A/N: Short chapter is short. Good news is next chapter is planned out to be much longer and I've finally worked out the event kinks between this chapter and the ending chapters- sadly there will be more than enough angst, drama, a plethora of fluff, oh and a very lovely smut scene.

Warning(s): Ciel is slightly OOC here though I tried my best to keep him IC and plenty of Angela ('nough said).

Chapter Twelve

Angela Phantomhive had always been someone who carried herself in a way that demanded the room's attention. Rumors said it was that charming air about her, but Ciel, well Ciel knew better than that. She was about as charming as a snake. Angela's true nature was to be threatening and on some subconscious level everyone felt it. Her cutting lavender gaze was void of any mercy- a secret promise to carry out any threat that spilled from her full lips- and she had the power do so. Ciel had seen it first hand on many occasions, the way she manipulated her connections to bring harm to others. Angela was exactly the type of person his father had loathed, but the man had been blind to that side of her.

All the pervious built up heat lurking in his body from the kiss sizzled out as he met her narrowed gaze. There was a very thin veil hiding the disgust on her face, but the fact that she was trying to cover it was perhaps more frightening than if she had just been open with it. It meant she was plotting something and from experience he knew it would never spell good things for him.

Sebastian's hand moved to squeeze his shoulder and it was only then that Ciel realized how he'd stiffened up. Forcing himself to take a clam breath, the teen forced his body to ease up- but not relax. He wanted to be prepared should some unfortunate 'accident' occur again; he would always be on his guard around her.

"We need to talk," Angela spoke evenly, shooting a glare at Sebastian. "Alone."

She didn't need to say it twice.

"Sebastian, leave please." Ciel kept his gaze away from those scarlet eyes the entire time he spoke. He felt them bearing down on him, but he couldn't look into them. He couldn't see whatever emotions were there.

"Ciel-."

"Now, Sebastian," Ciel snapped in a stern voice that invited no protest.

"Very well."

Each sound Sebastian's retreating footsteps made sent a stab to Ciel's gut, right up until the finale blow of the door slamming shut behind the older male. The entire time, the teen forced himself not to look up. The young male didn't want to burn the image of the older's retreating form into his mind, he didn't want that to be the last image he had of the man. Because there was no way it wouldn't be the last. If Angela didn't do the job, Ciel had certainly made that certain by sending him away in such a manner with no explanation. He wouldn't be surprised if Sebastian didn't want to see him again- the older probably assumed he was disgusted with being caught with him.

But the truth was Ciel only wanted to protect him from Angela.

"How dare you," she hissed, stepping forward moments after the door slammed shut. "We have an agreement, Ciel. Are you trying to disobey me or have you already forgotten?"

The way she cocked her head to the side reminded Ciel of a hawk looking down at its prey. The anger in her lavender eyes was now burning furiously as she closed the last few steps between them. Ciel bowed his head to avoid staring directly into the glare, wishing himself anywhere but there.

"Answer me, filth," she ordered.

"No," Ciel responded hollowly.

Angela snapped out a hand and wretched Ciel's chin up, so that he was forced to met her gaze. "No, what?"

"No, madame."

Her eyes narrowed into silts. "Filth," she spat, dropping his chin only to deliver a slap to his cheek. Ciel didn't mutter a sound as he head snapped to the side, his cheek burning under the after effects of the impact. He didn't raise a finger to press against the pained skin, both because he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him react or for her to have a reason to deliver another blow.

As suddenly as her anger had been quick to show itself, Angela was quick to turn tender. She gentle took Ciel's face in her hands, paying special attention to the reddening skin on his cheek where the raised finger prints were just beginning to develop. Almost soothingly she ran her cool fingers over the skin, careful not to apply too much pressure, as if she were afraid of hurting him.

"You must understand, Ciel," Angela cooed. "I am only looking after your best interest. A marriage into the Middleford family would do you well. You'd be set for life with a good career and a beautiful wife."

She clearly didn't care for that, but Ciel didn't bother to point this out to her; it was something both of them understood. The only thing that Angela showed interest in was the future merger between the two companies and securing that. The marriage was just a ways of achieving that and she'd exploit Ciel to do so.

