Chapter 1: From Dream to Concern(Fabia's P.O.V)

Sitting at her little desk, not too far from the window, Haru daydreams in the middle of a lecture. My constant nagging about her telling me is driving me crazy. Her foot tapping with the rhythm of a slow song she told me about, called "Katzen Blut." The only thing she has ever told me about was in her dreams saying that she visited some kingdom called the "Cat Kingdom" which I thought was weird. She went into details always whenever it came to this subject. A few characters that apparently were called her friends was a dark grey cat named Lune who was the prince, a beautiful white cat named Yuki who happened to be Lune's wife, an overweight cat that was white as well named Muta, or "Moo-ta" as she always called him, and a black crow named Toto whom she said was a stone statue coming to life by magic. Then there was always "him."

She always went into full detail whenever it came to this guy. As I remember from words, Haru said that it was a cat figurine who liked to dress nicely. He apparently wore a white tailcoat, a crimson red inner vest that covered his white button-up shirt, a pair of white dress pants that went all the way down to his ankles which didn't need to be folded up, a pair of brown dress shoes that didn't have laces, elegant white gloves, a blue bowtie, a white top hat which he took off whenever he met someone new, and a brown hook cane that he kept with him always. His features were that of a cat, mostly, but also looked like he had the body of a human. His fur was an orange color mostly with a cream color that went under his chin and, which I assumed, ran down his chest and stopped after his stomach. His ears were pointed but had a slight curve. There were whiskers that stretched from his face. But the thing that got me the most was his eyes. Haru said that he had cat eyes which were a "magnificent" emerald green. She told me that she could stare into his eyes forever until he turned away.

The thing is, she always told me it was just a dream, no matter how strange it was that she could remember every single small detail. But I never believed it when she looked away. And I'll always remember him being called "Baron Humbert von Gikkingen" or "Baron" for short.

"Haru," I say in almost a whisper. It's because the class, mostly the teacher, had expected her to answer the question on the board.

"Haru…?!" I repeat a little worried. Exactly, how far was she into her daydream? One last time.

"HARU!" I burst out, snapping her out of the daydream by making her jump.

"Wh-wh-what?" she asked looking surprised. Before anything else could be said, the bell rang which dismissed us from school. She is, so, in for a serious talk.

(Haru's P.O.V)

"Haru, can I ask you something?" says Fabia, persistent on getting my attention.

"Sure, go ahead." I reply with a smile.

"Why do you keep daydreaming in class?" she asks, looking a bit worried.

"What do you mean?" I reply with another question. We were walking down the street that led us to the Crossroads.

"You know, like in class today. You keep going off into your own little world and it's driving me insane just to get you to pay attention." She says still looking worried.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me, I've just had a few things going on in my mind, that's all." I say retaining my smile.

"More like "one" thing. A person maybe?" she teases with a smile of her own. I gasp and stutter. I knew where she was going with this.

"Wh-wh-what a-are yo-you t-t-talking ab-about?" She laughs. I'm busted.

"I knew it! You're in love with Baron?" Fabia says looking like she just won the lottery.

"WE ARE JUST FRIENDS!" I shout back at her.

"If you say so. I wonder if he's a good "kisser" in real life." After that, she runs down the sidewalk leaving me chasing after her, red with embarrassment, and screaming.

"FAAAABIIIAAAA!"

The sky started to get a bit dark after that little chase, and there was something that I wanted to tell Fabia before we went our separate ways. I just don't know how she'll take it. Even Hiromi knew about this.

"Fabia?" I ask. Here we go.

"Hmm?" she replies looking at me. I felt nervous.

"You know how I would always ask you to keep things secret whenever I confessed something?" I asked.

"Yeah?" she said looking a bit prepared as usual. She knew whenever I confessed something to her that she promised to keep it a secret until I was ready to tell anyone anything.

"It's about the Cat Kingdom I told you two weeks ago." I say looking down at the ground. We continued to walk a bit more.

"Yeah, I remember. It's the dream you told me about where you met the characters you described. Especially your 'Prince Charming,' Baron." She said looking all lovey-dovey in her eyes. I tensed up a bit before replying.

"Well, to tell you the truth, that event did happen in real life." I finally say. She looked at me, snapping out of her romantic trance, and her eyes widened.

"Really?" she asked looking ecstatic. I look at her to see her calm and collective instead of bursting out laughing.

"Wow, I never thought they were real! That is totally amazing! I wish you would've told me this a lot sooner. I was planning on asking you to tell me more about them. I would really like to meet them one day, though." She says. I had a grin on my face after she said that. That gave me an idea.

"Why don't you come with me for a quick bit?" I ask her. She looked confused.

"Where are we going?" she asked. My grin got wider. It was finally time to show her.

"We're going to go see Baron!" I shout starting to run ahead. I turned my head to see her running after me. It took at least four minutes to get to the Crossroads. The track meets helped a lot in building my stamina. But, Fabia was panting heavily. I knew of her condition.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She nodded. Looking for a specific fur ball was so simple to spot. His favorite lounge chair was right under an open umbrella, right by a café.

Beckoning my friend to follow, we walked up to the said chair. The white puff ball was so easy to make out. Although, Fabia wondered what it was. At least she spotted it the first time, unlike me. I lowered my hand towards the farthest side and found a brown spot. Smiling to myself, I started scratching until the puff ball started purring. That got its attention.

"Hi, Muta." I said. Fabia was right in my periphery, so I could see her reaction. Her eyes were wide with surprise. The puff ball, which was a cat, turned its head to look at us with a gruff expression. He spotted her in his sight and then looked at me.

"Who's the kid, Chicky?" he asked. He sounded annoyed, but I knew that wasn't his feeling right now. My smile grew wider.

"This is Fabia. She's one of my best friends, besides Hiromi. Could you take us to Baron? I want her to meet him. And don't worry, she can be trusted." I told him.

Muta's only answer was getting off the chair and heading in the same direction of the maze. I grabbed Fabia's arm, since she was still mesmerized by the entire thing, and started after Muta.

"By the way, just to let you know, Baron might not be in the mood for a chat." Muta called back to us. I was confused.

"Why, what's going on?"