Author's note: In this story, Howl and Sophie's dialogue may come across as surprising to those of you who have only watched the movie; in the original trilogy, Mrs. Jones wrote them as being extremely stubborn and loud, being more inclined to have an arguement than a heart-melting moment of fluffy sweetness. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own Howl's Moving Castle.

• {Howl's Bedroom} •

Howl had proposed to Sophie - she thought. She hadn't been quite certain of what "happily ever after" meant to Howl when he had first said it to her, but she had been too thrilled of any prospect of a future together to care; however, the sensible side of her soon settled the butterflies in her chest, causing her to wonder just what she was getting herself in to.

At the thought, Sophie immediately began matching towards Howl's room, so as to discuss details and make plans. As her shoe touched the first step, a shrill scream echoed down the stairs; she froze in place.

"Sophie!" Howl shouted, anger making his voice husky and tone cold. Rapid footsteps pounded the floor boards above Sophie, until Howl turned the corner and revealed himself at the top of the stairs. He stood there, glaring down at her, with a fearsome grimace that reminded Sophie of his chasing the Witch of the Waste away from Mari - then she thought it was more akin to the rage he had displayed when she had accidently ruined his bathroom spell.

"Sophie," Howl huffed through his teeth, "did you clean my room?"

Sophie felt sluggish, still shivering from Howl's scream. "... What did you say?"

"I asked if you cleaned my room!" Howl shouted, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "I told you I didn't want you in there ever again! I told you specifically not to clean it - but you didn't listen! And you killed all my spiders, and their eggs. There shall be flies buzzing everywhere, now, and when the summer comes, I will cast a spell that makes them stay in your flower shop. I shouldn't have to suffer because of your murdering all my spiders."

Howl crossed his arms over his chest in a gesture of pious anger; Sophie's face grew hot and her chest - empty now of butterflies and all other good feelings - felt tight, her heart beating rapidly as she replied in an outrage, "I didn't touch your filthy room, Howl! Fanny and Mrs. Fairfax did. I tried to stop them, explained that you like your horrible, spidery mess. But they didn't listen and insisted on taking brooms to the ceiling. They tidied it all themselves - I had no hand in it!"

Howl seemed to deflate slightly at this news. His lips fell into a sort of mournful frown, while his blue eyes lost their intensity. "You could have tried and stopped them." he murmured, sounding very sad indeed. But Sophie felt no pity for him at that moment.

"I said I had tried to! I couldn't keep at it very long, because I had to go and save your life!"

"My life?" Howl sniffed. "You ran off and fell into the Witch of the Waste's trap!"

"I thought I was saving your sweetheart!"

"I didn't have a sweetheart! That thing was an all-too clever fire demon." Howl paused, as if something had just occurred to him. "And she wasn't even at the Waste! It was a totally made up situation!"

"I didn't know that!"

"You should have thought!"

"I did think!" Sophie's knuckles went white as she spoke. "I thought you would want your sweetheart saved."

"But she wasn't my sweetheart!"

"Well I thought you had a sweetheart!"

"I did!" Howl shouted, growing more angry. "So why couldn't you act like a normal jealous woman, stayed put, and let my supposed 'sweetheart' be devoured by that blasted fire demon, so you would be safe?"

"I didn't think you cared what I did, so long as I fixed my mistakes!"

"Well I cared whether my sweetheart was devored by the Witch of the Waste!"

"Oh, bother it all!"

Howl slapped his hands to his temple, as though to keep his head from spinning. "Yes, bother it all! Bother the Witch's fire demon, bother the Witch, bother the Waste, bother my room, and most of all, bother Fanny and Mrs. Fairfax. In fact, bother everything."

"And me?" Sophie asked, narrowing her eyes. She felt like storming away, but she thought that would be like conceding; she stayed on the step.

Howl glared at her, saying nothing. A second ticked by, then another, and another, but Sophie refused to move or lower her stare. I'm in the right here. she told herself fiercely. He's no right to accuse me of cleaning his room, nor blame me for it. I may have been wrong and made a nuisance of myself with the Witch, but I am innocent in this, at least!

Suddenly, Howl sighed. The coldness in his face melted, and his rigid shoulders drooped. "No, not you. Never you."

And just like that, Sophie felt herself disarmed. She didn't have the strength to fight someone who had stopped fighting back.

Sophie turned her back on Howl and stepped off the stair, thinking that he would go sulk in his room for a while - perhaps drip slim on the clean floors - and she could cool off by picking some flowers. Alone. she thought consolingly. Just leave me alone.

"Sophie," Howl said, his voice much softer than it had been during their arguement. Sophie stopped walking away and turned as Howl came down the stairs. He stood in front of her, meeting her still cold gaze.

"Yes?" she said briskly.

"I'm... sorry," Howl said. Sophie thought she heard the smallest hesitation, as though the word was unusual to him. "I shouldn't have assumed you were the one to clean my room - however good the chances were." He smiled smally as he teased her, in a manner similar to a person feeling for solid ground. Howl wanted to get back to safety, or rather be comfortable again, by clearing the air of its tension.

"I wouldn't have cleaned your room after you asked me not to." Sophie said, noticing that her own voice no longer sounded offended. "I do respect what people say. I may not always agree, and I may fight with them, but I do respect them... Mostly."

Howl chuckled shortly, pulling a smile from Sophie. "I promise I won't infect the flower shop with flies, either. Though we will have a problem when the summer comes."

"... I think that is not the only problem we'll have." Sophie said, sighing heavily. "Howl, you asked me to live 'happily ever after' with you."

"Yes," Howl said, nodding.

"But what does that mean?"

Before Sophie could say more, Howl said, "Why, I thought it meant we would get married. Isn't that what all the fairytale couples do at the end of their stories?"

"Yes, I mean, perhaps - but this is not a fairytale, Howl! We are real people and this is a really big, important matter. You saw how we just argued and said nasty things. Can we really get married even though we fight all the time?"

Howl shrugged his shoulders. "People get angry, Sophie. They say nasty things. But if we all avoided one another simply because of some bad words exchanged between us, the world would be a very lonely place. Yes, we can throw around some powerful expressions and get heated; but we make up pretty well, I think."

Sophie watched Howl's mouth stretch to its familiar, charming smile. His enchanted face and naturally (at least, Sophie hoped they were natural) bright blue eyes watched her, as if waiting for an answer. As though Howl had said it once again, as clearly as the first time: "I think we ought to live happily ever after."

Howl never spoke in questions, and hardly gave answers; he made replies when he couldn't avoid them, but thrived in issuing commands and making statements. Sophie was curious by nature; she expected answers, and hated riddles and silence. She wanted to have adult conversations, not be subjected to temper tantrums when this or that went wrong. And she was the eldest of three, and thus very much used to handing out her own set of commands, rather than receiving any.

All this meant that Howl and she would fight again - and very often. But that didn't mean they couldn't love each other, and be happy the rest of the time.

Sophie looked up into his blue eyes, feeling more and more sure of herself and themselves and their future as she stared at him. "I agree. We deserve a happily ever after, after enduring all those dreadful curses."

Howl nodded. "Certainly. No more curses until after the wedding!"

"Good. That gives us time to sort out that last problem."

Howl paused. "What problem?"

Sophie's gaze trailed to her feet. "Why, how we are going to agree about the bedroom. I will make it very clear right now: I refuse to share your bedroom with spiders, however much you may like them."

Howl laughed heartily. "That's alright. Fanny and Mrs. Fairfax can tidy it up for you, again. As to the spiders, I suppose we may find a different room for them - honestly, I like you much better than spiders."