az: The plot changed again... and gonna be a little angsty. Pardon me as I threw myself to the window. Sigh... whenever I proofread, I'll tend to lenghten the chapters. the first one had an extra paragraph... and some more words here and there...
Disclaimer: I don't own Howl's Moving Castle nor the other adaptations of the novel. If I OWNED it... won't I not post this fic here? Characters and original excerpts from the fic are copyrights of Diana Wynne Jones and Hayao Miyazaki for the anime adaptation.
WARNING: It might be plotless... it might not. It might also be out of character... but please forgive me if I did.
Unspoken wish
In which Gareth comes in and Megan gave a cry
Written by Azzie/Az aka Izumi Ishtar
'Howl... are you serious I should...', asked Sophie fearfully as Howl dipped his spoon onto his own sundae and happily scooped it into his mouth, making heavenly faces as if taunting her to do the same. Solphie gulped as she tested a bit. She was taken aback! The ice cream sundae as Howl has called it with the brown sticky thing on top called chocolate was absolutely marvelous! Michael eventually took the dare as he too exclaimed the same.
'Wow... Master Howl! This was so tasty! Can we make this thing ourselves back at... home?', whispered Michael cautiously as he felt eyes turning towards their direction. Surely in this world, seeing people who never tasted ice cream in their whole life will be suspicious enough.
Howl nodded dreamily as he kept staring at Sophie's esctatic face while savoring the chocolate-covered vanilla sundae. Michael flushed red as he whispered hastily, 'Then, we could have made it outselves! Why coming all the way here just for-'
'Just finish the sundae, Michael. It'll all be it...', said Howl as the three of them eat in silence, their steaks and burgers newly served, as well as the sundaes at the only decent restaurant in the district.
'It was the best that we had around here and I missed it anyway...', said Howl as he giggled at the sight of Sophie chomping on her cheeseburger...
XXX
'Come on... we'd better finish this before anyone sees us--', said Howl as they headed towards Rivendell. But unlucky for them, as Howl was about the pull out the key needed to open the gateway back to the castle, the door opened to reveal a burly man whom Sophie guessed must have been none other than Howl's brother-in-law, Gareth Parry. The man had had a disagreeable look that made both Sophie and Michael finally understood why Howl had hated him so much. The latter seemed to have the same opinion as he and Howl shoots daggers at each other.
Megan came out looking surprised as Mari rushed out to greet him. 'Uncle Howell!', she cried, managing to escape Gareth's arm as she jumped onto him. Howl embraced her delightedly as he show her to Sophie. 'And you seen Michael before...', he said as Mari giggled at him. 'Uncle... your cariad cywir is so beautiful!', she cried as Sophie blushed. She only had heard the phrase once before but she could have guessed the meaning outright as Sophie caught glimpse of Howl grinning.
'Mari! Come here! Howell--! Hadn't I made it clear before that I... we don't need your presence in this household anymore-', cried Megan, though it sounded more panicky than stern...
Howell put Mari down as she backed towards Sophie. 'And since when I had ceased to be part of this household anyway? I am still Mari and Neil's uncle! Your--'
Suddenly Gareth grabbed him by the neck as he growled. 'You have no say in this matter... you, no-good, useless garbage--!', said the man as Howell's face went pale. He would have had said something in return had the tightness on his throat didn't start to lessen. Michael noticed it as he cried aloud to Sophie. 'Stop it! You're choking him--!', he cried as Sophie jumped to realization. The two of them started to hit Gareth as Howell's face started turning blue. Reminded of the time Howell had almost died when the witch's fire demon had squeezed his heart, Sophie frantically cried an order to make Gareth let go.
A spark went off between them as Gareth was thrown into another side with Megan scurrying to his aid, confused at first whether to run to her brother or to her husband. Howell coughed very hard as Sophie and Michael helped him up.
