Edited on January 2, 2007
Disclaimer: Studio Ghibli owns the rights to The Cat Returns, not me. (Duh)
With All My Heart
Chapter One
Life for Haru seemed to become increasingly more normal after her encounter with the cats. She returned to her normal life, to her normal school, full of her normal friends. Each day she would go through the same normal routine: get up, rush to school, go home, sleep, and repeat. Every thing returned to the way things were before her adventure. Normal as normal could be.
But though Haru was being suffocated with normalcy, she couldn't help but dream of a better life. She would dream of adventures, of old friends, and of true love. A dream she had once lived not too long ago. She had been kidnapped by an evil king, and rescued by her prince charming. Those memories of fun and adventure were all Haru had to live on now.
Today would mark the one year anniversary of that faithful day when she rescued the Cat Prince. Before that she had always thought of cats as cute. little creatures. She nearly suffered a brain aneurysm when the cat she had saved that day thanked her. In plain English. Who would have thunk it? Her original thoughts were that she had hallucinated the whole ordeal, but later that night when she saw the parade of cats walking –yes, walking– down the street, she began to realize that cats were very strange indeed.
Today was going to be like each and every other day. Haru was rushing to get her clothes on and her school supplies together, late as always. Once her possessions were secure she rushed past her mother and to the front door. She was just about the door when her mother's voice caught her attention.
"Haru!" Her mother called out to her. "I thought you were passed the 'late for school' stage?"
"Well, when in doubt, stick with what you know!" Haru called back, flinging the front door open and getting ready to run.
"Oh, Haru. Don't leave just yet!" Her mother shouted, once again stopping Haru in mid flee.
"Mom, I'm going to be late!"
Her mother just held out a piece of toast to her and Haru grabbed it, shoving it in her mouth and running out the door again. "Thanks mom!" she yelled through a mouth full of toast as she left. Her mother was a true saint for putting up with all of her crap.
A quick glance at her watch told her that she had less than five minutes before the tardy bell rang, and she was a good ten minutes away from school. She signed inwardly, pulling together all of the energy she could muster up and pushing her body into turbo drive. She ran as fast as she could down the side walks, weaving her way around all of the people on the busy streets, yelling a few 'sorry's when she ran into someone. At times she was amazed at just how fast she truly was.
Haru mentally scolded herself. I really need to start getting ready earlier! To add to her problems, the darkened sky's above let out a terrible rumble of thunder, and then the bottom dropped out. Quite literally.
The weather man said it would be sunny all day! Haru squeaked and ran faster, holding her bag over her head in an attempt to shield herself from the pounding rain. The deep puddles that were now forming on the side walk splashed her legs as she ran, drenching her shoes and socks. Haru could now see the top of her school, and pushed herself to run faster when she heard the first bell ring.
Oh great, she thought, there goes the bell. Sensei is going to kill me if I'm late again!
While she came closer to the school, Haru couldn't help but notice a small cat running through the rain. Haru stopped in her tracks when she noticed the cat start to run across the busy highway. If Haru had been thinking clearly, she would have ignored the cat and continued on her merry way. While saving a cat from death is always a good thing to do, she found herself very wary around them and wondered if she should even bother. She didn't want a repeat performance of least year.
Luckily for the cat, she wasn't thinking clearly at all. She screamed and dropped all of her things, quickly running to the aid of the cat that now stood paralyzed in front of the on coming cars, like a dear caught in headlights. She didn't even look before she ran into the streets and yanked the cat up, running back to the sidewalk and tumbling into the alleyway with the small tabby cat in her hands.
"Watch where your going!" Yelled the red faced fat man in the car that had almost ran them both over.
Haru pulled herself up into a sitting position and panted. The tardy bell at her school sounded off and Haru groaned. "Great, Now I'm going to be late for sure." she mumbled to herself.
The tabby cat blinked and stared up on her. Standing up on his hind legs, the cat walked over to Haru and held out his paw to her, "Thank you for saving me."
"No problem," Haru sighed as she stood up, brushing herself off.
The cat stood startled for a moment, shocked by the lack of response Haru had given him. "You are familiar with the ways of the cats?" he questioned.
"You have no idea," Haru replied. She looked around herself, trying to find all of her books. They were scattered every which way, so Haru busied herself with the task of collecting the books, ignoring the tabby cat all together.
The cat looked on in awe at Haru, simply overjoyed to know that she was familiar with the true nature of cats. He briefly wondered if this was the girl he had heard stories about. That would be less of a hassle. He continued to watch Haru gather up her books, and contemplated the ways he could repay her for her generosity. "I am forever in dept to you, Miss.." he drawled out, scolding himself for not getting her name sooner.
