Chapter 4

The bathhouse remembered her. At first she had just seemed a new recruit. As the day went on though, recognition washed through the staff like a tidal wave. There were mixed feelings. Most, though they were confused, greeted her congenially, if not in a congratulatory way on helping to take down Yubaba. Others had no idea who she was, to her relief, though she doubted the newbies would be in the dark for long.

Then there were the ones who would rather see her gutted than sharing the same air as them.

They were mostly frogs that had been Yubaba's right hands during her reign. Thanks to Chihiro, they were now at the bottom of the food chain. Cleaning out tubs or attending to the every whim of needy spirits. People like Lin had been assigned to their old jobs. Organization and basic ass-kissing.

Chihiro was called to the kitchen from where she had been mopping, finding it much easier to run with her butt in the air than before. She chalked it up to having finally gotten over her awkwardness during puberty. Upon her arrival, a waitress shoved a tray into her arms then rushed through her instructions.

She was to take master Haku his breakfast.

Up to his room.

Every argument Chihiro threw at the woman was evaded.

She was needed on the main floor. The wait staff could handle it.

She hadn't finished mopping. There were plenty of rookies to do the grunt work.

She was sick. Don't breathe around Master Haku.

That wouldn't be a problem.

|g|

Chihiro stood at the massive, intricately carved oak doors as if she were heading to her own execution. There really was no guarantee Haku wouldn't go feral and pop her head off between those wickedly sharp teeth like a Barbie doll.

Okay, that may have been an exaggeration. Even if Haku wasn't ecstatic with her arrival it didn't mean he would harm her in any way. It just wasn't in his nature.

Rivers were smooth, swift, transcending time. Even the white peaks of rapids were graceful in their violence. Stories of those who were wounded or killed by rivers were usually due to their own stupidity. If you respected a river, it respected you. They had the power to support and entire civilization at the best of times or leave them to dry and shrivel out of existence at the worst.

Chihiro hoped this was one of the good times.

At her small knock, the door opened much like it had before, as if some invisible force were on the opposite side, beckoning her forward. She walked, attempting to concentrate on not spilling the tray rather than who the tray was intended for.

It was for that reason that Chihiro didn't notice that Haku was too preoccupied to realize who was serving him anyways. The cause of his inattention being a woman poised over his lap. Hotaru's fingers were woven deep into the silken blue hair that flowed down Haku's back. Her long finger nails massaging here and there. She was pressed into his body in more ways than seemed humanly possible, though she guessed that didn't really matter in their case, and in more places than were really appropriate. Haku was basking in the attention. His eyes closed and lips quirked in bliss.

Chihiro's heart felt leaden in her chest, her stomach threatening to give her a second glance at what she had eaten that morning.

The two spirits remained transfixed on each other until the obnoxious clatter of Haku's meal being set on the desk right in front of them caught their attention. They didn't seem surprised, only disgruntled at being interrupted. Haku seemed to be, at least. Hotaru's expression leaned more towards smugness.

She swallowed thickly unsure of what to do for an uncomfortable eternity, and then she bowed and jogged out of Haku's office. Hotaru's giggling, which soon turned into sighing, echoed down the hallway after her.

|g|

Only the second night on the job and her hands were already dry and cracked from being continuously damp. The muscles of Chihiro's arms screamed with constant use. He knees had taken blows as well, turning a few light shades of blue and purple. But there was a smile on her face.

No one could say she hadn't performed an honest day's work. Her breath came a little harder and her body sang from exertion but she was content. Was she supposed to be looking for way out? Oops, seemed she had forgotten.

Chihiro had gotten caught up in the fact that she was finally there.

All complications and confusion aside, she was back in the spirit world and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself. If had hit her as she had sat with Lin during dinner the night before. Just sitting and talking. About how long it would be before the weather cooled with winter arriving soon after, and about that one guest who had no business ordering that extra serving. The conversation had rarely drifted to her predicament and never to the one upstairs. It had been wonderful, calming. Something she had needed desperately. If only she hadn't had to go through so much to get it.

With the lights out and her head clear from laughter, Chihiro had fallen asleep quickly, and hoped the same would be true for tonight.

"You're, Chihiro, right?" She turned at her name and noticed the ears first.

In the doorway stood Lady Hotaru, looking rather regal in her floor length kimono. With sleeves that were long and flowing, adorned with a red floral pattern on white silk. The neckline had been pulled open, revealingly, and was draped over only one shoulder. Her hair color was lighter than Chihiro remembered, longer too as it swept down well past her bottom, but it had been wet when she had first laid eyes on the woman. Also upon closer look, she noticed that Lady Hotaru had three tails.

