Princess Mononoke Fan Fiction / Spirited Away Fan Fiction ❯ A Thousand Fathoms ❯ Have Hope ( Chapter 2 )

Author's notes: Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews. They make me all happy!! ^_^ So anyway, I hate to keep people waiting, sorry I did. Be advised I will NOT be making regular updates, they will come when they come.

Okay, here's the low down, I will be changing point of views throughout the fic (first person to third person, and back again). There are certain events I want to happen, but Chihiro can't be at all of them, she's only one person! She's not wonder woman. If it does happen, most likely it will have its own chapter, that way it's less confusing.

I changed this chapter so all of it is now Chihiro's POV. I've also made it less rushed.

Anyhoo! Have fun reading Chapter 2 of A Thousand Fathoms! Please review and leave constructive criticism.

Disclaimer: I don't own Spirited Away.

Rating: PG-13 (Ratings may change)

Summary: Seven years, one month, two weeks, four days, and two hours, but hey who's counting? Never a dream. I would never let myself believe it was a dream. "Oh God, I'm actually going through with this!" I took a step.

~*~*~*~ A Thousand Fathoms ~*~*~*~

Chapter 2: Have Hope

"Sen…" A voice called, distant and faint. "Sen, wake up." Slowly the voice grew louder, less cloudy, and more real. "Sen, damnit girl, wake up. You don't want to be late for your first day at work."

"Run," I whispered softly still in-between sleeping and waking. "The chickens…they're coming!" They were coming, chasing my cousin and I around the empty yard, and attacking us. I could hear laughter; they were laughing at me. The stupid chickens were laughing at me!

"The chickens!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I bolted up right, eyes wide--so wide that my eyes began to dry instantly. Every single person in the room stared at me. Many were stifling laughs. I gave them a sheepish smile as soon as I realized where I was. An embarrassed laugh escaped as I bit my lip.

"Ready to work?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"This is the bath area, our bath is over here…" Rebi said proudly as she and I made our way to the baths. Rebi had been showing me around and I had to bite my cheek to keep myself from blurting out that I practically knew the place by heart. She, Haku, and Yubaba had decided not to tell anyone that I had worked here years before. Therefore, everyone who knew was ordered to secrecy. Rebi was one of the few who fairly remembered me, though I never knew who she was, and that was why I was paired with her.

She was all right. Nothing about her stood out except the fact that she was about six feet tall. Her long black hair, that fell to about mid-thigh, was pulled back simply by a piece of green ribbon. The ribbon's color almost matched Rebi's eyes completely. Her eyes were dark green, lively, as if she were from the forest herself. Her form was lithe, simple, covered in darkened skin. If only I could have tan like hers…

I remembered once Haku told me how many spirits worked here and what kinds. There were fox spirits, frogs, snails, spiders, toads, rabbits, birds, rocks, trees, water, dogs, cats and many more. Rebi had to be one of them, for she wasn't human. I had three guesses to what spirit she was--a) tree, b) bird, or c) cat. I was leaning more toward bird and tree than anything else; I wanted to know so badly, but I knew better than to ask right then and there. The least worst-case scenario would be that I would greatly offend her.

Yawning, I took another big step, attempting to keep up with Rebi. I had forgotten how hard working here was. It was already three hours into the day and I was exhausted. Clean the floors, clean the tables, clean the walls, clean, clean, clean, clean, clean! The fact that I hadn't had breakfast yet wasn't helping. My stomach growled and Rebi paused.

"You hungry?"

"Um, a little." I said meekly.

"Good." The two of us made it to our bath and to my surprise it was clean: spotless kind-of-clean. "You stay here and I'll go get breakfast."

"Wow, it's clean."

"It would be. There weren't any customers here because I was helping you get situated. I still can't believe it took us that long to find a uniform for you. You're so small, you know." I nodded; I learned long ago to accept how short I was. My stomach growled again. "Right! Breakfast! I'm on it." With that Rebi was gone.

Before I had a second to sit down Rebi ran back to the bath smiling widely. "You have got to come see this!" Rebi grabbed my arm and pulled me to the spot. Practically the whole bathhouse was there in a perfect circle. Everyone was laughing his or her heads off.

Rebi dragged me through the crowd and stopped when we got to a clearing in the middle. My hands flew to my mouth to keep myself from bursting out in laughter. However, it didn't help.

Koto was in the middle of the circle poised in a typical ballet-dancer pose. One leg was bent so his foot touched his knee and his arms were above his head in a perfect circle. A rope was tied to his wrists and he was floating just enough above the ground to drive him insane. The way the rope was situated made Koto spin slowly in one direction and then in another. A small too-too was fashioned on top of his head. There was a sign attached to his back that read "Will dance for food". Last but not least, a hat was placed next to him for donations--already there was a bit of food. When I say 'a bit', I mean a bit. There was nothing more than a few grains of rice and an orange peel.

Koto turned slowly and when he met my eyes his regular glare turned to ice. I could see his hate, his malice, his resentment, his abhorrence, and his contempt, all boiling in him and for the first time, I was absolutely frightened. My instincts told me to run, but I stood my ground and glared back. Smirking, I waved and left Koto to be humiliated in front of his fellow spirits.

