Title: Hello

Author: Akanue

Fandom: Black Butler

Rating: T

Warning(s): Mentions of underage rape.

Disclaimer: I do not own Black Butler or its characters. They belong to A-1 Pictures, Square Enix, Yana Toboso, and other licensors and distributors. This is a not-for-profit fan work.

Summary: Even now, Jim could still feel the presence of his brother, running up from behind him and hugging him happily. It was all he had left of yesterday. Alois Trancy introspective as he looks back over his life, and realizes that he has nothing left of yesterday.

Author's Note: For the original songfic with lyrics, please go to my AO3 account under the username Akanue. I appreciate all reviews and constructive criticism!

Hello

He was so happy. That was the only word he could think of to describe it. Maybe something even stronger. Ecstatic? That sounded good too. He was proud of himself. After all, his vocabulary was nowhere near that of the children of nobility.

Everyone was dead; all the villagers he'd despised his entire life. Just as he'd always wished.

What reason did they have to treat he and his brother so cruelly when they'd done nothing wrong?

But since the two boys needed to steal to survive, it made perfect sense to steal from the closest target: the villagers themselves. It was like killing two birds with one stone. Luka and him got what they needed to survive, and revenge, in one fell swoop.

And then there was that bastard who threw a stone at Luka... In Jim's mind, that was the most unforgivable sin in the world.

But then, they all died! He was looking at their dead bodies with his own two eyes. If he hadn't been, the small boy wouldn't have believed what he was seeing to be possible. As if it was all happening in a dream.

They could steal all of the villagers' belongings without any fear of consequences! They could live like kings for the rest of their lives!

"Let's steal their things, Luka!"

His little brother looked up at him and smiled the same innocent, bright smile he always had. "Okay, brother!"

"Luka? Luka?" he cried over and over again. But the other little boy wouldn't wake up.

And the cruel truth hit Jim Macken. "You're... You can't be... dead?"

He had found Luka on the far end of the village, as stone cold as the rest of the villagers. His first reaction was disbelief. There was absolutely no way in the world this was happening!

But as Jim stared down into those soulless eyes, the cold truth sank into his gut like a bullet having his its mark.

His little brother was dead. And he was alone.

"I don't want to be alone!"

The boy had no idea how long he wandered, as if between life and death, before he was picked up.

Someone called the Earl Trancy, they said. He had an interest in boys like him.

He let them take him away. It really didn't matter anymore; it wasn't as if he had anywhere else to go, or any reason to live.

He dreamed, allowing himself one last piece of childish hope. He'd overheard a couple of the other boys talking about a faerie who would grant any wish.

His first encounter with the Earl had stung him deeply, though he refused to let it show on the outside. The ugly man had taken one look at the scraggly orphan and called him dirty before striking out at the boy cruelly with his cane.

A part of him wanted to get out of this place. He had a very small amount of knowledge as to what the Earl Trancy would actually be doing to him and the other boys, and what he did know made him want to avoid it as much as possible. Still, being called dirty when all the other boys were just as scruffy and underfed as he was... It was a hard blow.

In his dream, he danced through a gorgeous, yet creepy forest, covered in spider webs. The sacred, unholy words fell from his lips as though he had been saying them his entire life: "Hoheo taralna, rondero tarel."

But nothing happened. "Stupid bedtime story..." he snorted, covering up his disappointment with irritation.

He heard something. A voice.

He shook his head slightly, wondering if he was finally going insane. Was the voice only in his head; a figment of his own imagination trying to relieve his loneliness?

No, he wasn't imagining it. Something was talking to him. But what? Was it really the faerie the other boys had been talking about?

Something about a wish? Forming a contract? Jim didn't understand all of it entirely. But the point hit home.

He truly didn't have anything to live for. There were no more "wishes."

And the creature that told him this... was a demon.

He didn't know what he wanted, and that was the most painful thing of all: Not having a reason to go on living.

So it became his purpose, because the boy knew in his heart that he could not go on like this.

He had to try. He had to be wanted. To be loved. To belong somewhere.

So he finally gave in, and allowed the Earl Trancy to... have some fun with him. While it was true that during that time, the man's eyes were on him and him alone, it wasn't love. It was a disgusting lust, pure and simple. And the boy couldn't stand to think of that being his purpose in life.

He awoke the following morning, pain washing over his body every time he moved.

He was broken.

"I desire you!" he called out to the demon, and thus sealed his fate.

So Jim Macken became Alois Trancy, and all memories of his previous life had to be erased so he could create a new identity. A new story for himself.

Alois, unlike Jim, had been stolen away from his rightful home as an infant by the faeries, who forced him to work in an unknown village as a slave. Then, his captors and fellow captives had all been killed under mysterious circumstances. And miraculously, his father came and took him home before dying himself of a sudden infection.

Now, he was Alois Trancy.

How ironic. He had become a true Changeling.

But there was one thing, one person, he could never forget.

"I'm living for you Luka; so you will never be forgotten."

Even now, Jim could still feel the presence of his brother, running up from behind him and hugging him happily.

It was all he had left of yesterday.