Disclaimer: Studio Ghibli owns the rights to The Cat Returns, not me. (Duh)

As her thoughts ran wild, she couldn't help but focus on one thought in particular. It had been a whole year since the Cat Kingdom incident and she had not once even been to visit Baron.

Baron... she thought. Though she hadn't been to visit him, she surely had thought of him. How could she not? She had a little crush on him a year ago, but as time moved on, that crush turned into something more. Love...maybe? She wasn't sure. She had never met a person quite like him before. He's not a person, he's a doll, she told herself. He's a very polite and handsome doll... Haru shook her head to clear her thoughts. It didn't matter. She was to afraid to see him, and he was probably to busy to see her anyway. He's probably out helping new people, not giving her a second thought.

She put her dishes in the sink and turned off all the lights. It was getting late, nearly 9:30. She yawned softy and made her way to her bedroom. Setting her alarm clock and turning it up to extra loud so that she would wake up on time in the morning, she hopped in the bed and snuggled under the covers, ready for a good nights sleep.

A small tabby cat sat outside Haru's window seal and watched as she fell into the world of dreams. "I know exactly how I can repay her," the cat said.

With All My Heart

Chapter Two

Sunlight filtered in through Haru's open curtains, casting it's light right onto her face. She protested against mother nature's wake up call, and covered her head with her blanket. Too late, she was already starting to wake up. She rubbed her eyes and looked up at her clock; the numbers seemed a bit blurry.

8:27 am.

Oh no! She was going to be late. She quickly threw the covers off of her body and rolled out of bed. Her bed was somewhat low to the floor, only a mere two feet in height, so it was strange when her feet didn't touch the floor when she rolled over. Haru moved her foot around, attempting to find the flat surface of her carpet; she found none. She pulled her feet back and looked over the side of her bed.

She gasped in fright, blinking her eyes several times, wondering if the sleep in her eyes were casuing her to hallucinate. Her bed was probably ten feet in the air! She lost her balance and tumbled off the bed, hitting the floor with a thud.

Ow ow ow ow. That REALLY hurt.

She rubbed her eyes and looked back up to her bed which, strangely, looked at least five times taller than what used to be. Looking around at the rest of her room, everything else was big. Really big. Like, outrageously huge.

"MY ROOM GREW!" She yelled in a panicked voice.

She scrambled around, not knowing what to do. Her brain was still in a sleep filled haze when all of this was going on, but she quickly began to float down to the real world. Then it dawned on her: My room didn't grow...I shrunk. Hurriedly, she scrambled over to her full length mirror and what she saw, she didn't like.

Her eyes focused and she blinked, not believing what she was seeing. She was a cat! At least, she was part cat. Her face was cat-like, but the rest of her body was very human; She didn't have paws, but hands and feet. She looked like...a female version of Baron.

With this new information fresh on her mind, Haru did the only thing she could think of. She screamed as loud as she could.

"Haru?" came a muffled call from downstairs. "Are you all right?"

Haru clamped a hand over her mouth. She scolded herself mentally. Smooth move, exlax. Her mother was coming now, probably wondering about the safety of her daughter. What would she do if she found Haru in the state that she was in? Haru wanted to run, but she couldn't. She was frozen; Literally frozen. She tried to move her legs, but they were stiff. A strange sensation formed in her legs and slowly began to move up her body, causing her to limbs to stiffen on their own accourd. Soon her whole body was like a statue, frozen in place. She couldn't move, but she could sense all that was going on around her.

The door rattled and Haru's mother stepped in. "Haru?" she called out. The room looked empty, but Mrs. Yoaskia paced the room anyways, looking for a sign of Haru.

"I thought I heard...maybe it was just my mind. Haru must have left for school early." Mrs. Yoakisa said to herself. She turned to leave, but a small doll on the floor caught her attention. She bend over and picked it up, examining the small cat figurine. She carefully sat it up on the top shelf of Haru's dresser, and then left.

As soon as the door was closed, Haru fell foward, her body becoming full of life again. She choked and coughed, breathing heavily as her body began to regain it's feeling. She never, ever, wanted to go through that again. Ever

A scratching noise shook her out of her thoughts, and she turned to see who it was. Sitting on her window seal, scratching at the window, was the tabby cat that she had saved the other day. "Hello, Miss Haru! I see you're awake. How do you like your new body?" The tabby cat asked in excitement.

Slowly, Haru put two and two together; She saved a cat, and now she was a cat figurine. She saved a cat...and now...she was a—The cat did this! Her gaze turned into a narrow eyed glare. "YOU!" She screamed. "YOU DID THIS TO ME?"

The tabby cat flattened his ears against his head in attempt to block out her high pitched screaming. "Yes, of course I did. Who else would have?"

Haru jumped down from the high shelf and stomped over to her bed and began to climb up the side of it, taking fist fulls of her sheets and pulled her self up. She then climbed up to her window seal. She angrily banged on it. "CHANGE ME BACK! Change me back RIGHT NOW!" she screamed.

The tabby cat looked around nervously. "Um, I'm afraid that I can't do that."

"Wait...what? What do you mean you can't do that? You turned me into this..this...thing!"

"I'm not powerful enough to change you back..."

