Disclaimer: Howl's Moving Castle doesn't belong to me. Its original version belongs to Diana Wynne Jones and the movie version belongs to Hayao Miyasaki.
Note: This story is based on Miyasaki's movie and doesn't have any connection with the original book.
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First Waltz
By Eiko Makimachi
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Chapter 2: Buying clothes
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"Sophie, why are we going to the town? Don't we have to continue practicing?"
Howl followed Sophie through the narrow streets of the sea side city. They hadn't had breakfast, he was starving and he couldn't help but feel that Sophie wasn't really pleased to walk outside with him.
"Did I do something wrong, Sophie?" he asked.
The young woman stopped, stunned by his question. "No, Howl? Why?"
The wizard blushed a little, looking to her. "I don't know... you aren't really pleased when you are walking with me in the city."
When he finished this sentence a group of young girls walked by and waved to them. He replied without any emotion, still waiting for Sophie's answer. She, on the other hand, looked angrily to the group and grabbed Howl's arm, continuing their way.
"It's not you. It's them." She finally said.
Howl didn't understand. "I beg your pardon?"
"They weren't waving to us, they were waving to you!" Sophie spoke sharply. "They seem to ignore that I'm with you. Look at your back to see that I'm telling the truth."
The wizard obeyed and turned back. To his surprise, the girls were still there, looking to them. When he stared at the group, they all started to giggle and continued their way. One of the girls caught his attention. She was giggling and shouting "Oh my God, he looked at us!"
He blushed and looked back to Sophie, whose face was red too, angry with the girl's group.
"Sophie, you don't need to be jealous of them. You know that I only have eyes to you." Howl said, still blushing.
"I know, I only have eyes to you too. But they still upset me." She finally stated, grabbing his hand once again and continuing their way.
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The little outfit shop was full of elegant ladies and gentlemen due to the royal ball. Howl never went to a store, he always asked to Markl to buy him food, clothes and other essential things. Now he felt pity of the young boy, the shop was a chaos! Wives yelling to their husbands, husbands yelling to their wives. He asked to Sophie if her hat store was like that, but she didn't answer. It seemed that she too was surprised by the number of people inside the shop.
"Not even the hat store was like that." She murmured, trying to find a way to go inside the shop.
"Why are we here anyway?" asked Howl.
"We need new clothes for the ball. We both don't have evening dresses."
The wizard had forgotten that detail. He did have formal clothes, but none for royal events. Neither did Sophie.
"How are we going to get into that mess?" she asked.
Howl looked to the top of the shop. "Hum... they must have a door on the back of the store."
"Yes, but... Howl!"
Without waiting for her answer, Howl grabbed her hand and jumped. Like the first time they had met, when Sophie didn't know who he was, they flew up to the sky. They never did it again since then, but it looked like Howl really enjoyed walking on air, because he smiled.
"Well, let's try the other door so."
He stepped forward, walking along with Sophie, who hugged him to not fall. He smiled to her, as if he was saying to not worry. She looked down, wondering how people didn't notice a couple walking on the sky.
As they finally arrived to the back side of the store, she noticed that Howl was right. There was an opened door there, she could see the attendants carrying dresses, hats, ties and shoes. One of them noticed the couple looking outside and waved to them.
"What are you two doing there!"
"Hum... the front door is blocked by people." Said Howl.
The attendant smiled. "Oh I see. Well, come in!" She said.
Sophie and Howl went into the small shop. It was full of different dresses, red, blue, long, short. There was even a bride dress in the middle of the store, all white and decorated with white flowers. For the men, Howl noticed different kinds of top hat, ties and shoes.
They decided to look after Sophie's dress first. She wanted something that wasn't blue, since most of her dresses were blue or green. Finally, she decided to try out a white dress with lavender tones, with light pink ribbons on each sleeve. It was a cute dress in Howl's opinion. As for shoes, she picked white ones.
While waiting for her, the wizard sat down on a chair, wondering what Sophie would choose for him to wear.
"Ah, I'll choose what you are going to wear, so you don't have to worry about it." She had said, before living the castle.
However, his thoughts were interrupted by a chubby man with grayish moustache who was next to him.
"Excuse me, young lady." He said.
"Er..., I'm sorry, sir, but I am a man." Howl said, trying to hold his temper. Calcifer always said that Howl should stop wearing earrings or cut his hair, otherwise people would mistake him for a tomboyish girl who wears boy's clothes. Whenever Calcifer mentioned that the wizard just ignored the fire demon and continued his way.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, young lad." Said the chubby man, embarrassed. "It's just that..."
"I know, I wear earrings and I'm really thin. I've heard that already from other people." Howl completed the man's sentence.
"I'm really sorry, please, accept my apologies."
"Apologies for what?" Sophie suddenly asked, already dressing the dress she had chosen.
