Denial Part 3
One day you're going to see her holding hands with someone who took your chance.
-Faraaz Kazi, 'Truly, Madly, Deeply'
xxXxx
Machida's eyes snapped open. Well, his right one did, in any case. The broken nose he just received in Arthur's body was now exchanged for a throbbing left eye that was almost swollen shut.
But at least he was lying in his own bedroom, though his wrists and ankles were securely fastened with his father's handcuffs.
"Thank heaven," he moaned with relief, clumsily rising to a sitting position until he noticed his father kneeling not that far away from him.
His blood turned to ice at the complete fury on his father's face.
"Oh no. What did Arthur do when our bodies were switched?" Machida grated while trying to wiggle out of the handcuffs binding his hands.
His father glared at him a little longer before answering. "Well, he lost your best friend for you, and removed a great deal of my pride for how you turned out. Would you like to know how he figured out who Lucy Westenra was?"
"Wait, Tsuge?! How did he scare off Tsuge?" Machida demanded, leaving the handcuffs alone for a second. "I didn't manage to scare off Quincy Morris!"
"Oh, it was very simple," his father snarked with a deadly glare, keeping his arms crossed in severe disapproval. "All he did was ask Tsuge if there was a girl desperately in love with him for years that he never paid attention to, and immediately tried to talk him into taking you to her so that he could strike before 'she turned into a swan and never looked at you again'."
'Probably the only thing I can do at this point.' "How did that make me lose Tsuge?" he asked, feeling a hard pang at the thought of losing his best friend of three years.
"Because he's Haru's friend too!" his father snapped. "That black eye should be all the proof you need about which friendship he cares about the most! Don't worry; he's probably told her by now that the only way you'd ever consider looking at her is if she suddenly became 'ten times as pretty'!"
"Okay, so Arthur was an idiot!" Machida agreed, doing what he could to crawl closer to his father. "Maybe me, too, but… just let me talk to her," he begged, offering his cuffed hands. "Quincy even asked me not to keep her waiting so long if I somehow came back to my own time."
His father glared, still keeping his arms crossed. "Give me one good reason to let you anywhere near that poor girl."
Machida gave it some quick thought. "I ignored her, I'll admit it," he started out with some difficulty, still seeing her future perfection in his mind. "I thought she was boring because I couldn't be bothered to find out differently before. Let me find out differently now. Please, for Quincy Morris if not for your own son." Then he took in a deep breath, not wanting to say the next part.
"Besides… I owe her an apology for… everything. Lucy even said she wished I had tried to talk to her sooner than after we're both twenty."
His father gave him a long hard look before unfolding his arms to reveal a key in his grasp. "Don't make me regret this, Machida," he growled before setting his son free. "You are on double chores until Christmas for being this cruel to what Tsuge called 'everybody's guardian angel'."
"Fair," Machida agreed in a heartbeat, his hand grasping for the student directory before even his ankles were released.
He looked up Haru's name in a heartbeat and pounded her number into his phone with bated breath as it began ringing.
"Oh, come on. Like I need to explain what to do after the beep."
Machida growled, but tried to put some cheer in his tone after the mentioned beep. "Hey, Haru, it's Machida. Can you call me back asap? I think we're overdue for a long talk, and I think you'll like what I want to discuss." He shut it off, thinking hard. "Not enough," he growled, punching in her home address next so he could race for her home.
"One thing before you go, Machida," his father growled as he rose to his feet. "Get dressed. Arthur hated your clothes."
Machida looked down to see he was still in the sleep pants and worn out t-shirt that served him for pajamas. "Good idea," he agreed in a heartbeat, switching directions from the door to the dresser.
How should he dress? Should he pick up flowers first? Comb his hair differently? He shook his head while picking out a red button up and brown slacks that he always thought were the ideal balance between casual and formal. He took a few swipes at his hair when he walked past the bathroom, and wasted no time getting his shoes on and running out of their apartment.
It looked like it was going to be a gloomy day. The clouds overhead weren't enough for a storm, but rain at some point in the day seemed to be on schedule.
He had to force himself to walk at first, since the last thing he wanted right now was a confrontation with the giant werecat that lived in the apartment right next to his father's. His flesh crawled just at the thought of that big grump, reaffirming for himself that cats would definitely not be welcome in his future clinic.
