#Toto: how do you lose Muta

[catsafarithewriter]

Are you still taking asks, if so Protective Baron

A/N: Here's a secret: I'm always up for taking asks ;) I pondered on this, and wasn't sure if you were thinking more self-sacrificing protective or angry protective, so I guess it'll be a surprise ;) enjoy!

x

"I know I have said this many times over the years, old friend," Toto says softly, "but this is the most reckless thing you've ever done."

The Bureau is quiet – too quiet – and so there's no way for Baron to miss Toto's gentle warning. Even the mantelpiece clock is silent, its second hand frozen a moment before the hour.

Baron tears his gaze away from Haru's still form, lifeless, but not dead – not yet, not if he has anything to say about it – laid across the sofa. He listens out for a breath that never comes. "Can you blame me?" he asks.

"It's not a matter of blame," the old crow Creation replies. "It's a matter of what else you're going to lose in the attempt."

"I'm not going to lose her," Baron snaps.

Toto and Muta exchange glances, and the unspoken agreement between them unnerves Baron more than any raised voice.

"Baron," Muta offers, uncharacteristically softly – like a mourner at a funeral, Baron thinks, and then discards the thought angrily, "this is kinda out of our hands. Death came for her – literally, with the bones and the scythe and the hourglass..."

"We've faced bad odds before."

"Not these kinds of odds," Toto says.

"We have time–"

"Time is very much the one thing we do not have." Muta gestures across to the desk. "Look at her hourglass, Baron! The only reason the last grain of sand hasn't already fallen is because you've pulled some fancy-schmancy time-freezing trick with the Sanctuary, but that ain't a solution!"

"It'll break the Sanctuary," Toto warns. "You can't put that kind of strain on this place for long."

"Then I'll save her before it gets to that point!" Baron retorts. He paces the Bureau, trying to look anywhere but that fateful hourglass.

It's an insultingly simple affair, too simple for the value it holds, and only contains a single speck of sand – suspended moments from falling. The handful of sand it had first arrived with, before Baron had been driven to such physics-breaking extremes, had each vanished as they fell through the upper glass. It sits atop his desk, still and quiet and ominous.

"It's not your fault," Toto says in the awful, unnatural silence. "What's happened to her... you had no way of knowing."

"Yeah, how could you have known being so close to a Creation world and its magic would be toxic to a human?" Muta adds. "It's not like either of you ever got a manual on this stuff. And Haru – she never let it slip to any of us."

To stay with him, Baron thinks. Because she would have known that he would have barred the Sanctuary doors from her if he'd had any inkling of the damage it was doing. Because in her heart-first recklessness, she would rather have risked it than walk away from the Bureau.

From him.

"She's not going to die," he says, and there is steel in his voice. "I won't let her."

"With all due respect," Toto says carefully, "I don't think Death is asking your permission."

"Then I'll just have to make sure he listens." He gathers up his top hat and his cane, throwing a sorry smile to his friends. "She's not dying," he promises. "Not today." And he steps out into the Sanctuary courtyard.

Out here, time resumes its steady march, the air alive in a way it had been lacking in the Bureau. He approaches a cloaked figure, their face veiled in shadows which give the impression of a skull. In one bony hand, a scythe rests.

"Have you come to your senses?" Death asks. "Will you relinquish the mortal?"

Baron stares up to the hood, to the empty abyss where eye sockets lie hollow in place of irises and pupils. "You're not having her."

A rumble rolls through Death. "Her time has run out, Creation. At best, you have bought yourself a goodbye, but mark my words, it is a goodbye."

"There must be a way. There always is."

"I am the one constant," Death replies. "Once the sands of her hourglass have run their course, they cannot be renewed nor returned." The hood inclines in a way which could almost be an apology. "Her time is up, Creation."

Baron's heart beats an unfamiliar staccato; a heady mixture of grief and love runs riot in his veins.

"Can they be traded?"

He feels Death's eyeless sight turn on him. "What?"

"The sand," Baron says. "You said it could not renewed or returned – but can it be given from another hourglass?"

"Gifted," Death amends. "It must be willingly given from one's own hourglass, but you, Creation, cannot."

"I must have an hourglass. Every living thing has an hourglass, you told us, and I live."

"Indeed," Death concedes, "but yours," and he sweeps an hourglass out from the recesses of his cloak, "is a Creation's."

The hourglass before Baron has a wooden frame, carved with intricate leaves, and the glass possesses an almost iridescent sheen – like his own stone-cut eyes. But it is the contents which is the strangest of it all.

There is sand within, but it is frozen in place, the grain fused together in an almost glassy fashion.

"You are an immortal," Death says. "You can no more portion out a fraction of your lifespan, than you can halve eternity. It's all," Death intones, "or nothing."

"Then take my all."

The bony hand tightens around the strange hourglass. "You understand what that will mean for you."

"I understand enough," Baron says, and he does. He understands that Haru will live. That's all he has to understand. "Give her my time. All of it."

Death looks to him with something that might be pity. The skeletal fingers dig into the glass. Cracks spiral out.

"Then so be it."

The hourglass shatters.

And in the Bureau, Haru wakes.

[wolfiethewriter]

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep (a Cat Returns fanfic)

notes/warnings: major character death, heavy angst. Get your tissues, i will break you. 

summary: after losing her life on a bureau case, Haru has just enough magic left to linger for a little while and say goodbye to her friends. Haru/Baron.

a/n: a short ficlet inspired by the poem referenced here. If I don't get at least one 'how dare you?', for this then I have failed. Reblogs here and Reviews/comments on the ffn version and the ao3 version are appreciated even if they just say "cool story bro, needs more unicorns" and generally mean more stories for this fandom :)

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

It was a lovely service. Even though they all stood there under the drizzling rain holding umbrellas. Baron wearing a black suit as a sign of respect instead of his usual light colour. All faces were sad and sombre, and her mother had clearly been weeping, her eyes red and puffy. Only she was the odd one out, wearing a light summery sleeveless top and shorts.

But then, it was her funeral.

She looked across at her friends as she stood beside them. And her mother, too. And ached for them all. Their lives never would be the same again now. Not now she was gone.

It'd been a standard bureau case. A case like any other. Only this time things had gone... awry. It had come down to a choice between herself and Baron. And she'd chosen Baron. Shoving him out of the way so the beam of magic hit her instead of him.

A foolish choice in terms of self-preservation. But love did make one foolish. Her more than most.

And it had cost her life. Though there was enough magic left inside her for this. To say goodbye. Though they couldn't see or hear her.

She'd watched first her mother, then the bureau give her eulogies. Extolling her virtues. Toto saying she was brave and selfless and kind. How Muta had called her Chicky, and said that her best quality was that 'she liked to stick her nose in other people's business'. How Baron had shed a single tear at the podium and finally confessed his love for her, too little too late.

It broke her heart to watch them mourn for her.

They were all staring at her coffin, laying their flowers onto the polished wood. A colourful bouquet because Haru always loved colours. Zinnia flowers. In the language of flowers: I mourn your absence.

Her heart lurched. Of course, they'd miss her. She didn't know why she hadn't believed it before she threw her life away.

Her mother lay her hand on Baron's shoulder and said something inaudible. Baron nodded as she shuffled away. But the Bureau lingered. Perhaps to say their own farewells.

She stepped closer to them, wishing she could physically touch them, that they could see her. That she could say a proper goodbye, with warm hugs and soft words and love – so much love.

But that wasn't to be. The Sanctuary had only spared enough of her magic for this, and it would have to be enough.

She watched her friends, her bureau, her Baron, and her heart ached afresh. Of course they would miss her. She missed them. But she didn't want them to be sad forever. She wanted them to go on, live their lives, keep sticking their noses in other people's business. And help people, because that's what they were best at.

And besides that, she wasn't lying in that coffin. She was here, right beside them. Where she belonged. Where she'd always belonged.

She looked at her friends – her family – and thought of a poem read aloud in her literature class. A short, simple poem, but one that had stuck with her. Though she hadn't known it's true meaning until today. When she was looking at them all, mourning the loss of her.

She stepped closer. Wanting to say it to them. Though they would not hear.

But she spoke the words anyway.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep."

Muta's ears twitched, but that was probably just the wind. It was a chilly autumn, and the wind blew through her hair and across her skin. Ruffling through fur and feathers as it passed the Bureau.

"I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow."

Toto perked his head up, ruffled his feathers. Mumbled her name. How he missed her already. Not knowing she was right beside him. In the space he'd left between himself and Baron out of habit.

"I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain."

Another breeze blew by, carrying with it a few droplets of rain. Baron sighed. "Even the skies weep for her," he said softly. She closed the gap between herself and the feline creation. Wanting to hold his hand, but her fingers ghosted through his. Her ethereal form unable to latch onto his solid one. No matter how much she wanted to. She couldn't comfort him. She had to settle for words. Perhaps he'd hear them.

"When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush,

Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night."

She smiled softly as Baron's ears twitched, heard his soft sigh. "Beautiful." Toto and Muta agreed with him. So they had heard. Tears welled up in her eyes, because they'd heard her. Because even that was beyond her hope.

Her sob threatened to choke her, but she swallowed it. She wanted to be strong for them. To show them she was happy, at peace, that they didn't need to worry about her any more. Tell them that she'd always be with them whether in the spring rain or autumn leaves or even just the sound of their laughter. That Baron had to stop blaming himself for her death because it was her choice.

But her words failed her then, and it was all she could do to lay a gentle hand on Baron's shoulder. And to her surprise he blinked and turned to look right at her. She just smiled, softly, only a little sad.

"Do not stand at my grave and cry;" she said with finality.

"I am not there. I did not die." He blinked and stared back at her, astonished. "Haru?" She smiled warmly back at him, at the feline creation she'd grown to love over the years. "Take care, Baron." she told him. "Take care of each other. And stop blaming yourself for what happened." Baron gave the slightest nod, still looking quite incredulous, until Muta's voice broke the spell.

"Hey uh, you okay there, Baron?" She watched Baron shake his head and snap himself back to reality again.

"I thought I saw Haru..." he began, trailing off. He shook his head again. "Nevermind. I guess she'll always be with us."

"As long as we remember her, she will," Toto agreed.

Muta nodded firmly. "Agreed. Now come on let's get back, we can have angel food cake in her honour and tell stories about how great she was."

Baron smiled. The first smile she'd seen today. "Now that sounds like a plan," he said.

Haru watched them all touch her coffin once more before they all left for home. For the Sanctuary. For their lives without her. She smiled as she watched them go, knowing they'd be alright. They had each other. And like Toto said, as long as they remembered her, she'd always be with them. Even as the Sanctuary's magic waned and she faded away from this plane of existence.

[typewriterghcst]

Title: A Very Small Wish Fandom: The Cat Returns Characters: Baron, Muta, Toto, Haru, plus some OCs Rating: PGish maybe?? Words: 4724 Summary: A pleading request from a parent whose daughter has been cursed by a resentful witch is nothing truly out of the ordinary for the Cat Bureau— in fact, it might be so common so as to be routine— so why does something feel inherently off about this particular one? Notes: Third chapter of six of a Secret Santa gift for @deedee-sunflowers. It’s about here that the chapters start getting a bit long hhh. Tho I think they end up a little shorter again eventually Anyway, the first task. A lot of different influences went into these parts of the story, and I hope they’re not too blatant or distracting, aha ;;  Also, I forgot! I drew a very small doodle of the little patchwork creatures which feature in this chapter, if anyone’s interested `~`;;

                                    Ch. 3: The Sown Forest

The Sown Forest is near deathly silent, or… perhaps at least it feels that it should be, but the crunching of the snow under their collective feet and an ever-present rumbling ambiance akin to a distant earthquake means there’s little true silence to be had. And even without that unexpected ambient background, something about the place doesn’t feel quite right. In every direction grow thin, white trees, scattered haphazardly and yet also in just the right formation to make the forest seem far too organized, tidy. Patterned. 

No matter where they look, the horizon stretches out over an immeasurable distance, and the white of the sky and that of the level, milky ground meld into one. Only the wispy, bare branches of the trees break up the monotony of the landscape.

“Well,” Baron finally thinks to remark, “The bright red of a holly berry is likely to stick out like a rather sore thumb in this environment, isn’t it?”

“Sure, if you can find the one dumb enough to grow right now,” Muta grumbles, burying his nose into the warmth of the scarf wrapped around his neck and grumpily huddling further into his coat.

“Now, let’s not lose faith so early, Muta. Should we remain positive and keep a cool head about this, we’re sure to succeed.”

“Yeah, that’s what you always say…” More grousing.

“We have only a limited amount of time to triumph over all three of these challenges, and I believe we’ll cover more ground if we split up into groups. Muta, Miss Haru— the two of you start in that direction. Mr. Vanya and I shall take the opposite. Toto, see if you can discern anything from the sky.”

“A berry— even a patch of berries, might be difficult to spot from an aerial view,” Toto responds as a gentle caution. “Even in such a uniform environment.”

“I know, but there’s no harm in trying anyhow.”

Toto nods. Then, more firmly than before, “And how do you propose we find this spot again to inevitably reconvene?”

Ah, bless Toto again, Haru thinks to herself briefly, because Baron looks rather comically bemused by this question, and she and Muta and Toto (if possibly even Vanya, the newcomer that he is) know that this very important piece of information had not occurred to him while putting together his impromptu plan. He gives a pensive noise, one hand going to his chin as the other is planted on his hip.

Eventually, he glances at the trees surrounding them, appearing to have been struck by inspiration, and then removes his hat.

Wordlessly, he hangs it on one of the nearest branches, positioning it just so so it won’t slip off or blow away (though there’s not been even the slightest whisper of wind since they’d arrived). 

“Here we are. We’ll all meet back here in an hour— keep an eye on your own footprints. They’re all four of them different, and they should help to distinguish our separate paths.”

Something in Vanya’s gaze gleams as he looks to Baron’s hanging hat, though he ultimately turns away from it to rejoin the group. Instead, he hops like a particularly excited toddler to Haru and Muta (well, Haru, to be more truthful). In one of his paws is what appears to be a skewered snake or worm, which he wastes no time in handing sloppily to the teen, much to her dismay.

“For good luck! This is a traditional Oostal charm good for finding tricky things. And we need all the good luck we can get!”

Haru looks swiftly to Muta for assistance, but the cat is leaning away from her with an expression that speaks to no less than utter baffled disgust. Well. Strained gratitude it is, then, it seems.

“O-Ohh… You’re right, that’s a good idea— th-thank you.”

Vanya beams in a manner eerily reminiscent of the Cat King before scampering back over to his place beside Baron (and it’s only through their long shared history with the cat figurine that Toto and Muta both glean the subtle apprehension in his own expression, that he is mutely waiting in terror for the fox to hand him one of these traditional charms as well). Vanya neglects to do so, however, and Baron’s subdued trepidation is gone almost as soon as it’d revealed itself.

“Remember— one hour. If all else fails, Toto at least should be able to reunite us.”

With that decided, they start off in their opposite directions, Toto taking wing into the sky.

                                                          &&&

It’s terribly easy to become disoriented in the Sown Forest, Haru and Muta quickly find out. If not for their own footprints, they swiftly agree they’d have long since been wandering in tight circles and not even realized it. The seamless boundary between land and sky and tree has Haru occasionally feeling rather like she’s walking on a spinning top which also wobbles across the table.

She eventually places the skewered… animal Vanya had given her down beneath a tree, shooting Muta an injured look when he comments on it.

“Looking a gift horse in the mouth, chicky? Didn’t think you had it in ya,” he cracks with a sardonic laugh.

