Might things actually begin to progress in this chapter?

Methinks they might.

This sucker's been a long time coming, so my apologies; research paper due, and all that jazz.

Enjoy!

-hg-

--

Haku had brought her into a maze of flowers that, judging by her expression, was sharply familiar. The sun fell searing and bright on the petals, but the grass was cool beneath them where they sat, and, coupled with the light breeze that brushed through it, the setting was pleasant.

"You were just a child," Haku began abruptly, resting his hands on the knees of his long legs. "I wasn't much older, but I needed to protect you nonetheless." He grimaced slightly; more words he hadn't meant to say. He tightened his mouth when he spoke again, as though making it more difficult to speak at all would help him censor himself.

"Too young to be left alone. Your parents were foolish."

Chihiro made a sharp noise; Haku glanced over at her, only to meet hard, darkened eyes and a mouth like a stone line.

"My parents were hungry. It's not like they intended to get turned into pigs," she snapped, folding her arms rigidly across her chest.

--

It took a little over a second for the shockwave to hit Chihiro. She had just produced her irritated response from a memory of her two parents shoving food into their mouths with reckless abandon. Her jaw went slack, and a sudden flush burst through her face like flame.

"I just…they…didn't they…" The pain was so great that Chihiro could scarcely string two words together. She could feel her dam cracking, memory leaking in, acid rinsing through her brain. Dizziness was clawing inside her skull, and she felt a helpless swelling inside her throat, forcing her mouth open, forcing foreign words to pour out…

"They were pigs, so I ran away, but there was a river and I was see-through, but Haku found me and he made me eat a red pill, he ran so fast and I wasn't supposed to breathe and the frog-" The words wouldn't stop; they tore through her chest and she spat them out, barely coherent, feeling like a babbling child.

She could scarcely feel her skin, noticing only vaguely when Haku's hands clasped her arms near her shoulders, firm as rocks to stem her tide.

--

"Kamaji wouldn't give me a job and Lin took me to Yubaba, and there were HEADS, and a giant baby and I smelled like human, Haku wouldn't talk to me, Master Haku-"

Haku's grip on her tightened convulsively, heat spiking viciously through his chest. He had ignored her entirely the first night she'd been there, treating her as an underling and nothing more, showing no compassion to the small, stricken face. He didn't want to consider how alone she must have felt at that moment, when her savior had coldly distanced himself from her.

"I forgot my name, Haku helped me remember, he gave me rice and I let No-Face in, he ate food and people, too, and Haku got badly hurt, he bled on my hands-" Thick streams of tears were coursing continuously down her cheeks now, soaking the neck of her shirt. He could feel her skin through her clothes, burning to the touch. She was feverish, nearly hysterical…what would happen when the memories halted? When she broke the enchantment that had held them captive for five years?

"Zenibaa's seal, and I stepped on the slug…and the train was all shadows…and…" Her breath was shallow and quick, the tears slowing to a steady drip. "Haku came, and I gave him back his name…and we were falling…" Her eyes, which had taken on a glazed appearance, focused very suddenly on Haku, recognition flickering through their depths.

He thought she whispered his name before she fell into him, but he couldn't be entirely sure that it wasn't just the sound of the breeze moving through the flowers. He was paying much more attention to the thin, hot arms that encircled his neck, the damp face that pressed against his chest.

He wound his arms awkwardly around Chihiro, unsure and more than a little unnerved by the trembling girl curled against him. He supposed it was down to him to comfort her, to help her recover from the onslaught of blockaded memories she'd just endured.

"My parents were okay," she murmured shakily into his tunic, her breath warming a spot in the cloth. She pulled away from him, looking upwards with wet brown eyes. "You told me we'd meet again," she said, very softly. "You promised."

Haku felt the most curious ache start within his chest. He remembered that. Chihiro, happy and pink-cheeked, grinning, waving good-bye…he'd known that he would see her again, told her as much, but still it had stung. She'd been all skinny legs and surprises, and she'd freed him from Yubaba. He would be forever indebted to her, and she would be forever in his mind.

