A/N; I've never been to Oregon, and it really does look like a nice place to live. I made up the name of the town Haru grew up in so as not to hurt anyone's feelings that might live in Oregon.
Chapter Twenty One: If You Judge
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
-Anonymous
xxXxx
Baron furrowed his brow in concentration. "I remember coming across the word once or twice in my studies. Thieves of some kind?"
"Seafaring thieves. A lot of humans like to romanticize how they are, but I don't see why. If they decide they want what's on a boat or ship, they'll take it over by force, take anything or everything of even a little value, and kill whoever gets in their way. About the only way someone's guaranteed to live is if he or she happens to be a doctor and they don't have a current one."
"Why spare doctors?"
"Hello, thieves? If they tried to go to a hospital for injuries gained in combat, they'd be arrested in a heartbeat. They find it's easier in the long run to just blackmail captured doctors with their lives." Haru shook her head angrily. "Just about every country with access to a sea or ocean has a special army to try to take down pirates. Renny was one of them."
"Was he any good?" Baron asked with interest.
Haru nodded, a melancholy smile returning to her lips. "He was only a common soldier, but he took his duty seriously. So seriously, in fact, that when he was out on patrol with a few others, it took no less than eight pirates to subdue him. The other soldiers they killed, but they thought keeping Renny around would be… amusing." She shuddered from her own word choice.
Baron's blood ran cold. "How 'amusing'?"
Haru gave him a mournful look. "Torture. He refused to ever tell me what they did to him, but when the weather turns cold, his entire body aches up from old pirate wounds."
He shuddered from the idea. "How did he manage to survive?"
Another smile lit up her strange face, but unlike the first one, this smile was fiercely proud. "After a month of being tortured by the pirates, a Japanese scout discovered where their headquarters were, and brought back reinforcements. My father led them."
Baron stared in mute amazement. "Saving lives seems to run in your family."
She gave him another grin. "When they're innocent, absolutely. But all of those pirates died that day, and my father personally helped Renny back to his ship and to the hospital wing where…" she suddenly trailed off, lost in thought.
"Where…?" Baron prodded.
Haru smiled shyly. "Where my mother was giving birth to me. Other than my parents and the doctor, Muta was the first one to hold me. He says he's been wrapped around my finger ever since."
His jaw dropped. "Your father brought his expectant wife to within range of pirates?"
"It was not his idea!" she defended hotly. "Let me put it this way; I got my stubborn streak from my mother."
Baron laughed harshly. "Yes, that would explain it."
"I was her first child; she didn't want to be alone when she had me! I turned out to be her only child. She died later that year from cancer."
"Cancer?"
"An illness that doesn't like leaving survivors. She fought long enough to give birth to me, and to stay around afterwards, but… it wasn't enough. Dad and Muta always described her to be a real lady," she added wistfully.
Baron's thought's trailed to the picture in her locket, and to the red-haired woman within it. "I'm more than certain she was."
She gave him a tiny smile, and took a deep breath to keep going. "Dad was a sea captain with his own ship, so it didn't take much to convince the crew to take Muta to where his own ship was. They exchanged phone num-er, information so that they could keep in touch, and were best friends from that time on. Muta had so many injuries from the pirates, that his superiors gave him an honorable release so he could go home, which was the light house."
"Who was caring for it while he was away?" Baron asked curiously.
"His father was still alive at that point. But two years later, he and his wife got into a car accident with a drunk driver, and didn't make it."
Baron shook his head sympathetically. "No wonder he was so emotional at losing you."
She looked up at him. "Excuse me?"
Baron wondered at what she was confused about, and immediately recognized his slip. "No wonder he was so emotional at the thought of losing you," he quickly restated, fighting back a need to put emphasis on the added words. "He seemed rather distressed after he yelled at Toto and myself to 'stay away from his Chicky'."
She gave him another weird look, but shrugged it off. "That's only partially why he's so attached. You know how big he is, right?"
"It was a little hard to miss," he answered carefully.
"Well, the girls in the village back then were too shallow to give him a chance, which is why he was in the army in the first place. I know when other people look at Muta, they just see a fat, bad-tempered grouch, but for me, he's always been an oversized teddy bear."
