Spirited Away: The Wait [ORIGINAL]

Friends and Sorrows Shared

“We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet.

Even longer,’ Pooh answered.”

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

     For the rest of the night, Chihiro simply stared at the soot balls working while she lay down on the blanket that Kamaji had lent her. It was nice and soft, and her body did need some down time after an eventful day. One by one, they would carry the super heavy pieces of coal with their super-spirit strength then make their way to the burning furnace to hurl them in.

     They were especially cute when they made a special trip to the side of Chihiro’s face just to give her a wave sneakily without Kamaji’s noticing. “Good job, little guys. Keep going!” she whispered to them. They jumped up and down excitedly in response.

     “I saw that, you. Stop slackening!” Kamaji grunted disapprovingly at his tiny workers’ actions.

     In a moment of shock, they seemed to lose their arm strength, resulting in them getting squashed by the pieces of coal that fell on their little bodies. “Oh great…” Kamaji muttered.

     “Aww, they’re so cute!” Chihiro gushed.

     “You’re too easily amused, Chihiro,” he replied, clearly not amused in any way. He was busy at work, hands working hard at their individual jobs. It never ceased to amaze her how he could do so many things at once. Multi-tasking wasn’t something many people could do and they only had 2 arms.

     “When’s Lin’s shift over?” Chihiro asked idly. Her arm was placed over her eyes since the lights couldn’t be switched off.

     “About time. She should be coming up any minute now. You better get some sleep before she arrives or you’ll be as dead as a roasted newt on a stick.”

     “That’s a… very interesting analogy, Kamaji…” Chihiro shuddered at the mental image she had in her head. Suddenly she felt sick; she wasn’t very good with anything slimy. Granted, there wouldn’t be much slime on a newt, but it was just gross thinking about it roasted on a stick ready to be served on a platter.

     “… …stupid Chichiyaku… I’ll kill that no-good, annoying ass!” Lin huffed through the opening as she crawled through. In her anger however, she accidentally hit her head on the top of the short opening. “Ouch!” she complained, rubbing her forehead and scowling at the culprit for good measure.

     Sitting up, Chihiro couldn’t suppress the giggles that bubbled up in her chest any longer and burst out laughing. Lin glared at her and closed the opening before taking a seat next to the happy girl.

     “It’s ain’t funny, kid.”

     “Sure it wasn’t, Lin,” Chihiro winked. It was so fun to tease her.

     “Whatever, you little imp,” the weasel spirit rolled her eyes. “Hey Kamaji,” she greeted before she could forget. The boiler man grunted in acknowledgement.

     Chihiro sidled up to Lin and nudged her playfully. Lin couldn’t help but smile; it was too difficult to keep up the angry act in front of her little sister.

     “Are you feeling better now?”

     “Yes, much better. Thanks a lot,” Chihiro beamed. Lin smiled warmly in response.

     “So, fill me in on everything now. How many hunks did you hook up with?” she seemed to brighten up quickly, clearly very excited to find out how Chihiro’s love life had been in the last decade.