A/N: Hi! This is my first time writing a fanfic, so please keep that in mind!

I really got inspired to write this fic after reading "Courage of the Spirit" by Velf. Thank you so much for the inspiration! Please keep writing. Also thanks to my anime trio for helping me put this fic together. You know who you are!

I wanted to go in a little different direction with this story. Yes, there is going to be a lot of drama and romance, but I really wanted to experiment with the spirit world's hatred towards humans. It's going to take time for this to surface though! I also wanted to introduce new characters, especially one guy who I am going to have lots of fun developing. You'll meet him in this chapter, in fact. The title sounds strange right now but it will make sense soon. Ok, well…I hope you enjoy it!

Caught in the Storm (cheesy, I know, but my original ones were even worse, trust me!)

Facing the wind

Chihiro stared slightly frowning at her picture in the high school year book. Under her smiling face, in bold fancy letters, it read: Best Personality. She sighed and rolled over on her bed. Yup that's me. Little miss perfect. "But I'm not!" she moaned into the pillow.

"Chihiro! Are you packed for tomorrow?" her mother's voice floated up the stairs.

She sighed. "Yes mother! You don't have to ask twenty times!" she yelled down.

She heard footsteps thumping up the stairs and soon her mothers' plump figure appeared in the doorway of her room.

"So tomorrow's the day! My baby is finally leaving the nest and tomorrow she'll be a college student!" she exclaimed, her eyes brimming with tears. She hurriedly wiped them and said, "Well I'll leave you to your beauty sleep. We'll leave bright and early tomorrow." She looked out the window at the drizzling, angry sky and frowned. "I hope the weather gets better soon. We have had an awful lot of rain lately…well goodnight sweet." She gave Chihiro one last hug before trotting down the stairs.

Chihiro walked to her widow and looked out at the stormy sky. The wind howled and rattled the shutters. There was a flash of lightning and a glint of purple hit her eyes. She glanced down at her wrist at a band of thin purple beads and smiled a half hearted smile. It had been eight long years since her adventures in the spirit world. She had tried convincing her parents about it at first: Didn't they remember anything? But they had laughed it off and told her it was a dream. After months of stubbornly claiming that the spirit world existed, her parents had started giving her worried looks and talking to psychologists, so Chihiro had given up. They would never remember or understand anyways. She had smiled her way through high school being the perfect girl envied by all but always in the corner of the room, drawing. Art was the only vent for her real self now.

She dug under the mattress and retrieved a crumpled sketch of a snakelike dragon. "Haku…" she whispered at it, "Did you forget your promise?" She lay there in a daze until she snapped to her senses. "What are you doing Chihiro? Pining over a promise made in a dream?" she sneered at herself. But she knew it hadn't been a dream. Nothing could be as real as the excitement she had felt when she was in the spirit world. She buried herself under the covers and turned off the light. Listening to the coming storm, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

>>>>>

The next morning was a scramble. The alarm clock in her parents room had picked this day to run out of batteries, so it was a chaotic battle against time to shove Chihiro's bags into the car and drive to the college in the next town. They somehow arrived on time and crept into the auditorium where the welcoming speech was underway. Then Chihiro's father dragged her bags to her new dorm room. And she opened the door.

There were piles of clothes all over the room and various cardboard boxes overflowing with other objects scattered around. Chihiro's dad dropped her bags with a thump. In the middle of the swamp was a thin girl scowling and mumbling curses as she dug through various boxes.

"God! Where are my stupid paints!" she screamed in frustration. Then she seemed to realize she had company.

"Oh! Hello there!" she said, "You must be my new roommate! My name's Mayu. So nice to meet you!" she beamed at them momentarily and continued. "I know this room is a catastrophe! I'll clean it right up after I find my paints! I seemed to have misplaced them…" She went right back to throwing various articles across the room.

Chihiro winced as a book hit another box and spilled its contents onto the floor. "Err…Mayu? Do you need some help? Because I would be glad to." she said. Mayu turned around and grinned. This time, the smile had a touch of embarrassment.

"Really? That would speed things up. Could you look in that bag there?" she asked, pointing to a duffle bag shoved into the far corner.

It took every second of three hours to sort out the mess. An hour into the massive clean up, Chihiro had said a tearful goodbye to her parents.

"Take care darling. Remember, we're only a call away. We love you." They both gave her a hug and a kiss. She was touched to see her usually dry-eyed father swipe hurriedly at his eyes. She returned their hugs and watched them go. Her parents were gone. Now the two girls were sitting on their beds looking at the sparkling room.

"Wow! Am I lucky to have a clean girl like you as a roommate!" Mayu said laughing.

Chihiro smiled. "It's no problem. I never introduced myself. I'm Chihiro." she said. Then she spotted the paints lying on Mayu's desk and asked, "Are you taking an art course?"

