Fandom: Howl's Moving Castle
Title: I'm lost without you…
Author/Artist: skanimefan/silentstarlight
Theme(s): #4 Lost
Pairing/Characters: Howl/Sophie
Rating: G
Disclaimer/claimer (if needed): I own neither the series nor the phrase 'I'm lost without you'.
Summary: Howl becomes lost…

I'm lost without you…

Howell Jenkins was lost. He wasn't lost as in 'I can't find the place were I'm going' lost, but lost as in 'I have no clue where Sophie is and I'll go insane soon if I don't know where she is' lost. Yes, Howl felt lost, and the inside of the castle showed it.

There were spider webs everywhere from all the spiders, a fine one-inch layer of chalk and dust was layering everything and there were unwashed dishes in the sink. The windows were grimy and sunlight shown through them in weak beams. Calcifer refused to stay in the grate because there was just too much ash in it. To put simply, the place was a dump. And Michael and Calcifer were sneezing themselves to death. And this was only the result of Sophie being gone for one week.

And the next week, a few dishes appeared to be molding or rotting in the sink, books were scattered everywhere, even in Calcifer's abandoned grate, which still a huge pile of ash sat. There seemed to be even more spiders, either that or they were creating twice the amount of spider webs they normally made. The sun just barely streaked in through the now extremely dirty window, and when sunlight happened to streak in, the light was weak. And Calcifer and Michael made all sorts of excuses to stay out of the Castle for health concerns.

And so, half way into the second week, Howl found himself alone in an extremely messy and dirty castle. Entirely alone. Even the spiders had deserted him, leaving him a note on their cobwebs that the place was too dirty and that they couldn't breathe in dust, they needed air.

Now Howl was really lost, he had no clue where Sophie was, Michael and Calcifer were camping out somewhere near the Waste, and his beloved spiders had decided to go on strike for better living conditions.

And so, he admitted it, without Sophie, he was completely lost. Howl proceeded to ooze green slime, and lots of it.

Throughout the third week, the king's messengers refused to deliver anything to the Wizard Pendragon, which irked the King, when he threatened to fire them, they all went on strike. In which the King and Prince had an argument which had been caused by the King trying to bribe a messenger to deliver a message of Strangia, in which the Prince tried to bribe the same messenger to not to deliver the same said message. Either way, both parties fired the messenger and the Prince once again threatened to throw his brother on the roof of the Palace.

By this time in the Castle, everything was under a foot of green slime, with more to come too. And by this time, Howl didn't do anything. He saw no point since Sophie wasn't there, life was meaningless. She had simply walked out the door one day and disappear, though I'm not quite sure about the disappear part since Howl never went looking for her… He was utterly lost.

On the first day of the fourth week, the door to the castle creaked open, and in walked Sophie Hatter, with a bag in her hand, looking very happy.

Very happy until she saw the mess that is. And Howl, who was still oozing slime, while still managing to stay alive and retain all magic. Then she was mad.

"HOWL JENKINS! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF YOU SLIMING EVERYTHING AGAIN!"

Howl looked up, and saw Sophie, then he looked back down, he was seeing things now, a woman really can drive a man mad.

A day and a half later, the castle was as clean as Sophie had left it.

Another day later, Howl woke up, after sleeping two and a half days.

"Howl," Sophie asked, "Why did you slime the whole place?"

Howl mumbled something that Sophie didn't quite catch.

"Say that again.", Sophie commanded.

"I was lost."

"How could you be lost, you were home the whole time!"

"You left without saying anything."

"No,", Sophie defended herself, "I left a note on the worktable saying that I would be gone about three weeks."

"What note?"

"Howl, you should of said something about you not paying attention and green slime when you asked me to marry you."

Me and my bad updating habits...