Written Rivers

Book 2: A Tie Amongst Rivers

Chapter 2: Something Stolen

Every week since their scheduled return date to go home, they tested the tunnels to see if there was a chance they had opened. However, there was no such luck.

Haku had his suspicions on who was blocking the tunnels to the Human World. Since it was Seiryu who guarded the tunnels of that region he was starting to think the Four Holy Beasts were plotting against him to get him to take on the role of Seiryu. But what confused him was what Chihiro had to do with it. Were they holding her hostage as ransom for taking on the name Seiryu? That would be extreme even for the Holy Beast. If not them, who? It made no sense.

All those thoughts wandered through the dragon's mind as e watched Chihiro, Rumi, and Makoto walk through the tunnel for what felt like the thousandth time that month. Chihiro and Rumi were practically stomping their way into the tunnel, grumbling incoherently as they went. He did not blame them. It was getting quite aggravating and he was close to giving into fate's hands.

Soon the girls and Makoto disappeared through the tunnel. Did it work? The answer soon followed when they emerged one by one from the tunnel on his left.

"Argh!" Chihiro shoved her bag off onto the ground as she exited the tunnel, crossing her arms aggravatedly. Under different circumstances, Haku may have thought her angry pouting face was endearing, but it was neither the time nor place to have such thoughts.

"Chihiro…" He started, clearing his throat.

"No." Her eyes flashed intensely as she pointed to the tunnel. "I'm not going through that tunnel until I can guarantee I'll come out the other side."

"I have to agree, Haku." Rumi said, much more calmly than her friend. "Honestly, we're tired of going through that tunnel and having our hopes crushed. We're not going back through that tunnel without a guarantee of coming out the other end."

Haku considered them and sighed. They were tired, he was tired, they were all tired. He nodded. "Agreed. I will continue to look into the cause further."

Chihiro's expression softened and sighed, running her fingers through her bangs. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell but if we're here now, let's make the most of it. I'm not saying we give up, but I suggest we don't spend every waking moment trying to figure this tunnel out."

Rumi echoed a nod of agreement.

Haku nodded again, absently. "Well, now that that is settled, let us head back to the Bathhouse. There is plenty to be done before opening."

As they headed back to the Bathhouse, they walked in silence, giving Chihiro the time to cool off. Haku lingered a bit ahead of the group with Makoto, who had shifted to his human form, leading the way to the empty riverbed and offering their hands to help the girls across the river's rocks. Makoto had told him about his visitor at the river and he was not looking forward to seeing her. He had made a special effort in avoiding the woman and the party she was involved with since he regained his identity. The okami had warned him of her future visit to the Bathhouse, causing him to be on high alert to her unwelcomed arrival.

The woman was not the only one he was trying to avoid either. Ryujin's visits had only become more frequent in the last month and Haku had exhausted every bit of energy either entertaining him or, quite frankly, running away from him. He avoided him like the plague. And Ryujin certainly had not shut up about the romance supposedly budding between himself and the human girl. He was mentally drained. What he would give to return to the river.

The two spirits now walked behind the human girls. They had sparked up a conversation since they had taken the lead and seemed to be enjoying their talk. Though his hearing was quite keen, Haku chose not to listen in on their conversation. He simply listened to the sounds of nature around them as he watched them interact with each other. The way they nudged each other and laughed together was so naturally comfortable that one would think they were sisters. Chihiro's smile caught his eyes as she moved her hands expressively as much as she could with the bag she was carrying. Makoto and himself had volunteered to carry the rest of their bags, causing them to wonder what they possibly had to pack to make them so heavy. But his eyes just followed the human girl's movements, from the gleam in her eye when she was excited about something to the way she put a little skip in her step when walking along uneven road, hopping over lines as if it were superstitious to do otherwise.

Haku sighed inwardly. Ever since her stay was extended, he had become more hyperaware that the girl who captured his vision had stolen something from the Spirit World with every visit she had and, each time, made it harder to tell her goodbye. Now that she was stuck in the Spirit World, it had become much more obvious to him that what she stole had everything to do with him. And Ryujin's pestering over the last month had not helped.

Ogino Chihiro had stolen the one thing he had always kept close to him and cut off from the world: his heart. He finally admitted it. Chihiro, the girl who gave him his name, the girl who had given him his river, had stolen his heart. He would now admit that she had stolen it the moment she fell in the river after a shoe but between then and now, he had mistaken it for sibling love. But he was far from wrong. The girl who had saved him twice now, had him wrapped around her finger now.

