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 4: Meeting Lettie

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"Howl! We are late!"

The wizard jumped literally from his bed and almost hit his head on a pile of books that he had left on his bed. Before starting doing anything, he made a mental note for himself to remind putting the books he reads on the shelf.

It was sunny outside, so he didn't bother to get a coat, but Sophie, who was ready to live the castle, was holding a blue umbrella.

"Can I eat something before? I'm not going to starve again outside." Said Howl, taking an apple.

"Do it quickly so! The bakery will be full of people soon, and I don't want to fly again to visit my own sister!" said Sophie impatiently.

"Why are you taking an umbrella?" he asked.

"The sun is too strong today."

Finishing his apple, Howl threw the rest of it to Calcifer, who "ate" it instantly. The fire demon seemed to like it, so Markl gave another apple to him.

"Is there something that Calcifer doesn't eat?" asked Sophie.

"Well, he doesn't drink anything." Howl said.

Now I know why they don't have a trash can in the kitchen. Thought Sophie.

Howl changed the color of the door switch so they could go to Market Chipping. Sophie still found unusual the fact that the castle door was located exactly where her family's old hat shop used to be. Now the store was only a normal house, looking from the outside.

The street was quite calm at that time. There were a few children with their mothers, playing. Young men with plain clothes were chatting near the hat shop and some dogs were chasing a small, black cat.

Sophie opened her blue umbrella. Howl seemed to not care about the sun and followed her. As they approached the Cesary's bakery, they relieved that there weren't lots of people trying to buy cakes just to see Lettie. However, it seemed that Prince Justin wasn't there.

Lettie, who was taking care of a box full of creamy strawberry cakes, was really anxious to see Sophie. She hadn't seen her for a long time, and since the day she had heard that Sophie was seen with that mysterious wizard, she was afraid that it could be Howl. Although she knew that the King trusted him, most people in Market Chipping simply refused to believe that a wizard could be a good person.

She had never seen Wizard Howl before, but everyone knew that he was a young, tall man, with shoulder length straight hair and used to wear earrings.

"Lettie?" someone familiar called her.

She left the box she was carrying on the floor and run to outside. There she was, her dear sister Sophie. She noticed that she seemed to be happier now, but she also noticed other strange things.

She noticed that Sophie's hair was short and silver now. It suited her, Lettie thought, although silver was a very unusual color for hair. But then she froze when she saw who was the handsome man that came with Sophie.

It was really beautiful young man with green eyes. His shoulder length hair was straight and black. He was quite tall, specially now that he was wearing boots. But Lettie noticed that he was wearing green earrings, and that really caught her attention.

"You... you are...?"

"Hi, Lettie!" Sophie said cheerfully. " This is Howell Jenkins and..." but she was interrupted by Lettie who threw an empty cake box on Howl.

"Leave my poor sister alone, you... you... your bad wizard!" said Lettie. "You won't take her heart with you!"

Howl was hit by the empty box, a pie, a cake and another empty box. Sophie was too shocked to do something, and Howl was too dizzy with the sudden attack to avoid the others.

"Stop, Lettie, he is not bad!" Sophie managed to say.

"Someone help me..." moaned Howl.

"But Sophie, that's Wizard Howl!" Lettie said.

"I know that! But he is a kindhearted person, he is not bad!" Sophie said, while helping Howl.

"Argh... I think I won't eat pies and cakes for a long time..." said Howl.

Lettie stopped her attack. "Sophie, he eats the heart of young women! He is going to eat yours!"

"He doesn't! He..." but Sophie was interrupted by Howl, who had recovered from the attack.

"Let me explain, Sophie." He said.

Walking towards Lettie, he didn't notice that Sophie's sister was moving backwards, probably too afraid of him. Still, he stopped when she hit the bakery's balcony. He was only a few centimeters from her and Lettie was so scared that she didn't have courage enough to do something.

To her surprise, he just gave a big smile, like the one children usually gave to her when they were talking to her cheerfully. He looked like a very innocent, playful teenager, looking like that to her.

"First of all, I don't eat hearts. That's a big lie." Howl said. "One thing is to steal the heart of silly girls that fall in love with me. It's not my fault that they have got heartbroken after."

It is, kind off. Thought Sophie. But at that time he didn't have a heart, so he couldn't fall in love, even if he wanted to.

"Secondly, I love Sophie. If it hadn't been her, I would have remained heartless and I would probably be dead right now." He said, looking a bit serious. "I wouldn't dare to hurt her in any circumstances."

He turned his back to Lettie and returned to where he was initially, next to Sophie. Lettie was still confused. Suddenly, she turned back to reality, when she saw another young man inside the store.

"Good morning."

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Another tall, handsome man was looking to her. Lettie felt her cheeks burning a little. He was wearing yellow outfit, with red bow tie and yellow top hat. He was taller than Howl for a few centimeters, and he looked a bit older as well.

"Good morning, dear Sophie and Howl." He said.

Sophie smiled gently. "Good morning, ah... Prince Justin."

Lettie froze. It was Prince Justin! She had never seen him before, and now he was right there, shaking hands with Howl and saying good morning to her sister. Lettie always wondered who was him. She was nervous and embarrassed, she didn't know what to do.

