An Adjustment

Yako sat in the large drawing room, shifting anxiously in the enormous chair, twiddling her thumbs and tapping her heels impatiently as she watched the hands of the large grandfather clock creep along. The servants bustled in and out of the room, so she was never alone, but they were too busy, going about their daily chores, to make any more conversation with her. Bard spent most of his time in the kitchen, May Rin always seemed to be in a different part of the house, and most of Finny's time was spent outside. Mr. Tanaka sat across from her, slowly sipping his tea, but all he did was sit and smile through the steam, his eyes glued shut as if he was enjoying a nap. Yako was left alone, feeling more and more uneasy by the moment, hiding in the shadows of the room from the window. Sebastian had made it clear that if any neighbors or other acquaintances of theirs spotted her, there would be far too much explaining to do.

Sebastian appeared in the doorway, and Yako looked up excitedly. "Is the tailor here?" she cried out. "I feel so out of place, sitting in this ornate room in my pajamas!"

"She has yet to arrive," Sebastian responded grimly, watching as Yako's face fell, "but I am positive she will be arriving shortly. I made it clear that we have an emergency at our hands, and she has brought some extra dresses she had in the shop that she thinks may fit you. The less time it takes her to finish the outfits, the better. In the meantime," he continued, gesturing towards the doorway, "the maid has agreed to lend you a dress of hers, agreeing that it would be most improper for you to greet Ms. Hopkins dressed as you are now."

Yako nodded along to everything Sebastian was saying, hanging off of his every word simply because he seemed so sure of himself, which was far from what she was feeling at the moment. "I'll have to thank her," she said, blushing at the inconvenience everyone was going through to make her comfortable. "You're all being too kind to me!"

A smile stretched across Sebastian's face as she said this. "I am sure that this is how the young master would have wished us to attend to his guest, were he here at the moment," he answered politely, "and I am hoping that, wherever the young master is, he is being treated with an equal amount of civility."

Yako stared at Sebastian with wide eyes, a horrible thought coming into her mind. The butler watched her closely, and she forced a smile across her face, letting out a coarse laugh.

"Yeah," she agreed in a doubtful tone, "yeah, I sure hope the Earl's in good hands, too…"

---

At that very moment, the respectable Earl Ciel Phantomhive was hanging upside-down by his ankles out of Yako's window, screaming like a little girl. Neuro smirked evilly, chuckling to himself as he watched the young Earl swinging back and forth, struggling to lift his body back up to the windowsill.

"What the hell are you doing?" Godai demanded loudly, slamming his fist against the windowsill as he glared at Neuro. "Instead of getting answers, you're torturing him for your own amusement!"

"This is me getting answers," Neuro defended himself, "although I have to admit, I do find it amusing. I was sure I would eventually come to miss slave number one's shrill cries of pain, but it seems that this boy's screams are equally as high, and therefore as satisfying."

"You're sick," Godai grumbled, rolling his dark eyes and crossing his arms.

Neuro peered at him from the corner of his eye. "Is my second slave jealous? Would you like to join him?" He gestured to Ciel, shaking his ankle so that his entire body swung back and forth, causing him to let out another chorus of screams.

Godai grumbled a few swears under his breath before loudly demanding, "How is this getting answers? All the damn kid's doing is wailing like a fucking seagull!"

"I'm training him, just like I trained you and Yako," Neuro responded matter-of-factly.

"I get it, I get it!" Ciel cried desperately, mentally cursing Sebastian for not appearing at his calls. "Let me down!"

"You want me to let you down?"

"No, no! Let me up! Pull me up!"

Neuro swung Ciel up, tossing him back through the window with so much force that the boy flew across the room, slamming into Yako's door. The impact shook the room, and one of her photographs fell over, revealing a box of chocolates.

"That is quite like my other slave," Neuro noted in a thoughtful tone. "I wonder if she has chocolate wherever she is now?"

"I'm more curious as to where she is!" Godai interrupted, glaring at Ciel. "Why don't you tell us what you know, twerp?"

"I don't know anything!" he insisted, pulling himself to his feet. "Can I please get dressed?"

