Alois wasn't sure what he wanted to say so he focused on the window as they made their way to school. Hannah wasn't feeling well again that day and Alois almost wished he'd stayed back at home as well. He may have lost his fever but that didn't mean that he was feeling a hundred percent right again. For one thing he felt rather… numb about a number of things and for another…

"Are you okay Al?" Luka called from the front seat. Whenever Hannah was away, Luka insisted on sitting up front because without a caring adult in the area the twins usually talked about a plethora of things that Luka honestly didn't want to hear.

This morning though there was silence, and it was one of the reasons why the ginger head fought with his seatbelt to get a look at his brothers.

One was sleeping, or Jim would say he was resting his eyes while the other was brooding.

'Of course he's sleeping.' Alois thought in a tone that surprised himself. He didn't know why he was being so bitter about seeing blue-it-all in his brother's room in the middle of the night but there you go. He didn't know if it was because his twin was cavorting with a person he so despised or that Jim was hiding it from him.

Alois felt hurt. Jim was his brother, twin, and best friend. They'd never hidden anything from the other. Alois snuck a few cookies from the kitchen, Jim knew first (and would often get the first bite). Alois had a nightmare, Jim knew first. Alois first found out he fancied blokes and not birds, Jim knew first. Alois kissed the guy he fancied, Jim knew first. Alois threw a jealous-tantrum and sucker punched the boy's girlfriend (who he hadn't known about), Jim's knew first.

Now… now his brother was having midnight clandestine meetings with the blue-eyed-blue-haired-blueberry-cheesecake-eating-know-it-all-that-probably-idolizes-cookie-monster-for-being-so-blue guy that had Alois hair curling on ends and his blood pressure soaring through the roofs.

Impulsively, Alois turned in his seat and smacked Jim not too lightly. The other blonde jumped to awareness, his throbbing shoulder pulsing as his mind tried to fully wake up. He stared blearily at his brother, the only other person in the car within reaching distance and raised an eyebrow.

Alois said nothing, turned away but grumbled under his breath. "You should tell me these things. I tell you."

Jim, who hadn't been having a very good morning, turned away as well and left Alois to stew. Something in him was telling him right then and there to just ask Alois what was wrong and to get whatever it was over and done with but he was tired, groggy, and if Alois was going to act like a drama queen then Jim would let him.

The three brothers separated once they were at school, both older blondes assuring their little brother that everything was fine and that he should enjoy school. The whole Mallory-triplets issue had been forgotten, or so it seemed. Alois knew he had to talk to Luka about being involved with a senior (especially since his little brother was still a freshman- Jim and Alois could date whoever they wanted because they were sixteen, Luka was fourteen and Timber was eighteen. That was a four year difference).

Alois fell in line as the flag ceremony got started, he sang the national anthem, recited all the bloody oaths and pledges, even gave a bit of effort into the required daily exercise but remained otherwise contained in his thoughts. What exactly he was thinking of, well, a few were that the sun was too bloody bright that day and it was pissing him off, his chair was too bloody hard and it was pissing him off, his bloody brother was keeping secrets from him and it was pissing him off, aaaaanddd his brother's secret was staring at him and it was pissing him off.

"Do you want something?" He hissed once Ms. Shrewsbury's back was turned to them as she wrote whatever their lesson was supposed to be on the black board.

The bluenette stared at him, whether it was because he was caught staring or he wasn't bothered by said fact Alois didn't know. He met the blonde's glare with a completely nonplussed look that pissed Alois even more.

"Well?" He doubled when Ciel had yet to say anything.

"You're angry." The Phantomhive boy said.

Alois stared for a moment, his glare leaving his face before he looked at Ciel with complete sarcastic amusement. "You noticed?"

"… Yes."

"How bloody kind of you." Alois snapped. He felt kind of sorry for the kid sitting in between Ciel and him. It had been decided that Ciel didn't want Alois' seat but would like a seat closer to the front all the same, just not his as if there was something wrong with his seat. That pissed Alois off too.

"Would you… like to talk about it?" Ciel asked and like a switch had been turned Alois stood up, the pencil in his hand breaking in half (ow!) and his glare burning into Ciel's face.

