Made chapter two becaue it's been on my mind all day. Read and review as always!
II.
"You're worrying me, Chihiro." Haku put down his ceramic bowl of half-eaten ramen and looked at Chihiro's still-full bowl with furrowed eyebrows. "Why aren't you eating?"
Chihiro blinked when Haku spoke to her and she looked up from her bangs and blushed darkly. She turned away and looked out at the crashing waves and the moon positioned right over the water. A crisp breeze came through and caressed both hers and Haku's hair in its passing. Haku sighed and put his elbow on the wooden table and rest his chin in his palm. He didn't say anything; he simply watched Chihiro try to avoid his gaze and found amusement in her discomfort.
Chihiro cleared her throat and returned her gaze back to her now-cold ramen and picked up her chopsticks, still not looking Haku in the eyes. "I don't know why you decided to eat out on the balcony as cold as it is out here." She pulled her chopsticks apart and they came out to a perfect pair. "I'm going to catch a cold and it'll mess me up tomorrow when I finally save my parents."
Haku tilted his head and couldn't help but burst in to a laughing fit. Chihiro, completely disgusted and shocked by this, shoved her ramen in her mouth and her angry blush on spread wider across her face. The Dragon Boy had to silence himself with his hand over his mouth, but even she could still see the laughter resonating in his emerald eyes. Chihiro slammed her chopsticks on the table and caused her mug to tip over and spill out all on the floor.
"Just what is so funny?! You think I'm kidding around but-"
"I just find your inability to express yourself to be highly amusing." Haku said and lifted his mug and took sip of the warm jasmine tea. Chihiro scoffed at this.
"I'm expressing myself now, aren't I?!" Chihiro said and sat back on her heels, gritting her teeth. He always saw right through her. Always! "I'm going to bed." She stood and he, too, stood and moved quicker than Chihiro could even see.
"Wait." Haku gently gripped her wrist and the frown on his face made Chihiro's heart pound just a bit faster. "I apologize-I shouldn't have been pointing out the obvious."
"Seriously?!"
Haku smiled again and let Chihiro's wrist go. Chihiro rubbed it, acting as if Haku held her with a vice grip. The mutter that left her lips took Haku by surprise and his grin only broadened.
"Mind saying that just a tad louder?"
Chihiro swallowed and turned her back to him and folded her arms. "Leave me alone!"
Haku went behind her and wrapped his slender arms around her waist and buried his face in to her hair. He sniffed it and Chihiro wanted to honestly die from embarrassment at that moment.
"Your hair smells wonderful." He spoke softly and sniffed it again. "It smells like me. I take it that you've been using the blanket I lent you, hm?"
"Well, yeah," she said as though it would've been stupid to not use it, "it's cold in the rooms at night and the blanket Lin gave me wasn't helping."
"Right." Haku said and looked straight out at the water. "I'm still waiting."
"For what now?!"
"For you to repeat what you said a few moments ago."
Chihro sucked in a breath and shut her eyes. "You just seem happier, okay? That's all I said!"
Haku put his hands on the wooden railing and Chihiro opened her eyes when she felt Haku pressing on her. She turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin to see how close his face had just become.
"H-"
"Only a fool wouldn't be happy after learning their true identity." Haku said and the smile on his face was gone. "You helped me regain my freedom, Chihiro. Why wouldn't I be happier?"
Chihiro tried to take a step back but she was already against the railing. "I-I didn't mean it that way. It's just... I've never seen you smile so much until now and it's kinda scary because you're kinda scary-"
"I'm scary?" Haku feigned hurt and his eyes were casted downwards. "Oh. I see." He turned to move away, but Chihiro caught him by his sleeve and it took him almost all of his control to not grin.
"I didn't mean that either!" She groaned and covered her face with both hands. "I'm sorry, I'm just really dumb!"
"You don't say?" Haku joked and pried her hands from her hot face. "You're always so good at running away, Chihiro." They both finally looked at one another directly.
Another breeze flew by and the water down below sounded much more calm than it did earlier. Chihiro always felt this way when she actually had the nerve to look at the Dragon Boy. His face would shine and the fiery rage of his beast counterpart would flicker in his eyes. He was dangerously handsome for such a young boy. His hair moved again in the next breeze and Chihiro's brown eyes widened. Haku was-
"Chihiro." He called her out of her trance and she had to blink numerous times to remember where she was. Haku put his hand on her cheek and Chihiro hoped her cheeks wouldn't burn him. "I'm going to miss you dearly."
Chihiro could barely form coherent sentences. "R-Right, I'm gonna miss you, too, sorta..."
"Sorta?" Haku laughed and put his other hand on her face. "Is it selfish to say that I don't want you to leave me?"
Chihiro's eyes were slightly lidded and Haku knew he had her then.
"I mean it." He spoke so softly. Chihiro's heart was pounding faster. "I lost you once and getting another opportunity to see you again...I don't think I have the morality in me to let you go. Not yet, anyway." His thumbs caressed her cheeks and all Chihiro could do was stare like a dazed fool.
"I want you to stay with me." Haku moved his face to her right cheek and kissed where his hand previously was. The waters picked up again. "For now, or forever. Whatever you want, Chihiro. My Chihiro."
"I can't stay forever." She was silenced by another peck on her other cheek and she audibly whimpered.