"Teddy bear?"
"That's a popular child's toy. It's great for cuddling with, because they're usually soft and fluffy. Because Muta could never find someone willing to accept him the way he is, he's always considered me to be the daughter he never had. Dad knew he felt that way, but he didn't mind sharing me all that much."
Haru picked up the harp to hold it between her arms for comfort, almost like Baron was certain she would if it were a teddy bear. "He was my Muta-san, and I was his Chicky. My grasp of English was very weak back then, and Renaldo was too hard to say for me. He's always preferred Muta over Renny."
"Why in the Cat Kingdom did he call you Chicky if you already had a perfectly good name?" Baron asked, since the question had been on his mind for some time now.
"Chick or Chicky is another word for girl, and it's a habit he got from his father. I never minded it, but if anyone else had tried to call me Chicky, I'd have gotten into another fight immediately."
He stared at her incredulously. "You didn't offer me violence when I called you that."
"My mind and body were still fried from changing species, and you stopped after I told you my real name. Besides… I can't exactly hurt someone that looks the way you do," she said carefully, trying not to offend him.
He looked down at his feet. "I knew it," he muttered under his breath.
"But I did think you were a giant cat after waking up," she reminded him quickly, trying to soften the blow to his ego.
Baron looked up at her and smiled weakly. "I remember. Haru… what happened to your father, for you to have been living with Muta?"
Her eyes faded away with an ancient pain. "A few months before I turned six, the housekeeper was careless with some of the equipment in the kitchen, and started a fire. Everyone got out okay, but we lost everything, including a bunch of photos of Mom and all her quilts. She loved making quilts, and managed to make three for me before passing away."
She shook her head to clear it, but it didn't seem to help all that much. "Insurance was willing to cover the cost of a new home and furnishings, but it would take time to process all that paperwork. On top of that, Dad was due for another voyage soon, so he asked Muta to take care of me until he came back. He was my godfather by then, but even if he wasn't, he'd have still taken me in a heartbeat."
"Did your father ever return from that voyage?"
Her eyes turned even sadder. "No. A hurricane came, and… the ship couldn't take that kind of abuse. There were no survivors."
Baron stood up, knowing in a heartbeat what to do. He walked over, gently pried his heirloom from her stubborn grasp to set it aside, and climbed onto her lap to embrace her by the neck.
One good turn deserves another, after all.
Haru didn't mind his forwardness, or so he assumed since she had her arms around him for a much-needed hug. "I had an aunt in Japan, Baron; one that could have given your brothers a run for their money, when it comes to binging on alcohol. By normal standards, I should have gone to her, since she is my last living relative, but there was a specific reason why Dad never let us meet. He knew that if his sister became my guardian, she'd use my inheritance to drink herself to death and neglect me entirely. To prevent that, he set up an ironclad will about what he wanted done with me if he should ever die. Sole custody of me would go to Muta, who would receive a certain amount of money every year to help with raising me, and I would inherit everything else when I turned eighteen."
"Why eighteen?" he couldn't help but ask.
"That's the age of adulthood, at least officially in most countries back home. My aunt threw a huge fit over not getting anything, and was pushing a ridiculous lawsuit against Muta to at least get some of the money, since she really didn't give a care about me. My English at the time was still pretty abominable, so I didn't really have any friends in Oregon."
"Is that the name of your town?"
"Oh no, it's Raven's Peak. Oregon is the name of the state. Do you know what the United States is?"
Baron thought hard, actually recognizing the name. "A democracy, if I'm not mistaken. But I don't recall a state named Oregon."
"How old are your books? Oregon became a state about a hundred and sixty years ago."
"Ah, that would explain it. Most of my books have older information than that. Please continue."
Haru nodded, still keeping him in her arms in a warm embrace. "I found out on my birthday that Dad had left Muta with a gift for me. He would have given it to me sooner, but we were… well, neither of us were very coherent for a month." She reached to the side of her dress, and slipped her hand through a seam!
"Miss Haru!" he exclaimed scandalously.
"What? I'm just reaching into my pocket," she defended, pulling out her locket. "That's the problem with skirts; unless I put pockets in, I have to carry a purse or bag around all the time."
