Chapter 28: Nothing but Love
"No..." she whispered again. She staggered to her feet, ignoring her body's complaints and stumbled to the horrifyingly still form of Baron.
Machida was dead; his eyes glazed over in the sheen of death. Baron had thrown him against one of the walls. It appeared he had broken his neck. Instant death. His form was a mass mutilation between human and cat; his left arm, left eye and head all cat, with his right eye still the shape of a human's. His right arm was still human; in juxtaposition of his left. His mouth was full of misshapen teeth; lost somewhere between cat and human.
Haru knelt beside the feline form of Baron; her hands moving to his chest where the knife protruded. When she brought her hand away, she found it wet with blood. The rise and fall of his chest was pitifully weak.
But he was alive.
Just.
"Please don't die," she murmured. Her head buried itself into his shoulder, savouring the warmth that remained there; just one of the few weak life signs he was emitting. She tried to ignore his rapidly deteriorating pulse. "Don't leave me."
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Baron turned his head to hers; a gentle purr vibrating from his throat. He didn't try to say anything, only hoping that he could simply convey his meaning by that rather than through clumsy words.
"I've lost Mum and Lou and Dad... my unborn sister... Taro... Why must I lose you too?" she demanded in a tight whisper. "After everything we've gone through, why must you die now?"
She opened her eyes, looking straight in the emerald depths of Baron's. "Baron, I hope you know I love you." She closed her eyes, struggling with her words. "I think I have for a long time, I just couldn't accept it. That was why I ran away. I couldn't handle... I couldn't handle the idea that I was falling in love. And now look what I've done..."
A gentle hand caressed her cheek. "You always had a habit of putting yourself down."
"It's my fault," Haru said hoarsely. "It's my fault I couldn't change you back."
Baron gave a quiet chuckle that was drawn short by a bout of pain. "I think that's one hurdle you've overcome today. Open your eyes, Haru."
Through tear-stained eyes, Haru blinked, Baron's hand still softly holding her cheek. Wait a moment... hand? Her eyes flew completely open. Instead of the feline face she had grown to know – and love, she admitted – there was a human face. She blinked several more times.
"Baron?"
He smiled slightly – he still had the same subtle smile as always. "What's the matter? Did you like me better when I was a cat?" he joked feebly.
"No, I just... I mean..." She gulped nervously, becoming aware of just how close their faces were. "What I meant to say is..." She reddened. "You're very handsome as a human too."
"Too?"
She gave a watery laugh, but then her laugh broke down into heaving sobs. "Dammit, Baron. Why did you have to be so gentlemanly?"
She could see he was struggling to remain conscious; struggling against a tide that was rapidly going out, pulling him with it.
"I knew... I knew that I would have to die for someone else to survive today," Baron said weakly. "I thought it was going to be with the mob, but I never imagined it would be defending you. I'm glad it was."
"Don't talk like that," Haru croaked. "You're going to be fine."
Again, that subtle smile returned. "Doctor Thomas is never going to forgive me for this. After all the warnings he gave to make sure I survived, and now I get myself killed by a simple knife."
"You're trying to make me laugh," Haru noted, choked with sobs. "It won't work."
"I always liked your laugh. It's a shame you never laughed more often."
"I won't have much reason to laugh if you die," she said, attempting to sound scolding, but all she managed was a wavering tone.
"Yes, you will. You'll carry on and you'll find new reasons to live. Just like you did after your family's death."
Haru was shaking her head. "Don't you dare go dying on me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me like they did."
The door behind her cracked and groaned, finally giving way to Muta. He clambered through the ruined door, followed by Toto and Hiromi.
"Hey, Chicky, what's happened? We heard screaming and... and..." Muta trailed off as he saw the almost lifeless form of Baron. His eyes scanned the room, resting on the body of Machida, then Haru, and then back to Baron, focusing on the knife wound. Hiromi saw Machida and gave a shocked screech as she saw the unnatural hybrid he had become. Toto took her to one side to help her calm down.
Muta knelt down beside Haru, ignoring Toto and Hiromi. "There's nothing we can do..."
"There must be something."
"He's lost too much blood..."
"No," Haru whispered. "No, he's going to be fine."
Muta placed a large hand on her shoulder. "It'll be a lot less painful for you if you don't try to deny it."
"What am I meant to do then, Muta? Accept it?"
"I'm afraid there's nothing else we can do." He stood up, trying to motion for her to do the same too. "Come on, you probably don't want to be this close to him when... well, when he passes over."
"I'm not leaving him, Muta," Haru growled. "This happened because he had to save me. I'm not going to abandon him now."
"You returned him to human. Isn't that enough?"
The same coolness from before suddenly returned to Haru. "No, it's not." As if a key had been turned inside her, she felt her magic unlock. For a moment, just a moment, she accepted who she was; she accepted what she was.
