"I've missed you," said the river in its usual fashion.

For the first time, she didn't know how to answer. Instead, she floated in silence, a deep blush staining her cheeks.

The river sent the invisible hands to caress her warm cheeks, "What's the matter, Chihiro?"

She bit her lip, unsure of what to say. She didn't want to hurt the river, but she wanted to be honest. She wasn't a liar.

"My love," the river soothed, "you can tell me anything. I will never get angry with you."

It took a moment, but she managed to find the words. "I met someone today."

"Oho?" The river chuckled. "I assume it was a man?"

"Why would you just assume that?!" She shouted, cheeks reddening.

Voice still full of amusement, the river simply said, "Chihiro..."

"Oh… well… yes… it was."

The river's voice was gentle, "Tell me about him."

She hesitated, "I think I may have… maybe met him before. I don't know why, but something about him was so familiar. And I used to draw a little boy that looked exactly like him if he were 10 years younger. But that couldn't be… I got all my memories back already. If I had met him before, wouldn't I remember?"

The water swirled her hair around like it often enjoyed doing, "What did he look like?"

"He was…" Her heart skipped a beat. "Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. He has long blue-green hair, the exact color of your water… and green eyes like nothing I've ever seen before. I don't know how else to describe him; he was like something out of a dream."

The river chuckled again, "I see."

She titled her face to the moonlight, "But his voice… his voice sounded just like yours. Exactly the same. When he spoke, it was like his words went right through me. Something in my heart knew him."

For a long time, there was nothing but silence.

"Are you… mad at me?" She asked sheepishly.

The river sent the ghost hands to touch her face like always, but this time she also felt a light brush of someone's lips against her forehead. "On the contrary, Chihiro. I don't think I have been this happy in a very long time."

...

Haku lingered at the top of the stairs, patiently waiting for Rin to come charging up them with her and Sen's breakfast. He only had to wait a few minutes before she did exactly that.

"Rin, may I speak with you?"

"Gah!" Rin shouted, almost dropping the two bowls of rice she was carrying. "What do you think you're doing, Haku? Waiting at the top of staircases just to scare people? I almost dropped our food!"

He bowed his head slightly, "My apologies. Do you have a moment? Is Sen with you?"

She shook her head, "That girl is not good with getting up early. I'll bet she's still sleeping, muttering about some river when I get back. I'm gonna have to get up extra early for a while just to make sure we both actually get down here on time!"

Haku took her elbow lightly, leading her to an empty guest room. When he slid the door shut behind him, she looked at him skeptically. "What exactly is this, Haku? What do you want?"

When he turned around, he could feel the desperate look on his face, "I need your help, Rin."

Her face softened, "Is it Sen?"

He nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I never expected her to come back here. The spell I used on her wasn't meant to work here and now…"

Rin set the bowls onto a table and crossed her arms, "Spell? What spell? What are you talking about?"

Haku hesitated, "Before she left 13 years ago… I put a memory spell on her purple hair-band. Zeniba, No-Face, Boh, and Yu-Bird made it for her so I knew she would never get rid of it. I was trying to protect her; I knew if she retained all her memories, she would undoubtedly come looking for this place again and one day she would find it. I know that doesn't sound like a problem, but I'm sure you remember how furious Yubaba was for the first few months after Sen left. I thought that if she had come back to that, Yubaba would have done something terrible to her, like enslave her here forever."

"But Sen wants to stay here. She signed another contract with Yubaba yesterday."

He nodded, "I know. But at the time, she was too young to know what she wanted and I didn't want her making a choice that she might live to regret. Certainly not because of me. What I didn't take into account was the possibility that she might one day come back here. The memory spell was only meant to work in the human world… once she stepped into the Bath House she got almost all of her memories back."

Rin frowned, "Almost?"

Haku hesitated again, unsure if he should tell Rin the worst of it.

"Just tell me, Haku. If you want me to help you, my only condition is that I know everything. No secrets."