A glare of slanted green eyes flashed through his mind like lightning, making him shudder again with revulsion.
Good thing he wasn't likely to see those eyes in this time period!
Despite knowing it was extremely rude on the neighbors, the dark-haired youth ran in front of the other doors and almost flew down the stairs. But despite himself, he was forced to take it slower when he got to the streets. With one eye nearly swollen shut, his vision was impaired enough that he couldn't take any unnecessary risks with traffic or the other people on the sidewalk.
"Hey, nice shiner!" a random stranger congratulated as they intercepted each other, but only got a nod of acknowledgement for his trouble.
Why did there have to be so many people around?! They were slowing him down, and he needed to get to Haru before whatever Tsuge told her hardened her heart against him!
Although it annoyed him to no end, it took the poor teenager a half hour to finally reach the right address. It actually kind of spooked him to see a two-story house that strongly resembled the cottage he had visited earlier that morning. It was even surrounded with a stone wall, though a bit taller and more modern than the one around the Westenra home. The largest difference that he could distinguish was the complete lack of a flower garden this time.
Haru's mother must have made more money at her job than he thought. He could only dream of living in a house instead of a cramped apartment! Just as he was reading the name plate on the stone wall to confirm that this was Haru's home, the front door opened.
Machida looked up hopefully, but it wasn't her. Instead, he saw a very pretty red head that could have been Haru's twin closing the door and locking it behind her with a hurried manner. She was wearing a very feminine business suit in black satin, but the bag over her shoulder looked like it was made from a patchwork quilt.
'If that's Haru's mother, Lucy shouldn't have been so worried about some maid catching my eye in twenty years!' Taking in a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, Machida marched through the opening of the stone wall that was lacking an archway to approach her. "Yoshioka-san? Is Haru home?"
The woman turned before giving him a double take. "What on earth happened to your eye?"
Machida flinched, having forgotten the throbbing pain for a while before she reminded him. "Just an accident, nothing to worry about. I'm a classmate of Haru's, can I talk to her?" he asked politely, since he had a sinking feeling that telling her his name would have been asking to get beat up with her obviously full bag.
The lovely woman smiled apologetically as she adjusted her hold on the tote and started walking down the path through the stone wall. "I'm very sorry, but I'm in a hurry, and Haru isn't home. She's grabbing a few last-minute things for me before meeting up at the hotel for one of my conferences that I'm running late for." She checked the nice watch on her wrist for the time. "If you promise to keep it quick, she's probably about done with the shopping by now, and she enjoys taking a shortcut through the park two blocks that way for the direction she needs to go."
That pointed finger was all Machida needed. "Thank you, Yoshioka-san," he threw over one shoulder as he ran out into the sidewalk again. 'I hope her idea of Haru's timing is accurate, or I won't be able to talk to her until tonight, probably.'
That would be way too long. He had to talk to her before Haru could get it in her head that she couldn't forgive him for always looking the other way.
He entered the park, frantically looking this way and that more wildly than he would have needed to if he could see through both of his eyes right now. It was regrettable that he had to give his apology while looking like he had been in a fight, but he just didn't have the time to heal up before staking his claim. He ran down a random path that hardly had any trees around so that he could see for longer distances.
His heart leapt the one time he spotted a brunette with the hair pulled up in a ponytail. "Haru?!" he called out while frantically trying to walk through a bush to get closer.
The slim brunette turned around with a glare. "Yeah?" he asked gruffly, showing off the stubble on his chin and the rock band he had stamped on his t-shirt.
Machida flushed with humiliation. "Sorry, my bad," he apologized, now working himself free from the bush to hurriedly walk away.
This was no good. He had more visibility in this part of the park, yes, but it was also showing him that Haru wasn't anywhere around. Praying that she hadn't slipped past him, Machida doubled back to go down the more wooded section that didn't have a path.
The next few minutes were less than pleasant. Branches were continually scratching at his face and hands, making him yelp and cut back a word he knew better than to use more than once as he struggled through the growth and tried not to trip on any-
Despite being extremely careful about how he had placed his feet between the roots of a particularly large tree, one root seemed to magically rise just enough to catch his foot and send him sprawling on his face with a yelp of pain.
"W-Why?" he tried so hard not to weep.
