Chapter 10: Broken

Haru woke up shivering the next day. She pulled the duvet close around her and dove deeper into the blankets – hang on, duvet? She almost jumped out of the bed and fell onto the floor with the realisation of where she was, which was the bed in the tower room. The one she'd been using as a bedroom ever since they arrived, although it was the first night she had been able to use the bed instead of her sleeping bag. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep against the textbook... She glanced down at herself and was very much relieved to see she was still in her clothes from the evening before.

She swung her legs out and slipped her feet into her slippers; grabbing fresh clothes as she headed to the bathroom. Was it just her or was it cold? She dressed into the fresh clothes, then realised the bathroom mirror was frosted over. She tried to clear it away, then realised it was actual ice. She sighed and tried the tap. Several seconds passed and no water came out; just a dulled, clunking sound. She frowned, decided that brushing her teeth would have to wait, and ambled downstairs.

"Baron, has something happened?" she called. She passed a door that she had previously classed as just another broom cupboard, and stopped when she heard the distinct voice of Baron. She tugged the door open and found that it wasn't a cupboard, but the boiler. Baron was standing before it, a definite irritation present in his posture.

"Is everything okay? The water upstairs isn't working."

At hearing her voice he spun round to see her. "Miss Haru, you are going to freeze," he reprimanded instantly. "Go and put a jumper on."

Despite the fact that her teeth were indeed chattering, she ignored his advice. "I asked if everything is okay," she repeated stubbornly. "You're yet to give me an answer."

"The boiler's broken," he hissed. "I've never had to worry about it before when it's gone in the past since the cold doesn't affect me, but you're going to catch your death if I leave it."

"Don't you know how to fix it?"

"I've never had to before." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't understand the mechanics of it very well," he admitted embarrassedly. "I mean, is it just a case of something's become unfixed or an actual fault in the system?"

"I think it's pressure."

"And how am I meant to fix that? I can't touch it and, if I do use any tools, I have to use magic to move them and that requires a surprising amount of co-ordination." He gave the boiler a narrow glare. "I can't even give it a good kick."

"Would that solve it?"

"No, but it might make me feel better." He sighed. "I think we could work around the lack of heat – maybe light a fire or just wear extra layers, but I don't know about the water problem."

"Oh – there's bottled water in the cellar," Haru suddenly remembered.

"How much?"

"A dozen two-litre bottles maybe? I don't know, I didn't count."

Baron did some quick calculations. "If it's just you using the water for drinking and cooking... that'll be enough. Well, enough for us not to worry right now."

"I suppose I won't be able to have a shower or wash any clothes until it's fixed, will I?" Haru asked wistfully.

"I'll see if I can get the water running on a small scale, but right now we haven't got the water to spare. Or, to be more precise, you haven't got the water to spare." He looked over to her once again. "Now go and put another layer on. Maybe even a pair of gloves and a hat if the temperature drops any further."

"Okay, okay." She disappeared up the stairs and Baron turned back to the disobedient boiler. He sighed and returned into the kitchen, deciding to attempt to tackle the problem later.

"So have you got anything planned for today?" Haru called down as she entered the lounge, now wearing a thick jumper and gloves as Baron had suggested.

Baron entered seconds after, but from the kitchen with a cup of tea floating beside him. "Not really. Why? What were you thinking of doing?"

Haru took the offered tea. "I was planning on revising actually."

"Like you were yesterday?"

"Hey, I was tired!"

"Yes, I could tell."

"Well, maybe instead of making smart comments, you might allow me to get on and actually revise."

He grinned. "Well, maybe you have a point."

ooOoo

Again, her studies were disturbed by the clink of something being set down on the table beside her. She yawned and looked to her side. "What?"

"Lunch. You've been revising all morning."

She blinked several times as her eyes readjusted from having focused on lines for several hours and moved instead onto the plate to her side. "What time is it?"

"Almost one."

"Really?"

"Well, unless the clock has also broken, yes."

She rubbed at her eyes. "Just give me a moment to–"

The book lifted out of her hands and rested across the room. "You look like one of the walking dead," Baron commented dryly. "It's time to take a break."

"That's rich coming from a ghost."

He smiled wanly. "Just eat."

She sighed and took duly took the plate. He watched for a moment to make sure she was eating before returning to the kitchen. Yuki jumped onto Haru's lap.

"Hi, Yuki." She glanced over in the general direction of the kitchen where Baron could be heard putting plates away. "So what do you make of him?" she asked in a whisper, in case Baron was near the door.

The pale kitten purred and rubbed her head against Haru's hand.

"So you like him too?" Haru grinned. "He's looked after you, hasn't he? When it was just you and him, he made sure you were well fed and okay." She paused, then laughed. "That sounds a lot like how he's looking after me too. I suppose I'm just another stray kitten really when it comes down to it." She thought about this for a moment. Strange, she seemed to have settled with the idea of a residential ghost surprisingly quickly. Maybe it was easier when the ghost acted just like another human being.

Yuki meowed and padded Haru's arm, as if asking her what she was thinking. The way she tilted her head afterwards only reinforced this image.

"Sorry, I was just thinking."

Another meow.

"About what, you mean?" Haru guessed. She looked away and then shrugged. "Um, I don't know. This and that I suppose."

Yuki gave her an impatient look.

