So, remember how I repeated the dream? Well, I deleted the chapter - don't need it, you already know what happened. This was originally chapter 10, but I'm backing everything up a number.
Baron woke with a start, sitting up in his bed and breathing heavily. He pushed a heavy hand through his thick hair and exhaled slowly. "Just a dream," he murmured to himself. "Only a dream."
Slowly the memories of yesterday came back to him: waking up outside, cursing, meeting Akiko, finding Haru, falling asleep on her couch…
He furrowed his brow. Speaking of memories, hadn't he had that same dream the night before? Yes he had, he remembered; it was the reason he awoke and discovered his 'condition.'
Why, however, was a much better question. Why would he have the same dream, a nightmare, two nights in a row?
He pondered this. It could be a sign or a message. Perhaps Belinda's doing? After all, she did appear both times, and masquerading as his fiancée no less. What on earth could that mean?
Baron rubbed his temples. At the moment he couldn't make head or tail of it, and it was doing nothing for his already fragile nerves. He would think about it later; right now he had to locate his lovely hostess.
Throwing the blankets off his legs, he climbed off the couch and stretched before wandering in the general direction of the kitchen, where a rather delectable smell was drifting.
In the kitchen at the stove, he found his lovely hostess holding a frying pan and humming a tune beneath her breath. As he watched, she grabbed a spatula and casually flipped whatever was in the pan and it landed with a sizzle and a quiet splat. Her humming rose slightly in volume and he smiled as he leaned on the counter to admire her. After a few more moments she spun around and let out a little shriek when she spied him leaning against her counter.
"Jeez Baron," she said, running her fingers through her hair, "you gave me a heart attack. I didn't even hear you come in."
He shrugged. "I guess I'm still light on my feet."
Haru grinned and turned back to the stove. "Well, I hope you like scrambled eggs and bacon, 'cause that's what I made. If not, I can make you something else…"
"Scrambled eggs and bacon sounds delicious," he said, his smile broadening. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"You could… make some of your special tea?" she suggested offhandedly. "Your tea always tasted better than mine."
"Certainly." He straightened and moved to stand behind her. "Where should I find the ingredients?"
"Umm…" She bit her lip and gestured with the spatula. "My mom keeps all the tealeaves in that cupboard on the top two shelves, and there's a kettle in the dishwasher."
"All right." Baron easily found the tealeaves, though he struggled a little when locating the kettle—he still washed all his dishes by hand at his house—but he made an educated guess, opened a mechanical drawer, and found it nestled between a big steel bowl and several glass cups.
"So, where is your mother, exactly?" he asked as he filled the kettle and set it on the stovetop to boil. He jerked slightly when his fingers brushed her arm, and he turned around to fiddle with the little canisters containing leaves.
"Business trip," Haru replied, poking the gooey strips of pink and white bacon in a separate pan with a fork. "She quilts for a living. There's this big crafts fair in Osaka and she was invited to go, but she'll be back… tomorrow, I think."
"And you didn't join her?"
She shrugged. "I love my mom, but quilting isn't really my thing. I didn't want to bring her down, plus funds are kind of stretched right now, so I told her to go by herself and I'd see her when she got back."
Baron looked at her. "That was very sweet of you Haru," he said.
She shrugged again, but her cheeks were tinged pink as she spun around to get plates out of another cabinet. "Breakfast's ready."
He added a few choice leaves to the boiling water on the stove and helped carry the plates, cups, and silverware to the table. She smiled at him as she scooped out the eggs onto the ceramic and laid the bacon strips beside them, and he picked up the kettle and poured the tea into the teacups. "Milk, Haru?"
"Uh, yes please! It's in the fridge."
He found the carton and added generous amounts of the creamy liquid to both cups, still with enough time to lean over and pull out Haru's chair for her.
"Thanks," she murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Dig in."
"With pleasure." He picked up a fork and sliced off a small morsel of egg and lifted it to his mouth. "Once again, I must say that you a very good cook Haru."
"Thanks. I eat a lot of salads and take-out because I never have the time to cook with school and all my lessons."
"It shows," he murmured, admiring her slender form for a brief moment before refocusing on his breakfast.
Haru took a sip of her tea and a slow smile spread across her lips. "I love your tea Baron," she said, closing her eyes. "It warms me from the inside out."
"I'm glad you like it."
She speared a bacon strip and piece of egg and plucked it off with her teeth. "Mmm, I have to go to the store today," she said, swallowing. "We're getting low on supplies, and I need to pick up a canvas and some paints for my art class on Thursday. You're welcome to join me, if you like," she added, seemingly an afterthought, although she wouldn't meet his steady green gaze.
His heart was thudding in his chest and he could barely contain his excitement, but he casually nodded. "I would enjoy that very much Haru, if you wouldn't mind my company."
"Not at all! Can we leave right after breakfast?"
"I am fine with any plans you make."
"Great! It'll be fun, I promise."
After they'd cleared the table, Baron coming into close contact with Haru more times than he'd like to count, he changed into a clean set of clothes in the bathroom, dragged a comb through his thick hair once, brushed his teeth, and gave himself one final inspection before returning to the living room to wait for her.
When he had been a cat figurine, he hadn't really paid much attention to his appearance. There were a few mirrors in his house, but he knew what he looked like and he hadn't changed for more years than he remembered, so they mostly served as decoration. However, now that even a gentle breeze could muss his hair and clothes, combined with the fact he wanted to impress Haru, he regretted to admit he had attained a shred of vanity when Belinda had cast this spell on him.
