"My curse is…no, it will be difficult to explain. Let me show you instead then I'll explain" Baron said. His eyes flickered to Haru's in nervousness. He bit the inside of his cheek as he raised his right hand to show Haru the gold ring on his ring finger.

"Does the ring have to do with your curse? Hmmm…now that I think about it, I've heard stories about your ring too" Haru said thoughtfully.

"My ring does have a part in the curse, yes…that's why I never take it off" Baron said uneasily. "But I'm going to take it off now to show you why I never take it off." Haru leaned forward in anticipation. Her hands gripped the covers of the bed excitedly. Baron gripped the ring with his fingers and slowly slid the small piece of jewelry off. As soon as the band of gold left his finger, Baron started glowing. Haru watched as Baron slowly shrunk and grew orange and cream fur on his body. When the transformation was complete, Humbert was now standing where Baron was the minute before. Haru jumped up and squealed. She ran over to Humbert to pick him up and spin him around.

"You're so cute! I knew you and Baron were alike…you're actually the same person…or cat in this case" Haru gushed. She hugged Humbert…or Baron now, and clutched him against her chest. She squeezed him and kissed his cheeks. He closed his eyes and started purring. "So adorable!" Baron snapped his eyes open at her in shock. He began to try and wriggle out of Haru's hold. "Baron, what are you doing?!" Baron ignored Haru and squirmed until he was free. He jumped to the bed with ease.

"Haru, you must understand. This isn't really part of the curse. My family over the generations learned this trick. We never use to be able to take on a feline shape. It was only about a hundred years ago that my family learned the secret to take on the form of a cat" Baron sighed. Haru cocked her head in question.

"What do you mean?" Baron's eyes avoided Haru's. He trained his gaze on the cat's eye ring on the floor. Haru's eyes trailed to where Baron was looking. She leaned down and picked up the gold band. She examined the ring in her hand. Haru's eyes went back to Baron in confusion.

"This isn't my true form" Baron said sheepishly. "This is" he said as his body began to grow again back to his human height except he kept all of his feline qualities. The only change besides his height was his hands shaping back into the shape of a human hand but with fur. Haru's eyes widened in amazement.

"That's so remarkable" Haru whispered but Baron's sensitive cat ears picked it up. His whiskers twitched in amusement and relief. Haru slowly walked over to Baron who was still sitting on the bed. His tail swished back and forth against the covers anxiously as Haru approached him.

"Haru, I—" Baron started to say. Before he got to finish, Haru abruptly captured Baron's face in between her hands. Her fingers rubbed and traced Baron's face as she studied it. Her hands went up to trail around his ears then back down to brush against his chin. Baron stayed silent as she played with his whiskers. Suddenly, she began giggling.

"You're so weird!" Haru laughed as she began to scratch behind the half-cat's ear. Baron closed his eyes and leaned into her touch on instinct and began to purr. Haru continued to giggle. A smile lit up her face as curiosity got the better of her. Slowly, so Baron wouldn't notice, she bent down and pressed her lips against his furry ones. Baron's eyes snapped open in surprise. Haru didn't notice and pressed her lips against his harder when he showed no reaction. Baron timidly kissed her back. Wasn't she grossed out by kissing him as a cat? He pulled away before they got too carried away. Baron flicked his ears in agitation.

"Haru, I didn't get to finish telling you the curse. I want to tell you everything I know about it" Baron said while trying to sound annoyed, but it didn't work. He couldn't be angry at Haru when he loved her so much or for being fascinated with him.

"Go ahead" Haru said softly as she settled onto the bed next to Baron. She laid her hand on top of Baron's. It was warm and soft from the fur.

"Well, the information on the origin of the curse is gone. Nobody in my family knows why we were cursed. The only information we have is that about a thousand years ago my great great great great…you know never mind…my something great grandfather was cursed by a sorcerer. When he was cursed, he was pretty old. Anyway, he was cursed to be a cat and human at the same time. Therefore, my family came up with the term half-cat for us. Along with the curse, my however many greats grandfather also got that ring. The purpose of the ring is to give the wearer the form of a human instead of their new half-cat forms" Baron said. Haru smiled as she slipped the ring on her finger and examined it on herself. To her surprise, the slightly large ring shrunk to fit on her finger perfectly. It must adjust to the size of the wearer.

"Wow! It suits you" she opinionated as she stared at the gem that resembled a feline's eye.

"Thanks. The terms of the curse were sort of complicated and confusing. First off, the curse will only affect males in the family and the curse skips every other generation. So say it was the year the curse was supposed to take place and a girl was born, then she'd be normal and not cursed and the curse wouldn't take effect until her grandchild was born…if it was a boy. The curse only affects firstborns too. I don't know why the whole ordeal is so complicated. Do you understand?" Haru nodded.

"Yeah, I get it. It was your father's side of the family that was cursed, right?"

"Yes."

"Then the curse skipped his generation and you fell to the cursed year. That means that your grandfather was cursed too or was it your grandmother that was on the cursed side of your family?" Haru questioned.

