Chapter Twenty: Speech of Angels
Music is well said to be the speech of angels.
-Thomas Carlyle
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Baron took the tea pot off the burner, and poured a small amount into a teacup, along with a small squeeze of lemon before handing his latest concoction to Haru, just after breakfast.
She took the cup with both hands, slightly apprehensive as the brew stopped hissing, although it was no longer boiling. She sniffed it carefully, her expression turning stunned. "No way."
"What did I create this time?" Baron asked curiously as she took a sip.
A silly smile overtook her unique features, and she giggled a bit. "I never thought I'd have pop again, but this is the first time it's been mint-flavored."
"Pop?" Baron asked, pouring himself a fizzing cup. "What's that?"
"It's a popular drink back in my world, though this is a bit weaker than what I'm used to. It tickles your throat as you drink it, and sometimes makes you burp."
"Yet it's still popular?"
"Not as popular as alcohol, unfortunately, but pretty popular. Plus no one's ever gotten a hangover from pop, although there were a few incidents involving mentos."
"Dare I ask what those are?" Baron asked as he took a small sip.
She was right! It was fizzing and popping in his mouth and down his throat. He swallowed quickly so that his gag reflex wouldn't kick in. If she hadn't warned him that it was a popular drink, he would have just spat it back out in surprise.
She considered this weak? What was normal to her, and how did she survive drinking it?
"Mentos are a type of candy that have a chemical reaction to certain types of pop. Nothing really violent happens, though; some people are ridiculously easy to please when it comes to weak explosions. The only thing I can say about this batch is to not be afraid to try different flavors, like using an orange or some grapes next time. Even mulberries might not be a bad idea. Oh, and to serve it cold; warm pop just doesn't taste as good for some reason."
Baron set his cup aside long enough to write down her suggestions. He had started a new tea journal by now, but each entry was a good deal longer than before, thanks to the half-human. "Thank you for offering such rounded criticism, Haru. I was starting to get discouraged about my blends."
She laughed at that. "Over three thousand tries, and you were just now getting discouraged?"
"It takes me a while to get discouraged," he replied blandly, fitting the book with its companions on a shelf in the kitchen. "Unfortunately, it appears that we will be putting off the next dancing lesson until another day."
Haru looked at a window, close to where the cooks were washing dishes. She sighed as a steady sheet of rain poured against the simple glass. "That way of learning was really fun, too. Did you ever think of a penalty for my breaking the branches yesterday?"
Baron's limbs seemed to freeze solid, although he had already prepared for that inevitable question. "Actually, I have. Please follow me."
She nodded, and did so without question, casually nodding at servants as they walked up the grand staircase up to the second floor. They curtsied or bowed back to her; respect more than present in their eyes.
"This is so weird," Haru murmured softly.
"What is?" Baron asked curiously, turning his head a bit in order to look at her.
She gave a small sigh. "Back home, I'm either invisible or despised. At the palace, people are so scared of me that they have a panic attack if I so much as look at them for too long. But here… people seem to actually like me."
"To be fair, Haru, you did put fourteen guards in the infirmary your first day in the kingdom."
"I'd have rather put the king in the infirmary," she grumbled under her breath.
Baron fought back another chuckle. "Be that as it may, the fear at the palace is somewhat justified. Granted, it should have calmed down by the time you left, but I think you'll see a drastic change in their demeanor when you return a new woman, at least in their eyes."
Haru's large brown eyes clouded over. "I wish I could just stay here. At least I'm never bored around this place."
Baron glowed from the praise, but fought back a sigh of his own. "Unfortunately, that is not to be. Ah, here we are," he said while pulling aside a specific curtain, and stood to the side for her to enter first.
She curiously poked her head in first, and then quickly followed the action with the rest of her body. "This looks like the music room."
"It is," he said as he followed her in, suddenly nervous as he quickly started lighting enough candles for some light.
What was he thinking? She wouldn't do it for him in a million years! But oh, he couldn't handle his curiosity any longer. He had to know, for once and for all.
