Work Text:
It’d been a long time.
The longest he’d ever endured.
Sebastian prided himself on his restraint: he was not a demon that formed contracts with humans who housed mediocre souls. Gone were the millennia when he would slurp up any scrap of sustenance that walked the earth. Measly snacks with dull flavor no longer satiated his hunger.
Instead, Sebastian was a creature with a refined palate. High quality, layered flavors, extensive depth, and exquisite exoticism were the requirements for a soul he’d seek out. A demon of his caliber could afford to be picky. In exchange for his faustian seal, the human he would consume needed to be a vessel for a true feast of a soul.
Ciel Phantomhive was certainly that, and more.
The small earl contained such a unique, delicious, and absolutely incredible soul that the demon had risen from Hell to claim it from among the multitudes of unappetizing examples of human existence. The three years that had followed caused the flavors to emulsify, deepening and thickening to a degree that had the creature’s proverbial stomach growling constantly.
While three years was a blink of an eye to Sebastian, it was the longest he had ever been subjected to a human’s contract.
And he was becoming insatiable.
Never had his responsibilities as a butler been jeopardized, lest he be scolded by his liege, so it was difficult for others to notice.
But Ciel had caught on. He was the only one able to.
When they were alone, Sebastian’s eyes were just a hint too red, his teeth just a bit too pointed, the edges of his shadow just a bit too fuzzy. In the darkness of Ciel’s bedroom, when the moon was high in the night sky, the demon’s presence was a foreboding reminder of the noble’s fated future – or more accurately, the lack thereof.
Inky shadows overtook the walls, two beads of glowing crimson glimmering in the haze of darkness. Sebastian’s form blurred, becoming incomplete, as if his figure was bleeding from its own edges. An air of silence, of complete nothingness besides the two beings, would encapsulate the room. All was still, quiet, and peaceful, save for the starving creature stalking his defenseless prey, nearly drooling in hunger.
Ciel should have been bothered by these occurrences. He should have been terrified of the way Sebastian, a beast of Hell, was quite literally licking his chops whenever he laid eyes on the little lord. Ciel noticed the way his demon craved to swallow his entire being. He noticed the carnally hungry expression on that face. And he should have feared Sebastian and his desire to consume.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Ciel often looked back at him with a small glint of amusement in his mismatched eyes.
If anything, he’d make sure to stop himself from blinking for an extended moment, purposely showing off his faustian seal.
When Ciel did that, Sebastian always parted his lips, licking them shamelessly.
Like an animal.
It was one of these nights, with Sebastian stalking in the shadows, drooling and hungering, that Ciel decided to speak out into the darkness:
“Sebastian.” His voice broke the stagnant silence, shattering the strangely secure atmosphere of complete darkness.
There was a beat of empty air, only filled by the shadowy figure’s eyes widening in slight surprise.
“Sir?” Sebastian’s voice was garbled, not his usual sickly sweet collected tone. It sounded almost as if he was speaking through water, matching the non-concrete physical form he took at the moment.
Ciel adjusted his head on the pillow, focusing his eyes on his butler – or what was supposed to be the image of him. Instead, a swirling shadow took Sebastian’s place.
“You’ve been becoming… different.” He spoke tactically. The earl was careful with his language, as always.
“What an odd topic to raise when you should be sleeping, my lord.” This time, Sebastian’s voice was more grounded in humanity, sounding more like his usual self.
Ciel sat up, thick duvet covers falling off of his upper half.
“I’m having trouble sleeping.” He said simply, not betraying his fortitude. “And my mind is racing.”
Sebastian stared for a moment. He didn’t breathe, didn’t twitch, didn’t flinch. He didn’t move an inch. Ciel watched the demon as it watched him, never blinking.
Slowly, Sebastian’s form seemed to… collect itself. The shadows of the room lightened just a bit, absorbed into the edges of his silhouette. Where his features were just the tiniest bit undefined, they sharpened. He closed his mouth and when it opened again, his teeth were dull, no longer pointed fangs.
“Do you wish for me to bring warm milk with honey?” Sebastian was fully formed into his butler persona when he spoke again.
Ciel blinked at the suggestion, considering it for just a moment.
But, he waved his hand in dismissal.
“No. You’ve driven me away from my intended discussion.”
Sebastian raised a thin eyebrow.
“Oh? Do continue, young master.” His voice was smooth in the crisp air of the dark bedroom.
Ciel carefully turned to face his butler, sliding his legs out from underneath the covers. He watched closely as Sebastian’s eyes flicked to the smooth, bare limbs, and back up to his face again.
“I intend to speak with you about how you’ve changed recently.” The earl crossed his ankles as he spoke.
“I am perplexed at this suggestion, my lord.” Sebastian, ever steadfast, stared ahead into the little boy before him.
“It’s not incredibly difficult to comprehend.” Ciel retorted. His lips quirked upwards, though it could barely be called a smile.
“Please enlighten me.” Sebastian spoke in a tone dripping with a thinly veiled challenge.
Ciel finally smirked fully.
“You’re hungry.”
