Chapter 49: (Love)Sick Haze

"Haru? Haru?"

She blinked as she looked around. She was back in her room? She tried to move but her body felt like jello. She turned her head a bit to the right to see the Baron sitting beside her. She noticed what felt like a cloth on her forehead.

"Haru are you alright?"

"What happened?"

"You have a bad fever. It seems your all-nighters, not to mention lack of food has caught up with you Haru." The Baron restrained his lecture, for the sake of her weary eyes.

"But the man-" She blinked she felt tired again. "Somebody-"

"It was I, Haru. But I'm afraid there were many others that could have found you in that vulnerable state so late at night…however, please don't say another word. Rest."

She nodded, still not even sure herself if she was dreaming and fell back to sleep.

He sighed. She was putting too much of this on herself. Had Muta had warned him earlier about it… All the same he should have seen it coming. He too had been encouraging her hard work, and hadn't been paying attention to the smaller cues.

He recalled the previous night.

The Baron had come home and realized that Haru wasn't around. It didn't take much persuasion with groceries on his side to find that she'd planned to work a late shift.

What he didn't figure was that he'd be in for such a surprise when he came to walk her back home at night. Although she often persisted, the city was not a place to be walking alone.

He'd come just in time to notice the shop was closed. He'd nearly decided he'd just missed her when he heard a rattle beside the shop down an alleyway.

He'd seen her standing out there, a shadow of Haru, intending to ask her why she was still there, or outside without a coat, when he approached just in time to see the show. She would have gotten a lot more hurt had he not caught her in time. More so, her bag of flower scraps went everywhere in a confetti of flower petals and stalks as she fell, luckily into his arms.

What worried him more was the idea that if he hadn't come so at that time he might not have been the first to find her. This Kimiko girl was the core of these issues Haru was stressing over, and frankly when this was all said and done he'd prefer to have a word with her himself. However his instincts knew better than to make the issue any more complicated for Haru.

He'd nearly debated bringing her to the hospital the first night. Lucky for her, it was the weekend.

"Baron, you know had of known it was this bad…" Muta walked into the room.

"Muta you can't be entirely blamed here. Haru was to blame for putting too much on herself at once, but…" He sighed. "…I can't blame her either because she was trying to make up for the years of violin playing he opponent has. Had I known, I too should have done something to help or stop this. Perhaps we're all equally to blame."

"You should rest. You've watched her for two nights. She doesn't even have a clue what day it is?"

"I will remain here. My sleep in this chair will suffice. I will not make the same mistakes she did…she needs all she can get in help now. But I appreciate your concern Muta."

"Well I don't think there's much I can do, but if there is let me know Baron." Muta looked at the Baron's tense green eyes. He was a human, but his eyes, a cat's: Keen, primal, and always looking ahead. However even now Muta wondered what being the same as Haru had done to him; something had changed. Something was much less stringent.

"Thank you." The Baron watched Muta leave. He looked to Haru and felt her forehead gingerly. She was warm. Caught in a sweat…he put another cool cloth on her forehead and watched as her hand clenched. She must be dreaming.

He put his own hand to his forehead, resting it in his palm, his elbow on the bed. This is what he wanted; however the pain of seeing someone suffer, espeically one whom he cared for was always a new feeling… every time the same wound opened, but it hurt just as much.

It was funny how her predicament had merely come out of a need to practicing the violin… it seemed outrageous almost that it would come to this extent.

He watched as she groaned, her hand clenching again. She had too much on her mind. He instinctively wrapped his hand around hers in an attempt to unclench it softly. She was so tense…

"Haru… who would have known you to be such a troublesome girl." He continually supported his head with his other hand on the bed. He recalled when he'd seen her after Charnette had poisoned her…now a different drug, one that weighed heavy on the mind poisoned her: Stress.

Perhaps he could find a way to help her somehow. It was all he had left. On the other hand something had been bugging him lately…it seems as if, after everything he had existed to witness in his life, Haru's arrival in it seemed to head it off the most…was this what he was made for? Surely his creator must have had some intent for his creation other than just to exist as the Baron to the late Baroness… otherwise he would have existed like any other inanimate artwork.

So was it Haru? Or was it something else?


Haru blinked as she felt herself coming too again. She noticed she hadn't budged from her spot on her bed. Her cloth slipped off her forehead onto her lap as she raised her head. It was dark…it must be night. She felt something on her hand.

She looked down to see the Baron, sleeping his hand grasped around hers, slouched in a chair beside her, his head rested on her bed. Had he been with her this whole time?

She looked to her hand. She didn't dare move it if she didn't want to wake him. She'd been a bit reckless hadn't she? All the same, there was just so much to do and so little time.

"Aaach—ooo!" She sneezed, holding her other hand to her mouth to stop or stifle it, hoping not to awaken the Baron. She was going to have to make up for this lost time somehow.

He looked peaceful. Cat like even. His hair soft, his breaths even, nearly laying on her lap. Seeing him sleep made him seem all the more real… not just someone who existed but who lived. Someone just as human as she was…someone…

She bit her lip. She was getting way too in deep with this…and yet…it was what she had wished for wasn't it. If only… if only wasn't going to help her anymore. She felt her eyes droop closed slowly as she fell back onto her pillow.