The foreman decided to leave Koto there as a tourist attraction for the day. He said the Spirits would love it. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had a nasty run-in with Koto. Most everyone in the whole bathhouse disliked Koto for one reason or another. This was their retribution.

On our way back to our bath Rebi was unable to breathe because she was laughing so hard. "This is great! Koto finally got what was coming to him!" Rebi wheezed between laughs. "I wonder who did it…"

Rebi went off listing all the stupid things Koto had done over the years. I just smiled and nodded, trying to keep the picture of Koto's glare from my mind. To get my mind off the subject I did a thought train: Food-hungry-tired-sleep-need sleep-sleep… the first one went nowhere. Bathhouse-baths-nice-food-breakfast-B-boilers-Kamaji-Lin…Where's Lin?

"Rebi, do you know who Lin is? I haven't seen her yet today."

"Lin? Lin who?" One of her eyebrows went up.

"Worked her seven years ago…"

"Nope, sorry, Sen." She patted my back, "I don't know her. Why?"

"Um, never mind…" Rebi nodded and we went to work.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been an utterly boring day, today. No one knew who Lin was, I wasn't able to see Kamaji, not one spirit came our bath today, and there was no sign of Haku. Rebi complained the last half of the day about how useless our hard work had been. I didn't blame her. I felt the same way inside. The only pleasing thing was the wonderful display of Koto's humiliation. That was the highlight of my day.

Though, that glare he gave me did give me the heebie-jeebies.

It was cold, a little too cold for my taste. Shocking, because it was almost summer. The "nightly" breeze kept blowing in through the cracks, and lucky me, I got placed there. I was shivering non-stop for a long time and no one seemed to notice. I mean who would? They were all a sleep, some were even snoring, and I was a mere human.

I froze as soon as I heard the door slide open. It was silent suddenly and all I could hear were the soft footfalls of who ever it was. I had a fairly good idea it was Haku, but I couldn't be too sure. It could be Koto coming for revenge. He could rip me up into a thousand pieces. The person stopped when they reached where I was. I could hear the rustle of cloth as the person knelt down next to me. A hand touched my cheek and I knew instantly it was Haku.

"Sen…" Haku whispered softly.

I turned to him and smiled. "Hey." I met his eyes--so calm, so full of emotion.

"Come with me I want to talk." He said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I grabbed my orange akome* and followed him.

We made it outside without any adventure. Thank God all the people in the bathhouse treasured their sleep. It was obvious that Haku was the only one in the entire area who would sacrifice his sleep. I, on the other hand, held sleep as if it were my prized possession--my toy dragon, Fluffy, that I got a week before moving to this town. It was white and had greenish-aqua eyes and ridges down its back. Fluffy resembled Haku in dragon-form in every way except it was only a foot long and Haku in dragon-form was quite long.

If it had been anyone besides Haku asking me to talk to them in the middle of the "night" I would've said: 'Go talk to your other personalities, I'm sure they'll listen to you.'

The sun cooked my skin the moment I stepped out of the shadows and onto the bridge. It was a welcome thing. If I could I would sit in the sun all day. Maybe then I'd get a decent tan. Screw skin cancer!

I maneuvered so I could sit on the bridge's rail and still study Haku with full force. He was the perfect male; tanned skin, sincere eyes, amazing hair, great personality, best laugh, a sweep-me-off-my-feet smile and his arms were toned just enough to show that he had the power! My reptilian brain was urging to take over. The animal instinct was driving me to kiss him, to do something besides just sitting there. Yet, I ignored it.

"So what do you need to talk about?" I asked as Haku leaned against the rail.

Haku looked at me, then at the rail, then at the lengthy space between the bridge and the train tracks. "I don't think that's safe…"

"N'eh, if I fall you'll catch me," I leaned toward him. "So…what's on your mind?"

Haku heaved a heavy sigh and bowed his head. "Years ago, when I first came here, Yubaba made a deal with this guy. It said that if he ever needed any assistance Yubaba would send me to help him for however long he needed me…" Haku let the sentence fall.

"Yeah…" I knew instantly that something was going to happen.

"He called the deal in this morning."

"What?"

"I'm leaving." Haku heaved out blandly. My heart wrenched. Deep inside I knew that he'd have to leave. I could feel myself being ripped apart by Koto in my sleep when there would be no Haku to protect me.

"When?"

"This afternoon." For the first time his eyes met mine and they showed the pure

Blues. I was enraged this guy wanted to take my Haku away the day after I just got him back.

"Which afternoon; afternoon-afternoon or 'afternoon'-afternoon?"

"'Afternoon'-afternoon."

"This is just great timing!" I snapped sarcastically. I didn't care if my emotions showed; I didn't care if Haku saw me like this. I wanted to spend time with him, a lot of time with him and he had to go. "I just got here, and now you have to go!"

"I know." He said dejectedly as he moved in front of me. Placing his hand on either side of me, he sighed again.

"Can't Koto go?"

"No, it has to be me."

