Breathe, Little Lungs

"Will we meet again, sometime?"

"I'm sure we will."

"Promise?"

"Promise. Now go, and don't look back."

It took everything in me not to turn and run. To run back to the place I had fell in love with in such a short amount of time.

I never told my parents.

Would they have believed me?

I wouldn't have believed me.

So I stayed silent, and I returned home with a lifetime of memories and my secret.

The next day comes and goes like a blur.

"Chihiro? Chihiro? Wake up,"

I blinked sleepy eyes and saw flashes of brown and pink. "Rin? Just five more minutes"

And then; "Who's Rin?"

My heart sinks into my soul.

Oh. Right.

My mother tells me I have begun to speak in my sleep.

"Who's this Haku boy?" she questions one day at the dinner table. I don't eat a lot these days; I despise giving into the body's own gluttony. Out of fear of changing into a pig, or stirring up longing memories… either one worked.

I want to tell them.

It's just not the time.

It'll never be the time.

So I shrug and smile, faking confusion. "Who?"

Weeks pass and I find myself waiting like an obedient dog.

I return to the tunnel frequently.

Every day, really.

The school bus drops me off at the beginning of my road. One trail can take me to my house, and the other…home.

I finally gave in one day and returned to the other side at sunset. The sunlight dappled across my face in a warm glow, and I was so happy for that split second it brought tears to my eyes.

But… nothing happens, and that day; my heart cracked a little.

I miss him. I find myself staring at the ceiling at night and reliving my memories. I try and tell myself it was only a dream, but my hairbow is the ever present reminder that I'm not insane. It all happened, he'll come for me, he will…

I find a stuffed dragon at the market. After pleading and pleading, my mother finally agrees to buy it.

"Aren't you a little too old for stuffed animals, Chihiro? You're almost eleven."

What?

Chihiro?

"Sweetheart?" Mother speaks, but my eyes are trained so hard on the dragons face. So like Haku, and completely different at the same time.

"Chihiro?"

What? Who's Chihiro? Sen.

I paused. I forgot my own name.

"Chi? Breathe, Chihiro."

I hadn't realized I had been holding it.

My mother's eyes are full of concern as she pulls me back to the car and we begin the trip home.

As I lay in bed that night, tears spring from my eyes and I cry and cry and cry for so many reasons. I miss Haku, and Rin, Kamaji, No Face, Zeniba, Bou, and even Yubaba. I want to return.

I continue to the tunnel every day. Sometimes I pace back and fourth like a spoiled child.

"Spirits!" I screamed.

My only reply was dead silence. Silence so terrifying I ran back home and sobbed into my mothers chest until I fell asleep.

I sleep a lot now, because my dreams are filled with river spirits and beautiful dragons and little soot spirits and amazing things this world only believe to be fantasy.

"She's my granddaughter."

"You want to loose your nose?"

"You're the Kohaku River!"

"Remember Chihiro, I'm your friend."

"I want Sen!"

"Granny…"

"Wear this. It will protect you."

"What's going on here?", "Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called love."

"Will we meet again, sometime?"

"I'm sure we will."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

My thirteenth winter is coming up now. My family is visiting old friends, and they pass the apartments that was formerly the Kohaku River.

"Kohaku…" I whisper.

Silence, again.

I see his face. Everywhere; in my own dreams and even on strangers on the streets. I even smell him sometimes.

I thought it was him one day. I grabbed the shoulder of a new dark haired boy at my school.

"Haku?" my voice was beaming.

"No," his eyes were brown and kind. "Sorry."

He's never coming.

He never came.

I didn't realize it at first, but one morning I woke up and I forgot… I just realized I didn't think of him.

I was forgetting. Zeniba's words came back to me like a slap to the face. "Once you meet someone, you never really forget them."

I weep.

Five years. One thousand, eight hundred and twenty five days since my family and I stumbled upon to a entire new world. One thousand, eight hundred and twenty two days since he promised…

I didn't even say goodbye.

I wonder if he's changed, or do spirits age?

I'm forced to accept it when the seventh year rolls around.

I'm forced to accept that life goes on.

I still remember them all, faintly. They'll always be in my heart.

I tell my small cousins stories of the emerald eyed boy and a little lost girl who stumbled upon a world of spirits.

"I want to fly too!"

"Me too!"

"Chihiro! Chihiro! Fly with us!" my cousins leap in the air with laughs of joy; earsplitting grin's on their young faces. I find myself smiling back.

"Chihiro… take my hand."

I wish I could, Haku.

He comes in the night; two thousand, nine hundred and fifty three days later.

He does look different, older. He aged for me. His hair was the same style and cut and his eyes were bright and beautiful.

"Chihiro…"

I ran to him, throwing myself into his arms and sobbing and laughing and screaming and singing for pure joy.

He pulled my body away from him and cupped my face with the palms of his hands. He was smiling so big light seemed to reflect of his perfect teeth.

"You kept your promise," I whispered faintly.

His smile widened. "I did."

I buried my head in his chest and cried some more, until the air left my lungs and I ran out of tears.

"Shh," Haku whispered, stroking my hair. "breathe, little one."

And I knew everything was going to be all right... and it was.

The End

A/N: I watched Spirited Away the first time, cried like a baby. I can count one each hand many times I've cried since I was almost 6, and this movie is one of the reasons. I absolutely adored it, it's a pure classic. Everyone needs to watch it.

This isn't edited that much, purely done for fun. If you see a mistake please point it out and I'll fix it asap.

Review!