"WHAT?" She screamed. She turned back and began to climb off of the window and back to her bed. She sat down and began go cry. "I am doomed to be miserable for the rest of my life."

The tabby cat just jumped off of the window seal and began to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Haru asked. She quickly climed back up to her window seal and opened her window, jumping out, and following closely behind the small cat. "You can't leave. You have to help me!" she called after the cat as it rounded the corner.

Haru ran around the corner after the cat, but as soon as she turned the corner, she saw nothing but an empty street. The tabby cat was nowhere to be seen. She looked around frantically, trying to desipher where the cat had run off to. There were really only two I am doomed to be miserable for the rest of your life possible places that the cat could have gone. Either to the left, down the block, or straight ahead to the cross roads. Haru decided to go straight, to the cross roads. She was more familiar with that area and it wouldn't be hard to spot the tabby cat, sos he set off.

It didn't take long for Haru to realize that she was never going to find that damn cat. It was still early in the morning, everyone was either at work or at school, so Haru was able to walk around freely without having to worry about being spotted. A stray tear slipped down Haru's fur covered cheek and she choked back a sob.

"What am I going to do?" Haru whimperd to herself as she slid down into a sitting position on the floor.

She was at a complete loss. There was nowhere for her to go. It would be impossible for her to show herself to her mother, and that damn cat had run off. There was no one who could possibly help her...unless...

Baron!

Haru gasped and hopped up, quickly twirling around to get a good look at her surrounding areas. She was at the cross roads, this is where she met Muta. Why hadn't she thought of this before? Baron would know what to do, or he would at least know more about this than most people.

With new found hope, Haru took off down the path that Muta had once lead her through. It had been some time since she had last walked this path, so she wasn't quite sure where she was going. The only thing that was leading her was her somewhat fuzzy memory, and the thought of seeing Baron once again just pushed her to run faster.

Haru had some difficulty climbing up to the roof of the buildings, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle, but what lay before her caused her to stop. A narrow ledge. Before she was big enough that she could have hopped the ledge and easily crossed to the other side, but not in this form. She was barely a foot high!

Haru sighed and did the only thing she could do. She edged sideways, trying to keep her gaze in front of her, not on the ground below. She banged her elbow and barely noticed the pain as she turned her back to look behind her. The ledge was very narrow, and Haru was starting to think that she wasn't going to make it. Haru lost her balance and tumbled over the edge of the wall. Luckily for her, a bush broke her fall. A twig jabbed her in the side as she climed out of the bush, stray leaves in her hair and on her clothes.

Frustrated, she yelled to no one in particular, and angrily pulled the leaves out of her hair. She looked at her souroundings; It looked as if she was in someone's back yard. Looking back up at the ledge, she saw a vine on the side of the wall that she could possibly climb up. Turning around suddenly, she came face to face with a dog. A very mean looking dog.

"Good doggy, nice doggy. Please don't eat me..." she cooed nervously to the dog, backing up with each word.

The dog growled vicously, baring his teeth at Haru. He advanced upon her slowly

Haru screamed and ran as far away from the dog as she could, running directly towards the vine on the far side of the yard. The dog barked loudly behind, right on her heels. Haru had never been so scared in her life. She quickly grabbed ahold of the vine and pulled herself up, climbing as fast as she could.

She had almost escaped the dog's reach when he pounced up, ripping the side of her skirt in the process and scraping her knee. When Haru finally reached the top of the wall, she slumped down and sighed in relief. She had almost died down there.

All of her hurts were starting tomake themselves known. Two scraped knees, a stabbing pain in her left elbow, an ankle that shot needles through her with every step, and a scratch on her face. She squeezed her eyes and sniffed hard to keep from crying. The Cat Bureau couldn't be to far now. She could almost see the entrance.

Pushing herself harder, she managed to get up and shakily walk down the path again. She could now see the brightly colored buildings up ahead, and she somehow managed to speed up to a fast paced walk. The thought of seeing Baron again almost made her forget about her predicament.

For whatever reason, tears were streaming down her face as she now ran to the doors of the bureau. Her whole body was racked with choking sobs as she came to the door. With all her might she flug herself at the door and began to pound as hard as her exhausted body would allow.

She could hear a tinkering noise on the inside and steps leading to the door. She stopped her pounding and stepped back from the door, her hand clutching her heart in anticipation. Lights, all around, flooded into the bureau and the doors opened, causing the dazzaling lights to temporarily blind her.

Out stepped Baron, in all his glory. He looked straight at Haru and his eyes widened. His breathe hitched as he took a look at the woman in front of him.

"Louise...?" He murmured, as if in a dream. He slowly rubbed his eyes and looked back. "...Haru!" he called, running forward to catch the young girl as she fainted from exhaustion.

Authors Note:

I outlined this whole entire story yesterday, and I am very excited. I get all giddy when I think about how this is going to end. I can't tell you what is going to happen, but I can tell you that this story isn't what it seems. You'll just have to wait and read it for yourself.

Thanks to Saltine(Who is an evil, evil, evil wench 3), EagleBlaze, Thundercat, BakaChan003, Serena, inu-luvver10, Snow Mouse, Jazz Baby, and Siri from Norway for the wonderful reviews.