A.N. All characters belong to Hayao Miyazaki
The next day dawned bright and sunny, and a sliver of shimmering sunlight found its way past the tiny gap in the curtains onto Chihiro's face. She groggily woke up, rubbing the sleep wearily from her eyes. She gazed around at her unfamiliar surroundings for a second before realization hit her. She was in Tokyo for that three day date with Haku!
She smiled, suddenly wide-awake, and hopped into the bathroom for a quick shower. After washing up, she pulled a rather large bath robe around her slim frame, and wrapped it tightly around her slightly damp body. She walked over to her dark green suitcase lying in the corner, and selected a simple powder blue shirt and a denim skirt that came up to mid-thigh. Stepping over to the vanity, she blew dry her hair and fastened it up in a high ponytail. She left the cosmetics alone; she never really used makeup. Not that any of her natural features needed help.
When she was done, she plopped back down onto the bed, wondering what to do next. She glanced around and spied her phone on the bedside table. She grabbed it, and upon flipping it open, she noticed that she had a new message. It was from Haku; Chihiro's heartbeat sped up in anticipation as she opened it.
"Ready for your second day? Call me when you're ready."
Chihiro could almost see the slight smile on his face that he always had when he was planning something.She pressed the green button on her cell and brought it up to her ear.
Haku lounged on the couch in his bedroom facing the television mounted on the glass wall over looking the busy city. Haku wasn't really paying attention to what was playing on the television, and he had been staring blankly at the same spot on the wall for the past seventeen minutes and forty-two seconds and counting. Well he technically wasn't doing anything, though. He was doing a lot of thinking. Mostly about a particular brunette.
He wondered. He always thougt that the "love at first sight" thing was ridiculous, but yet here, wasn't this almost the same thing?
But, I feel as though I've met her before, so it isn't really at first sight.
Yeah well, we do get feeling of déjà vu once in a while. It doesn't prove anything.
No, it doesn't really, but – I really really know that I have met her before somewhere…
Just then, Haku's phone began to vibrate noisily on the glass coffee table in front of the couch, and Haku picked it up just before it dropped off the edge of the table. He looked at the caller ID and he swore his heart sped up just a little. With much anticipation, he finally answered the call.
"Hello, Kohak–"
"Haku!" Chihiro squealed into the phone exuberantly. "Morning! Had a good night's sleep?"
Haku chuckled. "I think it would be fine for me to assume that you're a morning person."
"Heehee, so where're we going today?"
"I was thinking maybe we could discuss it over breakfast."
"Oh, okay, sure."
"I'll pick you up in about five then."
"Sounds good," Chihiro smiled.
Five minutes on the dot later, Chihiro saw a jet-black BMW glide to a halt in front of the lobby where she had been waiting. The tinted windows rolled down, revealing Haku in the driver's seat. "Get in," he beckoned with his head, motioning to the seat next to him with his left hand.
"Where's Kamaji today?" Chihiro asked as Haku pulled out.
"Errands to run," Haku said rather absent mindedly. "Where'd you like to go for breakfast?"
"Erm," Chihiro looked out at all the passing roadside stalls and cafés as they drove past. "How about you park, then we walk around can decide on one of these cafés here?"
"Sure," Haku parked by the roadside, and putting some change into the meter, smiled at Chihiro and offered his arm, which Chihiro accepted while trying to fight off a huge blush. She didn't really succeed.
Noticing the light dust of red gracing her nose bridge, Haku tried to lighten the mood a little, and began discussing neutral topics with her. Chihiro soon relaxed, and began to chat amiably with Haku.
Haku soon stopped outside a rather posh restaurant, to which Chihiro wrinkled her nose at. "How 'bout that one?" she asked as she pointed to another much smaller café two shops down. Haku nodded, and they sat at one of the tables set up outside in the open air by the sidewalk, and a slightly balding waiter gave them the menus, smiling genially, creases forming at the side of his eyes.
Chihiro smiled back at the man as she thanked him, liking the man immediately. How could she not like someone who looked so cheerful and happy? The pot-bellied man with a curling moustache rambled on about their set breakfasts, as Chihiro skimmed her eyes over the selections, finally deciding on having the breakfast set A.
Haku chose set B, and after taking their orders, the waiter left, humming along to the Italian song (1) playing over the radio.
"Quite unusual to find an Italian restaurant here," Haku commented. "Must be new."
"Yeah," Chihiro said, playing with her hands on the checkered table top.
"So… have you thought about where you want to go after this?" Haku asked.
"Isn't the guy supposed to be the one who decides on the date venue to surprise the girl?" Chihiro asked, grinning. "But I don't mind choosing –"
Haku smiled as Chihiro rambled on about how she wanted to see cherry blossoms but how she was disappointed that it wasn't the time of year. As he listened to the brunette chatter away nineteen to the dozen, Haku slowly began to realise that he felt what he hadn't felt in a long time; contented and relaxed. Having entered Hollywood as a teenage star at the age of fourteen, he had home schooled since then, by the wishes of his father before he passed on, thinking that he might not be able to focus on his studies amongst clamouring fellow schoolmates and fan girls. Which was why Haku hadn't really had a friend his own age for five years. Even though Kamaji was pretty much his only friend in the past, it was nice to have someone around his own age to talk to. It was just… different.
"Hell-o? Earth to Haku?" Chihiro said, waving her outstretched fingers in front of his face. "I was just saying how it would be nice if we could maybe go to catch a movie or something."
