Haru's POV.

Haru awoke to the quiet beeping of her alarm clock, and she groggily reached out, felt around with her hand, and finally hit a button to silence it. Ten minutes later, the clock went off again.

Sitting up, she ran her fingers through her dark hair and yawned. She had to get up anyway, to cook breakfast for Baron…

Ah, Baron. What to say about Baron? Well, she was happy he was here, obviously. She'd missed him like crazy, so she was ecstatic that he'd showed up on her doorstep two days ago. And the fact that he was really, really cute certainly acted in his favor.

A better question was did Baron feel the same way? Every time he looked at her, it was like he was caught in a daze, and he certainly didn't mind touching her. Plus they'd almost kissed. That had to mean something… right?

She sighed. She was tired, that was all, much too tired to be thinking about whether or not Baron loved her. And she still had to make him breakfast and clean the house up for her mom.

Tossing the thick comforter off her legs, she stretched her arms and slid off the bed, hitting the alarm clock as it went off a third time. Yawning again, she dragged her fingers through her hair a couple times and almost stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen. When she entered, she gasped. "Baron?!"

Standing before the stove, holding a frying pan and whistling, was Baron. At the call of his name he spun around and grinned at her. "Good morning Haru," he said brightly. "Do you like pancakes?"

"Uh… yeah…"

He beamed, and her legs turned to jelly. "I'm glad. I was worried you wouldn't."

"No, I'm pro-pancakes…"

"Do you need any help?" she asked, remembering her manners.

Baron shook his head. "No, I think I've got it covered." He turned back around and lifted the pan up to flip the pancake in the air, landing back in the pan with a sizzle.

She leaned her arm on the counter to cradle her head and shook her head violently when she caught herself admiring his backside. "I-I didn't know you could cook, Baron," she remarked in an effort to distract herself.

He shrugged and tilted his head back to grin at her again. "Muta is in the Refuge more often than you might think," he explained. "Someone has to feed him."

She laughed. "Yeah, I can see Muta mooching off of you."

He chuckled. "Oh, Haru? I actually do need some assistance now."

She rose abruptly. "Sure, whatcha need?"

"Dishes?"

"Coming right up." Haru darted to the cupboard and pulled out the necessary wares for eating pancakes: plates, teacups, forks and knives.

"Can you also get the syrup and butter? I'm afraid I don't know the configuration of your kitchen just yet."

"Sure thing." She scooped the syrup and butter tray up and set them on the table, then carried the whistling kettle over as well. "All set."

"Perfect." Flipping out the currently cooking pancake onto another plate he'd obviously found, he carried it over to the table and set it down. Then he rushed over to pull the chair out for her before seating himself across from her. "Your breakfast is served, my lady."

"Thanks," she said shyly, blushing.

"You're quite welcome. Since you're being so gracious and letting me stay here, I thought I should be of some use to you and help out."

"I appreciate it." Dousing the fluffy pancake in syrup, she sawed it into smaller pieces before spearing several with her fork and plunging them into her mouth. "This is delicious Baron!" she said once she swallowed. "Way better than any I've ever made!"

"I'm glad you like them," he said quietly, tilting his head down.

She nodded eagerly, then raised her fork as she remembered her other chore for that day. "Mmm, I still have to clean house."

"Because your mother is returning today?"

"Yes, and she'd kill me if she sees how far I let the house go. She won't be back till three so I've got some time."

"Would you like some assistance?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, you certainly don't have to help. You're my guest!"

He frowned. "But if I don't do something I'll feel useless, and like I'm not pulling my weight."

"You're my friend, and my guest. Plus two days ago you were a figurine. I wouldn't expect you to—"

"I clean at my house too, Haru," he said, almost sternly. "I want to help."

Haru didn't want to argue with him, and she would like the help... "All right," she sighed, "you can help. You're my guest, so you shouldn't be subjected to performing household chores."

They quietly returned to their breakfast, and once they'd cleared the table—she'd told him not to help but he stubbornly refused to listen—she went upstairs and changed into a T-shirt and holey pair of jeans. Tying back her hair as he came back down the stairs, she tromped into the kitchen and found the broom and dustpan. These she handed to Baron.

"Since you refuse to not help, can you sweep the kitchen for me? I'm going to go upstairs and clean the bathroom."