Fifteen minutes later Haru stepped out of her bedroom, clad in a yellow sundress with cotton lace along the neckline and the hem. She smiled at him and he was glad he was sitting down because he probably would have fallen over if he wasn't.
"Ready to go?" she asked. He nodded. "Okay, let's go then." Remembering his manners, he stood up and strode to the door, holding it for her as she stepped out. "Thank you Baron."
"Of course. A gentleman should always hold a door for a lady."
She grinned. "Man, and I thought chivalry was dead."
They headed down the road, Haru's hand looped through his elbow, and he encouraged her into conversation.
"What exactly are you doing in your art classes?" he asked.
She waved her hand. "Nothing much, really. We've been doing some preliminary sketching stuff mostly, but this week my teacher wants us to start painting."
"Really? What medium?"
"Watercolor or acrylic, our choice." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "I didn't know you knew art lingo."
Baron smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Since it's just Toto, Muta, and I at the Refuge, I spend a lot of time reading. I have several books on the subject."
"I wish I had more time to read. I'm always swamped with work. My mom's been dropping hints for me to get a job like crazy because, in her words, 'Those lessons aren't paying for themselves.'"
He nodded. "Is there somewhere you were thinking of?"
Haru shrugged. "I had considered the animal shelter for a while, but I couldn't bear seeing all those sad animals. I could only be in there for a few minutes before I'd start crying. I wanted to take them all home, but my mom won't let me have any pets. She's afraid they'd tear up her quilts or something."
"Any other options?"
"I really want to be a teacher, an art teacher or something, and teach little kids. I love kids, so imaginative and whimsical and carefree, you know? That's what I really wanna do."
He grinned. "You would make a wonderful teacher Haru."
"Oh, stop, please."
"No, I'm serious," he chuckled. "I bet your students would love you." I do, he added wistfully.
They stopped on a street corner and she stared up at him, her brown orbs shining. "You really think so?" she whispered.
"I know so. You, Haru, are—" Absolutely perfect, he wanted to say. However, before he could finish the sentence, an obnoxiously loud car horn sounded and they were jolted out of the reverie; the little red hand had flipped to a white walking person, and they were holding up traffic. Both blushing furiously, they dashed across the street and resumed their pace.
Haru led him to a grocery store just outside of the residential area where she lived, and they spent several hours picking out fruits and vegetables, meats and various dairy products, and he managed to stray her from the instant ramen cups. This was something he was good at—he had been shopping before, mostly to keep Muta and Belinda and any other people who dropped by fed.
Afterwards she still had to stop by an art supplies shop, one just around the corner from her old high school. She pointed it out to him, though she didn't need to. He remembered it well, mostly because that was where she had confessed she had feelings for him. He could never forget such a milestone in his life.
Up the street and around the corner from her school was the art shop: Seishido Art Supplies. Haru led him inside, and his nose was flooded with a variety of warm, peaceful smells. Plastic, paint, oil, ink, freshly cut and aged wood, the smells assaulted his nostrils pleasantly, and he took several deep breaths to keep them there.
Seishido Art Supplies was small and dimly lit, most of the light being let in from the big bay windows in front, displaying both supplies and pieces done by the owner of the shop, Atsuko Seishido, herself. The walls and most of the floor space were covered in shelves stacked with varying supplies, from paintbrushes to beads to calligraphy pens to scrapbook stickers, and what was left was dashed and sprayed and splattered with all the colors of the rainbow. Baron wondered if Belinda had ever been inside the shop; sadly, he could see her knocking over bottles of paint until the walls looked like that.
This was obviously not Haru's first time in the shop, as she meandered her way to the back, weaving in between the numerous shelves with ease. Afraid he'd lose her, he hurried to catch up and found her staring thoughtfully at a rack of canvases.
"My teacher wants us to work on a new surface," she explained absently. "Though I don't know what I'm going to paint yet."
"Any ideas?"
She shrugged. "Not really. Maybe a portrait. My teacher says I am so good at drawing people it's not even funny." She plucked a canvas from the wall and stuck it under her arm. "I've worked in watercolor before," she said as she went off in a different direction, Baron following, "so I want to try acrylics."
"Sounds good to me." She tilted her head and grinned, and they spent the next hour in front of a shelf of paint bottles, picking out colors. Haru kept getting distracted, so the majority of the hour was spent commenting on the unusual names given the colors. 'Thoughtful Spot,' 'Skipping Stones,' 'Parchment Paper,' 'Wildflower Honey.'
"What the heck is 'Lilac Bisque'?" Haru asked, holding up a violet-hued bottle. "How can a bisque be lilac? Bisque is soup, right?"
"I'm more curious about 'Winsome Hue,'" he remarking, lifting a bottle of a white shade. "How is a hue winsome?"
"Man, I wish I get paid to make up names for colors. That would be so...What's this?" She stuck her hand between the bottles and pulled out a deep, reddish-pink one. "'Love's First Kiss,'" she read.
"Really?" Baron leaned over her shoulder to read it for himself, and as he did he realized how close his cheek was to hers, how close he was standing next to her, how quickly his heart was racing.
Haru turned her head slightly and looked up into his eyes, and although every cell in his body was screaming for him to lean down and just kiss her already, he froze. But Haru hadn't, and her eyes closed and her lips parted and she started to lean up...
And then a very obnoxious bell went off—which turned out to be Haru's cell phone—and they both leaped away from each other so Haru could answer her phone.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO