007; something of a nuiscance




"I am no more lost than I was before,
I know not of the general direction
my heart seeks at its truest desire."


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It was discovered quickly, Adelaide was just as quick to pick up the tasks that were expected of her. After the first day, the weeks following Sebastian did not treat her like an incompetent child. The two respectfully danced around each other in their days working together, Ciel noticed but with no further incident from the first day he kept quiet about it. If they didn't have to, the two servants didn't speak to each other. For the most part there was no reason they should have found it necessary to speak of anything besides their jobs to the Phantomhive family.


Her accent remained steady in her voice but it lost its heaviness through the days. A relief for her as she began to better understand English her lessons with Sebastian we're becoming shorter and less frequent. It became that when Ciel sent Sebastian out for business, Adelaide remained. Although the earl could not begin understand why he had come to trust the siren so easily. He could not understand the easiness he felt when she was around, it was the opposite of what Sebastian made him feel. Always on edge, always needing to be one step ahead no matter the cost. Adelaide instead left a better impression on the psyche, Ciel didn't feel threatened by her nor did she appear to be posing any kind of threat to anyone besides maybe Sebastian and his self-control not to murder her.


Now that she was getting a better comprehension of English he was hoping she would be able to explain herself and the situation they had found themselves in. Which led them here Adelaide standing before the Earl in his study, the valet had been fitted and given her own wardrobe. Both her designated uniform and a series of dresses meant for when she was granted her days off.


Her uniform consisted of a simple black dress that reached her ankles and full set sleeves that covered her arms. She may have not needed them to hide anything, she still wore a pair of white gloves matching Sebastian's. Her hair was permitted to be pulled free from her face, although she pointed out the butler's lack of doing so and she was left to the agreement that as long as it was at least brushed and combed she could do what she wished with her hair. There was nothing extravagant about it, but it was befitting of her character and of a servant of the Phantomhive Manor.


"I assume you know why I called you in here?" Ciel asked as Adelaide stood in front of his desk, he had called her from the chores that Sebastian had taken to assigning her. Her chores were the one way that Sebastian let her know that he was still in charge of her. Her days started with a to-do list tacked to her door and once she completed those Sebastian always seemed to know and appeared finding her something to dust or wipe down, either that or he'd send her to clean up  after one of Mey-Rin's misadventures in breaking all the dishes in the manor.


"You want to know more, some things I can explain, I am still unsure of other things myself." She stated, watching as Ciel seemed to contemplate her words before he looked back at her.


"I ask again then, why are you here?"


"Sirens have many different stories told about them, each one holds a different truth while then eventually trailing away from it. Simply put I can say we're considered a subspecies of the demon type. We do not necessarily need souls to survive, but they do keep us sustained," Adelaide paused, her focus had left the young earl as she had begun to look anywhere but at him, "Do you know how a siren comes to be, My Lord?"


"No, I'm afraid I don't." In fact he didn't know anything, if what she said were true than whatever he thought he knew was befitting only in the fairytales from Elizabeth's bedtime stories.


"The reason Sirens are a different class of demon is for one reason and that reason only, we were at some point human," She hesitated to look at the boy, "To the life I was given, I was born for my sole purpose being to die on my eighteenth birthday. Men they say believe they are the highest predator, to the point they burn the innocent and drown the defenseless because they have only ever seen their own prejudices. Men fear what they know awaits them in death, but yet they do nothing to change the lives they live. I believe that it is because of your contract with Sebastian that prevented me from taking your soul myself. Although what binds us is not a contract like the one you have with your butler but understand that for now, all I can say is that I am bound to you until your soul is no longer present in this world."


He dismissed her after that, left with the time to think of what Adelaide had told him. It would seem that Ciel Phantomhive was making it a habit of getting himself in troublesome situations. By saving him in Portishead, Adelaide had either unintentionally or intentionally tied herself to him. Although different from Sebastian, the siren remained with a commitment to his soul. The Earl still believed that for now, Sebastian would remain unaware of Adelaide's purpose. She made no actions that she would be seen as a threat, a bit odd but so was everyone else in the manor. She fit right in for the time being.


Still the thought irked him, although not a contract Adelaide was only here because it had to with his soul. He could very well say he was thankful that she had in fact saved his life, but would his life not have been in danger if she hadn't gotten involved with the boat in the first place? The Earl smiled to himself as he sifted through the papers on his desk.


This would be a fun game indeed. He could not wait for the moment Sebastian learned the truth of Adelaide's appearance. He had a feeling the demon wasn't keen on sharing what he had already previously laid claim to.


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There was something that Adelaide had become very fond of in the last month, something that upon even her last time upon the land she had not been able to indulge in. That thing happened to be the existence of human literature. If she were to be asked one thing she could happily praise humans it would be in that of their imaginations in creating something with such a simple structure of language. The things that could be given in such detail on one mere page of paper, if she were able she would have allowed herself to lose herself in books all day long. Ciel had opened up the library to her, claiming as long as she kept it clean and in order she was welcome to do as she pleased with the space. Still there was always very little time for her to spend reading, the cause for this problem was of course Sebastian.


However although he no longer treated her in such a crude manner, Sebastian did nothing to make her life easy. He always came upon some redundant task for her to do, and the remaining staff may have been comprised of a kind and wonderful group of people she could not deny that in the line of servitude they lacked considerably in skills. So the books were better left forgotten for the majority of the sunlit hours of the day, and she was left with finding any and every attempt to annoy the butler by doing anything right.


For some reason, her ability to keep up with him bothered the butler immensely, or more so the fact neither the Earl nor Adelaide would tell him the truth of why she was there, pretending to be a servant, far away from the sea where in his mind, she belonged. The case in Portishead had turned cold, as corpses ceased to appear on the shorelines. Ciel made no mention of Adelaide's appearance in his letter to the queen, only a small statement that he was unsuccessful in finding the cause of the deaths but for now he was positive that they would stop and she had nothing further to worry about.


"Miss Adelaide, please watch out!" The siren was startled by a shrill voice calling out to her, her walk to the kitchens interrupted as Mey-Rin rammed into her with a familiar silver tea cart. The two women went tumbling to the floor, the tea cart tipping over the wheels still spinning in the air as the dishes on it shattered around them, "Oh dear, I am so sorry, yes I am!" Mey-Rin cried as she struggled to stand up. Adelaide didn't really have the patience to even question the maid in what she was doing to even have been able to hit her with that much force. How many times had the bumbling maid already been told not to run in the halls? Sure Mey-Rin was a kind and generous young woman yet she seemed to struggle with the concept of slowing down. It wasn't as though anyone was rushing her to get her job done.


"It's alright, these things do happen. I only ask that you clean up your mess before Sebastian happens by." Adelaide smiled at the maid, straightening herself and turning to leave. The maid mumbled to herself as she began the work of cleaning the mess of ruined china, "And I just got this uniform too." The siren pouted to herself as she pulled out a decent-sized piece of porcelain from her back. She would have to go to her room to change both her clothes and her gloves as the white fabric was stained red from her own blood.


The days would have been so much easier if she could've have stayed in her room with some books. Yet as expected, and almost like clockwork, the muffled sound of an explosion from the direction of the kitchen told her it was going to be a long evening of cleaning. Her only motivation came from the pile of books sitting in her bedroom just waiting for her to open them because sure human company was nice at times but at the very least books weren't the ones running her over with tea carts.

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