Despite not seeing anyone or hearing any footsteps, a cold set of hands grabbed one arm and shoulder from behind, forcing him into a kneeling position.
"Consider it payback," a dark voice informed him through an intriguing foreign accent.
Machida gasped as his one eye went as wide as possible and even his bruised eye managed a tiny slit of an opening. Without seeing a face, even before his entire body froze in place with a slight tingling sensation, he knew who had caught him alone.
"Luckily, Haru is running late again as well," Count Dracula informed him conversationally while levitating the boy's body a little deeper into the bushes ahead of him like a guiding balloon. "We were hoping you would try to talk to her after your little trip through time."
Machida desperately wanted to ask how the vampire had found out about that. He wanted to know how that monster knew that today would be the day he switched bodies with his previous incarnation. He would have even liked to scream and bring in more human help, but it was as if Dracula had pointed a remote at him and pressed 'pause'. Only his good eye was able to move around.
But on the bright side, it also muted his pain.
"I hope you appreciate how long it took to time everything perfectly, boy. I've been looking forward to this day for over a hundred and thirty years."
Machida's mind boggled at the casual way he brought up that number.
After a while, the count found a particularly thick set of bushes to park Machida so that he could see a neglected path without alerting anyone that might use it. Only then did Dracula come into his line of view, but the overcast sky seemed to be enough protection from the sun for him to be around in the daytime with only a deep hood on his cool cape.
What was chilling was that Haru's mother was waiting for them, and even shared a kiss and deep embrace with the famous vampire.
"This is going to be harder than I thought," she admitted with a foolish smile, gazing into Dracula's ice blue eyes like she never wanted to look away. "I'm so excited to end all this nonsense, I might explode."
"Please don't say that," he begged before kneeling with her on the right side of the frozen boy. "I just barely got you back."
That exchange made a negative amount of sense. He knew that Haru's mom had a crush on Count Dracula, but for the vampire to return her feelings? That she was a willing participant in whatever was about to happen? He had even more questions bubbling inside his mind, but thanks to being paralyzed everywhere else, he couldn't do a thing to prevent their plans.
Dracula cocked his head carefully, listening to something beyond birdsong and the wind rustling through the trees. He gave a slow smile of satisfaction while kneeling and making his companion do the same. "Start the camera," he begged, making Haru's mom pull out her phone and tap on the screen a bit before angling the camera just right between the foliage to see the person that was slowly coming into view around another large tree.
When Machida finally caught a glimpse of Haru, he would have been struck speechless, even without Dracula's help. He knew what Haru looked like, of course, or he wouldn't have recognized Lucy so easily. But at this moment, looking full at her for the first time in years as opposed to just keeping the mental image of when she was fourteen in his mind, he was forced to come to grips with certain facts.
Haru looked almost spookily the way she had when he had seen her as Lucy. Her straight brown hair fell to her shoulders, and she was in a white turtleneck dress with matching boots. A long navy-blue coat had been thrown over the dress, and she was humming softly to herself as she slightly adjusted her hold on two large quilted bags that were obviously full and just a shade heavy. A pair of copper barrettes were keeping the hair from her face, occasionally catching a glint of weak light between the thick branches overhead.
It was already there, Machida realized. He had been so busy the past years trying not to look at her over his embarrassment of her obvious crush on him, that he'd been missing her bloom right in front of him. She was actually very pretty, she just… had never been interested in flaunting it. He had seen her quiet nature and misinterpreted it for blandness.
Why was her mother more than allied with Dracula?! Didn't she care about her daughter's safety at all?!
There was suddenly a second humming sound coming from the hedge on the other side of the nearly forgotten path, harmonizing with the suddenly confused teenager that stopped in her tracks a good ten feet away before passing where the trio were hiding.
Her mother zoomed slightly into her daughter's face on her phone, nearly ready to jump out of her skin with excitement.
"Is someone there?" Haru asked a bit nervously, adjusting her hold on one of the bag's handles in case she needed a makeshift weapon.
"Hmm? Oh, terribly sorry," a British voice answered in a soothing tone as a figure rose from behind that hedge, adjusting a top hat that would have been more at home in Arthur's time than Machida's.
It was the same cat that had glared at him right before switching back into his own body and time.
Unlike the flowered shawl he had been hunched under before to resemble an old woman to the uninterested eye, he now stood tall and proud in a light grey suit, adjusting the matching top hat between his large triangular ears from quickly standing up.
