Chapter Seven: The Cat King
Just like the first night Baron had spent in Haru's apartment, it was long after midnight when Haru finally drifted off to sleep, except that this time, she didn't even have the energy to walk to her bedroom. She just crashed on her couch, with her laptop still on her lap. She was also still wearing the denim outfit.
As Baron had suspected, Hiromi gave her a hard time when she finally arrived at the scheduled fitting. To her defense, Hiromi looked as frazzled as Haru, so much that she barely made a peep about a date. By the time Hiromi let her maid of honor stumble home, the sun had begun to set. He'd have thought that Haru would want to rest a bit after everything that had happened that day, but she immediately started on the summary for Baron's portrait for her works file. She even took a picture of him to put next to the portrait on the page.
There was only one interruption, in the form of a phone call. Turns out that the airport that Haru's mother was supposed to be flying out from was under some severe weather alert, and she might not be there until the day of the wedding. Haru had already known that her mother would need to fly out of town again immediately afterwards, and had been a bit disappointed, since she had not seen her mother for six months. Haru worked on the summary to get her mind off of the bad news. Perhaps summary wouldn't be a very good term, since she had written ten pages by the time sleep claimed her. He gazed at her fondly.
She's so adorable when she's asleep. This was, after all, the first time he had seen her in that state. Baron was still in denial that Freddy had just happened to be in the crowd at the unveiling of Baron's portrait, and that he had told Haru so much about him. About the only thing that kept him from dying from embarrassment was the fact that when Freddy had mentioned buying him, his Haru had instinctively reached out for the doll, as if holding him could ward off the sale. That and she had said that he sounded like a great guy.
Although it had been wonderful to see his brother again, he could not deny his own relief that he would be staying with Haru. Baron still couldn't believe that she had swiped Hiromi's lacrosse stick and swept that cat out of harm's way. Even if he didn't have a problem with Haru putting herself in danger the way she had, he definitely objected to helping a cat that was wearing a gold collar. His whole body shuddered with the memory of another young woman holding a cat, with a golden collar that gleamed in the sunlight.
Please let this be some rich man's cat. Baron had been silently praying this ever since he had seen the cat from Haru's bag, but he knew that it was a false hope. While Hiromi had been yelling at drivers and trying to cross the street, Baron had seen his painter, who had fallen on the other side of a bush. He had seen all too clearly the look of astonishment on her face as she stared down, the bun she had so carefully pinned up falling down to a single braided rope down her back. By the time Hiromi had reached her, the cat had gone, but Haru had a haunted look on her face. And there had been no mistaking her words.
"Did you see that cat talk to me?" Needless to say, Hiromi accused Haru of getting high off of paint fumes, but Haru had been too distracted to defend herself, until she snapped out of the spell, exchanged the lacrosse stick for her bag, and ran to the Moon Cafe where Freddy had been waiting. Perhaps worrying about the cat had been what denied Baron the true joy of seeing his brother after being choked by dust for sixty years. It was amazing, how Freddy had known so much about Baron, and yet had known so little. However much Baron loved his little brother, or was it now his older brother?, there had been no denying what Baron had felt when he saw Haru intentionally run in front of that truck. Pure panic, at losing the one he cared the most for. No, that wasn't quite accurate.
I love her. It really had been that simple, what had been building ever since the young lady first looked him straight in the eye. He knew all her secrets, even the ones she didn't know he knew, and her comforting presence had been Baron's anchor. There was so much he longed to say to her, but he could only scrape a handful of words for her per day, and he had already used them to try to stop her from going into a collusion course.
This is what he was thinking when the scratching started. The noise was softly, coming from the door, but then grew louder along with meows until it eventually woke up Haru. Rubbing sleep from her eyes, she placed the laptop aside and walked towards the front door.
"What on earth is that about? We aren't allowed pets-"
Haru! She jumped a foot in the air, and turned towards Baron.
"Is something wrong?"
Yes. Get away from the door, and lock yourself in your room.
"But-"
Just trust me!
Haru was starting toward her bedroom door when the front one gave off a bright blue light, which caused her to stop and throw her arms up to protect her eyes. After a minute, it faded a bit, enough that she could see what was happening. Not that she fully believed what she saw, in any case.
