bearaiin:

hmcbook:

the best thing about this is that both of these options are so equally possible that I can’t even decide which way it happened

it’s like,,

the most exaggerated, overly romantic proposal ever

the most casual, informal & subtle proposal
known to mankind

I see your "romantic or casual???” and I raise you:

Howl goes all the way out. He’s too dramatic not to. He enchants the flowers in the waste to glow in all their colours at night, there’s a fancy dinner table (the tablecloth looks like it’s woven out of starlight, lace patterns shifting and shimmering), the food is in a perpetual state of just-done-ness (but at just the right temperature).
Lettie has forced Sophie into “her” fanciest dress (it’s not hers, Howl bought it, and Sophie absolutely knows that) and Martha has done something elaborate with her hair, altogether making her look expensive and dignified. She also knows that Howl’s wearing that same suit she fixed and charmed years ago, though he’s trying to hide it under glamour spells.

They make pleasant small talk – he keeps it subtly sweet, showering Sophie with hidden compliments – and at exactly midnight, Howl is planning to get down on both his knees in front of Sophie, take hold of her hand, tell her how the past year has been hair-raising and full of torment and unimaginable horrors, because she never knows when to leave things be, just the way she couldn’t leave things be when she kicked the witch’s ass in that same place all those years ago, and he tells her how he hopes, from the bottom of his heart, that she never gets sick of torturing him, for as long as they live, so will she please not be difficult for once and accept his hand in marriage?
And once she accepts, he will rest his forehead on the back of her hand and the fancy ring he spent a few favours and a lot of money on will materialize on her hand, and the glowing blossoms around them will burst into small fireworks, and Sophie will be absolutely ecstatic and shower him in kisses and compliments for his effort and sincerity and magnificence and ask to have the wedding as soon as possible – Howl just hasn’t decided yet if they’ll elope and wake the king up so they could be wed immediately, or if he’ll spend another few months arranging the most elegant wedding in history, but he’s sure he’ll figure it out by the time Sophie says yes.

And all is going according to plan, until around just 5 minutes before midnight.

Which is when Sophie finishes her dessert and decides that no, she will not not be difficult for that one night, and holds out her hand over the table with an expectant look at Howl.

“Well then,” she says, no more casual than as if she’s remarking on the weather, “this has been a very nice evening, you’ve really outdone yourself, but you’re taking an awfully long time to ask and I’m feeling a bit drowsy already, so I’ll just let you know right now that I accept, you can put it on me, and then maybe we can go home.”

Howl can’t decide whether to get angry at her or admire her, so he settles for the reasonable midground of getting upset and complaining about how she could’ve waited 5 more minutes, how he worked so hard to put it all together and it was going to be perfect and his proposal speech was going to sweep her off her feet and make her fall madly in love with him.

Sophie feels just a little bit remorseful and lets him finish his plan, though she has to talk Howl out of moping and being stubborn first, and Howl finishes his speech (it was exactly as dramatic and longwinded as Sophie feared, but also rather sweet, if she had to admit it). She tells him, in response to his speech, that the speech didn’t make her fall madly in love with him, since it was a bit too late for that, she’d been in love with him for a year, and clearly also madly so, why else would she put up with him for so long.

They do end up getting married fast, since Michael tells Sophie of Howl’s plan to arrange a horrifyingly extravagant wedding to compensate for the mess of a proposal, and so she demands they get married at the end of the week so he doesn’t have time to organize anything too grand.

Though not for lack of trying.