Chapter Text
Sieglinde Sullivan stared down at the plain grey carpet, knocking her heels against the legs of her chair in time with the ticking of the clock.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ciel Phantomhive casting her odd looks, mostly those of disdain, anger, and confusion. She had one arm wrapped around her forearm crutches to keep them from falling, tapping a separate beat on them.
The principal's office was a place she had become intimately familiar with since she had transferred to Victoria Middle School last quarter. She had become legendary among her fellow students, not just for her disability, but her chemistry and mouth fouler and more vulgar than any sailor that has come before or since. Needless to say she was now on a first name basis with Principal Grelle Sutcliff since she visited her at least twice a week. Grelle didn’t even bat an eye anymore when Sieglinde would enter her office. She would just wave her in and offer some tea with way too much sugar or cream in it. They didn’t even talk about her misdeeds anymore, Grelle would just add another tally to Sieglinde’s file and whenever it reached ten, her father would be called, and they would have a meeting with her teachers to decide what should be done about the situation.
Principal Sutcliff sat primly behind her imposing wooden desk. It looked like something she had stolen right out of the White House or Buckingham Palace. And from what Sieglinde knew of Grelle’s history, she couldn’t rule out that possibility. Her well manicured hands were folded neatly over the desk and her long red hair was pulled back in an elegant bun that was already falling out despite school having only been in session forty five minutes. Grelle kept looking between Ciel and Sieglinde, waiting to see who would break the silence first, but Sieglinde wasn’t giving up and nor was Ciel. Their parents had already been called and all that was left was waiting for them to arrive.
“This is killing me!” Grelle finally exclaimed, falling across her desk like a dramatic Victorian woman. “Won’t one of you tell me the details of what happened? It’s not like you’re going to tell the truth in front of your parents!” she was right on that note, Sieglinde was definitely not telling her father about how things had gone so horribly wrong. She risked a glance over at Ciel, whose lips were pursed in a straight line. He wasn’t talking.
“Sieglinde, darling, won’t you tell me?” Grelle begged. “You haven’t visited in over a week, I’ve been starved from any good gossip.”
Ciel clicked his tongue. “Lovely,” he said. “Our esteemed Principal is nothing more than a gossip monger. Do you actually do any sort of discipline in this school?”
Grelle propped her chin up with her hands. “Your father thinks I’m doing an excellent job,” she smiled widely.
“He also thinks cats are better than dogs,” Ciel turned his nose up at her. “Obviously his tastes are skewed.”
“Sieglinde,” Grelle whined. “Ciel’s bullying me,”
“You think everyone is bullying you.” Ciel said bluntly. “You’re more dramatic than the children that go here.”
“You are one of those children,” Sieglinde coughed into her hand.
“And you’re one of the bullies,” Ciel shot back. “Who puts a smoke bomb on a classmate’s desk at eight in the morning? Are you trying to get expelled?”
“It was a genetically modified flower, first of all,” Sieglinde glared at the shorter boy. “And you’re the one who crushed it! Who crushes a flower?”
“I have asthma! You could have killed me!”
“How was I supposed to know you were going to react violently to a gift?” Sieglinde huffed, crossing her arms.
“I didn’t react violently; I barely touched it!” Ciel protested.
“Then why was it nothing but petals when the smoke cleared?” Sieglinde demanded.
“Because it dissolved in the smoke, obviously!” Ciel rolled his eyes. “You created a flower with no idea how it works and then gave it to someone. If that’s not carelessness I don’t know what is.”
Sieglinde threw her hands up in the air. “So I didn’t run every possible experiment! The flower was mostly safe; it wasn’t poisonous at least!”
“It still could have killed me!”
“You’re sitting here yelling at me just fine-”
“I am not yelling-”
“A frail weakling like you probably can’t even take in enough oxygen to yell properly, my mistake.”
“I’d tell you to take a hike, but that would be cruel.”
“At least I can make it five steps without needing a break.”
“At least my feet can actually touch the ground when I sit in a chair.”
“Okay, okay that’s enough,” Grelle waved her hands, catching the bickering middle schooler’s attention. “Your parents will be here any minute and I don’t want them walking in while you’re throwing insults around. Save it for the playground,” she scolded, although neither child took her seriously. Ciel was about to tell her as much when the door to her office swung open.
“Someone had better be injured or dying,” Sebastian Michaelis drawled, strutting into the office as if it were his own living room. “And if they’re not, I’ll make sure they are for pulling me out of my meeting.” He stood with all the poise and presence of a supermodel, dressed in a black suit with a dark red tie that matched his inhuman eyes.
Ciel scowled at the carpet, not bothering to look up at his legal guardian. Frankly, the man embarrassed him to no end. He was so old fashioned Ciel had found him chatting happily with a bunch of withered war veterans while on holiday at the beach. Who hung out with a bunch of old people at the beach and had the audacity to look happy about it?