“I’ll pick it back up before we head back to the others! He’ll never even know. B-Because there’s no reason for me to actually carry it with me the whole time we’re looking…”

“I’m just picking on ya. You dropping that thing is gonna do wonders for my nose. Smells like a spoiled fish.” Then, with an annoyed huff, he continues, “I woulda thrown it at him— try to give me some stinky dead thing on a stick—”

“Come on, he’s not that bad,” Haru tries, but she knows she doesn’t sound all that convinced herself. And Muta’s not about to let it go without comment, either.

“You don’t sound so sure to me, kid.”

Haru turns in her spot on her heel, feeling lost and restless in a hard-to-define way. The Sown Forest is devoid of rocks and bushes entirely; it’s nothing but thin scraggly trees, and she would never have imagined before now that to scour such a nebulous landscape might prove to be so exasperating. Where does one search for a pop of color when there are no hiding places? 

“...do you get… kind of a weird feeling from Vanya..?”

“Yeah,” Muta doesn’t hesitate to respond sourly. “He’s a tiny, annoying puffball with a bad laugh.”

“N— No, I mean— like an uneasy feeling. Like something is… um, off.”

“Probably ‘cause something is off about him. I don’t trust that puffball.”

The relief Haru gains from such a simple sentence is near indeterminable. She almost leaps in victory.

“I knew it couldn’t be just me! Well, and Toto, maybe, but he was more mum on the whole thing. You know how he is.”

“A gargoyle of few words, yeah, I guess. Real annoying, if you ask me. It’d be a lot easier if everyone just said what they mean instead of hanging on to secrets to keep the peace.”

Distantly, Haru gets the distinct impression this complaint has roots beyond the borders of the current situation, and she’s not sure what to say to it.

Muta, also, seems similarly surprised at himself, and in the end, he chooses to bulldoze past it, circling a few trees in the silence and eventually speaking up, “...Anyway, this Vanya creature pipsqueak is fishy, an’ I don’t like him. I don’t know what he is. Something old. And this place is, too.”

“What about Baron? Do you think he’s being careful enough? He’s wandering around alone with Vanya right now…”

“Eh, Baron’s kind of a soft-hearted ham sometimes, but he’s no peabrain. He’ll be fine.”

“Is that really the best you can do to reassure me..?”

“What? I dunno what to tell you, chicky, it’s the truth.” 

“Yeah, but a little more optimism wouldn’t have hurt,” Haru mumbles plaintively.

“If you want, ya could bust on to the scene and rescue him from the puffball to pay him back. Hey, maybe he’ll start crushing on you, then.”

Oh, that calls for a heated blush. Haru stares down at the snow-covered ground of the Sown Forest, hands balled loosely into fists at her sides, though she’s trying desperately to play it all cool. Unfortunately, she’s never been much of an actor.

“He’s my friend— of course I don’t want him to get hurt.”

Muta’s response of the beginnings of a chaffing laugh is not well-received; Haru spins around to protest, but— 

Something comes shuffling into their space from behind a nearby tree. And something is all Haru can think to describe it as— smaller even than Vanya and Siree, with a long, snuffling snout and a soft, bean bag body. The tiny creature lacks arms or wings of any kind, giving it an awkward, waddling gait. Missing also are eyes and any noticeable ears.

Yet the strangest thing is that it appears to have been sewn together out of scraps of colorfully-patterned fabric, much like a quilt. (It triggers a memory of her mother’s handiwork, in fact, and the very idea of her mother back at home, in the real world, throws Oostal’s alienness into stark relief. She’s so terribly far from home.)

Muta and Haru watch the little thing waddle between them and then down the way from them in silence before looking back to each other.

“What is it, Muta?” Haru asks. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“What, you never had a stuffed animal before?”

“Stuffed animals don’t walk, Muta,” Haru responds with a huff.

“Eh, shows what you know.”

Whatever response Haru might have had to this lazy red herring abruptly trails off, because the funny little creature, having paused for a brief moment, now drops its floppy snout onto the ground and continues on in a faintly opposite direction, snorting softly the whole way.

“It must be one of the rumored inhabitants of the Sown Forest, right?”

“Yeh. Bet it’ll lead us to those rumored holly berries, too, if we’re careful about it.”

“Now you’re starting to sound like Baron.”

Muta darts out from beside her with a faint derisive groan. “Remind me to scratch you later for that one.”

                                                          &&&

Following a colorful (albeit very small) waddling quilt animal through an otherwise blinding array of white snow and sky proves to be astonishingly more difficult than either Muta or Haru would have expected. More than once they somehow lose sight of the thing, only to have to stop and strain their ears for its characteristic snuffling breaths. 

“It has two little stick legs and waddles like a sedated duck,” Muta complains at one point when they’ve lost it again. “How do we keep losin’ track of it?!”

“Hold on— Muta, I hear it again. It sounds really close.” Then, after a few seconds spent listening, she adds, “...Actually, it… sounds a little like it’s eating something, doesn’t it?”

This is all Muta seems to need to hear before turning on his heel and starting the opposite way.

“Where are you going?” Haru calls after him.

“I’m out!” He hollers back. “Nothing good comes outta anything that involves weird creatures feasting on stuff, I don’t care what it’s actually— woah!!”

“What is it— Muta, what’s wrong?” Haru dashes in the direction of his voice, fearing the worst. Yet she finds him with little difficulty, and in one piece, poised in the same horrified position a housewife might take were she confronted with a trail of muddy footprints across a formerly pristine linoleum floor.

At his feet, so close he could stretch out a paw and tip the little thing over were he so inclined, is the patchwork animal they’d been struggling to track… and the good luck charm Haru had abandoned earlier, which appears a little worse for the wear.

Muta dashes behind her with an unsteady gait, complaining the entire way. “Ughh, it’s even worse than what I was thinking—!”

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Haru tries, even as she takes a repulsed step back at the faint sound of tearing meat and flinches. “...it’s still pretty bad, though.”

It’s as they’re watching from a couple paces away that the little thing lifts its ostensible head to… well, scrutinize them, Haru supposes, though it lacks the eyes to do so. Perhaps there is another, hidden sense that allows it to see in a less traditional manner.

Your trade is acceptable.

Haru can’t quite place it, how she Knows that this is what the creature before Muta and her is communicating, as it hadn’t spoken aloud, nor does she hear the words echoing in her mind as one might expect of a bizarre display of telepathy. Yet, still, the resounding statement is clear.

“O-Oh—” She starts, and her voice is like an echoing gunshot in the silence of the forest, which leads her to whisper her next words, “We’re, um, glad you like it.”

Then, as they watch, it drops its head again and continues tearing delicate slivers off the charm, seemingly oblivious to their presence again.

“Well, now what?” Muta says at her feet. He’s still eyeing the patchwork creature with no small measure of antipathy, but he’s at least not subtly hiding behind Haru anymore.

“I guess we… wait for it to finish..?”

“Great.” Muta sits down with an annoyed huff. “Doesn’t it know we’re on a tight schedule here?”

Haru laughs, but it’s tinged with a speck of nervousness.

If not for the unmistakable noise of flapping wings over the ever present hum of the forest, the resultant wind would certainly give Toto’s arrival away— there’s been not even the barest hint of a breeze since they’ve been searching. The crow perches atop a nearby tangle of branches, cocking his head in a distinctly avian fashion at the creature they’ve run across.

“Ha, looks like you’ve found one of the inhabitants.”

“What was your first clue?”

“The quilt creature down there, mostly.”

Muta, again feeling indirectly bested, only grumbles lowly to himself and crosses his arms. Instead, Haru speaks up.

“It’s taking this good luck charm as a trade for the berry. At least, that’s what it sounded like to me. I guess it’ll… um, show us the way once it’s finished..? I’m not sure how it works.”

“Sounds plausible to me. Baron and Vanya are some ways off in that direction,” Toto also adds, gesturing with his wing. “I’ll go to let them know they can stop searching, and bring them here. Be right back!”

Haru and Muta watch him take off, and for a little while until he’s too far in the distance for them to make out, before turning back to their… companions. It seems in their distraction, more of the little quilt animals had arrived, attracted no doubt by the scent of the ‘good luck charm’ Haru had laid down before the tree.

“They really like this icky stuff, don’t they?” Haru muses in an almost-laugh.

Muta pokes one of them on the top of its soft head, causing it to lose its balance and fall to the side. Grudgingly, he sets it rightside up again. “...Guess that little pipsqueak knew what he was talking about, after all.”

                                                        &&&

Elsewhere, Toto’s return trip hits an unforeseen, somewhat bizarre snag.

“The Very Pretty Vanya Creature does not fly through the air like an unsolicited blown kiss!” 

Baron and Toto share a puzzled, if slightly frazzled, look between them.

“Mr. Vanya, I sympathize if it’s a matter of a… ah, disdain for heights, but the time limit with which we’ve been burdened is perpetually ticking down, and we ought to do all we can to minimize wasted time,” Baron first tries.

“I’m a very careful flier, too. I promise you’ll have your feet on solid ground in no time at all,” Toto also adds.

But Vanya only shakes his head. “It is no matter of fear!” He begins in a manner that says fear is exactly the matter. “It is the principle! Pretty Vanya has no wings. He was meant to stay on the ground.”

It seemed there would be no convincing him. Baron turns to Toto.

“Toto, do you think then that you could fly a little ways overhead and guide us to the others? If we hurry, perhaps we’ll still make good time.”

Before them, Vanya wrings his paws fretfully before finally throwing one arm across his eyes and crying out, “Pretty Vanya must be left behind! He is the millstone dragging everyone else down!”

“N-Now— Mr. Vanya, please, don’t despair—”

“The Most Helpful Bureau must leave me behind,” Vanya insists again, this time without his face hidden, fixing Baron with a determined look. “I said it before, didn’t I? The Pretty Vanya Creature will meet you there in no time, because he is very fast.”

Faced with Vanya’s clear obstinate refusal and the added stress of a ticking clock, it doesn’t take long for Baron to give in, though the veneer of reluctance lingers over him still.

“V… Very well, Mr. Vanya. If you do insist. We’ll go on without you.”

"You will. But there's no reason to worry. It'll be all okay!"

"...Yes. Of course. Be careful."

As they’re flying away, Toto speaks up. “Do you think he’ll make it?”

Baron seems reluctant to answer, gaze distant and unfocused. Coupled with his stilted posture, it gives him the look of someone who is quite diligently trying to avoid jumping to an unpleasant conclusion.

“...It doesn’t matter,” he eventually responds quietly. “I suppose it’s not something which overtly needs his presence.”

“What about covertly?”

“Then we shall hope for the best.”

                                                          &&&

True to Toto’s ultimately fruitless attempts at reassurance, it seems only a matter of seconds when they have their feet back on solid ground, spotting Muta and Haru from the air easily enough and touching down just shy of them in the hopes of not startling the by now bristling crowd of tiny quilted animals surrounding the other two.

“Eh? Where’s the pipsqueak?”

“He chose to find his own way to our location,” Baron first explains in his impeccable manner.

“Scared of heights,” is Toto’s more honest addition.

Muta turns back to the quilt animals with an unimpressed scowl. “Figures. Just make us do all the dirty work.”

“Now, Muta, a genuine fear of heights is nothing to brush off.”

“Yeah, if it’s genuine…” Mumbled under his breath, but distinct enough for them all to hear, and that Baron (nor the other two) step in to offer a defense is telling… but also serves at least to inform them all that they’re all four on the same page.

“What about these little guys? Have they brought up the trade or the berry again?”

“No. I think they wanted to finish off the, um… trade first,” Haru says, looking from Baron and Toto to the gathering of quilt animals scattered about before them. She sits crouched on her haunches with her elbows on her thighs, gazing out at their odd companions with the same detached but amiable curiosity one might reserve for a child’s play.

“Can they really stretch out that one sticky charm enough for this many to have a bite of it?” She eventually notes with some incredulous amusement.

“They’re sure gonna try,” Muta snorts.

Finally, as they watch, in the distance it looks as if there are languid waves in the sea of brightly-colored patchwork, divots in the throng that speak to the movement of only a few individuals while the others part to let them pass.

It doesn’t take long; they soon find themselves approached for an apparent audience with a… particularly diminutive individual which separates from the group, one which also appears to have been adorned with a tattered shawl thrown over its body, which trails like a leaden weight after it (though upon closer inspection, this threadbare train is simply part of the little thing’s frame).

Some of the seams on its patchwork appear to be coming undone. Distantly, Haru wonders what will happen should they truly do so, and— quite swiftly derails her own thoughts before they can wander down distressing paths.

Strikingly, also, unlike the others, this one has been endowed with an eye— a single coffee-colored iris in startlingly familiar, human-shaped white sclera. Situated somewhat strangely off-centered atop its tapered, drooping head, it stares vacantly ahead, half-lidded.

The four of them feel themselves scrutinized by this seeming elder; even Muta has no complaint to offer in an attempt to hurry the process along.

Only one.

Haru can’t quite place it, how she Knows that this is what the little creature before them all is communicating, as it hadn’t spoken aloud, nor does she hear the words echoing in her mind as one might expect of a bizarre display of telepathy. Yet, still, the resounding caveat is clear.

Baron nods stiffly, appearing to have been caught off-guard in the same way the rest of them had. “Yes. Just the one.”

The quilt-like creature responds with some erratic, floppy movements that vaguely resemble an affirmative nod before placing the tapered end of its cloth snout into Baron’s hands, where it drops a single round, bright red berry. It’s about the size of a particularly plump blueberry, though it seems quite larger in Baron’s gloved hands. Seemingly satisfied, the little animal turns then, and begins to waddle away.

“Thank you,” Haru thinks to call after it.

Not too far into the future, they will all four find themselves remembering this particular phrase and wonder furiously why such an innocuous one seemed to have such a profound effect upon the Sown Forest’s minuscule inhabitants. For now, however, it’s little more than a curiosity, when the creature abruptly stops with an accompanying jerk, and then goes quite still.

The others surrounding them, too, copy this one’s motions.

“Uhh, I don’t like the look of that—” Muta starts, but he’s rather abruptly cut off by a hoarse, low-pitched bark which echoes through their surroundings. The four of them instinctively back up in alarm, a sentiment which only grows upon witnessing the little things begin convulsing, tossing their heads into the air and then back down, all the while emitting those same short roars like a baleful staccato.

“That’s loud—”

“I think it’s time we took our leave,” Baron says (he makes a motion to steady his hat, only to belatedly realize he’d left it behind). He’d liked that hat.

No sooner have they turned on their collective tails and fled that the Sown Forest’s inhabitants scuttle and crawl after them in whatever way they can, and despite their obvious disadvantages, the little things are startlingly adept at keeping up with them. Haru doesn’t have the nerve to give their pursuers the thorough, lingering look she wants, too intent on making sure her pounding steps remain even and sound, but the tight-knit mob’s thunderous pursuit is impossible to mistake. It’s not long before panicked discouragement sets in. To everyone’s surprise, it’s Baron who speaks up first.

“We won’t be outrunning them on foot—”

“Good thing we have a gargoyle chicken, then, isn’t it?!” Muta snaps, then calls to said ‘gargoyle chicken,’ “Hey, birdbrain—!”

“Toto’s many good and admirable things, Muta, but I doubt even he is strong enough to carry a full-grown human—”

Haru, overhearing this, burns with the inclination to wildly apologize, all too aware of the cracks of the trees and the deafening crunch of packed snow behind them. She bows her head in remorse, feeling fervently in this moment that her decision to tag along really had been a mistake. She’s so close to contemplating how far she might get should she separate from the group and divert the creatures away… when she notices something rather strange.

“Wait—” Haru gasps, glancing down to herself in a bewildered fashion, so much so that for a fleeting second she stops in her tracks and has to be tugged along by Baron. “I’m not the same size I was— when did I get this small—?!”

Baron sounds just as bewildered when he answers, though he at least moves past it, ��Let’s not kick a gift horse, now— Toto!”

