Sebastian Michaelis x Reader - String of Pearls

“You know it’s unbecoming for a lady such as yourself to be seen with her makeup running down her face,” Sebastian Michaelis said in his so typically smooth and educated voice. The woman in address jolted at the sound of his words, banging her knee on the underside of the tabletop in her attempt to scramble to her feet.

“S-Sebastian!” she stuttered nervously, hobbling on her now aching joint to stand and face him. “I-I didn’t know—” she started to blurt out while she harshly wiped at the smudged mascara coating her cheeks. Cutting her words short, she realize she was once again trying to come up with a lie to feed him: an action that, without fail, would always fail. There was something eerily knowledgeable about the tall, dark, shadowing man. Something that left every person he encountered with the impression that there was more to him than he could ever let on – a secret, perhaps, that only he and his privileged Master would ever know. “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll go wipe it off now,” she said lowly, her head hung low as she made to walk around him.

“[Name], is something the matter?” the dark haired male said, his hand circling easily around her upper arm and stopping her from going any further. Her heart beat a little unevenly in her chest at the contact, and even more so on the question he asked.

“N-No sir, everything’s fine,” she lied in a tone that was so unconvincing, even Finny wouldn’t have believed her. She hated the anxious mess she became when he was around, and wished she had the willpower to snap out of the trance he seemingly vexed her with and regain her sanity. But his eyes; there was something otherworldly about them that left her feeling breathless.

And then she made the stupid mistake of looking at his face and seeing that expression which clearly stated he would not be tolerating any of her piss poor lies, and the truth came pouring out. All of her embarrassing tale of having gone to town earlier that day to buy more groceries for the manor, and how on the trek home she’d been mugged by a band of boyish thugs who took all the food, the remaining money she carried on her, and the very string of pearls she wore around her neck.

When it was all said and out in the open, instead of an uncomfortable spell of silence that she had mentally prepped herself for, the butler didn’t miss a beat and spoke, “Oh, really now [Name]. What ever will I do with you?” With the delicacy of a bee landing on a flower he lifted her chin to be looking at him once again as he gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t waste such high quality mascara over matters as trivial as that. Now why don’t you go set the table for dinner tonight?” Pulling his hands back to himself, he turned and headed for the door. “I have some business to attend to, but will return soon.”

And with nothing more than the sight of his tailcoats blurring, he was gone. [E/C] eyes blinked owlishly at the spot the man had just been before she recomposed enough of her mind to wipe the makeup stains from her face and do as was told.

Later on that evening, after dinner was done and the master had been put to bed, [Name] stood in the kitchen finishing up her job on the dishes when she felt something cold slide down her neck and over her collarbones. Letting out a slight gasp of shock, she looked down to find her pearls being fasted back to their rightful place.

“I don’t know why you didn’t come to me earlier about your little run in, [Name],” Sebastian said soothingly, his lips lingering just beside her ear. “You are apart of the Phantomhive household, and that means you can always lean on me.” The gloved hands of the tall man glided up the sides of arms, sending a chill down her spine. “Understand?”

The only answer she could give was a weak hum in the back of her throat.