I meant to update yesterday, but my internet connection can be very unreliable. It's always dying when I need it most. DX :dreads taking classes online next year because of this:

So, at the moment I'm not really sure how to fill a few chapters before the ball. Suggestions, anyone? :3 They would be greatly appreciated.

Chapter Six:
In Which Howl Behaves Like an Infant and Sophie Turns the Tables

By the time Howl finally got back to the castle, Sophie had fallen into a kind of half-sleep in front of the fireplace. Calcifer had been keeping her entertained with tales from his days as a star, and the last thing she recalled when she was conscious was an epic tale wherein Calcifer and his brother had been forced to avoid a meteor shower when the meteors got a touch too cocky and decided it was time to invade the stars' area of the sky. The next thing she was aware of was the sound of the door opening and Howl coming in, his hair wet from rain that she presumed was now coming down in Wales. The wizard walked into the kitchen and removed his wet jacket before proceeding to wring out locks of his hair.

For a moment he didn't seem to see Sophie, and she watched him intently. With the water glistening on his damp skin he gave the impression that he was glowing, and Sophie's heart gave several hard, lurching beats at the way his green eyes slid closed in a look of peaceful joy at being home and out of the rain. She had known him for quite some time now and she had noticed right from the beginning that he was attractive (it was painfully hard to miss), but now she had to wonder why it had taken so long to notice these little details. There was the fiery pink glow to his cheeks, the defined lines of his face, the lean strength in his shoulders and what she could see of his chest. Her heart was still hammering in that strange way, and when Howl looked over at her, she wondered if maybe he had actually heard it.

"Evening, Howl," she said to him, smiling in a slightly forced way as the guilt found its way back into her, replacing the strange awe at his tiny but exquisite details. Howl looked at her for a moment. He didn't glare, he didn't smile, and he didn't speak. He simply looked, and when he was finished looking he turned away without answering her and headed for the stairs. Sophie stood quickly before he could evade her. With the guilt gnawing at her stomach, she shouted out to him with far more intensity than necessary. "Howl! I--"

"Don't bother," Howl interrupted her with little emotion in his tone. "I suppose I can't really blame you, anyway," and with that he was on the stairs and hurrying up to his room, obviously still not in the mood to listen to anything she had to say. Sophie cursed his stubbornness.

"Howl, please just listen to me!"

Howl paused for a moment. "No," he replied in a voice that made him sound more like a stubborn teenager than a 27-year-old wizard. "I wont listen because I'm rude and selfish and thick-skulled, right?"

God, he was frustrating. Sophie could have slapped him right then and enjoyed it. "I didn't mean a word of it, Howl!" Sophie insisted, but he was already headed in the direction of his miraculously clean bedroom.

"Goodnight," he snapped, slamming the door behind him.

"Impossible, isn't he?" Calcifer asked. He had been dozing among the embers, but Howl and Sophie's tirade had apparently awakened him.

"Ugh, yes!" Sophie groaned, sinking back into her chair. "I've never met someone quite as impossible as he is! How in the world did he get this way?" on the verge of pulling her hair out, Sophie slid to the floor and sat down on the hearth before Calcifer, who was blazing cheerily away and lighting up the room with his eerie blue glow.

"There is, of course, always the option of cornering him," the fire demon suggested. "I'm sure there's a way you could back him into a corner and force him to listen to you. Trapping him completely is really the only way to make him listen to anything."

"I'm sure he'd find some way to slither out," Sophie sighed so heavily that Calcifer flickered. "Honestly, I'm almost getting to the point where I could just forget about the whole thing and not care if he knows I'm sorry or not. Has he always been this impossible?"

"As long as I've known him," Calcifer reached for another log. "He's like a child when it comes to this kind of thing. It takes more patience than I have, I know that much."

"Oh well..." Sophie pulled her legs up against her chest and scooted closer to the warmth radiating from Calcifer. "I'm sure things will look better in the morning."

