My Heart Gone Missing (Howl's Moving Castle)

Chapter 9

"Alright world!" you felt so much better once you had taken a shower and had cleaned off all of the dried tears and alleviated your sore muscles, "time to take you on!" you entered your room and you remembered your rage from the night before, "but first. Time to clean my room." You groaned and started to pick up the scattered pillows and books that littered the floor.

Cleaning up your room was quick work and in practically no time it was put back together and everything was back in it's proper position. Once you were pleased, you made your way downstairs for some food. However, upon arriving at the lower floor of your house, you noticed the huge mess Marius had created.

"Marius!" you screeched. He had escaped his metal bowl and had flooded the entire floor, "what in the world did you do?"

From the center of the room, you noticed a blob of water take its shape into a familiar water demon, "oh, hello (f/n)." He greeted nonchalantly, but it was very obvious he was leaning on the passive aggressive side of the spectrum.

"What did you do to my house!" you looked around to see that nothing was spared, "you even ruined my spell books! How could you?"

"How could you leave me in that metal bowl?" he taunted in reply; sass dripping off of his words.

"Clean this up." You ordered, "you created this mess, now you have to clean it up." You squelched your way to your stove to cook up a breakfast, "especially those spell books. I need those to help me in my quest to find happiness, remember," you wiped down a pan and grabbed some eggs from the refrigerator, "the sooner I find that, the sooner you'll be released."

"Fine fine." Marius grumbled and behind you water sloshed around and pulled itself away and outside.

"Thank you." You sung and the stove crackled to life as you cooked yourself some eggs. In practically no time, the room was cleaned up and your breakfast was ready. "You wouldn't happen to know any spells to turn humans into birds by chance, would you?" you asked Marius as you ran your finger on the spines of your spell books.

"I wouldn't have that sort of spell." Marius flatly replied, "I'm a water demon!"

You shrugged, "it was worth a shot." You found a thick, leather-bound book that you couldn't remember the contents of and heaved it down from the shelf. "I don't remember everything I read, so I guess I'll have to start somewhere." You dropped the book onto a table and flipped open the cover to start reading. "Why?" you groaned upon seeing the words inscribed on the pages, "latin was always my worst subject!"

Hours later and you finished the book with no promising results. You yawned and stretched your back and stood up from being hunched over the book for hours. "You hungry Marius?" you asked as you returned to your refrigerator to find some food.

"Yes." Came the blunt reply.

"Is salad good with you?" you asked as you pulled out the ingredients to make a quick salad.

"I don't want that. I want pasta." Marius retorted stubbornly.

"Well I'm making salad. It's that or nothing." You answered quickly.

Marius groaned, "you're so mean!" then there was a pause, "okay yes. I want salad."

"Noted." You nodded and threw together the ingredients for a salad, and gave Marius a handful of said food. "I wonder if I could find Howl." You chewed thoughtfully.

Marius snorted, "are you a glutton for failure?"

"I am not!" you shouted in reply, "he offered to help me yesterday."

Marius raised a dubious eyebrow, "and you didn't accept the help? Wow, you're dumber than I thought you were."

"Hey!" you shouted and pointed a fork at him angrily, "I panicked!" Marius rolled his eyes but didn't say another thing. "When I'm done I'm gonna go find Howl." You declared, "don't flood the house while I'm gone."

"No promises." Marius smirked.

"Marius." You glared at him in a warning tone.

"Okay fine." Marius huffed and threw his arms up in frustration, "you just have to promise me you won't trap me in a bowl again."

"Deal." You grinned.