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Sometimes, you would find yourself thinking back to the handsome reaper you were paired with throughout your services as a reaper. In the human world, there were not many places for your kind, if truly any. The underworld was the only world that seemed to still provide a retired reaper some use, and yet, you found yourself surrounded significantly by fragile humans.
Humans truly had been such a fragile thing, very few meeting the criteria to be saved once their time had come. Even Marie Antoinette, you recalled, though a valiant woman, had met her end with no refuge. Such fragile bodies as they, you wondered how they even woke up in the morning.
"Y/N, are you paying attention?" The human walking in front of you spat, his voice dripping of impatience as you had delved back into reverie once more. The Queen's Guard Dog was what the human who currently fetched you had been called, quite the cold brat, if you were to be honest with yourself. Even so, the Phantomhive provided a little something into your long life that you lacked, a little bit of excitement.
You pursed your lips, your reaper eyes hidden carefully behind y/h/c locks. "Sorry, my little lord," you apologized half-heartedly. "I find myself often contemplating the fragility of human life is all."
"With such weak bodies, it's a strain not to," Sebastian quipped beside you, a vile smirk upon the demon's lips as his voice held a clear amusement.
"We could do without the little, but moving on," Earl Phantomhive spoke with acidity, clearly placing himself above the two of you as he garnered your attention. "You are to behave yourself. This is your first visit to the Undertaker, Y/N."
"Behave myself?" You quipped heartily, though your lips fell as you fell back into attention. "Yes, my lord."
"I still find your strength to be curious," Ciel mused as the three of you made your way down the dirt road, to the dreary looking door. "Sebastian, you are sure she is not a demon?"
"A demon?" You scoffed, your lips souring at the thought. "I don't have the same wicked tongue as such a vile creature...present company excluded."
"Even so," Ciel murmured, his lips in a permanent scowl as he walked through the door to the Undertaker's.
He walked before the two of you, though you stayed behind the demon, unknowing of what you would be walking into. The darkness surrounded you like a blanket, merely candles to light your way in the creepy surroundings. Not a living soul had been in sight, though you had trained your senses over hundreds of years. You could feel a presence in the far corner, something seemingly familiar, but you held your tongue.
"Undertaker, are you about?" Ciel called out, clearly impatient.
The three of you were met with silence, though your body had already turned towards the presence. Cackling, nearly, an amusement dripped from a familiar tongue. "The lady is a sharp one, I see," Undertaker spoke with dripping amusement as he strode closer to the group.
"We need information," Ciel quickly caught off, his tone lacking any amusement. "On the string of disappearances in the area."
"My lord, you know I require my payment," the Undertaker spoke wryly. "Give me a good laugh, and I'll tell you everything."
"Sebastian," Ciel ordered. "Take care of this."
"What about the lady?" The Undertaker quipped, pointing a long, black fingernail towards you. Though his expression proved to be hard to decipher, he had clearly been examining you from beneath his silver bangs, something that Sebastian and Ciel were able to notice the moment he stepped into candle light. A giggling cackle escaped his lips as he watched your body retreat inwards. "Sure she's hiding something worthy of sweet laughter up her sleeve."
You bit your lip sheepishly as you gazed away from under your y/h/c locks. "I'm not funny at all, I'm afraid," you stammered out. "I'm sure the butler…"
"Nonsense," he spoke, a wry smirk against his lips as he beckoned you closer. "Leave the shy lady with me."
"Fine," Ciel groaned out, his blue crystal orb shifting to you. "Don't disappoint me." His gaze had not even shifted to his butler as he began walking out, his tone firm as he spoke. "Come on, Sebastian."
Within moments, you were left with this somewhat familiar presence, your heart tight in your chest. You stood face to face with the man, vaguely lit by candlelight. For the first moment, the two of you had been utterly silent, though those silver locks reminded you a great deal of the reaper you once knew.
"Lift your bangs, poppet," he murmured, his lips crestfallen as he eyed you up and down.
His words had taken you by surprise, brows furrowed from beneath your y/h/c locks as you glanced over the Undertaker. You surely believed the man wished for his peculiar payment, something Ciel had vaguely explained that the Undertaker cares not for the Queen's coin. Even so, you felt your mouth dry under the man's scrutiny. Though his presence had been so familiar to you, you were sure you had been mistaken, and yet, you worked so hard to hide your reaper eyes. Prancing around with a demon and a human, you had genuinely danced with the threat of your own demise.
