Black Butler: Demons in our Hearts

Chapter 3: A New Assignment

Kat busily scrubbed the pots and pans as they appeared before her in the sink, she had asked for a job and low and behold the good lord had smiled down on her that day. Sebastian had put her on a stool in front of the sink, washing the dishes that he had dirtied while making supper. Refilling it for her when she had emptied her supply.

I could definitely work here.

She had worked as a chef during several of her "jobs" and had taken a liking to cooking, and more importantly, good food. But good food when you had no job was hard to come by.

But this was every cooks dream; it had both types of stoves, cast iron and brick, a large steel washing tub, and gleaming pots and pans that dangled from the walls and ceiling.

Another armload of dishes appeared and she attacked them with a scouring fury, scraping off the baked on food fragments and soaping away the grease.

"That’s the last of them, after your done dry them and stack them on the counter, I can put them away." Sebastian was polishing one of the silver serving trays he had used during supper.

"That’s okay, I can put the pots and things away, if I drop those they won’t break. The only thing you’ll have to do is put away the china. I wouldn’t trust myself with that fragile stuff." She made one last swipe with her washrag before setting the last pot on the drying pile. "There we are." Ignoring the small rumble in her belly, Kat seized a dry rag and began to attack the stack of damp dishes, quickly diminishing it in a matter of minutes.

Alright now to put them away,

Kat hopped off of her stool in front of the sink, picked up a few pans, and hobbled over to the wall where they were hung neatly, leaning on the counter and anything else that happened to be in her path. She did this several more times until the stack was gone, leaving a counter bare save for the few china plates neatly laid out across its surface. She toyed briefly with the idea of attempting to put them away but dismissed it as soon as she thought of it, there’s no point breaking anything I can’t afford to replace, now is there?

"Finished? Good, you can polish the serving trays for tomorrow." Sebastian dumped a pile of already gleaming silver trays in front of her, extending a polishing rag with the other hand, "Just be careful not to scratch it."

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Sebastian watched Kat work out of the corner of his eye, she really was a good worker, his instincts hadn’t failed him. She had decimated the dirty dishes and cutlery in a short amount of time, and put them away.

She was entirely amusing to watch, she was dead serious one moment and the next you would never guess she was capable of disemboweling you with one move. He still didn’t know what to make of her personality though; he’d never met a human like her before. She was hungry, he could hear her stomach growling, and yet she didn’t complain, didn’t even say a word about discomfort.

Most humans would have taken the excuse of an injury not to work, but she didn’t. He still couldn’t shake his fascination with her it seemed.

Consumed as he was in his own thoughts he only belatedly realized that she was speaking with him, "What?"

She gave him a startled look, "what, I’m sorry, did you say something?"

"No, you were addressing me, I believe."

"Sorry, I have a nasty habit of talking to myself." She admitted sheepishly.

Sebastian frowned, "And why would you talk to yourself to begin with?"