Hospital For Souls (M i c h a e l i s) [Kuroshitsuji 3]{Completed}

Chapter XIV : One Embarrassed Earl

"It's true," he replied, folding his arms across his chest and pouting. "Sebastian, do you have the map?"

"Of course." He quietly produced the folded piece of parchment, handing it across to Ciel. "Right here, young master."

"Excellent." He glanced down at the page. "We should be making good time. Time given to this journey is approximately three days, yes?"

"That would be correct, sir."

"Good, good." Ciel glanced up from the map, suddenly all business again. "When will we be switching carriages?"

"In about twenty minutes."

"Alright." His blue eye flickered to me suddenly, and he smirked. "Sebastian will be driving."

"Oh, Christ. Let me get out now," I grinned, and the butler in black gave a heavy sigh.

"The fact of the matter is, I can do most things that the pair of you are expected to do as humans twice as well," he replied coolly, and Ciel and I get out a high pitched 'oooooh!' in sync.

"Get off your high horse, darling."

"Yes, Sebastian, listen to the whore."

I looked across scathingly to the young earl. "It's lucky that you were betrothed from birth, Lord Phantomhive, because you would never seduce a lady speaking like that."

"He has a hard time seducing the one that is promised to him," Sebastian murmured, to be shot a glare.

"I don't enjoy this anymore."

"Ah, once the tables are turned on you?" I giggled, my eyes slipping to Sebastian. And he gave me a smile – some sort of warm, gentle smile that sent my heart beginning to run in my chest like a squadron of wild horses. Oh, my.

"I think the problem is that we are just too good together, Celeste."

"Problem?" I questioned, and Ciel groaned.

"For God's sake, if you could turn the flirtatious behaviour down, please, I would like to hold on to my breakfast this morning."

"Don't be such a child." I turned, and with the most audacity I could drum up, placed a scarlet kiss on the pale man's cheek.

He turned so many shades of red in the one instance that I had a most difficult time keeping track of them all!

"Most inappropriate," he muttered, reaching up to scrub the mark off his skin while Sebastian and I roared with laughter. "Really, the both of you are quite childish."

"Thank you," I chimed.

*

After Sebastian left the carriage, it was quite quiet after that.

I sat with my back pressed against the wall, my crisp copy of Dorian Grey in my lap, my finger following underneath the words as I read. All the while, my heart was beating a little bit faster, as with each line, I remembered; Sebastian. Sebastian gave this to me. Does that mean he cares about me? Was he listening to Grace and I that day? Of course he was, there could be no other explanation.

It was still slightly hard to believe that the butler showed some sort of affection towards me. If it could be counted as that at all; for now, I was beginning to doubt myself. I was wondering if I had even recognized Sebastian's elegant script correctly. Maybe it was somebody else.

Maybe the cook had a crush on me.

That thought inspired a small snort of laughter and I sat back a little further in the seat, continuing to read. Every so often, I would look out the window and see the countryside screaming past in a torrent of greens, blues and browns – it was clear that we were making very good progress, and that was all that I needed to know.

The darkness of the cold evening slowly began to descend, the sky turning a most beautiful shade of lavender as it did so. Before long, the carriage rolled to a stop, the wheels crunching on brittle stones.

"Sebastian?" Ciel called, standing and sweeping off his dark blue coat. He bent, undoing the locks on the door, and opened. "Sebastian, is everything alright? I thought we would have kept going for some amount of time."

"Stay inside," Sebastian said quietly.

"Stay --?" I stood up, brushing past Ciel and out onto the stones. We appeared to be close to an expanse of moors, shadowed by a forest. Sebastian was still perched on top of the cab, his dark red eyes focused into the shadows of the woods.

"What's wrong?" I asked, moving to the side of the carriage.

"I thought I told you to stay inside," he murmured, still entirely focused ahead, like some sort of hound. I shook my head, positioning my heel against the first step and beginning to pull myself up.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked, once I was sat beside him. Damn, it was cold. He turned his head, the breeze playing with his long hair.

"I have a feeling of unease," he replied with a murmur, his white-gloved hands wrapping a little tighter around the reigns. "I don't suppose you're going to get back in your place?"

"You're completely correct," I said, and then, found myself becoming slightly shy. "Ah – thank you, for the book, by the way."

"The book?" He said, with a slight smile as the cab began to move again. "Ah, yes. I realized that my actions that night were unacceptable. I was quite crass with you, My sincerest apologies."

"No matter." I smiled back, still a little shy, fisting my silky skirt in between my fingers. "Why?"

"Why? Why, what?"

"Why did you suddenly..." Feel? Demons don't feel.

Sebastian didn't speak, for a minute or two, and the question was left hanging in the air, something unfinished and sore. The only sounds that could be heard were that of the horses, doing their own jobs.

"I'm not quite sure how to answer that question."

Sorry for the shortness of the chapter, guys, but I'm very eager to get on to the next one. :)