“Got it!”

If Toto at all struggles with the effort to carry all three of them, even if Haru has been unexplainably shrunken, then he’s quite gifted with hiding it. He takes off into the air with them, far above the swarming quilt creatures, with no less agility than he usually does, and Baron and Haru spend the next few moments surveying the horde raptly.

“Ya just had to thank them, didn’t you?” Comes Muta’s complaint from his not altogether eager spot in Toto’s talons.

“I was just trying to be polite!” Haru counters just as plaintively, but even she sounds at least a little remorseful. “What kind of place takes words of gratitude as an offense..?”

“They don’t show any signs of slowing down,” Baron notes.

“Are they really gonna chase us all the way to the border?! They barely have the legs to run! You really steamed them with that gratitude BS, chicky.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Haru laments.

“We know you didn’t, Haru, “ Toto tries to reassure.

“Ah, it’s Vanya,” Baron says with a nod in the fox’s direction; he looks quite small (smaller than usual, that is) from their height, rapidly looking between them in the air and the horde of… well, what look to be furious blankets swarming the forest below them. He’s motioning frantically to them to come closer, to land as quickly as they can.

“Is he crazy?! There’s no way we’re landing that close to the forest— if he doesn’t make a break for it, he’s gonna get smothered, too,” Muta says.

Seemingly as an exasperated response to their stubbornness, Vanya points to the forest behind them with an agitated zealousness, or, perhaps more specifically, the perimeter which is teeming with untold numbers of the tiny quilt creatures. The vast majority of them pace behind the line of trees, fretful and overwrought; the unfortunate few that have accidentally tumbled beyond it lie scattered and twitching on the snow-covered ground like marooned fish.

“What’s wrong with them..?”

“Looks like they can’t go beyond the trees,” Toto guesses.

When they land, still uneasy from the agitated mass of patchwork continuing to obsessively tread back and forth just a scant stone’s throw away, Vanya is swift to bound over to them, practically throwing himself at Baron and wrapping his arms around the Creation. If Baron had appeared disconcerted at the mere possibility of being given one of Vanya’s messy luck charms, he’s downright alarmed when being in no uncertain terms ‘glomped’ by the same creature.

“You made it! Pretty Vanya was worried!”

“What’s wrong with the forest’s inhabitants, Vanya?”

Vanya lets Baron go (much to his evident relief) and cants his head in thought.  “The Sown Forest exists as a powerful transformative milieu. Stay too long and one becomes part of it. The inhabitants can’t leave it.”

“What will happen to the ones that accidentally fell out of bounds?” Haru asks, glancing to the small number of quilt animals still lying pitifully just out of reach of the border of trees.

“They will die,” Vanya answers with a shrug. “Eventually.”

“But that’s awful! Can’t we just push them back into the forest..? Will they go back to normal then?”

“Yes.” Vanya sounds confused.

“Then that’s what I’ll do,” Haru says, starting for the border with a marked lack of hesitation. “There aren’t that many— it shouldn’t take long, should it?”

“Even less with assistance,” Baron agrees shortly, following after her.

“I guess we’re doing this now.” Muta, as well, trails after the two with a sullen grumble.

“Cheer up, kitty, exercise is good for you.”

“Don’t make me cook you.”

Behind them, Vanya, still holding Baron’s hat as if it were a priceless artifact, watches them leave with a hard to define look, moving just a foot or two from side to side (but never so much as a half-step forward). His tail twitches and flutters in a manner quite reminiscent of an inquisitive squirrel, with the searching mien to accompany it, but he ultimately says nothing and seems to content himself with killing time.

[ro-visiting-the-bureau]

TCR BDB 2020 Day 3: Bloopers

My only complete prompt for far this year, though I hope to finish some more before the week it out. Inspiration for these bloopers comes from the Game of Thrones and Xena Warrior Princess blooper reels. Enjoy!

Thank you for purchasing season one of “Spring and Wesley”, the hit spinoff of “Games of the Warrior Princess”. Included with your download is several behind the scenes featurettes, including a blooper reel. Enjoy the show!

~

Select -> Cast List

~

Cast List

Spring ….. Haru Yoshioka Wesley ….. Baron Von Gikkingen Lady Stephanie ….. Persephone Kore Sir Keldary of Engal ….. Louise Von Gikkingen Sir Nicholas of Vern ….. Lune Felinus Ravenscroft ….. Toto Corvo Maude ….. Renaldo “Muta” Moon Therrault ….. Natoru Hamada Daisy ….. Hiromi Takanori

~

Select -> Blooper Reel

~

Scene: Spring and Wesley are sparring with quarterstaffs in a field outside the village. 

Spring: [Twirls the staff in her hands] I won’t go easy on you, you know.

Wesley: [Smirks, gets into a ready stance] Since when do you ever?

The two face off, starting slow, but gradually speeding up until the staffs are basically blurs in the air. Then one of them makes a misstep, and Spring’s staff hits Wesley’s ankle, sending him sprawling. 

Unfortunately, Baron fell forward instead of backwards and fell on top of Haru.

Haru: Whaa! [starts laughing as she hits the ground.]

~

Scene: Lady Stephanie is passing a letter to her trust messenger Ravenscroft, to be taken to Spring and Wesley.

Lady Stephanie: This letter is of most import. [Stands and turns to hand it to Ravenscroft.] You will deliver it with post haste, else we all are-

Persephone: Did I just say “post haste”? 

Director (Offscreen): Yeah.

[Toto and several others chuckle.]

Persephone: [Censored] Let’s try again. [Sits back in her chair]

~

Scene: Sir Nicholas of Verne is riding through the village with his guards,  sneering at the people around him. 

Nicholas: Look at these peasants. Filthy, unwashed. But they serve their purpose. 

Therrault: And what is that, sir?

[A long beat.]

Lune: They make me forget my lines.

[Cast and crew start laughing as Lune turns his horse around to reset the scene]

~

Scene: A compilation of actors calling for “Line”

Haru: [Sitting on a low wall with Hiromi] This war isn’t going to end de-blem-ah- Line!

Muta: [Kneeling on a muddy road with guards around] Line!

Louise: [In a castle courtyard in armor] Line!

Toto: [Wheezing laughter] Line, please!

~

Scene: A battle at the castle, Maude and Ravenscroft are facing off against some soldiers and get surrounded

Maude: Well, featherhead, what are our odds?

Ravenscroft: We’re tired, we’re outnumbered, and our weapons are close to breaking. 

Maude: And?

[A beat]

Toto: [Turns around and runs off] All yours, lardball!

Muta: Hey, get back here!

[Cast and crew laugh]

~

Scene: Maude is chopping firewood as Wesley, Spring and Daisy sit nearby.

Wesley: Until we hear from Lady Stephanie, we have no way of knowing when to attack.

Spring: And what if she can’t get a message out. What if Sir Nicholas- 

[Maude’s ax gets stuck in a log despite his attempt to dislodge it.]

Muta: Goddamn it! [Smacks the log against the stump]

[Cast and crew laugh]

~

Scene: Compilation of characters sliding or tripping.

Haru: [Slips on a slick spot of grass, just catches herself].

Nicholas: [Walking down the castle’s gatehouse steps] Place watchers on the battlements. I want to know the second- 

Lune: [Slips on a step and cuts himself off.]

Toto: [Trips on a rock in the woods and falls to the ground]

Louise: [Performs a complicated sword movement, loses balance and falls on her butt]

~

Scene: Castle battle, Wesley is fighting against a soldier. 

Wesley: Aragh! [Swings sword at the soldier’s shield.]

[The sword bounces off the shield and out of his hand.]

Baron: [Looks at where the sword fell, then back to the soldier.] Best two of three, right? [Puts up fists in a boxer’s pose.]

~

Scene: Spring fighting against some bandits in the wood. Most are already defeated.

Bandit Leader: I’ll rip your heart out girl! [Gets stabbed from behind]

Wesley: How about no?

[Bandit Leader drops to the ground, Spring and Wesley look from him to each other.]

Haru: You stole my kill.

Baron: You got five of them- [Breaks down laughing]

~

Scene: Sir Keldary and her men are about to go on a ride.

Keldary: Riders, mount!

[The men all successfully mount, except one guy whose horse spun around and he fell off the other side.]

Soldier: I’m okay!

[Cast and crew laugh]

~

Scene: A festival in the village, Spring, Daisy, Wesley and Maude are dancing a reel with the crowd

Spring: [Switches partners, but instead of ending up dancing with Wesley, ends up with Pendragon the Wizard]

Haru: Aren’t you supposed to be in Vale by now?

Howl: Oh, wrong show! [Runs out of the dancing crowd]

Director: Cut!

[Cast and crew laugh]

~

Scene: Sir Keldary sneaks into Sir Nicholas’s room to stab him in his sleep. The covers are drawn over his head so he’s not visible

Sir Keldary: [Stabs into the covers]

Lune: Ahhh!

Louise: AHHH! [Jumps back from the bed and drops the knife]

[Lune sits up as the cast and crew laugh]

Louise: I’m telling your mom on you!

Persephone (Offscreen): Who do you think planned it?

~

Scene: The start of the castle battle, Sir Keldary stands with her men to fight Sir Nicholas’s.

Louise: [Lightly dusts off the corner of her eyes and gets in position right before the marker goes down.]

~

Scene: Castle battle, Maude is charging a soldier into a “wooden” scaffold, which is supposed to collapse on top of the soldier

Maude: Arrraagh! [Charges and slams the soldier into the scaffold, but slips and crashes into it with him.]

[Scaffold falls on them]

Muta: I meant to do that!

~

Scene: Lady Stephanie is holding court in her main hall, Sir Nicholas and Sir Keldary standing on either side of her. 

Nicholas: My lady, I insist that you listen to reason. 

Louise: You have reason?

Nicholas: Can you not be silent for five minutes?

Louise: That’s not what your mom said last night.

Persephone: [Breaks down laughing, bending over in her seat] We’re… recording...

Lune: Please don’t talk about your sex life in front of me. 

~

Scene: Castle batle, Spring has just arrived at the gates on a horse and sees all the chaos

Haru: [Turns to the camera] That’s all, folks!

[tcrmommabear]

Merry Christmas Cinder!

@deadbonessinderhellaton, yours hit me like a golf club, and I was simply at its whim.

It’s rare when one prompt speaks to me so strongly. Two at the same time is almost unheard of. Yours (sort of) has three prompts.

How did Haru end up running the Bureau? + Faustian Bargain/Deal with the Devil + “Ghosts are like relatives”

I struggled so hard with this, until the format finally hit me. And then yours was done and I wanted a full fic. I hope you enjoy this as much as I had writing it!

Cobblestone was cold. Cobblestone was familiar.

Cobblestone was pressed against her cheek and that’s not exactly where it should be.

Where should it be? Where should she be?

Images popped into mind, bubbling forth from somewhere familiar but blocked. Names, places, words, feelings. A slideshow before her eyes, leading her to where she needed to be.

Horror crashed through her.

“No!”

***

“Baron! Watch out!”

She yanked him arm, fire singeing her hands as it roared past them. They pressed up against the wall, listening to the dragon inhale, rumbling growl rattling through their bones.

They glanced at each other. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, hot and jittery, and she couldn’t stop the wide grin she gave him. His own almost matched the intensity of hers, breath heavy.

“That’s one way to get his attention,” she joked. His grin grew wider.

“Well, we’ve certainly got it now.”

***

She settled her life in places that she could. A goodbye note here, hints of life there.

A tearful goodbye with her mother that didn’t keep. She inserted herself into her life as much as she could, all the way up to the end. Sat on the couch, like she was a teenager again, coming home from a date or a party.

Instead she came home from life or death situations.

Except the second one wasn’t even an option.

***

She strained to hear, effectively pinned into place.

His voice was there, it was just out of reach, and she couldn’t stop him.

“... Everything. Do you swear on that?” he asks, voice colder than she had ever heard it. Harsher, demanding, authoritative.

“Don’t-!” she screamed out, but the words muffled against her lips and barely cut through whatever was holding her back.

They looked at her, two faces eerily similar. Except for two little horns curling from the one on the right’s temples. That one gave a splitting grin, flesh cracking. Cheshire.

Devilish.

It was in front of her, and she caught it all in full, watched the head tilt. The voice warped, familiar cloaked in nightmares. Turned its body to give the other a hand to shake, head still locked onto her.

“Do you swear?” he demanded again, hand just hovering out of reach.

The other forcibly clasped it, giving it a shake.

“Every damn day,” it told her.

***

“Look out!” she roared, dashing towards the young woman almost caught in flames and hissing liquid.

They tumbled to the floor, rolling as she shielded the other with her body. She wanted to howl as acid sunk into her flesh, but only grit her teeth. She could already feel herself knitting back together, bare back against the elements with the fabric of her jacket and shirt gone.

“Miss Haru…” the young woman whispered in horror, reaching up to wipe away at remnant acid still fizzing away.

“Don’t!” she blurted, catching her hand before it could touch it.

A roar sounded off in the distance, the beast running after another prospective meal. Haru slowly sat up, then stood, and finally reached down to help her client up. They glanced at each other, Haru looking around the corner to see if she could spot their monster.

“I’m so sorry Miss Haru,” the woman sniffed, drawing Haru’s attention,” I should have been more careful, you got hurt-.”

“Stop that,” Haru interjected, gripping the other’s shoulders, “you stop that right now, Miss Noelle. That thing can’t hurt me in ways that matter, and I would protect you again in a heartbeat. You’re the most important one here.”

Noelle stared up at her, and Haru briefly panicked as she saw the starstruck look appear in her eyes. Cursed herself for being too much like-.

“Chicky!” Muta slid suddenly into Haru’s line of sight, coming from a different path of the maze.

“Muta!”

“Chicken Wings has got its attention, but we gotta move,” he bellowed, rushing up and pushing the women along.

Then Toto flashed overhead. Then the beast crashed through the maze and found them again.

“Oh fuck.”

***

“Shit! Fuck! God dammit! Fucking fuck fuck!”

Another book crashed against the wall, falling to the floor and slumping with its other abused brethren. The other two in the room didn’t say anything, just watched their de facto leader curse and destroy her home.

At least, her forced home.

“Haru…” Toto spoke up, softly. A book thumped near his head. He had the decency to flinch just a little.

“Don’t even try, Toto!” she screamed, fisting the cloth of her long skirt between her hands. Tears streamed down her cheeks, matting the soft brown fur. She wiped at the furiously, releasing the now-wrinkled skirt.

Muta crossed the room without a word, pulling her roughly into his arms. She didn’t fight the hold, sinking into it with a choked back sob. He rubbed circles into her back, humming lightly until she could breath a little easier.

“I can’t… He’s gone… How do I-”

“I know kiddo,” he interrupted, “I know.”

***

“Oh,” she mumbled, pulling her hand away. It came back red.

Panic or bile rose in her throat. She couldn’t tell which. She looked up at the others. They were shouting. Calling. Baron looked so scared. She gave a loopy smile. Giggled, because what else could she do?

“Well, that’s not good.”

***

She settled into routine. Easy enough.

Wake up. Dress. Tea. Paperwork. Read. Attend to clients. Drink. Sleep.

It was a pattern, an easy dance she knew the steps by heart. She was just missing a partner.

But she couldn’t stop.

The Bureau needed someone.

She just didn’t want it to be her.

***

She made the mistake of changing into lighter clothes when she became too hot. His breath caught in his throat, scanning over the myriad of scars she’d gotten over their adventures.

“Oh, right,” she laughed, tugging her shorts down in the hopes it’d hide everything, “it’s pretty surprising to see.”

“You’re… So delicate, Haru,” he breathed out, touching the scar she’d gotten from the Devil’s claws slashing her back., though his eyes were glued to twisting flesh of her thigh. When the dragon decided she’d make for a good snack.

