"Sooophie!"

Howl wasn't pleased at all with the sight before him. His evil fiancé, or so he called her, had apparently been busy in his bathroom.

"She's getting flowers," came the response, but not from Sophie. On the contrary, Calcifer responded.

Howl poked his blond head out of the bathroom to peer at the fire demon. "I thought today the shop would be closed," Howl started, slightly confused.

Calcifer cackled in response, blue and green sparks flying as result. "You really must pay more attention, she said that the shop was to be closed next week for the wedding." Calcifer boredly said.

Not feeling like bothering Calcifer any longer, Howl went back into his bathroom.

Yes, Sophie had definitely cleaned up.

The bathroom was spotless, and the bottles all organized. He wondered why the sudden cleaning, when Howl realized what he had said at the previous night's supper.

Sophie had been complaining about falling down in the bathroom because of all the gunk on it, to which Howl carelessly responded,
"Clean it then, if you must."

"Sneaky woman!" he hissed, realizing Sophie had blatantly lied in order to receive permission to clean the bathroom. She always disapproved of how filthy it had gotten since last time she tried to clean it.

Hoping he wouldn't turn his hair ginger, Howl decided to take his chances and go take a shower with everything helter-skelter. 

•••
This shower ran on long, due to the fact that Howl was very cautious with all of his beauty products. By the time he was done re-dressing, Howl was so certain he had thwarted Sophie and gotten himself looking as usual, he didn't bother to check in the mirror.

Big mistake.

Michael was out on the workbench, trying to figure out that one enlargement spell, when Howl burst out with a distinct smell of hyacinths and perfumed overall. "Howl, I just don't get why this-" Michael has started to ask, when he turned to look at said man.

"What is it? Out with it, boy," disturbed at the silence on Michael's side, and the open-mouthed staring, Howl turned to Calcifer, who donned a similar expression. "What?" Howl snapped, very frustrated by all of this.

As if on cue, Sophie entered from the flower shop, on a slight break. She had her mouth open to call Michael to stop lazing about with that spell and to help her, when Sophie noticed Howl's hair.

"Oh my, it appears you didn't quite read my labels," not bothering to hold back her laughter, Sophie tried to sound sympathetic at the same time.

"Labels? There were no labels, woman!"

"Did you check the tops?"

" . . ."

And with that, Howl burst into the bathroom to look at his reflection in the mirror. He had hoped that maybe it would've just gone black or red or like Sophie's, but no.

Howl's hair was a very bright purple, emitting a soft smell of lavender that mixed with the hyacinth smell he had originally planned on.

"Oh no, I'd better leave before he tries to drown me with green goo again." Calcifer hurriedly said before flying out of the chimney. While Calcifer flew away from the castle, the shock finally settled into Howl.

He had purple hair.

Unable to keep it together, Howl yelled with all his might, pulling at the purple tresses.
Unconcerned, Sophie laughed heartily, leaning against the wall of the castle.
Unsure, Michael chuckled softly, trying to hold back roaring laughter.
Unbothered, Calcifer decided he would go off to the waste and back, hopefully by then all the hair drama would be done with
•••

•••
"I, the great Howell Jenkins, have purple hair!"

"Great?" Calcifer cackled while Howl moodily pouted at his mockery.

With great difficulty, Sophie and Michael had managed to keep the castle free of green goo. But that didn't mean Howl wasn't still acting very dramatic about the whole situation.

Indeed, with just a hand through his hair, he could easily change his hair back to blonde, but it wouldn't be the same.

Sprawled out luxuriously on a sofa he had procured-- from his bedroom, if you must know-- Howl was littered with tissues. He was in a very self-pitying mood.

Sophie and Michael had left him once they realized that the demons and wailings, then green goo, phases were over. A depressed Howl was fine by all means. Except, to Howl. Things were miserable for him!

Everyone was neglecting him; he still had to get a ring from Sophie, and worst of all... His hair was blue. Wait, blue?

Howl quickly crawled out of the sofa, clinging to the blanket he had made Michael bring him before Sophie dragged him away. "Cursed woman," muttering under his breath, Howl crawled across the floor in a very Navy Seal-like way, and dramatically pulled himself up.

Somehow, his mind had alerted him of his hair. It had faded, to a very imposing blue, which clashed horrible with his green eyes. Even worse than the purple! he thought angrily.

"What?" Calcifer called back, oddly.

Howl realized he had voiced his thoughts. The day was really getting to him. Groaning, and not wanting to be in the middle of the room for no reason, Howl shoved things about while still clinging to his blanket as if he had a cold. He certainly was snuffling as if he had one.

