AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once again, the first little dream/flashback (whatever you want to call it) encompasses a scene directly from the American version of Spirited Away. Also, I hope you guys don't mind all the jumping around in this chapter. I felt like it was important to get everything that was going on simultaneously instead of just dragging out one event for no particular reason. Enjoy! :)

...

She looked around, confused. Why was she on the bridge to the Bath House? Shouldn't she be in the river?

A 10 year-old girl stood on the opposite side of the bridge, peering over the railing at the train rumbling below. It was then that a young boy with blue-green hair came towards her looking shocked.

"You shouldn't be here. Get out of here, now!" He shouted.

The little girl just looked at him quizzically, "What?"

"It's almost night; leave, before it gets dark!"

The lamps at the front of the Bath House lit up.

He gasped, "They're lighting the lamps!" The boy pushed her towards the stone stairs. "Get out of here! You've gotta get across the river, go! I'll distract them."

As the girl ran, the young boy faced the Bath House, held out his hand, and blew on it gently. Light pink flower petals materialized from his fingers in a delicate swirl.

The little girl reached the stone steps before looking back, "What's up with him?" She mumbled to herself, rubbing her eyes. She then disappeared down the stairs.

After the girl disappeared, the boy remained on the bridge with his arms and palms outstretched, chanting something to himself.

"A spell?" Sen observed quietly. "It must have been to protect her." She walked over to him and knelt down, wanting to get a clearer look at his face. When he turned to make sure the girl had gone, Sen gasped at the sight of his face.

Haku. A very, very young Haku.

So did that mean, the girl was…?

...

The next week was uneventful. Just as Sen had guessed, Yubaba kept her on attendant duty during the day for Haku. Every morning, Sen would bring Haku his breakfast and every morning, he wasn't there. For a while each day, she would sit on the balcony and wait for him to return, but he never did; at least not while she was there. Not wanting to get in trouble for failing to do her job, Sen would then proceed to clean Haku's quarters and wash his laundry like she was supposed to. She knew that Haku came back to his room at some point during the day or night because every morning, there was a white kimono and blue pants somewhere on the floor of his bathroom. So why didn't she ever see him?

"I just don't get it," Sen sighed tugging the string that filled the tub with herbal water. "He almost kisses me and then I don't see or hear from him for a week. Did I do something?"

Rin swept the floor around the tub, "It's not that unusual for Haku to disappear for days at a time. Even though he's not Yubaba's apprentice anymore, his contract still requires him to run errands for her. I'm sure he's just busy with something."

She hopped down from the lip of the tub, "But he comes back to his room every day. There are always new clothes to be washed when I get there in the morning. He couldn't take twenty minutes to come see me?"

The weasel spirit set down her broom and started neatly folding a stack of towels, "You're more eager to see him than usual, you haven't been this anxious all week. Is something up?"

"Well, actually…" Sen started packing up their cleaning supplies. "I know this may sound crazy but I think I've met Haku before."

Rin dropped the stack of perfectly folded towels in surprise, "You do?"

She nodded, "Yeah, back when I was here the first time. I still don't remember him exactly, but I had a dream last night that made me wonder. I was standing on the bridge to the Bath House when I saw a little girl, maybe 10 years-old, who was leaning over the railing and looking at the train below. That's when a boy, maybe 12, with blue-green hair came up to her. He was really panicked about something and he just kept telling her that she needed to leave before it was too late, before it got dark. When she ran away like told her, he cast some sort of spell on the bridge… I can only assume to protect her. When the girl was gone, I walked over to the boy to see what he looked like and…"

"And what?" Her friend's eyes were wide.

"It was Haku, I know it. Only he was incredibly young and his hair was short. That's why I want to talk to him. I need to know if the girl in my dream was me; I need to know if that dream was actually a memory."

Rin began to refold the towels she dropped when she paused, "You said Haku almost kissed you. What exactly did you mean by 'almost'?"

Sen blushed, "His mouth was on the corner of mine when he got called away."

"Did his lips actually touch yours?"

Her face went an even darker shade of red, "Just barely. Why does it matter?"

Rin looked down and folded the towels sloppily this time, "No reason. I was just curious."

