"So, what was with that change of voice?" You asked.
You stood beside the Undertaker as the two of you waved goodbye to the carriage of Ciel Phantomhive, which was taking off as he gained all the information he needed.
"What was with your sudden sassiness? I hadn't expected an angel to be capable of an insult."
Your frowned at the avoidment.
"That devil was being rude! And what kind of a butler is so petty as to slam the door in his own host's face?"
"That is a fair point, I suppose."
"Because it is!" You exclaimed, throwing your hand up into to air in frustration. "Devils are petty! Petty! Petty! Petty!"
"Aren't you a devil, also?"
You frowned harder.
"I'm no devil. I'm far from petty."
"Oh yes, that's right," He replied in amusement. "You aren't petty. You're sassy, aren't you?"
"Stop that!"
"Alright, alright. I won't make your cheeks any more red. Let's finish preparing the body, yes?"
You huffed, beginning to cling onto the retired reaper's arm.
"Fine. Hey, do you know what was up with that reaper? There was one with them! The one with glasses. What was their name? It was Grell."
The Undertaker hummed in thought, "I'm quite sure that would be Madame Red's butler."
"But they have those green eyes. And they were wearing glasses. That means they're working. Why would they be a butler? That doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe he'd like something from her."
"What would a reaper possibly want from a human?"
The Undertaker let out a sudden laugh that startled you. He placed a hand on your head as the two of you reentered the shop.
"Many things."
"Like what?"
"Pleasure, or maybe they're simply curious about something only humans now about, maybe they're in love. There are lots of reasons one would be interested in a human."
Your face became one of disgust.
"'Pleasure'? That's. . ." You paused while trying to find the right word to describe it, but you eventually settled with a plain, "Weird. Why would reapers do that anyway? It's not like they can reproduce. Reapers can't make other reapers. Reapers become reapers for other strange reasons."
"Oh?" The Undertaker questioned. "And how is it that you know so much about grim reapers? That isn't common knowledge, that's easily accessible, you know."
He looked down at you expectantly, only to realize he was no longer playing with your hair, but your wing.
You shrugged, "My mum liked reapers. She wanted to learn all about them."
"Your mother. . . The devil, liked reapers?"
"Father told me she was bored. She wanted to write a book about supernatural beings, and since she knew everything about demons, she moved onto grim reapers. After she did, she wanted to learn about angels. That's how she met my dad."
The Undertaker tapped his chin in interest, suddenly eager to learn more about your background. It was only natural. Who wouldn't be curious about the child they brought into their home?
"I was under the impression beings are unable to enter Heaven, or allowed to leave? How did she manage that?"
"She was smart." - was all you said.
At the moment, you didn't seem to be all that giggly anymore. You looked bored. Tired.
"Alright then. What happened to that book she was writing?"
You shrugged again as you mumbled, "They probably left it in the house."
"The house?"
"My house. They probably left everything there. Or I don't know. Maybe they burned everything. I don't know. This kind of thing hasn't happened before."
"I see, now." The Undertaker smiled, suddenly becoming softer. "Are you alright?"
You gave him a small frown, shrugging.
"You don't wish to tell me?"
You looked away, still shrugging, only less than before. You shrugged as if you were unsure about being unsure.
"Alright. That's fine." He said.
Then the both of you fell into silence. His smile noticably got a tiny bit wider while he looked at you in a silent expectancy.
He knew you wanted to talk about something. You were just a bit shy, was all. You were faced away from him, with your arm still intertwined with his. Still he could tell, you were only trying to hide your face.
He began again.
"Was it because you weren't satisfied with my answer on the reaper?"
You shook your head, still looking off.
"Alright. . . Did you not wish to speak about the book? Did you feel pressured into telling me about it?"
You paused for a moment before shaking your head once more.
"Hmm. . . Oh, I get it now. It was that devil, was it?"
You finally turned to the Undertaker, sniffling as you revealed you were crying.
"Y-yes." You admitted pathetically.
The Undertaker chuckled, unraveling your arm from his and picking you up. He held you out in front of him.
"Oh, the poor baby!" He jokingly coddled. "Why are you crying?"
You desperately tried rubbing away your tears as you sniffled, quietly telling him about how bad you felt about being rude to the devil, despite his obvious attempt to frustrate you. The wings on your head made a desperate attempt to hide your face.
"H-he wanted to make me mad, and he did! But what if I hurt his feelings? I feel terrible! I didn't want to be! I-I just. . ."
Your wing lifted up for you to look directly to the Undertaker, who at the moment had his hair out of his eyes. He was looking at you with pure and quiet mirth.
You frowned once more as you cried, your wings flaring, "Stop laughing!"
He broke into laughter while you scornfully whined. He pulled you into a hug, with his large sleeves covering you like a blanket. Despite your annoyance towards his actions, you wrapped your arms around his neck, resting your head in the crook of his shoulder.
He pet your back delicately, lovingly smiling to himself.
"There, there. Stop that crying, now. Sebastian's a strong devil. He'll be fine, I can tell you. I'm quite certain he won't let a child's words get to him."
"But what if they did! He'll never want to be my friend, now!"
"You wished to be the devil's friend?"
You sunk your head deeper into his neck as you mumbled, "I want to be everyone's friend."
"You're such a child, angel."
"I am a child!"
"Oh, yes, that's right. I'd forgotten."
You moved your head from his neck and faced him directly.
"I need to apologize to him. Now."
"Now? They're long gone, angel."