So she's a relatively young Kitsune, Chihiro thought. A fox spirit. She wasn't sure if the presence was malevolent or not yet.

"Ah, yes. My name is Ogino Chihiro and I'm-"

"Oh, I know all about you," Hotaru interrupted, her smile more than a little condescending. Malevolent it was. "Chihiro, the little human girl, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Enslaved due to the idiocy of her parents. Ignorant enough herself to let No-Face into the bathhouse. Then she ran away. But she got the monster to leave. Both, considering you got rid of Yubaba as well, with Haku's help, and oh, how wonderful it was that she was able to return home, both parents in tow. Happily, ever, after."

Chihiro didn't realize she had been slowly backing up until her heel hit the edge of a bath.

What had she been doing? Ah, right, cleaning.

"I'm flattered, really, but I have to get back to work."

Chihiro tried to dodge to the side, but a hand blocked her path, its mirror soon on the other side. She had nowhere to go but back, until she was practically lying along the curve of the tub.

"I didn't come here just to chit-chat. I have a message from Haku. For you." Hotaru said the last part grudgingly, almost in disbelief that Haku would even bother with such a lower being. "He wants you to meet him in his office when you're finished with your duties.

"Chihiro-chan," Hotaru cooed, and Chihiro's jaw clenched at the use of such a casual honorific. "I'm sure you know as well as I do that Haku can be a bit…rough," the word was practically a purr. "But he really has your best intentions in mind. So just, listen to his advice, 'kay? A little, submission, will get you a long way."

With a final smirk, Hotaru sashayed from to room, down the hall, and past a very startled Lin.

"What did she want," Lin inquired from Chihiro's side, eyes wide.

"She was just letting me know that Haku wanted to talk to me later."

Lin smiled at that. "See? I knew he would come around eventually. He was just surprised is all."

"Yeah," she murmured, but there was no real acknowledgment in the sound.

Hotaru assumed too much, Chihiro decided. No, she hadn't known…that about Haku. Hadn't really wanted to, hadn't needed to.

Without another word, Chihiro prepared to meet with Haku, wiping up the large puddle she had, at some point, wrung onto the floor from her rag.

|g|

"Chihiro! Thanks for coming. I thought I'd check in on you. See how you were handling everything," Haku greeted, his smile so fake she wouldn't have been surprised had is just fallen off. "Are you enjoying working here?"

"I am." That smile faltered, twitched, just a bit.

"That's good to hear. I don't like seeing my employees upset or uncomfortable. But truthfully, I think your talents are being wasted and I'd be more than happy to help you find a way out of this mess."

"Thank you, but I'm just starting to get settled. I would like to gain my bearings here first, before I go traipsing into dangerous territory."

That smile fell fully this time, Haku's mouth curling into an annoyed frown. "You know very well you're already in dangerous territory, Chihiro."

"I'm not going to die crossing the street here, Haku."

A growl of frustration ripped itself from Haku as the man stood, bringing his hands down hard onto the desktop. Chihiro jumped at least a foot at the loud sound. "So you're just going to rot here instead?"

"Is that so much worse?"

"You were free out there!"

"That's where you're wrong! What's freedom without happiness? How could I be free when I was constantly trapped in my own head, dreaming of being back here, with all of you? And now I'm back and I can concentrate on something other than fairytales. Every day there was the same. Wake up, go to school, go home, and work more until I fall asleep over my books. I know what you're going to say Haku," Chihiro said as the river spirit opened his mouth to interject. It closed just as quickly. "But it's not the same. Here, here I have people who make me feel alive. Oh, gosh that sounds so strange, but here is bright and bustling. Even if there's a lot of work to be done, the bathhouse is exciting! Everyone here is just too absorbed in themselves or whatever the hell else to realize it."

"How can they be absorbed in themselves when they don't even remember who they truly are?"

"So give them their names back."

"You know very well I couldn't do that. Everyone would leave without a second thought."

Chihiro shrugged helplessly. "Yes, but they'd eventually come back. They would come back and stay, just like you and I did."

Now that was dangerous territory. As if they were in the same situation.

"Not everyone is as optimistic as you are."

"Maybe if you were they would want to stay." At this Haku laughed. The sound was obnoxious and bitter.