What angered Ciel about it all was that she had the power to do so. All because of his father's will, he was stuck under her power longer than he should have been. It all should have ended with his eighteenth birthday; with the dawning of that day he should have been able to walk away without ever having to feel the choking hold she had on him. He was collared like some mutt by that will, forced to be under her guardianship and influence for two more years. It didn't seem like it would be enough time for her to do damage, but it seemed Angela would always find a way to make his life hell.

"Now," she began in a soft voice, fingers slipping under the velvet of his eye patch and freezing him in place. "All I ask of you is to give that lovely girl the first date of her dreams tomorrow. If this happens everything will go perfectly. However, if tomorrow passes and I don't hear news from her parents explaining what a wonderful surprise their daughter got when you asked her out, there will be unnecessary trouble."

Ciel flinched as his eye patch was removed, left to flutter to the floor as Angela's fingers gently caressed the pale eyelid. The touch brought back unwanted memories that he forced back before they could cause him to slip into a panic attack under their influence. The action was a silent reminder of what she was capable of. It wasn't one of the worst, but it was one of the two visibly physical reminders.

Even with the present threat, the teen found himself hesitating, thoughts turning back to the unexpected kiss he and Sebastian had shared only moments before. It was impossible to try to convince himself he hadn't enjoyed the feeling of the man's lips and body pressed against his or that he hadn't wanted it. He would be lying to himself if he said he didn't want a repeat. The lingering question dancing around the edge of his mind, putting a dark edge to the otherwise pleasure filled memories, was if the older had even meant anything by it. From the beginning it had be clear Sebastian had been distressed, it was very possible that he hadn't been thinking clearly. The thought caused Ciel's chest to tighten.

It wouldn't matter what the case was, even if Sebastian did care for him, if he went with Angela's plans there would be no going back. There would be no finding out whether the kiss meant anything to the older, there wouldn't even be any contact if Angela had a say. That hurt him possible the most. Sebastian had become such a permanent fixture in his life during the past few months that the teen couldn't even imagine his life without the older in it. Call him selfish, but he wasn't ready to let him go just yet.

His sudden reluctance must have been visible in his expression, because Angela's grip tightened and her eyes turned searching. It was a struggle to keep his face masked and collected as he was forced to look directly at her prying gaze. He managed it, but just barely.

"You are hesitating," she mused, her sweet expression clashing oddly against her devious eyes. "Is it that man?"

Ciel swallowed hard against the suddenly rising lump in his throat.

Leaning closer, Angela smiled. "Is it possible that you love him?"

The blush that rose to his cheeks was inevitable, especially when that word rose in any conversation. Love? He had sworn never to love anyone, to let himself become vulnerable in such a way. There were certainly feelings there for Sebastian, but love? He didn't know.

"Oh, it's quite obvious you feel for him," Angela laughed softly, pulling away completely. "Which is why you wouldn't want to see any harm come to him."

Ciel's eyes widened in horror as he froze over complete- the breath in his lungs escaping at that one sentence. He had expected himself to get punished, but hearing her so blatantly threaten Sebastian was the equivalent to if she had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head: unexpected and harsh. Angela smiled broadly at his expression, her eyes suddenly mocking as she stood back and enjoyed his miniature panic attack.

"You wouldn't...," Ciel trailed off softly, battling the raging fear in his chest.

Angela grinned. "If you continue a relationship with that man, Ash will be having a very fun evening."

Ciel's face paled to a gray pallor, flashes of a masculine version of Angela's face flickering across his memories. They were all twisted and disturbing filled with maniacal cheshire cat smiles, sadistic glints in lavender eyes, and blood spattered skin. He made Angela look like an angel on even her worst days.

There wasn't a criminal who didn't know Ash, he was one of the best known killers in the underground world. A man who was smart enough and talented enough to always get away with whatever crime he committed. He was Angela's dark twin, her dirty hands. She used him to get rid of people or to deal out punishment, such as in Ciel's case. The man left more than just physical scars on the teen's body and it was for that very reason the idea of the two males meeting shot terror into his veins.

