February Breath

Disclaimer: If I owned Howl's Moving Castle, trust me, you'd know it.

A/N: So I was thinking one day. (Miraculous, I know.) And I had an idea for a Howl's Moving Castle fanfic with a Sophie that's a little more independent and a little different, from modern times. I got inspiration from a certain song mentioned below, my ideas evolved, and this is the result! Basic ideas are movie-based, but a lot of my own twist thrown in. Completely original plot—yes, something I do own! Enjoy and comment please :)

You take the breath right out of me
And left a hole where my heart should be
You gotta fight just to make it through
Cause I will be the death of you

Breath – Breaking Benjamin

Chapter 1: A Spirited Girl and a Handsome Stranger

A girl stood outside the high school, putting away her cell phone and sighing. Her long brown hair whipped around her face in the February wind that was laced with a few snowflakes although the sky was impossibly clear, and she began to stomp through the snowy field towards the woods. The day bore an uncanny resemblance to multiple occurrences in the past: several that Sophie did not remember, and one that she tried not to remember. But she didn't think of this. The world looked perfectly normal to her. However, that was soon to change.

Sophie

Great. My mom had left me a message on my cell phone saying that she couldn't pick me up after extra help and she was so sorry, but I'd have to walk home since Dad was away on business again. Oh well. It wasn't far to my house, and besides, it wasn't all that cold. I only had to walk through what all the kids called the "sketchy woods" to get off campus without being run over, and then past Main Street, then down a couple short roads with sidewalks and I'd be at my street. All the roads around school were incredibly busy and besides, the trees were iced over and snowy which made a pretty picture. It was too bad it sometimes smelled like crack in the woods—that was where they got their name among the student body. Odds are, you'd find a group or two of a few druggies there, especially after school. They weren't dangerous or anything, though, if you walked by. They'd just look at you like the stoned idiots they were and then go back to talking about the latest way to smuggle cocaine, or whatever.

I made it to the edge of the woods and cautiously sniffed the air. No drugs as far as I could tell. It wasn't like everyone in town was on something; it was just that, you know, every high school will have its classic druggies. We ran back here for track when we weren't allowed to leave campus during practice, and a couple of the guys from the team had been bugged by the druggies, which resulted in a lack of druggies in the woods for a few weeks. My friend Maria and I had been the ones to save the poor guys. We were jogging and came across the two of them getting pushed around so we marched in with all guns blazing and got their "attackers" in some deep shit with both the school authorities and the cops later, for the illegal and underage drug use. Ha ha for them. They had practically ripped them new—never mind.

She tensed. Up ahead was the same bunch of guys. "Speak of the devil…" she muttered and walked on at a moderate pace.

As she approached, one of the idiots must have had some kind of mind left because he elbowed his friend and said, "Hey. Isn't that one of those chicks that got us busted before?"

"Huh?" Dumb blinked oh-so-intelligently.

"You mean that time with those son-of-a-bitch runners?" Dumber asked.

"Yeah, yeah, that's it!"

"Oh right, from that dumbass team!"

"This one? Really?"

"Yeah dude, remember? Her and that blonde."

Her head had snapped up and she had clenched her teeth when they cussed about her team. No one appreciated the strength it took to be a runner—she wasn't even very good at it and she knew that much. She wasn't all that athletic; she'd always been a dancer (and she was mediocre at even that.) But no one insulted good people that she was even so much as acquainted with.

"Whaddaya gonna do about it now, huh?"

They were moving towards her. Crap. Circling around her. There were six of them.

"Gonna go tell on us now?"

"Yeah, go running off to someone. Get us suspended again, see what happens to your little manbitch friends this time." One of them behind her pushed at her very slightly as the guy to her

left, who seemed like the head honcho, said that.

"Don't touch me," she snapped, pivoting to face him.

"Ooooh…" they all leered obnoxiously.

"I like them feisty," sneered the leader, taking her shoulder from behind.

"I said don't touch me!" she snarled as she spun around again, grabbing his arm and twisting hard. He yelped and tried to jerk away but nearly dislocated his arm in doing so. His little minions apparently didn't get the message because two of them tried to shove her to the ground. She had to let go of the leader and kicked all three of them down below but another guy, one of the taller, stronger ones, got a hold of her arm. She tried to break his hold but he was too strong and the two guys that she hadn't gotten at advanced on her menacingly. She hissed at them, trying to think of how to get out of this, when a second later, the one holding her simply wasn't there anymore. Instinct kicked in and she was about to go flying at the two in front of her but something yanked her back abruptly.

There was a new hand on her wrist and as she turned to hit whoever belonged to the hand she froze completely involuntarily. This guy couldn't be one of them.

He was tall and thin but still muscular, with blonde hair that fell into his blue-green eyes. The eyes struck me the most. No human teenager would have eyes that color; it was incredibly unnatural and exotic-looking. He was a teenager, right? He looked like he could easily be a college student. All this, not to mention that he was without a doubt the most handsome person she'd ever seen, and she was sure, she ever would see.

He fixed her with that turquoise-colored stare, looking at her with something she couldn't quite identify. Then he smiled mischievously and looked past her. She heard several thuds and turned in confusion to see six druggies sound asleep on the ground.

"Do you usually keep this kind of company?" he asked in a low, lazy, but slightly lilting voice.

She huffed, trying to clear her head. This handsome stranger was messing with her thought processes. "Absolutely not." He dropped her wrist and she continued. "What walking disasters. Or rather, um, sleeping…"

He smiled again. "They won't wake up for a couple of hours. And they will have thought it was all a hallucination from the drugs."

She gave him a suspicious look. "Look, I don't even know you, but…thanks. And I really need to get going." She picked up her bag where she had dropped it and made to walk away but the boy stopped her.

"Sophie. Wait." And she froze. How in the hell did he know who she was?

"I'm sorry, I'm Sophie Hatter. Do you go here? I'm so sorry if I don't remember you somehow…" because she would most definitely remember someone like him.

"No, I don't go here, don't worry. But I know who you are anyway."

"Oh…kay. How do you know me exactly?" This guy was starting to scare her a little. He noticed this.

"Where are my manners? My name is Howl Pendragon," he inclined his head. Howl. What an odd name. But a little mysterious. It fit him, somehow. "As to how I know you, I've been looking for you and watching you for a couple days. I'm sorry, but it's all I can say. Can you trust me with just that much?" he looked a little lonely now but it was still kind of scary—like, he'd "been looking for and watching" her? What the hell? "This sounds kind of bad, but will you come with me?"

She blinked. "Um…where exactly?" What was this guy—Howl—talking about?

"It'll be a lot easier to explain once we're there, trust me."

And she wanted to trust him. And he had saved her… "But why? I'm sorry, but two minutes ago I didn't know of your existence! Why should I trust you when you show up out of nowhere?"

Howl sighed. "All right, well, in short, I've been looking for someone for a—a long time and you're definitely the right person, and you just have to trust me. Not to mention you're lucky I was the one to find you first," he added under his breath but I still heard him. "Please?" he shifted uncomfortably.

Sophie made a sudden, snap decision. He sounded just plain batshit crazy but she just had this…feeling. Like she was being drawn to him, and not just cause he was incredibly handsome.

She would go with this gorgeous wacko that she didn't know.

A/N: So did you like it so far? Kinda short. A tiny bit boring, well, except for Sophie whupping some ass, but it gets better later on, I promise. Comment and all that good stuff, please! :)