Disclaimer: it disclaims unfortunately.
"Ordinary World: Chapter Eight: The Best Laid Plans"
The Queen grumbled to herself. Chihiro was more stubborn than she had given the girl credit for. She would not tell the Queen anything she did not know already. She would not do as she was told; only come to the summons and then ignored her orders. As punishment, she did not eat but that didn't seem to affect the girl who seemed beyond the physical world...even though this was technically the Spirit world anyway. Swirling an elegant glass of red wine, she stared contemplatively into its depths. What to do?
"Kesuke, come to me!" she ordered, a normal speaking voice to an empty room. Empty or not, he was there suddenly, slipping through the nearest shadow to her side. She smiled slightly.
"Yes my Queen?" he greeted; she frowned.
"In private you may always call me by name," she corrected.
"There are ears everywhere my Queen," he advised subtly and she nodded her agreement. He was right. The level of betrayal these days was uncanny. One day you're on the throne, the next you're usurped by some upstart with keen hearing.
"Right, well, Kesuke, how do we get the pretty one to open up to us, to do for us?" she asked, almost so casually he missed the importance and danger of the topic...almost.
"I'm not sure my Queen. She is rather...strong-willed," he decided upon.
"Of that I am aware...however, there must be a way..." she paused, and Kesuke could swear he heard the clicking of the gears in her highly informed brain.
"I should have kept her little dragon lover," the Queen mused unhappily. She could have continued to use him to get to Chihiro had she had the foresight but she had been caught in the moment and thus not realized this until too late. If the Queen noticed Kesuke's ever-so slight flinch at the use of the word 'lover,' she didn't make any sign of it.
"Maybe I should just kill her...there must be another possible...or suitable vassal," the Queen grumbled and Kesuke's heart nearly stopped. He regained his composure fast and in discretion though and faced his Queen.
"My Queen, there is no other. She is in the prophecy; there can be no other," his words were simple but convincing as he always managed to be with that special mixture of intense charisma and strength he always posed to her.
"I know that," she snapped and then her gaze softened,
"It's just so discouraging," she sighed.
"Ah, my Queen, patience. The girl is immature. Surely she will come to see the light of your ways," he coaxed and as more often than not she did, she listened to him.
"Very well," she replied and, that was that...
"My Queen?" his voice echoed in the shallows of the room's invisible pockets.
"A thought Kesuke..." she pondered aloud.
"Yes?"
"Bring the girl food. I can't have her waste away before she's of any use to us," the Queen ordered and Kesuke did as he was bidden, making a silent and smooth exit through the shadows, the same way he had come.
There was a tepid knock at the door. Chihiro threw a meaningless pillow roughly at it.
"I don't want to see her," she yelled. There hadn't been a time she more loathed anyone in her entire natural born life. Queen or not, the woman was a tyrannical nightmare, ordering Chihiro around as though she had been one of her personal slaves from day one.
"You needn't," came a softly resolute voice and Chihiro jumped. It wasn't some bulky guard with an I.Q. of two to fetch her to her oh-so-supreme majesty...the voice...Kesuke? She hadn't spoken to him in what seemed like ages. Only days it really was, but in a place one has no other real acquaintances, much less friends, Chihiro had come to find quickly that days could seem like years. And they did.
"Kesuke!" She stumbled through the thick sheets and rolled off of the luxurious bed in haste to get to the door, unlocking it and veritably throwing it open. He smiled benignly down at her, unthreatening and still somewhat aloof all at once.
"Hungry?" he proffered a tray that seemed to be made of some kind of sturdy clay that held platters of food and a pitcher of water on it. Chihiro nodded, a mixture of confused relief to see a face of someone she did not hate and to smell something to sate the hunger that had existed not but a day ago. When no other food was in prospect, she lost her hunger but at the smell her stomach lurched angrily at her and she wordlessly reached for the tray.
He held it out of her reach just slightly.
"May I join you?" he asked and she nodded even as he was handing the tray to her waiting grasp. She ate at first, cautiously, as though her habits could infringe upon her as some use against her. If Kesuke noticed her furtive behavior at first, he made no indication of it. Chihiro made short work of the meal in any case and so they sat there on the carpeted floor, the food tray a peace line between them.
"Why are you so kind and yet serve such an evil mistress?" Chihiro wondered aloud and Kesuke seemed to be lost for an adequate answer.
"What makes you call me kind?" he asked finally and quirked an eyebrow as though to say she didn't know what she was talking about.
"It's obvious," was her simple and simultaneously infuriating reply. Was it? He wondered.
"You have done no wrong of me, and so why should I do any bad unto you?" he countered after yet another too lengthy pause of empty silence.
"Just because you're kind does not mean you're completely innocent or anything; by doing your Queen's will, you wrong me," Chihiro pointed out sharply.
"I do only what I have known for the better portion of the life I remember," Kesuke frowned slightly and turned his head a margin so as to avoid eye contact with the distracting girl before him. Chihiro must have thought he broke his gaze for a reason other than that though, the reason being his words and he almost felt her regret before she verbalized it.
"Er...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring to mind anything that would upset you," Chihiro nearly whispered and her own stare dropped to the empty plates in front of her. Kesuke marveled at her repentance. She owed him nothing of the sort; she had been right after all, about him incurring upon her wrongly by doing as the Queen ordered. If anything, he should be the one apologizing and he knew it.
"You have nothing to be sorry about," he laughed a laugh that worked the magic of disturbing Chihiro; for it was hollow...the sound not of someone who was lost, but someone who had lost. Someone who had given up.
A frown and then a sigh transfixed themselves upon Chihiro and Kesuke quirked an eyebrow as if to ask: what?
