Chapter Eleven: You're not Alone
Haru smiled happily as she un-wrapped her head in the sitting room a month after Baron started giving her the healing ointment, something that had become a morning ritual so that he could change out the old goop with fresh stuff. As the sturdy white cloth fell from her head, lengthening brown hair was the only thing revealed. Not only had her ghostly companion's little mixture made her scars gradually vanish, but he had whipped up another lotion that encouraged her hair to grow back like a blade had never touched her skin.
It was the first time in months that she could stand to look at herself in a mirror while wearing a short-sleeved blouse; not a single mark to be seen. Her back had been a little tricky to treat, since she really was too shy to ask Baron to do it, but found that a washcloth attached to a back-scrubber meant for showers could completely treat her back, which was now smooth and perfect.
"You are the best, Baron," she said almost worshipfully, wiping away her tears of joy with one hand. "I never thought I could look normal again. I owe you. I have no idea how I can repay you, but I'll think of something."
Baron didn't answer her, but she strongly suspected that he was doing the ghost equivalent of blushing. She bit her lip while looking at the mirror, and ran back to her bathroom for her hair scissors. As good as her head now looked, her hair needed a trim so that she wouldn't look shaggy.
She combed through her uneven hair once, and then carefully held a lock of her hair between two fingers while raising her scissors to it.
Without warning, the sharp implement was gently removed from her hand, and hung unassisted in the air.
"I can do it, Baron," she protested, though standing perfectly still as the small comb rose from her bathroom counter, and began to work with the scissors as they danced around the brunette's head, continually combing and snipping with the highest level of care. All of the stray hair, instead of falling on her shirt or on the ground, hovered in the air around her neck before floating to the wastebasket neatly.
Haru smiled softly to herself, suddenly realizing that whenever Baron decided to make his opinion known to her, she rarely won the argument, if ever. At least they had never had a serious fight. "I hope you appreciate how much I trust you to cut my hair, Baron. It's very unnerving to watch those scissors seemingly hang in the air and come at me."
The scissors and comb came together like her ghostly lord had passed both items to one hand, as the other unseen arm wrapped around her torso to squeeze her affectionately, one of his cool cheeks rubbing against hers.
She raised one hand to rest just over where his insubstantial hand was, and felt a soft twinge of regret. 'Why couldn't I have met someone like you, Baron? If any live man treated me half as well as you do, I'd consider myself lucky.
'I'll be spoiled for anyone else, if he keeps treating me like this. Oh well. Better him than Machida.'
Baron released her after a minute, and returned to his task. Haru noticed that he didn't cut her hair like a boy's, although it was short enough, but only seemed to be straightening the lengths so that they could continue to grow evenly. When he finally set the comb and scissors aside, Haru realized that it would still be at least a few more months before her hair regained its former shoulder length, but at least what hair she had now was styled in a rather nice haircut that could easily be adjusted. But this one didn't look too bad on her. Maybe she'd keep this hairstyle.
"Just how many talents do you have, Baron?" she giggled, turning away from the mirror to bow respectfully to the unseen lord. "I think I lost count of them a few months ago."
Once again, she had the certain feeling that if Baron still had a body, he would be blushing furiously.
ooOoo
Haru carefully set her laptop in the large ballroom on a chair, and plugged the mechanical contraption into the wall as she raced back to the kitchen for some large clean rags and two frothing buckets filled with soapy water.
She set one of the buckets close to the laptop, set her music player on shuffle, then play, and walked to the other end of the cavern like ballroom.
She set the second bucket down near the middle of the wall, and took the rag cloths off from around her neck to soak one of them in the soapy water, and wring it out. The ballroom floor wasn't all that dirty, so she decided that the mop wasn't really necessary.
Starting from one corner of the room, she ran with bare feet, keeping the rag to the ground in a crouched over position to leave behind her a clean ribbon of tiled floor. In time to the music, Haru swiftly turned from colliding with the wall, and ran in the opposite direction in order to widen the clean ribbon of floor. Periodically washing the rags, she managed to clean the entire ballroom floor in under twenty-five minutes, an impressive record, considering the sheer size of the place. But then again, Haru never stepped in here except for the periodic cleaning.
She smiled in satisfaction as she tiredly slid her soft indoor slippers back on, the floor in front of her already coming close to completely dry, which was why she had chosen not to use the mop. She sighed and gazed upward at the elegant buttresses bracing the tall ceiling overhead. There were still times when she honestly expected to see paintings over it like the Sistine Chapel. She looked out over the coldly empty ballroom, imagining the grand parties that had once been held here, several decades before. What a time that must have been to live in!
