A/N; jenna131 and nitro have been up to more of (my) story reviews and silliness, here's the link to the newer stuff;
w be channe l/UCDsvAD PAglJ4o0y fDykNtHA/ videos
And also, gacktxx redid her fanart for this story to all sorts of gorgeous!
gac antar t gal lery/334796 37/The-Ca t-Returns
Okay, yes, that one's to her gallery, but she's done a new pic of Baron and Haru that just deserves to be shared!
Now back to your regularly scheduled chapter...
Chapter Fourteen: Fear
People always say
Life is full of choices
No one ever mentions...
Fear.
Liz Calloway, 'Journey to the Past', Don Bluth's Anastasia
xxXxx
Haru's eyes flew open with a horrified gasp. Her heart was beating out of control, and her lungs were heaving like...
She tenderly touched her throat, still feeling his hands around it. "N-No, he'd never… he wouldn't!" 'Would he? I mean, I barely know him. But why go through all that effort to kill me when he finally had me?'
Knowing that sleep would only bring more nightmares, Haru got out of bed to start pacing her room. The blue mist from the bowl was still fairly strong, but it was no longer soothing.
'Is my subconscious worried that all of this is too good to be true? Even if it's not how I imagined, my life here is as close to perfect as possible. I've got this world's equivalent of a king in love with me and willing to do anything it takes to make me happy. I have a new set of adoring parents, more affection than I used to dream for…'
Haru laughed darkly as she rubbed her arms against the chilly night. "No wonder I'm scared. There has to be a catch somewhere. Other than the whiskers and never getting back to my old life, that is." She wasn't sure how, but she somehow knew that she was never going back to Earth. Her human body had probably been cremated by now, if not rotting in a coffin somewhere. Even if she found a way back in this body, she wouldn't be able to return to the life she knew without being branded as a freak.
Well, more of a freak than usual.
Her eyes widened with a realization. "Come to think of it, I still don't know how I got his attention, or how he knew I was going to die."
Baron may have tried to show her in the glass shard, but why couldn't he?
Dang it, she was so exhausted, and that blue mist wasn't helping!
ooOoo
When Muta and Dona came in the next morning, their faces were full of nothing short of shock.
Haru numbly looked up from her still-steady pacing, and managed a wan smile while gripping the blanket around her shoulders. "Morning."
The mist had faded, but the air still had the slight cooling tang.
Dona got over the stupor first, interrupting the girl's pace in order to feel her new daughter's forehead worriedly. Her tone was a bit scolding as the beautiful black cat tried to guide the younger girl back to the bed.
Haru immediately wiggled around the feline woman's arms, shaking her head in horror. "No way. Not going there. I can't take any more nightmares!" One hand almost instinctively came up to cover her neck with a shudder.
Muta walked up with a serious question in his gruff voice, even looking suspiciously around the curtains with a protective glare.
"No, no one's around. It's up here," Haru insisted, pointing at her forehead. "Every time I sleep, horrible things come in here. Don't... please don't make me go back to bed," she begged, trying to keep tears from escaping her tired eyes.
Muta and Dona looked at each other worriedly. The fatter cat asked something slow and horrified as he pointed at his head.
Haru nodded, fighting back a shudder as she gripped the blanket around her shoulders. Then suddenly catching on an idea, she held one arm out like cradling an easel and mimicked drawing on it. "If you can get your hands on some paper, I can be more specific."
Muta tilted his head a bit, but nodded firmly before marching out the door. Dona tried to lead the younger cat to the comfortable arm chair, but she wasn't having it today. A gentle gesture released the obsidian cat's hold, and the brown one was back to pacing the stone floor.
Dona watched her go back and forth with worried eyes until Muta eventually returned with both a sheet of paper and a capped jar of ink.
Sighing with relief, Haru sat down at the vanity as her second father placed the paper in front of her and uncapped the ink.
"What about a pen?" the younger feline asked.
The two older cats looked at each other with nothing short of confusion.
"You know, something to write with? Like this?" Haru mimicked writing something over the paper.
Muta looked at his wife while asking something, still sounding like he didn't have a clue what Haru was trying to say.
Dona suddenly reached over, dipped one of her claws in the ink pot, and made a small squiggle on a corner of the paper while asking something.
"... Oh. No pens here. Okay, then," the younger feline conceded, nervously flexing one claw to dip it into the black ink.
The ensuing sketch was shameful, but she already knew it would be from attempt # 6 to find a fire. It was barely more than stick figures with triangles for ears, with one of the figures at the bottom of the page in a square of a bed.
"I'm sleeping when it happens," Haru explained, pointing between the sleeping cat and herself.
Both Muta and Dona nodded. That part had come through without a hitch. She separated that figure with cloudy marks so they could tell everything else was in her nightmares.
