I'm sorry, guys. I haven't updated in so long, and yet you guys gave me so many encouraging reviews…. I just haven't had the inspiration to write anything at all. This is the first time I've actually touched any of my stories in almost two months… I hope you guys can forgive me.

Surprisingly enough, I actually have more time on my hands at home after school to write. I kept telling myself "Write, dammit!" and trying to force myself to write, but I got distracted…so yeah. I really didn't get much done.

Oh, if anyone's interested, I'll tell you guys what my school's marching band is playing for games and competition. We are doing songs from Santana. They are "Oye Como Va" (which means "Hey, how's it going" not "Listen how it goes" like people usually think. The latter is the literal translation), "El Fuego" (means The Fire), "Europa", and "Black Magic Woman." Yeah. The hardest thing is actually a stupid sixteenth-note run in "Oye Como Va." It's a realllly short piece (like 21 measures), but it's our opener, and barely anyone can play it right and at tempo…I can…sort of…

BTW, there's a poll for you guys at the bottom that I really need answered for this story to go on.

By the way, HAPPY SEPT. 11/PATRIOT DAY!(That's what it says on my calender...)

Well, I have nothing else to fill this space, so on to the chapter! (Oh, btw, am I the only one who's having trouble with the little divder bar thingy on the document manager?)

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Chapter 11

Chihiro awoke one morning to the sun shining brightly in her eyes. Groaning, she turned over in her sleeping bag of a bed and attempted to go back to sleep. However, she was overcome with a spell of déjà vu that kept her from her task. Didn't this same thing happen once before? Ah, yes, it just so happened to be her daily routine these past few days. She would wake up to the sun rudely intruding into her eyesight, a vexing thing as it burned her eyes when it did. Then, she would groan in annoyance that she had been woken up and turn over and try and slip back into her dreamland. Then—

"Chihiro! Time for breakfast!"

Ah, yes. Then came Akane's call for breakfast. Just at what time did her friend wake up, anyways?

Chihiro decided to ignore the mystery as the sweet aroma of sukiyaki invaded her nostrils. Her stomach growled in response. With a sigh, she stretched her tired body and made her way over to Akane and Sakana, who were already seated around three trays of food.

"Just at what time do you guys get up in the morning?" Chihiro asked as she sat down.

"Well, I have no idea what time it is now since our watches don't work here," Akane answered, "but I usually get up at around eight or so."

"But I know for a fact Sakana sleeps much later than I do and yet here she is—or not."

Chihiro laughed out loud when she spotted her other friend. Sakana was sleeping—sitting down, mind you. She wasn't snoring, and was in fact completely quiet aside for her soft and slow breathing.

Akane sighed disapprovingly and shook her head. "Kami, that girl is a hard sleeper."

"Well, what else did you expect?" Chihiro laughed. She picked up her bowl, then, and dug right into her awaiting meal. "And if she doesn't get up in time, I'm going to steal her food."

"What? Oh no you don't!" Sakana suddenly jerked awake with a look of exasperation on her face. She took her bowl and began devouring her food, all-the-while eyeing Chihiro suspiciously.

Chihiro and Akane blinked confusedly at their friend. Only Sakana could be so…random, for lack of better words.

The door connected to the next room slid open, revealing a very disheveled-looking Haku. Chihiro could see the dark shadows under his eyes and redness above. He rubbed his eyes awake as he emerged from his dark room. When he entered the light of the room, he cringed and blinked several times until he adjusted to the lighting.

"Haku? What are you doing here? You look horrible," Akane said.

"Haku?" Chihiro whispered.

Upon hearing his name, Haku looked down at the three girls. Seeing their worried faces, he gave them his best reassuring smile and said he was fine.

That was another daily occurrence. Haku would come into their room, looking absolutely dreadful. Sauntering in, he looked even worse every day, though he always told them that he was merely tired, as he had to stay up all night taking care of something important.

Chihiro couldn't help but feel that he was lying and that something was indeed terribly wrong, especially after his little coughing episode several days ago.

Haku bid them all good-bye and started for the door.

"Haku, don't you want anything to eat?" Akane asked.

"That's what I'm going down to get." He once again disappeared from their sight.

"What up with him?" Akane mused. "He doesn't seem himself."

