She was dressed modestly once again, in the trouser-tunic combo that seemed to be the backbone of the spirit world fashion. Haku came back as he said he would, much more dry than when she had last seen him. He was carrying a backpack over one shoulder and was wearing some ever so slightly shabby clothes. He took her hand and led her to her room's balcony. When it became clear that he was going to walk straight off it she hung back. He pulled gently at her hand, but she refused to move. He regarded her curiously.

"I don't like heights," she said to the question in his eyes.

"You did not seem to mind ten years ago, or four weeks ago for that matter."

"Yes," she mumbled, embarrassed now, "but when you are in dragon form I feel safer about flying, that's what dragons do. Now a human looking person flying, that really jars against my perception of what should be."

He nodded, hesitantly.

"Makes a weird sort of human sense I suppose." He then smiled. "We shall walk, its a few miles but you could do with the fresh air, well as fresh as I can make it down here." A few miles of walking was not really appealing to Chihiro.

"Can't you change?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Not today," he said gently.

The truth was he wanted to be in his human form today, he did not want her to be reminded of the differences between them. He had decided that today he would sort things out. He needed to do something to find out how she felt about him. Linca would be here by tomorrow and probably want to take Chihiro back to the bosom of her new family.

He would not have her to himself again for some time. It did hurt however that she would not fly with him. She had trusted him once, what had changed? He smiled and guided her from the room, and tried to ignore Meeka's feline gaze as he passed her in the corridor. He did not care what others thought, this was between him and his human.

They trudged along the black sparkling cliff line together. Little was said between them until Chihiro decided to break the ice.

"Why did you come back to the bathhouse?" He could not help smiling.

"Do you never tire of asking me personal questions?" He teased, "Are all your kind this curious?" but he continued anyway. "I had completed the heavy work with my river." He closed his eyes as if pained by the memory. "It was nearly dead when I found it. It had been deprived of the sun and all but the simplest life had perished." She placed a hand on his arm.

"That must have been terrible for you." He looked down into her soft brown eyes. He was touched by her effort to try and understand something she could not possibly comprehend.

"It was, and as soon as I had re-established the bond it hurt even more. I worked slavishly to rebuild the ecology. As the river grew healthier, I grew in power and now it is in peak condition. No human interferes with my river down here and though I have fungus providing the illumination and some very strange troglodytes living down here the river is healthy. I even have elemental spirits living here, some Nymphs and a few Selkies and even a water horse, he's beautiful, you may see him around," He turned to her, eyes serious. "Whatever you do, don't ride him. No matter how nice he seems, he has a dangerous sense of humour."

Chihiro nodded she knew what a water horses were like and she would certainly never to ride one. They continued walking for a few minutes then Chihiro said.

"So why help out Yubaba if all was well?"

"All was not well." He stared at the black water of the lake. "I began to dream of you, you were so distressed, I used to wake from those dreams desperate to help you, but I could not. The others thought you had forgotten us, but I knew differently. I tried to contact you but something blocked you from me. I was frustrated by my lack of success and with little to do, I started to sleep for days at a time. It got to the point where I was practically in permanent hibernation when the Lady came to me. She can be quite persuasive; she got me to hire Meeka, to remind me that I had a day to day existence here. She also told me that my assistance may be need at the bathhouse. Intrigued, and I must confess bored with living underground, I travelled to the bathhouse and scared the wits from Yubaba." He grinned wolfishly.

"I ended up with half the bathhouse. Even with two occupations, I was still having dreams. I talked to Zeniba about it and she advised caution. She reminded me of all the things that had happened to humans in this realm. I decided not to bring you here, even if I could, but I still needed to help you. I approached a lonely troublemaking spirit I'd employed in the baths a few months before; that spirit was Linca and the rest you know."

They walked in silence again as Chihiro digested all of this.

"You are very different from how I remember you." She mumbled.

"Of course I am. I'm a hundred times more powerful and not a slave anymore. I'm also physically older, which changes things too."

"Yes," said Chihiro, "I noticed that, why did you age?" He looked out at the lake, as if struggling with the answer. She did not want to make him uncomfortable.

"Look, Haku... forget I mentioned it, I..."

"No," he interrupted. "I will answer." He swallowed and looked at her, green eyes unreadable. "I made a promise to a little girl once. A promise that I would see her again. But little girls grow up and become beautiful young women. I decided to age myself with her, so that when we met again she would not see me as a child younger than herself." Chihiro could not think what to say, she had never thought that it was her that had induced him to change his appearance. She felt she was expected to say something.

