Nothing referenced from the movie Cat Returns belongs to me. The only thing I own is the plot. Enjoy!

It's a beautiful night,
We're looking for something dumb to do.
Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you.
- Bruno Mars "Marry You"

It was in the middle of a bright, noon sun that Haru Yoshioka could barely reign her excitement, as she spoke on the phone with her best friend of fifteen years, Hiromi Sato. The first woman was simply ecstatic, while the later seemed much less than thrilled, only continuing to fumble awkwardly from her side of the line. They had met when Hiromi first moved into her class during the second grade, and the pair had been inseparable ever since.

Haru smiled confidently through her cellphone, "I think it's time Hiromi. If there was any other time, then I would know it. I know him, Hiromi. It's time."

In the brunette's eyes was a hopeful sparkle, and she walked energetically around her apartment, practically gushing over her boyfriend of two years. Machida Hiroshi was his name, and just the very thought of taking on his last name had her sighing contentedly, almost feeling a jolt of electricity run down her spine. It was so energizing!

Haru was simply infatuated with him. The feeling was amazing, making her feel both exhilarated and sick at the same time. Their love was amazing. Machida was amazing. The woman was in love, and she was falling ever-deeper in love with him with each passing day. She fell into the comfy cushions of her twoseater love seat with a dopey smirk.

Hiromi sighed from her place on the other side of the line and gave a nervous laugh at her friend's enthusiasm. Eventually, she forced out a gentle tone, "I hear you Haru, really I do… but I'm still not so sure about Machida. Just please don't put too much hope into tonight, okay? You're my best friend, and I love you a lot. Whatever happens, just don't think that it defines you or anything."

The hesitance that Haru heard in Hiromi's voice had her laughing through the receiver, "It is our two year anniversary, Hiromi. At the very least, I think I should be capable of being able to tell if my Machida is having any doubts or not, and he is definitely not having any doubts. Besides, even his own mother told me that he was planning on popping the question to me someday. He is definitely going to propose tonight, Hiromi. I know he is. Why else would he book us for such a fancy and upscale restaurant tonight? Don't worry about little ol' me, Hiromi. By the end of the night, I will be a nothing but the happiest girl in the world."

There was no doubt in Haru's voice, and Hiromi felt her heart drop into the very pit of her stomach. The honey-haired woman chuckled nervously, although she suddenly felt extremely guilty, and she abruptly cleared out her throat.

"Hey Haru," she called, trying to catch Haru's attention.

The usually level-headed brunette felt like she was on cloud nine at the thought of finally getting hitched. It had been two long, glorious years of dating for the pair of young adults, and Haru truly believed that Machida was ready for marriage… He had to be ready for marriage. Surely he was just as willing as she was.

Haru accidentally pushed through Hiromi's calls and said, "Hey is it okay if I go? I really need to get ready for my date and-"

The brunette sniffed inelegantly down at her shoulder, and her nose curled up in mild disgust, "Wow, I desperately need a shower. Gotta go, Hiromi!"

"Wait Haru, I need to tell you-" Haru hung up on the woman and sighed contentedly, pulling in her arms to giddily hug herself. She would apologize to her best friend later. Dressing up in her finest clothes was what was important for her now; the best shoes and the finest makeup. Her hair would have to be washed and curled, too in her eager preparation for what was sure to be one of the greatest nights of the brunette's life.

Haru did not feel guilty for hanging up on Hiromi. Her friend had done the same thing to her before, so she would later understand her actions, and besides, Hiromi would always forgive Haru. No matter what it was… That is, if Haru used her skills to give her a pair of carefully-crafted, brown puppy dog eyes. With the payment of telling her every last detail of the night, of course.

"I can't believe this is happening," Haru quickly whispered, raising a hand up to her long dark locks. The brunette's bright eyes widened, and another wave of happiness washed over her. Excitedly, she swiftly began to wiggle her way back into the cushions of her loveseat for a minute, before expertly hopping out of their depths to run fervently toward her closet. Her arms reached for her dresses.

"Okay, I've gotta go! This is a code twenty-three nineteen, people, we have a twenty-three nineteen."

