Forgotten

Author: NekoNemui

Rating: T

AN: Okay, hey guys. Been a month and a half already, eh? Sorry about that. :laughs nervously:
So, I know the caption says 'Discontinued', but I had this chapter already written so I decided to polish it and post it - Consider it an early Christmas gift to you patient souls out there.

Read the bottom for more information!

Disclaimer: Chihiro and Haku tried to run away from Studio Ghibli to be with me because they like that I make them be together. Unfortunately, they were caught, so they still are not mine. YET. :laughs hysterically:

Two weeks later:

Chihiro rolled over onto her side, lazily poking her head out of her warm sheets. A small noise escaped from the back of her throat as she slowly stretched her sleepy legs. She grumbled as she discovered the cause of her waking- a thin ray of light hitting her left eye directly. She shifted her body to the right to relieve herself of the sun's powerful glare.

'It's Saturday', a small thought in the back of her mind reminded her. Chihiro couldn't suppress the dopey grin that spread over her face. 'Finally.'

Chihiro - not being able to fall asleep once awoken – decided to get up and make herself something to eat. She'd never been great at cooking, but she wasn't so inexperienced as to be incapable of making coffee and toast. Home Economics classes had taught her that much. While waiting for the water to finish boiling in a saucepan, Chihiro's thoughts began to stray. Mostly, she reflected on the week, but she allowed her mind to wander and soon, her subject thoughts became rested on no other than him.

Chihiro decided to ponder all the things she'd learned about Haku over her few weeks of knowing him.

'Wow, it's only been a few weeks? I feel like I've known him.. so, so much longer.'

The brunette shook that thought away and pursed her lips. For starters, they'd discovered they shared three classes together – English, Science and Art. Seeing as he always sat beside her, Chihiro had completely forgotten to talk to the girls at all. In fact, now that she thought about it, they'd barely looked at her these past two weeks.

Her brows wrinkled in annoyance.

Chihiro realised suddenly that since the boy had arrived, they'd been practically side-by-side the whole time. She'd barely noticed- he just felt so natural.

'Ah, I haven't spoken to Aya since that time..' Chihiro let her brows sink to a frown as she remembered their last conversation over the necklace. Speaking of, Chihiro had decided to look for it last weekend, but she couldn't find it anywhere by the shack. She groaned. Her mum had yet to find out about the precious piece of jewellery. She was not going to be impressed.

Chihiro jumped in alarm as her toast popped out of the toaster. She released a terrified breath, and retrieved the slice, putting in on an awaiting plate. She mentally punched herself for being so jumpy. As she spread a small amount of butter on the toast, she let her mind wander back to Haku.

'I'll know where to find you, then.'

Chihiro flushed as the memory of that time came flooding back.

Two weeks earlier..

BZZZZT

She'd been asleep at her desk when the bell had rung- dragging her back to reality. For a moment, she thought she was at home in her own bed, but after glancing at her surrounding environment, she discovered that was not the case.

'Nothing ruins your Saturday morning more than realising that it's Wednesday afternoon.' Chihiro thought, humouring herself as she slowly gathered her books from her desk. Everyone was moving out quickly, but she trailed behind. Her heart beat slightly too loud within her chest.

'Oh, that's right. He told me to wait.'

Chihiro stopped as she reached the door frame. The sensei slid past her, flicking off the classroom lights in the process. He glared- she was in the way of the closing door.

Chihiro gasped and quickly side stepped as the heavy door came crashing shut. The quick movement seemed to wake her up from her half-alive state of mind.

"That was a close one."

The voice was so close she could feel it on the back of her ear. The warmth sent tingles jolting up Chihiro's spine. She suddenly noticed the pair of hands that were rested on her waist. Her eyes widened as she turned beet red. How did they get there? Who..?

She spun around, tripping clumsily over her feet. The grip tightened, steadying her.

"Relax, Ogino. If I hadn't pulled you out of the way, you might've lost a toe or two."

"Haku?", She gasped, recognising the voice instantly.

"Who else?" The boy sounded like he was smirking.

Chihiro felt her mouth slowly gape open as her eyes locked on his. Brown on green. Chihiro tried to force her mouth to move- to say something, anything.

"You waited for me." He grinned. "Nearly lost your foot, but it was worth it, right?" He winked at her for the second time that day.

Chihiro laughed and shoved at him, breaking his hold on her. She instantly felt torn between being proud of herself and regretting the movement. She quickly chose her pride, not allowing her thoughts to wander to anything unnecessary. It's not like he chose to hold me. Anyone would have pulled me out the way- it just happened to be him.

"You're so full of it." She replied, not being able to help her smile.

Chihiro gasped as the memory ended. 'Why am I thinking about that right now?'

Nothing special had really happened, after all. After the door incident, the two of them had wandered around the school grounds, taking mostly about their lessons. Haku, as always, did most of the questioning, while Chihiro was the one mainly doing the talking. She realised that she barely knew anything about Haku because of it- because of him always making her the subject of conversation. She knew he'd recently gotten a job, but hadn't told her where.

The soft bubbling of water was suddenly no longer a background noise. The sound of water sloshing violently onto the floor was a sound that Chihiro had wished she would never hear. She whipped around, and gasped when she saw the damage. The water she had been boiling for coffee was now all over the stove, the cabinets and the floor. The hissing noise of hot liquid on the naked stove flame did not sound safe. She hurried to flick off the gas switch, dancing clumsily between the searing hot puddles of water at her feet.

Boy, was she glad she was home alone. Her mum would have freaked.

"Why am I such a klutz?" She whined aloud, stomping angrily to the laundry to fetch the mop.

Haku had never been faced with such a dilemma.

After two weeks of being in the Human World, Haku had noticed many things that made this life so much different from the life he had in the Spirit World. Sure, okay; people weren't running around a bath-house scrubbing at distorted figures covered in slime and taking orders from a creepy old woman who owned a 4 ton baby, but there were still other differences. Like the everyday way of living. School. The people!

The technology.

Yes, it seemed every single one of the emotionally unstable beings around him had small devices called phones. Haku remembered the first time he saw one: Chihiro had pulled it out to reply to a 'text message'. When Haku had asked Chihiro what the coloured piece of plastic in her hand was, she'd simply laughed and nudged him in the shoulder. After the long silence that followed, Chihiro finally seemed to get that Haku was being serious. And jeez, her eyes could have popped out of her head. Haku smiled at the memory.

After a lot of explaining, he finally felt as though he was grasping the idea. When Chihiro had asked him why he didn't know about technology, he'd lied and told her that the place he'd moved from wasn't as informed as the more populated towns.

Well, it wasn't exactly a lie depending on how one viewed the situation.

So Chihiro had insisted that Haku buy a phone. There was only one problem, the same problem that Haku had had hovering over him since he'd arrived: Money.

After discovering that Osaka High had a special apartment-like building nearby for boarding students only, Haku had managed to get one of the dorm rooms after having another conversation with the reception lady he'd met during his first visit to the school. She'd gazed at him with those glassy eyes, said it wasn't a problem and that he could stay there while he attended the school. So Haku now officially had a place to stay thanks to his abilities. He knew it was wrong to deceive the poor woman, but the situation became somewhat dire and Haku had become desperate.

Then he had been in desperate need of employment. After wandering the town's streets a million times and memorizing the whole town back-to-front, Haku had seen many shops and had observed people working in them. He'd been inside a few, just to get a closer look. Yep, he'd decided things were much, much different compared to the Spirit World. He could have easily used compulsion to get money, but that didn't sit right with his personal laws. If he was going to be allowed into this world, he was going to earn it.

Most places weren't hiring new people (as Haku had been told when he'd asked), so he must have been incredibly lucky to have walked into the right place at simply the right time. Haku had been in a small café when the incident had occurred. The air had suddenly been filled with the sound of yelling. All heads had turned, including Haku's, to see a waiter arguing with what seemed to be his manager. After throwing his handful of stacked cups to the ground (shattering them), the waiter guy had screamed "I quit!" and had marched out the door. Haku had moved to clean the shattered glass from the floor on polite instinct when the manager suddenly asked him if he needed a job. After saying that he did, he was hired on the spot. It seems the manager was not in a position to be short-handed on staff.

At first Haku couldn't believe it. Fate had punched him square in the face. And now he didn't only have a place to stay, but he also had a job. After a full week and a half of working outside of school, Haku had made more than enough money for a phone.

And now here he was in the phone store. Facing his problem.

There were just so many!

There were too many colours. Fluorescent pinks and greens made his eyes hurt from just looking at them.

There were too many styles. Phones with snap-lid, phones with a slide-out keyboard, touch screens.. Why did this have to be so hard?

It had been just shy of three weeks since Haku had become a 'human'. He'd never in his life expected it to be as complicated as it was. Then again, he never in his wildest dreams imagined something like this could have actually happened to him, anyway. After having plenty of time left with his thoughts in his spare time, Haku had carefully analysed his every movement before the 'change', and had come up with an explanation for it. All he'd done was save Chihiro's necklace, and he assumed that's what caused him to be brought into the Human World. Maybe because it was part of her, therefore part of Eve? Haku hadn't thought that far into it yet. He let his mind wander back to the coloured things before him.

'Just pick one already! It doesn't matter which.'

Haku's eye caught a black phone to his far right and moved to get a closer look. It was a snap-lid, had a camera and was very affordable. After asking the store attendant if he could hold it, he noticed that it felt far smoother than it had looked behind the glass. He decided he liked it, and bought it before he could change his mind.

He left the store and found a bench to sit at nearby. He unboxed the phone and held down the middle button, watching in awe as the phone swirled to life. Haku sighed, not really knowing what to do with the damn thing. He stared awkwardly at the device, seeing the numbers and letters etched into the small plastic buttons. He pressed the small one at the top left-hand side, waiting patiently to see what it would do. His phone was suddenly making a strange ringing noise, and Haku felt himself panic a little on the inside. He decided the middle button would be the safest way to go, and pushed it hurriedly. It made no change to the ringing.

Haku shut the phone lid and tossed it back in the box. Then he threw the box to the ground a few metres away from him, and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Why did this have to be so damn hard?

