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 6: A new love is born

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"Would you like to dance with me, Miss Hatter?"

Lettie hesitated a bit, but accepted the prince's offer. The two joined Howl and Sophie, who were already starting their first steps. Howl had already learned how to follow Sophie without looking down to his own feet, but that was the first time they were practicing with music, and the wizard found out that harder than following Sophie, dancing and following the music was an incredibly difficult task.

The prince and Lettie, on the other hand, were already dancing wonderfully. Prince Justin was an excellent dancer, and Lettie danced fairly well. However, the oddest thing about Sophie and Howl was that the man is always supposed to guide the woman in waltz, but since the wizard didn't know how to dance it was Sophie who was guiding him.

"Don't worry, Howl. I bet you will be able to dance soon." Said Sophie.

"Well, I HOPE I will be able to dance soon." He replied

Meanwhile, the other couple had its own problems. Prince Justin was fascinated by Lettie's beauty, and he soon learned that she had the same temper Sophie did. Or probably worse, as he recalled seeing a rather dizzy Howl after the incident at Cesary's. Even when she was angry, Sophie never threw anything at Howl, not even when the wizard had his tantrum and she became angry at him for his childish behavior. However, Lettie still didn't show much affection for the prince. She continued dancing, but probably just because she thought it would be rude to refuse an invitation to dance, as she didn't seem to focus her attention on Justin.

Deep inside, Lettie was rather curious about the prince. He was really charming, the perfect picture of the man she always dreamt of. But she couldn't just let him know it, she was too proud of herself to let a man know that she likes him. Prince Justin wasn't the first beautiful man she saw, many of them have asked her out at Cesary's. And she always withdrew, saying that she was too busy. To her, a man should fight for a woman's love, which meant that Prince Justin wouldn't win her heart that easily.

Howl clumsily learned that all he had to do was to make the steps he had learned with Sophie following the music time. He had to count the rhythm, but he already managed to guide Sophie a little, which made Sophie look to him brightly.

"That's it, Howl!" she exclaimed. "Now you only have to practice so you don't have to count the time."

The wizard smiled to her, pleased with her happiness and glad that he was really learning how to dance. One of the things that Sophie loved in Howl was his smile, it was sweet and warm like Spring.

Although the wizard managed to advance more, soon both couples were tired and took a break. Howl clapped twice and the instruments stopped immediately, falling dead at the floor, making a rather loud sound. Markl must had heard at, since he came running shortly after, looking a bit startled.

"Tea time." Howl announced. "I think we should call it a day, I think."

Prince Justin took his hat, which he had left with Markl and nod. "Yes, I totally agree with you, Howell Jenkins."

Howl made a mental note concerning the prince being annoyingly polite, but continued talking as if nothing had happened. "I think we still have a Cesary's cake and I bought more tea."

"Sounds good to me." Said Sophie, following Howl and Markl to the kitchen. Prince Justin and Lettie just followed them after. Lettie was way to tired to say no to a tea party invitation, even if she knew that she was supposed to be back to Cesary's to get her things and go home.

The kitchen was warmed by Calcifer's low fire. The fire demon seemed to be almost sleeping. Grandma was sitting in front of him, warming her hands. Markl cleaned the table and put some plates and cups, while Howl searched for the cake and Sophie prepared the tea.

"Master Howl, I think I managed to learn the spell." Said Markl, while waking up Calcifer. The fire demon yawned and stretched its little arms. He was about to complain when he smelled food and learned that it was probably tea time.

"Oh, really?" said Howl, cutting the marvelous strawberry cake into seven pieces. Calcifer would annoy him for the rest of the day if he didn't get a piece of cake too.

"Yep, let me show you!"

Markl got his wizardry book and opened to the page where the floating spell was described. He choose one of Calcifer's wood logs and pointed to it. He squeezed his eyes a little, trying to concentrate on the spell and make that log float.

Slowly, the log moved and floated next to Calcifer. It seemed that the boy had indeed learned the spell. However, the log suddenly started to shake and then it started to bounce and fly through the room. It hit Howl's shelf, breaking a couple of glasses, almost hit Grandma's head, if she hadn't dodged it when she fell from the chair a little, indicating that she had fallen asleep. Lettie yelped when the log came flying right in front of her, and if it hadn't been for Prince Justin putting his arm in front of her it would have hit her face.

