The Boy [mxb]

32

Time slows down, reducing everything to slow motion.

It all happens in just one moment and everything about the moment is ethereal. About a yard away, set against a canvas streaked with pastel hues and suffused by a fiery ball of gold, a group of officers huddle around a few parked squad cars, with a familiar head of curly hair in their midst.

Ciel turns around and the rest of the scene fades outwards in a radial blur.

Picking me out of the crowd is easy for him because I don't exactly blend in. I'm not big into makeup, so I have to walk around brandishing all my injures. Between the dark suit, aviator shades, and the cuts and bruises on my face, I look like death's own fuckin' emissary. At least the last thing my victims will ever see is a beautiful Armani suit.

Ciel, on the other hand... Well, just like the first time I saw him, I'm taken aback by how gorgeous he is.

He looks downright celestial, walking towards me. A soft, balmy breeze rustles his curls with tender fingers, making them splay out against the backdrop of the late afternoon sky like a halo. The setting sun casts dappled patterns on his skin. He's radiant.

My brain scrambles to calculate how long it's been. Since I last saw him, I've been on the world's most exciting police chases, dangled from a helicopter, been attacked by a small army in the middle of the night, killed thirteen men, had my organs pummelled and my lights punched out until I couldn't fend off a rape attempt by my childhood friend, spent my fair share of time puking over the side of my hospital bed...

And yet, everything within me is now calm and quiet. My entire soul has gone perfectly still. Because he's here.

My body carries me towards him, but I'm only dimly aware of my legs moving.

I have to pause a few feet away and just stare, because it's perfectly reasonably to question: is this another hallucination? Is it a dream? Or is this really, finally happening right now?

Ciel looks a little thinner, his cheeks a little more sunken than I remember. But he's beautiful. He's even more beautiful than I remember. Whereas I look like I got hit by a bus, repeatedly.

"Hi," I manage in a whisper, heart swollen with hope and joy.

Ciel leans in slowly, a mere breathe away, until our foreheads are touching.

"Hello," he says softly, "cuddle me, please."

Huffing a breathy laugh, I wrap my arms around him. I'm still finding it hard to believe that he's real and he's here.

Ciel melts in my hands. He's solid and warm, definitely a flesh-and-blood boy in my arms and not another apparition.

"I thought I lost you." I blink, swallowing around a lump in my throat.