A/N: Okay, at least one more 'what if' from Refuge, since I got a plot bunny.
At the Beginning
Louise could hardly believe it. The forest was technically different from the one she had known, but she consoled herself that it was the same land, at least, and the older trees were likely here when she…
When she left.
She did her best to shake off those terrible memories, partially leaning out of the open window like a dog to close her eyes and take in the familiar scents that were suddenly being revived from her early childhood. If she deafened herself to her granddaughter's music, she could even pretend that she was in a motor car, traveling down a road with familiar bumps.
Louise didn't even need to open her eyes when the car stopped, since she knew exactly where they were.
But it was because she knew exactly where they were that she excitedly opened her eyes and started bawling like a baby at the sight of the manor.
"Oh, Grandmother," Haru cooed consolingly, reaching over to grip the older woman's shoulder. "We're almost there, don't worry."
"Hurry, open the gate!" she wept, making the college student nod once before letting herself out and unlocking the chain keeping her childhood home safe. She continued to drink in the sight of the manor as she sat a Kleenex box on her lap to try to combat her tears.
She was here. It took her eighty years, but she was finally home. Only a freakish coincidence could-
She hurriedly shook her head, trying to clear her mind of any jinxes. She was so close, if something happened to prevent her from entering those doors again, her heart would give out from grief.
Thankfully it didn't take long for Haru to open the gate enough to slip into the car, pull forward enough to get clearance, and hop out again to close the gate behind them.
"Please hurry," the grandmother begged as a bird flew over their heads.
"Just making sure no one will be able to interrupt the family reunion," Haru replied cheerfully while clicking the lock back in place.
For some reason, the bird overhead seemed to caw in confusion at the remark.
She at least jogged back to the truck instead of walking and made quick work of the remaining distance to the front steps of the home Louise had adored.
The old woman couldn't stop smiling around her tears, wiping desperately at her eyes so that she could take in every detail.
The pictures hadn't done the manor justice, but at least the stones had lost their layer of moss and loose dirt thanks to the cleaning crew Haru had paid to attack the place right after the purchase. The cupboards should be fully stocked as well, so they were going to be able to focus on their new home.
Her beloved granddaughter walked around the truck and opened the door before taking out a little stepping stool and setting it on the ground. She held her hands out with a practiced ease and a loving smile.
Louise did everything she could to make her descent from the vehicle dignified, but of course her foot would find something to slip on just enough to make her fall directly onto her granddaughter with a yelp from both of them.
Surprisingly, they didn't fall over. Louise looked up at Haru with surprise, who was in turn looking behind her with shock.
Their bodies were at an angle that they should have fallen over, but they weren't.
"Um, Grandmother?" Haru asked nervously as she hurriedly righted both herself and the old woman. "I think your friend knows it's you. I'm feeling hands on my shoulders."
The way certain parts of her sleeves were pressed firmly against her instead of how the cloth usually moved made the claim very easy to believe.
"Baron?" she called out, right before an invisible force wrapped her in such a tight hug, she didn't need her fallen cane.
Louise couldn't help it; she started bawling again as she tried to hug him back, but her hands met with no resistance, no matter how many times she tried to grab something.
"Lou-Lou?" a familiar voice managed to choke out, making both of the women quickly look at the crow that had perched on the hood of their truck.
Louise wasn't sure if she could put how she knew the truth into words. But all it took was one look, and she knew. "Papa?!" she nearly screamed, now holding her arms out for the crow.
He started weeping too, flying into her arms and wrapping as much of his wings as he could around her fragile shoulders.
"Wait, Papa Toto?!" Haru gasped in shock before looking around. "Does that mean Uncle Renny's still here, too?!"
"You better believe I'm still here," another voice called out, somehow still grumpy through his good mood.
Louise blinked, letting fat, hot tears of happiness flow down her cheeks so that she could see a large white cat hop up the stairs to rub against the old woman's ankles. "Uncle Renny!" she sobbed before Baron decided to levitate him enough so that all four of them could just hold each other.
This was impossible. But Louise couldn't care. She didn't just have her home back, she had her family back!
"I hate to say this, but you're getting excited, Grandmother," Haru reluctantly informed her before poking around the truck for the woman's medicine bag. "Let's take care of this before anything happens with your heart."
Louise was too happy to care. She could have died right that minute and be satisfied.
But since she did want answers, she forced herself to release her uncle and father to accept the pills and water bottle her granddaughter had ready for her.
