A/N: The reason I'm updating earlier than normal is because this is my Halloween Special and I'll be doing a fun weekend at the normal time with my sisters. I promise that we'll be too busy for me to remember to update.
Happy Halloween 2021, everybody!
An Angel's Embrace
In all the years leading up to this day, Haru never imagined that her wedding day would be so joyless and grim. The Mishuzi family were well known and respected; it wasn't a surprise to her that so many powerful families were present for her nuptials.
What was a surprise to her was how Machida was acting about the whole business. After his latest trip, he had come home acting like he couldn't marry her quickly enough. That had gotten Haru's hopes up that he was finally going to ease up on his studies and start paying her attention for the first time since before he left for university. In fact, he had been in such a hurry to get on with the marriage that they had forgone many of the little touches that made the day so special for the other weddings she had attended for other high-standing families the Mishuzis were friendly with.
Yet… Machida had never felt more distant from her. His eyes had darted at almost everything but her through the whole ceremony, and he had to be reminded twice when the time came to say 'I do'. The grip he'd had on her hand and waist when they were dancing or greeting guests was promising, but he didn't address her that much.
If not for the vows or the ring now on her finger, it would have felt like any other party his father hosted. It was all she could do to at least fake a blissful smile of happiness when surrounded by people she had known for half of her life.
But now that they were on their way to a family villa on the edge of a lake they had spent many summers together as children for their honeymoon, she couldn't help feeling like they were on their way to a funeral.
Machida was darting little glances out of the carriage windows that were covered at his own insistence, keeping the inside of the carriage dark as the sun drew close to its bed over the mountains.
"Ma-" she tried to ask, but he immediately shushed her as he gnawed worriedly on a fingernail. He pressed his finger to his lips with a warning glare before stealing another glance out the window.
Haru deflated sadly. 'Why did you act like you wanted to marry me if you're just going to treat me like this?' Partially to see if he'd even notice, she scooted to the far side of the seat they were sharing before turning away to discreetly dry her eyes on the handkerchief she had in her hand bag.
"This isn't how this day was supposed to go. You were supposed to be unable to keep your eyes off me. You were supposed to smile like you couldn't believe our day had finally come. Right now, we are supposed to be cuddling and talking about our plans for the future while stealing kisses. You were supposed to tell me how happy you are that I'm finally and irrevocably yours.' Her heart sunk lower at the thought, even though this had been planned since she was ten.
This marriage was why she'd had such a nice life. It had been Machida's own idea when his family was visiting the town she had been scraping by in by selling matches. Not for the first time since he had grown distant to her, Haru closed her eyes and wondered what would have happened if Machida hadn't insisted to his parents that he wanted to marry 'the pretty match girl', or they had been able to refuse his pleas.
She would have gotten old enough for an indoor job in a few more years, perhaps as a laundress or a maid for a family not that different from the Mishuzis. Maybe she'd have met a stable boy or a cook that could make her heart sing the way Machida used to do with such ease. Certainly, that life would have been a lot less comfortable, and she wouldn't have received the education that few girls without a well-connected family were allowed, but could her wedding day have at least been happy?
There were no delusions about her life, or what was to happen from here. Her wedding day and the birth of her future children were to be the most important days of her life. After that, it would be important days for her children, where she would be little more than scenery.
Was she really being so unreasonable, wanting just this day for herself? To feel like the lady she had been training to be for half of her life? She certainly didn't feel like a lady, she felt like a toy dropped on the floor at the prospect of supper. Completely uninteresting compared to something happening in the next room.
After what felt like an eternity of tense silence, the carriage finally stopped moving as the last of daylight faded behind the mountains. Thanks to a previous order, the driver didn't make more sound than he had to as he got down from his place and opened the carriage door for them.
Machida jumped out like he couldn't wait to escape, turning to impatiently hold his hand out for his bride. His other hand was keeping a finger to his lips in a stern command for her to stay silent.
