Shooting Stars (Howl x fem! Reader)

Chapter 5

The sound of a faucet running woke Sophie up.

"Is Howl back?" She asked.

"Yes, and he's wasting all my hot water." Calcifer replied, shoving a log into his mouth.

After breakfast, Sophie took Markl to the morning market with her.

"You sure you don't want to come, (y/n)?"

"I'm sure, I have some work to do here." I waved them off then got started on stitching up Markl's blanket.

There were holes everywhere, luckily I grew up at a hat shop and knew how to mend it properly. Once that was done, I got out my sketchbook and sat down.

Hmmm...what to draw? I asked myself. I looked around the room for inspiration but nothing really caught my eye, until I saw one of Howl's jackets draped on the couch. It make me think of the man and a blush crept onto my cheeks as my pencil started to get a mind of its own. Before I knew it, a beautiful drawing of Howl made its home in my sketchbook.

"What did I just do?" I questioned, chuckling slightly.

I suddenly heard an explosion not far away, in fact it sounded like it came from the harbor.

I shot up and opened the front door to see a wrecked battleship in the harbor and an enemy airship above. People were running in the streets in a panic, but luckily I caught sight of Sophie and Markl and held the door open for them as they entered.

"Sophie, are you ok?" I asked, noticing she was out of breath.

"I just need a glass of water." She replied.

"I'll get it!" Markl said, running to the kitchen and pouring her a glass as she sat in front of the fireplace.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The harbor was bombed, but I think it was just a warning." She replied, taking a few gulps of water.

Before I could say anything else we heard an upstairs door slam open and the cries of a man in distress. "What the-"

"SOPHIE! (Y/N)! Y-YOU SABOTAGED ME!!" Howl yelled, running down the staircase. The first thing I noticed was that he was only wearing a bath towel, the second was that his hair was a nice finger color.

"YOU RUINED MY HAIR! LOOK! LOOOOK!" He shouted, shoving his hair in our faces.

"What a pretty color!" Sophie complimented.

"ITS HIDEOUS! You both completely ruined my magic potions in the bathroom!"

"We just organized things, Howl. Nothings ruined!" I said in a vain attempt to calm his fit.

"Wrong! Wrong! I specifically ordered you not to get carried away!" As he continued tears started falling down his face. "Now I'm repulsive, I can't live like this."

I blinked in shock, where did this attitude come from?

"Hey, don't worry we can fix it. In fact, I think it looks pretty good." I said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder as he cried.

His hair suddenly went from ginger to purple to black, taking me by surprise.

"Wow...you should look at it now, it's even prettier!"

"I give up." He mumbled. "I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful."

Suddenly, the room began to shake and shadows started crawling across the walls.

"Howl, cut it out. Howl, no, stop it." Calcifer said as if he was scolding a child.

"He's calling the spirits of darkness. I saw him do this once before when a girl dumped him." Markl said.