(closed) That's not the beginning of the end

[sweetlies]

who: Ciel & Undertaker
what: Fighting
when: 1/2/2018
where: Their home
warnings: N/A (will update if necessary)

He hadn't had a good day. With the end of the year, and starting a new venture for Funtom, he'd been overwhelmed with work and came home, passing out of the couch without a thought. Ciel had only managed to kick off his shoes before sleep had taken him. And, tired as he was, he'd have thought it would be a quiet nap, no nightmares or even a dream but he wasn't that lucky. Of course he wasn't. No, he went back to That Month in his dreams and woke panicked, covered in a cold sweat.

His go-to solution was a cup of tea, frowning at the kettle at the water heated. As if it would make it heat faster.

Comments

[somakemelaugh]

He could say that the day had gone well for him. He could also say little elves had sprouted out of the woodwork and had helped him to clean the shop and make the tea and make the coffee and the pastries and all and it would have been no less a lie. But after first having the coffee machine break down and no way or knowledge of how to fix it - he'd later learned that it would require a specialist to repair, and he was glad as he would not have tried to touch it anyway - and then having faced the line of customers who had been addicted to the stuff like regular visitors to the opium dens back home and had been quite cross with having no taste of their drug, well...

It hadn't gone well, and it left him longing for his days in the mortuary where unhappy customers were only upset that their loved ones had gone in for their eternal rest and chose not to lash out at him, but rather to collapse into tears. Sorrow was easy to deal with. Anger thrown in his direction was another story entirely. He'd fielded it all with his usual smiles and sincere apologies, but in his chest it made him burn, and there was nothing funny about it.

He took the long way home that day, hoping to shake the feeling before he returned to see the faces of the only two people in the world who meant anything to him, but it lingered as he stepped in through the front door. Even the sight of Ciel in the kitchen as he hung his coat over the back of a chair did little to lift the grousing in him under the grin. "Milord, I'm home. Making tea, are you?"

[sweetlies]

He tried to manage a smile for Undertaker when he came in but it felt like it came out more as a grimace than much else. A part of him was bothered by the fact that he couldn't even manage a smile for the man but it wasn't enough to shift his mood. And that just added a little layer of irritation on top of everything else.

Still, he reached for and extra cup and another teabag. Even if his mood was foul, he was still a gentleman. And Undertaker had been there for him more than enough times.

"Mm. Long day, I thought tea might help." And he was tired, physically and mentally. He didn't want to try sleeping again with nightmares just waiting in the shadows of his mind for another chance to plague him.

[somakemelaugh]

He pulled a chair out from under the table and dropped himself into it, little care in his mind for how he landed in it, and watched the boy tend to the kettle. It wasn't lost on him that his mood should have been shaken at least a little by now, but still wasn't, even as he grinned a little too widely to make up for it.

"Tea fixes everything, doesn't it?" One elbow went to the table top and his chin against the back of his knuckles. "Hot tea, few biscuits, and the world spins again."

[sweetlies]

"It can help, at least." Sometimes. "Better than nothing at all."

And it would keep him awake, or at least keep him alert enough to get through the rest of the day.

He didn't miss that Undertaker seemed to be in no better a mood, the way he settled down. The water heated, Ciel poured them both a cup and set the tea bags into the water, setting both on the table for them.

[somakemelaugh]

He sighs quietly and sets his hat on a space on the table beside him, quietly thanking Ciel for the cup and tea, and lifts the tag on the string to bob his tea in the water to let it soak. "Maybe we should bathe in it then, hm? We're in terrible moods, no sense in hiding it."

As if to prove that point, he let out a cackle, almost enjoying it, if he'd felt any different. But he needed the laugh. "Get a nice, big tub. What do they call them? The big ones here? Hot tubs? That, yes. Fill it with any tea you like and jump right in, scalding hot. Do the self a favor."

[sweetlies]

He wanted to laugh, it would normally be a funny mental imagine. Not just then though. No. Exhaustion, irritation at the days work, nightmares during what he'd hoped would be a short nap, no. Nothing had lined up right.

"What a waste of good tea." He made a face, almost offended at the idea of tea being used like that. Although, he had to concede that Undertaker was right about him being in a terrible mood. He did wonder what could have put Undertaker in a poor mood though. It was so rare.

[somakemelaugh]

What it was seemed so trivial he hadn't a mind to talk about it, and Ciel wasn't offering his side of the story either, so he kept with his wiles, wondering over a hot tub of scalding tea and he or Ciel hopping right on into one. "Much as we drink it it might be. Half this city prefers coffee over the leaf it seems and I wonder honestly if we're the only house that gives those poor salesmen an income."

Something about that made him laugh again after a moment, and he knew then his humor was overcompensating for his mood. It would level out. It always did. He just needed time. "Maybe we'll throw a few biscuits in for the sake of it. Never had a chance to back home and even with your income I don't think we ever will."