Haru had a brief stab of grief as her old daydreams, and memories, of throwing herself into his arms before he spun her around as they both laughed with happiness. She had a brief idea of refusing to leave the carriage but decided she didn't like the idea of him either tearing her out with a hand over her mouth or of him indifferently shutting the door and leaving her in there for the night. She gave him her hand for balance as the full moon lit up her white dress like a pure flame, but she didn't grip his fingers for support.
He failed to notice that he nearly yanked her off the carriage step and hurriedly shut the door, gripping her tight by the waist again. "Return home," he ordered the driver in a hoarse whisper. "Immediately."
Tsuge grinned wolfishly at him before hopping back into the driver's seat and clicking his tongue at the black stallions to make them neigh and begin the turnaround away from the villa.
Haru thought about the implications of that grin as Machida all but dragged her up the front steps and hurriedly unlocked the front door.
… Yes. As disappointing as the thought was, it would explain most of his behavior if the real reason he was eager to wed was to get to the wedding night. The thought made her almost sick to her stomach as he hurriedly pushed her inside their honeymoon getaway before slamming and locking the door behind them.
There was no need to worry about luggage. Both of them had sent off a trunk of things ahead the day before so that she and her new husband could have the place completely to themselves until mid-day tomorrow. She knew there was even a basket of bread and fruit if they got hungry before then.
Machida turned to her before even looking at the gas lamp that had been left by the door for them, only able to see each other by the dim moonlight peeking through the curtains. "Can you find the way without light?" he demanded in a whisper that was barely more than breath.
Haru blinked in surprise. 'He's not even going to come up with me?' Then maybe it wasn't even the wedding night he wanted. But she slowly nodded since he was still holding a finger to his lips to remind her that the last thing he wanted to hear was her voice.
"Then go there and wait for me," he ordered, giving her a slight push to the back towards the stairs.
Haru could no longer hide her disappointment. Sighing like she had been asked to crawl into a coffin, the poor young woman dragged herself up the gorgeous staircase. She heard Machida make a slight sound behind her, but she was now too lost in her own misery to pay him enough attention to see if it was a sound of acknowledgement or regret. Her waist seemed to throb from bruises left by his touch. For one that had barely looked at her the entire day, he had been strangely insistent until now that she stayed by someone's side.
'None of this makes sense,' she lamented as she reached the top of the stairs and became briefly lit up by the moon's light thanks to a combination of a high window and her bridal gown. She began walking toward the room that had been the traditional honeymoon suite for five generations of the Mishuzi family. 'Why is he almost acting like he's ashamed to be seen with me if he was that desperate to marry? I don't think I've changed so much from the girl he kissed goodbye before leaving for university.'
The slim girl stopped dead in her tracks as a terrible fear gripped her heart. Although she had felt for the poor women she'd overheard lament upon finding out what their husbands had been up to while at university, she had never felt any reason to panic herself. She'd known Machida long enough to know that books and long-dead philosophers were her only rivals to his heart, and the reason he hadn't written her that much while at the distant school.
Except… what if there had been a 'distraction'? A rival she wasn't aware of? What if… Machida had met someone that had been impressive enough to distract him from his studies? He had been so vague about that last trip before he came home and begged his father to speed up the wedding. He had been vague and distracted since graduation, barely paying her any attention and acting like she was a harpy for wanting even a private afternoon with him.
Tears ran down her face as she realized that she was likely right. His parents had invested too much in Haru for their son to just decide, 'actually, I like this other one better.' Machida had to have known that not only would he lose his father's respect if he broke off the engagement with her, since his mother had died of a fever five years before, he'd also severely tarnish the family's reputation and cause the decline of the family name, when he had every interest in expanding it since before he'd even laid eyes on his future wife.
He was hiding a mistress, Haru was suddenly dead certain. That's why his eyes had been everywhere, perhaps worrying that the other woman would rise and object to the marriage. Perhaps the reason he'd begged for the house to be deserted on their wedding night was so that they could enjoy a tryst and pretend to be a legitimate couple before he forced himself up the stairs to do his duty to his real wife. It was a large enough villa that hiding another girl here would be no trouble at all.
Haru shuddered in revulsion as she again relived the disappointing memories of her wedding only hours before. 'How can he do this to me?! I've been by his side since we were children! We were happy, I could force myself to endure how much his work meant to him if he'd remember to give me time as well!'