Machida only had a split second to realize this before Haru's reaction.
Her large brown eyes grew wider, if possible, and although there was no logical reason or even a hand movement from the tall feline, there was a definite flash of purple light that only lasted for a second within her amazed orbs.
Her mouth fell open in surprise, and her tight grip on the bags slipped enough for one of them to fall next to her boot. She didn't even notice. As far as Haru now seemed concerned, no one and nothing existed but the cat monster smiling a bit nervously from the other side of the hedge.
"… So that's a Zing," she breathed with such a reverence, that Machida could feel his heart fall into his shoes with disappointment.
Just like that, his chances with Haru were gone, and more than gone.
Haru then blushed, turning slightly away with a fist to her mouth with embarrassment.
The orange and cream cat seemed enormously relieved by her words as he casually hopped over the waist-high hedge with the same difficulty and enthusiasm as a child stepping over a crack in the sidewalk. "Thank heaven I don't have to explain the phenomenon to you. I don't imagine you would have taken such a thing at my word alone."
She blushed a little harder before giving the cat a suspicious look. "Were you really just hiding in the bushes to ambush me?"
"Yes," he answered with no shame whatsoever. "I suppose I could have found another way to approach you, but I didn't want any rivals for your attention for our first meeting."
'I'm right here!' Machida wanted to scream but couldn't. He couldn't so much as twitch an angry eyebrow at how this scene was progressing right in front of him!
Haru managed a small laugh, still never taking her awe-struck eyes away from the feline. "Well. Mission accomplished. Oh, I'm Yoshioka Haru," she added with a hasty bow.
The cat's green eyes glowed warmly before he took off his top hat and held it to his heart with a bow of his own. "Baron Humbert von Gikkingen at your service."
The young lady blinked once with recognition. "Wait, the guy that founded the Refuge?"
He started at the acknowledgement. "You've heard of me?"
Haru's smile became so radiant, that Machida wished he had seen it when he was fourteen. A smile like that could change almost anybody's mind.
"I once found an article about when you got your college officially recognized and accredited. It was one of the rare times I could see forging diplomas to literally be the only choice to use an education for a better life. I'm really glad that you don't have to resort to that anymore."
"So am I, frankly," he admitted, though grinning triangular ear to triangular ear from her praise as he set his hat back to its usual perch. "Technology is progressing so quickly that it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep humans from looking too closely at one of my graduates' credentials or running into a 'classmate' they should already know if in disguise. I wanted to follow the law of the land, but…" he spread his hands a little helplessly. "Words can't express how happy I was when Drac and his usual posse blew our cover."
Haru couldn't resist a wicked snicker. "At the best place possible. Mom and I laughed so hard after we were done cheering."
Her mother's hand shook with a suppressed laugh, making the camera screen shake with her mirth.
Then Haru blinked, her own humor melting away as she looked at Baron with an almost horrified sympathy. "But… that would mean… you've been waiting at least a hundred years for me."
"One hundred and fifty-six years next month," he clarified, still not taking his slanted green eyes from her face.
She looked even more horrified at the number. Looking down at the fallen bag at her feet, she hurriedly set the other one down next to it and offered him her arms. "I know we're stran-"
Baron didn't wait for her to finish. He actually glomped the poor girl, cradling her in his arms as a broken purr issued from his throat. Tears of gratitude and relief were falling down his furry cheeks as he nuzzled her hair like he couldn't believe his own luck. Haru's face couldn't be seen from this angle, but she was gripping his chest just as tightly.
"That's enough," Count Dracula whispered to Haru's mother. "Let the rest of this be private."
She complied without argument, accepting the magenta handkerchief from the vampire for her streaming eyes. Her own expression made it clear who Haru had inherited her smile from.
"Thank you," Baron softly said aloud, though the human boy wasn't completely sure if that wasn't partially directed at Drac instead of only Haru.
She nuzzled his shoulder with just as much tenderness as he gave her hair. "I'm sorry that you had to wait this long," the brunette apologized while gripping him a little tighter.
"You were worth the wait," he assured her as his purr slowly became less broken.
It was sheer agony for Machida. It shouldn't have hit him so hard, especially since he didn't really know all that much about Haru or Lucy…
It was too late for him to get curious. In that flash of purple light, he had been replaced without a whisper or regret.
