Chapter 1:
The moment Baron Humbert von Gikkingen knew his cousins had arrived was the moment his door was almost smashed in by the pounding of multiple heavy fists.
It had been a peaceful night, with rain pounding on the windowsill in an almost rhythmic way, and Humbert had just been getting out some ingredients for a new batch of tea.
"Humbert! Let us in, will ya?"
He sighed almost inaudibly and placed the ingredients for his new tea blend back into the cupboards. Continuing his blend experiments would have to wait. Humbert made sure to open the door in such a way as that he wouldn't be flattened when his larger cousin practically fell through the door and stormed towards the couch to collapse onto it.
"Food," he rasped, waving a hand around weakly. "I need food."
Humbert's darker cousin stepped through the door to taunt the large man. "Like any more food would do you good, lardball. If anything, Aunt Maria should put you on a diet!"
The larger man snarled and pounced at the darker one; a stark contrast from his previous 'weak' disposition. Humbert merely sighed at what was a common scene to him. "Please be careful, Muta, Toto. That vase in the corner was a gift from Mother, and I would loathe for you to face her temper if she arrives and finds it broken.
Neither man stopped fighting, but they did make a noticeable effort to avoid the vase. Humbert closed his eyes in faint irritation, and went to close the door, before he stopped, head cocked slightly.
"What's eating ya, Humbert?" Muta asked gruffly, as Toto got in a lucky punch.
"Nothing, just … a feeling. Wait right here."
Humbert left his duelling cousins behind and followed his gut feeling, heading down the stairs. He walked through several halls, the feeling of foreboding increasing with every step he took. Finally, he heard a jeering laugh out in the courtyard, and went to investigate.
There were several guards sheltering from the storm under the awnings near the door, but none of them seemed to be the cause of the foreboding. Humbert waited for a moment, but the feeling didn't fade, and he figured out why a second later.
Another laugh was heard from a tall dark soldier – Machida, if Humbert remembered correctly. Machida had just kicked a small dark shape out from until the cover and into the heavy downpour.
It was a little cat. She – he could only assume it was a girl – had large dark eyes and soaked fur and was trembling as she mewed pitifully at Machida and moved to go back under the awning. Machida grunted slightly, and aimed to kick her again, but the cat somehow managed to dodge his foot and weave between the feet of the other guards to try and escape through the doorway. Machida caught up to her and moved to kick her again – a kick the little cat wouldn't be able to dodge this time – and Humbert's muscles finally started to work again. He leaned down and smoothly scooped the cat into his arms and out of the pathway of the on-coming kick.
Machida froze. The other soldiers froze. Even the little cat would have been as still as stone, if she wasn't shaking so badly.
Humbert steadily met Machida's gaze, raising one eyebrow disapprovingly. "I," he said slowly, "am far less than impressed. Next time, maybe show a little compassion. It would do you good."
With that said, Humbert turned on his heel and headed back down the dark corridor, mumbling several ungentlemanly things under his breath. The cat was struggling slightly now, trying to escape his grasp, so he slowed his fast pace and rubbed her back soothingly with one gloved hand.
"It's alright," he told her, carefully rubbing her fur. "You'll be alright now."
She looked up at him with her large caramel eyes and blinked slowly before mewing carefully at him. He gave her a lopsided grin in return. "It's nice to meet you, little one. My name is Baron Humbert von Gikkingen."
The cat's face took on a slightly confused expression after that. Humbert laughed. "Yes, I know it's a mouthful, but I hardly had any choice in the matter."
She seemed surprised – at what he couldn't guess – and started to meow desperately at him again, almost like she was speaking. Humbert watched her for a moment, head tilted, before reaching his conclusion.
"I'm very sorry, little one," he told her, interrupting her mewled tirade. "I can't understand you. But from the way you act, I'd have to guess you're from the Cat Kingdom. Although, usually felines from the Cat Kingdom can be understood by humans." Humbert mused the last part to himself, but the little cat placed her paws on his hand.
He glanced down at her, surprised to find her rapidly shaking her her furry head, so hard it must have hurt. Her large eyes were pleading.
"Alright, alright, there's no need to hurt yourself," he told her, putting one gloved hand gently under her chin to get her to stop shaking her head. "You're not from the Cat Kingdom then?"
The dark feline shook her head in a more controlled manner this time, as they approached the door to his quarters. Hearing the thudding sounds from within, however, seemed to set her on edge, because she recoiled against Humbert's chest, staring at the door in slight terror. Humbert couldn't help but laugh at her obvious fear. "It's okay, little one," he soothed, stroking her back while nudging the door open with one foot. "That's just Toto and Muta."
