howl x reader / the curse

5: déjà vu

Princess sighs, it seems like today will be quite...Howl-full? After just meeting the wizard she is once again forced to see him again. Her unsuspecting father on the other hand seems delighted, sheepishly smiling, grinning even. Her father, the king, leads the way until they reach the same garden in which the deal happened a few minutes ago.

Funny deja vu one might say, Howl is standing in the same garden, only this time more on the west side, no fountain in sight. His stance, hands on the hips, signal that he has been waiting for this official meeting, which can only mean that he knew it was going to happen. Howl moves his head up to look at the king and smiles with his lips closed, a coy smile, that only an innocent boy could sincerely make. On his face this particular smile looks fake, as he is no innocent boy and this makes princess direct her attention to him, y/n scrunches her nose, grimaces an emotion of slight disgust, to show her disapproval of Howl's play. Howl diverts his eyes to look at y/n standing next to her father, his lips quirking up to a smirk, as a comeback to her nose scrunch "Didn't expect your highness to show up so soon" wizard breaks the silence before it becomes too overbearing.

Princess' father coughs a little and reaches out his hand to greet the wizard "Ah, yes, yes, i couldn't wait much longer as my dear daughter is the one who requires your services" King explains and nods his head, as if he was constantly speaking and agreeing with himself. 

For the princess, this view, the handshake, no matter the different context, was another deja vu, a sight she has already seen, as she had shook Howl's hand too. She opens her mouth to speak, but gets interrupted by wizards reply to her father's words "No worries your majesty, it's wonderful to finally meet you and your gracious daughter eye to eye" he speaks with a hint of sarcasm, that only could be understood by someone who knows the whole situation. Y/n happens to be that someone.

The king, who seems to have no idea about a silent battle happening between his daughter and the wizard, just fixes his moustache and lets out a deep laugh "It is good news that mister Howl sees this meeting as long awaited, we were ready for a negative reaction, as this request was declined before" kings facial expression get more serious for a moment before he continues "has wizard's attitude about his job changed?"

"Well, we could say so" Howl chuckles as he trails his eyes back to y/n "i am positive about this offer now, i will do everything in my power to break this curse that seems to be bothering your daughter"

Meeting ends with y/n not saying a single word. And maybe that was for the best. As she worries that her bottled emotions might just spill out, y/n refuses to speak even after the meeting finishes, until she reaches her room. Once she shuts the doors of her room, she runs to her bed and collapses into it face down. Her bed jiggles, making this scene not as much dramatic, just comical. A frustrating feeling washes over her body, she wants to scream into her pillow, but doesn't want to attempt it, as she is scared it would make too much sound and make her servants run to her room. 

She spent the rest of her day replaying the events in her head, thinking of possible comebacks, different thing she could have said instead of being silent. As the night was about to set, and the sun sparkled bright red color, y/n opened her balcony door to calm her heart of today's worries. As she stepped into her balcony, she looked down, only to see Howl himself. To her surprise, he didn't seem to notice princess standing in her balcony above. He was focused. His back was turned, as if nothing that was behind him mattered, as if he was wholeheartedly enjoying the process of day becoming a night. What seemed like even bigger surprise, was that princess' eyes kept wandering from sunset to the wizard's back, as if both were equally as fascinating. 

This concentration on Howl's back distracted the princess from noticing heavy clouds coming up and overshadowing the red hue that was supposed to paint the sky. The loss of color in the sky wasn't a big problem, the real problem was the heavy rain that the clouds brought. Y/n couldn't even process what was happening, the second rain touched her skin, she left out a short yelp, which made the wizard turn around. There she was. Green and tiny, making distressed croaking sounds. 

All of this became an even bigger mess, as Howl was panicking just as much. Seeing y/n turn into a frog wasn't on his to-do list today, not something he had planned, unlike every other event today.

[If you want more, don't forget to vote, it lets me know that you enjoyed reading my story and encourages me to write more] sorry, once again, for updating once a year, seems to be a bad habit of mine lol