Chapter Six: Investigation, England.

Ciel Phantomhive was seated at the head of the empty dining table. His blue suit wore to its usually immaculate perfection. Knife and fork in hand, he slowly devoured his breakfast. A freshly refilled cup of tea sat steaming on the table in front of him, within easy reach of his right hand. Hayate approached the table carrying a silver tray with the morning paper and mail. He picked up the paper and held it out to the boy.

"Young master."

Ciel took the paper from his butler with barely a glance at him. Hayate appeared to have settled in to life at the mansion, and was reasonable efficient - although not, of course, as efficient as Sebastian - and he seemed to get along well with the other servants. Ciel flicked open the tabloid and scanned the front page. "Another one..." he said, more to himself, a small frown crinkling him brow. He quickly leafed through the rest of the paper before setting it aside.

Hayate came forward again. "This also came for you." He offered the earl the tray with a wax sealed letter and a slim letter opener that shone dully in the morning light.

The boy's single blue eye widen when he saw the seal on the envelope. "Why didn't you give this to me first?" he demanded. He took up the letter opener and cut open the seal without waiting for an answer. He drew out the letter on crisp creamy white paper and read through the elegantly formed missive. He passed the open letter back to his butler to read. "Cancel today's lessons and prepare the carriage. We are going to London."

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The carriage drew up across the street from a rather conspicuous premises. Hayate pulled open the door and helped his master alight.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" he asked, sceptical.

Ciel didn't even bother with a response and strode across the road coming to a stop outside the building in question. Hayate pulled open the door and followed the boy into the shop. The door closed with a soft click behind him and he blinked as his eye adjusted the dimness and sneezed as his nose was assaulted by the clinical smell of formaldehyde and other probably rather nasty chemicals, and oddly there was also the lingering smell of baking, of all things, that seemed incongruous with the surroundings. Littered about the shop, seemingly at random were elongate blocks, some lying flat while others upright, which on closer inspection were revealed to be coffins of different styles and ornateness. The walls were lined with dusty bookshelves; every available space occupied small boxes and jars. Some of the jars had… things suspended in them; Hayate didn't look too closely, he didn't think he'd like what he would see. There was a soft pfft that sounded suspiciously like a stifled laugh but could have just as easily been the voice of the wind playing trick on his ears. Hayate looked around him and jumped slightly when he saw a cobwebbed skeleton standing in one corner staring at him with its hollow eyes, its unseeing gaze piercing his soul, grinning broadly as if the joke were on him. Hayate looked away and let out a sigh of relief, it must have just been his imagination - the room was empty, there wasn't another soul bar the two of them, the place was dead still, as silent as the grave.

"Undertaker, are you in?" Ciel called out, looking about him with disinterest.

The door of a large upright coffin creaked open dramatically with a pinch of animosity. A tall slender man in robes down to his ankles and too longer sleeves stepped out and grinned creepily the younger boy. He had long silverly hair that fell past his waist with a thin plait down one side. His eyes were obscured by a long silver fringe. However, it wasn't his eccentric style that drew Hayate's attention but the angry scar running across his face and another across his neck. This was a man with a past, the sort of past you didn't want to look into as it might step into the present and hunt you down and haunt you. Oh, and he and for some reason wearing a frilly pink apron.

"Ah Earl, have you finally decided to try out one of my special custom made coffin?" He stroked the lid of the coffin he had just emerged from lovingly, his long, black fingernail poking out of his long, black sleeves.

The earl looked singularly unimpressed. "Do you have any information on the recent spate of deaths?"

"Maybe I do… but first you have to give me that." He looked a little distracted by something.

Ciel hesitated and sighed. "Hayate, tell him a joke."

Hayate blinked. "Sorry?"

"You heard me. Tell him a joke. He wants―"

"To be bestowed with the world's greatest laughs" Undertaker cut in, looking intently at the servant boy. "Where is Mr. Butler? And who is this?"

"Sebastian? He's in Japan fulfilling an assignment. This is Hayate. He's Sebastian's replacement until he gets back."

Undertaker surreptitiously took a step towards the older boy, still inspecting him with what felt like a piercing gaze though his eyes were still not visible through his veil of hair, raising the hairs on the back of Hayate's neck with the perceived intensity of his gaze.

"It seems like he has hidden talents not even he is aware of~" Undertaker said giggling softly as he slid a little bit closer.

