Howl's Moving Castle Fan Fiction ❯ Howl and Sophie One Shots ❯ Of Bullies and Burning Broomsticks ( Chapter 1 )

  She wondered if she would ever feel comfortable in a crowd. It had been almost a month since the curse had been lifted, returning Sophie to her old, young self again. Now, as she walked the familiar market of Chipping, bartering with vendors and smiling at people she had known all her life, she was struck time and time again by how little things had changed. For all intents and purposes, Market Chipping looked the same as always, only slightly less crowded and slightly less festive than it was on that fated May day not too long ago.   And that was what bothered her.   Because, despite the fact that Market Chipping remained the same, Sophie had not. She had learned many things over the last two months, being a 90 year old woman did that to people, and she was no longer the shy little mouse Howl had accused her of being when they had first met. Now her strides took her through the busiest streets and shops with confidence, shoulders back, head high, basket swinging easily by her side.    Or at least, that was what she liked to believe.   Still, with everything around her being so familiar, it took a conscious effort on her part to avoid falling back into her old routines. She’d sometimes catch herself unwillingly shying away from large, busy open spaces, or looking for a corner to duck into in order to avoid a crowd passing her on the sidewalk. Worse, there were moments when she actually felt that old, senseless fear welling up inside her chest accompanied by the confounded desire to be utterly invisible. It was frustrating, but hopefully it would pass, one day, eventually…   Sophie sighed and wondered if maybe she should have waited a little longer before going out to do her grocery shopping. It was just after noon, the busiest time in Market chipping. Most businesses shut down for lunch at this time and their employees would leave and wander out into the market, looking for lunch or needing to run other errands. But Martha had gotten the afternoon and evening off, which meant that she would have to finish her shopping now while Micheal was still around to mind the shop for her. Somehow, she doubted he or Martha would return to their respective homes anytime before the sun set. In an off hand way, Sophie wondered whether or not she should be worried about how close those two were becoming, but then she trusted them both so much, and it wasn’t as if she was in any position to accuse them. After all, unlike Martha, Sophie was actually living with her fiancé.   Oh she knew it was a scandal, but she didn’t really care. The rumors were much more bearable than the alternative of leaving the castle, so she didn’t mind so much. And for all the talk that had been happening (some people just didn’t have the knack for being discreet) there hadn’t actually been a great deal happening between her and Howl. Yes they had kissed, sometimes passionately, but that was the extent of their physical relationship thus far. Sophie was still getting accustomed to her own emotions, particularly those she hadn’t been able to feel as a 90 year old woman. Returned to her natural age, they had hit her with enough sudden force to rattle her quite thoroughly and Howl had respected that well enough. Sometimes, the braggart would even take it as a compliment. Humph.   Then there was that part of her which had always believed that such things were to be saved for after marriage, and even though she understood now that things were different in Howl’s world of Wales, she wasn’t quite ready to let go of that belief just yet. Also, if she happened to get pregnant, the rumors would become infinitely worse. Their wedding would be labeled as “shot gun” and their child would probably be teased and taunted throughout his or her younger years for it, and that was one thing Sophie would not allow.   So she resolved to wait until after the wedding, which she wasn’t about to let happen until she had been properly introduced to Howl’s family, and they invited to the wedding. Howl, however, hadn’t been to keen on the idea, and recently it was this more than anything that caused quarrels between them. She would blame him for the delay, and call him a slitherer or a coward. He would retort that his family was his business, and she would do better to kindly keep her long nose out of it.   Then there were other times when they weren’t arguing, and these would make her smile. For example, occasionally he would bring home a gift for her, such as the summer outfit she was wearing today. He had simply come home with it one day, declaring, with grand gestures and no little amount of mellifluous language, that he had seen it and known it had been made for her. And it was. The long, shapely blue skirt brought out the colour of her eyes and made her red-gold hair seem even more vibrant than usual. The matching summer blouse was white with enough embroidery in gold, blue and silver thread to appease his taste for embellishment without being what she deemed excessive or gaudy. She had loved it instantly, as she did all his gifts, which were of the same fashion. Even more, after all the fanfare and flattery were over with, she loved the way he would look at her, watching her intently when he didn’t think she was aware of it, a smile of utter contentment on his lips, and something much deeper flickering in his emerald eyes-   “Omf!”   