Alois x Ciel short -- Chains

"It's horrible, isn't it?" Ciel leaned back against Alois. "Knowing that your butler will never love you like you love him?"

Alois looked at the platform they were chained together on, his eyes clouded with sadness. "You're lucky, you know? You and Sebastian have it great."

Ciel laughed. "That's what it seems like, doesn't it?" He shifted his position, moving his hand away from Alois's.

"We aren't anything," he said after a while. "Sebastian is devilishly handsome, but he is a demon, never to understand humans, or their emotions."

Alois was shaking, his whole body in pain. "They're fighting for you, you know..."

Ciel, for once, felt some sympathy for Trancy. Of course, he had tried to kill him numerous times, but he had been a sex slave, and had lost his own brother in a fire when he was just a boy.

'I lost my parents, too,' he thought dryly. 'I was also a slave. But my hatred makes me who I am. Alois is not like that. He is more, he longs for love. Claude will never be able to give that to him.'

Ciel leaned his head back. "Sebastian will not be happy," he murmured, turning his head slightly to look at his company.

Alois nodded. "So I understand," he replied.

Ciel felt his heart twist in pity. 'He has Hannah,' he thought. 'As well as Luca.'

Ciel couldn't believe what he was doing, but he moved his hand back, intertwining his fingers with Alois's. Alois said nothing, but Ciel felt him tighten the grip on his hand, and heard a small but content sigh.

"I hope, where you go, you're loved," Ciel muttered. Alois was unable to turn around, but he leaned back on Ciel, and Ciel smiled. It wasn't a smile of vengeance or victory, but just a smile. Knowing his enemy ... no, friend...was going somewhere he would be happy again was enough to comfort him. For now.

"You'll get to spend eternity with your butler," Alois pointed out. "Won't you be happy?"

Ciel shrugged, not moving his hand. "Is there such a thing as true happiness?"

Alois gripped as tight as he possibly could.

"No," he replied. "Much like now, there are chains that restrain us. There are locks, and boundaries, and restraints. But we can get very close." He felt Ciel tense, and knew every emotion going through his body.

"Alois..."

But he was already gone.