Sophie returned to the castle door with little trouble. Once there she decided to get an early start on desert and began to make a lemon thought that it would go great with the steaks drenched in wine sauce and garlic mash potatoes with peas that she was planning to make for dinner.

While she was cooking she thought about her day with Justin. It was nice at first, she thought she had found a friend she could talk and laugh with. But thinking back on the way he looked at her.

She could tell that he was thinking what every other man she had ever met was thinking. 'What a hot piece of meat. I will pursue her like a prize to win. Then treat her like a trophy when I do and mount her like a dog every night.'

She hated that all men seemed to think of her was that she was just a pretty face and a warm body. They never look any deeper than that. They never see her for her. Just what they could get from her.

Sophie casted a glance towards Luna who was sitting on a high shelve watching her mix the souffle ingredients.

"I don't know Luna. Maybe there's just no such thing as a good man. Or maybe I could just cover myself with dirt and see where that gets me. That would probably deter a lot of those snobs if I wasn't so pretty." Sophie started knowing that her companion would always be ready to listen.

"Even if you were a fishermen wearing an oversized raincoat and smelled like rotting fish. Any man could see that you are as lovely as an angel."

Luna growled as Sophie turned towards the speaker.

Howl was standing a few feet away from them. He looked different. more humble than he did when they first met him. He hadn't dyed his hair back to blonde, so it was still a raven black with blue highlights. Instead of wearing flashing colors from before he had on a simple loose white shirt and black pants.

"Says the man who could work as a chimney sweep covered with ashes and soot, and probably still make girls faint with a wink."

"Is that so?" Howl replied with a smirk.

"It is so, NOT!" Sophie answered back in a teasing manner before turning back towards the souffle she was baking.

Luna growled and hissed as Howl came closer to Sophie instead of moving away.

Howl came up slowly behind Sophie and surprised her by gently, almost tenderly, placed his arms around her waist.

"You're amazing Sophie. You're so strong and independent. You could snag any of the richest men in the world easily by just batting your eyes. Yet you don't seem to like being the center of attention of fine, young gentlemen. Why is that?"

"Well for one thing, you are way too close."

With that she delivered a sharp elbow jab to his ribs. Howl in pain swiftly release her and moved away.

"And second. If you truly want to know. It is because I know for a fact that most men are despicable pigs that think only about themselves and about getting a warm, good looking body to do with as they please."

"You really believe that?" Howl asked with an astonished look upon his face, as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"Of course. It is all that men had ever done to me. Prove my thoughts to be correct." She stated as matter of fact.

"Well that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Why you're such a stick in the mud!" Howl started laughing thinking he had finally gotten the upper hand in their game, until his head recieved a sound smack silencing his laughter.

"Ouch!"

"True, Howl. That might explain why I am so cold when it comes to brushes of the opposite sex. However what possible events could have possibly lead you to be sissy womanizer?"

"Hey I am not sissy!"

"I believe that we have already established the fact that you are indeed sissy, spoiled, lazy, and very feminine."

"Prove it!"

"Alright. How about the time you totally freaked out just because you got your hair dyed the wrong color. And the time that you had a tantrum cause I practically grounded you in your bed and you tried to escape. How about the state of your so called castle. It was pretty much a filthy dump before I got here."

Howl simply grinds his teeth together in anger and stormed off to his room.

"Before you blow your top, Howl. I am trying to make a lemon souffle for dessert tonight. They flatten at any loud noise so could you keep it down till it is time to eat? Thanks."

Believe it or not. Howl didn't make a sound until it was time for dinner, and for the first time Howl had decided to join everyone at the table. Though he seemed to be trying to get back into the habit of merely playing with his food.

"Howl. Are you a monkey?"

"What? Of course not!"

"Then don't play with your food like one. Honestly, you could at least try my food. I worked hard to make it."

'There is no way I am letting him starve himself till he looks like scarecrow again' she thought as she watched him start to really enjoy his dinner.

Howl even smiled when he took a bite of his share of the lemon souffle.

In fact the evening was going well. Perhaps too well.

Sophie was mentally exhausted and was finishing the dinner dishes (with rubber gloves on) when Howl asked her to help him with a problem with the bathroom sink.

"It's clogged up really bad Sophie. I have tried everything to fix it. Maybe you could fix it."

"Alright Howl. Give me a minute and I'll be right up." she said looking at him over her shoulder.

Leaving clean dishes in the kitchen, Luna riding on her shoulder, and the rubber gloves on her hands. Sophie headed up the stairs to the bathroom. She opened the door and SPLOOSH!

"MEOOOOW"

Sophie found herself and Luna covered in a layer of thick mud with Howl laughing loudly right behind her.

Having only 10 seconds before she grew her tail. Sophie jumped into the bathroom and slammed the door firmly, locking it behind her.

Luna jumped off Sophie's shoulder hissing in outrage and shaking herself trying to rid her fur of the mud.

Sophie meanwhile was couching down on the floor waiting for her tail to grow. When it didn't, Sophie discovered to her horror that it wasn't mud that she was covered in. It was MANURE!

Now both she and Luna were growling and shaking in absolute OUTRAGE!

"Alright Howl. You want to play than let the games begin!"

She and Luna spent the rest of the night in the tub trying to scrub the awful stench off of their skin and fur. All the while thinking about what they would do to Howl tomorrow.