A/N: Here's the second chapter. I still don't own any of the Howl's Moving Castle franchise!

Wasting half of a whole day by packing her necessary things was not common of Sophie. She wasn't a slow-worker, so such a simple thing as listing and arranging her belongings to suitcases wouldn't have been a big deal if she wasn't going to move to Howl's castle. Any place else, and she would've been ready in a jiffy. The situation although was not a common one either so she forgave herself. Living with the Wizard Howl was more terrifying than anything to Sophie, and as a witch, she had encountered a lot of terrifying things.

Wizard Howl was from Sophie's experience incredibly childish, horribly unpredictable, too vain to be a man and to be completely honest – Sophie despised the way his mind always wondered off to think about the latest so-called 'love of his life'! Not that she was jealous or anything, she just hated the way Howl simply toyed with other girls' hearts. Females were only objects for that heartless scoundrel's games and nothing else. In Market Chipping, which was Sophie's hometown, it was said that he ate the poor girls' hearts as lunch and sucked their souls out and kept them in a jar! Sophie of course knew that the king would never hire anyone who'd lead a lifestyle like that, but Wizard Howl eating hearts sounded too fitting to be false.

As if on cue to put an ending to Sophie's negative musings, there was a soft knock on her apartment's front door. She groaned silently, knowing who would be standing there, waiting behind the door. Reluctantly she finished folding her garments into a grayish green suitcase and walked to the door pulling it open.
"Sophie dear, for a second I was almost certain you'd leave me here to freeze!" the wizard in question said in a whining manner.
"Oh I'm terribly sorry, Howl. I just wasn't all that enthusiastic to open since I knew it was you", she answered and stood aside so Howl could come in. The wizard took the hint and pranced inside turning his head around to observe his surroundings a bit.

"Seems comfortable and… cozy. Rather small though", he commented with a hand on his hip. Ha! And who was the nosy one now, Sophie thought bitterly.
"Well I do live alone", she said and closed the wooden front door with an exhausted look. "There's no need for a bigger apartment."
"Alone? I see… How woesome", Howl said with a slight frown on his features. "Living alone is so awfully quiet in my opinion."
"I enjoy silence… It's peaceful", Sophie said a bit sheepishly. She had lived with her family though until she decided it'd be better for Fanny. Sophie's family had own a small hat shop, but when the Hatter sisters' father died, Fanny sent Sophie's sisters Lettie to a bakery apprenticeship and Martha to Mrs. Fairfax to learn magic. Sophie had stayed with Fanny at the hat shop, but when Sophie herself realized she – the eldest of three, doomed to a dull life – could do magic, she studied further and moved to live alone. Soon after that Fanny sold the hat shop away and remarried. Sophie had heard that Fanny very much enjoyed her new life at the Smith mansion.

But living alone was the most practical to Sophie, who had a habit of talking mainly to herself and inanimate objects. Since her magic was mainly in her words, she could talk objects into life - which had proved to be extremely useful. Sophie however kept this fact as a secret – she didn't after all know anything about the other two wizards' magic either. But now she was to be working with the Horrible Howl himself and her powers would stay in secret no longer.
"But wait – I thought you live alone in that strange castle of yours", Sophie questioned.
"Ah, the truth behind that will be revealed soon enough", Howl smiled sweetly and sat down on one of Sophie's comfy armchairs near the hearth. Sophie became a little vexed now that the whole living-together-issue had been brought up again. She almost opened her mouth to voice her thoughts, but Howl beat her to it.

"You liking the silence certainly explains things", he said thoughtfully, suddenly changing the subject. "How you haven't been heard of in Porthaven or even Kingsbury, where everyone knows everything, and yet you happen to be working with the king himself."
Sophie simply huffed and crossed her arms. It wasn't the first time when someone said something like that to her. Even her family wouldn't know how she was doing if Sophie didn't write to them from time to time. Nevertheless Sophie had customers coming at a steady pace and she could afford such a nice home. She simply didn't like attention and preferred to stay unknown. It would be awful if people needing magic would come to her door every five minutes – it was better to do things in peace and without hurry, and of course Sophie had her life to live too, not just her work!
"Some of us just don't have to tendency of making themselves ever so important and bathe in attention", she bit back to him. Howl Jenkins Pendragon was definitely the worst person at keeping a low profile and that could be noticed by anybody! Even his appearance screamed that he like to bask in admiration and attention. That unnaturally shiny blonde hair and those grand outfits made from expensive fabrics which must have cost a fortune!

