AN: Helloooo, everyone! Thank you so much for the reviews, faves, follows, etc.! I know I said this before but I really need to write more frequently. I'm taking an advanced English class soon and hopefully that will help me stay focused more often. So here's a thick chapter (thicker in comparison to all my other chapters, I am flawed) to hopefully entertain you guys! Keep in mind I did most of this at like 3 am in the span of about two weeks so please forgive any errors! Thanks again everyone for everything you've done for me. I appreciate it all so much!^^ -Fiona
Since Chihiro lived in the spirit world, after she was over a cold that lasted way longer than it should have, she noticed more and more things. At times late at night, she wouldn't be able to think because the guilt of leaving her old life behind- her loved ones, her customs, the university she could have been attending, the parents she could have made proud- it all ate her alive. She felt like she's been here for over a year when in reality at this point it has been barely longer than the course of two months, if even that. She was too unsure to make an attempt to keep track. Did she love all of her friends here? Of course. Did she forgive Haku? Sure. Less than she was willing to admit in front of him or anyone at that matter- but he continued to convince her to forgive him bit by bit. That being said, she always considered him a good friend- sometimes even more than that; but they were never overly affectionate with each other.
The fact was, her parents were never as cruel to her as some traditional, strict Japanese parents were. They worried about her in a way that came across to her as them not understanding her. Why was it only now that she realized this? She loved them. It's been way longer for them than it has for her, right? How else could a few weeks in this world seem like ages to her?
This wasn't the only thing keeping her up at night. People wanted her out of here. Not the judgmental workers, not Haku, but a group of dragons who have the ability of ripping her to shreds who were either kept away by Haku the entire time she's been working at the bathhouse, or who haven't been showing up because they're waiting for the appropriate time to snatch her from her new home.
There were two people who managed to make her work rather than stay in Haku's clutches: Rin and Kamanji. They knew it was better for her and she would even be happier, which she was. Chihiro was a productive soul and was far more skillful at cleaning and other chores than she used to be as a child, which impressed all the people who knew her six years ago. The people who were new to the job, which was really only a small portion, mostly stayed away from her due to her human nature. Humans disgust spirits, but she didn't care as much as she thought she would. She was quite ok with it. She enjoyed working alongside Rin, and met other Yuna who she got along with. They all had differing personalities that were comparable to human women in their early 20's or even in high school. They gossiped, they laughed together, they joked and lightly bullied the people whom they were the closest to. They even talked about which male workers they found most attractive and compatible, and a few of them even were in romantic relationships with said male workers. This comforted Chihiro, and she quickly was accepted by the lot of them.
Of course, they all questioned Chihiro's relationship with Haku. She didn't confide in him as much as she used to, and of course she didn't completely forgive him for being more or less cold to her before she arrived to this world; which is something she didn't take into full consideration until after her cold had lifted and she thought with a clearer mind. She never tried to be rude to him as she knew his heart was in the right place, but she felt at times that she was unworthy of his attention at times. However, she still considered him a friend, which he was more grateful for than she knew.
Haku understood why she treated him without as much dependency as she used to, and although he accepted it for what it was, he still had an urge to make sure she was safe. Of course he tried his best not to show any clear favoritism towards her in front of others, such a thing was unprofessional, but it was still occasionally pretty obvious. He definitely didn't treat her like he did the other workers and it was very noticeable despite his attempts to make it still obvious that he was her boss as well. He was kind to her in comparison, though he still tried to be firm in his own way. He gave her reasonably challenging jobs just because he knew that both her and Rin were able to, and even though Rin could be a bit defiant, they always got the job done due to their work ethic and abilities. However, despite him trying his best to be fair when it came to how much work she received, whenever she needed something that she couldn't get for whatever reason he was always the first person to help her. He never shouted at her. If she seemed tired, He always tried to convince her to take a short break as subtly as he possibly could despite her refusing to do so.
He cared about her. Everyone knew it, and as her coworkers, no one was exactly indifferent to it. Everyone had one of three reactions to the compassion she received from their mean and unfeeling boss- people either thought it was adorable and a sign of a blossoming relationship between the two, jealousy of the attention she was receiving from Haku (whether this was because of his looks or because they too just wanted a break every now and then), or they were absolutely outraged at how much Haku seemed to prefer Chihiro to all the other workers despite how so many of them worked SO much harder than she did (or so they would claim). However, no one dared mention their jealousy or anger to Chihiro nor Haku. If someone told Haku directly they might as well write a suicide note before hand, and if they told Chihiro there is still a chance she would tell Haku and that person would be dead either way. Workers had to be careful talking about it in front of the yuna as well as much of them were close to Chihiro. Basically, no one talked about it.
