Water Never Forgets

A Haku/Kohaku Story

Prologue: Forgotten

"Finally! I can go see Chihiro after so long!" Kohaku said, currently in his dragon form. In this form he had white fur on his body and blue/green fur going down the middle of his body. His face was white fur with golden – brown horns and thin, cat-like ears and two thick long whiskers, one on each side of his head. He had a gray scaled underbelly and pinkish fore and back legs. He had missed his loved one after all these years, not thinking about the fact that humans aged. And it has been twenty years since he last saw her. He some how managed to escape, tearing his contract and thinking he was finally free. He landed near a rather large house, his heart pounding rapidly in his chest as he turned back to his human like form. He had short black hair then went a little past his chin and brown eyes. He had on his normal white kimono shirt and blue shorts. Ragged sandals adorned his feet, his slightly pale skin glowing in the light emitting from the window nearby. He looked exactly the same as he did when he first met Chihiro, but some what happier. He walked toward it and looked inside. What he saw shocked him. It was Chihiro, but she was much older, looking in her early thirties. She had longer hair and her body was fully developed. What shocked him the most was the fact that there was a ring on her left hand. She was married. She didn't wait for him. When he looked closer he saw a small bundle in Chihiro's arms. It was a child, its eyes closed, sleeping. Kohaku took a step back, his legs shaking violently, his heart feeling crushed. Not only was she married, but she had a child. But he tried to feel happy for her. She looked so happy with her small family. But he couldn't. The pain was too much for him to handle. Kohaku took a deep breath and turned around. He had no where else to go, so he transformed and returned to the Spirit Bath house, wanting Yubaaba to reinstate his contract… and ask her to make him forget about Chihiro so that pain would go away. He then made a promise to himself as a single tear fell from his eyes as he flew. 'Never again will I allow myself to feel like that.' He thought sadly as he neared the Bath House. 'Never again...'

Chapter One: Look what I can do!

-18 years later-

"Mom! Mom, you won't believe what happened today! It was amazing!" A young 15 year old girl called as she walked toward a black car. She had long, waist length white hair and ice blue eyes. A strand of hair fell in front of both eyes, her pale skin seeming almost white due to her brightly colored hair. She was wearing a dark blue school uniform, the skirt barely above her knee caps. The top was like any other uniform, but it had a golden bird on one shoulder and she was wearing a black tie.

An older Chihiro, wearing a simple white blouse and light blue skirt and shoes, smiled brightly at her and asked, "Really? What happened that was so amazing?" The girl smiled and waggled on finger at her mother as if scolding her.

"I can't tell you until we get home. It's a secret." She said, smiling brightly as she got into the backseat of the car, her brother taking the other front seat. He had long brown hair in a pony tail, him refusing to cut it, and dark green eyes. He turned around to look at his sister, smirking.

"What? You finally got a date?" He asked, causing him to get smacked in the face with a black backpack. He laughed and pushed the backpack away from him.

"No! And I could get a date if I wanted! I just don't!" She yelled at the 18 year old.

"Yabun! Don't make fun of Kaihei like that!" Chihiro said, getting behind the wheel of the car.

"Sorry Mom." The brown haired boy said, then quickly stuck his tongue out at Kaihei before looking out his window. The white haired girl crossed her arms, frowning. For some reason, they never got along well anymore, but they still loved each other. Soon, they arrived to they're home. It was a simple blue roofed brown house. Nothing else was needed to describe it, other then that it was two stories tall. Kaihei got out of the car and ran to her room, wanting to get changed.

"She hates that uniform so much…" Her father said as Kaihei ran past him as he opened the door. Chihiro laughed and shook her head.

"Just wait. She will want to wear something like that when she find's a boy she likes. Just you wait." Chihiro said, snuggling against her husband after Yabun walked inside. There then was an awkward silence.

"We have to tell her Chihiro. If she finds out she isn't our child by herself, she might never speak to us again." Chihiro's husband said, sighing and stroking her hair.

"I know Kaze. I know. I will tell her today." Chihiro said, pulling away from him.

"Come on Mom! I have to show you!" Kaihei's voice yelled from somewhere in the house.

"Alright! I am coming honey!" She called, then gave her husband one last look before going inside.

"In the kitchen!" Kaihei called. Chihiro went inside the kitchen and saw her daughter sitting on one of the counters, her wearing a black t-shirt and dark gray baggy jeans with red and black striped socks on. She also had a clear light blue teardrop shaped gem that had a snowflake in the middle of it on. The teardrop was about an inch long. Something she had ever since she was little. She was kicking her legs slightly, looking like a little kid almost. If it wasn't for her slightly muscled arms, she would have been mistaken as an innocent, defenseless girl.

"Now, what is it that you wanted to tell me?" Chihiro asked, brushing away a few strands of stray hair out of her face. She then looked at the sink. It was filled with water, but there were no dirty dishes. "And why is there water in the sink?"

