"We'll be back later Mom!"
"You better not try anything Baron!"
"Yes Mrs. Yoshioka."
"Bye Mom!"
"Have fun!"
Haru's face deepened in color as she smiled sheepishly at him. "Sorry about that," she said as she closed the door. "My mom can be a little..."
"Protective?" Baron supplied amicably.
She smiled. "I was going to say crazy, but that works too."
He grinned back as she looped her arm through his. "Are you sure you want to come?" she asked, concern evident in her tone.
He chuckled. "I want to meet your friends Haru."
She sighed. "But I don't know what you're going to do," she said, biting her lip. "I mean, you don't even know them."
"I'll talk to them Haru. People do still talk when they spend time with their friends, don't they? I haven't been cut off from the modern world entirely."
She turned to him suddenly, her jaw dropped in evident shock. "Were you just being sarcastic?" she asked incredulously.
He hadn't really noticed until she'd pointed it out, and his head dropped. "I've been spending too much time with Muta, haven't I?" he asked shamefully.
Her attention fell to the pavement. "I just didn't know you had it in you Baron," she said.
There were already two people in the booth when they arrived a little after eight o'clock: a young man with closely cropped black hair and a goofy smile, and a young woman with short, reddish-blonde hair and naturally rosy cheeks. The young woman waved eagerly as she saw them approach, practically leaping out of the booth's comfy leather cushions to embrace Haru.
"Hiromi!" Haru squeaked in surprise. "I just saw you last month!"
"I know," the woman she called Hiromi said, releasing her dark-haired friend, "but it feels like it's been forever."
Hiromi's ecstatic grin faltered as she glanced back at Baron for the first time since their arrival. "Who's this?" she asked, her rosy cheeks reddening further.
Haru clapped a hand to his shoulder. "This," she began dramatically, "is Baron. Baron, this is Hiromi and Tsuge."
Tsuge rose and extended his hand, which he gave a firm shake. He then turned to the blushing girl before him, lifted her hand, and pressed it lightly to his lips. "A pleasure to meet you both," he said, releasing it.
Haru laughed as she explained. "He's staying at my house for the rest of the week before he goes back home. And our relationship is purely platonic." She had no idea the kind of damage those five words did to his heart, but he forced a very convincing smile and gestured for her to seat herself first.
She slid into the booth, picked up a menu and stared at it, chewing her lip in deep consternation as she decided what to order.
Tsuge leaned forward, jerking a thumb toward the brunette on his right. "So where'd you meet our lovely lady friend, Baron?" he asked slyly, raising his eyebrows.
"Where did we meet?" he repeated slowly as his mind searched for the answer. What had Haru told her mother again? It was right on the tip of his tongue when—curse that memory of his, always plaguing him at the most inopportune times...
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
She stood near the window speaking to Muta, looking exasperated. Apparently he chose to ignore our client again; that was really no way to treat our guest.
She stepped forward and bent down further, and I finally caught a glimpse of the, excuse the cliché, damsel in distress. Dark hair was pulled up in a painfully high ponytail, short bangs framing her heart-shaped face. Large, sparkling brown eyes glowed brightly, her mouth pulled in a frown. Then she glanced at me.
Toto says I have a flair for the dramatic. Muta claims I'm just a show-off. However, regardless of their opinions, I like to wait for my clients to become better adjusted to this tiny European-style court stranded in the middle of Tokyo before properly introducing myself.
The young lady looked at me, her mouth forming a small 'o'. Maybe she'd never seen a cat figurine before. As she watched, my eyes quickly shifted down toward my overweight companion and then back. She stumbled backward as the sun began to set.
It only takes a small bit of magic and large bit of control, plus an almost ungodly amount of patience, to get the sun to shine on the panes of all the windows in the village just right and then to have them reflect their light upon my house, which is the tiniest in the square. I rather like it, actually; certainly livens up the place.
Muta tilted his head slightly, enough to snarl at me through the window. "Enough Baron. Turn it off. No one's impressed with your cheesy light show, okay?" He snapped his newspaper up to shade his eyes, but I continued grinning. Muta gave me enough trouble as it was; I had always gotten a secret, guilty pleasure of providing him with an equal amount of annoyance.
The sun disappeared behind the roofs of the taller houses, the square bathed in a periwinkle glow. The lamppost automatically snapped on; by clicking the fingers behind my back, my household lights did as well.
The young lady, who was quite pretty in a human girl sort of way, was standing almost beside Toto's pole, so she didn't see when I ducked back from the window. Pushing open the double doors, I gripped my cane in one hand and walked out to greet her.
Upon reaching her, I swept the top hat from my head and held it in my hand. "Good evening," I began cordially. "Welcome to the Bureau."
Attempting to step forward, the girl tripped on her feet and ended up stumbling within several inches of me. "Wow, you're cool," she murmured.
