-Catgirl-of-Bavaria- : Rawr, this chapter went up a little later than I intended, I was having some difficulties with my computer, with the internet being stupid and not working -twitch- Hmm. Technology. gotta love it. -whacks computer-
Anyway, I think this chapter's pretty cute, I loved writing Haku in this one It's a short chapter, I admit ((gomen)) but it's got cuteness and angst all in one! Yay!
Chapter 11 – Confession
"It's probably best not to mention what happened up there to anyone…" Haku said quietly as he pulled more blankets into Kamajis quarters. Kamaji was still fast asleep in his own futon as he lay out the blankets next to his previous mound, which were now occupied by Chihiro.
"It's probably unheard of for a spirit to kiss a human…Especially in a place like this." Haku whispered, thinking of Yubaba and her pure hatred for humans, specifically Chihiro.
Chihiro sat in the blankets watching the sootballs bouncing all around to welcome her back. Even they hadn't forgotten her visit. Chihiro gave them her shoes to go and hide, but they were disappointed to find that the hiking boots didn't fit into their little cubby holes.
Haku looked up from spreading out his new bed, and saw Chihiro, pink in the face, and obviously having her fatigue catch up with her. He suddenly realized, she'd been running through the rain of both worlds to get here, and she was still completely soaked. He didn't know much about humans, but he predicted that they could get sick like spirits could. Perhaps not from the same things, but still.
Chihiro felt a cool hand on her forehead, and looked to see Haku, on all three, feeling her forehead with a concerned look on his face. His hand stayed there as he closed his eyes for the best reading.
"You're burning up, Chihiro…" He announced to her. "That's…a bad thing for humans, right?" he asked for confirmation. Chihiro nodded.
"I should probably get out of these clothes, they're drenched…" Chihiro added, peeling her shirt from her torso. Her face flushed at the realization of what she'd said. She looked at Haku, expecting him to be just as embarrassed, but saw curiosity in his face that she'd never seen there before.
"So, humans get sick from wet clothes?" he suggested, raising an eyebrow beneath his bangs.
"Well," Chihiro replied, a smile spreading across her face. "Just when we wear them for too long or in the cold, like I was today."
"What do humans do when they're sick?" Haku enquired next, shifting himself to sit on the balls of his feet. "How do they get better?"
"Um…" It had never occurred to Chihiro that she'd have to answer such seemingly simple questions. But he was a spirit, afterall. Haku was obviously learning this lesson about the health of humans for the first time.
The river spirit's eyes remained brilliantly green and full of curiosity, entrancing the human girl's own brown eyes.
"Well, I guess just change into dry clothes and keep warm, sometimes they take warm baths, and they eat soup a lot when they're sick…" She answered, pondering and recalling memories of what her mother did for her when she was sick in the human world. She vaguely saw the dragon cock his head slightly at her words, as if in thought.
Haku got to his feet and walked over to the small sliding door behind him. Chihiro's eyes joined with the soot ball's as they followed him with their eyes, curiously.
"Chihiro, stay here, and don't make a sound. I'll be right back." He sounded just like the Haku from six years ago, Chihiro smiled after him, knowing that she still had a guardian in this world.
Chihiro was drifting off to sleep when Haku slid quietly through the sliding door, closing it nimbly with his foot. Chihiro looked over at him kneeling there with a pink bundle in one hand and a bowl of hot liquid in the other.
"Kohaku, you didn't have to…" She stammered as he set the bowl in front of her.
"Actually, yes, I did. Look." He replied, pointing to one of her scratched arms. Holding them up, she noted that she could see the sleeping lump of a boiler man straight through them. "You started to disappear after I left."
"Good point…" She said as she hastily grabbed the soup and poured a spoonful into her mouth. She swallowed down the rest of the warm soup gratefully, though she was truthfully not very hungry. She couldn't help but ignore her own saturation with the dragon being so generous and helpful.
"I got you this, too." He held up the pink bundle, which she immediately recognized as the work uniform for the female employees. "It may be loose, but at least it'll be dry." He said, passing her a slightly oversized uniform. It had obviously just come from the wash room, as it smelled freshly of cheap soap.
She heard the servant door to her right slide shut, obviously signaling her that Haku was giving her privacy to change. Kamaji was still fast asleep next to his work station, so she decided to crouch on the other side of it near the heat of the boiler to change. She then took her sopping clothes to the back door and wrung them and her hair out just out of reach of the rain. Laying them in the steam room to dry, she crossed the room to open the servant door. She found Haku sitting against the wall just next to it, waiting patiently for the human to come and get him.
With a small smile, the boy climbed through the small door and followed Chihiro back to the mound of futons and blankets. In the corner of his eye, the discarded bandage roll called to him.
"Chihiro, give me your arms," Haku instructed, gathering the little remaining bandages.