Swallowing hard, you did as you were told, though your lips curled neither upwards nor downwards. Your hand carded through your long bangs, exposing your reaper eyes for the man to see, though your gaze had shifted away from him. A sigh escaped your lips as you reached into your pocket, procuring your glasses to slip up your nose once more. Adjusting them with your free hand, you allowed your y/h/c locks to fall around them in a way that still exposed them to the man before you.
Shifting your gaze back to the man before you, you could now see the way his silver locks framed his body, all the way down to the braid, which gently gathered a few small locks of those silky locks. Your reaper eyes could trace over those familiar scars about his face and neck, and suddenly, your curiosity peaked. Even so, as your lips parted, it had been he to break the silence.
"After all these years, you still carry around your spectacles," he spoke with a giggle to his tone, his lips curled upwards as he made haste to pull you into him. Slender arms engulfed you into his warmth, amusement falling from those upturned lips. "Y/N, it's been far too long."
Your lips curled upwards brightly as you found your heart racing for a completely different reason than fear, clinging close to the handsome partner you had missed so dearly. "I hadn't thought I'd run into you," you murmured sheepishly, a chuckle escaping your own lips. Nestled in the man's warmth, you managed to slip your own arms around him in return. "After all these years, you were still so close."
"And though we've escaped the mundane, you still dance into danger," he replied with a sigh as the two of you separated, though his slender fingers took refuge upon your hips. One hand moved upwards, shooing his bangs from his yellowish green eyes as his gaze met your own. Once he had, he shifted his hand to your cheek, caressing your cheekbone with a long, black fingernail. "How many times have I told you that I wish you would see how precious your existence is?"
Your cheeks darkened, though your gaze had been fixated upon those yellowish green eyes you remembered so well. "Surely you know me far too well," you teased with a soft chuckle. "Where else would I be than right in the eye of each storm?"
"By my side, Y/N," he murmured, his lips curled downwards at your brash nature. "Where I know the woman I've loved for centuries is safe."
"You don't mean that," you chuckled softly, your y/e/c eyes shifted away as your cheeks heated with the deepest blush. Your partner had always been obscure, different from any reaper you had ever known, and yet, you rarely heard him to be this serious. In this moment, you were sure it had been his humor, his way of screwing around with his old partner. As your reaper eyes shifted back to the Undertaker, though, your mouth dried. "Do you?"
"We're no longer a part of the division, poppet," he spoke softly, nearly a whisper as he pulled you closer to him. His face leaned closer to your own, breath radiating off of your lips. "None of those stiff suits are telling us it's against protocol anymore." His lips curled upwards as he felt your body practically melting into his touch, something that had been obvious to him over the years the two of you worked side by side.
You wondered in this moment, so close to the Undertaker's lips, if it had truly been obvious back when the two of you were partnered together. Each mission had been filled with happiness, laughter, though some had been filled with worry, angst, even. Far more than your share of times you had been caught near this position, on accident or from a judgment lapse, where you never did connect your lips with his own.
Without over-thinking, without a second to chide yourself or reflect upon those times you almost had, you closed the gap between the two of you. Your arms wrapped quickly around the man's neck, his silky locks tickling your arms as you had. Melting into the man you had thought so many times to step across the line with, you met his passion with your own.
Time had not stopped while the two of you reconnected, nor had the Earl's patience increased over the minutes the two of you spent bantering. Surely the two had been waiting for the Undertaker's sign to fall from laughter, and yet, with each passing minute that you melted into the Undertaker, it had not. The two you had left outside, awaiting their promised information, had surely been at their wit's end.
"Love, tuck your glasses away," he murmured as the two of you separated. "I'm sure the little lord is impatient as ever."
You chuckled softly as you pulled your glasses from your face, gently tucking them away in your pocket. Readjusting your y/h/c locks in front of your eyes, you could hear your lover do the same. As you had expected the two of you to separate, you were shocked that you merely had been turned around, giggles escaping the Undertaker's lips as his slender arms held you close to his chest. From over your shoulder, the Undertaker called for Ciel and Sebastian to return in.
"How long were the two of you going to wait on this humorless…" Ciel began complaining, before his blue orbs landed upon the two of you. "What the…"
"The shy poppet will be staying with me," the Undertaker giggled out, his body practically leaned upon you in his fit of laughter. His arms were tightly procured around your body as he had, practically shaking you as he giggled. "Now, I'll tell you anything you need to know."
"Y/N, you were supposed to give him a laugh, not seduce him," Ciel spoke boredly, his eyes narrowed upon you. "I mean, honestly, I'd expect this kind of behavior from Sebastian."