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mtxref_fic) wrote2013-05-21 12:29 am
mtxref_fic) wrote2013-05-21 12:29 am
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[Black Butler] "Home is Where the Demon Is" (PG)
Author's Note: Written for Kuroshitsuji, Sebastian, For him Ciel was home.
Demons have no concept of home, not, at least, as the humans do: heaven is the realm of the angels of God, a place from which the demons were cast out for daring to rebel against His divine Will. Hell might be their realm, but given its climate, it was not always the sort of place where they preferred to dwell, this despite their decision to embrace the underworld to which they had been banished (Milton phrased it well, when he penned the sentence "Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven" -- perhaps a demon inspired him to pen these words).
The mortal world does not necessary feel as a home to the demons, either. Demons do not experience the physical world as humans do: what humans find pleasurable often feels bland and shallow to the heightened senses and ages of experience that demons have had.
Sebastian, or Malphas as his demonic brethren called him, had felt this way: he had thought that he had experienced all that the mortal world could offer. He had formed contracts with dozens of mortals over the centuries for various things, and tasted many delicious souls, from those who had entered the contract too hastily or too naively.
But the Phantomhive boy was a different matter: he might have called on Sebastian for aid in a moment of despair and anguish and fear, a moment when his life lay in immediate danger, but he had entered the contract with his eyes open. Willing, even, to have the seal placed in the most visible place possible on his body: in one of his own eyes. He wanted protection, he wanted a guardian, he wanted security, the things that a child craved, but he wanted them with full awareness of the price. He knew that one day, when death came and could not be avoided, Sebastian would devour his soul.
Somehow, that the boy showed him no fear, that the young man felt almost at ease with him (albeit with full awareness of what his servant was), that he had even given him a name, which no mortal who had entered into a contract with him had ever done before -- somehow, Sebastian felt a connection with the youngster, a connection that transcended the link forged by way of the contract between them.
Sometimes, because of this feeling, sometimes in the dead of the night, when the manor house lay in silence and the rest of the household slumbered, sometimes at the witching hour, when the house stood holding its breath, Sebastian would slip into the young lord's room, while his employer lay asleep. He came to watch the youth sleeping, peaceful, curled up under his covers as children are wont to do.
He felt, for once, that he had found a place where he belonged, where he felt this thing that the humans called home. More than sharing the bond of the contract, more than serving the youth, more than sharing the same place of residence, he felt this bond, this connection. Even this... relationship. A thing that demons did not understand. And even after several years in being in service to the young lord, he still did not quite comprehend it.
But there would be time enough to come to an understanding. The boy was young and had a lifetime ahead of him, as long as the Queen's enemies did not try to kill or silence him. And in that time, perhaps Sebastian would learn more of this thing from the youth.
Even still: forming this kind of a bond with a human would make it hard for Sebastian to consume the soul when the time came, and doing so violated the demons' own rules and order of forming contracts. But if he did not choose to rebel in some way, what kind of a demon would he be?
Demons have no concept of home, not, at least, as the humans do: heaven is the realm of the angels of God, a place from which the demons were cast out for daring to rebel against His divine Will. Hell might be their realm, but given its climate, it was not always the sort of place where they preferred to dwell, this despite their decision to embrace the underworld to which they had been banished (Milton phrased it well, when he penned the sentence "Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven" -- perhaps a demon inspired him to pen these words).
The mortal world does not necessary feel as a home to the demons, either. Demons do not experience the physical world as humans do: what humans find pleasurable often feels bland and shallow to the heightened senses and ages of experience that demons have had.
Sebastian, or Malphas as his demonic brethren called him, had felt this way: he had thought that he had experienced all that the mortal world could offer. He had formed contracts with dozens of mortals over the centuries for various things, and tasted many delicious souls, from those who had entered the contract too hastily or too naively.
But the Phantomhive boy was a different matter: he might have called on Sebastian for aid in a moment of despair and anguish and fear, a moment when his life lay in immediate danger, but he had entered the contract with his eyes open. Willing, even, to have the seal placed in the most visible place possible on his body: in one of his own eyes. He wanted protection, he wanted a guardian, he wanted security, the things that a child craved, but he wanted them with full awareness of the price. He knew that one day, when death came and could not be avoided, Sebastian would devour his soul.
Somehow, that the boy showed him no fear, that the young man felt almost at ease with him (albeit with full awareness of what his servant was), that he had even given him a name, which no mortal who had entered into a contract with him had ever done before -- somehow, Sebastian felt a connection with the youngster, a connection that transcended the link forged by way of the contract between them.
Sometimes, because of this feeling, sometimes in the dead of the night, when the manor house lay in silence and the rest of the household slumbered, sometimes at the witching hour, when the house stood holding its breath, Sebastian would slip into the young lord's room, while his employer lay asleep. He came to watch the youth sleeping, peaceful, curled up under his covers as children are wont to do.
He felt, for once, that he had found a place where he belonged, where he felt this thing that the humans called home. More than sharing the bond of the contract, more than serving the youth, more than sharing the same place of residence, he felt this bond, this connection. Even this... relationship. A thing that demons did not understand. And even after several years in being in service to the young lord, he still did not quite comprehend it.
But there would be time enough to come to an understanding. The boy was young and had a lifetime ahead of him, as long as the Queen's enemies did not try to kill or silence him. And in that time, perhaps Sebastian would learn more of this thing from the youth.
Even still: forming this kind of a bond with a human would make it hard for Sebastian to consume the soul when the time came, and doing so violated the demons' own rules and order of forming contracts. But if he did not choose to rebel in some way, what kind of a demon would he be?