Suddenly, her laptop cut off in the middle of a soft rock song, and changed to Savage Garden's 'Crash and Burn'.
How appropriate. This song had given her a lot of strength over the months her divorce had consumed, and it had been a favorite of hers long before then. Just the thought that there might be someone, somewhere, that really cared about her, even if it was only her deceased grandmother, gave her enough strength to keep moving forward and keep doing what she knew was right, despite the fact that those who had been closest to her had given up on her before she was even gone.
"Nice pick, Baron," Haru congratulated him, stretching her arms like a cat.
Without warning, her ghostly friend's cool hand covered hers, and began to pull her out of the cushioned chair lining one of the walls. A little curious, the slim brunette allowed him to guide her to the middle of the ballroom. He touched one of her cheeks tenderly with his cool hand, and then guided her left hand to an almost solid place about chin level to her, his shoulder, and gripped her other hand gently while his right hand came to rest on her waist.
"Uh, Baron?" Haru stammered while turning red and trying to politely step out of his arms. "I can't dance. At all. I mean, I appreciate the thought and everything, but I make an elephant look graceful-"
The unseen lord released her hand long enough to press his cool fingertip against her lips to keep her from speaking, and gripped her hand again. Slowly, as the lyrics in the laptop began to sing about feeling left alone in the world, Baron began to lead her through a standard waltz.
"At least I can't step on your feet," Haru mumbled to herself as she struggled to keep up with the baron's unseen footwork. But, it was very unnerving to dance with someone that the girl couldn't see.
The slim brunette tried closing her eyes, so that she couldn't see anything else, either. That strategy worked surprisingly well, since all she had to do was follow Baron's subtle instructions as the chorus kicked in, oddly triumphant considering the melancholy verses.
Let me be the one you call
If you jump, I'll break your fall
On 'fall', Baron suddenly threw her into a deep dip, and held her steady for a second before bringing her back up and twirling her around like a ballerina as she struggled not to scream at his easy manipulation of her body.
Lift you up and fly away with you
Into the night.
If you need to fall apart,
I can mend a broken heart
Baron stopped twirling her around, and returned to a rotating box step. For the first time in her life, Haru realized that she was not only dancing, but enjoying it! Her grandmother had always been a little disappointed by her granddaughter's lack of rhythm, but now the brunette only wished that her dear grandmother, who had been a mother in everything but blood to her, could watch her dance now!
If you need to crash,
Then crash and burn
You're not alone!
Suddenly, the slim brunette started having suspicions. "You wouldn't happen to be trying to tell me something important, would you, Baron?" she asked dryly as he started twirling her around again and the song returned to how lonely it can be in the midst of uncaring people.
He stopped twirling her around long enough to wrap her into an affectionate and slightly fierce embrace.
Haru hugged him back the best she could as she struggled not to cry in front of him again. "Well, I got it loud and clear," she whispered against his invisible shoulder, rubbing her cheek against it. "Even if it's like this, I'm glad that I got to meet you, Baron. It's kind of nice, finding out how a real gentleman behaves."
She felt one hand on the back of her head as Baron held her even closer. For just a brief instant, Haru could feel just how much pain and sorrow he had endured over the years of literally being invisible and insubstantial. In that brief instant, she understood that as much as she needed him, he needed her just as much. He had been just as alone than she had ever been. Perhaps even more.
Haru smiled mischievously, and tapped his unseen yet firm chest twice. "Just for the record, Baron, that message applies to you, too."
He came very close to crushing her in his arms about then, but she didn't mind. Baron regained his senses soon afterward, and released her enough to continue with their waltz as the fervent chorus once again rang throughout the ballroom.
This time, Haru kept her eyes open. Baron was there, and that was all she needed to know.
Let me be the one you call
If you jump, I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you
Into the night.
If you need to fall apart,
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash,
Then crash and burn,
You're not alone!
But what the two dancers didn't notice was the cat and bird watching them from a window, wearing identical expressions of chagrin.
'It so figures, that he'd find a girl to his liking long after it really mattered. But he really should stop leading her on like this.' Toto brooded worriedly.
ooOoo
The idea to use 'Crash and Burn' from Savage Garden for Cat Returns actually came from cuteknight101, who I'm pretty sure got the idea from the awesome music video on Youtube. Of course, she was leaning more to a one-shot, but I hope that this pleases her.