target market better than you," she retorted and took the list back.

As she did Ciel saw that there had been another sheet of paper in front of her and his eyes narrowed in on his and Sebastian's names. He reached out to pick it up, but he aunt grabbed it and put it in her handbag.

"I can't have you seeing that, it will spoil it."

"What is it?" he asked warily. It had looked like a flowchart and he had a half formed suspicion that he was unwilling to confirm.

"It's my "Get Ciel and Sebastian to date" plan," she said ecstatically, proving Ciel's suspicion to be correct.

Ciel sighed and made the decision not to protest too much. He wasn't going to be able to stop her.

"Whose benefit is it for?" he probed.

"If I told you it would generate profit, would you go out with him?"

Whilst it was true that he was having to put up with a lot of ridiculous things for the sake of profit, there were some things that he was definitely not going to do.

"No. I'm not dating someone with an unknown background for the sake of Funtom. How would it generate profit anyway?"

His aunt simply pointed to the people sitting around her. "Fangirls."

Ciel realised an eyebrow. "I thought we were providing sufficient fanservice."

"All right, it's because I personally want you two to get together," she admitted. "You lead a lonely life and wouldn't having Sebastian around make it brighter?"

Ciel hoped that Sebastian was not going to arrive with his tea as the butler had a habit of cropping up everywhere. His hope was not fulfilled as Sebastian chose that moment to approach their table.

"Aunt Ann, I am content with the current situation. I work better when I'm by myself anyway."

"Didn't I help you with your research a few days ago because you couldn't do it by yourself?" Sebastian interjected.

Ciel silently cursed. That line was bound to fuel his aunt's desire to get them together. He was right.

"What are you referencing? I didn't hear anything about this!" Angelina demanded and leaned forward eagerly.

Her nephew's eyes narrowed. "That's because Grell didn't know so he couldn't inform you."

He saw her eye twitch tellingly and he continued on.

"I know about your meetings."

Now his aunt looked alarm which worried Ciel. He couldn't have his aunt meeting a gender confused redhead for romantic rendezvous. The man seemed to be more interested in Sebastian than her.

"As long as you have no interest in him than as a source of information about me, then I am fine with it," he said quickly. "You could just ask me you know."

Angelina looked calmer after he added that which reassured Ciel that Grell was not going to be his new uncle.

"But you never tell me anything juicy," she pouted, seeming to return to normal. "I have to ask Grell what happened with Sebastian and you instead."

"You could always ask me, Miss Durless," Sebastian suggested. "I would be willing to tell you about all our dates. After all, I must have the approval of Ciel's closest relative."

This made Ciel stare at him sharply. He had read enough stories to know what getting the approval of a mother or father figure meant. Just because he occasionally enjoyed spending time with Sebastian it did not mean that he wanted him as a boyfriend.

"You're such a gentleman, Sebastian," she exclaimed excitedly. "You have my full permission to court my nephew."

"Thank you, Miss Durless," the butler bowed. "I must get on now."

The moment he left Ciel's head slumped onto the table and he wished that he had never listened to his aunt's original idea to save Funtom. He lifted his head up reluctantly a minute later. He couldn't turn back time; he was going to have to deal with the situation as it was.

"Aunt Ann, must you insist on this? You can't force me to like Sebastian just because you think I am lonely."

Angelina sipped her tea delicately.

"There is nothing forced about it. He's the only person that you interact with on a regular basis and look like you enjoy it. There are all those dates and the fact that you asked for his help- you never ask me for help."

He realised that his aunt was right for once. He disliked interacting with other people, mainly because they were not as smart as him and although he found that Sebastian was mildly ignorant about the food industry, the older male did seem to be willing to learn. However he had only asked Sebastian to help him because he genuinely hadn't believed that he could get through all that chocolate by himself.

"What is the least absurd thing I can do to stop you from doing anything silly?"

Angelina considered it for several minutes whilst Ciel waited in anticipation hoping that it wasn't going to be something too far out of his comfort zone. Although it was true that he was now accustomed to light touches from Sebastian, he was unwilling to go too far.

"You could go on another date. I suppose it should be connected to work so that you won't complain about wasted time," she suggested. "You could work on new product development together; he seems to be competent enough. I think we need to add more items to the menu here."

"Here or in the test kitchen at Funtom?" Ciel asked doubtfully. He was grateful that his aunt had actually chosen a sensible idea.

She frowned. "If you did it in the test kitchen you would both have to wear hairnets and coats which isn't very romantic so you can do it here. Unless you want to do it at your house?"

"Here is fine," Ciel said hastily.

That was how Ciel found himself waiting after closing time for Sebastian to finish cleaning up.

"Your aunt told me that you wanted to go on a date with me, but it had to be here and it involves cooking," Sebastian said once everyone else had left.

Ciel rolled his eyes. "She agreed to stop trying to push us together if I agree to another date with you."

"Am I really that repulsive?" Sebastian asked unexpectedly.

"...No," Ciel answered haltingly. "It's just that I dislike being forced to like you."

"I like you."

On hearing that Ciel felt his face heat up and he turned his face away to hide his red cheeks from Sebastian.

"Are you blushing right now?"

"I'm not," the teenager mumbled unconvincingly.

"I think you are lying," Sebastian said and took hold of Ciel's face and turned it towards him so that Ciel's flaming red cheeks were visible.

"Let's start before it gets too late," Ciel ordered, very desperate to end the conversation.

"Not until you admit that you are blushing."

"That's extortion," he complained, but complied anyway. "I'm blushing. Can we start now?"

He led the way to the kitchen and set out all the required equipment and ingredients whilst Sebastian lurked somewhere behind him.

"We are supposed to be doing new product development and there is a need for a new product to be served here considering the target market."

"What does that mean?" Sebastian enquired curiously.

"I think it's fine to eat cake and sweets every day, but lots of females don't feel that way so we need to come up with a healthier option," Ciel explained, once again happy that he knew something that Sebastian did not.

