A/N: Hello! Sorry for not updating WOS yet... Its just been so busy what with Christmas and finals and all.. so I wrote you this! This idea came to me on the bus the other day when I was imagining what Aang would look like with blonde hair... Hahaha. Weird thoughts. . .

Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: FYI No, I dont own HMC, the greatest movie and book ever. So there. Now go away. Er.. read. O_O'

"Good heavens Sophie! I just taught you this game this morning and your beating me!" Howl ran a hand through his hair, recently turned back to blonde, in frustration.

"Correction, she has beaten you. Three times," said Calcifer, hovering next to the table that Howl and Sophie were sitting at, currently engaged in a Chess battle.

Sophie grinned. "And I'm about to do it again." She lifted her queen piece and knocked out the last of Howl's pawns. "Check."

Howl's eye twitched. He shoved his king out of the way of Sophie's queen and crossed his arms, fully irritated. Sophie leaned over the board and put her finger to her chin, calculating her next move. Calcifer's eyes flicked back and forth between the two, anxiously waiting to see what would happen next. The room was silent as the tension grew.

Just as Sophie lifted her hand to move her piece, a knocking sounded at the door. The three groaned.

"Market Chipping door," Calcifer grumbled.

Sophie stood up to answer it and was surprised to see Lettie on the other side of the door.

"Hello Sophie," her sister greeted.

"Hi Lettie. What brings you here?" Sophie asked.

"I just thought I'd drop by for a visit. I brought some cream pies from Cesari's." She held up two large-ish paper bags of which Sophie only just noticed.

Sophie smiled. "Why that's awfully thoughtful of you, Lettie. Please, come in." She moved aside to let her sister in- and saw Howl switching the chess pieces around. She flew up the stairs, leaving behind a bewildered Lettie, and tore over to the table. "CHEATER!" she screeched.

Howl immediately leaned away from the table, looking as guilty as a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Calcifer bust out laughing while Sophie scowled at the peacock of a wizard and moved her pieces back to their rightful places.

"Wow Sophie," Calcifer cackled, "you really take your games seriously."

Sophie sat back down in her chair with a huff. "I can't stand cheaters." She glared at Howl.

Howl crossed his arms, eyes narrowed. "Well I'm beginning to think you've been cheating all morning. No one ever beats Howl Jenkins, master of Chess."

Sophie snorted. "So your master of Chess now? Whatever happened to cowardly wizard?"

Howl braced his hands on the table. "Don't make me come over there," he threatened playfully.

Lettie, who was watching the whole exchange from the top of the stairs, cleared her throat. "Well… you look pretty busy… so umm.. I guess I'll go. I'll leave the pies at the top of the stairs for you." They didn't appear to have heard her. Lettie set the bags down and retreated back down the steps. She glanced at the table where Sophie and Howl were staring each other down and Calcifer was flickering anxiously. "Well, bye." No answer.

Lettie shrugged and eased her way out the door. She headed back home, pondering about the unusual game her sister and the wizard were fighting about.

Sophie didn't even notice her leave. She rolled her eyes and pushed silver bangs out of her face. "Can we continue, please?"

Howl leaned back in his chair. "Of course."

Sophie gazed back over the board and tried to remember what exactly she was going to do before Lettie showed up. "I can't believe you thought I wouldn't notice," she mumbled, shaking her head. A grin twitched at Howl's lips.

"It was worth a try."

Sophie looked over the board for a few long minutes. Calcifer started bobbing impatiently and Howl glanced at the clock. Finally, Sophie leaned back, a smirk settling on her lips. She slid her queen in front of Howl's king. "Checkmate."

Howl's grin fell and he stared wide-eyed at the board. His king was surrounded by Sophie's pieces with no chance of escape. She led him into a trap!

He stood up, chair scraping loudly on the floor, and advanced on the smirking girl. "That's it."

Sophie squeaked and bolted from the table, knocking her chair over in the process. Howl chased her around the living room, both laughing and knocking stuff down as they went.

Markl, who had been working on some rather difficult spells up in his room, heard the commotion and practically tripped down the stairs in his haste to see what was going on. He stopped beside the table and watched the scene with bewilderment.

"What happened?" he asked Calcifer.

"Well it started as a simple board game, now I have no clue," the demon shrugged. The two watched the giggly couple as they continued to run around and trip over things.

Eventually, Howl jumped at Sophie, catching her by the waist and sending them falling (thankfully) onto the couch. Howl started tickling Sophie's sides, causing her to giggle uncontrollably. She turned onto her back to push him off, but he was too heavy. He tickled her relentlessly.

"H-Howl! Hahaha-St-ahaha-op!"

Howl grinned evilly. "This is payback for you beating me four times in a row."

Sophie's face was red and tears streaked down her cheeks from all the laughing. She tried swatting his back but he didn't stop.

"Howl… please… stop… Can't…. breathe…!" Sophie managed to gasp out between fits of laughter. She kneed him in the stomach. Howl reeled back, clutching his most likely bruised abdomen. Sophie stopped laughing and sucked in huge gulps of air. The red gradually faded from her cheeks until they were a normal color again. Howl recovered quickly enough and fixed his narrowed blue eyes on Sophie.

"I'm going to make you pay for that," he growled.

Sophie smiled playfully. "Oh? And how exactly do you intend to do that?"

"Like this." Howl lunged at her, locking his lips with hers. Sophie froze, shocked. She and Howl hardly ever kissed. Even though he made it pretty clear to her after he retrieved his heart and rebuilt the castle, Sophie still felt like there had been nothing going on between them. He hadn't even really tried to court her in the last few months. It had been as if… he didn't even love her. But she knew that wasn't true, couldn't be true with him kissing her very passionately on the couch at that moment.

