Red Hot Hell (a Kuroshitsuji fanfic)

The Curry Contest and the Start of the Hunters' Season

Estelle despised wearing any colored dresses, though she had to admit, blue suited her.

The vampiress was once more out in the day, seeing as it was the curry contest in the Crystal Palace. She wore a long, high-necked gown and kept her hair in a pinned-up french braid, to mislead the main characters for a while. Sebastian would be unable to warn his young master until he directly met her eyes, which gave her leeway for more fun.

While she presented a calmly curious exterior to her own surroundings, her fangirl persona was dancing with irrepressible joy inside her. This was one of her favorite moments in the manga, and she couldn't wait to taste the demon butler's cooking.

Thank goodness her bloodline could stomach human food! The girl wouldn't know what to do in a world deprived of curry.

She saw the chefs (and butlers) prepping their stations on the stage, then grimaced at the sight of Viscount Druitt. No doubt the disgusting man used his noble influence to get out of jail. She decided to pay him no mind.

Stalls selling Hindu merchandise attracted her attention, especially one that sold colorful veils in unique embroidery. Her girlyness always took over when India became the topic of conversation, and Estelle quickly (as quickly as humanly possible, of course) dashed to it and began looking through the veils. With a glance at the stallholder for permission, she even put a few on.

As she listened absently at the exclamations the three other Phantomhive servants made at such exotic surroundings, the vampiress tried to choose between a red veil with golden embroidery and a black one with white thread woven in. The red was also an excellent color for her skin, but black was always her first love. Estelle pursed her lips, aware now that the show was about to begin and that she needed to make a choice soon.

"If I may, Miss?" The stallholder asked timidly. He was a full brown-skinned Hindu who was probably cautious of any Caucasian person walking down the same street he did.

"Of course," she replied with a smile, handing over her veils. Instead of choosing for her, as she had expected him to do (they had done so before when she dithered at the bazaars), he simply put them down and held up another veil from under the counter. It was a beautiful dark violet, embroidered heavily with silver. With a gasp of amazement, the vampiress took it and promptly put it on, looking in the mirror as she did so. She immediately loved it.

"This is a beautiful piece of workmanship," she breathed in wonder. "I've never seen the like in all the bazaars I visited in Mumbai." The Hindu man blinked in shock, but the girl did not notice. "Oh, this could not possibly be for sale." And she began to give it back, but he stopped her gently.

"No, please. Wear it with health and long life." Estelle smiled under her veil, and she was sure he could still see it. Hindu men were well-versed in the art of eye-to-eye communication.

She had just managed to finish her shopping when the host announced that the show would begin and introduced all the judges. Ran-Mao and Lau were there as well with the Phantomhive party, looking forward to the curry and the chance to deal with West and Meena his way. Estelle could tell, after a glimpse of the scantily-clad girl, that the Chinese assassin would take a liking to her. She was not sure if she should test her theory out yet, though.

Too late; Ran-Mao had spotted her already. Immediately disentangling herself from a confused Lau, the buxom girl went and actively glomped the vampiress, looking expressionlessly into her face.

It was at this point that Estelle began to fear for her virginity.

She had always wondered whether the opium man's personal bodyguard liked women and only hung around men because it was her job. The vampiress wondered this often enough at home that she decided to do something at the moment that she never thought she'd do: try and seduce a woman.

Since it was the Victorian Era, where such things were looked down upon, Estelle was going to be exceptionally discreet. She tested with a slight meeting of the eyes with the Chinese girl, who promptly plopped her down on a seat and went onto her lap so's she wouldn't be able to look away. The vampiress still did it. Ran-Mao visibly pouted, the first facial expression the other girl saw her show since she met her, then started playing with the vampiress' veil to try and elicit a reaction. Which Estelle did; she checked if anyone was looking first before lightly nipping her cute assassin partner's neck.

The Chinese girl stiffened, and Estelle immediately looked away guiltily, playing the shy lesbian. Unexpectedly, her chin was abruptly turned back and soft lips met hers in a passionate kiss. They kept it short and very sweet, judging from the barely hidden lust in Ran-Mao's eye when they parted. Then the vampiress remembered that the Season was starting, so her body must be making itself as irresistible as possible. Any human who tried anything with her a few days from now would be terribly addicted until the celebrations were over, a dangerous position for the human involved.

But thankfully, the huntress kept track of her cycles. In a few days, the Chinese assassin would be back to her usual self provided Estelle refrained from feeding on her. Even her bites now would send any creature into a lust-filled frenzy in the last few seconds before she destroyed them. It was useful, but severely annoying if things got out of hand.

As the cooking progressed, the vampiress and Ran-Mao exchanged affections. Estelle made it clear with a few Mandarin words in her ear that they may not see each other again, so the assassin was content to enjoy their time together. Strangely, her boss didn't check on her.

Soon enough, it was time for the dishes to be judged. The two girls parted then (the human one a bit more reluctantly), and Ran-Mao rejoined Lau. As it went in the manga, all but Sebastian's and Agni's curries were disqualified in the minds of the judges and the audience. Druitt did his speech of comparison between women and curry, and Estelle regretted wearing blue as it made her think that the noble was speaking to her. Thankfully, she did not have all those 'jewels' he described.

The girl boredly played with her veil until the Queen herself rode in with one of her white-clad butlers. All the uninteresting dialogue was barely paid any attention to, even the emotional one between Soma and his former maid. The vampiress would have loved to see her cute assassin at work with those melon hammers, but she was undercover. Too bad.

Estelle meditatively put two fingers to her cheek as she stood beside Ciel, then decided to declare her presence before the Hindu men came in and ruined her moment.

"It's nice to see that everyone has a happy ending," she commented happily. There was a pause, and the young master did a double-take at the sudden interjection of the otherworldly creature. He spluttered.

"Wha-What on Earth-How did you get there!" he demanded.

"Eh? The young master didn't notice me while I stood beside him the entire time? You are so meeeaaan~" Crocodile tears went down her face.

Ciel simply stared. His right eyebrow twitched.

Before he was about to explode, however, he felt something crash into him and start bawling. Soma had joined the party and was still acting as childish as ever. Estelle honestly wondered how Agni could possibly have managed to serve this one for such a long time, then realized that she had overlooked the fact that he was a simple saint. How could she have done that?

"And where have you been?" the demon butler asked, slightly ticked off that he had not detected her presence much sooner.

"Lord Cain had requested the presence of all available London Death Dealers to help organize the Seasonal celebrations. I'll be away a lot more often than this," was the quiet reply. Sebastian grew just a tiny bit more worried at that sentence. Without her to keep the three useless servants in line, a lot more disasters will be occurring very soon.

~

A.N: Before you jump to all the wrong conclusions, she is bi. It happens to all vampires after several hundred years of simply running after the opposite sex. . .one gets a little bored liking only one half of the population after a while.