Her heart filled with rage that Machida could ever think this was how to fulfill both his duties and his desires. The mere idea of him getting a … 'double' wedding night when he couldn't even make it through the wedding day without ruining it for his new wife made her want to disobediently scream to the rafters that he should take his precious books into the honeymoon suite instead.
Even as she opened her mouth to scream as much down to him, she got a better idea. A much better idea.
Filled with a righteous fury, she gathered the front of her skirt and quickened her pace while walking as silently as all her training could lend. She kept walking right past the honeymoon suite and tried to decide on the best place to hide.
Haru immediately rejected the cupboard under the stairs, since that was one of her favorite hiding places when they would play this game on rainy days when their governess didn't want to deal with their energy anymore. The wardrobe in the third room on the left was also off her list for the same reason, especially since she wasn't sure if she could still fit in there, especially with an elaborate wedding gown. She kept walking, eyes darting as she tried to decide where her reluctant husband was the least likely to look.
The study! His father had made it clear from the beginning that was off-limits to their games since he had too much to do to worry about without one of the children giggling behind a curtain.
Even now, Haru's hand seemed to scream as she slowly let herself into the study to stifle any sound and looked around for a good hiding place.
In all honesty, there wasn't much for her to work with. The walls were lined with books, there was a set of comfortable chairs close to the window and a large globe of the earth not far from it. The pale bride walked closer to the large heavy desk and the chair tucked into it. She pulled the swivel chair away from the desk, gauging that she wouldn't have trouble fitting there but that she could just as easily turn the chair enough to face away from the door.
She tapped her chin as she tried to think about either way Machida would find her. Hiding under the desk could easily buy her a few more hours and she would be able to curl up and at least get some sleep. But if she was in the chair when he came looking, she could do a slow turn so that he could fully appreciate her unmasked rage before she confronted him about how poorly he had been treating her since he left for university.
'I'll stay in the chair until I can't stay awake,' Haru decided as a compromise, turning it just enough so that she would be hidden if Machida only stole a glance. She eased herself into the thick upholstery, surprised at how comfortable she was even through the sharp cold sting of the leather. 'He wants quiet? I'll give him quiet,' she thought furiously while gathering the train of her dress closer so it wouldn't give her away.
All the advice she had gotten from her married friends and their mothers hadn't prepared her for a wedding night like this. Well, 'friends' was probably too strong a word since many of them still haven't forgiven her for her humble roots, but at least they talked to her. That was more than she could say about Machida, anyway.
Acquaintances? Yes, that would do. She closed her eyes and tried to let herself rewrite a better wedding day in her head. It had run almost identical to how the day had actually gone, except that her groom wasn't distracted by anything that wasn't herself.
As much as it chilled her, her imagination refused to put Machida into that role. Instead it was taken up by a black shadow that was as solid as the priest that bound them and the dancers that moved around them at the reception. She clenched her eyes tighter, trying desperately to remember what that tender embrace had felt like so long ago.
She was snapped out of her daydream when the doorknob slowly turned in the dead quiet of the night. She could hear the door creaking open despite how much oil she knew the butler gave the hinges. It soon closed, but Haru could tell that someone was in the room with her.
She didn't bother turning around, though she was surprised that he was still insisting on quiet. "Well?" she asked in a low, clipped tone that made it clear she was angry.
Machida was silent. If her ears hadn't already been so tuned to the sound of the room when she was the only occupant, she might have believed she was still alone.
"Am I going to get an explanation, or do I get to start screaming?" she asked flatly, secretly hoping that he was about to say something stupid enough to give her the excuse to vent how she felt over his behavior.
"Please don't scream," an unfamiliar voice begged, making her brown eyes widen in surprise.
She swiftly swiveled the chair around to see who was intruding on her pathetic sham of a honeymoon… and gaped in shock.
It wasn't Machida disguising his voice to get her attention. It wasn't a new footman that hadn't heard that the villa was to be deserted for the new couple. It wasn't even an opportunistic burglar that had overheard the arrangement.
