Moonlit Meetings:
Chapter 3:
2 weeks later:
It was the day of the heist and Ciel had a plan of sorts as well as various back up plans in case everything went wrong. He had a small vial of chloroform in his pocket in the event that Sebastian did manage to get in the way of his escape route.
They were all at the Wordsmith residence waiting until the time that Black Phantom had stated in his notice. When the note had arrived Sebastian had been very excited and had spent several days concocting ways to catch him. Naturally he had had to inform the other members of the team so Ciel had developed a plan around Sebastian's.
They and a couple of officers from another department were all to be stationed at all the likely entrances to the house which were limited and Sebastian had also placed video cameras in the rooms they couldn't cover. Ciel's phantom thief costume was currently concealed in a giant vase in the living room where he had been placed.
Ciel was looking out the window at the full moon when Tanaka walked in.
"Are you here to give me a last minute warning to be careful?"
Instead Tanaka whispered something else in his ear. "I meant to tell you this earlier, but I can't find anything on Sebastian Michaelis."
"Why not? Could it be a fake name?"
Tanaka shook his head. "I found his birth certificate and it's right because it matches his current age, but there were no school or university records. There was nothing until he started Police training so we don't have anything to blackmail him with."
Ciel sighed. He had been hoping that Sebastian had done something blackmail worthy both personally and for his occupation. They would just have to focus on evading him for now.
"It's a shame," he pouted and cheered up on remembering where they were.
Wordsmith could be the murderer meaning that after tonight he could be finished with his night job. The man had seemed normal if a little shy when he and Sebastian had visited a few days ago.
"It's nice to see that some members of the investigation team have bonded so well, but it's 10 minutes to midnight so get to your positions," Sebastian ordered from the doorway. "Are your walkie talkies still working?"
Ciel and Tanaka checked and gave an affirmative.
"Good. There will be no excuse if any of you fail to alert me if you see the phantom thief then. Tanaka, hurry up and get to the hallway."
Tanaka and Sebastian left the room together leaving Ciel alone to count down on his watch.
"5,4,3,2,1."
At zero the lights went out and he opened the window, grabbed a rock he had hidden in the flowerbed beforehand, leaned out and threw it at the kitchen window which was opposite the room he was in due to the shape of the house. Mey-Rin was positioned in the kitchen and she raised the alarm when the window smashed.
Ciel quickly pulled on his outfit over his clothes and ran through the house to the study. He didn't encounter anyone on his way as Mey-Rin and Tanaka were directing Sebastian and the other officers elsewhere over the walkie talkies.
Once he reached the study, he found Sebastian's camera by the red light and turned it off and muted his walkie talkie and began the search.
He hurriedly rifled through the drawers in the desk and pulled them out when he couldn't find anything. Affixed with masking tape underneath one of the drawers was a notebook. Ciel took it and approached the bookshelf. The room was well lit by the moonlight so he didn't need to turn on the torch in his pocket. He felt along the spines, checking for anomalies. He felt a strange dip and he discovered a thin scrapbook in between two books. He purloined it and moved along to the next row; he couldn't afford to leave anything out.
He had almost finished when the door crashed open and someone shone a bright light in his face.
"Stop right there!" Sebastian shouted.
Ciel froze very briefly as his brain went into overdrive calculating his escape. He had to get close to Sebastian to use the chloroform and getting closer was risky. He would have to distract him somehow and the key was to act confident and unruffled.
Ciel made sure his mask on properly and he turned to face Sebastian directly, trying not to wince at the bright light.
"You must be a new member of the team trying to arrest me. It's nice to meet you, he said, making sure to pitch his voice higher.
He saw Sebastian tighten his grip on the torch, but he didn't step closer which was an encouraging sign.
"You cannot actually arrest me though, I have never technically stolen anything."
"You are trespassing and causing destruction to private property," Sebastian replied evenly and took a step closer. "You can stop with the distractions, all I have to do is alert everyone else and hold you down until they come."
Ciel knew he couldn't stall by talking anymore so he did the first thing that came to mind. When he thought about it later on, he passed it off as a moment of madness because he walked towards Sebastian and touched his cheek with one gloved hand and whispered;
"You cannot call for back up if your mouth is covered."
One part of his brain observed Sebastian's wide eyes and dilated pupils and his loose grip on the torch, showing that he had no current plans to call for backup and the other part of his brain made him actually press his lips to Sebastian's.
He snapped back to reality the moment he did and so despite his wish not to be kissing Sebastian, he remained in the same position and prepared the chloroform and cloth with his free hand. He drew back, momentarily enjoyed the sight of a speechless Sebastian and pressed the chloroformed cloth to his nose. Ciel was kind enough to catch his rival as he fell and deposited him gently on the floor.
He heard the sound of familiar footsteps and he called out for his accomplices. Tanaka and Mey-Rin nearly tripped on Sebastian on their way in.
"He started ignoring our directions and ran off somewhere else," Mey-Rin explained breathlessly.
"I've dealt with it now. I need to take this costume off before everyone else comes up here. You two stay here," he ordered and ran off to take off his costume before the officers running around the house saw him.
He stripped off his costume in a dark corner and hid it in his bag in the hallway and rejoined the others in the study with a bottle of water.
"What is the water for?" Tanaka asked.
Ciel answered the question by pouring it on Sebastian's unconscious face. It would look suspicious if they waited too long to wake him up. Sebastian's eyelids twitched and fluttered and Ciel helpfully poured more water on him. He jerked awake after that.
"Where's the thief?" he questioned groggily, trying to sit up.
"He wasn't here when we got here and no one saw him on their route here," Tanaka told him. "Should we take you for a check up at the hospital?"
Sebastian sat up slowly and felt around the back up his head cautiously.
"I haven't hit my head so I'll be fine," he looked at Ciel who was still holding the water bottle. "Thank you for waking me up."
"Anytime," Ciel replied sweetly., his heart rate finally returning to normal now that everything was back in place and he hadn't been caught. "Why were you unconscious? Did you faint with fright after seeing Black Phantom?"
"Of course I didn't," Sebastian retorted. "...He knocked me out ."
Thankfully Sebastian didn't mention anything about what had happened before he had been chloroformed so Ciel did not have any awkward questions from Tanaka later on. The trio returned home early in the morning without being arrested.
***
On the other hand Sebastian returned home completely confused. Why had the thief kissed him and why had he let him? He should have pushed him away and handcuffed him so the case would have been finished there and then. Instead he had let the opportunity slip away. That wasn't like him.
He went through his encounter with the thief. Black Phantom had not been too bothered by his presence and had even gone as far to greet him. He had deduced that the thief was trying to distract him and then he had been kissed and chloroformed whilst he had been distracted. He really had been conned.
One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to mention it in his report of the heist. Although it was not his fault that he had been kissed and tricked, the last thing he needed was for someone to get hold of the report and pass the information around. His high success rate and promotions had made some enemies. He had entered Scotland Yard for a specific reason and he was not going to let some thief that wore a cape stand in his way and ruin his success rate and future promotions.
Catching the notorious thief would be sure to result in a promotion and he would be closer to his goal and he could finally do what he wanted.
A sudden thought came to him. Ciel Durless' reports from heists had always been very vague and brief. Had he been seduced by the phantom thief before? That would explain his unwillingness to do anything that could lead to Black Phantom's capture. He needed to find out the truth about that as it could be a lead in solving the case.