Kuroshitsuji: The Contract from Birth [Ciel Phantomhive]

[28] Her Butler, Victorious

What a cocky demon I had.

"Why are you shaking, Lord Earl?"

I turned puzzled and saw Ciel indeed holding his arms with a troubled look on his face, trembling slightly. My eyebrow arched.

"Are you cold?" I asked, beginning to unbutton my own coat, "If you'd like you can..."

Instantly, he shook his head and raised his hand to stop me, holding onto my arm before I could slip the sleeve off.

"Don't be daft, I'm fine." He said, letting go.

I rolled my eyes at him, unsure on whether he had stopped me to be a gentleman or because it would have hurt his pride to be helped by a woman. Either way, I nodded and pulled my coat back up.

All around us, everyone had begun disperse to go and taste the curries.

Now that there was a substantial less number of people blocking the way to the front of the stage, I managed to spot out the servants rather easily. They were flocking around two plates of curry and hungrily stuffing their faces, seemingly having forgotten that Yuki had been thrown out and that they had only had breakfast mere hours ago.

Waving Ciel and Lau to come along, I stepped up to them with a slight roll of my eyes. Mey-Rin was the first to spot us coming their way and in an instant, they were all lined up and bowing towards Ciel and I obediently. Salvador held Agni's tray of homage bleu curry and Finny held Rodric's, sneaking a last bite in as we stopped in front of them.

"Tasty, I presume?" I asked, hiding my smile.

"Quite so!" The twins harmonized happily.

I was about to open my mouth to remind them about Yuki when Ciel beat me to it, pointing to Baldroy lazily. "See to it that Ms. Chiyiko is let back inside."

A salute later, he was off, peeking through every doorway and window there was to find her.

"Thank you Ciel," I said, to which he only nodded, "I appreciate it."

Idle chatter went by as the minutes droned on and soon after, Baldroy returned with a seething Yuki following him, teeth bared and chattering. She stood between Sebastian and I and he gingerly draped his coat around her shoulders and Tanaka even extended his own cup of tea to her. The kindness from the others seemed to alleviate some of her fury, but her eyes continued to dart over to the stage and I knew there would be Hell to pay back at the manor.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, hoping I sounded as sincere as I meant it.

Her answer was cut short (much to my relief as well because a few Japanese swears had begun to lace her response) as the large curtains were opened once more, revealing the host with a glistening trophy in hand.

The winner was ready to be announced.

"We apologize for the wait," he said, and at once we all turned to face him in impatience, pausing from eating long enough to hear him speak. "but after much discussion, we have a winner for the curry competition!"

Rodric and Agni stepped out of the shadows and bowed, standing up straight to express their own anticipation. Agni clasped his hands together at his face with eyes closed whilst Rodric only eyes the judges carefully, eyebrow arched as he awaited the result. West stood a few feet away from our group and was grinning maliciously and I couldn't help but scowl at his confidence.

"We have concluded this show to end with a ti--!"

CRACK

I flinched harshly and hurried to cover my face with my hands, still able to see that the trophy was suddenly no longer in his hand and that a long leather tail held it in the air instead, bringing it to a waiting black glove held up behind everyone in silence. Taking a few seconds to assure myself that nothing was wrong, I looked the odd man over.