Soon Howl managed to dispel the log, which stopped flying right above Calcifer. It fell and the fire demon extended his little arms, trying to get the log. However he missed it, and the wood log hit his head, causing him to yell in pain.

"Ouch, those logs are really heavy!" he cried. "Markl, you did the flying spell, not the floating spell!"

Markl looked to his book again. "Oh, I think I read the flying spell by mistake, it's my next lesson..."

Howl chuckled a little. "Well, at least it's one less lesson for me to teach you. But next time you want to show me your spell, show it outside the castle, at the flower field. There no one will see us, and we never know when a spell goes wrong and something explodes."

The boy looked down. "Sorry, master Howl."

Lettie looked to Prince Justin, who had defended her from the flying log. Unlike her, he had already got used to the magical issues of the Moving Castle, afterall he lived there as a scarecrow for a long time, so he just continued staring at Calcifer's flames.

"Huh... I..."

The prince turned his head to her. "Yes, miss Hatter?"

"Huh... I... er... thanks for defending me." She said, avoiding eye contact with the prince.

Prince Justin blushed a little, but replied with a smile. "You are welcome."

"Sophie, what time is it?" Lettie asked.

"Hum... 5 o'clock I think."

Lettie stood up quickly. "What?! I must go! My things are still at Cesary's and they are going to close it!"

The prince also stood up. "Oh my, I forgot the King had asked me to have dinner with him, I must go too."

Sophie put the kettle to boil. "Aw, can't you have tea with us?"

"No, Sophie, I'm really sorry." Said Lettie. "I really must go."

Her sister smiled. "That's ok, Lettie."

Howl stopped cutting the cake. "Well, so only 5 pieces needed. Are you going too, Ka... I mean, Prince Justin?"

"Yes, I am afraid that I have to. And someone has to go with miss Hatter, it's late and the roads are dangerous right now. Where do you live, miss Hatter?"

Blushing furiously, Lettie just said "Market Chipping, at the end of the valley."

"That's quite far from here."

"Lettie has to wake up early everyday to get the train, otherwise she can't go to the Cesary's." said Sophie. "Could you go with her, Prince Justin? I want to make sure she arrives home safely."

The prince bowed. "It will be an honor to help your sister, Sophie. I mean, unless she is against it."

Lettie became even more red, if that was possible. "Oh, no, it is I who I am honored to have your companion."

She took her things and followed Prince Justin, who opened the castle's door for her in an elegant way. First he made sure the door switch was on Market Chipping, by looking outside to check the scenery. As he saw the old little houses of the small village, he smiled and let Lettie go out first.

"I must say it I really enjoyed the meeting, Sophie and Howell. Let me thank you for the wonderful dancing section." He said, before closing the door and vanishing from Howl's vision.

"Ack, will he stop calling me Howell? I mean, only my family calls me that!" the wizard complained, remembering his parents and his sister.

Sophie laughed at his comment. She was busy making dinner. "Well, at least I think you won't need to make the switch spell on yourself."

Howl raised an eyebrow, rather curious about what she was thinking. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed how my sister reacted to Kabu's manners?" Sophie asked.

"... You don't think she...?"

"I think she is."

"... in love, really?"

Sophie nodded. For the first time that day Howl showed a really sincere and big smile. If Lettie was in love with the prince, he could just cast the simple switch spell on Sophie and her. That would be safer for everyone, specially for Justin and him. He was checking the other switch spell. It was way too dangerous, it could work fine with two wizards, but not with a wizard and a common human, since the later usually can't control the magical powers of the wizard. He had also considered disguising himself, like he did when he took the King's form to check how Sophie was doing at the castle, and making just a transforming spell on the prince. However, like the strong switching spell, it was too dangerous for Prince Justin. The transforming spell required Howl's memory to perform the transformation, so unless the prince had a good picture of him, Howl would never be able to change him back to what he was. Not to mention that the spell was really strong and if anything went wrong while transforming the prince, canceling it would require lots of magic from the wizard. No, the common switching spell was far less complicated and much more safer.

"Let's hope a new love was born, Sophie..."

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Author's note: A short chapter, I know. I've had a huge writing block and only now I'm recovering from that. This end of the year is quite busy for me, with university exams (here you have to make a test to go to an university), last year of highschool, etc. I did check the spelling on half the chapter, but I didn't have time to check the rest of it, so forgive me for any mistake.