When the word escaped the boy’s lips, the demon’s eyes instantly erupted into a magenta glow of hellfire. As his pupils drew into thin slits, the human’s pentagram seal gleamed with its pale purple hue.
Another beat of thick, weighted silence.
Ciel awaited the response with baited breath.
When it came, he rewarded his demon with a dastardly smile that showed teeth.
“Yes, my little lord.” Sebastian’s tongue dragged across his top lip slowly.
“I am very hungry.”
Ciel tilted his head, uncrossing his ankles. The rare smile on his face was devoid of joy, full only of mockery.
“I trust it will not affect your duties as my butler?” It wasn’t a true question.
“Of course not, young master.” Sebastian responded. “Do you think so lowly of me?” The demon now smirked as well.
Ciel tilted his head to rest his cheek on his shoulder. Sebastian’s eyes followed as his ankles came apart and his legs started swinging, bouncing against the mattress where they couldn’t reach the floor.
“I suppose not. You fulfill your role well enough.” The smile faded from the human’s lips as his gaze dug into the creature across from him.
Sebastian placed a hand on his chest and bowed slightly.
“That is a compliment of the utmost degree. I thank you.” It came with the butler’s usual sarcastic tone.
Ciel rolled his eyes at the far-too-formal pleasantries.
“Come here, demon.” It was an order.
Sebastian stood straight and raised a brow.
“Master?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.” Ciel scoffed.
The demon’s lips parted as his feet began treading towards the bed. He seemed to glide across the floor, his footsteps making absolutely no noise.
“Lord?” Sebastian inquired as he came to a stop before the human. A request to approach Ciel’s bed was rare, and most certainly improper for a butler and his master.
The demon’s eyes widened when a small, delicate foot suddenly pressed against his chest. He stared in shock at Ciel, who was raising a single leg to push against the butler.
“Do you want to sample a taste?” Ciel proposed.
If Sebastian breathed, he would’ve choked on the air in his throat. Instead, he stood still as a statue and stared down at the child before him with a startled expression.
“I do not understand-” The demon attempted.
“Yes you do.” Ciel rolled his head to rest on his other shoulder. Sebastian kept a close watch on his master’s face as the tiny foot on his chest brushed lower to push into his stomach gently.
“I fear you mistake my ability to read minds, my little lord.”
Ciel scoffed at the retort. In a swift motion, he let his foot draw even lower on Sebastian’s torso.
That was, until a firm, gloved hand took hold of his thin ankle. The demon held Ciel by the leg, the child’s foot still pressed into his body, eyes ablaze with an intense magenta.
“I am familiar with your affinity for games, master, but it is difficult for me to play along if I am unaware of the rules.” The words were smooth in the buzzing air.
Ciel released a cool breath from between his lips, blinking his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly: Sebastian’s form was dissipating at its edges. The shadows of the room darkened, consuming them both in their deep hold, absorbing Sebastian as one of their own.
“I asked you if you would like to sample a taste.” Ciel repeated himself. He tugged his leg free of the demon’s grasp and raised it to the fuzzy area that used to form a shoulder. “You’re hungry, are you not?”
Ciel’s foot was no formidable force against Sebastian, but he allowed himself to be pushed to his knees before his master.
The demon’s form expanded as he gazed up to his precious meal.
“I am.” It was simple, but extremely telling. There were no fanciful declarations, no theatrics. Just pure, unfiltered hunger.
“Then I welcome you to take a bite.” Ciel smirked slyly again as he removed his foot from his butler’s form.
The demon growled gutturally, the voice becoming garbled.
“You are wading into dangerous waters, my little master.” The voice surrounded Ciel, just as the shadows did. The canopy of his bed disappeared, the duvet being covered with a thick cloud of darkness and the moon becoming blocked with Sebastian’s blackness. Any light, any semblance of reprieve from the void, became lost as Ciel was consumed in Sebastian’s mass.
“I know, demon. Do not treat me like a clueless child.” Ciel leaned forward to gaze down into the familiar eyes and mouth. The nose, jaw, hair, and other facial features were obscured by swirling shadows, but those teeth and eyes were as prominent as ever.
“But I believe you are acting like one.” Sebastian voiced from his non-solid form.
“Watch your mouth-” Ciel began, but was cut off by his own gasp when a black-skinned, clawed hand came down against his bare thigh.
“You are toying with an entity beyond your comprehension.” Sebastian’s essence drew in closer, his eyes and mouth inches from the creamy skin of the noble’s leg meat. “You tease. You play. You act as if you will win.”
Ciel gripped the bed sheets as an airy tendril wrapped itself around his other ankle. The demon securely held his legs in place.
“Will I not win tonight? You cannot fulfill the contract at this moment.” Ciel hesitated before reaching a hand into the darkness of Sebastian’s void. When he found a solid shape to take a hold of, not knowing what exactly it was, he smiled yet again. “I offered you a taste. Am I not simply being a generous master?”
Sebastian’s growl filled the entire room. The monstrous sound rang in Ciel’s ears and the human could only watch as the demon’s eyes burned with glowing insatiability. The mouth opened to reveal rows and rows of fangs, all ready to dig into supple, childish flesh.