"I see," Sebastian nodded. "You're quite good with coming up with gaps in markets."

"Of course I am," Ciel scoffed, conveniently that before his aunt's suggestion, his company was in trouble. "There are various ways to reduce calories and fat. Can you suggest any?"

Now that he was discussing a familiar subject, his body temperature had returned to normal and he felt more confident.

"Use substitutes?"

"You could do that or reduce the amounts of sugar and fat. The problems with that is the taste and texture will be different- it's quite a dilemma. It's why low fat products tend to be higher in sugar or have flavourings to disguise the changed taste."

"How are you supposed to do it then?" the butler questioned.

"Experimentation," Ciel stated simply. "It can take a while so get to work."

An hour later Ciel had come up with a reduced fat biscuit dough containing fruit juices and zest to account for the lost moisture whilst Sebastian was still working on a reduced calorie Victoria sponge with no success.

"Do you need any help?" Ciel offered with a smirk and decided to turn one of Sebastian's phrases onto him. "I will add it to your list of favours."

Sebastian's reaction was to laugh. "I thought this was supposed to be a date, not extra work."

"All right, I need some help and I owe you a favour," Sebastian said with a smile and pulled Ciel closer to him. "Why isn't this working?"

Ciel gave Sebastian the exact scientific definition and made a number of suggestions. Through experimental ratios of ingredients they finally succeeded in creating a low calorie Victoria sponge. Ciel only noticed how late it was when they were cleaning up.

"It's nearly midnight!?"

"I'll walk you home," Sebastian said. "Consider it a favour."

"I was hoping to hold onto that favour for longer," Ciel muttered under his breath.

He felt Sebastian wipe his face and realised that he had been covered in cake mix for several hours.

"You owe me another favour," the butler winked. "You don't have cake mix around your face anymore."

"That's not fair," Ciel complained. If Sebastian continued his habit of deciding that he was owned favours for the slightest actions, he was going to end up doing a lot of things that he didn't want to.

In retaliation he stood on tiptoes to reach Sebastian's cheek which had a smear of cake mix by his mouth so he could remove it and repay the favour. That was his plan, but Sebastian moved at the wrong time and their lips ended up connecting.

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 13:

Ciel's eyes widened and he froze at the sensation of Sebastian's lips on his. They stayed in that position until Ciel's brain kicked in and he sprang back. He was about to yell at Sebastian before he noticed that the butler as surprised as he was, confirming that he had moved by accident and it had not been a trick.

A deadly silence pervaded the room, increasing the awkwardness of the situation. Then Sebastian broke the silence by clearing by his throat.

"It was an accident," he said and gently took the tissue from Ciel's hand to wipe his own face. "I apologised if it scared you."

"Yes," the teenager answered shakily and resumed cleaning up their mess so Sebastian would get the hint that he didn't want to talk about it. Fortunately for him Sebastian sensed that he did not want to mention it and dropped the subject.

On their way home they discussed developments in the food industry and Ciel momentarily forgot about the accidental kiss until Sebastian dropped him off outside his house.

"Good night," Sebastian said and turned to go. "Sleep well, Ciel."

On a sudden impulse Ciel grabbed his arm and said:

"That was my first kiss, you have to take responsibility!"

Right after that the teenager realised what he had said and closed his mouth and released Sebastian's arm.

"Did you hear that?" he asked nervously.

Sebastian nodded and his mouth stretched into a smirk.

"How should I take responsibility?"

He stepped closer and Ciel unconsciously backed away.

"You need to stop running away, Ciel. If you continue like this you will never resolve anything."

Ciel searched for something to say that would not count as running away and he knew that he was going to have to clarify with Sebastian what their relationship actually was at some point before it got too confusing. That was how he found himself asking a question that he would have never thought he would ask anyone.

"Would you like to come in? It's too cold to stay outside any longer."

Sebastian looked surprised and then he recovered quickly. "Of course I would like to see the home of the person I like the most."

Ciel flushed and unlocked the door so he could hide his face. Luckily he had tidied up the day before so he didn't have to worry about any mess. He switched on the lights and gestured for Sebastian to follow him to the living room. Out the corner of his eye he could see Sebastian taking in the new surroundings carefully.

Ciel sat down on one on of the sofas and the butler seated himself opposite, his eyes moving around to observe the room which Ciel hadn't changed since his parents' deaths. The furniture and wallpaper remained the same.

"Sebastian, what are we?" he began the conversation.

"Butler and master? Employer and employee? Contractor and contractee?"

Ciel rolled his eyes, not appreciating the puns. "Be serious."

"I like you, but you don't seem to like me that much. You offered me a lollipop that would give me toilet problems and you threw up in my mouth," he answered slightly more seriously.

That line caused Ciel to realise that Sebastian had been aware of the diuretic effects of sugar alcohols all along and he wasn't as ignorant as Ciel had thought.

"I don't hate you and I like you the most out of everyone at Black Butler," the last part ended up as being a quiet murmur that Sebastian had no problem picking up.

"I suppose that is the kindest thing that you have ever said to me and you are only implying that you like me more than Grell," Sebastian sighed. "I've been on three dates with you and that's all you have to say about me. Try again."

"I like your tea," Ciel volunteered. "And cake. You're the main source of profit too."

Sebastian looked amused at the last part.

"So you like me better than Grell, Finny or Bardroy. You like my tea, cake and the profit that I provide. Doesn't that mean that you like me?"

"I-" Ciel stuttered much to his horror and his mind went blank. "...Maybe."

Ciel came to the conclusion that setting up Black Butler has had a negative impact on his speech. He had no problems making cutting remarks, but when it came to speaking to Sebastian on certain matter, he became a little tongue tied. Wasn't that supposed to be a symptom of something? He thought harder: was it a sign that he was fond of Sebastian?

He eyed Sebastian attentively. There wasn't anything to complain about regarding appearance, not that Ciel considered himself to be shallow like that. His closest relation approved of him too and he was profitable and ticked all of the boxes.