"Then, I'll just go to their home!"
"No rich man is home at the moment. Everyone has come into town for the spring, and I'm not aware where the Earl is staying, currently."
"But I don't want to know where Ciel is! I want to know where Sebastian is!"
"Sebastian goes anywhere the lord earl goes. He is his butler, after all."
You groaned as your head plopped right back where it was before.
"I'll never be able to apologize, now. . ."
"Why don't you just wait until they come around again? I'm sure we'll see them soon."
"And why's that?"
"They'll be catching Jack the Ripper anytime now. And I'm certain this Jack will be our next customer."
"How? They're going to kill Jack the Ripper? Maybe that explains what that reaper was doing with them. . ."
The Undertaker set you down on the bed where layed the dead woman.
"Maybe."
You sat in silence as the Undertaker got back to work.
Finally, you spoke again, "You said earlier that reapers are interested in humans for lots of reasons. How would you know that?"
"I came here for a reason, didn't I?"
"I thought you were just bored, to be completely honest."
He laughed.
"Well, I was. But I met a human. A lady. She made me want to stay."
You crossed your arms and legs in interest, smiling as you wiped away any remaining tears.
"You loved her?"
"I did," he admitted. "We loved each other."
"And what happened? Did you marry?"
"Not exactly! Humans, they aren't immortal like the rest of us, you see."
". . . Oh. I'm sorry."
The Undertaker dismissed you, "It's nothing you have to be sorry about. It's not like you were the one to do it."
"I guess. . . But it's a bit sad. I don't think I could ever love a human knowing they would eventually die. It would be too heartbreaking."
"Love isn't something one can control. I would expect you of all beings to be aware of that."
You looked down in thought, before moving your gaze to the woman who layed beside you.
"Do you think she had someone who loved her?"
"I believe not. She was a prostitute, after all. No one came to claim her, either. She must've never had time to find someone."
". . . That's sad. . . Humans are so. . . "
You stopped there.
You wanted to say how disappointed you were in humans for not caring for someone, or how it was hard to believe humans can live without someone loving them. But your tongue was stuck as you realized how strong this woman must have been to do that. She made it without love. Humans were. . .
You couldn't seem to find a word to describe the entirety of humanity. They were all so different from each other. You found them fascinating, yet simple. And you found them pretty, yet hideous.
Unbelievably kind, yet cruel.
You smiled, albeit with a great sadness.
The Undertaker watched you gloss over the, what he thought was, obvious term.
You were so clearly unaware of how humanity worked. And yet, the Undertaker found himself just as curious as you. The two of you didn't truly understand humanity.
But he supposed that was fine. It wasn't as if humans understood it themselves.
The Undertaker had always thought humans were, to put it simply, amusing. Everyone was amusing. From the rude, to the innocent, to the elders, to the babies. Humans were all sort of stupid, and that, to him, made them all a big joke.
Well, not that one woman he loved all those years ago. But she's dead. She doesn't count.
Still, the Undertaker could not find any beauty in anything about humans other than their eventually deaths. Death was most likely their only glamorous feature, besides their strange ability to be the most stupidest thing alive.
But watching you sit there and marvel about humanity made him wonder if there was something he didn't see that you did.
If an angel, a being significantly greater than any other, can see something in humans that's worthy of making them speechless, maybe there really is a beauty that he cannot see.
Angels probably live the most beautiful lives, despite being so similar to humans. Now, nobody knew much about angels. They hardly ever leave Heaven, anyway. But my, are they smiled upon.
It was no secret that angels were viewed as the superior beings. Grim reapers were already gods themselves, but angels? They've somehow managed to climb up the hierarchy and be considered above everything. Angels are angels. That's considered enough to be higher than a reaper. Even reapers know that.
They are the only beings granted peaceful living with little to no worrying. Life for angels is paradise, is what others believe. This is because angels, some theorize, are the only beings worthy of it.
To put it shortly:
Life for angels is easy.
Life for humans is not.
Humanity is far from beautiful. Even humans can see that. But if an angel, a being believed to have the best life imaginable, likes humanity, which you clearly did? It made one question if they were wrong about humanity after all. Maybe humanity was beautiful.
Maybe it truly was worth something.
"Human," He said to you with quiet realization. "Humans are human."
You looked at the Undertaker, who had his back faced to you, in a sort of shock. You hadn't been expecting an answer like that.
But you smiled at it, anyway.
"I was going to say something along the lines of 'weird', but that seems much more fitting." You agreed. "'Humans are human'. What a perfect way of putting it. . . Humans are human. . . It's like saying that even though humans do so many bad things, you can't entirely hate them. They're only human."
You looked the woman again in joy.
"I feel bad that she might not have someone to love her, so I guess I'll love her instead. Maybe when we stroll around the cemetery, I can get her some flowers. That way, people will know that she's loved. And maybe if they see how much one can love another, they'll start loving too."
You gave the woman a smile of true warmth.
"What a strange feeling. I've never loved a human before. I wish she was alive so I could tell her that. That I love her."
The Undertaker spaced off as he was turned away from you.
He couldn't exactly tell when, but you stunned him into silence as you made him think about humanity.
He couldn't understand how you could love humanity, but he found it admirable.
It made him realize that that is why angels were so much better than humans.
Angels knew how to love even the worst of things.
Or maybe that was something only you were capable of doing.
Still, the Undertaker found himself loving humanity a bit more.
He even found himself loving you.
So when he turned to look at you, and you to him, the two of you stood there in silence and smiled.