“You are a wonderfully cruel human, my young master.” A deep pink tongue escaped from behind the teeth, and Ciel shuddered when it touched his thigh. There was no slimy saliva, no hot breath. Just the feeling of thick smoke brushing against his skin.
Ciel’s fingers tightened on whatever part of Sebastian he was holding onto when the demon suddenly advanced upon him.
“Sebastian-” He breathed, being pushed back into the shadowy comfort of what used to be his mattress.
“Only a clueless child would invite such terror upon themselves.” The demon’s loosely formed face floated above Ciel’s. The clawed hands and tendrils snaked up the human’s body, both on top of his sleep shirt and underneath it to press into his skin.
“That would only be the case if I were scared of you.” Ciel huffed as Sebastian’s shadows engulfed his body. The glowing eyes and fanged teeth drew closer to his face, and a pair of black fingers undid the top button of his shirt.
That pink tongue darted out and drew slowly across the front row of fangs. Ciel watched its slithering path with parted lips and a glowing pentagram in his eye.
“Are you not afraid?” It spoke to him lowly, garbled, and unclear. The voice surrounded him completely in the void.
The demon’s face lowered into the crux of Ciel’s bare neck and chest. With spindly arms, the lord wrapped them delicately around what he assumed was his butler’s shoulders.
“I am never afraid of you, Sebastian.” He smiled in self-satisfaction when he felt that strange tongue draw across his throat. “Now, sample your fest, you damned beast.”
The monstrous roar rumbled through Ciel’s entire body before his head was pinned to the mattress by a black palm against his forehead.
“Yes, my lord.”
Ciel yelled out when pinpricks of pain prickled on his neck. It felt like no other sensation he had ever felt. It was like he was being bitten from the inside out, like the pain was coming from within his own being.
The fangs made no physical marks, but dug into his core to extract the smallest slurp of the aura of Ciel’s soul. The true thing couldn't be tampered with, lest he leave his master non-whole.
What could only be described as a groan of complete satisfaction sounded from the demon before Ciel’s eyes were rolling back into his head.
“Sebastian~” He whispered, gripping for dear life as indescribable sensations filled his body within the incomprehensible void of the demon’s existence. “Do I taste good?”
The beast wailed with a broken, terrifying cry, but Ciel just smiled in glee.
“Better than I ever imagined, master.” The voice echoed in the darkness and bounced off the walls of Ciel’s skull.
The human’s back arched as a shot of electricity jolted down his spine with another one of the demon’s metaphysical bites.
“You poor, hungry beast…” Ciel gasped, and his head began to feel fuzzy. His limbs felt heavy, his grip loosened on the demon’s form, and his vision began to blur.
Before the darkness consumed his consciousness, Ciel caught a glimpse of hundreds of magenta eyes blinking down at him, millions of sharpened fangs mashing, and a single human hand reaching out to cup his cheek, a sleek faustian symbol glowing against the pale skin of his butler.
–
In the morning, the sunlight hitting Ciel’s eyelids roused him from his exhausted slumber.
He groaned quietly and rolled over to turn his back on the light.
“My lord, it is time for you to awake.” The smooth voice of his butler filled the bedroom, and at that Ciel opened his eyes.
He turned his head to glance over his shoulder, laying his eyes on Sebastian.
A moment passed where the human simply inspected the form of his butler. It was solid, with no shadowy tendrils or fuzzy borders. The eyes were deep maroon instead of flaming magenta, and his lips concealed dull incisors and molars instead of threatening canines. The room was filled with rays of bright sunshine. The light surrounded Sebastian in warmth, an uneasily comforting sight.
Ciel rolled over to face the demon and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, pressing his fingers into the contract seal for a few moments longer than necessary.
Sebastian smiled pleasantly.
“I have prepared your morning tea and breakfast. Please allow me to dress you, as well.” The butler moved towards the bed with that false smile plastered across his face.
Ciel watched closely as his demon approached.
As he closed in, Sebastian felt a sudden resistance against his thigh. He paused, tilting his head down to glance at the little foot pressing into his black dress pants as if it could stop him from advancing on the child.
“Master?” Sebastian questioned, raising an eyebrow at Ciel.
“What did it taste like?” Ciel murmured out, almost into his pillow. But Sebastian heard him loud and clear.
“What do you mean, little lord?” Sebastian quirked his head sideways.
A scoff from the human made him grin.
“Don’t act daft, Sebastian. My soul.” The blue and purple pair of eyes followed the demon’s every motion carefully. “Did you enjoy your brief taste? Are you relieved?”
Sebastian hummed quietly and gently took hold of the dainty ankle that had stopped his advance, just as he had the night before. As he removed it from himself, he knelt next to the bed to come face-to-face with his liege.
Ciel watched as a very human, very pink tongue dragged across newly sharpened teeth. His breath caught in his throat as those maroon eyes began to glow pink, and the pupils formed animalistic slits.
With characteristic simplicity, elegance, and truthfulness, Sebastian replied to Ciel:
”Yes, my lord.”