Set on his knees in front of her, he gently took one of her battered forearms in his hands and inspected the damage. The scratches ranged from her elbows all the way to her hands, and varied in degree. Some were shallow and others were still deep and bleeding. He took a damp cloth he had also fetched and dabbed her wounds, training himself to become gentle again.
Having cleansed her arms, the green-eyed boy busied himself with wrapping them delicately with the leftover bandages on the roll. He found that he was being slightly clumsy, for his own injuries on his hands.
Chihiro watched with a grateful smile as the dragon tended her wounds. For a brief moment, she wondered if the river spirit before her had the powers to heal wounds. Suddenly, she remembered her asking him about his bandaged hands, and also her dream.
"Haku, I uh…I had a nightmare right before I came back…" She began awkwardly as he finished off the roll on her left hand. "You were in Yubaba's office, and…you were hurt…I could tell, because you were screaming…begging for it to stop…"
Haku cringed. She had seen it? She'd seen him at one of his all-time lows? Did she have any clue of what was screaming in his head in that terrible office?
"It's what made me come back," Chihiro blurted, a little nervous about Haku's silence. "I saw you in trouble. But, does it have anything to do with your hands being hurt?"
Haku finished his job with a small sigh, wondering where to start. He looked her in her concern-filled eyes, and decided to tell her. She had already seen the torture, why try to hide it?
"It was punishment…for going out to the field every day." He said, feeling a knot mass in his throat, suddenly taking interest in a thread that strayed from one of the blankets below them.
"I've been out there everyday for a while now…I've been waiting for you." He took a chance to sample Chihiro's reaction, seeing the concern, and her shining brown eyes that were raptly attached to his, urging him on.
"Yubaba was angry that I'd left the bath house and was losing her money because of my lack of sleep, so she finally punished me." Haku finished hastily, eager to get to the end of the conversation he'd hoped to avoid as soon as he saw her in the rain.
Chihiro stared back at him, suddenly stricken with guilt again. That's what he was afraid of. He'd brought back the guilt. The soot balls sat in their little pen, squeaking regretfully.
"I lost my own temper towards her," He said, trying desperately to shift the blame from his love. "My hands are just from clenching my fists too tightly…But the rest…She used my feelings toward you against me… She can see right through me. She knew how to get to me, using my fears of you never coming back to torture me…"
He finally said it. He had just confessed the feelings that had been locked at the back of his mind for so long to the last person in any world that he wanted to hear them. He was afraid to look back at her, for fear of finding her eyes full of tears.
He felt more awkward by the second, noticing that his last words hung heavily in the air of the boiler room, ringing painfully through his own ears.
"I'm sorry…" Chihiro whispered, "…I took so long to come back…"
"Chihiro, please don't apologize…" Haku told her taking both her hands in his own. "I understand, you live in the world of humans. Your family is there, your friends are there, your home is there."
He lifted her face to look into his emerald eyes.
"Remember, we got you that life together, six years ago. I couldn't ask you to give it up just to keep me happy." He whispered soothingly to her.
She began to smile weakly as she took in his words. He sensed the guilt ebbing from her heart, and relief pouring into his.
"It's nearly sunset…" He noticed, listening to the thunder outside telling him of the outside world. "You should get some rest, Chihiro. We both should." He added, rubbing his tense shoulders that still carried the mark of Yubabas punishment.
They massed the blankets together to form a large nest that they both snuggled into, Haku resting his achy arms around the human youth and pulling her into the shelter of his body. She replied, nuzzling closer, setting her cheek against his neck and emitting a content sigh.
How amazing, the highs and lows that he'd experienced all in just hours; Yubabas punishment, the intimate moment with Chihiro in the garden. The prospect of deciding whether or not to give up hope, holding her in his arms as they both drifted to sleep.
Somehow, all of the pain and torture had come through only to make the highs even higher for the dragon.
---
Kamaji woke at exactly the moment of sundown, either by habit or perhaps an undeniable spell of the bath house workers.
Reaching for his kettle of water, the old spirit noticed a great heap behind his station, where Haku had set up his futon. Though it appeared to have more blankets than the old timer remembered, and on closer inspection, an extra person!
He perched himself on his station, and getting a better look, he saw Haku with his arms wrapped protectively around a brown haired youth in the bath house uniform of pink. The smell of human suddenly met his senses, and he confirmed that the girl was none other than…
"Sen..?" Kamaji whispered to himself.
He gave a smile under his bushy mustache and brought their covers up to the couples' shoulders, as if they were his own grandchildren. Turning around in his station, he muttered something happily about "Pure love,"
"C'mon, you lazy bums, get to work!" He barked at the soot balls who leapt from their slumber near the edge of the pen by the sleeping dragon and human. The little creatures zoomed back into their holes to retrieve the first coal stones of the night.
-Catgirl-of-Bavaria- : Ah, now that the little awkward chappie is behind us, we can start having fun! Which is what I did with the next few chapters. Gotta go edit them and get 'em up!