Hi, it's Sekky and I'm *finally* getting to my second fic! Actually it's only been a few days but it feels like forever. I hope that you guys enjoy the story!

I don't own this.

"Howl," called Sophie. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Whaddyou waaaaant?" Sophie sighed. It was four in the afternoon, yet Howl sounded as if he'd been disturbed at two in the morning. She waggled her finger at him.

"Now don't you whine. All you're doing is sitting up here in this stuffy old, dusty old, dirty old room of yours. Why you won't at least tidy up in here I have no idea."

Howl lifted his head from his pillow for just enough time to shoot Sophie a piercing glare. "I thought you wanted me to do you a favor, not to scold me for keeping my room the way I like it. If you've got nothing to say, I'd like to get some more beauty rest. It's not easy to look as perfect as me, you know."

"Fine, fine. I waaaaaas going to cook lunch so that Your Highness Lord Howl wouldn't have to lift even one finger, as we all know how horrible it is for that to happen, but since you're being stubborn, I suppose you can just do it yourself!" She was shouting and her words positively dripped with sarcasm.

Howl gulped. He'd gotten more than enough education in Wales to do sums, and he'd gotten plenty of wizard training in Ingary that told him to rely on his instincts when divining. Thus, he realized that Sophie+sarcasm+shouting=angry Sophie. And all he could see in his future when there was an angry Sophie around was that he wouldn't be safe from her wrath anywhere- and his spiders certainly wouldn't either.

"Uh..."

Now, dear readers, please remember that Howl had always tried to slip out of sticky situations, not diffuse them. Unfortunately, it is not very easy to slip out of the situation when the girl you promised to try for "happily-ever-after" with is the problem. So, Howl made a rather large slip, and a hypocritical slip at that. He acted without properly thinking. He did the firslt thing that came to mind, that being to blurt...

"Your hair looks like it's on fire when you're angry!"

"Oh really? Well, at least I don't need about forty potions to keep my shade even! At least MINE doesn't make me look like an anemic albino!"

Two can play at that game, Miss Sophie Hatter. "Oh yes, now you're giving me the NATURAL talk again! Because everything you do is NATURAL! It's so NATURAL to just waltz into someone else's castle and pronounce yourself the new cleaning lady! It's totally NATURAL to make the owner of the castle you invaded look horrid with some disgusting shade of ginger! Then you even followed me when I went to court Lettie! But wait, that's ok because it's NATURAL!"

Had Howl been paying attention, he would have noticed a flicker of hurt in Sophie's eyes.

"That was ages ago! And-and-and you're a perfectly fine one to talk! Using an eavesdropping spell to spy on me and Percival! Not even telling me you knew I was bewitched! And I was looking out for my own SISTER! You can't possibly expect me to have sat back and let you break my sister's heart, you horrid man!" Sophie was so furious that she was having a bit of trouble getting her words out.

"IT WASN'T EVEN A MONTH AGO! IMPERTINENT SOPHIE! NONE OF THE OTHER GIRLS WHO I COURTED WERE SO SOPHIE-ISH!" Somewhere in the argument, Howl had lept to his feet and started shouting as well.

"I WOULD HOPE NOT, SEEING AS I'M THE ONLY SOPHIE YOU EVER COURTED!" She stopped for a second, hesitated, and quite suddenly slapped his cheek. With all the dignity in her body, positively quivering with rage, the Soceress Sophie Hatter grabbed the Wizard Howl Jenkins Pendragon's shirt and snarled to him, "And I suppose that since I'm just another girl you've courted, I'll be going now. Goodbye." She released him and flung him back against his bed and marched straight out of the room. Howl could hear her exchanging words with a gentle-sounding Calcifer. Why couldn't Calcifer be that nice to him too, dammit! The castle door opened and closed again, but it wasn't until the dial began whizzing about to hide which one Sophie had left out of that Howl fully realized what had happened.

Sophie and he had had a fight, and she had left him for it.

Sure, they'd fought before, but it was the first time since she'd regained her youth, and the first time since he'd suggested happily ever after to her.

Coc y gath! How was he supposed to give her a happily ever after if he couldn't even handle one argument? "I think," Howl mused to the air around him, "that I'll just have to go after her."

And so Howl pounded down the stairs, only for Calcifer to confront him. "You no-good wizard! You made her cry!"

"What?!" Howl had never seen Sophie cry. Heck, he didn't even know she was capable of crying.

"You heard me. Shall I spell it out for you? Your cariad, as you refer to her, was crying because you were quite mean to her." It seemed Calcifer had caught Sophie's sarcasm.

"Well, I'm going to go and set things right, ok?! You don't need to be that way, Cal!" Howl, all at once, realized that he was taking out his rage at himself on Calcifer. Blasted heart, making him feel bad about making Sophie upset!

He sighed. "Did you see where she went?" Calcifer glared at him.

"I did, but this is your problem and you need to solve it yourself. I'm going to go visit some other fires now." And with that, Clacifer shot up the chimney and disappeared.

Well then. The mystery of where Sophie was would have to be found through logic; magic felt like cheating. Hmm, Howl mused. Purple. The Waste gardens. Too predictable, but still an option. Orange. The Chipping Mansion. That one's out, she wouldn't want to be somewhere she couldn't run from me, in case she did want to. I hope she doesn't. Oh god, what if she does? Howl shook his head. He was getting distracted.

Black. Wales. Definitely out, she hates Megan and doesn't know anything about the place. That leaves Market Chipping. Howl flicked the dial to yellow, and, coming as close as a wizard can to praying, opened the door and headed for Cesari's. Lettie blocked the door.

"No you don't, Howl! Unless you want to make a purchase, you can't come in here!"

"Look, Lettie, just let me talk to her. I know she's here. C'mon, you should understand that lovers sometimes argue."

"Ben has never made me cry, Howl! Now you just-"

"Howl?" Sophie appeared in the doorway behind Lettie.

"Sophie! Look, I'm sorry, I don't want you to think that you're just another girl, I want you to know that you're special to me and I-"

Lettie cleared her throat. "I'm going back to work, Sophie. If you want to stay here just come to the back room." As she backed away, she mouthed to Howl, "Take good care of her." Howl nodded and waited until she was gone to continue.

"Sophie, really, I'm sorry, I-I-I..." His words refused to obey him, but she understood.

"Howl." Her voice was quiet and gentle. "I forgive you. I'm sorry too, and it's not really your fault."

Howl, in a sudden fit of joy, picked her up and spun her around, and kissed her soundly on the lips. "I love you!"

"I love you too!" Neither of them noticed that it had been the first time they'd said those words. Arm in arm, they went home.

Later that night, as the two sat around the table (Michael was already asleep in his room and Calcifer still hadn't returned), Howl asked, "Sophie, if you don't mind, what was it that made you so upset? I'd like to know so I can avoid it."

"Oh. Um. You see, Howl, you only really got to know me as an old woman, so you haven't seen me like this yet."

Howl raised an eyebrow at her and took a sip of tea.

"Uh, see, it's not quite your fault in the whole... You see, Howl, er, you know Megan is a girl, so you might be acquainted with this... I'm on my, er, 'lady's days,' Howl."

Howl rather admirably refrained from saying, "That makes sense." Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid spitting out his tea.

So that's it! For now anyway. I'm thinking of making this about ten chapters, maybe more. It depends on what you guys and gals think of it, which brings me to my next point: please review! This community isn't exactly busy, but I always love to see the opinions of everyone here!

As for what coc y gath means, it's a Welsh expression that literally translates to "the cat's willy," amd is used to express surprise, shock, or rage.

Catch you later! Ja ne! -Sekky