Sophie fell backwards, realizing, even before she hit the ground that she should have been paying more attention to where she was walking, that all her groceries were probably going to be ruined, and that this was probably going to hurt a bit, but hopefully not too much, and hopefully the person she had run into wouldn’t be hurt either. And hopefully her clothes…   “Splash!”   Oh gods, her clothes…no that wasn’t important. “Are you alright?”   She had inevitably managed to land in some greasy mud hole in the middle of the open air market, a place the cobblestones had either been removed from or had never been put down in the first place. She wanted to curse and imagined she looked quite a site as she felt her undergarments become utterly soaked and cool spots appear all over her body where the resultant splash had landed.   “Crazy woman! Watch where you’re going!”   Sophie suddenly thought she hadn’t been going fast enough to be thrown this hard, and secondly, that the unfriendly voice sounded vaguely familiar. In no hurry now to see if the other man was okay, she took her time flicking mud off her hand in order to wipe dampened strands of hair from her eyes.   She instantly wished she hadn’t.   “Wai, you’re the…You’re the cursed Hatter whore! Bloody figures.” And with that, the man turned to walk away. Billy, Billy Bunderburr, who had been the bane of her existence all throughout her school years… And he had just called her…   She had to steel her courage for a second, but only a second, for he was getting away.   “Excuse me!”   Her most indignant, commanding voice came out sounding panicked and rushed as she stood quickly, feeling water slide down her legs in an almost sickening fashion. But she wasn’t going to let him do that to her. Billy had been the biggest bully in all her years of schooling, and always seemed to enjoy picking on her, the “cursed” eldest hatter, the most. Maybe it was because she had too much pride to tell the teacher, and didn’t want to worry her new step-mother, or busy father, or her younger sisters with her stupid school problems. Maybe it was because she stood out among her other students as a loner with very few friends, and therefore easy to pick on. Maybe it had been both these things, maybe none of them. For her part, Sophie wasn’t interested in finding out why Billy had always bullied her, she was more concerned with what that bullying had accomplished. At first, she remembered, at first she had always fought him; angry when he called her names, furious when he had ruined her school things, livid whenever he made jabs at her sisters. She wasn’t quite sure when she had stopped sticking up for herself, but somewhere alone the way, the fight in her had dimmed, lessened. Billy had friends, she didn’t, so she was always hopelessly out numbered. Eventually she had gotten tired of fighting and just wanted to be left alone. She stuck to the corners of the school yard, hoping not to be noticed.   THAT was the old Sophie, the NEW Sophie was stronger than that, braver than that. The Sophie she was now wasn’t going to let herself be bullied again.   So, when Billy refused to stop, Sophie stood her ground, and in her most commanding voice, called out “Shoes, stick to the ground and don’t move until I say so!”   That stopped Billy dead in his tracks, his confusion evident for all of three seconds before he realized what had happened.   “Dammit bloody wizard’s whore! Let me go right now!”   By this time a small crowd had gathered around them. Sophie blushed a bit, but held her ground, marching forward, turning so she could face her adversary in a blaze of fury that had often sent both her sisters running when they were younger.   “Apologize.” She wasn’t about to get into a school yard yelling match over this, but she was determined to teach him some manners. The fact that he would also be forced to eat humble pie was just an added bonus.   “As if I’d apologize to a loose woman like you, Sophie Hatter.” He continued struggling with his shoes.    She felt her anger grow just a bit more. “It’s polite to apologize when you run into someone, Billy.”   “As if someone could miss running into a fat mare like you. Now let me go.” He had given up on trying to get free by now, and turned to face her directly.   Sophie forced a sickeningly sweet smile onto her face. “As soon as you apologize.”   “Or you’ll what? Turn me into a toad? I’d still look better than you’re ugly horse’s ass of a face.”   Sophie frowned. The crowd was gathering. It was not supposed to go like this, maybe she could end it some way.   “That Howl fuck must be pretty desperate if he’s sleeping with a cow like you huh? You know, I always figured you’d be a prostitute Sophie. Comes of being the eldest eh?”   “For you’re information Howl and I are engaged, you dim-witted, hook nosed-”   “HA! Ugly AND stupid eh Hatter. Face it, he’s using you for the hole between your legs and nothing more.”   “You lewd, useless, stupid…y-you never even finished school!!”   “No, unlike some people, I went out and got a RESPECTABLE job. Which I’m LATE for now LET ME GO!”   “Apologize!”   “Go fuck yourself, no one else would want to you ugly mare!”   “Why you… you…” She was sputtering now. There was a tight feeling in her chest and her eyes were burning. She couldn’t cry, she couldn’t! “Since you re-refuse to learn any manners I hope you-you…” and what could she say to get the upper hand, “I hope you’re hair falls out and your eyes become permanently crossed!”   She was all but screaming by the end of it, and only in the silence that followed did she become aware of the fact that every eye in the open market was turned in their direction.   And then she realized what she had said.   “AH! My EYES! What have you DONE to my EYES!!!”   But Sophie couldn’t move, frozen in utter horror. There before her was Billy, stuck to the pavement, rubbing at his eyes which were locked on her in a permanently crossed gaze. He screamed at her, spit on her, he even went so far as to lunge at her, but Sophie was already out of reach, stepping slowly backwards, feeling herself shake like a leaf, muttering ‘no’s and ‘I’m sorry’s over and over again until she was screaming it at the top of her lungs. She must have said something right because suddenly, Billy fell forward, missing her by a good meter now. He stared up at her briefly, eyes straight and wide with terror, and then a second later, he turned and ran in the opposite direction as if hell itself were on his heels. Sophie was left alone in a circle of wide eyed on lookers. Choking back a sob, she forced herself to her feet and began to run in the opposite direction and  nearly stumbled when she realized the crowd was parting before her, people rushing frantically to all sides in order to avoid getting in her way.       *~*~*~*~*   It was mid afternoon when the back door of the shop creaked open just enough to allow one timid blue eye to peek between the door and the frame. Seeing the shop closed and empty, the curtains drawn to prevent the harsh afternoon sunlight from wilting the remaining flowers, the blue, white and sludge coloured figure ducked into the shop, closing the door hurriedly behind her. Holding her breath, Sophie waited for Michael or Calcifer, or even Howl (if he was back from seeing the King early) to call out and ask who was there. Hearing no one, she deeply sighed, allowing herself to sink back against the door and slide to the floor, leaving a mark of brown ooze as she went.   She was glad no one was around to see her or the putrid result of all her supreme foolishness. Honestly, what had she been thinking. Standing up like that, making a scene, foolishly using her magic to, to…to curse another human being! “Goodness,” she thought to herself, “I’m no better than the witch of the waste. What would Howl think about that?” And she shivered and stood, heading to the bathroom in order to keep the lump in her throat at bay.   *~*~*~*~*   Calcifer returned home first, arriving promptly an hour before dinner just as Sophie had asked him to, even though he had grumbled about it all through breakfast and right until the second he had flown up the chimney and vanished. Still relishing in his freedom, Caclifer enjoyed his afternoon flights around the countryside as a perfect blue blaze camouflaged into a perfectly blue sky. He was not happy about being asked to return, and yet there had been no other fire in Calcifer’s place since the day he had been set free, despite Sophie’s offers to light one in order to give the demon more time. Sometimes Sophie wondered if fire demons were territorial creatures, though it seemed unlikely that she would ever be able to meet another free fire demon in order to ask.   Today was no different than any other day, Calcifer came back ready to grumble about being exploited, only to find Sophie in her old gray dress, down on all fours, scrubbing at what seemed to be the last of a brownish, blackish stain.   “Humph! How rude. I come all the way back here right on time at your request, only to find that you haven’t even started preparing anything for me to cook.”   Despite his cheerless tone, the fire demon couldn’t help but smirk as Sophie nearly jumped into an upright kneeling position and sent her brush skittering several feet across the floor. “Calcifer!”   “Who else?” his smirk grew, “I can see now why Howl thought you were a grey mouse when you first met. Have you always been this jumpy?” He waggled his green eyebrows and cackled at his own little joke. Sophie brought her hand down from where she had pressed it against her chest and began reaching for her scrub brush once again. “Foolish” she muttered, but Calcifer didn’t hear her.   