Sighing, he continued, "As you know, I can use magic. It's not nearly as strong as Yubaba's or Zeniba's, but it's strong enough. I didn't need to use very much magic for the memory spell but still… her mind was fighting me. When I went through her mind, just to scan quickly to ensure it was all buried, I found that the spell didn't work on any memory pertaining to me. She refused to let me go."

Rin sniffed, "I think I'm going to cry."

"You might want to wait. It gets worse. At first, I was at a loss. I had never met someone who could resist magic so well. But then I thought back to everything I had learned from Yubaba and the secrets I had stolen from Zeniba and I found the answer. See, I was burying her memories without ever touching her; I didn't want her to know I was doing anything because she would have fought it harder. So when I led her back to the Spirit Gate, I held her hand," at the confused look on Rin's face, Haku sighed. "Let me explain. When it comes to modifying someone's memory with magic, you can do it without ever touching them as long as you can see them. But there are certain types of memories that that method doesn't work on. Memories pertaining to love are one of them."

Rin wiped her eyes.

"With magic, you can't ever completely erase a memory of love. It's impossible. However, you can bury it so far down that no one except you would ever know how to find it. And that is exactly what I did when I held her hand that day."

She shook her head in confusion, "I don't understand, Haku. You've been miserable since the day she left. I understand wanting to protect her, but don't you think it's unfair to make her forget about her feelings for you? Shouldn't that be her choice?"

Haku sighed once again, "It should. But if Yubaba were to find out that Sen feels any type of affection towards me, can you imagine the things she could make Sen do using me as leverage? She could make Sen her slave. I can't have that."

They both stood in silence for a moment before Rin spoke, "So what do you need me to do?"

"I need you and Kamaji to not tell Sen anything about our relationship from the last time she was here. As of right now, she knows I'm familiar but as far as she's concerned, she's never met me. It would be best to keep it that way."

Rin nodded, "Okay, I will tell him. But Haku… aren't you worried that she will just develop feelings for you all over again? Especially now that she's not a little kid anymore? I mean, you can't just avoid her forever. The Bath House is big, but it's not that big."

He frowned, torn between what he wanted and he thought was right, "I've worried about that. I don't want to avoid her at all, not after all these years but…"

"Look Haku," she said, grabbing the two bowls of food from the table, "I'm not particularly thrilled about this situation. I understand why you did it and why you want to keep her in the dark, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I think you're overestimating Yubaba and underestimating Sen. She isn't the ditzy little 10 year-old anymore and I'd be willing to bet she could see through anything Yubaba tried to pull. I worry more about what it will do to her if you don't dredge up the memories she has of you. She plans on staying here, permanently Haku. Imagine being in her position; would it really be better to let her end up with someone she doesn't really want all in the name of protecting her from something that may or may not even happen? That isn't fair for her and it isn't fair for you."

He knew Rin was right. And just the thought of Chihiro, his Chihiro ending up with another man made his inner dragon furious. Haku knew Chihiro still felt something for him, he had known it for a very long time. After all, it wasn't as if he was being completely selfless anyway; because Haku tampered with Chihiro's mind by going inside her memories, there was always a connection between them. For years he had been visiting Chihiro's mind in her sleep in the form of his river just to be close to her in any way that he could. And all of those years he spent with her in her dreams only made him love her more. Even now when she was back in the Spirit world and back in the Bath House, he still couldn't stop himself from visiting her dreams. Quite frankly, he was glad he hadn't stopped.

Just last night, she admitted that she thought he, the spirit form of Haku, was beautiful. And that was certainly a start.

Rin slid the door open, looking back at Haku one more time, "I'll do what you asked me to, and I'll tell Kamaji. But please, don't do this to her or yourself. I really don't think it will be worth it." Just as she stepped through the door, she stopped again. "One more thing, Haku. You said that only you can unbury her memories of you… how exactly would you do that?"

Haku blushed furiously as he cleared his throat, "I would have to kiss her."

Rin snorted, closing the door behind her with her foot, "Psh, figures."

...