This was, of course, except for the yuna who would mock Chihiro about her handsome dragon love interest that she so tragically refused to claim.
Despite the hard work she faced and the guilt of leaving her parents and education behind, she was quite happy. She built a life in the spirit world that she was quite proud of, even if it did involve working at a bathhouse and sleeping in a stuffy room full of her female coworkers. She had people she cared about and she was pleased with herself. Everything was starting to feel routine, even with the constant worry that the "elders" were for whatever reason still upset with her.
She was right to worry, as it turned out.
Chihiro was washing her clothes after a long, and sweaty, day. Tomorrow was Wednesday, one of the two days of the week they had off. Wednesday and Saturday. Haku would usually invite her over to his quarters on these days, where they would catch up and have tea and mock each other in a friendly manner. It was really quite nice, and he was such a naturally stern person that she enjoyed seeing him smile, and he just enjoyed seeing her at all without anyone else to bother them.
However, instead of waiting until the next day to see her, he had to see her that night. He went to the female worker's quarters to hear loud giggling and talking outside the door, which was only normal on nights when they didn't need to worry about waking up early the next day. He felt odd knocking at their door at this time of night, as he honestly felt as though he was invading female privacy. Still, he knew it needed to be done.
He knocked on the door and instantly one of the yuna who chihiro shared a dorm with answered. She looked surprised to see her boss outside her door at such a late time of day, but bowed none the less. "Master Kohaku, may I help you?" "Is Chihiro available?" the yuna giggled. "She's washing her clothes right now, so I guess you can say she's… indecent?" She continued to chuckle until she saw her boss's cold, unamused face and a shiver went up her spine. Whenever they joked with Chihiro about their relationship with each other, they often forgot that Haku was quite scary.
He sighed. "In that case, in Rin avaliable? Nothing I am asking you right now should come off as a joke." She bowed once again as a sign of an apology and tried to make herself seem more respectable. "She is, allow me to get her real fast master Kohaku." She left with an apologetic but forced grin as she went back into the room.
Haku heard mixed shouting when she went back into the room to receive the second most trusted worker alongside Chihiro. A tired Rin comes to the door and gives Haku a dirty look that no other worker would show in his presence. "What?"
"I need to talk to Chihiro as soon as possible." Rin rolled her eyes at the request and gave a sarcastic smile. "Can't you just wait for one of your little pretend dates?" She asked with mock pleasantness. Haku was frustrated, this didn't scare her- it actually was quite amusing. "I know she's washing her clothes right now-" "and therefore is undressed. You're quite deviant now, aren't you?" Haku was too professional to yell at her at the moment. Maybe later. "Tell her to hurry. It's important." Rin actually felt a little concerned for her after hearing that it's something so serious. "Care to tell me?" He thought about it. "Not right now. I need to talk to her beforehand, I'll let her discuss the issue with you if she wishes to. I'm going to be leaving for a couple of days so I won't get the chance to talk to you." Rin understood, it wasn't rocket science afterall. "I'll tell her to get dressed. You wait here."
She left, and what he heard was more yelling and whispering and gossip. The women who worked at his bathhouse were some of the smartest and most hard working lesser spirits he's met, even more so than the male workers- but he'd never understood why they were always so happy despite the struggle and amount of work they were faced with. Still, he considered it a good thing. It was definitely good for Chihiro to be in such an environment. He was secretly glad they were all here. Still, how were they not all sleeping already?
Chihiro looked as tired as Rin was, as she came to the door in a not-so-fancy kimono that she threw on just so she wouldn't be answering the door in her underwear. Once she showed up at the door, both her and Haku heard the stifled giggling in the background. Chihiro scowled at the Yuna so Haku wouldn't have to. "Yes, may I help you?" She said as she turned back to Haku, with a lazy smile. He sarcastically smirked back as she walked into the vacant hallway and shut the door behind her. "Chihiro, as happy as I am to see you, that is quite an informal way to speak to your master." Chihiro rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion as she bowed down much more deeply than he deserved, at least coming from her. "Master Kohaku, my generous and powerful boss; please, I beg of you, spare my soul when I ask you- what do you want?" Haku chuckled. "You're quite annoying."