It was a cat man. She blinked her eyes, and even pinched one of her wrists through the satin glove, but the weak moonlight peaking through the curtains couldn't mislead her eyes this much!
His clothes were shabby like a peasant, but his hands and face were covered with fur, not merely hair, and he had large triangular ears, one of which flicked as if to prove its authenticity. The moonlight washed out his true color, but that did nothing to hide how his large, slanted eyes glistened like marbles as they stared worriedly at her.
"Are you real?" she blurted out in surprise.
He was taken aback by such a question. "Yes, unfortunately."
Haru couldn't resist the urge to stand up from the chair and walk around the table to get a better look at him, since it was a little dark for her and he didn't seem to be hostile. She circled him once, taking in every detail down to the nervously swishing tail that had escaped a small rip in the seat of his pants. "Amazing. This isn't even a costume, is it?"
He had done his best to keep his astonished eyes on her as she performed her minute inspection of him. "Most assuredly not, dear lady."
Haru even went so far as to take one of his pawlike hands between her own, carefully feeling the contrast between the padded flesh of one side and the smooth fur on the other. Her experience with cats was limited to ones she had encountered on the street or in the home of one of the Mishuzi family's many acquaintances, but she was still able to find the right pressure point to encourage his claws to come out. She gently braced her palm against his so that the tips of those claws aligned with the tips of her own fingers. "Amazing," she repeated in a breath, her brain not capable of any other word.
"… You aren't afraid of me?" he asked like he was too afraid to believe it.
"I've always had a soft spot for cats," she explained as she went back to playing with his hand like a gleeful child. "The only reason I don't have one is because-"
"Machida's father is allergic. I know."
Haru blinked in surprise and lowered his hand to look him in the eye. "Wait, are you friends with Machida?"
"Hardly," he growled deeply enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "If you'd like to know what he's been up to since university, you're looking at it."
Haru gaped again, taking in his form anew. "So you're the big bad rival!" she exclaimed, laughing with relief. "I was about convinced there was another girl in the picture!"
"That's precisely why I'm here tonight," he informed her, somewhat hesitantly reaching up and hovering his hand over her cheek like he was still afraid she was going to panic at any second, but he really wanted to touch her anyway.
Haru raised her hand and pressed his to her face for permission, frankly enjoying how gentle he was with her. He had initially sounded like he was going to keep talking, but his breath started coming in haggard as his callused fingers explored the softness of her skin and moved slightly farther to feel the part of her hair that wasn't caught up in a fancy hairstyle. His eyes turned even wider with disbelief even as they almost seemed to turn to liquid in the moonlight.
It might have been her disappointing wedding day that drove her to do it. It might have also been that no one had given her such gentle touches in years. But before she was fully aware she was doing it, Haru took another step forward and hungrily wrapped her arms around his chest for a tight embrace.
The cat man immediately broke down, wrapping her into his arms and holding her almost painfully tight as he began to weep into her veil. She started crying as well, clinging to him the way Machida hadn't allowed her to cling since they were children and 'needed to behave in a manner proper to adults'.
'Proper' could go hang itself. For the first time since Machida started withdrawing from her, she didn't feel alone.
But she did draw the line at the irrational impulse to kiss him to see if he could do that better than her husband as well.
After a while, she noticed something hard between them. Although she didn't really want to, she loosened one arm from the desperate embrace to gently set one hand against it. "W-what's this?" she asked through her tears.
That seemed to make him snap out of the strange spell as well, and he also kept one arm around her shoulders as he took a half-step away to unbutton then open his vest to her.
The long hard thing had been a carefully blocked syringe that had been clumsily tucked and tied into an inside pocket. There were a few scuff marks on the glass, but the green liquid within hadn't suffered any damages.
"This was also made by Machida," the cat man informed her, unable to resist nuzzling her hair again. "After he created and abandoned me, I was eventually able to hunt him down after suffering many hardships for my appearance. I had to blackmail him into making me a mate, and he still backed out of it."
Haru's heart froze. "What?" she asked in a low flat tone, even as she dimly remembered overhearing the servants talk about a monster that had been seen in smaller villages in about the areas between the university and the Mishuzi family's main residence.
