A/N: So sorry for the late update. Work has been killer but I did meet this really cute guy! Ah! Anyway, enough about my non-existant love life & back to the story. Here's chapter 7 & I made it a bit longer so you guys better love me okay!(:

Disclaimer: bite me.


When she woke up, she was laying down on a mattress. She opened her eyes to find both Haku and Lin watching her with great intensity. Chihiro pushed herself up and realized she felt extremely dehydrated. Her mind was fuzzy and it hurt. She tried to focus on Lin, then Haku. Both of them looked entirely blurry and this confused Chihiro to the point where she wanted to throw up.

"Sen, you okay?" Lin moved to the edge of the bed beside her.

"Yeah. I'm just really thirsty." Chihiro answered as she turned to look at Haku. He had a frown on his face as he looked back at her.

"I'll go get you some water. I'll be right back." with that Haku swiftly walked away in a second. As soon as he was gone, Lin sat down on the foot of Chihiro's bed. She looked at Chihiro carefully and slowly reached out to touch her forehead.

"What are you doing?" Chihiro smaked Lin's hand away. Lin exchanged an odd look with Haku. Both of them looked unsettled and nervous.

"Trying to figure out what happened to you. Do you remember what happened before you passed out?" Lin questioned with a worried frown. Chihiro sighed. Honestly, she didn't remember much of what happened to her. What she did remember was getting angry at what Haku told her she had to do in order to save the Spirit World and the Human World and to close the gate off forever.

"No, I don't." She answered Lin quickly.

"Well you're whole body turned dark red, then smoke flew out of your head, but that's not all. You also shot fire out of your hands! It was totally scary and then you fainted and turned blue. Haku had to carry you to his room. And here we are." Lin spoke rather quickly as if she was trying to process all of this information at once. Even though that wasn't the case. Chihiro frowned at this new information. Then a glimpse of what happened popped into her mind in a zap.

"It must be one of my powers. The ones Haku's supposed to help me keep under control." Chihiro coughed out. That's when Haku showed up closely and handed her a full glass of water.

"Don't drink it too quickly. I'm going to look up your power in a book that Yubaba gave me. When I have all the information on it, I'll let you know. Okay? But for now you need to re-charge for at least a week. That little burst of energy you had almost killed your Spirit completely. If that happens, you could disappear forever. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep that from happening. Alright?" He said lowly as he grabbed a very thick book off of a table by them. Afterwhich he walked away and began flipping through pages frantically. Lin and Chihiro looked at one another, Chihiro gave her a confused look.

"He's been sorta frantic and a bit of a lunatic since you passed out. I mean, you did almost die a second time. That takes a lot in this world. You could have, like he said before, disappeared forever if you were to die here in this world. So, he's trying to keep you with us as long as he can so that you can finally close the gate as you're supposed to. If not. . . Something terrible will happen. Something too horrible to explain right now. You'll know when the time is right." Lin placed a hand on her shoulder. Chihiro nodded her head, she understood why Haku was acting so crazy. He was trying to protect her. And as long as she knew that, she would feel safe and happy. Even if she was being forced into marriage again. She got to thinking and realized that if she had to be forced into marriage with anyone, she was glad it was Haku.

"Okay." She whispered while watching Haku read at a small table across the room. Without thinking too much of it she started smiling. Haku looked so adorable as he tried to find out what happened to her. He was so focused, so determined to help her. Chihiro sipped on her water slowly then looked at Lin. It was nice to finally be back home. Back where she was needed.

All week, she stayed in bed and rested as he suggested. Haku tended to her every whem and request no matter how ridiculous. One time she had asked him to play games with her since she was bored. He responded by asking "what games?". Chihiro grinned madly and sat up in the bed. She crossed her legs Indian style then grabbed his hands in hers. He gave her an apprehensive look as she ran her forefinger over his palms. Haku scowled at her for a second, just as she noticed he did she smiled up at him and pulled his hands up to her lips and kissed them without wasting a second. As she pulled away, his scowl had disappeared. Now he was beaming at her, oddly and rarely happy.

"What kind of game is this?" He wondered in a quiet and hushed voice. Chihiro shrugged her shoulders, suddenly very embarrassed by her actions.

"The Wedding Game." She replied before placing her fingers in between his. She felt her cheeks flush and her cheeks turned red. Haku looked surprised but delighted to hear this. His hands tightened around her hands.

"Let's play it, then." Haku said before leaning forward and kissed her ear. Chihiro didn't know why she felt so happy with him. Though, she did remember their adventure together. How they wanted to help and protect each other no matter what the cost. She just hoped that marrying him would be more fun than that. As long as he was happy with her, she'd love him forever. And he knew it, too.


About an hour or so later they were playing cards when Lin came inside with grocery bags. Haku was sitting crossed legged across from Chihiro. Both of them were looking at their handfulls of cards. Chihiro had an innocent and happy smile on her face as she noticed Lin entering.

"You're here! great, I'm starving! Did you get me the soup I asked for?" She set her cards down as Lin pulled out a styrofoam cup and chop sticks. Lin held it out in front of Haku so he could feed her.

"Yes. Did you know I had to go to five different market places to find it? You better be lucky I love you." Lin snorted as Haku grabbed noodles with the chopsticks and held it up to Chihiro's lips. She opened her mouth and sucked them in happily. She hadn't been able to keep anything inside since the whole almost-dying thing. Her body had been too weak to hold things down and adjust them to her newly formed Spirit Body.

