Kuroshitsuji ficlet: Dexterity
Mar. 29th, 2010 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasse874 words. Hints of Sebastian/Maylene.
Cracking eggs & balancing make-believe against reality.
Dexterity
Disclaimer: Black Butler belongs to Toboso Yana, G-Fantasy and others.
+++++++++
There’s a trick that Sebastian performs with an egg and only one hand, a trick that is more about displaying dexterity than efficiency while cooking. It is, so he’s found, far quicker to break an egg using both hands and toss the shell aside than position it carefully in one hand and use three fingers to pry the egg open like a door hinge. The trick to breaking an egg efficiently is to pull the hinged shell aside as if you’re bending it back on itself so that the contents falls neatly into the pan. Pressing your fingertips into the fracture to pry it apart is only a quick way to scatter fragmented shell across the albumin as the egg spreads out into the pan.
Still, occasionally in the early morning when he makes breakfast for whoever else is awake at that time he often finds himself utilising that foolish egg breaking trick if only because it delights Maylene. On mornings like that they are the only two people in the kitchen: he because duty dictates that he rise earlier than everybody else and Maylene because she forgot to set an alarm and is afraid to go back to sleep for fear that she’ll not get up till ten. She’s makes appropriately impressed noises every time an egg cracks and sits at the table, chin propped in her hands watching him. She cannot see through the thick lenses of her glasses but her delight is genuine enough that he suspects that she can either see his distorted outline well enough or that she is, more slyly, watching him over the tops of those ill-fitting frames. It is always the latter idea that brings a smile to his lips.
It’s a particularly cold morning while they’re alone together again when the idea strikes him to change the pattern of those mornings just a little. This time instead of performing that little trick for Maylene’s benefit he tells her to come try it herself and after an appropriately flustered response she does approach the stove. Then she tries to pick an egg from the bowl and almost drops it all at once.
“Just take the egg in your hand normally.”
She does but thick, reflective lenses turn to him managing to convey an expression of utter incomprehension without any of the nuances of human eyes.
He picks up an egg himself. “Now hold it like this.” Demonstrating the balance between four fingers with three poised for necessary movement.
This time she does drop the egg but he manages to catch it before it hits the ground.
“Ahhh, I can’t…”
He puts both eggs back into the bowl and considers how best to proceed. Then he retrieves one egg and places it back in her hand. Still that won’t work any better than before so he steps in close, covering her hand with his and carefully positions her fingers.
She blushes and he wonders if she’s entirely distracted now as humans sometimes can be by such things. Yet somehow, distraction or otherwise, between the two of them they manage to quite smoothly crack the egg into the hot pan. Two more follow, after which Sebastian suspects that it might be possible to change the pattern of those rare mornings completely.
It is a warm, almost tropical summer by the time things have entirely changed. Maylene stands at the stove cooking breakfast, the kitchen windows are wide open and Sebastian sits at the table, shirtsleeves rolled up and smoking a cigarette. He shouldn’t be smoking in the kitchen itself but the windows are open and there’s breeze enough to carry the traces away. It’s too early for anybody else but Maylene to know anyway and since she hasn’t told before there’s no reason she’d start now. She cracks eggs into the pan with a flourish, skilfully in a manner that even Sebastian with his advantageously larger hand span hadn’t managed. He smiles at that as he watches, holding cigarette between forefinger and thumb like a workman use to shielding the tobacco from the wind. He’s so absorbed by the sight of her that he doesn’t hear anything until a footstep behind him sounds most audibly. He doesn’t bother turning, it will be one of the servants, so he is surprised to hear a rare, soft chuckle from his master. Oddly, before he can leap to his feet or hide the cigarette, Ciel turns away again.
“It will keep.” Is the Earl’s comment as he exits the kitchen.
Sebastian considers that and recognises that something has evidently changed, perhaps not just with Ciel but with himself as well. It is after all a very human thing to do, to sit about in shirtsleeves and smoke idly in the kitchen: something a human butler might do when he is secure and comfortable in his situation. He supposes a human butler might also develop human feelings for another servant too.
Maylene sets his breakfast in front of him and mutters half to herself that they ought to get in more kippers soon. He stubs his cigarette out in the small saucer beside his plate and ponders the nature of human feelings… until Maylene reminds him that his breakfast is getting cold.