Mayu's gasped then jumped up. "Yeah! Are you?" she asked, eagerly scampering over to Chihiro's bed.

"Yes. Maybe we're in the same class." Chihiro said.

They compared schedules and, sure enough, they were. They girls chatted late into the night. Chihiro found that although she was a bit silly, Mayu was in fact capable of mildly serious conversation. There was something endearing about this almost painfully innocent girl, and Chihiro found herself talking with ease and letting her usual mask of perfection down. Mayu was nothing like the fake girls back in high school who smiled to her face and cursed her behind her back. Chihiro even made a fool of herself by doing a comical imitation of her eighth grade art teacher which brought both of them to tears as they slapped each other on the back and howled with laughter. Finally they were all tired out and got ready for bed.

"Goodnight Chihiro! I'm so glad I have such a nice roommate!" said Mayu grinning.

Chihiro smiled in response. "Me too." …my first friend in college, she thought.

>>>>>

The next morning they woke up and went to their various classes, constantly half running to find their classrooms in time. The day dragged on but finally it was the last period of the day: art. Chihiro walked into the studio and looked around.

"Hey Chihiro! Over here!" Mayu yelled, waving her hands from across the room.

Chihiro walked over and sat down in the stool next to her new friend. The tall lanky professor came sauntering through the door and told them that for their first project, he would let them do a painting of any living thing.

"Be creative! It can be humans, animals, or even some magical creatures." he said. Mayu and Chihiro looked a each other.

"What are you going to do Chihiro?" Mayu asked.

"I think I'll do something magical…like a dragon" she said hesitatingly.

"Cool! I love dragons they're so mysterious and powerful, you know?" Mayu said.

Tell me about it, Chihiro thought. When she was alone and sulking she would often draw pictures of dragons…well, one particular dragon anyways. Soon the room was filled with the sounds of squirting paint and brushstrokes. Chihiro had finished outlining Haku's figure when suddenly Mayu leaned over and elbowed her in the ribs.

"Psst! Chihiro! There's a gorgeous guy looking at you. Over there!" Mayu nodded jerkily towards the back of the room.

Chihiro turned around. She found herself staring into a set of rich amber eyes. They were partially covered by dark chocolate wisps of hair which framed a sharp, angular face. He had a slightly crooked hawk-like nose and was wearing a faded black t-shirt and jeans which showed off a lean, muscular figure. And he was smiling at her. Chihiro's stomach dropped. He started coming towards her, gliding across the room, and she managed to wrench her eyes away from the wonderful thick amber eyes to hastily dab at her canvas.

"Is that a dragon you got there?" a voice asked. Chihiro jumped.

"Huh? O, yes it is a dragon, yes. It's a, a white one." Chihiro cringed. Can I sound more stupid? she thought.But he just laughed. The sound of it made her jump again and Chihiro dropped her paintbrush onto the floor. Wonderful! she thought.

"Oh I got it." he said bending to pick it up. She forced herself to turn around. Come on, face him Chihiro! she thought.

"Thank you" she mumbled, facing him, but not quite meeting his eyes. He laughed again and took her hand, placing the brush into it. In her surprise she looked up and into his eyes. Oops she thought.

"You're welcome. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Seigi. Nice to meet you." he said.

"Wha…o...yes. Nice to meet you. My name's Chihiro." he smiled again and shook her hand, paintbrush and all. While she was savoring the warmth of his hand, the purple band slipped down her wrist and came into view.

Seigi spotted it and raised an eyebrow, leaning in slightly with curiosity. "Pretty bracelet. Where did you get it?" he asked casually, still smiling.

Chihiro felt like her body took an extra minute to do everything. Can he stop smiling for one second? she thought.

"My grandmother gave it to me." she replied. This was true, since Zeniba had given it to her eight years ago. Meanwhile, he was still holding her hand.

By now, Mayu had pulled up a stool and was sitting only a foot away from the transfixed pair. With a knowing smirk on her face she looked from Seigi to Chihiro and back. Finally, when two agonizingly slow minutes went by and at least half the class had Mayu's knowing smirk on their faces as they too looked on, she got up.

"Ok you two! There's enough hot tension in here to make someone faint with envy!" she said. The class exploded with laughter as the two snapped back to reality.

Chihiro turned a very deep shade of red. "I, I'm sorry, Seigi…" she mumbled. Her eyes were still caught in his amber ones as he took a step closer and leaned in, his lips almost brushing her ear.

"Call me Sei. It was nice meeting you…Sen " he whispered.

Just then the bell rang and before Chihiro could finish opening her mouth to respond, Seigi was out the door.

A/n: Ok, I know you're thinking: what about Haku? Don't worry! Haku is coming, I promise! Also sorry about the length, but I just had to introduce Seigi. So what did you think? Should it continue? Yay? Please review! Honesty and suggestions are much appreciated!