Chapter Text
Ciel wakes up to a finger poking at his face. He nudges the hand away and rolls over.
But the persistent hand does not stop.
Ciel opens his eyes and comes face-to-face with a ghost.
Ciel groans, “Right, I forgot that I asked you to wake me up when daytime starts to rise.”
“Time to wake up, new friend!” The ghost says, in a sing-song voice.
Ciel sits up and looks to the bottom of the bed to where Grim is still snoozing.
I’ll leave him to sleep; it only takes him seconds to get ready anyway. Ciel thinks, granting Grim more sleep.
Ciel walks into the bathroom and turns on the tap for the bath. Only to put his hand underneath the water and wince at the cold.
“Is there seriously no hot water? I should’ve known it’s not called Ramshackle for nothing, I suppose.” He complains.
He gets everything he’ll need for the bath while it fills up. Ciel visited Sam’s store after he got the magestones to Crowley.
He fills the tub halfway and neatly folds his clothes on the rack.
He puts his feet in and winces at the cold, slowly lowering himself down into the water.
Ciel decides to just get it over with and dunks his hair under the water; he winces at the brain freeze and sits up, shaking.
He grabs the shampoo and squirts it into his hand, rubbing it around his head for a good few minutes. Before dunking his hair back under and rinsing it.
Ciel quickly washes his body, shivering from the cold and once done, happily jumps out of the bath and into a towel.
He stands there shivering, dreading the next time he has to have a bath.
Ciel takes out a hairbrush, which he also got from Sam’s shop, and brushes his wet hair.
He wraps the towel around his head to let it dry on its own.
The young mage gets dressed in his school uniform, minus the tie because he still hasn’t learned how to tie it. He also needs to wash them, but he has nothing to change into.
Ciel decides he’ll figure it out later; he’s got a certain ‘cat’ to wake up.
He leaves the bathroom and approaches a sleeping Grim. Ciel leans down and blows into Grim’s ear.
“Wake up, stupid cat!” Ciel shouts once he sees that he was unable to wake Grim by blowing in his ear.
Grim startles and jumps up in bed.
“Why did you do that, hench-human?!”
“We have school today, Grim,” Ciel reminds, and Grim is reminded of his dream being achieved, excitedly jumping off the bed and hurrying Ciel to finish getting ready.
Both of them leave the dorm and start down the stone stairs.
“Alright, Grim. I’m going to go over the timetable for today.”
“Let’s hear it, hench-human.”
“For the morning, we have: History of magic, Alchemy, Potionology. As for the elective, I chose poison-refining.”
“MYAH?! Poison refining?! Why would we need to know that?” Grim questions, freaked out as to why Ciel would choose that.
“Shh, I wasn’t finished with the timetable. After that, we have lunch, followed by musicology and P.E,” Ciel groans at that last part.
“Ughhh… too many lessons in one day,” Grim complains.
“This was your dream, Grim. Should have thought of a different dream.” Ciel chuckles at Grim’s complaining.
~ 10 minutes later: Main hall of Night Raven College ~
“Right, Grim, let’s find our class,” Ciel starts, but stops once a patter of footsteps approaches them.
“Young man!” Shouts a familiar voice.
Ciel turns around, and it’s Headmage Crowley coming their way.
“Good morning, young man. Good to see you here early,” Crowley smiles. “Azar wants to see you in the nurse’s office. It will only take a few minutes, and then you can go back to finding your way to class.”
Ciel nods and turns to Grim, “C’mon, Grim. This will only take a second.”
Ciel follows the headmage with Grim trailing behind. They walk through the halls, and due to it being early, there are hardly any students around.
They enter the nurse’s office, where Azar is prepping stuff on a tray.
“Good morning, Ciel. If you could just sit on the bed.” Azar instructs, and Ciel sits on the bed.
Crowley leaves the room, and Grim jumps onto the bed.
“I’ve got your inhaler here, and the vaccinations that you’re behind on. This will only take a second and be a slight pinch.” Azar reassured, as Ciel pulled up his sleeves.
Azar puts the needle to Ciel’s arm and watches as it’s injected into his bloodstream; the other one is done on his other arm. Azar places a cotton ball on the wound and tapes it over, sticking to Ciel’s arm. He does it with his other arm as well.
“Alright! All done, you can head to class now. Here’s your inhaler. Let me know if you feel ill at all.” Azar says and wishes them a good day.
Ciel and Grim leave the office and resume the search for their first class of the day.
They eventually find the room, and it even has a sign on the side of the door, so there’s no way it’s the wrong room.
“Question is, do we just go in or wait out here? I don’t even know what time it is.” Ciel wonders, really needing to get a watch or some way to tell the time.