"Why?!" I burst out, not loud enough to be a yell, but loud enough to show I was pissed off.

"Because, apparently this guy is my father."

That shut me up. "Oh…" Guilt washed over me. I felt like I was on one of those game shows where the person who looses the lightning-round gets drenched with green, sticky, slime. Suddenly, I didn't feel so angry anymore.

"Yeah," Haku looked at me again. "Chihiro," I had completely forgotten that my name was Chihiro. Shoot and I thought that I had it written down! I looked at my hand, and just like always the ink had washed off. Smart one, Chihiro. "I just wanted to spend some time with you before I left. That way I'd have some good memories to bring with me when I leave." He grabbed my hands and held them tight.

I gulped down my rage and guilt and smiled warmly at Haku. At least he wanted to spend his last hours here with me. That means something…right? I was about to move off the railing when a big gust of wind blew against my back with full force. I lost my footing as the wind made me lunge forward. Haku went flying a second after I smacked into him. A loud 'umph' escaped as both of us hit the ground.

I didn't open my eyes until I knew for sure that we were still on solid ground. What I saw made my cheeks burn. I was lying on top of Haku, my legs were snaked around his, and his arms were wrapped tightly around my waist.

He studied our situation, just like I did, and soon enough he made eye contact with blushing cheeks. "I told you it wasn't safe."

"And I told you you'd save me if I fell." It suddenly became quiet, really quiet. My hands were clinging to his shirt and I could feel his nicely toned chest through the fabric. Oh, how I wanted to kiss him right then and there!

Our faces moved closer to each other, up until the point when our lips were almost touching. One arm of his traveled up my back and pushed me down, causing the last few centimeters to disappear. Then suddenly we were kissing and we lived happily ever after…

YEAH RIGHT! Only in my dreams! So, there I was, on top of Haku, my legs were snaked around his, and his arms were wrapped tightly around my waist. His hazel orbs met with mine; something in his eyes made me blush. The situation was a little awkward, I must admit, especially with my mind thinking very wrong thoughts.

"I told you it wasn't safe."

I smirked, "And I told you you'd save me if I fell." I wanted to kiss him. Too bad I didn't. Reluctantly I stood up and helped Haku to standing. "Okay, so…what do you want to do?"

"I have no idea."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Eventually Haku and I decided to go to the cliff overlooking the ocean. It was a nice place. The sun's rays played with the ocean. The water was so clear you could see to the bottom. I loved it here it reminded me Osaka.

I had made myself comfortable by using Haku's well-toned stomach as a pillow and the grass as my bed. I was on cloud nine. The clouds above us, white and fluffy, were casting shadows over the Spirit World. Haku and I were playing the shape game with the clouds. Every cloud I saw resembled a turtle in some way and Haku always had to contradict me and say it was a horse. I don't see how he could've seen any horses in any of these clouds. Though, he was probably thinking the same thing about the turtles…

Everything was perfect, despite the fact that Haku was leaving. That was one of the things that I was trying to keep my thoughts from.

"Kohaku I haven't seen Lin around, is she still here?"

"Nope," Haku mumbled as he shook his head. I turned on my side to face him. "She left about five years ago, found a nice guy--another fox spirit--married him, and had a kid. The girl's name is Sen. She named her after you."

I smiled. "That's good for her. She deserved it after all the hard work she had to put up with over the years." I was happy for Lin and she did deserve it. She deserved it more than anyone I knew. Inside I knew that I wanted what she had…I wanted that life with Haku.

"Mm-hmm."

I let my thoughts drift as I turned to the sky again. Another turtle… My depression caught up with me, Haku was leaving and I couldn't do anything about it. There was a promise to be kept, and Haku always kept his promises; he wouldn't start to break them now. I should've been happy for him, I mean, he was going to see his father--someone he hadn't seen for ages. And yet…There was this ache in my heart…

"Chihiro, are you all right?" Haku asked as he touched my cheek. I didn't know until that moment that I was crying.

"Huh?" I whipped the tears from my eyes and sat up. His eyes were on me, piercing through me. I knew it was pointless to hide my pain.

Haku sat up and wrapped his arms around me. "Everything will be all right. I'll come back as soon as I can. I promise."

I sniffled, "How long will you stay?"

"I don't know, but I will come back." I melted into his arms; he always knew what to say. He kissed my hair and I heard him whisper, "Another horse…" I smiled.

I don't remember falling asleep. I don't even remember getting carried back to my room. When I woke up the yunas were still sleeping. As I pulled back a curtain, my heart jumped. The sun was burning in the horizon.

Author's notes: I hope y'all liked the story. I had fun writing it. It's a little shorter than the last chappy, I am considering adding more, but I think not. In my opinion this chapter doesn't do my fist chapter justice…….. N'eh! Oh well!

As I said before don't expect regular updates. I'm a busy person and it's hard for me to write sometimes. ^_^ Please review, it makes me happy and it makes me want to write more.

*I have NOOOO idea what the uniforms/parts of the uniforms are called, but thanks to the website Susuwatari gave me I believe the orange tops are called Akomes if I'm wrong let me know please! ^_^;;;