2. Back to You
Or, Part 2 of Prove
If all was lost,
There's more I've gained.
Cause it led me back…
to you.
-P.T. Barnum, 'The Greatest Showman'
xxXxx
Haru parked her water bike next to the small rock outcropping, unhooking a rope from one side in order to tie it to the usual rock to keep her ride from leaving without her. She climbed onto the most level spot before opening the seat of her bike.
A stolen bedsheet was very carefully folded into the smallest possible roll she could manage. She grabbed it, tucked it under one arm, and walked as deeply as she could between the rocks for minimal light, but it couldn't do much at this point.
Haru pulled off her helmet and set it against the pocket that held her new friend. She pulled the top of the pocket open invitingly, and the poor vampire needed no further invitation.
Women's pockets have never been known to be roomy.
He climbed into the helmet with a great sigh of relief. Haru raised the helmet to her face, specifically aiming it so that he could see her shushing motion with a raised finger while protecting him from the sun's rays.
Despite enjoying his new freedom of movement, it was clear that the little guy was in the mood to start biting heads off.
"Can you read lips?" she mouthed at the little mouse, delighted when he nodded without hesitation. "Great. If you can hear anything from the bike, it's probably a tracer, maybe a microphone. I don't want the tracer damaged, because then we'll have people on top of us immediately. Can you remove the tracer and leave it here so people think I'm still here until an hour from sunset?"
That tiny mouse face looked thoughtful, but he gestured with a tiny paw for her to turn the helmet toward the bike. She carefully did so, since the last thing she wanted was for her new friend to get burned to a crisp.
After less than a minute of staring intently at the bike, two bits of the molding that she had assumed were only decorative were forcibly ripped from the sides from familiar purple mist. One was twisted into a pretzel and thrown out to sea, and the other floated obediently into Haru's surprised hand. She set it between two rocks where the wind and water weren't likely to get to it, and used one hand to unroll the bedsheet, using the wind to her advantage.
She covered herself and her helmet with it, finally feeling free to speak aloud. "Ok, I think you'll be fine if you stay under the sheet. But we'll have to be careful with it. I might need to use it for a sail after we run out of gas."
Dracula took that as permission to resume his own form, temporarily blinding Haru with his purple mist before the sheet was lifted from her head to accommodate his height instead of hers.
Dracula took one glare at how Yubaba had styled her hair before immediately working the bun loose with his hands instead of mist magic. "I am adopting you," he informed her between clenched teeth that showed off his fangs.
Haru flinched at the tone, even though she knew his fury wasn't for her since his long fingers were gentle about combing through her brown strands as the sheet billowed around them. "I was really hoping you'd be tired enough to sleep through all that," she admitted shamefully, taking the small black hairband from him to put her hair into a simple ponytail instead.
The wind was blowing hard enough for the girl to not want her hair to be constantly whipping at her face.
The tall vampire gave her a look that couldn't decide between righteous indignation and pity. He settled for wrapping her into another hug as the bedsheet and his cape billowed around them. "One thing that Stoker's waste of paper got right about me, is that I can always hear what's going on around me, no matter how deeply I rest. But I mean it, you of all people deserve to be part of a loving family."
Haru couldn't fight back a smile as she thought over the pictures of his family her father had forced everyone to memorize. "Are they as nice as they look?" she asked wistfully while returning the hug with pure bliss.
"Even better," he swore to her, only letting go so that he could pull out his phone.
"Don't call," she warned before he could do more. "We're in range of the island's service, mostly so I can report if I see anything suspicious. We're encouraged to text since it's less expensive. Phone calls are reserved for emergencies, the operators will know something's up if they detect a call."
Dracula's mood wasn't the only thing that dropped. Much to her surprise, even the points of his cape collar dipped down with his mood. "Of course," he stated with loads of sarcasm. "I still haven't really learned texting. Naoko tells me to use a special pen for it, but it keeps disappearing on me. One of Griffon's pranks, no doubt."
