Chapter 2
'Shyness'
Disclaimer- I don't own Howl's Moving Castle, all its rights go to Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghilbi and the chick that wrote the book.
By xoxBra's Unrequited Romancexox
"Good morning sunshine…" Howl whispered into Sophie's ear as her brown eyes awoke the very next morning.
"Mmm… Good morning, Howl…" Sophie smiled back, turning around to face the man she was sharing the bed with.
Putting her hand on his chest and slipping it into his shirt, Sophie felt for Howl's heart. It beated strongly under her hand and she smiled a little before she kissed it.
"Promise you'll never be lonely again, Howl," She whispered.
"Thank you…" He whispered back tenderly, encircling his arms around her small form.
Suddenly, heavy, fast paced slams echoed through the castle.
"Master Howl, Sophie! Master Howl! Sophie!" A voice screamed.
Howl smirked and mouthed a 'one… two… three…'
The door to Howl's room swung open and under the door frame stood a very flustered Markl.
"Master Howl, Sophie, that woman that was here yesterday, I opened the door after I heard a knock and she just barged in asking where you were! She's still down there! She's organising my texts! Tell her to stop!" Markl yelled, distress written all over his face.
Howl chuckled a bit as Sophie looked over his shoulder, resting her head there for a second.
"Well Sophie, we better go see what this mother of yours wants," Howl smiled, nudging his Sophie in the gut.
"Okay…" Sophie moaned rolling over. Truth was, she still wanted to sleep.
Howl chuckled, "I'll tell Calcifer to run some hot water…" he said, kissing her cheek softly.
"Master Howl! Please, I can hear her coming up the stairs!" Markl cried, pointing out the door.
"Alright I'm coming," Howl laughed a little as he flung himself out of bed and followed the whining Markl.
"Good morning ma'am," Howl greeted as he walked down the stairs.
"Oh Howl, thank god," Calcifer sighed as he saw Howl walking down the stairs.
"Where's Sophie?" Honey asked, looking up from Markl's text books.
"She'll be coming in a minute," Howl assured. Taking a glance to Calcifer Howl asked if he could, "Run some hot water for a bath?" adding on that they would take Calcifer out for a while today.
Calcifer easily complied.
"Excuse me ma'am, but what is your purpose here?" Howl asked politely, gently lowering on of the spell text books Honey had in her hands.
"I wanted to see Sophie, she should meet her new step father you know and he's just dying to meet her!" Honey exclaimed, and then suddenly she narrowed her eyes. "You know those spells that you are teaching that boy aren't very nice. Spells how to blow up ships, disable machines, control people and manipulate them!" Honey knew with the last statement she was going over the top. "I still don't know what my daughter sees in you… If you hurt her… If you even think about getting near her heart, I swear I will have the royal forces and Madame Suleiman hunt you down."
Howl chuckled, "I assure you my good lady: I have no intentions of ever devouring any girl's hearts."
"Done and done," Calcifer said as he rested for a second.
"Ah, very good, Sophie shall be down in an instant now, my lady," Howl's attention turned to Markl, "Markl, could you tell Sophie that I had some urgent business to attend to, I'm taking Calcifer and I should be back by lunch. And oh, that I love her."
Markl nodded and screwed up her nose.
"You'll get like it one day," an old voice said as it emerged from a room.
"Ah, the Witch of the Waste, good to see you," Howl exclaimed as Calcifer jumped onto his shoulder.
"Ditto big boy," She replied with a wink.
"The Witch of the Waste?!" Honey cried looking at the old woman who looked like a rotten, wrinkled cucumber and was swirling her hips to move her sleeves which had no arms to fill them, laughing and having a jolly good time.
Howl chucked, "Oh don't worry she's armless."
"Oh ha ha," Calcifer said sarcastically, "You're so funny!"
"Oh, Howl are you going out?"
Howl looked up to the stairs to see Sophie, in a simple light pink dress. Her starlight hair was wet and was now dead straight. Her beautiful dark eyes stood out now and Howl had his breath stolen away from him. Some how he managed to get out, "Yes, I'll be back soon… I love you."
