"How do you feel about a ball?" It had just been a question, but it was enough to make dread pool in the pit of Alois' stomach. He looked away from his second breakfast plate of the day and met the questing blue-grey eyes of Arthur sitting across from him.

Ciel and Alois were always present in the dining hall, and sometimes it might make you wonder why Alois would have to have two breakfast meals in one day. Couldn't he have breakfast then wait until lunch? Well, the dining room never had more than three people in it at a time. The rotation was always between Luka and Sir Trancy. It was more for Alois' comfort than anything. He did not want Luka and Arthur in the same room for an extended period of time. He would not... could not deal with that.

Even if he had to eat four eggs every day for the rest of his life. Poor chickens. All their potential lost on him and his double breakfasts. Eggs or Luka though... Luka, always.

"A ball." Alois echoed slowly. He chose his next words very carefully. "Whatever for?"

Arthur shrugged his thin shoulders and laid against his chair. The stiff wood should have at least made him feel uncomfortable but it never took too long for one to get used to it. "Nothing in particular. I just feel like we haven't been in the social circles as often as we used to be. I think they've missed us greatly Alois. Don't you feel the same way?"

"Of course." Alois answered hurriedly. He knew better than to disagree with Arthur, not unless he wanted a beating or worse... "Who will be attending this ball?"

"Close acquaintances of mine." Arthur answered swishing the wine in his glass. Whoever thought drinking wine at breakfast wa a good idea, honestly even if it was five o'clock in the afternoon in Portugal or the Philippines. "Your friends will be there too. The Porter boy has been asking about you more and more each time I see him."

Alois chewed on his breakfast but smiled. "Tom. I'm not surprised."

"Is that his name?" Arthur asked casually. He sent Alois a knowing look. "He seemed quite interested in you, almost fond even."

Alois uttered a delicate snort and shook his head. "He has a thing for blondes. He hits on anything with two legs but means well. For some reason he seems to think that I am within his reach. Mental that one."

"Indeed." Arthur chuckled. "You are a Trancy, Alois. I do hope you aren't leading him on."

"Never." Alois promised. He gave Arthur a serious look. "I know better than that father. I am not stupid."

"Of course you aren't." Arthur murmured patronizingly.

It made the hair on the back of Alois' neck and arms raise in annoyance at being treated like a child. He had seen far too much to still be a child. Arthur should personally be in the know of that.

Thankfully, Ciel saw his infuriated silence as the perfect time to enter the conversation, clearing his throat. "I believe we will be able to get this ball underway. The soonest date is Tuesday, will that be all right?"

"Tuesday." Arthur hummed. He seemed to mull the thought over, going through dates in his head. Meetings too flew in his mind before he concluded it a safe day. "Yes I think that'll do. Will you get a handle on whatever needs to be done for the ball?"

Ciel's eyes narrowed but he replied in a cool and fairly clipped voice. "I don't recall having party planner under my job description but I guess I can do this much."

Alois held back a laugh all through sheer will power and nearly choked on it, barely disguising it as a cough.

To his left he thought he saw Ciel smile... but Ciel never smiled so maybe it was just the lights. Or having eaten one too many eggs, urgh.

The ball planning had taken a shorter amount of time than Ciel had estimated. It was the night before Tuesday but they had been ready, and quite honestly, anxious to get the party under way since Friday the previous week. That made three days of waiting which sucked more than anything else in the world.

"Will I be allowed to attend the party?" Luka asked as they tucked him into bed. He blinked at them with sleepy half lidded grey eyes.

Alois looked at Ciel, who he had asked to always watch over Luka during the night when he slept. "I don't know Luka. Ciel made up the plans and all that. It'll be up to him."

Luka stared at Alois, almost as if deciding whether he was being lied to or not before he turned to Ciel. "Can I go to the party?"

Now this was why it was hard taking care of a nine year old child. Alois had the insane opinion that Luka would be able to remain forever innocent so long as he was watching over the other boy. Ciel would not be the source of hardship or worry or anxiousness that would break Luka's childish innocence.

Either that or Alois would kill him. Or at least try his damned hardest to do so.

"You can stay and mingle until eight but after that it will be straight to bed."

Luka cried tiredly in joy and triumph before he yawned and drifted to sleep. Both Alois and Ciel waited, the blonde boy caressing Luka's cheek, pushing away copper locks and took in the peaceful face.