Howl blushed. "Ah, for nothing, my dear. I explain it later."
"Hum... okay." Sophie said, still curious about what happened there. "So, what do you think?"
"You are perfect with this dress." Howl said, smiling.
"Really?" Sophie said, blushing at the compliment.
"Of course. Why would I lie to you, Sophie?"
The girl smiled. "So, let's get something for you, Howl!"
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The couple looked to thousands of suits, bow ties, top hats, but most of them were just brown or gray. The wizard refused to wear brown, and Sophie was decided to find something that fitted the stubborn young lad. Howl was almost giving up when she grabbed his hands and pointed to a singular outfit.
It was a black suit, with black trousers. There was a white long-sleeved shirt and red bow, to complete the outfit set.
"Oh my, what do you think, Howl?"
It was better than the brown ones, he thought. In fact, even he liked the black outfit. From all the colors he knew, he definitely disliked brown, red and orange. When his hair color changed to orange due to Sophie's "Spring cleaning", he almost had a heart attack. He was glad that it turned into black after.
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"Oh, Howl, you are perfect like that!"
Howl was wearing the black evening dress. He was kind of embarrassed, noticing that there were some people looking to him. Sophie seemed to ignore the girls' whisperings and helped the wizard with his top hat.
"You know, you are more elegant with the top hat than Kabu head."
Just the thought of Prince Justin's yellow outfit made Howl smile. Anyone could be more elegant then a man with yellow top hat, red bow tie and yellow suit.
"At least it's discreet." He joked.
At the other side of the town, Prince Justin sneezed. He was having tea with the King as always, when suddenly he felt like sneezing.
"Everything is right, Prince Justin?" the King asked gently.
"Yes, yes, your highness." The prince excused himself. He knew that far away someone was talking about him.
Back to Howl and Sophie, the couple finally bought the clothes and made their way back to the Castle. It was almost midday and Sophie knew that Markl, Grandma and Heen probably were hungry. However, the only one who was really starving was Howl, who wasn't feeling very well.
"Sophie, can we just... I don't know, fly, or use magic to go back to Castle."
"Why, Howl?"
The wizard blushed. "Well, huh, you know, I haven't eaten breakfast, and last night I didn't have dinner because I was busy reading a book so..."
"What! Howl! You haven't eaten since then?" Sophie exclaimed.
"No."
"Oh my God, Howl, you really behave like a child sometimes. Grandma is right."
"Hey!"
Sophie giggled and hugged Howl.
"Okay, we can fly our way home. But only today." She said, smiling.
Smiling too, Howl let go of Sophie's hug and guided her to an alley. Once again, they jumped and stopped in midair. However, unlike the other times, they didn't walk, they actually flew like birds towards the castle. Sophie was stunned by the wonderful sensation of flying, it was far better than the sensation of walking between the clouds.
"It's faster and more interesting to fly, instead of just walking." Howl commented. "Don't you agree?"
Looking down, wondering if people weren't talking about two strange giant birds flying over their heads, Sophie just answered quickly. "Yes."
Howl laughed.
"But don't do that all the time, I still think it is safer to just walk."
"Aw, Sophie, you just spoiled the whole fun."
Both of them started to laugh, enjoying the pleasant flight. Some pigeons joined them, and a single dove guided everyone to the plains where the magic castle was fixed. Sophie suspected that the pigeons were actually a kind of spell made by Howl, but when the two of them landed next to the main door of the castle, the little birds continued their way, instead of disappearing.
As they opened the door, they found Grandma sleeping with Heen, next to the fireplace. Calcifer was complaining about Howl and Sophie being late, while Markl was reading a book.
"Hello everyone." Howl finally said.
"Oh, goodness, I'm hungry! Howl, why were you so late?" said Calcifer.
The wizard chuckled. "Oh, really? If you are hungry, I'm starving! Let's have lunch so."
Before going back, Sophie and Howl had gone to a groceries' shop and bought eggs, bread, a cake and sorted vegetables. Howl asked Calcifer to cooperate and help him with the cooking.
Suddenly, Sophie stopped putting the packages on the table. "Oh, Howl, you forgot to tell me what happened back in the outfit shop."
His cheeks went red. Calcifer looked curiously to him, wondering too what happened when they were out for shopping. Markl ignored it and woke up Grandma so she could have lunch too.
"Sophie, it's something really... complicated, so I would rather tell you everything after lunch."
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Author's note: Okay, so maybe this chapter isn't longer than the first one. Thanks everyone who reviewed it, and I hope I'm not doing too OCC characters. I'm trying to do a better spelling and grammar checking on this chapter, but I can't promise anything. Just to let everyone know, it will take a while for me to do chapter 3.
Ah, about the sneezing thing. It's something from Japanese folk knowledge. If you sneeze for no reason, it is believed that it is a sign that someone is talking about you and telling bad things about you when you are not there.