"… You did an excellent job. I didn't even notice it was a pocket," Baron managed to gasp sheepishly.
"Thank you. I'll have to remember not to use my pockets in public, if everyone will react like you just did," she noted thoughtfully, opening the locket with her thumb so that he could see the contents.
Although he had already seen the pictures, he studied them sadly, able to imagine the red haired woman being as stubborn as Haru. The man, he still looked every inch a proud captain; one that could command respect from anyone.
Of course, he had known enough about Muta to not really see his picture in a different light. Even a blind man could have seen how much he doted on Haru.
"This was the last thing Dad was able to leave me, other than numbers of a bank account. Muta and I aren't really sure why Dad chose to have this made for me when I was only six, but I'm glad he did. It's the only picture I have with me and both my parents. I've hardly ever taken it off since getting it and rescuing Lune, but it feels too big to wear anymore."
"You're lucky just to have a picture," Baron informed her sadly. "I wish I had one of my parents."
She gave him a weak smile, and pressed the locket to her heart before closing it and sending it back into her pocket. "While my aunt was trying to squeeze Muta for money, I was trying to make friends, but no one wanted anything to do with me. Raven's Peak is a very small town, full of people that are more than set on their ways. I was a stranger, not even an American, and I could barely speak English at the time. It shouldn't have been much of a surprise that no one really wanted anything to do with me. Even if I wasn't Japanese, I was Muta's ward, and nobody really liked him either. They pretty much put up with him because they need a lighthouse keeper, and he put up with them because it would be too hard for him to get work elsewhere with all his injuries, and he was familiar with the lighthouse. It was home to him."
Haru shook her head lovingly. "I met Yuki while Muta was still battling the lawsuit. I'm not sure how or why I understood cats as a human, but I was so glad to finally have a friend, that I didn't question it. I thought it was a pretty cool ability, to talk to cats." Then she gave a huge sigh. "If I had a chance to relive my life, I wouldn't have told anyone about it. If there's anything the people of Raven's Peak hate more than foreigners coming to live with them, it's when the foreigner's crazy."
"I should think you are less crazy than they are!" Baron defended hotly.
"I guess it depends on your point of view. The other kids, including Jack and his gang, loved to pick on me over my ability. They'd torment me for hours on end in kindergarten, and because the teacher had the same opinion, she'd let them go at it for a while. Muta was so furious when he saw my bruises that he immediately stormed the school and demanded to know what kind of birdbrain was letting this happen. They made up excuses, he pointed out the flaws in them, they offered to have him forcibly removed from the premises, and he swore that I'd never set foot in that school again. That was fine by me, but by then people had heard of the lawsuit, and were trying to sway the judge and jury members into thinking that my 'problem' stemmed from missing Japan, and that I should be sent back to my aunt 'for my own health'."
Baron nodded in understanding. "That must have been when Yuki ran away."
Haru nodded, and roughly brushed her handkerchief across her own eyes, even though it was still damp from Baron's tears. "I know why she left and everything, even back then, but it still hurt to lose my best friend to pacify a mob of self-righteous snobs. I tried to learn how to lie so that she could stay, but as you can tell, I still don't have the hang of it."
"It's for the better, I think. Did your aunt get anything from Muta?"
"Compared to what she spent on her lawyer, worse than nothing. She might as well have just taken her earnings for four years and dumped them into a fire. We haven't heard from her since, and frankly, we're happier that way. Muta even had to officially adopt me to get the neighbors off our backs, which is why I usually refer to him as my stepfather."
Haru gave another sigh, and adjusted her place on the chair while moving Baron around a bit, since he was still on her lap. "To put this in your kingdom's terms, the people of Raven's Peak were very put out with us for not bending to their wishes. After a few more incidents with the other kids, Muta started teaching me what he had learned in the army and the bit of karate he took in high school. I had to agree with him; if they wanted to start a fight and I was going to take the blame anyway, I was going to give as good as I got."
"Is that all?" Baron asked in disgust. "They hated you because you're from across the sea and can talk to cats?"