“Comes with being human,” she replied, shivering as he pulled his hand away. Her own hand ran up her arm, feeling the bumps and odd feeling flesh.

“Right.”

She didn’t like the look on his face.

***

“Well, case closed,” she declared, dropping the file into the stack with finality.

Next followed the clunk of a wine bottle onto the desk. Her desk, she had to remind herself. The original wasn’t coming back anytime soon. So, hers from now on.

She poured into her tea cup, swallowing a mouthful of milky tea and wine. It was disgusting, but she couldn’t be bothered to get another glass. She only had two of them left, after all these years. Curious dogs, natural catastrophes, and Muta to be blamed for her losses.

She sank back in the chair, rubbing at her temples in the hopes it would spare her the migraine. Immortal lifespan, mortal aches and pains. They just couldn’t haunt her like they did before.

“To another helped client,” she toasted the air, which quickly began to fill with the sounds of a commotion. She grimaced, turning the chair away from the door and raising her feet on the desk. Not her division.

“To another year of searching,” she finished. Another mouthful. And the same tolerance for alcohol after all these years. It was a special occasion tonight. The first in a long time she didn’t wake up and forget where she was.

The commotion grew louder outside.

***

“You’re going to need to be more specific, lass,” the witch grumbled, his eyes narrowed.

She slammed her fist on the table, standing to pace.

“I told you! Baron took me to Castle Wyvern. He pinned me with his spell, then summoned the Devil. The Devil came-!”

“I heard you the first time and every single time after, missy!” the witch shouted, “What I’m missing is what did this Baron ask for?”

“Look at me! He must have wished for me to be a Creation like him!”

“Did he wish for you to be a Creation, or have a Creation’s immortality?”

She stopped.

***

“Miss Haru?” the client, a little boy named Bertrand, asked her.

She stopped to look over at him, pausing in pouring the hot chocolate. He looked around the Bureau in wonder, before meeting her eyes again. He still was nervous around her. She couldn’t blame him. She still wasn’t used to the… New situation she was in.

“What’s up, sweets?” she prompted, plopping a snowflake shaped marshmellow in the drink.

“How’d you start the Cat Bureau? What’d you think of to give you that idea?”

She clenched her cup tightly, nails cracking into the porcelain. At least it wasn’t the… Other set.

***

The commotion grew louder outside, and Muta suddenly burst through the doors.

“Oh, don’t tell me I missed greeting another client,” Haru groaned, half out of exhaustion of the massive amount of cases lately, half out of disappointment of losing a chance to save whoever was out there from being dragged into the other Bureau members’ disputes.

“It ain’t a client, Chicky,” Muta panted, blocking the doorway, “not unless we’re taking ghosts for clients.”

“Ghosts?” Haru barked out a laugh, swirling the wine and tea combination still in her cup.

***

“I can’t risk losing her, even if it means I can never find her! Just give her everything!”

“How noble, knick-knack. Those your terms?”

“Yes. You will give her everything. Do you swear on that?”

“Every damn day.”

***

“Ghosts are like relatives, Muta, honestly,” she laughed at first, before it fell into almost disappointed whining. Still swirling that tea cup, hoping to keep herself from seeing her reflection.

“Chicky-”

***

“I didn’t actually start the Cat Bureau, Bertrand.”

“But you’re in charge of it?”

“Mmhmm, the one who created the Cat Bureau, well…”

***

“Once you let them in, Muta, Muta, dearest Muta, you just can’t get rid of them.”

“Chicky-!”

“Oh honestly, calm down. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a ghost at the Sanctuary. Certainly enough of them here in this house. What did they say?”

***

“I inherited it from them.”

“Did they die?”

***

Forest was unfamiliar. Forest was cold.

Forest was pressed against his cheek.

Part of him told him that he should be concerned.

That this wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

He just didn’t know who “he” was.

***

“No. Maybe. I don’t know.”

***

“Chicky, it’s-!”

“Hello?” a voice asked, a head poking around Muta. The tea cup clattered against the desk, ruining the paperwork she’d spent all night doing.

Ginger hair, dark freckled face, so obviously not from around here.

Mint green eyes.

“I’m looking for the Cat Bureau? I was hoping I could get-.”

“Name,” she hissed. Wood splintered under her nails. “What’s your name?!”

He jerked back, confused and afraid.

***

“Who were they? What was their name? Are they that cat in the painting?”

“Oh no, that was someone else. But his name was…”

***

“Humbert. Humbert von Gikkingen”

[skullsandfairylights]

Writer’s Month 2019

Day 26: Trope Prompt: wedding

Life for Haru after her adventure in the Cat Kingdom, was very normal. After saying goodbye to her friends at the Bureau, Haru returned home to her normal life, with a few adjustments. Her adventure allowed her to mature, allowed her to accept her responsibilities, allowed her to grow up and take more control of her life. She continued to play lacrosse – the team was really well equipped after selling off some of the spare sticks – and she continued to spend her free time with friends.

           She got on with her life and let her adventure fade back into her memories.

           At least until one night, more than half a year later.

 She had just finished practice for the night and was on her way home when she began to get the feeling that she was being followed. She felt a gaze on her back as she wound through the streets. Glancing behind her, she saw nothing. Just the dark alleyways and empty streets illuminated by streetlights. Seeing this, she powered on, focusing on the path ahead while also listening closely for anything behind her.  

           The feeling followed her all the way back to her house and only vaguely subsided when she made it inside. Haru greeted her mother who was busy, working away at another quilt, and went to the kitchen to brew a pot of tea. She pulled her mother away from her work just long enough to have a cup of tea each and share the day’s events.

           It was only when Haru retired to her bedroom that she figured out what was causing the feeling. There, sitting on her pillow was an elegant, cream-coloured envelope with golden accents. A cool breeze blew in from the open window.

           Haru was written in calligraphy on the envelope. The young girl gently pulled the parchment free.

           “Dearest Haru,

           We hope that this finds you well. Since your visit to the Cat Kingdom, we are please to inform you that the King has announced his intention to relinquish the throne to Prince Lune in the coming months. However, we have decided to celebrate our union before this happens and as such, we would be honoured if you would accept our invitation to the wedding. It would mean the world to us both if you attended.

           After previous events, we would completely understand if you do not feel it wise to attend but please rest assured, that if you agree to come, then you will be treated as our most honoured guest. We shall do everything within our power to ensure your safety. You are also welcome to secure any precautions of your own. Anything which would allow you to feel safe enough to join in our celebrations.

           An attendant shall be on call to receive your decision, whenever you are ready.

           With all of our love,

           Prince Lune and Yuki”

           Haru pulled the invitation to her chest as she felt the tears in her eyes. The memories which had faded into the background all came bursting forward. She could feel the warm sunlight in the field from when she first arrived with Muta. She could feel the secure weight of the ball gown she was given to wear. She could smell the food from the feast. She could feel the strong reassurance as Baron had taken her hand – paw – and swept her round and round the ballroom. She felt the rushing of wind through her hair as she walked on a staircase of birds back to her regular life. She felt the acute pain in her chest that one feels when they lose a friend.

           She missed Yuki and Prince Lune. She wanted nothing more than to attend their wedding. But the idea of the King being there made her nervous, she didn’t quite trust him.

           But there was someone that she did trust. And she expected that, to get his help, all she had to do was ask.

           Tap tap!

           Haru startled and spun around to face her bedroom window. There, peering in through the glass, was a familiar feline face. A small paw came up and tapped again on the window. Haru rushed over and opened the latch, allowing the small cat to scurry inside.

           “Miss Haru, wonderful to see you again!”

           “And you, Natoru.” Haru greeted, bowing slightly. Then she paused, “You’re not going to ‘cat’-nap me again, are you?”

           “Oh, no, not at all, Miss Haru.” Natoru replied. “His Highness, Prince Lune sent me to receive your answer to their invitation.” The cat smiled, “So, what is your answer?”

           “Well, I would love to go!”

           “Great! I’ll go and let them know right away!” Natoru made to rush back out the window, but Haru was quick and just managed to grab at his tail.

           “Wait! Before you go!”

           “Yes?”

           Haru wrung her hands. “Do you think that Yuki and Prince Lune would mind if I brought someone with me?”

           Natoru blinked at her. “They said in their letter that you were welcome to do anything to make yourself comfortable. I don’t see why not.”

           “Then could you wait a day? I want to make sure that he can come before I accept.”

           Natoru nodded. “I shall come back again tomorrow evening, then. For now, I shall return to the kingdom and relay the news.” Then, in a flash, Natoru jumped out of the window and disappeared into the night.

 The next morning, after breakfast and tea with her mother, Haru ventured out into town. She headed down familiar streets, idly staring into shop windows as she passed. When she reached the café where she had first met Muta, she surveyed all the tables and seats but saw no sign of the fat cat. Letting her shoulders drop, she made her way inside the café and ordered herself a drink and a small fine piece then she settled herself down at a table outside.

           And she waited.

           And waited.

           She went through three more drinks before her friend finally showed up. The large white cat slowly plodded up along the street. He paused on the corner and scanned the tables before selecting one, sitting in the sun. Standing up on his hind legs, Muta reached up onto the seat and, with more than a little bit of huffing and puffing, pulled himself up. There, he kneaded and walked in a circle before flopping down on his stomach.

           Haru watched from her seat for a few minutes, looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to her. When the coast was clear, she got up from her seat and moved over to sit at the table.

           “Hello Muta.” She greeted, trying to look like she wasn’t talking to a cat.

           Muta grunted and groaned before he opened one eye to look at his companion. When he realised who it was, he opened both eyes and lifted his head to look at her properly. “Haru. What are you doing here?”

           “I was hoping to visit the Bureau. Could you show me the way?” Muta grumbled loudly but pushed himself up and slid down from the seat.

           “Alright, fine. Come on.” And then he turned and started off down the street, leaving Haru to hurry after him.

           The route was familiar yet not as she stumbled over her own feet. The scenery blurred past as she focused on Muta and following his every step. With every step, she began to feel a pulsing in the air, feeling the static electric tingle of magic, it got stronger, the closer they got.

           And then Muta was waltzing through the archway and Haru stumbling through. Muta dropped down onto his bench, “You know the drill, I’ll be here when you want to go home.” Then he pulled out a newspaper and crossed one leg over the other. Haru nodded once before turning her gaze towards the Bureau.

           She kneeled down and peered in through the window. There was the Baron, frozen in the window, all elegant porcelain and bright painted eyes. She smiled and gently knocked on the door. “Baron?” She called.

           The lights in the square dimmed, a pure brighter light shining over the tops of the buildings encompassing the area. The lights pulsed and shone, creating a light show overhead. As it rose up, got bigger and brighter, suddenly, Muta grumbled, “Knock it off already, she’s already seen the light show!” and then everything stopped. And the door opened.

           Out stepped the cat figurine, now fully animated and alive. He looked around and settled his gaze on Haru. “Miss Haru! What a pleasure it is to see you again!”

           “And you, Baron. I’ve missed you.”

           Baron smiled warmly. “I have a feeling that this is not just a social call. You have a problem for the Bureau to solve?”

           “It’s not exactly a problem, but I do have a request.”

           “Well then, why don’t you come in and we can talk over a cup of tea?”

           So Haru – now small enough to enter – followed Baron into the Bureau and settled down onto one of the sofas as a pot of tea was put on. Toto and Muta soon followed them in and all four of them were soon engaged in a friendly catch-up, discussing what everyone had been up to during their time apart.

           Eventually, Haru’s request came to the front of the conversation and she explained how Prince Lune and Yuki had sent her an invitation and how she would only feel safe if she had company with her. After asking them to accompany her, they all agreed – though Muta took a bit more coercion. They arranged for Haru to visit the Bureau a few hours before the wedding was supposed to start, so that they could all be transported to the Cat Kingdom together.

-=[Additional Notes]=-

So this is more wedding invite rather than a wedding but I started this yesterday and since the muse has run away from me. One day I’ll come back and complete it. 

[chez-pezeater]

TCR Birthday Bash 2018

[catinthesewing-blog]

Panicing Baron headcanon

So I’ve had an absolutely wonderful couple of weeks.  (l’ll just leave the empty bucket of sarcasm here in case you missed it dripping from the last sentence.)  So among other things I missed to-become-wind’s liveblog of The Cat Returns.  It’s delightful, take a read.  (Incidentally, I’ve noticed a few people saying they have a copy with better subtitles than the crap ones that just echo Disney’s dub instead of being even close to a translation; can anyone drop me a hint about how they got that?  Is there a new version of the DVD with better subs or what?)

It’s really worth seeing it with a good translation.  Disney’s just loses so much character.  Not talking about the sub/dub acting argument, just good translations matter.

MORE importantly: we have confirmed canon that Baron confesses (sorta.  kinda) then jumps off the roof.  And Catsafari’s ficlet with Baron and Haru both having kissed friends where Haru admits Lousie is attractive to her.

Picture this!  Everyone’s been trying to get Haru and Baron together.  For like, a year.  Maybe two.  They’ve got everything sorted, size change amulets, disguise for when Baron wants to meet Haru’s Mum, whatever.  Haru’s been adventuring with the crew, probably had a couple with Louise and Sephie that Baron only knew (and freaked out about) afterwards.

But he’s too awkward too spit it out.  They keep ending up in perfect romantic confession places (sometimes, okay, often set up by the others) and everytime he cute-awkwards something instead of “I love you” or even “let’s date” and then his brain panics and he just jumps off a roof again.

Baron trudging back into the Bureau, tail sagging, ears drooping, cane and hat clutched in one hand.  Louise looks up from the poker table and sighs, “Not again!  Tell me you didn’t jump off a roof again.”

“I made five revolutions,” he mutters into the teacup Muta hands him.  The big cat can’t even laugh at this point.  It’s just too pathetic.

“Did you tell her?”

“Five. Revolutions.”

“Damn it Baron!”  And at this point Louise decides her precious little drama llama needs a little more impetous to move the relationshp along.  After all, he always performs best in a crisis.  So she talks with Haru, and they pretend that Haru and Louise are dating.  And falling hard for each other.  Madly.  Passionately.  Maybe even do the crappy rom-com/sopa opera thing, with Sephie either being despondent or crazy jealous fight, Baron bursting in to stop a ‘wedding’.

And everyone just smiles and says, “Finally!”

So later drinking games Muta and Toto can tease them about Haru and Baron having both kisssed Louise, and Louise and Sephie can just respond that they were perfectly happy that Baron finally pulled his thumb out, but they’d be okay if Haru ever wanted to be more ‘friendly’, and Baron freaks out because he still remembers how he almost totally screwed up.

And maybe later they’re all just really close family-freinds or they’re in a happy poly group and Baron laughs about how freaked out he was about everything.

[catsafarithewriter]

“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m ninety percent sure you grabbed the wrong person." 

A/N: I immediately thought of this post with this concept a la haunted house attraction, ironically before we started discussing Disney’s Haunted Mansion on Discord. Anyway, human AU (for reasons that will be clear), enjoy!

x

This was the last time Haru would let Hiromi talk her into something. 

“It’d be fun,” she’d said.

“Different,” she’d promised.

“Exciting,” she’d wheedled. 

So far, the only point Hiromi had been right on was different. If she had included dark and cold, she would have had three for three. 

In her designated nook of the haunted house attraction, Haru lurked. She was rather good at lurking, she reckoned, and would be capable of lurking for a good few hours longer. Which was just as well, since that was what this summer job was paying her to do. 

She resisted the urge to scratch her nose. The face paint itched something awful and hadn’t lessened, despite what her supervisor had assured. A monochromatic design of black and white had sunk her face into skeleton outline; simplistic but effective in the gloom of the corridors. At least she hadn’t had to apply the fake sores and open wounds that Hiromi - albeit rather gleefully - had needed to administer.