"Makoto…" He said lowly, gaining the other's attention. "I have run into a dilemma that I officially have no idea what to do with." He raked his fingers through his hair.

Makoto seemed to smirk at the confession, as if he already knew what the dilemma was. "Have not all…"

Chihiro and Rumi had gone ahead of the men to talk about memories of their friendship. They had spent a lot more time together as of late, trying to rekindle their friendship. Their conversation felt so comfortable that she felt like she was back in elementary school, before all the events of the Spirit World happened, and when things came naturally. Since they got stuck in the Spirit World, they decided to take the opportunity to explored rather than let it suffocate them.

Honestly, Chihiro should have been excited about the fact that she didn't have to make the decision on whether she stayed in the Spirit World or not, however, when she first heard the news, she was more confused than ever. Not only was the decision stripped from her. but it had left her feeling even more vulnerable. She wanted this. She wanted to be with her friends. She had found a place to belong where she didn't.

But what of her family. It had been far past the return date of her "going abroad" trip that she had told them. They would probably be getting worried by now and her cell phone definitely didn't break the walls of time and space. She would have to see if there was some way to let them know she was ok. What if she ended up being stuck there for the rest of her life? She honestly wasn't opposed to the idea, but she had family to consider. And work… Oh gods, she just left her job without notice. She told them she would be back, but it's way past the day she said she'd return. She was definitely terminated from the position.

Would staying be worth the risk of leaving everything she knew and loved behind?

Now, despite all her worries, she was oddly at peace with it all. She couldn't give an answer why but despite everything going on over the last month, despite everything that should be causing her anxiety to come back at full speed, despite it all, she was okay with it all. It had taken her a month to come to terms, but if she really sat down and thought it all through, there was nothing she could possibly do about the situation but roll with the punches and see where it lead her. If there's anything she'd learn in the last year, was how to go with the flow instead of having everything planned and set in stone. She'd admit that she always had to be in control in the past, it's what always got her anxiety acting up back then. It still came up but not as often.

As they walked across the bridge to the Bathhouse in the afternoon sun, Chihiro suddenly heard Makoto growl something to Haku and then Aogaeru the frog spirit came hopping towards them.

"Haku-San! Haku-San!" The small frog called as he approached.

Haku came to the front of the group, rather alert. "What is it?"

"We-we have, we have a guest. A sp-special g-guest!" Aogaeru stuttered as he gasped for air.

"Ugh… No…" He grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Where is she?"

"I-Inside. She requested a bath, but we had to decline. But we didn't know if- if we should since she is from-"

"Where are Ame and Rin?"

"Rin is inside handling some broken pipes inside with some of the engineers. Ame is on errands! What do we do? What do we do?"

"Calm down, Aogaeru, this isn't the first time this has happened. Move aside." Haku started toward the entrance, the rest of them following briefly after him.

After they all got inside, all Chihiro remembered seeing was a blur of red running past her and latching itself on to Haku's neck, practically screeching "Kohaku-Kun!" as it went.

A woman with brown hair pulled back in an elegant bun and golden eyes accented with sophisticated makeup now clung to the neck of Haku, who didn't look pleased in the least. She wore an elaborate red kimono accented with jewels and the primary colors, a gold band around her left wrist. Chihiro's face contorted slightly at how friendly she was acting towards the dragon.

"Oh Kohaku, it's been too long!" The woman squealed, her arms draped over his shoulders as she hugged him. "Why don't you come visit anymore? I have to go out of my way to come all the way east to visit you!" She complained coyly.

Haku leaned away, exasperated. "You do not even have to travel far, Ayame-San." He rolled his eyes. "Now will you let go of me."

Ayame pouted but let him go. "When'd you become so mean? I thought we had something." She whined.

Chihiro raised a brow. "Had something?"

"You are delusional, Ayame-San. There is nothing between us." Haku insisted, stepping away to put a little distance between them.

"Well there once was." She said with her hands on her hips.

"And it will stay in the past." Haku retorted.

Chihiro wasn't sure how she felt about this confrontation. A part of her was a bit angry at the way Ayame was acting and how they once "had something." She didn't know why she cared but for some reason she did.

She cleared her throat and Haku finally made eye contact with her. His eyes almost seemed panicked.

"Ah. Ayame-San, please. Please, let me introduce you to Chihiro."

Chihiro gave a small bow. "Nice to meet you."

Ayame stared at her for moment then grabbed her hands, enthusiastically. "So, you're the one everyone has been talking? It's a pleasure to finally meet you!"

"Everyone?" Chihiro looked over the woman's shoulder to look incredulously at Haku, who only shrugged empathetically in reply.