"I think I like the older you." Then she grinned, "That is until you try to order me around." He smiled back at her.

"I'm used to getting my own way. You and Linca are the only ones who don't let me all the time. I respect you both for that."

(Art credit DavinArfel) 

They walked up a few black sand rises beyond the cliff line. Chihiro was starting to feel a little hot and bothered. Abruptly they came upon Haku's destination at the top of a steep rock rise. It took Chihiro's breath away. It was a small pool, a good thirty feet above the huge lake in the cavern. A small falls cascaded into it from a height of about twenty feet. The water was an aquamarine blue against the black rock of the pools bed. Most surprising of all, the pool steamed.

Haku looked at her.

"It's a hot spring that runs from below these caves and meets my river here. It's cool enough to bathe in and it's full of minerals. I thought it would help your arm." Chihiro touched her bad arm absently and looked back up at him. She was more than a little nervous. For some reason, she thought that her swimming in his river, even this small part of it, was more important to him than he was letting on. She did not want to insult him by accident. Seeing her hesitation he said.

"You can swim can't you?" Chihiro nodded and said.

"Better than you can, you don't swim you just kind of move through the water." He laughed at her, but watched intently as she removed her shoes and socks and stripped off her tunic, leaving only her vest and loose trousers on. She poked a toe in the water and smiled at the pleasant temperature. She could feel him hovering behind her. She performed a standing jump from the bank and turned it into a smooth dive. She slipped under the water. It was warm and bubbly, little eddies pulled at her but there were no strong currents. Haku watched her from the bank. She rolled forwards in the water twice and then performed a very shaky underwater handstand.

She was acting like a child, like the child he had once known would have acted. To Haku, it was gratifying to know she had not left her ten-year-old self behind entirely. She swam to the middle of the pool and slipped beneath the water, touching the bottom. She surfaced a few seconds later with the iridescent shell of a freshwater snail.

"Can I have this?" She called to him.

"You can have anything you want." He replied with a smirk. She laughed lost concentration and got a mouth full of water.

"In that case, I'll have your house and your money." She spluttered but still laughing.

"As long as you take the dragon that goes along with it all, you can have everything." Chihiro smiled but by the look on his face, she was not sure he was joking.

"Of course he is!" She told herself, "don't be so arrogant! You always read too much into what he says." She swam towards him and stood up on the bottom, her feet slipped and she was about to fall when he caught her. Chihiro's eyes widened. More than anything she had seen him do so far, this disturbed her most. He had moved so fast he had disappeared for a moment.

"Sorry," he mumbled aware he had scared her. He set her upright and looked at the water around his feet.

"Don't apologise to me for being what you are. You may startle me sometimes, but I would not change you, for both our worlds." She treated him to a sweet smile and then slipped back into the water. She swam to the opposite edge of the pool and sat on a rock shelf beneath the water that made a perfect bench. The water still came up to her chest. She sat back and sighed, completely relaxed. She watched Haku slip into the water. He could swim when he wished to, but not like her. He did not fight the water but used it. He was as graceful as a seal or dolphin. She watched him in awe for quite some time.

"He is a creature from another world, but he is so human-like sometimes I forget about his true nature. Then he does something impossible and it shocks me. I wish I could stop doing that. I have no problem with his dragon form or his power but he does not react to things like I do, he sees things very differently, and that confuses me. He always confuses me." She pulled a face. "You're my friend Chihiro, do as I say Chihiro. Here is a vastly expensive gift Chihiro, your only human Chihiro." She sighed and then smiled to herself as her eyes followed him around the pool again.

"It's a good job he does not know how handsome he is." She thought. "At least I don't have to deal with an attempted seduction as well as everything else. It's not like he would ever look my way twice but... With him being that handsome... well, it would be difficult to..." She laughed at herself earning a strange look from Haku. "Not that being seduced would be THAT unpleasant, it would just be inconvenient." She shook off her imaginings and slipped off the rock shelf and swam slowly towards him.

He came up from the bottom of the pool with a handful of iridescent snail shells just like the one she had found. He grinned at her as she trod water and he stuck them one by one in her sleek, wet hair. By some sort of magic, they stayed put.

"There," he said with a boyish smile. "Now you look like a real mermaid." Chihiro looked at his bright fey eyes and friendly smile and felt something melt inside her. "But you don't swim like a mermaid, all splashes and noise it's so human, fighting the element you find yourself in, endearing too." She frowned, and then on a whim, ducked his head beneath the water. She swam away and gave a girlish scream as he gave chase. She knew he could catch her easily but he held back, enjoying the hunt.

