AN/disclaimer: another drabble. I do not own "The Cat Returns", but I hope you enjoy this fanfic all the same.
Priorities
She hasn't always liked cats, you know.
There was a time – it feels like long ago when, really, it isn't – that she thought of them as a nuisance, a pet or a hungry street dweller that just wanted to steal her lunch during brake. She wasn't an animal person, then, not exactly. Mom didn't think she was responsible enough, that she wouldn't take care of a pet as she should. She'd been right.
Haru is a ditsy person, likely to forget herself in the fray of her thoughts and prone to daydreaming, fantasizing and her usual craziness.
She hadn't really thought about it when she saved that strange cat from becoming road kill, she'd just acted, on impulse. It just hadn't felt right to let it die when she could have done something to save it – so, she did.
People that had seen her saving the cat whisper that she is stupid, "What if she got killed? Why throw your life away trying to save a mangy cat?", they don't seem to understand. Haru doesn't either – why was the life of a cat lesser than hers? It had family too, didn't it? And she hadn't died, so what was the big deal.
Why was one life lesser than the other?
Her short time in the World of Cats (while filled with a lot of running from twisted gratitude, insanity and just trying to get home in one piece certainly didn't afford her much time to contemplate these things) only strengthened this belief.
In the Cat Kingdom, many held it against her that she was a human, because "What possessed the Emperor to arrange such a horrid marriage? Why were they letting their Prince marry such a despicable creature?" Those 'many' had been street cats, just like Yuki, before coming here. Prince Lune was already in love though, and she's very glad for that, because he couldn't have found a better cat than Yuki even if he scoured both the Cat and Human realms. When she sees them together, and thinks that I made this possible, by just one act of kindness she feels happier than she has in a long time – in this strange, new World she's been so ignorant of up until now, away from her quasi-friends and everyone else she wants to prove something to.
Spend your life with the people you love, not with the people you want to impress.
It's funny – or maybe a little ironic – that she's closer to these cats – Baron and Muta and everyone else she'd really like to come to know better – than most of the people in her class, school, whatever, who laugh at her. Hiromi is the only true friend she has, but it's not like she's the last she'll ever make.
Haru knows now not to judge a book by its' covers, to not render something as useless or brilliant just because other people call it so or because it seems that way on first glance.
It feels weird to be back in the Human World, where everyone is so ignorant of all those little worlds branching off of theirs.
School feels even weirder, especially biology – because students are usually more attentive when it comes to learning their own, human anatomy, but when Haru looks at a cat she sees something much more amazing. Did you know that, if a cat can fit its' head through something, say a narrow opening, it can fit its' entire body through it too? It's spine is that flexible. It's fascinating.
Hiromi jokes that she'll become a vet, and maybe she ought to.
She still manages to be late for class, though not as often as before, but some things never really change. Her classmates still laugh, until Hiromi comes barging in, waving her stick around like a maniac. They back off for a while, but their chortles and whispers really don't bother her anymore. She laughs it off, and when they see she isn't affected by their snickering, they back off, period. Haru seems to have grown some confidence over night (well, "night" isn't really accurate, since there is no night in the Cat World), and when people see you're not weak, they won't patronize or bully you – or they'll continue with even more vigor, trying to prove that they are stronger than you are. She doesn't understand how being nasty makes you superior. She guesses that they feel powerful when they speak their opinion and hurt crosses the faces of their victims, the poor saps who were the topic of the day's gossip – it makes them feel as though they're the ones who are important.
Haru won't stand for it anymore, but she doesn't voice it directly. She stands up for herself, and doesn't let the prattling tongues of her classmates affect her. They weren't the ones that mattered, after all. Although they insist that they know best, that people should listen to what they have to say, that they're important – they really aren't. They just want attention.
School seems so unimportant after everything, and she honestly can't understand why she had wasted so much time on heart-attacks and sleepless nights when the point is to keep a cool head and learn something for yourself, not for a grade or to seem smart when you have no idea what you just read. Haru wants to understand, to learn, but at her own pace. There are other things she wants to enjoy on the way.
She doesn't stress over such things anymore, she's realized it's not important, and no amount of nagging from her mother will make her change her mind.
The tea Baron gave her differs in taste, but on most occasions, a slightly bitter-sweet tinge is present. Sometimes it's more bitter than sweet, and sometimes it's the other way around, or there's another flavor thrown in. Strong. Bitter. Sweet. The taste barely present, so it's more boiled water than anything.
Haru reasons that it's how you make your tea, it's just that this particular brand has a way of showing you what you feel when you're making it.
People call her a dreamer (or delusional, if they want to insult her), maybe even a little eccentric, but she doesn't mind. Let people talk, they don't seem to have anything better to do with their lives, anyway. She's content either way.