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The almost immediate agreement Niles gave was more than enough for Ciel, oblivious to his passing remark to Deuel. With a grin that teetered upon the edge of smug and sincere, he gave a small nod in acknowledgement before bounding back to their campsite, careful to keep himself between Deuel and Niles during the walk. As he told himself - his actions were merely a benevolent gesture to keep any hard feelings from interrupting their trip - any other suggestion as to the cause of his behaviour would be asinine.

Once back to where Niles' comically large tent had been pitched, Ciel's once vice-like grip upon the firewood he gathered loosened to reveal the angry, crimson lines and circles the bark left upon his palm. How the kindling managed to stay intact wasn't much of a miracle considering the years he'd spent allowing his muscle mass to dwindle away behind a monitor, however, the dull throbbing of the reddened flesh ushered him to make himself useful before his thoughts or the pain got the better of him. With the toe of his sandals, he nudged a patch of sand into a decently-sized pit far enough away to save the six of them from having a last minute bonding trip to the fire department and dropped the firewood into the shallow circle adjacent shape. With dark blobs of the landscape melding into one another and the anxious buildup of emotions in anticipation for the camping trip, Ciel let himself fall into a crouch by his hastily-crafted fire pit and let out a small yawn. With the undoubtedly ever growing bubbling of excitement from at least one of them for the presumed shooting stars, he figured he'd conserve some energy to keep up. Besides, if he could focus on the generic glare of neon colours of his DS' screen, he wouldn't have to deal with the internal debate of monopolising Niles' time away from Deuel and appearing clingy or letting the emptiness of not knowing what was happening between them eat away at him.