"You know what? Yes I would like- no- love to talk about it." Alois drawled vehemently. Many heads had turned their way now as Alois did not fancy lowering his voice. All his attention was on Ciel, who remained unmoving. "Why don't we start with the fact that I saw you in my brother's room last night? Just what exactly where you doing there huh? You make a very good Romeo only I'm sure he didn't watch Juliet sleep! Or should I just call you Edward and be done with it? Do you sparkle in the sun too?"

Ciel stood then, moving around the flustered boy in between them (who basically heard everything not saying that the rest of the class didn't) and grabbed Alois' arm. He made to walk towards the door but Alois was being stubborn and did not budge. He dug his heels into the tiled floor because for some reason Ciel was strong.

"L-Let go of me!" He hissed, slamming one hand on his desk for more leverage. That particular noise had Ms. Shrewsbury turning around to face them and upon seeing the Phantomhive boy attempting to drag Trancy simply turned her head to the side and sighed.

"Take it out in the hall please." She told them shakily then fixing the class a frosty stare. "The rest of you, eyes on the board. I expect your notes on my desk by the end of the class."

There were groans all around but Alois didn't chime in as he still fought against Ciel's pull on him. He actually skid forward a bit before he decided he loved his black shoes too much (they were brand new!) to lose them this way. With much protest he was dragged out into the hall where much to his surprise Ciel let him go right away.

He rubbed at his now sore arm because honestly Ciel had a good grip but glared heatedly at the bluenette who was looking at him with a mildly concerned face.

"I didn't know you saw us." Ciel said after a beat.

Alois shook his head in disbelief. Of all the things to say… "I pride myself for my well invested ninja skills."

"So you have a habit of checking on your brother in the middle of the night?"

"No." Alois snapped. "If you must know I felt horrible last night and needed a bit of comfort. Usually Jim senses stuff like that but he wasn't with me so I went to see if he was feeling bad too. Of course imagine my surprise when he had a new comforter of his own."

"You were feeling bad?" Ciel took a step towards him and grabbed his arm again, not the one from before, and held him steady. He stared at him and Alois couldn't help the rushing flush that crept up his neck and into his face. He'd seen that look on Ciel before… he was giving it to Jim just last night.

"What's it to you Phantomhive? Aren't you after Jim?" Alois huffed, his cheeks now very much resembling a very selfish chipmunk before he felt the grip on his arm tightening. He shook his arm. "Let go of me."

"No." Ciel said stubbornly keeping his hold. "What you saw last night… Alois that was nothing."

"Right." Alois huffed.

"I'm trying to explain here." Ciel told the blonde.

Alois struggled even more, trying to use his other hand to loosen Ciel's fingers. He huffed when they wouldn't budge. "I don't want your explanation."

"Maybe but you need it." Ciel smirked when Alois froze in front of him. The blonde raised his head and stared at him with wide blue eyes. "You can't understand why Jim and I would be together in the night and you need to know because you're confused and it's making you frustrated."

"Shut up." Alois mumbled. He looked away from Ciel and abandoned the idea of escaping from the bluenette's hold. "It's like you're in my head… stop it."

"I'm calling it as I see it." Ciel said and his grip loosened to the point where Alois could rip his arm out and walk away from him.

Alois noticed and raised an eyebrow at Ciel. "Not afraid I'm gonna try to leave?"

"I trust you." Ciel smiled.

Alois stopped moving again… why… well… uh…

'I trust you.'

Aaanndddddd

Ciel smiled.

Ciel hadn't realized that Alois had seen him. His and Jim's souls were like one in the same, it was so hard to tell the difference between the two and last night he had been… well the best way to describe it he had been high. Intoxicated over AJ's soul. It was… the flavor had been overwhelming and maybe that was because AJ had developed feelings for Ciel and it made the soul richer in terms of taste.

It was something that most 'masters' didn't know. The closer to a demon that you were, the more delicious a soul was in general. Some have certain preferences to the souls they devoured like that bastard Claude seemed to like his. What was it with his soul that had demons going batshit crazy back in the 1800s? Honestly, it was like he was a plate of pancakes- a plate of pancakes drowning in maple syrup and placed in front of a bunch of hungry Canadians or something.

