As Time Goes On - A SebaCiel Story

Chapter 66: Best Of Women

Sebastian's POV

I watch as my love limits the amount of wine poured into his glass, although I am here as his heightened senses, he refuses to dull his own. A trait that is beneficial for his health but leaves him open to mockery socially.

I wouldn't mind if he took a glass or two, as long as he enjoyed it but he himself has set a 1/2 glass limit that is certainly questionable to most.

In disguise, he is assumed to be pregnant. Out of disguise, he is assumed to be ill.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like more, Milady?" The waiter asks, somewhat perplexed by the small amount.

"Yes, that'll be all. Thank you." He tries to end the conversation before it begins and yet, the question comes once more. "Are you su-"

"Yes."

No pleasantries anymore, no flowery tone. Cut off entirely as Ciel deliberately turns his back on the waiter in favour of listening in to Lizzie's conversation. Leaving the man incapable of deciding whether to stay or go, but with a wave of my hand, he relieves himself.

"I hate it when that happens, I'm just glad that he didn't ask-"

"I know, my dear." He let's go of pent up stress as I rest my hand, palm to the ceiling in between us, knowing his routine far too well. Watching as he traces the lines of my hands, giving him the time he needs to concentrate on something menial to calm himself.

His expression is always the same as the night in the circus, while he was stricken with fever, drawing circles over my hand as I explained our plan. I found it endearing, to see him so childlike after putting on a matured front for so long.

I suppose it all started in those moments.

I began to smile more easily, I began to find it more adorable than anything else. To see my mature little Master so vulnerable and childish. Now that I have the power to reflect, I begin to see moments that I now believe to have triggered what has happened since.

My humanity was always there. Dormant and out of use.

I will never truly understand why this one, this incredible little human changed my world and gave me the gift of emotion but I will never allow myself to forget it.

What this beautiful man has done for me.

"The roses are growing quite nicely, wouldn't you say?" Finny asks, hoping for some recognition for his efforts. Which he receives from a rather distracted Young Master.

"Hmm? Oh, yes they're lovely. I walked into the garden last night, they're so beautiful in the moonlight." He finally looks up from my hand to find a questioning expression staring back.

"What?"

"I enjoy the garden at night."

"We-Well...we never see you go out there at all."

"I go for a walk every night with Sebastian before retiring for the evening." Well, not exactly every night. You have a habit of falling asleep before we go out.

"You rarely leave the Manor."

"I have a rather large workload I'm afraid. I no longer have the time to leave the house, apart from when I sit down with you, of course." He remarks with a sweet smile, causing Lizzie's eyes to roll at the use of something so cheesy.

"Oh please, spare me. Your workload includes the children that I barely see."

"Which is why, I'm going to build an orphanage. And...I would like you to be it's Ward."

The shock on her face is far too clear, but a dropped jaw raises into a smile as something as simple as the idea of taking care of children makes Elizabeth nearly squeal as she used to.

She truly never changed.

"Really?!"

"Really."

The excitement bursts from her every pore as her eyes sparkle, gazing into Ciel's as she tries her hardest to contain her joy.

"Thank you, thank you so much!"

"No need to thank me darling, you're the only woman in the world that I'd entrust my children, and the children that I will treat as my own, with their lives. You are the best of women, Elizabeth. I hope you realise that."

I do.