After Sen finished her breakfast, she and Rin went down to start their day cleaning the tubs. Luckily, unlike her first day 13 years ago, they weren't assigned the big tub this time. There were no words for how relieved she was that she didn't have to scrub that enormous tub on her first day again.

Sen yawned, stretching her arms, "Getting up this early is going to take some getting used to. At least we finally found a uniform that fits me."

Rin laughed, "Well you're not short and scrawny anymore; that helps."

"Sen!" The foreman called from his desk when he caught sight of her. "Can you come here for a second? I have a message from Yubaba."

Sen look at Rin for moment before shrugging, "I'll be back, I guess." She jogged down the stairs and over the foreman before bowing. "Good Morning, Mr. Foreman. What is it?"

He looked down at a small piece of paper where he jotted down some sloppy scrawl, "Looks like Yubaba wants you on attendant detail today instead of tubs."

"Attendant detail?" She repeated, unable to make sense of what he was saying. She was always on cleaning duty with Rin, why change now? "That's strange. But okay… who am I attending?"

"Hmm…" He looked at the paper again. "Ah, it looks like you will be the personal attendant of Master Haku today. He must be busy with something, so it looks like you will be bringing him all of his meals, doing his laundry, and cleaning his personal quarters. His quarters are on the floor right before the top floor; he's the last door on the left."

Sen felt her entire body grow hot as the blush that started in her cheeks spread to her toes, "Why does Yubaba want me doing that today?"

He shrugged, "No idea. But if you don't want to get in trouble on your first day back, you better get moving. Master Haku always has his breakfast by exactly 8:00."

Just as she started to walk towards the kitchens, she turned back to the foreman, remembering something vague from a long time ago, "Uhm… what if he isn't there when I bring his breakfast? I seem to remember he goes out a lot."

The foreman smiled, "Don't be nervous, Sen. Master Haku isn't as rigid as Yubaba. If he isn't there, just leave it for him on one of his tables and start working on your other duties."

Without saying another word, Sen made her way to the kitchens. She walked in, unoffended when several spirits pinched their noses at her human stench, and grabbed the silver tray that had 'Master Haku' chiseled elegantly into it. She could feel her pulse start to race as she took the tray to the elevator. The river in her dreams didn't seem upset with her for being interested in this man; on the contrary, the river seemed almost happy about it. Either way, something about this situation felt… peculiar. Like there was something she was missing.

The wooden elevator's red-paneled doors slid open and she stepped inside. Sen pushed the lever and after the elevator doors slid closed again, it began to ascend. As she came closer and closer to the 'Heaven' floor, the floor Yubaba was on, she felt her hands began to shake. Master Haku's room was on the floor directly below Yubaba's… 3 floors away… 2 floors… 1 floor…

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Sen forced a few deep breaths into her lungs before she gathered the courage to step out. Nervous as she was, it was hard not to be impressed by the elegance of this floor; next to Yubaba's floor, she had never seen any other floor as beautiful as this. The walls were paneled with a rich, dark red-brown wood and the floor was carpeted with plush golden fabrics; there weren't many rooms on this floor, but the few rooms it did have were concealed by elegant, tan shoji sliding screens. The foor was lit by numerous lanterns that hung from the ceiling and cast a warm, golden glow over the entire space. This place even smelled good, although it was clear to her that women did not live on this floor. The entire floor smelled rich and earthy with the occasional smokiness from someone, somewhere smoking a pipe of some sort; there were no floral scents anywhere. The masculine scent of the level seemed to wrap around her like a delicate ribbon and embed itself in her hair. She was certain she would smell like this place for days, no matter how much she bathed.

Sen finally made her way down the hallway immediately to her left. Just like the foreman said, the last room on the left was undoubtedly his. A silver plaque that read 'Master Haku' in elegant kanji was hung next to the shoji doors. She took one more deep breath and knocked.

No reply.

After for waiting for what seemed like a polite amount of time, she knocked again.

Still no reply.

Unsure of what else to do, Sen let herself in.