"Haru," she supplied.
"Ah, Miss Haru. So the stories are true. Well, I simply must repay you for your kindness and generosity towards me."
Haru twitched as he mentioned repayment. "NO! Don't. Please, just don't." She flailed her hands around and backed away slowly.
The small tabby cat's ears fell. "But you saved my life! I must do something for you."
"You cat's an your repayments," she sighed. "Look, I don't want anything." Haru tried to convince him, shaking her hands in front of her more rapidly, as if that would be enough to convince the cat otherwise.
"Surely there is something you want...something that your heart desires?" The cat pressed on.
Haru's face flushed red at the thought of her hearts desire, but it wasn't enough to convince her. "Nothing. My heart doesn't desire a thing. Now, excuse me, I'm late for school." she said as she picked up her bag and ran away once more. "Oh, and next time look both ways before you cross the street!" she yelled over her shoulder.
The cat watched as Haru disappeared from his line of sight and sighed. "Surely she wanted something. Hmm. Ah! I know just the thing..." and with that, the tabby cat hopped to it's feet and trotted off.
- - -
- - -
Haru rung her hair, squeezing out as much water as she could before tip toeing down the hallway. She pressed her ear up against her class room door and heard her teacher lecturing. Quietly, she opened the door and tip toed in and walked quietly to her seat.
"You're late again, Ms. Yoshioka," The teacher said without turning around.
How does he do that? Haru asked herself. "Well, you see, I was saving a cat, that is..a cat was in the street, and a car was going to..."
"Sit down, Ms. Yoshioka, and take out last nights homework."
Haru bowed her head in embarrassment and trudged over to her seat. "Yes, sir."
When she got to her seat, Hiromi gave her a strange look. "You saved another cat?"
Haru sighed and began to take out her homework. "Yea. Almost got ran over."
Hiromi giggled. "Cats need to learn how to look both ways."
"Yea, that's what I told him."
"Told who...?"
"The cat..um, never mind. Just forget I said anything." Haru explained.
Hiromi nodded, ignoring the fact that her friend was weird and was talking to animals.
School went on normally for Haru, luckily she didn't have anymore problems to deal with. The sun was peaking through the clouds as she made her way home, making her feel energized. Every few steps she would jump in the puddles that had formed on the sidewalk, sending the water flying and sometimes splashing the people walking beside her. She smiled and said sorry, but she continued to jump int he puddles until she had made her way home.
"Mom, I'm home!"
Silence.
"Mom?"
Haru walked into the house and looked around for her mother. As she walked into the kitchen, she saw a yellow sticky note plastered on the fridge.
Haru,
I'll be home late tonight, don't wait up. I put some left overs on the oven, just heat it up when you are ready.
Love, Mom
Haru sighed and grabbed the left overs, looking at it in disgust. She pulled back the cover and sniffed the contents, cringing at the sour smell. On second thought, she'd rather have a sandwich. She dropped the 'left overs', if you would call it that, into the trash bin and made herself a small sandwich.
She had a quiet dinner all to herself, enjoying the piece and quiet. It was during moments like this that she liked to get her thoughts together and let her mind wander. This was the time that she could day dream, and forget about her normal world as her mind visited new, facinating places.
As her thoughts ran wild, she couldn't help but focus on one thought in particular. It had been a whole year since the Cat Kingdom incident and she had not once even been to visit Baron.
Baron... she thought. Though she hadn't been to visit him, she surely had thought of him. How could she not? She had a little crush on him a year ago, but as time moved on, that crush turned into something more. Love...maybe? She wasn't sure. She had never met a person quite like him before. He's not a person, he's a doll, she told herself. He's a very polite and handsome doll... Haru shook her head to clear her thoughts. It didn't matter. She was to afraid to see him, and he was probably to busy to see her anyway. He's probably out helping new people, not giving her a second thought.
She put her dishes in the sink and turned off all the lights. It was getting late, nearly 9:30. She yawned softy and made her way to her bedroom. Setting her alarm clock and turning it up to extra loud so that she would wake up on time in the morning, she hopped in the bed and snuggled under the covers, ready for a good nights sleep.
A small tabby cat sat outside Haru's window seal and watched as she fell into the world of dreams. "I know exactly how I can repay her," the cat said.
A/N: I'm just going to go ahead and say that there are not enough Baron/Haru fanfics out there. I've read every single fanfic in this category and I am in desperate need for more. Then I realized that I couldn't be the only one to feel this way, so I might as well contribute. Hopefully others will as well, and before you know it, this will be bustling with new fan fiction.
Well, anyways, I hope you like my story. Review are appreciated.