Howl was having trouble with his younger sister Leyla. Not because she was disobeying, but because the wizard was terrified of her. It wasn't even that she was being remotely scary; it was the mere fact that she had fangs. Why had his father insisted he babysit anyway?
He picked up the phone and dialed Natalie's phone number. "Natty," he whined. "Come help me babysit my sister. She's scary!"
"Am not!" a voice retorted. "You're scarier than me!"
Natty giggled into the phone. "Why do you think she's scary? She's your sister, after all." Natty covered the phone with her hand, walking to where her father sat watching the football game. "Daddy, can I go over to Howl's house to help him babysit?" she asked sweetly.
Luke glanced at her. "Well, I don't see why not. It'll be halftime in a few minutes, tell Howl you'll be there soon." Natty smiled, her sweet voice almost always worked on her father, especially while her mother was at work in the bookshop. Natty uncovered the phone. "Be there soon, Howl!" She said happily.
"Because she's scary!" Howl said. "She's got fangs like a vampire and she bites!" He clearly didn't trust anyone with fangs. Not since Adrian had frightened him so much. "You'll come soon?" he asked, pleading. "Please? Dad took Devin and I'm all alone with her! She's going to eat me!"
"Am not! You don't even taste good!"
Natty smiled. "Yeah, I'll be there soon, promise! See you soon!"
Luke walked into the kitchen. "Ready to go?"
"Sure! But we have to make a quick stop first," Natty said, smiling mischeviously.
Ten minutes later, Luke pulled up to Zee's house. Natty hopped out of the car and smiled at Luke, revealing her fake fangs. "Thee you waiter, Dad!" she skipped up to the front porch and rang the doorbell.
Howl wasted no time in opening the door. "Thank goodne--" he noticed her smile. "You're... You're... You're a vampire!" he exclaimed before running back into the house. He didn't even close the door.
Natty laughed, chasing Howl into the house. She paused to wave to Luke before shutting the door. "Howl! Howl! Where'd you tho?" Natty called. "I have fwake fwangs! Stop wunning!" Natty took out her fake fangs. "See? Come out!"
Howl poked his head out of the hall way closet. "You're not a vampire?" he asked doubtfully. "But you had fangs..." Then he noticed the fangs in her hand. "You made fun of me!" He whined, before hugging her. "I've missed you!"
Natty smiled. "I just like to tease you! I've missed you too!!" she gave him a big hug. "Now let's get down to business! Where's your sister?"
"That was mean," Howl pouted. "My sister's in the living room," he added, gesturing. "Be warned, though. She bites." He took Natty's hand and led her to the livingroom. "She's in the playpen."
Leyla pulled herself up with the help of one of the playpen's sides. "I can't get out!" she complained.
Natty followed Howl into the living room. She frowned, letting go of Howl's hand to go to the playpen. "Poor Leyla!" she said, reaching down to pick her up. "Being locked up is no fun, huh? Ooh! You have very pretty wings!"
Howl frowned. "Don't let her out!" he protested. "Now she'll cause all sorts of trouble!"
Natty looked at Leyla. "Are you going to cause trouble, or do you just like annoying your big brother?" she asked the infant.
Leyla smirked, a look that might have been out of place on any other infant's face. "I just like annoying him," she confessed. "I wouldn't really cause trouble," she added, leaning against Natty. "I like you," she said. "You belong to Leyla."
Natty blinked. "Thank you?" she questioned. She looked to Howl. "This isn't that hard!" she told him, smiling. "Have you guys had dinner yet?" Mommy taught me how to make mac and cheese, and grilled cheese and other stuffs! And I brought cookies for later!"
"Cookies?" Leyla repeated. "What are cookies?"
Howl forced a smile. "We can make dinner together," he suggested. "Leyla can stir it, maybe."
Natty smiled. "Great! Let's do it!" she said, picking Leyla up and grabbing Howl's hand, dragging them to the kitchen. She sat Leyla down on a chair and grabbed a box of mac and cheese from the cupboard and instructed Howl to grab a pan. "Don't worry, it's been a long time since I burneded mac and cheese. I can make it real good. Do you want to stir, Leyla?"
"What's mac and cheese?" Leyla asked, looking up at Natty. "I want to help!"
Howl nodded at Natty in approval. "I can help," he offered. "I can cook."
Natty smiled at Leyla. "It's nummy, just wait and see!" She fluttered, flying up to reach the top of the stove to turn on a burner. "There! Now what do we need?"
Howl read the box. "Water, milk, and butter," he said. 'Want me to get it?" he asked, but before waiting for a response went to the fridge. He handed Natty the milk and butter; and gave Leyla a pan.
"What's this for?" Leyla asked. She studied the pan.
"I don't know. Babies like to bang on them."
Natty nodded. "It's fun! You can make your own music!!!" She began to bang on the counter. "We could be a band!"
Leyla thought about it. "But it wouldn't sound like music," she said. "It'd sound like banging."
Natty paused. "....I guess you're right... We'll have to wait until we're old enough to play instuments..."
Leyla shook her head, and started to bang on the pan she'd been given. "You're right, it is fun!"
Howl rolled his eyes. "Well now we have music while we cook."
Natty smiled. "You're right!" She looked at the stove and said, "The mac and cheese is almost done!" she skipped and fluttered around the kitchen helping Howl as best she could.
"Do you think Leyla can eat it?" Howl asked. "She's only got the two teeth."
Leyla stuck her tongue out. "I can eat!" she said. "Just not hard stuff."
"Well, then the mac and cheese should be fine!" Natty said happily. Truth be told, she hand't even thought of that, beings she forgot how old Leyla was with her speaking at their level. "Get some glasses, Howl! I'm going to try something." Once Howl had grabbed the glasses, she turned and grabbed a carton of juice from the fridge and opened the lid. Concentrating as hard as she could, she began to make the juice come out of the carton; swirling and twisting, heading towards the glasses.
"I'm hungry," Leyla complained, chewing on her hand while watching the juice. She was fascinated. How was the older girl doing that? It wasn't fair!
Howl put the glasses on the table, not willing to get juice on him.
Natty carefully placed the juice in the glass, and went to pour the other two glasses. "It's pretty, but I'm not good enough to do it very fast," she said, smiling. She grabbed a few plates and held them out. "Time to dish up the plates and dig in!" Natty placed the plates and the table along with the juice and grabbed a couple of forks. "What do you think?" she asked Howl and Leyla. "Did we do a good job?"
Leyla took a handful of macaroni off her plate and shoved it into her mouth. "This is good!" she said, sounding surprised.
"No need to be so surprised," Howl muttered, taking a bite. "We make a good team."
"We do!" Nattie said, grabbing a forkful of mac and cheese. "Hey, where's Calcifer?" she asked, looking around. "I thought for sure he'd be supervising or helping us..."
Howl smirked suddenly. "I'm sure he'll pop up sometime," he said. He had noticed Calcifer lurking behind her earlier.
"I want some," the fire demon piped up. "I'm hungry."
"There he is!" Leyla said, pointing with a cheesy hand.
Natty jumped, startled at the fire demon. "Calcifer!" she cried happily. "I've missed you!!" Then she offered a forkful of mac and cheese to him. "Want some?"
Calcifer opened his mouth in response.
"He's missed you too," Howl said. "And your treats."
"I found him," Leyla said smugly. "I found him."
Natty dropped a few forkfuls of mac and cheese into Calcifer's mouth. "Okay, I'll grab the cookies!" Natty said. She skipped off to the hallway to grab her Toy story backpack. "Lookie! I made chocolate chip cookies!" she said, holding up a large bag of cookies.
"Cookies?" Calcifer repeated eagerly. He loved Natty's treats, more than he loved maple wood--and that was saying a lot.
"I can't eat them," Leyla said with a pout.
"Hm..." Natalie thought. "What about some pudding? I have chocolate pudding cups."
"What's chocolate?" Leyla asked. "What's pudding?"
Howl sighed. "She doesn't know anything... about food," he added, when Leyla glared at him. "Chocolate's the best thing ever."
"Just wait and see, it's indescribable, it's good!" Natty grabbed a pudding cup out of her bag and handed it to Howl to open. She skipped out into the kitchen to grab a spoon.
Howl opened the pudding cup. "You won't like it, Cal," he said, smiling at the fire demon. "It's too wet."
Natty skipped back to the table. "But you can have a cookie!" she said. She tossed a cookie to the fire demon.
Calficer caught the cookie in his mouth. With much gobbling, he swallowed and opened his mouth for another.
Leyla looked at the spoon Natty was holding, then she looked at Howl's pudding cup. "Looks messy."
Natty nodded. "It is messy. Maybe Howl or I could feed it to you." She tossed another cookie to Calcifer. "Do they taste good Calcifer?"
"I want you to feed me!" Leyla said. "Please," she added, remembering her manners. Natty was much nicer than Howl.
"Perfect as ever, Natalie," Calcifer assured her. The fire demon was especially fond of this friend of Howl's.
"Sure!" Natty said, grabbing the pudding cup from Howl. She tossed another cookie to Calcifer, and then threw one at Howl's head for fun. "What do we do after we're done?" she asked.
Calcifer gobbled the cookie greedily.
Howl caught the cookie in his hand. "You tried to hit me!" he whined. "Do you know how much that would have hurt? I could have died!" He took a bite of the cookie, much more polite than his fire demon. "Thank you," he added.
"Howl do I eat it?" Leyla asked, glancing at the spoon.
Natty laughed. "You don't eat the spoon, silly!" she said, getting some pudding on the spoon. "You eat what's on the spoon!"
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