XXX

Things did not, however, look much better in the morning. When Sophie got up, she put on one of the sundresses Howl had bought her to show him just how grateful for them she was. It was a pale yellow, and the airy fabric made her feel even more summery than the day before as she walked out into the bright morning sun to gather flowers for the shop. She fully expected to see Howl out among the blossoms, but once again he was absent. Her heart gave a sad little flop at this fact, and she sighed. Recently Howl seemed to have quite a large say in what her heart chose to do, and it was more than a bit disconcerting. She tried to ignore this thought and gently caressed the petals of a nearby daisy.

"Howl didn't come out of his room," Michael reported as he emerged with his tub (he always seemed to be a little later than Sophie). Sophie was grateful that she didn't have to ask, and they gathered blossoms in silence. Today Sophie felt like picking wide, white gardenias and delicate violets, which she envisioned arranging together in bouquets. Michael plucked bright red and yellow tulips and multicolored hyacinths. Calcifer surveyed their progress from the air above them, floating lazily about in the morning breeze. All in all, it was an absolutely lovely morning. Sophie, however, could not really enjoy it. She was far too miffed about Howl's behavior.

"Why won't he even let me apologize?" she asked, dropping a clump of gardenias rather forcefully into Michael's tub. Calcifer zoomed to the left to avoid the splash of water.

"Because that's the way he is, Sophie. He's as thick-skulled as a mule and ten times as stubborn. Don't let it get to you," Calcifer's words rung true, and Sophie tried not to let Howl get to her. She really did. But somehow, he refused to leave her thoughts all morning and stayed put when she and Michael went to open the shop for the day.

"Have a lovely day," she told a young couple as they exited the shop, the woman smiling and holding the flowers her lover had just purchased for her. Sophie found herself staring after them with a kind of abstract longing, wondering how in the world, for those two, having romantic feelings seemed to be so simple. "Damn you, Howl," she muttered, and tried not to become cross. Michael seemed to sense it, and busied himself arranging bouquets in the corner of the shop furthest from her.

When Howl finally showed up for work it was nearly noon, and Sophie had worked herself into quite a foul mood. Calcifer, who had been drifting silently through the air all morning and darting out of sight whenever a customer came in, was the first to notice him.

"Look out, Sophie," the fire demon muttered, and Howl frowned. Sophie glanced at him briefly, giving him a rather patronizing look, and then went back to her inventorying. She had spent the last hour working this out, and the truth was very clear; if Howl was going to act like a child and avoid all of her attempts to apologize, it would be much better just ignore him altogether. It didn't matter that this morning he was clothed in brilliant violet and smelled of plumeria, or that his hair was glowing in a rather unearthly but attractive way. She ignored him all the same.

Sophie could tell that Howl was more than a bit distressed by this new silent treatment. He loved attention, and failing to get it altogether was probably something truly horrible to him… and something relatively new. She watched the wizard out of the corner of her eye as he moved along rows and rows of flowers, fluffing the petals absently and pretending he had something of importance to do.

"Morning, Michael," Howl said pleasantly, and Michael, wound up from all the tension Sophie had caused in the room, jumped slightly. She would have laughed had she not felt so sorry for the teenager, being hit with the brunt of Howl's awkward conversation.

"Good morning, Howl," Michael said, calming visibly. Over the apprentice's shoulder, Sophie could feel Howl's eyes burning into her like hot embers, and she avoided them. She could sense that something was ready to snap deep inside of Howl at this treatment, and though it was a very dangerous prospect, she enjoyed being the one to snub him for once. He was now engaged in an idle conversation with the hapless Michael, but he threw her despairing glances now and then. She could tell that, had he not been so horribly stubborn, he would have broken down and asked her why in the world she was giving him the cold shoulder.

It was a strange thing, to feel this sudden sense of power over him. Sophie was relieved knowing that all that she needed to do now was wait. It felt somehow that the tables had turned, and it was refreshing knowing that now, he would have to be the one to make an effort if he wanted this pointless tiff to end.