“There should be a clock inside the room, so let’s just go in. The hallways are still deserted, so school hasn’t started yet.” Ciel decides and opens the door.
It’s empty as expected, and Ciel spies a clock above the teacher’s desk. It’s 8:03, school starts at 9.
“We’ve got an hour to kill before class starts, Grim, so let’s get something to eat.” As Ciel says that, both of their stomachs rumble.
“Good idea, hench-human!” Grim exclaims, and both walk to the cafeteria.
~ At the cafeteria ~
Ciel and Grim get in line to get food, and he guesses this is where everyone was hiding since there are quite a few people here.
Ciel picks out pumpkin carriage stew and some bread.
Grim goes to choose a variety of dishes, but Ciel stops him and informs he can only get two dishes. Grim grumbles and gets a curry dish with fruits on the side. A weird combination, but Grim seems happy.
There’s no need to look around for an empty table as the place isn’t that busy. While they’re approaching the table, Ciel notices a few of the students staring at him and Grim. But once Ciel looks their way, they look away quickly.
Ciel & Grim eat their lunch in relative silence until Ciel glances up at the clock and sees that it’s 8:54.
“C’mon, Grim. Time to get to class,” Ciel nudges Grim.
“I’m too stuffed to move… carry me, hench-human,” Grim orders.
“As you wish, my king,” Ciel answers Grim sarcastically and picks him up by the scruff.
Grim struggles and lets out noises of complaints while Ciel ignores him and goes to their first lesson.
Ciel and Grim arrive at their class and see that the door is open with some students inside.
“Should be ok to go in.”
Ciel enters the classroom and spots empty seats in the middle of the room.
“Hey, Tweedle-Dum!” Shouts a very familiar voice.
Ciel turns towards the voice and sees its Ace Trappola with Deuce Spade sitting next to him.
“Glad to see you didn’t get expelled, blob-boy,” Ciel smirks.
“Come sit with us, Ciel!” Deuce smiles at his saviour.
Ciel takes him up on his offer and sits at the back of the class with them, putting Grim on the table.
“Thanks for saving us from getting expelled! I owe you big time.” Deuce expresses his gratitude rather dramatically.
“I was partially responsible for you getting
expelled in the first place,” Ciel responds.
Deuce goes to respond, but a voice from the front of the room garners everyone’s attention.
“Quiet down, everyone!” Calls out an older voice, and everyone looks towards the teacher.
He’s an older-looking gentleman with a sophisticated look, perhaps in his late 50s, and has a stern look on his face. And in his hands is…. A black cat with a bit of white fur on its neck.
I wonder if my allergies will kick off with this cat, Ciel ponders as he’s able to be by Grim just fine.
“My name is Mozus Trein, and this is my dear cat, Lucius.”
Ciel looks at Lucius and grimaces. That cat looks like it crawled out of hell!
The lesson passes by smoothly with all four of them diligently doing their work, surprisingly.
“I have homework for you all, so quiet down. Choose a mage from ancient times and write an essay about their magical accomplishments. It will be due next Monday.” Trein dismisses the class.
Ace, Deuce, Ciel and Grim leave the class together.
“What class are you and Grim in?” Deuce asks Ciel.
He takes out his timetable and reads the top of the paper. “It says 1-B,” Ciel answers, and Deuce frowns, getting his own timetable up on his phone.
“Huh… I’m in 1-B as well.”
“Me too,” Ace answers, his own phone out.
Grim laughs, “I know why we’re all in the same class.”
Everyone looks towards Grim.
“Because you’re all troublemakers!”
“So are you, Grim!” Ace responds, offended and gets on all fours to argue with Grim.
Ciel and Deuce look around at all the eyes on Ace being weird.
“Ace! Get up, you’re making a fool out of us!” Deuce exclaims, embarrassed.
It appears Ace hasn’t heard him.
“And I’d do it again!” Ace growls at Grim, like some demented animal.
Deuce sighs and turns to Ciel, only to see he’s not there anymore and is instead down the hall, abandoning Deuce.
Deuce sighs and nudges Ace with his foot, “Get up, idiot. Ciel’s already left.”
Ace stands up and chases after him with a, “Tweedle-Dum, get back here!”
The trio plus Grim arrive at the hallway that contains their class, and once they see what it looks like, they all stop.
Grim trembles, “A-are you sure this is where our class is meant to be, Hench-Human?” He hides behind Ciel’s leg, clutching it with his paws.
“It will be fine, Grim! We’re here,” Deuce reassures, smiling.
They walk down the dungeon-esque hallway and see the number for the class on the wall. Grim is still clinging to Ciel’s leg as they enter.
The classroom looks completely different compared to the hallway. The room is still made of stone, but it’s more of a polished stone that hasn’t witnessed people trapped there for centuries.
Grim eases up and goes to approach a table at the back.