"Is that something I should be worried about?" her father asked sternly as he flew around, making his daughter laugh.
"It's all right, Papa. I'm old, and Haru takes good care of me, that's all." She obediently popped the pills into her mouth and took a long drink of water.
"Her heart's a bit fragile. Too much excitement could kill her," Haru clarified worriedly as she retrieved the fallen cane, even though Baron was not letting her out of his grip. "If I were smarter, I'd have had her take that medication at the gate."
The large white cat looked at her before smirking around the air. "Hey, Baron. You and Bird Brain got to Louise first. I get first dibs on her grandbaby." He held his little paws out for the girl, who beamed at him before walking close enough to wrap him into a hug that was partially a carry when Baron let go of the cat.
"I love your music, by the way," she informed him, speaking a bit loudly to be heard over his purr. "Grandmother came up with really good lyrics for Once Upon a December."
"Of course she did," he answered smugly while nuzzling her chin. "She's always been one smart cookie."
"Haru leaves me in the dust," Louise informed him proudly while capping the water bottle. "She graduated from high school at fifteen and earned her Master's in business before we got here."
Muta gave her a baffled look. "In two years?" he asked suspiciously.
"I'm twenty," Haru explained with a grin, since she was used to people thinking she looked younger. "We'd have come sooner, but this was as soon as we could escape my sperm donor's control. He'll probably come looking for us before long, but Grandmother deserves closure from whatever happened that night."
Louise wasn't expecting all of their luggage to be emptied out of the truck and march themselves into the house after the double doors threw themselves open.
"That one stays with me," Haru quickly asserted, grabbing a handbag and flinging it over a shoulder around her feline uncle and juggling the intricate cane in one hand. "I'm guessing Baron wants answers too."
"We all want answers," her great-grandfather assured the girl, landing on her shoulder to rub his beak against her hair.
"Hey, she's mine right now," Uncle Renny told him crossly, swatting at one of his clawed feet.
"But she's my great-grandbaby, so I get priority," Toto informed his best friend smugly.
"So Grandmother wasn't exaggerating about you two," Haru couldn't resist giggling as she headed for the open doors, now that the luggage was all inside. "I'll deal with the car later."
Louise really would have taken her cane back and walked into her first home, but Baron decided to adjust his hold and carry her in bridal style. She smiled wistfully, remembering all the silly daydreams she'd had when he'd done this to her as a child.
Although it slightly brought back memories of that terrible night, Baron led them to the drawing room where everything happened.
It was a long talk, even if Baron couldn't actively participate. But Louise still relished the chance to brag to her father about marrying Adrian's killer after waxing poetic on her late husband and the daughter she hadn't been able to bring back with her. Photos were a poor substitution for Mori and Naoko, but they were infinitely better than no news at all. Haru added details now and again, but mostly let her grandmother talk. Her warm brown eyes glowed with happiness as she appreciated the bittersweet reunion.
Louise couldn't help but feel a bit bad when she'd remember that she was excluding her granddaughter for her original family, but the young woman was still so young, and hadn't experienced the trauma of that fateful night. She was plenty sympathetic, but it wasn't the same.
"So that's where we stand," Toto concluded a bit sadly from his nestled place on his daughter's lap. "Only twenty years left before the spell gives away to our real deaths. Though now that I have seen you again, I could be content with that."
"Well, I'm not," Louise retorted angrily. "Adrian didn't get his way with me, and so help me, he's not going to get his way with all of you! You're certain Baron knows how to break the curse?"
"Positive," Renny reported from his preferred spot of sprawled over Haru's lap. "But I think there's something that prevents Baron from giving us hints. Because I promise you, we've tried."
Louise and Haru shared a look before growing identical grins that clearly marked them as related.
"May I?" Haru asked childishly while sneaking a peak at her curious grandfather.
"Right now. Let's see if we can break this curse before sundown," Louise urged her gleefully before turning to her father. "I know I didn't mention it before, but Haru inherited the Drosselmeyer gift."
"She did?" Toto gushed happily, making the girl fish around her bag and pull out something that had a thick blanket tied to it.
"Oh, yes, Papa Toto," she assured him with a wicked grin, setting the object across her uncle's back now that she was no longer scratching it. "When we researched this place last year and found out Baron was haunting the manor, I made up my mind that Baron and Grandmother were going to be able to talk at least one more time, even if it was through my own sweat and tears. So we came prepared." She swiftly untied the knots, pulled the blanket apart, and handed her grandmother a hand-crafted wooden doll. "Don't go easy on me, give me an honest critique of my work. Grandmother helped me design it."