The aforementioned duo looked up when he entered the room, before promptly collapsing onto separate pieces of furniture as twin groans were heard.
"Again, Humbert? What is it with you and sticking your nose in others' business?" Toto complained, at the same time as Muta grouched, "Should'a stayed at home if he's just gonna pull these ruddy stunts again."
"Oh stop it, you two," Humbert chided as he gently placed the little cat down on his favourite armchair before turning to the brothers. "I couldn't just leave her out in the rain, with the guards."
'Especially not with the guards,' he added in his head, as the cat mewed at him in an inquisitive manner. "Oh, this is Toto-" Humbert gestured to the dark-haired man, who saluted loosely to the cat "-and Muta." The larger man just grunted and turned to Humbert.
"Ya know that Aunty Maria won't let the mangy thing stay here," he commented, scratching absently at his mop of brown hair.
The little cat hissed at him, settling back into a defensive stance. Both Toto and Muta jumped at the sound. Humbert stood from where he had been kneeling next to one of the cupboards, and stepped back over to the feline. She glared at him as he approached, a towel now in his gloved hands. He reached out to dry her fur, but she skirted away from him, alternately glaring at him and the other men in the room.
"Just what has happen to you?" Humbert told her in a scolding tone. "You were very sweet-tempered earlier."
That cause her to calm a little, enough to give him a sheepish look. Humbert sat down on the armchair, towel held in his lap and – after a long pause – the cat hopped up onto the cloth, and allowed him to towel her dry.
"I am aware of Mother's attitude towards felines," Humbert told his cousins as he rubbed her fur dry. "But the fact of the matter is, this is my household, and, as such, Mother doesn't have a say in wether or not this little one stays."
Toto snorted. "Does that mean you'll say this to her face?"
Humbert was silent.
"Yeah, thought so," Toto said, reclining back on one of the sofas and looking at the cat strangely. "Is it from the Cat Kingdom?"
Muta groaned, dragging himself off the couch to glare down at Humbert. "It'd better not be. We'da thought you'd know better than to stick yer nose in that infernal Kingdom's business after last time."
Humbert looked up and met Muta's accusing gaze, a challenge gleaming in his green eyes. "We are all well aware of the mistake you made during our last visit to the Kingdom, Muta, but it wasn't necessary for myself and Toto to follow you in there, was it? And," he added, almost as an afterthought, "she's a she, not an it."
Muta grunted again and sat down. "Whatever. But I'm not tellin' Aunty Maria bout that cat. That's all on you."
Humbert sighed, resigning himself to his fate as the little cat looked at him strangely.
"Yes. I know."
Chapter 2:
"It's my own personal blend of tea," Humbert told the little cat as she licked politely at the tea he'd placed in a saucer for her. "It's a little different each time, so I can't guarantee the taste."
Toto and Muta had long gone off to bed, leaving Humbert and the cat alone in the study. Once her fur was dry, it was revealed that she was brown from head to toe – somewhere between peachy-coloured and tan. Her eyes were just as large as they were when she had been wet, but now that she was still, he could see that they weren't normal cats eyes – for all intents and purposes they could be passed off as the eyes of a human, if they weren't on the face of a cat.
"You're a strange little one, aren't you?" Humbert murmured, catching the attention of the cat, who mewed at him inquisitively.
"I've never seen a cat like you before," he explained. "Are you sure you're not from the Cat Kingdom?"
The cat nodded rather firmly, and – having finished her tea – sidled up to him and rubbed against his legs, purring happily. Humbert smiled, and reached down to rub her back with one gloved hand.
"I don't suppose you have a name?"
The cat's head shot up in response to his question, and she quickly ran across the room and leapt onto the bookcase in the corner. She looked over the titles hurriedly, before carefully pulling one out with her paws. Humbert crossed the room to help her, reading the title of the book as soon as it was free from the shelf.
"The Norishi Empire," he read aloud, crossing the room again to sit back down in his armchair. The cat hopped up into his lap, and pushed the book down with a single paw until it was at her level. Humbert opened it up to the contents, and she skimmed the chapters before pressing her paw over the last one with a decisive meow.
Humbert glanced at the chapter title and dutifully turned the pages to the correct chapter. 'Names of the Royal Samurais'. The cat traced down the lineages with her paws before stopping at the end of one of the largest family trees. Humbert gently removed her paws so he could read the name she'd stopped on.
"Haru," he said aloud, trying out the name aloud as he looked down at the strange little cat. "It suits you, little one. A unique name for a unique person."
Was it his imagination, or was the cat – Haru, he reminded himself – blushing? Yes, there was a definite red tinge showing through her fur. He chuckled and removed his gloves, Haru watching him curiously as he did so. She mewed in distress when his hands were revealed.