"I might like you," he said haltingly.

Sebastian stood up and patted him on the head. "That's good enough for now, I won't push you anymore."

Ciel relaxed visible. He had been worried that the older man might try to make him remove the "might" and he wasn't sure that he was ready to say that yet.

"It's getting late and we both have to work tomorrow," Sebastian commented as he looked at the clock on the mantelpiece.

This jerked Ciel out of his thoughts and he got up to see Sebastian out. It never occurred to him to wonder how Sebastian had known where he lived which turned out to be a serious lapse in common sense. They had walked at the same pace, holding hands, but Sebastian had needed no prompting to cross roads and turn corners.

The next morning passed uneventfully until it was time for Ciel's usual midmorning tea break. He had just finished drawing up a plan for Funtom's next product development and was craving a cup of Earl Grey, more specifically Earl Grey made by Sebastian when his secretary stumbled into his office clutching a bloody nose.

"Mey-Rin, I thought I asked not to be disturbed," he griped. "Why is your nose bleeding? Your glasses aren't broken this time so you clearly haven't tripped over again."

"There's some here to see you," she spluttered and a drop of blood landed on the carpet causing Ciel to wince. His carpet had been taking a lot of abuse in the past month with ash from Bardroy and now blood from Mey-Rin.

"I don't have any appointment scheduled and I'm busy. Tell them to make an appointment and do something about that nosebleed whilst you are at it."

He offered her his tissue box and waited for her to leave. When she was about to, she turned back instead.

"He was dressed as a butler so I thought he was something to do with the teashop. He said his name was Sebastian Michaelis."

"Really?" Ciel asked and peered out his door to see that Sebastian wad indeed standing outside his office. "You should have said that before."

Sebastian waved and entered his office holding a flask.

"What are you doing here? You are most definitely supposed to be at work."

Sebastian held up the flask as an answer. "I am working: I made you some tea."

Ciel smiled despite himself and pushed forward his teacup from an earlier tea break so Sebastian could fill it.

"I suppose I can allow that."

Sebastian handed him back his cup and then said something a few moment later that caused Ciel to spit out his sip of tea.

"Actually, I came here to use a favour."

Immediately Ciel covered his mouth, eliciting a smirk from the butler.

"It's not that kind of favour; you have a dirtier mind than I thought. I asked you about this a few weeks ago."

The teenager's heartbeat slowed down after hearing that and he cast his mind back to the relevant conversation.

"The tour of Funtom?"

Sebastian nodded. "I've become quite intrigued by your job. Do I have your permission to look around?"

"You may," Ciel said warily. "That said, you can't enter certain areas without protective clothing, I can't have you bringing pathogens in."

He took note of the mystified look on Sebastian's face and wriggled his eyebrows. "I hope you like hairnets."

The CEO decided it would be best to give Sebastian a tour himself. If he let Mey-Rin do it she would drip blood everywhere and he had a desire to see what Sebastian looked like in a hairnet as he didn't know anyone that looked good in a hairnet.

"That's my secretary Mey-Rin. I would keep away from her, you seem to cause her to have nosebleeds," Ciel said as they walked past her desk. "That's my aunt's office, she never uses it though."

He tried the door handle experimentally and found that it was unlocked. It was strange as he hadn't been to the office for a while. He remembered Mey-Rin saying something about seeing her around whilst he had been at Black Butler for a week. It might explain where she had been.

He walked into her office and went straight to her desk intending to search for a certain document.

"What are you doing?" Sebastian asked from the doorway.

"Looking for her "Get Ciel and Sebastian to date" plan," he explained as he rifled through her desk. "Sales documents, financial records, renovation work on Black Butler... I found something!"

He pulled it out and was disappointed to find that it wasn't a copy of her plan. Instead it was the observations that Ciel had seen her write down on the first day of opening. He scanned the paper and snorted when he saw a note that had likely fuelled her desire to get him and Sebastian to date.

"Ciel is easily distracted by Sebastian- possible future use," he read aloud.

"She's right," Sebastian spoke from behind him, making Ciel jump. "What else does it say?"

"Nothing else of interest... She likes your bottom though," he let Sebastian read for himself.

"She certainly pinched it enough in the first week..."

Ciel took the list back and rearranged everything to how it was when he found it, feeling slightly guilty for going through it without her permission and continued the tour through the building.

"What's that?" Sebastian suddenly asked, pointing at an object that was on the floor against the skirting board.

If it had been a few weeks ago Ciel would have told him to touch it and find out for himself, but now he was aware that he may like Sebastian so he was kinder.

"Don't touch it, it's a pest trap."

Sebastian jerked his hand away hurriedly. "Thank you for telling me."

"It's a requirement here although the factory is elsewhere, this is where the product development takes place and no one wants to find a rat tail in their bar of chocolate when they come for taste testing."

Sebastian drew out his watch and checked the time.

"I need to go back to the teashop soon; I'm the main attraction after all."

Ciel's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You just want to avoid wearing a hairnet, don't you?"

Sebastian's mouth twitched and he smiled. "As much as I would like to, I need to go. There's no need to see me out, I need to go to the toilet first."

Ciel didn't question him any further and returned to his office to continue working on his plan, only to be interrupted by Sebastian again.

"I thought you were leaving."

The butler pointed to the flask standing on the edge of Ciel's desk. He picked it up and a conflicted look passed over his face.

"Ciel, I-" he paused. "It's nothing."

"What is it?"

"I was going to use another favour, but it's a request that it too selfish to ask of you," Sebastian informed him. "Good bye."

Ciel stared after him once he had left, wondering what the favour has been. If he had followed Sebastian on his way out the building he would have overheard.

"I was going to make you promise not to hate me tomorrow..."

Regarding the following chapter, there has been sufficient hints so no one can complain when it gets revealed.

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 14

Ciel woke to his alarm clock like usual and followed his usual routine of showering, getting dressed and eating breakfast. This turned out to be the only normal part of his day because his routine was broken by the ringing of the doorbell.