Louise proudly held the doll in a way that her father could appreciate the details of the cat doll, still in Baron's clothes that were clearly depicted in the painting over the mantel.
"Ooh, this is nice," he cawed appreciatively while eyeing the glass green eyes she had taken a lot of pains to set in correctly. "Not every piece needs a lot of bells and whistles, this doll is just perfect for Baron! You leave me no choice but to take you as an apprentice if the curse breaks."
She gave a squeak of happiness before gesturing for her grandmother to hand the doll back. "Come on, I bet Baron's dying to have people hear him talk!"
Baron responded to that by gently taking the doll out of Louise's hand and firmly setting it in the granddaughter's.
Even though she'd seen her little Haru bring toys to life every time they were out of camera range and prying eyes since she was a little girl, Louise still sat up in her seat a little straighter and eagerly watched for her family's heritage to manifest itself. She could even feel her father staring at nothing but the girl and the doll as Renny also craned his neck around to look.
As always, Haru took in a few cleansing breaths before summoning her power and blowing it over the doll like Jack Frost whistling for snow.
The silver mist splashed onto the wood before getting absorbed, a slow long process since Haru hadn't really received any training on using her magic.
But soon enough, the mist breath was completely sunk into the wood grain. Those glass eyes blinked, and a sigh escaped his mouth as the limbs began moving of their own accord.
"Finally!" the doll exclaimed as he experimentally wiggled his little fingers and kicked one foot, though being careful to miss the young lady holding him. "This feels wonderful!"
Haru smiled gently at him. "You've got only two minutes, make them count."
"Right," he agreed, though now that carefully carved face was looking a bit nervous. "But for the record, I would have kept you and Louise from falling even if I didn't recognize her." He gave a very fond look at the old woman before his gaze fell on his two friends.
"It's not the curse that kept me from telling you how to break it. It was to keep the two of you from kidnapping the first girl to cross your path."
"Hey!" Uncle Renny yelled angrily, but Haru took one hand off Baron to rub the real cat's back soothingly since there wasn't time for tantrums.
"Is it something Grandmother or I can do?"
Baron looked up at her, even more nervous than before. "I may as well spit it out while I have the chance. I'm Sleeping Beauty," he confessed in resignation.
Haru's face immediately flamed red, and even Louise was startled.
"That's it? No, that actually makes sense," she mused darkly. "Adrian loved to talk about fairy tales and the real magic that probably inspired them."
"Especially with Baron's girl troubles," Uncle Renny grunted reluctantly. "Fine, I can see why you didn't want Bird Boy and I to bring you any girl we found."
"Which we would have," Toto couldn't resist muttering.
"A pure heart is required," Baron added, looking at both Haru and Louise with more than a trace of embarrassment. "Both of you qualify. I don't want to force anything from either of you, but-"
He suddenly stopped talking.
Stopped moving.
"… Time's up," Haru mumbled, still blushing like an apple at the cure.
Louise made up her mind, gently taking her crow father off her lap and setting him to the side. "I'll do it," she announced firmly. "Haru hasn't had her first kiss yet, and I don't want it ruined or forced on her."
"If you're sure you don't mind," Haru quickly relented with relief, carefully sitting the doll on a book on the table in front of her since the limbs didn't straighten up before Baron's soul left it.
"Baron is my friend," Louise declared with a hint of steel in her worn blue eyes as she struggled to rise to her feet. "He knows I won't be up to any foolishness-oh!"
The surprise was because Baron hadn't chosen to help her to her feet. It was so that he could carry her out of the drawing room and up the stairs like he had done years ago when she'd fallen asleep by the fireplace during one of his many late night talks with her father and uncle when they weren't the ones carrying her.
Louise couldn't help but smile that he was every bit as gentle with her now as he was then. She couldn't help wondering if her father was going to more or less treat her the way he did when she was a child once he was back in his own body.
She could hear the others following them up the stairs, but decided not to worry about it. Her heart pounded at the idea of fulfilling her childhood dream of getting a kiss from Baron in a way that he wouldn't object.
'But now I'm curious. If I had gotten to return to England after Adrian's death, could I have done this for him? If I had the option of Baron and Mori, who would I have chosen back then?'