Haru nodded; a bitter smile beginning to surface. "I might have forgotten how to speak Japanese by now, but since they hated me whether I tried to conform or stand out, I eventually stopped caring what they thought at all and kept practicing with Muta. I was always open for fights if they started it, but they quickly learned that it was a bad idea to take me on in anything but groups, the cowards," she snarled angrily as a red tint began overtaking her large eyes.
Baron placed one hand on her cheek. He wasn't sure why, but it proved to be the correct course as the red faded away, to reveal her normal, melancholy brown.
She shook her head to get rid of the remaining negativity, and smiled sadly. "Thanks."
"My pleasure. How long have your eyes been doing that?" he couldn't help but ask. He certainly hadn't noticed anything like it when she rescued Lune.
She gave him a confused look. "Been doing what?"
"You know, turn red when you grow angry."
Haru gaped at him. "Don't be silly; my eyes don't change color."
"I hate to disagree with you, Haru, but yes they do. Ever since you arrived in the Cat Kingdom, your eyes turn red when you grow mad."
She gave him another strange look, and set him down to start hunting around the music room. "Do you have a cymbal around?"
"We could try the window, I suppose," he said, taking one of the candles and moving closer to the far side of the room. He held the flame to the window, close enough so that they could see their reflections.
Haru placed her hands on the sill, and closed her eyes in concentration.
Knowing what she was trying to do, Baron decided to help out. "The king doesn't care what you think, Sea Maiden. The only opinion that matters to him is his own, and he doesn't care who suffers, as long as he gets what he wants."
Haru's eyes opened, angry and as red as blood. But when she locked eyes with her own reflection, she gasped in horror and stepped away from the window. Both hands flew to her mouth as her eyes quickly regained their normal brown.
"I suppose this explains why Lune was so terrified after you rescued me," Baron said as he quickly removed the candle from near the window.
"… Why didn't you say anything before now?" she whispered, turning away from the window in shame. "I must have given you nightmares."
"A few, yes, but they're gone now." He approached her hesitantly, and tugged on one elbow. "So, this is new to you?"
"… Yes. If my eyes did that back in Oregon, they'd have thought I was a witch. Well, they already thought I was a witch for speaking to cats, but that… they never would have let me live with eyes like this. Not even Burton's Mad Hatter had eyes that intense!"
Baron decided not to inquire about mad hatters. "Then it is quite fortunate that you no longer live there." Tugging on her wrist, he guided her back to her seat, put the candle back where he found it, and climbed onto her lap again. "My theory is that the transformation you went through altered your genetics greatly, but didn't change you into a complete cat. I think that is the reason you still have long hair like a human, and why your eyes change. I wouldn't be shocked if that was the reason only Yuki can understand you when you speak Japanese. She's the only one who heard you speak it as a human, after all."
She held him close for comfort, and squeezed slightly. "I'm surprised that I didn't turn into a monster," she whispered.
"Oh no; that would have only happened if I had put the Fish of Nilpan around your neck myself. That is why I wrote a message in the dirt; I wasn't fond of the idea of you becoming a monster."
Haru gave him a weak smile, but a big hug. "Could we get off the topic? It's really creepy."
"Certainly. Please tell me more about Oregon."
Her eyes seemed to fade at the request. "… Right, Raven's Peak. I guess you could say that their coldness turned me into the Sea Maiden. Because I only had Muta for company, and he was asleep half the day because he needs to stay up all night for the tower, I took to the sea fairly early. Muta was nervous about my fascination at first, but by the time I was twelve, we were building boats together and he was letting me sail in a small cove close to the house. I slowly got better over the years, and loved experimenting with any seagoing technique I could get my hands on. Muta used to have to ground me all the time, or even chain up my boat to get me to actually do my homework."
"Did you have a tutor, since you didn't go to a public school?"
"No, a tutor would have been expensive. Renny did it himself, and took me out of town to another school for yearly exams, to be sure that I was keeping up with everyone else my age. He'd have happily let me go to school elsewhere than Raven's Peak, but it would have been a real strain on him, and I liked studying alone. Most of the time, anyway; a tutor would have been nice for math, at least," she admitted with a giggle. "I've always been bad at math."
"You've mentioned as much," he agreed before hesitating. "Yuki has mentioned that you had an unlimited supply of fish cookies."
