Kuroshitsuji: The Contract from Birth [Ciel Phantomhive]

[20] Her Butler, Ashamed

"Oh dear," Erin mumbled when she saw that my ribbon was now down to my shoulders, "Let's fix that, shall we?"

I stayed silent as she continued to dress and preen me for the day, the first thing being her tying the ribbon nicely back around my neck to hide the ghastly and unpleasant skinned scars that decorated my nape like a choker. Like any other thing I'm unsure of, I've never gotten a solid answer when I ask anyone how I came to get these painful marks. They each say it happened the day the carriage was flipped over, but I strongly feel as though it involved rope. But as always, I've been told no rope was ever connected to me and my atrocious disfigurement.

"There now," Erin said, bringing me out of the curtain to see myself in the mirror, "beautiful as always."

I only glanced at myself for a second before nodding, not in the mood to fake satisfaction with what I saw reflecting back. Suddenly lazy, I went over and laid back down on my bed, curling back up in a ball before shooing both twins away, closing my eyes as I saw their heads cock in confusion.

"Just tell me when Earl Fancypants arrives," I told them, waving my hand, "I ate too much last night, I'm still rather tired."

After a few moments of silence, I heard the door click, and at once I sat back up, quietly going over to my dresser and sitting down on the velvet seat, tentatively lifting a hand to my ribbon with shaking fingers. It fell away after I untied the ribbon and I instantly regretted doing so. The awful sight never seemed to get any easier to stare at. Like a second ribbon, making a full circle around my neck, was a scar almost as thick as a ruler, spanning from different shades of dark red. The skin, explained in the simplest of ways, seemed like it had been scraped and burned slightly, and was now on the end of its blistered life cycle. It was healing relatively well, but the scarring was still prominently there. I loathed it.

A couple of soft knocks on my door made me jump, and I froze as the door began to open with a familiar voice introducing itself before fully stepping inside.

"How can you possibly still be sleeping... What are you doing?"

I flashed Ciel a nervous smile, wrapping my hands around my neck further as I stood up, eyes wide as the ribbon fell from my lap to the floor. His eyes glanced from it to me, and I darted my eyes from the door to him, trying to calculate how quickly I could run out before he caught on that something was wrong.

"You look like you're trying to choke yourself," he stated bluntly, arms crossed.

"It's rude to step into someone's bedroom like you did," I snapped, and he rolled his eyes.

"You look completely mad," he said, and I narrowed my eyes.

"You must not be able to see well because I'm obviously just massaging my neck," I retorted, before snickering, "Oh, wait. A pirate can't see well because of his eye-patch, I'm sorry, I forgot."

Now it was his turn for his eyes to narrow, and before I could realize it, he went over and snatched my ribbon from the floor, holding it in front of him as he took a step towards the door. My teeth bared and I took a step forward, wanting to clench my fists but instead I furrowed my eyebrows, remembering that at the current moment, I was not able to. Ciel smirked and calmly shut the door, now playing with the ribbon as he stretched it out, eyeing it as if it were such a marvel.

"What's so special about this?" he asked, and I again took a few more steps closer, shaking my head.

"Nothing at all actually. So hand it over."

He raised an eyebrow, and dangled it in front of me, smirk now irritatingly wide.

"Take it then, DelMare."

Well, here I was, stuck between how some would say a rock and a hard-place. Now, I considered myself rather peaceful with a pacifistic persona. I rarely become violent, and I don't ever recall feeling as though stabbing someone with, let's say, oh I don't know, a fork, would solve my problems. So when I tackled Ciel to the ground, I honestly had no idea in the slightest of what came over me.

"Give it back!" I growled, struggling to keep myself upright as one hand stayed locked around my neck while the other reached for the ribbon. Ciel, in turn, shook his head and stretched his hand out further, and to my utter luck, because of that, I lost my balance. I shut my eyes as I was forced to place both hands on either side of his head, and my hair resembled a curtain enclosing both our faces as we ceased struggling. At first, I refused to open my eyes, already imagining the look of disgust and revulsion he must be expressing.

"That looks like it's terribly painful."

I didn't respond. No, not at first. At first, I thought I had misheard him and was waiting for another comment to make me stand up and extrude him out of my manor, but I was instead met with cold hands that were trembling slightly as they brushed up against my skin.

"This would work better if you got off me," he mumbled, and I slowly, but surely complied, crawling off him and sitting down on my knees. I swept my hair to the side a bit hesitantly, and he began to adjust the ribbon back on, and I could feel my hands began to sweat slightly as I sensed him tying the bow at the back. We stayed still for a brief period of time, unsure of how to proceed, and he finally spoke, or more so, attempted to.

"I-Er... won't mention that to anyone," he said after a few more clears of his throat, glancing away. I gave a small nod and timidly stood back up, patting my dress down before going over to the mirror to assure myself nothing was showing.

"Not bad, for a first time," I complimented, eyeing it for a moment longer before turning to him, feeling a bit more confident now. "I suppose your curious as to how I came to have it?"

Almost immediately, he shook his head.

"This may sound shocking, but I'd rather not know," he said and quickly explained himself before I could raise an eyebrow at his curious behavior. "And that is not in any way meant to be rude. I merely intend to keep your private matters, well, private. After all, it was my fault that you uncovered it."

That answer was more than satisfying to me because even I wasn't entirely sure how to explain the scar without sounding delusional and mentioning my broken dreams and confusing memories. I forced a wide smile on my face and clapped my hands, motioning to the door in fake excitement, desperately wanting to leave the room and join the others.

"Well now, off to figure out how to win that Royal Warrant!"

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| R E F E R E N C E   P O I N T S |

1.) "I'm not going to lie to you, mi pequeña Adelina." means I'm not going to lie to you, my little Adelina in Spanish

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...My Countess orders, I obey; Anyone who dares interfere, will have Hell to pay...