"You will find out. Now, when I was in the bathroom at school, the sink messed up and squirted water all over me. I was extremely embarrassed and didn't want to come out of the bath room. But then I started waving my hands around in front of the wet spots, hoping to dry them, then all the water just floated off and went into the sink!" Kaihei said excitedly. Her mother looked at her for a moment then laughed. "No, no! It is true!"

"You have such a wild imagination!" Chihiro said as she laughed, though she felt some what scared at the same time. Kaihei jumped off the counter and stomped a foot on the ground.

"Then watch this!" She said, then turning toward the sink she lifted one hand gracefully, almost like water moves its self. This caused Chihiro to stop laughing and she gasped. Her daughters eyes and turned from and icy blue to a darker blue as the water floated out of the sink like a fat worm and as she started to move both hands in unison it split of into two thinner streams and started to dance around her as she twirled around. As the streams of water started to form animals and change into ice, Chihiro fell to her knee's, feeling faint. "I skipped the rest of my classes and stayed in the bathroom so I could control it. I can do whatever I want with it! And don't worry, I locked the door so… Mom, are you o.k.?" Kaihei asked, looking down at her fallen mother. The water stopped, still floating around her. Unfortunately, her brother came in at that time.

"What the… Mom!" Yabun called out then glared at Kaihei. "What did you do to my mother, you… you freak!" Kaihei felt as if some one plunged a jagged knife into her heart and twisted it.

"I… what… what do you mean, your mother? She is my mom too!" Kaihei said, the water shuttering slightly as she took a step back. Yabun ran to Chihiro and kneeled next to her. "You are not related to her, father, or me! You're just some brat we found on our door step!" He said. Chihiro looked as if she was about to say something, but fainted once she saw the water was still floating. Kaihei couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"N-no… you are lying… I…" She started.

"Get out! Look what you did to her! Dad! Mom has fainted! Kaihei did something to her!" Yabun yelled, turning his head toward the front door way of the kitchen. That is when the knife was torn out of Kaihei's heart, leaving it torn apart. The water splashed to the ground as her mother's story that had been told to her over and over until Chihiro barely remembered it. Spirits. There were really spirits out there. That is when it struck her. Her odd, yet natural hair color, her eyes changing shades of blue when her emotion's changed. She wasn't human. Her ability to move water just proved it. She was a water spirit. "You freak!" Yabun's words rang through her head. Something cold ran down her cheek as her father burst through the door way and Kaihei ran out the other. She ran into her room and grabbed her backpack, quickly dumping everything out. She put in a few spare cloths, some jewelry, a swim suit, a drawing pad, drawing pencils and colored pencils. She put on a pair of black sandals, stuck the backpack on her back and jumped out the window.

"I have no where to go…" She said to herself as she started to run. She then remembered the Spirit Bath house in her mother's, wait, no. Not mother, but Chihiro's story. She would go there and work as whatever that 'Yubaaba' lady wanted her to do. As long as she didn't go back there, the place she once called home. No one would accept her as a spirit, she thought. So she kept running. "I was told never to look back. So I didn't." Chihiro's final words from the story came to her and she closed her eyes as more cold objects came from her eyes and hit the ground, them being frozen tears. 'Like Chihiro… I will never look back.' Kaihei thought as the sun just started to go down.

-With Chihiro-

Chihiro slowly opened her eyes, feeling something soft beneath her. "Uh… where am I?" She said, looking up at her son.

"Safe from Kaihei. What did she do to you?" Yabun said, looking down at his mother worriedly. He no longer cared for his so called 'sister' after what he had seen. Well… not that much any way.

"What do you mean? She was just showing me that she was able to control water. I guess I overreacted. I was just so surprised." Chihiro said, then noticed the look of horror on Yabun's face. "What happened?" She cried out.

"I-I yelled at her… I… I called her a freak… I treated her terribly… I… told her the truth about where she came from…" Yabun said, staring at the ground, feeling terrible. How could he be so cruel to some one he cared so deeply for? He felt like dieing right there. Chihiro gasped and jumped out of the bed and ran through the house.

"Kaihei! Kaihei!" She cried out, running to her room. She slammed open the door and stopped. Her room was a mess, her dresser drawers pulled out and all her school things on to the floor. She noticed that her backpack was missing and the window was wide open. "No!" She gasped then ran to the window and crawled out it. She looked around, the sun getting dangerously close to sunset. The wind blew her hair around as she started to run forward, following the semi-fresh foot steps as she called out her daughters name again and again. She fell to her knees once again as the steps disappeared into a grass field, where the dirt path had ended. "No! Kaihei, honey! Come back! Come back…" Chihiro sobbed slumping to the ground, crying heavily in her arms. "Please come back… Kaihei…" Her baby girl was gone. She had lost her daughter, her going who knows where. Then it all came back to her. The Bath House, Lin, Kohaku… She gave up waiting for Kohaku, knowing he wouldn't age like her. She also remembered telling the story to her children. "No… she can't be going there! I will never see her again!" She gasped, then ran back to the house. She had to catch up with Kaihei. She just prayed she wasn't already too late.