Haru did her best not to laugh at him. "How about I text what you dictate?" she offered with a wide smile. "Just don't mention my gender or anything like that. If someone were to look at your text, they'll know it was me if you don't use neutral terms. There aren't a lot of girls on the island, and I'm the only one with my body build if there were cameras in that chamber."
Dracula thought for a second before smiling a bit more kindly than before. "There were, and that should work just fine," he crooned before handing over the phone. "It should have enough battery for that. Your sorry excuse of a sperm donor was keeping my cell phone charged in case one of my contacts found you for a tradeoff."
"The snake," Haru snarled mutinously, turning around so that he could read over her shoulder. "He wouldn't have honored a tradeoff. Who do you want this to go to?"
"Use the same chat that he was using," he encouraged, placing one hand on her shoulder so he could lean over a bit. "Every single one of my contacts is in there. He was very eager to find you, though not enough to believe anyone when they tried to protest you were a human."
Haru was still pleasantly surprised that despite the stories, his grip was comfortably cool instead of ice cold, and there was no lingering smell of death about him. A bit of blood, yes, but that wasn't his fault, though the faint whiff of pleasant cologne probably was his own doing.
"Okay, go," she confirmed, her thumbs ready.
"Baron in particular will recognize the one that came to my rescue," Dracula began, making her digits flick expertly across the screen. "Our old friend and I are ready to be picked up now." Dracula paused for a second. "I don't know where we are," he confessed.
"I do," Haru said grimly, wasting no time on punching in their exact coordinates. "I know it sounds self-defeating, but our best chances will be to head out deeper to sea. If we try to circle to the side closest to the mainland, we'll get caught by the other patrols for sure."
"Are you ever bothered at your post?" Dracula asked keenly while looking at her precise directions. "Ah, that's where we are. We're likely to get multiple rescuers within three hours if no one from the island comes by to check on you."
Haru thought about that, relaxing a bit. "It's going against my instinct to get away immediately, but no. The only time I was bothered out here was when I accidentally damaged my bike on the rocks. I'm still sure the only reason I was given this post was because it's in the least likely direction for an attack, but the sperm donor didn't want me to be a pampered princess."
Dracula's eyes glowed red with suppressed rage. "I've seen your room. You are anything but pampered."
Deciding not to argue for now, Haru rounded the text off with a quick explanation about why calling would be a bad idea, as well as coming directly from the mainland. "Does this look good to you?"
"It's perfect."
One tap, and the deed was done.
Haru let out a long breath before smiling up at him. "Why don't you get more sleep? I'm better suited to keeping watch during daylight than you are, and you're still worn out from…" She tried to shake away that first impression of him slashed up like a pig at a slaughter.
He sighed tiredly while sinking to the ground, partially arranging himself against the rocks as the sheet continued to billow around him like a frantic ghost. "You will wake me up if anyone comes?"
"Naturally." She grinned at him before retrieving an evil-looking gun strapped to the side of her bike. "And I'll be ready if it's someone from the island." She double-checked the safety on the fancy trigger.
That made his drowsiness wash away. "Don't you dare get into any fights!" he fumed, standing to his full height again and almost losing the bedsheet. He quickly bunched it around him until it looked like he was trying to cosplay a white grim reaper, with only his face visible in the improvised hood. "I helped bury you once, but I will not do it again!"
This kind of behavior should have frightened her, too. Maybe the fact that she was touched by his rage was just one more indication that she was better suited to living with monsters instead of humans. "I'll wake you up as soon as anyone comes, friend or foe," she promised him while pulling on one sleeve to encourage him to sit comfortably again. "I can see everything from my post, don't worry. We'll have plenty of warning regardless." Then she blinked and looked at the rocks. "Would you like to sleep in my satchel? I can throw out the garlicy food, and the sheet would probably be enough cushioning and light reduction when you're a bat or mouse."
He gazed at her gratefully, gripping her face firmly from under the sheet before pressing a kiss to her forehead. His magic got rid of the offensive food for her, dumping the thick sandwiches into the ocean for the fish to enjoy. "You are too good for those human beings. Everything will be different once I get you home, I promise."
