Vex walked out of the bathroom after showering, his thick fluffy towel slung low around his hips. He glanced over to see if Ciel was watching but the other man was still fully engrossed in his book.

Vex frowned, Ciel still looked a complete state, angry blotches all over him and the rest of his body coated with a gelatinous layer of cream that was setting into a translucent paste.

Felix had even given them a separate ointment to go across Ciel’s scalp which had now seemingly dried and caused Ciel’s blue hair to stand up at all sorts of strange angles.

Part of Vex wanted to take a photo for posterity, but the other part remembered how watery and red-rimmed Ciel’s eyes had been after looking at himself in the mirror.

Vex hated how guilty he felt, he had honestly been trying to do something fun for both of them but in the end Ciel probably thought he had done it on purpose. Vex hadn’t even asked Felix if it would be okay due to his own stubborn pride when it came to his cousin.

Vex sighed, stretching out on his bed and pulling up his phone, searching for information about freshwater aquatic demons. He couldn’t believe that after a century of life, Ciel didn’t have the first clue about his own physiology. Vex had barely been born when his father had ordered a full work up of genetic information.

Lineage was paramount to the older demon families and your dominant type dictated a lot of your life and opportunities ahead of you. The fact that Vex had just tipped the scales to be a shadow dominant had meant that his father never bothered to remarry or produce any other official offspring.

Shadows always inherited in the Dubois line but they were rare, only occurring when both parents were firmly of that type. It was also why Solomon would never couple with another shadow halfling lest he create unwanted contention for the inheritance.  

All they knew about Ciel was what Felix’s blood tests had shown, that he was an aquatic-human coupling with no other demon ancestry.

Vex scrolled down a webpage on freshwater demonology, he wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that they were much rarer than their saltwater counterparts. Their natural habitats tended to be tropical countries with high humidity, quite different to where Nessus was situated with its alpine climate and high elevation.

Vex wondered how Ciel would do in the tropics - would his body suit that sort of environment? Vex thought back to a holiday he had gone on once to Phhentlego, a beautiful paradise destination of jungle clad hills and steamy, mangrove bordered lakes.

Would Ciel ever want to go somewhere like that? Vex wondered if after the Neandate Islands he could book a trip for them.

Your due date is the sixteenth of March

Vex blinked back into reality. After they returned from the islands there would only be a few months left of this arrangement anyway. After March, Vex would have absolutely nothing to do with Ciel.

Vex glanced back over to Ciel’s bed. The other man had evidently fallen asleep despite it only being mid afternoon. His book was balanced on his gently rising and falling chest whilst Ciel’s eyes had closed and his mouth had dropped open, pale blue lips still slightly swollen.

Ciel was wearing oversized silk pyjamas that belonged to Vex, it was the only attire they could find that wouldn’t aggravate the allergic reaction further nor rub off all the medicated cream. Vex stood up and wandered over to the other man, carefully extracting the discarded book and placing it on a side table.

Some of Ciel’s metallic azure bangs had stuck down to his forehead along with the gel. Vex moved to push them to one side but they must have been fixed firmer than he realised as a confused furrow appeared across Ciel’s brow and the smaller demon’s quicksilver eyes cracked open in confusion.

“What are you doing?” Ciel grumbled.

“You look like a fish someone gave up battering and breading halfway through,” Vex replied automatically. “I feel like I should fetch some tartar sauce.”

“You’re a jerk,” Ciel yawned, but thankfully he didn’t seem too offended. “Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

Vex scoffed, checking that his towel was still firmly secured across his hips. “Thought I’d give you a treat to wake up to.”

“Ugh,” Ciel groaned, batting Vex’s smirking face away and accidentally smearing him with congealing cream. “Next time don’t, I’d like to at least try to keep my breakfast down today.”

“Please,” Vex rolled his eyes, “most students here would give their right horn to wake up next to this.”

“I wouldn’t have thought waking up next to anyone would be your style,” Ciel grouched, looking put out as he evidently gave up on going back to sleep and instead shuffled himself further up the bed, glaring at Vex. “Don’t you just sneak out under the cover of darkness lest you turn into a pumpkin?”

“Cute,” Vex drawled. “So relationships are all love and rainbows for you are they my little prude?”

“Fuck off,” Ciel muttered, his purple blush showing even under the patches of cream.

“No, I’m interested,” Vex laughed. “Do you like your suitors to woo you with flowers and pure intentions?”