Sophie smiled as she descended the stairs and kissed Howl on the cheek. Calcifer lined up happily for a kiss.
"Bye," Howl waved as he and Calcifer as the dial turned black and they both jumped into the abyss.
"Oh my," Honey said, covering her mouth with her hand. Looking over to her right she screamed 'Oh! Sophie!" and once again, tackled her to the ground with her love.
"Hello mother, how are you?" She asked hugging her mother back.
"Oh, Sophie, I'm fine, I'm fine, I just can't believe you're back!" Honey cried, hugging her daughter but finally getting up and brushing the dirt off her dress.
"I want you to come meet your step father, Sophie! Oh I know you'd love him, he has a son and a daughter, twins! Oh they're lovely Sophie! I'm sure you'd love them, they already love you and they haven't even met you yet!" Honey said, clapping her hands and looking intently on her daughter.
"Okay, mother," Sophie said, "But I want Howl to come with me, we'll have to wait til he comes back."
Honey huffed a 'fine',
"Howl and I had that little chat you know," The Witch of the Waste said as she followed Sophie around the market with Honey following close behind.
"About what?" Sophie asked, looking back at the old woman for a brief second.
"Just about Howl," The ex sorcerer looked back for moment to see how far behind Honey was. She was talking to a stall owner.
"You had better be there for Howl this afternoon when you go to meet your step father and your step siblings. He is still known for the devouring of hearts, Sophie."
"I know that, thanks to mother," Sophie said, paying for some oranges and putting them in her basket, "how did all that start anyways?"
"I think it was a rumour and Howl used it to his advantage to keep his privacy. It was a horrible rumour, started by a princess in a land. She had loved Howl, but Howl had turned her down. In her fury she killed herself, ripped out her own heart and it was claimed that Howl had ripped it from her body," The Witch of the Waste explained the she winked ,"Oh and only I know that, so don't go telling anyone. Not even Howl."
"How horrible, poor Howl," Sophie said as she walked to another stand.
"That's why Howl will need you now more than ever, Sophie. He's scared of meeting new people, he's instantly judged. If it wasn't for the fact that he's madly in love with you, I doubt that he'd even go," The Witch of the Waste concluded.
Sophie smiled a soft one. She hadn't had the slightest clue about how Howl had gotten his 'reputation' for eating girl's hearts, now she was realising the cold truth. People were so mean sometimes.
"Oh dear, oh dear, Sophie sweetie!" Honey cried running up to her daughter and putting a delicate hand on her shoulder.
"Yes, mother?" Sophie asked, turning around.
"Oh Sophie-sweetie I have to go. I promised Lettie that I'd be at the shop for lunch, I'll see you at my new house okay, oh all the family is going to be there."
Sophie heard the Witch of the Waste moan painfully and couldn't help and think of what Howl would be like.
"Okay, I'll get there I promise…" Sophie promised.
"Oh thank you Sophie!" Her mother cried and hugged her, "Oh well, I'll see you there okay, come as soon as possible!"
And with that, Honey bid her goodbyes to her daughter and well…very awkward goodbyes to the former Witch of the Waste.
"Sophie will want me to go… I just can't handle it," Howl said, his head in his hands, leaning over the hearth where Calcifer was sitting.
It hadn't been long after he left, he had heard Honey ask Sophie to go to meet her step father and then that Sophie wanted Howl to come with her. He couldn't explain how he heard it, he just had.
"Listen, you'll be okay, Howl. Sophie will be with you, I'm sure she'll never leave you there alone. Just stick with her and pretend nothings wrong," Calcifer reassured.
"There's going to be people there… I can't talk to people, they judge me…" Howl whispered.
"It'll be okay Howl, stop stressing out," Calcifer said, moving over to Howl and looking up to see his face.
"Make me some hot water for my bath, Calcifer," Howl said softly getting up.
"Okay, look Howl, Sophie will be there," Calcifer said, trying to comfort the stressing Howl.
"I know."