She squealed again as he made a grab for her foot. She kicked out splashing water in his face. She felt incredibly slow and clumsy in the water compared to him, but she swam as hard as she could to the waterfall regardless of her bad arm. She swam underneath the raining water and gasped as the cooler water hit her face and back. It was not a strong flow, more a heavy shower of droplets. It caressed her face hair and neck. There was no time to feel refreshed, however, as he was only moments behind her.

"Give up!" He said in a mock evil voice. "I can chase you all day and never tire." She clung to the slimy rocks behind the waterfall and started to climb towards a ledge she could see a few feet up, slick with water and slime.

"Never!" She shouted over her shoulder. "I'm human and adaptive, you're stuck with one element." She scrambled up the rocks leaving him in the pool. He did not follow her. She slipped a few times but managed to haul herself over the ledge and out of the falling spray.

She peered back over the ledge and grinned.

"Come on dragon!" She called down to his upturned face. "You can't say you're afraid of heights, that's my excuse!" He rose from the water and floated up through the spray to the ledge and stepped onto it. He folded his arms cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. Chihiro placed her hands on her hips.

"That's cheating, you're not playing fair!" She accused.

"Who said I had to?" He retorted.

"Me!" She replied coming closer and squaring up to him. Annoyingly she had to stand on her toes to do this but she tried to ignore that. "Flying is not in the spirit of fair play. I move that you be disqualified from these proceedings!" His green eyes danced with mischief, he leaned towards her, forcing her back onto her heels.

"Well that gives me little incentive to play fair," he drawled, "I caught you and I demand a prize." His hair fell forward and dripped on to her face. This close to him she could feel his body heat through her wet clothes. She shivered in the damp air, but refused to back down to him and let him win this strange game they were playing. She flung her head back whipping the wet tresses from her face.

"You don't deserve a prize!" She retorted and made to jump from the ledge, she planned to dive back into the pool and swim for it. He caught her around her waist with one arm and pulled her to him. She struggled but it was like having an iron cord around her. She looked down at the water and pouted slightly.

"I'm not playing anymore; you don't give me a chance." She mumbled.

"I'm not playing anymore either." He said.

She snapped her head around to look at him, surprised by the rough tone of his voice. The green eyes had a hungry look in them, she had seen that same look in Scott's eyes, but Scott's look was tepid compared to the heat she could see burning in Haku's emerald gaze. She could not move, she could not breathe, her pulse raced and her stomach shrank. Her mind was completely blank, she had not seen this coming, she had suspected, but could not believe that he could ever have an interest in such a dowdy little human like her. How stupid she was! Now she felt like a rabbit before two green headlamps, unable to do anything.

"I'm still taking my prize" he whispered and took her face in his hands and kissed her. Chihiro hardly felt the kiss at first; it took a moment for her brain to catch up with what was happening. His lips were as warm as she remembered and his breath was just as sweet, but this was different to him rescuing her.

His lips caressed hers in such a way as to leave her breathless; he was gentle but left her in no doubt of his intentions. When she felt his hands leave her face and move down her back to her hips, pulling her even closer to him.

She panicked. She twisted in his arms and pushed him back from her. She stumbled two steps back and stared at him, unbelieving. Her fingers fluttered to her lips, touching them as if she had been burnt. She opened her mouth to say something but no sound came out. She felt angry for being surprised by him and flattered that he had feelings for her, but scared too, she had liked his kiss a lot more than she thought she would. The touch of his lips to hers had dazed her and nearly driven every sane thought from her mind leaving her defenceless... nearly. She also began to feel very guilty when she saw the hope drain from his face on seeing her reaction.

"I'm sorry," He said in a dead monotone, "I've insulted you... it won't happen again." Before she could speak a word of explanation, he leapt from the ledge into the pool below and disappeared. Chihiro cursed loudly and sunk down to sit on the ledge, legs dangling into the spray of the waterfall. She sat for some time, just thinking.

"Oh Haku," she breathed, "I'm so sorry, if only you had let me explain! You surprised me, I was frightened!" Her lip trembled and she hugged herself. "I've always been afraid." She whimpered, she shivered again wishing he was here, wishing she could hug him and tell him not to take it personally and that it was just her being foolish.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she whispered, the pendant at her neck turned ice cold and the snail shells dropped from her hair.

A/N- please don't hate me!