A Second Glance

Into the Aburaya

… … … …

"Rin, why do we have to go underground?" Chihiro looked at the entrance to the passage warily. She scuffed the ground with her foot quietly, waiting for the elevator to come up from the bottom of the earthen tunnel.

"The Gods." Rin stared at the opening to the shaft impatiently, Sai staying close to her side. "They can be a real pain in the ass with all their high and mighty crap, talking about how the workers are dirty. Yubaba got sick of it and built a new bridge for the workers, so now the only ones allowed on the main bridge are the customers, her, Haku, and a couple of the prettier Yunas." Chihiro's interest sharpened at the mention of Haku.

Rin wrinkled her nose and continued. "They make a big deal about it too, holding it over the rest of our heads while we have to hide ourselves like this. What a big joke…" she trailed off. The rickety elevator came up and stopped abruptly, and the three of them entered.

"Anyway, it's faster to get to the boiler room this way. I make a point of taking the old bridge whenever I'm out past sunup, though. My way of getting back." She pulled the lever that made the elevator go down as she spoke, starting the descent of at least three stories. Chihiro stayed away from the sides as they shot past, remembering the first time she rode in one of the Aburaya's contraptions. The tunnel was small and unfinished looking, and it smelled damp underground, as if it had recently rained. Cheery morning light shone brightly at the exit, which opened up to an unstable, planked bridge in the shadow of the bright red one. Rin and Sai walked straight onto the bridge, holding onto the rope sides.

"…is it safe?" Chihiro called after them. She never had much of a problem with heights before; the few times she had been up in the air there was either no time to be afraid or she was with Haku. But this time, she looked down to the bottom of the canyon and found that the height made her a little queasy. A few inches of water graced the plains, covering the train tracks while the tall grass stuck up into the air.

"O'course it is. What, you think Yubaba would be cheap enough to let her workers fall and die? She needs us more than that. Now c'mon, I'm getting worried about that bruise of yours. It looks pretty swollen. I wanna get you to Kamaji."

Chihiro nodded, and stepped onto the bridge, clinging to the ropes desperately as she tried to not look down. It wasn't that bad, she decided as she was halfway across. Sai had already reached the end and entered the bowels of the Aburaya, and Rin was close behind. Just as she got to the end of the bridge, she heard a loud thud from inside.

"Se—!" Sounds of a scuffle followed, drifting out of the basement. A bird landed on the rope next to Chihiro's hand briefly, and then flitted away. Silence.

"Rin..? Sai?" she called from where she stood, not wanting to make a move towards the door. "Hello?"

No one answered. Chihiro sucked in a breath and steeled herself for whatever was behind that door. 'I'm ten again, I'm brave now.' she tried to convince herself, wanting to rid the knot of fear that clenched her stomach. It struck her as almost ironic that she was having so much trouble to just get inside the Aburaya. For years, Chihiro had always dreamed of Haku appearing one day when she was feeling really down and whisking her back to the spirit world where things would be okay. But, it wasn't like things had ever turned out how she wanted them to.

She stepped into the storage room quietly, leaving the door half open for light. Boxes were stacked against the walls and in the center of the room, leaving paths to different doors and elevators. Chihiro gave the room a once over for her friends. "Rin?"

A clattering followed the call, coming from directly behind Chihiro. She spun around and froze at the sight of a male bath worker she had never seen. Rin was propped up against the wall behind him, tied in the same kind of translucent rope that held the boats to the dock. She squirmed angrily, making furious noises. In the male spirits hands was another length of rope, which he held taught. He smiled and stepped towards Chihiro.

"C'mere girly…you don't wanna try and fight like Rin, you'll only get hurt. We're just takin' a trip to Yubaba, come on with me."

He advanced another step towards Chihiro, who couldn't seem to move. A sickening fear cut through her –why was all this happening? She just wanted somewhere safe to go, somewhere to sleep. Finally finding her nerve, she took a step backwards, ready to bolt. But what about Rin –?

