His Soulmate [Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji]

The Stranger's Arrival (ch. 1)

~Ciel's POV~

Lightning flashed and a thunder roared behind me. Put off by the distraction, I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before I read on. It wasn't difficult content, but at this point in the readings, I was just staring at the words without anything registering. It made it impossible to grasp whatever meaning it was trying to convey.

I leaned my head against my hand, elbows propped on the table. I looked out to the windows, lightly fogged with condensation. It was nearly a monsoon outside- the heavy blankets of rain poured over the estate relentlessly. I blinked slowly to rest my eyes.

This book took rubbish to a whole new level. I'd spent the last 5 minutes rereading the page, unable to understand the worksheet. All of it just made me want to zone out.

Suddenly a flash of lightning appeared again and the lights flickered. Looking up, I saw Sebastian come in the room with my tea and cake. He began cutting the cake silently, but it didn't take any verbal exchange for him to understanding that I was struggling with the task at hand. I suppose that was the reason for his cheery smile. He extracted the slice from the mother cake and set it gracefully a plate. One could see that the inside of the cake was marbled with elaborate swirls inside it. I watched him carefully as the ribbon of tea poured into the cup smoothly without a single drop.

He handed the plate to me as I stared up at him- wondering how to address this demon's content smile. He clearly needed more to do. However, I kept my mouth shut and he continued setting my silverware. Bantering with him was more energy than I was willing to expend.

"Today's snack consists of marbled chocolate cake, made from the flour imported from Germany. It is paired with white mango tea and served on turquoise Wedgwood." He rattled on with perfect delivery. To top it off, he added an extra wide smile, "Is there anything else that the young lord would like?"

But as soon as those words left his mouth, lightning crackled and lit up the room, it was almost blinding with all the windows open. Thunder boomed, shaking the mansion- I could hear the rattling of miscellaneous objects. Before a reaction could come from the both of us we heard an ear-slitting scream from the maid, Mei-rin, from downstairs with a crash following after which sounded distinctly of fine china.

I sat back and clasped my hands together, satisfied to give the demon a job, "In fact there is. Please check in with all the servants." with an undeterred but inconvenienced smile, he nodded, "Understood, young master. I will return shortly." He turned around and pushed the cart away and out the door.

Shortly after he shut the door, I took another deep breath and brought the papers back up to my face to read them. However, the cake and tea won my undivided attention. And just as quickly as I'd abandoned the newspaper, there was a knock on the door.

No progress on work, study, or snacks. Stormy days were not great days to begin with- today was proving to be annoying.

"Come in," I said as I stood up. I'd decided to take an interim just for a fresher mindset. The door opened and I was immediately confused when Sebastian walked back in. I raised an eyebrow, "What brings you back so quickly, Sebastian?"

"Mei-rin seems to have found the unconscious body of a young girl. The frightful scream has all the servants tending to her like a hawk now." He explained succinctly, "As a courtesy of the Phantomhives, it was instructed to them to take her into our care until she awakens. The girl's condition seems to have been onset by exhaustion and hypothermia."

I pursed my lips, feeling a pull to see the young girl. Who would trespass the entire estate in this rain only to show up in shambles. "What do we know about her then?" I asked.