Ciel tried not to make eye contact with anyone as he sat huddled underneath the great tree that stood towards the end of the Nessus gardens. He had a text book clutched in his hands but he was sure he had read the same paragraph three times already and nothing was going in.

Earlier, when Ciel had slunk out of the sanatorium after his daily check up he had hoped to find a quiet area for lunch where he wouldn’t be disturbed.

The oak tree had seemed the perfect place until some other students had showed up and sat down a little way away with their sandwich packets and shared tupperwares of peanut butter cookies.  

Ciel glanced up, trying not to squirm as he saw the furtive looks his peers were sending him before continuing to talk in hushed whispers amongst themselves. Eventually, one of the party detached themselves, strolling over to Ciel with a bemused expression.

Kieran Ng sat down opposite Ciel. The other demon was wearing sleek designer clothes, a cashmere grey sweater with leather patches slipped alluringly down from his bronzed shoulder.

Ciel blinked and looked down at his own plain cotton shirt that was missing a button. He shifted slightly, trying to position his text book so that it at least hid his inferior and clingy tail from view.

“Hi,” Kieran stated, cocking his head quizzically. “It’s Cael right?”

“Ciel,” Ciel corrected automatically.

“Right…” Kieran drawled disinterestedly. The other man’s pretty eyes flicked downwards at Ciel’s stomach, which was thankfully still completely flat. “So Jezebella swears she heard a rumour about you being pregnant–“ Kieran took a breath, gesticulating vaguely as he continued in a tone of voice one might use for discussing the weather. “And apparently you stole sperm from Vex Dubois –“

“I didn’t!” Ciel spluttered, sitting up too quickly against the bark of the tree and feeling it scratch abrasively across his back.

“Right,” Kieran drawled, clearly unconvinced, “but you’re pregnant?”

“I…yes,” Ciel admitted, there was no point in lying. He was being allowed to continue his studies at Nessus so sooner or later everyone was going to become aware of his condition.

“Like a male seahorse,” Kieran trilled, his smile looking strangely artificial. “That’s so cute – you are basically half fish aren’t you?”

Ciel bit his lip and looked stubbornly down at the ground. He didn’t want an argument with Kieran so it was probably better just to keep quiet.

“But is it Vex’s?” Kieran asked, leaning forwards and putting his arm above Ciel’s head. “I mean, everyone knows Vex gets around, I suppose it’s logical he would work his way down before coming back up again.”

For some reason the words stung in Ciel’s chest and he could feel his tail tighten even futher.

“But to actually get pregnant?” Kieran huffed a laugh, “That’s a serious ‘A grade’ gold digger move, I feel like they should give you a trophy or something.”

“Shut up,” Ciel snapped, jerking his head up at Kieran as the other man’s expression contorted indignantly.

“What did you just say to me?” Kieran hissed, the barbs on his perfectly manicured tail sliding out.

“I said shut up!” Ciel repeated, he could feel his cheeks heating, his small fangs piercing through his upper gums. “Stop acting like you’re better than me.”

“Whatever,” Kieran huffed, swinging back on his heels and starting to get up. “Fishy slut.”

Ciel screeched in anger, projecting himself forwards and scratching at any of Kieran’s exposed skin that he could reach.

Kieran let out a shout of surprise, fighting back and pricking Ciel’s ankles with his barbs before thwacking him hard across the face and sending Ciel skidding back across the grass.

Ciel yelped in pain and anger, tears flooding his vision before he launched himself at Kieran again, only to find himself restrained by some sort of immovable object.

Ciel shouted in shock as strong arms yanked him backwards, causing him to topple onto the floor.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Ciel looked up, his rapidly beating heart stopping in horror as he met the furious gaze of Vex Dubois.

“Your latest conquest attacked me,” Kieran announced, brushing himself off and viciously jabbing a finger at Ciel. “He’s fucking feral.”

“You spiny piece of-” Ciel began but snapped his mouth shut at the look Vex was giving him. The other man’s face was shadowed with anger and disgust. It wasn’t fair, Kieran had been saying such horrible things, deliberately provoking Ciel but all Vex had seen was Ciel acting like a bratty child.