"He doesn't know anything?" Neuro repeated. "An unintelligent, foolish slave will do me no good. How shall we dispose of him, Godai?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" he cried out helplessly. "Do you have any other clothing than what's in that closet?"

"I say we bring him back to the office, and see how he holds up on the job," Neuro suggested. "I'm sure he can answer all of our questions on the way."

"How can you ask me anything, if I don't know anything?"

Godai frowned. "Quit saying that! Do you want to die?"

Ciel glanced nervously at Neuro, shuddering. What is with the outrageous hair colors? It's as if I've been dragged to some bizarre circus. Who is this man? More importantly, where is Sebastian? His eyes flickered around the room, but he could find nothing familiar, or anything with an answer attached to it.

What was he going to do?

---

"Miss Nina Hopkins is here!" Finny announced excitedly, dashing up the path to the house. "She's here, Mr. Sebastian!" He rushed through the front door, beaming at Yako. "I can't wait to see what you think of the clothing of the past!"

"Finny, you're trailing dirt into the house," Sebastian commented with a sigh, "and I am sure Miss Katsuragi can form an opinion on our fashion based on what we're wearing."

Finny stumbled backwards into the doorway, shrugging. "I just think it would be interesting, trying out clothing from a different time period. I'm interested in what people wear in the future, after all!"

"Not much," Yako answered simply, with a little snicker.

Nina Hopkins pushed right past Finny, a large, animated smile on her face. "Sebastian!" she cried energetically, throwing her arms up as she spoke. "I hurried here as fast as I could manage when I received your call- where is the dear girl?"

Yako stepped forward, nearly tripping over the end of her skirt. "Right here, ma'am."

Ms. Hopkin's eyes moved over to Yako, and she jumped, amazed at how she was swallowed up by the dress she had borrowed. "She certainly is in need of better fitting clothing. Is this a case the Queen has sent to the Earl, or is he opening up his wallet to the poor and needy?"

"She's a young lady looking for a job in the young master's staff," Sebastian lied smoothly. "She has wonderful working skills, but doesn't look the part."

"Of course! I understand." She flung up her suitcase, displaying the several dresses she had folded inside of it. "Pick one, and try it on," she instructed Yako, taking out some pins, "and I'll do the rest!"

---

Ciel glanced around anxiously as he walked down the street, alongside Neuro and Godai, staring with a wide, suspecting eye at all the strange people passing by.

"I think you lied," he accused Neuro through barred teeth, glaring up at him.

"You haven't seen any other children yet," Neuro reminded him in an innocent tone. "I promise that once you do, you'll see you fit right in."

Ciel frowned, annoyed to be called a 'child,' though he knew better than to argue. "I still doubt that parents drag their kids around on leashes, like dogs, and dress them in…this!" Ciel glared down at the large, black robe Neuro had thrown on him. "I look like the Undertaker!" he cried in dismay, not realizing that anything to do with the Undertaker is automatic epic. He pulled at the leash around his neck, blushing when he imagined what kind of comments Sebastian would make if he saw him then.

"You refused to wear Yako's skirts, so you have to settle with her Halloween costume," Neuro answered flatly, the corner of his mouth rising into a smirk.

Suddenly, Neuro stopped, a strand of his purple hair fluttering up. A smirk drifted across his face, and they suddenly changed direction.

Ciel hesitated, but the leash tugged at him, forcing him along. "What…what the hell was that?"

"This mystery is on the tip of my tongue," Neuro responded simply, feeling it needed no more explanation.

"Mystery?" he repeated, taken aback.

"It should be interesting to see how my new slave works with our other friends," Neuro commented in a more demonic tone, glancing at the crime scene up ahead, where Sasazuka and Ishigaki were hunched over a corpse and taking notes.

Ciel's eyes widened at the scene. A dozen officers – that's what he guessed they were, though they looked nothing like Abberlain or the other members of Scotland Yard – were dashing this way and that, leaping out of a colorful 'car' with bright lights flashing from the top of it. Ciel was overwhelmed by the scene before him, not recognizing a single thing but the sidewalk they were standing on – all the other objects were foreign to him. He turned his eyes to the sky, once again mentally begging Sebastian to appear, but to no avail.