"Lead me there, now. And be quick about it." He looked dead serious, but I heard what could have been worry in his voice. Whatever was wrong, it was dangerous. I nodded, and began making my way through the crowd. The man I saw was following us."What's going on, Sebastian?" I asked softly as I elbowed my way through the crowd, ignoring their irritated protests. "I'll explain later." Eventually, we'd gotten through the crowd and upon Sebastian's urging, we were tearing down the hallways. I couldn't imagine the teachers would approve, but that didn't matter. I heard footsteps behind us that weren't our own. Sebastian was clutching a pick in his hand, and when we reached the cooking room, he picked the lock in about three seconds."Hide," he told me. I blinked, and ducked behind a counter. The door burst open loudly, and I remained behind cover as I heard the rustling of metal as utensils were grabbed from drawers, several knives and forks, I'd imagine. Just in case, I silently opened a drawer and grabbed a large blade that looked like it might be used to cut watermelon. I couldn't imagine myself actually using it, but it was better then nothing.

"Trevor," Sebastian growled. "Funny we meet again like this, Michaelis," said the man.

"It was only a matter of time," he said in a low, emotionless voice. "Such a shame that I have to kill you, I've worked for your family for so long…but hey. Business is business, and I won't earn my pay if I don't.""You can try," Sebastian snapped. The sounds that followed were disjointed and hard to describe, as I'd never heard anything quite like them. I risked glancing around the corner. Pieces of silverware were sticking out of the wall. The man Sebastian was fighting, Trevor, was wielding some kind of dagger. Sebastian carried several sharp knives in his hands, though seeing the forks sticking out of the wall, I had a feeling that he probably could've found a way to turn a spoon into a lethal weapon.

I poked my head back into the hiding place, though the sound of blade on blade made me worry. There was a sharp skidding sound, and a crash. Trevor flew into my sight and crashed into one of the tables, knocking it over. He looked slightly jarred from the impact, and staggered upright. I tried to make myself look small. From where was now, he could easily see me. And I had no combat training, and no real way of protecting myself, despite the large blade I carried. My luck wasn't exactly great, so I braced myself. As soon as he was done regaining his senses, he caught sight of me in the corner of his eye.

"Well, well…who do we have here?" he murmured. He took a step towards me, and I raised the blade. He chuckled, and Sebastian ran forward to stand in front of me. Unfortunately, it was hard to navigate the room now, as it was a total mess. Funny how trashed a room can become in the span of roughly two minutes. Sebastian reached me first, standing protectively in front of me. I offered him the watermelon knife, which he took, but not before making sure I had an extra weapon, in the form of a pairing knife. The fighting continued in plain sight now. Sebastian had several cuts, but nothing fatal. I was surprised that no one had heard the racket and came to check it out yet, but at the same time, grateful. I wasn't sure if Trevor would spare threw the blade in his hand, and Sebastian ducked out of the way. I had to duck to the floor myself, and it barely missed my shoulder, getting stuck in the drawer off to my left. Trevor ran towards me, pulling some kind of switchblade from his pocket. I managed not to freeze in terror, something that probably saved my life in that moment, and held my ground. The moment he attempted to drive the switchblade into my stomach, I grabbed it in my free hand and drove the pairing knife into his shoulder, dragging it down his arm, leaving a large gash that probably rendered his hand unusable. I felt blood running down my arm, the switchblade easily breaking skin and going quite deep into my hand. It hurt like a bitch. Trevor looked quite surprised by my action, but didn't have much time to be surprised about it, as the sickening sound of a blade going through his back could be heard. He fell to the ground. I moved to pull the switchblade from my hand, but that proved unnecessary, for as soon as I managed to uncurl my fingers from the blade, it dropped to the floor. The sight of my blood didn't freak me out as much as I thought it would. Sebastian looked concerned, however."I need to clean up this room before anyone finds out what went down here. Can you treat that wound on your own?" he asked. I had limited medical knowledge, but I nodded. It took me a moment to notice the pain was causing my eyes to water up. I ran to grab a towel to apply pressure on the wound and slow the bleeding. "I want you to leave the room. If anyone sees your hand, you'll have to come up with an excuse," Sebastian warned. I nodded and left the room, avoiding the dance going on down on the first floor. I ran into Alois on the way back to the dorm. He immediately noticed the towel around my hand. He grabbed my wrist, causing the towel to drop from my hand, along with drops of blood. His eyes narrowed, and he practically dragged me into the dorm room. "I can handle it myself, Alois," I told him, He ignored me as led me to the bathroom sink, washing the bleeding hand under water. The bleeding didn't look like it'd stop any time soon. He took off his shirt and fastened it into a makeshift tourniquet, before going back outside and grabbing the towel before fastening that back around my bleeding hand. "Alois…why are you helping me?" I asked. His gaze hardened and he slapped me across the face."Why wouldn't I help you?" he asked irritably. In those few seconds, Alois had just thoroughly summed up our relationship. I didn't speak anymore. After a while, he led me back outside I couldn't move my fingers anymore, which worried me a little bit. "Be more careful," Alois said curtly. I was grateful that he didn't ask how I'd managed to get the switchblade injury, because I couldn't think of an excuse for it to save my life."Thanks, Alois," I murmured. He shrugged and watched me go. I guess you just never know with Alois. Sometimes, he's a time bomb waiting to go off, and others, he's just a helpful guy who only occasionally punches you in the face.

