Torture and Tea

Summary:Present Day AU. Sebastian is a BL novelist and Ciel is a new intern at Funtom Publishing. When their paths cross, sparks fly between them: Ciel wants revenge and Sebastian wants more of Ciel.

Chapter 1:

It was only Ciel Phantomhive's third day at Funtom Publishing and he already wanted to quit his new low level job as an intern. So far all he had done was make countless cups of tea and mugs of instant coffee and wash up the aforementioned crockery. He hadn't even come anywhere close to see anything resembling publishing which was supposed to be the purpose of his internship.

Ciel hit his head on his desk which was situated in between one flamboyantly gay red head named Grell Sutcliffe who was a little gender confused and a deceptively young looking blonde man named Finnian that broke everything that he touched- Ciel had already been sent out three times to purchase replacement staplers and hole punches.

"I can't spend the rest of my life doing this," Ciel groaned. "I'm only 19..."

A brisk shout of "Phantomhive!" jolted him out of his self pity.

"I'll go put the kettle on," he said murmured automatically and looked up to see his supervisor Bardroy glaring down at him. "Do you want tea or coffee? I think we are nearly out of teabags, so it will have to be coffee."

"I don't care about that," Bardroy waved his hand dismissively. "I've got a job for you."

The overworked intern sat up a little straighter in his seat. Was he actually going to get to do something that was actually constructive or was he just being asked to get Bardroy another pack of cigarettes? He glanced out of the office window to gauge the weather, it was not enjoyable to be sent out to purchase items in the crippling cold rain.

"I need you to pick up a draft from an author. It's due in today and he hasn't sent it in yet so I want you to go to his flat and pick it up for me."

Grabbing a post it note off the stack on Ciel's desk, he scrawled down an address and passed it to his new intern who was now looking brighter than he had been all morning. This was always the case with the new interns- they perked up at the prospect of actually doing something that didn't involve making drinks or acting as the staff's slaves, but they always returned from Sebastian Michaelis' flat looking like they had been sentenced to a life sentence in Dartmoor Prison and then a few days later they normally left Funtom Publishing, swearing never to do an internship again.

Ciel slipped his coat on, pocketed the note with the address and left the office after waving good bye to his supervisor.

"You're so mean," Grell Sutcliffe purred as he filed his nails. "It's only his third day and you're sending him off on the mandatory test of courage."

"I thought I might try it earlier on this time so he has more energy, he might fare better than all of his predecessors. Besides, he is a special case. Michaelis will have to learn to be careful around him..."

"I still bet £10 that the scrawny brat will come out looking like the rest," Grell said confidently and handed Bardroy the appropriate note. "Finnian?"

"I bet £3 that he will be the same as the others," the blonde clinked around in his pocket to fish out some coins. "I'm low on money this month so that's all I can bet."

"Ah, you bet in favour of the previous intern," Grell said understandingly. "Never bet in the favour of the intern- you will always lose money."

Bardroy slipped the money into his pocket. "You never know, Phantomhive might be the exception to the rule."

As Ciel alighted off the bus, the already grey sky darkened and it began to rain heavily. After using several expletives to describe his mood, he pulled up his hood and sheltered temporarily in a shop doorway as his coat was woollen and absorbed rain water like a sponge.

"Why me? Damn you Dad for forcing me to do this internship," he muttered darkly under his breath as he waited for the rainfall to ease.

Ciel Phantomhive had been tutored at him and had never set foot inside a school in his life. His family were the Phantomhive Earldom and none of them had ever gone to a school, public or private. That said, he had gone to a normal college as his mother had wanted him to actually make some real friends, he had only made one due to his crippling shyness.

He had been debating between Oxford or Cambridge when his father had suggested, or rather, commanded him to do an internship at Funtom Publishing in order to get Ciel acquainted with the family business before he went to university which was why he was stuck in his current degrading situation.

He wondered if his father actually knew that the word "intern" was a synonym for "tea slave" or if his father had just wanted him to do some hard work for once. Fortunately the people in the office that he had been assigned to did not know that he was the son of the CEO otherwise they would have sucked up to him for a pay rise or promotion and he definitely hadn't seen any sign of that so far.

