Howl of Many Means
By ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I sadly don't own Howl's Moving Castle or Castle in the Air or even House of Many Ways.
A/N: So, I read the new book House of Many Ways today and was pleased by it for the most part. Charmain was an okay character, but I gobbled up the hilarious Howl/Sophie moments. Clearly, it was necessary to expound on some things that happened during and after and maybe even a little before HoMW, so I decided to create a set of vignettes around that.
Do not read unless you've read HoMW or don't mind spoilers!
Anyway, here is the first vignette of what I am tentatively calling Howl of Many Means.
I. Didn't you mith uth, Thophie?
Family in tow, Sophie stormed down the hallway to the pretty little room in the back of the palace that she had been settled into. It was near the conference room, which Calcifer flickered over to as they passed and squinted at a spot on the wall by the door. "I wonder if the King knows there are passageways hidden with magic here?" he asked and then bobbed behind Twinkle when Sophie sent him a sharp glare.
"What'th the matter, Thophie?" the blond boy asked sweetly. "Didn't you mith uth?"
Sophie juggled a sleepy Morgan to her left arm to pull the key to the room out of her clutch purse. The sweet voice piped up again but was silenced by a door slamming in its owner's face.
Calcifer, who was now hovering over Twinkle's head and smiling, said, "I suspect you might be over doing it."
"You can never have too many curlth," Twinkle replied, running a hand through his shining hair.
In the room, when Twinkle and Calcifer magically appeared on and over the rich red comforter of the four-poster bed respectively, Sophie was setting up a crib in the corner of the room with magic. Morgan giggled at their sudden appearance, from his similar perch on the bed, and crawled over to tug on Twinkle's hair.
Twinkle resented this and, instead, handed the toddler a crumpet he pulled out of the air. "Dumpet!" squealed Morgan and then sat peacefully eating with his short legs dangling over the edge of the bed.
"You can't always bribe him, Howl," Sophie said. It was the first thing she had said since they had left the front parlor, but the two in trouble took it as a good sign.
"Aren't you happy at all to thee uth?" Twinkle smoothly asked.
"You can sleep in the crib with Morgan," replied Sophie and then smirked at the tragic expression on the boyish face. She went to place a few logs in the dead fireplace and received a contented sigh and a thank you from Calcifer, who moved in right away.
Soon, the room was bathed in a warm glow and the soft snores coming from both Morgan and the fire demon. Sophie went to the window to look out on the grounds in back. There was a cracked, empty fountain in the center of a weed-covered garden. Clearly, the King and his daughter were hard-pressed for money, yet, even from inside, the falsely-golden roof was casting a bright radiance across the dilapidated garden.
There was a creak of the springs on the bed and a slight whirling sound of spell. Morgan mumbled something in his sleep and then was silent.
"Did you have to cause such a fiasco back there?" she asked the space behind her.
Howl, full-grown and smiling, rested his chin on her shoulder and said, "What is wrong with some toyth?"
He quickly moved when Sophie aimed a light hand at his face and spun around. He held up his hands in surrender with his blue satin suit sleeves trailing. "I apologize," he said, but he was grinning. "I couldn't resist."
"Bah," muttered Sophie and walked past him to see that Howl had set Morgan in the crib to sleep.
"I know you can handle this yourself," Howl claimed as he came up behind her again. He was whispering though. Both of them knew that it would not do to have a loud argument now, as, even with a silencing charm, Morgan still had the mysterious ability to wake up at the drop of a hat. As she watched, a blue rubber duck appeared above Morgan's head and drifted lazily in circles in the air. Strange wizardly dreams, she suspected.
"But he missed you," Howl continued dramatically. "And he seemed to like his newly created playmate Twinkle, so I killed two birds with one stone and decided to take us to you."
"That's the real reason?" Sophie asked, turning to him. "Your silly pride wasn't injured by not being invited at all?"
"Of course not," he said, although he added, "even if it was very foolish to not invite me. I figured you would take more kindly to this than my other plan."
"And what was that?"
"Showing up as yowling cats on the roof," Howl said quickly and then sailed away to check on the weather outside.
"You're lucky you didn't then," Sophie grumbled. "He's spoilt enough without that."
"Precisely, cariad," Howl said. "Clearly, I was nobly thinking of our son."
Sophie shook her head and went to stand with him. "You can stay, but only if you stop terrorizing poor Princess Hilda with this madness."
"I can't stop him conjuring up toyth – " At Sophie's dark look, he amended, "Sorry. Toys. I will have to stay as Twinkle though. It solves several issues."
"Fine," agreed Sophie. "I didn't particularly want to explain why my husband was masquerading as a child to our hosts anyway."
"Lovely," Howl exclaimed. "In that case…" He stole a kiss from Sophie's lips and stepped back and shrank into a child before she could do anything about it. With a sigh, she shook her head at the beautiful blond boy innocently smiling at her.
"Auntie Thophie!" he exclaimed, as Sophie rolled her eyes.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this. Please review.