By the time I arrived back at the dorm room, it was about ten. The dance would be over by now, I knew. I heard scuffling from the closet. The cats, probably. I didn't want to fall into a fit of coughing at the moment, and I lay down on my bed, lifting my bloody arm. I couldn't feel my hand now. I decided to go take a bath. It was an odd course of action, but my heart was still pounding from the encounter with Trevor. I grabbed a towel and a change of clothes and headed off, getting to the room and lock picking the door. The water wasn't as warm as usual, but that didn't bother me. I sat down on one of the steps, leaning my head backwards. The water was up to my neck when I was sitting, but I didn't feel like going any further. Besides, I wanted to keep my hand dry. I must have dozed off, because when I next opened my eyes, all the lights were out. That wasn't my main concern, though. What worried me is when I realized I wasn't alone. My eyes slowly adjusted to the light. "You're awake." It was Sebastian. I allowed myself to relax."What are you doing here?" I asked. "I finished cleaning up and eliminating the evidence of the assassin's presence. When I found you weren't back at the dorm room, I went to find you. I didn't know if Trevor had brought any friends with him. Who knows with him," he murmured. He took my hand and raised it to eye level. He removed the bloody towel and allowed it to drop to the ground. I couldn't feel my hand due to the tight bandages around my upper arm, but it had stopped the bleeding, so I guess I couldn't complain. "Who wrapped your arm?" he asked. When I told him it was Alois, he seemed surprised.

"Alois didn't seem like the type. However, it might explain the mark that was on your face when I first found you. He hit you, didn't he?" I gave a stiff nod."He's my ex-boyfriend, Sebastian. It was an odd relationship we had," I admitted. I decided that now was as good a time as any to tell him about it, so I dragged myself out of the water, towel still around my waist, and sat down beside him, feet in the water. I began to tell him about what had gone down when Alois and I had been together. The abuse, what had happened to my eye, Alois' unpredictable nature. I found myself rambling after a while, and clammed up, only going on with some urging. Eventually, I'd said all I could say on the matter."Do you still like him?" Sebastian asked. I shook my head, even though I was a little unsure on the topic myself. My doubt must have been visible, because Sebastian shook his head disapprovingly."Don't lie to me." I stared back at the water. "There's a side of him that I like…but he suppresses it, instead going for an abusive, attention seeking side. I can't really stand to be around him for that reason." I paused."You won't tell anyone about this, will you?" I asked. He nodded."It's not for me to share." I let out a sigh of relief, though I still felt a twinge of doubt in my stomach. I suppose I had a few trust issues of my own. However, I'd told him, I'd just have to hope he'd stay true to his word. "Now it's my turn to ask you a question," I decided."I have a right to know why my boyfriend had an assassin tracking him." He frowned. It was quite apparent that he'd wanted to keep this secret from me."You're right, you could've died. The Michaelis family have strong black market ties. We're a family of criminals, that's what we are." A look of worry crossed his face."Even knowing this, will you still stay by my side?" I had to admit, with the way Sebastian acted, it was easy to forget that he felt emotions like worry or sadness. He always seemed quite confident, smiling quite often, quick to tease. "If you don't mind, I'd really like to. I'd like to get to know you better. We don't talk much during class, and you mostly just teased me during our first swimming lesson." He smiled."True enough.""Even if it's dangerous, we'll get through it," I promised. He gave another smile. I liked his smile, I thought. "Should we return to the dorms?" I asked, standing up and loosening the bandages on my arm. The blood returned to my hand, and a small amount of blood trickled from the switchblade wound."I'll grab some bandages for your hand and meet you there." He handed me my clothes and headed out. I threw on my clothes and headed back to the dorm. It was hard to navigate in the dark, but luckily, I knew my way around well enough to find the way back to the dorms. I was surprised to find that Sebastian had actually beat me back. He took my wrist and wrapped the bandages tightly around the wound before motioning that I should to bed. I wasn't really tired, or at least, that's what I thought until my head hit the pillow. I was out like a light in a heartbeat.