"That's right!" Ayame chimed. "You're the talk of the palace! Especially after Chimon-San talked to you!"

Chihiro watched Haku visibly flinch and his eyes flash with concern. The human girl looked into Ayame's golden eyes. "What are you talking about? Why would they be talking about me?"

Her eyes lit up like a fire. "Well, of course, they'd be talking about you silly! You're part of one of Chimon-San's latest prophecies. Though I must say, you caught him at a time where he had few words to say. Usually he goes on and on with his stories and prophecies, he's such a story teller, no wonder he was chosen to be Genbu-"

"Ayame-San." Haku interceded.

"Oops." The woman covered her mouth. "I did it again. I went and started rambling."

Chihiro gulped as she tried to get her head back on straight after Ayame's wind of conversation. "So… Who exactly are you, Ayame-San? You're from the palace and close with Genbu-San?"

"Hm?" Ayame blinked, then smiled. "Oh, silly me, I'm Ayame. I'm the current Suzaku of the Four Holy Beasts."

Chihiro froze and gaped. They just kept coming out of nowhere. Should she bow? Or was she already in too deep? "I- I- umm…" Great, Chihiro, just stutter.

Ayame laughed. "Don't worry about formalities, dear, I tend to avoid the formalities whenever possible."

"She is the rogue one…" Chihiro heard Makoto grumble beside her.

"You could say that Makoto-Kun, or you could call it free spirited, or wild hearted, but rogue sounds rather primitive for a phoenix such as myself."

"So, you're really a phoenix?" Rumi finally chimed in.

Ayame regarded the girl with a smile. "You're certainly correct. They wouldn't have asked me to be the Suzaku if I weren't." She laughed. "And you might be...?"

"Oh!" Rumi exclaimed. "I'm Rumi. Chihiro's friend."

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you both." Ayame smiled. "Any friend of Kohaku-Kun, is a friend of mine." She leaned against Haku, who grimaced at the contact. "Isn't that right, Kohaku-Kun?"

Haku had his arms crossed and a rather displeased look that Chihiro had to suppress a giggle from. Instead of answering the Suzaku's question, he grunted and tried to shrug her off his shoulder, which was unsuccessful as Ayame wrapped her arms around his neck.

Something about this didn't sit right with Chihiro. Why was she being so friendly and clingy to the dragon spirit? If she remembered correctly from her Asian mythology and culture class, according to myth, the dragon and the phoenix were often paired together, for the two represented both conflict and wedded bliss. In both China and Japan, Dragon and Phoenix symbolism was associated closely with the imperial family - the emperor being the dragon and the empress being the phoenix. She wasn't quite sure why she felt threatened by this bout of knowledge and how she was seeing it develop in front of her, but she just wanted it to stop.

Ayame glanced at her and a smirk played at her lips. Chihiro openly gaped. Was she messing with her? Was she trying to tease her with her relationship with Haku? She was threatening her!

Rumi must have caught on to something because Chihiro felt her gently take her wrist. "Chi-Chan." Suddenly, Chihiro felt herself fall back on her heels, not realizing she'd rose onto her toes. Why was she getting so defensive?

"I'm fine…" She mumbled to her friend, who didn't look convinced.

Rumi didn't reply and turned to Ayame. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ayame-San. I hope we get to know more of you in the future. Chi-Chan and I have some things to take care of before opening, so see you later." She waved at the phoenix and went to Makoto to get her bag, eyeing Chihiro after to get her bag from Haku.

Chihiro started and approached Haku, not able to make eye contact with him, especially with Ayame clinging to him. "Thank you, Haku." She turned to Ayame, still not making eye contact. "It was nice meeting."

Before either could say anything, Chihiro bowed and turned to follow Rumi down the hall to their room to unpack, hearing the padding of Makoto's feet following after them.

Haku watched Chihiro and Rumi head down the hallway. Makoto watched after them then looked at Ayame with a frown then gave Haku a knowing look that said, "I hope you know what you have got yourself into." After that, Makoto headed down the hall after the girls.

He scowled and shrugged Ayame off his shoulders. "Let go of me." She promptly got off without a fuss. He brushed his kimono out and was silently grateful that the staff were not up and around yet. After he situated himself, he transferred his scowl to Ayame. "You. Me. My office. Now."

Being classic Ayame, she shrugged and willingly complied.

Haku led the way to the office in silence. Well that was a lie, he was silent, she went on and on about telling her whole life story since the last time they saw each other. While she was a dear friend, he did not want to have Ayame's influence troubling the staff or Chihiro, but he had to question if he could handle her influence.