Haru grinned at that. "It's an old family recipe of Muta's. He's tried teaching me how to make them, but… it didn't exactly work."
"Why not? Is it a difficult process?"
"No, it's actually pretty easy, but… I'm a terrible cook," she admitted, hanging her head shamefully.
Baron stared at her in shock. "You couldn't be! How are you able to offer such wonderful criticism for my blends if you can't cook?"
"I understand the process and what things bring the right flavor, but for some really strange reason, things just start going wrong when I try to personally cook. One time, I even burned water."
"I don't think that's possible, Haru."
"Believe me, I managed it. Muta liked to joke that I would have made a great food critic, once I got out of Raven's Peak." A tiny smile lit up her face. "But then again, I'm a much better knitter than Muta ever was."
"Muta… knits," Baron said slowly, unable to wrap his mind around the idea.
"Not really. His mom left behind an impressive yarn stash when she died, and it's hard to find clothing in Muta's size. He could never get the hang of it, but after I picked up needles, he put them down for good. He always swore the sweaters and socks I made him were twice as warm as the store bought ones," she reminisced, her eyes turning sad and fading miles away.
"It must take some time, to knit a sweater for Muta," Baron prodded after a few minutes of her silence.
"Hmm? Oh, sure. It used to take me several months, and I even had to make my own designs, since they don't exist in Muta's size. I'm not sure if it was three or four years ago, but when Muta and I were at an annual garage sale, I spotted an old harp someone was trying to get rid of, dirt cheap. I begged Muta to get it for me, and I've been playing ever since. Hey, how did you know I play the harp?" she asked suspiciously.
"I saw it in your room when I came to fetch you for the king."
Her suspicious look deepened. "I don't keep my harp in my room."
His blood ran cold. 'Muta must have moved it in there after she left.' "Maybe it was in the other room then; I know I saw one in your home somewhere."
She kept looking at him as if she knew he was hiding something. "You can recognize a harp when it's in its case?"
"Can't you?" he countered, praying that she wasn't catching onto his little secret.
The king would have his head if he thought Baron had told her the truth about the quest.
"You know, it could have belonged to Muta," Haru pointed out.
Baron bit back a short laugh. "I hope you will forgive me for saying so, but it was much easier to picture yourself playing a harp than your stepfather."
"Well… I guess so," she complied, although there was still a certain amount of suspicion in her large brown eyes. "But… don't tell the king I can play, okay? He'd expect me to play for him, and…" Her jaw tightened angrily, thinking of his majesty.
"I understand; I'll keep quiet about it. Would you mind telling me about the months leading up to Lune's rescue? Something must have changed, for you to be willing to go to the cliffs with those traitors."
A split second after he said it, Baron realized the term wasn't quite strong enough. But he needed to distract her from the truth, and fast.
Haru growled in exasperation. "As soon as the weather turned warm this year, I went out to sea as usual. It's not safe to do anything out there during the winter, so I was really happy to be out on the water again. To avoid fights with the other kids, I tried to get back home before they got out of regular school, and then do my own schoolwork while they were out doing whatever. One day, I wasn't paying attention to the time, and the wind was blowing really hard, so I was practicing my windsurfing skills."
"I thought you did surfing," Baron objected.
"No, not back then. Windsurfing was what I was doing the day Lune flipped out and almost got you killed."
'The day you kissed me.' "What is the difference between surfing and windsurfing?" he asked quickly, to distract himself from an unexpected blush. Never before had he been so grateful for fur.
"Well, you've seen windsurfing. Regular surfing is when there's just the board, and you're riding the waves. It's an incredible feeling… But getting back on subject," she said hastily, possibly to bring herself back to the present, "I was windsurfing, and not really paying attention to the time. When I finally headed back to shore, a girl I had never seen before approached me, and told me that she was really impressed with my skill on the water."
Baron's ears perked up. "The girl was Hannah, wasn't it?"
"How did you know?" she asked with surprise.
"She was the one to bring up a surfing competition, and the only one that didn't seem to know what the others were planning that day."