"Can't say I didn't warn you," the frogman said, smirking, and lunged at her. In the blink of an eye, he flew back against the wall behind him, surprise written on his face for the half second he was conscious. He slid to the floor next to Rin, who gave a muffled cheer.

In his place stood the last person Chihiro thought she would ever see again.

"Sorry, I'm a little late," he said to Rin, apologetically. The ropes disappeared with a wave of his hand, freeing her. He hesitated, and then turned to face Chihiro. A moment passed and they stared at each other, saying nothing.

"I…I feel a little woozy," Chihiro finally said, swaying. Suddenly Haku was next to her, his hand on the small of her back, keeping her steady.

"A little border sickness is normal for an adolescent human. It'll go away in a couple days, but I'm sure it will be worse than what you had when you were here last time. It's usually harder for beings to cross realms as age increases," he said, cool and collected like he always had been. He eyed her discreetly, taking note of her inflamed shin and bruised cheek. The purple outline had taken the shape of a line of knuckles.

Rin had walked around a stack of boxes and retrieved Sai from where she had been hiding while Haku spoke. "You want a piggyback?" she asked the young spirit, who shook her head no. Instead, she took her hand. They were cute, Chihiro observed. Almost like a mother and daughter. She tried to keep her thoughts away from Haku for now; she wanted to talk to him when she wasn't feeling so worn down and the room wasn't swimming.

"Haku, come on. I need you to make a potion or something for Sen. You should probably hire her before Yubaba does, too."

"I know. You didn't have to tell me that. Let's go." He swept Chihiro up into his arms bridal style and walked briskly to the elevators.

… … … …

Chihiro made no protest to being carried. It was quite the contrary—she enjoyed the closeness to Haku and few minutes that she could just close her eyes and rest. Every other time she had fallen asleep recently, it had been the sort of black dreamlessness that you wake up from not feeling rested at all. It was easy to pretend everything was perfect while she was in his arms, but all good things come to an end. Chihiro felt herself be put down on a soft cushion and after a moment, opened her eyes.

She was on a deep red couch in a room similar to Yubaba's office, only less ornate. The curtains were open, letting in the morning light. Across the room, Haku tinkered with something over what looked like a floating flame. Neither Rin or Sai were around. For a minute or so Chihiro just lay there, staring at Haku's back as he picked up tiny bottles from a nearby shelf, uncapping them neatly and adding small amounts to something she couldn't see.

"Rin will be back in a few minutes. She went to put Sai to bed – the ferry arrived a lot later than it should have." Haku still stood with his back to her, pouring whatever he had been working on into a mug and then tipping some crushed herbs into a stone bowl, which he put over the strange fire.

"She'll get you a uniform, too, so you don't have to keep wearing that." Chihiro blushed. Haku's voice held some tone she couldn't decipher. When Rin had made a comment about her skirt, she had felt indignant. Now, she just felt embarrassed.

"Thanks," she whispered. "Um…I'll have to ask Yubaba to employ me when everyone gets up, right?" When the sun goes down, Chihiro thought to herself. It was funny how things were backwards like that.

Haku turned to face her finally, frowning. "I think it would be better if I did that myself," he said. He picked up the bowl and mug and headed towards her. "Yubaba still has the right to turn you into a pig if you are unemployed, but that doesn't mean that you have to be employed to her." Gently, he helped Chihiro sit up, putting her back against the arm of the couch.

"And, I'm not exactly in the habit of stealing names. Sound good?"

Chihiro nodded. Haku smiled at her wryly, and then kneeled next to the couch to look at her skinned knee. After inspecting it for a moment, he gingerly put his finger to the inflamed skin. Chihiro's muscle twinged involuntarily and she hissed at the contact. She watched his brows furrow, remembering all the subtle expressions she had learned to read years ago. He looked almost the same as he had back then, but slightly different, too. She hadn't imagined him ageing, but as he sat next to her, she could see that he looked a little older.

