Chapter 2: The Grounds

Allen had maybe ten minutes to clean himself up, and partially help Bard clean up the kitchen, from the messy explosion. He could be found reaching up to place a bottle of cayenne pepper seeds on a rather high up shelf, standing on his tiptoes, when Sebastian came in. Allen's eye, though he hardly noticed, acknowledged the demon butler's entrance by causing the throbbing in his eye to increase. Now it went from a bothersome ache to an almost painful pounding. He reacted by pausing, going back down to the flats of his feet and blinking a few times, bringing his white-gloved hand up to his eye.

His mental realization of Sebastian was when he pulled the bottle of spices out of Allen's hand, setting it easily upon the shelf that Allen had struggled to reach earlier. Allen jumped. He'd never heard the butler coming, and that was something coming from Allen. "Uwah!" He let out a short shout of surprise, backing away with one hand clutching his heart. "Don't scare me like that." He said, panting slightly. The butler only smiled politely.

"Please, follow me for your next job." Sebastian said before turning and leaving the disheveled kitchen behind. Allen, looking around, nodded his head in a quick apology. "I'll be back to help later." He offered, before following Sebastian at a brisk pace. He continued to marvel at the elegancy of the entire place, and had only realized where they'd gone when Sebastian stopped, leading motioning Allen outside to the gardens where a young blonde boy was pruning the hedges. Not very successfully though.

The leaves were trimmed unevenly, littering the grounds where they'd failed to have been picked up. Random branches poked out from here and there in even the hedges that were supposedly already 'trimmed', if it could be called that. "You will help Finnian get the grounds in order." He said, gesturing out to the boy, a straw gardening hat on his back.

Upon hearing his name, Finnian turned around, seeing Sebastian and a young boy with white hair. "Oh, hello Sebastian," He said with a friendly smile, giving a wave to the black butler and the white-haired youth. "Who is he?" He asked, sending a curious look towards Allen.

"This," Sebastian said, giving Allen a gentle nudge forward, "Is a possible newcomer to our mansion's staff. His name is Allen Walker. He'll assist you in cleaning up the grounds today." With that said, the butler promptly turned and reentered the building, leaving the two new acquaintances to their own devices.

"Finnian? That was your name right?" Allen asked, approaching the blonde youth who seemed to be around the same age as him, offering him a hand.

"Call me Finnie!" The blonde said excitedly, taking Allen's hand and shaking it vigorously, the other one being occupied by a rather large pair of shears, which he was currently using to clip the hedges to perfection… If that was what you could call the half decent disarray.

"Alright," Allen replied, smiling, "Finnie it is. So, is there anything you'd like me to do?"

Finnie paused, his round, green eyes wide as he thought. "Oh gosh," He said, "I've never had anyone to give orders to before…" And after a few more moment's contemplation, he snapped his fingers, surprised expression gone, "I know! Could you pick up all the clippings while I trim the bushes?" Allen nodded. "Great!" Finnie exclaimed, and set back to trying to tame the unruly bushes. Allen began to collect the stray leaves and branches, to the last tiny leaf. The success of his mission depended on him getting the job, he wanted to impress them.

All went well for about ten minutes. Then, all of a sudden, the earths seemed to shake. Some of the branches slipped out of Allen's grasp, and he swayed on his feet. "What is this, an earthquake?" He asked loudly above the pounding and shaking, which was growing louder, stronger, and nearer. Finnie stopped clipping the bushes, seeming only then to notice the earth shaking. "Oh, no," He said brightly, "That's just Plu-Plu." He said smiling and returning to his work.

Plu-Plu? What in the world? Allen's unasked question was answered when a giant silver wolf-thing came bounding over the horizon, giant muzzle open, showing giant teeth, with a giant pink tongue lolling out happily. A bead of sweat rolled down Allen's face. Everything about this dog was giant, and not exactly natural. Its huge tail whipped side to side destructively, breaking branches off of trees, smashing hedges to the ground and causing all out destruction. It only stopped its rampage when Finnie reached out and grabbed it by the snout, pulling it seemingly effortlessly off the ground. He swung the dog in an arc over his head to land on its back on the other side of the blonde, who was obviously stronger than he looked.

"Oh, that Plu-Plu." Allen said meekly, surprised by Finnie's strength, and the dog's size. He paled a bit.

Finnie glanced back at Allen, and laughed lightly at the expression on Allen's face. "Don't worry, he wont hurt you, come on!" Finnie waved him over, and Allen approached, somewhat reluctantly. He placed a careful hand on the dog's belly. When he failed to lose any limbs, he began to rub the dog's belly. This was met with a deafening thankful bark, and Plu-Plu's foot began to kick, sadly flattening the hedges even more.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the dog leapt up, and Allen found himself pinned to the ground by paws the size of car tires, and being drenched in giant dog saliva. Allen couldn't help but laugh at the tickling sensation of the large tongue rasping his cheek, and he scratched under the dog's furry chin. Once more, Allen was taken aback as most of the weight disappeared, and instead of a monster-sized dog, he was underneath a man who had silver hair, red eyes, and was completely nude. "What in the-?" Allen exclaimed, shock causing him to shove the man off him and scramble back.

"Oh, sorry," Finnie said, grinning sheepishly, "He does that when he gets excited.

Sebastian chose that unlucky moment to come check on Allen and Finnie. He disapprovingly scanned the destroyed lawn. Though it wasn't as bad as it had been sometimes before, it certainly wasn't ready for any guests. Thank God that none were coming over that day. Then his eyes locked on two silver haired beings. Plu-Plu and Allen. Sebastian tsk'd reproachfully, picked Plu-Plu up by the collar as if he were a regular puppy and not a nude man, and turned, heading back to the house. "While I deal with the family pet," he said softly, but Allen could tell that there was annoyance beneath the calm guise, "You just try not to ruin anything else. I'll be back in a moment for your next assignment."

A/N: Hullo there! This took a while… I had writers block for quite a bit. But because I heard the first volume of Kuroshitsuji comes out in English on Jan. 10th, I got inspired again, started watching the anime again(though I think the manga's much better, but meh). That pulled me outta my slump. So sorry this took so long. I hope its not too horrible or anything. We'll get into exciting stuff soon, I promise. As a little sneak peek or something, it'll be a bit of a duel between Sebas-chan and Allen. After all, none of the Phantomhive servants can be only good at normal things. They have to be exceptional. Review, it makes me want to write more, faster.