After a few more minutes of contemplation, Ciel stuck his hand out into the rain to check if the rainfall had eased or not. A few spits of rain tapped down on his hand, indicating that it had subsided to a light drizzle. He could bear a light drizzle.

Pulling his hood down, he stepped out of his temporary shelter and walked down the street. If his sense of direction was correct Sebastian Michaelis' flat was only a few minutes away from the bus stop.

15 minutes later he finally arrived at a modestly well kept block of flats that matched the address that Bardroy had given him. He squinted at the names that were next to the bells. Outside he had counted 5 floors, yet there were only 3 names which indicated that the author Sebastian Michaelis owned the top 2 floors.

He raised an eyebrow and pushed the appropriate bell. There was a burst of static and a voice answered.

"I suppose that you are from my publishers. You can come right up."

"You must be the latest intern," Sebastian Michaelis said after he let Ciel into his flat. The author turned out to be a tall man in his late twenties who was dressed in black trousers and a perfectly ironed blouse with no creases. "They really go through their interns at that place..."

"They sent me to collect your draft; it's due in today," Ciel answered.

Sebastian ran a hand through his long raven black hair and Ciel observed that the author had heavy black bags underneath his scarlet red eyes which were highlighted by his pale white skin.

"I'm nearly finished, so if you don't mind waiting for me to hand over the draft," he said and yawned which gave Ciel the hint that he had been up all night writing. "You can wait for me in the library."

He led the boy into the appropriate room and returned to his manuscript. The game would begin later.

In the library Ciel wandered around the bookshelves which were impeccably arranged by genre and all the books were in alphabetical order. There wasn't even a layer of dust anywhere. Ciel decided that it was nearly as good as the library back at the Phantomhive manor that had been added to by every generation of Phantomhives- the only thing this one was lacking was Sherlock Holmes.

The title BL caught on one of the bookshelves caught his attention as he had never heard the term before. He was about to pick a random book of the shelf when Sebastian Michaelis shouted for him.

"I've got a few pages left, then I'm finished. In the meantime, could you please make me some tea? The kitchen is just down the hall. "

The author definitely believed that an intern was a tea slave. Ciel suppressed a groan and walked off to find the kitchen.

Boiling the kettle was easy enough, bust when he opened a cupboard in search of some teabags he found that the author seemed to have a stockpile of every type of tea available ranging from Earl Grey to Darjeeling to English Breakfast to Chamomile. On closer inspection he realised that they were all loose tea meaning that it wasn't just a case of boiling water, sticking a teabag in and adding milk.

He cursed out loud. He had spent most of his life having his tea made for him by his butler, Tanaka so he had no idea how to prepare loose tea. He had only just mastered using teabags.

Frantically he dug through the cupboard and eventually found a box labelled 'Inept Interns'. Inside was a bunch of teabags. Ciel sighed in relief.

Sebastian was writing at a fast pace as Ciel entered the room and set the cup down next to him.

"Thank you," the author replied and took a sip. "I see you went for the teabag option."

"Sorry."

"Well, you managed to select my favourite cup."

The teacup in question was printed with photos of cats. It had been easy for Ciel to guess that it was the author's preferred chose as it was incongruous with all the others which were delicately painted with flowers.

Ciel peered over the author's shoulder to take a look at his manuscript.

"You have very neat writing," he observed.

Sebastian jumped and dropped the teacup, spilling tea over the handwritten manuscript, the ink began to run and Ciel's heart plummeted. He had ruined the manuscript. He was going to be in trouble with Sebastian Michaelis, Bardroy and his father.

The author stared up at him with a poker face that gave no hint of his current mood.

"I'm sorry!" Ciel blurted out as the ink continued to run into the tea. "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

A hint of a smile grew on the man's face and his eyes flashed a glowing red for a second. Then he stood up.

"Yes, there is something."

He grabbed Ciel's hand and dragged him down the hallway and into a walk in wardrobe. Ciel gulped nervously, having no idea of what the author was going to make him do. The author let go of his hand and rummaged through hangers. He pulled out something on a hanger and threw it to Ciel who caught it on reflex.

