The witch of the west and that weird dog have no part in my story, just so you know.
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The two walked downstairs, Sophie looking like she'd never been happier. She'd even gotten Howl to hold her hand, which he eventually agreed to. At the bottom of the stairs, they heard the last of Calcifer and Markl's little conversation.
"… And that's how happy families are born!" Calcifer grinned.
Markl looked utterly disturbed, eyes widened at the flame.
"Markl," Howl said. "It's really late. You should go to bed."
The boy pulled a face of terror/disgust as he noticed how cheerful Sophie looked, saw them holding hands and heard Howl's request then put two and two together... and got five. "You're sick! You're all sick!" he ran upstairs, avoiding the couple.
They exchanges looks after the door of Markl's room had slammed shut. They both narrowed their eyes at the burning fire. Calcifer pretended not to notice, playing with what was left of his log. "You can't blame me for anything. If you two hadn't have gone up alone, our conversation would never have started."
Howl tried to hide a grin, mentally agreeing with the fire.
"Howl!" Sophie yelled at him, after seeing his expression. "We didn't do anything!"
"Yet, Sophie," he replied with a smug look on his face.
She death glared at him, but wasn't able to stop herself from blushing. She decided to change the subject. "S-so, when are you going to teach me magic?"
"Me? Teach?" he laughed. "You've got to be joking. I've got a spell book for beginners somewhere – you didn't clear it away, did you?"
"I thought it was Markl's so I put it up in his room."
"Don't be silly, Sophie! He's far too advanced for that sort of stuff!" he said, not realising how offensive he sounded. "Actually, that's the book he learnt to morph from. It comes in handy."
Sophie had a look in her eyes that neither of the boys could figure out since they'd never seen it on her before. She went quickly to Markl's room to search for it. Calcifer looked at Howl. "You taught her magic? I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
"Of course it is. It's my idea, after all."
"Is it?"
"Well… not exactly. But that's irrelevant. Sophie's happy, and that's all that matters."
After finally convincing Markl that she wasn't going to do anything with Howl and that what Calcifer said was just a lie, Sophie finally managed to get the book. It was dusty. She could've sworn she'd cleaned it recently. She shrugged and headed back to her room. On the way down, she said goodnight to Howl and the flame before entering her room. It wasn't long until everyone was asleep when she got the book out again. She laid it on her bed as she kneeled beside it. Sophie wiped away the last of the dust before carefully lifting it open, skimming through the pages, trying to find a particular spell.
"Aha!" she said victoriously, making sure no one heard her. She'd reached the page she wanted – the incantation on it looked pretty ordinary. Not like she'd expected with big complicated words not in English. They were in perfect English and they weren't complicated at all; then she thought that may be because it's more of a beginners spell book.
Sophie read what she should do and sat in front of a mirror and began…
-star- -star- -star-
Markl awoke the next morning and ran downstairs, expecting Sophie to have made breakfast. She wasn't there. Howl was still asleep and Calcifer looked bored to tears. "Where's Sophie?"
He shrugged, playing with the ashes beneath him. "She hasn't cleaned this place up in days now…" he complained.
Markl knocked on the door of Sophie's room. "Sophie?" he called gently. "Are you awake?"
"Yes," she replied simply.
"Um… could you make us breakfast?"
"I could."
"… Will you?"
"Not right now, Markl. Get Howl for me," she requested.
The boy was slightly disappointed. He was hungry but didn't want to push her to make him something to eat. So Markl ran up to Howl's room – the quicker he did as he was told, the quicker he could start eating. Howl groaned as the knocking woke him up. "What?" he whined through the door.
"Sophie wants to see you," Markl replied.
Howl sighed, crawling out from under his bed covers – his hair was a total mess, his eyes were only half open – in fact, only one of his eyes were half-open, the other was still asleep. He stumbled down the stairs wearing only white satin pants. He almost fell back to sleep on Sophie's door he was that tired. "Sophie…? Did you call for me?"
"Howl," she called. "Come in and close the door. I have a surprise for you…"
He instantly smiled devilishly, the sleep in him turning to nothing more than a distant memory. "Coming!" He shot the door open and stared at her, almost forgetting to breathe. "Sophie… what have you done…?"
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Short, I know. Just getting through the basics…