He had just been about to have a cup of tea before he left. A strange feeling that something was going to happen when he answered the door that would change his life forever permeated throughhim.

He didn't get many visitors to his house. Usually they were related to him and they didn't come this early in the morning. Perhaps it was Sebastian? He walked down the hallway, ready to accuse the butler of stalking him.

He opened the door to find it was someone even more unexpected. A stone faced Tanaka was standing on the doorstep.

"Tanaka?"

"May I come in?" Tanaka requested.

Ciel nodded and stood aside to let him in.

"Was there a problem with the new product development plan I sent to you yesterday?" Ciel enquired, keen to know why Tanaka had come to visit him so early in the morning.

"No. I am afraid it is much more serious than that. I only heard an hour ago and I am not looking forward to telling you, but I have to tell you because you are involved," Tanaka sat down at the kitchen table. "You should make some tea; you are going to need it."

Ciel complied and after he had sat down with some English breakfast tea, Tanaka started.

"I have some bad news for you and it will affect the company quite badly."

"Are you stepping down as a shareholder?" Ciel asked fearfully.

"No and I definitely will not now," the older man sighed heavily. "Your aunt will be instead."

Ciel's eyes widened in surprise. That was the last thing he had expected to hear.

"Why?"

"Because she was arrested this morning."

The teenager's mind turned even more blank than it had done when he had accidentally kissed Sebastian. Admittedly her prolonged absence had been strange, but to think she had been doing something worthy of an arrest.

"...What for?" he asked nervously.

Tanaka looked sad. "Quite a variety of crimes with the one that links to the company being money laundering."

"Money laundering!?" Ciel gasped. "How did she do it?"

Ciel was fully aware of what money laundering was. It was a method used to disguise large amounts of money obtained by criminal conduct. There were quite a few ways to do it. That said he had an idea of how she had done it once he had considered the options carefully.

"She used a business that receives a lot of money daily and fixed the records to hide the incoming money. I take it you can guess exactly which business it was."

Ciel's mind went back to the day he had informed Tanaka and his aunt that the company was in trouble and how she had heavily pushed him into a certain idea.

"Black Butler."

Tanaka took a sip of his own green tea. "Unfortunately for the company Black Butler was used for money laundering."

The teenager put his head in his hands and cursed.

"I had a problem in the first couple of weeks getting everything to add up, I should have seen it then, but I had so many distractions to deal with..."

The distractions had mainly consisted of Sebastian, Grell and having to provide fanservice for customers with Sebastian.

"...The records only started adding up once I returned to the office. I thought it was because there were less things to become distracted by..." he stopped abruptly, having recalled something very important.

The note he had found in her office the previous day had read "Ciel seems to be easily distracted by Sebastian-possible future use?" She had indeed found a use for it. She had forced them together and had even got Lizzie in to create a false love triangle to distract him, all so he wouldn't notice any inconsistencies in finances.

She had really planned it carefully. His aunt had kept him continually distracted by sending instructions for him to do things with Sebastian.

It had worked out well for her; he had never noticed anything and as a result the company was ruined. He felt used.

"It is not your fault at all," Tanaka awkwardly patted his arm. "She knew what she was doing and I should have never let you become the CEO at such a young age."

Ciel tried to put his personal revelation out his mind by asking another question.

"Where did she gain all the money from?"

Tanaka shuddered. "Organ trafficking. The queue for organs for transplantation from the NHS is long and you would be surprised how many people extortionate amounts of money to get hold of a new kidney or liver quickly. She also appears to have been a supplier of Class A drugs. Her medical background clearly came in useful."

Upon hearing that Ciel began to feel nauseous. The woman who had helped take care of him since his parents' death was really a fully fledged criminal. She had always been a strange aunt with an eccentric taste in fashion, nonetheless she was related to him and now he had found out what she had done. The main question was why.

"Do you know her motive?"

The older man shook his head. "I wish I knew. However no matter what her reasons were, it does not excuse what she has done in the slightest."

Ciel agreed with him and was struck by a sudden thought. "I obtained the financial figures directly from the teashop where she could not have intervened. How did she do it? It was never her handwriting.

"She had an accomplice working there that did it for her. He was arrested this morning too."

It didn't take Ciel much effort for Ciel to work out who her accomplice was. The answer had been there all along.

"Grell Sutcliffe."

He should have seen it. He had chalked up his aunt's obvious preference of Grell to the fact that he also wore excessive amounts of red. It had been something else entirely instead. The main clue that he should have picked up on was how she had reacted when he had questioned her about her meetings with Grell. She had been alarmed that he had found out truth.

It would have been easy to ensure that her accomplice was employed. After all, she had picked all the candidates off the street. He had thought it was strange at the time and now the deeper reason was evident. All Grell had to do was walk down the street at the right time. The significance of other employees implementing that same method should have occurred to him, but he was too distracted to consider it.

He remembered something else now. When Lizzie had mentioned acting as his beard when she had visited the teashop. Grell had overheard and explained the meaning of the word to him. If he had overheard that part then he would have known that they weren't really dating. The Grell Ciel thought he had known would have gone and told everyone especially Sebastian so he wouldn't have acted jealous like he had done. Grell hadn't reacted at all because he must have already heard that they were cousins from his aunt and that they were putting on an act. He should have picked up on that.

Tanaka sensed his frustration. "Ciel, you cannot change anything now."

"I know," he pouted. "How long have the Police been investigating?"

"I am not aware of the actual timeframe, but it looks to have been several months due to the volume of her crimes. The investigation team were limited in their actions in case she became aware she was under suspicion and fled the country or destroyed evidence."

That made sense to Ciel. A selfish part of him wished that they could have arrested her before she started involving the company, but he knew that it wasn't right because for a realistic prospect of conviction, undisputable evidence is required.

"Tanaka, how do you know so much about this?"