The sudden sound of ‘THWAP!’ Sounds out, and Grim halts in his tracks.
“DOWN!” A male voice demands.
Ace, Deuce & Ciel both startle at the sound and look up to a proud, elegant man in his early 30s with a smirk on his face.
Ciel also notices that everyone is already there waiting and staring at them.
The intimidating, but elegant, man strides over to Ace & Deuce’s quivering forms, while Ciel just stares at him.
Ace grabs Ciel and puts him in front of him, using the young mage as a shield, while he quivers behind his human shield.
Ciel just lets it happen and looks up at the professor, whose black and white fluffy coat brushes against his hand, towers over them.
“I’ve been informed by Headmage Crowley that you three are some troublemaking pups along with that cat over there, so you will all be sitting at the front where I can keep an eye on you. Is that understood, pups?” Crewel levels his gaze at all three of them, briefly glancing at Grim.
“Yes, sir,” All three say in unison, and head towards where they were told to sit. Ace is still hiding behind Ciel as they walk by the man.
“Is that young-looking boy really a troublemaker? He looks so innocent,” A student wearing a purple vest asks rhetorically.
The trio plus Grim sit down, and Crewel goes back to the middle of the room to face his students.
“My name is Divus Crewel. But you will call me Professor Crewel, is that understood, pups?” He says while raising his teacher pointer, which oddly enough looks like a riding crop.
Numerous ‘yes, sirs and yes, professor,’ fill the room.
Crewel drones on about magical plants and their properties, and then begins explaining how different plants can be used to make all kinds of potions. But the lesson eventually comes to an end.
Ace, Deuce, Ciel & Grim get up to leave the room when Crewel taps their table with his riding crop. All four look up at him.
“Headmage Crowley also let me know about another detail. You three have a week of after-school detentions with me,” Crewel smirks.
“Ah, I forgot about those,” Ciel says, remembering what made them get those detentions.
“Oh, yeah! The forest fire you guys caused!” Deuce smirks at Ace.
“Shut it, Loosey-Deucey!” Ace yells and rubs the back of his head.
“Go on now to your next class, you three. Phantomhive stays here,” Crewel orders, and Ciel looks towards Ace, Deuce & Grim, who are leaving.
“Your tie,” Crewel holds out his hand.
Ciel takes it out of his pocket and places it in his hand. Crewel lifts up the collar of his shirt and ties the tie.
“Much better,” Crewel smiles, “Now be on the way to your next class.”
“Ah, thank you, Professor,” Ciel nods and leaves the class, seeing Deuce waiting outside for him.
Deuce looks up at the door opening, “I thought you had somehow gotten into trouble again.”
“I wasn’t wearing the tie, so I think I was in somewhat trouble.”
“You’re not being rebellious, are you, Ciel?” Deuce questions.
“No! I just can’t tie them,” Ciel exclaims, rolling his eyes. “Wait a minute… where’s Ace & Grim?” Ciel asks, with a look of worry on his face.
“They didn’t wanna wait up and just walked ahead. Why, what’s wrong?”
“They are the two people who should never be left alone! Have you forgotten about what happened with the statue and the chandelier?”
Deuce gasps, “You’re right! Let’s hurry and find them! They should be on their way to our next class.”
Ciel and Deuce sprint down the hallways and eventually make it to the classroom, where Ace and Grim are patiently waiting for class to begin.
Ciel and Deuce cough awkwardly and rush to compose themselves. They walk into the classroom and act like nothing happened. They do get a funny look from Ace and Grim, though.
After class, they have a 30-minute break, and Ciel suggests they go to the courtyard for some fresh air.
“This courtyard is amazing!” Deuce exclaims, and Ciel admires the scenery. He wasn’t able to see much of it before, considering he was in distress.
They decide to sit on a bench with an apple tree above their heads.
“Can I ask a random question?” Ciel asks Ace and Deuce. They both nod.
“If you weren’t a part of Heartslabyul and had the choice to choose, which dorm would you choose?”
Ace and Deuce think about it for a few seconds. Deuce answers first.
“Hmm… I think, Scarabia.” Deuce finally answers.
“Isn’t that the dorm where they throw parties constantly for no reason?” Ace asks.
“Why there?” Ciel asks, ignoring what Ace said.
“I think it would be the best place to shore up my biggest weakness,” Deuce answers, with a hand to his chin.
“What weakness?” Ciel questions.
“Acting without thinking,” Deuce answers, ashamed.
“Ah, yeah, that makes sense. No offence,” Ciel quickly corrects.
“Alright, my turn!” Ace exclaims, deciding Deuce has talked enough.
“Ok, let’s hear it, Ace,” Ciel rolls his eyes.
“Scarabia!”