"What kind of penalty would have to do with the music room, Baron?" she asked as she pulled aside the tall curtains for more light.
It hardly did anything; the storm outside was so violent.
Baron tried to answer her question. But the words stuck in his throat like a bad jelly, or one of his worse blends. He tried to think of the right way to phrase his desire, but nothing came to him.
"Baron?" Haru asked worriedly, placing one hand on his shoulder. "Are you going to space out again?"
He took in a deep breath, shook his head to comfort her, and gently grabbed the hand she had on his shoulder. Without a single word, he led her to a corner of the room that was still unlit.
Baron could hear her sharp intake of breath as her eyes fell on the item he had placed in the room just before breakfast. He let go of her hand so that she could approach it, and so that he could light a few more candles in this area of the room.
Like she was handling the finest of china, Haru carefully picked up his mother's harp from the chair it had been resting on, and ran her fingers over the delicate flower carvings. "I've never seen a harp this beautiful before," she cooed, turning kittenish at handling the family heirloom. "Whoever made this had the soul of an artist!"
"My grandfather, several generations removed," Baron informed her, sitting on another chair that he had dragged into that corner of the room before breakfast. "He didn't have money for a ring, so he carved that and wrote a love ballad for his sweetheart instead."
"No wonder she said yes," Haru whispered.
"Actually, she didn't."
The brunette looked over at him in shock.
"The girl he loved was a very shallow one, and chose someone with a more… influential background. After he recovered from the heartbreak, my ancestor kept practicing on that harp until he found a girl that could appreciate his music. It's one of my family's favorite stories," he added somewhat bashfully.
Haru smiled warmly at him, and made herself comfortable on the chair the harp had been resting on. "Thank you for sharing it. That girl must have been blind and deaf as well as shallow." Her slim fingers started caressing the strings, testing their sound as she adjusted the tightness of the fish gut wires to her liking.
Baron smiled; thrilled that he was finally going to hear her play his heirloom. "I have only one request, Haru."
She looked up to give him her full attention.
"I would greatly appreciate it if I never hear music like what was out on the cliffs come from my mother's harp, if it won't inconvenience you," he said as gently as he could.
Haru stared at him in shock. "Hard rock on a harp? It's doable, I guess, but not really my style, Baron. Besides, I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I used this artwork for that kind of music," she said, still giddy over the instrument.
Baron sighed with relief, and didn't say anything else as she kept testing the strings for their sound; possibly making notes as to the differences from her human harp.
Finally, a soft smile overcame her face as a light, innocent melody began coming from between her fingers. But before Baron could form an opinion on the strange music, she opened her mouth and started singing softly in Japanese.
Baron closed his eyes in contentment. Yuki was right; when Haru wasn't angry, her native tongue sounded like music, even without the harp. But with the harp, it could only be called perfection.
The day was sunny and beautiful. Humbert drank in the golden sunlight and dew-drenched air, even as his mother wrapped him in a thick woolen blanket and held him close.
Some distance away, his father was playing sticks with his brothers, who were both laughing happily as Harold almost pulled Father completely over his head.
He silenced the persistent wish that he could join in on the fun, and leaned into his beloved mother's embrace; greedily inhaling the scent of her favorite perfume.
Cherry blossoms.
"… Kaze ni naru-… Baron? Oh, shoot, it happened again," Haru fretted as she stood up in order to walk over to him and give him a big hug. "Baron, whatever you're spacing out about-"
Baron started crying before she could finish her sentence. For the first time in years, he allowed himself to fully grieve for the family he had once had. It appeared that pushing the pain away for half of a cat's lifespan only made it that more terrible to bear, once it broke free of his control.
He lost consciousness of everything outside of his grief, but after a while, he noticed that his seat was decidedly softer than it had been before, and a familiar set of arms was firmly wrapped around his frail little body. If that wasn't enough, his seat was also rocking slightly, to help him calm down. His mother's harp was once again resting on the chair he had set it on for her.
"It's okay to cry, Baron," Haru whispered into one of his ears. "Take as long as you need."
