Chapter 9: This demon, Farewell

~ Several months later, London 2016~

Even though it was end of October the morning sun shone through the window warmly, tickling the demon's skin and waking him up from his sleep. Even though he did not need sleep and since that day several months ago he had devoured souls on a sparse but regular basis, it had become a habit he found to enjoy. Sitting up he glanced to the side, finding a still sleeping Sebastian next to him. A little irritated he touched his smart phone lying on the night stand next to the bed and checked the time. 11:23 am.

Well, that was unusual. Normally Sebastian was an early riser. He always got up before Ciel and woke him up later; sometimes he even prepared breakfast before he did so. Since the day Ciel was on the brink of starvation and tasted Sebastian's meal, he had found a liking to sweet human food which did not even change after his demon senses had fully returned, so Sebastian enjoyed making him desserts from time to time.

Of course there had been mornings when he stayed in bed until Ciel woke up by himself, but he had always been awake before him. On top of that it was past 11:00 o'clock and they had planned to visit a market at the Thames today. Since Sebastian had told the servants not to disturb them when they were in their room on a free day, nobody had come to wake them up neither.

Worried, he put a hand on Sebastian's bare upper body to check his breathing. It was a little irregular. Wasn't a human's breath very regular when they slept? But his face looked relaxed, not showing any signs of a nightmare.

"Sebastian!", he began shaking the taller one, almost yelling his name by now. Suddenly the black haired man's body began to shake from a chuckle until he finally opened his eyes and sat up, still laughing. For a moment Ciel still looked at him with a mixture of confusion and worry. Had the man turned insane?

"Oh my, your worried face is quite a sight. As I imagined it, I think I could get used to it.", said person grinned.

"S-stupid human!", Ciel spluttered, his face bright red from embarrassment when he got a hold of the situation. "I'll kill you!"

"Oh, I already know our contract terms. You don't need to tell me."

Still flustered, the demon hissed: "Shut up. I've had enough of your fooling."

Sebastian smirked. "Last night that sounded completely different though. I wonder why you can only be honest in times like that; you still seem to have a problem with being true to yoursel-"

That was the moment the man was kicked out of the bed with just a tiny jolt by the demon.

"Ouch." Sebastian held his elbow, which hurt a bit from the drop." Is that how you treat an ill person?"

The expression on Ciel's face had turned into a kind of sadistic smile. "Oh, I think a bit of pain is good for you sometimes."

A few minutes later Sebastian helped Ciel put on a warm winter coat they had bought some weeks ago when the days had begun to gradually become colder. Although London had been blessed with sunny autumn days, the wind was rather icy for October.

The demon was in thought. How dare Sebastian make him worried like that! It was not funny! They lived together for around a year now and Ciel had experienced several of Sebastian's breakdowns since then. According to the servants though his breakdowns were by far fewer than before he had met Ciel and when he took his medicine regularly, sometimes a whole month passed without Sebastian having a blackout even once. However, it was a fact that the medicine only fought the symptoms and not the illness itself. Hence, it advanced every day and nobody knew how much time was left for the black haired man. It could happen in a few years, next week or even today. So how could he make such stupid jokes about his own situation?

Sebastian finished buttoning up Ciel's coat, noticing the pensive expression on the boy's face. "When we get to the market better make a happier face or children will get scared seeing that gloomy expression of yours." It was his way of distracting Ciel from bitter thoughts. He bent down and placed a kiss on Ciel's eyelid before helping him put on his eye-patch. Since the demon still did not allow him to kiss him mouth to mouth, this had become his replacement.

"Mhmm...", came the demon's monotonously mumbled reply.

It seemed like the good weather had attracted quite a few people to visit the market. It wasn't particularly crowded but not sparsely visited either. Here and there were some locals who visited the market on a regular basis in hope to find valuable antiques, but most of the people were tourists who had passed the market by chance. When they arrived at the market Sebastian took his hand.

"Hey, what are you doing? We're outside!", Ciel protested. They had agreed on not showing their relationship in public, not only because it was embarrassing for Ciel but also because their apparent age difference would surely lead to controversies.

The black haired man smiled at him. "I want to make sure you don't get lost. Also I think for the others you look more like my little brother." He grinned.

"Hmmpf..." Ciel mumbled but did not draw his hand back.

The Thames was calmly flowing next to them and some hundred meters behind, the Tower Bridge stirred into today's clear blue sky. Looking at the pompous bridge, Ciel still remembered the time when it was built and it reminded him of the fact how old he actually was compared to humans. Living together with humans on a regular basis he almost forgot about it sometimes... Yet at the same time it also reminded him of the immeasurable amount of time that still lay ahead of him in contrast to all the people around him.

Then he was shaken off this thoughts by the taller man showing him something.