Haku blinked, brought out of his reverie. "Oh, sure," he replied, as the food arrived. Chihiro drizzled the maple syrup all over her scones, slathering a thick, sticky layer of sweet glucose over them before picking up on of the the dripping scones to her mouth, taking a bite, effectively coating her lips with the sticky syrup.
Haku laughed, and took a bite out of his toast. Chihiro smiled cheerily back at him, unable to generate a reply as her mouth was full of the sugary food. She took another bite, this time smearing more syrup on her lips as well as her cheek. Chihiro just licked the syrup away again, and Haku forced himself to look away. Who knew such a simple action would make his body react like this? He reasoned that it was the overworking of dormant hormones, before taking another bite of his toast.
However, when Chihiro got even more of the syrup on her face, Haku sighed, and leaned over across the table to wipe it off with his napkin. Chihiro blushed, furiously this time, and even the tips of her ears turned pink. Seeing her flush, Haku couldn't help but laugh at her again.
"Stop laughing… s'not funny…" Chihiro grumbled.
"Yeah, right, okay. Sorry." Haku said, oppressing another urge to laugh. He bit his tongue. (2)
They finished the rest of the breakfast in relative silence, Chihiro putting in extra effort to eat her scones properly.
"Seriously, though, I've never seen anyone eat scones with so syrup before. Hell, I've never even seen anyone use up half a bottle of syrup on anything before." Haku said as they left the café and its cheery Italian music behind.
"Well, they don't know what they're missing," Chihiro said, smiling.
"Yeah, I'm sure…" Haku said in a rather unconvinced tone.
"Really it is! Sigh. Anyway, you just miss out on yet another one of those small pleasures in life," Chihiro said, as she tagged along behing Haku. "So… we heading for the cinema now?"
"Yeah," Haku replied as he opened the door for Chihiro before going round to the driver's side. "What movie do you want to watch? Horror?" he smirked.
"I can take horror better than you I bet," Chihiro replied defiantly.
"How about we go catch one of my movies," Haku asked jokingly.
"No can do," Chihiro replied just as mockingly. "'Cos I've already watched all of them! I bet you're just afraid to watch a horror flick."
And thus, they bought tickets to watch the newest horror movie, The Kidnapping (3).
All was fine and Chihiro was proving to live up to her word until the part where the ghost kidnapped a little girl in a dark alley. Haku noticed her tense up beside him, and felt worried. She looked just as scared as the girl herself. And this wasn't even the scary part; she had cruised through scarier scenes without so much as flinching.
Chihiro stiffened as horrid memories flooded back. Why was it that everytime she went out with Haku to someplace she would be reminded of the incident that happened so many years ago?
Haku decided he had to do something to get her back to normal. "Chihiro, look over there."
"Huh?" Chihiro turned to look at Haku, who was pointing to the far corner of the screen.
"There's something funny over there."
"Are you trying to scare me, Haku? Because that's seriously a sorry attempt," she said, giving a small nervous laugh.
"No, seriously. Lean over, look. Don't you see something?"
Frowning, curiosity got the best of Chihiro, and she leaned over to squint in the direction Haku was pointing in and…
Suddenly, she felt a pair soft lips upon her own. She widened her eyes in surprise, and saw that Haku was gently pressing his lips on hers. As he lifted his hand to the base of Chihiro's skull and started making small circles with his thumb, she began to relax.
Haku wanted to sigh with relief; she was finally relaxing. He decided to take advantage of the situation, and deepened the kiss, nipping her lip slightly, causing Chihiro to moan slightly. Haku slid his tongue into her mouth as she did so, and Chihiro responded immediately in turn.
Chihiro felt her worried dissolve around her as Haku deepened the kiss. Fisting her hands in his shirt subconsciously to bring him closer, Chihiro felt like she was in seventh heaven. Fireworks were going off in her head, and she was sure no other kiss had been this good. Perhaps it was better when the two people were in love. Were they…?
Gosh, she tasted wonderful. Haku couldn't really bring himself to break the kiss, but a particular appendage was already beginning to give him problems for the second time that day, and he reluctantly broke away from Chihiro, resting his forehead on hers.
"Still feel scared now?" he managed to whisper.
"No," Chihiro smiled. Haku had to try to divert his attention away from her reddened lips.
"Good," he mumbled, and they went back to watching the movie, this time with Haku's arm around Chihiro.
The movie ended without incident, and they strolled back to the car park slowly in the warm afternoon sun. Haku risked asking her the question that had been bursting to be answered, "Why were you so scared just now? You weren't even a tad frightened during the scarier parts."
Chihiro was silent for a while before answering quietly. "It brought back unwelcome memories," she replied curtly.
"Do… you want to talk about it?" Haku asked cautiously.
"No… not yet at least. Let's not ruin our day," she replied, smiling. "Let's… go do something else!" Chihiro replied with forced enthusiasm.
Haku sighed, still worried for her, but decided to let the matter rest for the mean time. He just had this feeling it was linked to the lunch incident somehow… But whatever it was, he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
(1) I like Italian restaurants. They're cute :D
(2) My mom used to say that biting your tongue would help stop you laughing. And it does, to some extent at least…
(3) Obviously a made up movie…
A.N. Ah, I realised that I haven't like updated for more than a MONTH. I'm soooo soooo sorry... but you'll still review right? weak laugh blame it on school, darn it!!