"My grandfather, Humbert. Louise was my grandmother's name. She married into the family, but you get the point. So nothing would be confusing, if a female was born in the family, she would convince her husband to take on the name Von Gikkingen instead of his last name like tradition states. I'm not sure why they wanted to keep the name Von Gikkingen all the way, but that little family tradition is still carried on to this day. I think it is so that my family can easily keep track of who the cursed line carries on to. Anyone with the Von Gikkingen name is in a cursed family" Baron stated. Haru gave Baron a quizzical look. She raised a hand to her head in and groaned.

"So if we had a girl then she wanted to get married, she'd ask her fiancé to take on the name Von Gikkingen?" Haru asked. She was getting a little confused as Baron elaborated on the curse. Although Baron was covered in fur, he was obviously embarrassed about the question since he shifted in his seat. The question was so suggestive that she wanted to marry him and have kids. Baron couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Y-Y-Yes" Baron stuttered. "A-Another thing about the curse is that it doesn't take effect until the child turns five years old."

"Why five?"

"I have a theory that it is so the parent of the cursed child has a chance to raise a regular human child, plus it would be hard to take care of a species you're not familiar with. I also think that is so the child can reach an age where they can wear the cat's eye ring without fussing over it and trying to take it off. A five year old might have the sense to keep it on" Baron hypothesized.

"I guess that makes sense" Haru said in understanding. She was still a little confused, but she got the general idea.

"There's one more characteristic about the curse that I have yet to mention. It's that the curse can be broken. The way it can be broken is for the cursed man to fall in love with a girl and have that love returned. After their love is mutual then the girl has to destroy the relic that the curse is tied to. There are two problems with this part of the curse. The first is that if the cursed male falls in love with a girl then it has to be that girl to return his love. It is only the first love that will work for the curse. If the cursed male falls in love a second time then the curse is ineffective because it was not the man's first love. The second problem with this part of the curse is that nobody in my family knows what the cursed relic is or where it is at" Baron said sourly.

"Didn't the sorcerer tell your whatever great grandfather what it was?"

"Technically yes, but my grandfather was old as I mentioned before and he had short term memory loss. I think the sorcerer was happy on that part though because my grandfather married his first love and she loved him no matter what he looked like so if he remembered what the relic was then he could just have my grandmother to destroy it and end the curse before it was even started. But sadly after learning what the relic was, he forgot. My family has searched for the relic for hundreds of years. Some look and some don't. The ones that don't search already found love. They don't care whether they have the relic or not since they have the ring to make them human. The ones that usually search are the ones that are lonely and don't want to put up with the curse anymore in fear that their grandchildren will be scorned in society if the people ever found out about it."

"What about you? I don't care what you look like either way. Do you still want to break the curse?" Haru asked as she rested her hand on Baron's arm. She leaned forward to look at him. Baron's cat ears flattened. His green eyes fixated themselves on Haru.

"Yes. I want to be the one to break the curse and save future generations from pain. I had to live my whole life in this house. Sure I had the ring, but even with the ring, I was always on the edge. I felt like people knew about my curse or that they were going to find out. I was terrified. I don't want anybody else to feel that way. When I first met you, I was so scared because I did my best not to fall in love but upon seeing your smiling face, I was smitten. I knew at that moment that I gave up my chance on breaking the curse unless you loved me in return. Muta and Toto were so angry at me for falling in love so quickly. But even now, I feel that in my heart you can do it. You can break the curse for me, Haru" Baron said as he gently lifted her hands in his and pressed a kiss to her fingertips. Haru blushed.

"I'd love to help you, Baron. I just don't know where to start. I don't even know what the relic is or what it looks like!" Baron chuckled. Haru pouted.

"Haru, as happy as I would be for the curse to be broken, I'll still be happy if you don't break it because I have you now" Baron said as he slowly slipped the gold ring off of Haru's finger and held it in front of his. The ring grew in size and he slipped it on. Baron's fur slowly disappeared along with his tail and ears. Baron was once again flesh and hair.

"Does the staff know about your curse?"

"Only a select few. The people that know are Toto, Muta, Yuki did when she was here, and most of the staff that were here when I was born. I think that's about one third of the staff all together. Now you know too."

"Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me" Haru said as she leaned her head against Baron's shoulder.

"Anything for you, my dear" Baron said.

"But I still want to see you as a full cat. You're too cute and cuddly" Haru said with puppy dog eyes as she looked up at Baron. He chuckled darkly.

"I would enjoy that very much."

A/N: Short and sort of boring. Sorry for all the dialogue too. Yeah, and don't be confused about the curse. None of it is really relevant…unless I make a sequel which I don't plan on doing. Oh well, at least you know the content of the curse now. I like complicated curses. If you still have questions, just PM me or leave it in a review.

Also, I was asked a few questions about the story. Here they are for those people who were wondering themselves.

Q:How long has it been since Haru first met Baron?
A: 2 months and 3 weeks
Q:How long has it been since her mother died?
A: 2 months
Q:How long has it been since she started living with him?
A: 1 month and 3 weeks
Q:How long has it been since the ball?
A: About 3 days...I think
Q:How long has Baron been courting Haru?
A: 1 month and 2 weeks
Now I think all of these answers are right...give or take a few days.