“Get up,” Vex snapped, not waiting for Ciel to comply as he bent down to haul Ciel up by his arms. Ciel whimpered at the rough action, his shoulder popping in its socket. He found himself being promptly dragged along the garden, Vex storming out in front of him.

“W-Wait,” Ciel stammered. “Where are we going?”

“To see my father,” Vex stated grimly. “But we’ll have to clean you up first, you’re a fucking mess.”

Ciel pulled a face at the back of Vex’s head before sheepishly glancing down at himself. Vex was right, he did look to be in a horrible state.

There was blood across his shoes and grass stains on his elbows. Plus it seemed as if the scuffle had scraped off some of Ciel’s dry skin, leaving red raw patches that were probably rather unsightly to someone like Vex with his effortless honeyed complexion.

“Wait,” Ciel stopped dead in his tracks, jolting Vex to a halt with him. “Did you say your father?”

“That’s right,” Vex muttered. “Hurry up, we can’t risk running late. It already took an age to find you.”

Ciel let Vex tug him into the nearest bathrooms where the other man began dampening a cloth before turning round and regarding Ciel with an unimpressed frown.

Vex shook his head with a huff, tossing the cloth back into the sink, “Yeah, that’s not gonna do it. You need to strip and shower.”

“I –no, I’ll be fine,” Ciel protested, glancing round at the only showers in the bathrooms which were conspicuously exposed and lacking a door or curtain. 

“I’ve got some spare clothes here,” Vex shrugged off his expensive looking monogrammed leather satchel, ignoring Ciel as he pulled out some blue trousers and a dark green dress shirt that appeared alarmingly to be in Ciel’s size.

“I don’t want to meet your father,” Ciel blurted out nervously before he could stop himself. Vex paused and turned to Ciel, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Seriously?” Vex retorted angrily. “Do you have any idea of the immensity of the favour I’m doing you here?”

“I don’t need anything!” Ciel took a step backwards. “I haven’t asked you or your family for anything. Just…just leave me alone and I’ll do this pregnancy by myself. As soon as I graduate you’ll never hear from me again.”

“That’s a given,” Vex muttered, running his hands through his hair frustratedly, his metal rings clinking against his horns. “Look, this is for your sake okay? All my father knows so far is he had some ridiculous phone call from a lower class demon named Mrs. Cruxa –“

Ciel winced, it was definitely like his orphanage owner to try and cash in on anything she could.

“Telling him that I’ve impregnated some hapless ‘innocent’,” Vex finished before scoffing. “Although I’d say ‘innocent’ was a bit of a stretch wouldn’t you? The way you moved and moaned in that little dreamscape of yours was –“

Ciel snarled, throwing his fist forwards as quickly and viciously as he could only to find his hand enveloped by Vex’s.

The other man had blocked the punch like one would swat a pesky fly, but the look in Vex’s eyes was pure heat, distaste and scorn, it only made Ciel want to try again.

“Let go,” Ciel hissed, trying to retract his fist but finding it clenched like a vice in Vex’s grip. “I told you I didn’t cause the dream bridge you ass!”

“Are you going to embarrass yourself again or are you going to get ready?” Vex’s voice was cold and steady.

“Fine,” Ciel snapped, writhing to free himself of Vex’s grasp and refusing to show any sort of pain. “I’ll come with you and tell your father you didn’t do anything, that this was just a dream deviation –“

“No!”

Ciel blinked at the urgency of Vex’s tone.

“No,” Vex repeated, shaking his head and finally letting go of Ciel’s hand. “We need to convince him of the opposite. If Solomon thinks you did this with an incantation he’ll go crazy. Imagine if word gets out that all anyone needs is a spell to get knocked up with Dubois lineage. No, he’ll….he’ll do something to make sure that any knowledge of it doesn’t get out.”

“But I don’t even know how it happened!” Ciel’s eyes widened in fear. “It wasn’t my summons, it was just a mistake. I couldn’t reproduce it even if I tried.”

“He won’t believe you,” Vex insisted. “What he will believe is that I got horny and careless.”

Ciel felt himself blushing as he stared down at his still mucked up shoes. “Won’t he be angry?”