"Why?" Haku asked and it was clear that he was trying his utmost hardest to persuade her. Even if it meant using a little magic.
"Because..." she was almost completely limp. Haku had to keep her upright by placing a hand on her waist. "I'm a human and you're all Spirits."
Haku smirked and rest his forehead on hers, just like they did earlier when his true identity was rediscovered. "But, my Chihiro, I can make you a Spirit."
Chihiro's lip trembled and Haku placed his thumb against it. "My parents..."
"They will be fine." He meant that. "We can save them tomorrow and they'll go back to the human world. You'll just remain here. With me. We can take back the Onsen, free Lin, Kamaji and everyone else and it'll be great, Chihiro, I promise you."
The girl was visibly struggling with herself and Haku bit his lip and awaited her answer. Surely, she would comply. The amount of magic he was using was a fool-proof way of getting her to agree. There was no way-
"I can't." Chihiro said and moved her face from his hand and pushed Haku back with her own. "I can't!"
Haku was absolutely shocked. His body shook with confusion and rage. Didn't she want to be with him? Why was she still resisting?!
"I'm sorry, Haku." Chihiro sniffled and wiped her teary eyes. "But I can't stay here. I'm not a spirit, and I don't want to be one! I want to go back home with my parents and go to school and be a human! That's where I belong." Chihiro lifted her head and her heart instantly shattered.
Haku was crying.
The Dragon Boy was actually crying.
"Haku..." Chihiro's eyes watered again. "I'm so-"
Haku held up his hand and he smiled through his tears. "Save me the sympathy." It was his turn to avoid her gaze. "I was a fool to believe that I could keep you for myself. Please excuse me, for I have things to do. I'll see you tomorrow at the trial."
Before Chihiro could even answer, Haku vanished and in his wake storm clouds formed in the sky and a light rainfall began to fall. The rain was warm and Chihiro couldn't decide whether it was actual rain, or the teardrops of the white dragon hurrying away in the distance.
xx
Chihiro woke with a start and fell from her seat on to the bus floor.
"Are you alright back there?" The driver hollered over the noise and Chihiro groaned on the floor.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" She stood up and had to hold on to the pole for support.
"Sorry about the bumpiness; we're in the mountains now and it's always a rocky road!"
Chihiro rubbed the sleep from her eyes and managed to sit back down before going over another large rock and bouncing up so high, she hurt her butt when she fell back down.
"Knew I should've walked." She said to herself and then scoffed at how stupid that idea was.
"Yeah, let's just trek along an endless mountain range and get mauled by bears," she thought, "real smart thinking, Chihiro."
Chihiro pulled her suitcase in between her legs and huffed a sigh while looking out the bus window. What a dream that was. Actually, what a memory. That was far from a farfetched dream, he really did try to make her stay in the Spirit World with him. And after that, he acted like nothing happened when she was finally able to cross the river and go back to the human world. He even made a damn promise to see her again!
The girl put her hand on her face and noticed her reflection. She looked awful; hair disheveled, dried saliva on the corner of her mouth. She looked like the average homeless artist.
The view of the passing mountain region was breathtaking. Trees were surplus as well as other green life in the crevices of the rocks and boulders. Though there were no houses in sight, the area was home to many animals. Moose, deer, rabbits, foxes and probably a bear or two.
"Kinda reminds me of the forest back then." She said aloud and hummed at that memory.
Being only ten at the time and sour about the sudden moving arrangement, Chihiro was far from admiring nature's beauty. All she did was complain, scream and hide within her mother's shadow. It was hard to believe that she was taking in the sight without a feeling of uncertainty or fear now. Time really does change a lot of things.
"Just so you know," the bus driver spoke out again, "we'll hit the city in less than a day. The mayor implemented a tunnel through the mountain to make travel quicker and more efficient, though it doesn't stretch from the city to Wasueru. Dunno why, but I guess they mayor has his reasons."
"Tunnel, huh?" Chihiro smiled fondly at the memory that came next. "It'd be funny if that tunnel led me back there."
Part of her secretly wished that she would stumble upon that sacred entrance once more. But the logical, adult side knew how childish and impossible that wish was. The Spirit World would never be accessible to humans ever again. Only in her dreams would she be able to contact her eight year old friends again.
While thinking about it, Chihiro dug on her satchel and pulled out her leather journal with anime-like stickers on the cover. She also retrieved her pen and tapped her lips with the tip before opening it up and continuing her latest work.
Though hurt by the absence of his Princess,
The Dragon Boy continued to gift his land with gentle rain.
His people were unaware, however,
That this miracle was a water form of his pain.
The Dragon Boy stood in the flowerbed where he first met his Princess
And silently weeped out a sad song
A lament of the vanishing of his lover,
A tale of how she had been gone for so long.
Oh, how he missed his ray of sunshine
How he missed the only light in his heart.
He couldn't bear it much longer
For them to be so far apart.
"My dearest Princess," he would cry,
"Please, come back and waltz with me until night time falls
I miss you so dearly,
Can't you hear my heart call?"
Chihiro read the finished part of the poem over and over again and she slammed the book shut. The memory had somehow flowed from her heart and on to the paper.
As much as she hated to admit it, she could hear it.
The calling of his heart. The longing wails of his cries.
What he didn't know
Was that his Princess was on her way back to her love
Back in to his arms,
And back to being his sunshine, in the sky above.
xx