He looked down in shame. "I'm… I'm not a child," he reminded her through his sobs.
"I know. But everyone needs to cry every once in a while, even you. Relax; I won't tell a soul," she promised, still hugging and rocking him.
He wept in gratitude, wrapping his arms around her neck in order to hug her back. He had to silence the thought that doing so made him feel like a child in need of his mother, but heavens, he needed this.
After what felt like hours, he finally managed to calm down enough for Haru to offer him her handkerchief. "Feel better?" she asked softly.
"… Much, thank you," he breathed gratefully, wiping the rest of his tears away. "It's… been a while since I remembered that."
"Remembered what?" she asked slowly, as if scared that he was going to start crying again.
"Your song reminded me of the last picnic I had with my family. I can't believe I had forgotten about that day," he said wistfully. But then he shook his head to clear it. "I'm sorry for crying like that, Haru; it was lovely."
"Baron… what happened to your family?" she asked, turning a little firm of tone. "It must have been bad, for you to cry like that."
He bit his lower lip nervously, and looked away. "I'm rather surprised that none of the servants told you."
"I've asked, but they won't talk. They'd like you to tell me, and so would I. Please?"
He started twiddling his fingers from a bad case of nerves. "It's not a pretty story, Haru."
"Tell me anyway. I'll keep quiet about it if you want, but I don't like the look in your eyes when you space out like that. What happened?" she asked again.
Humbert gave a heavy sigh, thinking back to that last year at the orchard. "I was the youngest of my brothers. There were three of us; Harold, Louis, and myself. They were twins, you know."
"No I didn't. But continue."
He nodded, soaking in as much of her warmth as he could; not about to get off her lap any time soon. "At first, we were all very happy, even with my illness. Harold was the strongest of us, and oh, how I used to wish for his kind of strength! Louis was the humorous one; every time I had to be stuck in bed for weeks on end, he'd come in and cheer me up with the silliest of jokes. They were my dearest friends, and… and…"
"And what?" Haru pressed, squeezing him a little harder.
"… and then they weren't," Baron whispered against her shoulder. "A few years after my condition stabilized, Mother died from a terrible cold. Everything changed after her death. Father was devastated, but at least he didn't forget about his children or the vineyard. However, Harold and Louis completely withdrew from me. I think a part of it has to do with the fact that I take so strongly after Mother, and it hurt to look at me. It was a comfort to Father, I think, but not to my brothers.
"Our family made many types of wine, but our best one was mulberry. After Mother died, Harold and Louis started sneaking down to the cellar to sample it, or so they said. But by the time a year passed, Father said we were a good ten barrels short of what we had the year before, thanks to them 'sampling' the wine late into the night."
"How big were those barrels?" Haru asked gently.
Baron looked around the room for a good comparison. "If the grand piano were a table with the same dimensions, I'd say one could fit perhaps four of our old barrels on it. They were quite tall as well."
Haru shuddered. "That's a lot of wine."
"Indeed it is. During that year, they, that is to say my brothers, became completely cold to me. Perhaps it was because the wine was making them bad-tempered, or because of the difference between how Father treated all of us, but somewhere along the line, they began to truly despise me."
"What was the difference between how your father treated you?" Haru pressed.
"Well, Father knew that they were sneaking into the cellars, and did everything between asking them to stop to installing a lock with guards to keep them out. Even though Father was the vineyard master, he had the firm belief that all of us needed to help out. He couldn't stand idleness."
Haru's eyes were lighting up with understanding. "That's why you're so good with numbers, isn't it? He wouldn't let you work the land with the others, but since your mind's so sharp, you helped with the books instead!"
"That is correct. Also, a tiny sip of wine makes me unbearably sick, so Father never had to scold me for getting into the cellars or to help in the vineyard at a decent hour with everyone else. I was also never cross with Father; I was always happy to help out in any way I could, because I didn't want my body to turn into an excuse for anything and everything. For those reasons alone, Harold and Louis started calling me Father's favorite, although he always denied playing favorites." Baron gave another sigh, and snuggled against Haru better; propriety forgotten for now.
