Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Baron didn't know what to do now. His Haru was gone, dead, killed in an horrific accident.

He had slipped onto the bus numbly, hiding as it drove back to her house, then slipped out again and run with tears in his green eyes up to her room. There, he had flung himself onto her bed, immersing himself in the sweet smell of her.

The tears flowed even more freely. He would never see her sweet smiling face, her beautiful brown eyes, ever again. Talking with her, feeling her touch, listening to her hum as she showered, all things of the past now, and they hurt. Being here, surrounded by her, yet knowing she was gone, that hurt too.

The tears were not enough – he cried out, let sobs wrack his body, called her name in despair and wished for some way to ease the pain.

"Look at that smile," she said, a grin of her own plastered across her face as she watched a little girl running after a pink frizbie. "You wouldn't think to look at her that she lost her parents only last month."

"How?" he asked, unable to stop the question from escaping him.

"An explosion at a refinery. There was a big fire, and both her parents were trapped inside. She did nothing but cry for a week when she first came to me, and now… She won't ever be quite the same again, her soul was shattered, and not all the pieces fit back together in quite the same way afterwards, but I'm glad to see her smiling."

He had marvelled then, as he set out sandwiches and talked with Haru, watching the children she cared for, getting pieces of their stories as they ran past, always smiling and laughing.

"Always believe in who you are. I have done this, and I have nothing to fear, not even my heart when it twists inside me, ready to shatter at my own stubbornness."

His advice. She had taken it to heart, and now he wondered if he would ever be able to give it again without breaking down into tears. Would he even be able to stand by it himself?

"Of course you can, Baron," a voice whispered. "You can do anything you want – you can, because you promised me that you would never change."

He looked up sharply, searching, hoping against reason, to find the source of the gently whispering voice and see her smiling at him again.

She wasn't there. The tears started to flow again.

"No tears love, no tears," the disembodied voice whispered.

"Why can't I cry? I miss you Haru, I miss you," he said, his voice a hoarse whisper filled with desperation.

"It doesn't suit you, that's why," the voice laughed softly. "You are the most beautiful person I ever met, and I love you for your strength of character, your belief in yourself and your abilities. Please don't cry, it breaks my heart, and that's all that I have left."

He ran. He couldn't bear it any longer. The pain of loosing her, the memories, the scent, the sound of her.

He went back to the Bureau. Cold and empty though it still felt, it was better than all the sad, oppressive memories of her.

There was something different though – he could feel that something had changed. He searched the canary-coloured house until he found it. There, in his bedroom, just a little taller than him, a block of wood sat on the floor. It hadn't been there before.