Chapter 9
He is so different… So unusual… Please let him be able to wake up…
Haru didn't know to whom she made this silent plea, but with all her heart, she wished that he would.
Hiromi gently set her on the shelf beside him, and made to leave with Johan, giving the statuettes some privacy, in case it was just a matter of the wooden cat doll being shy around humans, rather than genuinely being completely inanimate.
"Hello," Haru begins tentatively, taking a shy step towards the cat doll, only to stop and shake her head. "Silly, he probably doesn't speak German," she muttered to herself, before starting again, this time in Japanese. "Hello Baron von Gikkingken, my name is Haru Yoshioka."
Baron smiled, coming to life before her eyes.
"You still need a little practice, Miss Haru. In Japan, you are supposed to put your given name last…" he felt his words fade away as the beautiful girl's brown eyes grew wide.
"You are alive! Oh!" Haru, a European, thought little of invading personal space unless she could clearly see that it was being used as a wall to keep others out – as Lisa had done for a while, keeping all of her brothers as arm's length. It did not occur to her that she might be making the cat doll uncomfortable by wrapping her arms around his neck in her girlish delight.
She realised her mistake when he stiffened against her.
Okay so he's not a hug person… I wonder if he likes being stroked like a cat though…
Haru let go quickly and looked down, studying her bare feet. Her maker had shown an exacting attention to detail even there – all of her toes, her fingers, all had been carefully shaped and worked upon so that, even as glass, they looked real. The girl distracted herself, thinking about her forming, trying to cool the embarrassed and shame-faced blush that covered her entire face.
Baron, meanwhile, was trying to figure out the girl. She was happy that she wasn't alone in her kind of existence, he could understand that, but she could not possibly like the way he looked – she had, after all, let go of him very quickly and was now not looking at him. Of course, he knew that a man with the head and tail of a cat, not to mention, completely furred underneath the suit, could not possibly hope to entertain a beauty like Miss Haru for long.
"I'm sorry," she said, breaking into his thoughts.
"What for?"
"Since I came to live with Cousin Johan and his wife Hiromi, I have also come to understand that some people do not like being hugged," she swallowed shyly. "I should have thought first to ask if you would mind me hugging you."
Baron blushed, and stammered, and finally, after a mixed up jumble of thoughts, was able to fit some words onto his tongue.
"I've never been hugged before, and you are so beautiful – I feel like a strange creature by comparison."
"Well, you sort of are – a strange, wonderful, beautiful creature. One of a kind, special," Haru wasn't at all sure that this was helping, but she wanted to get to know him better.
Baron recalled something he had once heard Old Man Yoshioka say to a young man who had come to him for advice, and decided that it was good advice for him now too. "Always believe in yourself, do this, and you will have nothing to fear."
The cat doll reached out carefully and drew Haru into a gentle embrace.
When he wants to hug, he does it so well.