Chapter 6: Remember
Toto was asleep, Muta was asleep, and Baron was unlocking the cabinet in which he had, so very long ago, put the pixie dust from Miss Tinker Bell. A pinch of it on top of his head, used in conjunction with faith, trust and a wonderful thought.
That was why he had the satchel out for the first time since he had put it there. He had a wonderful thought, but he was afraid of it, and wanted to know if there was any kind of grounding to it.
"Baron, just for the record, I think I may have a little crush on you."
He began to float. He glided cautiously around, and donned his had and coat, collected his cane, and slipped the satchel of pixie dust over his shoulders just in case. The Baron flew silently out the window and into the deep night that lay beyond the refuge in which he had hidden for so long, waiting for someone to see him.
He had been re-reading her case file. Perhaps it wasn't healthy to do so, but even a year after, he still thought of her, he didn't need the file to recall her face perfectly. Her final, private, words to him were not in the file. He wasn't sure why he had felt obliged to leave them out, perhaps because he didn't want Muta and Toto commenting upon them.
He remembered the way she had leant into his hand as he stroked her cheek, that dreamy look upon her face, and he flew a little higher, a little faster. Muta had found out where she lived from the ally cats, so that they could put it in the case file, but more so that he could sneak food from her. It was certain that she remembered them all. Muta often came back from her kitchen window saying that she had asked after everyone, and that she wanted to know all the details of what had happened in his day, just so that she would know that she hadn't dreamt the whole thing.
He had left a note for Muta and Toto, saying that he was going away for a while, didn't know when he would be back, and not to worry. He had finally reached a point in his life where he felt that he was finally able to help himself.
He reached the house and flew around the windows, searching for one that might be hers. At last, he found it. She had grown in the year since he had seen her, but that was to be expected. As he understood it from Muta, Haru had turned eighteen the week before – the full-moon-shaped cat had commented with much purring upon the slice of cake that she had given him.
Lighting as gently as he could upon her windowsill, the wooden figurine sat down and watched the young woman sleeping. He could not bring himself to wake her; she looked so peaceful and content. He could wait until morning. It wasn't all that far off anyway.
The sun began to peek over and between the tall city buildings a few short hours after he arrived at her window. Another hour passed as he watched the light seep into her room, creeping up the length of her bed to reach her lovely face, then her alarm clock went off.
The Baron was surprised to see the contraption near the foot of her bed, on the other side of the windowpane right next to him, in fact.
She sat up in bed and slapped her hand down on the snooze button before flopping back into her pillow. A second later, she was bolt upright in her bed once more, staring right at the figure on the other side of the window to her clock.
"Baron!" she breathed, keeping her voice to a whisper, just in case her mother heard. Quickly, she opened the window and let him in, simultaneously trying to make her hair look nice after being mussed by sleep.