The first one was just a stick figure with a top hat shoving a 't' shaped knife into the stick figure wearing a triangular dress. "Baron," she stated, pointing at the top hat figure.
Muta gaped in horror before protesting angrily.
The next sketch was a lot harder. She settled for putting a mirror next to the Baron figure. The best she could manage was a small circle in one hand and her stick figure lying down and made of slashes instead of sticks. Just to drive the point home, she made a circle for them and added lines to the sides to suggest being in the tower. "The day he brought me here," she explained, although she could tell that one was going over her second parents' head.
'It's a good thing this world's paper's a bit sturdier than back home, or my claw would be making a bigger mess of this.' She took a deep breath to fight back the need to shudder and started on the final sketch. Her and Baron. On a square bed with obvious collars. With his hands on her throat.
Dona gasped in horror, not needing anything more to understand. She frantically said something to Muta, who looked just as terrified.
The larger feline stated something that sounded like an order as he made one more check around the curtains. Not able to find anything, he ran out of the room like his life depended on it.
Dona in turn nearly dragged Haru away from her vanity in order to get her away from the morbid piece of paper. She sounded frantic as she pointed at it, shaking her head repeatedly as she held the girl's face between her hands.
Haru could only answer with a deeply needed hug. She pressed her face into the slightly taller woman's shoulder, soaking in all the motherly love she could.
It couldn't have been more than two minutes before Baron stormed into the room, looking more furious than she had thought possible from him. Even as she gave a shudder, the orange feline marched to the vanity in order to snatch the paper. He stood there for a long time, keeping his eyes on her crude, morbid drawing. His expression was full of rage. The words that eventually fell from his mouth were low and heated from understanding frustration.
Dona let go of Haru, asking something worriedly as she readjusted the blanket over her daughter's shoulders to keep her decent in the lord's presence.
Baron answered her second mother, still so angry as he nodded.
Dona brushed a loving hand over Haru's slightly longer head fur before joining Muta at the entrance, although she didn't hear footsteps leaving after the door closed.
The tired feline forced her eyes back to Baron, still staring at her series of pitiful pictures. A deep breath of courage helped her draw herself up and address the only other cat in the room. "Please prove the nightmares wrong, Baron. Please know something to make them stop. I'm getting scared to close my eyes."
He looked up at the sound of her voice, probably at the agony in her tone. He gave her a desperate look, but then another angry look at the paper. Stepping quickly to the fireplace, he used a single finger to make it burn before throwing the paper in.
"There's a start," she sighed as he marched up to her and stole a deep and meaningful embrace. Unable to deny a hug like that, she clung to him, burying her face into his good shoulder in a vain attempt to erase the nightmares.
After a while, Baron eased her away enough to lock eyes with her. Although she couldn't understand a word in the speech he began treating her to, it was easy to guess what words could be attached to such a warm reassuring tone.
I love you. I will never hurt you. I am your friend and protector; always have been, always will be.
To be sure that Haru was getting the idea, he grabbed her hand in order to place it over his heart, keeping it there with both of his own as he kept speaking. His eyes were begging for her to understand.
This is yours. I am yours.
His heart pounded against her hand, almost like it was trying to literally be in her palm.
She stared at the sight, his gloved hand pressing her furry one to his crisp grey suit. 'How did this happen? How did he fall in love with me?' "You could have anyone you want," the brown feline noted softly, looking up into his green eyes full of pleading panic. "Why me?"
His eyes melted as his free hand caressed her face and lingeringly ran through the thicker part of her head fur. Dang it, why did his hands have to be so warm and comfortable? His reassuring voice wasn't doing her any favors, either. If he keeps this up, she won't be able to keep from falling back asleep.
Baron suddenly gave a surprised twitch that shook his entire body. It was also enough to shake Haru out of her dangerously peaceful state. Keeping an arm around her blanket-covered shoulders, he managed to tug one glove off in order to push aside just enough of a curtain.
Pressing his bare hand against the glass, grey mist filled the pane before clearing up to reveal a view that more than likely came from her favorite mirror in the living room, where nearly the whole room was present.
Haru sighed in longing at the familiar scene.
"... more than a voice to make or keep a relationship. If it didn't, Haru here could have anyone on the planet!" Tsuge stated with a gesture and grin very much directed at his friend.
"Tsuge!" her past self protested with an embarrassed blush.
Little Sakura gave a delighted squeal. "You can sing? Will you sing for me?"
Haru closed her eyes in pain. "I never did sing for her again."
Baron gave her an especially affectionate hug with one arm, encouraging her to pay attention.
"I really don't see why you're showing me this right now," the young feline confessed as her past self finished pulling Sakura onto her lap and begin singing in a low soothing tone. But she was soon very glad she was looking at Baron when she was saying that.