"Oh, I guess that means you want more specific details than that, doesn't it?" She sighed and looked down at her plate. "It's just weird that I've already accepted Baron. I don't know why, but he isn't at all like I expected a ghost to be like. Except for the main differences, he acts... normal. Well, apart from the period differences between this time and his, I mean. And sometimes... oh, I don't know. Sometimes I think I almost forget he's... dead..."

She picked her head up quickly. "But I suppose that's just because I'm not used to the idea yet. But you would think that I would have the exact opposite problem, wouldn't you? I suppose it's just because..." She lifted one hand subconsciously to the cheek Baron had touched yesterday while she'd been sleeping. "Just because he seems so alive."

ooOoo

"I see you've got the radio working."

Haru looked up from where she had one hand stuck behind the sideboard, trying to plug the cord in. "Funny, real funny," she muttered. "Why are the plug sockets always hidden behind awkward pieces of furniture, that's what I want to know?"

She gasped as the wire suddenly started moving by itself and there was a click as the plug attached itself to the socket. Then she remembered who she was with. She turned round to Baron. "Thanks."

"Well I could hardly leave you struggling, could I?"

Unable to think of a response to that, Haru just grinned and went on to tune the radio. At first there was only the buzz of interference, but finally she found a station, singing out a tinny advertising jingle.

"It's a little blurred, isn't it?"

"It's all this snow," Haru sighed. "It'll be blocking the signal. We're lucky to get any signal at all really. What time is it?"

"Five minutes to the hour."

"Good, we can catch the news then. I think this is a local station, so it might tell us whether the roads should start clearing up soon or how bad it is out there." She shoved it closer to the window, just in case that helped with the signal, then returned to her place on the sofa. "Does the castle often get snowed in at this time of the year?"

"It has happened before, yes."

"And what happened?"

"Oh, usually within a week the roads are clear enough to be able to access the village again."

"Oh. Good."

He turned to her. "Are you worried about yourself?"

Haru shook her head. "No, I'm worried about Hiromi and Tsuge and everyone. I mean, I know they're all together, but what if the boiler where they're staying also breaks?"

He chuckled slightly at that. "Well, they probably have a greater chance of fixing it than I do."

She also laughed after that comment. "Yes, probably. But they haven't got a ghost present to look after them. Anyway, I have no way of contacting them or of knowing what's happening at their end, so it's natural to worry."

"Yes, I know."

Haru turned impatiently to the radio. "Come on, come on," she muttered. "Hurry up with the news."

Eventually, after four and a half minutes of adverts – Haru counted – it complied, but the news wasn't good. It seemed the snow showed no signs of stopping and that it was causing chaos up and down the country.

"All the public transport will have been stopped," Haru added, mostly to herself. "The mail will probably be delayed too. And if there's as much ice as it says..." She groaned. "Maybe even after the snow's gone, it might be too icy for them to get here."

She suddenly looked up, feeling something. Baron had placed a semi-transparent hand on her shoulder, and even though there was no physical contact, she could still sense something there. She smiled thankfully up to him. "I'm sorry; I'm not usually this tense. I'm quite used to being in the house alone actually because my mother travels – it's part of what she does, but it's the fact I don't know for how long I'm going to be stuck that's grating my nerves. Once my mother went away for a quilting convention and there was a flood that cut off all the public transport. I had to wait half a week before she could return."

"What about your father? Wasn't he looking after you?"

Her eyes suddenly went guarded. "He's not around anymore."

ooOoo

Yuki padded over to the sink and then glanced back over at Baron, who was standing just behind it; his gaze focused solely on the brunette outside.

"She shouldn't be outside in this weather," he muttered. It wasn't clear whether this was for his benefit or for Yuki's. "Not with her cold. It'll only make it worse."

The kitten didn't respond, except to flick her own eyes towards the ghost, then to Haru.

Wrapped up in two jumpers, the usual gloves, hat and scarf and sporting her muddy-green wellington boots, Haru was taking down the empty bird feeders in the front part of the garden. The hat and scarf combo meant that only her eyes could be seen peeking out; the collar of her second jumper turned up to trap extra heat. She stood on tiptoes to unfasten one of the higher bird feeders, using a nearby branch for balance, only just managing.

"I told her that; she told me she'd be fine," he continued. "I offered to do it with magic instead and in the end she told me stop mollycoddling her."

There was a pause and then he sighed and wandered away from the window.

"I don't know what she's hiding, but it's something to do with her father."

Now Yuki chose her moment to meow, running along the lower cupboards to keep up with Baron. There was something of a hiss in her voice too. Baron stopped, and turned to her.

"What?"

Her hackles rose and she hissed properly this time.

"Okay, so maybe I haven't told her the full truth either," Baron snapped. "But that was done; that's behind me and there's nothing I can do about it. Her father though... I don't know whether he's dead or whether he left Haru and her mother. Anyway," he added bitterly, "how am I meant to tell her the truth about my past?"

ooOoo

A/N: Thanks to all the reviews recently, guest and logged-in individuals alike. However, if you're a guest (or just haven't logged in), please leave your username (or some alias) so I can include you in the end-of-story note. It's lovely to receive reviews, but I want the chance to thank you all when I finish the story.

Thank you and God bless,

Catsafari. =^^=