Author: Mariah

Genre: Romance/ Angst

"speaking"

Summary:

Chihiro's one pretty and sweet sixteen-year-old girl, but she's entangled with another guy in the Human World as boyfriend/girlfriend. However, it was by force and she soon realizes what Kuro really wants from her... Now who's gonna comfort her on a night like this? C/H pairing! Enjoy my first ONE-SHOT.

Chihiro was a normal average girl. Six years had passed since the last time she crossed worlds to the Majou no Sekai, and where she left all her friends including a very special boy that she loved with all her heart.

Chihiro thought as she continued her walk down the street for school. Her navy spring uniform billowed in the breeze, catching her long brown hair. Slender fingers stroked pieces of her bangs behind her ears and fingered the shiny burgundy hair tie that held up her ponytail. All her memories flooded into her head of Haku and the Spirit World.

"Hey! Chihiro!" Came a voice that shattered Chihiro's thoughts. She recognized it as Kuro's. That guy was always trying to ask her out and trying to talk his way into getting her to be his girlfriend. Like that was ever going to happen. Chihiro pretended to ignore the irritating voice calling her name and sped slightly faster.

A hand placed itself on her shoulder and spun her around. She stumbled and faced Kuro. She could feel her skin crawl. But other girls would have fallen for his looks. Muscular and lean with dark hair on his head with matching dark eyes. To her, she just didn't like his atmosphere.

Trying to soothe her frustration and the curses that threatened to tumble from her big mouth, she managed a rather forced smile, it was the best she could muster, "Good morning, Kuro-san."

"Hi Chihiro, listen, would you like to go to the dance with me this Friday, go down to the café shop, be my girlfriend, have a drink?" Kuro said in a hurry, jumbling up all his suggestions on purpose so she wouldn't notice and say 'yes, whatever' before considering his words.

However, Chihiro was a sharp girl and caught onto his scheme. She sighed and said, "I'm sorry Kuro, but I'm not going to the dance, I don't like to go out very much, and also, I don't want to be anyone's girlfriend at all."

Kuro knew what she really meant under all her polite reasons. The all meant that she didn't want anything to do with him. But it was to be expected since she always denied everything he suggested and he was ready for it.

His eyes flickered with an angry fire as he pinned her to a wall of a brick building, "Look here, Chihiro. If you don't become my girlfriend and don't do anything I say, you'll regret it this time." He pulled out a hidden blade and cut her face watching the bright red blood trickle down her frozen expression.

"Now, you might as well cooperate and I won't hurt you any further. At least not like this," Kuro said with an eerie hunger and malice, "You're going out with me and to that dance Friday night as MY girlfriend. Tell anyone about how you actually got forced into a relationship with me and I'll kill you personally."

Chihiro shrank back in fear as the knife was pressed against her jawbone harder this time and drew more blood. She winced at the warm liquid that flowed down her skin. She didn't want to become HIS girlfriend, she wanted to be with Haku! The kind and gentle, yet caring spirit boy she knew from a long time ago. She wanted to be with him instead! But if she declined Kuro, he would probably leave more wounds and let her bleed to death so no one else could have her.

"F-fine," Chihiro shuddered at the hot breath pressing against her face.

Mentally, Chihiro was shrieking with rage and kicking herself. Her mind chanted.

She inhaled a sigh of relief when she felt Kuro back a little ways away from her, "I'll be watching you." With that, he stalked off. Chihiro collapsed and began to cry. Hot tears rolled off her chin and seeped onto the sidewalk. She would have done anything to be in Haku's warm embrace, right now!

Picking herself up, she wiped away her tears and hurried to school.

~*~*~*~*~

Lunch period came and Chihiro's friend Hana (her name means "flower"), sat next to her worriedly. She knew Chihiro better than anyone else at school and knew that she was lying about how she got the cuts. Seriously, how could someone just fall onto the cement and skim their face but not their hands and knees. Something was up and Chihiro hadn't spoken a word since her excuse to run the bathroom and get herself cleaned up.

"Hey, Chihiro. You're hiding something. Tell me the truth about how you got those cuts. They're paper thin and too deep for simple scratches," Hana prodded.

