Howl's moving castle (fanfic) (oc)

7.

The two women were finally staring to settle down in the castle. It had only been a day though but they felt hopeful since Howl hadn't kicked them out yet which was surprising. 

Right now Sophie and Naomi decided to start fulfill their current mission which was to clean the castle. They had to since they were supposed to pretend to be Howl's new cleaning ladies. 

At first Sophie had ordered Naomi to get rid of all the spiders and their webs but Markl stopped her since according to him, Howl doesn't want to get rid of them and that he actually quite likes the spiders. Naomi sighed but wasn't too surprised about this since they were literally talking about wizard here. Since that didn't work out, Sophie ordered her to help Markl with dishes as she herself was sweeping the dusty floors.

While everyone else was working around the castle, Howl walked down the stairs all dressed up whit an assertive smile on his face and he made his way to the front door. Before stepping out he turned to look at Sophie who was focused on the sweeping duty. 

"I'm going out, meanwhile don't get too carried away with the cleaning", he remarked gaining only a huff from Sophie as an answer. 

When Howl left the castle, Naomi could only now feel fully relaxed. She scrubbed all the stains from a dirty plate and then handed it to Markl to rinse it from the soap. As Markl grabbed the plate, Naomi noticed him glancing at her petrified hand with his eyes round and mouth open. He then looked at the girl next to her. As she noticed him staring and she decided to brush him of by giving him a small polite smile. It didn't work very well.

"Are you actually here to clean or are you here in hopes of getting help for your curse?", Marlk asked all of a sudden, making Naomi gasp quietly, almost dropping a glass that she was holding. A tint of redness formed on her cheeks. She quickly glanced at Sophie who shook her head. 

"N- no of course not, t-this curse can't be helped, only I can break it if I only figure out how, I'm only here to help my grandma Sophie with cleaning since she's.. you know... old", Naomi explained in panic and tried to feed her lies to the boy who seemed suspicious about her. She heard Sophie let out a resentful scoff in the background. 

"Alright then", Markl voiced and turned back to dishes. 

...

After three hours of constant cleaning, the girls and Markl decided to take a little break. They were sitting in the table, eating bread and drinking some tea. Naomi examined the tea cautiously since literally two days ago she got cursed from drinking it. She first sniffed in and dipped her finger in it and then licked the finger, tasting the tea. Nothing seemed out of ordinary and she finally dared to take a careful sip. It was normal as she guessed but she wasn't going to take any risks no more.

"After this, me and Markl will go out and look for some food ingredients from the markets and could you Nomi go buy some flowers for the castle, this place needs more lively colors around", Sophie proposed. Naomi nodded. She felt a little nervous about going out by herself since she had always before had someone with her whenever she went somewhere. This would be a first time when she goes out by herself in such a long time. 

Before going out, Markl ran from upstairs, holding some white fabric clothing. He stopped in front of Naomi and handed a pair of small white silky gloves to the girl who was surprised by his act. 

"Wear these outside, you don't want anyone to notice your curse", he vowed. 

"Wow, thanks Markl, this is so kind of you", Naomi smiled and slipped the gloves on and pulled her sleeves down to cover every bit of her especially left arm. 

"Okay let's go now", Sophie rushed and opened the door. In front of them appeared a whole new view compared to when they first entered the moving castle. Instead of the nature, fields and the hills, they were now surrounded by people and buildings all over them.