"Why are you sad? Even if it's all you know, you chose to know it, didn't you?" Chihiro asked as quiet as a child who was afraid of an impending or possible reprimand from an overly stern parent. Vaguely unnerved by her abrupt change of thought and surprising perception, Kesuke gave up a feeble shrug, one he was certain would look immature even to him.
"I am not sad."
"You are not happy."
"And neither are you," he shot back suddenly and immediately felt regret wash over him as her gaze broke into pieces.
"No, I'm not," she admitted, twisting her hands in her lap.
"Now it is I who must apologize. I'm practically the reason you're here after all," Kesuke reasoned to himself more than anyone.
"No!" Chihiro's hands wound themselves into the folds of the bed sheet beside her as her head lowered, chin to chest. "The reason I'm here...he's not even in this castle." Kesuke sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward. If there is indeed such a place, he scoffed slightly. Here he was going from hot to cold and back again with this girl, with this human...human-girl. Why was she making him change so? Or...a thought flickered dimly in some detour of his slumbering mind...or is she just opening his eyes to the real him through his responses to her?
His left hand reached out to stop her fidgeting and she halted...almost it seemed...she did not breathe.
"Do I..." he paused like he was afraid of the question he was about to ask and that she'd answer how he expected, "do I...frighten you?" he asked, like a child imploring if he has done something he shouldn't.
"No," she replied as quietly and if she noted the waves of blue relief in his eyes, she did not comment or hint at such recognition.
"Then why won't you look at me?"
"I...I..."her eyes became transfixed by the rings she just noticed adorned most of his fingers, each one different...a perfect distraction from the strange sensation flowing through her---one an extremely logical side attributed to her distance from Haku for so long. "These rings...what are they for?" Kesuke relented for the moment and released her hand as gently as something made of glass and preciousness. If she wanted to be evasive, he could live with that. He didn't know all too well himself what was in him to make him behave like this either. Time would help them both.
"This one," he displayed a broad silver band with darker silver engravings of a swirling symbol around a garnet, "I got it from another of the Queen's apprentices...her previous one."
"Why?"
"He died."
"Oh." Her voice did not break but it was tinged with an expected portion of surprise. Chihiro was proud of herself for at least that much control over letting on to how she felt...she knew that neither Kesuke nor his Queen knew nearly enough about her...she planned to keep it that way. Yet somehow it seemed she was learning more and more inadvertently about Kesuke...and as that happened subconsciously, she was becoming more comfortable.
"Are you alright?" he waved his hand in front of her face and she shook her head impulsively.
"Yes, yes," she nodded quickly as though to allay any suspicions of her thoughts.
"Are you sure?" he persisted, and Chihiro couldn't decide whether she was more disturbed or amazed that his worry could be seen as genuine in his eyes.
"Yes," she said but she could feel his inner disbelief even before she heard him.
"Look, I don't want you to think you're my prisoner okay?" he almost demanded it.
"But..."
"No! I know what I've done...it's not right. Okay? I know that. I don't feel liberated by your imprisonment and nor do I enjoy it, but I have to do this!" it was like he'd cracked under his own pressure and he couldn't stop the emotional outflow he blamed completely on how she made him feel...even though he still wasn't sure exactly how that was.
"Why?" she cried stood up quickly, and motioned emphatically with her right hand.
"Because I need to know who I am!"
Silence.
"What?" Chihiro's voice lost all of its boiled anger as she asked this and Kesuke let out a breath, looking as shocked as she was that he had said what he said. "What?" she repeated, firmer this time. She wanted to know.
He looked down as though the answer was in his boots and their laces.
"I need to know who I am," he said softer this time and made a piercing eye-contact with Chihiro. She couldn't break the gaze.
So, they stood there.
Some way across the Spirit World, Haku worked strategy with Lin.
"No, Lin if we take it this way the fiends will be to both our sides and they can easily back us into no escape," Haku crossed another battle plan out, crumpling the layout and tossing it heedlessly over his shoulder. Lin massaged her temples and groaned. They'd been working for hours straight, attempting to come up with what Haku entailed as "a full proof rescue."
Lin had ahem...other words for it.
"Haku, can't we take the best one and use it? At this rate Sen-"
"Chihiro! Her name is Chihiro!" he interrupted brusquely.
"Fine, you're right...but like I was saying, at this rate, Chihiro will never be rescued...all plans have flaws...even if you can't see them, there are somethings you just can't account for!" Lin reasoned with her inherent obstinacy.
"But Lin, suppose our 'best one' is one we have yet to think of?" Haku argued just as forcefully.
"You never can tell," Lin waved her hands in the air and quirked a tired grin. "Look great leader, you sit for one second and keep thinking. Me too, but I'm getting us some food before I keel over," she laughed and walked at a noticeably quicker pace out of the room. Pausing, Haku fell into the chair behind him, running his hand through his hair.
What else is there, he wondered desperately. It had been too long already and he hated waiting but he needed to feel good about this plan, whichever and whatever it was...he needed to know that at the very least, they would get Chihiro back the first time. He knew the second time would be harder on multiple levels unseen...if there even was a second time.
"Chihiro..." he allowed her name to trace itself across his lips in a languid manner, reflective of his dragon-self. He remembered when he first ran into her...when she couldn't go home...when she had to cross the bridge without being seen...when...Haku's eyes snapped close and open as though waking from a nightmare to the light.
"Lin! Lin! I've got it! I know how to save her!"
-------------------------------------------------
GODDAMN it's been forever. Now I have to update all my other stories too. Forgive me for my extensive leave and this pitiful showing. It will improve I promise. Ahhhh time I need more. School sucks time like no man's business.
Leave some love, comment or whatever. I suppose you know it's NOT Lin x Haku or anything like that, but just reiterating.
-Kaji the ashamed and timeless [without time, not exactly the connotative meaning hehe]