*A/N*
Just to clarify. I AM NOT ABANDONING THIS STORY. I JUST TAKE AN EFFIN LONG TIME TO UPDATE 'CAUSE I SUCK.
And it took so long 'cause I really wanted to make it longer but I kept getting sidetracked so now I am saying FFFFF IT POSTING ALREADY.
Rest of author's note at end.
OH. I didn't get all the more recent anon reviewers in the a/n note at the end, so THIS IS FOR YOU. THANK YOU SO EFFIN MUCH I SAVE EVERYTHING IN MY EMAIL AND I LOVE EVERY WORD. EVERY WORD YOU WRITE.
DISCLAIMER: ALL MAIN CHARACTERS BELOW TO DIANA WYNNE JONES, AUTHOR OF HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE. The fanfic is based upon the BOOK, NOT the movie.
Howl's Moving Castle: The Aftermath
Chapter 21: In Which There is the Calm
Sophie clutched Howl, her fingers entwining with his still soapy hair, as they both sobbed against each other rather pathetically. Howl was beginning to calm down, his tears and inebriated state making him drowsy, as well as Sophie's smell and taste and warmth surrounding him. Sophie, however, was nearly choking on her own tears, as the contact with Howl broke her lousy spell with little fanfare, and she was rushed with all the love and longing that had been suppressed for so long, the emotions and memories overwhelming her.
Calcifer pointedly looked away with an air of awkward discomfort.
After a moment of hysterical hiccuping, Sophie managed to restrain herself enough to pull out of Howl's grasp, and look at him, finally look at him. He reluctantly gave way, and she raked over his disheveled features. His glassy green eyes were shiny with tears, and slightly unfocused, and his hair was beginning to dry in odd angles from not being washed properly, and then being combed with Sophie's desperate fingers.
He lifted a hand from where it lay curled at her waist, and traced her eyebrow, her cheekbone, her lips, as she traced his face with her eyes.
"I must be dreaming," he croaked out, murmuring and slurring his words. "You can't be real."
His hand fell to his side.
Sophie only looked at him sadly, a quivering frown replacing the slight smile that had crept on her face during her reintroduction with Howl. Oh how she wished, how hard she wished to tell him everything!
She settled for pulling him close, and laying her head against his shoulder, his heartbeat a close thump near her ear. His arms circled around her, tightly, and he sighed into her hair.
"If this were a dream," Howl mumbled. "Now would be a right good time... to...have..."
"Have what, Howl?"
"Oh you...coy (yawn) thing, (yawn) you know it very well."
He began to fall forward, heavily weighing down onto her in a sleepy slump.
Sighing wearily, Sophie began to stand up, tugging on Howl to come up with her as she prepared to end her happy reunion.
"Let's get you to bed."
"Let's get us to bed."
He followed up willingly, albeit slowly, while Sophie felt slightly taken aback at his forwardness. Another time, she might have eagerly followed along. Another time, she promised herself.
Howl adjusted his towel with a hand, and let Sophie support him into the stairwell, up the stairs, and into his room, all the while watching a blurry Sophie huff and puff unawares out of the corner of his eye.
She was hyper aware his solid weight pressed against her side, his gangly form looming over her petite one. His skin pressed against the thin layer of cloth that was her dress, his heat seeping and mingling with her own. His every step, every swing of his long and unkempt hair, the way his fingers would randomly clench and unclench around her arm sent sparks racing from her toes to the tips of her ginger hair.
Gulping, Sophie focused her attention to the top of the stairwell, a singular spot in the grimy woodwork, until they made it to Howl's door. Unceremoniously, she wrenched open the door and pushed Howl inside, closing the door in his slightly dazed face.
"Sophie?"
She pressed herself against the door.
"Go get dressed, I'll wait out here," she said, trying to hide the tremble in her lie.
"Promise?"
"Yes."
She waited only a moment, hearing fumbling and half-hearted mumbled cursing following heavy thumps, before turning on her heel and racing down the stairs, where she ran to her pack and swung it up on her shoulder.
"So-?"
"Calcifer." She turned on him, a determined look on her face. "I was not here tonight. Howl must never know, or Edward will...will kill everyone."
Ignoring the shocked look on Calcifer's face, as Sophie had not imparted Edward's threats to him, she stalked forward and stuck a finger in front of his glowing face.
"You will keep your mouth shut, you will make sure Howl doesn't do anything stupid, and you will come visit me in my room's fireplace tomorrow morning. Got it?"
Calcifer nodded meekly.
"Good."
She turned, and ran to the now unlocked door, wrenching it open without a glance backwards after twirling the knob to the colored destination. She didn't notice Calcifer staring after her morosely, a whispered apology left in the air to be heard by no one.