It seemed strange that Tanaka knew everything and he wasn't even related to his aunt.

"A member of the investigation team told me everything earlier on and told me to pass it onto you so you don't end up finding everything out from the media later."

"There is enough evidence to convict her, right?" he asked hesitantly. She was still related to him after all. "She can't plead not guilty and succeed?"

"Apparently the financial records are undisputable. She kept un-doctored records in her office which were the main factor in her arrest."

Ciel knew he had gone through her office the day before at Funtom to look for her plan and he immediately dismissed the records he had found because he had been looking for something completely different. It had been yet another missed opportunity to uncover the truth.

A thought occurred to him. "Didn't the Police need a search warrant to get into her office at Funtom? If they didn't, the evidence breaches guidelines and won't be accepted in a court of law."

Tanaka gave him a pitying look. "You gave verbal permission. No search warrant was required."

Ciel was puzzled. He hadn't given a Police officer permission to look around Funtom.

"I don't understand."

"You will soon," Tanaka said. "Black Butler will be closed for the moment until we can work out what to do with it. Do not worry, I informed the employees about the closure earlier- the two of them that is."

"Two?" Ciel questioned before realising that Grell obviously wasn't going to be working there anymore. However without him there still were three employees. "Shouldn't there be three?"

Tanaka shook his head. "The other previous employee is aware of the situation- he provided the definitive evidence yesterday. Sebastian Michaelis is a member of the investigation team."

Ciel flinched. It couldn't be true...

Didn't anyone else see the setup in chapter one and think it was perfect for money laundering? Or do I just have a criminal turn of mind?

Be careful about asking for a fast update. This chapter did not take long to write because it was planned very early on and wasn't exactly new material. I only made plans for this story up until this point so future chapters will be harder to write.

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots:

Chapter 15:

“Drink your tea,” Tanaka ordered and pushed it closer to him. “You have had a lot of shocks today.”

Ciel stared blankly at him unable to properly process the revelation. The man that had helped him overcome his fear had only been close to him in order to get evidence of his aunt’s criminal activities. He had come to trust him and like him and now he felt betrayed as a result.

Thankfully their relationship had only progressed to handholding and their accidental kiss. Ciel had never actually said out loud that he liked the man and he was glad about that because he would feel even more betrayed now.

The fact that Sebastian was a Police officer made sense now. It explained how he had known where Ciel lived when he walked him home and why he turned up everywhere Ciel was. It explained his random visit to Funtom the previous day and his mysterious trip to the toilet which obviously had been a visit to retrieve evidence from his aunt’s office because Ciel himself had picked up the records right in front of him. His closeness with Ciel had been for his other job, nothing more than that.

“Ciel, you were quite close to Sebastian Michaelis, weren’t you?” Tanaka asked softly.

Ciel nodded slowly, dreading what Tanaka’s reaction would be. Although it was really his aunt that had destroyed the company, he had played a role in it by letting Sebastian get so close to him.

“He was the one to tell me everything,” he explained. “He wanted you to know before you found out from the news.”

“...Did he say anything else?” Ciel questioned curiously. He was of the opinion that an apology was in order.

“No, but he did appear to be regretful for keeping the truth from you.”

Ciel picked up his teacup before realising that he was never going to taste tea made by Sebastian again. For some reason that broke him.

He knocked the teacup off the table and watched it smash into tiny pieces and a pool of tea. Was he really going to think of Sebastian every time he drank tea? The Sebastian he had never really known. He was definitely going to give up on drinking tea.

“I’m sorry, Ciel. I should have paid more attention to what Angeline was doing.”

“It’s fine,” Ciel answered brusquely. “We just need to fix the mess she has caused us. Of course, Black Butler will have to be closed down. Negative publicity lasts for a long time and it will never recover.”

“I will handle everything for now. You should time off to recover.”

“Just today, I will be fine by tomorrow.”

Tanaka finished his tea and stood up. “I will leave you now then. I hope you feel better tomorrow so you can help me sort everything out.”

As soon as Tanaka had left Ciel adjourned to his bedroom where he felt more at peace and calm until he caught sight of the photo frame standing on his dressing table. The photo was the one that Finny had taken of everyone at Black Butler the week before. Standing next to him was a Police officer and next to him, his aunt’s criminal accomplice.

“I knew it was a bad idea not to ask them for their CVs,” he said out loud, remembering his complaint from when his aunt had hired everyone. “I thought Grell looked shady, I was right about that.”

The knowledge that he had been right to dislike Grell on their first meeting did not console them for long.

It must have been convenient for Sebastian that his aunt had not required a CV or references from past employers. His aunt had simply employed Sebastian to distract him from finding out the truth and Sebastian had become employed by her in order to gain evidence to arrest her. He snorted at the irony. It had worked out well for both of them. He had never noticed a thing and Sebastian had obtained the evidence he required.

He removed the photo from its fame and debated what to do with it. The obvious action would be to destroy it like he had destroyed the teacup, but a part of him didn’t want to do that so he placed it in the bottom of a drawer out of sight.

The ringing of a doorbell punctuated his depressing spiral of thoughts and he chose to ignore it. He did not feel up to seeing anyone at the moment. It couldn’t be Tanaka because he knew that Ciel didn’t want to be disturbed and it clearly wasn’t Sebastian either as he didn’t seem to want anything more to do with him now that his aunt had been arrested.

The sound of a door being unlocked became apparent and he knew who had come to visit. A limited number of people had a key and only one person would dare to visit him on a day like this. He wasn’t remotely surprised when he heard someone sprint up the stairs and a bundle of pink came rushing into his bedroom.

“What are you doing here, Lizzie?” he asked. “How did you know? Did Tanaka tell you?”

“I came to make sure that you hadn’t done anything rash. I didn’t hear it from Tanaka.”

Ciel focused on the first part meaning he didn’t full process the meaning of the last part.

“What counts as rash?”

Lizzie screwed up her face in thought. “Quit the company? Burn every single photo you have of Aunt Ann and end up setting the house on fire.”