“Fucking furious,” Vex replied sombrely. “But it’s better this way. He’ll think he can just siphon some cash off to make you go away but if we pretend that I’m still into you then he’ll hold off until at least graduation.”

“I-In to me?” Ciel stammered, it might have been a trick of the light but it looked as if Vex had gone slightly red too.

“It’s the only way I can think of to stop him doing something awful,” Vex shrugged, affecting a nonchalant tone. “Unless you want to meet my father’s henchmen?”

“He has henchmen?” Ciel said faintly, starting to feel the bathroom spin around him. “Please, I didn’t ask for any of this. I promise I’m not going to tell anyone anything and I don’t want your money. Please just leave me alone.”

“I can’t,” Vex replied uncomfortably through gritted teeth. “You don’t know him, you don’t understand what will happen to you.”

“You –“ Ciel paused, “you didn’t care before.”

“What?” Vex huffed.

“In Elder Tomiko’s office,” Ciel murmured, feeling uncomfortably self-conscious, “when Dr. Blake said that termination would also kill the host and you said ‘well what’s wrong with that?’”

“Seriously?” Vex pulled a face. “Come on, I’d just been told that some stalker had managed to become irreversibly pregnant with my spawn – how do you think I felt?”

“I’m not a –“ Ciel began but Vex held up his hand.

“I know, so you say, you’re not a stalker. But why then did your dream summon me?” Vex asked.

Ciel swallowed thickly, he honestly had no answer for that. He couldn’t possibly tell Vex that it might be because Ciel had been crushing on him, that sounded so absurd now with what had happened.

Besides, Ciel had been wrong about Vex, he wasn’t kind at all – his notoriety had been exactly right, Vex Dubois was heartless, frightening and cold.

“Well?” Vex questioned, tapping his foot impatiently before pulling out his phone to check the time.

“I don’t know,” Ciel whispered quietly, the bathroom silent other than the steady dripping of one of the taps.

“Fine,” Vex rolled his eyes, “well until we can figure it out I’m not letting you out of my sight. For now though, get in the damn shower.”

Ciel winced as stripped and stood under the spray. He didn’t have any of his medicated oils with him and the chlorinated spray was only serving to further aggravate his skin.

Ciel looked up to check that Vex was still facing the other way before soaping  himself up and then drying himself gingerly with the towel that Vex had given him.

The clothes that Vex instructed Ciel to don, however, were incredibly soft against his smarting skin, much more pleasant than the fabric of most of Ciel’s wardrobe.

“I’m done,” Ciel sighed as Vex finally turned round and looking him assessingly up and down.

“Not great, but I suppose it will do,” Vex sighed as Ciel felt himself blush angrily.

“I’m not a dress up doll!” Ciel snapped, regretting it when he remembered that perhaps Vex really was only trying to help him.

“Yeah, I don’t think they make dolls that look like you,” Vex scoffed, turning to pick up his and Ciel’s bags and leaving the bathroom. Ciel let out a low exhalation to try and calm himself before looking in the mirror.

The dark green of the shirt seemed to make Ciel’s hair look even more blue than usual and complimented his coffee skin. The trousers were clearly tailored and the tail dip at the back was soft and the stitching hidden behind a suede patch.

“Oh,” Ciel breathed out in surprise, fidgeting a bit with the sleeves, not sure if he should roll them up or not.

“Are you coming or do you plan on staying in there until labour?” Vex called irritably through the doorway.

Ciel frowned, his eyes immediately snapping to his stomach, he cautiously lifted up the shirt to reveal that section of his body, still flat, almost concave with xylophone ribs protruding above.

Ciel hoisted the shirt even higher, revealing small, chocolate brown nipples as he tried to inspect his patches of dry skin.

“I said are you com-“ Vex barged through the door, trailing off as he caught sight of Ciel with his chest and stomach exposed. Ciel felt himself let out an aggrieved noise as he quickly yanked the shirt back down and stalked over to Vex.

“I’m here, stop shouting,” Ciel replied, refusing to meet Vex’s eyes.

“Right,” Vex coughed, “well let’s go then. He’s waiting in Tomiko’s office.”