Pet Shop Part Two
'I bet this is what heaven is like,' Haru couldn't resist thinking as she sighed happily and cuddled a bit deeper into Baron's arms.
His entire chest was vibrating with the strength of his purr as they lay next to each other on the couch. Their movie was long over, but Haru very genuinely didn't want to do anything that required space between her and her cat.
Her cat.
This wasn't at all how Haru had imagined getting her own cat, but there hadn't been a single day since limping into the count's pet shop that she hadn't thanked her lucky stars. People at work seemed to know that something had changed for her to have taken the obvious breakup so well, thanks to her ex-boyfriend's repeated attempts to send her flowers, but Haru really didn't think they deserved explanations on how she could still smile or who it was that could make her happy enough to watch the clock instead of doing voluntary overtime again.
Her phone started ringing, making Baron's purr turn into a growl, despite looking like a human for the moment.
"Who could want you at this hour? Besides myself, naturally," he grumbled, making Haru giggle while pulling her phone out of her pocket.
It was an unknown number, but this wasn't one of the times her phone gave her the option of ignoring the call instead of answering it. She flicked her finger across the surface before holding it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Hello, Haru?" an unfamiliar voice addressed her, clearly on the edge of his nerves. "This is your father."
That snapped her out of her heavenly mood. She scowled while sitting up. "Sorry, you appear to have the wrong number. I have never at any point had such a man in my life."
"Don't hang up!" he quickly begged. "It's an emergency, you know I wouldn't dare track you down for anything less!"
"Which organ?" Haru asked flatly, since her mother had warned her more than once that he would have literally no other reason to instigate contact.
"How did you-never mind. It's not for me, it's for my daughter, your sister! She needs a kidney, and you've got the right blood type."
"I have no sister," Haru informed him without emotion, enough to make her cat sit up as well and keep one arm around her for support. "Also, I highly suggest you beg for help from someone whose mother you didn't break."
"I didn't break your mother-"
"She never tried again after you. She loved you until the day she died," Haru informed him, since he deserved to know just how much pain he'd caused her beloved mother. "Your social media didn't help, either. I know she only needs a kidney because she drank hers away at bad parties. Hard pass."
He was silent for a bit, as if startled by the news, but it didn't take long for him to start up again. "Haru, I am literally begging you, just name a number, any number, and I'll get you the amount! I can't lose her, she's still my baby!"
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Are you sure you can afford my price?"
"Just name it; anything you want!"
"Go find a knife and slit your own throat with it."
"Ach-what?!"
"Slit your own throat," Haru repeated blankly. "Prove to me that you're a changed man and being a father is what's important to you."
"Haru, that's beyond unreasonable!"
She gave a harsh laugh. "I knew it. You're the same coward. I'll never know what Mom saw in you." Haru ended the call, blocked the number, and turned her phone off for good measure. "I won't blame you if you find that-" she tried to apologize, but Baron gently placed his hand over her mouth.
"Fair," he responded with a dangerous glare. "I call that fair. How dare he talk about his 'baby' like you weren't once his baby?!"
Haru looked down, slipping her arms around his torso and gently tugging him down to lie on the couch with her again. "Mom said his family were probably behind the affair and the generous support payments since she wasn't from a wealthy family like him. If they can forget about me for twenty-five years, they can forget about me for another twenty-five years."
Baron frowned before comfortably licking her forehead with a tongue that still felt like a cat's. "This won't be the end of it, you know. He or his cronies will show up at work if not here to talk you into it."
Haru blinked. "Drat it," she fumed, having no trouble believing him. "We already have to be quiet to avoid alerting the neighbors. You make really good blackmail material, you know that?"
His grin would have made her knees give away if she hadn't been lying down. "Why, Haru. I thought you'd never notice," he teased while tightening his own grip on her and burying his face into her neck.
Haru nearly swooned as he breathed in her scent like he couldn't get enough of it.
"How rich would you call your grandfather?" he murmured.
She was beyond grateful that he only sounded curious. "My 'siblings' go to Ouran High School," Haru admitted a bit bitterly. "It's the school for the wealthiest families in Japan. People who go there live like royalty, no exaggeration. I'm not likely to get an inheritance if that's what you're worried he'll hold over my head."
Baron hummed in thought. "So if your grandfather decided to flat out kidnap you and force you to donate an organ…"
Haru's eyes flew open as she realized, though she was not at all happy with the sudden change of thought. "He wouldn't stop at a kidney. He's rich enough to harvest all my organs for future use and cover his tracks enough for me to become yet another 'missing person' report. It'll be even easier since you're the only one that will really care if I disappear. You're right, I might be in trouble."