Slowly, he laid a palm on Luka's chest, staying stock still to get a feel of the heart that beat underneath skin and cotton blue pajamas.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

Alois let out a deep breath and pressed his other hand on his own chest, eyes closed.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

Ciel said nothing as this happened. He'd gotten slightly used to it after seeing it on a nearly daily basis. When he'd seen it the first time, just a good day and a half after he'd accomplished the contract he had been stumped, wondering what Alois was doing.

He understood after each time when Alois would let out a deep breath and took great control of his crying. Ciel had not known what to do the first time Alois had sobbed, shoulders shaking and throat releasing choking sounds that pulled on one's heart.

It had taken a while for Ciel to understand that it had been tears of joy, tears of relief. Alois had murmured comfortingly to himself that first few times. Ciel had barely caught the nearly inauble, "We're alive. We're okay. We're alive and we're okay. Luka's here and he's not going anywhere, not this time not any time. I'm not alone."

Ciel heard him each time he'd murmured the words almost in prayer and he vowed, contract or no that he would keep things as they were. Alois would never be parted from his brother ever again, not if he had a say in it.

"I must say that this is quite the bash." Mathew Twilson clapped him on the shoulder, smiling hugely at the room at large.

Alois had to take a breath to clear the fizzy drink he had been drinking and smiled back at the brunette. "Never say that we don't know how to throw a party mate."

"Would never dream of it." Mathew promised and sipped at his own drink, which he had just liberated from a passing waiter. "You've clearly outdone yourself. Everybody's having such a good time!"

Alois preened at such compliments. From a party person like Twilson that was clearly an incredibly brag-worthy moment. Ice blue eyes moved from one corner of the ball room to the other. He could see that everyone truly was enjoying themselves. There was laughter, and dancing and happiness.

Luka had been put to bed a good half hour ago and it had taken much jaw clenching from Alois as the copper head found it the ideal moment to use his huge eyes to his advantage. The blonde had taken one look at it because he'd only seen it on one person before and stiffly he turned to Ciel, "You taught him how to do that, didn't you? Damn you Ciel!"

It had taken a while to explain to Luka how there were no more people his age at the party and he wouldn't really have anything to do unless he wanted to dance with the present ladies.

That had worked like a charm and Alois had forgiven Ciel for teaching Luka the puppy dog eyes since the bluenette had been the reason Luka had given up on his strike on sleep.

"Ladies." Luka shuddered before disappearing under his fluffy green covers and ended up staying there until he fell asleep. Of course Alois wasn't sure if he really was asleep or if he just wanted Alois and Ciel to leave him to escape the possible dancing.

It worked well for Alois, he'd just check up on Luka later when the party ended. For now he would enjoy the company he had maybe missed the past few weeks. He may not have been Arthur's real son, Alois however adjusted to the new life he had been offered as a second chance very easily.

The people he had believed as stuck up and bossy turned out to be so very nice and friendly. The children at least where nice. The older members of the posh society had sent him awfully dirty looks that had made him feel uncomfortable but he was now immuned to.

Arthur had stressed rather painfully that Alois was to make friends with his fellow heirs so as to strengthen friendship between the nobles. In this case friendship meant different to the normal understanding. It was more closely understood as an alliance than anything else.

It helped to have someone that would have your back or better yet someone to blame when you couldn't handle it anymore. It was a business-filled world that scared the faint of heart. These young heirs could not afford to be those people or else.

"So what's on the rumor mill my dear gents?" Alois asked as he returned his attention to his group. They were all respectively recognized people all over England, some even branching outside of it.

Everybody else turned their heads to Nathan Evans, the most influential in their group. James had little to no choice whenever his father declared he was to accompany him in the business meetings. Nobody cared about some teenager looming in the meeting room thus explains just how much gossip James received on a weekly basis.

Now Alois would forever deny that he and the gents would gossip like squealing girls since he had a bit of pride (okay a lot of pride) and it would bring hell to his reputation should this little bit of news come to light.

"There's a new kid on the block." Nathan smirked, his glasses glinting in the light. He paused for effect, working quite successfully on them with Mathew swatting at the bloke's side before he continued. "Easy! The suit's Italian. Anyways he's some sort of toys and candy company mogul. He's becoming quite a success."