"The accessories are in the second drawer down of the chest of drawers over there," he pointed. "When you have finished changing, come back to my study. Take as long as you like... it depends how much trouble you want to be in with Funtom Publishing."

The raven haired man strode out of the room purposefully.

When he saw what he was supposed to be changing into, Ciel flushed bright red. He briefly considered walking out now and telling his father about what went on as his publishing company and the sadistic personalities of the authors that worked for him, but that simply wasn't how a Phantomhive worked, snitching was not condoned in the family. If he went off to his father for help every time something happened, how was he expected to succeed his father's title?

No, for now he was going to have to grit his teeth, put on the furry cat costume and bear it until a clear plan formulated inside his head.

The accessories turned out to be a set of matching cat ears on a headband and a collar with a metal bell on. Ciel dumped the collar back in the drawer. A cat costume and ears were enough humiliation for the moment. Trying to muster as much dignity as possible, he picked up his new tail so he wouldn't trip on it and entered Sebastian Michaelis' study.

The first thing the author did was flush a bright pink and smile happily which was a contrast to the brusque manner that he had displayed so far.

"I knew it would suit you! You look so..." his voice trailed off and he became more businesslike. "You ruined the last 100 pages of my novel, but I should be able to write enough to replace it as it was nothing but smut. I just need some inspiration."

"Inspiration?" Ciel questioned cautiously as the author's eyes were still fixed on his cat ears. Alarm bells were already ringing in his head and he still didn't know what the author wanted with him.

"Yes, you see, I write BL," Sebastian began and noticed the confused look on Ciel's face. "I see that you don't know what BL is. It stands for Boy's Love."

It finally dawned on Ciel. "You write gay romance stories and you want me to inspire you to write smut. No fucking way!"

Sebastian caught Ciel's chin and pulled the boy's face closer to his. His manner had changed again. Now he seemed more sadistic and scary.

"So, you're going to run away now and return to Funtom Publishing empty handed, or rather with no manuscript and a complaint from me- one of their bestselling authors, about how you ruined my latest work. You will be fired and the CEO will make sure that no one will ever employ you again."

Sebastian moved his face even closer to Ciel who was trying to maintain an unruffled demeanour as if being forced to dress up as a cat was normal, but his legs already felt like jelly and he wasn't sure how long he was going to be able to stand up for.

"It suit you well," Sebastian commented. "Let's begin.

He pulled Ciel in by the waist so that their bodies were touching. Ciel suppressed a terrified squeak. Ever since his childhood he had had a fear of people touching him as he had been nearly kidnapped by someone that he had trusted. Sebastian stared down at him and smirked before bending his head and nipping at Ciel's ear.

"W-What on earth are you doing?" he yelped in fright.

"I'm getting into character," the author said calmly as if nothing had happened.

"Character?" Ciel screeched as his ear was bitten again.

"Yes. This time the seme is a bit of a sadist and the uke is very shy, that's why I knew you would be perfect for this. Besides the smut scenes that you poured tea over were not in character..."

Ciel glared up at the man and began to wonder again about quitting his internship. He was sure that his father would understand if he explained everything.

Sebastian used his momentary distraction to capture his lips. Ciel was too shocked to fight back for the moment, but when he felt Sebastian's tongue slip in he bit down on it. The author jumped back and released him.

"You're very feisty for someone who seemed so shy," he commented as a trickle of blood dripped out of his mouth.

"I don't care about whatever you are going on about, just don't touch me again!" Ciel shouted with blazing eyes. "I'm straight, so could you please stop coming on to me."

The author's eyes widened. His new intern was resistant to his charms unlike his predecessors who seemed to melt like ice when he stared at them. None of them had ever glared at him and pushed him away. He let out a short laugh.

"You win. You can go and change whilst I finish the manuscript."

Ciel gave him a puzzled look before leaving the room to change back into his normal clothes.

Once he was alone, Sebastian smirked to himself. Finally, he had a challenge to work on: seducing the young intern onto his side and sexuality. When he had finished, the intern would be like putty in his hands.

AN:

The seme refers to the person that is on top in a yaoi relationship and the uke is the one on the bottom.

Please tell me what you think as this is my first time writing something like this.