Artemis (howl x reader)

flames

"how did you and howl meet?" sophie asked raven who was helping make breakfast. 

"we went to school together" raven poured some vegetables into the soup pot. 

"oh, and how did you end up here?" sophie asks, passing raven the wooden spoon. 

"you are quite nosey arnt you" raven teased with a small laugh, Sophie's face flushed and she shook her head. "just curious"

"curiosity killed the cat" raven smirked, "but, we were both sick of the way things were ran, the way we were treated, so we both ran away, some shit happened with howl and suddenly calcifer was here" raven pointed to the fire who was watching her from under his logs.

"then we found and adopted markl, and then we picked up you" raven placed the spoon down and grabbed her book, sophie glanced at the cover. down the middle there was golden carvings of the moon cycles, around the edges delicate gold trimming and a few scraps and scratches mark the brown front.

"it was a gift" raven passed sophie a cup of warm tea. "a gift, from my mother"

sophies eyes widened abit as she listen to raven, each word sophie absorbed. she was learning so much about raven and she didn't want it to go to waste, she really liked raven, she was a good person.

"i left my family to come here, its a complected story, that i wont bore you too much"

raven opened the book and Sophie's eyes widened.

pages pull of pen scribbles. notes upon notes. spells, incantations, recipes. everything you would expect. then raven flicked to the back. sketches of calcifer, howl, markl and even a few of sophie.

"did you draw those?" sophie asks as raven spins the book for sophie to look at. her eyes widen when she sees a drawing of herself when she was young.

she looks up to raven who smiles and closes the book. "we all have our secrets sophie~"

she stands up, tucking the book under her arm and walking upstairs, leaving the old woman alone.

"you shouldn't underestimate raven" calcifer hums, "she's a lot brighter than you might think"

"she had a drawing of me, when i was young" sophie whispers. calcifer laughs and watches the old woman get lost in thought.

--------------------

markl walks back inside the castle, noticing howl and raven were no where to be seen he turns to sophie any calcifer. "where are raven and howl?"

"raven is in her room and howl is out following his lady friend again" calcifer groans and markl sighs.

"I thought she'd fallen in love with him and it was all over days ago. What's keeping her?"

"Howl is finding this lady rather tough. He decided to leave her alone for a few days to see if that would help." calcifer spoke as markl passed him a log.

"That's bound to mean trouble. And here I was hoping Howl was almost sensible again!" he muttered.

Sophie banged the bowl down on the table, spilling a few ingredients.

"Really!" she said. "How can you both talk like that about such utter wickedness! At least, I suppose I can't blame Calcifer, since he's an evil demon. But you, markl-!"

"I'm not evil," Calcifer protested.

"If you knew the trouble we've had because Howl will keep falling in love like this! We've had lawsuits, and suitors with swords, and mothers with rolling pins, and fathers and uncles with cudgels. Aunts are terrible." markl shook his head.