Haru grinned up at him but forced her own retort down so that he could turn back into purple mist and drag the sheet with him into the makeshift hammock. Once he was securely wrapped up and snoring softly in the satchel still hanging across her chest, she climbed to her usual perch on top of the second highest rock and began her watch. Her bag was now comfortably over her lap, so he wasn't out of her sight.
The phone still in her hand immediately pinged as soon as she was comfortable. Haru knew she shouldn't, but she checked the message anyway.
Baron: I will do the honors of retrieving the pair of you. Stay safe, and don't let anything happen to our old friend, OR ELSE.
At least he was smart enough to also use the genderless pronouns for her. Glad that someone had volunteered this quickly, she hurriedly shut the phone off to keep Dracula's other friends from texting or even calling to make double sure that he was all right.
Talking to his friends and family probably would have been a pleasant way to pass the time, but the last thing she wanted was to alert the tech squad on the island that something was up.
As she paced looking all around her, both the ocean and sky, Haru realized that her new friend had specifically mentioned 'Baron' in the text, as if it were a safe word for her own identity. He had answered in almost the same amount of time it took her to write it out, too. Was Baron an old friend of hers?
Pondering this gave the brunette something to do as she continued to keep watch through the seemingly endless moment.
Haru hadn't really let herself ask questions about her past life since the middle of a rescue wasn't the best time for long explanations. Dracula had no reason to lie about it since she was already doing precisely what he wanted, but…
Had she been happy, back then? Had she had the chance for a more normal life, or had she been on the train with the pompous pig and had a change of heart?
Haru dismissed that last thought. If she had been working with Abraham Van Helsing in her past life, Dracula wouldn't have been so shocked to see her inside his walls. Literally. Plus that jerk said clearly that he had been working alone on that train.
She had been friends with the famous vampire back then, that much was certain. A very dearly missed friend. It was probably not the best way to take comfort, but a wild grin split her features as she reveled in someone being upset when she wasn't around.
What kind of monster was Baron? Between the pig's memories and the constant surveillance on the monsters, it was clear that non-humans were a tightly-knit group. Haru tried to think over that surveillance footage, wracking her brain for someone that looked like a 'Baron'. But since she only had human bigotry to go on, it was impossible for her to tell on looks alone.
No, Haru couldn't have had a normal life back then. Not with monsters in her life, but she was still certain that it had to be better than her current life. She made a mental note to ask what her name was back then, just to see if she wanted to take back her old last name to solve that years-long dilemma.
Why on earth was this Baron taking her safety so personally?
Haru was used to long hours on this pile of rocks. Days like today, she spent more time out here than in her room. It was an easy preference since there was no one here to insult or belittle her, but now she was patting the rock next to her like a faithful dog. 'You've been a good sanctuary from the island,' she told the rocks silently to keep from waking Dracula. 'I guess it says a lot that this is going to be the place and times I'll miss the most.'
A bit of movement caught her eye, making her look up sharply. A groan of disappointment escaped her lungs and throat.
"Something?" Dracula yawned from his place in the satchel.
"Just a crow," Haru reported miserably, resting her head on one hand in complete boredom.
"TOTO! WE'RE HERE!" Dracula suddenly bellowed, startling the girl enough to almost make her fall off her perch.
Haru looked up at the crow with renewed interest, just now noticing that it was heading straight for her little cluster of rocks, even before the vampire's desperate shout.
The black bird almost looked like it was carrying a doll on its back. But as it pulled a more drastic dive for her rocks, Haru realized two things.
The first one was that the crow was a giant. With enough space from the ground, it was ridiculously easy for him to look completely normal.
The second one is that the crow was definitely not carrying a doll on its back. But whatever it was, she couldn't see details yet.
"He's coming!" she said aloud, more for Dracula's benefit than anything else, since he wasn't in a position to take a look.
Haru scrambled down from her usual perch to give the crow a better landing area. As long as their rescue was here, Haru shouldered both her satchel and the strap to her gun out of the way so that she could unhook her bike from the rope and set it adrift into the ocean as the rocks thudded and cracked behind her to tell of the crow's landing.
