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Haku comes back into her life in September.
She’s nineteen now, working at a tea shop between classes, and he’s waiting outside for her when she gets off work.
She stares, because she’s certainly not going to make the first move because she still doesn’t even know if it was all a dream or not. Her friends stumble into her back because she had stopped moving as soon as she’s opened the door.
“Chihiro!” her friend complains, linking arms with her, and another one of her friends stoops down so she’s eye-level, concern easy to see in her eyes.
“You okay?” she asks, and Chihiro would be touched, but really they’re blocking her view of Haku, so she wordlessly motions her out of the way because she can’t get a single word past the lump in her throat.
Akari obliges, though now she’s got that puzzled look on her face, but Chihiro doesn’t spare a single second longer looking at her because Haku is smiling at her friends and her, and why would he do that if he doesn’t know who she is?
He’s coming over now, all devastating looks and sharply cut hair, and Chihiro suddenly feels as if she’s a child again and trapped in the spirit world. He stops in front of them and she almost misses what he says over the loud beating of her heart.
But she doesn’t, and as soon as he says her name, she’s throwing herself at him, tears already prickling the sides of her eyes.
She knows her friends are wondering what the heck is happening, how in the world she knows such a good looking guy, but she doesn’t care because Haku is here in her arms.
Haku’s visits are sporadic.
He had been looking for her tirelessly for years, much longer than she had been thinking about him due to how time worked in the spirit world, and now that he’s finally found her, he can finally go take care of things he had let go in his desperation to find her.
When he tells her that, she swears her face is on fire, but thankfully, Haku doesn’t remark on it. Instead, he gives her a clap on her shoulder (a clap, really? She can’t think of anything less romantic) but she swallows her words and wishes him good luck.
It wouldn’t be fair to insist he stay, even if he had been all she had been dreaming about since she had left the tunnel. After all, she had been just a child back then. She can’t possibly believe he still liked her.
Her friends tease her about him, and one of her coworkers begs Chihiro to tell her when Haku’s stopping by next so she could do her own make-up all nice. She barely resists rolling her eyes at the gall of her, but just escapes before agreeing because she definitely isn’t helping some other girl try to get at Haku.
She’s a little sore about it, so she completely misses Haku sitting at the dining table with her parents as she stomps her way to her room to drop off her stuff. When she’s changed out of her work uniform and into comfortable pajamas, she heads out, and almost drops her phone as her mom rounds the corner.
“Chihiro,” she whispers, “you – you’re dating?”
“What?” she asks.
“We were shocked,” continues her mom as if she had said nothing, “I mean, you’re only nineteen! But well, we did marry young…” she trails off, her eyes getting that wistful quality as it always did whenever she thought of dad.
“Mom, what?” she repeats, “marry? I’m not marrying anyone!”
“Not yet,” says her mom, “but I got a feeling that’s about to change.” Her mom doesn’t elaborate and instead pushes her out to the dining room.
Where Haku is sitting. He makes an aborted movement to stand up at the sight of her, but her dad just laughs and shakes his head. “Chihiro, come sit down!” calls her father, and in all her dreams, she never imagined her parents meeting Haku with such mirth.
It’s a good thing her mom is there to help her because she almost stumbles as she goes to sit.
“Hi,” she mumbles, and Haku’s answering smile is so brilliant it almost hurts to look at.
“Your boyfriend came by a few hours ago,” explains her dad, “with all these gifts!” He pauses to gesture, and Chihiro’s eyes widen as she takes in the sight of them.
“Is that a dragon made out of gold…?” she asks, and Haku nods. There’s also a plethora of gold to the right of it, looking suspiciously like the gold that Noface had once given her.
She’s about to call him out on it when she finally realizes what her father had said.
Her boyfriend.
She stares at Haku, and he’s still smiling as wide as she’s ever seen him do, and it’s so nice to see that she can’t even get a word out.
“I’ve come to ask you to marry me,” says Haku, and even though they’re not even dating and she hasn’t even explained to him what marriage really is, she’s already nodding her head furiously.
Her parents are in the living room, calling relatives to come to dinner for a grand celebration.
So they’ve been left alone, and they’re cuddled together, Chihiro’s head on Haku’s shoulder. “Who told you about marriage?” she teases, and Haku’s cheeks flush pink.
“Did I do it wrong?”
“No, of course not!” she says, giggling, and she smiles up at him and relishes in the way Haku’s eyes soften. “I think I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“Even happier than when you got your parents back from Zeniiba?” Haku teases, and she pauses, as if she’s actually thinking about it.
Then she grins, “way happier,” and because they’re engaged, because she knows Haku loves her, she leans forward to press a soft kiss against Haku’s nose.
His flush somehow gets even darker, and she laughs as he pulls her into a real kiss.