...

Aogaeru sat silently in front of Yubaba's ornate desk as she scribbled something on a piece of parchment.

"I'm not doing anything else until I get my reward," the frog spirit huffed angrily. "You said I would get my gold after I brought Sen back. She's been here for an entire week and I still haven't seen a single gold nugget! It's not my fault her memories came back!"

Yubaba took a long drag on her cigarette, cackling hoarsely as she exhaled the smoke, "Considering that I own you, I technically don't have to reward you at all if I don't want to. And I don't care that her memories came back; her most important ones are still buried and that's all that matters to me."

Aogaeru eyed her suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

She cackled again, "She still doesn't remember Haku."

"So why does that matter?"

Yubaba threw a small teacup that hit the frog directly in the head, "You idiot. I can use this to my advantage. As long as she doesn't remember him, I have a little something that will work perfectly on her." Her sharp red lacquered nails drummed on a small jeweled box rhythmically. "If you do this one last thing for me Aogaeru, not only will I give you the reward I initially promised, I will also give you your name back. After that, you can leave and never come back if you want."

The frog thought for a moment, "Fine. Just tell me what you need me to do."

...

Sen couldn't sleep. The dream she had the night before was playing over and over in her mind. That, and Rin was snoring obnoxiously in her ear.

"Ugh," she groaned, sitting up. Every other woman in their room was fast asleep, so if she was going to leave she needed to be extra quiet. Sen stealthily slipped on her knee-length pink work pants that she'd worn yesterday and retied her blue apron around her neck and waist, leaving her pink overshirt on the floor. She grabbed her wooden sandals and tip-toed between the shikibutons of her sleeping roommates until she was able to slip out the door. Remembering like it was yesterday, Sen made her way down the seemingly never-ending staircases until she made it to Kamaji's boiler room. A wave of guilt crashed over her when she realized that she hadn't come to visit him yet. Unable to worry about that now, Sen forced herself forward, sliding the door to the boiler room open as quietly as she could before crawling through it.

Luckily, he and all his soot sprites were sound asleep.

Sen crept silently through the boiler room until she reached the series of doors that led out of the Bath House and to a large, uneven staircase that was tacked haphazardly to the side of the building. When she finally made it outside to the staircase, she gulped.

It wasn't any less terrifying than it had been when she was 10.

"I'm a grown woman now, damn it," she scolded herself. "I shouldn't be afraid of a set of stairs." Sen looked toward the top. "Even if they are dangerous…and probably going to collapse with me on them."

After a few deep breaths of the crisp night air, Sen began slowly crawling up the stairs on her hands and knees.

"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down," she chanted to herself.

When she finally reached the garden at the top of the stairs, Sen slipped on her wooden sandals and snuck through the side gate. At last, she had made it out of the Bath House.

The moonlight turned the bridge from red to white and bathed the water below it with an incandescent glow. Sen rested her arms on the railing and looked out over the water. In the distance there was a cluster of black shadows which she knew was Swamp Bottom. Idly, she found herself wondering how Granny was. Had No-Face stayed with her? Had she continued to teach him how to use her spinning wheel? Did they miss her? She would have to visit them on her next day off if she could find some train tickets.

There was a sudden gust of wind. Sen looked up at the sky, hoping to see… what? Flashes of a creature, long and white with horns and blue-green hair were dancing on the edges of her memory. A dragon, maybe? Haku had a painting of a dragon like that above his bed. That must be where she remembered it from.

"Hm?" Sen noticed a small building a short distance from the bridge that seemed to be surrounded almost entirely by a wall of flowers. It was the pig pen where her parents had been held.

"I wonder if it's still being used," she thought out loud to herself. Unable to stop her curiosity, Sen slipped off her sandals and jogged toward the wall of flowers. She wandered the edge for a few minutes trying the entrance into the flower 'maze' because for some reason, she couldn't remember where it was.

"You look lost."

Sen's heart fluttered at the sound of the velvety voice that inhabited every corner of her mind. Her body immediately reacted to his presence; she felt her skin become flushed and muscles tense when he walked towards her. There was so much electricity in the air between them, she would've sworn her body was buzzing.