Haru grinned widely, eagerly shuffling through her modest collection of plain party dresses. All of them were in various shades of red and black, but each of them was beautiful and came with a different memory, and now she had to pick out the right one for this memory. An elegant hum left her lips, as she shifted her hangers one after another until she finally came unto the right dress.

"Perfect!" Haru heard herself say in wonder, as she gazed down at the dress, "I think this is what the night calls for. Petite and sexy, and so completely unlike my character."

Still, the joke urged Haru to want to wear the garb. Pulling out the short and slender, velvety one shoulder length dress, the woman grinned happily and inelegantly threw her choice for the night onto her bed. Continuing to hum, the brunette drug out a pair of shiny black pumps to go along with it. She thoughtlessly threw those onto the bed beside it.

Haru paused and clicked her tongue at the garments on her bed. Something was missing, and the thought had escaped her… Suddenly, she visibly slapped her forehead.

"Bath, duh," she chided, forcing a bit of pep into her step as she made her way over to the bathroom, "God, what is wrong with you Haru. You'd think that I had went over the deep end or something. Gotta get clean, gotta get clean."

Haru rapidly got undressed and turned on all of the faucets of her tub, quickly sticking a stopper in its drain. Feeling a light song leave her lips, she sang, as she pulled out a clean towel from her bathroom cabinets. After a few minutes, the woman carefully stepped a foot into the tub of warm water. She laid herself down into the small pool of liquid, and smiled gratefully, eventually leaning up to cease the flow of water. A content sigh left her, as she leaned her head against the cool wall behind her.

"A girl could get used to this," she allowed herself to moan, further leaning into the tub.

Airily, Haru reached over to grab the body wash sitting beside her. It was a struggle for the woman to continue to wash herself, the comfortable and soothing feel of the loch beginning to lull her into a deep exhaustion. No matter; the woman shook her head. She blinked her eyes rapidly.

"No Haru, you are a woman on a mission. Wake up!" She commanded, and with that the woman began to scrub herself down with a new-found energy. The woman left no piece of skin unclean and made sure that every strand of long brown hair was carefully lathered and washed. First, she used her shampoo.

Then, Haru let out a light groan when she unfortunately picked up her conditioner.

"I'm out again?" The grown woman cried incredulously, "Ugh, it's almost like I'm always buying these things. Where is it all going?"

The wet, soapy mound of brown mess on Haru's head kind of answered the self-asked question. She let out a light laugh at herself.

"Oh, right."

Then, the joyful brunette persisted to wash out her hair, letting out a few playful hums. She laid back into the depths of her ever-cooling tub of water. Rinsing out her hair, she scrubbed and scrubbed until everything had left her hair. After a lengthy minute of dowsing her head in a bunch of bubbly H2O, the woman sat up in the tub and turned her gaze down to the offending object sitting next to her. A pitying laugh escaped her lips, and she carefully reached over for the sharp, little gadget.

Haru let a bemused smirk cross her features at the chore that she had been doing since she was thirteen, and she craned her neck, speaking cryptically toward the ceiling above her, "Oh, you might want to come back after this if you don't want to see any blood. I have never been the best at this."

She submissively reached behind her and took hold of the modest can of shaving cream that she owned, squirting a handful of the cold substance into the middle of her palm. She steadily began to rub it over her legs, smiling to herself when she got up a good coating of lather.

"Well, these legs aren't going to shave themselves, ya know!"

Haru stepped precariously out from her bathtub, and found a steady footing, gripping tightly at the bright bath towel that was wrapped around her midsection. It was large over her tiny frame, and it left everything to the imagination, completely covering up all of her womanly parts, but the woman did not care. All that she was worried about was drying her hair with her hairdryer and getting dressed up for her special, sure to be spectacular date with Machida.

Ah, Machida.

A wistful sigh left Haru's mouth, and she made her way toward her vanity, a broad smile breaking out across her plain features. Her dark eyes lit up with a breathtakingly new spark in them.

