Your Wish is My Command Part 3
Toto nodded with his familiar smile and walked back inside the café.
Haru swiftly looked at Baron, her eyes wide and panicked as she wildly gestured while trying to find words for her questions.
He managed to get the idea nonetheless. "Your friend didn't see me as a djinn, he saw me as a normal human. It's really no trouble at all to cast a glamor to look different to even an army all at the same time, but that's hardly needed now, is it? I promise all anyone sees is a normal man sitting with a normal woman." He looked like he wanted to add more to that but managed to bite the rest of the sentence down.
Well, that had been her biggest question. Haru forced herself to calm down. "All right then. If you don't mind my asking, you really seem to have a thing for European styles."
He nodded with a wistful smile. "After an archeologist found the tomb I was buried in, my little casket eventually made its way to an English baron. He was so taken with it, he commissioned the tea set you inspected just so that he could show off the 'sugar bowl', as you deduced for yourself." He laughed as his eyes faded. "Those were good old days, even if I wasn't released. The Baron von Gikkingen was quite the scholar, and I learned a great deal from him by eavesdropping at teatime even if I didn't have the ability to hear everything else that went on in his manor."
Haru again inspected the words on the sides. "It doesn't look that hard to read. I'm surprised that the archaeologist didn't release you."
"Oh, I can change the writing on it anytime I please," he assured her with an evil smirk. "There isn't much revenge a djinn can take when someone finds our item, but I greatly enjoyed forcing that pharaoh to say- something I would never repeat in the presence of a lady," he backtracked with a guilty smile. "He was desperate enough to go through with it, and he made sure I paid the price for the self-inflicted insult."
That explained a lot about this djinn. "And you wound up in Japan because of Machida's family. I'm surprised the set wasn't sold by now."
Baron scowled. "Machida's great-grandfather wanted to sell all of it to someone wealthy but kept running into trouble after returning home. He couldn't find anyone willing to pay what he wanted, he fell in love and got married, had to stay busy to feed his family, and before I knew it, he was gone, and I was left forgotten in the attic, forced to do nothing but listen to their petty squabbles and useless interests like those bad television shows his mother adores so much. Speaking of which, I'd recommend maintaining your friendship with Tsuge," he added as an afterthought. "I forgot to mention that his continual good word on your behalf played a part in my decision to make it as easy as possible for you to release me. I've been hoping you would since first hearing about your interest in my homeland."
Haru couldn't resist smiling at that. "At least I was right about him." She leaned back a bit, still feeling a bit worried. "So what now?"
"What now?" he asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Haru's fingers began tapping out a random rhythm on the metal tabletop. "This is going to be awkward for both of us. I've never had somebody I could order around before, and you've probably never had to obey someone that isn't sure what to do with you."
Baron held back a bitter smile. "That is true. But I think I will adjust to this peculiarity a bit easier than you will."
"Probably," she agreed with him, now staring at the sugar bowl. "All right, maybe we should explore certain rules before anything else. Once you're inside this thing, you can't come out until I or someone else releases you again?"
The cat man actually flinched back in horror. "Please don't make me go back," he pleaded with wild eyes.
"No, no, calm down," she tried to soothe him with a nervous laugh. "This is strictly so I know. You don't have to go back in there if you don't want to."
"Oh, thank you," he nearly wept.
"I guess that answers that. You know, you don't have to be my djinn," Haru realized as a slow smile crossed her lips. "I could wish for your freedo-"
"Don't!" he all but yelled before making an attempt to control himself. "Please don't."
Haru jumped back in surprise, since she didn't think that would be something he'd object to.
Baron took in a shaky breath. "The first rule of magic is that it doesn't always come out the way the wisher wants. I can interpret wishes any way I please, but I'm afraid that my little prison," he said while glaring at the sugar bowl, "always requires a slave to contain. If you wish for my freedom, you will be taken as the next djinn. I wouldn't wish this shackle on anyone."
Haru shuddered in horror. Having magic didn't seem so bad, but then her mind began playing through different scenarios and TV shows where someone that didn't deserve to have unlimited power at their disposal suddenly got it.
There was no way in heck she'd risk a Jafar situation!
"Is that how you became a djinn?" she asked in a tiny voice.
Baron closed his eyes painfully. "I was a slave long before learning of that casket. A lifetime of being sold, and torn from everything and everyone I knew, just to be at the beck and call of some crusty old man with a whip. I wanted power more than anything so that I could make those horrible people pay for all the marks on my body and mind, but the previous djinn enjoyed being a slave about as much as I do." He opened his arms with a resigned expression, inviting her to look at all of him. "I have regretted that day ever since. I do have unlimited power now, but I can't do anything with it without a master's approval. A very aggravating situation."