Haku dipped his thumb into the stone bowl, which had a brown paste in it, and gave a quick glance to Chihiro's face. In a swift but gentle motion, he smeared some of it on her cut.

"Ow, jeeze!" She jerked her leg away from him on reflex. That stuff burned!

"Calm down. It's supposed to burn, it's healing a lot faster than it usually would." Haku pushed her leg back to where it had been before and blew on the medicine he had made. Surprisingly, it helped ease the burning. It reminded Chihiro of when she was little and her mother would blow on the medicine she put on her scratched up mosquito bites. That stuff had stung, but not as much as this. After half a minute or so, Haku took a damp cloth and wiped the brown stuff off. There was almost no sign on injury left except for the new, pale skin.

"Wow."

"Works well, doesn't it?" Chihiro stared at Haku for a moment before nodding. She still felt pretty dizzy from the border sickness that Haku had mentioned, on top of the sleep deprivation that was eating away at her clarity. It wasn't that she hadn't slept at all, but that when she had slept, it was in odd places for short intervals.

"You're staring." Haku stated shortly, who was doing the same.

"…sorry," Chihiro replied very quietly, not looking away. "It's just…I thought I'd never see you again. I was beginning to think I had made you up."

Haku paused, his expression unchanging, and picked the stone bowl back up. "Let me see your cheek. This will sting, but not as much because there's no broken skin. But still, it's pretty swollen." It was embarrassing to Chihiro the way he put things, how he mentioned her skirt so lightly and made allusions to how bad she really looked. It was just the way he was, and she had missed that. But the way he ignored what she said, that hurt. She really had missed him, and it was only by whatever strange fate that brought her here that she could see him again. He could acknowledge that, at least. But she couldn't say anything to fix it. So, instead, she just turned her head so that her bruised side faced him and let him put the burning brown substance over her skin. Haku stopped for a second, holding her face in his hand a moment longer than needed.

Someone knocked on the door sharply, catching both of them off guard. Without waiting for a reply, Rin barged into the room and plunked herself down on one of the plush chairs in front of Haku's desk.

"I had to make some lame-ass story up for one of the girls that was still up," she breathed out animatedly. "I told her something about one of the kitchen guys getting a hand cut off by a thrown meat knife and having to save Sai from the rampage that happened after and how everyone had to help clean up the blood so the God's meals would be clean and then how Yubaba got all mad at everyone. And she believed me. She woulda wanted to know why the ferry was late and why we were on the ferry and all that stupid nosy stuff that the Yunas always talk about, so I just made up a buncha crap." Rin paused and looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Speaking of, have you ever heard of the ferry being late? I've been here a lot longer than you, but you've got more inside information, I guess."

Haku, who had been waiting patiently through Rin's rant, shook his head, his dark hair shifting with his movements. "No, I haven't. But I have a good idea as to why it was this time. I'm going to go deal with that soon, actually. I have a feeling Yubaba is still awake." He stood up and handed the damp rag to Chihiro, who wiped off the brown medicine. "You should drink the potion I made; it will help with the dizziness."

"…right. Hey, what about the bathhouse worker in the storage room?" she asked. His presence had been nagging at her mind. She was extremely curious as to what he had been doing down there, though she knew he had been sent by Yubaba. How Yubaba had known she was already there and what she wanted was what Chihiro wanted to find out.

"I'll be dealing with that, too," Haku answered smoothly. "Rin, weren't you going to get Chihiro a uniform?"

"I…uh. Crud." A dawn of realization showed on Rin's face, and she jumped up out of her seat. "I knew I was forgetting something! Stupid Michiru…why can't she just go to sleep like a normal person," she mumbled, frustrated. Without another word, she stalked out of the room, closing the large door harder than she would have otherwise.

Both Chihiro and Haku sat silent for a moment after Rin left, basking in the calm. Haku rifled through the papers in his desk after a minute or so, searching for something. When he found what he needed, he picked up a seemingly expensive fountain pen off his desk and brought both the paper and pen to Chihiro.