Chihiro rose from her bow and jokingly punched him in the arm. "Is that what you came here to tell me?" Haku stopped smiling and went back to his serious demeanor. "I wish I can say it was." Chihiro placed her hand on his arm and squeezed. "Is everything ok?" Haku grabbed her hand with the hand opposite to the arm she was grabbing and placed it off his arm, and held it with both of his hands. Physical contact wasn't so unusual to them. It was more strange to Haku at first, but he learned to enjoy it; despite it never getting any further than holding hands, hugging, and the occasional peck on the forehead- which only happened every so often while they were alone. They've only ever kissed once and never again after that, which was a shame to him.
"Tell me what's wrong, Haku." Haku snapped out of whatever trance he was in for the past five seconds and remembered what he needed to tell her. "Right." He held her hand a little more tightly and looked her in her eyes. "I'm leaving tonight." Chihiro felt her heart sink knowing there wasn't much to look forward to the next day. "I'll be back in a few days, but things just aren't looking as great as I thought they were when it comes to the elders." Chihiro looked down. This seemed like nothing but more guilt to eat her up. She hated having to have him look after her like this, but who else was going to do it if she planned on staying here?
"What do you mean? What do they want? I didn't do anything." "I know." It was pretty draining to see her upset. Haku hypothesised that whenever Chihiro was feeling down, she took the rest of those around her down with her. It was painful seeing her sad, even if she tried to hide it, she wasn't very good at doing so. He brushed her hair out of her face. "You're right, you did nothing, Chihiro. It's less about you and more about me." He moved his forehead closer to hers. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly one with the rest of the dragons. We're a colony and I've been distancing myself from them for centuries. Even before I ended up here, I've never gotten along with them or their customs." He couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the last word. "It's not your fault, I don't think they'd care less that a human is here as long as you're not bothering them." he squeezed her hand. "They're using you as an excuse."
"Well, what's gonna happen when you're there?" Haku smiled. "They're probably going to want to fight it out until they give up for another hundred years." He let go of her hand and placed both of his hands on her shoulders and pulled her a bit closer. "Nothing's going to be as bad as it seems." The reality hit Chihiro after she thought about what he just said.
"Wait, fight it out?" Her eyes got big. "You can't get hurt, Haku. Just ignore them, they'll leave us alone after a while, right? You said this has been happening for a long time, I'm sure they'll get over it." He wrapped his arms around her, something he wouldn't usually do in public, even in empty hallways. She was worried she was going to start crying, but she's been trying not to let herself show too much weakness for the past few weeks and she wasn't going to start now, despite how tired and worried she was and how terribly those two emotions mix together. Instead, she let the hug happen, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into his chest, breathing slowly to try to calm herself down.
"If I don't go soon, they'll come here. I'd rather I get hurt than you." He pulled away from her just enough that their eyes met, but their arms were still around each other. "Besides, I'll be fine. I've fought them before, they're not as bad as you'd think." He let go of his grip on her and kissed her cheek. That was honestly far more affectionate than either of them have gotten in quite awhile, but she didn't mind.
"Go back to bed. I'll be back soon." "No, Haku." They didn't argue that weren't an old married couple, anyway. "No?" He was more confused than surprised. She was headstrong, he knew this. "No. Leave tomorrow, I want to spend time with you one last time. We can have lunch together. Just wait another day." Haku was getting tired of her persistence. "That's pushing it, Chihiro."
She wasn't about to give up. "What's one day? It's not pushing it at all." Haku sighed. "If you say so. I guess it is rather unlikely that they'll be upset because I hold off my arrival for one day." Haku nodded at her. "So be it. I'll see you tomorrow for lunch." It was unlike Haku to give in so easily, but he honestly didn't want to leave either. Also, he was too tired to argue- he'd need a couple hours of meditation in order to think clearly again.
Chihiro smiled in a way that was almost smug, but she also seemed more relaxed, which relaxed Haku as well. "Same to you. Oyasumi nasai." She bowed slightly, and he bowed back. She gave him one last smile as she went back into her room.
AN: I didn't want to add too many Japanese terms into this story but it seemed appropriate lmao
Oyasumi nasai- equivalent to "good night", literally translates to "please rest".
