Baron tucked the wish into his jacket pocket and turned. A tall, shrouded figure awaited him.

"Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?" asked the Baron, intimidated by the spectre.

It nodded.

"Lead, I follow," said the cat, approaching the ghost with trepidation.

He saw Haru, a grown woman, hanging decorations on a tree. For some reason, she couldn't reach the top to put the star on, and this living room was not the one she had shared with her mother.

She got married, the words burned between his ears, the silent voice of this final spirit of Christmas.

"Haru," a voice, male and unfamiliar, called demandingly from the next room.

Baron saw her flinch and turn towards that voice. A large bruise, the shape of a hand, could now be seen above the collar of her turtleneck sweater. She also had a fat lip and a slight limp as she went towards the voice she so plainly feared.

"Coming Machida," she answered, leaving the tree behind.

"He beats her, why doesn't she leave him?" Baron demanded.

Where would she go?

"She could… she could go back to her mother," he offered lamely, though he knew Naoko was not young when he had seen them sharing Christmas lunch just a short time ago, she was probably dead by now. "Does she ever come back to the Bureau for help?" he asked desperately, wanting there to be some relief for Haru, he couldn't bear that she was married to someone who would beat her.

With a sweep of the ghost's long grey cloak, Baron saw Muta, old and grey, handing over his job to a female cat, the one that he had helped in the back alley. She had grown into a fine cat, but something was not right in the Bureau.

"You have to remember to not let him get dusty," the old cat said, and Baron felt cold. "He set up the Cat Bureau, to help anyone who needed it, we can't let him get lost in dust after all he did for so many."

"Yes Muta, I know. Don't worry," the cat promised. "Besides, Toto is still here, he'll remind me," she added.

Baron ran for the house, his house. It couldn't be true – he wouldn't let it happen, he couldn't let Haru live with a violent husband while he stood dead, only wood. Yet, there was the truth of it. His unmoving, cold, solid figure stood stoically by the fireplace, hat on head and cane in hand.

"Please tell me that I can change this," Baron pleaded, turning back to the spirit.

These are the shadows of what shall be if the present is not altered. The ghost told him.

"So they can be changed?" Baron asked desperately. He never got an answer, everything around him faded into blackness.

The log in the fire broke in two, falling inward and clunking against itself. The sound woke him with a start, and he looked around him, terrified that it might be too late. Haru would already be married to that Machida, and he would be nothing more than a wooden statue by the fire; but it wasn't true.

Something else was true, however. There was something hard in his pocket. Baron stared at the small parcel, and thought. One wish, only one wish to fix the future. He needed more time to think.

Seeing the wreath on his table, Baron decided that he could at least do a little something. He moved to hang it up, then changed his mind and slipped it around his top hat instead, since it fit so nicely. Perhaps it looked a little odd, but it didn't matter – a crown of holly was fine by him this morning.

"Merry Christmas Muta, Toto," he said, striding out of the Bureau to his friends beneath their Christmas tree.

"Merry Christmas Baron," they said, surprised that he was out and in good mood. Usually, he stayed inside on Christmas day, though he had left them presents under the tree. What surprised them even more was that he was wearing a wreath around his head.

His thoughts were rushed; an idea was forming as he ran his fingers over the box in his pocket.

"Mistletoe…" he murmured. "Where can I find some mistletoe…"

"What do you want mistletoe for Baron?" Toto asked, surprised that the always polite – and just a tad cold – cat wanted the plant that, at Christmas time, was used by the feckless youths to steal kisses.

"Here's some," said Muta, holding up a box of unused decorations. "And what do you mean 'what do you want it for?' Birdbrain, Baron's going to see Haru, and he's got something up his sleeve." The large cat rose from his cold seat by the tree and approached the Baron, the little green branch in his paw and a solid look on his face. "You'll take good care of her, won't you Baron? You won't come back here and leave her with a mixed up heart."

"I'm not coming back, Muta," he said, looking his old friend right in the eye. "If you need me though, I'll be with Haru."

Muta nodded and handed over the sprig. Baron nodded and left.

"Now I want you to explain," Toto said. He had missed out on most of the adventure in the Cat Kingdom, while Muta had been with Haru just about the whole time.

Baron ran through the streets, searching for Haru's home. He knew how to get there, he had visited her once in the year since the Cat Kingdom trouble, and she had visited him a couple of times for advice, he forgot what about.

