Disclaimer: I own nothing, not the characters, D.W.J., or Studio Ghibli. I'm just a poor college student with a tendency towards the perverse. Please forgive typos, in the hurry to get this posted I spell-checked it and read it through a second time for grammar errors, but I am only human, so more than likely a few typo's escaped me.

Sophie stared at Howl and tried to decide what the proper response for a young lady caught in such a situation would be. Nothing the ladies in the hat shop had ever discussed on such matters concerning men and women involved bathtubs. At least…none they would speak of in front of Sophie. In her evesdropping on their conversations between talking to the hats, she had learned a number of useful things she could put to use in her everyday life. Even a few strategies for dealing with young men had come up once or twice between Fanny and her friends while Sophie was present. None of them could ever be applied with any success to Wizard Howl.

'A person as un-natural as Howl can never be measured by the normal standards of society' Sophie thought with a frown. Outside her musings however, time had not stopped, and Howl had taken her flustered reaction to his and hers current situation as opportunity to begin unbuttoning and peeling off the sopping wet shirt that even then still clung scandalously to his skin.

"Howl…what are you doing?" Sophie gasped, snapping out of her revery. Howl grinned and undid the last pearl button exposing a lightly defined torso and slick skin flushed pink from the hot water.

"Snakes don't just slither Sophie, they also shed their skins." Howl laughed but Sophie turned a shade whiter under her blush. Howl rolled his eyes and guessed the meaning of this reaction, "I'm not really going to shed my skin! Really, you don't think sometimes you Mad Hatter, by skin I meant clothes."

The young housekeeper raised herself up in the water so that she was no long under the wizard, but facing him. "Well what am I suppose to think sometimes with you! Normal people may shed clothes, but you, you have oozed green slime, I wouldn't put it past you to shed skin!"

"Or gnaw hearts, suck souls, change lovely ladies into spiders." Howl ticked off the statements on his fingers with a grin, enjoying fully how angry and embarrassed he was making Sophie. He also used her distraction to shrug off the wet shirt and let it slide carefully out of the tub and onto the tile floor.

"You beast! You started those rumors, not me." Sophie scolded, "I just heard them from the other ladies in the hat shop. Great Horrible Howl, gnawing on hearts and sucking souls, for all I knew of you it could have been true." Catching the smug look on Howl's face Sophie added, "Though now I believe you would be to vain as to sully your creamy skin and stain your flamboyant clothes by gnawing on a young girls heart."

"Now now Miss Manners, do you picture me using a knife and fork in my heart eating?" Howl gave and exaggerated shrug followed by a wicked smile. "I prefer to gnaw on young ladies necks if you must know. And I see a very luscious specimen in front of me right now I'd like to take a bite out of."

Sophie gapped at the play on words, blushed, and tried to think of anything to say to such a statement. Yet the man in front of her was naked to the waist, his perfect skin slick with hot water, and looking at her with a predatory gaze. With the black strands of his hair wild and dripping about his face, and his clear blue eyes fixed on hers, Sophie felt the first twinges of fear and heard her pulse pounding in her ears.

'When we argue like this I forget that Howl is a man.' Sophie Hatters mind raced as Howl took advantage of that moment to embrace her again, wrapping his arms tightly around her and bringing her face up to meet his. 'what do I do?' Howl kissed her passionately on the lips, trying to coax her mouth open to meet his kiss like they had earlier. But he could feel the young woman go stiff in his arms and her lipped pursed against his own insistent tongue. He released her and leaned back again to look her in the eyes.

Sophie retreated as far back at she could against her side of the tub, wide eyed and confused. Howl had expected anger from her, it was Sophie and that seemed unavoidable when he was concerned, but what was plainly written on her face now was fear. 'Howl you snake, she is just a young girl.' Howl frowned, in giving his heart back to him, he would have accused Sophie of adding a conscience along with it. It made his heart hurt to see Sophie looking at him like that. Reaching out he held her small hand in his, rough and calloused from scrubbing pots and floors, wrinkled from bathwater and no longer old age.

"I've been a beast." Sophie's face softened and the fear retreated from her eyes.

"You're always a beast Howl." she smiled, that was the closest Howl had ever come to an apology, and she appreciated the effort.

"I didn't want to frighten you. You act older than you actually are, I forgot that. Enjoy your bath," He swung one foot over the side of the tub, bent quickly to retrieve his shirt from where it was lay in a wet pile and was about to leave when he felt Sophie's arms wrap around his middle and begin pulling him backwards on the tile.

"It's okay Howl, I'm just a silly girl who spent too much time in a hat shop making tacky hats. All I know about men comes from what I heard there, and trust me, that was not much."

"Though I must hear what your learned from Fanny and her flock of pigeons at a later date. I would be very interested to know what they spent all that time squawking about." Howl turned in her arms and returned the embrace, "What shall I do with you Miss Nose. Will you have me leave, or stay?"

Sophie mulled her decision over. All that had happened his day was making her head hurt. She was still unsure what Howl was expecting of her, or his intentions for invading her bath, but asking Howl to explain would be terribly bold, rather embarrassing, and slightly rude.

"What are your intentions for invading my bath in the first place you dirty old man?"

Howl raised and eyebrow in question. "Did nobody ever explain to you what men and women do together?" Sophie blushed again and ran her fingertips nervously over his shoulders in a circular motion.

"I know the general idea of what type of things go on…you want to do that?" She made it a question, but she could guess the answer already. "How many women have you had…relations… with?"

"And I described you as mousy when I met you. You really are quite bold." Howl kissed her forehead and began backing her across the small bathroom to the shower stall.

"Don't you change the subject you slitherer-out--" Howl cut her off mid sentence with another kiss. Sophie's mind jumped to scold the wizard for his lecherous actions, but a pair of skilled hands had already wrapped themselves in her hair and began massaging her scalp in the most delicious way causing shivers to run down her back and raise goose bumps on her arms.

These she wrapped around Howl and pulled his body close to hers as they finished their stumbling trek across the bathroom and ended it with a firm thud against the tile mosaic of the shower wall. Breaking their passionate kiss Howl began nibbling his way down her chin and moved on to her neck, sucking and biting at the joint of her neck and shoulder in such a way that made Sophie gasp and moan slightly in the back of her throat.

"You taste delicious Miss Hatter. I may just take up the habit of gnawing hearts after all, or maybe just yours." he nipped at her collarbone and removed a hand from its nest in her hair long enough to slip the loosened top of her dress over her shoulders, freeing her smallish breasts to the cool air and his hungry mouth.

"You wouldn't dare gnaw my heart, I own yours now as I recall and wouldn't hesitate to return the favor believe me." but the threat was lost in more gasps when Howl began massaging her left breast and kissing her neck again.

She could feel his smile pressed against her wet skin, "I know you would." was all he replied before sliding her dress the rest of the way off her body and kicking it aside to rest with his shirt as witness to the new use they had discovered for the shower.

This chapter will continue on (same username) complete with the new use for the shower in a day or two. For those to young to read that part, well, then Howl and Sophie had a water fight, played with the rubber ducky, and when to bed afterward.

A/N: whoa, steamy I'll continue the rest of Chp. 4 on but the lemon won't be up for another day or so since it's 3 in the morning and I have work in a couple hours. Hope they are in character still, Sophie is the harder character to write in this situation because I do think she would be a bit ignorant of 'relations' and rightfully scared. Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for all the reviews, they make me happy to know my work is getting read.