"Oh, so now you're bringing up my character?"

"Should I not be? From what I've heard you've barely spoken to anyone without necessity the entire time I've been gone!"

"And you think I'm worse than all of them," Haku incredulously asked, pointing towards the door. Towards everyone downstairs. "They're just as bad, if not worse than me. Sniveling and greedy. I had hoped it was just a fluke, the effect of Yubaba's touch. At first I had just wanted to get back at her. Then, for some reason, I thought I could help them. That they, we all, could be happier if I took over. So I did. But nothing changed. They're just as conceited as before. All earnest smiles and selfless acceptations until you turn your back or let your guard down."

"There. There it is." Haku turned to Chihiro, finally meeting her eyes since she had walked into the room. Confusion was evident there. "There's the Haku I remember. The one who truly thought about others in the end. What happened to him?"

"All of this," Haku shouted, gesturing about the room. "I should have left. Probably would have after all, had I had somewhere to go to."

Chihiro had no doubt he would have. However, the Kohaku River had been filled in. She had checked it, multiple times, during her summer breaks and right before she left for Tokyo.

"You don't know," Haku continued after sucking in a long breath. "Do you not remember how I stole Zeniba's golden seal? How I attempted to steal the magic of both those sisters?"

"I remember."Oh yes she remembered. Remembered the consequences all too easily. How the blood had oozed from Haku's skin after Zeniba had had attacked him, wanting her seal back. How he had bled not only from the outside, but the inside as well. The magic of the seal slowly eating away at him. "But you did it for your own protection, Haku."

"You think the others aren't doing the same? Aren't simply protecting themselves?"

"I'm sure not all of them are!"

"So which is it? They truly love this place, deep, deep down? Or are they all conniving bastards in the end?"

"A mixture of both."

No comeback came and they stood in silence for several minutes. Haku began rubbing his temples, breathing deeply, much like she, attempting to calm himself. Chihiro couldn't help but feel some satisfaction in that. As least she had gotten some kind of reaction out of him.

"I'm not going to change my mind, Haku."

She took one shaky step forward, then steeling her resolve, Chihiro briskly walked to Haku's desk. Reaching, she pulled the hand down where it had rested on the side of his face. The first skin to skin contact since their first fight. It was hard to ignore the electricity that raced over her skin from the touch. She had really been hoping there wouldn't be a second.

"And you aren't going to change it either. I'm staying here, with Lin and Kamaji. People who care about me and understand me. I was hoping you could be one of those people too."

Haku's eyes were wide as he stared at her. His hand was soon ripped from hers and Haku backed up marginally away from desk, away from her.

"Fine then, if you won't leave the bathhouse, then leave my office. But I'm telling you, Chihiro, this conversation isn't over."

The nod was easy and though she should have been hurt by the cold words, she wasn't. It just meant she would get to talk to him again.

Without another word, Chihiro turned on her heel and headed out through the oak doors. Her eyes caught a flash of orange, and sure enough, Hotaru was headed in the opposite direction. Towards Haku. Her expression was a far cry from the smirk she usually seemed to wear, pretty mouth bowed in distaste. It wasn't pretty at all.

"I warned you, Chihiro. You should have listened to Haku. He would have saved you. You're like the rest of them now. Sad, weak, and free game to me."

Chihiro puffed up a bit at the fox's insults. Chihiro may have been ditzy at times, but she was never weak.

"Catch me, if you can."

A/N: It's…like two weeks later…and I'm just posting this…hmm. I'm really sorry! . I had three major projects due last week so I rarely had time for myself to think let alone type anything up. Since I have Chemistry, Trigonometry, and Genetics, I'm not sure how much time I'll have until the end of the school year but I promise I'll try my best and you guys won't have to go too long without an update.

A little insight on Hotaru for those of you who aren't very familiar with Japanese spirits. Hotaru is a spirit known as a Kitsune or a fox spirit. In Japanese folklore, Kitsune were known to be mischievous, but could bring either good luck or bad luck depending on if you were in their good graces. Kitsune often took the form of beautiful woman and were the lovers of human men. I mentioned that Hotaru only has three tails. With age Kitsune gain tails, eventually ending up with nine when reach their full potential. Kitsune also gain power with each new tail, so Hotaru if fairly young and inexperienced, but not so much as to not be a threat to Chihiro. Kitsune can also be paired with the element of fire. Hotaru's name itself means, "firefly."

I hope that little rambling was helpful ^^ Thanks for reading~!