Spirited Away: The Return Home

Chapter 9

I shot upright only to find that someone was still holding onto me, my head tucked in between the person's head and shoulder. We were rocking slowly, the body curved around mine whispering softly.

"Shh, calm down." Haku's voice, feather-light, soothing. After a minute or two he pulled away and looked me in the eye, expression silently asking whether I was okay. He probably didn't expect me to throw my arms around him the minute our eyes met, but then again, it seemed that recently I had become known for doing the opposite of what people thought I was going to do.

"You won't make me leave will you? Please don't force me to go," I pleaded with him, the words out before I could contemplate them. "Please," I added once again, my voice husky.

Reaching up, Haku stroked a hand softly down my hair. "Hey, I'm not sending you anywhere. I just got you back," he whispered in answer, his voice soft and filled with an emotion I couldn't quite place. After a moment, he pulled back, but didn't move as he gave me a moment to pull my sorry self-back together. It took a while.

"I'm sorry," I whispered through ragged breathes, wiping furiously at my eyes to stop the tears that seemed to be endless the past few days. After my breathing seemed to have returned to normal - only the occasional hiccup - Haku thought I was stable enough to talk to him.

"I'm sorry if I startled you, but you were screaming and I panicked," he explained. There seemed to be a slight hesitance, almost as if it was embarrassing to tell me that he couldn't handle the situation. When I didn't say anything he continued.

"Where you having a bad dream? Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

Taking a deep breath, I explained to him what had happened, conveniently leaving out the part about me wanting him to kiss me on the bridge; he really didn't need that to know part. I didn't tell him about the intense feeling of dread the dream brought, as though it was somehow and omen of things to come. Mostly because I didn't want to believe in the slightest that it could be.

I waited for Haku to say something but he simply leaned forward and wrapped his arms around my bundled up figure. "Like I told you before, I'm not letting you go anywhere." He kept repeating the last part over and over again until my body loosened in his arms; as if singing a lullaby to a child.

Once I was calm, Haku pulled away and stood up, extending his hand out for me so that he could help me up. His hand was warm and soft in mine, making me feel even more ashamed of the stupid dream. Despite recent events, he had given me his word and I needed to trust in it.

"What where you doing out here, Chihiro?" Haku asked me once we were back inside his room, the mood lightened.

"I came out this morning and the door shut," I explained with a shrug, "I figured I'd wait for someone to notice I was gone." The last of my sentence was muffled as I pulled my shirt over my head, securing it in place around my waist .

Haku regarded me with steady eyes before sighing and turning around. "Let's go," he said and gestured with his hand for me to follow him out the room.

"Haku, where do you sleep at night?" I asked him on the way down the stairs. It was just something that had popped into my head again. It also seemed like a good turn in conversation.

He turned around to look at me over a narrow shoulder, eyebrow raised. "What kind of question is-"

Heeling slipping down a step, I lurched forward, arms flailing. My hands collided hard with Haku's chest as he had spun to catch me. However, I had gained too much forward momentum and instead sent us both sprawling down the last three steps. We hit the ground, a crunch echoing through the small tower.