Ciel let out a laugh that sounded hollow. “I’m simply giving up on drinking tea. I might also stop eating cake too. I could send a shipment of diuretic sugar free lollipops to a certain Police officer whilst I am at it.”

“Sebastian Michaelis?”

Ciel’s head snapped up to look at her sharply. “How did you know?”

His cousin sat down at the end of his bed before explaining herself. “I have known who he really is since I visited you at Black Butler.”

Ciel sat down next to her. Had he really been so distracted that he had missed signs that even Lizzie had picked up on?

“Before you ask, I didn’t work out who he was when I was there, he told me himself instead.”

Upon hearing that Ciel recalled her disappearance that day and how she had looked strange when she had eventually returned. The significance was clear now.

“I went after him to have a word with him about...um,” she paused awkwardly.

Ciel waved his hand. “Lizzie, never mind feeling embarrassed, just carry on.”

Lizzie twirled her hair nervously. “I was just annoyed at how freely he was touching you; I mean you hate people touching you so I followed him out of Black Butler and confronted him.”

“What did he say?”

“The conversation was weird. First he said and you were his and asked if I had a problem with that.”

Against his wishes, Ciel’s cheeks flushed pink which went unnoticed by Lizzie.

“Then I threatened him a little,” she coughed. “He changed tack then and warned me to leave him alone because it would count as obstructing the law and threatening a Police officer.”

Ciel raised an eyebrow. It hadn’t taken much for Lizzie to get the truth out of Sebastian.

“Naturally I asked him to explain himself and he did after making me promise not to tell anyone else. I agreed, but for a price.”

“Price?”

“He had to promise in return that he would not go too far with his facade so when the truth was revealed, you would not be too hurt. I didn’t want you to start liking him and then find out what he was faking it for his other job.”

He twitched and Lizzie narrowed her eyes.

“Ciel... what happen between you two?”

He averted his eyes guiltily. “Nothing much. We had four “dates”, two of which were Aunt Ann’s fault and we...kissed.”

The silence between them was taut.

“I knew I should have brought my foil with me today,” Lizzie muttered. “He broke his promise.”

Ciel feared that she really would stomp over to Scotland Yard and poke Sebastian with her foil and as annoyed as he was, he wasn’t going to let her do that.

“Elizabeth, we kissed by accident, he was as shocked as I was,” he explained. “As for those “dates”, I instigated one and I enjoyed all of them.”

There was another brief silence between them.

“Do you like him?” she questioned tentatively. 

It took Ciel a while to answer that question as it made him remember when Sebastian had walked him home and the conversation they had. He frowned, if Sebastian was only close to him for his job then what was Sebastian’s motive for constantly telling him that he liked him and getting him to admit that he might like Sebastian? It didn’t add up properly.

“I liked him. I have never really liked anyone before,” he saw the look on his cousin’s face and hastily elaborated. “I mean, I liked him more that I like people related to me. That said, I used to like Aunt Ann.”

He was now aware that he had liked Sebastian before his true nature had been revealed. Could he still like him? Lizzie appeared to be thinking along the same track.

“Do you still like him? He did us all a favour by arresting Aunt Ann. It may make Funtom look bad, but if it had continued and she was caught later on it would look even worse for you. He didn’t exactly lie about anything either, he just never mentioned his real motive for working at Black Butler.”

Ciel knew that she had listed some valid points so he took the time to consider them.

“I don’t dislike that he assisted in the arrest of Aunt Ann and I know that he never technically lied to me,” he paused. “You sound suspiciously supportive of him.”

Lizzie gave him a small smile. “If you ignore the whole arresting Aunt Ann thing, he isn’t too bad for you. He can make you tea and cake, keep up with your snarky comments and match you in intelligence. There aren’t that many people that would be willing to do that. He isn’t too bad looking either.”

This made him cast another suspicious glance at her. “Are you like those creepy fangirls at Black Butler?”

“No, I just don’t want you to end up alone. To be frank, you have no friends, your previously favoured aunt is a criminal, you find my mother scary, I’m attending university next year and your company isn’t in a good state.”

“So am I supposed to go over to Scotland Yard and ask him out? I don’t think he wants anything more to do with me now that he got what he wanted,” Ciel said.

“Where did you get the impression that he doesn’t want to see you again from? He was the person that told me that Aunt Ann had been arrested and suggested I check on you.”

“Is that true?” Ciel asked doubtfully. “You aren’t you saying that out of some misplaced desire to get us together?”

Lizzie shook her head. “No. He also said to tell you that he had been intending to use his last remaining favour to make you promise not to hate him, but in the end he decided it would be too selfish to ask.”

Of course Ciel remembered him saying that because he had assumed that the favour was something much more perverted.

He sighed. “All right, I will meet with him at some point.”

Chapter Text

Teacups and Teapots

Chapter 16:

Lizzie smiled happily when she heard that and Ciel felt the need to embellish on that statement before she did anything sudden like contacting Sebastian for him.

"Well, I am going to see him at the trial, we will both have to attend," he pointed out. "I never specified when I would see him."

His cousin shot him a ferocious glare that did not go with her pink accessories. "You know how long it's going to take to go to court, it's going to be more than a year!" she exclaimed and then she shrugged nonchalantly. "You will crack before then."

That caused Ciel to experience some dread about his plan of never seeing Sebastian again until the trial. When Lizzie set out to make him do something she got her way most of the time, usually by annoying him until he gave in.

She sprang up suddenly. "I will go and dispose of all of your tea then since you said you had given it up. I'll make you some hot chocolate instead."

Ciel reached out to stop her but was too slow in reacting. She had spent her childhood fencing whilst he had spent it isolated in his house reading books and preparing to take over Funtom so he was a lot slower than her when it came to physical activities. By the time he rushed downstairs she had located all of his tea and had all of the boxes stacked in a pile on the table and was pouring chocolate powder into a cup.