Ayame was a great person, he would not disregard her of that, but she tended to be, what she called, quite free spirited. Now that he thought about it, she was much like Ryujin. He had known her for quite some time, in fact, she was young for a spirit, just barely a thousand years since her last resurrection. She was right though, they had a… connection at one point but it was from a time when he was a bit free spirited himself. It was not really a time he was at all proud of in hindsight. But her free spirit led her to trouble sometimes or even gave poor influence just because of her personality leading to discord in order. He finally got the Bathhouse in order, the last thing he needed was a chaotic influence on them.

However, where she lacked in order, she made up for her ability to strategize. She was not the traditional elegant phoenix, known for their poise, but she was strategic in war and leadership. Her appearance also represented a change in power. Which left an unsettling feeling in Haku.

When they enter the office, they sat at the table and Haku served tea, listening to her continue to go on about things happening at the palace. It was entertaining at best but after a while it became draining. Soon, the mood chilled when Ayame placed her cup on the table.

"So." She looked Haku in the eye. "I'm pretty sure you know why I'm here."

"And I am sure that you know my answer." Haku replied, sipping his tea, not breaking eye contact.

She leaned on the table. "Kohaku-Kun, you know that Naoyuki-San doesn't have much time left. There is no one else that fits the prophecy that Chimon-San told."

"Last I checked, I do not bare the scorch of the serpent. I may be one, but it does not mean I am the next Seiryu." Haku took another drink of tea, setting his empty cup down.

Ayame promptly filled the cup. "The scorch only comes to the fated. If it is fate's will, the scorch will show itself."

"Then why are you pestering me, there are plenty of other dragons who might bare the scorch. What about Ryujin? He has not been Seiryu yet." Haku offered.

Ayame gave him a deadpan expression and replied. "Really? Do I have to explain? It's Ryu? And he's not exactly qualified. He's been around since the beginning and there has been no record of the scorch on him."

Haku rolls his eyes in annoyance.

The Suzaku continues. "You can't ignore your fate forever. It will catch up with you sooner or later, you might as well meet it half way."

Haku rose to his feet and walked over to the book shelves.

"How about the other part of the prophecy? How many dragons can be called 'lost,' out there?" Ayame reasoned.

"Quite a few on the contrary. And it really does depend on your definition of 'lost.'" Haku replied.

She deadpanned him again. "Well aren't you stubborn as ever?"

Haku smiled, taking a book off the shelf. "Thank you." He thumbed through the book idly and put it back.

"Seriously, Kohaku-Kun, all four of us agree that you are meant to take over as Seiryu." She exasperated.

"Ayame-San." Haku snapped. "I ask this as a friend, please tell them to give up this senseless notion and to stop bothering me. Find someone else, it is not me you should be trying to persuade."

Ayame considered him and sighed. "As your friend, Kohaku-Kun, I'll see what I can do. Until then, I'll stick around for a bit. I kinda like your new girlfriend." She grinned coyly.

Haku felt his face heat up as his fingers traced over the spine of the book with his best friend's name on it. Spirited Away. Ogino Chihiro. He cleared his throat and composed himself. "I can assure you she is nothing of the sort." He said looking back at her.

She eyes him suspiciously. "Uh-huh. Is that what you're telling yourself?" She stood and let out a light laugh. "Well, I for one know you, Kohaku-Kun, and if there is one thing I know about you, you are a horrible liar." She winked at him and disappeared into a pile of ash, leaving him alone in his office dumbfounded with the smell of burnt wild flowers.

A/N:

Is our dear duo realizing that they may have feelings for each other? Oh, let the romance begin! (You guys don't know how long I've been waiting for this development! T^T)

If anyone has read Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya, Ayame's interactions with Haku pretty much remind me of how Sohma Kagura is with Kyo. Just putting that out there. I also posted a picture of what she looks like on my deviantArt, so go check that out!

Btw, since the myth of the Phoenix is different across cultures, I decided to kind of mix them together rather than stick with the traditional Chinese myth of them, since that is where the Japanese version of them is derived. I've done this with a lot of the myths in this story, so many of them are loosely based off their original story. But ya'll were warned of this early in book one so I think you guys know this already. SO you'll hear more about Ayame later. :D

My goal is to have updates every Friday, if not, Saturday. However, I'll be working more a lot more hours and going to school starting September, so I'll do my best to keep up and post regularly.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review! And for those that do review, I thank you a bunches!

Thank you for the reviews from: picklesisadeadcat, RSBCS, Rosettaxfantasy, Kra and chimera-writes.

God bless! KawaChou