“Do you have no care for your child?” Wolfram Gelzer demanded, hot on Sebastian’s heels. “Would you rather your own son be on the brink of death than being summoned to have a mere talking to?”
Sebastian raised an unfeeling eyebrow. “I daresay I would. I know my son can handle himself without aid. Which is why this meeting is pointless,” he turned sharply to Grelle, who blinked innocently.
“I’m not your son,” Ciel muttered icily.
“Oh?” Sebastian leaned over Ciel’s chair to look him in the eye. “Unless your parents plan on crawling out of the grave anytime soon, I am your legal guardian and for all intents and purposes, my son.”
“Conservative freak,”
“Rebellious runt,”
“Mr. Michaelis,” Grelle cleared her throat. “As interesting as your interactions are, there are more important things we must discuss.”
“Like why my perfect daughter is in the principal’s office!” Wolfram bellowed much too loudly for the small space.
“Perfect?” Sebastian cocked his head. “Doesn’t she currently hold the record for most trips to the principal’s office without a suspension?”
“And where’d you hear that?” Wolfram growled, turning his gaze to the slightly smaller man.
“I have my sources,” Sebastian smiled sweetly.
“Back to the topic at hand,” Grelle’s cheeks were now flushed pink. “This is actually a very serious matter.”
Sieglinde scoffed. “Serious? Please, he’s still breathing, isn’t he?”
“I could very easily have died!” Ciel snapped.
“Excuse me, what?” Sebastian stared down at his child. “You were actually close to dying this time?”
“Miss. Sullivan left a smoke bomb on Mr. Phantomhive’s desk.” Grelle said bluntly. “Resulting in an asthma attack on Mr. Phantomhive’s side.”
“It was not a smoke bomb!” Sieglinde exclaimed. “It was a flower, and he wasn’t supposed to crush it like that!”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have given me a flower that could blow up!” Ciel argued.
“The young lady as a point,” Sebastian put his hands on the back of Ciel’s chair. “Why would you destroy a gift?”
“None of your business,” Ciel sank down in his chair.
“This doesn’t sound like Sieglinde’s fault, at least,” Wolfram paused. “Not entirely.”
Grelle sighed deeply. “Hence why they are both in this office. Ciel is facing possible detention for the destruction of another student’s project and Sieglinde’s record is coming to a close as she’s facing suspension for the bodily harm of another student.”
“I’ll have to agree with Wolfram on this,” Sebastian put a hand on his hip. “I don’t think this is Sieglinde’s fault. Ciel was in full control of his actions and acted in a way that resulted in his own harm. If someone stabbed their hand with a pair of scissors, would we be punishing the one that gave them the scissors?”
Grelle raised a tired eyebrow. “That is not the situation we are currently dealing with-”
“Obviously you wouldn’t be punishing the person who gave them scissors as the students are allowed to have scissors whenever they please. Why did Sieglinde have an explosive flower?” He turned sharply to look down at the girl.
“It was a school project…” she said slowly.
“Approved by the teachers?”
“Yes…”
“There.” Sebastian clasped his hands together. “Teachers had deemed the flower acceptable for a school setting. My son very rudely destroyed not only a gift, but a school project which is of no fault of Miss. Sullivan. Ciel is the only one who’s done anything worthy of punishment.”
“I thought you were supposed to be on my side,” Ciel grumbled with a scowl.
“I can’t just let Miss. Sullivan off without any sort of punishment,” Grelle protested. “She hurt another-”
“My son’s actions hurt himself,” Sebastian said dismissively. “If we pull Ciel out of this equation, the flower was harmless.”
“Mr. Michaelis-”
“Ciel will accept any punishment you give him without argument,” Sebastian continued as Grelle’s face grew steadily more red. “And Sieglinde will return to class unaffected.”
“That is not up for you to decide!” the principal burst out, rising to her feet. “I don’t want to punish Miss. Sullivan-”
“Then don’t.” Wolfram said bluntly. “She doesn’t need another mark on her record.”
“See?” Sebastian gestured to the other man and his daughter. “They agree with me.”
“Mr. Michaelis-”
“Fine,” Sebastian held his hands up in surrender. “They can be pulled out of school for the rest of the day, and their absence can be marked as unexcused.”
Grelle’s eye twitched. “Mr. Michaelis. I can’t just let two kids walk out of school-”
“We’ve been over this before,” Sebastian leaned forward. “It’s Sebastian, not Mr. Michaelis. It makes me sound so old.”
“You are old.”
Sebastian hit the back of Ciel’s head lightly.
Grelle blushed slightly as she took a deep breath. “No.” she said simply. “Both Mr. Phantomhive and Miss. Sullivan will be attending detention for the next three days. Thank you for coming in.”
“This is outrageous-” Sebastian complained and Wolfram took a step forward.
“You can’t possibly be serious-”
“You two are free to go back to class,” Grelle told Ciel and Sieglinde calmly as their dads raged behind them.