Wow, Your Love Is All I Want just passed it's first birthday! It's crazy to know I've been writing for this this long. Thanks to all the readers—you rock! Sorry this update took longer than I would have liked with school starting and everything. And I'm in college now. Crazy. I don't see myself as that mature. I'm only 16 so it's weird anywayz, but yeah. Scary. I'm responsible and all that good stuff. Well, here's the chapter! Hope you enjoy! Please review!
Just on the count of the masquerade, Haku didn't want to shirk his household responsibilities. He did live there without paying rent, which was something they insisted as he didn't have a job, and so he tried his hardest to keep things running smoothly, keep things tidy, and keep meals prepared and on the table.
He thought soup would be the easiest thing to make for dinner. Since Chihiro's note said she'd see him at 9pm, he doubted she'd be home for it, but thought of Yenshi and himself as he dished vegetables and meats into a big pot to simmer until dinnertime as he tossed different herbs and sprinkled spices into the mixture.
The cats kept him company. Lazily lying around the kitchen, one on the rug by the sink, frustratingly underfoot, and another snuggling into a ball on the corner of the island. He made sure he would be able to quickly swipe it off the island if Yenshi came home. She didn't approve of the cat lying on there.
He flicked on the TV, and after testing out several channels that only resulted in soap opera's or gameshows, he decided upon a humorous anime about several very different classmates.
He listened to the antics and hysterics of the show as it played through its all day marathon, washing clothes, cleaning up the kitchen, folding dried clothes, and even turned it up as he scrubbed in the bathroom.
At noon he made himself some noodles and popped open a can of soda. He was lounging on the couch, picking at the last traces of lunch when Yenshi came home.
He cursed himself, knowing the cat was probably still on the island. But it jumped off intuitively and scampered into Haku's bedroom.
She plopped onto the couch next to him, her jacket still on and rumpled, and let out a deep sigh as she took the last swig of his soda. She seemed traumatized.
"You should see the traffic. People, cars, trains—seems like the whole of Tokyo is rushing somewhere." She tried to drain the can of more beverage but failed.
"I heard something about a festival tonight," He mentioned, and a light seemed to click in Yenshi's head. "The Sin—"
"The Sinkagi Festival." She nodded blankly. "How could I forget that was tonight? Now I'm in no mood to go to any of it." She got up and chucked his soda can in the waste bin.
"Is it a large festival?" He asked her.
"Large festival? The entire city decks out for it. Probably one of the largest festivals here in Tokyo. You can't escape from it no matter where you go. I usually look so forward to it…. But I'm just too tired." She shook her head. "I'm going to go take a nap." She disappeared without further trace.
Yenshi reappeared at dinnertime, her hair a mess of tangles, her face creased with a wrinkle from her pillow, and her body shrouded in a purple sweat suit. She seemed in a dreamy state as she sniffed around until she discovered the pot of soup.
"It'll be ready in a minute," Haku was rinsing out some noodles in the sink before tossing them into the pot. "Go ahead and sit down." There were two place settings at the island, and she scooted herself into one and watched him as he finished up the makings of the meal.
"So—excited about the masquerade?" She pried. No use; Haku was expressionless and merely nodded. "Need help with your costume?" She continued. He shook his head. "You're positively evil." She pouted, folding her arms and setting her mouth in a subordinate smirk.
Haku laughed, taking her bowl and ladling some soup in it. She took it back from him and sipped at the rim. He glared at her until she picked up a spoon.
"What about you? Aren't you eating?" She asked him as he left down the hall.
"I don't have time; it's already five after seven." Her brows were lifted curiously, and a small smile spread across her lips.
Haku's trek to the train station was eventful, with the streets crowded with people in bright kimonos and costumes. They bore paper fans and banners screaming with color, large kites and toys. The streets blossomed with color and burst with lights, and the sweet and tangy aromas of food filled your head with excitement.
Musicians played traditional and lively music, the different players and groups clashing together with other singers and musicians from across the street or down one block. Acrobats twisted and turned, jumped and flipped with bright costumes of magenta, blue, green, and purple.
He had pushed and shoved his way through the abstract crowd, stumbling into the train station later than he had desired. He shuffled onto the train, mashed against the bodies around him, and had tripped out of the train car with the masses when he arrived at his stop.
Pressing on with the crowd, he made his way to the assigned meeting place, absently checking the watches of people he passed, or glancing at clocks in store windows or high on the buildings around him.
People in masks of scarlet and gold brushed by him, and little girls in their best kimonos begged for a goldfish at the stand or a bamboo skewer or sweet and spicy chicken or pork.