"Yeah, he looks really tired every morning," Sakana added through a mouthful of food.

"Sakana, that's really disgusting," Akane squirmed.

Sakana swallowed her food. "Well, if I didn't say what was on my mind, then I would forget, and then it would bug me the whole day until I remembered what I was going to say," she argued.

Chihiro ignored her friends' argument and buried herself in her thoughts. What had been going on at night to keep Haku up? Ever since that night he began coughing, his health and appearance seemed to have plummeted like a rock. He rarely spoke or moved and he spent most of his day either with them in their room sleeping or out somewhere taking care of something. Chihiro, for one, was tired of his lies.

"Ah, forget it; there's no sense in arguing now," Akane said. She took their plates and set them by the door for Lin to pick up.

"Hey, I wasn't finished!" Chihiro complained.

"Well, you weren't eating and you were just staring off into space, so I figured you weren't hungry," Akane said. She took Chihiro's bowl from the pile and handed it to her.

Chihiro pushed her bowl back into Akane's hands. "No thanks."

Sakana and Akane stared at their friend and exchanged worried glances.

"Are you sure you aren't sick?" Akane asked, putting one hand on Chihiro's forehead and the other on her own.

"Ever since Little Haku started to look sick, you've been the same way." Sakana sat beside the two girls.

Chihiro looked away from her friends, choosing instead a rather interesting piece of grass on the wooden floor. She only looked this way because she was worried about Haku. Wasn't it natural for her to worry?

"Chihiro, did something happen a few night ago? I know you know something," Akane pressed.

Chihiro's head spun around to look at her friend. She could feel her eyes beginning to burn. She wanted to confide in her friends, to just spill all her worries out. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't want to burden her friends with having them worry about her. And she might just be overreacting about Haku. He might have been staying up all night, keeping the Chimimouryou away from their room and protecting them. For all she knew, he could be just fine and dandy and her worry gave her hallucinations.

"No, nothing happened." Chihiro stood and walked back over to her bed. She slipped beneath her blanket and rested her head gently against her pillow. She decided she would just sleep her worries away, and when she woke up, Haku would have a warm smile on his face, and nothing would be wrong with him or anyone else. Hell, she even hoped that the Chimimouryou were all just part of some horrible nightmare that she hadn't woken up from yet.

That dream, as she would soon learn, was one that was painfully real.

Chihiro groggily opened her eyes, expecting a blinding greeting from the blazing rays of the morning sun. Instead, her eyes were met with millions of twinkling stars in a midnight blue sky. Confused, Chihiro turned over slightly and a full moon came into her vision. How long had she been asleep?

Chihiro was about to get up when several voices reached her ears. She froze and quickly shut her eyes, pretending to sleep. With her eyes taking a break, her hearing strengthened slightly, enabling her to differentiate between the voices.

"But didn't you see Haku and Chihiro?" Akane whispered. "They both look like they haven't slept in days!"

"I know," Lin's voice answered. "But Haku is always up for days at a time. He's the only one who isn't affected by the Chimimouryou's curse, and so he's the only one who can break it. He's been trying to find a weakness in the curse and those youkai."

"But what about Chihiro? She hasn't been staying up late and yet she looks like she saw a ghost!" Sakana argued.

"Shh!" Akane scolded. "You'll wake her up."

"Well, how come she gets to sleep in and I don't, huh?" Sakana protested, though lowering her voice.

"I'm not even going to grace that question with a reply," Akane said. Chihiro giggled, then immediately caught herself. The room grew uncomfortably quiet. Her heart began to pound against her chest. She figured that if they hadn't heard her giggle, then they surely should have heard her heart thudding painfully. It was only when Akane spoke again that Chihiro relaxed and let out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding.

"Our real concern is Haku and Chihiro."

"Listen, don't worry about them," Lin reassured her. "The two of them once helped save this bathhouse from Yubaba's total control and Kaonashi. They're strong. Whatever is on their minds, they'll get over it and be back to normal in no time."

After that little session, Chihiro made sure to go to sleep early every night. She suspected that Akane and Sakana were suspicious of her, but she didn't care. They were talking about them, Haku and her. Maybe Lin would spill something about Haku's strange behavior. She had to find something out. She didn't know why she was hiding to do it, but she felt she had to.