'Uncle... Uncle Howell! You all right, are you?', cried the small girl as Howl patted her. Trying to convince her that he was well. He turned angrily towards Megan as his sister looked up to him. 'So this is what you'd make of me now! Not only you ceased to accept me as your brother anymore, you hated me as much to want me dead, aren't you?', he snapped as he took out the keys and stormed towards the door slamming the door close.
Megan had barely got time to react to Howell's accusations as Gareth bellowed after him. 'What are you doing now! You're not going to take over our house--'
Howl glared at him angrily as he twisted the key around. 'Who said anything about that--?', shouted Howl as he gestured towards Sophie and Michael. 'Come on you two! Else I go on without both of you and turn the door around... sorry Mari, had to go...', he said again as he leapt up the stairs into the castle, followed by Sophie and Michael. But Mari disagreed at him leaving like that as she sneaked in, with Megan fast behind her.
The door shuts behind her as when Gareth finally came to, he entered to find none of the people entering the door present in any place in the house...
XXX
Megan turned around in surprise as the door closed shut behind her and the knob turned itself to orange-down. She felt inclined to go back to the door had the next commotion draw her attention away. Howell had stormed upstairs to his room with a bang as Sophie rushed upstairs to console him. Michael gave a scared look towards the room as Sophie vainly asked him to open the door.
'No--! I said I'm not coming out! Can't believe Megan was so cruel--!' , cried Howl as he screamed from the other side of the room. Inside, sounds of crashed things and curses in Welsh seemed to passed through the door as the others listened in terror.
Megan sighed. 'Oh dear! Howell had always love bothering people with his tantrums. I can't believe he still do it at this age...'
Sophie and Michael turned around in alarm as they saw Megan and Mari. Immediately Sophie glared towards Calcifer asking why he let them in without telling them, especially Howl. Calcifer argued that it wasn't his fault and it might also be good to patch things up between the siblings as Sophie glared at him.
Megan eyed them waryly as she glanced towards Mari. Her small girl showed no alarm at having seen this strange place they entered pass their own door, much more the fact that a small fire just talked. She wondered about all those fantastical stories Howell had shared with Mari as she glanced towards Sophie.
'I guess with you being the most sensible here... can you please... explain to me.', said Megan as Sophie readily agreed.
XXX
Howell grabbed his old quilt and buried himself into his mattress as he kept muttering about cruel sisters and evil in-laws. 'And as if I already settled that issue with them about selling off all my precious books!', he moaned again as warm liquid crystal started to form at the edge of his eyes. 'Stupid... evil... cruel... bad Megan!', he whined some more as old memories of when they were children swept his thought into shapeless dreams. He sobbed as the imaginary cloud that form the younger version of Megan Jenkins, who had been the loving sister to him ever since they lost their parents diminished into the surly look of the hateful Gareth Parry.
The one Gareth Parry who had taken his sister away and robbed him of his family...
XXX
Megan took a long breath of air as Sophie concluded her explanation and cocked her head to the side as Mari, leapt onto Sophie's lap.
'Sophie... do you like my uncle? Uncle Howell seemed to like you so much...', said Mari as the color went up Sophie's cheeks. She coughed aloud as Michael and Calcifer laughed. Megan chuckled as she ushered Mari away. 'Mari! Ma's talking with Sophie...!', she said as Mari skipped away towards Michael and Calcifer. Michael sighed at the awkwardness of the situation. It came as a wonder to him that the woman that had given them a fright last time with her disagreement with her brother could actually sit down with them and listened to Sophie's retelling of their magical life in Ingary, calmly.
A quirk grin lit her lips as Megan glanced towards the direction of Howl's room. 'So... in reality, that stupid degree he got during university and all those bluffs really had been a use...' Megan sighed as she shook her head. 'No wonder he seemed to be mad at me for beratting the uselessness over his passions for it. Wonder how I should mend this... I can't buy back all those books of his again. At least... not all at once! Those books cost a fortune! And Gareth will surely not approve!'