Night had fully fallen when Sophie stepped out onto clean cobbled streets, the mansions that arose in intervals against the dark blue sky looming in the distance. Before she turned to leave, she looked up at the castle, and raised her hand, palm open, to the light that came from Howl's room. Forget forget forget, it was all a dream, a dream, a dream. Forget forget forget. It was a dream, a dream a dream. Forgetforgetforget.
A warmth tingled momentarily from her wrist to her fingertips, dissipating quickly. Satisfied, she left.
Her hurried footsteps echoed in the darkness, and she strained her eyes for the winking lights of her step-mother's mansion.
The day's travels were taking their toll, and she could feel her pack unmercifully digging into her shoulder, so as she turned onto her home's drive, she could only let out a sigh of relief while she made her way to the back, intending to sneak into her room. The gardens were well tended, and few trees blocked the moonlight that guided her to the side of the house that hosted the terrace that led into her room. Staring up at it speculatively, she figured the only way up was by climbing the trellis. She really had no energy to levitate herself, or anything else for that matter. With a sigh, she secured her pack to her and struggled her way up the side of the house, collapsing onto the terrace red-faced and irritable after a few minutes of struggling with footing and clingy ivy.
The terrace doors were locked, and after twenty strained minutes with a hair pin, they swung open, and Sophie let the familiar smells of home waft over her.
She kicked off her shoes, and shoved them in a corner with her pack, shedding off her dress and tossing it along too. The air was nippy, as the terrace doors let in the autumn air, but it didn't matter, for in a matter of moments, she was underneath the thick (and slightly dusty) quilts of her bed, drifting off into blissful sleep.
The next morning, Sophie woke up with a start, her eyes snapping up to greet the ceiling of her room. Her body tensed for a moment, unsure of where she was, but then relaxed as the familiar scene registered in her mind. The sun was lingering low on the walls of her room, indicating that it was late morning, and she sat up in bed, stretching out one arm while the other rose to her face, her hand rubbing a sleepy eye.
"About time you got up."
Sophie let out a squeak, and clutched her covers to her chest, looking around frantically for the source of the voice.
Her eyes landed on the fireplace, finally, and she saw Calcifer wave cheekily.
"Calcifer! I'm not even dressed yet!"
"Oh like it matters."
Sophie huffed.
"You did tell me to come this morning," he said petulantly.
Sighing, Sophie rubbed her forehead, and made Calcifer close his eyes as she went and grabbed a dressing robe from out of her closet, hastily pulling it on as she went to sit in front of the fireplace.
"So." Sophie bit her lip.
"So."
"Well. We need to stop Edward before the wedding right? And we only have a few weeks, minus the one where he comes back."
Calcifer nodded, and tapped the hearth with a firey finger.
"And Howl's not helping. You should've seen him this morning..."
Sophie narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean."
"Well, he was nursing a pretty bad hangover, and didn't look great, not that this is anything new. And, Sophie, I think he's going to try and find another demon to take out his heart..."
"...What!"
"Well, remember last night how he asked me to take his heart? I didn't think he was serious, but this morning, after banging about the castle, he left muttering about hearts and contracts."
Sophie paled.
"Calcifer, no! He just got out of a contract with you, I cannot deal with another Witch of the Waste to get his heart back. Why didn't you say anything to him?"
Calcifer shrugged.
"I didn't get much time to put a word in."
Rubbing her forehead, Sophie sighed.
"He needs to snap out of this. If Edward tries to kill him...and he's vulnerable like this..."
"If he knew you were here-"
"No! Then he'll know I was there last night and he won't believe I...love Edward, and it'll all be ruined."
"The way I see it, it looks like it'll all be ruined whatever we do," Calcifer grumbled half-heartedly.
"Cal! We have to find a way to defeat him before he takes all your power and kills you, or hurts anyone else!"
"...I don't know Sophie. This guy seems impervious to everything; he always has a plan."
"We need help." Sophie bit her lip again, and tapped her chin. What would someone do under attack? They would protect themselves, ward themselves, guard themselves... "Cal! Do you have any sorcerer friends? Maybe some of those who you went to for help...but no one evil and I guess I'll have to tell Mrs. Fairfax everything...but we need everyone we've got to ward my family and I need to know everything peculiar about Edward you know and we'll need a battle plan."
Sophie took a deep breath to continue her rant, but Calcifer interrupted her immediately.
"That all sounds good and everything, but I've got to go, Howl just came back and I want to check on him. We'll continue later?"
Deflated, Sophie nodded. "Wait Cal, come back and tell me if he's okay?"
Calcifer nodded and gave her a small smile.
"Of course. I'll be right back." And with a pop, he was gone.
Sophie let out a big puff air exasperatedly, and flopped backwards, hitting the floor with a bang.
"Ow..."
"What was that noise!" "It was coming from Sophie's room...!" "Sophie's room!"