Baron frowned but pressed a kiss to her neck before speaking again. "Haru, I was going to wait a bit longer before bringing this up, but I think it may be now or never. You weren't the only one of us to pay Count D for assistance."
Haru's heart was pounding like mad from his attentions, but she was able to look up at him now that he was about draped over her.
"When that she-demon cursed me for rejecting her, Count D was the first person I went to for help. I explained that I wanted a human mate that I could eventually take back with me to the Cat Kingdom to skip over my curse, and he agreed to house me and set up a connection for the right fee."
Haru blushed, even though he'd more or less been treating her like a girlfriend since she brought him home and explaining why he more or less had the same curse as her. "Won't I stick out in the Cat Kingdom?"
He gave her a nervous grin that was trying to be cocky. "On the contrary, any human that stays in our borders permanently becomes a cat after twenty-four hours. Your soul will be the same, but your body will change. Count D's spell on me to briefly be human at night will also wear off when I return to the Cat Kingdom. Like I said, I wanted to wait a bit longer before telling you that was my plan-"
Haru hurriedly wiggled her arms free to place a hand on each of his cheeks to force him to maintain eye contact with her. "Let me get this straight; the reason you've been patiently living in my tiny apartment and shamelessly flirting with me when we're not cuddling, is because you want to take me to your kingdom, marry me, and live happily ever after?"
"Basically," he answered, still grinning nervously. "But be warned that you won't be able to go back to being human if you change your mind later. I'll do everything I can to prevent that of course, but… I really do want to marry you. Count D matched us perfectly."
Haru couldn't help but melt. "Baron, my sweet Baron. You severely underestimate how happily I'd leave my human existence behind for a happily ever after. Especially if it means irritating the snot out of that family when they try to track me down," she cackled a bit wickedly, since her 'father's words basically confirmed that they considered money to be the solution to all their problems, one of which they considered to be her. "Now that I know how impossible it is for anyone to steal you away from me, I'm all right with a short engagement."
Baron beamed happily and leaned over to kiss her for the first time. Haru closed her eyes and puckered a little, but never felt his lips on hers.
"Oh no. I don't trust myself in such a setting. Let's get married first," he begged, forcing both of them to sit up again. "Is there anything you'd like to take with you?"
Haru thought about it while opening her eyes, a bit disappointed that she didn't get that kiss. "I guess I won't need clothes if I'll turn into a cat soon."
"We wear clothes in the Cat Kingdom," Baron quickly assured her with a nervous chuckle. "But you will be a baroness, and the fashion there is different from here. So it still comes down to not needing to pack clothing."
"I see," Haru confirmed, though there was a tiny flair of pettiness that was enjoying the idea of living a version of the life her 'father' didn't think she deserved. She stood up and collected a framed photo of herself and her mother as well as a photo album. "It's going to be strange not having my cell phone," she noted with regret, taking it out of her pocket and placing it with her keys on the table to really confuse anyone that tried to track her.
"We have magic, though. You've said you're fond of stories with magic," Baron reminded her gently, tucking the frame and photo album under his arm for her when she retreated to her bedroom.
She came back with a carefully folded quilt her mother had made. "Very fond," Haru confirmed, giving him an adoring smile. "But I meant my first words to you. I'll be your family from now on. How do we get to your kingdom?"
Baron's grin was nearly predatory. "If I didn't have any royal blood in me, we would need to leave the apartment, take the bus for over an hour until reaching that park I told you about, and hop into one of the lakes under the light of the full moon."
Haru winced, since she didn't need to open a curtain to know that the moon was at its halfway point. "I'd look like one of those frogs that get dissected by children by then."
"Which is the biggest reason I'm now grateful that my eventual ancestor was a Cat King," he assured her while focusing too hard on the wall that held the tv and the front door.
Although Haru knew he could do some magic, she was still amazed when a blue circle of shimmering lights grew in midair until it was about the size of a door.
"Shall we?" Baron asked with another confident smile, shifting the frame and album to his other arm so that he could offer the free one to her.
Haru beamed happily, shifted her quilt to just one arm so that she could enter her new world like a lady.
A baroness, even.
Her exit was only made sweeter by the fact that as the portal was closing behind them, someone was violently throwing open the front door she knew for a fact was locked.