"I didn't think you would have so much tea," she said conversationally as she boiled the kettle.

"Are you really going to get rid of all that tea? A lot of it was expensive, you could leave some behind and pick it up later," he suggested, not prepared to see his tea collection suddenly disappear.

"I thought a Phantomhive was supposed to stick to their word," she warned. "You said you were going to give up tea, you should stick to it, or go and meet with Sebastian."

Ciel had to appreciate how well she had added in meeting with Sebastian. It appeared that she would throw away all of his tea it he didn't meet with the Police officer soon. He was saved from answering by his phone ringing.

He left the room and checked the number on the display cautiously, wary of it being a newspaper asking for a statement. Not many people had his number and he wasn't listed publically anywhere so he took that risk.

"Hello?" he said doubtfully.

"Is this Ciel Phantomhive? I'm Inspector William T. Spears. I am working on Angelina Durless' case, we need you to clarify something. When are you free to come in?"

That was the last thing that Ciel had been expecting and he didn't like the idea of visiting the people working on his aunt's case as there was a high chance that he would encounter Sebastian and he knew that he wasn't prepared to meet with him yet. He was still slightly annoyed with him.

The Police officer detected his hesitation.

"If it's Sebastian you are worried about, we can arrange it at a time when he won't be here."

"That would be helpful," Ciel said, relieved that the potential situation had been avoided. "What do you need me for?"

"It's nothing too major, it's a legal detail. We have to make sure the methods of investigating used are not used as a defence by Angeline Durless' lawyer when it comes to court," he explained. "Sebastian is due to be out tomorrow afternoon."

"I will visit then," Ciel hung up after being given further details.

He returned to the kitchen where Lizzie was waiting for him holding a teacup that strongly smelled of chocolate.

"Who was that?" she enquired.

"It was the Police," he answered casually, suspecting that it would confuse her.

"...Was it Sebastian?" she perked up and handed him the cup.

Ciel peered into the cup to obverse the unusually dark coloured hot chocolate. "What is this supposed to be?"

"Hot chocolate. Since you are giving up on your source of caffeine, you need a new one. It looked like it was going to taste weak with the recommended amount so I added 20 teaspoons instead. I can make it for you everyday if you like."

By now Ciel had picked up on what Lizzie was trying to do.

"You made it badly on purpose so I will decide that I can't give up on tea and will see Sebastian."

"Has it worked yet?" she asked eagerly as she watched him take a sip and pull a disgusted face.

"I have to go to Scotland Yard tomorrow, maybe I will encounter him there."

Ciel gazed at the door in trepidation. He was at Scotland Yard outside the room that William T. Spears had told him to come to. He was now going to meet the people that had worked on arresting his aunt. Even though he had accepted that his aunt was a fully fledged criminal it still did affect him. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

The door was pulled open by a tall bespectacled man with black and blonde hair.

"You really do look shorter in real life," he said cheerfully and gestured for him to enter. "Hi Ciel."

"What do you mean shorter?" Ciel muttered and followed him in.

He took a careful look around the office to see if it resembled anything he had seen in crime dramas. There were desks, computer and the essential bulletin board with arrows pointing in all directions and lots of photos affixed to it. The other people in the room were another dark haired man with glasses and a stern expression and a kinder looking brown haired man that smiled at him.

"I've only ever seen photos of you, I've never seen you in person before," the Police officer explained. "I'm Ronald Knox, that person is Spears and the other one is Abberline."

There was an unoccupied desk that Ciel took to be Sebastian's and he averted his eyes from it. He refused to be distracted by Sebastian again.

"You have photos of me?"

Ronald plucked a file out of a filing cabinet.

"You were investigated at the start as a potential accomplice of your aunt and you were followed around for a while and it became clear that you weren't involved. Have a look."

Ciel opened the file slowly and was confronted by a full page photo of himself sucking a lollipop. He blinked and turned the page hoping the next picture would be more normal, it turned out to be him with cream around his mouth and the background was a cafe close to his office. He wondered if all the photos were going to be creepy like that. He had never noticed anyone following him and taking photos and he prided himself on being observant.

"You are not supposed to be showing him that," the officer named Spears complained. "He's not a suspect, but he is involved. Just explain to him why he is here."

"I know," Ronald said and Ciel handed the file back. "It was Sebastian that had to follow you around in case you wondered. You need a better diet, there are too many photos of you eating sweets."

Ciel scowled. Now there was pictorial evidence of his unhealthy eating habits.

"What do you actually need me for?"

Ronald reached over to his desk and gave Ciel a form.

"It's a legal technicality regarding Sebastian having two jobs at once, you just need to sign it in case Durless' solicitor uses it in defence at the trial. Something similar has occurred before and we don't want her to get a reduced sentence because of it."

Ciel read it through thoroughly. He understood their reasoning, but surely the fact that Sebastian was working for the Police negated that. He decided it wasn't for him to decide and he had limited legal knowledge so he signed it.

"Is that all you needed me for?

Ronald glanced down at his watch for an unclear reason before answering.

"Do you want to know more about the case?"

"I thought I wasn't supposed to know the details because I am involved," Ciel replied, confused by the offer.

"Never mind that," Ronald said and directed him towards the bulletin board and pointed to the photo of his aunt at the centre. "This is Madam Red."

"Madam Red?"

It did seem to be a fitting name considering the amount of red she wore.

"That was the name that she operated under for her criminal activities."

A question that had been bothering Ciel ever since he had found out came to mind.

"Why did she do it? She has never been exactly in need of money."

The expression on Ronald's face became more guarded and he looked very reluctant to answer.

"We had a suspicion why and she admitted it when we interviewed her yesterday. She wanted to carry out something that is illegal and needed large amounts of money to do so. It is banned on ethical grounds and is likely to increase her sentence."

"What is it?" Ciel enquired curiously. He couldn't think of any likely contenders, but it seemed to be that he didn't know her as well as he thought he had.