"I walked with you
"Once upon a dream," was almost accompanied by Baron falling on top of her like a tipped book case.
"Whoa, hold on!" she yelped, ripping his hand away from the window and hurriedly pushing him by the shoulders against the glass. "Baron, wake up! I'm the one having sleeping problems, remember?"
His head bobbed tiredly, making him open his mint green eyes in slight confusion. His hands came on the glass again, but only to steady himself into a standing position against the wall.
"Baron, don't scare me like that," she scolded, brushing one hand over his cheek in a worried gesture. "I didn't think you were the type to pull a prank, because my voice isn't that good."
Her suitor gave a tired smile, stealing her hand long enough to press a kiss on the tan fur. He used his 'instructor' tone as he used two fingers to briefly touch her throat, her lips, and then her forehead before blocking out her vision with his other hand.
"... Tell me you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting." Her own tone was flat and humorless.
Baron shook his head, insistently pressing his fingers against her lips, throat, and then a blocking gesture to her forehead and eyes a second time.
"That's the best you can come up with?" she couldn't help but ask with disappointment.
Baron gave a slight growl of frustration, grabbing her hand and nearly dragging her to the door. But even as he reached out to open it, Haru's eyes shot down to their intertwined hands.
'This is the first time he's touched me without gloves. His hand's even warmer than I thought.' The thought was quickly pushed aside as Baron opened the door to point out her second parents.
Who were now lying on the ground as if they had fallen over.
"Muta! Dona!" she panicked, immediately kneeling down to shake their shoulders. "What happened? You were both wide awake not even a minute ago!"
Muta moaned groggily as he moved his head around, slowly opening his eyes as Dona asked something in tired confusion.
Whatever Baron answered with was enough to make both of them snap to attention, staring at Haru with... no. It couldn't be.
She didn't do anything impressive enough to warrant that kind of look.
'But then again, Tsuge and Sakura fell asleep at that song, too.' Haru slowly looked up at her tawny suitor, wondering if it wasn't a prank after all. "I did this? Or at least my past self?" She pointed at her throat before pointing at her second parents still on the ground.
Baron nodded before repeating the same gesture as before; throat, lips, eyes and forehead.
"... I don't think it'll work, but I'll give it a try," Haru promised with a tired sigh. "I'm not exactly in a position to be choosy, anyway."
Baron finally smiled, but gave her one more hug before gently pushing her back through the open door.
Dona was up in a heartbeat, not missing even half a chance to tuck her child into bed.
"Let's hope this works," Haru said with another wan smile, earning a kiss on the head from mother and father.
Even if Muta couldn't resist making another search through the room with a dark expression.
Haru bit back a laugh. "Between being Baron's girlfriend and your new daughter, I don't think anyone's going to be stupid enough to try anything, Muta."
He gave her one more softened look before Dona forced him to leave the room and... did they just lock it behind them?
Or did Baron? That would be kind of creepy if she had enough energy to give a care.
The new cat girl gave a tired groan before snuggling deeper into the covers. "Lullaby, lullaby... think of a lullaby, Haru. I said think of a lullaby!"
Dang it, why did her mind have to go blank when she needed it to work? Her mind briefly came to Once Upon a Dream, but she didn't need to just fall asleep. She needed to think of something that would discourage her mind from bad thoughts about what Baron wanted from her. Honestly, what he wanted from her was pretty clear, even if she didn't know anything about how it happened.
Her eyes suddenly widened, making her sit up in horror. "What if Tsuge was right? My voice lets me have anyone I want?" 'I didn't accidentally put Baron under a spell with all the love songs I went through, did I?' She nervously started twiddling her fingers, hoping that wasn't the case. Baron may have been watching her for years, but what if he only started liking her after she took up singing?
"That couldn't be right! Tsuge heard me sing everything and we were still just friends!"
'Ah, but Baron isn't a human,' a little voice in her mind pointed out.
"What would that have to do with-" she tried to complain back, but stopped herself with a snarl. "No. Not now. Maybe after some decent sleep, whatever that is." With a fierce determination, she snuggled herself back under the covers and forced her mind to work.
Although the young cat girl had been trying to think of a lullaby, something else began to creep into her mind, making her smile softly with fond memories. Her tired brown eyes closed in order to better visualize, and she began vocalizing softly to an old favorite.
To the tune of Claire de Lune, Haru could see a beautiful swan rise to the front of her mind, flying freely through a soft grey mist until it cleared to reveal... huh. She would have once called a place like this Eden, but Baron had shown her a secluded lake like this only last week, nearly walled off by thick foliage the shade of Baron's eyes.
It really was a beautiful shade of green.
Her swan flew gracefully between vines, glow butterflies, and even explored the water before nestling into a soft nest of leaves and its own feathers, bending its elegant neck into a comfortable sleeping position as the surrounding foliage began to grow higher and thicker until trapping the swan's lake inside a dome of safety.
