There was a faint beeping, a recurring sound like that of a ticking clock or a metronome.

It was a maddening white noise.

It was the sound of a dying melody-of a flat lined beat.

How long had it been since he'd gotten used to it?

To everything?

He made his way through the white tiled corridor. It was a relatively peaceful time of day with all the in-patients taking their mid-afternoon siestas wrapped in their light cotton linens. The mute white and antiseptic smell still gave him flashes of memory but it also reminded him of something else entirely.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No-no…" he couldn't say much "you've done well…for now…" but at least he could try

He simply smirked.

He turned the corner and continued walking. The slight tapping of his leather shoes disturbed the silence like a leaf in a pond. Whispers behind closed doors, sobs behind cupped hands, subtle glances from weary doctors, each room held its own tableau- like little theaters staging their own dramas. He'd staged his own all but a few years ago.

He just couldn't remember the script.

He pushed through white double doors and nodded at the nurses in-duty at the station.

"Ciel!" The cheery blonde practically beamed at him "Dr. Sebastian?"

He once again nodded.

"Just finishing up an operation he'll be done in a little while. You could wait for him there…" The young nurse pointed to a group of clustered sofas in the glass-walled waiting room across the nurse's station. The boy thanked the other and proceeded to his usual spot on a chair right across the tropical aquarium and beside the potted money tree.

Sitting there and starring at nothing in particular he wondered how medical staff could stand such a contained environment. Visiting the hospital felt like walking into an aquarium where fishes with large white fins swam and floated through. A place where almost everything was artificial, regulated and sanitized- much like the high-tech water tank across him now.

The fish are still breathing but, in truth, they'd die without the aerator- it isn't very different from the lungs of the dying and its relationship with a respirator.

He wondered but somehow understood. Within the closed white walls of such a place no false warmth could be found. A hospital is only second in honesty to the cemetery- it's a monument to mortality- to vulnerability and, therefore, to reality.

Funny that some people are born in a hospital twice: first as an infant then as a person, humbled or embittered by the realization of life's frailty.

"Ciel" the voice cuts through his thoughts like a newly opened scalpel.

"Sebastian…" He looks up at his current guardian his eyes slightly amused but more annoyed "You're late."

"Yes, well, forgive my tardiness but I didn't expect the patient to be a bleeder…with other minor complications…"

"As a doctor shouldn't you have anticipated everything?"

"You overestimate me…" The other smirked as he shucked off his white coat "I maybe the most effective of practitioners but even I have limits."

The older man hung his coat on his arm and reached for the boy's backpack which was placed on the floor beside the chair.

The boy huffed marking the end of their conversation.

How many years has it been since he'd left that same hospital with shaky legs and an even shakier future? He'd outgrown the pastiness that clung to his porcelain skin after months of confinement but the chill beneath his skin was another thing entirely. The more his wounds healed the more the ice within him thickened until it came to glacial proportions. Now his heart sits buoyant and aloof even as the undercurrent of human condition and emotion rushed deep beneath the surface.

"I'm not sure where you want to go with this but you must know that expectations are overrated."

"Of course…"

Relationships would have been -should have been- harder to maintain at such a state but it was just like Sebastian to make something so warped and dysfunctional seem like a Fairytale Happy Ending. Not that they were in any way so romantically inclined- or able, for that matter- but he felt normal at where he was now.

A fish in a glass tank is always better than a fish out of water.

"….and of course it was entirely trivial but he still went on harping about it so in the end we were all given an assignment to go to the nearest ecological park…." He trailed off looking to the fast-changing scenery framed by his window.

"I see, so when are you planning on going?" Sebastian asked, glancing at his charge then quickly turning his attention back onto the road.

It was an unspoken language between them whenever they came home. A code only they understood and practiced.

Taking the school bag could be read as "how was your day?"

Ciel's signature sighs and huffs usually meant "fine" or occasionally meant "exhausting"

The slick black Audi pulling out of the basement parking lot of the hospital was Ciel's silent cue to start a more detailed description of his day. The boy spoke in short sentences with more ellipses than letters but he knew that it would suffice since Sebastian was well versed in his language of pauses and poker-faced expressions. Just like now, Sebastian knew that Ciel was truly annoyed and so avoided teasing him too much. His guardian had also expertly deciphered his invitation to accompany (or chaperone) him to the park without him having to even insinuate it.