Although this first meeting was still on shaky ground, Haru offered him her hand to hold. Baron looked at it like it was a cobra at first, giving her a very nervous glance.
"I'll do what I can to be your friend instead of a master," she told him with a gentle tone. "I'd much rather you thought of me as a friend-Muta!"
The fat white cat must have been upset that Haru was offering her fingers to someone other than himself, because he hopped onto the table and began running his head over her hand and arm while mewling in protest. Haru tried to move her raspberry limeade out of the way but hissed with dissatisfaction when the cat's tail accidentally knocked the cold drink off the table and partially onto her cream skirt.
'Dang it! Why did I order a colored drink while wearing this color?! I should have learned better by now!'
"Allow me," Baron offered, staring at the glass until it righted itself and all the liquid reversed course until her drink, skirt, and surrounding pavement looked as good as new. "Aren't you a troublesome fellow," he scolded the cat, who seemed too unimpressed with the djinn to even look at him when Haru's hands were available.
"Down, down," Haru tried to order until grabbing the big cat and forcing it onto her lap, though she had to scoot a bit from the table to make enough room for him. "Thanks for that. Muta doesn't really think things through before jumping on a table."
Considering the fact that her fingers were now working their magic on his fur and ears, the purr seemed to say, 'It all works out for me, so why would I care?'
"Okay, so the first rule of having you in my life seems to be running my ideas for wishes against your judgment before actually making them. Now the next question will be what story to cook up for my mom," Haru fussed worriedly. "Are there rules about distance between you and me? Or me and that box?"
"It's generally a good idea to keep it on your person," he informed her seriously. "Thieves, you understand."
Haru winced. "I'll have a bit of trouble keeping my hands on this at school," she worried. "It's not like I'll be able to carry this around during gym without looking suspicious."
He gave her a cocky grin that played her heartstrings like a harp. He reached over to tap the sugar bowl again, making another blinding flash appear.
By the time Haru was blinking the stars out of her eyes, her wrist felt strangely heavy. Looking down, she could see a thick bracelet in the same style as the sugar bowl. "Neat trick," she breathed, noticing that the words had changed to some half-faded phrase that made her head spin from trying to decipher it.
Baron was definitely interested in staying with her. That helped take the sting off Machida's disinterest in her until actually needing her help.
She stopped using one hand on Muta so she could take a sip of her raspberry limeade. "Can you change your shape?"
"As easily as you change clothes," he assured her, though he seemed surprised by the question.
"What do you think of masquerading as my new cat? You'd be able to come and go as you please, and Mom wouldn't mind."
The cat man winced. "I would appreciate a different plan. I've felt like a pet since before I was a djinn. Besides, wouldn't two cats be trouble?"
Haru blinked before looking down at the fat feline on her lap. "Oh, Muta isn't mine, specifically. I've tried taking him home before, but he's a free spirit that really likes this café because people sometimes give him food and scratches."
Muta began purring, like he couldn't come up with a better arrangement if he tried.
Haru managed a guilty giggle while paying particular attention to his ears with one finger, since she needed her other arm to keep his weight on her lap. "To be honest, the biggest reason I feed him when I come here is because I sat on him a while back. I thought he was a cushion."
Baron tried to cover up a chuckle with his gloved hand, though she could see a smile peeking from the sides of his mouth. "An understandable mistake."
"What's an understandable mistake?" Toto asked as he appeared as silently as the other two times, giving Baron his mint tea and cake first.
"I was telling him about the 'cushion' incident," Haru explained, standing up with difficulty to set Muta on his own chair.
Toto couldn't resist a wicked snicker as he set the second cake in front of the cat. "This is why you should spend less time begging for handouts and more time chasing birds, you butterball. She wouldn't have made that mistake with a slimmer cat."
Muta hissed angrily at his quasi-nemesis, but that didn't stop him from digging into his angel food cake, beautifully decorated with whipped cream and strawberries.
Haru opened her purse since she didn't think they'd be sticking around the café after the cake, but Baron beat her to it with a handful of paper money.
"I think you will find this is the precise amount owed," Baron encouraged with a smile, making Toto smile back a bit more nervously than before.
The waiter took it and gave Haru a somewhat worried look. "If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call for me."
"We should be good. Thanks, Toto," Haru assured him with an encouraging smile. "I'll tell Hiromi you said hi."