Howl walked slowly up the stairs and no sooner was the water erupting out of the taps, Sophie walked in.
"Is Howl back yet?" Sophie asked Calcifer, putting her stock on the table.
"Yeah, he's up having a wash," Calcifer said, "He's really stressed out Sophie; I think you should talk to him."
"Of course she has to," The Witch of the Waste said to Calcifer.
"I will, once he gets out of the bath," Sophie said unpacking her basket and putting it away into the kitchen.
"Of course, when he gets out of the bath," The Witch of the Waste leant into whisper to Calcifer, "when he's naked and dripping wet…"
"Sophie!" Calcifer cried, growing into a bigger flame, "Get this woman away from me! She's thinking dirty!"
"Howl?" Sophie knocked on the door to the bedroom that the wizard was in.
"You can come in Sophie, this is your room too you know," Howl said monotone.
"Oh, right," Sophie walked in to find Howl, with just pants on, sitting on the bed, head entangled in his dark blue locks and breathing heavily.
"Are you alright, Howl?" Sophie asked, sitting down next to him.
"I'm fine…" He answered back.
"You're scared, Howl… I know," Sophie whispered, putting a soft hand up to caress his cheek.
Howl's hand moved up to touch hers, he rubbed it softly.
"I don't like… I can't… I'm sorry Sophie, I really am," Howl said softly, looking at her with pleading cerulean eyes.
"I know Howl, but I'll be there, you won't be alone," Sophie said softly against his wet shoulder.
"I know… I… I … Fine, I'll go," Howl sighed, giving in.
Slowly moving Howl's face over to face her, Sophie kissed him.
At first when Sophie put her hands around his neck, Howl didn't know what to do. But slowly he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in tighter.
Slowly the kiss went from an innocent peck on the lips, to a shy make out.
Sophie brushed her lips once more on Howl's before she pulled away.
"Thank you…" She breathed.
"I love you," Howl whispered as he claimed Sophie's lips for another kiss.
Sophie opened her mouth again when she felt Howl do the same. To Sophie's surprise, she felt a tongue slip into her mouth and run across the bottom row of her teeth.
Sophie's hands travelled back up his neck and into his hair, pushing his head in more. She smiled against his lips; Howl was showing more love now then she'd ever seen… He had never kissed her like this.
Sophie was even more surprised when Howl took more control and pushed her back onto the bed so he was overtop of her, kissing.
Breaking the kiss and moving as far enough so he could just get a little bit of air into his starved lungs, but not enough to separate their faces or enough to break the saliva strung to their lips, Howl smiled. His head rested on her forehead, his sky blue eyes closed and kiss lips parted slightly, he chuckled.
Placing his hands on Sophie's hips he massaged the back of them slowly with his thumbs, he whispered incoherent words against her lips. Sophie exhaled slightly, her breathing hitched from such close contact.
Sophie strained her hearing to hear exactly what he was whispering. Catching some of it, all she could make out was, "himeryic my ai, listene kitl… Ai…" before Howl's weight shifted upwards and he moved away from her lips and his hands moved away from her hips.
Slowly he caught her nose gently between his teeth and ran his fingers through her starlight hair. Travelling down after releasing her nose he kissed her bottom lip and grazed it with his teeth.
"...Howl…" Sophie breathed once Howl had moved away from her face and was now leaning above her with his eyes closed.
"Howl…?" She asked after he didn't do anything.
Suddenly his eyes fluttered and his midnight blue hair draped over his face, before he collapsed onto the pillows and blacked out…
"Howl?!"
Oh, Chapter two?! What's up with Howl? Just to let you all know, in case some of you believe me, the story about how Howl got his reputation isn't true, it isn't the way Hayao or the chick that wrote the book cast it to be. It was purely made by my imagination, so yeah. Most of the stuff in that chapter is what I concluded from the movie… Eg, Howl made Calcifer from his heart so he could have a friend, he was a lonely boy etc etc.
Anyways enough with my mindless babbling, please review, this stories starting to go somewhere eh?
-xoxBraxox