"If they had just let go of the wine, everything would still be fine. But that bile is a poison, one that could turn even my brothers into monsters. After… a year, around harvest time, a thief came to call on our vineyard. One that could carry off thousands of mulberries without anyone so much as seeing him."
"How could he carry that much off without getting caught?" Haru asked incredulously.
He gave her a small smile. "Toto was given a special amulet by his king to transport a certain amount of things a great distance. You've seen the pendant he wears, haven't you?"
Haru stared in shock. "Toto stole from you?"
"He was just trying to get my attention. Believe me, he got it." Baron closed his eyes, returning to that night vividly. "It was the third night he came to call, and Father had every hand out patrolling the grounds, including Harold and Louis. I begged him to let me be a lookout, so he had me in a tower on one side of the vineyard. I saw Toto approaching before anyone else did, and was presented with a split-second decision. Either I could raise the alarm and allow everyone else to take down the thief, or I could jump on his back and force him to go down on my own; proving to everyone that I am not a weak little kitten!"
"I'm guessing you went with option number two?" Haru asked with a small smile.
"Certainly. Toto took me on a wild ride, trying to throw me off, but miraculously, I managed to stay on. After it became clear that he couldn't throw me, he explained that his king had sent him to the Cat Kingdom to help me, and be my companion for the rest of his days."
"Didn't he have any family back in the Bird Kingdom?"
"Avian Kingdom, and no he didn't. He had just lost his own wife from a terrible sickness, and has admitted that if his king hadn't called him here, he would have probably ended his own life." He shuddered from the idea.
Haru shook her head disbelievingly. "I can't imagine Toto doing something like that."
"Neither can I. After he promised to give back what he had stolen, we landed back in the vineyard to tell Father what happened. But… Harold and Louis were waiting for me."
Haru stiffened in horror, and released him in order to place her warm hands on his cheeks to make him look at her. "Tell me they didn't… try to kill you?"
He closed his eyes, making a few more tears appear as he nodded. "Out of all the sons, I was the only one that cared about the orchard more than the wine. They overheard Father say that if I had lived, for he thought Toto had killed me, I would have inherited everything instead of Harold, since the eldest was supposed to be Father's heir."
Tears of sympathy spilled from her large eyes as she wrapped him in another hug. "I'm… so sorry. That must have been terrible."
He hugged her back, and tried to stop his limbs from shaking at the memory. "If Toto hadn't been there, they would have succeeded in killing me. We flew away to the cave he had been staying in, and lived there for a year. We ate some of the mulberries he carried away, and planted the rest in hopes for an orchard of my own. Obviously, that wish has come true."
The brunette was still rocking him gently, her embrace as warm as ever. "It's a great orchard, Baron. The best one I've ever been in."
He felt a warm glow from the praise.
"Granted, it's the only one I've ever been in. But I still like it."
He couldn't help but laugh at her honesty. No matter what anyone else thought, he hoped that she would never lose that quality.
"So… how did you go from living in a cave to being a baron?" she asked curiously.
"I saved Lune's life," he said, realizing what he was saying a second too late.
Haru smiled wryly. "Is it just me, or does Lune need someone to save his life a lot?"
"It's not his idea, you know."
"I know. What was his problem back then?"
"He was dying from an unknown illness. Nothing the doctors did could help him, and everyone was certain that it was the end for him. Because all firebirds are seers, Vulcan's grandfather gave Toto a vial of his own tears."
Haru slapped her forehead loudly. "Of course! Firebird tears have healing powers!"
"I'm surprised humans are aware of that," he noted.
"A lot of what humans think about magic in general is speculation, but I remember that much. So, you used a tear on Lune, the king granted you the baronetcy as a reward, and you've been his errand boy ever since?"
"Almost. I had to fetch Vulcan for the king first."
"Why?"
"Because either Natori or Natoru planted a rumor that I was boasting of presenting his majesty with a firebird."
Haru stared at him in disbelief. "Why didn't anyone see through a stupid rumor like that?"
