Chapter Text
~ 15th August 1889, London, England, 8:30 AM ~
“It’s time to get up, young master,” Sebastian announces while pushing the soft curtains back, allowing the sunny outdoors to flood into the room.
Ciel opens his eyes and sits up in bed, letting out a yawn.
“What’s the schedule for today, Sebastian?”
Sebastian walks over to the tray to prepare the morning tea.
“You have a meeting with Mr. Doe to discuss a possible collaboration with his hospitality company at 11 AM. A visit to the tailor’s at 14:00, then Prince Soma and Agni will be visiting the townhouse.”
“Those two again,” Ciel grumbles.
Sebastian smiles while he pours the tea. “Today we have an Earl Grey with a side of honey,” he says as he hands his young master his morning tea.
Ciel pours a dangerous amount of honey into his tea and takes a sip. “Get me ready for the day while I drink my tea, Sebastian”.
“Yes, my lord,” he says while bowing with a hand to his chest.
~ 30 minutes later, 9:00 AM ~
“For our starting course today, we have a Vermicelli soup, followed by the main dish of Kedgeree served alongside fresh fruit and cream, along with toast and a marmalade spread.”
Ciel sits at the pulled-out seat and picks up the cutlery to start eating. While eating, thunderous footsteps can be heard approaching the dining room.
“Looks like they’re here early,” Ciel sighs.
Sebastian smiles and walks over to the dining room doors, opening them before Prince Soma can push them open roughly.
“Good morning, Prince Soma, Agni. You’re here early”.
Prince Soma laughs, “Staying at the estate was getting to be too boring and lacked entertainment, so I ordered a carriage to take me to the townhouse to see you, Ciel!” He says while walking to sit at a chair closest to the earl.
“What is it you are eating, Ciel? It looks fancy and very delicious,” Soma asks, eyes twinkling a tad.
Ciel sighs, “Vermicelli soup. Sebastian, get Soma the dish”.
Sebastian puts a hand over his chest and bows. “Yes, young master, right away,” he leaves the dining room to prepare the food for their plus one.
Agni, who was standing off to the side a little behind Soma, strolls over to Ciel’s side.
“While Sebastian is preparing food for the prince, I’ll be your temporary butler, so let me know if you need anything, sir. I’m grateful for your hospitality and for letting us in despite it being quite early.”
“Fine,” Ciel says shortly.
Agni smiles and goes back to standing at Soma’s side.
Ciel eats his meal while Soma talks his ear off about their travel from the estate to the townhouse, when Mey-Rin opens the door to the dining room and steps to the side to allow Sebastian to push the trolley into the room. She bows and closes the door quietly.
Sebastian pushes the trolley over to Agni. He gets the hint and takes the trolley to serve the food to his prince.
“The meal my young master is having is Vermicelli soup, followed by the main dish of Kedgeree served alongside fresh fruit and cream, along with toast and a marmalade spread. There are also some traditional Indian spices for you to enjoy.”
Soma’s eyes sparkle at the dishes as Agni loads them onto the table. Agni smiles at his prince’s face and goes to stand by Sebastian’s side while the young earl and his prince eat, with Soma exclaiming a “Thanks for the meal!”
Agni quietly speaks, “A wonderful meal you have made today, Sebastian. It smells great”.
Sebastian looks over to Agni and smiles at his compliment.
~ 1 hour later: 10:00 AM ~
After breakfast, Ciel returns to his room with Sebastian in tow to change into more suitable clothes for outdoors. Ciel stands in front of his bed while Sebastian buttons his shirt up.
Sebastian picks up his shoes for the day, and Ciel sits on the bed while his butler puts his shoes on and fastens them.
“You have a meeting with Mr. Doe to discuss a possible collaboration with his hospitality company in one hour, Young master. Then once the meeting ends, you have an appointment at the tailors at 14:00.”
Sebastian finishes putting on Ciel’s black blazer and stands up, accepting the cane put into his direction by his butler.
~ After the meeting: 1:00 PM ~
“Young master, we should leave now so we can make it to the tailors. I have the clothes waiting in the carriage.”
Ciel puts his top hat on his head and leaves through the door his butler opened for him.
“Wait! I’m coming with you, Ciel!”
“Bloody hell,” Ciel mutters under his breath, while Sebastian laughs quietly.
Prince Soma makes it to the open door with Agni by his side, rushing to catch up to Ciel, who has almost made it to the carriage.
Sebastian watches them go, then turns to face Tanaka.
“Tanaka, I trust that you will keep that lot in check while I am gone”.
“Ho ho ho,” Says miniature Tanaka, taking a sip of his green tea.