No one would intrude upon the deeply needed slumber.
ooOoo
Her breath was coming slow and steady when Haru opened her eyes again. Her body stretched happily under the covers as a contented sound escaped her throat.
"Purr," the brunette sighed dreamily as she sat up. "Dang, I feel great!" With one more body stretch, she nearly bounced out of bed in order to dress herself in one of the lighter blue outfits Dona had made for her.
It wasn't until she tried to open the door that she remembered it was locked. "Um, hello?" she called out, feeling a little silly as she knocked on the inside of the barrier. "I'm done napping, if someone wants to let me out?"
Someone immediately stumbled against the door before playing with the handle. The young girl made sure to back up a few feet before it opened, revealing a very anxious Muta.
She grinned at him and stole a bear hug around the neck. "It looks like I owe Baron an apology."
Her large second father gave a relieved sigh before sweeping her into his arms for a bear hug of his own. He was almost sobbing as he told her something in as firm a tone as he could manage.
Once they had both gotten in a few good minutes of hugging, Muta reluctantly let go of her and offered an arm. "Baron?"
"Baron," she answered with a nod, taking the arm in a heartbeat.
He beamed at her before guiding her down the hallway and around a corner.
How odd. Was it her imagination, or were there more guards than usual? On top of that, why were they all looking at her with such fear?
Haru self-consciously ran her clawed fingers through her head fur in case it was lying funny after her nap. Muta must have noticed because he gave her arm a firm squeeze while glaring hard enough to make the guards stand at attention once more. She couldn't help but giggle that, although there was nothing to suggest that he had authority in Baron's domain, he could make anyone other than Toto mind him. Maybe even Dona. If she didn't feel like letting him go at it.
'Then again... he's my father in this world, and Baron's courting me. That would allow him to throw his weight around a bit. He certainly has enough of it.' She bit on her lower lip harshly to keep from laughing out loud.
The cat in question gave her a suspicious look, forcing the girl to calm herself while giving his arm an affectionate squeeze.
"Nothing's wrong, Muta. Just got lost in thought for a second there," she assured him with a smile.
He gave her another look that said he didn't quite believe her, but didn't raise another fuss before talking to a guard standing outside a door she didn't recognize.
The soldier nodded, opening the door enough to respectfully call inside. A meeting had to be inside, since there was more than one voice swiftly hushing itself.
"I'm sorry, was Baron busy?" Haru asked guiltily, trying to take a step backward. "I can wait- or I could just stand here with Muta," she swiftly corrected herself when her second father refused to let her back away.
Within a second Baron was at the door, looking at her with a mixture of hope and panic.
Haru looked back at him, deciding to go for it anyway now that Muta had let go of her arm. Without so much as a word, she marched the two steps to her tawny suitor and gave him a deep embrace. "Thank you, Baron. That sleep was way better than the other ones had been."
He immediately relaxed, squeezing her like he had zero intention of letting go.
Which he didn't. For the rest of the day, whether it be in a rather serious looking meeting, supper, or just watching the glow butterflies dance, Baron refused to allow her outside of hand's length. His favorite position was both arms firmly around her, but even he decided that was a bit much when they needed to move from one location to another.
It wasn't until he was standing outside her door at bedtime that he reluctantly forced himself to release her, although a sharp order was enough to encourage two guards to stand on either side of the entrance.
Baron gave her another worried look, verbally and visually reminding her to use her voice to keep the nightmares away.
"Oh, believe me, I'm not going to forget," she assured him with a laugh, though stealing another hug while she had the chance. "Thanks again for forcing me to do it, Baron. I'll see you tomorrow."
Just to drive the point home, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. She had to brace herself by his shoulders thanks to his height, but at least it wasn't impossible to reach him.
His mouth fell open in surprise, and even the guards seemed taken aback as she opened the door, still keeping her eyes on him.
"Good night," she said cheerfully before letting the door cut off her vision.
Just after the entrance was closed, Baron gave an excited exclamation, clearly audible through the door as well as a thud that had to be the result of an enthusiastic jump.
The idea made the girl pause on the way to her wardrobe. "Oh dear. Did I incite something?" she asked worriedly. 'This is a different culture. Did he take that to mean something other than I like him?'
'Isn't that enough for him to get excited over?' a private voice countered in a smug tone. 'You've been giving mixed messages for a while.'
"True," the brown cat agreed, making herself pick out a nightgown. "I just... I'm not quite ready for marriage yet, that's all. The nightmares are still a little too fresh for my taste."
'So when will you be ready?'
"... Your guess is as good as mine." Haru then realized what she was doing, making a scoff escape at the dialogue. "Says the girl who's talking to herself. Right, that'll definitely help!"