"She wanted a child of her own, but she didn't want it to inherit her red hair meaning genetic modification would be involved. It's illegal to carry out Germline Gene Therapy and that's why she needed all the money," Ronald concluded.

Ciel stared at the photo of her sadly. He had never really known her that well after all. He had believed that she liked red.

"Can I go now?"

Again Ronald checked his watch. "You can. Remember to sign out when you leave and hand in your pass."

Ciel nodded and left the room. On his way out the entrance he encountered someone he had been hoping not to see. Sebastian Michaelis. He really couldn't avoid him.

He saw the shocked look in Sebastian's eyes when he caught sight of him.

"Ciel, what are you doing here?" he questioned after a moment of awkward silence. "...Did you come here to see me?"

The teenager was tempted to answer yes to see his reaction, but he had not intended on seeing Sebastian anytime soon so he answered truthfully.

"I was called here to sign something and I ended up talking to Ronald for a while."

There was an undeniable narrowing of Sebastian's eyes when Ciel mentioned Ronald Knox.

"I didn't know anything about that," he frowned and stepped out the way so the person behind him could get through. "We are blocking the way here so let's go somewhere else."

As much as Ciel would have liked to refuse Sebastian's offer, it was an opportunity that wouldn't occur again. Sebastian was clearly unnerved by his presence at his workplace and would more likely to answer questions truthfully.

That was how Ciel found himself sitting opposite Sebastian in an alcove of a cafe. He had to laugh at the irony- he was never going to escape tea.

"Will you have tea?" Sebastian asked the difficult question.

"I'll just have orange juice," Ciel said weakly. "I need the Vitamin C."

The former butler left to order leaving Ciel alone to consider how to approach the subject of their relationship. He wasn't going to blurt out that he had liked/still liked him like a teenage girl. It was going to be hard. He rested his head on the table and stayed that way until Sebastian returned with his orange juice.

"So what did Ronald need you for?"

"It was a "legal technicality" and I had to sign something. Something was strange about it though, I was told that you wouldn't be there and Ronald kept checking the time and kept me there for longer than was necessary."

Sebastian's reaction was to sigh. "That's because they wanted us to meet. I was sent out for half an hour to pick up some documents for them. We have fanboys in the Police in addition to female fangirls."

"They showed me all those photos you took of me. They were all a little stalkerish."

"I got carried away with that," Sebastian admitted.

"I never noticed you following me," Ciel commented to ease the tension and to delay the inevitable conversation about feelings.

"I'm good," Sebastian said with no trace of modesty. "I followed Madam Red for most of the time though. Then one day she dragged you into the street and randomly grabbed Finnian, I wasn't entirely sure what was going on until she "randomly recruited" Grell so I made sure to be recruited too."

Ciel cast his mind back to that day. Sebastian had smiled at him as he walked past which had caught his attention. Of course he now knew that Sebastian and Grell being in the right place at the right time was not a coincidence.

"By smiling at me and acting like you were interested in me which made her set us up so she could distract me from discovering the truth about Black Butler."

"I was interested in you..." the former butler paused. "When I said I liked you I wasn't lying. I just couldn't tell you the truth about your aunt because, firstly I would get into trouble with my superiors, you might have changed your attitude towards her or you might have told her everything."

The first part elicited a tomato red blush from Ciel.

"I liked you at the time," he coughed and tried to hide his blush by looking away. "I still like you."

He risked a glance at Sebastian, finding that the former butler was also sporting blushed cheeks. Their eyes met and Ciel blushed even harder, he hadn't thought that was possible.

"Thank you, Ciel," Sebastian said and flashed him the most genuine smile Ciel had ever seen. "I love you too."

"I didn't say "love"!" Ciel spluttered. "That's too much at once."

He felt Sebastian ruffle his hair gently. "I know. Maybe you will feel that way soon."

The word "soon" caught Ciel's attention and Sebastian elaborated.

"I am planning on handing in my notice when this case is finally over. It's been more stressful that I had anticipated at the start and I didn't expect to become so fond of you."

"What are you going to do after that?" the teenager questioned. "You can't expect me to provide for you just because we like each other."

He realised too late that he had given Sebastian a perfect opportunity for teasing.

Sebastian leaned forwards so their faces were only a few inches apart. "So you have considered me in your future."

Ciel averted his eyes. "Just a little."

"I have been discussing something with someone named Tanaka. He has suggested a solution to Funtom's problem that involves both of us."

1 year later:

A 20 year old Ciel Phantomhive pushed open the door of a teashop, the doorbell tingling behind him and sat down at a reserved table. The solution to the company's monetary problem had been to sell off one line of products and to reopen Black Butler as the sales has been good at the time it was open. Currently profits were at a record high as he and Sebastian were providing fanservice on a completely different scale to before, something to do with the fact that there were no secrets between then and they were dating.

A teacup of his favourite tea was placed in front of him and he titled his head back to see Sebastian standing behind him.

"Welcome back, young master," he said and leaned down to give Ciel a light kiss on the lips.

The sound of females squealing didn't bother Ciel as much as it used to, he could put up with it if it was for Sebastian.

He took a sip of tea and smiled. His avoidance of tea had only lasted one day.

Sebastian sat down opposite him. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because I love your tea."

"You're supposed to say that you love me," the butler complained. "Sometimes I think that you love tea more than me."

"I do love you," Ciel leaned across the table to kiss him. "You should get back to work."

As he had promised Sebastian had quit working for the Police and was now back to working at Black Butler. Ciel was happy with that as he could see him every day and was able to drink tea made by Sebastian and he hoped that their routine would continue on forever.

The End

I would like to thank everyone that reviewed, favourited and subscribed to this story. I always needed the motivation because university is very stressful and I am grateful to all the people that understood this.

The setting is adapted from the Korean drama, Coffee Prince with the only similarities being the good looking waiters and the chapter titles which is part of my reasoning for ending it on Sixteenth Cup. For a fanfiction that mostly exists for revision, it didn't turn out too badly.