"I am lucky. This is my favorite soup." Chihiro giggled happily as Haku grabbed more noodles. He had a slight smirk at the ends of his mouth, which was rare for him because he was always so formal with everyone. Lin couldn't help but smile at the two, they looked so happy with each other.

"Oh and you owe me five gold coins for that soup mr. I-can't-leave-her-side. Don't give me those cheap fakes either." Lin snapped at Haku. He glanced up at her a second, reached into his robe and pulled out a few coins.

"Take them." He said as he threw them into her hands. Lin looked at him, suprised by his hasty reaction. Normally he'd fight with her over paying her. He'd say she needed to be less selfish and more greatful. She'd say she does everything he asks for and deserves something in return. Lin shrugged it off and slipped the coins into her robe.

"I'm going to check on Tamaji, I'll be back to hang out with Chihiro later. See ya, guys!" Lin shouted before leaving Haku and Chihiro alone. Haku kept feeding her noodles until she decided she was full. Once she was finished, she curled up against Haku's blankets and got ready to take a nap. Haku tucked her in and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Get some rest, we're going to have a big adventure tomorrow. We're visiting Zeneba for a special surprise." He whispered into her skin. Chihiro smiled under him and giggled happily. Without another word she closed her eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep. Once she started snoring lightly, Haku got up and walked over to the table and continued reading the book that contained every power known in the Spirit World. He'd figure things out. Why? Because he was going to protect Chihiro. Until the very end.

Haku was looking at Chihiro's ring. She was fast asleep. Why was she wearing the ring anyway? He couldn't stand not knowing! This was making him mad and insane. His mind was racing. He'd been up for two nights straight. A whole 48 hours awake, staring at that ring while it laughed in his face. He thought and thought. In fact, he couldn't stop thinking. This made him angry and bitter. Worse than he ever was before. He didn't want to force Chihiro into marrying him. That's what he had been arguing with Yubaba about last week. There was no changing her mind. Aparently, their powers together were supposed to close off the door. How? He didn't know.

He finally stood up from the chair he was sitting at and walked outside into the cold air. To his surprise, Lin was sitting in the grass. She turned around when Haku slid the door shut. Haku moved quickly, barely making a sound as he crouched down beside her. He grabbed ahold of his knees and held his head with hsis hands. Lin looked at him with an almost sympathetic expression.

"What's with you? You seem more tense than you usually are." She spoke quietly.

"I'm not ready for this responsibility. I do care about, Chihiro. A lot. But what if things go horribly wrong? What if something happens? You're supposed to be prepared if things get messed up. You're supposed to have a back up plan! We don't have anything. How am I supposed to protect her if I have no idea what could happen to us? How am I supposed to lie to her and tell her everything is going to be fine, when I don't know how to hold onto my own sanity as I'm trying to figure out what's happening to her?" Haku began rocking himself back and forth to find some form of comfort. He was so stressed out and all he wanted was a break. He wanted a whole day where he could just stop thinking.

"Wow. You do realize I have no idea how to handle your problems, right? I'm just here to look at the stars. And I must say, it was a beautiful and peaceful night until you came along and ruined it with your stress level." Lin responded with a snigger. Haku finally looked up at her with a cold glare.

"Whatever. I'm done here. See you at work." Haku snapped as he stood up.

"Wait!" Lin grabbed his hand and abruptly pulled him back down. He landed on the ground with a thud. An unpleasant scowl was pointed directly at her, he wanted to be anywhere else but there.

"If you're going to yell at me like you do every day please just get it over with so I can spend the rest of the night worrying about the possible end of the Spirit World." he hissed at her. Lin rolled her eyes.

"I yell at you because you're annoying. Oh and because I kind of care about you in a brotherly-friend sort of way. If you tell anyone about this and I mean anybody at all, I'll tell Chihiro to set you on fire." Lin said quickly before wrapping her arms around him tightly into a hug. Haku was caught off guard by her random act of affection. She was normally harsh and brutally honest when it came to him. So, why was she being so sensitive all of a sudden? Oh yeah, he was asking for advice. Guess this was her advice.

"Maybe you're onto something with this, Lin. Thanks!" Haku shouted as he jumped up from the ground and ran back inside. Lin shook her head and laughed. He never had the time to process his thoughts but Lin decided to let it go if it made him happy. She'd never admit it out loud but she was truly happy that Haku was finally happy with Chihiro back.

"Whatever kid. Remember, if you tell anyone I'm gonna hurt you! Even if you are royalty or whatever!" Lin rolled her eyes and got out a snack for herself.

Inside, Chihiro was sleeping soundly on his bed. Haku had been avoiding sleep for the past few weeks and the only time he actually slept, he fell asleep under the oak tree in the garden. Which wasn't his smartest idea because his employees always woke him up with pointless and odd reasons. Haku was so exhausted that he could hardly walk and his mind was still racing madly. He knew what he had to do to shut it up. He just wasn't sure how he'd get to that point without causing Chihiro to freak out. Slowly, he bent down next to the bed and knelt down. He brought his face up close to her face. In one motion he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her cheek. Just then her eyes slowly blinked open.

"H-haku?" She whispered to him, unsure of the event that just occured.