Hey there, your friendly neighborhood Mazoku here to bring you a HMC book/movie mix romance fanfic. There are just not enough Sophie/Howl stories out there, and none as of yet that I could find that have lemon as an ingredient. Yes, I fan girl the plot and the fluff, but people, I like some action too! Lol, so here ya go, story + lemon. And a dash of angst to mix it up a bit. I kept mostly to the book for plot references, but used the movie character designs because I prefer starlit hair to ginger, and Howl is just hot.
I own nothing, HMC is the paper baby of DWJ and the movie is Miyazaki-sama's, I'm just fanfic-ing for shits and giggles. To sue me would be as profitable a venture as trying to squeeze blood from a stone, nothing is there to squeeze out. okay, that said, enjoy.
MangaMazoku
A few days after Howls had his heart returned and everything's been sorted out.
Sophie Hatter looked out on the wastes sliding through the open door of the moving castle. With the witch and her fire demon both dead comings and goings of the moving castle had returned back to their own brand of normal. Normal for the occupants of the moving castle being making a mess, and Sophie cleaning up after them. At the moment Sophie was engaged in the task of sweeping out what remained of Michaels last attempt at a wind spell Howl had assigned him to do. Needless to say, the spell had backfired in the most dramatic way, leaving the room coated in a fine layer of soot stirred up from Calcifers grate.
The young apprentice had fled upstairs in the wake of Sophie's temper, and was now occupied with the task of scrubbing the soot from his body before leaving to take Martha out on the town later that evening.
"No brains in that boys head sometimes, doing a wind spell in the castle…it's because of Howl he has no sense, that slitherer-outer never stays in long enough to help him with any of his assignments." she grumbled to herself as the last of the soot whisked out the door and onto the heather.
Out the door gray clouds hung low in the sky, it was going to downpour out on the wastes by nightfall, which meant that Market Chipping was also in for a deluge of water. 'Michael and Martha are still planning on going out in weather like this?' Sophie shivered at the thought of being soaked and out in the wind, the old woman in her loathed the cold, and her curse free younger self was still inclined to agree on that point whole-heartedly.
Closing the door and returning the broom to it's home in the closet, Sophie turned her thoughts to Calcifer asleep in the grate and toyed with the idea of waking him so she could make a pot of tea. The fire demon had come in quiet suddenly an hour ago complaining about how wet the outside world was and had quickly fallen to embers dozing over a fresh log. It seemed a pity Sophie planned to wake him.
"Wake up! Calcifer, wake up," one red eye opened and eyed the starry haired woman warily. "I'm cold, I want to heat some water for tea please." Sophie smiled at Calcifer, as if being polite ever worked with him.
"What is it with you people and hot water? Howl all the time yelling 'Calcifer, heat me some water for my bath' at least twice a day, 'Calcifer, I want hot water for a potion!' 'Calcifer, I want some tea!'" the demons rendition of Howl's voice was nearly flawless and earned a giggle from Sophie, heart or no, the man did love to bathe.
"I'm not bullying you Calcifer, please? Be a dear." without waiting for a reply she plopped the kettle on his head without a second thought.
From under the black pot came a long groan followed by, "If I could burn water, I would…"
"Oh Calcifer, calm down, I'm cold, and I'm sure when Howl comes in a nice cup of tea will be nice too."
"Warming up his insides isn't going to make him change into a Prince Charming girl, the man's a toad and you chose to love him anyway." Sophie's face fell at Calcifers words. She knew Howl and commitment were never good friends, as she had said numerous times to numerous people of all stations, Howl was a slitherer-outer, no helping that, but she couldn't help but feel a little jilted that the wizard had to as of yet follow up his words of "we should live happily ever after."
"He loves you Sophie. I just meant don't expect Horrible Howl to change into Prince Howl just because you stuffed his black little heart back through his ribs and into his chest where it belongs. He's still a vain, spend-thrift peacock and nothing will ever change that!"
"I know, it's just that after admitting I love him, I fear he'll try to slither out of that as well, like the other girls before." Sophie could feel her anger coming into her face as she said each word. "I'll darn women repellant charms into all his suits before he slithers away from me!" She stomped her feet and snatched the kettle off Calcifer before the water boiled over onto him.
"Now, is that any way to thank the man who brought you a new hat from Kingsbury then Ms. Nose?" Howl's voice purred into Sophie's ear. She hadn't heard the wizard come in, and jumped at his words so unexpectedly close to her. She spun around to find him only inches from her face, grinning like the rouge he was and holding a new blue hat with a black silk ribbon and stars painted over the underside in silver leaf.
"I thought it fit your starry new hair color." Howl raised his hand to her hair and brushed an errant strand from her cheek. "It compliments my night sky hair nicely don't you think? We're midnight personified together, how decadent and fitting for a wizard and his witch!" Howl laughed at his own joke. His eyes sparkled, no longer marbles, but alive and filled with emotion and life. His long soft hair fell around his face. Sophie had once made the observation that it moved like it had a life of it's own.
Sophie raised her hand and grabbed a fistful of Howl's hair, yanking his face close to hers with a force that would make her mousy self blush, her old self laugh, and the man before her whine.
"Watch it Sophie, you'll tear a chunk out!" Howl cried, pulling her close in an attempt to stop her from pulling any harder. "If you want me to kiss you there are gentler ways of going about it," Sophie felt her cheeks turn scarlet as Howl leaned in further still and breathed gently on her pursed lips, his own soft mouth hovering dangerously close to her own. Howls eye's told her that he had heard everything she had said, and was dead set to prove her wrong, as he was always want to do in anything regarding the hatter and himself.
"I'm not about to slither out of this Sophie, fear not. I just find myself a little stunned that you doubt me after all we've been through. Really Ms. Nose, you snoop so much you're finding things that aren't there to try and put to rights!"
"Well it's a comfort of know you don't plan to slither out again. Having your heart back has given you some sense then." Sophie smiled in spite of trying to look stern and scolding in the face of Howl's arrogant smirk.
"That's where you have it wrong again, Sophie, assuming I have my heart back." The smirk disappeared and was replaced with something so new to appear on Howls face that she at first could not place the emotion. "You stole it away the moment you broke the contract with Calcifer and held it in your hand." Howl closed the last breath of space between the and kissed Sophie firmly on the lips, clutching her to him as if she would somehow meld into his flesh the way his heart had when she restored it to him.
Sophie could place the alien emotion on Howl's face now, love.
a/n okay, first chappy, probably lemon by chp. 3 so if your reading this on you'll have to link back to to read the rest unedited at that point. Reviews are always nice, and I hope you like it. Maybe a little OOC but my friends borrowing the book at the moment so I couldn't refresh while I wrote this. More or less I think it's true to them.