“Hah! You joining Scarabia, Ace, really?!” Grim laughs.
“Yeah, laugh it up, Tweedle-Dee! I’ll have you know I have the smarts to be one of them,” Ace pouts.
“I’m sure you do, Ace.” Ciel decides to say, in case all hell breaks loose.
“Hey! Hench-human, you’re supposed to be on my side!” Grim shouts, and Ciel ignores him.
“Anyway, why Scarabia? Because of the parties?” Ciel asks.
“As you know from when we were at the Dwarfs’ Mine, my dorm has way too many rules that I barely know, and you get in serious trouble if you break them,” Ace sighs, sadly at his lack of freedom.
“So sometimes I wish I could be in a dorm where I don’t have to worry about rules and just relax.” Ace vents.
“I get it, and sorry to hear how you feel, Ace,” Ciel says sympathetically. “Do you feel the same, Deuce?”
“Um… sometimes I do,” He admits, unsure of what to say, being put on the spot.
“Well, you could always join Ramshackle!” Grim offers.
“Grim, that isn’t possible. It’s just what the Dark Mirror chooses for someone.” Ciel reminds.
Deuce takes out his phone and looks at the time. “We should head to our next class. It’s an elective next. What did you guys choose?”
“Creepy hench-human chose poison-refining for us!” Grim exclaims to Ace and Deuce.
“THAT is creepy!” Ace laughs, whereas Deuce just rolls his eyes. “You do you, Ciel.”
“Be careful, Ace Trappola, I could learn something that could help you sleep,” Ciel says, jokingly.
“Whatever, let’s just go to our elective. See you guys at lunch.” Ace waves and heads back into the school. Deuce bidding bye and heading off to his elective.
“Alright, Grim. Let’s find our class.” Grim nodded, and they went back into the main building.
They walk through the halls, students shuffling round getting to their next classes. While Ciel just walks casually to his class.
He walks inside and sees everyone already seated. Professor Crewel has already started the lesson.
“Sorry, I’m late, Professor,” Ciel apologizes. He may have walked too casually.
“Do not let it happen again, Phantomhive.”
He goes to sit at a random seat but spots a familiar face. A certain periwinkle-haired boy.
Ciel debates whether or not to sit by him, remembering his housewarden’s words. But Epel waves, beckoning him over and Ciel sits by him, putting all doubts aside for now.
Epel smiles at him, and Ciel smiles a small one back.
Crewel pairs people up with the person next to them, and directs them to a cauldron and to make a ready-made potion into a poison.
Ciel is unsure and mostly relies on Epel’s instructions, as he seems to be good already at this subject.
“So, I didn’t see you the first few days of school,” Epel starts the conversation.
“Ah… about that. I got into a spot of trouble with a certain student, and let’s just say we damaged school property, like 3 times?” Ciel summarises to Epel.
“I actually overheard some students talking about that! That was you?” Epel questions.
“Yeah, it was. I got expelled, then to reverse that, I had to go to the Dwarfs’ Mine to get magestones for the headmage.”
“Wow, sounds like a lot of fun,” Epel says, a tad disappointed he wasn’t there.
“Thinking back on it, some bits were fun, I guess.”
A throat clearing behind them brings their attention back to the task at hand.
After that, the class ends smoothly, and it’s time for lunch. Grim had been begging for food for the last 5 minutes.
“Grim, it’s lunch time now, so be quiet. You’re giving me a headache.” Ciel groans.
Epel, who’s smiling at the interaction, suggests, “Would you want to eat lunch with me? It’s either eat with you or eat with Rook, who rants in French the whole time.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. But what about your housewarden?”
Epel frowns, “I don’t need his permission to hang out with people he doesn’t think are a good influence; he’s my housewarden, not my pa.”
“Hah, right. Just don’t throw me under the bus this time,” Ciel says, remembering the cold shoulder he received from Vil.
“Damn! I’m really sorry about tha, I was just surprised and had to think fast.” Epel apologies.
“It’s fine, let’s just get something to eat,” Ciel states, and they head to the cafeteria with Grim in tow.
~ At the cafeteria ~
Ciel, Epel and Grim look around to find an empty table. The cafeteria is full of students eating and chatting.
“Hench-human, let me climb onto your head,” Grim demands and climbs up Ciel’s body, making it to his head and standing on top to get a better look for a spare table.
“Found one!” Grim exclaims and points to one in the far left corner. All three rush there quickly and sit down.
“Epel, you can get your food first. Grim and I have to go together,” Ciel suggests, so Epel doesn’t have to wait for them.
“Thanks, Ciel! I’ll make sure to be quick,” he says and leaves the table.
“If it isn’t one of the little troublemakers~!” Vocalises a familiar voice. It’s Cater Diamond, and sat next to him is Trey Clover.