He finally forced himself to take another half-step back so he could look her in the eye, but he was still unwilling to take his arm off her. "You are aware of his latest trip? That was so he could repeat the process he used to create me, but a female so that I won't be alone anymore. This is the fluid that changes the corpse into a cat like me. Machida tried to destroy it, and I almost wasn't quick enough to save it. I swore to him that if he denied me my mate, I would be with him on his wedding night, and I know he heard me. I take it from your frosty reception before you saw me that he was distracted and worried on what was meant to be the happiest day of your lives?"
Haru's grip on the back of his shirt and vest almost felt like she was growing claws herself. "That rat!" she snarled like an animal before taking several deep breaths to clear her mind.
It was almost scary how much of Machida's behavior this explained. The reason why he would want to create a cat man was beyond her, but no wonder such a feat would overtake his life and push everyone out of his priorities to make room for his aspirations.
No wonder she was pushed to the side.
But she knew exactly what to do about it.
Haru took her remaining arm off him and placed both hands on his face, although it was a needless gesture to make sure that his attention was on her. "Do you trust that I'm on your side of this mess?" she asked directly.
"Yes," he answered without hesitation, his tearing eyes unable to rip themselves from her face.
"If I promise you that he won't get his wedding night until you have yours, will you put your trust in me?"
His eyes turned even bigger in surprise, like he was not expecting such an offer of assistance. "You'll do that for me?"
"Happily," she assured him before lowering her hands and holding them out expectantly. "All you have to do is give me the syringe and wait in the shadows in case he tries to take it from me. I'll handle the rest."
The cat man was looking at her like she was a benevolent goddess. "He doesn't deserve you. Machida doesn't deserve an angel."
"That's the beauty of what I'm about to do," she assured him with a comforting smile. "Whatever happens to Machida after tonight, it will be the result of his own actions. Just trust me."
His expression was a little melancholy as he reluctantly untied the syringe from its place in his worn vest and handed it over with the same gravity as passing on a family sword. Haru handled it just as carefully as she gripped him by the hand and headed back to the door. He followed her easily, gently squeezing her hand the way Haru had spent the past years wishing Machida would. Since her hands were full of the cat's hand and the syringe, he took care of opening the door without much concern this time if they were heard.
Haru led him through the hallways and gently encouraged him to hide behind some drapes that were close to the top of the staircase. He gave her a slightly disappointed look when their fingers parted, but he did stay where he bade her, carefully concealed from anything on the staircase or below.
'Cover your ears,' she warned before taking her eyes off him and down the staircase. She carefully concealed the syringe within the many folds of her skirt and took in as deep a breath as she could manage. "Machida! He's! Up! Here!"
The cat man jumped and briefly looked alarmed, but she gestured with him to stay still and waited for her husband's response. She'd heard a loud noise of something falling over downstairs, possibly from the drawing room, as well as an exclamation of horror even as she signaled for her feline friend to remain calm.
"Hold on, Haru!" he nearly screamed out in response, throwing open a door violently and running down a hall to her rescue.
Haru stayed right in her chosen place, letting the moonlight from the high window illuminate her until she almost glowed in her bridal gown, calm and ready.
Machida burst into the large foyer and looked up at her with desperate eyes.
"You can stop right there," she informed him coldly. "He told me everything."
Machida already looked pale in the dim light, but now he looked sick at the news as he gripped a pistol in one hand and a riding crop in the other. "Where is he?" he demanded while taking the first step up the grand staircase.
"I said stop right there, you filthy bigamist!" she roared at him badly enough to make him jump back to the ground floor in shock.
That was a tone that had been successfully trained out of her after only two years of being his parents' ward, since a lady was to be composed and never bellow like a common woman.
But this wasn't the time to act like a lady. "When I dragged myself up these stairs, I thought the reason you were acting so distant to me is because you had another woman! This is worse! This is so much worse! How dare you! The right to have your firstborn was supposed to be mine, did you really forget that?!"
"It will still be yours!" Machida tried to console her, but she shook her head coldly.
