Chapter Thirty Eight: Affection

"Just look at those buildings!" Toto proclaimed. "It just seems so alien!"

Baron cast a glance at Lune, who nodded. "As far as I've been able to determine, this really is alien to you, because it's literally from another world. The proper term would be 'alternate dimension', but it just means that there are several worlds that exist at the same time, but aren't aware of each other. Also, there are different versions of the same people on each one, which explains why I'm over here, but also strangely dead over there at the same time." He looked deep into Haru's eyes, wondering how she would take the next part. "I lied when I said I was looking for my cousin, Haru. I was really looking for you."

She jumped back from the picture of Big Ben and stared at him. "Me? Why? There had to have been a version of me there, if what you're saying is true."

He smiled sadly, and brought back another memory: his first of her. A young woman appeared in the picture, holding a crying little boy close as he showed her his bleeding elbow.

Haru stared in amazement as her pale counterpart cleaned the wound with a handkerchief and put a strange sticky bandage over it while whispering comforting words. 'So that's how I'm supposed to look. I'm pretty?'

"You didn't even know that child," Baron said softly as the kid happily returned to his play after hugging her around the neck. "But that was okay, you didn't care much if you knew someone or not, as long as they walked away from you with a smile. It was one of the biggest reasons I fell in love with you. It was also the reason you died."

Haru sharply turned to him with huge eyes. "Died?" she whispered.

Baron nodded, and pointed to Lune. "This fellow was crossing a street with a present for his girlfriend, but then the gift slipped, and one of the automobiles I told you about came racing towards him. You saw the tragedy that was about to happen, and stepped in. Lune survived, barely, but you didn't."

Without a warning, his concentration on the memory window vanished as he suddenly wrapped his arms around the green woman, and held her close as a few tears squeezed past his guard.

"That was the worst day of my life. I was devastated, and so were a lot of people. At the end of the funeral, I saw that cat in one window, and managed to catch him long enough to give him a piece of my mind for taking away our future, since I was about to propose to you, and you were gone forever. I was less than gentle about it, and probably said a few things that I shouldn't have.

"In any case, Lune, or Lunardo, as he's called in my home world, was feeling bad enough about what had happened without me adding anything, so he decided to bend a certain natural law to repay his debt both to me and you." He held her a little closer, thinking about the terrible time.

"He promised to send me to a world where you would be alive, and need me the most before he disappeared through a blue cat portal. I let him go because I was just so stunned that a cat had stood on his hind legs and talked to me, especially since magic isn't generally thought to exist in my world. I decided that I had imagined our chat, because I was still so distraught over your death, so I went inside my trailer to try resting. Then the tornado came. I was knocked unconscious by a book that had been thrown from a shelf while I was getting thrown about inside my trailer in the funnel, and when I woke up, I was in this world."

He took a deep breath, and told her everything that had occurred since then, not even leaving out that his original intention had been to kill her, if she had needed it as much as the Raven's Hill mayor had insisted.

"… but then I saw you, and… that was it, Haru. My opinion of you had already changed drastically when I saw the utopian society you made from scratch, but after I saw you, I knew that there was no way I would ever be able to kill you, or even deny you anything that you asked of me, maybe even if the stories were true about you. Please believe me on this. There were so many times when I wanted to tell you the truth about me, but to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure that you would believe this crazy, but true, story unless you saw both me and this world's monstrous version of me at the same time for yourself. I was scared to death that you would order me to leave, and not give me a chance to explain myself." He actually got down on his knees, rubbing her green hand against his tear-stained cheek, fearing to see the look in her eyes.

"Yes, I was willing to love you because you have the same sweet spirit as my Louise, but that's not the only reason I adore you. You're the strongest person I've ever met, and the bravest. Green, pink, purple, blue. I couldn't care less what color your skin is, or how powerful you are, as long as your beautiful heart remains the same. That is what made me fall in love with you in the first place."

For what felt like eternity, there was silence. Baron almost passed out from not breathing, waiting for the girl of his dreams to give her verdict on his soul as his heart pounded in fear, wondering if what he felt for her would be enough.

Slowly, he could see her kneeling down, and the hand he was holding captive turn, so that it could cup his cheek. The hand directed his face so that he could lock eyes with the Mountain Witch.

She was crying, but there was no sorrow in this action. Instead, a beautiful smile of love and relief washed over him as she leaned enough to press her warm lips against his. Without hesitating, Baron swept the green woman into his arms, and kissed her lovingly as tears of relief washed down his own cheeks.

Muta and Toto told him later that the kiss had lasted for ten minutes, but the golden-haired youth would remain convinced for the rest of his life that the kisses he shared with the Mountain Witch had never topped ten seconds, though they kept trying at a new record.

When they eventually parted, Baron didn't notice anything strange, at first. Haru still loved him, and knew he would never harm her, that was enough for him. But she noticed something. Her gaze was still on his face when they suddenly side-tracked to the hand that was still on his cheek.

Her eyes widened as a slow gasp escaped her throat.

She pulled her hand away from his face to look at the white, slightly pink fingers with disbelief.

Haru wasn't quite as pale as the moon, but she was close.