Chapter 1: Teaser and Image
Chapter Text
Cover Image:
Teaser:
(No one's pov)
It was a normal day in the town, like any other. Marie watched as the train passed by the window in her hat shop, pausing for just a moment to watch it go by before continuing on with her sewing before hearing a knock.
"Marie, we just closed the shop. You've done enough work. Why don't you come out with us this time?" An older woman asked kindly.
Marie paused in her work for a moment to turn and look at her, giving her a small smile.
"No, I better finish this.. you go and have fun." She said giving a small wave as the older woman furrowed her brow for a moment. She really did worry about Marie.
"Alright, if you're sure.." she said before turning to the other workers. "Alright, let's go girls". She said as she began to walk as the others followed after her.
"Wait for me!"
"I'm ready!"
"Do I look okay?" Three of the other girls asked, starting to run to the exit, before another girl stopped.
"Ah! Look! It's Howl's castle!" The fourth said as the rest of the girls immediately turned and went back to the window.
"What were?"
"Howl?!"
"I've never seen it so close!"
Marie stopped and placed the hat down, looking out of the window and there in the distance on the hills and through the fog, she could see it.
Howl's Moving Castle.
Chapter 2: Meeting Howl
Chapter Text
(No one's pov)
It was a normal day in the town, like any other. Marie watched as the train passed by the window in her hat shop, pausing for just a moment to watch it go by before continuing on with her sewing before hearing a knock.
"Marie, we just closed the shop. You've done enough work. Why don't you come out with us this time?" An older woman asked kindly.
Marie paused in her work for a moment to turn and look at her, giving her a small smile.
"No, I better finish this.. you go and have fun." She said giving a small wave as the older woman furrowed her brow for a moment. She really did worry about Marie.
"Alright, if you're sure.." she said before turning to the other workers. "Alright, let's go girls". She said as she began to walk as the others followed after her.
"Wait for me!"
"I'm ready!"
"Do I look okay?" Three of the other girls asked, starting to run to the exit, before another girl stopped.
"Ah! Look! It's Howl's castle!" The fourth said as the rest of the girls immediately turned and went back to the window.
"What were?"
"Howl?!"
"I've never seen it so close!"
Marie stopped and placed the hat down, looking out of the window and there in the distance on the hills and through the fog, she could see it.
Howl's Moving Castle.
Only for a brief moment, of course, before it disappeared into the fog.
"Ah, he's gone.." one girl said sadly as another spoke up.
"No, he's just hiding in the fog from those planes." Another girl said.
"Did you hear what happened to that girl, Martha, in South Haven? They say Howl tore her heart out!"
"Now I'm too scared to go out!" The girl cried out as the others laugh. "What? Don't worry. He only goes after pretty girls." Another said causing them all to laugh as they ran out of the shop.
Marie felt a smile come to her lips as she finished the hat and placed it down before standing up and brushing herself off.
Perhaps..she should visit her little sister at the bakery. She was getting hungry around this time after
all.
She turned off any lights and locked the door behind her as she started to walk, her mind wandering to some of the conversations she'd overheard.
Would Howl really come into town? Would it really matter if he did? She hardly needed to worry about falling victim to him. What that girl said earlier was right. He only went after pretty girls. So she was safe.
(Actually, this is not just Sophie Character Marie is based on a real person who thinks she is not pretty WHEN SHE IS STUNNING!!!)
Marie got off the busy trolley, and then she walked down the alleyways, and that is when she saw the war supplies. She felt as if she should not have seen that, and she quickly rushed away from them. She continued to walk and kept her eyes down, that was until she ran into someone. Asolider. She tensed and looked at him.
"Hey, looks like a little mouse lost its way." He says.
Marie gasped and did not know what to say. "N-No I'm not..." She says slowly.
"This little mouse looks thristy." He adds. "We should take her for a cup of tea."
"I don't know, she looks pretty cute for a mouse." The man with the mustache says.
Marie was frozen. "I-I am just going to my sisters..." She tried to get out.
"How old are you anyway? You live around here." He said, and Marie was shaking.
"L-Leave m-me alone!" She tries to sound confident, but the stuttering does not help.
"Oh, look at that, told you your mustache scares everyone." He laughs.
"So, I think she looks cute when she is scared." The mustache one adds.
(My Co-Author: Also, I just realized howl saying "I've been looking for you" isn't just him helping her. He means it. He's been looking for her since he was a child- Aughhh)
(For those who did watch Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie goes to Howl's past and tells him to look for her to break the curse. Howl saying he looked everywhere for her was literal, he had been looking for her since childhood)
Hey, Hey, we are busy here!" The first soldier said.
Howl just smirked. "Really, because it looked to me like you were just leaving." He then used his magic to make them walk away.
See he had been waiting for Marie for at least a decade in a half, her voice was the same as that night. Although she looks different, which means he could not tell her how he wants to be with her. But he will be able to soon.
"Don't hold it against them." Howl said with a smile. "They're not all that bad, now where to? I will be your escort."
"I-I thank y-you... I was meeting my s-Sister at the bakery!" Marie was still nervous and scared; this man was a wizard, clearly.
So she did not know if she was safe.
He smiled as he pulled her slightly closer as his voice dropping.
"Don't be alarmed, but I'm being followed. Just act normal." He said before smiling and taking her hand as her whole body tensed up.
Act normal- after that- and with him just casually holding her hand? It got slightly better, however, when he moved her hand so that their arms would be linked.
That felt less weirdly intimate..