Sophie froze, and her door banged open with a flurry of skirts and gesticulating arms.
"SOPHIE!"
Sheepishly, she sat up and waved at her furious looking sisters, before they ran in and tackled her back onto the floor.
"...Ow..."
Two weeks Later
Despite the colder temperatures, the fans in the bake shop spun continuously. Scrunching her nose, Sophie couldn't blame the owner for keeping them on, as the combined heat of the massive amount of customers, as well as the heater made the shop stuffy and overwhelming.
She watched Martha frantically working the cash register as she helped to pack orders, as the other girls this shift were taking breaks from the rush. Martha refused Sophie's help at first, but Sophie wouldn't hear it and shouldered her way in behind the counter.
The result wasn't as rewarding, as more customers seemed to come in, and other customers from a few minutes before came back with another set of random orders.
It was chaos.
The reunion between the sisters two weeks ago was full of tears, hugs, and prying questions, in which Sophie to the best of her ability lied with a happy smile. Fanny was away on a business trip with her husband, and so the girls took their time to catch up. Martha was excited for her wedding with Michael, which was being held a week before Sophie's, and Lettie was coaxed into reluctantly spilling about her growing affair with the Wizard Suliman.
No one brought up Howl.
Calcifer popped back into Sophie's room in the middle of a juicy story that Lettie was finally getting into, and with a discreet and feebly made thumbs up, he told her that Howl was okay. Lettie and Martha immediately brought him into the conversation, making Calcifer feel distinctly uncomfortable, before he was apparently being called by Howl and had to leave.
After he left, Lettie and Martha just looked at Sophie, before quietly asking her about Howl, and what had happened. With a clenched jaw, Sophie persisted in her explanation that she and Howl were merely friends, and didn't get a long as great as everyone had thought they did. Then, to distract them, Sophie forced herself to make up creative stories about her time in Edward's mansion she'd stayed in, and Lettie and Martha were placated.
Still, over the two weeks, Sophie would catch Lettie giving her penetrating looks, and Martha would fuss over her, and sometimes Sophie would be walking about their home, and hear the two of them in a room whispering heatedly with each other.
She taped down the box on a cake, and put it on the counter to be picked up, the drone of the crowd and Martha's high pitched voice a pleasant background noise in her head.
Between the bake shop, her sisters, two weddings being planned, and pretending to be a happy bride-to-be, Sophie met with Calcifer at night, where the brainstormed on plans, and Calcifer updated Sophie about Howl. Sophie wasn't ready to see him yet, but she admitted that if she didn't soon, they could very well lose him to madness. Infuriating man.
They'd already contacted about a dozen minor sorcerers who were colleagues of Howl and Calcifer, as well as Mrs. Fairfax and the Wizard Suliman. Sophie had met with Suliman and Mrs. Fairfax in person, and while she did not tell them the whole story (could not tell them, as her throat immediately closed up when she tried), she told them that she needed their help to protect her family. They gave her tokens that could summon them, and Suliman enlisted the help of a few royal magicians.
Their army was slowly building.
Martha's wedding was at the end of the week, and Edward would be arriving the day before. Sophie had managed to hold down her panic, but as the days passed and the weddings loomed closer, it was harder to remain a facade of calm.
With a sigh, she wiped her hands on her apron, and proceeded to take out a small box for eclairs, and a bag of cookies.
The end of the day was the best time at the bakeshop, when all that was left of the customers were an elderly couple who came everyday faithfully and a few quiet tea drinkers. The girls started to clean the pastry strewn floors and the chefs wiped down the kitchen counters and put the dough out to rise. The sun was half-set and the whole place was aglow.
Sophie sighed gratefully, and shot an amused glance at Martha, who was sitting in an unladylike slump in a chair, moaning about her poor feet. Taking off the simple white hair scarf and the matching apron, Sophie went to the back to hang them up, and retrieve her purse. Martha had to stay a bit longer to talk with the owners about her wedding cake, and Sophie wanted to stop by the general store to pick up some sewing needles. She couldn't find any of hers, anywhere.
Waving to Martha and calling out a goodbye, Sophie buttoned up her coat, and tugged her hair out from where it was caught under its collar, before opening the bake shop's door and stepping out into the chilly air, a bell twinkling behind her as the door shut.
The trip to the general store was uneventful, and the only exciting thing was getting to see the owner's cat and her new litter of kittens. She was persuaded to adopt one, and she promised the owner to come back the next day and pick one out.