It was an intricate language game that rarely required anything explicit. A sound, a look, a gesture or the absence of such would convey the message and never in a roundabout way. They were both politely frank individuals but messages between them were sent directly and with some subtle power that may have made these sentiments seem intrusive if ever written or spoken.

"This coming Saturday, probably." (Can you come with me then?)

"Well then, I'll exchange shifts with William"

Ciel's mouth pulled upward slightly "why not ask Grell…"

Sebastian frowned slightly but reached up to pat the boy's head. "He's busy it'd be impolite to intrude." (stop teasing me, little one)

This earned an annoyed huff from Ciel.

He was far from little at the age of thirteen- although he was small compared to his other classmates. But that was relative- and as long as he was taller than a six year old he would remain far from "little".

Sebastian hated gaming consoles.

Out of all the advancements and inventions that came with the turn of the millennia he hated them the most. Sometimes he thought it was really too bad he chose to be a surgeon because if he were a pediatric neurologist or psychiatrist he would have been qualified to conduct researches to phase out those horrible contraptions.

"Really, Ciel, keeping the food waiting is never done in good form…" The raven sighed taking the PSP from the boy's button-mashing fingers.

The clear sapphire eyes that shot him icy daggers were anything but yielding as the boy raised himself from the couch.

"Well, taking what is not yours is hardly a show of good breeding either." The boy bit out.

Sebastian only chuckled and tsk-ed at the sharp comment as he led the way to the dining table. He knew he was, in some way, spoiling the child but his charge could hardly be called that. Ciel's disposition was that of the most apathetic and shrewdest of adults- he only acted the part of a growing adolescent whenever the situation called for it or if it was for his advantage.

Who knew perdition was such an effective balm against the pains of growing up? Well, as they say, if your finger hurts burn your hand. A much greater pain succeeds the throb in urgency and the body responds to it first. Ciel's psyche probably put his losses at the forefront burying the tumult caused by hormones behind it.

"Now, now, have a seat and relax- a growing boy shouldn't be skipping meals- although you might have stunted your growth by staying up so late already."

"Oh please, I'm thirteen- and I stay up late for a purpose-"

"Oh yes, to finish Persona 3, how noble- beats curing cancer."

The boy harumped and sat down to his perfectly cooked meal.

Was it so bad that he wanted to finish the damn game? His grades weren't dropping and he wasn't neglecting his violin lessons- can't he at least enjoy a few hours of going round and round endless corridors?

"Not if you're compromising your health- if I couldn't care for one such as you what kind of doctor would I be?" Sebastian spoke without even lifting his eyes from the meat he was dicing- gracefully, mind you.

Ciel looked across the table and popped a chunk of carrot into his mouth. (Damn You)

He visited the manor house on a regular basis. It was rule he had set for himself a month and a half after he was released from the hospital and to Sebastian's care. As was expected, the doctor had made no comment on his expressed desire and had yielded without argument. The raven knew he had his own way of thinking and understood it to some extent.

"The scars you are left with- keep them…." Was what the gesture meant.

The other adults around him weren't as sufferable. When the news came that he would return to the country to visit his old home uproar came from all his extended relatives. Calls came from all quarters, some for him others for Sebastian, some scolding and others downright threatening. When Elizabeth called crying- telling him it was really too soon and that he really didn't have to force himself on anything he knew he had to put his foot down.

As the only direct descendant to the old Earldom, on which his family thrived on for the past two centuries, he had the power to enforce his wishes-given that they were either on good counsel or on personal matters. His current predicament satisfied both and so with Sebastian's help and medical consent he issued a standing statement that what he did with the manor was very much his own business and that no one, with the exception of his legal guardian- Dr. Sebastian Michaelis, could say otherwise.

The prying and squabbling on the subject was annoying and uncalled for and so it was left unheeded.

"Tanaka" the boy smiled at the elderly butler as he entered the large heavy double door. The old man bowed to him and greeted his current guardian.