A small smile passed my lips. "Thank you. In case you haven't noticed, you're now in a world quite different from your own. This is a refuge for Creations. Whenever someone creates something with all of their heart, then that Creation is given a soul you see." I turned toward her. "Like me, and Toto there."
As soon as the words had left my mouth, the stone crow atop the pole began to glow blue before fading to a glossy black, stretching his wings and shifting his feet. Her attention was immediately captured, and she struggled to speak. "That's... that's..."
"That is Toto, a stone statue with a soul."
Toto, who had been preening, looked down at us. "I see you have a visitor today Baron," he said, cocking his head slightly. "How unusual."
"Indeed," I replied, replacing the top hat on my head. "She's quite a fetching one too."
Her attention diverted to me again. "Did he say 'Baron'?"
I turned to her. "I am Baron Humbert von Gikkingen," I stated proudly." The artisan who created me gave me that title."
She grinned. "I'll just call you 'Baron.'"
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Baron was jolted from his flashback when Haru prodded him in the shoulder. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I'm sorry, what did you say again?"
"I asked where you met Haru," Tsuge said. "We're dying to know over here."
"Oh. Dance lessons, of course," he replied easily. "I was the only one able to dance with her."
Both people across the table looked at Haru. "You told us no one danced with you," Hiromi said accusingly.
Haru shrugged, clearly embarrassed, so naturally Baron came to her rescue. "It was because I'm really no better than her, you see. A tad worse, actually. Being the nice person she is, Haru didn't want to brag there was a worse dancer than her."
This answer seemed to satisfy Hiromi, and she and Tsuge resumed looking at their menus. While they were distracted, Haru turned to him and mouthed Thank you. He nodded discreetly.
Tsuge made an effort to engage him in conversation, and for this he was grateful. If not for the pleasant intervention, he would have spent the entire night gazing at his lovely companion.
Tsuge asked him about his hobbies and his family and other things young men talk about, and although he appreciated the effort, he found he couldn't exactly answer truthfully without giving away his and Haru's secret. He dodged the topic of his relatives easily, leaving that to their imaginations, and left the nature of his hobbies rather vague other than he liked to read, fence, pluck on a violin when he was so inclined,and of course, dance. He then directed Tsuge's attention to sports, which kept him occupied until the food arrived.
As they chatted, he slung his right arm around the top of the booth, slightly conscious of the fact that his arm was around Haru's shoulders. When his fingers brushed against her neck, he jerked his hand away as Haru abruptly stood and excused herself. Hiromi quickly followed suit, and the two girls dashed off.
"Smooth."
Baron lifted an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
Tsuge folded his arms. "Dude, that is no way to flirt with a girl."
While he maintained a serious expression, Baron felt his face begin to grow hot. "What are you insinuating?"
"It's painfully obvious you like Haru," he explained, sounding a little exasperated, "but you can't jump every time you touch her. You have to stay cool or you'll scare her away like you just did."
He tilted his head. "Do you know if she possesses a significant other?"
Tsuge shrugged. "They don't tell me anything."
Haru and Hiromi suddenly returned, both girls red-faced and giggling uncontrollably. "What'd you two do?" Tsuge asked as they both sat down.
The girls exchanged glances and giggled more. "Nothing," Hiromi replied.
"Don't worry about it," Haru added, covering her mouth.
Tsuge raised his eyebrows pointedly, and Baron shook his head.
Dinner ended a few minutes after ten and the four of them prepared to depart. Haru and Hiromi hugged, Hiromi peeking over Haru's shoulder and winking at Baron. He shook Tsuge's hand and then Hiromi and Tsuge went one way while he and Haru went the other.
"So?"
"So… what?"
Haru grabbed his arm. "So what'd you think of them?"
He chuckled. "They're nice people. A little too curious for their own good, but that is to be expected when such a foreign person shows up out of the blue with their friend."
She laughed. "I'm glad. They liked you too you know."
"I got the feeling when Hiromi winked at me."
Haru gasped, then fell against him in helpless laughter. "She's such a flirt sometimes," she breathed. "My friends, huh?"
Again, he chuckled. "I see why you like them."
When she finally calmed down enough to speak without gasping, she looked up at him. "I had fun, Baron," she remarked softly.
He nodded. "Me too."
"We should do this kind of stuff more often."
"Well…" his eyes fell to the pavement, "I only have five days left as a human. Four, since today is almost over."
"Oh." And her face fell.
"But I still have four days," he said quickly, attempting to reassure her. "Plenty of time for us to spend together. And you can still come visit me in at the Refuge afterward."
Forcing a smile, she nodded. "Yeah, of course. That'd be fun too."
The smile he gave in return was equally as false before he steered her away from the depressing topic of his short-lasting humanity to other, happier things. Like what they would do after she got back from her art class tomorrow.
However, the look on her face before she smiled still nagged him when he was lying on the couch that night trying to sleep—after he and Haru had given a detailed description of the night's activities to her mother. He wasn't entirely sure, but he had a pretty good idea what the look on her face had said:
That's not what I want.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO