Disclaimer: I own nothing. Really. Nothing at all.
He was on his stomach on the foot of the bed, his chubby left cheek pressing softly into the quilt, mouth parted slightly as his breath came in gentle puffs. His mother stroked his hair as he held his father's finger in one pudgy little fist.
A baby sleeping was nothing new to Howl Jenkins; he'd seen his niece and nephew when they were babies. This is different, though, he thought. It's different when he's yours.
They were all lying on the bed in Howl and Sophie's room. Howl looked out of the corner of his eye, steeling a glance at his wife. Sophie was watching Morgan with a dreamy look in her eye as she mindlessly began to rub soothing circles on his back. They stayed like that for another minute before Sophie chanced a glance at her husband and caught his eye, blushing slightly. Howl smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
It had only been a month since they had gotten their castle back and reunited their little family. There was some getting used to having a baby in the house. Morgan woke up at all hours of the night, his piercing cries preventing any other occupants of the moving castle from sleeping as well. Sophie had become even tidier and more short-tempered, it seemed to Howl, but he dismissed it as the nervousness of a first-time mother.
Howl smirked as he remembered one afternoon a few days previous.
"Feet, Howl." Sophie said as her sweeping moved his way.
"Sophie, is this really necessary? You've swept twice today already, and it's not even noon!" Howl told her from his place in a chair by the fire as he held a fussy Morgan. She ignored him and he lifted his feet for her broom to pass.
Sophie reached where she had started. She stopped, looked around the floor, adjusted her grip on the broom, and made to begin again. Before she could get too far, though, a strong hand plucked the broom from her grasp.
"That's enough, Sophie," Howl said firmly. He leaned the broom against the wall as Sophie put her hands on her hips. "If you keep this up, you'll sweep away the floor."
They stared at one another, neither risking raised voices for fear of waking Morgan, who was finally sleeping in his father's arms. Just as Howl was about to relent under her hard glare, a knock on the door startled them both back into the present.
"Kingsbury," came Calcifer's bored voice from the hearth.
Howl shifted Morgan in his arms and returned to his place by the fire while Sophie opened the door with a bit more force than was necessary. Standing there in all his finery was one of the king's pages. He looked surprised to see Sophie standing there. She glared at him expectantly.
"Oh, uh, begging your pardon, Miss. This is the house of Wizard Pendragon, is it not?" he asked with an apologetic look on his face.
"That depends," Sophie answered shortly.
"Depends on what, Miss?" the page asked.
"What you want with him."
"Oh, well, you see, the King—"
"Knows full well Howl has taken a leave! He'll be back in another month, as promised!" Sophie told the boy sharply.
"Oh, so he does live here! Are you his wife? Please Ma'am, I have a message for Wizard Pendragon and I'm supposed to report back to the King and—"
"Howl is on leave! He needs a rest! It's the least the king can do after all this mess HE was the cause of. Dijins, cats, princesses, genies! It's his fault, all of it! I've had it up to here with the king and his demands! Tell THAT to the king!"
"But—" Sophie slammed the door in the page's face before he could finish. Howl stood and gently laid Morgan (who had miraculously stayed asleep throughout his mother's tirade) in the bassinet they kept in the main room of the moving castle. Sophie had picked up a scrub brush and began to attack the kitchen sink. Howl made his way over to her and took the brush from her hand. Just as she opened her mouth to object, he placed his own over hers in a soft, tender kiss.
Sophie melted. She threw her arms around his neck and her knees gave way. When they broke off she was smiling, her bad mood gone. Howl smiled back and released her. She went to the bassinet, scooped up Morgan and took him upstairs, leaving Howl holding a rather grungy scrub brush.
True enough, Howl had called the baby ugly. And upon first glance, Morgan really wasn't an extraordinary looking baby. He had a little tuft of soft, brown hair, and his eyes were a sort of odd mixture of Sophie's shocking blue and Howl's glass green. The look he was inclined to wear was almost threatening, challenging you to do something to make him cry. And he was pudgy, as all babies tend to be.
That was all Howl saw when he first laid eyes on his son. But over the last month, he noticed smaller things: the dimples that formed in Morgan's cheeks during the rare smile; the way he seemed to raise an eyebrow and cock his head to the side when his parents argued, as though he was studying them; the remarkable strength of the grip in that impossibly small little hand. It all fascinated Howl.
But he would never say it aloud, the pride that swelled deep in his chest whenever he saw his son. The wonder he felt when Sophie tried to sooth his cries. But here, in their bedroom, the place Howl caught himself being honest the most…
"Sophie," he said gently.
"Hmmm?" she responded, turning her gaze to him. Howl searched for the right words, something witty and charming that would make her blush. Nothing came. So he just looked at her, and she looked back with a rather confused expression.
"Howl?" she asked.
"Thank you," it came out as a whisper. Sophie looked now looked even more confused.
"For what, Howl?" He paused before answering.
"For everything," another whisper
With that Sophie smiled and blushed again, then gave a slight frown.
"You're being honest again," She told him seriously.
"A dreadful habit that I intend to fix first thing in the morning."
"Why the morn—"
Not wishing to answer the question he knew was bound to come, Howl pressed his lips to hers, effectively shutting her up.
First fanfic ever. I mostly do original stuff, then I'm too nervous or self conscious to post it on FictionPress. Review if you want to but I'm not going to beg. It would be appreciated though.