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“Sophie...”
She turned towards his voice. It was too dark to see him with the shutters closed, but she could feel him near her. If he opened his eyes his luminous yellow eyes would tell her where he was, but she knew that he wouldn't. He never had, hiding from her even with his gaze.
She reached for him. His breath warmed her nose as he exhaled. Her hand found nothing. “Howl?”
He touched her cheek, traced her hairline with his fingers. Something rustled and there was a staccato of clicks – feathers and claws. A cold nose carressed her neck as he tucked his face against her.
“Howl?” she asked again and extracted her hand from beneath him to touch his head. She stroked it gently, careful not to hurt him as she found down and pin feathers.
He’d been flying, then. Overseeing troop withdrawals and the fires still raging where the bombs had fallen, carrying word and safety to those in need.
“May I come to you, Sophie?”
Her breath hitched. He was still against her. She could feel the rigid line of his neck muscles under her hand; how prepared he was to fling himself away. This was the first time—the first time that he had ever come to her like this. The first time that he didn’t stay with Calcifer, sleeping in a chair by the hearth, as he came home.
It was easy to find his lips in spite of the darkness. Stiff at first, he soon softened against her and responded as she tugged him with her backwards into their bed.
“Please,” she said, breathless not only from his hands and careful claws on her body. “Please, do.”
Dawn came.
Sophie sat up.
The duvet slipped off her body and Howl snatched it as he rolled over and peered at her from his nest of blankets. His eyes were no longer yellow and watched her intently.
One of his hands came out to carress her bare hip, slanting over bone until it found the hollow where thigh met buttock. Sophie stretched, then slid her leg off the bed and tapped her foot against the wall. The ring on her finger glinted, a streak of light piercing the floor. By the time that she had dressed and come downstairs, Calcifer would have the kettle boiling for them and the stone floor would be warm enough for bare feet.
Howl had closed his eyes as she was preoccupied. It had been close to sunrise when he came home, far beyond his usual time. He’d never come to her like that before, down spread across his back and pinfeathers still replacing hair and skin along his arms. It had always been her embracing him and taking him to her. This time though, he had come to her.
There was nothing avian about him now.
Sophie bent to kiss him, enjoying the experience though she had done the same a thousand times before. “I’ll be down in the kitchen. The bacon and eggs will be ready for frying when you join us.”
Howl said nothing, but grabbed her wrist as she slid out of bed, not taking a hold but letting her wrist slide through his fingers like a carress. “I’m sorry.”
Sophie leaned into him and turned her head to meet his eyes. “Howl?”
He avoided her gaze. “I couldn’t fully turn back into a human. I was afraid--”
She squeezed his hand, hard. “A few feathers doesn’t make you into someone else. I love you.”
“Even if your husband is not wholly human?” He watched her, eyes hidden by the fall of his hair.
“You’re my husband, feathers or not.” When satisfied that he believed her, Sophie let his eyes go and picked a shed feather off the pillow and tucked it beyond her head. “If you doubt that, I will be more cross with you than I would ever be if you come to bed with feathers.” Finding another feather in the folds of the blankets, she added, “Provided that you pick the feathers up in the morning.”
Sophie squeaked as Howl dived out of the covers and pulled her down on top of him, his skin warm against her chilled. He twined his legs with hers and rolled them over. Sophie smoothed her hands down his back as they kissed. Eventually, he broke off and pressed his brow against hers, breathing deeply.
“I love you, Sophie.”
She held him against her, enjoying the moment. “And I you.”
They stayed like that, breathing each other’s air. Then, she remembered. “Oh, drat it!”
She sat up again, Howl rolling off her. “The kettle will have boiled dry by now.”
“Calcifer will take care of it.” Howl tugged her back down.
She smiled against his skin. There were worse ways of spending the morning.
“Howl is coming.”
Sophie looked up at Calcifer. “Do you know if he--?”
Calcifer flickered. “Do I look like a seer?”
“Having never seen one, I couldn’t say.” She put down the hat that she had been creating. “You’re a very good fire demon, however, who usually knows these things.”
Calcifer considered that for a moment. “He’s been flying for most of the evening. I don’t think that turning back will be easy.”
The door turned to the black section of the knob at that very moment, opening to let Howl inside. His tail feathers dragged behind him, down tumbled in his wake. He had no beak, but his eyes were a fierce yellow and his fingertips dug sharp into Sophie’s sides as she came to him.
“Are things still bad?”
He slumped against her, sleek ridges becoming fabric under her fingers. “It takes time to withdraw deployed armies, and the fires are still raging.”
It certainly explained the smokey scent of the pinfeathers that would become hair in only moments. Sophie closed her eyes. “I wish I could help you.”
“Howl could make you a spell,” Calcifer said—then, most likely catching a look from Howl, added, “Well, she said she wanted to help!”
“I don’t want Sophie to become...what I am.”
“If we fly together, perhaps neither of us will,” Sophie pointed out. He was mostly human now, but still darker then he ought to have been.
“If you truly wish to.” Howl turned his eyes from her--they were still yellow and wholly unhuman.
She turned his face towards her, sought them out. “I do wish.”
If she could stay at his side, she wouldn't mind feathers or bright eyes. If she could help him, claws and wings would be welcome.
Some of that had to be visible in her face, because Howl closed his eyes briefly, then softened. "You can have whatever you wish from me, and giving you feathers to stay at my side is the least I can do."
Sophie nodded. "Good. That's settled then."
Flying was odd, Sophie came to decide, and feathers were decidedly a bother to pick up after a night of flying that left them covered in down as they bedded down together.
It was also mostly decidedly worth it.