Chapter Four: Looking Into Your Eyes

"No, not now!" Haru cried out in despair. Another few weeks had passed, and Baron's portrait was completed except for the eyes, which were now the cause of Haru's despair. She had switched to a different surface to perfect his eyes so that she wouldn't compromise the original painting. Her canvas was dotted by several yellow green eyes, but none of which seemed to capture Baron's spirit the way Haru wished they would. And she had already been working for two days straight on them alone.

"What's the point of letting people see through your eyes if you can't even get it right on the canvas?" Haru slammed her brush down in frustration. "I'm willing to accept that I'm the only one that thinks you're cool, Baron; I just want to show the rest of the world what I see when I look at you. I already know what they see, but erg!" Haru collapsed on the edge of the spare bed and sighed in frustration again.

"I honestly didn't think your eyes would give me this much trouble." She sat on the bed for a moment, her hands covering her face as she struggled to hold back tears of frustration.

Haru… She looked up, but no one had spoken. She was still alone in the apartment.

"What?"

Don't give up. You need to believe in yourself and your abilities. The voice had an aristocratic British accent that she had never heard before, at least in person. Her eyes slowly slid over to Baron, who was still under the bright lamp to give her the best view of his eyes. They were now giving off a sense of comfort which warmed her soul.

Then you will have nothing to fear. Haru stared at the doll, trying to figure out if she was going mad. Her telephone rang, breaking the spell. Haru ran to answer it.

"Hello? Oh, Mr. Amasawa, it's good to…yes, actually." She stole another glance at Baron for a few seconds before continuing. "Yes, it will be ready for the gala in two days." Her whole body froze up at the next question. She again faced Baron, and warmth spread throughout her body.

"My Feline Gentleman." Haru's voice had a note of finality to it. A few seconds passed, she said goodbye and hung up the phone. She finally smiled and walked over to Baron. Picking him up, she rubbed him gently against her cheek as a compromised hug.

"I don't know if that was my imagination or not, but that was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you Baron." Giving him another bright smile, she placed him back under the lamp and replaced the practice sheet with the original painting. Remixing her paints, she carefully renewed her assault on the blank spaces that would be Baron's eyes. After a few minutes, she forgot about the deadline and everything else that existed beyond the walls of her studio.

Several hours later, the shout of victory was given.

Baron could still see the glowing smile on Haru's face hours after she finally emerged from behind her makeshift easel. After washing and drying her hands thoroughly so she wouldn't get paint on him, she had picked Baron up and brought him around to see her masterpiece.

He had been shocked. The scene was so familiar to him. In a large red velvet chair, Baron was sitting, holding a book slightly to the left of him, his eyes glowing as he seemingly read the passages, a cooling cup of tea on the table next to him as he became lost in the book. In the background, a standing coat rack could be seen, with his jacket, hat, and cane hanging from it. If it weren't for the obvious fact that he was a cat, this could have been easily believed to have been a real scene.

"So, what do you think, Baron? Think they'll like it?"

Even if they don't, I do. He had been thrilled that she had heard his thoughts, even if she thought his voice was a figment of her imagination. Haru's smile brightened further, and she again rubbed him against her cheek.

"As long as you like it, I think I can handle whatever the public says about your portrait."

Oh, what he would have given to actually feel her touch. Being made of wood, he couldn't feel or smell or taste. He could only see and listen. But now he could also speak, even if it was only through the mind. He had to restrain himself from telling her everything. He knew that she wouldn't quite believe it, and if she did, she may withdraw her nourishing spirit from him, and he'd be stuck this way forever.

Not about to risk that, Baron watched her start to clean up the worst of the mess in the room. Haru had told him a few days earlier that her mother was coming for Hiromi's wedding, and so would be staying with them for a few days. Baron thought it was endearing of Haru to say 'with them,' like they were living together. Well, they technically were, but not like that! And what would her mother think of Haru's habit of talking to him instead of out finding a date? Baron's mood darkened at the thought. Why should he care if the girl found a man? It's not like he had any claim to her.

But he did. Just the fact that she had preferred hours of looking at him for the portrait instead of sifting through Tokyo's single ads had to count for something. She even admitted that she got along better with him than any other man. But what would happen to him, now that Haru had finished? Surely she would want to start on something new, although he knew that she could probably live comfortably for years without lifting a paintbrush. Would she still talk to him, or was that something she did for each focus of a masterpiece? He could tell Haru was thinking about some of the same things.

"Mom's not going to be thrilled that I've been painting instead of looking up available escorts to Hiromi's wedding this Sunday. At least she hasn't had the time to look up strange men lately, since she's been so busy with organizing everything." By this time, Haru had managed to sweep all of her art supplies into large boxes that she had lined one wall with. Then she started to set all the furniture in a non-lethal position and replace the sheets on the bed.

"For some reason, Hiromi and Mom have the assumption that because I'm an eccentric artist, I want someone else that is eccentric. I don't know why they're always surprised that blind dates they arrange for me never work out. When we were younger, Hiromi and I even made a deal; my mom would substitute for her mom at her wedding, since her real one doesn't deserve the honor, and her father would give me away at mine. If such a thing ever happened, that is." Haru gave a sigh as she lined up her sketching pads on the shelf.

"Mom's probably going to be less thrilled about how I talk with you. Just in case she gets a crazy idea like throwing you away while I'm out or something, I better start keeping you in a safe place. Not my room though," Haru added with a laugh. "You're way too lifelike for me to keep you in there with a clean conscience. I don't think I could bear to put you in a box and tuck you away for a few days either. Your presence is a bit on the addictive side." Haru had finished straightening the room to accommodate her mother's arrival, and rubbed one of her doll's ears as she walked out.

"Don't worry, I'll think of something. Good night Baron." Mere moments after her departure, Baron was already stretching his limbs for the nightly exercise, and he was unable to keep a smile from his face. She said he was addictive. That probably meant that she intended to keep him around for a while, despite what her mother may say about the strange relationship with him.

With the portrait out of the way, she'll have no excuse to not finding an escort to Hiromi's wedding. Baron started running his nightly laps around the studio, which had become greatly simplified, since Haru had put away everything that had made the route an obstacle course. His pace slowed as his thoughts grew more serious.

Come to think of it, why is this young lady still single? She has brains, beauty, a wonderful sense of humor, a sparkling personality, a creative mind, beauty…wait, did I already think that? Shaking his head slightly, Baron increased the pace. With the rate I have been improving at, I should be able to ask her that myself soon enough. He had found the file on her laptop that was kept for her works, each masterpiece included a photo of the finished piece, the story behind it, how much it sold for to whom and when, and little details like that.

By far, his favorite was one of her earlier pieces called 'You Don't See Me'. It had shown a scene from the Frog Prince, from before the princess had dropped her golden ball into the water, and the frog looking at her with mournful eyes from within the pond next to her. Haru had written in her summary that she had liked a boy named Machida in high school that pretty much ignored her unless she was late for class, when he would laugh at her along with the rest of the class. She had tried to paint the loneliness she had felt into the frog's eyes, and Baron thought she had done that job a little too well.

She had also described herself to be a lot like the frog, since guys wouldn't take notice of her except to mock when she did something wrong. Baron's heart trembled in empathy. He wanted to tell her that he felt like he was the frog, and she the princess, except that Haru was a lot nicer than the one in the story. She hadn't lost anything that he could return, and had taken him in without thinking much about it. And even if she could hear his voice now, she didn't really know who he was.

These thoughts didn't stop Baron from wanting to challenge this Machida to a duel for making his Haru feel unwanted. Oh, the things he could have done to that rogue…