Haru nodded, her hands balling up into painful fists. "Her family had just recently moved into town. I tried not to pay attention to her at first, because I thought that she was like everyone else, but she honestly didn't give a care about… I take it back; she thought my lineage was really cool. She kept begging me to join her surfing team, since she was going back down for a competition, and she knew it wouldn't take much to teach me regular surfing. At first I said no, but after I got the idea that she honestly liked me, and Muta laid down the law about what he was willing to do if anything happened to me, we became pretty good friends. Not as good as Yuki, since I never got over being nervous around humans other than Muta, but we were fairly close."
A reddish tint returned to her eyes, and she gripped Baron a little tighter. "After Hannah won my hesitant trust, Jack and his friends started behaving like decent people. They said that they were sorry for what they've been doing, and wanted to start over. Renny told me not to give them a chance too, but… I really was hoping they were telling the truth. A little stupid, I guess."
"No, not stupid," Baron assured her, touching one cheek with his gloved hand again. "Naïve, perhaps, but not stupid."
"I shouldn't have even been naïve. Hannah convinced me to do surfing exercises at her house while waiting for summer, gave me a crash course on surfing when her family took me to California for the competition, and pretty much just let me loose on the waves. Not to brag, but I kind of mopped the floor with the competition and brought home the gold trophy."
"I'm more than certain you did," Baron assured, remembering the gold tombstone thing he had seen in her room all those months ago. "How high were the waves you were riding?"
A somewhat goofy grin lit up her face. "Anywhere between the size of one of the regular houses in the district to maybe a third as tall as this castle. They wouldn't let me ride anything taller."
Baron started choking on the idea of her riding only a board on a wave of that size. "… Not… to doubt your abilities, Haru, but if you had done that around here, even I would have feared for your safety."
"Don't worry about that; what happened at the cliffs was plenty to kill my taste for regular surfing. It was fun while it lasted, but… it's over now."
"Didn't Hannah try to apologize for what happened?"
"Muta said she did, the day after it happened. I had caught a cold from being soaking wet in that kind of wind for over an hour at night, and wasn't aware of much for almost a week. The day you came for me was when I was finally feeling normal again." She gave a regretful sigh, still hugging him like a teddy bear.
"Muta has trouble with things that threaten to take me from him. He hates cats because he almost lost me for speaking to them, and he hates the townsfolk for trying to separate us for all these years. Although Hannah had no clue about what was going to happen at the cliffs, I still wouldn't have gone without her, so Muta told her to stay away from me if she had any shred of decency in her."
His body shuddered at her word usage, remembering when she had used it on him.
"I have no doubt that she would have tried again to contact me in a few weeks. She might have even been the bait for whatever Jack's plans for me were on Halloween. Hannah meant well, but… the road to heck is paved with good intentions."
Baron couldn't help but feel that she was talking about him instead of Hannah. He meant the best for Haru as well, but wasn't he deceiving and preparing her for an arranged marriage that she wanted no part of? She may have said that his parents had to have been proud of him, but secretly, he couldn't help but wonder if they were disgusted with him by now. There was still so much that Haru didn't know.
What she could never know.
"I suppose the authorities took no action against Jack and the others for their actions?" he asked to distract himself from his thoughts.
"None whatsoever. Muta was livid with fury, and was actually starting to look around the market for other lighthouse keeping positions when you came for me. But… now that I'm gone from his life forever… I don't know if he's still there or not. He must think I'm dead by now," she whispered painfully, squeezing him like a child's toy.
"I'm certain he doesn't," he tried to comfort her, only to wish to brick his mouth shut. 'Why don't I just tell her what I did and let the king kill me for it?'
"Baron, I disappeared into hostile territory after seeing a strange cat on a giant crow. What else would he think?"
"I think he knows you, and that you don't go down without a fight."
She gave him a sad look. "He also knows that if it were possible for me to tell him I'm okay, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But how can I if I can never step out of the Cat Kingdom again?"
Baron instantly regained the sensation that he was full of slime. "I think he knows."
Haru gave him a doubtful expression.
"I mean, humans have instincts and intuition, don't they?" he tried to reason.
"Of course."
"You can tell he's still grieving, right?"
"Yes…?"
"I think he can tell that you're fine. Maybe not as happy as you deserve to be, but at least you're not dead."