What was walking through her door, while it was still closed, could only be described as a cat parade. Twin columns of cats on their hind legs walked in first, the front ones swinging around sticks that made a rattling sound, and all the others spreading flower petals in the wake of one large light gray cat that was being pulled in a cat-sized chariot, surrounded by several black and white cats that seemed to be acting as bodyguards, as well as two other cats as his attendants or advisors. The gray cat had golden armbands, as well as a large purple gem in between his eyes, which could have served as a crown. The procession stopped when the chariot was right next to where Haru was standing. She stared at them, and the cats stared back.
"Hiromi was right about the paint fumes. When I wake up from this dream, I am swearing off painting for a year!"
"This is no dream, Miss Yoshioka." One of the attendants, a blue-gray cat wearing a purple robe, had spoken. "The cat that you were so good to rescue this afternoon was no other than the heir of the Cat Kingdom, Prince Lune." Baron inwardly groaned. He had been afraid of this. "Due to the gravity of the situation, the Cat King himself has come to you to personally express his gratitude." He gestured to the large cat that was leisurely sprawled out on the carriage. Haru and Baron warily shift their gazes to the Cat King, who opens one eye to the young woman standing close to the bedroom door.
"Ah, mm. Thanks a lot, babe." BABE?! If Baron had blood, he was sure it would be boiling at that comment towards Haru, who was smiling a bit nervously.
"Really, it was no problem-"
"And in return for your courageous deed," The gray cat had continued, cutting her off, "we will take you to the Cat Kingdom with us, to begin your training to become Prince Lune's bride and the kingdom's new Cat Princess."
"Wh-what? No thanks, as I said, it was no problem, there's no need for-"
"Well, we need to hurry if we want to make it back for the banquet that has been prepared in your honor." The other cat advisor, a brown one with red marks on his cheeks, signaled with his hand. All the cats carrying petal baskets dropped them and rushed for Haru, who had backed up against her bedroom door in fear. No one noticed the cat doll on the other side of the room, who was struggling to move to help the poor girl. The cat all began to circle her legs, and she lost her balance, banging her head hard on the doorknob behind her. Now unconscious, she could not resist the cats as they bore her back through the blue light that they had entered through. The cat procession had been so thrilled with their bounty that not one of them noticed the shadow figure that had joined in the back of the parade.
Then the light vanished, leaving only scattered flower petals in its wake.
Baron had a light headache when he finally opened his eyes. Rubbing his head as he sat up, he let out a groan. Then his mind registered the fact. He groaned. And he could feel the cold stone through his glove.
Did that mean... He quickly pulled one of his sleeves up, revealing an arm covered by thick orange fur. Groaning again, Baron felt his ears, which were still pointed and at the top of his head. At least his hat could rest comfortably between them. He felt his wrist for a pulse, which proved to be steady and strong. Even his whiskers had straightened out.
"Nice to see you're awake, Baron." The cat doll immediately stood up and looked around, but no one was there. He was all alone in an elaborate courtyard.
"Up here." The orange cat looked up into ebony eyes, which belonged to a large crow on top of the pillar that Baron had woken up next to. His own eyes widened in recognition.
"Greetings, Toto. It's been a while." Baron's voice was a bit hoarse from disuse.
"A long while," Toto agreed. "I take it from the fact that you're here and we're able to move again that you found something stronger?" Baron turned to see a large white castle that could be easily seen, even from this distance.
"In a way. Her name's Haru Yoshioka."
"Ah, that must be the young lady that entered the castle with the Cat King just before you arrived. I thought for sure that the Cat King's ego would make him want a grand entrance, not a midnight kidnapping while the girl's asleep."
"She was knocked unconscious when she was tripped by the cats. How long have I been out?"
"Only a few minutes. I didn't think it would be a good idea to let you lie there where anyone could have seen you, so I brought you to my sanctuary." Something frozen inside Baron relaxed, although briefly.
"I need to rescue her." Toto nearly fell off his pedestal in shock. "I'd have thought you would have learned your lesson about messing with a Cat King-"
"Haru very specifically said that she didn't want to become a Cat bride. I can't just sit back and let her get married without her consent and lose more than just her freedom. She's nothing like Louise. I won't ask you to help me, Toto."
The crow stared at Baron. He hadn't been that persistent, even when…
Toto sighed.
"I'm surprised that you feel the need to do so, Baron. What can I do?"
"Think you could give me a lift?"
