Teacups and Teapots:
Summary: To revitalise Funtom which is in danger of bankruptcy, Ciel expands the business by opening a teashop at his aunt's suggestion that only hires good looking waiters. One of the candidates is a man named Sebastian Michaelis... CielxSebastian.
Chapter 1:
The CEO and owner of his family business, Funtom, scowled as he went through pages of spreadsheets, charts and sales forecasts that all conveyed the same message; he was losing money. Ciel Phantomhive and taken over the family business upon the murder of his parents and after being rescued from his kidnappers when he was 13 and had led the company through various crises including the recession and now at the age of 19, he was at his wit's end.
He picked up the phone on his desk and dialled the number of his aunt who was a shareholder as well as one of his father's acquaintances Tanaka who was another shareholder to request an urgent meeting regarding the future of the company.
"To put it simply, our sales have been falling for the past three months," he informed them abruptly once they were seated in front of his desk. "I feel that it is only fair to tell you both since you are heavily involved with Funtom and have a say in all decisions."
His red haired aunt leaned closer. "How bad is it?"
As an answer he handed her a stack of paper detailing statistics and predicted trends in growth and she and Tanaka pored over them together.
"It is likely that we will last another two years before we go into bankruptcy and have to be bailed out," Ciel sighed sadly. "Dad must be rolling in his grave at the prospect."
"Is there anything that can be done to prevent it?" his aunt enquired worriedly. "Why are the sales falling in the first place?"
Ciel tapped the desk with his ring irritably. "For the toys, it's mainly competition from cheaper brands that produce their products less ethically than us and the products tend to be lower quality, but the general public don't seem to care about that. As for the confectionary, parents are finally now worried about their children's teeth which is good for them and bad for us."
"What happened to the line of sugar free sweets? I know they were produced successfully in the test kitchen," his aunt brightened. "Maybe we can use them."
Ciel shook his head. "The only sugar substitute that produced the right consistency was Lycasin and it caused all the taste testers to have some... toilet problems. The upstairs toilets are blocked off for a reason."
Both of the shareholders in front of him winced and were silent for a moment before Angelina returned to the forefront with a suggestion.
"We can advertise them as being perfect for revenge."
Her nephew rolled his eyes. "That would cause more problems than good. Do either of you have any sensible suggestions?"
"We could move one of our bigger factories overseas, it would keep labour and material costs down," Tanaka suggested.
"No," Ciel said immediately. "That would go against the values of Funtom. Keeping production here has given us a good reputation."
"What about expanding to a new market?"
The owner of Funtom looked sharply at Tanaka "Name a market that is not saturated already."
The older man retreated into silence as Ciel went through all the trend forecasts for future months.
"There should be a temporary seasonal rise in sales next month as it will be the Christmas shopping period-" he was cut off by his aunt.
"I have an idea, Ciel."
Ciel asked the obvious question. "Is is sensible and viable?"
"Just listen without interrupting," she ordered and Ciel instantly inferred that it was not going to be sensible. Then again there was nothing to lose by listening to her so he nodded and waved his hand to signal that she could speak.
"I brought something for your birthday a few days ago," she began, her opening sentence causing Ciel to arch his eyebrows.
His birthday presents from his aunt had always been on a completely different level to all of the other presents he received. Last year she had rented out the London Eye for the evening and had invited random passer bys in an effort for him to make friends which had not worked well to say the least.
"I purchased some premises in Piccadilly Circus. I was planning to turn them into a nice little teashop for you as I know how much you like your tea."
Ciel smiled briefly before turning serious again. "How does this fit in with your idea? There are a surplus of cafes and coffee shops in London as it is."
Angelina held up a finger, her fingernail painted red to match her outfit.
"There will be a unique selling point. It won't be like any other teashop."
Ciel shot her a sceptical look as she continued on.
