Psychro - A Black Butler Ice King AU Fan-Fic

From the Rooftops I Remember

2 — From the Rooftops I Remember

Ciel sipped slowly, letting the taste of rich chocolate and smooth cream dance across his tastebuds. He shivered at the warmth, relaxing into a rather large and comfortable chair and closing his eyes contently.

"I have a feeling that Bardroy made this cocoa?" he asked idly, opening his eyes and looking down into the cup.

Ember smiled and took a sip herself, shuddering visibly as the warmth went through her like fire. "Yes," she said. "He has some very ... interesting techniques for heating things, but he can at least boil a pot of milk and add chocolate. He says this is how his mother used to make it." She sat her cup down and held her hands up to the roaring fire. A smile crept over her tired face. "We played like children today."

Astre smirked faintly behind his cup. "Yes, we did," he murmured into the cocoa. "We children do like our games."

Ciel chuckled. "We're not even really children anymore," he told the two of them. "We're thirteen. These are the years that we start to pave the roads of the futures of our lives."

Ember snorted a little. "Where did you hear that one, Oh Wise One?" she teased, drinking daintily.

He pouted. "It doesn't matter where it came from," he said indignantly. "You know it's true."

She shrugged. "It is, but that doesn't mean we have to think about it now," she mumbled, setting her cup down and glancing into the fire. She sighed heavily and watched the flames waltz with each other. "We're also in the prime of our youth. We're fearless, adventurous, full of energy. We can face the world if it were to come at us all at once."

Ciel and Astre looked at the girl in shock, taking in her words. Astre even glanced at the fire to see if she were gaining answers from staring into the optical illusion. He shook his head and blinked a few times. "Ember's right," he agreed, setting his cup down. He looked up at Ciel and smiled. "We're kids. Let's be kids for a little while."

Ciel looked between them and sighed, closing his eyes. "We still need to be conscious of our ages and our expectations as nobles," he countered formally.

Ember smiled warmly. "We know," she said, drinking more of her cocoa. She looked out the window and sighed heavily, setting her cup down and walking over to peer out of it. She sat on the couch closest to the windowsill and leaned her chin on the palm of her hand, looking out at the storm. The girl skirted over the forest curiously, tracing the silhouettes with her eyes as if she could paint them with her thoughts. Each tree was blurred with white, and she begged the storm desperately to lighten up, like it was not too long ago when she fought valiantly against the Phantomhives. She wanted to see the landscape, the garden. She wanted to see.

Just as her wish for a change of scenery finished rolling through her thoughts, a visible shadow passed through the tree lines, stepping quickly along the outskirts of the forest grove.

"Astre!" she called, waving him over. She looked back over her shoulder. "There's someone out there!" She turned back to the grove and paused. The shadow that had been walking along the edge was nowhere to be seen, gone with the snowy wind.

Astre walked over to her side and peeked over her shoulder. He put his hand on her shoulder lightly and sighed. "Ember, you're seeing things," he said gently, taking her hand. "The changes in temperatures are getting to your head." He pulled her back to her seat by the fire and helped her sit, smiling faintly. He knelt down beside her. "Your imagination is as wild as animals."

She smiled and looked at the window again. "But I could've sworn I saw it," she told him. She sighed heavily, leaning back into her chair in exasperation. "I'm losing my mind..."