The next few nights, nothing interesting had come up in their chats. All they really talked about was the human world and each other's family. Lin had said she couldn't remember her family, she had been away so long. At that, Sakana and Akane immediately changed the subject, though not too subtle.

One cloudy night, Chihiro and Haku were once again brought up in the conversation. The topic was the same as well.

"This is really strange," Sakana commented. "Chihiro's been going to bed even earlier than Akane."

"I don't go to bed that early, you know. I think I've been going to bed later and later since I don't really have a watch, come to think of it…" Akane mused.

"That's not the point, though. Chihiro and Little Haku look like they've seen ghosts every night," Sakana drifted off, then added under her breath, "I wish I coulda seen some ghosts."

"Why do you insist on calling him Little Haku?"

"What's wrong with it? I think it's a cute nickname!"

"It sounds childish. And if anyone catches wind of it, we could be found out," Akane scolded.

"But…but…" Sakana whined.

"Let's just get back to the matter at hand." Akane sighed.

Lin nodded. "You know, I've been thinking. It might not be ghosts that are affecting Chihiro. It might just be as simple as Chihiro's worried about Haku and whatever he does, and she can't get a good night's rest because of it."

Had she said that a few days ago, she would have hit dead on the mark. Now, however, Chihiro had a different reason for staying up.

Chihiro shifted slightly underneath her blanket to make herself more comfortable. Her pillow and blanket were so comfortable and inviting. Her eyelids began to grow heavy. She didn't know how much longer she could stay awake.

"Speaking of Haku, have you guys heard the gossip?" Sakana asked.

Akane stared at her. "Gossip? What gossip?"

"She means the talk about Haku," Lin explained. "Since he's the only one not affected by the curse, a lot of the guys here think that he's one of the Chimimouryou. Others think that he's found a way to resist the curse and cure himself and he's keeping it to himself."

"But that's not true! They're all liars!" Sakana defended.

"Shh, I know, I know. But we can't convince everyone else of that. No one knows what to believe anymore."

"You don't think Haku is one of the Chimimouryou, do you?" Akane pressed, albeit hesitantly.

There was a slight pause before she answered. "I'd like to think that. With everything that's happening, for all I know, you two could be under their influence, too."

"But we're not!" Both girls chorused.

Lin smiled weakly. "I hope to Kami-sama that none of you are." She stood and walked to the door. "Good night."

Chihiro's mind was racing. Haku a Chimimouryou? That was preposterous! He was fighting them and their curse everyday, along with her and her friends. How could Lin even suspect that?

Unless she was under their influence, and the Lin they had been talking to was merely a puppet. Whatever the case was, she was right. You couldn't be sure of anyone or anything anymore. Her own mind and body could be under the youkai's control and she might not even know it.

Her head began to throb. She had learned more than she cared to tonight. It gave her more uncertainties and worries than she wanted. She wished everything was as simple as it was five years ago when she was trying to rescue her parents and, in the end, save Haku. But, of course, Fate was just against her.

She couldn't even get the sleep she wanted. Was a good night's rest so much to ask for?

Why did Haku choose her? Again the age-old question crossed her mind.

Besides her little fame from her last visit, she really had nothing else to offer besides company and more troubles.

And she always came up with the same answer.

Just what should she do? Better yet, what could she do?

She just hoped she and her friends could make it out of this alive.

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A/N: Well, I finally know some of what I am going to do with this story. I finally finished watching all of Full Moon o Sagashite (…/sniff/…so sad and happy and funny at the same time…) and that's what gave me the idea. But, to work out said idea, I need to ask you all to do me a favor:

Which characters do you guys like more? Akane or Sakana? Tell me in a review!

Ok, now I have another announcement. I am going to change the title of this story to something else (just don't know what yet). I named this Dragon Boy because, as I said before, this was originally just a romance fic with Haku and Chihiro. But now it's something else, so I have to change the title to fit with what I have in mind. Anyways, if I do a sequel to this story (kinda unlikely…but I have an idea for it if I decide to do one), then the sequel will be called Dragon Boy. Anyways, yeah. Just a heads up so you don't freak out. You can suggest some things if you want. Who knows, I might just change my pending ideas to yours.