“You weren’t even dating!” accuses Mai, one of Chihiro’s best friends from high school. She’s pouting across from Chihiro over a pile of food, and Chihiro nods.
“But we’re childhood friends,” she says, “and I can’t imagine marrying anyone but him. So …”
“Fine,” says Mai, “but I want to meet him.” She fiercely shoves a fry into her mouth, and she’s still pouting, and only lets up when Chihiro agrees.
A week later, and they’re in the same fast food restaurant.
“Okay, he’s not bad,” Mai concedes, and Chihiro just hides a smile, her heart full of fondness for her best friend and her fiancé.
They get married on a winter day. It’s snowing, and so cold that Chihiro can barely feel her hands. Haku smiles when she complains about it, and takes her hands into his, blowing on them in an attempt to warm them up.
“Stop being so cute,” grouches Mai, and Akari hits her on the top of her head.
“It’s their wedding day,” says Akari, and they hadn’t known each other before they became Chihiro’s bridesmaids, but they’re already bickering constantly like an old married couple.
Still, they work well together, and it shows in the way the wedding goes off without a hitch.
When it’s finally over, and they’re all alone, Haku’s smile turns mischievous. He hands her a drink without telling her why, and the sweetness of it feels like it travels down all the way to her toes. She feels as if she’s floating when he pulls her along, and between one blink and the next, they’re at the tunnel.
She’s tipsy and high on life, so she doesn’t feel an ounce of trepidation as Haku leads her down it. All she feels is excitement, and when they clear the other side, there’s a whole celebration going on.
Unlike the wedding they just had, this one is far from traditional. Rin’s already whisked her off to change her into a kimono that literally changes colors every minute (after a long tearful hug where they both expressed how much they’ve missed each other), and when they come out, Haku is waiting.
He’s just as she’s remembered, and this time, her arms are long enough to wrap completely around his snout.
When she clambers on top of him, she marvels at the way the celebration is completely visible on their flight through the night sky and wonders just how different her life’s going to be.
On their fifth wedding anniversary, Yubaaba takes a deep breath and says, “You’re pregnant.”
It takes a long moment for Chihiro to register what her granny is saying, and a longer moment to even think of a response.
The last five years have been a whirlwind. She doesn’t even know how to count the time because she spent most of it in the spirit world. After she had graduated, she had been whisked off to the spirit world to learn how the bathhouse worked and had been journeying around to get more customers with Haku.
A year ago, Chihiro and Haku had decided to try for a baby. It had been a hard conversation because their child was going to be half spirit, half human, but they were up for the challenge.
But each pregnancy test had come back negative after negative and she had just tested yesterday …
“Oh,” she says, “I didn’t think – are they okay?”
Her smile is kind. “You don’t have to wonder for long.” There’s a beat, and then there’s a knock on the door. Yubaaba nods her toward the door before getting up herself, humming a cheery tune as she starts to manually light candles around the place. No-face drifts in as Chihiro makes her way toward the door, her normally brash self more careful now that she knows there’s someone growing inside of her.
Her daughter. She was sure of it.
When she opens the door, Haku is standing there out of breath, and his eyes are as wide as she’s ever seen it.
“Yubaaba sent a message,” he says, “I didn’t think it was possible.”
Chihiro shares a smile with him and Haku hesitantly smiles one back, still clearly in shock. “The tests couldn’t pick her up,” she says, her hands already going to cradle her belly. “But I trust Yubaaba, I can feel her, Haku.”
Haku’s hands are shaking as he reaches out to touch her, and she overs his hands with hers. The air is as chilly as it was on their wedding day, perhaps even more, and it’s a nice remainder of how far they have come.
“Oh, Haku, you’ve made it just in time,” says Yubaaba, appearing behind Chihiro. “Here,” she hands Haku a glass of a mysterious liquid, “she’ll need that soon.”
They have one more second to share a glance – hers, excited, his concerned – and then she’s leading them back into the cabin.
She’s holding her daughter less than an hour later.
Her dragon daughter.
“What should we name her?” she asks, her tone reverent, and she still can’t believe just yesterday, she had thought they would still have to be trying.
Yubaaba had simply asked her to sit for a while. When No-face and Haku finished weaving a baby blanket, Yubaaba had draped it over her belly and then given her a drink. The drink made her baby glow, enough so that Yubaaba had narrowed her eyes in concentration, reached down, and simply picked her up. Yubaaba then placed her back down onto the blanket, wrapped her up, and smiled with satisfaction at Chihiro.
“Yuki,” says Haku, immediately, and his hand found hers. “Her scales are even whiter than mine.”
He’s right. Her scales glimmer even in the dimly lit cabin, and she can’t take her eyes off of her. Her fur is darker than Haku’s blue, but it’s still so similar to her husband’s, it’s obvious who is her father.
The thought makes her smile, and she nods, “It’s the perfect name.”
