A/N: Agh. And I thought Bard was bad. Finny... is Finny. Finny was weird. But I'm satisfied now and I hope you all like it, even though it took so long. *smile*

Title: Ethereal

Author: liketolaugh

Rating: K+

Pairings: Rachel/Vincent, onesided Madam Red/Vincent, and onesided various!characters/Ciel, Ciel/Elizabeth

Genre: Oh, god, I don't know. Family/Romance?

Warnings: This could easily be counted as excessive fangirling... that wasn't my intention. Promise! Oh, and implied pedophilia, too.

Summary: The Phantomhive family was special. Undeniably human, but very, very special, and many fell victim to their Pied Pipe. Because each and every one of them was spellbinding... Ethereal, one could say...

Disclaimer: Sadly, Black Butler is not mine.

To Finny, Ciel was a wonder. The boy, a few years younger than him, was everything Finny had once dreamed of being and more.

Ciel was intelligent, clever, for one. He knew far more than Finny could imagine, and what he didn't know, he could find out or figure out.

Finny wished that he was that smart. Smart enough to learn, to perceive, to take an information vacuum and make from it a mine of things he wished he knew, needed to know.

He'd seen Ciel do that before.

Ciel had done it with him before.

Flashback

"This is the boy?"

"Yes, my lord."

The boy kept his eyes, dull and almost glazed, on the ground, barely listening as they talked about him as if he wasn't there.

"What is his name?"

He hadn't even seen the person yet, but he wasn't hopeful. Though the man had promised him he could stay, he had doubts about the man's master. From what he could hear, the master was a child; how could he possibly help S-012? Even he didn't know anything about himself, and no one could make something out of nothing.

And S-012 was definitely nothing.

"He is known as Subject 12."

"Well, that won't do." The boy sounded annoyed, more so than before. Then, to S-012, "What is your name? Surely you must have one."

S-012 shook his head mutely.

"No? Fine." The boy sounded almost dismissive here, and S-012 dared to glance up, and his breath caught, the slightest hint of light sparking in his eyes, curiosity and wonder at the fragile-looking owner of the strong voice, who gazed at him with a look that was so disdainful, and yet made him feel more human than the looks of the scientists ever had. Like he was looking at a person, instead of a thing. "If you have no name, you can be Finnian, Finny, if you wish."

"Finny?" S-012 echoed in confusion, voice hoarse, unused as it was.

"Finny, then," the boy conceded, nodding once. "Sebastian, go teach him whatever he may need to know." He tilted his head and considered S-0- Finny. Considered Finny. "Teach him to tend the garden."

"Yes, sir," the man agreed.

And Finny blinked, and looked at Ciel, who gave him a nod, and looked away.

Like he was nodding to a person, not observing an experiment.

Finny smiled.

Because he wasn't a thing anymore, and Ciel could make something out of nothing.

End Flashback

Finny had never forgotten that, never forgotten what it was like to be a thing, but he was better now, and he liked it here, and he would never be able to show his thanks enough.

Especially when he daren't voice a word, because to voice a word would be to make Ciel's face twist in discomfort, that one he made those few times when he was called out on a rare act of kindness. The one that spoke displeasure and resentment, worry and pride and frustration and embarrassment. That one.

And Ciel was another thing, something that had never even occurred to Finny. Ciel was beautiful. Not in a normal way, not beautiful like a girl, but beautiful like an angel that Finny had read about in the manor, the way he imagined they would look.

Beautiful like that.

And Finny wondered, because angels always said 'do not be afraid' when they appeared, and Finny thought that that was something that would fit Ciel, too, because the way he acted, light and perfect and graceful no matter what words dropped from his mouth, scared people sometimes.

Finny noticed that.

Finny could always tell when someone was afraid.

(Ciel was never afraid)

Flashback

Finny stared in shock and horror at the tree, broken messily in half from his frustrated push. Even Sebastian blinked, slightly surprised.

"What was that?"

Ciel had apparently deigned to venture out of his office, and Finny flinched, terrified of so much as touching the fragile boy for fear of shattering him. But Ciel ignored him, striding over, looking down at the broken tree with a slight frown, not of fear, but contemplation.

"Ah. Finny, I assume you caused this?"

It took Finny a minute to find his voice. "Yes, Young Master," he whispered.

Ciel 'hm'ed, uncaring. Uncaring. Finny flinched as Ciel reached out and took a hold of his hand, and he didn't dare try to hold it back. "Not so much as a scratch," the boy noted, seemingly to Sebastian.

"I believe his skin has been as strengthened as his muscles, my lord," Sebastian agreed, but his red eyes on Finny warned him not to harm Ciel, not that Finny would dare. Not Ciel.

Ciel, though, didn't seem concerned in the least. "Well, that certainly could come in useful." He dropped the hand, nodded to Finny, and said to Sebastian, "Ensure that this is out of sight, understand?"

Sebastian nodded as Ciel turned away again, barely glancing at the tree trunk twice as thick as him that Finny had broken by accident, and didn't give a second glance, nor a hint of fear as he left, as suddenly as he'd come.

Finny gaped, and he wondered, and he would have smiled, but Sebastian was scolding him now and Sebastian was scary when he was scolding him.

End Flashback

And so Finny would never, ever be able to let go of a single memory of Ciel. He wasn't sure it was possible, was sure that every moment anyone spent with the boy was burned into their minds, standing out in stark contrast to everything else, because Ciel was special.

Finny knew he was.

Finny knew that everyone knew he was.

And though not everyone would be able to put words to it – Finny knew he certainly couldn't – it was clear, on their faces, in their hearts, and in the awe-struck sometimes-fear, that they knew, that they felt that strangeness, that ethereality.

That they felt that singular quality that had no name, but was completely, purely Phantomhive.

A quality that demanded attention, demanded respect, and received it before they knew it.

That was what made a Phantomhive.

Yeah... Wow, this thing has gone SO far from where it started out. However, it's trailing off and so I think this is a good place to end it, with the last of the servant trio. It was fun going along here, I'm glad you've all liked it, and I bid you all adieu!