On a clear summer's morning, a young brunette could be found sitting opposite what one might mistake for a plump cushion but was in fact a huge overly fed white cat. The sight wasn't uncommon for those working at the Crossroads cafe to see. The rotund cat could be found lounging in one of the cafe's seats daily, and the young female would often sit with the large feline; occasionally buying a treat for said cat.

Nothing was overly unusual in this case. The pair would sit and enjoy the cafe's produce while the young lady would talk to the cat, the meows of reply indicating that the cat was truly listening; indeed it was a sight that would turn a few heads. Today though, it seemed as if the brunette had a lot on her mind, with her head in her hand, the only sound heard coming from the table was that of the exhalation of breath: passing in a deep thought like style.

"Hey, what's up with you Chicky?" the large cat known as Muta asked as he watched the brunette sigh for the forth time in a row. The two were sitting in their usual table outside the Crossroads cafe, the same place where they had first met: a little over six months ago.

"Hm? Oh sorry Muta, I was just thinking..." Haru replied trailing off at the end with a dreamy look on her face.

"Oh, and what were you thinking about?" asked Muta with a smirk. "It wouldn't happen to be about a certain cat doll now would it?" his smirk turned smug at the sight of the blush that covered his companions face as she snapped to attention.

"wha... Oh nonononononono, what ever gave you that idea?" the brunette rambled, trying to will the blush off of her face and failing miserably.

"Oh? Then what were you thinking about?" he pushed, practically purring, the smirk seemed permanently attached to his face

Haru paused trying to come up with something, anything she could say in reply, but her thoughts kept turning back to Baron and the fear that had clouded her mind for the past few days and why it was there? How had it come about? Her fear seemed to grow every time she fell asleep. Her dreams. Something would happen in her dreams that was so terrible that she would lay trembling in her bed, covered in sweat and filled with sharp phantom pains, to afraid to move. But the thing that worried Haru the most was that whenever she woke up, she had no memory of what had transpired in her dream. Not even the usual fleeting glance that those just entering the world of the awake would have. Even more worrying though were the decorations of bruises and cuts that seemed to filter across her body throughout the night.

At first, she had put the bruises down to whacking her bedroom wall in her sleep: not unusual for her to do as she had always been a restless sleeper, but then more started popping up all over her body along with cuts and odd marks that looked suspiciously like burns, obviously these were no ordinary dreams.

The brunette had desperately wanted to tell someone about these dreams and the even stranger injuries but, for some reason, whenever she went to tell someone about her problem it was like her brain shut down on her and her mouth refused to co-operate.

For some reason unknown she felt ashamed of herself whenever she awoke, a feeling of unintentionally having betrayed someone, and dirty - very very dirty: like she had spent the night sleeping in muck filled grime. This feeling of guilt had led her to hiding the marks underneath baggy clothes: something which explained why she was wearing a long green top with baggy trousers on a hot sunny day. Thank goodness it was summer vacation, because it would be really hard to explain to the school how these injuries just appeared out of thin air, even with all her usual klutz attacks, and the last thing she wanted was for her mother to get the blame. But then again it would be hard to pin anything on her mum considering she has been in England for the last three weeks on a six month around the world trip she had won from a magazine, "how she won though I still don't know, I'm sure she didn't enter in the competition and I know I never entered her in it."

"Hello! Earth to Haru, anybody there?"

"Oh, sorry Muta, I Guess I spaced out there for a second."

"No kidding," muttered Muta, frowning as he looked the girl over. He had been trying to bring her back to earth for the last nine minutes and during that time she had let off wave after wave of different emotions. Confusion, loneliness, pain and last but not least fear, and not the kind of fear that you get when someone confronts you about your crush. No this was pure unadulterated fear and that scared him, "I'll defiantly have to mention this to Baron" Muta thought getting the feeling that she wouldn't tell him anything if he asked her, "though I think I'll just make sure she gets home safely first."

"It's getting late kid. Come on, I'll walk you home. You'll be getting a call from you mother soon anyway."

"Hm...? Oh my gosh, I totally forgot. She'll kill me if I'm not there when she rings, come on Muta, I could use a good walk home." the brunette replied, hurriedly gathering her things and gulping down the last of her tea, "at least it won't be a lonely walk home. I wonder if he suspects anything, I hope not."