Chihiro took a glance around the lunchroom and sure enough, Kuro wasn't sitting too far away from them and was glaring straight at her. She swallowed hard from fear and tried to change the subject. But Hana wasn't a stupid gullible fool and caught Chihiro's nervous look at HIM. Inside, Hana was twitching with fury. Kuro may have been a small crush in seventh grade, but hurting her best friend wasn't what she called acceptable.

"Chihiro, stay here. I'm gonna get that idiot," Hana growled, almost inaudible except for the girl sitting beside her. Chihiro could see Hana's trademark black pigtails shake. Hana was about to stand up, but Chihiro grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto the bench again.

"No, don't. I'm okay really. It's just that if he finds out you know, we're both chopped sukiyaki on a plate. Got that? Don't provoke him to hurt you too," Chihiro muttered quietly. Hana acknowledged Chihiro's fear and resumed eating, "But if he does anything to you, you know I'm here for you." Chihiro nodded gratefully.

~*~*~*~*~ Friday night ~*~*~*~*~

"Chihiro! Kuro called and said he's going to pick you up at 5:30 pm, okay? I told him to bring you back by 12:00." Chihiro's mother yelled from the foot of the stairs.

"Thanks Mom!" Chihiro hollered back. She didn't want to pick something very fancy for the dance. After all, it was only a stupid prom she was going to with HIM. After a few minutes, she picked out an orange dress that reached her knees with a few chrysanthemum designs here and there. The short sleeves were a light yellow-orange color and slightly transparent. At least it was too gaudy looking. She pulled on simple black dressing shoes and set her gaze at the electric clock where 5:28 glared back at her.

She sighed and wondered why she never told her parents how much she disliked him. Then she remembered that if she told them, they would most likely fret and move away again. But Chihiro wanted to be near the entrance to the Majou no Sekai. Even if she never found it again, she wanted to be near the tunnel that led to someone she cared for the most.

The doorbell rang and snapped Chihiro from her daydreaming again.

I

The doorbell rang again and Chihiro winced. She heard her parents open the front door and exclaimed their compliments, such and such. Chihiro wanted to growl when she heard her dad call her down. Stepping down the stairs as slowly as possible. Her mother noticed new bruises on Chihiro's arms and said, "Chihiro, dear, how'd you get more bruises?" Her dad also turned to look at her too.

Chihiro glanced at Kuro and saw those dangerous coals telling her to make up something fast. The poor girl blurted out, "I-I accidentally bumped into some tables at school."

Her mother raised a questioning eyebrow but let it go, "Okay. You two better go or else you'll be missing the dances. Remember, come home by 12:00 tonight."

Kuro pretended a smile and motioned for Chihiro to go. The two left the house and walked in silence to the school's huge cafeteria, open for the special occasion. Couples danced about the floor to the beat of the moderate music when they reached there. Kuro grabbed onto Chihiro's hand when she didn't respond to his request for a dance. He led her, more like dragged her towards the crowd.

They were dancing for a while and all the time, Chihiro felt like she wanted to cry and break down right there, but she had to be strong. She kept telling herself that everything was going to be all right. Slowly, her hope began to deteriorate itself and a storm also began to brew, seemingly responding to how she felt. Thunder and lightning roared together like a dance of their own but the sky hung with gray hues seemingly like Chihiro's tattered feelings of sorrow and despair.

Finally, when she felt she was really going to lose it, Chihiro mustered all her courage and spoke in a quavering voice, "Kuro, I don't want to stay here anymore, I want to go home. I'm leaving."

With that, she turned and yanked her hands from Kuro's tight grips. When her feet had carried her two steps away from the door, the other sixteen- year-old dug his fingers around Chihiro's newly bruising wrist from being pulled around like that all the time. A menacing tone ripped at her dying chance to escape the prom, "You will be dancing tonight until I SAY we will go. And it's only 6:15 right now and I only have to get you back by 12:00! You hear? We're staying!"

Chihiro blinked back a few tears that threatened to fall and yelled, "No! You're not going to boss me around anymore because I'm not going to listen to you!" It startled the other students in the cafeteria. They turned their heads to the source of her voice and watched as Chihiro hurriedly ran out of the room and Kuro in hot pursuit after her retreating form. Hana had been there watching over her friend and had listened to their conversation the whole time with her dance partner/ boyfriend, Shinta.

