Chapter 7: Dreams
A/N: Thank you so much for the kind reviews that I've gotten thus far! :)
The rare cream colored nightingale that Haku had been taking care of began to release rhythmic breaths again. Its body became warmer and a brilliant life began to spring through its deathly grayish feathers.
Haku also began to have dreams in which he woke up in a feverish state and could not remember what had happened in his dream, but it made him tremble like a small animal.
He continued to work as always and finally fell into the rhythm of the normalcy of his daily routine without Tsubaki.
One morning he went out to pick herbs in the forest and happened to notice a blonde haired boy sleeping in the grass. He was dirty and wore a bright orange outfit with a ninja headband. It was the boy that he had seen earlier with the group of people who nearly defeated Zabuza.
The morning sunlight lit his face as he slept peacefully and vulnerably; the green grass beneath him shuddered in the light cool breeze of fresh morning air. Haku reached over and woke him up.
"You'll catch a cold sleeping in a place like this."
The spiky haired ninja boy drooled and sat up," Uh… who are you?"
"Is this the plant you wanted sis?" Naruto asked.
Haku thanked him for helping him pick out medicine and they talked for a couple of minutes about an "important person".
"When a person has someone to protect, that's when they become truly strong."
Before leaving, Haku mentioned that he was a boy. It seemed to be quite the realization.
XXX
That night, the dream came to Haku again but this time, he realized every single detail and remembered it perfectly.
He was sitting in an endless field of white flowers, the garden stretched on forever. His eyes were hazy, sick with the scent of hysteria when suddenly in the corner of his peripheral vision, a figure loomed silently. It was a girl with long dark ebony hair and a white dress with strange white things coming out of her back. Were they wings? Was she an angel?
"Tsubaki," his voice escaped him and he stood up.
The girl, Tsubaki did not turn around nor acknowledge that she heard him.
"Tsubaki!" This time he said louder.
She still did not turn around, so he took a few careful steps towards her but with each step he took, the world become more distorted and she fell further and further away from his grasp.
"Why are you ignoring me? Why do you hate me?" He asked, his voice was caught in his throat and his words were just barely audible. Her silky locks swept with the breeze like an ocean wave, the side of her face was visible and her porcelain skin shone in the darkness with the hauntingly luminous white blossoms. It was a somewhat terrifying sight to see, she was like a ghost, or maybe an angel?
"I'm not ignoring you." She finally said, her voice was soft, gentle but also cautious.
"Why did you disappear all of a sudden that night?" He asked, carefully. She was like a fragile creature, apt to run away at any frightening noise.
"I didn't want to." She answered enigmatically.
Tsubaki slowly turned her head around to face him, her eyes were shining with tears falling down her cheeks," I'm sorry. I don't belong in your world. My time has ended. I'm sorry I lied to you. I couldn't tell you this entire time… because I was afraid that you would be afraid of me or hate me. But now that I've kept the truth from you, it's even worse. But I'm telling you this now because… I'm not afraid anymore."
She turned away from him again and a blinding light surrounded her body in a burst of wind. When the light died away, Haku looked and saw light cream colored feathers floating down into the flower garden. He looked up and saw the cream colored nightingale flying away into the distance, singing a lonely melody.
Haku woke up again in a terrified sweat. He didn't quite understand the contents of his dream but if what he surmised was correct… Tsubaki was the nightingale that was on his desk.
"But how? This doesn't make any sense… this can't be."
He reached over to the small bird, it was still on the brink between life and death," I don't think it's going to be able to return to its previous life."
"Maybe you should just put it out of its misery." Zabuza suddenly came into the room.
Haku became stiff," You're probably right Zabuza-san."
"We don't need another useless creature in this place, get rid of it immediately." He briskly left the room.
Haku sighed and stared at the creature lovingly," I know I probably should put you out of your pain but… it's not that easy."
He looked off into the distant sky outside of that gloomy room that has kept him safe this whole time. Tsubaki is gone, he knows that, but what he doesn't know is if she is gone forever and if what she said in his dream is true.
The hands of the grandfather clock are ticking and time is running out. He feels like if he doesn't see her soon, he'll never see her again. Quickly grabbing his belongings, Haku runs out of the building and into the night, the moon shining down on the mysterious sapphire filtered forest.
He runs and runs and listens carefully for any sound. Every sound, every small animal footstep scare him and he keeps thinking that it's her, only to be promptly disappointed. The harsh cold wind of the nights in that snowy village pierce his white skin and hit him in his core, he shivers a little bit but he's used to the cold. Then without another moment to spare, white particles, reflecting the light of the moon fall to the ground and cover the earth in a blanket of snow.
Haku stops running to catch his breath and rests beneath a tall tree.
"There are so many wounds in my heart,
I don't expect you to fix them all.
I only need you to be there for me
And love me for who I am."
His heart skips a beat and he follows the sound of the sweet song until he finds a wispy apparition sitting beneath a tree.
"Tsubaki?"
She stops singing immediately, her voice cut short but the intensity of her stare.
He holds his breath, unsure of what to do next.
She seems to try to stand up, but falls back down weakly. He runs over to her side and quickly holds her in a tight embrace. She gasps a little.
She is light, almost like a feather in his arms, absolutely unreal, yet so very much there.
"I… I still don't understand what you are. I know you've kept secrets from me. But I don't care what it is that you are. It won't change the way I think about you." Haku confessed and his voice was shivering.
She doesn't utter a single word, but he feels something cold and wet on his shoulder. She is crying and lifts her hands to her mouth," Thank you."
She pulls away from him, gently and places a kiss on his forehead, her lips are cold but the gentleness of that kiss sent a quiver down his spine.
Haku closes his eyes and feels himself being abruptly pulled into another dream-like world.
"I can tell you everything now…" She whispers.
She was beginning to fray and come apart at the seams, but still held together by something stronger than thread.