I happen to actually like Elizabeth rather a lot, but liking a character has never kept me from doing this. Manga-based, if you're wondering.

Futility
By Ryo Hoshi

Ciel Phantomhive decided, once he knew the truth of his family, after that month of hell, that he wanted to protect Elizabeth from it. She was...innocent of this world, naïve and happy and everything he had once been, that he'd still be if...

For the next few years, he was mostly successful. A few social calls that his aunt would never have let him duck, an encounter or two at balls once they were both old enough that youth was no longer an excuse, and her visits (thankfully infrequent, at first) to his home.

She was one of the few precious people he had left, and the only one he thought he could keep away from the taint of the Phantomhive family.

He worked, slowly, on plans for – when the time came, should he live long enough – pushing back the wedding date, dodging going to the altar with her. He knew that if he was willing to be cruel to her, so she could break the engagement, her reputation would be safe from his taint, as shining as ever, but...

Even if it was often annoying, seeing the treasure that had been stolen from him intact in her...

He couldn't steal it for himself, only protect it for his own pleasure of watching when she was a little calmer. Ciel did not notice that it was slowly tarnishing from her worry for the boy whom she had always loved, first in a childlike way but becoming something deeper as she grew older.

All he noticed was that there was an edge to it that he had not noticed until his own was destroyed, left to drown in his blood and other body fluids (his own, others') on the floor not long enough ago.

He did not know he missed his smile, but he knew he would miss hers.

Their sixteenth birthdays came, and he found his aunt an unexpected ally – but only because she felt that marrying so young would not do them well. Ciel was satisfied, at least for now. No specific date was given, though he did find himself turning up at more parties with her, but as long as he could still prolong the engagement – have a decent chance of having his soul claimed before his wedding day – he was fine.

Seventeen came, and it started to look like he might even have her ask him to release her from the engagement. Other men, some just as innocent and pure as she was, starting nibbling at the edges, just to see if Elizabeth's fiancé was truly the one she wanted or if they could steal her away.

By the time she turned eighteen, though, it was clear that she would not ask to be released.

Then, she didn't turn up for his eighteenth birthday. She'd only missed a few, and he was so glad she'd missed his tenth (and, well, he had managed to be away for the following two) but it was quite strange. She'd made it clear she would be there for this one...

A little searching, some unwanted delays as he – as Sebastian at his command – tracked down everybody (officially or secretly) attending the yuletide ball she'd last been seen at, which he'd managed to miss (on purpose)...

Regrets would come later, as regrets always did.

On the solstice, just before midnight.

He'd been there, before, more or less. The ritual was simpler; Ciel did not care for the details. There was only a single sacrifice.

Screaming, thrashing in her bonds, scraps of red-edged white fabric from the shift she'd worn before being placed upon the altar, blood on the marble between her legs, blood on the metal holding her in place, eyes finding his just in time for...

Slaughter.

Grell would have found it quite lovely.

Ciel did not.

He'd failed. She'd been sucked down into the darkness, just like he'd been, and yet another precious person had been stolen from him.

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