Hayate looked startled. Perhaps he was referring to the ultimate move that I'm supposed to be developing. But how could he know or even guess something like that? Is he the kind of person that can read a person's heart? His gaze certainly felt like he was looking at my soul. He shivered. While the boy was distracted by his thoughts Undertaker had well and truly gotten in Hayate's personal space. A hand dove into his robes and lightning fast withdrew something and placed in gently on Hayate's head. He stepped back to admire his handiwork, grinning.

Hayate was roused from his musing by a gentle and unfamiliar pressure across his head from the band the mortician had placed there. "What did you put on my head?" he asked, slightly creeped out by Undertaker's smile. He reached up tentatively and delicately felt the object on his head with his fingertips. "C-cat ears?" His voice rose and a slight blush coloured his cheeks, his manner immediately becoming more effeminate. "Why would you do such a thing?"

Undertaker's grin just grew wider and he giggled. "Ahhhh~ That's it~ Perrrfect~ 3 "

Hayate blushed further at the funeral director's words and intense, amused scrutiny. Moe~.

Ciel put his finger on what had been bothering ever since Hayate's reaction to the cat ears. "You're that blue haired maid from the ball…"

Hayate nodded numbly. "Yes. Someone knocked me out and when I woke up I was wearing those clothes… I would have changed but my clothes were gone and I didn't have time to find them as the ball was starting." He averts his eyes from his master's, embarrassed.

Undertaker watched the exchange between the two boys with ever growing amusement, watching transfixed by every miniscule reaction of the young butler, fascinated at his change in persona. The skeletal man was soon rolling on the floor in hysterical laugher. Eventually, he sobered up and stood up and shook himself down, wiping away tears of laughter. "Ahhhh~ You truly do have hidden depths~" he said, still smiling like a maniac. He sat down on a coffin and arranged himself carelessly, leaning on one arm, fingers curled around the lip of the coffin, long nails clicking softly against its lacquered surface, the other arm draped listlessly beside him, the fabric of the sleeve fanning behind it. He sat hunched over and looked at the two boys, his attitude becoming businesslike – well, for him anyway. "So~ What did you want to know?"

The earl briefly explained the contents on the royal letter and as many of the details that he did know, which were few.

"Ah yes~ I've had some customers like that. Very odd they were too… There didn't seem to be anything wrong with them. They'd just withered away and died. It's four I've had like that now, in the past couple of weeks - all male and not bad lookers if you like that sort of thing." He inspected his nails on one hand, seemingly bored, having come to the end of his narration. "Anything else I can do you for, milord?"

"There's nothing else you can tell me about the bodies?"

Undertaker shrugged. "No. Other than that they were all from the same hospital, which I'm sure your detective friend will tell you. Oh~ and that their state was unnatural." He pulled out a cookie from a hidden recess in his robe and bite off one end, evidently having nothing more to say.

"What do you mean 'unnatural'?" Ciel asked sharply.

Undertaker shrugged and stood up. "I wonnderr~" He wandered over to a shelf and started fiddling with the grotesque objects on it, clearly dismissing them.

"Tch. Let's go. He's not going to tell us anything else." The Phantomhive Earl said, disgusted. He turned on heel and strode out of the mortician's shop.

Hayate stayed where he was for the moment, watching the raven haired boy leave. He approached the older man pulling the cat ears off his head. "Undertaker? Here." He offered the band to him.

The undertaker turned to look at the boy, grinning. "You keep it, boy. I daresay it suits you better than me." The funeral director showed Hayate to the door. "I like you. Visit again. Now~ you'd better hurry. The earl's getting impatient."

Hayate slipped the ears into a pocket and rushed out the door, mumbling something about possibly coming again. The mortician waved him off, knowing that there was little possibility of him seeing the boy again as he was out of his time. He watched as the carriage pulled away from the curb and with the clatter of hooves set off down the cobbled street. He pondered the boy, giggling, but also saddened by the imminent loss of a source of amusement that he had only just discovered and that had brightened his day. He went back inside to resume his duties holding the image of a blushing cat eared Hayate in his mind's eye, giggling softly to himself.

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#AN: Undertaker you troll. I didn't have a lot of control over what he said or did, he just went and did it... so don't blame me for his behaviour. Having said that I did have a lot fun writing this chapter. Undertaker's a fun character to write because to a certain extent he writes himself.
Hopefully we'll get a better idea of what's going on in Hayate's next chapter.
Why is it that I get the urge to write just when I really should be studying hard? *facepalm*
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.