All in the Golden Afternoon (Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler fanfic)(Sebastian x Ciel)

Revelations

Under the Blossoms:

Chapter 3:

Ciel opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of a group of cherry blossom trees with their petals blowing around in the breeze. A man with black hair was standing opposite him. Ciel was about to call him Sebastian and ask him what was going on, but on closer inspection he was not his demon butler, his face was too round and his hair was shorter. However his demeanour reminded him of Sebastian.

He opened his mouth to ask where he was and the man spoke instead and his manner indicated that he was continuing a conversation, not initiating a new one.

"There is a reason behind why they bloom so beautifully, it is because of the corpse."

Ciel was about to ask what was happening, but he found himself asking;

"But does that hurt the person underneath the tree?"

The mysterious arched his eyebrows and approached him slowly.

"I will make a bet with you. If we ever meet again-"

The wind blew harshly at that exact moment and he strained his ears to make out what the man was saying without any success. The only words he heard were when the wind slowed.

"-but today I will let you go."

He felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck and his vision faded to black.

The boy woke up with a jolt and was relieved to recognise the familiar surroundings of his bedroom. It had all been a dream. Nevertheless, this time he had not forgotten it immediately on waking which was an encouraging sign.

He was unable to recall this event, but something about it was familiar. Perhaps it had happened when he was significantly younger.

The strange man was reminiscent of Sebastian, yet there was no resemblance in looks so it could not have been him. Then he remembered how his true demon form had merged seamlessly into his human form nearly two years ago, if he could change his appearance on will, he could be the man that he had met underneath a cherry blossom tree. That was if his dream was a memory of a real event. It had to be true as it explained Sebastian's strange behaviour.

To his annoyance he had not heard what the man had said which may have been the terms of the elusive bet which was rather unfair. How was he supposed to win it if he did not know the terms? It felt like he had been tricked.

A thing that he could do was try to work out what the winner of the bet received. He was contracted with Sebastian for his soul so that could not be it. The only other possibility was his life, but he could not see the point. He was going to die when their contract ended, so what did Sebastian want?

The demon did take some amusement whenever he was in an unfortunate situation, so perhaps he was enjoying him watching him being tormented by recurring dreams of cherry blossoms. Ciel huffed. He was going to be a stop to that and win the bet.

If he could work out what the bet was actually about.

He settled down again to get back to sleep. Sebastian would be too amused if he found that he had been puzzling over it all night.

Sebastian himself was beginning to have his doubts about winning the bet. The bet was due to end in three days time as it would be two years since their second meeting and that was one of the terms. Naturally, the boy had not heard the terms of the bet as the wind had blown at a very opportune moment, therefore it was almost guaranteed that he was going to win, or that was what he told himself because the loser of the bet had a nasty fate ahead of them and he did not want that.