"Did you just hear that, Shinta? Chihiro's in trouble!" Hana said with anxiety. She had told Shinta what was going on between Kuro and Chihiro and he understood it very well, "Let's call the police and make sure Kuro doesn't do anything stupid to her."

"Right."

The couple ran to a payphone and dialed for the police station.

~*~*~*~*~

Chihiro had been grueling non-stop to wherever she felt she could get away from her pursuer. He was hot on her heels and she knew that she was running out of energy and it wouldn't be too soon till he had her. Her lungs threatened to collapse from not being able to properly breathe right.

She kept thinking.

They were both running down a secluded dirt road up a hill without a clue where they were, much less care where the path led. Half way up to the forest, Kuro pranced on his prey and watched her with strange hungry eyes.

Chihiro felt a hand tugging up the hem of her dress as they rolled off the road and past many bushes. They stopped and Chihiro took her chance and slapped Kuro with all her strength. Adrenaline fueled with her will; her slap sent Kuro head-planting into an oak tree nearby. His knife fell from his hands and onto the grass beside him. He growled with rage as he fell unconscious.

Chihiro got up and ran back up the hill and into the forest.

It had been at least five minutes since she was running. She thought she heard footsteps somewhere and ran faster than ever. Tears began cascading fast down her cheeks each time falling faster than the one before and soon there were miniature rivers flowing from her eyes. But the more she racked with her sobs, rain began its descent from above. It was like the sky was crying with her own tears.

A few drops hit her, but she found her way into what seemed like a familiar tunnel. Once inside she found out that on the other end, moonlight bathed the rolls of grass on the long flowing plains. She felt drawn somehow and walked outside with still steadily falling tears. When she reached some kind of river, the lands cloaked in its dark water, she fell down by the river's side and continued to cry her heart out. Never once did she notice two mossy green eyes stare at her from a dragon floating beneath the moonlit canvas.

It flew down beside the girl's bruised lithe form and changed into a seventeen-year-old boy with really dark hair that was cut right to his chin. He had the same soft emerald eyes and was wearing his usual blue- white akome uniform.

Haku couldn't believe it. It really was Chihiro. After all these years of him trying to pass the barrier through the tunnel entrance, he never thought he'd see her again.

Her hair tie that she received from Zeniba was still there in her ponytail
except her hair was longer and flowed over her back. She certainly grew
much prettier, but only if she weren't silently crying, she wouldn't be
breaking his heart looking like this.

Kneeling down next to the weeping girl, Haku placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Chihiro instantaneously thought it was Kuro and sent another slap at whoever she thought it was at the moment. Haku caught her hand as she turned around to look at him with fearful eyes. Once she had a better look at him, she realized-

"Haku?" Chihiro asked in the same quavering voice as before. Her eyes softened when Haku nodded his head in response. She pulled her hand from the one holding hers and flung them around him. The spirit tucked her head under his chin and held Chihiro in his arms, trying to comfort her. Whatever happened tonight truly must have scared her into such fear that she was so tense wherever she was.

For the first time he said to her after leaving her, Haku spoke in his same soothing tone but in a slightly deeper voice, "Chihiro, what happened?" He felt her tighten her hold on him as she began to explain the horrible events. Each time she shook hard when telling him about the threats, her wounds, and how she never really felt safe in her world with Kuro always lurking somewhere ready to give commands or beat her up if she didn't obey. And each time Haku listened to her pain-filled voice his anger at this Kuro person mounted. He felt Chihiro's tears seeping into the cloth of his uniform and let her cry on him. She had had more than enough during the past few days.

Slowly, she calmed down as best she could and said to him, something that he always wanted to confirm, "You know, Haku? I never could find the tunnel before tonight, but for some reason, I did. What I really wanted to say is that I've loved you a long time ago and I still do. I don't know if you feel the same but," Haku stopped her before she could go on, "Don't worry, Chihiro. I've cared for you since that fateful day when I saved you from my river and I haven't felt any different since then. Aishiteru."

The two pulled apart and searched each other's eyes and found nothing different from what they said and meant. Their feelings matched and nothing seemed like it would change. Both closed their eyes and their foreheads touched in affection. The slowly, their lips pressed against the other in a feather light kiss that soon deepened ever so slightly. They stayed like that under the silky light from the moon as two nightingales flew together across the sky. There were no more tears as rain, but a night of true love.