Chapter 7

Finally Clean

Sophie opened and closed her mouth a couple times. She wasn't entirely sure what just happened. "Howl, did you clean up the room using magic?"

"No."

Sophie raised an eyebrow. "Oh, then who cleaned it? The Easter bunny?"

Howl leaned against the doorframe in a very James Dean kind of way, a soft smile dancing on his lips. "You did it," he said matter-of-factly.

Sophie crossed her arms in disbelief. "That's not possible."

"I wouldn't have thought so either," Howl explained, "But while you were speaking, the room magically cleaned itself up." Sophie searched his eyes, looking for a trace of deceit or teasing but found only sincerity. He honestly believed that she magically had cleaned up the room.

"How? I don't know the first thing about magic."

"Some people are born with a little magic." Howl responded. Something in his expression seemed to change, as though he was a little impressed or just unsure of what to make of her, but as per usual, Sophie was unsure of what to make of Howl's cryptic facial expressions.

Sophie sighed. She wasn't sure how she felt about having "a little magic." She was sure most people would be jumping for joy, but she was just confused. She was in a new world that for most of her life she had thought was purely fictional and now she was learning that she apparently somehow had the ability to use magic. It was overwhelming. "Okay, I'm going to take a bath, we can talk about this – "

"Oh my goodness!" Howl suddenly said, moving past me into the bathroom.

"What?" Sophie asked, mildly irritated at being interrupted.

"There's another shower in here!" Howl patted the glass lightly in awe. At that moment, Sophie was feeling a lot of things, most of which consisted of absolute disgust.

"Howl, I don't even know what to say to that. You designed the castle, how could you possibly not know that shower was there? It couldn't have been that dirty in here for that long."

"You'd be surprised."

Sophie thought about the state of the living room before responding with, "You know what, I'm actually not surprised you just discovered a shower." She started to shoo him out. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a shower."

"Alright, but I recommend you use this shampoo." He tossed her a light purple bottle from one of the now neat shelves near the sink. She caught it with one hand and read the label. It just had the word 'Lavender' written out in black cursive on a clean white label. Sophie was about to say thank you, but when she looked up, he was already gone. She blinked a couple times, surprised he left without a final word, but she decided to think little of it. He probably had something to do, she reasoned. With a small flick of the knob, the tub began to fill with water. She stripped off her clothes and entered the tub once it was full.

The water was so hot steam gently rose from the water. Sophie relished in the warmth and sank a little deeper in the water. It was clear to her that this was long overdue. No wonder Howl always bothers Calcifer to heat some water for his bath. It was then that it occurred to her that she was in the same bathtub that Howl used everyday. An image of Howl relaxing, naked, in the large, white tub flashed in her mind. She blushed and shook the image away. That's so creepy! She thought to herself, embarrassed by her somewhat lewd thoughts, however Howl himself remained in her mind. What does he thinks of me? She wondered as she stared at her toes peeping out of the water. Again, she pushed the thought of her mind. I should wash my hair before the water gets cold, Sophie thought to herself as she reached for the shampoo bottle sitting on the ground by the tub.

Sophie gently massaged the lavender scented shampoo into her hair, scrubbing away the dirt and soot that had accumulated over the past few days. As she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, she noticed that the foam was softly glowing a light purple. That's strange. It was when the glow faded that she noticed that something very alarming had occurred.


"HOWL, YOU FUCKING SHIT BAG!"

Howl watched as a very angry and very wet Sophie ran down the stairs clad only in a white towel. He hadn't been sure how she would react, but he in no way expected her to be as livid as she was.

"Sophie, calm down –"

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I can't believe you dyed my hair without my permission."

"I didn't dye your hair. I used magic to return your hair to its natural color."

"I don't care what you call it, it's still not okay!"

"Sophie –"

"Don't Sophie me!"

"Sophie, you know you couldn't have kept the purple hair. I don't know if that's common or popular where you're from, but we simply don't dye our hair unnatural colors here."

Sophie opened her mouth to argue but then closed it. Howl was surprised when instead of retorting Sophie simply slouched her shoulders in defeat. She sighed. "You're right." Suddenly, she dropped to her knees. "You're right." It was very clear to Howl even though he couldn't see her face that she was very shaken by what he did to her hair. He knelt down to her level and patted her back.

"There, there, it's al –" He stopped himself in midsentence. "Uh oh."

"What's wrong?" Markl asked.

Howl didn't say anything. He just stared at the light blue slime that coated his hand. Witches and wizards are notorious for creating large amounts of a weird, slimey material when they are upset, and since Sophie had, as he put it earlier, "a little magic," she was capable of this too, something he hadn't realized when he had given Sophie the bottle of magic shampoo. Well, he just hadn't realized that she would become so agitated. He frantically tried to calm her down before the situation could get any worse. "Sophie, calm down. Sophie. Sophie, this isn't a productive way to express your feelings. Sophie – "

But it was too late to stop it now. The slime slowly oozed out of her, creating a small pool of the blue goop around her. Howl lifted up her head and could tell that while her eyes were wide open, she was unconscious – meaning he had no way to try and coax her back to a tranquil state. Sighing, he picked up the slimey girl bridal style, acutely aware of the blue sludge that was seeping through his clothes, and said to Markl, "Try to clean up this mess."

Markl nodded, "Yes, Master Howl." Howl turned from the boy, confident that he would do as he was told, and stopped in front of the hearth before he made his way upstairs.

"Calcifer, heat up some more water."

"And why should I do that?" Calcifer asked, irritation evident in his voice.

"I don't intend to bathe Miss Sophie in cold water, that would just be cruel."

"You're going to wash her?"

"There's no one else."

"I suppose… but –"

"But, what?"

"But don't you think she'll be unhappy when she finds out that you saw her naked without her permission?"

Howl paused. That wasn't something he had thought of. He didn't want Sophie to become even angrier with him than she already was, but he also couldn't leave her in the state she was in.

"And, will you be able to control yourself?" A large smirk stretched across the fire demon's face as Howl uncharacteristically became flustered.

"Wh-what kind of question is that, Calcifer?" He scoffed and turned his back to the demon, partly to escape the conversation, but mainly because his face felt warm and he feared that he might have been blushing. "That's absolutely ridiculous. I have seen a naked woman before, and am quite capable of controlling myself, thank you very much." He took a couple steps forward before adding, "And I am an adult, not some adolescent with raging hormones, of course I can control myself."

Calcifer merely laughed as Howl made his way upstairs. Markl, thankfully, hadn't caught on to what the two of them had been talking about and did not least Howl hoped that was why Markl had remained silent.

As Howl shut door the bathroom behind him, it occurred to him that he was about to give Sophie a bath, meaning he was going to see her naked. Howl may be considered a notorious playboy, but he still found that there was something about being naked in front of another person that was almost sacred. The human body is a beautiful thing, but it isn't easy to share it with others. For most people, it is extremely difficult to stand in front of another person completely unguarded, completely bare of anything except there own skin, and so to take that decision away from Sophie… It felt almost like desecration.

He looked down at the unconscious girl in his arms. God, she was so beautiful. Even coated in a layer of blue slime she still was gorgeous. But there was something else besides her physical appearance that drew him towards her. He didn't know what, but he could feel the almost magnetic attraction touching his very core.

He shook his head. This wasn't the time to think of all this. He had to get her cleaned up.

And so he did.


AN: Hope you enjoyed this update/revision! Please, please, please review! I love hearing feedback and just general opinions.