"The aristocracy didn't know much about me back then. In fact they still don't, but when it comes to his majesty's pride, he takes no chances."
Haru thought about that as she kept hugging him. Then, without warning, she started giggling fit to kill.
"What?" Baron couldn't help but ask.
"This whole time… they've been hating you because you refuse to fail and die?"
"That is an accurate way to put it."
Haru shook her head to rid herself of the rest of her giggles. Then she sighed, and gave him one more squeeze before standing up to set him back on the chair.
He wanted to protest that he liked her lap better, but managed to hold his tongue just in time.
"That explains a lot of things," Haru told him as she picked up the harp so that she had a place to sit again. "That's a lot for anyone to handle."
"It's certainly been enough to keep me brooding ever since. After I got back from retrieving Vulcan, I found out that everyone back in the vineyard had left it in order to come and work for me. Father was dead by then, and my brothers… they were predictable in their way of treating everyone."
"Their livers have probably given out by now, if they had unlimited access to the family wine," she noted clinically, now lightly strumming the strings of his harp.
"The sad part is that I don't know for certain. I still wish my brothers were the way they used to be, but I fear that being a baron would be enough to rekindle their jealousy. I don't dare check on them; it would be too easy for my brothers to pretend friendship and kill me when my guard's down."
Haru flinched as she looked at him, her expression sad. "You still love them, don't you?"
Baron looked down at his feet, and nodded. "It would be wonderful if they were to show up at my gates some day and want to…" For some reason, he could not think of the right way to put it.
"Apologize for what they've done, and ask for a chance to start over?" Haru provided in a soft tone.
"… Yes. But I have little hope of that happening, since it hasn't already. Twelve years is a long time, after all."
Her large brown eyes began fading away, as did the distant melody between her fingers. "It could almost be a lifetime."
He looked at her, his deep regret fading into a slightly morbid curiosity. "What about you?"
Haru looked at him sharply, breaking off wherever her thoughts were trying to lead her. "What about me?"
"How did you end up in a country full of people that hated you enough to want you dead? You've mentioned that you weren't from that cold village."
A somewhat bitter smile crossed her lips. "I'm not going to bother you with the hypocritical mess I call my former life, Baron."
"Why not? You didn't mind when I was telling you about mine," he pointed out, hoping to guilt her into talking.
This was a conversation he had been waiting years for, even if he had thought her background was much simpler than it truly was.
She shook her head. "That's a really long story, and shouldn't we be moving onto another lesson by now?"
The tawny kitten crossed his arms and ankles defiantly. "Your lessons can wait," he said in as firm of a tone as he could manage.
She gave an exasperated growl. "You're not going to drop this, are you?"
"No more than you were willing to drop mine."
"Touché," she sighed, placing the harp aside for now.
"What does that word mean, touché?" he asked curiously.
"It's usually used in fencing, but it roughly means 'you got me cornered'."
Baron stared at her in amazement. "There's a special language for repairing fences?"
Haru gaped at him in shock, and then began laughing. It wasn't as hard as she had laughed her first day in the kingdom, but it was more than one would expect from a lady of quality.
"Haru? Why are you laughing?" he couldn't help but ask after a minute of her almost falling off her chair.
Her laughter dissolved into giggles, making her stand so that she could squeeze him affectionately. "Baron, you're hilarious! Just when you have me convinced that you know a bit of everything, you say that!"
"I don't understand why you found it so funny," he muttered surly, wondering if it was a joke on him.
That incited a few more giggles as she took back her seat. "Fencing is a popular type of swordplay, Baron. I've wanted to learn it for a long time, but there wasn't a course on it back in Oregon."
"Oregon?"
"That's where I was living when you lured me to the Cat Kingdom." Then she sighed, ridding herself of the rest of her giggles as she shook her head to clear it.
"I might as well start at the beginning. Do you know what pirates are?"
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A/N; Just about everyone knows that Kaze Ni Naru is the closing song for the Cat Returns movie, right? Oh good. Just checking.
Also, I know the direct translation for touché isn't what Haru said it was; she was explaining it in a way she knew he'd understand.