Howl's Moving Castle: Tales Of Love

An Uneventful Lunch And A Chaotic Wizard

Suddenly the idea of having a meal with the Prince sounded rather tiring, and far too expensive. She really did not want to get new shoes just for a one or two hour event that only included the Prince and her. Plus when he was that stupid turnip, he saw her in drab clothing, so why should he care now? Because he's probably a snobby Prince now, that's why he'd care!

She nearly groaned into her pillow, the light knocking on her door being the only thing stopping her. "Come in," she said, barely loud enough. The door clicked open, and Sophie could immediately tell it was Howl from the scent of flowers, cologne, and fruity shampoo penetrating her sense. She sighed, and rolled over, quickly sitting up to look up at him directly. "What is it that you want?" She asked, making sure to hide any kind of joyful emotion in her voice. "Can't you just tell me what's in the letter Sophie? Please?"

He stared at her, desperation in his eyes, and when she finally resigned and handed him the crumpled letter, he smiled lightly, and took a seat next to her on the bed. A moment later he made a clucking noise, and put his finger on his chin, before shaking his head and looking back over at Sophie. "I don't think you should go." She snatched the letter back from him and frowned, "I didn't let you read it for your useless advice, Howl. I only let you read to let you know what I'm going to be doing this Friday." He merely gasped at her, jealousy pooling in the bottom of his stomach.

He stood up, and put his hands on his hips, as if trying to look more powerful. "You can not do this to me Sophie! Who knows what the Prince would do to you? What if he tries to make you his Princess?!" She stood up rising to her full height, mirroring his position. She took a large step forward, and looked up at him, her unwavering glare catching him by little surprise. "I can take wonderful care of myself, thank you very much. I'm not going to say yes to someone who used to be a Turnip Head, so stop fretting! You're acting like my mother right now!" He frowned, not liking being compared to Sophie's boisterous mother.

He walked out after that, wanting very badly to take a warm bath, leaving Sophie to take care of her pounding headache. She sat back down on the bed, head in hands, and decided she was going to go, and she didn't care if Howl said no or not.

XxX

The next day, Sophie woke up and trotted downstairs to go make breakfast. She grabbed her brush on the way down, and began detangling her hair. When she reached the bottom step, she was surprised to find Howl already cooking something that smelled far too delicious.

She carefully walked over to the living room table, setting her brush down on the way, and peered at the two plates filled to the rim with eggs and bacon, with the third one on its way. One she could tell was hers, and the smaller blue one was Markls. She glanced over at Howl, who had just began shoveling the eggs and bacon onto what was presumably his plate.

When all three of them were at the table and were starting to dig in, Howl was staring at her a little too intently. She set her fork down with the egg on it, trying to figure out what he was staring at. Did she have something on her face? No, why would he just stare at her over a small whatever on her face? She simply dismissed it with a inward shrug. He's just being weird as usual. Before she brought the fork back to her mouth, she noticed something odd on her food. Why was there blue specks scattered across her meal? She looked over at Markls plate, and noticed nothing amiss in it.

She picked up a small speck, and noticed Howl was starting to get anxious, like she noticed a secret he thought he'd hidden so well. Wait...was this magic in her food? If so, why is it even here? Whatever the reason, her curiosity grew into bitter annoyance, as she gave a sharp look at Howl, and asked, "What's this?" He merely laughed and said, "What are you talking about Sophie?" The nerve of that man! "Howl, you know exactly what I'm talking about."