When his moment of mirth had passed, Calcifer looked up once again to find Sophie emptying the bucket into the sink before putting it away in the corner of the broom closet/hall passage again. He watched her, the silence growing more awkward by the second. “Satisfied now? Then you should probably think of making dinner. I’m not bound here by contract anymore you know, I could leave at any moment, and I’d rather not waste time here if I’m not needed.” He crossed his long blue arms and frowned at her in a put out way.   Sophie didn’t seem to notice though. She had paused in the act of re-arranging the mops and brooms so they wouldn’t fall over, her back to the hearth. She headed to the pantry in silence then, staring at the shelves, a troubled furrow upon her brow. Calcifer’s suspicion of something being wrong grew, only to be mildly relieved when the young woman let out a snort and stomped her foot in an angry sort of gesture. It seemed a normal enough, Sophie like a thing to do. He was further relieved when she muttered something and snatched a pot from the wall as if she had chosen a weapon and was heading out to war.   “Beans tonight Calcifer.” She said, slamming the pot on the workbench, followed by two cans of beans and a can opener. Her mouth set in a grim line, she worked the two cans open and all but threw the contents together in a pot.     “But I hate beans!” Calcifer protested, “and Howl does too.” He added, just for good measure.   “So what.” There was a distinctly bitter quality about her voice that caused Calcifer’s eyebrows to arch. Sophie sighed and slowly wrapped her apron around the handle of the pot. As she approached him, her footsteps soft, without the stomping quality that usually accompanied her anger.      “I won’t make you eat them.” She said quietly, her voice almost pleading. Calficer  blinked dumbly for a second, and the quietly bent his head.   *~*~*~*~*   Howl stumbled over a rut in the road, “Oh, Botheration!” and continued to walk as fast as he could towards the mansion entrance of his home. At this moment, all he really wanted was a good, strong drink, maybe three, preferably in a small pub somewhere in Wales, as far away from this blasted kingdom and its rot-brained rulers as possible. Damn them, damn the war, and damn his ever becoming royal wizard!   Maybe it was about time he disappeared for a while, but where? It wasn’t like he could just go back to Wales and live with Megan again, Sophie would never allow it, come to think of it, she would never approve of him slithering out in the first place.   Howl sighed as he approached the gates and the front step. Maybe Sophie would understand. After all, she had broken the contract in order to prevent him from “going to the bad” and in Howl’s book, making a spell that would instantly kill or maim half the men in Strangia’s army definitely qualified as “bad.” It was horrible, what they wanted him to do, absolutely, unimaginably terrible, and he had to choose between that, or losing any hope he had of supporting his current lifestyle and future. It was tragic!   The feeling of impending tragedy only deepened the moment he stepped through the door.    “Beans,” He moaned, sniffing delicately, nobly, “I hate beans.” He turned an imploring gaze to Sophie, who was conveniently mopping the floor at the other side of the room, her back turned to him. “Sophie, you know I hate beans.”   When Sophie didn’t answer, he continued.   “And what are you wearing that old dress for? Didn’t I buy you a nicer one? What about that blue one? It looked so pretty on you…”   Receiving no answer, he realized that Sophie was intent on ignoring him, and sank melodramatically into the chair facing the fire, where Calcifer’s green flames continued to heat the bubbling pot of beans.       “Howl…” Calcifer whispered to him, but Howl interrupted him.   “At least you aren’t ignoring me, old blue face.” He sighed dramatically, “I don’t even know what I’ve done. I buy her expensive things, shower her with love and affection, give her my heart and she scorns me, denies me the sight of her beauty and feeds me baked beans.”   “uh, Howl…”   “Even my apprentice’s love life is more fulfilling than mine. His love feeds him pies and cakes, they stay out until the early morning together, watching romantic sunrises.   “That’s a load of bull, and Howl…”   “And my wife-to-be is so horribly clean she’d rather clean the floor than prepare her fiancé a proper dinner…Oh…”   “Howl!”   “You& #8217;re not even listening to me, some friend you ar…   “HOWL!!”   “Oh fine! What is it…”   An ear piercing shriek caused Howl to whip his head around, mid sentence, and for a moment, he could only stand there and blink, too stunned to move. There were flames coming off of Sophie’s dress, and the broom handle she had dropped to the floor had been charred black in her grip. She screamed, turning around, beating her arms which only seemed to spread the fire. Howl caught one look at her frantic eyes and suddenly leapt into action.   “Water Calcifer! Water! Lots of it!” He didn’t even look up as he grabbed Sophie around the waist and hauled her as quickly as he could into the bathroom. The showerhead sputtered to life and Howl lifted Sophie over the edge of the tub before joining her to stand directly under the heavy, cooling spray. His future wife continued to whimper and bat at her arms as a steam rose up around them. Howl had to work to keep her still.   “Sophie. Sophie look at me! Sophie!”   He grabbed her face, holding it with both hands as he forced her to look into his eyes.   “Sophie!”   And then with a gasp she was looking directly into his face, as though she had just realized he was there.   “…how-wl?...” Her breathing made her stutter, and for a moment, Howl couldn’t move. What had happened to his Sophie? His bossy, impossibly clean, horribly nosy little Sophie. He would never have thought it possible for her to look so broken, and instinctively, he pulled her soaking form closer.    “Sophie…it’s okay.”   “howl…”   “It’s okay…”   When the first wail rose up in her throat he’d thought he had hurt her, and nearly pushed her away. She clung to him though, burying her face in the wet fabric of the new teal and copper suite she had made just for him. There, she let loose sobs so heartbreaking that Howl almost wished he could renew his contract with Calcifer, just to be able to lessen the suffocating pain in his chest. Alas, all he could do was rub her back, whisper comforting nothings into her ear, and stare blinking into spray of the shower to ward of the sting of his own eyes. Stupid soft heart.   It was about at this point that Howl realized he was standing knee deep in water. Curious, he snuck a peek at the tub below him, only to find it filled with muddy dark water with hints of blue, white, and brown fabric swirled in. Portions of it looked awfully familiar, and Howl clenched his jaw as he realized it was the blue dress he’d bought her not too long ago. The one he’d been moaning about earlier.   He was a heel. Whatever he had said out there in the main room had only made Sophie feel worse about whatever had been bothering her, he was certain of it. However, instead of turning around and yelling at him like he had most certainly expected her to do, she had taken it all in and bottled it up like a slowly smoldering spark. Howl didn’t know why she kept it in, or why she had directed it inwardly on herself, instead of at him, but the result was that her bottled anger had reached a fever pitch, manifesting itself in flames much like Howl’s perfected ability to produce oodles of green slime at will.     Well, at least he had explained the fire part anyway. The hard part would be prying out of Sophie what had set her off in the first place, but to do that he would have to calm her down. Kissing her temple, Howl used his magic to turn off the cold water, and waited as her sobs turned to hiccups, and eventually to soft, sporadic sniffles. It was only then that the wizard dared release her from his embrace, using one hand to gently coax her own free from his shirt, and the other to lift her face to look once again into his eyes. Unable to resist, he stooped to kiss her, lifting water drops off her cheek bone as she sniffled again and gave the slightest of whimpers.      “H-howl, I…”   “Shhhh…not yet cariad. Soon though.”   He pulled back and flashed her his most handsome, comforting smile before focusing his attention down on the arm he held in his hand. While the heat from the flames shouldn’t have hurt her, since they were caused by her own magic, the heat from the burning material was a different matter entirely. Howl examined the red welts left on her skin and was momentarily grateful that Sophie’s grey dress had been worn almost as thin as paper, or the damage might have been worse. As it was, he conjured up a bottle of Ozonal from Megan’s first aid kit and began rubbing it on the scorched skin. He repeated the process with Sophie’s other arm before lifting his love lightly out of the bathtub again. He set her down gently and turned his back.   “I won’t look,” he said. “You should get out of those ruined clothes.” He heard quiet shifting behind him, and, in order to distract himself from wayward thoughts, reached for the can of drying powder and sprinkled a generous amount over himself. When there was silence again, he turned around, only to have his breath get stuck in his throat. Yes, Sophie was covered, but only by a swimming towel which left very little to the imagination. The fact that she was blushing only made the lump in his throat seem that much harder to swallow. It felt like a full minute before Howl could re-gain his ability to speak.   “…S-Sophie…” He saw her flinch and was instantly upon her, embracing her, kissing her, nuzzling the mane of red-gold hair that streamed damply down her back. He repeated her name like a mantra and punctuated it with kisses. “You’re beautiful.” He assured her, and almost whopped for joy when he felt her clutch at the material of his shirt again with one hand.   “Humph. Flattery will get you no where, Mr. Jenkins.” But there was no edge in her voice, and when he looked there was a faint smile on her lips which made him want to grin from ear to ear for the next week.   “Sophie.” He said.   MY Sophie, he thought.   *~*~*~*~*   “I’ll kill him!” Sophie winced, sure that even the people in Wales had heard his murderous roar through their bedroom window.   “Howl.”   “I’ll turn him into a toad! No, a worm! That little slime! You should have left him there, you should have-“   “Howl! Calm down!”   The wizard stopped pacing long enough to spin around and meet Sophie’s gaze, and the former hatter almost swore she could see steam coming from his ears.   Howl checked himself at her command, and began taking deep breaths in a visible effort to calm himself down. There was a reason Howl hated getting angry. Sophie wasn’t the only one who had inadvertently used magic in a moment of rage. Thankfully, Gareth had possessed far too little imagination to comprehend the meaning of his sudden desire to catch flies with his tongue.   Feeling more in control of himself, he opened his eyes only to meet the gaze of his lovely fiancé, who just so happened to be sitting on their bed, still in nothing more than a towel.   “I should have just left well enough alone.” She muttered, and once again Howl began to frown.   “That’s preposterous! Ridiculous! Utter and total nonsense! You had every right to stand up for yourself. And that primitive boor deserved every bit of what you gave him, and more.”   “…so…you don’t think I was a fool?”   Howl, who had started pacing again, stopped dead upon hearing her quiet words, and wished more than ever to find this rot “Billy” and stick his well made boot straight up the little blighter’s ars.   “…Sophie, come here.” Howl didn’t leave any room for argument as he grabbed her by one wrist and pulled her over to the full length mirror, setting her directly in front of it. Sophie protested his slightly forced treatment, trying to keep the towel wrapped securely around her, and therefore failed to notice the one hand that crept up her back, grabbed onto the edge of the towel, and with one solid jerk, pulled it completely off her body.   “Gyak! HOWL!!” She attempted to cover herself with her arms and make a simultaneous dash for the bed, but Howl held her firmly before him.   “Shhh Sophie, Shhhh.   “Dammit Howl! If you don’t let go of me this Instant I’ll…”   “You won’t do a single thing to me Miss Nose. Not until you calm down and listen to everything I have to say.” And to Howl’s great relief, she did calm down. Slowly, she stopped her struggling in favor of glaring at him through their combined reflection in the mirror, her white skin glowing, her strawberry hair glittering, against the backdrop of himself, dressed in teal, copper, and black.   “You’re beautiful.” The husky gasp was ripped from his mouth as the wind left his body in a hard rush of air.   Sophie’s eyes narrowed further and she scrunched her nose. “And I told you, Howl, flattery will get you nowhere.”   “That’s just the point you insufferably stubborn woman.” His words were a growl of frustration and he gave her shoulders a light shake to emphasis his words. “Its not flattery, not in the least. You are absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful! And if Billy can’t see that, has hasn’t got eyes, nor brains, nor anything in him that make his words worth a lick of consideration. And yet somehow, you prefer to believe what he says rather than opening your eyes and seeing exactly what is in front of your face. Look!” And he pointed her gaze forward into the mirror, watching her scowl thoughtfully.   At long last she let out an indignant snort. “Not as beautiful as you,” she muttered.   Howl let out a long suffering sigh. “Yes as beautiful as me. Even more beautiful than me, if you must know.” The last part was spoken rather quietly, and had Sophie’s eyebrows arching in disbelief. Howl bowed his head nobly in anguish. “I’m not beautiful. Not really. It’s all just a disguise. Just spells and magic. I’m a fraud, in truth. Not even you could love me if you knew how ugly I truly was.”   Sophie highly doubted that, but all the same, she was intrigued, and it showed on her face as she watched him, expectantly.   Eventually, Howl let out another sigh that bespoke of ages of lonely suffering, and backed away from her with exaggerated effort. “Very well, if you must know the horrible truth, I will give you what your heart desires, out of the depths of my love. Stand back, this won’t be pretty.” And he removed the top half of his shirt, stripping down to his black trousers, dropping everything else over the back of the chair in the corner. With one final melodramatic sigh, and one last tragic glance at Sophie’s unflinching face, Howl closed his eyes and bowed his head.   For a stretching moment, nothing happened.   And then it seemed as if all the colour on his hair had solidified, dropping to the formerly clean carpet in a shower of impossibly fine blond dust. Sophie had to bite her tongue to keep from protesting, and a moment later, Howl raised his head.   “There, are you happy now? My shame has been revealed, my dignity shattered, all for the sake of my love.”   