"Don't leave us hanging mate! Give me something to work with." Devon Perciville snapped, burgundy colored eyes flashing underneath narrowed brown eyebrows.

"Devon is quite right." Beside him the aforementioned Thomas Porter nodded his head, rich and thick brown hair falling over his sea-green eyes. "This is absolute torture Nathan. How cruel will you be this evening?"

Nathan stared at the other boy for a moment before he rolled his eyes and let out a scoff. The air around the five boys changed ominously. Alois braced himself. Nathan had never liked Tom, for some reason that wasn't entirely clear to them all and it seemed that Tom lived on goading the other boy, much to everybody's dismay.

"If you would just let me finish." Nathan snapped. He took a sip of his drink and pointedly ignored Tom, who was smirking at him quite gleefully. "He's supposed to be here at the party. Origins are unknown but he's very affluent at the moment, his company selling by the thousands at this very second."

"Give us a name mate." Devon pleaded. He looked around their area for a moment and seeing none of their parents, grabbed the shorter boy's sleeve and tugged hard. "Name!"

"Suit!" Nathan shrieked rather shrilly.

Alois laughed at the on-goings but sobered rather quickly when he felt his trusty friend's presence somewhere nearby. Doing a full three-sixty in place, he saw Ciel awfully close to him. He hadn't expected that and took a step back in surprise. "Bloody hell man! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"My apologies." Ciel murmured but he didn't look too concerned. In fact, Ciel looked distracted. He'd returned the smart greetings from Alois' company but didn't indulge himself in the rare chitchat he often had with the company heirs. If anything pointed to Ciel's odd behavior, that was one thing. Ciel loved talking business, it was something Alois never and would ever get.

"I believe I need a word with Ciel here." Alois looped an arm with the bluenette's and smiled politely at the other four. "Excuse us will you?"

Ciel let himself be tugged away from the boys in a subdued pace. They simply walked, smiling at anyone who greeted them but never pausing to entertain them. As they waved at one of Devon's many sisters, Alois murmured quietly under his breath. "What's wrong?"

"That boy." Ciel breathed. "That boy you were talking about."

"What about him?" Alois asked.

Ciel's eyebrows narrowed. "I know who he is."

"You do?"

"And I don't want you going near him."

Alois stopped walking but Ciel didn't and the blonde had to keep moving lest he be dragged by the more-than-capable bluenette. Hurriedly, he whispered "What do you mean? Who is he Ciel?"

"Trouble, Alois." Ciel sighed and looked at him with dead serious cobalt blue eyes. "You'll do as I ask? You'll stay away."

"No." Alois snapped, reacting to what was obviously more of an order and less of a request. He pulled his arm away from Ciel, or at least tried but the bluenette had a strong grip that wouldn't let up. Giving up he huffed frustrated and glared at Ciel. "Would you at least tell me why I should be avoiding him?"

Ciel was silent for a moment, staring hard at the floor before Alois reached a hand out and pushed the shorter male's chin upward. He didn't do this often, flaunt his height over Ciel's because he knew that the demon was more than capable of changing his height should he want to.

Alois stared at him, confused. His hold lost its grip when Ciel met his eyes and he inwardly cursed for being stupid enough to look a demon in the eye.

"Alois!" He was sure that was his father's voice but the last thing he could focus on was Ciel. Him and his stupid cobalt blue eyes making him faint in the middle of a ball.

Lovely.

AN: Well this chapter didn't begin with darkness, lol.

Thank you so much for the feedback! You have no idea how much it helps me. It's almost like I'm a pet of yours and you feed me with your reviews. I've had that analogy (is that what it's called?) in my head for sometime now and I just had to say it.

Anywho, the better part of this fic was written last night (Easter Sunday) on my Ipad while I was dodging the mic but singing along with everyone else at my Aunt's house. If you see any mistakes, please point it out to me as I'm still a little hungover on chocolate this morning but I want to post this right away.

Also regarding the Earl and his level of good-looking... let's keep in mind that his nephew is the Viscount Druitt and we can say that he looks all right? Right? So just imagine something along those lines. In fact- just imagine the Viscount as him! Only not violet eyes but blue-grey :D

Dun dun dun on this chapter; Who is this new kid? And why is Ciel reacting to him? ;D

Thank you again; 13, ashira 23 (for some reason your penname doesn't pop up so I put a space in between it :D), LeIchigoChan, and King-Jess.