Claude had been an idiot though. With how much Alois felt for him, whether or not it had been genuine, it would still have made Alois' soul to die for. It could sound a little unsavory to hear that Alois' soul was in fact tainted. But it was tainted in only the best of ways. The pain he'd gone through, how he'd taken advantage of the hand that life had dealt to him. He hadn't decided to keel over and die. He used what he had to his advantage. He made an effort into being alive.

It was that part of AJ that had Ciel running around England this morning, to work off the high he had gotten. In truth he was feeling a little high right now. Baaad.

Right now he stared at Alois who had gone silent and he took the moment to his advantage and tried to get a feel of his soul. Just how much was the reincarnation and how much was still AJ. This soul was less enticing, not to say that that was a bad thing. The up side was that Ciel didn't feel like sucking Alois' soul out and it pretty much meant that whatever part of AJ's soul that was in Alois was dormant.

That was good.

"Alois." Ciel waited for the blonde to look up at him, and he couldn't help but smile even more at the flustered expression on his face. The rogue cheeks were an added bonus and he could spend all day just looking at him no matter how sappy that just sounded.

Of course he had a lot to say now, like how he didn't fancy Jim (even if he had technically kissed him- but it didn't count because he was soul sucking and those weren't kisses!) and how he would like to court him when he saw a lot of blonde…

"Shouldn't you be in class?" The voice was a soothing low and incredibly familiar. Ciel couldn't help but feel a sense of de ja vu. He'd never heard that voice tell that to him but he had heard that voice somewhere before.

Alois seemed to think the same thing and he spun away from Ciel and took off towards the newcomer, wrapping his arms around her and laughing in absolute delight. "Axelle!"

Ciel stared at this Axelle and couldn't help but just plainly gawk. It was like looking at Alois with long hair. In fact, should he go back to the eighteen hundreds when he'd first met the blonde he would only have to pull the pigtails off and viola~!

Axelle wasn't even looking at him, she was hugging Alois back.

Ciel had a feeling that he somehow knew where this was going...

"What are you doing here?" Alois cried when he pulled away from the hug.

…after all the Trancy's were known for being caring and loving…

Axelle beamed at him. "Can't I come and visit my own brother at school?"

… adoptive parents.

Jim's bad mood had alleviated a bit as he met up with his siblings in the cafeteria, and when he said siblings, he meant siblings. Both his sisters had showed up at school and he had been super surprised to see Devon of all people outside his door waiting for him as his class finished.

Devon was the eldest at the age of twenty three. She was taken in by the Trancy's when she was eighteen and ready to go into college. By that time Alois and Jim were twelve and just starting middle school. It had taken a while to adjust to a new sibling but it worked anyways.

Axelle, twenty years old, on the other hand was with the Trancy's before Alois, Jim, or even Luka showed up. She'd been the first adoptive child and had been quite… spoiled. She had resented the fact that she was no longer the lone Trancy and had even bullied the twins before Jim grew bolder and Alois produced the wicked tongue he now had and talked back to her. Eladine had talked to all four of them about how they would always be special to her and Mathew- father - and so they didn't need to fight and Axelle was their older sister. If they ever needed to leave the house she would be left in charge. That kept her happy at least.

At the moment they were all seated at the twin's and Luka's regular table with good old fashioned fish and chips (ordered from their favorite restaurant outside) and catching up and talking. Luka had taken the table and explained what he'd done in class and told his sisters about Timber.

"Our Luka's growing up!" Devon chuckled and ruffled Luka's copper hair. He smiled happily at that but let her do as she pleased. His hair didn't matter much to him anyways, he was just glad that his big sisters weren't reacting the same way his brothers did. That would be a nightmare, ugh.

Axelle wiggled her eyebrows at the eldest Trancy and pointed at Alois. "What about him then? I saw him getting quite cozy with some pretty good looking bloke outside of his classroom when I picked him up."

"Oh?" Devon hummed and smirked. She fixed Alois with a knowing look. "Do share little brother. Is this boyfriend number sixty-six?"