He laughed, but for some reason, it sounded strained as he marched back inside the café.
"Was it my imagination, or did he seem troubled?" Baron couldn't resist asking.
Haru shrugged her shoulders. "Waiters sometimes get problem customers. Someone inside the café might be giving him a hard time. He usually finds ways to give it right back without breaking protocol." She stabbed a strawberry with her fork and ate it thoughtfully. "We'll still need a way for you to be around without my mom noticing. I don't know how she'll take having a djinn in the house, but it might be better if she didn't know."
"You have your own house?" Baron asked, sounding very interested before taking a careful sip of tea. His peaceful expression made it clear that he found it heavenly.
Haru swallowed her mouthful of cake before answering. "Mom's pretty big in the quilting community, so we live in a tiny house by ourselves. Not even a guest bedroom that I could talk her into renting out to you, even if she'd agree to having a man in the house."
Baron nearly swooned with appreciation. "How often do you and your mother fight?" he asked eagerly, ignoring his cake for now.
Haru was confused by the question, so she took a long sip of her raspberry limeade as she tried to remember. "I think our last fight was a year ago. Maybe a year and a half? Mom's really fond of talking things out since screaming matches get a little too loud with us. I inherited her lungs, so we both try to keep our cool when we want different things."
Baron was nearly melting at the news. "Finally…"
Haru couldn't help flinching at how ecstatic he was acting. "His family isn't so careful?" she asked, feeling a bit better at never getting her chance with Machida after all.
He only groaned while covering his face with one hand. "I lived for when they were all asleep. This arrangement is going to suit me just fine if you stop insisting on how to explain my way in. I could very easily just stay invisible to everyone but you."
"But that doesn't seem very fair to you," Haru countered, still wracking her brain for an answer.
Suddenly, she snapped her head up with a surprised smile. "Can you change your size as easily as your shape?"
"Even easier," he assured her as he finally started cutting into his own slice of cake. "Thought of something?"
Haru nodded eagerly. "Machida's not the only one with knick-knacks in the attic. Baron, there's this dollhouse I've got up there that I really loved as a kid. The best way to keep Mom from messing with it is to relocate it to my room and tell her I'm feeling nostalgic. I've always thought it looked like a modest house you'd find in London."
Baron stopped just short of sliding the forkful of cake into his feline mouth, gaping at her silently.
"All you'd be able to do with the outside is a paint job to keep Mom from getting suspicious, but you could make the inside of it look like anything you want," Haru expanded on her idea with a wide smile. "A whole home that's yours alone that even I can't enter without your permission, and you don't need mine to leave. I bet it would even be child's play for you to make the windows show anything you want instead of just my bedroom, and I can just change in the bathroom from now on to keep everything decent. What do you think?"
The fork slipped from his grasp as tears began to trickle through his fur. "Really?" he asked hoarsely, like he was afraid he hadn't heard her correctly.
"Really," she promised him with a warm smile. "I can't think of a better arrangement, and I want you to feel safe about being stuck with me."
His slightly fearful smile became more ecstatic, and his limbs were shaking as if he were fighting back the urge to jump for joy. "I… I thought I was meant to grant your wishes."
"There's no rule that says I can't flip the script." She sat back and took another mouthful of cake. "We can look at the dollhouse when I take you home, but is there something you'd like to do now that you're out? I bet you've thought up a list that's three miles long by now, but let's stick with the first one and go from there."
His smile was uncontrollable now, and his eyes seemed to dart between things that only he could see, as if they were countless ideas and he was trying to pick just one.
"… Is there a park nearby?" the djinn almost pleaded. "The Baron von Gikkingen was very fond of saying how relaxing a stroll through the park can be, and I'm all too used to walking through sand and stone walls."
"There's a nice park only a ten-minute walk from here. We can go when you're finished with your cake," Haru promised, setting her fork across an empty plate. She looked over at Muta with some surprise. "How are you still eating that?"
That seemed like a question the cat wanted answered, too. No matter how many bites he took out of the cake, it was staying as perfect as when Toto had brought it out for him. Haru had to bite back a laugh at how confused he looked, especially with all that whipped cream and strawberry juice on his face.
Shaking her head, Haru turned to her djinn with wonder. "You're going to let that run out when we leave, right?"
He nodded, giving her a look of absolute worship as he made the fork reappear in his hands instead of the ground, shinier and cleaner than when it had been given to him.
Haru was actually grateful to have him in her life. Not for the unlimited wishes, or for bribing Muta into living in the dollhouse with him later.
Baron proved to be the best friend she would ever have.