21_days | 21 Days of Kuroshitsuji Party Post!

Welcome to 21 Days of Kuroshitsuji!

Put on your party hats - it’s time for the Dead Phantomhives Memorial Party! It’s a prompt meme, it’s a kink meme, it’s a fandom party celebration! Sure Ciel isn't dead yet, but who cares? Let’s immortalize the Phantomhive clan with a whole lot of art and fic!

Discussion Post | Admin Post

Schedule

Day 1 - October 4 - Prompts! You will have seven days to put as many prompts as you'd like on this post. And if you start writing them early, well that's just good planning!
Day 8 - October 11 - Prompting ends, posting begins! You have 14 days to write, draw, and potentially diorama as many prompts as you can. Our AO3 Collection is now open and anonymous.
Day 19 - October 23 - This is the cut-off day for prompters to reply to any questions about their prompt. Unanswered questions are considered enthusiastic agreement.
Day 21 - October 24 - Last day of posting! All fills must be posted by 11:59 PM North American Mountain Time.
Day 22 - October 25 - Party time! You now have the option of unanoning in whatever manner you please. Our AO3 Collection is now unanon and will remain open.

(Click on the dates for countdowns; the fest is following MDT/Mountain Time)

Rules

For the purposes of this fest, the prompts themselves are considered warnings. If you have issues with this policy, we recommend either not participating or using Dreamwidth blocker.
MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Posting unanon will be deleted. This doesn't mean you aren't welcome here! If you'd like the content of your comment back, contact us at the MOD CALL post.
For Prompters and Readers

Subject lines should include the series, characters and/or pairing you want. Feel free to be as descriptive as you'd like. Warnings aren't required, but they also aren't banned.
You don't have to write or draw. It's anon, there's no IP-tracking, and we aren't going to stalk you.
Do not comment on other people's prompts to try and change pairings or characters. Post your own version with the characters you want instead.
If you fail to respond to a 'is this okay?' kind of question about any of your prompts by the 19th day, it'll be taken as an enthusiastic yes, no matter what the question is.
There are no subject bans. You may prompt anything you want.
If you don't want to answer any questions, say so. That will work as blanket permission for anything people might want to do with your prompt.

For Artists and Writers

No claiming prompts, please, as multiple fills are welcome!
Minimum wordcount per fill is 100 words.
All content is allowed and all warnings are optional, but if you want to write or draw extreme kinks** for a prompt that doesn’t specifically request them, you have ask the prompter first.
If the artist requests it, the mods will repost art fills as an embedded picture in a reply to their comment. NSFW art will be labelled as such in the subject line by re-posting mods. Art involving underaged characters in porn situations will not be re-posted as an embed.

** "extreme kinks" for the purposes of this exchange include but are not necessarily limited to: extreme underage, major character death, scat/watersports/emetophilia, extreme gore, and bestiality. Please use reasonable discretion, and ask a mod if you have any questions!

For Everyone

This is a Choose Not to Warn fest. At no point will any comment be deleted for failure to warn of its content in the subject lines. They will be deleted for rampaging dickery and failure to follow the rules.

Unanon comments will be deleted.
Attempts at policing other people's fun will be deleted.
Prompts posted after the end of the 7th day will be deleted.
Links to off-meme posts posted prior to end of the 21st day will be deleted.
Concerns are to be directed to the Admin post. If posted here, they will be deleted. Fills that have spectacularly failed to fulfill the prompt/been posted to the wrong spot will be screened. You can request a copy of your work at the Admin post.

The rules may change without warning in response to unforeseen circumstances, like us thinking of better ones.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And here's the end of it :)

~

The man at his side laughed, but Ciel was no longer paying him attention. He set his glass on the table and forced himself to walk slowly across the room. Regardless of the role he played, it would be unbecoming to stomp his feet like a child out of jealousy. And of course, he wasn’t jealous, he told himself. He was upset. He was right to be upset. Sebastian was disrespecting their bargain, and therefore disrespecting Ciel, his lord and master.

Sebastian glanced up at his approach. He smiled, but did not pull away from Lady Dahlia.

“Darling,” said Sebastian, eyes dancing. “Is something the matter?”

Lady Dahlia turned her bright eyes to him too, and Ciel realized he had no idea what to say. He didn’t know if anyone else was listening. He didn’t care. All he wanted was for Sebastian to step back and for the woman to remove her impertinent hand from his butler’s arm. He was flushed with the wine—not with embarrassment—and his mind too muddled to divert the subject. His marked eyes stung behind the patch.

The best he could do was say, “I thought you’d find me when you returned.” And if he placed undue emphasis on the word me, if his voice was high with nerves, well, he’d die before confessing it.