Humbert smiled sadly, and looked down at what he knew had shocked her.
His hands had long, deep, ugly scars tracing across every inch of exposed skin. The scars continued up his wrists, but less of them. Most of the scarring was focussed on his hands, and the rest of it thinned out as it continued up his arms.
Not that Haru could see any of that. All she could see was the scars on his hands. Humbert held one out cautiously in her direction, and she hesitated for a moment before nudging her head very carefully against his palm. She meowed slowly at him and patted his hand with one paw, trying to make him understand her. Humbert raised an eyebrow at Haru, noting how she seemed distressed.
"I don't think I'm ready to tell you what happened just yet, Haru," he informed her.
A strange sort of smile found it's way into Haru's face when she heard him use her name, but she shook her head firmly and continued meowing at him. It was only when she extended one of her claws that he understood what she was trying to say.
"You want to know if it hurts?" Humbert asked, causing her to nod and mew in exasperation. "No, it doesn't. I lost the feeling in my hands long ago."
Nevertheless, he smiled as he carefully rubbed between Haru's ears, earning a warm purr. "I bet your fur would be soft," he said quietly, although apparently it wasn't quiet enough to escape the notice of the little brown cat.
Haru nudged her head against his sleeves, and started to pull at them with her tiny teeth. Catching on to what she was doing, Humbert took over the task and rolled his shirtsleeves back to his elbows, burying the sharp twinge of shame and revulsion that he always felt when looking at his scars. Haru put on paw on where the scars thinned out, a sad look on her face, before she rubbed her cheek against his arm.
A laugh bubbled out of Humbert, as he actually felt her fur against his arm. He had been right. It was soft, and silky, and as he brought his free hand up to stroke Haru's back, another purr vibrated through her frame. She nuzzled against his arms, and Humbert buried a hiss of pain as she brushed against a few of his deeper scars, but this was the first time in a long time he had been able to properly feel anything that wasn't dulled by cloth. He was most definitely going to enjoy it.
For the second time that day, a loud pounding on the door interrupted the moment, and Humbert sighed while rolling his sleeves back down. "Who is it?"
"It's me, Humbert," Toto called. "You're required in the front hall immediately."
"Why?" Humbert asked while pulling on his gloves.
"Because your mother is here."
xxoOoxx
Humbert stood in the front hall with his hands clasped behind his back, and he watched his mother come towards him, inspecting first the room, and then himself. Once she finished her inspection, she nodded cordially at him. "Humbert." Her tone was flat, with barely and recognition and zero affection.
"Mother," Humbert replied in the manner that was expected him. He offered her his arm, and led her at an unhurried pace to his study. He may have even stalled a little. He was already growing very attached to the little peach-brown cat that was waiting in his study, but he still dreaded the moment his mother would find Haru there. His mother hated cats with a passion.
When they arrived at the study, Humbert reluctantly unlocked the door and held it open for his mother to enter first. She swanned into the room, and he could almost see her approval that the vase she had bought was still there and intact. She moved to the couch and sat, gesturing for Humbert to take a seat.
As soon as Humbert sat down in his favourite armchair, Haru emerged from wherever she had been hiding and leapt up into his lap. He rubbed her ears softly, refusing to look at his mother for fear of her disapproval. Haru seemed to be able to sense his discomfort, since she purred reassuringly and rubbed her head against his arm. The cotton dulled the touch this time, but the contact was still soothing.
"Humbert," his mother asked in a harsh tone. "Why is this … vermin in you household?"
Humbert fought to keep his tone steady as he told her, "Mother, this is Haru. She's …" he hesitated for a moment, looking down at Haru as she gazed up at his with her large maple eyes. "Well, she's staying here with me."
"Is she your cat?" His mother sounded far less than pleased at the idea.
"Mother, Haru is her own…
A.N. That's the end. Honestly idk where I was even going with this fic. I think Haru was transformed into a cat by the Cat King and cursed so that if she didn't find someone to love her unconditionally and purely then she'd return to the Cat Kingdom and marry Prince Lune. A few days after meeting Baron she transforms into a half-human, tells Baron her story, and then Baron, Haru, Toto and Muta get abducted by the Cat King. The King tries to force Haru to marry Lune before the curse is broken, and then Lune shows up with Yuki, frees everyone else, and sends them back to the human world where Baron and Haru end up together. They're both still half-cats, and when they eventually get married and have kids, and their children are triplets – Jonathan, Amy and Lotus – tiny little half-kittens who love causing chaos.
Again, if anyone wants to finish any of these unfinished stories then please PM me.