Before she even finished giving the bike a gentle kick to nudge it along, there was a thud next to her and a second foot on the bike's side to help with the nudge.
It seemed like a normal human leg, but at least it was covered with light grey pants instead of white. Haru was likely to have small panic attacks over white clothing for the rest of her life if she managed to have a life after today.
She turned to politely thank Baron, but her mind forgot to form words.
For a few precious seconds, she forgot everything. Even how to breathe.
Baron was some form of cat monster, but she almost didn't want to use the term 'monster'. There was a refined dignity about him, but then, cats usually had that. His fur was orange with a cream underlining, with the orange nearly circling each of his amazing green eyes as if to bring more attention to them. Those slanted green eyes were locked on her almost desperately, taking in details like he was getting a sneak peak into heaven itself.
His grey suit made him look like an old-fashioned gentleman-gentlecat?- but Haru couldn't explain why that suit and the world in general seemed to turn purple for just an instant, though the shade seemed to linger in his beautiful green eyes.
It was something deeper than instinct, but Haru somehow knew she was looking full into the face of her future husband.
She wasn't prepared for this! Nothing about her life on the island had prepared her for anything like Baron! Against her will, she blushed hard enough to fry an egg on her face.
His anxiety melted into relief, and the stunned girl was almost blinded by his smile before the feline wrapped her into a comfortably tight embrace. "I've missed you, Lucy."
She blushed even harder, but nothing could shake how right being in his arms felt. She wrapped her own around his chest and squeezed like she never wanted to let go. "My name's Haru this time. Nice you meet you, Baron," she answered a bit shyly.
She felt a violent twitch both from the orange cat and the satchel resting against her side.
"Haru? Really?" Dracula demanded in shock, revealing that he had been watching all this from an opened corner of the satchel at her side.
Baron's grip tightened on the girl as he glared at the satchel. "You've spent hours with her, and you never bothered to learn her new name?!"
"It's not his fault," Haru defended her potential new father. "I was the one with an escape plan, and I kept making him sleep or be absolutely quiet so that no one would suspect a thing. There wasn't time for talking, and people on the island would rather use insults than my name." Haru scowled. "That's one my lesser reasons for wanting to leave."
Baron reluctantly released her, his eyes like emerald daggers with his rage. "Indeed?" he hissed before kicking her helmet out to the ocean in an impressive arc. "In that case, it will be my honor to arm-wrestle Naoko for you. May I get rid of that gun as well?"
Haru shook her head while holding onto the strap keeping it on her back. "This thing is specifically designed for killing monsters. If you or Dracula know someone good with technology, they might be able to find ways to counter weapons like this if they have a prototype to dissect."
"Smart thinking," a new voice cawed, making Haru look up at the giant crow on her usual perch. Despite having a beak, it wasn't hard to see the bird smiling warmly at her. "I think your Zing just provided your college with its best challenge yet, Baron."
That made Haru blink. "You've got a college?" she asked with interest. He didn't seem that old, but he had to be if he knew her from over a century before.
She could ask about the 'zing' thing later.
Baron gave her a melting smile. "I will be overjoyed to give you a tour, but why don't you give me that gun first? It was getting in my way earlier."
The poor teenager couldn't resist a second blush at his words, but still slung the weapon off her back so that he could transfer it to his own. "We really should leave now. I bought us a few more hours, but I don't want to be anywhere near this-Gah!" she suddenly yelped when the cat monster swept her off her feet and into a bridal carry.
"As you wish," Baron informed her, barely able to take his eyes off the girl enough to jump up the rocks and land on the crow's back.
Haru wasn't exactly sitting on his lap since he had one leg on each side of the bird's back, but he was definitely gripping her tight by the waist with one hand on a fistful of black feathers.
"Shall we, Toto?" Baron asked, a smile even more present in his voice than his face as Haru worriedly wrapped her arms around his neck, and the satchel was once again across her lap.
The crow cawed once before takeoff. "Hotel Transylvania, here we come!"