Lady Dahlia’s slim fingers tightened on Sebastian’s sleeve, then let go. “So this is your Ciel,” she said to Sebastian. She was almost of a height with the demon, and spoke right over Ciel’s head. “I can’t believe you left him alone with this rude lot.”

Sebastian turned his smile back towards her. “I was barely gone a moment,” he said.

Ciel had never so desperately wanted even a few inches more of height, to at least reach Sebastian’s shoulders. Maybe if he didn’t look like such a child, he wouldn’t be ignored like one—and yes, so he’d wanted to slip unnoticed through the night. But not like this. Not by Sebastian.

Scowling, on the verge of storming from the room, he corrected, “It’s been twenty minutes, at least. My lord.” He tried to spit the last words, but they came out a shade too plaintive. Almost whining.

A thrill of victory twisted inside him as Sebastian stepped towards him. The familiar intrusion into his personal space was at once comforting and frightening. “You’re so impatient,” teased Sebastian, and that was nothing new, he always teased. Just—just never with quite that predatory look in his eyes.

Ciel wondered how foolish Sebastian’s conquests must be, not to flee in the face of that hungry gaze. How foolish he was, to stand still now.

The girl laughed. "Oh, do make it up to the boy. He's so sincere, it's utterly charming."

"Did you hear that?" asked Sebastian, fingers light along Ciel's jaw as he spluttered. "She thinks you're sincere, little minx."

There was a moment, as Sebastian bent towards him. A breath of pause in which he could turn aside and escape the touch. It would be the smart thing to do. There was only so far he was obliged to go for sake of a stupid ruse the damned demon wasn’t even playing. He could step back.

Instead, he stood still, and closed his eyes as Sebastian kissed him.

He’d been kissed before, but never like this. Never gently, never cool fingers cupped along his cheek, never a choice to stand or flee. Never his own hand free to clutch at Sebastian’s shoulder, to claw his own mark. The sweetness and promise of shadow and blood. Soft lips, touch of tongue, stuttering heartbeat—he could live without air if he only had this.

He’d been wrong, he thought dizzily. If this was a kiss, he’d never been kissed before.

Only when Sebastian pulled away did Ciel remember the rest of the room’s inhabitants. Flushed, he looked around—the crowd had dwindled, and every lordling, poet, and starving actor in the room looked away with a smile when he met their gaze.

They didn’t matter, Ciel realized, heart pounding, as if Sebastian’s touch had restored him to clarity. Every man and woman in this room was either a traitor or a fool, and they’d all burn alike by the end of this. He didn’t have to care what the not-yet-dead might think of him. Not when he found himself so fascinated with the dark fondness in Sebastian’s eyes.

Ciel sank inward to his thoughts, though he remained the image of compliance as Sebastian traded a few last pleasantries with Lady Dahlia, conferred briefly with their contact, and led Ciel from the salon.

Sebastian had played him, Ciel mused, but now he could see the breadth of the game. The ruse had been flawed right from the start. These drugged-out artists weren’t the type to respect prior commitments. Not a completely useless scheme—it was a good enough excuse for Ciel’s presence—but Sebastian had framed in terms of protection and then neglected him. The demon had wanted Ciel to feel affronted. The demon had wanted Ciel to seek him out.

The demon had wanted Ciel.

So the cold demon could not resist all temptation after all. He kept himself, starving, from Ciel’s soul, yet now he schemed for flesh as well. Sebastian knew so many of Ciel’s weaknesses, and Ciel knew so few of his, but perhaps he could somehow exploit this hunger. Play the touch-starved child of nightmares, build up his shame in a wall to be torn down. Learn something of Sebastian to even the scales

And if Ciel got lost in kiss or two along the way, well, he supposed that couldn’t be helped.

As Sebastian helped him into the carriage, Ciel let his bare hand linger just a breath too long in the butler’s gloved grasp. “I’d like a bath,” he said, “when we get home.”

Sebastian climbed into the carriage behind him. His smile was cold, but his voice burned like embers: “Yes, my lord,” he said, and closed the door.

This was fantastic, anon! I love that both of them are such scheming bastards. It's just like Ciel to realize his butler engineered the whole evening in order to take a liberty with him, and rather than getting upset, immediately begin planning how to turn the situation back to his advantage again. And that kiss! What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for that bath later!

I also really enjoyed your writing throughout this whole piece. Your prose relies on a few well-chosen details to pack a punch, and never felt cliched or overstated at all.

Thank you so much for filling my prompt!

A!A

You're so kind! Thank you -- and thank you especially for prompting this, it's one of my absolute favorite tropes and it works perfectly with Sebastian and Ciel's particular life :)

21 Days of Kuroshitsuji Party Post!

Re: Ciel/Sebastian - Fake romance - FILL - 3/3

Re: Ciel/Sebastian - Fake romance - FILL - 3/3

Re: Ciel/Sebastian - Fake romance - FILL - 3/3