"Now, now. If you must know, my house resides in Porthaven and I run a business in Kingsbury – that is why I am aware of the gossip."
"Porthaven?" Sophie raised an eyebrow in surprise. Howl has a house in Porthaven? A business in Kingsbury? But his castle was in the Wastes! That's a lot of teleporting to do if one wants to have a shop in the capital while they actually live near Market Chipping – the distance is tremendously many miles! "Why do you have a house there?"
"Nosy as always. You shall see for yourself when we make it home", Howl said with a gentle smile that clearly signaled the end of this discussion. Sophie made an impolite face on the thought of calling Howl's castle a home for any kind of time period. Sophie couldn't help but get even a bit more annoyed because of Howl's way of conversing. What an annoying, secretive man! Hiding something behind every look and every sentence! And to worsen everything, Howl merely laughed at the entire situation.

After Sophie had completely packed and checked for the umpteenth time that she had everything she needed, Howl had gotten them a horse carriage-looking like transportation device to take them to Wastes, where his castle was standing. Sophie looked at the horses in front with a sad frown before getting inside.
"Poor dogs", she mumbled, for feeling sympathy for the animals.
"Don't fret, dear Sophie, they're trained for the purpose", Howl tried to console her while climbing in right after her.
"Still, to be treated like a horse… It's against nature!" she said as they both sat down and the door closed behind them. The carriage started moving along the old brick road with a thump. There was no sound of hoofs clapping to the bricks, more like soft paws meeting with the stone. This gave Howl a slight fright, probably thinking that Sophie was going to turn those horses back to their original form as large hounds.
"Careful with you words now, we don't want to end up walking with the luggage, do we?"

Sophie huffed and turned to look out of the window. As had already been said many times, Sophie was definitely not pleased. She was well on her way to follow the king's orders and live with the last being in the whole wide Ingary she'd ever want to work with. Sophie had decided to try and tolerate him, as this was for the king after all and as a loyal citizen she had no choice but to obey. But the nerve of the king! To make an unmarried young woman live under the roof of malodorous wizard Howl Jenkins! Definitely uncalled for, she thought. Her thoughts reminded her a bit of her stepmother and she wondered what her family would say about this, if they knew. Fanny would probably threaten to faint after hearing that her eldest stepdaughter would be moving in with a young man, as maiden! Sophie almost drew a bet with herself about how Fanny would tell about the scandal in the mansion and sooner or later the entire Market Chipping would be chattering about her.

Lettie and Martha in the other hand would have a different opinion entirely, Sophie was sure. They'd just encourage her to catch Howl's eye in a romantic manner, just like they always did when it came to Sophie and the baker's apprentice, Sophie and the mailman, Sophie and the milkman… But Sophie was nothing of the sort! And she definitely wasn't interested in Howl. It was more like an utmost pain to reside in his presence even for a little while. As innocent being however, such thoughts brought a light shade of crimson to Sophie's cheeks. Daringly she glimpsed a look to the wizard's direction and saw him looking out from the opposite window with an inexplicable expression on his face. Even when Sophie very much would've liked to, she couldn't deny that the wizard was extremely handsome. Well of course he was, Sophie thought bitterly, it'd be such waste if all his vanity was for nothing. Suddenly Howl raised a smirk, as if to imply he knew that Sophie was looking but didn't turn. Alarmed, she faced her side's window again and the rest of the trip remained silent.

A/N: Sorry, didn't leave you an annoying cliff-hanger :D More like a… natural ending for a chapter. Boring though XD Anyway, did you like it?