He was more than half an hour late, and the frustration within him seemed to peak.
But all sounds around him seemed to silence as he approached the southern garden. The moon was high in the sky, and lights from the festival flickered and danced around the trees as he took the steps to the archway as slow as he could. As soon as he reached the top it would be too late to turn back, too late to forget…too late to let go.
He took his last step and let out a deep breath.
And there he stood, all in silver and blue. His hair deep and sultry as midnight, a single stone glinting in his ear, his eyes as passionate and dark as they always were. His brows perked at the center—just barely—his lips open just a touch as he scanned the garden for her. He didn't have to look long.
On the other side, standing next to the fountain in a billowing white dress that sparkled and glittered she stood waiting for him. She turned, saw him, and a slow smile spread across her face as he approached in silence.
"I knew you'd come," was all she said, and she tilted her head to the side.
"I'm sorry—" She held a hand to her lips to silence him, then fluttered it away and smiled again—this time a sparkling grin that spread to her onyx eyes. "And you are?" With a flourish he gestured to her lustrous gown, and she fiddled with her necklace.
"A princess," She looked down with a slight smirk. "I know it's so cliché, however I couldn't resist."
"You look amazing,"
"Thank you." The fountain misted them slightly, and Haku felt his cheeks become dewy, and felt the droplets collect at the ends of his hair.
"And you are," She began, looking him over, brushing a strand of hair from his brow with a gloved finger, that finger slipping to graze over his earring. "A dragon." She gave the slightest of chuckles though with a warm grin. "Somehow I always knew."
"Should we get going?" She then asked, and he offered his arm.
They drew to the ballroom. Set up in the center courtyard where the four gardens met it was made from a massive silken canopy. Standing at one end you could barely glimpse the other.
Chihiro grew warier the closer they got, finally saying, "Do you really want to go?" He lifted his brows. "I mean—that's what we're here for, never mind, but…" She sighed. "Do you really want to go in?" He smiled, taking her hands in his.
"Come with me," And he led her back the way they had come. They glided down the steps at the fountain, and then he slid a hand around her waist, then taking her other hand high in his with gentlemanly flourish.
"Dance with me?" He then asked her.
"Right here?" She looked around at their former meeting place. They stood on the grass between the stairs to the entrance and the stairs leading to the fountain.
"You can hear the music, can you not?" His regal words and voice she smiled at before curtsying grandly. Indeed you could. The orchestra the university hired could easily be heard where they stood.
He bowed in return before taking her in his arms again and leading her into a gliding waltz.
They twirled and twirled for moment after moment, gliding in circles and spinning and dipping. Chihiro was lost in the moment as Haku dipped her here and twirled her there.
With each breeze that blew Chihiro's upswept curls around her face, with each light that reflected with a glitter in her eye he felt a pang to his stomach. Wishing this night would never end he vowed to live it to the fullest. To let go of every doubt, of every fear of rejection, of every thought of ever maybe returning to the other world.
He released those all to the wind as he spun her again, and he soon became lost in the moment as well. Though as the night wore on and both were finding their breath short, they found themselves slowing to a stop.
But Chihiro didn't draw away from Haku's arms when they stopped, neither did he pull away from her. And silence won out over speech as they looked at each other in frankness, both asking so many questions with their eyes, and both looking deep into the others' for answers.
Chihiro seemed to open her mouth to speak, but no words escaped her.
Haku slowly leant into her, his body pressing closer to hers as his lips brushed ever so cautiously over hers to rest above her cheek. His breath felt warm against her cheek and she closed her eyes, furrowing her brows as she opened her mouth as slight as a whisper, inviting him.
His cool lips met her warm ones and his body threatened to collapse under him, his stomach both hot and cold, his breath nearly stopped.
When she crept her mouth open and slid her tongue into his mouth, he pulled back a touch in surprise but returned in kind to something he hadn't quite known of, though would admit to enjoying.
The cool evening breeze, the heat in his mouth, the passion that thrummed through his chest, was enough to make his head spin with pleasure. His fingers threaded through her curls as he pulled her closer and she gave a slight whimper that made his stomach slam against a wall with pangs of hot and cold.
Somewhere in the distance a gong sounded, clanging the eleven o'clock hour, and both drew back with realizations of what exactly had happened.
"Haku—" He put a finger to her lips to silence her, and she brushed a wild curl from her face. "But…" She insisted, taking slow and steady breaths. "I just don't know what to say. I…" He was shaking his head, and she let her words drift into silence.
