Ciel always knew his mother was coming when it started raining.

His mom didn’t stay at the palace with him and his father. She was the storm goddess after all, which naturally came with a sort of fierce capriciousness; she never liked to stay in one place too long. But she did visit every few months.

The palace in question was a glorious one; it was actually two palaces conjoined in the middle. One, the Soulbright Palace, was built for Solis, shining as though built of pure sunlight. The other, the Wisplight Palace, was for Fengari, which had its own sort of iridescence it absorbed from Solis’ palace’s blinding rays. The centermost chambers were known as the Eclipse Chambers; most practical chambers were kept there, such as ballrooms and maids quarters, as well as training and education rooms.

As Malevinda’s son, Ciel was rigorously trained in martial arts, and as Solis’ son, he was strictly educated in many sciences. ‘Rigorously’ and ‘strictly’ do not directly translate to ‘did well in’ however. Despite the great powers he gained from both of his parents, he always seemed to struggle.

Simon didn’t struggle.

Simon as Fengari’s son excelled in sword fighting, and as Nankluea’s son, he was transcendent in the arts. He even went above and beyond expectation with his musical abilities, especially with piano; he would succeed well in a future of ruling over the domain of sound and music.

Ciel had no domain.

When it rained, he knew his mom was coming.

Every full moon, Simon’s mom would visit them. She always seemed so loving towards Simon... she couldn’t seem to stop hugging him, caressing his hair, making sure his collar wasn’t flipped up, cleaning his face after dinner... What did it matter how cold Fengari was? Nankluea had enough love to share for the both of them.

When Malevinda visited, it rained.

She would give a certain look to Ciel when checking in with his tutors, as she always did first when she visited. Progress is same as usual, they’d say. He has great potential if only he’d apply himself, they’d say. He’ll get there don’t worry, I have full faith, they’d say. She would respond in kind, but Ciel could tell from the look in her eyes she was not pleased.

Once they left the Eclipse Chambers, into the Soulbright Palace, she would begin. She would close her eyes and pinch her nose, before lightning would crack in the air and she would begin her lecture.

“Why aren’t you trying harder? Every time I come here, it’s always the same; you haven’t made any progress. Do you understand how serious this is? Look at me, look. At. Me. If you cannot do something as simple as picking a domain... do you know what that will do to our reputation? Do you know how hard we tried to have you!? Are you going to take all of the resources and energy we put into raising you and throw it into the garbage just like that? Because that is certainly what I’m hearing from your tutors.”

And so on. And so on and on and on. The air would crack, ozone would threaten to suffocate him. Eventually, she’d reach the point of yelling, the swirling clouds around her sparking with each enunciation.

Eventually, she’d tire out. “Off to bed.”

And that would be all.

Ciel always knew his mother was coming when it started raining. And so, there he lay in the present, in the unnaturally pristine room that was June’s father’s room, listening to the rain.

He knew she wasn’t coming, but he still couldn’t really sleep. Rain provided the perfect background noise to ruminate on your own uselessness it seemed.

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“Wow, you look awful,” June said that dreary morning. It was still raining, with some added flashes of distant lightning and thunder.

“Couldn’t sleeeeeeeeeep,” Ciel complained. He flopped over on the couch, holding his hand to his head. Great, now he was getting a headache.

“Well, I work today so...”

“Mhm...”

“I was thinking over the two times the beads went gold, to figure out our best method for this whole self-improvement thing, and I noticed they’re both related to interpersonal relationships, so I’m thinking we might wanna focus on that sort of thing instead of well uh... watching paint dry.”

“Mhmmmm...”

“Like maybe... listening to someone when they’re talking is a good start for the patience virtue...”

“Mhm...”

“Ciel!”

“What- what!?” Ciel took a second to realize. “Agh- I’m tired, okay!?”

“I suppose today could be a good break from working... well, working for you anyway,” June said, turning to look out the window. “It’s nice and rainy outside today...”

Ciel couldn’t help but make a face at the ‘nice’ part of that sentence. Sure, if you like megalomaniacs, he thought. He sat up and flicked on the TV, only to be greeted by static.

“Ah, what?” he complained.

June walked over to the TV, placing her hand on top of it. She fiddled with the antenna at the back to no avail. “Guess the storm is getting bad then... or well, this TV is pretty cheap afterall.”

Ciel got up and placed his hand on the TV, sending an electrical current through it. “Hey-!” June jumped back startled, quickly examining hands before realizing it didn’t hurt. “Oh, yeah... That soulbond thing, right?”

“Yeah.” Ciel’s trick seemed to work; a weatherman appeared, warbling on about the storm.

June rubbed her hands even though they were unharmed. “How does this uh, soulbond thing, even work exactly?”

“Mm...” Ciel hesitated. “It’s like this... imagine two rings. Each ring is another person’s soul. When you make a soulbond, you use the spiritual energy from each person to pull the rings together until they overlap a little.”

“Like a Venn diagram?”

“Yeah, yeah... that part where the rings overlap is where the bond is. So it’s like, both parties take a part of their soul and set it on the table as collateral almost. It does other things too, like my powers can’t hurt you, since right now we technically are sharing each other’s spiritual energy.”

“You know a lot!” June complimented him. Ciel seemed a bit taken off guard; he wasn’t really used to that sort of compliment.

“It’s just something that gets drilled into our heads in the heavens... since soulbonds are technically what hold that entire system together... They were initially created by the Empress to prevent gods and goddesses from constantly fighting all the time and overthrowing each other.”

“Oh... makes sense.” June held her hand to her chin, thinking. “So... our souls are collateral? What happens if...”

“Part of our souls both get destroyed.”

“Ah.”

Ciel touched the back of his neck. “It won’t kill you, but it’ll definitely make the rest of your life suck. I’m not sure what it’d do to a mortal like you, since soulbonds with mortals don’t really happen, but with gods and pseudo-immortals like I am right now, it kills our spiritual powers and skills completely. So I guess, if it happened to Simon, he’d not only have zero powers, he’d be debilitatingly weak and music would make his ears bleed.”

“Yeesh...” June then had another thought. “Ciel, could I... use your powers? Like summon fire and lightning? Since you said we’re sharing spiritual energy, right..?”

“Uh... huh. Huh. I don’t actually know...”

“We should try!” June grabbed his hands excitedly. Ciel’s eyes widened a bit in surprise.

“Y-yeah! Wait, don’t you have... work?”

June’s face dropped. “SHIT!!!”

June hurriedly gathered all her things, and was about to run out when Ciel grabbed her hand this time. He handed her an umbrella. “You almost forgot... it’s raining today.”

“Right...” June smiled. “Thank you!”

Ciel smiled back. Then, June took off, and Ciel felt highly aware of how empty his hands were.