Spirited Away: The Wait [ORIGINAL]

A Woman's Heart

“How do you spell 'love'?" - Piglet

"You don't spell it...you feel it." - Pooh”

-A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

     Haku was perplexed. He was worried. In fact, he was so worried it was making him irritated.

     Even a blind person could tell there was something wrong with Chihiro. Countless times he had asked her if she was feeling well, and countless times he had received the same, monosyllable answer: “Yes.” Despite all that, she looked unhappy. He had done his best to make her feel better even though he knew nothing about what she was going through, but it seemed his efforts were futile. He felt underappreciated, of all things, and he was none too thrilled about it.

     Haku had even been replaying the previous’ days events over and over in his head, and he couldn’t find anything that he could have done to aggravate the woman. He sighed. He had always thought Chihiro would be easy enough to understand, but it turned out that all women were equally indecipherable.

     Since pressing her wouldn’t do much good, Haku turned to the final measure he could take to attempt to close the sudden rift in their relationship: Shou.

     Haku was flying back to the shelter, and along the way, he continued cursing and cursing at himself for wanting to talk to Shou, of all people, for advice. Several times he had considered turning back and figuring out how to deal with Chihiro himself at the thought of Shou teasing him about not knowing how to deal with his own woman.

     But, there was no other way around it. Shou was someone who understood the current Chihiro just as well as him, no matter how much he hated to admit it. After all, they had spent so much time together in the shelter.

     The dragon suppressed the impending jealousy threatening to spill out in a growl. He knew that he could get possessive at times and did his best to control himself.

     Haku soared through the air swiftly and gracefully as he always did when he went for a fly to relax a little. Forcefully, he pushed the thoughts of Chihiro into the back of his head and instead shifted his focus to the beauty of the land below him and the clarity of the bright blue sky above. He basked in the comfort of the familiar winds he had played in for many years. The wind spirits around here were peaceful and serene, which made it a good place to relax and de-stress.

     It was just so different from the human world; this was where he rightfully belonged as a dragon spirit of the wind. The human world was void of the life and peace the wind spirits here had, and nothing would be able to replace it. That was why sometimes he would come back here a few times a week when he wasn’t with Chihiro to have a short fly before heading back.

     Soon, the familiar shelter, his home for the past decade, came into full view. It looked the same, just as lively and happy as it had always been. The field was dotted with little children up and about playing together, and many other spirits were taking a leisurely stroll along the perimeters of the shelter. His eyes softened.

     True, he was never happier than when he was with Chihiro, but he did miss this place; that had been his home for so long. It was nice to come back every now and then. Perhaps she would like to revisit this place with him sometime as well.

     Out of the blue, Haku’s senses spiked with alarm. With his sharp senses, he felt another presence behind him. He turned around swiftly and prepared to face the probable attacker when he found a certain golden phoenix facing him with an entertained look in its golden orbs.