MY BEAU

After the little celebration at the Cat Business Office Haru staggered back home, half-inebriated and not really sure of her way. Lucky for her Muta had decided to accompany her home, at least to the front door. He was, to tell the truth, feeling a bit guilty, since he had played a large role in putting her in that state.

"I won't stay here," he told her as she fumbled with her key. "I'm leaving with Moon for a job in about four hours or so."

"Job?"

"Bureau business."

"But wait, I'm an honorary member, sho you should tell me about it..."

Thank Heaven vodka is mostly odorless, Muta mused as he watched Haru finally open the door and shuffle inside on unsteady feet.

"I'm not telling you in your condition. Come on, upstairs. Go to bed."

"Hey, wassh it my fault you spiked the punch? Woohaaa, I'm feeling no pain now, yessiree..."

"Oh, brother. Look, if you fall, I'm not gonna catch you," the fat cat insisted.

"Whattarya tryin' to shay? That I'm too heavy? I ain't heavy."

"Upstairs. Now."

"Alright, alright, don't be so pushy." Removing her canvas-topped shoes and placing them in the genkan, Haru began heading towards the staircase.

"Hey!" Muta shouted, a bit unwisely for such a quiet neighborhood in the early morning. "Lock your door!"

"Oh, yeah." Before Haru shut the door on him she bent down, grabbed him by the scruff, and planted a big, wet kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for walking me home, Moo-ta."

"Why you—" The whack was automatic, the result of having spent years tangling with Toto. Haru sobered in an instant when she thought Muta had cut her nose off her face. She dropped him and he ran out the door, pausing only to look back and give her a disdainful glance before disappearing into the darkness.

Finicky feline, she thought as she felt for her nose. As it was, the white cat had only batted it with his unclawed paw. Satisfied that she wasn't going to be asking any plastic surgeon for their services any time soon, Haru began weaving her way once more upstairs. Entering her room, she gladly collapsed on her bed, falling asleep almost instantly. The most unladylike of snores began filling the small space.

------oOo------

The liquor brought her alcohol-wet dreams. Once more she was back in her senior years, walking down the corridor of her high school with a chemistry set in her hands. So intent was she on making sure that it didn't fall that when she rounded a corner she slammed into something moving fast, and her test tubes fell onto the hard, polished floor and, tinkling, broke.

"Oh noooo..."

"Geez, I'm sorry!" said the formerly-moving-fast thingy. It bent down to help her.

Haru paused in her appraisal of the broken laboratory glassware and looked up.

"Oh, Machida-san!" The encounter of the previous week, when Hiromi had naughtily pushed her into his path as he walked past them, came fresh to her mind. She remembered how she had, in her terror, given him a frightened smile and blurted out, "Hi," and stood there like a fool. He, in turn, had looked at her a moment before returning her greeting coolly.

"Haru Yoshioka, right?"

She nodded, and he gave her a half-smile and walked away, down the corridor to his classroom.

Hiromi had tentatively touched her shoulder. "Haru? You okay?"

"W-why shouldn't I be? You only made me look like an idiot."

"Aw, that wasn't so bad. You looked so cute I wish I had my camera. It'd be a shot for the yearbook."

"Hiromi! How could you?"

"They say he hasn't shown an interest in girls since he broke up with his girlfriend," piped up Chika, watching the whole thing from the sidelines through her thick glasses. "It could be your chance, Miss Haru."

"That's right! Show him some looove, Haruuu-chan!" Hiromi enthused. "Poor lonely heartbroken guy! He's totally free and available! And, if you didn't notice, Miss I-Turn-Into-Mush-In-Front-Of-My-Crush, he knew your name."

Chika nodded. "Yeah, that means he must've already noticed you for some reason."

"Well, whatever it is, it can't be her boobies," Hiromi suggested, smiling evilly. "Guys like him probably prefer breasts the size of watermelons, and hers are too small—" She jerked out of the way of Haru's hand, which was trying to pinch her.

"You are a nutzoid," Haru declared of her best friend. "A nutzoid, nutzoid, nutzoid—"

"You okay?"

The question brought her out of the reverie. Machida was looking at her with concern written on his face.

She nodded. "I, ah, I'm sorry. Oh, Murata-sensei's going to kill me," she groaned, looking at the disaster strewn on the floor around her.

"No, it's my fault. Don't touch it. I'll come with you to Lab and explain things."

He did more than that; afterwards, he helped her clean the mess up.

"You don't have to do this," she objected quietly as he helped her sweep up the shards of broken Pyrex. "You're missing your class."