"Say no more, I beg of you." She looked at him, her eyes questioning. "Let us not discuss this any more—it will change everything and will not clarify what we already know." She was stricken to silence with his words. They confused her and she longed to plead for him to explain. However his expression was closed, and she kept her lips firmly together.
He took her hand in his, leading her away with the simple words, "Let's go," and they found themselves walking down the streets of the festival. They didn't stick out in their attire in the crowd of costumes and kimonos. Though Haku wasn't dressed too out of the ordinary, Chihiro's massive gown was a sight to see. Especially when you saw her upswept hair and glittering kohl eyes.
Haku's smooth gentle fingers felt warm and comforting around her own, and again they let themselves get lost in the moment. Looking at the vendors and their stalls, glancing at giggling girls or the boys that would tease them.
And it was during this time that Haku's words came to make sense to her. Without really thinking about them she began to understand what he had been saying.
That they were both feeling the same things for each other during this night, and not to discuss things lest they throw away the blessed magical moments allotted them.
Like a story she seemed to recall of a fairy tale growing up, about a princess caught in a wonderful dream and slowly she came to realize it. But was forbidden to speak of her knowledge as her perfect dream world would shatter the moment she voiced what was happening.
If voicing her feelings to him would shatter these moments, she would be content to be silent and enjoy his company, his gentle smile her way, and his warm hands that seemed to envelope her heart as well as her hands.
And so they walked through their dreamland, smiling lazily at each other, enjoying the small things like a vendors paper fan, the whiff of fresh jasmine incense, or a moment when Haku's fingers would trace the lines of her face while they waited at a stop light.
But this dream was shattered no matter how they wished it not to, and Chihiro had not even spoken a word. It was someone else's voice that sliced through the air and cruelly bit and tore at them. The voice of a nightmare that had been thought to have been boarded up forever.
Kenji stood mere paces away from them, and had cried out Chihiro's name. No one around them seemed to notice the fear that had spread to her eyes or the hate that had been dormant in Haku's eyes since his last sight of the man.
A great gong went up to warn festival-goers of the light show several streets down. It was about to start, and people began to scramble down the nearest main street in a massive river of pressing bodies that was nearly impossible to maneuver through.
He pushed through the crowd and snatched Chihiro's wrist, wrenching Haku's princess away from him. And as much as Haku tried and tried, Kenji and Chihiro were spirited away with the flow of the crowd.
He cursed mournfully, shoving this way and that in any attempt to rescue her, and finally stumbled into an ally made of the backs of vendor's stands.
He whisked his hands in the air and turned them and twirled them this way and that, his melodic voice whispering a chant as he did so. Soon his form disappeared into little more than a shimmering nothingness, and he took to the air, soaring above the heads of the people who lined the brimming streets.
He looked around furiously for any sight of them and rode a breeze down the main street, hoping for any chance he may grasp.
And then he saw her. Her billowing skirts puffing and blowing as she was dragged through the crowd. His sudden flaring anger nearly broke his spell, and knowing he couldn't hold his form any longer with this rage, he tumbled into the crowd once more and returned to his—now tingling—but human form.
Mercilessly he pushed through old woman and young businessmen. Past couples and single parents who walked with their children hand-in-hand. He raced and pushed and shoved and dove in a frantic attempt to reach her, and when she was just an arms length away Kenji slid into an empty, dingy alley, and Haku was taken further still with the crowd.
"Chihiro!" His voice rang out, seeming to penetrate the very skyscraper walls around him, and he clawed at the building's stone wall. He gasped and groaned with the effort of making his way back, sweating as his voice broke into a strangled cry that was swallowed by the surrounding noise before it was ever heard.
Slowly but surely he edged his way against the crowd to the alley, and he burst from the press of bodies into the alley and ran to where he saw Kenji and Chihiro standing in the distance.
She was struggling to get away, however he held her fast, and when Haku began to approach her eyes widened in fear.
"Don't use your magic!!!"
Her cry rose and pierced through the air with such force Haku began to stagger in disbelief.
"Haku," she began to sob, "I beg of you! I beg of you, please don't." Tears streamed down her face as she struggled still against Kenji, and Haku felt as if he had crashed into a wall. "Don't use your magic…please…no!"
For all the comments I received expressing thoughts towards Haku's being a dragon: You either know me too well by now or—what it probably is—it's that obviously predictable. lol. But what style did you expect? If you were thinking a big mask and something else obnoxiously obvious you got it wrong. That wouldn't be Haku's style, would it?