Teacups and Teapots (Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler) (Ciel x Sebastian)

First Cup

Teacups and Teapots:

Summary: To revitalise Funtom which is in danger of bankruptcy, Ciel expands the business by opening a teashop at his aunt's suggestion that only hires good looking waiters. One of the candidates is a man named Sebastian Michaelis... CielxSebastian.

Chapter 1:

The CEO and owner of his family business, Funtom, scowled as he went through pages of spreadsheets, charts and sales forecasts that all conveyed the same message; he was losing money. Ciel Phantomhive and taken over the family business upon the murder of his parents and after being rescued from his kidnappers when he was 13 and had led the company through various crises including the recession and now at the age of 19, he was at his wit's end.

He picked up the phone on his desk and dialled the number of his aunt who was a shareholder as well as one of his father's acquaintances Tanaka who was another shareholder to request an urgent meeting regarding the future of the company.

"To put it simply, our sales have been falling for the past three months," he informed them abruptly once they were seated in front of his desk. "I feel that it is only fair to tell you both since you are heavily involved with Funtom and have a say in all decisions."

His red haired aunt leaned closer. "How bad is it?"

As an answer he handed her a stack of paper detailing statistics and predicted trends in growth and she and Tanaka pored over them together.

"It is likely that we will last another two years before we go into bankruptcy and have to be bailed out," Ciel sighed sadly. "Dad must be rolling in his grave at the prospect."

"Is there anything that can be done to prevent it?" his aunt enquired worriedly. "Why are the sales falling in the first place?"

Ciel tapped the desk with his ring irritably. "For the toys, it's mainly competition from cheaper brands that produce their products less ethically than us and the products tend to be lower quality, but the general public don't seem to care about that. As for the confectionary, parents are finally now worried about their children's teeth which is good for them and bad for us."

"What happened to the line of sugar free sweets? I know they were produced successfully in the test kitchen," his aunt brightened. "Maybe we can use them."

Ciel shook his head. "The only sugar substitute that produced the right consistency was Lycasin and it caused all the taste testers to have some... toilet problems. The upstairs toilets are blocked off for a reason."

Both of the shareholders in front of him winced and were silent for a moment before Angelina returned to the forefront with a suggestion.

"We can advertise them as being perfect for revenge."

Her nephew rolled his eyes. "That would cause more problems than good. Do either of you have any sensible suggestions?"

"We could move one of our bigger factories overseas, it would keep labour and material costs down," Tanaka suggested.

"No," Ciel said immediately. "That would go against the values of Funtom. Keeping production here has given us a good reputation."

"What about expanding to a new market?"

The owner of Funtom looked sharply at Tanaka "Name a market that is not saturated already."

The older man retreated into silence as Ciel went through all the trend forecasts for future months.

"There should be a temporary seasonal rise in sales next month as it will be the Christmas shopping period-" he was cut off by his aunt.

"I have an idea, Ciel."