That Butler, New Face

That Butler, Omnipotent

{In One Of The Many Hallways of The Phantomhive Manor...}

"Aaaw, brother," Bard sighed as he stared at an electrical wire that had been chewed up. "They got us. I guess they have it bad for cable pasta. Those damned mice," Bard griped as he rummaged around, trying to fix the damage.

The chef had removed a panel from the ceiling and was perched atop a ladder, wearing a hard hat with a light on it, just like a construction worker. He also had extra cables looped over his arm in case he needed them. Finni and Mei-Rin stood next to the ladder and stared up at the chef as they watched him work. They had somehow managed to get through their other chores without causing too much mayhem today, but now they had nothing else to do. The lights had flickered in the study, so Sebastian sent them to check on the electrical wiring while he took care of a few last minute things. Chêne had wanted to go with them since as she was certain something interesting or fun would happen, but Sebastian had made her watch the dessert he had loaded into oven to make sure it did not burn. Since Chêne had an attention span the size of a gnat, it was like sentencing the poor girl to Chinese water torture. Not only would she be incredibly bored, but she had to stay in the room where she would be tempted by the mouthwatering aroma of whatever Sebastian had decided to serve the young master—and she would not even be able to taste it! Well, back to the shenanigans of the three stooges.

"It's them again, is it?" Mei-Rin asked worriedly.

"We've got lots of them this year, don't we?" Finni asked, equally concerned.

Rats were not only annoying little pests, they could also be carriers for certain diseases. They had been the ones that spread the black plague by bringing their infected fleas into the homes of humans, and although there was no danger of that now, they could not help but be concerned for the health of their young master. Chêne got sick easily too, but she always seemed to get better faster than was normal for the average human.

"I fixed it," Bard said as he climbed down the ladder. "I heard there's an epidemic of these things in London. They're just popping up all over the place... but I didn't think they'd bother coming here, to the city's outskirts. Business will go bust if we keep having power outages so often," he added, annoyed, as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Business?" Mei-Rin asked, confused.

What business? Didn't they work in a manor house? A mouse scooted across the floor behind Bard's back.

"AH!" Finni yelled in surprise. "Mouse spotted!!"

Finni grabbed a nearby bust mounted on a pedestal, and heaved it at the tiny rodent.

* WHAAM! *

"BUH! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!" Bard yelled as he and Mei-Rin managed to dodge at the last second. They were both blue with shock from their little brush with danger. The impact from the sculpture had resulted in a dust cloud from the disintegrated marble bust that had once been attached to the pedestal.

"Squeeeek!" the mouse cried frantically as it escaped.

"Ah!" Finni said as he watched it scurry out of sight. "Oops, it got away! Tee-hee!" Finni had a silly expression on his face, sticking his tongue out at himself, and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!" Tanaka laughed softly in the background as he came upon the scene of destruction.

"'Tee-hee'... ain't gonna cut it!" Bard shouted, a vein popping on his forehead. Poor Mei-Rin was still a little blue with shock. "You tryin' to kill me too!? You idiot!" Bard stood up and brushed himself off. "Anyway, it's no use going at 'em directly! We have to use what we got up here!" Bard said tapping his noggin. Although he was the Phantomhive family chef, Bard liked to think of himself as a brilliant strategist.