-Catgirl-of-Bavaria-: yay, here's a Haku chapter! Anyway, please, enjoy, and reviews are welcome!
Chapter 3 –The Eyes of a Dragon
The wind brought a huge wave through the tall green grass that spread seemingly for miles in the vast field. The expanse was littered with curious rocks that resembled a smiling old woman, and that were covered with bright moss that seemed to glow in the afternoon sunlight. Broken down structures also littered the place, but were fewer than the rocks. Above all that loomed a large bright red structure, with a small tower that carried a clock that chimed the hour loud and dominantly through the peaceful landscape. The building, though losing some of its luster and paint, still took it's rightful and dominant spot as the gateway of worlds.
In the sea of grass, there was a wave of greenish brown that blew gently in the wind, swirling above the body that it was anchored to. The hair remained straight, even with heavy gusts, and was blown sometimes just the right way to reveal large and beautiful steel green eyes. Eyes that were themselves anchored to the large red gateway.
It was a teenage boy that was sitting in the grass, staring at the link to the human world. It was all he had been doing for a while now; Working by night, coming to this same spot during the day. It was starting to take a toll on his work, as well, staying out here when he was supposed to be sleeping, but he couldn't help it. He was waiting.
The large red tower began to tell the boy the hour. It gave him five long gongs to signal it was five o'clock, and nearly sundown. Nearly time to go back to the bath house for work.
He let out a huge sigh and flopped backwards onto the grass, his arms sprawled out on either side of him. Staring at the perfect blue sky, he wished for an instant that life itself was that perfect.
"What am I doing here?" He asked himself, putting a forearm over his eyes. "Even if she does remember me, she probably has a life out there now."
He stared hopelessly at the blue sky above him, wishing for an easy answer.
'That's right,' he thought, closing his tired eyes. 'She probably has friends out there. Human friends like her. Maybe she even…has someone who…loves her…'
He shook his head, trying to ward off such hopeless thoughts. He preferred to make himself believe that the girl he missed so much still thought of him, still remembered him, even that she wanted to see him. That's what kept him coming back to this place during the daytime, to wait for her to return.
He remembered the promise that he'd made her. He'd assured her that they'd meet again someday. He sighed, thinking of how it was impossible for a spirit to pass through the tunnel into the human world. If his promise was to be upheld, it was up to her to return. The dragon had no clue if she had ever considered coming back, or if she even remembered him or this world.
He knew he longed to see her. Even if there was the slightest hope that she'd come back, he'd wait for her. Even if it took forever…He forced his eyes tighter and took the doubtful and worried voices and locked them captive in the very back of his mind, a ritual that he'd been performing for quite a while now.
"Haku, what are you doing out here?" a tired voice came from behind him. He lifted himself up to see a young woman with long, brown hair, still in her sleeping clothes and with her mouth in a gaping yawn standing above him. "So, this is why you're (yaaawwn..) so tired all the time…"
"Oh, Rin. It's just you." Haku said quietly.
"Yeah, just me and my lack of sleep! I saw you come out here earlier. What the heck is possessing you to stay up all day?" She yawned again as she sat next to the boy.
Haku leaned forward and hugged his knees to his chest. He wondered if he should tell her about his yearning to see the human girl that neither of them had seen in more than half a decade.
"You remember her, don't you?" He decided to ask her quietly.
"Her?" Rin pondered as she looked at the sky. "Her…"
"The human girl, Sen." Haku spurred her on, using the only name his co-worker knew her as.
"Ah, Sen!" Rin suddenly yawned. "Yeah, I remember her just fine." Rin went quiet in remembrance. "She was a good kid. Kinda cute, actually…" Her tired voice sounded softened at the mention of Chihiro, the girl that she had looked out for as her own little sister.
Haku gazed at Rin for a moment before staring off again into nothing. Rin noticed this and read the dragon immediately.
"You miss her." Rin leaned back onto her arms in the rippling grass. "You come out here every day in some hope that she'll show up in that little tunnel. Haku, it's been six years…" she trailed off sadly. She knew how much Haku cared for her, how much the human girl had helped him. If it wasn't for her, Haku would have still been Yubaba's stone cold henchman, or rather, dead because of that apprenticeship.
"I know. But still, something just brings me out here. I can't explain it, I just…" Haku babbled, trying to get his feelings straight. "I just…want to see her…" He finally sighed, setting his chin onto his supporting arms.
They sat in silence after that, watching the grass ripple in the wind and reflect the evening sunlight as it went. The words spoken by Haku hung in the air, and he suddenly felt very awkward and exposed. Rin had never seen the dragon as distressed as he was now. It took six years, but the boy's depression had finally caught up with him.
"Well, either way, Yubaba's gonna be pissed if she finds out that you've been skipping naptime for waiting for the human girl that she still remembers and detests." Rin said, standing up and offering Haku a hand. "Well, she'll be pissed when she finds out you've been skipping naptime, period!" She tried to laugh, pulling the boy to his feet.
Haku now stood almost as tall as Rin, and was about the human age of eighteen. His straight, angular hair now lay gracefully on his shoulders. True, the dragon's eyes had gotten their luster and beauty back when Chihiro had given him back his name, but they had grown sadder and regressed to their previous steely stage with each passing year. His work uniform, once neat and clean, was now lightly stained and worn from the last six years at the bath house.
Through flowing waves of brown hair, the dragon's steely eyes glanced back at the little doorway to the human world, before returning his sad gaze to the path ahead of him and following Rin.