"So have we reach an agreement?" Angela cooed smugly, eyes dancing as she watched the horror and hopelessness wash across the boy's face. Ciel nodded mutely, too afraid to speak in case his voice cracked under the pain and fear. She smiled at the sight of obedience and patted his head sweetly. "Good boy. Here is Elizabeth's number, I should be hearing from her proud parents tomorrow night then, right?"

Once again Ciel nodded silently as he took the piece of paper from Angela's outstretched hand, his eyes blindly looking at the blur of numbers as he barely heard the click of her heels heading for the doorway.

"I'm so proud of you for making the right choice, Ciel. You're saving that man's life," Angela stated smugly, moments before the door shut behind her.

Ciel remained rooted to the spot she'd left him, numb and in denial. It took moments for him to slowly begin moving mechanically once more. First it was his right arm, then his left, followed by his left leg, and slowly his right. He bent down to grab his eye patch, clutching it along with the paper and his cell in his hands as he headed for his room. The patch found itself placed on his nightstand, the piece of paper beside it. He was about to place his cell phone on top of it, when the machine flared to life with a blinking reminder of two missed calls and their respective voice mails.

He almost didn't want to deal with whatever it was at the moment, but the possibility that they were messages left by Sebastian had him pausing. They had appeared right before the man showed up at his door, perhaps they explained what had put the man in such a distress. The reason didn't really matter now, but his curiosity was stirred awake by the idea- pushing him through the numbness.

The first was left by a very frantic Grell spouting barely understandable nonsense at the voicemail. Ciel flinched at the high pitched whine of his boss's voice, prepared to delete the message just as the male demanded for him to call back when he got the message.

The second and last was from a only slightly calmer Meyrin. Her voice babbled on worriedly, sometimes her sentences bled together to make them even harder to understand. The only intelligent words he caught out of the entire message was the repetition of Alois' name and a demand for him to call her back as soon as he got the message.

Just as he was deleting the last message, his phone buzzed to life and without thinking, he accepted the call.

"Ciel!"

Said teen pulled the phone a few inches away from his ear cringing. Waiting a moment until the other line was silent, Ciel cautious placed the phone back to his ear. "Mey?"

The girl on the other end sighed. "Thank god, you are alright. We were starting to think that you were actually kidnapped, we were."

Ciel frowned and instead of wondering why they would assume that, let his thoughts turn to think on how much better it would have been if he had been kidnapped. The idea was just beginning to sound rather pleasant when Meyrin's voice interrupted his line of thoughts.

"Grell told me to call to tell you to ignore our pervious messages," she stated cheerfully. "Alois was found at Claude's apartment. He and Claude had snuck out before their shifts ending without telling anyone, they did."

"He was found?"

Ciel could almost visualize Meyrin nodding her head as she hummed in response. "Everyone had thought he was kidnapped earlier this evening when no one could find him. The police got involved and everything. We were starting to think he'd become a victim of that new serial killer, we were."

With a sinking revelation Ciel recalled Sebastian's words right before he kissed him. He had thought it was him that had gone missing, not Alois. It suddenly made sense why he had appeared so disheveled when Ciel had opened the door to him- the investigator had been... afraid.

Numbly, the teen dropped back against the wall. Did that mean he cared for him? He had to if he had rushed over to find out if Ciel was home or not. At least in some way Sebastian cared for him and if the kiss had meant anything to the older male than that care was something more than a simple friendship. Ciel ran his fingers roughly through his cobalt locks, cursing how cruel fate was. Of course it would dangle something like this just within his reach when it knew he couldn't reach out and take it.

Angela and her threat blocked him from truly finding out.

"Ciel?"

Said teen sighed, "Yes, Mey?"

"Are you alright? You don't sound like you usually do," she commented, worry creeping into her tone. "You would usually complain about Alois being a, and these are your words not mine, 'fucking idiot', you would. Is there anything wrong?"

Ciel flinched and hung his head between his knees. No he was not alright, but he wasn't about to explain that to her. His life was complicated enough without other people knowing the ongoing private affairs. He didn't need anyone's pity and he certainly wasn't going to accept it.

"It's nothing," he remarked coldly, hanging up.

"… Absolutely nothing."