He rounded a corner and there was her house, just as it had been when he went with the Ghost of Christmas Present. Baron knew what he had to do now, what he wanted so very desperately to do. He unwrapped his gift from the Ghost of Christmas Present, closed his eyes and made his wish.

When Baron opened his eyes, the world didn't seem as large as it had a moment ago, and his smiled. Taking a step towards Haru's door, he was glad to find that the lack of tail and whiskers didn't affect his balance too much. He knocked on her door.

"Could you get that, Haru?" he heard Naoko call. She probably had her hands full in the kitchen.

"Hello?" Haru said, opening the door.

"Good morning Miss Haru," he said, removing his hat.

"Baron?" she asked, brown eyes large in surprise.

He smiled and nodded, putting his hat back on his head and handing her the mistletoe like it was a rose.

Haru took it from him, and stared in wonder for a moment.

"Won't you come in?" she asked, still staring at the sprig.

"Thank you," he said, hiding his worry behind that same mask he had been using for so many years to hide his emotions, promising himself that it would be the last time.

Haru closed the door behind him and went ahead of him down the hall, stopping a moment to secure the mistletoe over a doorway. Baron hoped she might lead him through that door so that he might have an excuse to kiss her, but she started in the other direction absently.

"Haru, who was at the door?" Naoko called from the kitchen, beyond the door that Haru had affixed the white-berried plant to.

"Hmm? Oh, Mum, I'd like you to meet the Baron, he helped me out of some trouble a year ago, and we've been in fairly loose contact since," Haru said, walking straight through the door, and indicating that Baron should follow.

He decided to stop under the little plant.

"Nice to meet you, please, do come in, make yourself at – oh," Naoko said, stopping herself as she looked over at him and noticed the mistletoe that hung above him. "Haru, look up, there's a dear," she said, noticing that her daughter hadn't gone more than two paces through the doorway and could be declared under the mistletoe with the Baron.

"Huh?" Haru said, confused. She did as she was told though, and blushed when she realised what had happened. Looking down from the white berries to his green eyes, she swallowed, suddenly very shy. She still had a crush on him after all.

Baron smiled and held out a hand to her, wanting to kiss her.

She slipped her hand into his and took those two steps towards him until she stood solidly beneath the customary plant.

Baron leaned in, closed his eyes and pressed his lips gently to hers in a chaste kiss.

"I love you Haru," he whispered as he drew his lips away.

"Planning on sticking around Baron?" Naoko asked, drying her hands and smiling as her daughter and the handsome young man turned to look at her, surprised – they had forgotten they had an audience.

"Planning on asking Haru to marry me one day, Mrs Yoshioka," Baron answered. He hadn't let go of her hand.

"She's too young to get married yet," Naoko said, a warning in her voice.

"I know," Baron said, truly happy for the first time in centuries. "I can wait."

"Well, it's time for presents, anyway," announced the mother, hanging up her apron. "And I'll start by giving this," she said, picking up the package for the man of the house, "to you." She put the old looking present in Baron's arms, making him let go of Haru's hand.

"Mum! We can't give that to Baron!" objected Haru. "Can you even remember what is in there?" she asked in response to the look her mother gave her.

"No," Naoko said simply. "But appropriate or not, I'm more inclined to let Baron be man of the house than that Machida, and man of the house means he gets this."

Baron privately agreed about Machida, and opened the gift. It was a tool kit.

Naoko burst out laughing. "Your father always was useless doing jobs around the house, I bet I got this for him as a joke!" she explained when the two younger people looked at her strangely. Naoko's laughter turned to tears. "The last gift I got him he wouldn't have even liked – he'd have laughed, but he would never have used it."

Baron put down the tool kit and shuffled over to Naoko.

"Happy memories should never make us sad," he said quietly, wrapping her in a hug.

"That's it, I'm not letting you out of my sight until you propose to Haru," Naoko said, returning the hug. "The schools can teach her how to earn a lot of money, and I will teach you how to be a good husband to her."

"I'd like that," he said, though he wondered how much teaching he would need.

"There's a spare room upstairs, it's yours now," the older woman instructed, removing herself from his hug and reaching for another present – this time for Haru.

"I don't know how to thank you," he said, watching Haru tear through paper to get to the box inside – it held a dress made of velvet and trimmed with fur. Haru ran up to her room to try it on.

"Be good to her, that will be thanks enough."

Haru returned, resplendent in white, and stood in the doorway to be admired.

"I promise," Baron said, standing up to kiss Haru under the mistletoe again.