Narrator's POV

With the diary completely read, Ciel sighed.

He knew the chance he would successfully escape was slim to none —not with his sickly, asthmatic body.

So, deciding the best plan was to play along, he put the diary back in its spot and reviewed its contents in his mind.

Ciel would have to play the part of 'Mother' and 'Wife' well, he needed to garner enough trust that he could escape and not get caught.

Maybe he could find a map or something that could tell him how far away the next town was, get the police involved and get away.

***

An hour later, Sebastian returned and unchained him from the bed, carrying him downstairs to the dining room.

Sebastian set him down on the chair beside the one at the head of the table.

Sebastian sat at that seat, showing his potion as the head of the house.

A few moments passed and the girls entered from the kitchen, Alois holding a pitcher, Lizzy holding a baking tray and Sieglinde holding a serving bowl.

Once the items were on the table, Ciel looked at the meal: it was honey baked salmon with mashed potatoes.

Lizzy sat across from him, Alois beside her and Sieglinde parked her wheelchair beside Ciel.

Ciel couldn't recall the last time he and his parents had eaten a meal together at the table, usually they ate take-out separately.

After a moment of waiting for the others to begin eating, Ciel realized all eyes were on him.

"Y-Yes?" He stuttered

"Mummy eats first!" The kids informed, waiting for him to serve himself

Ciel hesitantly picked up the spatula laying beside the pan of fish and picked out the one in the center, putting it on his plate before getting a serving of potatoes.

Now that he had selected what he wanted, Sebastian selected his portion and then the girls did so.

The blunette began to eat, realizing that they wouldn't be saying grace, the fish tasted really good but the mashed potatoes tasted a bit...meaty?

After dinner, the girls rushed back to the kitchen and returned with a dessert resting on a white lazy susan.

The cake was beautiful in a strange way, it was a simple white cake that had melted chocolate on top of it instead of frosting, written with white chocolate on top was "Welcome Home, Mummy."

"Do you like it, mummy?" The kids asked, seemingly desperate for approval

"We made it just for you while Daddy made dinner!" Sieglinde added, "Daddy helped decorate it but we made it using one of your old cook books! But we used lard instead of butter, honey instead of sugar and vanilla, water instead of milk, vinegar instead of baking powder and bird eggs instead of chicken ones."

Well, that showed why the potatoes tasted off, they had probably used lard in that as well in butter's place.

It was actually really sweet of them to have done this, not even his own parents remembered his birthday, much less celebrated him in general.

So, Ciel took the fork and tried the slice out in his plate.

This was by far the strangest cake he ever had with all the substitutions, but it was pretty good a bit of lavender or rosewater or spices would probably improve the flavor.

Wait, why did he care? It wasn't like he'd be staying long if he could help it.

He informed them that he thought it tasted good and couldn't help but smile when they beamed in delight.

After the meal, Sebastian began to get up but the girls stopped him, saying they'd go wash the dishes since he had made dinner.

"Thank you, girls." Sebastian said, sitting back down

"Can mummy come with us?" They asked

Sebastian got up and retrieved the chain from the bedroom, putting it around Ciel's wrist and the other end on one of the spokes of Sieglinde's wheelchair.

The girls and Ciel gathered up the dishes, soap and wash/drying cloths and left the house.

Lizzy led the way towards a stream, Ciel asking, "Why not wash them in the sink?"

"Daddy says the sink is only for washing hands and vegetables, he doesn't want us to overuse it since he doesn't know how to fix it if it breaks." Alois answered, her sisters nodding

Lizzy continued, "And even if Daddy did know, he has no parts to replace it with so we try to clean everything in the stream if we can. The only time we use the the sinks and showers to clean is during winter and even then we still try to wash things using melted snow in buckets."

"I'm trying to find a way to make pipes without metal." Sieglinde contributed, "Then we can use the sinks and showers all the time!"

Ciel nodded, setting the basket he was holding down as he kneeled on the floor.

Lizzy and Alois lifted the skirts of their dresses and aprons, using a secret set of hoops in the skirt to wrap around the buttons of the blouse of their dresses.

They kneeled as well and began to rinse the dishes to make washing easier.

The four of them formed a line: Lizzy rinsed, Alois washed, Sieglinde dried and Ciel put the clean dishes into his basket.

Once every dish, cup and utensil was clean they cleaned their dirty knees and went back inside.

They then put dishes away and went into the living room where Sebastian was reading a book.

Sebastian smiled when he saw them, getting up, "Thank you again, girls, good night."

He kissed each of his daughter's heads and unchained the wheelchair, letting all of them go to their rooms.

Now, just Sebastian and Ciel remained in the living room.

"How has your afternoon been, darling?" Sebastian asked, holding Ciel in his arms

"G-Good." The teen stuttered, trying to stay calm

Sebastian kissed his cheek, "That's good, are you ready for bed as well or would you like to talk for awhile?"

Ciel desperately wanted the former but he needed to stick to his plan, "Let's talk."...