The shuffling of feet and shushed voices announced the arrival of her next victims. She hunkered down into her shadow an watched as the guests - a young couple with the guy making a show of going first - rounded the corner, waiting until they were just passing before giving a pointed cough. 

The lights flickered, momentarily illuminating her face and its otherworldly makeup, and there was a scream as the guests fled onto the next corridor, dissolving into giggles as they vanished. 

Haru couldn’t help herself she grinned as she returned to lurking. Okay, maybe Hiromi hadn’t been entirely wrong. It had its fun moments. 

x

This was the last time Baron would let Louise talk him into something. 

In hindsight, admittedly, the haunted house attraction would probably have been a little more enjoyable if he hadn’t taken it upon himself to stand between Muta and Toto in their group lineup. If anything, it had forced the two to shout louder at each other. 

“And I’m telling yer we’re going the wrong way!” Muta snapped. 

“It’s a haunted house. There is no wrong way,” Toto retorted. 

“If we keep going this way, we’ll jus’ end up at the beginning.”

“Do you have fluff for brains? Obviously the entrance is that way.”

“Children, children,” Persephone chided from the front. “Right now the scariest thing is how loud you two can bicker. Shut up and let the ghosts do their job.”

Louise tilted her head back to shoot them a glare. “Also we’re leading and we’re going this way.” 

Baron decided against mentioning that he had already seen one designated scarer, but they’d raised an eyebrow at the raised voices and had evidently agreed with Persephone’s assessment. 

They turned a corner and the corridor dropped into deeper darkness. Their pace slowed, senses heightening in the absence of sight. Suddenly he was aware of his hands curled around Muta and Toto’s, the shallow breaths of his companions, the shuffle of feet, the tap on his shoulder–

He froze. Muta walked into him. Toto was pulled to a halt. 

“What’s the holdup?” Muta hissed. 

“Something tapped my shoulder,” Baron whispered. 

The lights flickered into momentary blaze, but all he could see were his friends and the crossroads in the house ahead. His sister gave a tug and issued them slowly along. 

“At least it was polite ghost,” Toto offered. “It could be worse; it could have actually tried to scare us–”

The lights flickered again and everything happened at once. A shape leapt from the darkness, a blur of movement, the face of death, the roar of something animalistic and feral, and Baron lost both hands of his companions. In the passing light, he saw the others scatter down the split corridors like something out of a Scooby Doo skit and he grabbed Muta’s hand and hauled the tailend of their team after the vanishing shadow of Toto. 

He slammed into a dead end. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been Toto. He leant against the wall, still holding Muta’s hand on instinct, breathing hard and feeling a little foolish, when he realised a few discrepancies about the hand he held. 

For starters, it was significantly smaller, palm fitting comfortable in his instead of dwarfing it, the fingers slimmer and less comparable to sausages than usual. 

It was also wearing a skeleton glove. 

He looked at the hand. And then slowly up to its owner. A skull stared back. It grinned, because skulls are always grinning, but he was fairly certain, even in the dim light, that he could see the corner of the scarer’s real mouth twist into a smile. There was the shadow of a dimple along their left cheek. 

It occurred to him that if he could see the dimple of their smile, he was probably too close for comfort. He tried to step back and immediately hit his head on a low beam. “Uh,” he managed eloquently. “Hello.”

“Hello,” the skeleton replied, the voice higher than expected and now he could definitely hear the smile. “Not to be the bearer of bad news,” she said, “but I’m ninety percent sure you grabbed the wrong person.” 

x

Haru felt a little bit bad for her overreaction. 

Not a lot. But a little. 

She had been planning to only tap a few shoulders, cough a few times, maybe lurk in the light - but at the dismissive ‘actually trying to scare us’ comment, she’d - without any real conscious thought - decided to up it a notch. Or several. She hadn’t imagined it would go down so well. 

Or that, in the confusion, one of the guests would grab her hand instead of their friend’s. She stared at him in the confines of the dead end, feeling rather confidence with the mask of her face paint. 

“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m ninety percent sure you grabbed the wrong person.”

He grinned nervously. “Only ninety? What about the other ten?”

“I don’t know. You might have a thing for cute skeletons.”

“I might, but I don’t.” 

A beat passed. They were still standing intimately close. 

“So,” he said, “what do we do now? Is there a precept for this sort of thing?”

“Well first,” she answered, “you let go of my hand.”

“Ah.” He released his hold, running his freed hand sheepishly through his hair. “Sorry. I… don’t suppose you could get me back to my group, could you?”

“Do ghosts go boo?” She cringed almost immediately after saying that. “Sorry, I’ve been here too long. Yeah, uh, please hold.” She stepped back, hitching a walkie talkie from the depths of her costume. “Machida? Machida, you there?” She held it away from her ear as a cacophony of laughter crackled through the speaker. “Machida, stop laughing!”

“I’m sorry,” her coworker replied. “I’m so sorry, but you should have seen your faces!”

“Trust that to have been caught on camera,” she muttered. Louder, she added, “Machida, I’m looking for this guy’s group. Can you tell me where they are?”

“Sure, give me a moment.” There was the clack of keys as he cycled through the cameras. “Two guys, two ladies, the guys have been bickering for the past ten minutes?”

“That’s them,” Baron said with a sigh.

“Got them. Okay, they’re in Room F, the zombie cage.”

“Fantastic. Have Hiromi keep them occupied, I’ll drop him off there.” She flicked the speaker back into her pocket and turned to her accidental companion. “We could go the long way, but I have a shortcut. How do you feel about tight spaces?”

“Depends on the context.”

“In a totally non-murdery-way.”

“Oh. I’m good then.”

“Great.” She grabbed his hand before she could think twice, and pulled the hidden staff door open. “Follow me.”

x

Sickly green safety lights lay low along the staff back corridors, bathing the narrow walkways in a glow that made Baron think of preserved museum specimens. The scarer wove her way though with practised ease, as if she wasn’t surrounded by a Frankenstein-background reject, hand still curled surely around his. 

“You can’t scare easily if you work here,” he said, searching for something to break the silence and detract from the creepy environment. 

She gave a snort. “I’m not actually a huge fan of horror movies. I didn’t sleep for a week after watching The Signalman.”

He watched her outline silhouetted by the safety strips. Like that, it was easier to see the curve of her face and bypass the skeleton decal. “They why do this?” he asked. 

She shrugged. “It pays. It’s different. And my friend kind of talked me into this.” She glanced back. He focused on her eyes and not the skull design. He wondered what she looked like without it. “How about you? Are you a fan?”

He chuckled. “It’s not my preferred genre. My sister dragged us all along, but I’m fairly certain she just wanted an excuse to hold her girlfriend.”

The scarer laughed. “Does she need an excuse?”

“No, but she’s an opportunist. She’ll take any opening.”

“And so she dragged the rest of you along.”

“She has a penchant for that.”

“Apparently it’s a family trait,” she said, and Baron reddened at the reminder of what had got him into this mess to begin with. 

“Miss, I am sorry for–”

She waved it away. “Honestly, no worries. It’s the funniest thing to happen to me all day. And it’s Miss Skeleton to you. Ah, here we are.” She clicked to a halt by what appeared to be another section of wall until she slid it back to reveal a haunted house room beyond. “Your group should be just round that corner.”

His feet didn’t move. They should have, but they didn’t. “Miss Skeleton,” he said with a small smile at the amendment, “regardless of your good humour, I still feel somewhat responsible for this situation.” He considered. “Ninety percent responsible.”

He saw the grin now for sure, even hidden beneath the layer of makeup. “And the other ten?”

“Well,” he said, “you are the one still holding my hand this time.”

She released him with a sheepish aura. “Just making sure you get back safely. Didn’t want you accidentally befriending another monster while you’re here.”

The open door waited for him, but he still didn’t move. “May I know the name of the monster I’ve already befriended?”

“Was Miss Skeleton not good enough for you?” she teased, and she gave him a gentle push out into the room. But before the door slid shut, she hesitated. “But my friends call me Haru.”

“Humbert,” he replied. “But my friends call me Baron.”

She grinned. “I’ll see you around, Baron.”

[catsafarithewriter]

The Disappearance of Haru Yoshioka (Part 9)

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [fini]

x

Haru doesn’t know what she had expected from the Bureau. 

For years, echoes of their personalities have resounded through her stories, fictional do-gooders with hearts of gold and a surety of step, but the reality is something far... messier. 

She trusts them - she knows it is irrational, a childhood fantasy, and yet she cannot help it - but it doesn’t render her blind to their faults. To their foibles. To how uncannily human they are. If not on the outside, then on the inner. They are not the infallible heroes of her stories, but they are something far realer. 

And so she steps up into their world.

Just one adventure, she promises herself, unaware of how she had made - and broken - the very same promise in another lifetime. Just to find out why this is happening. Why I don’t remember. 

At first the Bureau are hesitant around her. Muta and Toto watch her as if she is a ghost, a half-figment of the imagination, but Baron looks at her as if she is liable to vanish at any moment. 

She is not sure which unnerves her more. 

But in time - and it does take time; they have been searching for answers for months already, and her sudden presence provides fewer answers than they had hoped - the barriers crumble. After all, there are only so many adventures they can share before a sense of companionship springs up. 

It is during one such adventure - another dead end - that Haru finds herself alone with Toto. Muta and Baron have vanished with their guide to track down a possible lead, leaving Haru and Toto to look after the camp.  

 “Why don’t you like me?” she asks, and he turns to her with that grieving gaze that still lingers in the recesses of his eyes. 

“I don’t dislike you, Haru,” he says.

“Then why do you look at me like that?” 

“Like what?”

She smiles sadly. “Like I’ve broken your heart.”

He stares at her for a long moment then, and she is almost sure he is going to brush her question away when he ducks his head, those sorrow-laden eyes finding solace in the branch beneath his talons. “It was easier before,” he murmurs. 

“Before?”

“Before I knew you. Back when you were a faceless ghost that Baron was wasting away in pursuit of.”

“Before?” she prompts again.

“Before I cared.”

A silence passes between them.

“You didn’t see Baron before,” Toto eventually continues. “He’s always had a habit of pushing himself too far; of forgetting to look after himself when others are relying on him, and when he lost you... I thought that was going to be the line that pushed him over the edge. He was going to destroy himself searching for you, and in those moments I wished that he would just forget you.”

“Your friend was hurting,” Haru says. “You wanted to protect him.”

“Yes.”

Haru sighs, her misty breath spiralling up around her. “I understand.”

“I didn’t know you, Haru. I wasn’t even sure you existed.”

“And now? Do you still think I’m a ghost? She grins. “Should I be worried you’re about to go full Ghostbuster on me?”

“Now you’re a friend, Haru,” he answers, no smile cracking at her loose humour. “I care about you.”

“Aw, thanks, Toto-”

“And that’s why I think you should leave.”   

Her next breath catches in her throat. “What?”

“You should go back to your human life, Haru. It’s where you belong.”

“Not before I find out what happened to me.”

“What happened to you is that you’ve lived a very happy life,” Toto replies, his beetle-black eyes suddenly stony. “Are you really willing to throw that away in pursuit of some asinine answers?”

“I’m not... I’m not throwing anything away-”  

“Really? Then when as the last time you spent an evening at home?” he asks. “How is progress on your newest manga going? Were you even aware that last month was your wedding anniversary?”

“I...”

“I can’t remember what your life was like before things changed, but there’s a reason Baron made the decision to walk away the first time he reunited with you. Even he, as caught up in the pursuit as he was, could see that you were happier in your life now than the one he remembers.”

“Then why did he let me return?” Haru asks.

“Honestly? I don’t think he has it in him to leave you a second time. But you do. You have the ability to go back to your life before you lose it.”

“I can go back any time I like.”

“Then why don’t you?” The smile Toto gives does not reach his eyes; instead, a bittersweet glaze falls across his gaze. “I think I understand what the spirit told me now. If we hadn’t found you, you would still be living happily in your human life.” He looks out across the hostile mountain terrain. “But instead you are here.”

“Here is no bad thing.”

“No, but when the time comes - when we find our answers and have the chance to put things back to the way they once were - will you? Will you walk away from this world of magic and monsters? Or will you abandon the life you have built to run with us for a little longer?”

“I’m not abandoning anything,” Haru retorts.  

“You can’t live in both our world and the human one, Haru. So, when the time comes, which will you choose?”

She is silent for a moment. “At least I’ll have the choice,” she replies. Her brow furrows with words she had previously overlooked. “What spirit? Who told you I’d be still living happily if you hadn’t found me?”

“Haru-”

“What do you know that you’re not telling us, Toto?”

“Nothin-”

“Tell me.”

And he looks at her with that same grief she has come to know so well. “I may know the way to someone with answers.”

“Why didn’t you bring this up before now?”

“I didn’t because you still had the chance to walk away. Because you still have time to forget and be happy again.”

 “I still will.”

His gaze is pitying. “Are you sure about that?”

“No. But at least let me choose. In the end, this is my life, not yours.”

He doesn’t answer immediately. His attention flickers to the mountainous horizon, where the first hesitant tendrils of sunlight rise above the peaks. Then he nods. “Very well. I will show the way. But have you considered, Haru, that maybe what happened to you was a kindness, not a cruelty?”

x

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [fini]

[catsafarithewriter]

“Listen, I didn’t do anything this time, I was just there when things started to fall apart.” with Muta, if you'd please, that just screams him haha. i love your writing!

A/N: The idea for this prompt was inspired by this post. It’s just a bit of fun, with harmless Muta and Haru hijinks and extreme prejudice against polka-dots :) Enjoy!

(No real bowties were harmed in the making of this ficlet) 

x

Haru didn’t even mean to lose the first bowtie. 

Even if it was fugly. 

(“What,” she had demanded upon walking into the Bureau, “is that?”)

(”It’s a bowtie,” Baron had answered, as if he wasn’t wearing a blue polka-dotted monstrosity around his neck. He had righted it with some pride above the yellow  waistcoat it empirically did not match. “It’s one of my old suits; I’ve decided to take it out for a spin. What do you think?”)

(And he had looked so proud of himself that Haru hadn’t had the heart to reply honestly, which had mostly comprised of the genuine question of whether Baron was colour-blind.)

And so Baron, fugly bowtie and all, had accompanied them on the case, and only Baron had returned. 

Purely accidentally, naturally. 

And it honestly had been. There had been a costume change (Baron’s decision, obviously) and then a hurried exit (as usual) and by the time they had all escaped with only a minor dent to their dignity, Haru realised she had forgotten to grab Baron’s bowtie when she had swept everything else up. 

The second bowtie’s loss, however, might have been slightly intentional.

It had been a week after the previous case, and all thoughts of polka dots and fashion monstrosities had been replaced with things like groceries and laundry and trying not to get eaten by ogres. Regular things. 

And then it reappeared. 

Haru swung into the Bureau, already tying her hair back and securing her back over one shoulder when she stopped dead. 

“I came as fast as I got your message - we really need to find a better communication system than Toto dropping envelopes from above - just about anyone could pick it up, and it’s hardly subtle, but then again I guess those kinds of dramatics are right up your -- oh my god, it’s back.”

Baron turned to her, straightening out the tie beneath his collar. “What was that, Miss Haru?”

“The polka dots,” Haru said. “They’re back.”

“Ah yes, Well, as they say, you can’t keep good fashion down.”

“However much they may try,” Haru muttered. Then, “And the waistcoat, I see, is back in full force.”

“I believe yellow is my colour.”

Haru raised an eyebrow, but declined to comment. 

So when they needed something to tie the door-handles together to hinder their pursuers while they made a run for it with the giant’s golden goose, Haru suggested the bowtie with only the barest smidgen of guilt. It was either that or her belt, and she liked that belt. It had flowers decorated on it. 