Sophie, Michael and Calcifer leaned nearer as Sophie expressed her surprise. 'I thought... you hated Howl...', she said awkwardly as Megan chuckled. 'No...! Of course I'm not. Howell had been a little aloof ever since we lost our parents years ago... and all the time I'm taking care of him when we were little.', she looked up to Sophie as she gestured wildly. 'Well... you've lived with him for almost a year, isn't it... so tell me how won't you worry aver that little baby brother of mine after you've settled down with family and him wandering around without a permanent job?'
Sophie blinked as she could almost agree with her reasonings. She'd certainly worry over her sisters if ever Martha or Lettie would suddenly run off with a man like Jane Farrier did and popped up for a visit on random times! She frowned as Megan took time to massage her forehead. 'And there's that thing with Gareth. Howell and him never gets along with each other ever since Gareth started courting me. But I never expected Gareth to-- oh deary, it have to happen when he had had a temper rage over the problems at his workplace...'
Sophie rested her hands on the poor woman's shoulder as Mari went to her side. 'Ma... don't cry. Uncle can't be mad long... Mari can help! Mari is Uncle's favorite! Uncle always listen to Mari...', said the little girl as Megan hugged his sweet daughter. 'But Sophie... could you help me get into his room? That idiot often lock himself up whenever we had a disagreement that I don't know what to do...'
'I can try...', said Sophie as she thought of talking the door to unlock itself. It had worked with her stick the other day...
'Hope Howl hadn't started another tantrum. The last time he did we had to scrub the whole place off his green slime!', exclaimed Sophie aloud as Michael and Calcifer made some incoherent groans. Megan cried as the three jumped. 'He did that? Goodness... now after that explanation, I could finally understand what happened nine years ago. Howell practically snuffed the whole house with dust, feathers and whats-nots after I almost about to threathen him to clean up his insufferable dirty room! Heaven's goose had I been wondering how on earth he could get the house so messy in such a short time...', ranted the woman again as Sophie led her towards Howl's room.
'Master Howl did that? Whoa...', exclaimed Michael as Megan shrugged at him. 'Hopefully you had better sense than your master then.', she said as Michael straighten up to show that he's not.
Sophie chuckled as she bent down and talked the door open. The lock clicked as Mari cried in awe with Calcifer perched on her shoulder.
They entered into the room as books lay scattered more messily around them as if a storm had rammed into the room. Megan sighed as she headed towards the bed, with a large bundle propped in the middle of it. She sat on the bedside and started to pull on the covers as if she was trying to open a rather large present in front of her. Howl had emerged soon after as she threw the covers away. She wiped the stray tears off his cheeks as she gently nudged him.
'Howell... wake up you baby...', said Megan softly as Howell groaned, saying that he's sleepy and asking them to get out and stop bothering him. Megan sighed as she started to talk in a strange tongue towards him. Mari chuckled as Michael and Sophie glanced at her in wonder. 'What did Megan say?', asked Sophie as even Calcifer had been laughing aloud. Mari giggled. 'Ma says she had taken off his pants and you're here and so if Uncle refuse to wake up you'll see what's under...', she chuckled as Michael laughed. Sophie blushed as she too joined in the merryment.
True enough, Howl immediately jumped up and try to grab his pillows to cover his legs. His face went scarlet as he realized that Megan was bluffing. He scowled at her as he noticed the others. 'Megan... what are you doing here?', he growledMegan chuckled as she pulled him towards her and held him fondly. 'Silly boy...', she muttered softly as Sophie herded everyone out of the room to let the siblings some family time.
Howl groaned as he vainly reach out to stop Sophie from leaving...
(TBC)
az: Hehe... you guys convinced me to continue! I probably propped out lots of Megan/Sophie/Howell scenes as well as the Hatters in the next chapters..
cariad cywir - read 'A woman's true and fair' by The S to find out. XD Yes... I'm encouraging you guys to read her retelling if you hadn't already!