The market did not only offer antiques but a variegated mixture of all kinds of goods. Old children's toys, magazines, books that were sometimes even older than the demon, jewelry, t-shirts and much more. Sebastian was particularly interested in the antiques though. Ciel only followed him around since he wasn't really in the mood for shopping right now. Actually he enjoyed old markets but today he just did not feel like searching the booths for something. For some reason his mind felt a little too restless.

After half an hour the weather changed abruptly. Grey clouds covered the sky and without the sunshine it immediately felt like the temperature dropped some degrees. A chilly gust of wind blew the demon's hair into his face. The other visitors began leaving one after the other.

"Oi, Sebastian. Let's go home."

The black haired man didn't respond. This very moment he seemed to have found something interesting.

"Look at this! Doesn't it suit you very well?" He held an antique looking ring with a bold blue stone on the front in his hand. Ciel looked at the stone.

"It looks like it's worth much more than it says on the price tag. It doesn't seem to be a fake either. I wonder why they sell something like that at this market... I bet the seller thinks it's fake.", he responded in a quiet voice. His face turned into a grin. "So you really found something valuable on this market. I guess you are good for something after all." In spite of his words he was really happy for the other one and his mood brightened a bit. The bad feeling he had about today had been wrong after all.

After the man payed the ring, he returned to Ciel. "Then let's go on looking around. Maybe we'll find another treasure like this.", the demon said in an unusually positive tone and turned around when Sebastian took his left hand and stopped him.

"What is it?" Ciel asked irritated.

Suddenly the black haired man knelt down in front of him. "I'm afraid the ring won't fit on your ring finger because you're so small. We'll have to make do with your thumb then.", he said in a slightly teasing voice and slid the blue ring onto the demon's finger.

"Wh-what are you doing?!", Ciel spluttered in utter disbelief while his face turned scarlet red and he looked around nervously. "Are you totally insane now?! There are people watching!" Quickly pulling his hand back, he turned away from the man. When would he finally stop doing such stupid things? And at a public market of all places! He wished the ground would just open and swallow him right now.

Sebastian chuckled, making Ciel look at him again with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "It seems you have become fully aware of human customs, haven't you? I just wanted to give you this as a present. It's a sign of my gratitude. Thank you for being at my side until the very end. 'Until death do us part.'" His grin proved that he made fun of the custom Ciel had seen on TV a few times but on the same time the demon got the feeling that he was also being serious.

"Just stand up again!", the boy ordered ashamed and turned his back towards the grinning man once more to hide his face with his hands for a moment. This was undoubtedly the most embarrassing moment of his life. He would definitely need to let Sebastian pay for this when they got home... But what was even worse was the fact that in spite of his embarrassment he suddenly felt in high spirits and his heart had begun to beat faster, which convinced him even more to DEFINETLY let Sebastian pay for this nonsense.

Trying to calm down and to somehow regain his dignity, he coughed into his fist. "Let's just go to the next booth already." He demonstratively walked ahead and began looking through a box full of knickknack.

Sebastian started following him with a grin on his face. The demon hadn't refused the ring and still wore it, which spoke volumes. And seeing his flustered face in public was absolutely worth getting up today and visiting the market, even though Sebastian actually hadn't felt very well this morning. He had hoped to find something similar to the ring and his hope hadn't been crushed. It was this resolve that had enabled him to get this far.

Meanwhile, Ciel rummaged through the box without actually paying attention to what he was looking at. His embarrassment was gradually declining, leaving a stupid smile on his face. Luckily the taller one couldn't see his face right now because the demon absolutely did not want to be seen this way, especially not by him.

Then a colourful kid's hair-band in form of a cat caught his attention. That was the chance he'd been waiting for. Payback!

"I think I found something that would look really good on you, too.", he said tauntingly and started turning around, when suddenly he heard a loud thump.

From the corner of his eye he saw Sebastian falling onto the ground and suddenly Ciel's body froze. He saw people running towards the man lying on the ground. But it felt unreal. So unreal, as if he was watching it through a window glass, but it wasn't part of the actual world. The sound of an ambulance. Men dressed in bright yellow jackets picking an unconscious Sebastian up and into the vehicle. The shocked and agitated voices of bystanders talking to each other. Everything sounded dull and far away, as if he was underwater...

Sebastian woke up to the sight of a white hospital wall. Noticing that his arms and upper body were connected to a machine next to him through cables and tubes, he tried to move but his body felt incredibly heavy and numb and it took him a lot of effort to lift his arm up just a tiny bit.

"Please don't move around so much. It's better to store your energy."

A friendly nurse had entered the room or maybe she had been there the whole time while he had been asleep. She walked around the bed so that Sebastian could see her and smiled at him. Then she began explaining how he had collapsed at the market and how he was brought here by an ambulance. She also told him that they would have him stay in the hospital until he had recovered and that she and the doctors gave their best to make this happen as soon as possible. But her body language and the pitying look she gave him spoke volumes. It was obvious that she knew he would not recover anymore. At the same time Sebastian also felt that this time was different than before. He had collapsed several times previously and had been brought to the hospital afterwards, but he had never felt this … weak. So the time had finally come... The time he had despised so much. Where was the demon?