Haku smiles back, and then in the next second, Chihiro has to swallow her scream when suddenly, Yuki is a small human baby. They don’t even have diapers, and just as that crosses her mind, she yelps and grabs for the nearest cloth to wrap up Yuki just as her adorable baby opens her mouth and starts to cry.
The first few months pass in a blur. She reads countless articles online, and even phones her mom about how horrible the newborn phase is.
It’s made a hundred times worse by the fact that Yuki is half-spirit.
Fortunately, Haku is also a spirit. He doesn’t need sleep, so Chihiro easily gets her full eight hours at night.
Unfortunately, Haku is a spirit. Which means the things Yuki does doesn’t even make him bat an eye.
“You mean our baby Yuki is gone?”
He nods, looking serene, and Chihiro for a split second wants to scream. Then Haku holds his hand over her heart and warmth bleeds in immediately. He’s done it enough times Chihiro knows what it means. It means their baby is safe, and maybe even Haku is watching her with a spell.
“She’s out finding her river. She’ll be back soon.”
“She’s ten months!”
“A century in the spirit world,” he sagely nods. “Remember time passes differently there.”
“She’s still half-human,” she argues. “She could be lost!”
“River spirits don’t get lost,” says Haku, gently. “Besides she has magic.”
“She doesn’t even know how to talk,” the wind behind her sails is already waning and she gives up, leaning up against Haku. “I miss her.”
“I know,” says Haku, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head. “I’m sure she misses you too.”
She does. Yuki pops back in a few hours later, all satisfied and happy, and she says, “Mama!” with all the cuteness she always does. Chihiro kisses the top of her head like Haku did earlier and wonders why raising a half-spirit child seem so much harder than what the books say.
Yuki’s river intertwines with a lake. They meet the spirit that inhibits it, a boisterous old man that happily watches over Yuki as she plays in the river. He finds their union fascinating, and they treat him to a stay in the bathhouse with his wife, a cloud spirit, who titters nervously when she catches sight of her husband in one of the baths.
“I hope he doesn’t…” she’s muttering under her breath, and then a second later, the waters overflow and splash onto the walls. She shakes her head, but it is more fond than anything else and then she notices Chihiro watching her. “He’s so silly,” she says, but doesn’t expand on it and instead changes the subject. “Your girl is adorable.”
Chihiro brightens, “I’m glad Biwa is watching over her, she loves him.”
“He loves her too,” she says, “It’s been so long since our kids moved out. It’s nice to see him with children again.”
“How old are your kids?”
“Our daughter’s almost your age while our boy’s much older. He’s taken possession of some ocean miles away, but he comes to visit as often as he can with his own kids.”
“Oh,” she says, her mind caught up in the thought of grandchildren, and it looks like Biwa’s wife notices because her smile is kind.
Chihiro thinks she’s prepared for when Yuki brings him her first boy. She’s read books, she’s talked to Biwa’s wife a lot over the years, and she’s even talked to her own parents.
Yuki brings home another spirit. The spirit doesn’t even know Japanese and can’t even fit in their house. He goes flying with Haku and Yuki and Chihiro wonders what her mom’s advice would be if she knew about spirits.
But the day ends with Yuki’s partner presenting her a stone full of colors and she throws her arms around him because even if they don’t share a language, that should be enough to convey how happy she is to see that Yuki’s found someone.
It does, and when the day is over, Haku fills her in on everything she’s missed.
Yuki usually goes to Haku for advice. He teaches her magic, and how to handle her river, and Chihiro’s okay with that because it’s not like she can be much help in that regard.
But Yuki sits her down one day, all shiny eyes and smiles, and asks Chihiro to take her to her old university.
When Yuki tells her that she’s starting next year, she feels as if her heart’s about to burst. She takes her shopping, tells her about what major she can choose to study, and knows Yuki is going to do so well in school.
The years fly by. Yuki finds someone in university. They open up a sushi restaurant, and spend the weekends fishing for ingredients. When she takes him to the spirit world for the first time, Chihiro’s there to show him the way, knowing just how confusing it is when seeing it for the first time. They end up moving their restaurant to the spirit world, joining the bathhouse, and everyday, Chihiro wakes up to eat a frankly sometimes disturbing dish that combined both spirit and human cuisines.
But she’s so happy, she feels as if her heart is going to burst.
“This is so good,” Haku says next to her, even as Chihiro is pinching her nose to swallow it down, and when she feels as if she’s going to throw up, Yuki tells them she thinks she’s pregnant.
Biwa’s wife is resplendent in her kimono as she plays around with Chihiro’s grandson. Biwa is loudly laughing at something Yuki is saying, and Haku is trying to tell Yuki’s husband exactly what kind of fish they had caught that morning.
Chihiro holds her teacup tight in both of her hands as she watches the scene in front of her, and takes a long sip.