Somewhere beyond the park, the familiar library bell was chiming ten o'clock.
Haru nearly jumped inside the cat's arms. "Crud, I'm late!" she panicked, though not letting go of the new object of her affections.
"Late for what?" Baron asked dreamily, his arms also refusing to relinquish their prize.
Haru turned her head and loosened her hold just enough for both Machida and the cat to see her nervous smile. "Is it all right if I call you Baron?"
"I prefer it," he assured her with a wide smile.
"Great. Baron, my mom was having me pick up some last-minute things for a conference of hers. I told her I'd help out at the event when I met her there, but… if people at the conference want to be bigots about us, I'm sure she won't mind if we bow out after delivering the goods. That is, if you didn't have anything planned today," she added with a blush.
His grin deepened as he let go of her with one arm so that he could lace it through the handles of both bags and lift them like they had nothing at all. "You are my plans for today. I will beg your pardon in advance for how reluctant I'm going to be about letting you out of my grasp for extended periods of time. Or brief periods of time, for that matter."
Haru beamed up at him, turning just enough so that they could walk side by side for the remainder of the path. "I reject your apology," she informed him, keeping one arm around his back from under his shoulder, gripping the light grey jacket to keep her arm in place. "I… don't think I'll be interested in letting you go anytime soon, either."
He gave her another squeeze around the shoulders as they began walking like they had been dating for years. When they walked out of this park and where people could see them, no one would be able to tell they had just met.
Then when Haru was no longer facing the right direction to see, Baron turned just enough to lock eyes with Machida and smirk.
That smirk was even worse than the death glare he'd given 'Arthur'. Then he turned and walked off with Haru, giving her an extra hug around the shoulders as if to say 'mine'.
Dracula listened carefully after they were out of eyesight, waiting a few minutes before snapping his fingers almost with disdain.
Machida collapsed into the hedge. His sigh of relief was interrupted by the yelp of pain by getting a big face full of scratchy branches. They were even poking him through his nice shirt at many painful points, and the bumps and black eye were now renewing their complaints against him with a vengeance.
"I imagine that Arthur had words with Stoker, for him to have gotten so many details off in that irksome piece of drivel," Count Dracula informed the boy coldly. "Lucy Westenra was the first completely human friend I ever made. Her death has been one of my deepest regrets, and it's going to take me a wonderfully long time to make up what I owe to her."
Machida shakily tore himself free from the large bush, enough to look up at the two of them.
They were holding each other much the same way that Haru and Baron had, but Haru's mother was fuming when she glared down at him, still kneeling at their feet.
"Making sure you got to see her Zing was my idea," she informed the boy just as coldly as the vampire at her side. "Call it payback for how many times she came home crying because you hooked up with yet another girl right in front of her, and for making her think she ever had an 'ugly duckling' phase."
"In both lifetimes," Dracula added, sneaking a kiss to her soft red hair as he continued to glare at the boy. "Don't worry. Baron has waited more than his share to take advantage of your foolishness. Come along, dear," he added almost as a purr of his own as he redirected his gaze to the woman in his arms. "It won't do at all for Haru and Baron to beat us to their own party."
"Definitely not," she agreed, shouldering her bag before letting the vampire pick her up bridal style. "Have a nice life, Machida," she snarled while wrapping her arms comfortably around the count's shoulders.
Just like that, the two dissolved into purple mist, which quickly flowed right through the bush and raced down the same path.
Machida couldn't stay in that kneeling position. He toppled to the side, trying not to cry from the pain and frustration.
He couldn't go home, not now. His father would want to know how it went. With a bit of effort, he inched his way to the closest tree so that he could lean against it and stare up into the foliage obscuring the sky for a few hours.
What would have dating Haru been like? What would a full-on conversation with her been like? What plans did she have for the future? Just how far did her enthusiasm for monsters go? So many questions that he would now never get the chance to find out for himself.
Except for maybe that last one.
One thing was certain; Haru wasn't going to be living in Japan for much longer. Not with how lovey-dovey her mother was acting with the count. It went without saying that Haru was going to love living in that hotel until she was old enough to marry Baron.
Machida closed his eyes painfully and said the only thing that he could think of as the rain began to fall.
"I knew I hated cats."