Sophie probably would have let out a sarcastic snort if her mouth hadn’t already hung slightly open in disbelief. This was it? Howl’s big secret? With the way he had been going on, Sophie was almost disappointed he hadn’t started sprouting giant black bird feathers or something of the sort. Instead, his well groomed golden locks had been replaced by a wiry, wooly mass of thick brown hair, which seemed to posess a dark grayish hue. She could now also plainly see the stubble that had grown on his face throughout the day, and a few fine wrinkles that had appeared around his eyes. The overall effect was one of stormy ruggedness, which brought out the green in his eyes the same way rain renews the vibrancy of the fields and hills. Sure, maybe it didn’t follow the common conventions or fads of beauty in the world today, but all the same, Sophie found him breathtaking.   “You’re speechless, I knew you would be. I’m the most horrid looking man in the entire universe. No no, don’t lie to me. I know its true. Go, run away, flee, I won’t stop you.”   And with that, buried his face in his hands, and sunk down into a depressed hunch on the foot of their bed.   Sophie frowned, and suddenly became aware of the fact that she was still naked. Blushing ever so slightly, she turned, observing herself in the mirror once again. Actually, come to think of it, she had never really looked at herself naked before. Turning slightly, she examined herself in profile, and had to admit that, while she may not have stopped traffic, she was also certainly no where near as hideous as the likes of Billy would have claimed. Come to think of it, she really had nothing to be ashamed of at all, and she HAD been right to demand an apology from Billy that afternoon in the market. Sure, maybe she had lost her cool, but that overgrown school bully had goaded her into it, and she was sure it would not happen agai-   Sophie blinked. Was that, a sob she had heard? Yes, it was, and her head spun around so fast that, had she been old, she might have done some real damage.   “Howl?”   His head was still buried in his hands, and his shoulders were shaking, just ever so slightly. Sophie had no doubt that mostly crocodile tears were being shed, but at the same time she realized that Howl must have in some ways believed that he looked ugly as he was now, if only for the fact that he never allowed himself to be seen in his natural state.   And suddenly, a slow smile graced her lips.   As for Howl, he never knew what hit him. One minute he had been sitting at the foot of the bed wallowing in self pity, the next he found himself lying flat on his naked back, with an even more naked Sophie lowering herself onto him, wrapping her lithe arms around his neck, her nimble fingers sinking, winding into his thick hair.   “s-sophmmmf!”   His hands instantly found their way to her ribs and he gripped her firmly even though he was unable to decide to either pull her closer or push her away. In the back of his mind the thought flashed that she must have become possessed for she had never been this forward with him before, never instigated a kiss before, and yet here she was sprawled out on top of him, her chest pressed against his, her hands clawing at his back and shoulders, her naked bottom easily within reach, her knees…level…with his…hips…   He tore away from her, seeking air as his mind lost the fight against the overwhelming desire to crush her body into his with violent force. Sophie didn’t protest as she wafted hot breath against his cheek and he relished in every panting tremor of her stomach and chest moving against his own.   “S-sophie…” it had taken a tremendous amount of effort on his part to coordinate his mouth with his brain and spit out that one word in a husky gasp. He felt quite proud of himself and promptly decided he didn’t need to say anything more for the moment.   “Mmmm…Howl.”   The rasp in her voice sent shivers all the way to his toes. His hands spasmed against her back. He hadn’t reacted this strongly to anyone since he had been a schoolboy in Wales. Get a grip man!   Still, it took another couple of seconds before he could formulate words again, and this time, he had managed get enough space between them too look his beloved in the face.   “Sophie, what…what?”   His fiancé smiled at him and bent down to divine his lips with a short, tender kiss.   “I just realized how ridiculous it is for two beautiful people to sit in a room arguing over which one looks worse.” She fingered his hair, adding, “And you are beautiful Howl, just the way you are.”   “I am, aren’t I?”   Sophie pulled back, instantly regretting having fed his already oversized ego.   “But I look even MORE beautiful when my hair is blond, don’t you think?”   The wizard smiled as Sophie collapsed against him in exasperation, burying her face in the crook between his shoulder and neck.   “No.” she said firmly, “But don’t let it go to your head.”   *~*~*~*~*   Meanwhile, somewhere else in the vicinity of Market Chipping…   “Ahh! My hair, my beautiful hair.”   Billy gripped the little bits of thin black hair that remained on his scalp in the hopes of preventing them from falling off. Alas, it was in vain, and the roots of the remaining hair soon let loose, leaving him completely bald.   “CURSE YOU SOPHIE HATTER!!”     ~*The End*~