And so fugly bowtie number two kicked the bucket when the door was kicked in. 

x

The third bowtie was when Haru began to get suspicious. 

After all, she could have believed that the first time, he’d somehow retrieved it without mentioning it to Haru, but there was no way that was the same tie. She’d seen it tear in half beyond repair, get trampled on, and possibly get eaten by one of the giant’s goats, for goodness sake. 

“Eh, maybe it’s a backup, Chicky,” Muta suggested when Haru brought it up mid-case. “Or maybe he grabbed it before it got damaged. You gotta admit, we weren’t exactly taking inventory while we were running for our lives last time.”

“We’ll see about that.”

So, to Haru’s shame - but not enough to reconsider her actions - she may have stolen the horrifying bowtie when (once again) they donned on disguises, and fed it to one of the pond koi. 

A week later, it reappeared. 

x

“It’s a conspiracy, I’m telling you,” Haru hissed to Muta at the Crossroads. She passed across a tuna sandwich to him. “Every time I think it’s been irreparably lost or damaged, there it is! One back-up tie I can believe - but two?”

“Maybe it’s a Creation thing,” Muta suggested around a mouthful of fish. “Like he can summon it back to him cause it’s something that was made alongside him.”

“Summon it?” Haru echoed. “Like in Harry Potter?” She had the fleeting, but no less amusing, image of bowties flying through the air like silken bats. She grinned, and then refocused on the mystery at hand. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”

Muta yawn. “Have ya tried asking him?”

“Where’s the fun in that? Come on, this is a mystery, Muta.”

“You’ve already asked him, haven’t you?” he translated.

Haru deflated. “Yeah. He said that a gentleman never reveals his secrets.”

“Typical Baron.”

“Yeah.”

“So what do you need from me?”

Haru grinned. “We need to see how many lives that tie has.”  

x

It was frankly, Haru considered, quite amazing how many different ways one could destroy a bowtie if one got inventive enough. And, given the variety of worlds they visited, they had plenty chance to get creative. 

Bowtie number six bit the dust when it found its way - somehow - into the belly of an active volcano. 

Bowtie number nine got eaten by a plant.

Bowtie thirteen grew wings and flapped off into the sunset after a wayward wizard’s spell went rogue. 

And yet they kept reappearing. 

x

“Do you think he knows?”

Muta looked up from the newspaper he was flicking through. “Who knows what?”

“Baron,” Haru said. “About the bowties?”

Muta considered this, then folded down his paper to fix Haru with a solid stare. “Do I think,” he asked, “that Baron knows we’re systematically destroying his terrible polka dot tie after the kraken incident?”

Haru winced. “Good point.” 

“I mean, I ain’t gonna tell you how to scheme, but maybe tackling Baron in the middle of a sea monster attack and trying to fend it off with a tie.”

Haru nodded, lips pursed as she came to the inevitable conclusion. “So he’s toying with us.”

“Yep.”

 She continued to nod. “That explains why he looks so smug whenever he reappears with it.”

“Oh. So you finally noticed.”

“Well we can be sure it’s not accio-ing its way back to him,” Haru said. “After all, it’d be incinerated after the chimera incident. He has to have multiple bowties.”

“Maybe he’s ordering them in,” Muta offered. 

“Maybe, but...” Haru frowned. “That implies he has a tailor.”

“We’d have heard about that.”

“Yeah.” She considered. “He’d have strong-armed his tailor into making him a cape or cloak by now. Maybe he orders them wholesale from an online company.”

Muta snorted. “With his technology prowess?”

“...True.”

There was a long pause. 

“Of course,” Muta said slowly, “there’s always the possibility that he has a whole wardrobe of them. Like you see in the movies. Just hundreds of polka-dot monstrosities carefully folded in a drawer.”

Haru and Muta exchanged glances. 

“We really shouldn’t nosy...” Haru said, but without conviction.

“We shouldn’t...”

“But we’re gonna to, aren’t we?”

Muta grinned. “I knew there was a reason I got on with you, Chicky.”

x

Haru looked around the Bureau’s interior in despair, and then to Muta for help. “You know, I never thought about this, but there aren’t any wardrobes in here.”

“Where did he get the bowtie from in the first place?”

“He... You know, I don’t have the foggiest? He was already wearing it when I first saw it.”

“Eh.”

“Yeah, I know. Helpful.” Haru ran her hands through her hair. “I’ll look through the desk drawers, you check the books for... I don’t know, a hidden door or something.”

“Really?”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“What about up there?” And Muta pointed to a series of boxes carefully stacked on the top of the bookshelves.

Haru looked up. And then up. And then some. “Pass me the ladder.”

“Are ya sure--”

“We’re getting to the bottom of this, Muta!”

He shrugged and collected up the ladder leaning against the corner, pulling it open and holding it in place. “Up yer go.”

“You know, this is all very weird,” Haru said as she scaled the steps. She glanced down at Muta. Or over at him, since the few steps granted her on eye-level with him. “I mean, there really aren’t any wardrobes in here, and Baron...”

“Face it, Chicky; how often have you seen him switch up his clothes?”

She wrinkled her nose. “No, I mean... no, he must change sometime...”

“Creations are weird, kid. You’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t want to get used to it. I want answers. I want -- I want...” She stuttered as she tried to pull the boxes loose, but they jammed. She tugged at them, and the shelf wobbled. “Come -- on -- out-- you -- stupid -- box --got it!” She gave a cry of triumph as she heaved one box away. “Hah! Oh.”

“What’s in the box?”

“Hm, well it’s not bowties.” 

There was a creak, and before Muta could ask anything more, the bookshelf began to lean precariously away from the wall. Haru squeaked, Muta yowled, and both dropped everything to grab the shelves before gravity could take over. 

The creaking stopped. 

Haru exhaled. “Well, that was a close call--”

The next bookshelf over toppled forward.

And then the one on the other side went. 

When the dust finally cleared, there was an audible sigh from both. 

“Okay, so that was--”

“Not another word to tempt fate, Chicky.” 

“I was only going to say--”

“No.”

“But--”

“Nada.” 

 Haru pouted. “You say that like you’ve never made a mess in your life.” 

“What in the world is going on here?”

Haru and Muta both spun on their heels to see Baron standing in the doorway, and as their grip slipped, the middle bookcase finally gave way. Haru squealed and leapt out of the way before she could be squashed beneath it.

Muta raised his paws defensively. “Listen, I didn’t do anything this time, I was just there when things started to fall apart.” 

“Baron. Baron, Baron, Baron.” Haru skidded over the chaos, stumbling against the desk that had narrowly avoided becoming a casualty, and reached Baron. “How do your bowties keep reappearing? I need to know!”

Baron gently set his top hat to one side, returning to old habits to deal with the fact that the Bureau had looked better when a tornado spirit had invaded the building. “That is what this is all about?”

“...Well, when you put it like that, it sounds so silly...”

“Just tell them, Baron,” Toto called from the internal balcony. He had arrived when Baron had, and the smile on his beak implied he had known the mystery that had plagued Muta and Haru and had taken great joy in watching the drama unfold. “Before they decide to blow up my column looking for your secret bowtie stash.”

Baron nodded. “Very well. Please watch.” He reclaimed his hat and carefully exhaled, sparks of magic flowing up and over him as he reverted to his inanimate form. 

“Is this his way of running from the answer?” Muta stage-whispered.

“Keep watching, pudding-brain.”

Sparks flew up again as Baron returned to his flesh and blood form, but as he did so, subtle changes took place. The classy red waistcoat shifted colour, like someone dragging a swatch through a colour wheel until it rested on yellow, and the royal-blue bowtie became blotchy, making way for white polka dots that had drawn Haru’s attention so strongly in the first place. 

By the time Baron was blinking the gemstone glaze from his eyes, Haru’s jaw had dropped. 

“You can shapeshift?”

“Not exactly.” Baron righted his tie, as if it hadn’t been perfectly straight before. “All Creations have a default appearance that we can subtly alter as our personalities and style shift. I can not grow wings or a second tail, but I can nudge the set pattern of my waistcoat or - in this case - bowtie to fit my liking.”

Toto cackled. “You should have seen his experimental stage. He had grey fur for a decade before he went back to ginger.”

“Yes, thank you, Toto,” Baron said curtly. “We all go through phases.”

 “Louise laughed until she cried,” Toto informed them. “She said that they looked like they were cosplaying as yin and yang if they stood together.”

“Thank you, Toto.”

“Please tell me there are photos somewhere,” Haru begged.

“There are,” Baron said. “In there.” And he pointed to the pile of books smothered beneath the toppled shelves. He raised an eyebrow at Muta and Haru. 

“Oh.”

“Yeah, kinda forgot about that...”

Muta trundled over to the mess, but Haru lingered a moment longer with Baron. She leant in. “Just for the record, I think you look great, regardless of your fashion sense.”

He grinned knowingly. “Even with the polka dots?”

She kissed his cheek. “Don’t push your luck.”

[catsafarithewriter]

The Disappearance of Haru Yoshioka (Part 5)

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [fini]

Maybe it’s no bad thing, Toto considers. Maybe this is the saving grace that Baron needs, to pull him out of this obsession before it consumes him any further.

Maybe he should just let Baron forget.

But in the end it is their decades of friendship that wins out and, against his better judgement, Toto tracks down an old acquaintance who has such experience with shifting realities.

“Of course you’re forgetting her,” the old spirit tells Baron. “You should never have known her in the first place. This is just the world’s way of setting things right.”

“But this reality is wrong,” Baron persists, fighting against the tide that wants to pull him into this Haru-less reality. And he knows that if the current claims him, he will never find his way back.

The spirit smiles, but it is a thing bittersweet and pitying. “There is no wrong or right reality,” she says. “Only the one that we have. Sometimes they shift, sometimes they change, but that is just the way it is. You don’t argue with a clock for the passing of time, do you?”

“Then why do I still remember her?”

“There are always remnants. Anomalies. The likeliest explanation is that you possessed something of hers when the shift occurred. Something that tied you to her.”

Baron grips the old new cane. He tries to ignore how its nicks and scars are becoming more familiar each day, how it becomes harder to cling onto the tactile memory of how the cane lovingly carved by Haruhi fitted into his hand.

“Do you want my advice?” the spirit asks. “Allow yourself to forget her. The road you seek will only bring you heartache.”    

x

Before he leaves, the spirit pulls Toto aside. “You know this to be a mistake,” she says. “Nothing good can come from trying to change what is. The other Creation is too young, but you... you I had thought to understand such things. So why do you fight it?”

Toto glances back. He has sensed the conflict raging inside Baron, as the old reality and the new reality fights for him, and every day the new reality gains a little more ground. 

It would be easy, too easy, to let the universe have its way. How ironic, Toto thinks, that the one time the right choice is the easy one, and yet he cannot take it.  

“Because he is my friend,” he answers.

The spirit nods wearily, understanding and yet no happier with the result. “Then, out of respect for the years we’ve known one another, I will give you this much. There are few beings who can alter reality so seamlessly, and fewer still with the inclination to do so on the scale of a single mortal.” 

“And you know where such individuals may be found?”

“I do.” The spirit offers a silver compass, but lingers before it passes from paw to wing. “Be warned. You may not like the answers you find.” 

Toto takes the compass. “I can’t sit back and do nothing.”

The saddened smile the spirit gives betrays that that is exactly what Toto should do.

x

It is easier than Toto would have liked to slip away from the Bureau. 

Once upon a time, before all this began, Baron would have noticed within a heartbeat how Toto’s attention and presence was divided, but now the cat Creation was distracted. Toto found that his reappearance after a day’s absence was met with mild confusion, as if Toto were a hat that Baron had misplaced and only in the finding realised he’d lost it at all. 

Of course, Toto’s search would go quicker if he recruited the use of either Bureau companion, but such a thing would be to admit he has a lead - to admit to Baron that there is hope - and he has no desire to add flames to that particular fire. 

And so he searches for the spirit, being, creature that is responsible for this reality shift and each time he returns, empty-handed, the new reality has claimed a little more of Baron. Each time, the notes for this Haru are a little fewer, the fresh cases a little more prominent, the weight in his gaze a little lighter.

“Maybe yer should just let it go,” Muta says to him one evening. They haven’t bickered as much as usual - and in part that is due to Toto’s absences, but there is a sharper reason in the toll the last half-year has taken on them both. 

“Let what go?” Toto asks.

“Whatever secret thing yer up to to help Baron.” Muta raises an eyebrow as Toto startles. “Baron may have the attention span of a fruit fly right now, but I don’t. Whatever yer up to, it’s making you look almost as bad as Baron did at the start.”

There is a bitter irony in that, Toto feels. 

“So why not just let things take their course?” Muta continues. “After all, give ‘im another month and he won’t even remember that he was looking for this Haruko in the first place.” He snorts as he collects up the dirty dishes on the table. “It’s almost every day he starts to tidy up his desk before remembering now.”

“Then why don’t you?” Toto asks. “I’m not the only one being caught up in this ghost hunt.” 

Muta shrugs. “He hasn’t forgotten fully yet. So I might as well help if he wants it.”

“Do you think he’ll find her?”

Muta doesn’t answer that.  

x

Eventually, after many false leads and wrong doors, the silver compass brings Toto to a tree’s hollow that opens up into another world, and there he finds the spirit responsible. 

It is a small thing, a winged mouse creature with a long golden tail that curls about it, and the barked walls encompassing the world tremble as it lays eyes on the newcomer. Toto takes a perch on a twisting root. “Good,” he says. “So you recognise me.”

“I have never seen you before in my life,” the spirit hisses.

“Not in this reality, maybe,” Toto replies. “But what about the one before?”

The spirit pauses, and Toto knows that at last - at last - he is one step closer. 

“What about a human by the name of Haru Yoshioka?” he presses. 

“What do you know of Haru?” the spirit demands.

“Only that she has vanished.”

The spirit laughs, a wheezing, creaking noise that sounds more floral than fauna. “She has not vanished,” it amends. “She is exactly where she should be.”

“And where is that?”

“Living her life.”

“Where?”

“In the Human World.”

“Where?”  

“Not telling. Not telling.”

“Why not?”

“Because you will ruin everything!” the spirit spits. “You and the rest of your little Creation office. You will drag her back into your world of magic and other realms and she will lose her grip on humanity. Again.”

“Again?” Toto echoes. “What do you mean ‘again’?”

“She is happy!” it continues. “She is happy and if you care you will let her be!”

The world creaks around him and when Toto suddenly finds himself outside the spirit’s home, the tree is closed and the compass is broken. 

x

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [fini]

[tcrmommabear]

Merry Christmas Mommacomms!

Yours, @mommacomms, was very interesting to write. I went into it with a few ideas, and then immediately threw them all out the window for Haru... Well, I won’t spoil it.

I think I’m funny, Cat thinks I’m funny, so I’m going to the grave laughing. I really hope you enjoy this, and if its too ridiculous, you have full permission to roast me. But enjoy this first!!

But really, what IS with those cats conspiring in the corner?

“Okay,” Haru declared, bag dropping beside the door, “I’ll bite. What’s with the cats conspiring in the corner?”

The room went quiet upon her entrance, all eyes turning to look at her. She caught sight of Baron and watched his expression change from discomfort to almost a pure grimace. Ouch. Whatever was going on could not be good. And it most certainly wasn’t good for her if Baron looked at her that way.

“Miss Haru,” he began, but a cat’s hand stopped him, pressing against Baron’s chest as he made to move towards her.

“We are here on behalf of the Cat Kingdom,” the one holding Baron back responded, nodding towards the other two cats standing with them. All different patterns and eye colors, and all sharply dressed. Holding adorable, cat-sized briefcases.