"These days, especially in large cities like London, it is hard to get decent service anywhere so we could incorporate that as customers will be more likely to return if they are served well. They would also be more likely to return if the person they were being served by was good looking," she explained happily. "We just need to hire some good looking waiters and wait for the customers."
Her nephew face palmed. He should not have bother listening to her if she was going to come up with something like this.
"Who would the target market be?" he asked hesitantly, not entirely sure if he wanted to hear anymore of the idea.
"Females."
"Teenage girls? Perhaps it would be better to appeal to a market with more disposable income," Tanaka said, seeming to be as confused as Ciel.
"Females of all ages, of course. You will see," she smirked. "What do you think?"
The CEO and the other shareholder exchanged looks which did not go unnoticed by Angelina
"Well, neither of you have come up with something," she interjected. "I've already brought the premises and started building work so we might as well go ahead."
"I don't see any harm in doing a trial," Tanaka agreed and they both turned to the CEO expectantly who did not look happy with them.
He glared before replying. "I think the idea is ridiculous and won't work," he sighed. "However you can go ahead with it for the moment. Good luck on finding some good looking waiters to work for you, Aunt Ann."
On hearing that, she clapped her hands excitedly and grabbed his hand to pull him out from behind his desk.
"Let's go then!"
"Where?" Ciel demanded as he was dragged out of his office.
Ten minutes later they were standing in Oxford Circus and Angelina was holding a pair of binoculars to scan the crowd. Ciel debated sneaking off back to the office whilst she was occupied with her search, but he did not fancy looking at depressing statistics and part of him wanted to see if she would actually succeed in her search. He watched her binoculars focus in on a young man with blonde hair clipped back with red hair pins.
"I like that one!" she shouted before running after him down the street.
Eventually she returned with two other males in addition to the one Ciel had seen. All the candidates looked to be complete opposites of each other. One was a taller and darker blonde with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth which was dripping ash over the pavement. Another was a long haired redhead who looked completely psychotic to Ciel due to the skulls on his glasses and the pointy teeth. He began to feel even more misgivings than he had before.
"Hello, I'm Finny," the one who looked the youngest greeted him. "Are you really a CEO? You look too young."
"I agree," the redhead drawled and produced a nail file out of his pocket and began filing his nails in the middle of the street. "I'm Grell Sutcliffe in case you wanted to know, brat."
Ciel narrowed his eyes at him and decided he needed a talk with the person who came up with the idea. He tapped his aunt on the shoulder and stood on his tiptoes to whisper in her ear.
"Are you sure that you have selected the right people?"
"We need different types to get a wide customer base," she hissed back.
Something about that sounded familiar to Ciel. He remembered reading an article about marketing in south east Asia.
"Is this an Asian idea? You were the Funtom representative who went to Japan and Korea after all."
Her eyes shifted tellingly to the left and she hastily changed the subject. "It doesn't matter. In any case we need another couple of waiters or one really good looking one."
"Fine," Ciel huffed and scrutinised the people coming down the street.
Much to his surprise he locked eyes with a tall man with a long black fringe and scarlet eyes. The man walked past and smiled at him. Ciel frowned. It was unusual for people in London to make eye contact with each other let alone smile.
Behind him he heard his aunt squeal and he knew that she had found her fourth candidate. He turned back just in time to see her accosting him by pinching his bottom. He sighed exasperatedly and wondered if she had told any of them what she had gathered them for.
"What do you think, Ciel?" she asked him once she had encouraged the man to join the group of clueless candidates. "Is this enough people?"
"I think four is enough, there is no need to look for anymore," he said hastily. "Do any of them actually know what they are getting into?"
"I did explain to the first three, but not to the fourth," she turned to the fourth candidate. "What is your name?"
"Sebastian Michaelis," he answered and smiled again, flashing his white teeth at Ciel. "It's nice to meet you."
***
I probably should not be writing as I am starting uni properly next week, but I wanted to celebrate surviving fresher's week without drinking or going out. This also ties in with my course so it is technically revision or what is what I am telling myself...