Howl's Moving Castle Fan Fiction ❯ Seven ❯ Pride ( Chapter 2 )

disclaimer - i do not own Howl's Moving Castle -duh, just had to say it

 

Okay, Next Chapter<finally> drum roll please!!!!! >.< the crowd roars ^-^ YAY! ...ahem..sorry bout that.

 

Lol from Review Puppy aka nidaluver!

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StarPixie16 ~ This one is dedicated to ya for being my first HMC reviewer! Thankx much!

 

Chapter Two

Pride

 

Sophie sat in her room and glared at the wall. Howl was in the bath, where he always was, humming away a sweet little tune of triumph. She wouldn't stand for this. Sophie had an awful long list of things in her mind's eye that she could do for revenge. The first idea she had delt with one of Martha's old buddies, a fine young Count from Strangia who had degrees in two major universities for wizardry. Her second plan involved many green vegetables and another included clothing dye. She even had ideas of what she could actually do to Howl's poor hair, like run colored streaks through it or perhaps to cut most of it off.

Oh the horror.

Sophie heard Howl open the bathroom door. She also heard him yelp and fall brilliantly down the stairs. This was another of her plans and its excellent results made her smile grandly. She was only thankful that she wouldn't have to worry about Michael getting caught up in Howl's undoing. He was staying quite happily with Martha.

Sophie pulled one of her nicer dresses out of the closet and layed it out neatly on her bed. She would need to iron it out and such. It was green and frilly, not her usual choice, but it would do. Then she stepped out of her room, humming as she went and overstepped the oversized puddles left over from her mopping. "Are you okay, Howl? I thought I heard something fall."

"SOPHIE!" Howl growled from the bottom of the stairs. She faked a look of shock. "Oh, Howl!" She rushed down the stairs. "Are you hurt?"

"DAMN WELL I AM! WHAT DID YOU DO?" He was sporting several bruises and now rubbing his backside.

"Oh, don't you go off and blame me for this! I didn't do anything! Now excuse me while I go cook dinner!" Sophie huffed before stomping around him to go cook. She pulled out all manner of odd things and had the fire burning in an instant. Since Calcifer chose to remain absent that day, she had no choice but to deal with the silent fire. It took her all of an hour to cook, but finally it was done. Howl had since migrated up to his room to moan and groan about being mistreated. Sophie found herself much angrier at him than before. "Time to eat, Howl!" She called.

He let out an enormous sigh that shook the castle, then plodded down the stairs in his pajamas. Even they, much like all of his other clothing, were as brilliant as he could make them. "Ah, food. It soothes a man's heart." He said, sitting down at the table. Sophie sat his plate in front of him, then turned to make her own. "What? What is this, Sophie?"

He turned to her with wild angry eyes. "I don't even know what these things are!" He protested some more. She gave a rather unladylike snort. "That is asparagus, squash, and raddishes. I got some mutton from the butcher. And I salted the broccoli a bit, so it should be just fine. Oh yes, and those are fried prunes. They're good for you."

"My god, you're trying to kill me! WHY?! What did I ever do to you?!" He snapped, looking enraged.

"I thought we might eat more healthily now. You don't eat hardly enough anyway. And I am not trying to do anything to you." Except get you back for snogging that preppy git in the square. Sophie told herself and grimaced.

Howl snarled. "I can't eat this! I won't eat this! I'm going out!" He chucked the food, plate and all, into the fire and stormed upstairs. The door slammed and then there was silence for nearly half an hour. Eventually he came out, slapdashed in his best suit, and abruptly left the castle, slamming the door in her face. Sophie sat frozen for a while before she finally registered what had happened. She bit her lip to restrain the tears that were threatening to pour from her eyes.

He couldn't take it, he said! She bit her lip harder, then gathered her courage and stepped into the streets of Market Chipping. She was going to visit Martha.

 

* * *

 

The next day...

 

Sophie sat, humming brightly to herself, while sewing an atrocious purple flower to Howl's best suit. He had come down earlier, sneered at her work, then trudged back to his room, grumbling all the way. She was sure that he thought he could take it off himself, but she was being extra careful in making sure that he couldn't. Howl came down again to snatch something off the table, when midway through his "snatching" a knock sounded on the door. His head snapped up. "Who on earth could that be?" He wondered aloud.

Sophie jumped up excitedly and exclaimed, "OH! Howl it must be him! Tell me, do I look alright?" She gave Howl an honest glance when she asked this. She had adorned herself in the fine green dress from yesterday. Sophie saw a brief shifting in his eyes before he shrugged, uncaringly. "Fine."

She beamed at him and went to sling the castle door open. Howl glowered at their visitor, even more so when Sophie took the guy's hand and drug him inside. "Howl," She introduced, "This is Martha's friend, Count Aram of Strangia."

Howl crossed his arms stubbornly and waited to be introduced. "And this is Howl." Sophie added in a whiff. But that was the end of the introductions, it seemed. "Oh, I guess we'll be gone for a while, Howl. You see, Aram and I have loads of catching up to do, so we'll be at Cesari's." With that, Sophie and Aram slipped into the streets, leaving Howl fuming in the Castle.

Calcifer had slipped back into the hearth and heard most of the conversation. "Oh, Howl! Sophie's getting carried off and you are just going to sit there?"

Howl nearly growled at him. "Yes, dammit, I am going to sit here!" But he was shivering. "She's an ungrateful twit who deserves some airheaded bastard like him!"

"Oh Howl, you really are just a big baby." Calcifer pointed out. "She's just tyring to bait you for what you did yesterday!"

"I don't know what you mean." Howl sniffed.

"YES YOU DO! If you weren't so proud, this never would have happened!"

"But you saw her yesterday! She was talking to every single one of them Cal! And then she went off flirting with that Suliman. Bah!" Howl threw his hands in the air. "I can't win!" He grumbled.

Calcifer rolled his eyes, but had to hold back laughter when Howl raced up the stairs and came back down again, now with his best coat on. "Where ya going, Howl?" Cal asked.

"To get that twit and beat the snot outta that airheaded bastard!" Howl announced. He left the fire demon in a fit of laughter.

 

End Chapter.

 

Yeah they are never very long.

know what's weird? This fanfic has been up for like a month and suddenly people have begun to notice that it exists. Go figure.

 

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~nidaluver~

Next Chapter: Wrath