The Phantomhive Estate was a large property nestled in the middle of the light and sloping lines of the English country. It consisted of a manor house, hunting grounds, picnic grounds and a small private lake where most of the relatives came to visit during sweltering summer days.

The manor was a large looming building made in Victorian style placed at the front of the Estate nearest the old cobble stone road. It was fronted by the traditional fifty-meter gravel-filled driveway where their ancestors used to have carriages ride up on. A front porch with an extended roof served as a drop off point the passengers and as a reception area where guests are sorted out and greeted. The building's façade was a mix of the practical and the intricate, as was the culture and style of the buildings built during Queen Victoria's reign. It was well-made and, as the years have shown, enduring.

It was a testament to the Phantomhive name and legacy- something that the proud boy knew he would keep no matter how heavy the burden or great the strain on his young shoulders. It was not the sentiment or memory of his parents that gave him this goal nor was it the greatness of his family's former legacy but more of his own egoism. The family and toy company had definitely suffered a blow when his father, it's head, had died and he had no doubt half of the mourners that came to the funeral were secretly delighted by the fact that a chief competitor in the toy-making industry was now crippled by such a great loss.

He wanted to scoff at that.

He wanted to show those bungling spineless men how wrong they were. He would carry on the company and rebuild it from the background. He would not let it fall nor pass it on to anyone else- he would protect it and show all those who had felt sorry or belittled him as competition that they had made a grave mistake in leaving a child to run a toy company.

"The papers have come?" He asked the old man with an amiable tone rarely used.

"Yes, Young Master I've placed them at the study for you and Dr. Sebastian to look over."

"Thank you."

Sebastian had always been with him whenever he visited. The doctor knew of his views and of what he wanted to do- he never expressed any opinion of it but continuously helped him. Truthfully, "help" was an understatement Sebastian enabled him. The raven really was more knowledgeable in other things than he liked to let on. He advised Ciel whenever he was held at a tight spot and silently allowed him to decide and work on his own. His guardian, he felt, was tending him as he would a flower. Treating him to the proper amount of space, nutrition, warmth and isolation he needed to grow but in turn Sebastian asked that he be allowed to see how he bloomed and, finally, own whatever flower he turned out to be.

Ciel was no idiot. He knew everything had a price and that nothing ever came for free. He took Sebastian's care and service with greed because he knew he would freely give compensation for it.

The day was crisp and the sunlight filtered through the opened French windows.

"This wouldn't improve your family's fondness of you…" the older man remarked as he went over the legal papers set before him.

"Do I seem like the type to care?" the boy asked with an air of apparent indifference.

"You never did." A smirk formed on his guardian's lips.

"Let's finish this now we still have to drive to the eco park to take pictures."

"Whatever pleases you."

No one could describe the great chaos that ensued after the whole Phantomhive Estate and the larger shared of Fun Tom Toy Company was transferred over to the butler until the sole heir was of proper age. It seemed that the will had finally been assessed and that Ciel Phantomhive's parents left nothing but minor properties to their other well-to-do but extremely useless relations. This brought on a sort of legal pandemonium on the family and many loop holes had been put forward but it seemed that the will had been defended and uncontestable on every occasion.

The news hit the news papers but it was written in such a boring way that the doctor had to smile when he finished the article. Very few knew that it really wasn't the butler that had been pulling strings to consolidate the wishes of the dead couple through the will but their teenage son, Ciel.

Sebastian smiled.

The little doll he had seen broken and seemingly beyond repair had been renewed.

The cracked porcelain had fallen off to reveal an ethereal resin beneath.

His attraction to the boy that he saw that fateful night had grown in the same proportion- from a curious fascination to a tantalizing addiction.

He would continue to care for his charge and watch the events the boy had set to motion from here.

As ready as you are, Ciel…

Author's note: I'm soo sorry it took forever to churn this out but I've been in a state of limbo about continuing it in the first place. I'll try better at updating since I've finally decided to get on with it in, light of certain events (I've finally gathered enough facts on hospital life- sort off). Thank you for those who waited and I'm very sorry for the annoyance and inconvinience! :(

Though I am a lazy bastard please review! Because they really help push me write and improve my writing :D