"Of course Haru." Even though she was still frustrated with him, one brilliant, sweet smile was enough to melt her anger and her legs, so she stumbled upstairs, managing not to trip.

The morning went by rapidly as she passed by Baron in the kitchen several times when she went to trade out supplies and he wanted something else to do. By two-thirty, the house was verging on spotless. All that remained was the living room.

Haru stood in the hallway, hands on her hips, lower lip tugged between her teeth thoughtfully.

The room had, if anything, only gotten dirtier in the past two days, although it was definitely not Baron's fault. The grocery bags, the new canvas, and the paint bottles were scattered on the floor and the coffee table, and she still needed to take out the trash. Baron, being the perfect guest that he was, had neatly folded up all his clothes and stuck them back in his duffel sack, the blanket and pillow he'd been using stacked on the arm of the couch.

"Where should we start?" he asked, coming up behind her.

Haru tilted her head. "Probably near the door. My mom would probably like to enter her own house."

"Good idea."

She tiptoed around a pile of clothes she didn't remember leaving there. "Mind if I put on some music?" she asked as she maneuvered her way to a stereo set up in the corner.

"Not at all. Play away."

She clicked a button on the stereo, which began blasting the hip-hop song she liked. When she turned around, she laughed as she saw a grimace cross Baron's face.

"Maybe not so loud...?" he shouted over the music.

Happily, she obliged her and turned the knob down so only the beat of the music could be heard. "Better?" He nodded.

They worked together to put all the art supplies away and the rest of the junk Haru had scattered over the room the past couple days. More than once she caught herself staring at him when he wasn't looking, then blushing guiltily when he would look her way. Then, once he'd go back to work, she'd gaze at him again until he'd turn and the whole process would start over.

"I'm going to take this outside," he said suddenly, indicating the bag filled with papers and other trash bits they'd collected. "It's on the right side of the house, right?"

"Next to the rose trellis," she replied, working on scraping away a blob of paint she didn't quite remember squirting on the wall. It looked an awful lot like 'Raffia Cream.'

She heard the door close behind her and the song playing over the stereo end. The next song caused her to close her eyes and wince slightly, hoping Baron would linger outside.

The song was called "Katzen Blut," or "Cat's Blood" in English, and she loved the song with all her heart, even though it wasn't what she typically listened to. No, she loved "Katzen Blut" because it reminded her of Baron, and it reminded her of Baron because it was the song they had danced to when she had been whisked away to the Kingdom of Cats two years ago.

Closing her eyes, she slowly rose to her feet and began to sway to the music. Lifting her hands up as if she had a partner, she slowly spun, humming the tune beneath her breath. She imagined Baron's arms around her, holding her as they twirled and spun to the beat.

That's funny, it felt like someone was actually...

"I don't believe I shall ever understand what you meant," Baron's warm voice whispered in her ear.

Haru jumped and her eyes flew open and she found she was gazing into his glittering jade ones. One hand was clasped to her waist, the other interlocked with her upraised hand. "W-w-what do you mean?" she stuttered, feeling herself redden up to her hairline and down past her collar.

Baron chuckled as he twirled her expertly beneath his fingers. "When we were in the Cat Kingdom and I came up to you and asked if you would care to dance, you said you were, and I quote, 'a meowsy dancer.' But I don't know what you could possibly have meant because you danced beautifully with me." He caught her in his arms, extended his left as if to fling her away from him, then tugged her back until their bodies gently collided. "You still do," he murmured, catching her leg to lean her down in a dip.

The track had ended but she didn't notice—she was too busy drowning in his bottomless emerald eyes. She reached up to brush her fingertips against his cheek, and he sighed, his eyelids fluttering shut.

"Baron," she breathed. Grasping his chin with the caressing hand, she brought his head closer to her own, his mouth closer to hers.

"I'm home! Haru, are you here?"

The two jumped. Haru shrieked, and Baron jumped several feet away. In his surprise, Baron released the hold he had on her leg and waist, so Haru ended up sprawled on the carpet, a paintbrush she had forgotten digging into her back. She groaned and rolled to her side, rubbing her spinal cord, but her eyelids shot open when she heard a gasp that definitely didn't belong to the handsome human man who'd dropped her.

"Haru!" Naoko Yoshioka shouted, one hand on her waist, the other pointing at Baron. "Well young lady, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Haru smiled weakly. "Um... welcome home?"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO