Bodyguard Part 3
Naoko was nervous. She kept peeking through the curtain worriedly. "Come on, Haru," she whispered insistently before turning to the three people sitting on her couch. "I don't know how a vampire rabbit can be out and about in broad daylight."
"It is unusual," the H.O.M.A. president agreed with a dark expression. "I hate to say it, but your daughter might not be herself under his power."
Naoko decided to keep to herself that Haru sounded about the same as she had for a while. Though she couldn't understand why her child still refused to admit that monsters were a problem-
"Bunnicula!" an unfamiliar raspy voice screamed in terror, making Naoko jump and strain again to see.
"That's right, run away!" Haru could be heard calling cheerfully after him, just turning the corner into sight.
Naoko blinked, since she wasn't exactly expecting an umbrella to be sufficient protection from sunlight, or for the rabbit to have the ability to fly and carry a surprising amount of grocery bags between his forepaws.
"You are best bunny!" Haru could be heard gushing through the open window. "When Mom hears how many you scared off in one hour alone, she'll have to listen to me!"
Naoko frowned and allowed the curtain to fall back in place. "What are you planning, Haru?" she couldn't resist wondering out loud.
"Naoko?" Fumio asked, walking up behind her to brace her arms with his warm hands.
She turned enough to give him a worried look. "She's got a counterargument of some sort."
"More like the monster has a counterargument," he retorted darkly, gently taking her away from the window.
The secretary was wringing her hands worriedly. "We aren't prepared for a confrontation," she fretted, making the president rise to his feet with a dark expression.
"You mean you aren't," he corrected, putting one hand to his pocket at the ready.
All too soon, the door was unlocking and opening. "Good news, Mom!" Haru called out cheerfully while taking off her shoes. "Bunnicula ran off five werecats in about an hour!"
Naoko blinked in surprise. "Five?"
"Five," she repeated proudly, coming into the living room with one armful of the bags as the little rabbit flew beside her. Her brown eyes flickered at the president and secretary standing next to their couch, and a disappointed frown crossed her lips.
"Send them away, Mom. The monsters are taking care of my little problem."
"The monsters are your problem!" Fumio asserted forcefully while crossing his arms.
Bunnicula narrowed his eyes at him and flew right up to the kitchen area to lower the groceries onto the counter as Haru shook her head insistently.
"No, idiots are my problem. There's now been six werecats that have harassed me, and Bunnicula-"
"Just where did you find him?!" the president demanded. "Who did you have to bargain with to get a vampire rabbit."
"Nobody!" Haru shot back angrily. "Count Dracula found out what the idiots were doing, so he sent me a bodyguard while he gets-"
"Count Dracula?!" Naoko screamed in horror. "You contacted Count Dracula?!"
"He contacted me, and he's very nice!" Haru protested quickly to make sure that she could get a whole uninterrupted sentence out.
"How can you be sure of that?! How do you know it's really a vegetarian?!" the president yelled, running over the back end of that sentence anyway.
Haru let out an aggravated growl before locking her eyes on the rabbit. "Bunnicula. Only Mom and me live here. Please escort the others from the premises."
"Aye, aye!" he agreed while saluting her with an evil grin. First, he turned his glare on the president.
The man pulled out a stun gun, but he simply wasn't fast enough to do more than that when the tiny rabbit flew around him with his bat ears before picking the man up by the neck of his nice suit. He struggled to fire at the rabbit anyway, but only managed to zap the ceiling, leaving a scorched mark behind when the little monster made the door open again and fling the man onto the freshly cut cattails that still made up the front lawn. Haru had dodged out of his flailing limbs with a sigh of relief.
"Haru, stop it!" Naoko cried out when Bunnicula returned to the secretary, and deliberate roared in her face while exposing his fangs.
She shrieked in fright and ran out the door on her own.
Fumio quickly opened the curtains as wide as they could go, bathing himself and Naoko in sunlight. "Ha! Can't throw me out now, can you?" he smirked even as his eyes darted around for a likely weapon.
Bunnicula smirked right back and raised his little forepaws as his eyes glowed even redder.
Naoko didn't notice anything at first, but then she noticed her boyfriend gliding forward as his feet left the ground. Fumio screamed as he flailed around as well, but the little rabbit's grip on him was stronger than the human's on any of the wall corners he tried to grab to avoid the same fate.
"Haru, stop him!" Naoko demanded, but was obviously ignored.
"Sorry about this, Fumio," Haru told him, actually sounding like she meant it when she walked into the entryway and tossed out their shoes so they wouldn't have an excuse to come back in. "But since you're not my stepfather yet, you don't need to be in this discussion."
"Uh huh!" Bunnicula cheered, tossing him out to the front yard as well before blowing a noisy raspberry at all three of them.
Haru closed and locked the door after him before entering the living room. "Do you want me to leave, too?" she asked point blank as the small rabbit quickly used his telekinesis to put as much of the produce he had carried in as he could into the refrigerator.
"Haru, what is all-" Naoko tried to ask, but her daughter shook her head.
"This is important, Mom. Do you want me to stay with you, or do you want me to seek refuge with Count Dracula?"
Naoko gaped in horror, barely registering that the little bunny was now using his telekinesis to close the curtains again.
"If you want me to stay, I need Bunnicula so both of us can be safe. If you can't handle a vegan vampire in the house, Bunnic says that Dracula is fine with letting me stay at his hotel until things cool down. I won't be able to guarantee your own safety if I leave, though, so please make up your mind."
Naoko felt the cold grip of fear. She didn't want to be separated from her child, but she also didn't want a vampire in her house!
Haru saddened while looking at her. "Please let me know if I need to start packing for a trip with no known return date."
"You're staying," Naoko spat out before her daughter could get the wrong idea. She grabbed her child by the shoulders and held her tight. "Mine. I can't lose you; that's why I had them here!"
"They aren't needed," Haru assured her while squeezing back. "Count Dracula wants this over with as much as we do, don't worry."
"Uh huh!" Bunnicula agreed, sitting on the counter and poofing his bat ears into regular rabbit ears.
Haru let go of her and set her own bags on the counter next to him. "All right, Bunnic; let's get to work."
"Yay!" the rabbit cheered while pulling up a bag with a familiar logo.
"Sweetheart, what's this?" Naoko asked as her child pulled red silk out of the bag and spread it face down over the carpet.
"Bunnic, could you pull up the picture again? I'm making him a sunproof cape so that even if there's no cover from the sun, he'll be able to get me out of trouble."
"There's a worthy cause if I ever heard one," the mother muttered under her breath, a bit bemused that the little rabbit could pull out a cell phone from seemingly behind his back and expertly tapped on it until showing her the screen. "Ooh, nice!" she approved while eyeing the cobweb design. "Blackout fabric in the middle?"
"That's the plan," Haru agreed before hunting around for a fabric marking pen. "All the little pieces will get finnicky, but it will be worth it."
Naoko tapped her thumb against her chin while looking at the design. Despite having her least favorite type of monster only a few feet away from her, her quilting instincts would not be silenced. "You know, there's a faster way than piecing all of that."
Haru paused in uncapping the pen. "Oh yeah? I'm open to ideas."
Naoko held her hand out for the pen before getting out a yardstick. She got down on her knees to lightly trace the long lines of the cobweb. "The cape won't look right on the black side if the cobweb can be seen there, though it will be stunning if it's still more or less in the shape of one. All we have to do is lightly pinch the lines and make a quarter seam on the wrong side so that it still looks like patchwork in a mere fraction of the time. We don't even have to really trace the strands flowing over the 'weft' of the web, especially if I use my quilting attachment to keep things evenly spaced. Bunnicula, did you want the cobweb to look about the same, a little less or more on the connecting strands?"
He yammered in a way Naoko couldn't understand, but he was pointing at the cell picture again.
"About the same?" she guessed, making the rabbit nod happily. She nodded and rose to her feet after she was done tracing the 'weft' strands. Her professional skirt pulled dangerously tight against the movement since it wasn't exactly made for crawling over the carpet. "I'll be right back; I don't want strands on my suit."
"We'll be here," Haru sighed while sinking onto the couch thankfully.
Naoko didn't exactly take a long time to switch into comfortable slacks and a favorite 'working' shirt, but Haru was still out cold by the time she returned to the living room.
She was still in time to see the little rabbit carrying one of her quilts from the closet and drape it over the high schooler. He tucked her in and pressed a furry kiss to her forehead before purring gently almost like a cat while patting her hair.
That surprised Naoko. 'So he really cares.'
Bunnicula then nestled over the blanket where her arm was located for a perfect cradle and sighed happily before falling asleep himself.
Naoko still chose to start working on the cape since she knew the sewing machine wasn't loud enough to wake her child. 'Such dark circles around her eyes. If Bunnicula can at least make sure that we can sleep safely at night…'
It went against everything she knew and wanted, but if it took a monster to keep away monsters that wanted her baby, she could play nice.
Now to the next problem; telling Fumio about the needed change of plans.