Around her and Baron, a clear barrier sprung up from the ground, cutting them off in a clear, but solid, dome before Muta could come closer to move her away from Baron. The dome wavered, like the air does in an intense heat, before appearing to vanish. However, Haru could sense that it was still there.
Out of the corner of her eye, Haru saw Muta panic, evidently believing this to be a new trick or trap, and alert the other two. She had to guess, since no noise entered through their half sphere.
Haru blinked, suddenly realising what she'd done.
"Was that... you... Haru?" Baron asked weakly.
"I... think so." She turned her head back down the now-human Baron. He was running out of time. Even now she could see that death had sunk its jaws into him; had already nearly claimed him for its own. "I thought my magic could only do... cat stuff..."
"I think you've... broken the lock..."
Haru swiftly placed a finger on his mouth this time. "Shush. Don't waste your energy talking."
"Why not? I'm going to die anyway. I might at least use my time productively."
"I've already told you once not to talk like that," scolded Haru in a whisper. She didn't know why she was whispering; it was almost like she didn't want Death to overhear them and know that it had missed Baron.
"Would you rather talk about something else then?"
"I'd rather you lived to talk another day."
"Sometimes we don't always get what we want. Life can be... incredibly unfair like that at times." He managed a smile, but even that was weaker than before. "Talk to me. Tell me... tell me what you're going to do tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
He nodded weakly.
"Tomorrow... we're going to take Gideon and we're going to go for a ride through town. And then we're going to have a picnic in the town park and no one will look at us twice because we're both just perfectly ordinary humans." Haru choked on the last word; tears were rolling freely down her cheeks. She wiped one away and continued. "After that we're going to go the theatre and spend the hour watching someone else's problems, and then we're going to return to the estate and have dinner together. And we will laugh about today, and treat it as if nothing happened, and laugh then because we're just two perfectly ordinary humans enjoying a perfectly ordinary day."
"Sounds like you've got it all mapped out."
"Yeah, but you'll have to pay for the theatre," Haru said tearfully, attempting to smile and failing, "because I don't have any money."
Baron moved his hand and took Haru's hands. Her hands still had a slight stain of blood from earlier, but he made no comment about it.
"It was fun though, wasn't it?" As he spoke, the smile was struggling to stay afloat. "I think we both broke the mould we were set in, don't you?"
"Most definitely," Haru whispered. She felt his hand begin to relax, as if he was already giving up to death. "No... no, not yet! Please, not yet! Stay with me just a while longer!" Her hand tightened around Baron's, as if she personally could hold him back from the brink of death. "Please..." She closed her eyes, but then, just as suddenly, they flew open again. "Wait just a moment... I broke the mould..." she echoed. "Surely if my magic can do that..." she muttered, rolling her eyes up to the invisible dome around them, "...then I can heal you?"
Ignoring the harassing voice in her head that was telling her that Baron was too far gone, she looked to where the knife remained. She hadn't removed it; she knew that removing it without anything to stop the blood would just kill him faster. But now... She couldn't heal him if the knife remained there. Her hands hovered around the bloodstained blade.
'He's dying already, right?' she reasoned wildly. 'So this is his last chance of survival. If I don't do this, he's dead for sure...'
Still she couldn't bring herself to pull the knife out.
'Breathe in, breathe out. Take a breath, take a moment and think calmly.'
She placed her hands on the handle.
'Breathe in, breathe out. Take a breath, take a moment and think calmly.'
She wrenched the blade out of Baron's chest, crying out when the action caused Baron's whole body to jerk in an automatic reaction. No noise escaped from him. He had gone beyond that stage.
She hadn't realised it before, but the tears had returned. She placed her hands on the open wound; words she hadn't even realised she was muttering slipping past her lips.
"Please let this work... please let this work... please let this work..."
'Breathe in, breathe out. Take a breath, take a moment and think calmly.'
After a few frenzied heartbeats, she felt a comforting warmth flow down her arms, spreading to her fingers and into the wound.
"I couldn't save Taro... please let this be different... Let me save him..."
She flinched as suddenly her magic quickened and sped into the wound; draining her energy at an alarming rate. And yet she kept her hands steady.
"One chance... one chance to save him..." she was murmuring. She kept repeating words to herself, reminding herself why she was doing this. As if she needed reminding that she loved him. But she was afraid, afraid that if she let her concentration drop for even a second she would lose all chance of saving Baron.
The strain of her magic was burning her now; her eyesight narrowing to a dull haze as she too bordered on the edge of unconsciousness. The blood beneath her hands felt like it was old blood now... Was the wound no longer open? She couldn't tell; in her semi-unconscious state her senses were beginning to fail.
She knew she could only be a few seconds away from fainting, and yet she still had no idea how much she had healed Baron... Was it enough?
She could only hope it was as the last dredges of her strength faded. The last thing she was aware of was of a great deal of shouting as the barrier collapsed around them.
'Please let it be enough.'
ooOoo
A/N: Final chapter next week!
