i don't actually know anything about welsh traditions :x

[polychromatic]

Howl's Moving Castle
In which Sophie gets a proper proposal
Howl, Sophie, Calcifer, Michael
Written for comment_fic
Posted here.
Prompt: Howl/Sophie, certain things he's a stickler for tradition on- others he's very much not
1055 words

When Howl had announced that they should live happily ever after, Sophie had rather taken it for granted that this simple statement would suffice as a marriage proposal. As it was, her happiness was so expansive following the breaking of those troublesome curses that she had needed to quite sensibly sort them out into categories and mentally box them into a more manageable state. There was nothing wrong with being happy, but Sophie was determined not to be an utter fool over it like Howl. Love him as she might, she had no desire to emulate a great many of the qualities her future husband possessed; the castle had its fill of flighty, childish personalities between Howl and Calcifer and it was really going to be up to her to remain the sensible one.

One night after having returned from a cozy gathering with Lettie, Martha, and Fanny in Market Chipping, Sophie came home to find Howl huddled close to the hearth. “He’s carving you a spoon, Sophie!” Calcifer had piped up immediately upon her entrance as Michael frantically waved his arms at the fire demon to stop.

“To think I willingly leant my heart to such a petty entity,” Howl muttered darkly at Calcifer, “Does loyalty mean nothing to you?”

“And who’s running your castle?” Calcifer retorted stoutly, two licks of blue flame crossing over very much like arms.

Looking very resigned to the situation, Michael gave Sophie a sympathetic shrug. “Calcifer’s just mad that Howl’s keeping the best piece of wood to himself,” he offered by way of explanation.

“Why are you making me a spoon anyway?” Sophie asked, pushing aside a pile of parchment so that she could deposit her packages on the table, “We have more than enough, by my count.”

Howl’s only answer was to huddle even more protectively over what she presumed to be the piece of wood in question. “Can’t you just trust that my intentions are pure and good and that a proper explanation will reveal itself in due course?”

“Ha!” Calcifer spat out with a sizzle before ducking underneath the log when Howl shot him another irritable look.

For the next few nights Howl became no less secretive over his spoon project, to the point where Sophie told him in no uncertain terms that if he was going to cower and quiver every time she came within his vicinity like a spoiled child clinging to his favourite toy, he might as well just go to his room and leave the rest of them in peace. He had responded with such a tragic expression, slowly ascending the stairs as if there was heartbreak in his every step, that Sophie had almost felt bad. But it was getting to be a bit much on her nerves, and she still could not make heads or tails of this whole spoon situation.

 

The next evening as she was just about finished closing the flower shop, she barely averted a messy disaster when a crash of cymbals caused her to almost drop her buckets with a startled “Oh!”

“SOPHIE HATTER!” she could hear an all-too-familiar voice bawling from outdoors in the Market Chipping square, “THE GREAT WIZARD HOWL REQUIRES YOUR PRESENCE AT ONCE!”

“Why that no-good, infuriating, ridiculous Howl!” she stamped her foot angrily, “As if I was solely at his beck and call! And if I were still an old woman I would have dropped dead from the shock of those cymbals!” But all the same, she grabbed her hat and made ready to answer his summons, noting that even Calcifer had abandoned her to this embarrassment alone. As she hurriedly rushed through the flower shop out the front door, she was already piecing together a dressing down that the magician would not soon forget.

Unfortunately for Sophie, the spectacle that greeted her was enough to make her forget it herself. The square was full of people waving brightly coloured streamers at her, and there was Howl standing on some sort of gaudily decorated platform no doubt hastily erected by magic. “SOPHIE!” he yelled again, waving her up to the platform.

Feeling her face flush, Sophie pulled her hat lower over her eyes but managed to march resolutely through the crowd of familiar faces all beaming at her. Once she reached the edge of the stage Howl extended a hand to pull her up, and if her grasp was a bit shaky her voice was anything but. “What. Are. You. Doing?” she hissed through her teeth, refusing to stare straight at him as he had clearly used his complete arsenal of spells to look especially dazzling that day.

“Why, I’m proposing to you of course!” he answered, quite unruffled by her prickly attitude, “It really would have been sooner but that dratted spoon took longer than I expected, and I felt I ought to get at least this Welsh custom right.”

And with that he held out to her the most fearsomely elaborate carved wooden spoon Sophie had ever seen in her life. The handle itself had been carved down to be an intricate design of interwoven scrolls branching into a pair of flowers that ended in a heart-shaped lock connected to a key. The spooned part was so plain in comparison that it almost felt like an afterthought attached on. Sophie accepted it blankly, too dumbfounded to speak.

“I’ll need an answer at some point, though I’m quite willing to wait until you look like our beloved Ms. Nose again, if I must,” Howl teased, reaching out to hold her free hand in both of his.

“But you already proposed!” Sophie blurted out, feeling flustered and foolish.

“I’m fairly certain I’d remember if I had,” Howl scratched at his chin in mock-thought, “That was, shall we say, a mere discussion? A proposition for the future! This is a marriage proposal in a much more official capacity, I should think, and I went to a lot of trouble with the preparations.”

“I don’t suppose anyone else could handle you anyhow,” Sophie finally replied, “I’ll take you on, but only if I don’t ever have to cook with this tremendous spoon.”

“Always a critic,” Howl laughed and swept her into fierce embrace, showering her with kisses as Calcifer and Michael showered the skies with brilliant lights that looked like falling stars.