Author's Note: In all honesty, I wasn't really sure about this piece in the beginning, but thanks to the feedback from the wonderful people on the "movingcastle" LJ community, I've gotten up the courage to post this particular entry.
Howl may seem a trifle OOC to some. He's being way too honest, and to tell the truth, his proposal in the book is just the kind he'd make. He's too much of a coward to actually come out with a ring. Remember, he can only do brave things when he's told himself he's not going to do them. Simply proposing they live happily ever after isn't "will you marry me", after all. But darn it, the idea fit, so here is Howl being all mushy and disturbingly honest. And c'mon. Most of the people I know who are terribly vain are actually terribly insecure underneath it all. He can also be a big old softie and responsible when the need arises. Just look at how he interacts with his niece and nephew!
Sorry, I should stop justifying things and let you read, shouldn't I?
Kiss Theme #4 - our distance and that person
Rating: PG
Pairing: Howl/Sophie
Genre: Character Sketch/Romance
Summary: In which Howl considers pinning himself down
by Mimea
Howell Jenkins sat rather dazedly on the creaky metal swing set Megan had installed for Neil and Mari. Of course, Neil had quickly outgrown it, eschewing the simple pleasure of flying through the sky for adventure games on the computer. Mari still loved it, though. But usually there was no one to push her. Megan was too ladylike. Neil, well, Neil was her brother, after all. The only one he ever saw was Gareth. Those rare afternoons when Mari's father was home, Howell would watch through the window of his bedroom in another dimension. He would feel his chest swell to bursting with both happiness for his niece, and pity for himself. Heartless as he had been for so long, he'd believed he'd never see the day when he could be in Gareth's place, pushing his own children toward the stars.
Now it was a slight possibility.
If anyone had ever told him that on his 21st birthday, a "spell" he had found in an old book in the University library would open up a gateway to another world, he would have thought them a complete lunatic. He had always been interested in myths and magical lore, but the thought of a whole other world was daunting.
The doorway had opened onto utter ruin. The place that would become his "house" in Porthaven was nothing more than crumbling brick and a smattering of rotten boards. Through his own cleverness and sheer determination, it wasn't long before "Sorcerer Jenkin" gained a reputation. Which led to his tutelage under the iron claw of Mrs. Pentstemmon, and eventually to his pact with a fire demon in the marshes of the very city he had stumbled into.
The rest, as the saying went, was history.
However, now he had a huge problem. The boundary between the world he had been born in and the one he now called home had been ripped open by the Witch of the Waste's diversion. He was going to have to reveal his secret in its entirety to Megan and her family.
But that wasn't the only reason he had come to Wales on this particular day. He drew a velvet-covered jeweler's box out of the pocket of his disreputable "Welsh Rugby" jacket and turned it in his fingers. Yes, he'd been overly extravagant, but hopefully Sophie wouldn't realize how so. He'd never seen white gold in Ingary, or a blue diamond. But it would make his point to Megan. He was serious, and he did have more than enough money to support a family.
Not only that, the color reminded him of both Sophie's eyes, and Calcifer when he was in a particularly good mood. He knew Sophie would appreciate a stone with meaning more than the "normal", colorless sparkler girls in his world expected.
Howell flushed slightly. Why was he so confident she'd say "yes", anyway? Why wouldn't she want a sturdy, reliable young man from her own world instead of a cowardly old geezer who would make her life living hell from day one?
"Because she's used to it, you nimrod!" his common sense, sounding suspiciously like Sophie herself, rebuked him. "She's been making your life merry hell since she set foot in the castle, so consider it payback! And she loves you despite all your faults. Or maybe even because of them. It's not like she doesn't have a laundry list of her own. If she wanted someone like Michael, she would have taken him!"
They hadn't yet said the words, but it was implicit in their actions. A light touch there, a certain sparkle in their eyes, or the occasional blush for no reason at all. And the fact they hadn't blasted each other to smithereens yet.
Just the thought of her, the way her eyes flashed and her cheeks reddened when they argued, made him smile. It had been said that her sister Lettie was one of those few women who actually looked beautiful when she cried. But Sophie had been gifted with something even more rare. Her loveliness was amplified tenfold when she was angry.
He let himself indulge in speculation for just a moment. What if he had found the portal simply because she was meant for him? That even different dimensions could not keep them apart?
The high romantic in him liked this idea.
Then he chuckled at his own absurdity. It had been pure coincidence, nothing more.
He knew Megan would scoff when he told her of his double life. Her world was full of respectability and responsibility, logic and science. Magic had no place in her austere existence.
But in his and Sophie's world, magic did exist. It allowed him to be in two places at once...
Come to think of it, she was never really that far away.
With a start, he shoved the jeweler's box back in his pocket. What if she was watching him? He stared up at the wall of Megan's house, scrying for a window no one else could see.
There! In a wavering, ghostly haze he could see the outline of his bedroom window. It was empty. Howell sighed in relief. "Why wouldn't it be?" he thought to himself. "I've told her enough times to stay out of there."
Suddenly, a very familiar figure appeared, almost as if thinking about her had somehow summoned her. He felt his eyebrows rise. She was snooping!
But he knew the perfect way to get back at her.
He winked up at the window and blew Sophie a kiss, not even noticing that at that very moment, Megan chose to walk around the corner of the house.
He could almost see Sophie's eyes widen before she whirled around in a cloud of red gold hair and stomped away from the window.