++++++++++
Cracking eggs & balancing make-believe against reality.
Dexterity
Disclaimer: Black Butler belongs to Toboso Yana, G-Fantasy and others.
+++++++++
There’s a trick that Sebastian performs with an egg and only one hand, a trick that is more about displaying dexterity than efficiency while cooking. It is, so he’s found, far quicker to break an egg using both hands and toss the shell aside than position it carefully in one hand and use three fingers to pry the egg open like a door hinge. The trick to breaking an egg efficiently is to pull the hinged shell aside as if you’re bending it back on itself so that the contents falls neatly into the pan. Pressing your fingertips into the fracture to pry it apart is only a quick way to scatter fragmented shell across the albumin as the egg spreads out into the pan.
Still, occasionally in the early morning when he makes breakfast for whoever else is awake at that time he often finds himself utilising that foolish egg breaking trick if only because it delights Maylene. On mornings like that they are the only two people in the kitchen: he because duty dictates that he rise earlier than everybody else and Maylene because she forgot to set an alarm and is afraid to go back to sleep for fear that she’ll not get up till ten. She’s makes appropriately impressed noises every time an egg cracks and sits at the table, chin propped in her hands watching him. She cannot see through the thick lenses of her glasses but her delight is genuine enough that he suspects that she can either see his distorted outline well enough or that she is, more slyly, watching him over the tops of those ill-fitting frames. It is always the latter idea that brings a smile to his lips.
It’s a particularly cold morning while they’re alone together again when the idea strikes him to change the pattern of those mornings just a little. This time instead of performing that little trick for Maylene’s benefit he tells her to come try it herself and after an appropriately flustered response she does approach the stove. Then she tries to pick an egg from the bowl and almost drops it all at once.
“Just take the egg in your hand normally.”
She does but thick, reflective lenses turn to him managing to convey an expression of utter incomprehension without any of the nuances of human eyes.
He picks up an egg himself. “Now hold it like this.” Demonstrating the balance between four fingers with three poised for necessary movement.
This time she does drop the egg but he manages to catch it before it hits the ground.
“Ahhh, I can’t…”
He puts both eggs back into the bowl and considers how best to proceed. Then he retrieves one egg and places it back in her hand. Still that won’t work any better than before so he steps in close, covering her hand with his and carefully positions her fingers.
She blushes and he wonders if she’s entirely distracted now as humans sometimes can be by such things. Yet somehow, distraction or otherwise, between the two of them they manage to quite smoothly crack the egg into the hot pan. Two more follow, after which Sebastian suspects that it might be possible to change the pattern of those rare mornings completely.
It is a warm, almost tropical summer by the time things have entirely changed. Maylene stands at the stove cooking breakfast, the kitchen windows are wide open and Sebastian sits at the table, shirtsleeves rolled up and smoking a cigarette. He shouldn’t be smoking in the kitchen itself but the windows are open and there’s breeze enough to carry the traces away. It’s too early for anybody else but Maylene to know anyway and since she hasn’t told before there’s no reason she’d start now. She cracks eggs into the pan with a flourish, skilfully in a manner that even Sebastian with his advantageously larger hand span hadn’t managed. He smiles at that as he watches, holding cigarette between forefinger and thumb like a workman use to shielding the tobacco from the wind. He’s so absorbed by the sight of her that he doesn’t hear anything until a footstep behind him sounds most audibly. He doesn’t bother turning, it will be one of the servants, so he is surprised to hear a rare, soft chuckle from his master. Oddly, before he can leap to his feet or hide the cigarette, Ciel turns away again.
“It will keep.” Is the Earl’s comment as he exits the kitchen.
Sebastian considers that and recognises that something has evidently changed, perhaps not just with Ciel but with himself as well. It is after all a very human thing to do, to sit about in shirtsleeves and smoke idly in the kitchen: something a human butler might do when he is secure and comfortable in his situation. He supposes a human butler might also develop human feelings for another servant too.
Maylene sets his breakfast in front of him and mutters half to herself that they ought to get in more kippers soon. He stubs his cigarette out in the small saucer beside his plate and ponders the nature of human feelings… until Maylene reminds him that his breakfast is getting cold.
++++++++++