"I need to you sign this, right here," he said, using a tone she had never heard from him before. He pointed out the line and put the pen in her hand. "You can be Rin's assistant again, if you want. You'll have more freedom than if you were working for Yubaba, but it will be the same chores and responsibilities. And, according to the rules here, you won't have to do anything Yubaba says, unless I'd approve. Basically, when you sign this, it puts you in my protection." The look on his face meant the world to Chihiro right then. Someone cared. Haku was there. He wanted to protect her. A heavy feeling clenched at her heart, and she held her breath to hold back the tears that pricked in the corners of her eyes.

"I won't overwork you or anything, and you get a day off every eight days, so you can go down to the fields with Sai if you want. She needs to go down to visit her shrine regularly. Rin won't have any days off, though, so she won't be able to go with you. She's still working under Yubaba."

It was endearing, they way he was trying to convince her to sign it, that he would treat her well as an employee. Of course Chihiro would sign, she had no where else to go for now. But, Haku didn't know that. She couldn't tell him that the only reason she had come was because she was afraid of her father, that she had betrayed him in a moment of fear and loss when her mother had left them. She couldn't tell him that she left the parents she had given her everything to save, once upon a time, and that there was no more bravery left in her now than there was in a frightened rabbit in the face of a wolf. She couldn't tell Haku, the one person she had lived to see, strived to find again one day, that she was nothing, and that he was wasting his time. So instead, she just said, "Okay," and signed the damned paper the way her mother and father had signed away the last eighteen years of their lives.

She felt bitter.

When Rin entered the room again a few minutes later, smiling and grumbling at the same, Chihiro tried to smile and nod, but only managed a little grimace. She was tired, and not just physically.

"Thanks," Haku said gruffly when Rin held up the bright orange and blue garb. "Stay here. I'll be back in a little while." The door shut hastily behind him, which sent a gust of air through the room.

"That was a bit abrupt." Rin stated, looking at the door absently. "You really should drink that. Haku generally knows what he's talking about." After a moment, she looked over a Chihiro. A look of surprise crossed over her face.

"Oh wow! He made the fast working stuff? I didn't really notice when I was in here before. I heard that's really hard to make, you've gotta be a real pro."

Chihiro looked down at her knee, inspecting the healed skin. "I guess. I wouldn't really know."

"Well don't look so depressed, kid. Drink your stuff."

Chihiro looked at the murky gray liquid in the mug distastefully. "It looks gross." There were little bits of something dark floating around in it.

Rin gave her a very pointed look, so she sniffed the drink carefully. It didn't smell very bad, like musty tea and something bitter mixed up together. She sucked in a breath and took a gulp of it, hoping it didn't taste as bad as it looked.

Surprisingly, it tasted very pleasant. There was something to it that gave it a little tang like rosehips and peppermint, which was an odd mixture. The texture was grainy and thick, which made it hard to drink, but Chihiro drained the cup in three swallows. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and sat back against the couch.

Her spirit friend raised her eyebrows. "That good, eh?"

All Chihiro managed to get out was a not very sincere glare before she passed out and slumped off the side of the plush maroon cushion.

"I figured that stuff'd make you tired, but wow. Potent stuff, that Haku makes." She put Chihiro back on the couch and covered her with a blanket, tucking it around her gently. She sat back on the chair in front of Haku's desk and watched the sleeping girl, but eventually found it too overwhelming. Instead, she resorted to glaring at the cheery sky past the windows.

… … … …

A/N – After putting off this for way too long, I got some encouraging reviews and picked back up on writing. Thanks guys. I'm a little too tired to proofread this, but I managed to outline chapter nine. It'll have to do. Tell me ifI missed something big,I feel likeI must haveleft a paragraph our somewhere.The next post'll take less time than this one did, I swear. Till then, leave me some reviews; tell me the good and the bad. I like it all.