"Dude. Don't take your anger out on the box- What'd it ever do to you?"

Haku glanced up from beneath his hair to see a flash of brown, spiky hair. "Yano, eh?"

"Yeah, you remember me?" Yano smirked, and Haku lifted his eyes higher to see him twirling a ball on his index finger. A basketball, he assumed. The guy was supposedly school-famous for his sporting ability. Haku didn't bother to respond to Yano – the statement hadn't exactly been a question. Before he could think about saying anything at all, the boy in front of him continued.

"So, you come here often?"

Haku shook his head. "Not really."

"Mm, I figured. I do, and I haven't seen you here before." Yano grinned. "Haku, right?"

"Yes." Haku mirrored Yano's grin.

"I wasn't joking around when I said you could hang out sometime. You never did, so I assumed you were off with that girl." The brunette shrugged.

"What makes you think I just didn't want to hang out with you?" Haku said with a smirk. Yano just laughed.

"Your girlfriend?" Haku's eyebrows raised slightly at the change of topic.

".. No."

"Really?" Yano cocked an eyebrow. "Could've fooled me."

"Chihiro's just a friend." Haku said quietly, feeling stupid because of the weakness in his tone.

The two of them stayed like that for a while; Yano focusing on twirling the ball between his hands while Haku just sat. Many uncomfortable seconds passed and a tension seemed to grow around them, becoming so thick that Haku swore it could have been cut down the middle with a knife.

"But obviously it's a one-sided friendship."

Haku's head snapped up. "What do you..?"

"You like her, don'tcha?" Yano shifted his gaze from the ball in his hand to Haku. There was no sign of humour in the boy's eyes.

When Haku didn't reply, Yano laughed again. It seemed the boy liked doing that, though Haku appreciated him breaking the discomfort. "I'm on my way to a lunch bar to meet up with the team. Want to come?"

Before Haku could reply, Yano continued. "Only," he smirked, "if you say sorry the box."

It was Haku's turn to cock an eyebrow. This guy was more confusing than the phone. "Sorry, box."

"You in, then?" Yano grinned.

Haku sighed. "Guess so."

Chihiro inhaled and exhaled, trying to regain her regular breathing pace. I will not pass out. I will not pass out. She was currently huddled in the corner of her kitchen. All of the water was gone, though the mop on the floor beside her was still dry.

Had she imagined it?

She'd been on her way to clean the water spill, carrying the mop in one hand and a bucket of warm, soapy water in the other. She'd been annoyed - very. When she'd finally reached the kitchen again, she'd slipped on a puddle, and had gone sprawling across the kitchen tiles. Going from annoyed to fully angry within a split second, Chihiro had stood and flung the mop to the floor while she'd shouted out in frustration. The water had been there.

And suddenly, it was not.

The water just wasn't there anymore. It had vanished, though the room looked a little foggy now and the air was moist with condensation. It had been a somewhat chilly morning, so there's no way the water could have evaporated so fast. This time, Chihiro couldn't blame the heat for hallucinations. Something wasn't right, and she knew she couldn't keep avoiding it.

The air surrounding Chihiro was heavy and hot. She felt her singlet top stick to her skin as she slowly stood from her corner and grabbed the abandoned mop.

That time.. Chihiro remembered the day she went to the Kohaku River. She remembered the way she'd flung her arms out so harshly before the sweat had moved. And just now, her temper had risen again, and the water had copied her movements.

After resting the mop against the wall, Chihiro closed her eyes and raised her arms up high, taking a deep breath before slowly lowering them and exhaling– palms out and fingers together. A small bead of sweat dribbled down her cheek and dripped off her chin.

If it copies my emotions and movements.. then being calm and steady will bring the water back, won't it?

When she finally felt her hands graze her thighs, she dared to open an eye and peek around her. The first thing she noticed was that the air temperature had cooled dramatically, now bordering on freezing. Not to mention the water was now back, but the puddles were frozen over. The brunette inhaled sharply with surprise and pinched her arm; hard. When nothing happened, she set her jaw. I'm not dreaming. This is really happening. Chihiro shivered in her damp top as she remembered the icy room around her.

Too cold. Now it was just a matter of getting the temperature right.

Once again, Chihiro closed her eyes and inhaled, raising her arms up to hover directly in front of her at a perfect horizontal angle. The cold air disappeared, and the room began to feel normal again. Before letting herself deny the feeling a second longer, she opened her eyes.

The writing style's a little different this time, right? I don't know if it's a good thing or not. Do you guys like it?

Okay, so in relation to my 'discontinued' thing, I'd better explain myself. To be honest, I started this story with a goal and a plot very clear in my mind. It's still there, yes, but after watching so many more anime shows since then, my interest has kind of died. I've been wanting to write Naruto fanfictions, and have actually started one already, but yeah. Spirited Away just isn't grasping my attention right now. I don't know what to say. I dunno what the future holds, so I may or may not decide to continue it in the near future. Sorry to leave on a cliff-hanger too! ): I'm a dick, I know.
If you want to know whether or not I update, just follow this story and wait it out. Thank you guys so much for being patient with me.