She looked forward as he guided her through the alley ways. Thats when she heard this gurgling noise as she tensed, but he didn't seem phased at all, still smiling.
"Sorry, looks like you're involved." He said as she looked up at him and then back in front as her breath hitched and she gripped onto his arm tightly when she saw them..
Those black viscous creatures- they were horrifying. And they were walking right towards them!
"this way!" He said suddenly, pulling her to the next opening, running down the new path as the creature followed quickly behind them before more appeared in front of them once again.
They were trapped! She looked up at the wizard- but he didn't seem concerned at all. In fact, he seemed excited, keeping up his running pace.
"Hold on." He said as his arm left her grip, and instead went onto her hips before he lifted them both high up into the sky as Marie cried out, grabbing onto his free hand tightly out of fear.
He squeezed her hand before his eyes flickered over to her. "Now, straighten your legs and start walking." He said.
Had she not been so terrified, she might have questioned it. If she did exactly as he said, stretching her legs out as he took both of her hands and watched as she took her first step, and then the next, all while her hands gripped onto his.
She slowly took more and more, and soon she was walking on air! IT was amazing but also absoultely horrifying at the same time! She was slowly getting the hand of it, that is what she at least thought.
"You are a natural." He says and she could not help but let a small smile come to her lips.
They continued, and soon they were at the bakery, and he let her down gently.
"I will make sure that they are taking care of." He says. "You stay inside for a little bit before coming out, the henchmen might still be aboiut."
She nodded. "Okay." She felt for a brief moment that she was in one of the stories her father read to her.
Silly as it was...she truly felt that way. Just the way he had held her, the magic of getting to walk on air-
Oh, look at her... getting lost in her own mind.
He stepped back as she realized they were still holding hands, and she pulled it back and held her hands close to her chest as he smiled.
"That's my girl." He said before jumping into the air, and falling back down into the busy street as her face went red before running to the ledge to look down- but she didn't see a trace of him.
(That 'that's my girl'
(AH MY GOD DAMN OVARIES XD)
Marie was quickly brought inside by one of her sister's coworkers who saw Marie be brought to the balcony by a wizard.
"You sit here and I will get your sister!" The woman said and rushed off to get Lottie.
Marie was in a daze, had that been real, had she been swept off her feet by a wizard, it was almost too good to be true!
She looked out the window at the streets when she heard someone running up towards her.
"Marie!" She turned just in time for Lettie to take her hands.
"Lettie.." Marie said softly. "What's going on? Someone just told me you floated down onto our balcony."
Marie blinked and looked to the side. "So it wasn't a dream... it really did happen," she said softly as a man popped out.
"Lettie, would you like to use my office?" He asked as she shot him down, taking her sister to the storage room to talk.
Marie told her of what happened, and she tried to play down what the soldiers were doing, she knew Lettie could be protective of her.
"Wow, he must have been a wizard then." She says.
"But he was so kind to me..." Marie whispers.
"Of course he was, Marie!" Lettie says. "You are so lucky, if that wizard were Howl, he would have eaten it."
"No... He wouldn't. Howl only does that to beautiful girls." Marie says and her sister looked sad.
"Do not give me that Marie, you are stunning. I wish you would see that in yourself." Lettie tells her elder sister.
She had to imagine it was difficult for Marie. Marie was so young when her mother died, and her father remarried Honey. Being so different than your siblings..
But Marie wasn't ugly by any means. She was just self-conscious. If she had just had confidence in herself, she'd be turning heads left and right- why, she did so even now. She just refused to see it,
"I better get going, I just wanted to check on you, this is your first job." She says with a smile.
Lettie nodded. "I am doing very good and I am glad that you came, but really Marie, do you want to work in the hat shop for your whole life?"
"The hat shop was dad's dream, and I am the oldest, I do not mind." She tells Lettie.
"I know, but it is your life, you shoud do what you want with it." Letiie tries to press.
"Well..." Marie seemed to trail off. What did she want...? More so, what could she do? She didn't have very many skills outside of cleaning, cooking, and sewing..
She wouldn't say she was particularly good at anything else either..
"See you later, Lettie." A man said suddenly as Lettie looked behind her. "Good seeing you again," Lettie said with a smile as she waved at the man, as Marie looked away.
"I'd better be going." She said softly, turning to walk away.
"It's your life, Marie, please, do something for yourself, would you?" She called out to Marie as Marie just smiled and waved. She didn't want to miss the trolley. It would be an awful long walk otherwise.
(Howl's POV)
I sat in my room, it was her, it was really her, she looks different, her hair is longer, and her hair is brown and not the starlight he loved. I sigh and roll onto my side. She was not fully herself yet, she was even more shy than the moment I had first seen her. She is an angel, and here I am not able to tell her everything I feel for her. She has been on my mind for over a decade. Every woman I have been with since that day did not compare to how she made me feel.
It was only for a few moments that fateful night. I had just made that deal with Calcifer and was standing in the fields when I heard someone calling for me.
It was faint at first, and I hardly even realized I was being called. But then I'd heard it again and turned to see the most beautiful woman.
She stuck out in my memory. Her hair was a beautiful shade of white, it seemed to shine in the starlight, and her eyes, her eyes were such a beautiful blue. There were so many emotions in them. Joy, relief..sadness.
There was no mistaking it. She was the girl I remembered. I'd know that face anywhere.
"I am so close! I hope I did not ruin what would happen! I just have to see if this works." I say to myself.
"I have waited long enough, I want her and I will not let her slip away." I finish and go to work.