She gave him a weak smile. "Sometimes I wish I were, though. It'd solve a lot of problems."
"It would not!" he flared indignantly. "Sea Maiden or not, you've been a blessing to me-us," he quickly amended, hardly believing his own daring.
His outburst had captured Haru's undivided attention, so much that she was clearly expecting him to go on.
"Haru, you saved my best friend's life. You saved mine. Thanks to the boat design you've given us, many more lives will be saved because of you."
"Because of us," she corrected with a small smile. "My design would have been useless without your equations."
"Even so, I wouldn't have known how to use them without you. Please… don't ever speak in that fashion again; it's uncalled for."
She gave him a surprised look, but sighed in compliance. "I can't promise I won't think it, but I'll stop talking about it."
"Thinking about it is even worse."
"Baron, whatever else the kingdom might take from me, I won't let it take my thoughts," Haru informed him, a slight tint of anger in her tone. "It's taken everything else, including the only family I have left, but my thoughts are still that. Mine. I don't care what the king, or Lune, or even you think, but… just let me keep my thoughts."
"… We do owe you that small courtesy," he admitted shamefully. "Even if you are mistaken that death would fix anything."
"I didn't say that," she protested. "If I really thought that, do you have any idea how many times I could have killed myself, just since I came here?"
He looked at her in horror.
Haru sighed in exasperation. "There's a lot of things I'd rather do than marry Lune, but dying isn't quite on the list. It's something I think about every now and again, just to picture the king fuming about not getting his way about the marriage."
Baron laughed a little uneasily. "When you put it that way, I can understand your line of thought."
"Honestly; how have you been putting up with that arrogant jerk for all these years without losing your sanity?"
"I bite my tongue a lot, in order to keep my head. Despite everything I've done for him, he doesn't hesitate to threaten removing it if I don't wish to follow his whims. I've found that burying myself in paperwork or a few good books after an assignment helps." 'Not that it helped much after you came along.'
Haru shook her head and sighed. "Well, I'll be able to use that method now, thanks to you. Did I ever say thank you, for teaching me how to read cat?" she asked suddenly, as if struck by the thought.
"No, but I was certain you meant it. You are welcome, by the by," he added with a smile; thrilled that the conversation was finally on a lighter note.
She smiled back, and gave him another warm hug. "You know, I could have really used a friend like you back in Oregon."
"Couldn't you just use me now? Oregon's a little late to worry about."
She scoffed a small laugh at that. "I guess that's true." Very carefully, she picked up Baron in order to set him on the ground.
Once again, he was forced to control his tongue before informing the girl that he liked her lap better.
"Still, I'm a bit impressed that you've maintained a one hundred percent success rate, when it comes to serving the king," she noted thoughtfully as he resumed his seat.
"Considering the fact that I will lose my head if I ever fail, I have plenty of incentive."
"That isn't really fair, though. He doesn't threaten anyone else with death."
"It is sort of my own fault; I offered him my head if I didn't succeed in curing Lune." He then pulled a disgusted face. "He can recall that offer with perfect clarity, and yet he had to change my name when he made me a baron."
Haru looked at him with surprise. "You mean your name isn't Humbert?"
'How strange, that she remembers that after being told only once.' "No, it is, but when I told the king my full name just before I received the baronetcy, he immediately changed it. He was a bit delirious with happiness over Lune's recovery, so he wasn't paying very close attention to what I said."
"He really should work on that," Haru muttered under her breath angrily. "What was your first full name?"
"Humbert Ivan Garrington."
Her jaw dropped in shock. "… What… did you say?" she whispered in disbelief.
Baron cocked his head, confused about her horror. "Before the king changed my name, it was Humbert Ivan Garrington. Is something wrong?"
Evidently there was. Baron had long known that if she grew angry enough, her eyes gained a reddish tint. But that was the first time that they gained a yellow one from terrible fear.
"Let me get this straight," Haru said in a panic. "You're the youngest of three brothers, you met Toto while he was stealing from you, plus you managed to steal both a firebird and Sea Maiden for your king… and your name's Ivan?"
"… Yes. Is something wrong with being named Ivan?"
There must have been. Instead of answering the question, Haru ran out of the room like her life depended on it.