"Prince Justin, I would like to introduce Lettie, my sister." Said Sophie.

"It is a pleasure to meet such a beautiful young woman." He said, taking one of Lettie's hands and kissing it formally. Lettie blushed furiously.

"N...nice to meet you." Was all she managed to say.

"Sorry for the being late. Market Chipping is quite far, isn't it?" he said to Howl.

"Yes, yet you have arrived quite early! Did you come by carriage?" Howl said.

"No, by train." Said Prince Justin.

"Well, now that everyone is here, I think we should explain why we are here, Sophie." Howl murmured.

"Oh yes." Sophie said. "Lettie, come with me, there is something I must ask to you."

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"Sophie, I won't marry a man that I've just met! I might be a bit desperate to find my love, but that doesn't mean I'm going to marry with anyone, not even a prince!"

The two girls were discussing about the plan. Even if her sister day-dreamed about her prince charming, Sophie knew deep inside that Lettie wouldn't accept arranged marriage, she was too stubborn and strong-minded. Much like herself, Sophie thought.

Outside, Howl and Prince Justin heard Lettie's yells and sighed.

"I told you. It was a weird plan." Said Prince Justin.

"No, you didn't." said Howl. "And if you have any other good idea, feel free to tell us."

"Unfortunately, I do not have."

The way he talks still annoys me, thought Howl with a smirk. He was busy, trying to find a solution for the whole problem. However, he thought, if that prince continued to act as a superior human being Howl would prefer to go to the ball with Sophie and see him transformed into a scarecrow.

Then, something crossed his mind. What if he and the prince switched bodies? Of course the original spell is very weak and he knew that his former wizard teacher would notice the spell, but he had been studying a stronger version of this spell. If cast correctly, Madam Sulliman wouldn't notice any difference. He, disguised as Prince Justin, would dance with Sophie. The love spell would be cast on him, not on the real prince.

The problem was the spell. It was a very complicated spell. If it was cast wrongly, he didn't know what could happen.

Inside, Sophie convinced Lettie to at least go with them for a walk, so she could know a little bit more about Prince Justin. At first Lettie refused, saying that she couldn't leave the bakery, but it seemed that there were more attendants in the store than customers. Asking another girl to take care of the place while she was out, she decided to go outside and have lunch with Sophie.

"But where are we going to have lunch, Sophie?" she asked, curious.

"Well, Howl and I usually have lunch at home." Said Sophie in reply.

"Home?"

"Yes, the Moving Castle."

"W-wait, the Moving Castle? I haven't seen it for months! I thought it had disappeared!" said Lettie, pointing to the blue sky. "It was easy to find it, it spilled black smoke all the time."

Sophie giggled and guided Lettie to outside. Howl and Prince Justin were still waiting in silence for their return, Howl refusing to face the prince.

"Howl, dear, Lettie is going to have lunch with us. Ah, and Prince Justin is invited as well." Sophie said, smiling to the prince.

Hearing that, Howl jumped in surprise. "W-what? Lunch? The two of them?"

"Yes." She replied, still smiling.

"Oh my, so the two will have to wait for a while. We don't have food enough for 6 people plus Heen." Howl said, sighing. "I'll go shop, you three can return to the castle."

"But, Howl, I can do..."

Howl just placed a hand on Sophie's head and smiled gently. "Don't worry. Just go with your sister and I do the rest."

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Sophie guided the prince and her sister to her former hat shop. Lettie was quite confused, looking to the small house with flowers. She was going to open her mouth to ask about what Sophie wanted to do there when her older sister opened the door and went inside.

"Well, Prince Justin, you probably know the Porthaven's and Kingsburry's portals already."

"Of course. So this one is the portal that goes to Market Chipping." Said the prince.

Lettie was still confused. They were talking about strange things, like portals for the Moving Castle.

"Ah, sorry, Lettie, I think I must explain you some things."

"You have to explain me lots of things, Sophie." Said Lettie.

"Well, this is a portal for the Moving Castle. Instead of going inside our old hat shop, you will go inside Howl's castle." Sophie explained, guiding Lettie to the portal.

Lettie Hatter couldn't believe on what had just happened. She passed through the wooden door of Hatter's former hat store, but instead of the entrance hall of it, she saw a very small kitchen, a very old lady sitting next to the fire place, sleeping, a boy looking at her curiously and a dog barking at the visitors. And, for her surprise, in front of the old lady, there was a fire place with a ball of fire with eyes and mouth.

"Ah, you are back, Sophie? Who are they? Where is Howl?" Calcifer asked quickly.

"Explain... lots... things... Sophie." was all she said before fainting.

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Author's note: Forgot to warn everyone: Madam Sulliman is a bit OCC is this story. For those who have watched the movie, she is not angry with Howl anymore in the end, but I decided to make her the "villain" of this fanfic.

It is hard to write something with Lettie, I really don't remember much of her personality in the movie, just in the book. I think I'm going to rewrite this chapter if I have the opportunity for it.

Sorry for this chapter, I know it isn't good. I've got a cold, I've been feeling very sleepy lately, so forgive me for any stupid mistakes.