Whisper of The Cat

Back to the Bureau

"Wow, so you wrote a whole story on the Baron?" Haru exclaimed.

Blushing slightly, Shizuku nodded. "Mm, hmm. I've been working on it for about four years now, but I finally finished 'polishing' it a while ago. I sent it off to get published. I've already gotten several rejection notices, but I was warned that I would."

Seiji put his hand on her shoulder. "Anyone who doesn't publish your story must have the worst taste in books. Your story was incredible."

Shizuku blushed harder. "I feel like I could have done better though."

Seiji frowned. "Now don't start that again. You're an excellent writer. You have so much talent; a lot more than I have at making violins."

Shizuku glared at him. "Now don't you start putting yourself down." She scolded.

Haru looked at Seiji curiously. "You make violins?"

Shizuku answered for him. "Yeah, he's amazing at it too!" she said beaming.

Now it was Seiji's turn to blush. "I'm ok..."

Shizuku playfully hit him. "Don't listen to him. He's wonderful. A lot better at it than I am at writing."

Haru laughed, she couldn't help it. "You guys are funny. You should give yourselves more credit. You're probably a lot better than you think; you just don't know it because it's your own work." She gave them an encouraging smile. "A good friend of mine told me that if you trust yourself, you can do anything."

Seiji smiled. "Your friend sounds smart."

Haru nodded. "He is."

"Is he your boyfriend?" Shizuku asked in a teasing voice.

"What?" Haru exclaimed, turning a darker shade of red than the other two had. "No, just friends!" The person whom Haru was talking about was Baron himself. True, at one point she did have a little crush on him, but that was long ago, not to mention she had been a cat at the time, so her emotions had been a little mixed up. "He's... not exactly my type." She added before thinking, 'Try not even the same species.'

"If you say so." Said Shizuku, cutting her eyes slyly.

Changing the topic, Haru said, "So, you want to be a writer," she turned to Seiji, "and you want to be a violin maker?"

The couple nodded. "Yeah, after I graduate from high school this year I'm going to Cremona, Italy to become an apprentice violin maker for the next 10 years."

Shizuku hugged his arm. "And I'm going with him." She said dreamily.

Haru smiled at the couple. They had been talking for a while now, getting to know each other. The couple seemed so much in love. Haru hoped one day she found a love like that. And to think, that was almost taken away from her by the stupid Cat King. But she wasn't about to tell her new friends that; they would think she was crazy.

"That's really great." She said. "I'm so happy for you two. I know you're dreams are going to come true."

The other two smiled. "Thanks." They said together."

Haru grinned. "I would love to read your story, Shizuku. Any story about the Baron must be great; he is so cool."

Seiji raised an eyebrow. "You're talking about him as if you've known about him."

"Ah!" Haru mentally scolded herself for the slip up. She had momentarily forgotten that she wasn't supposed to know about the cat statue at all, let alone the being actual born from it. "No, no, no, no, no! I just meant that I find him so fascinating that any story about him would be worth reading!" She said, perhaps a little too quickly, giving them a big grin and laughing anxiously.