"No, it's all right. Science bores me anyway," he said, giving her that half-smile again. Haru felt her heart leap, and her knees turn to mush and her legs become all wobbly. She smiled back, to hide her nervousness.

After they had finished sweeping and mopping, he bid her farewell.

"I don't want to anger Oda-sensei too much," he explained. "Sorry again."

"It's okay. Thanks."

"By the way," he said as he walked away from her, "you've got a nice smile."

The cost of the damage exceeded the deposit every student left with the school at the beginning of the year for such situations, so Haru had to explain things to her mother and pay the difference. But after that casual, off-the-shoulder comment, she didn't care if she had had to pay a million times the amount.

------oOo------

Something tickled her mind, and she shifted into a more comfortable position on her bed.

------oOo------

"Hey, this yours?" Haru pointed to a pear with a bite taken out of it, lying on a handkerchief between her backpack and an unknown person's shoulder bag. Both were on a park bench, having a lunch break, like their owners. She had just come back from her teacher-assigned group, to the place where she and her two friends had agreed to meet.

"No. I think its Hiromi's," answered Chika.

"Sure?"

"I don't know. I just arrived myself."

"Think she'd mind if I have a bite? I'm starving."

"Well, that's what you get for skipping breakfast."

"But I was going to be late!"

"C'mon, Haru, you knew we were leaving early. It's a field trip, for goodness' sake."

"Anyway..." Haru picked the fruit up and had already buried her teeth in its cool, watery crunchiness when someone cleared a throat. She turned around.

Machida stood behind her, with his eyebrows raised.

"Oi," he said quietly, "what do you think you're doing with my food?"

Haru's eyes widened, and she removed her mouth from the pear.

"T-this is yours? Gosh, I'm so sorry! I thought it was my friend's... This is your bag?"

Machida nodded solemnly.

"I... well, I could buy something to replace it, if you'd just wait a couple–"

"Naah, it's okay. You can have it. I was just surprised, that's all." He smiled at her.

As he looked steadily at her, Haru felt her nervousness evaporate, and a strange and exhilarating feeling replaced it. She turned into Homo sapiens gooey around him, sad but true. But there was more than one way to get her message across.

She stared back up at him and turned the pear so the portion with the bite taken out of it was under her mouth. Her teeth made a small scrunching sound as she bit on top of it, and she closed her eyes as her lips met the fruit's chilly flesh again.

"Thanks," she said sotto voce after she had swallowed the piece down, looking at her crush through lowered lashes.

The expression on the tall, lanky boy's face had changed slightly. The slightest hint of awe was in his eyes.

"No, uh, no problem, Haru-san." He nodded at her, picked up his bag, and left to look for his classmates.

Haru waited until he was far enough across the park, then started trembling.

"Hey, what's wrong?" It was Hiromi, rushing up to her after having gone to buy her lunch.

"I think Miss Yoshioka's taken the first big step towards snagging Machida," reported Chika. "She just contact-kissed the pear he gave her."

"Really? Great! Invite me to the wedding, okay?"

"Oh, shut up, Hiromi! I feel as though I'm going to fall to pieces!"

------oOo------

Haru wasn't the only person thinking about her significant other at that time. In his room, Machida lay on his bed, hands laced behind his head, and thought about the decidedly tense situation he had been in with her that night.

He had gone to her house, after a month of purposefully not seeking contact with her. He was trying to hash out the conflicting feelings in his heart. One part told him that she had betrayed his trust, that he should dump her: it would be what she deserved. The other told him to hang it all, and said she deserved another chance.

The clincher came when a letter arrived at his house. A real, honest-to-goodness missive on expensive cream paper. It had Haru's writing on it. Please, Kei-chan, she had written, I'd like to talk to you. I know you're avoiding me. Can't you spare me a tidbit of mercy and listen to me, even for a little while?

A sucker am I, he had decided as he folded the letter up and put it back in its envelope. He never could resist Haru, or any other pleading member of the female sex for that matter. Big doe eyes always melted his heart.

So he had called and told her that he was dropping by. He steeled himself for what might come, and she had answered the door in apron and jeans.

"You're a bit early," she had stammered. "I thought you said–"

"You said you wanted to talk. I'm here. Now."

"Oh. Well, come on in." Haru turned away from him, and that peculiar scent he could never identify wafted from her again.

It turned out she was busy cooking. For him, she had said. After a few minutes of awkward silence, and asking, "Could I help you with that?" and answering, "No, I'm fine, everything's fine," they sat down to eat at the small table in the dining space. And she had let loose a couple of bombs.