Sebastian closes the door to the townhouse and walks down the steps to the carriage. Getting there, he sees that everyone is waiting for him. He opens the carriage door and faces his young master.
“Sorry for the delay, young master. I was seeing that the townhouse be taken care of while we’re gone”.
“Hmm,” Ciel says uninterested, looking out the window.
“We will depart now, Prince Soma”.
“Alright, Sebastian, by the way, where is it are you going?”
Ciel turns to him all of a sudden, paying attention. “You followed me to the carriage, wanting to come along, and you had no idea where we were going?!”
Sebastian chuckles and closes the carriage door, joining Agni on top of the box seat at the front of the carriage.
“Ready to go, Sebastian?” Agni asks.
“Yes, let’s depart”.
Agni picks up the reins and motions for the horses to begin the journey into London.
~ 56 minutes later: 1:56 PM ~
The carriage comes to a stop outside the tailor’s, with Sebastian and Agni stepping down from the box seat.
“My, there was quite a bit of foot traffic today. I was worried we wouldn’t make it in time”.
“We are here now, Sebastian. I will let the Earl Phantomhive and the Prince know we are here”.
Agni reassures.
“Very well, I will tend to indoors while you do so”. The butler says before walking into the tailor’s.
Agni opens the pathway carriage door for the occupants.
Soma lets Ciel step out first, grabbing Agni’s outstretched hand to help him out of the carriage, doing the same with Soma once Ciel has stepped out.
“You two go inside while I retrieve the clothes,” Says Agni as he goes to the back of the carriage.
The prince and the earl step inside the tailor’s shop and see Sebastian talking to, presumably, the tailor, behind the desk.
“Ah, there you are, young master. We only need some clothes adjusted today, so you are safe from any long-standing still. But you will need to try on the clothes after adjusted.” Sebastian steps out of the way, so Ciel can see the man being the desk.
“Good morning, Earl Phantomhive and friend. My name is Fredrick Dawn, and I will be the one adjusting your clothes today. Speaking of, I don’t see them on your person?”
Just as Mr. Dawn says that Agni comes in carrying Ciel’s clothes.
“Sorry for the wait, I was making sure I had all of them,” Agni explains.
“Ah, no worries.” Mr. Dawn smiles, taking the clothes off of Agni.
“The adjustment of these clothes will take me 30 to 40 minutes; you are free to follow me to the back and take a seat while you wait, if you would like”.
Soma leans into Ciel and puts an arm over his shoulder and smiles, “Well, I was thinking of kidnapping Ciel to go shopping with me, not alone, of course. Is that okay with you, scary butler?”
Sebastian smiles and puts a hand to his chin. “I don’t see anything wrong with that, Agni. I trust that you will look after the young master?”
“With my utmost, Sebastian.”
Soma pushes Ciel closer to him and exclaims, “Let’s go already! I want to see what wares London shops have to offer”.
Ciel ducks out of Soma’s arm, straightening his clothes.
~ 25 minutes later: 2:21 PM ~
“Ciel, is there a Funtom shop nearby?” Soma inquires.
“I do have a shop located here in Whitechapel, but I don’t remember exactly where it is. The last time I visited was months ago.”
“No worries, Ciel, I can always just visit one without you.” Soma smiles.
“If we are done here, we should return to the tailor’s,” Ciel hints at wanting their outing to be over.
Ciel walks ahead with Soma and Agni trailing behind.
The tailor’s shop is in sight when all of a sudden Ciel stops walking and turns around to look behind him.
Agni and Soma both stop, confused. “What is it, Earl Phantomhive?” Agni asks. They both turn around and see two carriages with coffins inside glass partitions approaching. The second one is different in colour compared to the first carriage.
“They’re going a bit too fast, aren’t they? Especially with coffins inside them, the carriage could tip over”. Soma cautions. But then goes into the same state as Ciel and focuses intently on the second carriage.
The first carriage stops by Ciel, with the second stopping by Soma.
“Two souls have left the land of the living; may the goddess Kali watch over you,” Agni says, bowing his head slightly. “We should return to the tailors now, I believe he should be finishing up”. But what he says doesn’t seem to have stopped their focus on the carriages.
He watches as the earl and his prince step closer to the carriages, putting their hands on the glass and resting their head on it. Agni stands there confused and goes to approach his prince, when said prince vanishes into a cloud of white smoke.
Agni steps backwards, shocked at his prince’s disappearance, and looks over to Ciel, also seeing that he has disappeared into black smoke. “My prince! Earl Phantomhive!” Agni exclaims and unwraps his blessed hand to strike the glass partition, but the sound of the reins hitting the horses rings out, and both carriages race off to their destination, with Agni running to the tailors to alert Sebastian of the Earl and his prince’s kidnapping.