But now, here she was again, fewer straight lines to her and more behind her eyes, watching him with something like interest, making him feel simply strange and oddly wonderful, all at once…

"I did," he managed haltingly, unable to look away, acutely aware of her arms still around his neck, small area of warm bare skin against his own. His thoughts were becoming shorter, more disconnected, increasingly urgent and irresistible. Pull her closer. Close your eyes. Lean forward. He didn't move, didn't obey, but his heart was starting to race; he could feel his blood pumping faster…Stop thinking. Kiss her. Now.

--

Haku looked strange. Chihiro felt his arms tighten across her back as she peered into his eyes, which appeared to have darkened the slightest bit, so as to become unnervingly cryptic. It was only when she noticed his breath stirring stray hairs about her face that it struck her how incredibly close they were to one another. If she shifted just a slight few inches forward, her chest would press against his…The very thought sent guilty heat rinsing through her, faster even than her rapid pulse.

"Haku," she breathed, the air scarcely moving past lips that suddenly felt clumsy and thick. Her eyes were drawn to his, held fast, probing uselessly into the unreadable green depths.

His arms were sliding against her back, pulling her where she'd needed little invitation to go. The contact she'd flushed over a moment ago happened very suddenly and sent a flood of electric warmth careening wildly through her, even greater than its predecessor.

The breath that had whispered through her hair was now fanning gently across her face, breezing across her lips. Chihiro's hands found Haku's shoulders, grasped them tightly, used them as anchors to close what little gap remained.

Her eyes were closed, and somehow she knew his were as well; she could feel the gentle heat of his lips coming to meet hers…but something stopped her.

Her tired, flooded mind had begun to spin and whirl, pushing images behind her closed eyes. Her fingers curled into the fabric at Haku's shoulders, urgent and clawing. No more, I'm finished with that, hasn't it been enough for one day? she thought desperately. Colors were swimming against the insides of her eyelids, dark and cold. She'd had a dream, hadn't she, a dream that took place not ten meters from where she was now. That her parents were eaten, or they forgot her…

"They wouldn't take the medicine," she whispered, her words ghosting across Haku's lips, not daring to complete the kiss, almost afraid that the bitter chill that began to creep through her veins would somehow spill into him, too. It was as though the worst memories had sunk to the bottom of her mind, and now they were the last to come to light, dregs of the past that threatened to start her crying again.

She could only press her face against Haku's chest again, becoming colder as the remembered aches and fears coated the inside of her head like black decay. At least Haku's arms were still around her, steadying her, keeping her from falling back.

"Chihiro, what is it?" He sounded worried, but his voice was vague to Chihiro, only air, her name floating invisible against her hair. She could only sense Haku injured, Haku thrashing around the boiler-room, slinging his blood against the walls. Haku putting that terrible scent in the air, that metallic tang that hung at the back of her throat, sickening her. She remembered shoving the ball of medicine into his mouth, ignoring the slavering red dripping from his teeth, hoping more than anything that he would only swallow it…

"I thought you were going to die," she mumbled against him, her hands sliding down from his shoulders so she could encircle his waist. "I'd never seen that much blood before."

Haku's arms tightened around her; no doubt he clearly recalled the same event. "It's all right." His voice was the precise kind of blank that said he was actually feeling much more. "You did well."

"It was a long time before I knew you'd survived." She remembered riding that dark, frightening train, only the worry of missing her stop keeping her from succumbing to panic, keeping her mind from bringing up the last image she might ever have of Haku, an unconscious boy on the ground, his eyes closed, perhaps forever.

"I came to you as soon as I could," Haku replied quietly, and two tears leaked from Chihiro's eyes, because she remembered that, as well. She remembered running to him, hugging him around his neck, his silver fur shining like the fabric of a star, and how she'd known, in that moment, that Haku would never leave her again.

The sheer brightness of that memory chased away what spectres remained, let her catch her breath enough to pull her face away from the comforting warmth of Haku's chest.

"You did," she murmured, smiling slightly, looking up in time to see the worry melt away from his features. Before Chihiro could draw another breath, Haku had gently met her lips with his own.