"No! It's too late! You had a son with your real love! Science is his mother, but you were the worst kind of father! What was the point of creating a new species if you immediately abandon him to his own devices?!"
"There were-"
She didn't wait for the excuse. "How do I know you won't treat our children like this?! How do I know you won't abandon me again next time you want to fool around with science again?! What am I supposed to say to them when I'm forced to explain time and again why even when you're physically around, you're too distracted to pay them any attention?!"
Machida flinched like she had slapped him. "I'd never ignore our children, I swear!"
That made her even angrier. "You ignored him! You ignore me! I haven't felt like you cared about me since you left for university! You ignored my letters, you push me away when you're home, and I'm the last person to find out when you leave for surprise trips! I was right next to you all day today, but you might as well have been on another continent for how distant I felt from you!"
Machida flinched at each mentioned slight but his eyes still darted around the bride in search of his creation. "Of course I care about you, but now isn't the time for-"
"Then when?! When, Machida?! What was the point of arranging this marriage if you're just going to keep me at arm's length while you deal with something more interesting than me? What's the point of staying married if this is what being your wife is going to be like? I don't mind competing with science for your attention, but I expect to win some of the battles!"
"Well, what do you want?!" he asked desperately, again taking that first step up the stairs.
"What do I want?! What do I want?!" Haru was so enraged that she was tempted to skip a few steps in her plan but managed to rein herself in just enough to give him one last chance. "Here's the first step you can do to restore our relationship, if that's even what you want!"
"Anything!" he pleaded.
"Keep your promise to your son. Make him a mate."
His mouth fell open like a drawbridge. "What?"
"Make him a mate," Haru repeated while glaring at him. "If you're going to play God and create new life, you follow the same rules and make two of a kind. This is not negotiable."
"Haru, you… couldn't have thought your way through this," he pleaded as he started coming up the stairs.
"You stay down there!" she barked angrily while taking a few steps away from the top of the stairs. "I mean it, Machida! Why should you have a wife but deny your son the same?!"
"That thing is not my son!" her husband denounced angrily.
"You made him, didn't you?!"
"That does not make him my son!" Machida insisted, not about to let that title slide.
"But that does make him your responsibility!" Haru retaliated angrily.
"Have you even considered what you're demanding of me?! If I give that thing a mate, it could create an entire race of freaks!" he tried to convince her, but she was less than sympathetic to his concerns.
"That sounds like something you should have thought over before giving him life! I mean it, Machida! If you don't give him a mate…" her voice lowered to an ominous climax. "I will."
Machida's fury at her request immediately softened, and he actually smiled with amusement. "Just how do you propose to do that?" he asked with the same indulgence that he would give to a small child. "It took me almost ten years to gather the knowledge I needed for my folly, and you barely know the difference between a scalpel and a set of forceps."
Her eyes narrowed angrily that he wasn't taking the threat or herself seriously. "But you know full well I know my way around a needle," she answered calmly, holding up the syringe from where it had been hiding in the folds of her skirt.
The amusement in his eyes swiftly turned to panic. "Haru, no!" he screamed as he raced up the stairs.
Haru grabbed enough of her skirt not to trip over as she ran past where the cat man was but didn't look back until she heard some violent noises of Machida not being prepared for the sneak attack. She looked over her shoulder to see that the cat man had wrestled his creator to the floor and had removed both the pistol and riding crop from his stubborn grasp. "Thank you," she told her feline friend politely.
"More than my pleasure," he growled as he wrestled both arms behind Machida's back and held him down in a way that Haru was certain that a wrestling coach would approve of.
"Haru, don't!" Machida tried to plead, but then the cat man braced his creator's chin against the floor so that he had no choice but to be silent for a while.
"Now that I have your attention," Haru stated while working the stopper on the needle loose. "Are you doing to do right and finish the job you started, or do I finish it for you and never have to worry about you neglecting me again?"
Her new friend eased just enough to let Machida speak.
"Haru, don't do it! I don't know what that serum will do to a living person, and I can't guarantee that I can reverse it!" he was desperate to inform her.