Sen turned, knocked breathless once again by his sheer beauty. Under the moonlight, his long turquoise hair gleamed, looking like waves when the wind rustled it. Idly, she wondered if she would ever get used to the sight of him.

She certainly hoped not.

"M-master Haku!" Sen bowed deeply, blushing. "I couldn't sleep so I thought I would take a walk."

Haku lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him as he smiled, "Calling me 'Haku' would do just fine. I think we're past the formalities now."

Her breath caught in her throat as she remember his lips so close to hers.

He let his hand drop, eyeing the wall of flowers behind her, "Going to the pig pen?"

She managed a nod.

"Well you'll never get there at this rate. Let me take you."

"Okay," Sen's voice squeaked.

Haku casually took her hand and led her further down to the entrance; even when they started going through the maze, he didn't let go.

She looked down at their hands and was amazed at how right it felt. Every time he was near her, it was like something inside of her was recognizing a piece of itself. Like he was integral to who she was.

Like her other half.

"You seem nervous, Chihiro. Is everything alright?" Haku asked as they walked through the flowers.

Sen was nervous. She had poured her heart out to him last time and he almost kissed her; what was there not to be nervous about? The entire week, she wanted to see Haku again to see if he would try to kiss her again or if the first time was just in an effort to comfort her. Then she had a dream of him that she couldn't explain. She was so unexplainably happy that he was here with her but she had a litany of questions on her mind as well. When she didn't answer him, he stopped and turned to her.

"Chihiro?"

She sighed. Just the way he said her name seemed to turn her bones to jelly.

Haku put his hands on her face, "Are you angry with me? Because I haven't seen you all week?"

"No!" Sen cried, blushing for the millionth time. "I'm so glad you're here. I… I missed you. That's all."

He smiled, "And I've missed you."

Something about the way he said that phrase was so familiar to her but she couldn't put her finger on it. Sen bit her lip, "Where were you? Why didn't you come and see me?"

Grabbing her hand again, they continued to walk, "Every once in a while, Yubaba will send me to see Zeniba in order to keep tabs on No-Face for a few days. She's terrified he will come back and ruin the Bath House again even though we all know he won't."

She chewed on that for moment, "You couldn't spare ten minutes to see me?"

He stopped again, "Chihiro?"

"I… I thought you were avoiding me. I thought maybe you didn't want to see me after you…"

Haku cupped her face again, as he liked to do, and brushed away the frustrated tears that were beginning to form in her eyes, "You think I didn't want to see you? You were afraid that my almost kissing you was some type of mistake?"

Sen only nodded.

"Chihiro…" His voice washed over her, making her knees shake. "Seeing you for 10 minutes would have been worse than not seeing you at all. Do you think 10 minutes with you would have been enough time for me? It would have only made me miss you more while I was away. I know that is selfish of me, protecting my own fragile emotions, but you have to understand: you are the only thing ever on my mind. I want to be by your side, always."

Everything he felt about her, she felt about him multiplied exponentially. He was the only thing she wanted. Ever.

And she still didn't know why.

But there was still that insecure, nagging voice in the back of her mind, "Are you sure you don't regret… almost kissing me? You didn't do it just to make me feel better?"

Haku pushed her against the flower wall, once again resting his forehead against hers as he wound his arms around her waist, "Chihiro… how can I possibly make you understand? How can I explain what you are to me? You are… everything. You have been for a long time. There is no me without you. Not anymore."

It felt completely natural as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "I don't feel like I've just met you, Haku. I feel like I've been waiting for you for years."

He tilted his head, brushing her nose with his affectionately.

"Tell me why I feel like I'm in love with you."

"I would rather show you," Haku whispered.

And he kissed her, crushing her lips with his.

...

...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Gahhhh! There it is! But don't get complacent guys; the story is FAR from over. :D Don't even think that because Haku kissed her, things are all peachy-keen. I promise, they're not. Btw, because you guys wanted to know, the song I listen to on repeat when I write anything pertaining to Haku and Chihiro is called "One Day" by Trading Yesterday. Take a quick gander at the lyrics and you will understand why. That, and the music in this song sets the perfect tone for those scenes. :)