“I’m being sued, aren’t I?” Haru joked, glancing between them all. Muta choked on air.

“You’re being sued by the Cat Kingdom,” the leader confirmed.

All pretenses of humor and ambivalent feelings dropped from Haru. Her joke was a reality, and her reality was a joke. Taking it well for someone being sued by cats.

“Of which,” Baron finally interjected, pushing past the cat lawyer blocking, “is a ridiculous thing to do. You have no reason to do this, especially to the victim on the King’s crimes.”

“I don’t want to fight you there, Sir Baron, but these are hard times, and these issues must be resolved to move forward,” one of the other cat lawyers responded. Baron glared at the three, standing in front of Haru with his arm extended out from his side. Shielding her like he’d done a million times befor.

“These matters are ridiculous and hold no water here in the Human realm,” Toto replied, hopping around on the railing of his perch.

The argument looked to be brewing again, which Haru realized was what she had walked into, though at a more level manner. She stepped forward and placed a hand on Baron’s shoulder, stopping everyone in their tracks as she took the limelight.

“Can someone please explain what exactly I am being sued over?” she begged.

The three cats shared a look, setting down their briefcases and opening in tandem. Each had their own packet of parchment, written in cats’ hieroglyphic language, and Haru did not feel good about the length of them all.

“First, destruction of property. This comes on behalf of the citizens on the Cat Kingdom, spearheaded by-”

“But the damages weren’t my fault!” Haru exclaimed. She glanced among the group, aware of all eyes on her. And no one backing her claim.

“Those charges are mostly upon me, Miss Haru,” Baron told her, having the decency to look sheepish, “but the Cat Kingdom has labeled you as an accomplice, and the influence. So they’re using me to blame you.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

Muta took that moment to chime in, thumping a hand on Haru’s back.

“That’s the Cat Kingdom. Just wait, kiddo, it gets worse.”

As Haru groaned, the second took their chance.

“Second, endangerment of person. This one is on behalf of the nobility in attendance to your engagement ball, spearheaded by the performer Lazlo, and his assistant, Juniper, funded and provided with eyewitness accounts and evidence by Ser Jonath-”

“The cat who laughed at the performers,” Haru realized numbly, distantly remembering his family being introduced to her before the festivities began. That’d been her one moment of calm, when they took Muta away to place by her seat, out of sight.

“Another ridiculous reason to blame Haru,” Baron spat, but she couldn’t really hold any of that same venom.

“Why aren’t these charges being placed against the King, instead?” Toto insisted, when Haru looked a little too faint. The third, and final, cat took this time to step forward.

“Which leads us directly into the third charge. This is less of a “oh I’m mad” type of deal, and more like a crime against the kingdom.”

Haru began shaking, glancing between the other three Bureau members. Their expressions weren’t happy either, but something in them told her she wasn’t going to be executed. Or tarred and furred.

But she was definitely in a world of trouble.

“What do you…?”

“Yoshioka Haru, otherwise known as Miss Haru, you are being charged with abandonment of royal duties.”

***

Haru liked to think she took the news rather well. She could have fainted! She could have decked the lawyer (Marcus, she later learned) with a nasty right! She could have pulled one of Baron’s emergency dramatic exit, otherwise known as a smoke bomb, to let herself escape.

Nope, Haru was reasonable, responsible, the cool head of the Cat Bureau. The brains, if you will.

They only had the one to share among them, but looks like it wasn’t her turn today.

Which is how she found herself storming the castle of the Cat Kingdom.

In all fairness, Lune was very informative and forthcoming. She just had a hard time letting him go from being pinned against the wall. He took it in stride, and Yuki only looked slightly annoyed. When the lawyers and Bureau managed to catch up, they found Haru sitting with a blanket and hot chocolate, the royal couple attempting to be soothing.

“Miss Haru?” Baron asked, creeping into her sight.

“Alright, it comes down to this,” she paused, gesturing at the chairs, “wait, sit down first.”

The Bureau took seats, no questions asked.

“First, did any of you know about that last one?” she asked.

“Not at all, Haru,” Toto replied, nodding a head at the lawyers who hovered in the background. “You interrupted as they got to that part.”

“Alright, that makes me feel better.”

“What’s to be done, Miss Haru?” Baron encouraged, hoping to get the train back on track.

“Right, sorry. So, destruction and endangerment, they want me to pay fees for it. However, since the King’s retirement, I was the temporary Queen, even though they hadn’t chosen me yet. So, the fees technically fell to the Royal family. Which is me. Which is what I abandoned despite not knowing I would become royalty. So, neglecting the Kingdom.”

“That’s… Absurd,” Toto whispered.

“That’s Cat Kingdom,” Haru and Muta intoned, sharing a brief laugh.

“So the fees fall on me as a person. Not as the Queen. If I become Queen, well, apparently there’s a “Royalty Damage” budget for stuff like this.”

There was a laugh from Lune.

“If you ever wondered why our guard was incompetant, that’s where their training funds went to.”

“I just thought that was Cats in general,” Toto mumbled.

“But if I become Queen,” Haru declared loudly, “I can’t leave. Not until Lune is married. But I also stand imprisonment if I don’t become Queen. Which means I can’t leave. So, lose-lose all around!”

“Is there anything we can do about this?” Baron asked, turning to face Lune. The Prince sighed, rubbing at his chin. He wasn’t happy with the answer he could give them.

“One thing, at least. Haru is interim because I fill the role of handler. Find a different interim leader, Haru could leave. The charges could completely voided by the leader, and we’re all a little happier at the end of the day. Except…”

“Except?” Baron pushed.

“Except… The only other option is…”

“His mother,” Yuki told them, stepping forward to place a hand on his shoulder.

“You have a mother?” Haru blurted. “Wait, I meant, you have a living mother still married to your father?”

“Yes and no. She can’t become the real Queen again, but she can make a good substitute.”

“Okay,” Haru said.

“Chicky? I don’t like that look in your eye,” Muta warned, sitting up straighter as Haru seemed to be tracing out a plan in the air.

“My mother disappeared years ago,” his warning was watery, but Lune did well to hide it.

“She also ran away with someone, didn’t she?” Yuki asked.

“That’s fine, that’s just two people we need to find,” Haru nodded to herself, standing up and beginning to leave the room.

“Haru?” Baron called after, grabbing her hand to stop her.

“What? So we’ve gotta find two runaways who could also possibly be dead. How hard can it be?”

***

She gave a little shake, her tail flicking as she shuddered through the chills.

“Darling?” her companion asked, gloved hand reaching out to touch her paw. She smiled, waving a hand to dismiss her worries.

“Just a draft, honey, I just felt cold for a second.”

“Alright,” she said, eyebrow raised. “Whatever you say, Sephie.”

[catsafarithewriter]

"I like you for who you are now. You don't have to change for anyone but yourself." Gimme that good good angst

Some good good angst coming right up! Also, I apologise for the length of this ficlet - the idea was simple, but the execution required a more complex result. (Like, uh, 3.5K-length complex. Enjoy!)

x

“I didn’t give him the ability to love, you know,” the artisan said. He sat by Haru’s sickbed, a cane in hand that mirrored so closely that of his Creation’s. “To care, sure. To empathise with others, now that’s an important part of any hero. But to love?” He shrugged. “That development was not of my doing.”

Haru pushed herself up, ignoring the aches and pains of the last case. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing,” she said, her voice still hoarse from several days of disuse. 

The artisan shrugged. “Truth be told, it’s quite flattering that one’s own Creation can outgrow its artisan’s intent. That he has come to love not just one, but three individuals shows it to be more than an anomaly.”

There was a pause. 

Haru watched the man who had declared himself to be Baron’s artisan, tired and old and yet not so old as he should be. His eyes still shimmered with a gleam comparable to the gemlike irises of his Creation. Eternal eyes in a haggard face. 

Haru inhaled shakily. Her lungs still hurt from the bruised ribs. “So why do I feel like I’m being singled out?” she asked. “Why talk to me alone? Why not Muta and Toto as well?”

He waved her protests away airily. “The crow is of Baron’s kind, a Creation, and the cat is more magic than mortal after a lifetime in the Creation world, but you…” He inclined his head to her. “You are the mortal link.” 

Haru said nothing. 

The artisan’s gaze moved along the bandage that dominated the entirety of Haru’s right arm. Just one of many scars from the previous case alone. “You had a close call there.”

“But I survived.”

“You won’t always. Even if you - miraculously - somehow avoid an untimely demise through the Bureau’s recklessness, death will one day come for you.”

Haru smiled uneasily. “That’s kinda how life works.”

“Not for an immortal. Not for my Creation, or the crow, or possibly even the cat for a very long time yet. You are the only one for whom death is an inevitably.”

Her smile waned, only lingering because the other option was fear. She leant forward and clung onto the tight-lipped humour as she patted the artisan’s hand. “Thanks, but whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying. I’m quite happy being human; I’ve found I’ve rather got used to it.” She braced herself against the sides of her sickbed and began to shift her weight. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m sure the rest of the Bureau are quite worried about me–”

The artisan laughed. Haru froze. 

“Oh, how arrogant you are,” he scorned. “Do you really think this is about you?”

Haru slowly lowered herself back down. 

Curiosity killed the cat, her mind warned.

“Well, I did,” she said slowly, “until you laughed just then and said that. And now I’m thinking there’s some seriously crossed wires going on here.”

“Conceited fool, you’re only important because you matter to him.”

She swallowed nervously. “I have an ego that would argue otherwise.” 

The artisan continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “For whatever reason fate has decided, he has latched onto you as someone to love. Even though he knows it can only end in one way - in heartbreak and sorrow.”

Haru’s smile slipped away entirely. “Okay, I can’t even pretend to find this conversation funny anymore. What do you want.”

“What I want is to ensure that never happens.”

“And how will you do that? Like you said, I am mortal, I will die. Maybe not for years, maybe tomorrow, but I will die. I know that. Baron knows that. You can’t just change that–”

“Says who?”

Haru faltered. “What?”

He leant forward, those telltale eyes glittering. “Immortality is difficult, but not impossible to obtain.”

Haru tilted her head away, as if she could make his words make sense with a simple change of angle. “You’re talking crazy. Even if that was true, even if you did have a way, I’m not looking for immortality, like I said, I’m quite happy being human–”

“But is he?”

“Of course he is–”

“He must endure an eternity while you wither and pass and he is left alone. Why, in all the worlds, would he be happy with that, if he loves you as you know to be true?”

Haru’s mouth snapped shut. It opened and closed a few more times before she found words. “You can’t escape grief,” she eventually croaked. “You can’t protect him from that forever. Sooner or later he will lose someone he cares about, and it may be me, but it may be Muta or Toto, or even someone we haven’t met yet. Death is a fact of life, even for Creations, and he has to learn to live with that.”

“Does he?”

“What other choice does he have?”

“He was not made to love. That was not something I built into him, but something he learnt. As such, he was never made to bear the burden of a broken heart. To love is one thing, to grieve is another. Such an experience outside the scope of his creation could be enough to break him.” His hand curled around Haru’s wrist. “Are you willing to take that risk?”

Haru’s breathing shallowed. One part of her wanted to laugh at the idea, that Baron, her Baron, would simply shatter from the loss of her - not because she doubted he loved her, but because she knew he loved Muta and Toto also. He was not alone. And he loved his job. He loved the Sanctuary, and the adventure, and he loved people. He had more to live for than just her, and she loved him for it. 

And yet. 

And yet another part of her knew how uneasily he wore his immortality. How her own fragility haunted him in a way it did not haunt her. He never said as much, but she saw it in the way he worried for her, watched her, as if she might vanish in a heartbeat. As if he was trying to sear their precious moments together into his mind forever. 

He had never grieved. 

She would probably be his first. 

She exhaled, and realised she’d been holding her breath. “What do you have in mind?”

The artisan procured an apple from his bag, a simple, ruby-red apple, and Haru couldn’t help thinking of fairytale warnings and other unsettling allegories. “Fruit grown in the fae world,” he said. “One bite, and you will become immortal. Stronger. Hardier. A fitting companion for a Creation such as mine.” 

She eyed the fruit, and something inside her twisted. She shook her head, sharply. “No. No, I don’t want it.”

“Don’t make the mistake of forgetting this isn’t about you,” he snarled. “I will not allow the Creation I poured my heart and soul into to be destroyed by someone like you. If that requires a little immortality, then so be it.” 

“It’s about me the moment my life became involved,” she retorted. “And Baron outgrew your expectations once; he’ll do it again. He’s stronger than you give him credit for.”

The artisan didn’t move, and Haru could feel him weighing up her conviction. Then the hostility faded, and he straightened. He placed the apple on Haru’s bedside table. “Keep it,” he said. “You will come to realise I’m right eventually.”

“And if I don’t?”

Those eyes glimmered. “Then you have to ask yourself one thing. Do you really love him?”

x

The Bureau was quiet after the chaos of the last case. Muta and Toto had been banished from the Sanctuary for bickering, Baron citing the doctors’ prescription of rest and respite for Haru. Haru hadn’t really minded. At least it had been entertaining.

Curled up across the sofa with book in hand, she dropped her head back to watch Baron, his back to her while he washed up the tea cups. 

“So,” she said eventually, “that was your artisan.”

Baron gave a humourless chuckle. “What did you think of him?”

“I don’t like him.”

Another chuckle. “That’s blunt, Miss Haru, even for you.”

“You don’t really like him either, do you?”

Baron paused at his task, his back still to Haru, but there was surprise in the way he held himself. “Is it that easy to tell?”

“Only because I know you so well.” Haru pulled herself up, crossing her legs atop the sofa cushions and straightening. “Does he know?”

Baron’s stance shifted as he went back to washing up. “Probably. But I don’t think it matters to him.”

“Why not? He created you.”

“What does that change?”

“After putting his heart and soul into making you, there must be… something.” Haru thought back to her own fraught conversation with the artisan, and added, “You’re not nothing to him.”

“Maybe not,” Baron conceded, “but pride doesn’t correlate with care. One would not want a prized art piece to break, but that still doesn’t make it anything more than a possession.”

Haru’s mouth twitched into a scowl. “You’re not a possession.”

He still didn’t turn to her, but there was the tinge of amusement in his voice. “I know that, Miss Haru, and you know that, and that’s all that matters.” He faltered as Haru circled her arms around him, her head resting against his shoulder blades. “Miss Haru, I believe the doctors prescribed minimal movement while you recover.”

“Hugs don’t count,” she mumbled into his back. She held onto him, breathing in his scent of tea and mint, and wondered if he was thinking how fleeting the moments were also. If he felt like time was slipping away from them, even now. She inhaled again. “He offered me immortality.”

Baron stilled, and suddenly he was more figurine than figure. “Why?”

“He said he was worried about you having a mortal companion,” she muttered.

“What kind of immortality?” 

“Fruit from the fae world.”

She felt him exhale, and although the tension loosened, there was still a hoarseness to his voice. “You didn’t take it,” he said. 

“How can you be so sure?”

He lowered the tea cup he had still been holding, and finally half-turned to face Haru. “I would be able to tell,” he answered. “That kind of immortality… it comes with a cost. It’s true that you would never die, but neither would you truly live. You’d become like one of the fae. Temporal. Restless. One part of you would always be in their world.” He tilted his head, eyes so alike to his artisan’s and yet so different in every way that mattered, meeting hers. “You would no longer be the Haru I know.”

Haru’s smile was wan. “Just as well I didn’t eat then, isn’t it?”

“Were you tempted?”

“To be immortal?” She scoffed, and hoped it didn’t sound as hollow as it felt. “No thanks. I’m quite happy the way I am.”