"Howell Jenkins, what on earth are you doing?" the horrified voice of Megan snapped his attention back to Wales.
He gave her a look like a schoolboy caught stealing kisses from the prettiest girl in class during recess. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me," his sister challenged. "Considering just a couple of days ago some brazen hussy in red just strides into my yard and starts doing inexplicable things to me and my children. Then my no-good brother shows up out of nowhere in some fantastical costume shouting and tossing Mari out of the way like a rugby ball before taking after the woman pell-mell!" Megan glared at him. "Don't tell me. Your latest fling gone wrong?"
Howell winced. "Not far off, actually."
"Good Lord, I should have known!" Megan threw up her hands. "And I suppose she's up on the roof right now, and you were blowing kisses to her?"
Howell looked horrified. "Heavens, no! She's dead, thankfully." Megan's eyes grew wide, but he ignored that. "Trust me, she was a horrible Witch."
"I'm sure." Megan's tone was pure ice.
Howell realized he was only making things worse, so he tried a different tack. "She was being controlled, Megan. That's what destroyed her in the end."
Megan seemed not to know what to make of Howell's explanation, so she attempted to get an answer to her previous question. "Then why, pray tell, were you throwing kisses at my house?"
Howell breathed a sigh of relief. He gave her his sunniest smile in an effort to distract her before replying. "Expressing my affection for a lovely young lady in a distant land, who is never really far away."
Megan came close to him and placed the back of her hand against his forehead. "Are you ill?" she asked.
"Never been better."
"You're delusional."
"You've just never seen past the bridge of your nose."
Megan turned an interesting shade of pink before calming herself down. It wouldn't do to rise to her younger brother's bait. "At least I am respectable, not gallivanting off wherever, flirting with every member of the opposite sex who happens to cross my path--"
"About that. Unfortunately for me, but I'm sure you will rejoice," he began in a vaguely injured tone, "I have been very seriously ensnared by a lovely widow spider."
Megan snorted. "I've heard this a million times before. Each time a new girl catches your fancy, you swear she is your one and only. Why can't you be serious for once..?"
Howell's sister trailed off as shock rattled all thought from her brain. With a surreptitious glance at the all-but-invisible window, Howell had taken out the jeweler's box and opened it.
"And before you ask, yes, I did buy it. No, the money wasn't gained through illegal means. I do work, believe it or not. In fact, I was recently given a high-ranking government position. Much as I abhor giving up my freedom, I have a future to think of now."
Megan gaped at him for a few moments before she was able to find her voice again. "You're serious. You're absolutely serious. I never thought I would live to see the day."
Megan's shoulders slumped with so much relief, Howell felt a trifle guilty. He hadn't realized his feckless ways affected her so deeply.
"So, when do I get to meet my future sister-in-law?"
"I haven't asked her yet."
"Well, if she says no, I want to try and talk her around."
Howell couldn't help but snicker. The thought of Megan and Sophie in a battle of wills both amused and terrified him. Not only would the resulting clash be likely to destroy the entire castle, he wouldn't be surprised if Sophie refused his formal proposal just to spite Megan. "Oh no, you don't. I don't need my chances slimmed even more. She's a great deal like you at times."
Megan mulled over that, before her face lit up with cheerful determination. "I think I like her already."
"You would."
"If you let me meet her, I won't interfere. I promise."
"Cross your heart?"
Megan did so; making sure both her hands were in plain sight so he wouldn't suspect her of crossing her fingers behind her back. "Hope to die."
Howell straightened, abandoning the swing and putting the ring back in his jacket. "Then follow me, but try not to scream too loudly."
Megan gave him a dry look, but followed as he sauntered around to the gate that opened onto the front drive of her perfectly ordinary home. She frowned, puzzled, as he made his way to the front door of Rivendell. But Howell pretended to ignore her. All would be explained with just a twist of the door handle.
It was time to close that distance once more, and introduce his sister to the world he now called home.
Author's Notes: As you've probably guessed, the next story I'll be posting happens immediately after this one. That one is mostly written, but it's all on paper, so I have to type it up and do some massive editing.
22 reviews! Wow.. that's alot! I'm honestly shocked! This makes the most reviews I've ever gotten, so thank all of you so, so much!
Responses to previous reviews:
nefi - Yup! "cariad" is closest to "cherie". I'll try not to bore you too much, but "koi" is actually NOT a term of endearment in Japanese. It means either "passionate love" or "carp". When the Japanese are being affectionate, they'll either use a person's first name, a nickname, or married couples use "anata". Too much time spent with Japanese majors the past four years.
raedyn-l - You're not the only one apparently. Alot of people have been coming up with some sort of wood when looking for the definition of "cariad". I guess I got lucky because I hit on the right usage the first time I searched what the word meant. Thank you!
Howl, the bathroom, and the status of his lovelife - This one is courtesy of dazedandconfused07! Thank you so much for pointing this out, so I had to go back and double-check. At the beginning of Chapter 9, Michael asks Calcifer "did he forget to spend at least an hour in the bathroom this morning?" Calcifer replies he spent two hours in there. Michael responds to that "There you are then. The day Howl forgets to do that will be the day I believe he's really in love and not before."
Howl only spent a half hour in the bathroom in "A Most Wondrous Machine".. from 2:30pm to 3:00pm. whew
Until next time, everybody!