Title: By the Ruins of Babylon
Movie: Spirited Away
Pairing: Chihiro/Haku
Summary: In amongst the rubble of her life, Chihiro finds a name, a timepiece and a man who might be able to change just about everything. (Chihiro/Haku).
A/N: So. I finally stopped my non-life by finally watching Spirited Away, and now find that the world is a little brighter. Since everyone seems to want to write their own versions of the reunion, I thought, what the hell?, and have jumped on the bandwagon (which is more unstable and rickety than what it first appears to be).
This will be a multi-chapter fic. Rules:
1) Chapters will be small snippets/drabbles which will be connected and make up the story.
2) Chapters will be no longer than 500 words each.
3) Updated no less than once every three days.
Enjoy.
-x-x-x-
The first time young Chihiro Ogino received a bouquet of flowers was the same morning she was moving (that's depressing). Petals scattered over her eyelids, and when she squinted, the upside-down scenery passed in a rush of green, pink and dappled sunlight. The faint, dusty smell of new leather upholstery mingled with youth's sticky sweat.
The second time was two years later, two weeks and three days after her twelfth birthday (that's depressing). Two innocuous petals seemed to stick out obnoxiously from the tub under her school desk, as if declaring flight from the rectangular, standard grey prison. Peering through a small crack, not without some trepidation, Chihiro found a small hand-picked bouquet of daises crammed in next to her mathematics book, tied together with what could have been a stolen yellow hair-tie.
She suspected Li Tsuuga, the gangly boy with freckled ears who sat three seats behind her. (Who also liked to follow her from the girl's bathroom to the lunchroom, then from the lunchroom to the play equipment, then from the play equipment to the drinking fountain, and from the drinking fountain back to class.)
(Incidentally, that was the year she stopped begging her parents for a dog.)
Over time, she lost the fancy. No real loss, in the end – just a small strip of childhood that had to be shed for the harder years to come. A small platform on the railway toward something duller. Every child relinquishes some small dream along the way, yet holds onto others, and for the rest, lets them evolve and grow into something big enough to fit into the shoes that will carry them. So it is without blame the Chihiro's parents waited patiently for their child to loosen her grasp on those other peculiar fancies that had always been somewhat otherworldly. Like holding her breath over bridges. Like murmuring sweetly to the soot in the fireplace. Like running her fingers through meagre rivers.
Yet, patience wore thin and frowns deepened in folds. Oddity, apparently, is something that cannot simply be lost or worn out over time. Years passed. The girl still looked into the heavens with a tilt to her chin. A wonder to her eyes. A wander to her cheeks.
-x-x-x-
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X Schnook