"Even if you did, I think it'd make more sense to give it to your son than worry about me," Haru informed him coldly. "Now answer me; are you going to give him a bride, or lose yours?"
"He's not my son!" Machida screamed again, making the cat man look up at her reproachfully.
"I would also appreciate him not being addressed as my father. I already informed you he does not deserve the title in any fashion."
Haru nodded in acknowledgement of his feelings, but she was still glaring at her husband as she set the dangerous end of the syringe against a vein in her arm she could just barely see in the darkness. "He's certainly showing that he can't handle the responsibility of being one. By the way, Machida; just in case you plan on saying yes and pulling another double cross later, I'm not letting go of this syringe until you actually need it for that step, and I'll be putting myself under my friend's charge until you can exchange a mate for my safe return. Does that sound all right to you?" she asked the cat man, turning her eyes off her husband to see if he was willing to go along with her plan.
While holding down his creator, the cat man looked up at her with a bewildered, ecstatic smile. "To be honest, Haru, I don't know if I'll have the will power to exchange you if you turn yourself over to my charge."
Machida roared like an animal and flailed around desperately to break free. "You stay away from my wife, you freak of nature!"
"You don't deserve her!" his creation roared back, sneaking in the chance to punch his creator in the face. "If she were with me, I'd sooner die than give her a reason to doubt my feelings for her! She, and any family we create, would be my main concern, not dangling at the end of priorities the way you do!"
Her plan was working better than she had hoped. Haru wasn't that certain if the cat man would approve of her blackmail method, but when he talked like that, it made her want to follow through with it.
Really. Why should she stay with someone that's completely fine with keeping secrets from her and ruining her best moments without a thought?
"Frankly, Machida, I have a good mind to leave you whether or not it's with him," Haru informed him with as much venom as her voice could muster. "You don't trust me, you don't take my feelings into consideration, and you treat me like a child when I force you to face the fact that you have been neglecting me for years. I have a better education than most common women; do you really think I wouldn't be able to provide a modest living for myself if I packed up and left you right now?" she demanded in a soft voice, hoping that if she forced him to work to hear her words he might pay more attention.
"I would find you," he promised angrily. "I'm sorry I haven't shown it lately, but you're the love of my life!"
That filled her with rage. "This is how you treat the love of your life?! We got married today, Machida! Married! Is today really how you pictured it?!"
"I'm sorry it was so rushed," he apologized almost desperately. "But I had to speed things up to keep this freak from killing you!"
The cat man jumped in surprise. "If that's what I wanted to do, I'd have done it by now. The plan was always to break her faith in you by letting her know about me, but you certainly eased thing along."
"Stop," Haru bade him as her heart felt like it was turning into ice. "Machida, one last question. Do you think I'm upset with how our wedding day went, just because you rushed it?"
He gave her a bewildered look. "There was something else?"
Just like that, her remaining love for him died. Without another thought, Haru jabbed the needle into her arm.
"Haru, stop!" he screamed, but she was already injecting herself, forcing the process to be slow since she doubted her veins would survive that much liquid being put into her system all at once.
It was warm and tingly. She could somewhat feel the strange green concoction as it went up the passages to her heart, which then began distributing it to the rest of her body. Machida continued to flail and scream, but her feline companion was still holding him tight, silent as the grave himself.
Once all of the liquid had been introduced to her bloodstream, Haru pulled out the needle and tossed it onto the floor until it almost rolled up to Machida's face. "I think you should give this to your books," she added, removing the ring and tossing that in front of him as well. "You can tell everyone why you don't have a wife anymore, but don't be too surprised hardly anyone that was at the wedding blames me for leaving you. Hold him a little longer," she bade the cat man, walking over to a curtain and tugging harshly on the attached rope. The curtains opened from the action, but the rope would not come loose!
"Use this," her feline friend called, tossing an admittedly cheap knife until it skittered close to the hem of her dress.
"Thank you," she repeated to him, almost dreamily deaf to her childhood sweetheart, who was still flailing and screaming something or other. It was no longer her concern. It took hacking at it for a while, but she was able to cut the rope down eventually. "Hold him steady," she requested while kneeling beside her ex-husband, still flopping around like a fish.
