Your Own Skin (Black Butler)

To Please a Phantomhive

Sebastian blinked in confusion as he pulled open the front door of Phantomhive Manor. “Mr. Spears?” Of course the shock melted almost as quickly as it had appeared. “Goodness, but this is a surprise.” In Grell’s defense, it was the charming smile he gave that did her in. She was doing so well up to that point, and he was just so very lovely. She rushed forward and pulled him into a tight if awkward embrace; if Sebastian’s eyes went any wider they might have popped out of his skull.

“Oh, Sebastian Darling! It is so good to see you again.”

“Er, Mister Spears?” He stammered, trying so hard to keep his butler persona in check. She had to admire his determination to stay in character.

She finally released him and gave him space to breathe. “It’s Grell. I know I don’t look it, but it really is me, darling.” She summoned forth her deathscythe in a flash that made the poor demon go a shade paler.

“Indeed. Well then, I’m sure this is an entertaining tale.”

Sebastian took her jacket and walked her into the parlor where Ciel was reading over the latest paper with a cup of tea at his side. If it was up to Sebastian alone, getting assistance would be easy; but Ciel was going to be quite the obstacle. She spent the next ten minutes catching the Earl up to speed on their situation while Sebastian fetched them tea and cakes. She did fudge a few of the details on Will’s mishap with the demon. She didn’t want to show him in a poor light, even if his fighting prowess wasn’t nearly as good as her own. He wouldn’t care about Ciel knowing about it, but he would be mortified to hear that Sebastian had found out.

“So let me get this straight,” Ciel said after taking a sip of his tea. “A demon was able to switch your body with Spears’?”

“Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true! Now we have this curse on us and we can’t get free of it.” She batted her eyes in Sebastian’s direction, “I was hoping Sebastian Darling would be able to help us.” She was hoping her flirting would win him over, but doing it in William’s body only made the demon arch his eyebrows.

“Sebastian, could a demon do such a thing to shinigami?” He gave a wry smile, “I was under the assumption that they were a bit more hardy than that.”

“Hmm, it is possible. There are some Djinn that are known to have that power. However, if the perpetrator could shift souls between bodies, I don’t see why he or she wouldn’t just devour them instead of changing bodies. It seems a rather childish thing to do.”

Grell rolled her eyes. “Eat our souls? Any demon would be in for a bad surprise if they tried to drink a shinigami’s soul. Our energy is simply too powerful for your kind to digest.”

Sebastian sneered at him. The expression looked terribly unflattering on him; she didn’t even know that was possible. “I have a hard time believing that there is any soul that my kind can’t digest, as you so crudely put it.”

“Oh Darling, as adorable as you are when your ego peeks out, you really should keep it under wraps more.”

“That’s enough of that,” Ciel said with a side-long glare at Sebastian. “If we do decide to assist you, I have a request to make in return.”

“Oh?” That took her off guard. She had been expecting some kind of payment to be needed, but she hadn’t expected Ciel to already have something in mind. That was never a good sign.

“There have been a series of murders across London in the past few weeks. There seems to be no pattern to them, and the newly formed Scotland Yard believes it to be a serial killer. However her Majesty thinks otherwise and has asked me to investigate.” He nodded to Grell, “Your kind have access to records of such things, do you not? You could determine who killed these people without us having to track down the killer ourselves.”