Sophie cast aside her dreary thoughts and relaxed into his kiss. She twined her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist. A soft moan came from the back of her throat.

Over by the table, Calcifer was making sounds of disgust and Markl was blushing a bright red. To see his teacher and his house-keeper in such a… compromising position… was very awkward indeed.

A knock sounded at the door. Calcifer shouted, "Market Chipping!" at the tangled mass of limbs on the couch, but to no avail. They either heard him and didn't care, or they were too far gone to hear anything outside of their private world. Calcifer rolled his eyes and looked expectantly at Markl. The boy didn't seem to notice him either. Calcifer cleared his throat and came closer to singe his hair. Markl jumped and looked at him. The demon nodded towards the door. Markl tilted his head in confusion. Calcifer growled. "The door?" Markl immediately straightened and scurried past the couch and down the stairs to open the door. On the other side was a fancy looking woman with gold hair and a giant plume hat. Markl swore he had seen her before. She looked down in surprise.

"Oh! Would Sophie be here by any chance?" she asked.

Markl turned his head towards the occupied couch and back to the woman. "Uh…"

Calcifer zipped over to the doorway and smiled the best he could for a fire demon. "Yes, of course she's here! Do come in, won't you?"

The woman looked slightly unnerved at Calcifer's presence but came in nonetheless. Markl scrambled in front of her, blocking the stairs. She gave him a curious look.

"Dear, I need to speak with Sophie. And goodness, why is your face so red?" the woman exclaimed.

Markl's eyes flicked back and forth. "I… uh… It's a mess in here! You wouldn't want to come in."

Calcifer hovered next to the poor boy. "Nonsense! I'm sure Honey would like to see her daughter. Come on up!" He grinned wickedly as he zipped up the stairs into the living room where a certain couple was still engaged in certain activities.

Honey pushed past Markl, who protested quite loudly now that he realized who exactly was coming in, and went up the stairs. She took one look at the couch and her jaw dropped to the floor. Calcifer stifled a laugh.

"Sophie?" Honey gasped disbelievingly.

Sophie's eyes shot open at the sound of her mother's voice. She squealed and jerked up rather violently, sending both her and Howl sailing to the floor. A loud thud resounded through the otherwise quiet room, followed by a pained moan from Howl.

"Owww…"

"Mother!" Sophie untangled herself from the wizard and straightened her dress. She forced an embarrassed smile. "What are you doing here?"

Honey was speechless. She looked back and forth between her daughter and Howl, who was still lying pathetically on the floor. Sophie's hair was all messy, and her face was flushed. She stood there, looking extremely guilty and embarrassed. Howl turned his head to see why exactly Sophie flipped them onto the floor, and froze when he saw her mother staring back, horrified. Everything was quiet, and Sophie waited with bated breath for Honey to reply. Calcifer was sniggering by the steps, trying with much difficulty not to break out in laughter. Somehow, Sophie knew he was the one behind this. She made a mental note to throw a bucket of extra icy cold water into the grate later.

"H-how long has this been going on?" Honey finally said, breaking the silence.

"Erm…" Sophie didn't know how to answer that. How long had it been going on?

Fortunately, Calcifer answer for her. Or rather, unfortunately. He smiled evilly. "Oh they've been like that for the past month. Every day I catch them eating each other's faces like ravenous wolves. It gets old."

"WHAT?" Sophie and Howl cried simultaneously. Howl waved his hand sharply from where he lay on the floor, (he decided in his current situation that it would be better to stay there) and a book went flying off the shelf towards Calcifer. The demon yelped and dove out of the way as it sailed past and hit a wall somewhere behind him. He glared at Howl, or rather the couch, seeing as said wizard was on the floor behind it and out of his sight.

Honey looked ready to faint. Sophie scuttled over to her and held her steady. Meanwhile, Howl had turned onto his stomach. He proceeded to crawl backwards behind the couch until he was out of sight of Sophie and her stressed mother. He poked his head up over the couch.

"Uhm… If you'll excuse me, I have to… do.. something…" He inched his way on his knees to the other side of the sofa, Sophie staring confusedly at him the whole time. Howl forced a smile and abruptly stood up, running to the stairs faster than even he thought possible. He scrambled up the stairs, rather awkwardly. It wasn't until a door slammed somewhere upstairs that a realization donned on the annoyed Calcifer and he bust out laughing again. Everyone eyed him curiously as he got pinker and pinker. Sophie shook her head and started towards the door, dragging Honey along behind her.

"Let's go outside and I'll explain everything," she murmured. Honey nodded weakly and they went out the Market Chipping door into the courtyard. Sophie realized she hadn't even spoken to her mother since that day the bombs fell over four months ago. Honey must've been too busy fixing up her own home to come visit.

After the door shut behind them, Calcifer flew over to the stairs and put a small fiery hand to his mouth. "Are you okay up there, Howl?" he called, a laughing smile plastered to his orange, flickering face.

"Shut up!" came the muffled reply. Calcifer laughed even harder, flames going red and blazing towards the ceiling. Markl watched from where he still stood by the stair railing, confusion clearly written on his round face.

He decided it best not to ask any more questions for the day.

A/N: Wow that was long! Never intended it to drag on like that. But oh well. Good writers tend to get carried away. ^_^

Its pretty fun to pick on Howl. Haha.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to review! :'D