He may have mocked her for not knowing much about science, but when it came to yarn and knots, Haru had never met a knot she couldn't unravel, or construct a better, tighter version. By the time she was done, Machida's legs and wrists were bound uncomfortably close, and the table the remaining rope was tied to would make attempts to wriggle away painful in one form or another.
Machida was still screaming, but Haru's senses were still strangely oblivious to whatever was coming out of his mouth. He wasn't her husband anymore, so why should it matter? Haru yanked the small tablecloth off of the table he was bound to and shoved enough of it into his mouth to force true silence on him. She couldn't even care that the vase and flowers that had been on that tablecloth were now a shattered mess next to the bound man.
"If you had stayed the sweet little boy that made an orphaned match girl feel like a princess, this wouldn't be happening. Also, it's your turn to be quiet," she informed him, deciding that was all he deserved for a goodbye. She used the corner of that table to rise to her feet, but the cat man was soon lending his support.
"How do you feel?" he asked worriedly, keeping one arm around her to steady her.
"Like I'm in a dream," she answered honestly as the hallway nearly rotated to her senses. "Everything seems… off. Come along; I have spare clothes that would be better for traveling than this." She dramatically flung her train as she turned away from Machida, letting part of it flow over his face until she had finished walking away from him.
The train was long enough that she didn't have to worry about him seeing anything, and it was almost funny to watch the cat man spare one last smirk for his creator before carefully helping his mate down the hall.
Haru waited to tell him the rest of her thoughts until after they were in the honeymoon suite. "I'm not sure my head's clear enough for travel, but we only have so much time until the servants come to check on us," she explained while he led her to her trunk near the foot of the large bed.
"I can carry you without trouble," he assured her in a very gentle tone, easing her onto the foot of the bed and setting the trunk next to her so that she wouldn't have to bend over. "I already have someplace in mind where even dogs will have trouble tracking us down for us to rest before our final destination. I hope you don't mind saying farewell to humanity in general."
"If I did, I wouldn't have considered this an option," she blurted without thinking as she opened the trunk and started rummaging for a red dress she was going to wear the next day. She probably wouldn't be able to take everything in her trunk with her, but the changes of clothes and her sewing basket were definitely going to have to come.
"… I'm sorry. I didn't really give you a choice in this, did I?" Haru realized, blinking a bit more than she wished as she looked up at the cat man.
His worshipful expression made it clear he was anything but offended. "Tonight's worked in my favor better than I could have let myself imagine. I swear to you that I'll never give you a reason to regret choosing to stay with me."
Haru gave him a smile that was more than a little tired. "Would you mind turning around? I'd like to get changed, and I'm not ready for a near stranger to see me yet," she requested while raising her hands to the pins still holding the veil to her hair.
"Wait!" he said a little more sharply than he probably meant, his own hands swiftly raising to engulf her wrists in their warmth.
That warmth felt very nice right now. Confused, Haru put her hands down to hear his newest concern.
He took in a deep breath. "I know you agreed to be my mate and this is all sudden and new. I'm also not certain how the serum will affect you as it works through your system, or how long it will be before you experience any transformation. But… before you change into more suitable traveling attire… may I kiss the bride?" he asked in a tiny voice that made him sound like a child.
Haru's heart melted from the ice Machida's indifference had sheathed it with. Her daydreams from earlier that evening replayed themselves, but now with the cat man in place of the shadow of what Machida had refused to be for her. It was almost too easy to see this one stand in front of an alter with her, holding her hand and looking at her like no one else in the room existed.
That was the way he was looking at her right now.
She forced herself to stand up and place her hands on his broad shoulders to keep herself from falling over. "I hereby take this man to be my one true husband," she promised, unbidden and with more feeling than she had given a scant few hours before.
Her feline beau smiled with relief as he wrapped one arm around her waist and cradled the other hand to the back of her head. "I hereby take this woman to be my one true wife," he promised just as sincerely before leaning forward.
The funniest thing was that when her new husband put his lips on hers? That was the first time all day Haru really felt like a bride.