Firstly, she said that she wasn't sorry she had entered into a relationship with that strange Cat. She was sorry, though, that she had hurt Machida.

"I know I should've done things better," she admitted as they ate their meal, "and I know this is probably difficult for you to understand, but I do love Baron. And I guess I also wanted to be in a relationship with him to get back at you, for trying to force me into—well, you know."

"And what am I to you, Haru?" he had asked bitterly. "Was I a placeholder for him? Was I just your boy toy?"

"No! It's so difficult to explain. To understand you need to be in my shoes, and experience what I experienced. We both know that'll never happen. If you can't live with what I did, Kei-chan, I'll understand if you want t-to—end this relationship of ours."

"Do you want to end it, Haru? I've got nothing on him—I'm not a gentleman, I don't fight well, I'm not a hero. I just can't compete. I'm an ordinary guy with a little responsibility, that's all."

"No, I don't want to end it! I'm..." Haru sighed and gulped, and to Machida it appeared like she was holding back tears. "I just want to ask if you can... if you can find it in yourself to take me back­–"

She suddenly stood up, upsetting her wineglass, causing Machida in turn to leap out of his seat to avoid the rivulet of liquor that spilled from the edge of the table.

"I'm sorry–"

"That's okay–"

Two hands reached down to set the wineglass upright. They touched, and the spill was forgotten as their owners trembled inwardly with emotion and looked at each other.

"Haru..." Machida gave in to his urge and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed against him as they held one another. "I'm so sorry I hurt you."

"Don't talk anymore," he said. "Yes, Haru, I'll take you back. But how can I be happy knowing you love someone else?"

"I love him as a dear friend now, and nothing more," Haru replied, her voice muffled against his chest. "Besides, I don't want to be his second woman. We agreed to end that part of our relationship when we rescued Louise."

"And did you? I seem to recall seeing him kissing your hand in Lune's castle..."

"Oh, that. It's just the way he is with ladies. I tried to tell you, but you left."

"I remember. I just have one condition, Haru-chan."

"What is it?"

"If you ever do something like what you did with Baron again, we are through. I don't think my ego could survive a second beating."

"It's a deal." Haru snuggled up against him.

They stood as still as a pair of statues, entangled with each other, as the silence of the room continued to ensconce them in its stillness and the wine continued to drip onto the floor. After some time he spoke.

"Haru-chan, could I ask something?"

"What?"

"How about a kiss? It's been a long time."

She pulled back from him and, smiling, brushed the hair away from her tear-wet eyes. "Sure."

The wall which seemed to have been building between them, its foundations having been pulled out from under it, collapsed, and the talk turned to light banter and even a bit of reminiscing and acting out Hiromi's tempestuous early days with Tsuge. Haru remarked that she had no idea they would get to this point in their relationship, and Machida had in turn said he had no idea she had such extraordinary friends.

"Moon and Luna made me worry so much when they told me you were in trouble," he said as they cleared the table. "I thought I wouldn't be able to bear it if anything had happened to you..."

"'Oh, what will become of me, if I lose you?" quoted Haru, looking at him sidelong through veiled eyes, a minxish look on her face. "Remember that?"

Machida smiled. "Yeah. 'Love must give way to duty, dearest, or I am a traitor.'"

"'You already are a traitor! To me!'" Haru raised her hand to slap him, and turned the gesture aside, as she had when they performed it long ago. "'Faithless man! Who are you to value the word of a lord more than the love of a woman?'"

"'It is who I am.'"

Chuckling, Haru had turned for the sink, laden with soaking dirty dishes. "Those were the days."

"Yeah. Too bad we can't return to them."

After a few minutes he excused himself and said he had to leave for his parents' factory. He refrained from touching or kissing her again and left hurriedly, slamming the door on his way out to make sure it closed.

------oOo------

Did I make the right decision? he wondered as he ended his recollection and decided to take a shower, even though it was early in the morning. Judging by how happy his heart felt, he thought he had.

------oOo------

Something tickled Haru again, on the nose. She shifted in the bed and in her dream.

"Mmm... Kei-chan, you're such a good kisser..." Haru puckered up and reached for her boyfriend again. Instead of warm softness, her lips a sort of hairy wall, and the sensation made her open her eyes.

Lying on the bed beside her, with her hands gripping the collar of its hood, was a dwarf. She was kissing its palisade-like beard.

"G-good evening," it said in stilted Japanese, pushing itself away from her. "Could you let me go? You're pretty and all, but we hardly know each other."

It was a good thing there was no one else in the house, and that Michael managed to muffle her shriek with his hand.