Jim let his sisters have their fun but he too wanted to know who this new man was. Alois was chewing on his fish and he was deliberately putting off swallowing. He was sure what food was in his mouth could be feed to baby birds before he gulped it down followed by some juice. His siblings were still waiting and he rolled his eyes, sagging against his chair.

"He's not my boyfriend."

"He isn't?" Axelle hummed and turned to Jim. "Blue hair. Blue eyes. Shorter than Al over here and by the looks of it is most probably in his class."

Jim's eyebrow raised and he turned to Alois. "Ciel Phantomhive?"

"Such a fancy name." Devon cheered from where she was sipping her juice. She was done eating or so it seemed. She played with what was still on her plate.

"Perfect for our Alois over here." Axelle agreed nearly vibrating in my place in joy. She had seen this Ciel after all and he was talk dark and handsome… minus the tall part. He had that mysterious vibe around him which she knew Alois liked.

"I told you," Alois muttered slowly so that his siblings would understand. They were fairly smart (seeing as one of them was working her way to becoming a doctor) so he was sure they would get it at some point. "He. Is not. My boyfriend."

"He's getting worked up." Devon commented idly and she flicked her fork away, her attention all on Jim. "Tell me about this Ciel Phantomhive."

Jim, never one to refuse his siblings, started talking right away. After all it was three against one (Luka being the neutral party who would go tell Mum when everything went loco). "New transfer just a few days ago… we're leaning on a full week. Everybody wants to know where he's from, what he's doing because Phantomhive is a pretty big name. They manage Funtom."

"Oh I love their cakes! We had one ordered to celebrate finishing the movie and I kissed my pants size goodbye after the first bite!" Axelle piped up, staring down at her stomach. She then turned to Alois, smirking. "If you and he get together I call he handle the wedding cake! Make it big with twelve tiers or something ridiculous like that!"

"What?" Alois, who had been trying to ignore his siblings because he knew no matter what he did would make them shut up now that they had Jim on their side, choked on his chips and glared at Axelle. "Who said anything about a wedding? Funtom produces toys you dimwit! And I hate the guy- tell them Jimmy!"

"He does." Jim nodded solemnly. "I don't know why but ever since day one he just does."

Alois threw him a look that Jim ignored. He would talk with his twin later, especially for that punch he had received that morning for no reason whatsoever. He was not a punching bag ready for Alois to throttle when he felt like it. No.

Devon didn't miss a beat though and shrugged her shoulders. Her pigtails (which is odd because whoever saw a grown-woman at her age studying in medical school of all people wearing their hair in pigtails?) were tossed over her shoulder to fall down her back. "Ever heard of opposites attract?"

"Yeah," Axelle chuckled and kicked Alois (successfully) under the table. "And Funtom produces sweets too so you're the dimwit."

Alois said nothing as he fought the urge to nurse his injured leg. First his arm earlier with Ciel and now his leg with his siblings. Was today hurt-Alois day or something? He should be informed about these things, after all he's the one who'd be sporting bruises the next day. Life was so unfair.

"Did you both just come here to gang up on me?" He grumbled.

Devon shook her head. "Axelle over here has some big news."

"Which I won't say anything about until Mom and Dad are here too." Axelle tapped her index finger to her lips and beamed. "It's good news though, so no worries."

"That's not fair!" Luka piped up for the first time. His was the only plate completely clean and Devon had swapped theirs so he could eat her chips too since they all knew how much Luka loved fish and chips. "How come Devon knows but we don't?"

"I don't know either." Devon stuck her tongue out.

"Aren't you too old for that?" Alois asked, still grumpy.

The eldest blonde repeated the action but towards him. "Growing old is inevitable but growing up is an option. I say nay to being a kill joy!"

"Yay!" Luka cheered.

"You stole that from somewhere." Jim muttered as he pointed his fork at her.

"Sue me." Devon shrugged her shoulders in such a manner that it made her siblings laugh.

Axelle rolled her eyes. "This is why you're single."

"I'm twenty-three." Devon answered. "I have all the time in the world to get married and have kids."

"Right." Axelle nodded, her eyes staring at the table. She cleared her throat and she looked up at her brothers. "Tell them about the guy you saw on your way home Devy, come on."