Though Haru was far from being the loveliest woman in the world, it was her pure heart that made her truly beautiful to everyone that she knew. While she was growing up, her relatives had always referred to her as "the good one in the bunch," meaning that she never crass or selfish. No one with a good conscience could wish any ill-will toward her. It was simply impossible to hate Haru. She was too sweet and kind for anyone to ever truthfully despise.

"Now, to fix this wet mop-"

The thin Japanese woman sat down and cheerfully grabbed at her hairdryer. Eagerly bringing the rush of warm air continuously down her long brown mane, the girl brushed haphazardly at the dark mess sitting on her head and belted out a translated version of a pop song about big butts that were unable to lie. She hopped in her seat jokingly along to the beat in her head, and let herself loose for the moment, the crude words from the song chirping subconsciously from her lips.

It was a secret that Haru liked to keep from her mother, but she absolutely loved rap. Although her mother, gentle Naoko, would have been much less than thrilled to learn of this little tidbit about her seemingly 'innocent' recently-turned-college-student daughter, but Haru liked to chop her mother's over-protectiveness up to the fact that her mother had been a single parent ever since Haru was seven. The reason: Haru's father cheated on her mother with her mother's best friend. Some friend she was, humph.

Haru finished blow-drying her hair and rested the cooling gizmo on the table in front of her. She ran the brush a few more times down her back, before she searched for a hairband and swiftly pulled her hair up into an airtight, slightly painful bun, but then smiled into her vanity mirror. It was worth the slight tears that she had to suddenly wipe away from her eyes, as she bit back a pained whimper from the tightness of her bangs.

Beaming almost sadly through her pain, the brunette skillfully began to cake her face with a light coating of makeup, and turned her head to gaze at her face from all angles. It was covered in an array of dainty blushing strokes, and a bit of white eyeshadow sat above her eyes. She applied some mascara onto her eyelashes and accidentally poked herself in the eye with a sharp bristle.

"Ouch!" The woman cried, carefully babying the skin around her injured eyeball.

Haru caressed it softly, audibly urging the pain to leave her person. Sure, beauty was painful sometimes, but maybe it was worth it… The brunette had unfortunately learned that truth very early in life, and it was all thanks to her mother's gorgeously skinny ex-best friend who ran away with her father, the unfaithful bastard.

The woman visibly shook her head at herself, "No, there is no need in thinking about that right now, Haru. Focus on Machida. Focus on Machida…"

Repeating that mantra within her head had the woman eventually sticking pins into her hair, a blissful gleam inside her hazel orbs.

"Now that's more like it," She grinned approvingly at her reflection, and then turned to gaze at her backside, a gleeful joke edging its way onto her tongue. A small rush of confidence surged through her and she remarked, "Ooh, and just look at that beautiful booty."

The praise in Haru's tone made her stand up with a dorky chuckle escaping her throat. She strolled on over to her bed and picked up the dress, the edges of her lips turning upward as she marveled at the soft feeling of the fabric that was grasped within her hands. This was the dress, Haru thought to herself, gazing in wonder at the contrast against her lightly tanned skin. The brunette was sure of it.

With an eager stride, Haru held the dress protectively up to her breast and sauntered over to the full-length body mirror that sat in the corner closest to her closed window, stopping in sheer awe at what she saw. The woman held the dress out in front of her tiny body, mentally imagining what her body would look like within its tight and conforming shape… Perfect.

She grinned goofily at her reflection, before a suddenly sure and completely serious gleam entered her eyes.

Oh, yeah.

With how great Haru was going to look tonight, her boyfriend Machida would have absolutely no choice but to ask her to marry him now, even though she would never force him into doing anything that he did not want to. Consent was completely important to her… Although the sexy quality of her clothing could possibly be seen as a very persuasive and valiant effort for trying to win the fight for his favor. Ever the more reason for Haru to try her hardest to ensure his affections for her, the woman jokingly reasoned.

The two dark haired adults were perfect together, and it was high time for the young girl to settle down with her high school crush. The two were practically soulmates, they were so close to one another.

At least, the young Haru had thought they were.

Warning: Possible feels coming up within the next few chapters. Read and review with caution, my dear friends, as I attempt to make my way into the Cat Returns fandom. Wish me good luck, and I hope you enjoy!