His parents came to visit him a few hours later. Sebastian knew his mother was trying her utmost to not break into tears in front of her son, but she could barely keep her composure. His father spoke to him reassuringly, but the look in his eyes was sad. When they went home he felt exhausted.

Some time later Sebastian noticed the door being opened once more and he thought the nurse might have come back. However, the fact that nobody greeted him with a fake happy voice told him that he was wrong.

"You eventually came to fulfil your promise? And you're even using the door! So the time with me did teach you some manners." he greeted him with a tired smile on his lips.

Ciel didn't reply. When Sebastian looked to the side he saw a shadow lurking at the right side of his bed. So that was the demon's true form. Others would have thought death himself had come to take them away. And in some way that wasn't even completely wrong, Sebastian thought amused.

Suddenly the shadow deformed and shortly after that the boy he came to know was standing in front of his bed again. He was wearing the blue dress with the tiny hat he had worn when they had first met in the dark sideway. Back then he had almost killed himself and now, once again, he was on the verge of dying. But this time for real… And forever. That blue Victorian outfit sure had witnessed many deaths and a lot of grief. Was Ciel thinking that as well? He wondered. On his left thumb glittered the ring with the blue stone Sebastian had given him earlier. He didn't wear his eye patch so the taller one could see their contract sign that was still engraved into Ciel's right eye. The demon kept a straight face but his sky-coloured eyes looked incredibly sad. Only once before had he seen him like this - when the demon had told him about his past.

When their eyes met Sebastian gave him a warm smile. Not a teasing one like he used to every so often over the last year but a real smile. Then he closed his eyes. He didn't want to make the farewell last any longer than necessary to prevent it from being more painful for the both of them. He was ready now. He had lived another year since the day he had planned to end his life and it could easily pass as the best year for him. As strange as it sounded, that time, with his illness growing stronger and death more and more inevitable, he had felt more alive than ever before. To think that a demon, of all living beings, had caused this was truly amusing. It had been fun. Watching him fail at simple tasks; teasing him; listening to his stories of the past, stories about the demon world; seeing him pout, shout, grin; caressing his cold cheek; learning and experiencing so much normal humans would not even think of – he did not regret a thing.

As he saw his contract partner close his eyes, Ciel leaned in to him and finally placed his mouth over Sebastian's. It was the first and last time he felt the others' soft and warm lips on his own...

When Sebastian opened his eyes again he was still in the hospital bed surrounded by the machines keeping him alive. His lips curved into a knowing smile.

"Liar."

The demon sat on the roof of a house opposite the hospital. From there he could see the man's figure lying on the bed through his window. Suddenly he heard someone landing on his feet next to him.

"So you couldn't do it in the end. You're a really weird one. Exactly like Will told me." Ciel clenched his fist. A familiar looking Grim Reaper with long red hair had appeared next to him. He was carrying a book with him which most likely contained information about the next person's soul he was to reap.

"I wonder if it's okay for you demons to act against your contract. Also, don't you think he is upset with you lying to him?"

The demon stood up. "At least this time I didn't lie to him completely.", he answered in a sad tone. "Also I don't mind lying if it means I can reach my goal. This time I won't make the same mistake..."

A grin crossed Grell's face. "That's certainly true. I wouldn't be here otherwise~"

The demon threw a last glance at the man he had spent the last year with before turning around and walking away from the edge of the building. Slowly his shape darkened and deformed, leaving no trace of the boy's figure, and merged with the shadows.

Until we meet again.

At the corner of his eyes Sebastian noticed the lights that came from the machine he was connected to blinking and turning off one after another. His first thought was that the electricity had turned off but the light in his room was still working. Only his machine's energy supply seemed to have been cut. The odd thing about this was that there was no alarm. For safety standards every machine was controlled by another one and if one turned off an alarm would be sent to the nurses who could react immediately. But it seemed like precisely those two had been cut off from the energy supply and their emergency supply didn't turn on either.

The moment the realisation sunk in, he turned his head towards the window just in time to see Ciel's figure standing on the opposite's house roof top turning around and slowly leaving his sight.

He smiled and closed his eyes the moment he could not see the demon anymore, but in his mind he could still see him.

So in the end you kept half of your promise. You were right; you really did make my life interesting. Maybe... maybe next time I will cherish my life more. Please make sure to be my observer then.

Until we meet again…

*~* The end *~*

This is the first time I've completed a multi-chaptered fanfiction.
Thank you to everyone who read this! It was fun writing down my ideas! *_* I hope I can finish more fanfictions in the future~
Please also have a look at the drawing Nazu-chan from deviantart dedicated to this chapter!
I'm looking forward to your comments how you liked the ending or what your thoughts on the story as a whole are.^^