I awoke to Allen freaking out and Sebastian chuckling. I blinked awake to find Daniel curled up beside me in my bed. "GAH!" I yelped, shuffling to the corner of my bed. "What's going on here?""Daniel, is there something you're not telling us?" asked Sebastian to a half awake Daniel, causing Allen to fall into a fit of giggles. Daniel slowly woke up, realized where he was, and almost fell off the bed in shock."What the f-Ciel, get out of my bed!" "Dude, this is MY bed," I pointed out, before shoving him out of the bed with my foot. He took all of the sheets with him."Someone must have been sleepwalking last night," noted Sebastian, helping Daniel to his feet. Daniel shoved him away and ran into the bathroom. He must have been quite embarrassed, I thought. I guess he had it coming, for all of the comments he'd made. "Well, school today. Come on, lets get ready," Allen managed to say, recovering from the laughter at Daniel's expense. The rest of the morning went on without incident, and we all headed to homeroom. Daniel apologized profusely on the way over."It's fine, Daniel, stop apologizing. I heard a story of this happening between two girls at a sleepover," I said, trying to calm him. He hardly seemed comforted, however. Maybe that was because I was holding Sebastian's hand. We all headed to our separate homerooms, and I braced myself for a lot of insults and rude comments from our classmates.

Boy, did we get it. As soon as we stepped into the room, the students began having a field day. I heard some people murmur how unfunny the whole thing was, and I had to admit, I agreed, but perhaps that was because all of the jokes were at our expense. We ignored them and took a seat. The girl beside me glanced at my bandaged hand."What happened?" she asked. I recognized her as a girl named Fiona. She was a junior student who had seemed intrigued when she'd first seen me and Sebastian sitting together. "Just an accident in the cooking room," I answered. This wasn't an entirely a lie either. Except for saying it had been an accident."Really, now…" she seemed disbelieving. "Well, that aside, ignore what the other students say. I think you and Sebastian make a cute couple," she whispered. I blinked and gave a slight nod."Thanks," I whispered. While the insults were tossed about, Sebastian and I talked a little bit, about our grades, about school in general, about past experiences. This was when I found out just who Grell was. "He's an ex-boyfriend of mine," he explained."Very clingy, easily jealous. If you ever visit my place, you might meet him. We're still friends," Sebastian explained. He said that last part dryly, as if he didn't really want to be friends with the guy.

"Does he still like you?" I asked, thinking of Alois. He didn't answer, instead he groaned and rested his head in his hands, which I took as a yes. "Never mind." The teacher came into the room, and school began. Classes were dull as normal. Nothing happened until Saturday night, and trust me when I say that it was the last thing anyone would have expected to happen in this boring school of ours.

I awoke to blistering heat, sweat all over my body. I sat up, glancing around the room. It was empty, save for Sebastian, who was waking up as well. I could sense that something was terribly wrong. The closet door was open, and the front door was slightly ajar. I got out of bed and woke him up. I didn't even have to tell him what was on my mind as he jumped out of bed. We both ran outside. Our worries were confirmed. The dorms were on fire.

Author's note.

Hey, everyone. Soundstorm here. Sorry for the slow updates, I've had this chapter since last year and I haven't gotten around to posting it. I've been rather busy.

I haven't been working on this fanfic that much, to be completely honest. I've been writing fanfics for another series entirely. The only thing that Kuroshitsuji and this series have in common is that both have a large yaoi fan base. I doubt I'll post them, however, unless you think I should?

The series, by the way, is…um…Kingdom Hearts. *Embarrassed laughter* Kind of a big jump, even if I never write about the Disney characters (just the characters from Birth By Sleep).

Anyway, if you would like, I will get back to this story…you might need to be patient, however. I have everything in this story planned out, I just need to get the motivation back to write it.

Thanks to those who have read this story, by the way! I never expected to have so many people read something I wrote in my free time, especially my first Yaoi fic (maybe my only one, too).