Once Howl was done with his pathetic shuffling about, the sofa had been pushed in front of Calcifer's fire, and everything that had been in the way was shoved off to the side.
Finally back to his sad, but comfy, state, Howl let out a soft sob, including many "Woe is me!"'s. Calcifer rolled his eyes at Howl's dramatics, when there was an odd scratching at the door.

Howl stopped in his self-pitying to open a single eye, glancing over at the door.

"And here I thought we have no more enemies anymore."

"It's friendly, and warm. Mansion door."

Curious, Howl got up, still clinging to his blanket, and shuffled over to the door. With a simple flick, the door opened to a long driveway, still slightly overrun with weeds Sophie didn't get the chance to kill. But, that was all.

No people there as far as he could see, which was awfully far. Slightly bewildered, Howl shut the door and shuffled back to his sofa, and collapsed pathetically into it.

"Why did you trick me?" he asked Calcifer in a voice he thought would make him feel bad for the strange-haired man.

"I didn't. There were at least three, maybe more, friendly warm beings at that door." Calcifer cackled in response, obviously hiding something.

Calcifer was a bad liar, and Howl knew it, but he was feeling too gloomy to notice. Howl was just too depressed with himself. His hair was an atrocious blue, and he was being neglected. He hardly even noticed when something, three something's, had jumped up onto him.

With his eyes closed, Howl just thought he was also going mad when he felt something wet on his face, then something warm and fuzzy burrow behind him. Another warm and furry something nestled into his side, and then another furry something went over, and nestled into his stomach.

Poor Howl, as he was calling himself, was feeling so delirious, he fell asleep as more furry something came in through the still-open door, and nestled into him.
•••
Finally, the day was done with!

There had been a large crowd, and Sophie was constantly disappearing to get more flowers, leaving poor Michael to deal with the testy customers. It was a hot day, so tempers flared along with the sun.

At last, it was all over.

Mopping at his face with his shirt, Michael flipped the sign to 'Closed' as Sophie tidied up. Tired, he walked casually into the castle, where there was the oddest sight.

On some odd sofa, there were at least fifty dogs piled up, and even more scattered around the bottom of the sofa. Calcifer was gone, and all you could see of Howl were dark tresses, with a slight tint of blue left.

"Howl," Michael asked in a quavering voice as he went over to the front of the sofa.
Stirring slightly, Howl fluttered his lashes in a vain effort to awaken, then groaned and tried to move. He just couldn't move for some reason; it was as if something were on top of him . . . Just then realizing what had happened, Howl jumped up, awake at last, and knocking off a few dogs from the sofa.

"SOOOOOOOPHIEEEE!"

"Huh, I have a feeling we've went though this all before." said woman commented airily as she entered the dog-filled area.

"I'm covered in dogs!"

"They look more like . . . Puppies."

"I'm covered in puppies!"

"Most likely because you left the door open."

"That doesn't explain the dogs!"

"Puppies."

"Does it matter? Get rid of them!"

Howl was getting angry by this point, and managed push his way over to the bathroom door. Apparently his anger had overcome the self-pity, and Howl just wanted to fix his hair.

"Michael, you make sure she gets rid of every dog! Calcifer, hot water," he said in a very authoritative voice before stepping back into his bathroom.

Thankfully, he had got it back to the messy, steamy and disorganized way he was used to. This time, Sophie wouldn't trick him into letting her clean it up.
•••
"Ah, my hair is fixed," Howl proudly talked to himself while making sure that his hair was in fact blond this time around. Pleased with his sight, Howl exited the steamy bathroom.

The castle was still very messy, but free of dogs. Though, the dogs didn't leave without quite a few presents.

Ready to call out for his fiancé, Howl was interrupted by Michael, still puzzling over the enlargement spell.

"Sophie went to return the dogs. They're from some man who takes in strays, or something. Uh, she said to let you know that since it's your fault, you'll be cleaning up," Michael said before Howl could call out for Sophie.

Not particularly wanting to deal with Howl after he was informed, Michael decided to gather up his spell and hastily bustle up to his bedroom.
Howl sighed dramatically.

"Why must I do everything?" complaining loudly, Howl ignored Calcifer's evil cackles.
"Just use a spell, Howl."

"She'll be expecting that, besides, I think I'll go out now . . ."

"Oh, Sophie knew you'd do that, so she had me lock all the doors. Sorry."

Re-entering a very self-pitying mood, Howl grumbled and commenced cleaning up the very messy room.

"The things I do for that woman..."