Agony

Chihiro was animatedly chattering with Kamaji until the little wooden door slid open and Haku emerged from the passage way.

"Rin needs you for something, Chihiro." Haku announced as he straightened himself and carefully stepped out of the way of the soot spirits at work. Chihiro stopped talking to the spider-like man.

She let her head fall back and her shoulders slump in exaggeration. She groaned at the ceiling "Do I HAVE to? I was telling Kamaji about-"

"She said it was important." Haku said quickly. Chihiro sighed and rolled her eyes. Jumping down from sitting on the ledge next to the man responsible for heating the bath house's water, she waved Kamaji.

"See ya later, Kamaji!" she shouted over her shoulder as she began to replace her socks and sneakers onto her feet. The man nodded.

"Goodbye, Chihiro." he said and immedietly began commanding his little workers while he ground spices.

After crawling through the little space, Chihiro huffed in annoyance. "That was so rude, Haku!" she scolded the green haired boy while pointing a finger in his face.

He raised an eyebrow at how ironic the gesture was. When Chihiro lowered her accusing finger, she began to fix up her ponytail. "What does Rin want, anyways?"

"Nothing." Haku said simply. She dropped her hands from her head, her shoulder length hair swaying past her shoulders. Haku gazed at the perfectly shiny strands that reminded him of sweet chocolate.

"Wh-what?" Chihiro asked in disbelief. "Haku, I was busy talking with Kamaji!"

The corner of Haku's lip twitched in an attempt of a smirk at how whiny Chihiro was being. She'll thank him later, though. He tried keeping his face neutural, not wanting to give away his surprise.

Chihiro continued on her little rant about rudeness, and how mean he was. Getting impatient, Haku grabbed her hand and began to run through the confusing twists and turns of the bath house while dodging spirits of various shapes and sizes. It was like the first time Haku met her.

Amazingly, Chihiro kept on scolding him and was now shouting out her lecture. Odd looks very thrown at the two as they dashed passed.

Eventually, Haku zoomed out the entrance of the colorful temple designed bath house and passed over the bridge, a quiet and exhausted Chihiro now in tow.

Finally coming to a large grassy plain a distance away from the large building, Haku let go of Chihiro's perfectly petite hand.

"Haku, why am I here?" she asked as she crossed her arms, foot tapping on the grass. He answered her by transforming.

Chihiro stared at the dragon who was face-to-face with her, completely bored. "What." she said in a flat tone.

Haku huffed, the air blowing out of his nostril's smacking Chihiro in the face. Chihiro freaked out. "Eww!" she shrieked as she frantically whipped her face as she did a little grossed out dance.

"You dragged me out here just to sneeze on me?" she shouted, thoroughly aggitated. Haku growled and whipped his tail upwards and curled it, so it was pointing to his back.

"Oh, so now i'm not a fat cow?" Chihiro asked sarcastically. Why would Haku randomley tell her to hop on his back to fly her around?

Haku swished his tail around violently and made a deep rumbling sound in the back of his throat.

"Fine, fine whatever." she responded to his persistance. Jumping on, she wrapped her legs around him and hung onto his head. With a single graceful leap, Haku was in the air.

Chihiro looked around her in complete confusion. Why was Haku doing this? This was just a complete waste of time.

Leaning forward, Chihiro was practically lying on her stomach as she continued to grip onto Haku. She turned her face to the side and layed it on the back of the dragon's soft-scaled head. Sleep started to tug annoyingly on her mind, the warmth from the sun making her drowsy.

But she had to stay awake to hang on. If she didn't the wind will sweep her off Haku's back, only to plummet to the ground bellow. She struggled to stay awake, focusing on how the sea-green of his mane tickled her nose.

All of that was in vain, however, as she subtly felt the dragon land somewhere in her inbetween state of sleep and conciousness.

There was movement from underneath her, and then she felt cloth. Nudging brought her out of her sleep.

"Hey, Chihiro." someone murmured.

Mumbling, Chihiro opened her eyes and blinked up at Haku, who was kneeling beside her. "Ten minutes in the air and you already fall asleep?" he asked, amused. She pushed herself up with a yawn as she stretched. When she brought her arms back down, she felt the cloth underneath her.

Red and white plaid. "Haku?" Chihiro questioned. She groggily rubbed her eyes and clearly saw her surroundings for the first time.

A blue sky. Red tile. A blanket and a. . .basket?

"What's going on? Where are we?" Chihiro asked, completely confused and a bit worried.

Haku stood and gestured with his arm at everything in front of them. "The roof of the bath house."

