blueyluu

[blueyluu]

howl jenkins pendragon x gn! reader

The living castle chugged steam from it's tall engines, emitting smoke up into the crystal-blue sky after every lanky movement. With each savage huff that escaped the living home, you teetered across the rugged wood floors.

You were busy cleaning away at the lonely rooms, each inhabiting disparate articles of knick-knacks and eye catching souvenirs. It was like caring after a bunch of children really, Howl and Markl always on the move and not bothering too clean up after each other.

Perhaps that was just the reason the fire demon had 'hired' you too clean up this place.

You had spent long, atrocious hours sweeping away at each room, shooing pesky soot gremlins that had found their way into silent corners. The hard work was appreciated from Calcifer, the occasional coal stirring praises from his flame-coated mouth, but was quick to be destroyed when Howl came dragging himself through the house.

You perked up to see Markl bounding after his mentor per usual while the blond dragged a green substance across the mostly-clean floors, now stained with goo.

"Now this won't do, Calcifer keep the castle headed west, down to the folding valley." You corrected the direction before throwing the demon a hefty stack of wood that he eagerly gobbled into the flickers.

The trip running up the stairs and down - twice - was a brief exchange. You had croaked out directions to the child and a full Calcifer. Going as far as to draw a steaming bath in the nearest lavatory, next rushing a sticky Howl into the room.

"Well then, I'll need you to cooperate if this is going to work out. Arms up-" The only noises that left his mouth were strangled mumbles about god knows what, but it was obvious in the way he sank against the rim of the tub that he was out of it.

"You only get like this if one out of two things have happened," you huffed into the steaming room, busy putting your elbow into scrubbing off the green liquid from his person "you've bitten off more than you can chew or someone's rejected your feelings."

You could tell by the way he grumbled on cue that it was the latter. Occasionally some foreigner, man or woman, would whisk Howl away to keep their minds (and bodies -) busy for a while. But in the end, he was always the one sulking about passionate feelings and the strands of hope he had clung on to for a relationship that was doomed to break. Sometimes you'd wish one of these failed flings would knock some sense into the hopeless romantic but the next thing you knew, he was smitten for the first vixen passing through.

Regardless of the repetitive broken hearts and sob stories that he spewed out from pretty-pink lips, you were always there to calm the storm, wiping salty tears from his face.

"Don't waste your tears on that woman, Jenkins, she was no good to begin with." You usually quipped up a response with honeyed words and embraces but you were honest with him this time 'round. "She doesn't deserve your heart, so don't bother dwelling on what could have been. It's best to look past that and move on, dove."

Anyone could tell you it was easier said than done but you had already heard that over the many break-ups and each time, you reluctantly soothed him.

In the end it was you and him in a steam-filled bathroom, wind-chimes twirling up against the high windows to fill the silence, along with the swirling waves of bubbles that pooled over the rim and leapt in crashes. You had a puffy-eyed Howl leaning up against the edges of your shoulder while he sniffed away remnants of his story, hands tugging at the hems of your white sleeve. He was dramatic, truly, but you let the emotions reel on.

The negative aura seeped out of the room after his last tear fell, the crystal arching over his cheek before leaping into the unknown. By then you had cupped his cheeks into your hands, thumbs brushing away the evidence from his skin.

"Thank you," Howl spoke in his lilted voice for the first time in that interaction, throat bobbing when he swallowed down the pained emotions.

In reality you had cleaned away the gooey mess from his body, but you'd also stripped him of the grief weighing him down. Giving him a chance to breathe.

#howl jenkins pendragon #howl pendragon #reverse comfort #howl x reader #ghibli #studio ghibli #howls moving castle #first post- #excuse my poor writing style lmao