Chapter 5
Chihiro stared at her hands at the dinner table. Her mouth was dry and the plate before her contained cold food. Her mother was asleep in her bed, now being smaller than her, filling up the bed partially. Chihiro's hands were full of nothing but small white and pink spots. The circulation. Thin greenish lines swimming through them all. An it all of a sudden became too much. Her head bowed down as her father opened the front door and entered the unlively home.His hand landed on the top of her head, and his lips grazed her forehead.
"Why haven't you eaten anything, Chihiro? Your old imaginary friend again?" her eyes remained staring at her hands.
"He's...he's gone." Her head bobbed to a side and her eyes closed. Her heavy breathing causing tears to stream swiftly and softly. Confused, he lifted her and carried her to the living room, and laid her on the couch. Places a honcho over her.
The next morning, she drove back to the burnt down house, and sat in the same position she was in the day before. Her white rag-like shirt swimming against her shoulders, her hair in a perfect tail, and her pink shorts. Similar to those of her youth, they panged her insides incessantly.
A rake brushed against her angrily and her eyes flew to Aku's.
"You are a nuisance. Leave at once!"
after a second jab to her thigh, she growled. Angered and weak.
"Stop it! Stop telling me to leave...damn you, Haku."
His head cocked to a side and he continued raking around her.
"I do not know of a Haku, miss."
She massaged her temples. Swearing once again in her life that everything that happened to her was actually real.
"It is Chihiro. And no matter how you wish to hide it. You are Haku! Why do you act like i..." he cut her off roughly.
"I am not Haku, I am Aku. And guess what, not only do I know a Haku, but I have also never heard of a Chihiro!" he dropped the rake and let it clang loudly on the hearth covered pavement.
Chihiro utterly unmoving. "Not even Sen?"
His fists clenched to his sides. She could see him trembling from the corner of her eye.
"I know of no Sen." He seethed softly.
Her restrained and cacked in emothion finally broke. Her arms shot outh and began beating at his chest while screaming.
"LIAR!!!" Her lungs cried. Her eyes wrinkled and her fists aiming at anything her blurred vision let her target.
Stunned and taken back, he moved away and took hold of her wrists. Blocking any rough moments and movements, holding her body still by using the heaviness of his against hers.
"Maybe,..." he whispered to her, trying to calm her down. "maybe you confuse me with him because we merely look alike." Her muscles softened, but he didn't let go, though his grip loosened. Her eyes went up to his, and were lit with everything she was and could be.
His eyes were wide, filled with curiosity. But then she smiled; and leaned her head to nest her forehead against his. He gasped.
"I guess your right," her voice croaked, floating in shudders.
He let go of her completely and stepped away briskly. He wanted to snarl at her. Cive the look that she was a weakling and he her supirior. But at the time being, this... Chihiro, was something he could not avoid but worry for. She calls him Haku, says he knows her and a Sen, yet he cannot come around enough to mock her as happily as usual. As common as always.
His hands brushed through his bangs, and a stream of wind blew through the two.
"The shrine is but five minutes away. I am preparing jasmine tea, would you care for some?"
Her face was that of a familiar lost child. One who's parents had disappeared and the brave little thing in her had faded away as well. Surrounded by strangers.
He picked up the rake in a quick gesture and touched her ponytail softly. Suprising himself. And at the same time, angering his confused and abused mind. Moving away, he began to follow a trail between two rows of large Sakura tree's. he turned around.
"Move it!!" I got work to do, and I get tired being nice very easily!" then continued his rapid stride. Chihiro moved slowly, but her steps held the same heaviness as that of Aku's. His kimono rustling in the wind.