“Nothing wrong with flowers,” Ciel shrugged. Vex’s mind flickered back to the yellow rose gifted by Felix and his jaw clenched. He didn’t understand why Felix was being so over familiar with Ciel but he was pretty sure it went beyond simply wanting to wind Vex up.

Unfortunately, Ciel seemed very comfortable with his doctor. Something oddly like jealousy splintered through Vex’s chest as he wondered if the other demon might be harbouring feelings akin to a crush?

It placated Vex somewhat to know that Felix never got to see Ciel sprawled out on his bed like this, completely unguarded as he drifted off with his nose in a book.

Felix never heard the way Ciel hummed tunelessly to himself when completing his university assignments or got to laugh when the pens that Ciel regularly chewed on invariably leaked and splattered all over him.

“Shouldn’t you be at your business lecture?” Ciel asked, changing the subject.

“I’m taking the day off,” Vex sighed, strolling over to his wardrobe and reaching inside for some sweats whilst dropping the towel. Once he had pulled on some comfortable charcoal pants he glanced round to see Ciel staring intently at his hands, looking faintly embarrassed.

Vex smirked triumphantly and decided against a shirt as he sauntered back to his bed and sprawled lazily across the sheets.

“Kane will take notes for me,” Vex yawned, reaching out his arm behind his head and staring absently up at the ceiling.

The old metal radiators had clicked on about an hour ago and now the quarters were toasty warm. Vex wasn’t surprised Ciel had managed to fall asleep already, he half considered just doing the same.

“How long is the flight to the Neandate Islands?” Ciel asked as Vex craned his head round to look at the other man.

“About four hours,” Vex replied, “Maybe just under.”

“What do you do on flights?” Ciel was now sat cross legged, applying some more cream to his neck and throat, the black silk pyjamas having slipped down his left shoulder. “Vex?”

“What? Um, oh, whatever I guess, sleep, rest, watch a movie,” Vex shrugged. A knock on the door made them both look round. Vex frowned, jumping up and moving to open it, revealing a bored looking demon with a shaved head.

“I’m on post duty this week,” the demon sighed, handing Vex a sealed envelope whose handwriting he already recognised with dread.

“Thanks,” Vex muttered, shutting the door again and walking back over to the bed.

“Is that a letter?” Ciel asked with clear interest. It was pretty unusual to get handwritten mail nowadays but Vex knew it was Solomon Dubois’ way of making sure he could use the family seal as often as possible.

The lacerated demon skull hemmed in by two charging wolves was firmly stamped into a thick puddle of blood red wax. In fact so much of the wax had been used that it had dripped down the back of the envelope in undulating rivulets of maroon. It was, in Vex’s opinion, obscenely ostentatious, not to mention outdated.  

“My father,” Vex replied. He saw Ciel’s posture turn tense out of the corner of his eye. Vex stared at the letter for a few more moments before opening it. “Great,” Vex scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“What – what is it?” Ciel asked nervously, probably wondering if Solomon had changed his mind about giving Vex his one favour and decided to get rid of Ciel after all. Vex knew though that if that were the case the Dubois patriarch wouldn’t bother writing a letter about it.

“He’s attending the Saturnalia Ball,” Vex sighed, “and apparently my aunt Natalia is coming too, she’s Felix’s mother. They’re both alumni of both the university and the Lethe Society.”

“Oh,” Ciel stated, evidently unsure how to react.

“It means he’ll expect me to go too,” Vex rolled his eyes. Normally he and Kane skipped the Saturnalia Staff, Students and Alumni Ball in favour of going drinking in the city but it looked like that wasn’t going to be an option this year.

“I don’t have to go do I?” Ciel asked tentatively.

“God no,” Vex snorted. “Whilst I can get my father to leave you alone by pretending to be sleeping with you he would probably kill me if I turned up with you for any sort of public engagement.”

“Right,” Ciel’s voice was cold as Vex looked up in surprise. He hadn’t meant to offend the other demon, he had just thought that conclusion was obvious. 

“Oh come on,” Vex teased lightly, “spending an evening socialising with my father can’t exactly be your idea of fun.”

Ciel’s shoulders seemed to droop a little, “No, I guess not.”

“Plus we leave for the islands the next day,” Vex added, “You’ll want to get to bed early and be the only non hung-over demon on the plane.”

Ciel nodded, chewing on his swollen lip as he picked his book back up.

Vex watched him for a few moments with a frown before sighing and going back to scrolling on his phone.