Blinking rapidly, Chihiro stood up and went over to the edge. Haku was right behind her, his hands cautiously hovering over her in case she slipped.

When she looked over the edge, the girl immediately became woozy.

The roof. . .of the bath house. She was like a hundred million feet in the air! A light breeze shoved her back.

Once her stomach settled it's nauseating jumping jacks, she croaked out, "Why?"

"A picnic." He answered with a smile. He grabbed her by the hand and led her to the blanket. She mechanicaly sat down, still stunned at how high up she was.

As Haku was pulling containers and food wrapped in plastic, he noticed Chihiro frozen stiff.

"Chihiro? Are you alright?" a concerned Haku asked. Chihiro's mouth started to move slightly as if her jaw was locked in place. No sound came out.

"Chihiro?" he asked again.

"High up. . .so high up." Chihiro muttered in a daze. Haku leaned over and laid his hand over Chihiro's that was gripping onto the picnic blanket for dear life.

Scrunching his eyebrows together, Haku spoke. "But you always ride on my back without a problem."

"That's different." Chihiro said, seeming to look through Haku's forest eyes. "You won't let me fall. You'll keep me safe."

Smiling softly, Haku gazed at Chihiro intently. "I'll always protect you, don't worry." he patted her hand "It's okay."

The stunned look melted off Chihiro's face as Haku's words registered in her brain. She nodded and looked down at her lap, slightly embarrassed. Haku pushed a plate piled high with her favorite spirit world foods (which mostly consisted of sweets) towards her, aswell as a pair of chopsticks.

It was so relaxing up here, now that Chihiro got past her fear. The air was pleasantly warm, not to mention how perfect fluffy white clouds drifted across the sky, creating a beautiful image worth remembering.

The whole thing was a moment she'll never forget. Everything was just perfect, like the setting of the inside of a snowglobe. If only she could stay up here forever with Haku, just watching the cloud's while their stomache's were full of food.

"Why did you do all of this, Haku?" Chihiro suddenly asked inbetween bites of some type of fish only available in the spirit world. Looking up from his food, Haku politely wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Because I can cook." he said humourously, knowing that's not what she meant.

She laughed. "Are you sure about that? These noodles are a bit dry." she joked while poking a pile of pasta swimming in buttersauce.

He rolled his eyes, a habit that rubbed off on him from Chihiro, while a hint of a grin was on his lips. She laughed.

"But really." Chihiro prompted, her eyes shining.

Might as well try pushing his luck some more at skilfully treading around this topic. "I thought a picnic up on the roof would be fun." he answered.

Chihiro greedily shoved a piece of cake in her mouth. "Since when does Haku, the great spirit of the river, think about having fun?" she asked sarcastically around her food. She continued to chew loudly.

What? "I am plenty fun." Haku argued, poutiness tinting his voice.

Snorting, the girl swallowed her dessert. "You don't even laugh, Haku."

Well, that was true. But it's not his fault. "I just don't find anything to laugh at." Haku responded. He didn't find many things funny. Chihiro would laugh at anything, even something completely cruel; like someone slipping and falling on the wet bath house floor.

"Oh really?" Chihiro said. She swiped up an extra chopstick and placed it on her upper lip, pursing it in the process. Now aquiring a chopstick 'stache Chihiro outrageously wiggled her eyebrows. She was determined to get Haku to laugh, no matter how dumb it'll make her look.

Haku remained straight faced.

If anything, he was wondering what type of evil spirit possessed Haku to make her face so peculiar looking.

"Are you alright?" Haku asked in all seriousness. Chihiro went slack in defeat and deeply sighed.

"What'll make you laugh?" she asked. As soon as those words left her mouth, she suddenly got it. Duh, why hadn't she thought of it before? A sneaky Cheshire-like grin formed on her face. This went unnoticed by Haku.

He shrugged. "Well, I don't really kn-" Chihiro suddenly lunged herself across the blanket and onto Haku. His body hit the tile with a thump, getting the wind knocked out of him.

What happened next confused him. Chihiro was punching him oddly in the stomach and clawing at his neck. What freaked him out even more was that an odd sound was coming out of his mouth that he couldn't stop, while tears stung at the corner of his eyes as he rolled around on the roof.

"You're laughing, Haku!" Chihiro giddily shouted as she continued to mercilessly tickle the boy.

"H-Help!" the boy called, only for his plea to go unheard. He continued to laugh until his sides hurt.

This laughter. . . It was complete torture.

I had fun with this one! :D Leave a review to tell me what you thought of this extra long chapter (or for suggestions on upcoming chapters)!

~Sabby-Sama