Her paper bag holding the packet of needles was carefully folded and placed into her coat pocket as she walked towards Michael and Martha's apartment, where she was staying while she helped out at the bakery. On her way, she passed the old flower shop, and as she allowed herself a quick glance, she saw that the lights were on and the door was open. From across the street, she could see that it was cleaned, and flowers were being set up in buckets all over the floor. Sophie twinged with curiosity, and she shuffled indecisively in place, having an inward debate whether or not to risk going over to look. After a few seconds of vicious inner yelling, she decided that her visit was due anyway, and this was the perfect opportunity to pop in. In fact, she would be an idiot not to.
Taking a deep breath, she walked across the street, and walked up the steps to the shop doors, where they were open and flooding light out. Squinting slightly, she peered in and let out a timid hello. Someone was bent over a tub of water, and at her voice, they straightened up and turned around, revealing themselves.
"Sophie! Hello!"
She smiled sheepishly at Michael, who was wearing a green florist apron over his tunic and breeches. Out of its pockets peeked a few twigs of rowan, a daisy, and small spell books, as well as a pair of clippers.
"Hello Michael, how have you been?" Sophie stepped over a pile of dried dead flowers that blocked the doorway, lifting her skirts, as she went to greet him.
"I've been well, a bit stretched, what with the wedding, and my...apprenticeship, and I've decided to reopen the flowershop." He grinned. "A little extra money won't hurt you know!"
"Don't overwork yourself!" Sophie admonished him, inwardly feeling guilty as she knew Howl's erratic and worrisome behavior was causing a few sleepless nights for Michael.
"Ah well, you know, you could always come and work here again!"
Sophie blanched, and Michael, noticing her pause turned red and laughed nervously.
"Ah, that is, you don't have to you know, it's perfectly fine, and you'll be married soon too..."
"Oh it's fine Michael." Sophie bit her lip. It wouldn't hurt to stay and work for a little bit. If things went according to plan, her faux marriage would fall to pieces (bringing Atkin down with it), so why not?
"As a matter of fact," she continued. "I have some free time, so I could—."
Her eyes had wandered as she spoke, drifting to the drape covered entrance to the castle, a doorway in which Howl was leaning with a smoldering glare on his face. The minute she spotted him, her words had died on her tongue, and she was frozen, riveted in place under his gaze.
Michael stepped forward towards her, puzzled by her sudden silence, before following her gaze to where it was fixed on Howl.
"Howl! You're finally back! Where have you been, I was worried that you'd miss the month mark again to maintain the castle! And," he continued slightly miffed. "You still have to look at that spell I told you had a misstep in the Gorgon Anthology."
Howl ignored Michael, giving him a dismissive wave. Huffing, Michael threw his hands up in the air, and sidled past Howl to disappear into the castle.
"Hello Sophie. When did you get back?"
Two weeks ago she thought, a blush rising in her cheeks as she thought of their reunion that only she knew was real. But if my spell worked, you won't know it.
"Only a little bit ago, I missed everyone." I missed you.
"Ah, did you? Well, it's so nice to see you. I suppose this means your "never want to see you again" phase is over?"
"Howl, I..." Sophie paused, shame rising as red flush, as she tried to think of how to convey her apology. He waited for her to continue, not moving towards her, but merely pinning her in place with his eyes.
She swallowed. "I'm so sorry. I just, I felt...we were going to a place I didn't want to because we're friends and I didn't know how to say it and then I met At..Edward and," she took a breath, noting the slight glint of pain and annoyance in his eyes. "It doesn't matter, though. I'm so sorry Howl. I understand if you can never forgive me."
Her heartstrings tugged painfully, as she hoped to God that Howl would forgive her at some point.
All of a sudden, Howl started laughing. Big, hearty, good-natured guffaws.
Sophie stared at him, confused.
He stopped gradually, and gave her a bright, lady-killer smile.
"Oh Sophie, silly girl, you don't change at all."
He then turned, and breezed back into the castle, leaving behind a very stumped ginger.
*A/N*
So, yea. Sorry for the delay. I'm tired and colllege started and I NEED FRIENDS AND MY FRIENDS STILL HERE ARE BEING BUMS I AM DEPRESSED.
I DON'T REMEMBER WHAT ELSE I WAS GONNA WRITE.
REVIEWS PLEASE
JADE. D: I was so unhappy to see that you are unreplyable. Thank you for all your reviews, I appreciate them all and all the love and criticism and lengthiness. 3
Bansheegirl. Ew disabled pms? Thank you for your review though! I WILL NEVER ABANDON THIS FIC D: EVUURRR it just takes me a while to update lol.
Caroline. You better log in next time. You better. (:
Red16 Thank you, rather! You make me blush. c:
Creativedream98 Again with the disabled pms! ): I am trying to drive you crazy. It brings me great, great joy. Especially when the falling off of the seat occurs due to proximity to edge. (: Thankyou!My dutiful reader!
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ALERTERS AND FAVERS. ILY
Emilythewanderer #250 reviewer! Congrats! I will make you that lemon oneshot eventually!