Spirited Away: The Wait [ORIGINAL]

Together

     Chihiro smiled wryly as she swung their intertwined hands back and forth. “You really didn’t have to come, you know.”

     “I wanted to come,” came his simple reply.

     She observed the way the skin on his forehead was crinkled, and the tiny frown pulling the corners of his lips down slightly. “You’re worried.” It wasn’t a question, just a matter-of-fact statement.

     Haku gazed at her. “Why wouldn’t I be? The only time I’ll ever stop worrying about you is when I’m dead. Which would be in about a few thousand years’ time.”

     Or when I do, which would probably be much earlier than you, she silently added, biting her tongue to keep herself from saying it aloud. Haku would get angry if she did that. He hated it when she started getting pessimistic about her condition; somehow, he believed, or hoped, that she would recover.

     In general, the possibility of her death was a taboo topic for them.

     “So,” she started, changing the topic, “what are you going to do while waiting for me? I’m going to be at the hospital the whole day.”

     He shrugged. There was no agenda on his mind for that day. “I’ll just wait for you.”

     She wrinkled her nose, as if having smelled something pungent. “That’s lame, Haku. You should do something.”

     Haku smiled with a look of fond remembrance on his face. “How ironic. I used to be so busy in the Spirit Realm, managing my duties in the shelter and in the Shugorei, and now here I am, with nothing much to do other than look after you.” He squeezed her hand in his big, warm one. “But I think this is more than I can handle at the moment.”

     “Hey!” she pouted, “What do you mean by that? You don’t have to baby me all the time, you know. I won’t start crying if you leave me for a few minutes.”

     “Oh really?” he grinned mischievously.

     “Yeah, you could even leave me alone for a few days and I wouldn’t even care.”

     “Mm-hmm,” he hummed light-heartedly. His ears began to move in tiny movements back and forth. Upon noticing this, a feeling of dread came over the woman.

     When that dragon’s ears started moving, it meant he was up something. Something no good, that is. “Haku…” she began.

     But it was too late.

     One second Haku was standing before her very eyes, and then the next, in the blink of an eye—quite literally at that—the warmth of his hand left hers and he vanished into thin air.

     Chihiro took some time to recover from her state of shock and to react to this unprecedented change of events.

     She looked around, scanning her surroundings, wondering if he could really have disappeared just like that. He wouldn’t use magic out in the open for people to see, would he?

     Then again, it wasn’t very busy at this time. There were few people around and they seemed to be preoccupied. He must have noticed this and seized the opportunity to do whatever he just did.

     Chihiro sighed exasperatedly. Haku really needed to take a joke sometimes.

     “Haku?” she called out, stretching out her hands to see if she would touch him. Maybe this was some kind of simple spell that made him invisible. “Haku, I’m not falling for this. I know you’re still here. Come on, quit playing, I need to get the hospital.”