I was never tempted for myself…

Baron nodded. “Good. Immortality never comes without a price. Even if you can’t see it at first.” He looked at her a moment longer, that same look as if he was trying to burn the memory of here and now - of her and him - into an eternal memory. “And, just for the record, I like you for who you are now. You don’t have to change for anyone but yourself.”

“I know,” she murmured. She sighed and dropped her head against his shoulder, and for a moment the world was quiet and calm and simple. “I know.”

Then you have to ask yourself one thing. 

Do you really love him?

x

“Shit, shit, shit, move, move, move!” Haru bundled the survivors towards the crackling portal, its fizzling surface spluttering as the connection between the two worlds faltered. They had thirty, maybe forty seconds, before it gave way entirely. The portal flared orange. Twenty. 

Haru caught Baron by the elbow. “Baron, it’s about to collapse!” she roared over the chaos. “You need to get over there and help Toto stabilise it!”

“I’m not going without you!”

She gestured to the people she was still herding. “One of us needs to get everyone through, and I don’t have any magic to help Toto.” Red. The portal was red. “Baron, now!”

He gave her one last look, and then nodded and disappeared into the fire-red depths. Haru motioned for the survivors to wait, aware that Baron could endure the journey, but she couldn’t be so sure about mortals. Red. Orange. And back to crackling yellow. Not ideal, but a damn sight better than before. 

She started people back through the portal just as colour began to leech from the world. The portal had thirty seconds. The world probably had twenty.

Only a dozen people left to go, and the world was greyscale now. 

Five. Everything was black and white. 

The last person stepped through and the ground gave way beneath Haru’s feet. The portal was orange, but without a world to anchor it, it sputtered and flared and an explosion of magic and colour ripped into Haru. She was thrown across the expanse of nothingness that the collapsing world had become. 

x

After what may have been seconds, or hours, or days, she opened her eyes. 

The world was quiet now. 

She was the only source of colour in the featureless void. She would have called her surroundings white, except that would have implied colour, instead of the true absence of anything it was. She floated there, a lone anomaly of existence in the void the world had left behind, wondering what her options were now. 

She probably couldn’t rely on a rescue. They’d had a hard enough time connecting to a world that didn’t want to be found, let alone one that no longer existed anymore. So that ruled out waiting. 

And she didn’t have any magic, so magicking her way back wasn’t even an option. 

Usually, in these kinds of situations, now would be a good time to take stock of the resources at hand and what they knew. Well, she was alone surrounded by quite literally nothing, and even the Bureau’s understanding of how the void between worlds worked was highly theoretical at best. So… a no-go on that too. 

She floated for a while, aware that she should be terrified - she was facing almost certain death - but found the emotion not forthcoming. Probably something to do with being nowhere. It scrambled all the usual survival instincts. So, on the plus side, at least it didn’t look like she was about to go into mental meltdown mode. Yet. There was still plenty of time. 

She floated for a bit longer, except she wasn’t sure for quite how long, since time didn’t seem to work properly outside a designated world. Her gaze travelled down her arms - it wasn’t as if there was much else to look at - and that’s when she noticed the splatter of colour adorning her sleeves. 

Except, no, it couldn’t be just colour, that would be ridiculous, even for here. She brushed a finger against the blob smearing her elbow and it peeled easily off, at first like dried glue, but as it drifted upwards (downwards? There wasn’t exactly gravity to gauge off) it expanded out into 3D, pulling itself into a bubble and aimlessly floated by her side. A tingle of loose energy buzzed along her skin and she realised it wasn’t colour - not just colour, anyway - but magic. 

The exploding portal…

Her mind was already racing, throwing off the cobwebs of the void. What she was seeing didn’t make sense in the context of any world she’d ever been in, but out here, in the void, the rules were different. Out here, magic wasn’t limited by the usual demands of reality. Out here, it seemed, magic could take on entirely other forms. 

She rolled the blob - it was purple - between her fingers, marvelling at the fact she was touching pure magic. She was probably the first person ever - or, late least, the first person to get home to tell anyone about it. And she was going home. She had a plan now. 

She began to peel more colour-magic stains from her clothes. 

For there wasn’t a lot known about the void between worlds, other than it was a bad place to get stranded, and Haru was well aware of that now, but one of the things most heavily theorised was the concept of potential. 

Worlds were born and created and made space for themselves in this void; the logic was that in order to do that, the void had to be flexible enough to allow all the conflicting worlds to coexist within it. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get worlds with completely different passages of time, or rules of magic that outright contradicted each other, or even the concept of souls operating differently (externally, in one particularly memorable world). the void had the potential for any of these worlds to exist and so, the logic went, since it was responsive to that, one would potentially be able to influence rules in the void simply on will alone. 

Of course, that was a lot of theorising, because no one had actually ever tried. Or, at least, tried and lived to tell the tale. Which, as far as reassuring thoughts went, was pretty far down on the scale. 

Still. One plan was better than none. 

She amassed more magic remains, and now it was beginning to sizzle as her intent poured into it. The void was susceptible to belief and, right now, Haru was a whole mess of belief and intent and everything else the potential responded to. She pictured the portal it had shattered from; she remembered the way the magic would crackle over her skin as she passed through it, and the way home, and the people she needed to get back to. 

Suddenly it expanded out and the swirling eddy of magic became a portal. Before it could slip away or she could lose control, she gripped her hands into, through the portal, and heaved herself through. Pressure shifted. She felt like all the air had been kicked out of her, and then she was drowning in air, and then she fell through into a world that was all too real and solid and bright. 

Her knees hit the cobbled street of the Sanctuary, and she had to bite her tongue to catch the curse before it slipped. The gasp gave way to laughter. Real, loud, almost tangible laughter that bounced off the miniature houses and echoed back to her. 

She was home. 

“Haru?”

Her entrance had been rather dramatic. Someone was bound to notice. She picked her head up and grinned at the form of Baron in the Bureau doorway. He was holding his hat and cane, like he had mistaken her arrival for a client and was preparing for some dramatics of his own. 

As he saw her, the cane clattered to the ground.

“You’re alive?”

Her grin froze. “What?”

The hat followed after the cane and he approached her, stopping just shy of within arm’s length. There was a shadow in his eyes, like he was afraid to be relieved. He started to reach out, and then haltered. “How…?”

“Improvisation. A lot of luck. And a little bending of reality’s rules.” She couldn’t let the smile fade entirely, for panic would take its place. “How long have I been gone?”

“A month.”

“Did you think I was…?”

“After the portal collapsed, we couldn’t get it up again,” Baron said, his voice hoarse. He still looked like he was meeting a ghost. Which she was, she supposed. His gaze couldn’t quite meet hers. “We thought the world had collapsed. And people don’t come back from the void between worlds.” 

“Well, here I am,” she said, weakly attempting humour. “Ta-da. Back.” 

“So I can see.” 

A heartbeat passed. Neither moved. 

Gently, Haru said, “It really is me.” She reached out, bridging the gap that Baron couldn’t bring himself to cross, a hand tentatively curling around his. “I’m here. I’m alive.” 

At the contact, something seemed to break. A wall. Or something. He abruptly stepped up to her and Haru barely registered before she was pulled into a sudden, uncharacteristic embrace. She could feel his breath rattling through him, shuddering through his lungs in heaving gasps that spoke of unshed tears, and the knowledge that her loss had broken something vital in him. 

She hesitantly returned the embrace, drawing him closer and letting her sure heartbeat calm his. 

“I’m here,” she echoed. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

x

“He must endure an eternity while you wither and pass and he is left alone.”

x

Haru stared at the apple atop her desk. It still looked as fresh and ripe as the day Baron’s artisan had given it to her. Immortal fruit for an immortal life, she supposed.

How fitting.

x

“Why, in all the worlds, would he be happy with that, if he loves you as you know to be true?”

x

She picked up the apple. 

“Sorry, Baron.”

x

Then you have to ask yourself one thing.

Do you really love him?

[catsafarithewriter]

TCR Birthday Bash: Happy Birthday

DAY FOUR: HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

“When is Baron’s birthday?”

At the abrupt question, Toto paused in his absent-minded preening and looked to his companion. 

Haru was leaning against the trunk of a bleak cherry tree, a couple of shopping bags slumped beside her while she half-heartedly picked at a box of mixed fruit. He had agreed to help her shop for her mother’s birthday, and now had ended a successful day with a visit to the park. It was quiet - the cold had chased away most park-goers - quiet enough that they could natter without too much worry of being overheard. Haru had her phone out, just in case. 

“Baron’s birthday?” Toto echoed. “Well, I believe the first time he awoke was the 16th July.” He paused and added, “1935, I think.”

There was another pause, and then Haru grinned. “That only puts him at, like 82.”

“Only?”

“Hey, you guys don’t age. It’s weird to think of an immortal still being within an acceptable human lifespan.” She flicked a mulberry over to him. “It’s almost easier to think of him as ageless than something as mundane as 82.”

“Still,” Toto added with a beaky smile, “you have to admit that’s a heck of an age-gap.”

Haru snorted. “Yeah. My mother would have kittens if she ever found out.” 

“Does she know anything yet?”

“Which part? If I tell her I’m dating, then she’ll want to meet him, and then I’ll have to explain why my boyfriend is a foot tall and has a tail and honestly I’m not sure I can manage that conversation yet.”

“Which conversation would you prefer? The one where you’re the one with kittens?”

Haru choked on a piece of melon, and glared at the crow. “I think you’re jumping the gun a tiny bit there, Toto. Anyway, how about you?”

“I don’t believe I’m ready to settle down and have kittens either.”

“Not that. Birthdays,” she said. “When’s yours?”

Toto gave her a funny sort of smile that she felt like she wouldn’t have been able to decipher even if he did have a mouth instead of a beak. “Ah, lost to the sands of time, I’m afraid.”

“You’ve forgotten your birthday?”

“Years don’t carry as much meaning when you’ve lived as many years as I have.”

“Yeah, but you remember Baron’s,” Haru pointed out. “So that means that Baron probably keeps track of dates enough to know when he was, well, awoken or whatever. Why don’t you?”

“Baron is young. For a Creation,” Toto was swift to add. “But for us older Creations... the years simply remind us of the distance between those we’ve lost in the ensuing decades. Those we’ve outlived, those we’ve left behind. And, after a while, it’s easy to forget. Remembering is the hard part.”

That same smile rose again, and this time Haru had a word for it. 

Bleak.

“Haru, what are you doing?”

The woman in question hauled her head out of the sea of files and grinned when she saw Baron step into the Bureau. “What does it look like? Research.”

“On what, may I ask?” He sat down beside her, which took some doing since she was almost entirely surrounded by a carpet of aforementioned files. “Also, while I realise I’m going to regret asking this, but do you have any idea which order these go back in?”

“I’m trying to find Toto’s birthday.” 

His smile slipped and he gathered up some of the nearest notes. “I wish you had come straight to me about this then-”

“I did. You weren’t here.”

“-because you won’t find Toto’s birthday here,” he finished. 

“Someone must know when it is,” she said. 

“Anyone who did is long dead. Haru, I know you mean well, but you cannot help with this. Trust me, Muta and I have tried before. Toto doesn’t want this.”

Haru’s shoulders slumped. “He doesn’t want to remember because of those he lost, I know...”

“Muta and I decided to respect his wishes-”

“But it doesn’t have to have an age attached!” Haru blurted out. “Just... everyone deserves one day a year to be about them. To be loved and celebrated and treated. That’s all I want. Just for Toto to have a day for him.” She hesitated, her fingers flicking absent-mindedly through a sheet of files. “Just how old is Toto, anyway? Like, he called you young, so older than you, I assume.”

“I don’t know,” Baron said. “He’s never told me.”

“Really? Okay, but he is older than you, right? You can rule that much out.”

Baron chuckled. “Far older than me, I believe.”

Haru looked at him. “Are we talking decades or...”

“Centuries.”

She gave a low whistle. “And I joked about our age gap.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.” But still, as she lingered over the useless files, the desire to help didn’t burn any less. If anything, it intensified. It was impossible to imagine a lifespan stretching centuries; enough time to see civilisations shift and grow; enough time to live through two great wars and many more beside; enough time to lose countless friends. 

“We should still do something,” she said. Her voice was quieter now; her previous humour dissipated. “He’s an important part of the Bureau. We should have a day to celebrate that.”

“Haru-”

“It doesn’t have to be a birthday party,” she insisted. “No dates or numbers involved at all. Nothing to remind him of how old he is. But... something.” An idea snuck into her mind, and she grinned at Baron with a little of her previous fire. “Hey, Baron? Do you remember when Toto joined the Bureau? No years, just the day and month.”

“I cannot recall off the top of my head, but I can certainly check. Haru, I do believe you’ve solved our dilemma.”

“Well, I’m not just a pretty face. So, you think it’d work?”

“I think, if we ask nicely, we might even be able to get Muta on board.”

A/N: I thought Toto deserved a little love today, so here is Thursday’s prompt. It’s past 11 here, so this isn’t my shiniest writing, and I ran out of time to get as far as a party, but you get the gist. Also, sneaking in a few headcanons for Toto there. (I didn’t get as far as mentioning it, but I feel like Toto turned up at the Bureau on a snowy winter day.)

[catsafarithewriter]

Prompt#18 Make me cry and kill me with the feels over and over again. Please~

Prompt: “I shouldn’t be in love with you.”

A/N: *rubs grotty little hands together* I shall do my best. For reference, I’m using the same AU as last time (the heartless AU, which was heavily inspired by Rumple and Belle from Once Upon a Time) because this is my suffering™ AU at the moment. 

want to send a prompt? find the list here!

“I shouldn’t be in love with you.”

“Shouldn’t? Or won’t?“

Her voice is taut after the earlier rejection, and to his surprise, something akin to shame creeps across his heart. He is the first to break eye contact.

“Well?” she prompts. “Which is it?”

He opens his mouth several times, switching between the two each time, but neither fits. “Can’t.”

“Can’t?” she echoes. Her gaze is cold, and he knows that if he meets it, he will lose. He keeps his attention on the library sprawled out before them. It’s safer than looking her way. “I suppose this is the part where you once again warn me that you’re incapable of feeling anything?”

“I would, if I thought you would listen.”

“Feelings like shame or anger,” Haru continued, “or affection. Those kinds of feelings, right? Because you do a stellar job of imitating those emotions otherwise. Can you really look at me - at your friends, Toto, Muta - and say that you don’t feel even the barest speck of love for anyone?”

She rounds on him, her head tilted back to meet his eyes. He stares back at her, if only out of stubbornness.

“Love isn’t all hearts and roses, you know. It’s caring and respecting and affection, things that I see in you whether you want to admit it or not. What are you so afraid of?”

There’s no easy way to explain it; to put into words how strange it is to hear his heart beating after centuries of silence. The feel of it makes him nauseous, like a sailor stepping back onto solid ground after years at sea.

“Baron?”

He has taken too long to answer, and now she’s stepped closer. Dangerously close. His heart accelerates and it’s enough to make his head spin.

“Get out.”

She blinks, and moves to grab her book back off him. “Fine. But you can’t run from this forever. Even if your lifespan is…” The end of her sentence escapes from her as her hand brushes against his in reclaiming the book. “What the…?”

“Get out!”

She staggers back, but the action is more shock than fear. He can read the surprise in her face; the confusion solidified by his reaction. Her eyes flicker to the gloved hand that has been irritating Baron since their conversation, and he wonders if she’s already guessing the truth. If she has any idea how dangerous she is.

The moment she is gone, he tears his glove off.

It’s not human - it hasn’t been human for centuries - but neither is it wooden. Just at the edge of his wrist, painted wood gives way to flesh and blood; tawny fur smothers the skin, but it’s real.

He flexes his fingers and they crack - but it’s the crack of knuckles and joints, not wooden hinges.

His hand curls into a fist, and his impossible heart thunders on.

This is going to complicate things.