A/N: I am so sorry that it took so long for this chapter to get up. It's been done for a week but I uploaded it wrong and so it wouldn't let me post it and then I left. It was so annoying. Thanks for the reviews and favorite stories, they are much appreciated and I look forward to them. And as always, Spirited Away is not mine. Enjoy.

It was way too early to do anything civilized in the middle of summer and Rumi wouldn't be up for at least another hour so Chihiro decided to make a huge, complicated breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and home made smoothies. For one, she was starving, two, she needed time to think, and three, she needed to occupy her hands.

As she began mixing the ingredients, she began to think. How could she repay Haku for all he had done? Well, to tackle that question, she had to remember everything about him.

She began with the first time she had seen him. He had tried to save her from being stuck in the Spirit World but when he realized she was still there he brought her food to save her from disappearing and protected her from Yu-Bird. She smiled at the memory of Haku forcing the strange tablet into her mouth and commanding her to swallow and how his body forced against hers to protect her from Yu-Bird. She shook her head to stop herself from letting her mind wander.

Next she remembered crossing the bridge while holding her breath and holding on to Haku for dear life. She made a face at the memory of the horrified frogmen's faces when she took a breath and broke the spell he had cast on her. She made a mental note that if she ever had a chance to walk across that bridge again, she would not take a single breath. She remembered how his hand felt in hers and how his voice would always lift her head, even when she was so taken aback by his sudden coldness in Yubabas office after getting a job in the bathhouse.

"You saved me," she smiled to herself.

"Huh?" A sleepy voice interrupted her making her jump out of her skin and nearly burn her hand off on the griddle. "Wow, sorry Chihiro," Rumi yawned and took a seat at the kitchen table. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine." She stuttered. She hadn't noticed that she had the smoothies made, the bacon cooked and the pancakes ready. She was way too preoccupied with Haku. "Hungry?" she quickly put her memories aside and faked an enthusiastic smile.

"Bring it on!" Rumi smiled back at her.

On her third helping of pancakes, Rumi seemed to think of something. "Hey, weren't you up a bit early to make all this?" she gestured to the banquet with her fork spraying food everywhere.

Chihiro held in a laugh and shrugged. No need to tell her about last night.

Rumi looked at the food and seemed to be thinking very hard about something. "Huh," she finally said and dug back into her overflowing plate, much to Chihiro's relief. The last thing she needed was for Rumi to start asking questions.

"You want to go shopping?" Rumi asked enthusiastically after breakfast was finished.

Shopping, yuck. That was the last thing Chihiro wanted to do so she quickly made new plans. "You know, I'm actually going to go to the library for a while." That was a good excuse. She would like to see if they had anything on the Spirit World and today seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

Rumi looked at Chihiro like she had just spoken pig Latin.

"The library? Are you crazy? It's summer!" she annunciated each word precisely.

"I know, relax, I just want to check something out," Chihiro tried to calm her, with little progress.

Rumi stared at her with narrowed eyes and touched her forehead. "Are you feeling alright? Do you need to see a doctor?" She looked genuinely worried. This made Chihiro laugh.

"I'm fine, really. I just want to look something up. Go have fun; I'll make it up to you. I promise, now go." she tried to persuade her to leave.

She wasn't convinced. "What could possibly be worth going to the library for in the middle of summer?"

Chihiro could tell she wasn't going to let this one go. "Tell you what," –she went to plan B- "if you let me go to the library and don't disturb me for the whole day, I will submit to a shopping day tomorrow complete with hair and makeup. Deal?" she knew that she was definitely going to regret this, but she had to find out everything she could about the Spirit World.

This made Rumi falter in her argument. "The whole day?" she asked skeptically?"

Chihiro made an 'x' motion over her chest. "Cross my heart." She winked at her.

"Deal." They smiled at each other.

Finally, after much persuasion from Chihiro, Rumi left to go catch a movie. She decided that, since she would need to remember all the things she hoped to find at the library, she would need to start writing things down; questions and answers and little notes. She grabbed an old notebook and sat at the kitchen table. Now, the question was where to begin? There were so many things she wanted to know, so many questions she wanted answered and most of all, though she would never admit it, she really wanted a way to get back to the Spirit World.

This was definitely going to take some time. She sighed and started with the first thing that came to mind.

How do I get back into the Spirit World?

That was a good place to start.

Where is the tunnel?

That would definitely be a good thing to know.

Is the Kohaku River still filled with houses?

If it was, then that would mean it was very likely Haku was still in the Spirit World. That thought made her both excited and scared. Excited because she may have a chance to find him again and scared because he might not be the same.

Does he even remember me?

She let the thought overwhelm her for a moment. Terrifying images of him forgetting her, moving on, and leaving her behind filled her mind. She could see his beautiful green eyes, cold and accusing as his hands pushed her away. She shuddered at the thought and wrapped her arms around her chest, though it wasn't cold at all. As these images consumed her thoughts, a small light flickered in the back of her head like a candle in the dark. A vague memory sparked to life.

She was crying, scared to death and he was there comforting her.

"It's going to be okay," he whispered softly rubbing his hand up and down her back.

"No it's not," her voice cracked and she jerked her head up to glare up at him through her tears. "Don't you understand?" She couldn't bring herself to say anything else. How could he say that it's going to be okay? Her parents are pigs, she is stuck in this crazy place working for a witch, and she's all alone. She tried to push away from him only to fall into his arms.

"It's going to be okay, I promise." He said again, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on hers. "It's okay, you're not alone. I'm here," he whispered in her ear. She pulled her head up to look at him. It was almost as if he had heard her thoughts.

"I promise," he smiled, whipping away her tears.

"Promise," she smiled at the memory. He was her friend and she knew deep down that he was never going to forget her no matter how long they were apart.

These chapters are taking a bit longer than I planed. I know were this story is going, it's just getting it there in a way that I am happy with, so thanks for the patience.

p.s. When she is writing in her note book, I had a really awesome script for her hand writing, but it didn't make it threw.