Howl of Many Means

By ChocolateEclar

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I sadly don't own Howl's Moving Castle or Castle in the Air or even House of Many Ways.

A/N: Vignette number ten. Thank you to everyone who reviewed while I took forever to churn this one out. It's a continuation of #9.

X. You Are My Favorite Busybody Hatter Woman

Morgan had taken to calling his baby sister Rhian 'Dinkle.' The first time he did this, a mere two hours after the baby had been brought home for the first time, Sophie had to close her eyes to keep from doing something rash, like smacking her husband upside the head. He was sleeping in the armchair by the fire looking as angelic as can be and that made it obvious that he was not in fact sleeping. Howl refused to believe her, but he looked quite different when asleep. No beauty spells meant that he had little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and one between his eyebrows. She had insisted that it did not in any way look bad, but he had just waved it off as having something to do with her love affair with things being 'natural.'

She could almost swear that Howl was smiling in his 'sleep' right then, and she was not even sure why he bothered. It was not like he had given birth or anything. In fact, he had just managed to act like a complete mother hen – even worse than people like Fanny – until she had asked him if he wanted to give birth next time.

Morgan was sitting on the stool by the hearth and the baby crib grinning at Rhian napping with her little brown wisps of hair sticking out in all directions. Sophie took a deep breath to further calm herself and, even though it hurt a little, knelt slightly down beside him. "Morgan, Rhian isn't Twinkle," she said gently, like she was informing him that the tooth fairy did not exist. There was no tooth fairy business in Ingary and Howl had admitted that he had not grown up with a tooth fairy either. Still, Morgan had been particularly excited to hear this story, even though he was a few years away from losing any teeth. He had told his cousins about this too, including Lettie and Ben's daughter and Martha and Michael's little ones, who did not even have all of their baby teeth yet. After that, there had been a lot of dress up parties with the four little girls (one of which was Lettie's and the other three were Martha's) tying toy wings to their backs and sailing around with daisies in their hair. The three boys (Morgan and the two little ones of Martha's) had pretended to go to sleep in the middle of the field of flowers beyond the purple-down door of the castle. Not having any teeth to give, the boys had placed gumdrops on plates next to their heads and the girls had swooped over and taken them. And then, as they were ranging from the age of a year and a half to three years old, there was no money to leave, so the girls used flower petals instead.

"But," said Morgan, as if what Sophie had said was obvious, "Dinkle din't come back to play, so Rhian can be my Dinkle. 'Kay, Mum?"

Sophie was not quite sure what to say to that at first. She was getting the feeling that Howl was smiling even more though.

She stood up, wincing at the slight pain this caused, and said, "Okay, but not all the time. Don't you like Rhian's name?"

"Dinkle's better."

Sighing, she rolled her eyes and told Morgan to head up to bed and dragged herself up the stairs. She could not help but mutter to her swollen ankles to give it a rest already, before making sure Morgan was tucked in. Until the baby downstairs started fussing, she did not even realize that she was just standing in Morgan's doorway, watching him fall asleep and dozing a little herself.

Then, by the time she had managed to hobble down the stairs, Howl had quieted Rhian by picking her up and gently rocking her around the room, muttering little things in Welsh that Sophie only vaguely understood even after the last few years. It reminded her of the way he had looked holding the baby for the first time with this big grin that said 'I made it here this time and look at this!' that had made her laugh, even though, through all of the time she had spent in labor in that horrible white delivery room in Wales, they had basically been arguing about the baby's name:

"How about Meinwen?"

"No, that was the name of Megan's best friend for a summer."

"Why did they stop – OOMPH – being friends?"

"I may have had something to do with it."

Sophie had made a low annoyed noise but refrained from commenting. "Meredith?"

"I had an aunt Meredith."

"Yes, and?"

"No, that's it. I do not even really remember her."

"Don't lie. This is important!"

"Don't get all huffy on me, Mrs. Nose. The only thing is that Aunt Meredith thought I was a girl for some reason."

In the middle of a contraction that felt like it was crushing her from the inside out, Sophie still managed to snort. "What about Padrig then?"

"You just mutilated that fine Welsh name, my dear."