"What happened?" Jim asked, abandoning his plate for sure now. He was talking too much to be eating. He passed said plate to Luka who was happily chewing on his chips.

"Well," Devon cleared her throat. "I was finishing up at the hospital after my shift and was talking to Axelle on the phone- it's the only reason she knows about what happened- when this guy runs past me, bumps into me, and keeps running away. I thought he'd been rude and I wanted to scold him for running in a hospital you know but security got to him before I did and he kept saying stuff about a guy in a butler suit chasing after him."

"Butler suit?" Alois asked. "Why would a… butler be chasing after him?"

"No clue." Devon sighed. "Nobody saw the supposed butler though and we just thought maybe there was something mentally wrong with him. A few loose bolts here and there. He kept looking around and jumping at the smallest things. I had to stay back an hour because they asked me to sedate him and get him into psyche. I don't know what happened but I when I went to sign out somebody called the code and he just… died."

"Seriously?" Jim asked. "He just, like, died?"

"Well I didn't exactly see it happen." Devon muttered angrily. "And I'm not making this up."

"Why is it bothering you then?" Alois laid his head onto his crossed arms on the table. He'd also pushed his plate away but far from Luka because he was eating too much at the moment. "He died. Wasn't your fault."

"Yeah but he was…" Devon worried on her bottom lip for a moment. "Look there was nothing wrong with the man. He was healthy as far as our tests could tell. He was just a couple of bolts loose!"

"So you're wondering why he died." Jim concluded.

Axelle joined the conversation as she looked at her phone (which she had pulled out a few moments ago), her fingers flew across the keys, her eyes glued to the screen. "She's been obsessed with it. It's getting pretty irritating."

"Hey!" Devon protested. "It's just so bizarre! I study medicine and I try to save people's lives then this one guy comes into the hospital and dies a healthy man."

"You don't think he suffocated himself or something?" Jim tried, he knew what it felt to be frustrated because a common trait all five siblings had was their hatred for not knowing.

Alois sympathized as well and nodded his head. "Yeah, maybe he committed suicide?"

"He didn't." Devon said, completely sure of herself. "We would have been able to tell!"

The siblings mulled over this in silence until Luka quietly and politely asked if they could talk about something else because this was scaring him.

"Oh, sorry Lue." Devon ruffled Luka's hair and the tense, sullen, and somewhat thoughtful mood around the table lifted a bit as they got onto lighter subjects, such as Axelle's big news.

"Just tell us already!" Alois cried.

"Nu uh." Axelle mimed zipping her lips, locking them up, and throwing away the key.

Alois rolled his eyes but Jim gasped theatrically and grabbed at something in the air before miming unlocking his sister's lips with a smug smirk on his face.

Axelle scowled at them. "Still not telling brats."

"You suck!"

AN: How about that then? I'm gonna be honest with you this chapter was hard but at the same time fun to write! Axelle and Devon weren't meant to show up here, they were supposed to be introduced in this new fic I'm thinking of writing but somehow they were incorporated into this story.

This chapter we had Ciel and Alois talk and a lot of secrets being kept between the brothers. We'll get to that soon. Remember Jim and Alois still have to talk and Alois and Ciel still have to talk too. To be honest I wanted to postpone those talks, they're gonna have to be good. Idk, lol.

Anyways, I'd already posted something similar when I updated MFY but I noticed that a lot of my readers are from the Philippines (second biggest base) so I have to ask did anyone at all attend the Ozine Fest last friday? I was there *waves~!* and I saw Ciel, fem!Ciel, Alois, and Sebastian XD I was so psyched! Second day was filled with Hetalia characters but I sadly did not attend. There's also this Hetalia group I just became a part of and I saw their pictures. I died. There was Spamano fanservice. I've learned my lesson though, during the upcoming Cosmania I'm going all two days *nods*

Much thanks to Sevarous, ashira23, Guest, Alicee, Guest, kari bezarius 13, blueangelbabe

You know I don't know how you're going to react to this so I'll say it right here and now that I don't plan on Devon and Axelle being major parts of this story. They're just here for now, fillers unless they manage to flow themselves into my writing.

Thoughts thoughts? :D