She knew the answer for right now, naturally. Her life with Mori may have been modest and grueling, but it had been full of love. She shook her head and tried not to think of that 'what if'.
It was going to be thanks to her that her dear friend was going to have the option of a happy loving life again. That was more than she could have dreamed of in all these decades.
"You know, I think that's probably the only time I'll ever see a girl pass up a chance to kiss Baron," Toto cawed as he flew over their heads and down the hall.
"At least Grandmother's spoken to him more than once!" Haru called after him, still blushing although she was out of 'the danger zone'.
"That's my girl," Louise couldn't resist cooing with pride. 'At least this way even if I die soon, Haru will have backup if that idiot son in law of mine comes looking for her and tries to ruin her life as well as Naoko's.'
A slow, wicked grin grew on her face until her thin lips were taut as a bowstring.
"Sweetie, what's that look for?" her father asked as Baron's doors opened for them, slapping all of them with the thick, sick scent of dust that had gone undisturbed for too long.
Louise saw no reason to hide her wish, especially with what she was about to do. "There's a chance Haru's sperm donor will either come or send someone to take Haru back to Japan for his own agenda. I will be disappointed with all of you if you allow such a thing."
"Nope! Nothin' doin'!" Uncle Renny snarled as his fur stood on end in hostility. "One abduction was one too many from this house!"
"Over my dead body," Toto agreed, perching on a dusty wardrobe.
"Are you sure that's where you want to change back into a human, Papa Toto?" Haru asked pointedly, making him twitch uncomfortably before flying down and sitting on the seat of a chair instead.
"Thanks, Sweetie."
"You could have waited until afterward," Uncle Renny grumbled, but Louise intentionally deafened herself to the bickering.
She was surprised at how well she could still do it but let all of her attention focus on the body lying over the bed Baron had set her down on. With one shaky hand, she pulled at the sheet keeping dust off that familiar face.
He was as still as death, though thankfully there was no sign of decay.
Louise supposed it was her long hard life of doing things she wasn't that interested in doing that got her to shakily brace herself over her dear friend and carefully brush her withered lips over his own without much hesitation.
She could see small sparks of light from behind her, but they didn't seem enough to warrant a curse's end. She firmly pressed her lips to his in case it wasn't enough contact.
Those lips opened against hers and took in a long gasp of her breath, as if a CPR victim was the one in charge of air flow instead of the one administering it.
There were two larger flashes of light behind her, and Louise was satisfied enough to push herself off her friend as his eyes snapped open. She nearly rolled off the bed from the gesture, but this time it was Haru's familiar touch that caught her.
"Good job, Grandmother," she grinned while helping the older woman back to a sitting position on the bed. "You've still got it."
Louise couldn't help but disagree as the family reunion began anew, now that her father and uncle looked exactly the way she remembered them, and Baron needed Haru's help to sit up and get in on the affection, tears and happy laughter as the three celebrated their new lease on life.
Kissing Baron felt like nothing. Not in the fact that it was easy or over with almost as quickly as it had begun, but that…
In spite of her childhood fantasies, she didn't feel a spark or anything at all. Baron was her friend, just like he had always been. She accepted an embrace from him happily, beyond grateful that somewhere along the road, her personal feelings for the Baron had changed enough that there would be no awkwardness between them, even after a kiss.
Not to mention the satisfaction it brought her that she was the one to foil Adrian's curse. If that creature had gotten a grave after everything Mori and their friends did to him, she hoped Adrian was rolling in it.
"Haru, thank you for bringing her home," Baron nearly wept, though his arms were uncharacteristically weak as they targeted the young girl next for an embrace. "I hope you will be every bit as happy here as Louise."
Her blush immediately returned with a vengeance. She tried to say something, but there were only some garbled mumblings since Haru had dedicated her life up until now to speeding through her education and the slow transference between being cared for by her grandmother to caring for her as the years continued their march.
The poor girl didn't know how to cope with a handsome man that at least looked like he was close to her age.
Louise slowly smiled as she noticed the way Baron's eyes glowed as they looked at possibly the only woman too shy to make the first move on him, even when he would have welcomed it for the sake of convenience. She heaved a long happy sigh and smirked while accepting another hug from her weeping father.
If karmic justice existed, she knew how Baron and Haru would solve the dilemma of which one really owned the manor without too much of a hassle, if she both stayed out of it and convinced her father and uncle to do the same.