Glaring at him over the top of the book, she was about to yell at him when she had to give another push and could only concentrate on what was going on behind the sheet. Howl had pulled the baby naming book out of the death grip she had been giving it and held both of her hands through the rest. They had ended up choosing Rhian after the birth because no one Howl had ever courted or been related to had ever had that name as far as he could recall and Sophie could pronounce it. Of course, Howl had known a few Rhians, but only vaguely and that was good enough for Sophie.

The only good thing she had to say about giving birth in Wales, like Howl had wanted her to do with Morgan, had been that they had given her something for the pain, although she had protested quite vocally at getting poked or prodded or stabbed with anything.

The other good thing had been the fact that she did not have to listen to Megan bickering with Lettie and Martha, like they had been when she left them in the waiting room. The husbands had stayed home with the children with Michael and Ben watching the seven little ones in the castle and Garrett staying with Mari and Neil, although Sophie could say with certainty that Neil had probably been in his room the entire time and Mari had likely been drawing up the cards she had promised to make for the baby.

Howl set the baby back in her downstairs crib (the other one was in their bedroom until Howl created a new baby room), while Sophie slumped down in the armchair he had vacated and glared at him when he finally turned around.

"Now, Mrs. Nose," he said and failed miserably at stifling a chuckle. "Don't look at me like that over Morgan's obsession with Twinkle. I just fulfilled a little boy's dreams of having a companion a year ago. It's not my fault it took you so long to give him a real companion."

"You are very lucky that there are worse names he could be calling her," Sophie whispered back. "And did you just say that it took me so long?"

"Nine months is a fairly long wait."

"It is definitely going to be a lot longer next time if you keep up with that talk."

"So-phie," Howl said laughingly. "The baby is lovely. Just as lovely as I would expect from someone who looked as enchanting as I did as a child the second time."

"Uh huh."

"Why must you be so unmoved by my imploring words of love and kindness?"

She snorted. "Oh yes, I do apologize. Did I mention my sisters and stepmother are coming over tomorrow to see the baby?"

"Can't I have peace without busybody Hatter women tearing up my home?"

"Fanny hasn't seen Rhian yet," she muttered, as she hid a yawn behind her hand. "And a neighbor is watching Michael and Martha's children."

"Poor neighbor."

"Oh, and Mrs. Fairfax is coming with Fanny."

Howl grimaced and ran his fingers though his hair. She realized he had not changed into his Ingary clothes when his sleeves did not dangle near her face. He was still wearing a short-sleeved shirt and the weird denim trousers that she saw so many people in Wales wearing. The most surprising thing of all, however, was the hint of darkness at his roots, like the blond had leaked away there.

"I look forward to so many women of Ingary under one roof," he said with a sigh and then, without a word, tugged her to her feet by grabbing both of her hands and kissed her nose.

"Of course, you are my favorite busybody Hatter woman."

This only earned him a roll of her eyes, as Sophie sighed, "The people in that delivery room probably thought we were mad."

He pulled away to tenderly lift Rhian from her crib. "I'm sure they have seen worse things, although I think we should decide a little earlier next time." He led the way up the stairs and to their bedroom. Sophie trudged up after him, feeling the strain in her legs, and glanced at the fire through the railing. Calcifer was gone and probably avoiding things like wailing newborns and visiting family. She did not really blame him.

At the top of the staircase, she grumbled, "Then no names from Wales or maybe even Ingary, I suppose."

"I'm afraid That may be for the best."

"You didn't court anyone in other countries here, did you?"

Rhian was nestled in the crib under a light green blanket when Howl smiled back at her and, where normally she would have expected a long answer about how she had 'wronged him with' her 'slanderous talk,' he gave her a short, tired reply instead. "Do you really want to know the answer to that?"

"Perhaps not. I did just get a lot of your history with that baby book."

"It is not my fault that I have such an illustrious past."

"Illustrious? That is what you are calling it now?"

"Illustrious," Howl insisted and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned into the warmth of him and felt her eyes grow heavy. "It sounds much better than saying I had a career of wickedness and heartlessness until my favorite busybody Hatter woman came around with her broom and cleaned me up," he whispered into her hair.

"It would be the truth," she sighed and then fell blissfully asleep.

A/N: I probably won't write another one of these for a while. When I do, I'd like to get back to some missing scenes from House of Many Ways. Thanks for reading, and, as always, I hope you review.